"If he's hurt her I swear to God."

"You swear what? He's like an entire foot taller than you El, what do you think you're going to do?"

"She hasn't spoken a word since asking if she could stay! You know what he looks like. You point him out to me."

Laying in the bed, on top of the quilt, Sorina had made up for her Harper smiled to herself as she listened to the whispers in Romanian happening outside of the door. The two of them had tried to get her to talk, to eat something, to get in the bath...but she had been having none of it, just wanting to curl up to try and get some sleep.

Only now, as she was staring sleep right in the face, a dull fear ached in her at closing her eyes.

Now, when the dreams invaded her mind, she would know that they were real.

Shifting into a sitting position she flicked the lamp on the bedside table's switch so a dim light flooded the room, pausing for a second to make sure Elena and Sorina weren't going to burst in as they realised she was awake before pulling her t-shirt up over her head and slowly getting to her feet.

There was a full length mirror on the doors of the wardrobe opposite her and she chewed on her bottom lip as she padded over toward it, making sure her steps didn't make any noise.

She had always been good at sneaking around; whether it be tiptoeing passed foster parents' bedrooms to go downstairs to raid the fridge or sneaking back in after a night out with whatever friends she was hanging around with that month, and she'd always wondered where she had gotten it from. Looking at the skill now she realised it must have been a natural ability, with her official training not starting until she was in her teens as per the file she'd flicked through, that Hydra had found particularly appealing.

Had there been anything else in her they'd seen as an opportunity? What had it been about her which had drawn them to her at such a young age?

Swallowing the lump in her throat and pushing all of her questions to one side in her mind, she straightened up as she reached the mirror and tilted her head to one side as she surveyed her figure.

Her fingers ran along the, slightly raised, scar running down her right side before making their way over to one similar just beneath the band of her bra. She leaned forward to inspect the small bump which had always been on her forehead, just above her right eyebrow, and turned her face slightly to the left to inspect and run a fingertip along her slightly misshapen nose.

There were scars on her back and down her legs that weren't visible to her in that moment but she knew all too well, every winter her knee would lock and ache and a couple of her fingers were definitely not the shape they should be.

A flash of a memory popped into her mind; giggles with Ryan as they lay in bed with one another. She couldn't quite remember what had been so funny, though it was more than likely alcohol had been involved, but she could easily recall the way Ryan's amusement had slipped from her features in an instant.

"What happened to you?" she had simply asked, concern making her brow furrow above her dark eyes. Her hand had crept up beneath Harper's t-shirt as they had gotten closer and closer, her fingertips brushing against the rough and raised skin of the scar just beneath the band of her bra.

She had stuttered over her answer, her memory blank, and shrugged her shoulders. Coming up with some story about falling over when she was younger she had rolled her eyes as though it was no big deal and distracted Ryan away from the subject with a kiss.

It hadn't really been until that moment that she had started paying attention to the scars littering her pale skin. She always assumed she must have just been a clumsy child, that she'd banged her head one night when she was drunk or had taken a punch to the nose when she was homeless that she just didn't remember.

But skim reading over the words in the back of Bucky's file told her a whole different side of things and gave her a whole new range of worries to think about.

Was one from a bullet? Or a blade? Did they happen while she was fighting someone she ended up killing?

Raking her fingers through her hair she turned her back on the reflection she no longer recognised and made her way back over to the bed, grasping hold of her t-shirt and tugging it back on to hide her past from view. As though mocking her her knee twinged slightly as she rolled onto her side and drew her legs up toward her chest.

Part of her wished she had brought the file with her, but another part never wanted to see it again. She found herself wishing Bucky was with her while, at the same time, only feeling anger toward him at keeping this secret from her for so long. There was an urge in her to call Ange, as she normally would if she was in any kind of upsetting situation, but just the thought of it made her stomach turn and bile burn in her throat.

Everything she had ever known was a lie. Every single bit of her life had been manufactured, so it seemed, by the people she had thought of as her family and she wasn't sure how to handle it.

