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buck-buck-boose · 3 years

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I'll Love You 'Til I Die

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Summary: A Brooklyn schoolgirl fell in love with James Buchanan Barnes at the tender age of nine. With this love she made a vow, promising to love him until her very last breath.

Pairing: Bucky x OFC

Warnings: language, mentions of violence and gore (not too graphic)

Word Count: 3.4k

Author's Note: The story is starting to pick up pace again ;)

Chapter Twenty: The Recruits

March 18, 1943

In the two months following the nurses’ success with the serum, Camp Lehigh had nearly tripled in its inhabitants. Throughout their research and training, the five women were surrounded by fuddy-duddy sergeant majors and their crotchety commanders, with Agent Carter as their only equal; by the end of January, hundreds of recruits were being shipped in. The base seemed to be teeming with fresh-faced boys who thought not of the unforgiving grip of death, but of the blazing glory of victory— the gore and trauma of war meant little to them, but Lottie knew that she would have an intimate relationship with the horrors of war.

Sometimes all she dreamt of was blood. Blood on her hands, on her white dress, and oozing in puddles beneath her feet; the crimson color seemed to stain every inch of her skin, streaking her pale flesh with a sickeningly deep red. She told no one about her dreams because they seemed so foolish to her. Lottie hadn’t experienced a day in fieldwork, and here she was having these nightmares about the gore of war.

The ambient sounds of Camp Lehigh drew her out of her thoughts and grounded her.

Lottie was standing alone, rather dazedly, outside of the nurses’ barracks, observing all the commotion surrounding the recruits. She was still getting used to the chaotic environment that unfolded around her; everywhere she looked, there were lines of marching soldiers, followed hotly by shouting commanders, or trucks careening around buildings, as if always running late for some rendezvous. Gone were the days of picnicking in the grass and basking in the sun— the base was now all hustle and bustle, with little time for leisure.

All the activity had thrown a wrench into her combat training; Agent Carter had been training her on an individual basis with both firearms and knives, but the soldiers now needed more training than she did. Lottie had become more than proficient in the use of her M1911, which left her wanting to learn more. On the advice of Agent Carter, she’d taken up the KA-BAR and they had begun training with the knife only a few weeks prior. She was more than a little disappointed by the abrupt end to their training, but Lottie understood that training the men who would be doing the actual fighting was the higher priority. The one saving grace of Camp Lehigh was that the base was outfitted with two obstacle courses for physical training so the nurses could continue their exercises each morning. Although their combat training was put on hold, they could continue preparing their bodies for the stress of war.

A distinctly male voice interrupted her train of thought— was that a Brooklyn accent she heard?

“Hey sugar! You rationed?”

Lottie blinked for a moment and looked to her right. A group of men stood outside their own barracks, sharing a pack of cigarettes. She easily identified the man who’d spoken by the way he smiled at her; it was the same charming, lopsided grin that she’d seen on Bucky’s face countless times. His brilliantly blond hair caused a tug at her heartstrings; it was almost the same shade as Steve’s. That’s where the resemblance stopped, though; his eyes were a chestnut brown and his build was sturdier.

Lottie didn’t move from her spot, “Is that your way of asking if a lady’s got a fella waiting for her back home?”

The soldier’s grin only seemed to grow at the sound of her own Brooklyn accent, “A Brooklyn gal, eh? A woman after my own heart. What’s your name, doll?”

“I’m Lottie Green. But that’s Lieutenant Green to you, Private.” She smirked, relishing in her title. The year before, Congress had authorized the promotion of Army nurses to the ranks of Second Lieutenant, granting them positions of power in a largely male environment.

The soldier ambled over to her, flicking the ashes from the butt of his cigarette.

“Ah, so you’re one of those girls they hired to patch us up, then? I always knew there’d be choirs of angels when I died, but I didn’t know they’d send ‘em to fix us up when we’re wasting away.” He was a flirt, that was for sure, but she felt a pang of annoyance at his belittling of her profession

She wasn’t just some ‘girl’ who was shipped out to slap Band-Aids on his scratches and send him on his way with a pat on the head. She’d spent the last year of her life dedicated to formulating the perfect Super Soldier Serum. Lottie was a woman— a powerful woman who would one day hold the lives of so many men in her hands.

Lottie mustered up a wry smile, “While I haven’t got a fella back home, Private, a medic tent isn’t exactly ideal for courtship, is it?”

Without waiting for a response, she departed and made her way toward the obstacle course that was currently in use. Dr. Erskine had requested that the nurses of Project Rebirth be present for some of the recruits’ training sessions since they would be the best opportunities to scout out candidates for America’s first Super Soldier. These candidates would not only need to be physically capable but also morally incorruptible. An aspect of the serum that was discussed briefly was how it had amplified Schmidt’s already malicious personality; if they made the same mistake by administering it to a man of morally questionable character, they could have another failure on their hands.

When Lottie neared the obstacle course, she caught the tail end of Colonel Phillips’ speech to this batch of recruits.

“—but every army starts with one man. At the end of this week, we will choose that man. He will be the first in a new breed of Super Soldiers.”

Lottie barely had time to glance at the recruits who were lined up a handful of yards away from her. A clipboard had been thrust into her hands, stacked with papers that listed the soldiers’ names, dates of birth, and measurements. She scanned the pages, barely registering any information due to the sheer amount of it; it was too overwhelming to process properly.

“I heard Colonel Phillips has taken a real liking to Gilmore Hodge,” Gladys whispered, shuffling her papers.

Betty made a disapproving noise, “Agent Carter socked that guy in the kisser. No way in hell he’s our guy.”

“I agree!” Mary piped up, “His moral character is real atrocious.”

Nancy seemed to be torn, “He is the most promising recruit thus far. Sure, he’s gotta work on his manners, but gosh, even his measurements set him apart from the rest.”

Lottie hummed in thought and finally looked up to watch the recruits in action, her eyes narrowed. For the most part, the soldiers got through the net climbing efficiently and descended the other side with ease, but a particular recruit was struggling to get a sure footing in the netting. Her heart started pounding in her ears— she knew that build, that stature. It couldn’t be, he’d been rejected at the enlistment. Sure enough, the soldier lost his footing and fell with his other foot still caught in the ropes.

Lottie’s breath caught in her throat as she stared at the flushed face of one of her childhood best friends. In the distance, she could hear a sergeant berating him for his clumsiness, but her attention could not be torn away from his face. She was at a loss as to what to do; he obviously hadn’t seen her but she couldn’t call out to him to get his attention, as that would land him in more trouble than he was already in.

“Poor guy,” Mary murmured, wincing in sympathy. It seemed that she’d also noticed the trouble that Steve had been having.

“Yeah,” Lottie replied lamely, biting at her lip in anxious thought.

What would she even say to him if he saw her? Would he even acknowledge her? She knew she’d just about die if she had to undergo a silent treatment from Steve. But she deserved it, she was sure. There wasn’t a day that had gone by where she didn’t think of her boys back home. She often found herself lying in bed late at night, staring at the ceiling and listening to the breathing patterns of the other nurses in the barracks. Lottie would roll her lucky penny between her fingers and think of her best friends back home. Were they asleep? Or out at the dance hall again, trying to woo some women into a couple of dates for the next night? She prayed nightly for their safety; their safekeeping. It was a fool’s prayer, she knew— it was a war, after all. But that never stopped her from begging God on high to protect her most beloved friends.

The commotion of the obstacle course had died down, but the yells of the sergeants had not died down; it seemed that they were to continue their training elsewhere.

Betty noticed Lottie’s lost look, “They’re having ‘em run the trail.” She gestured to the tree line where they would usually do their morning runs.

Gladys looked over her clipboard, “I think it’d be best if we head back to the mess hall and grab a bite to eat. We can talk all of this,” she gestured to their clipboards, stacked high with papers, “once we’ve all got full stomachs and clear minds. I hope you all took notes, ‘cause I sure did!”

Lottie was silent on the way to the mess hall, still reeling from the fact that Steve had somehow been recruited for the military. There had to have been some mistake; he’d most likely spend more time in her medic tent than on the battlefield. Running into battle would have him hospitalized even before an enemy could manage to hit him.

They sat in their usual spot at the back of the mess hall, at a table in the corner that had been pushed up against a wall; it kept them out of the way and allowed them a sense of privacy from the other staff members. Lottie absentmindedly peeled at an orange while she listened to the conversation of her friends.

“If we can’t have Hodge for the serum, I think Johnson might be a promising guy!”

Betty laughed, “Do you really think that or do you just like the way he looks in his fatigues, Mary?”

“Gosh, I just think they bring out the green in his eyes! Either way, he’s certainly got the build for it.”

“He’s such a knucklehead, though. He couldn’t figure out the proper way to hold his rifle while he went under the barbed wire. He was practically dragging it through the mud by its strap.” Betty rolled her eyes, unimpressed with the performances of most of the men during training.

There was some continued discussion on the topic, but it was interrupted by the entrance of dozens of soldiers. They needed no introduction, as the sounds of their hoots and hollers, as well as the aroma of their body odor, heralded their arrival at the mess hall. Lottie shot to her feet, unable to stop herself from searching the sea of men for a scrawny man with too much pluck for his own good. The men milled about as they grabbed trays of food and seated themselves, loudly conversing about the training they’d just experienced.

Finally, Lottie’s eyes locked with those of a scrawny blond guy who looked as if he’d just seen a ghost. He was all the way at the other end of the mess hall, but that didn’t matter, she rushed to him as quickly as she could. She so desperately wanted to hug him before he could turn and run from her. She knew that her silly display was surely catching the attention of other soldiers, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to care; she hadn’t seen one of her best friends in over a year, dammit! She walked quickly between the tables to where he stood by the food line.

“Stevie,” Lottie choked out, crushing him in a tight hug. Tears threatened to escape her eyes, but she refused to make a scene in front of half of the recruits.

“Lottie I—” Steve began, “I dunno what to say. Why are you here? Why did you lie?”

He asked the questions with such earnest bewilderment, with sincere sorrow that nearly destroyed Lottie. He didn’t seem angry with her at all; he was instead deeply hurt, and it was all because of her. When she pulled away from their embrace, she saw the pain in his eyes and recognized it— it was the same pain she had felt when thinking of Steve and Bucky, praying for their safety.

Lottie was becoming acutely aware of the attention they were attracting but that was the least of her concerns at the moment. If Colonel Phillips caught wind of their little embrace, he would surely berate her about relationships with the soldiers, as he couldn’t fathom the idea of a platonic relationship between a nurse and one of his men. She would deal with that situation at a later time. At that moment, Lottie knew that an apology and explanation were long overdue. She planned on apologizing to him sincerely in private, but she knew that an explanation could not wait.

She grabbed Steve’s wrist and pulled him towards the table at the back of the hall, “Please trust me, Steve. I can explain everything, but I’m gonna need their help.” Lottie jerked her head in the direction of the other nurses, “What I did was real crummy of me, I know, and I’ll apologize over and over until the day I die, but I promise that it needed to be done. The girls over here will help me explain it all so you can understand.”

“Well, who do we have here?” Betty questioned as they approached, arching a carefully plucked brow.

Steve awkwardly shifted his weight and shoved his hands in his pockets, obviously intimidated by her steady gaze and cool demeanor, “Steve Rogers, ma’am.”

Mary’s eyes lit up, “One of Lottie’s Brooklyn boys! Now do tell me, where is Private Barnes? Because I absolutely must meet the man that our Lottie is so infa—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Gladys kicked her shin under the table and answered the question for Steve, “I’ve looked through every file Dr. Erskine has given to us and there’s no Private Barnes here.”

Lottie shot Gladys a grateful smile, albeit a weak one. She cleared her throat and addressed the group of women before her, “I promised Steve here that I’d explain why I fell off the face of the Earth for a solid year, but I’ll need your help filling in all the details.”

It took nearly an hour to catch Steve up on all the events of the past year. The nurses gave him as much information as they could, though there was certain classified information that they were privy to— the formula for the Super Soldier Serum —but could not be shared with anyone outside of Project Rebirth. Steve interrupted regularly to pose questions about different aspects of their research, obviously invested in all the work they’d done for Dr. Erskine and Mr. Stark. When they recounted their experiences testing the prototype serum on various tissue samples, he went a sickly shade of green, so they quickly ended that train of thought. They glossed over the details of how they finished the serum and their discovery of how Vita-Ray Radiation affected its ingredients. His brow seemed to furrow exponentially with every scientific term used

“And that’s the skinny on what we’ve been up to for the past year,” Gladys finished, holding back a giggle at Steve’s overwhelmed facial expression.

“Thank you, ladies,” Lottie smiled and rose from her seat, gesturing for Steve to follow, “Steve and I are gonna step outside for a moment.” She led him across the mess hall and outside; they came to a stop after they rounded the corner of the building. She stood against the wall, fidgeting with the hem of her jacket sleeve.

“Stevie, I owe you an apology. After the attacks I just knew that the world would go to shit,” Lottie felt her eyes start to water, “and well— it’s my job as a nurse to save lives, y’know? I couldn’t just stay home and twiddle my thumbs while everyone else went to take care of our boys overseas. And I know Bucky made me promise not to and all that, but I’d already enlisted. I knew if I told him the truth, we’d fight, and I’d have left you two on a really sour note, which isn’t what I wanted at all.”

“So, you decided it would be better to lie about going to your parents’ for Christmas and leave the two of us wondering for months?” Steve’s tone wasn’t scathing but the question still cut deep.

Lottie sniffled and knew that there was little she could do to hold back the tide of tears that would surely start flowing, “I was being horribly selfish; I knew it would hurt the both of you but I was just so afraid and uncertain about it all. I knew you two would get real concerned for me and I just didn’t want that. Plus, you have to understand, Stevie, when I enlisted, they offered me a position in a high-level government organization. I couldn’t tell anyone about my whereabouts or where I would be going— all I could say was that I would be training for the Nurse Corps. It wasn’t fully my choice to keep these things from you and Bucky; it would’ve been risky to tell anyone about the SSR or what I would be doing for them. I know you two would’ve been good about keeping it a secret, but I was still so afraid, Steve. I didn’t want to let the SSR down, so I guess that meant I had to let you two down instead.” She stared at her shoes, letting the tears roll down her cheeks and fall to the dirt below.

“Thank you for telling me the truth, Lottie. It really hurt me when I realized you weren’t coming back. I understand where you were coming from, though I don’t agree with what you did. I forgive you, but Bucky— he, well,” Steve shook his head sadly, “You should’ve seen him when he got back from bootcamp and you weren’t at the station, Lottie. Worried out of his mind, he was. I’d written to your folks a month or so earlier; it was mid-January so I knew something was up. They told me you’d joined the Corps, but didn’t know where you’d been sent. I told him everything I’d learned and he hasn’t been the same since; he was always on edge. Even the night before he was shipped out to England, when we went out with Bonnie and Connie—”

“England?” Lottie’s voice was weak with disbelief. She shouldn’t have been surprised, he was going to be deployed at some point, after all. Somehow, it still hit her like a punch to the gut.

She held onto the hope that they were at least exchanging letters to check in with each other. “Have you kept in contact with him at least?”

“I didn’t think to get an address before he left.” Steve muttered, digging the toe of his boat into the dirt in front of him.

