Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Nine

Sam finds us on the shore, and the three of us manage to carry the unconscious Bucky to an abandoned warehouse not too far away. For our safety, Steve and Sam decide to clamp Bucky's metal arm in a huge industrial vice, not sure if it will be him when he wakes up, or the Winter Soldier. Not wanting to see him like that, I wander out of the room and over to the main entrance, where a thin strip of sunlight is shining through the gap in the doors. I peer through it as a helicopter flies overhead, searching for us. A moment later, Steve joins me.

"You know, I thought you were dead," Steve admits. "Until I found your note..."

"I know..." I reply. "I'm really sorry, Steve. I just... He needed me, and I was worried that if we stuck around, someone would come after him."

"Well, you were right about that... Someone did come after him," Steve replies, putting a hand on my shoulder. "And besides, if it wasn't you looking out for him, it would've been me."

I look up at my friend, a small smile forming on my face.

"You could've contacted me, you know," Steve continues. "I could've helped."

I sigh. "I know... It's just that... After we took down HYDRA, I had trouble believing that they were really gone, and that man today just proves that there are still people out there that want to control Bucky. That's why I kept him hidden. HYDRA hurt him, Steve. They took away everything that he is and turned him into nothing more than an empty shell that they could control. When he becomes the Winter Soldier, he has no control of his body, and all they have to do is say his trigger words and whatever part of his mind he still has gets pushed so far into his subconscious it's like he was never there to begin with. I couldn't let HYDRA do that to him again."

"So, it's like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation?" Steve asks, trying to lighten the mood as he notices to tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

I laugh at his analogy, blinking the tears away. "More or less."

Steve gives me a comforting smile. "Don't worry. We're going to catch this guy. You have me and Sam on your side now, we won't stop until Bucky is safe."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I don't know yet. But we'll figure it out, together."

I smile and nod, glad to be back with my friends.

Suddenly, Sam calls from the other room. "Hey, Cap!"

We join Sam in the other room to see that Bucky is waking up, and I walk over to where he's sitting, crouching down beside him.

"Steve," Bucky mumbles, looking up at him.

"Who am I talking to?" Steve asks. "Jekyll or Hyde?"

I smirk as Bucky's brows furrow.

"Jekyll... I think..." Bucky answers, his focus drifting off as he remembers things from the past. "You're mom's name was Sarah... You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

Steve relaxes. "Can't read that in a museum."

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam questions, doubting our sanity.

Bucky turns to me, scanning my face for injuries as he remembers the fight.

"What did I do?" Bucky asks, barely a whisper.

"Enough," I tell him.

Pain and fear mingle in his expression as he realizes that the Winter Soldier could've hurt me.

"I'm okay," I assure him, reaching out in reassurance. He flinches away from my touch as his gaze turns to anything but me.

"Oh, God, I knew this would happen," Bucky states. "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words."

"Who was he?" Steve asks.

"I don't know," Bucky answers.

"People are dead," Steve states, gently pressing Bucky for information. "The bombing, the setup... the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know.'"

Bucky thinks for a minute before responding. "He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he need to know that?" Steve asks.

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier," Bucky grimly states.

Bucky recounts his side of my failed mission, regret on his features as he remembers fighting me, and I find it curious that he doesn't mention killing Howard and Maria Stark, seeing how both Steve and I know the truth about their deaths. Bucky informs us that he was sent on an extraction mission to retrieve a briefcase from the trunk of the car. A briefcase, as it turns out, that held a new version of the Super Soldier serum given to Steve.

"Did you know about this?" Steve asks, turning to me.

"No," I shake my head. "I was only told that it was a priority that I get the Starks to the airport. They never told me why, or what was in the case."

Steve turns back to Bucky. "Who are the other Winter Soldiers?"

"Their most elite death squad," Bucky informs. "More kills than anyone in HYDRA history. And that was before the Serum."

"They all turn out like you?" Sam questions.

I glare at Sam, but Bucky responds, unfazed. "Worse."

"The doctor, could he control them?" I ask.

"Enough," Bucky responds, finally looking at me again.

"Said he wanted to see an empire fall," Steve says.

"With these guys, he could do it," Bucky confirms. "They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight... infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night, you'd never see them coming."

As Steve and Sam wander a little ways away, talking in hushed tones, I walk over to the other side of the vice, unclamping Bucky's arm. He stands, taking a step closer to me, and for a moment, it seems like he's about to brush his thumb over the small cut above my eyebrow, but he lets his hand drop.

"This is what I was afraid of," he whispers, his eyes casting to the floor. "I never wanted you to get hurt."

"I know," I tell him. "It's why you always slept on the floor..."

His eyes shoot up to find mine, surprised to discover that I've known all along.

"It's okay," I assure him, taking his human hand in my own, the metal one positioned as far away from me as he can get it. He tenses under my touch, but doesn't pull away. "It was your way of protecting me. But I promise you, I'm okay. The Winter Soldier didn't hurt me."

Bucky releases my hand and gingerly wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him. I tense for a moment, surprised by the sudden display of affection, and I hear the soft rumble in his chest as Bucky chuckles.

"Is this what it's like for you every time you try to show me affection and I tense up?" he asks.

I softly laugh into his shoulder. "Well, we did spend over seventy years apart... It makes sense that we would have to get used to each other again."

He pulls away, looking down at me, and for a split second, his eyes flick to my lips.

"Time to go," Steve interrupts.

I offer my hand to Bucky, and he takes it, intwining his fingers with mine as we follow Steve and Sam from the building.