Grand Central Terminal
“You still haven’t heard from him? It’s been two days, Steve.” I groaned, wiping a hand over my very tired face.
Tony still hadn’t called back with any updates on him tracking the money. In the meantime I’d still been sleeping at Steve’s. Well, not so much sleeping as just staying. I had barely even closed my eyes these last two nights. It just wasn’t happening. Whenever I tried sleeping I’d wake up to short breaths and a barely staved off scream at whatever my mind was cooking up for me.
“I know. I’ll call him tonight, alright? We just have to wait. We can’t do more right now.” Steve sighed, always the voice of reason.
“I know.” I muttered. My cold hands were clamped around a cup of coffee as if my life depended on it.
It sure as hell felt like it.
“You didn’t sleep tonight, did ya?” Steve asked as he sat down, his knee touching mine.
I dragged my eyes up to meet his and deadpanned, “What gave it away?”
“Y’know, a friend once told me that talking about it helps.”
“I hate it when you use my words against me.” I grumbled.
Steve just kept looking at me with his stupid puppy dog eyes until I gave in, “Fine.” I sighed and leaned back into the soft couch cushions, “It’s Hydra. I’ve heard what they do, Steve, and it’s not good. The people I worked with, we all knew stories of how someone just up and vanished or ended up dead. We all knew it was Hydra and nothing could ever stop them.”
“What are you dreaming about, Buck?” Steve softly asked, his hands patting my knee in what should probably be comforting.
I sipped my coffee, hoping the caffeine would help me feel like more than sleep-deprivation and fear. It didn’t.
I sighed, “They’ve got Tony and Natasha. Stringed up in a room and- and they look hurt. Tired. And they have me watching them. And the room’s just cold and wet, dark and looming. Pierce is there too, smiling his trademark smile as he circles around them, telling me he’s got something even better.” My throat constricts and I have to look away to keep going, “He shows that he’s got you. Bleeding, tears streaming down your face as you keep repeating that it’s my fault. It always is.”
Steve stays silent for a second, he retracts his hand from my knee and I can tell he’s trying to think of something to say, but before he can I shoot up and back away from the couch. I don’t have the energy to deal with the look on his face.
“I need to go. I-I need to get some air.” I say hurriedly before grabbing my coat and fleeing from the apartment.
I quickly make my way out of the hotel and close the door of the cab just in time to hear my name being called out. I instruct the cabbie to take me to Grand Central Terminal.
My ma used to take me there when I was little. She used to haul me up on her hip when I was little. When I was bigger I stood on my toes to try and see everything. She would always point at people and narrate their lives. We could stay there for hours, thinking up some of the weirdest conversations and laughing until I almost peed my pants.
They were some of my happiest memories.
When she passed, I didn’t really feel like going there anymore, only if strictly necessary, which was never. But now I needed a safe space. And it was. Not only because of the memories. There were heaps of people and I knew the building like the back of my hand from roaming the place as a child. I would be safe there.
I paid the cabdriver and made my way inside of the building. The light never really changed these last twenty-something years and it seemed as if the people hadn’t either. There were so many of them, all moving in another direction and still it seemed as if they were moving as a group. A part of something bigger than themselves.
It was mesmerizing to watch.
~
“Steve, what’s up?” Tony asked over the phone.
“Bucky ran out. I need to find him because Hydra can too. Please, Tony, can you track his phone?”
“Oh, damn. Sure. Hold on a sec.” Tony said before the sound of typing filled Steve’s ears.
Steve waited while tapping his foot impatiently.
“Grand Central Terminal.” Tony instructed Steve, “Call me when you’ve found him.”
~
I sat down at the side of the stairs, making myself small as to not disturb the ever-moving, ever-growing herd of people. I don’t know how long it was that I spent there, sitting, observing.
It was peaceful though.
I observed people with angry, stressed faces. Tired ones. Happy ones. Distracted or disoriented ones. It was a skill I learned over the years, reading faces. My mother was good at it too. Probably because she’d worked with people all her life and I did too. In the army I knew who would be a pain in the ass or a possible threat. At the bakery I knew who would say hi and who would just snarl or be in a hurry.
You could read it off of them. Their body’s. And I’d learned that language too.
With Hydra I knew which customers would pay best and which would have bad intentions (like I said before, I was mostly right. Not always.).
I watched hundreds of faces come and go until my eye caught something. My instinct’s warning me before I even registered what I was looking at.
Black clothes. Serious, calculating faces. Eyes searching the crowd for something.
Someone.
For me.
Shit.
~
“Keep the change.” Steve said before sprinting into the building.
Why was it so packed with people, damnit?
Steve’s blue eyes scoured the building for places he would sit down. Instead he saw them. Hydra. He hadn’t seen people from Hydra before, but he was sure this was them. Their black clothing was supposed to be inconspicuous. Their movements were controlled. They were trained. They had a purpose. A target.
Steve turned in a circle, his eyes catching on the stairs. He figured Bucky would sit somewhere he wouldn’t bother anyone but still have a good view.
Stairs it was.
~
The only thought that rang through my brain was ‘run!’ while I kept an eye on the Hydra goons sweeping the floors, making their way to the stairs.
I looked around and noticed a group of tourists coming towards me, right before the Hydra goon could. I quickly stood up and easily blended into the crowd. When the group took a turn right, I took a turn left and took a quick peek down to see where the Hydra men were.
Of course I had the bad luck to stare one of ‘em dead in the eye. He yelled something into his earpiece and sprinted up the stairs as I bolted in the other direction.
Fuck!