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lynnsfics · 4 years

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Coffee Stained Confusion Ch 11

You screamed as the elevator dropped, the world outside seemingly crashing down around you. The force of the fall propelling you backwards, you careened towards the glass wall. Squeezing your eyes shut, you braced yourself for impact. Just a moment before you fell through the glass a steady hand grabbed your wrist.

“I’ve got you doll,” Bucky pulled you close to him. Your forehead pressed against his shoulder as you tried to take some deep breaths. The elevator continued to drop and Bucky wrapped his arms around you to shelter you from the crash. As you neared the ground, the elevator stopped suddenly and the doors slid open.

The elevator was stuck between two floors, and the opening seemed to be shrinking. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. The elevator hasn’t fully stopped, which means once we pass this floor the doors will shut again and it will fall all the way into the basement, which is farther down than you’d expect. I’m going to give you a boost and you can crawl out. Alright?”

“Wait, what about you? I can’t leave you trapped in here! There has to be another way.”

“Doll, there’s no way I’m fitting through that opening. Besides, I’ve survived a worse fall than this. But we don’t have much time and if I don’t get you out of here you might not. And I,” he paused, his voice almost a whisper, “I can’t risk losing you again.”

“Alright,” you replied “just please, make it out?”

He nodded in response and then lifted you through the opening. You pulled yourself up and with a little maneuvering you were on steady ground again. Not a moment after you made it out the doors snapped shut and with a sickening snapping sound the elevator plummeted again.

As you gained your bearings you realized a blaring alarm was sounding throughout the tower. All the lights were off, except for a flashing red emergency beacon at the end of each hall. FRIDAY’s voice spoke over the din. “Prisoner containment breach. Code 10-A. Maximum security.” The words were repeated several times and you finally realized what they meant. Alicia was gone. Then only one thought remained. You had to get to Bucky.

Racing down the hall you found a set of stairs leading down. Pushing the door open, you ran as quickly as you could to the bottom of the stairs. As you were about to exit to the lobby you saw a door out of the corner of your eye. The sign next to it revealed it to lead to the basement. Remembering Bucky’s words, you tried to pull the door open but it wouldn’t budge. Swiftly undoing your hair you pulled out two hairpins and jammed them into the lock. Twisting them around took a minute, but finally they pushed the cylinders into place, and the lock opened with a satisfying click.

As you opened the door and began running again you said a silent prayer of thanks for the alcoholic foster parents that always locked you out. You finally made it down to the bottom of the staircase, only to be greeted by winding catacombs of record shelves and long-forgotten motheaten papers.

Compared to the rest of the tower, the basement was shockingly not up to date. The sirens and flashing lights were left behind at the end of the stairway. Here, your way was lit only by a flickering fluorescent bulb that clearly needed replacing.

A cloud of grimy dust rose from a far corner of the room and your heart skipped a beat. You walked through the messy labyrinth and longed for more light. Sparing a glance at your hands, you paused. You closed your eyes and held your breath as the fire came to you. It was lighter, gentler than the roaring flames in the video Alicia had shown you. It was reminiscent of a warm candle on a cold winter’s night.

But still, looking at it flooded your memory with the horrors of what you had done. Your heart felt heavy and shame flooded your senses. The flame in your hand flickered and you stumbled, catching yourself at the last second. An aching began in your ribs and you cried out. Gasping in pain, you tried to think of what could have caused it. The shattered glass from the elevators window left several cuts along your skin but that was the full extent of your injuries.

Finding the source of the pain was a problem for another time, however. You picked yourself back up and sped quickly to where the dust was coming from. Reaching the scene you cursed under your breath.

The elevator shaft lie in shambles, a heap of loose wires and bits of metal. You called out, “Bucky? Can you hear me?” No response. You tried again, this time with some success. A low mumbling came from the pile and some of the wreckage seemed to move. Out of the corner of your eye a piece of metal moved. Upon closer inspection you saw it was Bucky’s arm, partially obscured under some of the debris.

You approached the wreck, carefully stepping over some sparking wires. “Bucky, it’s me. I’m here, don’t worry.”

A mumbled “Doll…” came from under the pile and your heart broke.

