Chapter Text
It's funny how such a simple mission could go so wrong so quickly.
The mission was like every single one before it, find the base and take it out. Steve and the Commandos should have had a field day with this base, it had practically no defenses, and only around a hundred people working inside. One of the smallest bases they've ever cleared, but it apparently held significant information the SSR needed. So they decided to send Steve and his crew.
Their plan was a simple one, at noon every day hydra sent out two trucks that supposedly brought in supplies or whatever else a top secret nazi-run research facility would need. Steve and his team decided that they would ambush those trucks, kill whoever is inside, take their uniforms and drive into the base undetected. Then Steve would take Dugan, Jones and Falsworth to retrieve the documents as Dernier and Morita placed some explosives to set off when they left. Bucky was to set up in a sniper position to take out the truck drivers and then make sure they had a clean entry and exit.
Everything was going fine, at the beginning. The trucks exited the base and the team lay in wait as the vehicles approached the attack site. Steve watched where Bucky was supposedly stationed, waiting to see when he would strike.
As usual, bucky's timing was perfect, and two clean shots rang out, taking out the driver and passenger of the first truck.
The second truck severed to the side to avoid crashing into their fallen comrades, storming out as they searched the area for the attacker. Bucky took care of them quickly, out in the open they left themselves wide open for attack.
That's about when everything went to shit.
Steve and the rest of the team stormed out of their hiding spots, charging to separate truck to take care of the rest of the hydra operatives. Steve yanked open the back doors, and was immediately treated with a blinding light so bright he could feel it burning into his eyes.
He staggered back as he heard the shouts of hostiles and the cocking of guns.
“Fall back! It's a trap!” He shouted, hoping that at least a few members of the commandos wouldn't get hit.
His hope disappeared when he heard Dernier swearing in french and Dugan shout some very unpleasant words.
The complete blindness only lasted for a few seconds before slowly shrinking into smaller dots making the world slightly more tolerable to look at. Steve quickly darted his gaze around, squinting through the residue of whatever they flashed into his eyes. A bad feeling crept into his veins as he looked around and noticed at least ten soldiers standing around him and the others, their guns pointed at all of their heads.
Harsh German words were tossed at them, and although Steve didn't know what they said, he translated the tone as a “don't move or I'll shoot you all" type of situation.
He glanced at Morita and Jones who stood beside him, and they both slowly put their hands up, knowing they were beat. The rest of the team followed, trying to appear as non threatening as they could.
Steve cursed himself for making this mistake, they all just assumed that the trucks would be filled with supplies or something else, no one expected there to be other soldiers inside waiting to spring a trap into motion. He quickly glanced down at his shield, trying to calculate if he would be able to knock the guns out of the soldiers hands.
He got his answer when one of the stronger looking guards stepped forwards, pointing his gun straight at Steve's head.
“Place place all your weapons down or we will shoot them all.” he spoke in broken English, the syllables stressed in a way that was obvious that he was not fluent in it.
Knowing he was beat, Steve placed his shield down. And he heard the rest of the team drop their guns and the clink of metal as Deriner released all ten of the bombs he had strapped onto him. A smaller man came forward and moved all the weapons away from them, taking extra care in picking up caps shield, acting like it would bite him.
The large soldier that spoke English turned to a man who stood to the side weaponless, and started speaking German in a fast and clipped but respectable tone. Steve guessed that the man was the general or someone of high power.
The generals face darkened, and he spoke with an angry tone that made the large man duck his head and say something before turning to Steve.
“You!” He shouted, pointing in Steve's direction. “There should be one more, where's the last man in your company?” he said, and Steve realized with a jolt that Bucky was still up there. In the excitement he almost forgot about the sniper. A blossom of hope spread in his chest, if they were lucky Bucky could give them an advantage.
As if Bucky could hear that they were talking about him, a soldier to Steve's left suddenly fell, a hole in between his eyes. Suddenly all the guns were off of the team and flashing to where they thought the fire came from. Screams that Steve could decipher as “Sniper! Get down!” Rang out around them and Steve had to smile. Bucky never failed to make a dramatic entrance. Steve forced himself to stay still, glancing around to his friends and where their weapons lay around ten feet away, trying to judge if he could get to them before he was shot.
