September 25, 2013

Five minutes ago, she'd been listening to Jeopardy questions on '-stan Nations' while she cleaned some dishes from last night's dinner. Then the news anthem blared and she had turned to see BREAKING NEWS scrawling across the screen before it cut to a harried-looking news anchor shuffling through her stack of papers. The woman looked up at the camera and began reporting as Lucille used her cane to get closer to the living room.

"... right over the Potomac River. Please be warned: some of the footage we are about to show may not be suitable for some audiences."

The program cut from the image of the reporter to a stunning video of what looked to be three enormous aircraft carrier ships. In the air. Firing immense weapons at each other. Lucille clutched the back of her armchair, staring wide-eyed at the images on the screen, not sure if this was a horrible joke of sorts or if she would really be able to go out onto her balcony and see an air battle only a few miles away. She was tempted, but she couldn't tear herself away from the television just yet as the video shakily zoomed in to the closest of the three carriers, the image momentarily obscured by a thick plume of smoke.

When the image cleared, Lucille could see tiny figures tumbling around on the deck, just barely noticeable in the chaos. Her grip tightened on the back of the chair. The carrier being shown lurched forward suddenly, and Lucille caught a glimpse of a giant, red shape in the middle of the deck. She squinted at the television. She knew she had seen that emblem before. It looked a little more modern now, but there was no mistaking the logo for SHIELD. The geometric eagle was marred by long burn marks slashed haphazardly across the red paint. Lucille fervently hoped Steve was no where aboard any of the flying aircrafts, though she knew it would likely be too much to ask for him to not be in the area at all. If she knew anything at all about her best friend, it was that he could always be counted on to do the right thing and help fight the bullies, whoever they may be.

It appeared they were SHIELD now.

Eyes still riveted to the television, Lucille patted her pockets, searching for her cell phone. Her junior curators had insisted she get one since she rarely could be found near the landline phone on her desk at the exhibit. She pulled the small black flip phone from her jacket pocket and finally looked away from the horrifying images on the TV long enough to find Steve's mobile number. Lucille brought the phone up to her ear with a trembling hand, waiting out the rings anxiously.

"You've, uh, reached Steve; leave a message."

The tone sounded and Lucille sucked in a breath before choking out, "Steven G. Rogers, you had best contact me by any means available as soon as whatever the hell is going on has been resolved. Please be safe." She pressed end call button and flipped the phone shut, tucking it securely back into her pocket. Maneuvering around the armchair, Lucille slowly lowered herself to the edge of the seat, gripping her cane tightly in front of her. The news continued to bring in rapid updates...

... a carrier had finally given out and crashed into the Potomac, cracking in half...

... a leak in SHIELD's servers had dumped all the organization's top secrets and personnel files online...

... the word 'HYDRA' started cropping up in the reports; Lucille's heart stopped for an agonizing moment when she recognized the name...

... and, as she knew would happen, Captain America had been spotted. On board the carrier that was still managing to stay in the air despite being riddled with holes.

Lucille pressed her fist tightly against her mouth. She feared that if she didn't physically keep her mouth shut, she would scream. A few sobs still escaped.

The face of Natasha Romanoff dominated the screen. A committee of disbelieving men was interrogating her about the events of three days ago and her affiliations with the KGB. Lucille had heard of Natasha before in one of those rare times Steve had been upset and gone on a rant about his new teammates. She probably wasn't supposed to know what she knew about the Avengers, as the media had taken to calling them after the alien invasion. But she was hardly a security risk.

"You're not going to put me in prison," Natasha was saying with the assured confidence of a woman who knew she was in complete control of the situation. "You're not going to put any of us in a prison. You know why?"

The man who seemed to have been elected spokesman of his group drawled, "Do enlighten us."

"Because you need us," Natasha said simply. "Yes, the -"

There was a knock at the door.

Gripping the arms of the chair, Lucille pushed herself to standing and then shuffled over to the door. She squinted through the peephole and saw a tired-looking but very much alive Steve on the other side. Quickly, she unlocked the door and opened it, gesturing for Steve to come in before either even said a word.

