III
Natasha made impossibly fast time on the journey back to the tower. Steve had an iron ball of apprehension resting in his stomach that only grew as they got closer. The moment their feet touched the landing pad of the tower, Steve, Sam and Natasha were surrounded by a horde of people demanding instructions. The Winter Soldier was there, they said. He was armed, they said. He had a hostage, they said.
Steve knew all of this. What he needed to find out was if Bucky Barnes was friend or foe.
As the elevator took them down to the lobby (Bucky had not moved), Jarvis filled them in. Some brave soul had managed to locate a hospital gurney and get it across to Barnes, who had gently placed Darcy down whilst keeping at least one weapon trained on the crowd of onlookers. It appeared that an even braver nurse had attempted to persuade Bucky into letting her attach an IV drip to Darcy – needless to say, that did not happen. The poor woman had seen the face of the Soldier feeling threatened and it was not a sight she would be in a hurry to see again.
Steve nodded along to Jarvis’ voice, fiddling with the cuff of his suit. Outwardly, he appeared to be calm and ready to face a potential threat. Inside, it was chaos.
He felt like skinny Steve from Brooklyn all over again, in the midst of an asthma attack with no help coming. His best friend was just a few floors down, holding another of his friends hostage. This had the potential to go horribly wrong in so many ways that Steve didn’t want to imagine. But he did.
He saw the look on the Soldier’s face as he put a bullet first in Darcy, then rounded on Steve. He saw a trigger happy rent-a-cop fire when Bucky raised his hands to surrender. He saw all his friends die, one by one, because he couldn’t bring himself to fight his long lost brother again.
There was a soft ding as the elevator reached the ground floor, but the doors didn’t immediately open.
“When you’re ready, Captain Rogers,” Jarvis said, patiently. Steve breathed a thank you to the elevator, ignoring the other passengers. The last time he had seen Bucky… well it wasn’t the most positive experience. Steve only hoped this meeting would be different.
A curt nod let Jarvis’ impeccable sensors know that Steve was ready to face his once (hopefully still) best friend.
As the doors slid apart, a hush fell over the lobby. In any other situation, all eyes would have been trained on Steve but the presence of the Winter Soldier in the room changed everyone’s priority from watching the spectacle to self-preservation.
Steve approached in a slow, controlled fashion, still hidden by the crowd. Bucky, who had undoubtedly noticed the elevator’s arrival, had not yet seen his face.
The crowd parted and the two men locked eyes.
Bucky visibly sagged and, for the first time in hours, he lowered his weapons.
Steve picked up the pace, glancing between Bucky and where Darcy was lying prone, covered in bruises, on the gurney. As he reached his best friend, Steve paused momentarily, not knowing how the other man would react. Before he could debate his actions, Bucky had engulfed him in a hug.
He was home.