[616] ground zero for trouble

[daughterofliberty]

"Remember, Nick," she calls, buckling the utility belt of her suit. "I've got years of vacation time saved up. You owe me. After this, I'm taking five whole days in Virginia with Steve, and no one is going to bother us. Right?"

Fury scoffs, and she turns a gimlet eye on him. "Right?"

"Right," he says, holding up his hands in surrender. "Hell, Carter, it's not like the rest of the Avengers and SHIELD aren't around to pick up the slack. Go! You crazy kids have fun. Send a postcard. Let your hair down a little. You've been tense as a wire ever since – "

"I wonder why," she snaps, and he shakes his head. 

"Just saying," he says, as Tony Stark sniggers behind him. Sharon waves them both off, an unruly smile tugging at her mouth.

"I'll check in once I've made contact," she says. "Steve should be waiting for me at the rendezvous."

"Good luck, Agent Carter," Tony says, and she tosses him a crisp half-salute, then heads through the hatch towards the hangar that holds her vehicle: not the Quinjet, not for a mission this small, but the cherry-red convertible that hovers as she enters and taps out the activation code. "Come on, baby," she tells it. "Let's go for a ride."

But when she reaches the rendezvous at Avengers Tower and strides through the door, Steve's nowhere to be seen. 

And, honestly? Neither is the Avengers Tower.

Comments

[daughterofliberty]

"I guess we'll see."

She finishes off her coffee and places the empty mug on the bar, where it gently disappears. "Any other burning questions about my universe? I don't know if I can answer everything, but I will if I can."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'm curious about a lot of things, but ... " Bucky's smile is gentle and amused. "Thought you said you were about to go on vacation? Don't want to keep you from that."

[daughterofliberty]

"You couldn't," she says, smiling. "Nobody could. I'm going to sit by the pool and drag Steve out hiking and grill some burgers and it's going to be great."

Her smile turns crooked and she tips her head at the door. "Besides, I know you're dying to go running off to Madripoor. I can't blame you."

[nerves_of_ice]

He can't deny it, and doesn't try. Bucky taps the bartop and murmurs a request, and a matchbook appears. He pushes it over to her.

"It's easier to get back here sometimes if you've got something from here," he tells her. "Focus on it when you're coming through the door - that seems to be the trick."

Bucky smiles. "Have a good time. And, Sharon? Thanks."

[daughterofliberty]

"You bet."

She takes the matchbook and slips it into a pouch at her belt, then stands, considering him for a second before she steps close enough to lean down and curve her arm around his head in a gentle hug. "Good luck," she whispers.

"I hope you find her."

When she pulls away, she gives him a faint, crooked smile. "I'll keep an eye out for you. See you later, Bucky."

[nerves_of_ice]

He stays still as she hugs him, then smiles back at her.

"See you, Sharon. Take care of yourself."

[daughterofliberty]

She lifts a hand to him and waves as she gets to the door, then heads through without a second look back, already smiling at someone she can see on the other side.

"Hey, Rogers," she says, as the door closes behind her. "Let's get this show on the road."

[nerves_of_ice]

The instant the door shuts, he's on his feet and moving toward it at speed.

Bucky bursts through into the hut and heads for Shuri's lab as fast as he can run.

*******

Shuri nearly drops her tablet when he comes bursting into the room. "White Wolf! What is - is it your arm, has something happened?"

"No," he tells her, already heading for the communications room. "Sorry, Shuri. I need to talk to Steve. Right now."

He can't stand still. Bucky finds himself pacing the floor in front of the console as it rings, waiting for his best friend to answer.

[marvel_npc]

"Not any better, huh?" Sam had asked, when Steve called to let him and Natasha know he was on the way back, and Steve had shaken his head, grim.

No better. No worse, although it's difficult to say how Bucky could be doing worse than he is: hardly talking, making almost no eye contact, drifting through the day. He'd hated to leave his best friend like that, like this, but he'd put his other responsibilities off long enough, made Sam and Natasha shoulder them, even while Natasha was working through her own grief.

"It takes time, Steve," Sam had said, and Steve had nodded.

"I know. See you soon, Sam."

But he's barely a few hours outside Wakanda's borders when the jet's communications screen lights in an urgent pattern; he checks the skies and the instruments and flips it on, worry a knife in his chest. He'd only just left, what else could have happened...?

"Buck? What's wrong?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"You have to come back. Now." Bucky has no idea how wild with hope the look in his eyes is. "Steve, she might not be dead. We have to find out."

[marvel_npc]

The look in his best friend's eyes hits him like a flurry of bullets; he looks nearly feral. "Bucky," he says, helplessly.

"I saw the recording from the security camera. I know you don't want to believe it – I don't, either – but I saw it. Sharon's gone."

[nerves_of_ice]

He shakes his head, hair falling around his face. "It could have been faked. She might still be alive. And if she is - if she's on her own there, alone, she needs our help."

Shuri had hovered at first, worried, until he managed to coax her to leave. He glances down the hallway just to be sure, then looks back at Steve.

"I know it sounds crazy, I know. But Steve... I just came from the local. And I met someone there. From a parallel universe."

He swallows, hard.

"I met Sharon Carter."

[marvel_npc]

"... You're right," Steve says, slowly. "It does sound crazy."

