James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes

Coulson had been called away on something for Fury before they'd gotten more than halfway to wherever his locker is and the set of trading cards stored within it. Without anything else to do, Bucky makes his way back to the quarters he's been given. It's either that or explore the rest of the helicarrier on his own, and that seems like something that can wait safely enough.

He swings by the mess on the way back. As he'd suspected, it's not placed too far distant from what serves as a commissary on this boat. He requisitions a couple of notebooks, a couple of pencils and pens and takes it all with him.

Might as well start with a report on the other Soldiers, he decides. That's likely to be more important in the immediate future than anything else.

 It's been long enough now to have worked out something of a routine that lets him look after Sharon without driving her wild by hovering over her all the time. Even Alpine's figured out the drill by now, although there were a few rough moments when the little cat kept trying to jump on her, not understanding things like bullet wounds and recovery protocols.

He keeps busy as best he can and tries not to think. Sam's busy too, he knows, following up on the fallout and the aftermath of all of Karli's plans and the Flag Smashers' attack. He's been good about calling with updates, though. Bucky's glad of that.

Right now, he's making another pot of coffee, keeping an ear out for any sign that Sharon's awake.

[From here...]

"Keep your eyes out for reinforcements," Steve tells him. Bucky can't help but grin as relief rushes through him like a wave, lifting him up on a surge of hope. "You got it, Cap."

Bucky turns to make his way toward the back of the car to check the door there in case there's more trouble coming, and maybe then to call up reassurance to Gabe, who's got to be worried as hell by now. By the time he hears the mosquito-like whine that indicates the cube weapon powering up, it's already too late.

Steve yells a warning and Bucky drops into a crouch, everything suddenly, strangely clear in his racing thoughts. He attacks from the doorway, Sharon had said. It's a little unclear... Steve reported being hit by a blast--

He sees it when the blast hits Steve, sees his best friend crash into the side of the train and fall limply to the floor, and sees the shield as it goes skidding across metal. Bucky dives forward and takes up the shield as easily as if Steve had tossed it to him in the first place. He hears the whine of HYDRA's hellish weapon powering up again as he comes up on his feet, and as he instinctively draws his pistol, he can hear Sharon's strained words as clearly as if she's standing there beside him.

--he went on to report several shots fired, most likely from your sidearm, before the cube weapon discharged again...the shot knocks you off your feet and blows a hole in the side of the train--

There's no time for thought, no time for anything but action born of the instinctive, desperate need to protect. Bucky drops his gun as though it's burned him and whirls into a pitch instead, using all his strength to sling the shield at HYDRA's agent in the doorway with as much force as he can manage.

It hits him in the chest, and both shield and agent go rocketing backwards into the other car. "Steve, stay down!" he screams, as he runs forward to make sure the goon's out of the fight.

In retrospect, he probably should have taken more time to plan. Or any time at all, really.

It's just that when he had found the information hidden among Natasha's things--

-- her things, not from her, because she's dead, and Steve's gone, and if he lets himself think about any of that right now he's going to start screaming and never stop--

-- anyway, when he'd found it, and realized there was a chance, a chance that Sharon might still be alive, he hadn't even hesitated.

He'd arrived in Madripoor a day later and started on the hunt. He'd known the Winter Soldier would be recognized eventually, but he hadn't counted on the level of interest in capturing him, nor on just how many people (and weapons, and drugs, and electrical nets and cattle prods and tasers and so on and so forth) they were willing to throw at him to do so.

So here he is, strapped to a metal lab table that's tilted at a forty-five degree angle, with guards stationed around the room, feigning unconsciousness while he tries to evaluate just how securely he's held and get whatever information he can about his captors.

They won't be able to hold him forever. He'll die first. But he can't let that happen yet. Not until he knows.

[From here...]

He drops into a crouch on Steve's order, which is enough to keep the shock wave from knocking him flat. It means he sees it when the blast hits Steve, sees his best friend crash into the side of the train and fall limply to the floor, and sees the shield as it goes skidding across metal. There's no time for thought, no time for anything but action born of the instinctive, desperate need to protect.

Bucky dives forward and takes up the shield as easily as if Steve had tossed it to him in the first place. He hears the whine of HYDRA's hellish weapon powering up again as he comes up on his feet, shield set at an angle in front of his body to leave his arm extended, pistol in hand. He gets off two shots, the second of which catches the guy in the neck before the cube-fueled weapon goes off.

Blue light fills the world and slams into him with stunning force. Unholy lightning crackles and burns, searing through him in a way he's felt before in Zola's lab, leaving him breathless with agony. Bucky loses his grip on the shield and his sidearm both as he goes airborne from the force of the blast, flying backward to crash into the side of the train and then careening out through the gaping hole into the nothingness beyond. He scrabbles for purchase, clinging to whatever he can reach in his fight to survive, but there's nothing under his fingers, nothing to grab and hold on to, nothing at all but air and cold and blue and the start of a long, long fall with the sound of Steve's agonized scream fading somewhere above as the world twists around him.

He hits hard, and everything goes black.

Becky's last letter had suggested she'd be sending a longer one soon, and between that, the previous promise of a knitting circle, and the time of year, Bucky's pretty sure that a care package will be coming their way with the next one.

