The Dark Captain

Chapter 26

Steve looked over Bucky for a moment. The older man knew what was going on. Steve was trying to see where the lie was. It pained the dark-haired man to see himself reflected back like this. The distrust, the pain, the guilt, the drinking... how had he managed before Tony saved him? Before he held his daughter? Bucky honestly didn't know the answer anymore.

"Thanks, Buck," Steve said, though the edge never left his voice, but then curiosity got the better of the super soldier. "How did you know it would work?"

Bucky sighed, knowing he had to talk about the one person who had recently hurt him, and said, "Because having Tony there when I felt myself losing," he couldn't help the smile that played on his lips, "I don't know. It gave me incentive."

Steve looked at the untouched soda in his hands. "I don't think I understand how putting him in danger-"

Bucky put up his hands. "I never said it was smart. Just that I had a reason to keep fighting. I didn't want to hurt him." He laughed. "I guess falling in love can give you extra strength."

"But how did you know that you could fight harder? I thought-"

Bucky understood the struggle to understand finding that extra fight after wanting to give up when it seemed like the deprogramming would fail again. "I saw Tony and," he shook his head, not sure how to explain it, "well, everything that had grown in the time he helped deprogram me flooded my brain. Where I wouldn't fight for myself, I would fight for him." Bucky chuckled at the memory of his final battle with Winter. "Of course, afterward, Ayo couldn't get out of there fast enough before we were tearing into each other."

"And there it is."

"What?" the brunette asked. "Tony started it!"

"Sure he did, Buck."

For a moment, it was like they were back to their old selves, before HYDRA and before the war. Teasing each other, acting like brothers. Bucky had missed it these past six years. But then, the present day intruded and the older super soldier became somber.

Steve became wary and asked, "What's wrong?"

Bucky took a drink of his Coke and replied, "He lied to me for almost a year. Had Ari put in a mental hospital. The doctors practically kidnapped her."

Steve looked at his old friend. He wanted to think that it was something that Tony would do, but rage began building in the pit of his stomach. After everything she had suffered, after being kidnapped and held prisoner, Tony had replicated it all over again. That son of a bitch!