“Dammit,” Lottie hissed and wiped away hot tears that continued to stream from her eyes. She was utterly helpless and could do nothing about it; she had no way of contacting Bucky to make sure he was safe. For all she knew, he could be one of those men bleeding in a medic tent— lying limply in a cot that was not his, thousands of miles away from home. She could only hope that he had a kind nurse that would wipe the sweat from his brow and murmur soothing sounds that would remind him of home.

At Camp Lehigh, Lottie was constantly reminded of home. She saw Bucky in every soldier she met, whether it be through their personality, charm, or looks, they all served as a reminder of him. When it came down to it, neither Massachusetts nor Brooklyn was home to her— it was only Bucky that she could truly call home.

And as their time apart continued to drag on, she realized that she was beginning to feel terribly homesick.

#40s!bucky x original female character #40s!bucky x ofc #40s!bucky #1940s bucky #bucky fluff #bucky fanfic #bucky x ofc #bucky x original female character #bucky fic #bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes series #ilytid

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captainpikeachu · 3 years

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Sam, Bucky, Walker - the path to recovery

Sam's line to Bucky about how you have to stop looking to other people to tell you who you are, how if you want to climb out of that hell you're in then you have to do the work, and how avenging is not the same as amending, is just SO DAMN POWERFUL AND TRUE!

And you can tell Sam knows this because he's had to figure it out himself. And it's interesting to look at where each of the three people connected to Cap's shield and legacy stand with regards to this path of recovery and healing that Sam laid out in the narrative.

Sam knows the importance of not defining who you are by other people, not relying on someone else to show you the way because you are your own person, you have to stand on your own two feet, that's how you build strong foundations. Sam doesn't need other people to tell him who he is, he knows who he is. He's Sam Wilson and he doesn't need a title to still be Sam, a good man. There is a self assurance that Sam has that is beautiful to behold, but it's not stubbornness that is unchanging and immovable, rather it's an open confidence to listen and grow. And he knows what it feels like to be in hell, to feel lost, and trapped in pain and darkness, and how you have to work to get out and get better, how you have to WANT to get better, that it's not just an easy path to find the light but the work is worth it in the end. And he also knows that avenging is just another way of damaging yourself and it's by amending through truth and acknowledgement can there be a way for peace whether in forgiving others, receiving forgiveness from others, or even forgiving yourself. Sam has reached the end point of the hard path to recovery and to self peace and acceptance. He is ready to impart that wisdom onto others who are hurting.

Bucky is still not quite there yet, he may be in a middle point of this journey. This show has allowed him to slowly let go of Steve, to separate his identity from Steve, to stop relying on Steve to be the compass of who he has to be but rather stand on his own as Bucky Barnes, a man with his own agency, and not just a shadow or extension of Steve Rogers. And that's good, hopefully he continues in that direction to be the man he wants to be, not just the man whom he thinks Steve wants him to be. We also see Bucky attempting to put in the work earlier in the season but it was a struggle with therapy. However as the season progressed, we see him opening up, we see him actually acknowledging his troubles and even apologizing to Sam. We see him smile watching the kids run off. We see him living among other people and interacting with a community instead of cutting himself off and hidden away in isolation. It's all worth it in bettering his wellbeing. We see him finding happiness. And with Sam's encouragement, we see him learn that avenging isn't the way and that in order to start the first step to making amends, we must admit the truth even if it's too painful to admit, one step at a time. Bucky is likely planning to admit the truth about Yori's son, whatever Yori's reactions may end up being. Bucky hasn't reached the end point but he is making good progress.

Walker is barely at the starting point, in fact, he's looking likely to reverse straight into the opposite direction for a good while before ever getting back to the starting point to even begin to attempt a recovery. Unlike Steve and Sam, who are secured in their identity as themselves before any title, Walker's identity is his job, his title. Why does he fall like a house of cards when stripped of his Cap title and his military rank? Because he doesn't know who John Walker the person actually is. His identity has been entirely synonymous with "perfect soldier" since he was 18 years old, for all of his adult life. He clings to that shield so desperately because without it, he has no sense of self. He doesn't know who he is without it, and he doesn't know who he is without Lemar. That's why you see him trying to cling onto whatever he can, whether it's building his own shield or lying to Lemar's family. He is lost without those things and he doesn't even know to begin being his own person. He's in an emotional hell but also refuses to climb out of it and do the work to get better because staying in that hell is comfortable and easier than confronting the truth and terror of having to rebuild his life and acknowledge personal responsibility. And he's just full on avenging mode right now, long ways from even considering making amends because that anger and pain is still inside him, just like Bucky once had. If Walker were to start making amends, it would be to go to Lemar's family and tell them the truth. Only when he's honest, can he truly start on the path to actually healing.

Recovering from pain and trauma isn't easy and it's not always a straight line either, but Sam's words are good advice for finding one's way forward, and we see how these three characters show different points of this process: Sam is at peace, Bucky is still finding his way, and Walker is still lost in the darkness.

Maybe not all of us will find Sam's level of peace and acceptance, but we can still use his advice to guide us, as I hope it will continue to guide Bucky and maybe one day guide Walker.

#sam wilson #bucky barnes #john walker #the falcon and the winter soldier spoilers #tfatws spoilers #the falcon and the winter soldier #the falcon and the winter soldier meta #i love Sam's line and it just fucking resonated with me so much

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winteratdusk · 4 years

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whumptober day 5/7

@whumptober2020

Captain America: The First Avenger

Prompts: rescue/carrying/”i’ve got you”

Warnings: vomiting, implied past torture, mentions of past non-consensual drug use

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“Am I dead?”

Bucky’s familiar voice, rough from disuse or maybe something worse, grabbed Steve’s attention as quickly as anything could. Not like Steve didn’t have plenty else on his plate - he’d just completed his first successful military operation without the military even knowing it, rescuing nearly 400 POWs from certain death - but somehow, through it all, Bucky still took precedence.

“No, Buck,” Steve spoke past a lump in his throat. “No. You’re just fine. Or at least, you’re gonna be.”

Steve was leading the rescued men resolutely southward, out of Austria and back to the encampment in Italy where Captain America had just mysteriously cancelled a series of USO shows geared toward raising troop morale. Finally having seen combat firsthand, Steve was beginning to realize that no amount of flashy choreography or empty rhetoric could raise morale enough to make any sizable difference in the war effort. He had to hope that bringing a whole army’s worth of missing men back from the dead would suffice. Still, he was having a hard time focusing on the mission - as soon as he’d caught sight of Bucky, strapped to a table and trembling his way through his name, rank, and number even though nobody had stuck around to listen, his priorities had shifted so drastically that he was hardly able to spare a thought for the exhausted men trudging along beside them. Hardly an hour of marching with Bucky by his side, clearly hurt and shaking and looking about ready to keel over at any given moment, and Steve had entrusted command of the mission to Dernier and Falsworth, turning his own attention to making sure Bucky made it back in one piece.

“No,” Bucky was saying, shaking his head as though trying to clear it of some delusion. “‘M not. This isn’t real. You’re not real.”

Steve hardly knew what to say. Bucky’s wide eyes and jumbled syllables served as undeniable proof of his impaired lucidity, proof that whatever drugs the HYDRA doctor had cooked up were still running through his veins. Steve didn’t know how to reach him, to make him realize that, whatever else he was seeing or whatever else he’d been through, this was real, and he was safe.

“Come on, Buck,” he settled for saying. Simultaneously walking and talking seemed like a challenge for Bucky in his weakened state, and he’d stumbled to a halt on the narrow dirt path, swaying a little as he stood staring up at Steve in guarded disbelief. “We gotta keep up so we don’t get left behind. Can I… can I help you?”

Steve reached out for Bucky, who had gone deathly pale and looked about a second from passing out. Bucky pitched forward a little before righting himself, batting Steve’s outstretched hand away even as he winced at the rapid movement.

“No!” he forced out, loudly enough to startle a couple of errant birds out of the trees that grew thick and sloping over the covert path. A few of the other rescued men spared them a sideways glance, but soon enough turned their weary eyes back to the road under their feet. Steve supposed they’d all seen far worse, a realization that did little to alleviate the worry rising in his chest.

“I’m fine,” Bucky insisted. His voice was loose and watery, like the muscles in his jaw were too lax to enunciate with any degree of precision. Anyone who looked at him would know just how wrong that assertion was - he looked awful, all clammy skin and grime and bruises so bad that the sight of them pulled at Steve’s heart. Then there was the constant trembling, which Steve had initially attributed to the cold but was now beginning to believe might be coming from something else, and the lingering confusion, the lack of recognition in Bucky’s cloudy eyes. Steve wanted nothing more than to reach out to Bucky and just hold him until he was steady on his feet again, but Bucky still seemed bent on fighting him, unable to reconcile the Steve standing before him with whatever else was going through his head.

“Okay,” Steve sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat to resist the urge to use them to manually steady Bucky on his feet. “Okay. We’ve got to move, though. Can you do that?”

“Hm.” Bucky swallowed hard before forcing his shaking legs back into motion, his shoulders hunching as he doggedly stumbled forward. Steve hovered by his side, knowing he wasn’t welcome but still finding himself physically unable to let Bucky stray more than a few feet away from him. He’d crossed an ocean to be here, gone behind enemy lines without even a second thought, thrown everything he had away just for the off-chance that he might be able to see Bucky again. And he had, but, god, it was all so wrong, Bucky Barnes from Brooklyn beaten down and half-dead and looking at Steve like he didn’t even know him. Steve knew it was selfish, but he couldn’t get over how much that last one hurt.

Steve forced himself to stay quiet, giving Bucky space to concentrate on putting one foot in front of another. Their boots crunched against the thin layer of ice that had settled on the path overnight as they walked, the steady rhythm of Steve’s footfalls all but masking the sounds of Bucky’s stuttered steps. Their breath crystallized in the chilly morning air, rising in clouds toward the canopy of trees above them. It was cold, Steve was realizing. He hardly felt cold anymore, but it was bad enough now that even he found himself shivering a little, tugging the shoulders of his coat tight for warmth.

Bucky, on the other hand, was shaking hard. Even the jacket Steve had forced him into back at the factory didn’t seem to be helping much. The slight tremor that had been running through him when Steve first found him on that lab table had ramped up tenfold, making every jerky step look like it took an almost herculean effort.

“You okay?” Steve murmured, fully aware that Bucky wasn’t but having no idea what else to say. Bucky had always taken care of him, Steve thought bitterly. Why was he finding himself so woefully incapable of returning the favor?

Bucky didn’t respond, keeping his shoulders hunched and eyes down as he staggered along. Steve sighed, trying not to get too upset about it. He knew Bucky was in rough shape, and half out of his mind on HYDRA drugs to boot, but that didn’t make his stoic disbelief any easier to deal with.

Steve glanced away from Bucky for a moment to take stock of the other men. It looked like they were moving forward as steadily as they could be, but Steve was realizing that Bucky’s halting pace had set them falling behind with the stragglers - any slower and they stood the chance of being abandoned entirely. Steve was about to turn back to Bucky and relay this information when he heard an awful thud, the sound of a body hitting the ground. Steve whipped around to see Bucky curled up in the dirt, looking like he’d just taken a hard fall onto the icy path.

“Bucky!?” Steve was wholly unable to keep the panic from his voice as he dropped to his knees, the other men all but forgotten. His world had once again narrowed until it was just Bucky, trembling on the cold ground.

Bucky moaned, the weak, shaky sound barely audible over the sounds of the other men’s boots as they made their way past. He shoved himself up until he was braced against the hard-packed dirt on his hands and knees, still swaying even though he was barely inches from the ground. As Steve watched, Bucky squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his jaw and swallowing hard against seemingly nothing.

“Hey,” Steve said, hardly hearing himself over the frantic pounding of his own heart. “Hey, talk to me. What’s wrong? What… what can I do?”

Bucky gulped again, pulling a deep breath in through his nose. He worked up a mouthful of spit and aimed it at the ground before struggling to wrap his mouth around a word.

“Dizzy…”

“Okay,” Steve sighed, reaching out a tentative hand to gently brush Bucky’s shoulder. At first Bucky tensed under his touch, but another round of nauseating swaying seemed to drain the fight out of him.

“Okay,” Steve repeated. “You’re okay, Buck.”

“I - I don’t…” Bucky slurred, staring wide-eyed at the ground like it might move or disappear if he so much as blinked. “I don’t… feel good.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry,” Steve whispered. “I know you’ve been through… a lot. And I promise, as soon as we make it back, this’ll all be over and you’ll be able to lie down and rest. We just have to make it a little bit further, okay?”

Bucky barely acknowledged him. He was going paler by the second under the garish bruises on his face, and Steve had the sudden and horrible thought that he might pass out right there on the cold ground.

“Come on. Let me help you,” Steve said quickly. He stood up and offered a hand down towards Bucky, who blindly raised a trembling arm to meet Steve’s.

“Yeah, okay. Good.” Steve tugged Bucky into a standing position, trying not to be too rough as he manhandled all of Bucky’s dead weight. He debated for a moment the most helpful course of action, eventually deciding to sling one of Bucky’s limp arms over his own shoulders, wrapping an arm around Bucky’s waist to support more of his weight. Upright, Bucky seemed to have a hard time finding his footing, stumbling into Steve’s chest before righting himself and pointing his feet in more or less the direction of the path.

“Good,” Steve encouraged him as he nudged them forward. “That’s good. Just a little further…”

In reality, Steve had no idea how far it was. He’d passed all of his navigation equipment along to Dernier and Falsworth when he’d relinquished command of the mission, leaving him with nothing but his vague memory of getting to the factory to help him approximate the distance back. He had a feeling that the camp might be a fair amount further away than he’d prefer to admit, but all he could do was press on, silently praying that Bucky could hold out a while longer.

Steve held Bucky close against his side as they walked, listening as his breath grew steadily shallower and his steps increasingly faltered. Steve tightened his hold on Bucky’s waist as they went, taking progressively more and more of his weight as the last of Bucky’s energy seemed to seep out of him.

“Doing great, Buck,” Steve kept murmuring, half for Bucky’s benefit and half to drown out the tiny, pained sounds that kept escaping with Bucky’s labored breaths. “Doing real good. Just hold on, okay?”

Bucky still seemed unwilling or unable to acknowledge him, looking blankly past him with a thousand-yard stare fixed somewhere in the distance - but as Steve whispered his mindless encouragements, Bucky curled the hand that was slung over Steve’s shoulders into a fist, holding tightly to a wad of Steve’s jacket. Steve’s heart swelled, and he had to believe that that tiny gesture of recognition would be enough.

For a few blissful minutes Steve allowed himself to imagine that they might really make it without incident. He supposed, considering his luck, that he probably should have known better. He and Bucky were making their way along, just managing to keep up with the tired soldiers at the back of the group, when Bucky lurched away, tearing himself from Steve’s supportive arms with surprising force. Steve’s first instinct was annoyance - Bucky had just started trusting him, and now they were back to square one? - but that annoyance quickly evaporated when Bucky just stumbled to the side of the road, leaning over and looking about ready to fall face-first into the weeds.

“Buck?” Steve asked, rushing to him. By the time he made it over Bucky was already gagging, a tiny stream of bile spraying from his nose and lips into the dead vegetation lining the path.

