The Hurt And The Healing: Bucky X OC

Chapter Fifty: The Truth

For an ambient soundtrack go to https://countryside.ambient-mixer.com/the-cabin-at-night

If Bucky was certain of anything in the world it was this: he was a certified idiot. Asking Mara to stay with him that night had to be the dumbest thing he had ever done by far. Why had he asked her to stay? Why, when he knew that she loved him and he had far too many feelings about her to encompass in a single word? Why had he admitted he was terrified of losing her, knowing that hearing him say that would be a dagger to her heart? Why had he put her in the position where she had to sacrifice her happiness for him again?

And why had she agreed to it?

For the past week he had been desperately trying to understand her. Asking everyone questions. Paying close attention to how she acted. Spending hours every day with her trying to heal his broken bones and fractured mind. All in hopes of understanding how she loved him. Because she did love him, that much was obvious. But why she fell for a one-hundred-and-six-year-old former assassin with a metal arm and a recurring case of amnesia was beyond Bucky's comprehension.

They were holding something back from him. When he asked how he met Mara and Nonna or why they were in Eastern Europe or if Mara had ever been in love before everyone danced around the answers, telling him too much and not enough.

As Bucky lay back and tried to process everything he could hear Mara storming away and shouting. He had upset her somehow, but she hadn't seemed angry at him. More like flustered. Disoriented. How he felt most of the time except for when he was with her.

Zemo entered the room, grumbling in Serbian about how irrational women could be. He completely ignored Bucky who propped himself up on his elbow to glare at the intruder. No one in the cabin liked Zemo which was reason enough for Bucky to distrust him. And the aristocrat had avoided Bucky for the vast majority of his stay. Yet here he was, striding into the room as if he owned the place.

Oh, right. He did.

"We need to talk," Zemo said cooly as he sat down with a huff. "Movoniv. I need you to tell me everything that you remember about him."

"Why?" Bucky demanded, bristling at the strange man's tone.

"So that I can kill him. Obviously," Zemo replied dismissively. "He cannot be allowed to recreate the serum. Did he mention Project: Resurrection while you were with him?"

"I was not with him," Bucky snapped. "I was being tortured by him. And he did not waste time with monologuing."

"Did they take any of your blood?"

"Why in the hell-"

"To recreate the serum!" Zemo exclaimed. "They used Corporal Romano's body to start the process, surely they used your DNA to complete it."

"Who?" Bucky asked, head starting to ache from the barrage of questions.

"Alexander Romano, the American's last attempt at a Super Soldier," Zemo answered, head cocked slightly like a predator observing its prey. "Do you not remember?"

"Are you seriously asking me if I remember something?" Bucky half-laughed.

"Forgive me for assuming that you would remember one of your many victims," Zemo replied defensively. "Although he was a special one." Zemo paused and smiled. "After all, you did fall in love with his fiancee."

"What?" Bucky demanded, trying to push himself up further. "Who?"

"Doctor Anderson," Zemo replied, eyebrows raised in feigned shock. "You mean you did not know?"