Honesty ♧ Bucky Barnes

A Confusing Mission

YOOOOOOOO IM BACK YO alright Erin has a shitstorm ahead of her but here we are

She didn't know what time it was. That was annoying her the most. In her flat, she had a clock in every room and Erin missed the steady, meditative ticking that helped her get through the day. The room she was in was deathly quiet with the only sounds being her steady breathing. She may have slept at some point but she was awake now.

Erin pushed herself up from the grimy mattress, wincing at the screamed protestations from her limbs. She lifted the hem of her shirt up and winced when she saw the mottled purple bruise that covered her entire right side. Andrew and Louis, Pine's white-coated henchman, had certainly done their job properly, her stomach still ached from the swift punch that they had dealt her and she was pretty sure that her neck had a nice new purple necklace of bruises.

She walked, or limped, to the door on the opposite side of the room. It was locked tightly of course, but Erin leaned down to inspect the lock anyway. It was complicated, far too complicated for her to be able to pick, even if she did have a hairpin with her. She rolled her eyes. Evidently, getting out of this shithole would be harder than she had originally thought. She took the opportunity to look around the room. There was a small toilet in the corner, that was going to come in handy, but apart from that and the flat mattress the room was bare. Nothing that she could use as a weapon. No escape plan.

She just had to hope that S.H.I.E.L.D had noticed she was missing.

*****

"I don't understand, Sir."

Pine struggled not to roll his eyes. For a man with immense physical strength, and more kills under his belt that anybody else he knew, he was surprised that it was taking the Soldier so long to grasp the concept of what he was being asked.

"But what about my next mission?"

"This is your next mission." Pine explained through gritted teeth, "We need that formula."

"Then just torture it out of her." The Soldier responded, the irritation in his voice clear, "You don't need me here for that."

Pine adjusted his position behind his desk, before reaching down into a drawer and pulling out a piece of A4 white paper. The Soldier quirked an eyebrow in confusion, but unfolded his arms and took the paper. The Colonels' office was well lit, the many windows making it easy for the Soldier to read.

He held it up, confused. It was merely a record of Erin's educational history, elementary and high school in Manchester, then College in Cambridge, and a few S.H.I.E.L.D training courses. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Why are you showing me this?"

The Colonel smiled, holding out his hand, and the Soldier returned the paper to its original owner. Pine turned it around and pointed to a small subsection, under the heading 'Specialist Training.'

"S.H.I.E.L.D. gave her interrogation prep. You saw how she was in there before, she's not going to tell us anything unless we almost kill her trying to do it and the last thing I need is for her to die before I find out what's in the formula."

The Soldier nodded his head, crossing his arms against his chest. Though he was not an incredibly tall man at just under six feet, he cast a powerful silhouette when standing. He rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't mean that you need me here."

Pine placed the sheet back in the drawer behind his desk and folded his arms on its hard surface, glaring hard at the Soldier. It was unusual for him to answer back to a direct command and even more unusual for him to question the judgement of a superior officer.

"We're going to Stockholm that bitch."

Another confused look.

"Stockholm Syndrome. The 'good cop, bad cop' dynamic. The plan is for you to gain her trust. Show her kindness, then, when she feels comfortable around you, get the formula."

"She's smarter than to fall for that."

Pine slammed his fists on the table and the Soldier's eyes flashed upwards in surprise at the outburst. He knew that he was taking things too far: continuously pushing the Colonel, arguing against everything he said but this wasn't his style of mission. The Soldier was used to simple jobs. Go in, kill, come back, next mission. Getting somebody to trust him wasn't something he was remotely comfortable with. He didn't even trust himself.

"This is non-negotiable." The barely concealed fire in the Colonel's voice was obvious. He was pissed off. "This is what's going to happen. I'm going to go in there and beat the shit out of her and you're going to go in after me and clean up the blood."

The Soldier nodded silently resigned to Pine's decision. It seemed he didn't have a choice in this.

"You mentioned Stockholm Syndrome, Sir? What does that mean?" He hated himself for having to ask, hated the fact that he needed to speak to the Colonel at all but he needed to know.

The corner of the Colonel's mouth quirked up in a smile which didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Stockholm Syndrome is a mental phenomenon in which a captive begins to form positive feelings of empathy and understanding with a captor."

The Soldier took a step back from the desk folding his arms over his chest, his face hard. He wasn't happy with this. Things were a lot easier when 'feelings' didn't come into it.

"Couldn't you get someone else to be nice to her? I did chloroform the girl in her kitchen, she doesn't have many feeling of empathy and understanding with me at the moment."

Pine sighed and stood up from behind his desk and walked over to the Soldier, looking down at him with a glare that offered no room for negotiation.

"Do you want to go back under ice, Soldier?"

The tension in the room was palatable. The fingers of the metal arm clenched so tightly that they made a quiet grating sound. The Soldier was breathing heavily, looking up at Pine with burning hatred in his eyes. He didn't answer.

"That's what I thought." Replied Pine, a smug smile on his lips, "I'm off to beat the crap out of our English friend. Get ready to act compassionately." And with that he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving the shorter man stood still, breathing heavily. He wasn't happy with this, wasn't happy with this at all, but he would do anything to avoid being put under ice again.

He hated the fact that Pine had this much control of him. He felt like a fucking dog constantly at the beck and call of its master. With a resigned sigh, he brought his hand up and pushed his hair back from his face, walking towards the door.

He hadn't been nice in as long as he could remember. This would be difficult.

REVIEW PLEASE I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER. What do you think about Pine's plan?