Let Me Help

by lokigodofaces

Summary:

Jennifer King has had her telepathic and empathetic abilities as long as she can remember. They come to good use when she meets the Winter Soldier, broken and lost, terrified of himself and Hydra. How will she help Bucky? Will she end up in prison for it? And as time goes on, what will happen? And what of romantic attractions?

Chapter 1: Let Me Help

Notes:

Warnings at the beginning of every chapter

Mind reading
Amnesia
Torture mention
Brainwashing mention
Memory wiping mention
Mental nudging
Compliance

"Who am I? What happened to me?" Jennifer flinches as she hears the thought and feels an onslaught of guilt, fear, pain, and confusion. She stops in the middle of Washington DC's sidewalk. She swivels her head wildly, looking toward the source of the extreme empathetic and telepathic pain. She shudders anxiously as the connection persists. She looks down the windy road, confused. Her empathetic powers allowed her to sense the emotions of one within ten yards of her normally. As for telepathy, she has to be next to the person to hear any thoughts. Only in extreme circumstances has she felt emotions from farther away, and never has she heard thoughts without a close proximity. 

My gosh, this is insane!

Jennifer walks down the road, despite her home being the other way. She searches for whoever is feeling and thinking these emotions and thoughts. She picks up her pace until she is running. Her senses lead her to a lonely alley that she would have missed if it weren't for her psychological senses. She slows to a walk as she approaches.

She peers in the alley. The only living thing Jennifer sees is a man crouched against the wall of a building. He is very hidden. Again, Jennifer would've missed him if she hadn't sensed him. He is shaking and alert. Jennifer feels more emotion than she'd ever felt from another human being. "Who am I? What happened to me?" echo across her head, as he mentally screams his questions. She can feel the rolling psychological pain he is experiencing.

Dissociative fugue? Jennifer supposes. Dissociative fugue is a psychological disorder where one cannot deal with his stressful environment anymore. The brain locks away any information about his identity and puts him in a "trance." During this "trance," the afflicted goes miles away from his home without thinking about it. When he "wakes up," he has no idea who or where he is. 

Jennifer had met one man with the rare disorder when she was in her hometown of Salt Lake City, but had never met another one.

Jennifer slowly walks toward the man. The man, upon realizing her presence, shifts away from her. His face is covered by his long, dark hair that appears to be damp. He wears black clothes, that also appear to be somewhat damp. Jennifer crouches next to the man.

Upon physical contact, Jennifer can feel more and hear more, even dig through memory. Wanting to know as much as she can to help the man, she slowly reaches her hand out to touch his shoulder. 

The man flinches away from her hand. "Don't touch me!" he says in a dark voice, the first words he had spoken since Jennifer arrived.

Jennifer puts her hands in her lap and sits down in a more comfortable position. "Alright, I won't, I promise," she says with as much understanding as she can muster, which turns out to be a lot. She sits next to the man for some time. He repeatedly glances at her. Jennifer feels suspicion growing in him. "Is she with them?" Unsure of who them is, Jennifer tries to search his memories, knowing that memory and emotion are deeply connected. If his emotions were this extreme, maybe his memory is too. But she doesn't find any access to his memory.

"I won't hurt you, I promise. You actually are probably more likely to hurt me than I am to hurt you," Jennifer says to comfort him. He shudders when she says that, and guilt builds up. What happened to him? He continues to suspiciously glance over her, but he doesn't leave or ask her to leave. 

Within two minutes, it begins to sprinkle. In the commencing minutes, the rain picks up. And I couldn't have worn anything more than this little jacket, she thinks as she stares at her sea green jacket. I've never seen anyone this hurt before. I have to help him, despite the rain! Jennifer shivers, but stays sitting next to the nameless man.

Her shivering catches the attention of the man. He looks at her again, but without suspicion. Jennifer feels his hints of concern. She smiles lightly. "The rain's not a problem. I'll be fine," she lies as she violently shivers.

He looks away from her, but the concern builds. "She'll get sick. Just like, just like him."

Who's him? Jennifer wonders. She once again confirms she's fine. 

"Just do it," she hears him think. The man unzips his black jacket. He leans over and gently nudges Jennifer onto his chest before covering her with his jacket, using his body heat to keep her warm and his jacket to keep her dry. Jennifer remains unworried, as she feels no malignant feelings toward her from him, only concern. Rather, she takes this as an opportunity to search his memories.

It is difficult. Usually, it takes only physical contact to search. But with this man, Jennifer has to focus on his past. She also has to amp up her sensitivity to his emotions and cognition. Once she does, she gasps inaudibly.

This is no ordinary dissociative fugue patient.

This is the Winter Soldier. 

James Buchanan Barnes, better known as Bucky Barnes. 

Who had been captured by Hydra and brainwashed according to Steve Rogers.

Who had been involved in the wreck in the Potomac.

It is him.

Jennifer digs through his memories. He had fought his child hood friend, Steve Rogers, on the helicarrier, and almost killed him. The Steve broke through the brainwashing, sort of. The man is no longer under Hydra's control, but his memories are fuzzy, and his identity confused. He had saved Steve, not knowing why he did, just that he needed to. He left, and had seen the exhibit on him at the Smithsonian. He had seen himself on TVs, portrayed as a terrorist.

Bracing herself, Jennifer goes deeper into his past and flinches. She sees him falling into the ravine, going into ice, and being tortured and experimented on. Hydra wiped his memories and brainwashed him over and over again. She sees through his eyes as he kills people for Hydra unwillingly. 

She stops and notices a few tears on her face. His emotions are so powerful. He is terrified. Terrified of himself. Terrified of the government finding him. Terrified of Hydra finding him. Terrified of losing himself again. He is burdened with guilt. Guilt from the deaths he's caused. Guilt from almost killing Steve (though he doesn't quite know it's Steve). He is confused. Confused by his surroundings. Confused by his fuzzy memories. Confused by what Steve told him. Confused by his identity. He is in pain. Pain from all those years Hydra used him. He is tired. Tired of running. Tired of hiding. Tired of the pain and confusion and guilt and terror. 

Jennifer wipes her tears off her face. She takes a deep breath and uses another one of her abilities. With physical contact, she can gently change another's emotions. She gently uses her psychic abilities to calm the Soldier down. She feels him shaking less and taking deeper breaths. She feels the fear, guilt, confusion, and pain edging away. She steels herself as she takes upon those emotions herself. Jennifer glances across his body and finds some injuries.

The rain turns to a small drizzle. Jennifer comes to a decision. "I want to help you, but we can't sit in this alley all night. We can go to my place for now," she tells the Soldier quietly. 

He glances at her suspiciously. "I can't trust you."

Jennifer gently uses her telepathy to nudge him in the right direction. She hates doing it, since the Soldier spent seventy years being used and abused via Hydra psychiatry. But they really need to get to her home; it's getting late, and his injuries need to be attended to. And it's not like Jennifer is controlling him. No, she just pushes him toward trusting her and lets him do the rest. "Please. Let me help."

"Okay," he says quietly. He stands up and helps Jennifer up off the ground.

"I'll lead the way!" Jennifer says with a smile as she looks up at the Soldier. She is just under five feet tall, and he is over six.

She grabs his hand and pulls him with her to her apartment. He keeps his head down as they walk there, and they try to keep to the dark areas to avoid anyone seeing them. When they get to the apartment building, Jennifer steers him up the stairs before the lady at the desk could question it. They walk into her apartment on the third floor and she locks the doors and windows and closes the curtains, just in case.

Jennifer gently pushes him on the couch. He doesn't resist, he's too tired to. Jennifer informs him that she'll be back with food and she scurries off to the kitchen. She doesn't make anything fancy. She throws some canned tomato soup on the stove and cooks it while she toasts and butters bread and finds some saltines. She serves the soup into two bowls and throws the crackers and toast on a plate. She grabs some spoons and goes back to her guest.

She sits next to him and puts the food on the coffee table. She hands him a bowl and spoon. "You need to eat something, please."

"I'm not hungry."

"You're hurt and tired. Please, you need to eat something." Despite his stubbornness, Jennifer convinces him to eat without the aid of telepathy. He eats, but flinches at sudden noises and movements. Jennifer eats her own food with him, offering him saltines and toast. "I promise they go well with the soup. You'll like them." Having already learned that he can't fight her when it comes to food, the Soldier eats a few saltines and a slice of toast to make her happy. "Would you like anymore?" He shakes his head seriously.  She smiles sweetly. "Alrighty. Wait right here for a moment."

Jennifer heads to the dresser in her guest room. Her older brother, Ty, and his wife, Rhea, are frequent visitors of Jennifer's. Unfortunately for her brother, he is somewhat forgetful. This means that Jennifer almost always has a few clothes of his. And Ty is much closer to the Soldier's height than Jennifer is, Ty being  five foot eleven inches. She sits through his clothes and finds a soft white tank top and comfortable grey sweat pants. Jennifer sets them on the bed and returns to the living room, where the calmer, her confused soldier is. Though the confusion goes beyond his identity. He is confused by her kindness now.

Jennifer leads him to the guest room and hands him the sweat pants. "Put these on. But don't put the tank top on yet." He nods. Jennifer gestures to a small basket. "Put what you're wearing now in there. I can wash them." Jennifer leaves the room and gently shuts the door. She goes back to the kitchen and finds her first aid kit. She knocks on the guest room door. "May I come in?"

A small, "Yes," is heard. Jennifer walks in and closes the door behind her. She sets the first aid kit and tank top on the dresser and pulls the blankets partially off of the bed. She gently nudges Bucky into a position on the bed where she can help him. She hurriedly does so, because she can tell he'll pass out from exhaustion soon, and she doesn't think she could lift him onto the mattress. He is lying flat on his back. He doesn't resist her pushing him places. Jennifer assumes it is because he hasn't resisted orders for years. She begins to clean cuts on his chest, face, and flesh arm. While doing so, she feels his anxiety rise, but he also grows more weary. He is confused by her presence. He doesn't know who she is or why she is with him.

Jennifer is about to introduce herself when he grabs her wrist with his metal appendage. Though surprised, Jennifer doesn't worry. She is cleaning cuts on his flesh arm, so it's not exactly available. He looks at her in desperation and confusion. "Who are you?" he asks, worry in his voice.

Jennifer smiles. "I'm Jennifer King, and I promise I'll help you," she says gently.

His facial features twist in confusion. "I, I think I'm Bucky. I don't know though."

Jennifer brushes hair out of his eyes. "You're right. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes, but everyone calls you Bucky." She starts to stitch any cuts that need it and to place bandages on those and the others. Jennifer sends calming waves of empathy through her finger tips to him, and she feels him relax. She eventually asks him to roll over onto his back, where she does the same thing. 

When she's done, she grabs the tank top. "Here, I'm done with your cuts. I'll look at them later. You can put this on." He obediently pulls the top on. He can barely keep his eyes open now. Jennifer asks him to lie down and he does. She pulls the blankets over him. "Please, get some rest. You deserve it. I'll be up pretty early, and you can come find me in the morning. But for now, get some sleep, okay?" He nods slowly. Jennifer beams at him. "Alrighty. Good night, Bucky." Jennifer turns to leave but is stopped by a flesh hand grabbing her wrist.

"Stay with me until I'm asleep, please. Please, I need something to prove I'm not back there again," Bucky says, voice shaking. 

Jennifer feels his fear that he misplaced his hope, that Hydra will find him again. He is desperate to be free of his abusers, but he can't quite believe he's not in their custody once again. Jennifer sits on the chair beside the bed. "Of course, Bucky." She smiles at him as she rubs his flesh hand in her palms. She turns the lamp off, bringing the room into darkness. Bucky flinches, but calms down as Jennifer musters as much as she can to calm him enough to give him a peaceful night's sleep. He falls asleep within fifteen minutes. Jennifer glances at her watch and sees it's 11:30. She silently goes to her room to get some sleep herself.

A/N

I promise this is the last new fic for a bit! I will only publish another if all of my books have at least five chapters!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy Let Me Help!

💙🖤💙 Michelle

Chapter 2: The Morning

Notes:

Compliance
Sleep disturbances
Mind Reading
Torture mention
Brainwashing mention
Memory wiping mention
Killing mention
Amnesia

Jennifer wakes from a restless night of sleep. She had absorbed so much negative emotions the previous night, more than she ever had. She had tossed and turned, anxiety ridden, feeling pangs of guilt. She tosses her hair up in a messy bun and puts her glasses on. She looks in her mirror to see if she is somewhat presentable. Upon deciding she is, even with her black sweat pants and loose green t-shirt on. She shrugs the sleeve that likes to fall off her shoulder back on. 

When she leaves her room, she sees Bucky standing in the hallway, alert and silent. Though his emotions aren't as easily read as before, Jennifer can still faintly feel them. He's anxious, confused, and guilt ridden. He is falling into the same pattern he had as the Winter Soldier, waiting for orders. 

Jennifer walks toward him cautiously, not wanting to startle him. When he sees her, his eyes convey all he feels, confirming the faint feelings Jennifer recieved. She stands in front of him, looking up toward his face as he towers above her. Not knowing what to do, Jennifer tries to strike up a conversation. "So, Bucky, how did you sleep last night?"

"Good," he says, a hint of nervousness in his voice. He scans Jennifer with his eyes. He returns his gaze to her eyes, though occasionally glancing around him. "Did you?"

Jennifer shrugs, her sleeve drooping off her shoulder. "I've had worse nights." She feels some concern radiate off of Bucky. "It's alright. No nightmares. I just tossed and turned. Can you please come to the kitchen? You've had a rough few days. You need to eat."

Slowly, Bucky follows her. It's been seventy years since he's been asked to do something, not ordered or forced. Jennifer smiles reassuringly. "What would you like for breakfast?"

She feels his confusion at being asked something so simple. It throws him off guard. "I, uh, what do you have?"

"I can make something. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, bagels, bacon, sausage. You choose," Jennifer says, smiling warmly.

Bucky hesitates, surprised. "I choose?" Jennifer feels his slight panic at being given a choice. He's amazed by the opportunity, but doesn't feel as if he can do it.

They reach the kitchen then. Jennifer turns to face Bucky and smiles with concern. "Of course, Bucky. You aren't with Hydra anymore. You can make your own choices. I want to help you recover. And that means I need to help you feel comfortable making your choices." Jennifer slowly reaches her hand to reassuringly rest on his flesh arm. "I'll try as hard as I can to keep you safe."

"How? If Hydra finds me, what can you do?"

"I, uh, I have a few tricks up my sleeves," Jennifer says, not sure if she should tell Bucky about her powers. I think it'll overwhelm him too much right now. I'll tell him once I can, but only when he's ready. After all, I'm gonna be staying with him for a while. "Just trust me, please."

"Why are you helping me? I'll just put you in danger."

"Well, you weren't going to get help from anyone, were you?"

"...No," he admits. He sighs. "Eggs?" he asks quietly.

Jennifer beams up at him. "Of course! Scrambled? Fried?"

"I, uh, scrambled."

Still grinning, Jennifer cooks some eggs quickly for the two of them, also throwing some bread in the toaster. In no time at all, she is sitting with Bucky at her kitchen table, handing him a plate with eggs and toast. "I added the toast just to mix it up, but I should've asked."

"You didn't have to ask. It's not just my food."

"You're much too kind." Jennifer walks toward the counter and grabs salt, pepper, ketchup, butter, and Tabasco sauce, as well as utensils. "Use whatever you'd like."

Bucky examines each of the condiments. He adds salt and pepper to his eggs and butter to his toast almost immediately. He also puts ketchup on. He studies the Tabasco for some time. "What is this?"

"Oh, it's a type of hot sauce. I put it on my eggs. You can try it, but don't put too much on!"

Cautiously, he lets a few drops fall from the bottle onto his eggs before he hands it to Jennifer. Jennifer drops some on hers before capping it. Bucky avoids eye contact, looking down at his plate. Jennifer leans toward him, trying to get a sense of his emotions. He still has so much fear, but it's a lot better than last night. He still has so much guilt. Confused, yes, he has plenty of reason to be. Concern? Well, that should be normal in this case. Hurt? Desire, a desire to know who he is.

"Bucky, how much do you remember?"

He jerks his head to look at Jennifer, his eyes wide. "I, uh, um, I remember a lot of Hydra. Who I killed, what they did to me." He shudders. "And, uh, I don't remember anything about him other than that he's important for some reason. The man at the Triskelion, Steve Rogers." All of this is said quietly, Bucky not sure what to say or if he can trust Jennifer.

"I have an idea to help you." Jennifer finishes the last bite of her toast. "I'm gonna have to go to the store first though. Those are all the clothes I have that can fit you."

Bucky nods. "I'll stay here."

Jennifer stands up. "I'm going to get ready, then I'll leave. I'll turn a movie on so you won't be bored." Jennifer puts the DVD for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in the DVD player. Bucky hesitantly walks to the couch, unsure of himself. "Go ahead. I hope you like this movie." 

Jennifer leaves to go to her room. She grabs some clothes and goes to the bathroom to shower. She showers quickly, washing her hair, body, face, and conditioning. After ten minutes, she gets out of the shower and gets dressed in her black leggings and turquoise shirt. She brushes out her hair and doesn't bother to dry it. Besides, it's probably healthier to let it air dry. She puts her glasses back on. She heads outside, saying farewell to Bucky, grabbing her wallet, and pulling turquoise flats on.

What should I do to help him? Jennifer asks as she walks to the nearest clothing store. I have one good idea to prime his memories, to tell him who he is. But what about after that?

Jennifer sighs, thinking about her powers. I might be able to bring back forgotten memories. But it would be difficult, and Bucky would basically have to know about my powers for it to work. Do I trust people to know about my empathy and telepathy? And would he think I've been manipulating him?

She grabs men's clothes off of shelves and into a basket as she walks idly through the shop. Am I ready to let anyone know? Jennifer has not told her parents or two siblings about her powers, despite having them as long as she can remember. I can't even tell my immediate family, how could I tell a stranger? 

Jennifer ponders why she never told anyone as she buys the clothes. As a little kid, I didn't want to scare anyone. I didn't want to get anyone in trouble. As I grew older, I realized how dangerous it is, having these abilities. Who knows what would happen if anyone knew? If SHIELD knew, and Hydra, I'd be in a horrific mess.

Jennifer walks home, suspiciously eyeing her surroundings. Well, no matter what I'll be in a horrific mess if anyone finds out about me and Bucky, regardless of my enhancements. And I'm not leaving him. If we're going to stick together, I should tell him. But maybe not yet. It's too much information for him to absorb now. He needs to recover a bit more after everything at the Potomac.

Jennifer walks back into her apartment. She hands Bucky the plastic bags she holds. "I hope their the right size."

Bucky takes the bags and thanks her. Jennifer sits down next to him, unsure of what to do next. "What is your idea to help me remember?" he asks quietly, a little afraid to learn for himself who he is.

"I don't know how we're going to get in, but there's a museum exhibit about you."

Chapter 3: The Smithsonian

Notes:

Amnesia
Torture mention
Brainwashing mention
Memory wiping mention
Killing mention
Death mention

"Just to let you know, I'm sort of making this up as I go, so I'm open to suggestions," Jennifer says as her and Bucky leave her apartment building. 

"Where are we going?" Bucky asks quietly. 

He's been asking questions, Jennifer thinks. That's a good sign. He's not just blindly following me. He wants to know what's happening. "There's a museum not too far from here," she explains. "There's this exhibit there that's about you and a few others. Are you alright with that?"

"I, um, yes?" he says, unsure of himself. "There really is a museum exhibit about me ?"

"Absolutely. Well, probably more, since there's more than one museum, but the Smithsonian is the closest one, and probably has the most stuff. It's owned by the government or something, so it has better access to Army stuff." Jennifer softly asks her next question. "How much do you remember?"

"I remember the past week, and some things Hydra did to me mostly." He pauses. "I remember small flashes of Steve, before Hydra. Not a lot, just random images. But I feel like that's important, that he's important."

Jennifer sets a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Steve was your best friend before you were captured by Hydra. He meant the world to you, and you meant the world to him."

"I almost killed him." Bucky's voice is pained. "I hurt him so bad. He could've died when he fell off the helicarrier."

"But you saved him. You didn't try to kill him. Hydra did. But you didn't let Hydra succeed. Because of you, Steve is alive."

"I left him there. He could've died then."

"You were scared and confused and your world was being turned upside down. If it helps, I would've done the same. And Steve didn't die. He's hurt, but he'll heal." Jennifer gives his shoulder a soft squeeze before continuing. "None of it was your fault, Bucky. Everything Hydra made you do, none of it is on you. You had no ability to choose differently. None of it is your fault. You could tell me everything Hydra made you do, and it would never make me say otherwise."

The two of them fall silent as they walk to the Smithsonian. Jennifer feels guilt slowly eating away at Bucky. That's to be expected. None of this can change overnight. He's experienced horrible, horrible things that are going to have a lasting impact on him. He can't be changed back into the Bucky he was in 1945. He shouldn't forget what Hydra did to him or act as if it never happened. It did happen and it will always be a part of him. We don't overcome or destroy our demons. We only learn to live above them. 

As they near the Air and Space Museum, Jennifer sees the one thing she forgot. " Crap! "

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot that there are metal detectors we need to get through to enter the museum, and, well, you have a prosthetic. Governments inevitably make choices that are either idiotic or corrupt, so I don't think it's a good idea for the government to know your whereabouts."

"We could just break in," Bucky says in a hushed voice. 

"What?! Are you serious?"

"There's more resources here, and we can't get caught. But don't be so loud, it looks suspicious."

Jennifer knows he's not kidding. She checks his emotions and finds he is more confident than before. "Could we break in?"

Bucky shrugs. "It shouldn't be too hard. It's a museum. I've broken into military base after military base before."

"Should I come? Or would I just slow you down?"

"When I get in, it'll be less suspicious if I'm with someone else. And I might need help when I'm inside."

Jennifer takes a deep breath. "Okay, okay, let's do this. Lead the way." 

Bucky studies the exterior of the building. "Are you scared of heights or closed spaces?"

"Heights I can handle. I don't like closed spaces, but I can deal with it if I need to."

"Good. Follow me." Bucky leads Jennifer around the back of the building. They lean against the side wall to avoid being seen. There's a back door and a fire exit. There's a guard by the back door. But he's not in the line of sight of the fire exit. 

"You'd think they'd be more careful about the fire exit," Jennifer scoffs. 

"It's connected to the alarm system. Open the door, and everyone knows we're here."

"So we're going through that door with the guard?"

"Every so often security guards radio in each other to check up on each other. If one were killed or unconscious, everyone would know sooner or later."

"So how are we going to get in?"

"Look up." Once Jennifer does, she sees a large air vent several feet up that a person could fit through. There's a chain link fence nearby and pipes reaching out of the wall. "The government needs to step up their security game if they're allowing this ."

"And one of the most important intelligence agencies turned out to have a crap ton of Nazis," Jennifer agrees. "Question: how do we get up there?"

"We climb that fence so we can reach the pipes and use them to climb up." Bucky pauses. "Do you want to do this?"

"Climbing. I can do that. Alright. What if someone sees us?"

"We're too close to that other building for anyone to really see us. If someone does, I'll sort it out. Let's hope that doesn't happen though." Jennifer can feel his apprehension when it comes to fighting and killing. He feels confident about breaking into the Smithsonian, but not fighting his way in. Well, I guess breaking into a place is the sort of thing the Winter Soldier would do, so he knows he can do this, and it makes total sense that he doesn't want to fight or kill anyone anymore.

"Okay, okay, let's go."

Jennifer had done climbing walls like many others, but climbing isn't an interest of hers. The fence is easy, anyone can climb a chain link fence. The pipes are harder because they are spread out, but they are doable. Bucky would normally have been able to do it in a few seconds, Jennifer is sure, but he goes at a slower pace to stick with Jennifer and help her the couple times she needs it. They make it into the vents without incident, Bucky in the lead, Jennifer closing the vent up again. 

"I broke into here about two years ago, so I know a place without security cameras we can go to get out of these vents," Bucky tells Jennifer as they push through the vents. 

"Why would Hydra need you here?"

"Some senator was Hydra, and the other senator from that state found out. He was going to whistleblow, but he had to come here for whatever political event before he could, and Hydra sent me to kill him."

"If it makes you feel any better, the Hydra senator was arrested the other day." Jennifer shudders. "He's one of the guys that subpoenaed Tony Stark and tried to take the Iron Man suit. So that means Hydra wanted it."

"Here it is." The two stop as Bucky slowly slides the exit off, opening a vertical drop to the ground below. He bends down and looks around. "Clear. And I forgot how high up we are."

"How high?" 

"Ten feet."

"Then how are we going to get down?"

"I can make that jump easily, but you can't." He gently lowers himself through the exit, holding onto the edge with his metal appendage. "Hold on to me. "You'll be safe, I promise."

I'm going insane . Jennifer wraps her arms around Bucky's neck tight. "You sure about this?"

"I am, I promise."

Holding her breath, Jennifer slides out of the vent, clinging onto Bucky. His right arm wraps around her waist. "Good, good. I'm going to let go, okay? Try not to scream, the walls are thin."

Jennifer nods, tightening her grip. "Three…"

It's going to be alright, it's going to be alright, it's going to be alright. 

"Two…"

Nothing's going to go wrong, nothing's going to go wrong, nothing's going to go wrong. 

"One."

For one terrifying second, maybe two, Jennifer drops to the floor, holding her scream in, desperately holding onto Bucky. Then, her feet are touching the floor and she's standing. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" Bucky says quietly. Jennifer holds onto him tighter. "You did good, Jennifer, really good," he says as he gently rubs her back. 

Jennifer takes a few seconds to recover before pulling away from Bucky. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Are you ready to show me this exhibit?" He says it very patiently. 

"Yeah, yeah, let's go." They walk out of the janitorial closet, making sure they aren't being watched. Luckily, the Howling Commandos exhibit is not too far from them. "This is it," Jennifer says outside the door. Bucky nods and takes a deep breath before walking in with her. 

They stay there for hours. Bucky pours over every little thing about himself, Steve, and the rest of the Howling Commandos. Occasionally, Jennifer would ask a question to one of the experts there for Bucky, since it would not be a good idea for Bucky to talk to someone when there are pictures of his face plastered on the walls. Every little detail that could be learned is learned, and Jennifer takes notes and pictures with her phone. 

The two leave the way they came, using a ladder in the janitorial closet to get up into the ventilation duct. They walk back to Jennifer's apartment in silence. Bucky's hands shake as he absorbs everything that had happened. Without a word, Jennifer takes his hand as a gesture of comfort. 

Chapter 4: Nightmarish

Notes:

Mind Reading
Amnesia
Blood
Dying
Nightmare

"Are you feeling alright, Bucky?" Jennifer asks. She knows the answer, but for the sake of politeness she asks. Sometimes people don't feel pain or fear or anger or happiness or sadness or anything at all. They are just numb. Their brain is overwhelmed and refuses to handle whatever it is at the time, putting it on a shelf for another day. 

"Yes," Bucky answers in a monotone voice, not quite focusing on Jennifer. His body is tense, arms at his side, head looking down, standing near the wall in Jennifer's apartment. 

Jennifer walks closer to him. "It's okay if you aren't okay. You know that, right?" No, he doesn't know. Hydra wanted him to be like a machine. He doesn't know he can openly express emotions. He doesn't know he can feel any emotions. Jennifer feels him panic slightly, but he quickly goes back to numbness. "Sorry, bad wording. But it's perfectly alright if you're overwhelmed or scared or angry or whatever you're feeling, even if you're feeling nothing right now. We can talk about it if you want, but only if you want to. If you don't want to tell me, that's alright, I won't pry. But I'm always here for you if you need me." 

"I know," Bucky replies sincerely. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." The two had come back to Jennifer's hand in hand and eaten in silence. Jennifer wanted to give Bucky time to go over everything himself. It was late at night. "Um, sleeping over something can help with memory, so if you want to sleep on everything and process in the morning, feel free to do so."

Bucky nods. "Thanks. I'll do that. Can I look through everything again on your phone?" 

"Yeah, of course. Here you go," Jennifer says as she unlocks her phone and hands it to him. Jennifer had expected him to not be so good with a smartphone, but at the Smithsonian he proved to be very adept with technology. Which, after a moment's thought, makes sense. He would've had to use modern technology as the Winter Soldier. 

After a few minutes, Bucky gives Jennifer her phone back. "Thanks. I just need some time alone," he says as he walks into where he stayed the previous night. 

"Alrighty. G'night, I'll see you tomorrow. If you need anything, come get me." 

After not too long, Jennifer is getting ready for bed. Just to be sure…. She double checks that she can empathically feel Bucky still, just in case something bad happens. It's harder to pinpoint because he still feels numbness, but Jennifer can feel him. Satisfied, she climbs into bed and slowly drifts asleep.

•••

Gosh, so much blood, oh gosh! Jennifer thinks as she presses against her abdomen, blood leaking through her fingers. She is flat on her back somewhere, bleeding out. What happened? Where am I? Desperately, she tries to get help. She screams telepathically, crying for help, but she can't even sense any human life around her. 

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! Her heart is thumping, which is only making her bleed out faster. Her head is throbbing, and every breath burns her lungs. It feels like she's moving, but maybe that's just the blood loss talking. Does it feel like an out of control train ride when you lose this much blood?

Jennifer tries her best to calm down, breathing deeply, thinking of happy moments. But it doesn't work. No matter what, she keeps panicking, which is only killing her faster. There has to be someone! Maybe they will hear me vocally! Jennifer shouts at the top of her lungs for help, but no one comes. She is all alone.

I don't wanna die, oh gosh, why is this happening?! Her heart rate picks up more and more and more. All she can hear is the thump-thump of her heart ringing in her ear. Her vision starts to darken as she draws her final breath.

•••

Oh my gosh, oh gosh! Jennifer is immediately sitting up. In her bed, in her room. Once she looks around, sees she's safe, and feels her abdomen to find no blood, she lets out a sigh of relief. Just a nightmare, thank heavens . 

Jennifer rubs her eyes and grabs her glasses before getting out of bed. She walks to the kitchen to drink a glass of water, hoping to calm down. 

Jennifer has never liked blood. Obviously, she doesn't panic at the slightest hint of blood (or else around five days every month, things would be problematic). But when there is so much blood and it won't stop and it's life or death, Jennifer is terrified. Plus, she doesn't know all that much about the medical field. CPR, Heimlich, hypothermia, pressure on bleeding wounds, how to use an EpiPen, and calling 911 is all she knows. If she's alone and hurt, Jennifer knows she'll die.

Darn it, why am I still panicky?! Jennifer has had similar nightmares before, but normally it only takes a few minutes to calm down.

Unless… .

I'm not the one that's panicking, am I? Jennifer empathically reaches out to Bucky. Oh, heavens, he's all panicked right now. I must have accidentally been sensing his panic, which caused my nightmare.

Jennifer heads to Bucky's room and knocks softly. "Bucky? You doing okay?" Silence. He might be asleep. Jennifer quietly opens the door and steps in. "Bucky?"

He is tangled in the covers, shuddering, thrashing his arms as if he is trying to hold on to something. As Jennifer walks closer, she can hear his heavy breathing. 

"Bucky? It's just a dream, wake up." She gently brushes his hair out of his face, hoping the gesture is comforting. When he doesn't wake up, Jennifer starts shaking his shoulder. "Bucky, you need to wake up. It'll help I promise." Suddenly, Bucky is up, face in his hands, a shaking mess. "It was just a dream, Bucky, you're safe." Jennifer set a hand on his shoulder, using her powers to help him calm down. 

"Do you have something I can write with?" Bucky asks softly.

"Yeah, of course." Jennifer hurries out of the room and down the hall to the closet where she keeps spare notebooks and packs of pens. She grabs a notebook and pen, and hurries back to Bucky. "Here you go, they're yours."

Bucky shakily takes the stationery, muttering his thanks as he starts writing. Jennifer doesn't pry. She doesn't want to overstep boundaries with her telepathy. It's one thing to read someone's mind when you meet them because their emotions and thoughts are like blood in shark infested water and you're trying to figure out who they are and how to help, it's another to do the same when they're doing significantly better and you're trying to build trust with them.

"Are you, um, are you okay, circumstances considered?" Jennifer asks him.

Bucky nods. "Yeah, just a nightmare, a bad one. What story is this?"

"Fifth floor?" Jennifer answers, not seeing how that is relevant.

"The construction...it's designed to be hard for the building to collapse or the floors to break, right?"

"Yeah, or else I wouldn't live here."

"Okay, okay, that's good." Bucky's breathing starts to slow into normal breaths. 

Asking what floor this is, how good the construction, why? Is he? Oh. Oh! "Are you scared of heights?" He nods nervously, gripping his notebook tighter as he writes. "Gosh, I'm sorry that you had a nightmare about that."

"Why are you awake anyway?" Bucky asks.

"I had a nightmare myself. Bleeding out, no one there to help. I don't do so well with a lot of blood," Jennifer answers.

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine, it happens. Do you want me to stay with you until you're calmed down?"

"Please."

Jennifer sits on the edge of the bed next to Bucky. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but what's with the notebook?" 

"I don't want to forget again. I know it's not exactly how it happened, dreams don't work like that, but this is the closest I've got to that memory."

Of falling off the train… . "That's a good idea. I've got lots of notebooks. Use them all if you need to."

"Thanks, not just for this. Thanks for helping me."

Chapter 5: Attacked

Notes:

Amnesia
Trauma Mention
Brainwashing mention
Mind Reading
Stockholm Syndrome mention
Captivity
Claustrophobia
Knocked out
Unconscious
Killing mention
Combat
Tranquilized

It has been a week since Jennifer met Bucky. For the past week, Jennifer has stayed home as much as possible to keep Bucky company, which made her glad that she had not used any of her vacation days yet. And much of her work could be done at home, so, if necessary, she could ask her boss to let her stay at home ‘while she recovered from a bad strain of the flu.’ 

Things have been going well for Jennifer and Bucky. Bucky is sorting through his memories with the help of the information they found in the Smithsonian. The process is slow, but it has to be started sometime. While he is very slowly gaining a sense of self and identity and his memories, the trauma from Hydra can’t spontaneously disappear. He will always in some form be affected by Hydra. He can’t erase the past. But he can learn to live with it and move on. But that will take time. For now, Bucky is stuck with stumbling through foggy memories, struggling to find an identity to call his own, and fighting to unlearn conditioned habits from Hydra, many of which he doesn’t realize himself doing often. 

For example, during his third day at Jennifer’s, Bucky asked Jennifer if she carried a weapon. Jennifer answered truthfully, saying that she never has carried any form of weapon in her life, unless he counts kitchen knives. After that, every time Bucky and Jennifer were in the same room, Bucky would hand her a kitchen knife. He did it without thinking, something that has been ingrained in him for decades. Jennifer had asked Bucky why he was giving her a knife the first time it happened. Bucky told her that he was supposed to give any unarmed superior a weapon if he had access to one so that, if for whatever reason it was needed, he could be killed. It wasn’t until after he had answered Jennifer’s question that he realized what he was doing. So far, he had been unsuccessful in stopping himself. He had tried to brush it off, saying that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Jennifer to carry a knife if she was harboring a man on the run from everyone, but Jennifer knew that he really was upset with himself. 

