Chapter 3
Julia rubbed her eyes and groaned “So you see? This is all I have but it’s really starting to make sense” she stretched out on the couch, clearly exhausted.
Bucky, who didn’t need as much sleep since the serum in his veins, was still going over all the papers she had written or printed out “Oddly” he agreed “Yes it does. I can’t see why people who weren’t looking for it wouldn’t piece it together…” he placed two maps together, slightly overlapping “The criminals though, so you know where they’re originally from? Not all of these people can be from this town..”
Bucky waited for her to acknowledge what he asked but when no response came he turned around to find her sleeping. She was curled up around a pillow and her head was halfway on a cushion and half way on the arm rest. He shook his head and chuckled “I guess it was a big day for you” . He picked her up and moved her slightly so her neck wouldn’t hurt in the morning.
—
Julia yawned as her eyelids fluttered due to the sun shining through the blinds of the pool house. It had been a while since she slept that well, she thought to herself, before starting a big whole body stretch. Just as she was about to however, her blood ran cold as ice and she snapped straight up. Practically jumped out of her skin.
“Morning sleeping beauty” Buck grinned as he leaned against the table in front of her “Did you sleep well?”
From feeling frozen to now feeling like she was on fire she stood up “Ooooooh my god oh my god oh my god! I am so sorry” she clasped her hands in front of him and gave him a slight bow “I don’t even remember going to sleep! I feel so horrible!” Her voice exasperated “I can’t believe you’re still here…”
Bucky waved her off “Oh don’t worry about it, I figured that you needed the rest. Not all of us are superheroes” he winked and walked over to the other side of the couch and propped himself on the arm rest. Julia groaned and sat back down
“So why are you still here anyways?” She looked up at him, a hint of sadness on her voice
“Well” he sighed and looked down at her “Although I am officially pardoned by the United states, I don't think it would be a really good look for me to steal your car. I drove yesterday but it's still your car after all” a shit eating grin plastered on his face. In response, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth curled into a tight line, clearly done with his joking. She then ran a hand through her hair, trying to comb it out a bit. She was always thankful she cut it right above her shoulders because the type of fluff she had would always get the worst knots.
“I’m serious Bucky. I mean, you didn't have to stay here. I would have driven you back” Bucky just raised his eyebrow and made her continue “Well at least you could have woken me up and you could've had the couch” she blushed “I would never want you to sleep on the floor” the sadness in her voice earlier obviously from guilt. He moved from the arm of the chair to the cushion next to her
“Don't worry about that, I didn't sleep!” he smiled “I don't really sleep all that often because of the whole ‘super soldier’ thing” he explained when her expression only showed more guilt and worry “Buuuut, that is very kind of you. You don't need to worry about me too much though” he clapped her on the shoulder and shook her a little bit “Lighten up, don't we have some drug dealers to bust?” with that she smiled and relaxed a bit. She found him very relaxing to be around even when he was trying to give her a hard time. She felt really comfortable with him even though he was a stranger and she didn't know what it meant, she didn't mind it.
“We actually do! So I assume that since you didn't sleep and hopefully didn't just watch me sleep like a creeper” amusement in her voice “I'm sure you had time to go over everything, well most of everything” she started to get up when the pool house door slammed open with a bang. Before Julia could truly even react Bucky was on his feet. He stood in front of her, as if ready for an attack, knife already out and waiting.
“Juuuuuullliiiaaaaaaa” came an obvious fake whine from the other side of the door. A female voice whose form had yet to appear. As she made her way around, back to the door and hands full of coffee and doughnuts “You seriously need to turn your ringer on. I know it's oo-” she paused and her eyes went wide “Off”. While only a few seconds, time seemed like it went on forever or like it stopped completely. No one knew. Bucky put his knife away and coughed awkwardly.
“UHHHHMM!? Jules??? What the hell is going on???” The girl slowly walked around to one of the tables and put the food down, pushing some of the papers aside. Bucky backed up and went to stand at the side of the couch, embarrassed but it didnt show. The pool house door made a too long creak as it shut itself and everyone was staring between each other. “Seriously Julia? Who the hell is this weirdo ?!” she pointedly stared at Bucky. Julia crossed the room and took the coffee with her name on it
“Heyyyyy Alice” she chuckled trying not to sound like the idiot she felt like “I’m so sorry. I totally forgot that we had plans today. Yesterday was CRAAAAZY! Like you have no idea, not only did I run into-”
“James!” Bucky walked up to her quickly with his most charming smile on and hand out “I’m James. Julia told me about her research and I wanted to take a look at it”
Alice looked him up and down “Uh huh” her arms crossed in front of her. She walked around him but never turned her back to him “Julia is that true? You're not like… being held captive by this ..Freak” she whispered into her ear but still deliberately made sure Bucky could see her mouth and hear her words.
