A/N: Hello! Thanks for dropping in! I'm glad you've been enjoying the story so far, and I hope you continue to do so! As always, feel free to review or PM me! Enjoy!

Agent Reeves had told him about it on the way, but when the little safe house actually popped into view, relief washed over Steve a little more than he'd expected it to. Well concealed in the middle of nowhere, it didn't look like much, but once Agent Reeves entered the passcode, the metal doors opened to reveal a small but solid compound with a few bunks, a small arsenal, a microwave, other supplies, and various pieces of SHIELD tech.

"Special Forces used to use these places back in the day," Agent Reeves said. "Since Insight we haven't really, but-" she shrugged "-make yourself at home. If you don't mind, Captain, I'd like to take a look at that file as soon as I can."

"Sure thing," Steve replied, "but I think you oughta meet our air support first."

Sam came in behind him as he spoke and grinned. "How you doin'?"

"Eyes in the sky, huh?" Agent Reeves said, smiling for the first time since she'd revealed herself. "You really saved our necks back there."

Sam's grin widened. "You didn't do so bad yourself." He held out his hand. "Sam Wilson."

She took it and gave it a good shake. "Aly Reeves."

"In it for the long run now, huh?" Sam continued. He turned to Steve. "Guess our gamble paid off."

Agent Reeves smiled again, but it faded quickly as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I know what it is to lose a friend."

Pursing his lips together into a sad smile, Sam nodded a little, while Agent Reeves seemed to draw more and more into herself at the statement. Steve sighed hard before pulling the file out from under his jacket.

"You wanted to take a look at it?" he said.

"Oh," Agent Reeves replied, starting a little as she seemed to snap out of some sort of reverie. "Yeah. Tech in here's a little dated, but it'll get the job done." She took the file and glanced once at the cover before her eyes popped a little. "KGB. How on Earth did you get this?"

Steve shrugged. "Favor from a friend."

Agent Reeves's eyebrows shot up. "You must have some pretty interesting friends, then."

Steve just laughed a little. "That's one way to put it."

She smiled knowingly before going back to the file. "Man, this thing's as old as I am. September 1984. Might be dated, but it's a start. I'll see what I can get from it and we'll go from there."

"Sounds good to me," Sam said. "Me, I'm gonna go brush my teeth. Had a mosquito stuck up in there since Manhattan and it's driving me nuts."

Agent Reeves made a face. "Fun. Go take care of that."

With that Sam disappeared, leaving Steve with Agent Reeves, who turned towards one of the computers and fired up the holograms before opening the file. She fixated on something in it before picking it up. The old picture of Bucky in his dress greens.

"Is this him?" she said.

Steve nodded as he came over a little closer. "Yup. It was taken the day he got his orders."

Agent Reeves grinned. "Good looking guy."

"Yeah," Steve replied, running a hand through his hair. "He always got all the girls."

Her eyebrow arched a little, and she looked at him disbelievingly. "And you didn't?"

He chuckled at the floor. "I wasn't always like this, you know."

She just smiled knowingly and turned back to the picture. "How'd you meet him?"

"Kids on the playground were beating me up," Steve replied. "Bucky was the only one to stick up for me. Been friends ever since."

"Sounds like a good man," she said. Her voice dropped a little. "Makes what HYDRA did to him even more of a shame."

Steve didn't quite know what to say; he just nodded as Agent Reeves took the picture and slid it under a scanner. Tiny lines of blue light inched across it before it reappeared even larger on the hologram with a large title reading Barnes, James Buchanan. She tapped a few choices and started facial recognition.

"It didn't take me long to find you doing this," she said, "but for someone who's as good at dropping off the map as the Winter Soldier, it'll take all night at least, if it's successful at all."

"It's more than I had a few hours ago," Steve replied, shrugging.

She turned to face him and smiled a little. "At any rate, it's a start."

He nodded, but concern suddenly washed over Agent Reeves's face as she came a little closer to him.

"You gonna look after your hand?"

Confusion hit him for a second, but he then saw his right hand covered in mostly dried blood with a few cuts still oozing. He shrugged.

