Chapter 11

"He is going on trial... shouldn't I be there? I did spend the last year with him."

"Why put yourself through that?"

"So I can look him in the face and tell Kai what a piece of shit he is."

"You can send your account in by video, Stark already got the approval for it."

"No." Brooke planted her feet. "I want to look him in his face and tell everyone what he did to that little boy."

Bucky softened. This was not even about her, Brooke wanted to attend Kai's hearing for Jesse.

"What about what he did to you?"

Brooke looked down, "It's nothing I didn't volunteer for."

Softly, he corrected, "I meant about what he planned to do, with you."

Bucky had told Brooke everything he and Steve had learned from Craig. She got quiet, withdrew into herself for a day, then woke up and everything was fine again. A pattern he had noticed in her.

"They called me to court and I'm going to go. You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you had a secret girlfriend in DC you didn't want me to find out about."

Rolling his eyes at her joke Bucky shook his head, "You're deflecting."

"I'm lightening the mood." Brooke wrapped her arms around his waist. "We can't all be tall, dark and sexy."

"Can't have that." Sarcasm seeped into every word.

Bucky wanted more than anything to get down in the mud with her, let Brooke completely melt down and have her know that he was there.

Brooke bit her lip, "It's beautiful out. Let's go to the backfield."

"We can't have sex on the backfield."

Laughing Brooke tugged him toward the door. "I'll fuck ya later. Right now we need some vitamin D"

Brooke paused and before Bucky could point out her innuendo she intervened. "I heard it."

.

"She's coming to court with us?" Sam asked, he and Steve watching the couple laughing and hanging out on the back lot.

"Bucky said she was, though he was hoping she would not want to miss training and send in a witness statement video instead."

"Doesn't seem like her style."

Steve nodded, "We'll be there. I'm more worried about Bucky than I am about her."

"We'll make sure he doesn't get himself into any trouble," Sam assured him.

'

Brooke laughed breathlessly, Bucky's head between her legs, fingers inside her. She drew in a quick breath, her whole body tensing as she came. Bucky moaned his approval lapping her up. After spending their afternoon outside Brooke pulled Bucky into her bed.

They had made out slowly, taking their time. Playful touches and rocking hips turned into blowing him and Bucky slipped between her legs when he got too close to his release.

"Easy." He licked at her clit, bringing her down.

He took her hand that was not playing with her nipples in his, grounding her. Brooke rolled her hips softly against his mouth, silently telling him she needed more and did not want him to stop.

Slowly her movements stopped and she settled, reaching for him. Bucky pushed himself over her body, dick dragging up her thigh. Brooke bit her lip looking down to watch the precum drop onto her. She wiggled her hips to ease the desire burning through her.

With a soft push to his chest, Bucky fell to his back. Brooke rolled on top of him, getting to her knees she took Bucky's dick and brought it to her slit. She slid up and down him avoiding her over-sensitive clit in the process, hips rocking in a smooth rhythm. Bucky moaned, rocking his hips, fingers pressing into her hips, dents forming around his grip. He did not control her movements but he moved with her.

"God you're sexy." He reached for her hand, pulling her body down to lay against his.

They swallowed each other's noises, hips pressed tight together. Bucky gives a little jolt of his hips catching the head of his dick on her clit.

"sHit." Brooke whined, lifting her hips up.

Bucky reached between them, standing his dick up for Brooke to sink down on. She wiggled her hips, hands clenching against his chest. It took a couple of slow deep pumps till Brooke could take all of him, sinking down till she sat perfectly in his lap.

Groaning, Bucky flexed his hips, fingers needing the skin of Brooke's ass. Her body trembling slightly, Bucky's brows shoot up to his hairline, in a test he brought his thumb to her clit, flicking it a couple of times.

Brooke nodded her head quickly, hips sliding centimetres up his shaft to immediately fall back down. Brooke grabbed his wrist and put it beside his head falling back over him, she rode him hard. Her clit sent shocks through her body every time it brushed over his pubic hair.

Bucky egged her on, whispering words of encouragement in her ear. Watching her curvy little body withering above him as she rode his dick.

