Bucky stared in disbelief as his Colonel paced angrily around the room.
"There's a traitor in our midst and I need to find out whom." He turned to the Sergeant.
"Barnes… where's your friend?" He watched the other man in the hot seat.
The seat that all his colleagues feared…
He didn't even flinch once since he sat down in it.
"I don't know." Bucky looked up at the superior officer with a frown.
"I'm not his babysitter." He grunted. He wasn't too happy with Steve at the moment. First he'd saved him from the alley fight from a jerk that was three times his size, and later that night he went out to eat with Howard Stark…
Howard Stark… Bucky thought angrily. Who was he to take his friend away? Bucky resented the other man solely for that reason. He chomped on a pencil that the colonel gave him. Before he realized he was actually chewing on his, the Colonel pulled it from his mouth.
"Easy solider, that's from my own paycheck." Phillips eyed him suspiciously.
"So where do you think he could be?" Phillips crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his boot on the floor.
Bucky's gaze went up the Colonel's shiny black leather boot. He didn't dare linger, the thought of checking out the Colonel and getting caught was suicide. Though he had a fondness for leather and just couldn't help it sometimes. He bit the inside of his cheek and removed his hat, setting it in his lap.
Bucky ran his hands through his dark brown leafy short hair. He wasn't fond of buzz cuts, so he'd gotten one that resembled one. He looked up at the celling as he thought where Steve would be. Clearly he couldn't be at an army booth since he was already enlisted here so…
Howard!
Bucky's piercing blue eyes met with the Colonel's as they both reached the same conclusion at the exact moment.
They both rushed through the door looking for Steve. But Phillips got a call that required his presence immediately.
"This can't wait?" He shouted into his phone.
"Erskine?" The Colonel's brows raised high as he took in information. Bucky watched his eyes dart back and forth from the window and the hallway.
"Jesus!" He slammed the phone down on the receiver and punched it down the corridors and out the front door and ran across the street to the antique shop where the SSR lab was.
"Okay…" Bucky stared for a minute and let all the recent events catch up with him.
Was something happening in the lab?
He knew he didn't have access to it, but hopefully Colonel Phillips would play favorites and let him on what happened. Bucky knew he had to find Steve so he went to Howard's office.
"Hey!" Bucky banged his fist on the door and he heard shuffling around and papers being tossed around.
"Yes?" Howard's flushed face appeared through the doorframe.
"Gimme my friend back, I had him first." Bucky frowned, knowing he appeared childish, but he didn't care at the moment.
Then Steve appeared through the door with a smile on his face, he seemed different now. Bucky sucked in a breath and noticed that his best friend was drunk.
"Steve!" Bucky was cautious, yet he worried about his friend. After all he was asthmatic, frail, and very vulnerable…
But he didn't look that way right now…
Bucky was puzzled slightly as he watched his friend hug Howard goodbye rather slowly and not the usual one armed hug Bucky was used to receiving.
What on earth had Howard do to make Steve go from awkward and inwardly shy to this?
The Sargent waited as Steve ran to grab his sketchbook off Howard's desk and then he headed out the door.
Bucky waited until Steve was out of eyesight and earshot.
"Don't fuck this up for him." Bucky growled at Howard and slammed him to the wall. The other man's eyes darkened as anger crossed his face.
"I don't see you doing anything better… Sargent." Howard added for emphasis.
Bucky held his fist back and contemplated it for a split second then his knuckles struck Howard across the face.
Howard pulled back and shifted against the wall and he prepared himself for another strike…
It didn't come…
Bucky was pissed, he was scared that this man would change Steve, he didn't like it. He knew Howard understood that he couldn't assault an officer, but Howard didn't follow the rules.
The other man's palm hit Bucky in the chest and he pulled away coughing.
He knew he had that coming, but he was just itching for a fight since he'd gotten the uniform. Howard should not have been the one he should be hitting.
"Damn Barnes…" Howard huffed as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Bucky actually felt a bit guilty now that he'd done it, but he knew Howard wasn't a lightweight.
"We'll talk later." He calmly told Howard while the other man simply rolled his eyes and gave him a warm smile.
Bucky couldn't even begin to understand the machinist. He took Steve by the arm, who had been completely oblivious to their physical engagement. Bucky rubbed circles on his chest, trying to relieve the soreness.
"What's up with you two?" He turned to Steve with a widened expression. He saw Steve blush and turn slightly away…
"No…" Bucky caught on like it was instinct.
"No!" He yelled this time.
Steve's large blue eyes widened as he drew back slightly.
"Do you have any idea what will happen to the project and what it might cost you if you screw that up?" Bucky mentored him this time.
"Gimme that." He snatched Steve's sketchbook and hid it under his arm.
"No more drawing until you tell me where you're going next time." Bucky finished.
"S…sorry Bucky, I just wanted to do something different, and Howard… is nice." Steve was getting redder by the moment.
"You like him?" Bucky whispered, barely above a roar. He stopped short and stared at the wall.
"So that's why you never like my dates…" Bucky snorted a laugh, trying to cover up his embarrassment at the situation.
