CHAPTER 01

She didn't remember anything before waking up in a strange place. She sat up, rubbing her eyes as she looked around the sparsely furnished room, winced as she moved and it hurt. Correction, everything hurt. From the roots of her long caramel blonde hair to the tips of her toes, there wasn't a spot on her body that didn't hurt or ache and she was beginning to wonder just what the hell happened to her the night before.

She strained her mind to attempt remembering, the little she got was the loud sounds of a crash, gunfire and then being pulled out of a bar near her college campus, being carried or something. Had she been in an accident or something?

What was today?

And more importantly, where the hell was her sister, Natasha? The last positive thing she remembered was her older sister Natasha calling out of the blue, the two of them meeting for drinks at some little crappy dive bar. She'd said she had something to tell her, but she couldn't remember what it was, or if Natasha got to tell her in all honesty.

She couldn't even remember the conversation, come to think of it.

The door to the small room she was in currently opened quietly and the dark haired male stood in it's frame, his one chrome arm gleaming like a polished pot in the midday sunlight that shined through the window.

"Where the hell am I and who the fucking hell are you?" she shrieked at the man, demanding an answer.

He didn't speak. Instead, he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled the white satin sheet away from her and yanked away a good sized bandage on her left shoulder, making her yelp and howl in pain as a fresh wave of pain washed over her.

She gritted her teeth and looked at her shoulder, then at the man, asked him again, "Who the hell are you and what the hell did you do to me?"

He laughed, it sounded like a sarcastic laugh, but given how little she actually knew about the guy, she couldn't be entirely sure. Then he finally spoke and it was quiet, calm.. "I only saved your ass, doll."

"Oh.. Well that makes it all okay then.." she said sarcastically as she continued on with her rapid fire questions, angry and freaked out currently," What the hell happened to me? Where's my sister? Is she alright? She's not hurt, right?" she asked him again, staring at him intently, licking her lips slowly as he smirked and said "You were in a gunfight last night. And Romanov is fine, I'm sure." before standing, tossing the old bandaging into the garbage and going into an adjoining room, coming back with gauze, alcohol of both the rubbing and drinking kind, and what looked to be a needle and thread.

"I'm curious though.. What the hell's a pretty girl like you doing, working for Hydra AND Shield?" he asked as he eyed her intently, his jade green eyes fixed on her, curiousity filling them.

"Huh?"

"You were with Romanov. I'm assuming you're a spy too. She worked both sides."

"Romanov, buddy, is my sister. My name's Natalie. I'm 23 and I go to a junior college near that bar I was at with her. What the hell are you talking about, double agent? What are Shield and Hydra?"

"Hydra are the bastards who did this to me." Bucky said as he held up his arm, looked at her. His own memory was fuzzy, all sorts of fucked up at best.. But he knew he was supposed to have killed Captain America. Apparently, when he didn't, he pissed a lot of people at Hydra's headquarters off. Ironically, Hydra, as it turned out, was a part of Shield.

"Huh? What's Tasha got to do with this?"

"Tasha, doll, was a double agent. Now she's gone good.. And Hydra are after her.. Right along with the rest of them." Bucky said as he looked at her, asked her, "What do you remember from last night, huh?"

She shrugged, threw her hands up in the air and bit her lower lip before finally muttering, "Having drinks with my older sister."

Wake Up Little Susie began playing from her cell phone that lie on a table nearby and she groaned, reaching for it. The man's hand came down on it, it smashed into a couple hundred pieces and she shouted at him "Are you fucking insane? That was my phone."

"You've got a dirty little mouth." Bucky muttered as he eyed her, leaned in, looking at her. What the hell had happened to manners in this era? In his day, a girl would have at least kissed the man who rescued her ass from a certain death.

So far, all this girl had done was shout a thousand rapid fire questions at him, bug him about who he was and what happened to her, as if he had all the damn answers. Things were starting to come to him, but nothing was totally clicking for him just yet.

Except Steve.

