Her eyes were swollen.

From crying, stress, or lack of sleep (perhaps a combination of all three). Elle had to blink several times before her eyes finally cooperated and opened, allowing her to see the dark room in front of her. She shifted, wincing at the stiffness in her back. As she stood and went to change into a cleaner set of clothes, the room began to spin. She stumbled, putting a hand on the wall as she steadied herself against it. A sudden flash of what had happened just a few hours before suddenly came into her mind, and her legs gave out beneath her, causing her to crumple to the floor.

Elle suddenly found herself gasping for air, her chest constricting in pain. She stayed in that position, letting tears drip onto the floor underneath her until there was a pounding at the door. It opened without her consent, revealing Pierce and two guards. He gave her a cold look, towering over her as he stared.

"It's time. Let's go."

Elle made no move to get up, not even sparing him a glance. He motioned to the men next to him and they squatted next to her, gripping her arms and pulling her to her feet. She let herself go limp, forcing them to carry her down to the lab she spent her days with James in. She was roughly shoved inside, the force pushing her to the ground. The door echoed as it shut behind her and she remained on the floor until it opened again, heavy footsteps approaching her before stopping next to her head. She kept her eyes facing the opposite way, not moving her head towards whoever was next to her until hesitant fingers rested on her shoulder.

She turned towards the source of touch, her hazel eyes meeting his cerulean ones. They narrowed at the sight of her reddened eyes and the bruised, purple rings underneath them. The concern written on his face made her eyes involuntarily start to water, making his concern turn into slight panic. She looked upwards, trying to pull herself together as she blew a shaky breath out. His hand squeezed her arm lightly, trying to comfort her. She sniffled before the tears finally escaped, running down her cheeks freely. Her hand came up to cover her mouth and muffle her sobs while she squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she was strong enough to not have breakdown in front of him.

His arm ghosted around her shoulders, pulling her towards him, his movements unsure even as they happened. Allowing herself a moment of weakness, Elle let a shuddering breath out and buried her face in his chest. James was stiff, not sure how to react to the contact, but he eventually wrapped both arms around her, a movement that seemed familiar despite the fact that it had never happened before. His fingers began drawing patterns in a soothing matter on her back, almost involuntarily.

Simply put, he held her. And he kept holding her long after the tears finished.


To anyone outside of the situation, it probably looked strange. Three Avengers and an employee for an up-and-coming tech company stood outside of Jefferson Federal Credit Union, scanning the area for clues. It sounded like the beginning of a joke. Lottie almost smiled at the notion. Almost.

Steve squinted against the sun as he stared up at the towering building, Tony was muttering something under his breath as he tapped away at the phone screen in his hands, and Natasha and Lottie were standing facing the street, looking for anything that could help them know what may have happened to Elle.

"Hey, how you holding up? I know these past few days have probably been a whirlwind to you," Natasha said suddenly, keeping her attention on scanning the sidewalk they were standing on as she addressed Lottie.

Lottie shrugged. "Nah, it's totally normal to attend your best friend's and her mother's funerals and then fly from Texas to Washington D.C. to investigate what happened to said best friend because you and three superheroes don't believe she's actually dead and want to figure out what really happened. I've done this plenty of times before," she replied, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Natasha smirked at the other girl's sass but was cut off in her response by Tony yelling excitedly.

"I got it! November 30th, 2013, the last day Elle's phone was on, it transmitted a GPS signal from this street before it turned off. When you told me the location, I knew there was a bank here. A bank means there's ATMs, and ATMs mean-"

"ATM cameras," Natasha breathed, the realization dawning on her face. How could she not have thought of that before? It was so simple.

"And if I've done this correctly, which I definitely have, because I'm me, then it should…" Tony trailed off, holding his phone in front of him while the others crowded around him.

The video started playing, the time marking it as being taken somewhere around midnight. A few cars drove past, making everyone's breath hitch until they disappeared. The time stamp hit 12:32, and Tony pointed at it. "This is when the last signal went out."

The group tensed as they waited for something dramatic to happen. A dark SUV pulled up, stopping at the curb as the passenger's door opened. Steve clenched his jaw as a man walked up to the ATM. Their hopes to get something more from the video fell short as the man proceeded to get money from the machine and return to the car, the SUV driving off shortly after.

Tony blew out a breath huffily, running a hand over his face as the video continued with no other signs of activity. "Dammit," he said shakily, raking a hand through his hair.

