When It Snowed

Chapter 9 - Earning Their Wings

Sam walked towards the door to his house quickly. It wasn't every Sunday morning that he got a knock on the door to wake him up like this. Especially with one holding so much strength and determination.

Pulling open the wooden door before him though, he was completely caught off guard by what he saw. Steve, Natasha, and Bucky were all standing outside with looks of desperation on their faces; cuts across their body were seeping with blood, and their clothes were burnt, tattered and covered in ash and soot.

"Hey man." Sam greeted in confusion trying to make light of their apparent situation.

Steve immediately gripped the door while helping Natasha stand. "I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." The three of them were beat pretty badly from the explosion.

The most irritated from the whole situation though was Bucky and it wasn't because of his injuries. "Basically everyone we know is trying to kill us." He rolled his eyes with sarcasm.

Knowing what had been going on with SHIELD, Sam nodded and allowed them into his house. "Not everyone." He was their ally and he wanted them to know that.

Of course, they did. If they didn't have Sam, they wouldn't have had anywhere to go. It was a dangerous situation to be on the run, let alone at the magnitude they were facing. Bucky seemed to be taking it with a grain of salt though, nothing really tended to bother him anymore.

——————————————————————————

In the back room, Steve and Natasha sat addressing each other's wounds. Meanwhile, Bucky and Sam remained outside the door in the living room keeping to themselves as much as they could.  They were watching each other carefully. Neither really had a problem with the other, it was just an uncomfortable silence. Steve was the one that knew the guy, but he seemed nice none the less so Bucky accepted his help as much as Sam offered it. Bucky was tougher than the widow though, he didn't need someone to tend to his wounds.

"You okay?" Steve asked Natasha and it made Bucky turn his head towards the conversation. It was only him that could hear it thanks to his heightened senses from the super soldier serum.

Her answer was short. "Yeah"

Rubbing his fingertips together, Bucky thought back to just what the serum had done for him exactly. Originally, HYDRA's goal was to recreate the super soldier serum. They wanted their very own Steve Rogers. A lot of people didn't survive the experiments though, the testings. When chemicals were injected into your body, normally it resulted in convulsing, a deadly foam, or a completely brain dead patient as their result.

Sure, Bucky and Steve had something to fight for. They had a reason to get through the pain they were experiencing.

But no reason as strong as his. He swore to himself he would get back to her.

Thinking of Finley, it was the only way he got through such a thing. He could hear her voice talking him through it, how to steady his breathing and his heart rate through the pain. It brought him back to that day in the river, when the three were foolish enough to jump into the freezing waters.

Her memory distracted him from so much, just as it was doing right now.

So, knocking himself out of the state he was in, Bucky hones back to the conversation happening between Steve and Natasha.

"What's going on?" Steve asked the Widow.

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but... I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."