Jennifer puts her hands into fists as she thinks about it as she walks home from a grocery store. She usually buys enough food for two weeks, but with another person at home, she needs twice as much food. So, for the first time since the Smithsonian escapade, she left home. Bucky is still at her place, they both having decided that it would be best if he stayed there as much as possible. Jennifer’s mind keeps going back to Bucky. He has gone through horrible, horrible things at the hands of Hydra. The governments of the world have branded him a terrorist. While the Triskelion was destroyed, there were countless other S.H.I.E.L.D. sites, meaning Hydra was not yet destroyed. It would be wise to assume that they would want their assassin back. Between Hydra and the government, Bucky has to be in hiding. There is only one person who maybe isn’t trying to lock him up: Steve Rogers. But who knows if one man could stop every other force in the universe against Bucky, assuming he isn’t one of those forces? And Rogers is still recovering from his and Bucky’s battle. From what it sounds like, he could be there for a long time. And the government isn’t playing with non-Hydra remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D., so he might have difficulties of his own shortly. How can no one see this? How can no one see that he wasn’t in control of himself? That he had no choice in anything he did as the Winter Soldier? That he cannot be held accountable for those actions?

Jennifer glances worriedly at the darkening sky and picks up her pace, hoping she’ll be home before dark. Most likely, she’ll get home in the nick of time. Jennifer crosses the last few streets needed until she is on her street. She speed walks down the last stretch, racing against the Earth’s rotation. Soon enough, she is outside the apartment complex. She reaches for the door, ready to run inside. But before she can open the door, something slams into her, pushing her into the shadowy area in between the two neighboring buildings. 

When whatever it is stopped pushing her, Jennifer falls down onto the asphalt, surrounded by people. Jennifer stands as fast as she can, looking around for any way to escape. Her eyes stop flicking around when she sees the logo on their shoulders. S.H.I.E.L.D. Are they really S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or are they Hydra? “What do you want?” Jennifer asks as she begins her attempts to read their thoughts.

“You have been harboring Barnes. While we appreciate your efforts, you have to hand him over to us?” one of them, who appears to be this squadron’s leader, answers.

“Barnes? Why would I be helping him? He’s a terrorist,” Jennifer spits out, hating herself as she calls Bucky a terrorist.

“I know you have reason to fear us, but Barnes needs to come with us. Hydra is searching for him. They will find him here. They will kill you and take back what they believe is theirs.” 

“Again, I have no idea where Barnes is, and if I did, I would have told the authorities by now. He deserves to be behind bars.” Jennifer finishes probing all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents’ minds. All of them are Hydra! There’s no way I can fight them. And they probably know I’m lying . Jennifer scrambles for an idea. The best I can do is warn Bucky and tell him to get out of here . She reaches out mentally for Bucky. Jennifer has not done this often, and every time she has she had to pretend to just be a random thought of whoever she was trying to communicate with. Well, to heck with it. This is actually important. Bucky needs to get out of here. No point in pretending. I may as well actually let him know it’s me .

Jennifer closes her eyes and focuses on Bucky’s mind. When she’s ready, she speaks to him telepathically. “Hydra is here. Get out of here!” The problem with communicating telepathically is that, if too far away, Jennifer cannot get any response. “They’re on the north side of the building, maybe other places too. They’re trying to say they’re S.H.I.E.L.D., but they are all Hydra. Right now, they’re keeping up their act as S.H.I.E.L.D., asking me to hand you over in order to keep you safe. Don’t worry about me. Just get the heck out of here!” Jennifer clenches her jaw. Please listen to me, Bucky. Please just get out of here.

“I am growing tired of asking,” the leader says, growing more menacing. “I know you are trying to protect Barnes, but what are you going to do against an entire legion of Hydra? Lie as blatantly as you are now? You’d be killed on the spot before you can open your mouth. Hydra doesn’t care about what happens to you. They only care about getting what they think is rightfully theirs.”

“What are you doing, bothering with me? If you’re so certain I am harboring a terrorist , why haven’t you searched my place?” Jennifer asks, hoping Bucky has left, leaving your apartment abandoned. 

“We aren’t sure what mental state Barnes is in. He may attack us once we go through the door. While I am certain that we could subdue him, Barnes would likely gain some injuries, as would my men, assuming Barnes doesn’t kill them. But he has not been violent with you. I bet that you could talk him down, get him to come quietly. That would save us time and lives.” 

“Listen, I don’t know why you think Barnes is here. But he isn’t here. I hope you find him before he hurts someone, but he isn’t here.”

“I admire your bravery, trying to protect him. We’ll leave once we are certain Barnes is not in the building. For starters, how about you show us around your apartment? Prove to us that you aren’t harboring the Winter Soldier.” 

“Fine,” Jennifer says, masking her worry. The leader takes the front and leads Jennifer and the other agents inside. The agents flank around her, preventing her escape. Inside, one of the agents shoots the receptionist with what they assure is similar to a tranquilizer dart, and that the receptionist will be fine. They can’t have any witnesses, they say, because technically they are wanted too, and they don’t want Jennifer to have problems with the FBI. They go upstairs, tranquilizing any and all bystanders. Jennifer focuses on Bucky’s mind, hoping she won’t be able to sense him anymore. But her luck seems to have run out. Bucky is still in the building. Not in her apartment, but in the building. “They’re going to search the building. You have to get out of here! Please! Don’t worry about me, just get somewhere safe!”

Finally, they are at the door to Jennifer’s apartment. Jennifer unlocks the door and lets Hydra in. “We’re going to search every room here. You’re going to be the first to enter, and you’re going to sweet talk Barnes. Walk into the room, start talking. If he isn’t there, we’ll move on into the next room. Understood?” Jennifer nods, glaring. 

The living room, the room that you enter into through the front door, is empty. After a few minutes of Hydra double checking, they move on, everyone following you. As you walk, you try to sense Bucky again. “Please, get somewhere safe!” she tells him once she senses him nearby. First, Jennifer leads the agents to the kitchen. “Bucky? It’s me, Jennifer. Look, these people came to help you. Can you come out?” Jennifer says before rolling her eyes. “You really think that if he were here, he’d listen to me?”

“I don’t know what is going through his mind, or why he would think he’s safe with you, all I know is that he must if he’s been with you for a week or so. I’m willing to bet that he trusts you enough to come with us if you tell him to. I’ve read Hydra’s files on him. Hydra sometimes had someone be kind to him when no one else would. Barnes would get...clingy. I guess if you’re going through everything he went through, and someone is consistently more kind, you start to develop Stockholm Syndrome for them. While Barnes did usually follow orders from all of his superiors, he did a better job when he took orders from the ones he had Stockholm for. If there were ever conflicting orders, he always chose to follow the nice guy’s orders. Of course, they weren’t actually being kind to him, they only treated him slightly better than everyone else. But I guess that that mattered to him. And, given his experiences, no matter what you do, he’ll see you as compassionate compared to Hydra. If he was able to develop Stockholm Syndrome for some arseholes that could sweet talk and occasionally gave him slightly better stuff, he idolizes you.”

Jennifer’s heart aches hearing this. She knows that the squadron leader is telling the truth about Bucky. Jennifer hides her feelings from him though. “Assuming he is here, which he isn’t.” 

“We’ll see about that.” And so they continue, Jennifer talking to thin air and Hydra tearing her place apart. An agent would stay at every door, even the closet door, guarding it in case Bucky went there. The final room they go to is her guest bedroom, where Bucky has been staying. The place with the most evidence of Bucky’s arrival. 

Jennifer feels light headed as they enter. “Bucky? Can you come on out, please? I found someone who can help you, help you better than I can. I can’t really do anything to help you, and I’m sorry. But these people can keep you safe. Can you come out?” Hydra files in behind you, tearing everything out of its place. The bed was made, and all of the clothes folded in the drawers. “The clothes are my brother’s. He stays here a lot, sometimes unexpectedly. I’ve learned to have a few days worth of clothes for him.” 

“Your brother must be very tall,” one of the agents observes.

“Yeah, he got my dad’s tall genes, and I got my mom’s short genes,” she agrees. Which isn’t a lie. 

The leader sighs. “This is only a small part of the building. Barnes may be hiding elsewhere. And we can’t use the same approach anymore, it would take too long and Barnes could run off in that time. Fortunately, we have another plan.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“We’ll still play on Barnes’ idolization of you, just in a different way. My men have already prepared the way for you to lead him here,” the leader says as he leads you out into the hall. 

“What do you mean?”

“If you were to be in danger, he’d come running to rescue you.” Jennifer gasps, hurriedly trying to learn what his plan is, panicking when she finds out. “Of course, you are in no danger of actually being hurt. He might not listen to you if you’re hurt and try to kill us for hurting his precious angel. But if it looks like we captured you, I’m certain he would come to save you. And we would let him get past us and find you. You would keep him there as long as you can and try to calm him down. Either you get him calmed and he comes quietly with us, or we use the tranquilizer. I would prefer you to calm him down, since I’m sure being knocked out by the captors of his angel would not help his mental stability. But, if it happens, it happens.” He grabs Jennifer’s arm and pulls her along with him when she tries to back away from him. All of the notebooks and writing utensils you keep in the shelves in the hall closet are strewn across the floor. The shelves have been unscrewed from the wall and are leaning against the wall next to the original door knob, which has been replaced with another knob with a lock.

“No, please, I’m claustrophobic, I can't be in there!"

"And does Barnes know about your claustrophobia?"

"No, I've never met him! Please don't put me in there, please!" Jennifer doesn't know what she's thinking. This is Hydra . She can beg all she wants. They won't listen to her. And, to make things worse, fear greatly limits Jennifer's powers. 

"It would be quite useful if Barnes knew about your claustrophobia. It would make him more desperate to save you. But he'll come running for you regardless." With those final words, he shoves Jennifer into the closet, slams the door, and locks Jennifer in.

"No! Please! Let me out!" Jennifer screams, pounding on the door with her fists. Her vision begins to blur as her fear sets in. No one answers back, leaving her all alone in the dark, cramped closet. After a few minutes, Jennifer's screams die out. She knows she won't be let free. I should be glad I'm not dead. This is Hydra, locking me in a closet is probably the best thing they've done. Despite that logic, Jennifer can't stop herself from shaking. She curls up on the floor, trying to escape the feeling of being trapped. She can't turn around; her shoulders are wider than the closet's depth.

Despite everything, Jennifer pulls herself together enough to search for Bucky. No! Why is he still here! Or, at least she thinks she can sense him. Her feelings of dread aren't benefiting her effort. She takes a few deep breaths, trying to focus on Bucky and not the walls closing in around her. "Hydra is using me as bait! Don't try to rescue me! Don't give up your freedom for me!" Jennifer hopes Bucky will leave. So what if Hydra takes her? All that matters is that Hydra doesn't take Bucky again.

•••

"Hydra is here. Get out of here!" Bucky hears Jennifer say. Except he only hears her in his head. The heck? How is she doing that? Despite all of his questions running through his head, Bucky knows he has to wait for another time. Jennifer wouldn't ever joke about Hydra. 

“They’re on the north side of the building, maybe other places too. They’re trying to say they’re S.H.I.E.L.D., but they are all Hydra. Right now, they’re keeping up their act as S.H.I.E.L.D., asking me to hand you over in order to keep you safe. Don’t worry about me. Just get the heck out of here!” 

Bucky peeks through the blinds and sees 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' agents right where Jennifer said they are. Bucky takes his notebook and tears his pages out, folds them up, and shoves them in his jacket pocket before putting the notebook with the rest of Jennifer's. He runs into his room and makes the bed and folds all the clothes to make it look like he had not been there. 

Bucky rushes out of the apartment and climbs up the stairs cautiously. There may be more of Hydra anywhere. Get to the roof to see my options . 

“They’re going to search the building. You have to get out of here! Please! Don’t worry about me, just get somewhere safe!”

Bucky runs up into the roof and sees one of the Hydra soldiers. Bucky walks stealthily towards him. It is dark now, so he doesn't have to worry about his shadow giving him away. 

"Everything's clear up here, sir. No sign of the Asset," he says in his radio. Bucky winces when the soldier calls him 'the Asset.' That and ‘Soldier’ was all he was ever called by Hydra. 'Winter Soldier' is what he is called by everyone else. While he doesn't like that alias, anything is better than 'the Asset.' 

Once he is close enough, Bucky grabs the soldier from behind and hits him on the head. The soldier crumples in Bucky's arms as Bucky drags him out of sight and sets him down, taking his radio and weapons, consisting of a few pistols, a tranquilizer, and a few knives.

Bucky looks over the edge of the roof to see Jennifer being led inside by Hydra. She doesn't look hurt...yet. I can't leave her! Hydra will torture or kill her! Not to mention everyone in the building that sees them!

“Please, get somewhere safe!”

Bucky heads back into the building. He breaks into the apartment exactly above Jennifer's. Whoever lives there isn't home. Lucky them. Bucky hears the door close underneath him. How many are there? That is one important detail Jennifer left out. Though, she is convinced that Bucky has to leave her behind for his own safety, regardless of what happens to her. If that were the case, numbers would be less important. 

“Spread out onto every floor. Search hallways only until ordered otherwise. If you see the Asset, tranq him,” one of the soldiers says into his radio. “We are searching King’s apartment now. Will notify if the Asset is found.” Bucky swears under his breath. What are they going to do to Jennifer? Bucky looks out a window discreetly, still in the cover of curtains. At the top of the next building’s roof is a well hidden sniper. The roof of Jennifer’s building has a large room for what is probably maintenance. So the sniper covers one side, and the soldier on the roof Bucky knocked out covers, well, covered the other. Plus there is at least one soldier either on or going to each floor, and many seem to have entered Jennifer’s apartment. All of which have at least a tranquilizer, if they are here to recapture Bucky. Though it is likely they have more weaponry, as the soldier on the roof did. Afterall, Bucky is the only one they need alive, and there are dozens of people in the building.

Bucky makes a plan. Well, part of a plan. There are plenty of unknown variables. Improvisation will happen. Whatever it takes. 

“No! Let me out! Please!” Jennifer’s screams are somewhat muffled by the floors, as well as the sounds of something, probably a door, being hit. Bucky walks to what sounds like is above Jennifer. They trapped her in the closet. She said she doesn’t like closed spaces.  

“The girl is locked in the hall closet and is claustrophobic. Don’t be quiet about it. The Asset will undoubtedly come to rescue her. Let him get to her. Either she calms him down and they come with us because they think we’re S.H.I.E.L.D., or we tranq them. Both the Asset and the girl have to be kept alive. I repeat, both targets have to be alive. Keep the S.H.I.E.L.D. act up. Kill or tranq anyone else. Only tranq when the Asset and the girl can see. Otherwise, I don’t care if you kill anyone. No witnesses. I don’t want a single person in this building to be awake. You have permission to enter apartments now”

Bucky pauses for a moment to revise his plan, knowing he has limited time until soldiers find him. Hydra wants him to attempt to rescue Jennifer. So he will have to do so in an unexpected way. They don’t know that we know they’re Hydra. How did Jennifer find out? Bucky pushes that question away. That isn’t important right now. All that is important is saving Jennifer and getting the heck out of there. We have the upper hand, knowing their plan and that they’re Hydra. An idea pops into Bucky’s head. I can’t be the only one that is hearing Jennifer scream. The people beneath her must be able to hear her. And they would call the police. Hydra certainly wouldn’t want anyone else coming here. And once someone sees the S.H.I.E.L.D. gear, it won’t be just the police showing up. While Bucky also doesn’t want anything to do with the FBI either, it wouldn’t be a bad distraction. The problem is that Hydra might have killed everyone nearby. 

Bucky takes a landline phone off of the counter and dials 911. “What is your emergency?”

“I just heard someone screaming in the apartment below me. She was screaming to be let out. And I saw some guys in S.H.I.E.L.D. gear coming inside.” Bucky gives the address to the dispatcher and claims to have been visiting a friend when all of this started. 

Then the front door opens. Bucky throws the phone at the soldier’s head, who had reacted slower than him. Before the soldier can recover, Bucky shoots him with the tranquilizer. Thankfully, it is only the one soldier. Bucky drags the body into the apartment and closes the door. He drags the soldier into the bathroom and locks the door. When he wakes up, the soldier will be able to unlock the door from his side. But until then, no one else will be able to get to him. 

Cautiously, Bucky leaves the apartment, tranquilizer raised. He has no problem with killing Hydra, but the tranquilizer works better for stealth. Looking down the hall, he sees another soldier on the far side of the hall, entering an apartment. Bucky goes into the stairwell and heads up onto the roof again. There, he waits. When the cops come, Hydra will have to divert its resources to fighting them. Then Bucky and Jennifer will be able to slip through their fingers. 

“Hydra is using me as bait! Don’t try to rescue me! Don’t give up your freedom for me!” Jennifer tells him. This time, Bucky feels a sense of dread when he hears her voice. He feels helpless, and trapped. Am I feeling what Jennifer feels? Bucky wonders. That would make sense, I guess. That’s probably how she feels, locked in the closet . And maybe that’s why I’m hearing this now? It’s a little late, I already know what is happening.

Bucky is brought out of his thoughts by the sound of sirens getting closer and closer. Finally! Bucky jumps up, waiting for the cops to get closer, when Hydra will be forced to deal with them. 

“Cops are here! Whoever can be spared, get down there and stop them from entering the building! Everyone else, keep looking for the Asset. We need to get him and the girl out of here as fast as humanly possible.”

As fast as humanly possible? Bucky decides to wait a little while longer, and give the soldiers a head start to the ground. Bucky looks over at the sniper on the other roof. The sniper is switching his rifle from non-lethal to lethal and pointing it at the police below him. Leaving an entrance to Jennifer’s apartment unguarded. Bucky heads inside the maintenance room and finds some rope. He waits a few minutes to make sure that the sniper is focused on the cops. Bucky will be in the shadows though, so it will be difficult for anyone to see him. Bucky ties the onto a hook on the edge of the roof and lets the rope drop over the edge. It looks like the rope almost reaches the ground. Exactly what Bucky was hoping for. 

Bucky grabs the rope and climbs down to Jennifer’s window, trying to ignore how high up he is. When he gets there, he peers inside. There is a soldier at every door, making seven soldiers. There is no way Bucky can get into the apartment undetected, but he can get Jennifer and himself out before reinforcements arrive. Hopefully. If not, he’ll fight them off. Bucky climbs up the rope until he is at the perfect height to swing himself inside. Once he’s high enough, Bucky kicks off the wall and crashes through the window, sending shards of glass everywhere. As tranquilizers are fired, Bucky grabs the soldier closest to him, who was pierced by glass shards and had not recovered fast enough to draw his own weapon. The soldier gets hit with the tranquilizers. Bucky throws the unconscious body at the next soldier. That soldier hits his head against the wall and knocks himself out. Bucky grabs his own tranquilizer and shoots the remaining soldiers. He walks into the living room and tranquilizes the soldier guarding the front door. He drags the soldier who was guarding the closet away from the door. He unlocks the door and opens it.

Jennifer is curled up on the floor, shaking. She looks up at him, blinking against the light. Bucky kneels down next to her. He hesitantly sets his metal appendage on Jennifer’s shoulder, not wanting to scare her more. “Jen, it’s me. Did they hurt you?” He speaks quietly, hoping to not be heard by anyone but Jennifer. Bucky takes one of the knives he stole from Hydra and hands it to Jennifer. “Right now wouldn’t be a bad time to have one,” he says half jokingly

“You shouldn’t have come for me!” Jennifer says worriedly as she sits up and delicately takes the knife. 

“It’s alright, we’re both going to get out of here. Are you hurt?”

Jennifer shakes her head. “I don’t know how they found you. I’m so sorry, I should’ve been able to stop this somehow.”

“No, it’s not your fault. But we need to get going. You can’t stay here. Hydra wants to take you too. Whatever you need, go get it. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to come back here.” 

Jennifer nods and stands with Bucky’s help. After Bucky checks that no one is in her room, Jennifer goes in and grabs whatever she needs. Bucky barricades the front door with the couch and coffee table while he waits. May as well make it as hard for Hydra to come in as possible. In a few minutes, Jennifer is back with a backpack filled with whatever she deemed necessary. “Ready?”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Jennifer answers after looking around her home sadly. She hands Bucky the knife back. “I’m more of a danger to myself with this. I have no idea how to use it.” 

Bucky grabs a tranquilizer off the floor, dropped by one of the soldiers. He stands next to Jennifer and holds it up as if he is shooting it. “Turn the safety off like this, then pull the trigger.” Bucky pulls the magazine out to see how much ammunition is left. “The magazine is mostly full. Right now, you’d be shooting at point blank range, so just point it at someone and fire. It’s a tranquilizer, so it doesn’t matter where you hit them, it’ll knock someone out regardless of where they are shot.” Bucky puts the magazine back in and slides the top back. “And that is how you cock it.” He turns the safety on and hands it to Jennifer. He grabs the soldier's holster and helps Jennifer strap it on to her waist. Her jacket covers it up. No one would suspect she is carrying.

The two walk to the window, dust sized glass making the wooden floors sparkle. Bucky climbs down the wall while carrying Jennifer on his back. It is too dark for anyone to notice them, not when Hydra is having a shootout. When they reach the ground, they run out behind the building. They don’t stop running until they are far, far away. 

Chapter 6: Psychic

Notes:

Mind reading
Amnesia
Torture mention
Experimentation mention
Brainwashing mention
Killing mention

Jennifer and Bucky duck inside a warehouse with real estate signs plastered across every wall, claiming it is being sold for a low price. They stick to the shadows, unsure of what to expect. The only things other than them are empty boxes. Bucky scouts out the building while Jennifer waits near the entrance, hidden in shadow. Soon, Bucky returns. “We’re all alone.”

Jennifer sighs with relief. “Do you think we were followed?”

“I don’t think we were, but we could never be too cautious.” Bucky flips over a couple of the wooden boxes for the two of them to sit on. 

Jennifer sits down, trying to figure out how to word her thoughts. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about all of this. I should have been able to do more about Hydra, and I should’ve told you about me.” 

Bucky sits down on the box opposite Jennifer. “Hydra finding me is not your fault, and if you hadn’t warned me, we could have both been captured by now.” Bucky pauses. “How did you do that? I heard you talking to me, but it was only in my head.”

Jennifer pulls her legs up to her and hugs her knees. “I, I should have told you from the start. I kept telling myself that I didn’t want to overwhelm you or whatever, but really I was just scared because you are the first person to ever know.” Jennifer hesitates, taking some deep breaths. He deserves the truth, I owe him that. It’ll be alright, just spit it out. “I have telepathic and empathic powers. I can read people’s thoughts, speak directly to people’s minds, get some insight into others’ memories, feel people’s emotions, and change or manipulate people’s emotions. There are a lot of limitations. I have to be touching someone to get specifics on their thoughts, within a foot to get a general glimpse, a yard away to get answers from someone I’m speaking with telepathically, within a few yards to feel someone’s emotions, and touching them to manipulate their emotions. When I’m scared, I have a hard time using any of my abilities. When I manipulate emotions, I feel the emotions the person felt originally for a few hours afterwards. I think I hit everything there is to it.”

Bucky doesn’t respond immediately, contemplating on this new information. “Can you completely control someone?” he asks.

“Heavens no. I can’t actually tell someone what to do. The closest I can get to mind control is if I manipulated the emotions of someone to make them want to do something. But that doesn’t mean they will do it since we stop ourselves from doing things we want to do all of the time. And I would have to be touching them and reaffirming this often.” Jennifer lets out a breath. “Before you ask, yes, I used my powers on you. Not to control you. Mostly I helped you calm down. The reason I found you was because, for some reason, you are the exception to the rule. I was going about my business when I heard your thoughts out of nowhere and felt an onslaught of emotion. You were scared and hurt and confused. I ran to find you, hoping to help. I found you and could still feel everything you felt. And when you sheltered me from the rain, I was finally able to realize who you were. And I wanted to help you. I thought that maybe I could help you remember, help you sort through your memories, help you stay safe. So I convinced you to come with me after I relieved some of the distress you were feeling. This entire time, I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you all of this. I’ve never told anyone before, not even my own family, because I’ve been scared about what would happen. This isn’t how I expected I would tell you, but who knows how long it would have taken me to build up the courage otherwise? But all I’ve done is lessen your distress, gotten a few glimpses at your memories when I found out who you were, and unintentionally read and felt your thoughts and feelings. I don’t know, there’s something different about you, or maybe my power is growing or something. I can almost always know how you’re feeling, and I get lots of snippets of your thoughts. I’m not actually trying to do this, this is beyond my control. I’m unintentionally doing it, and I don’t know why.”

Jennifer looks down at the ground, her fingers tapping her legs nervously. It was a lot easier to get the words out than Jennifer expected. But that doesn’t mean it is any easier, knowing that someone other than her knows about her powers. Before meeting Bucky, Jennifer had never intended on telling anyone ever. She can’t help but feel what Bucky feels now. She tries to block it out, to give him privacy, but she can’t. She feels his sympathy, his understanding, his suspicion, his confusion. “I’m sorry,” Jennifer says, making eye contact with Bucky. “I can’t stop it, I don’t know why. I know what you’re feeling. I am trying not to, I really am, but I can’t. It’s like trying to not notice an elephant standing next to you. You can try all you want, but it’s something you are going to notice whether you like it or not.”

“It’s alright,” Bucky tells her quietly. “Thank you for telling me. You didn’t have to.”

“No, I did, and I should’ve told you when we met. I don’t normally use my powers on a daily basis. I only use them when I have to. Those have been life or death situations for the people I was using my powers on. But with you, I almost constantly use them. Yeah, I’ve definitely helped with your anxiety, but I also feel everything from your nostalgia from before the War to your enjoyment of the ice-cream we had last night. Things that should be private are right out in the open for me, and I can’t stop myself. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. And your guilt helps me trust you. I wouldn’t trust someone with your abilities that didn’t feel guilty over what is happening to you. You actually care about me, and it shows. Thank you.” Bucky pauses. “ Can you help me remember?” he asks. Jennifer feels his hope.

“Maybe. I’ve done something similar. I met someone with dissociative fugue. Basically, his brain shut out everything about his memory and identity because his life wasn’t that great. I was able to stimulate his memory and make him remember. But I don’t know what Hydra did to you and why you can’t remember everything. I’m not sure if I can do anything to help. But I can try.”

Bucky nods, still hopeful. “Thank you,” he says with earnest. The two sit in silence, not sure what else to say. Jennifer tries to block out Bucky’s thoughts and feelings, but, just as always, can’t. Bucky is thinking about what to do now. Where to go, how to hide, those sorts of questions. After a moment, he breaks the silence. “What languages do you know?”

“Nemnogo russkikh,” Jennifer answers. “Some Russian,” is the translation. 

“Ya svobodno govoryu,” Bucky responds. “I am fluent.” That’s what Jennifer thinks Bucky said. Based on what thoughts and feelings she is sensing, she thinks her basic knowledge of Russian is helping her enough. 

“Ya ponimayu tebya blagodarya svoim sposobnostyam,” Jennifer stutters, barely getting her meaning across and mispronouncing some syllables. “I can understand you because of my powers,” is hopefully the message she got across. 

Bucky nods, seeming to understand. “Mozhet byt', ty smozhesh' nauchit'sya, yesli vospol'zuyesh'sya svoimi sposobnostyami, poka my govorim po-russki.” He speaks very slowly so that Jennifer can catch everything he is saying. “Maybe you can learn if you use your abilities while we speak in Russian,” is what Jennifer is fairly confident Bucky said. 

“Eto pomozhet mne ponyat',” Jennifer agrees. “That will help me understand.” “Mne ponadobitsya pomoshch' v razgovore,” Jennifer says while laughing. “Ty znayesh' kak plokho u menya russkiy.” “I will need help speaking. You know how bad my Russian is.”

“Vy delayete khorosho,” Bucky responds. “You are doing well.” “Since you already know some Russian, what do you think about the idea of laying low in Russia?”

Jennifer sighs. “I’m nervous about the language barrier, but if you’re fluent then you can do the talking. Why not somewhere English speaking though?”

“I’m going to guess that you took one or two classes in college at most in Russian. By now Hydra will have all sorts of information about you, so they know you aren’t bilingual. They might try to look in English speaking countries because that’s the only language you are fluent in. If we’re in Russia, then that could buy us some time. And if you’re able to learn Russian by reading my mind, then you could learn other languages, and we could go anywhere that speaks a language I am fluent in,” Bucky explains.

“What languages do you speak?” Jennifer asks out of curiosity.

“English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Swahili, Arabic, Hebrew, and Hindi. Part of the serum Hydra gave me makes me learn language faster than anyone should be able to. It took me a year each to learn German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, a little longer for the others since I had to learn different characters and alphabets for those,” Bucky answers. “Those were generally the languages my, uh, handlers spoke. But with every language I spoke, there were more places they could send me. Hebrew wasn’t any of my handlers’ first languages, but they taught me it so I could be sent to kill in Israel. Same with Romanian.”

Jennifer nods solemnly. Generally, knowing a ridiculous amount of languages isn’t bad, but in this case, while it is useful, it is all because of Hydra. “So we can go to Russia because I have a basic understanding of the language and you can help me learn the rest. And we can see if I can learn other languages from you even without previous knowledge, then we can go to most places in the world.”

Bucky nods. “And it buys us time. Hydra won’t stop looking for us. Moving to a country speaking a language you don’t speak is probably not what they think we’ll do.” 

Jennifer takes a deep breath. “It’s a good plan. I’m nervous about moving to a different continent, but it’s better than being captured by Hydra.”

“You won’t be alone. I’ll be with you. We’re in this together now. It’s my fault Hydra wants you, so I have to make sure you are safe.”

“Question: how are we going to get to Russia? There are about a thousand things in the way of that.”

“This is the first time I have smuggled myself somewhere. We can get there. How do you feel about boats?”

Jennifer shrugs. “Not particularly for or against. My problem would be that it must take a long time for a boat to get from here to Russia. How long can we stay hidden?”

“I don’t know. We might have to get off before we reach Russia and get on a different ship,” Bucky admits. “I don’t think we can get onto a plane. There’s a lot more security at airports.”

Jennifer nods, contemplating the situation. Bucky thinks that this is their best option. And he would know best. All the experience Jennifer has in life is her major in psychology and job in human resources. Bucky has decades of experience in situations more similar to this. Jennifer trusts he knows what to do.

Chapter 7: Priming

Notes:

Amnesia
Memory wiping mention
Mind reading
Death mention

Bucky and Jennifer walk to a shipyard, hoping to stow away on a boat, preferably one headed either to Russia or nearby. They stick to shadowy alleys, trying to get by unseen. They have no way of knowing what had happened back at Jennifer’s apartment. But even if that Hydra squadron had been arrested or killed, there are more of them. Hydra is much bigger than anyone knew. Hydra would always be a threat to the two of them. 

Soon enough, Jennifer and Bucky stand outside a shipyard. Bucky helps Jennifer over the fence and past any security measures. They duck inside a building, hoping for a schedule of some sort. On a whiteboard is a list of boats, departure times, destinations, and cargo. Jennifer starts reading through them. “There’s a boat to St Petersburg. Leaves at eleven. What time is it?”

Bucky looks back at an analogue clock behind him. “Quarter past ten. We have time.”

Suddenly, the door begins to open. There’s no other exit, and nowhere to hide. Hydra? Jennifer runs behind Bucky, who pulls the tranquilizer he took from Hydra out. In comes a man, probably in his sixties. The man looks at Bucky in awe, hands raised in surrender. 

“Sergeant Barnes?” the man asks in awe. “I’m sorry, but you knew my father.” 

“I did?” Bucky lowers the tranquilizer, pointing it at the floor. It’ll flash up in a second if needed, but no one’s at risk of being shot. “I, I can’t really remember anything.”

The man pulls his wallet out and opens it up, showing Bucky the picture in it. “He’s the one to your right.” Jennifer leans over to see a picture of the Howling Commandos. On the far right is the man’s father. Gabe Jones, if Jennifer remembers correctly. Next to him is Bucky. “He used to tell me all sorts of stories ‘bout you and Steve when I was growing up. We never expected both of you to be alive. Or that Hydra was still around, doing crap to you.” The man hands his wallet to Bucky so that he can see the picture better. “My name’s Gabe. Named after him.”

Jennifer feels all of the emotions Bucky is. A mixture of sadness, regret, awe, and relief. He thumbs over the picture of him and his comrades, all of which are forgotten. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember Gabe. I don’t remember any of them,” he says quietly.

Gabe cusses, something about Hydra. He pulls out a drawer and takes out a book. “This is a compilation of stories Dad told me about you and the other Commandos. I like to keep an extra copy here, read it when it’s a slow day. But I’ll just make another copy of the original. Keep it.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky says as he exchanges the wallet for the notebook. He hands it to Jennifer, who puts it in her bag.

“Now, who are you?” Gabe asks Jennifer. 

“I’m his friend. Hydra’s after both of us,” Jennifer explains. 

“Trying to stow away on a ship?” Jennifer nods. “Which one were you thinking? I’m not supposed to do this, but I’ll let you on. For free. Can get you across the Atlantic in a couple weeks.”

“Thank you,” Bucky and Jennifer say in unison. 

“Don’t mention it. I’m not my dad, but I’m glad to help you.” Gabe pauses. “I have a nephew, he works, or worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. I haven’t heard from him. He’s either dead, or on the run from Hydra. I can’t imagine he is Hydra. If I ever find a way to contact him, I’ll let him know about you. Maybe he can help. His name is Antoine Triplett. Where are you headed?”

“St Petersburg, we think,” Bucky answers. 

“You’re just in time. C’mon, I’ll send you off.” 

Bucky, Jennifer, and Gabe hurry across the shipyard to the Renegade . Gabe helps them sneak on, unlocking things for them. “There’s food and water here, technically you shouldn’t have it, but, then again, you shouldn’t be a wanted criminal, so clearly legality isn’t everything.” Gabe looks around one final time and claps his hands together. “Okay, stay safe, God be with you. If I ever see Antoine, I’ll mention you, and that Hydra’s looking for you. He’ll do what he can to slow down Hydra. Let’s just hope he’s alive. Keep the book. I wish I had another picture of you and the Commandos on me, but I don’t. If you want one, send me a request to here. But, maybe don’t. Hydra might be snooping around me now. Stay safe, stay out of trouble.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Bucky says. He is still amazed by the kindness of Gabe. And that he met his Gabe’s son. 

“You’ve been so helpful, thank you so much!” Jennifer adds.

“Don’t mention it. I best be off, I’m not supposed to be here, and the ship’ll leave soon. Best of luck, may God be with you.”

Soon enough, Jennifer and Bucky are locked into your own little section of the boat. There’s some food and water and a bathroom not too far away. The only entrance is the door they went through. Bucky twists the knob with his prosthetic, making it impossible to be turned, protecting them from discovery. They just have to stay quiet.

