Chapter 7: Clint's Farmhouse
"Ness Nessie Nessa!" Tony hollered up the stairs, "You're with me this afternoon! Let's get to work!" Inessa came down the stairs carefully, peeking into every corner as she did so. "Ease up, Natasha and Clint locked him in a horse stall with Steve until they're friends again. You won't see him any time soon. Those Irish are stubborn."
While she didn't stop checking the shadows, Inessa did approach Tony a bit quicker. She avoided his eyes still. He was unpredictable, and she didn't handle that very well at the moment.
"Today you will be helping me work on the controls for Bucky's metal arm. Namely hacking into them. Tell me Loch Nessa, do you know the endless joy that comes from the game 'Stop hitting yourself'?"
Bucky wasn't entirely sure how Natasha got him to the barn. She said she wanted to train with him- test some new moves out on a fighter of equal ability and speed. It seemed to be a legitimate request. What had happened next? Bucky couldn't remember exactly. They'd fought in the makeshift ring near the farmhouse, then Nat said it might upset Inessa if she saw Bucky fighting her. Again, legitimate and reasonable. The stables made sense, they were the closest building without a view of the barn or the farmhouse- even if it was a bit small. Bucky asked if the horses might be startled- he had no experience with farms. Natasha agreed, but she said they should be fine using the last stall as a battle ring. How did he fall for that?
"Natasha, I'm no expert, but won't this spook the horses?" Steve's voice carried down the barn.
"It'll be fine. Clint said these don't scare easily, he uses them to practice shooting while in motion. If you want to be certain, we can practice in the last stall. It's kept empty, has plenty of space for me to show you that move, and if the horses can't see they won't spook. What do you say?"
Oh yeah, that's how she tricked him. Bucky just sat on the ground, bemused, as Steve fell into the same trap he had. What was her game?
"See? He keeps it locked so no one accidentally puts a horse in here. Those kids are a huge help, but they are just kids. They make mistakes." There was a sound of a key in a lock, a bolt sliding, then the door swung out. Before Steve could register seeing Bucky sitting against the wall, Natasha kicked him in the back and Clint slipped around the corner to close the door once again.
"What the hell?!" Steve grabbed the bars around the small window hard enough to dent them.
"No one leaves until you two talk it out. And don't break my farm." Clint eyed his hands until Steve forced them open and away from the bars.
"We have nothing to talk out-"
"Bullshit. Which is what I start pelting you with if you keep acting like a dick. You've been on Bucky since you saw him, and we both know it's not about some little-league scumbag. So, for the sake of the sanity of all Avengers, you two are hereby placed under stall arrest until we chose to let you out." Clint smiled.
Natasha's face appeared next to his a moment later, "And just to show you we mean it- JARVIS, if you'd please activate the security system?"
The sounds of metal and gears were unmistakeable from all sides. Bucky knew what was happening before Clint and Natasha stepped back and the empty suit took their place- the stall was surrounded by at least seven remote suits. "Have fun you two. We'll check in at dinner time." Clint stuck his hand next to the suit's head to wave.
"Unbelievable," Steve began to pace, fuming.
Bucky shrugged, "Not a bad idea though."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve snapped, "You can't honestly say you agree with those two."
"I've known you- not counting the brainwashed and frozen bits- for a little over twenty years. You've never been in this bad of a mood. And we both know it's not Aristov. You used to trust me to tell you the truth. I. Did. Not. Kill. Dimitri. Aristov." Bucky spent two nights repeating it over and over until it sounded true, "Why don't you trust that? And why don't you even listen when I say Hydra's planning something? Those dreams- Sam trying to kill Inessa- we need to broaden our search, find a way to protect her from anything Hydra might be sending after you all. We can't trust the word of an old drunk, if he's still alive and not long dead from alcohol poisoning or something!"
Steve shook his head and sat on the opposite end of the stall, "I'm not discussing this with you. Not after what you've done."
"What have I done?" Bucky was exasperated, "Since leaving Hydra, I mean." he was by no means innocent, but something else was bothering Steve, and Bucky needed to know what.
There was no reply from Steve. He just sat there, frozen, not saying a word. If it was just Aristov he wouldn't be acting like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Bucky had seen this before- it was a fear response. Anger and fear. He needed Steve to trust him, even if he wasn't so trustworthy.
Clint and Natasha listened from the hall silently. This is going to take all night, Natasha chose to sign- if they knew they were being watched the two would never speak.
If we're lucky. In truth Clint thought (and bet Stark $50) it would take much, much longer.
Tony talked Inessa through every step as he concocted a plastic mock-up of Bucky's arm along with all the same technology he had installed in the base plate. His goal was simple enough- and made for an excellent practical joke. He could sell his invention to every Avenger. Or, for eight times the price, he could sell it to Bucky to keep it out of their hands. He checked over the calculations and programming carefully, but even so he missed the small sabotages Inessa added.