Julia kindly pushed her friend back “Alice I’m fine! I promise! Actually, I wanted to introduce you to …. James” her tone having a questioning air to it that was definitely picked up on so she changed the subject “Oh my gosh, Your sweater is so soft!” She knew she couldn't resist talking about fashion.
Alice immediately beamed and took a step back and gave a twirl and a pose “Isn't it! The whole thing is!” She was wearing what was essentially just a light cream coloured sweat suit “I also got it in pink. It's soooooo comfy! I could get you one if you like it!” her entire demeanor was different now, she went to go grab her iced coffee and picked up a doughnut. She held the box open and tilted it towards Bucky, inviting him to have one if he wanted.
Bucky had to admit that they looked really good as well as a show of good faith so he took one “Thanks” he said with a tight smile and a small nod before going back to behind the couch, leaning over the back of it now, just watching them. Julia and Alice caught up, talking about stuff he wasn't paying attention to. He was, however, paying very close attention to Alice. She looked so familiar to him. She was a pretty girl of average height.Vietnamese, he guessed. Her build was hard to tell with her baggy sweat suit on. She had what was clearly very long blonde hair with what looked like chunky brown highlights. It was piled on her head in a very floppy bun with a matching white headband, keeping her bangs at bay. Her skin looked tanned, if not slightly burnt. But all of those superficial things were always subject to change. What most stood out to him was her eyes. The first time she shot daggers at him, there was a sharpness and chill in her brown eyes that stuck out to him. She also had a beauty mark under her right eye. The more he thought about it the more he couldn't place it. She wasn't someone he fought as the Winter Soldier, she's alive after all. She definitely wasn't someone he trained either. Neither for HYDRA nor the Red Room. He just knew that he knew her from somewhere, but where? He took a deep breath and decided not to think about it too much. For all he knew, he ran into her when he was trying to regain his memories and she gave him the same stink face. By the time he finished his doughnut, lemon creme, he noticed that the room was silent. He had apparently been trying stare a hole into the drink carrier and the girls were both starting to get weirded out
“Jaaames? Hellooooo… Earth to weirdooo ?” Alice leaned over and waved her hand in front of his face.
“Sorry! I didn't mean to space out like that” he stood up and walked around to sit on the yellow couch that Julia had slept on earlier “So whats up? Have you made any discoveries?” a cheerful smile on his face as he looked up at the two of them.
“Actually!” Julia walked over to a table to grab a few pieces of paper, a couple maps “Alice pointed something out that I never even noticed before. The crimes that are happening by these ‘half supes’, I’m calling them half supes now because well, you know” she grinned and walked over to Bucky to show him the papers “So while there are always people who sell drugs or do low level crimes in every neighborhood, you would think that there would be less crimes in places with less population. For the most part that's true, but if there was drug that was going around, only accessible to low level criminals that would give you superpowers, maybe, then wouldn't there be even higher rates in cities?” She showed him the maps and overlapped them and put them up to the light. When he saw them a flash of suspicion came across his face although Julia didn't seem to notice “See? Alice pointed out that in Trenton itself, there are almost no crimes like these that could even maybe pertain to half-supes! Of course there are still crimes and still superpowered people there, but it's nothing like it is in the small neighboring towns!”
Bucky took the maps, the same maps he was looking at the night before. “So Alice, You pointed this out?” He looked at her and tried not to seem distrustful. Alice just shrugged and went back to playing on her phone. She was sitting cross legged on a small table, using it as a stool. “This is some really good info. It makes you wonder why, although it would make sense if this was just a trial drug. Like not the final thing”
“Yes!” Julia chirped and pretty much jumped down onto the cushion besides Bucky, facing him “I was thinking that whoever is making it doesnt want it distributed in the city yet because it's not perfect yet. In the city you have bigger and more important clients that you wouldn't want to give shitty drugs to! So you make sure you're far from your desired distribution base and give it to people who you know one would believe or even miss if they died or got taken down”
“So youre saying that whoever is doing this isn't making it out of a lab in the sticks but someone right in the center of downtown and using these poor saps as guinea pigs?” Bucky sat back, actually impressed with her ability to put it together. He already had come to that conclusion though last night, she was still very impressed. He was more worried about how Alice managed to pick up on it though. For all he knew she was just your average 30 year old girl into fancy tracksuits and pink coffee. Just Julias girly friend who is into fashion, picked up the same info he did earlier and a chill to her eyes that he couldn't shake. He knew her but he was just going to focus on that some other time. This was Julia's time.
