|1| Promise Me ✦ {Bucky Barnes}

Chapter 1: Ocean Eyes

BRIAR:

In the last few weeks, Steve, Natasha and I had been going on quite a few more missions together. After the alien attack on New York, (which I took no part in fighting because I was too unstable at the time) Steve and Natasha had moved to D.C to be closer to me and to the SHIELD headquarters. Nat already had an apartment here, while Steve had to go and find one. Until he did, he stayed with me in my apartment. He found a building fairly close to mine and got a place there, but he kept SHIELD out of it as much as possible; he really wanted a break from the prying eyes of the spy organization. Although he really didn't do a good job of evading them; I wasn't supposed to know, but Fury had sent one of his spies undercover to keep an eye on him. I didn't tell him, I wasn't supposed to know anyway.

On our last mission though, I had taken a bullet to my left leg and was put on injury suspension for the next while. Although the serum caused me to heal faster than the average person, for the next two weeks after that mission, I was still forced to go on suspension, which I hated. I really only needed a week, but that was SHIELD when it came to me. If anything happened, they took extra precaution, in fear that I might "lose it" on the field.

Whenever I went on suspension, it gave me time to think and gave me time to get in my own head. Usually, it resulted in a call from Nat or Steve to my therapist to schedule an emergency appointment for me. But this time, I fought Fury tooth and nail to just work from home, and I didn't care if it was just the boring paperwork and mission reports I had been putting off for the last few weeks. As long as I could distract myself from my thoughts, I was okay, so he finally agreed. And I had been doing exactly that.

Ever since that last mission where I had gotten hurt, both Fury had been really busy with the files from our last mission. I didn't know what he was doing with them, probably just adding the intel to our database, but it was taking him a lot longer than usual. I was in charge of the paperwork on those files, and they were supposed to come to me a day or two after that mission. It had now been four days, and I had received nothing. I contacted Fury about it, but I received no answers.

I knew something was wrong when on the fifth day on the three o'clock news, a headline read something about a black van that had been targeted in a police car chase and shooting. The reporter read that the person driving the van was unidentified, but that black van looked way too similar to the ones that SHIELD used, and I knew Fury was supposed to be out earlier today. Whatever happened, I knew he wasn't dead, because shortly after seeing that headline I received a call from an unknown number. Fury's burner phone.

"Baker, you need to get out of D.C, now," Fury's voice sounded grim.

"Fury, what's happening?" I asked.

"You're not safe here, get out of here as fast as you can," he instructed, "SHIELD's been compromised, and you're still on suspension for your injury,"

"Who else knows?"

"You and me for now, Rogers will know soon enough. Don't trust anyone," he hung up the phone with that. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't just leave my apartment, I had nowhere to go. The only friends I had had profiles in SHIELD's database, so I couldn't stay with them, even if they had second addresses. No, I had to stay back. I couldn't leave my apartment. I wasn't going into the office, so, for the time being, I should've been safe. But on the other hand, I didn't know why SHIELD was compromised. Or who the double agents were, or who they worked for. If they knew where I lived, I could be in serious danger. I had to get out, but where? I couldn't just leave D.C like Fury said, the double agents would know something's going on and would come after me, but I couldn't stay here either. I also needed to continue signing into work from my laptop like nothing was wrong. If I acted any differently, they would know. If I didn't leave my apartment at the very least, I could be in danger.