Author's Note:

A huge thanks to aereul for editing the chapters thus far. She's also the one who encouraged me to write this story when I planned out the story with no plans to actually write it.

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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!" a male voice boomed from below. From the first floor. Someone was in the house. At 0259.

"Daddy! How are you?" the young woman chirped.

Her voice higher than usual. Almost too cheerfully. Maybe a warning to stay away.

"Hi, Mum! I hope things are well."

I couldn't help but tense up. Searching for potential places to hide.

Running for it. That wasn't an option. Hydra was out there.

But in here, her parents. They'd turn me in.

She should have turned me in.

"We're well," the male, likely her father, stated. "Baku is beautiful as always. You should come here some time. Maybe on an assignment. You'd enjoy it."

"Okay."

"How is everything? Did you manage to bring in Wegner?"

"Wegner's on board."

"Mr. Barnes, please calm down. They're not actually in the house," the A.I. ghost whispered in the room I've been sleeping in. Using the closest speaker to me. "It's something akin to a telephone call. So long as they don't know you're here, everything will be fine."

"Daddy is proud of you. I knew you would be able to bring him into the company."

Curiosity got the better of me. My legs moved of their own accord.

"Mr. Barnes?"

What else had phone calls become?

The dial turned into buttons on a screen. Wires were no longer much of a thing. And they were so much smaller. They fit in a pocket.

But at this volume, it wasn't something people would put against their ears.

"Eve told us you were almost kidnapped again," this time a woman's voice rung through. Probably her mother. "You had us so worried. Are you hurt?"

For a brief second, our eyes met.

Panic.

Pure panic in those gray eyes.

Her hand next to the laptop flicked out. Likely dismissing me. Before going back to insistent drumming.

"Uhhh dislocated my ankle...?" the young woman mumbled.

"You're always so reckless."

The young woman's hand fisted into white knuckled grip. Eyes trained on the screen in front of her.

Suddenly, her muscles in her arm twitched. Sending the chair she was balanced on backwards. She took the fall. On purpose.

"What are we going to do with you?" her father asked. A sigh in his voice.

From under the table, the young woman wildly waved me towards the living room. There was nothing happy in her face. Nor her body language. Just absolute panic.

"Eve says there are people still after me..." she muttered. Pulling herself up with the furniture.

Feeling her urgency, I silently made it into the living room. Pink letters were displayed on the black television screen.

Whatever you do, stay in here and do not make a sound, Mr. Barnes.

"At least you don't have anything lined up at the moment," this time her mother.

Then her father joined in. "Keep out of the news. We're at a crucial juncture. We cannot afford bad press."

"Do you understand, Val? Whatever happens, this does not get out."

"We don't need a repeat of when you were 8."

The young woman nodded. Sighed with a shoulder sagging.

"I'm 24 now. Not 8. You're not going to find my face plastered all over the news covered in blood again."

"Watch your tone, young lady," her mother snapped. "After all we've done for you."

"Sorry...." The young woman's hand twisted. A finger drawing a circle in the air behind the laptop.

"Sorry to interrupt. But time is running out for this line."

"Mummy and Daddy loves you!" her father chirped.

"Love you too."

Then silence.

An almost suffocating silence.

Nothing like the times on that bench in the park.

A loud snap rang through the rooms. She slammed the laptop shut.

"...That is not indestructible, Val. Neither is your head.... Hey, stop bashing it on the laptop."

The young woman laid there. Still. Half atop the table. Her hands clenched so tightly in fists.

"At least I get a vacation...? Woohoooooooo...."

"Sarcasm isn't going to win you any points."

When the pink text faded. It meant I could speak, right?

"What happened when you were 8?" I asked. Kept my voice a whisper. Just in case.

Her head popped up. Pale eyes staring at me. Drained and exhausted.

Not leaning towards disapproval.

I was allowed to ask questions now.

It's nice.

I was learning a lot faster. About the modern day. I was clearly missing pieces.

But, I doubted she meant her words to this extent. That she'd answer all my question.

With each silent second that passed. Her lips pressed into a thin line.

She stood up. Using a chair to help her into the room I sat in.

"That was the first time I was kidnapped," she huffed. Dropping onto the couch to sit on my left. "I had security with me at that time. Didn't matter.... They were completely overwhelmed after the car crash...."

"Must have been terrifying." The words tumbling out of me. On some instinct.

