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

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Steve & Freya - Recollections

Steve & Freya – Recollections

Steve

He will never forget the phone call telling them that James Barnes had been kidnapped. That told Steve he had let Bucky fall again – hadn't kept him safe – had broken his promise. Jesus. He sits now on the edge of the bed, and he cannot even cry. They are still waiting for word on what had happened. Jeremy Sands had been the first one to be alerted, and he had been the one to immediately call Steve and Freya.

The phone had started ringing at a time everyone should have been in bed, asleep. And that is what Freya and Steve were doing; they had taken to sleeping together in the same bed. Not a word had been spoken, there was no decision made, it had just happened.

"Rogers," he had said bleary down the phone. Sands had begun talking, and Steve had swung out to sit on the side of the bed. Freya was now awake, crouched behind him listening to just one side of the conversation. Her face pale, worried. "What do you mean taken? Who? Hydra? What do you mean you don't know? We're coming over..." his sentence interrupted as he listens some more. "So you expect us to just sit here? For us to do nothing?!" Steve ran his hand through his hair then slammed the phone back down and stood up.

"What is it?" Freya asked, although deep down she knew.

"Bucky's missing. He's been taken but they don't know by whom. Sands was told about ten minutes ago but it happened over an hour ago and the prison have only just admitted to it. Apparently they didn't even know at first that anything was wrong, but one of the guards managed to sound the alarm."

"Was anyone killed?"

"No, it looks like they wanted him alive. The men that came for him had tranquilliser guns. Saying that, Sands said one of the guards is missing but they don't know if he was kidnapped as well or was in on it." They dressed as they talked.

It has been a long night, well morning. There was nothing they could do, no clues to follow. Bucky was gone. They didn't even know if he was still alive. Sam and Nat had come to the tower as soon as they heard, and then Steve had gone to the jail with Sam, asking Freya and Nat to stay behind in case anyone tried to get in touch

Someone did.

A package was delivered addressed to both her and Steve. Nat phoned Steve and he told them to open it. Freya's hands were shaking as she did so; inside was a pay-as-you-go phone. Nat switched it on and several minutes later it rang. She handed it over to Freya reluctantly – because Nat wanted to strangle the-son-of-a-bitch on the end of line. And that made her more annoyed; she was feeling far too much these days, losing her ability to stay calm.

"Hello," Freya's voice was strong but Nat could hear the worry in it. As Freya had done earlier, Nat listened to one side of the conversation.

"Please? Is he all right? Where is he? Please don't hurt him. Are you with Hydra...hello...hello?" and the phone went dead.

Jarvis apologised, and said that he was unable to trace the call. Steve had returned half an hour later.

"Tell me everything they said," Steve's anger shows in his voice and comes out at Freya. Nat can see they are both tired, both desperate.

Freya took a deep breath. "I've told you everything they said already! They said they had Bucky, although they called him Barnes. They said that he was alive and unhurt. They had phoned because they wanted us to know he was safe and that he hadn't been taken by Hydra...and then they hung up."

"And there were no noises in the background? You didn't recognise the voice?" Freya had shaken her head. There had only been the one voice, deep and distorted, no other sounds, nothing.