Star Dust (A Paladin Adventure)

Interviews

Monday morning, Steve, Torburn, Sigurd, and I walked in with Bucky, stopping for breakfast, which he sort of picked at. Steve didn't say anything, just stole his bacon. When we got to the tower, Colin was still talking to Wanda, a continuation of their interview on Sunday. I nipped down to the workshop to take a look at the arc reactor engines we'd been working on. We'd been trying to automate fabrication since I was supposed to have a healed brain, incapable of pushing atoms around and this was a high profile project. I got back just in time to see Bucky stand up nervously, wipe his palms on his jeans, and shake hands with Colin. I detected a flash of nerves on the reporter's face and smiled, stepping up to shake his hand too.

"We thought we'd go in with Bucky for moral support," I said brightly, and both men seemed to relax a little.

"I didn't know I'd be getting three for the price of one," Colin said, joking, and Steve put his arm around my waist and extended his hand too.

"It's all for one," he said, and Bucky smiled. We went into a smaller room, which had been refurnished for the purpose of the interviews with comfortable chairs and tables. There was a box of Kleenex and a trash can, too.

"Anybody want coffee?" I asked, and went to get some beverages while Steve brought in the big comfy chair. I grinned when I came back with the tray and passed out coffee mugs, setting the plate of pastries on the table before joining Steve. All we were missing was the Spanish Inquisition. Colin would have to do.

Colin started off asking if he could record the interview, and some general questions about Bucky's early life, verifying his birthday on March 10,  asking some questions about his family. He was the eldest child of four. "Do you have any family left?" Colin asked.

"My brothers and sister are dead," he said tonelessly. "I don't think their kids or grandkids really want to be around me."  I reached over and patted his arm. He didn't look over at me, but he patted my hand before playing with his coffee cup.

Colin moved on to other aspects of his childhood. Bucky had been an excellent student and athlete, popular with the other children, a spectacular overachiever. "How did you and Captain Rogers meet?" Colin asked.

"Some bullies were trying to steal his lunch money," he said, smiling at the memory.

"He had no idea he'd be stuck with me after that," Steve said, and the two of them grinned at each other. They traded some stories of their adventures, and Colin and I heard about how Bucky had become a three-time welterweight YMCA champion. The stories that Steve told subtly built up a picture of Bucky as he was then, handsome, fun, outgoing, charismatic, gifted. Then there was the war; Bucky had given him boxing lessons for a couple of weeks before they went to enlist. Steve had been rejected without needing the physical exam. The doctors had taken one look at him and his list of maladies, including asthma and high blood pressure, and couldn't stamp his folder "4F" fast enough. But Bucky had been drafted later, trained in the winter in Wisconsin (I wasn't the only one who shuddered at that thought), and his last night before shipping out to the war had been spent with Steve on a double date at the Stark Expo that featured a flying car demonstrated by none other than Howard Stark.  At this point in the narrative, Tony poked his head in to find out where everybody was.

"Hey, Stark, where's my flying car?" Steve said playfully. "Your dad promised us flying cars by now!" Tony rolled his eyes and muttered about old guys and the traffic congestion that already existed, and retreated.

"Then that punk tried to enlist--again," Bucky said, shaking his head. Bucky had gone on with the date, this time with two dates, and shipped out the next day with the 107th. They'd been pinned down by the Germans at Azzano, then a strange new tank--what turned out to be one of the massive HYDRA Uber tanks--fired on the Germans and took the US soldiers prisoner.