“You should get some rest,” Bucky tells Jennifer once they’re secure. “You’ve had a long night. I’ll stay up, make sure everything’s alright.” Jennifer feels some worry from him. Worry for her. Bucky looks around and grabs a random blanket and a sack of flour. “We don’t have much in the way of bedding. Is this fine?”

Jennifer nods and thanks him. Bucky helps carry the sack of flour to a more secluded section and puts it on the floor for her. She lies down, using the sack as a pillow, and after not too long is fast asleep.

---

Bucky reads through the notes he ripped out of his notebook for the thousandth time. The ship had left a few hours ago, hopefully getting them farther and farther away from Hydra. Jennifer is still asleep, and Bucky passes the time by reading his notes and written memories and trying to remember more.

Jennifer had mentioned something about possibly being able to help him remember. Bucky very much would like to try, but isn’t going to wake up Jennifer. This night has been rough on her. She needs some rest.

“We can try now, if you want,” Jennifer says as she walks in. “Sorry, I knew what you were thinking.”

“Don’t worry about it.” While Bucky doesn’t like having his thoughts and feelings constantly on display, he at least trusts Jennifer. She won’t use that to her advantage. And she feels plenty guilty about it, even though she has no control over it. “And, yeah, are you okay if we try now?”

“Yeah, but I really am not sure what I’m doing. So it might not work. And your brain, uh, deviates from the norm, so I really am unsure of what will happen.” She pauses as she sits down next to Bucky. “I’m wondering if that’s why I can sense you almost constantly. I mean, I’ve never met anyone other than you that has gone through what you have. Correlation isn’t causation, but it is possible.”

Makes sense...I guess. “Alright. How do you want to do this?”

Jennifer taps her knuckles on the ground, thinking. “Maybe I can bypass anything Hydra did and find your memories? I might not be able to remove the barrier though. But, I could view them myself and show you. I mean, I’d prefer to be able to get rid of whatever is stopping you from remembering, but I don’t know if that is possible. I have seen some of your memories though, so I think my other idea may be possible.” Jennifer holds her hand out. “Physical contact normally helps when I do anything with memory.”

Bucky nods and takes Jennifer’s hand. “Is there anything I should do?”

“Try focusing on your memories,” Jennifer answers, her eyes closed. “Focus on a memory you do remember, and maybe I’ll be able to help you find something similar.”

Bucky nods. He remembers a random memory he has. Him in a suit, walking to some building. It feels like there was a reason, an important one, one just out of reach from Bucky’s mind.

Bucky went up some stairs, standing just behind someone, someone important. Short, thin, blonde. Bucky walked with him with care. It felt like something solemn had taken place. Then Bucky started speaking to the man. “We looked for you after. My folks wanted to give you a ride from the cemetery.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I just...kinda wanted to be alone,” Steve said in response, his voice heavy.

“How was it?” Bucky asked.

“It was okay,” Steve answered. “She’s next to Dad.”

“I was gonna ask,” Bucky started.

“I know what you’re gonna say, Buck, it’s, just….”

“We can put the couch cushions on the floor like when we were kids. It’ll be fun! All you gotta do is shine my shoes, maybe take out the trash.” Steve searched his jacket pockets for the key to the door. Bucky turned around and kicked a brick a couple inches to the side, revealing a spare key. He bent down, grabbed it, and walked over to Steve to give it to him. “Come on.”

Steve takes the key and looks down seriously. “Thank you, Buck. But I can get by on my own.”

“The thing is, you don’t have to,” Bucky told him, shaking his head. Bucky patted Steve’s shoulder and kept his hand there. “I’m with you to the end of the line, pal.”

Then reality comes rushing back.

Bucky is in the boat, hand in hand with Jennifer. Not outside of Steve’s home in 1936. It takes Bucky a moment to realize he is shaking. Jennifer rubs her thumb against his palm comfortingly. “It, it was so real.” 

“It was, it happened, it really did. You remembered.” Jennifer’s voice wavers slightly.

Bucky laughs dryly. “All I remembered before was walking while wearing a suit. I didn’t realize I was with Steve, or that his mother had died, or anything.” Bucky pauses, blinking back tears. “‘I’m with you to the end of the line.’ That’s what Steve told me, on the helicarrier. It’s what brought me back. I didn’t know why. I guess that was a thing we had.”

Jennifer nods and squeezes Bucky’s hand. “Good news is that I was able to remove part of the wall Hydra made in your head. Not all of it. I don’t think I should do it all at once, that would be a lot of memories to suddenly have. But we can keep working on this, if that’s alright with you.”

“Oh, please. But, I guess you already knew I wanted it.”

Jennifer sighs. “This is new to me. I’ve been asking still, just for the sake of politeness.”

“That’s alright. Whatever makes you comfortable.” This is...weird. It’s not that I like having my mind on display, but, if anyone can see me, I trust Jennifer. Bucky didn’t say it, he felt it could go unspoken. Even if Jennifer couldn’t read his mind, it would seem implied. “But I can’t thank you enough for this.”

Chapter 8: Europe Pt 1

Notes:

Self-blame
Combat
Headache
Amnesia
Mind reading

“So this is St Petersburg?” Jennifer asks rhetorically. After a long couple weeks of being at sea and hoping they wouldn’t be caught, Jennifer and Bucky have finally arrived at St Petersburg, Russia. They had to sneak off the Renegade and the docks, but now that they’re in the streets of St Petersburg they’re safe. For now. “Okay, we’re in Russia. What are we going to do now?”

“We need to find shelter and food. Preferably somewhere discreet,” Bucky answers. Jennifer doesn’t know how much experience Bucky has in this sort of thing, but she knows it’s more than she does. So she kind of just follows him around for a while. Besides, she isn’t that confident speaking the language yet. Though she can understand most of what people are saying, it’s through her powers. She can’t exactly use her powers to make people understand her Russian, not if she wants to remain hidden. But, together, the two of them find some food and a place to stay. 

---

“How are you?” Jennifer asks Bucky in Russian. To help her get comfortable speaking Russian, her and Bucky have tried to speak Russian together as much as they can. 

“Tired,” Bucky answers as he sits next to Jennifer on the floor. Exactly what Jennifer knew Bucky feels. They have lived in a small, worn down apartment in a not-so-great part of town for the past few months, doing odd jobs to try to get enough money to live off of. They can’t use Jennifer’s banking information, that would be a very easy way for Hydra to track them down. It was not an ideal living situation, but it was their best option. Hydra was looking for them, they were wanted by the US government and UN, and they had heard nothing about Steve Rogers or any of the other Avengers. Heaven knows what their thoughts are on Bucky, and it isn’t worth the risk to find out.

“Same,” Jennifer responds before pausing. “Do you think we’ll ever be able to be out in the open?”

“I dunno. Hydra’s always going to be after us. I don’t know about the governments though. I guess that might depend on how the Avengers reacted.”

“Which we haven’t heard about because we can’t afford anyway to see news and even if we could there’s not much reporting on the Avengers.” As soon as Jennifer says that, Bucky feels a mixture of relief, regret, fear, and hope. 

“There was some today. Steve’s fully recovered.”

Jennifer smiles at Bucky. “That’s great! I told you he’d be alright! Did you see anything else?”

Bucky shakes his head. “No, it was only mentioned in passing. It was mostly criticism over what happened in DC.”

Jennifer nods. “At least we know he’s okay.” The two sit in an uncomfortable silence. They don’t often talk about Steve or the Avengers. It’s a hard topic for Bucky for many reasons. Despite all of Jennifer’s assurances that Bucky was blameless, he feels immense guilt for the injuries he gave Steve on the helicarrier. He also doesn’t know what Steve thinks of him now. He worries that Steve sees him as an enemy now. Jennifer had tried to convince him that, based on how Steve acted on the helicarrier, Steve doesn’t hate him. But this fear will not go away. Regardless of how Steve feels about Bucky, it’s possible he can’t do anything to stop his arrest. Bucky also doesn’t want to endanger Steve or any of the other Avengers. He hasn’t really said it, but Jennifer knows that he feels guilty over what happened between her and Hydra. He doesn’t want to endanger anyone else the way he’s endangered Jennifer. And if he goes to the Avengers, that makes them even more of a target than they already are to Hydra. All of that makes the topic stressful for Bucky, so they try to avoid it. 

The silence is broken by shouting in the street below them. “What’s happening down there?” Bucky asks as he stands up and peeks through the blinds. 

“What is it?” Jennifer asks. 

“Looks like gang violence,” Bucky answers just before Jennifer stands next to him. They both watch together as people shout and fight below them. It isn’t uncommon in this area of the city. The two of them are lucky to have not been robbed yet.

Without warning, several of the people below them are shot. Jennifer takes a sharp breath and looks away. Bucky doesn’t. And Jennifer can sense why.

“The shooters just used Hydra technique,” Bucky says sadly. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”

Jennifer nods and hurries to get ready. The two of them had prepared to leave with a moment’s notice, worried something like this would happen. Jennifer takes the tranquilizer that is hidden in the wall and puts it and the holster on before putting her long jacket on to conceal it. Bucky lifts up the floorboard to grab the bags they have with what they need. Non-perishable food, a set of clothes for each of them, a blanket, hygienal necessities, and Bucky’s notebooks. Jennifer shoulders her bag as Bucky takes his and holsters a pistol and tranquilizer. 

They look back out the window. “We don’t know how many of them there are. Or if we’re they’re target. Best we can do is slip past them,” Bucky reasons. They go down the fire exit on the other side of the building from the shooting, trying to stay out of sight. The two of them go down an alley, staying close to the shadows. They go down the route they had already decided on when they first moved. Every once in a while, someone spots them. Normally, the people that see them try to shoot. Whether they’re Hydra or not, this is an area with lots of gang violence. But these issues were shortly resolved by one of them with a tranquilizer. Bucky has been teaching Jennifer how to aim since they came to Russia. It was hard to find a place to do it, but the two of them made it work. 

Soon, they’re at an old car dealership. Sorry about this , Jennifer thinks as they hotwire a car to get them out of St Petersburg as fast as they can. When they get to the Russian border, there’ll be issues, but they’ll figure it out on the way.

---

“Are you still having a headache?” Jennifer asks as she drives, Bucky sitting next to her. He’s leaning his head against the headrest, eyes closed. He nods and Jennifer sighs. Bucky’s had headaches frequently lately. If it was anyone else, Jennifer would assume it was caused by dehydration or allergies or anything else easily treatable. But with all the things that happened to Bucky’s brain, Jennifer can’t help but worry more. It could be something much worse than dehydration. His liberty or his life could be in danger. Jennifer also wonders if it's her fault. She routinely helps Bucky remember his life. It’s possible something she’s doing is hurting him. Even though she can’t know for certain, she feels guilty for possibly hurting Bucky. 

They fall into silence again. They have long since left Russia. The border was...interesting to say the least, but they managed to flee the country. They are just outside of Kiev, Ukraine with no idea of what to do. Neither of them speak Ukrainian. Thankfully, they probably won't be too out of place as "native Russians" in a country bordering Russia. And Ukrainian is close enough to Russian that they can understand parts of it. 

They have the radio turned on, listening to the international news, trying to make sense of it. Something about Hydra agents being caught in Moscow, St Petersburg, and other cities in Russia. No known reason why they were there, at least nothing revealed to the public. Since they were outside of St Petersburg too, there’s a chance they didn’t know Bucky and Jennifer were there. There were more mentions of the Avengers. Steve Rogers had a full recovery but hadn’t given anyone any comments. Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and Tony Stark had made public statements on the issues. Romanoff and Barton were forced to by the government because they were S.H.I.E.L.D. employees, and soon Rogers would probably have to do the same now that he’s recovered. Stark had made several comments to many people and done numerous things to assist with the hunt for Hydra. Thor was...somewhere? None of them have said anything about Bucky, even refusing to answer questions on him. Jennifer doesn’t know what to think of that. 

When they reach Kiev, Jennifer finds an empty parking lot and parks for them to get some food, water, and rest. They had stopped before reaching Kiev several times. It was about sixteen hours of driving, not including the border and the stops. But it has been about four hours since they last stopped. Jennifer watches Bucky as he moves around. Sitting in a car for a long time stiffens muscles, that isn’t news. But after an hour in a car? Not normally. Bucky has seemed stiff this entire time. He hasn’t mentioned anything, and neither has Jennifer. But that happening alongside his headaches does worry her. 

They find some food and fill up the cheap plastic water bottles they had found. They lower their car seats and sleep on them, just like they had done before. The two of them have long since gotten used to sleeping near each other. Between the one room on the boat and the one room apartment, it feels normal to them now. They stay a little separate for their comfort, but otherwise don’t care if they sleep near each other. 

They don’t ever sleep deeply. Sound of a horn and they both bolt up. After months of living on the run, the two of them are used to it. They wake up several times throughout the night because of the night sounds of Kiev.

When they wake up, they stay in the parking lot for a bit, not knowing what to do. “You speak Romanian, right?” Jennifer asks.

“Vorbesc romaneste,” Bucky answers. Jennifer uses her powers to translate it into, “I speak Romanian.”

“Romania is close. There’s Moldova, then Romania, right?”

“That’s right. I spoke Romanian the least as the Winter Soldier other than Hebrew. I don’t think they’d expect me to go there because I know other languages much better.”

“So we can go there for now,” Jennifer says before she sighs. “Can you speak in Romanian so that I can hear it? Is it like Russian?”

Bucky shrugs. “Kind of. The pronunciations are a little bit similar in northern Romania. The language is kind of like Spanish, French, and Portuguese in some ways,” Bucky answers in Romanian. After a moment, Jennifer nods, getting the gist of it. “Let’s learn some basics first,” Bucky suggests in English. “‘Alo’ is hello.” Bucky coaches Jennifer in pronouncing alo. They move on to la revedere, ce mai faci, bun, mulțumesc, and bine ați venit, as well as other phrases. Soon they’re having basic conversations as Jennifer drives them out of Kiev towards the Ukraine-Moldova border. Soon, they stop as Bucky’s headache spikes again.

Chapter 9: Europe Pt 2

Notes:

Mind reading
Amnesia
Headache mention
Muscle tension
Sleep disturbance mention
Combat
Death
Killing

Jennifer smiles as she senses Bucky’s emotions. They are sitting next to each other, hand in hand, Jennifer priming Bucky’s mind to remember more. Jennifer tries not to pay attention too much to what Bucky is feeling and remembering, but with her connection some of it is inevitable. The current memory is a very happy one though. It has something to do with Steve before World War II. 

Jennifer and Bucky have been living in Bucharest, Romania for the past four months. They live in a one room apartment, similar in size as the one in St Petersburg, the only major addition being the tiniest balcony one can imagine. Jennifer has learned Romanian very quickly thanks to her powers. Both her and Bucky have done random things for people to earn money for rent, food, and other necessities. There has been no hint of Hydra being anywhere near them, and no one has suspected that an international fugitive and a missing person are living in Bucharest. Things have been peaceful. 

Jennifer and Bucky work during the day. They cook and eat dinner together. Jennifer helps Bucky remember his past. They have fun together. They’ve found books and card and board games that weren’t wanted, so they use them themselves now. They talk with each other about whatever they feel like. They do what they can to make life more bearable.

Jennifer senses Bucky coming back to reality. When Jennifer primes his memory, he is in a quasi-trance state, only partially reacting to outside stimuli. But it seems that he can only be in that state for a short amount of time. His mind simply ‘wakes’ him up naturally. Jennifer might be able to force him back into the trance, but she knows that may be dangerous. If Bucky’s mind does this naturally, there’s a reason for it. It could be something Hydra programmed into him to stop him from remembering his past, or it could be his mind stopping him from going into a coma or something. 

“Good memory?” Jennifer asks in Romanian. They’ve spoken Romanian together as a way for Jennifer to learn the language.

“Yeah. How much did you sense?” 

“Mainly your emotions. Steve was involved. You were in your teens. It felt out of context, like there was something important missing to really understanding it.”

Bucky nods. “You’re right, but it felt so good . I was so happy . I wish I could’ve been under a little longer.” 

“You know I wouldn’t do that. Especially since you’ve been having headaches.”

“You don’t have to worry. I’m having headaches, but they aren’t bad. Will the hell Hydra put me through, I should be glad it’s only mild headaches.” He stands, and Jennifer doesn't miss the tension in his muscles, another symptom he’s had for months. “It’s more likely Hydra caused the headaches, not you.”

“But I could still make them worse,” Jennifer responds as Bucky helps her up. “And I know they’re stressing you out too. I’m an empath, remember?” Bucky sighs. “And this isn’t the only thing you’re stressed about,” Jennifer adds gently, squeezing Bucky’s hand. “You’re anxious more often than not.”

“We are on the run,” Bucky reasons. 

“I know, and you have every right to be anxious, I don’t blame you at all. But I am worried about you. You’ve been having anxiety, headaches, muscle tension, occasional trouble focusing and frequent sleep disturbances. Those could easily be caused by something cerebral, and I don’t want to make them worse. And I’m terrified that I’m the one causing them.” 

“Jen, I’ll be alright,” Bucky says softly. “As long as we stay off Hydra’s radar, we’ll be okay.”

Jennifer nods and squeezes Bucky’s hand again before letting go. “What was your memory?”

“I was reading a book. I don’t remember what book, but I do remember a few of the characters. Bilbo and Gollum. They were having a riddle contest. Next to me was Steve, he was sketching the buildings in front of us. We were mostly quiet, only saying a couple of things. But I felt so happy, just sitting there, not really having too big of a reason to be happy.”

“Well, you were reading a good book,” Jennifer responds. “ The Hobbit . JRR Tolkien. It’s a classic. A couple movies were based off of it, another one’s coming out next month.”

Bucky smiles. “Have you read it?”

Jennifer nods. “Once, a few years ago. I liked it.”

“Too bad I don’t remember most of it.” Bucky’s smile fades. “These memories make me so happy in the moment, but afterwards….”

Jennifer nods, knowing yourself how he’s feeling. “They’re bittersweet.” She waits a moment before asking her question. “Do you miss Steve?”

Bucky nods sadly. “Always. He was my best friend. Or is my best friend. I don’t really know how that works anymore. We always had each others’ backs before I, y’know.”

Jennifer nods. “Do you want to see him again? If you don’t, I respect that. It should be your decision.”

Bucky nods. “But it’s a little more complicated than when I wanted to see him before.”

---

The asset punches a hole through the thin wall in front of him, grabbing the guard on the other side and dragging him to the other side of the wall. He kicks another guard onto the ground as he walks through the hole in the wall before throwing a knife at another guard. He grabs the guard he had kicked on the floor and pulls him up, stabbing him in the neck. 

Everyone else in the room starts running from the asset, a few guards firing at him. The asset shoots at those firing at him, killing them almost instantly. He jumps over the railing, landing on the stairs underneath him, slamming the closest one to him to the ground with his metal appendage. He turns to shoot a man about to aim a gun at him from behind, completing a 360 degree turn as he throws a knife at a man in front of him. 

There is only one man left with the asset: the man he has been ordered to kill. He is backed against the door, terrified. The asset grabs the man’s throat with his prosthetic and pushes him through the door into the hallway as the man gasps for breath. “Hail Hydra,” the asset says with a monotone voice as the man takes his last breath. The asset drops the man.

He turns as he hears faint rattling. There’s a young man at a door down the hallway, trying to go through the door. His hands are too shaky to unlock it. The asset walks towards the young man. There can’t be any witnesses.

“Please,” the young man says, putting his arm down and pressing his back against the door, voice trembling. “I didn’t see anything.” He repeats that phrase over and over, stuttering and trembling. The asset barely notices. He takes his pistol out of his holster and shoots the young man without any hesitation.

---

When Bucky ‘wakes’ up, Jennifer lets go of his hand. She knows that Bucky doesn’t like to be touched after remembering what Hydra forced him to do. After seeing himself brutally murder people, he’s almost afraid to hurt Jennifer just by touching her. They’ve never vocally discussed it, but with a telepath it’s easy to have unspoken things. 

The two of them sit in silence for a moment. “How much did you see?”

“I know what happened,” Jennifer answers softly. 

“He wasn’t my target,” Bucky says quietly, referring to the young man. “I killed him anyway.”

“ Hydra killed him. You didn’t,” Jennifer insists.

“Using me,” he counters sadly. 

“Yes, and you aren’t to blame for it.”

“I know, but I can’t help but feel guilty.”

Notes:

FYI the flashback is the same flashback in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Since that was featured in the show, I interpreted it as something Bucky feels particularly guilty about because Yori's son wasn't even supposed to be there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and Bucky was forced to kill him for it. So that flashback is going to have a presence in this fic.
Hope you enjoyed!
Michelle

Chapter 10: Europe Pt 3

Notes:

Mind reading
Combat
Death
Killing

Jennifer and Bucky walk down the street together, heading off to work for the day. As they walk closer, crowds start to form around every screen in the street. What on Earth is happening? The two of them go closer to a crowd and look at what is on the screen. Jennifer’s heart drops, and she feels Bucky’s do the same. 

The Avengers, in Sokovia. 

Jennifer steals a glance at Bucky. He watches the screen intently, and she can feel his anxiety. There are words on the screen, but they aren’t close enough to read them. “Move, please, his brother is in Novi Grad!” Jennifer pleads, holding onto Bucky’s arm. Everyone looks at the two of them sadly before parting, allowing them to get close enough to read the captions on the screen. 

“Some of the Avengers and a few others have been spotted in uniform in Novi Grad, capital of Sokovia. Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and two others are confirmed to be in Novi Grad. The two others are both enhanced. One is a Caucasian man with silver hair who has been reported to be ‘speeding’ around the city, telling officials to evacuate the city. The other is a Caucasian woman with brown hair who appears to have put several civilians in a trance, leading them out of the city,” the subtitles read. Jennifer holds onto Bucky’s hand, hoping to comfort him. She can feel his fear that Steve will be hurt, or worse. 

“It is unclear why the Avengers could possibly want the people of Novi Grad to evacuate, but we must assume that something very dangerous is about to happen. Reports are coming in that Iron Man has landed in a church in the center of the city, but no one is nearby to report details.”

It’s going to be alright , Jennifer tells herself. Or maybe she tells Bucky telepathically. She isn't sure. 

The footage on the screen starts to show robots firing at civilians. “Some sort of...robots are shooting at civilians and the Avengers. What on Earth is happening? Wait, another player has entered the field.” The camera switches to show a man with red skin and a cape flying down. “A humanoid alien or robot or something is floating down to the city. It is unclear whose side it’s on. All the while, the Avengers and two unidentified individuals are fighting the robots, protecting the residents of Novi Grad and helping them evacuate. Still no sight of Thor, Black Widow, or Hulk.”

“Oh my heavens, is that an earthquake? During an attack? Things cannot get any worse in Novi Grad,” the captions say as the camera shows the ground cracking. Part of the city is shifted up...and continues shifting. The entire city keeps moving up. “I’ve just received reports from seismologists...this isn’t an earthquake. They don’t know what it is yet, but if the Avengers and flying robots are involved, it is much, much worse than we anticipated.” As the captions slide across the screen, the camera shows Novi Grad rising even higher. High enough to see its bottom as it rises above the Earth.

“We have no reports as to the robots’ motives, but Novi Grad is in for a ride. Very few of our teams are still on the ‘floating island.’ Our coverage will be limited, but you will get everything we learn.”

Bucky squeezes Jennifer’s hand tightly, tighter than he probably realizes. He is terrified for Steve’s sake, and he feels the same terror Jennifer herself feels and that she can sense many around her feeling. The knowledge that unless something is done, Novi Grad could tumble back to Earth, creating a massive shock wave. If it falls from too high, it could kill everyone. Even if it falls now, it will kill many people. And Bucharest isn’t that far from Novi Grad.

“We have confirmation that these are the same robots that have been spotted in Seoul, South Korea. The Avengers have been busy the past couple days, and apparently this is why.” The camera is shaky as it shows the silver-haired man the reporter mentioned for a split second before he zipped off. The camera routinely switches to show damage, the Avengers, and the city rising. 

“The Hulk is now confirmed to be in the city, as well as Thor and Black Widow. All Avengers are confirmed to be here, as well as the man with superspeed and woman with...I’ll be honest, I have no idea what her powers are, and let’s not forget the red man-thing. Iron Man has been flying below the city, I presume to find a way to...do something to save everyone. Experts have been sending in their reports. If the city were to drop now, thousands would die from the impact. If it gets too high, we will be facing an extinction level event.”

“C’mon, Steve,” Bucky mutters, only loud enough for Jennifer to barely hear.

“Good news, hopefully, reports are in of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier approaching Novi Grad. S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed and was revealed to be partially Hydra, so I don’t know what a helicarrier with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s logo plastered all over it is doing there, but I pray to God that this is good news and not Hydra. The Avengers are only barely keeping civilians safe from the robots, I don’t dare think of what would happen if Hydra were to come as well.” Cameras show the massive ship nearing the city. Smaller ships leave the helicarrier and land on the floating city, and the Avengers direct civilians onto the ships. “It appears that the helicarrier is being used to evacuate the city. Thank God, there is a way for those poor people to get off the ‘floating island.’ Some of the robots are launching an attack on the helicarrier, but it seems another player has entered the field. War Machine has just flown alongside Iron Man, stopping the attacks on the helicarrier and the shuttles.”

Jennifer feels some relief at the presence of the helicarrier, but the threat of mass extinction is still there. What does Mom and Dad think happened to me? She tries to not ask herself that question, knowing it will only bring her pain. But now, she might only have a few minutes left to live. I never got to say goodbye to anyone . Jennifer forces her hand out of Bucky’s grip and hugs him. He’s the only one she cares about that she can be with in her final moments.

“All of the Avengers and the three unidentified individuals have gone to the church in the center of the city. The robots and what looks to be their leader are converging around them it seems, though we don’t have footage to show you, as it would be too dangerous to send cameramen there. We are evacuating our crews as I speak alongside the rest of the city.”

The camera switches to show a blurry image of three people firing energy at someone. “The footage is taken from far away and zoomed in plenty, but it appears that three of the Avengers are firing on the lead robot. I think that is Iron Man, Thor, and the unidentified humanoid, but I can’t be sure. Look, they’ve stopped firing at him, and Hulk just punched him to kingdom come. And now the robots are fleeing? The Avengers are still fighting them, not letting a single robot escape.”

“Practically all the civilians are on the shuttles now, as well as most of the Avengers. I don’t know what their plan is, but I hope they know what they’re doing. Oh, what is this? Reports are coming in that Hawkeye has run off the shuttle to save a young boy who fell behind.” The camera switches to show Hawkeye helping the boy up. And a quinjet coming down, firing at the two of them. “Hawkeye is using his own body to shield the boy from the bullets. He surely cannot survive. God bless him.” 

But Hawkeye’s body never falls when the dust settles. The silver haired man stands in front of Hawkeye, bullet holes covering him. His body falls, and Jennifer knows there’s no way he survived. “The unidentified man with super speed shielded Hawkeye from the bullets, and is now dead. Captain America has run to them to carry the man’s body while Hawkeye carries the boy to safety. We don’t know who this man is, but may we all have a grateful heart for what he has done for the planet today?” After a pause, the captions continue. “All of the civilians that are still alive are on the shuttles, as is Hawkeye. Hulk was seen jumping after a jet piloted by robots and hasn’t been seen since, and Black Widow was last seen with Hulk, so she is possibly with him. Captain America is just outside the shuttle. War Machine has returned to the helicarrier. Iron Man is below Novi Grad, and Thor, the unidentified woman, and the unidentified humanoid are still in the city. Oh my!” 

The footage switches to a camera on the ground, watching the city rise. Well, that’s what it used to do. Now the city is falling, very quickly. “The city is no longer rising. It is falling, and expert’s estimates say millions of lives will be lost on impact.” Jennifer hugs onto Bucky tightly, and Bucky hugs her tightly back. 

“Whatever happens, I just want you to know that I care about you a lot,” Jennifer tells Bucky. 

“I care about you too,” Bucky says. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t met you, Jen. Thank you, thank you for everything.”

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me too,” Jennifer responds, unable to turn away from the screen showing their imminent death.

The footage cuts out for a second before it shows the massive explosion. “The Avengers, they vaporized Novi Grad. There will be damage, damage happening as we speak. Many lives will be lost. But not the extinction of most life.” Thank heavens! Jennifer holds onto Bucky, finally able to look away from the screen as she buries her face against his chest. She looks back to see a darkened screen before it switches to show the reporter. “Our crew on the ground was killed by impact, as well as many other Sokovians. But the city is no longer falling, and there doesn’t appear to be any more robots. It is unknown whether Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, the unidentified woman or the unidentified humanoid survived. We will give you information as we get it.”

Jennifer turns away again, focusing on Bucky. A man behind Bucky puts his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “I’m sorry if your brother didn’t make it.” Several of the others surrounding them echo the man’s condolences. Bucky thanks them quietly. Jennifer feels his relief. Steve is safe. The Avengers won. They stay in front of the screen for hours, wanting to know as much as they can, still shocked by what happened, still holding each other.

Chapter 11: Nervous

Notes:

Mind reading
Self-blame
Death mention
Killing mention
Tears

“You want to see Steve again,” Jennifer states telepathically.

“Obviously, but it’s so complicated now,” Bucky responds. The two had learned to speak to each other telepathically when they’re able to touch each other. Him and Jennifer are walking home together, hand in hand. It has been six months since Ultron attacked Novi Grad. “It isn’t like before. There’s so many other things at play now.”

“I’m sure he wants to see you too,” Jennifer tells him. “He didn’t want to hurt you before, and I’m sure he doesn’t want anything to happen to you still.”  

“He isn’t alone,” Bucky reminds her. “We don’t know what the other Avengers think.”

“Well, they’ve been spending a lot of time fighting the remnants of Hydra, right? So they probably are all sympathetic towards you.”

“You’d think,” Bucky says worriedly. “You’d also think there wouldn’t be a controversy over me since I was obviously not acting for myself.”

Jennifer sighs. “Fair point.” She ponders on this dilemma. “If you knew for certain how they felt about you, would you feel comfortable seeing Steve?”

“No,” Bucky answers immediately before sighing. “I don’t know. It, just, I haven’t seen him for so long, not as myself. I don’t know what I’d even do if I saw him.”

“You’re nervous,” Jennifer states. “That’s perfectly normal. You haven’t seen him in a long time and a lot has happened to you. I’d be nervous under significantly more normal circumstances.” Jennifer and Bucky walk into their apartment building and start walking up the stairs. “Would you feel better if I was there with you?”

“Definitely.”

“Whenever you’re ready to see him, I’ll be right there with you,” Jennifer promises as they get off the stairs. She stops walking as they near their apartment. “Someone is in there.”

Bucky stiffens. “Hydra?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to get closer, I should be able to sense more then.”

Bucky nods and holds her hand tighter, loosely grabbing the knife he keeps hidden up his sleeve. They stalk towards their door, Jennifer closing her eyes, trying to get a better reading of the person in their apartment. Jennifer ever so quietly leans against the wall next to the door, knowing the door would creak loudly if she put any weight against it. “I don’t know who it is, but I do know they know you’re living here. And they don’t have bad intentions it seems.”

Bucky nods. “Do you think we should go in?”

Jennifer shrugs. “They’re after you , so you should be the one to decide.”

Bucky pauses for a moment, looking conflicted. “Are you certain they don’t have bad intentions?”

“I am. They almost seem...hopeful. Like they’re relieved to find you.”

Bucky nods, squeezing your hand. “Who would be relieved to find me, and not because of bad intentions?”

Jennifer pauses before answering. “We were just talking about him.”

Bucky’s face pales. “Steve?” he whispers, barely audible.

Jennifer nods. “Maybe.”

Bucky closes his eyes and releases a shaky breath. He squeezes Jennifer’s hand, and she squeezes back. “Just in case, stay behind me. I’ll get us out of here if we need to.”

Jennifer nods and gives Bucky’s hand one last squeeze before letting go and standing behind him like he asked. Bucky doesn’t say it, but Jennifer knows he’s thinking of when Hydra found them in DC. He still feels so guilty for what happened to her then, that she was targeted because of him. Bucky knows that it’s better for both of them to stick together. Jennifer can help him with his memories, and Bucky can protect her from Hydra. But he does know that he is endangering Jennifer much more than she is endangering him. And he will do anything to protect her now.

Bucky shakily opens the door, staying silent. Jennifer follows him into their one room apartment, eyes widening when she sees Steve Rogers. He’s wearing his Captain America suit, maybe worried that Bucky will fight him. He hasn’t seen them yet. He’s looking the other way, examining their apartment in all its glory. Jennifer steps forward slightly, partially at Bucky’s side and partially behind him. Since it’s Steve, they should be safe. Bucky doesn’t take his eyes off Steve, his mouth agape, frozen in surprise. After a moment, he collects himself somewhat. 

“Steve?” Bucky’s voice is barely above a whisper. 

Steve turns around slowly, like he’s trying to not set Bucky off. You can almost hear Bucky’s heartbeat as Steve looks at him. “Bucky? Is it really you?” Bucky nods, not knowing what to say. He grabs onto Jennifer’s hand, apparently needing something to ground him. Steve notices and looks at you. “Miss King?” Jennifer nods, surprised that Steve knows who she is. Then again, Hydra did invade her apartment building and she went missing. But how would Steve know? Would he actually pay attention to that sort of stuff? Even when he was hospitalized? 

“How did you find us?” Bucky asks quietly.

“An ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent has been laying low nearby and saw you,” Steve explains. “I came as soon as I could.” 

Jennifer squeezes Bucky’s hand, trying to encourage him, and he squeezes your hand back. “Why?” His voice is barely audible.

Steve’s face softens. “You’re my friend. And I want to help you.” 

“How?”

“You don’t have to live on the run, neither of you do,” Steve starts, cautiously walking towards us. “You are welcome at the Avengers Compound.”

Bucky squeezes Jennifer’s hand again. Jennifer can see one of his memories being played in his head. His memory of killing Howard and Maria Stark. “I’m not, or I won’t be soon,” Bucky confesses.

“Why? Talk to me.”

“I, I-” Bucky holds onto Jennifer’s hand tighter. “I killed the Starks.”

“I know,” Steve says calmly. “So does Stark. You’re still welcome.” Bucky’s eyes widen in surprise. “Tony was angry for a while, trying to process it all. But he knew you didn’t have a choice, and now he wants to help you too.” 

“What about Romanoff?” Bucky asks, bewildered that he could possibly have been forgiven for a crime he did not commit. “I almost killed her, twice.” 

“She was the first person to do anything to help me find you,” Steve responds. “She’s been through...somewhat similar experiences and wants to help.”

“Wilson? I almost killed him too,” Bucky asks quietly. 

“Sam’s been at my side the entire time since I’ve been looking for you. He’s actually here,” Steve answers, pointing up. “Between the four of us, we’ve built up quite the crowd of enemies. Sam’s keeping watch, making sure no one tries to ambush us.”

Bucky stands there, speechless. Jennifer can hear his thoughts. “How could they possibly have forgiven me?!”  

Jennifer squeezes his hand and rubs her thumb against his knuckles. “Told you,” she tells him telepathically. “You didn’t have a choice, so there’s nothing to forgive.”

