LEGACY: a bucky barnes story

Chapter 7 - Choice

"Hi Mattie, how are you? How's Emily doing?"

"'Bout as well as she can, really. We're hanging in there. She has her moments, but we're taking this slow over here. When are you coming home? I think Emily'd like you to be here this evening," Matt sighed.

My lips twist into a frown as I press my phone to my ear. "I know, I'm trying. Tell her I love her, and I'll be home as soon as I can," my voice breaks.

"Maybe I'll pick up ice cream, make tonight a little special for all of us? You want coffee flavor or cookies and cream?"

"Ah, you know me so well. Coffee'd be great," I grinned.

"Coffee it is. See you soon, Jen."

"Bye, Mattie. I love you. I'll see you soon."

"I love you too."

Click.

The tears beginning to well up threatened to spill. I blinked them away as I noticed the direction Nat drove in.

"Sorry—Emily's been taking it hard so I've been calling Matt to check up on them. Why are we driving back to the hospital?"

"Not a problem, family's important. We're going to check on our dear friend Rogers," Nat replies with a smirk.

I twist my face, trying to decipher the cryptic message. Though her authority as my primary demands reverence, I wish she'd be more forthcoming about our mission—however off book it is. This became a common occurrence with Agent Romanoff—cryptic, coy remarks that left you enchanted yet nowhere near gauging her.

"Well...Captain Rogers has been branded a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D., but why would we go to the hospital, to check up on him? Wouldn't we go to his apartment, or investigate where he could be hiding?"

"All practical proposals, Coulson, but not applicable in this moment. Let's put it this way—Steve is not the best at hiding things—both tangible and not."

Okay, now I'm more confused than before.

When we arrive at the hospital, Nat stalks down the same corridor we'd sprinted through not too long ago. Instead of entering the traumatic surgical suite, she hangs a right, coming upon an vending machine.

"Gum?" she asked.

"Uh...sure," I hesitated. No doubt a brilliant woman, but you need a cryptographer to follow her.

"Good," she nods, then puts her change in the machine. Once, twice, three times, but I notice the third package of Hubba Bubba isn't gum at all.

It's a hard drive.

Nat twists the drive in her fingers and gives me a quick, bewitching nod. I return the nod and walk alongside her.

"Now what?"

"Now we wait for Rogers," she said. "Why don't you go get yourself a cup of coffee? Here, it's on me."

She hands me a fiver and points me in the direction of the hospital cafeteria. Completely perplexed by all that has just transpired, I nod and walk to find coffee. Maybe she could see it in my eyes, that I needed a pick-me-up.

I walk up to what appears to be a coffee 'vending machine' near the entrance of the cafeteria. Can't imagine it's great coffee, but I suppose it's the caffeine that matters now.

Paying for my cup and adorning it with a lid, I walk back in the direction I last left Nat. Only I didn't see her, I heard her.

I pass by a room containing the heated exchange. I assumed it was between Captain Rogers and Nat, and I am startled by the scene I walk in on.

"Captain? What's going on?" I asked.

Captain Rogers peered closely into Nat's eyes, and I registered the same intensity and tone of voice from Fury's office. Relief seeped in after revealing it was not an intimate, suggestive moment I'd disrupted. This side of Captain America was not one I was used to nor enjoyed seeing. Nevertheless, it was quickly becoming the norm in our limited interactions.

He turned his head to see me in the doorway, clearly not derailed from his previous conversation. He brings me in the room and shuts the door, addressing both of us with great concern and concentration.

"No, no, listen, okay," he resumed, exasperated. "Out of the blue, I'm introduced to you, and now Fury is dead. And you, you'd been keeping secrets just as much as he had. So yeah, excuse me for not wanting to be forthcoming...to-to either of you," Captain Rogers spat.

Noticing my discomfort and the uncontrollable redness forming on my cheeks, he changed his tone.

"Okay, that was harsher than I wanted, I'm sorry. Jennifer, I... I just don't know you very well... but I worked alongside your dad so I... I should have been more considerate. I don't-I don't believe you've been deceitful here...maybe just wrong place, wrong time—but I'm having a hell of a time trying to wrap my head around all these secrets and hidden agendas."

"Captain Rogers, sir, I just—"

"Please, please—just Steve."

"Of course, um, Steve... Sir, I know there's a lot going on that doesn't make sense, and believe me, I'm right there with you," I choked then cleared my throat. "I can't say I have answers to questions you may have, but Fury was like a father to me and my siblings. This has been really difficult for me too, just trying to make sense of it all."

Steve looked down. I continued. "But what I do know is that the suspicious nature is...disconcerting, and even if it wasn't Fury, I'd still want to investigate. The sudden introduction and subsequent delay of this 'Project Insight', plus that long-haired man on the news—the one downtown that went after Fury before the coverage cut out...I don't know," I paused.

I truly didn't have much information to contribute to an investigation, but perhaps one of them could fill in the blanks. Steve and Nat slowly made eye contact with one another. Nat was the first to break the silence.

"That man you mentioned... most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. Those that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"He was also at my apartment, when Nick was shot. I tried to chase after him, but he got away." Steve muttered.

"But, okay, I think I've heard the name Winter Soldier... but as an urban legend? I mean, how could one person assassinate over the course of fifty years...?" Nat and Steve appeared as perplexed as me.

"Technically a he's ghost story. So, let's find out what the ghost wants," Steve said, his voice withdrawn and ominous. He started to walk out of the room, but Nat grabbed his arm before he could leave.

Nat turned towards me. "Now, Jen, I know you're technically my secondary, but we're off record on this one. Most likely we'll be branded as fugitives and the consequences of our actions will be severe.

"That's not exactly what you signed up for—and as much as I'd like for you to stay with the mission, given all the information you now know—if you wish to walk away, now is the time," Nat spoke hesitantly.

I probably housed too much information to be 'set free', so to speak. But, the level of experience I have is far outmatched by Nat and Steve—not to mention the level of experience and skills that will be critical on this covert operation.

But I was not about to let this opportunity get away from me—to work alongside Avengers, to learn what happened to Fury, and to unearth the myth of the Winter Soldier.

"I'm in."