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The alleyway gave way to a main road. Empty and completely hidden from the lack of working street lamps. Couldn't doubt the A.I. ghost was behind it. From the helicopter, it could be easily passed over in the darkness of the night.

I stayed in the alleyway, checking for an ambush. Eyeing the semi-truck parked directly across from us. No one in the cabin. No movements anywhere on the street.

"Get in the truck already. The road's clear. You're wasting time."

With a mildly irritated huff at how relaxed they suddenly sound, I adjusted Valeriy's weight on my shoulder and quickly crossed the open area. Stuck close to the side of the crate to minimize our profile.

"We're not driving this monster. To the back," the young woman pointed out and I turned on a heel, hurrying my steps. "We're cargo. Assuming this is one of our trucks. I sure hope you like hot and cramped...."

An icy blast of air slapped me in the face when I swung open the truck door.

My heart drop down to my stomach. Barely even felt my feet stumbling back a step.

Didn't even register the body that fell off mine until a face blocked the horrid sight. Warm hands settled on either side of my face. Pressing into my cheeks. Enough to distract me from the frozen bodies hanging from meat hooks.

"Hey, eyes here, Buddy. Eyes here. We need to get insi –"

I shook my head, backing away from the cold air spilling out. "Please.... I can – I can protect you. I promise. I'll do anything. Please don't freeze me again.... I can protect you...."

"You were frozen...? What? They had cryonics worked out so long ago? The hell?"

"Please. I'll be good. I'llbegood. I'llbegoodI'lldoanything. V –"

"Shhhh."

A hand covered my mouth, and I instantly stopped my words. As the silent order demanded. Had to be good. If I was good enough this time... maybe... maybe I won't be frozen....

"You're not going to get frozen, 'kay? But we need to go through there. It's about thirty seconds of cold and then it'll be all toasty, 'kay?"

That had to be a lie. The container's a damn freezer. Nothing warm about it.

"And yeah, the cows look really demented... so just keep your eyes on me, 'kay?"

Her hand dropped to mine, tugging on it. Trying to pull me closer to the cold. The other trying to slip back into a glove. The mangled fingers being uncooperative.

"Twenty seconds. You don't have time."

A wince passed over her features as she stripped out of her hoodie. "I'm sorry for this." She pulled the warmed fabric over my shoulders, holding onto the front together and tugging the hood over my head. "Get to the back of the freezer and wait for me."

And with those orders, I had no choice but to step into the cold.

As she paused at the door, I hurried to the back, weaving through all the skinned bodies. With the thundering heartbeat in my ears, I could barely catch a creak of the door closing but definitely heard the metal on metal clang of the door sliding into place. Drove home that I was stuck in here. In the cold.

"He's been out of cryo too long."

A light lit up the darkness. Moving straight at me. Strapped to the side of the young woman racing between the bodies.

On the last meter, she dropped to her knees, sliding right into the wall next to me. Her hands shoved upwards, pushing a panel to reveal another compartment. "You'll warm right up in there. Not going to let you freeze. Just give me the rifle fir –"

I scrambled for the hole. The Nemesis too long for the opening. Pinned me outside when all I wanted was out of this cold. At a click, the rifle strap unclipped, and I fell into the hidden compartment. Scrambled for the back. As far as I could get away from the freezer.

The compartment was tiny. Didn't even have the width to fit my shoulders. Even if I hunched them together. Barely had the height if I didn't slouch as much as I could.

She wasn't joking about it being 'toasty.' It was damn near suffocating. I couldn't feel any of the cold air from the open hole a mere 71 centimeters away from my face.

I couldn't hear much beyond the mechanical hum that muffled everything my ears could pick up. Made my world that much smaller. Narrowed it down to just the truck.

"Put him back into cryo."

Valeriy tossed her phone inside with a loud clatter. The ceiling of the tiny compartment lit up. Elastic straps crisscrossed the surface. She tucked her pack and the Nemesis above them. Securing them out of the way.

Took everything in me not to fight my way out at the roar of the engine. A sway of the truck and it started moving. Driving.

Somebody was up front driving.

Music blared loudly around us. Screaming and thumping. I could feel it from the walls and floor. Beating against me. And my world became a 103 centimeters by 82 centimeters by 49 centimeters compartment.

"Get inside already."