“Before you ask about me, I never forgave you because there was never anything to forgive, Buck,” Steve says. “Everything you did, that wasn’t you. That was Hydra.” Steve walks even closer until he is right in front of Jennifer and Bucky. 

“But I still did it,” Bucky counters, voice cracking.

“You didn’t have a choice, so you aren’t accountable.”

“He’s right,” Jennifer urges. Bucky squeezes her hand again.

A couple tears slip down Bucky’s cheeks and Steve his hand gently on Bucky’s metal shoulder. “I’m with you till the end of the line.”

Bucky blinks away more tears. “I, are you sure? That I’m welcome at your compound?”

“I am,” Steve says, completely certain. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I’m not gonna force you to do anything, I just wanted to give you the invitation. We can help keep Hydra away from you and help you remember. You can stay here if you want to, and we can still keep in touch if you want to. I wanted to find you to make sure you were safe, not to trap you.”

Jennifer feels Bucky’s shock at being given a choice. Like when she first met him, and he could barely comprehend it when she asked what he wanted for breakfast. Bucky’s face shows his shock. 

“It’s your choice,” Steve assures. “I’ll respect whatever decision you make.”

“Do you need help?” Jennifer asks Bucky. “You can tell me your thoughts, if it helps you organize them.”

Bucky’s thoughts start exploding in your head. “Is he serious, Jennifer? Can you tell?”

Jennifer starts to read Steve’s emotions and bits of his thoughts. “He’s relieved that you’re safe. He is terrified that he’s coming off too demanding, that he’ll accidentally force you into doing something you don’t want to do. He wants you to go to the Compound, thinking you’ll be safer there, but he doesn’t want to take you there if you’re opposed to the idea. He’s terrified Hydra will find us again, that they’ll take you. He blames himself for everything that happened to you. He wasn’t lying about the others welcoming you to the Compound. He’s hoping that if you do go with him that Bruce Banner will be able to do something to help you with your memory. He’s terrified the government will try to arrest you, and he is willing to fight anyone to keep you out of prison.”

Bucky exhales a shaky breath. “Thank you.” He looked down, squeezing Jennifer’s hand and biting his lip. “I, I can’t speak for Jennifer, but I’d be willing to go with you, if that’s alright,” he answers quietly. 

“Same,” Jennifer adds softly. 

Steve nods. “You’re both welcome there. Is there anything you guys want to keep from here? Do you need help packing?”

“Just give us a few minutes, please,” Jennifer answers. Steve nods and steps aside, letting her and Bucky move around their apartment without having to walk around him. 

They had prepared already in case they had to leave in a matter of moments. Bucky lifted up a floorboard and grabbed the bag of things they stored there if they had only seconds before they had to leave. An extra set of clothes for each of them, Bucky’s journals, food, water, a blanket, their money, matches, medicine, hygiene products, a few knives and the two tranquilizers they stole from Hydra. Jennifer grabs the duffel bag they had found abandoned in the apartment when they first came and starts filling it with the things they decided on taking if they had more time to pack, Bucky joining her once he puts the emergency packs on the floor next to the duffel bag. They had timed themselves before, seeing how long it could take them to fill the bag. Five minutes is typical of them. They shove their clothes in, not particularly caring about neatness and more about shoving whatever was necessary in. Then it is their bedding, then some of the kitchen ware that is harder to find and/or more helpful in other ways (such as the knives). After that are their hygiene products, then anything else they want to take. The board game they love to play together, the books they like the most, their dishes they have the biggest attachments to, anything they want. Until they either have everything they want or the bag is full. The bag fills fast, not being that large, but most of the stuff they have they can live without. Jennifer looks up at the clock they keep on their shelf. It’s five minutes ahead, and can’t be changed, but it’s better than nothing. It took them four minutes to get everything they wanted. 

“That was fast,” Steve comments as Jennifer grabs the emergency bags and Bucky grabs the duffel bag. 

“We had to be able to leave as soon as possible at any given moment,” Jennifer explains. 

Steve nods, looking saddened by that. “There’s a quinjet on the roof. We can fly straight to the Compound, if that’s alright with you two.” Jennifer and Bucky nod, heading to the door, looking behind them one last time at the place they lived in for months. It wasn’t much, but it was home. The moment is short, and they walk out the door, Steve behind them. They walk up the stairs to the roof and see Sam Wilson, the Falcon. No quinjet, so it must have cloaking technology. 

Sam walks to the two of them, arm outstretched. “Sam Wilson. Good to finally meet you two,” he says, shaking their hands. As he does so, Steve does something she doesn’t see to turn the cloaking off for part of the quinjet. The hatch lowers down, creating an entrance for them. 

Jennifer and Bucky look at each other and each take a deep breath before walking up the ramp onto the quinjet.

Chapter 12: Rogers

Notes:

Mind reading
Hand tremor
Headache mention
Amnesia
Torture mention
Experimentation mention
Brainwashing mention
Memory wiping mention
Manipulation mention
Mind control mention

Jennifer, Bucky, Steve, and Sam sit together in awkward silence. The quinjet is flying on autopilot, so the four of them are sitting together in the back. Jennifer and Bucky sit very close to each other, close enough that their shoulders touch. It feels weird to hold hands in front of Steve and Sam, but they both want to be able to communicate telepathically if they need to.

No one knows what to say. Bucky is still trying to process that Steve came for him, Steve doesn’t want to push Bucky into anything he doesn’t want, and Sam feels like he’s intruding on a very private moment. As for Jennifer, she feels out of place sitting across from two Avengers. So they all sit in silence, staring at the floor, playing with their hands, anything to make it seem less awkward.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jennifer sees Bucky’s hand start to tremor. Another trend Jennifer has noticed with him, something she can’t help but worry about. “Your hands are shaking again.”

“I’m nervous, that’s all.”

“I know, but you’ve been having more headaches and stiff muscles and all the things I keep worrying about.”

“Jennifer, you really don’t have to worry,” Bucky says, despite the fact that he worries about it too. He hasn’t told Jennifer this, but he knows that she knows.

“You should ask someone about it when we get to the Avengers Compound,” Jennifer suggests. “They’d know more than we would.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

They sit in silence again, neither of them knowing what to say. Finally, the silence is broken by Steve.

“How much do you remember?” Steve asks Bucky softly. 

Bucky wrings his hands, trying to hide the tremor. “Not much,” he admits. “I’ve been working on it. I remember a lot more than before, but there’s still so much….”

Steve nods and rubs his thumb against his half glove, nervous. “One of my friends told me he might be able to help your memory.  I just, I just thought you should know.”

Bucky nods. “Who?” he asks Jennifer.

“Banner maybe? Or the girl with the red energy, Maximoff?” she answers. “His thoughts are racing, he’s hard to read.”

“Thanks, I’ll ask him about it,” Bucky tells Steve. “But I’m doing pretty well on that front.”

“That’s good to hear,” Steve says. Jennifer feels relief from him, relief that Bucky is doing better than Steve thought he was. “What were you doing to remember?”

Bucky and Jennifer look at each other as they communicate telepathically. “They’d find out sooner or later if we’re living with them and I’m helping you,” you admit. “And I guess they’re used to this sort of stuff.”

“As long as you’re okay with telling them.”

Jennifer nods. She’s actually terrified of them knowing, but this is going to happen sooner or later. May as well get it over with . Despite logically knowing that, Jennifer has to force herself to say the words. It was nerve wracking enough to tell Bucky, who was already her friend and someone she cared deeply for. She only just met Steve and Sam, and if they know, the rest of the Avengers will know. But she knows this will happen someday regardless. The two look back at Steve and Sam. “Can you…?” Jennifer lets the question trail off as she holds both her hands out for Steve and Sam. After a moment’s hesitation, they both hold her hands. “I’m a telepath and an empath,” Jennifer slowly admits telepathically to them. She lets go of their hands, folds her arms, uncomfortable in the spotlight. “I’ve had my powers all my life. And I can help Bucky chip away at the walls Hydra put up around his memories.”

Steve nods, processing what he was just told. Part of him is relieved that the one person Bucky ended up with after escaping Hydra is one of the few people that could help him. Sam also takes a second to process this information. He’s a little suspicious, a telepath hanging out with someone who is mentally vulnerable. But it’s a faint thought from the back of his head, and he shoves it back, focusing on the fact that Jennifer can help Bucky. Neither know how to respond. If it was just Jennifer telling them about her powers, that’d be one thing. But they are walking through two very sensitive topics: what Hydra did to Bucky and Jennifer’s powers. No one wants to accidentally say something insensitive.

“How did you know who I am?” Jennifer asks, deciding to change the subject. 

“Well, you were last seen at your apartment, where Hydra was arrested after claiming he was there,” Steve says, nodding towards Bucky. Fair point .

“You had rotten luck finding an apartment,” Sam starts. “You know who lived there before?”

Jennifer shakes her head. “My neighbors told me he disappeared, that’s all I know.”

“His ‘disappeared’ because he was Hydra but planned on defecting. Hydra got suspicious and bugged the apartment. They got evidence of his plans and-” Sam makes a sliding gesture with his hand across his throat, symbolizing the slitting of a throat.

“When Hydra was trying to get things together after the Triskelion fell, someone must’ve checked your apartment and found you two,” Steve adds.

Jennifer and Bucky look at each other. “That explains a lot,” Bucky says. 

“And since I was looking for you, that led me to what happened that night,” Steve finishes. 

“But no one knows that I, y’know…?” Jennifer trails off, almost afraid to use words to mention her powers. 

“Only us three,” Sam answers. 

Jennifer nods, relieved. She never mentioned her powers inside her apartment, so Hydra shouldn’t know, but she can’t help but worry a bit. Bucky leans closer to her, a comforting presence. Jennifer does notice his stiffness though. Again with the muscle issues? Another thing to worry over.

“It was an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that found us?” Bucky asks.

“Yeah, Lance Hunter. He was compromised, so he’s kind of on the run. Lots of intelligence agencies keep an eye on him. I guess he saw you one day and recognized you. He knew that just by being by you he was putting you in danger, so he went to Lithuania. He managed to get everyone off his tail and got to the Compound as fast as he could. Told us he saw you in Bucharest with a woman that matched your description. So I started looking for you both there,” Steve answers. “Apparently he was part of a second S.H.I.E.L.D. that formed after everyone found out about Hydra, and he worked on dealing with Hydra. He said there was no sign of Hydra anywhere in Bucharest, so Hydra doesn’t know where either of you are.”

“Good to hear,” Jennifer replies. “And it’s nice to hear there’s at least one other person out there on our side.”

“You’ve got all of us,” Sam assures. “That’s, what, nine Avengers not including us.”

“I promise, the others are going to support you two,” Steve continues. “We’ve let a couple of people in after they did…things. You were brainwashed, Buck, no one’s got anything to hold against you.” Steve turns to Sam quickly. “We should probably tell them.”

Sam, seeming to know what Steve is referring to, nods and starts speaking. “Yeah, about the two people he mentioned.” He pauses, like he’s trying to find a way to say what he needs to in a sensitive manner. “Wanda actually is ex-Hydra. She wasn’t committed to Hydra’s cause, they manipulated her from a young age into thinking she was doing the world a service. She let them experiment on her, which is why she can-” Sam pauses, making weird gestures with his hands, mimicking the ones Maximoff did when Jennifer and Bucky watched her fight Ultron. “Then she joined up with Ultron for a bit. But she’s gotten past everything now, and she’s really nice. And then there’s Loki.”

“Loki?” Jennifer asks in surprise. Maximoff she assumed would either be an Avenger or have close ties after Novi Grad. But Loki ? The reason the Avengers became a thing? He of all people is an Avenger.

“It’s pretty new. You’re the first people we’ve told,” Steve confirms. “Look, I know it’s crazy. But we found out that he wasn’t in control of himself when he was last on Earth. And Asgard isn’t welcoming of him, so he didn’t really have anywhere to go. It’s really weird still, but he has a similar story to you. We can’t really hold him accountable if it wasn’t his choice.”

Bucky nods, understanding more than most where Loki is coming from. “If you’re certain they aren’t a threat.”

“He’s actually pretty nice when you get to know him,” Sam says. “Rough around the edges at first, but that goes away after a while.”

“And, besides, it’s not like any of us are perfect anyway. We’ve all done some pretty bad stuff, but what matters is that we’ve put that behind us and are trying to help people.”

Bucky nods. “I guess I don’t have to worry as much as I am.”

Chapter 13: Avengers

Notes:

Warnings:
Mind reading
Sharing a bed (consensual) (non-sexual)

After several hours, the quinjet lands at the Avengers Compound in upstate New York. The flight was mostly silent other than occasional talking. None of them know what to say. Jennifer and Bucky speak to each other telepathically quite a bit to pass the time. Jennifer senses a rising nervousness in Bucky. And it's not like he started out this flight perfectly stress-free. 

"Nervous?" Jennifer asks him. 

"You don't need telempathy to know that," Bucky answers. "What about you?"

"Very," she admits.

“I’m sorry about all of this. If it weren’t for me, no one would have known about your powers,” Bucky says. “Now I’ve dragged you into Hydra and the Avengers.”

“It was my choice,” Jennifer insists. “I was the one that found you. And if you had it your way, we wouldn’t have ever met. I was the one that insisted on helping you.”

“You don’t have to meet everyone now, if you don’t want to,” Steve tells the two, pulling them out of their telepathic conversation. “If that’s stressful, you can slip in. Or you don’t have to meet everyone at once.”

Jennifer looks at Bucky, lightly touching his hand with hers as they stand. “What makes you feel better?”

Bucky hesitates before responding. “I’d rather get this over with. But what about you? You’re the one that has powers they don’t know about.”

“Can we not say anything about my, y’know , yet?” Jennifer asks. 

Steve nods before Sam can respond. “I don’t know how well that’ll work for Wanda and Loki. They’re telepaths too. But if you ask, I’m sure they’d keep it to themselves.”

Jennifer and Bucky look back at each other. “You okay with meeting them?” Bucky asks.

“As long as we don’t say anything about me.” She turns to Steve and Sam and answers their question. “We’ll meet them all now, if that’s alright. Get this thing over with.”

“If that’s what you want. Though, Jennifer…if you could tell a couple more of us at some point, that might be helpful. Bruce Banner specifically. He keeps files on all of us and our abilities for the sake of medical practice. So if something happens, he’ll know you’re a telepath. Doesn’t have to be now, it’s just something to think about.” Jennifer nods. It would be a reasonable thing to do. Heaven knows what would happen if she gets a concussion, or worse. 

"Ready?" Sam asks as Steve walks to the cockpit to talk on the radio to land the quinjet. Jennifer and Bucky nod, bracing themselves. 

"I never was that big of a fan of this sort of stuff anyway." Jennifer tells Bucky.

"What sort of stuff?" he asks.

"Meeting people? Not really that. I don't know. I'm pretty introverted, and I'm just not always in the mood to really be with people, if that makes sense. And I’d rather meet someone in a more natural way than someone going, ‘Hey, this is Jennifer, the woman that went missing after the Hydra raid, she’s here to stay now.’"

Bucky nods subtly. “I’m sorta like that. I don’t know, before Hydra it was sometimes draining to be around people, but other times it was energizing. Now it's different, kind of. On the one hand, I'd like to be around people more, but on the other I know that's a bad idea. I'm just glad I wasn't alone this whole time."

"That would have sucked," Jennifer acknowledges. "I don't like being around people too much, but I do like it. I can't imagine what it would be like, living on my own, never being able to confide in anyone."

The door to the quinjet flips open, becoming a ramp to the ground below. Light shines in, but not too much. They landed in a hangar, a handful more quinjets not far from them. After a deep breath, Jennifer and Bucky walk down the ramp, following Steve and Sam into what feels like a whole new world. A man they recognize as Tony Stark is standing at the doorway into what Jennifer assumes is the rest of the Compound. Jennifer feels the lurch of anxiety in Bucky as he sees Stark. She has a brief flash of his memory of killing Howard and Maria Stark. She grabs his hand, a silent assurance. Not quite knowing what to say to him now that they're face to face with the son of Hydra's victims, all Jennifer does is send Bucky some more positive emotions. 

"Bringing a special someone home? I take it the date went well," Stark tells Steve with a boatload of sarcasm as they get closer to him. 

"You get used to him," Steve tells Jennifer and Bucky.

"Unfortunately," Sam adds.

"Tony Stark," he introduces himself, ignoring Sam and Steve, holding his hand out to be shaken. Jennifer and Tony hesitantly do so, not really knowing what to do in this new environment. "No need to be so nervous," Stark responds to Jennifer and Bucky's apprehension. Though he himself doesn't sound perfectly confident either. "Welcome, welcome. Make yourself at home." His voice is a little tense, though he hides it well. "Everyone's all together I think. Except Thor. He's having his weekly shouting match with his dad."

"It's kind of a long story," Sam adds, seeing Jennifer and Bucky's confused faces. "And not really ours to tell." Jennifer nods, assuming it has something to do with Loki. 

"But other than him, we're all here, if that's how you want to meet everyone," Stark continues. The two nod at him. Stark opens the door for them, rattling off about some security things. He's not barring them from any part of the Compound, but he'll need to set them up in the security system. Once it's done, they won't need to enter codes or anything to get in and out, Stark's artificial intelligence will know it's them and unlock everything. Stark leads them through a hallway towards an elevator. The design is modern, with lots of glass walls. "Biggest thing is that, hopefully , no one knows you're here," he adds as they enter the elevator. "You're still a fugitive. I can get a legal team though, and any evidence that you weren't making those choices should clear you. But only if you want to. Just...be careful when you go out." The elevator doors open and Stark leads them towards a door, typing something on his watch. "They're all in there. Whenever you're ready."

Jennifer grabs onto Bucky's hand, giving him telepathic assurances. After a few deep breaths, the two of them give the others their nods. Stark opens the door and walks in, everyone following him. They walk into a living room with a handful of couches, recliners, etc. Already in the room are seven others. Bruce Banner, James Rhodes, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Vision, and Loki. Jennifer looks down, not liking being the center of attention. Steve does the basic introductions, though it's unnecessary. The only one anyone might not know is her. Soon, everyone is shaking hers and Bucky's hands, welcoming them to the Compound. They all seem nice enough, and are trying to not make things uncomfortable.

When Loki shakes Jennifer's hand, she hears his voice in her head. "You can hear me, correct?"  

Jennifer feels a wave of fear at her first telepathic connection at the Compound. "Please don't tell anyone…. I'm not ready for that, please."

Loki nods subtly as he speaks verbally with Jennifer, though his words go in one ear and out the other. Jennifer hears another voice. Wanda's. "Your secret's safe with us."

"Thank you!" Well, that's one less thing to stress over . Jennifer didn't think they'd both sense her abilities so fast. She didn't sense either of theirs until they spoke with her, and she knew they had some telepathic powers. 

Once everyone says hi to them, Steve shows them around the Compound. Bigger than Jennifer imagined. It'll be an adjustment. All her life she lived in small apartments. Now she's living in this massive Compound with several people. Everyone has their own bedroom with a bathroom linked to it. They all share a kitchen, but it's big. There are laboratories and training rooms as well as entertainment rooms. Big jump up from sharing a room with Bucky and taking turns every night on who gets the mattress. 

Stark had some extra rooms he's given to them. There's actually still quite a few extras, since the Avengers are always open to recruitment. Jennifer is at the end of the hallway there rooms are in, then Bucky, then Steve, then Sam, then Loki, then Thor. The others are in a different hall. Their rooms are bigger than their apartment in Bucharest. Jennifer and Bucky are unable to unpack quickly, since they only have a small duffel bag between them. Once they're done, they sit together on a loveseat in the living room, unsure of what else to do. Not wanting to give away Jennifer's powers by sitting in silence for hours, the two start talking to each other in Romanian. It gives them some privacy, since they assume the others don't know Romanian. They talk about how crazy this all is. 

After some time, Loki walks into the room with a book. "Thanks again," Jennifer tells him as he sits down on the other side of the room.

"No need. It's not for me to say."

Well, he's a lot nicer than I thought he'd be . What Steve and Sam said about Loki being mind controlled was making more and more sense by the minute. 

The day goes by just fine. All of the Avengers are nice enough. Most of them are pretty chill. They meet Thor later when he returns from Asgard. But nothing all that eventful happens. Steve talks to them, and Loki talks to Jennifer telepathically on occasion, but otherwise the others leave them alone. It's a mix of not wanting to overwhelm the two of them and not knowing what to say. Her and Bucky aren't ready to socialize yet anyway, so it's all fine. 

The night feels off, them being in separate rooms. After a few hours of feeling weird about it, Jennifer goes into Bucky's room. Bucky was about to go see her. After a while, they decide to share his bed. It's a lot bigger than the one they had before. Two people could easily sleep on it without touching each other. Which works for them. They don't feel comfortable sleeping together, but darn, does it feel off to not share a room after doing so for so long. 

The days pass slowly, but it's bearable. Quite the adjustment though. But soon enough, they start having some conversations with the others. They slowly start to meld into this radically different lifestyle. But, knowing their luck, it doesn't stay calm for long.

Chapter 14: Interruption

Notes:

Warnings:
Mind reading
Combat
Unconscious
Past brainwashing
Killing
Death
Dead body

"Who on Earth is Luke Skywalker?" Bucky asks as he walks into the kitchen where Jennifer and Sam are. "Clint keeps telling me I look like him." 

Jennifer tilts her head slightly as she examines Bucky. "Now that you say it, you kind of do." 

"Yeah. Didn't notice before with the hair," Sam adds.

"He's from some movies. Really good movies. We should watch them."

"The new one might still be in theaters," Sam adds.

"I forgot they were making more," Jennifer says, leaning back in her chair as Bucky sits next to her. "Have you seen it? Is it any good?"

"It's not as good as the originals, but it isn't bad. There's another one coming out this year I think," Sam answers.

"I don't have anything to do now. We could watch one if you want," Bucky suggests.

"I'd do four, the first three aren't the best," Sam says.

Jennifer turns to Sam in shock. "You think we should watch the prequels first?!"

"Course not, I was messing with you. Four, five, six, one, two, three, seven."

"We're supposed to watch the fourth one first?" Bucky asks.

"That one came out first. One, two, and three are prequels and give away the important stuff you learn in four, five, and six," Jennifer explains. 

"I'm going to stop asking questions. I'll know it when I know it," Bucky responds.

A loud crash comes from down the hall. The three of them stand up to look around the corner to see the problem. Before they get to the doorway, someone screams. 

"We're going to have to put a raincheck on Star Wars ," Jennifer says as she tries to scan the area telepathically. There's someone she doesn't recognize in the hall and one of Tony's employees (Stark Industries employees that work with Tony sometimes come over if there's something important, but not often). She starts probing the mind of the stranger. She can't make out his thoughts, but his emotions can be read. They're alert, searching for…something. They seem suspicious. "They might not have good intentions," Jennifer tells Bucky just before he looks around the corner. 

A loud bang comes from the other side of the wall and before she knows it, Bucky is holding Jennifer closer to him and shielding her with his prosthetic. As more bullets fly towards them, Jennifer tries to learn more about the shooter. "Not close enough to figure out what he wants."

"I think we should keep it that way. Stay here with Sam." Bucky nudges her further into the room before running into the hall, bullets bouncing off his prosthetic. A moment later, the shooting stops. Jennifer and Sam look around the corner to see Bucky walking away from an unconscious man. 

Jennifer tries to sense any other threats. When she doesn't sense anyone immediately, she starts to walk towards the unconscious man to read him. Bucky walks with her, alert. She crouches next to the man and touches his temple. "Hydra," she says after a moment.

"Then he's not the only one," Bucky says, looking around them. "There's always someone else, at least one. Sniper usually. Someone to finish the job. Plus whoever else is pulling the mission."

Jennifer stands up and tries to sense around them for another hostile. "I'm not sending anyone. They're too far away for me." 

"FRIDAY must have been disabled since we haven't heard from her," Sam says as he types on his phone, warning everyone else.

"Tony's working on bringing her back online," Steve says as he walks into the hall from the other end. "What was this one doing?"

"Trying to kill us," Jennifer answers.

"Tony and I found the one who disabled FRIDAY. He was trying to get into the rest of our system."

"What do you think?" Sam asks Bucky.

"Intel and assassination?" Bucky suggests after a moment's thought. "I was only ever told the information I needed, and only given my orders. I don't know what most of Hydra's tactics are. I still think there's at least one more. Sniper maybe. Maybe there's an explosive rigged. Someone to finish the job. I failed enough times to know Hydra will have a backup." The atmosphere feels heavier as Bucky talks about Hydra. He hasn't talked about anything with Hydra around the Avengers. Thankfully everyone's been sensitive enough to not ask. Jennifer can feel his apprehension as he speaks and watches as he sets his jaw. 

"Once FRIDAY is up, we should know where any more hostiles are," Steve says. "Natasha and Clint are watching Tony's back. My only concern is Bruce. Everyone else can take care of themselves-"

"But things will get dicey if he becomes the Hulk," Jennifer finishes. "I can stay with him and calm him down if something happens." 

"I'll stay with you. They might be able to, uh, trigger what they put in my head. If anyone can stop me from hurting someone, it's you," Bucky responds before crouching next to the unconscious man and grabbing his pistol. He stands and hands it to Jennifer. "Just in case."

"Last I saw him, he was in his lab," Sam says. Jennifer shouts her thanks as she and Bucky run to the stairs. They run to the floor above them and turn the corner into the lab. 

"Is everything alright?" Bruce asks as Bucky shuts the door behind them.

"Hydra," Jennifer says as she grabs Bruce and Bucky.

"Don't freak out, but I'm a telempath. You're one of six people that know. Hydra might try to turn you into the Hulk so I'm here to keep you calm. Same sort of thing with Bucky."

Bruce nods after a second of shock. "I have several questions, but I'll save them for later."

"Can you sense anyone?" Bucky asks.

"I'm trying." Bucky brings Bruce up to speed as Jennifer scans the area. The place feels off, like something isn't quite right. 

"Everyone's accounted for and on the lookout," Bruce says after his phone vibrates. 

"I really don't sense anyone. Should've tried to dig through the first guy's mind more. It was muddy since he's asleep, but maybe I could have pieced something together."

And so they wait for something to happen. They stand together in near silence. Jennifer observes the room. She hasn't been in there before, and looking around she's fascinated. She's tempted to ask Bruce about all the stuff around them, but that could distract them and leave them vulnerable. She studies everything from the microscope on the table next to her to the vent on the ceiling, and then studies everything all over again. But this time, something isn't right. In fact, it's horribly wrong.

The ceiling vent cover is gone, and a rifle is slowly sliding out. Jennifer grabs the pistol Bucky gave her and takes a few steps back until she can see the sniper. She keeps her head down, only looking up in her peripheral vision so that the sniper doesn't know he's been seen. Then she looks up and lifts the pistol, aims, and pulls the trigger three times. 

The rifle falls out the vent and blood drips down from the arm hanging out. Jennifer sets the pistol down and looks away, shaking, realizing what she's done. 

"Jen?" Bucky asks as he lightly touches her bicep. 

"I, I killed him?" 

"Probably," he admits. Jennifer leans against his chest and grabs onto his shirt. Bucky gently wraps his arms around her. "It's alright, I'm here."

Vision walks through the door without warning. "I heard gunshots." Bucky tilts his head towards the ceiling. 

"Jennifer shot him," Bruce explains in a hushed voice, not realizing Jennifer can hear him. 

Vision nods. "We're going around the Compound, looking for hostiles. No others have been found so far. We'll let you know when the search is done." He phases through the wall.

"I killed him," Jennifer mutters, barely audible.

---

"How is she?" Natasha asks when Bucky walks into the lab.

"Shaken up. This is the first time she's killed anyone. She's asleep for now." Bucky turns his attention to the body on the table everyone stands around. 

"All of them wore these devices to stop telepaths from sensing them," Bruce says as he holds up something like an earbud with electrodes attached to it. "The one you and Jennifer ran into had a malfunctioning one," he adds, referring to Bucky and Sam. "Additionally, they all had these," Bruce says as he forces the dead man's eye open and touches it, pinching a contact and pulling it off. "Contacts with cameras. The feed wasn't stored on them. It was sent to another location until Tony was able to jam the communication." 

"Anything they saw, all of Hydra knows by now then," Bucky says quietly. They know about Jennifer and I .

Chapter 15: Interrogation

Notes:

Warnings:
Captivity
Restrained
Interrogation
Manipulation
Mind reading

"Why did Hydra send you here?" Natasha asks. She is interrogating one of the Hydra agents now. He's sitting, handcuffed to a table. Natasha sits on the other end while Loki leans against the wall not far from them. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he says sarcastically. 

“We’ll find out one way or another,” Loki says calmly.

“What are you going to do, torture me? I know darn well none of you will do that. Except for maybe you," he responds, speaking to Loki. "You are the very reason the Avengers were formed. I wouldn't be surprised if you have some old habits."

"As if we'd need to torture you to learn what we need," Loki says, brushing off his comment. "Answer her questions."

"Why did Hydra send you here?"

"Hydra? It wasn't Hydra that sent me."

"Lie," Loki states. 

"What in the?"

"Missed the part where he's the God of Lies?" Natasha asks with a smirk.

"So you're a walking polygraph. I don't know how things work on Asgard, but polygraphs aren't admissible in court. If you want me to land in prison, you need to leave."

"I could use sorcery to detect lies, but I don't need to. I'm good at reading people, and you're particularly obvious."

The man sighs. "Fine, it was Hydra that sent me here."

"Why?" Natasha asks for the third time. 

"I don't know. You worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., you know what it's like. No one ever knows everything."

Natasha turns to Loki, who's staring intently at the man. "What do you know?" he asks.

"We were supposed to steal some sort of information. When we saw our soldier and his friend, we were given orders to capture them if possible."

"He isn't Hydra's soldier," Loki states, his jaw set. 

"Whatever you say."

"Who ordered this mission?" Natasha asks.

"Don't know."

"Yes, you do," Loki responds.

The man sighs. "I'm starting to hate you," he mutters bitterly. "List."

"We thought he died last year," Natasha says, prying for more information.

"And I thought he was dead," the man says, pointing to Loki. "List left just before you seized Strucker's base in Sokovia. And unfortunately for you, he has no plans of retiring."

"Do you have any idea what information you were stealing?" Natasha asks.

"Information on all of you," he answers after a stare down with Loki. "No, I don't know exactly why List wants it. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" The man shakes his head. When Loki doesn't say anything, Natasha continues. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Natasha and Loki leave the room. "You sure he isn't hiding anything else?"

"He assumes we know everything else. I can double check later."

"Why later?"

"I have something to do."

"What exactly?" He's normally more specific… . Part of Natasha is still suspicious of Loki. She knows he wasn't controlling himself during New York, but she hasn't been able to trust him yet.

"Can't say."

"And why is that?" 

"I know something about Jennifer and Bucky and they asked me not to tell anyone yet."

"Alright then," Natasha says. If he's helping them with something, that's good . 

---

"You were right. That was a good movie," Bucky says as the credits roll. Jennifer smiles as she cuddles against him. Bucky has stayed with her since she killed the Hydra intruder. She had slept for a while after crying on his shoulder, and after she woke up, Bucky has tried to help her keep her mind off things. They watched Star Wars: A New Hope together, which is what they were going to do before Hydra rudely interrupted them. Between killing someone and Hydra knowing where they are, Jennifer is struggling. "You want to watch the next one?"

Jennifer nods before standing up to find Empire Strikes Back . "This is my favorite one."

Bucky is about to say something but stops when they hear a few knocks on the door. "Come in!" he shouts instead.

Loki walks in and closes the door behind him. "Hydra was trying to steal all of the information on us. And when they saw you two, they got additional orders to capture you two."

Jennifer nods. "Thanks for letting us know."

"Nothing about you was in our system?" Loki asks Jennifer. She shakes her head. "Hydra doesn't know you're enhanced then."

"That's good news," Bucky says. "Trust me, things would be much worse if they knew."

"I also came to offer to teach you," Loki says.

"Really?"

"I mean no offense when I say this, but there's much you can improve on. For example, you don't hear my thoughts unless you seek them out or I let you. But you're very…vocal telepathically. I have to block you out sometimes because I can hear you speaking telepathically or you're projecting your thoughts to no one in particular."

"Oh, I had no idea. I'm sorry," Jennifer says, surprised that she's been screaming telepathically basically.

"It's nothing wrong, you didn't know. Wanda was the same way too. Out of the three of us, I'm the only one that isn't mostly self taught, so I learned early on how to keep everything to myself and whoever I'm speaking to. But that's only one example I've noticed. You're very good at what you do for having never been taught any of it before. But, if you want, I can help you learn more. Or you can ask Wanda, she might be happy to help too."

"Thanks for the offer, I'll consider it." And by consider I mean after I've somewhat handled the fact that things kind of fell apart after like a week here .

"For example, I heard that," Loki says apologetically. "All of us have been where you are now. If you need anything, just ask."

"Oh, um, thanks," Jennifer responds, heat rising to her head realizing that Loki hears thoughts like that without even trying. 

"Question?" Bucky asks, walking closer to Jennifer and Loki.

"Yes?"

"Jennifer can basically always hear my thoughts, sense my emotions, all of that constantly."

"It's never been like that with anyone else," Jennifer adds.

"We've assumed that it's because of, y'know, Hydra. Have you had that same issue with me?"

"No, I haven't," Loki answers, looking at Jennifer with intrigue. "If anything, you're harder for me to sense. I assumed that was because of Hydra. And I haven't ever heard of anything like this before." He pauses for a moment, thinking intently. "I'll have Thor get some books for me when he goes to Asgard this week. I'll try to see if this has happened before."

"Alright, thanks," Jennifer says. "We got used to it, but I don't like that I'm invading your privacy constantly without meaning to."

"I know, I've gotten used to it, and I trust you, but it would be nice if we could find a way out of this."

"I'll see what I can do," Loki promises. "Let me know when you make a decision."

"Or I won't and you'll already know."

Loki smiles slightly at Jennifer's sass. "Then I'll come to you, if that is alright."

"Yeah, go for it. Or I'll find you, whatever works."

"Alright. We all want to help you how we can. Ask if you need it." Loki leaves the room and Jennifer and Bucky sit back down again.

"Never thought I'd say that I like him," Jennifer admits. "But he's a nice guy."

"He is. And both of us have stuff in common with him, so that helps." Bucky sighs. "Do you want to talk about the interrogation yet?"

Jennifer shakes her head. "Watch movie first."

"Alright, if that's what you want." Bucky drapes his arm over Jennifer's shoulders and Jennifer snuggles up against Bucky's chest. She presses 'play' on the remote and the theme plays, giving her a couple more hours to run from her problems.

Chapter 16: Training

Notes:

Warnings:
Mind reading
Past abuse
Phantom pain
Captivity
Torture mention
Experimentation mention
Amnesia
manipulation

"You're a powerful enough telepath that you don't need to work for your thoughts to be heard by those that can hear. Which is why you need greater control." Loki pauses for a moment. "It's similar to children learning that it isn't always appropriate to shout. Often children aren't actively choosing to shout, it's what feels natural for them to do when they're excited." Jennifer nods, understanding the idea of the metaphor. "The difference is that it's easier for children to know if they're shouting than it is for you to know if you're projecting your thoughts."

