Endings And New Beginnings

CHAPTER EIGHT - CHANCES, CLOSURE, CATASTROPHE

Maria Hill is at the hangar, supervising the agents as they prepare the quinjet. She remembers eight months ago when she met Bucky up close. He may have been instrumental in Natasha's rescue that time but it wasn't enough for her to fully trust him. Hill hopes this arrangement with Fury will finally change that.

Back in the living quarters, Bucky takes one last look at himself on the mirror. He is in a black, leather tactical vest, black pants, and black boots. He remembers what happened when he tried them on last night and showed it to Natasha.

He had his goggles and muzzle on when he knocked on her door and she frowned as soon as she saw them and that both of his arms are in sleeves. She led him inside her room and as soon as the door shut closed, she stood close to him. His heart started to pound as she gently removed his goggles and threw them on the floor. Bucky felt his knees trembled as she looked deep into his blue eyes. Then she pulled off his muzzle and threw it on the floor again. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and stroked his skin with her thumbs.

"You need a shave, James," Natasha laughs and teases softly, feeling his stubble.

"Do I?" Bucky asks with an equally teasing smile.

"No, not really. I don't mind," she replied and chuckled.

She lowered her gaze and hands to his left arm and traced the sleeve of his uniform. She took out a small blade from her weapon case and used the serrated edge to cut off the sleeve. He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his blue eyes.

"Hiding isn't going to help, darling," she said and her words bore deep in his soul. "They know who you used to be. Now show them who you can be."

Bucky smiled and kissed her forehead.

She's right, Bucky remembers. I can be more. I am more.

He makes a last few adjustments on his vest, pushes his hair back then picks up his bag before heading out of the room. He goes to her door and finds a note that says she has gone ahead to have a last chat with Hill. They've already gone through the plan with Hill last night but he admits, one last sweep of checks isn't a bad idea.

To get to the hangar, Bucky has to walk from the living quarters through the offices and then the training center where he finds Natasha, also in her uniform already. She stands in a balcony overlooking a huge training room below.

"Hey," he greets with a smile.

"Hey," Natasha greets back without looking at him.

He walks to her side and sees new recruits halfway through their afternoon sparring session. The training room is big enough to fit two to three quinjets to give the trainees enough space for combat simulations.

"I remember one time we were practicing a maneuver here where I would jump on Steve's shield and he would boost me up in the air where Sam's supposed to sweep in and grab me."

"Sounds fun, but one question --- why??"

"Steve and I once did that boost thing before so I could hitch a ride on a flying alien surf board, he thought it would be useful to show Wanda how to do it."

"Nice."

"Anyway, Steve pushed way too much that I crashed straight onto Sam in the air and the momentum threw us all the way up there." 

Bucky follows Natasha's fingers pointed at the training center's ceiling, fifteen meters from where the training recruits are, and finds a patch of roof that has a different paint color from the rest.