The Pretender (Trying Your Luck Sequel) - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 15: where is my mind?

A/N: content warning for discussions of pregnancy.

TWIN FALLS, IDAHO

It's 3:00am. Zechariah returns from a late-night run exhausted. Finally. His head has been spinning. He's been writing sermons, training, and trying to source more super-soldier serum – or someone they can take more blood from. He and Kuzlow are coming up empty.

The past two weeks have been frustrating. The Widow serum was supposed to make the children obedient. Pliable. It's not working. Most of them are just stronger with more attitude. Now that they realize they stand a chance against him in a fight, some of them are speaking up, telling him they never wanted the serum. They want to do something else on the compound, like grow crops or go to school. Zechariah has to remind them what they were built for as he pins them against the wall, or beat them into submission. Literally.

As he kicks his shoes off and stuffs them in the corner, he hears the unmistakable sound of Marie vomiting in the bathroom. Zechariah knocks on the door and opens it. She looks up from her place on the floor.

"What's going on?" He asks.

"What does it look like?" Marie snipes. He growls and she flinches, her naturally submissive demeanor returning in a flash. "I'm sorry, my love. I just... I'm not feeling well."

He raises a brow.

"Did you eat something bad?"

She shakes her head and points to the counter. There's a blue and white plastic pregnancy test resting on it. Zechariah picks it up. It's positive.

"Huh."

"Is that all you have to say?" Marie asks as she flushes the toilet. "I thought this is what you wanted."

He turns to her with cold eyes and an unreadable expression.

"It'll be good for the cause." He steps over her to run the shower and begins to strip off his clothing. "You can go down to Kuzlow in the morning to start prenatal treatments."

Marie stands up, her legs shaky.

"What kind of treatments?"

"Same kind they gave pregnant women at HYDRA when they were trying to breed super soldiers. It's a vitamin cocktail."

Marie scoffs.

"You're going to treat me like some kind of lab rat?"

"Don't be ridiculous," he chuckles. "You're getting better care than most women in this country. I feed you, clothe you... I gave you a purpose. And soon you'll have fulfilled it... and then you'll do it again."

He leans over to run the shower and steps inside. Marie grabs the curtain just before he can close it.

"Do you love me?" She asks through a clenched voice.

He stares at her, carefully weighing his answer. Zechariah reaches his hand out to grasp her chin.

"Of course I do," he lies.

Marie is a vehicle, a way to drive the cause forward. If they can take down the GRC and destroy this bill before it destroys them, Marie will bear his children – as many as possible, and when she can do it no longer, he'll find someone else who can.

One way or another, he's going to build an army.

~~~

He wakes his soldiers up early to train. He only slept for a few fitful hours. Marie was throwing up most of the night. She's now downstairs in the lab being pumped full of prenatal vitamins and whatever else Kuzlow can give her.