Chapter 10
'I didn't come this far to only come this far'
Ally had never been to the Smithsonian Museum. She had lived in Washington D.C for nearly a year and yet somehow she had never managed to find the time to go. Yet when she had pictured going never in her wildest dreams had it been like this. They hadn't spoken all morning. The only words he had spoken to her were when he had told her to get ready. She had been too surprised by appearance to even think to question him. Gone was the black leather, the gun holsters and the strange straps across his chest. In place he looked relatively normal. He had clearly showered as his hair looked clean and was pulled away from his face, although he hadn't bothered shaving. The only indication that he wasn't all he seemed was the metal hand that was poking out of the long- sleeved red top. She wondered where he had gotten the clothes from. She hadn't even seen him leave her apartment.
On any other day she would be excited to explore the vast treasures that lay inside, yet walking beside an experienced killer in disguise with his leather gloves and black cap to cover his face, she couldn't think of anything else except trying to get away from him. They walked together side by side towards the humongous building's main entrance which Ally was busy admiring when at the last moment he pulled her to the side and directed them towards the back of the building.
'Where are we going?' Ally asked him in confusion as he finally led them down a side alley.
'Back entrance. They have metal detectors,' he explained in his usual brusque manner as he reached out to try the handle of a door. Ally thought for sure that the door would be locked, so she was astonished when the handle snapped off in his hand and the door swung open. That was the joy of having a freakishly strong metal arm she guessed.
Once they were in the building he led them through a series of long corridors, each one virtually identical, yet he navigated them with ease, leaving Ally wondering how it was that he always seemed to know where he was going. All of a sudden with one final turn he pushed her through a door and suddenly they were merging with a crowd that all seemed to be heading in the same direction. He gripped her arm in his tight grasp, pulling her close to him and steered her in the same direction as everyone else. She still didn't understand why they were here but as they walked under a walkway and she saw the giant poster hanging from it, suddenly things started to make sense. The Captain America exhibit. Of course. Some of the kids in her class at school had been talking about visiting it. She hadn't made the connection until now. He wanted to learn more about Captain America. What was it about Captain America that interested him so much? Why did Steve Rogers seem to be the key to the all of this?
He was nervous. He hadn't felt nervous in a long time. It was a strange sensation. His whole body seemed alive; a strange energy coursing through his veins, making him overly tense. He was suddenly aware of just how hard he was squeezing Ally's arm and he quickly let her go. He told himself that he let her go because they had to blend in and him holding onto her would draw too much attention, but deep down he knew that wasn't true. When he saw her immediately rub the area of her where he had just been holding he felt that other unfamiliar emotion again- the quick stab of guilt. At least he hadn't been holding her with his metal arm.
However he didn't have time to dwell on it as his purpose for being here came into view. He had to focus. He couldn't allow himself to get distracted. Not now when he was so close to finding some answers. To find out who he was.
He entered the Captain America exhibition with a wary expectation. He didn't know what he wanted to find. What he hoped to find. But he knew he had to try. His eyes scanned the area as he tried to survey the room for any threats. He clocked the exit, the aged security guard who wasn't even close to being a threat. Content that they were safe for now he turned his attention back to the exhibit. Looking around he wasn't surprised to see pictures of Captain America in all sorts of different poses covering every surface. He recognised him as the man that he fought a few days before. He recognised the suit and the shield. But that was where the recognition ended. He had to fight down a feeling of disappointment. Nothing here felt familiar. Nothing was coming back to him.
That was until one of the pictures in front of him changed. The picture was of Captain America, not in the suit that he had met him in but in a soldier's uniform. From the war. His brain supplied the answer. It surprised him so he barely even registered as the image in front of him began to change. Lifting his eyes again he watched as the image transformed. As the figure shrunk and transformed into a small and skinny man. A man that he knew.
'Steve,' he whispered. He knew him. He knew that face. Memories, one after the other entered his head and he staggered back from the image in surprise. Captain America hadn't been lying. He did know who he was. They had been friends. Best friends. Brothers. He could remember playing together, laughing together, bringing Steve soup when he had been sick. He turned away from the picture with renewed purpose, ignoring Ally's wary look of surprise at his sudden movements. His eyes scanned the pictures behind the glass with increasing familiarity. He recognised a street, a building, Brooklyn. They were from Brooklyn. New York. He had come from Brooklyn. Steve had come from Brooklyn. There was a picture of a school, his school, an ice- cream parlour, he liked strawberry. He recognised it all, but it wasn't what he was looking for. He needed to know who he was.
He took a moment before moving onto the main hall. He needed to be more controlled or he was going to draw attention to himself. He pulled his cap further down to cover his face and moved into the main hall where pictures of Steve as Captain America from during the war were displayed. The images were familiar but the feeling wasn't as strong as it had been with the ones from before. He was losing hope again when he turned around and drew in a short, sharp breath. In front of him was an image that was both unfamiliar and instantly recognisable. He knew at once it was what he had been looking for. Standing in front of him was a giant image of his own face. It was his and yet it wasn't. It was the face that he used to have. It was who he used to be. James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky.
