Sitting in the private jet, Bucky had to admit that he was in awe. How did someone afford something like this? He had flown before, of course he had flown, but flying private was something pretty different. He remained sat in the chair as Sam sat across from him, the two of them keeping an eye on Zemo. They had been forced to go to him after Victoria had proven a dead end in New York. Sam had been the one who had been most nervous about having broken Zemo out of jail, but Bucky reminded him that he had technically broken himself out. He had done nothing to help him. Evidence would show as much as well.

They were on their way to Madripoor, Zemo claiming that he might still have connections who would be able to help them in their mission to find the doctor with the super soldier serum. But it was while on the flight when Zemo began speaking.

"It's fascinating…really," he said, sipping on his champagne, a book open in his lap. He placed the flute down after a moment and kept his gaze fixed on the book in his lap. Bucky looked over to him as he spoke. "Victoria Wallace…I had thought that she would be dead by now, but she's in your book."

Bucky stood up and moved quickly over to Zemo, grabbing him by the throat and pushing him back into his chair.

"Touch that again and I'll kill you," Bucky warned him, picking the book up that he carried around with him everywhere. He returned to his seat and sat down, putting the book back into the inside pocket of his jacket before turning to look out of the window, but Zemo continued talking.

"I understand," he assured Bucky in a low and deep voice. "That book contains names of people who you wronged as the Winter Soldier, but her name is surprising…considering she was part of HYDRA."

"What do you know of it?" Bucky demanded from him.

Zemo picked up his glass of champagne and took another sip, sighing in contentment before shifting in his sheet and looking over to Bucky. His eyes glimmered and he realised that he knew something that Bucky didn't know.

"I went to her," Zemo said to him. "When I was trying to locate the facility in Siberia…I was led to her."

"The same Victoria?" Sam asked, looking to Bucky who nodded once.

"Looks like it," he commented and then turned to Zemo, his lips upturned as he spoke.

"She told me nothing," Zemo said to Bucky. "In fact, she insisted on keeping silent. Fortunately for her, her fiancé was much more forthcoming."

Bucky's eyes widened as he heard that piece of information. Shaking his head, he tried to remain stoic, but Zemo could see that he was shocked. He had no idea, did he? But why was her name in his book?

"Her fiancé?" Bucky retorted.

"A scientist," Zemo responded. "He told me about the man who used to run the facility…only after I had extracted the information from him."

"What did you do him?"

"Nothing that he didn't survive," Zemo responded with a shrug. "It wasn't him who I wanted, you know that, James."

"And her?"

"I left her with him," Zemo responded. "But I do question why she is in your book. She…let's just put it this way…has a very dark past."

"Shut up," Bucky demanded from him, moving to his feet and heading to the back of the plane, needing to be away from Zemo for a moment or two. Engaged. Had she been engaged when he had been with her? He didn't see a ring when he had met with her in London. She hadn't even mentioned being engaged. She hadn't even told him any of that. Did she love this man? If he worked for HYDRA then Bucky doubted it. Victoria had never wanted to be anywhere near HYDRA. She had always been adamant that she would never come around to their way of thinking.

If she had kept that from him, he began to wonder just what else she had been keeping from him.

December 23, 2006

Victoria wasn't feeling particularly in the Christmas spirit. In the months they had been away from home, she had constantly been under her father's watch. He had taken her out of school in England. She had no contact with any of her friends. Her father still considered her a threat. He still did not trust her to go out on her own. Victoria began to wonder if there was any point to her being there, except for her father being able to make sure she kept quiet.

He still had said nothing more about her mother, choosing to keep quiet. Victoria had tried to get it from him, but he had been adamant that he had nothing to say to her. She had pushed her luck for weeks, earning her a number of bruises in the process. She had gotten used to her father's volatile ways. Victoria had grown to resent the man even more, if that had been possible. She couldn't stand the sight of him. She couldn't stand what he had done.

