Strings - A Winter Story

-26-

"My silence is not weakness, it's the beginning of my revenge"

Bucky's body aches severely despite his enhanced recovery time. He strong limbs long for rest but his head protests against the action. Bucky instantly knows something has happened but he cannot pin point what he has done. The pain throbbing in his head signals that the Winter Soldier played a role in whatever happened. That coupled with the fact he is in an interrogation room explains a lot. Despite not being handcuffed, he knows he has done something bad, he just knows. He lowers his head into his hands, letting his hair fall loosely as he remains silent for likely Steve to greet him.
When the door finally opens he lifts his head up and looks up at his friend. Bucky's eyes are full of sadness when he is the first to speak, muttering the words he wishes he doesn't have to.

"What did I do?" Bucky puzzles Steve, his voice pleading with his friend to just tell him. He closes the door gently and walks towards Bucky with his head hanging low. Steve keeps his hands in his pockets and leans against the table beside Bucky. These actions alone inform Bucky that it's worse than he had imagined.

"You sure you want to know?" Steve genuinely warns Bucky of the answer he would receive. Steve's friendly and comforting eyes seem to unsettle him even more.

"Did I hurt anyone on the team?" Bucky eagerly persists and eventually is rewarded with the answers he seeks so dearly. Steve nods in response and Bucky lowers his head again momentarily. He tenses up, bracing himself for the reply as he questions again whilst hiding his face.

"Who?" He mutters.

Steve runs his tongue over his lips to moisten them as he prepares to break the news that will undoubtedly crush Bucky.

"Autumn" he simply replies in a small tone before matching Bucky's actions with a low hanging head.

Steve can very obviously see Bucky's body ache at the sound of hurting a friend. The pain is etched across his face, embarrassment is also present. Bucky's eyes drift off as the words seem too scary and false to be true, but it was the soldier and the soldier would do such a thing.

"Did I kill her?" He whispers out, emotion in his hoarse voice.

"No, she is alive. Her heart stopped in the jet as we landed here but the medical team were able to bring her back. They took some of my blood to help her recover, but they said that is was your blood that kept her with us" Steve honestly responds, he isn't going to lie to Bucky, that is the last thing he would do.

"What did I do to her?" Bucky continues as his self hatred grows more by the second. Steve perks up at the words and instantly protests against them.

"Not you, he hurt her" Steve defends as he tries to reassure Bucky. However, Bucky looks up to Steve as he tiptoes around the question.

"What did I do?" He utters again, the emotion and sincerity in his voice tells Steve he has to answer.

"Stab wound to the stomach. It wasn't you Buck" Steve answers the heart wrenching question but is quick to try and cushion the blow for Bucky.

"I still did it though, didn't I?" Bucky swiftly replies as tears threaten to show n the corners of his sad eyes.

"Buck you can't blame yourself for something you had no control over" Steve continues as he moves from the table to Bucky's side, placing his hand on Bucky's shoulder for reassurance.

"But I still hurt her Steve" Bucky emotionally states, tears building in his eyes. Steve doesn't know how to reply, he hasn't been in Bucky's situation before so giving him an answer is near impossible.