[log] A Matter of Trust [closed]

[jumpthegun]

Characters: John Watson and Bucky Barnes
Location Building 235 (the Aquarium)
Date: Day 160 - Night
Summary: John's come to try to help Bucky with his frostbitten arm. Bucky was using that as a lure for a trap to interrogate Watson about what he knows. It's not going to end well for anyone.
Warnings: Excessive violence, blood, gangrene grossness

[The aquarium has the feel of a small-town tourist attraction, the sort built to give people just stopping to fuel up on petrol a reason to stay for an hour or two. As John makes it into the place, it's early evening. There are various aquariums inside that, according to plaques beside them, once showcased various Alaskan fish; they're empty now. He checks in the bathroom and finds that the water does, indeed run hot, and that's a relief. The whole atmosphere is kind of eerie, with the water casting rippling patterns on the walls, ceilings, and floors, but there's warm water, and John's just going to have to wait for Bucky since a look around tells him he's alone.

After washing up, himself in the sink, and taking the moment to shave and wash his hair, John goes looking in the gift shop. He finds a stuffed dolphin that he decides to keep for Ecks. As that leaves him still with no Bucky and time to occupy himself, the doctor sends a brief message out:]

@jwatson > @username
I'm here.

[When Bucky arrives, John is entirely preoccupied using his tablet light to read some of the plaques. His ears are tuned for the sounds of others, but someone making the effort could probably sneak up on him.]

Comments

[jumpthegun]

Because he can ask me himself, if he wants to know. I don't care for playing telephone.

[advanced]

I was coming to speak with you anyway, to find out what you knew about me, and you haven't been very forthcoming with him.

[At least Tony gave the impression that all he and Watson had managed to do was snipe at each other.]

[jumpthegun]

He hasn't asked me anything specific since my casebook came out, Sergeant Barnes. I'm not going to volunteer that information unless someone asks for it. It's uncomfortable. When he asked me about something I knew about him, I told him as much as I could tell him. We found out things were different between his universe and the one I knew.

[advanced]

Stop calling me that.

[He hasn't been Sergeant Barnes in a very long time, and the man that had been Sergeant Barnes would never have done what he's done today. It just heightens his guilt, regret.]

You don't have movies about them too?

[jumpthegun]

What would you like me to call you? Bucky?

[John's well aware that rapport is a tactic that can be employed on both sides of an interrogation.]

We have films about a lot of things. Your shoulder still needs looking at and my leg is bleeding. I have medical supplies in my pack.

[advanced]

[It's probably obvious from the subtle shift in his expression that he doesn't want to be called Bucky either, it just makes the guilt worse. He can see Steve's disappointed face in his head, and he knows this isn't the good man he's trying to be.

He was doing so much better before he came to this place, he feels like he's slid backwards so far.

Part of him wants to untie Watson, but the paranoid niggling at the back of his head just can't let him. Not without finding out everything he knows. But he does stand up slowly.]

Where's your bag? I'll fetch it.

[He's not going to untie him, but he will bring something to bind his leg with.]

In return, tell me about the movies you have seen. The relevant ones.

[He makes sure to tack that on, or he's bound to get a bland reply about some nonsense kid's cartoon movie or something.]

[jumpthegun]

It's in the 'loo. I can tell you about you in the one I've seen for Captain America.

[That's all you're getting, Bucky.]

[advanced]

[He nods, it's a start. This might be able to turn into a negotiation and answer game, something he would vastly prefer.

He's not long, ten seconds or so, before he reappears with the bag. He's fairly confident of his ability with knots that Watson won't be free so swiftly, but he could be wrong. Assuming his captive is still seated and bound, he'll come and crouch next to him.]

Talk.

[He'll fish about one handed for any bandages and gauze to deal with this leg wound.]

[jumpthegun]

[There isn't any gauze, but there's a thin hospital sheet that's been cut up into long strips and balled away neatly. There's also hand sanitizer, grapefruit-scented wipes and dry tissues.

While Bucky's away, John tests the give on the shirts he's been bound with. There's just burning pain when he tries to move his left leg. Yeah, even if he could escape, that's not going to end well. By the feel of it, he did at least nick a tendon. The warm blood beginning to pool beneath his leg is also indication of that...]

Bucky Barnes was drafted, even though it was Steve Rogers who wanted to join the Army. He spent a lot of time trying to convince Steve to give up on joining, there were other important things he could be doing to help the war effort. Steve wouldn't listen and ended up finding a way around his medical exclusion. Sergeant Barnes shipped out the day after Steve managed to join up. Sergeant Barnes was captured as a prisoner of war and was taken to some sort of facility where they were doing experiments. Steve Rogers broke into the facility and rescued him and the other POWs. Sergeant Barnes was recruited to the Howling Commandos after that.

[He says it like he's giving a mission report, although it's broken up by fits of coughing and silent winces following them as his face and particularly his nose, protest. That's still dripping blood, but at least it isn't gushing.]

