Radioactive | Bucky Barnes

The First Avenger: Chapter Seven

"You're it. You're my person.

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.

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The ride wasn't smooth. They held tightly onto whatever they could in the back of the Humvee. Each man was full of questions no one could or would answer. "Do you think they'd just dump us in the middle of a warzone without warning us?" Rickett asked sitting across from Rhiley who hadn't said a single word since they started to move out.

"What do you think we're here for?" Clover huffed, tightly holding onto his weapon. Like most were. Except for Rhiley who had her hands in her lap. James couldn't help but look down at the bruises beginning to form around her knuckles. He wanted to grab her hand and make sure she was okay but was certain she'd bite his head off if he did that in front of everyone. She had sat next to him and for that he was grateful. "We're here to fight."

"Why would they be so secretive though?" This question comes from Henry. "Wouldn't it help if we were prepared beforehand? Debrief of the situation?"

"What's your thoughts on this, Bunny?" Clover asked Rhiley, putting her in the spotlight. "Scared yet?"

"I've gone in blind on multiple missions." Rhiley looked over dead in the eyes, "You learn to adapt quickly when you do what I do."

"What do you do?" Rickett asked.

"I second that." Clover added, "You act all high and mighty, and yet we know nothing about you. It's easy being all talk, why not prove it?"

"How about we stop integrating Rhiley? Save that for the actual enemy." James suggested.

"How about you let your girlfriend talk, playboy." Clover retorted. "How can we trust someone we don't know."

"You don't." Rhiley stated bluntly, "Frankly, I don't care if you trust me or not."

"She probably knows exactly where we're going." Clover leaned in, pointing fingers at Rhiley, "Acting like she's one of us, spying on us, telling the higher-ups everything."

"We're not important enough to spy on, Clover." Henry laughed, "What the hell would she tell them? How you're an arrogant son of a bitch? We're nobody to them."

"And for your information." Rhiley pierced her lips together, "I know as much as you do."

"That's exactly what a spy would say?"

"How about we all just shut up okay." James interrupted again, "We're getting nowhere with this conversation."

"Have you ever killed someone?" This question did shut everyone up. Not because of the question itself but who it had come from. Dylan Colley hadn't said a single word since Rhiley had arrived and even before that. He only uttered his name.

"The freak speaks." Clover breathed. "It's about damn time."

"Has she ever killed someone?" Henry repeated the question, "What kind of question is that?"

"Of course, she hasn't-" Rickett guessed. "Why-"

"Yes." That was one question Rhiley never had a problem answering. This left the men stunned and silent. Perhaps it was unbelievable it wasn't. "I just do what I'm told to do." She added feeling James staring at her. For once, her answer to this question made her heart drop to her stomach. Not once had she cared about what people thought of her, until now. "Isn't that what we're all doing at this very moment?"

Rhiley was right. Not another word was uttered between the group until the humvee roared to a stop. The doors are flung open and they're ushered quickly out. Everyone had quickly set up a defense until they realized they had just been brought to an abandoned town, roughed up by the war.

"We were sent these coordinates hours ago." Commander Quinn came around to the front of the group. "I was given the orders to withhold the information until we had gotten to our location."

"Why are we here?" Rhiley was the first to speak up.

Commander Quinn pierced his lips in a straight line not making eye contact with the women. "We got leaked information that a group of enemy soldiers will be traveling through this town tonight to get to one of their main bases. We're ordered to capture them and get the coordinates to said base."

The humvees take off as soon as they have all their equipment. "So we're sneaking up on them." James clarified.

"We also have orders not to kill." Commander Quinn explains, "This mission is to retrieve as much information as we can get. Think of the bigger picture here."

"Bummer." Clover huffed. "I was looking to kill some Nazis."

"Spread out, stay low, keep quiet, this may be our only chance to be the ones to catch these bastards off guard." Commander Quinn ordered. "Stay vigilant."

Slowly the men spread out, in pairs of two or three, making sure the place was truly abandoned. Rhiley kept to herself, not moving from the spot she had been in when she was informed of their mission.

"Now that you have all the information." James walked over to Rhiley, "What are your thoughts?"

Rhiley shook her head, "I don't think we have all the information." She looked around her. "Something just feels missing. Why exactly would they want to keep the coordinates from us? Unless they think someone here is a mole and would have given-" She trailed off, looking over at James.

James chuckled, "Really?" for a moment he thought Rhiley had been joking, "Really?" The tone in his voice changed. "Do you really think someone here is a traitor?"

"Hell, Clover thinks I'm a traitor."

"That's Clover." James retorted, "He's a dumbass."

"But he's got a point." Rhiley responded, even though she hated the fact she had agreed with something Clover said, he did have a point, "Trusting someone you've only just met is a pretty stupid move."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"That's not the point, James." Rhiley sighed, "You're not stupid, I'm not a traitor, Clover is a dumbass -- but something isn't adding up here."

"Well," James looked around at his surroundings, "If trusting you makes me stupid, I'm the biggest idiot here because if you say something isn't right, that something is off. I trust you with my life."

"How about you stop trying to get into my pants, Barnes."

"Was that a joke?" James followed after Rhiley, "Did Rhiley-freaking-Stark just make a joke?"

"Shut up James."

"She's strong but she's exhausted."

~ r.h. Sin