Lottie slumped down onto a metal bench, defeat apparent in her posture. Steve sat next to her while Natasha stood in front of them, her focus drawn to the concrete beneath her.

"So that's it, then? This whole thing was a waste and she really is gone?" Lottie said, not really asking anyone in particular.

Though it was hardly quiet around them (D.C. rarely ever was), the four felt like the air was thick with silence. Nobody looked at each other. Lottie lifted her eye up, focusing on the gray sky above them in an effort to keep herself from crying. Steve stared into space, mulling over every fact again, hoping he could stumble across something they, he, had missed. Raindrops started falling from the ominous clouds hanging over them as tears started rolling down Lottie's face.


10 Weeks Later

Elle sat back in her seat, blowing out a puff of air out from her cheeks as she leaned away from the microscope in front of her. Her newest prototype was finally complete, and she was actually confident about it. Granted, she had been confident about the last five too. She picked up the small chip from the table with a pair of tweezers and placed it in a box next to her, closing it carefully as she stood from the desk, leaving the box on top of it.

She checked her watch and cursed underneath her breath. Dinnertime had come and gone, and her stomach was growling as if to remind her that she was, in fact, starving. Elle made her way to the hallway, letting the door close on the lab behind her as she stepped out of the room. She nodded at a few of the guards who had been decent to her during her time there and avoided eye contact with the ones who hadn't. Her feet seemed to lead her down the hallway automatically, tracing the path that had become familiar to her over the past few weeks.

The guards at the door didn't even spare her a second glance as they opened the door to let her into the room. James stood, tense at the prospect of Pierce or one of the guards coming into his room. His posture relaxed at the sight of her, and he moved aside to let her into his small room. She fished a weathered deck of cards from her pockets and set up Speed on the floor while she waited for him to sit across from her.

It had become a sort of tradition, them playing cards after she felt like she had finished the right prototype. Elle wasn't quite sure how it started, and neither was James, but they didn't question it, letting it become a routine. Elle was grateful for it – she needed some semblance of normality in the concrete and cinderblock prison they were kept in, and the guards thought she was doing extra testing anyways.

The first round usually went by in silence and it almost always ended in James winning. Elle wasn't sure how he was so good, but she hardly ever found herself winning against him. He would always answer her questioning with an infuriating smirk, letting her get riled up as he shuffled the deck.

She frowned at him, crossing her arms across her chest as he laid his final cards down, calling speed. His mouth curled up at the scowl written across her face and he shuffled the deck as calmly as he usually did. James dealt the next hand and they flipped the cards over, drawing new ones as their old ones got put on the pile.

"Penguins," Elle said suddenly, laying a nine of hearts down on top of an eight of diamonds.

James nodded but stayed silent as he put down two tens of spades on top of a jack of diamonds. He picked up two more cards and organized his hand again, scanning the top cards to see if he could put anything down. When neither of them made a move, they flipped new cards over. He placed down another card.

"I'm not really sure why. I just think they're adorable. I used to have this stuffed one when I was a kid," she paused to lay down two cards. "My mom said I would take it everywhere. It fell apart when I was six, and I was absolutely devastated by it. But ever since then, penguins have been my favorite."

She shrugged as she flipped a new card over. James nodded again before laying the rest of his cards down. Elle stared at him, mouth agape. "How!?"

He tried to suppress a smile as she dramatically groaned and tossed her cards to the side. "Once again, I am defeated!"

She threw a hand over her heart. A small chuckle escaped James' lips at her antics and Elle quickly sat up, staring at him. A laugh. She had gotten a laugh. It had taken her months to do so but she had gotten one.

It was gone as quickly as it had come though, and James was shuffling the deck as soon as she had realized what had left his mouth. They fell back into a comfortable silence, the scraping of cards being the only noise in the room. Elle shuffled through her cards, furrowing her brow as she looked for her next move.

"Zebras."

Elle's eyes shot up to look at him and she kept her gaze on his face to see if he would elaborate. When he continued to play, she returned her focus to her hand.

Just like the routine of the cards, they had taken up the habit of giving each other information about themselves when they played. It was never anything major, just little bits here and there. His favorite color was green, he hated pears but loved coffee (even if the only coffee he was allowed was from the mess), and he preferred to shuffle cards overhand rather than riffle style.

It wasn't much, but she felt like she was starting to know him, to see him. Getting past the soldier, the assassin, they had made him and seeing the man he truly was or used to be. Even if it was just knowing what color he liked best.

