6564/Surviving Winter.

Surviving Winter.
Date of Scene:	14 June 2021
Location:	1964: Hotel Nacional de Cuba
Synopsis:	Peggy survives Winter, barely, but loses a friend to the cold again.
Cast of Characters:	James Barnes, Peggy Carter

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James Barnes has posed:
    He failed the last time and he paid for it; he paid for it until he was mentally begging them to put him back in the freezer. The Winter Soldier won't fail a second time. ...and he plans to watch the life drain from Margret Carter's eyes up close and personal. He won't draw it out, that's not what he's meant to do, but there's that tiny little part of him that does want to watch her die in retribution for the pain he suffered for his failure, to look her in the eye.
    That means a long distance bullet to the head is out of the question.
    It wasn't hard to get into her hotel room and lay in wait in a closet or in a darkened shadowed corner of the room. After all, who thinks to lock windows on the fifteenth floor, in Cuba, in the 1960's? Certainly not housekeeping.

Peggy Carter has posed:
After helping organize and get the Cuba Arms Treaty signed, Margaret Carter has spent more time in her life in Cuba than she ever imagined possible. This includes a follow up meeting, nearly a year to the day, for checking in with other signatories and updating each country about how the interactions with Metahumans and other possible super weapons are going. It's been a long day and she's feeling it -- sun and politicking wise. She dropped her body guards off in their rooms flanking her's, but never before has SHIELD been so worried she doesn't get to sleep alone.

Stepping into the cool, artificial air conditioning of her high level suite, she lets out a slow breath of relief as she begins to shift out of her high heels. She's already checked the room for bugs several times and will before she makes any phone calls, but she simply wants to pull out of her suit jacket and maybe take a shower. She's unbuttoning the double breasted, elegantly tailored summer suit as she walks further into the room, exposing the weapons beneath her shoulder. Just in case.

James Barnes has posed:
    His target in sight, the Winter Soldier's heart skips a beat. Not something that usually happens, ever. Cold, calculating, unfeeling, without remorse, that's the way it should be. Curious. Maybe he just ate some bad Cuban food earlier in the day, he'll chalk it up to that.
    His hiding spot is actually in the closet. It's one of those ones with the little slats.
    He doesn't make a sound, he can wait all night if need be, not a sound, not a muscle moved he might as well be a statue.

Peggy Carter has posed:
While Peg isn't doing a full scan for bugs, she's still paranoid. She gives an initial look around her room, making certain nothing is out of place from where she left it. A very light hair that she always drops on top of the night stand has been moved. Granted, it could be the kick of the air conditioning in the room. Or house keeping. Or someone else. She starts opening drawers slowly, making certain no one has gone through her things. The closet is closed and silent enough she hasn't gotten there yet, but it is likely she will.

After the first set of drawers is clear, she relaxes enough to fully take off her jacket. Not her weapons, but she stands there in her light slacks, silk undershirt, bra straps and stockinged feet. Her dark hair is twisted back in rolls down the side of her head to keep off of her faintly freckling face in the heat. She then walks over to the air conditioner and quietly shuts it off, listening to the silence of the room. Is she alone?

James Barnes has posed:
    Unless she can hear the faint beat of his now calm heart, or the barely there sound of his even breaths, she might as well be. The Winter Soldier does not move a muscle save those in his eyes when he needs to blink, which isn't often.
    But standing there, watching Peggy, his brow furrows ever so slightly. A flicker of something, fleeting and impossible to hold on to once it goes... recognition? Of course he knows her, he tried to kill her before and failed! She's the reason he failed a mission. He never fails. He resists the urge to curl his left hand into a fist, lest the metal grind and give him away.
    Patience.
    He'll get his moment.

Peggy Carter has posed:
There is no real sound that's giving him away at all. He's the ultimate professional. But Peggy is as well. Technically, they have both been doing this as long as each other. And Peggy's instincts are all screaming at her. The little traps she let are faintly moved by a body going through this room. She simply doesn't feel *alone* and she can't put a figure on why. Even with the air conditioning off, a faint line of goosebumps cross over her skin.

"Margaret Carter, seeing ghosts in your old age." The fourty-something woman mutters to herself. It's the same voice he knew for ages, a voice that shouted orders across battle fields and radios. Who called them back home after destroying HYDRA time and again. She carefully unholsters the gun from under her left arm, keeping it pointed at the floor, but then she pushes the bathroom door open and clears it. No one there.

Then she's turning directly for the closet.

James Barnes has posed:
    ...and still he waits. The Winter Soldier waits... waits... waits... he waits until her hand is on the closet doorknob.
    Busting through that door with his left hand before she gets it open is like tearing paper for him. Maybe he'll manage to grab her the first try since he has a least a little of the element of surprise on his side? Or maybe her instincts will kick in and save her? If it's the former, he'll grab her by the throat. If it's the latter, he'll use that same hand to block the shot he knows will come and his right to grab her any way he can, by the hair, by the arm... whatever he can grab.
    He's really hoping for the former, if it's the latter he'll have to hurry through this and be gone before the ruckus brings reinforcements.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Sadly for James Barnes, Peggy Carter has been doing this a long time. The surprise is there, definitely. A little yelp escapes her lips and she's immediately tossing herself backwards, her stocking foot coming up in a violent kick as she tries to fight him back into the closet and buy herself a few seconds to resituate. She does fire one bullet off, but then his impossibly strong arm is there. He's got her gun hand and every arm lock, joint break, anything she knows is impossible against that.

