⍟ - Silver Lining Stormfront - ⍟
Chapter 6: Flight Delay
★Navigation: Chapter 1 ★ Previous Chapter ★ Next Chapter ★Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers x F! Original Character ★ Summary: The Civil War between the Avengers comes to a head at Leipzig Airport. Marvel Typical shenanigans ensue. ★ Tags: canon divergence - Captain America: Civil War (2016), slow burn, situationship, hurt/comfort, whump, Bucky Barnes has DID, Steve Rogers is trying his best ★ Word Count: 3,122 ★ Read on AO3 ★ A/N: Tried to keep the airport bit shorter. We’ve all seen it a hundred times. ★ Co-written with @nijixrainbow
"I'll take point and clear a path if things go South," the Captain stated, pulling the strap under his chin tight. His shield glinted on his arm. A loud, chirping siren and PA announcement echoed through the air as they stalked through the lower levels of the airport. The facility was on lockdown by the time they even emerged from the parking garage. It was obvious that their arrival was anticipated.
Great. Stark must be here, Agent Nest thought to herself. The only person with enough influence to shut down an entire international airport on such short notice.
"Agent Nest has the Hydra base coordinates. Get yourselves to the helicopter and take off— We need to beat Zemo to Siberia— that's the only way we'll be able to stop the other Winter Soldiers."
Even with her non-combatant role, Adeline was decked in military-grade fatigues and sported her tech at her hip. The first aid pack on her back was undoubtedly lighter after the previous night's... Session with Bucky. But the coordinates programmed into her tablet were their golden ticket out of here and they couldn’t waste this chance.
"Team— Don't engage unless I give the signal. Ready?” And then— “Go!”
Steve was off, jogging out onto the tarmac with Nest in tow as the rest of them fanned out under the concrete pathways. Adeline followed as close behind Steve as her legs could carry. The sunlight here was blinding, the tarmac radiating heat that could just about melt her boots. But before they could run even halfway to the helicopter, an electrical buzz ripped through the air. Arcing across the blades of the helicopter and causing the mechanisms to smoke and fizzle audibly were white bolts of electricity.
"So weird how you run into people at the airport, right?" Tony Stark's voice grated on her ears from behind his mask. He just always thought he was right. Perhaps losing her job with him was for the better.
Her Captain slowed to a stop. And she watched from over his shoulder as Rhodey and Tony descended from the cloudless sky.
"Tony, listen to me, that psychiatrist was behind everything," Steve began, but Tony wasn't there to negotiate. And quite frankly, neither was T'Challa, who leapt down onto the pavement and greeted them curtly from behind his voicechanger.
"Captain. Agent."
"Your Highness." Steve and Adeline both inclined their heads toward the Prince.
"By the way, Sandy, what do you think you're doing? Didn't you learn the first time you got arrested that you've picked the wrong side?"
"Oh, shove it.” Adeline's jaw clenched, and her fists balled at her sides, twitching at her stun gun. “If you only took a second to open your eyes, maybe you would get it. You don't even know what's coming, Stark."
"Oohhh, that's a write up. Colonel Rhodes? Insubordination?"
"Definitely." Rhodey crossed his arms beside Tony.
Steve stepped forward once again, eyes leveling with his friend’s.
"You're after the wrong person, Tony."
"Steve, your old war buddy killed like five people yesterday, and injured even more. You really wanna talk about who the wrong person in this situation is?”
"There will be a lot more dead if we don't stop that doctor. There's five more Winter Soldiers just like Bucky out there, and we need to stop him before he can wake them up.”
"Please, Steve.” Natasha walked up beside Tony, slowly. “Don't try to punch your way out of this. It's not going to go the way you think."
"It's the truth; it’s what's right."
"Alright, you're wearing on my patience, Steven. Underoos!"
Nest ducked out just then, running back towards the parking garage as some guy in red spandex ripped Cap's shield from his arm, and Steve and Tony’s argument reached a new boiling point. For once, she was glad she wasn’t an Avenger; Nobody went after her. Being a civvie-looking coward paid off.
