I knew I had a concussion the moment I woke up. There was a faint ringing noise in my ears, the dim lights in the room where I lay hurt my eyes, and I had a dull headache. All telltale symptoms.
I sat up slowly, carefully taking in my surroundings.
I was on a small cot protruding from a concrete wall. The room the wall made up was quite large, actually, but completely unfamiliar. Across the room, there was a flight of concrete stairs, leading to what looked like a sliding door. It was shut tight. Several feet from the foot of the stairs, there was a chair, and in front of that a small podium like thing. I got off the cot and walked towards the stairs, but stopped suddenly.
Tony isn't stupid. I'm not stupid. We both know this. No way I'm hell he'd put me in here with a staircase and a door. He knows I'd find my way out.
"Wait a second," I whispered, taking a step back again.
I picked up the small pillow from the cot and walked to the center of the room, staring straight ahead of me. Suddenly, I whipped the pillow towards the stairs. I dropped to the floor as it ricocheted back and slammed into the wall behind me.
There was a forcefield confining me to half the room.
"No fucking way," I muttered, sitting on the edge of the cot. "That son of a bitch."
"Hello, Miss Stark."
A female voice I didn't recognize filled the room, and my eyebrows furrowed together.
"Are you there, God? It's me, Cara!"
"Your humor isn't going to get you anywhere."
"Oh, come on," I rolled my eyes. "That was funny!"
There was a pause, then the door slowly slid open. It was too dark for me to see what was happening, and I squinted up at it. I heard it close again, followed by light footsteps down the stairs. A woman who looked my age, if not a little younger, appeared at the foot of the stairs, holding a small tablet and looking slightly nervous.
"Hi," I called. "Now, I know you're probably not allowed to, but I would greatly appreciate it if you would please let me go."
She ignored my comment and sat down in the chair, looking straight at me.
"You have two Ph.D.s. One in psychology and the other in chemical engineering. Both were obtained before your twenty first birthday," she recited. "In addition, you have a plethora of masters degrees and an incredibly impressive IQ."
"Two points higher than my brother's. Just saying."
"You finished four years of high school courses in under a year and a half, after starting those classes at age twelve. At the age of fourteen, you entered an accelerated program at Princeton and finished in two years before obtaining PhDs off campus," she continued. "You speak seven languages-"
"And a half."
"Excuse me?"
"Seven and a half. English, Spanish, French, German, Polish, Italian, Mandarin, and I'm learning Russian."
"That's a hard one to learn."
"I've got a good teacher."
"Is James Barnes your teacher?"
I ignored her question. "So, you can read my résumé. Congratulations." I paused and thought for a moment. "Let me guess, CIA? No, no, FBI."
Her eyes flicked up to mine and she hesitated slightly. "Yes."
"What's your name?"
Again, she hesitated. "Joanna."
"Fresh out of the academy?"
She didn't respond and I nodded.
"They sent you in here because you're young, you're smart, you're ambitious, they think you're like me. And hell, maybe you are! So, they think that you'll be able to get me to go back on my decision and stand where I belong with my brother," I said quickly. "But here's the thing, Joanna, I'm not going back on my decision."
"I went to Yale before the academy," Joanna said quietly. "I once went and saw you speak one day during my freshmen year; you were giving a talk about the struggles of being a young woman working in a male dominated field. I remember thinking how amazing it was to see you. There you were, sitting in front of us, younger than the majority of us, describing how you spent the majority of your time in sausage fests, but never let that hold you back."
"Your point?"
"You never struck me as the type of girl to betray her family because a boy asked her to."
"Because a boy asked me to?! Believe me, Joanna, I'm acting out of complete free will." I laughed loudly and rolled my eyes. "My god, you all think this is so much simpler than it really is, don't you?"
"Enlighten me, then."
I cursed to myself as I realized I had trapped myself right where she warned me. Sighing and procrastinating, I stood from the cot and walked the width of the room, gradually getting closer to where I thought the forcefield was. I stopped shortly and looked back at Joanna. She looked only a little more comfortable.
"Can you tell me about your relationship with Mr. James Barnes?" She asked after clearing her throat.
I rose an eyebrow. "My brother didn't fill you in on that?"
"Obviously, you two had a deep connection. You've been saying his name in your sleep for two days straight," she continued. "Now, what I'm wondering is wether or not your connection was beyond sexual. Your brother doesn't seem to think so."
"What do you think, Joanna?"
She began to respond, but quickly shut her mouth as the door slid open again. Secretary Reid stomped down the stairs, glaring over at me.
"Magnum PI, so glad you could join us!"
He sighed loudly and put his hands on his hips. "Cut the shit, Stark."
"So we're not being friendly?"
"You know, I couldn't say this before because you were supposedly on our side, but I really really dislike you," he sneered.
I smiled sarcastically at him. "Touché."
"Where's Captain Rodgers?" He asked loudly.
"Right to the point, huh?"
His jaw tightened. "Where are they?"
"I don't know," I sighed. "My brother threw me into a wall before I could find out."
"I don't believe you," he muttered. "Joanna, will you please play the audio recording from the cell across the compound."
Joanna pursed her lips together and hesitated slightly. Reid turned towards her, narrowing his eyes sternly. She cleared her throat and began tapping away at her tablet. A loud scream filled the room, and I flinched, immediately recognizing the sound. It was the same sound that had woken me up in the middle of the night countless times.
