(no subject)

[wintern]

Even when she's out of SHIELD medical, they still insist she talk to someone. A therapist. Steph isn't all that impressed with the idea, but she has to admit that the lady they set her up with is nice. Doesn't treat Steph like she's made of glass or about to crack, just asks some questions easily about what she liked to do. By the end of her hour, she had a notebook with some recommendations of things she ought to try in it. One of them was having a look around for some art classes she could take, community things. It'd give her something she likes to do and help her make some connections in the current decade.

She's just found a class to sit in on, a nice mix of adults doing some still life studies, when there's a crash and the building just... falls apart. SHIELD still hasn't properly gone over her limits yet, figured out what she can lift and how fast she can run and for how long, all that sort of thing. She still doesn't know, but she's got an idea now that she's fast enough and strong enough to pull a few people out of the way of a section of the ceiling that collapses over them.

Steph isn't a hero, not really, but SHIELD - back when it was new and just getting onto its feet with Howard and Peggy at the helm - taught her a few things. And her medical knowledge might be about 60 years out of date, but she knows enough to figure that everyone's well enough to get out of the building under their own power, especially when she swings a desk at the window and makes them a new emergency exit.

A few more rooms are cleared out pretty much the same way, with the people who can move okay helping the ones who can't, when she comes across the giant robot that shook the building apart. And, well, she says a few words Sarah Rogers wouldn't have approved of. It's not something she'd want to take on, but it's still going crazy and the direction its headed is leading it right towards a classroom she knows is filled with terrified kids.

Hell, she's gotten into fights she couldn't win for worse reasons. It takes her only a few seconds to find something big enough that, when she throws it at the thing, it makes a dent and grabs its attention.

"I don't know if there's anyone in there or not, but you're causing some real problems here, and I can't allow that to keep happening."

Comments

[imfollowinghim]

SHIELD's tried to set him up with his own therapist - someone who specializes in grief and helping people work through combat fatigue (Bucky's been told it's called something else now - post traumatic stress disorder - but that still doesn't feel like it really covers waking up from a suicide mission seventy years after you crashed the plane) - but Bucky's never been good at talking about this kind of thing. The meetings are awkward and tense, and Bucky usually leaves feeling no better or worse than he did when he first reluctantly agreed to start attending them.

It takes time, he's been told, and he gets that, really. He does. He's just also relieved to get the hell out of there and get back to doing what actually helps him keep his head on straight: his job. Hanging out with Steph. Catching up on what he missed out on on his own schedule, in his own way.

It's in the middle of one of the meetings that he gets the news.

He doesn't waste time waiting for backup, or getting orders, or anything else, really, just grabs his shield and throws on the uniform and runs out towards the robot, because there's a giant robot on a rampage downtown, and one of the building it's targeted? Is the place Steph's supposed to be taking art classes at.

There are plenty of things about this future, however different and strange it might be, that are worth fighting for. But probably unsurprisingly, one of them really stands out above the others for Captain James Barnes, and that makes speeding to the scene on his motorcycle all the more desperate.

So not for the first time, Bucky Barnes (because even with the uniform on, he definitely doesn't feel like Captain America right about now) rushes to the aid of Steph Rogers, and hope this isn't the time his dumbass best friend hasn't gotten herself into more trouble than she can handle.

[wintern]

This'd be so much easier if she knew anything about robots aside from they work on electricity and whatever science fiction she got from films and books. But she knows enough to dodge when she gets the attention she was looking for in the form of some kind of... energy beam, maybe? It singes her shoulder and a bit of her hair, but it doesn't hurt too bad.

This would probably be easier if it wasn't so huge. She needs to get higher so she can see more of this thing. There's a stairwell she could make a run for, but there's another hole in the ceiling that's closer. With enough of a run-up, she can grab the floor above and pull herself up into it.

Of course, she still doesn't know what to do with this thing. It's like fighting bullies back in Brooklyn; she has a few good hits now and then but mostly she's just too damn stubborn to not stand up for what she thinks is important. And right now, that's keeping the other people in the building safe.

For a few minutes, that's mostly all she does - try to keep it in the same area, away from anyone else, and not get hit. It even works okay until she spots a kid trying to reach one of the exits that's about to get himself hurt something nasty, so she drops down a floor and manages to get herself curled around him just in time to shield him. Course, that's when the cavalry arrives, when she's still gasping for breath after the shock knocks it out of her lungs.

