Blue || Bucky Barnes

107. The Raptor

Leia sits in the common room downstairs at the compound in front of an easel, paintbrush in hand. It's quiet and peaceful, the way she likes it. She's deep in thought as she recalls the scenes from many years ago. Mountain ranges as they flew away from Siberia, though her canvas doesn't reflect the vivid landscape in her mind. She pulls back the brush tilting her head to the side trying to make sense of the piece before her. Leia lets out a soft sigh putting the brush into the pot of water.
"Well that's... abstract." Tony's voice invades her thoughts.
"I don't think painting is for me." She lets out a chuckle wiping her hands on the apron around her hips. Leia smiles at the sight of Tony, he hadn't visited the compound in weeks, staying at home with Pepper and Morgan since she's starting school soon.
"How's Morgan going?" Leia smiles brightly.
"She's ready and rearing to go. She has all her supplies and can't wait to show you her backpack."
"Well I must come visit soon." Leia grins.
"Yes definitely. But while I'm here, I need to talk to you about something." He guides her over to the table where only then does she notice the boxes.
Leia just sits down hesitantly awaiting what he has to say.
"After we got everyone back I turned my focus to fixing the messes we've made. And I uh... went back to Siberia. To make sure that we retrieved everything so that it didn't fall into the wrong hands. And uh-"
"Tony." Her expression speaks a thousand words and Tony just pushes one of the boxes to her.
There's a label on the side that reads 'Calypso 1945-2014'. Immediately there's a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach and her fight or flight response is triggered. She tenses up looking over to Tony unsure of whether she should open the box or not.
"I don't... I can't... what is, um..."
"Hey, you don't have to look at them, I just thought that you should be able to make the decision of what to do with them. Tear them up, burn them, or read them, I don't care, it's your choice." He says.
Leia nods slowly understanding his position. Though her instant reaction is to throw them into a fire and be done with it her curiosity cannot resist the urge to know what's inside.

With slightly shaking hands she reaches for the lid of the box. Simultaneously Tony stands from his chair making for the door and Leia looks up at him with wide eyes.
"Tony..." He turns around given her fearful voice. "Can you please stay?"
"Yeah." He says simply, returning to his seat.

Leia grabs the lid again, flipping it open to reveal brown folders full of aged papers. Her eyes scan the scribbled labels on each and the uneasy feeling begins to settle in. She reaches forward grazing her fingertips over the first, reading '1945-1954'. Then after that '1955-1964' and '1965-1974'. Each file holds a seperate decade of her life. She doesn't know where to start exactly so she grabs the next one her hand lands on.

'1985-1994'. Leia cannot resist the shaking in her palms as she flips open the file packed with papers. She reads them carefully flipping through page after page reading about the things that she'd done. Leia glances over the titles of her mission documents. 'Soviet Leader Assassination', 'Aviation and Naval Hijackings Log: 1985', 'Data Retrieval and Elimination - Nuclear Mission 1986', 'West Berlin - Rebel Mission 1989'.

"'Negotiation with US (Arms Accords, CW)'." Leia reads out to Tony.
"That's good then, at least it wasn't all bad." Tony tries to make light of the situation.
"Yeah, except I didn't do that stuff, even the 'good stuff'." She quotes with her fingers. "I never went on any political missions and I definitely didn't do enough to fill all these folders!"
Leia shoves the file back into the box picking out another. "I mean look at this... 'Biohazard Distributed in Britain - 1996', 'Paris Assassination - 1997'. I didn't do any of this!! I was a healer for Hydra, I didn't hurt people, well not many. The only missions I went on were with Bucky or to heal people!" Leia's eyes dart across page after page of incriminating information.
Each page is titled with her task and name and at the bottom right in a small box, a thumb print. "It can't be." Leia tries to inspect her thumb for its print.
Tony pulls one of the sheets from her grip and places it down. He taps the side of the table and a small device pops out. "Friday, scan this for me." He requests and a small blue light scans the print.
A holographic screen pops up before them. "Leia Callahan, born 1921, Queens, New York. Original residential address unknown. Current address, Avengers Compound 2.0. Former occupation Hydra assassin. Current occupation Avenger." Friday reads the file. "Shall I continue boss?"
"No that's fine." Tony hands the file back to Leia.
"Tony I didn't do any of this." She looks from the billionaire back to the files stacked upon each other.
He doesn't say anything trying to stand up slowly. Tony grasps the second unopened box on the table. "Just take a minute. Acceptance is the hardest part, you're a different person now." He tries to slide the box away from her line of sight.
"It wasn't me, where's the proof?" Leia looks up at Tony and he sighs defeatedly as she sees the box in his hands. He removes the lid and slides the box back over to her.
"There's your proof, but if I were you I'd try to come to terms with the words on paper first, seeing it played out might make you feel worse."
Leia leans forward so she can see the contents of the box, stacked high are a number of VHS tapes with different labels. She reaches in and grabs one matching a document she'd just skimmed by.