Author's Note:

I'm always trying to improve my ability to pull a person into a character's headspace or feel their emotions, and your feedback will help me know if what I'm trying for is working or not. Even an emoticon or button smashing tells me something useful and can influence what I write more or less of.

I respond to all comments and it's always fun to hear your thoughts ^^

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"Val, psst. Wake up."

"Fuck off," I groaned, pulling a pillow over my head. Anything to muffle her voice more than just the earplugs.

"You might want to get up. Probably in the next couple of seconds or so...."

"The hell you want, Eve!? The sun isn't even up!! And it's fucking summer!"

"Sergeant Barnes... he..."

"Booked it to the ends of the Earth?"

"I could only hope. But, no. He's in some... trouble...?"

At that, I jumped onto my feet, clumsily clawing into my clothes while trying to shove one of my earbuds into place. Even almost forgot my taser in my rush. "Where is he?!"

"...."

"Eve!!"

"Back door. Hop two fences left. The house in front of this one."

Grabbing the crutches on the way, I raced for the back door. Half tumbled downstairs no thanks to that stupid ankle of mine.

"Where's the bloody gun?" I demanded, staring into a clearly empty drawer.

It shouldn't be empty. It wasn't supposed to be empty. But it sure as shit was now.

'Urgh, I don't have time for this shit,' I thought, wrapping a scarf around my face. Something to hide some of me.

"...With Sergeant Barnes."

"...?"

Climbing over two fences with a crutch was a dumb idea. Don't know how the hell I managed to avoid a sleeping dog in the front yard of the second house.

'Holy hell. The fuck happened here?'

The house across from ours, their upstairs window was smashed in.

This was going to be a crime scene.

Testing out the front door with my shirt wrapped around the knob, I was locked out.

'Why didn't I bring my lockpicks? Or anything that can be of use...?' I wondered, making quick work of my hair. Used the ends of my scarf as hair tie. 'Note to self, keep a couple Bobby pins on me at all times.'

"Key's under the orange pansies."

"People actually do this?"

'Why bother locking anything...?'

But it's definitely better than my plan of breaking in with the crutch.

Utter darkness greeted me inside. Only the light coming through the front door kept me rooted to the spot, unable to go further inside and unwilling to run off with my tail between my legs.

"Get it together, you idiot. He's not here," I mumbled to myself, forcing my hand to close the door and flip the lock.

There was a window. The street lamp would still spill into the little foyer. Still not enough to chase away the darkness.

My heart rate skyrocketed into my throat. My instincts screaming at me to run for it. I barely managed to swallow a yelp when a light beamed from right next to me.

"Better?" Eve having turned on my phone screen for the light.

"Ye-yeah, thanks...."

From my pocket, the screen lit up enough of the house for me to navigate upstairs without having to waste a hand to hold it. Made hobbling upstairs with a crutch much easier, since I didn't have to juggle a phone and a taser in one hand. It barely kept my hold from losing to the insanity of fear.

Over the clacking of my crutch that I couldn't silence no matter how I moved, a soft groan practically split the eerie silence of the house. A shiver raced down my spine.

It couldn't be Bucky.

It damn well better not be Bucky.

The man's built like a tank. Nothing I could see in the house was broken. That groan couldn't be from him.

If it was... we're completely fucked.

The closer to the top of the steps I got, the louder a steady thumping echoed off the walls.

'Ah shit, it's still happening.... Oh shit! It's still happening!! Shit. Shit.... Is that blood I'm smelling?!?! Shitshitshit!'

Light leaked out of a room down the hall. I took a moment to turn off my phone screen. The element of surprise would be my friend in this situation.

There was only one thing moving in the small bedroom. A shadowed figure pounding a fist into another lit up by a knocked over lamp on the floor.

The lighting made everything unsettling. Reminiscent of a horror movie. Except this wasn't.

There wasn't a screen between me and the blood gushing out of a clearly busted nose. I highly doubt that was the only thing broken on the man.

