Winter's Ghost

Chapter 1

Ice cold water dripped off of Dora's nose. It was icy cold outside, this winter was particularly bitter. Frost and rain mixed together pelted down on anyone who was stupid enough to be outside right now, even kids had to stay home from school because of the dangerous roads. Only a few people who needed money too much to avoid the inclement weather were outside, running or biking to work. But even with those few, the city seemed completely silent. Like Dora's heart had to be, for her to make this decision. Ever since she had escaped HYDRA, and found her way to Bucky, her best friend, the man who had changed her world completely, she had known that none of it could last forever. But his constant assurances had soothed her fears, for a few months at least. She had done, what her father had always warned her not to do.

She had fallen in love with him.

And she knew that because of this, she had to leave, and forget that any of it had happened. For a while she thought of returning to HYDRA, but the idea of the punishments they would inflict upon her, and the thought of meeting her father again sent a shiver up her spine, she knew that she couldn't do that.

If she went to S.H.I.E.L.D, they'd probably imprison her for her inhuman crimes. True, she deserved it more than Bucky did. He had been forced to do those missions, tortured, memory wiped, it wasn't exactly his choice to commit those atrocities. But for Dora, it had been almost completely of her own will. She wanted to please her father, to be better than The Winter Soldier, to go down in history as the best asset of HYDRA that had ever lived. Every act she'd committed, every innocent she killed, she had known exactly what she was doing.

And now, it tormented her. Haunted her. Dora was a different person now, it made her sick to think that anyone could do that to anyone, but she knew that if she was desperate enough she'd be cable of doing it all again. And that terrified her. She also didn't want to end up locked away with others who hadn't changed, no one in S.H.I.E.L.D would ever understand the effort that it took to escape from HYDRA— the pain and stress that every single one of them had to go through. No one was ever rescued from HYDRA. No one. They had to fight their way out, using every possible way, bearing whatever they must to break free. And once they were out, the night terrors would haunt them for the rest of their lives, waking up sweaty at midnight with the memories playing before their eyes, the blood they'd never be able to wash clean taunting them eternally. Dora shuddered remembering how it felt to rip the tracking device out of the back of her neck, and the look of hatred her father had given her once he saw her, the panicked running through the woods, hoping and praying harder than anything else that they wouldn't find her…

No. Dora didn't deserve prison. No one who went through that deserved prison, or any kind of punishment for the things they'd done. Their minds punished them enough. Being locked away in a little room would just push her over the edge, drive her to insanity if she wasn't already there. And living with Bucky had helped her so much.

But she had to leave. Being with him had caused so much trouble already with his family, let alone with S.H.I.E.L.D, she was just adding to his troubles every day she stayed there with him. She was a Rumlow, her name would drive her away from any and every opportunity here. Sighing softly she pulled a cigarette out of the case that she kept in her pocket. Bucky always told her not to smoke, that it wasn't attractive and it would give her lung cancer. Funny, she'd gotten these out of his pants pocket. Sometimes it was so difficult for people to follow their own advice. Lighting it up she sucked in a deep breath of the smoke, warming herself with the unique taste. Dora stuck it between her lips and shoved her hands in her pockets, walking across the street and on into the misty fog, away from the life she'd built with Bucky, away from the friends she'd made, away from the fears and hopes that were there, into a world that was unknown, where she'd have to better herself on her own, where no one would be trusted, where she was a fugitive, unsafe to others and to herself.

She was on her own.