True North [Stucky Fanfiction - IN PROGRESS]

37 - The Discovery

Steve doesn't know what to think.

His stomach is in knots like he's back on stage with the aluminum shield selling war bonds. His face is flushed and he's telling himself it's because the room is just too damn hot, there's not one room in this entire building that can maintain a reasonable temperature — but his trembling fists betray his true feelings. He knows he has a bedroom set up for him in this tower, but he doesn't dare go there to fetch his sketchbook even though drawing might help settle his frazzled nerves. He needs his dogs. He needs some familiarity.

Bucky.

He grinds his teeth together, eyes watering from the action or perhaps from the thought. Hydra really digs its heels in with this stuff. The one person he thought he could trust ended up pointing a gun at him after all. He scoffs out loud. Over the years, he's butt heads with so many people; if it wasn't going to be Bucky, it was probably going to be someone pre-Wave. He and Tony fought too. Matter of fact, he was just too different than all of the Avengers to ever truly get along with any of them. Why Natasha even backs him up on this, he can't fathom. She's better off with someone like Sasha, someone she can relate to. Steve was born to make sacrifices. Bucky is just one more thing he can't have.

He startles in surprise at a loud wail that sounds throughout the room and the flashing lights that accompany it. "J.A.R.V.I.S.!"

"Sir?" The A.I. responds at normal volume as though nothing out of the norm is going on.

"What is that?"

"A fire alarm, sir. It appears one fire alarm station was pulled in a laboratory in the basement of the building."

Steve furrows his brow. "Is there a fire down there?" He shouts.

"I detected some brief heat spikes, but nothing to indicate a fire. Ms. Romanoff is already on her way to the location."

Steve sighs heavily. This can't be a coincidence. In the back of his mind, he feels a bit apprehensive about going in without any armor or his shield. He's relied on that colorful vibranium disc for so long that now, in the face of something that might be serious, his arm feels suspiciously bare.

Regardless, he can't ignore it. After a short jog to the elevators followed shortly thereafter by a safety lecture from J.A.R.V.I.S. about using said elevators in the event of a true fire, Steve is directed by the intelligence to the lab where the alarm was supposedly set off. There are many unfamiliar hallways and signs that frankly shouldn't even exist. Stark Industries was supposed to be a private corporation meddling in federal affairs; Tony shouldn't have been involved in this at all.

What were you doing, Stark? Who knew about it?

There's an entire lab dedicated to the study of the Chitauri and Steve is surprised when he's told to turn right into it. Natasha waits for him at the corner, arms crossed and expression cool. For the moment, they're out of sight of the doors of the lab.

"Someone's already been in there," she says, just audible over the screeching of the fire alarm. "The doors are all but torn out."

Steve furrows his brow. "Someone had to pull the alarm. I vote we just go in."

Natasha rolls her shoulders, shrugging. "If you're okay with it. On your mark."

"Torn out" wasn't an exaggeration. The metal doors quite literally have caved inwards on themselves, some of the hinges torn out of the wall. It just means they're able to get inside the lab that much faster and see none of other than —

"Sasha?"

Natasha notices the woman first, stuck to the far wall with some sticky solution Steve recognizes to be Peter's artificial spiderwebs. If Sasha heard, she doesn't respond and continues staring at the floor, eyes narrow and unfocused.