Seventeen
Bucky had peered at the window when the light was activated and the microphone beeped, but nothing was said and no one appeared on the other side. He thought it may have been a mistake. He started making his way from the kitchen to the living room.
"Longing," A voice sounded through the speakers.
He stopped dead in his tracks, his body ran cold.
"No," he whispered in disbelief, "Not again."
"Rusted."
This wasn't a voice Bucky recognised, but he could tell that Russian wasn't the speaker's native language. The accent was incredibly American, but it was said well enough for him to recognise the words.
"Stop!" He ordered, then took a few steps to the left before a few to the right, not knowing where to run too. His breathing accelerated.
"Seventeen." The voice continued.
"STOP!" Bucky screamed.
He ran to the window that rang along the entirety of the living room. Ghostly screams of terror and pain from his past echoed through his mind. Bucky charged at the window-wall and with all his force he slammed his metal fist into the glass. He punched and punched as hard as he could to no avail.
"Daybreak."
Bucky began to scream with every hit as he tried to break his way out of the complex. The complex was at least 40 floors high with no building close or low enough to jump onto. If he were to jump from a height like this, it would be fatal, even for a supersoldier.
"Furnace."
The voice was half way through the commands and Bucky was now desperate. He whimpered, fearing he was about to lose himself again, after working so hard with Bailey to regain as much of his personality and memories as he could. Bucky could feel himself slipping. He used his shoulder to slammed the glass with no success, then his foot, before returning to using his fist. In a last ditch attempt, Bucky pulled his arm back as far as he could and used his entire torso to swing his fist around. His metal knuckled collided with the glass and a crack appeared. The crack triggered alarms and lights, they roared and flashed throughout the psych floor. All the cameras turned onto Bucky, once again he found himself cover in red laser dots.
Dr Thomas flinched at the blaring sirens. He panicked, he didn't know something like damaging the property would be a breach and trigger an alarm like this. He looked around the room, looking for an excuse or something to blame. The evidence he thought suddenly. Charlie dropped the tablet he was reading the words from before stamping on it repeatedly with the heel of his shoe, ensuring that all the glass out of the screen was broken.
Bucky in winced in terror, waiting for the next word to be as loud as the alarm. Adrenaline was racing through him, every vein in his body pulsed almost to the point of bursting. His heart hammered his ribcage. He looked to the crack in the window, he thought about punching it again and smashing the window to pieces to make an escape.
The double doors to the stairs at the back of the psych floor burst open. Armed guards, dressed all in black with bullet proof vests and riot gear, charged through ready to shoot their target. Charlie held his arms up in an attempt to portray innocence. He spied their weapons and his arms started to shake in fear.
"He's in there, he flipped out!" Dr Thomas shouted over the alarm. "He's trying to escape."
A head of blonde appeared at the back of the group of guards standing taller than them all, "Move!" he ordered.
Steve pushed his way through the guards, behind him followed a white coat. Patsy ran along the path he was creating. She grabbed the remote and activated the double sided window. Bucky stared at the guards and the guns. His eyes then found Charlie.
James stormed across the apartment to square up to the window, the dots keeping track of him. He punched it.
"I will kill you!" he shouted, spit landing on the screen.
Dr Thomas gawked at him, not knowing how to respond. Patsy and Steve looked to him too, his face had drained of all colour.
Patsy stepped forward to the window, "James, I need you to calm down. They have the guns on you." she pointed to his chest.
Bucky looked down and realised he was covered in the red targets like before, but this time felt must more intense. Without Bailey around to stop them, he believed they would shoot.
The head of the guards yelled, "Open this door!"
Bucky was on the cusp of making the right decision to stop, but the voice of the armed man snatched him away from it. He punched the window double over as if it were a punching bag. The whole thing shook, it wouldn't stay solid for long.
"Bucky calm down!" Steve shouted to him. He turned to Patsy and said in a hushed voice, "You can't let them in. Open it slightly and I'll pull myself through."
She nodded once. Steve pushed his way through the guards again to get to the front of the door.
"Rogers, get out of the way." The lead ordered.
Steve turned around so his back was to the door. "Let me talk to him! Alone!" He shouted, "Now!"
Patsy pressed a button for the door to begin to sink into the floor, it only opened several inches before Steve held up his arms, hooked the top of the frame and pulled himself through. As soon as his whole body was through, Patsy pressed it again and the door forcefully closed.
She quickly brought the remote to her mouth, "Activate voice control permissions for Dr Bailey Josephine Johnson."
"Open this door now!" The guard roared.
"Oops, sorry, can't." She held up the remote and shrugged.
As soon as Steve's feet landed on the floor, Bucky was pushing him out of the way.
"Let me out! I'm going to kill him." His voice was like thunder.
Steve shoved him back, "No Bucky, that's not you anymore."
"Isn't it?" He asked rhetorically before pulling back his fist.
Steve ducked out of the way, Bucky's slammed his metal arm against the door, the door buckling underneath the force. Steve was shocked. He stood back up in front of the door, his arms up, palms flat.
"Tell me what happened, what's going on?" He ordered, but his voice was full of concern.
"Move." He snarled.
"No Bucky." Steve stood more firmly, preparing for a physical response.
"Argh!" He shouted in frustration.