"You can stop sulking, Victoria," he spoke from where he sat, his safety glasses on as he toyed with some part of the Cryostasis Chamber that needed to be upgraded. The asset had been sent on another mission, somewhere in Eastern Europe. Victoria had sat at the back of the room and had watched him be briefed, handed the file that contained his mission. He had left without another word and Victoria had started to wonder who the man really was. There had to be more to him than this. He had to remember something about his life. They hadn't used the Memory Suppressing Machine on him in a while and Victoria wondered if that made things worse for him. Was it worse for him to remember what he had done on the missions that he was sent on? She had no idea.

"Why would I not sulk?" she snapped at him. "You've dragged me from my home and I'm practically a prisoner living in this room…you won't give me my phone…my laptop…I haven't spoken to my friends in months."

"Your friends are aware that you have left and will not return," Roger assured his daughter.

"Do you think that means they won't worry about me?" she snapped back.

"They'll forget about you," Roger said and Victoria felt the pang in her chest. How could he say that? Did he think that they thought so little of her? "And you are going nowhere until I am certain that you aren't a threat to HYDRA or to yourself. Think what you like, Victoria, but I am trying to keep you safe."

"If you wanted to keep me safe then you would never have joined HYDRA," she retorted.

"I joined HYDRA because my father, your grandfather, was a member. He saw the good that HYDRA could do and he instilled it into me. Believe me, Victoria, I was an idealist like you to begin with, but I soon came around. You will do the same."

"Doubt it," she scoffed at him and he turned his glare onto her, his eyes narrow and she suspected that she had overstepped the mark. But he remained seated where he was while she adjusted the book in her lap. "Can I at least go for a walk?"

"We can."

"No…I meant by myself."

"And as I told you, not until I am certain you are trustworthy," Roger responded, tugging his fingers through his blond hair and making sure that it was out of his face. "We can take Christmas Day off…go for a walk…open presents…I might even be able to find a turkey."

Victoria frowned. "You think that we're going to be able to fake having a nice Christmas?" she demanded from him, hands dropping to her lap and closing the book that she had opened.

Roger sighed in exasperation, dropping what he was working on and moving to his feet. He adjusted the waistcoat he wore and fixed his tie. "When are you going to stop?" he snapped at her, moving towards her as she shrunk back in her chair, her hands folding into her lap and he saw that defiant streak in her. It was the same look that her mother had whenever she pushed him. "When are you going to get it into that thick skull of yours that this is happening, Victoria? You are here. You are part of HYDRA now…you are my daughter. You have no idea who I am! You have no idea what I have done for this organisation, how important I am. I am trying to keep you safe. I am trying to protect you. Why can you not simply accept that?"

"Because what you do is wrong," she snapped back, her hands clenched into fists by her side as she moved from the chair to her feet. "And you might think that I will accept you and accept this," she gestured around, "but I won't."

"You think that, Victoria? You truly think that?" he hissed at her. "If you truly want any sense of freedom…any semblance of normal life…then you'll accept this. You'll accept all of this."

"You can't keep me locked up forever."

"I can try," he said and the threat hung in the air as the two continued to glare at each other.

"I'm eighteen in less than two years," she responded. "I'll be an adult. I can go to university and get away from you."

Roger chuckled. "You seriously think that?" he asked her. "Victoria, the only way you are getting that…having a life…is if you accept that you are part of this now…so, it would be better for you to understand that sooner rather than later, for your own good."

Her eyes widened and she shook her head. "You can't do this," she said.

"Why? Because it's not fair? Life isn't fair, darling, you'll soon realise that."

"No," Victoria hissed and stepped around him, but he grabbed her by the wrist. He fought with her, his hands going to her upper arms and hauling her against him to stop her from fighting him. He shook her violently as she tried to push at his chest. It was as they fought when the door opened.

"Dr Wallace."

Roger paused in his movements, his back to the door as he sniffed loudly, his cheeks red with rage. He pushed Victoria away from him, watching her fall down into the chair that she had occupied. She tugged the black skirt she wore down her thighs as he pushed his hair back into place and then dropped his hands to his hips, looking to where Ivan stood.