"Guys, the chopper is a no-go,” she snapped over their comms as she took cover inside the abandoned terminal. “Clint, you said there's a quinjet here, right?"
“ Yeah, Stark’s.”
All Hell broke loose.
There was no easy way to navigate to the quinjet hangar on the far side of the airport. But it seemed the long atrium she sprinted across would set her in the right direction. Her boots thudded across the pristine tile floors. With the swelling in her throat, breathing was hard enough at a walk, let alone a run. Panting, she tried to push past the taste of blood lingering at the back of her throat, kicked up from her exerted lungs.
One of the large windows above imploded towards her, glass raining down around her body. She ducked behind a row of seats, yelling into her earpiece and shaking shards from her fatigues:
"They sent that high schooler in the red pajamas after me!"
"You have— the right— to remain silent!" This was the wavering, unconfident yell of a super-powered teen thrown into the heat of battle. Well-intentioned, probably, but with a heavy dose of misdirected ire aimed right at her.
Sam and Bucky weren't too far behind, luckily, arms pumping as they bolted towards the shattered terminal window— Sure enough, a bright red figure was grappling around the skylights and through rafters, trying to land a hit on Agent Nest. Smart move on Tony's part. Disable the strategist, seize their plans, and that quinjet was as good as dead in the hangar. He knew how valuable Adeline really was this whole time.
"What the Hell is that?"
"Everyone's got a gimmick now," Sam griped, deploying his wings and taking off into the air.
Bucky rolled his eyes. Yeah, and yours is being a bird.
He reached Nest first, sliding like a baseball player into home plate across the tile. Some sort of webbing pinned her wrist to the column above her head, knees scrambling for an angle to break free. Nest was relieved by the backup, despite the mask of annoyance twisting her features. And in one fluid motion, Bucky yanked the knife from his belt and slashed through the web. Adrenaline coursing, they both dropped to the floor, his body spread protectively over hers as the FWIP FWIP of more incoming projectiles headed their way from “Underoos.”
Adeline was grateful for this wall of a super soldier— his arms shielding her head as their faces hovered mere inches from one another— This even gave her a split second to study his eyes. A deep, dark, blue-gray. The projectile contact hit his back like a series of punches— FWIP FWIP— He hadn’t noticed the chestnut hue to her irises— and before he knew it, Bucky was dragged off of the agent and swung unceremoniously into a nearby gift shop.
As her cover was ripped away and thrown into a rack of sunglasses, the Agent sat up and crouched. Adeline wasn't going to lie, she felt a little bit out of her league all on her own again. Tony had always joked about how he wondered why nobody ever thought to go after the specialists during a fight. Clearly, the moment he was posed with the opportunity, he knew who to target.
"Hey, Bucky, can you buy me a keychain?" She called out as she pushed herself up from the ground, and started running down the terminal once again.
She ignored the sound of Sam's wingsuit soaring past, then grappling with that kid in the air above her. She just kept her head down and focused on her breathing, even as she heard more chaos and crashing behind her.
"Woah, you have a metal arm, that's so cool!" If she had the time, she would have stopped to laugh at that, but she couldn’t spare a second.
Keep running. Keep running. Keep running!
Eventually, she made it back outside, closer to her goal than ever. Time melted away, unsure how long it took to cross the runway. And the chaos of battle behind her faded into a blur. All Adeline knew was she must have beat her high school record for the timed mile. Her legs shook, as she finally slowed to a jog just outside the hangar and hunched over to catch her breath. She glanced back over her shoulder, chest heaving.
Was that a giant man? Wait, was that Scott?
"I need to get on the treadmill more," she choked out bitterly to herself, pushing her loose hairs back off of her sweaty forehead. "I'm at the quinjet." Her fingers hovered over her ear piece, "Anyone with a ticket better get over here before the stewards stop accepting boarding passes."
She started up the open ramp, one slogging step planting in front of the other. And just as she was almost inside the cargo hold, the Black Widow stepped out of the cockpit.
"Natasha, what..?” She held her hands up away from the stun gun that Steve personally strapped to her thigh. “Hey listen, you know I'm a non-combatant."
