No Benefits

Cookie jumped up, dropped her phone on the bed and took a fast shower before rushing up to Nick Fury's office, in a t-shirt, leggings and wet hair, for an emergency meeting. On her way there she texted Dylan and Iris to meet her in her office in an hour. She crossed paths with a number of other agents rushing to their assignments. Everything was on lockdown and high alert as they tried to work out where Sharon and Bucky had gone.

Cookie hurried into Nick's office to see Maria, Sam and did a double take when she saw Steve Rogers amd Tony Stark at the table. She felt her stomach drop, must be serious if they were coming out of retirement.

A flash of red hair caught her eye and she turned her head to see Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton huddled together.

Cookie swore internally, she had a tenuous work relationship with the Black Widow, who hadn't taken Cookies close friendship with her former lover very well. Cookie realized that Steve and Nat might be the only people here who knew more about Bucky than she does so of course they were called in but she knew that working with Nat would be a challenge.

Steve and Clint weren't a concern as she had a good working relationship with both, when the two Avengers had been involved in the past.

Tony saw her and winked "No breakfast cookies, Cookie?"

Everyone chuckled and Cookie smirked at Tony as she took a seat and snarked back "Sorry Mr Stark, sir, didn't have time to grab any but if you want to come to the common room there are plenty."

The rest of them sat down and Nick started by explaining the current situation before Sam and Cookie gave their insights into Bucky's recent behavior.

Cookie noticed that Steve looked concerned while Natasha was leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face, staring at Cookie.

The Russian spy made Cookie nervous after a threat that was made when Nat saw Cookie and Bucky cuddled on the couch in the common room, watching a movie. Nat had told Cookie to stay away from her man under threat of violence but tried to play it off as a joke when Bucky snapped at her.

The meeting lasted just over an hour and everyone left for their own work spaces to keep an eye on the manhunt. The quinjet was prepared to take off as soon as they had any sightings of Bucky or Sharon.

Every agent worldwide was notified to be on the look out and warned that Barnes was on Sharon's side. Deadly force was only authorized as a last resort.

On the way back to her office, Cookie was near tears. She knew that something had changed about Bucky and now she understood, Sharon was not only manipulating him but had figured out how to brainwash him, or something. She knew how Bucky felt about being controlled after his time with Hydra. She knew that this would devastate him, if they could even bring him back. She wiped her tears, and got to work checking in with her informants around the world with the hopes that someone could find them.

Iris came up behind her and tried to look over Cookies shoulder "Any luck finding your boyfriend?"

Cookie bristled "What the Hell Iris? Where have you been? I texted you over an hour ago and you wander in now? and why would you sneak up on me like that? And he's not my damn boyfriend, we're not really even friends anymore."

She turned and glared at Iris "Why are you fucking around when we have a situation here? Get back to your desk and contact all your people, everywhere, to see if we can find them. Dylan can give you any information that you need."

Iris shrugged and wandered away "I will, I just needed to stretch and get some coffee."

Cookie shook her head, Iris was a great analyst but in recent months had been getting too full of herself and seemed to think the rules didn't apply to her. Her skill was the only reason Cookie hadn't fired her but Iris was really pushing her luck.

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Bucky was sitting in his room, flipping channels when there was a knock at the door. He answered the door and smiled when he saw Sharon but frowned when he saw Cookie standing next to her. Cookie kept saying that Sharon was the Power broker and played a recording of Sharon saying she was the Power Broker and wanted the Winter Soldier for her enforcer. Sharon pulled a gun out and shot Cookie in the heart, then looked at him with a creepy smile and grabbed his hands, refusing to let go when he tried to pull away. His head started hurting and everything became a blur before he jolted awake, breathing heavily, head still aching. He sat up and rubbed his face, confused because that wasn't what happened. He tried to remember the encounter from the day before but it made his head throb even more.

He saw that Sharon was curled up next to him, like every other time he woke up, and he noticed he had lost another half a day. Then he looked around and realized they weren't in his room at the compound. Or Sharon's. He didn't remember going anywhere and worked to get up without waking Sharon.

He looked out the window and saw nothing but trees surrounding them. He checked out the house, more like a cabin, with one bedroom, a cellar and a loft. He checked the gps on his watch and saw they were way upstate, near the Canadian border. He was relieved they hadn't gone far but confused as to why they were here.

Bucky was distracted when Sharon woke and called him back to bed. He planned to ask her what was going on but she tried to distract him with sweet words and her nude body.

Bucky closed his eyes and stepped away from her. "Sharon, what's going on? Why are we here? I don't remember leaving the compound. Why do I keep losing time?"