It was hard, sometimes, to understand what the others were saying- a side effect of the work she was doing in secret. Today was one of the bad days. She kept fading in and out, but she got the basics of Tony's plan- he wanted to control the metal-armed man. Last time someone controlled him he became a weapon. She couldn't risk that again. After Tony would check the code he dictated to her, she'd swap out chains here and there, delete letters. The base code was so vast, so complicated, he couldn't possibly recheck everything. If he found out, would she be punished?
Inessa had sudden visions of being chained and shackled in the Astana cell again. She grabbed her head and dug her nails into her scalp. This kept happening- and she couldn't push it back. They always overwhelmed her. The memories. So many, so powerful.
Tony turned and saw her rocking in her chair. He just shook his head and looked away. Clint told him about these episodes when they first started. It was why Tony created his device. He believed it was due to her time as the Shadow- she forgot how to control the mind of a human, not just a beast (no matter how intelligent it may be). He eyed a trunk in the corner- he'd hidden the device inside. It could help her. But now wasn't the time. Not while Steve looked like he was contemplating murder.
"I'm sorry we can't make it stop," he told her. "You need more help than we can give, but we can't risk Hydra getting you back- and that's for your own sake. Still... I'm sorry we can't make it stop."
Inessa heard him, but she also felt the pull of the device- loaded down with the vaccine. She needed it desperately, but her supplies were controlled by the others. What she was stashing away, little by little, was still not enough for what she had planned. Going without, however, only made her visions stronger and more frequent. Her hearing was always the first to become muddled. There was no helping it- no matter what she had planned, tonight she'd actually have to take the medicine. Tony would no doubt report this to the others, and she couldn't risk them becoming suspicious.
Not for the first time Inessa wondered- if they figured out what she was doing, could she kill to keep her secret?
More than anything else- even more than the sight of the Winter Soldier- it frightened Inessa just how quickly the answer came to her, how absolutely sure of it she was- yes.
"I'm not angry. I'm scared," Steve said at last. They'd sat in silence for hours- judging by the darkness in the stall (and the snoring from Clint outside) it had to be closer to morning than nightfall.
Bucky was pretending to study his metal arm, "What scares the great Captain America?" he asked sarcastically to relieve the mood.
Steve wasn't in the mood for joking, "I know who I was- Steve Rogers, codename Captain America- though these days it feels more like Captain America, codename Steve Rogers. It's you I don't know, and that's what scares me."
"The hell are you talking about?" Bucky looked up at him.
"Are you Bucky Barnes? Or the Winter Soldier? The way you killed Dennisson in New York- and going after Aristov- that looked a lot like the work of the Winter Soldier. I lost everything, Buck. You, the Commandos, Howard, Peggy- even the millennium I was born in. I got my hopes up when I found out you were alive that maybe something was left of that old life. Back when I was Steve Rogers." he picked up a clod of dirt and tossed it against the wall, "If that even makes sense."
"That was always your problem," Bucky mused, "Steve Rogers, Captain America. They're the same damn kid. Just like how Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier have to be the same person. I'm sorry I had to change, but that's how the dice rolled for me. I didn't get to sleep through the last seventy years, I had to fight. I wasn't given a choice. Killing Dennisson like that- crushing the life out of him- that's the Winter Soldier. That's how he kills. I'm the one who chooses who dies now. Bucky Barnes makes the call. You just have to trust my judgement on that. I'm still learning how to coexist with this thing Hydra made me into."
"How am I supposed to trust a gun with a bad trigger?"
"You don't. You trust a friend who's been through some bad times. Being out here- away from people- it's going to help. I know it will. You said you need to know if I'm Bucky Barnes or the Winter Soldier- give me time to reconcile them before you decide one of us needs to be taken out."
More silence. "If I trust you, will you swear to tell me if you think you need to let the Winter Soldier off his leash? Let me learn to trust your judgement?"
Bucky considered it, then nodded, "Fair enough."
"Oh thank god," Natasha's voice came from the other side of the door, "Tell me if you shook on it. My ass fell asleep sitting here and I can't stand up."
Steve raised an eyebrow and looked over at Bucky, "Deal then?"
"Deal."
"I don't hear a handshake."
"It was a verbal handshake," Steve called over to her.
"Good enough, JARVIS, thank you for your services." Steve heard the suits taking off, but the one at the door walked away only a few steps.
"Mister Barton," JARVIS' voice interrupted Clint's snores. Steve pulled himself to his feet and looked out the window. The Suit held out it's hand to Clint and something fluttered down onto his chest. Clint picked it up, confused, then smiled sleepily, "Master Stark has given me full discretion to make final judgement on the wager. I believe the prize goes to you."
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