Chapter 20: Retreat
August 12, 2014
Summer awoke to the sounds of Winter getting up and pulling his boots on. It was early, earlier than he usually left, but something about the way he was moving prevented her from going back to sleep. The soft click of the door alerted her to his departure, and without a second thought she got up and assessed the room. Something had changed his routine, and she wanted to figure out what.
Winter left no signs of what he'd heard or seen, or where he intended to go, except for a single carving of a square onto the butcher block counters. Perimeter. Without hesitation, she started packing their limited things. She didn't know what was going on, but the air told her that something was wrong. And when things went wrong, tactical retreat was necessary. She strapped as many weapons to herself as she could, laying the others out in a convenient manner so that Winter could don them when he returned. She was just counting the last of their cash and stuffing it into her pocket when he returned, his face stony and cold as if they were in the middle of a mission.
"We need to go." he said, seeming more like Winter than James Buchanan Barnes. With the stress of the situation she welcomed the change; she still did not know James Buchanan Barnes well enough to trust him, but Winter had been her ally for decades.
"Agents?" she asked, handing him weapons so that he could save the time putting them in their place. He shook his head.
"Scout. Dealt with." he replied, pulling on his backpack and clipping the buckle in the front. She followed his lead, strapping her supplies in as well. They moved to the door in perfect unison, Winter stopping to take one last sweep before they exited. His eyes paused on something next to where her pallet had been. "Your book."
Summer turned. Sure enough, the little romance novel that she was halfway finished with laid on the floor where she'd discarded it the night before. It wasn't important, or essential, but she found herself feeling some sort of sensation at the thought of leaving it behind. "Thank you." she breathed to Winter, crossing the room in a few quick steps and picking it up, putting it into the backpack as they exited. If Winter thought it necessary to mention it, then it was important enough to take with them.
"Train leaves soon." he said, taking off in the opposite direction than she anticipated. The sidewalks were busy despite the early hour, filled with people walking to work or the train station. Winter kept a steady, confident pace - slow enough to not attract attention, but fast enough to be efficient. His hands were in his pockets, the metal arm making his gait slightly awkward. Summer realized that in his haste, he hadn't taken time to put a glove over it. Even in the low light, it could still be noticed glinting. She moved from his weaker side, ignoring his curious glance as she put enough pressure on the metal forearm for the sensors to register and pulling the hand into hers. He noticed the lack of the glove then, but allowed her to interlace their fingers, effectively hiding it from view.
Public displays of affection made people uncomfortable.
Despite having his strongest limb effectively rendered useless by the position, he didn't feel at a disadvantage. His right arm was still perfectly functional, and he remembered a time long ago where he refused to use the metal arm anyway. Rebellion, that's what it had been. He remembered the surgery where they soldered the metal arm to his body, and the anger that had been woven in with the pain. When he awoke next, he used anything but this foreign matter attached to him. He couldn't remember when it went from an intruder to his most valued weapon.
The train station was even busier than the sidewalk, the loudspeaker causing them to flinch every time it announced the schedule. Summer tried to relax her shoulders and seem more casual, but she still felt the burn of a sniper sight between her shoulder blades to the point that she almost asked Winter to check and make sure there wasn't one there. The only thing keeping her sane was the fact that this was a terrible position for a sniper, particularly one that was trying to take out defectors from a secret underground organization. Hydra did not want any more eyes on them than Captain America had drawn three months ago. Summer and Winter kept their heads down, hiding their faces from security cameras with the bills of their baseball caps. Buying tickets was out of the question - there would be too many people that saw their face - so they would have to carefully lift them. They needed the Euro train, the one that would take them far from England, and they needed the next one out. Hydra never sent just one scout.
They easily spotted their targets - two men in suits, arguing loudly about finances of some sort or another. The quality of their watches said they could afford another ticket, though Summer and Winter both wondered why they were concerned about that. It did not matter to them if the men made it to their meeting or not. Winter looked to Summer, their unspoken conversation quick as the crowd thickened around the two men. She nodded and he let go of her hand, feeling oddly strange without the pressure there. But he needed to give her space so that she could do her work.
Summer slowed her pace slightly, watching the people around them until the moment was perfect. To continue on her path, she had to walk right between the men. And a well planned bump from a girl with a massive pack sent her right where she needed to be.
"Oh, sorry," she said lightly. The ticket was in the man's inner pocket. How predictable. But his partner's inner jacket pocket was empty. He gently righted her, giving her a smile that made her insides roll.
"Not a worry, love. Be careful, the station can get a little savage." he said, as if he had any clue about savagery. She deftly stepped away so that the hand he reached out to lay on the small of her back only met air.
