Lost + Found [Bucky Barnes] ✓

Chapter 24

After getting a load of instructions from Steve, I head back to my room. We're leaving in two hours - which is two hours later than I want to leave - but I can't force them to rush on their plans any more than I can make the jet to refuel faster. Instead, he told me to relax. I resisted the urge to laugh at him, especially since I really wanted to burst into tears, and left the room without responding.

How am I supposed to relax knowing that my sister's life is hanging in the balance? If something happens and we can't make it to Athens in time - what then?

Shivering, I peel off my clothes and hop into the steaming shower. While the hot water covers my skin, eating at the tension in my shoulders bit by bit, I allow my mind to wander. Ari, for what it's worth, is alive and well. I trust Steve to get me to Athens on time to meet...whoever is doing this, which means she's going to stay alive and well. I won't let anything happen to her.

And if they take me?

I shiver despite the warmth of my shower. Bucky could be right. This could be Hydra. I've learned enough about them in school growing up to know they're horrible, and that's without S.H.I.E.L.D. leaks. If they take me, which - let's face it - they're going to try to do, then I'm not going to be able to fight them. Even with my ability, even with my limited training. I'm going to fail miserably, and it'll be a fight like a toddler versus an MMA wrestler. Except the MMA wrestler would hold back. Hydra won't.

The water's already grown cold by the time I turn off the shower, and I step out to wrap myself in a clean towel. All I can think about is what Hydra's going to do to me if they get me. When they get me. I know Steve and T'Challa are planning something, some sort of backup plan, but they can't be with me in Athens on the ground. If they are, these people will know. They'll kill Artemis. So what's to stop them from taking me too?

I think about what they did to Bucky, and panic surges through me. I know they experimented on him, both before and after his 'death', and they gave him a metal arm. They made him a weapon, a tool to be used, and stole his humanity from him. The Winter Soldier, the thing they made him, he can't escape from that. I can see it on his face. The ever-present frown when he thinks no one is watching, the pain hidden in every smile, the distance and horror in his eyes when I know he's reliving yet another terrible memory.

I've wanted to take it all away since I met him. Back in DC, when he looked at me...he hesitated. Even then, I could see the pain and anger in his eyes, and I was completely captivated. The man who tried to kill so many, and he stopped when he saw me.

Cursing inwardly, I pull out my clothes and get dressed. I want to be mad at Bucky Barnes, I don't want to feel bad for him. I know he doesn't want my pity - that much is obvious - but I...I care for him. I hate that everything happened like this. I hate the things that have been done to him, and I hate that we're fighting now.

He knows that I have to do this, I realize, pulling a t-shirt over my head. Surely, he knows. And maybe that's why he's fighting against it so hard, because he - more than anyone - knows what people like Hydra will do to me if given the chance.

Once I'm fully dressed, I perch on the edge of the bed and look at the room around me. For the last few weeks, this has been my home. These people have become my family, and - while I miss my life in DC too - I don't feel ready to give this up yet. I know I'm not ready to give Bucky up yet. In all of his gruffness, his sarcasm, and his moodiness, Bucky's become one of my best friends, my confidante, and...I don't know.

Steve was right.

I need him.

A knock on my door pulls me out of my thoughts, and I look up as it cracks open.

"Speak of the devil," I mumble as Bucky's face appears. "I don't want to argue with you, Bucky. I'm going. I don't..."

He leaves the door open just a crack, watching me carefully, and sighs, "I know. Can I come in?"

"Are you going to tell me that I'm being an idiot?" I ask, lifting an eyebrow.

He gives me a wry smirk, "I think you already know that you're being an idiot."

"Fine," I wave him in, before staring at my feet. "Come, lecture me."

Bucky hesitates, still leaning against the doorframe, and shakes his head.

"I'm not here to lecture you," he tells me grimly, pushing the door open the rest of the way and stepping into my room. "I'm here because I'm coming with you."

Looking up at him, I stifle a gasp. He's dressed in his familiar leather gear, similar to what he was wearing when we first met back when he was the Winter Soldier, and a thread of fear stabs through me. I know he won't hurt me, but seeing him like this for the first time in so long...it's nerve-wracking. My eyes trail over his face, his blue eyes guarded as they stare back at me, before I take in his arm.

His metal arm.

*****
AUTHOR'S NOTE

Buckle up, kids.

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