“Oh, god. Okay,” Steve muttered, trying to focus on Bucky and not on the mess. Bucky heaved again, bringing up scarcely anything for his efforts but ending up doubly unsteady on his feet. Steve reached forward without even thinking about it, wrapping an arm solidly around Bucky’s chest as he continued to dry heave. He was completely empty - not surprising, Steve supposed, given the state he’d found him in - but that didn't stop his body from continually trying to violently reject something that wasn’t even there.

“Just breathe. You’re okay,” Steve murmured around the thrum of panic in his chest. He hoped he was telling the truth, but in reality he wasn’t so sure.

As the retches tapered off, Steve reached up to pat Bucky gently between the shoulder blades, just wanting to offer him a little bit of comfort. Bucky very nearly whimpered in pain at the contact, and Steve quickly withdrew his hand.

“Sorry, shit,” he said frantically. “I know you’re probably hurt, I didn’t mean to -”

Steve stopped speaking as Bucky’s quivering knees finally gave out, leaving him sagging against Steve’s supporting arm with his full weight. Steve quickly steadied him, pulling him back to lean against Steve’s chest, holding him up as he got his footing back. Steve watched with bated breath as Bucky’s eyelids fluttered for a moment before finally, blessedly, opening again.

“Hey,” Steve whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Bucky laboriously turned around, still clinging to Steve as though he was afraid he’d fall again if he let go.

“Hey,” Bucky said roughly, a tiny spark of recognition finally alighting in his eyes. “Stevie?”

Steve’s face split into a grin in spite of himself, in spite of the dire situation they were in. It had been far too long since he’d heard that nickname. “Yeah, Buck. It’s me.”

It wasn’t quite the reunion he’d been hoping for. It wasn’t the soft comfort of their apartment or the celebratory relief of the end of the war. But in that moment, the two of them clinging to each other in the cold and bleak winter light, it was enough.

#whumptober2020 #no.5 #no.7 #rescue #carrying #i've got you #marvel #stucky #captain america #fic #fanfiction #vomiting tw #non-consensual drug use tw

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your-modern-shakespeare · 5 years

Text

Just Like You (22)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21

Summary: You are an experiment, the first of its kind. One day you escape and are living a normal life when you run into a perfect stranger or was he?

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 4345

A/N: I AM THE WORST!!! it has literally been 2 years since I updated this story! I AM SO SO SORRY GUYS!!! I don’t really have an excuse other than I suck and adulting is hard. I do plan on finishing every story that I have started though and I just hope that some of you guys are still with me. I hope you enjoy and sorry again...

Warnings: funeral, some sadness, angst, some fluff, a kiss

Tags: @thisisthelilith, @thesalsafic, @fangirl1802, @lust-for-pan, @iamwarrenspeace, @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi, @ssweet-empowerment

Y/N’S POV

News about Ana’s passing spread like wildfire. There were millions of questions about what had happened, how she had been alive all these years, and where she had been. And I couldn’t tell them any of it.

That being said I wasn’t sure if anyone believed my excuses. I couldn’t exactly tell them what I was or who I had been working for, where I had been and I definitely couldn’t tell them the truth, but telling a lie about Ana, about her life and her family, just seemed to make me feel worse than I already was.

Anyway...pushing that aside.

The funeral started at the airport, just like last time. This time only one coffin. I introduced the four of us, Steve, Sam, Bucky and I, to the man who had met us at the airport, a man I had never met before. He didn’t care for the fact that the three of them were American but he did acknowledge their rankings and then there was me. He stared at me for a while after I had announced who I was, what my ranking was, because to him it couldn’t be possible, that a night witch, at my age, was still alive.

But that was beside the point, we had a funeral to go to.

Once the casket was ready to be moved off the plane, we all stood by waiting to carry it to the car that would move Ana to the chapel. There were rows of Russian soldiers to the right of us, saluting us as we went, and a huge group of bystanders containing members of the remaining Royal family, government officials, military officials, Ana’s daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren to our left.

On our cue we lifted the coffin from its place and made our way slowly down the carpeted runway to the vehicles waiting for us. While we walked music was being played by the military band and every now and then I would look over at Bucky who was scanning the crowd. I had noticed a few HYDRA agents along the way and I knew that they noticed me too, I wasn’t sure if they were going to do anything but they hadn’t so far.

After we placed Ana in the back of the hearse, Bucky and I climbed into the same car, leaving Sam and Steve to climb into the car behind us. Then we waited for all the officials from before to climb into the other vehicles behind us. And just like that the cars began their way to St. Peter and Paul Cathedral where the rest of her family waited for her.

When we got on the road and closer to the city we could see all of the people lining the streets...for her. Thousands of people just standing and waiting for the cars to pass by so that they could pay their respects to their once princess. It brought tears to my eyes, so no surprise that I felt Bucky’s hand grab mine, giving me the comfort that I needed to remain focused on what needed to be done.

When we pulled up close to the chapel Bucky, Sam, Steve and I pulled Ana’s coffin out of the car once more and waited for the funeral party behind us to climb out of their cars and walk with us. The pathway to the cathedral was lined with soldiers who stood at attention as we walked past them and towards the cathedral; The crowds behind them looking solemn as we went.

Walking through the doors and into the cathedral, we placed her coffin on a raised platform in the center of the room which was then surrounded by the family. Leaving her there, the four of us went to the row closest to her casket, ignoring the looks of the people surrounding us and getting ourselves situated with the foreign territory and the enemies that came with it.

But ignoring the gazes, we watched as everyone else made their way in, there was a choir singing music now and there was quite a bit of talking going on.

As one would surmise, seeing as most of the people surrounding the four of us assumed we were American, there were some not so nice things being said. At one point, my patience running very small, I turned to an overly pretentious woman and spoke very frankly to her in Russian, which made her shut up.

But with plenty of time before the president arrived, and therefore the start of the ceremony, Bucky and I went over to Ana’s daughter, Alexandra, her two daughters and her son, as well as their children, just wanting to say a quick hello and introduce them to Bucky. They all knew my secret, Ana had told them when the time was right and Alexandra had been so grateful that I had been there for her when she had passed. We talked about how happy she must be to be back with George again and laughed about some of the memories they had told me about her, ones that I had missed recently.

When we got word that the President was pulling up to the Cathedral we went back to where Sam and Steve were, now joined by Bruce, who let us know that the rest of the team was in their positions.

And once the president was in, the funeral officially began. We heard a few cannons go off outside the cathedral and then he began his speech which was then followed by the governor’s. After both speeches were finished about a dozen church officials and priests surrounded the coffin in front of the people, beginning the blessings and rituals of the royal family’s funeral: singing from the priests and choir, cleansing by incense, prayers and blessings.

Afterwards, we were given a signal from the priest and as they continued to sing the four of us went to the platform and moved her from the front room, further into the cathedral where her family as well as past royals had been buried.

The grave for the family was a pit in the room that had been divided in half with a sturdy plank in the center so that we could lower the coffin down with no trouble. We placed her back down on a table of sorts and weaved some straps through the handles on the outside of the coffin, giving us a way to lower her. When we were done, we carried her over to the pit and Steve and I carefully walked over the middle of the beam, where the four of us slowly placed her into the last remaining spot next to her family.

As we lowered her into place the family had made their way into the room and when we were cleared, the plank was removed from the center. Then, like any other funeral, the church official brought over this large tray with dirt on it so that the family, as they left the cathedral, could pay their respects to Ana. So we waited in line just like everyone else and grabbed a handful of dirt before stepping up to the edge of the pit. When it was my turn, I couldn’t help but linger a moment, my thoughts flashing through some of my best memories with Ana. And when the flashes stopped, I opened my hand and let the dirt, and the last of the memories, fall between my fingers and onto her coffin. My final goodbye….

In seemingly slow motion, we then mimicked the rest of the people by signing the cross out of respect for the family’s religion, but not stopping to do the same to the priest because none of us were. And then followed the emptiness.

I thought I had pushed everything down far enough to get through the ceremony, but as the final ritual was coming to an end, I couldn’t help but feel as if the world was closing in around me. Everything felt numb, the world slowed down and I looked back towards the pit one last time before my feet, instinctively, followed after Bucky as we left the room. I always followed him...through thick and thin.

And we had a job to do now.

So as soon as we were far enough away from the main room, I grabbed the high tech glasses Tony had given me out of my pocket, put them on my face, and waited for them to connect to him.

“Tony?” I whispered.

“Reading loud and clear.” He said, receiving our signal that we were done at the church and ready for our escape.

With the glasses he led us through the church, to our designated rendezvous point where the rest of the team was waiting for us...I thought we were in the clear, we were so close. The only problem...I started to hear shuffling that wasn’t coming from our team. It didn’t seem like anyone else heard though, so I stopped moving, causing everyone else to stop, and put a blue shield around us.

This put everyone on high alert, even if they didn’t hear what I had heard. We all waited in suspense as I was hoping I was just going crazy or had been making up the noise. And yet, my hopes were shot down a moment later when we became surrounded by HYDRA and one very familiar and unwelcome face.

“I’m gonna kill him.” I heard Bucky say behind me.

“I’d like to see you try Barnes.” Antonoff said.

We were surrounded by HYDRA and yet they weren’t the ones who absolutely terrified me. Antonoff was the man who kidnapped me, he cut off my arm, and the worst he had done was still a secret I had yet to tell Bucky.

“Tony get us out of here.” I said.

“That wouldn’t happen to be the Tony Stark you’re talking to, would it? He does know that you killed his parents right?” I heard some mumbling on the other side of my comms, but chose to ignore it for the moment.

“What do you want?”

“I told you that I would always find you. You didn't think that you could come here and get away like you don’t belong to us anymore. You will always be HYDRA.”

“I was never HYDRA. The soldier that you put in me did what she was told, but that wasn’t me and I’m not going back with you.”

“Did you forget our deal?”

“Our deal? I never made a deal with you.”

“I guess all that brain damage made you forget...oh well, you’ll remember soon enough.”

All of the sudden I felt this intense surge of energy run through me, making me fall to the ground. I automatically felt Bucky’s arms wrap around me, but my control was slipping and so was the shield protecting us from them. He was trying to get to us, hurting me to get to them, but I couldn’t let my team get hurt. I focused as hard as I could...for them.

Someone was talking to Tony and everyone else was preparing for a fight, and yet it seemed like everything would be okay.

“Wanda!” I heard Steve say and as soon as I saw a red shield go up around us, I relaxed, letting my shield go. At that point the pain was too much to stay conscious and the last thing I saw was a glowing orange circle and then nothing at all.

BUCKY’S POV

I tried my hardest to just be there for her. I wanted to leave and find Antonoff, kill him once and for all, but I couldn’t, I wouldn’t know where to start if I did leave. The honest truth was that we were safe here and even if he was still out there, leaving wouldn’t help Y/N. She was my priority, my everything.

I just stared at her and at some point Steve had walked in.

“That was too close, Steve.” I said to him, holding Y/N’s hand as she laid in the hospital bed.

“It may have been, but we made it out okay.”

“Y/N didn’t.”

“The doctor said that there wasn’t anything wrong with her.”

“That they could see. Whatever Antonff did to her was something that HYDRA did to her a long time ago. It was a way they used to control us when we acted up, they have something in her, something that’s a part of her, like how my arm was a part of me.”

“But that arm isn’t a part of you anymore and you both got away from HYDRA.”

“What if he was right?”

“About what?”

“About us always being HYRDA?”

“No, he is so wrong about that. You guys got out, you’re building a life together.”

“I know that there are things that she hasn’t told me about herself, things that she went through before she found me. I also know that there are things that we both don’t remember, things we did, things about us that should matter, but we’ve ignored them. Antonoff is the last piece of everything, he’s the last person who knows how to activate me and her, and I know how much he scared her. He was the thing that terrified her the most, I don’t know why but I see her face every time she mentions him.”

“That man did kidnap her, cut off her arm.”

“There’s something else, I just don’t know what it is.”

“Maybe she doesn’t either.”

“I think it has something to do with this deal she made.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“And as long as he’s out there, we’ll never be truly free.”

“Bucky—”

“If only we had stayed in Bucharest…”

“Bucky—”

“No, Steve. I’ll always be grateful that you helped us out that day, I’ll be grateful that T’Challa gave us a place to hide out, and I’ll be grateful that Tony brought us to New York. There are a lot of things, a whole list of things that I’m grateful for, but after all the pain we’ve caused, it doesn’t seem worth it. If we had gotten away and stayed away, things would have been a lot better for everyone.”

“That’s not true.”

“HYDRA is still looking for us and as long as they are, everyone we’re near is in danger. I would spend the rest of my life running with Y/N if I knew it would keep her and everyone else safe.”

“So what? You’re just going to leave?”

“It’s a thought.”

“What if we take down Antonoff?”

“He’s different than before. I could feel it. Before he was just some lackey, he was the person who watched over Y/N while she was unactivated, made sure she didn’t get away again. I hate to even think about it but he almost seemed like a super soldier and we’ve been away from HYDRA for some time now that I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t been given the serum.”

“You think he’s like us?”

“I think that HYDRA would do anything to get their weapons back, especially Y/N.”

“Why?”

“She was the first. There’s valuable information inside of her. She may not remember it but it’s there, that’s why they made us forget.”

“So if you’re not safe here, then where? You can’t go back to Bucharest.”

“I was thinking...Wakanda. T’Challa seemed okay with the idea, figured that Y/N could at least help with some of their technology. And I figured we would be hidden and the science they explore there may be able to give us some answers about how we’re activated and how they control us. Wakanda is a hidden society, one that no one had been able to find without the aid of Wakandian and even then HYDRA wouldn’t be able to get in.”

“It’s not a bad idea.”

“You know that I hate to leave, New York has always been home. But Y/N is my everything, and when you have that you have to protect it. I would do anything for her, no matter the circumstances.”

“When do you plan to go?”

“It’s just an idea, I would need to—”

“When do you plan to go?” He knew me so well, he knew this was a plan not just an idea.

“As soon as we can. Tony said that he’s made a lot of progress with Y/N’s arm and the doctors in Wakanda told T'Challa that they can do the surgery on her.”

“You’ve been planning this for sometime haven’t you?”

“Before it was just an idea. When Y/N told me that it was Antonoff who kidnapped her, that was when the planning started. I was serious about it, but I think Y/N just thought that I was being paranoid. Now I can’t help but know that we have to do this otherwise we’ll never be free from them.”

“And Antonoff?”

“I don’t know...I don’t know what to do. All I know is that every time Y/N is near him she gets hurt. And she deserves some peace, she deserves a normal life.”

“You do too...What can I do to help?”

So as we waited we talked about the future and made some plans, Steve was always so strategic and had plenty of ideas for the two of us.

Eventually Y/N woke up, though, and Steve left so that I could check on her.

“Hey.” I said.

“Hi...what happened this time?” She seemed a little disoriented.

“Do you really want to know?”

“No...but yes.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Us talking to Antonoff...something about a deal?”

“Well, Wanda was protecting us and you had passed out so we thought that there wasn’t much we could do unless Tony could figure out a way to get to us. And yet we should have just assumed that he had a backup plan. The next thing we know, there’s this glowing orange circle in the middle of Wanda’s force field and this wizard guy is coming through it. He said that he can get us out and that Tony was waiting for us on the other side of that portal. So I grabbed you and went through first and one by one we all went through and came out on the other side in some weird building in New York. I didn’t get the story from Tony about how he knew the guy but I’m sure he has his reasons.”

