Forgotten | Bucky Barnes

Extra Assignment

"Well, as you can see, I'm busy as well Mrs...", I squinted at her name tag, "Fedorov. Shouldn't one of the medics upstairs do it then?" It probably wouldn't help with the distrust towards me and Akimov if I tried to refuse like this, but while I was curious about the soldier, I wasn't all that stoked to meet him again this quickly. Besides, I really was busy. All these number sets wouldn't sort themselves after all, and when I first met the soldier, they had shifted the task to the medics upstairs as well.

"You are the most unimportant worker down here," she stated, crossing her arms and raising her head in a defensive manner. "In addition you already worked with the soldier alone without it ending in chaos."

I nodded understandingly. This was an order, not a request, and seriously trying to fight it could cause some serious trouble. Plus, remembering Johnny's broken hand and the fact I never got to finish my education, she did have a point. "Alright, I will do it."

"When the soldier is free, a guard will inform you and take you to him." she said, uncrossing her arms. She then turned around and left.

Leaning back in my chair for a moment, I thought about how the meeting with the soldier would go. Drawing blood samples was an easy enough task and even after the punch he gave me, I knew I didn't have to fear anything from him when I was just doing my job. I would just get it over with as fast and smooth as possible, I decided, feeling a bit down.

I sat back up to go back to work as I realized I should probably inform Doctor Akimov so he wouldn't worry when I wasn't at my work place for a while. Looking at the work I had already finished, I decided to take the chance and print out some of my results and bring them over to him as well.

A few minutes later, I was standing in the doorway to Akimovs room, who was still bent over a load of papers on his table, about to knock on his door frame, but then settling on just walking in.

"Here, some new information." I said, as I slid the freshly printed pages onto his table and into his view.

Doctor Akimov looked up from his table at me for a brief moment before turning his head right back down, replying with a simple "Yes, thank you," before returning to concentrate on his work. For a few moments I didn't say anything and just watched him work. He was fully immersed in his work, as he had been for the past four days. Thinking about it now, we hadn't actually talked that much with each other since I had come down here, apart from the first day where he kept asking me about my injuries while we spent some time talking about what we had experienced so far.

"Is there anything else?" he then asked without looking up, causing me to blink and break the stare I was developing.

"Yes. I also wanted to tell you that the Hydra researchers gave me an extra assignment," I explained, "They told me to draw a few blood samples from the winter soldier for them, so I will be busy elsewhere for a bit."

Akimov abruptly raised his head at the mention of the winter soldier. "They ordered you to meet the winter soldier? The one who punched you?" he asked, and upon my nod, he clenched his jaw in anger. "I'm going to talk to Tarasov. They can't do that," he stated and stood up.

As he made the first step towards me to get to the door, I put my arm on his shoulder to stop him. "Tarasov?" I asked with raised brows. "Complaining to the guy that gave the soldier the order in the first place will only make things worse!"

"They promised me that you would be safe if I complied with their orders. Mikhail, that guy is dangerous. This is not acceptable, and I am going to demand that they keep their end of the deal," Akimov answered, determined, before he attempted to walk past me again.

Pushing him back by his shoulders, I frantically shook my head. "You will only annoy Tarasov for wasting his time. I told you before, the winter soldier is not as dangerous as he may seem. He won't harm me unless he is told to do so," I said angrily.