“I’m here. Just hang on.” You tried to lift the metal sheet but it was covered by tiny shards of glass. Cursing, you ignored the cuts appearing and tried again. The metal budged, but not enough. You noticed a pole a few feet away and grabbed it. Planning to use it as leverage, you carefully wedged it under a slanted part of the metal and pushed down. It shifted downwards, and with all your strength you pushed it off.

You had to hold back a gasp when you saw him. Crimson blood pooled near his head, matting his hair. He had bruises forming on his other arm, which gently cradled what you assumed to be broken ribs.

“Oh my God, Bucky-”

He cut you off. “I’m alright, doll. Just help me out of here.” He struggled to sit up, and you stopped him.

“No, Bucky, you need a medic, I’ll go get help.”

“Listen, whatever happened to us must have affected the whole tower. Let me guess, there were sirens blaring when you got out of the elevator?”

“Yes,” you sighed, “but there has to be someone who can help you.

“I think I’m well enough to go up a flight of stairs. It’ll be fine.”

You gently grabbed his hand and helped him stand. The only way out would be through the maze of a way in. You couldn’t risk trying to find a shortcut and end up getting lost.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. You need to step over this wire here, but be careful, it was sparking just a few minutes ago.” Before the words even left your mouth the wire sparked back to life and a blaze encircled you both.”

“Doll, now would be a real good time to use those powers of yours.”

“I can try, but I-”

“Look at me,” Bucky said, “you are our only way out of here. It’s a cruel twist of fate that you have to do this right now, but you have to. Otherwise those sparks will catch all this junk on fire, and we’ll go up in smoke with it.”

Closing your eyes you felt the flames near you and reached out to them. There was a connection, a spark if you will, and with one thought the flames went out. “I knew you could do it. Now let’s go before they start again, okay?”

You nodded, still feeling the connection in the back of your mind. Fear laced itself through you. If putting that fire out was so easy, starting one would be even easier. You could feel Bucky’s hand on your arm as you led him through the basement. You cared about him, which made him an already bigger target than before.

Your mind raced with worst case scenarios. If HYDRA was able to brainwash you before, what if they did it again? What if they made you hurt him? Or even worse, what if you hurt him while you were yourself.

“Hey, I know that look. You’re overthinking things, aren’t you?”

“I’m scared, Bucky. I can’t hurt anyone anymore,” you whispered, “I can’t hurt you.”

“Listen doll,” you looked up, surprised he had heard you, “sometimes things don’t go the way we plan. Sometimes people get hurt- or killed- because of the things we do. Willingly or unwillingly.

That’s part of the risk of all of this. When you have powers, and you can do things that no one else can do, there’s always a risk. It can be hard to come to terms with. HYDRA brainwashed me for so long, and it took me a while to separate the actions of the Winter Soldier from my own.

“But my parents-”

“You were young, you had no real control over what your powers or any real idea of what they could do. Looking at you now, what you did back there, that shows your control.” He looked into your eyes, and you knew he meant it.

“You’re right,” you replied, as you reached the top of the stairs. “Thank you, truly.”

“Hey, I couldn’t let you wallow in self-pity forever, could I?” he smirked.

You laughed, “No, I guess you couldn’t. Now please see a medic. You’ve definitely received some sort of head trauma.” As you pushed open the basement door you flinched.

A look of concern flashed across Bucky’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s my ribs. They were hurting earlier. I’m sure it’s nothing.” Bucky glared at you. “Fine I’ll give it a look.” Very carefully you lifted the hem of your shirt to reveal a dark bruise forming around a freshly inked tattoo.

“You didn’t happen to get some new ink before any of this happened, did you?”

You shook your head ‘no’. Alicia must’ve done this. The tattoo was a detailed phoenix with flames surrounding it.

“How symbolic,” Bucky scoffed, “on the bright side Stark has a tattoo remover here at the tower. Too many drunken mistakes, I guess.”

You thought about it for a moment before answering, “No, I think I might keep it.”

“Are you sure?” he questioned, “It will only serve as a reminder of what happened.”

“They may have branded a phoenix, but I get to choose what ashes I’m rising from.”

~~~

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Since many of you celebrate Easter tomorrow I decided to post a day early! From now one though, I’ve decided to make Sunday my official update day, and if I have time to write there may be an extra update during the week! Like always, likes and reblogs are appreciated! Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list! Love you all <3

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