Winter Interrupted

Fixed

"Really?"

"Drop it, Steve," Clint warned, "you don't want to know."

"Is it the diet?  It's too strict, right?  Was that your Snickers wrapper under the quinjet seat?"

"No!  That was Tony's!" she argued quickly.  When he didn't retort any further, and Clint wasn't helping with anything more than a wicked grin and an entertained twinkle in his eye, Nat had no other choice but to just give in so that they could all maybe return to just a little bit of focus on the job.  "It's PMS, alright?  And if you don't just back off, Rogers, I swear to God that the next Snickers wrapper you find is going to be shoved so far up your-"

"There they are!" Clint thankfully interrupted, eagerly pointing your way as you approached, but it took only seconds for his enthusiasm to waver.  He saw the blank stare that you and Bucky were carrying, taking a step back in precaution even though you were still several hundred feet away.  "Uh, Cap, they look different...right?"  When the small group of Hydra agents followed just behind you from the building that had just held you, his senses were on full alert.  "Yeah, this feels bad."

"He sees us," you told Bucky quietly, pointing back in their direction.  "We have to force them back to the outside of town before we engage to limit the attention on us.  I'll go out ahead, you stay back and cover me."

"They'll try to overtake you before they'll listen."

"They can try."

Steve's posture straightened as you approached, his hand closing into a fist just to control the small shake that had begun within it.  He kept his eyes on you, but he couldn't help but divide his attention with watching his best friend in his periphery, standing just behind you and watching for the first wrong move before he joined you in your advancement.  He didn't know what you were bringing, or how he would react when you reached him, but as his mind fumbled and gave him nothing more than panic, his moment to decide was gone.

"Captain Rogers," you greeted flatly.

"(Y/N)?"

"I insist that you lead us to the quinjet, without any further discussion, and with no attempts to resist."

"Or what?" Clint asked before Steve had the chance.

"Or we will have to do this here, and it would be preferential to avoid any unnecessary damages or loss of life in a civilian area.  We assume that you would agree?"

"Since when does Hydra care?"

"Since I'm the one who's making this decision," you said, looking back to Steve and raising your hand to direct them, "now if you would lead the way, we can begin.  Captain?"

With a set jaw and a complete lack of a plan, Steve turned and gave both Nat and Clint a nod to begin the innumerable steps towards the jet; his footfall echoed so heavily in his head that he couldn't hear the resistance from his teammates.  He found himself agreeing with you, that to bring this fight outside of town was the safest, and the only way to ensure the lack of civilian casualties.  But he also agreed with Clint, when did Hydra begin to care?  He looked at you with a different perspective, seeing this Hydra version of you that he had never known, wondering if there were lingering parts of that real you that he had known for so many years.  Was there a possibility that with everything that they had done, you were somewhere beneath this surface, fighting back?  "(Y/N)?" he whispered, not looking to you as you walked at his side, just a step behind.

"Captain?"

"Are you in there?"

"Keep moving," you cut him off without any more, but with a hard shove of your hand to his back.  He stumbled a step, surprising you with the ease of it, but at least he kept his mouth shut as he moved.  The streets were filled with people going about their daily lives, buying their groceries from the carts run by their neighbors, children running and laughing in every direction, and it made you feel uneasy.  "When we reach the jet, I want the three of you to get into it, and leave.  Don't look back, don't try to fight us, and forget that you ever saw us here."

"(Y/N), please-"  Steve then made the mistake that set it all off.  He stopped.  "(Y/N), I know that you're in there.  If they had control of you, then you wouldn't care who got in the way.  Tell me that this is you, (Y/N).  Tell me and we'll fight them together.  We don't want to fight you, too."

"Shut up, Steve," you hissed, pushing against him to try to get him to move, but he wouldn't budge, "you're making a mistake.  Please shut up."

"I knew it, you're playing them."

"I said, shut up."

"Is there a problem here?" Your false commander asked, hurrying to your side.  "Captain Rogers, is there something you'd like to say to me?"

"You're damn right there is," he countered, ignoring your continued demand that he stop.  "I'm not about to let you take my friends, and I'm sure as hell not leaving here without them, so you're gonna have to try to stop me if you think this is gonna end any other way then watching me take my team home.  Every one of them."

The commander looked at Steve with an eerily calm rage building in his eyes, and that scared you more than any prospect of what it was that he could do.  He took a measured step towards Steve until they were toe-to-toe, the sound of his voice so low that if you hadn't strained to hear him, you would have missed the words that made your blood run as cold as his tone, "I gladly take your offer."  His hand raised into the air, just over his head, followed by an ear-shattering explosion that rocked the small street just behind you.

"No!  No, no, no," you called out, running back into the melee and screaming of the people around you, leaving the rest of your team to handle themselves.  "Buck!  We need to get in there!" 

"Right behind you!" he called back.  "Steve, you got this out here?"  He didn't wait for the answer, sprinting into the wafting dust and jumping over the piles of debris to catch up to you.  There were bodies of people that he had known for the past year beneath his feet as he jumped over them, but he couldn't stop to mourn when there were so many who were still alive and needing his help.  Bucky knew that you could handle yourself in a battle, but he worried about what this would do to you to see the carnage that was bound to only get worse.  When he reached you and took your arm in his hand, he found an unexpected reaction within himself; he was the one breaking down and feared letting you go.

"Okay, Buck, take the east end of this street, and I'll head west.  We need to find as many survivors as we can and move them to...woah...hey, are you okay?"

"Don't leave me."

"What's going on?"

"I don't know...just stay next to me, okay?  When they started those words-"

"Bucky, we're fine, they didn't work.  We have to focus, alright?  We need to get through here and find survivors.  I need you to do the job, and put your feelings aside until this is done.  Can you do that?"  You waited for his reply as long as you could, your body pulsed with adrenaline and your mind sharp with every ounce of training that Steve had ever given you.  Every second that ticked by as Bucky's mouth opened and closed again with each word that he couldn't say, you wanted to scream at him to move, mentally counting how many people could be dying with every tick of the clock that passed in your immobility.  "Barnes, snap out of it!  Can you do that?  Because if you can't, then I need you to step aside and get out of my way so that I can!"

His spine straightened, not out of shock at your authority over him, but at the realization that he had misjudged you.  He had felt that he was your protector over this past year, and that it was his job to make everything right for you; he had been so focused on fixing what he thought was wrong that he missed the blaring truth that was staring him in the face the entire time. 

You were fixing him.

"You're damn right I can do that, doll.  Lead the way."