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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"What's in the envelope?"

Eve even cut off the folky Pinoy song playing in my ear to grab my attention. At least she didn't blast the volume and give me hearing damage. That would disturb Bucky, and neither of us wanted to disturb the sleeping man.... Probably neither of us.

Kept everything calm. Calm songs. Calm whispered voices. Calm driving. Calm.

Hopefully, that helped keep away anything that could trigger a nightmare.

"What's in the envelope with Father's embossing on it?"

"Oh, thank fuck Sparks found it. Is she delivering it?" Tension released in the back of my head. One of many worries somewhat dealt with. Maybe.

"Mmm."

I froze. Barely dared to move more than that was needed not to crash the car.

Eve even shut up.

Bucky....

My eyes kept darting back to Bucky's sleeping form for a twitch or another sleepy hum. Seconds ticked by with nothing.

Asleep, he looked even younger. More so with that clean shaved face of his. A burden seemingly gone from him. His lips no longer tipped towards a frown. His brows no longer tried to touch each other. His shoulders no longer sagged in his attempt to become smaller, smaller than me.

Though his bottom lip was still slightly pouty from how much he chewed on it this morning... and last night... and probably all of yesterday while I was passed out. His fancy healing factor hadn't been able to keep up with the gnawing.

'Shit, keep eyes on the road, dumb dumb.'

"...You still haven't answered the question. What's in the envelope, Val? It's in your 'secret don't let Eve know what we're saying' language," she started up after a minute or some.

Not seeing any signs of waking from Bucky, I quickly hissed back, "Is she delivering it?"

"...Yes, the embossing on the envelope guarantees that. As you know."

'I... I can't believe my forging passed inspection. At least one thing is going right.'

"There are a few things to it, and yes, you're going to get your limitations readjusted again. And before you start whining –"

"I do not whine."

"– it should make some of your movements in regard to me easier? So long as Bucky's around."

"...Loopholes are beautiful things."

"That they are."

"You need to wake him up. Now."

"Huh? 'Kay? Umm, Bucky?"

With a shoulder check, I pulled onto the side of the highway and rolled down his window for some fresh air. Anything to remind him that he wasn't waking up in Hydra's hands.

"Come on, beautiful. Wake up."

The peaceful face contorted, brow furrowing. His teeth ground together, the sound grating on my ears. His arms struggled with the blankets wrapped around him.

"Bucky, wake up," I tried in a firm voice. I dare not shake his arm or poke at him.

Blue eyes snapped open, wide and panicked, searching the surroundings. He homed in on me in a blink, hands frantically moving under the blankets.

Another heartbeat passed, and I was staring down a barrel.

'...Huh.... 'Kay...?'

I showed him my empty palms. Had barely any sleeves to hide anything but my shoulders. I did what I could to keep the tension out of my muscles and posture. Relaxed. Everything should be relaxed and calm. I made doubly sure to move slowly. No sudden movements. That would be bad.

Still, I couldn't help the nervous smile tugging at my lips. Kept my teeth hidden in case some primal instincts took that as a snarl, an aggression. My mind was a scrambled mess, clawing at whatever information I could remember about how not to come off as a threat.

"I come in peace?"

Those pupils dilated for a breath and he quickly dropped the dart gun from my face. "Sorry. I – I'm so –"

"Hey, Bucky? No harm done. All's good."

"...."

He moved to unbundle himself, to which he shifted the blankets back in place semi shrinking into them. The lower half of his face even disappeared behind the layers of fabric.

A grumbling filled the car and Bucky sank further into the blankets. The noise didn't stop, and as it went on, the pinker his face got. His arms crossed over his tummy. As if that would block the sounds.

I turned down the A.C. fan with one hand while trying to reach behind Bucky's seat. Plucking a paper bag off the ground, I placed it on his lap.

"Not sure how good the sandwiches are now.... Bought them a couple of hours ago? They're not as yummy as the food truck's but it's something."

The speed in which he opened the wrapper and tore through half the first sandwich had me thinking that he could probably win an eating contest or two. Probably still come out hungry.

'Is he even chewing?' I had to wonder. "...You didn't eat yesterday either, huh?"

I certainly forgot... until a couple of hours ago.

Bucky paused, struggling to pull the sandwich from his face and look at me. Struggling and barely succeeding.

"Eat. Not saying you can't," I said, motioning for him to continue and carefully pulling back onto the road. "There's a box of doughnuts too. It's uhh... back there... somewhere. And here's some water before you –"

Bucky knocked on his chest coughing around the food in his mouth and scrambled for the bottle of water I held out to him, gulping the whole thing down.

"...choke.... Maybe slow down a tad? Nobody's going to take the food from you. We can stop at the next food place to grab more. You probably shouldn't be skipping meals with that muscle mass. People keep talking about how skipping meals is generally a bad practice."

"And yet you keep skipping far too many meals."

I shrugged her off. "I'm not made of pure muscles or that other thingy."

