Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
“The truth isn't all things to all people all of the time.”
~Natasha Romanoff, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
___________________________________

Chapter 13

Annabeth 

I woke up to Bucky placing his arm across my torso.  I turned to look at him.  He was facing me, his cheek smushed into the pillow, and he was slightly drooling.  I chuckled at the sight of him.  For such a deadly assassin, he sure didn’t look like it most times.

A knock on the door made me look up.  Sam Wilson poked his head and said, “Hey breakfast is ready.  If he eats that kind of stuff.”

“He most definitely eats it.  Trust me, guy eats more than an army.  We’ll be there in a minute,” I replied.  Sam nodded and left.

“Buck?” I whispered.  He grunted but remained asleep. “Buck, breakfast is ready.”

No answer.

“Would a kiss wake you up?” I queried.  Ever so slightly, his head nodded.  I kissed him on the cheek.

His eyes opened. “I thought you said you were going to give me a kiss.”

“I did say that, and I did give you a kiss.”

“Not exactly the place I thought,” he laughed.

“You’ll get one later after I’ve brushed my teeth and after I’ve eaten.  I’m starved.”

“So why haven’t you gotten up?”

“Your arm is sort of blocking me.” Bucky removed it and I got up.  He literally rolled out of bed and joined me in the bathroom.  We brushed our teeth and joined Steve, Sam, and Natasha in the kitchen.  Sam had made a massive breakfast: pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, and beans.

“What’s the agenda for today?” Natasha asked.

“I thought I might catch up with Steve most of the day seeing as how there’s so much,” Bucky said, suddenly becoming shy in the group.  He still hadn’t forgiven himself for yesterday and nearly killing them but at least he was talking.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Steve agreed.  I saw Bucky’s eyes light up at his friend’s immediate response.

“Then I guess the rest of us are just relaxing,” Sam said, leaning back in his chair.

“There’s a training room downstairs.  The woods are really fun to walk through if you’re with someone,” I remarked.  Bucky and I shared a glance, both of us remembering my incident. “TV has decent channels and there’s of course free internet so you’re sure to find something to do.”

“Sleep.  I’m going to sleep,” Sam said.

“I think I might go check out the training room,” Natasha decided.

“I think the woods would be a good place to talk,” Bucky suggested.

“I trust you,” Steve replied.

“I’ll find something to do,” I said. “Y’all go do what you need to.  I’ll clean up.”

“You sure you don’t need any help?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah I’m sure.  Go.  I got this.” Bucky and Steve went out the front door.  Sam went to his room and was snoring in five minutes.  Natasha lingered with me.

“What are you planning?” She inquired, bringing the dishes over to the sink.

“Planning?”

“You haven’t told Bucky about your predicament, have you?”

“No, and now that he’s with Steve, I have to leave.  I just don’t know how to break it to him.  He won’t take it well.”

“How are you going to get back?”

“I have no idea.  I need to get a ride there or a flight or something.”

“Would you like me to give you a ride?” Natasha offered.

I looked over at her. “You would do that?” She nodded. “Why?”

“Because if what Steve told me is all true, you’re still wanted by Hydra.  If they see you by yourself, they might kidnap or kill you.  You need protection Annabeth Drew.”

“I mean I’ll take your offer but only if you really don’t mind.”

“I don’t.  I’ll drive you there.  I don’t trust to have you flying with how much access Hydra still has to things. SHIELD was just one part of them.  They have many others that are still out there.  And they’re watching.  You were Pierce’s secretary.  They know who you are.”

“Unfortunately,” I grumbled.

“Annabeth, why did you stay on at Hydra when you knew who they were?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because any sane person would’ve hightailed it out of there, and you seem pretty sane to me, so what kept you there?”

“He did.”

“Pierce?”

“No.  Bucky.”

“How did he keep you there?” I sighed at the question.  I’d been asked it so many times and no one believed me except Sam and Steve.  I didn’t want to repeat my reasoning.  I’d been called an idiot for ‘loving a weapon’ too many times.  However, Natasha seemed to know my answer simply because of my silence. “You love him.”

“Yeah… it was gradual.  When I was taking care of him, he never spoke to me, he never looked at me.  He just listened to me ramble and sing and then one day, Pierce ordered him to decide whether or not he should kill me.  Pierce suspected I had some sort of influence on Bucky but he didn’t know how much.  Well when I went into work alive the next day, he saw the extent of it.  Ordered to have me killed later in front of Bucky when I was taking care of him.  They shot me in the shoulder first.  I was bent over in pain and I hear the second gunshot.  But it never reached me.  The bullet had been aimed for my head and Bucky had put his metal arm in front of me, preventing it from actually hitting me.  He saved my life.  What started out as a simply desire to help him get out of the hell hole turned into something more for me.”

“Does he know this?”

“No.  He asked me why I was helping him, and I told him I didn’t know.  I know very well why I’m helping him, it’s just we hadn’t known each other that long and I didn’t want to make things awkward between us.” I fell silent for a few moments. “There’s no point in him and me trying to become anything more than friends.  After my trial, I’m going to be in prison for life.  No possibility of parole.  There’s no future for us.”

“How do you know you’ll be found guilty?”

“Like you said earlier, Hydra’s still around.  They know who I am.  They don’t want me in the world.”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky.”

“Luck isn’t usually there when I need it.  Besides, they don’t like my explanation, the jury I mean, of why I stayed with Hydra.”

