[Bucky Barnes; R] The Righteous Side Of Hell: Chapter 13 Character/Series: Bucky Barnes, Cast; Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: R Notes: Not with a bang, but a whimper. Title: The Righteous Side Of Hell - Chapter 13: We'll Go Hand In Hand Author:yuuo Word Count: 6624 Summary:Bucky had a thought.
where do we go from here where do we go from here the battle's done, and we kind of won so we sound our victory cheer where do we go from here -Joss Whedon
Bucky had a thought. He hoped it was a good one, thought it was a good one, but Steve might not want to. But Bucky had to know how far in Hydra had gotten. Steve was obviously doing better now that the drug was out of his system; he remembered a bit more, spoke more confidently about what was still in his memories, but one subject he avoided at all costs was Hydra. Which told Bucky they were in there somewhere. The question was how deep and how much.
It was what was hopefully their last night stuck in the hospital- Bucky wanted to get back to his own apartment and cook his own meals and play around with his tools so badly he was ready to gnaw on his bed table. Bruce had let him have his tablet, so at least he was keeping up on the internet.
Steve apparently remembered that Bucky had a tendency to share horrifying things and warned him immediately to keep the internet to himself once Bucky had his tablet in hand.
Good. That meant Steve wasn't going to be surprised when Bucky failed to heed his warning.
But Bucky had that thought. He presented it to Steve that night before bed.
"Hey, Steve."
"Get off your tablet before you say that," Steve said.
Bucky made a face at him. "You're no fun."
"I try not to be when it comes to you and that tablet," Steve said, then pointed at Bucky. "That I remember very well. I can't remember specific examples, but I know I have had to drag you away from the internet to save my sanity."
"That was when I found the article about the dude fucking a Hot Pocket, and without letting it cool."
Steve threw his pillow at Bucky, smacking him square in the face. "Damnit, Bucky."
Bucky grinned, tossing the pillow back. "Just wait until you remember the snake."
"I don't want to remember the snake."
"If you don't, Bruce and I will remind you."
"Bruce is not that evil."
Bucky gave him a look of strong disbelief. "If you remember anything at all about him, you know that's not true."
Steve's face screwed up into one of concentration. "I... no, not that much. He's that bad?"
Bucky snorted. "Not bad as much as too deadpan for his own good. He and my girlfriend get along beautifully. If it wasn't for how well he gets along with Sharon and the two of us too, I'd worry that there's competition in this group."
Steve tilted his head, and Bucky watched the wheels turning, trying to dredge up lost memories. "I thought there were other Avengers."
"There are," Bucky said. "And Tony's usually around, mostly in the lab with Bruce and I. But it's us five that are around the most, so we're together the most. We still have the other Avengers, we just..." He stopped, trying to put thoughts back into words that had failed him. "I guess we're like a subgroup. Kinda like how the Howling Commandos were closer than the rest of the team on the mission against Hydra."
Steve went back to that thinky remembering expression. The Howling Commandos were something that were blurry in his memory still, Bucky had discovered. "I can't remember that." He looked down-hearted. "How long does this take?"
"As much time as it takes," Bucky answered. "Sam says that a lot. It's okay, you'll remember. Maybe we'll go back to the Smithsonian, try to get in when there's not five billion people crowded in there."
"That bad?"
Bucky rolled his eyes in a 'heaven help me' expression. "It's tourist season and we made the mistake of doing almost nothing to hide our identities in there. We were dumb."
"How long ago was this?"
"Couple weeks."
Steve leaned over, folded his hands on the back of his neck, head bowed. "I should be remembering this."
Bucky got off his bed and walked over to crouch in front of Steve, right in his line of sight. "You will," he said. "I promise. And we keep promises between each other."
Steve gave him a smile that wasn't all there. "I know."
"Speaking of promises..." Bucky said. "Need you to do something for me."
Steve looked suddenly suspicious. "What?"
