It all happened so fast. The first few bombs destroyed the roof, raining bricks and steel beams onto the factory floor. Screams of pain and terror mixed with the explosions and plane engines. I grabbed Bucky and dragged us under a nearby workbench, the heavy wood blocking most of the falling debris. I had lost sight of Dugan, but I had no doubt that my brother would keep him safe. Any thoughts of getting out of the factory were replaced with simply surviving through this. Buck had fought me at first but ultimately he allowed me to all but wrap myself around him, covering as much of him as I could manage. Admittedly, staying under the table probably wasn't the smartest plan, but it was better than nothing.

"This doesn't look good, Beth!"

"I've never been in a good bombing before!"

"That's not funny!"

"I think it's hilari-"

That's when everything went black.

The red door was in front of me this time, the ominous hum it gave off quivering my stomach. I backed away from it as far as I could, bumping into the wall.

"I don't think it likes you."

I looked over and found Morte leaning against the wall next to me. "I don't think it does either."

"What happened this time?"

"I was-" I cut off, frowning as I struggled to remember exactly what had happened. "I think there was a bombing," I decided.

Concern flashed across her face. "You must have a very bad head injury if you don't remember," she mused. "Where does it hurt?"

I ran my hand through my hair, flinching when I reached the back. "Everywhere," I answered. "Jesus, that's gotta be bad."

She hummed in agreement. "Who are you with?"

"Buchanan," I answered instantly, surprising myself. "I'm with Buchanan. Is he alright? Please tell me he's alright."

Morte gave me a reassuring smile before her eyes clouded white, a distant look taking over her features. "He is….he is crying."

Shock shot through me. "What?"

"You are lying in his lap….your head is cracked open…he is covered in your blood…."

"Oh God," I groaned. "Morte, I can't leave him there. Not alone," I said, reaching out to grab her arm. "You have to send me back."

Morte grimaced and tried to pull her arm back. "Lune, you know I cannot do that," she said. "You must heal first."

A growl left me before I let go of her arm. "Fuck!" I snapped, pushing off the wall. "If anything happens to him, Morte, I swear to God!"

"Steve is with you, is he not?"

"We went ahead of him, he might not make it in time!"

Morte's eyes clouded white again. "Your soldier is running…he is close," she told me. "He will make it."

My panic lessened at that. "Thank you, Morte Fluer," I sighed. "I'm sorry I grabbed you."

She gave her a reassuring smile. "I understand, Lune Fluer," she said. "I am sorry I cannot help."

I ran my hand back through my hair, putting pressure on the spot that had hurt. It wasn't as sharp as it had been before but it still hurt.

"Bucky?! Ellie?!"

I jumped and spun around, Steve's voice echoing through the room.

"OVER HERE! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

That was Bucky's voice.

"I hear something!"

And Gabe.

"WE'RE OVER HERE!"

"Cap, over here!"

"What's going on?" I asked, looking over to Morte.

"WE'RE DOWN HERE!"

She tilted her head to the side. "I believe your Auditory Cortex is healing."

"Bucky?!"

"My what?"

"STEVE! WE'RE DOWN HERE!"

"It's-" Morte cut off, realization washing over her face. "It's something you will learn about later."

"Are you alright?!"

"You will start breathing soon," she mused. "Though I am sure that you will not wake up for quite some time."

"I'M FINE BUT BETH'S- BETH'S NOT-"

"I think you'll be leaving me soon."

"It's okay, Buck! She'll be okay!"

"Sometimes I wish our visits weren't so short."

"Well, there is a war going on, I'm sure I'll see you soon."

"I'm sure you will."

The first thing I acknowledged was the smell of fire. And not the camp fire smell, but a chemical fire smell. It wasn't as bad as some of the other chemical fire smells I had been subjected to, but it still wasn't pleasant. The smell of gun powder, hair gel, and Old Spice aftershave was next. Buchanan's smell. He was alive.

I pulled in a deep breath and struggled to open my eyes, a sliver of gray sky appearing.

"Beth?"

The sliver grew and Bucky's face came into focus. His hair was disheveled and his usually washed face was smattered with a shocking amount of blood. "Jesus Christ, what thee fuck happened to you?"

A shocked laugh left him and he shook his head. "You got hit in the head pretty hard and you, uh, you kind of..." he trailed off, clearing his throat, "got all over me."

"That's me?" I asked, pointing to the blood on his face.

He nodded. "It's you."

"I am so sorry," I said, trying to push myself up from his lap.

"Wow, wow," he said, tightening his arms around me to keep me down. "Beth, you just came back from the dead, I don't think you should be moving around yet."

