Guess who is finally here! My precious James Barnes! Please send him your love.
I woke up back on the experimentation table in the basement. Thoughts came swirling back with nauseating force—memories of what Menzel had said. I shoved them away. They had to be lies. I wasn't the bad guy here. There was an IV drip pushing some sort of sedative into my arm. It made opening my eyes increasingly difficult, like it was pumping them full of led. Once I opened them, I squinted under the overhead florescent lighting. The small motion sent pain lacing into my cheekbone. Jesus, T'challa packed a punch. I sat up, waiting for the world to stop flipping itself upside down or for my stomach's inside to present itself. I groaned and pried at the needle.
"Maybe don't do that," a voice came from Sally's desk. A man wrapped in a lab coat sat in her swivel chair with his knees pulled to his chest.
"It's making me sick, Doc. Help a girl out?" I extended my arm between us.
The man cocked his head, long dark hair falling into sky blue eyes. He glanced down at the white coat he wore and nodded in understanding. "I'm not a Doctor," he said quickly.
"Little early for Halloween then. Or is it dress up day for what you want to be in ten years?"
His lips quirked up and a hesitant smile eased his guarded expression. He was quite handsome. I hadn't seen him around the palace, but that didn't mean anything. The palace was bigger than all the land on my farm combined.
"They left you here to guard me then?"
"It's been an easy job so far," he said.
"Was anyone hurt?" I asked softly. I swung my legs to the ground, grazing my bare toes over the cold tiles.
"Just you. Everyone else took cover. Power went off for a day or so. I think that's what King T'challa is off handling."
"A day?!" my voice skipped up an octave. Had I really been asleep that long?
"Or so," the man allowed. He craned his neck about. "I don't know precisey. There's not a clock down here. The computers are completely fried too."
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to wrap my mind around all of what he was saying. My fingers were little icicles against the feverish skin. Why was it so cold in here? "How can you not know how long it's been?" I questioned.
"The dame in charge didn't tell me and she locked the door when she left. She left food, though. I ate all of it," he admitted a little sheepishly. "Can't remember the last time I had steak and I didn't know if you were going to wake up. Even I could tell she set that sedative drip on an insane dosage and my medicinal knowledge was mainly learned in the field."
"That was Doctor Sally," I told him. He was just as in the dark as me. He was acting like a patient. My eyes darted behind him suddenly. The door to the cryo hallway hung ajar. That's where the chill was coming from. He wasn't here to guard me. We were both being contained. Two unknown dangers locked together. If we killed each other, there was no loss. This wasn't a hospital. It was a prison. "Sergeant Barnes?" I asked in a low whisper.
"I guess." He stretched out his long legs in their white pants, standard issue around here. He rubbed a hand over his knee, looking up at me on my stretcher from his seat. "I haven't been in the army in a few decades. Just Bucky, if you don't mind."
"What's your poison, Bucky?"
He tapped his head. "Can't trust what's in here. I…I wasn't supposed to wake up either. The cryo chamber short circuited when the power went off. I gave Doctor Sally quite the fright. She's very eccentric," he smiled fondly. "Ran out and locked the door behind her."
"If you take this needle out of my arm, will you promise not to turn around and stab me with it?"
"I'm not psychotic," he grumbled. He padded over on bare feet to examine the IV site. He pulled back the tape and blew stray strands of hair out of his eyes. "I just don't always have a say in my actions. That's why I went under."
Using only one arm, he pulled quick and effective. I hissed and pressed the fabric of my blouse into the junction of my elbow. I squeezed it tightly against my chest to stop the blood from escaping. Bucky tossed the IV into the trash and sat back in his chair. "So air? Doesn't seem so dangerous."
"You like breathing, right?"
"You can't control it. You wouldn't be in here if you could. But please try." Bucky leaned forward. He was taking amusement out of this. I supposed we had to entertain ourselves somehow until they decided what to do with us.
"Nah, I'll keep your pretty face around a while longer." I waved my hand about.
He chuckled, shifting in his chair as he did so. The coat, slung around his shoulders much like a cape, moved with him and slid down his left shoulder slightly. Metal flashed in the brilliant lighting. Strange. Prosthetic? But the coat hung rather limply off that side of his body. Was the arm missing altogether? He glanced up again, so I looked away politely.
I twisted my mouth, trying to hold my questions in. Bucky's gaze was narrowed, reading me as easily as a book with all pictures. Maybe he was trained to do so. Maybe I was just so unaccustomed to lying. Finally, he said, "Know Tony Stark?"
"I know he and Steve got divorced last year," I replied.
"They were married?" Bucky asked. Between Sam and I, we would have everyone in this palace thinking Steve was just off whoring himself instead of actually working to save the world.
"Steve's married to his job. What about Stark?" I answered shortly.
"Shot it clean off." Bucky nodded to his arm, though, he didn't take the coat off so I could see. "Well, that's how I lost it the second time. First time happened when I fell off this train into an icy valley."
"You get around," I mused.
"You know Steve? How is he? Where is he?"
"Um, Moscow last I heard. He's noble. An overbearing pain in the ass. I was only with him for like a week chasing this crazy scientist who gave me these shitty powers.
