I'm back and I'm super sorry for how long this took. This chapter was difficult for me and I started freaking out over the details. I am so grateful for everyone who continues to read this story even with my chaotic posting schedule (or lack of). But with this story, I really want to get it right which unfortunately means I need to be in a writing mood for it to be my best. The story isn't going to get happier anytime soon but it will eventually. A plot is set.

So opposing what I have said previously, this story will tie into Age of Ultron but not Civil War (even though the movie was amazing). The series of events I have in place does not line up with the Civil War storyline. I'm hoping you are looking forward to the following chapters for this story as much as I am.

(P.S. I got an amazing chrome app called Grammarly that acts as an editor. IT's so helpful, so look forward to minimal spelling/grammar errors.)

Chapter 34

Loud crackles and bangs echoed throughout the American sky in their annual ridiculous number. Though these light erupting explosives were only distant flashes and pops from the nearby town's local celebration of their independence. Bucky and Annie lounged on the grass some distance from the homestead watching the night sky fill up with green only for a moment to then be replaced by a flash of red then blue.

Annie had been worried that the booms of the fireworks would bring up some unhappy and vivid flashbacks for Bucky but he had insisted on watching them with her; the noises were distant and he could easily distinguish the difference between the pop of the fireworks and the bang of a gun. He had really insisted on joining Annie to watch the 4th of July fireworks display of the town because it seemed important to her.

Bucky watched her now as she tilted her head towards the darkened sky with her legs hugged to her chest. Her face wore a sad yet nostalgic expression. He turned back to yet another stream of fireworks waiting for her to explain her solemn behaviour today. He trusted she would in her own time.

And with her promise to express what she was feeling instead of bottling it up she released a deep sigh, still staring at the bursting lights and confessed, "Today's Steve's birthday."

Bucky felt like an idiot for not realising but how could he? His memory was improving by the day but he was nowhere near remembering dates.

Annie seemed less focused on this and she tightened her grip on her folded legs downward turning her gaze. "Every year we would all climb up the side of the house to get a better view of the fireworks… This is the first birthday we haven't spent together," She breathed weakly as she tried to lighten her expression without much success.

Bucky frowned not knowing how to relieve the blonde's pain. They both knew that with HYDRA still on the hunt, fuelled with the information that the Rogers was a point of weakness for the dangerous Winter Soldier, their future was too uncertain to reveal their continued existence to Steve without risking hurting him more. Instead of fumbling about with words he opted to wrap an arm around her and gently guide her to rest on his shoulder. The action seemed to relieve Annie as her arms loosened their grip on her legs.

Eventually, he found the courage to state, "You miss him."

Annie smiled at the obvious statement but humoured him none the less, "Yeah I really do. I miss watching him open my present. He would treat the wrapping paper like it was some priceless artefact and would take at least five minutes to open my gift." Bucky mimicked Annie's nostalgic look as this Steve sounded more and more like a huge dork. At least the one Annie described. He seemed to differ greatly from the idolised man projected in the exhibit.

"Even though it is kind of annoying, it was still comforting that some things stayed the same. I was worried that after he got the super soldier serum that he would change and he would stop being the brother I knew. That he would morph completely into Captain America. And in some ways he did. He stopped fidgeting and he started taking charge instead of fighting his battles alone. He wasn't that kid I grew up with who put newspaper in his shoes. But he's still Steve. No matter how much Steve changes in appearance he's still ridiculously gentle and meticulous and nothing can be dirty and everything has to be-". Annie pauses to look at Bucky before slapping her palm over her forehead. "I'm blabbering on again aren't I?"

"I don't mind. It's what makes you Annie," Bucky clarified contently.

"Yes, that's a wonderful defining characteristic," She huffed sarcastically.

Bucky laughed lightly. Yes, the Winter Soldier laughed, Annie baffled. She liked the warm sound. Annie revelling in every action that signalled to the defrosting of the assassin's icy regard. She could think of few things that gave her more joy that Bucky opening up to her. She had missed this. She had missed his friendship more than she realised. As much as the Rogers loved the company of Natasha and Clint, the two assassins struggled in the emotional sharing section of friendship. It was odd that she found it in the friendship of the assassin who tried to kill her. But there was something calming and warm about Bucky's friendship that left a resonating feeling of happiness.