He remembered saving Steve a few days ago - or had it been weeks?, he'd honestly lost all track of time now the days stretched out in a blur, one blending into the other-, leaving him on the bank of some river and walking away, or their most recent run in, where he'd been spotted by Steve, who chased him, resulting in a fight not even a few hours beforehand, actually.. Since then, he'd been going mostly on instinct.

Then last night, he'd seen that female agent that was with Steve and he'd tried to get closer, see if he could find out how his old buddy was doing, if they were all looking for him, if Steve had told any of the others on his little team of helpers that he'd found him, and all hell broke loose.

The girl sitting barely dressed in his bed currently had managed to be a dumb broad, gotten herself inserted right into the line of fire, taken a hit to the shoulder then almost gotten herself nabbed by one of the guys left over from the Hydra regime that'd been scoping out the joint to try and find his whereabouts. He'd taken care of that guy though, and he'd gotten this girl out of there in all the confusion and gunfire that broke out seconds later. Natasha probably thought that Hydra had discovered her little 'secret' found her 'weakness' and had come to get her baby sister, that he was holding the girl hostage.

Clearly, that wasn't the case, and he'd just gotten her out of danger, just until he figured out what side of things he was actually on now, without the drugs, without their propaganda rattling around in his mind. He hadn't thought things through, and now, as a result, he expected those damn Avengers to beat down his door any second, thinking the opposite of what he'd actually done, thinking he was still the 'bad guy'.

Really, he didn't actually know what he was anymore. All he knew was that he'd saved Steve and now that the truth about Shield and Hydra were out in the open, the lines were blurred for him.

Who did he work for?

Given all the things he'd had to do while under Hydra's influence, he didn't see Shield (or the Avengers for that matter) welcoming him with open arms.

He couldn't go back to Hydra because he'd disobeyed a direct order and they'd probably kill him on the spot. Not that he hadn't technically 'died' once before, during the war, but hey.. He didn't actually want to die a second time, either.

And he didn't actually know how long he had left, if the drugs they'd been pumping into him since they'd taken him during the war to 'experiment' on would wear off or not.

They hadn't worn off for Steve yet. He held out hope that they wouldn't for him.

Not yet at least.

Natalie eyed the man with a raised brow and then found herself leaning in closer as she held his gaze and said quietly, "What do you mean my sister's a double agent? She's a secretary or something.." her voice trailing off as she bit her plump lower lip.

He started to laugh and then stopped in mid laugh to look at her, curious. "You have no idea, do you, doll?"

"I got a name. It's not doll, damn it, it's Natalie." Natalie grumbled as she sighed and asked "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your sister is a spy. I mean she might claim she's not.. But obviously, Hydra was watching her last night."

She rubbed her head, the headache she had already, worsening significantly as she groaned and said "So you grabbed me why? I mean was this something you had to do?"

"No, I just didn't want to see a pretty girl get shot for no reason." Bucky muttered as she looked at him, brow raised for a moment. She didn't feel like she was in danger.. But she'd seen footage of this guy online and she knew he was a bad guy, not a good one.

So if he'd saved her life, he had some purpose in mind for her, right? That's what she was assuming at least. And if her older sister really were a spy..

She bit her lower lip and went to stand, wincing. Bucky steadied her and then asked "Okay?"

"Just.. I.. I gotta pee."

He motioned his hand towards the door he'd went through moments before, said calmly, "I'm out here." as he eyed her warily, almost as warily as she was eying him currently.

The second the door closed, he sat down and tried to figure out just what the hell he was going to do now, he had one of the Avengers family members.

He had the ultimate leverage right now, if he chose to use it.

But something inside him kept insisting that he shouldn't.. At least not just yet.. Not until he saw just how much Hydra did know about his whereabouts...

And not until he figured out which side he was actually on now.

Inside the bathroom, she groaned as she realized that he'd had to semi undress her to bandage her up, because apparently she'd gotten one hell of a gash on her leg that he'd obviously cleaned out and stitched.

Her skin heated. Technically, he'd seen more of her body than pretty much any man had, to date.

She used the bathroom and flushed, then stood there staring at herself in the mirror, wincing at the bruises and cuts, the scrapes and the bullet wound in her shoulder. "Wow.. When I get myself into serious shit, I really get myself in it." she muttered as the door was knocked on, he said solemnly from the other side, "Don't have much in the way of clothes around here, not for a dame at least. Here's one of my shirts though."

