Steve watched through the one-way glass as the teen girl went through yet another round of questioning. She was proving to be very unhelpful and stubborn. Steve had sent in Romanoff to intimidate her, but the girl stayed silent. He had even sent in Barton, to try and play the role of the 'good cop,' and the teenager also ignored him.
Steve crossed his arms in frustration, watching Barton try to coax information out of her.
He took a different approach by attempting to get to know her in a friendly manner. It seemed she was warming up to him. He asked her questions about her hobbies and interests, to which she replied by saying she enjoyed reading and Star Wars. After getting a couple of general, small questions answered, Clint tried to delve a bit deeper into her life.
He asked her about her family and other personal things, and she responded by deflecting most of the questions with 'I don't know' or very short answers. After a few minutes of this, she shut down and wept back to staring at that one specific spot on the wall. Clint took the hint and left the interrogation room.
He checked in to Cap, who was still standing by the one-way glass, with his progress. Clint expressed his concern that the underweight girl was not eating her food. The two were discussing the next possible paths they could take, as they were running out of options. If they couldn't get her to cooperate soon, then there was no point in keeping her at the compound until the month ran up. They would turn her over to Ross early.
All of a sudden, Bucky burst into the room with an urgent look on his face.
"Steve, you've got to let me talk to her," he pleaded.
Steve uncrossed his arms and exchanged a look with Clint, gesturing for him to leave the room.
The pair waited a moment for Clint to leave and shut the door behind him.
"Bucky, I just don't think it's a good idea. You saw how she reacted when she saw you on the roof," Steve said.
"I know her, Steve. I remember her. I'm the one who knows and understands what she went through. She'll listen to me," Bucky explained.
"She might end up distrusting us even more," Steve pointed out.
"Then I'll explain my situation to her. You don't have many other options, right now. Let me talk to her," Bucky insisted.
"Actually, she was starting to answer some of Clint's questions. We could work that angle."
"I'm not backing down, Steve. I went through terrible horrors at Hydra that you can't even begin to comprehend or sympathize with. They could control me with a few words. Even when I escaped, I wasn't truly free from Hydra. I only recovered because of you," Bucky took a shaky breath before continuing, "You were there for me. You knew who I was before. She has no one. I'm the best she has, and I'll be damned if you don't let me talk to her."
Steve crossed his arms and sighed in acceptance.
"Fine," Steve resultantly said, "but if she panics and wants you out, you have to leave this alone."
"Thanks, Punk. You won't regret it," Bucky said as he went to open the door to the interrogation room.
"Whatever, Jerk," Steve called after him.
Bucky closed the door behind him, and Steve thought it was best to give this moment some privacy. He left the one-way glass and headed out of the room, with a small smile on his face. His heart swelled with pride that Bucky had stood up for himself and the girl. He was gaining some of his trademark confidence back.
~~~~~~
Adina was getting bored and tired in the white room. She was bored of having to sit still and keep a blank face while she was grilled with dozens of questions. She was tired because it had been a while since she woke up, and well, being bored always also put her in a tired mood.
She was also hungry. She chose to trade a tidbit of information for this now cold meal, but she hadn't even eaten any of it. She felt stupid for her decision to have the meal. Hydra had taught her better than this. They could easily poison her or put some kind of truth serum in the food. One may think truth serum doesn't exist, but Adina had actually stolen some version of it from a man's very expensive and secure mansion, for Hydra's cause, of course. She couldn't recall the specific details of the mission, but the man's name was something like Uzlam or Uzman. Either way, Adina wasn't going to risk eating the food, although her empty stomach protested.
She crossed her arms together, put them on the table, and pressed her forward to the cold surface of the table in the shelter of her arms. She turned her head to the side and let out a small sigh. She decided to take a nap while she waited, as the interrogations were usually over an hour apart. They seemed to like to make her wait.
If endless questioning and long periods of waiting was their strategy to make her break, it wasn't a very good one. Adina was very good at waiting. She also had a strong imagination that could keep her interested. Currently, she was pretending she was Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series she had been reading, before the Avengers so rudely interrupted her and captured her.
