"I'll spin for you like your favorite records used to."
IN WHICH a light-hearted and playful agent of S.H.I.E.L.D is paired with the humorless patriot of right and wrong, Captain America. Both despise each other with a fiery passion to start, but wh...
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EMERSYN STRUGGLED IN VAIN against the metal clamps that encased her hands. Frustration at their loss was radiating off of her in waves of heat. Sweat was dripping from her brow and mingling with blood. The team sat in gloomy silence after HYDRA had locked them inside an armored truck. Two agents were supervising them, covered in all black, so they didn't even seem human. Emersyn was waiting for someone to talk and explain why they had given up, but Natasha was drifting in and out of consciousness due to her wound, and Sam seemed to be just as ignorant as she.
Her gaze landed on Steve, wishing he would acknowledge or even just glance at her. His eyes stared dully at the ground without any awareness of his surroundings.
After several moments of agonizing silence, Emersyn groaned aloud and snapped, "Are we all just going to sit here and let HYDRA win? What about Project Insight? What are we doing?!—Steve!"
He slowly looked at her as if he had just been woken up. She widened her eyes to prompt a response. "Hello? What happened back there? What are you-" her voice faltered as she noticed a tear form in Steve's eye.
"Steve?" Emersyn asked in a hushed tone. Her expression quickly softened to concern.
Rogers sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. She waited in stunned silence; where Emersyn shared her emotions freely, she always knew Steve to be stoic on missions. Whatever had happened was not some mistake, injury, or lack of motive. Emersyn swallowed harshly as sudden guilt for her outbursts began to sink in. When Steve's voice broke through the silence, it was low and dejected, far different from the confident tone she was used to.
"It was Bucky." He muttered.
Emersyn glanced at Sam for understanding but he just shrugged. "Who?" She asked quietly.
Steve sighed and his brows knitted together in pain as he recalled memories. "Bucky Barnes fought in the 107th infantry...he was a part of the Howling Commandos before he... He was my best friend."
"It was him," Steve sounded defeated. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."
"How is that even possible? It was, like, seventy years ago." Sam blurted.
"Zola," Steve said. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in 'forty-three. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall."
His voice was thick with sentiment and Emersyn realized again there was much more to Steve Rogers' past than she knew. The way he spoke about Bucky reached into Emersyn's heart and made her ache with sympathy as if she had known the man himself all her life.