Another one Bucky's shots took down a soldier, and he could hear the confused sounds and screaming of German men. He decided to take his chances and lunged forwards, his hand reaching for his shield when suddenly he felt the butt end of a rifle crags down on his skull, causing him causing stumble and fall.
His vision blacked out for a second, and when he could finally make sense of the world again he could hear the shouts of his men and the germans all blended together. Suddenly Gabe was beside him, helping him stand and get his footing.
Steve watched as a soldier ran towards them, his gun raised and he madly grabbed for his shield that he knew he wouldn't get to in time. He was bracing for impact when the soldier fell dead to the ground with a soft thump.
Still trying to calm his racing thoughts, he definitely had a concussion, he glanced wildly to where he knew bucky was and flashed him a grateful smile, not realizing his mistake for a second.
He heard the German shouts of ‘Scharfschütze’ and then watched as all the guns were suddenly facing where Bucky was positioned. And before he could react another white blast surrounded them, and once again he was blinding, not able to cover his eyes in time. He felt something sturdy be clamped around his hands before he could stop them and realized that it was cuffs, he struggled against them, trying to break free. But the metal was too study, and Steve wondered where they found metal strong enough to hold him. Squinting past the brightness, he found himself on his knees, helpless as he watched the large soldier from before pull something out of the back of the truck. It appeared to be some sort of high tec gun, and all steve could think of was the ones that shot the blue ray that dissolved people on impact. Was he about to die? He struggled more, but he had three scared looking soldiers with their guns on him and the stupid cuffs weren't coming off. Steve watched as he struggled as the soldier aimed the gun up into the forest, and right were bucky was supposed to be. “Bucky! Get down! Run!” Steve and the others screamed, and he started struggling harder as panic overcame him. He stumbled to his feet and managed to make it a few steps before he was taken down by some hydra goon. He watched helplessly as he saw the figure of bucky jump out of whatever tree he was in, and for one fleeting second it looked like he got out of the way in time. But the gun fired, releasing a large shockwave that hit the tree bucky was in, exploding in in a fiery blast, and steve watched in horror as his friend was knocked out of the air. The force of the blast sending him at least thirty feet before he crashed into a tree and rolled limply to the bottom of the slope.
He was aware of himself yelling Bucky's name, and he could hear the others screaming and swearing too, but the soldiers simply forced them all to their feet and firmly marched them along, guiding him with a rifle to his back. Steve tried to turn his head to get a glimpse at what was happening to bucky, but the large soldier who shot bucky down simple shoved his head forwards.
The team was shoved into one of the trucks they intended to stow away on, and Steve would have chuckled at the irony if he wasn’t so worried about bucky. He waited with baited breath, his heart pumping so loudly he thought the others could hear it. The inside of the truck was close to pitch black and he could hear the footsteps walking closer to the truck, but all he could think of was bucky's body rolling limply down the slope.
Suddenly, the back doors were ripped open, flooding the trunk with light and steve almost cried with relief as buck was shoved into the back with them. He tried to scramble forwards to get to him, but his cuffs were attached to some sort of chain that restricted his movements. He pulled fruitlessly against them, before simply looking at gabe, who was close enough to reach bucky's body.
“He’s alive.” Jones called out, relief coloring his tone. “He's out though, not responsive, he must have smacked his head. Most definitely a concussion, the wound on his head is bleeding heavily but that's normal.” he reported, his hands ghosting over each of Bucky's wounds as he looked on with worried eyes. “His arms broken, doesn't seem too bad though, I'll wait till he's awake to reset it. And there's blood soaking his back, but I can't see well enough to tell if there's a bad cut or something else. Other than that, I can't tell if anythings wrong. Should I attempt to wake him up?”
“Yeah,” Steve said, and he watched as Gabe immediately started shaking his good shoulder and tapping his face. “We need to reset his arm and see what's wrong with his back.” Steve swallowed as the image of Bucky crashing into the tree replayed in his mind. “He crashed into that tree pretty hard and the landing wasn't soft either.”