"I've had worse-"

"You got glass sticking outta your knuckles," she deadpanned, setting her hand on her hip and giving him a look that reminded him distinctively of an old friend. "Here, I'll take care of it."

"You don't have to do that, Agent Reeves."

She smiled a little ruefully. "Please, after all the crap I've put you through tonight, it's the least I can do."

He sighed and nodded, sitting down while she rummaged through a few cabinets until she found medical supplies. She sat down in front of him, and he gave her his hand. Gently she worked to clean the dried blood off before going after the glass shards with tweezers and disinfecting the cuts. She worked in silence initially, but she suddenly stopped.

"I, uh...about tonight," she stammered before looking him dead in the eye. "I owe you one."

A lopsided smile crept onto his face. "After all I've put you through tonight, it's the least I could do."

She just laughed at her words being fired back on her. He sighed hard.

"Listen, I know we didn't get off to the best of starts, but I wanna tell you how glad I am to have you on my team."

Dressing the cuts, she smiled a little again.

"I'd like to keep going, but on the right foot this time."

She paused for a second so she could look at him. "I'd like that, too."

He smiled. "Good."

She returned the smile, and her bluish-grey eyes lit up.

"I'd be willing to bet you don't go by Agent Reeves all the time," he said. "And saying it over and over again is kinda exhausting, if you ask me."

She grinned as she began to work a bandage around his hand. "Well, my friends usually call me Aly. You can call me that," she said, sliding a clasping pin on the bandage, "I mean, if you want to."

He nodded. "Aly."

The name felt good.

"You can call me Steve," he said.

Aly smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"SHIELD's not what you thought it was. It's been overtaken by HYDRA."

"We fight until we can't stand, you got that?! Whatever it takes, we will get these people out! Keep the exit clear at all costs!"

"Are you deaf or are you stupid?! Agent St. Claire is down; I need an ambulance now!"

"Get out of there, Reeves! You can't save them-"

"No! We can still do this!"

"Call in the Asset! Call in the Asset!"

"Oh, my God, the building's coming down!"

"Just stay with me, ma'am! You're gonna be all right!"

"What have I done-?!"

Spewing panicked incoherencies, Aly bolted upright. Shaking hands furiously wiped her tear-soaked face dry before running through her now tangled hair and balling it in her fists. Though reality slowly started to come back to her-the blanket wrapped around her legs, the hardness of the cot, the harsh blue light from the hologram leaking into the room from around the corner-her body still rocked, her eyes still wrenched shut, her breaths still came in shallow. As she tugged on her hair, her voice autonomously muttered the same phrase over and over again:

"Agent Alyson Paige Reeves, Commander, SHIELD Special Forces Squad Six, Arlington, Virginia, A-144021…"

Somewhat more stable, she untangled herself from the blanket and put her feet on the floor, the cold roughness of the concrete serving to ground her even further.

She hadn't had a dream like this in a few months. Her thoughts ran wild with confusion at first before realizing the trip to the memorial-the first time she'd set foot on the grounds of SHIELD's old headquarters since the attack-must have triggered it.

Head still in her hands, she forced deep, rolling breaths into her lungs, and her muscles finally started to unlock. But when a large shadow suddenly blocked the light, she jumped badly.

"Hey, easy. Easy. It's all right. You're all right."

The speaker came forward slowly and purposefully, hands raised a little.

"I get them, too. Trust me, I get it."

She finally caught her breath. "Steve?" She groaned. "I hope I didn't wake you up."

The ghost of an empathetic smile slipped onto his face. "I've been up." He heaved a heavy sigh as he carefully sat next to her. "Like I told you...I get them, too."

A beat of silence passed. Steve broke it.

"Do you...do you wanna talk about it?"

She swallowed hard. "I will if you will."

He nodded. She took in a deep breath.

"Washington, last year. My entire command was gunned down." She fought back the emotion that started to surface before continuing. "There were people trapped all throughout the building. They so much as moved, STRIKE would take them out. We were trying to hold the exit and get people to safety. Didn't exactly go as planned."