Her eyes were narrowed as she glanced across to him. There was a light sweat glistening across her pale skin and she was slightly breathless as she straightened up "So, you just do anything they say huh?" she asked shoving the knife back into the holster wrapped around her thigh.

He remained silent, only his eyes moving to flicker in her direction as he lowered his gun.

"This is awesome," she said in honest awe as she crossed the room to further inspect his shining silver arm. There was a smile on her face, something he hadn't seen nor expected to see for the entirety of the day, as she fearlessly reached out to run a finger down his bicep.

Shocking himself he found he didn't feel the urge to move away from her. Instead his head turned so he was facing her, looking down to her tilted head and wonder filled eyes. The mask pressing against his jaw stopped him from speaking but he hoped the twitch of his eyebrows expressed enough to tell her that what she was doing was okay.

Though it didn't seem as though she cared. The tiny blonde creature stood before him seemed to be afraid of nothing and, after witnessing the way she handled the multitude of knives she had at her disposal, he wasn't surprised.

"You have a name?" she asked pushing her hair from her face before placing her hands on her hips "Y'know, beside the winter whatever?" she asked and, when he didn't reply once again, her eyes narrowed and she took a step closer to inspect the contraption encasing his lower jaw "Wow they've actually silenced you."

It had been a long time since he had spent time with another human and they hadn't had a hint of fear about them - almost longer than he was able to remember.

He tried to keep a strong hold of his past memories but, as time passed, he began to find it harder and harder to fight against the mental and physical torture he endured every single time he was 'wiped'.

Hearing the door behind them opening her jaw tensed and she spun on the spot, pulling her knife back out of the holster and flinging it across the room without a hint of hesitation.

The guard swore loudly as the blade whistled past his ear, embedding a piece of material from the shoulder of his jacket into the wall behind him. Leonie simply smirked in reply, turning her back on Bucky and making her way back over to her side of the room to continue the training programme earlier explained to her.

Beneath his mask he found himself smiling as he turned to grab a different gun, positioning it comfortably in his hands before firing a shot straight into the middle of the target before him.

He could almost feel the old fight he had in him coursing through his veins as, across from him, Leonie twirled a knife around her fingers. Her energy radiated from her, chaotic and rebellious, where his had become stoic and obedient.

He liked her, something he hadn't felt about another human in far too long, and he was beginning to think Hydra were going to regret introducing them.

Back in their apartment Bucky had spent his time pacing back and forth, his fingers pinched the bridge of his nose as he took in deep breaths and cursed himself for not chasing after her. He wasn't sure where she was, if she was safe and what state her mind was in and it was driving him up the wall with worry.

There had been plenty of times he had thought about telling her since Paris. Since a memory had poked its way through the haze and he'd been forced to pick up the file she hadn't known he'd swiped. He knew he shouldn't be keeping any kind of secret from her after she had left her entire life for him, but the words had died on his lips at each and every opportunity to speak up.

He just couldn't bring himself to hurt her, to cast a further shadow over the dark way she already seemed to view the world - she had been through enough without him bringing something she couldn't even remember up. She had only just started to properly smile, one which reached her eyes and made them sparkle, and he hadn't wanted to be the one to ruin that.

Unable to decide what to do with himself he perched on the edge of the sofa for just a few seconds before getting up to stand on the balcony then crossing the room to lean against the kitchen counters. His insides were squirming with a worry he hadn't been able to feel for an age and it was taking all of his strength to not just go outside in a blind rage and do something he would probably later regret.

The Winter Soldier urges were still there even if they were buried a lot deeper than they ever had been.

They, the urges, his past and his crimes, were always long forgotten whenever he was with her. Even if he'd had a terrible night filled with nightmarish flashbacks or something, a noise or a word, had reminded him of one of the missions he'd been forced to carry out just glancing over to her or hearing her voice put him at ease...even though she was still a link to the past he was so eager to put behind him.