Steve looked at the rest of the team, none of them looked injured only a little worse for wear, with Dugan sporting a blackening eye and an angry expression and Falsworths lip was swollen, but otherwise fine.
“So, any idea of how we are getting out of this?” Steve asked hopefully. But the answering silence told a story itself. Steve sighed, his eyes fluttering shut as he forced himself to think.
He heard Bucky groan and his eyes popped open, relief flowing through him like a river as he saw Bucky's brilliant blue eyes slowly open and immediately search the surrounding area until they locked onto his.
Steve managed to give him a small little smile, and he watched in something that felt like toned down amusement as Bucky tried and failed to hide his pain behind his own smile.
How are you feeling Buck?” Steve asked, pitching his voice lower in an attempt to not hurt Bucky, who probably had a wicked headache right now.
“I’m fine.” Bucky managed to say, but his words were slurred and strained, which proved that he was most definitely not fine. Steve felt a frown twitch at his lips, feeling unfairly angry that bucky was once again lying about his well being to steve's face.
“How does your head feel James?” Gabe interjected, shooting cap a glare like he could sense the upcoming lecture. “You probably have a wicked headache don't you?” Bucky blinked up at Gabe, like he was only just realizing he was there.
“ ‘ts not that bad, i've had worse.” Bucky replied, his eyes shutting. Gabe tutted and carefully tapped his cheeks until Bucky opened his eyes again.
“Sorry Sarge, can't let you sleep yet, still have a few questions. Like if i can reset that arm of yours.” Gabe said pointing to bucky's broken and limp arm.
Bucky groaned in annoyance but simple held his arm out, taking a deep breath in as gabe grabbed it and swiftly set it back into place with a sickening crack. Bucky let out a strangled mix of a scream and a groan, his head thrown back in pain. Gabe simply shushed him, stroking his good arm in comfort, as he whispered words of comfort. It made Steve feel sick to watch bucky suffering like this, he would have done anything to switch places with him. It was even worse when he remembered that the only reason he knew where to shoot was because of steve carelessly looking up at him.
Steve was pulled out of his pity party when Gabe started talking again. “What about your back, there's a lot of blood back there and I can't tell where its coming from.” He told Bucky, and Steve held his breath as Bucky squinted up at him in confusion.
“Somethings wrong with my back? I can't feel anything back there. I assumed it was good.” Bucky said, before trying to sit up and inspect it, Gabe quickly restrained him, but Steve was more worried about the fact that Bucky seemed unable to sit up himself. Bucky's eyes widened as full blown panic broke through the shield he normally kept over his eyes, and his gaze searched wildly around before locking onto Steves again.
Something inside Steve seemed to snap as he saw the unbridled pain and fear inside his best friends eyes.
“Steve.” Bucky said, his voice breathless and slurred with pain. “I can't feel my legs, why can't I feel my legs?”
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The rest of the ride was ridden in tense silence once Bucky passed out again. Steves mind was reeling, after bucky's panicked admission, gabe checked his back the best he could, but refused to speak when bucky was still awake.
Bucky passed out almost five minutes ago and Steve was barely holding his tongue as he watched Jones sit back and scrunch his eyes close and massaged his head the best he could while in shackles. Dugan seemed less inclined to let the silence stretch on.
“Come on jones, Spill it. What's wrong with the Sarge?” Dugan demanded, his face filled with worry and anger. Steve and Bucky had a relationship that many people considered almost brotherly, but Dugan was more of an older brother to Bucky than anyone else. The two constantly bickered, but Dugan was so fiercely protective of Bucky it was almost ridiculous.
Gabe opened his eyes and looked around the truck, his expression somber. “I can't tell for certain if his spine is just swollen, fractured or flat out broken.” He took a moment to let that sink in, the words striking Steve like a thousand little daggers. The others seemed to feel the other way if the amount of soft swear was anything to go by. “Hopefully these bastards will give him some sort of medical attention, or else were facing the possibility that he could never walk again, or worse comes to worse he can die. There's nothing else we can do expect hope. I don't have the right tools to do anything.” Jones said, sounding just as frustrated as Steve felt.