“That was exactly what I was thinking, Buck! And it really makes sense! So for the next phase of all of this, I think we need to start trailing them. Ya know, like following them around and doing stakeouts in the seedy areas where these crimes have the highest chances of seeing a trade go down”
“Hold on now, we don't even know what this substance looks like. You've made no eyes on any product. You don't even know who it would be given too or who it would be given out by. There's a lot of things that aren't clear yet”
“Well I think that if me and you have a stakeout and we just watch some streets in uhhh” she grabbed a pen and circled some streets “this area. I think it's gonna be our best bet” she smiled when he took the papers and looked them over
“And why these streets?”
“Ugggggh” Julia groaned as she looked up on her phone “Isn't it obvious? Just look at the big picture. Put all of the maps together and you'll see the pattern” when she noticed Bucky was just staring at her she grabbed one map of the local towns and brought it to him “See? In almost every location there have been around 5 or 6” she glanced at Julia “...half-supe attacks. They are always at five or 6. Never more of never less. Now if you look over here where Jules circled there are only 2 so far. The pattern is clear and I really don't believe all of this suddenly stopped and that's it. They're done.”
“It means we can expect more attacks in the area…” bucky nodded “You're really good! Julia told me this isn't your thing. Where did you go to school?” he tried his best to not sound like he was trying to pry information out of her.
“Community College, with Jules” Alice blinked like he just asked her if the sky was blue
“Oh yeah! She did tell me that. You two had oddly every single class together as well. What a fun way to meet someone. Someone that you like makes it even better” his tone barely above a sneer.
Julia was looking at the two of them and could not figure out why they were both acting so strange. From a few hours, days(?)She spent time with Bucky, he always seemed to be calm and jovial even when he was teasing her. He never made her feel bad about anything really. He was nice to her and truly listened and now he even believed her. He didn't mock or ridicule her. He made her feel safe. So why did Alice, the nicest person she knew, her best friend in the whole world, someone who knew her soul inside and out, seem to have a problem with him? Maybe she didn't recognize him and really just thought it was a weirdo in all black with a metal arm who could possibly hurt her friend. Either way, they were both acting off from the way she had known them. It almost felt as if they knew each other. That made her chuckle. How on earth would they know each other and she would recognize THE Bucky Barnes? She was obviously just over thinking things. So with a small cough in order to break whatever tension was going on,
“So Bucky! When do you think we could start doing this? I’m sure you're super busy and stuff and i'm kind of errr in between jobs right now, so i was thinking that I could take the first shifts and you can join me whenever you can! I can give you my number so I can text you my location” her eyes as bright as her voice.
“Bucky?” Alice snorted loudly “THAT'S her nickname for you?? I mean like the gas stations in Texas??” her laugh was a full roar now.
Julia realised she slipped up because he had introduced himself to her, of all people, as James so that must have meant something right?
Julia started laughing as well “You're actually right Al! Don't you see it? He's got the cute chubby cheeks of their mascot” she poked his cheek “And he's just as cute as Bucky Beaver!” she giggled.
“You are sooo weird Julia, but hey, that's why I love you. Now I almost feel bad for poor beaver boy” Alice wiped a tear “I'm gonna keep calling you james if that's okay with you” a toothy smile on her face
“That would be very fine by me Ms. Alice. Thank you” he chuckled, just trying to get past this. But when Julie had poked his cheek he was surprised that he didn't react. His reactions have been fairly steady by now but he still has some trouble when people touch him without warning, especially in his face. And then she said he was cute. He knew she meant it just to cover her mistake and to distract Alice but inside, his chest felt warm and he was hoping any blush that crossed his cheeks came off as embarrassment inside of whatever this feeling inside of him was.
“But if I may continue on what Julia was saying earlier about taking shifts, I don't think that is a good idea. And while I do occasionally have stuff to do, it seems a bunch of free time has just shown up in my schedule and I definitely don't want you going there alone. It wouldn't be safe for either one of you to be sitting in a car all night in the sketchiest parts of town, specifically WAITING for crimes to happen. Do you have any idea of how dangerous that would be?” Julia, if you're going to go anytime, I'm always going to be with you. I am not leaving you alone out there. Anything could happen to you and you have no way to protect yourself.” he realized that his hands were on her arms and she was staring wide eyed at him with a small blush on her cheeks, lips slightly parted. He briefly looked down at her lips and then to her eyes again. Why did he do that? No he can't think about that. He let go of her arms slowly and placed his hand into own lap trying to be as chalant as possible.
