ZEITGEIST | james b. barnes

[ 45 ]

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C A P T A I N
A M E R I C A

45

"I never said goodbye."

Alps, Austria
February, 1945

MORE THAN A YEAR had passed since Lucy, James and the prisoners whom Steve liberated had escaped their demise. More than a few months had passed since Lucy started taking injections instead of IV drips, chemicals rewritten by Dr. Schaffer who'd been forced to work for the American Chemical Corps until the war was finished- until he was put on trial. More than a few days had passed since the Howling Commandos were given the mission to capture Dr. Zola and for once Lucy was allowed to tag along.

Of course, over the last few months she'd partaken in her fair share of blowing up bases and sniping HYDRA agents alongside James who tried to make it a race. But it'd also been a few weeks since she'd been missing out on the action after risking her life to save James from a grenade. She didn't think a torn up arm was much to worry about since she knew she'd heal in a week- she did admit it seemed severe enough that if she pushed herself she may not have an arm anymore, but that's besides the point. She'd been bedridden for days, then re-bedridden for another week because Dr. Schaffer threatened to kill the other scientists he was working with if she didn't rest. She supposed he would know how much her body could take- but even so, she thought it was unfair Steve, James and Dum Dum both got to explode more bases and toss grenades into the back of HYDRA trucks more times than she could.

Alongside the missions, she and Peggy had attempted to uncondition her with the help of trial and error. They'd try to use all the phrases at once, which did absolutely nothing, so they ended up splitting the words into groups. She got used to the sentences until she could ignore her overwhelming and fearful urges to become something less human. It was painstaking, and a grueling process that Lucy more or less hated but knew was important to complete. She was only half-way through the full set of words.

So Lucy might've been ridiculously relieved for being on a mission, without being tasked with the reconstruction of her mind, or Dr. Schaffer who she still had to drag around the base. A part of her didn't really enjoy leaving Joseph behind but he was under Peggy's care, so she suspected he'd be alright.

Dr. Schaffer had been vehement and determined to make her not go- her last injury was horrendous and he seemed appalled by the thought of her death- but Lucy had managed to stubborn her way out of it.

Clearly, he had enough faith in her that she was too powerful to die, since he hadn't used any trigger words.

Or maybe he just didn't want to upset her.