"Don't act like I'm asking you to do something weird. This might actually be necessary to help you recover what Hydra took from your head."
That actually got Steve to sit up a bit, dropping his hands onto his lap. "I can't help but think I won't like this," he said. "But if it'll help, I'll do it."
"Promise."
"Before I know what it is?"
Bucky reached up and took one of Steve's hands. "Trust your big brother on this, yeah?"
Steve's shoulders slumped, even though his expression clearly said he knew he didn't want to do what Bucky was about to ask. "You've said that before."
"And I was right."
"Which is the only reason I'll say I promise to do whatever you're asking. Just be nice about it."
Bucky took a deep breath. "It's not going to be nice, more than likely. But I need to see how far into your head Hydra got." Steve started to protest, but Bucky kept talking right over him. "Steve, you know they're in there. It's a question of how far, and it's important to know. I know the way out, for the most part, and I can't help you if I don't know how far in to go to find you."
Steve really didn't like that statement, didn't like how right Bucky was, his expression and body language looking ready to argue. He looked back down at his lap. "Not that far," he said, a clear lie.
"Steve, don't lie. You're still not that good at it, and you can't lie to me." Bucky moved to grab Steve's eye contact again. "I mean, Steve, don't lie to me. Not now, not on this."
Reluctantly, Steve looked back at him. "What do you want me to do?"
"This is your first night without the drugs," Bucky said. "Which I can promise will mean nightmares. Any that wake you up, I want you draw something that stuck out the most before you go back to sleep."
In a pitiful grab to get out of his promise, Steve tried to look at Bucky like he was crazy. "You want me to keep a dream diary?"
Bucky scowled at him. "Don't be dumb. You know damn well what I mean. Just for tonight. If we can't tell, one more night before I make the call."
"What call, to not put me in therapy?" Steve asked, not sounding happy at the prospect. Bucky didn't blame him, he'd hated the idea too, perhaps more. "I'm fine, Bucky."
"You promised."
Steve looked away, then sighed and back to Bucky. "All right, you're right. I did. I can't promise that you'll get anything useful, but I'll draw for you."
Bucky patted Steve's knee. "Good man. Now, lay down and go to sleep. It's late, and if your pathology clears, Tony's gonna wanna call an Avengers meeting."
Steve looked up at him as Bucky stood. "Why? What happened?"
"The lab," Bucky answered. "I stole some information on Hydra while we were there, and we gotta figure out what to do with it and how."
"This feels familiar."
"Because you've done it once before," Bucky said, walking over to his bed and dropping himself on it. "That's what you and Sam worked on together. Maria and Natasha were part of it, too. Don't worry, it'll make sense eventually."
"I hope so," Steve said, laying down on his side to face Bucky, just as back in DC. The only difference was that the beds were positioned such that Bucky was going to have to sleep on his mechanical shoulder to face Steve. But he wasn't going to turn his back to Steve when he was needed, so he'd put up with it.
"Night, Steve."
"Night, Bucky."
Steve woke up several times during the night, waking Bucky in the process, but he kept only one eye cracked when it happened, watching Steve, sweaty and shaking, trying to draw what he'd just dreamed, clearly a nightmare. There was one point where Steve simply got up to use the restroom, and Bucky let himself go back to sleep. Steve didn't need his vigilance just to piss.
Bucky woke up first, to no real surprise. He'd woken several times that night, but had a relatively peaceful rest in between, and didn't stay up very long when he'd woken, just long enough to ensure that Steve was keeping his promise, then back down into the wonderful world of a deep sleep.
He was quiet when he got up, taking his turn in the bathroom before Steve woke up and demanded he hurry. But he had a chance to take a regular routine that included shaving unmolested; Steve was still asleep when he wandered back out into the room.
Deciding Steve would be unlikely to wake with nightmares anymore, he quietly grabbed the sketchbook he'd seen Steve drawing in over the night and took it back to his bed. Settling in, legs crossed, he dropped the book on his lap and started going through the images.
