Home Sweet Home

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"There are no heat signatures coming from the building," Tony told you through the comms. He had gone ahead of everyone so he could get close to the activity around the base. So far, he hasn't detected anything.

"Your positive?" You asked. You were near the Quinjet with the rest of the team who had come along.

"Definitely. There's nobody in there."

"They left before we got here," Bucky commented as he slung his gun over his shoulder.

"The question is, did they know we were coming, or has it been empty for a while?" Natasha added. She noticed Steve glancing at you.

"We can figure that out later. We go in as we planned. Empty or not, we have to be cautious." Steve turned to you, "you take charge from here."

"Aye, aye, Captain." you gave him a lazy salute before speaking to the rest of the team. "Wilson, Pietro, you two go help Tony scout the perimeter. There should be two large storage containers on the west side of the building. Hydra kept all types of contraband in there, see if they left anything behind."

"On it, boss," Tony teased as Pietro and Sam raced off to find him.

"Bruce, I suggest waiting here for a code green," you told him. If the place was empty, then the Hulk was not necessary at the moment.

Bruce looked relieved, "I can do that."

"The rest of us will take the east entrance. It's the least secure way in."

"Alright, lead the way," Steve told you.

The closer you walked towards the building, the faster you could feel your heart racing. You had not been in this place for so long you did not know what to expect. Would it be empty like Tony said, or would you be, greeted by hundreds of Hydra agents?

When you reached the entrance, there was a keypad to open the doors. Natasha looked over at you. "Do you know the code?"

"As if," you chuckled. You nodded at Wanda, who used her powers to force the doors open. You, Natasha, Bucky, and Steve stood ready with your weapons. But instead of an alarm ringing and bullets flying everywhere, you were meet with silence.

"Stark wasn't kidding," Natasha commented. "This place is empty."

"We still got to keep our guard up," you told her as you stepped into the building.

You keep your gun ready as you looked at your surroundings. The place was a ghost town compared to when you were last here. Papers littered the ground. Posters and banners that had once covered the walls with Hydra slogans and symbols were, now torn down. Office chairs were on the ground as whoever had been sitting in them had left in a hurry.

You wanted to stop for a second and just take it all in, but you remembered you were in the middle of a mission. You shook it off and addressed your team. "The building is separated into four floors. The offices are on the top floor, Natasha and Steve should take that one. The Doctor's office is up there too."

They both nodded and then took the stairs in the direction you pointed. You then turned to Bucky and Wanda. "Wanda, you take care of this floor. Barnes and I will take the bottom two."

Wanda agreed as Bucky followed you to a separate set of stairs. You both kept your weapons close, watching each other's back. The lights were motion activated and had turned on the second all of you walked into the building, but on the lower floors, they did not seem to be working very well.

"What's down here?" Bucky asked.

"Most of the training rooms are on Wanda's floor, and on yours, it should be the living quarters," you responded.

"What's on the one below?" he asked.

"The lab."

You and Bucky separated once he arrived on the floor you assigned him. You continued on your own until you reached your destination. The lights were dim and flickering. You turned on the flashlight of your rifle to help. Like the other floors, there were papers all over the ground. You walked down a long hallway and then made it to a locked door with a keypad. You didn't have Wanda with you, but luckily you knew the code for this one. You put in the numbers, 5-4-12 and the doors opened. You had memorized it; from all the tines you had seen the doctor and the guards put it in.

You walked in, and the flickering lights made it feel so much more unnerving. Unlike the rest of the building, everything in the lab looked like it was in place. It was just how it was when you had last seen it. Papers neatly stacked on the tables. Medical instruments meticulously laid out, from smallest to largest next to an operating table.

Though the place was neat and clean, it looked basic compared to the one at the Avenger's facility. You walked to the back of the room, trying not to think of all the times you were down here. You needed to stay focus.

"There doesn't seem to be much left in Abbott's office," Natasha told you through the comms. "Is there anywhere he could have hidden something, (Y/N)?"

"I wasn't allowed in there," you told her. "There's bound to be something."

They wouldn't find anything important, you knew that. Dr. Abbott was always down in the lab. If he had something to hide, it would be here. You turned on the large computer in the back of the room and looked if there was anything useful in it. Surprisingly, there was.

In fact, there were hundreds of files left. No way, they could have been left on accident. Either way, you took out a black flash drive and inserted it in the computer. You downloaded anything related to you or Dr. Abbott's research. From his lab notes to videos, everything went in the drive. Then you took out a red flash drive and downloaded anything that was left behind.

Once you were positive you had gotten everything, you put away both. You did your best to erase anything left on the computer and then raised your rifle. You fired until you were satisfied it was destroyed and then turned to the exit.

You happened to bump into the operating table as you were leaving and looked down at it. The tools displayed next it made chills run down your spine, and the leather straps made you unconsciously rub the scars on your wrist. You could practically hear Dr. Abbott telling you to relax as he and his assistants would stick needles in you. He would explain how it was for your own good as you tried not to scream in pain. You could never forget the sensation of your insides feeling like they were on fire.

