I still wished I could get drunk.
I could see that Bucky needed that too, but both of us were out of luck, the changes made to our bodies prevented us from even enjoying a hint of a buzz. Even Thor's 'this is not for mortal men' alcohol hadn't done anything for me, which is kind of scary given Thor had most certainly gotten at least a dash of drunk that night before Ultron made his grand appearance and screwed over our lives.
Still, I sipped at the beer, slouched down in the chair as I stared numbly into the air about three feet in front of me.
We'd been back barely twelve hours, enough time to clean up and grab some sleep, and, in my case, get taped up. Turned out two ribs had indeed been broken along with assorted bruises, cuts and scrapes for the lot of us. We hadn't walked away unharmed, but better us than others, that's why we did this. To take the hard knocks normal people would not survive.
T'Challa had joined us, without any of his security nearby, making this as much a debriefing as a post-mission decompression get together.
"How bad?" Sam asked as he limped about the room, sitting too uncomfortable at the moment, some shrapnel from the initial explosion caught him in the hamstring. A nice neat puncture. Painful, but not life threatening by any stretch of the imagination.
T'Challa set the tablet down on the table and waved it on. A dozen videos sprang to life in the air about it, all different angles of the collapse of the conference center. The blue haze clearly visible no matter how crappy the video quality.
"Half of those known to have been inside are missing. A third of the delegates gone. Assumed to be dead. Over a hundred dead in the tunnel collapse as well, but the focus of the investigation is now on the apparent use of Hydra tech in an attack on the UN Security Council." He stood stock still, a frown on his handsome face.
"Has anyone claimed responsibility?" Bucky asked, rolling the condensation coated bottle back and forth between his hands, his one arm a dour gray in color, oddly reflective of his current mood.
"No. And I find that worrying." T'Challa picked up his drink and took a long swallow, using a hand to rotate the images. "The Avengers arrived on site two hours after you left." He sighed heavily.
"Hey, I called as soon as I was told to," Sam said with a shrug of his shoulders, "Not our fault they couldn't get off their asses faster."
Too true. They had to wait for an order from a committee to even suit up, little wonder they didn't arrive until well after we'd set up a plan for search and rescue and turned it over to the locals to go deal with our injuries. We'd stayed until well into the night, until even we ran out of energy and had intended to stay and continue to work after catching some sleep, but had instead been encouraged to leave before UN forces arrived.
No one we had helped wanted to see us arrested.
And I could not be more thankful for that.
Still, I felt we had not done nearly enough to earn the praise that had been all over the news.
No, we hadn't run from the cameras this time, and there'd been some seriously sharp footage of all of us. Some with headgear off as we took a moment to recoup before heading back into the fray.
"We should have stayed," I muttered, not certain I cared about being a fugitive any longer. We would be of no use hiding behind T'Challa's skirts every time it got risky. The real danger had already happened, maybe we needed to work on preventing it.
"No," Wanda shook her head. "We'd done all we could. Though I have to wonder why no one suspected there might be an attack. Even I can see it had been planned well beforehand."
"That is a valid concern," T'Challa agreed. "My intelligence saw nothing worrisome for that meeting."
"Inside job?" Bucky suggested, and I grunted as if kicked.
"Hydra is still out there, no reason it could not have gotten into the UN. Or even just the convention center staff. Point of detonation was under the building, right? The service tunnels?" I glanced at his Highness who nodded slowly.
"Or just some random terrorist who happened upon some forgotten cache." Sam just had to play devil's advocate.
It would be so much easier to be able to point a finger and place the blame, but he had the right of it, with Hydra broken, their files open to anyone, anyone could find their bases and play merry hell with weapons and tech they found.
"Shit," I muttered, earning a snort of amusement from Wanda. Even she had heard about the now infamous language incident.
"This is most concerning. There are potentially dozens of Hydra bases that have yet to be discovered." T'Challa pointed out with more than a touch of dismay in his voice.
"Hundreds," Bucky corrected, causing the King of Wakanda to frown deeply. "Hydra is extremely compartmentalized, only a few at the highest levels would know where every single base and storehouse is. And given they've all supposedly been eliminated," He tipped his head to the side, "we may never find them all."
"That is something we could do," Wanda suggested. "Find them and secure them. See to it whatever lies within does not fall into the wrong hands."
"And it should be in yours?" T'Challa countered in a sneering tone.
"I trust us." She nodded at me. "I trust him to do the right thing in any given situation."
"As do I," T'Challa agreed. "But I cannot help you with this."
I sighed softly, even knowing this day would come I still had hoped it would not be quite so soon. "It's time for us to leave."
"I fear so," His Majesty conceded. "There can be no mistaking who aided those in Prague. They will come for you."
"And you've lost your plausible deniability," Sam grumbled, not that we'd grown overly comfortable here, but we'd needed the time to figure out our place in this brave new world.
T'Challa spread his hands wide.
