The Long Journey Home

23: We are, all of us, ghosts

[ Chapter notes - TFATWS 1x06 ]

He wants to be like so many others right now and make a call just to check, just to hear a little reassurance...

But there's Sharon to consider. Sharon who is standing there trying to act like she hasn't recently been shot, like she's not risking her freedom in hanging around, in lending a hand. And then there's Walker, looking a little unsure of himself and – well he could just test another language to make the call, not that he'd gotten anywhere tossing out a bit of Romanian to see if she understood.

He could text, forgo the problem of overheard concern and the threat of collected information. All to alleviate this itch, this urge, to know if she's safe. Did she stay at the apartment like he asked or is he going to turn and spy her face there among the growing crowd of onlookers.

He's having a hard enough time trying to sort out how he feels about her being in his apartment, being here in the city. Mostly because he can't figure out how she feels about being here. Because he's pretty damn sure she'd rather be somewhere else, with someone else. 

          The building is barricaded and brightly lit in the images that you're presented with on Bucky's wall mounted flatscreen, or the structure is bathed in strobing lights. It's night now but they're trying to pretend that it's not with the massive lights set up to battle with the flashing lights of various emergency services teams. Lucky you, you're getting to put eyes on the Manhattan headquarters for the GRC after all.

          You try keeping your attention fixed on the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen. Every channel is set up with similar shots, so you settle on one and settle in and try to remember how to breathe as you watch. Dynamic shots, Bucky might say -- if he were in his spot on the sofa, here, and not there in the middle of The Event unfolding. Please , let this night move forward, out of this moment. Let Sam and Bucky succeed. Let those in the radius of the clash between the super soldiers and those standing against them survive. Let this not be another Event to memorialize in the years to come.

          The respective reporters stand in the foreground with the building and barricades and various security presences framed behind. They motion, they nod and cast what are likely meant to be meaningful glances this way, or that. Every channel has nothing to say, nothing to add, while constantly saying something. The conflict. The super soldiers. Riga. Walker. The GRC. The Patch Act. What it's like, this news being broadcast live, on scene, like every other network isn't also there a few paces away delivering close to the same spiel.