"So how do I?" 

"I'm going to help you create a mental wall. Then you can contain everything in here-" Loki points at his temple "-unless you open the door." Loki sighs. "I was taught that the way to do that is to close off your emotions and isolate yourself for some time to force your mind to keep to itself. Which is a terrible approach to learning this."

"Did you…actually do that?"

"I was supposed to, and I don't understand how anyone thought that would be a good idea for a seven year old to do. Or that I would actually do it. And I'm surprised by how easy it was to sneak out every night."

"You were sneaking out when you were seven?" Jennifer asks in surprise, smiling. 

"And would continue to do so for another thousand years," Loki adds. "The point is that you can't force yourself to build a mental wall. You need something that motivates you personally."

"If you don't mind me asking, what helped you?"

"My mother was a telepath, which made it a lot harder for me to bend rules. But if she couldn't hear my thoughts…."

Jennifer laughs. "You had quite the childhood."

"Just a handful of the good parts," Loki says tightly. Right, the whole abusive parents thing. Should not have said that . Before Jennifer can respond, Loki puts up his hand, gesturing for her to stop. "It's fine. You didn't mean anything by it. But may I ask you to be more careful in the future?" 

"Yes, sorry about that." Trying to break the tension, Jennifer moves on quickly. "So, motivation?"

"Why do you want to learn? Not just this, why do you want to learn more about your abilities? What purpose is there for that? For me it was my affinity for mischief. Why is it that you came to me for help? I'd say you don't have to tell me, but, circumstances considered…."

Jennifer nods, thinking. "Well, it's nice to learn about it from someone who actually knows what they're doing. I only ever bs-ed it before, so it'll be nice to know more about what I'm doing. And if I get better at all of this, then I can help Bucky more with his memory and all."

"Much more noble of a cause than I had," Loki says with a smile. "If that's what motivates you, then it'll work." Loki gently takes Jennifer's hands and sets her fingers on his temples. "Feel around, see what mine is like. It will give you an idea for what you will have."

Jennifer nods and closes her eyes, prodding Loki's mind. It's…odd. Every mind she has probed has been easy to read at this distance with this type of touch. Jennifer can feel a wall blocking her from Loki's inner thoughts and feelings. She hesitantly tries to break past it to learn more about the wall, but can't even scratch it.  The wall isn't necessarily hard, but it is strong. It gently turns Jennifer away every time she touches it.

"So will this also stop anyone from reading me, or is there a separate thing stopping me from sensing much if you?" Jennifer asks. 

"Mental walls do both, though the protection part is harder. You have to do more to maintain that throughout your life. Which I will teach you how to do when you're ready."

"Okay, how do I make my wall?"

"That, we'll have to figure out along the way." 

---

"How did it go?" Bucky asks as Jennifer walks into his room.

"Pretty good. Kinda weird, but that's just because I've never been taught any of this before." Jennifer pulls on her sleeve nervously before she continues. "You know, Loki and Wanda know so much more than me. They can probably do so much more to help you."

"Maybe," Bucky admits. "But you have something they don't have: my trust. Don't get me wrong, they both seem nice, I like them, but that doesn't mean I trust them to poke and prod my mind. You're the only one I trust to do that. The best thing they could do for me is to help you learn what they know."

"Okay, I just thought I should tell you. I want to help you, but they'd do a better job of it."

Bucky shrugs. "Or maybe not. Loki did say he has a harder time sensing me than anyone else, and you're the opposite of that. Besides, you do a lot more than help me remember. You're the only one I can really confide in. Everyone else is nice and all, but I can hardly talk to them about Hydra or the past couple years. I don't want people I can't talk to being the ones seeing my memories." Bucky steps closer and takes Jennifer's hands. "You're more than enough. And you still have so much potential. Don't downplay it because others had more of a chance to learn than you did."

Jennifer smiles softly. "Thanks for that." She lets go of his hands and sits crosslegged on his bed next to the headboard. Bucky lies down, head in her lap. They've been experimenting with more physical content around Bucky's head, and so far it's seemed to help. "Ready?" Bucky nods as he closes his eyes. Jennifer rests her hands on his head and slowly nudges a memory out of the dark crevice in his mind Hydra forced them into. Immediately, Jennifer senses Bucky's fear, his anxiety, his pain. She frowns as she sees what he sees, anger rising in the back of her head.

"Hey, Bucky, is this-" Clint's voice cuts off when he opens the door without knocking and walks in, seeing the two of them. "What on Earth is happening?" 

Jennifer flinches when the door opens, but otherwise tries to focus on Bucky. If she loses focus, heaven knows who sort of consequences there'll be. "Please, go away. I'll explain later." What does this look like to him? What is he thinking? Jennifer could try to sense Clint's thoughts, but she doesn't dare.

"What are you doing to him?" Clint asks cautiously.

"Stop, go away," Jennifer says quietly, trying to forget Clint is there.

"Clint, it's alright," another voice says. Jennifer doesn't bother to pay attention, instead diving further into Bucky's mind to stop herself from losing focus.

His left arm throbs. That shouldn't be possible. He doesn't have a left arm, and yet it feels like he has one in extreme pain. He shivers in the corner of the cell. He has long since gotten used to the texture and scent of dried blood. 

He backs further into the corner when he hears footsteps echoing towards his cell, hoping against hope that he won't be dragged out again and strapped to a table, left out in the snow, or used like a punching bag for Hydra's recruits. A man that seems familiar stops in front of the cell and leans against the metal grate door, giving him a deceptively sweet smile. "How are you feeling?" The voice is mocking.

"Stay away!" he growls.

"No need to be so aggressive, soldier," the man criticizes. 

He stares daggers at the man from his shadowy corner. "He will come for me."

"You only had enough luck for that to happen once." 

"What are you talking about?"

"Hm? Don't remember?" It is true, his memory has been suffering since he's been imprisoned. Perhaps this isn't the first time he's been here. More likely, it's an attempt to manipulate him into thinking his memory is worse than he thought. Though, unless he escapes, there's no way for him to know the truth. The man chuckles. "Who's going to save you?"

He pauses. For so long, he's said someone would come for him, thinking of someone specific. There was a name, what was it? When he can't recall a name, he tries to remember other characteristics. "Blonde."

The man nods condescendingly. "The blonde? He's dead ."

His heart almost stops. Can it really be? No, it's just something to manipulate him. But maybe…. 

"And to the rest of your world, you're dead. There's no one to save you." The man starts to leave, but turns around with one last thing to say. "My condolences, oh, what was your name?" The man leaves when he has no answer. He forgot long ago what his own name is.

Bucky bolts up from Jennifer's lap. His breathing is heavy. "Did you-"

"All of it," Jennifer answers, tears in her eyes. This was the most she saw herself of a particularly awful memory. "I'm sorry ." Jennifer glances towards the now closed door, sensing the others on the other side. "Hug?" she asks him telepathically white opening up her arms. Bucky leans against her shoulder, holding onto her waist. Jennifer holds onto him tightly. "I'm sorry you had to relive that." There have been very few memories they've unlocked of Hydra turning him into the Winter Soldier. All of them have their own brand of horrible. 

After several minutes of hugging, Jennifer decides to tell Bucky what happened. "So, everyone found out about me. They were pretty freaked out, seeing me put you in a trance. And they're all outside that door, worried about you. Do you want me to tell them to go away? Well, tell Steve to tell them to go away?"  

Bucky nods. Jennifer senses Steve in the group. "Can you tell everyone to leave?"

"Trying," Steve responds. "They did see you putting him in a trance."

"I know, I'll explain more later. But this memory is horrid , and Bucky doesn't want to be crowded by them." Jennifer hears voices outside the door before turning her attention back to the man in her arms. 

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." The two of them hold each other for a long time. "What can I do to help?"

Bucky pauses, hesitating to answer. "Steve?"

"Yeah, I'll get him to come." Jennifer tries to sense Steve, but he must be too far away. But, she can sense Loki, and she asks him to tell Steve to come. In not too long, Steve knocks on the door. "Come in!" 

Steve walks in and locks the door behind him. He sits down on the other side of Bucky on the bed. "Hey Buck. How can I help?" he asks softly.

"I thought you were dead," Bucky says quietly, unfolding himself from Jennifer so that he can have one arm wrapped around her and one around Steve. 

"When was this?"

"After the train. Before I had a prosthetic. When they were figuring out how to, to do what they did. The only thing that kept me going was hope that you'd find me. I remembered you longer than I remembered my own name. But then they told me you were dead. I don't know if they said you died before you were in ice or not. But it wasn't long after that when they were finished with me, I don't think."

Steve hugs Bucky tightly. "I am so sorry that I didn't save you. I should have looked for you. I wanted to find your body and bury you, but I was ordered to leave enemy territory immediately. I shouldn't have followed orders, I should have looked for you."

"You would have been court martialed."

"I wasn't when I rescued you before. And it doesn't matter. I could have saved you from decades of suffering, but I didn't, and I am so sorry."

Bucky doesn't respond, and Jennifer and Steve sit in silence on his bed, hugging him, wishing they could take all of his pain away.

Chapter 17: Alone

Notes:

Warnings:
sharing a bed (consensual) (non-sexual)

“Wait, hold up. Bilbo’s nephew destroys Middle Earth’s Satan?” Bucky asks as he holds Jennifer. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” They’re lying down together on Bucky’s bed, Jennifer turning on Fellowship of the Ring . With everything that happened earlier that day, the two of them have isolated themselves in Bucky’s room. It’s nearing 10:00 now, and they’ve settled themselves on Bucky’s bed. They’ve done the equivalent of sharing a bed countless times before, so neither of them mind this. Jennifer is borrowing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt from Bucky, she not being a fan of sleeping in jeans. All of the Avengers’ rooms have TVs, but Bucky and Jennifer practically never use theirs, always using the living room TV instead and watching movies together. But now Bucky’s will give them something to think of that isn’t the mess they’ve found themselves in. 

“Do you ever regret letting Steve bring us here?” Jennifer asks, pausing the movie during the opening sequence. She speaks in Romanian in case anyone can hear them through the walls “We were doing okay in Bucharest. Then we come here, get attacked by Hydra, I kill someone, and now they all know about me.”

“No. Yes. I don’t know,” Bucky answers. “There are downsides, but there have been benefits. But, yeah, things have kinda sucked lately.” Bucky is quiet for a moment, but Jennifer can sense that he has a lot to say. “They’d let us leave, right?”

“I’d imagine so,” Jennifer says. “I suppose that they’d feel better if we stayed since Hydra is after us, but since Hydra knows we’re here, maybe it’s more strategic if we leave.”

“We didn’t have any problems in Bucharest. The first person to spot us was that ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. But by living here, we have a target on our backs. On the other hand, numbers do help. And even if Hydra does manage to take us again, at least the others will know. If we’re on our own, no one would know a thing if we’re captured.”

“Maybe we just need a day away from here. I think Stark still owns the Tower, maybe we can stay there for a day or two and just clear our heads. That’ll be a little closer to how things were before, and we’ll still be close if we need help.”

“Even if not that, if we could just, I don’t know, go to a restaurant or something. We were working around twelve hours a day, and now we’re always in the Compound. It’s been driving me a little insane.” Jennifer wraps her arms around Bucky’s waist as he speaks, pressing the side of her face against his chest. 

“Heck, Natasha mentioned something about digital masks that could make you look like someone else. So we could wear those and no one would know we were there.” 

“That would work. Then we’d be safe from everything but not here.”

“Gosh, I’d kill for Dunkin’,” Jennifer says. “I’ve been wanting that for the past week.”

“Then we can get, uh, whatever that is, and do whatever else we want to do.”

“What do you want to do if we get out of here?” Jennifer asks.

Bucky lies down in silence for a moment, thinking. “I haven’t been to Brooklyn since ‘43. Maybe we could look around, see if there’s anything I recognize. Probably not much since everything’s changed so much, but it might be nice.”

Jennifer tightens her hold on him, and Bucky does the same with her. “We should do that. And then we should leave the Compound whenever, not even making it an occasion, just something that happens. I’m getting a little sick of this place too.”

“So, tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Maybe we can convince them to let us borrow the masks.”

“They would greatly increase our safety, so I can see them letting us use them.” Jennifer and Bucky fall silent for a few minutes, holding each other. “Is there anything you need to get off your chest?” Bucky asks Jennifer.

“Don’t get me started.”

“No, Jen, what is it?”

“I mean, it’s pretty obvious. Now they all know.” Jennifer shifts her head closer to Bucky’s while still leaning on him. “A year ago, no one knew. Now all these people know. And they’re going to ask me questions and make a big deal out of it. Why can’t we just ignore it? I’m a telempath, get over it. I have powers, whatever. Not that big of a deal when we’re living with a couple aliens. Will I use my powers? Yes. But whatever, I’m not hurting anyone and I’m respecting their privacy. Why should it matter?”

“Well, their introduction to your powers did look suspicious,” Bucky comments. “I’m a little touched by how protective they all got when they thought you were doing something bad to me. I’m sure Steve explained to them what was actually happening.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t lock the door. It would’ve been that simple. Clint would have knocked, and I would have gotten Steve or someone to distract him. It would have been fine. How could I have been so stupid ?”

“It was bound to happen someday, Jen. Now they know, and they have to deal with that. If anyone says you’re being suspicious, have Loki and Wanda back you up.” Bucky tucks Jennifer’s hair behind her ears before continuing. “Honestly though, if they’re okay with me and Loki, they’ll be okay with you. It might take some time for them to get used to your powers, but they’ll be fine with you.” 

“Thank you,” Jennifer says. He’s right, it’ll be okay. Eventually. “What about you? Today sucked for you too.”

“Yeah, it did,” Bucky admits. “It helps to know that Steve is here and alive, and that I’m not alone. But I can’t escape this feeling of dread. It’ll go away eventually, that’s what always happens. Well, sort of. It won’t be an immediate concern. It’ll be in the back of my head for me to deal with later. Which is probably not a good thing, now that I think about it.”

“Why the heck isn’t there a therapist here?” Jennifer asks. “You’d think there’d be consistent access to therapy, considering everything everyone here has dealt with.”

“We should bring that up. We all very clearly need it,” Bucky agrees. 

“Is there anything else?”

“Well, the general nervousness of being here, but that’s not too big of a deal. What about you?”

“Still freaked out that I shot a guy.”

“He was going to kill us,” Bucky tells her. “If you didn’t kill him, I would have. You had every right to defend yourself. But that probably doesn’t make you feel any better, does it?” Jennifer shakes her head. “Killing isn’t an easy thing. It would be concerning if you weren’t eating yourself up over it. But you killed him to protect yourself and others. You aren’t a murderer, you only defended yourself.” Jennifer doesn’t respond, so Bucky lies with her in silence. After a moment, he speaks. “Anything else? Or do we want to watch this?” Jennifer grabs the remote and presses play, and the three hour movie starts. Three hours of distraction, and then (hopefully) sleep. “Love you.”

“Love you too."

Chapter 18: Out Alone

Notes:

Warnings:
mind reading

“This is weird,” Jennifer admits when she sees Bucky’s digital mask. He looks like a completely different person. Which is what was supposed to happen, but it’s weird to talk to him and hear his voice through a different face. His skin is slightly tanned, his eyes amber. His jawline is more subdued, and his nose smaller. If Jennifer didn’t know what was happening, there would be no way she would know she was looking at Bucky. 

“Yeah, it is,” Bucky agrees when Jennifer turns on her mask. She glances at the mirror in front of her, trying to get used to the new look. Blue eyes, paler skin, more prominent cheekbones, fainter eyebrows. “But effective.”

“The power should last for over a week, but here’s the chargers, just in case,” Natasha says. They’re small boxes that look like portable battery chargers for phones. “These are solar powered, and you just have to touch them against your face for a second or two for power to charge. You shouldn’t need them, but just in case.”

“Thanks,” Jennifer says, putting hers in her bag. “We’ll let you know if anything happens.”

“I’m honestly not all that worried. If you guys managed to drop off the radar for a year, you can handle a day in Brooklyn,” Natasha admits. “Have fun. You guys need it.”

Jennifer and Bucky take a car Tony is letting them use and start driving. The car has mostly been used for undercover work, so it doesn’t stand out amongst the other cars. When the two of them told the others what they wanted to do, it was definitely awkward. No one was worried about the leaving-the-Compound thing, they all knew the two of them could drop off the grid if they wanted to. But after what happened the night before, everyone was a little…uneasy around Jennifer. Steve had assured her that he, Sam, Loki, Wanda, and Bruce had thoroughly explained the situation to everyone else. But everyone still seems uneasy about living with someone who could read their minds without knowing about it. Loki had also assured everyone that the only minds she had interacted with have been those that had already known about her powers, and she has been entirely non-intrusive. Jennifer can understand the uneasiness, but that doesn’t mean she likes it. Hopefully they will start to trust me sooner than later . 

The duo talk on their way about whatever crosses their minds. It takes a bit, but soon they’re used to talking to each other despite the digital masks. And very soon, they’re smiling and laughing. Something about being outside just makes them feel better. 

“Kind of weird driving through this much traffic,” Bucky admits when they get to New York City. “Last time I was here, we were just coming out of the Depression. Not that many people had cars. And the population has boomed since then.” 

“Yeah, a lot must have changed,” Jennifer agrees. “All of this must feel kind of unsettling.”

“It is. At least I know about the changes in technology and all. Steve told me when he first woke up, he was in a S.H.I.E.L.D. care center in Times Square. Which obviously went brilliantly.”

“That…is very poor planning.”

“They tried to make it look like he was in a hospital from the ‘45, but then they played a baseball game on the radio that Steve and I went to.”

“Wow, that is, wow. I feel like I could have planned this better. I assume the goal was to ease him into this century but, wow. How did they mess up so badly?” 

“Well, it was the same organization that couldn’t figure out they were working with literal Nazis after they let Zola right in. This is what you wanted?”

“Yes, this. Gosh, it’s been so long,” Jennifer answers as they fight for a parking space in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts. “I have no idea why I want this, but I do.”

“Isn’t that how all cravings work?” The two walk inside and buy some glazed donuts and two coffees to take with them. They walk on the sidewalk, Bucky leading Jennifer towards where he grew up. “I have no idea how much this has changed, I didn’t let Steve tell me. He only told me one thing. But the issue with that is that that might mean something.”

“Oh?”

“So, there was this diner, and back then it was a very popular place for dating. And apparently it is still around. But now that has me wondering what the others think about us.”

“Hmm. I see,” Jennifer nods. Her and Bucky’s relationship is entirely platonic. But it seems not everyone sees it as such. “To be fair to them, we have shared a bed multiple times since we’ve moved in.” 

“Yes, it’s not exactly surprising that they would wonder about that. But it still makes me uneasy.”

“If we just communicate that we aren’t in that relationship, then hopefully things will work out,” Jennifer says. “I mean, we lived in a one room apartment before we came here. And we’ve both been through a lot. It’s not unreasonable I think for us to show our affection in unorthodox ways.”

“I’m sure Clint and Natasha have done this sort of stuff together, with them going on crazy S.H.I.E.L.D. missions and all. So at least that’s two people that would get it.” 

“And, honestly, they seem like the type of people to just not ask because it’s not their business.” 

After a while of continued talking, the two of them end up where Bucky grew up. “This is so different,” Bucky mutters. Jennifer can sense how unsettled he is. “That building wasn’t there, that one has been remodeled, there used to be a different building there. This is weird.”

Jennifer grabs Bucky’s hand. “What was it like before?”

“You can look.” Nodding, Jennifer digs into Bucky’s memory of this place. Just about everything is different. “I knew things would be different, but this is weird. Not weird in a bad way, improvement is good. But this is almost entirely different from what I remember.” The two keep walking around the area, Bucky pointing out different things along the way. He tells her different things he remembers, things he did with Steve, random stories of people he saw, anything he can remember. “Basically any alleyway here, I had to go save Steve when he decided to get in a fist fight with five people three times his size.”

“It was that often?”

“Steve was like a little ball of rage that was very upset by any injustice in the world. And he’s the same now, but now he can actually defend himself. Seriously, five minutes after I left him, he signed up to be an experiment for the Army. That about sums up my childhood.”

Jennifer laughed. “You should get a pardon just for keeping him alive. And also the fact that you shouldn’t even need a pardon.”

The two turn a corner and Bucky points at a nearby building. “That’s the diner. Looks almost just like how I remember it.” It’s small, tucked away, and has a ‘30’s sort of theme to it. 

“It’s cute,” Jennifer tells him. “May as well add another thing to the list of things that make people think we’re dating.”

They cross the street and walk towards the diner. A handful of people start walking towards them, paying them no attention. The one closest to them roughly hits his shoulder against Jennifer’s, walking past without even looking at her. But for that brief second, some of the man’s thoughts seep into her mind. “Won’t be hard for us to capture the Avengers. They will be Hydra’s.”  

The group walks past them, none of them noticing Bucky or Jennifer. Jennifer turns around and takes a look at them as they pass. “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to put a raincheck on this,” Jennifer whispers to Bucky. “They were Hydra, and I heard part of their plan.”

Chapter 19: Hydra and the Avengers

Notes:

warnings:
none

“Slow down, Jennifer. What happened?” Jennifer has been frantically telling Steve what had happened over the phone as she and Bucky drive back to the Compound. 

“Someone bumped into me, and I accidentally got a glimpse into his mind. He was Hydra, and I learned a bit about what they’re planning,” Jennifer re-explains, trying to speak slowly. 

“Okay, stay safe, and come here as soon as you can. I’d feel a lot better if you were here when Hydra is in the area.”

“I know, I know, we’re coming, but the Compound might not exactly be the safest place for any of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re planning on attacking the Compound again. Is there anywhere else we could go?” 

“Stark has a lot of property all over, there might be something but it’s not like Hydra would have a hard time finding them.”

“Do Clint or Natasha have safehouses?” Bucky asks, and Jennifer passes on his question to Steve.

“Maybe. A lot of those were probably revealed when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell apart. I can ask them though.”

“Okay, we’ll be back soon,” Jennifer says before hanging up. “This trip was supposed to be an escape, not this .”

Bucky hums in agreement. “We leave for a few hours, and we happen to run into Hydra. At least we might be able to get ahead of them.” 

“Hopefully." Jennifer frowns, wishing she could have bumped into someone harmless. Then she and Bucky could've stayed in Brooklyn. 

"So, what did you sense?" Bucky asks. She hasn't told him yet, not wanting to be overheard outside, and calling Steve once you could. 

"I don't know, it's all kind of a mess in my head. I got a lot at once," she admits. "What I do know for certain is that it involves the Avengers." 

"Take it one step at a time. Focus on something small. It helps me remember, so maybe that’ll help.” 

Jennifer nods and closes her eyes, trying to narrow down what she saw to something small, something she can work with. “Ultron. If it weren’t for the Avengers, there would be no Hydra.”

“Because Ultron would have destroyed everything,” Bucky reasons. 

“Not just Ultron. Loki, Malekith, Killian. There’s a reason why S.H.I.E.L.D. allowed the Avengers Initiative to get as far as it did.” 

“They needed an elite team.” 

“Exactly. And that worked when Hydra was inside S.H.I.E.L.D,” Jennifer says as she fits pieces together like a puzzle. 

“But now the Avengers fight Hydra,” Bucky prompts. 

“Yeah, so now they have to fight back, but they’re still being saved by the Avengers every few years.”

“Right, keep going.”

Jennifer opens her eyes, looking at the road ahead of them, traffic lessening as they drive away from the metropolitan area. She and Bucky sit in silence as they both sit on what she said. As Jennifer focuses on what she saw, she starts to unravel something else. “Hydra’s obsessed with powered people.”

“Can confirm. I’m only one of their experiments,” Bucky responds, voice tight. 

“And they recognize the benefits of having the Avengers around.”

“They want to make their own team of powered people?”

“Yes, but there’s more to it. They don’t have many powered people working for them, and you’re not the only one to escape after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell.”

“Are they going to try to make more powered people?”

“No. Well, maybe. But that’s not the plan.” Crap! Jennifer mentally shouts as she realizes what Hydra is planning. “There’s already a group of powered people, all together, who already work as a team.”

“They want to brainwash the Avengers.”

Chapter 20: Fear

Notes:

Warnings:
nightmare

Security measures have increased in the Compound. No one goes in or out with FRIDAY’s permission. FRIDAY has satellites and all sorts of things tracking Hydra, and will hopefully see the approach before they get to the Compound. Everyone is much more alert, aware that they may only have a moment’s notice before Hydra arrives. They have all taken to different behaviors. Whether to cope or to prepare, Jennifer does not know.

Jennifer rarely sees Tony now. He’s always in his workshop, presumably working on his armor or something like that, making sure it is a peak performance. She very rarely goes into his workshop, not wanting to interrupt him. There isn’t much she can do to help, so she may as well stay out of the way. Tony must be sleeping in there, or forgoing sleep altogether, because Jennifer hasn’t seen him enter or leave his room at all. Sometimes she checks up on him, hands him a tool or coffee from the workbench if his hands are full. She tries to tell him that he needs to be at full strength when Hydra attacks, and that he needs to take care of himself, but she apparently hasn’t been persuasive. 

On the surface, Bruce seems the same. Other than additional hours helping Tony, it looks like he isn’t too affected. But Jennifer doesn’t need her powers to know that he is feeling a flurry of emotions (just as she told the others, she hasn’t used her powers on anyone without their consent). She has seen him looking at different locations he could go to, just in case they all decide it to be best that way. Places Tony owns, or places Clint and Natasha have hidden at. Because if Hydra attacks, there’s a fair chance he will turn into the Hulk, and that might be ideal. Jennifer has also noticed that he has spent more time somewhat near her. Probably so that she can calm him if necessary.

Natasha can cover her feelings well. She’s a spy afterall. But, every once in a while, her defenses crack, revealing she isn’t nearly as calm as she seems. Jennifer watches as she scans every room she enters, and examines the horizon every time she looks out a window, watching for Hydra. She has insisted on teaching Jennifer on how to defend herself, arguing that it may be best if Hydra doesn’t know about her powers while they are trying to brainwash all of them. And while Jennifer won’t be on the frontlines, some self defense will be helpful.

Clint has been wary around Jennifer ever since the truth about her powers came out. He never told her why, but she can imagine his concerns. Then one day, Natasha told her about how Clint was once mind controlled, so it might take time for him to open up, especially since she kept it a secret. Given his experiences, that would seem suspicious. And he was the one to find Jennifer putting Bucky into a trance with no explanation. Clint hasn’t outright avoided her, but it is clear that he doesn’t like being around Jennifer. Other than that, he has trained with the others more than his usual routine. He’s taken a habit of perching up high and getting and examining the area. Jennifer is starting to see where his alias comes from.

Vision has been very analytical about the situation. Sometimes he sounds like C-3PO, saying the odds for whatever to happen. He must have the blueprints of the Compound memorized, because he has been working to figure out how Hydra could attack. He has also asked Jennifer a few questions about her powers, wondering if she can use them to defend herself. She has never tried to do that before, but they both think it’s possible. 

Wanda has taken to staying in her room a lot. Jennifer doesn't know what she’s going through, but Wanda is ex-Hydra. She can imagine the thought of being forced back there would be hard for her. When she is out of her room, Jennifer can often see some nervous response from her. Bouncing leg, tapping fingers, quick glances around the room. She too has asked Jennifer about her powers, and given her some tips. Wanda is almost always with Vision when she isn’t isolating herself. Jennifer is almost certain there are feelings between the two of them. They aren’t very good at hiding it.

Thor went back and forth between Earth and Asgard the first few days after Jennifer found out about Hydra’s plans. Once that was taken care of, he stayed in the Compound, helping out where he could. He has tried to encourage everyone, saying that they have defeated Hydra countless times, and they’ll do it again. Even still, it’s apparent that he is stressed. It sounds like Thor is trying to also convince himself every time he tries to be encouraging.

Rhodey has taken on the role of making certain Tony eats and drinks something other than coffee. Jennifer suspects that this isn’t new for him, since they’ve been friends since MIT. Rhodey has also been a touch more sarcastic than usual (he’s already very sarcastic normally). Copes with humor, maybe. But he drops the sarcasm when it isn’t appropriate (unlike some people present). He has been sort of the voice of reason for a lot of people, keeping himself together for the sake of others. But that can’t last forever. 

Sam has been trying to get people to talk their worries out with him. He’s had varying degrees of success. He used to be a counselor for the VA, so he knows a thing or two about helping people through emotional turmoil. This has left Jennifer worried about Sam, who hasn’t done much talking to others himself. Though some people cope by helping others, and that may be the case for Sam. He has also trained with others, sometimes helping them through things verbally, sometimes just giving them something to do. He also trains alone often early in the morning. 

Loki has kept himself busy. He had Thor collect a lot of stuff from Asgard for him, all for a complicated spell. He told Jennifer that the spell strengthens the mind, and should be able to protect everyone’s minds from Hydra. It isn’t permanent, and he would have to reapply it every couple weeks, but it would protect everyone while it was active. It takes a lot of preparation. Apparently spells related to the mind and the most complex, because the most complex objects encountered in the universe are brains. But in a day or two, he can start performing it on everyone, and the recharges are much more simple if done shortly after the original spell collapses. When he isn’t working on the spell, he is training you. Loki has insisted that furthering your skills will protect you, and suggested that you have only scratched the surface of your powers. 

Steve is the voice of unity. There’s a reason why he leads the Avengers. He can direct and organize them. He knows what everyone is doing to prepare for the oncoming attack, and has helped everyone however he can. But Jennifer can easily see through him and see Steve’s anxiety. He had just barely gotten Bucky back, and now Hydra is coming after him and his team and planning to enslave them all. 

Unlike with the others, Jennifer doesn’t need to speculate what Bucky is feeling. It’s all out in the open for her. It’s about what she expected. Fear of Hydra taking him again, worry over Hydra taking the others, guilt over what he calls ‘dragging’ her into this, pain from thinking about what Hydra did and knowing what they will do if they are captured, sadness that he can’t live a somewhat normal life for even one month, and anger at Hydra for what they are trying to do. Bucky has helped tactically, explaining common Hydra strategy and techniques to everyone. He walked around the property, identifying the weak spots Hydra could exploit so that Tony could find a way to make them more secure. He’s helped Natasha teach Jennifer too, and overall stayed close to her, knowing that Jennifer is the only one that could maybe break the brainwashing without almost being killed if Hydra does it again. And it means that she has someone to watch her back when Hydra comes. 

Jennifer feels out of her league. If this has got the Avengers worried, then she is completely underqualified for any of this. She would never change a thing, she has never regretted helping Bucky. But she has to put a lot of faith in the Avengers to not let Hydra get to her. Which is a little difficult when she can see the stress the Avengers are under. But she tries, and that’s all that she can ask herself to do. Jennifer helps out where she can. She’ll listen to anyone that wants to talk things out, she has reminded some of them to eat and drink, she helped Loki with some of his preparations, she occasionally helps Tony out in his workshop, and she has offered to use her powers to de-stress someone if they want it (none have accepted so far). Though Jennifer did fail to tell the others that if she de-stresses them, she’ll feel that stress herself, not wanting them to shy away from getting help for her sake (since she told Bucky when he found out about her powers, he has very rarely accepted her help because he doesn’t want to harm her, so Jennifer knows this is a concern for her). She feels obligated to help. I am the weak link. All of them can handle themselves. I can shoot a gun and kind of hold someone off with hand to hand combat, but not well. Every time something bad has happened, I needed Bucky to save me. The least I can do is help them and not be a freeloader .

It is 3:00 am when Jennifer bolts out of bed, heart racing from her nightmare. She steps into her bathroom, splashing water onto her face to try to get a grip on reality. She closes her eyes, focusing on Bucky. Just as I thought . She hurries outside of her room in her oversized T-shirt and short shorts and runs to Bucky’s bed. Jennifer had long ago gotten used to being woken up by nightmares some nights, nightmares caused by her weary mind trying to process the fear and pain it sensed Bucky feeling. He has near silent nightmares. Either he thrashes against his blankets with ragged breathing or he curls in on himself, occasionally sniffling. Tonight is the latter. 

“Bucky?” Jennifer says softly as she sits on his bed, his back to her, gently shaking his shoulder. “Wake up, Bucky.”

He takes a sharp breath when he wakes, glancing around anxiously before he realizes what happened. Bucky reaches over with one hand to grab hers on his shoulder, squeezing tightly. “Thank you,” he says quietly, his voice cracking. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jennifer already knows what happened, or at least the gist of it. Bucky had been recaptured by Hydra, and they were torturing him, erasing his memories and molding him into their perfect soldier again. Deeply felt fears for himself and others. Anxiety over the possibility of it happening for real. Guilt over what has happened and what will happen. But reading his mind isn’t the same as him talking it out. He nods, slowly sitting up, his back leaning against the headboard. 

“I was at Hydra, and they were doing everything all over again, nothing I could do about it. Y’know, the same nightmare I’ve had a thousand times.” He pauses, and Jennifer waits, giving his hand reassuring squeezes. “I didn’t fight back. I went with them willingly. ‘Cause the entire time they had a gun pointed at your head.” Jennifer did not know that , but now that she does, she can piece it together in the flurry of emotions she is sensing. “I couldn’t let you die. Hydra would have gotten what they wanted whether I cooperated or not, all I could do was keep you alive.”

Jennifer pauses, taking all of this in, not sure how to respond. “I’m so sorry, Buck,” she starts, voice barely above a whisper. “We’re safe, and we are with ten others that will help us stay safe. We won’t let Hydra capture you. You aren’t going back there, ever .”

Bucky holds onto her hand tightly. “And I can’t let you get hurt.”

“You might have to. I have faith in you and the Avengers. I will be protected. But if something happens, please don’t sacrifice yourself for me. You deserve a happy life, so please live one, with or without me.”

“So do you, Jen. And I will do anything to make that happen.”

Jennifer smiles slightly. “I guess we’re at a stand still.” They could argue back and forth on this, but it would be pointless. Both are determined to see the other get out of this safely. Jennifer can only hope they don’t ever run into a situation where one of them has to sacrifice themself for the other. 

“Promise to be careful?” Bucky asks quietly, squeezing her hand. 

“Only if you do too.” He nods with a sad smile. “Do you want me to stay?” It isn’t uncommon for one of them to stay with the other after a nightmare. Bucky nods again, lifting his blanket up for Jennifer to slide under. He wraps his arms around her waist as the two of them lie flush against each other. They’re on their sides, Jennifer on top of Bucky’s prosthetic, Bucky’s head under her chin. Jennifer drapes her arm over him and holds him against her. They both feel warm in each other’s arms from the body heat (or laptop battery-like heat from Bucky’s prosthetic, in Jennifer’s case). 

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” The two of them fall asleep after not too long, feeling safer together.

