You Must Remember This (WIP)

Chapter 6 - The fundamental things apply

Wakanda, 2016

'Howard turned out to be right. I only needed about 10 weeks or so to actually get ready. My languages improved considerably, and by the end of Peggy's training, I could wield most weapons and defend myself properly in a hand-to-hand fight. After that, we waited for another couple of days before leaving for Siberia, where the Howling Commandos were expecting us.
During that time, Peggy and I came up with an entirely new identity for me, something we knew would appeal to HYDRA. We created Miss Eva Roth, the only surviving child of German immigrants to the States (and yes, I did master the accent, in case you were wondering), and sympathizer to almost everything HYDRA stood for. We faked birth certificates, school reports, hospital administration, letters, and so on, just in case HYDRA decided to do a background check. Once that was done, I wandered around the city's medical centers and clinics, asking for work, hoping this would attract Zola. We didn't have to wait long for that sleazeball to take the bait.'

"No, no, no." Bucky groaned under his breath.

"What?" Steve looked up from his own reading.

"Evelyn went undercover in HYDRA."

"She did what?!"

Steve snatched the journal away. He quickly read the page over and dragged his hand over his face.

"Goddammit, Evy."

"Language, Rogers."

"Shut it."

Bucky allowed himself to smirk. Evelyn was the only person who could ever push Steve's buttons or who could cause him to just be a complete emotional wreck. He, in turn, was the only one who could ever calm her down when she was in one of her tantrums. It was a twin thing.

"I can't believe Peggy and Howard would do this," Bucky said. "I can't believe Evelyn even agreed to do this."

"I can."

Bucky raised his brow, prompting Steve to continue.

"Right here, see?" He pointed to a paragraph. "She writes how she knew it's something I would have done and how I would never have forgiven her if she had let you stay one more minute in HYDRA's grasp. I did do it, remember? In Austria? And she's right; I wouldn't have forgiven her if she'd known you were still alive and just left you to rot. And since you were my best friend, I'm guessing that, to Evy, that meant you were the only other person who could help her keep me alive, quite possibly even find me."

"Hm... maybe." Bucky took the journal back from him. "What about you? How are you coming along with the letters?"

"Well, Evy kept them all chronologically, so it makes it easy to create a timeline. The first bunch is my letters to her when she was in Europe during the war. I found one with blood smeared on it. I don't even wanna know when she read that one."

Bucky pressed his lips together. He vaguely remembered seeing Evelyn in Europe. She'd been treating soldiers of his regiment, going from one cot to the other, covered in blood and dirt. Had she treated him as well? He couldn't say for sure. But they'd fought, that he was certain of.
Bucky tried to recall the conversation, but the pain in his head flared up again. He shut his eyes and tried to clear his mind. He heard Evelyn's faint voice again. It was a bit louder than before but not loud or heated enough to sound like one of their daily arguments. A soft piano melody played in the back of his mind as well. He knew that tune. Dammit, what was it?

"Buck, you listening?"

"Sorry, what?" Bucky blinked as Steve's inquiring voice invaded his senses.

"I said there's something off about these other letters." He lay a few of them in front of Bucky to read. "Tell me what you see."