I shook my head. "I'm fine, Buchanan," I denied, struggling against him. "It was just a minor head wound."

He let out a scoff. "Minor head wound?" he repeated. "Beth, you were hit with a steel beam! The entire back of your head was gone!"

I rolled my eyes but slumped back onto him. "My entire head has been gone before."

He glared down at me. "That's not the fucking point, Beth."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I feel like you've been swearing at me a lot more lately," I mused.

He gave a nod. "Well, I feel like you've been a lot more stupid lately, so the swearing is appropriate."

I thought about that for a moment before nodding my head to the side. "That's fair," I allowed. "I'm sorry I got blood all over you."

His soft smile reappeared and he pulled me a little closer to him. "I'm just glad you're back, Beth."

I smiled back, taking notice of just how bloodshot his eyes were. Morte did say that he had been crying. I reached up to grab his face, rubbing my thumbs across his cheeks. "Are you okay?"

"I am thanks to you," he said. "Beth, if you hadn't of been there I would be dead. That beam would have-" he cut off, shaking his head. "I would be dead."

"Well, that was the whole point to me clinging to you like a koala," I told him with a small nod.

A snort of laughter left him. "Clinging to me like a koala," he repeated, more to himself than to me. "Are you sure you're alright? I don't think you're alright."

I scoffed and squished his cheeks together, puckering his lips. "I'm perfectly fine. Now say 'tweet tweet'," I requested.

His face twisted into confusion. "Tweet tweet?"

"Aww, you're adorable," I praised, letting his face go.

"Yeah, you're not fine," he mused before looking up from me. "Hey, Steve, your girl's gone goofy in the head."

I scoffed and smacked at his chest. "I've always been goofy in the head," I stated, finally pushing myself up. My vision black out for a moment as a wave of dizziness came over me. I pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly, the rush fading away.

"You alright, Ellie?"

I looked over and found Steve crouched behind a disgruntled looking Dugan, both men dust covered. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm alright," I answered. "What about you fellas?"

Dugan let out a grunt. "Dislocated my shoulder," he grumbled. "But it would have been worse if Victor hadn't of puled me out of the way."

My brow furrowed. "Vic actually helped you?"

"Your surprise is insulting."

I craned my beck back to find Victor leaning against a nearby chuck of factory. He was just as dust covered as the others, but sport of dried blood showed that he'd taken some damage. "You don't really have a track record of being helpful, Vic," I told him. "I mean, you've left me in a fire before."

He shrugged lightly. "You got out fine."

I rolled my eyes but dropped the subject. I reached back and touched at my blood crusted hair, grimacing at the feel of it. "Did any Hydra make it?"

"A couple," Steve answered. "The others are keeping an eye on them."

"Do they know anything?"

"They're just as clueless as we are," Buck stated, sounding awfully put out by that. "You saw 'em when the bombs dropped. Runnin' around like damn chickens with their heads cut off."

I gave a nod. "So it wasn't them. But they were Keinkel He 111 models," I stated. "German planes."

"How the hell do you know that?" Buck demanded.

I looked back to him. "In the lab, remember? I recognized the engine sound."

He gave me a look of disbelief. "Honestly, Beth, that's fucking ridiculous."

"Hey," Steve protested, shooting his friend a glare.

I shook my head. "Swearing at me is how he copes with my antics," I explained. "We've discussed it. It's fine."

He didn't seem too sure about that but didn't press the subject.

"So what are we thinking happened?" Dugan continued, wincing as Steve rotated his recently relocated shoulder. "They bombed their own factory?"

"I don't think it's that simple," I said, shaking my head. "That lab was staged, the body was Human, and there weren't any in the freezers."

"No research either," Buck added.

"Klaus hadn't been there in a while. A long while," I stated, before a thought crossed my mind. "Did that one officer make it? The chatty one?"

"Didn't see him with the survivors," Vic answered, seeming to have the same thought as me. "He didn't sound right, did he? Talkin' like they'd seen hundreds of Klaus' experiments."

"I didn't see him when we went back up ether," Dugan spoke up, looking over to Vic. "Did you?"

He shook his head.

"He must have known what was coming."

"You think Klaus had the factory bombed?" Steve asked, not sounding all the surprised.

"Either him or Johan," I said with a shrug.

"What if they worked together on this?" Buck asked, nodding his head towards the destroyed factory.

I let out a snort. "Then they did our job for us."

That earned me a few chuckles.

"They had to have known where we were," Steve said, more to himself than to us. "Exactly where we were."