The door opened a fraction and his good arm, the human one, reached through, holding out a white button front dress shirt that looked like it once went to some kind of military uniform or something. She took it and slid it on over her own camisole tanktop, looked at herself in the mirror.

"How long are you gonna keep me?" she asked carefully, keeping the anxiety out of her voice, keeping it clear of nervousness, keeping calm as best as she could.

"Dunno." came the answer from the other side of the door as Bucky stared at the wall facing away from the door he currently stood in front of. "Haven't thought that far ahead. I do know we can't stay here. This hideout's been compromised so we're gonna have to move."

She bit her lower lip. So she was his hostage.

He did have some other intention than saving her life the night before.

"If you're using me to hurt my older sister, sir.. It won't matter.. We weren't ever actually all that close, we've actually only gotten fairly close in the past 3 or so years. Our parents divorced, she went with one, I went with the other.. Then you add in the fact that we're kinda opposites and.. Let's just say I highly doubt that taking me is gonna get you anything you want." Natalie insisted as he laughed and then called out "You decent in there?"

"As decent as I can be, considering you kind of didn't give me any pants to put on."

He palmed his forehead and grabbed her jeans from the night before, even though the rips were in suggestive places and he'd damn near had to cut them off of her to get to her leg and stop the gash on her upper thigh from bleeding out. "Here."

She took her jeans from the night before from his hands and asked in a shaky voice, "If I was in a gunfight.. How the hell did I wind up with a gash on my thigh?"

"Guess it was from the explosion." he called out as she looked in the mirror and mouthed "Motherfucker... What the fuck did happen?" before composing herself and then asking "Don't suppose you've got plans on at least letting me get in touch with my professors?"

"Not really, no."

"Damn it." she grumbled as she felt around in her pockets for any sort of clue as to what might have happened last night that she didn't remember.

She pulled out a cell phone number written on a napkin and for a moment, she remembered her older sister saying in an urgent whisper, "If anyone shows up for you, call this number. My boss.. He'll send someone for you, no matter where you are." before gunfire began to ring out all over the bar.

She shoved the napkin into her pocket again, she might need it later. She had a weird feeling that last night was just the beginning of a very bizarre turn in her life.

–

Natasha paced her room in the new 'hideout' as she talked to Nick Fury on the phone, briefing him on the events of the night before. "He's got my sister, Fury."

On the other end of the line, Nick sighed and then asked quietly, calmly, "What were you thinking, meeting her like that? You know that we're all at risk right now."

"I know, sir, I just.. I thought that they might come after her.. Given that I was a double agent at one point in time, and I did work for the KGB." Natasha said as she asked "Can we get her back?"

"We'll try. If the Winter Soldier has her, then it means he's got some kind of plan. And we have to figure out what his plan is, counter attack. You and Steven both are being careless right now. We're supposed to be laying low and working on our next course of action now that Shield's been compromised, not putting ourselves and other people at risk."

"That's my baby sister!Not some ancient cube, not some alien hell bent on taking over the world. The Winter Soldier has my sister, sir, and no offense, if you won't do something now, I will. I realize I shouldn't have dragged her into this, but I haven't.. I haven't actually seen her in a long time. You wouldn't understand." Natasha snapped as she slammed her phone shut and then went back to pacing her apartment, tried again to call her sister's cell phone.

It didn't even ring this time.

Natalie never charged the damn thing when she might actually need it. Natasha groaned as she glared at the phone and bit her lower lip.

She knew of a few people, one in particular, that she could trust with this... Did she assemble them and risk Fury somehow finding out and making a proper mess of it?

Or did she trust noone and go it alone?

Kicking at a can she groaned and wondered aloud, "Why in the hell did I expose her to danger like that?" as she realized mentally, 'Because you were still shaken up from the past few days. You were upset and you wanted to talk to someone normal. You wanted to see her again. You wanted to at least make sure she was alright, with your own eyes, that you took the risks you took for her, and that you didn't do it in vain.'