Annie was brought out of her thoughts as Bucky added, "I like hearing you talk. And it also tells me what you're thinking."

"Sneaky Barnes. I guess I can never be a spy huh?"

"Not unless they want all of their secrets spilled," Bucky smirked, eye still tracked on the fireworks.

"If you keep sassing me I might just spill some of your secrets. Like how you're allergic to wildflowers. Some people would love to get their hands on that information."

"Really?" Bucky asked surprised.

"Yes. You saved up and bought some for Louise McCarkle and got a rash all up your arms," Annie laughed to herself. She had been very pleased that he had to cancel his date with the less than pleasant Louise.

"So, it's not deadly."

"No but very uncomfortable," Annie added in amusement.

There was a short silence as another round of fireworks were sent off and the two watched the coordinated display. The light, teasing mood fell to a frailer atmosphere as Annie let out a deflating sigh.

Annie stared wistfully at her booted feet as she weakly confessed, "When I think about Steve I still see that scrawny kid who came home battered and bruised. I still sometimes I forget that he is some sort of superhero and worry that his lungs will give out if he runs too much. But now it's not much better because the tougher Steve got, the tougher his enemies did. They're not jerks in the playground, their men and aliens who want to kill millions and have the power to do it. I know he's making a difference but what he does terrifies me. My only job was to look after the two of you and I I'm not strong enough to do it anymore. The world's gotten tougher and I haven't."

What had started as an admission had broken into a dam of worry. Annie just let out her anxieties that she was too afraid to tell Steve. He was doing it to protect her and what's important to him, how could she tell him that his duty left her feeling hopeless and afraid.

"That's a good thing," Bucky asserts.

"Yeah, how?" Annie questioned cynically, surprised by his answer.

Annie looked at him curiously and saw his eyes harden. "The world breaks people and forces us to sacrifice what makes us human for power. You have strength but it's not the same. It reminds people like me that they're human, that there is still good in the world that is trying to break us."

Annie wasn't sure how to respond. Unfortunately, awkwardness is hereditary in her case. She settled for "Thanks, Buck. You think I'm strong huh?"

"The strongest," he humoured.

"That sounded patronising," Annie commented teasingly. "So I see Steve like he was before Captain America but I've been wondering how you see yourself. You have to admit that you've gone through a pretty substantial identity crisis." She quickly turned to him clarifying nervously, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's a personal subject I know. Ugh! Why did I ask that?" She tensely ran a hand through her tangled hair in embarrassment.

Bucky was amused that even her inner conflicts were outwardly expressed. He did not have to contemplate her question for long as it was usually in the forefront of his mind. Annie, surprised by his answering of her awkward question twisted to face him as he started, "I don't think I'm the man you knew in the past. I don't think I can be no matter how much I can remember. And I'm not the Winter Soldier. Even if they wiped me again I think you proved that I can't go back to mindless killing. I think there are parts of both but I like the thought of becoming someone new. Someone better."

A wide grin spread across Annie's rose splotched cheeks and she entwined his free hand with hers. "I like that. You are someone new. So let's get to know this new Buck. I'm guessing with all the confusing memories you haven't had a lot of time to soul search?"

"Soul search?"

"Figure out who you are now. Like, know what your favourite colour is?" Annie patiently explained, excited about to concept of discovering more about this new Bucky.

"Your favourite colour is the colour you like the most right?" Bucky hesitantly checked.

Annie nodded her head happily, "Exactly. So what is it?"

Bucky paused clearly going through the collection of colours in his head and assessing his feelings towards them. Annie noticed amusingly that when Bucky was in deep thought his face hardened making him look murderous. His deadly expression juxtaposing his current thoughts of colours.

"Yellow," He announced shortly after. Annie was quite surprised by the choice. "What about you?"

"Green. Okay, what is your favourite food?"

"Your cooking would be high up the list," Bucky badgered with a tone that was a little too serious for anyone else other than Annie to recognise it as a joke.

She elbows him muttering, "Sure."

"I like plums," Bucky stated with a shrug.

"You like plums," Annie repeated curiously before she started to conjure her next question

But before the question sounded from her lips they were halted as Bucky's eyes narrowed dangerously scanning the surrounding hills. His dark eyes widened and in an instant, he was up and tugging her along toward the house.