Probably the right thing to say. Judging by the small smile she sent me.

Her shoulders shrugged. "It probably helped a bunch I conked my head and was passed out through most of it. None of it really sunk in until one of them tried to cut off my ear? When I tried to escape. They did only have a couple of people watching me...."

I couldn't help but check her ears. She had both of them.

She folded her left ear forwards. Turning her body to show me. "Got sewn back together and tattooed to hide the scar."

"I don't see a tattoo." Merely a barely raised line running down the back of her ear.

"That's the point. It's my skin tone. Almost like it never happened. And... uhh... a sniper exploded the guy's head before he completely severed my ear? So that probably reduced the cleanup?"

"You have snipers?" I asked.

"Yeah? But that wasn't one of ours."

"We mostly use snipers to consult on our security services. If they can find a way to kill the target, then we haven't done our job. If you're ever looking for work, Mr. Barnes, we could always use your skills. Breaking our systems and setups."

"Eve," the young woman next to me sighed. An apologetic smile on her face.

It was still baffling.

That they could see any use for a monster. A killing machine. For something other than my purpose.

The opposite of it. To protect.

Maybe someday.

Maybe someday that would be possible.

"He is one of the best assassins in the world. He'd find holes we'd never think – "

"Anyways," the young woman quickly cut in, when I shifted on the couch, "the window was shattered from the shot, so I was able to crawl out.

"Ended up in the middle of a busy shopping center... which got me all over the news. 'Cause a kid from a well-known family found covered in blood is such excitement.... But maybe most of the blood wasn't mine...?"

She pulled a tired smile.

"'Tis the Ayers family tradition. To be whisked away. We try to stop what we can, but we've all been taken before. Playing defense is pretty difficult. Actually, I'm unsure about Gramps. Maybe he hasn't? Do you know Eve?"

"Does the war count? From his stories, his entire family was taken. As for the period between the war and when I came along, I do not know."

She shrugged. The movement almost as carefree as it normally was.

"There's even assassination attempts. My brother and I haven't yet had to face that fun notion...."

She pulled up her legs. Arm wrapping around them.

"The two of you are more useful as bargaining chips."

"As if they'd ever get anything that way," the young woman huffed. "We wouldn't be the best if a little kidnapping was a fucking hole. Idiots."

She tried to stifle a yawn against her knees.

"Sleep." I tilted my head. Motioning to the stairs.

The young woman shook her head. Curling up tighter into a ball. "My nerves are too fried for that. How about you? Why are you up so early?"

"I have another hour. Before sleep."

Something I wasn't looking forward to either.

The wall of faces.

All of them... likely have met an end at my hands. There were far too many.

"How's the leg?" she asked softly.

"Mostly healed." It wasn't even going to scar. As if it was never there. And it's only been 39 hours. "...I'm a monstrosity."

"Hey, now. Don't be so harsh on yourself, Bucky. We can't be both hobbling about the house, right?" she said. Her voice light and calming. "At least one of us should be able to run at a moment's notice."

I flinched at the movement of fabric. Shifting over the metal of arm.

"Sorry, did that hurt?" the young woman asked. Hand retreating. Eyes looking up at me. Seemingly so innocent.

I was starting to doubt that she was as carefree as she usually carried herself.

I shook my head. "No...."

The pain was mostly from the damage done.

"You'll get shocked again," I muttered.

"Oh that was fine. I've tased myself before. A lot. Even with the taser Gramps' built me. Curiosity got the better of me....

"The little contraption walks the fine line of stopping a heart and knocking a guy out. It's pretty nifty. Adjusts itself to the person. Still a bad idea to tase a guy with a pacemaker though."

"You...." I sighed heavily. Shaking my head.

She laughed with a carefree wave. "Was not the brightest kid.... May I take a look? At your arm."

Reluctantly, I nodded. Pushing the deadly weapon towards her. She was eventually going to help fix it. She'd see it if that was to happen.

As she rolled up the sleeve, I wanted to squirm away from her light touch. Every movement was gentle. Careful. So very foreign.

She held it like it was something delicate. That it would break. That it wasn't some killing machine. Made with metal. Soaked in blood.

A shiver raced up my spine when her fingers fluttered across the arm. Tracing the thin line of space between the plates.

She shuffled herself closer. Resting the weapon on her legs.

Tentatively, she worked off the glove.

