This was ridiculous. You weren't in the MedBay, and neither was Tony. The lab was locked, and despite pounding on the door for thirty minutes, no one answered. All Friday was replying was 'I am not at liberty to divulge the whereabouts of Miss Luka or Mr Stark', which was utter bullcrap. So Bucky had now resigned himself to sitting silently in the kitchen, staring at the door, and waiting.

Everyone else on the team had come and gone, discussing what happened, trying to ask Bucky what he saw, why the agents all suddenly dropped dead when the lights went out, where Stark was. Bucky didn't respond to any of it.

He was trying to figure it out himself, until either you or Tony appeared in that doorway to give him answers.

He jolted awake when he heard the rustling of fabric in his left ear. Apparently he had fallen asleep on the table. He ran his hands over his face then looked at the source of the noise.

"Stark." He growled, then shoved his chair away and stood up, jabbing his finger into the smaller man's chest. "Where the hell is she?"

Tony breathed, then pushed Bucky's finger off of him, which Bucky didn't resist. "She's safe."

"That's not good enough."

"It'll have to be for now." Stark replied confidently. The two men studied each other. "Sit down." Tony finally gestured to the chair, then put a bottle of whiskey down that Bucky hadn't even noticed he was holding.

Bucky obliged, but kept his gaze on Tony, who was also apparently holding two glasses, which he placed next to the bottle. He unscrewed the lid, then poured some of the liquid out into both glasses, passing one to Bucky. Bucky took it, but didn't drink it.

"Have you figured it out yet?" Tony asked, drinking most of the liquid in one gulp, before looking back at Bucky.

"Why don't you tell me, and I'll tell you if it matches my theory?" Bucky eyed Tony, still not having a sip of his drink. He was angry, and he wasn't about to let Stark have the upper hand just yet.

Tony laughed. "You've been sitting here for fourteen hours, not talking to anyone, and you want to act like you're not desperate to discuss what happened?"

"She has powers." Bucky finally whispered. Tony nodded, refilling his glass. "What kind?"

"We don't know." Tony sighed.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean...we know generally what type of power she has, but not the full extent."

"Okay, what type is it?"

"Something akin to our Asgardian Thunder friend."

"T...thor? She has powers like Thor?" Bucky stammered. Tony nodded, swirling his glass. "Like, lightning?"

"More electrical, really. Thor has been...coaching her, the best he can, but she's slightly different. It's like...like she's manipulating the molecules' energy around her, rather than just drawing it."

Bucky breathed, taking in this information. Then it clicked.

"Hydra knew about her. Her powers." He thought aloud. Tony nodded again. "The agent...He was shaking when he walked up to her. How..." Bucky trailed off.

"How what?"

"How did Hydra know about her if we didn't?"

"She's been on Hydra's list for a while." Tony explained. Bucky could tell there was more to it. "It's not my story to tell. They shouldn't have known she was here."

"That's why you had me watching her."

"Who better to watch someone on Hydra's list, than someone that used to work for Hydra?"

Bucky's hand tightened around his glass. He drained it.

"Look Barnes," Tony continued. "She's been through hell for most of her life. No one knew she was here until you met her. So I gotta ask..."

Bucky frowned at the billionaire. "You think I leaked information?!"

"No, I meant what I said about trusting you not to cross me. But it's not a coincidence. We need to be careful with what we do and who we talk to. Because unless there's another battle that wipes out the building, it'll be too suspicious to move the compound again."

Bucky nodded.

"When can I see her?" He asked. Tony drained his glass and stood up.

"Not yet." Bucky scoffed at his answer. "But soon." Tony picked up Bucky's now empty glass, tried to offer him a half smile, failed, and left with no other words. Bucky stared after the empty doorway, clicking his tongue and thinking what to do.

All he wanted was to make sure you were okay, but after this, he wasn't so sure. You'd obviously lied to him for a reason - well, not lied, but omitted the truth. Knowing Hydra was after you, that explained it a little. It made sense that you wanted nothing to do with the team, it made you more vulnerable the more people knew about you. What made less sense was why you always gave him a hard time about his abilities when you had superpowers yourself.

With a sigh, he stood, and headed to bed, although he doubted he would get much sleep.

Bucky kept to himself for the next few days. He trained a lot, but the rest of the team knew to stay away for now. They didn't know the reason, not the whole reason.

A few of them thought that the Hydra attack resurfaced old memories. Some thought that you'd been hurt, and he felt guilty he couldn't stop it. Some thought that you'd been taken, and Bucky was pissed at that, although the lack of recovery mission planning made that theory less possible.

All that they did know was that Bucky was angry.

A week after the team returned from the Peru base, they finally caught Bucky up with what they'd found, although it wasn't much. The base was empty, but the radio had been hooked up and used. They found no evidence of who exactly had been there, but the symbol sprayed onto the wall denoted Hydra.

He didn't take much of it in. He was working on a theory of his own. A theory that Hydra drew the team to Peru, to send their own team to the compound. For you. He was trying to work out how, and that's where he was stuck.