[imfollowinghim]

It does feel like a back alley fight in Brooklyn, except the bullies he's used to fighting are a whole lot smaller and a whole lot more vulnerable to getting socked in the jaw. Taking down this thing is going to be complicated, even if he's got an indestructible shield and a couple other tricks up his sleeve.

He almost doesn't realize he's actually found her until he catches a glimpse of blonde hair and hears that gasping for breath. It triggers some instinctive urge to protect, to run to her instead of barreling into the robot and finding out how well it responds to a full clip in the head from his side arm.

But as much as he can't just leave her there when all he can think about is asthma attacks and long nights of painful coughing and ragged breathing, he can't let the robot continue to wreak havoc, either.

Really, he just can't lose Steph, not after everything else.

So he does just run right at the robot, flinging the shield as hard as he can at whatever looks like a vulnerable spot from this angle. When it bounces back, he catches it and just keeps running, but slides to the side when he sees the robot stagger a little to crouch by Steph and the kid, one gloved hand going to his friend's back.

"Just breathe, I'll try to keep him distracted. You get the kid out of here."

[wintern]

Her breath, only just starting to get under control, catches a little when he touches her back. By rights, taking a hit like that full-on probably should have killed her, so she can't complain much about how much it hurt. She follows it up by laughing a little, breathlessly. "Had 'em on the ropes."

It only takes her a few more seconds to get moving again, guiding the kid outside. There's emergency services on the scene by now, so she hands him off and waits around just long enough to hear about a group of people that're trapped on the second floor before heading back in.

Of course, she isn't leaving Bucky on his own here, either, and she figures it won't hurt if she takes a path that brings her back around the edges of the fight, to see if he needs any help.

[imfollowinghim]

Bucky's fought a lot of crazy stuff in his time: HYDRA agents, genuine aliens, crazy Nazi science projects, but a giant robot? That's new. And his knowledge of how to take this thing down is pretty much the same as Steph's, which means his plan is also pretty similar.

Namely? Punch it until it stops moving.

Which works out great (maybe?), until the thing lists heavily to one side and Bucky starts to slip right off it. He's got the shield, at least, but that doesn't do much good except to break the impact a little when he smashes onto one of the exposed floors of the building. He's stunned, just temporarily, but he knows better than most people how much of a difference a couple seconds can make in the outcome of a fight.

So he could definitely use a hand. Especially since it kind of sounds like it's charging that energy weapon thing again.

[wintern]

She may not know what she's doing, but she can definitely draw some attention while Bucky gets himself back on his feet. Mostly by hitting it with something big enough that it can't help but notice. Again.

Luckily for both of them, that something happened to be near a Stark-brand cell phone someone left behind, which catches her eye mostly because it's displaying the message CAP - PANEL ON THE NECK. OPEN IT, KILL THE WIRING. - TONY. It's close enough to her now that she can reach it and climb high enough to get her hands on the neck. At first, it looks like there isn't even a panel, but she finally finds the seam and tears the damn metal opening the thing.

A few seconds later, she has a handful of wiring and a robot that's frozen in place. She jumps back down, landing more-or-less neatly on her feet. "Buck?"

[imfollowinghim]

"Had him on the ropes," comes the groaned response as Bucky pushes himself back up, grabbing the shield and snapping it back into place on his back before rubbing a hand over his neck. He's sore, but he can shake it off. Nothing's broken.

The robot gets a grumpy, unimpressed once over from Bucky, who isn't sure if he's all that interested on turning his back on it just yet. Cut off one head, and all that.

"If that's one of Stark's, I'm gonna kill him."

And then his attention's totally focused on Steph, and while he's obviously concerned, there's some of that familiar almost pissed off overprotectiveness starting to shine through, too.

I mean really, what the hell were you thinking?

"You okay?"

[wintern]

"Fine."

It's fibbing, a little, but she doesn't want to worry him. She really will be fine, she guesses, so long as she gets some rest and eats enough to feed about four people her size. At least, that's what the SHIELD doctors were figuring. They didn't get much of a chance to test many of her limits.

(Of course, it's not the first time she's ever glossed over an injury because it'll be fine in a little while. Probably won't be the last, either. Though usually she doesn't have a lock of hair singed off at the ends.)

"You?"

[imfollowinghim]

"Fine. The shield broke the fall."

He's wondered, sometimes, about how many times he would have gotten himself killed if he'd gone with one of the other designs Howard had tried to pass off on him.

"Seriously, don't bullshit me. I saw you get clobbered."

