Save Me || Bucky Barnes

30

As the two men got settled in Alexander Pierce's office, Bucky spotted a picture Fury with Pierce sitting on the older man's desk.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met. When I was at State Department in Bogota, ELN rebels took the embassy and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the SHIELD station there and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order."

"They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter." Pierce explained as he saw the brunette eye the picture.

"So you gave him a promotion." Steve assumed. He stood behind the couch that Bucky had taken a seat on with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I've never had any cause to regret it," Pierce paused for a moment as he turned to face the window before he continued, "Captain, Sergeant, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

"We don't know." Bucky answered, lying straight through his teeth. But, it was something he was good at so he knew Pierce would believe him.

"You know it was bugged?"

"We did because Nick told us." Steve replied crossly.

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce pressed further. The brunette looked back over his shoulder at his companion, his eyes wide. Neither of them would have thought Fury would bug their apartment. They both thought Fury trusted them.

"I want you two to see something." Pierce spoke up after letting them process the new information for a few minutes. When he had both of their attention, he pulled up footage of the man from their previous mission, Georges Batroc, being interrogated. In the video feed, they could hear a SHIELD agent ask Batroc who hired him.

"Is that live?" Bucky asked, tearing his attention away from the screen to look at the older man still standing by his desk.

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers."

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line." Steve questioned skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

"No, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer. And then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech." Pierce tried to explain.

"Are we supposed to know who that is?" Bucky sassed, adopting the same expression as Steve. Pierce tossed a file onto the glass coffee table in front of Bucky. Steve rounded the end of the couch and took a seat beside the brunette so he could look at the file up close.

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 14-35 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 14-37." 

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates?" Steve asked Pierce, astonished.

"Why?" Bucky added, equally confused. 

"Well, the prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death." Pierce spoke to the two men as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"If you really knew Nick Fury you know that's not true." Bucky shot up from his seat, his temper flaring. Fury was the one who rescued him and Steve, gave them shelter in the newer world, and provided them with jobs they knew they were skilled for. Fury not only took them under his wing, but he fathered them and allowed them to grow and adapt to a world they weren't prepared for in the slightest.