Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

Chapter VI: Due Penalty

Joana

"So, what you're trying to tell me is, after I tried to escape and beat up two of the boys," (a term Jo had taken to using when referring to the soldiers), "you convinced the Commander to 'give me a surprise', as you put it?"
Danika smiled.
"That's precisely what I'm saying, Joana," Danika said, throwing a punch at Jo, which she easily dodged.
"How?"
"Well," Jo punched Danika in the gut, causing her to lose some of her breath, "I told the Commander that if you were given some praises and some gifts, you wouldn't be so inclined to...shall we say...beat up all his men in attempts to break out?"
Jo let out a laugh as Danika swept her feet out from underneath her. Jo wasn't on the ground for very long before she hopped back on to her feet to continue sparring.
"You mind sharing what this surprise is?"
"If I did that, it wouldn't be a surprise."
"I wanna punch that smirk off your face," Jo said, a smile of her own on her face as she and Danika continued to spar.
"Try me, Kegley."

Jo almost found herself disappointed when there was nothing different to her regular routine the next day. Luckily, Aleksi was still in healing. (The Doctor didn't want to waste any of his serum on some simple soldier like Aleksi). Nothing was different the next day either, nor the next day. By the fourth day, Jo had believed that Danika had been lying to her.
"Joana, what are you doing?" Danika asked. "You're getting sloppy!"
Jo said nothing, instead, she threw another punch. Danika grabbed Jo's flying fist and twisted her arm. Jo let out a strangled grunt as she was brought to the ground by Danika.
"Get your head in it, Joana." Danika pushed Joana to the floor, pressing her face into the floor Danika flopped off of her and sat on the ground, breathing heavily.
"What's up, Joana? What's wrong with you today?" Danika asked, swiping her blonde hair from her eyes. Jo sat up on her butt.
"I don't know, Danika."
"You can't lie to me. I know something's up."
"It's...nothing. It's just stupid. That's all."
"You can tell me, Joana, you know that."
Jo paused for a second, her throat swelling, tears gathering in her eyes.
"When you said there was a gift for me-" Her voice choked. "I just, I got a little hopeful is all."
Danika put her hand on Joana's knee with a small smile.
"If the Commander doesn't give you your due penalty, come tell me and I'll beat some sense into him, mkay? I've got your back, don't worry I've got your back."
Both of the girls sat there smiling, for a few minutes, before Danika punched Jo in the face and they began sparring again.

When sparring had been completed, one of the soldiers escorted Jo away from the training room, but instead of going immediately back to her room, he brought her to a different room.
"What is this?" Jo asked, her voice cold. The soldier said nothing. He opened the door to the room, but Jo didn't take his eyes away from him. He gestured impatiently to go inside. When she finally tore her gaze from his stone hard face, she was amazed at what she saw.
Bucky was standing in that room, his back to her. He wasn't in a chair, not strapped down to anything. He was just staring at the wall. Was this it? Was this her gift? To be able to touch the person she loved?
She was awestruck, unable to come up with a single word to say.
She stepped into the room, taking no more than two steps before the Commander, who had been practically hiding behind the door, grabbed her arm.
"No touching," he said, and her heart dropped. Her jaw hung open and she nodded. Her brown eyes filled with tears as she turned to look at Bucky.
"Bucky?" The man with the metal arm turned, his eyes vacant. He stared at her, as if he was looking at any other person in the world. But then she said his name again. Bucky shook his head, squeezing his eyes tight. Upon reopening them, he instantly recognized her and his eyes widened. The Commander swore in Russian, his grip on Jo tightening.
"It didn't work," he seethed, but Jo wasn't paying attention to him. She moved forward, trying to pull herself from his iron hard grip. Bucky started forward too, but some of the soldiers filed in, pushing him backward, away from her. She stretched her hand out, calling out his name, as The Commander pulled her backward.
"Jo!" Bucky outstretched his hand as far as he could. For a second, Jo broke away from the Commander and took only a few more steps towards Bucky as the soldiers held him back. Just as her fingertips grazed his, the Commander grabbed both of her arms and pinned them at her sides. She let out a shriek of anger as he carried her from the room, Bucky calling out her name as the door slammed shut. With tears rolling down her cheeks, Jo spat and kicked and punched, flailing all her body parts at one time, hoping to get one good shot at the Commander that would give her time to open the door and go back into that room.
But nothing she did worked. The Commander dragged her back to her room and threw her into her chair. Before he could tie her down, she jumped up and made for the door, but three soldiers were waiting for her and herded her back inside. She sat in her chair in utter defeat. The Commander tied her back up.
"Until we get this to work, you're never going to see him again," he hissed in her ear. She turned her face away, ashamed of the tears that rolled down her cheeks. She contained her sobs until he slammed her door shut. Once she was sure he was gone, she let a scream of rage rip through her throat. She shook the chair with such ferocity that the bolts almost came out of the ground. Almost.
When her voice ran hoarse, she hung her head, now only weeping quietly. She sat like that until she fell asleep.