A rough turn had Valeriy tumbling in. Her legs curled up. Hers hands batted at the metal sheet wall.

I couldn't help the full body flinch at the loud bang of the hidden panel falling into place. Or the second bang of my head colliding with the far too low ceiling. Both bangs hidden by the music.

"So... I remember this being slightly roomier last time I had to share one of these compartments.... How are you hol –?"

Valeriy's head lolled back. Gray eyes staring up at me. That couldn't be good for her neck. For the cut. For her spine.

"– Oh, you are not okay. You are so not okay."

A mess of limbs flopped about until she managed to face me. Somewhat. Pressed up against the far wall. Legs tangled over and under mine. Part of one was even stuck up over my shoulder. Boot braced against the metal until a squeak of rubber screeched at my ear.

"You'll warm up. You're not going to freeze," she assured, grabbing onto my ankle. Above the sock and under the pant leg.

A frown, a clench of her mangled fist and a nod later, she was back to the limb flailing. There wasn't much room for it.

"What are you trying to...?" I managed to get out before an elbow hit my jaw and her bottom dropped onto my lap. "Val – ...?"

"You'll warm up. I'm sorry. Won't let you freeze. I'm so sorry. It'll be warm. I'm so sorry Bucky," she practically chanted over and over again. Her voice coming through the earpiece in a whisper.

It only took three seconds to freeze.

Her back sank against my front, following the curve of my slouch. Her hands frantic between rubbing up and down the sides of my legs, my arm as well as the metal one, and cupping my face. The usual light, gentle touch of hers nowhere to be felt. Rough, pushing into my flesh as if to confirm that was where I was. But still far from the pain of Hydra.

At my shiver from all the contact, her movements sped up. Practically smacking me in the face in her rush.

'She can't even feel the temperature, can she...?'

"You'll warm up."

Being mindful to keep the metal arm away from her, I gathered her wayward hands. She fought it for a second. Likely not realizing I had one of her hands until she couldn't move it.

She finally stilled. Letting me hold onto the wrist of her injured one.

"I'm not cold," I told her.

Three long seconds of burning pain.

Again, her head rolled her neck into a bad position. Resting it against my shoulder so she could stare up at me. "I'm sorry."

I shook my head at her.

For the first time in my shattered memories, I didn't feel cold. Not the cold in my surroundings. Not the cold deep in my chest. Not the cold of the arm fused to my side.

A moment of warmth in the suffocating hot box. Cared for and not alone.

"We'll get you out of this. They won't get you," Valeriy assured. Not that she could be sure of it. No matter how confident she sounded.

"Your neck's going to break if you keep doing that." But that felt like the least of our problems.

She lifted her head to stare in front and took a deep breath. Her body tensing as if expecting a hit. "What's –" A heavy sigh escaped her. "...What's the damage?"

"One B.M.W. i3 and a few bricks. That's about it. Clean up is mostly finished. As if nothing ever happened. I'll have a professional come in the morning to double check the building's structural integrity after that crash. My safehouse passed Hydra inspections."

"The bomb?"

"Unhappy residents were woken up. I should be able to sweep it under the rug as a gas leak with a dash of U.F.O. conspiracy. Should cover any instances you two. Hydra being perceived as the men in black is an easy spin."

"Coulson?"

"He and his team are all cured and got away from Hydra. Didn't manage to find blood or hair samples from him. He's the only one who's seen you tonight and will remember. If he spends some time on your interaction tonight, and he will, only a matter of time before he concludes who poisoned his agents."

"Mind running interference for that?"

"I don't have the permissions for that."

At the side of her head, her fingers twitched a couple of times, and her body slumped with a sigh. "...You will.... And the kid?"

"The kid and his family are already on route to the new destination safe from Hydra."

"The dead?"

"None thus far. As for the two of you, you'll make it out of this if you learn to be quiet. Overall, not bad."

"Not bad?" I repeated. Annoyed. Tired of how everything seemed to be a joke to them. "I can't believe we made it this far."

I had half a mind to think all this had been dreamt up.

That I was thawing out. Still stuck with Hydra.

That I never escaped.

That St... that he wasn't alive.

That she was never real.

That this was all but a dream.

"We're up against Hydra, and you're fooling around with Pacman games and running other objectives as if they weren't on our tail and you weren't being shot at."

