Soldier in Winter (A Bucky Barnes FanFiction)

Everyday

It had been months since Ellie had arrived in Wakanda. There had been a terrible conflict that had shortly followed her arrival. It had almost dethroned T'Challa, but Ellie had been almost completely unaffected. Her brother, Charlie, attended school everyday, excelling in all of his classes. Ava spent most of the day with Ellie or at the daycare whenever Ellie needed to do her research.

They had moved out of the city, living in a small house on a lake with a few other neighbors. There were lots of children about that area, so in the evenings, the children could play together.

In the mornings, Ellie would get up early and walk to a small garden that she had planted and would garden until it was time to wake Charlie up for school. She, along with some parents or older siblings would walk the group of children to their classroom before Ellie would go into the city to do research with Shuri.

Ava would get dropped off at the daycare, and Ellie would arrive and help Shuri with any technology they were developing. During lunchtime, Ellie would slip off and go visit the room where Bucky was being kept and where many technicians were trying to develop a way to help Bucky. They were so close to being done. Ellie would spend an hour sitting and talking to Bucky even though he was asleep, and then she would return to her research.

After she worked, she would pick Ava up from the daycare on her way home. Charlie would be at one of the neighbor's houses, so Ellie would stop in and get him too. Sometimes, they would all each dinner together, the families that lived together. Other times, Ellie would cook for them as a small family.

After dinnertime, Ellie would sit and play with Ava while helping Charlie with his homework. At bedtime, she would read to them and then tuck them in bed. After that, she too would fall asleep only to repeat the same thing the next day.

She enjoyed it, most days, but she was still missing Bucky. She couldn't wait for him to get out of the cryofreeze.

One morning, Ellie had wrapped up her research and was heading to her normal lunch with Bucky, but she was stopped by one of Shuri's assistants.

"I need some extra help right now, Miss Ellie, if you do not mind," she said. Ellie looked down at her watch. She figured that she could delay her lunch a while.

"Of course, what is it?" Ellie asked, setting her computer back down at her corner desk. She followed the assistant over to her desk listening to her explain the work. Ellie sat down beside her and they began to resolve a few problems.

Soon Ellie looked up to see that no one else was in the hall except them. Even at lunchtime, the place usually hummed with the voices of people.

"Anathi, where is everyone?" Ellie asked. Anathi didn't even look up from the computer. She seemed to be hiding something from her.

"I am not sure, Miss Ellie, perhaps there is a celebration today?"

"You would know your celebrations, Anathi, so tell me, what's really going on?"

"I cannot tell you, but Shuri told me to keep you here."

Ellie rolled her eyes, what could Shuri possibly want from her. "Well, I am going to lunch, okay? I will come back soon to help you."

"But Miss Ellie-"

"I'll be back!" 

Ellie left the room and made her way up to where Bucky was being kept. She opened the door and entered only to find the room completely empty. All of the monitors had gone and the cryofreeze tube was missing.

"Ellie, he's not there anymore! We moved him down a few levels," it was Shuri. Ellie turned and sighed, beginning to follow her down the stairs

"You could have warned me in person instead of having Anathi keep me in the lab, Shuri," she retorted.