Rise of the Fallen - Part 13 (BuckyxReaderxSteve)

You were sitting on the couch in Tony Stark’s living room, feeling their eyes staring at you constantly.

‘So,’ Tony started. ‘You’re not working for HYDRA?’

You shook your head, looking at the three men before you: Iron man, Captain America en director Fury (although Fury had lost his title a few months ago with the fall of S.H.I.E.LD.). Bucky was sitting next to you for support.

‘Tell me again how exactly you survived the explosion of the military base?’ Steve asked, looking at you suspiciously.

You wanted to tell the story again, but Bucky stopped you.

He sighed loudly and crossed his arms. ‘This is taking us nowhere. [Name] has told you everything she knows. We need to help, not interrogate her.’

‘We just need to make sure she is not a threat, Barnes,’ Fury replied. ‘We still don’t know what HYDRA did to her exactly.’

‘Those HYDRA agents were after her. Isn’t that enough proof?’

‘It’s okay,’ you reassured Bucky. ‘I understand. I wouldn’t trust me either if the roles were reversed.’

Bucky nodded, but you could see he was still agitated. You had no idea who you had both once been, but the connection you had felt only several hours ago in the lab, was still there. They could erase your memory, turn you into someone else, but love was something that could never be forgotten.
 
‘We need to figure out what their next move is going to be,’ Steve said, looking at everyone seriously. ‘They won’t like that we got to you before they could. We need to prepare for anything.’

‘I’ll give Barton and Romanoff a call,’ Fury agreed. ‘Barnes, take [Name] to doctor Banner. Maybe he will know what Zola did to her.’

Bucky pushed himself from the couch and gestured you should follow him. While the rest started to discuss how best to address the situation at hand, Bucky led you towards the stairs and took you all the way down to the lab. Debris en dust were still lying everywhere because of your attack a few hours earlier. You looked around you, feeling bad about destroying half the lab to get what you wanted.

‘Come,’ Bucky told you, reaching for your hand to help you climb over a large piece of concrete that had fallen into the hallway. You were easily able to push yourself up, but you took Bucky’s hand nonetheless and let him pull you up.

‘You made a real mess,’ someone told you, once you had reached the other side of the lab. ‘I take one day off and this whole place falls apart,’ a man with glasses and a lab coat smiled at you. He pushed his glasses further up his nose and offered you his hand. ‘Doctor Banner,’ he introduced himself, shaking your hand.

‘[Name],’ you swallowed hard, trying to remember if you had a last name. If you had, there was no memory of it. ‘I’m sorry for destroying your lab.’

‘It needed redecorating any way,’ he brushed it off, gesturing you should follow him. ‘Follow me, I have some tests I’d like to run.’

You followed the doctor hesitantly, but Bucky nodded at you encouragingly and together you made your way to the part of the lab that surprisingly was still completely intact.

‘Take a seat, please,’ Banner told you, pointing at the chair next to a metal table. You did as you were told and let him perform his tests on you. They were nowhere near as painful as you remembered the HYDRA ones to be – that was another thing you were unable to forget: pain – but they still made you feel uncomfortable.

‘Alright,’ the doctor sighed, once he was done. ‘I don’t think I will be able to remove any of the threads, but Tony might have the right equipment to reprogram the device on the back of your head. So that it won’t erase your memory every time you remember something from your past.’

‘Is that what it does?’ you asked surprised, rubbing the little plate at the back of your head. You had wondered why your memories disappeared every time you remembered something from your past. It was the reason your had started the scrapbook.

‘Well, I can’t be completely sure without activating the device, but it has a direct connection with your hypothalamus, which regulates your memory. I asked Tony to take a look at the mechanics, before I try to solve the neurological problem.’

You nodded, swallowing hard. Maybe you would never get your full memory back.

‘Don’t worry,’ Banner smiled, laying his hand on your shoulder and squeezing slightly. ‘You’ll get your memory back, like Barnes.’

‘Thank you,’ you mumbled, grateful that the doctor was trying to help you.

You spend the next ten minutes waiting for Tony to come down, letting the silence linger between you and Bucky. You weren’t used to being around people and judging by the awkward frown on Bucky’s face, neither was he.

You didn’t know how long you were in that lab, laying face down on the table while Tony was working his ‘magic’ on the device on the back of your head. He was talking to someone you couldn’t see – a person with a weird voice called Jarvis, you later learned he wasn’t a person at all – making scans of your head and cursing a lot while electrocuting himself more than once.

Bucky stayed by your side the whole time. You liked that he was there for you and you couldn’t wait to remember what had once been between you, Bucky, and Steve. They both clearly cared a lot about you and you could only hope you would get those feelings back as well.


‘Done,’ Tony sighed after several hours. ‘That doctor Zola was an absolute genius. Fortunately for you, so am I. You might not remember everything at once and I’m sure Banner has some more tests to run, but there is nothing physical holding you back anymore. It’s probably best if you get some rest now. Cap will want to go after HYDRA first thing in the morning.’