The asset stood behind him, two other armed guards next to him, their guns trained on him in case he tried anything. Roger looked to the asset, but the asset's gaze had moved around the room, settling on Victoria as she tugged her knees up to her chest and hooked her arms around them. He had seen her only a couple of times since she had first patched him up. Each time, she had been in the lab. She had been sat in the corner while her father worked, her gaze on the book she held. She would only look up occasionally, but each time he saw her he noticed the bruises on her arms or her face.

"Ivan," Roger drawled out the man's name, finally composing himself. "How can I help?"

"The chamber," Ivan said. "He should be put back to sleep."

"Tomorrow morning," Roger said with a nod. "Can you keep him in the cage tonight?"

Victoria winced. That's what they called it, the room at the end of the cold, concrete corridor. It had a steel door that was reinforced, and then metal bars to keep him contained in a short area of the room. Victoria tucked her hair behind her ear as she listened to the conversation, not focusing on the book that she had picked up again.

"I guess so," Ivan said with a nod.

"Is he injured?"

"Gash on the back of his head."

"Will he live?"

"I would imagine so, unless you want him patched up?"

Roger turned his head over his shoulder and glanced back to his daughter. He said nothing, but Victoria sighed. She moved to her feet and stood up. Her father continued to watch her movements. He had his theories about her. He had suspected that there might be a way to make her come around to their way of thinking. But she was only a sixteen-year-old girl. Time would tell if what he thought came true.

"Where's the first aid kit?"

"There," Ivan pointed to the box underneath the desk and she crouched down, pulling it out.

Standing tall, she looked at the guards and her father, arching a brow. "Can I do this without you watching over me?"

"Yes," Roger said with a nod. "Take him to the cage. She can sort him out there."

The guards began to move away, Victoria following them while Ivan and her father stayed in the room. Roger folded his arms over his chest and watched his daughter's retreating figure head down the corridor. He said nothing for a moment before Ivan spoke.

"You're sure she should be left alone with him?"

"He's not a threat to her, not while he's compliant," Roger said with a shake of his head. "Besides, have you noticed the way she always winces whenever we mention the cage? How she fixes him up…she feels sorry for him. She pities him."

Ivan scoffed at that. "Hard not to," he said, tapping his boot on the floor.

"I might be able to use that eventually," Roger said with a thoughtful nod.

Victoria could feel the two men staring at her as she walked away, but she paid them no attention. Instead, she kept her eyes trained on the back of the asset as he was led back to the corridor. Walking down it, she kept the bag tight to her side before the guards unlocked the steel door and stepped in, the light flickering above them. They opened up the steel bars and the asset walked in. Standing to the side of it, they let Victoria enter before speaking again.

"We'll wait outside."

"Whatever," she responded, dropping the bag to the floor before looking to the man she was left alone with. "I'm going to need you to sit down," she said to him. "You're too tall for me to look at it without sitting down."

He sat down then and Victoria went into the bag. He angled his body to the side so that she could get access. She began wiping at the large gash and she sighed, wondering just how many scars he had.

"So…you got into another fight?" she asked, but she knew he wouldn't respond. He had only spoken about two sentences to her before. But Victoria hated the silence. She hated just hearing their breathing. "They don't tell me where you go or what you do, but I doubt I want to know…to be honest, I wish I knew nothing about any of this. I bet you do too," she scoffed and continued dabbing at the wound, feeling him flinch after a moment. "Sorry," she said after he had let his shoulders slump back down. "I…I doubt you care, but it's Christmas in two days. It's ridiculous. Every time I go outside…everyone looks so happy and I just want to scream. I want to scream until they listen to me tell them what is going on in here. But I can't. He's always there…he's always watching."

