The Truth Is (Part 6)
Summary: Canon(ish). Captain America calls on reader to help his best friend uncover a major scandal. If reader succeeds, the former Winter Soldier might finally be vindicated. Failure is not an option when the truth is at stake.
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem!reader
Word Count: 1,897
Warnings: language, timeline manipulation, i’m winging it, guns, gun violence, espionage-y stuff, mentions of death, mentions of murder
A/N: This is part 6 for Mee’s canon writing challenge. It’s been four months, but I had zero motivation. Catch up in the masterlist. Also, this gif is an awesome coincidence since Tony’s back.
Bucky knew you were gone.
It wasn’t because of the silence; no, that was thanks to the fact that the man on the floor at his feet was lying motionless in a pool of his own blood. That was thanks to the fact that Kozlov’s men had emptied the hotel of workers and other guests in order to ambush the both of you without any witnesses. In fact, they were probably still running around looking for him.
He knew you were gone, and he knew it was his fault.
Dammit, it had been a good day, a productive day…The two of you had managed to get the witness on her way to safety, something that had seemed impossible at first.
The two of you worked well together. It was the first time he’d connected with anyone new in decades…and then…
The first guy had appeared out of nowhere and struck him in his head, giving him one of the worst fucking headaches of his life. After he’d kept the guy away from you, and thank god he had stayed conscious for that, he used his metal arm to give the guy a permanent headache of his own. It was sloppy, it was brutal, but it did the trick.
He’d been so preoccupied, seeing red and wanting to end the man who’d tried to harm you that he’d sent you into the direction of more danger.
You hadn’t screamed, hadn’t cried out for him or for anyone. You probably never even had the chance.
All Bucky had heard was the thump of your body hitting the carpeted floor, followed by some shuffling. Two voices were yelling in Russian, one of which was female and sounded almost familiar, but that had to have been his jumbled brain playing tricks on him.
If only he’d talked you out of coming on this trip at all…what good did it to for anyone to get close to him? You’d been so goddamn confident, so sure that the two of you could take on Secretary Ross, Kozlov, hell, even the entire Russian branch of Hydra.
What good had it done you to try to help him?
You weren’t dead, of that he was sure. If you had been killed, he’d have felt it somehow. He had really good instincts after all the fucking years in the Army and as the Soldier. No, you were alive and in trouble with all the odds stacked against you.
His fists closed tightly as he stepped around the body to grab the dead man’s gun. All the tech Shuri had loaned you had been stolen, and most of the contents of his suitcase and yours were scattered throughout the room in pieces.
It wasn’t an unusual sight, not the destroyed room nor the dead body.
Bucky was used to the death and killing. He was used to the sudden disappearances of comrades. What he could never get used to, though he’d been through it before with Steve, with so many people, was the feeling of emptiness he got when he let someone down.
A flash of your face on the first day he met you danced across his memory. You had smiled at him, smiled so brightly that he thought maybe you had powers like Wanda and had read his brain in that moment. He wondered if you’d heard his thoughts, the ones where he called you beautiful and reminded himself three times not to stutter when he said hello. But no, you were just that wonderful.
You were just a genuinely bright spot in a cold universe.
Bucky let out a breath and his shoulders sagged just a little.
He thought he could protect you.
He thought that as long as he was there, you were safe.
He was wrong, and now you were gone, your brightness at risk to be snuffed out forever.
With one last glance around the trashed room, he tucked the gun in his waistband and stalked out into the hall, where he was met with more of Kozlov’s men.
He had been too distracted to react quickly, but Bucky got a few good hits in before someone stabbed him in the chest, the neck, close to his spine…all sedatives, enough to bring down an elephant. They knew how much to use because they’d done this before...they’d probably done this to him before.
His last thought, the last thing to cross his mind right before they drugged him up enough to make him defenseless, was your beautiful face and your radiant smile.
------
The second you opened your eyes, you knew you were in trouble.
Everything hurt, a telltale sign of being sedated and dragged to – you glanced around, blinking in the dim light – wherever you were.
You were lying still on an old, shabby cot in the corner of a small room with a threadbare blanket thrown haphazardly across your legs. Toward the door was a desk with a single lamp, and at that desk sat the last person you expected to see.
This wasn’t right. One piece of the plan had already gone wrong without you even realizing.
“What are you doing here?” you rasped, trying to fight your oncoming headache to sit up on the cot. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”
Lina sat at the desk rolling a cigarette, stopping only long enough to eye you over her shoulder. “I grabbed you from the hotel so that they wouldn’t kill you. This is my own secret safe house.”
That didn’t answer your question at all.
“Why were you back at the hotel?”