"Right, sorry again." she said, trying to remember how to smile and hoping that it wasn't too much like a cat about to make a kill. She turned to his friend, repeated the apology, and found the ticket on the outside coat pocket. He was just as distracted by her face, and didn't notice as she quickly swiped it.
Winter walked by her almost instantly after she turned and continued towards the platform, easily taking the tickets from her hand and continuing away from her. If the men noticed their missing papers with any immediacy, then she would be able to feign ignorance. Tickets? She had no tickets. And neither did they. How unfortunate.
She reached the platform without any issues, moving to a strategic location so they could be first onto the train. As it pulled into the station and the passengers started climbing off, Winter appeared by her side and gave her the necessary documents to board. There were no assigned seats, no names on the papers, no way to trace them to the original purchasers. They boarded without issues, and while Winter knew that it would be smarter for them to sit apart in the train, he could not stop himself from taking the seat next to Summer. Once again they were having to go into uncharted territory, and he wanted his best asset near him.
Trains were much quieter than they used to be, as well as much faster. They took turns looking out the window or looking at the people around them, switching shifts seamlessly. When the train dipped below the surface, going into the dark tunnel of the English Channel, they were able to admit that perhaps, just perhaps, their retreat had been successful. That thought did not comfort Summer, however. With the darkness of the tunnel and the knowledge that they were in a tube deep under water, she suddenly started to feel as if the weight of the channel above them was starting to press on her lungs. It took every fiber in her being not to indulge the panic threatening to rise in her chest, and for the first time in a long time she was grateful for all the training they had and all the brain damage they'd sustained that allowed her to try and shut down the emotions. It was not rational to be afraid of the train in the tunnel. The water above would not harm her.
Her emotions must have been more obvious than she thought, as a moment later Winter casually slid his hand over to grasp hers. This was not for the same reason as earlier - they were not playing a part, he was not using her as a disguise. She wanted to glance at him with the question in her eyes, but she did not, because as soon as she had the solid feeling of him she felt the panic subside slightly. Instead of trying to just ignore the feelings, she could instead focus on the pressure of his hand, grounding her to the here and now and not to whatever memory was making her claustrophobic. The touch was different than usual, and with a catch in her breath she recognized the sensation: affection. Winter glanced from underneath the bill of his cap, and for a moment she wondered if it was a ploy, some long standing mission to increase her vulnerability. But he simply shifted in his seat so he could see the doorway better, and laced their fingers together.
The train ride was simultaneously never ending and faster than she anticipated. It was hard for her to sit still for so long, but Winter was a statue in the seat next to her. There was a brief stop in Lille, then the train continued south. She recognized the landscape as they went through it, but it was not from their time before Hydra. No, they'd been here during Hydra, the familiarity increasing as they pulled into the station. When they were finally out on the streets, surrounded by people speaking French, she recognized the tower standing in the distance, the metal of its construction creating a spiderweb in the sky.
"Paris." Winter said. They hadn't known where the train was going to dump them out, but this seemed as good a place as any. France wasn't on the black map, but Summer and Winter hadn't been there since the Peace Conference in 1956. All targets had been eliminated. After that, something pushed Hydra out of France, and any French diplomats they were supposed to assassinate had to be taken out on foreign soil.
"Almost sixty years." she replied. It felt wrong being here, even if she knew the inner workings of Hydra stations and locations. She wanted to leave as soon as possible, but whether Hydra scouts expected them to move or to stay was unknown to her. By now they had to realize that their patterns were no longer predictable, and they might be adapting.
"Not long enough." Winter said, and internally she was glad that he agreed with her sentiment. With the time on the train he was able to put his gloves on, though they definitely seemed out of place in the warm summer day. The city was bustling with tourists and locals alike, making it difficult for them to see if anyone was following them. But he moved so that their elbows barely touched as they walked and started off towards the center, and it was also easy for them to disappear into the crowd. Again they kept their pace casual but purposeful, walking as if they knew exactly where they were going. A few twists, a few turns, and they could be certain that no one was following them.
They stole food and water from a cafe, easily sneaking through the back whenever the single person at the counter was busy with other customers. The food in France was richer than it had been in London, and while the richness seemed to overwhelm Winter, Summer found that she enjoyed it. Something about it made her feel more human. She felt energetic afterwards as they walked to the outskirts to steal a car, and when she spared a glance at Winter she found that he was looking at her with the ghost of a smile on his face. Something stirred in her chest then, and once again she found herself trying to push down feelings as they rose within her. He looked at her the way James Buchanan Barnes had looked at Lucille Peters. It was not the exact same look of course - it was subtle, more subdued - but it was there. James Buchanan Barnes and Lucille Peters had been in love, she knew that much. But was there enough of them left now for Summer and Winter to hold onto?
