June 20th, 2007
Victoria stood across from the asset in her father's lab. After his previous outburst, he had been forced to have his memory wiped and put back to sleep. Victoria would sometimes sneak into the room where they kept him, wondering if he knew what was going on when he was sleeping. Did he know that HYDRA planned for him? A part of Victoria hoped that he didn't. She hoped that he could just rest peacefully while he was in there. They were preparing him for his next mission in the lab while Victoria sat in her usual spot with a book open in her grip. She had only moved when her father had demanded her attention.
"Victoria, come here," he said in a voice that meant she had no option but to obey. Standing up, she headed on over to her father and he moved a hand out, brushing her hair behind her ear before speaking.
He moved to take hold of her by the shoulders, forcing her to face the asset. Her gaze met his and he just stared at her. After his previous performance, Pierce had been called back in to check on things. He was standing to the other side of the room, his gaze glancing between the asset and the girl.
"Do you remember her?" Roger demanded from him, hands tightly holding onto her shoulders. She stiffened under his touch, longing to do anything to get away from him, but she knew that wasn't happening.
There was silence in the room, the guards keeping their guns trained on the asset who remained seated, hair hanging in clumps down to his shoulders, lips parted softly. His face scrunched up as he continued to watch the girl and Victoria could only keep her gaze on his.
"She…she looks familiar," the asset admitted.
"I thought you said that the machine would wipe his memories completely?" Alexander demanded from Roger, Ivan chewing on a piece of gum and leaning against the wall at the back of the room.
"Nothing is ever perfect…the human mind can be a strong thing," Roger declared.
"Do you remember the last time you were in this room?" Alexander continued to demand from him. "You disobeyed orders. You became volatile."
The asset shook his head. "I don't remember," he breathed out.
"What do you think?" Alexander wondered from Roger who looked over to him, nodding his head softly.
"I think that he should be fine to go on the next mission," he said. "I will work on the machine while he is gone and try to make it more powerful."
"Why would you do that?" Victoria wondered, turning her head over her shoulder to look up to her father. "He doesn't remember what happened. He doesn't remember who I am…so why would you torture him more?"
"He might not remember you completely, but you look familiar," Roger responded, thinking on the asset's previous comments as he moved to brush her hair back from her face on the other side of her cheek, his thumb roaming over her cheekbone. "And that means there is a vague memory of you…which means that the machine didn't work as well as it could have."
"You can't do this," Victoria said, her eyes wide as she shook her head. "Just leave him alone."
"What is this?" Alexander demanded, stepping in between their conversation as Victoria turned to look her father in the eye, pushing his wrist from her and looking up at him, the glare clear in her eye.
"She pities him," Roger said, looking at his daughter as he spoke. "She feels sorry for him…but she's always been weak and emotional. She gets that from her mother," Roger looked over to Alexander. "But I wouldn't worry about it. She cannot exactly do anything."
"I know that," Alexander clucked his tongue angrily, "but the fact is that him being around her caused him to become volatile. We cannot have that, Roger."
Roger waved his hand nonchalantly. "The machine still works on him…so do the words, yes?"
"Yes."
"Then we will be fine," Alexander continued. "Besides, this could be quite interesting…to see just how much the memory and the mind can take when someone tries to fight back. The asset has proven capable of remembering and showing emotion, but can we keep destroying that from him? How long will it take until we completely break him until he no longer has that function to feel emotion…that function to remember…until he is completely broken and unable to do anything but our bidding?"
Victoria's stomach churned. She felt sick. She swore that she was about to throw up her breakfast at hearing her father. He wanted to break the asset until there was nothing left of him. So long as he continued showing emotion and remembering then he fought back.
"You're disgusting," Victoria said to her father.
"Think about it," Roger said, still looking at Alexander. "The Winter Soldier programme was abandoned because the assets turned volatile. That wouldn't happen if we could control them completely…take away any last shred of fight that they had. He," he pointed at the asset, "can help us achieve that. He can help us get back to that point. I just need time to work on him…and that means using her," he pointed back to his daughter, "because I think he wants to protect her. Something inside of him still feels the need to protect people…care for them…if we take that away from him then he'll have nothing."
"This is quite the experiment you are proposing," Alexander said and Victoria swore her head felt light all of a sudden. "And you're certain we will get results?"
"Only time will tell."
"You're going to torture him," Victoria said. "You're going to torture him more than you have done…he…he…have you not broken him enough?"
The asset's gaze turned to the girl and he watched her as she stood there, her chin jutting out and her eyes wide. She kept them narrowed on her father, refusing to back down. But he moved suddenly, using the back of his hand to hit her across the face. The noise of her grunt and flesh hitting flesh echoed around the room as Victoria turned her cheek to the side. Looking to the asset, her father noticed the way his vitals spiked, his hands clenched into fists. But he didn't move.
"See?" her father pointed to the machine, moving closer to it as Victoria defiantly turned her head once more, refusing to cry or hide her face. The guards in the room kept their guns trained on the asset. Alexander went to stand next to Roger, peering down onto the machine. "His pulse heightened and so did his heart rate…he didn't move…but he was clearly annoyed, ergo, he showed emotion."
"This plan of yours…if successful, what do you hope to gain from it?"
"As I said…we use what we find out and we can recreate the serum," Roger said with a firm nod. "Think about it…HYDRA could have its own army…"
"This is an ambitious plan."
"HYDRA is nothing if not ambitious," Roger retorted.