"Bucky, we don't –"

"Do you have any idea what you're up against?"

"K –"

"You almost died tonight."

"Yeah, but I didn't –"

"Would you have...?"

Valeriy carefully shifted off me, curling up into a ball against the far wall. Roughly dragging her sleeve across her face. "Would I have...?"

"Killed them.... Would you have killed them? Would you have given him the antidote if he didn't cooperate? Would you have run over that man if I didn't knock him out?"

I couldn't help the wince at how it looked when she ran her clearly injured hand through her hair. The crack of a bone shifting in her right hand mostly muffled by all the sounds around us.

Her face disappeared into the crook of her elbow. A sniffle crossed through the earpiece, and I doubt the A.I. ghost would or could sniffle. A shaky inhale later, the young woman ground out, "Empty threats are dumb, and I wasn't bluffing about the poison."

"...You don't want blood on your hands, Valeriy. It's not a game you can hit restart and undo...."

But how I wished it were. A simple little button and all those lives spare from my hands. Everything undone.

"They have families. People who care –"

"Save the lecture, Bucky," she huffed, refusing to look at me. "You're too late.... Years too late."

"You can't predict everything. With the job you do, you're bound to lose a couple of people. It's not the same as –"

Even in the dim light, I could see those pale gray eyes when they turned to me. Begging me to stop. Tears screaming out that there was so much more to all this.

"Can't un-know things, so be careful what you ask."

Did I want to know?

And I found myself wondering if there wasn't always a world's distance between her and the physical location of whoever she was supposed to protect. That she was at ground zero and right in the thick of it.

Or that maybe she didn't have the easiest escapes from her previous captors they've mentioned.

Or that she could actually bloody her hands. Like she had tried tonight. To protect me of all things.

Did I really want to know that?

"...Just so you know, you're coming up to a Hydra perimeter roadblock."

"Does the driver know of us?" I asked, taking the change of topics.

"Nope. He thinks his radio is broken. You two better learn how to shut your mouths. You have one second. And I'm sorry. Light's out."

As the light went out, I surged forward. Covering Valeriy's mouth with metal. Forcing her jaw shut barely in time to stifle a scream. Wrapping my arm around her neck when she started to struggle. Locking her limbs into place with my legs. Squeezing down when she tried to fight back.

Crush neck. Target incapacitated.

The truck rolled to a stop. 18 seconds ticked by and the engine was killed. The music stopped. What once deafened me could have been our cover. Now there was barely a hum to cover a bump against a metal sheet or a scream from revealing our hiding place.

When the young woman's pushing didn't work, nails dug into my leg that pinned hers. The mangled hand barely able to use any strength. But it still tried.

A clank and then a creak sounded before footsteps echoed along the metal. Growing louder and louder. Closer and closer.

Break ribs. Target incapacitated.

Her fingers lightly tapped against my leg. Two taps in quick sessions. Over and over again. Oddly soothing. Tugging on habits long forgotten to let her go.

I fought the instincts. As trained. Squeezed down tighter. Stilling her insistent shifting. One wrong move on our part and we would be heard.

I could tell exactly where the person was. Walking along the back wall. The wall right between to us. His feet 13 centimeters away. Approaching. I could hear a gloved hand sliding across the metal surface. 81 centimeters above.

Keep pressure. Target incapacitated.

"It's clean. Anything show up on the scans?" I managed to catch over the mechanical hum. Steps pattering out faster than it did coming in.

"I do hope you haven't killed the girl."

Her words as cold as the ice flooding through my veins.

"I'm not seeing or hearing much. Not even breathing."

I quickly loosened my grip on the young woman. Still pinning her down. Waiting for the screaming to start up in the darkness. For the struggles to give us away.

Nothing.

Only my racing heartbeat thundering in my ears and a faint movement of her lungs taking in air.

She's alive.

I hadn't killed her.

Not yet.

Before I could do her more harm, I let her go.

Her head made no attempt to stop itself from rolling into an uncomfortable angle. She had to be out cold.

It felt like an eternity before the metal on metal sound of the closing door. Before the engine roared to life. Before the music shrank the world down to just this compartment.

An eternity contained in 7.6 seconds.

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Author's Note:

And that concludes the end of the first bit of Mosaic and the start of moving into the next bit.

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