She always left after an hour and a half, not a minute before or after. He wasn't sure why that time, but the alarm would sound from her watch and she would give him a sad smile and a soft "goodbye", pocket the cards, and knock on the door to for the guards to open it. He would watch her leave, his eyes not leaving the door until a few minutes after just in case she came back.

He had come to look forward to her visits, however sporadic they were. Once she had come for three days in a row, once she didn't come for two weeks. He knew that the more she came, the closer he was to returning to what he was made for, but he almost didn't mind if it meant she would be with him more.

They had yet to talk about the day she had cried in the lab, and he wasn't quite sure if she ever would. He had more or less figured out what had happened between snippets of the guard's conversations that he had snatched through the walls and in the training room. She had acted up, on his account no less, and Pierce had come through with his threats. James longed to tell her something, anything to make her understand it wasn't her fault, but he could never quite get the words out of his mouth. He silently bore her burden with her instead. The guilt ate away at him, but he knew it was so much worse for her.

She had lost weight since being here, almost too much. Her eyes looked much more sunken than they had the first time he met her and the deep purple bags underneath them made them look perpetually bruised. The sparkling green had dulled, though he still liked their mossy color. He saw all of this physical change, but it amazed him how much of her was still left through everything. The way her southern accent seeped through her words, the way that several curls would always escape from being tied back and frame her face, how she muttered under her breath when she was solving calculations in the lab, the way her tongue would poke out from between her lips when she focused especially hard.

She was his breath of fresh air in this place, and he knew thinking of her like that was dangerous. If Pierce ever knew, that would be his leverage against James. But he would be damned if he dragged her into that life. For now, he would just do his best to make sure she stayed safe, and maybe somehow, some way, someday, he could get her out of this place.


"Secure channel seven."

"Seven secure. Did you do anything fun Saturday night?" Natasha asked innocently, looking at Steve out of the corner of her eye to see if there was a reaction.

"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so... No, not really," Steve responded, smirking at her as he adjusted his earpiece.

"You really need to start getting out more, Rogers," Natasha said playfully. Her tone suddenly turned serious. "How has it been… recently?"

Steve shrugged, fidgeting with the strap on his glove to seem busy. "The same. Three to four hours. Wake up, hit the gym, review the file, review all my leads, try to sleep but end up running instead."

Natasha placed an unusually gentle hand on his shoulder. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah, find out what the hell happened to Elle," Steve threw over his shoulder before jumping out of the plane.


Elle was staring at the ceiling when the lights came on. She blinked several times, allowing her eyes time to adjust before rolling onto her side to where she was facing the wall. There was little to no motivation for her to get up today. She was exhausted, having spent most of her night being jerked awake by nightmares she couldn't quite remember and using the rest of it to stare listlessly at the ceiling. She wished she could lay in her bed for the rest of the day instead of having to run a million and one tests. Her wish was quickly broken when her door swung open and a plate of breakfast was placed on her bed.

"Eat up," Rollins said coldly before stalking out of the room.

She ignored the food and drank the glass of water they had given her before starting on the cup of coffee that was by the plate. Her stomach growled hungrily, reminding her that she hadn't gotten dinner last night. She grudgingly obliged to its demands, ripping a piece off the toast from her plate. She had just finished the slice when Rollins returned to her room, Marshall close behind him. Elle stood and wiped her hands on the back of her pants before following them out of her room and to the testing lab.

James was already in there when she arrived, leaning a hip against the desk they sat at. He straightened at her appearance and she offered him a tired smile before picking up the box that held the chip she had finished the night before. He sat in the chair next to where she was standing with his metal arm facing her. His eyes scanned over her face as she prepared the tools she needed.

"Rough night?"

The question slipped out of his mouth before he could catch it. He turned his eyes towards Elle to try and gauge her reaction. She looked surprised, not that he could blame her. She shook it off quicker than he expected and chuckled dryly.

"You can say that again. I've had worse though," she replied, choosing a pair of pliers and turning towards him.

Her fingers moved deftly as she pried open the paneling and shined a light into the small space, but he noticed that her movements were dragging more than usual. Elle readjusted a few wires before picking up the chip with tweezers and lining it up with the slot. He watched her eyes droop slightly as she worked, and a bubble of concern rose in his chest. Damn it. His plan to loosen the attachment he felt for her was failing by the second.