And he doesn't know what her limits are. Neither does she. Neither does anyone, really, and he reaches out to touch her singed hair before settling a hand on her shoulder. "We're probably gonna get mobbed by SHIELD in a couple minutes, and I'm gonna kick your ass if you pass out before they get here."

He's worried.

[wintern]

"I didn't get clobbered."

She was doing okay before he got there, really. It was just bad luck that he showed up when she'd abandoned her mostly-working strategy in favor of protecting a kid who'd gotten in the way at the wrong time. It's not like he would've done much differently, except that he had a shield instead of just his back for deflection.

"It's not that bad." Sort of. It's probably better she not see what her back looks like right now. And at the mention of SHIELD, Steph realizes that she's probably in for another day or two of sitting around in a bed while their doctors poke and prod her. She might even consider sneaking out instead of getting stuck in that again if she thought Bucky would let her get away with it.

[imfollowinghim]

Hell, he's considering sneaking out so the two of them can hole up somewhere without cameras and government agents and briefings and everything else. That's never been his favorite part of this job, and while there's a part of him that kind of loves the idea of getting to actually work with Steph, there's another part that's just really friggin' exhausted and wants to make sure she's alright.

Bucky hadn't really gotten a great look at her back when he'd first rushed in, more focused on trying to stop the robot from getting at her or - God forbid - the kid again, so he scoots around to take a look and-

Oh.

"Jesus, Steph."

[wintern]

"What?"

Steph glances at him - some of the emergency workers had tried to tell her something, keep her from going back in. She figured it was routine, trying to keep the civilians away from the disaster zone. It honestly didn't occur to her that she might look that hurt, not when she could run around and fight robots okay.

It really didn't occur to her that it might not have hurt too much because it burned out most of the nerves around the edges of where the robot's energy thing hit. The skin looks... bad, dark and burned through. The only really good thing that can be said of it is that it's very localized to a relatively small area.

"Bucky?"

[imfollowinghim]

If he was a different person with a different history, there's a good chance he'd throw up right about now. As it is, the smell of burnt skin is just a deeply unpleasant reminder of stuff he's seen that still haunts his nightmares and waking hours, and it's made forty times worse because this is Steph, and they still don't know how well she heals. That's bad, that's nerve damage, and even he takes a long time to come back from something like that.

"You seriously can't feel that?" And he sounds... worried and angry, and he's suddenly totally damn impatient for SHIELD and everyone else to get here, because damn.

[wintern]

"It's... it's really not that bad. Doesn't hurt much."

She suddenly feels a lot less confident about how fine she is, especially when Bucky's looking at her like there's something awful on her back. It doesn't help that the adrenaline's finally starting to bleed out, making her feel more tired and less clear than she did a minute ago. "What's wrong?"

[imfollowinghim]

"It nicked you with that energy beam thing." 'Nicked.' "You'll be fine," although he feels like he's trying to convince himself of that more than he's trying to tell her. Steph could get an arm blown off, and she'd probably be trying to say it wasn't a big deal.

That's the thought that makes him reach for her elbow, gripping gently and trying to coax her into sitting down until back up gets here. "Come on, sit down. You breathing okay?"

[wintern]

"I'm breathing fine, Bucky." Steph lets him sit her down, because the look on his face makes her think he's either really overreacting and needs to get it out of his system, or... "I don't have asthma anymore, just got the breath knocked out of me for a minute, earlier."

Not completely unlike how her energy's kind of draining out all at once, here.

[imfollowinghim]

It's probably both. He doesn't have anything in his utility belt that's going to do much for third degree burns, and he knows he's probably being overprotective and stupid, but. They don't know, and Steph practically just got out of the hospital. He's tired of feeling like they're never going to get away from tests and doctors and scientists.

He knows better than to ask for things to be normal. That's just flat out not possible. But he does find himself wishing things were different more often than he should, and he puts a protective arm around Steph - mindful of the burn - with a sigh when he realizes it.

"I guess this means we're gonna need to get you a uniform."

[wintern]

That gets a shaky laugh while she tries to picture herself in Bucky's uniform, or something like it. "And what would my name be? Liberty Belle?" Her head tips to the side, using his shoulder as a pillow for a minute. She's pretty sure she hears movement in the building finally, so they probably only have another minute or two.

[imfollowinghim]

Probably. They're also probably lucky they haven't been interrupted by incredibly loud rock music announcing the arrival of a certain teammate who probably can't resist the siren call of civilians in danger and awesome piece of futuristic technology.

(It's not that Bucky dislikes Tony, so much as he will totally punch him right in the arc reactor if this is one of his science projects gone haywire.)

