29 Barnes

It was Barnes' face Sharon saw when she opened her apartment door and she stopped, the door half-open, and scowled, becoming instantly tense with fear. In her mind, she remembered Steve beaten bloody and this man screaming at him in something that almost sounded like Russian and he was a threat and Sharon felt the knife strapped to her arm underneath her sleeve just to be sure it was there, and she was about to shut the door in his face before he reached out and grabbed the door and held it just open. Sharon's mouth dropped open and she tried to wrench the door away from him, but he didn't budge.

"Super-strength," he said with something that sounded like a small laugh, some sort of explanation, and Sharon put her shoulders up and glared, half in fear and half in rage, until Barnes let go, holding up his hands, and took a step back. Sharon began to slam the door and, "Don't!" He cried. "Don't, stop. Please?"

Sharon was afraid, but she was also curious, and as was her nature, curiosity won out, and she inched the door open just a little further and stuck her head out.

"What do you want?" She said. Barnes looked at her and his stare was horrifying. He had dead eyes. She shuddered.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot," Barnes said and smiled gently at her, but she couldn't take the weight of his heavy and piercing stare. His eyes were striking and sickening, hypnotic, and she looked away from him, leaning now on the doorframe. "Can we start over?"

"There's no such thing as starting over," Sharon said. "What's done is done." Barnes looked at her and she thought she heard him swallow.

"Well I, uh, I have to disagree," he said. Sharon pursed her lips and she would have slammed the door again then, she should have, and logic and curiosity warred it out inside her until she decided that she wanted to hear more from this dead-eyed winter killer because he had to have an ulterior motive. Barnes waited for a second until Sharon said nothing and he extended his right hand and smiled again. "My name is Bucky," he said. "Steve and I are friends." Sharon looked at him, from his hand to his face, and her eyes narrowed.

"There is no such thing," she said. "As starting over." Barnes blinked and took his hand away. "Why are you here." Barnes sighed and looked at her, level now.

"I'm here because your aunt died," he said.

"And," Sharon replied.

"See," Barnes said. "It's about Steve." He shifted a little and looked around him. "Do we really have to do this in the hallway?"

"If you want to do it at all," Sharon said.

"Alright," Barnes said. "Steve is very… He's really… Not well. And I'm worried about him-"

"What do you mean, he's not well?" Sharon demanded and Barnes was beginning to glare. Sharon shifted her sleeve over her arm and the knife tied there.

"I mean these things, Peggy's death, it hits him hard," Barnes said. "He can't be alone and look, I'm just gonna get to the point because we clearly can't be friends right now, but," and Barnes began to speak in a hushed voice and Sharon leaned in closer. "But I'm worried about him taking his own life."

Sharon froze, confused, and it wasn't sinking in.

Steve? The Steve Rogers she knew? "So I'm going to spend a lot of time with him," Barnes continued. "And Natalia and Sam Wilson and we need your help." He took a deep breath. "I know you might say no, and I get that. I might want to say no to me, too, but I'm asking you for Steve's sake because we're both his friends. He needs our help."

Sharon was still having difficulty swallowing this information. She remembered distinctly Steve confiding in her, telling her he was unhappy, and she hadn't understood then, but it all sunk into her now and became obvious. Oh, how hadn't she realized?

Sharon pushed the door open further and leaned outward, folding her arms.

"You say I'll say no," she said. "But you're here. You think I might say yes."

"I think I'm incredibly, incredibly desperate," Barnes replied. "And I think you'd do a lot for Steve. So, I'm hoping."

"Huh," Sharon said.

"I wouldn't be here otherwise," Barnes said. "I wouldn't be trying to make nice with you otherwise." Sharon shrugged.

"No sense in that," she said. "What's done is done."

"As you've told me," Barnes said sarcastically and it was clear he was beginning to grow impatient. "Look, say yes, say no, at this point, I'm beginning to hope you say no and I'll just find anyone else, but will you do it or not?" Sharon frowned at the ground and then back up at Barnes.

"I'm not doing it for you," she said. Barnes threw up his hands.

"The gun you pointed at my forehead earlier could have told me that," he said. Sharon realized as volatile as the Winter Soldier was, as dangerous, she liked it better when he was emotional because then she didn't have to look at his dead eyes, staring at her like he could see right through her.

"I'm doing it for Steve," Sharon said.

"Okay," Barnes said and he was clenching his jaw and beginning to walk away. He turned his back. "I'll call you. Thanks."

"Winter Soldier," she called and the Barnes, halfway across the hall, whirled around and his entire body was tense. There was rage in his eyes. It had been building there.

"Don't call me that," he said. "Don't." She ignored him.

"Why would Steve…," she said and she didn't want to say it, certainly didn't want to call it across the hall, but Barnes understood and his shoulders fell in the slightest and she watched his dead eyes move to Steve's door and back again. He swallowed and wrapped his arms around himself and looked at her and shook his head.

"I don't know," he said. "But right now, right now, we just have to stop him." The Winter Soldier's shoulders fell further and he was staring at the carpet blankly. He let out a breath and Sharon shuddered and pulled herself back into her apartment a little.

"One day, he'll tell me," Barnes said quietly.