"There's not that many factories left, Stevie," Bucky pointed out, the nickname seeming to just slip out. "They could have bombed the others for all we know."

"If the others were bombed then it was definitely Klaus."

"Eleanor's right," Dugan agreed. "We already know that Johan and Klaus don't like each other. I doubt they respect each other's property."

"Either way, let's not go assuming things till we've got the facts," Buck concluded, looking pointedly to Steve. "There's no need for you to flip your wig over a possible leak this soon."

Steve seemed to hesitate for a moment before relenting with a nod. "Alright, Buck, you're right."

"Damn right I am."

Steve smiled at that before he turned his attention towards me. "A couple of the trucks made it through the bombing. Once we get everything taken care of we'll pack up and head out to go get Jimmy."

Vic let out a scoff. "He can find his own way back."

"I already told you that I'm not going to leave him," Steve said, shooting my brother a glare. "We're going to get him."

"Thank you, Steve," I said before shooting a glare of my own at my brother. "And you wonder why no one likes you."

He shrugged and looked away, completely unbothered by our displeasure with him.

I rolled my eyes at him before I pulled myself to my feet, teetering slightly when I was at full height. "Well, if we're going to be in public I'm going to go wash the blood off of myself," I announced.

Steve's eyebrows shot up. "How are you planning on doing that, Ellie?" he asked. "I, uh, I don't think any of the sinks survived."

I shook my head. "Nature, Steve, nature," I corrected him. "I'm going to go find a stream or a river or something."

Victor barked out a laugh. "Jesus Christ, Ella."

"Shove it, Vic. Buck, do you want to go with me?" I asked, looking down to him.

He watched me for a moment then sighed. "Yeah, I'll go with you," he decided, crawling to his feet. "I should probably get all the you off my face."

I let out a snort of laughter. "I'm a little proud of you for managing to make such a subtle dirty joke."

Bucky paused at that, his brow furrowing as he worked through that. "Jesus Christ, Beth," he said shaking his head. "Sometimes I think you're brain is more twisted than mine is."

I scrunched my nose at him. "You love my brain," I teased.

"It's terrifying."

"You're not the first person to tell me that. Right, Steve?"

He gave an innocent shrug. "You're brain is terrifying, honey. There's no denying that."

"No there is not," I agreed with a wink. "Right! let's go find a river or a stream or something," I said, heading off towards the sound of running water.

The sound of running water turned out to be a pretty sizable creek. It was nestled back in the forest behind the ruined structure, a mere ten minute walk. As soon as we reached the water Bucky pulled off the uniform jacket, dropped to his knees and scrubbed at his face with a handful of water.

I tugged my ruined T-shirt over my head and crouched down to soak the shirt in the water.

Bucky did a double take at me when he noticed my lack of clothing. "Please tell me that Steve's seen you like that more than I have. Cause I'm really not looking forward to the conversation if he hasn't."

I rolled my eyes. "I think we're all past the point of modesty. You and the fellas have seen me in less."

"We also saw you get your arm cut off," he reminded me. "Is that something else we're past the point of? Cause I really don't want to see that again."

I wrung the T-shirt and shook it out, pleased to find that the cold water had managed to get most of the blood out. "I'd say that you'll never see me get my arm cut off but given the fact that you just saw my head bashed in with a steel beam, I'm not going to make any promises."

He nodded slowly as he considered that. "That's reasonable of you," he allowed. "But, uh, a false sense of security would be nice."

"I can do that," I said with a nod. "We are past the point of you seeing me get my arm cut off."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," I responded, tossing the shirt out onto the snow. I dropped a knee and leaned forward to do as Bucky had done. I scrubbed a moment longer before shifting towards Buck. "Did I get it all off?"

His brow furrowed as he looked to me, a frown pulling at his lips. "No. Here," he said, reaching up to grab hold of my face. He rubbed his thumbs across my chin, smearing the remaining blood. "He wasn't happy about this, by the way," he told me.

"Did you tell him that it was my idea?"

"Yes."

"Did he blame you?"

"No. He blamed your brother."

My eyebrows shot up at that. "Really?"

He gave a nod. "They kind of got into it," he explained. "Nothing bad enough to break up but still."

"What'd they say?"

"Steve said that he shouldn't encourage your impulsiveness. Victor said that it was his job to encourage anything and everything you set your mind too. They argued about the morality behind that for a while till Jimmy came up."

"Vic wanted to leave him here," I remembered.

Buck nodded. "He was pretty adamant about it too. Kept saying that it was how your family did things."

"He wouldn't be lying."

