Redemption ||Bucky Barnes||

10. Simulation

I'm back in the same room, with the same noisy screens that show me nothing. Audio is terrible once again. I want to leave, but I know if I do, I might just miss something. I don't want to, not when this is the only way, at the moment, that I can remember anything.

I try and wait patiently for something to come through by pacing back and forth.

"Get her back!" barks an unfamiliar female voice. She's only slightly familiar now, as she had been in a previous dream. "Do not let them take her away from us!"

Why does the woman want me? Am I someone important? Who is she anyway? If only I had some picture to go by. I can play Guess Who with voices all I want, it will never get me anywhere. Picture is my best bet.

Gunfire erupts, and I can hear loud, labored breathing. I begin to wonder if that's my breathing and not someone else's. It's entirely possible, as this is my memory. I'm most likely just barely holding on to consciousness at this point.

"Fall back!" another woman's voice bellows. She sounds eerily familiar, but I can't really put my finger on it. "Leave her! We have to go!"

'Her'? Is this woman referring to me?

"Finley, back here, now!"

I blink at the noisy screens. Finley can only mean two people. I have a feeling I know which one she's referring to.

***

"Wake up, Dani."

I don't respond to Vanessa, I curl into the pillow more, a frown etches onto my face. She doesn't sound urgent, so I'm not bothering to answer.

"Come on, stop giving me the cold shoulder." I feel her sit on my cot. "It's been two weeks now. Stop acting childish."

This makes my eyes open. I stare up at her intensely. "Really? I'm the childish one?" I sit up with the pillow in my arms. "Look who's talking! I've been in training for a little over a month now, I'm part of S.H.I.E.L.D. Why am I being denied the right to know whatever it is you all know?"

Vanessa exhales loudly. "I promise—"

"I'm going to stop you right there." I shake my head. "How many times have you said that and I still don't know anything?"

"I'm being serious, Danielle." I don't meet Vanessa's eyes. "Soon. You'll know very soon. Just not right now."

"Why?"

"Because you've got a very special training session today that I don't think you'll want to miss."

"Why should I bother going?"

"If you don't go willingly, I'll send in Barnes to pull you out."

This makes me look at her. I know she's not bluffing thanks to her grin. I know Bucky will pull me out of our room to drag me to wherever Vanessa wants me. Though they seem to have a rocky tolerance of each other, they don't seem to be enemies of any sort. I think the only thing that brings them together is me, in a weird kind of way.

"Tell me what it is and I may get off the bed," I bargain.

"I don't want to spoil it for you." Her smile slowly disappears. "I know you'll like it though. Agent Romanoff tells me you're a pretty good shot."

"When standing still," I mumble, feeling my cheeks heat. "Shooting while moving is my weakness."

"Good. This will give you a challenge."