She let out a deep breath. "And I know you're not supposed to hate your father, but I despise him. I hate what he's done…what he's doing…and he keeps trying to break me down. He keeps trying to crack me, make me agree with what HYDRA does, but I can't do that. I don't want to do that. It…it would be wrong, wouldn't it?" she asked, knowing full well she'd get nothing back. "And I know there will come a time when I get out of here. He can't keep me locked up forever. I can wait…I realise that is the only way I am getting out of here."

"He hurts you."

Victoria's eyes widened. Was that his voice? It still shocked her whenever he spoke. His voice seemed so soft and gentle, nothing like she had thought it would be. She pulled back and bent down back into the bag, reaching for another wipe to dab up the remaining dried blood before she put the antiseptic cream on.

"He…the first time was when I was fourteen," Victoria said, feeling his gaze on her. "I said something that he didn't like and he hit me. He apologised so much…and I felt bad. I shouldn't have pushed him…but then it happened again…and…now I've lost track," she admitted with a sad stare at the wipes she held. Shaking her head, she pulled one out of the packet and realised that she had to compose herself.

"You're just a girl," he said and Victoria wondered if this was normal. Did he talk to other people? She was always under the impression that he was silent.

"Sixteen," she said with a nod.

"Victoria," he continued, but his voice had just dropped to a whisper.

"That's right," she said and she gave him a smile as she went back to cleaning up the blood. "And…they still won't tell me your name, but I'll find it one day. I refuse to believe you don't have a name."

"I don't remember," he said.

"That's alright," she said as he furrowed his brows. "You'll remember one day, I promise you. When I find a way out of this…I'll find you. I won't forget about you."

He turned his neck to the side, his gaze meeting hers. He opened his mouth, almost as though he wanted to tell her something. But nothing came out. She kept her hand on his neck, unable to reach the gash as he stared at her. But she didn't want to disturb him if he had something that he wanted to tell her. She wanted him to remember by himself. It took another minute or so before he dropped her gaze and his mouth closed. He went back to staring straight ahead and Victoria was left wondering just what it was he had wanted to say.

…

Victoria hadn't slept that evening. Instead, she had sat on her sofa, legs up and stretched in front of her with her back resting on the arm. She nursed the whiskey in her glass, holding onto it in her hands and swirling it round. The TV played some programme that she hadn't been paying attention to. It was gone ten when she reached for the bottle she had left on the coffee table and went to fill up her glass again. She downed the liquid in one at the same time she heard the knock on her door.

Moving slowly, Victoria waited for a moment before she heard the knock again. Moving to the bookshelf by the TV, she reached out and pulled a pile of books out of the way. Tapping in the key code to the safe, she picked out the gun that she kept in there. She only used it for emergencies. But, the knock on the door just hours after Bucky had showed up was enough to make her overly cautious.

Heading to the door, she kept the gun by her side, taking the safety lock off as she peered through the peephole. But there was no one there.

Pulling the door open, she did her best not to let her breathing grow too loud from fear. Looking down the corridor, there was no one there. She kept the gun by her side before looking down onto the doormat in front of her. Eyes widening as she looked at the envelope, she picked it up. It hardly weighed anything.

Stepping back into her apartment, she shut the door and locked it once more. Her hands shook as she headed back to the kitchen and placed the gun down on the worktop. She peeled open the envelope and could hardly see anything in it. Turning it upside down, she heard the clatter of metal on the worktop and pieces of paper dropped with it.

"No…no…no…" Victoria said, shaking her head quickly, her eyes widening in pure fear at what she was seeing.

It was the ring. It was the ring he had given her when he had proposed. The pieces of paper had her image on it. They were of her and Bucky outside of the faculty building from that evening. There was a dozen of them, zooming in on the pair of them. They showed them talking before they showed Victoria walking away from him, his gaze still on her as she went and text on her phone. And then on one final piece of paper, she saw his familiar scrawl.

'Miss me, baby?'

