Chapter 10
Alex's POV
As Steve promises we end up leaving for London the next morning, Sam understands our hesitation and luckily doesn't ask any questions as to how we came to the conclusion to go ahead and leave. As soon as the train goes over the boarder I feel an immediate weight lifted off my shoulders. After a few days of relaxing in London we finally get to work. Bucky has arrived and this time we are going to find him.
Three days into our search I'm sitting in a cafe on surveillance while Sam and Steve are in two other locations doing the same thing when I see Bucky.
"I've got eyes on him." I say into my com link.
"You better not be kidding." says Sam.
"I'm not, look to your right birdy."
"Oh that's him all right." he says back.
"Steve do you see him?" I ask.
"I got him, Alex try and follow him, don't let him see you though. Sam and I will come in and we can close him in."
"Got it." I say getting up.
"Be careful okay?"
"Always am."
I walk out and follow about 15 feet behind Bucky. He doesn't notice me yet. I can see Steve walking towards us and Sam walks across the street. Bucky turns down and alley and I'm cautious as we walk by but he grabs my arm.
"Who sent you here?" He whispers.
I don't answer and luckily Steve turns the corner with Sam.
"Buckley let her go." Says Steve.
"Why should I?"
"Cause that's my wife." Says Steve through gritted teeth.
Bucky throws me towards him and Steve catches me.
"I think he likes me." I say sarcastically.
"Let me handle him." Say Steve.
"Steve I don't want to talk." Says Bucky.
"I need answers."
"You're not getting any."
"So you're just going to leave your best friend hanging."
"You don't get it Steve."
"You're Bucky I don't get how my best friend could become the most violent self centered person on this planet."
"Steve..." Whispers Bucky.
"No Bucky, one second you're trying to kill me and the next you're saving me. Do you realize you're working for the same people we were trying to stop!" Yells Steve.
The next minutes goes by in a flash. Bucky pulls out a gun and aims it at Steve. As he pulls the trigger I push Steve out of the way. What did not go through my head however is the fact that it would hit me. I was more focused on making sure my husband didn't die. It hits me in the shoulder, something I've handled before but at the time it hurts. A scream escapes my lips and Steve looses it. Bucky looks stunned and starts to run. Steve catches me and looks at me.
"Why did you do that?"
"We can discuss that later, go get him. I'm fine."
Steve lets go and runs after Bucky and I look at Sam.
"Let's head back to the hotel, I'm going to need you to get this bullet out."
"Yeah..." Says Sam.
We start walking back, luckily it's only a 10 minutes walk.. Thankfully I'm wearing a black jacket so no one can see the blood. Once we get back Sam helps me take that off and it hurts like hell. He grabs some alcohol and supplies to get the bullet out and stitch it while I take my shirt off.
"What were you thinking?" He says pouring the alcohol on the wound.
"Shit Sam a little warning." I say through gritted teeth. "I was trying to make sure my husband didn't die, clearly nothing else was going through my head." I say.
"I'm going to pull it out, you ready?"
"Pass me that vodka first." I take it in one sip. "Go."
The digging around is painful but once he finally gets it out I can finally breath again. He stitches it up and bandages it before finally finishing.
"Done."
"Thanks." I say.
"No problem, no go put a shirt on, I don't think Steve would appreciate his friend sitting with his wife who has her shirt off."
"Good idea."
I walk into Steve and I's room and change into shorts and one of Steve's t-shirts, I'm not going anywhere else today. I walk into the living room of our suit to see Sam hanging up his phone.
"He's on his way back."
"Good." I say laying down on the couch. Nothing like getting shot to take it out of you.
"Stitches okay?"
"You did a good job." I say.
Fifteen minutes later Steve walks in and slams the door. I was halfway asleep but that woke me up.
"Steve..." I say.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Sam got it out."
"What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't and I know that so why don't we skip the argument." I say.
"Fine." He sighs sitting on the floor against the couch.
"Did you find him?"
"And kicked his ass for shooting my wife, he let me too. He knows he messed up." He smirks.
"Did you talk to him?" Ask Sam.
"Yeah, I mean in between punches he would throw stuff in. He feels like he doesn't have a choice, I told him where to find me if he ever changes his mind."
"So Cap can get angry." Laughs Sam.
"Doesn't happen often." He says
"So what now?"I ask sitting up to make room for Steve.
"We go home." Says Steve.
"We have been gone for almost a month." Says Sam.
"Sounds good." I say yawning.
"Are you wearing my shirt?" Ask Steve.
"Yeah."
"What's wrong with your clothes?" He laughs.
"Nothing I just really like this shirt."
