LEAVING TONIGHT. . . BUCKY BARNES

[ 019. ] hopefully i won't wake up this time

Steve Rogers watched from behind a double side mirror as Tony's team preps the lab. A large cryostasis chamber in the middle of the room. Everything is so white, too bright for his eyes, but he can't seem to look away.

A woman, he thinks Tony had introduced her as a Doctor Kerrigan, but he's not too sure, speaks to Avery, who's sitting in a chair. A thick metal cylinder covers her arms, keeping them cuffed in front of her, but she seems to understand what they're telling her. She doesn't say anything, just nodding.

Bruce Banner works on her stasis tube, tinkering with it a bit before announcing it was ready.

"She's got some of the smartest people on Earth on her team," Tony Stark says as he comes up behind Steve. He looks into the room from the double sided mirror, neither peel their eyes from the girl. "Kerrigan is smart, she's already working on a way to deprogram her. She'll be in stasis for only a couple months while we perfect it. We have a whole team working on the specs of her research already."

Steve hums in response.

"She's a world renowned psychologist, Steve." Tony says as he claps a hand on the blond man's shoulder. "You can trust her."

"Do you?" He asks.

Tony ponders it for a moment, "Yes."

Steve nods slowly, Tony's arm still on his shoulder. A grin spreads across Tony's lips and he gives Steve another pat.

"Lets get started then," He says as he opens the lab door.

"Tony," Steve calls out after the man. Tony stops in his tracks and turns back around. "Thank you for this."

Tony smiles at his friend, "Anytime, Spangles."

Steve stays in place, he watches as Tony disappears inside, before appearing back again in his line of view. He greets Avery with a gentle smile.

Avery's leg bounces nervously. And although they've explained the process to her a hundred times, the vast amounts of new technology are off putting. It's the only thing she can focus on, how she went in during the 90's and now that she's out everything is completely different. Everything they tell her goes in one ear and out the other.

Tony Stark can see that. In that moment she's not a deadly HYDRA assassin, she's a scared little girl. Tony Stark can see that.

"How are you doing?" He asks.

She nods, "Good," her voice is still hoarse. He can tell it still hurts her to breathe, hell it probably hurts her to just sit still.

Dr. Banner motions toward the tube, it lays flat against the table where they've built it on. Avery rises from her seat, and Dr. Kerrigan unlocks the cuffs. They release her hands, that Avery rubs before letting them fall at her side.

She enters the tube. Her palms are sweating, she wipes them on the black sweats that they've given her. Black sweats, black long sleeve shirt, and black socks.

Her head hits the small white pillow, much nicer than the last stasis tube she had been in.

"How we doin'?" Stark asks. She looks up at him, dark circles under her wide eyes. She presses her lips together into an awkward smile.

"Alright," She croaks out.

He can see the worry in her eyes, how it radiates off of her. Her hands shake and her voice wavers.

Natasha Romanoff joins Steve's side. A sling holds her arm against her chest, white bandages peek out from the neck of her shirt. There's a dull ache from the gunshot wound, but nothing he's handled before.

"They start yet?" She asks. Steve turns to look at her. She looks pretty, red hair straightened, she wears a simple black long sleeve shirt. Thought Natasha does look tired.

He shakes his head, and she hums in response. Neither speak anymore, just sit in comfortably silence.

"Can you explain it again to me?" Avery asks, shaky voice gives her nervousness away immediately. Tony smiles softly as he takes her cold hand in his.

"Of course," He says. "The cryostasis tube will cool up to freezing point as to not completely dehydrated your cells, but also enough to keep you in a comatose state. I know it sounds scary, but this is temporary. Doctor Kerrigan has already assembled a team to help create one of the most revolutionary therapeutic devices that can help with the deprogramming."

She nods, and Tony slips his hand away from hers. He takes a step back and the door of the tube hisses as it begins to lower. It clicks shut.

"Will you stay with me?" Avery asks, her voice muffed by the glass tube.

Tony smiles, "I'll be here every step of the way."

She gives him a final nod before looking straight up, as she braces herself. She knows how it goes, she knows that there's a brief moment of pain from the cold before it's followed up by darkness.

She hated it at first, but she had quickly learned that when she was asleep was the only time that she was alone in her mind. They couldn't control her, they couldn't poke and prod at her brain. The cold signified that she was safe, she had come to learn.

She's tired, her body needs healing, and stasis will prove that for her.

She knows it's irrational to crave the sleep that the cold brings her. She knows that most people would be terrified of being put back under, but not her.

There's another hiss from the jets at her feet. The substance is released into the tube, and she takes a deep final breath before the world around her goes dark. Her lungs burn for a moment, cold, crisp air. It nips at her skin, not as bad as before (she used to wake up with burns from it).

She knows it's irrational to crave the sleep the cold brought her, by she knows that at least, when she's asleep, she'll dream of him. She'll dream of him and the fantasy world that she has created for them, it may not be real, but it's what she can hold on to.

Avery McCoy welcomes sleep with open arms.

a/n: steve rogers you whore
also introducing: hugh dancy as dr bruce banner and rooney mara as dr sarah kerrigan!
ALSO: i kinda wanna start a whole books like the meet my oc books where i put all of like ave's outfits and any graphics and stuff i make for them... idk let me know 🙁 (i'll probably end up doing it anyways.)

written: june 18, 2021