Bound By Purpose

Forget Me Not

 When I come back I wake up to Sam's face. He kneels down, one hand on my back the other tugging at my wrist. He comes in and out of my vision as the lights come and go. He's trying to pull me up so I let him, very unsure of what is going on. He pulls me out of the room and to the stairs where the droning of the alarms are hidden by heavy doors. He goes up one flight scouting. "What's going on Sam?" I ask stopping him from going down. 

"I thought you might be able to tell me..." He says continuing down. He waves me to him and I follow him down to another door. He pushes it open and light floods in. It's blinding to my headache for a moment before I adjust.

"They've already locked it all down outside, Sharon told us we could get out this way and follow Steve and Bucky."

"Is he... himself?"

"You tell me." He points to the water where a mostly submerged helicopter sits with it's rotors up. "I assume you can swim." I nod still focused on the wreck in front of me. "We can get to them if we can bypass all the patrols. Carter told me they're in an abandoned warehouse a few blocks down... I assume we can trust her."

"We can." I say without hesitation. There's a door opening down the landing from us. A few people pour from it stopping at the edge looking down at the helicopter. Sam and I silently slip into the water and make a swim for it. I follow Sam, as it seems he's been given strict directions. Sneaking past is relatively easy as those gathered on the shore are focused on the crash. We've swam nearly two blocks when Sam pulls himself up and out. He lends a hand down to me and hoists me out of the water. Once on solid ground again I realize just what position we're in now... We're certainly fugitives now, no going back. But in a way it wasn't any of our faults, they somehow let a... a man with motives inside. It was all as Steve had said, people have agendas. I was a fool to ever doubt him. 

There's police sirens but they're still pretty far away, as far as I can tell. Sam and I don't say a word to each other as we approach a building I assume that holds our boys. 

I can feel the nerves creeping up on me now. What man would I meet inside? I tell myself that it doesn't matter. Whatever happens I will be able to handle it, I did in '64 and this time around I had Steve to aid me as well.

The wherehouse is empty, it's barren of all its old machinery. Nothing but the pillars and a few puddles. In all honesty it reminded me of factory of Riveters from the 40's. To think I would have been one of those women building and aiding in the fight from home had I never met Steve or Bucky. Sam and I trek across the cold concrete floor to the back where a smaller room juts from the wall. I pick up my pace when I see Steve leaning against the wall inside. Seeing Bucky through the door opening slouched up against the wall sends me into a run. 

My focus, my sight, my thoughts, they're all with Bucky in this moment. So much so that I don't see Steve reaching across me to stop me until he's knocked the air from my chest. I look from Steve to Bucky on the floor, his metal arm stuck in a large metal vise. He's clearly knocked out. "I don't know who we'll get when we wake up." Steve says. I shake him off and slowly approach James. I sigh and kneel beside him. Taking it slow I sweep the hair out of his face and press a cold hand against his cheek. He stirs almost instantly. His free hand moves to his cheek and slowly removes my hand he holds it tight as he lifts his head. 

His eyes never leave mine, but he acknowledges Steve first, "What did I do?" I can't hide my smile seeing that he is indeed himself. I squeeze his hand and look to Steve. Steve is looking at me. I look back to Bucky unsure how to word it. "Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything that HYDRA put inside my head is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words." I look down remembering years ago when we were in a similar position.