Captain's Hart and Soul

Chapter 19 Black Panther

Bucharest, Romania

Steve walked through the small flat warily, his shield attached to the magnets on his left arm. He glanced around the somewhat untidy room, taking in the newspapers covering all the windows, and the lone mattress in one corner of the room with a thin blanket and one single pillow laid in the exact centre of the top. Just like in the army.

Something else caught his attention, and Steve wandered over towards the fridge, gently pulling a small notebook out from under a few candy bars. He opened it carefully just as Sam said over the ear comms: "Heads up, Cap. German special forces approaching from the south."

Steve examined the picture inside the notebook as he replied absently: "Understood."

Steve tensed as he suddenly felt a presence behind him, and he turned quickly to see Bucky standing by the mattress, watching Steve carefully. Steve slowly lowered the notebook as he faced Bucky fully, taking in the unclean shaven state of his old friend, his face partially hidden by a dark blue cap.

"Do you know me?" Steve asked carefully.

Bucky was eyeing him just as warily, and he finally answered monotonously: "You're Steve. I read about you in a museum."

He jerked his head at the notebook to add to his point, and Steve examined the other man. Sam called sharply: "They've set the perimeter."

Steve didn't respond, saying to Bucky carefully: "I know you're nervous." He slowly placed the notebook down on the counter beside him as he continued: "And you have plenty of reason to be."

Steve looked Bucky straight in the eye as he said firmly: "But you're lying."

Bucky seemed to weigh that, and he finally admitted flatly: "I wasn't in Vienna, I don't do that anymore."

"They're entering the building." Sam called urgently, and Steve glanced at the covered windows before saying to Bucky quickly: "Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive."

"That's smart." Bucky answered, nodding slightly with some appreciation despite the situation. "Good strategy."

Bucky's stance also tensed, his flickering about the flat. Steve's fist clenched slightly as Sam called: "They're on the roof. I'm compromised."

Steve also glanced about, but he refocused on Bucky as he tried to persuade the man quietly: "This doesn't have end in a fight, Buck."

Bucky walked slowly over to the front door, and he looked Steve in the eye as he answered flatly: "It always ends in a fight."

"Five seconds." Sam cried urgently, and Steve demanded of Bucky, feeling the pressure: "You pulled me from the river. Why?"

Bucky pulled off the glove hiding his metal hand. He stared down at it pensively as he told Steve quietly: "I don't know."

"Three seconds!" Sam called, but Steve ignored him as he told Bucky firmly: "Yes, you do."

"Breach!" Sam cried, and both Steve and Bucky whipped their heads to the windows on the other side of the flat as a hand grenade smashed into the room. "Breach! Breach!"

Steve smacked the grenade away, making it burst harmlessly against his shield just as another grenade came flying through another window, rolling onto the ground beside Bucky. Bucky quickly kicked it towards Steve, and Steve crouched down immediately, slamming his shield over the bomb and letting it go off harmlessly beneath it.

There was a shout from outside the front door, and then a crash as they smashed a battering ram on the locked door. Steve quickly lifted his shield again as Bucky turned around, grabbing the mattress and used it as a shield as a gun fired from the windows opposite the door. Steve ducked for cover behind the counter as the front door rattled once more as the battering ram smashed against it.