Chapter 8 - Put The Past Behind Us

"Harlow... Harlow... Come on, wake up girl" a voice called Harlow out of her unconscious state."Sam... Bucky?" Harlow replied coming out of her daze,"Now do I look like a damned pigeon or a tin can?" the voice said again as a young, dark-skinned girl came into Harlow's view, "Welcome back to the land of the living, you have been sleeping for too long," she said."Uh, who are you?" Harlow asked, slowly sitting up, her body tense and sore.The girl just shot her a smile from behind her clipboard, "While I'm the angel that stitched you up and kept you alive but you can call me Shuri, welcome to Wakanda, Harlow" she announced.Harlow sat in the hospital for another hour while Shuri had some braised lamb sent up and let Harlow in on what happened."When you got in here I started to doubt my skills, you lost a lot of blood and have been out cold for a week," Shuri said through a mouthful of meat,"A week? Where are the guys?' Harlow asked,"The training room just downstairs but uh I wouldn't go see them right now if I was you, it's their special time" Shuri whispered that last part and ended with a wink.Harlow shook her head and got up slowly, putting on a fresh pair of clothes she made her way to the door."Don't say I didn't warn you!" Shuri called out.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After going down a few corridors Harlow managed to find the stairs, she made her way down until she came to a large circle-shaped balcony surrounding a large training room below. Large windows were attached to show the beautiful landscape that was Wakanda outside.Not wanting to make her presence known she quietly approached the railing. Before she reached it, she heard distinctive Russian being called out from below.She looked over and saw Sam standing just outside the training area holding a book and to Harlow's horror, Bucky was down on his knees in the middle writhing in pain with his hands chained to the ground.Sam spoke Russian again, "Rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, be-"."Stop!" Bucky cried out as he gasped for air, he pulled himself from the ground with a clenched jaw."This is never going to work!" Bucky shouted angrily."A few months at this isn't going to erase years of what they put you through, you just gotta keep go-",Harlow let out a surprised squeak as Bucky pulled chunks of stone out of the ground where his chains were and flung them across the room, Bucky and Sam looked up to see her standing there clutching the rail while holding back tears, she looked between them both before quickly exiting out the door to her right onto the balcony outside.She gasped for air as her lungs constricted tight, she wrapped her arms around her body to stop herself from shaking.Hydra did this, her parents helped and so did she, we broke him."Harlow?" Bucky whispered from behind as he reached out his hand, he had chase after her afraid that he had scared her."Please don't touch me" she cried,"What's wrong, are you feeling okay? How's your shoulder?" he asked with concern.The questions kept coming but Harlow just wanted the ground to swallow her whole."You're asking if I'm 0kay, what about you?!" she exclaimed in anger but the anger was for herself.He stepped back as if she slapped him, "What do you mean?" he asked, his face contorted with confusion."I've hurt you, badly. So much more than I ever thought" she whispered quietly, almost to herself."You've been on a lot of medication, you don't know what you're talking-","No! You don't understand Bucky, my entire family is the cause of your suffering" Harlow took a breath then looked up at him with fear, "My great grandfather is Arnim Zola"."What!" he barely spat out, "but your name..","My mother's maiden name is Zola, my family has been in charge of the Winter Soldier program from the start, I only really got to see you when you were in cryo so I never saw what they put you through but if it was anything like that" she cried, pointing back inside, "My parents and my grandparents did that to you, all the way back to him. If you stayed in Hydra I would of be next in line to break you".Bucky stared at Harlow but she saw nothing behind his eyes like all life had been drained. Soon they turned dark and filled with rage. Without another word, Bucky stormed away leaving Harlow on the balcony alone.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Harlow! Don't touch that!" a voice called behind her,"Sorry Mom" Harlow whispered backing away from the controls and continued to sweep the dirt building up on the laboratory floor."Good girl, you are here to clean and that's all, you will learn all of this in due time, okay" her mom came up and placed a hand on her shoulder.Harlow nodded."Is it time for the iceman to wake up yet?" Harlow asked staring up at the frozen man in the tube,"No honey not yet" her mother replied,"Good, I like him better like this, he looks like he's dreaming but when he wakes up, he's always mad and sad. Does he have a name or is it iceman?" Harlow asked stepping closer to the tube, curiosity took over her as she was barely ever allowed in the lab."It doesn't matter Harlow, he's no one," Harlow's father said walking into the lab.Harlow looked down at the floor and continued to sweep, stealing glances at the scary man behind the glass.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Harlow opened her eyes as she felt a pounding headache start to rise in the back of her skull. She was mad at her parents, making a ten-year-old see those horrible things, preparing her to take over their horrible work.Making her believe what they were doing was right.Harlow made her way to the kitchen in search of water only to stumble across Bucky hunched over the island bench drinking."Hey" she whispered, carefully approaching the bench where he sat, "Mind if I join you?" she asked.Bucky glanced at the empty seat next to him and nodded. The silence soon became too much as Harlow finally spoke,"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry," she said,"No" he paused, "You don't have to apologize, you wouldn't have been able to do anything back then, it was just a lot to process especially how we nearly lost you," he said, gulping down the last of his whiskey.Harlow gave him a small smile, "Who would have thought the most feared soldier in all of Hydra would be such a softy" she joked."Hey!" he called out.Harlow laughed, "They would tell children that if they didn't do as they were told that the big scary Winter Soldier would come and take them away, you know" she smirked."Oh great, so I was the Boogyman to Hydra's children" he rolled his eyes."I found you terrifying" she laughed, "I actually had a dream that's why I can't sleep, it was more of a memory I guess. When I was younger they let me tidy the lab while my parents worked and I use to ask questions about you all the time," she said, grabbing a glass out of the cabinet and pouring herself a drink, and refilling his."Were they how could one man be so good-looking?" he laughed,"I was a child!" she said with wide eyes, "I would say that I liked you better in cyro than out, you always looked peaceful when you were under," she said sadly, sitting back down."I guess in a way I was, I wasn't out killing people" he whispered, looking into his glass.Harlow looked at Bucky, he was hurting."I think I might be able to help you overcome what my family has done to you," she said suddenly,"How?" he looked at her with hope."I studied you, in theory. I studied Zola's work, I never got to actually work with you but I think how you're going about the trigger words are wrong" she took a swig from her glass, "I'm guessing every time you and Sam have done this you have always been chained down, right?" she asked.He nodded."That's the thing, you're the only one that can overcome what they did, the words have been program to not only put you under someone's control but they also trigger your fight or flight response. So I think you need to be completely in control over your body, in order to regain control over your mind when you hear the words. So instead of physically fighting you only have to focus on mentally fighting and I think a gentler approach would help too" she said feeling like a weight had been removed from her chest."Okay I haven't got anything else to lose, do I?" he replied, downing his third glass of the night.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------They started early in the morning, with no distractions.Harlow admitted she was nervous, she had to try and undo over fifty years of abuse her family had inflicted on him, to try and fix the damage that had been done.Harlow stepped up to Bucky as he handed her the blood-red leathered book"Are you ready?" Harlow asked, opening the book and gripping the sides."Ready" he nodded.