~~~

        “Bucky!” Lithium exclaimed, a grin spreading across her face. “What are you doing here?” Her head tilted slightly, the crazed look of her eyes only enhanced by the slight twitch in her smile. “Did they find you, too?” Bucky sat, restrained to a chair of his own, the ties around his wrists, ankles, legs and chest holding him firmly.

        When he only stared at her, the panic beginning to set in, Lithium threw back her head, laughing. “Are you truly trying to fight it, James? Why would you want to fight? They came for us because they love us, James! We are loved by them! They’re going to fix us so we don’t disobey anymore! Won’t that be marvelous, Bucky?” She returned her gaze to him, her contracted pupils contrasting against her light blue eyes as she tilted her head further again. “We can spend our time together, James. We can spend all our time together, fighting for Hydra. Hail Hydra, Bucky.”

        Pierce strode over to where Lithium was seated, her teeth glinting as her smile spread further. The man’s presence alone should have told Bucky that something was off, but he hadn’t witnessed the murder months ago. Pierce stood near Lithium was a moment, his hand sliding from one of her shoulders to the other. “Look what we have here, James,” Pierce started, his gaze temporarily sliding over to where Bucky was restrained, pulling against the ties. “It would appear that you and your . . . Little friend, have fallen right into our grasp.”

        “Let go of her,” Bucky muttered, his mouth curling back in contempt as he stared at Pierce, an intense hatred filling his eyes. “We aren’t your possessions to use and break as you see fit. Let us go.”

        Pierce only smiled, a small, twisted laugh leaving him. Lithium took delight in the sound, her eyes opening a bit further as she turned her head and neck to look up at him. “We please you, Sir?”

        He chuckled again. “You amuse me, Dear Child,” he told her, muttering. “You amuse me so very much.” Pierce stared at Bucky, matching the death glare he was receiving from the Winter Soldier. “What’s wrong, James? Doesn’t her happiness appeal to you?” Pierce cradled Lithium’s face in his hands from where he stood behind her. “Doesn’t this lovely specimen’s happiness make you a happy man? She’ll be yours, you know. All you have to do is return to Hydra.”

        “I would never sacrifice my freedom just because you promise to make her mine,” Bucky replied with a low growl. “She obviously isn’t herself. Whatever you did to her, she isn’t Celeste.”

        Smiling further, Pierce lowered his hands to Lithium’s throat, the tips of his fingers grazing the tops of her collarbone. “Oh? You must think you’re awfully clever, James,” Pierce taunted. “But I think the reverse engineering of the overdoses she suffers was far more so. Anyway, ‘Bucky’ . . . If you refuse to return to us, Lithium will have failed her mission to return you to the organization. You know what happens to operatives who no longer fill their use.” Pierce immediately gripped the sides of Lithium’s neck, the unspoken threat lying open in the way his hands held the delicate section of her form. Should his hands ‘slip’, Lithium’s neck would be fatally broken.

        And Bucky would be the cause of it.

        “Join us, Bucky,” Lithium told him sweetly, her eyes as innocent as they’d ever been, an eerie contrast to the murder that lingered in those of Pierce. All Bucky could think about was how Lithium shouldn’t be here. Neither of them should be. But Pierce was giving him an ultimatum. Pierce was forcing James to choose between his old freedom, something he’d waited decades to have, and Lithium’s life.

        Pierce’s hands gripped Lithium’s neck tighter. She didn’t fight his grip in the least. Bucky’s heart leapt for a moment.

        “Fine!” Bucky shouted, struggling against the leather ties again, unable to get nearly enough momentum to break out of the damned things. “I’ll do it, you dirty bastard!”

        “Ah, ah, ah,” Pierce warned, warning Bucky against the insubordinance Bucky was voicing. “That isn’t an acceptable answer, James. Try again.” Pierce’s hands repositioned again, the threat growing in it’s severity.

        Bucky swallowed, trying to hold back his anger enough to give Pierce the answer he wanted, silently swearing that once he got the opportunity, Pierce would die a painful death. “Fine,” Bucky muttered, staring at the floor a few moments before turning his gaze, full of hatred and frustration, back to where Pierce stood behind Lithium. “I will rejoin Hydra, Sir.”