Chapter 21: Common Cold

“You’ve improved plenty since we first met,” Loki tells Jennifer as they sit down in the room they commandeered for telempathy training. Before everyone else knew about her powers, the two of them would hide out where they could, and Wanda would telepathically let them know if someone was coming to them. It’s much easier now that they can claim a quiet room as theirs. “I haven’t heard your thoughts in a few days. Now I can teach you what may be the most important thing for you to know now. You can keep yourself in, now you can learn how to keep everyone out.” 

“That’ll be useful, circumstances considered,” Jennifer agrees. 

“You’ve already built a wall, now you need to reinforce it. Focus. Do you feel your wall?” She closes her eyes, reflecting inwards. After a moment she nods and Loki continues. “I’m going to try to push inside that wall. I’ll be gentle to start off, but as you strengthen your mental wall, I will be more aggressive. Remember when we talked about motivation?” Again, Jennifer nods. “Use that to fortify your defenses. If you have something to fight for, your mind will work itself out. Ready?”

Jennifer takes a deep breath. “Ready.”

Slowly, she starts to feel something poking at her telepathically. It feels almost like a serpent licking her mental barrier. Small with plenty more danger behind it. Stay out , she thinks, trying to ‘fortify her defenses,’ whatever that means. They’ve found that when Loki gives her explicit things to do, it’s harder for some reason. He told her that’s fairly common when people learn these skills. Telempathy comes with a certain amount of intuition, and for some it is easier to rely on that while learning. 

After a moment, the slight poking can barely do anything. Licking a wall isn’t a very effective way of tearing one down. The poking stops and is shortly replaced. If before it was like a serpent’s tongue, now it’s like a serpent’s fangs slowly dragging against someone, breaking skin but not enough to bleed. Jennifer refocuses on keeping Loki out of her head, imagining the fangs of the analogous serpent snapping off when they touch your psychic wall. After one more attack, ‘the serpent’ seems to back off. 

Soon, the serpent returns, but not just to bite you. It snaps at her defenses as it coils around Jennifer's mind, slowly squeezing. Every second, there’s a new attack in a different spot, and she can barely keep up. It doesn’t help that she feels like she's being strangled psychically. Jennifer is only a second ahead of the fangs, and only barely. Slowly, she loses her lead, until the fangs pierce her defenses, tearing through them. As quickly as it happened, Loki’s presence withdraws from her head. 

“You did well for your first time.” Jennifer opens her eyes to see Loki smiling. “How did it feel?” She describes how it felt for him to try to intrude on her mind, how she pushed him back, and how she was overwhelmed for the last minute or so. Loki listens intently, nodding when appropriate. After her tale, he asks a handful of questions for clarification. They do this often when Loki teaches her. So much of her powers are almost subjective in nature that Jennifer needs to be reflective to truly understand what she is doing. Loki’s questions help prompt her inner thoughts on what she is doing. 

“For comparison, try to break through my defenses,” Loki says as he pushes his office chair closer to Jennifer’s. 

“Are you sure about this?” Loki had promised to not actually look at anything when he entered her mind, but Jennifer doesn’t have the control he does. She can’t promise anything. 

“Yes, I am. It will be fine," Loki assures her as he takes her hands and guides them to his temples. Jennifer rests her fingers on his temples and closes her eyes, prodding around in his mind.

She felt around at the wall between her and his mind. Jennifer tries to push against it, but she may as well be pushing against a concrete wall. Try as she might, she can’t break through. After a moment of her trying, Jennifer backs away from his mind and takes her hands off his face. “So that’s the goal?”

“A long-term goal. This isn’t something you can accomplish in a few months. But, overtime, you’ll strengthen your defenses."

"I better get a hang of it soon, with Hydra trying to brainwash us and all."

---

"I'm fine, I promise," Jennifer tells Bucky and Steve after she swallows some ibuprofen. It's been a week since Loki started teaching her how to defend her mind. She made the mistake of mentioning having a mild headache to Steve and Bucky. 

"Don't push yourself too much when you're training. Last thing you want is to be hurt when Hydra attacks," Steve advises. "I know your powers will be important for this, but please don't overwork yourself."

"This isn't because of that, I'm probably just dehydrated or something." Jennifer sets the closed bottle of ibuprofen back in the communal medicine cabinet in the kitchen. “Really, I’ve never gotten a headache from my powers before. Not even when I started using them frequently for the first time when we met. This has got to be something else. Dehydration or stress or something like that.”

“That doesn’t mean it's okay, Jen. You need to take care of yourself,” Bucky tells her, worry in his voice.

“Hypocrite,” Jennifer tells him telepathically. It took a week to convince him to talk to Bruce about his headaches, stiff muscles, hand tremors, etc. when they first arrived. There still isn’t an official diagnosis, but Bruce’s theory is that Bucky may be experiencing mild withdrawal symptoms from whatever drugs Hydra pumped into him. But without knowing the exact medical information from the Winter Soldier program, he can’t confirm it. F.R.I.D.A.Y. is going through Hydra’s files from when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, but much of it is encrypted. It will take time to know for certain what happened. Jennifer says this telepathically because Bucky has tried to keep it under wraps. It’s his private medical information, he doesn’t have to share it with anyone. And he’s still uncertain about opening up to anyone about things like this. It isn’t often that he opens up with anyone other than Jennifer. He needs time and patience, he’ll open up when he is ready.

Bucky doesn’t respond with anything other than a look that says, Stay on topic . "Keep an eye on it and let us know if you need anything."

"I will, I will." Jennifer leans against Bucky's shoulder. With her ear against his prosthetic, she can hear the soft, low humming from the mechanics. It's soothing to listen to. The mechanical heat seeps into Jennifer's skin as she sinks against Bucky. "Tired," she mutters.

"That tends to happen when you don't feel well." Bucky wraps his arms around Jennifer and holds her close. "But there's an easy way to fix that."

"Couldn't sleep much because of my headache," she admits. "Doubt I'll sleep now."

"There's no harm in trying to rest, even if you aren't actually sleeping."

"Fine. Can I stay with you?"

"So that you can leech off my arm?" Bucky asks jokingly after she shifts closer to his prosthetic.

"Maybe," Jennifer teases as she latches onto his arm. Looking over Bucky’s shoulder, she can see Steve smiling, holding back laughter at her antics. “I’m cold.”

“It’s August.”

“And Tony goes crazy with the air conditioning."

"And you’re the only one that thinks that” After Jennifer doesn’t move for a moment, Bucky continues. “So, are you going to move, or am I going to make you?” he asks playfully. 

“You wouldn’t do that,” she insists.  

“You sure about that?” Bucky answers as he hoists her up over his shoulder. Jennifer laughs as she wraps her arms around his waist to steady herself as she dangles upside down after she pushes her glasses up her nose. “Where to?” he asks as he adjusts his hold on her. 

“I don’t care, I just want to snuggle with you,” Jennifer tells him. 

“Darn, you’re clingy today,” Bucky says as he carries Jennifer into the next room. "Letting you down now." He helps her slide down his chest in front of a couch. The two of them sit down, Bucky wrapping his prosthetic around Jennifer. She nuzzles into his side, feeling surrounded by his warmth. "Are you feeling alright?" Bucky asks.

"Relatively. Why?"

"You're acting differently, so I'm wondering if you're sick. You've already told me about one symptom."

"I guess I probably am, but not bad. You don't mind me sitting here even though I'm sick, do you?"

"No, it's fine. I used to do this at least weekly when Steve and I were kids. And I don't really get sick that often now that I'm a super soldier. Don't worry about it. Is there anything you need?"

"Just cuddles."

"You're going to have to wait for those for one minute," Bucky tells her as he stands and walks into the kitchen. He comes back a second later with a bottle of Gatorade. "You need fluids." He grabs a blanket that was thrown on another couch as he walks back, tossing it to Jennifer. 

"Thanks," Jennifer tells him as she wraps the blanket around her and snuggles against Bucky when he sits back down. His body and prosthetic heat surround her, giving her a sense of security. Jennifer sits in silence while Bucky reads what the book he had before she came out in search of ibuprofen. “ The Hobbit ?” Jennifer notes, looking at the book’s cover. 

Bucky nods. “I first read it in 1937. I really liked the Lord of the Rings movies, so I thought it’d be fun to read them all. Want me to read to you?”

“Telepathically? I’m more sensitive to vocal sounds right now,” Jennifer asks, referring to her headache. 

“Alright. 

‘All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which his long white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots. 

“Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under his long bushy eyebrows that stuck out farther than the brim of his shady hat.

“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”

“All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of mine! There’s no hurry, we have all the day before us!”

Bucky continues reading and holding Jennifer as her eyes slowly droop down, drinking the Gatorade occasionally, until she fully closes her eyes. Soon after that, she is asleep. Bucky continues reading to her, the book having soothed her when she was awake.

---

Bucky’s POV

“It seems you adopted a cat,” Loki says in a low voice from behind Bucky, referring to Jennifer curled up and tucked against his side. Bucky turns when he hears Loki’s voice, watching as Loki walks to a chair nearby. 

“She isn’t feeling well,” Bucky explains quietly, trying not to rouse Jennifer. “Probably just a common cold. Didn’t sleep hardly at all last night though. I tried to move her to bed when she fell asleep, but she was not having it. Clung to me like her life depended on it.”

“How’s her telempathy? That isn’t the concern, is it?”

“No, she had a headache but said it had nothing to do with telempathy. And I’ve been reading to her telepathically, because she wanted to hear the book but vocals were irritating her.”

Loki nods. “I assumed as much. Tell her I can help her if that changes.”

“I will, thanks.” They both fall into silence again, reading. 

Soon, Bucky starts tapping a couple fingers against his book’s cover. It takes him a few minutes to realize he’s doing it. Once he starts, he can’t stop. It’s as if his body needs to move, like that’s the only outlet for any negative emotions he has. Taking a deep breath, Bucky focuses on his book, trying to distract himself from whatever onslaught of anxiety he just got. But despite his best efforts, it starts to poke through. He starts tapping his foot at the same speed as his fingers. His eyes dart around the room that suddenly feels claustrophobic despite being rather spacious. Bucky closes his eyes and forces some deep breaths through his lungs before continuing reading. He doesn’t recognize his heart rate rising, or his breathing growing ragged. 

“Bucky?” The sound of Loki’s voice pulls Bucky out of his trance. Loki is sitting next to him, watching Bucky intently. “What’s happening?”

Bucky shrugs, his tongue feeling heavy. 

“Keep taking deep breaths, that should help.” Bucky nods, closing his eyes and trying to put all of his focus on his breathing. “Do you know what’s causing this?”

Bucky shakes his head. I’m just terrified out of nowhere for no reason I can pinpoint. Unless…. His eyes fly open and Bucky moves to look at Jennifer, who seems to be sleeping peacefully at the first glance. But after paying attention to her, Bucky can see her breathing isn’t as even as it should be. He shakes her shoulder, still in too much shock to say anything. 

Jennifer’s eyes fly open, and she buries her face against Bucky’s chest. They both grab onto each other desperately, as if letting go would bring about the destruction of the universe. But the fear starts to dissipate now that Jennifer is awake.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Loki asks Jennifer, correctly deducing why Bucky started panicking. Jennifer was having a nightmare, and accidentally shared her emotions with him while Bucky was reading to her telepathically. 

“Don’t remember,” Jennifer answers quietly.

Notes:

Hey, in like 60 days I'm going on an 18 month hiatus due to Internet connections and time I won't have to write. Hiatus starts December 12, 2022. Feel free to message me, comment, etc. I'll get to it when I get there. This might be the last chapter for a while. I guess we'll have to see. Thank you all for reading up to this point, and I'll see you June 2024!

Chapter 22: Trap

“You’ve got to sleep, Jen.”

Jennifer shakes her head. After she woke up the first time, Bucky carried her to her room. She didn’t want to be around anyone else while she was still panicky. Loki had used illusions to keep them out of sight when walking to her room. It took some time for Jennifer to calm down, at least enough to stop shaking and flinching at any sudden movement. She still doesn’t remember the contents of her nightmare, but it left her plenty shaken. To the point of refusing sleep several hours later.

“I don’t want it to happen again,” she mutters, not making eye contact.

“I’ll stay with you, if that helps. But you need sleep. You can't heal without sleep." Bucky's calm voice is only a thin veil against the worry Jennifer knows he has for her. Between generally feeling like crap and still being shaken from her nightmare, it isn't surprising that Bucky is so worried. Jennifer is worried about it in the back of her head. Still too shaken to really process how bad it is that she's so freaked out over something she can't even remember. 

"C'mon, Jen. Please.”

Jennifer reluctantly nods, knowing that Bucky won’t back down. Her and Bucky shuffle down the bed from their sitting positions to lie down. Jennifer rests her head on Bucky's chest as he wraps his arm around her waist. He covers them both with the sheets (despite Jennifer's complaining, Bucky had insisted that her fever was too high for anything more than that) and turns the lamp off. 

Jennifer grabs onto Bucky’s shirt, pressing herself against his side, shivering a little less because of his body heat. Despite her fear of nightmares, she soon can’t keep her eyes open. As Bucky said, her body needs sleep to heal. Very soon, she is asleep, curled up at Bucky’s side.

---

“It’s alright, you’re safe,” Bucky promises as Jennifer jolts awake in his arms. She squeezes her eyes shut and clings onto Bucky’s shirt, shaking and shivering. She flinches when Bucky sets his hand on her head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you,” he says as his thumb starts to rub against Jennifer’s temple. His prosthetic is smooth against her skin and pleasantly warm. It starts to become very soothing. “Do you remember?”  

Jennifer shakes her head. “But I’m still scared.”

“I can tell,” Bucky says with a sad smile. “It’s alright, I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He tightens his hold around Jennifer’s waist as she nuzzles against his neck. They lie down in silence only broken by Jennifer’s sniffles and the low humming from Bucky’s prosthetic, neither of them knowing what to do. 

Jennifer only lets go of Bucky when she starts coughing. It starts off as only a couple coughs, but within a few minutes she is coughing excessively. “I need meds,” she tells Bucky mid-coughing. She pushes herself out of bed to grab cough syrup and another dose of ibuprofen. 

“I'll get them for you if you want to stay here,” Bucky offers as he stands.

Before Jennifer can respond, someone knocks at the door. Bucky walks over, being closer than Jennifer to the door. He opens the door a small amount, and Jennifer looks away, the light from the hallway hurting her eyes as it creeps into her room. She hears faint whispering for a moment between Bucky and whoever. She doesn’t turn around until the door closes and the room returns to darkness. 

“How are you feeling?” Loki’s voice says in Jennifer’s mind as she turns around. She shakes her head, signifying that things aren’t well. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, I’m-” Jennifer starts before another coughing fit begins. Each cough tears at her sensitive throat, only making the pain worse. Bucky touches her shoulder and gently guides her back to bed as she finishes up her coughing spree. Jennifer grabs onto his hand when he takes it off her shoulder, wanting him close. “Medicine? Or Bucky could get it, but I want to be close to him and he isn’t going to let me out of bed,” Jennifer finishes with a pout. 

Loki smiles, and Jennifer hears faint laughter telepathically. “Yes, I can find you some medicine. What do you need?” Loki nods after hearing the list from Jennifer. As he walks out of the room, Jennifer uses Bucky’s arm to hide her face from the light before Loki closes the door.

“He’s bringing me meds,” Jennifer tells Bucky, who nods before lying down with her again. Very soon, Loki returns with the bottles of ibuprofen and cough syrup and a bottle of Gatorade. After taking the medicine she settles back down, cuddled up against Bucky’s side. 

“You still need sleep, Jen,” Bucky says after glancing at her clock. “It’s only midnight. You’ve slept for only three hours.” Jennifer groans, knowing that she will lose this argument. 

---

“Feeling better?” Bucky asks. It is now ten o’clock in the morning. Jennifer woke up from several nightmares the night before, and her cold has only gotten worse. She shakes her head as she sits up to take her next dose of meds. She’s come to the point where instead of fear she feels numb from the nightmares. Despite having them a dozen times, she still has no memory of her dreams. “Do you want to shower?” After a moment of thought, Jennifer nods and gets out of bed, wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm. As she walks into the bathroom attached to her room, Bucky walks out of her room, giving her some privacy. 

Jennifer stays in the shower until she runs out of hot water, finally feeling warm. After an hour of warmth, she steps out of the shower and throws on some sweatpants and a hoodie. As she dries her hair with a towel a sudden wave of shakiness hits her. Jennifer drops the towel and grabs onto the edge of the counter, her entire body shaking. Soon, a bad taste forms in her mouth and she drops to her knees, dumping everything in her stomach into the toilet. Halfway through, Bucky shows up out of nowhere, rubbing her back and pulling her hair back. 

“Thanks,” she says as she slowly stands, once again grabbing the edge of the vanity counter as she flushes the toilet. She looks at Bucky’s reflection as she rinses her mouth out. He’s concerned, and not just about her illness. 

“Something’s wrong. We’ve got to get you somewhere safe,” he says, glancing at the weak points in the security in her room. 

“What happened?” Jennifer asks, her voice barely a whisper with how bad her throat hurts. 

“FRIDAY started rebooting even though Tony didn’t do anything to start that. He said that means someone got in.”

“And Hydra’s already hacked into her before,” Jennifer continues. She walks into the slip-ons she wore yesterday and left by the door, having not bothered to put them away when she first felt sick, before she and Bucky leave her room. 

“I’m going to take you somewhere safe. Well, safer,” Bucky tells Jennifer telepathically as he holds her hand and leads her down a flight of stairs to the basement. Ever since Hydra attacked, he has searched the Compound for security weaknesses and safe points. After a few minutes, Jennifer’s knees buckle. Bucky catches her and carries her down the rest of the stairs. “You’re feeling a lot worse than you did an hour ago, aren’t you?”  

Jennifer nods, clinging onto him. “Really bad timing.” At the bottom of the stairs, Bucky helps her stand again. She is a shaking, shivering mess as Bucky helps her to safety. Soon, they hear gunfire from upstairs. They hurriedly turn a corner to be met with three men.

“We taught you strategy, soldat . You really thought you could outsmart us?”

Bucky pulls Jennifer behind him, raising his prosthetic to shield himself from the tranquilizers being shot at him. He walks through the barrage to the nearest one, twisting his arm and grabbing his tranquilizer when he shouts in pain. Bucky shoots the other two, and they drop to the ground. He slams his fist into the first man’s temple, knocking him out. 

As he does this, someone else grabs Jennifer’s hair from behind, yanking her towards him, pushing a pistol against her temple. “This isn’t a tranq,” he tells Bucky when he turns around, pointing his weapon at the man behind her. “Come with us, or I’ll blow her brains out.” 

“Don’t you dare surrender,” Jennifer says telepathically, hoping he will listen. Nevertheless, Bucky slowly lowers the tranquilizer.

“Can you reach him?” he asks as he drops the tranquilizer. She nods and slowly reaches her hands towards the man’s head, trying to make it look like she’s trying to pry him off her. Other men walk into the room and surround Bucky, one of them holding a pair of handcuffs strong enough to restrain a super soldier. As someone grabs Bucky’s wrists and pulls them behind his back, Jennifer grabs onto the head of the guy holding her. 

Let’s hope this works , she tells herself, having never actually done what she is about to try. “Sleep?” she orders hesitantly via telepathy, hoping this will knock him out. 

It works. The man drops his gun and falls to the floor, pulling Jennifer with him. She stays on the ground, covering her head, as Bucky fights the rest of them. In minutes, he helps her off the floor, handing her the tranquilizer he grabbed from one of the attackers. “We’re almost there.” Not long ago, Bucky had found a place that could work as a bunker for Jennifer, which is where he is helping her get to. Because she can’t defend herself (especially in her current state), she needs to be somewhere safe until the others can sort this out.

“Just through here,” Bucky says as they run through one more hall, luckily without running into anyone else. The place is a hidden room inside Tony’s wine cellar. It’s hidden behind a bookcase. Bucky pushes a bookcase enough for the door to open, but before he can open the door FRIDAY’s voice starts over the intercom. 

“ Zhelaniye, rzhavyy-”

“No, no, no,” Bucky mutters, raising his hands to his head, squeezing his eyes shut. 

“-semnadtsat', rassvet-”  

Jennifer quickly reaches for Bucky’s temples, knowing exactly what these random Russian words are. Words to control him again. “It’s alright, I’ll stop them from hurting you,” she promises.

“-pech', devyat'-” Jennifer puts all of her focus on Bucky’s mind, doing what she can to block Hydra and keep them out. Bucky falls to his knees, holding his shaking hands against Jennifer's hands against his temples. She kneels in front of him, leaning her forehead against his.

“-dobroserdechnyy, vozvrashcheniye na rodinu-” C’mon, work! She is fighting the very structure of Bucky's brain, which has been twisted so much by Hydra. Twisted and molded to submit to their will, and the key is these words. 

“-odin-”  

“It’s alright, it’s going to be alright,” Jennifer whispers. “They’re going to have to go through me to get to you.” After seeing the assault on Bucky’s mind in person, she can see the flaws and can plant herself in his mind like a tree with deep roots. 

“-tovarnyy vagon.”

“It’s alright, it’s over now,” Jennifer whispers when the intercom ends. She doesn’t sense the return of the Winter Soldier. She managed to succeed miraculously. But Bucky is exhausted after Hydra screwing with his brain and Jennifer fighting back. It was too much happening at once. His eyes roll into the back of his head before he collapses in Jennifer’s arms. 

Jennifer sets him down on the ground and hurries to open the hidden door. Once the door is open, she grabs Bucky’s ankles and drags him inside. It takes some time, the weight difference between the two of them being considerable. When his entire body is finally inside the room, Jennifer runs to hide the entrance. The problem being that while the bookcase was nothing for a super soldier to pull aside, it’s a lot for her to push into place. 

After several minutes, there’s only a small slot left for Jennifer to slip into. From inside the room, she tries to pull the bookcase to cover the last bit of the entrance. But no matter what, it wouldn’t budge when she pulled. Leaving the entrance obvious. She freezes when she hears voices nearby. Quickly, she runs back out, not before grabbing the pistol Bucky had pulled off of someone, and pushes the bookcase the rest of the way. 

At least I’m conscious , Jennifer tells herself as she looks for a place to hide. Better that Bucky be hidden while he’s knocked out than her to be in there with him. Jennifer ends up climbing onto the top shelf of a closet, pistol raised. Not a very safe place, but it’s the best she had, because in mere minutes, several Hydra soldiers walk in, weapons raised. One of them has some device attached to his shoulder, something that looks like a dial. 

“Go up two notches,” one of them, the commander says as they walk right past Jennifer, not seeing her in the shadows. 

The soldier with the device turns the dial right until it makes two clicks. Jennifer watches as they look around the room, but don’t find her or Bucky, letting out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. As soon as they leave the room, Jennifer unfolds her body and climbs down, knowing she’ll need something better, and to find someone to tell them about Bucky. 

Once she is standing on the floor and walking, the room starts spinning. This is the same time that a coughing fit starts. When she is still in earshot of Hydra. The soldiers from before come back in, and you begin firing at them. While coughing and sinking to your knees when your vision turns dark. When you run out of rounds, you try to grab the tranquilizer from your holster, but instead you end up on the floor, barely conscious, expecting to be shot now.

“Well, isn’t that interesting?” one of them, the commander maybe, says, standing next to Jennifer’s shaking body. “Dial it way back. Don’t want to kill the golden goose.” 

What is he talking about? Jennifer hears several clicks from the dial, and the dizzy spell suddenly goes away and her coughing slows until it stops. She tries to push herself up, but before she can a couple men grab her arms and drag her up, holding her arms behind her back and forcing her to face the commander. 

“No wonder the asset stuck with you this whole time,” the commander says. 

“Don’t you dare call him that,” she hisses, distracting the commander long enough for her to get a sense of what is happening. She pales when she realizes what has happened. 

Hydra has been blasting the Compound with an energy that can’t be detected. An energy that convinces the brain that the body is horribly sick. It needs to be large amounts of this energy to affect the average person because they’re brain barely notices it. But telepaths are much more vulnerable, and will become terribly ill at a fraction of the exposure of a typical person. And after seeing the state she is in, they know about her telepathy now. 

Jennifer fights against the people holding her back, glaring at the commander, who only raises an eyebrow. “Your defiance is cute at most.”

“Sir, we aren’t holding up at all against the Avengers, and we still have no idea where the asset is,” one of the others said. 

“Signal a retreat. We’ve got all that we really need right here.” The commander draws his tranquilizer and shoots Jennifer in the chest. Immediately, the world spins before everything goes dark.

Notes:

I will be going on an 18 month hiatus starting December 12 and ending sometime in June 2024. In case this is the last chapter until I come back, I just wanted to thank you guys for reading and for all the kind words you've said about it. I wish you the best for the next 18 months and wish you farewell.

Chapter 23: Captured

Notes:

Passed out
Restrained (strapped to table)
Implied non-consensual medical treatment
torture
Medical trauma
Manhandling
Dehumanization

Steve's PO

"Is he…?" The rest of Steve's question dies on his tongue, but everyone knows exactly what he was trying to say. He is kneeling down, cradling Bucky's unconscious body, praying that it'll be Bucky that wakes up. After Hydra retreated, they found Bucky unconscious in the safe room, no sign of Jennifer. 

Wanda kneels next to him and hovers her hand over Bucky's forehead. Her red energy floats down from her fingers and into Bucky's brain, illuminating some of his blood vessels. After a moment, Wanda stops and pulls her hand away. "He's himself, but Hydra did try to control him. Jennifer must have helped him retain control. But it left him exhausted."

"Then where is she?"

"Tony's got the security feed back online. In a few minutes he should know what happened," Clint says from the doorway. 

Steve reaches his arm underneath Bucky's legs and pulls him to his chest as he stands. Him and the two others walk onto the nearest elevator and wait as they slowly rise. Steve goes in the opposite direction when the doors open, headed for the infirmary next to Bruce’s lab. 

Bruce is already in there, finishing up with a few other injuries. “What happened?” he asks as Steve lays Bucky down on one of the beds. Steve explains what he knows as Bruce gets to work. “Well, if it’s just exhaustion there’s not much I can do. The only remedy to that is sleep, which he seems to have under control. I’ll keep him hooked up though, make sure he’s hydrated and has enough nutrients. It could be a while before he wakes up,” Bruce explains as he rubs an antiseptic on Bucky’s arm before pushing a needle in. “He’ll be alright, he just needs to rest.”

After a moment of watching as Bruce sets Bucky up, Steve walks out and into the security room. It is hardly used because FRIDAY can catch any threats, usually. Tony kept the room in the blueprints in case there was ever a day like today. 

“Just in time, Cap," Tony mutters as he starts the video for the area they found Bucky. He speeds through it until Bucky collapses. They watch as Jennifer drags him to safety and struggles with the bookcase, eventually shutting herself out and climbing into a closet. Hydra passes by, but comes back when she starts coughing. She kills several with a pistol, but falls to the ground soon after she runs out of ammunition. Some of the soldiers pull her off the ground and the commander talks to her before knocking her out. They carry her with them. Tony clicks on a few more cameras to follow them. They watch as Hydra carries her out of the Compound. 

"Crap," Steve mutters. 

"Does Hydra know she's enhanced?" Sam asks.

"They shouldn't, that information wasn't anywhere last time they came," Natasha answers. 

"Did you notice the dial they turned?" Clint asks. "Turned it forward slightly when Jennifer was in the closet, and when she came out she was noticeably worse for wear. Hydra found her, they turned it back a lot."

"Have you felt ill?" Thor asks Wanda, who shakes her head. 

“Hydra once used her as bait not long after she met Bucky. She’s an easy target, and they want to enslave all of us. Maybe they’re trying to bring the fight to their turf,” Clint suggests. 

“I’ll have audio available soon, so we’ll know what they said,” Tony adds. “Once FRIDAY is up, I’ll have her work on searching for Jennifer.”

Steve nods, wishing they had some sort of a lead. How am I going to tell Bucky this?

---

Jennifer goes in and out of sleep for what must be a long time. Finally the beeping sound and the humming sound gets too annoying and she opens her eyes. A light above her head blinds her, and she immediately closes her eyes, regretting waking up. As her eyes start to adjust, Jennifer tries to piece together what happened. She remembers what Hydra did to make her sick, and the commander tranquilizing her. After that, there’s quick flashes of the inside of a van, a dimly lit hallway, and a table full of medical supplies.

Jennifer slowly reopens her eyes and takes in her surroundings. She’s in a laboratory with a few different sections. The one she is in is some sort of an operating room. The operating room is closed off from the rest of the lab with four glass walls and a glass door. The lab is full of all sorts of computers and instruments, nothing that Jennifer could begin to understand, much less see, her glasses missing. No one else is in the lab.

I feel so heavy . Jennifer looks at the state of herself, the tranquilizer or whatever other sedative they gave her still leaving her feeling weak. She didn’t even notice the restraints until now. Jennifer is strapped to the table she is laid down on, nylon strapping going across her body at her shoulders, wrists, and ankles. Both arms are connected to IVs with heaven knows what pumping into her. Jennifer can’t be sure, but it feels like her hair is clipped to the top of her head and there is something scratchy on her neck. 

The door leading into the lab swings open and a couple of people (in lab coats?) walk straight to some instruments, not paying any attention to Jennifer. She stares right at them as she starts to probe the mind of the nearest one. The second she starts is the second the pain starts.

Fire covers her brain, forcing a scream from Jennifer’s lips. Warm tears slide down the sides of her face as her back arches. The light above her, the cold table underneath her, the nylon across her chest, the cool air blowing behind her, it all hurts. 

And then it stops. 

Jennifer breathes heavily, watching as a chuckling scientist walks into the operating room. “I see you discovered the chip we put at the base of your brain.” She stares at him, still too breathless for words. What did you do to me? “I wouldn’t try using those powers of yours until we allow you.” The scientist fiddles with the IVs, checking their connection to your arteries and the liquids being put into you. “You’ve caused quite the buzz around here, Miss King. You are quite the mystery. You aren’t Inhuman, if you had been given your powers through an experiment, we would have known one way or another. We know so little about you, and that’s rare. Nice change of pace, don’t you think?”

“Go to hell,” Jennifer snarls as the scientist steps toward one of the tables bearing medical supplies.

The scientist might be smiling, but his face is too blurry for Jennifer to know for certain. “Not only that, Hydra had a telepath right under our nose and let you slip through our fingers when you first encountered us. And where have you been these past few years? At our asset’s side, undoing all of the fine work we did on him, and we were none the wiser. I’m sure you’re the reason we couldn’t find him, no?”

“Lay one finger on Bucky and I swear to God, I will destroy your mind,” she snarls, glaring at the scientist as he walks closer to her.

He only looks amused as he forces Jennifer’s head on its side. “You’ll find that plenty difficult with this here,” he says, tapping the bandage on her neck with a gloved finger. He lets go, and she turns back to glare at him. “Tell me, Miss King, how did you receive your powers?”

“As if I’d ever tell you,” she growls. 

With a sinister grin, the scientist holds up something that sort of looks like a key fob with Jennifer’s blurry vision and presses a button. Immediately, the pain from before comes back, leaving Jennifer screaming and writhing until it stops. “I do think you’ll tell me.” Panting, Jennifer closes her eyes, trying to catch her breath. “Ten seconds,” the scientist threatens in a sing-song voice.

“I don’t know!” Jennifer blurts out, eyes widening.

“Fascinating. When did they manifest?” 

“I’ve always had them, when I was little I thought everyone heard voices in their heads because I have never experienced anything else.”

“Isn’t that interesting? There’s nothing in your family history that suggests this is hereditary. Perhaps it’s the environment you were in, either as a fetus or a small child?”

“How do you know enough to rule out my family?” Jennifer asks cautiously.

“Oh, that information is easy to obtain. Infect your mother and father with a small dose of poison, and give them a lovely discount at a new doctor’s practice down the road. Everything we need was handed to us, and they have a treatment plan lined up.”

“You are going to pay for that, you Nazi!”

“Is that supposed to be an insult? It’s more of a statement of fact. Your parents have an appointment this week, and they are so lovely to chat with, and they miss their daughter so much. I’m sure they’d love to tell someone about their memories of you as a young child.”

“Go to hell!”

“Not inclined to. Jennifer Ann King, is it? Pretty, but obsolete. You no longer have a name. You are now an asset of Hydra. You’d do well to accept that. It will save you from plenty of pain.”

“ Never .”

“That’s what your friend, Asset 1, used to say, and look how that turned out for him.” The other scientists walk into the operating room, pulling along carts filled with a variety of syringes and other instruments. “Now, shall we begin, Asset 2?”

---

Bucky’s POV

Needles. Drugs. Hydra. The only coherent thoughts in Bucky’s brain when he wakes up, immediately aware of the medical equipment attached to him. He reaches to pull the first needle out but his prosthetic is grabbed and pulled away from him by someone, holding his arm above his head. “Get off me!” he grunts as he resists the hold on him, using his other arm to fight whoever it is. Before long, his flesh arm is also held above his head as he thrashes on the hospital bed. 

“Buck, calm down!” someone shouts as they hold Bucky’s face firmly, forcing him to look in a certain direction. “It’s me, Bucky, it’s Steve!” 

Finally, Bucky sees the face of his lifelong best friend and freezes. “ Steve . Sorry, I didn’t-” he starts before trailing off, voice hoarse.

“No, I’m sorry. I should’ve expected something like this,” Steve insists as he sits down on the bed, releasing his hold on Bucky. The grip on his arms disappears and he quickly pulls them to his chest.

“My apologies, but I could not allow you to impede your intravenous therapy,” Vision says as he walks into Bucky’s line of sight. 

“I woke up and it was like I was at Hydra again and they were doing everything to me again,” Bucky explains, voice wavering. 

“It’s alright, you’re safe,” Steve promises, holding onto Bucky’s metal hand. “We didn’t think you’d wake up now, so when Loki finished the anti-mind control potion, we put it in the IV. You’ve got to wait for all of it to get into your system.”

“What happened after I passed out?” Bucky can’t help but notice the nervous look Steve gives Vision.

“Jennifer dragged you into the safe room, but she couldn’t conceal the room from inside. She pushed the bookcase from the outside and hid. But a coughing fit lead Hydra right to her. There was no one else around to help her. She killed several soldiers before she collapsed.” Steve sighs before continuing. “We can’t know for certain, but this is what we think happened. We think Hydra was targeting Loki and Wanda for their telepathy by using some sort of energy that telepaths are sensitive to. But it takes a lot to hurt an Asgardian, and Wanda’s body naturally heals itself. Jennifer only has her telempathy. She was sick because of Hydra, and throughout the attack they kept making more energy hit us. When she collapsed, the commander realized she is a telepath and the energy was killing her and made the order for less energy. Then he knocked her out and took her away.” Steve looks over at the heart rate monitor attached to Bucky, watching as the number shoots up. “We’re doing what we can to find where Hydra brought her.”

Bucky can hardly breathe when he thinks of Jennifer in Hydra’s custody. “We need to find her! They’re going to exploit her every way they possibly can, use her like an object, dehumanize her more than you could imagine. They only see her as a tool, a weapon. And it won’t take them long to find a way to have her under perfect control, to make her like they made me,” he tells Steve as he pushes himself up, voice cracking.