"I know.” Natasha nodded, gaze unreadable. All business. “I'm not gonna hurt you, Addie."
"Great, but you need to hear me out. Tony won't listen to Steve and he won’t listen to me. But we know things that he can't, no, he won't imagine. I think you might be able to, though– about the Winter Soldiers. Imagine five more of them. "
-
Vision blasted a devastating slice through the air traffic control tower— making Steve and Bucky's escape that much more difficult. Rubble cascaded down as they just barely made it into the hangar, dusted in a fresh coat of pulverized concrete. The metal behind them screeched with the shatter of glass, blocking any chance for retreat, sparks popping from unseen wiring above— Coming face to face with the Black Widow. No Adeline. No escape.
"You're not gonna stop, are you?" Her arms stretched out towards the pair, boots planted to the ground. Her blue wrist pulsars crackled, ready to send the super soldiers flying onto their asses.
"Nat— you know I can't." Steve's voice nearly broke. How many friends would he have to hurt today? How much trust in him had been severed? "I have to clear his name— I would do the same for any of you."
A beat passed, Bucky's fists clenched at his sides. The Black Widow’s eyes narrowed.
"I'm gonna regret this later." Then she fired her rounds.
Bucky and Steve scrambled onto the quinjet, leaving behind the scene below— punching the cargo door controls and jogging to the cockpit.
"Nest— status report." Steve's hand found the back of the pilot's chair as Bucky strapped into the seat. Getting airborne would only be half the battle with the bogies zipping around above the tarmac. "We ready to fly?"
"Pre-flight check is done. We're ready for takeoff…” Nest switched through controls on the panel in front of her, head whipping around to see only Steve and Bucky were behind her. When Steve said that a few of them might have to take one for the team she hadn’t expected more than half to be missing. ”There's a lot of debris in my way, so hold on." Steve strapped himself down to his seat beside Bucky as she pulled up on the controls. Blasting away the debris without hitting Natasha and T’Challa below was easier said than done. The last thing they needed was to be responsible for the untimely demise of another Wakandan royal right now.
"Here we go..!" As they took to the air, each blast sent the equipment, dust and rubble below scattering in all directions. But once they could clear the hole in the hangar, she punched the throttle. The tarmac shrunk behind them– Sam promising to cover their rear.
"Tony and Rhodes are close, where's— there's Sam," the Captain noted, pulling up one of the exterior cameras– And then a blinding light flared through the lens.
"Oh shit, oh fuck, Rho— wh— oo— bzzzt," Sam's voice finally cut out as they accelerated out of range.
Now, they were alone. No more comms. No more pursuers.
"Something happened," Nest said with a deep dread in her voice. Heat climbed in the back of her throat like she was going to cry, or throw up... Maybe both. She punched the coordinates into the autopilot, reaching cruising altitude. She stood up, her hand dragging across her face.
She swallowed down a wave of guilt that settled in the pit of her stomach. The Avengers were just torn apart in front of her and something terrible happened as a result. It wasn’t clear exactly what, but Sam was a soldier and not easily shaken. Was he trying to call for Rhodey?
"I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve." The threat of tears grew in Bucky's eyes, hearing the comms cut out, watching the disturbed expression wash over Nest's features. "More people are getting hurt—"
"What you did all those years... You didn't have a choice." Who was Steve trying to convince? Himself? He stared straight ahead out the cockpit windshield.
"I know…” A long pause filled the cockpit. “… But I did it," Bucky finally sighed, pinching the tears from his eyes and letting them disappear into the palm of his fingerless gloves. "And there's no guarantee I won't do it again— Just look what happened to her—"
Adeline turned around and leaned against her seat, eyes set on Bucky.
"You're worth it, Sargent," she said, voice still wavering slightly. Adeline shrugged her backpack off and set it on the ground in front of him. "There's a good man inside of you. You saved me today, and I saw that man myself. And I trust him a Hell of a lot more than I fear the Winter Soldier. Maybe that's naive, but it's something I'll keep fighting for."
Naive? Bucky’s eyes screwed shut. That’s shortsighted.