He stood frozen staring at the image and reading the words which acted like a key to his mind, unlocking new memories with every word that he read. He remembered playing with his sisters, walking them to school, saying goodbye to them as they cried before he went off to war. He remembered being a prisoner of war. He remembered Steve rescuing him. A different Steve than he had known before. The Steve from the pictures all around him.
He looked into the eyes of Bucky Barnes and tried to find something that he recognised in that image. He looked different now. The man in that picture was strong and confident. His eyes showed belief, hope and an innocence that he knew he no longer possessed. He wasn't that man anymore. That man was gone. He had died in 1944 falling from a train. He had come here for answers, to try and find out who he was. All he had found out was who he had been. He still didn't know who he was.
He drew a deep breath and shook off the emotions flooding through him. Apparently no one else here thought he resembled the man in the image. He had stood here for at least five minutes and not one person had made the connection. He should be glad, but he felt a feeling close to disappointment, almost as if he wanted to be recognised. Like he wanted them to know that he was still that man. That he was still Bucky Barnes. Knowing he had pushed his luck in staying as long as he had he turned away from the image ready to get Ally and get out of this place. Only the space behind him was empty. She was gone. Ally was gone.
Ally had followed behind him throughout the museum religiously staying two steps behind him. On any other day she would have found the exhibit fascinating but today she really didn't care about where Captain America grew up, how many illnesses he had pre- serum or the gripping evolution of his suit throughout the years. To say that all she wanted was to be away from him would have been a lie. Deep down she wanted to know. She wanted to know who this mysterious stranger was who had invaded her life was. She wanted a name and she wanted answers.
When he had suddenly stopped in front of her she barely avoided bumping into him. Something about him was different. He was surprised. She glanced at his face first. Watched as his eyes filled with relief, fear, surprise. His jaw went slack and he inhaled a shaky breath. Wanting to know what had garnered such a reaction, Ally turned to look past him and took in a sharp gasp of her own. Her face flicked between the face on the glass in front of her and the face beside her. They were the same. James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky. She knew his name. Finally she knew who he was.
She hungrily read the information printed beside the picture and could feel herself turning pale with shock. He had been Captain America's best friend. How did Captain America's best friend turn out to be a ruthless killer with a metal arm? He had been a war hero. What the hell had happened to him? Not only that but how was even still alive? He had to be nearly a hundred. He should be long dead.
Instantly Ally could feel her body screaming at her to get away from him. She knew he had been dangerous. She knew what he had been. She had been afraid of him. But now, somehow now she was terrified. Now she didn't know what or who he was. She needed to get out of here and away from him.
He seemed to be preoccupied. Frozen in surprise. Too busy to notice her anyway. She was just about to turn away when an image on a screen caught her eye. It was him again, Bucky Barnes, but this time it was a video. She knew she shouldn't wait. She knew that if she was ever going to get away from him it had to be now while he was distracted. The museum was huge and it was crowded. If she ran she would easily lose him. Yet there was something about this video that stopped her. He wasn't doing anything special in the video. It was just a series of short clips of him with Captain America. Talking to each other and looking at a map. It was the next image that stopped her in her tracks. The hair was shorter, his face more clean shaven and there weren't as many lines around the eyes. But he looked happy and carefree. He was laughing. He had a smile that could make any girl stop in her tracks. What had happened to him to turn that good- looking, happy guy into the cold shell standing beside her?
Ally's instincts finally kicked in and she tore her gaze from the screen and slowly started to step backwards. With every step she was sure that he would turn around and stop her. Her hammering heart- beat rang loudly in her ears as she held her breath, afraid that even the sound of her breathing would alert him to her escape. After her twelfth away from him towards her freedom, a couple walked past in the space between them, blocking him from her view. As if broken from a trance, she took her chance, turned and ran. She weaved through the crowds, barely stopping to apologise to the people she accidentally bumped into. She had nearly made it out of the main exhibition and was about to celebrate her success when something crashed into her from her behind and before she knew it she was pinned against the wall.
Her brain tried to process what had happened but straight away she knew. 'Not fast enough' she thought. She tried to struggle but it was futile. His entire body pressed against hers, pinning her against the wall. One of her arms was pinned in between their two bodies and the other was held in his firm grasp pinned up by her head. His thumb pressed firmly against the tender base of her throat, the rest of his long fingers rested against her cheek, almost in a caress. The brim of his cap bumped against her head as he leaned forward bringing his lips close to her ear, his hair brushing against and tickling her collar bone. Surely he wouldn't kill her here with so many people around she thought desperately as her heart beat wildly within her chest. She was sure that with their bodies so close he must be able to feel it hammering against him, signalling to him how afraid she was. She wondered if he enjoyed it, knowing how terrified she was. Knowing how much control and power be had.
