𝗗𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 - 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗹

Look for the Light

Shut in a dark little safe house in New York, Steve Rogers stares at a sketch of his best friend and tries not to feel sick.

Behind him, Sam paces. He is talking, of course, rarely stops, but Steve barely hears a word he is saying.

"... got a sketch artist to talk to Sarah, and this is what they came up with. It's The Winter Soldier, alright, and he was eating lunch with my damn sister? Anyway, apparently the kid mentioned that they were heading up to Michigan, so we have people heading out there. Hopefully, they'll find him before anyone else does."

Steve leans back in his chair. He's still weak after his dip in the river, as Natasha is playfully referring to it, and everything is fuzzy in his thoughts. He waves a hand at Sam.

"What about the kid?"

"What about her?"

"Now that you know she's not a hallucination," He says, a touch reproachful, "Do you still think Bucky kidnapped her?"

"Undecided," Natasha says. She's stretched out across a sofa in front of him, playing with the arrow necklace at her throat. There's a hickey on her neck. They're all pretending not to see it. "We've still got to worry about her."

"Bucky wouldn't hurt her." Steve snaps. Unsure looks flicker around the room, deliberately avoiding him.

Sam pours coffee. Steve acts like he's not irritated. Impatient and stiff, they all wait on the next word.

It comes from Natasha.

"We can't guarantee that." She replies, her voice soft and raspy, "HYDRA isn't known for treating children kindly."

"Bucky isn't just HYDRA." Steve spits. He rubs a hand across his forehead, wincing at the sketch in front of him. "He's a person, a good person, and he wouldn't hurt that girl."

"Look, we don't know-"

"I know!" He shouts. "I know Bucky Barnes, and I know. Look, Sarah said it herself, the kid looked fine. She was happier than he was."

"What do you propose, then?" Fury says. Everybody flinches.

They've all forgotten he was there, really, as he seems to permanently fade into shadow. However, he likes to interrupt whenever tensions are rising just a little too high, and Steve can tell from his icy tony that they've well surpassed the ideals.

Fury snatches the paper away from Steve and joins Sam in his pacing, his one visible eye fixed firmly on the window. "That we let them run wild because he isn't hurting her?"

"Yes, actually," Steve replies. Everybody stares at him. He sighs. "They aren't doing anything wrong, not anymore. You bring them back here and they'll sentence him to death. Either we find Bucky and keep him safe, or we leave him alone."

"He's a HYDRA super-soldier, Rogers."

"He's my friend!"

Steve slams his hand down hard against the table and pushes to his feet, ignoring Nat's tug at his sleeve. He's hot with anger and exhaustion, sick of people talking about Bucky like they know him. Like they know how to help him.

His Bucky wouldn't hurt anyone, not if he was in a right enough mind to pull him from the water. Steve can't guarantee, of course, that that little girl is safe, but if she's still with Bucky, it's likely. He'd look after her. He carried her away from the wreckage of the Triscellion.

These people don't understand Bucky. Nobody does, not the way that Steve always has.

When you've only seen The Winter Soldier, it is easy to miss the magic left in Bucky. It is easy to only see a killer.