It was the middle of spring in New York and Bucky had been living with the Avengers for a little over a year. They've all warmed up to him over time. Tony and Natasha took longer than the others probably because he's the reason Tony's parents are dead and he shot Natasha. He really feels bad for everything he did and he's apologized numerous times, but only recently have they started to feel more comfortable around him. He finally knew he got to Natasha when she offered to spar with him. Tony just flat out told him that even though he's still a little pissed off he would try to let it go.
Most of the team just stays in the tower except Thor who resides on another planet and only comes occasionally. Over the past year we've fallen into a pattern, Steve and Bucky will run in the morning, sometimes together sometimes apart, then come back and spend the rest of the day in the tower doing whatever they please. Natasha and Clint are similar only in the morning they train or spar depending on who's in the gym at the time. Bucky and Steve join them at least once a week just to keep on their toes. Bucky trains more often if he has more nightmares. Even though it's been a while he can't seem to get the Winter Soldier out of his head completely. Specific noises or events sometimes trigger something in his mind and he's always so afraid he's going to hurt one of his new friends.
Anyway the world hasn't needed any heroes lately so the Avengers and Bucky have been laying low.
Bucky was out on a run late at night, around one in the morning actually. He woke up because of a nightmare. It was of his time with Hydra of course. He was on a mission where he had to kill a senator.
It's a clear night. The air's crisp and cool enough so he doesn't sweat. There was a man who started asking a few too many questions and dug too deep for Hydra not to take notice. Now that he's a senator with all these secrets Hydra couldn't risk him leaking to the public.
His mission: Kill the senator along with anyone in the house with him.
Bucky held his pistol as he stood behind the gate waiting for some noise to alert him to anyone's presence. He heard none. Without a sound he made his way through a window into the house. He crept through the kitchen towards the sound of the T.V. He heard the theme of SpongeBob. 'Shit' He hates it when there are kids in the house. He knows they never deserve it, but his job isn't to determine if they deserve it or not. He has a mission he needs to complete. He creeps behind the small boy blissfully unaware of the assassin behind him. In less than 3 seconds Bucky is able to slit the boys throat without a sound. The rest of the mission went off without a hitch the mom wasn't home so all that was left was the father. He was asleep in his bed and made no noise when Bucky slit his throat. He tries to forget and some of the details are fuzzy, but you never do forget the children.
He doesn't know how much later it is when he stops and realizes he's really hungry. Luckily he brought his wallet with him so he won't have to worry about money. He notices he's in a rougher part of town, which makes him a little queasy. He knows he can handle anything, but he doesn't want to fight anyone tonight. Unfortunately the only place he sees is a bar. He doesn't feel like running anymore and would need to ask directions to find the subway anyway so he walks inside knowing they'll be open. He walks in to find a surprisingly calm bar for a Friday night, well technically now Saturday morning. He takes a seat at the bar, one of the many unoccupied seats and waits for the bartender to come around. He notices it's a girl with a black shirt, jeans, white converse, and blonde hair pulled back into a high pony. She has a black eye he notices as she walks over to greet her new customer.
"Hi. What can I get you?" He notices how she tries to put a smile on her face.
"I'll just take a beer please." She nods and walks away to get him his beer. As she reaches for the beer on the top shelf her shirt rides up and Bucky frowns as he notices a bruise on her side. When she takes the beer down he sees her double over and hold her stomach before taking a deep breath and walking back to him.
"Here ya go sir."
"What's your name?" She asks after a second of silence.
"Bucky. Yours"
"Elizabeth, but you can call me Eliza." She says. He nods and they go back into silence.
"What's your story?" Bucky looks at the girl strangely.
"Most handsome people don't come into a bar at 1 in the morning unless something's going on. I can listen if you want to talk."
"Just nightmares." Bucky said. She nodded her head somatically, "Yeah they suck. You know talking to someone helps."
He thinks about it for a minute before talking choosing his words very carefully, "It's something I did that I knew it was wrong, but I had no choice and I keep thinking about how I should have done something differently." She pauses to think about it for a minute before responding.
"It isn't your fault."
"Excuse me?"
"If you didn't have a choice it couldn't have been your fault." He looks down as she continues, "I don't know exactly what happened, but I can tell you that if you truly thought you had no choice or no way out it couldn't have been your fault even if you realized something now after the fact you can't go back and change it. All you can do is learn and grow into someone who won't make the same mistake twice."
Shocked she could know exactly what he needed to hear he took another swig from his beer before asking.
"What happened to your eye?" She looks down quickly adverting her eyes from his.
"Oh I mean it was so long ago, no one can remember things anymore," she starts rambling and Bucky's eyes narrow, "I mean it was nothing I just fell. It's nothing."
He knew she was lying, but let it rest anyway. He was about to ask where the nearest subway station was, but then a group of men walked in. Bucky didn't see them as a threat, but he noticed how Elizabeth shrank back and her eyes grew wide and she started shaking not terribly, but enough that a trained eye would pick it up.
"Elizabeth, my darling," a blonde man said leading the group to the bar, "How've you been?"
She started mumbling too quietly for even Bucky to hear.
"I told you not to mumble my love, remember what happened last time." His eyes flashed dangerously while one hand reached forward. Bucky tensed ready to intervene if necessary, but it wasn't. Suddenly he went back to his original demeanor and said, "Anyway we'll have a round of the strong stuff. Make it on the house."
"But I need the money I can't-,"
"I'm sorry what was that?" He said the smile gone from his face. He leaned close to her and whispered something in her ear while Bucky put his hand on his knife in case he tried to pull anything, but the man pulled away and Elizabeth went off to get them all their drinks. It's been 30 minutes since the men came into the bar and Bucky hasn't left yet, his gut tells him there's more here than what meets the eye. In this time he observes how Elizabeth is extremely tense and seems afraid whenever any of the men look at her, how most of the men have lust in their eyes when they look her way, and these men were violent drunks. This last one was revealed by how they would casually punch each other when they said something the other didn't agree with and over time the punches grow harder and more frequent.
An hour and a half later the men are still there only three out of the five went to the bathroom and haven't come out in fifteen minutes. That left two at the bar. One was the man who spoke to Elizabeth and someone who seemed to be his right hand man.
"Maybe you should go check on them," The secondary man said with what seemed like concern. With a grunt the first man left.
"So Elizabeth I've heard so much about you," the last man directs towards the bartender, "Kyle has told us everything about you and he says you're pretty good in bed." She freezes like a deer caught in the headlights, "I'd like to test that theory personally. We can leave now no one would notice." Silence "I'm afraid that wasn't a question."
She starts shaking again unable to speak as he leaps over the counter and pushes her against the wall and starts kissing her. That's all it took for Bucky to knock the guy out completely.
"You okay?" He asks now growing extremely concerned for the girl. She nods her head her eyes looking at the man's body now on the ground.
"We should probably leave before they come back." She doesn't say anything as he pulls her out of the bar. He offers her his jacket when he notices the cold air.
"Where's your house?" He says determined not to let her walk alone in this neighborhood after what happened in the bar.
"Five blocks away," She says and he wraps his arm around her shoulder seeing her still a little shaken up. She leads the way and about 30 minutes later she says, "Here it is."
It's a worn down apartment building with the red paint peeling off.
"You okay?" He asks again.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." He's not completely convinced with her answer so takes out a piece of paper from his pocket and writes his number on the back.
"If you ever need anything please call this number. I don't have much of a life so it'll be fun to do something for a change! I mean it anything that number is the first you call."
"Thank you." She says seriously taking the card and looking at the number written on the back.
"Now where'd the nearest subway station?"
They left to go on their own separate paths until next time.