Chapter Nine - Too Long Forgotten

The three of them stepped in, Clara slipping past the metal screen as the boy pulled it closed behind Sam and Bucky. 'Isaiah,' Bucky greeted him.

'Look at you,' Isaiah mused, taking in the sight of a man that looked hardly different to how he did over seventy years ago.

Bucky's demeanour seemed to change as soon as he stepped foot in the house. Clara couldn't blame the sudden shift in the environment, the awkwardness that seemed to shroud the conversation; presumably, the Winter Soldier had tried to kill this man at one point or another. 'This is, uh, Sam,' Bucky introduced the two. 'Sam, this is Isaiah. He was a hero. One of the ones that HYDRA feared the most - like Steve. We met in '51.'

'If by met you mean I whooped your ass, then, yeah,' Isaiah commented before directing his words to Sam. 'We heard whispers he was on the peninsula, but everyone they sent after him never came back. So the US military dropped me behind the line to go deal with him. I took half that metal arm in the fight in Goyang, but I see he's managed to grow it back. I just wanted to see if he got the arm back, or if he'd come to kill me.'

Bucky shook his head lightly. 'I'm not a killer anymore.'

Clara's brow furrowed as she watched the conversation play out. It seemed any relationship Bucky was involved with turned out to have an odd dynamic.

Isaiah held his gaze with the other man, a glimmer of twisted amusement in his eyes. It was more a sneer than anything. 'You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be? It doesn't work like that. Well, maybe it does for folks like you.'

'Isaiah, the reason we're here,' Bucky started, wanting to move on from this part of the conversation - wanting to move on from the part about being stuck as who he once was. 'Is because there's more of you and me out there.'

'You and me.' Isaiah scoffed at his choice of words.

'And we need to know how,' Bucky finished.

'I'm not gonna talk about it any more!' Isaiah growled, grasping a tin that was sat on the table between them, before launching it into the wall to his right.

Clara looked wide-eyed between the man and the tin, seeing the metal container half-way stuck into the wooden panels. Sam did the same, looking at the wall for a long minute as though he didn't quite believe what he was seeing.

'You know what they did to me for being a hero?' Isaiah asked, his level of anger coming back down. 'They put my ass in jail for thirty years. People running tests, taking my blood, coming into my cell. Even your people weren't done with me.' He said, pointing a finger at Bucky.

'Isaiah...' Sam started, a mix of emotions filling his head and his heart, not being able to fully comprehend all that the man had gone through, but understanding why.

'Get out of my house!' Isaiah yelled, clenching a fist.

The teenager pat a hand on Sam's arm, easing him towards the front door and leading both him and Barnes out. Clara wanted to stay a moment long; she could take a look around, see what more she could discover, but she thought better of sneaking around the man's personal belongings, and she left behind the two men.

She saw Sam take angry strides away from the home, Bucky following. 'Sam,' Bucky tried, but Sam interrupted him.

'Why didn't you tell me about Isaiah? How could nobody bring him up?' Sam asked with rage clear in his words. Bucky hesitated, looking down as he walked beside him. 'I asked you a question, Bucky.'

'I know,' Bucky said patiently.

'Steve didn't know about him?' Sam pressed incredulously, but also with a little hope that his friend hadn't just ignored the man's existence.

'He didn't. I didn't tell him.'

'So you're telling me,' Sam riled, stopping in his tracks. 'That there was a black Super Soldier decades ago and nobody knew about it?' 

The sound of a siren flashed for a moment, the lights of the cop car the same. 'Hey,' an officer said, climbing out from the drivers side. A second got out from the passenger side. Clara stepped away from Sam and Bucky as the two officers approached where she stood. Still invisible, she let them pass her. 

'What's up, man?' Sam asked.

'Is there a problem here?' The first officer asked, looking to Bucky. 

'No, we're just talking,' Sam said a bit too indignantly, still frustrated by his conversation with Barnes.

'We're fine,' Bucky added.

The officers rounded Sam and Bucky, the two men now between the car and the cops. 'Can I see your ID?'

'Man, seriously?' Bucky folded his arms.

'I don't have ID. Why?' Sam turned to face them. 

The first officer held out a hand in what was supposed to be a placating gesture. 'Okay, sir, just calm down.' Clara stepped closer as the officer's other hand moved to his taser, keeping her eyes fixed and waiting for his attempt to use it.

'I am calm,' Sam stated before asking again what it was that the officers wanted. 'We're just standing here talking.' 

Bucky, seemingly fed up with the exchange, turned to Sam. 'Just give him your ID so we can leave,' Bucky asked him. He almost asked nicely, Clara had noticed - usual, it seemed for the man. It was as though Bucky wanted away from the police for reasons other than just to move on with his day. 

'No, I'm not giving him shit,' Sam scowled at Bucky. 'We're just talking.' 

'Hey, hey, hey,' the officer jumped in, still with a hand resting on his taser. He looked to Barnes again, 'Is this man bothering you?' 

'No, he's not bothering me. Do you know who this is?' He snapped.

The second officer stepped closer to the first, leaning in to speak in a hushed voice. 'Hey, these guys are the Avengers.' 

At the sound of those words, the first officer realised one of his mistakes. 'Oh, God, I am so sorry Mr Wilson,' he stammered. 'I didn't recognise you without the goggles. I am really, really sorry about this.' 

Sam looked off to the side, unknowingly towards Clara, and she saw the despondent look about him. That expression only grew when a second cop car pulled up. 'Guys, just... wait here, okay? Just...' The first officer held up a finger as he went back to his patrol vehicle, dropping into the front seat. 

'I didn't- I didn't tell anybody because he had already been through enough,' Bucky told him with a quick glance towards the officers. Clara gave the officers the same cursory glance, but let her sights linger when she saw their nervous looks towards Bucky. As Bucky continued to explain his actions, sounding just a bit rushed as he did, Clara peered in over the first officers shoulder. 

He was looking down at the laptop-like device. On the screen, an image of James Barnes, a short paragraph stating the warrant for his arrest. Clara winced inwardly, stepping away to allow room for the officer to climb back out of the car. Bucky turned to the officer as he approached, clearly knowing what was coming. 'Mr Barnes? There's a, err, a warrant out for your arrest.'

'Look, the president pardoned him for all that,' Sam told the officer. 

'Not for that,' the officer said. 'You missed your court-mandated therapy. It's like missing a check-in with your PO. I'm sorry Mr Barnes, you're under arrest.'

That being said, the second officer approached as he pulled a pair of handcuffs from his duty belt. Bucky allowed them to handcuff him before being lowered into the back of the car, wearing an expression that could only be described as one of great dejection.

Clara turned away from him, using the distraction of the scene to drop behind a car parked at the side of the road. She reappeared as the patrol cars drove away, and walked back out to the middle of the street. Sam looked down at her as she reached him. 'So...' She asked, watching the patrol cars round the first corner. 'What now?'


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