"I'm so sorry." He shook his head a little. "What command was it?"

"Special Forces Squad Six," she replied.

A strange look came into his eyes at the mention of it, but she didn't have the energy to ask any questions. She sighed hard. He just sat in patient, empathetic silence, so she found it in her to keep going.

"Things were looking up. But...HYDRA had a sniper. Never saw him. Just...slugs coming outta nowhere. Whoever it was took them down first and saved me for last. Gave me these lovely mementos." She moved her hair to reveal a nasty scar on her shoulder and rubbed her side where the other one was. Her teeth clenched. "If I only could've gotten eyes on him...if I'd have pulled them out when I had the chance-"

"Don't do that to yourself," Steve said.

"When you get a command, what's one of the first things they tell you?" she replied, suddenly turning towards him.

He thought for a second. "Be the first man in and the last man out."

"Exactly," she said. "That day, I was the first in, but-" she scoffed a little "-when they said 'last man out,' this isn't exactly what they meant." She went quiet for a second. "I thought just by sheer will we'd be able to stop HYDRA, if we just worked together we'd be able to win the day and pop a few cold ones like we always did." She shook her head. "I was...so hilariously wrong."

Sighing, he shifted around a little. "I know it's hard. Trust me, I've been there more times than I'd like to think about. But...sometimes, things happen that we just can't control. We do our best but, some days, not everybody makes it out. We're gonna have losses, and we'll beat ourselves up over it. But if we can't get back up, then what happens the next time the call goes out?"

She considered his words for a second; then, she slowly began to nod.

"They never gave up on me," she slowly said. "Even when I was at less than my best." She paused for a second. "It's the reason why I worked through lunch on leave and drove straight through dinner to find you. I made them a promise: that no matter what, I wouldn't fail like that again."

He smiled a little. "Just by getting back up and getting back out there, you've already fulfilled that promise. Trust me."

She met his eyes for the first time. "Thank you."

"Absolutely."

Silence held sway for a few seconds. Aly broke it.

"That was a rough day for you, too, wasn't it?"

He just shook his head and slumped. "Best friend I ever had shot me five times. Didn't even know me until the end. Every time I close my eyes, I'm staring down the barrel of his gun again. I'm his mission again. That's what's keeping me awake."

She pursed her lips together in a sad smile.

"But he also saved your life, if I remember correctly," she said.

He nodded. "That's the part the nightmares leave out. And that's why I gotta find him." He smiled a little strangely. "I know you probably think I'm crazy."

She laughed a little. "Oh, I think you're insane. But I also think you're incredibly loyal. These days, that's a rare gem."

He barely smiled up at her. She returned it before she continued.

"Most people will take it for granted. And some will even try to abuse it. But there are still those of us that see it and appreciate the hell out of it." She grinned. "Even if we do think you're nuts."

He laughed for a second, but his face soon faded back to sombre sincerity. "Thank you, Aly."

She nodded a little. "Sure. It...doesn't fix anything, I know, but-"

"It helps to be around somebody that gets it, if only a little bit."

She smiled. "That."

He set his wrists on his knees, while she leaned back on her hands. He turned and looked at her, and his eyes locked with hers for a second. She suddenly noticed how blue his were.

"You...wanna go back to sleep?" he finally said.

She just shook her head. "Still wired, so there's no point trying. Besides, sun's gonna be up in an hour or so."

He almost looked sad. "You sure?"

"Even when I don't have nightmares-which is actually most of the time-sleep and I still have a love-hate relationship," she replied, shrugging. She forced a smile. "Don't worry about me."

He stood up. "I make no promises."

She smiled at her feet for a second before standing up and moving past him. "If I'm not getting any more sleep, might as well start going through that file. There's no telling what might be in there." She slid into a seat in front of the hologram. "And facial recognition hasn't gotten a hit yet, so it's probably best to think of any alternate strategies."

She opened the file and started going through it, Steve standing behind her with a hand on the back of the chair.

"Take it you read Russian?"

She just nodded, muttering to herself as she took in the wealth of information.

