Out of the Ice
Howard shouted until someone came running.
And then he ordered a bed and blankets and a tub of hot water which was considered an exorbitant luxury in 13, but he didn’t give a shit. They needed to warm Steve up, immediately.
Everywhere he looked shocked and wary faces looked at him and he ignored them. There would be time to process the details of this later.
“Get Dugan to medical now!” He ordered, “and Phillips!” He shoved his way through the elevator doors and looked at the frozen face laying on the bed. “Come on, Steve. Whatever the hell you’re doing, keep doing it.”
————-
Peggy felt the skin on the back of her neck rise as people went racing past the door and disappeared from sight. She stood and tried to see out, but the chains on her wrist kept her from doing so.
She waited, hoping someone would come tell her what was going on, but of course no one did. They thought she’d had a plan with the capitol to get Steve to District 2.
She shut her eyes and clenched them closed, trying to remember if that was true. Trying to know if there had been an instruction or memory placed that could have caused this.
But nothing came.
She sagged and felt grief rip through her again. Steve was dead. And whether or not it was her fault… She couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
She sobbed into the pillow and wrapped herself tightly into a ball as she cried.
————-
The faces that surrounded Steve’s bathtub were somber or in awe. Steve was dressed in soft shorts and a shirt and submerged up to the neck in lukewarm water. The hole in his neck and side were still visible and gruesome, but they were better. Healing somehow. His face was relaxed and his skin was regaining color.
“What the hell.” Jones said again. That had been his repetition for the last few hours. “What the hell.”
Olive and Rebecca sat side by side, their eyes on Steve’s throat where a soft pulse was present.
Howard was dozing, his head rested on his arms propped up against the metal tub.
The rest of the team were in various states of alertness. But Dugan was awake, gun in his hand and eyes on the door. When asked why, his words were tight, “just in case.”
——————
He felt like he was floating. But it was warm and he felt like he could breathe again, so he was fine with that.
——————
Howard woke, throat dry and eyes like sandpaper. But he looked up, feeling like something was moving. Steve was shifting in the tub, hands opening and closing in the water and muscles moving slowly.
He drew in a shaky breath of air at the first full signs of life in Steve. Sure he’d been breathing but no one knew what extent of damage was done by being shot, dying, being frozen, and coming back to life.
Seeing the muscles move smoothly made Howard want to cry. Again.
—————
Finally Steve worked up the energy and courage to open his eyes. He felt sore and kind of dizzy, but other than that he felt fine. White tiled walls surrounded him and he looked down to see himself submerged in water.
“Steve?”
He turned towards the sound of his name. Dugan was sitting there, a gun in his hand and a wary question in his eyes.
“H—“ his throat protested and he coughed. Soon everyone was awake and gathered around the tub, looking at him like an animal in a cage.
“Do you know what happened?” Howard asked gently.
He nodded. Then he motioned for a pen and paper, not wanting to aggravate his throat again.
He dried his hand and then wrote:
Figured that out when I woke up in the freezer.
Howard grimaced at the note and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. We didn’t know—“
Steve waved at him to be quiet. He wasn’t trying to blame them.
“You need anything?”
Steve looked around the room and noticed someone missing. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to be there…
His questioning eyes looked up to Rebecca, whose face hardened. Uh-oh.
So he forced his voice to work, wincing at the pain, “w-what?” It was raspy, and made him cough again. A glass of water was handed to him and he drank.
But Rebecca stayed tight lipped.
He looked over at Howard, “Peg—“ was all he could manage before his voice cut out.
“Don’t worry about that right now, Steve.” Howard said, his voice crisp, clearly trying to change the subject, “you just need to heal. And probably eat. You’re hungry right?”
He wasn’t really. His stomach felt full actually.
Why didn’t they want to talk about Peggy?
Panic ran through him, had something happened to her? He grabbed Howard’s wrist, his hands weaker than he could remember them being since the serum, “s-she okay?” He forced out.
Silence.
Then Dugan’s flat and steely voice answered, “She’s perfectly fine, Steve.” But the tone he used clearly indicated that Dugan could care less about her well-being.
What had she done?
His mind flashed to the face he’d seen. The one who had looked surprised when Steve had felt the bullets enter his body. The one he’d turned to see as he’d sunk to the floor, drowning in his own blood.
Bucky’s face. Bucky’s blank and confused face.
He shut his eyes, tipping his head back onto the tub. The capitol had just placed the last nail in their coffin. He would tear them apart for what they did to Bucky.
If it was the last thing he ever did.