April 15th, 2007

It had been almost eight months since they had made the move to D.C. In that time, Victoria had been adamantly stubborn. She had been persistent in refusing to accept what her father did. And so she had started her planning. She knew that it might be for the best if she tried to play along for a while. Perhaps she could convince her father that she was genuine before making her escape? But he would see through her. She was certain of that much. He always had been able to see through her whenever she was lying. She was terrible at it too.

But, she was not going anywhere. She had patched the asset up twice more since the last time, but he hadn't said anything. All that he said was how he didn't remember things. It was on the evening of April 15th when everything changed. Victoria had been sat in her father's lab. She was still being home schooled and due to sit her exams in the summer to get her AS Levels before she could progress to her A Levels. She was taking five AS Levels. She had contemplated taking more considering all her life consisted of was studying under her father's gaze.

"Do you even know what day it is?"

She had finally moved from her chair, wandering around the lab as her father worked on something that he hadn't chosen to disclose with her.

"Of course," he responded.

"And are you not even going to acknowledge it?" she demanded from him.

"What is there to acknowledge? She's been gone several years now, Victoria."

"She was your wife," Victoria responded. "She was my mother…and we both know that you're keeping things from me."

"This again," Roger grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Do you ever get tired, Victoria, of being so argumentative and insolent?"

"Not when it comes to you."

Making a move to stand, Roger looked to his daughter as she continued her mooching around the room, dragging her feet. She wore a fitted green dress with thick tights, a cashmere jumper over it considering that the lab was always cold. She closed her eyes and moved a hand to the locket around her neck.

"I thought that we could go out for dinner tonight," Roger tried to reason with her, looking at her as she continued her walking around. "Consider it a treat."

"So what?" She questioned. "You think that taking me out for dinner is enough to make me forget?"

"You're testing my patience," Roger warned her.

"Dr Wallace."

He was interrupted before Victoria could even say anything to her father. She stood inches from him, glaring up at him as he continued watching her. The asset was stood behind them, dressed in his tactical gear. His metal arm was broken, Victoria could see that much. Roger spun around to look at Ivan as he spoke his name.

"It's the arm. It needs to be fixed," he demanded from him.

"Sit him down," Roger said and Ivan nudged the asset forwards, pushing him to sit down in the chair in the middle of the room. The asset remained silent as Victoria watched her father grab his stool, sitting down next to him and looking to his metal arm. "Where the hell has he been?" Roger muttered. "It's short circuiting…"

"Can you fix him?"

"Of course I can," Roger said, throwing Ivan a glare. "If you were to give me time I could perhaps improve it too…it's looking slightly dated."

"Ask Pierce," Ivan said with a shrug.

Victoria loitered at the back of the room, crossing her legs together and folding her arms together around her waist. She remained silent, watching her father work as Ivan moved around the room as well, looking at everything that he was working on. It was only when Victoria heard the asset begin to grunt did she look to her father.

"You're hurting him," she said to him.

"He can take it," Roger said. Still the asset remained still, his hands clenched into fists by his side. He grunted again and Victoria ground her teeth together.

"Can you not at least give him something?" she asked from her father.

"Do you want to be quiet before I make you be quiet?" Roger demanded from her.

It was then when the asset moved. He reached out his metal arm, seemingly ignoring any pain that he had been in. Victoria jumped back as soon as she saw him move his hand out, grabbing hold of her father by the throat. Picking him up, he held him off the ground as Ivan pulled out his gun. But Victoria was already making her move, standing in between Ivan and the asset.

"It's alright," Victoria spoke to him.

"Move out of the way, girl," Ivan growled at her as her father continued choking.

"Shut up!" Victoria snapped back at him and then turned back to the asset. Moving a hand out, she hesitantly touched his wrist, feeling the warm flesh of his skin. That seemed to get his attention. Turning his gaze down to her, she shook her head at him. "It's fine," she promised him. "You don't need to do this…it's okay," she continued talking.

