Not The Only One - A Winter Soldier Story

Chapter 14

June 25, 2016

     As the morning sunlight sifted into the Quinjet, the two super soldiers began to stir.

     "Good morning," Steve whispered in a gentle tone.

     Bucky groaned groggily.

     "There should be a way to make coffee somewhere. Clint always had a pot of it," murmured Steve to himself as he got up to make breakfast.

     Upon finding the coffee machine, Steve put it to work. The final product did not taste great, but it was strong, and that was all that really mattered.

     Their breakfast of a cup of coffee, a slice of bread with peanut butter on it, and an apple each was soon ready.

     After eating a bite of his peanut butter bread, Steve said, "Do you remember the ban-"

     "on sliced bread?" Bucky finished.

     Steve nodded and took a sip of his coffee.

     Bucky rolled his eyes. "That was the dumbest thing! All it accomplished was making every housewife in America mad!"

     Steve shook his head. "They were trying to save metal and paper, but people just couldn't seem to go without their sliced bread."

     "Yeah, no one else had any problem buying and eating the 'illegally' sliced bread except you," Bucky pointed out.

     "It wasn't legal! Not to mention unfair to the places that did stop selling sliced bread," Steve defended himself. "Plus, they were always talking about those 'stern measures' they were going to use against the bread slicers."

     Bucky laughed lightly. "Gosh, that was a long time ago."

     Steve hated to kill the lighthearted moment they were sharing, but now was just as good a time as ever to ask Bucky about her.

     "Speaking of a long time ago, what's the history between the two of you?" Steve asked, motioning to the girl.

     Bucky's entire demeanor changed along with the new topic. He took a deep breath before slowly beginning to speak about her.

     "After the Starks' 'accident,' I went to this workshop to get her. She was a scrawny little thing but ran like the devil when she saw me. She ended up tripping on a cord, and this huge saw fell on her. She tried to free herself by pushing against it but accidentally flipped the switch and turned it on." 

     Bucky's voice was hoarse as he said, "The blade went completely through her arm like it wasn't even there." After collecting himself for a moment, Bucky continued. "I pulled her out and brought her back to the base. The next time I saw her, she had the metal arm and was bigger because of the serum. I taught her how to kill others and not get herself killed. Then they made us spar with one another. After that, we fought each other with no holds barred, and she beat me."

     "The next time I saw her, she was in a paper gown with her legs spread for a doctor. He talked about getting her pregnant. But Karpov told him to remove her ovaries, which would sterilize her. I don't know which one they did to her if either." Bucky's tone made it very clear that his lack of knowledge in this area bothered him.

     "And I was there when she was put under. Only Karpov and I knew where her cryo chamber was. Unless he used her for his own personal reasons between then and now, she's been on ice since '91," Bucky finished.

     Steve sat there in stunned silence, trying to absorb all he had just been told.

     "Do you think she's gonna be alright? Or will she be comatose forever?" Bucky asked anxiously.

     "I think she's fine. I slept for a few days after coming out of the ice," Steve replied with far more confidence than he truly had on the issue.

     Relief flooded Bucky's face but was soon replaced with worry. "What if she is pregnant?"

     Steve knew he could not pretend his way out of this question. "I don't know, Buck. Whether she's pregnant or not and whether this possible baby is still alive or not, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that she's taken care of regardless."

     "Thank you," Bucky said softly. "She was just a kid when I pulled her into all of this. I made her into the same monster they made me..."

     "Buck, you had no control over that, and even if you had, they would have sent someone else to grab her or had you get another girl. We can't change what happened in the past. All we can do now is make sure we help her in every way we can," Steve explained gently.

     Bucky nodded solemnly. "What's the plan?"

     "We need to find somewhere safe to hide out. Sam, Clint, Wanda, and Scott are most likely in custody, and we're the world's most wanted fugitives. I'm going to reach out to some contacts of mine to see what they know," Steve replied.

     "What about Natasha?" Bucky asked.

     Steve chuckled. "They would only have Nat if she wanted them to have her. Plus, she signed the Accords. Since T'Challa learned the truth, I doubt he will be reporting what she did to him so we could escape."

     The pair finished breakfast in silence until Steve stood up and announced, "We've got a lot ahead of us today."