The woman's body flopped over a tiny bed, that wasn't an actress. The pool of blackness growing under her, that wasn't some recipe. The silver glint of a knife jammed in her back, that wasn't a prop.

There was even blood smeared across the blue wall above an overturned dresser. The red only marred by the white scratch marks dug into the paint.

All of this wasn't fake.

At least the one groaning wasn't Bucky. Pretty sure that would be more of a horror story.

'Deal with angry guy there, make sure everybody's knocked out and unable to remember our faces. Then find Bucky.... Yeah, sounds like a plan... ish. Damn shit. Can't make them forget.'

Didn't have Amber's blends on me.

'Fuckety fuck fuck. Taser and words will have to do.'

Shooting it from outside of the room would likely miss... so that left me with trying to silently move on a crutch. At least with the broken window, my reflection wouldn't give me away.

One moment I was staring at a back and the next, wild blue eyes bore right into mine. A bloodied hand wrapping around my neck before I could even flinch. The taser slapped out of my hand, dented the wall before clattering to the floor.

'Oh shit.'

"Recognise me?" I managed to say through the snug grip.

I got an almost careful nod from Bucky. His eyes dropped to his hand and he backed away. Scared.

'Find Bucky: check.'

He glanced at the man whose face he practically caved in. When his blue eyes settled back on me, they were so helpless. His features twisting into a chaotic mess of terror, panic and revulsion.

I took a moment to clear my throat, hoping that my voice would be somewhat normal when I talked to him. "I'll take care of this. Go. Follow her instructions."

I removed my earbud and held it out to him. I had no idea how I'd deal with this without Eve in my ear. Though, hopefully, one of her Puppets was already on their way here.

Bucky shook his head, pulling one from his pocket. "I didn't – He was... V – "

"No names," I quickly spat out, taking in the extent of destruction in the room and trying to figure out some game plan to spin this. "You need to get out of here. I'll take care of this. Now go."

The massive man ground his teeth at the order, but his feet started to move.

'...Can't pin this on the woman. No way she could have done that damage to his face... right...?'

"There's a kid," Bucky whispered as he passed me by. "I'm sorry."

Alone with two bodies, I could only sigh at the lovely mess on our hands. One's alive. Not too sure about the woman though.

I shoved the earbud back into place and picked up my taser, pocketing it. "Make sure he's safe, will you?"

"Your faith in Mr. Barnes worries me."

"I seriously doubt he just snapped and did all this. Just keep him safe, will you?"

"...Easier said than done, but if I must. This puts a damper in my plans.... I need you to keep this place secure. I have people on route."

I rolled my eyes, kneeling next to the stabbed woman only to be kicked in the back of my ribs. Then a barrage of arm whacks to the head.

"Don't hurt her anymore!!!"

"Whoa there!" I grabbed onto a pair of little arms, and it was back to the kicking. "Where the f – ish did you come from?"

Bucky wasn't kidding about a little one in the house. A feisty one at that. I could only hope that he didn't see all this as it was going down.

"Let go! Let go of me!!!"

"Quit struggling will –"

A third arm smacked me upside the head.

"Mommy!!" the boy cried out.

"Oh god, she's alive."

Maybe...? She wasn't moving again. Hopefully, she's just passed out.

"Mommy!?!"

"Nope, don't touch her," I chided, catching the kid before he could jump on his mother. "Should not move the knife.... Yup, should not move that... probably."

The little blond boy quickly backed away from the equally blonde woman. That shiner he sported was rather worrisome though.

'Brave enough to protect the mother, huh? I can use that,' I thought, feeling a tad sleazy with myself. "You want to save her? I can get her the best doctors."

He quickly nodded at that.

"Then do as I say, or I'll pull out the knife and she can bleed to death, 'kay? And I'll know if you don't, I have eyes everywhere."

Or at least Eve did.

"Now please tell me you have a freezer with stuff in it?"

