oh captain! my captain! | barnes

safe house

Steve woke and showered numbly. He entered the kitchen, and Tony forced him to eat a bowl of cereal. They sat wordlessly until Steve stood, and grabbed his coat. He left, like every day at 8:15 am on the dot.

He would walk to the bus stop, and newspapers would litter the streets with headlines like "Wicked Villainess Induces Winter Soldier Coma" or "Nameless Soldier Nearly Kills Our Own."

Apparently New York doesn't love you until you almost die.

"Excuse me, Captain, would you sign this?" a woman asks.

"I'm in a rush," he mumbles distantly and boards the bus. People watch him closely as the bus bumbles on towards the hospital's stop. It gets there and he gets off, and goes to the interior elevator.

He pressed floor number 3, and walks to the room numbered 0324.

His hand lingers before opening the door. His closest friend lays unconscious in the linens.

He exhales roughly; he actually thought that maybe, just maybe, today Bucky'd be back.

But he was wrong. Ten days in a row he's been wrong.

She cooks an old can of soup over a bare flame in the stove. She hold the boiling tin can in her right hand and struggles to put the jacket on with her free, broken hand.

When she has it on, she grabs the keys and walks to the car. A wad of tens is in her inside pocket and she placed spoonful after spoonful of soup into her mouth. It's tomato, her childhood favorite according to Bucky.

Bucky.

She shakes her head.

"No," she tells herself as she starts the car and pulls out. The car rumbles to the nearest town.

She prays to the God she didn't know she believed in to give her strength, to make sure no one recognizes her here, to keep Bucky safe. She crosses herself; maybe in some life a long time ago and far away, she had gone to church. Maybe in that life, she didn't feel so alone.

She drives.

When she reaches the town, she find some old dollar store. The store matches the town and the home, it's like a ghost village occupies this place.

She takes a basket and spins the ring of keys on her finger as she strolls through the isles; taking a box of Ramen here and a pack of granola bars there.

She finds the cash register and puts the stuff on the counter. The man looks at her. He must have only been twenty-nine or so, but he looked like he'd been through wars.

"The Villainess," he states, not ringing the items up. She really hated that title.

"Pardon?" she fakes confusion. He hands her a newspaper; her face is plastered on the front. But it's not her, it's Soldier 0324.

"That's not me," she rushes her words. "Just ring the damn stuff up."

He picks up a phone and dials a three digit number.

She's quick and has a gun pointed at his chest, "Put the phone down."

He doesn't. The other end answers, "9-1-1 dispatch, what's your emergency?"

He collapses as the sound rings in the air. She takes the basket and leaves the gun, she hurried to her car and speeds off. Burnt rubber and blood stain the once-clean air.

Blood is too familiar a scent.

People rush out of their homes, more people than the ghost town should have. But it's too late; she's gone and he's already cold.

Steve reads his newspaper silently.

"They're calling her a villain, Buck. She's not a villain, right?" He looks at him, and frowns. What if he doesn't come back?

What if she doesn't come back in time?