Rectify | Bucky Barnes

Chapter Thirty-One

I wake up to bright fluorescent lights in my eyes. I squint and move my head side to side, I don't know where I am. Restraints hold me to a table when I try to sit up. The last thing I remember is being on the ship fleeing from Sokovia. I hear a door open and someone walks in. The table starts moving and puts me in an upright position. Fury is standing in front of me, arms crossed. I know I didn't leave him on good terms. He scowls at me,

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Averina." He breaks the silence. I swallow, my throat hurting from being dry.

"I can explain everything." I say, voice raspy.

"There will be time to explain, they're putting you on trial." He says.

"Who is?" I ask. I knew when I made the decision to help Wanda and Pietro escape that this was a possibility.

"Shield is. You'll be detained until the council comes together. You could be facing the rest of your life in the Raft."

"The Raft?" I ask, never hearing of it before.

"Max security prison out by Riker's." He says.  He takes a few steps closer to me.

"All I have to say is that you better have a damn good explanation." I look into his eye before he turns and walks away.

I close my eyes as he walks out. When I explain what happened who knows if they'll buy it, they might still choose to lock me up. I know in my heart I did the right thing, at least I'll be going to prison with no regrets.

Someone else walks in and I open my eyes. Steve stands in front of me, scowl on his face.

"I don't even know what to say to you. I mean what happened?" He asks, obviously not happy with me.

"Bruce called and said Tony had done something with the gem and that there were rogue robots coming after us. I had to protect them all." I give him the abbreviated version of the whole story.

"And what was that with Bucky on the ship from Sokovia? I saw him kiss you." Is this really what he's concerned about right now?

"Steve, with all due respect I think there are bigger issues to focus on than my relationship with Bucky." This should be the least of our concerns right now and I'm baffled that it's even being brought up.

"I'll be on that council, just so you know." He says and turns to walk out.

"I figured out how to undo the programming, by the way. It's almost complete." He stops for a moment before walking out of the room completely. I hope he comes to his senses and votes logically during the hearing.

Almost immediately after Steve leaves, Bucky comes in. Finally someone I'm happy to see. I smile at him, and he smiles back but I can tell his mind is preoccupied.

"What happened?" I ask, trusting him to tell me everything.

"Well, we made it to the ship. Your arm got totally dislocated when I pulled you up and so they sent you here. They had to screw your arm back into the socket." He says and I nod.

"Well hey at least you're not the only one with a metal arm now." I try to lighten the mood a bit. He smiles and shakes his head,

"Only you could crack a joke when everything is going to hell." He says tenderly.

"Things going to hell is nothing new to me." I say and he sighs,

"Adalyn, I'm going to be honest with you. It's not looking good. They're putting you on trial and Tony is campaigning to put you away for life. There was talk about putting me on trial too but Steve struck a deal with Tony if they benched that." He looks into my eyes and things really start to set in.