Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter One Hundred & Two: The Finishing Point

He looks at the final tally, then at the final result.

In the other room Freya begins to cry and Steve takes her in his arms and holds her tight as his own tears come. He kisses the top of her head.

T'Challa shakes his head, almost as if in disbelief. Tony looks on the pad in his hand and frowns. "Jarvis, can you just double check that for us?" he asks, and Jarvis tells him he has double checked, he has tripled checked.

The verdict is correct and final.

James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes has been found - Not Guilty.

But it is not that that has surprised them. Each country listed has the words Not Guilty shown after them. Every single one of them. The screen shows the jurors' individual verdicts, and each one of them shows as Not Guilty.

They haven't just exonerated James Barnes; they have sent him a message. Yes, he pulled the trigger, yes, he held the knife, but no, the crimes were not his. He is a victim of Hydra just as much as the people he killed.

He does not deserve to die. He deserves to live.

They have forgiven him, and now it is up to him to forgive himself.

*

Jack Harper cries as he watches the shock on James Barnes face. He is not the only one in the world. Each juror in each country had a difficult decision to make but all of them, every single one of them felt they had made the right decision. That it was not right for James Barnes to die for these crimes. The verdict is a message for the organisation Hydra. They are saying the remnants of Hydra will be found, it will be hunted down and it will be eliminated for it's crimes against humanity.

*

James tries to stand up, looking towards the door because he knows the others will be coming through it at any moment.

"A mistake, it must be a mistake, " he says as the door opens. He gestures to the screen and a billion people see the look of genuine shock and disbelief on his face, and even some of the toughest of them tear up. It is so obvious that he believes he is guilty, that he believes he should die, that he should be called on to pay for the crimes. But they know it is not a mistake; even those who were not on the jury voted innocent in their own minds. The only people out there who are in disagreement are those who thought it would go their way; Hydra's people. Each one will get their head chopped neatly from their Hydra body. Each one starts to panic.

"But, it can't be right, it can't be, there must be some mistake." Bucky steps forward. He keeps pointing to the screen even as Steve reaches out for him, Bucky's eyes searching his to see the truth, the mistake made. Steve's hand is on his shoulder and Freya is talking to him.

"It's not a mistake. They have found you not guilty, James. You are not guilty!" and the tears are running down both their faces. He looks beyond them to Tony and T'Challa, who shake their heads to indicate it is not a error and T'Challa smiles, and it is that smile that breaks Bucky.

"But I murdered your father," he says softly and T'Challa comes forward.

"I know and I have forgiven you. My father forgives you. And now, my friend, you are on the hardest path. You must forgive yourself."

Tony also walks forward, pressing a button, and the screen changes. They all look up and it shows hundreds, maybe thousands of people stood looking at a gigantic screen in some plaza. The people are cheering and at first Bucky does not realise what is happening. "We had to make it public so everyone would see. We couldn't hide it because we were worried that if you were found not guilty people would think it was a conspiracy. Looks like we didn't need to," Tony says.