Love is Mischief

Bucky Barnes

Most of us ended up falling asleep while waiting for Bucky to start waking up. I was jostled awake by Tony who was yawning and pointing at the TV screen. Bucky was awake. The first thing that I noticed was that he didn't even look surprised to be in a new environment. He wasn't trying to escape or talk to us, he was just sitting there. He was so still I would've thought he was asleep had it not been for the fact that he was staring directly at the security camera.

Nat looked around at all of us "So. What is our approach with him? Rogers, you said you know him, right? What do you think we should do?"

Steve was shaking his head "Whoever is in that cell is not the Bucky that I know. He's clearly been through a lot and I'm honestly not sure how to get through to him." Steve looked over at Tony waiting for him to say something.

"Well, we have to start somewhere. You're the only one here that knows anything about him so I think you should be the first to talk to him. Perhaps something will click in that wacky brain of his when you talk to him."

Steve thought about that for awhile and finally nodded and headed out of the conference room. The rest of us stayed put and turned our attention to the TV. Bucky's eyes were following Steve's every movement, but he wasn't saying anything or showing any sign of recognition. After about 30 minutes of Steve talking to Bucky, he made his way back to us looking defeated.

"This isn't going to be easy. I was talking about all the good times we had together hoping it would jog his memory or something, but it was as if I was talking to a stranger..." He trailed off and flopped into a chair.

Tony was standing at the end of the conference table and clapped his hands together "I think we all know what needs to be done next" We all looked around at each other with confused expressions which made Tony roll his eyes "I forgot, I'm the only genius in the room. Let me clarify for you simpletons, Sparky's been working on her telepathy. It's about time we put that to the test. So...kid, what do you say?"

I was nervous, I didn't want to let anyone down, but we didn't exactly have a lot of options at this point either. I slowly stood from my chair "Alright, what harm could it do to try?" Everyone nodded and I made my way to Bucky's cell. I stopped right outside and took a deep breath, I needed to at least appear calm so that he didn't misread me and my intentions. Once I was settled, I stepped inside and made eye contact with him.

"Hi Bucky, I'm Y/N. I know a little bit about what you went through as I was held captive by HYDRA as well. I know this is going to sound strange, but I'm going to try and enter your mind and see if there's a way to help you. I promise it won't hurt." I gave him a minute in case he had anything to say, but unsurprisingly he just continued staring at me. I noticed he had a slight haze to his eyes still.

I dragged a chair over to his cell and settled down right in front of him. Taking one more deep breath, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. I focused on his presence in front of me and tried to make a connection. Just as before, I noticed a haze around everything which made it difficult to really focus on anything. I started sifting through different memories looking for anything that could be helpful. It felt like an invasion of privacy so I had to remind myself that I was doing this to help him and he'd probably forgive a little privacy invasion.

Sifting through his memories was very difficult. The things I saw, the things that he had been through, were horrible and would make anyone nauseous. I wanted to retreat from his mind, but then I saw something that made me stay. It was a soldier testing out different commands. There was the familiar "code Delta" which basically put him in a catatonic state waiting for further instructions. Finally, after what felt like hours, I heard a code being given - "Poughkeepsie". I quickly retreated from his mind and looked at Bucky. When his eyes met with mine I repeated the command I had heard "Poughkeepsie". I saw his eyes widen and that haze that I had seen earlier was now gone.

Then everything went black.

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"Y/N.....Y/N?!?" I heard a voice call in the distance. I slowly started opening my eyes and noticed Tony was staring at me. "Thank God, I was worried I was gonna have to explain to Thor that his adopted sister was dead."

"Very funny Tony, what happened?" I started moving myself into a sitting position and quickly closed my eyes again as my head was pounding.

"Don't move too quickly Sparky, I can't have you passing out on me again." He handed me a glass of water and some pills. "They're for the headache" He responded when he saw my confused expression.

I swallowed the pills and finished the glass of water. When I was done I looked at Tony for him to continue "Right. So, you were sitting there for about 2 hours and I was starting to think you had just dozed off when the soldier snapped his eyes open and you dropped like a ton of bricks. Whatever you said to him seemed to break him out of his fog. Steve is with him now."

"How is he? Does he remember Steve?"

"He's not...great. It seems like he was stuck in mind control mode for so long that his brain is having trouble understanding that he's not back there."

"That's awful. I should go see him, see if there's anything that I can do." I started getting out of bed, but Tony pushed me back down.

"Absolutely not Sparky. That was clearly very draining and you need to take it easy. You can't help him when you're dead on your feet. You're going to stay here and rest, that's non-negotiable." He crossed his arms and glared at me.

I just rolled my eyes and laid back in the bed to get more comfortable "Fine. But, first thing tomorrow I'm going to see him."

"Good. I knew you'd see reason, kid."

Tony stayed with me for a bit, but I started getting hungry and pleaded with him to let me go to the kitchen to eat dinner. He ushered me to a seat and wouldn't let me get up, I was lucky he was letting me feed myself. As soon as I was done he brought me to my room and pointed to the bed. I rolled my eyes at him, but did as he commanded and went to lay down. I didn't want to admit it, but he was right. It was incredibly draining spending that much time in Bucky's mind and I knew that I'd need to be rested to try and help him tomorrow.