The last familiar picture was that shaky one of the doctors, and the ones after that were no less poorly drawn, the lines wiggling and sometimes ending in nothing. But the images where still recognizable. Steve's shield with the Hydra symbol- Bucky could only assume that was a reaction to finding out he'd been working for them through SHIELD. It seemed logical, at least, although it could mean far more.
The other pictures were more of the same; the doctors, Schmidt, Zola's face warped on what looked like a computer screen. Lots of bad memories, but all of Hydra. And those doctors cropped up again and again and again, sometimes in nonsense images, sometimes crystal clear. There was one image that Bucky recognized very clearly, the image of him in cryo, the picture on the Winter Soldier Project files. There was another image of Bucky, fist bloodied above what Bucky assumed was Steve's own point of view. He was forced to look away from the book for a second, recognizing that. He saw the dawning of realization on his own face.
"It's not the end of the line yet," he whispered to himself, turning the page before his own hands started to shake as much as Steve's had been while drawing last night.
The sheer number of pages that Steve drew on was astonishing. Bucky didn't remember him waking up that many times; all he could think was that Steve had drawn more than one image per nightmare. Good, that gave him a better idea.
And it wasn't a good one. Hydra was in there, and deep. How long it took him to recover depended on a lot of factors, one of which was going to be patience Bucky wasn't sure he had.
"Is that what you wanted?" Steve asked.
Bucky looked up at him. Steve was still laying on his side, watching Bucky with a look of unsettled sleepiness.
"Yeah," Bucky said, trying to keep his tone level. "You did good." He nodded his head towards the bathroom. "Now go get around. Bruce will probably be here soon with your pathology reports." There was a knock on the door frame and Bucky looked over. "Or now, instead of soon. Hey, Bruce."
Bruce stepped in. "Good morning. Have those pathology reports I heard you two talking about."
Steve sat up. "Am I clear to go home?"
Bruce smiled with a nod. "You are. Your numbers are consistent with someone whose metabolism is five times faster than normal. I'm taking you off the medicine, let your body finish getting you back to where you were before on its own."
"Thank god," Steve said, looking ready to jump off his bed and head upstairs. "I want a real shower and my choice of clothes." He looked down at his scrubs. "Bucky, did you bring anything for me to change into the other day when you went up to shower?"
"Yeah, they're in the closet. And if you throw a pillow at me for the shirt, you are getting mine stuffed down your throat."
Steve stopped halfway off his bed. "You grabbed that Captain America shirt, didn't you?" Bucky gave him a wide grin in return. Steve gave him a tired look, but fetched his clothes and wandered into the bathroom.
Bruce looked at Bucky. "I need a report from you," he said, motioning to the sketchbook. "Is it bad, or are you just looking at old stuff?"
Bucky looked down at the notebook, the last image of the murdered doctors, more blood in the room than had actually been there. It was all over the walls, all over his sheets, all over the Soldier. "I was right," Bucky said, voice quiet to avoid Steve hearing. "Call Tony, tell him we can meet up."
Bruce didn't answer him in words, just took in a breath, nodded once, then glanced up. "JARVIS, call Tony, tell him we're ready for that meeting."
"Of course, Doctor Banner," JARVIS said. "Stand by, I will ask Mister Stark where to have the Avengers meet."
"Probably the penthouse," Bucky said, closing the sketchbook. He set it aside, pulled on his boots, and then started gathering up all of his and Steve's things. "We'll meet wherever after we put these away," he said.
Steve came back out in his clean jeans and t-shirt, a dark grey with the image of his shield plastered right over the chest. Bucky turned his face to hide the amused and completely evil grin on his face.
"Mister Stark requests all Avengers gather in the penthouse," JARVIS said, right on schedule. "You are to, quoting at his request, 'hurry your asses up.'"
Bucky rolled his eyes. "Tell him we'll be there when we get there and to put out the fire under his ass," he said, before looking at Steve. "Come on, let's go put these away. Make his royal majesty wait."