        Pierce smiled, letting go of Lithium at long last. “That’s my soldier,” Pierce murmured. “Don’t worry about lashing out, though, you’ll be put back on your old regimen soon enough. Lithium will be taken care of while you’re in between assassinations, I assure you. She’ll do some plotting of her own, really. Hell, if you’re truly lucky, you’ll get to work together one of these times. Wouldn’t that be something? The married couple carrying out murders together, protecting the world from endangering itself. With you two at the reins, pedophiles, murderers, they’ll all cease to exist. And it will be at your hand.”

        “What . . . Do you think you’re talking about?” Bucky hissed through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists. It was a struggle to contain his anger when Pierce was so obviously challenging him, and they were in so much danger, nevermind the fact that he’d sworn his loyalty to Hydra for Lithium’s safety.

        “It really was a beautiful ceremony, wasn’t it?” Pierce asked, a finger to his chin as he paced around the room. “Oh, is that the problem, James? The fact that it was cut short?” He turned to face the restrained man who was scowling at Pierce fiercely. “Or is that you, of all people, cannot remember your own wedding?”

        “I have never been wed, you deceitful-.” Bucky cut himself short, the only willpower he had to do so stemming from his desire to keep Lithium safe. They were a team. They would escape.

        “I dare to say otherwise,” Pierce said calmly. “Just look down at your finger, would you?”

        Bucky was wary, certain that Pierce was pulling some sort of trick on him. Once he spared a glance, he did, indeed, notice the wedding band on his left ring finger. “What the hell did you do?” Bucky growled, sure this was some illusion.

        “Don’t you remember?” Lithium asked, her head twitching slightly as it tilted in curiosity. “You asked me to marry, you Bucky. I said yes. Of course I said yes. I love you, Bucky.”

        Pierce chuckled, and Lithium’s attention immediately diverted to him again. “You have one test to pass before I ensure Lithium’s safety, James,” he warned, a knife slicing through one of the leather straps as Pierce passed by Bucky’s chair. Before Bucky could grab him, Pierce was back across the room, Lithium’s head and neck in his grasp, his hands ready to snap the woman’s neck.

        Bucky was prompt in removing the rest of the restraints, freeing himself, ready to fight Pierce, ready to murder Pierce if he could. All he needed to do was remove the man’s grip from Lithium’s slender neck so that it was no longer in danger of being snapped.

        “Ah, ah, ah,” Pierce warned again. “I am not your objective, James. That man is your target today. The only other man to challenge you for Lithium’s hand. He deserves to pay for his insubordinance, does he not?”

        A bit of Bucky surged at the thought of someone pursuing Lithium if it wasn’t him, even though part of him insisted they were not together. The conscious part of him only knew that they were married, according to Pierce, at least, and according to Lithium.

        But when Bucky turned his head to see where the offender sat, restrained in a chair of his own, strategically placed in the few shadows of the room, he knew it was impossible for him to carry this out.

        In the chair sat Steve Rogers. His oldest friend.

        “Kill him,” Pierce ordered firmly. “Or I will kill her.” Pierce’s grip tightened. “He is a danger to Hydra! He is a danger to your wife! You cannot possibly allow him to live when he is a danger to your newfound marriage itself! Kill that man or Lithium will perish in his place!”

        “Hail Hydra, Bucky,” Lithium muttered quietly, a smile on her face as she looked up at him, seemingly clueless to the danger that had presented itself. “Hail Hydra.”

        ~~~

        Bucky woke up in a cold sweat, his body shaking as his eyes scanned the room. Hydra. Hydra was here.

        But they weren’t. It had all been a dream.

        No. Not a dream. Those visions had been no less than a nightmare. Forced to murder his best friend or to subsequently cause the murder of his . . . Wife? Bucky shook his head. It wasn’t possible. It was clearly impossible for them to suddenly be more than they had been previously. Nothing had changed. But that dream had made it seem like so much had.

        Lithium had been in danger. And his only solution had been to swear his loyalty. His only solution had been to prove his loyalty by killing his best friend.

        That was an impossible choice to make.

        Bucky slid from the bed, immediately getting dressed at this horrendous hour of morning as he stalked from the apartment building, walking out to the street. It was impossible to fathom such things. Married to Lithium? Steve, jealous and deceitful?

        These things could only exist in his mind. Steve wasn’t interested in Lithium that way. Was he?

        Bucky got his answer when he stumbled onto the jogging route Lithium and Steve so often took, Steve muttering his usual, “On your left” as he passed her.

        Bucky got his answer when they finished their run, and they shared a laugh.

        Bucky got his answer when they shared a small kiss, both pulling away promptly, flustered after the contact.

        Bucky frowned and walked away before they could notice him.