Her cell phone rang and she picked it up..

"Hello?"

"You called me and hung up." Steve said quietly, his voice calm as he looked at the phone in his hand, looked at the doctors and nurses going by his room, wishing to God they'd clear him already, let him get back to doing what he was intent on doing..

He was going to find Bucky.

One way or the other.

"Turn on the news, Steven." Natasha said quietly as she sat watching the news for herself, watching a replay of the events from the night before.

Steven watched the news and saw him.. Bucky.. The Winter Soldier.. He watched his former best friend running out of a building that had been part of a shootout the night before, carrying a girl in his arms. He grumbled and then asked "I'm watching."

The girl was still missing apparently, and they showed a photo of her on the screen. Natalie Vernon.

"She's my little sister. She took my mom's maiden name when my parents divorced.. The Winter Soldier has her, Steve. You're the only one I knew to call with this.. Fury's giving me the run around and I'm already up to my eyeballs in deep shit with the hearing and Fury now, for last night. We're all supposed to be lying low right now... Just in case Hydra rises up and comes after us."

"And you want to get her back.." Steve asked, eyeing the phone, eying the medical staff that was in and out of his room, mulling it over.

He wasn't in shape enough to be leaving yet, but he had made a promise when he started all this.. To protect innocent people.

And Buck wasn't himself anymore.

He knew this.

And if Bucky had Natasha's sister, then something was up.

"Are you there?"

"I'm here.. Give me an hour." Steve said as she said quietly, "Thanks.. I'm not sure whether to tell any of the others.. I mean.."

"I know." Steve said quietly then added "For now, we won't. And for now, we'll only tell Fury what we think he needs to know."

On his way back to his own apartment, he made a call of his own, to the soldier he'd just met recently. He left the guy a voicemail and almost as soon as he walked into his own apartment, his cell phone rang.

"If you're going to try going after Winter Soldier, again, man, I want in." were the only words his new friend spoke. Steve filled him in on the latest as far as that situation went, told him about his most recent brush with the Winter Soldier, the reason he'd been in the hospital being examined earlier..

They'd been looking for Bucky for weeks now, he and his friend, since the last major run in that Bucky and Steve had, where Bucky saved him and walked away.

–

She'd just dozed off again when the door to the room she was being held in opened quietly. He came in, sat down on the edge of the mattress on the bed and looked at her, watching her for a few moments. "We have to leave now."

She looked at him and said quietly, "And what if I tell you I'm not going anywhere with you. I saw you on the news a few weeks ago, I know who you are, what you did.."

He looked at her and grabbed hold of her wrist firmly, said in a calm tone of voice, "You'll come with me.. I mean unless you just want Hydra coming down on you."

"Wow.. So I thought you were a hero? That you saved my life?"

"And I also put it in danger, when I did. Now that they know you're with me, can't just dump you off." he admitted as she raised a brow, confused by his logic, by this entire situation, to be completely honest.

Then again, she was just a 23 year old college girl who was majoring in Medicine, minoring in Dance. What'd she know about the secret agent life?

"Apparently not as much as my big sister." she thought to herself bitterly as she looked at the man who'd saved her life but was now holding her hostage.

She'd never really been as brave or as smart as her older sister. Or as pretty, or as athletic.. She had no clue what to do right now, how she'd get out of this situation.

"C'mon." he stated as he stood, hauled her up off the bed as if she weighed nothing and carried her out the door like a brute would.

"Put me down, damn it."

"You're hurt, you'll slow me down. And I'm not gonna have another death on my conscience. I mean if I even have one anymore." Bucky muttered as she said "Whoa.. The hell do you mean another death?"

Her heart began to race. Just how many other people had this man killed?

–

"So the last time you saw your sister, she was being carried out by the Winter Soldier? And you're sure it was him, not another one of Hydra's experiments?" Steve asked Natasha firmly as Natasha paced and said "It was him alright. He did the staring thing again.. Just like a few weeks ago when he tried to stop us from stopping Hydra's plan to take out half the world."