Sharon smiled, and for the first time since she arrived at the compound, it made him uncomfortable "Don't you remember? You saw Dr Cho yesterday morning, she told you a head injury on your last mission was causing the blackouts. Don't worry baby, I've been with you the whole time."

Bucky's head started aching again "Hurts when I try to think about what happened with Cookie. I've never known her to be  so completely off in her conclusions. What if- aarrgh!" he grabbed his head and stumbled before sitting on the bed.

Sharon moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him "Don't worry, Buck. I've got you."

Bucky jumped away from her "No! Every time you comfort me or we fuck, I lose hours and shit keeps getting worse. Tell me right fucking now, what are you doing to me, Sharon?"

Sharon sat up and sighed "I'm just trying to help baby. I hate seeing you so upset and in pain, please let me help."

Bucky shook his head and shouted "NO! Not before you tell me what's going on."

Sharon stood and shook her head "No Barnes, you don't give me orders, it's the other way around. You should have gotten back into bed, it's more enjoyable than what's coming."

Bucky backed into the wall "What are you doing Sharon?"

She sighed "Just taking care of business."

Bucky felt a sting in his neck and looked at her "Wha whut what have you-" and fell to the floor unconscious before he could finish his question.

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Sam showed up at Cookies office with fresh coffee and a bagel around 11am and forced her into a needed break.

"Come on Cookie, I know you barely slept but you need to take a break once in a while."

Cookie took a drink of coffee "I know, Sam but we have to find them. She's controlling him somehow. I played audio of her saying she's the power broker and wants the soldier to be her enforcer but he didn't hear what was said. I don't know what she did but she got into his head he's not himself."

Sam nodded "That would explain a lot but how? They got rid of the soldier in Wakanda."

Cookie shook her head "No, they got rid of the trigger words but the soldier is most likely still buried in his psyche. As far as how? I don't know, that's what we need to figure out so it can be reversed but first we need to find them."

Cookie thought for a minute before grabbing her phone and making a call "Hey Bruce, it's Cookie. Yeah, I know this shits crazy. So on that subject, I could use your help. Helen's too." she paused listening "I know, you're not an M.D. but you know about biology and biochemistry." she explained what happened with Bucky "I need you, and whoever else you think might have knowledge on brainwashing, drugs and hypnosis." Pause "Yeah, like how could one potentially wake the Soldat without the trigger words?" Pause "Exactly." she hummed "Thank you, I knew you'd understand. Ok and try to keep it vague with anyone who doesn't have that level clearance or is outside of the Avengers" she listened "Yes. Yeah we also need to figure out, if one were controlled with the aid of hypnosis or drugs, how we could snap them out of it. Right, exactly. Ok. Ok, I'll be in my office for the foreseeable future." She chuckled "Sleep? I've heard of such a thing but never experienced it myself." She laughed out loud "Ok Bruce. Keep me updated. Ok, thank you."

She looked back at Sam "They're gonna look into known methods and hopefully we can find an easier and faster way to handle the Soldat than tranqing him."

"What about Sharon?" Sam questioned.

Cookie growled "Bullet between the eyes sounds like a fitting reward for her. If she is taken alive I can't promise I won't make her wish she were dead."

Sam's eyes grew wide "I don't remember you ever being so bloodthirsty before, Cookie." He smirked "She took your man, right?"

Cookie shook her head "No, I'm not planning to renew my friendship with Barnes. He was an ass to me before she got here but no one deserves to be controlled, abused, like that."

After Sam left, Cookie continued to reach out to everyone she knew until Iris came back into her office, holding up a tablet "Hey boss, I think I found something"

Cookie nodded "Bring it over, let me see." Iris handed her the tablet and Cookie looked at her, confused "Map to a safehouse in Harlem? What's this about, Iris?"

"Sharon's personal phone pinged from a local cel tower. I bet they're staying at that safe house."

Cookie shook her head "Why would they stay at one of our safehouses? Sharon should realize we'll check all of them."

Cookie did a double take. Did she just see Nat pass by her office?

Iris persisted before Cookie could check

"I have a strong feeling about this and need you to come with me."

Cookie furrowed her brow "Take Dylan, I'm a little busy."

"Please boss? I can't find him and don't want to give them time to get away."

Cookie relented and they hurried to Iris's car. When they sat in the car Iris grabbed something from her purse and flicked it towards Cookie.

Cookie slapped her neck and her eyes grew wide before they started closing "Ouch! What was that? Iris, y y you-" and slumped over in her chair.

Iris rolled her eyes and started driving North.