Tony pushed himself from his chair and wiped the sweat from his brow, walking away from you.


‘I’ll show you your room,’ Bucky nodded, turning to you.

You let yourself slide from the table and followed Bucky back up the stairs. It was a long way up, but you enjoyed the silence that lingered between you. You slowly started to feel more comfortable being among others again. At least with Bucky.

'Thank you,' you mumbled when Bucky had pointed at one of the rooms at the end of the hallway and told you that one was still free.

Bucky didn't reply and instead just nodded again, stoically looking at you. You turned around, knowing you both still had a long way to go before you'd be your normal self again (if that ever was going to happen). 

'[Name]...' Bucky whispered, before you entered your room.

'Yes?' you swallowed hard, looking at him hopefully.

'I'm glad you're back.'

A small smile curled your lips as you watched him walk away from you. He wasn't good with words and neither were you in situations like this. You knew it would probably never be the same between you - if you would even remember what once was - but seeing the love he had for you in his eyes, meant more to you than you thought it would. Once you would start to remember again and find pieces of yourself you had lost, you hoped you would also find your love for him. You both deserved it.

When you let your body fall onto the bed, your head hitting the soft pillow, you fell asleep immediately. You awoke several hours later when the sun was up again. A tray of breakfast was placed in front of your door and after you had eaten every single one of the breadrolls on there, you took a quick, hot shower, changing into the clothes Tony's girlfriend Pepper had lend you.

'There you are,' Steve said when you entered the living room. He was bend over  large table, together with Tony, Fury and a man and woman you hadn't seen before. Bucky was sitting on the couch, sipping from his cup of coffee. 

'What's the plan?' you asked, walking towards the table and looking at the blue print of a building.

'Jarvis located the men that were after you in an abandoned apartment building just outside the city,' Steve replied. 'If we want to know why they were after you, we should attack first, while we still have the advantage. We need to be careful though, who knows what or whom is hiding in that place.'

You nodded looking at the large drawing of the building. 'We could enter through the ventilation vents,' you suggested, pointing at the thick lines that ran across the whole blue print.

'They're too small,' the man you hadn't seen before commented.

'Maybe for you, Barton, the woman next to him smiled, 'but [Name] and I can get in through the vents. It's an old building. They will all still be connected.'

Steve agreed, turning the blue print around to reveal the lower levels. He placed his finger in the center and tapped the paper. 'Stark, I need you to shut down their power supply. The back up generator will most likely be here, in the centre of the building. It will kick in after a minute, but that should give Bucky and I enough time to destroy any security protocols they had installed.'

'I thought you said it was an old building?' you frowned.

'It is,' Steve replied, 'but knowing HYDRA, they will probably have a few tricks up their sleeves. Barton, I need you on the look out. If any of them escape...'

'Got it,' Barton nodded. 'Shoot the basterds.'

'Alright, Romanoff, [Name], while you attack from the inside, we'll do so from the outside. We're leaving in five.'

Everyone agreed on the plan and went to get their things. Fury got you one of the old S.H.I.E.L.D suits to wear, while the rest gathered in the living room again. Bucky had also changed and together you made your way down to the garage, where two cars were already waiting to take you to the abandoned building.

'Don't worry,' Bucky told you. 'We'll get the men that were after you. If not today, then tomorrow.'

'I'm not worried about that,' you sighed, taking in a deep breath.

'Then what's wrong? I know that look. Something is bothering you.'

You smiled shortly, realizing he knew much more about you than you thought he did. 'I still don't remember anything. What... What if my memory never comes back?'

'It will,' Bucky reassured you. 'Banner told me HYDRA couldn't erase my memory without completely destroying everything I know. That would have made me useless. HYDRA never erased my memories. They only supressed them. It was the reason they had to repeat the procedure over and over and why I still had dreams about things I had once been through. It will all come back to you. I promise.'

You nodded, but you were not really assured. You had never dreamed about anything and all you had was this overall feeling you knew them. You had thought you would at least remember your full name by now, but there still was nothing. You were starting to lose hope there ever was going to be.

'Let's go,' Steve told everyone, and with that said everyone got into the two black SUV's.

'Ready?' Romanoff asked you, seating herself next to you. 'Steve told me what happened to you. Being part of a team again must feel weird to you, but don't worry you'll get used to it soon enough. As did I...' she smiled at you, before checking the guns on her belt for ammo and loading them.

You sighed, looking out in from of you. She was right. You hadn't been part of a team for a long, long time, and even though Bucky and Steve had told you about the Howling Commandos, you had no idea what it really felt like to be part of a team. Whatever were to happen though, you were really for all of it. 

Your life, after everything that had happened, would finally start a new.




TO BE CONTINUED