7230/WIntervention

WIntervention
Date of Scene:	05 August 2021
Location:	Avengers Mansion - First Floor
Synopsis:	Nadia comes to tell Steve about something wrong(er) with Bucky, winds up dealing with a host of unresolved emotions, is reminded that she can't fix people like machines, and tags Steve in for Bucky wrangling.
Cast of Characters:	Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Steve Rogers

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Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Recent events have been moving fast. It was scarcely a few days ago that both the Wakandan technology Shuri had placed within Bucky's arm and Nadia's own quantum beacon both pinged a very unexpected trip to Moscow, of all places Moscow. Then he showed up at Steve's military party without the ear pieces meant to keep him from hearing the programming words sending Nadia's alarm bells ringing. But not wanting to disturb Steve's big party, she waited. Finally, confronting Bucky in one of New York's Russian neighborhoods, what she learned disturbed her and when he bolted the only thing she could think to do was to fly straight to the Avengers Mansion and find Steve. Steve always seemed to know what to do. Which brings us to the present.

"Steve? Steve?" Nadia practically bursts into the mansion having flown there as fast as she could and there is suddenly a full sized Nadia standing in the Foyer shouting for Steve. Perhaps when she calms down a bit she will remember how phones work.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Yeah?" comes the distant response. Nadia's shouts echo around, drowning out the reply, and Steve emerges from one of the office rooms with his hands uplifted. "Yeah, yeah, yes, I'm here! I'm here!" he says, trying to time his words to cut through Nadia's shouts.

"What's going on?" he wonders aloud, nearing her. He's in jeans, boots, and a sturdy blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. "Are you hurt? Is everything okay?" He reaches out to Nadia to steady her with a firm grip to her shoulder to keep her from any more agitated pacing or running in circles.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia stops shouting once she hears Steve's voice, her hands going to her knees breathing heavily as she clearly rushed here at top speed. Which isn't the most unusual occurence except her usual chipper upbeat demeanor isn't in evidence.

By the time Steve has approached, she finishes catching her breath and the bio-mechanical wings fold into the metal plate magnetically affixed to the back of her T-shirt. "It's your friend, James, something's wrong with him. Like more than before." She clarifies because there is arguably already plenty wrong in Bucky's head. "He went to Moscow and then was suddenly back and he's not wearing his ear pieces to keep the words out, and I followed him and asked him which one he was and he said 'Neither'! And Wanda is somehow involved!" It all just tumbles out at a mile a minute which is quite typical when Nadia gets overexcited or stressed about something.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"It's okay, it's OK," Steve soothes. His palm rubs a circle over Nadia's shoulderblade. "Deep breath. Do some number counting in your head."

Once Nadia's no longer gulping down air, he waits for her to straighten up before continuing. "Wanda's looking after Bucky," Steve explains. His voice is calm and measured in contrast to Nadia's strident concern. "Wanda's a friend. I trust her as much as I would Bucky or anyone else. She's..." He looks around, finds a table to sit on to bring his height more to a level comfortable for Nadia. "She thinks the solution is to help him carve out his own identity. Not as my buddy, not as the Winter Soldier. Becoming his own person. The more he has that is his, the more things that are his possessions and his decision, the harder it'll be for the activation phrase to grab him. That's the theory, anyway," he says with a small shrug. "Wanda seems pretty confident she knows what she's doing, and I gotta admit-- her track record for results is pretty good."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia tries the deep breaths, tries the counting, gets to about 100 digits of Pi before she continues. "He removed his protection and went back to Russia and got broken again." She seems particularly hurt by this. "Why would he do that?" It's a maelstrom of emotions between anger and sadness. That hug, those tears, the notion she was helping him be free of it all meant a lot to her and discarding it cut like a betrayal.

Deep breaths, and now she's looking at Steve in surprise. "You knew?!" This is a shocking revelation that she was not expecting.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Bucky's got a bad habit of leaving me cryptic notes before he goes wandering off in search of trouble," Steve tells Nadia with a wry smile. "One time all I got was a note on the icebox, 'Going to Atlantic City for the weekend'. Two weeks later he comes back with a suntan and a bag of Florida oranges."

"I can't fix everything for him, Nadia," Steve says in a gentle tone. "I -shouldn't- fix everything, either. He has to come to terms with the Winter Soldier in his own way. Find his own solutions. If I go haring off after him every time he does something I think is risky, he'll never get better. So-- he lets me know that he's gone on, uh, what's the term." Steve pauses. "Gone walkabout. And if he gets in real trouble, he'll signal for help in his own way, too."

Hands spread, fold in his lap again. "I'm not exactly a shrink, Nadia. This isn't a problem that comes with a manual. All I can do is trust Bucky. Sometimes that means trusting him to do something dumb."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"But but.." Nadia sniffles, there are tears. On some level a fair amount of this isn't truly about Bucky, much as he as cast a shadow over her life. "Why would he go back? He was so happy, we shared a hug, he cried, he was going to be free! We were going to do it! Why would he go back there, become the one who took me there again?"

There is no fight left in her as her shoulders slump. "I did that once because I thought I had no other choice, they were targeting my Dad, my friends, and instead of trusting the people who cared about me I tried to sacrifice myself. I was so stupid, I got Janet caught up in everything, too." Steve of course knows this story very well. "We were making progress and he threw it all away and I don't understand." It is possible, on some level, that trying to 'save' Bucky was another attempt to save herself.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"All right, all right," Steve soothes, and gathers Nadia in for a hug. "It's okay." He's obviously not sure what to do here; Nadia's alternating between frenetic worry and shoulder-slumping grief. The best he can offer is some reassurance in the form of a comforting hug and a stalwart shoulder to lean against.

