Everyone froze. It had happened so fast Hannah didn't know what to think. She took a second to relay what had happened in her mind, and it all made sense until she reached one thought. The gun went off. Something should have happened when the gun went off. That's when it hit her. The pain. A burning sensation that stung Hannah's arm. She looked down at her arm where the pain was the worst and winced at what she saw. Her bicep had a stream of blood trickling down onto her forearm, and at the source was a dark, gaping hole. She reached out and grabbed her arm to try to reduce the pain, but it only made it worse. She wanted to scream, but her voice caught in her throat as she stared in horror at her arm.
Everything around her was a haze. She couldn't focus. She was only vaguely aware of a fight that broke out, and the men that were marching in to stop Her and Bucky. She felt Bucky's arm around her waist, supporting her as he tried to lead them both out of the boat.
He grabbed Hannah's hand and place it on her arm firmly. "Keep pressure on it," he ordered. Hannah stumbled through the boat as Bucky dragged her through doors and across metal walkways.
"We can't get out," Hannah wheezed. Her arm hurt worse the more she pressed on it, and her hand dropped to her side.
Bucky was quick to place it back on her arm, and he looked sternly into Hannah's eyes. "I know it hurts, but if you're going to get out of here alive you have to put pressure on it."
Hannah could hear Klaue's men approaching. "We're not making it out of here anyway," she weakly pointed out.
"Yes, we are. So, keep putting pressure on it," he said. Bucky continued to lead Hannah through the boat, but she was getting weaker. Her hand had dropped to her side again, but Bucky was too busy keeping them alive to make her put it back. Everything was going in and out of focus in such a hypnotizing way that she had almost forgotten about the pain in her arm. Almost.
Bucky tried to lead Hannah up a set of stairs, but she couldn't do it without slowing him down. She would've told him to leave her if she wasn't practically unconscious. The only thing that told her she was awake was sound. Everything was dark but she could hear. Gunfire was everywhere, and bullets were clattering to the ground. Shouts echoed through the boat; Klaue's voice ringing out over the others. Then it all stopped.
She thought she had passed out for sure, but something wasn't right. She still heard Bucky. He was talking to her, trying to keep her awake. Just to make sure she was awake, she forced herself to open her eyes, and squinted not expecting it to be so bright. They were on the boat's deck. She was confused for a moment on how she had gotten there. Then she felt Bucky's arms around her, and she looked up to see him carrying her across the boat.
He looked down at her. "Hold on!" he yelled over the shouting that had continued once Klaue's men had reached them. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she realized what he was about to do. Bucky began running for the edge of the ship, and it wasn't until they were already falling that Hannah realized there wasn't a ladder. She held onto him tightly and closed her eyes as the wind rushed passed them. She didn't remember them hitting the ground. She didn't remember anything else. Everything was dark.
When Hannah woke up she didn't recognize where she was. She sat up in a panic and winced in pain. Her arm was throbbing and her head was heavy. She pulled off the covers that had been neatly placed over her and stood up. She was back in the hotel they had slept in the night before. The floors were cold so she sat on the edge of the bed as she examined her bandaged arm. It was tight and she tried loosening it, but before she could get very far, Bucky walked in the door.
"Don't take that off," he said as soon as he saw her.
"It's tight," she complained.
"It's supposed to be," he explained. He set a shopping bag on the bed and pulled out a bottle of pain medicine. When he looked at Hannah's arm he sighed in disbelief. "That was a fresh bandage this morning," he mumbled.
"This morning?" Hannah asked. "How long was I out?"
"Only a day," he assured her as he walked around to where she was sitting. There was a glass of water on the nightstand, and he handed it to Hannah along with two pills. "Take these," he said. "Now that you're awake we can head back to Bucharest and get away from Klaue."
Hannah shook her head. "I don't want to travel," she said. "I want to go back to bed, but my arm is burning and my head is spinning." She swallowed the pills and looked up at Bucky. "What happened?"
Bucky sat on the bed across from her and looked at the ground. "How much do you remember?"
"Things start getting fuzzy after..." she trailed off as she remembered what happened.
"After I shot you?" he offered as he looked up at Hannah. She could tell that he was beating himself up over it, and she wasn't going to let him do that. She had gotten them into that situation. It was only fair that she paid a price for it.
"I don't blame you for that," she said.
"You should," he said.
"Well, I don't, and you shouldn't either. It was Klaue."
Bucky shook his head and changed the subject. "There were men everywhere, so the only place to go was the room they fixed my arm in. You fell down unconscious, while Klaue's men started pouring in. I fought off as many as I could, but as soon as you woke up, all we could do was run. I ran them in circles until the deck was clear, and we jumped off the boat."
He made it sound so simple. She hadn't known she had passed out, but it didn't surprise her. Now that she was caught up, she had questions from before the fight broke out. "Why did Klaue call you The Winter Soldier?" she asked. "And Soldat. Plus he said you were worth millions. What was that all about? Does the red star on your arm mean something, or is it supposed to be like a tattoo?" The questions poured out, and Bucky raised his hands to slow her down.
"Another time," he said.
"No," Hannah said softly. She wasn't mad that he didn't want to tell. How could she blame him for that, when there were also things she didn't want to say. "I'm tired of keeping secrets. They only make us mad at each other, and I don' think you're going to rat me out."
Bucky rolled his eyes and started removing the blood-stained bandage from her arm. "You must've lost more blood than I thought," he joked.
"I'm serious," she laughed. "Can't you tell me what he meant at least?"
Bucky sighed and shook his head. "If you knew.."