"Bucky," Steve said, giving Bucky a stern look. "That's not nice."
"I'm not feeling nice," Bucky said. "And Tony had JARVIS swearing at us, he can just have a drink and settle down."
Despite his words, he and Steve did not take long to put away the notebooks and pencils they'd both taken down for their own amusement. The penthouse was only a few floors up, and Bucky counted the seconds it took the elevator to get them there.
The girls and the other three men in the group were already waiting. Bucky wondered how long Bruce had been there- they couldn't have been far behind him. Tony was at the bar, drinking a glass of a clear liquor, as Bucky had a feeling he might.
Tony pointed at them. "You kept us waiting."
"We had stuff to clear out of the hospital," Bucky said, moving to take his usual chair. Steve hesitated, then took the couch seat closest to Bucky. He didn't seem to know that's what he usually did.
Bucky's temper ticked up a notch, then got pulled forcibly down again. "So start talking," he said, looking over at Tony.
Tony pointed at him with his glass. "You don't get to talk to me like that," he said. "You're the one that gave me that stupid USB."
"It was Junior's idea to grab the other information," Bucky said. "Blame your UI that you decided to name after your cat."
"She treated you well, don't you make fun of her," Tony said, walking over. He took a seat in a chair and motioned at the central table where the USB sat. "Okay, long story short, Cap and Bucky got a job offer from Israel to go break up a Hydra base in Palestine. Big trap, everyone knew that. These three-" he swept his hand at the girls and Bruce "-decided to tag along, make things go easier. The Hulk ended up destroying part of a very old archeological dig site. Now we have information they got that puts Hydra in Israel's government."
"Then we release the information as was done with SHIELD," Thor said. "That seems a simple choice."
"Yeah, not so simple," Tony said, sitting up a bit. "As any of the other Americans here can tell you, British boy, Israel, while generally loved by us, is hated by everyone in that area. Especially Iran."
"I have heard of Iran. President Ellis and Prime Minister Scott have been working with other countries on terms to lift the embargo on their oil," Thor said. "But what do they have to do with Israel? They are three countries apart and are not in rivaling trade industries."
"Good point," Tony said. "Glad you're half paying attention to Earth politics now that you live here." He sighed. "The problem is, Iran has a nuclear program. They have nuclear weapons, and they hate Israel with a passion. Iraq used to stand as a good distraction for Iran, but our dumb country destroyed Iraq's government. And Afghanistan's, who might've also been good at keeping Iran off of Israel's back."
Sam covered his eyes. "I see where this is going. We release this information, everyone's going to be trying to hunt Hydra down."
"Yup," Tony said. "Fortunately, Israel's government is built to bounce back from poor elections, but with Hydra in there nobody's going to trust whoever gets in after a re-election. And so soon after taking SHIELD down, I'm not sure anyone's going to trust the US going in and doing it. Which means a lot of people are going to be investigating everyone in the Israeli government before letting them run to replace a Hydra seat. That's all well and good, but as long as they don't have a stable government, their military is going to be strained to keep Iran or any of the other Arab nations from attacking. Israel has a nuclear program- the world at large doesn't know that, but I do, Stark Industries helped them develop them, I am loathe to admit -but if they bring that to light, especially with Russia backing Iran..."
"We have another Cold War," Bucky said.
"World War III might've been better," Sharon said, resting her chin on her palm and her elbow on her knee. "At least a world war wouldn't create a ten year quagmire like Vietnam."
"What do you think happened with Iraq?" Sam asked. "It was the exact same, except we used terrorism and not communism as our scapegoat. So our position is only going to be worse."
"Israel would be smart to not reveal their nuclear program," Maria said. "Junior said there's no information indicting the prime minister in Israel. There is a chance that she will listen to reason and keep that quiet unless absolutely needed."
"Or we could just drop the information and let them glass each other," Bucky said, a statement that earned him some shocked looks. He shrugged. "Hydra's probably in both countries. Let them scorch the damn earth between them."
