Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Eighteen

It's funny how your mind reacts when faced with the impossible. I watched Bucky fall off the face of a mountain, that much I'm certain. He should be dead, but somehow, he survived.

"It was him, Steve mumbles, staring at the floor.

The four of us sit along two benches in the back of the van, arms bound by long, metal cylinders and shackled to our seats. Around my throat is a shock collar, programmed to monitor the energy levels in my body and to send a jolt of electricity through me should those level surpass a specific level. In other words, I can't use my powers.

"How's that even possible?" Sam asks from the seat across from me. "It was like seventy years ago."

As the initial shock wears off, my brain wracks for a logical explanation.

"I wasn't the only one Zola experimented on," I answer. "Whatever he did must've helped Bucky survive the fall. HYDRA must've found him before I could..."

"None of that's your fault," Natasha assures me, groggy from the blood loss of her wound.

"Even when we had nothing, we had Bucky," Steve states solemnly.

Noticing the severity of Natasha's injury, Sam turns to the two guards sitting at the head of the van, black helmets and visors covering their faces. "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

In response, one of the guards pulls out an electrical prong in a threatening manner. However, after a moment, the guard uses it to shock their companion before kicking him in the head and knocking him out.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," Agent Hill complains as she pulls off her helmet. Sam looks at her in confusion as she turns to me and Steve. "Who's this guy?"

"A new friend," I tell her, smirking at Sam.

"Right," Hill replies, giving Sam another glance. "Anyway, we should go."

After unchaining us and removing the collar from my neck, Hill takes out a small tube and presses a button on its side, turning on the small torch and using it to cut a hole in the floor. One by one, we drop through the hole and roll to the side of the street, ducking into the nearby alley.

Hill leads us through the streets, finally finding the getaway van she stashed. We climb in, and Hill drives us just outside the city, parking outside an abandoned maintenance facility of a hydroelectric dam.

As we step inside, a man wearing a white lab coat runs toward us.

"GSW," I yell to the doctor, referring to Natasha's wound. "She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam adds.

"Let me take her," the doctor requests.

"She'll want to see him first," Hill argues, leading us down the hall and into a large room.

Just inside the doorway, laying in a hospital bed, is Fury.

"About damn time," he greets.

I breathe out, unsure if I should laugh at the relief of seeing him alive, or yell at him for faking his death.

"You look well," I say instead. "You know, for someone who's supposed to be dead."

Fury chuckles as he slowly climbs out of the bed and takes a seat at the nearby table, the rest of us joining him. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor reminds, looking up from stitching Natasha shoulder.

"Oh, let's not forget that," Fury agrees. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha states, still unsure of how Fury's alive. "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B," Fury explains. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asks. "Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Hill answers.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury adds. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

"But you trusted us," I remind him. "You gave us the flash drive."

Fury slowly nods. "It was a risk I had to take."