In Another Life | Sergeant James 'Bucky' Barnes / The Winter Soldier + Ikaris

Chapter 11

Scarlet hated mornings the most.

She preferred to keep the last watch, so that she wouldn't have to wake up in her tent alone. She liked to already be awake and moving, instead of lying in her bed, all too aware of the loneliness she was feeling.

She missed Bucky.

She missed being pulled against his chest, and feeling his breath tickle the hairs at the top of her head. She missed the sound of his heartbeat; feeling it radiate throughout his body and give her warmth.

She missed knowing that he was alive.

Mornings these days were always cold.

She was always cold.

Bucky and Steve had taken the warmth with them.

Scarlet pushed the memories aside and forced herself out of her sleeping bag. She rolled it up, changed her clothes and went out to the camp.

The men were already gathered around the fire, Pinky was stirring something in a pot, Dum Dum and Happy was looking over a map and Junior was beginning to clean up camp. Gabe, Jim, Monty and Jacques had all left the unit and gone home in order move forward with their lives. They all kept in touch, but it wasn't the same to have them not present on missions.

"You're never going to guess who I heard from just now," Dum Dum said, looking up when she approached.

She sat down and accepted the bowl of food from Pinky. "Who?"

He grinned at her, "Peggy."

That got her attention. "Peggy? What did she want? Is she okay?"

"Apparently she needs a tact team. She's asked us to meet us at the Polish side of the Russian border. The SSR wants to bring Howard Stark in for questioning."

"Stark? For what?"

"I guess he's selling weapons to the Russians."

"No. Absolutely not. Howard wouldn't do that."

Dum Dum raised his hands, "hey. I'm just relaying what Peggy told me."

"I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding," Happy said.

"Well let's get going so that we can find out," Pinky suggested.

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Scarlet could hardly wait to see Peggy.

It had been nearly a year since they had gone their separate ways, and a day hadn't gone by that Scarlet didn't miss her. She missed having another female around. A practical voice of reason. It was getting exhausting to be the practicality in the tact team. The guys were constantly jumping into situations, guns blazing and blowing things up. Lives were being risked nearly every second of every day.

Scarlet wasn't opposed to her own life being risked, but she couldn't stand the idea of losing another person that she loved.

"I hear someone," Junior whispered.

Sure enough, Scarlet could hear the sound of a group of people approaching. She was fairly certain that it was Peggy and her team, but they couldn't take any chances.

Dum Dum brought his gun up and cocked it.

One of the approaching figures cocked their own gun, and brought it up, pointing it in the direction that Dum Dum was standing.

"Don't move," Dum Dum ordered. "Emu."

"What?" The lead figure with the gun whispered.

"Ostrich, man." Pinky whispered loudly. "Ostrich."