Before she could get really invested in her current daydream, someone barged into her room. Adina debated if she would ignore this person or not. She wasn't very obliged to answer the person who disrupted her wonderful daydream and potential nap. However, this notion changed when she heard the footsteps of the person. They were different from the woman and the two men who had already questioned her.
Curious to see who the newcomer was, Adina slowly lifted her head and slid her arms off the table. It was the Winter Soldier. Unconsciously, her posture automatically straightened and she focused all her attention on the brunette man.
"You need to eat," the Soldier told her.
Adina twisted her mouth to the side and looked down at the plate full of cold food. The meal was chicken, green beans, and a roll. The chicken was already cut, of course, because they wouldn't give her a knife, even if it was plastic. Adina had to agree with them on that. She could do some serious damage with a plastic knife.
Sensing her distrust of the food, he picked up the fork and slid the plate toward himself. Her reluctance to eat reminded him of himself during his first few meals that he didn't cook. He stabbed a piece of the chicken and ate it.
"See? No poison. Now eat," the Soldier commanded, holding the fork out to her.
Not wanting to upset him, or her stomach, which felt like it was caving in, Adina grabbed the fork from him and dug in. The food was delicious. Well, actually, she thought the chicken was a bit dry and could use some more seasoning, but it didn't matter as she was starving.
After finishing the green beans, Adina set down her fork to take a drink of water. The Soldier took her vulnerable fork. Adina set down her cup and gave him a small glare. He had told her to eat, so why was he taking away the fork?
"You can have it back once you answer a few questions," he told her.
Before he could ask anything, Adina asked a question of her own.
"что ты тут делаешь, солдат?"
What are you doing here, Soldier?
"I don't work for Hydra anymore. I'm an Avenger, we help people. So that's what I'm doing here."
Confused at his decision to continue to speak in English, Adina switched back to the language, too. She had been instructed to speak to the Soldier in Russian, and strictly forbidden to utter a word in English in his presence, but she followed his lead.
"So, you defected, Soldat?"
"When you put it that way, yes," the Soldier replied. "And I go by Bucky."
Well, now she finally knew what the Soldier, or Bucky, was up to when he suddenly disappeared from the Siberia base a few months ago.
"How'd you escape?" she questioned.
"It's my turn to ask questions now. I can answer that later," he deflected.
"So..." he actually wasn't quite sure where to begin. He should've probably thought a bit more ahead. "What have you been up to since you escaped?"
"Um, I read a couple of books. I had some sour gummy worms, they were pretty good," Adina quietly replied, reminding herself of her hunger. She eyed the fork in Bucky's hand.
It may seem weird that Adina was at ease with Bucky, but the unlikely pair had actually formed an unusual friendship during the countless hours of training together and the shared experience of going on the same missions. Adina was still a bit wary of him, but she was way more relaxed now that she knew Bucky had defected from Hydra.
Bucky noticed her gaze, and handed her the fork back as he asked another question.
"Where have you been staying?"
"I rented a cheap apartment from this sketchy guy. He was pretty short. You know, I think I should head back to the apartment now. I don't want to be late on my rent."
"Ha, ha. Very funny, but you're staying here with us, Wraith. How'd you even rent an apartment? You're, what, fourteen?"
"Fifteen, I think. I said he was sketchy, didn't I? Money is money."
A couple of more questions were asked, and Adina had finished most of her food. She set down her fork, feeling full for the first time in a while. She wanted to stuff down the rest of the food, since she didn't know when her next meal would be, but she resisted the urge because she would probably throw up if she ate that much.
Bucky felt satisfied with how the conversation had gone. He didn't ask any intrusive or deep questions, as he remembered his own feelings when others had first bombarded him with questions about his time at Hydra and other sensitive topics.
"Alright, I think that's enough questions for now. I'm going to go for now, but I'll be back soon," Bucky said.
As he left the room and went to go find Steve, he realized he never got her name.
Published: 3/31/22