"Yeah… I kind of just found out…you know?" Steve looked up to his best friend.
"He's a playboy though… you couldn't find one that was a little simpler?" Bucky continued.
"You mean like you?" Steve questioned.
Bucky's face went pale…
"Umm no, but there's others that are umm…gay that maybe… I don't know…" Bucky stopped short, he had no idea what to tell Steve now.
"But I like Howard... that's that." Steve looked up at Bucky, his expression hardened.
"What you do, have sex with him?" Bucky joked.
Steve turned away.
Bucky gasped.
"You did!" He walked back over to his friend,
"I can't believe that Oh My God!" His voice went frantic as he took in this huge storm that Steve brought.
Hurricane fucking Steve!
Bucky needed to do something, go somewhere.
Away from all this for a night.
"I have to go help… uh recruit, so you just figure out this whole mess then ok?" Bucky started to turn away.
"It's not a mess Bucky…" Steve said, rather determined too.
Well there's no point trying to change him now, once Steve got an idea it stuck like cement…
Bucky thought.
"I'll see you later then ok?" Bucky gave him a hug goodbye and went through the double doors and across the street to see what's happened to the Doctor.
Phillips met him at the door.
"I'm afraid son…" He stated calmly.
"What for?" Bucky's eyes widened.
"Well… Abraham…Erskine, he's going to be assassinated." His deep azure eyes lowered to Bucky's.
"The serum?" Bucky answered the question that hung in the air.
"Yeah… that, but there's an even bigger problem…" The Colonel shoved his hands in his pockets,
"Abraham is now… an Abby." His brows furrowed as he took in the crazy information.
"What the hell?" Bucky smacked the Colonel's arm, a daring move in and of itself, but Bucky was cocky.
"I'm not kidding you…" Phillips warned, catching his arm in midair.
Bucky gasped, the movement catching him off guard.
"Umm…" Bucky stammered as the Colonel tightened his grip on his arm, twisting it ever so slightly.
Bucky's teeth grit as he tried not to cry out in pain. He ended up elbowing the Colonel in the ribs and got out of the hold.
"That's a good solider." Phillips smiled.
"But I am not joking, Erskine was testing a new serum to conceal his identity." He stared at Bucky.
"Pffttt…" Bucky tried not to laugh,
"So he's a she now?" The sergeant's eyes had tears as he fought a wave of laughter down.
"Y…yes." Phillips answered.
"Is she hot?" Bucky's eyebrows rose up and down in a teasing manner.
"Actually yes… considerably." The Colonel took Bucky's arms and led him down through the SSR lab. Once past the simple white corridors and winding hallways he went downstairs and they saw an empty desk.
Papers littered the floor as he leaned over the desk and met eyes with the doctor.
Her skin was a deep amber tinted copper, while her deep brown eyes had dark lashes that swept downward. Her glasses were askew on his face and she struggled to pick up all the papers.
"Oh my God…" Bucky whispered.
He really was a she…
"The calculations were indefinitely incorrect; I've ruined my life... my career." Erskine's soft round face looked sad as Bucky could see tears.
He felt bad, he couldn't even imagine what that could be like. Yet it de-aged him significantly, she looked around thirty or so.
The Colonel grabbed for Erskine's hand and pulled her off the floor. The white pants that fit the German scientist before slid off the slender shapely legs that he now had.
Bucky heard him suck in a sob as he tried to grab his pants in his arms.
"I think you look great… How would Johann Schmitt go looking for a woman?" The Colonel was still holding Erskine upright, comforting him.
Bucky raised a brow in question.
Is there something I'm missing here or is everyone going crazy now?
Bucky headed for the door, but not before taking a vow of silence that could threaten his officer rank, so he kept silent. He headed down the steps and walked through the alleyways where hookers roamed. He had no interest in them, though he liked some of their clothing, he knew he was a leather kind of guy.
He looked across the street he was headed for and he saw a pair of unnaturally blue eyes staring back at him. The man looked like an officer, not the good kind and definitely not on Bucky's side.
Bucky almost ran across the street, he didn't want to lose the guy, he even seemed familiar to him, but from where Bucky had no idea.
"Hey!" Bucky chased after the man, through the red lighting of the traffic signals he could make out that this was a Nazi…
What are Nazis doing here in Brooklyn?
Bucky pursued the officer and reached for his long coat.
"Hey what's your name?" It was the least threatening thing Bucky could think of to say at the moment.
Then Bucky lost control and dove and slammed him against the wall.
"Who are you?" Bucky demanded.
"Gib ihn mir…" The officer replied.
"Ah Sargent James Buchanan Barnes I assume?" The older man grinned wickedly.
Now it was Bucky's turn to step away from him.
"Umm…" Bucky's neck dampened, this couldn't be good, and this man knew him or knew a lot about him.
"My name is Johann…" He placed his gloved hands up in a defensive maneuver. Bucky looked him over, he was a member of the deep science division under Adolf Hitler's Reich. The man was clad in black leather, all the way up to the high collar of his uniform.
"You're coming with me." Bucky grabbed for the other officer.
"Oh I think not… Bucky." Johann whispered.