You're My Mission

Bucky and I rounded another corner of the Hydra lab and ducked into a broom closet to avoid the next patrol. After the door had clicked shut, Bucky pressed his finger to his ear to activate his earpiece.

“We’re at location number three. What about you?” he asked, transmitting to Natasha and Sam who were posing as Hydra agents escorting Steve to a holding cell. Steve was pretending to be incapacitated until they had infiltrated the base far enough to plant the bomb.

“Still at two,” Natasha’s hushed voice responded. “Give us another minute before you proceed.” I almost shivered from the thought of her cold glare at us, disapproving when Steve had once again paired Bucky and I together for a mission. Even though I knew I shouldn’t care what Natasha thought of me, it was crucial that everyone in my team trusted me, and her suspicion was making me uneasy. Searching for comfort, I turned on my heel and slipped my arms around Bucky’s waist. I pulled him into a hug and rested my head against his bulletproof vest while exhaling.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, gently returning the embrace.

I didn’t reply, just focused on the pleasant feeling of having Bucky in my arms.

“We’ve been discovered! Move!” Sam’s voice suddenly shouted over my earpiece and I tore myself from Bucky’s grip. We both pulled pistols from holsters and I kicked the door open, speeding down the lab’s corridor to our destination. The Hydra scientists we encountered were fortunately not trained with weapons and dove out of our path in fear. Bucky sped ahead of me when we neared our bomb deployment site and then an explosion rattled my brain. I tripped and crashed to the floor, vaguely hearing Natasha’s voice in my ear as my vision spun.

“Jennifer! Come on! Get up!” Bucky was urgently shouting at me when my brain began processing my environment properly again. A loud metal screech echoed in the distance, followed by the rumbling of another crash. The building was falling down, and we hadn’t even done our part yet. “Get up! We need to move!” Bucky’s harsh tone snapped me back into action and I leapt to my feet, pushing myself away from him, surprised at how cold he had become in such a short space of time.

We ran towards our target and water sprinklers switched on, drenching us and slowing us down. I shot a pair of guards that appeared in the upcoming doorway and realised a second later that Bucky hadn’t fired. Spinning around, I spotted him having a panic attack a good few feet behind me.

“Bucky?” I shouted before another jolt reverberated through the building. He was trembling, clutching his metal arm and trying to get away from something he was terrified of, but it was as though he was fighting an invisible monster. A ghost was haunting him, stripping away the confident new man he had become and allowing the vulnerable Winter Soldier to return.

I anxiously glanced at the doorway, briefly considering running ahead and planting the bomb, but I couldn’t just leave Bucky here. With a groan I sprinted back to him.

“Bucky, what’s going on?” I asked as softly as I could, but there was no way I could hide the urgency in my tone. He stepped away from me, pressing his back to the wall. His blue eyes darted around and I watched more panic crease his face as he failed to find an escape. His attention briefly turned to his metal arm, his flesh hand wiping off beads of water from the red star before he searched for an exit again.

The water. He was still afraid of water.

I spurred into action, diving into the closest lab and grabbing a lab coat off a hook. Returning to Bucky, I held it out to him.

“Use this to cover your arm and it will stay dry, I promise,” I told him even though I doubted it was going to be much help. I was just hoping that it would be enough to settle his mind so he could concentrate and we could get out of here before we were crushed to death. Bucky’s eyes refocused and his body began to relax before he snatched the material from me and slipped it over his metal arm.

“I don’t want to be broken again,” he confessed quietly.

“You never were.” Bucky smiled weakly at my reassurance and I compelled him forwards, through the spraying water and to our bomb’s destination. He kept watch as I permanently attached the bomb to the metal support beam and activated it. Then it was just a matter of rushing through the rain in the corridors until we reached outside and could detonate it. I inhaled slowly to calm down, telling myself that Bucky was going to be okay, and then commanded him to follow me.

We retraced our steps towards the exit until a wall of rushing water blocked our path. Bucky stopped and began looking for a way around it, but we were so close to the outside I could smell the fresh air. Walking through the burst water pipe’s constant stream shouldn’t have been an issue, but Bucky wasn’t budging.

“You can do it, Buck-”

“There’s another way out, there has to be,” he interrupted, gulping as his alarmed eyes scanned the area.

“There isn’t,” I insisted but Bucky wasn’t listening. I holstered my gun and strode across to him, gripping his biceps and forcing him to look at me. “All you have to do is follow me through the water. Once we’re on the other side, we’re going to be outside and safe. We’ll find Steve and get you to Tony so he can check your arm. You’re going to be just fine, I promise.” My determination and confidence appeared to be coaxing him, but then Bucky suddenly shook his head.

“I can’t… I can’t go through there,” he said in a shaky voice. “I don’t know what it will do… my arm…”

I gritted my teeth. Steve was barking in my ear and we were running out of time. The finish line was so close, damn it!

I let go of Bucky’s arms and instead cupped his jaw.

“Do you trust me?” I asked. Bucky gulped and then nodded ever so slightly.

“Yes.”

“Then follow me,” I said before kissing him. My hands trailed down his neck and onto his chest before I pushed myself away. It was difficult to leave him standing there, so helpless and scared, but I didn’t know what else to do.

Without another look at Bucky, I walked through the downpour of water. On the other side, I flicked my hands over my face and then through my drenched hair to push it out of my eyes. It was icy cold and I had a huge desire to change into something dry and comfortable, but rushing for the exit and our escape vehicle wasn’t my top priority. I watched the wall of water, the sunlight from behind me making it dark and difficult to see through, and waited.

What was he going to do? Did Bucky really trust me? Could he overcome his fear and follow me through the torrent of water?

A sigh of relief passed my lips as Bucky’s bulky figure burst through the water. He crashed into me, embracing me tightly as though it was the last time he was ever going to hold me. As wonderful as the moment was, I pushed aside my pride and hurried Bucky away from the building before detonating the bomb, cutting off another one of Hydra’s heads.