unordinary | BUCKY BARNES

chapter five

Bucky jolted awake, sweat running down his face, it had happened again- what was supposed supposed to be every humans average energy charge spent happening in the darkest hours of the night, Bucky had to suffer reliving the worst moments of his life.

His nightmares varied from being tortured by HYDRA, to re-experiencing the most brutal of murders he had ever committed.

Last nights nightmare was especially bad for Bucky. He was standing in a room with no windows, and the door was locked, he held the key in his arm while in his robotic arm, he held a gun.

A family stood in front of him, begging to be spared. The mother held her baby daughter tight to her chest, while slightly older son sobbed into the fathers leg, clutching onto him.

Bucky had no control over himself. He killed the whole family in a matter of seconds, the screams never affecting him until he got control of his own body back.

The worst part was that it was real.

It happened. And he remembered it so vividly.

They were the Anderson family, they were innocent. They had heard the gunshots of the winter soldier and ran to a shelter for safety, Bucky thought they were who he was looking for, they weren't- But they got in his way and suffered the consequences.

Consequences that the winter soldier believed needed to happen. NOT Bucky.

If Bucky has the ability to take anything back, the murder of the Anderson family would be one if the highest on his list.

——

Bucky walked into the kitchen area, rubbing the back of his neck. His hair was still a mess and his shirt was still soaked with sweat combined from heat and the nightmare he had just woken up from.

"Morning, Barnes." You said, looking up from your magazine with a coffee cup in hand.

Bucky stopped and smirked at you.

"Did Cat just say something nice to me?"

You tried to hide your smile by taking a sip of your coffee, but your almost 100% sure that Bucky saw it- Because he smiled right back at you.

"Don't get used to it." You snapped back, your small smile turning into a smirk.

"Whatever." Bucky walked passed you and into the kitchen and began to prepare your breakfast, before you both heard Tony's voice through the loudspeakers.

"Can everyone get their asses out of bed and make your way to conference room one. Now."

You looked at Bucky, wondering if he knew anything. But he just shrugged and abandoned the toast he was buttering, and walked towards the conference room.

"God," You muttered, "He might have waited."

As you walked towards the conference room you couldn't help but wonder what was so urgent that Tony needed you in the morning. Usually meetings were saved until later on in the day, the mornings being saved for training and non physical work.

By non physical work I mean Tony tampering with electronics that worked perfectly fine before he messed with them, like the one time he tried to 'fix' the walk in fridge and ended up accidentally turning it into a freezer...

—

"Thanks for coming here on such short notice, guys." Tony began

"No problem, Stark. Now, what's the emergency?" Natasha asked, leaning against the wall, eager to begin.

Nats energy towards this meeting was very different to the 'team building' exercise announcement. Nat was very focused on her work, and today was possibly a chance to get back to it after a long few weeks of no missions.

"I just got highly classified it information directly from the secretary of state, that a top secret government lab was broken into. He sent me a list of exactly everything that was taken. Everything on the list was extremely similar to what was injected into Rogers body in the 1940s... And an exact match to what was put into Barnes."

"They're recreating HYDRAS version of the super soldier serum?" You asked, trying not to look over to Bucky at this time.

"My theory exactly."

The atmosphere in the room was tense, Steve looked uncomfortable, unsure of what to say.

Tony pulled up a map of the lab, different points highlighted, everyone's focus turned to the screen as Tony began to explain.

"The State think it's our responsibility to deal with this, considering we have previous experience dealing with this kind of stuff."

"So what are we doing? Are we going to find the HYDRA base before they what? Make more of Bucky?" Clint asked.

"Barnes isn't the Winter Soldier." You snapped. "Nothing that happened while he was under HYDRAS control was his fault."

"Sorry, I know." Clint quickly apologised.

2 weeks ago you would have made the comment Clint made, your sudden need to defend Bucky came from nowhere and left you, and quite obviously the entire team confused.

"Right Cat... Erm, thanks." Tony said, beginning to talk again. "Anyways- We will search the Lab tomorrow, seeing if we can find anything that might be of use to us. If we are 100% sure, and only if we are 100% sure- We will send in a field operation to the new HYDRA base which I have a team investigating right now."

You look over at Bucky, you had previously been avoiding it but you assumed eye contact would be a good enough apology for the shitty attempt to defend him a few minutes ago.

You didn't even like each other, there was no need for your sudden 'protection' over this man.

The meeting ended, it was decided that Steve and Nat would check out the lab tomorrow, and a full mission would go ahead in the coming days if needed.

The team filed out of the double doors of the conference room, and went their separate ways to fill out their own duties for the day.

You walked towards the kitchen to finish eating your breakfast so you walked in silence next to Bucky, who was going in the same direction.

Something you always secretly admired about Bucky was the way he kept good posture with such ease. You slouched and walked with your eyes directed at the floor whereas Bucky easily stood straight and walked with great strides, with his head held high.

"You didn't have to do that, you know." He said, breaking the silence. He didn't look at you, he kept facing the front, but you were the only one there so it was clearly directed to you.

You were unsure of what to say next, you knew you didn't have to, everyone knew Buckys situation and Clint obviously hasn't meant what he said in the way it was interpreted- But something inside you felt the need to jump to his defence.

"I know."

You looked over to him and smiled. He returned it with a nod.

You didn't hate him anymore. That was a start.