Let's Play A Game-It's Called Run For Your Lives
"Ok guys we're going to play a fun game." Bucky pulled on her mask and goggles, holding the mask away from her mouth just long enough to speak to Charlie and Anna. She strapped her guns to her thighs and to the strap on her back. The children stared at her in awe. Over the past few days, despite the fact that Bucky had carted them from city to city, calling favors from hardened criminals, and perfecting their combat technique, Charlie and Anna had never seen her in gear and they looked frightened. "It's called 'let's not get captured'. It'll be really super. You ready?" The two kids were obviously exhausted, they had been walking since Zurich after running from the HYDRA agents who had tried to pick them up at the train station. Now they were picking their way across a forest somewhere in the Alps, and Bucky had just heard dogs. Bucky tightened her mask and made sure her knives were within reach.
"I'm cold and my feet hurt." Anna pouted and Charlie nodded. The young girl struggled as Bucky pulled off her red jacket and replaced it with Bruce's hoodie that was a less blatant shade of grey. Bucky put the baseball cap on Charlie's head and turned it backwards, then stuffed Anna's jacket into the now empty backpack and threw that into a bush.
"Yeah. Me too." Bucky's voice was muffled beneath her mask, "But guess what, when we make it to my friends, I promise you can have a nice hot bath. How does that sound?" The children nodded begrudgingly. "Great. Now follow me, and keep your heads down." Bucky led Charlie and Anna towards the river. They hesitated a moment at the edge, but eventually followed, splashing in the water. They were a few miles upstream when Bucky heard the dogs howl angrily, having found the backpack. She smiled beneath her mask, not that anyone could tell. The unlikely trio trudged through the water for another mile and a half, until the trees thinned and Bucky could see the ridge. Now they crossed the river to the other bank and stood shivering. This was the spot Coulson had described. Bucky closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again rapidly when she saw a wintry sky flash past her eyes. Why Coulson had chosen this place, the place where she had lost Steve and quite practically everything else was beyond her. Cliffs in general were a trigger, and honestly so were trains. It had been quite the trip from Paris to Zurich by train, with Bucky fairly destroying the armrests of her seat while Charlie, Anna, and a few other passengers looked on curiously, but Bucky knew she had to overcome her fear. She took a deep breath and thought back to when she and Francis had made a pact to go back to the source of their--their shell-shock and fight it. Though this excursion had been unplanned, she had to hold up her end of the bargain. Bucky paused to steel her nerves. "Stay back." She said to Charlie and Anna when they reached a hauntingly familiar clearing, the place where she had been dragged ashore by HYDRA forces after a fall that should have killed her. "Wait for my signal." Then Bucky--going against everything her sniper training stood for--went to the middle of the clearing, and fighting back unexpected tears of nostalgia, made a birdcall. She held back a sob when she imagined the other Howling Commandoes hiding in the trees, awaiting this very signal. Coulson would recognize it, he was the biggest Captain America fan Bucky had seen since the forties, but Bucky was met instead with momentary silence. She made the call again, but still there was nothing. Bucky was just about to give up and head back when a silver ski-suited figure stepped from the other side of the clearing. Even with the polarized lenses of her goggles it was difficult to tell who it was. Then he put up his hands, made the same birdcall, and suddenly the clearing was teeming with similarly outfitted individuals. Bucky walked over to the man and glared at him through her goggles. Coulson pulled down his hood and took off his sunglasses. Bucky handed him the plastic bag with the capsule, bullet, and sketch of the sniper.
"You've done well. I'm proud." Coulson put the bag into his pocket. "This intel will really help us with the fight against HYDRA." Bucky said nothing, just stared at him. "Did you bring my niece and her friend? She actually is my niece by the way. Anna Suarez. My sister's daughter. And the boy, Charlie, well, only Anna knows anything about him." Bucky still said nothing. "Did you train them? We thought you might." Bucky felt a tear creep from her goggles into her mask, but she remained silent. "Good. We need all talented youngsters, to borrow a phrase, on our side." He gave her a grim smile, but she shook her head, gave him a one-fingered salute with her metal hand and stalked off. "Bucky! Come back! I swear to you they will come to no harm." Coulson called after her, but she didn't even turn around. She waved to Charlie and Anna and they ran into the clearing, where they were wrapped in blankets by SHIELD agents. Two other agents appeared in front of Bucky.
"Ma'am, you're going to have to come with us." One of the goons stated. Bucky tilted her head in questioning contempt, gave a short barking laugh, then pushed past them. She was going home.