Stasis || Bucky Barnes

Epilogue

Basil woke up. The first thing he felt was warmth and the familiar scratchy blankets and starched of a hospital bed. He kept his eyes closed as other senses began filtering in. There was a radio being played and a slight breeze billowing round the room. He could smell sharp chemicals and feel soft clothing. Wait, soft clothing. There was a soft material over his chest that he wasn't familiar with. On his legs were the familiar worn soft pyjama trousers of most hospitals but the material over his chest wasn't the matching pyjama top. That was his first clue. His second was that there was no scent in the air. The breeze billowing round the room was too clean, too fresh. No scent of food from the city outside or the smell of trees and greenery. It just felt recycled. His third clue was the radio. There was a baseball recording, making him change his guess from London to America. They didn't listen to the baseball in London.

He opened his eyes as his hand strayed up to his neck. His dog tags were gone. The skin on his neck felt bare. Immediately he panicked. He sat up harshly, eyes darting round the room. It was a cream and mint green room, similar too common hospital rooms. But his panic wasn't calmed. He twisted and found another bed on the other side of the room. Steve was just pushing himself up into a sitting position. The blonde man was wearing the same cream pyjama trousers as Basil and a white vest? Tshirt? It looked too stretchy and the cotton felt too soft for it to be the clothing Basil was used to. "Cap?" He croaked. "They took my dog tags. Why would the hospital take my dog tags?" He looked around, hoping to see them on the bedside table but it was bare other than for a vase of white roses.

The door opened with a click and a woman stepped inside. She closed the door softly behind her and smiled at them. She was young, probably in her twenties, with curled brown hair and a female army uniform. "Morning. Or should I say afternoon?"

"Where are we?" Steve asked.

The woman's smile did not falter. "You're in a recovery room in New York City".

"Where are we?" Basil asked in frustration. "And where is my dog tags?" He glanced down at his exposed forearms and sighed in relief to see the tattoo of the sun and the bird still on his skin. He rubbed it comfortingly.

The woman blinked. "They were taken away while we treated you. I can get them for you if you want". Basil looked her up and down again, then exchanged glances with Steve.

"Your bra is wrong", He stated. The woman place a hand over her breasts in surprise. "And your stockings. They're shiny. We don't make material like that and your bra is round. Women wear pointy ones". He stood up, Steve rising behind him.

"The game is from 1941", the blonde stated. "I know because I was there. Now I'm not going to ask you again. Where are we?"

The woman froze as both men stepped closer. "Captain Rogers. Corporal Parrish".

"Who are you?" Basil snapped. "And give me back my fucking dog tags".

The door opened and two men wearing some kind of black uniform entered. Basil staggered back, mind instantly going to the black uniforms hydra wears. Steve reacted first. He picked both men up and threw them into the wall. The wall broke and both uniformed men hit the floor. Basil felt himself begin to panic. Steve was already moving. The blonde was out through the hole in the wall he just made and Basil stumbled after him. He turned and looked back at the room. It was nothing more than a box inside what seemed to be a large concrete where houses, like the images he had seen of film sets. The realisation only served to increase the feeling or wrongness itching under his skin.

"Steve!" He pointed towards two doors as more black uniformed men came after them. Steve took off running, Basil on his heels. As soon as they were through the doors, they were in a corridor full of people in strange suits and glass walls. A voice echoed out around them over a tannoy.

"All agents code thirteen". Steve and Basil didn't stay to find out what code thirteen was. They kept running. Steve shoving anyone who got too close and Basil simply running through them as if he was nothing more than air. He kept pace at Steve's side as they robust out another set of doors and onto the street. Pavement wet and cold under their bare feet. Strange cars blared past. Horns honking as they stumbled into the road. Basil gasped as a yellow machine almost hit him. There were lights and glowing signs everywhere. People in strange clothing and hairstyles.

Steve grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into a run down the middle of the road. Basil ran at his side, one part of his mind wondering how on earth he was keeping pace with the super soldier when Steve had always been faster than him. Steve stumbled to a top in the middle of a square full of people. Buildings made of glass and metal loomed around them and giant posters were moving across glass. All in big bright colours, flashing and screaming. It made Basil's eyes hurt and his head pound. He flinched as black monster machines, strange cars, came to sudden stops around them. The size of the cars trapping them in a circle. He stepped back to Steve's side with a whimper. It was all too loud. Too bright.

"At ease soldier!" A man called. The two of them turned to see a tall dark skinned man with an eye patch covering one eye and a leather coat over his shoulders standing watching them. He strode forwards. "Look I'm sorry about that little show back there but we thought it best to break it to you slowly".

"Where's my dog tags?" Basil demanded. The man held out a hand and the two pieces of tin dangled from his fingers

"Here". Basil snatched them up and pulled them over his head. He gripped the metal in his fingers, using them as a focus point as he tried to regulate his breathing.

"Break what?" Steve asked.

The man with the eyepatch stared at them for a second. "You've been asleep soldiers. For almost seventy years".

Basil took several deep breaths and looked around. "Oh Phillip is going to kill me", he muttered. "What the hell have I gotten into now Sarge?"

"Are you going to be okay?" Eyepatch man asked.

"Cap?" Basil turned to Steve. The blonde was blinking at the bright lights.

"Yeah. Just, I had a date".

Unedited