If no one knew you were here, how did they know to come? None of the team were Hydra, none of them were double agents, not anymore. Tony would have found out, and Bucky would have killed them. Killed them for putting you in danger.

He was sitting on the edge of his bed, his hands over his face, thinking over and over the whole situation, the moment he met you, the moment the others met you, trying to find the cause. Trying to find the truth.

9 days after the compound was stormed, someone finally knocked on his door.

He squeezed his eyes, blinking away the exhaustion, and rushed up, licking his dry lips and swinging it open to reveal-

"Nat." He croaked. She looked at him with soft eyes, and waited until he moved to the side, gesturing for her to come in.

"I've been told to give you something." She said, reaching into her back pocket and bringing out an envelope. She patted it against the palm of her hand a couple of times. "You can't open it until I leave, and you can't act on it until tomorrow."

"What...what are you talking about?" He frowned, as she handed the envelope over.

"Those are my instructions. Open it when I go, act on it tomorrow. Got it?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. He took the envelope.

"Fine. What's it about?"

"No clue."

"Okay...who's it from?"

She stayed silent. He rolled his eyes.

"Secret envelope from a secret person. With everything that's happened you know better than to take things at face value." He held out the envelope for her to take back. She didn't. She did toy with her tongue inside her mouth though.

"Stark." She said, after a few seconds. Bucky's hand dropped.

"Stark?"

"Remember the rules." She said, before turning and leaving his room, the door closing softly behind her.

Bucky stared down at the envelope. It was simple, white, thick enough that he couldn't see what was inside. Light. Even weight distribution. Nothing more than paper inside. He licked his lips, then ripped it open.

It was a single piece of paper, with a short message.

Basement Storage. 4B.

He turned it over. He held it up to the light. There was nothing else on it.

He read the words again.

He frowned. What the hell did it mean? He read it again, pacing up and down his room as he thought.

He stopped.

"FRIDAY?" He said into the silent air.

"Yes Mr Barnes?"

"Is...do we have a basement?"

The AI was silent. He was about to ask again when-

"Yes. You can access it in the morning."

His heart thumped. He looked at the paper again.

"How do I get there?" He asked. Again, the AI took a few seconds to respond.

"Elevator 3."

Bucky shot out of his room, running through the compound hallways to the elevator. Elevator 1 was for the admin staff. 2 was for the conference rooms. 3 was the team access. He never remembered seeing a button for a basement floor on it though.

He skidded to a stop in front of the elevator, smashing the button and muttering to himself as he waited. When the doors finally dinged open, he ran in, his eyes scanning furiously over the buttons.

There was no button that sounded like a basement level. None. G-15, then the call and alarm buttons, and the ID scanner. He started fiddling with the panel, seeing if any part of it came off, because a hidden button wouldn't surprise him in Stark's building. The doors closed, and he was left alone, his breathing heavy as he tried to figure it out.

"Please select a floor." The voice came out through the speaker.

"Yeah I'm fucking trying!" Bucky hissed back at the AI as he kept fiddling. He finally yelled in frustration and smacked the panel, then rested his hands on it as his head hung down.

"Barnes, James."

He looked up, seeing his hand was accidentally resting on the scanner, and rolled his eyes, taking his hand off. It was there in case someone other than the team came in, the higher officials, so that Stark could track their access, and limit certain floors. He'd never had to use it before, considering he was never showing officials around, and only ever needed the generic floors.

A ding came from it, and he looked to see a new screen being shown. A box of coding, a picture of his face, and four buttons that lined the bottom of the screen - PH, SR, PM, B.

B

He took a deep breath in, his face feeling warm, and he reached out, pressing the 'B'.

The elevator lurched into action, and he felt himself going down, the windows turning into concrete as it moved through the higher floors, down to ground level. After what felt like ten minutes, the elevator stopped, and the doors slid apart.

It was cold, grey, and empty. He stepped out, something settling oddly in his stomach. He looked up and down the dimly lit corridor, and spotted a door. He walked up to it - 2C.

He needed 4B. He looked to the left, noting that one was 2B, so started walking to the right. Thankfully, the letters only went up to D before moving on to the next letter, so it wasn't long until he found the door he was looking for.

He paused outside it. Was he supposed to knock? Was there another handprint scanner he needed to use? He couldn't see one, all he could see was a metal door with an old metal handle. Very unassuming, very untechnical.

He knocked.

The door swung open.

Stark was standing on the other side. And he rolled his eyes.

"Did Nat not give you all of the instructions?" Stark asked.

"I...yes, what-"

"I'm sure one of them was waiting until tomorrow. I specifically told her to say 'tomorrow'!" Tony ranted to himself as he walked into the room. Bucky followed him, closing the door behind him.

The room was different from the corridor. It was bright, amber lighting, carpeted. Warm.

"Tony, what am I doing here?" Bucky asked, snapping Tony out of his trance.

"Oh, that, well..."

"I told you he wouldn't wait until tomorrow."

Bucky whipped round.

You were standing there.