The Grey - Steve Rogers + Bucky Barnes X OC Love Story

Chapter 33

Victoria was down in the lab, checking on some Intel that SWORD had sent them. She'd spent the entirety of her morning working on it, working through lunch and several hours into her afternoon. But this was important, someone had broken John Walker out of The Raft, several others escaping in the riot that was caused as a distraction.

"FRIDAY, I want constant surveillance on the building for the next 72 hours. Focus on the main entrance and the side door on the south side." Victoria called out.

"Yes, Ms. Alvarez. Would you like any urgent alerts, or a summary after 72 hours has ended?" The AI asked.

Victoria debated for a moment. "Alert me if it appears that they have hostages or if you hear anything definitive about them planning an attack." She finally answered.

"Yes, Ms. Alvarez. May I suggest sending the summarized report to Captian Rogers when it is complete?" FRIDAY suggested.

"That was already the plan, FRIDAY. But send a report to Sargeant Barnes as well." Victoria answered.

The Intel they were given was about the possibility that Walker had already handed off her blood to someone new, to a new scientist with their own crew. So far, it just looked like a team of roughly 100 soldiers and a few scientists. But the whole team knew that looks were deceiving sometimes. This time, they refused to go in until they knew the facts, they refused to leave Victoria vulnerable like they did the last time.

The likelihood that this was a new scientist testing Victoria's blood was a likely possibility, but it could also be something completely unrelated. They weren't given enough Intel to decide, so the whole team agreed they wouldn't act until they knew.

"Ms. Alvarez, Sargeant Barnes doesn't have the same level of clearance as Captian Rogers and yourself." FRIDAY mentioned.

Victoria rolled her eyes, kicking her feet up onto her desk. "Override on my authority. I will change his clearance level today." She said to FRIDAY.

"Yes, Ms. Alvarez. I will notify the two to expect the reports." FRIDAY announced.

Victoria spent the next few minutes getting into the system, bumping Bucky's security clearance to the top along with hers, Steve's and Tony's. She also decided while she was on her path, she'd up his security clearance with SWORD, CIA, FBI and anyone else she could come up with. She knew his clearance was only so low because of his past with Hydra, but she knew that he wasn't that guy. He was good, he always had been good.

Victoria gave up on work after that, hacking into Tony's computer and checking on the status of her divorce. Tony had kept her in the dark, promising her that he'd let her know when it was time to sign. That her signature was all he would need from her, when it was all said and done. But it didn't stop her curiosity.

"Ms. Alvarez, it is not my place, but perhaps you should trust Mr. Stark and not look into the details of your pending divorce." FRIDAY chimed in, making Victoria jump.

"Fine." Victoria said with a small huff. "Know it all." She muttered to FRIDAY. She leaned back into her chair, too lazy to get up and head upstairs, but also too lazy to move onto her next project. So she scrolled through tiktok on her phone, tuning out the world for a few minutes.

Bucky got the alert to expect reports from surveillance, having no idea what that meant, he headed down to the lab to ask Victoria about it. He'd never been given reports before, he'd never been included on anything further than mission briefings. The full details were usually left to Victoria, Steve and Tony.

When Bucky reached the lab, he saw Victoria's feet kicked up on her desk. She was humming along to the music she had playing, bobbing her head slightly as she seemed lost in her work. But he couldn't even tell what she was doing, none of that tech stuff made much sense to him. In an attempt not to startle her, he knocked on the doorframe to her office. Victoria quickly put her feet down onto the floor, spinning in her chair.