“You’re right. I know Hydra told you very little, but you know more about Hydra than any of us. Is there anything you can think of that can help us now?”

Bucky pauses, pushing himself to sit against the headboard. “Whenever possible, Hydra kept me somewhere remote. Even if I could miraculously escape the base, I would be stuck in the middle of Siberia. But they also want to stay close to us. They want all of us, and they must want to use Jennifer’s powers against us in one way or another. If they were the organization they were before, they could afford to travel between New York and Siberia, but that must have become a lot harder after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. So I’m guessing somewhere remote, somewhere that would leave Jennifer stranded if she got out, but still close.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Let me find Bruce and ask him if this thing is transportable so that you can see the progress we’ve made.” Steve and Vision leave after Bucky nods.

Hold on a little longer Jen, please .

Notes:

That's it, final chapter before my hiatus. Updates coming in June 2024. But for a few days you can participate in a question and answer on Discord! Let me know if the link is giving you problems. https://discord.gg/mBJTy57v?event=1049542832450437191

Chapter 24: Trial

Jennifer’s POV

“What is that ?” Jennifer hisses as the doctor prepares a syringe with a yellow-ish fluid. The doctor gives her an amused look before turning his focus back to the medical equipment without a word. He sets that syringe down to prepare another syringe with a transparent fluid, likely so that he can throw these chemical cocktails into Jennifer as fast as he can once he starts the experiments. He also has some empty syringes, probably to take blood samples. He doesn’t pay Jennifer any mind as he prepares. Neither do the other scientists, his assistants it seems, when they enter the operating room and start preparing other instruments and machines. 

Whatever they’re doing, it isn’t going to be good. Seems they want a telepathic Winter Soldier. And I can’t use my powers to protect myself! It will take time, but surely they’ll succeed. It took them a few years, we think, for Bucky, but Bucky was the first. They learned everything through him. Now they only need to adapt that for a helpless telepath. It won’t take long.

I need to hold on until the Avengers find me. Surely they’re looking for me. I have that advantage. The world thought Bucky was dead, so no one looked for him. Now the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes know that Hydra has me, I hope. 

“Ready, Asset 2?” the doctor asks with a smirk. 

“Go to hell.” Jennifer tells him for the hundredth time. 

“I will take that as a yes.” He flips a switch on one of the IV stands, apparently sending in another drug into her body. It doesn’t take long for its effects to start. Her body starts to become heavy. 

“Wha-, what was tha-?” Jennifer asks, her lips not really working. If the scientist responds, Jennifer certainly doesn’t hear it. They continue their experimentation, stabbing syringes into her without a moment’s notice. Oh my gosh, it burns! As these drugs course through her motionless body, sizzling up her insides, Jennifer can barely focus on the scientists due to the pain. Her head falls to one side and she can faintly see one of the assistants slipping a syringe into her neck before she feels the burning sensation. Her breath hitches and her eyes start to water, the only signs of pain her drugged body can manifest. Everything burns!

She ponders to herself as the pain flows through every inch of her, waiting for the scientists to finish their procedure. Bucky really went through this? Every day? For years? The thought of having to do this more than once is enough to terrify Jennifer. And it will probably happen a few more times to me . 

After some time, Jennifer stops feeling burning drugs coursing through her after the light pricks of the syringes. Are they taking blood samples now? They did have empty syringes. 

“Sir, her body temperature-”

“I know, I know. Let’s wait for her to cool down before phase two,” the main scientist responds. There’s more?! “Wouldn’t want to burn her up from the inside, would we? I’d hate to kill the golden goose. You, stay here and keep an eye on her vitals and temperature. Ring us in when it’s at a safe temperature.” 

“Yes, sir.” Jennifer hears the shuffling of feet as all but one of the scientists leave the operating room. She can barely make out the form of one of them on the other side of the glass, messing with the syringes. At her feet stands the scientist tasked to keep an eye on her, his gaze focused on the screens showing her vitals, not even acknowledging her hitched breaths. 

What else are they going to do to me?

---

Bucky’s POV

“Finally,” Bucky mutters as Bruce pulls the needle out of his arm. He runs his hand over where the needle was. 

“Sorry about that,” Bruce says quietly. “I imagined you wouldn’t like it.” 

“Do we have any leads?” Bucky had spent the longest ten minutes of his life waiting for the magic crap to get into his system while he could only think of Jennifer. He knows all too well what must be happening to her now. 

“We’ve ruled some places out, but we haven’t narrowed anything down yet. Tony has FRIDAY running a facial recognition program searching for the guys that attacked the Compound and a handful of algorithms searching through different location sites and whatnot. FRIDAY will come up with something, but it’ll take time.”

“We don’t have time!” Bucky insists as he runs off to find out what the heck is going on. He finds Tony in his lab, surrounded by several screens. “Anything I can do to help?” 

“Your theory about where they could’ve taken Jennifer already has. FRIDAY is eliminating possibilities, but she’s going much faster now that you were able to narrow things down a bit. I have FRIDAY running several algorithms to track Hydra down, but she’s focusing on North American isolated zones first. Deserts, mountains, that sort of stuff. But it could still take a while. Hydra is darn good at what they do. I mean, they stayed hidden for seventy years. And now that we’re on the lookout for them, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. But over the past couple years we learned a few tricks on weeding them out. Sooner or later we’ll have a location. And given that Jennifer is a telepath, Bruce and I think that Hydra is going to have a hard time turning her. Her brain must be several times more complex than the average brain. Plus, Bruce has a theory that since Jennifer was apparently born a telepath, it is possible that her brain will subconsciously resist without Jennifer having to put in effort. So even if she’s unconscious or drugged or whatever, she’ll still be defending herself. And while we’ve found different ways to stop more physical powers, we haven’t found a way to shut off more internal powers.” Tony keeps working away on some minor changes to his armor as he speaks. “Do you know how they turned you into the Winter Soldier?”

Bucky sighs. “I don’t remember too much, only bits and pieces Jennifer helped me uncover. But we think it took them maybe five years to figure it out. I remember some of it, but I really have no way of saying what was used to brainwash me and what was used to turn me into a supersoldier.” Bucky crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe. “I remember lots of needles. They would put ten different drugs into me at a time. I think a lot of it was to be a supersoldier, but I think at least some was to control me. Even after they turned me they put me on a lot of IVs. But they also would put this thing against my head and electrocute me over and over again. That’s what wiped my memories. Every time they took me out of the ice, they’d wipe me and say the trigger words and I was all set. If I was out of ice for a longer period of time, like maybe two weeks, they’d have to do the same process again. I started remembering a little after that, enough to question orders.”

“Hmmm,” Tony hums, processing this new information, as Bucky stiffens. Thus far, they had not succeeded at breaking the encryption on the S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra files Natasha leaked that contain information on him. Bucky had told Bruce the first week that he didn’t remember anything (which was true at the time), and the encrypted files were the only hope of having any real knowledge on his medical history. Soon, Jennifer started helping him remember bits and pieces of the torture. They would talk about it afterwards via telepathy, Jennifer always wanting to check up on him after a horrific memory. But this is the first time Bucky has verbally spoken of the things he has remembered, which somehow makes it all the more real.

“This is more of Bruce’s field than mine, but I would guess you’re right about the drugs. I’m at a loss of how they managed to program trigger words. But you had to have your memory wiped and hear the trigger words every two weeks? That is an insanely short time period, and a very good sign! That meant that your brain was subconsciously resisting Hydra! And if Bruce and I are right, that means that Jennifer really is going to be a pain in the neck for these scientists.” Tony pauses for a moment. “Sorry about the uncomfortable questions.” 

“It’s fine. They’re relevant questions,” Bucky mutters. I hate answering this crap but the scientists here need to know how to help Jennifer and I’m their only source .

“I forgot to mention that I have FRIDAY working on decrypting the files on you. Those should help the two of you. I’m hoping to get the name of a drug they used a ton. Then FRIDAY could look into who is buying it and where it’s going. That’ll lead us right to Hydra a lot faster than anything else,” Tony adds. “Your files are more heavily encrypted than the average files, so it’s taken longer, but it isn’t impossible.”

“Thanks.” Bucky pauses for a moment, trying to think of anything else he knows that might help. “She’ll need a medic when we find her, but you probably already thought of that. I can’t think of anything else I know that would help.”

“You’ve helped narrow down a ton. We’ll find Jennifer. Hydra can’t hide forever.”

---

Jennifer’s POV

Jennifer can feel the burning sensation leaving her body slowly after what seems to be an eternity waiting. The first drug they pumped into her also seems to be losing effect. They’ve already tied me up, how much more defenseless do they want me? Without the drugs, she finally begins to feel exhausted. But soon “phase two” will start… .

Sure enough, within a moment Jennifer hears the door slide open and the footsteps of the scientists coming back in. “I see her temperature has gone down. Prep phase two.” 

If only I could see inside your mind, see your plan! Jennifer thinks bitterly as she watches the scientists mess with some machinery. “Good to go, sir.”

“Start it.” Jennifer hears whirring and soon the table she is tied to starts to move, putting her into a standing position. Machinery wraps around her head, and before she has a second to brace herself, the pain starts. The most excruciating pain she has ever felt in her life. 

What is this?! Jennifer somehow manages to think as she screams, her back arching. It’s worse than before! It burns so much! She pulls against her restraints in vain. All she can do is scream as her head and neck are scorched inside and out. Scream and scream and scream until she can’t breathe. 

And then it stops.

The machinery moves away from her head, but the table stays in its position, leaving Jennifer hanging limp, only held up by the straps, head lolling to its side now that the machinery is gone. She focuses on taking deep breaths as she hangs there, trying to calm herself enough to make any sense of the scientists’ conversation.

“Her vitals look good, sir, all things considered.”

“What do her brain scans show?”

“Nothing helpful, sir. No sign of any worthwhile change.”

“Oh well, it was the first trial. There will be many more to come. After all, it took four years for Arnim Zola to complete Asset 1. Patience and experimentation are necessary in our profession.” Slowly, the table returns to its original position, Jennifer still limp. “Every new day comes a new discovery. Especially when we’re working with someone as mysterious as Asset 2.” With that, the scientists leave the operating room. Jennifer faintly sees them outside the glass, continuing their work examining her blood. 

How much more can I take?

Chapter 25: Old Friend

Notes:

Restrained (strapped to table)
Torture
Captivity

Jennifer’s POV

Once again, Jennifer hangs limply as the metal plates leave her head and fold back up to the ceiling. She has long since lost track of how many times the scientists have done that to her, or shoved drug cocktails in her. She lost her voice from screaming after so many rounds of torture. The main scientist curses as the table lowers to its normal position. “Darn, this is frustrating .” Jennifer’s head lolls as she tries to pay attention to the scientist. “Once Zola had narrowed down the precise drugs and machinery, it didn’t take nearly as long for small results. Her telepathy must be interfering somehow.” He seems to pause for a moment as he looks at Jennifer’s newest brain scans. “She’s had these powers for most if not all of her life. Protecting herself is probably like breathing. Involuntary, without any thought whatsoever.” He pauses. “But perhaps there is a solution.” He walks out of the room, all but one assistant following in suit, the last assistant finishing up taking her blood samples. 

What marvelous idea does he have now that he learned that repeating the same thing over and over isn’t efficient? Jennifer grimaces in pain as the assistant pulls an IV out not so gently. Well, I guess I can subconsciously use my powers and the chip can’t do crap about it because it’s involuntary. Hopefully that will protect me. But how does he plan on taking that away?

---

Bucky’s POV

It has been a painstakingly slow week since Hydra took Jennifer. FRIDAY has been unsuccessful at tracking down any Hydra bases and at removing the encryption on his files. And without any leads, there is not much they can do. Which gives Hydra more time to exploit her. Bucky cleans his rifle as he runs over everything in his head over and over. He doesn’t need to clean his rifle, he does that first thing after every use. But it gives him something to do. He runs the cleaning snakes through the barrel more times than needed, simply to occupy himself. After about the tenth time, he stops and uses a light to look through the barrel. Habit. He already knows it is spotless. It was spotless before he began cleaning it. He continues overcleaning and thinking.

Where could they have taken her? Was I wrong about her being in North America? Is FRIDAY looking in the wrong place? Why isn’t she able to find it? He didn’t know what else he could do to help her. There was nothing he could do until they had a location. 

“ Mr Stark would like to see you in his laboratory ,” FRIDAY says as Bucky finishes reassembling his rifle. 

“I’ll be there in a moment.” Bucky puts the rifle back in the safe at the practice range before going up the stairs to Tony’s lab. He goes in at the same time as Steve, surprised to see that everyone is gathering. 

“I think we might have found an ally,” Tony says as he types away at a keyboard. 

“Who?” Natasha asks, looking over Tony’s shoulder at the monitor. The monitor shows a bunch of stuff Bucky doesn’t understand. Coding maybe?

“I found someone hacking into our system just now. After some digging, I found out they’ve been in our system for fifteen minutes now, without a single alarm. I only happened to find them because I happened to need to access FRIDAY’s programming. At first I thought it was Hydra, since they want to capture us all. But they haven’t touched any of our files, our security, nothing that would be helpful to Hydra,” Tony explains.

“What have they been looking at?” Clint asks.

“Actually, our files on Hydra. I’m guessing this is some sort of hacktivist that needs a little more information before they can dance with Hydra. Thus, a possible ally. They’re a better hacker than anyone in Hydra. Maybe they’ve got some tricks up their sleeve that could help us. So I’m going to ask her,” Tony answers. 

Before Tony can go back to typing, something else shows up on his screen. Large letters covering half of the screen, big enough for Bucky to read from a distance. “WE HAVE THE SAME GOAL.”  

“Guess you don’t have to ask,” Bruce says.

The hacker continues. “HYDRA CAPTURED AN ENHANCED PERSON.”

Tony starts typing away, speaking aloud as he types. “Yep, they did. Who are you?”

A pause before the hacker responds. “SHIELD REFORMED.”

“That would explain some things,” Tony mutters under his breath. “Or it’s Hydra trying to lead us to a trap.” 

“It is possible some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents continued after Hydra fell,” Loki points out after a moment. “Surely many agents believed in the ideals S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to stand for.”

“Didn’t you just say that he’s a better hacker than anyone at Hydra?” Bucky asks. “If Hydra wanted to be undetected the first time they showed up, they would have been.”

“I hope you’re both right.” Tony starts typing and speaking aloud again. “Prove it.” 

“TALK TO FURY.”

“ He’d know of all people,” Steve says with a sigh. 

Before anyone can say anything else, FRIDAY announces that she’ll contact Fury and ask for confirmation.

“SHE DOESN’T HAVE TIME FOR US TO ARGUE.”

“He’s not wrong,” Bucky mutters. If this person is willing to help…we need whatever lead we can get, and maybe a hacker can help .

“Fair enough,” Tony types and mutters. 

“Boss, Fury confirmed that there is a surviving branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that he helped form. They are the ones who supplied the helicarrier at Sokovia.”

“Finally makes sense how that showed up,” Wanda admits.

“Fury confirmed, I admit help would be appreciated,” Tony continues.

“SEE YOU IN A BIT.”

“Scanners pick up a quinjet approaching,” FRIDAY reports. 

“He’s prompt,” Thor mutters. 

“Don’t trust them immediately, but there is a chance that they are allies,” Steve advises as everyone heads to the landing dock. 

Not long after they get there, a quinjet lands. Bucky sets his hand on his hip, near the pistol he has concealed, ready in case things go south. As much as he hopes they just found some allies that will help them save Jennifer, he can’t be too safe. The door lowers and an agent comes out, a handful of others waiting in the quinjet. 

“How?” Steve whispers next to him. 

“‘How’ what?” Bucky asks, not seeing what is so surprising. He observes the rest of the group to find Tony, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, and Thor reacting similarly. They must know one of the agents?

“Son of a–how aren’t you dead?” Tony asks after a moment of shock.

“It’s a long story,” the agent admits. 

---

Jennifer’s POV

What on Earth are they up to? Jennifer asks herself as a couple of people set up a projector a few yards in front of her. How is that supposed to help them control me?

She flexes against the straps holding her to the table. Her muscles have been sore in a way that feels oddly familiar but Jennifer can’t quite place it. Almost as if she once had this pain during her childhood. But she can’t remember any major muscle injuries. Only basic ones. A shin injury after a soccer game as a six year old, falling down when skating the first time, pulling a muscle while going on a run, stuff like that. But that pain doesn’t match up with this current oddly familiar pain. As she flexes her wrists, it clicks. 

Growing pains. Hydra gave Bucky a super soldier serum, and they’re trying to replicate the experiments on her. Which means her body is slowly adjusting to the serum in her body. And it will take time. Steve said Howard Stark blasted him with lights and took out the power in a good chunk of New York City to make it work because his body needed energy to process the serum. Without any assistance, Jennifer will have to work through it the hard way. Probably was Hydra’s plan. It keeps her weak but in a few moments, she could be a super soldier if they blast her with enough energy. When she is Hydra’s agency-less lapdog. 

If only she could have enough energy to process the serum and free herself. Not that she’d get very far without the necessary combat training. 

The technicians that had been setting up the projector leave the operation room. Great. Time for the next experiment .

---

Bucky’s POV

“But you died, Coulson,” Clint says, eyes wide. “Or was Fury lying to us?”

What the heck is going on? Bucky once again asks himself, seeing how Steve, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Thor, and Tony are reacting. The original six Avengers. Not only that, Loki is also reacting, but in a different way, something Bucky can’t quite place his finger on. The original six Avengers and the reason they assembled. 

“I did die. My heart was torn apart,” the man, Coulson, explains. “But Fury decided to not let me off so easily. Trust me, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later.” Then his eyes land on Loki. “Well, this is awkward.” Did Loki kill him when he was under the scepter’s influence?

“I suppose so,” Loki responds. “I truly am glad you are alive.” 

“And I’m glad to see things have improved for you. I knew something was off about you.”

“You are observant.” 

“Wait, you knew that he wasn’t himself?” Tony asks, looking between the two of them. 

“After being up close, I could see something wasn’t right. I died before I could pass on the information.”

“The scepter was reading everyone in the room, and once you considered the possibility that something was wrong, it put the idea to stab you in my head,” Loki explains. “A defense mechanism to prevent myself from being freed.” He sighs after recounting this information, and Bucky knows all too well how Loki must be feeling. “I must admit that I knew that you were alive for some time now.” 

“How did you know, brother?” Thor asks. 

“Lorelei managed to come here when I was posing as Odin. I sent Sif to recapture her, and these agents helped her. She later told me you were alive.”

“Why did you never say anything?” Natasha asks, all of the original six looking at him, incredulous.

“I assumed there was a reason none of you knew.”

“Thanks for keeping the secret,” Coulson says after a moment. 

“Now that we have gotten through all of this, how about we focus on the task at hand?” Steve says, clearly trying to push past the revelation of Coulson being alive for the sake of Jennifer. 

“Good idea. Ever since we found out about Hydra, we’ve been doing our best to root out what we can. We recently learned that they’ve begun experimenting on an enhanced person. We got intel that there was a recent attack here, so we decided to look into it,” Coulson explains. 

“She’s a friend,” Bucky says. 

“And a telempath. They intend to use her to control us,” Bruce adds. 

“After my experience with the scepter, I studied much on the subject. I know a way to protect against practically any form of mind control,” Loki continues. “But Hydra doesn’t know this. They will do anything to control Jennifer. She has more protections than most, but everyone has their vulnerabilities.” 

“Who was it that hacked us?” Sam asks. “Tony said he was better than anyone we know about from Hydra.” 

“Agent Johnson is by far the best hacker I’ve ever seen. A few years ago she hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. with a laptop in a van. Then she hacked Quinn Worldwide with a smartphone. Imagine what she can do with S.H.I.E.L.D. resources. Not only that, she is very analytical and creative. Before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, she managed to beat S.H.I.E.L.D. to some key information while wearing a bracelet to stop her from using electronics by looking at bank records, something S.H.I.E.L.D. would get them nowhere.” 

“That’s what we hoped for. We haven’t had luck locating Hydra. But we have an encrypted file that can give us a lead if we can read it,” Tony says. 

“My file,” Bucky admits. “If we find out what they did to me, we could track relevant purchases if they’re doing anything similar to her, and know how to help her once we get there.” 

Coulson nods. “We’ve seen a couple of other ways Hydra has controlled people, but given her telepathy I don’t know if the other methods would be effective. They seemed to be Hydra’s low budget versions for when they needed their victims’ previous memories or a large number of soldiers. Agent Johnson will break the encryption and start using the information to search for Hydra.”

Notes:

https://www.tumblr.com/lokigodofaces/758397613523468288?source=share
not trying to call anyone out, doubt it's happening with me, just trying to spread the word

Chapter 26: Something New

Notes:

Warnings:
restrained (strapped to a table)
captivity
torture
eyes forced open

Jennifer’s POV

Jennifer strains to listen as the scientists ramble on to each other about what this projector situation is supposed to do. She hears lots of technical words she doesn’t understand. But she can decipher a few. “Exhaust her physically and mentally.” “Leave her defenseless.” “Pliable.” “Prepare her for further testing.” Does not sound pleasant . She doesn’t understand much more of this conversation than that she is screwed . 

It doesn’t take long for them to finish and approach her. The principal scientist presses a button and the table rises slowly. Please tell me you aren’t going to electrocute me over and over to weaken me . A whining sound she had never noticed before (what with the horrendous amounts of pain) comes to a stop as it reaches ninety degrees and her head lolls against her shoulder. But they don’t electrocute her.

One of the assistants grabs her hair and slams her head against the table. She can barely react to another assistant wrapping a leather restraint around her forehead and the table, too dazed after her head hitting the metal behind her. Once she comes back to reality, the assistant that had grabbed her hair connects some metal device to the leather strap. Soon enough, Jennifer discovers its purpose. He starts to unfold the device and sets thin metal plates around her eyes. Before Jennifer can wonder what they’re for, he taps his touch screen watch and the metal plates dig into her skin and pull it away from her eyes. Leaving her unable to close her eyes. 

The two assistants leave her and go to help the others set up the projector thing in front of her. Okay, so they want me to watch something. What on Earth are they up to? she thinks, eyes already starting to water. 

---

Bucky’s POV

“Send over the file,” Daisy Johnson says as she fiddles with the screen in front of her. She is the impressive hacker that can supposedly find a way to break the encryption Tony and Natasha haven't had luck with in weeks. Apparently she had done plenty of other hacks that were just as impressive, if not more. She has hacked into SHIELD, Quinn Worldwide, Hydra, the Compound, and more. Which gives her the best resume of everyone present. 

Bucky stands not too far away from Daisy as her fingers fly across the keyboard once Tony sends the file to her monitor. Nearby are also Steve, Bruce, Tony, and two other agents who introduced themselves as Fitz and Simmons. Fitz is an engineer, and Simmons a biochemist. Once they can study his file, they’ll know exactly what to look for. From that, Daisy can find Jennifer. FitzSimmons (as the other agents call them, saying that the two are near inseparable) can also use the information to know how to help Jennifer once they find her. 

“Is she Inhuman?” Daisy asks after a moment of typing, fingers resting as she scans through some text that makes no sense to Bucky. 

“No, we aren’t sure how she’s enhanced,” Bruce explains. “She’s had these powers for as long as she remembers. We haven’t figured out the source yet. As far as we know, no one in her family has demonstrated anything unnatural, so we really have no idea.” 

“What are her powers?” Simmons asks. The information they had about her was an enhanced woman with connections to the Avengers. Given that she is a target for Hydra, Bruce never put the information on her powers in the system for her protection. 

“Telepathy,” Bucky mutters.

“Really? That’s cool!” Daisy’s fingers continue typing as she responds. “These people keep saying that EPS doesn’t exist.”

“It very much does,” Tony says. “Are you seriously telling me SHIELD has never dealt with a psychic?”

“Lots of potential psychics, but they were always proved wrong in the end,” Fitz explains. “Tons of people claim to be psychics. They predict one out of five things right, and suddenly they have a gift.”

“We dealt with an Asgardian enchantress that can mind control men, and I totally think that should count,” Daisy argues. 

“I would probably agree,” Steve admits. 

“We also totally thought we were dealing with a clairvoyant for a while. He called himself that and knew an insane amount of stuff he shouldn’t have known. Turned out that he was Hydra and used clairvoyant as a code name. Which, for the record, sucked in so many ways,” Daisy adds. “That’s what we were up to when you guys were in DC.”

“Sounds fun.”

“And here we are,” Daisy says after a moment, the file showing on her screen. She moves it to a larger screen for all of the scientists to look at. Bucky leans over, not sure if he even wants to know. He sees a little legend at the bottom of the screen, showing the number of pages. Hundreds. Hundreds of pages of how he was exploited, made to forget everything other than devotion to Hydra.

“This will take some time,” Simmons mutters as she scrolls through the file. 

---

Jennifer’s POV

“This certainly won’t be as effective as it was on other subjects, but that isn’t the hope,” the head scientist says as he types into a laptop. “It certainly won’t control her, but it will weaken her mind enough for us to mold it.” He stands, turning to Jennifer, or, more specifically, the IV system connected to her. He fiddles with the bags of chemicals, ready to be shoved into her at a moment’s notice. “Zola didn’t plan for telepathy, but his formulas are genius. Once her telepathy is neutralized or weakened, his formulas will work marvelously. My only question is how long will it take to weaken her enough? I suppose we will find out.”

He turns his focus on Jennifer, for real this time. “I’m uncertain just how involuntary your abilities are, Asset 2. If you retain any control, you should surrender. It would save you plenty of unnecessary pain.” 

“I’m never going to surrender. I will never stop fighting,” Jennifer hisses, voice hoarse.

“Zola’s records say that Asset 1 used to say that. Look at how it turned out for him.” He pulls her glasses out of his pocket and slips them onto her face. “You’re going to need these.” He turns away from you and starts ordering the assistants around. “You, start this thing up. And you’ll keep an eye on her vitals from outside, and have the data showing on your tablet. None of you should walk in here while the machine is on, it can’t control her but it certainly could affect one of us if we aren’t careful. Wear shades if you have to come in without turning the machine off. Understood?”

What the heck is this thing? Jennifer asks. Her eyes already ache from being forced open. Tears run down her cheeks. All she can do is breathe, try to stay calm, and pray that somehow she’ll come out of this alright. She watches as the scientists all leave the room, closing the door behind them. She has the feeling they are standing outside the small box-like room she is in, watching her through the glass walls (with sunglasses on?). But she can’t turn her head, not with the leather strap across her forehead. Giving her no choice but to keep looking forward at the massive projector screen in front of her. It’s so big that she can’t see the ends in her peripheral vision. Everything else in the room had been put behind her, giving her nothing else to focus on. Jennifer hears the project beep beside her, being turned on remotely by the scientists outside. She hears the whirring as it readies itself, bracing herself for what might happen. 

A video plays on the screen. Bright, neon colors, changing like a kaleidoscope being twisted by the Flash. What is this, some sort of weird hypnosis attempt? Well, hypnosis for other people, they said they don’t think it will work on me .

But Hydra’s desired effects aren’t to control Jennifer with this. Only to weaken her.

It doesn’t take long for Jennifer’s eyes to hurt even more than they already were. Tears continue falling as the lights keep flashing faster and faster. She instinctively tries to close her eyes, but the device doesn’t let up. When that doesn’t work, she starts struggling against the restraints. Trying to look away, trying to free her arms in order to take the device off her face, anything to stop this. But nothing works, leaving her helpless.

---

Bucky’s POV

Bucky paces back and forth in his room, waiting for FRIDAY to let him know when the scientists figure something out from his file. He had stayed with them for a while, listening as they muttered about the twisted things Hydra had done to him. The drugs they had pumped into his body, the torturous procedures used on him, the rewriting of who he is. They had all but whispered, horrified by its contents. Bucky noticed their quick glances towards him, worrying over how he would respond to hearing just what had happened to him. He had left after a few of these glances, not wanting to distract them or Daisy, who had been compiling a list of resources Hydra used extensively on him, and probably are using on Jennifer. The most important thing right now is finding Jennifer. Everything else can wait. 

Even still, he can’t help but wonder what is on that file. What did they do to him to turn him into a mindless killing machine? I only remember so much, and I never understood anything they did to me. It doesn’t make sense how they were able to. Bruce said that the brain is still a scientific mystery. How was Hydra able to mold me the way they did? How come are they the only ones that understand brains? Bucky sinks onto his bed, head in his hands. I hope they haven’t figured out Jennifer’s yet .

Bucky sighs when he hears a light knocking noise, almost certain he knows who is at the door. “Come in!” he shouts just loud enough to be heard in the hall. 

Steve slowly enters, softly closing the door behind him. “I won’t ask if you’re alright, I think I already know the answer.” He walks slowly until he gets to the bed and sits next to Bucky. “But is there anything I can do to help?”

“The only thing that matters is finding Jennifer,” Bucky insists. “You don’t have to worry about me. Worry about her. I know darn well what Hydra is doing to her, and it needs to stop as soon as possible.” 

“I know, and I will do everything in my power to help Jennifer. Daisy is a brilliant hacker, and FitzSimmons are brilliant scientists. With their help, I’m sure we’ll find her very soon. As for rescuing her, between us, the team, and the agents, I am certain all will work out. One of those agents already has been a SHIELD legend for years because she single handedly rescued several other agents from an enhanced woman while unarmed. I think the odds of Hydra winning are very low.”

“Hydra is more powerful than you think,” Bucky mutters, staring forward. “Don’t underestimate them.” 

“I won’t. But I promise that Jennifer will be okay. We’ll find her, rescue her, and between the telepaths and scientists we’ll help her heal from whatever hell she’s in right now,” Steve swears.

“I know what hell that is,” Bucky whispers. “They’ve put a thousand different drugs in her. She can feel herself burning up as the drugs course through her veins. Just as she thinks she will die, they’ll stop, and instead electrocute her head, over and over. After mere hours of rest they’ll do the same thing. And they will continue until she is compliant. And if we can’t help her, they will repeat the process every two weeks, keeping her in line. And there’s more we don’t know about. Must be different for a telepath.” 

Steve stays silent, listening as Bucky recounts what happened to him. The second person to hear Bucky retell what happened. “I’m sorry. You must feel horrible, knowing that the same thing that happened to you is happening to someone else.” Bucky nods, tapping his fingers against his knees. “I’m sorry we couldn’t stop Hydra from taking her.”

“It was my fault. I should’ve been there to defend her. If I hadn’t been unconscious, this never would have happened.”

“It isn’t your fault, Buck. You two shouldn’t have been alone during the attack.”

“They said those godforsaken words, and I knew something horrible would happen,” Bucky whispers.

“Now that we have access to your file, they might be able to reverse the crap they put in your head,” Steve suggests. “Jennifer’s not the only one that file will help. Once this is over, we can work to help both you and her recover.” 

“That’s a conversation for another day. I don’t care what happens to me as long as Jennifer is safe.” 

“She will be.”

“Agent Fitz, Agent Simmons, Mr Stark, and Mr Banner have finished consulting your file, Sergeant Barnes. Agent Johnson is tracking the purchases of the resources Hydra needs. She says it won’t take long.”

“Thank heavens,” Bucky mutters.

Chapter 27: Past

Jennifer’s POV

I can’t, it has to stop . The lights have continued flashing for what feels like hours. It hurts so bad . Jennifer hangs limply, having weakened herself from fighting the bonds long ago. Too helpless to do anything but stare at the screen, hoping that the scientists will turn this torture off soon. Jennifer hangs for what she feels to be several hours, but she has no way of knowing for sure how long. 

Finally, it stops. 

The projector turns off, leaving the screen dark. Jennifer hears the scientists filing in. “Her vitals are good to go, sir,” one of the assistants says as the others start working on dismantling the projector and preparing her for whatever they have planned next. An assistant in front of you, the same one from before, taps his watch and the eye restraints loosen. Jennifer shuts her eyes that very second, her eyeballs burning underneath her eyelids. Soon after, her glasses are taken off, the forehead restraint is removed, and the table is lowered back to its normal position. Jennifer keeps her eyes clamped shut, hoping she hasn’t sustained permanent damage to her vision. 

“Time to get this show on the road,” the lead says as Jennifer hears the snap of latex gloves. She listens intently, trying to determine what they’ll do to her. She figures it out quickly enough when the very familiar drug seeps into her body through the IV, leaving her body heavy. The same freaking thing again . It doesn’t take long for more drugs to be shoved into her weakened body, burning up her inside and leaving her gasping for breath. They weren’t wrong, it hurts so much more after that, that torture they put me through . After not long, Jennifer feels the last needle poking her before the table starts to lift again. When the plating encases her head and starts shocking her, she can’t help but scream at the top of her lungs. So…much…worse!

When the plating folds back to the ceiling, Jennifer’s head lolls to the side as she falls unconscious.

---

Bucky’s POV

Bucky almost sprints to the lab, Steve on his heels, after FRIDAY announced the breakthroughs the others had made. Once he’s inside, it’s clear that they were all expecting him. Everyone immediately turns to look at him as he walks in. Steve closes the door softly, sensing the tension. “FRIDAY said you started looking through the purchase histories,” Bucky starts, trying to sound awkward and create more tension. 

“Yeah, I’m searching through transaction records right now,” Daisy said. “It won’t take long, they made some very unusual and specific purchases. They’ve probably used multiple accounts, otherwise it would look strange. But I can find the connection between the accounts and track them down. But that won’t be hard, we’ll have a location in no time.”

“Thank heavens,” Bucky mutters, relieved that they are finally making progress. He turns towards the four scientists. “Do you think you can help her, based on what you know now?”

“It’s very possible that there are differences due to her telepathy, but now that we know more about Hydra neuroscience we have a better idea of what is happening. And we plan on downloading Hydra’s file on her when we rescue her,” Bruce explains. “As for her physical health, we might have a solution for that.”

“It’s easy to make a steroid, hard to make a super soldier serum,” Tony starts. “You two pretty much are the only ones that had functioning serum. Everyone else either had completely unforeseen physical and mental side effects, or it wasn’t permanent and the subject needed frequent re-injections. But, after reading this, we know that the secret to permanence isn’t the serum itself. It’s vita rays.”

“Zola gave you the serum after your unit was captured, which wasn’t activated because he never exposed you to vita rays. It became practically undetectable after only thirty six hours. But it kept you alive after your fall. When Hydra continued their experiments, they didn’t activate the serum with vita rays until everything else was done. Zola didn’t activate the serum until the end because your body would have regenerated itself faster than he could have worked. He never would have been able to control you if you had been exposed to vita rays early on. Even then, Hydra had to continually re-do lots of the process because your brain was restructuring and healing itself,” Fitz explains, seeming a little hesitant talking about the file.

“We think that Hydra must have put the serum in Jennifer as well. This unactivated serum only works to accelerate the adrenaline response we have during near death experiences. Zola recorded five different near death experiences you had during experimentation, and every time the serum kicked in. I imagine that Hydra injected the serum in her as a safeguard,” Jemma continues. She was pretty hesitant to talk about the near death experiences. “Which means when we find her, we can activate the serum and that will help her heal and reverse anything Hydra has done to her head.”

