Chain of Command || Bucky & Sharon
Twenty minutes. Fifteen to regain his composure after what had been the interrogation equivalent of pulling teeth with tweezers (not to mention a bad hangover from his past). Five to make his way up from the holding cell to where he was told S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Avenger liaison would be waiting for him.
His head feels heavy with thought, shoulders weighed down by some invisible force. It isn't just the fact that he has to be face to face with Sharon Carter since the attempted arrest (since that entire ordeal) or walking into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters with a grudge hidden on his sleeve and tension in his step. It's not even so much the fact that he had to momentarily shed some dignity by offering a deal to Schmidt just to get him to talk (no, he reneged on that offer the second he stepped foot out of the interrogation room). It's what was said, what he learned.
"This matter extends far beyond this world, much less what your simple mind can grasp."
The bastard had at least been right about the first part.
He hoped he was wrong about the latter.
Bucky takes a deep breath before entering the pass-code to the meeting room (sure to be changed once his business here is finished - he isn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, after all, and he's learned over time that allies are all well and good so long as they don't know as much as your assets).
A faint beep lets him know the door's unlocked. Time to get this over with.