Ally turned her head away from him as much as she could. She couldn't bear to be this close to him. To feel his breath on her face. She tried to look out over the broad expanse of his shoulder and almost wished she hadn't. No one was coming to help her. In this busy crowded museum full of people they were all just walking past oblivious as to what was happening. No one was even sparing them a second look. It was if they were invisible. People's eyes just skimmed right past them as if it was perfectly normal to see a girl being strangled against a wall. Her heart hammered in fear. He would kill her right here in front of everyone and no one would blink an eye. No one would even notice.
In desperation Ally tried to catch the eye of someone, anyone. At that moment an elderly couple walked past and the woman's eyes locked with hers. Silently Ally pleaded for help. Begging the woman to help her. She could have cried when the woman gave her a look of disgust before turning her nose up and walking on, shaking her head and pointing them out to her husband who repeated her actions. Ally was so confused. What was wrong with people? Why would they not help her? How could they not see what was happening?
Suddenly she realised the answer. They couldn't see what was happening. She tried to see it from their perspective. The way he has angled his body, positioned his head near her neck, his hand gripping hers near their heads and his other hand gently resting on her face made it look like they were a couple. A couple in the middle of a rather intimate moment. Ally couldn't be sure if he'd done it on purpose but somehow she knew that he had. It was what he did. She had thought that he was an expert at hiding in the shadows, but he was a master at hiding in plain sight too. She sucked in a ragged breath. Preparing to use the final weapon in her arsenal but she never got the chance.
Just as she was about to unleash the power of her vocal chords when he surprised her as the pressure of his thumb on the base of her throat relented and he pulled back from her slightly. Not enough that she could move, but just enough for him to draw his head back so that he could look her directly in the eye. She tried to turn her head, to avoid looking at him. She didn't want to look at him. He was too close. She didn't want him to see the fear and revulsion that were in her eyes.
'I told you not to run. Do you not realise what you could have done?' he said in a voice that was so far removed from what he was expecting that she couldn't help it when he eyes slid to meet his. But when her eyes met his, she found that she couldn't look away. Instead of the black anger that she was sure she would find, she started to see the fear in the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen. She found that she couldn't look away as he continued, 'You would put every single person in this building in danger. HYDRA will come and take out every person in this building to get to you and me. No witnesses. A tragic accident. A gas leak they'll say.'
She struggled to stay upright when he released the pressure from her throat and stepped away from her giving her the choice. Ally looked at the many faces that passed her by. Was he telling the truth? Was the danger really that great? These people had launched three killing machines into the sky, destroyed a government building and put Captain America in the hospital. Plus the fear in his eyes was real. She had seen it. Yes, she concluded. If they could do all that then making her disappear probably wasn't even much of a challenge. But what was she meant to do. Trust him? Go with him? She wasn't sure that she could. She didn't want to go with him willingly and she willed herself to think of an alternative, of a way out, but she was coming up with nothing.
He made the decision for her. Taking her lack of action as assent to his plan he moved his body and firmly gripped onto her arm and led her through the crowds, weaving in and out of the mass of people with a grace and agility that surprised her. He moved with determination but never quickly enough to draw attention to them. They were nearing the exit when he suddenly swerved them in a different direction, keeping Ally upright as her feet stumbled beneath her. She was about to turn her head to see what had caused this change when he said, 'don't look back.'
It took every ounce of restraint that she had to do as he said and not turn around. But in the end she didn't have to. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flurry of activity of men in white shirts, security guards she realised, pointing in their direction and talking into handheld radios. He must have seen them too as he quickened his pace causing Ally to have to practically run alongside him just to keep up.
'You need to do exactly what I say. They're here. HYDRA are here.'
Ahhh this chapter has been so bloody frustrating to write. I had a whole other chapter written and all of this chapter's stuff was meant to be in the next chapter, but I wrote the whole thing out and hated it. I had wanted to make this story from Ally's perspective but surprisingly I'm finding it so much easier to write as Bucky. I'm also trying to make him seem believable whilst also not making him seem like a ruthless arse, which is also really hard. This chapter isn't exactly how I wanted it to be and I'll probably go back and edit as some point because I feel it's a pretty important chapter, but I'm going on holiday so I wanted to put this up before I went. I hope you enjoy and please leave a review or follow this story.
To Emelia. lopez, no thank you for reviewing every chapter. It really makes my day to get a review and to know what people are actually thinking about the story. I feel like this is the turning point in the story where we'll see Ally and Bucky interacting more with each other which will hopefully be quite exciting. Anyway thanks again for taking the time to review. It means a lot.