"Bucky! What is it?" Annie shouted anxiously.

"HYDRA. They found us."

Annie felt her stomach drop. How had they found them? There wasn't a street or security camera for miles. Her heart started erratically beating as she realised she had led them straight to Clint's family.

Bucky was running almost too fast for her much shorter and less trained legs to keep up with. His hand tightly grasping hers the main reason she was still upright at this speed. He looked back every few seconds to make sure she was still with him.

Bucky was then at their getaway car rummaging through the boot collecting the small stash of weapons he had accumulated. Consisting of two pistols and three knives. He hastily stashed one knife in his belt and another in his boot. He turned to her wasting not a second. Shoving the last knife towards her he instructed her to hide it in her boot and handed her one pistol and took the other.

Pistol already up and ready he closed in on the house with much more caution. It was as if a switch had clicked him right back into battle mode. Annie raised her gun as well, prepared for the likely scenario that the house had already been invaded by HYDRA.

Bucky pushed the front door open and swung his gun in both directions as it followed his gaze. Annie followed cautious in covering them from threats from behind. Bucky travelled effectively into the lit living room to find Clint resting on an armchair in front of the TV and Laura in the adjoining kitchen cleaning up. Both midway through an argument about tearing up one of the bathrooms for renovations.

Annie stepped towards the couple as Bucky monitored the entrance to the house. "Clint, Laura we need to get out. HYDRA found us." Those words were all that was needed for Laura to sprint upstairs to get the children and for Clint to rush to a large cupboard on the other side of the room. He threw the two cupboard doors open to reveal a bow and an array of arrows as well as his arm straps.

"I should've guessed," Annie muttered.

"What'd you expect," Clint smirked as he whipped out his bow and slung a quiver full of arrows onto his back. "How many?"

Bucky now beside her informed, "Five convoys, each holds ten soldiers. Semi-automatic weapons and there may be a machine gun in the mix." Annie was just amazed at how much he had gathered so quickly.

"Do you have anything to take out the guy with the machine gun?" Annie asked Clint desperately trying to figure out how to win this fight.

"Yeah, an explosive arrow or two will do it."

"Bucky can you shoot a crossbow?" Annie continued formulating her plan.

"Why're you asking him?" Clint baffled, clearly he was the best choice for the job.

Clint was returned with the famous Rogers eternal determination burning in Annie's stern gaze, "I'm asking him because you need to be looking after you family and getting them out of the mess I got them into. They need you, Clint."

"And you don't?" Clint argued.

"You need to protect your family Clint. That is all that matters right now. Get them out. Find somewhere safe." Annie didn't leave room for disagreement as she turned back to Bucky. "Can you shot it?"

"Yes"

"Clint, Bucky needs a crossbow and two explosive arrows," Annie ordered.

Clint huffed in defeat and jogged out the room quickly returning with a medium sized crossbow. He went back to his weapons cupboard and collected two red-tipped arrows; handing them to Bucky.

Laura now came down with Lila and Cooper who were tired but dressed. All three with black backpacks strapped to their backs. Clearly, the Bartons were ready for this situation. Clint passed a pistol to his wife and turned to Annie.

"Are you sure?"

Annie nodded, "This isn't your family's problem, it's ours. Keep them safe. I'm sorry for getting you into this mess Clint."

"You can come with us," Clint tried, looking for some solution.

"No, we can't. They'll come after Bucky and I'm not leaving him."

Bucky stepped in, "Annie you should go with them. They want me."

"I'm not leaving you and there is no way you can change that," Annie stubbornly dismissed.

She turned back to Clint as Laura and the children moved to the car around the back of the house. Clint encased Annie in a hug as he pleaded, "Try not to get yourself killed."

"No promises. But Clint, whatever happens, don't tell Steve."

"Annie-"

"Please, Clint. I couldn't survive losing Steve twice, I don't want to take the chance that he can't. Don't let me cause him more pain. I just want that idiot to be happy."

Clint nodded begrudgingly before racing out the back door with his family, arrow ready in bow.

Annie twisted around to assess their situation from the window only to find Bucky right front of her. "You should have gone with them," He argued.