"You would really leave him here?"

"No. Despite some popular opinions I'm not completely heartless."

He let out a soft laugh, a smile twitching at his lips. "No, not completely," he agreed. "Though I feel like you're a little less heartless since you started going with Steve."

I scoffed lightly. "Are you saying I'm going soft?"

"For him? Yes."

"Is that a bad thing?"

His smile widened. "No, Lizbeth, I don't think it's a bad thing," he assured me.

I hummed in appreciation. Of course I knew that Steve was making me soft, I would have had to have been blind not to notice. Hell, even Vic had noticed and he's only been with us for a few days. It was almost ridiculous, but in all honesty, I wouldn't have it any other way.

With one final swipe across my chin he dropped his hands. "There ya go. Good as new."

"Thanks, Buck," I said, wiping the excess water off my face. "Do you think I could get it out of my hair?"

He let out a humorless laugh. "D'you really want to try?"

I thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Yes," I said, rolling back to pull off my boots. I tossed them towards where my T-shirt was drying before rolling up my pants.

"You're not seriously going to walk out into the water, are you?"

"Yep," I answered, pushing myself to my feet and stepping out into the water. I held my arms out to my side to keep my balance on the rocks. I stopped when the water reached just below my knees and swung down, effectively dunking my head into the frigid water. I scrubbed my fingers through my hair and loosened the hardened blood. After a moment of scrubbing I leaned up and pulled in a grateful breath, wringing the water from my hair.

"How are you not freezing?" Bucky demanded.

I raised an eyebrow and looked through my hair at him. "I could ask you the same thing," I pointed out.

He watched me for a moment before a knowing look crossed his face. "You, uh, you noticed that, huh?" he asked, looking down at his cold reddened fingers, the obvious sting not effecting him. "That's not normal, is it? I should feel that."

"Probably," I agreed, stepping over to crouch in front of him. "How long have you noticed?"

He gave a small shrug. "Long enough to be somewhat okay with it," he answered, flexing his fingers. "I've thought about saying something to Steve or you but..." he trailed off.

"But what?"

He gave another shrug. "But there's always been something more important," he answered. "I just kinda put it on the back burner, ya know?"

"Well, we're going to put it on the front burner now, okay? When we get back to base we'll have Howard run a couple of tests. The same same ones he did for me. We'll figure out what's going on."

"Thanks, Beth, but, uh, I think I know what's going on."

I nodded at that. "You know, when Zola had us he told me that the research he had done on me had helped him finish another one of his projects," I explained. "He wouldn't tell me what it was but I had a feeling."

"Yeah, he wouldn't tell me either," he said with a laugh. "But knowing who he is now it's not that hard to figure out. Do you think I'll get big like, Steve?" he asked, looking up to me with an almost hopeful look.

I gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "I think we're past that point, Buck."

"Shit," he sighed. "That really doesn't seem fair. I mean, all Steve had to do was get into a pod! I was a POW for months before I got my shots. If anyone deserves to get bigger it's me."

I nodded my head to the side. "Sure, but think about this. Steve grew nearly three times his height and weight. You're more than a decently sized man, could you imagine what you'd look like if you grew three times that?"

He considered it for a moment before a frown pulled at his face. "It sure as hell would make dancing difficult."

"And we wouldn't want to deprive the ladies a dance with you, would we?"

His smile returned. "We sure wouldn't," he agreed. "I guess us Super Solider's can't all be the same, huh? There's gotta be some variety or we'll lose our charm."

"Yeah! Plus there's plenty of things that you can do that he can't," I reminded. "Like, he wouldn't be able to sleep in the snow without gear, and he sure as hell wouldn't be able to hit a moving target at 350 ft. away."

A snicker let him at that. "He wishes."

"I wish I could," I told him. "Do you know how much easier everything would be if I could?"

He reached out to bumped one of his hands against my knee. "I'll show you how but you gotta teach me how to howl. And not that bullshit howl everyone else does; I want your howl."

I barked out a laugh and nodded. "Alright, you've got a deal," I told him, reaching up to grab a hold of his face. "We're going to be okay, Buchanan," I said, leaning forward to press my forehead to his. "We are."

He pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting go of some of the tension he had built up. "You promise, Beth?"

I hesitated at that. Going off of past events I wasn't all that comfortable making promises. "Well, it's not a false sense of security," I compromised.

"It's better than nothing."

And we've reached the topic of Bucky's new found talents/ailments. More development in future chapters!

I'm going to see Civil War on the 5th so I might be a little too emotionally compromised to work on the next chapter. Just fair warning.

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