Chapter Twentytwo – James Something

The dress from Stark arrives the following Thursday, delivered to your door. It’s a beautiful black and gold ballgown, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It must have cost a fortune. You try it on, look at yourself in the mirror. You almost don’t recognise yourself. You look like.. You don’t even have a word for it. Do you even have make up or jewelry to go with this? This is so not you. Not even a little bit. You almost feel like cinderella, and you’re scared that the dress will evaporate at midnight.

But it doesn’t. Friday morning, when you wake up, it’s still there. Hanging on your closet door. You sit up in your bed, look at it. Are you actually going to the opening of the museum tonight? Are you actually going on a job that only requiers for you to look pretty, eat good food and drink champagne? You’re definitely moving up. Maybe you can actually get out of this mess one day.

You use the whole day, getting yourself ready. Fix your hair and make up. Making sure everything is perfect. At 6pm, you’re ready, when the limo pics you up outside your apartment. You’ve been in limos before. Mr.Vaugh owns one, and you’ve been in his. But this one. The one Stark owns. It’s in a league of it’s own.

The driver get’s out, and opens the door for you. Helps you in. You jump when you slide into the back seat next to Tony Stark himself. You don’t know what you expected. But this wasn’t it. He extends his hand to you.

– Miss YLN, I presume! Pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Tony Stark.

You shake his hand. He has a firm handshake. Almost intimidating. Well, Stark himself is intimidating to you.

– Thanks for inviting me.

You say. Almost whispering to be honest.

– No need to be shy, Miss YLN! We’ll take good care of you tonight. These are our bodyguards for the night. Brock Rumlow & Jack Rollins. Two of SHIELDS best agents. If you need anything they’ll be there for you!

You lift your head, and there they are. Both of them. Uniforms on and everything. You try to stay calm. Try to not show how you really feel. Reach out your hand, and shake theirs. When Rumlow lets go of your hand. He holds your wrist for a second extra, looks at the scars inside your hand, from the roses. Before lifting his head, and look at you. His look is impossible to misunderstand. Behind his brown eyes, you feel like he’s screaming to you. “SHUT UP, IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU!” You just nod, slowly to them. You understand. And what can you possibly say? You basically don’t know anything.

———————————————————

You can see it long before the limo stops. A lot of people, pictures being taken. You swallow. Are they going to be taking your picture? Will you be on the News?

The car stops, and Rumlow and Rollins steps outside. Take their places, and Tony takes your hand.

– Smile, Miss YLN. Pretend to be my date!

– I am your date, Mr.Stark!

He doesn’t say anything else, just exits the car, and offers you a hand. You take a deep breath before following him. The flashes hitting your face catches you off guard. But you try to smile. Try to push away the scared feeling, knowing that Rumlow and Rollins will follow you around all night. Maybe you could try to sneak away. Say you need to use the toilet or something. Surely they won’t follow you in there.

———————————————————

Well inside. Tony leads you to your table. Some people are already there. A redheaded girl, with a gorgeous red dress, another lady, in a black dress, with dark hair and blue eyes. And some other people you haven’t seen before. Your guess this is the infamous Avengers. All of them. You take another look. Then you see him. The guy you keep bumping into. The guy that followed you home that night.

– Steve?

You say, unable to keep quiet.

Steve gets up, offers a hand.

– So now is the time you chose to remember my name?

Before you get to say anything, Tony cuts you both off.

– I see that you already know our Captain!

– C.. Captain?

You say again, eyes focused on Steve.

– You didn’t tell her, Steve? Way to be modest.. I’m Natasha by the way.

The redheaded girl gets to her feet, and extends her hand. You take it.

– YN!

You say, suddenly very aware of who you are. Does these people know that? You’re usually not self conscious about who you are at all. But in this situation, you feel it. And it doesn’t exactly help that you feel Rumlow and Rollins’ eyes burning into your neck.