Annie sighed and stated severely, "We don't have time for this," as she began gathering the extra guns and magazines Clint had stocked in his overly packed cupboard. Annie was just glad Clint had the foresight to stock weapons other than bows and arrows.

Annie paused her scavenging to justify her unwavering decision to stay by his side, "Buck, you want to keep me safe right?" She earned a certain yet slightly confused nod in response. "Well I want to keep you safe and I may not be a super soldier but I'm going to do everything in my power to keep HYDRA's bloody, clawing tentacles off you."

Though Bucky was still apprehensive about Annie throwing herself into danger for him, all arguments ceased.

Annie placed another gun in Bucky's hand and passed him two additional magazines after he had tucked it away. She did the same with her extra weapons and began voice the battle strategy she had been formulating for the past few minutes. "Now HYDRA depends on numbers, big guns and ambush more than actual strategy. We can gain an upper hand if we separate their fire and play on their weakness. We need to create a crossfire to take out as many HYDRA agents as possible with minimal fire on us. It way it'll be spread out and they'll have virtually no cover." Annie barely left herself enough time to breathe as she laid out the details. Finally, she asked, "Ready?" She of course knew that he was, the question was more for her sake.

She got a certain nod from him anyway. Suddenly all the emotions of HYDRA finding them, their peaceful existence over and the possibility of losing him once more, crashed down on her. She wrapped her arms tightly around his torso, burying her head into his chest; the gun in her hand forgotten. Bucky for the first time accepted the embrace without hesitance and returned her desperate cling. He gave in to his instinct to rest his head atop of hers. Bucky could hear Annie's muffled voice reassure, "You're stuck with me remember. No matter what."

Remembering the encroaching HYDRA battalion he released his strong embrace, he cranked his head to look Annie in the face as he asked gently, "Ready?"

Annie's worry was quickly shrouded with a stern mask. "Of course," she replied

The plan was then set into motion. Annie felt some relief falling back on her old friend, tactical strategy but she was still conscious of the prominent sinking of her stomach as she snuck towards the approaching HYDRA and got into position. She quickly scanned the trees for any hint of a classic HYDRA ambush but they seemed to have pulled out and began approaching the house in a clump. Annie presumed they were planning to ambush the house from all sides as they advanced slowly and silently. If it wasn't for Bucky they may have been successful. Annie quietly settled behind a fallen tree trunk seeing the wood as good cover. She was just happy for the torture of cringing after every twig snapping being over.

As organised Bucky, who had placed himself on the edge of the thin tree line on the other side of the enemy, began firing calculated shots. The group of HYDRA still fatally in a cluster allowed Bucky to quickly thin their numbers. The crowd of what used to be fifty HYDRA agents now searched for the source of the gunfire and turned their own weapons on him.

Annie heard the dreaded deafening roar of the machine gun and set phrase two into motion. Annie without delay sent a line of shots at the men of the outer layer of the group, all facing the opposite direction. Completely unprepared for an attack from their rear.

With the first line taken out, she fired at the next group who were just realising what was happening. Then she saw a flash followed by a loud, violent boom as Bucky shot the explosive arrow at the distracted machine gun operator. Within another second both Annie and Bucky were spraying the disorientated cluster of men from both sides. Annie grateful that they had correctly positioned themselves so that they were not exactly opposite each other to prevent endangerment from each other's bullets.

The able-bodied HYDRA agents had more than halved before they coordinated themselves to fire in both directions; growing more precise in targeting Annie's position. She could only assume the same for Bucky. She ducked behind the now splintered log as she reloaded her second gun with her second last magazine. She was running a blank for what to do when the two of them ran out of bullets. She had been as precise as possible with her shots to conserve bullets but they would run out soon. Their only hope was to take out enough HYDRA so that Bucky will be able to defeat them in hand to hand combat. She had seen the man in the midst of it and he was inhumanly amazing but with more armed HYDRA agents there are left the lower their chances of success when the time comes.

Annie fires a few more shots before a blinking red arrow soaring right above the HYDRA agents alerted her to take cover, clutching her head. Another, louder boom and the resounding blowback tells her that the last explosive arrow was much closer than last time. Re-emerging her head she can see it took out a significant number of HYDRA and she quickly returns her attack while they are recovering.