"Bucky, that's going to put innocent people in the way," Steve said. He may not have understood entirely what was going on, but he knew enough to scold Bucky for that.
"Fine," Bucky said. "What do we do with this, then? I say drop it like we did with SHIELD. If we're worried about people blaming us for it, give it to Anonymous."
Sam pointed at Bucky and looked at Tony. "That's not a bad idea. The Anonymous thing, not the other."
Tony took a long drink of his liquor. "The only problem is that even if it doesn't come back that we got the information in the first place, Hydra is Cap and Bucky's thing. And they're Avengers. And we already exposed one major government as having Hydra in it. We're gonna get blamed one way or another. Or at least made to clean up the mess."
"So the eight of us protecting an entire country from a nuclear program in another country?" Thor said. "That seems like we would be overwhelmed. We are certainly a good team, powerful and able to take on some extraordinary challenges, but I believe this may be above us."
"Probably less than eight," Tony said. He looked dead at Bucky. "How right were you?"
Bucky didn't answer right away, couldn't. He wanted to be there for his team. He wanted Steve to be there for the team. He didn't want to tell Steve that they were out, that Hydra was too far in them both. But it was a question that had to be answered. "More than I wanted to be," he finally said. "They're in, we can't be trusted. Not now, not yet."
While Tony looked grim, as did the girls, Sam and Thor seemed confused. Bruce was already aware. Steve, however, beat both Sam and Thor to the question. "Who can't?" he asked. "What's this about?"
Bucky wasn't going to argue it with Steve in front of the others, so he stood. "Come on, Steve, Out to the landing pad. We have to have a talk."
"Bucky-"
"Now."
Steve jerked back from the harshness in Bucky's tone. Bucky rarely took that tone, rarely tried to order Steve around, at least not against Steve's will. But he was still the leader in this matter at least, so Bucky would take the lead and demand his orders be obeyed. Steve got up and followed him.
"We'll be back," Bucky told the others at the door to the landing pad, then pulled it open and let Steve go first.
"Okay, what's this about?" Steve demanded once the door was shut.
"We're not going to be joining the fight against Hydra."
That made Steve actually look angry. "Bucky, they have always been our job," he said, voice working up to a shout very quickly. "We are not abandoning people when those bastards are still-"
"Stop," Bucky ordered with a hard voice. "Steve, listen to yourself. Listen to how aggressive and angry you are. I know you have right to be upset, but you didn't even give me a chance to explain why. You ran right over your best friend and yelled at me."
Steve lowered his voice a few decibels, but the hostility on his face didn't abate, didn't even soften a little. "That's because my best friend is being stupid."
"I saw those pictures, Steve," Bucky said, voice firm, loud enough that Steve would have to yell again to be heard over him, and with a sharp snap of a commanding officer that he'd always had the ability to do, despite his lack of rank. "They're in. Tell me truthfully, how would you react to me being out there? Hydra got in. Got back into me. You saw what happened to those doctors. They're back in. If I saw you out there and you got so much as a scratch, the monster would come back. And I can't promise he'll care about anyone but you, who he might hurt to get to you. That includes our teammates. I'm benched, Steve. Can you handle being out there without me? Can I?"
Bucky didn't like a word he was saying, and Steve clearly didn't either, but the words were hitting home and while the anger was there, it looked redirected back on himself. Bucky would deal it that in a second, deal with putting that anger back where it belonged without it working Steve up into a berserker frenzy for Hydra's blood.
"We're stuck in the dug out, Steve," Bucky continued in a softer and more patient tone. "There's no way around it. Hydra made us not to be trusted by our own teammates. Be angry, yes. But not at them, and not at me. But you know that's where that anger's gonna go with how far in Hydra's gotten."
Steve stared at the ground, fists clenching and unclenching. Bucky waited patiently for his words to finish sinking in. Finally, Steve looked defeated, looked almost ready to cry from frustration. "They got back into you?"