“Why didn’t we know about this guy ahead of time, he could have helped us from the start.”

“All I heard was that he was our last option, apparently he’s fairly new to all of this.”

“It was nice of him to help out, I should have known that something like that would happen.”

“You had no way of knowing.”

“I know Antonoff and I knew that he was out there, I should have always assumed that he would have been there.”

“We got out okay.” She did have a point but that blame doesn’t only belong on her, I knew he was out there too.

“Maybe...as long as he’s out there we’ll always be in danger.”

“Yeah he’s out there but what if we weren’t?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been talking to Steve and T’Challa and the truth is that HYDRA is still after us. Our safest bet is to get away from the team and start over where we can’t be found.”

“So run away...again.”

“No...run towards a life together.”

“Bucky—”

“In Wakanda.”

“Wakanda?”

“HYDRA can’t get in there and T’Challa said that we are more than welcome. Of course, he is interested in picking your brain about some technology they’ve been having trouble with and you would get to work with his sister on some new projects. And I was told that there was some work I could do with the market and with the other guys there.”

“We would be safe there?”

“I don’t see how we couldn’t be. If they’re not Wakandian they’re not getting in, not unless they’re invited like we are.”

“It’s definitely appealing.”

“Tony will be done with your arm in a few days and T’Challa says that their doctors can start preparing for the surgery as soon as we give the go ahead.”

“What about the rest of the team?”

“From what we can tell, HYDRA isn’t after them, not in a way that they wouldn’t be able to handle. And T’Challa said that the team is free to visit anytime.”

“So we’re really doing this?”

“Do you want to?”

“I’ve always wanted to have a normal life with you, I always think back to Bucharest and how amazing our life was then.”

“I do too. And I want this to be good for us. Take the leap with me?”

“Yes.” She said with no hesitation. I moved a little closer to her and gave her a kiss, she smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Y/N’S POV

As soon as the doctor cleared me, Bucky and I went to our room to start packing the things that we had accumulated since leaving Bucharest. It wasn’t much but what little we had mattered.

The team stopped by the next couple of days and offered their help as well as giving us little mementos or stopping for a picture so that we would always remember them.

You know, I never considered myself lucky when it came to family. My father never loved me and when it came to my mother I tried not to think of the things she endured because of my father’s obsession with her and later with her enduring his anger to protect me. The love that I felt for my mother would never leave me, but being alive as long as I had, it became easy to push thoughts of her murder aside, the murder I had committed, and think of the new family I had.

The Avengers...what could I say. Never in my life did I think I would have a family like them. When I first met Bucky, it was so easy for me to fall in love with him. He always had so much warmth in him and he was so caring and kind, despite everything he had endured. A lot of times I blame myself for carrying him to HYDRA that day. I wish that I could have knocked myself out of the activation and run away with him, give him back to the family he had waiting for him in 1945. And yet if I hadn’t taken him back with me that day, if he hadn’t become a winter soldier too, then I wouldn’t have ever fallen in love with him. It was a hard line to stand on, especially because I can’t imagine my life without him now. No matter the way I felt about it I’ll always be grateful for James Buchanan Barnes.

And then there’s everyone else.

Steve, was my closest friend and so different from everything that Bucky had ever told me about him. I was always so surprised that he seemed to constantly have the right thing to say. Bucky tells me that that had to have been something that had been injected in him with the serum. I always laughed at him about that because there’s no way that was true, but to Bucky Steve would always be that punk from Brooklyn, no matter how long he had been Captain America.

Tony, had no right to ever forgive me and yet without sacrificing one ounce of his sarcasm and wit, he somehow saw past the things that I did and helped me. We weren’t that close but we were close enough in the ways that mattered, like when it came to him building my new arm and for him to help us escape HYDRA. He’s a good man, even if he would have you want to think differently.

Bruce...was Bruce, my oldest friend. He was the guy I talk science to and he knew way too many of my secrets; him and Ana got to talking apparently. Bruce had started out as part of a mission and now he was this guy who never judged me for the monster that I had had inside of me and he helped me take care of the one family member I had had before the Avengers. That meant the world to me.

Wanda and Clint were my first friends. They accepted me as I was and didn’t hesitate at all when it came to helping out Bucky and I. They talked to me when things were rough and explained things to me when I was confused. They taught me the common technology that I had never used before and I showed them some of the complicated technology that I knew. They treated me like one of them, and to be roped in with those two...I considered myself lucky.

T’Challa was so generous and I had no doubt that he got that from his father. I had been intertwined with his family for years but when T’Challa became King, I just knew that Wakanda was heading for something good. Not only had he taken care of Bucky and I in more ways than one but he was a good ruler and was a strong warrior for his people.

Everyone else, Natasha, Sam, Vision, Scott, and Rhodey, I wouldn’t be anywhere without them. I may not be the closest to the last of them but the Avengers wouldn’t be the Avengers without them.

So trying my hardest to not think about the people and the family I was leaving behind in New York tomorrow, Bucky and I curled up in our bed one last time and we fell asleep with dreams of our new life flashing behind our eyelids.

Let me know what you think here

PART TWENTY-THREE

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanficiton #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes series #bucky #bucky x reader #bucky fanfiction #bucky fanfic #bucky series #marvel #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #marvel series #just like you

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tonystarktogo · 6 years

Note

pssst, mob boss tony (possibly with a heart of gold?) and his bodyguards bucky and loki. Loki, the sneaky guy, and some people know about him lying and infiltrating. so how can bucky trust him? Maybe some enemies to friends to lovers for all 3 of them? :D and tony admiring his knife wielding badass beauties :D

It’s not easy, working for Tony Stark.

Used to be, you could just walk up to the last Stark, asking for a job. Or drink yourself into a stupor over your mountain of problems and stupid life choices in the same bar as him. Or have a violent breakup in the same restaurant. Or get kicked out of your home while he’s walking down the street. Or accidentally save his life. Or get caught trying to pickpocket him.

Really, there were any number of untold ways in which you could end up working for Tony Stark. And because of his weakness, because of his rumoured soft heart and endless generosity, the other Families didn’t take the lone heir seriously.

Not until those children he’d taken in, those kids he’d given a home and a chance, had grown up into dangerous, capable, fanatically loyal adults. Not until it was too late.

Used to be, you could just walz into Tony Stark’s life with a sob story and teary eyes. Then Stane happened, the ragtag group Stark had collected over time closed ranks around him, and suddenly everything changed.

Nowadays, with Barnes in charge of Stark’s security – and, supposedly, his bed – and Romanoff and Barton taking care of the trash, no one who hasn’t been thoroughly vetted so much as gets into the same room as Stark. Never mind in his business.

(Rumours have it, Stark’s got people in the FBI and military, doing background checks for him. There’s even mention of a couple of cops now and then, Detective Rogers especially, who are known to look the other way on occasion.)

Where Barnes came from, no one is quite sure, though there are certainly enough theories to make up for the lack of facts. What everyone’s learnt real fast – even the Families, who really aren’t known for learning new tricks – is that Barnes knows what he’s doing.

And that he doesn’t take bribes.

That was one hell of a bloody lesson.

The point is: infiltrating Stark’s organisation has gone from doable, not that anyone would bother to holy fuck if you wanna kill me do it already in just a few short months.

Loki is therefore entirely unsurprised to learn that his next mission consists of exactly that. Having been born second, the spare, to a strong, healthy heir Loki has grown up knowing his station well.

It’s only his talent at infiltration and getting his hands on valuable information that has so far protected him. To his father’s credit, if anyone can manage it, it’s probably Loki. And if not, well. A suicide mission has always been Odin’s favourite way of getting rid off needless risks.

In all honesty, Loki is surprised it’s taken him this long. Surprised – and suspicious.

After all, there is no more or less reason to hold on to the spare than there was a few months ago, when Odin refused to let Loki take a job no one came back from.

Something has changed. Something Loki isn’t privy to. That, more than anything else his family has ever done – and it’s a long list, no doubt about that, saints have no place in their world – tips the balance.

Loki accepts the job.

It’s both, easier and harder than he’d expected. It’s easier because Stark likes him. It’s harder because Barnes definitely doesn’t.

These two facts may be related, though Loki isn’t entirely sure how. He’s good at reading people, but Barnes is a blank page when he wants to be – which is always when Loki is around – and Stark, despite his open nature, presents a riddle in his own right.

The first time a private audience with Stark is denied, Loki is unsurprised. The thirty-eight time, it’s starting to get annoying. By the time his request finally goes through, Loki has a new appreciation for the obsessive dedication Barnes shows his boss.

He’s also well-aware that there’s a sniper rifle pointed at him during the entire conversation. Not that he’s stupid enough to attempt an assassination, but considering he’s a traitor he can’t fault Barnes for his caution.

“Well, I’m flattered you went through all this trouble to get some alone time with me,” Stark says with a wink.

There’s an answering smirk on Loki’s lips because it’s almost too easy to flirt with the man, but he’s here for business and Loki has waited too long for an opportunity like this to get distracted by a pretty face now. No matter how nice the rest of the package has proven to be.

“I’ve got information on the Ten Rings’ stronghold that I believe you will be interested in,” Loki says because best ensure he doesn’t end up prematurely dead simply because Stark doesn’t know he needs him alive yet.

As expected, the name freezes the teasing smile on Stark’s lips – a necessary evil for the conversation to come.

“Furthermore, while your security is impressive I’m aware of four guards that have been encouraged to report your movements. I have reason to believe that with the weakening of the Ten Rings, HYDRA is preparing to take over.”

Stark is staring at him with cool, assessing eyes. “You’re very well informed, Lucas.”

Loki’s lips curl. “It’s Loki, actually. I’m Odin’s second-born son.”

That goes over about as well as Loki expected it would. But since he’s still alive by the end, he figures he can’t complain too much. Besides Barnes is supremely unhappy with Stark forbidding him to kill Loki, which improves his mood quite a bit.

Barnes still doesn’t like him, but after the first few weeks he stops questioning Loki’s information outright. (Though Loki is confident the man keeps checking, waiting for Loki to mess up. Barnes is terrifyingly patient when he wants to be.)

It saves their lives when one of Loki’s sources tries to double-cross him – an incident that has the added benefit of earning Barnes’ trust. If Loki had known all it would take was jumping in front of a bullet meant for Stark, he’d have… probably not done that. He’s still not sure what momentary insanity caused him to act so recklessly.

After that, Barnes reluctantly tolerates him. Stark keeps flirting the way he’s always done. Loki keeps feeding them helpful tidbits he hears here and there.

All three man are waiting for their enemies to make the next move.

“I’ve got one last question,” Stark announces eventually. “Why tell me?”

Loki narrows his eyes, unhappy but unsurprised.

“Someone in my family wants me out of the way, Stark. Since I’m the second-born, I can only imagine the plans they have for Thor. I may not care about my blood, but he’s my brother and whoever is moving against him will live to regret it – though not for long.”

Stark dips his head in acknowledgement and for the first time Loki sees a glimmer of respect in the man’s eyes.

“I see.”

Four weeks go by before rumours of Loki’s true identity first reach Barnes’ ears. His gaze flickers towards the corner in Stark’s office, where Loki sits, calmly sharpening his knives, while he reports the news.

Loki straightens. Where there are rumours, there is a source, and Loki has no plans to allow the trail to go cold.

Both, Barnes and Stark watch him with sharp eyes as he slowly rises – and Loki doesn’t think he’s imagining the interest he reads in them, but there will be a time to address such things later on. For now, he’s got a job to do.

“Gentlemen, if you will excuse me,” Loki purrs, making no effort to hide the bloodthirstiness in his smile. “The hunt is calling.”

The smiles he gets in response are as beautiful as his daggers and just as deadly.

Let’s end it here before this post gets completely out of control. Hope you like it!!

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moondust-bard · 5 years

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Meet Phreya Vedaera

Phreya and her mother, Katryn Vedaera, reside only a brisk walk from a tiny farming village. Their shabby cottage sits alone atop a steep hill, a dense forest at its rear. Her mother’s eccentric demeanor discourages any who might dare trespass upon their land. Katryn Vedaera may even be a witch, if the whispers circulating the market are to be believed.

Disciplined and stubborn, Phreya is adamant she will someday join the ranks of the military. Or, if the Lord Conqueror's warriors fail to acknowledge her potential, she will petition to study amongst the capital's brightest scholars. Regardless of her mother’s frantically muttered warnings, Phreya longs for more than the monotonous routine of a farmer’s wife or weaver's daughter.

In every spare moment Phreya takes up her makeshift wooden sword and has a go about the back garden with it in hand. Swinging and ducking, parrying and feinting, Phreya imagines herself a true warrior in the center of some legendary battle. On gloomier days—of which there are many—Phreya curls up by the large window in the main room of their cottage, a secondhand book nestled in her lap, the clatter of her mother’s loom and the pouring rain the most soothing of rhythms.

When the sun inevitably reappears Phreya is forced to rise and attend to her chores. Among them is the task of tending the fowl who roost in the dilapidated barn adjacent to the cottage. The geese, in particular, test young Phreya’s patience. After every visit to that barn she returns to the cottage stomping mad and covered in feathers.

At the age of six her mother gave her the duty of caring for the chickens and geese. Barely big enough to haul the feed bags by herself, Phreya stumbled into the barn and tossed her load onto the hay-strewn earth and right onto a goose’s webbed foot. With a great screech of indignation, the peevish goose proceeded to chase poor Phreya around the barn, mercilessly pecking at her bare feet and any other place it could reach. Never one to step down from a brawl, Phreya decided enough was enough; she charged the goose. Surprised and battered, the goose came away with a lot fewer feathers and a justified distrust of little girls. This war between Phreya and the geese is still ongoing. Feeding the animals is her least favorite chore to complete, and matters were only made worse after Phreya’s giggling mother bestowed upon her only child the nickname “goose girl”.

Unlike many of the other village girls, romance and marriage never figured into Phreya's plans. Neither did the company of others, for that matter. She would much rather sit in silence with her mother at work on her loom, and Phreya with her mind somewhere else entirely. Phreya maintains that the greatest—and only—gift her mother ever gave her was the ability to read. Without such a skill, Phreya would know nothing of history, or culture, or philosophy. Most of the village’s inhabitants are unable to so much as spell their own names, let alone read as voraciously as Phreya. Luckily for her, a few traveling merchants agreed to trade the odd book or two for one of Katryn Vedaera’s ornate tapestries. Every spare crevice of their cottage is cluttered with books. Cupboards, vacant corners, and even the old cooking pot held stacks and stacks of well-loved books.

#meet my ocs #my ocs #oc info #oc introduction #LostSoulsNightWIP

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senakim22-blog · 4 years

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k2kid · 4 years

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On January 24, 1916 a man from Hastings, Ontario enlisted with the 93rd Battalion, so beginning his military career.

We have one postcard and three letters from his overseas service, and they give us the opportunity to look a bit deeper into the war experience of Private John Edward Parker (reg. no. 195573).[i] Private Parker was a native of England, being born in the Lincoln, England region on August 10, 1889.

Having joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force with the 93rd Battalion Parker was sent to England with his battalion in July 1916 and sent a brief postcard to his mother upon his arrival in England.

Source: Deryck N. Robertson from the 18th Battalion Facebook Group.