“And you're going to protect our sweet little Jules here?” Alice teased but was interrupted by Julia “Hey he knows what he's doing, I trust him Al!!” defense growing stronger as the sentence went on
“Woah! Woah woah woah, Hold on! I wasn't trying to say anything about your weird boyfriend or whoever this guy is. I mean he's obviously been in some part of our military. Just look at him! And I didn't forget about the lovely welcome knife I walked into this morning! I was just messing with you guys! Both of you are so easy to poke at, look at you both now! I thought there were other people in the room and not just two tomatoes” she tried to keep it in but failed and doubled over in laughter. You guys are really just too much!
Both Bucky and Julia turned to look at each other and it seemed to only make it worse because they immediately turned away. Alice sat up after she got through with her laughing and wiped a tear from her eye
“Oh what time is it?” she checked her phone “Oh not too bad. Anyone care for a smoke break?” She turned to look at both of them. Julia just shook her head “I'm good, you go. It looks like a nice sunny day outside. Hopefully I’ll see it soon, she joked”.
Alice turned to Bucky “Do you smoke?” he did actually have a pack in his breast pocket but hadn't been thinking about it recently. He too turned to Julia as if asking permission and she just smiled and waved him off “Have fun, I really don't mind” she had moved over to another chair and curled up just playing on her phone.
When Alice and Bucky stepped outside she led him to where she usually smoked. It was on the side of the main house which they passed when they walked in. There was an ornate metal bench that he must have missed under the cover of darkness. Alice pulled out a baby pink square thing that bucky assumed what the kids called ‘vapes’ days. She inhaled and blew out smoke that smelled like strawberry cotton candy. He chuckled as he pulled his grungy old pack from his breast pocket, gave it a few taps on his palms, before picking one and lighting it with the only lighter he had; a rainbow dolphin making splashes in rainbow waves. It was the last one at the gas station. The two of them just sat there in relative peace and silence for a while, smoking in their own separate ways. Bucky spoke up first after a long drag
“So who are you Ms. Alice?” his tone pointed and his expression flat.
“Who am I?!” she faked offence but then rolled her eyes “I’m Julie's best friend in the whole world. I feel like I should be the one asking you that actually” she took another puff.
Bucky shook his head slowly
“No. No. That's not what I mean and I think you know it” he was just watching his cigarette burn at this point “I want to know WHO you are” his eyes grazed up to meet hers slowly.
Alice played with her little pink square, rolling it in her fingers
“I don't see why any of my personal information would be pertinent to you Mr. Barnes” her eyes met his and they sent a chill down his spine. Those were these eyes he knew. “I will admit that you were not the person I expected to see today. So now I'm going to rephrase my earlier question; Who are you to Julie and why are you hanging around her. What orders do you have that deal with my girl? Her voice was cold but dripping with indignation.
Bucky sat up straight and turned to face her “You showed up in her life out of the blue and suddenly became best friends for life. You clearly have no problem lying to her, seeing as you know who I am but you don't want her to know that you know. You tell her you don't like this whole project she has going on but you picked up the same things I did”
Alice took another deep puff before rolling her shoulders and her head before exhaling
“What are you asking me Mr.Barnes? And make it concise.”
Bucky looked at her for a while. A few moments into her deep chocolate eyes. He knew a lot of people with those types of eyes. Not the shape or the color. Eyes that are like his own. Impenetrable vaults that hold the secrets of the world's powers. Eyes that will never give anything away unless it is their owners choice.
“Who do you work for and what do they want with Julia?” His tone was calm but there was a fire inside slowly burning to the top. Julia was just a stranger after all, he had no right or reason to be so defensive of her.
