Fire and Ice

•39•

"Don't sit too close to him," Sam says.

Kate doesn't move, watching the fire make shadows on his still face, his steady breathing causing the flames to waver. "He just took a swim in a lake; I'm sure he's cold."

"So did I."

"Are you cold?"

"No."

"There you go."

"And what about Steve?"

"Steve's pacing."

"I'm not pacing," Steve protests as he stops pacing. "And I'm not cold, either. Sam's right. You need to be careful... just in case."

"I'm being careful," she argues, paying little mind to them. Bucky Barnes is sitting in front of her, real, alive, and breathing. They've locked his metal arm underneath this large clamp. They're in some old factory. Kate's fuzzy on the details, having slept the whole way in the tiny car Steve hot wired.

"Well, he is the only reason she's on our side," Sam says. "Best not take him away from her."

Kate frowns. "No, he's not."

"You signed the Accords. You went to Vienna."

"You know why I signed."

"Did you happen to read the part about them wanting to inhibit you in between armageddons? As an enhanced human, you had some pretty strict regulations on that thing."

Kate glances back at him, for a moment. "That was the point. I wanted regulations. Bucky didn't choose this. I will not stand by while an innocent man is being charged with crimes he didn't commit if I can do something about it. And... you know, when the helicopter went into the water..."

Sam sighs. "I know, I know. We'll just have to forget about the Accords for now, I guess. We have bigger problems."

"The psychologist."

"Yeah, that guy. He could be anywhere by now."

"We'll find him," Steve says, starting to pace again.

"Hope we find him soon," Kate mutters. They told her what they figured out when she woke up: He staged the UN bombing to get everybody looking for Bucky, to ensure that they would find him, then broke in to talk to him. They don't know what he said or asked or what, but when Steve and Sam got to him, he said he wanted to see an empire fall, whatever that means.

More than anything, she wants to talk to Nat again. She hopes she isn't mad, that she'll understand. She has to; she said herself she wanted more facts, too. Still, Kate feels this wrongness in her chest, something akin to guilt but not quite that. She's not supposed to be here — none of them are. But, in a way, she is. Her friends need help, and Bucky Barnes is innocent. Somebody has to fight for him, and they'll need all the help they can get. She's made her choice. No going back.

Kate sighs, turning back to Bucky. He's been asleep a while — longer than she has — but, then again, he was just brainwashed and crashed an entire helicopter into a lake, so maybe this is to be expected. She has a million questions to ask him though. Her childhood self is screaming on the inside. He looks older now than in the pictures, of course, and there's a certain furrow in his brow that never quite goes away, even when he's asleep.

Suddenly, he shifts. Kate gasps involuntarily, a few inches from his face.

He looks up, eyes bleary until they go wide and he jumps back with a shout. Kate shouts, too, the flames growing and then going out all at once. He looks at her with wide eyes, full of shock and curiosity and life. This isn't the Winter Soldier at all — he isn't the Winter Soldier at all. This is Bucky Barnes. "Your- Your hands were... on fire?"