Dark Little Things (A Bucky Barnes Fanfic)

Chapter One

Chapter One

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"SHIELD - stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," Director Fury's brash tone filled the room as I sat in one of the revolving chairs surrounding a table made of lustrous glass, curled up defensively, holding my knees to my chest as I chewed on my bottom lip. He accented each word strongly, nailing the consonants with deadly precision as he spun on his heel, leather jacket sweeping along his knees, leaning back against something...something that beeped and sputtered and glowed with numerous buttons.

I had been attempting to block out the curious stares from the numerous agents who lined the walls, typing away furiously at screens that flickered different colors and were littered with extraneous words for a while now, but it was time to give up the facade. I was terrified, surrounded by people I did not know in a strange place I had no recollection of ever being in.

The ability to speak had barely begun to return to me, and after hours of slowly practicing moving my facial muscles to form words properly with Agent Hill, she had taken me to the main room of the SHIELD facility.

When I had first awoke, the concept of space was foreign to me. I hadn't grasped quite how large the place was until my feet ached from trailing behind Maria for what felt like ages. The doors...the doors were different. They were embedded in the walls themselves, and Maria explained to me that they were security precautions. SHIELD was a safe haven for the time being, and they would keep it that way for as long as possible.

My eyes swept about the room over the faces of the men and women that occupied the room, yet I found no sign of the blue and red striped man. Something inside me ached faintly, for a reason I could not pinpoint, and I turned my attention back to Nicholas Fury, who was now leaning against the transparent table, fingers outspread from his palms as they laid flat against the surface.

"I know you don't feel like sitting here and getting lectured by me, Miss Cain," Fury began with a stern voice, his one eye never leaving my own. I fell rigid under his gaze, "but it is extremely important that you listen to me and pay attention."

I felt like a child being scolded after getting caught with her hands in the cookie jar, and I looked away, down at my lap in understanding. Then my brows furrowed in confusion. Where had that analogy come from?

"For the time being, SHIELD is acting as a safe house for the government. To the outside world, we're nothing more than the ghost of a once fully-operational government procedure," Maria took over, casting Fury a sly look over her shoulder as she sat rigidly at the table across from me. He snorted and rolled his one eye, shaking his head in irritation before turning around and folding his arms over his chest, allowing her to continue for him.

What happened?

I stared at Maria, patiently waiting for a response before I realized that I hadn't spoken aloud.

My lips parted and I wetted them, attempting to form the words and speak them like I had earlier, but only ghosts of consonants and barely recognizable vowels fell from my tongue. Maria cast me a glance before Fury spoke, brows furrowed in confusion, "I thought you said you worked on her speech, Hill?"

Maria let out a sigh, visibly searching for the right words, "We did, sir, but her muscle coordination is still...developing."

"Hill, I don't have time to sit here and worry about her as well as - "

"With all due respect, sir, I would expect nothing more from someone who'd been unconscious for such a long time," she spoke abruptly, her tone showing that she would not lower her defense, not even for someone as powerful as Director Fury.