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Sam had taken the wings this mission.
It had just been a simple joke, Joaquín had teased him after last mission and Sam had joked back that he would take the wings next mission.
Bucky hadn’t expected him to go through with it which only spurred Sam on further.
The mission had been simple too, just a hydra scientist that they needed to catch. The scientist had some information on other left over hydra agents that needed to be rounded up.
Him, Bucky and Torres arrived in New York to catch the guy while he was still in a known location and not somewhere in Turkey or in what ever country evil hydra scientists reside.
‘I have eyes on the target’ Joaquín says over the comms.
The second Joaquín says that, the target starts running, Sam can see Bucky and Torres take off chasing the guy.
The scientist entered a building and ran for one of the many elevators. Sam could hear Bucky curse loudly over the comms as the elevator doors closed a couple meters in front of him.
Joaquín had already jumped in one of the other elevators and yelled ‘take an elevator he’s going to the roof’.
Sam wanted to ask how Joaquín knew that but it wouldn’t matter either way. He trusted Joaquín too much to doubt him while their target was getting away.
Bucky charged at the closest elevator and pulled Sam in behind him.
The ride up seemed to take forever and Sam could not stop trying to figure out how the guy was planning to get away on the roof of a 20 something story building.
‘I can hear you thinking from here what is it.’ Bucky said interrupting Sams thoughts. ‘I am just trying to figure out how this guy is planning to lose us by going to the top of a building’ Sam explained.
‘This would be so much quicker with that damn wingpack Wilson’ Bucky snarked annoyed.
Sam couldn’t help but laugh ‘really Buck that’s what you are worried about here?’
‘I’m just saying this whole chase would be 10 times faster if you hadn’t had taken the kids wings’ Bucky grunted back.
The doors flew open and before him or Bucky could even set a step Sams heart plummeted.
They were just quick enough to see Joaquin’s legs disappear off the side of the building.
Somewhere far away Sam could hear Bucky scream something but everything just seemed static. Joaquín was falling, just like Riley, just like Joaquín had in his nightmares.
The scientist wasn’t even a distant thought anymore just the mantra of ‘no not him, please not Joaquín, no, no, no’.
When he could get his legs to work he ran to the edge, but he knew. He already fucking knew, there was absolutely no way anyone human could have even remotely survived that.
Joaquín had already splatted into a bloody heap on the bottom of the building. Red flowed around his body although Sam couldn’t make out any clear details.
Even if he would be able to see from that hight, the tears in his eyes were blurring his sight.
That was just the tragedy of it wasn’t it? Joaquín could have survived that fall, the kid survived way worse falls. But without his wings to catch him it was frankly hopeless.
And he had done that hadn’t he? He had taken his wings, without thinking, without actually realising the danger in that action.
This wasn’t real, this was just not real. There was no way. Because if this was real he had let Joaquín die over a stupid joke. Joaquín hadn’t gotten a death in a fight or even better, from old age. No, Joaquín died because Sam was blind to the danger of his- wel what exactly?
Kid? Teammate? Friend? He just burst into tears again. He never got time to actually realise what Joaquín meant to him. And now he never would get that chance. He would never ever get the chance to see and talk to Joaquín again.
Bucky was beside him suddenly, the other didn’t move or talk. He just looked at Sam. And there was no way that Sam could look back, because Bucky would look at him with that devastating look and Sam would break al over again.