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Chapter 3

Jemma emerged from the bathroom about an hour later, clean, with the exception of the day old clothes she'd thrown back on. Her make-up scrubbed away, leaving her fresh faced and feeling a little better, though still weak after throwing up.

The Winter Soldier turned as she entered the room. "Better?"

"Yes," she blushed, "thank you." Her hair clung to her neck and trailed down her back in long wet tendrils. "I um, I used your comb I hope that's okay. I promise I don't have the cooties."

"What?-"

"Oh right, never mind. Nothing…" she muttered realizing how silly she probably sounded.

"So, why are you a prisoner here?"

She met his eyes, a surge of terror rising up in her. This was what had made her pass out earlier, just the idea that if he knew she was with S.H.I.E.L.D. he would not be quite as nice to her as he had been. Jemma knew she was possibly the world's worst liar so lying here would probably look and sound ridiculous and it might just make him angry. Again, not where she wanted things to go… so she felt trapped, anxious. Her stomach flipped, and she gripped the head of his bed to hold herself up.

He stood. "Do you want to sit down?" Unfortunately, he was offering his bed as the place to sit, this did not actually make her feel comfortable. Also, the bed looked well slept in, unmade, and unkempt.

"No, thank you."

"Who do you work for?"

"I'm a scientist for S.H.I.E.L.D." she said deciding to just throw it out there. Lying really wouldn't be a better solution. If he was going to get angry she'd just deal with it now.

"A scientist for S.H.I.E.L.D?" His tone had a note of disbelief in it.

"A bio-chemist really," she chimed.

"So you're… smart. You have what, a PHd?"

"Two… actually."

"Why did they bring you here? How are you useful to them?"

"I don't think I am. There was a firefight with some of the members of my team, Fitz and I got pinned down, and I was left out in the open. One of the Hydra operatives grabbed me, and used me as a shield so they could escape, and they brought me here. The next thing I knew I was serving you dinner. I have no idea why, or what is going on. Please… you must believe me."

"Who's Fitz?"

"Oh, he's my lab partner and… friend," she said perplexed that he didn't seem to have heard anything she'd just said.

"You're just a scientist, so then why did they bring you here?" He took a quick look around the mess he called a bedroom and then he stared directly into her eyes. "You aren't useful."

Insulting but probably true. "No," she replied flatly, "I can't imagine I am."

He moved past her into the empty area of the room, and sat down at the kitchen table. Once in there he turned back and looked at her. He seemed to be contemplating something. His fingers laced together, the human flesh and the bionic closing over each other as he watched her now.

It was quite an uneasy feeling to be the subject of The Winter Soldier's gaze. She bit her lip and tried to seem preoccupied as she stood there, supported by his bedframe.

"You know why they brought you here," he said at last.

"I, I, I suspect kitchen help probably wasn't on their minds."

He didn't reply. His eyes just dropped down to her one small hand gripping the headboard of his bed, and then back into her eyes.

Jemma quickly released her grip on his bed and took several faltering steps forward, finally coming to the other kitchen chair and sitting down. She wasn't certain what to say, yes, she'd considered that possibility already. Should she beg him not to hurt her? He didn't seem particularly cruel, but he did seem sort of unfeeling, she expected that he would probably leave her alone and let the guards escort her back to her cell once they decided to make a return visit.

"What time do you think it is?"

His eyes flicked up to a clock she hadn't noticed before. "Ten."

"Is this how you generally spend your days?" Asking him anything to get his mind off of this whole business of her being with S.H.I.E.L.D. and etc. seemed a good idea at the moment.

"Sometimes the guards do come in around this time to get me."

And as soon as the words came out of his mouth the door slid open and in came two Hydra guards. "Briefing," one said to him.

The Winter Soldier stood up, and in one fluid motion threw a dagger at the guard closest to the door, nailing him directly in the eye. At nearly the same time he knocked the guard closest to him into the wall with his bionic arm, leaving a dent.

Both of the Hydra men lay dead or unconscious on the floor, and The Winter Soldier quickly took a rifle off of one of them.

It was brutal and it was graceful, and it happened so fast Jemma was still trying to comprehend that she'd just seen him murder two people in front of her with such cold efficiency.

"Come with me."

"W, what are you doing?" she sputtered.

"Saving your life."

She felt mechanical… numb and confused.

The Winter Soldier took one of the guards' keycards and let them out of his room with it. "Stay behind me."

Jemma followed him just a few steps behind. The corridor was white, and austere. Her mind was still trying to catch up with itself, one moment they'd been chatting the next he'd taken out two men. She'd been an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. aboard the Globemaster… affectionately called "The Bus" for a while now and had seen some action, but she'd never seen anything like that. The speed and ferocity of the attacks… she suspected this is what it might be like to watch Captain America in battle, because The Winter Soldier was just that impressive.

They came to an intersecting hall, and he paused there, he peered around the corner. She bunched up behind him, nervously, perhaps a little too close.

The halls were empty, which seemed odd. There was usually someone wandering around with paperwork, or guards milling about when she was marched out of her cell and down to his room. Further, the halls had been positively brimming with activity when she had been brought in after being captured. Now… they were quiet, unnaturally so.

As the two of them made their way down the right passageway, her flats tapped along noisily. She came close to taking them off but The Winter Soldier never turned around and asked her to remove them so she assumed it wasn't a big deal.

The hallway opened up, and he pressed his back to the wall. She followed suit. The two of them inched down the hall.

The Winter Soldier's face hardened, and he fired the assault rifle. At what, she had no idea, she couldn't see past him.

There were a few answering bullets fired in their direction, lodging into the wall above her head.

Jemma crumpled into a protective heap against the wall, and hidden behind a large guard's desk as he continued forward, firing back and forth until the weapon was out of bullets. He was nearly out of sight himself- she crawled forward frantically, he was her only hope of escape.

There was a pool of blood… and a pile of wounded Hydra soldiers lying on the white linoleum floor.

She struggled to get to her feet to catch up with him. If she hadn't already thrown up earlier she would've chosen now as a really good time to both pass out and throw up. Now there was nothing left in there to vomit out though so her body just retched a couple times with no result.

"Jemma." There was a steady voice at her ear.

She spun around.

It was The Winter Soldier. "They were waiting for us."

"H, how could they have been?" She was actually proud of herself that she was able to muster up the courage to say that because inside she was falling apart.

"I don't know." He had a new rifle in his hands now, and began moving forward, alert and ready for an attack.

Sheer terror was making it really hard to think straight, "Maybe they bugged your room?"

He didn't reply.

"W, where to?" They had entered a particularly narrow hallway now, there was a sort of hum of computers coming from one side.

He crept down the hall, and she followed. Every few moments she'd look behind her. This was like the worst game of hide and seek she'd ever played in her life, and the most deadly. Sadly, the seeker would not just tag her when he found her. It was at one of these moments of walking forward and looking backward that she slammed into his back. And then feeling simultaneously stupid and horrified that he might just turn around and shoot her, she jumped back.

He merely glanced over his shoulder. "Try to stay calm."

Jemma touched her collar absently, his back was rock hard.

They crept up the narrow hallway, and as they walked maybe 20 ft. and it began to open back up again to a normal size, that was when she heard people running toward them. The heavy boots in the distance, and the sounds of men shouting orders…

The Winter Soldier turned around and looked past her, then quickly slung the rifle over his shoulder and tried a metal door in front of them. It didn't give. He jogged forward a few steps and found another metal door, this one swung open when he tugged on it and he ushered her inside.