Living Nightmare ~ (Bucky Barnes) COMPLETED

impatiently waiting

Maddie had the compound to herself once the others had left. There were a few agents left working on separate missions but none of them bothered her and she sat in the briefing room quietly, watching the red dot that told her where the jet was. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, absently spinning around. It would be at least another hour before the jet touched down and at the minute no one was using comms. Maddie sat up,

"JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss Matthews?" came the robotic voice

"can you let me know if anything happens with the mission? I'm just going to grab some snacks"

"of course, Miss Matthews"

Confident that she wasn't missing out on anything, Maddie exited the briefing room and headed towards the kitchen. She raided the fridge and cupboards looking for anything to nibble on and ended up grabbing a bag of Doritos and some leftover pizza. Maddie picked up a bottle of water on her way out and headed back towards the briefing room, stopping off in her own room first to grab a book and her headphones.

Finally back in front of the monitors, Maddie noticed that the jet was significantly closer to its destination than it had been. She quickly set her stuff down and sat back down, opening the comms line just as a voice crackled through,

"you there, kiddo?"

"yeah I'm here Tony, what's up?"

"just checking comms are working, can you contact team two?"

"give me a second," Maddie answered tapping a few buttons on the screen, "I think so, you there Steve?" Her earpiece crackled as another voice came through

"yeah we're recieving" Steve said. Maddie grabbed a slice of pizza and tapped the screen again pulling up the mission plan. Team One consisted of Tony (obviously), Natasha, Clint and Bruce leaving Steve, Sam, Bucky and Wanda to Team Two. The plan was for Team One to storm the front of the building, taking out as many enemy agents as possible while Team Two entered through the back making sure none got away and trapping anyone trying to escape. It was a pretty basic plan but from the intelligence they had the group wasn't particularly dangerous, the main purpose of the mission was to make sure they didn't get to Hydra and become a much larger threat. Although Maddie knew this and she was well aware of the skill of the Avengers she couldn't help but worry. The man at the centre of this was very dangerous and Maddie was nearly lost in another memory before she pulled herself back. Dwelling in the past wouldn't help anyone here, what was done was done and her job was to make sure it wasn't done to anyone else.

She was pulled from her thoughts as Tony's voice filled the room again,

"we're in position, you good to go Rogers?"

Maddie sat up straighter and put the pizza down.

"ready when you are" Steve's voice answered.

"on my signal..."

Maddie turned to look at one of the other monitors, CCTV footage showing Team One blasting their way into the building. She followed their movements as Natasha and Clint took out several enemies, Bruce now green, throwing people left, right and centre, and Tony snarking his way through the fight. Her eyes darted round the screen as Team Two entered the building, Wanda using her abilities to force the doors and Steve and Bucky running down the corridor. Sam glided overhead, taking down potential escapees with the help of Redwing. Maddie's anxiety grew as she listened to fragments of conversations through the comms line, orders and directions mingled in with grunts as the team fought. To her relief it was over fairly quickly and local authorities appeared at the scene taking over and pulling agents away in handcuffs. Maddie's eyes scanned the screens in front of her, searching for the one face she thought she was bound to see. Her search ended as Bucky spoke, "He wasn't here, Mads" Her anxiety shifted into dread forming a pit in the bottom of her stomach.

"what do you mean, he must have been there" She argued, "all our intel put him there, he has to have been there!" She was getting angry now. She had thought this was over and now just as it had happened seven years ago, he had vanished, escaped. Bucky could hear her anger through his earpiece and he tried to calm her,

"just because he wasn't here doesn't mean we won't get him" he promised

Natasha's voice piped up, "wherever he is he's not gonna be doing anything anytime soon, we've taken down most of his organisation. He'll have his hands full trying to stay under the radar."

Maddie sighed and nodded before realising that the team couldn't see her. "yeah, you're right I just wish we could have got him today"

                                ***

Maddie spent the rest of the day sat in the briefing room, watching the red dot slowly make its way back across the screen. She couldn't contain her disappointment at the fact that her torturer still walked free and all her attempts to distract herself failed. At some point she must have drifted off because she was woken some time later by the arrival of the team.

"I'm just saying, if you could fly maybe I would listen to your advice"

"well maybe if I could fly we wouldn't have to put up with your dumb jokes" Bucky grumbled, annoyed at Sam's comments the whole journey back.

Maddie shifted in her seat, yawning as she untucked her legs, drawing the attention of the others.

"did we wake you up Sleeping Beauty?" Tony asked taking in her groggy expression and messy hair.

"I didn't realise I'd fallen asleep" Maddie admitted

"well we did" Sam said smirking at the tired girl, "you were snoring into your comms all the way back"

Maddie's eyes widened in shock and she stumbled to apologize, making Sam laugh harder. She felt her cheeks flush as the laughter continued.

"it's okay Maddie, we turned the comms off" Steve reassured her although he couldn't help but smile.

"I hate you" she said playfully pushing Sam slightly.

"yeah, yeah, whatever" he replied ruffling her hair. Maddie poked him and turned to greet Bucky, "you didn't die then?" he pretended to be hurt by her words, "don't sound so upset" he said sarcastically.