"You're gonna make me come like this." She whimpered into his shoulder, her teeth digging into the skin there.

Bucky wrapped his arms around her lower back, hugging her to him. Planting his heels on the bed he fucked up into her, Brooke squeezed and bit into his shoulder cumming hard.

"Broooke. Fuck yes." Bucky felt his balls pull up.

Brooke nipped and sucked at his neck, feeling his stomach tighten against hers. He made love to her until he hiss, his dick sensitive and stated. Sliding her off his sensitive dick to rest on his chest. Their cum leaking from her onto his low stomach.

"I've been remembering things," Brooke whispered after a while. "While training, especially in a group, it's brought up a lot."

"Like what?" Bucky prompted softly.

"Getting punished for not training with the other girls. Cold showers and electrical rods. When I finally broke and started training, I was so angry, that I lashed out at them. I hurt them and it wasn't their fault I was there."

"I worked in the red room, it would have been a little before you got there. I trained the girls. If you hadn't lashed out at them, they would not have held back on you in fear of being punished. What else do you remember?"

The thought of the little girl he knew from Hydra, in that horrible place, made him sick. Brooke had been in the hands of those men, tortured for her disobedience at the age of, what 12? Bucky had seen the way those girls were treated, like things. He hated that she had ended up there, even if it was only for a short time.

"It's all, just flashes. But it's happening during hand-to-hand, Chris almost won the other day because of it."

Bucky frowned, "You can't disappear like that during a fight-" it could get you killed.

"I know. I already booked an appointment with the therapist. Maybe he can help me figure out how to stay focused..." His hand trailed over her spine.

"Who'd you get?"

"Miles. I just picked a random guy off the list who was available this week. Figured I should go before we head to DC."

"Miles is ex-Military?" Bucky was trying to place him.

"Yea. He served for six years, figured he'd have some insight."

Brooke rubbed her nose on his chest, snuggling into his warmth. Her skin cooling, the dried sweat on her body causing her to shiver.

"You seem more settled since you started training and working in the lab."

"Clint and I had fun, but sitting around watching movies and exploring got old. Doing something with my day makes me feel like less of a burden."

"You're not a burden."

Brooke shrugged, "I'm not here 'cause I'm your- I'm here because Fury and Tony want to keep an eye on me, because of who my father was. And let's not forget the incident outside my apartment, If it weren't for that, I'd be somewhere else right now. Somewhere, less cozy.""

He heard what she had said, and yea, maybe that was all true. But Bucky was more stuck on the first part of her sentence 'I'm not here cause I'm your-'. what? What was she going to say there?

When she first moved in, Brooke was adamant that she could not be anything to him and that she wasn't sticking around. Not with both agencies wanting to get their hands on her. She had not wanted to commit, wanting to keep from 'hurting him'.

Not that he had much recent experience going steady with someone, but he sure felt like she was his girlfriend. They spent their evenings together, mostly spent their nights in one another's beds. They had sex, they talked, they were building something.

Wanting to keep his question light and not freak her out, he poked her side and asked. "Were you going to say girlfriend?"

"No." Bucky could feel her cheeks heat against his skin.

He smiled, she was adorable. "Uh-huh. And what would you call this?"

"Two hot consenting adults-"

"Friends with benefits, is that where you were going with that?" He could not help but tease.

Resting her forearms on his chest, Brooke pushed up to look at him. Face flushed from sex, but eyes soft and vulnerable.

"If you want to give it that label, sure."

"It's not the term I would use." He said gently, tucking a curl behind her ear.

Brooke slowly shook her head, "OK 1930s, what would you call this?"

"Going steady." Brooke swallowed.

"I don't see a lettermen jacked around my shoulders?" She tried to tease.

"Do you want there to be?"

"I want-." Not wanting to be both emotionally and physically vulnerable, Brooke reached over the bed and pulled on Bucky's shirt.

Bucky played with her bare thighs, thumbs soothing the skin there. His chest tightened seeing the light fingerprints on her skin, his prints. From where he gripped her as she fucked herself down onto him.

