WHO Bucky Barnes & River Tam WHAT Bucky drops by to check on River after she stops replying to him WHEN Backdated to right after this WHERE Cabin 6, Sleeping Car 6 RATING PG-ish
Psychics were... touchy, for Bucky Barnes. He'd spent so long not being himself, not having any control over himself, that someone who could see into him so clearly made him uneasy. How did you face someone who knew exactly what you'd done just by looking at you? How did you explain that your guilt was your own, because even though you hadn't chosen to act, you hadn't chosen to say no, either? He didn't want to face down someone who could identify his every last fear, who could point to his greatest weakness and tell him, That is where you are deficient, James Barnes, and you will never not be broken there.
But the girl seemed to be struggling, and Bucky knew enough about those with mental abilities to know that if someone like that was fighting just to exist, there was generally a chance, slim as it might be, that the entire world wasn't doing so hot just then, either.
So Bucky had done a quick search, done a couple of backwards searches until he found what room she was in. (And bonus points, Howard Stark was there, too, because of course the little girl who needed help would be Howard's roommate, why would she be anyone else's?)
He'd gone to the trouble of pulling the glove back on so that his metal arm wasn't super visible, and then he went and knocked on the door. "Hey, sweet pea," he said, his voice rasping a little. "It's Bucky, the guy from the network. Are you okay in there?"