"Are we going to have Tony send the jet?" Ask Sam.
"It's already here?" I say.
"What?"
"He had it stay in London so that when we were ready to leave it was available to us a soon as possible, we will leave in the morning." Says Steve.
"Wow."
"Yeah." I laugh.
After dinner we all head off to go pack. I sit on the bed while Steve packs, my stuff is already in my bag.
"You okay?" I ask him.
"You know what I actually am, I mean I got the answers I was looking for."
"You're not disappointed that he didn't come with us?"
"I don't want to push him, he'll come when he's ready. He's still trying to get his memories back." He zips his bag up and looks at me. "How's your shoulder? And answer me honestly."
"It hurts it obviously is going to but Sam did a good job." I say.
"Can I see it?"
"If you rewrap it." I laugh.
He helps me take my shirt of before he unwraps it and runs his fingers over it.
"He got you good." He says.
"Yeah."
"You're right, Sam did a good job with the stitches."
"It should heal nicely." I say.
"Yeah." He says rewrapping it for me. "I'm glad you're okay."
"I'm glad you're okay too." I say kissing him.
"We just like getting in trouble don't we." He laughs.
"I love it." I say smirking.
"Doesn't take a genius to figure that out."
"I know." Just then my phone rings, it's Natasha. I answer and put her on speaker. "Hey." I say.
"You're on speaker." She says.
"So are you." I laugh.
"Hi guys." I hear Clint say.
"Hi birdbrain."
"What are you guys up to?" Ask Natasha.
"Packing." I say.
"Where you guys going now?" Ask Clint.
"Home." Says Steve.
"Wait why?" Ask Natasha.
"Do you want the long version or short version?" I ask.
"What happened." She sighs.
"Well we found Bucky but he kinda shot at Steve but it hit me in the shoulder instead. Steve ran after him and beat the crap out of him. They talked though."
"Only you Alex." says Clint.
"It was either my shoulder or Steve's heart, you choose." I say.
"Steve did you guys at least talk?" ask Natasha.
"Yeah, I told him if he ever changes his mind about what he is doing he can come to us. He may be the Winter Soldier but he is still my best friend. He is starting to get his memories back."
"Hows the shoulder?" Ask Natasha.
"It'll heal." I say.
"Well we have a meeting with Maria so we need to go but we just wanted to check in, I'm glad you guys are coming home." says Natasha.
"Me too." I say.
"Talk to you guys later." say Clint.
"Bye." Steve and I say.
The next morning we head to the airport and board the jet. Once we take off Sam and Steve pull out books and I pull out my computer. I need to actually weed through my files that were leaked. I look up my name and look at my file.
Name: Alexandria Sharapov
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Date of Birth: May 17th, 1980
Parents: N/A
Siblings: N/A
Prior Training: Red Room
Agent Status: Level 10
Teams: Strike Team Delta, The Avengers
Known Names: Alex Hayes
Weapons of Choice: Hand to hand combat, Guns
Kills: over 300
"What are you looking at?" ask Steve.
"My file." I sigh. "It's all out there."
"Mine is too." he says to make me feel better.
"Yeah but you don't have over three hundred kills."
"That's in the past Alex, you can't go back and change it and most of them you had no control over."
"I know you're right it's still a hard reality."
"Just pretend like it's not out there." He says.
"Easier said than done."
"Just try."
The flight is uneventful until we hit some turbulence, I really hate flying.
"You never told me why you hate flying." Say Steve.
"My first mission for the Red Room our plane crashed, I was the only one to make it out."I say not wanting to go into detail.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"So I shouldn't take you for a ride with the wings sometime." Says Sam.
"Nope, I would have your head off before you could get in the air. Tony tried something like that on a mission, he had to build a new suit."
"So what you're saying is don't make you angry?" He laughs.
"Precisely."
Once we land Happy drives us back to the tower. We take the elevator up to the common floor and when the doors open I see the last thing I ever expected to see. Coulson.
"Someone explain to me what the hell is going on." I say.
"That's the first thing I said." Says Clint walking over to us.
"Tony I swear if this is your attempt at some sick joke I'm going to kill you."
"Agent Hayes it's good to see you." Says Fury.
"It's Rodgers now." I say. "I thought you died." I whisper looking at Coulson.
"Phil?" Ask Steve.
"In the flesh." He says smiling at us.
My first reaction is to be angry, why would they hide this from us, but at the same time it's my mentor. He trained me, made me the person I am today. He helped me turn my life around.
"He never died, we managed to save him." Says Maria.
"I need some air." I say walking past everyone to the patio. Steve follows me out.
"Alex..."
"They lied to me, to all of us."
"There has to be a reason." He says.
