Monster

The next morning I woke early to the sound of my phone ringing. I jumped out of bed but Steve was gone and the sky was still dark. I scrambled to reach my phone from the nightstand and then I inwardly winced when I didn’t recognize the number. I didn’t like taking unknown calls. But I was in this situation because of an unknown call. I pressed accept anyway and brought the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” I said.

“Kitchen, now,” the voice snapped.

“What? My kitchen?”

“Now.” Then he hung up.

I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I flung the covers off and hurried to turn on the light. I didn’t want to meet anyone in my kitchen without proper clothes on. So I pulled on some jeans and a plain shirt and reached for my shiny pink knife. I stepped out into the hallway, hearing voices down below. It could have been HYDRA, but I could just make out the low sound of Steve’s voice and he seemed calm. I crossed the hall and gave the guestroom door a knock.

“Bucky? Are you awake?” I asked quietly. There was no answer. So I reached for the doorknob and pushed the door open. The room was empty and the bed was made. But the pillow was ruffled and the room still smelled like Steve’s soap. So I assumed Bucky had at least stayed the night.

“Great,” I muttered. Then I hurried down the stairs to see who was in my house.

The entire group was waiting for me in my kitchen. Sam, Steve, Romanoff, and…

“D-Director Fury,” I said, nearly stumbling into the room. “I thought you were dead.”

“Almost,” he said standing to his feet. He winced from unseen pain but pushed it away as quickly as I’d seen it. “What the hell did you do?” he snapped at me. I looked around at their faces. Steve and Sam both seemed apologetic. Romanoff was expressionless.

“What do you mean, what did I do?” I asked him. He slammed his hands on my table and it looked like it caused the man some pain, but no one made a mention of it.

“You blew your own cover.”

“The job was to get Bucky to make contact with Steve, which he did. My job was to help Steve help Bucky, which is what I’m doing.”

“Your mission was to be a decoy. Your mission was to stand in the background and look cute while Rogers took care of the situation.” I stood back and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Last I checked I didn’t have to take orders from you. Or anyone for that matter. I’m not being paid for this job, therefore you have no say about how I choose to do it. Bucky came to me and I did exactly what everyone wanted me to do. I was gentle like everyone wanted me to be. It wasn’t my fault that he came to me first. I still played my part and got him to talk to Steve. I still made sure he was safe.”

“He’s not safe. He’s not safe for any of us.” I saw Steve tense from the corner of my eye and Sam shook his head. I felt my own eyes narrow.

“He’s not a monster, Director Fury. He’s a broken man and he’s killed as many people as you have.” I knew I’d struck a cord the second I said it. Fury believed the work he did had done was for the greater good. So did Bucky at one time.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“Bucky didn’t realize what he was doing was wrong. But when he figured it out he tried to redeem himself. You still seem to be making excuses for why you had guns pointed at half the world.”

“My job was to protect this world.”

“Bucky thought that’s what his job was too. And your job almost killed half the planet. Including my sister.”

“I want you off the mission. I want you to cease contact with Barnes immediately.” I had to laugh.

“You honestly think that telling me not to see him is going to stop anything? That man is better at hiding and searching than any of you. He’s going to find me no matter where I go. And pissing him off is the last thing you want to do right now. I blew my cover to gain his trust. He already knew anyway. He knew from the start. Your plan failed. Mine didn’t.”

“I can put up a perimeter around your house.”

“She’s the only one who can get through to him. If you put up a barrier between Bucky and her right now you can completely tear down all of the work that she’s done,” Steve said to my defense. Fury cut his eye to the captain.

“With all due respect, Captain, Agent Hayes isn’t emotionally stable enough for the job. I thought that would have been something you would have considered before considering her. Her therapist advised me to stick her in a desk job where I could watch her. She has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and is prone to violent outbursts.” I gritted my teeth and shifted from one foot to the other. I wanted to scream at him but I kept my mouth shut.

“With all due respect,” Steve said in a cold voice, “That’s the whole reason Bucky went to her in the first place. She’s the only one who understands him. And if you take that link away from him you’re going to put a lot of people’s lives in danger.”

“It’s okay, Steve,” I said lifting my hand to silence him. “Fury never intended for me to be a decoy. Not when he permitted you guys to give me this job. I was just bait. Fury isn’t angry that I blew my cover. He didn’t want me to help you. You said so yourself. You don’t trust SHIELD. Fury allowed you to give me this job to prove that Bucky would harm an innocent civilian. He’s angry that I proved that theory wrong. Bucky isn’t dangerous. Not unless you start manipulating him. I’m going to keep working with him. I’m going to try and rehabilitate him. I know I’m not emotionally stable. But Steve is right. That’s the whole reason Bucky came to me and that’s why I’m the best person to do it.”

He leaned his knuckles against my table and glared at me with his one eye. I could feel his anger in the room and I hated him for putting me in such a stressful situation. But I still wanted to help Bucky.

“If he kills anyone,” he said slowly. “A single person. It’s on you.” I gave a quick nod.

“I won’t let that happen.”

“Prove it.”

Notes

This chapter feels off to me. But I had to change it around to fit with the SHIELD stuff so ugh...