—————
After he ate the first time. He vomited violently, leaning over the toilet, stomach rolling with the mixture of food and old blood that had settled in his stomach after being shot.
It was not something he ever wanted to experience again.
But after he’d empty his stomach, he finally felt his appetite begin to return and he ate with hesitation. Taking it slowly at first before finally feeling back to normal.
————-
Stane came to see him and pretended to be relieved that he was alive. The thinly veiled annoyance was present on both sides.
————-
Phillips was a quiet visitor. Looking at him strangely and making Steve think he might disappear if Phillips’ looked away for even a second.
They talked briefly about the mission to District 2 and how they had managed to take it under the rebellion. They now had control over that. But District 1 was still a battleground.
Steve listened intently. He kept worrying that they would mention Bucky’s name. Wonder if he’d popped up anywhere else to fight. But thankfully they made no mention of him.
Steve felt relieved. Obviously they didn’t know it was Bucky who had shot him. He wanted to keep it that way.
—————-
He waited a day or two before pulling Jones aside.
“What happened?”
Jones looked at him seriously, “what do you mean?”
“Where’s Peggy? Why are people acting like she doesn’t exist?” Jones’ face grew dark, and he stayed silent. “Jones, you’re the only one who knows the extent of the torture she went through. I'm asking you to tell me what happened.”
The man sighed and scrubbed at his face, “we think she planned it.”
“Planned what?”
“Your death. In District 2.”
“And how in the hell would she manage that?” Steve asked, his anger rising.
“We don’t know yet. But somehow they knew we were coming. Somehow they ambushed us with double the amount of guards and she’s the only one who knew where we were going that had the possibility of betraying us.”
And then Steve’s blood ran cold.
“No. She’s not.” He snapped, “there’s someone else who would benefit from my death.”
Jones’ eyes snapped to his, “what? Who?”
“Come on.” Steve practically growled, “you’ve been blaming Peggy but we both know who would prefer me dead.”
Jones’ eyes widened and he cursed, “Stane.”
Steve nodded harshly, “Stane.”
————-
He had Jones lead him to where Peggy was being held. Morita was by the door, guarding it.
“Let me in.” Steve asked.
“Uh,” Morita said, “I got orders to—“
“Morita.” Steve said firmly, “move aside.”
The man blinked and reached for his radio. “Morita.” Jones added, “It's fine. Just let him in.”
The man did not seem thrilled to step aside. But he did. Unlocking the door and moving for him to walk in.
He stepped in lightly, but she turned towards him immediately. She must have been expecting someone else because she froze, eyes on him in shock.
Her face went pale, “Steve?” He nodded and she choked, grasping at her chest, “How? I saw your dead body—“ Her throat cut out and Steve felt shock and then disbelief and then finally anger. He turned back around to Jones’ and Morita’s eyes and spoke harshly,
“No one told her I was alive?!”
“We didn’t want her to know.” Morita said firmly, not backing down from Steve’s glare.
Jones gave him a knowing eye and Steve let the anger flood out of him. Of course they wouldn’t have told her if they thought she was the one who got him killed.
So he turned back to her slowly, her face still frozen in disbelief.
He stepped forward and held his hands out palms up, “I’m not sure how, but we think the serum healed me. Just took a bit longer than expected. I did die.”
She sobbed, body wracking forward as she clutched her arms to her chest and knees crashed to the ground. Concern had him lurching forward, wrapping his arms around her still too thin frame and holding her against him.
He could hear Morita protesting, but Jones must have said something, because then he fell silent.
She cried, harder and more emotional than he’d ever seen her. Her fingers clutched at his arms and he held her just as tightly in return. Her hair was almost down to her shoulders and he buried his face against it as they held each other.
It suddenly felt like every moment they’d ever had flashed before his mind. From her gasp in the training arena, to her finding him pinned to the tree, to her by his side after the avalanche.
She buried her face against his chest and they stayed there for a long time.
————
He woke to an angry voice clearing its throat.
He blinked up at a furious Howard.
“What?” He asked, slightly annoyed.
“Care to explain?” Howard gestured to him and he looked down. He’d somehow managed to get to a wall and lean against it, hauling Peggy with him. Now she was curled up on his lap and in his arms, asleep against him. Her face was relaxed and calm as she slept and he felt a crashing wave of protectiveness envelope him. His arms tightened around her and she sighed softly.
“No explanation needed.” Steve whispered back, “she didn’t get me killed.”
“You don’t know—“
“I do know. She didn't and she wouldn’t. I do know who it was though.”
Howard paused, then crouched down, sitting on his heels. “Care to share with the rest of the class then pal?”