Given that, it's not too hard to convince Steve that it might be nice to pick up a couple of small things to send back in appreciation when they can. And with that in mind, to suggest that maybe the Agents Carter might enjoy doing a little shopping themselves, and that it'd be only polite for the two of them to help carry packages and make sure they didn't get overcrowded on the streets, or anything like that.

He's pretty darn sure that Steve sees right through him, but his best friend agrees to it, if Bucky can talk Sharon and Peggy into the idea.

He's smiling to himself as he makes his way toward their respective quarters.

[PLACEHOLDER:

* Return to the London SSR base
* Surprise, there's actual space! And rooms with doors that close! And lock!
* Stark's lab is bigger and better furnished; generally true of lots of base things
* Pub above - better than a tent, but still familiar in style (we know that because it gets hit in the Blitz later)
* Once everyone gets settled in, routines resume, including the usual lab readings ... and then after that, mail call]

A little over a week goes by, and as it does Bucky falls into a pattern, slow but sure. He wakes with Sharon in the mornings, shares coffee and something that suffices for breakfast, then works a little on searches and checking contacts and sources from other time zones and locations. Mid-morning finds him at the Task Force offices with Riley and his team. Early afternoon finds him meeting with Ross, if there's any reason to; mid-afternoon he checks in with Steve, with Tony, or with Natasha before he goes back to tracing rumors and hints.

Today's different, though. Today is Sharon's first day back at work after her suspension, and Bucky's determined not to do a single damn thing that might possibly make it difficult for her.

I need to think, he'd told Sharon, and it's true all the way down to his bones. The problem is that he's having trouble doing it. After he spends the next half hour jumping at shadows, he considers going down into the tunnels for a while, but reluctantly decides against it. There's a five-kilometer trail on the grounds that he's run a couple of times. It'll do for a test, to see if the agents are going to have either a singular or a collective fit at his being out of the compound proper. Bucky goes straight from the garage's back exit to the nearest point, strips his jacket and leaves it on the ground, then settles into an easy lope.

By the third circuit, his mind's clear enough for him to start mulling over a few things, clear enough for him to look at the events of the last day or so in a new light. No wonder he'd had something like a - he doesn't even know how to describe it, the whirlwind of shock and fear and hurt and near-panic and desperation that he's been feeling. A spiral, maybe, but in the end the term doesn't matter, it's the reason, and when he really lets himself think about it, it doesn't take a genius or a scientist to be able to pinpoint it. All three of the people he's closest to in the world, the ones who know him best, had deceived him - or, to be fair, had let him deceive himself. And as a result, all three - Sharon more than the others, but Steve and Natasha as well - had taken harm or have been placed at still-great risk of harm, harm he's desperate to defend them from somehow. When he looks at it that way, it's really no wonder why he's reacting as he is. It's also obvious to him that he can't allow it to continue.

Bucky sets his jaw in tight, grim lines, and keeps running.

Three hours later, he makes his way back inside, absently mopping the sweat from his face and neck with the discarded jacket, and goes to find Hogan. "Windows," he tells him. Whether or not he'll leave them uncovered doesn't matter, not now. "Lots of windows. Somewhere high, not too near people. Furnished however you do as standard's fine for now. Okay?"

"I've got just the one," Hogan tells him. "I'll have it ready tomorrow. That soon enough?"

"Yes," Bucky assures him. "Thanks."

He stays with Steve again that night. Things are a little strained at first, until Bucky breaks the ice and apologizes for how he's been reacting. Steve doesn't want his apology, but his best friend listens while he tries to explain, and that's more than good enough.

Later that evening, he texts Natasha to suggest they catch up soon, and offers to bring cocoa, hoping the idea'll amuse her enough for her to realize he's not angry. Not any more. He texts Alyona a picture of Steve's bike, one of the ones he'd taken hanging upside-down, just to say hi, and texts Sharon a good-night wish.

He doesn't sleep much, due to the incessant nightmares, but at least he knows the reason for them. It helps.

The coffee's already made when Steve gets up, and conversation's a lot more relaxed. He's the first to ask about getting on the training schedule, and Steve's smile lights up the room.

By 8:57 AM, Bucky's waiting in the same conference room as the day before, a mug of black coffee at hand, and a blank notepad and pen on the table in front of him.

In the wake of his success creating the block, Pepper manages to coax Tony into coming back down to the city for what Tony says'll be 'a few days, maybe a week.' Bucky wonders how successful she'll be at keeping him there, given that part of the reason he'd moved fully into the compound to begin with was evidently the strain between them, but decides it's not really his business.

In Tony's absence, Steve doesn't think it's a good idea for him to be too far out of reach, just in case something comes up that needs the Avengers. Bucky finds this out when he broaches the idea of going back to Virginia for a day or two, if they can figure out a plausible excuse. He encourages Bucky to go with Sharon anyway, though, and to have fun.

Bucky's not sure if they can get away with it, but there's no question that it'll be easier without Pepper and Tony around to ask awkward questions. Still, he tries not to get his hopes up too high when he comes to find Sharon in the office after Steve heads down for a training session with the team.

He raps on the door with his right hand, and waits for her to answer.