Flickers | Bucky Barnes

Tomorrow

Two Weeks Later

Karina could say since Steve gifted her the burner phone her mood regarding some things has improved drastically. She didn't know how much she needed to hear Anya's thick Russian accent and soothing words for her to know everything was a semblance of okay. That her family was okay. They missed her, but they were alright knowing she was somewhere safe. Although, Anya did give a lengthy monologue regarding the events in Bucharest regarding her arrest not only once, but twice. And she was slightly worried about her involvement with enhanced individuals. Yet she was glad Anya didn't want the first phone call to be about how exactly she got exactly where she was or even James. They focused on hearing each other's voices and Anya just updated her on the shop and family. Reluctantly, as Anya confirmed there were some newcomers in the area that they would limit their phone calls to once a month.

And since Karina didn't know how exactly to show Steve her gratitude for his gift, she ended up making a big Russian feast in thanks that was appreciated by him, and of course Sam who undoubtedly gained 20 pounds with all the food he ate.

Better yet, she had gotten over her pity feelings and began devouring the files Steve retrieved from Siberia. It was a lengthy process considering Steve didn't know how to read Russian very well and before Karina had formally offered her assistance he was using Natasha, a dictionary, apps, and now since she was familiar with the people in the tech ward a fancy translator that analyzed the page and translated it for him.

But what hindered them were some of the files were missing or they labeled them out of order – not all, but some, that they both deducted was intentional. But the good thing about Hydra when it came to James they were old school and only kept a paper trail of the details about his missions. Steve had divulged in the leaked Hydra files Black Widow released some were just labeled as a Hydra hit, only a handful explicitly labeled James as the assassin, but they were all famous and important people in the political world and enough ammunition for him to earn the title of terrorist and fugitive.

But despite the small dent in the pile they made, they didn't have an breaking discovery. The only thing that seemed useful was during the mission report of January 1 1956, where he was sent to Madripoor to assassinate British Ambassador Dalton Graines that sadly resulted in collateral damage of innocents being caught in the crossfire, they stated "the Asset had malfunctioned where he became erratic and violent and unresponsive and uncooperative". It didn't say how they reset him although both her and Steve knew in their guts how they probably did it. But the file was something.

Karina had her theory that this mission might have been the leading cause to them altering James' mind more frequently and using the trigger words to ensure complete compliance.

She knew Steve probably shared this theory with her.

As her and Steve got deeper in the files, and despite the grim and horrific files they were reading, they were forming some semblance of a friendship. Steve was easy to talk to or she felt he was glad there was somewhere he could talk about James without walking on eggshells so to speak considering she wasn't wary of James. She knew him, not the Winter Soldier that everyone was accustomed too. She could visibly see the relief that someone knew James as someone than what Hydra used him for.

It was palpable that Steve missed his friend. She knew he wouldn't say it aloud. It wasn't as if it was something that needed to be said or shouted for all to know. But he was struggling accepting his friend's choice, no matter how much he was trying to convince himself, he wanted James to get to live his life not frozen because of fucking Hydra.

But that lead into another topic that they hadn't breached.

She was well aware of the fact Steve would go down to medical bay and visit James every day. She had yet attempted to make the venture to see James sleeping.