[ WWII AU ] a ghost story

[from_the_outside]

It's been almost two years since she's been home, and little by little, the grief has gotten easier to live with.

It hasn't gone away. But she's able to focus on her job, watch movies, chat with friends, sleep most nights. She still dreams about him, but the dreams are tinged with wistful longing and only sometimes does she wake up with tears on her cheeks. She can't have his picture out in this apartment, Kate's apartment, but it's safe in the mountain house, along with his last letter to her, and she has a scan on her phone to look at when the long day is over and she's in bed, the stars from the lamp he'd given her filling her dark room.

Steve has helped, more than she could ever explain, and she hopes she's helped him in return. Aside from a few deeply classified missions here and there, they haven't worked together all that much, but she still sees him almost every day. In the halls, she's undercover as his mild-mannered neighbor, Kate, but in her secure apartment they can talk over anything, everything.

And it works. Every day is a little easier. They lean on each other when they need to, and they spend hours remembering and reminiscing about Bucky, talking shop, chatting about how Steve's fitting into the future. It's nice. She still misses Bucky, an ache that never really goes away, but they can both breathe through it, work through it, live through it.

She's on her way up from the basement laundry machines when she hears a familiar step in the hall, and has to smile to herself – first her own, then Kate's sweeter, more open one. "Hey, neighbor."

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"Castle?" Steve asks, leaning onto the dining table with both hands. It's a familiar stance, but one she hasn't seen from him since those days back in London.

Sharon studies the maps, mouth twisting. "Sokovia," she murmurs. "That might be tough. What kind of international jurisdiction do the Avengers have, Steve?"

[nerves_of_ice]

“That may have changed too, given everything. I guess we’re independent now,” Steve realizes. “I’ll have to talk to Tony about that too.”

“Castle,” Bucky repeats. He’s moved on to North Africa, starting with Algeria. Bucky tips his head toward Sharon in confirmation of her observation as he continues,

“Sokovia. Von Strucker’s research facility.”

[from_the_outside]

"Von Strucker," she repeats, frowning. "That sounds kind of familiar."

Maybe it's somewhere in the data Nat had leaked to the world. She'll have to start digging through those files.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Wil- no. Wolf. Wolfgang." Tension threads through him as he struggles with the pieces of memory. "Scientist. Not serum. But something."

[from_the_outside]

Steve frowns over at him. "He's experimenting on people?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky nods. “They never stopped.”

[from_the_outside]

"I wish I could say I was surprised," Steve mutters. "Any idea what he's up to? Do you remember what he was using without the serum?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He’s quiet for a few seconds. The castle in Sokovia had smelled like wet stone and blood and bleach, he recalls.

“There were rooms,” he says, slowly. “Underground. I think. Hidden. Cells. His - his subjects. People. Were in them. I didn’t - there was an argument. Whether or not to try the protocol on me. That’s why I was there.”

[from_the_outside]

She knows Steve's going through the same mix of fury and sorrow and guilt as she is, every time Bucky mentions what they put him through. But it doesn't help to get upset, and it only makes him feel worse, so they manage it as best they can with tight jaws and fisting hands. "What was the protocol?" she asks, instead of anything else. "Do you remember?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"There was a room. With an observation window." Each word is a little slow as he pieces it together, but steady and clear. "Some kind of device in it. It - it glowed. That's all I saw before they shut it down. Decided the risk of failure was too high and the loss of value if there were to be damage to the asset was unacceptable."

[from_the_outside]

"Glowed?" Sharon's focus sharpens. "Like the cube?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky looks up from the map, surprised. "It wasn't blue. But--" He frowns, thinking back.

"--but otherwise yes. Maybe. yes."

[from_the_outside]

She folds her arms and looks over to Steve. "What would that even mean?"

Steve shakes his head at them both, but he looks trouble. "I don't know," he admits. "But it can't be anything good. Loki had a staff that glowed like the cube, too. It's how he brainwashed Barton and the others."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve has all his attention in that moment. “Where is it now?”

[from_the_outside]

Steve sighs and hangs his head for a moment, before he looks back up at Bucky. "Nat gave it to Sitwell," he says, and sucks at his teeth for a moment, frustrated.

"HYDRA's had it since then, and we had no idea."

[nerves_of_ice]

He stares at Steve some more while memories flicker, then scrabbles for the notebook he’d discarded to the side. Bucky scrawls a quick sketch of the thing he remembers seeing, with its strangely glowing gem at one end, and shoves it at them.

[from_the_outside]

It doesn't look familiar to her, but Steve swears under his breath, then grimaces.

"Yeah," he says, grim. "That's it."

[nerves_of_ice]

“That’s what they’re using.” He stares down at the paper. “I didn’t think the light was the same, but maybe I was wrong, or they’ve got it set up weird somehow. But that’s the thing I saw in Sokovia.”

[from_the_outside]

She looks over at Steve, her arms tightly folded across herself. "Steve, we've got to get it away from them. This has to be our priority."

[nerves_of_ice]

“It’s well defended,” Bucky observes. It’s not denial, only warning.

[from_the_outside]

Steve chuckles, a little. "Yeah. But we have Banner."

"We'll make a plan," Sharon tells Bucky. "Anything you can remember, we'll plan around."

[nerves_of_ice]

“I’ll help. All I can.” Low and a little uneven, but he’s never meant anything more.

Bucky turns to another page and starts trying to sketch a map.

[from_the_outside]

As Bucky works, Sharon shifts towards Steve, her arms still crossed. "We're going to need everyone on board for this," she tells him, low. "Everyone, Steve. So this may be our first priority, but yours needs to be Tony."

[marvel_npc]

He glances at Bucky without meaning to, then makes himself tear his gaze away to meet Sharon's eyes instead. "I know." Even as he says it, he feels something deep inside him shudder before settling into a familiar stubborn determination.

"I know. But this isn't the kind of thing I can tell him over the phone. I could go to New York - or California if he's out there right now, I'm not actually sure. But I was thinking... it might be better if he met Buck first. Saw the man, rather than just hearing about what the Soldier did."

[from_the_outside]

"You know him better than I do," she murmurs. "If that's how you want to play it, you know I'll back you up. But be careful, Steve. He's not gonna take it well if he thinks you've been lying to him."