I sat up straighter, we'd been planning for this, but had not yet made any decisions simply because we had very limited resources. Wakanda had been providing gear, and fuel and repairs and... and a home, no matter how temporary. On our own we had very little to work with. Oh, we would manage, but it would not be easy. We'd become dependent on having unlimited money and tech thanks to Tony, it would take time to adjust, but we'd manage and we would keep going.
"We understand, your Highness. We'll need a few days to pack and..."
"Steven, I am not going to just force you out. I will do what I can to facilitate the transition and would like to be able to call upon you if needed." He set his drink down and waved the tablet off, the looping videos vanishing and dimming the light in the room noticeably.
"Of course," Wanda responded. "Anything we can do. We owe you a debt."
T'Challa shook his head. "No, all debts have been paid." He looked to Bucky who nodded, face a neutral mask.
"Enjoy your evening. Let my people know what you need for your journey."
I stood, ignoring the discomfort along my left side and walked with him to the door of the apartment. "Thank you for all you have done for us," I told him, keeping my voice down. I wanted these words to be private, "and for understanding."
"No need, but you will still need to take care. While the Hydra asset may be gone, those who will want revenge still have a face to place blame upon. Many will not be able to separate James Barnes from The Winter Soldier."
The ghost of the Winter Soldier weighed heavily on Bucky even now and I doubted the burden would get any lighter as his memories continued to return. His crimes went back well over seventy years so there stood little chance of him being able to atone for any of them no matter how badly he may want to. I scratched my ear as I responded, "They can't hold him for long."
T'Challa chuckled for a moment, shaking his head, then turned serious. "But they can kill him."
I glanced back into the room where my oldest friend had gotten up to pour another round for the others. "Can they?"
T'Challa's lips formed a thin line. "I would prefer neither of you find out."
"Me too. Goodnight, T'Challa." I held out my hand to be shaken, which he did with a firm grip.
"Good luck, Captain."
He turned about and strode away, one hands tucked deep into the pocket of his slacks the other holding the tablet. The weight upon his shoulders surely a heavy burden.
Probably heavier than mine, but I daresay we both had the strength needed to keep going.
I rejoined the group, Bucky handing me a glass of some potent local liquor that smelled similar to cinnamon. I downed a sip then gasped. "Dear god, what is this?"
"Potent," Sam answered with a grin as he took a taste from his own glass. "We need to figure out what we're gonna do next."
"We do what we have been," Wanda stated, swirling that liquor in her glass before tossing it back. "Where are we going to go?" She looked at Bucky, not me.
"Why are you looking at me? I've been asleep for most of the last century." He perched on the edge of the table, attempting to look casual and didn't miss the mark by much. He still didn't trust himself, his memory still full of holes, his personality still... off. Bucky there, but decidedly changed. The fact that he had joined us for drinks, stayed after T'Challa had left a huge step for him, as he still tended to keep isolated from anyone except for me and only then because I gave him no choice.
In the field he fell back onto his skills, finding it far easier to play the part of soldier than man.
Had to admit I had the same problem. I'd gotten better, but I'd been forced into interactions for several years thanks to SHIELD and the Avengers, Bucky had been on his own since D.C. and on the run. That required an entirely different state of mind. He had yet to come out of isolation mode.
"Buck, they're not idiots."
He glanced from Wanda to Sam. "Well, she isn't. Not sure about him yet."
Sam just rolled his eyes. They worked well together, Bucky integrating into the group fairly easily, but trust between the two had yet to be found.
Understandable, given the way things had fallen apart for all of us. And Bucky had kind of beat up Sam soon after they had met. Bucky and Wanda had more in common in some ways. Both outcasts, both having worked for Hydra only to discover all that they had been told to be a lie. Wanda had walked into it blind, her hatred of Stark greater than her fear of Hydra. Bucky had been forced in all unwilling and been used and damn near broken because of it. A good man who had been used to do very bad things.
"We've got a place picked out."
"That why he's been going on road trips?" Sam asked, nodding towards Bucky.
I nodded. "We'll only have basics, but it's livable."
"We've been spoiled by Stark, we'll make do," Wanda told us, sounding unconcerned.
"We need money," Sam argued. "Fuel for the quinjet ain't cheap."
"There's always gofundme," Wanda suggested, trying to hide a grin.
Sam laughed, the sound harsh. "Yeah, that'll work. Support the ex-Avengers in their efforts to clean up the messes the official Avengers can't be bothered to deal with."
No, Sam had not become the least bit bitter after all of this.
Bucky and I just met each other's eyes, not certain what the hell a gofundme was, but not about to ask and remind everyone how clueless we could be in the twenty-first century.
"We'll make this work." I didn't know how, but we would. As long as we stayed together we'd be just fine. That I knew to be true. Sad it happened to be the same logic Nat had argued to get me to sign the Accords in London. Hopefully, this would work out a bit better for all of us.
Wanda and Sam glanced at each other, but no complaints came from either one.
"When do we leave?" Sam finally asked.