Flickers | Bucky Barnes

The Visits

The only reason Karina found herself back down in the medical bay so soon and consistently was because she believed in never going to bed angry with someone. It was advice she heard Anya dish out to many couples and to her own children as they began relationships. It had nothing to do with Steve's knowing look when she emerged early in the morning when she realized that she had been talking – rambling – and staring at James.

She would never admit it to Steve that she found some comfort or therapeutic in talking with James even if it was one sided. At least, he was somewhere safe and close by. The walk to his quarters was a 30 second, at most, elevator ride. James had a say in his current predicament. It was his choice.

But she still stood by what she called him earlier. She firmly stood by it. He in her opinion was the textbook definition of it. He was an asshole until he woke up and she could see his steel blue eyes.

Since she began visiting him, she made it a point to come at the times the doctors were in and tried to break the programming, she learned they were making some progress. Apparently, Hydra was extremely proactive with James. The doctors revealed as they got deeper in his mind they had him wired like a computer program, where in plain technical terms, there was a firewall to block anyone trying to compromise it or rewrite the commands.

Karina believed that even if they were able to find the part of his brain to override the trigger words, in a sense, when he woke up there was still going to be a lot of work to do. He would still need a lot of therapy that could be making this progress easier if he wasn't in an induced sleep.

However, now, they had the room to themselves.

She was speaking in a mixture of Russian, Romanian, and English to a glass fucking tube where she suspected he didn't even hear anything she was saying. It wasn't as if he had any brain activity. But she spoke anyway. Revealed bits and pieces of how life was moving on without him functioning – living – in it.

She told him how she had been suspected that Clint and Natasha were planning to move out of the compound any day. They had the skills and resources to find and maintain sanctuary unlike someone as her. Plus sadly with two people out of the area, if anything happened it wouldn't have T'Challa in deeper water if it was discovered he was housing all of them.

Scott was becoming increasingly homesick. Sam and he had become close considering the circumstance, but Scott was missing his daughter. And there wasn't exactly a sure fire way to get Scott back to the States without a task force breaking down his door wanting the whereabouts of Clint, Sam, James and Steve, or Wanda. And knowing he wouldn't say anything it would land him back to the Raft.

Sam had turned into her workout buddy as she joined him in his daily morning run throughout a safe path in Wakanda where Steve would join occasionally, meaning he would do like 15 laps in while they barely finished their 2nd.

She informed James that Wanda was practically her best friend. When she wasn't talking to him or reading Hydra files, she was usually with Wanda exploring Wakanda.

It was simple mundane things that even back in Romania he always seemed interested in.

Like now, she was complaining how her sore quads as she switched position in the chair she was sitting in. She had brought a better stool to sit in that actually had a cushion. She didn't understand how Steve sat down here for an hour in the hard back breaking and butt aching chair. She replaced it with a chair she took from James' room. It wasn't as if he would need it anytime soon. And Steve seemed to appreciate the new furniture.

"You know James, by time you wake up my ass will be as flat as a teacher's." She pointed out as she brought her feet up onto the seat and placed her chin on her jean clad knees and began picking at the thread.