10. Lacuna;
(n.) a blank space, a missing part
When she woke up she was greeted by blackness even though her eyes were open. She could feel tightness against her wrists and it hurt when she tried to pull them away from whatever they were stuck to, the sharp edges of plastic digging into her arms. Metal rattled as she tugged, feet free but with nowhere to go without seeing.
"Casi Collins, remain calm."
She could feel burning as her skin rubbed raw against the ties, ignoring the command she was giving. She recognised the accent. A hint of German as he spoke, but it wasn't harsh. It was soft as if he hadn't been there for years.
"Let me go!" Casi shouted.
"I didn't kill your parents!"
She couldn't figure out where his voice was coming from, it was all around her but sounded distant.
"I can prove it, Collins. I'm not Hydra. Not anymore."
The black suddenly flickered into a video of some sort. Grainy and shaking, filmed on a camcorder in the hand of someone who was afraid. Or old. Or both. She recognised the people. Her parents. They looked happy. White coats wide behind them as they knelt with a bouncing toddler between the two.
The room looked cold. Clinical. People wouldn't normally smile in places like this. It was too white, too clean. Too much metal. The room was cushioned and there was a cot.
"What is this?"
"Just watch. I can prove to you I didn't kill your parents."
She was about three, probably. Talking enough sense but babbling enough to still be cute.
Then the mood changes. There are noises outside, marching boots against clean floors. Squeaking. And shouting. In German. She couldn't quite make out what's being said, but the smiles are gone now. There's panic as they cover her ears.
"Please, no!"
"Casi?" Bucky's voice fills her ears and she pauses for a moment, forgetting what's in front of her.
"Buck?"
*
"Cas?"
The room was quiet, sheets still a crumpled mess at the end of her bed. He couldn't see her shoes by the door so he knew she'd gone out to fetch breakfast. He could still feel the crumbs in his bed from yesterday's croissants but wasn't complaining.
There was always a buzz in the air around her when she came back, like a proud hunter. It was nice to see this side of her, she talked a lot more and so did he.
He'd got himself washed and changed before the worry set in. She could handle herself, even if her Advantage was weakening but he couldn't help but feel the dread. It was the same that would fill him when he woke after a night of being taunted by the visions of his past and left to decipher them in the morning.
This felt worse somehow, he didn't have to wonder if it was real. It was.
The room around him was eerily quiet, the silence hurting his ears as it allowed his mind to wander.
He grabbed his phone from the side and clicked on the only contact.
C.
It rang. And rang. He hoped her hands were just too busy with their breakfasts to answer. Bucky tried to find his earpiece knowing Casi almost always wore hers, even off the bike. Especially when he went out alone.
A comforting voice in his ears as he walked among crowds and tried to blend in.
He found his next to the kettle, tucked it into his ear and tapped it awake.
"Please, no!"
He almost snatched it straight back out, if he didn't hear it maybe it wasn't happening.
"Casi?"
"Buck?" It interrupted her screaming, a small pant of hope.
"Where are you? What's happening?" He was rushing now, not sure where to start or where to go.
"I don't know." She was crying, he could hear the tremble in her voice.
"Okay, calm down. It's okay."
Bucky grabbed his helmet and the keys that Casi had kept in the foam of hers so she didn't forget it when they left in a rush. He paused, looking around the room unsure what else he might need. He hooked a bag onto his arm and left, breathing heavy in his ear.
"That's not true."
"It is, it's true."
A voice he didn't recognise. A man There was an echo that suggested he was further away but somehow all around her.
"Who's that? Cas?" Bucky pressed as he reached the bike.
"Josef..." She breathed.
"What?"
"Just watch." The voice continued.
"Casi, where are you? How do I find you?"
"I don't know. Bucky, please help me."
"Open your eyes, Collins. Just watch and you'll see."
"Casi, what's happening?"
"Your phone. Your phone can find me." She managed between sobs.
Bucky flipped the phone open, scanning the icons on the screen. No idea how it worked or where to find what he needed. The crying in his ears too distracting to concentrate and it was all a blur of technology he couldn't understand.
"Hey, hi!" Bucky called after a man passing by. "Salut." It was in him. He recognised the language he needed to speak and he managed a sentence. "Puteți să mă ajutați să îmi găsesc prietenul?"
Can you help me find my friend?
The man took the phone after a second of silence between them. Casi still echoing agony in his ear. He thanked the stranger when he passed it back, hands shaking under leather gloves as he watched the haze of a glowing pin on the screen.
"Casi, I'm coming. Okay?"
*