July 24, 1915

Mrs J Parker Hastings Ontario Canada

Dear Mother,

Just a few lines hoping to find all well and to le you know that we landed cross safe. From J Parker

The short card, written one day prior to the R.M.S. Empress of Britain’s arrival at Liverpool, was a quick note to his mother letting her know he has arrived safely. It appears he wrote this card in preparation of landing in England with the realization he may not having time to write for some time as the battalion would be on the move to its training base and would begin the next stage of training in preparation for service on the Continent with the rest of the Canadian Corps.

Parker would soon find, in a space of 2-months, that he would be placed in a battalion that was not from his geographic region. Instead of a battalion from his region, such as the 21st Battalion – a battalion raised in Kingston, Ontario – Parker was assigned to the 18th Battalion, based out of Western/Southern Ontario. Arriving October 3, 1916, Parker would fight with the battalion until his second wounding on October 10, 1918.

The next communication from Private Parker is a letter written on February 28, 1917.

Source: Deryck N. Robertson from the 18th Battalion Facebook Group.

Feb 28th 1917

Dear Sisters,

Received your letter and pleased to hear that you were all well. I have not had a chance to answer it last week as we were in the line.

We are having some better weather now not quite so cold but mud and water up to the knees so you can imagine what it is like to walk through.

We are on a different part of the front now and we cannot buy a candle or any thing to eat either love nor money but we are making the best of it but we will be pleased when we can say we have done our bit and on our way home to a country that is worth living in, not a country like this.

We received the parcel with [the tabbles] and the sausages it was the first one for a long time. We are not getting very much mail for the last few weeks. We got a small parcel from Mrs. Markham last night and I tell you it came in alright but it did not last us very long. Well I don’t think have any more to tell you so I think I must come to a close. Hoping this will find you all in the best of health as it leaves us so at present so will close with love to all from your brother.

Pte. J E Parker

Parker had been in the field for five months. He joined the Battalion at the Somme and experienced some of the toughest action the 18th would endure. After the Somme, the Canadian Corps was moved to the Vimy Sector at the end of February 1917. The Battalion had moved out of the front-line on the 26th into the rear as Brigade Support and Private Parker had a chance to write home from his billet at one of three “shelters” (named Vistual, Rhine, Maison).

The letter aligns with the 18th Battalion War diary as it had been in the line prior to the letter. It had been a busy tour with the Battalion finding the trenches, “…in poor condition in several parts… This sector in very muddy condition necessitating continual work by the battalion to keep in repair.[ii] The tour in the lines was not without tragedy as the Battalion suffered two members killed in action and four wounded. It also relates the state of the trenches as Parker shares that the trenches had, “…mud and water up to the knees…”

He gives us insight to the nature of the rear area being isolated from larger population centers offering more opportunity to purchase supplies as the Battalion is based in a rural area, approximately 8 kilometres from Arras. He and his mates cannot acquire some of the comforts of home and the basic necessities, with candles being in high demand as the Battalion is stationed in three of the sub-terranean “subways” used by the CEF to shelter and hide troops from the German reconnaissance resources. Private Parker obviously prefers Canada to this part of France.

In closing, he relates how important a parcel from home was for him and one gets a sense of the value of such mail as Mrs. Markham’s “small parcel” did not last him and his compatriots very long. It was quite common for soldiers to share the contents of their parcels and add variety and interest to their diet from the contents of such parcels.

The next letter, dated December 22, 1917, is written after the battles at Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Passchendaele. Since the last letter, Private Parker’s service life has been eventful, being wounded on May 6, 1917, at Willeraval. On the night of May 5/6 the Battalion made a relief, “…under very heavy shellfire,” perhaps which led to Private Parker being wounded in the right arm. A month later he was discharged to duty with his Battalion. The nature of his wound was treated in the rear areas and did not require formal hospitalization at Etaples, France or over in England. Parker was promoted to the rank of Lance-Corporal on July 10, 1917, in response to the promotion of another soldier of the Battalion (C.W. Boyd, reg. no. 455590). It appears that complications from his GSW would lead to Parker suffering inflammation of the connective tissues of his right-hand. Five days of treatment off the line at the end of July 1917 resulted in the return of the newly minted Lance-Corporal Parker to the Battalion.

Source: Deryck N. Robertson from the 18th Battalion Facebook Group.

22/12/17 France

Some Where in France

Dear Sister,

Received your letter pleased to know that you were at the time of your writing. How do you like been in Peterboro[iii]? Is it better than Norwood? You said that you told Gertie to write. I had a letter from her yesterday. I have had leave to England and had a fine time. I hear that Roy Parker has been trying to get an exemption so that he will not have to come over here. Well Annie it will soon be Christmas and we look like been over here for a while yet. I hope this is the last Christmas for us in France. Hope we will be home before the next one. I supposes Lilian is living with you by what I heard from them at home. Well we are having some very sharp weather over here. I suppose you are having about the same over in Canada. [Ivey] said in her letter that she was going to live in Peterboro after Christmas. I don’t think that they will get along together. Her and Becky. Well I will close hoping this mite [sic] find you both in the best of health as it leaves me so at present [no I write run at] up with best love to both from your brother John.

2nd Can Div Wing CCRC[iv] France

There appears to be some confusion about where this letter was written. Taking the service records as a true representation of this soldier’s service from its entries for Parker he should still be with his battalion and this letter would then have been written at Febvin-Palfart where the Battalion was billeted in barns and homes in that community.[v] The Battalion had been out of the line for since December 13, 1917, and had been involved in voting in the Canadian General Elections on December 14 and then a series of parades and exercises until their move to Febvin-Palfart, where they became more serious about the training in the daily syllabi. But the closing of the letter clearly shows that Parker is detached from the Battalion and with the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp.[vi] This discrepancy between the date of the letter and the acknowledgement in his service record of his attachment with the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp was 2-months. His service record did not acknowledge his service with this unit until February 2, 1918.

This letter relates family gossip. We know that he is writing a sister by the name of Annie and she has moved from the village of Norwood[vii] to the town of Peterborough. Parker had a leave in England, though his service records do not, oddly, reflect this. He has concern for a possible member of his family, a Roy Parker, trying to get an exemption from the military. This part of the letter is illuminating as the recent election had conscription for the war effort as a major issue and the majority of serving soldiers agreed with this program. If Roy was a family member, then Lance-Corporal Parker, as a serving soldier, might have reason to be disappointed in his relative.

As he was writing so close to Christmas, he expresses a common sentiment about being ‘home for Christmas’, which would be an oft-expressed sentiment of the men of the Canadian Corps throughout the war. He would have to suffer one more Christmas overseas before going home.

Having participated in the Battles at Hill 70 and Passchendaele, he was on the roll of the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp at Lilliers, France on February 2, 1918. It is unknown what his role was there, but one of the roles that Parker could fill, especially with his combat experience, was that of a credible trainer of technology and tactics. In addition, as this camp established reinforcements for each battalion he would be a conduit helping to prepare and familiarize these new men to the culture of the “Fighting 18th”. He had valuable combat experience after 1-year and 3-months of active service through some of the hardest battles the Canadian Corps had experienced, and adding to his credibility, had been promoted in the field. This assignment lasted until August 29, 1918, when he was despatched back to the 18th Battalion.

Attachment of service record. Note that it does not show the date Parker left for the CCRC but does not that he in on the roll as of February 2, 1918.

The third, and last letter of the article, confirms that Parker was stationed at the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp prior to his service record’s entry to that fact. The entry for February 2, 1918, acknowledges that he is “on the roll” of the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp but does not note a date of departure from the 18th Battalion to the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp.

Source: Deryck N. Robertson from the 18th Battalion Facebook Group.

6/1/18 France

Dear Sisters,

Received your welcome letter and please to hear that you were well at the time of your writing. I had a letter from Fanny and she said that she was not feeling well she had an awful cold by what she said. She said she was lonely when I left but she had got over it she is expecting Earnest [sic] home on leave any time now. I received your parcel alright and [it] was ok and now I must thank you for it.

We are having some very sharp weather over here but not very much snow. It seems to be turning a little milder today. You said about R P[viii] not wanting to come over here to help as he must have cold feet or he would been over here a long time ago. I had a fine letter from E sister the other day, and she said she was well and hoped that I would soon being going on leave again. Well I have no news to tell you only that I wish the war was over and we could be back again to home. Well I will close hoping this will find you both in the best of health as it leaved me so at present. Will close with love to both from your brother J E P.

18TH Canadians BTN CCRC Wing France

In the new year, Lance-Corporal Parker writes his sisters a quick letter. He thanks them for a parcel sent to him and relates some family news about an ill relative and his hopes for another leave and the war to end. He refers to an “R P” having “cold feet” regarding his enlistment into the Canadian Forces. It is a brief letter that touches on some of the most common themes in wartime letters: leave, parcels, and a wish the war would end.

For Lance-Corporal John Edward Parker, the war would end. But only after returning to the 18th Battalion as The Hundred Days began during which he joined the Battalion “in the field” on September 3, 1918, at Beaurains, France while the Battalion was in Brigade (H.Q.) Reserve. Upon joining his Battalion Parker served until he was wounded again on October 10, 1918, during action near the L’Escaut Canal. That day’s butcher bill resulted in the Battalion suffering 6 other ranks killed and 70 wounded. Lance-Corporal Parker was one of those wounded with a GSW to his left leg (thigh) and he was admitted to No. 32 Stationary Hospital at Wimereux where his journey to “Blighty” and home would begin. His wound would heal relatively quickly, and he was transferred to Kinmel Park Camp and then returned to Canada and was discharged from service at Kingston, Ontario on February 10, 1919, and returned to Norwood and his family.

Lance-Corporal Parker’s experience in the Canadian Army resulted in being wounded twice, the first a minor “flesh” wound and the second more serious wounding that resulted in his transfer to England. By October 1918 the end was in sight for the war and the tempo of combat had increased. The last action Parker was involved in contrasted with this first wounding. There he was involved in static trench warfare. In 1918 the nature of the war had opened up and the combat was more fluid and dynamic. His letters home enhance our understanding of his service and, to this author’s experience, shows one of the few examples where the diligent record-keeping of the service records of a Canadian soldier had a gap when Parker’s service record did not accurately record the start of his assignment with the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp.

Sources:

Service Record

18th Battalion War Diary Transcriptions

Letters posted at the 18th Battalion Facebook Group

End Notes:

[i] These letters were posted at the 18th Battalion Facebook Group. The images of the letters are at the end of this article and have been transcribed by this author for clarity. This is to assist the audience with reading the letters but to get a true feel of the text please refer to and read the images.

[ii] This entry is an interesting aside and may indicate frustration in the maintenance of the line by the proceeding unit though the War Diary does not indicate what troops held these trenches before the 4th Brigade took them over. It appears that the 5th Canadian Brigade was the unit relieved by the 4th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

[iii] Common spelling for the now City of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

[iv] Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp. This camp was established to channel soldiers for the Canadian Base Depot (CBD) at Etaples to the next stage of training and preparation for combat. From the CBD to the CCRC the soldiers would be moved closer to the front line. In the summer of 1917, the CCRC would hold for each battalion 100 reinforcements. These men would be further trained and prepared for the next assignment with an active unit. 10% of all other units (i.e. engineers, pioneers) would be held as reinforcements at this camp. The camp was moved in June 1918 to Aubin St. Vaast and the establishment of each battalion for reinforcements was increased to 200 other ranks and 10 officers.

[v] Mostly likely the officers were billeted in the homes, and the other ranks in the barns.

[vi] The Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp was first established at Lilliers in the Summer of 1917 and then moved in June 1918 to Aubin St. Vaast.

[vii] It appears that the family moved from Hastings to Norwood, Ontario sometime after Parker joined the 93rd Battalion. He notes in his discharge papers that his proposed residence will be at Norwood.

[viii] Possibly referring to Roy Parker from the previous letter, dated December 22, 1917.

“…we cannot buy a candle or any thing to eat…”: Letters from Lance-Corporal Parker On January 24, 1916 a man from Hastings, Ontario enlisted with the 93rd Battalion, so beginning his military career.

#93rd Battalion #Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp #Empress of Britain #Hastings Ontario #Kingston Ontario #letter home #Norwood Ontario #Passchendaele #Peterborough Ontario #service record #Somme #Vimy #wounded

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Who is John Walker, the US Agent?

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John Walker, the US Agent will be one of the antagonists of Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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When The Falcon and The Winter Soldier starts up on Disney+ next year, one of its main antagonists will be the returning Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo. At D23, it’s been announced that there will be another major antagonist in the form of John Walker, as played by Wyatt Russell. Walker is a B-lister-at-best to Marvel and it makes sense that this would be the project that would formally introduce him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While there have been various people to take up the mantle of Captain America outside of Steve Rogers, there are only five who truly matter. Isaiah Bradley was the prototype for Captain America as revealed in the excellent Truth: Red, White, and Black. William Burnside became Captain America in the 1950s in response to Rogers’ disappearance after World War II. John Walker became the new Captain America after Steve Rogers was dismissed from the role. Bucky Barnes took over as Cap when Rogers temporarily died. Then Sam Wilson became Cap when Rogers (living again) lost his super soldier powers and became physically elderly.

While Bradley and Burnside have potential to show up in the future (though they’d have to get a good Chris Evans double for Burnside, if not Evans himself), John Walker is the perfect wrench to throw into a story about Sam Wilson wielding the shield.

So who is John Walker, the Captain America of the 80s?

Walker was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary, debuting in the pages of Captain America #323 in 1986. In his original appearances, he played the role of Super-Patriot, a glory-hound loud-mouth vigilante backed up by his own propaganda machine. He’d spend much of his time giving speeches about how Captain America was old news, falsely portraying him as a gun-toting psychopath, and he’d even stage fights with goons in Captain America masks called “The Buckies.”

Though respecting the First Amendment and all that, Captain America obviously didn’t like this. Walker, who was driven by fascism, couldn’t leave well enough alone and instigated a fight with Cap. It went on for a while and Walker considered himself the winner because he...threw a shuriken into Cap’s chainmail.

Yeah, I don’t get it either.

A few issues later, Rogers had issues with the US government. The two parties disagreed on the status of the Captain America identity and the United States’ ownership. Deciding that he answered to the dream and not the suits behind the desks, Rogers gave up being Captain America, choosing instead to fight crime as Nomad and later The Captain. Tony Stark even made him a new shield!

The high-ranking government types discussed who would make for the best replacement. Fittingly enough, one even suggested that Sam Wilson would be a perfect candidate...but the public wasn’t ready for a black Captain America. They instead went with Walker, because jerk or not, he was still pretty damn good at punching terrorists in the face.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Walker was taken aback, especially considering he made had made a name for himself specifically by telling everyone how much Cap sucked. He ended up agreeing to the terms, mainly since he would do just about anything the government tells him to. It was there that we also got to learn his origin.

Walker was the younger brother of a soldier who died in Vietnam and was celebrated as a real hero. Idolizing his brother, but stuck in his shadow, Walker decided to prove himself by joining the military. While he was active, the US wasn’t involved in any wars, so his attempts for glory and acknowledgement were empty gestures. He ended up getting powers from the Power Broker, a pro-wrestling promoter who was the lazy way out whenever a writer in the '80s needed to give someone special abilities without revealing that they were actually a mutant. Walker never entered the squared circle, as he instead got himself an agent and a dream to be America’s #1 patriotic hero.

