Chapter 10

"...What are you doing out here?" Winter asked once he saw the boy sitting on one of the couches in the lounge.

"...I..uh...you sound different." The boy said, fiddling with his sleeves. "Are you okay?"

"I do not share the same voice as Barnes." He said. "Only the body and mind."

"...Oh. So you're...the other guy."

"I am. What do you want?"

"Well...I was...thinking..." The boy said and took a deep breath before continuing. "I could help, you know...I could look at the arm for you. Like, I know I'm fifteen but I'm smart! I help Mister Stark in the lab all the time and Friday explained that you...that Mister Barnes don't want him knowing about the arm stuff...so...umm..."

There was a small set of tools set to the boy on the couch, similar to what computer lady had arranged in the order for Barnes but obviously of nicer quality.

"Where did you get them?"

"I...uhh borrowed them, from the lab."

He could feel the clicking in his arm, hear it in the background of the room. While the pain didn't bother him to the point of stopping, it would cause issues for Barnes if Winter damaged the arm further. It would also somewhat nice, if the pain could ease somewhat, so that it wasn't such a constant distraction when he was in the body.

"Can you do it out here?" Winter asked.

"Yeah!"

The boy scrambled, taking the tools over to the dining table and setting them out while Winter sat down in one of the seats at the table. It was...oddly unnerving how calm the boy became when he was working, tools and fingers poking at the inside of Winter's metal arm. He rambled endlessly about his school, some boy called Ned and some girl called MJ, as well as his Aunt May and her job at a hospital somewhere in the city. He never once mentioned Stark and Winter wondered if that was on purpose.

"How do you know Stark?" Winter asked.

"and Ned wanted to- uhh, Oh I'm an intern at Stark Industries."

"You're young." Winter said. "Must be smart to impress Stark."

There was a flush of red on the boy's cheeks at the comment and he returned to his work. It took a little while but eventually the arm was closed up and the boy sat up straight, stretching his arms out.

"I think that's the best I can do without doing an actual scan." He said. "I hope it helps, night!"

The boy disappeared into the elevator and Winter returned to the bedroom, where he got comfortable on the bed and fell asleep faster than he expected to. He was woken by Friday, who sounded concerned.

"-wake up, your assistance is needed."

"...computer lady?" Bucky groaned. "Why am I in the bed? What-"

"A silent alarm has been triggered in the office of Miss Potts, as the rest of the team are currently en route to a mission, there is no one on site who can assist."

"What about the jerk security guys?"

"They are unable to help at this time. I will guide you to her office, please move quickly."

Bucky did as Friday asked and followed her directions, heading down the elevator towards the management offices and conference rooms, where Friday told him Potts' office was. The floor was empty, since it was only two or so in the morning, and the lights were off except for a few small emergency lights recessed in the ceiling. There was light from down a hallway, where the office was located. Bucky stopped at the corner before the hallway and waited, assessing the situation.

"We told you already!" A male voice came from the hallway.

"He isn't there!" A woman's voice shouted and Bucky recognised it as being Potts.

"Boy he'll be upset when he gets back and his fling is dead in an office, hey? Maybe if he stopped pretending you'd get to be alive come morning."

"He isn't here!" She screamed, which was followed by glass breaking and someone sobbing.

There were footsteps nearby and someone stepped out from the hallway, noticing Bucky just as the super solider reached out and grabbed his shirt, throwing him across the room into a wall. There were shouts from the hall at the sudden noise and more people emerged, one of them raising his gun and taking shots at Bucky while the others tried to fight him with their fists.

Bucky had no issue throwing two of them across the room like the first man but the gunman and the last fistfight were proving to be an issue. He wanted to get to Potts to make sure she wasn't hurt but these two were making that impossible. The fist fighter pulled a knife out his side pocket, which Bucky easily grabbed and pulled out of the man's grasp. He managed to duck down, avoiding a punch and jab it firmly into the man's thigh which caused him to groan and collapse to his knees. The gunman had run out of ammo, thank god, so Bucky grabbed the weapon and used to strike the man over the head before throwing the empty weapon onto the ground.

His shoulder was stinging and he knew that the gunman had gotten lucky twice, landing two shots into Bucky's shoulder.

"Oh no." A voice came from his side. He turned and saw Potts standing there, an arm holding onto the hallway wall to keep her on her feet. She was covered in cuts, which had blood slowly trickling from them in small lines.

"Potts-"

"O-oh god...it's you..." Potts said with a sob before her legs gave out. Bucky was able to get to her in time to catch her before she fell into a heap on the ground. "T-they wanted Tony but...god he isn't here...I tried to tell them."

"Medical personnel are on their way to the floor." Friday told them.

Potts relaxed a little in Bucky's grip and let him lower her to the ground, where he let her sit down before letting go and stepping back. Now that the adrenaline and focus of the situation was passing, his mind was racing and heavily focused on the fact that moments ago, Bucky had been armed. It had been one of the rules he had been given by the SHIELD therapist, who he had worked so hard to please so that he could be released and he had gone against it barely a week after being away from SHIELD.

"Barnes?" Potts asked quietly. "Can you…stay here? Just for a bit."

He nodded and lowered himself until he was sitting beside her on the ground. Neither of them spoke but Potts jumped every now and then at small noises, eventually reaching out and grabbing Barnes' flesh hand and holding it tight. Barnes dreaded what would come after this moment, the questions about what happened. SHIELD would learn about it and he'd be dragged back to them to live there and be a test subject.

For the moment however, he enjoyed the feeling of Potts hand on his and how warm and safe it felt.