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

Chapter Ninety-Two: James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes - AKA The Winter Soldier

Author's Note: I am not a lawyer and have no understanding of any countries legal system including my own. This trial and the run-up will therefore probably have no bearing on the judicial system and for that I apologise. It is also why this is an AU fic (so basically I can get away with anything). As we know there are good prison systems and there are bad. What I write does not have any bearing on any jail or prison that I know of and is entirely fictitious. I only know one prison guard and he is a real sweetie. But as I said, for my story I need to go out in to the realms of AU so please bear with me.

And most of all please bear with James. He is going to need you.

James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes - AKA The Winter Soldier

"State your name for the record please." The voice is steady, has asked the same question a million times and will ask it a million more times.

Jeremy Sands nods to James. Bucky clears his throat. "James Buchanan Barnes," he replies.

"James Barnes. You are at this time charged with murder on twenty-seven counts. You are charged with treason on one count. You are charged with kidnapping on six counts. You are charged with....." But Bucky finds it hard to take in what they are saying. The numbers are lower than he knows they should be - but Sands had explained they are only indicting him on crimes they can prove he committed.

"And how do you plead?"

He hesitates and Sands looks up at him, eyes widening. He knows how his client feels and for a moment he thinks Bucky is going to say "guilty" but then he hears the words not guilty and breathes a sigh of relief.

Jeremy Sands is a man of rare values - the Steve Rogers of the legal world. He believes that his client is not guilty and therefore he is determined to make the world realise that Bucky is a victim here as much as the people who were hurt and killed on the assignments he was sent on.

The only problem is it doesn't help when your client believes himself to be guilty.

The afternoon they came for him everyone around him panicked. They talked of getting him out of the country, hiding him, until in the end he held up a hand and told them to stop. He stood there, hand held up as if trying to make a barrier, trying to stop a flood.

"Stop. Just...stop!" Bucky's voice had been angry, tired. Then he repeated it and this time his voice was quieter and they could see the price he was going to be paying. "I need to do this. I am guilty, I did those things. I need to stand trial. I can't run away from this. I can't live like this any more."

And they knew he was right.

Jeremy Sands had won him one more night at home. He was to surrender to his local police station in the morning and he did. He spent one last night with Freya and Steve and then, without telling them, he arranged with Tony and Sands to go with him to the station earlier than planned. Neither Steve nor Freya knew. On the way he had asked Tony to stop at a barbers and he had his hair cut as short as it had been the first day in the army.

He is now the spitting image of James Buchanan Barnes.

By the time Steve and Freya realised what he had done, he was already in police custody. He could not have them go with him, he could not have coped with saying goodbye.

Truth be told, he doesn't believe he will be coming back.

The District Attorney charged him, made arrangements for the arraignment, but there were other conditions Bucky had to agree to. Sands had tried to argue these by citing human rights clauses but this case is not normal, this prisoner is not normal, and there was no precedent to be set, nothing to compare it to. Sands knew they were lucky it was being handled by the District Attorney because the military had wanted to handle the matter behind closed doors. James would have disappeared into some military installation never to be seen again. Maybe this way, he has a chance.