With the gun away he was able to relax marginally. Even though he knew he could handle it if she had fired on him, there was still always that edge of uncertainty.
Instead of taking her onto the ship, he unbuttoned his dark jacket and shrugged it off, then yanked the shirt beneath over his head. With his torso bare, the metal arm gleamed bright in the sun. The massive scarring around his shoulder was equally obvious, as ugly as the arm itself was beautiful, in a deadly way.
"Take a look," he invited her, unwinding the bandages from around his hand. "You know damn well we couldn't build anything like this. Not even Stark is anywhere near this kind of tech. I lose the arm a couple months from now. Thing is, at the time, everyone assumed I died. Now you know I didn't. And that's what you're gonna have to lie to Steve about."
He watched her closely, his jaw tight, shoulders tense, flexing his metal fingers in an absent gesture. "You're gonna have to look him in the eye when he's devastated and anguished. You're gonna know I'm out there, alive and bleeding out from a mangled arm. You're gonna know that HYDRA will find me. And you won't tell him. Because if you do, if he has even the slightest hope that I'm not dead, he'll go out there looking for me. You know he will. He won't let anything stop him. If he takes so much as thirty seconds longer to go after the Skull's final base, he'll miss getting on that plane and the Skull will get his bombs out to the world. And we will lose this war."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2016-06-02 05:17 am (UTC)Instead of taking her onto the ship, he unbuttoned his dark jacket and shrugged it off, then yanked the shirt beneath over his head. With his torso bare, the metal arm gleamed bright in the sun. The massive scarring around his shoulder was equally obvious, as ugly as the arm itself was beautiful, in a deadly way.
"Take a look," he invited her, unwinding the bandages from around his hand. "You know damn well we couldn't build anything like this. Not even Stark is anywhere near this kind of tech. I lose the arm a couple months from now. Thing is, at the time, everyone assumed I died. Now you know I didn't. And that's what you're gonna have to lie to Steve about."
He watched her closely, his jaw tight, shoulders tense, flexing his metal fingers in an absent gesture. "You're gonna have to look him in the eye when he's devastated and anguished. You're gonna know I'm out there, alive and bleeding out from a mangled arm. You're gonna know that HYDRA will find me. And you won't tell him. Because if you do, if he has even the slightest hope that I'm not dead, he'll go out there looking for me. You know he will. He won't let anything stop him. If he takes so much as thirty seconds longer to go after the Skull's final base, he'll miss getting on that plane and the Skull will get his bombs out to the world. And we will lose this war."