What does Barnes’ innocence change for Steve?
Matt wanted to brain himself. Preparing the client should have been done by one of the junior associates but the entire office was swamped with the “Civil War” business.
“We are not arguing Sargent Barnes, Mr. Rogers.”
“The why am I here for? This whole mess is because Tony can’t let go of the past, it wasn’t Bucky that killed his parents! Are you listening to me?”
“Mr. Rogers, we are not here because of anything Sargent Barnes might or might not have done. Can you agree that, regardless of Sargent Barnes’ role, Howard and Maria Stark were murdered? Can you agree that they did not die in an accident, but that someone, be it Sargent Barnes or HYDRA, someone ended their lives before their time?”
Steve was almost heaving, he swallowed with some difficulty and finally nodded.
“Please out loud, Mr. Rogers.”
“Yes.”
“Yes. Howard and Maria Stark were murdered?”
“By HYDRA.”
“By HYDRA.” Steve frowned in confusion at his quick acquiesce.
“It is my job to prepare you for whatever questions the prosecutor might ask, so as my duty, I have to say that you cannot know if the hit was ordered by HYDRA or any other partners they might have had at the time. As we all know, HYDRA was close partners with dozens of other terrorist organizations. Zola’s ‘hint’ and Sargent Barnes’ unwilling association with HYDRA does not necessarily mean that HYDRA was the one to order the hit. Your personal belief is not proof either.”
“What?!”
“They were murdered, yes? No matter who did it. Barnes, HYDRA, or anyone else with access to the Winter Soldier’s trigger words, Howard and Maria Stark were murdered. Do you agree with that assessment?”
“Yes.” And he had to bit his own tongue not to say anything else.
“Did you have reason to believe that Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths were not brought by an accident?”
“This isn’t what we discussed!”
Matt gritted his teeth, “Yes, Mr. Rogers, I remember what we discussed. But I’m your lawyer, not Sargent Barnes’. And what more do you want? Your friend has already been cleared based on diminished capacity and under duress due to torture and literal biological manipulation, he is as safe as he can possibly get, you on the other hand…” Matt trailed off.
“Then why do you keep bringing him up?” he gritted out.
Matt stared back incredulously, and Steve had to remind himself that the lawyer was blind… but he sure didn’t act like it…
“Because you keep bringing him up.” That shut the man up and Matt could only rub his forehead, “Mr. Rogers, I have tried to coach you out of it but it seems that you will need the real life experience to teach you: stop trying to justify your actions as ‘I was protecting my friend’.”
“But this is the truth!”
“Be that as it may, you were protecting your friend… but who was protecting the people that got hurt while you were protecting your friend? That’s what they want answers to. You were helping a friend, all good and great, but, and we are not talking just about the officers, but the civilians bystanders, they also have friends and families and they are asking you, "Why is your friend more important than theirs?" Sargent Barnes is alive and well, but their ‘Bucky’ are in hospitals or the morgue.”
“This whole situation started with him, or at least with people in the same situation, look at what Tony did with Wanda!”
Matt was seconds away from throwing his hands in the air and calling it a day, he wasn’t a therapist but shit, if the Socratic Method works on children…
“What, exactly, did Dr. Stark do to Ms. Maximoff?”
“He basically interned her! She did all she could and Tony locked her up like a criminal.”
“Like Ross did with the Raft?”
“Yes!”
“Then the compound is like the Raft?”
“What? Of course not! The compound is our home!”
“But you just compared the Raft to the compound.”
“No… I… Ross and Tony’s actions, that’s what I was comparing.”
“So did Dr. Stark put a power suppressing collar and a straitjacket on Ms. Maximoff?”
“No!”
“Then how are their actions comparable?”
“They both locked them up for no reason.”
“Have you asked Dr. Stark for his reasons in asking Vision to ask Ms. Maximoff to stay inside the compound?”
“Uh… Tony said something about… reprimands, but Wanda was trying to help! She did help, without her there would be a lot more deaths.”
“But it wasn’t for ‘no reason’, was it?”
“For no good reason.”
“Mr. Rogers, are you aware of the public…sentiment towards Ms. Maximoff following… the events in Lagos?”
“We were fighting a terrorist, why isn’t that enough?”
Matt bit his own tongue but he insisted, “Were you aware of the public sentiment?”
“I heard that there have been protests.”
“Who have you heard that from?”
“Nat mentioned that…”
Matt could hear Rogers’ pulse take off like an enraged bull, but at the same time his temperature went down instead of up. And the lawyer imagined that he lost all color on his cheeks.
“Yes?”
“Nat said that it would be better if Wanda didn’t go out much for a while, so things could… calm down.”
The lawyer would have sighed but this wasn’t the path he wanted Rogers on. Although this was a monumental progress, it just wasn’t the one he wanted his client to make. But he could put that to use.