Looking back on it he had recognised her as soon as he had seen her, of course he had. Though he hadn't been able to put two and two together there had been no denying the connection he had felt when she caught him reading about himself in the museum a year ago.

Leonie Revoir, aka Hydra's Black Mamba, would have been the last person he had expected to see when he had wandered through the doors of the Captain America exhibit. She had still been a ghost to him then, a memory in the back of his mind trying to fight its way through the many, many others.

All he had known was she put him at ease almost immediately.

They had a shared history. If there was anyone out there who could understand what he had been through it would have been her and he was glad he hadn't recognised her immediately. He would have said the wrong thing, blurted something out before thinking it through or calling her the wrong name, and the trust would have been broken before it had even been built up.

It hadn't been until that trust was strong between the two of them, when they had arrived in Paris, that his mind had sprung the memory on him. The two of them in the training room, Harper a lot younger than she was now with a feisty expression on her face as she flung knives toward different targets.

He had hoped, with everything he could, that it was his brain playing tricks on him. It made sense that a person he was spending time with, who he was on the run with, had crept into his flashbacks right? He was figuring out what was real and what was fake, wading through all of the broken memories and sorting out his thoughts.

It made sense that she might appear in his dreams. Right?

Taking time out, leaving her to sleep in the hotel room, he had disappeared to figure all of it out. His insides squirmed with the worry that, as the memory became clearer, everything he was terrified of was real.

The file had weighed heavy in his bag, almost begging him to open it up and take in all of the horrifying details.

He'd been scared to, a feeling Bucky Barnes - because that was who he was now - would never have admitted to feeling out loud, but not for himself. He had been terrified to read that all of his fears were correct.

How would he go back to her knowing?

With the turn of every page the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach only worsened. His eyes skimmed over his mission files, not wanting or needed to relive each one, and his fingers shook as he made his way toward the end.

The picture of her had almost knocked him off his feet. It was her, it was definitely his Harper, but there was something off - her eyes were too hollow, her hair pulled back harshly and her mouth pressed into a severe line.

Everything he had feared. It was all true.

He'd been worried the confirmation would make him want to run but, instead, the opposite tugged at him. All he had wanted to do was go to her.

With every passing day, dread had weighed heavier and heavier in his stomach at the thought of having to tell her the truth. Guilt ate away at him and he was ashamed beyond belief at his cowardice.

Because of course she had to find out.

It wasn't fair for her to be in the dark about her missing years, to not know who her family were and to not even know her real name.

He just, selfishly, hadn't wanted to be the one to tell her.

Letting out a sigh Bucky pushed himself away from where he was leaning, crossing the room in a few large strides and tugging his coat down from the hooks near the door. Pulling it on he grabbed the cap out of the pocket, placing it on top of his head and adjusting it so it was down over his eyes before leaving the apartment.

He hated the thought of Harper out there dealing with all of this on her own and, despite not having a clue where she could be, he was determined to find her.

The skies were dark and rain splattered down onto the pavements as he stalked his way through the empty market. He gripped his jacket tightly around himself, a chilled wind making him shiver beneath the far too thin material, as he found himself frantically searching through all of the stalls just in case that was where she had hidden herself.

He wasn't sure how she was handling such news, to hear all of her life had been a lie, and he couldn't stop his head from spinning with worry at the thought of her being in danger.

Or of her putting someone else in danger by mistake.

His eyebrows raised and hope flooded his veins when he spotted a flash of blonde hair disappearing into one of the darkened side streets. Quickening his pace he was almost reaching a sprint when he finally caught up with her, stretching his hand out to grasp onto her wrist.

"Bucky Barnes."

His heart practically dropped into his stomach as the blonde spun to face him, a smirk on her face and her head tilted to one side. It wasn't Harper at all, though the resemblance was definitely present, but Margot.

