[oom] I'm right here beside you

[from_the_outside]

 Sleep is a joke.

It's not just the intel that she stays up sifting through, blue light straining her eyes; it's not just the coffee she drinks, trying to keep her brain sharp and her thoughts on track. 

It's time.

Minutes that slip away, that she can't get back. Hours that tick ponderously past. She lies alone in her bed and can't close her eyes because if she does, if she sleeps, it's another night gone, another night closer to the day Bucky goes back under and –

So she stays up and works. 

It means that when she waits for him in the morning to come find her before they meet with T'Challa and the others, her skin is pale and translucent and she has that sick feeling of an all-nighter, fatigue poisons running rampant through her bloodstream – but she has a list of observations from her analysis, and two mugs of coffee kept warm on the credenza: one pale with milk and sugar, the other black and as strong as her little coffee maker could handle.

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky looks away from the screen and at her.

"When is the next one?"

[from_the_outside]

She chews on her lip for a second before her eyes meet his. "Five days."

As in, not quite a week from now.

As in, maybe still too close to a week from now.

[nerves_of_ice]

He absorbs that in silence for several seconds before he nods.

"All right. Something to consider, then."

He hesitates, then reaches to brush her hair back from her face.

"Want to put all this together and take it in?"

[from_the_outside]

Something in her tired face softens as he tucks a lock of her hair back. "Yeah."

Pulling it all together means organizing not just her paper notes, but the frankly alarming number of windows she has open on her desktop, so she focuses on that for a moment, holding her half-forgotten coffee in her left hand as she sorts through and closes out the items she doesn't need.

[nerves_of_ice]

He downs the rest of his own coffee and collects his own notes, then glances at her and starts to pick up hers as well, in the order she has them laid out.

[from_the_outside]

"I hope Nakia's heard something back from her connections," she says, after a second, her voice soft in the quiet room. "I don't like how many things this could be. It feels like somebody's pulling an awful lot of strings."

[nerves_of_ice]

He nods.

"It does. But all we need's one or two to follow back to the source."

[from_the_outside]

"Yeah," she says again.

The thing that's bothering her, she thinks – well, one of a number, anyway – is that she knows how much easier this would be if she were back with her team in D.C. or Berlin. If she had access to analysts and sources. If she could run this problem the way she's used to running them.

But that's not her job anymore. She has no team and no resources of her own. And that grates.

She finishes up with the files and shuts the laptop, then tips the rest of her coffee back into her mouth, already wishing for more. "Time to go?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Time to go," he agrees. Bucky picks up the physical files and waits for her at the door.

[from_the_outside]

She grabs her laptop and heads towards him and through the door, running over and over the theories they have so far, the pieces they have (not enough), the pieces they're missing. Lost in thought, she doesn't notice her own focused quiet, only blinks and they've reached the meeting place; the same gracefully appointed room as yesterday.

This time, they're early; T'Challa, Nakia, and Okoye enter the room as Sharon's setting the laptop.

"Ms. Carter," T'Challa greets her, gracious as always. "White Wolf. Thank you both for being so prompt. I'm afraid we have quite a lot to talk about and not as much time as we might like to do so."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Then we'll have to make the most of the time we do have," Bucky says, steady and certain. He meets and holds T'Challa's gaze, and there's no animosity in his own.

T'Challa studies him for a second, then nods. "We all have things to report," he says. "I trust the both of you do as well?"

[from_the_outside]

"Yes," she says, as neutral and businesslike as if she were back in Berlin, reporting to Ross. "We both went over the intel from Nakia. We found some evidence to support a few theories and drew some independent conclusions."

T'Challa nods and sits, as do Nakia and Okoye. "Very well," he says, and turns to Okoye. "I believe the most pressing matter is that of the mine workers. Okoye, what dd you find?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"We have identified the individual in human resources who enabled the falsification of hire documents and background checks," Okoye tells them, her tone sharp as edged steel. "They have embedded at least ten people among the mine workers."

She glances at Nakia. "I did not drag him out yet, on your advice yesterday. But."

Okoye turns back to T'Challa and says, "We have also identified all ten workers. They are being watched by others on their shifts."

Bucky nods at that, silent but approving.

[from_the_outside]

"Did you find any evidence of sabotage in the mines?" Sharon asks, and Okoye grimaces.

"There was some evidence of...tampering," she says, every word crisp with displeasure. "But perhaps word of the Jackal's defeat reached the agents in the mines before their plan could proceed. We will find the items they planted," she promises, her expression flat and deadly.

T'Challa nods, steepling his fingers. "When the time is right, we will detain the operatives as well as the deceptive personnel," he decides. "But until then, perhaps they will show us their next move before they are prepared to make it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Where did you find the tampering?" Bucky asks. "That might tell us a lot about what their goals are."

He hesitates, but only for a moment, with a quick glance to T'Challa before he continues. "For example. If I were trying to cause maximum destruction but make it look like an accident, I'd target things that affect structural integrity. Your train lines. Beams and girders that support key pieces of equipment. The larger the better."

[from_the_outside]

Okoye's expression tells Sharon that Bucky's example is hitting a little closer to home than is strictly comfortable.

"On one of the train platforms," she admits. "But it was difficult to find. Without...whatever was planted there to begin with, any markings might easily be passed off as normal wear and tear."