He kept his gaze on her before he lowered Roger to the ground. He continued coughing loudly as Victoria nodded sternly at the asset. She removed her hand from his wrist as her father gathered his breah and backup entered the room, guns raised and pointed at the asset. Victoria managed a soft smile and he wondered what she was smiling at. He was prepared to kill that man. He was prepared to stop him.

"Victoria."

He practically whispered her name and she nodded.

"It's me," she promised him with a sad smile.

Roger finally gathered his sense and stood up straight, a hand still holding onto his neck and rubbing it before he spoke and pointed at the asset.

"Take him to the machine," Roger demanded.

"No," Victoria interjected, turning around to look to her father. "You don't need to do that. You know that you don't need to do that."

"You think he can get away with behaving like that?" Roger demanded from his daughter as Ivan stepped forwards, forcing the asset to his feet. "No…he's gotten too attached to you…too protective…and we can't have that. He can't see a dumb, defenceless girl and get attached."

"You can't do this to him," Victoria said, but her father was already moving out of his lab and into the next room, the guards surrounding the perimeter of it as the asset was forced into the chair. "He didn't do anything…he was trying to help me!"

"And that's the issue," Roger said.

Victoria could only watch as her father nodded to a guard who stepped in, reaching out to the young girl and grabbing hold of her by the waist to stop her from rushing forwards or going anywhere. She continued to squirm in his grip as the asset was restrained into the chair, metal clasps on his arms to keep him from moving. Her father turned the dial on the machine and the soft buzz of it came to life.

"Just stop it," Victoria snapped out loud again.

"This should teach you," Roger muttered, shoving a mouthguard into the asset's mouth and he willingly clamped down on it.

Looking over to his daughter, Roger turned the dial further on the machine and the two metal arms at the side moved closer, engulfing the side of his face as he began to breathe heavily. As the machine began hissing loudly, he screamed, the noise enough to make anyone's stomach curl. Victoria felt her eyes begin to water as she tried to push at the guard. The asset's face contorted, his head falling back and his eyes closing, his body heaving with laboured breaths.

"See what happens when you disobey me?" Roger moved over to his daughter, grabbing her arm and dragging her from the guard, his hands then moving to hold her shoulders. "He's in that chair because of you, Victoria…because he tried to protect you…so be a good girl and keep your mouth shut and watch what you've done."

He moved his hand to her chin, forcing her gaze back onto the asset as she watched him.

"You did this to him…not me…" Victoria said, shaking her head as he stood behind her, hands firmly on her shoulders. Bending down, he whispered into her ear, his voice sinister.

"And I can do a lot worse."

Victoria shuddered under his grip as the asset continued to scream and she let herself freely cry, the tears pooling on her cheeks.

…

Pacing in the apartment, Victoria kept her hands on her hips. She had taken a flight out of New York as soon as she had packed a bag. She knew where she had to go. She knew exactly who she had to see. She had landed in Madripoor the evening after Bucky had been to see her. She had gone straight to the apartment where she knew she would be. She had been there before.

"I'm surprised to see you here."

Victoria turned her head to the side as she stood in the living room. She had changed into a fitted green dress, a gold zip going all the way up the back of it. She had her mac over her shoulders and a bag draped over her body. Flipping her hair behind her ear, she turned to see Sharon Carter entering her own apartment.

"I need to talk to you."

"I've got company," she said, motioning behind her at the same time three men entered the living area.

Victoria looked between them and tried not to curse under her breath. She had hoped that they would get to Madripoor and not bump into Sharon. She should have known better than that, but she had hoped that they wouldn't be near her. She didn't expect them to be in her apartment. Looking between them, Victoria could feel Bucky's gaze fall on her while her eyes jumped over to Sam. She knew him only from what she had seen on TV. And then there was the final man. She folded her arms over her chest and looked over him with a narrow gaze as he nodded to her. Zemo. She could remember the last time she had seen him.

"Victoria, what are you doing here?" Bucky was the one to speak.