"I can't find a single reason on this earth to tell a lie like that."I say bitterly.
"You need to hear them out." He says pulling me in his arms.
"This is not what I was expecting to come home too, if I had some time to prepare I would have been fine but we didn't get any warning." I say against his chest.
"I know, I'm sorry."
"Let's get this over with." I say grabbing his hand and walking inside.
We walk in and Natasha, Clint, and Bruce are all sitting on the couch. Tony and Sam have the other couch occupied and Pepper must be at work. Maria, Fury, and Phil are all standing.
"Are you going to listen now?" Ask Fury.
"Yes." I say sitting down in Steve's lap in the chair.
"We couldn't tell you that Coulson was alive because we needed him for a new project. But now that Shield is gone we have no choice but to move forward with it. Along with the Avengers we have another team put together to help build Shield again." Says Maria
"And you are 100% sure of their loyalty?" I ask.
"Yes." Says Phil.
"I still don't understand why we couldn't know you were alive." Says Steve.
"Part of it was that we needed something to push you guys during New York but It happened to be at the same time I was getting hints of Hydra. I needed a backup plan in case it all crashed and burned, I knew I could trust Phil to run this so I needed him off the radar, the only way was to fake his death." Says Fury.
"So we are rebuilding Shield?" I ask.
"Yes." Says Fury.
"Okay..."
"I know you guys just got back so you guys get settled and we can talk more in a few days." Says Maria.
"Thanks." Says Steve.
The three of them go to leave but I need to do something first.
"Phil." I say walking over to them. He stops and I hug him, and he hugs me back."I needed to know you were real." I whisper.
"I'm not going anywhere." He whisper back. "Congratulations by the way, on everything. You deserve it."
"You helped me get here." I say smiling.
"Now go and be with your team, I'll be back in a few days."
"Okay." I say letting go, I forgot about my shoulder and now it's throbbing.
"I'm proud of you." He says.
"Thank you."
The three of them get on the elevator and when the door closes I turn around to look at everyone. Bruce is the first to speak up.
"What did you do to your shoulder?"
"How did you..."
"It looks stiff when you move it."
"I got shot..."
"Only you." he laughs.
"Did you guys know about that?" I ask walking over to them.
"Found out yesterday." Says Natasha. "There was some yelling involved."
"Honestly I'm more shocked than anything" I say.
"It'll pass." Says Clint.
Tony comes back in the room smiling. "Pepper is picking up schwarma." He says smiling.
"It's the important things." Laughs Sam.
Pepper gets back an hour later with dinner and we all sit down in the living room. After dinner Steve and I go up to our floor ready to get some sleep and as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm out.
Steve's POV
When I wake up in the morning Alex isn't in bed but I do hear music coming from her studio. I allow myself to wake up a little more before walking down the hallway to her studio. I open the door and she stops to look at me.
"Morning." she says coming over and kissing me.
"How long have you been up?" I ask.
"About an hour and a half." she says turning the music off. "Stupid jet lag." she mutters.
"Sorry." I say smirking at her.
"Whatever." She laughs. "You and I have a mission tonight." She says.
"How?"
"Fury got a tip about an arms dealer, I need you as backup."
"And how are you getting info?"
"He goes to a club in the Upper East Side every Friday."
"Not sure I like where this is headed." I say.
"We'll just have Tony do it instead, he is very persuasive." She laughs as we walk to the kitchen.
"Better than you doing it."
"I'll take what I can get right now." She says.
"Fine, I don't like sharing though." I say pulling her towards me.
"I don't blame you." she laughs. "Now let go, I need coffee, also we may want to make our own breakfast seeing as it's only 8 o'clock on a saturday."
"You make some valid points." I say kissing her head.
That night I'm waiting in the living room with Clint who agreed to back us up. Natasha was meeting with Coulson about his new team. Alex walks out in a short tight dress and heels, she looks amazing but I hate that she has to wear it to seduce other men, dangerous men I might add.
"You're killing me." I say
"Sorry babe, part of the job." she says kissing my cheek.
"You and Natasha are a little too good at these missions." says Clint.
"Yeah well... you could say it was Red Room training, now are you guys ready I want to get this over with."
"So do I." I say as we walk to the elevator. "Do you have a gun?"
"Of course but I'm not going to need it."
"Good answer." I say.
Once we get to the club I take a seat at the bar while Clint goes up to the second floor. Alex goes over to the V.I.P section to where the arms dealer is and gets let in, she had an appointment you could say. I don't take my eyes off of her afraid that if I do something will happen.
"Steve calm down man, you're going to pop a vein." Says Clint into the com link.
