Red in my Ledger

Chapter Twenty-Four

I turned over in bed and slowly opened my eyes.
The first thing I saw was the man on my floor.
"Weiner?" I groaned.
He rolled over to face me, and started smiling.
"Hey."
"Did I wake you?"
"No. No I've been up for ages" he yawned.
"Mhm. Sure."
I sat up in bed and realised I was still in my blood soaked dress.
"I'm gonna go have a shower" I said as I sat up in bed. "Are you... staying in here?"
"Hm yeah" he groaned, shutting his eyes and rolling over again.
I was going to offer him the bed, but he had already passed out.
I stepped over him and headed to the bathroom.
I took off the plaster on my left hand, but didn't remove any of the bandages around my wrist.
I had my shower.
Then I returned to my room where Bucky was still asleep on my floor.
I didn't want to wake him, so I tiptoed around my own room to get dressed.
I wanted to apologise to Tony, so I went down to his lab.
There was someone in there with him. It was the Secretary of State.
The two of them were arguing. Although it was more like the secretary was getting annoyed while Tony tried to work.
I stood by the doorway to listen to their conversation.
"Look I don't know what you want from me" Tony complained.
"I want you to tell me why there were assassins at your little party last night."
I knew they were talking about me.
"First of all, little? Rude. You're just upset you weren't invited. Second of all, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Cut the bullshit Stark. Why are you covering this up?"
"Sir" Jarvis called. "The confidentiality of this conversation has been jeopardised."
"What does that mean?" the secretary asked.
"Y/n Stark is at the door" Jarvis informed.
Tony looked over at me.
There was no point in trying to hide.
"Hi Tony" I said, stepping inside.
"Hey kid" Tony smiled.
I walked over to him and he put his arm around me.
"Y/n Stark?" the secretary questioned. "As in your sister? The one that supposedly died in the car crash with your parents?"
"Hi" I waved slightly.
"What- oh my god."
I looked up at Tony nervously.
"Your sister... is the Winter Widow" the Secretary slowly realised.
Tony pulled me closer to him.
"No" he denied.
"Stark-"
"No. You don't go anywhere near her. Is that clear?"
"She is a criminal! An assassin!"
"That's not who she is anymore."
"She's killed hundreds of peoples. You can't just undo that."
"Okay but it wasn't her fault!"
"Tony-" I tried to interrupt.
"No! You're not- she's not going to jail."
"I never said jail... she'd go to the raft."
"No. She's not going to jail. She's not going to the raft. She's not guilty."
"But-" I objected again.
"Could you be quiet for one second, I'm trying to help you here" Tony said softly to me.
I rolled my eyes and pushed away from him.
"Where are you going?"
"You're not going anywhere!" the Secretary protested. "You're under arrest."
"I- I'm going to get Natasha" I decided.
She could explain it. I think. I hoped.
But I didn't go see her first.
I hurried back to my room, where Bucky was still asleep on my floor.
"Weiner" I knelt on the floor next to him and shook him until he woke up.
"Hm? What's up?" he groaned as he sat up.
I didn't hesitate to embrace in a hug. He instantly hugged me back.
"The Secretary of State is here" I told him. "He says I need to go the Raft."
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna let that happen."
"What's going on? Who's this?"
I looked up to see Tony and the Secretary suddenly standing at the door.
I sat back from Bucky.
"You followed me to my room?"
"You said you were going to find Natasha" Tony sighed.
"She has her own room here?" the Secretary questioned.
"Barnes did you sleep with my sister?"
"Tony!" I yelled.
"No" Bucky said.
"Who is this?" the Secretary asked again.
"Let's just go find Natasha" I suggested.
"No y/n" Tony objected. "Why is Bucky shirtless on the floor of your room?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes!"
"I didn't want to leave her after last night" Bucky said. "You seemed fine with it."
"I was fine with you taking her back to her room. Not spending the night" Tony argued.
"I was on the floor."
