"What do you want?" Bucky's voice had grown hoarse with lack of use, and after a few days in a cell he was feeling bitter.
"I came to let you out." Steve opened the door and walked in, stopping just a pace in front of him.
"Why? I thought it was agreed I would stay in here until someone figures out how to get them out of my brain."
"Shay convinced Tony that you're not a risk."
"That girl? In Bucharest?" Bucky's metal hand clenched into a ball of steel.
"Yeah?"
"I almost killed her?" it came out as a whisper of pain through clenched teeth.
"You didn't."
"But I could have!" Blue eyes meeting blue, a clash of storm and clear sky.
"But you didn't, and she's ok, now." Steve moved as if to put a hand on his old pal's shoulder but pulled back at the last moment, remembering Shay's advice to take it slow. "She says that you shouldn't be locked up, that you don't present a threat."
"Not a threat? Maybe not to you, but to her? You saw what I did to her. I did that, me!" Bucky's voice broke over the words.
"You were in a tight spot, most people would have-" Steve tried to offer a rationale but Bucky cut him off.
"What were you thinking, using her, to capture me. She's no fighter, the winter soldier could -and would have- killed her without blinking. Why on earth would you risk someone like that for me?"
"Buck, I couldn't leave you out there." Steve was pleading now, both with Bucky and his own sense of guilt. "And we didn't know her gift wouldn't work on-" Steve pointed to the metal arm, "-that. Honestly if I'd known, we would have done things differently. I didn't want anyone to get hurt." He slumped onto the bed a foot from Bucky. "We can't go back; we can only go forward."
"Where is that?" Buck's tone was defeated.
"Well, out of here, for one. Shay said you might be more comfortable leaving if I gave you these." Steve held out a set of ear pieces. "All you have to do is tap this, and these will block all sound."
Bucky picked them up, inspecting them, considering what this meant.
"How do we know it would work?"
"We don't. Banner seems to think it will... and we have a backup option." Steve hated this plan, but he thought it would be better if Bucky knew up-front.
"And what's plan B?"
"Shay. She could put you to sleep, if it came to it." Steve recognized the distrust on Buck's face. "You can trust her."
"So, you want her to babysit me, the guy who almost murdered her 4 days ago? Are you insane?" Bucky's tone was mixed, anger and disbelief.
"She's a good person Buck, a good friend." Steve said, walking to the other side of the room, giving his friend space to consider.
James Buchanan Barned was conflicted, internally divided. He wanted freedom, to make his own choices, to live! And he was terrified of the Russian Soldier wired into his brain, he wanted to crawl under a rock and become earth, to end rather than return to that hell. He wanted to stay far away from the person who could turn his body off at will, and yet that was all that was keeping him safe. Even this cell may not be enough, in here he could not escape those words if someone were to find him, not in time.
And so, he made the best choice possible, in these circumstances.
Notes:
This is the end of the second installment of my soft hero series, fear not, the story will continue! The next Fic will include the events of Age of Ultron so buckle in.