Then again, he did stage pre-determined fights with the Buckies to get him more cheers from the public, so I guess he's more pro-wrestling than I originally thought.

After Taskmaster trained Walker to sling a shield like an expert, the new Captain America started kicking ass in the name of ‘Murica. For roughly two years, Walker played the role, where he was portrayed as a violent psychopath dressed in the flag. He wasn’t quite Frank Castle level of bonkers, but he had no problem tying his villains to explosives and leaving them to die.

Over the course of his run, he started to chill out a bit, question authority a little, and the narrative made sure to make him sympathetic. For instance, he got doxxed and his parents were murdered because of it. Then he wasn’t even allowed to see their funeral because duty calls.

In the end, it turns out the big puppetmaster of everything was the Red Skull. Walker and Rogers teamed up against him and took him down. Then everyone decided to go back to the status quo with Rogers as Cap.

Walker was lucky, though. You see, the 90s were on their way and there was no better haven for an edgier copycat of an existing hero. It was a time when Iron Man was flying around with a giant gattling gun on his shoulder, Spider-Man’s alien double was eating the brains of drug dealers, a Thor knockoff was embarrassing all of us with a leather jacket and ponytail, a new Batman had a hideous costume covered in razors, and so on. Rather than go back to being Super-Patriot, Walker dressed in a black version of the Captain America outfit, got a shield of his own, and fought crime as US Agent.

Even though the two were never really shown to be close friends, Captain America and US Agent co-existed as politically-opposite counterparts with a mutual respect (usually). US Agent received a couple miniseries to his name, but never got a full-on solo series.

Instead, he spent the next few decades jumping from team to team. As part of the West Coast Avengers and later Forceworks (oof, the '90s), he often played opposite Hawkeye. Hawkeye initially was the Avenger who was a stubborn asshole to nice guy Captain America, so now he had to deal with a version of Captain America who was actually a stubborn asshole. US Agent later led the Jury, a team of armored soldiers who were originally put together as a revenge pact against Venom, then just kind of stopped fighting him after two stories.

For real, though, it's kind of amazing how nobody cares about the Jury and yet they still show up from time to time.

Speaking of teams nobody cares about, US Agent was also part of Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad (STARS) and one of the modern incarnations of the Invaders. He became the American liaison to Omega Flight (which he hated, because they’re filthy Canadians). This led to him joining Hank Pym’s Mighty Avengers during the whole Dark Reign thing. Funny enough, Walker was a big supporter of Norman Osborn being in charge of the superhero wing of the government for a time. Of course he was.

read more: Marvel Pulls Essay Over Political Fears

This came to a head in a Siege tie-in where the Mighty Avengers fought Osborn’s Thunderbolts and we got US Agent vs. Nuke. It was the battle of the I-can-see-where-you're-coming-from right wing patriotic super soldier and the crazy-email-that-your-uncle-sent-you right wing patriotic super soldier. The Mighty Avengers won, but US Agent took some horrible damage from the fight, losing an arm and a leg in the process.

No longer wearing the tights, US Agent became Warden Walker as part of the Thunderbolts. He remained in a wheelchair as he didn’t want to use cybernetic attachments to augment his body and be one step closer to becoming like Nuke, the unfortunate super soldier knockoff who first appeared in Daredevil: Born Again. The comic was bloated with characters, so his panel-time was limited, but Walker at least got a rad moment when he took care of a prison riot on his own, Bad Day at Black Rock style.

It’s the guy meekly bringing over the wheelchair that gets me.

Thunderbolts became Dark Avengers and US Agent was briefly sucked into an alternate reality where the heroes of NYC were at war with each other. Using a lobotomized Venom symbiote, the creature was used to replace the missing pieces of Walker’s body, making him whole again. Team member Toxie Doxie had US Agent under her control, but that was a series-ending cliffhanger that was never touched on ever again.

After that, US Agent has been just kind of kicking around Marvel, showing up whenever someone needs a cranky guy who can still kick some ass. Fittingly, one of his last appearances was him going after Sam Wilson Captain America, but that ties into Civil War II and Secret Empire bullshit and I really don’t want to have to discuss those events.

Outside of comics, the biggest appearance for US Agent was the Capcom tag-team fighter Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. He was a secret character and really just a recolored Captain America to the point that they didn’t even make his outfit accurate. Still better than how the game turned Blackheart red and called him "Mephisto." US Agent would reappear in Marvel vs. Capcom as an assist character and would be an alternate costume for Cap in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

read more: The Legacy of Marvel vs. Capcom

As a newcomer to the MCU, Walker is going to be a real wild card. He could be anywhere from a full-on villain to an eventual member of the Avengers. The most likely scenario, at least at first, is that the government isn't going to be thrilled with the idea that Steve Rogers bequeathed the Captain America legacy to Sam Wilson without checking in with them first, and Walker is probably their preferred candidate. I can’t wait to see what Wyatt Russell has to offer.

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and wonders how long until Forceworks shows up in the MCU. Don’t say they won’t because we’re getting the goddamn Eternals! Nothing is impossible! Read more of his articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Books

Gavin Jasper

Aug 24, 2019

Marvel

Captain America

Disney+

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

from Books https://ift.tt/2KTufay

#aion-rsa #Books

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bleedingcoffee42 · 7 years

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Absent- Part 3

Part 1 and Part 2

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Riza's first stop was the personnel department. She went about her business with authority and nobody questioned her even though she could see them thinking about it. She filled out the necessary forms for more forms which was in no way a security risk and would send the receptionist to the supply closet to fetch them. It would allow the young woman to avoid asking the scary Lieutenant by who's authority she was asking for information, which was surely a relief for them both. However while she waited she had every intention to slip behind the desk, check the directory to see who was working in East HQ and also check the file cabinet for a file on herself which would list her clearances. That would tell her if she worked here at all. Then it was on to the library to see what she could learn in a few hours.

Unfortunately, great plans rarely saw execution on the field of battle. No sooner did the receptionist disappear than the door opened and Rebecca Catalina entered with a stack of folders under her arm and looked right past her to see if the office was staffed or not. For Roy to not recognize her was one thing, for her best friend who she shared the rest of her private thoughts was another. For Rebecca to not even acknowledge her confirmed her fears: she simply did not exist in their lives. Rebecca would have at least recognized her from the academy, she never forgot a face, which meant that she never went to the academy.

Rebecca slapped the folders on the counter and looked to the supply closet door and raised her voice to be heard. “Marcy, can you take these so I can get to the range while Grumman is in a meeting?”

So her grandfather was still in command here. Rebecca worked for him. Roy was here with the Elrics but wasn't the flame alchemist he was....something else. She was not in any of their lives. The information she was searching for was acquired and she no longer needed to sneak around to find it. “I need to be getting back to work as well. Can I come pick up those forms later?”

Marcy came out of the supply closet relived. “That would be great Lieutenant.”

Riza turned to leave and Rebecca gave her a smile of gratitude, but without anything else behind it. Just a simple smile thanking a stranger for making her workday a little easier. As she moved Hayate moved with her and Rebecca couldn't help but notice.

“Bring your dog to work day?”

“He's in training to be a service dog.” Riza explained. With that she left the office and decided to leave HQ and head to the library. She felt around in her pocket for change as she was going to have to make a call on the way. The fact that she wasn't in Roy's life made sense when he apprenticed with Van Hohenheim. Not knowing Rebecca meant she was not in her class at the academy. She needed to call her home town and see if she still lived there, the postmaster would know if there was still someone at the old Hawkeye place or where he forwarded mail to. She'd get answers as to her own moves from the paper trail at the post office, however she already knew one thing and that was she didn't join the military.

It made sense. Roy had been her main reason for going to the academy, he had inspired her to take that direction. Roy with his noble intentions and selfless proclamations had made her see a purpose in life that would make use of her skills and teach her a profession. She saw him as someone worth protecting and the life she lived worth forgetting. She could start over and never look back. However without Roy to show her that, without him planting that seed in her mind she wouldn't have considered herself army material. She would have only had her father's opinion on the military and that was overwhelmingly negative.

The other prevailing fact was that if Roy wasn't in her life than there was nobody to trust with what she had tattooed on her back unless her father found another apprentice. Even then he had denied so many and she saw so few alchemists with Roy's integrity and intelligence, she doubted that was the case. You simply did not find alchemists of Roy, Ed and Al's caliber often.... if at all. So the tattoo...was still hidden. She knew the weight of this burden, how she has to always think about hiding that tattoo, and if there was nobody she felt safe giving it to than she was probably still hiding from the world at home. Without a motivation to leave, without someone to share this secret with she was still Berthold Hawkeye's daughter and not the Riza Hawkeye she allowed herself to become.

All this time she faulted herself for what she had done to Roy with this secret and never considered what he had done for her along the way. Equivalent exchange. Friendship. Loyalty. Trust. Encouragement. Purpose. Love. All came with a price, but what of value was gained without losing something? They lost their innocence and naivety in the war, they gained a better view on the truth and a drive to change the wrongs of this country. Without that pain, without that horror....they would have never embarked on this road.

She left the building and caught sight of Roy getting in his car with Ed and Al teasing and laughing beside him. He was a different man, not burdened by the past that tarnished his belief in alchemy, not the weapon of destruction that made him question himself so much. He was lighter, more like the boy she knew back in their youth, able to enjoy the day and actually interact with the boys instead of push them away. As he got in the car and drove off, she was assured it was still Roy Mustang because he made a U-turn in the middle of the road and ran over a trash can on the sidewalk before squealing tires and taking off.

She wondered if he ever saw war. If his alchemy was, by his admittance, barely enough to stay certified than he would not have been sent to the front. He was still brilliant and observant and friends with Maes, that could have lead him to question a lot. She had to remember it wasn't just the war or Ed's findings that lead them down this path, there were many signs that things were not as they seemed. Towns they visited that resented the military for good reason. Places, like Liore, where the only way you could not see the problems was to not look at it. He could have been suspicious of her just because she walked into his office and he never saw her before in his life! There was more to it though, more to just politics and ordinary military back-stabbing. She saw that in his eyes and she knew when he was trying to read a person.

Riza and Hayate made their way down the street and found a telephone booth they could use to call the town she grew up in. Hayate came in the booth before she closed the door and started sniffing the ground and checking out the smells. She couldn't help but wonder what happened to him in this alternative reality. Did he find a home? Roy wouldn't have taken him, he was more than aware of his lack of time no matter what his rank, and nobody in the office wanted him. She was honestly just happy she had him with her and wasn't alone. She picked up the phone and called the operator.

“Operator! How can I help you today?”

“I would like to make a call to the post office in Frenau, East City Region.” Riza replied and took the coins out of her pocket. The coin on top was the odd one from the warehouse yard, the one that started this mess. Or so she hoped.

“Please hold.”

Now that she had time to look at it she wondered what kind of metal it was made of. It looked like it had a reddish tint, maybe copper or a red brass. The edges were weathered and worn. Ed and Roy had reacted first to the writing which meant that it was the most bizarre detail of the coin and not the circle. She wanted to blame this coin but the fact of the matter was that she was not an alchemist and could not activate it, so how could it possibly be at fault for this alteration in her reality?

“That will be 100 Cenz, ma'am. Please deposit the money and I will connect your call.”

Riza put the coin away to make sure it stayed safe and then put her change in the phone to pay for her call.

“Thank you, please hold.”

She hoped that she would find out that this version of her had struck out on her own and made a life for herself, however she knew all too well how oppressing it was to live in that house with her father. She was independent and far from helpless, but she was also happy alone and was never far from accepting the recluse life that her father resigned himself to. She really had no reason to want more or have a reason to trust anyone.

“Frenau Post Office, how can I help you?”

“Hello, I cam calling from Eastern HQ and I am trying to track down an alchemist named Berthold Hawkeye? Can you tell me if he is a resident of your town before I make the trip out to see him?” Riza asked. She knew her father had to be dead by now, but sometimes indirect questioning provided the best results. People felt obligated to give you something after delivering bad news but were somewhat suspicious when asked directly for what you wanted.

“Oh I'm sorry ma'am, Mr. Hawkeye died a few years ago.”

She stayed silent and made sure to make a loud, audible sigh.

“However his daughter did remain in his house until it burnt down a few years later. She's living in the old barn now, fixed it up and comes into town for supplies if you want me to pass on a message to have her call you? She does mail a lot of books. I think she's selling off the old man's collection through the mail through a used book seller in East City. Smart girl that Miss Hawkeye, I'm sure if there is something alchemy related she could answer it for you.”

Riza had to admit it made sense. Stay home, sell off his precious collection that he valued more than her or basic human needs and then move into the loft of the barn where she felt the safest and the most at home. She could remain detached by using a book store as a middle man, keeping alchemists from coming to look for the flame alchemist's research while also giving her the needed income to invest in the farm and provide for herself. However there was the implication of more. “Is she an alchemist?”

“Yes, actually.” The postmaster said proudly. “Helps a lot of people around here, barters since money is tight for everyone. What we all hoped her father would be when he moved here and we're glad Riza turned out to be that kind of alchemist. For the people, you know? In a town like ours, it really helps a lot.”

“Thank you sir, you have been a great help.” She hung up before he could ask if she wanted to leave a message. She was reeling from the information. She wasn't expecting that. An alchemist? Her? Sure she had wanted to try but she never had time to spare for studies and she could never wanted to attract her father's attention. To ask him to teach her alchemy would have been more traumatizing than allowing him to brand her with his secrets. She fear him, and knowing how critical and difficult he was when Roy was studying under him made her wonder how she ever survived being his student. She never had the inclination to study because inviting her father's disapproval would have made her life more miserable. Studying on her own...was not a viable option. She had too much work to do.

So how did the absence of Roy in her life at all send her down this path?

This was her life and she couldn't comprehend the turn it had taken. She couldn't understand how this version of her could succeed in the situation she was placed in. Roy coming into her life had given her a connection to another human being that she lost when her mother died and her father was incapable of. Roy encouraged her to stop hiding herself from everyone, he made her smile and realize there was a world for her out there when she could finally leave her father's house. He pushed her father's paranoia back into the shadows and assured her there were good people in this world. Roy leaving after his apprenticeship had been the catalyst for so much. She wasn't afraid of being herself anymore, she didn't feel like she wasn't wanted or appreciated, she was actually looking forward to what life might hold. It wasn't all about worrying about the bills or the harvest, she made time for herself and it made her feel worth something. However...Roy had been hope for both of the Hawkeyes and if there had been no Roy than her father was without a promising alchemist to pass his legacy on to.

And it suddenly made sense. She hadn't chosen to be an alchemist, she was not given a choice. Without a youthful and mold-able talent at his doorstep, her father had turned to his only other option: his daughter. Just like he did before, but instead of using her as a notebook he used her as the student that he couldn't find.

Riza was suddenly overwhelmed with the thought of that, how terrified she must have been of the prospect of having to learn alchemy under those conditions. With her father failure was not an option, nor was approval and encouragement. After years of ignoring her he suddenly would have found a reason to take pride in her and that would only mean holding her to a higher standard than anyone else because she was his child. A standard that was already impossibly high.

