Running Man

"On your left," Sam sighed as he received the familiar taunt once again (for the 2nd flippin' time in 7 minutes!)

"On your right," came the new addition to the onslaught of humour, as James Buchanan Barnes or "Bucky" came sprinting past him, his hair pulled back into a loose bun with stray locks falling around his face, and equipped with full running gear. He had taken to joining Sam and Steve on their morning jogging (or in their case sprinting) sessions; it appeared to be easy for Bucky to keep pace with Steve, and so came to be the double-barrelled taunts every. single. time.

"Yeah…very funny guys, it honestly gets better every time!" Sam puts on a futile effort to at least match their pace for a few strides but is once again disappointed as he feels their huge, powerful bounds eat up the ground in quick succession- pulling his chance further away from him.

"I…I…hang on...I ….phewwww…" His breath is ripped from him as he comes to a grinding halt, placing his hands onto his knees and attempting to catch his breath.

"You okay there Sam?!" Steve called over his shoulder as he continue on, his motherly concern shining through, only to be playfully scolded by Bucky who called back a response loud enough for Sam to hear,

"We can't be blamed if he can't keep up with two 95 year olds can we pal?"

It became apparent to Sam that he was never going to catch up and so resorted to good old insults,

"Oh that's right fossil face, keep running or I'm gonna' have to kick both your pensioned asses!"

All he could do was watch as the smirking super soldiers vanished around the corner of the Lincoln memorial.

It was at this precise moment that he realised something was amiss, something strange or out of place. Daily, he ran this route and daily meant that he had all but memorised every path and nook or cranny. So why was he so suddenly struck by such an uncomfortable feeling? It was almost as if his surroundings had shifted or changed.

"Hello?" He had absolutely no idea why he called out like that but honestly, he had no idea what else he was expected to do.

No response came.

For a moment he considered if it was one of those really fanatical fans of Cap's from his fight in New York, who sometimes just showed up out of nowhere and asked even for his autograph simply because Cap was his mate.

"Did you wanna see Cap or something?" Shaking his head in disbelief at why he thought that was a logical thing to ask, come on Sammy boy get a grip!

"Look, if you're out there I kind of wanna see you…" Okay, he wasn't going to lie but this was getting a little weird and perhaps he was kind of hoping that bit too much that Cap and Bucky would round the corner any second.

Come on, come on, come on you pair of slipper wearing freaks come on! Although he knew that I reality they would have only left about a twenty seconds and it might take them at least another 4 minutes before they would round the corner again.

Come on, come on!

Please say that what he just heard was not the click of a loaded magazine…

"Okay this is getting ridiculous, who's there!" Maybe he was getting a little hysterical now- a ridiculous notion seeing as this could very well be something as meaningless as a terrier in the undergrowth or something but everything he's dealt with lately made him kind of jumpy.

One last surveillance of his immediate surroundings told him that he should leave the area- courteous of his military training- and so began a slow and laboured walk in the same direction he knew that his two friends would come from, hoping to bump into them.

Yet even after leaving the spot that felt so alienated to him, he was still acutely aware of a certain shadow that wallowed in his own. Every step, every shift in balance and every glance was watched and followed.

Fed up and slightly unnerved the Falcon whirled around to meet the mysterious presence head on- he'd been trained to deal with worse!

"Whoever you are, and whoever you work for I don't care- just show yourself or stop following me!" He knew that was a gamble, shouting into thin air like a mad man, but he couldn't very well keep walking and do nothing.

Silence.

Do not falter Sammy boy, keep waiting.

Still silence.

Come on Steve, any time now would we great!

Still silence.

Then, "Can I have your autograph please?" In a voice so sweet you could make 50 pounds of Jam with it.

The voice had startled Sam as he now looked around frantically for the child's voice, until he realised that the child was simply below his eye line and knelt next to her small frame with a relieved smile on his face.

Reaching out towards him was a small hand, clutching a pad of paper and pen with a neat little inscription of 'autographs' in the top right corner of the small page.

"Wow, you gave me a scare then doll!" He took the paper and pen from her welcomingly, "now who do we have here? Karen? Sweet! I love the name Karen! So I'll write: to Karen, keep flying high, love your buddy Falcon, huh? Does that sound good to you?" The girl he knelt before nodded her head enthusiastically with the biggest and most grateful grin that he had ever seen.

It took less than a minute to scribble down what he said he would and rise to his feet again.

"Well you just made my day Karen!" He smoothed his hand lightly over her hair in affection and giggled at how she beamed up at him after his sudden shaky ordeal.

After bidding farewell they both went their separate ways-Karen had explained that her mother was at a shop not 100 metres away and that she was to meet her there- and Sam, feeling slightly revitalised, began a steady jog towards where he knew Steve and Bucky would soon emerge.

That was until he felt the sting.

It was acute, intense and effective.

The sting consumed him, became all that he knew.

Turning slowly, he found Karen standing firm a good 15 metres from him and Icer set rigidly in her hand.

"Hydra" ghosted over his lips as he felt the realisation take him into nothingness.

Karen or ребенок as she was tagged by her organisation saw the man fall to his knees and began the second part of her mission imperative- defend the man until extraction arrives.

Obviously she could not extract him herself, she was by far the youngest member of her agency and so was only suitable for distraction missions. Oh- but she was lucky though, he father was one of the officers in the extraction teams and so she got both early onset training and a good selection of important missions.

"Pебенок is he stable?" That was agent Henley- the extraction team must have arrived.

"He is sir." The young agent stepped aside to allow the ten men and women all clothed in black tactical gear to saunter past.

"Good work ребенок" one of the women called to her as she swept past- her older sister and only sibling спокойствие- meaning tranquillity.

Their family took pride in their rational and logical approach- always focused on the mission and nothing more.

It took less than one minute to extract the mission and vacate the area, just as the two soldiers rounded the corner.

He knew.

Bucky knew almost instinctively that something had happened. They hadn't passed Sam in a good 4 minutes and that wasn't right.

"Steve where is Sam?" Already Bucky's voice had become monotone and parallels that of the mind- set he was now adopting- the Asset.

Their pace had begun to slow to a walk as they both scanned the perimeter.

"Steve, he's gone. It's Hydra…" Steve wrenched his gaze away from the path to look at his friends darkened face, he knew that look- it was the look of the Asset.

"…they're back."

Next time…

"Bucky watch it!" Sam could just make out the vague outline of the Winter Soldier behind the wall of armed men, and he could definitely make out the sniper that had Bucky and Natasha perfectly in his site line…