“Stane.”
It took a second for a reaction to happen. Howard’s eyes widened and then he tilted back, sitting down heavily and with a huff, “holy shit.”
Steve nodded, “yep. It would be ridiculously easy to code a message that would get intercepted by the Capitol. I’m sure after I died he made me into a martyr, huh? To ensure the cause lived on?”
Howard snarled and started to get up, presumably to go yell at Stane. Stave snatched his wrist and held him, “don’t.”
“Why the hell not!”
“Because we don’t have proof. And the more we pretend we don’t know about his duplicity, the more we can play against that. So we bide our time, and we be a lot more careful.”
Howard’s eyes grow flinty. “I’ve got some ideas in mind.”
Steve nodded, releasing his wrists and replacing his arms around Peggy, “start with taking these shackles off.” He gestured to Peggy’s wrist where a chain held her to a wall.
Howard sighed and produced a key, “you know I wasn’t exactly thrilled about locking her up. Just couldn’t be too careful.”
Steve didn’t respond, just felt relief at the way the chain disappeared from her wrist and she immediately brought the hand up to her chest, pressing against him harder.
————-
Steve sat as they debriefed about everything and decided on a course of action.
“Well,” Stane chuckled, stepping his fingers, “the capitol is about to get a big surprise.”
Steve shifted in his seat, annoyance growing at Stane’s blatant lies that were piling up. But they’d agreed to keep silent. Howard stood and brought up maps of District 1.
“We almost have 1 under control. So if you show up, Steve. We could probably take it. Then it’s just the Capitol.”
Stane nodded, “wonderful news. But we need to make sure we’re careful about snipers this time.” He laughed, as if the joke about Steve’s death was funny. When no one else laughed his face hardened and he sneered, “did we catch the shooter by the way? Because if not, then we should be focused on getting him. Aim like that is dangerous.”
“It’s fine.” Steve blurted out, “I’ll be more careful.”
Stane was nodding and looked over to speak to one of his advisors. But Steve felt eyes on him. He turned to Howard and the rest of the team who all stared at him in shock. He furrowed his brow, “what?”
Howard looked at Stane, “is that it? I need to meet with Steve about his new uniform.”
Stane waved them away and Howard practically hauled him out of his chair. Howard pushed him until they entered the propaganda set and shoved him into a chair stabbing a finger at him, “you know!”
Steve looked at him in confusion, “know what?”
The rest of the team filed in and stood quietly behind Howard. Their faces were stoic.
“You know who shot you.”
Steve schooled his face. He couldn’t tell them. They wouldn’t understand. Other than Howard, they hadn’t met Bucky. They wouldn’t be as forgiving as they had been to Peggy. So he just blinked and shrugged, “I don't know. I just don’t think it’s something we need to worry about.”
“You’re a terrible liar, Cap.” Dugan growled, stepping forward.
“Why does it matter?” Steve asked, “some guy shot me, I died, it didn’t stick. Here I am. Time to move forward to the next mission.”
Jones’ voice spoke next, “he thinks he’s protecting him. Just like he did Peggy.”
Steve’s throat went dry at his words. He blinked up at them and Howard glared back, “we know it was Barnes, Steve.”
He stood up, “it wasn’t.”
“It was.” Monty sighed, shaking his head, “we know it was.”
Howard stepped forward and pressed a button, bringing up a projection. The angle clearly showed Bucky on the ledge, taking the two shots, and then disappearing. Steve slammed his hand down on the button. “It wasn't him. The capitol made him. And I won’t let a single one of you try to persuade me otherwise.”
There was a long silence until Denier asked a question, “how did you know?”
Steve sagged, “I saw him that day. I looked up and saw him on the ledge. But even from there I could see the confusion on his face. They’ve tortured him, screwed with his mind like they did Peggy.”
“You’ve known this whole time and you didn't say anything?” Howard asked.
He doesn’t answer the question. He looked at the button he’d just hit. “Who else knows?”
“Just us.” Dugan responded.
“Stane?”
“Hell no.”
“Good.” Steve said, feeling relieved, “I want this footage destroyed.”
“Steve—“
“I want it gone, you hear me? I don’t care how it looks. I don’t ever want his family seeing that, or anyone else who can use it against him. Howard?”
The man looked at him for a long minute and then sighed, nodding. “Yeah, okay, I’ll get rid of it.”
“Good. Now.” Steve turned to the team, “we need to take District 1 fast, because I plan on going to the capitol to get Bucky and put Schmidt’s head on a platter as soon as possible. So gear up.”
——————