II: The Girl Who Ran: Little Monsters

VII: Becky Shaw

     His head was going to implode. Bucky felt sure of it. His ears were ringing loudly. He opened his eyes. He was looking at cement. He groaned and glanced over at his arm. It was caught in some kind of metal... thing. He let his eyes rove around, making note of everything, from the old advertisements on the walls to the water he could see through the gaps in the walls. He heard someone speak.

     "Hey, Cap."

     He heard jogging feet come toward him, and saw a black man--Falcon, Sam Wilson-- and Steve. "Steve," he said before he thought everything through.

     Steve looked down at him, his eyes unreadable. Bucky glanced at him, then back at the floor, as Steve asked, "Which Bucky am I talking to?"

     That stung. Bucky thought back to his journals. He wondered where they were now. He imagined the list he'd written of things he'd remembered. Little things. "Your mom's name was Sarah." Another fact came to his mind, and he chuckled, "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes." He smiled, reminiscing.

     "You can't read that in a museum." Steve said, and Bucky heard his smile. It was nice to hear something completely familiar again.

     Sam spoke from the corner, the incredulousness showing on his face, "Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?"

     Bucky frowned, trying to remember what happened. It was always like this right after. Fuzzy and incomplete, then, later, it would come back to him at full force. "What did I do?"

     "Enough."

     Just that one word from Steve, and Bucky felt his chest squeeze. "Oh, G**, I knew this would happen." As soon as he said it, he knew it was true. It was inevitable. He was a tool, and so he was used. "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the g**d*** words."

     Steve tilted his head slightly, "Who was he?"

     Bucky considered the question, but the memory was still too blurry. "I don't know." He wished he did. The man would be dead by now.

     "People are dead," Steve said, as though he didn't already know, "the bombing, the setup, the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know'."

     Bucky looked up at him. Steve was so much different than what Bucky remembered him to be, back in Brooklyn. Back then he was skinny and so ready to get his a** kicked that he ran into any fight. Now he was thinking it through, talking about motives and all that. Bucky tried to get a hold of himself. "He- he wanted to know about Siberia, " he tried to recall, "where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where." Bucky's stomach dropped as realization dawned on him.

     Steve replied, "Why would he need to know that?"

     Bucky inhaled. Here we go. "Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier." He remembered causing a car to crash, and a glowing box, with five packages of blue liquid. Watching five other people-- Ben, Cecilia, Alberto, Jared, and Aman-- laying in beds while serum entered their bloodstreams. The screams and groans while it took hold. Fighting Jared afterward. How easily he defeated Bucky.

     How they had control of their own minds. They revolted. The overseer told Bucky to get him out.

     "Who were they?" Steve asked, yanking Bucky from his thoughts.

     "The most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history." With one exception. Bucky ignored that fact and continued, "and that was before the serum."

     Sam put his hands on his hips, "They all turn out like you?"

     Bucky dismissed the jab, "Worse."

     Steve spoke again, "The doctor, could he control them?"

     Bucky nodded and looked at the floor, "Enough."

     "He said he wanted to see an empire fall." Steve looked at Sam, then back at Bucky.

     "With these guys he could do it," the more he thought about it, the more it made sense, "they can speak thirty languages, hide in plain sight. They infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize, they can take a whole country down in one night and you'd never see them coming." He strained against the contraption holding his arm and his arm slid out. He looked down at his hands and listened as Sam talked to Steve.

     "This would've been a lot easier a week ago." Sam said, and Bucky noted the subtle bitterness.

     "If we call Tony--," Steve started.

     "No, he won't believe us," Sam cut him off.

     "Even if he did--," Steve started again.

     "Who knows if the Accords would let him help or not." Sam finished.

     Bucky knew about the Accords. He'd read something about it right before Sunny had arrived at his apartment. For no apparent reason, he ardently hoped she was safe. Last time he'd seen her had been... at the cafe. Standing by the railing while the cat guy beat the crap out of him, with a belt of grenades and a grocery bag tied to her backpack.

     Steve walked over, "Come on, Buck. We've got somewhere to be." He held out his hand.

     Bucky stared at it for a moment. Something in him told him to grab it, but he didn't understand. Why was Steve so trusting that he wasn't going to blow up and kill him? He pushed the question away and grabbed Steve's hand.

     Bucky followed Steve and Sam as they walked, discussing meeting up with someone named, 'Sharon'. Then Sunny appeared out of nowhere. She literally seemed to melt out of the wall. Before he knew what he was doing, Sunny was on the floor, with his knee pressing her into the ground. Sunny flipped over and wrapped her legs around his waist.

     "Watch it, Snowy, I already told you I--," she stopped and let go of him. He looked up at her, she was pale and staring right at Steve and Sam. "Hello, gentlemen." Her voice was scrubbed of any emotion or accent.

Sam crossed his arms, "Well, hello, Ms. I-appear-out-nowhere-and-beat-the-junk-out-of-the-hundred-year-old-assassin, I'm Sam, this is Steve. How are you?"

"I've been better. I'm Rebecca Shaw, James's friend from Bucharest." Sunny looked down at Bucky, apparently she had recovered her wits. "I had to follow you through the compound of terror, just to give you some plums."

Bucky stood and grabbed the backpack and the grocery bag from her hand, inside was juice and pulp. "These used to be plums, Becky." He played along, noticing the tenseness of her shoulders and back.

Sunny rolled her eyes, waving her hand, "Yeah, you're welcome, ridiculous! I almost got shot, like, a million times! And then I picked up this thing, " she motioned to the grenades at her waist, "for self-defense. By the way, I grabbed some clothes from your apartment. Literally all your clothes are the same."

Bucky glanced at Steve and Sam. Steve seemed a little disconcerted, "How do you know about the Winter Soldier?"

Sunny looked at Steve, "Oh, ya know, word gets 'round. After all, who doesn't want a senior citizen murder machine living next door?" She turned back to Bucky, "So, ya wanna change? 'Cause you look disgusting."

Bucky looked down at his clothes. "Nah. I'll wait."

Sunny smirked, "Come on.... you smell! What happens if you see a pretty lady awalkin' by, and you think--."

Bucky cut her off, "Let's not go there please."

"Whatever. I'm gonna go." She put her hand on her hip, "Do y'all need a ride? Cuz I can always hotwire another car. I am not riding with the old man here." Sunny pointed at Steve, "Or Sugar over there." She mock whispered to Sam, "Bet you twenty bucks they use oldie cologne. You know, the kind that smells like antique stores." She wiggled her eyebrows.

Bucky tried hard not to laugh. Her acting skills were good.

Steve shook his head, "No, we can get our own ride."

Sunny shrugged, "Alright then, Sugar. See ya later." She walked away, waggling her behind and swinging her hips the entire way, the grenades at her waist clinking.

Steve and Sam both stared at Bucky. He blushed, "Can we please go now?"