She shook her head, getting her brain to let go of the thought. Now was not the time to worry about the past and how it could change their future. All she needed to know was that, back then and now, Winter was the most important thing to her, and their survival was second. And surviving meant getting out of France. It was easy to steal a car and easier still to find the road south, the French countryside flying by them as they drove. It was so much sunnier here than in London, and Summer kept the window down so that the rays could warm her cold hand as she rested her arm. A hundred times in and out of the ice box, and she could never quite seem to get her hands warm.
They drove for four hundred miles before switching cars and switching drivers, allowing Summer behind the wheel. She took a quick look at the map to learn her route, then set to her task. Winter, in the passenger's seat, fell asleep almost as soon as he buckled his seat belt. She realized that, having the later lookout shift the night before, he'd been awake for almost twenty-four hours straight. He slept soundly in the seat, for once exhausted enough not to twitch and groan with a nightmare. She was supposed to wake him as they passed through Switzerland, but let him sleep, waiting until they were at the border of northern Italy before finally slowing to a stop and waking him. He blinked a couple times, looking at her as if he was seeing someone else, but shook off whatever dream was still clinging to him and got out of the car. Another stop for supplies, and one last stop for one last car, and they headed into the mountains.
It was slow, driving through the mountains, and even slower since night had fallen by the time they started the trip. With their heightened senses they could easily see the road and the route they needed to take, but they could not predict the wildlife of the area, which was much more lively when the sun went down. But at least there were no headlights behind them and none in front of them, and the quiet of the landscape told them that there were no helicopters on their tail. Winter wondered, if they were cats, how many of their nine lives had been used already. He also wondered if they each got nine, or had to share them between them. He glanced at the woman next to him, knowing that if it came down to it, he would give her his last one. She kept her eyes out the window, trying to see through the shapes in the dark. He tried to keep his eyes on the road, but he couldn't help looking back to her every so often, seeing how her expression changed slightly when she was making out details, or spotted something that interested her. He didn't think she realized she was even doing it.
"Wait. Stop." she said suddenly, causing him to slam on the brakes. She was ready for the impact, easily absorbing the change in momentum. She was looking at an unpaved side road, one that was only wide enough for their little car.
"What is it?" he asked, thinking she saw something that he didn't. She didn't answer, her eyes focused on something in the dark. "Summer." he said, a little sharper this time. If it was a threat, it needed to be dealt with. Immediately.
"Go that way." she said, pointing to the road. His first thought was to object, but what would be his argument? They didn't have a destination in mind, and it did feel like they were driving around with their headlights as giant beacons for their location. Holing up in the mountains wouldn't be a bad idea.
"What's there?" he asked. He needed to know that she wasn't suspecting a threat, though that didn't stop him from reversing slightly and turning down the road.
"I'm not sure." she admitted. "Something important, though. I think."
The way she said it made it seem like it was something important to their past selves. Hydra had no safe houses in the area; anywhere within a certain radius of Germany was left blank on the map. Either the former Nazis considered it too obvious a hiding place, or they'd made some sort of deal with another organization, just like they did with the black map. Winter didn't know the details behind the treaties, and he didn't need to. He just needed to know where he could - and couldn't - go.
It was even more difficult to drive down the dirt path, the pebbles causing the tires to skid any time he tried to increase their speed. Hairpin turns took them further up the mountain, the air growing colder with the elevation change. Summer was right, something important was up here. A vague memory tingled at the back of his mind, but it wasn't quite solid enough for him to hold on to just yet. He recognized each turn with the sepia glow of a memory, but last time they'd been in a Jeep. Summer had been wearing a dress, her skin kissed slightly golden from time in the always shining sun, and her smile just as bright.
But it was not light now, and even with his enhancements he could not completely see in the dark. All they got was glimpses as the headlights passed over the landscape. One last turn revealed a villa built into the mountain, its windows broken and dark. It seemed more like a tomb than a home, though they distinctly remembered it otherwise. Winter pulled the car to a stop, letting the lights shine on the front steps. The landscape was overgrown and crumbling was perhaps a kind word for the state of the building, but they could still see it as it once was. They stared at it, the memories slowly trickling back into their minds as they looked upon the familiar place.
"This is where they sent us." Summer said. Her hand unconsciously went to her side; there used to be a wound there, she thought. This is where the long scar on her ribs must have come from. "After the hospital."
"After we escaped the first time." Winter said, reminding her. He was right - that had been the first time they'd escaped from Hydra, back when there were hundreds or thousands of men in cages.
"We had help that time." she said, and Winter nodded. He remembered the man from the bridge, and still had the ghost of relief in his chest when he thought of opening his eyes to see him.
"Captain America." he said. Silence hung between them; Captain America had not been there a second time. They did not fault him for this - logically, they knew he believed them to be dead. Their memories told them that he would not have left them if he thought otherwise.