Steve makes room for you next to him, and Tony sits down on the other side of you. You can still feel Rumlow and Rollins’ eyes on you. Did they ask for this job to keep an eye on you? Is there something in this museum that will give you answers? And will they try to keep you from it? Thank God that Steve guy is here. Or should you call him Captain America? You still can’t wrap your head around the fact that Steve is actually Captain America. Wait.. Have he been following you around? He did fight that Soldier guy. Suddenly everything feels scary. Maybe you shouldn’t be here at all.

There are a lot of speeches over dinner. A lot about Captain America of course, this is his museum after all. You try to listen, but with all the thoughts in your head it’s almost impossible.

When dessert arrives, Steve gets up. Natasha gives him a friendly nod, and he goes up to the podium. You look after him. He seems confident, but something in his eyes gave you a feeling that something about this is hard for him. When he start to talk you try to listen. But you get like half of what he’s saying.

Something about a friend of his. James something. And about WWII. Something about a broken display, and that he hopes it will be fixed, so that we all can get to know his good friend Bucky. Poor guy. Living in a world he doesn’t really know. Probably missing his friends from back in the days. You want to help him. But you don’t exactly know how.

When he returns to your table you lean over to him.

– You said something about a broken display. Do you know what’s wrong with it?

He takes a sip of his champagne, before looking up at you.

– Err.. The Bucky display won’t light up. If our computer geeks can’t get it fixed, there will be no getting to know Bucky. And that will be no good, since he saved my life back in the days.

You look down. You can’t even begin to grasp how this must feel for him. The opening of the museum about his life, and then his best friend, the one that saved his life is missing, not only physically, but also from the exhibit.

– Want me to take a look at it?

You ask. It’s been a long time since you actually fixed a computer, but it can’t be that different from what you learned in school.

– You know your way around computers?

He asks, followed by a little smile.

– I have a degree in computer sience. I can’t promise anything. But I can try. I think you owe your friend that. Don’t you?

He gets up, offers you a hand.

– Definitely, come on. I’ll show you where it is. Thank you.

You take his hand, and follow him. Still you feel Rumlow and Rollins looking after you, but they can’t leave Tony’s side. Thank God!

———————————————————

Steve was right. Inside the museum area, there is one display that is completely dark. Not even snow. Just black. A guy in work clothes gets up from behind the display. Looks at Steve.

– I’m so so sorry, Cap. Looks like this one won’t work. I’ve been on it for the last hour. It just won’t light up.

Steve looks at you.

– Mind if my friend here have a look at it?

The guy looks at you. Raise his eyebrows.

– Sure. But I don’t see how a working girl can fix this.

Oh, super. He knows who you are. And now Steve knows too.

– She might be what you call a working girl. But she has a degree in computer sience. And no matter what she does for a living, she deserves respect.

Steve takes your hand in his as he talks to the guy.

– Go on, YN. Give it a try.

You lift up your dress, and crawl behind the display. Carefully checking every single wire. Everything is plugged in. Everything looks good. You lift up another wire. Sparks fly, and you feel a jolt in your finger. You jump back.

– Och.. Fuck! SHIT!

Steve kneels down in front of the display.

– YN? Everything OK? What happened.

You shake your hand. Look at your fingertips. A black mark shows you that a surge of electricity went through there.

– Faulty wiring. Probably what’s wrong. We only need a new wire, and we’re good to go.

– New wire!

Steve instructs the computer guy, and right after you get a perfect wire in your hand. You remove the old one, carefully, to make sure you don’t hurt yourself again. Then you plug in the new one.

– Is it working now?

You ask from behind the display.

– Well, what do you know. I might offer you a job Miss.YLN

Tonys voice. You crawl back out. The museum is packed with people. But the only two you really see, are Rumlow and Rollins, looking at you, and then up to the display. What is their deal? You slowly move your eyes up to the display…..

The face you see makes you gasp. But you try to stay calm. You slowly get to your feet. Look at the display again.

THIS IS BUCKY?? BUCKY IS THE SOLDIER??!!??