Chapter 3

Blood stained through Bucky's shirt and onto his hand. As Steve ran to him he backed off quickly but couldn't hold himself up so collapsed panting on the floor. Steve was by his side in an instant, moving the arm away to assess the damage, there was a long slice under his ribs, a knife wound.

"There must have been another team waiting for him, shit" muttered Volchitsa.

"What do you mean another team?!"

"I got shot by the fourth kill squad waiting for him, there must have been a fifth one!"

"Get something to help him" called Steve, Bucky was falling unconscious.

"Medical centre, now" commanded Tony, panic seeping into his voice.

Steve picked up his friend easily, and practically ran to the medical centre following Bruce and Tony. Clint, Nat, Thor, and Volchitsa where in pursuit of him. He lay Bucky down on a bed, Bruce pushed him out the way and he went to stand back with Tony, Thor, Natasha, and Volchitsa. Clint helped Bruce treat Bucky acting as an assistant, Bruce cut off Bucky's shirt so that he could see the damage, it was a long slice under the rib, instantly he grabbed some water and washed off the blood.

"All of you, out of the room now!" Bruce ordered. The group scuttled out of the room.

They stood in the hallway, Steve using the chair outside the room, his head weighing heavily on his hands. He raised his head as yelling came from the room.

"STEVE"

He ran into the room to see Bucky flailing and screaming, Clint was struggling to hold him on the table while Bruce was breathing deeply on the other side of the room clutching his arm.

"Steve, hold him down"

Steve grabbed his shoulders and pushed Bucky down flat on the table, it was hard to see his friend like this, screaming and trying to push Steve off, but Steve held him.

"I'm going to have to check inside the wound for anything bad internally, it's not deep so hopefully he'll be fine" informed Bruce shakily moving towards the table. "Really hold him still"

"Can't we put him under?!" asked Clint who had gone to help Steve hold the metal arm.

"I need to sort the wound out now, we can't wait unless something major's been damaged" Bruce began to pry into the wound, increasing Bucky's screams and desperation to shake Steve off.

Bruce rose from the wound. "Ok, I can stitch him up now. Clint grab that needle, and the thread" he turned back to the patient before looking up again "grab the anaesthetic, make it a strong dose."

As Clint handed him the anaesthetic he quickly wiped a patch of skin on his arm with an alcoholic wipe and jabbed the needle in. Almost instantly the struggle to keep Bucky still stopped. Steve took a shaky step back, small splashes of blood where on his shirt. Most of it was Bucky's but some of it was his own, gained from trying to keep someone with the skill and training of the winter soldier down. But he refused to think of his friend like that.

After what seemed like forever, Bruce finished the stitching. Stepping back to take a breath. He looked up at Steve and Clint.

"He'll be out for a while yet from the anaesthetic, then he'll probably be under from the drip I'm hooking him up to for a few days. Steve, if you want to stay Tony has a spare pull out bed we can move in here."

"I'll go get it with the other" said Tony addressing Bruce from the doorway, where a crowd had gathered.

"If everyone else wants to go do that I'll finish up in here"

"I'll stay." Said Volchitsa.

"What"

"I said if Steve's staying so am I"

"Bu…"

"It's ok. I don't mind" interrupted Steve.

Volchitsa gave him a thankful look, she hadn't wanted to reveal why it was so important to her to stay with tinny. If they knew now, they'd never help her.

The others cleared the room leaving only, Bruce, who was attaching an IV to one of Bucky's arms and attaching drips to it, Steve, who was staring intrigued at Volchitsa, and Volchitsa, who was staring solemnly at Bucky, or James as she called him.

Steve waited a few moments before asking "how do you know him?" Volchitsa's eyes darted to meet his gaze.

"Can I instead answer why they sent kill squads, and five for that matter?"

Steve nodded. Better than no information at all. Plus he was curious, it seemed excessive even for someone like Bucky.

"They sent kill squads because James has gone off the rails before, he's killed handlers, scientists, just generally gone missing. But this time he had a memory trigger, a severe memory trigger. The other times he has started remembering small things, his birthday, small flashes of memory that he can't get much from. This time it's more dangerous, even if they caught him they'd never properly get him back without risk. He's useful but not indispensable. It's easier just to kill him then risk having an enemy as strong as the winter soldier. You know what he's been doing over the last 6 months. HYDRA wanted to put a stop to it."