“And with an arc reactor we won’t have to use half of the power in New York City to pull it off,” Tony adds. “Fitz and I are already working on the schematics. I still have the specs from the chamber Dad made, we just have to update it by several decades.” 

Relief washes over Bucky. Finally, something good! “That’s great, thank you so much.” 

“We’ve also dealt with some other ways Hydra has controlled people. Not the same quality, but less expensive. And I’m also searching for the materials needed for those, just in case,” Daisy adds. 

“Yes, we’ve seen them use a form of hypnosis, not very effective, and doubtful that it works on a telepath. The other method is an actual possibility if they think controlling a telepath is impossible,” Simmons starts.

“An eye prosthesis. Hydra can see everything through the eye, and send instructions in the form of text for the person to see. If they don’t follow orders or get caught, they blow up the eye prosthesis, killing them,” Fitz finishes. “If we get to her undetected, that can be solved with these beauties,” he adds as he pulls some metal disks that seem familiar out of his bag. “They’re EMPS, but they only affect a very small radius. Enough to disable a prosthetic or tracking chip without affecting our own equipment.” 

“I’ve seen them before,” Bucky says, remembering when Natasha had used them on his prosthetic in DC. “It means we have to have the blueprints to the facility they’re using beforehand and know where they’re keeping Jennifer.”

“That I can do,” Daisy responds. 

Bucky continues thinking strategy, saying his ideas aloud. “We’d have to get FitzSimmons to Jen in a discreet way because you’d know what we should do to help her medically. The rest of us need to give you time to get her out of there once she’s in a stable enough condition to be moved, and a couple of us should be with you to handle anyone from Hydra that gets close, you don’t need to be distracted by bullets. We can’t get into specifics until we know more about the building.” He pauses, considering their options.

“Once we have the building layout, we’ll figure out what we need to do,” Steve assures him.

The tense feeling returns now that Bucky isn’t focused on figuring out a plan. What happened? What did they read in my file? “Gentlemen, shall we?” Tony says after a second of silence, and soon he, Fitz, and Bruce head to a sectioned off part of the lab. “Oh, Daisy, just about every room in the Compound has a port you can use to connect to the system, if you want to find somewhere more comfortable. Assuming you don’t want to hack into us,” he says before walking into the other room. Daisy flashes a thumbs up before Tony closes the door. Why is he going in there?

“I might hack the system just to annoy him,” Daisy announces as she closes her laptop before she heads out of the lab and walks in the direction of one of the living rooms.

Once that door closes, Simmons walks towards Bucky. “I’m sorry, but can we talk?” 

What was in that file that freaked everyone out so much? “What was it you found in the file?”

“ A lot . You should know what happened. But we didn’t think it would help to have everyone around,” Simmons answers.

Bucky sighs. “Fair enough. What happened?”

Simmons sits down, and Bucky and Steve follow suit. “Do you remember any of it?”

He shrugs. “I remember being strapped to a table. They would put all sorts of syringes in me. They had this device that would electrocute me. They used a handful of words to activate me and a few other necessary commands. At the beginning, when they weren’t experimenting on me, they’d leave me in a cell. Or out in the snow. Or beat me. Or maybe that was part of the experimentation, I don’t know. Somewhere along the way I must’ve gotten my prosthetic and vita ray exposure, but I have no memory of it. But really I only remember bits and pieces. And I think it took four or so years to perfect.”

“It was extremely messed up stuff that was going on.”

“I’m aware.”

Simmons sighs. “They used over fifty different drugs on you. And some of them I’ve never heard of. Must be Zola’s creations. All of them were used to restructure your brain. Or to knock you out. Or to keep you motionless. there wasn’t a single painkiller. Every single one of those drugs had the sole intent to mold you. And then they’d electrocute your head until you started to have enough brain damage to lose memory. And they repeatedly injected you with drugs and electrocuted you until they got their desired results. 

Bucky stiffens as he hears the report. Remembering his own experiences and wondering what is happening to Jennifer, what stage they’re in. Steve sets a hand on his shoulder and gives him a sad smile.

“They left you outside and beat you to test the inactivated super soldier serum, trying to see when it would activate. Also to test your loyalty. Two of the five near death experiences came from hypothermia and from being beat. Another came from when they hooked up your prosthetic. They almost fried your nervous system when they put it on. And the other two come from the lab work. Our bodies weren’t built to suffer what you did.”

“Makes sense,” Bucky responds, pondering on this new information. 

“You were unconscious when you got your prosthetic and were in the vita ray chamber, which is why you have no memory of it.” Simmons gives him a sad smile. “As for the activating words, that is the most confusing part. The concoctions Zola created were how he managed it, but the file doesn’t explain what those drugs are. But if Hydra had a file on it, Daisy can find it.”

“I wasn’t the first one Zola experimented on,” Bucky responds thoughtfully. “He experimented on dozens of prisoners before he got to me. Maybe he figured it out before he got to me. If there’s any record of other experiments, I’d look there. He must’ve figured it out on someone.”

“I’ll look into it,” Simmons says, nodding solemnly. “That’s what we know for now. I thought that you should know….”

“Thanks for telling me,” Bucky says with a small, forced smile. 

“If you have any questions-”

“You already answered the only question I have,” Bucky interrupts, pushing back his curiosities. I don’t have time to wonder about what happened or be upset over it . “I wanted to know if it would help Jennifer, and you said it would.”

Chapter 28: Change of Plans

Jennifer’s POV

Well, that was different , Jennifer thinks to herself as she slowly opens her eyes, the light above her blinding. She shuts her eyes closed. And so much worse . She groans, trying to take account of what has changed and how she feels and if Hydra has succeeded in any way. She feels cold and sweaty. Which is new, she’s never been overly cold before. And she can feel ice packs on her neck, forehead, and chest, as well as the cold breeze and hear the whirring of fans. She’s so cold, she is having full body shivers. Her head is pounding, much more than it has ever. She can hardly move more than shivering, and she’s in a different position from before. Her legs are elevated, and aren’t strapped to anything.

Jennifer slowly opens her eyes again. The strap that had been around her ankles is unbuckled, and a wedge shaped object is set under her legs to elevate them. She can’t move hardly at all anyway, and Hydra must’ve known that if they were willing to remove one of the restraints. She can see five different fans pointed in her direction. Jennifer struggles to move her head to look around the lab more. Soon enough, she manages to tilt her head enough to see several of the assistants working on whatever it is on the other side of the glass wall. As she squints, the ice pack on her forehead falls onto the floor with a clattering sound. 

The assistants turn around, and soon two of them walk into the operating room. “He’s gonna be pissed that we don’t have an exact time she woke up.”

“Weren’t you the one that said we could leave for fifteen minutes?”

“Well, I’m regretting that now.” The first assistant grabs Jennifer’s chin and forces her to look up before shining a light in her eyes. “Eyes are reacting normally.” 

“Vitals look normal, but her temperature is low as frick,” the second assistant says as he starts turning the fans off and taking the ice packs off. 

The first assistant puts on the stethoscope wrapped around his neck and places the end against several spots on her chest, sliding his hand under her shirt to keep the instrument touching her skin. “Still sounds good.” 

Something bad happened if they’re checking so much . “Wh-what happened?” Jennifer asks, her voice hoarse and nothing more than a whisper. 

“You almost died,” the second assistant explained nonchalantly. “We’re going to have to go easy on you for a day or so.” 

“Your plan backfired like crazy,” Jennifer manages to whisper.

“Don’t question your handler, Asset 2,” the first assistant snaps as he wraps a blood pressure cuff on her arm. Jennifer rolls her eyes. 

So…I almost died…that’s new . Jennifer ponders as the two assistants continue checking her health. If I had died I wouldn’t have to deal with any more of this torture . Seems almost merciful now . Soon, they finish their tests. The second assistant takes the wedge off of the table and straps her ankles down again before the first one covers her in a thin blanket. Then they stand there, staring the screen showing her vitals down until the head scientist comes.

“You had a close one, Asset 2,” he says as he strides in. “I still have no idea what happened, your symptoms were random. The highest body temperature I have seen outside of extremis subjects, eyes that wouldn’t dilate, a temporary heart murmur, circulation not working, you couldn’t decide if you were hyperventilating or not breathing. Overall, the worst headache of my entire career. But you pulled through.” He sighs. “Makes things very difficult for me. I have my superiors too.” 

Jennifer rolls her eyes. Sorry that I don’t make you look good on your Hydra LinkedIn page . 

“And it doesn’t help that you’re too weak for us to do anything other than make sure you don’t deteriorate again. Which means that I’ll have days wasted. Unlike Zola, I’m not a head of Hydra. Zola had as much as he pleased on his experiments because he didn’t have anyone making deadlines. Things are a little different for me. And because of the deadlines, I can’t even do a proper job.” He turns towards the assistants, no longer ranting to Jennifer and to no one at the same time. “We have orders to put the eye in once she’s recovered enough to have a safe surgery. Then, maybe, if time can be spared, we can continue our work to make her a true asset.”

“Seriously? They want to use that cheap replacement?” one of the assistants asks in disbelief. 

“They don’t care about quality as they do deadlines. The previous soldiers did well enough that they’ll accept it.”

“What about the inactivated serum?” What the heck is that?

“Leave it inactivated, we can’t afford to screw up the work we’ll have in the future. We just have to get her healed as soon as possible, pop the eye in, and hand her over to the higher ups.” What’re they talking about? “Keep an eye on her vitals, contact me the minute anything changes. We want her healed enough for surgery as soon as possible.”

---

Bucky’s POV

“Are you okay?” Steve asks. It’s been hours since Simmons told him about what Hydra did to him. Bucky has spent that time training, cleaning his rifle once again, cleaning every other rifle he could get his hands on, wiping down the ammunition (even though that is not by any means going to affect anything), and reorganizing his room. Anything to give his hands something to do. Otherwise he’d accidentally tear something with how hard he was clenching his hands. “You seem pretty shaken up over what Simmons told you.”

“Doesn’t matter right now. Once we get Jennifer back, I can process that. For now, I’m just glad that we have any information to help her.”

“We have some time. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, not really.”

“Okay,” Steve says as he sits down on a bench near the table Bucky is using to clean a pistol he found. “How many times have you cleaned that?”

Bucky shrugs. “Dunno, lost track.”

“Well, up until we attack Hydra, we are to have the cleanest firearms the world has ever seen.”

“You're welcome.”

“Jennifer will be alright.”

“I hope so,” Bucky says after a pause. “I’m not going to let Hydra do what they did to me to anyone else.” He sighs, setting down the newly cleaned pistol and leaning back, stretching out his back. “I get that you’re worried about me, but the best thing you can do for me is help me save Jennifer. After she’s safe, I’ll be able to let myself process this crap.”

“And I darn well will,” Steve responds. “But cleaning the firearms a thousand times isn’t going to help her at all.”

“Not much I can actively do at the moment to help. I’m not a hacker or a scientist.”

“Yeah, but you’re Jennifer’s friend. If you need to distract yourself, I get that. But cleaning rifles over and over isn’t a healthy form of distraction. Look, you know better than any of us how Jennifer is going to feel when she comes back. What can we do now to help her feel safe again?”

Bucky pauses, thinking on Steve’s question. “I dunno,” he admits after a moment. “She’ll need to feel stability and cared for.”

“And how can we give her stability? How can we show that we care?” Steve starts. “You’re worried to death over her and had to relive your trauma multiple times in order to get needed information. All things considered, you’re handling it well. But you could handle it better, and maybe help out Jennifer along the way.” 

---

Jennifer’s POV  

“Engineering wants a scan of her so that they can start building her eye ASAP,” another assistant says, walking into the operating room with a large device. 

“I still can’t believe they want to use that.”

“Makes sense when you look from their perspective. They have lots of plans and they need her in order for it to work. The Avengers undoubtedly are searching for her, and sooner or later they’ll come knocking. The goal is to have her under control before that happens so that she can control them. She doesn’t have to be perfect for that to happen. And once that’s handled, we can go back to cracking her.”

Cocky enough to give away Hydra’s plan in front of me? To be fair, Jennifer didn’t learn much new information from this. Nor is there much she can do about it. And they’ve gotten pretty used to talking to her as if she isn’t there, treating her like an “asset” instead of a human. Even still, I need to get as much info as I can. Someday, the Avengers are going to come for me and maybe these idiots will say something important. Like what the heck this eye thing is. Whatever it is, really hoping they show up before they do whatever that is to me .

“I know, I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

The assistant walks over with the device and turns a switch. A pale blue light shoots out of one end onto Jennifer’s face for a second before turning off. “I’m afraid you do have to like it, or at least act like you do. You don’t want anyone here going after you for something as simple as this.”

“I’ll manage.”

The one holding the device sets it down on a nearby medical tray. “How’s she holding up?”

“Not bad, all things considered. Serum pulled through. She’s stable now, we just need to keep her rested. And we can’t poke and prod at her.” 

“Ruins all the fun.”

“The fun will continue once engineering is done with that. Shouldn’t take her more than a couple days to recover enough. Not as fun as what we were doing before, but better than nothing.”

“Well, I’m gonna go evaluate the scan, annotate it so that engineering will find the necessary organs. Relax at the very least. Your job today is to sit here and make sure she doesn’t die. She’s not actively dying, so not that hard of a job. Stop moping around because you can’t put any needles in her.” He leaves the operating room, device in hand, the other assistant muttering curses. 

“I get hired to do one thing, and somehow I keep not doing that one thing,” he mutters under his breath as he hooks up a new bag of saline to the IV stand. Jennifer rolls her eyes. Where does Hydra find these people?

---

Bucky’s POV

Bucky sits on his bed, leaning against the headrest, notebook in hand. Trying to get coherent thoughts written down. Steve had a good idea, telling him to use his restlessness to find a way to help Jennifer after the rescue. Doesn’t mean that Bucky himself has any good ideas. So here he is with pen and paper, writing down what Jennifer did to help him, how it helped him, and what he could do to help with something similar. Trying to come up with half decent ideas to help Jennifer recover and feel safe again. 

“Agent Johnson has had a breakthrough, Sergeant Barnes,” FRIDAY announces. Bucky sets his pen inside the notebook on his bed and leaves his room, hoping that Daisy has good news. When Bucky goes inside the lab, there’s screens showing satellite pictures. 

“Good news and bad news. The good news: I have a location. A fifteen square acre lot in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. There’s an underground facility there that claims to be studying local plant life and is underground due to the amount of tornadoes in the area. For a plant research facility, they sure have bought a lot of highly expensive medical drugs and syringes,” Daisy says. “I have the blueprints.”

“And the bad news?” Bucky asks and more people file in.

“There are only two entrances. No guards on the outside or the NSA would’ve caught them ages ago, but blueprints indicate that just inside the doors are several guards. Which makes things more difficult for our end because we very well might need a stealth operation.”

“We can work with it,” Natasha insists.

“I know, I said bad news, not horrible news. We’ll make it work, it will just be a bit more complicated. But if I can get close and undetected, I should be able to get into their system. They aren’t so far underground to cause interference.”

“How close?” Steve asks.

“A mile or so away, to be on the safe side.”

“We can do that,” Clint responds.

“Did you finish the vita ray chamber?” Bucky asks.

“Yeah, it’s all set,” Fitz answers. “It’ll activate the serum, and we outfitted it to sense her vitals and keep her in a stable environment until we get back.”

Coulson smiles. “Time to crash Hydra’s party.”

Chapter 29: Rescue I

“Any closer and we’ll run into Hydra scanners,” Melinda May radioes. Due to the size of the combined group of Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, they took two quinjets. They both begin to land outside of the range of Hydra’s scanners. Their scanners are only powerful enough to pick up air traffic, not ground movement. There are other measures to protect a ground attack that they’ll have to work through. 

Bucky double checks himself as they land. Pistols, knives, rifle, extra magazines, one of Fitz’s short range EMPs, a handful of tracking devices, a few grenades, and several other weapons and devices. Everything that he has planned on taking with him. He takes a deep breath as the quinjet lands. First time in a long time that I’ll be myself at a Hydra base. Hopefully the first of many times. I can’t let Hydra hurt anymore people. 

“I’m in their system,” Daisy says over the earpiece. She’s searching for any information they need as well as starting a download of all the information stored on Hydra’s server. 

Bucky lets his hand rest on his pistol, wary of any approaching Hydra troops. If they send anyone out to get a look, they could be found when someone walks straight into one of the cloaked quinjet. He stays alert, waiting for Daisy to tell them what they need to know. 

“Okay, Jennifer has a chip surgically placed at the base of her neck that prevents her from using her abilities, has a tracker, and a kill switch,” Daisy says after not too long. 

“Fitz’s EMPs should handle that,” Tony responds. “Did they put the eye prosthetic in her?”

“Nope, and good we came today. She’s scheduled for that surgery in a couple of days.” 

“She is very weak. Be gentle with her,”  Simmons adds. 

Bucky’s jaw remains tense as he imagines what state he will find Jennifer in. 

“Hey Loki, if I send you a picture of someone, can you remember it and shapeshift into him to get through a lock only opened by an eye scan?” Daisy asks after a moment.

“Absolutely.”

“Thanks, I’m sending the picture over now. Nothing else that we didn’t already know,” Daisy says. “And I just started downloading everything.”

Time to get things started . 

---

Jennifer stares up at the ceiling. Not much else she can do as she waits for Hydra to cut her open again. The scientists have continued doing what they can to speed up her healing, but she doesn’t feel much better. Then again, they only want me well enough to survive a surgery, not well enough to actually have any control . 

For now, the head scientist isn’t here. He left a couple of his assistants behind. They keep an eye on her vials while they do what they can to pass the time. They have that luxury of having forms of distraction. Lately, they’ve been playing card games, and it sounds like there is some gambling going on. Jennifer stopped caring to pay attention to them not too long after they started their games. Lots of arguing over the rules of the game and supposed cheating. Petty arguments as they try to earn more money off of each other. Every once in a while they pause as they do something else related to Jennifer. They draw some of her blood, check her vitals if something blinks, change the IV bag for one full of saline and whatever else they are pumping into her. They don’t acknowledge her at all beyond the immediate medical concerns, not even making eye contact with her. After all, she’s nothing more than a malfunctioning tool to them. 

Last Jennifer heard, surgery is supposed to happen in two days. She still hasn’t figured out what that means. Something about a prosthetic, but that doesn’t make tons of sense given that she hasn’t lost any limbs or anything. She doesn’t know what the purpose of this is, but apparently it’s supposed to help Hydra control her. Whatever it is, Jennifer is not eager to find out.

Hopefully the Avengers find me before then.

---

They abandoned the quinjets and snuck into Hydra territory in groups. Bucky, Steve, FitzSimmons, Loki, May, and Daisy are going to go inside the base and find Jennifer. They’ll use an EMP to handle the chip inside of her and FitzSimmons will be there to help her medically. Loki can use his sorcery to conceal them if needed and all of them can fight off Hydra if they come while FitzSimmons need to sort something out for Jennifer. They will take Jennifer onto the quinjet that has the chamber Fitz and Tony made to activate the super soldier serum in her. 

While they are doing that, everyone else will attack the base to try and draw as many troops away from Jennifer as possible. Attack, capture the head if possible, and destroy the base. Hopefully, S.H.I.E.L.D. will be a surprise to Hydra. They must have been expecting an attack from the Avengers, but they won’t expect the two groups to join forces. 

Let’s hope everything works . 

Loki uses his sorcery to conceal the small group. It feels odd, being able to walk directly towards the entrance to the base without having to worry about being seen. No, they are all standing upright in the middle of a field yet no one can see them. As they approach a doorway, Loki signals for them to stop. The guards are inside the doors so that satellite imagery wouldn’t detect that this is a hostile base. He gestures for them to come near him on one side of the door. 

Once everyone is leaning against the wall, Loki raises his hand and creates an illusion several feet away. A growling and roaring bear walking towards the building. It’s loud enough that the guards inside surely can hear it. After a moment, the door opens and the two guards peer outside. One of them makes eye contact with Bucky for a second, but the illusion holds up and his gaze continues moving. 

“That’s getting a bit too close for comfort,” one of them says. 

“I thought there aren’t supposed to be bears in this region?” the other one asks.

“You’re right, but I saw a newspaper in town the other day that said that there have been bear sightings lately, and two of them had rabies. There’s been tons of research going on because of this.”

“Well, looks like that one might have rabies.”

The guard shrugs. “I dunno enough to give an answer. But either way, it is getting close and looks aggressive. And I don’t want to risk getting rabies. C’mon.” Both of the guards leave the building, walking towards the bear with rifles raised. Before the door can swing shut, Loki silently grabs it. Everyone silently files inside and Loki quietly shuts the door behind them. 

Bucky looks around at the awfully familiar walls. He has never been to this specific location, but Hydra base looks practically the same. His chest tightens as the door closes behind him, locking him inside with the very people that tortured and exploited him. The very people that are torturing and exploiting Jennifer. He forces himself to relax his muscles and take a deep breath before looking down the hall. He catches a look from Steve, double checking if he is okay. Bucky nods as the group stalks through the halls. 

Bucky and Daisy walk at the front. Daisy had memorized the building’s layout, and Bucky recognizes this layout from other more recently built bases. Loki maintains the illusion hiding them, but even still they all fall into old habits of stealth and silence. They pass several soldiers that look right through them, silently walking past them as they move towards the laboratory. 

Bucky recognizes the door they need immediately. Heavy bolt, opened by an eye scan, heavy steel in comparison to the basic doors most of the other rooms have. This type of security is only seen where Hydra keeps their prisoners, whether they be in cells or labs. 

When the hall is empty, Loki shapeshifts into who must be one of Hydra’s scientists. He removes the illusion hiding himself and stands in front of the scanner. A green light blinks for a moment and with a small buzz the door unlocks. He enters the labs, still in the form of the scientist, everyone else following behind while still invisible. 

The lab is structured like many other labs Bucky had been forced into. A large space for general experimentation and an enclosed space for operations. Its walls are made of glass, leaving Jennifer in plain view. Bucky inhales sharply when he sees Jennifer strapped to an operating table, same as he once was. Doesn’t help that he recognizes some of the machinery near her and remembers exactly what purpose they serve and the pain they cause. Inside the operating room are two younger scientists. They immediately straightened themselves when they saw the “scientist” enter the room. Loki must have the image of one of the lead scientists . 

The only relief Bucky feels is that at the moment they aren’t doing anything to Jennifer. They aren’t injecting anything into her, they aren’t electrocuting her, they aren’t performing surgery on her, nothing. 

His relief doesn’t last long.

---

Jennifer hears the door to the lab slam shut, a very familiar sound by now. Probably doesn’t mean much. Either there’s a shift change or the head scientist is going to come complain to no one in particular again about deadlines and that he can’t break her easily. Either way, it won’t affect her. She already overheard that surgery isn’t going to happen yet. 

Then out of nowhere the burning in her head returns. A scream slips past her lips as her back arches and her head pounds. This is only supposed to happen when I use my powers! I’m not! Is the chip malfunctioning? She squeezes her eyes shut as she screams again, unable to stop herself from struggling against the bonds and screaming her lungs out. 

Then it stops. 

Jennifer shudders as her body slowly sinks down after that onslaught of pain. She opens her eyes when she feels a hand smoothing back her hair. Piss off, creep . She opens her eyes, ready to say something to that extent. She squints up, the lights blinding her now that her brain hurts too much to process the light.

“Don’t worry, we’re getting you out of here.” Jennifer recognizes Bucky’s voice before her eyes adjust to the light. As she blinks, trying to see, she feels Bucky ripping the straps off of her and hears metal clanking on the floor. Even with the restraints gone, Jennifer can hardly move. Finally, her vision adjusts and she can see Bucky and the handful of other people in the room. The two assistants that had been supervising her are dead or unconscious on the floor, pushed away from the operating table. Standing next to her are Bucky, Loki, and another woman she has never seen before. Off in the distance are a few blurry figures. One of them must be Steve. No one else carries a shield like his. The other three Jennifer can’t recognize from a distance.

Loki smiles slightly as his fingers brush against Jennifer’s temple. “Your mind is perfectly intact. Not even a hint of Hydra.” Both him and Bucky step back as the woman, a doctor apparently, starts to examine her. 

“My name is Jemma. We’re going to get you somewhere safe and I’m going to help you feel better.” Jennifer nods as Jemma does her examination. She has no idea where this lady came from, but she can’t hardly care at the moment. 

“The others will start their attack soon,” Steve says, his voice confirming your earlier suspicion. 

After a few seconds, a flashing red light illuminates the room. “It started,” one of the other women says. She doesn’t recognize her voice. Jennifer can barely make out Loki and two of the figures leaving the operating room and going to the door to the lab. As Jemma finishes looking over her, Jennifer watches as Bucky and Steve help the other blurry figure with something, pushing things out of the way for him. After a moment, he steps out of sight. 

“Can you help me lift her?” Jemma asks. Soon enough, her, Bucky, and Steve are slowly lifting Jennifer and setting her on a stretcher on the floor. As she is midair, black dots slowly start to cover her vision as her head pounds even harder. The last thing she remembers is being gently set on the stretcher.

Chapter 30: Rescue II

“Jen?” Bucky says quietly as Jennifer’s head rolls to its side after setting her on the stretcher. It doesn’t take long for him to notice her deeper breathing. He looks to Simmons to see whether he should be worried or not.

“She’s in pain and exhausted, enough to pass out over something as simple as being moved,” Simmons explains as she straps Jennifer to the stretcher, a safeguard to keep her in the stretcher even if they have to run, go upstairs, or something else that could endanger her. “She’ll heal once we get her to the vita-ray chamber. And she certainly needs the rest.”

Relieved, Bucky looks up at Fitz, who is using what he called a mouse hole, basically a hand-held laser used to cut holes. He is almost done cutting open a hole for them to escape through. Good thing too, Bucky can hear footsteps from Hydra soldiers coming to the entrance, quickly followed by a rumbling sound. 

“Alright, we’re good to go,” Fitz says as he straightens, coming to pick up one end of the stretcher. There’s a tiny amount of metal that hasn’t been cut through yet. Daisy walks in front of the soon-to-be exit and extends her arm before the same rumbling sound rings through the lab. The cut portion of the wall goes flying forward into the hallway on the other side, landing on top of the few Hydra soldiers that must have seen the wall being cut into. 

So that’s what she does. Daisy had told him and the Avengers about her Inhuman powers, but this is the first time any of them have personally witnessed them. Seeing it with your own eyes definitely adds a new perspective. 

FitzSimmons lifts Jennifer up and everyone else surrounds them, keeping the three of them shielded from the inevitable oncoming attacks. Loki still is hiding them from view, now hiding himself once again and hiding Jennifer. Even still, Bucky stays alert. For all they know, Hydra might have a way to find them now that they know what to look for. Surely, they will notice Jennifer missing and the massive hole they left in their wall.

For now though, they simply walk through the halls to the back exit away from where the Avengers are attacking, going as fast as Simmons says is safe while they aren't being shot at. Theoretically there won't be nearly as many soldiers on that side of the building as the side with all the action. Hopefully, they'll be able to slip out of harm's way.

As they pass a lone soldier running the opposite direction as them, Bucky quickly slams his head in the wall, knocking him out. He grabs the headset off of his head, hoping to get information on Hydra's plans from it. He slips it into the ear he doesn't have his own comms in and listens in on Hydra's relays.

"Asset 2 is missing, repeat, Asset 2 is missing. They forced a hole through the wall, looks like they are headed towards the back."

"Any available soldier, stop them from leaving with Asset 2."

Bucky curses under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Steve asks as they round a corner.

"Hydra is sending soldiers to stop us at the exit. But at the very least we are invisible, so we'll have the advantage," Bucky responds as he racks his mind for any other idea. "Or…can either of the quinjets be operated remotely?"

"What do you have in mind?" May asks.

"The roof."

"If we board the quinjet on the roof and the others are far away enough, we could destroy the building as we leave," Loki adds. "But we have to assume Hydra will also think of this possibility soon."

"Not only that, they'll soon realize that they can't see us and will try to find another way to locate us," Fitz adds. "If I had to find us, I would try heat vision, for example."

"If we go to the roof, that will buy us a few minutes without running into Hydra. Even with the advantage of being invisible, it will be dangerous. If there's a big group and we start attacking, they might start shooting in all directions. The longer we can go without running into a big group, the better," Steve says.

"Did you memorize the way to the stairs?" Simmons asks Daisy who shakes her head.

"Hydra has similar layouts for all of their buildings. If they haven't changed things, the stairs will be down there," Bucky says as he points to their left as they reach a four-way intersection. "I'm guessing one, maybe two stories above us. It definitely will have room for a quinjet to land."

"Lead the way," May says as everyone turns towards the left. Bucky heads to the front of the group and walks towards the stairs, having done the same thing so many times that is is engraved in his muscle memory. He never thought he'd go this route to rescue someone though. Every other time had been to complete a mission, or on rare occasions attempt to escape.

Back then he had always been incapable of even getting as close to the stairs as he already is now. He was always in a horrible state during these escape attempts. Sometimes he was bleeding from where he ripped out IVs, leaving a blood trail right to him. A few times his prosthetic had been disabled before he bolted. Other times he was injured from a mission gone poorly. His bold attempt to escape with two broken legs was short-lived; he could barely make it out of the lab. Every time, he was shortly apprehended by the guards carrying tasers. After being electrocuted enough to see black, they'd drag his limp body back to the godforsaken lab and mold him to their will once again.

Now he he isn't alone, nor is he injured. A much better recipe for success than any of his previous attempts.

As they round a corner, they see many soldiers guarding the doors Bucky knows leads to the stairwell. He instinctively leans against the wall by the door, sneaking a look until he remembered that they can't see him. Or at least they hopefully haven't found a way to yet. He gestures for FitzSimmons to stay with Jennifer as him and the others silently step towards the guards. Once they are close enough, all of them start attacking soldiers. Very quickly, bullets start flying in all directions as the soldiers try to stop their invisible assailants.

"Something invisible is fighting us by the stairwell," Bucky hears both in person and in the Hydra headset. He quickly looks for who is reporting this and runs towards him. "Do we have anything to counter invisi-" The soldier's sentence is abruptly cut off by Bucky slamming his head into the wall.

"Darn it," he mutters as he hears footsteps coming. "We need to hurry."

FitzSimmons runs into the room with Jennifer as Steve kicks down the door, a set of stairs behind it. "More are coming," Fitz says.

"We heard," May responds as she and Bucky start up the stairs. "We don't have much time now."

They file up the stairs, Steve and Daisy helping FitzSimmons as they carry Jennifer at a much more awkward angle. Bucky catches a glimpse of Jennifer as he looks behind to see if any more soldiers are near. Her head lolls to the side at an uncomfortable angle as she is carried at a near forty-five degree angle, but she doesn't stir.

Soon a couple of soldiers run onto the stairs ahead of them from a different floor. May quickly runs up and efficiently knocks them unconscious with two kicks. I can see why she was such a legend at S.H.I.E.L.D.

They step over their bodies and keep running up the stairs until they reach the top. Bucky slams the door open and all of them file into the light of day.

"Quinjet is coming now," Daisy says as she steps into the daylight, hanging by the door, ready to quake any soldiers away.

Soon, Bucky can feel the air pushing past him as the cloaked quinjet lands on the roof, and soon the door opens. They hurry inside the quinjet, May, the pilot, first, followed by FitzSimmons and Jennifer. Daisy quakes aside some soldiers before taking the rear and running inside.

"Lifting off, is everyone clear?" May says as the quinjet slowly lifts into the air. Bucky doesn't hear the response, only focusing on Jennifer.

Fitz had designed the vita-ray chamber to support the stretcher, latching on at a few points. Once Jennifer is secured to the chamber and Simmons is finished attaching an IV and monitors to her, Fitz closes the chamber, leaving Jennifer in a titanium cylinder with a small window showing her face and a glowing arc reactor at its base. Bucky, Steve, Loki, and Daisy stand at the opposite wall, watching as FitzSimmons check her vitals and document them.

"What's it like?" Bucky asks Steve after a moment. "You're the only one that was awake while it happened."

"Overwhelming," Steve answers. "Hurt a lot, but only for a minute. But I can't really describe it. Like I said, it was overwhelming. I grew almost a foot in a minute. Makes sense that I can't really say what happened."

"Guess it isn't so bad that I don't remember it then," Bucky says as he considers Steve's response. I didn't have such a big height and weight change, but I had been tortured for years before. It's miraculous that this energy can so drastically change everything all at once.

"We also didn't have the benefit of 21st century technology back then. I'm guessing this will be much smoother for Jennifer," Steve continues and Bucky nods in agreement.

"She's gonna be freaked out when she wakes up. Obviously because of all of the horrible things that happened to her, yeah, but she's also going to wake up in a very different body," Daisy says. "Trust me, it's not fun to suddenly go through an unexpected and permanent genetic change."

"No, it would not be," Loki agrees.

"She's ready for vita-rays," Simmons says over her shoulder before returning her focus on Jennifer.

The four watch as Fitz hits some buttons on his tablet. The chamber starts humming lowly and white light emanates from the window. Bucky sees her heart rate skyrocketing on the screen nearby. Everyone watches silently as the light intensifies for a few seconds before dimming. Bucky holds his breath as Fitz lifts the hatch off of the chamber.

Jennifer is taller than before, probably somewhere around his height now. Any weight she had lost in captivity has been more than compensated now. The dark circles under her eyes are gone, and her skin is no longer sallow like it was when they found her in the lab. Even her hair shines more. All the visible injuries she had before are gone, even the little scars from where the needles were constantly jabbed into her. Glancing to the screen, her heart rate and breathing are much healthier now, no longer glowing red as a warning.

"She needs plenty of rest, but she will wake up feeling much better," Simmons says as she turns to the four of them. "Fitz and I will remove the chip from her neck when we get back."

"It's useless now, but it could cause problems in the future if it stays. And she'd probably feel better knowing it isn't there," Fitz continues.

"Definitely," Bucky says as he slowly approaches. Jennifer sleeps peacefully, no longer looking strained and exhausted. She is covered in sweat, which must be one of the ways her body was able to regulate its quick growth. He tucks her hair behind her ears after a moment. She doesn't stir in the slightest as he does so.

Daisy's right. She's going to wake up a super soldier when last she remembers she could barely move. I didn't think of it before because I wasn't myself when I woke up a super soldier. I didn't react because I couldn't. By the time I began rebelling again, I was already so used to the serum that I can't really remember what it felt like to have a normal body. But Jennifer will react to it. She'll wake up and one of the first things she will notice is how different she is now.

After squeezing Jennifer's shoulder and wondering if she even knows that he's trying to comfort her, Buck sits down on the opposite wall. Steve sits next to him, and Loki and Daisy sit nearby. After some time, FitzSimmons sits down as well, still glancing at Jennifer's vitals every once in a while.

Steve sets a hand on Bucky's shoulder after a moment. "She'll be fine," he assures after a moment. "And so will you."

Notes:

sorry for the delay, but hey i got it finished!
hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! thanks so much for reading!