He had been gentle with her in the beginning, never gripping too tight, never wanting to leave marks on her. Something he really enjoyed doing back in the day. Like nipps on a girl's thigh, little hickey on the shoulder. A sign he had been there, maybe a bit of a possessive act he could not push down.

After all the pain he inflicted on others, the thought of leaving a mark on Brooke's skin frightened him and made him sick. It was not till after Brooke begged him for it he started to reveal in leaving his little marks on her—especially her hips and inner thighs. Sucking bruises into the skin, finger-shaped bruises on those soft hips.

"I've had one-off flings before, this doesn't feel like that."

Bucky sat up against the head of the bed, rearranging Brooke in his lap. He knew she was nervous about this conversation, but at least she was not putting distance between them.

"And it scares you." If they were being honest, this was not the time to tiptoe around anything.

"I think we've both lost enough, don't you?" Bucky licked his bottom lip.

"Do you think losing you would hurt any less either way?"

In his mind, as much as he held back in his public affection toward her, they were a couple. No matter what they called themselves.

"Why is it so important to you?" She genuinely asked.

"You keep saying your time here is temporary, that it's relying on your probation and the danger out there for both of us. I know how I feel about you, and I know I don't want you to just walk out the door once you get the green light from Fury."

"I think I'm always going to be on their radar whether I'm still on probation or not." Brooke bit her bottom lip thinking. "I'm not going to disappear in six months. That wouldn't make me a very nice girlfriend."

Bucky smiled, one because of the ooey gooey feeling in his chest and two because it looked like it cost Brooke a lot to call herself that. Like she almost did not want to use the term but did it for him.

Despite herself, Brooke smiled back at the most beautiful man she's ever met. He really cracked something open in her, something her dad sealed shut long ago.

"Well, I don't have a letterman jacket for you, but-" He pulled his dog tags from around his neck, laying them to hang gently against her chest. "Keep these safe for me, till I get back."

Brooke nodded, tracing the engraved letters with her fingertips. The metal warmed from his skin. Bucky and Sam were headed on an overnight mission and they had only found out that morning. Wheels were up in three hours and Bucky had come to tell her, but they fell into bed soon after.

"You'll be back in time for the trial right?" It was three days away and she really wanted him to be there.

As much as she liked to put on a brave face, the battered girl inside her wanted to lean into his protective embrace. Letting him shield her from her past.

"I wouldn't miss it." Only Brooke and Dr Banner had been called to testify.

The rest were going to support them as well as be witnesses to what they saw if it came to that. The case should be very cut and dry, but with all the dirty politics, you could never be sure anymore.

"Ok."

.

The trial was scheduled to be two days, but they ended up adding on a third. New evidence from their side was convincing enough for the judge to extend Kia's trial. Bucky hated it, Brooke had not slept since they arrived in DC and he did not want this dragging on any longer than it needed to. She had testified on day two and was called back for day three.

Their attorneys were also in the dark about the new evidence. It would all be revealed in court the following day, in front of everyone.

"What do you think it is?" Brooke asked him the next morning as they rode to the courthouse.

"I don't know. No one from Hydra would show their faces here. It has to be someone obscure, someone not directly related to them."

Bucky had racked his brain all night, trying to figure out what bomb was about to be dropped on them. He had talked to Steve and Tony about it but they came up with nothing.

"I was so riled up to give my statement, now I just want it to be over with. I hate the thought of whoever this is coming in and lessening his sentence. It has to be someone compelling for the judge to add a whole extra day to their caseload."

Bucky put a hand on her thigh, despite Steve and Sam being in the front seats listening in.

"No matter who this person is and what they say today, it's not going to erase all the evidence brought forward these last two days."

"Yea." Brooke muttered nervously looking out the window.

With the Avengers in town, there was a huge crowd outside of the courthouse. Security held them back as much as possible but, pictures of them had already hit the newspapers. Bucky's arm protectively around Brooke. Sam and Steve blocked them from the public as much as possible.