Too soon she pulls the trigger and hears an awful empty click. She was out of ammunition and but the sounds of Bucky's much more sparse shots, he was running low. Filled with too much adrenaline to feel much other than her thumping heart, she is grateful that her mind is firmly set in strategist mode. This way she can be as helpful as possible. If she ran out now to attack she could get in the way for Bucky or end up apprehended and used against him. So she advised against it and dug out her knife from within her boot. She kept the pistol and strapped to her belt in the case that it could be used as a blunt weapon or as a bluff. And she sat and waited for the pistol shots to stop.

When they did there were only about fifteen HYDRA left. The odds were not bad. Carefully surveying the scene she saw Bucky emerge from the tree line he had taken cover in. The HYDRA agents started firing their chunky guns at him once more which he deflected with his bionic arm with ease. With most of the HYDRA agents focused on landing a shot in Bucky Annie emerged as well though with a more understated approach. She was thankful that the fact that she had not fired for a bit had made them forget her or assume she was hit. Though being shot wasn't likely with her advanced cover and HYDRA's loss of precision shooters after their defeat at the Triskelion.

She easily travelled to the panicking group of HYDRA who could not seem hit the quickly encroaching Winter Soldier. All extremely focused on the much bigger threat looming in front of them Annie was able to sneak up on the closest agent and simultaneously twist his gun out of his grip and dig her foot into the back of his knee, crippling him down onto the ground. She quickly brought the butt of her knife down on his head hoping to knock him out before he alerted the HYDRA agents who were spraying bullets at Bucky, not 12 meters away. Annie panicked as the knife knocked against the man's skull but left him very conscious. In awkward alarm, Annie clumsily grabbed the dropped gun and jabbed its end into the man's temple. She released a large breath as he fell limp onto the grass.

Wanting to maintain the element of surprise as long as possible she collected the gun but equipped her knife once again. Skulking up to the next closest enemy who thankfully still remained unaware of her presence; she sliced his hand with the intention to remove his gun from the equation. Next came a stab to the side. As the agent dropped in pain she looked for her next target.

A bullet whizzed past her alerting Annie that someone had heard the HYDRA agent's squawk of pain. Ducking her head she darted behind the parked HYDRA truck. Bullets clanged against the reinforced metal. She now pulled on the strap bringing her scavenged gun to her front and ready. She travelled around the other side of the truck knowing the second she poked her head around the front side a bullet would be sent into it. Sneakily creeping around the back gave her view of the HYDRA agent's back as he cautiously approached the front hoping to corner her. She shot at his torso and then thigh before swerving to shot the back of the agent just becoming aware of the events occurring behind him.

Skipping to the next parked truck and using it as cover she sent another few shots at one of them, the first bullet just off but the second hitting its mark and sending him down with a thud. Annie peeked from around the truck to see Bucky had now made contact with the crowd of HYDRA, clocking an agent in the face and snapping a gun with his metal hand. Within seconds the agents surround in were fatally wounded and Bucky was moving on the next oncoming threat. Annie lifted her gun once more hoping the thin the surrounded crowd for him from her moderately safe distance.

Her stomach wrenched as she felt the barrel of a gun dig into her spine. She had thought she was safe but the gun presently in her back begged to differ.

"You know if you weren't so focused on your boyfriend you might've seen me comin'," the sickening voice of Brock Rumlow whispered in her ear. She couldn't dedicate attention to the creepiness of his action when all she could do was feel the plummeting chasm that was her stomach.

"Drop the gun sweetheart," He ordered, now at the decent distance. When she hesitated he dug the gun further into her spine making her grunt in pain.

She dropped the weapon begrudgingly. "And the one in your belt and the knife."

With each weapon he listed off the chasm tripled in size to the point where her torso was just a void filled only with the echo of her thundering heartbeat that reminded her of its colossal size. Her head filled with hateful thoughts of how she had just killed Bucky with her stupidity. He was going back to HYDRA and it was completely her fault.

With her belted weapons discarded Rumlow guided her out with the muzzle of his gun. Now out in the open, he dug it into the soft flesh just beside her spine causing Annie to involuntarily yelp in pain. As he had hoped the sound alerted Bucky to his defeat. Bucky, who held a gun to one of the eight remaining HYDRA agents, darted his eyes to the sound only to stop dead.