Allowing his anger to take over for a change his right hand gripped around her throat, spinning them both on the spot and pressing her against the brick wall they were stood beside "What are you doing here?" he growled as a laugh left her.

"How's my niece Soldier?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly as he lifted her slightly off the floor.

"What have you done with her?"

The shocked and almost concerned look on her face made him let her go, taking a step back he regarded her with a frown as she replied "Is she not with you?"

"No she...she left earlier tonight," Bucky said with a shake of his head, wrapping his right arm almost protectively around his waist as his left, metal, hand tapped nervous patterns against his thigh "She read her file. She knows."

A flicker of fear passed Margot's face before her eyebrows furrowed with anger and she shoved at his shoulders "Are you kidding me? And you allowed that?!" she exclaimed turning away from him and pinching the bridge of her nose. "You do know this is the girl who hospitalized one of Hydra's best guards for three months during one of her escape attempts? The reason that her missions were terminated was because she couldn't handle the training, the serum, anything!"

Bucky's face remained expressionless as he listened to her ramble, his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his head shaking. He had only met Margot Revoir, Hydra's doctor and part time scientist, a handful of times but knew well enough just how manipulative she could be "She had to know," he said in a quiet but serious tone "I couldn't have kept it from her forever."

"You shouldn't have brought her back into all this at all," Margot said as she began to pace, pushing her fingers through her hair.

"Brought her...she would have found out by herself anyway!" he snapped throwing his arms up into the air "The clowns you had looking after her, are you kidding me? She worked researching into Steve Rogers' life for god sake!" his fingers curled up into fists as he took a step closer to her, glad he didn't have a gun to hand though he found his fingers were itching to reach for one "Now. Leave."

Another infuriating smirk came to Margot's face as she took a step back and tilted her head to the side "Not until I've seen my niece," she said before turning her back on him and disappearing into the night once again.

Bucky swore loudly into the night sky, his only reply being a bird taking off from a nearby tree, and leaned with his back against the wall he had just pressed Margot's face into.

There was nothing good about her being in Romania. Even with the rumours Hydra had fallen and was no more he knew she would still have contacts both there and at Shield, ready to use if it meant she had something to gain from the information. She wouldn't want to see Harper for any familial reasons, she hadn't cared about her when she was in the facility or sleeping on the streets after her training was terminated so it was pretty obvious she was only hanging around now because their location was highly sought after information.

Letting out a shout of irritation he balled his metal fingers up into a fist, slamming it into the wall and leaving a hole into the garden it was surrounding.

The longer she was out there the more danger she was in. if Margot reached her before he did, he wasn't sure what would happen.

The rest of his night was a troubled one. Not knowing where she was, if she was safe, rattled around his brain and stopped him from resting...so instead he walked. Pounding the pavements and checking over every single hidey hole and around every corner to make sure there was no chance he had missed her.

She was tough. She had survived on her own, on the streets, before and he knew that.

But he also knew just how much Hyrda's people would want her back. Not only had she had so much more potential than even he had but, if her memory ever kicked in, there were plenty of secrets hiding in her memories which could possibly ruin them even further.

Bucky had seen how they had kept her when she lived in the facility. He had seen her train and he knew what missions she had been sent on. She had been thought highly of and, despite her lack of interest in doing the job and her many failed escape plans, had been trusted with a lot of information thanks to who she was related to.

There was a fountain of knowledge beneath the amnesia that was definitely detrimental to a lot of people he had assumed would have gone into hiding as soon as Hydra fell.

He let out a sigh as he reentered the apartment. It was no fun coming back without the promise of her also walking through the door soon after him. No matter how small the place actually was it felt too big without her presence, too uncomfortable.

Dropping down onto the sofa as his exhaustion took over he ran his hands down his face and leaned back against the cushion. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the file Harper had thrown haphazardly to the side before she had stormed out and the guilt stabbed at his heart once again.

With a sigh he pushed himself up onto his feet once again and made his way over to the door.

He couldn't rest until he found her.