ʜɪꜱ ꜱᴀᴠɪᴏʀ ━ Bucky Barnes/Avengers

10: where the secret lies

Back in the hospital in disguise, Steve and I stop in front of a vending machine. While I wait for him, keeping an eye out, I see Steve's expression from the reflection of the machine.

"What? What is it?"

He lets out a sorrowful sigh, "It's gone."

Then all of a sudden, a woman in a hoodie appears behind us, chewing some gum. I was happy to see Nat here, but Steve didn't feel the same. He pushes her into a room and I follow in surprise.

"Where is it?" Steve asks sternly, pushing her back against the wall.

Natasha replies with a smirk on her face, "Safe."

"Do better!"

She changes the subject, "Where did you get it?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"Fury gave it to you. Why?"

"What's on it?"

"I don't know."

"Stop lying!"

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

Steve responds more calmly now, "I'm not asking again."

"I know who killed Fury."

My brows raise and all of a sudden I'm all ears. "You do?"

She nods her head towards me, "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

I study his name and repeat it to myself several times. The Winter Soldier.

"So he's a ghost story. Where do you think we can find him?" I ask her, arms crossed.

She continues, "Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." She lifts her shirt to show a scar next to her stomach. "Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you'd look terrible in them now." Steve jokes.

I nudge his arm and hiss at him, but Natasha shows a hint of a smile.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She pulls out a flash drive, the one Steve had been looking for, "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Steve takes it from her, "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."

We head to the mall together to find out what is on that flash drive. At this point, who knows what could be in there. We park at a distance and Steve and Nat hop down first. As I was about to get down too, Steve stops me.

I pause and then gave him a look, "What now?"

"I need you to wait in the car."

I sigh out of frustration, "Stop with these excuses, Steve. I think I've already proven myself capable enough of going with you."

"No, that's not it." He shakes his head, "I just need you to keep an eye out. If you see people looking suspicious, warn us."

I hesitate to answer, but I give in anyway, "Sure." I know that he still probably doesn't like the idea of me being here, but for now, he has no choice. I'm wanted too.

I hop in and shut the door, and Steve mouths a thank you before him and Nat take off.

I put on a baseball cap and a hoodie just in case anyone from SHIELD actually comes here. There was nothing I could do except to wait. Since we parked far, I couldn't spot anyone else walking by until a few minutes later. A couple was walking past the car so I lowered my head down and looked away, acting casual. They kept walking, the guy's arms around her shoulders, smiling and laughing together, just like couples do. I try not to look, but seeing them so happy stabbed my chest. And I began to think, could I still have that happiness too?