Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Eighty-Two: The Winter Soldier & The Guard

The Winter Soldier & The Guard

Over the next few months Steve learns a lot of things about both the Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes.

Bucky still loves to drink a glass of cold milk down without stopping; the Soldier hates milk.

Bucky still hums whilst he is waiting for something; the Soldier is quiet, so quiet you don't know he is there.

Bucky's smile is rare but worth waiting for; the Soldier's is just as fleeting but it is terrifying.

Bucky constantly struggles to remember things, writes down all that he can remember but it causes debilitating migraines which leave him bleeding from his nose or on rare occasions his ears; the Soldier also tries to remember, he will not give in to the migraines and Steve knows he is in charge when Bucky disappears for hours and can be found running on one of the machines in Tony's gym, black shadows under his eyes, exhaustion in his face.

Even so, he does not learn what it is that has Bucky waking in the middle of the night covered in sweat and begging Steve not to hate him. At these times his friend is vulnerable and Steve does all he can to find out the truth because he knows Bucky is holding something back. But each time he makes excuses, tells Steve that it is just his previous memories, don't worry.

How can he not worry where Bucky is involved?

Steve talks to Sam, who tells him to give Bucky time. "With what he has gone through, what they made him do...it must be a pretty damn awful thing that out of everything it's a single memory he keeps going back to. You have to be prepared that it may be something he can never talk about, something that will always haunt him," Sam says.

They all have something, and Sam Wilson's is the moment his co-pilot Riley fell out of the sky and there was nothing he had been able to do about it. He too dreams, and each time someone is giving him one more chance to save his friend. He always needs just a few more seconds but he never reaches him in time, never saves him in time. And for that, Sam will never forgive himself.

Meanwhile Tony's lawyers and the District Attorney are at in impasse. The DA, a rather florid man in his fifties named Charles Bayer, does not have enough evidence to make an arrest but he has managed to have Bucky's movements restricted and Bucky is not allowed to leave New York. He must also remain registered at Stark Tower. The main defence lawyer attached to his case is a gentleman named Jeremy Sands. Jeremy is in his late thirties, good at what he does, listens well, and Tony is pleased he is on their side. He is also honest, which Tony finds refreshing. The first thing he had insisted on was coming and meeting with James Barnes before he would agree to take on the case.

He decided to take the case within the first few minutes of meeting James but he didn't communicate this until after an hour long talk with him. The first thing James had told him was that he was the Winter Soldier, and that he was guilty. He made no effort to excuse what he had done, but he asked the lawyer if he could make a statement to say that he had not defected, nor was he a Russian sleeper agent.

"Why?" Jeremy asked.

"Because it dishonours my family's name, and the name of the Howling Commandos, and neither of them deserve that. They were honest hard working people, they were honourable soldiers."

More details have found their way onto the internet but the records are incomplete, mere fragments of data; the main problem is they in no way support Bucky's claims. No one knows who is releasing them. There is nothing there about the wiping process or the programming. There is not even anything about James Barnes being injured and interrogated. It says that whilst he previously had been an American POW he had been experimented on with 'pleasing results'. That he 'returned' to them to complete the process. It just provides more nails in Bucky's coffin. He tells them about the inner-city vault but that has been completely destroyed when it blew leaving behind no discernible evidence amongst the rubble. What the explosion had not destroyed the subsequent fire had.