Annie's gaze dropped to the ground not wanting to see the dying hope in Bucky's eyes but she still heard him murmur her name in disbelief.

Her eyes started to burn but she refused the tears release. Why did she always cause the people she cared about pain? She didn't care about the bruising force of Rumlow's gun in her back; all she cared about was not letting Bucky go back to the horrific treatment of HYDRA.

Annie looked back to Bucky to see him lower the gun and raise his hands in surrender. He allowed the still capacitated HYDRA to restrain him forcibly.

No, no, no, no. She wasn't going to let this happen again. She narrowly got him back last time. She wasn't going to be a pawn used against the ones she loves. Annie elbowed Rumlow as hard as she could in the stomach and threw a punch at the sadistic man's jaw. Momentarily stunned by the pain that was a result of the sheer force she threw into the punch that was fuelled by anger and fear. Annie jumped for Rumlow's gun but he had recovered enough to wrestle for control over the firearm. She couldn't remove the iron grip of his fingers around the gun. The battle over control lost when Rumlow's finger pulled the trigger sending a bullet into her leg.

Annie let go of the gun and crumpled to the ground with a scream of agony. Her senses temporarily limited to the earsplitting high pitch piercing her head and the scorching pain throbbing through her entire leg. She grasped tightly the bleeding limb that felt as though scolding lead had punctured right through it. Any attempt to move it was rewarded with an enormous flare of agony bursting up her leg and deafening throbbing through her head.

Through the pain, she could hear muted yelling of her name. Bucky. That was Bucky. She turned to see him thrash wildly against six agents who desperately tried to contain the livid Bucky. His desperate struggles blurred by her still pain dominated senses.

The high pitched ringing faded as she could hear another HYDRA agent she didn't realise was beside Rumlow condemn in a hushed tone, "You were not supposed to injury her."

Rumlow glared at him and hauled Annie up onto her feet. Annie bit back the scream of pain at the rough treatment. She felt the return of the gun to her back and a rough arm twist her own, restraining any more attacks.

The HYDRA agents had finally regained control over Bucky. Annie winced as one jabbed the butt of his large gun into Bucky's head. The contact not enough to knock Bucky out but instead a form of punishment for the super soldier.

"Let her go," Bucky seethed threateningly.

"I've been waiting to tell you this for a while," Rumlow stated maliciously, clearly delighting in Bucky's misconception. Annie knew he was showing that awful smile behind her. "You're not the one we want. She is."

Annie saw Bucky's eyes widen and his entire body stiffen before he snapped right before her eyes. He hurled profanities at Rumlow with bared teeth as he once again thrashed against the petrified HYDRA agents who were move holding on for dear life.

Annie's absolute terror was blocked by her confusion. Why on earth would HYDRA want her as opposed to Bucky who, to her knowledge, was the most experienced assassin in history. Unless… the bombshell dropped, she wasn't imagining the strange changes going on within her. She was healing at an abnormal rate and who else knows what is going on behind her skin. She didn't understand how, though.

Then it struck her that she was being taken by HYDRA. On instinct, her eyes flashed to Bucky for anything; help, reassurance, a promise. She couldn't hide her fear from him. She knew they were going to tear her apart until nothing of Annie is left.

"I'm going to kill you!" Bucky murderously raged.

Rumlow ignored the latest of Bucky's sincere death threats and continued explaining with indifference, "HYDRA has found that super soldiers don't work. We're now in the business of those with more special abilities. You're a failed product, asset."

Annie's brain was sent into a new frenzy as she heard Rumlow order, "Put her in the truck and kill him."

"What?! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," She screamed over and over, petrified by the thought that Bucky was about to be killed. She would not let Bucky die, to hell with what happens to her. "Wait! You won't kill him," Annie seethed with a deadly expression that seemed to shock Rumlow for a moment.

He smirked intrigued by the odd command of the small woman, "Why?"

"Because whoever you work for wants me alive and you can't promise that I won't find a way to force you to put a bullet in my head. But if you leave him here, unharmed, I will go with you and do whatever you tell me to. Wisk me off to where he'll never find me, I don't care. Just don't kill him. Otherwise, you'll have a corpse instead of a new weapon," Annie smirked knowing that she had won Bucky's life.