"The second I saw you on that operating table," Bucky said. "They're in us both, and it'll take time that the Avengers don't have to get them out. We can't go into the field with them."
Steve took in a deep breath, looking up and away, then back at Bucky. He wiped away the tears forming. "Fine. You're right. I can try to lie about me, but I have to take care of you. I can't let the Winter Soldier back out there."
"And I can't let Captain America out there," Bucky said. "We don't go anywhere without each other. So if I'm stuck, so are you."
There was a long pause as Steve looked off over his shoulder. "All right, we stay behind. Maybe we can help Bruce."
Bucky had a bad feeling that that wouldn't happen, but he kept that thought to himself until he'd talked to Tony. He grabbed the glass door. "Come on, let's go back in. We can help plan strategy, at least."
Looking defeated, Steve stepped back inside and went back to his chair. Bucky felt awkward, sitting back down next to him, all eyes on them. "We're benched," he said. "Hydra did some work on us, we need to sit out until it's out. We'll stay behind. Steve can help with strategy, I can help come up with new weapons in the lab."
Tony nodded once or twice, not making eye contact, which meant he was thinking. "I think we'll be safe to keep the Avengers here," he said, sounding like that's not what he really wanted to say. "But I want you two not here."
"What?" Steve sat up. "Tony, Bucky just pointed out how we can still help."
"Yeah, I know," Tony said. "But I know how vicious the Soldier can get when it comes to Hydra, and we don't know how bad you'll get. I don't want out of control tempers and grudges interfering in what we have to do. And you two are clever, I don't need you sneaking along." He held up a hand to forestall any arguments. "I have possession of an old boarding school in upstate New York. It was for gifted kids or something like that. I never used it, I was already in MIT before I was old enough to go to the place. But I've had the grounds maintained. I'm going to send you and Bruce and the girls there."
Bucky had a feeling that had been coming, and Tony made a good point about the grudge match against Hydra showing up, but he wasn't about to go without a protest or two. "Tony, that only-"
"Leaves three Avengers," Sam finished for him. He looked at Bucky. "I got this." He looked back at Tony. "But seriously, Tony, you're sending away five Avengers, that leaves you, me, and Thor."
Tony shook his head. "Natasha and Clint are off-grid, I can't contact them, but I can promise as soon as this information hits the web, they'll be back within a day or two. And I'll see if the president can spare us Rhodey. That's five."
"Five."
"It only took four of you to take down SHIELD," Tony pointed out. "And there'll be five of us if I can get Rhodey."
Sam put his face in his hands. "Tony, taking down SHIELD with an info dump and turning three helicarriers on themselves is not the same as protecting an entire country from getting blasted by nuclear weapons." He dropped his hands. "We're gonna have back up, sure, I don't doubt that. Israel's gonna be using their own military, and even if they're not trusted, the US is gonna have their military in there, guarding the place."
"The Prime Minister, if she's innocent, might give us control of the military there," Tony said. "Israel's only not been bombed yet because of the US and the fact that they keep sabotaging Iran's efforts. It's too late, the weapons are built, but we can follow their tactics, disarm the problem before we have to wish for an interdimensional portal for me to throw a nuclear bomb up into. We'll have back up."
"Yeah," Sam said. "But again, five of us. It'd at least be eight if we kept Bruce and the girls."
"I can't go out," Bruce said. "Steve's memory loss is a medical condition, caused by a drug. He's been through the worst of detox, according to Bucky, but I have to be around in case something else comes up."
"And if Hydra's in them enough that they can't fight, with Bruce going with them, we want someone who can keep the boys from setting off the Hulk," Tony said. "So yes, we're losing five people."
"We will need a doctor as well, if Doctor Banner is to leave," Thor said. "Do we have anyone else we trust to tend to our wounded? And have we plans to hide our family members who cannot fight?"