It's not real, I thought. He's not here, he's looking for you. It's not real. It's not real.
"Every time you lie, he gets hurt."
"I don't know where they are," I repeated.
Reid rose his wrist so it was near his mouth and smirked at me. "Again, boys."
There was another yell of pain, and I folded my arms over my chest.
"Make it stop," Bucky's voice pleaded. "Please, I'm begging you."
"Do you have anything to say, Miss Stark?" Reid asked again.
I glanced over at Joanna, who looked more nervous than she had when she first came down. Her face confirmed my suspicions.
"That's not real," I said quietly.
"What are you talking about?!" He roared. "Of course it's real!"
"No, because if he was here I wouldn't be. If Bucky was in custody you wouldn't be asking where Steve is because Steve would've turned himself in," I said, my voice gradually getting louder. "I've worked with the same technology you have for years, I know how it works. I know it's not that hard to string audio clips together and I know that Bucky would never beg. Especially to your people."
Reid's nostrils flared, and he stepped closer to the invisible barrier. "Joanna. Do it."
Joanna's eyes widened and she hesitated. "Sir-"
"I said do it!" He spat.
She stepped towards the podium thing and pressed a button on it. There was a quiet zapping noise, and Reid lurched forward, punching me in the nose. I stumbled backwards, clutching my face and feeling the warm liquid drip through my fingers.
"Jesus Christ!" I cried, the blood garbling my words. "You just broke my nose, you bastard!"
Reid stepped forward again and kicked me in the gut. I fell to the ground with a loud groan.
"Maybe that'll help you remember something for the next time we talk," he growled.
I rolled away from him and squeezed my eyes shut. There was another zapping noise, followed by the sound of Reid and Joanna walking up the stairs and out the door.
I was alone, lying on the floor pathetically with a swollen, bleeding nose.
BUCKY POV
"Bucky. Buck, wake up."
I groaned and pressed my face deeper into my pillow. There was a tiny laugh from next to me, making me grin as well. I felt her press her lips against my shoulder softly as her arms wound around my shoulders.
"I know you're awake."
I turned over, putting my hands on Cara's waist and burying my face in her neck.
"Good morning," she laughed.
I lifted my head off her shoulder and propped myself up on my hand. "Morning."
"How'd you sleep?" She asked, stroking my arm softly.
I sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Weird. I had this really bizarre dream. I barely even remember it. Your brother was chasing us and you got knocked out and you were gone. Which is ridiculous, cuz you're not gone."
I looked back down, and my heart dropped.
She was gone.
"Cara!" I roared, sitting up and pushing the blankets away from me. "Cara!"
"Cara! Cara!"
My eyes flew open and I sprang up from where I'd been sleeping, my breathing ragged. Steve sat on a crate across from me in the back of the box truck, his eyebrows raised.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied. "Where are we?"
"Parked at a truck stop," Sam spoke up from the corner. "We've got about ten minutes before we need to leave again. If not, we look suspicious."
"Where are we going, exactly?" Wanda asked, leaning against the hatchback.
Everyone looked around at each other, nobody having an answer. Clint cleared his throat loudly and folded his arms as his eyes flicked to me.
"So is it my job to ask him?"
I furrowed my eyebrows and looked around at them. "Ask me what?"
"Cara said she had a place in mind," Steve spoke up. "You know her better than anyone, and until we get her back, you're gonna have to act as her brain so we can figure out what place she meant."
"Well, that is a shit idea," I snapped. "We should be trying to make a plan to get her out of the compound."
"We are, but if we have no where to take her that doesn't help much."
I hesitated. "Well, I'm no where near as smart as she is."
"Doesn't matter," Sam said. "Like Cap said, you know her better than anyone. You know stuff about her that we don't. Little things are going to help us figure out where she wanted to go."
I exhaled loudly and ran my hands through my hair. "Like what?"
"Alright, let's start vague," Clint said. "Stuff only a boyfriend would know."
"Okay, I'm not talking about sex with you people."
"We don't mean sex," Sam said quickly. "Just small things. Habits, stories she's told you."
I thought for several moments, drawing a complete blank. "I don't know!"
"Come on, Buck, think," Steve said quietly.
"I am!" I snapped.
"Okay, okay, sorry."
I was silent for a few moments, and I tried to think harder. "I-I don't know. She can't function without at least two cups of coffee. Um, she's wanted a bulldog named Pudge since she was seven, but a little one, not a huge one. Uh, when she's asleep her leg does this weird twitchy thing that she always denies. W-when she was eight she went on vacation with her parents to some cabin without Tony and she always talked about going there together some day-"
"That could be it," Sam cut me off. "I'm running out of favors to cash in. Anything is worth checking out."
"Well, she never told me where it was. So without her, we have nothing," I muttered, my mind beginning to wander. "Without her, I have nothing."
"We're going to get her out, don't worry," Wanda reassured me and patted my arm softly. "She is very strong. She will be okay."
"I know, I know," I nodded. "But if any of us go into the compound we'll be arrested or shot before we can reach the elevator. It's a pointless suicide mission."
Everyone fell silent again, staring at the floor of the truck. Sam exhaled loudly and scratched the back of his neck.
"What if I had a way?"
I furrowed my eyebrows at him. "What?"
He hesitated. "I know a guy. He can get her out."