Alice looked down and just smiled. It was a sweet smile, almost sincere “You seem like a good man Mr. Barnes, I am truly amazed by your recovery. The strength and bravery you have in order to overcome something so horrible as the things that happened to you. And with Julia, it's now clear that you truly only do mean well. However I would strongly suggest you abandon this project. There are things going on that neither you nor Julia need to ever find out about. There are other things in the world that have nothing to do with you ‘Little Avengers’ or whatever. And since you have no idea who I am, I think it's safe to say that I do my job very, very well.” with that she stood up and put her little square back into her pocket. She took a few steps before she turned to look at him “I hope you understand what I'm saying. You need to pull away from this. I can handle Julia. I have been after all these years. You are not needed here. More importantly you are not wanted. The best thing for you to do is find some reason that you can't continue on with this, i don't care what it is, but that you and julia are not to work together and you will never, I mean never, have any kind of contact with her ever again. You will become a ghost to her. If she reaches out to you, because she will, ugh such a sweet sap, ignore her. Ignore her at all costs. Just like the rest of your friends already do” she winked with knowing. “This is bigger than you Barnes, so so much bigger than you, and you will only make things worse if you stay around her”. She raised her hand and rubbed the back of her neck “I got to go know, so just tell her that I had to run, it wont phase her. Oh! And if you even try to tell her anything about our little chit chat here, she wont believe you. I'm her best friend after all~” smiled twisted in malice “And you're just a stranger superhero she saw on T.V. Plus you still don't actually know anything about me or who I work for. You know nothing James. There is nothing here for you. Let it go and get back to your life. This is not your mission.” and with that she walked away.
Bucky just sat there speechless. He craned his neck to see which direction she left in but the house was too big and she was already gone. Holy fuck what did he just hear. Her best friend is some kind of super secret super spy that even he couldn't place. He was sure she wasn't from a group he had ever heard of before. He thought he knew all of them. And what did she mean by ‘his friends already knew’? Is that why the Avengers told her no? How high does this go? Who is she? Who are they? Who has the power to control the Avengers by telling them to ignore all these weird things? What is going on???
Bucky sat there for what felt like eternity before he stood up, thoughts swirling in his head. Questions in every direction with no answers in sight. Should he just leave? Is Julia going to be in danger? It seems like she is safe so far and has been for a while. Alice, if that's even her name, hasn't hurt her or put her in harm's way for over a decade. They live together. But Why? Why would some organization spend all this time watching one girl and infiltrating her life for nothing. For safety? To see if she cracks a case that may or may not be able to be cracked? A drug case no less. It doesn't make sense. He had to go inside, he had to see Julia. He opened the door and she didn't even flinch. She was just sitting there going over multiple reports to see if there were any matching clues that she had missed the first 100 times she had done this already.
“I'm glad you're back!” she turned to smile at him “Did you guys have a good talk? I know she can be kinda much sometimes”
Bucky just watched her. Nothing about any of this made sense but for her sake he just shrugged it off and smiled back, he could process all that later “Yeah um yeah we did. She really likes clothes huh?” that got a laugh out of Julia and made her turn her chair around completely. Bucky, who still felt like the wind got knocked out of him, sat down on the yellow couch and relaxed, trying to play it cool “Oh! She told me to tell you that she had to run and that she's sorry”
Julia just shook her head and waved him off “That's just Alice, she's always on the go. She'd probably lose her head if it wasn't attached” she laughed. Her laugh warmed his heart in a heart breaking way. “So well what's next? I figured you'd probably want more than a doughnut to eat, would you want to go get breakfast or probably lunch now, somewhere? I feel like I at least owe you that”
Bucky really couldn't understand what kind of organization would be after her. She just seemed so… harmless. But then again some of the most dangerous people are. But not her. No way.
“So?” Julia asked again “Wanna go get something to eat or drink? Maybe even talk about the mission” a smile wide on her face.
“Oh uh yeah!” Bucky ran a hand through his hair “That sounds really nice actually. I didn't know how hungry I was until you said something” he wasn't but he'd do it for her.
“Awesome! That sounds great! Ummm would you be okay just staying here for a minute, i'm just gonna go inside and freshen up a bit and then we can hit your apartment if you want to, before food?” she waited for his agreement “Oh! I only said that because I don't know how comfortable you feel taking a shower and stuff at my parents house. They're really nice and i know that they would have no problem with it but just all the stuff last night and i don't know YOUR comfort level and i—”
“You're rambling” Bucky interrupted with a chuckle “Go do whatever you need to. I'll be here when you get back. Then i'll swing by my place and the we can go anywhere you want for food” he put his hand on her waist her and gently scooted her out the door “we have a plan, and I will be waiting he with baited breath” he joked “so go go go so we can get this show on the road!”
Julia left giggling and when Bucky finally had her workshop all to himself he had noticed that she left her phone here. He picked it up and it immediately opened ‘Geeze Jules, not even a password’. On the first pages it was all standard apps and games. Nothing unusual for a girl her age. “I really shouldn't be doing this, this kid trusts me” he grappled with the guilt and ran his metal hand through his hair “But I need all of the information I can on this Alice woman so I can find her. Because I am not leaving Jules and I am definitely not leaving Jules with her”.