Steve and his friend exchanged looks and Natasha held out her phone and said quietly, "That's the last picture I took of her.. I took it about 10 minutes before everything went to hell in a handbasket. That's what she was wearing."

Steve took the phone and then asked "Why in the hell were you meeting her if we're all supposed to be laying low until Fury decides the next move?"

"Because, Steve, I wanted to see her, make sure she was alright, that I was doing the right thing. That everything I have done so far, has kept her safe and okay. I hadn't seen her before last night, since she was probably 13 or so."

"Didn't get along?"

"No, Steve, we didn't. Not for a while. Not with our parents in the middle of things. They sort of poisoned us against each other and either of them for a while. My family is messed up, okay? Why do you think I went into the business of being a superspy?"

Steve eyed her and then said quietly, "Good point." as she said "So.. If you want him, and I want my sister back.. We work together."

He nodded and said quietly, "Let's go to the bar and see if we have any idea where he might have taken her when he managed to get out and away from the gunfight. I can't believe you didn't call for backup when that happened."

"Steve, damn it, Fury already got me about this. I'm never this careless.. I just.. I thought since we were on a break, since Shield no longer exists.." Natasha stated angrily, bitter, worried about her little sister.

Had the Winter Soldier hurt her already?

What made him take her to begin with?

–

"Are we there yet?" she asked from the passenger seat of the car as Bucky weaved in and out of traffic, not speaking, not even looking at her, keeping his eyes focused solely on the road, keeping his mind focused solely on just how he was going to manage getting himself out of this one while keeping the girl safe.

And really, he wasn't entirely sure why the girl's being safe meant a damn thing to him. Her sister was the reason she was in danger if one really looked at things.

If Romanov hadn't come out like that, took that risk, her sister wouldn't be in this situation right now. He shook his head and said solemnly, "Soon." and promptly turned his attention back to the road.

She sighed, propped her head on the window of the car and looked out at the roadside, surveying the scenery as it flew past.

Where the hell was he taking her? And what did he intend on doing to her once he got her there?

She'd probably never been this freaked out in her entire life. And she found herself worried that the most important thing in all this was that she never actually got to tell her older sister that she did love her, and she'd missed having her in her life.

That all those things she yelled at her or said to her when they were kids and got to visit each other were just her own jealousies, her own insecurities.

She'd never felt good enough, really, and she'd taken it all, blamed it on her big sister.

Because it had been the easiest thing to do.

They pulled off of the main road and onto a dirt one and she looked at him. The car slowed down, turning into a dirt driveway that lead into a cabin or something by a lake. It was remote, out of the way.

"You do realize that this Hydra person will just find you here too.. Right?"

He looked at her and said "Sooner or later, yeah.. But by then I'll be long gone. Can you stop talkin so much? You're kinda giving me a headache, doll."

"Natalie."

"I'll call you whatever I want to." Bucky said quietly as he watched her, curiously. She stretched as he parked the car in front of a cabin way back in the woods and then she got out.

At least here, he could give her time to heal and rest without worrying about Hydra or Shield kicking down his god damn apartment door. He could actually make sure she was okay and maybe have enough peace and quiet to figure out his next move as far as all this went.

He just needed time to think.

He felt around and found the key hidden where he'd left it last time he'd had to use the cabin, unlocked the door. She stepped into the main room and looked around, gaping.

She turned to him and said quietly, "Thanks for patching me up." as he nodded and dropped the duffle bag he'd brung with him on the floor, the bag making a heavy thud as it struck against the hard wood floors. "Like I said.. No sense in an innocent girl getting shot."

She bit her lower lip as she eyed the antique record player. "Does it work?"

He shrugged and said "Don't know. Never had much use for music when I came here before." as she walked over, rummaged around in the cabinet the record player sat on, looking through records, laughing a little as she turned to him and said "Wow.. I thought I was old school with music."

He looked at her with a raised brow and echoed "Old school?"

"You've got all kinds of records under here, mostly swing music, stuff like Etta James and Elvis Presley too.. Even some Sinatra?" she asked as he shrugged and said "It's not old school if you've only ever heard that kind of music."

She eyed him with a strange expression and he explained "I kinda lost a good chunk of my life. I'd really rather not talk about it."