She paused to look again at Bucky. "They sent so many because he's tough, he can take down two or three but by the time he's at the fourth, he'd be tired. Slowing down. By then he'd only just be moving quicker than the kill squad, and in their number they could take him out. I took out the fourth as normally there are only that many but got shot in the process because I didn't see a guy in an ally as I was looking for James. The last group were probably there for me, James would've definitely been shot if they had proper guns taking they had a chance to stab him. Meaning they weren't planning on killing."

"All done. I'll leave you two and see how the others are." Bruce broke the pause of her words and left the room.

Steve watched to make sure he was gone. "Why were they there for you?" the questioned with caution.

"Just know that me and James, our stories aren't that dissimilar" she sighed avoiding Steve's eyes as they tried to meet hers. "We both belonged to HYDRA, we both killed for HYDRA. We both lost because of HYDRA" her facial expression was grim.

Steve stared at her in confusion but was interrupted by Tony and the others barging through the door before he could say anything.

"Bad news and good news. I only have one put up bed but I also found one of my junior school science experiments! It makes popcorn, roasts marshmallows, and hot chocolate!"

"You made a sleepover food machine?" asked Volchitsa, glancing at Natasha to see if he was serious, she nodded. A grin instantly spread on her face.

"Pretty much yeah"

"Fine by me, but I'm on the bed." She said grinning mischievously at Steve, but he could pick up on the silent message behind her eyes, don't say anything.

"No it's fine, obviously the youth of today isn't what it was when old men had priority" joked Steve with sarcasm. Returning her look with a reassurance he wouldn't.

"Getting shot takes priority."

"Yeah it's fine, take the bed." Laughed Steve patting her shoulder. "Now let's get this bed set up"

As the team pushed the bed round the room into an appropriate spot Volchitsa mouthed a thank you at him.

He nodded back subtly, he didn't trust her yet but there was something about her… two things really, one told him he could, the other told him to get away as quickly as possible.

As soon as they set up the bed they began to file out after Tony who was promising some kind of food, leaving only Steve in the room. Volchitsa, with a promise she wouldn't disappear, had gone up to the roof.

It ended with Clint (drunk) shooting an apple off Thor's head, Natasha proving that Russians are very good with their drink, then Thor proving Asgardians aren't (when it comes to Asgardian alcohol at least), and Tony, being Tony.

And it all (in Tony's opinion) was going great. Until Pepper arrived home from a night flight. At which point she had ducked a glass that just so happened to be in line with her head. Said hello to Natasha yelled at Tony for destroying their living room, tried to send Clint home (he was too drunk to do anything of use) but he just ended up in the air vents making a new nest. And forced everyone to clean up. When they were done she sent everyone to their respective rooms. She'd had a room for each of them made after one of them randomly turning up became a regular occurrence. They'd left muttering apologies, even Nat. Who was pretty good friends with Pepper and had been teaching her kick boxing.

Before he himself had gone to bed, Bruce had gone to check on his patient. Volchitsa was back in there sitting on her bed. Steve was fast asleep leaning on the hospital bed, one of his arms acting as a pillow and the other holding Bucky's real arm.

As he walked in Volchitsa looked up and held her figure to her lips "he's been out for the last hour" she whispered. Bruce nodded and tiptoed round the room checking vitals. He couldn't help trying to place her accent, now she was more tired it had become stronger. If anything though it sounded more German than Russian like he had first thought.

"You're trying to place where I'm from aren't you?"

He turned to her

"If you're thinking Europe you're on the right track. I'm originally German, but at 8 I moved to Romania for a few years before then moving between Russia and England for the last few years. Hence why" she broke into a very clear English accent "I can speak like this. But when I'm tired I go more towards my German accent. Usually the way I speak is a mix of the four."

"If you don't mid me asking, if you're from that area, why the skin and looks" Bruce tenderly asked. She had brown skin, thick black hair with blueish green eyes but didn't look like any people of those features he'd ever seen.

"I'm descended from the Romani people, a lot of these looks come from that gene pool, eyes are from my father, he was white, and apparently my facial features are like his were."

"Apparently?"

"Haven't seen him since I was seven, there was a good reason, just can't remember it"

"Oh"

"Yeah"

They stood awkwardly in the silence. They had already been whispering but now if a penny dropped it would be too loud.

"You need anything else"

"No" Bruce began walking to the door. Before he exited he turned back, "Do you want me to check that bullet wound?"

"No" came the sharp answer. He left.