The Wraith

Chapter 7

Bucky bursts into Adeline's room with a panicked look on his face.

"Buck? Why are you- what are you doing? You should be lying down." Steve jumps up from his chair.

Bucky ignores him and walks to Adeline's side, he grabs her hand delicately, almost like he thinks he'll break her.

"She's alive." He lets out a pained breath.

"What do you mean, 'she's alive'?" Steve takes a step closer to his friend.

"I thought she had died, they told me she was dead." Bucky looks down at Adeline with tears in his eyes.

"What? Why didn't you remember when she got here though?" Steve looks back and forth from Bucky to Adeline.

"I- I guess I had buried the memories of her deeper than I thought. I knew she seemed familiar, but I didn't know from where. I didn't know her real name." He replies, not taking his eyes off of the girl in the bed.

"Do you know what happened to her? Why she has the metal arm and knee like you do?" Steve glances at Adeline's vibranium limbs.

"They-" Bucky takes a ragged breath, "she said that they were her punishments, they cut her limbs off when she disobeyed. The doctors didn't even sedate her, or even let her pass out. I don't remember her having a metal knee, that must've happened after."

Steve brings a hand to his mouth in horror. "That's awful."

"I met her right after she had her arm removed, there was a hole in the wall between our cells. I had heard her singing, she seemed so alone, so broken." Bucky looks at his friend with unshed tears in his eyes, "but even after the loss of her arm, the torture, she stayed strong, she didn't give up hope she would get out someday."

"Did you listen to her in her cell? She sang down there, it was an odd song about a girl named Jenny and ghosts." Steve asks him.

Bucky gives him a small smile, "it's a song from 'Game of Thrones'. She used to watch a few episodes every time she got the chance to while out on a mission. Sometimes she would have to stake out the target, so she would listen to the episodes in the meantime. She kept telling me she would read the books one day when she got the time, she loves to read."

Bucky lets out a tearful laugh, "she said they used to let her have books, but took them away as a punishment and never gave them back. Her entire face would light up when she talked about her books and the characters."

"Were you... together?" Steve inquires hesitantly.

"No, she said she wanted to be with me, and I wanted to be with her. But she was so scared of HYDRA finding out and punishing her with me, so we decided to wait. We only kissed once." Bucky's eyes glaze over, as if he is reliving the memory.

"Barnes!" Tony shouts as he enters the room, pulling Bucky out of his reverie.

"What?" Bucky growls at him, still pissed about the straitjacket.

"You remember her? What can you tell us?" Tony asks him frantically.

"Tony-" Bucky sighs.

"Let's bring this up to the conference room and call the others so you don't have to repeat everything." Steve says to the pair.

"But what if she wakes up?" Bucky asks as he glances back at Adeline.

"Bruce can give her something to keep her asleep a bit longer while we sort this out." Steve replies.

"Friday, call Bruce in here." Tony demands.

"On it." The AI replies.

~Time skip to the conference room 30 minutes later~