She eyed him again, but she dropped the matter, putting on Etta James at a low volume, humming along as she sat down on the brown suede couch.

"So.."

He looked at her and then said quietly, "You like to talk a lot."

She bit her lower lip, fell silent.

About 20 minutes later, he looked over to find her laying on the couch, reading a book she'd gotten up to et from a shelf while he'd been thinking and lost in his own thoughts.

'You're not the same guy you were then, Bucky. You're a monster now. You're a Hydra created killing machine. They erased every decent thing about you, buddy. So what you saved this girl? When her sister and those other Avengers come for her, you're gonna have to face him again. And you know what's gonna happen.. It ends with one of you dead.' transitioned into 'But it doesn't have to go down that way. You can be on the right side. You can be a good guy. You don't have that serum coursing through your veins anymore and you're remembering more and more every day about the guy you used to be.. Before all this Hydra crap.' turned into "It won't matter. Not to him, not to their leader, Fury, not to anybody. You're still a monster now, Bucky."

Finally, for lack of something better to do, he stood and walked into the kitchen, staring out the window above the sink.

How the hell was he getting out of this one? And what was going to happen when he saw Steve again?

–

Angrily, the man snapped at two of his 'best' soldiers. "And you let him get away? Again? He was our best asset. He was the key to our entire plan and not once but twice now, you've all managed to let him slip right through your fingers! How can Hydra take over anything if there are idiots like you involved." as he waved in a man and said calmly, "Take the two of them down to the chamber. They disgust me." before going back to eating a sandwich.

They'd almost had everything they'd been working towards since the end of World War II. And twice in a matter of days, it had all been taken from them because of a few morons. And the Avengers, of course.. he didn't dare forget Fury and his little band of superheros.

"Soon.. It will happen soon, one way or another."

(authors notes)

I don't own the Avengers or anything that happens in the movies/comics. I wish I'd come up with the idea, but sadly, I didn't. This is not in any way shape or form canon correct, but I have tried to make an effort to honor certain plot points to the series Captain America and the movies made recently. Yes, this is a romance and yes, I will be pairing an original character with either Bucky (Winter Soldier) or Steve (Captain America). And yes, my original character is a 'sister sue'. No, I really don't care who dislikes that fact because Black Widow is my lady crush and yes, I wish I were really related to her awesome and epically bad ass self.

No, my original character is not a mary sue, at least I don't think so... She has spunk, flaws and a personality. She does really, really stupid crap sometimes (see above scenario) and she has bad days, she's had a less than perfect life.

She has a different last name than Natasha because I toyed with hisory and fixed it so that Natasha and Natalie's parents divorced when they were really young and Natalie, who lived with their mother, took her mother's maiden last name. I've also sort of given them sort of a sordid marriage, the kind that the kids are dragged into and hurt, so it makes her relationship with her sister a little more interesting in the long run. It's your typical sibling rivalry with the kicker that their parents were constantly telling them that the other parent didn't love the child living with them, that they were the favorite child and so on so forth. So basically, Natasha and Natalie are only just rebonding as sisters, so there's still tension there.

This story picks up after Winter Soldier, and it sort of throws my oc into the middle of Captain's search for his former friend. It also shows a more soft side of Natasha, and anything that confuses you in the first chapter will be explained further into the story. It's not just action or romance, it's a mixture of both with some comedy mixed in. I was inspired to write this when I saw Natasha show her 'softer' side during the Winter Soldier...

THIS IS THE PART I NEED HELP WITH.. I STARTED WRITING IT WITH NO CLUE WHICH GUY I'D BE PAIRING MY OC WITH, JUST AN IDEA AND A SHELL OF A CHAPTER. I'M TORN BETWEEN THE WINTER SOLDIER AND CAPTAIN AMERICA AS MY OC'S PAIRING. IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHICH SHE SHOULD BE WITH, TELL ME.

AGAIN, NO FLAMES, PLEASE? NO CORRECTIONS EITHER. I'M HONESTLY JUST DOING THIS TO GET THE IDEA OUT OF MY HEAD.