She'd be screaming... if it wasn't for his eyes. Staring into those ice blue eyes, the same eyes that tried to kill her a year back and have haunted her dreams since them. She swings her free hand for his jaw, trying to do whatever she can to break his grasp on her and snap him free of whatever violent rage has taken the man.

James Barnes has posed:
    But Peggy, it's not just the eyes now. That kick landed. It rocked his head back a little but didn't stagger him a bit. It did, however, send his mask flying.
    Bucky?
    No time to think, The Winter Soldier still has her hand in that death grip of metal and he's using that grip to pull her toward him. "I will not fail this time," the words spoken in Russian but the voice.
    Bucky?!
    "It's not personal. This doesn't have to be painful."

Peggy Carter has posed:
If she hadn't been so entirely shocked to see his face, Peggy might have remembered to pull her other weapon. He's got strength on her, but she's a fighter. She's not one to ever give up easily. But the sight of that nose and jaw which match those blue eyes? She can't murder him -- he's Steven's best friend. "Bucky...?" She breathes out softly, shocked confusion painted all across her face.

She keeps one hand out, against his chest, trying to make certain she's not pulled into neck breaking range but his metal arm has far more strength on her. "James Buchanan Barnes LISTEN TO ME. This is NOT YOU!" She calls to him, more firmly, possibly the last words she'll ever say but she has no heart to try and kill the man in front of her. Even as she feels precious bones of her wrist crumble beneath the pressure of his hand and a cry of pain escapes her mouth.

James Barnes has posed:
    "Who the hell's Bucky?" he asks, for the first time but not the last in his life. And then it's on. He's fast, but so is she. He's trained, but so is she. She's stubborn, but so is he. The difference? For the moment, he's willing to kill. She is not.
    He jerks her in closer, in an attempt to smash his forehead into hers violently, hard enough to daze her at the very least. If the attack succeeds, he presses on in a flurry, never giving her a second to think. Left hand becomes right holding that broken wrist and left reaches for her throat... again.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The pain in her wrist is blinding, an dthe fact that none of her words are cutting through to him? That's the moment she realizes that she really is going to have to fight for her life. If that hand gets around her throat, she's dead. There's no question about it. "YOU ARE!" She yells back to him, in the moments of freedom she has, but then the fight is on.

She's only gotten better since he properly knew her. Faster, trained in other techniques meant to give her a leg up despite her smaller size than most of her opponents. She's fast and she's flooded with adrenaline that comes when someone knows they are on the edge of death. She is down a hand and that doesn't help, only having one arm to swing a chair at his head as she tries to get far enough back he can't lay a hand on her neck. She takes blows on her body. Blood blooms across her nose and face, dramatically broken. But she's still fighting, heart racing with terror. She tries to smash a lamp into his face.

James Barnes has posed:
    He lets out a little growl of frustration. He pays no mind to blows that land other than when they stagger him due to the laws of force and momentum. Pain doesn't register, not in the moment. He should have taken the distance shot and he knows it. The Winter Soldier advances on Peggy. That hand she's so afraid of swats the lamp away as if it's nothing. He keeps advancing, closer, closer, closer... faster... When he's within reach, he'll attempt a backhand with that metal hand. Hopefully it lands, hopefully she winds up in a heap against the wall after she slides down it.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Oh, it does. It's not so bad as being shot but it feels like it is. Like a cannon went off across her face. A cry of pain escapes her lips as she tumbles into a heap against the wall, slowly moving now. Peggy knows if she doesn't keep herself moving, she's dead. Her face is a bloody, bruising mess now. She can only crawl with one arm. But crawl she tries.

She flops over onto her good arm, trying to pull herself over to where her gun has fallen after it went off. There's sounds of someone waking up one room over, the tussle having alerted them enough even over the loud air conditioners in the room. They aren't pounding on her door yet, but it will probably come soon. If she can just get to her gun. "James... please, don't... Don't do this. I know it's you..."

James Barnes has posed:
    He reaches down, with his right hand not his left, and snatches Peggy by the throat. The Winter Soldier's intent is clear when he rears back that left hand. If he lets that punch land and then another, it might just crush her skull.
    ... he hesitates. Why?
    Those familiar pale blue eyes, wild and murderous widen.
    Remembering hurts. Remembering hurts more than any physical blow ever could. Remembering means he knows what he's lost.
    Bucky Barnes doesn't want to remember. But..
    When the blow does land? It's calculated and it's pulled. His intense training comes into play in a way unfamiliar to him. It's not a killing blow, it's meant only to incapacitate.
    ...by the time that pounding happens on the door, the Winter Soldier will be gone through the window he used to enter, back out into the cold.
    ...until Steven brings him home nearly forty years later.

Peggy Carter has posed:
There's a glassiness of tears and fear to her eyes. He's drug her away from that gun. There's no hope for survival. "James." It's the last thing she says, the faintest rasp escaping her throat and lips as one hand comes up to his chest. Not to beg, exactly. Just to touch. To know and remember its him -- and what they've done to him.

Then the entire world goes black. Her team is breaking into the room within a minute, to find the beaten and dying body of their director on the floor. He only meant to incapacitate, but the first hit moved something in her face, and the second has caused brain damage. She's bleeding internally, too, in ways the Winter Soldier would do. This attack should have killed her. Even if he didn't mean it, in the end. But SHIELD is crafty and has other tricks...

James Barnes has posed:
    The price he pays for failing again will be immense. Before it's over he'll be praying for death. But the Winter Soldier's last thoughts after they punish him for his missteps, before they put him back on ice, are of the war, cigarettes shared and the warmth of her laughter.