[oom] you don't need to save me, but would you run away with me? // Part 2

[from_the_outside]

It's a long, long week. 

All the weeks here are long. She's been exhausted since she first arrived, and it hasn't gotten any easier – she's just gotten used to it.

What she isn't used to is watching what it does to Bucky.

He keeps busy, vanishing shortly after breakfast and not reappearing until well after dark, sometimes not until close to midnight. That doesn't mean she doesn't have eyes on him – she has eyes everywhere in this city. Some of what he gets up to he tells her about. Some of it she sees or hears about.

Some she only pieces together after the fact.

For example:

Four days into his stay she sees a flurry of alerts and messages about a gang of thugs that had decided to tangle with him in a Lowtown market. The videos of him throwing them into plate glass windows and walls and storefront doors travel through Madripoor like wildfire.

And then there are the rumors. It's public knowledge he killed Cade and that he's been seen with the art dealer: what no one knows is why, and the whispers grow steadily more frenetic as the week rolls on. The general consensus seems to be that the art dealer had Cade disposed of in order to help her own climb to power. More than one person attempts to contract him for help with an unsolvable problem. No one manages to hire him. No one seems to know what he wants.

Worse is that as the power dynamic between those on the lower rung vying for Selby's position fluctuates, he deliberately allows himself to be seen more often, delves more deeply into Madripoor's seedy shadows. She doesn't understand until her security catches a would-be assassin she saw coming a mile away, and then she realizes: his involvement with her, with Cade, has painted a target on her back.

So he's decided to paint a larger one on his own.

He loses weight. She pushes breakfast and dinner at him, but he eats mechanically, hardly seems to notice. The lines drawn on his face seem carved into rock. He stops smiling except occasionally when they're alone in the middle of the night, or when his phone pings with a text from Sam.

On the fifth night, he stops sleeping. 

He wakes up from a nightmare he refuses to talk about, and for the next few days she doesn't see him sleep at all. He's catching catnaps like he used to back in the Winter Soldier days, she thinks, but she's not sure. Every day he's a little quieter, a little more grim.

Which is why it's so strange that her apartment is completely filled with flowers.

Everywhere she looks now, there they are: large, expensive bouquets in fancy vases on nearly every available surface. He's had one delivered every single day, and every day she hates herself a little more for bringing him here. Every day he tells her come home with me.

Every day she tells him I can't. And he looks at her with those determined, weary eyes, and her heart breaks a little more.

It's a little over a week after he'd first arrived that she's hosting clients again. The party hasn't even started, and she already wishes she had a drink.

(There weren't any flowers today. She wonders if that's a sign.)

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

He hadn't kept his voice low when responding to Lin Chao, and as a result word spreads quickly. He can mark the passage of the news by quick whispers and curious, greedy stares.

Bucky accepts a glass of champagne from one of the circulating waitstaff, holds it in his right hand, and doesn't drink. Slowly, he continues to move back and forth across the room, studying the people more than the art, watching for signs of trouble.

[from_the_outside]

There's a degree of pleasure she's learned to take in this part of the cover; she's good at it and there's some satisfaction in knowing so. She makes sure to speak to each of her guests, to answer questions, to encourage everyone to have more champagne, to stoke interest in the upcoming auction for the egg. She keeps half an eye on Fenec, Mateo's newest ally, but sees nothing out of the ordinary.

Anders, on the other hand, looks nervous – but then, he should. She'd hate to be in his shoes. As usual, he's drinking soda water and lime rather than champagne – she's never seen him touch a drop of alcohol.

Everyone else relaxes markedly as the evening wears on. Whatever their ambitions, most of them have more in common than not, and generally speaking their quarrels are professional, not personal.

It's a strange pit of vipers in which she's found herself, but she's made it work.

So far. Until now. Until she had to watch what this new world of hers is doing to Bucky.

[nerves_of_ice]

Most people are more comfortable by now, settling into social chatter. A few look tense, including Anders, who just looks nervous. Bucky leans back against the outside wall and studies these few more carefully than anyone else, trying to see if--

"It's a shame." The woman who's standing nearby is silver-haired and the very image of a wealthy society matron. She's attended by a man half her age that Bucky evaluates and dismisses in an instant, and her gaze is bright and intrigued. "I don't suppose you'd let me touch it?"

He stares at her as she gestures at his arm.

"No."

"Are you sure? I'm an engineer, you see, and I'm just dying to see how it works."

"No," he says, a lot flatter than before.

[from_the_outside]

Mateo has been enjoying himself; when she goes to the bar to check on the champagne, he's bright-eyed and pleased. "A rare event," he tells her, toasting her with his glass, and she smiles back.

"A rare item," she reminds him, and he laughs. "One day you will have to share your secrets, no?"

"No," she says, and he laughs again, coughs, and takes another sip of champagne to clear his throat. "It's –" he begins, but coughs again. And again, his face turning slightly flushed.

He's not the only one. She can hear coughs now from almost everyone in the room, and she's starting to frown when a tickle starts in her own throat and she doubles over with a hand on the bar, coughing uncontrollably as her lungs begin to burn.