Translation: there are likely other spots they didn't find.

And perhaps the enemy agents hadn't managed to clear out those spots yet. "We will keep searching," Okoye continues. "Our loyal workers are on the watch now as well."

[nerves_of_ice]

T'Challa's jaw sets tight. "I will ask Shuri to see if she can come up with some kind of scan. For explosives, perhaps." He looks at Bucky for a moment, then shakes his head. "It cannot be you. The White Wolf appearing in the mine would cause instant wariness among those we seek to catch."

His glance moves to Sharon. "You, however, have not yet had a tour of the mines, yet, I believe? Would doing so interfere with a future cover?"

[from_the_outside]

She taps a finger on her keyboard, thinking. "Maybe," she says, finally. "It depends on who the false miners might be communicating and coordinating with. If they see me in the mines and then someone matching my description, but with a different name shows up trying to make a deal..."

Her voice trails off and her gaze turns slightly disconnected as a thought strikes. "On the other hand, it might be the perfect opportunity to introduce a cover."

If she doesn't tour around as Sharon Carter, but instead as a buyer or seller, someone who might be tempted to play both ends against the middle...

She shakes the thought away and glances first at Bucky, then looks back to T'Challa. "But we'd have to wait until we were sure what kind of play we need to make. That might be as soon as today or it might take more time."

[nerves_of_ice]

"It says something that they are still there at all, rather than having fled," Nakia points out. "Either they do not yet know what happened at the stronghold, or there is someone else that they are in contact with."

She shakes her head. "My contacts have been making discreet inquiries, but that will likely take another day or two at the least, if they are not to reveal themselves."

[from_the_outside]

She crushes her disappointment as soon as it flickers into existence, only nods and taps her laptop screen into life.

"There might be another deadline," she says, as she pulls up the map she'd made, the coordinates picked out in yellow with their respective dates below. "The Jackal kept records. At first, I thought they were coded, but apparently that was a bridge too far for him, security-wise. When I tried them out as dates and coordinates, this is what I got."

[nerves_of_ice]

The room goes silent as everyone looks at Sharon's map. Bucky waits a couple of minutes, to give those who haven't seen it before time to take it in, before he says,

"We might learn something from examining what's left at previous sites. But Sharon also spotted a new opportunity... coming up in five days."

Nakia glances at Sharon, very quickly, then back to the map. "Depending on how easy it would be to blend in, we could try something like we did in Busan--"

"Busan did not end well," Okoye points out. "Although that was not your fault."

[from_the_outside]

"I wouldn't suggest getting involved yet," Sharon says. "I was thinking we might be able to stake the location out. I don't know the area very well yet, but this seems to be more wil –"

She'd meant to say wilderness and to point out that it might be intended to be a handoff more than anything else, but she's cut off when her pocket first begins to vibrate, then to ring.

Silence falls over the room a second time as she pulls out her phone, moving slowly, as if in a dream, or as though she thinks her phone might explode if she handles it too roughly.

It's an unknown number. She glances at Nakia, who understands: aside from herself, only Natasha has this number.

Her next glance is for T'Challa. He nods, and she thumbs the button, brings the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

The voice that answers is as familiar as her own. "Agent 13." He sounds pleased with himself. "Last I heard, you were on the run in Europe."

She can't sit still; gets up and paces to the window, pressing the phone to her ear so hard it hurts, her free arm tight across her own stomach. "Last I heard," she says, after a long, long moment where her gaze flicks to Bucky and stays there, "you were dead."

"It turns out," Fury says, easily, "being dead isn't exactly all it's cracked up to be."

[nerves_of_ice]

He uncoils swiftly from his seat with lethal promise in every line of him. Bucky gestures from Okoye to T'Challa and Nakia, then moves around the end of the table and to the window. He darkens it so that no one can see in, after which he takes Sharon by her free arm and pulls her off to the side, as Okoye attempts to get T'Challa to move similarly. "My king, please--" she murmurs, low and intent.

T'Challa's gaze has narrowed sharply at this. He lets himself be drawn, beckoning Nakia to take a position so that he is between her and the window, and watches Sharon intently.

[from_the_outside]

Bucky's between her and the window and she puts a hand on his chest – whether in warning or silent request for him to wait or just for a little gravity, she's not sure – and looks up at him, mouthing: Fury.

"So, what?" she asks, her voice steady and even, a little dry. "You decided you wanted to catch up a little? You could have called at a better time. I'm a little busy right now."

"I know," he says, in that exasperatingly certain way he has, and her gaze flicks to the window, but – "No, no, Agent 13, I'm not in Wakanda." Before she has a chance to do more than pale, her fingers gripping the phone more tightly, he goes on, all good-natured, casual conversation: "But I am curious about the fact that you are."

"How did you find out?" she manages, after a momentary struggle, and he just laughs.

"Now, are you sure that's the question you want to ask?"

[nerves_of_ice]

Fury, Sharon mouths, and for a dizzying instant he's not sure if that's better or worse. He stays where he is, standing still with her hand on his chest, and turns his head to T'Challa.

Nick Fury, he mouths in turn. Former Director of SHIELD. Sharon's old boss.

For whatever reason, that causes recognition to flash in T'Challa's eyes, although the tension doesn't leave him. Bucky looks down at Sharon. Speaker? he asks, silently.