As Steve shut the door quietly behind him, Lucille used the moment to take in the angry pink line that extended from the corner of his mouth, the faded purple and yellow splotches around his eye and across his cheekbones. She motioned for him to sit on the couch. Lucille didn't miss the limp, or the way his hand pressed against his stomach as he sat down. Sitting down next to Steve, Lucille's brow knitted in concern. "Steve… what on earth happened?"

He didn't answer right away. And he wouldn't look at her.

"Steve?"

Her friend sighed, running his hands over his face. "Luci, I…" His features twisted painfully as he struggled to say something. Steve was clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles were paper white. "Hell, Luci," he tried again, his voice cracking. "There's no easy way to tell you this, so…"

Lucille felt her hands involuntarily tighten on the handle of her cane. She couldn't remember ever seeing Steve so torn up over something. It worried her. She was used to worrying about Steve, but this was different. Horribly different.

"...Bucky's alive."

Lucille wanted to ask him what he meant, but her mouth had suddenly gone dry. Steve seemed to understand her silence. He finally looked at her. "We don't know exactly what happened to him. But we have a pretty good guess. Nat said she could get her hands on more information for us. I'll tell you everything I know…. if you want."

Lucille was focusing very hard on the patterned carpet between her shoes. It was turning blurry. "Tell me." Her voice sounded surprisingly strong, considering she felt as if she was about to shatter into a billion tiny pieces.

She heard Steve sniff before he began to explain what he had been able to piece together. "HYDRA's had him, ever since the train. Whatever they did to him when they captured his unit helped him survive the fall. I think they were trying to replicate Erskine's formula… and I guess it worked."

"So James is a super soldier, like you," Lucille interrupted, needing every detail she could get out of Steve. She felt so far removed from the conversation, knew her mind was trying to protect itself by refusing to feel anything as Steve talked.

"...Yes," he answered after a moment's hesitation. "He's strong and fast, but… Luci, he's not the same Bucky, and it's not just the metal arm."

Silence descended.

"Metal. Arm." Lucille squeezed her eyes shut. "Explain."

"Luci," Steve said carefully, "if this is too much, we can stop. There's no reason to put all of this on you at once."

"Explain," she repeated quietly, reaching over to take his hand tightly in hers.

Steve covered her hand so he was holding it in both of his. "His left arm is metal. The whole thing. Some sort of mechanical prosthetic, like one of Stark's suits, I guess. It's made out of something a lot like my shield." Steve paused, watching her carefully. She was aware, in some distant part of her mind, that he was probably worried that the shock would set in soon and be too much stress for her 89-year-old heart to handle.

Lucille took a deep breath. "You said he was different, regardless of this arm. Why?"

Steve looked down for a moment, and Lucille knew she wasn't going to like what he had to say, even less so than what he had already shared with her. "He doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know who he is. Whatever HYDRA did to him, Luci, it erased his memories. They made him into an assassin that would blindly follow their orders." Steve was quick to squeeze her hand as she swallowed back a sob that had escaped her control.

"Where…" Lucille exhaled shakily and tried again. "...Do you know where he is?"

Steve shook his head. "But I'm going to look until I find him. I gotta help him… gotta get him back." Now it was Lucille's turn to squeeze Steve's hand in a feeble attempt to comfort him.

"We will, Steve. He's our James. We'll bring him home."

-0-

Hi... this was a hard chapter to write, so I hope it turned out okay. Take a sec and let me know what you thought? Since it's late and I want to go to bed, I'm going to leave it at that and finish replying to reviews from last time. Love.

[Guest: I'm so happy to hear that you liked Luci taking charge of the Cap Museum! That's probably one of my favorite parts of this story, so I'm glad someone else likes it too! Well now she knows Bucky's out there, and we'll have to wait to find out if she'll get to see him... Thank you so much for your always fabulous reviews!

BadWolf89: You are not alone with the hurting feels - I'm feeling it too, and I'm the one that knows what's going to happen! Thanks so much for the terrific review!]