The only good thing would be that maybe she avoided being scarred by this tattoo, although in true sense of equivalent exchange, would have still been scarred by the process of learning her father's alchemy. She tried to help the people of her town, but remained far from human contact on the property where she spent her life. That told her everything because she understood the rationale better than anyone. Alone by choice, alone because her father would have drummed into her how dangerous his alchemy was and how she was entirely responsible for how she used it.

She went from trusting Roy to trusting no one. She doubted very much that the house burning down was accidental, because destroying it was no different than destroying the tattoo with the flames that were born of it. The fear of discovery was a burden that weighed too much and she would be rid of it no matter how much pain it caused.

There still was a Flame Alchemist, it just wasn't Roy Mustang.

#fic #absent #royai

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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The President's lawyers are currently arguing in a separate case in New York, that he can't be investigated, indicted or tried for any crime, either federal or state. Doesn't that turn the argument that the impeachment must cite a specific crime into utter nonsense?

TRUMP’S LAWYERS, SENATE GOP ALLIES WORK PRIVATELY TO ENSURE BOLTON DOES NOT TESTIFY PUBLICLY

By Robert Costa and Rachael Bade | Published January 20 at 6:15 PM EST |

Washington Post | Posted Jan 20, 2020

President Trump’s legal defense team and Senate GOP allies are quietly gaming out contingency plans should Democrats win enough votes to force witnesses to testify in the impeachment trial, including an effort to keep former national security adviser John Bolton from the spotlight, according to multiple officials familiar with the discussions.

While Republicans continue to express confidence that Democrats will fail to persuade four GOP lawmakers to break ranks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has opposed calling any witnesses in the trial, they are readying a Plan B just in case — underscoring how uncertain they are about prevailing in a showdown over witnesses and Bolton’s possible testimony.

One option being discussed, according to a senior administration official, would be to move Bolton’s testimony to a classified setting because of national security concerns, ensuring that it is not public.

To receive the testimony in a classified session, Trump’s attorneys would have to request such a step, according to one official, adding that it would probably need the approval of 51 senators.

But that proposal, discussed among some Senate Republicans in recent days, is seen as a final tool against Bolton becoming an explosive figure in the trial. First, Republicans involved in the discussions said, would come a fierce battle in the courts.

Trump’s trial begins in earnest Tuesday on the two impeachment charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. They center on the allegation that Trump withheld military aid and a White House meeting to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including former vice president and 2020 candidate Joe Biden. The Trump administration stonewalled the House impeachment probe, denying witnesses and documents.

In an organizing resolution released Monday and authored by McConnell and his team, the rules would allow either the president’s defense team or the House impeachment managers to subpoena witnesses if the Senate agrees, but any witnesses would first have to be deposed. “No testimony shall be admissible in the Senate unless the parties have had an opportunity to depose such witnesses,” the resolution says.

Blocking witnesses such as Bolton — or shielding the testimony from view — could carry political risks for Republicans. Bolton has said he would testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.

“Democrats will ask, ‘Don’t the American people deserve to know the truth?’ ” said William A. Galston, a senior fellow in governance at the Brookings Institution. “On the other hand, they may well calculate that public testimony would create uncertainties that they’re willing to go to considerable lengths to avoid.”

Trump has said he would assert executive privilege if Bolton were called to testify, telling Fox News’s Laura Ingraham last week, “I think you have to for the sake of the office.”

And the White House has indicated in conversations with Republican lawmakers that it could appeal to federal courts for an injunction that would stop Bolton if he refuses to go along with their instructions, according to a senior administration official, who, like others interviewed for this article, was not authorized to speak publicly and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Multiple Senate Republicans and White House officials cautioned that the strategy was not finalized and discussions were preliminary, particularly since Bolton and others might not even be called in the coming weeks if 51 senators are unable to finalize an agreement on witnesses. And so far, talks among Republicans and Democrats have stalled as they battle over who should be called.

Still, the GOP discussions are a tacit acknowledgment that even Trump’s team and political allies are finding it difficult to predict how the Senate trial will unfold, despite Republicans rallying around the president and pushing to acquit him in a speedy two-week period.

The White House argued in a legal brief filed Monday that Trump was not obstructing “when he rightly decided to defend established executive branch confidentiality interests, rooted in the separation of powers, against unauthorized efforts to rummage through executive branch files and to demand testimony from some of the president’s closest advisers.”

The deliberations also suggest that some in the president’s circle are uneasy about what Bolton might say. While some refuse to view him as a political threat and cast him as a conservative operative who wants a future in a Trump-dominated Republican Party, others predict that he could upend the president’s fourth year in office with his testimony, since he is known as a lawyer with a sharp memory for meetings and policy.

“Is this guy who’s cheering on the president’s foreign policy right now really going to break?” asked one Trump ally who is close to the White House, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly. “I don’t know.”

Privately and publicly, some veteran Republicans cautioned that while the White House wants to control the process, it’s not for White House officials to decide how Bolton’s testimony would be handled.

“Ultimately, McConnell will decide, and he is dealing with a very personality-based system where he has to focus on bringing a few people along. McConnell is cueing everything off of those senators,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said in an interview. “The president being combative doesn’t mean he makes the decision.”

Top Republicans aren’t waiting around to find out. On television, Trump’s allies keep warning Democrats of “mutually assured destruction” — that if Democrats get their own witnesses, Trump’s team will call the Bidens.

“Be careful what you wish for,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Monday, warning that Republicans would call Hunter Biden. “Witness number one would have to be Hunter Biden. How else would we know about the corruption in Ukraine?”

Hunter Biden served on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, and Trump and his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have promoted an unfounded theory that Joe Biden, while vice president, tried to stop a corruption investigation of the company to protect his son. Hunter Biden is no longer on Burisma’s board.

For now, if enough senators vote to call witnesses after the initial arguments by House Democratic managers and Trump’s team, McConnell is expected to ensure that those individuals are questioned in a closed-door session rather than a public setting, according to people close to the Senate GOP.

And a private session, these people said, would apply to Bolton and perhaps Hunter Biden, since Republicans would almost certainly agree to witnesses only if they could call their own. Whether Bolton’s testimony would be classified or a closed deposition remains a point of negotiation, should Republicans ever reach that point.

One Senate Republican aide noted that senators handled witnesses using closed depositions in the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton. However, during the Clinton trial, depositions were videotaped, transcripts were publicly released, and portions of the interviews were shown on televisions on the Senate floor. It is unclear how Republicans would handle closed depositions this time.

Several Senate GOP aides said Monday that McConnell, while reluctant to disclose his strategy, is making it evident to allies that he does not want a “spectacle” of witnesses and has advised the president along those lines.

Trump’s lawyers are hoping it doesn’t even get that far: White House counsel Pat Cipollone plans to argue this week that calling witnesses like Bolton would infringe on executive privilege and endanger national security, a game plan first reported by Axios. The team will also say that senators have a duty to protect confidential conversations between a president and a senior national security official, and that infringing on that privacy would have lasting repercussions.

Of course, it may not be up to the White House or Trump’s congressional allies. Ultimately, a majority of the Senate will dictate trial procedure. And a group of swing Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) — could upend those plans if they side with Democrats.

Already three of those four have indicated that they would be open to hearing from additional witnesses, which is why Trump’s defense team is considering contingency plans.

Democrats remain furious with McConnell, who has not shared details of his plans with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) or other Democratic leaders, and they worry that he is preparing to rush through an abbreviated trial.

*********

RELIGIOUS-SCHOOLS CASE HEADS TO A SUPREME COURT SKEPTICAL OF STARK LINES BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE

By Robert Barnes | Published Jan. 20 at 1:15 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 21, 2020 |

KALISPELL, Mont. — It is a blessed time at Stillwater Christian School, where Scripture adorns the gymnasium wall, enrollment is climbing and Head of School Jeremy Marsh awaits the four new classrooms that will be built in the spring.

It is a place that embraces the beliefs that sinners avoid eternal condemnation only through Jesus Christ, that a marriage consists of one man and one woman and that “human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions . . . from conception through natural death.”

“The religious instruction isn’t just in little pockets of Bible class,” Marsh said. “It really comes out as we are learning in all classes.”

If a family craves Stillwater’s academic rigor but not its evangelism, Marsh said he will gently advise that “this might not be the place for them.”

Parents who believe religious schools such as Stillwater absolutely are the places for their children are at the center of what could be a landmark Supreme Court case testing the constitutionality of state laws that exclude religious organizations from government funding available to others. In this case, the issue rests on whether a scholarship fund supported by tax-deductible donations can help children attending the state’s private schools, most of which are religious.

Arguments are scheduled for Wednesday.

A decision in their favor would “remove a major barrier to educational opportunity for children nationwide,” plaintiffs said in their brief to the Supreme Court. It is part of a movement by school choice advocates such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to allow government support of students seeking what she recently called “faith-based education.”

Said Erica Smith, a lawyer representing the parents: “If we win this case, it will be the U.S. Supreme Court once again saying that school choice is fully constitutional and it’s a good thing and it’s something parents should have. And that will provide momentum to the entire country.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said such a ruling would be a “virtual earthquake,” devastating to the way states fund public education.

And Montana told the court that, as in 37 other states, it is reasonable for its constitution to prohibit direct or indirect aid to religious organizations.

“The No-Aid Clause does not prohibit any religious practice,” Montana said in its brief. “Nor does it authorize any discriminatory benefits program. It simply says that Montana will not financially aid religious schools.”

But Montana is being called before a Supreme Court increasingly skeptical of such stark lines between church and state. A majority of justices in 2017 said Missouri could not ban a church school from requesting a grant from a state program that rehabilitated playgrounds. They have since been joined by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who has signaled other such restrictions deserve the court’s attention.

The Montana case is prompted by a 2015 decision by the state’s legislature to create a tax-credit program for those who wanted to donate to a scholarship fund. The program allowed dollar-for-dollar tax credits to those who donated up to $150 to an organization that provides aid to parents who want to send their children to private school.

About 70 percent of qualifying private schools in Montana are affiliated with a religion, so that meant at least some of the money would go there.

And that conflicts with a section of the state constitution that prohibits public funds for “any sectarian purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination.”

Litigation followed, and the Montana Supreme Court ultimately struck down the program — for religious and nonreligious private schools — and said Montana’s provision did not violate religious protections in the U.S. Constitution.

Kendra Espinoza was one of those who sued. Espinoza is a single mother with two daughters who said she found herself with tears in her eyes when she attended an informational meeting about Stillwater.

“The things I saw in the public school system — I didn’t like it,” Espinoza said last month during an interview here, in the town that bills itself the “Gateway to Glacier National Park.”

Public schools are restricted to giving students only half the answer, according to Espinoza: “They are taught to behave and to be good. But why? Nothing comes from a values perspective, and I really wanted that faith-based curriculum.”

Espinoza took on extra work. At one point she held a yard sale — “I pretty much sold everything in my house that wasn’t tied down,” she said — to raise money for tuition. Older daughter Naomi mowed lawns and younger sister Sarah joined them to clean offices to make extra money.

Full-price tuition at Stillwater this year ranges from nearly $6,900 for a kindergartner to nearly $8,700 for a high schooler. But Marsh said about half of the families at the school qualify for financial aid.

The Montana scholarship aid would be in addition to that, and Espinoza said it would help with the annual meeting she has with her daughters when they discuss whether they will spend another year at Stillwater.

“I show them, ‘This is what we take in, and this is what it costs,’ ” she said. “They know it means there are other things we will have to do without.”

Espinoza was eager to sign on when Smith’s organization, the libertarian Institute for Justice, came to Montana offering legal help. The organization has made school choice a priority and has been strategizing for years about getting the Supreme Court to take on state constitutional amendments forbidding public aid to religious schools.

They have waged war on the “Blaine Amendments” that swept though the country in the 1800s on a wave of anti-Catholicism. Montana’s amendment was adopted in 1884, before the state was even admitted to the union.

But Montana rewrote its constitution in 1972. And Mae Nan Ellingson, who was the youngest member of that constitutional convention, said there was nothing anti-Catholic about retaining the bar on public aid to religious institutions.

The point of the convention was to “strengthen civil rights,” she said. The clause was thoroughly debated, and its retention was endorsed by some religious leaders who did not want state involvement in religion.

In the end, said Ellingson and others who have filed a brief with the Supreme Court, the delegates and voters who approved the new constitution saw the prohibition as a way to make sure that public funds went to build a better public school system. She said they were careful to allow private schools to receive available federal funds.

They say federalism should allow states to make such decisions. Smith said that most of the states that have similar restrictions do not interpret them to bar any public support of private, religious education.

Still, the plaintiffs say that Montana’s restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution and that the Montana Supreme Court’s decision to the contrary should not stand.

The free-exercise clause of the First Amendment prohibits government from discriminating against religion, they say, including the parents who want to use the scholarship funds for schools that align with their faiths.

The establishment clause protects against government establishing religion, they acknowledge, but also against government hostility toward religion. And the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection guards against government animosity.

The Trump administration supports the plaintiffs, although it is limiting its arguments to the free-exercise clause.

But Montana, in its brief to the Supreme Court, said the state’s high court took the only option that made sense of both the state’s constitution and its obligation not to single out the religious — striking down the tax-credit program for both religious and nonreligious private schools.

The plaintiffs “now contend that even that is unconstitutional,” wrote Washington lawyer Adam Unikowsky, who is representing the Montana Department of Revenue. “It matters not, in Petitioners’ view, that the government also does not aid similarly situated nonreligious schools. . . . Petitioners claim that the Constitution prohibits the bare act of applying a state constitutional provision that keeps government out of the business of aiding religious schools.”

But the fact that the Supreme Court decided to review a state program struck down by the state’s highest court shows the interest that the issue holds for at least some of the justices.

*********

A "trial" without evidence or witnesses isn't a trial -- it's an admission of guilt.

McConnell Pushes to Speed Impeachment Trial as Trump Requests Swift Acquittal

On Monday, the president’s lawyers asserted he did nothing wrong and urged the Senate to “swiftly reject” the charges against him.

By Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos | Published Jan. 20, 2020 | New York Times | Posted January 21, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, unveiled ground rules on Monday for President Trump’s impeachment trial that would attempt to speed the proceeding along and refuse to admit the evidence against the president unearthed by the House without a separate vote.

Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, showed his hand hours after Mr. Trump’s legal team called on the Senate to “swiftly reject” the impeachment charges and acquit him, arguing that Democrats would “permanently weaken the presidency” if they succeeded in removing him from office over what the team characterized as policy and political differences.

In a 110-page brief submitted to the Senate the day before Mr. Trump’s trial zbegins in earnest, the president’s lawyers advanced their first sustained legal argument since the House opened its inquiry in the fall, contending that the two charges approved largely along party lines were constitutionally flawed and set a dangerous precedent.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers dismissed the validity of both articles of impeachment lodged against him — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — because they do not state any specific violation of the law, advancing a constrained and widely rejected interpretation of the power to impeach a president. While the lawyers did not contest the basic facts of the case, they maintained that Democrats’ accusations in effect seek to punish Mr. Trump for foreign policy decisions and efforts to preserve executive prerogatives.

“They do not remotely approach the constitutional threshold for removing a president from office,” the brief said. “The diluted standard asserted here would permanently weaken the presidency and forever alter the balance among the branches of government in a manner that offends the constitutional design established by the founders.”