Elbow nose. Cave in skull. Target incapacitated.

I wanted to run.

A barely familiar sensation of a hand sliding against mine registered in my mind. Fleeting. Before disappearing like smoke.

She moved onto folding and unfolding the fingers.

I could easily resist her puppeteering. Crush the hand in mine. But I went with it. Watching the curiosity grow in her.

"What are you – "

"Shhhh," she hushed. Reclaiming the little space I had made. Placing her ear where the red star was once more.

Her fingers tangled with mine.

I could feel my heartbeat racing at my ears.

'What the hell was she doing?'

Then she moved the hand. Side to side. Over and over again.

She rotated the wrist a few times.

I could feel her head nod against the metal shoulder. Those long locks brushing against the sensors.

I couldn't handle it any longer and shifted away. Just enough to calm myself.

She didn't seem to notice. Almost automatically settling back against the couch cushions.

She hummed. Lips twisting in thought. Her hands were rested on the forearm. A finger tapping insistently.

"The plates all feel fine. No dents. Not even a scratch," she whispered so quietly. Probably to herself.

She didn't seem aware of my hearing range.

"Hmm, there's at least couple of things loose in there."

"What?"

How could she possibly know that?

The arguments between Eve and her. She couldn't have figured out much. Not from just moving the arm around.

"Huh?"

She turned her attention on me. Those gray eyes bright and clearly awake. A warm smile on her face.

"Your arm is seriously complicated, Bucky. But we've been tinkering around with cybernetic body parts for years now. A pet project. Been mostly trying to make it affordable. So your arm's not completely foreign?

"Holy shit, are these...? Wow. They didn't pull any stops on this, huh?"

Her attention drawn away by the weapon folded on her knees. Two of her fingers rested on a plate. A third tapped right next to it.

"I wonder if it's an alloy or pure Vibrani – Yewouch."

I quickly pulled my arm back. Resting it on my lap. Yanking down the sleeve to cover more of it. It was a particularly nasty shock.

The half giggle she gave. It helped ease my need to jab something sharp in my leg.

She sat there. Smiling around the finger in her mouth. A watchful glint to her eyes.

I snatched the glove she held out to me. Shoved my hand inside. Gritting my teeth as it spasmed again.

It completely erased my need for pain. I was getting it through this arm.

"When will the tools arrive, Eve?" the young woman asked.

"Two weeks maximum. It's been a tad difficult to sneak them out. But you'll be able to keep them."

"I don't think we'd need replacement parts, and I doubt we could get those under the radar or even find...."

A big yawn cut off her words.

"I think I should turn in. Good night, Bucky."

I nodded in response. Watching her push the chair she had designated as her crutch. Heading for the staircase.

The lights in the dining room turned off. Leaving me in the dim lighting of the family room.

It's been one confounding conversation after another. Welling up unease in the pit of my gut.

When the faucet in the master bathroom turned on, an excited giggle rang from the speakers of the room I was in.

"I was starting to lose hope that I'd see that side of her again. You just might be more useful than I calculated. I thought she was going to play dumb this whole time."

"What are you talking about?"

I was in for another confusing exchange of words, wasn't I?

"Whisper, Mr. Barnes."

'I give up.'

I had enough in my own mind to figure out.

"I'm going to sleep," I told the A.I. ghost and got up from the couch. But her next words froze me in place.

"You might despise that arm, Mr. Barnes. A tool for killing. Figured you have to live with it if you want to survive Hydra's hunt. To free your mind of them. But it doesn't have to be merely a weapon."

"What are you going on about?" I seethed in the quietest whisper I could muster.

The anger swelling inside me. Pain shot through my nerves. Screaming for me to release the clenched fists.

"Your arm may be what's needed to return a piece that's been – "

"Eve!! Fucking shut the hell up!!!" the young woman yelled from behind a closed door. A thud against the wall sounded off her temper.

"You do realize that's not going to hurt anybody but yourself, right? I don't have nerves," said through a speaker from upstairs.

The two of them were going to start bickering again.

Whatever it was that they were skirting around. I probably shouldn't even attempt to prod with a ten foot pole.

And there they went.

It was almost too easy to drown the argument with the horrors of my own mind.

Settling next to my room window, I stared out of it.

The perfect vantage point for the street. It eased my mind when nothing moved outside. No shifting shadows.

Meant I was safe.

For now.

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Author's Note:

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