Bucky spun on his heels, he stormed over to the kitchen and grabbed the first object in his vicinity. He grabbed the stool by its leg and threw it across into the living room, the opposite way to Steve. It crashed into the coffee table, taking with it books, a couple of cups, and their placemats.
Steve slowly stepped towards him, "What did Thomas do?"
Bucky ran his hands through his hair, pulling aggressively at the root. He began to sob.
"He used the words Steve..."
Bucky dropped to his knees.
On the other side of the door, Patsy left a voicemail on Bailey's phone.
"You need to get down to the complex. Now."
___
Across town, Bailey visited her least favourite place in the world, even though it was the closest she would ever get to being with her mother again.
"I really hope you're proud of me." She said as she laid down a bunch of white flowers.
She looked at the headstone, the engraving read 'In Loving Memory of Nancy Johnson 1970 - 1999 A beloved Mother and Daughter. There was no greater honor than to be loved by you.' Bailey wiped away her tears with the tissue that was stuffed up her sleeve. It began to rain lightly. She took a deep breath and turned away.
As she exited the gates of the graveyard, she picked up her phone. There were multiple missed calls from Patsy, Steve, Dr Armstrong, and Dr Jennings. Her stomach flipped. She listened to the first voicemail. The urgency in Patsy voice was an unfamiliar sound, Patsy was always so calm and collected. Bailey ran down to the main road and flagged down a cab to take her back to work.
Bailey drummed her fingers anxiously on the handle within the lift. The 40th floor felt like it was 140 floor aways. The elevator doors dinged and Bailey squeezed through them as soon as they were open enough to fit her shoulder through. She ran through the middle of the psych floor. Everything looked out of place, chairs weren't where they should be, the table wasn't lined up straight, there was a smashed tablet on the floor by the window.
As fast as she could, she inputted the code and stepped over the door before it reached the floor. Bailey took in the scene. Instantly, she noticed a stool missing and felt the tension in the air. Steve stood looking pained in the living room, sat on the sofa was Patsy talking away with her hand reached out onto the middle cushion between her and Bucky. Bucky said holding his chin, his knee bouncing nervously. She could see where the stool from the kitchen had gone to, it was on the floor along with a ruined book and two smashed cups.
Steve hurried over to Bailey, "Maybe now's not the right time," he said quietly.
Bucky's head snapped up, "You." He said with such venom.
He gripped the back of the sofa and threw his legs over it. He charged across the room. Steve quickly turned around and slammed his body into Bucky, keeping him away from Bailey. Over his shoulder, Bucky pointed in Bailey's face.
"Was it some sort of test? Were you testing me?" He spat.
Bailey scrambled for words but she found none, she had no idea what Bucky was asking of her. His eyes were red and sore, his grey t shirt had darker spots of grey around the neckline, Bailey presumed they were tears.
"Bucky come on, we've told you she had nothing to do with it." Steve held him back.
"I trusted you." He pointed again, his voice broke. "I thought I could trust you. You told me I could."
Bucky stifled a cry and recomposed himself before turning around and retreating back to the sofa.
"Bucky," Bailey called after him, "I have no idea what you're talking about, what happened?"
"Fuck off." He said under his breath, but loud enough for Bailey to hear.
Bailey's eyes began to water and her bottom lip started to tremble, Steve saw the heartbreak on her face. He took her by the shoulders, moved her backwards to the door. Steve quickly tapped in the code and removed Bailey from the room.
"What's gone on, what happened to him?" She sounded like she was begging.
"Dr Thomas went rogue." He said sternly.
"What do you mean?"
Steve kept his voice monotone, "He started to use the words on him."
"What?! No! " Bailey's voice was a pitch or two higher than it normally was, "We haven't reclaimed them yet, they would work on him!! Is he okay, he still seemed to be him... to some extent." She was in disbelief at the scenario they had found themselves in.
"He didn't manage to say them all, thankfully."
"Are you sure it was Charlie, why would he do that?" A couple of tears escaped and trickled down Bailey's cheek, she quickly wiped them away.
"Bucky said the words were read out over the tannoy and other than the guards, Thomas was the only person in there when Patsy and I came through. We have no idea why and neither does Bucky." Steve explained.
Bailey wanted and needed proof. She went straight for the tablet, she grabbed a cord that was plugged into the centre of the table and inserted it into the bottom of the smashed device. Appearing on the hologram in the middle was the last thing the screen displayed. In the top right corner was Dr Thomas's account. On the page were the trigger words.
Through gritted teeth, Bailey asked "Where is he?"
Bailey ran to the steps, she only needed to run down a couple flights before she made it to the sub psych floor were the rest of the building's therapists, doctors, and scientists were based. The room was sectioned off into glass wall and doored offices. Steve chased after her, he could stop her easily if he wanted to, but he wanted to know the truth too. She stormed through the main entrance and scanned the rooms for Dr Thomas. The doctors stared at her, wondering why she was on this floor and why she looked so angry.
In the office tucked away at the back, Charlie sat with his head in his hands. Dr Armstrong was pacing up and down the other end of the room looking extremely frustrated, and Dr Jennings was sat across from Charlie looking at him in disappointment. Bailey burst through the doors and Charlie jumped up.
There was a chorus of "woah, woah, Bailey, no" as she charged at him.
He hurried backwards, Bailey kept within inches of him, and Charlie slammed into the wall behind him. She had him pinned.
"Tell me what the fuck happened. Now." She demanded.