the tables have turned | steve/bucky

chapter seven

“Steve Rogers, well I’ll be damned.”

I faced Tony Stark’s smug expression from across the room. His aged face enlightened when Natasha followed behind me, but his smile dropped when he saw Bucky.

“Uhhh…What is that thing?” Tony spat, stepping back. “It smells.”

“This is Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes,” Natasha filled in. Tony laughed, almost mockingly, in our faces. He then looked at me.

“Didn’t he try to kill you?”

“I didn’t come here for your criticism or sarcasm,” I growled.

“Then what did you come for, huh, ‘Cap?”

For the next thirty minutes, I filled Tony in on the events of the past couple of days. At some parts he laughed, at others he became very quiet. I wondered if he was computing some sort of analysis in his head just by hearing the story. I handed him Bucky’s portfolio with his medical diagnosis. Tony skimmed it, and then looked off into the distance. He seemed worried, which made me anxious. Tony was never worried.

“Come,” Tony commanded, tugging at my shirt. “Bring the smelly one with you too.”

Tony led us into a room full of high-tec gadgets. His suits and their prototypes were in there too, aligning the walls. Tony plopped down on his swiveling chair and rolled over to a magical screen that seemed to appear out of thin air. He pulled up some flies by poking at the screen. After a few minutes of reading them over, he buried his face in his hands. My heart plummeted.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, standing up. Tony sighed. “You’re gonna need to sit down,” he said. I sat on another swiveling chair next to him.

“That same shit all those doctors back in the day used to make you… well, you, was used on Bucky, too. But it wasn’t the same. You see, Hydra developed their own version of the Super Soldier Serum. It did to Bucky what it did to you, minus the physical differences. But he’s just as fast, just as strong, and just as smart as you now.”

“Okay?” I interrupted. “I don’t see what the problem is then.”

“Let me finish,” Tony muttered. “Hydra somehow messed up the effects of the serum by freezing Bucky so many times. It made his natural defenses go haywire. I’m guessing that the last time he was unfrozen, his body had enough of the serums effects and started fighting it off, probably thinking that the serum itself was causing Bucky’s body to shut down for long periods of time.”

“What does that mean?” asked Natasha from afar.

Tony shook his head. “It means when Bucky’s body flushes the serum completely out… he’s going to die.”

Die?

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I stood up, pushed past Tony, Nat, and Bucky, and vomited all over Tony’s living room.

“What the fuck, Steve!” Tony yelled.

Yeah, what the fuck, Steve?