"Enhanced... the fucking word is enhanced."

"Yeah that thingy, so Bucky most definitely needs a lot more of that thing than me...."

"Calories. Or nutrients. Or food. Use your words, Val. Any other words besides thing and thingy."

'...Wait. What? How is he on the doughnuts already?'

And now he was staring at me, a question playing on his face. This man's... probably part puppy.... Definitely part puppy....

Only one doughnut left in the box. Last of what was ten.

With a laugh, I nodded. "We can get more at the next Timmies. Or better yet. Eve, are we going to be going by a Krispy Kreme. Please tell me there's one on the way."

"We passed a few back when Sparks was driving."

"A few...."

"Yes. A few."

"I'll drive," Bucky stated while sucking the sugar off his fingers.

"Huh?"

"I'm rested. Slept for... eleven hours? You should have woken me up earlier."

"No. No, I couldn't."

He looked so damn peaceful that no. Just no. Waking him up was not an option.

"I was too busy trying not to buy more blankets to bundle you up in... which I failed.... Pulled all of the spares from the back, and yeah... I tried resisting?"

"...."

I pulled over anyway. My everything was exhausted. Could use the break and maybe a nap. A nap sounded really tempting, satisfying even, right about now.

He stepped out of the car and I, being a lazy ass, decided climbing over with my unhappy bones was a smart idea. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't.

But curling up on the pile of blankets in the passenger seat heated by one sleeping Bucky was relaxing, to say the least. Pretty sure the seat's hotter than if I had turned on the heated seat function. It'd be perfect in the winter. Not so much the summer.

As he adjusted the driver seat to fit a 6'1" frame, I fiddled with the car temperature settings since wrapping him in blankets while he was driving would be one of my dumber ideas.

'Oh! Hoodie!'

There was one in the back.

"Valeriy?" I heard Bucky calling out, his head popping up to scan over the roof of the car while I scrambled about to the trunk.

"Pop the back. Going to grabbing something." I tugged out just what I was looking for. A warm hoodie, plain in colour and patterning. Solid grey.

As much as I couldn't understand it, some people wore the same damn hoodie all year around. No matter how cold or hot the weather was. So he probably wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb...? It'd keep him warm in air conditioning and hide that shiny cybernetic. So that's a... win?

It was almost immediate, how fast he slipped into the hoodie. It barely had a chance to sail through the air. Bucky snatched it right out of the air and flung it on... in what looked like one smooth motion....

"Thank you," he said, zipping it up and pulling out onto the road as I resettled onto the seat with six blankets piled onto it.

"No problem." A bright grin on my face. "Hey, Eve?"

"What?"

"Mind turning off all the mics? I'll text you when you can listen in again."

"...I don't like this."

"Me neither. But this isn't something you're should hear."

"Fine.... There. I've blown out my own ears."

And then silence.

I had no idea where to start. Or if I should start.

"...What is it?" Bucky asked after a long minute of me not saying a thing.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "You deserve answers if you're going to stick around.... I'll answer any questions you have. Not that I know much of anything."

It went against everything I knew, to trust somebody else with information. Useful information. Information they shouldn't have. I had half a mind to open the door and roll out of the moving car. Avoid this situation altogether.

His fingers adjusted on the steering wheel. An almost wary air about him. "Were you.... That night... were you supposed to be kidnapped thirty nights ago?"

I guess he picked up whatever reaction I gave when Sparks asked that particular question. Hopefully, he's the only one who could read me so well. Of all things, I never thought I'd have to work on my secret keeping and lying skills.

"I don't know.... I can't confirm anything? I don't even know what Jekyll's involvement is. All I found was a message about picking up cookie dough passed through their servers. The guy who got the message is diabetic. As is his wife. No kids either. That and no actual cookie dough was picked up from any store by anyone involved with that message...."

"...Diabetic.... She can find out if somebody's diabetic?!" Bucky's hand waved about the air towards the car speakers.

'He still thinks she's a ghost... doesn't he?' I so badly wanted to grasp onto that topic instead. "Medical records are pretty easy to get at. I didn't even need Eve to get them this time, minus the part where I kind of used her hacking programs.... I can probably find out more if I terrorize my way up the chain, but I want to stay under the radar."

The less they thought I knew, the better. If they thought they were still completely unknown, the less careful they'd be, and the more I could do under their noses. Or so I hoped.

"My code name... it's not known outside of the family, Security Department and Eve's Puppets.... The fact that they know I'm Cookie Dough should be a piece of info I could at least trace to a leak. But nope. I don't know what this whole shit storm is about. I can't even find who is behind this....

"I even checked my usual haunts. Most of them now have a new regular with a lovely concealed side arm.... Haven't been able to find a whisper of their orders. Jekyll isn't a company with the means to have someone with cleanup skills on par with Eve... at least not when I poked around their systems back in April.... Information has never been this scarce for me...."

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Author's Note:

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