"Lady Liberty, American Dream, Lieutenant America..." The last one is even more of a joke than the preceding two, and it's easy to joke, to try and distract them both from what's going on. "I don't care what you pick, just try not to get killed."

They should both be dead already, probably. He just doesn't want to find out what something more permanent would be like.

[wintern]

"I won't." She gives him a grin with more confidence than she can possibly have, given what she's saying. "Promise. But I'm not going to be called Lieutenant America."

Because that one is awful.

[imfollowinghim]

"Well, you can't be General America, that just sounds stupid." And he doesn't push her on it, or try to make that more of a promise she can't keep.

The footsteps are getting closer, and Bucky turns a little to try to get a look at who's coming without disturbing Steph.

"We're over here. She's got some burns."

[wintern]

Luckily, the person who arrives first is SHIELD, someone who knows enough to recognize Stephanie Rogers as not just a civilian. He's already requesting a medical team as he approaches, having confirmed that the robot is down and not moving. "How bad?"

Steph is going to let Bucky answer that one, seeing as how he's the only one of the two of them who can actually see them. And also, she's kind of starting to feel woozy.

[imfollowinghim]

"Third degree, I don't know how deep. She said she can't really feel anything, but she's breathing okay." Which hopefully means there isn't any organ damage or anything. He's not really eager to discover how much time it takes a super soldier to come back from something like that.

Steph's expression looks like it's gone a little distant, and he squeezes her arm gently, trying to get her to focus.

"You still with me, Steph?"

[wintern]

Her reply is a beat too late and accompanied by a weak laugh. "Yeah. Just. Adrenaline crash, I think."

And then there's a bottle of water being gently placed in her hands while the agent looks at her. "I'm not really equipped for this, but I'll get an EMT to look at her until we can get her to a SHIELD facility." He glances at Bucky. "Probably better if you both get out of the building."

[imfollowinghim]

"Yeah, good plan." He makes eye contact with the agent, and both wind up taking a side to help her up, steadying hands above her elbows to help get her back on her feet.

Bucky's pretty sure she's still going to insist she's totally cool to walk herself, but for the time being, he's grateful to have an ally in the 'stop Steph from faceplanting on the ground' front.

[wintern]

If he had felt the need to bet on that, he would have won. Because Steph lets out a huff of a breath that says she's had more than enough of being the invalid in any given situation to last a lifetime. "I can still walk."

[imfollowinghim]

"Yeah, well, you said you couldn't feel it, and you've got a hole in your back, so I think we're gonna take it easy," he says, and it's so much easier to joke about that than to let on how disturbed he is by that fact. He's seen Steph in rough shape before, obviously, but nothing like this, nothing like someone would actually get on the battlefield or something.

"You did some good work, Ms. Rogers," the agent chimes in, maybe a little awkwardly, but obviously meaning it. "A lot more people probably would have been hurt if you hadn't been here."

[wintern]

Oddly enough, the compliment does make her feel better. Of course she knew what she was doing, but she was mostly focused on getting people out and minimizing damage. It didn't really sink in that she was finally helping.

Of course, that's when one of her legs tries to just fall out from under her. She catches herself quickly, though, so dignity preserved? "Still fine!"

[imfollowinghim]

"I know you are," Bucky sighs, readjusting his hold just to make sure she's really not going to faceplant, and it's only half placating. She'll be okay. She has to be okay, because he would absolutely be lost at sea without having her to talk to or lean on or just be with, so in his mind, there's really no alternative.

[wintern]

"Guess I'm gonna get to know SHIELD's medical facilities a lot better." And isn't that something she hadn't wanted to do for at least a good long while. Steph glances at him and feels a sudden stab of guilt, because it's really not fair that she's supposed to be healthy now and here he is, half-carrying her to the doctors. Again.

She finds his hand and squeezes it. "We can still watch movies tonight?"

[imfollowinghim]

Bucky has never minded needing to be her human crutch, or wheelchair or ambulance. Well, he's minded, but not because of Steph. Rather, because it's just frustrating that she'd been held back for so long by stuff she had no control of, and even now that she's healthy, he still definitely doesn't mind.

He just wants her to be happy and safe and healthy, and if getting there means leaning on him, he's going to complain.

"If you think I'm letting you get out of the last Indiana Jones movie, you're dead wrong, Rogers."

[wintern]

Steph brightens up a little. "If you think I'm trying to skip out on it, you're a bigger knucklehead than I thought."