“What are the chances that we could get him back to camp if we manage to escape?” Steve asked over the lump in his throat.
Gabe simply shook his head.
Steve took a deep breath, hating what he had to do to save his friend. “Then we have to play prisoner and hope they help him. There's no other way.” He said, sounding much more defeated that ever. His fears and worry for his friend overcame every single emotion inside of him.
They all sat in silence until the truck came to a stop. Then they waited as the footsteps outside reached the door. Steve watched out of the corner of his eyes as Gabe shook Bucky awake again, probably wanting him to be alert in case anything happened. Or maybe he was trying to keep Bucky's dignity somewhat intact, being helpless in front of hydra was going to slowly kill him.
The door ripped open and immediately seven guns were pointed at their faces. Steve and the others made no move forwards, although both Steve and Dugan seemed to move closer to Bucky, and Falsworth an Dernier seemed ready to leap forwards to take out anyone who tried to attack their fallen Commando.
The large solder from before pointed to Steve, and four guards moved forwards and roughly grabbed him, shoving him outside the truck. Steve let them, knowing it would be better if he simply showed no signs of aggression at all. Five soldiers stepped out of the building and immediately surrounded him, guns trained on his face as they stood just far enough that he couldn't attack successfully. Their caution towards him was smart but quite annoying.
He watched as the rest of his team was pulled out, each with their own escort except for Bucky, who was supported by the shoulders by one soldier and had a gun pointed at him by another. The position allowed him some semblance of dignity but Bucky had a bright red blush on his face that Steve couldn't tell if it was from fever or embarrassment.
Bucky looked ten times worse in the light, the arms of his beloved blue coat were ripped and covered in blood, and despite the blush on his cheeks, his skin is deathly pale with streaks of bright red blood still flowing freely down his face. Steve was painfully aware of the fact that his legs were not working, simply being dragged behind him as they moved along.
They marched along the halls, and Steve couldn’t help but be disappointed that they were all blandly grey, no one had any decorating sense in hydra it seemed.
Soon they all ended up alone in cramped cells, the bars almost as thick as Steve’s fist, and annoyingly strong. They didn’t even budge when Steve pushed and hit them. Eventually he gave up and sat down in the middle of the cell looking around at his team.
“Is everyone okay?” He asked, looking around glad to see everyone nodding their reassurances, except for Bucky, who sat still on the ground where his goon dropped him. “Bucky? How ya holding up?”
“Just peachy Cap.” He said with a sarcastic thumb up and a painful looking smile. Steve hummed his condolements, his worry evident through the evaluating eye that swept over Bucky, who squirmed under it and skillfully avoided his eyes.
“Just hold on for a while longer.” Steve said, his voice soft and in the tone that he only used for Bucky. “We can try to beg them to get you some help tomorrow.”
“We ain’t begging for anything.” Bucky said loudly, his eyes darting up to Steve’s. “You hear me? Don’t let these fuckers know they have something you want. Its just asking for trouble.” Bucky sighed, running a hand over his eyes. “Don’t worry about me, I’m sure they’ll pay special attention to me anyways.” He said with a smile that was anything but pleasant.
“Buck?” Steve asked, leaning forwards with worry. He could hear the panic in his voice, but couldn’t find it inside of him to try and stay calm. “What do you mean by that? Why would you get special attention?”
“I’m going to sleep now, try not to mess anything up too badly while I’m out.” Bucky deflected, avoiding Steve’s eyes as he carefully lowered himself onto his back. The rest of the comandos followed his lead, all muttering their own versions of ‘good night’.
Steve watched him for a moment before laying down himself, there was no point trying to get anything out of Bucky now. He was hurt and scared and Steve felt useless in this stupid cage so far away. He just wanted to get up and be able to comfort Bucky, even if Bucky didn’t want it.
In the end he just ended up laying down himself and hoping that someone in this building had a heart.