The White House also announced on Monday night that it had assembled a team of eight House Republicans to serve as part of the president’s defense team, including some of his fiercest defenders, like Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mark Meadows of North Carolina and John Ratcliffe of Texas.

Mr. McConnell’s trial rules, which limited each side’s arguments to 24 hours over two days, gave the White House a helping hand at the outset and drew swift anger from Democrats. The rules left open the possibility that the Senate could not only decline to hear new evidence not uncovered in the House impeachment inquiry, but could also sidestep considering the House case against Mr. Trump altogether — although such a vote is considered unlikely.

“Under this resolution, Senator McConnell is saying he doesn’t want to hear any of the existing evidence, and he doesn’t want to hear any new evidence,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. “It’s a cover-up, and the American people will see it for exactly what it is.”

He said he would propose changes during what promises to be a rancorous debate over the rules on Tuesday in the Senate.

In their own detailed legal brief submitted on Saturday, the House impeachment managers outlined their case that Mr. Trump corruptly solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election for his own benefit by pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rivals while withholding nearly $400 million in security aid the country desperately needed as well as a coveted White House meeting for its president.

“President Trump did not engage in this corrupt conduct to uphold the presidency or protect the right to vote,” the seven House Democratic impeachment managers said Monday in a second filing that rebutted many of the president’s assertions. “He did it to cheat in the next election and bury the evidence when he got caught.”

“Mr. Trump’s answer to the charges offers an unconvincing and implausible defense against the factual allegations in Article I,” the managers wrote. “The ‘simple facts’ that it recites confirm President Trump’s guilt, not his innocence.”

The legal brief filed by Mr. Trump’s lawyers did not deny that the president asked Ukraine to announce the investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., nor that he withheld military aid that Congress had approved for Kyiv. But Mr. Trump’s lawyers said that he never tied the investigations to a White House meeting or to the security assistance.

They also argued that the president has the right to conduct relations with other countries as he sees fit and that he had valid reasons to raise those issues with Ukraine and withhold the security aid because he wanted to root out corruption there and get other countries to share the burden of providing military assistance.

The lawyers dismissed the notion that doing so was an abuse of power, as outlined in the first article of impeachment, calling that a “novel theory” and a “newly invented” offense that would allow Congress to second-guess presidents for legitimate policy choices.

“House Democrats’ concocted theory that the president can be impeached for taking permissible actions if he does them for what they believe to be the wrong reasons would also expand the impeachment power beyond constitutional bounds,” the brief said. “It is the president who defines foreign policy,” it added, and said that Mr. Trump had “legitimate concerns” in raising the issues involving Democrats with the Ukrainians.

The lawyers argued that the second article, accusing Mr. Trump of obstructing Congress by blocking testimony and refusing to turn over documents during the House impeachment inquiry, was “frivolous and dangerous” because it would invalidate a president’s right to confidential deliberations in violation of the separation of powers.

In making their case, the White House lawyers themselves embraced novel interpretations of the history of impeachment. Far from newly invented, the concept of abuse of power was envisioned by the framers from the start. Alexander Hamilton specifically described impeachment as a remedy for the “abuse or violation of some public trust.”

Moreover, the House Judiciary Committee adopted articles of impeachment accusing both Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton of abuse of power for, among other things, defying congressional demands for information.

Many constitutional scholars have long said that impeachable offenses do not have to be specific violations of a criminal code, but could be broader violations of a president’s oath of office or offenses against the republic. In the case of President Andrew Johnson, one of the articles against him alleged no violation of law but impeached him anyway for speeches bringing Congress into “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach.”

While the White House brief argued that the articles against Mr. Trump did not allege an actual crime, a report released last week by the Government Accountability Office, an independent, nonpartisan government agency, found that the Trump administration violated the law by withholding the security aid allocated by Congress.

The president’s legal team took issue with the Government Accountability Office’s conclusion and said that, in any case, it was irrelevant because it was not included in the articles of impeachment themselves.

The White House brief stressed that Mr. Trump ultimately met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and released the aid even though the Ukrainians never announced the investigations the president had sought. But the money was delivered and the meeting was set only after a whistle-blower had filed a complaint alleging impropriety by the president and lawmakers had opened their own investigation into why the money had been blocked.

The dueling filings rolled in as both sides braced for a contentious trial on the Senate floor over whether to remove Mr. Trump, only the third such impeachment proceeding in the country’s history. The president visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington on Monday afternoon before he left for Davos, Switzerland, where he planned to meet with other world leaders at an economic conference as the Senate began weighing his fate.

In the Capitol, the House managers and the president’s defense team took turns privately touring the Senate chamber and surrounding offices, transformed over the weekend into a court of impeachment that will open on Tuesday with the debate on the rules for the trial. According to Mr. McConnell’s timetable, oral arguments by the House managers would begin on Wednesday, followed by a presentation by Mr. Trump’s team.

The White House announcement that it will add House Republicans to its defense team came despite objections from Mr. McConnell. In deference to him, they will not argue the case on the Senate floor, but will provide guidance and appear as surrogates, according to a person working with Mr. Trump’s legal team.

In addition to Mr. Jordan, Mr. Meadows and Mr. Ratcliffe, those joining the team include Representatives Doug Collins of Georgia, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Elise Stefanik of New York and Lee Zeldin of New York.

In their filing on Monday, House Democrats sought to dismantle the president’s case. By arguing that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense, they said, Mr. Trump’s lawyers were ignoring the intentions of the founders and in effect asserting that “the American people are powerless to remove a president for corruptly using his office to cheat in the next election.”

The managers also said the president’s attempt to justify his obstruction failed to account for the House’s broad prerogative to conduct their inquiry. The House investigation was “properly authorized,” they insisted, and they pointed out that Mr. Trump never actually invoked executive privilege, but merely raised the threat of doing so to discourage officials from testifying.

The nine-page filing was technically a response to a shorter pleading submitted by Mr. Trump’s team on Saturday.

The president weighed in himself, complaining that he had not been treated fairly and dismissing demands by Mr. Schumer for a trial that would include witnesses and testimony that the president has so far blocked.

“Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is now asking for ‘fairness’, when he and the Democrat House members worked together to make sure I got ZERO fairness in the House,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “So, what else is new?”

Mr. McConnell had said repeatedly that he was modeling his rules on the procedures for Mr. Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial, but he made changes that could tilt the playing field in Mr. Trump’s favor. While the Clinton-era rules imposed no limits on the 24 hours of oral arguments allowed on both sides, Mr. McConnell condensed them into two marathon-session days, which would allow the Senate to blaze through them by Saturday.

Senators could then pose questions to the two sides next week before debating whether to allow the prosecution and defense to try to call witnesses or seek documents. A senior Republican leadership aide conceded on Monday that Mr. McConnell had deviated from the 1999 rules, which admitted the House impeachment record into evidence at the start of the trial, in requiring a separate Senate vote to do so this time around. The change was necessary, argued the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal strategy, because the House had denied the president proper due process rights.

The House invited Mr. Trump to mount a defense before the House Judiciary Committee during its impeachment proceeding, including requesting witnesses and documents, but the president’s legal team declined, saying it would not dignify an inquiry it deemed illegitimate with a response.

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Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Emily Cochrane contributed reporting from Washington.

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LAWYER FOR LEV PARNAS SAYS BARR HAS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF FROM CRIMINAL CASE

By Shayna Jacob's | Published January 20 at 7:40 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 21, 2020 |

NEW YORK — A lawyer for Lev Parnas, whose activities in Ukraine have become a key focus on the eve of President Trump's impeachment trial, has asked Attorney General William P. Barr to recuse himself from Parnas's criminal case, suggesting the top Justice Department official is too enmeshed in the overarching political scandal.

The request — made Monday in the form of a letter to Barr — was filed by attorney Joseph A. Bondy in the Southern District of New York on the heels of a media blitz during which Parnas detailed his attempts to pressure Ukrainian leaders into announcing an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden.

Parnas has said he acted at the direction of the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and that Trump and Vice President Pence were aware of his activities. All three have disputed Parnas’s claims.

Parnas recently provided Congress with text messages and other digital records that were seized and later released by federal authorities as part of his criminal case.

Federal prosecutors here have accused Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, of violating campaign finance laws by funneling foreign money to U.S. politicians while trying to influence U.S.-Ukraine relations. Both have pleaded not guilty, and Parnas has waged an aggressive public campaign to appear helpful to Democrats seeking Trump’s removal from office.

In the letter to Barr, Bondy wrote that “due to the conflict of interest of your being involved in these matters as Attorney General, and in an effort to preserve the public trust in the rule of law, we request that you recuse yourself and allow the appointment of a special prosecutor from outside the Department of Justice to handle this case.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Bondy’s letter to Barr cites references to Barr in Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation at the heart of Democrats’ case for impeachment.

A rough transcript of the call shows Trump offering Zelensky the assistance of his attorney general to facilitate an investigation of Biden.

The letter also notes that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as the New York City Bar Association, have called for Barr to recuse himself from matters tied to the Ukraine scandal.

Justice Department officials have sought to distance the attorney general from the White House and Giuliani on matters connected to Ukraine, with Barr’s allies confiding to reporters last year that he was frustrated with Giuliani for using unconventional channels to pursue investigations of interest to the president.

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McConnell Impeachment Rules Modify Clinton Precedent

The Senate Republican leader proposed impeachment trial rules that push the 1999 precedent toward President Trump’s preferences.

By Nicholas Fandos | Published Jan. 20, 2020 | New York Times | Posted January 21, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — For weeks, Senator Mitch McConnell sought to deflect charges that he was trying to stack the deck in favor of President Trump in his impeachment trial by repeating that he was merely replicating the Senate’s only modern precedent: the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton.

“What was good enough for President Clinton in an impeachment trial should have been good enough for President Trump,” he told reporters this month, as Democrats pressed him to include a new guarantee for witnesses and documents. “And all we are doing here is saying we are going to get started in exactly the same way that 100 senators agreed to 20 years ago.”

But when Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, finally released a draft of his resolution on Monday evening, less than 24 hours before the Senate was expected to consider it, there were several meaningful differences from the rules that governed Mr. Clinton’s impeachment, some of which were in line with Mr. Trump’s preferences and his legal team’s strategy.

The measure is expected to pass on Tuesday along party lines, over strenuous Democratic objections. Here is a look at the similarities and differences.

A TRIAL RUNNING ON FAST-FORWARD.

While Mr. McConnell proposes that the trial unfold in a similar sequence to the 1999 one — opening statements, then questions from senators, then an up-or-down vote on whether to consider calling witnesses or new evidence — his plan would speed up the proceedings.

Like in the Clinton trial, the Democratic House impeachment managers and Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers will have up to 24 hours to argue their respective cases for and against conviction on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But in 1999, the Senate imposed no additional limit on how the time was used. Mr. McConnell’s proposal states that each side much complete its work within two days, beginning as early as Wednesday.

That means opening arguments could be finished by the end of this week, allowing the senators 16 hours for questioning and a subsequent debate early next week over whether to consider witness testimony. In the fastest possible scenario, the Senate could vote to convict or acquit by the end of January.

Aides for Mr. McConnell played down the differences, arguing that he had never meant to say the Trump rules would be identical to the Clinton ones, but would deal with opening arguments and consideration of witnesses in the same order.

But Senate Democrats were not pleased, and their leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, accused Mr. McConnell of trying to push the proceedings into “the wee hours of the night” to hide a damaging case against Mr. Trump. Mr. Schumer said he would offer a series of amendments on Tuesday “to address the many flaws in this deeply unfair proposal.”

The White House, which has worked closely with Mr. McConnell on the trial’s parameters, indicated it was pleased. Eric Ueland, the president’s congressional liaison, said the team was “gratified that the draft resolution protects the president’s rights to a fair trial.”

THE HOUSE’S FINDINGS WOULD NOT AUTOMATICALLY BE ADMITTED INTO EVIDENCE.

When the Clinton trial opened, the Senate “admitted into evidence,” printed and shared with senators all records generated by the House impeachment inquiry into Mr. Clinton. Not so this time.

Though the House’s evidence from the Trump impeachment inquiry would still be printed and shared with senators, it would only be formally considered by the Senate as part of its official record if a majority of senators voted to do so. That vote could only take place after the Senate decided whether to call witnesses and seek additional documents — that is, as the trial moves toward conclusion.

A senior Republican aide in the Senate said the change reflected a fundamental difference in the Clinton and Trump cases. In the Clinton case, the House’s evidentiary record largely consisted of materials compiled by Ken Starr, the independent counsel.

This time, House Democrats conducted their impeachment inquiry entirely themselves, without the benefit of a Justice Department investigation. The aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail internal strategy, argued that in doing so, the House had denied Mr. Trump proper due process rights afforded to Mr. Clinton, suggesting the current president was not given a chance to contest the House’s record.

The House invited Mr. Trump to mount a defense before the Judiciary Committee during its impeachment proceeding, including requesting witnesses and documents, but the president’s legal team declined, saying it would not dignify an inquiry it deemed illegitimate with a response.

By not admitting the House impeachment inquiry’s findings into evidence at the outset, Mr. McConnell, too, is in effect treating them as illegitimate.

AS MCCONNELL SAID, THE RESOLUTION DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE TRIAL WILL INCLUDE WITNESSES.

As expected, the draft resolution does not incorporate Democratic demands that the trial guarantee witness testimony or requests for new documents. This was also the case in the Clinton trial, but Mr. McConnell’s proposal still differs slightly.

It says that after senators conclude their questioning, they will not immediately entertain motions to call individual witnesses or documents. Instead, they will decide first whether they want to consider new evidence at all. Only if a majority of senators agree to do so will the managers and prosecutors be allowed to propose and argue for specific witnesses or documents, each of which would then be subject to an additional vote.

If a majority of the Senate ultimately did vote to call a witness for testimony, that witness would first be interviewed behind closed doors and then the “Senate shall decide after deposition which witnesses shall testify, pursuant to the impeachment rules,” if any. Consistent with the Clinton trial rules, this essentially means that even if witnesses are called, they might never testify in public.

Democrats said Mr. McConnell’s intentions were clear.

“Under this resolution, Senator McConnell is saying he doesn’t want to hear any of the existing evidence, and he doesn’t want to hear any new evidence,” Mr. Schumer said. “It’s a cover-up.”

But Mr. McConnell appeared to have the votes he needed to move the resolution without Democrats. Minutes after the resolution was shared with reporters, a key moderate Republican who had been pushing the leader to ensure a vote on whether or not to call witnesses, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said he would be a yes.

And Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, another possible swing vote who favors calling witnesses, said the resolution met his requirements and tracked “closely with the rules package approved 100 to 0 during the Clinton trial.”

WHAT ABOUT A MOTION TO DISMISS THE CASE?

Mr. McConnell’s resolution does not include a guarantee that the Senate will vote on a motion to dismiss the case after opening arguments and senatorial questions rather than see the trial to its full conclusion. That guarantee was included in the Clinton-era rules in deference to Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, a towering figure in the chamber at the time.

Individual senators or Mr. Trump’s lawyers could still make a motion during the trial to force a dismissal vote — an idea Mr. Trump has said he likes.

But Republican leaders believe doing so is unwise. With moderates committed to seeing the trial through, it risks dividing the party on a key vote, and in any case, they have argued it will be better for Mr. Trump in the long-run to have a Senate acquittal to his name.

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