[nerves_of_ice]

He realizes what's happening almost too late. The cloud of gas rolls through the room, bringing coughs and gasps and panic in its wake, and as it does he sees Anders slip a black nitrile mask on over his nose and mouth and head for the door, sees Sharon collapse forward over the bar--

CRASH! The large picture window was made of double-thickness bulletproof glass, but it's no match for him. Bucky slams his left fist into the window over and over again until the glass shatters and explodes outward and fresh air rushes in. He dashes to the next window and repeats the process, desperate to clear the poison, then turns to run to Sharon.

[from_the_outside]

Later, she'll be grateful for whatever providential thought told her to go to the bar and check on the champagne, because she and Mateo ended up on the far side of the rolling cloud of gas.

It gives her just enough time to slide herself over the bar and collapse on the other side, gasping as her fingers scrabble for the switches she knows are here. She hears the crash of breaking glass and feels a swirl in the air, but it's not enough: the coughs are beginning to settle into a horrible silence and her vision is tunneling.

She knocks aside a few bottles and slams her hand down on the touchpad behind them, reaches into the compartment in the bar that opens and hits two switches in a row. There's a pause, and then the fire suppressant system actives, showering the room with a neutralizing agent as unseen fans kick into high gear with a roar to clear the air. She coughs again, breath rasping in her chest –

But breathing. Which is more than she can say for many of the others.

[nerves_of_ice]

Chemical suppressant pours from the ceiling as he tears through the room and vaults over the bar, and he feels his heart first stop and then start beating again as he realizes she's still alive. She'll need medical attention, they all will, those who're left, but she's alive, and she's going to be okay.

And Anders is fleeing. His expression hardens. "Stay alive," he orders her, as the security team finally, finally bursts into the room. "I'm going after him. He won't escape." He stands up as the security chief reaches them, and then he's running at top speed for the door.

[from_the_outside]

She takes a deep pull of oxygen from the mask her security chief presses against her face and leans on him as she stands, her legs shaky, her eyes watering, her throat raw and burning –

But she's alive. And so, she realizes, is Mateo. Her security is helping him up, pressing a similar mask to his face as he leans on the bar. The others...

A few are moving and obviously conscious. Others are breathing shallowly. The rest, not at all. She leans on her security chief and heads into the center of the room to take stock. "Airlift the worst," she tells her chief, pausing in the middle of the words to cough. "Get them all to the hospital. Do it now."

A hand lands on her shoulder: Mateo's. She turns to him as he removes his oxygen mask and coughs, clearing his throat. "I can help," he says.

She nods. They'll need all hands on deck for this.

[nerves_of_ice]

The car squeals away around a corner as he reaches the front of the gallery. He's already running after it as he checks the tracking device report to confirm - it's Anders. Headed back to the bolthole he thinks no one knows about, most likely.

Bucky switches directions, vaults along the side of one bridge, and uses the maintenance cable there to swing himself up onto the sky road he's been teaching himself all week. From there, he chases after the vehicle from above, moving easily fast enough to keep pace unseen.

It means no one else is expecting it when Anders' driver pulls up in front of the secret warehouse apartment and the Winter Soldier drops out the sky onto the car with crushing force, shattering all windows, crumpling the doors into uselessness, and buckling the roof with a hard strike of his fist.

[from_the_outside]

She's luckier than she knew at first, she realizes as she looks at the row of bodies. Of the fifteen invitees, six – due to age or asthma or a handful of other respiratory issues – had succumbed right away. Three more, already on the way to the hospital, are unlikely to make it. The rest are in much the same shape as her: coughing and dizzy, varying degrees of ill, but nowhere near death's door.

Mateo is one of them. Fenec... is not.

The egg has disappeared into the secure vault beneath the gallery and her security force is busy securing the area. "Find out how he did this," she orders her chief. "Now."

"You need a doctor, too," Mateo tells her, and she shakes her head, clearing her throat. "I have someone on the way," she lies, and he nods. She points out two of her guards, directs them to Mateo and the others left. "Get them to the hospital," she tells them. "Safely."

She has work to do.

[nerves_of_ice]

The driver lies collapsed and unconscious over the steering wheel. In the back seat, Anders is screaming.

Bucky punches through the rear window with his left hand and yanks the shrieking Anders through it and into the air, holding him by the throat as he gasps for breath and scrabbles at the implacable metal hand.

"Your target," he demands, harsh and flat.

"Esparza!" Anders cries, without even the slightest resistance. "Him, and Fenec - they would have killed me if I didn't kill them first, oh my god, it was self-defense really, please--"

Bucky stares at him, and knows that Anders sees his own death in his eyes. "The others?"

"Collateral damage! I just, they just--" He's lying, and he doesn't get the chance to do more of it. His hand closes on his throat until Anders is choking, then unconscious and limp.

Bucky drops him to the ground and rips open the trunk of the car. The emergency blanket he finds there will do.

[from_the_outside]

Her guards escort Mateo and the others out, and she turns to her chief.

