A/N – Slow updates, I thought I had written a bunch of chapters, but turns out that was a totally separate fic that's not up yet. oops
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1970
It had been years since she'd seen Bucky, sure she'd heard stories about the Asset, but it seemed most people were nervous around him so he was a topic that was whispered about, even when he wasn't present. She knew that eventually, his body would give in, as nearly everyone does.
She spent a lot of time in what she had dubbed 'ground zero', figured that if they wanted to make some sort of monster out of her, this would be where it starts. She refused to give them what they wanted though, and unlike Bucky, they couldn't just wipe her mind from her body and input what they wanted her to do. She figured they wanted her to go full feral and stop caring about human life, but if the only life they were going to show her was Hydra, then she already didn't care.
It had been another day in ground zero, but she wasn't brought back to her cell like normal. She'd been left on the experiment table while the room cleared out. She tried to pull her wrists from their restraints but they held.
"We are taking a trip Sabre"
"Not my name" Charlie stated in a bored tone.
"Use the sedatives first, then her manacles" she heard him say to, she assumed, other agents.
"Where are you taking me?" there was a pinch in her neck
"Canada, you're going to be the subject for a more remote branch of Hydra's experiment," the man said, his tone sounding almost excited.
"And what exactly is being done to me?" she could feel the effects of the sedatives start to work, and she sunk into the warm feeling like a bath.
"They are going to fuse adamantium to your bones, they needed someone who can self-heal and their first try escaped just after the procedure finished." She didn't answer, they must have used a higher dose than normal because the warm fuzzies were blacking the edges of her vision.
"We had to give you more than your normal dose, can't have you wreaking havoc in the helicopter" her eyes slid closed and she wasn't able to get them back open.
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Steve sat beside the hospital bed that was holding Charlie with his head in his hands. They'd gotten more files of what had been done to her, and if he had eaten anything it would have come back up. The amount of torture she went through was ridiculous, it seemed like they tested their new torture methods on her first to determine if it was fatal.
Charlie had been important to him; she was like the weird little sister he'd always wanted. When Bucky had first told Steve he liked her, he didn't have to guess why, she was what a lot of people would describe as physically perfect. It was so much more to Bucky though, Bucky knew Charlie, how underneath the sass and bad jokes cared so much about the people that were important to her. He knew that she was brilliant, that she hated being lied to and there was mutual respect and trust between them. That she missed her mother like she had lost part of herself and the attitude she put forward to deal with her death; made her not approachable. It was never just physical.
While Steve knew now that a lot of the things that drew men and women towards her were a part of her mutation, to draw in prey, it didn't change how much he loved her. He knew Bucky, when he had his full faculties back, would feel the exact same way.
"Steve?" a raspy voice called and his head snapped up to see Charlie awake.
"Hey Charlie, how're you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a tank, where am I?" she smacked her lips together, trying to get some moisture back in her mouth. Steve grabbed the cup waiting beside her bed and put the straw to her lips.
"You're at Avengers Tower, in the medical lab" Steve set the now-empty cup back onto the little side table.
"How'd I get out of there?" Steve paused
"Do you remember anything?" he asked; she shook her head
"We raided a bunker and found you in a locked cell, you thought we were just hallucinations"
"How long was I with them Steve?" she pushed the button to sit up a bit and turned her head to regard his person again.
"God, you look the exact same as you did before the Valkyrie" she breathed
"You were there for 72 years" Charlie's eyes widened fractionally, and Steve could see her swallow hard, tears growing in her eyes.
"So, the future then, how are you here Steve?"
She blinked rapidly to clear the tears out of her eyes and locked eyes with Steve, she could see the weight and pain behind his eyes. She really looked at his appearance; the dark smudges under his blue eyes, the way his brow furrowed even when his face was resting. He had to be tired, exhausted physically but mentally too. She wondered how long he'd been shouldering things himself this time, he had a bad habit of doing just that.
"When I crashed the Valkyrie, I froze and the serum made it similar to cryogenic sleep. I was found by SHIELD and thawed out, apparently, it was a big surprise when my heart started beating again" he gave a humorless chuckle
"They never froze me, didn't need to I guess, not as I age" she said
"You never told us. "The slight accusation made her eyes narrow.
"If I had told you what you know now, I would have been sent straight to a mental asylum or worse and you know it, don't pull that shit with me Stevie" she hissed out and he gave her a sheepish smile
"I know, I'm just finding out I knew nearly nothing about you" he dropped his chin to his chest and heaved out a deep sigh. He ran his hands through his longer hair and looked back at her again.
"Was any of it real?" his voice was so thick with tears that it was nearly a whisper. Charlie closed her eyes and took a deep breath before answering,
"Of course it was Steve; I couldn't just casually bring up that I can't die, or that my nails grow into claws, never mind the fact my teeth can grow into fangs. I'm an apex predator Steve, I've killed people with my mutation and that's not something you can just casually bring into a conversation" her voice growing agitated and exasperated in equal measure
"It was war Charlie, we all killed people" he shot back at her
"It was before the war Steve; I've only ever killed two people with my mutation" her voice had dropped into a dead-sounding monotone.
"What do you mean"
"It was 1933, I was 15, and I was walking home from Betty's house after bringing her the homework she'd missed being out sick. A man that smelled of liquor pulled me into an alley with his hand over my mouth, he smelled awful like a mix of engine oil and hooch, his hands were covered in dirt and God only knows what else." She shuddered "He had a friend in the alley and the man who grabbed me forced my back to his chest and he kept a hand tight on my throat, his friend started touching me. I am normally quite strong, and could probably give you a run for your money on a good day, but I just froze"
"You don't-"
"I do though" she gave him a look and he nodded at her
"I stayed frozen like it was happening to me but I wasn't in my body, I was disjointed from what was happening to me. He had his hands full up my skirt by the time I snapped back into my body and went absolutely crazy. The story in the paper had said rabid dogs had done it, only I knew what I did" she took a deep breath
"I had bruises all over my body from them, I'm lucky that my body heals fast or I'd have been in so much trouble with the Matron. How do you explain finger-shaped bruises around your throat or on your breasts."
"I'm so sorry Charlie, I remember talking about that story with you and Buck, you never really contributed, and thinking back on it we both thought you'd just been uncomfortable with how bloody it was" he scratched the back of his head and shrugged at her
"I was, I was sick the whole day after, could barely eat" a tremor went down her back at the thought of what had happened that night.
"Thank you for telling me" His hand rested gently on her forearm and her head snapped up to look at him.
"I was lucky that night, it's why I was so interested in helping at the woman's shelter when we were older, I knew that some of those babies were not made consensually" she shrugged
"It was a long time ago, and I've had just over 80 years to come to terms with what happened to me. I have and I know that it helped shape me into who I am, it's part of the reason I got special compensation to enlist"
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