"We managed alright the second time." she said, walking ahead of him into the villa. He watched her go for a moment.
"Only took seventy years." he whispered to no one. His voice was so low even Summer's sensitive ears couldn't pick it up. He followed her into the house; there was no front door, it had been removed or stolen years ago. Dust and dirt covered most surfaces, and some plants had gone rogue and started growing indoors. The cabinets seemed to be welded shut, though really it was just the ancient lead paint sticking to itself. Summer was easily able to pry it open, though the whole door came off when she did so. Inside there were dishes, still perfectly stacked and perfectly preserved, protected from the outside world for this whole time. The marble of the kitchen island was missing chunks around the edges and had a crack down the middle, but was still functional. It had been ages since the pipes had worked, so washing of any sort was out of the question, but cleanliness was the least of their worries. Summer had taken one of the plates from the cupboard, her fingers gently trailing over the blue pattern still bright on the white ceramic, and he wondered what she was remembering.
"I'll check the perimeter." he said, his soft voice feeling loud in the silence. But Summer didn't flinch; she knew the whole time that he was there. She nodded, still looking at the plate as he turned and went back out the front door. The mountain was quiet around them, and the gravel of the road echoed loudly in the night air. It would serve as a good warning system, if anyone were to come up this direction. But the way the wind carried noises from down below meant that they would hear any vehicle long before it arrived. Above them the mountains were too treacherous for a helicopter landing, meaning agents would have to parachute in. They'd hear the canvas in the wind if that were the case. An exit further into the mountains wouldn't be ideal, but it would be manageable, and their pursuers would likely have more difficulty with the terrain that they would. He climbed the surrounding area, checking to make sure there were no underground ways carved into the rock, but it was all solid. They could actually be protected here, at least for a short while.
He went back into the house to find an empty kitchen. Footprints in the dust told him that Summer had cleared the first floor for any inhabitants, and had gone up to the second. He followed, putting his own boots in the prints of hers as he climbed the stairs. He kept a knife out, just in case, but the steady, efficient trail was all over the second floor as well. It ended at the last room on the right, where a small light spilled into the hallway. He found her there, sitting cross legged on a swept floor with two of the blue and white plates in front of her. The broom she'd used sat in the corner, and in the candlelight he could see the dust still settling around it. Their rations for the day were artfully arranged on the plates, like they were real people sharing a real meal. The light from the candle made her skin glow and her eyes glitter as she looked up at him, and for a moment he was taken aback by the sight of her. Beautiful, he thought to himself. That's what beautiful is.
"Clear?" she asked, getting his attention again. He pretended he'd never lost it.
"Yes." he replied, sitting down across from her. The doors to the balcony were open, letting the cool summer breeze aerate the room. A rusted metal bed frame was on its side in the corner, leaving room for the pallets she set up. He noticed that they were next to each other now, as opposed to opposite ends of the room like in London.
"It's okay?" she asked, interrupting his thoughts again. She'd seen that he noticed the sleeping arrangements. He nodded.
"It's good." he said. It wasn't tactical, or logical, to want to be close to her. But he did. He reached down for the food on his plate, the blue pattern looking so frustratingly familiar as they ate in silence. There were no sounds from outside besides those they would expect, and no sounds inside except their eating. There was something pleasant in the air here, something that reminded them that they weren't just assets of Hydra now. It wouldn't be a long term safehouse, but it would be good for now.
"I'll take first watch." she said, looking to him. He held her gaze for a moment, wondering what she was thinking, or what he was thinking. She seemed to want to say something further, but was holding her tongue. So he just agreed, removing the weapons that would be uncomfortable while sleeping and laying down on one of the mats. He was almost instantly asleep.
Summer posted up at the edge of the balcony, just inside the doors. She would be able to see, whether with her superior senses or with her sniper scope, if anyone was coming up the long, winding road that led to the villa. Winter was sound asleep again, his face relaxed as he once again managed to not have a nightmare. He rolled over in his sleep once, drawing her attention. He was reaching out over the pallet next to him, his brows furrowed in thought. She thought he would wake then, but he just sighed deeply and curled up like a child. He was so vulnerable in that moment, she thought. Just like she'd been earlier.
Perhaps they would never be as they once were. But they were slowly figuring out how to be together again, as this version of themselves.
Holy shit, guys, can you believe we're already at chapter 20? Aaah I feel like I just started this story! I'm having fun with it, and I hope y'all are too!
Thank you SO much for your reviews! I love hearing what y'all enjoyed about the chapter or if it made you sad or mad or happy haha. I hope you enjoyed this one, please share your thoughts!
Also, I hope everyone is staying safe and sane during this troublesome time. I work in healthcare so I'm still going out every day, but I hope if you're able to stay home, you do! We're gonna make it through this, y'all.
-XM
