The next day she rolled over and the Soldier was still sleeping. She closed her eyes and started to probe his thoughts. She was not prepared for the images in his head: a long fall into an icy river, a red, white and blue shield, lab coats surrounding him, people talking in Russian, cryogenics, random people, metal arms around his head and the pain, the intense pain, swirling in her head; she couldn't take it anymore and the Soldier started to wake.
She looked at him and he smiled and said," Hey Doll." She looked at him and said, "Did you sleep well?"
"Better than I have in years." He smiled at her. "Thank you for taking care of me. I don't know what happened to me."
"It was my pleasure. I still say if you are going to be staying in my place for a while; I still think I should know your name."
He sits up against the headboard and pillows and blurts out impulsively, "I'm sorry, I don't know what it is. I don't know much about my past either, there are a lot of blanks that I just can't fill in. For all of my military career that I can remember; I've been called the Winter Soldier."
He was starting to tense up and was becoming more unraveled. She could see he was trying to remember. "All I know it that when the Russians found me in the icy river, I had lost my arm and couldn't remember who I was. They gave me this arm with the red star and trained me in the KGB, specializing in black ops. I think they experimented on me. I was trained as a spy and assassin. It was my job to do the things, during the Cold War no one else could do."
He continued, "When they didn't need me between missions; I was put into cryo stasis for a sort of hibernation for years. Then Alexander Pierce somehow found me and gave me a new purpose. I work in secret to help protect against terrorists. Only thing is, when I start to remember things I did in the past, they wipe my memory, to suppress the bad stuff, I guess." He looks up at her, while he's trembling the whole time, "I'm glad because now I met you. I will probably be in trouble for telling you all of this. Please, you cannot tell a single person anything at all. I don't want to leave your side. This is the first moment of mental clarity I have had in a long time. Please, let me stay by you. Just being here makes me feel better."
He holds her hands tightly in his and pleads with those intense blue eyes.
Aurora was shocked. At that moment, she had finally figured out where she had seen him. In the Smithsonian's Captain America display, there was a video of Cap and Bucky. The same blue eyed man with the same crooked smile, was staring at her. Of course, his hair was much longer now, but she knew it was him. The fall into the icy water and the shield in her vision confirmed it. This man she was looking at was none other than James Buchanan Barnes, aka Bucky. What happened to him in Russia? How did he survive the fall? What did they do to him? There was no way she could leave him now, if SHIELD wanted to keep his past a secret from him, brain washing or cryostasis was a shitty way to do it. Listening to him talk, made her suspect that something in the upper SHIELD ranks was not right. Pierce and his minions are up to something and her soldier was apparently a pawn in it all. She was not going to let that happen.
"I won't leave you. I want you to stay with me. It must be tough to not be able to remember things like that. I will help you figure out who you are, I promise. I want to get to get to know you, but for the while that you are here with me, I will call you James, that way it is simple and makes the environment a little more friendly. Humor me."
"James." He repeats. "I like that name."
"Me too." As she crawls over and straddles him on the bed and cups his face in her hands and stares into the sea of blue eyes and puts her forehead against his; "I promise you, I will not tell a single soul. Your secret is safe with me. From now on, just remember something, you don't have to do anything alone, I'm with you until the end of the line. Just you and me."
He just stares back at her in amazement. She was wonderful and in that single moment, Aurora became the light in the end of the tunnel for him.
At that moment, her phone rang and it was Alexander Pierce. She leans over and answers the phone. She told him she wanted to work from home today and he inquired if the Soldier was still there. She said yes and that she wanted him to stay with her and that she enjoyed him being around. Aurora stated she would call him James. He sighed over the phone and would allow the Soldier to stay as long as she wanted him, but he was needed right now for a mission and would be gone for a few days and he would return to her. She had to let him go. She handed the phone to James and watched him for a minute, while he talked to Pierce. After he was done, he handed her back the phone.
"I have to go now, Aurora. I will return as soon as I can."
She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the lips. "For luck."
He stared at her, smiling and leaned up and kissed her back. Soon the two were kissing passionately on the bed. His tongue gently found its way into her mouth and she reciprocated, as her arms wrapped around his neck. He started moving his hands up her sides, teasing her breasts. She pulled back for a breath and said, "That's for when you return." He smiled and said, "I can't wait."
He attempted to get up and Aurora moved off of him and he got up and leaned back over and kissed her. Within minutes he was dressed in battle gear and out the door. She sighed; the sexual tension had been high. It had been almost 2 years since she had been with anyone. After Loki, she swore she would never love anyone else. But right now, she was face to face with a dangerous, gorgeous man and desperate for carnal pleasure. She decided to get up and walked over to the window and watched as he climbed into a black SUV. She decided to go and change her clothes and go for a run. She needed to clear her head.