"What are your specializations?"

"European linguistics and technological surveillance," she replied, not even looking up at first.

He seemed puzzled, so she stopped her work for a second and turned to him.

"I hack stuff and I talk to people."

He nodded. "Sounds useful."

She sighed a little. "I also have multiple advanced combat certifications, but I'm hoping I don't have to use them."

"It'd be nice if we could get through without a hitch, but at this point it's probably wishful thinking," Steve replied.

Her eyebrows shot up for a second, and she suddenly leaned a little closer to the file and started running her finger under the text.

"You got something?"

She nodded. "This name." She pointed to a specific spot in the Cyrillic. "Katya Novak."

Steve's brow furrowed. "You dealt with this person before?"

She nodded. "She was one of HYDRA's best, but at the time we all just knew her as an ex-KGB freelance assassin. 2008, Belarus, of all places. She shared a mutual target with Squad Six. We got there first. Chavez was our big guy; he was taking up the rear. Novak took him down in a couple of blows. Disappeared and took our lead with her. Took us months to track it down again."

"Sounds like trouble," Steve said.

"She's definitely a handful, but according to this, she's also got a serious connection with your friend. Apparently she was trained by the Winter Soldier." She kept reading for a second.

"There a picture of her?"

"No, but thanks to Black Widow, that probably won't take more than a Google search." She turned away from the file long enough to get the search running on her phone. After a few more seconds of reading, her eyes bugged. "Oh, wow."

"What?"

"The Soldier went off the grid for two weeks in the 1970s. Nobody knew where he went or why he disappeared. But he turned up in Brooklyn, so your first hunch wasn't a bad one."

He shrugged. "Home's home."

"This is where it gets interesting. The Soldier was found with an Agent Novak. They were both taken back to Siberia, severely punished, and reconditioned for, ah...unsanctioned behavior."

Steve looked confused. "Unsanctioned behavior? What'd they do?"

She gave him a look. "Think these multiple back-to-back transactions for a crappy motel room and a cheap bottle of vodka speak for themselves."

Steve scoffed a little. "I don't think he woulda-"

She just held up the picture on her phone-a beautiful Eastern European blonde bombshell with red lipstick and sharp black eyeliner-in response. Steve looked closer.

"Wait...yeah, he would've."

"It can't be the same person, though," Aly said. "She's younger than I am. Or at least...she looks younger than I am. She might be one of their lab rats."

After a minute, Agent Novak's picture popped up next to Bucky's.

"What's your plan?"

"Well," Aly replied, "finding Barnes directly is proving to be a dead end, but if we can find her-" she cranked up the necessary software "-we might be able to get somewhere."

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. "Doesn't sound like Novak's the type that'd wanna play nice."

A rueful grin cracked across her face. "Remember those combat certs I told you about?"

"Right. But if she gave you that much trouble the first time-"

"She won't." Determination hardened her voice as she stared head on at the screen.

The sun barely started to peek through the windows. Sam rounded the corner.

"You find him?"

"No, but I think Aly's got our next lead," Steve replied.

Sam stopped beside him, and his eyes popped when he saw the screen. "Hel-lo. Who is that?"

"Old friend of Bucky's," Steve replied.

"Friend. Sure."

Steve just gave him a look in response. Sam turned to Aly.

"You know where she is?"

Just then the software got a hit. Aly leaned back in her chair. "Looks like we're about to find out."

The percentage quickly climbed to one hundred. Video footage of the same woman in a flaming red dress and heels suddenly popped up on the screen, along with coordinates and a city name:

"Moscow," Steve read.

"Yup," Aly said. "Either of you boys speak Russian?"

They both shook their heads. Aly turned to the screen.

"Guess I'll be doing most of the talking, then."

A/N: A HUGE thanks to Mischeif's Angel for letting me use her character, Agent Novak, in this story! She will be featured heavily in upcoming chapters, and I wanted to take the time to give credit where credit is due! If you wanna learn more about Agent Novak, go check out From Russia With Love: Captive Minds by Mischief's Angel!