Maria spoke up. "We've hidden my father and Bucky's brother. Tony won't say where. I would recommend you hide Jane and the others on Asgard, or some other place where they can't be reached."
Thor shook his head. "I cannot take them to Asgard. My father does not like mortal humans much and greatly disapproves of my choice with Jane. I can take them to Vanaheim, where my friend Hogun lives. I will ask him to protect them for me. But there is still the problem of who will be doctor for the remaining Avengers."
"I have someone," Maria said. "He used to work for SHIELD, and yes, he's trustworthy. He assisted in the recovery of Nick Fury behind Hydra's back."
Wait, what? Bucky slowly turned his head to look at her. She couldn't have just said that, he shot Fury several times after he was already injured. "When were you going to inform me that Nick Fury was still alive?" he demanded of her.
She looked at him. "It hadn't come up where I could safely tell you, and when we were in such a place, it didn't come up, so I didn't think to," she said. "I put so much blame on Hydra that I admit I sometimes forgot that you were their weapon in that assassination attempt."
"That is at once comforting and upsetting," Bucky said. He looked at Steve. "Did you know about this?"
"Who's Nick Fury?"
That answered that.
Bucky waved off the missing memory, clenching his teeth in frustration. "Fine, who's this doctor?"
"Doctor Matthew Hope," Maria said. "I still know how to contact him, he can be here within a week."
"Give JARVIS what he needs to find him," Tony said. "I'll have him here in less than that." He downed the last of his liquor. "Okay, one last thing for you five. Packing. JARVIS, get those movers who helped get Cap and Bucky to the Tower here. We need boxes, and lots of them for these five, so have our shipping department start bringing them up. Bruce, after you're done packing your regular stuff, I need you help closing up the lab. I can't work without contact with you guys."
"No contact?" Sharon asked. "How're we supposed to know what's going on?"
"TV and radio," Tony said. "But no, no outside contact. No telephone, no internet, nada. I'll give you Junior and the quinjet, but I swear to god, if I find out it's being used for anything but an emergency, I'm removing Junior rights from you guys. If Hydra finds you, get out. Otherwise, stay put. If we need you, we'll get ahold of you through Junior."
Bucky sat up. "Got a question. How the hell are we supposed to eat? We have no outside contact, we have no Avengers' income. We have to stay hidden, we get no local jobs. What're we supposed to do, become hunter/gatherers? Form an agrarian society?"
Tony gave him an insulted look. "I'll keep money in an account for you," he said. "I'm not going to let you starve just because I'm keeping you isolated, for god's sake. Junior will handle the transactions, there's a town nearby. We'll get you a card to a fake bank that pulls funds from Junior's systems. As far as not getting recognized in town, that's up to you guys. You're all smart, you'll figure out something. As for electricity and indoor plumbing, that's all set up. You've got an arc reactor powering the place, no electric bill, water's recycled on a closed system, heating system runs on the electricity, not gas. The only thing I don't have set up yet and will by the time you get there is trash. Otherwise, the place has been ready to go for years. I cleaned it up and set it up as a safe house for the Avengers right after New York, it's all ready to go. You'll be fine. Now." He stood. "Who wants a drink while we wait for those boxes? I'll drop the information as soon as you guys are packed and ready to go."
Almost everyone in the room wanted a strong drink; Bruce refrained, pointing out that while he was still capable of handling strong liquor, with as stressed as the situation now was, nobody wanted to chance how the other guy would react. Maria turned down a drink to Bucky's lack of a surprise; she wasn't much of a drinker to begin with, and now she had something to focus on. She wasn't going to be imbibing anything.
Sharon and Sam both wanted some, although Sharon asked for something not quite as strong as the others. Her stomach wouldn't handle it with the worry. Man, she had a sensitive stomach. Shame, she missed out on a lot of good food because of it.
Steve, Bucky, and Thor, however, all wanted strong drinks. Nothing Tony could offer could get any of them drunk, but the point wasn't the buzz, it was the thin rope of sanity they needed for just a few minutes before life exploded on them.
