Remembering Freedom

Questioning

James stared at the bundle of clothes for a moment before slowly getting off the bed. He managed to pull on the pants without a problem, but putting on the tight black tank top pulled at the stitches in his back, stomach and shoulder. He ground his teeth as the pain slowly faded and had just pulled the hem of the shirt over the bandages wrapped around his torso when the door opened. His body went rigid as the young man entered the room.

Leopold Fitz's startled gaze met his and James didn't miss the fear that came into his eyes for a moment. Not that James blamed him, HYDRA hadn't done him any favors... Melinda May walked in behind him, her expression almost as unreadable as his own, and flicked her dark eyes in James' direction. Fitz set his bag of tools on a rolling table and moved it so James could rest his arm palm up on the table. His hands trembled as he dug through the bag, the first sign of the brain damage he suffered at the hands of Grant Ward making its appearance.

"Can...can your uh..." He motioned to the arm. "Can it get..." The man's brows furrowed as he tried to think of the word, hands wringing in frustration. "Wet?"

Images flashed through his mind: Steve falling and falling...him diving in after him...pulling him out onto the bank...the painful moment before the man finally took a breath...With you to end of the line... He shook away the memories. "Yes."

Fitz rolled back the table and James followed suit as he walked to the sink, only a slight twinge as the stitches pulled at his skin. He held the arm under the faucet, watching as the water went from red to pink to clear. He then dried it off the best he could and walked back to the bed, setting his arm back onto the rolled table. He pulled out a few familiar looking tools. "Could I...uh remove the..."

"Do whatever you think needs done." He forced himself to sound sincere, even though there was a part of him that feared a punishment, that feared the shock of electricity up his arm and into his body... He didn't need to scare Fitz any more than he already was at the moment. He forced himself to stay absolutely still as the engineer took off the plating and exposed the inner workings of the arm.

It was actually pretty fascinating to get look at the arm considering every other time he had either been drugged or in Soldier mode. The Soldier didn't care about what made his arm work, never got fascinated by the chromed coated wiring, gears, or circuits. Bucky Barnes at one time had been so enamored with science and technology and he couldn't help but give a little smile as he wiggled his uncovered fingers, giving Fitz a small scare. "Sorry 'bout scaring ya kid."

Melinda raised an eyebrow at the word 'kid', but relaxed as Fitz actually smiled before taking the container full of metal pieces and filling it with water. He seemed in his element as he methodically cleaned and polished each piece before attaching them without a single tremor. If anything the arm looked better than it had in decades, probably because the engineer cared about more than just functionality. He rotated his wrist and bent his arm, listening the familiar humming. "Thanks."

He shrugged as he put away the tools. "Anything for saving Jemma."

James froze, remembering her screams as he took the mission to kill her team, her family. Or the scream as he broke the bones in her wrist. Or even her cries of pain as he hit her on Volkov's orders... He looked away for a moment, thinking about how her touch brought James to the surface. "Pretty sure it was other way around."

He received another quirked eyebrow from Melinda before she had Fitz clear out his tools and take them back to his bunkers. He stood there, watching the young man leave the room before looking at Melinda. He remembered her from that 'message' weeks ago, how cold her eyes were or the smile that promised only pain... He could see shadows of himself in that expression and knew that this woman had seen horrors that weren't present in the reports Volkov had had him read...