Trust | 1 |

Chapter Eighteen

A/N: Sorry in advance...

Nat and I stepped off the jet and observed the Berlin government facility Barnes, Rogers, Wilson, and someone else were being taken to. I heard mostly over the news and from our special sources (Stark) that Barnes was being chased by a man in a cat suit, who was being chased by Captain America, who was being chased by police and also was being aided by Sam. They all ended up getting caught and Rhodes was there to enforce their arrest. I wasn't surprised that Sam followed Rogers, but I didn't like the thought of one of my friends being arrested.

"Are we going to see them when they arrive?" I asked Nat as we walked down to where Stark would be. "I don't want to see... him, but I would like to talk to Sam."

Nat gave a small shrug. "I'm sure you'll have a chance." I silently thanked her for not asking who 'him' was. Even if he was in civilian clothing, the Winter Soldier held bad memories that I had no intent of revisiting.

We made it to an area with lots of computers and what looked like a conference room, and that's where we saw Stark ending a phone call. He leaned his head back and let out an annoyed huff. Nat cleared her throat, grabbing the man's attention.

"Oh you made it. Are you both okay?" he asked as he walked over. He looked over Nat first, who had changed out of her blazer and skirt and went for a leather jacket and pants. Then he turned to me and made sure. He audibly gasped when he saw the jagged cut in my shoulder. On the jet ride over, Nat insisted on letting her remove the metal and stitch it up, otherwise it would get infected. She really won me over when she asked how the skin would heal with a chunk of debris in it, and I reluctantly allowed her to fix me up. I had to change and wear a tank top and some black jeans. Now there was just a visible, ugly, stitched up cut with lots of dried blood. Oh, and my metal arm was just completely out in the open. Stark had to take a second to compose himself before asking, "Are you okay?"

The amount of attention and care he was showing weirded me out, but I still got a nod out. "I'm fine, truly. This will heal up soon so let's move on. Do we know when they'll get here?" I asked, quickly moving towards the most important situation we had.

Stark clapped his hands and pulled his phone from his pocket. "Just heard that they're extremely close, like maybe twenty minutes away? No, he said twelve. I don't know, but they're close."

"Then we better get ready to meet up with them," Nat said. I agreed with her and Tony brought us over to where they would be joining us. I had to exchange some words with Sam before they got taken into custody or whatever.

Once we entered the unloading area, we only had to wait a few minutes to start approaching the place they would be. The first thing I saw as we started to walk out was a giant container with glass walls, and there he sat inside. My feet froze to the ground as I stared at the Winter Soldier. The dejected way he looked was the most confusing part, and I wondered for just a moment if this was truly James Buchanan Barnes in front of me, instead of his soldier counterpart.

The thoughts ceased when he looked over and made eye contact with me. I felt memories bubbling up to the surface and had troubles keeping a straight face. There was recognition in his eyes and it looked as thought he wanted to call out, but was interrupted when a police man sort of nudge me and kept me moving to where the others would be.

Stark had gotten a call on our walk down, and was forced to leave and go back to the room to wait for us, and Nat joined him. I decided to keep going with the others. The welcoming party now just consisted of myself along with a CIA agent and Everett K. Ross. I didn't really know who he was, but I didn't question. We had some heavily armored police men with us as well. Such a fun welcoming comity.