"(Y/N)," Wanda called out, making you snap back into reality. "There's nothing useful here. Did you find anything?"

"I found a flash drive, hidden in the lab, they must have forgotten it," you lied. "Let's all regroup on your floor."

You ran back up the stairs to the floor Wanda had been searching and found everyone, besides the outside team. Steve and Natasha were carrying some stacks of papers. You looked curiously at them. "What do you two have there?"

"We thought these might actually be worth something," Natasha answered.

"Well, I just found this." you took out the red flash drive from your pocket.

"Good find," Steve told you as you handed it to him. "We should head back then, see if the others found anything in those storage containers."

You all agreed and walked towards the Quinjet, but before you stepped out of the building, you felt a cold hand wrap around your wrist. You turned towards Bucky. "What's the problem?"

"I found a room while I was down there," he told you.

"Yeah, this whole place is full of rooms."

"This one was different."

He led you back down the stairs to the living quarters. You knew where he was taking you; you just did not want to go. "Barnes, everyone is probably wondering where we went."

He didn't respond; he just stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway. It was obviously a lot more reinforced than the others. It had a steel lock that you didn't remember being broken. "I found it weird this was the only room that locked from the outside until I realized who it was for."

You pushed the door open and stepped inside. The room was small and dark, with a small mattress propped up in the corner of the room. The thing taking up the most space was a desk with stacks of books and a lamp. You turned on the lamp and flipped through the pages of some of the books. Some of the pages were marked up or ripped out to censor them.

You tossed the book aside and sat down on the mattress and leaned against the wall. Bucky watched you curiously as you just stared at the concrete walls. There were claw marks all over the place, especially on the door. When you were younger, they would lock you in here, and you would try to claw yourself out. It never worked, you would just end up hurting your fingers, but it never stopped you.

"Can you give me a minute," you told Bucky.

He nodded and walked out further down the hall to give you some privacy. It was quite for a few minutes as he waited for you to come out. He then heard Steve's voice in the comms. "Bucky, what's the holdup?"

"Nothing we were just-" A loud crash coming from your room caught his attention. "I'll get back to you."

Bucky rushed over and saw your lamp broken on the ground. You were trashing the place. You were ripping into the mattress and tearing apart all the books around you. When there was nothing left in the room, you pushed past him and started breaking everything in your path. Windows, mirrors, posters. Anything you could get your hands on.

Bucky followed you, trying to calm you down but you ignored him. He didn't care about the damage you were doing, he was concerned you might hurt yourself in the process. "(Y/N), please calm down!"

You just continued until your path of destruction lead you back upstairs. You were going to start tearing apart the training facilities, but Bucky grabbed you in a headlock from behind and dragged you out of the building. There was nobody outside as everybody else had regrouped at the Quinjet. You tried to struggle against his grip.

"I'm not letting go until you relax," Bucky told you.

You took a deep breath and relaxed, practically going limp in his arms. He sat you down on the ground before letting go. He stayed close in case you decided to go crazy again. "What happened in there?"

"I thought I could do it," you responded out of breath. "I thought I could walk in and out and pretend nothing happened in there."

Bucky heard how shaky your voice sounded and felt guilty for making you visit your old room. He noticed how tense you were when you had arrived, and especially how you avoided talking about your experience here. Acknowledging what happened to him had helped him come to terms with some of his past. He thought if you did the same, it would help you, but perhaps it was too soon for that. He did not mean to make it worse.

He crouched down in front of you and put his right hand on your shoulder. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pressured you like that."

You nodded, knowing his apology was sincere. "I... overreacted."

"No, it's okay. If I could, I would have helped you tear the whole place apart, but I don't think the others would have liked that." He gave you a smile as you chuckled.

"No, they wouldn't." You stood up and dusted your suit. "Do you mind not telling everyone about what just happened? I would prefer if they didn't know I almost destroyed the place."

"They don't have to know."

Both of you then walked silently towards the Quinjet, where you found the team watching as Tony loaded a few boxes. You assumed they must have found something useful in the storage containers. "What do you have there Stark?"

Tony lifted his helmet, "There were a few things that could give us a clue to where everyone went. Nice find with the flash drive."

"No big deal."

"What took you two so long," Pietro asked you. "Rodgers said you guys went back."

"Thought I found something," Bucky thankfully answered. "I needed (Y/N) to help me out, but it turned out to be nothing."

"Do you think we're done here?" Steve asked you.

For a second you stared at him confused until you remembered you were technically still team leader in this mission. "Yeah, we're done. We should head back and go through what we found."

"Sounds good," he gave you a smile. "You did well today."

The team all patted your shoulder as they piled into the Quinjet. You took a second to look back on the building. It's where you were, raised, and trained. You had a lot of memories there, especially bad ones, but memories, nonetheless. You doubted that you would ever set foot in that place again, and you were fine with that.

You hopped into the Quinjet and as the doors closed you stood by Tony's side as he got ready to take off. He smiled up at you, "Should I take us home, or do you want to celebrate somewhere else?"

"Take us home."

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