Pushing Daisies [BUCKY BARNES]

7

"Look out!"

My head shot to the right and a piece of shrapnel lodged itself in my cheek, throwing my body to the ground upon impact. I had just found the lab and took a step in the door just to be pierced by some rouge metal.

"What the hell?" I shrieked, pushing myself up into a sitting position and glaring at the two men across the lab.

The one I didn't know looked on in shock before racing around, muttering about their first aid kid, while Tony just sauntered over and yanked me up off the floor. "Hey kid."

"Hey Tony," my hand slowly reached for my cheek, feeling the freezing metal and pulling my fingers away covered in blood. "You called me?"

He slung his arm over my should and led me towards the doctor who scurried around the other side of the lab. "Yeah, kid, I just realized that there was some stuff I didn't get to ask you about at our little interview."

I smiled up at him before wincing as the shrapnel in my cheek dug in deeper. "Alright! I'm okay answering some stuff."

The other doctor took my hand, now, leading me over to a large metal table and helping me up onto it. "H-hello miss," he stumbled over his words.

"Hi. I'm Wesley Powers. Just call me Wes."

He smiled, seemingly relieved that I had taken a bit of the torture and anxiety out of introductions. "Bruce Banner."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Banner."

The doctor just chuckled a little, pulling out a pair of tweezers and carefully removing the metal from my cheek. Then, silently, he took an alcohol pad and wiped out my wound the best he could.

"You don't talk very much," I commented, then smiled brightly, "I like you!"

The doctor blushed at this and I could hear Tony cackling from the other side of the lab, the tinkering and mechanical whirrs almost drowning it out. "T-thanks?"

I smiled again, making it harder for the doctor to get an my wound, and grabbed at his face, planting a small kiss on his forehead. "You don't get enough love, it's okay. I'll love you."

For what I felt like had been a long time, Bruce Banner stood on in shock for a moment, looking a bit starstruck. Then he just smiled and shook his head and went back to patching me up. "There, good as new. You can change it every five hours, put Neosporin on it too."

I nodded then slid off the desk, landing quietly on the floor. "Mr. Stark, you wanted to talk to me?" After a few moments of no response, I wandered into the lab to find him on the ground, shoved under some sort of machine. "Mr. Stark?"

"I'm here, kid." He slid out from under, wiping his oily hands on his jeans. "So I just wanted to ask you some stuff, you know, face to face."

I nodded, suddenly feeling my previous unease settling in again. "S-sure Mr. Stark."

He took a few steps forwards, stopped, then turned to look at me. "Who are you?"

I stopped, my eyebrows knitting together. "What? Wesley Powers, you know that."

"No you're not." He started shaking his finger, walking right past me to a tablet on the counter and picking it up. "I've done worldwide scans, searched the name over and over. Searched for your face too. Nothing." He turned back to me. "Who are you?"

I shook my head, "what are you-"

"Oh, but wait." His fingers flicked across the screen, throwing up an image of my face... but it looked different. "When I hacked my way into SHEILD's database, I found a little something. Lillian Jacobs, huh?"

The confused look on my face must have tipped him off. "What are you even saying?"

"Lillian Jacobs? Ringing any bells?"

I shook my head. "I'm Wesley Powers, I'm telling you. I've never been anyone but."

Sighing, he enhanced some of the files. Lillian Marie Jacobs, written in fancy cursive, and an army nurse enlistment form. "Well, she sure looks and seems a lot like you, kid. That, and we couldn't dig up any files on you at all."

"I'm Wesley Jessica Powers-"

"When were you born?"

My brain reeled at this sudden conversation change. "What?"

"When. Were. You. Born." Tony stepped closer to me, nothing but curiosity burning in his eyes.

"I-I..." I stumbled. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Bruce walked up next to me now, placing a calming hand on my shoulder. "We're not gonna hurt you, we just want to truth. It's not every day someone comes in with no personal record."

"I don't know." I said again, this time a little more forcefully.

"Who are your parents?"

"I don't know."

"Grandparents?"

I shook my head.

"Siblings?"

"Not one."

Bruce sighed, taking over from Tony's incessant questions. "Wesley, what's your earliest memory?"

I stopped at this, looking straight at him as I thought. "The stuff thats garbled or the stuff that's clear?"

Both men looked at each other, before Tony turned to me. "Clear, then we'll backtrack through the garbled stuff."

I didn't want to backtrack through the garbled memories I had forced down. They weren't pleasant and I didn't like to think about them, it often caused shooting pains in my skull when I tried. "Alright, probably when I met Julianne. I was sixteen."

"Okay." Bruce had noticed the stutter and stumble in my words that I tried hard to hide. "Is it okay if I hook you up to that machine over there?" He pointed back towards where we had been previously, "it just detects brainwaves and muscle functions. I can already see that thinking that far back is hurting you, and that way we know when t stop pushing."

I nodded, letting the doctor lead me over to the machine and hook the small suction cups to my forehead and neck. "So I just keep answering things and it'll tell you what's going on?"

"Well, yes, but it'll also let us see what you saw, on this monitor, so if at any point you want to tell us something but it hurts to think about or talk about it'll just show up here."

I smiled, looking between the two older men. "You guys made that? That's so cool!"

Tony just chuckled but stayed silent. I could tell just by his expression he believed me, he knew I was telling the truth, but I knew he knew that there was a lot more lying beneath my skin, things even I didn't want to think of.

"Alright," Bruce powered on the monitor. "Now we have your earliest memory, let's try out those garbled ones, shall we?"

I swallowed hard, nervous for the pain I knew was ahead. But, alas, I closed my eyes and thought as hard as I could, all before the pain took over and I shut down.