ignis | b. barnes

| 35 |

"BRENDON I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING," Steve urged as Brendon walked to his room. It was his fifth time telling Brendon, but the ex-assassin wouldn't listen.

"Steve, if you're going to tell me I lied in the courtroom —"

"But you did?" Steve asked questioningly. Brendon froze in his tracks causing Steve to run into him. Brendon let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair which was getting too long for his liking.

"When did I lie?" Brendon asked turning to face Steve.

"You said you didn't know who the Winter Soldier was," Steve said furrowing his eyebrows.

"I don't," Brendon responded blankly. Steve took a shaky breath.

"But, the Winter Soldier is Bucky." Steve looked at the ground and shuffled his feet.

Brendon nodded his head and turned, continuing his walk down the hallway. "Bucky's Dead."

"He's alive, he was on the bridge—"

"So was I Steve, but that wasn't Bucky. Bucky died when he fell off that train," Brendon mumbled, "HYDRA took what was left of him and destroyed him. There is no Bucky left. James Buchanan Barnes is dead."

With that Brendon walked into his room, closing the door and ending his night on a hard note.

The morning wasn't any easier for the team. None of them wanted to get up, they all dreaded the fact that their was a chance they wouldn't win. Their ride to the courthouse was quiet and tense. Steve wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to what Brendon said. It scared him to think Brendon has truly lost hope with Bucky. They were so close back in the forty's and looking back, Steve had the feeling to say they loved each other.

Both Jamie and Tony looked miserable. They both spent the night drinking at the bar in the tower. Unlike Tony, alcohol doesn't effect Jamie. Her metabolism, like Steve and Brendon, working at a faster pace than normal humans. Her miserableness came from lack of sleep, the bags under her eyes more prominent than usual. Tony, on the other hand, was hungover and barley had sleep. A headache was pounding through his head, everything was to loud making his headache worse, and everything was bright. Too bright.

The cousins weren't sad the trial had gone bad, in their opinion it went just fine. Their nerves had taken the best of them and they needed to get rid of it. Jamie just drank at the attempts to get drunk, but she knew deep down that it would never happen.

The courthouse was empty as promised and just as the previous day. Murdock was waiting by the doors of the courtroom with Crimsyn and Silas. Brendon sent Silas a glance, but the boy only smiled and waved.

"Hey," a rough voice called from behind Brendon. He turned and saw Clint adjusting his hearing aids. "Good luck Brendon."

Brendon sent a smile toward the man and turned back toward the courtroom. He walked up to Murdock and held his hand out. The lawyer blinked and Brendon leaned closer.

"Don't play me stupid, I know your senses are heightened, Mr. Daredevil," Brendon whispered, still holding his hand up. Murdock reluctantly lifted his hand and placed it in Brendon's shaking it.

"How?" The lawyer whispered back.

"You didn't use your stick that much yesterday, a lot of times you should have," Brendon answered. "I pay attention to things."

The lawyer scoffed and pushed past Brendon. Brendon chuckled to himself. The ex-assassin didn't get much sleep, he spent the night researching about the lawyer. That's how he figured out who exactly his lawyer was. But Brendon didn't think about the effects it would have on him. When he was with Crimsyn he didn't bother staying up, he took advantage of the safety and protection given to him. However, when he was with Hydra they didn't allow him to get a lot of sleep causing him to grow used to running on few hours of sleep.

"Lets go in," Murdock called to the group. Brendon nodded, stepping forward and opening the door for the lawyer. The other avengers walked in as well, Jamie at the end of the group waiting to walk in with her father. The two Stark's walked in together, both of them equally nervous. They wouldn't say it out loud but they were scared to lose each other again.

It was explained that Brendon was able to be let go without charges if he passed a psychological evaluation. Seemed easy enough. None of the avengers were worried. Brendon definitely wasn't, he was relieved.

The evaluation wasn't hard either, when Brendon walked out the first thing that happened was Silas's small body colliding with his. He grunted before smiling softly and wrapping his arms around the boy.

"Is everything good?" Jamie asked walking up to her father. Brendon looked up at his daughter and gave her a soft gaze before looking back down at Silas with a sigh.

"I don't know, I think I did well but the evaluator might think the opposite," Brendon sighed, pushing Silas off his body.

"Come on," Brendon urged after the boy wouldn't move, "You should be at school."

The boy muttered something into Brendon's suit jacket. "What was that?" Brendon asked.

"When this is over I'll go back to school," Silas said lifting his head. "I need to know if you're free."

Brendon sighed and moved his hands to Silas's side. The boy's eyes widened and his arms immediately loosened. But he was to late, Brendon started tickling the boy, watching as he erupted into a fit of giggles. The other Avengers glanced over with concerned looks on their features.

"Ok — ok — B-Brendon," Silas cried, tears forming in his eyes as he started falling to the ground. Brendon chuckled and removed his hands from the boy's side stepping back.

"Guys," Murdock called, "The Judge has the results."

The group went silent and returned to their seats. The group stared at the Judge, waiting for him to reveal the results.

With a deep breath the Judge spoke:

"Congratulations, Mr. Stark, you passed."

~

Authors Note

~

i don't know how an actual trial would go so i apologize for how inaccurate this is. BUT brendon is now considered alive legally and all the stuff he did as ignis will not be charged!

~