Bucky got up to help Tony carry everyone's drink out. He grabbed Steve's arm and dragged him along to do the same.
"Just so you know, we got the blood off your coat," Tony said to Bucky as he poured the drinks. He handed two to Steve and directed him to their customers. "I'll have it sent up while you pack. After we finish these drinks, you should be seeing some boxes coming in. Start packing right away. Make sure everyone packs a suitcase or something to get through a few days. The boxes will be coming in within a week, Junior will you have you there first thing tomorrow. I made sure that there'd be a way for us to get there easily if I decided we needed to hide out there for awhile, so she'll have a convenient parking place."
Bucky took the next two drinks that Tony provided. "We'll be ready. Tell the movers we'll put the boxes out in the hall. Keep them out of the private apartments."
"Not a bad idea," Tony said, grabbing the last three drinks, one a bottle of a cider with a low alcohol content for Sharon, easy to carry with both hands full with regular glasses. "JARVIS, you heard that. Pass it along."
"Yes, sir," JARVIS replied.
After a few minutes of near-silent lingering over drinks, the five who had to pack departed. The residential floor they all lived on had boxes stacked in front of doors, and one of the other elevators opened to reveal two women hauling more to the doors. Steve and Bucky's apartment was getting a higher stack of the unfolded boxes, the flat cardboard starting to slide around. The third elevator opened and two men appeared with yet more boxes.
Bucky wondered just how many boxes they thought they needed, but while he and Steve hadn't had much to move from DC, they'd acquired more things since moving to the Tower. More art supplies, more books, and Bucky's tools. It was a big job they were looking at.
Big job or not, it was mostly tedium. Overnight bags were packed first, set aside to be grabbed the next morning. Bucky grabbed the bag they'd taken to Nebraska that held their uniforms and weapons, along with their money and the Winter Soldier Project files. The cash meant that Tony had time to get that fake bank card set up and working, if he needed it, and Bucky passed that message along through JARVIS.
Packing the clothes that weren't in their bags was dull. Most packing was, but packing clothes was exceptionally boring, although it proved to Bucky that he actually did have a more monochromatic wardrobe than he thought. He'd have to apologize to Steve for denying it.
"We're leaving things like dishes, right?" Steve called to Bucky from the kitchen.
Bucky poked his head out from the bathroom where he was trying to figure out what was packed and what went into overnight bags. "Probably," he said. "Ask JARVIS." He paused, glancing back in the bathroom. "Ask him about towels and linens while you're at it."
"The only possessions that require packing are personals," JARVIS answered before Steve could ask. "Dishes and linens are already at the boarding school. May I recommend, however, that you unpack that box of books into two boxes?" Steve looked over the box of books by the bookcase. "It would be terribly heavy for the movers."
"Right. Super strength," Steve said, heading back over to the bookcase.
Bucky went back to packing the bathroom.
Steve's art supplies and Bucky's tools were the last things packed, done with great care. They were the more important things getting packed, aside from the uniforms and weapons. The only thing that had gotten as much attention was Bucky's Dresden Files books. He wondered if Peter was going to try to continue to send them through Tony. He wouldn't put it past his brother.
They stayed up too late that night, trying to pretend they weren't leaving the next morning, and slept on the couches at Bucky's suggestion; Steve had asked if he could sleep on the floor in Bucky's room, apparently forgetting their alternative to such an arrangement. The couches seemed to satisfy Steve.
They woke early the next morning, got ready to leave, then packed the last of their toiletries and the overnight clothes they wore that night before. Bucky shooed Steve out the door, pausing to grab their uniforms bag. Steve waited out in the hallway for him.
Bucky paused at the doorway, taking one last look around the apartment. The sectioned off living room, the large kitchen, the table where Steve always painted and Bucky worked on studies and occasionally finding traumatizing things to share with Steve on the internet. It was all empty.
So this was how the world ended. Not with a bang, but a whimper.