"I don't understand it either," he admits, finally. "Not completely. But we're his friends, right?" he asks the petite teen. "Sometimes friendship isn't about understanding. It's about ... forgiveness. And some blind trust. I don't know why he went back to Siberia. Maybe he got activated again, or maybe someone threatened him. Whatever we were doing to try to help him, well, we fell a bit short this time. Wanda, whatever she's doing, she seems to be picking up the slack."

He leans back a little and chucks the underside of Nadia's chin reassuringly. "Hey." He gives her chin a little waggle between thumb and forefinger. "Remember, this isn't some math problem that produces a healthy Bucky if we hit all the right numbers. He's got to fix himself. Sometimes that means he's gonna do things that make no sense. Our job is to support him no matter what and be there to catch him if he stumbles."

"Right?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia wraps her arms around Steve returning his hug, there may be dried tears dampening his sturdy blue buttondown now. Eventually there is another deep breath and she actually starts to relax, at least somewhat. She nods a few times as she listens to Steve. "He was mind controlled when he did all of those things, so it wasn't his fault, so I forgave him. Because it wasn't his fault. But if he goes back to that, if he chooses to go back to that..." The last part is left unspoken because she honestly doesn't know. She forgave him, she can forgive a lot, but could she forgive the Winter Soldier?

It is the statement that this isn't some math problem though that really seems to strike a chord in her and she closes her eyes for a moment. That is something she has struggled with repeatedly and her therapist has chided her about as well, a notable side-effect of her Bi-polar disorder. "People are not math problems." She repeats to herself. "I can't, shouldn't try to fix them. I can't fix everything." Vocalizing the sentiments like Maxims seems to help and probably isn't the first time she's done it or been made to do it.

"Right." She finally agrees.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve releases Nadia once she's got her emotions under control, and his palms rest on the table next to his legs. "I don't know why Bucky's doing this, Nadia, I really don't," Steve admits. "Maybe it's something he needs my help with; maybe it's something he needs to do without me. He'll reach out to us when he needs something. For now, all you can do is offer quiet support and be ready in case he stumbles," he suggests. A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. "I know it's not easy to hear, but you're taking it well. You've done a lot of growing up in the last year or so. Soon you're gonna realize, adults are just big kids with bigger problems." He folds his arms, expression going wry. "And we're maybe hung up on our own egos too much to handle them well."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"I can't fix him." Nadia repeats, she got so excited in the idea of freeing someone from Department X's grasp, so consumed that she forgot some basic aspects of her therapy. "Sorry, I guess I just got swept up in things and the emotions of the moment." For the first time since time since arriving she does smile a bit and then takes another breath. "But Steve, he did stumble, I don't know what happened when he went back to Russia but that answer, 'neither' something happened in Russia and I can't fix it, he barely knows me outside of bad memories. But I think you should check on him." That's really the reason she came flying straight to the mansion in the first place. "Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he's fine. But I think he stumbled and our conversation ended with him bolting as fast as he could."

She pauses and reaches into one of her pockets pulling out what looks like a smartphone and sets it on the table. "If you want to find him, this will lead you to him."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve accepts the tracker, looks it over, and tucks it carefully into his breast pocket. "I appreciate it," he tells Nadia, seriously. "I know you want to help Bucky. I do, too. I'll reach out and see how he's doing. Maybe he just took some time to himself." Even Steve looks like he doesn't quite believe that one.

"But he isn't ghosting us. He's letting people know where he is. That's a good sign," he reminds Nadia. "It means he's trying to deal with something he doesn't think he can share. If he'd really gone back to the Russians, he wouldn't have come back here. Not with his noodle in one piece."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Did he come back? Or did Wanda bring him back?" Nadia asks, leaning against the back of a chair now. "Because I still can't figure out what she is doing and why in all of this. But she showed up at the night market right before he ran away, didn't say a thing. There's so many unanswered questions with this. Neither really doesn't sound like his noodle is in one piece. It sounds like he got yanked out of programming or it didn't take completely. Neither was the only word he said to me."

Another deep breath, let it go Nadia. "But you're right I can't fix him and it really isn't healthy for me to try. Still, just check on him okay?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
"I will," Steve reassures her. "But only if you promise me to relax and try not to stress about it. You're a good friend, worrying about Bucky, but you've got a bunch of other girls relying on you for leadership," he reminds her. "And I hear you've got a spaceship to fly," he says, and a grin spreads across his features. "So go focus on that, let me tend to Bucky. I'll keep you in the loop if I think it's something you can help with. Scouts honor."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Wait what?! How did you?" Nadia is momentarily caught completely offguard as Steve blindsides her with knowledge of GIRL's secret spaceship project. "Janet told you didn't she?" It takes her about 0.2 nanoseconds to finger Janet as the culprit because of course she would tell Steve. Still she grins and there is a fair amount of pride there at what GIRL is accomplishing, it's a good thing to remind her of. Between that and the surprise factor it seems to be enough to snap her out of her funk. "Aliens won't know what hit them."

Steve gets another hug, this one far more cheerful. "I promise, I'm done. Tag you're it! If you need me, you know where to find me." A pause. "Unless I'm in space ...I'll figure something out!" She grins.