"Get me the camera footage," she tells him. "Now."

* * * * *

Mateo Esparza, sometimes called Snowy Owl, sometimes wishes he'd never come to this hellhole of a city in the first place.

Tonight, as he swallows carefully past his tender throat and tries to catch his breath, is definitely one of those times.

He loads the other survivors into his town car and is about to get in himself when he sees something that makes him pause: a grim, grotesquely hunchbacked figure striding out of the dark. Or, no –

He squints. It's the Winter Soldier, heading back to the gallery with what is almost certainly a blanket-wrapped body slung over his shoulder.

Mateo meets the man's eyes and tries to control the shiver that runs through him at the expression in them. It seems Anders hadn't gotten all that far after all.

[nerves_of_ice]

He changes direction and walks up to Esparza without breaking stride.

"You were his target." His tone is flat and cold as ice. "You and Fenec. Everyone else was just a bonus for him."

He dumps the shrouded body at Mateo's feet in a limp pile. It groans.

[from_the_outside]

Mateo watches him carefully but without outward sign of fear. "I knew he would come for us, but to attack so many..."

He shakes his head. The warmth in his eyes has utterly dissipated. He heads around the car to open the trunk, then stands back and tips his head at it. "Please. I will take it from here."

And, after a second: "Thank you for your assistance."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky hauls Anders up from the pavement and dumps him into the trunk with casual ease, then steps back and nods to him.

His glance flicks briefly to the interior of the town car, taking note of everyone in it, then back to Mateo.

[from_the_outside]

"Soldier," says Mateo, by way of farewell, and nods back before getting into the car and speaking a quiet word to the driver.

As they pull away, he's already considering his next moves.

* * * * *

She can't believe that Anders, of all people, managed to pull this off, but as she watches the security footage, she has to admit he'd done a masterful job. It hadn't been a grenade or control of the vents: it was a simple tablet that he'd dropped into his glass of soda water.

She watches the replay of the fumes billowing from the glass and grimaces. Even if Anders is out of the picture, he got that tablet from somewhere. "Find out what that is and figure out how he got it," she tells her chief, then heads over to the bar to dig out a few aspirin and a glass of water.

Her head – not to mention her throat and chest – hurts like hell.

[nerves_of_ice]

He stalks through the door while his stomach writhes in knots, and breathes a quiet sigh of relief when he sees Sharon on her feet. Bucky scans the room, then walks over to join her.

"Did you see a doctor?" He manages to keep his voice both quiet and level.

[from_the_outside]

"Not yet," she tells him, and gulps at her water. Her voice is scratchy, but otherwise level, and the shakiness is mostly gone from her legs. "I have a... private physician who still makes house calls. She'll be here soon. I just sent the rest of them off."

But it's a few miles to the hospital, and it would take hours to get through triage there, and she...

She wasn't willing to go without him. Or not to be here when he got back. She clears her throat and coughs into a closed hand, then looks up at him. "Anders?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Dealt with," Bucky tells her. Absently, he wipes his left hand against his jeans. "Mateo was the target. And Fenec. Everyone else was collateral damage."

There's something dark and weary in his glance, there and gone.

"She's on the way? Soon, you said?"

[from_the_outside]

"Yes," she promises. True, her security chief had been the one to call, not her, but she's still on the way. The how hardly matters.

The motion of his left hand draws her glance, and she looks back up at him, studying his face, then nods.

"I analyzed the security video. He had some kind of tablet, it reacted with the soda water he was drinking."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Huh," he says. "Wonder what it was and where he got it."

He watches her very carefully.

"Are you done here?"

[from_the_outside]

"My team is on it now," she tells him, something furious simmering beneath her exhaustion, but at his question she takes a deep breath – out of habit, except this time it leads to a cascade of coughs that don't stop until her eyes are watering and her lungs feel scraped raw.

"Yes," she admits, glancing around the room. "I'm done."

The doctor can see her upstairs. She's been there before.

[nerves_of_ice]

"Go upstairs," Bucky tells her. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

He holds her glance, willing her not to argue with him.

[from_the_outside]

She meets his gaze and holds it, then nods.

"See you in a bit," she tells him, and makes for the stairs. It'll be a longer climb than usual, but she can make it fine.

As she settles onto the couch up in the penthouse, her phone vibrates:

Doctor arrived. Sending up.

Good, she thinks. Hopefully this won't take long.

[nerves_of_ice]

He watches as the doctor is escorted in and allowed upstairs. The look he gives the security chief is enough. "Trustworthy," the man tells him. "She's the one who comes here every time. The boss pays her enough to keep her loyalty."

Every time. He can feel his teeth grinding, and just lets it happen. He jerks his head in a sharp nod, and the two of them start going through the security protocols together.

Once he feels it's likely that they're safe enough for the night, at least, Bucky goes out through the door, past the team that's working on repairing the shattered windows under security's eye, and into the Hightown streets.

It takes him a while to find what he's looking for, but not too long. In about fifteen minutes, he's back and heading upstairs.