The courtroom was quiet like it had been the last two days. It was a closed trial, given the sensitive nature of the content and threat to national security. All the public knew was the Avengers were in town and nothing more. There had been a lot of wrong assumptions spread over the tabloids, but they ignored them.

"All rise."

Brooke sat between Bucky and Sam, Steve sitting on Bucky's other side. Tony and Bruce, both expert witnesses, were the only other members of the team invited back.

"Counciler, I am sure we are all very anxious to see the reason we have all gathered again today. Please call your witness."

Kai turned in his seat, the vile smirk that crossed his face had Bucky tensing and Brooke's stomach rolling. Whatever this was, it was going to hurt. Bucky took her hand in his.

"I call Miss Anetta Mitchell to the stand."

Bucky turned to Brooke, all the blood had drained from her face, and sweat dampened her forehead as her eyes were glued to the woman who walked across the room to take the stand.

Following her gaze Bucky found no difference between pictures of the women in Hydra's files, other than some age lines, to the women sitting before them today. This was Brooke's mother.

Brooke slides forward, grabbing the back of the bench that was in front of them.

"Miss Mitchell, can you tell us any faces you recognize here in the courtroom today?"

Anetta smiled making eye contact with her daughter. Bucky heard the studdered breath Brooke took.

"My daughter, sitting in the front row there."

Tears were streaming down her face as the women recognized her. It was her.

"And what is her name?" The lawyer asked her.

"Brooke Adria Mitchell."

"She has your last name, not your late husband's."

"That is correct. He did not deserve for her to have his last name."

"Why do you say that?"

"He was no more a father than he was a husband."

"Did your husband know this man?"

"Yes. My husband worked with Kai as a scientist, he would come around the house when the girls were little."

"Girls? Is Brooke not your only child?"

"I had two daughters, Abby was the oldest, Brooke the youngest."

"Where is Abby now?"

"Dead, Sir."

"How did that happen?"

"Brooke and Abby were with their father, they were playing in his lab and there was an accident. Abby was killed and Brooke sustained that burn on her arm."

It had faded with time but when Bucky looked down, he could see the little scar tissue that still marked the skin on her wrist.

"You said that Kai and Your late husband worked together, you referred to them as scientists. Who did they work for?"

"Hydra."

Brooke shook her head, this was wrong. Her mother was alive, where had she been these last ten years?

Why would they get the women who lost so much because of Hydra, to be called upon to speak on their behalf? The thought tumbled around in the Avenger's heads. They must have something over her, or maybe the narrative had been wrong all along. Maybe Anetta was also involved in some way.

"Now you are under oath, Miss Mitchell. I must ask you, your daughter seems to be startled by your appearance today. Do you know why that is?"

"Until I took this stand, she was under the impression that I was dead."

"That's all the questions I have your honor."

"Councillor, any questions for the witness?"

"We would like to request a brief recess."

The judge banged their gavel. "You have forty minutes."

Instead of coming over to her daughter, Anetta was directed into a side room, and Kai usered into the one beside it.

"Wait." Brooke stood, eyes following her last living parent.

Tony comes up to their row. "Conference room B, now."

Brooke shook her head, her brain not able to process the last ten minutes. Bucky slid his arm around her, and she stumbled feeling numb.

"Baby, let's go." He muttered into her ear.

The group filed out of the courtroom and into one of the conference rooms.

Tony turned on Brooke. "You said she was dead."

"She is." Brooke stammer, feeling lost.

"Then who was that-"

"You know what-!" Bucky snapped ready to tell the billionaire off.

Steve pressed a hand to his chest, "Buck. Look at her Tony."

They all looked at her. Brooke looked nothing but devastated, eyes red with fallen tear stains on her cheeks.

"I don't get it." She turned to Bucky, "She was their witness."

Sam shook his head. "They didn't ask her any questions that benefited them. Seems the only reason she was even called forward was to throw you off."

"I thought she was dead." Brooke reiterated.

"Well, she isn't." Tony sighed. "We weren't ready for this."

"Ready for what?" Bucky asked between clenched teeth.

"Brooke's been called back to go on that stand. We have no clue what the hell they are going to ask her."