"It doesn't matter!" I yelled. They shut up and looked at me. "What matters is the fact that I might be going to jail! Can we deal with that? Please?"
"No, you're going to the raft" the Secretary said.
"See!"
I stood up and pulled Bucky to stand up.
I dragged him out my room by the hand.
Tony and the Secretary followed.
We found Clint, Natasha and Yelena in the living room.
"Hey Nat can we borrow you for a sec" I said.
She looked at me, then behind me at the others.
"Romanoff" the Secretary nodded at her.
Natasha rolled her eyes and stood up.
"Okay let's get this over with" she sighed.
———
5 minutes later, you were all sat in a conference room.
"What are we doing here?" the secretary asked.
"We need to discuss the situation-" Tony said.
"There is nothing to discuss! Y/n is the Winter Widow; she is a criminal. I have men coming to pick her up and take her to the Raft."
"Seriously?!" Natasha exclaimed.
"Is there a problem Romanoff?"
"You haven't even listened to what we have to say."
"I don't care what you have to say."
"You should, because then you'd understand that she's not going anywhere. Neither is Yelena. And neither is Bucky."
"What do they have to do with anything?" he looked at Bucky then finally recognised him. "For fucks sale Stark. Is that man the Winter Soldier?"
"Okay, okay can we please explain" Tony said.
"Fine. You have five minutes. Tell me why we shouldn't lock up these criminals."
Tony looked at Natasha.
"Y/n is a widow, like me. She was taken by the Red Room when she was ten weeks old. You cannot blame her for the way she was raised. She was a victim of psychological conditioning, then chemical subjugation. Now Dreykov is dead, there is no risk that she's going to hurt anyone anymore. The Red Room has been destroyed."
"That doesn't guarantee anything. You say she's been a murderer her whole life, so it's all she knows. Why wouldn't she stop?"
"Because I know that it's wrong!" you yelled at him.
"You didn't realise that sooner?"
"I don't want to hurt anyone!"
"That doesn't change the fact that you have hurt people in the past. You think we should let criminals off because they claim they don't want to do it anymore?"
He had a point.
"Okay, she said chemical subjugation" Tony reminded him. "That's basically mind control. She had no choice."
"That doesn't mean there shouldn't be punishment."
"Yes it does."
"Okay, hang on" you objected. "Natasha went through the Red Room too. How come she never went to jail for anything?"
"She worked with Shield to make things right."
"Okay why can't I do that?"
"You killed way more people than her."
"That's hardly fair!"
"Stark, she even tried to kill you" the Secretary faced him. "She, and him apparently," he pointed at Bucky. "They attempted to kill Director Fury."
"Okay you're clearly not listening to a word that we're saying" Natasha said. "Dreykov forced y/n to do all that. It's not her fault. She's not going to do it anymore."
The Secretary didn't say anything. He turned his gaze to look at Bucky.
You were sitting next to each other and he was holding your hand under the table. You held it tightly. You couldn't lose him.
"What about him?" the Secretary asked.
"Barnes was brainwashed by Hydra" Tony explained.
"Of course he was."
You realised they were never going to convince him anything.
You stood up from the table, pulling Bucky with you, and left the room.
"Hey no! Where do you think you're going?" the Secretary stood up.
Natasha and Tony instantly stood up in front of him to stop him following you.
—
I pulled Bucky out the room and slammed the door behind us.
When I was sure no one was going to follow us, I turned around and hugged Bucky.
"It's gonna be okay y/n" he assured.
"No it's not. I'm guilty and I'm going to jail or the raft or wherever and I'm not gonna get to see you again."
"That's not going to happen. I'm not going to lose you."
I smiled up at him, then hugged him closely.
My head was leaning on his chest. I could faintly hear his heartbeat. It was soothing. I was comfortable in his arms. I didn't to let go.
Then I felt his lips place down on the top of my head as he gently kissed me.
He hadn't done that before. It most likely meant nothing. I ignored it. I didn't want to overthink it right now.
I just needed my best friend.