III: The Soldier and the Fairy Queen: Red Eve

XXXIII: Thanks

"They were taking something to St. Louis," Bucky said, scratching the back of his head. Sparks flew in his head as he tried to remember specifics. All he wanted to do right now was to go somewhere and curl up in a little ball to die, despite their reassurances that he didn't kill anyone.

"What was it?" Wanda, who'd joined them about a minute ago, asked.

Bucky squeezed his eyes shut, "I don't know. Some kind of... explosive? She knew that you guys were coming. They'd been packing up stuff for a week or so."

"Who?" Natasha asked, sitting at the dining room table beside him.

"I don't know her name. She was dark, maybe an Arab. She was about yea tall," he motioned with his hand. "No accent. Everyone just called her 'ma'am'."

"How is Sunny?" Steve asked.

Bucky frowned, "I don't know... she went into some kind of coma for a little while..." His mind charged at him like a bull, crushing him. "I don't know. But if she did what you said she did, she's probably a lot worse off now," he looked at Steve.

Sam frowned, crossing his arms, "But how are you not all... Winter Soldier-ized?"

What was that supposed to mean? "I don't know."

Zemo-- Zemo! they'd broken Zemo out of jail!-- said, "We know where she is now. We can go get her." Bucky tried to stare daggers at the man, but Zemo didn't even glance his way.

"Wouldn't they have moved by now? Since we have you back?" Natasha asked him.

"I don't think so. I don't think they knew we knew where they were going," Bucky prayed with all his might that they didn't.

"We know where that compound is, we can go right now," Steve said, an unusual energy brightening his eyes.

Natasha frowned, "I understand that this is important to you, but no. You can barely hear, Barnes just woke up, Wanda was stabbed, for G**'s s***! We are not going right now!"

"What if they set off this bomb-thing? What would we have done to stop them? Not a d*** thing!" Steve countered.

Natasha leaned forward, her voice staying level and quiet, "And what will you do if Wanda gets killed? Or Barnes? Or Sam? Or Sunny? Or me? What will you do then? What if you die? Then what will we do?"

Zemo cleared his throat, "I feel slightly offended that I was not included--."

Natasha cut him off with a glare.

He raised his hands in surrender, "Point taken."

Steve's face fell, defeated, "Then when will we go?"

"Maybe in a couple days? Sunday? Or Monday?" Wanda suggested.

"That sounds good," Sam agreed.

Bucky, still reeling from the argument and the haziness in his brain, shrugged, "Okay."

"Couldn't we ask T'Challa to lend us one of his fighting ladies?" Sam asked.

Nat smirked, "Fighting ladies?"

"Give me a break, I don't remember what they're called!" Sam tried to correct his mistake.

Steve rubbed his knuckles across his forehead, "Yeah, I'll talk to him later."

"Court adjourned," Wanda declared.

Bucky sighed in relief and hauled his old body back to the bed to sleep.

When he woke up, his throat notified him that he was parched. The sky was darker than it had been earlier. He sneaked to the kitchen. Bucky jumped when he turned on the light to see Wanda drinking tea in the dark.

"What the h***!"

"Shh! Sorry!" Wanda exclaimed.

"Don't do that!"

Wanda hushed him again and he obeyed, tiptoeing over to the cabinets.

"What are you looking for?" she interupted him quietly.

"A cup." He hoped his tone warned her not to talk to him.

"Two more to your right," she told him.

He opened the proper cabinet and retrieved a blue plastic cup. It reminded him of the bracelet Robyn had given him. Where was it now? When he moved to the sink to fill it up, Wanda spoke again.

"Congratulations on getting a new arm."

He sighed, "Thanks." Not that he'd had a choice, but it did make things a lot easier. A little dish of sugar setting beside him started floating over the Wanda, surrounded in red light. He watched it in amazement. An idea popped into his head, "If I throw something at you, can you catch it?"

"If I concentrate on it," she replied.

"Can I?" He turned around to face her.

She shrugged, "Sure."

He grabbed an orange out of the fruit bowl and lightly tossed it to her. She caught it.

They continued on like that for some time, playing catch. Not once did she ask him to stop. By the time Bucky looked outside again, the sun was rising. He bent down to collect the random assortment of things laying on the table. Fruits, utensils, even an (empty!!!) knife block.

He returned everything to it's proper place and started toward the hallway. He paused and looked back at Wanda, who was rewarming her tea, "Thanks." Then he continued on to the room.