“I saw the Russians at the train station, Y/N, and I’m good at my job. I knew something was going on, so I took a roundabout way back to your hotel. When I got there, it was swarming with Russians. I pretended to be on their team to get in. I’m sorry I drugged you, but I had to make it look convincing.”
Your feet slid to the floor as you finally sat upright, your hands steadying you for the moment. “Where’s Bucky?”
She turned back to her cigarette, licking the paper closed and lighting it before she stood up. Lina pushed her chair in with a metallic screech and moved to lean against the door frame. “They took him.”
“Who’s they?”
“Kozlov’s men. Any other questions? Or would you like me to just fill you in on my plan?”
Your head was already throbbing so hard your left eye was twitching. “By all means, continue.”
Lina took another puff, blowing the smoke out slowly before she set the cigarette down on the edge of the desk, ash falling to the floor below.
“My mother is still on her way to Brussels to meet your friends. I know they need her…you need her…so you won’t hurt her like the Russians or your Secretary Ross would.”
That made you sit up a little taller. Why would Lina be questioning all of that again? You and Bucky had spent an entire day trying to reassure her the plan was the best way, that Oksana’s information could save hundreds if not thousands of lives across the globe.
Why would she be questioning it again?
Lina took your silence as acceptance to continue. “We will find your soldier, I assure you. He is far too important to be left in the hands of those imbeciles.”
You were about to ask another question when your phone went off in your pocket. Tony’s name was on the screen and you pressed answer immediately, safe or not. Let them find you. Let them see you at your lowest and find out what you’re capable of.
“Tony?” You kept your eyes locked on Lina’s as you greeted your former boss.
“Y/N, thank god you’re all right. Steve’s here with me, we got word from Wanda that only Oksana made it to Brussels. Is the Winter Snowman with you?”
“No, Tony.”
“Put it on speaker,” Lina hissed, motioning to your phone.
You did as she asked, and Tony’s voice filled the room.
“No? That’s strange. Who was that talking just now then?”
“Lina,” you supplied. “Oksana’s daughter, the one we told you about? She came back and she grabbed me from the hotel before Kozlov’s men could but they got Bucky and most of our tech.”
Tony sighed audibly on the other end of the line. “Good thing I’m a billionaire. I swear, you act like all of that is just pennies to replace, Y/N, and –“
“Why are you calling,” you interrupted, not wanting your headache to get worse. “Any news?”
“Yeah, listen Y/N, Ross is in Vilnius with Evgeni Kozlov and they’re meeting tonight. One of my satellites picked up some heavy movement near Kozlov’s downtown office…armed guards, big trucks, the whole nine yards.”
Your chest tightened. All that security for two men having a secret meeting? No way would Ross draw attention to himself like that unless he absolutely needed the extra guns. “Bucky’s there, isn’t he?”
“Seems that way.”
“Fuck,” you muttered, running your free hand down your face.
“That’s not all. Some of the lines FRIDAY tapped indicated that there was a third party arriving, a potential buyer or something. I didn’t get any other details but this could be the big deal, the guy that’s orchestrated this entire operation. It just got a hundred times more dangerous.”
“I know that, Tony.”
“You need backup.”
“I have Lina. Bucky’s been taken. I can’t tell local authorities or even American authorities because then this entire operation is for nothing, Tony. What do you suggest?”
“Y/N, you don’t have to go it alone,” Steve’s soft voice sounded over the line. “You said it yourself, you aren’t a spy or a soldier. This is way too risky. Let us help you.”
“If the Avengers show up, our cover’s blown,” Lina commented, walking closer to stand in front of you. “We could use some behind-the-scenes help, though. How about you just work the other end?”
“Other end?” Steve asked. You were wondering the same thing.
“She means the systems,” Tony explained. “Breaking and entering, infiltrating their security cameras, controlling the uncontrollable, you know, a typical Saturday night.”
Lina’s lips curved into a strange smile. “Exactly. You stay in our ears, be our eyes, and when we give the signal, you do your best on the tech side.”
“Including unlocking Bucky from whatever prison they locked him in,” you added, giving the phone a light squeeze. If anyone could manage that, it would be Tony.
“Got it. Connect your earpiece and let’s get going.”
“Uh, Tony? They took all my tech, remember?”
“Not all of it.” Lina held up the two earpieces you and Bucky had given her and her mother at the train station.
You took one, grateful for some last-minute help on this mission. “Never mind that, we’re wired and ready. Let’s get this shitshow on the road.”
At this rate, if you made it out of this alive and managed to get Bucky’s name cleared it would be a miracle.
There was no way you’d give up now, though.
She handed you a spare gun, and you checked the safety before tucking it into your waistband.
“Are you ready?” Lina asked, one eyebrow arched as she grabbed what was left of her cigarette.
You gave a sharp nod. “Bucky’s waiting.”
-----
no tags
Part 7
Masterlist