“Did she give any details about the… protests?”
Steve shook his head, looking almost sick, “I… she… just said that tensions were high and people were upset.”
“That would be an understatement. Were you aware that your compound’s security system scans all mail before delivering it?”
“Tony said something about it, yes.”
“In the weeks following Ms. Maximoff’s very visible involvement in Lagos, were you aware that acid and two explosives were anonymously sent to her?”
“What?!”
“I thought so, according to the data, the information has been sent to you, as her CO, and to Ms. Maximoff herself.”
“I… don’t usually read emails.”
That made Matt pause, “Why not?”
“Tony said something about hate mail and fan mail and he was right, that when not mentioning all the propaganda, it got so bad that, even though I felt bad for the fans, I just had to ignore it.”
“According to details Dr. Stark sent to the ICC, all the Avengers have personal, professional emails for official memos, is that a lie?”
“Uh, no. Tony said that it was useful for meetings and the likes and when one of us was busy an email was the best alternative for phone calls.”
Matt tried to ignore all the “Tony said”s, did Rogers think of any details in the logistic of running the Avengers?
“And…?”
“I only ever used that when we needed some equipment!” Steve defended himself.
“And it never occurred to you that the “official email” could be used to reach you instead?”
The silence stretched and Matt was counting down the remaining ten minutes he had to prepare Steve today, “No.”
“These are copies of the emails sent with the details about the attempts on Ms. Maximoff’ life and the investigations into the matter.” He waited while his client read.
“Oh, my god! What is wrong with these people? She was trying to help.”
Probably what would be wrong with you if Sargent Barnes was murdered? Matt had to bit the inside of his cheeks not to say it, instead, “Keeping in mind that, although Ms. Maximoff would surely be able to protect herself, her public image would suffer even more along the fact that her visa was in the process of being revoked, do you think that Dr. Stark’s actions could be called reasonable in that context?”
“…He could still have explained what was happening.”
Matt shook his head, “Are you aware that when the packets were analyzed, Dr. Stark was already en route to Berlin because, for some reason, the Romanian president was extremely crossed with the destruction of one of his cities?”
“…no.”
“Considering how much you care for Sargent Barnes, do you believe it’s possible that Dr. Stark cared at least just as much for his own parents, that those that died in Bucharest and Berlin also had people that cared for them like you care for Sargent Barnes?”
“…yes.”
“And now we are back to the original issue. This,” he gestured around, “is not about your friend, Sargent Barnes was not responsible for Howard and Maria Stark’s assassination and that was proven in a similar court as this one. A jury, just as unbiased as your trial will have, discussed and came back and decided he was not guilty. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, it wasn’t his fault, then I don’t understand why I am here…”
“This trial is not about Nigeria, not about Bucharest, not about Berlin, Leipzig or even Siberia… you are here, Mr. Rogers, because you covered for terrorists.”
“If you are talking about Wanda–”
“For heaven’s sake! Think! This is isn’t about anyone’s actions but yours, and only yours. Sargent Barnes is innocent of Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths, correct?”
“Yes!”
“But Howard and Maria Stark were murdered, correct?”
“By HYDRA!”
“Yes, the entity known as “Not Bucky Barnes” murdered Howard and Maria Stark, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know that they were murdered by the entity known as “Not Bucky Barnes”?” Matt felt ridiculous but if this entered Rogers’ head…
“…I didn’t know it was him…”
“Did you know that the Starks were murdered?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s what the prosecutors were hired for!”
“I… I don’t understand.”
“The term is called “accessory after the fact” and is simply knowing that a felony, in this case murder, was committed, which you keep saying you knew and just like that, destroying your only defense.” Matt took a deep breath, “I’m your lawyer, Mr. Rogers and I’m trying to defend you by making it questionable whether you knew or not of a crime. Your source was certainly not reliable but by your own admittance, I shouldn’t bother, because you knew.”
This isn’t about Barnes at all, this is about the fact that you knew the Starks were murdered and covered it up. A first degree murder was committed. It was planned, with malice and intent, forgive me the redundancy, but that’s the definition of first degree murder and you are being charged with “accessory after the fact”, if the jury deems you guilty you will face the same punishment as the perpetrator. And because it was done by a terrorist organization, be it HYDRA or anyone else with connections to them, this falls under federal law, the punishment is life sentence to death penalty.”
“I was protecting Bucky!” repeating those words made Matt finally heard that satisfying click. Finally. “But that’s not enough…because Tony cares for his parents just like I care for Bucky… and because I wasn’t only protecting Bucky…” Matt could feel the horror almost oozing from his client and the lawyer finally felt some sympathy for the man.
Matt gently completed, “You were also protecting HYDRA.”