But it's the local. 'Crazy' is usually the order of the day, there. "You met Sharon from a parallel universe? Are you sure?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'm sure. God, Steve, I know how it sounds, I know, but I'm sure. She recognized me. And she knows you. And Natasha. And Sam, and Tony Stark, and--"

His voice hardens into flat, deadly ice.

"--Nick Fury."

[marvel_npc]

If he's being honest, he'd started calculating the return route the second Bucky said you need to come back. It's not a plea he could resist in even the best of times, and this is as far from that as a pin prick is from a black hole.

He punches in the coordinates and looks back at Bucky, frowning at the chill in his best friend's voice. "What about Fury?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"So this Sharon, this other Sharon, she told me about something that happened to her," Bucky tells him. He tries to keep his voice even; he has to sound sane. Steve's worried enough as it is, he can tell.

"She was on a long-term undercover assignment. For Fury. And evidently he was concerned about her attracting too much attention ... so he planted a bomb. And showed you a recording of her walking toward it. So you thought she was dead. And instead she was out in the cold -- for years."

He shakes his head. "I hadn't told her what happened to our Sharon. But it's too much like it. You know?"

[marvel_npc]

"Yeah," he says, slowly, mind racing.

"Yeah, it sounds pretty familiar. But, Buck – faking her death? That's pretty underhanded, even for Fury. Do you really think that's what's going on here? Why would he do that?"

Except they're talking about Nick Fury, who successfully faked his own death for years and who has lied to and manipulated Steve on more than one occasion. He thinks about the grainy security camera footage he'd seen, the way he'd felt as the explosion ripped through the scene, and his jaw sets. "Years, huh?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yeah. Years. And I don't know, but I have to find out. If there's a chance--"

His throat tightens around the words and a humming silence sits between them.

"I have to go to Madripoor. I have to know. You see that, don't you?"

[marvel_npc]

"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, Buck, I do. But you're not going anywhere without me. Just hang tight, okay? I'll be back in – "

He glances at the navigational readings. "A couple hours, if I punch it. And then we're making a plan. Okay?"

He watches Bucky intently, wishing he could reach through the screen, teleport himself back there right now, in this instant, when Bucky needs him more than ever. Steve doesn't know how likely any of this is, but it doesn't matter: Bucky's right. He'd have to go.

So Steve is going, too. "Okay?"

[nerves_of_ice]

The relief cascades through him. Steve doesn't think he's crazy. He's going to help. They're going to look for Sharon, and if they're lucky, luckier than he has any right to be--

Both of you were believed dead and lived, a tiny voice whispers. Why not her, too?

"Okay." He swallows, hard, and nods. "Okay."

His mind is already racing ahead. "Should I call Natasha? She knows the local, and Fury, and--"

[marvel_npc]

"I'll call her," Steve says, firmly. "Get her read on the situation."

He studies Bucky, the nervous energy in the way his friend holds himself, the deep shadows beneath his eyes that have gone nowhere at all ever since T'Challa came to him with the terrible news that Sharon Carter was dead.

"Talk to Shuri," he decides. "If we're going in to Madripoor, you might want to go in with whatever the best version of your arm she's got. And then – maybe try to get some rest, Buck. I know it'll probably seem impossible, but you need it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I'll talk to her," he promises. "And then I'll go back to the hut. Find me there, okay?"

He doesn't promise to rest, but Steve's not wrong, he knows. Maybe he'll try.

[marvel_npc]

"Count on it."

He gives his best friend as strong a smile as he can muster, under the circumstances. "See you soon, Buck. And then we'll get those answers."

[nerves_of_ice]

"See you soon," he echoes, unable to answer that smile, but the look in his eyes says it all.

Bucky disconnects the call and goes to the main lab to find Shuri. It's not hard, as she's settled herself at the bench nearest the corridor to the communications room, and looks up at him as he enters. "Is everything all -- has anything happened?" she amends.

"Maybe," he tells her. "I put a couple of pieces together today. Shuri, there's a chance Sharon's still alive. Steve's coming back, and then we're going to go look for her. I need whatever the best version of an arm is that you've got for me."

Shuri stares at him, stunned speechless for a moment before sympathy creeps into her expression. "Bucky." She says it so gently, so very gently. "My brother said there was evidence. He is sure. He would not have brought you this news if he were not."

"I know. I know," he tells her. "But when Nick Fury's involved, evidence like that isn't good enough."

[marvel_npc]

She thinks it is no coincidence that the White Wolf put these pieces together today, after Captain Rogers had taken his leave, but it would be cruel to say such things out loud. If he has convinced himself there is some hope in this hopeless situation, she finds she cannot be the one to take it away from him, not when there is a spark of life in him again for the first time in weeks.

"All right," she tells him, and calls up her design file. It is not complete, not perfect, but – "I must fabricate the arm; it will take some time."

But it will take Captain Rogers some time to return, also, will it not? He must be nearly back to the rest of his team by now.

But the White Wolf is nearly thrumming with the need to go, go, go, and so Shuri begins the fabrication pre-checks, starts running a final analysis of her designs so that this newest version will have everything they've determined it needs thus far, with none of the quirks or problems they've discovered.

"Would you like me to call my brother?" she asks, looking back up at him and taking him in: he is exhausted. It is more than possible this is some delusion.

T'Challa will know what to do. "I am sure he would wish to know."