LEGACY: a bucky barnes story

Chapter 23 - Chagrin

Limping alongside the Rosslyn train tracks, my shoulders weighed heavy with the inevitable S.H.I.E.L.D. reunion. The shame burned knowing I'd ignored all my training—and it wasn't worth a damn. The Winter Soldier still evaded capture, and it was my fault. No agent would have done what I did, they would have contacted the authorities. They would have signaled S.H.I.E.L.D. They would have used the fucking payphone. They would have at least detained the threat, and instead I brought him to a goddamn museum.

I stomped along, stewing at myself and my stupidity. I'll retrace my steps along the trees, get back to the Triskelion remnants, and hopefully reconnect with Fury before anyone else. Maybe he'd still help this thoughtless agent. At the very least, I don't want to run into any other living soul right now. The steam coming from my ears would surely burn anyone in the vicinity.

"Excuse me, ma'am!" a gruff voice called out. I stopped dead in my tracks, huffed, and turned to meet the source of the voice. Narrowed beady eyes stared at me, encased in an aged, tired frame. My stomach sank as I recognized the adorned uniform. Arlington P.D., fucking fantastic.

"Hello," I sheepishly called back. I began traipsing toward the officer when she reached for her holster with her arm outstretched.

"Stop right there, do not move!" she snapped. A uniformed young man appeared from behind her, both hands holding his gun toward the ground.

I raised my hands up and continued slowly towards them. "Officers, I am an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I—"

"On the ground!" he barked.

"I... okay, okay—SHIT, okay OW!" Her young partner swarmed me—voraciously cuffing and shoving me to my knees. His hungry enthusiasm reminded me of injuries not yet healed. With wrists cuffed behind my back, the two officers circled me.

"Okay, Jake, settle down," she scolded. "Now, you mind telling me what you were doing on the tracks?"

I gulped. There was much to explain and none of it was going to sound plausible or legal. How to eloquently explain that I was kidnapped by a former, brainwashed assassin, evading capture by Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the name of time to recover his memories?

"Train tracks are federal property—you're looking at a felony trespassing charge unless you start being a little forthcoming," Jake snapped.

"Jake—"

"Rosa."

I sighed. "Alright, I understand. Listen, this is going to sound insane, but the truth sounds insane sometimes... I am an agent of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Four days ago, I was a part of the operation that took down the Hydra infiltration inside S.H.I.E.L.D. I was brought down in a helicarrier as it fell into the Potomac. Hydra's secret weapon, the Winter Soldier, was a brainwashed ally who rescued me from the river and has held me since. He needed someone to help recover lost memories Hydra programmed out of him. We're trying to get out of the state."

The officers stood stunned. The looked at one another with wide eyes, then panned back to my kneeled self.

"Put her in the car, Jake," Rosa ordered.

"Please, it's the truth—"

"Shut up!" Jake snarled.

He snaked his hand through my conjoined arms to lift me up and guide me toward the backseat.

"Cool it, Jake. She looks injured enough as is," Rosa sighed.

"I got it, Rosa."

Jake slammed my door shut after he heaved me inside. Rosa slid in the driver's seat as Jake hopped in the passenger side. As she revved the engine to life, my fate was sealed.