Weapons | Bucky Barnes x OC

13. EAGLE

David genuinely smiled looking at her out of the corner of his eye as he drove. She was completely absorbed in her reading, admiring the colorful drawings on the slightly yellowed pages. Driving past Pentagon City some time later, Maddie looked up from her comic, looking at the building visible in the distance from the highway.

"Papa?"

"Yes honey?"

"Shall we go to the museum after?" she pleaded with her doe eyes to convince him.

"Of course, little one, how on earth can I tell you no?" he patted her on the head. "I'll never understand why you never get bored of always going there."

"I don't know.. I just feel safe there." she shrugged back to her comic. The truth is, she was convinced that was her future.

A few minutes later Maddie had closed the comic book on her legs and, after a series of trees, finally the marvelous Triskelion appeared before their eyes, the recently built SHIELD headquarters. Madison had already seen it at least a hundred times, but every time it had a certain effect on her. She pressed her nose against the window to look at the building.

They crossed the bridge to Theodore Roosevelt Island and Maddie couldn't help but think it was literally hulking. Perhaps the biggest building she had ever seen. The enormous complex occupied almost all of the Theodore Roosevelt Island. Its central structure was made up of three tall, thin, columnar buildings that supported a shared circular upper floor. Both inside and outside the facility itself, helipads and launch bays had been built on the island.

The car pulled over in front of the entrance and in that exact moment a woman with curly blond hair came out of the big glass door. Madison opened the car door and ran towards her. The woman knuckled seeing the little girl from afar and leaned down slightly to hug her.

"How was school today, honey?" the woman asked, pecking her a kiss on the forehead. Madison came face to face with the ID badge pinned to the jacket on her chest. For a second she stroked the eagle stamped on it with her fingertips.

"All right, mama. And papa gave me a comic!" she replied enthusiastically, taking the woman by the hand and dragging her towards the burgundy car.

"Ohw.. David! We decided it was for her birthday!" ironically scolded the man once they approached the car.

"Sorry Janet, I couldn't resist." the man shrugged from inside the cockpit and got out of the car looking guilty. The woman lightly patted the man's shoulder as she let him hold her in his arms.

"Ew." Madison pretended to throw up at the sight of her parents kissing in front of her and took a seat in the back of the car. "Gotta motor, folks! The Smithsonian closes in, like, a couple hours!"

Janet gave David a raised-eyebrow look, probably full of always having to take their daughter to the Smithsonian. He put an embarrassed smile and stroked his wife's cheek with his knuckles.

"Well, I couldn't resist even this."

Janet sighed loudly as Madison started knocking on the window from the inside to get their attention.

"Nobody can resist her." she pondered as David led her to the car and opened the passenger door for her.

✪

January 1996

Anya suddenly woke up in the middle of the night from that dream, almost screaming and dripping with sweat.

The eagle.
That woman.
That man.

Memories too confused and swirling clouded her mind. Suddenly another fragment came up to her mind. A scene that had plagued her thoughts for too long now.