Rumlow glared at her extraordinarily determined expression before commanding through clenched teeth, "Knock him out. Make sure he's out cold."

"Annie! What are you doing!?" Bucky yelled, his petrified eyes begging her to not to.

She could see a HYDRA agent readying a large syringe filled with a murky liquid that she assumed had to be a sedative of some sort. This is the last time she would see him. She felt her heart splinter and crack at the thought.

She forced a weak smile onto her face that broke every few seconds under her grief.

"I love you, Buck," Annie whispered.

The broken look on Bucky's face told her that he heard right before the syringe was plunged into his neck. Annie clutched her eyes shut twisting her head away not. She couldn't look at him any longer. Seeing the hopelessness and fear that she caused. Annie could hear him try and fight off the sedative rushing through his veins. Attempting over and over to form her name.

She clenched her closed eyes tighter as she heard the butt of a gun whack against his head, finally knocking Bucky unconscious. I'm so sorry Bucky but this way you're safe, Annie internally pleaded.

Annie felt a pang in her neck and then the rush of something foreign entering her bloodstream. When she twisted her neck the empty syringe was already pulled out of her neck and the sedative sapped what was left of her energy until almost nothing was left. With her body about to shut down, she felt someone take her weight and whisper, "Sweet dreams project Fusion."

Steve waved with a smile plastered on his face as he exited his Avengers style Birthday party. Tony had nearly suffocated to death from laughing too long when the billionaire had found out that Steve's birth date was the 4th of July. His Birthday was not an easy one to hide with it printed in history books and plastered on the walls of his exhibit. He had suffered through the party for a polite amount of time but as he stepped into the elevator of Stark tower his mask broke and his consuming loneliness spread onto his face.

He had moved into Stark tower not long ago. His apartment brought back too many memories and left him wallowing in the past. It had been an adjustment but the constant movement in the tower kept his mind off what he had lost. Unfortunately today that was not so easy.

Today, his 29th or 99th birthday, whichever way you want to count it, was his first birthday since the birth of his sister that he had spent without her. Realising that this was the birthday that would break the chain made her absent once again painfully apparent.

The elevator dinged and Steve trailed along to his modernly decorated room. He sat on the end of the minimalist bed and stared down at his hands.

God, he missed her.

What his fellow Avengers had done for him was nice but it wasn't the same. Annie had always made a big deal about his birthday saying that was what family does. She would storm into his room with breakfast in hand and sing him a ridiculous song that she had made up for his birthday as a child and continued on every year. That morning there was not breakfast in bed or singing.

He did at least have one thing from her. Steve pulled out a box still not unpacked, hidden underneath his queen size bed. The cardboard cube containing a few nick-nacks and a brightly wrapped parcel.

Steve reached in hesitantly and pulled out the semi-neatly wrapped present that he had found stashed in Annie's closet when he had moved out. The gift now safely in his hands, he twisted around the tag that he had read more than a hundred times,

'To Steve, Happy 99th Birthday! Don't break a hip'

He had read the simple message neatly scribed on the small piece of cardboard over and over but never gone any further until today. The day it was intended for.

Steve would have never had this one last gift if Annie wasn't so prepared all the time, He thought fondly. There was nothing that had stressed Annie out more than last minute deadlines.

He braced himself before gently slipping his finger into the folds of the shimmering wrapping paper that is covered in Captain America shields. Annie thought buying him everything Captain America themed was hilarious.

He swiftly separated the tape from the paper and folded it open to reveal a beautifully aged vinyl record. It was almost identical to the one he had gotten on his 17th Birthday. The one he had played over and over again thinking the instruments had possessed a miraculous amount of life and harmony. The one that he left behind when he ran off to become Captain America.

His palm brushed across the surface of the record cover that held multiple drawings of musicians gleefully playing their brass instruments, surrounded by delicate music notes. How did she find this?

With the utmost timidness, he pulled the record out of its cover slip and placed it on his awaiting gramophone.

Aged jazz music filled the room as Steve went to sit on the edge of his bed once more. His elbows resting on his knees. The nostalgic tones reminded him of a less lonely time.

Woah that was an emotion filled chapter! and a really long one! I would love to hear what you guys think and where you think this could go now that Annie has been taken by HYDRA.

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