"I can't know unless you tell me," Hannah said. "Don't you trust me?"
"No," he responded. "I don't trust anyone anymore." He finished unwrapping the bandage and threw it away. "Hand me the fresh bandage out of that bag," he said.
"Why?"
"Do you want to bleed out here in the hotel?"
"I meant why don't you trust anyone," she clarified as she did what Bucky told her.
"Hannah, you know exactly why," he huffed. "It's the same reason you don't trust anyone."
"You can't tell me it's the same reason I have, or we'll be doing this all day," she said. Bucky stood up and disappeared in the bathroom. Hannah let out a frustrated breath and looked at her arm. The skin was red and swollen, and just looking at it made the burning sensation worse. She reached out to touch it when Bucky's voice echoed from the bathroom making her jerk away.
"Don't touch it!" he called.
"I'm not!" she lied. He came back out into the room with a bowl full of water and a towel over his shoulder.
"This isn't going to help much," he said. "I think the bullet is still in your arm."
"I can feel exactly where it is," she confirmed. It felt like there were fire ants swarming in the middle of her arm; that had to be the bullet. "How are we going to get it out?"
Bucky dunked the towel in the water. "Give me your arm," he ordered, ignoring her question. She moved closer to the edge of the bed and put her arm out.
"Sorry, I can't repel bullets," she joked. "I'm not made of metal. Just flesh and blood. A lot of blood, apparently," she added after a quick look at her arm.
Bucky smiled and held her arm still. He squeezed the wet towel over her wound, and Hannah hissed in pain. She looked at the ceiling as if the pain would stop if she couldn't see what he was doing. When she dared look down again the bowl of water was dyed red, and blood was still coming from her arm.
"You know it would hurt less if you distracted me with a story," Hannah pushed. "I already know you're from the '40s."
"I know you know that," he said.
"Well, I didn't know for sure, but you just confirmed it," she smirked. "How are you even here?" Bucky stood up once again, but this time Hannah grabbed his arm. "You can't keep walking away from the conversation."
"I'm going to change the water," he deadpanned.
She let go of his arm. "Then you have to tell me," she said.
When he came back, Hannah looked at him expectantly. He kept his eyes trained on Hannah's arm, but she continued to look at him. The water stung but she kept the loud silence as a reminder that he was supposed to break it.
He let out a loud breath and slammed the bowl on the nightstand, spilling a few drops in the process. "You know Steve Rogers?"
"Captain America right?" Hannah asked already completely invested in what he was about to say.
Bucky scoffed and started wrapping the bandage tightly over her arm. Hannah bit her lip to avoid crying out in pain. "Yeah, that's him. You know how he's here?"
"He crashed a plane into ice, and he froze, preserving his body until they found and thawed him," she answered.
"Guess you know how I got here then."
"You crashed a plane into ice?" she inquired.
"Not exactly," he breathed.
"Then what exactly?"
"I fell off a train," he said bluntly.
Hannah's eyes widened. "What?" she asked shocked.
"Into ice," he added.
"Hold on, hold on," Hannah shook her head. "What do you mean you fell off a train? Like you fell out of a train car or off the back?" She furrowed her brow. "Or off the top? Also, what does that have to do with being preserved in ice?"
"I told you, I fell off a train into ice."
"Wouldn't you have to be there for a while to be completely frozen?"
"I was there for a while," he explained.
"You must've been badly hurt then," she guessed. Bucky looked down at his metal arm in response. Hannah's jaw dropped slightly. "Wow," she breathed. "I mean that's horrible, obviously, but wow. Who found you?"
"Some German scientist," he answered.
"A German scientist?" she repeated in disbelief.
"I fell off a train in Germany."
"Into ice," Hannah added jokingly. He nodded and finished tying off the bandage. Hannah turned to face him more easily. "That's crazy. Are you from Germany? Is that why you know so many languages?"
"I don't know if you knew this, but in the '40s we were kind of at war with Germany," he remarked sarcastically.
It took Hannah a second to realize what he was saying. "You were a soldier?" Another nod. "Is that why you know so many languages?"
"What makes you think I know a lot of languages?"
Hannah laughed. "Because I've seen you! You speak Romanian and English. Plus, one of Klaue's men was speaking a language I didn't recognize, but you did."
"You mean Korean?"
"If you say so." She smiled. "The point is, I've heard you speak all three fluently, and I'm almost positive you know more."
"What about you?" he asked changing the subject. "Why are you on the run from SHIELD? They're supposed to help people with abilities."
The light note of the conversation ended quickly. Hannah's face fell as she remembered why she had chosen to run from SHIELD in the first place. She hadn't even realized it was the reason until years of running had passed.
"They aren't who they say they are," she breathed. "They say they want to help you, but there's always something else."
"You know from experience?"
"I guess you could say that." She swallowed trying to get rid of the lump that was forming in her throat. Bucky urged her to say more with a single look, and Hannah squeezed the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at him. "SHIELD killed my parents," she whispered. A dark and heavy feeling swept over the room. Hannah fought back tears, as Bucky sat silently across from her. She hadn't even known until two years after she had run from SHIELD. She hardly remembered that night, but the more she thought about it, the more clear the SHIELD symbol became on the vans that drove away.
"I'm sorry," Bucky said.
Hannah took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "It doesn't matter," she lied. "It was a long time ago, and we have other things to worry about now. We have to get back to Bucharest."
Bucky shook his head. "No, your arm is worse than I thought," he said. "Before we do anything else, we need to get that bullet out of your arm."