[advanced]

[It's intensely disturbing to hear parts of his own life parroted back at him, even though it's so bare bones and he asked for it. How deep does this go? There are films about Sergeant Barnes and Steve Rogers, about the Howling Commandos, in his world. Is this something similar.]

Be more specific. Can you remember any-- dialogue?

[Just the word makes his skin crawl, like he's accepting he might well be fictional.

It's hard to get the strips of sheet out and wound around Watson's leg with one hand, but he compensates by using his teeth to pull it into a tight tourniquet rather than a moderately tight bandage.]

What do you know about HYDRA, and the experiments they were doing?

[jumpthegun]

[John can't speak for several seconds. He just grits his teeth against the pain, face going very pale. Or it would be if there was much more than ambient light from his dropped tablet to see by. It's nearly half a minute before he replies.]

'I'm with you to the end of the line.'

[This movie was two years ago for him, and he saw it once at the cinema, Bucky. What do you want from him?]

HYDRA was studying the Tesseract. I think their experiments were supposed to be part of it. I dunno.

[advanced]

[Those words hit him like solid blows to the face. He can't even begin to hide how much that disturbs him, his eyes wide and his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallows reflexively a few times. How-- how could that be in the movie?

He feels suddenly very sick.

He can hear himself saying those words to Steve so long ago, and then again only two nights past while he died. He can hear Steve saying them to him as they fought above the Potomac. What would Steve say if he knew what Bucky was doing now? It takes a good long while for him to wrest control back and continue.]

But you didn't see anything after I fell? Convenient.

[Given that he felt most betrayed for telling secrets after that point.]

[jumpthegun]

I've just told you they do these films in trilogies, Bucky. [Bucky didn't say not to call him that directly.] This one focused on what happened with Captain Rogers after, getting the Tesseract away from the Red Skull and HYDRA.

[advanced]

[His brow furrows further when he's called by name again. It bothers him, it makes this much harder.]

Fine.

[He's not sure he believes him, but there's doubt there. He didn't come face to face with Steve until 2014, so could it be that the release of these films somehow paralleled the real events?]

Now tell me about Tony.

[jumpthegun]

No.

[Simple, to the point. You should really stop asking, Bucky.

He knows Bucky won't stop.]

[advanced]

[He knows Watson won't stop resisting either, it's a stalemate. He can respect it, but it also frustrates him.

He'll start smaller.]

Do you know of another 'version' of me?

[jumpthegun]

Not as far as I can tell. You're the one from the films. I know there're comics, but I only read a few of them when I was a kid. Don't remember seeing a Bucky Barnes in them, but I'm sure there was.

[advanced]

[Films and comics, that makes some odd kind of sense. He wonders with a creeping sense of dread, if every person here is somehow represented in John's world. A place where the fictional people are real, and the real people are fictional.]

Do you remember anything about Tony Stark from reading them?

[jumpthegun]

I don't. If I did, still wouldn't tell you, mate.

[advanced]

Stop being so stubborn.

[He snaps it out, low and annoyed.]

I've said I don't want to hurt you, and I don't, but I know how to if you force me to.

[jumpthegun]

No one's forcing your hand here, Bucky. Everything you're doing right now? That's on you. Mr. Stark would never ask you to do it like this. You know that as well as - [he has to break for a small coughing fit] - as well as I do.

[advanced]

[Would he? No, Watson is right, Stark would never ask him to torture a man for information. But the fear he had shown, the way he had nearly broken down, it just hammered home how important this information was. Bucky rubs a hand over his face, obviously conflicted.]

This would be easier if it weren't you.

[It's quiet, bitterly amused. Because of course it would be someone he had come to almost like.]

He knew I was coming to meet you to find out what you knew, he's no fool.

[jumpthegun]

[It would be easier, but life here is anything but easy. John can see he's getting to the other man, at least.]

No, but he's scared. Scared people make foolish mistakes, like not realizing 'meet' might also involve 'punch, kick, and stab' from you. You said you didn't want to be this man, Bucky. You don't have to be. What's Captain Rogers going to think when he comes back? How does this end in your mind?

Me keeping quiet 'til the end? Because you're really not giving me a reason to.

You killing me? I don't imagine you wanna do that.

[advanced]

I'm not going to kill you.

[It's immediate and fierce, instinctive.

Killing someone when he's in control, when he's not the Soldier, that's the line he won't cross. Funny, really, because the old Bucky had killed for his country, and wasn't tying a man up and hurting him a line that shouldn't be crossed too?

It's like Watson is hitting with bullseye targets every question. Steve is the way to get under his skin, always has been, and thinking of what Steve will say when he knows what he's done is horrifying.]

Does it matter what he says? It's gone too far already. It's too late.

[jumpthegun]

It's never too late, Bucky. [This is working. Yes. Good.] Untie me, let me see that shoulder of yours. We can still do what I came here to do. And you can tell Tony you talked to me and I said he can talk to me direct. Knock over an aquarium and say it fell on us; we can treat all of this like it was an accident.

That's all it is, right? You didn't mean for this to happen like it has.