A swear left her mouth as she dropped the light onto the concrete. He bent over and grabbed it for her, pushing it into her small hand. She smiled at him gratefully before returning her focus to her work. Silence settled over them as she continued fiddling with the chip. A small sigh of relief escaped her lips as she finally was able to push the chip in, and she closed the paneling satisfactorily.

"Alright let's see how this works," she said, rubbing her eyes before starting the recorder and setting it on the desk.

They went through the usual exercises to test how it worked before coming to the final tests.

"Okay, raise your hand towards the ceiling," she said, biting her lip as she watched his arm lift. "Now rotate it in a circle. Swing it from side to side."

It was working. Actually working. Elle held her breath as she watched him perform the movements.

"Last one. Try doing a few moves and see how you feel about it," she said, stepping to the side to give him more room.

James inhaled deeply before going through a few defensive moves. He swung his arm upwards like he was punching someone before continuing with basic attacks. When he finished, he looked at Elle almost expectantly as he caught his breath. They stared at each other as Elle's eyes widened.

"It worked," she breathed, lifting a hand to her mouth. She laughed breathily, her lips stretching into a smile.

He stared at his arm before returning his gaze to her, giving a smile in return. They stood in happy silence before their triumphant moment was broken by Pierce's entry into the room.

"Well?" he asked, coming to a stop just before reaching them.

Elle cleared her throat, the smile wiped from her face. "It seems to be working, sir."

Pierce nodded, a cold smile creeping onto his face. "Wonderful job, Miss Berkley. Just wonderful," he said before turning to James. "I'll give you a few hours to get… accustomed to your movement again. After that, you have a mission, Soldier."

Elle's blood ran cold at the words, and she looked at James out of the corner of her eye. His mouth was set in a firm line and he wasn't looking at her anymore. When Pierce left the room, he turned back towards her. She was taken aback by the coldness in his eyes, which slowly melted away at her concerned look.

"What kind of mission?"


Pierce had not minced words when he said a few hours. James was sent to the training room two hours after the chip had been proven worthy and now, at five hours later, he was putting his gear on for his first mission since coming out of cryo. He was hardly nervous, the fluttering feeling in his stomach having disappeared long ago, but she was.

Elle had been sitting in the corner of the main room, where they had first met, chewing her thumbnail as she stared at a spot on the floor. She knew it would eventually lead to this, to him getting sent out into the world to potentially, no, definitely, harm someone, but it was much harder to see happen than she anticipated. James was putting on his vest when he turned and looked at her, catching her blank stare.

He glanced at the guards who were outside the room suiting up before taking a few steps towards her. Her attention was caught, and she looked up at him, brows furrowed in worry. He squatted down in front of her to meet her at eye-level.

"You better not die."

The words made him smirk as he let out a low chuckle.

"I won't."

She dragged her bottom lip in between her teeth as she continued to hold his gaze. A guard barked at him from the hall and he sent her a grim look before picking a knife from the array of weapons and slipping it into the holster on his hip. A few guards had guns of various sizes slung across their shoulders as they continued to chat outside. He gripped the goggles he had been given tightly before giving her another look as he walked out the door. She stood and leaned out of the doorway, watching him leave as he continued down the hallway with the group of guards.

She had a bad feeling about this.

A/N: WOW! I am so, so sorry about the minor hiatus I took without warning. School hit me hard and I was suddenly drowning in major assignments with no free time. I really apologize for making you guys wait so long for this chapter, but I hope the length makes up for it! We are finally getting into the Winter Soldier storyline, and I'm super excited for it! I missed y'all and writing so I'm happy I'm back! For those of you that follow Far Too Young, I will be updating that sometime this weekend. I hope you guys continue to enjoy the story, and please leave a review with your thoughts! Guest review response time:

Charlotte: I'm so sorry honestly, but it had to be done. Well, it didn't have to be, but sometimes it's necessary for character development. It made me very sad to write it though!

SunnySides: No, best friend is not dead. I cut the feed part from this version of the story, so her mom is the only one that is truly dead. You can see the look back as whatever you really feel that it is, I kind of left it up for readers to interpret as they liked. When I was proofreading, I saw it as more of him making sure she was safe, kind of as a mix between Bucky and the Soldier. I appreciate you checking up on me, thank you! I was just absent from so much work and some personal stuff, but I'm back now, promise!

Guest: Haha, I'm glad you see it as a good-not-good twist! I was hoping for that kind of effect!