Bucky's focus was gone, drifting a hundred years into the past with memories of his friend. I wandered over to the door, tapping the glass like a fish in a bowl. A guard peered in the door with his frown deepening when he saw me. I waved with a shit eating grin and mimed food. The guard disappeared. I claimed the chair in the desk beside Bucky and rolled over to sit across from him. I propped my feet up on Sally's desk because I was very irritated with her at the moment. Not that my feet would have gotten the chance to collect any dirt in this pristine room. I didn't even blame her for trying to keep me unconscious. I'd pulled some next level fucked up stuff out there. I was more frustrated with myself. The more I thought about Menzel's story, the more I lost track of the truth I thought I knew. Everything was muddling together and the fear of being wrong was wrapping its talons around my throat.
"Don't do that," Bucky said softly.
I didn't hear him until he repeated it the second time, touching my wrist cautiously. Was he cautious of me or of what he could do? I guess I was the more unstable one at the moment.
"Whatever you're overthinking, stop. That'll kill you before anything else." He dropped his hand with that.
"I already have a Zhen master, thanks."
The door opened and Sally walked in. Before her stood two armed guards. I waved and skipped as close as they would let me without blocking my path. You almost blow over one palace and they suddenly get all defensive. I mentally rolled my eyes, while keeping a smile on my face.
"Care to explain what happened out there?" Sally asked from behind the broad shoulders blockading her.
I leaned to peer around them. "Either a psychological breakdown or a breakthrough. I saw Menzel."
"Menzel's in Omsk and didn't have any abilities last I checked." Sally was all serious faced now. There were no more jokes ready to pour out of her thin mouth. Her laugh lines were being used for a grimace today.
"Ok, but what if she does and I just uncovered it?"
"Haven!" Sally snapped.
My chatter was silenced. I folded my hands in front of me, rocking back on my heels.
"I usually enjoy your gift to let everything slide off your back, but this is not the time. Do you know the level of destruction you caused?"
"I'm sorry. I know it must be bad, but…"
"You don't know, Haven! Because we can't let you out of this room. Because we can't trust you anymore and we don't know what you're capable of."
My teeth were sunk deep in my lower lip. I tasted iron on my tongue but didn't let up the pressure.
"Then you know this room wouldn't stop her if she wanted to get out. It wouldn't stop either of us," Bucky spoke up from somewhere in the background. It wasn't a threat. It was something he was resigned to.
"I trust that neither of you mean harm. I hope you will stay here for everyone's good. It's just until the King returns, then we'll figure out what to do," Sally promised. She held out a freeze dried packet of assorted fruits. "I got your DNA results back yesterday," she said as she passed them to me, taking care not to brush my skin. "They're in your file in my desk. The results may interest you."
She scanned her badge and exited the room. I glared down at the fruit in my hand. Bucky got steak and I got healthy crap? Then again, my appetite was entirely gone. Her accusing words ricocheted around the enclosed room. I wasn't afraid of what I could do. It was a part of me that couldn't be helped. But clearly others were.
"Are there any plums in there?" Bucky asked, interrupting my mental spiral again.
DNA charts, as it turns out, are not written in English, or any other known language for that matter. It was a paper long in width that had several colors decorating it in indecipherable patterns. I squinted at the cluster of green towards the top, trying to make sense of the madness. When Sally had left, I'd dug it up immediately. I don't know what she expected me to understand from this, but I continued to stare in hopes that the answer would make itself known.
"You're not secretly a mad scientist are you?" I asked Bucky. He had taken over the examination table. His long body was stretched out, feet dangling over the edge while his right arm was propped under his head. He was careful to keep the left side of his body away from me.
"I don't know shit about DNA charts, but I love that sciency stuff."
Bucky held out his hand in the space between us expectantly. I high-fived him without raising my head. "No, darlin', the chart."
"Your terms of endearment are not welcome here, good sir. Besides, I thought you just said you couldn't read it."
"I was gonna put on a good show for you," he said with playful lips curving up.
I sighed and passed him the paper. It couldn't cause any harm, unless sequences of DNA mapping was his weird trigger. I rummaged through the rest of Sally's drawers. If she insisted on keeping us in here, then that meant nothing was off limits. I found a picture of her back in Mother England along with one of her family: three daughters and one balding husband. I wonder if they live here with her now.
With a squeal her personal drawer slid shut and I yanked open the bottom drawer containing patient profiles. There was one for T'challa followed by several names I didn't recognize. All the way to the back, shoved away like a penny found heads down, was one belonging to Mr. James Barnes. I pulled out the gangly folder, dumping the contents onto the desk.
"Maybe this blue part is for your personality," Bucky called from his research. "It's short and you don't seem like a very blue person."
I didn't respond. I was staring at a very old picture, dated well before my parents even met. Bucky looked near the same age as he had been when it was taken in the 40s, but he was grinning proudly and wore a brown military uniform. What type of moisturizer did he use to age that well? I needed to invest in some. I pushed it out of the way and pulled up an old medical record—perfect physical specimen, no known ailments. Then there was a gap in his timeline up until the present day. He was photographed in this very lab covered in fresh bruises and newly opened cuts. His mouth was pressed into a grim line and the white tank top he wore left his missing left arm in plain view.
Behind that was another chart exactly like the one I'd handed Bucky. The colors were all off, though. Where mine showed an excess of red, his was blank. In fact, nothing seemed to match up at all. From what I understand in my required Chemistry 1001 class, all human DNA had a few basic elements that were all identical. I turned to snatch my chart from Bucky and laid it under his. They were exact opposites; not a single color aligned.
Bucky shifted to peer over my shoulder. "What does that mean?" he asked.