"Why is she on Hydra's side?" Brooke asked no one in particular. "I want to see her."

"Maybe she flipped." Tony shrugged.

"No." Brooke snapped, "She hated my father,"

"Maybe she is not the saint you remember her to be."

"Enough." Steve stepped in front of Tony before he could say anything else. "Tony go talk to the lawyers."

Once he left the room, Steve ushered the others out giving the room to Brooke and Bucky.

"James." Brooke gasped, chest heaving as she tried to suck air into her lungs.

He shushed her, pulling her into his arms. All he could do was hold her. He could not even force himself to tell her 'everything would be ok', not after this.

"I'm sorry." Steve poked his head into the room. "They're asking for us back in the room."

Bucky frowned, "It's only been 10 minutes."

Steve shrugged, he had no answers.

Brooke pulled herself from Bucky, eyes dulled as she prepared to reenter the courtroom.

"Brooke."

She shook her head, because what else was she to do? Bucky kept his hand on her back, til they were seated.

"Court is back in session, all rise."

"Miss Mitchell, would you please retake the stand?"

When Brooke sat this time, she put some space between her and Bucky. A distance he noted and hated.

Their lawyer got up and approached her.

"Ma'am you said your daughter, who is sitting here in this courtroom, presumed you to be dead up until today. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Is it correct to say that you faked your death?"

"It is."

"Why did you need to fake your death?'"

"Brooke chased after her father, always in the lab with him. Near the end, I was almost as afraid of her as I was of him."

Brooke could feel everyone's eyes on her, watching for a reaction.

Why was she lying? That was not true...

"You were afraid of your daughter?"

"After what she did to Abby..." Anetta teared up. "I couldn't be sure she wouldn't do the same to me."

"Are you saying that woman right there, your daughter, Brooke Adria Mitchell killed her older sister Abby?"

"I'm saying that Hydra tainted her, in the end, I wasn't so sure that she didn't work for them. Like her father."

Bucky gritted his teeth at her lies. He was pretty sure Brooke wasn't breathing.

All their lawyer was doing was causing damage. A dark part of him wondered if Tony sent him down this line of questioning. His unwillingness to trust Brooke leads to his actions.

"No more questions your honor."

"Thank you, Miss Mitchell. Call your finale witness."

"Miss Brooke Mitchell, please take the stand."

Unsturdy feet led her to the stand, she felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. Unlike the way her mother looked at her while she spoke, Brooke looked at no one but her lawyer.

Had her pain and grief for her mother's loss tainted the memory of who she was? Because Brooke did not recognize the woman who had just spoken. Her mother had been loving and in no world afraid of her.

"Brooke, did you kill your sister Abby?"

"I didn't even know I had a sister until two months ago."

"Have you now or have you ever been a member of Hydra?"

"No."

"Your mother seemed to think you were."

"She's wrong."

"Why would she lie?"

Brooke blinked the tears from her eyes, "I don't know."

"But you did have access to Hydra information, is that correct? You had enough information and access to infiltrate a secret Hydra facility to release the Winter soldier, isn't that right?"

"After my father died, I went to his office. He had left a lot of information behind. Hydra safe-houses being one of them. I had learned about James in school and remembered him from when I was little and my Father would have custody of me. I was forced to watch one day as they tortured him, whipped his mind."

Bucky sucked in a breath. She had never told him that. That she had seen him in that chair.

"When Steve was recovered, I thought James had a chance to get away from them. The things they did- no one should ever be treated like that. So when I found out Alexander Pierce was involved- well I heard he never turned down a pretty face. So I did what I had to, to be trusted enough to get access to him."

"What did you have to do?"

"Smile next to him at parties. Let his hands wander a little lower than I would have liked. Falsified documents of my fathers, made him think I was giving him answers to my father's unfinished work. I was able to get James and me out of there before he could find out it wasn't anything real."

"But it was all for show?"

"Yes. I have no alliances to Hydra."

"No more questions Your Honour."

"Defendant, your witness."

"Brooke, you claim you have no allegiance to Hydra."

"Correct."

"How about the KGB?"