HAPPY || b. barnes ✔️

060

PART TWO

• • •

"Hold,  hold on, hold on to me. 'Cause I'm a little unsteady"

X Ambassadors
Unsteady

• • •

S T E V E Rogers stood still as he watched the unfamiliar woman stare up at him. Her green eyes were the only thing he focused on despite the bloodied and matted hair that stuck to the back of her neck. She was one of the first and only people he had seen since he was abducted; and he wasn't sure if it was another fever dream.

Charlie looked at him like he was her lifeline. It was as if she traded one super solider for another, and the hope that diminished when Bucky failed to keep her from harms way, returned when she saw Captain America.

Though he wasn't at all like she pictured. He wasn't the old man that she knew existed, or the model one that was in those stupid high school videos she hated to watch her junior and senior year of high school.

He was a complete stranger.

"You're Captain America?" Charlie asked. She was still sitting on her knees.

"Who are you?" Steve ignored her question.

"My names Charlie Grant. I was kidnapped last night, or the other night. I don't know." She shook her aching head. "They have my brother. Oliver."

"He's probably with the rest of the kids."

"There's more?"

"There's a lot of us here." Steve said.

Charlie looked around the cell that she found herself in. The walls were all metal, matching the hallway, and there were no windows. The only light came from the LED one above. It was cold and drafty, two miles underground, where natural light didn't exist.

There were two cots and an exposed bathroom, and nothing else filled the room. All aside a stack of books by the bed with a blanket and pillow on it.

"How long..." She looked back at him. "How long have you been here?"

Steve looked down at the floor. "How long has it been since Thanos?"

"Over a year."

"Then a year, I guess."

Charlie swallowed the lump in her throat and set her clamy hands on her thighs. "Bucky misses you."

At the name of his best friend, Steve looked up at the woman. "You know Bucky?"

"Do I ever." Charlie half laughed; it sounded strange coming from her at a time like this. She moved to stand up, wobbling on her feet, and Steve went to help her stand.

"How do you know him?"

When she was sitting on the hard surface of the cot, she spoke again. "Uh, he's my boyfriend? I guess you could call it. We never exactly labeled it."

Shock fell over Steve's face. "You're Bucky's girl?"

"I do not belong to anyone, thank you." Charlie corrected the man. "But sure. God, I can't believe this is happening."

"Well he'll be looking for you, surely." Steve said, his mind already running through a hundred scenarios. It was the first time in a year that he had hope in escaping The Workshop.

"Sure. But knowing him, he'll think it's Hydra. This is definitely not Hydra."

Steve looked down at the woman, and already felt the need to protect her wash over him. This was his best friends girl, and he vowed to keep her as safe as he could until Bucky Barnes broke her out, and hopefully him as well.

"He'll find you." Steve said.

Charlie shook her head slowly, the weight of guilt heavy on her mind and heart. "He won't. He won't even know where to begin. I lied to him." Tears burned her eyes. "I lied to him for so long."

"About what?"

The young woman looked at Steve with a sad expression on her face. "My grandfather is Charles Frances Xavier. One of the most powerful mutants to have existed. He's been fighting a losing battle since the sixties. I'll be another causality to it."

"I won't let that happen."

"Why didn't you ever try to get out?"

"I have. Many times. But these people they're...."

"Mutants?"

"It's hard to fight when you can't see your opponent coming."

Charlie nodded and laid backed. "I should have told him. Oliver doesn't even know. We're going to die."

"You won't."

"I will. I'm not a mutant. Once they figure that out, they'll kill me and my brother. It's only a matter of time."

• • •

"Can you tell me about them? About my family?"

They had sat in silence for hours. A meal had been gifted to them and then later, the lights went out. Charlie had been nursing a grade A headache from the wound she suffered from.

In the dark of the room, the reality of what has happened set in. Charlie's eyes were red from crying silently for the past hour.

"I only know a few of them. Bucky and Sam, Wanda and Peter. They are good. Sam's been working with Nick Fury. I think to rebuild Shield. Wanda and I are friends. She's happy again, at least I think so. I only met Peter the other day. And Bucky is Bucky."

Steve didn't say anything as he thought about the family he hadn't seen in a long time. He longed to once again sit with Sam and Bucky, to make up for the past five years he had lived without them. And now that it has been so long, six years, since he had seen either of them, he missed them more than anything.

"Steve?"

"Yes?"

"They're going to try and mutate me, aren't they?"

Steve sighed. "They will."

"And if I don't?"

"I don't know, Charlie."

Guys your responses to the last chapter was amazing, I loved reading all your comments and everything it completely made my day

I am really excited for what's to come and I hope you are too!

Now onto my deep analysis of the economics behind Sleeping Beauty 🙄