"I'll second that.” Steve affirmed and chewed on the inside of his cheek. “But we’ve still got a mission to complete. How long before we reach Siberia?"
"Nearly 6 hours. We'll be there around 17:00 local time."
-
With the quinjet on autopilot, the trio were left to their own devices. Nest had her fingers glued to the screen on her tech, preparing herself to hack through Hydra's systems.
Bucky took inventory of the rifles, grenades, and pistols meticulously maintained by Natasha— they were pilfered from her equipment locker, after all. Currently, a rifle was laid across his lap and an oiling rag was pinched between his fingers.
And Steve Rogers? He was numbly spooning some sort of MRE between his lips that smelled like meatloaf. The MRE's that Bucky had pulled from the locker at the rear of the jet surely were a marvel of the 21st century. Beef and potatoes. Pork tacos. Spaghetti in red sauce. Chocolate protein shake. It certainly beat the calorie-dense mystery slop that Hydra stuffed the Winter Soldier with between missions.
"You both should keep your energy up. There’s plenty to go around."
Bucky hummed something noncommittal and didn't look up from his weapon. Nest needed to eat first, anyways.
Adeline set down her tech and massaged the bridge of her nose. Her stomach was growling now that Steve mentioned food. When she looked up, Bucky hadn't budged from where he was sitting. She heaved a sigh and stood up, walked towards Cap, and carded through the MREs. She grabbed one beef and potatoes and one spaghetti dinner and stalked back towards the Sargent.
"Hey, you." She sat down before him, crossed her legs, and started ripping open one of the MREs. "Why don't you take a break from that. We've got like four hours still before we're there."
Her eyes searched for his until he finally looked up, head tilted empathically.
"Please?"
His fingers stalled. He blinked, pulled from his thoughts.
"Why did Stark call you Sandy?"
Steve couldn't stifle the laugh that came from somewhere deep in his chest. Adeline's face deadpanned. Her brows turned down in agitation, and she rolled her eyes.
"Because he's a manchild . He thinks my last name is funny. I've worked for him for over a year and I don't think he's ever called me by my full name once," she muttered, pulling the spork out of the packaging and leaning back against the weapons locker. "I didn't think you heard that... You didn't snag me a keychain with Sandy on it, did you?"
"And if I did?" Bucky double checked that the safety was engaged, then leaned the gun upright between his knees. While they'd only known each other for a day and a half, he wasn’t sure he’d seen her quite so annoyed. His head cocked to the side while the ghost of a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth as he leaned forward. "I didn't exactly keep the receipt , you know?"
"Watch it, Barnes," she snapped. Her threat, however, was less than intimidating. "Now eat your pasta." She pushed the MRE into his hands and started to work on opening the other one. She needed to know he was eating. She hadn't seen him do so, besides a protein bar in the van. And she knew, firsthand, just how many calories that supersoldiers burned every day, thanks to Steve. A few protein bars weren’t going to cut it, right before battle.
"You do not want to make her mad."
" Mhm... " His fingers curled around the spork and raised a bite to his lips. "You are terrifying. Truly."
"You better be scared, Bucket."
-
After hours of prepping, Nest had her codes prepared, and Bucky had cleaned and oiled his chosen weapons. Steve had taken up the helm and insisted that the two of them try to rest. Adeline knew Bucky wouldn't, but she still offered him one of the thermal blankets. Taking one for herself, she curled up in the chair beside him.
"Thank you, Adeline. For everything..." His voice was quiet, compared to the hum of the craft. It could have easily been lost if it wasn't accompanied by the flutter of his eyelashes. Bucky kept the blanket folded and tucked it behind his head, arms crossed over his chest. Nest and Steve were alike in this way— always thinking of others first.
"Nothing to thank me for…” Adeline gazed across the gap between them, a tired smile quirking her lip as she answered. “Just trying to do what’s right.” Even though her eyes slid shut, she doubted she would find much sleep. Not with the looming threat of continued violence and the nightmares of screeching comms.
Not again. Not in front of Bucky.
Even though this flight had been delayed, they still had a mission to complete.
And she wasn’t sure anymore who was going to survive it.