"She's got the injured shoulder." I say looking up at him for a split second before returning my gaze to Alex.
"She can handle herself, she is doing great."
"I know..."
"Don't sound to confident." laughs Clint.
Just then the arms dealer goes with his men and Alex to a back room. She glances over her shoulder to look at me and gives me a look saying she is fine. Once the door closes.
"How much time do you want to give her?" ask Clint.
"I'm giving it five minutes." I say.
"You want to go in right now don' you."
"Yeah..."
"I get it, I'm the same way with Tasha."
Three minutes later she quickly walks out and grabs my arm pulling me out the door, Clint is close behind us.
"We have five minutes till they wake up so we need to go but I got everything." she says.
"Good. Are you okay?" I ask.
"I pulled my stitches."
"Bruce can redo them." I say as we get in the car. Clint gets in the driver seat and I sit in the passenger side while Alex sits in the back. "How bad is it bleeding?" I ask looking at her.
"Pretty good." she says.
"Did you pull your stitches?" ask Clint.
"Yeah.' she says.
"How'd you manage that?"
"I got pinned to a wall, fought my way out, and then threw some gas to make them pass out so that they couldn't follow me, my shoulder was not exactly the first thing on my mind."
Right then we pull up to the tower and head up to Bruce and Tony's lab to find them hard at work on a new suit.
"Bruce I tore my stitches, I need you to redo them." She says.
"Who sent you on a mission?" he ask motioning for her to sit down.
"Fury, we are kind of short staffed in case you haven't noticed."
"She is sassy when she is hurt, good to know." Says Tony.
"Oh not a good idea to mess with her." says Clint. "I made that mistake when I first met her and I got a dislocated shoulder and desk duty for two months."
"So scratch that." says Tony
Alex looks down at her dress and see's all the blood and groans. "I actually liked this dress."
"So did I." I whisper in her ear.
"I'm sure you did." She smirks.
"I gotta cut the sleeve off so I can get to it." Says Bruce.
"Fine."
"You ready?" He ask.
"Yup." She says grabbing my hand.
"Where's Natasha?" ask Clint.
"She and Pepper are trying to get Darcy to fly out." Says Tony.
"Why?" I ask.
"For Sam." Says Alex.
"You weren't kidding about the whole finding him a girlfriend thing."
"I don't mess around, they'd be cute together. Plus Darcy could totally get some great experience working with Tony and Bruce, I know she has been wanting to come out."
"Does Sam know about this?" Ask Clint.
"No and I want to keep it that way." She says.
"Where is Sam?" I ask.
"Gym." Says Tony.
Just then Alex's grasp on my hand tightens.
"Sorry Alex." Says Bruce as he finishes up.
"It's okay." She says gritting her teeth.
Bruce wraps it up and then goes back to working.
"What exactly happened to warrant the torn stitches?" Ask Tony.
"They took me into a back room after one of the guys figured out who I was. The great part was that it wasn't from my file being leaked, he worked for the Red Room and recognized me."
"You didn't think to mention this when we could have gotten rid of them?" I ask.
"Not really my first concern." She says annoyed.
"Well it's mine." I say.
"I needed to get out of there." She says. "They aren't going to remember anything from that gas I have them anyway." She starts raising her voice now.
"That stuff doesn't work all the time." I say frustrated.
"You don't think I know that. I hit them all in the head, they'll be lucky if they remember the past few months." She sighs and stands up. "I'm tired so I'm going to bed. Goodnight guys." She is frustrated with me so I don't follow her out.
"Looks like you may be getting the couch." Says Tony.
"Shut up Tony." I say.
"Just give her a few minutes to cool off." Says Clint.
"Yeah..." I say sitting down. "I just got a little overprotective."
"I do the same thing." Says Clint. "Annoys the crap out of Natasha."
"Yeah...I'm actually going to talk to her." I say standing up.
"Good luck." Says Bruce.
"Yeah thanks."
I head up to our floor and when I get up there I go to our room to see Alex reading in bed. I lean against the door frame and she looks at me.
"I'm sorry." I say. "I was being too overprotective. You can handle yourself and I know that I just worry."
"I'm sorry too I got mad for no reason. There is just a lot going on right now."
I go sit next to her and pull her over to me. "I know there is, it's going to work out though." I say kissing her head.
"I can't stay mad at you." She laughs. "I tried and it lasted like five seconds."
"I was never mad." I laughs back.
"Match made in heaven." She smiles.
"I love you."
"I love you too." She whispers. "I was being serious about being tired but I was waiting on you."
"Let me change." I laugh.
I do and then climb back into bed and pull her over to me. She means more to me than anything else on this earth.