“What’s your explanation?”

“That I fell in love with a weapon.  They think it’s an actual weapon I’m talking about, but it’s not.  I’m just using Hydra’s terminology so I’m not lying.”

“You’re protecting him.”

“He’s been through enough.  If I tell the court the truth about him, they’ll want to hunt him down because he’ll be considered such a danger to the world.  I won’t let that happen.  I won’t let him be kept in a cage again.  I’m going to go pack.  And Natasha?  Thank you for helping.” The Russian spy nodded before heading downstairs.  I entered my room and pulled out my suitcase.
___________________________________
 

I heard the front door open about six hours later.  Steve and Bucky had been gone a long time and I know they’d only covered a small amount of things they wanted to talk about.  But hearing Bucky’s cheerful voice made my heart drop into my stomach.  I was going to destroy that in one swift sentence.

“You have to do this Annabeth,” I whispered to myself, shutting my suitcase.  The door opened right after I said that.

“Hey Anna- what are you doing?” Bucky asked.  I turned around.  He looked extremely confused and while he masked it pretty well, I could still detect the worry.  He shut the door.

“Bucky, we need to talk…”

“About what?”

“I’ve been keeping something from you.  I didn’t know how to tell you and it never seemed the right time or else I would’ve told you sooner.”

By now Bucky’s eyes had narrowed in on my suitcase.  He looked up at me. “Are… are you leaving?”

“Yes.”

“But… I don’t understand.  Why do you have to leave?” he demanded, his voice tinged with sadness.

“Before I started helping Steve and Sam find you, I was in prison on trial for treason against the country because I worked for Pierce.  Steve was tipped off by someone about what I knew and he came to me, enlisted my help.  The deal was that once I helped find you, I would go back.”

“And you didn’t bargain for a deal or something that would help you stay out of jail?”

“No.  Finding you was more important.”

“Why would finding me be more important to you than getting yourself out of jail?”

“Because I was safe in jail.  I was fine.  But you… I mean I guessed what happened to you after the helicarriers because of the news reporting what happened to Steve, how he’d been found bloody and beaten and unconscious a couple miles away from the crash site and they couldn’t understand how he did it, but I did.  I knew.  I figured you were out on your own and I worried about you and I worried about who was searching for you other than Steve.”

“I was an assassin.  I knew how to survive, Annabeth.  I was fine.  What was the real reason?  Tell me.  And while you’re at it, tell me why you chose on to stay with Hydra when you knew the consequences if you got caught.”

“I didn’t know I was working for Hydra at first!  I figured it out when I was too deep into the mess to get out of it.”

“You didn’t answer my first my question.  What was the real reason you worked for Hydra?  And you’re not leaving until you give me a straight answer.  I’ll know if you’re lying,” he warned, walking towards me.  I backed away, which halted him.  I’d never done that before.  He stared at me, hurt flashing on his face.

“I told you why Bucky.  I have to go now if I’m going to get to my trial in time.”

“No!  I’m not letting- I won’t- I can’t lose you too…” Bucky said in exasperation, running his hands through his hair.  His chest started rising up and down.  He was having almost a full out panic attack. “I need you Annabeth.  What happens if I snap back into the Winter Soldier?  You’re the only one who’s been able to pull me back from that.”

“That’s not completely true.  Steve stopped you on the helicarrier.  He could do it again.  I know he could,” I declared.  Bucky sat on the bed, distraught.  I walked up to him.  He placed his hands on my waist. “You can come visit me.  I’m allowed to have visitors once in a while.  You can bring Steve and anyone else you want to.”

“It’s prison, Annabeth.  How are you okay with this?”

“Because you were my mission Bucky.  I got to see that it was finished.  And if anything, I have the knowledge that you’re okay now and that makes me feel much, much better.”

He braced his forehead on my stomach. “Don’t go Anna… please don’t go.”

“I have to.  I don’t have a choice,” I said.  I knelt down. “Take care of yourself, be safe, and don’t do anything stupid.”

“I can’t do anything stupid.  You’re taking it all with you by willingly going back to prison,” he mumbled.

I laughed. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true.  Promise you’ll come visit me okay?”

“Even better, I’ll come to your trial.”

“What?  No!  Don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I swear there’s a few Hydra people there gloating at my inevitable guilty verdict and I don’t want them seeing you,” I said, pulling my suitcase off my bed.

“I don’t care.  I’ll bring Steve and Sam and Natasha with me.  Maybe we could help you get acquitted.”

“No, you’re not going.  I’ve already told Steve that you would try.”

“And he agreed?!”

“Yes, because he knows my reasoning is logical and he worries about losing you again too.  You will not come to my trial, understand?”

“Fine… let me help you with your bag.”

“Thank you.” Bucky lifted my suitcase off the bed and carried it into the hallway.  Natasha had her bag packed already.  Sam and Steve were chatting with her.

“You all set?” Natasha asked.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” I went up and hugged Steve and Sam, thanking them for letting me help them in their mission.  They gave me tight hugs in return.  I faced Bucky.  He pulled me into him, burying his head into the crook of my neck, one arm wrapped around my waist, the other cradling my head.

“I’ll miss you,” he whispered.

“I’ll miss you too,” I replied. “Be safe.”

“I will.  You too.” We pulled away reluctantly.  I took my bag and Natasha and I walked to the car.
___________________________________

Review :)