Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Sixteen: Hydra & The Nurse - How Do We Break His Mind?

Hydra & The Nurse - How Do We Break His Mind?

"How do we break his mind?" You hear Armin Zola ask the doctors.

You had been told to take the drinks in to them in the conference room. "I'm a bloody nurse, not a waitress!" you had snapped at the guard, who just smirked and given you the tray.

You had entered quietly, but you know your presence has been noticed by Lehmann.

Zola was talking again.

Everything they had done to the patient and still they had not breached that final wall. Once it had fallen they could start to rebuild. Zola is clearly frustrated. Nearly everything else is in place, the work more or less completed by the new team. They were now just awaiting access to the patient.

You try to remain as quiet and unobtrusive as possible. It's clear that some of the doctors have not even thought about your presence, and are talking freely. You are horrified at the conversation but you know you cannot let your feelings show. You put the tray down and pour six cups of mud-brown coffee, placing one next to each doctor. Only Jakobs and Zola say thank you - none of the others do and you hadn't expected them to. Two of the people in the room are from the new team.

Lehmann is saying it was too late for them to choose a different subject; all the formula made to date has been tailored for Barnes. It is just his mind holding out.

His body is ready for the next phase.

"Well we can always go the route of old fashioned torture and deprivation. Put him in a cell, throw away the key, feed him scraps, wear him down, not let him sleep. But that will take at least a year," says Doctor Taffeteer, reaching for his coffee.

"I would have thought if that was going to work it would have happened already with the treatment he was receiving from your excellent choice of nursing staff," Zola says sarcastically, a rare thing for him.

"Besides which, we do not have a year to waste. This needs to be done sooner rather than later. Once that final wall comes down, we can start rebuilding him and his mind as the 'Winter Soldier'. He will then be ours completely."

It is the first time you hear the name The Winter Soldier. It sends a chill down your spine.

The doctors start to bicker, and you notice Doctor Jakobs is quiet.

Zola interrupts at this point to say he wants more formula to be made. He always wants to know there is a small stock of the serum on hand.

"Already being done," Lehmann assures him before the others can say a word. Zola nods and Lehmann continues. "Going back to Barnes' mind. I have been working on an idea which I believe will work; I have discussed it with Fennhoff and he agrees. It will also be a way of killing two birds with one stone."

Zola sits back and picks up his coffee.

Lehmann looks at you. "That will be all," he says dismissing you, and they wait for you to leave the room. You have no choice but to go.

*

"That will be all," Lehmann says to the nurse and they wait for her to depart.

Zola studies Lehmann. He really doesn't like the man. He is always too eager to pull things apart, too eager about the experimentation, but Zola is desperate. The group have arrived with the final parts of the jigsaw puzzle that will complete the physical make up of the Winter Soldier. Everything needs to be moved forward and only the patient himself is holding them up. He may not like Lehmann, but he knows if there is a way to break Barnes then it will be Lehmann who does it.