"I…"

"We go back," Sharon responded, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulders and moving to her desk. "Victoria's father laid low here in Madripoor for a while after the Blip. I was the one who told her that he had been killed."

"That doesn't answer why you're here," Bucky said, still looking at Victoria.

She was hiding something. He knew that she was. She had always been a terrible liar, or so he had thought.

"It's to do with my father," Victoria said.

"You three should get changed," Sharon said to the boys and Victoria noted that Bucky was wearing tactical gear. Sam was dressed in some fancy suit and Zemo had a large coat on with a fur collar. She wondered where the hell they had been dressed like that, but she didn't push them, feeling Sharon's hand on her arm. "And we have some catching up to do."

Leading Victoria to another room, she closed the door behind her as Victoria stood still. The room was smaller, seeming to be a private study. There was a large desk next to a full wall window, the leather chair behind it tall and a bookshelf just behind that. Victoria bit down on her bottom lip as Sharon walked to the desk.

"What's going on?" Sharon wondered.

"He's not dead," Victoria said, moving to her bag and pulling out the images and the ring. She dropped them on the desk as Sharon stood the other side of it, reaching into her drawer for a phone. "These were left on my doorstep last night."

"Images…a ring…and a note?" Sharon asked from her. "What does this mean?"

"That was my engagement ring."

Sharon went silent then. She closed the drawer and dropped the phone onto her desk. Standing tall, she shook her head. "He's dead."

"Clearly, he isn't."

"Are you sure this isn't someone messing with you?"

"That's his writing," Victoria confirmed with a firm nod of her head. "We both know what he was trying to do before the Blip. He…I don't think that he was following me. I think that he was following Bucky and that's why he came back to me."

"You think that he is still trying to recreate the serum himself?"

Victoria nodded. "Nagel wouldn't share the blood samples that he had. Alistair had been determined to get the blood…and he only knew one other super soldier."

"But he was killed," Sharon said firmly.

"Well, there must have been something that happened because he got away," Victoria snapped back. "This is him," she pointed at the things on the desk. "I know this is him and now he's coming back…"

"He could have found you at any time considering you dropped your new identity."

"Because I thought I was safe," Victoria hissed, "because you told me that they had been killed. You told me that they were gone."

"Let me look into it," Sharon said, trying to keep Victoria calm. "I can see what the Power Broker knows and see if there was some mistake."

"Thank you," Victoria said to her.

Sharon nodded. "So long as you're here, you should lay low," she warned her. "There's still people out here who know your father and weren't fans of HYDRA."

"I'm on a flight out of here tomorrow morning," Victoria said.

"In the meantime, I'm having a party tonight. You can stay here if you want to…keep hidden."

"Thanks, Sharon."

"Yeah," Sharon said and passed her by.

Victoria remained in the office. She headed to the window and peered outside, adjusting the black tights on her thighs underneath her dress. She should have known that she wouldn't be alone for long. She kept staring out the window, able to make out his reflection in it as he entered the room. He closed the door softly and looked to the back of her head, seeing those familiar honey blonde waves.

"What's going on, Victoria?" he asked from her.

"You…you have no idea," she said with a shake of her head and a dark chuckle.

"Then talk to me," he encouraged from her. "Talk to me and tell me what is going on."

"I wouldn't know where to begin," she scoffed.

Bucky stepped to the other side of the window. He leant against it, crossing one ankle over the other and shrugging his shoulders. He continued to examine her, doing his best to comprehend what was going on in her mind. He kept his gaze even and on her while she stared out the window.

"Why don't you start with your fiancé?" he wondered from her.

Her eyes widened and she looked to him. How could he know? And then she remembered. "Zemo," she said his name with a nod.

"Yeah, Zemo," he confirmed to her. "So, Victoria, tell me, what the hell is going on?"

Looking him in the eye, she saw that same man who had looked at her all those years ago. Nodding her head, she let out a deep breath and prepared to tell him everything.

….

A/N: Do let me know what you think - love to hear your thoughts/if you're still interested in reading!