Run (A Bucky Barnes Recovery Story)

48 Fax

Bucky walked over to Natasha’s apartment with the file in his hand and used the back of his knuckles to rap on the door. After a minute, he heard her approach the door and the lock clicked and she pulled the door open.

“Let me put it back,” instead of you, Bucky said. Let me fix my mistake. Natasha looked up at him and frowned. She was studying his face.

“You know you can’t,” she said.

“Is there any way I can make it up to you?” Bucky asked quietly and Natasha looked away from his face and pulled hair out of her eyes and sighed.

“You don’t have to, Bucky, I understand,” she said.

“But I should have left it, I know that,” Bucky said quickly. “This,” he continued, waving the file in the air. “Could have ruined everything. I’ve put everything on the line.”

“I know you have,” Natasha replied hotly. “But I understand, okay?” They stood there for a minute and Natasha gently took the yellowed folder out of Bucky’s hand and sifted through it, her face unreadable. Finally, she looked back up at him. “You look terrible,” she said.

“Steve and I read the whole thing,” Bucky replied by way of explanation.

“What did it say?” She asked.

“Nothing, I guess, that we didn’t really already know,” he replied. “It didn’t even go that far, it stopped after they grafted my arm on.”

“So you just tormented yourself with it,” Natasha said accusingly and Bucky shrugged. Then, Natasha gave in and wrapped him in a comforting hug. “Is Steve still over at your place?” she asked, her arms around his waist and her head on his right shoulder, where there was enough shoulder left to lay her head, and Bucky nodded. “Alright, go wait with him and I’ll be back in one minute.” She let him go and began to walk down the hall, walking backwards quickly so she could still see him. “Don’t think about it too hard, okay, Bucky?” She called after him as he watched her leave. “It’s in the past, and it’s never going to happen again.”

“Thank you, Tasha,” Bucky said and she blew him a kiss over her shoulder as she turned on heel around a corner.

Natasha read the file as she walked. It looked exactly the same as it had when the tables had been turned years ago and she herself had stolen it. It still had the same awful photos and information and she closed the top and looked away when she broke out into the street and began walking back to Summers’ apartment. He was there now, and there for the night. She would have to be stealthy. And she would have to find a place to lay the file where he could find it easily and believe that he himself had put it there and forgotten it. Natasha would have been nervous, but she couldn’t say this was something she’d never done before.

She snuck through the window this time, using a bobby pin to undo the lock from the outside, and slowly climbed in. The lights were off, as it had been getting late, and Natasha assumed Summers was asleep. She found his bedroom again and slipped herself in noiselessly, keeping to the walls and the shadows. The lights were off and the blinds were closed and Summers lay on his bed, under covers, snoring. Natasha walked over to the desk and sifted around the other papers there, planning on scattering the contents of the file amid the other papers in an attempt to convince Summers that he was simply disorganized, but as she was doing this, something caught her eye. It was a printed out memo, some sort of fax, with the words Codename: Winter Soldier on them and she felt Bucky’s desperate curiosity in that moment. She set the folder down and picked up the paper, scanning it in a hurry.

“Planned surprise attack next week…

“helicopter lift…

“sniper-like tranq darts...

“...get Rogers and Romanoff out of the way first…

“begin mind-wipe on helicopter before reaching pre-disclosed destination…

Natasha clasped a hand over her mouth to muffle her own gasp as she read. She glanced back down at the man sleeping on the bed and felt her stomach turn. She dropped the paper, right back where she found it, and slipped out again, but before shutting the window and walking back to the apartment, Natasha looked up to the camera she and Bucky had placed together in the corner and stared directly into the lens, where she was sure Bucky and Steve were watching now, and frowned deeply, before turning to leave out of the window.

They met her on the sidewalk and she grabbed them wordlessly and dragged them back upstairs.

“Is there something wrong?” Steve asked nervously.

“Are you still mad?” Bucky said at the same time.

“We have a problem,” Natasha said simply and waited until they got back to Bucky’s apartment to speak again. Bucky shut the door behind him and Natasha looked back and forth from him and Steve. “They’re pulling out all the stops, they really are. They’ll stop at nothing.”

“What are you talking about?” Bucky asked.

“You,” she cried. “They’re coming for you again.”

“Wait, how do you know?” Steve asked and Natasha began to pace.

“It could be a trap, or a set-up,” she said. “Lets not panic, they could be baiting us.”

“Natasha, for the love-” Steve started and Natasha cut him off.

“I found this fax,” she said and began to explain.