"In the garage..." he mumbled. His eyes to the floor, his foot toeing the floorboards and his hands likely holding each other behind his back.

"Go empty it. Bring everything up here. We need to slow her body down. Let's save your mum, 'kay?"

With a nod, the boy scampered off.

The knife was in the lower back... probably shouldn't have much in terms of vital organs? So I just have to keep her from bleeding out before help arrives.

'Yeah, totally feasible... hopefully.'

"Please tell me help's almost here. We can't let them die."

Whatever happened here, Bucky wasn't going to turn into a killer. He didn't want to be one, so he's not going to be one. Not when I got Eve who could help me shuffle money around to fly this under the radar, and if need be Amber, who's able to pull medical miracles like nobody's business.

Bucky's not going to be a killer today.

I pulled at the mother, until her legs were on the bed and upper half was off the bed.

'Am... I doing this right...? Keep the wound above the heart... yeah?'

"You should have never ordered me to inform you when Sergeant Barnes runs into any trouble. You shouldn't have left the house. He could have killed you. They've seen his face, and now they know you exist. The only thing that didn't go wrong here is that you managed to keep the child here. Better than having him screaming down the street."

I huffed, opening a drawer and grabbing one of the shirts to gather up the broken window glass. "Not the time. Still need to keep them alive. Not turning him into a killer."

"They saw his face," Eve insisted. "The boy saw yours, if the conversation I hear was anything to go by."

I understood perfectly at what she was getting at. That this would be a whole lot simpler if none of them were alive. The dead were easier to silence.

Disappearing them and fixing the window before anybody's the wiser. That's probably our bet. They wouldn't be found to tell anyone about us, and they wouldn't be dead. Win-win.

"Someone's put in a call about the broken window.... This is not going as planned...."

'Fuck.'

Disappearing them was no longer viable. Had to stomp out the curiosity to peek out of the window. Eve's covering outside and I'm her eyes on the inside.

"Put them into a coma until we're in the clear or something," I decided. That should shut the adults up at the very least. "Does the kid have someone he can stay with?"

"...I'd rather make an uncle. Keep an eye on him and not uproot his life too much. Let him visit the hospital. Should make him more cooperative with us."

"Sounds like a plan."

"He's a child. He's bound to talk."

"I might be able to buy his silence."

Tossing the glass outside the broken window, I spotted the kid returning into the room with an armful of frozen produce.

"Avoid the knife. Pile it on her."

"Who are you?" the boy demanded, carefully placing the pack of ice on his mother.

"Nobody. You'll be going to your uncle's."

"...I don't have an uncle."

"You do now. He'll take care of you, and we'll take care of your mum."

"What about him?" That kid did not like the man with the caved in face at all.

"You forget about me and the man who was here, and you'll never have to see this guy again. How does that sound?"

"Daddy, he won't hurt Mommy anymore...?"

"Yup, as long as you don't say anything about this morning. We were never here. All that happened was your parents got into a fight. You didn't see anything. Deal?"

He nodded, rubbing at his eyes.

'Ah shit. He's crying. I don't deal with crying people,' I thought, kneeling down in front of the boy.

But then, he turned tail and ran right out of the room. "I'm getting more food!"

"And I'll keep tossing glass...."

Discreetly... somehow.... Make it seem like someone didn't break in. That it was the maybe fake domestic fight that broke the glass.

Unexpectedly, fingers wrapped around my calf.

"The fu–Shit!"

Throwing glass at the guy was not... of any help. Nor was my head bouncing off the floorboards. With my world spinning, it probably was only a matter of time before he made my good ankle match the bum one with all the yanking.

Instinctively, my hand groped blindly at the floor for anything I could use to whack him with or something to stop my body from being dragged. When I finally managed to find my crutch, I swung only to have it caught in the wall. Slammed right through the drywall and got caught on a stud.

"Oh, bloody hell."

Before I could free the stupid metal support of mine, fat fingers wrapped around my neck. Fingers with the full weight of a man screaming down at me.

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Author's Note:

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