Rectify | Bucky Barnes

Chapter Four

Out of a dead silence, chaos. Tony stands from the table and starts yelling at me, claiming I'm a spy and only here to end the Avengers. The rest of the people try to calm him down, but he's relentless. I sit quietly, knowing I deserve everything he's saying even if it isn't true. If the roles were reversed I can't say as if I'd react any differently. The redhead woman finally escorts him out of the room, leaving Fury, Bruce, Steve, and myself.

"I'm sorry, Adalyn, he's not usually like this. I'm gonna go check on him." Bruce excuses himself from the room, and I give him a small nod of acknowledgement. Fury is the next one to speak up.

"Well, the dirty laundry has been aired. Tony will come around kid nobody here is completely innocent." He gets up and leaves the room. I look to Steve, his arms are crossed and he's staring at me intensely, jaw set firmly.

"I grew up with Bucky, he was my best friend. I was there when he fell from the train. I know that's not him doing these things, and I know the real Bucky is in there somewhere. Sometimes good people do bad things, sometimes they don't have a choice. And if you're the one who designed whatever is in his mind right now, you know it better than anyone else." His voice is soft and tender, sincere. I don't know everything about Bucky's history, and I definitely would not have expected his childhood best friend to be Captain America. I can see from the look in his eyes that Steve wants nothing more than to have his friend back.

"I appreciate you giving me a chance to correct my wrongdoing, even if nobody else here will. I give you my word that I will do whatever I can to get him back. It's been my biggest and only regret of my life, what I did to him." I retain eye contact with him, showing my sincerity as well. The situation is shocking to me, there's a lot to process, but I feel inclined to promise this to Steve. He stands from his seat and motions for me to follow him.

We walk out of the door and are met by Fury, who joins us. The two walk ahead of me, taking much quicker strides than I'm used to. I feel like a toddler trying to keep up with Olympic sprinters, and the exhaustion from the day doesn't make it any easier. We get into an elevator, and head to a lower level. There are barely any people on this level and it's darker as well in terms of both color and lighting. There are reinforced steel doors along the walls, telling me they keep some unsavory things, or people, down here.

Fury unlocks one of the doors and allows Steve and myself to step in before he shuts it behind him. We're in a small hallway, with glass on one side, allowing us to see what's being kept in the room. I see a big glass container in the center of the room, with the Winter Soldier strapped in the chair. I'm unable to tear my eyes away, it's as if my feet have been welded to the floor. I haven't seen him in five years, but have thought about him every day during those years.

I notice that he looks worse than he did when I left, my heart breaks for him. What a poor, tortured soul. I've missed him so much. My eyes sting with tears and a lone drop streams down my face. Steve stands next to me, arms crossed once again with a hard look on his face.

"He's been here for about two weeks now. Nobody's been able to get near him safely so we had to sedate him. Bruce and Tony are trying to figure out how to undo what Hydra put in his mind." Steve explains as I continue to study the Soldier. I never expected to see him again, it's all surreal.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm more shocked to see him or more shocked to learn that Hydra was able to use him in my absence. I still am not quite sure how they figured it out, but that answer will have to wait for another day.

"I can. I can be around him safely." I simply state, breaking my stare to look at Steve. He sighs and looks back to his best friend in the other room.

"We can worry about that tomorrow, it's been a long day." Fury says and ushers us out of the room.