Alexander considered what he was saying with a nod. "Work on the asset," he said. "See what you can do to him, but ensure that he stays fit enough to continue working on missions. We're shipping him out tonight to Thailand."
"Then I will get to work," Roger nodded and turned to his daughter. "Take his blood, Victoria, make yourself useful…Alexander, allow me to show you the new plans for the chamber that I have. She doesn't need protection in here."
"I know what you're doing," Victoria said to him. He was leaving her alone to see what happened, knowing that she would say nothing if she was being watched. "It's not going to work. I won't let it."
"Stubborn little thing, isn't she?" Alexander commented, but they were already leaving the room.
"I confess that it does grow tiresome," Roger continued.
As soon as the door closed, Victoria folded her arms over her chest. Moving around the room, she huffed to herself, mumbling under her breath and cursing in her head. She reached for the box containing her father's medical equipment.
"I need you to squeeze your fingers into a fist," she said to him. "It will make it easier to find a vein."
He obeyed, clenching his fingers tightly as Victoria moved a wipe over the area. She cleaned it, seeing the vein begin to pop up as she stood by his side. He looked up to her and spoke in a whisper.
"Victoria."
Her eyes widened at hearing him, her mouth slackening. Shaking her head, she looked to the door almost as a reaction. "No," she said to him. "You can't know my name…you can't know me…"
"But I do," he responded. "I remember you crying."
Victoria's brows knitted together. "When?"
"In the room…when he locked you in there. You cried for hours."
"I did," she responded with a nod, "but you can't know about that. You can't talk about it, okay? They think that they can use me to get to you, but I don't want that to happen…so whatever happens…whatever you see…just let it. Just let it happen and you'll be safe."
He took a moment, closing his lips and feeling saliva fill his mouth as Victoria gently prodded the needle into his vein to take the blood, seeing it flow for a few seconds before she gently pulled the needle out, covering the small prick in his skin with a wipe, holding it there to stop the bleeding. She placed the vial of blood down onto the worktop next to her before wiping away the blood on his arm.
"But it's…he hurts you."
"And you have to let him," Victoria said to him, meeting his gaze. "If you don't then he will hurt you even more and I don't want that for you…and you…you don't deserve it. Just ignore whatever he does, please."
He said nothing back to her as she checked he had stopped bleeding. She folded up the wipe and tossed it into the bin behind her before moving around the room, tugging a hand through her hair and feeling the ends of it knotted together as she untangled them. She moved to pull at the yellow summer dress she wore, tugging it down her thighs and wrapping the cardigan on her body tightly around her waist.
"I…I appreciate what you did," Victoria said to him, turning to look back to him, her ankles crossing together, her brogues knocking against each other as she completed the motion. "I really do appreciate it because it's…it's been a long time since anyone has actually stood up for me or even…I don't know…cared that much," she bit down on the inside of her cheek as he continued staring at her, gaze wide and eyes inquisitive. "And I don't have anyone now, not really. He's made sure of that. And…the only person who has shown me any semblance of kindness in the last several months has been you, which is ironic because you hardly even talk to me. I just talk at you."
Silence once more.
"But that's why you have to be safe," she said to him. "That's why you need to try and forget about me…not care about what my father does to me…I'm serious."
"I…I don't know if I can," he muttered with a shake of his head.
"Just try," she encouraged from him. "I know that somewhere deep inside of you there is a good man. That's clear…but…you don't need to be him, not for my sake."
He could only watch her, the feeling inside of him alien. He didn't know how to react to what she had just said. She was practically telling him not to care about her. She was telling him not to bother with her. He noticed her head back to the chair she always sat in and she avoided his gaze, a hand going to her face and he noticed her wipe away a tear from the corner of her eye. As she curled into a ball and picked her book back up, he wondered if he could even do as she asked.
…
Bucky watched Victoria pace around the study, a hand going to her hair and running through it, messing it up. He saw the tightness of her jaw and how she was chewing on the inside of her cheek. She always did that when she was nervous. She went to the desk and moved pieces of paper back into an envelope, her body shielding what was on them from him. Dropping the envelope into her bag, she left that on the floor and shrugged out of her jacket, draping it over the desk.
"After D.C…." she began, "everything changed."
Bucky remained silent as she went to the other side of the desk, her hand running along the mahogany wood before she stood behind it and slumped into the chair, folding one leg over the other, hand going back to her hair.
"HYDRA was in complete disarray when everything came out about what we had done…who had been involved in the organisation," Victoria continued. "As far as anyone knew, I had been part of HYDRA…no one would care that I was an unwilling member. Besides, a lot of people would say that to cover their ass," she scoffed. "We left D.C…me and my father. We travelled around for a while and laid low, knowing that S.H.I.E.L.D. were looking for us. I…I considered going to them a couple of times and seeing if they would believe what I told them about my involvement, but you know my father. He kept me where he could see me. We went back to London…Paris…here to Madripoor…"
Bucky moved to sit down in the chair on the other side of the desk, his movements cautious and tentative so that he didn't disrupt her. He wanted to know what had happened, but he knew that she was going to tell him at her own pace.
"Anyway, a year after D.C…my father had an underground network. Other scientists who had been part of HYDRA and who were interested in his research and looked up to him got in touch," Victoria continued, folding one leg over the other. "He started to think that he could build HYDRA back up, but of course he needed funding…and…that's where Alistair came into things."
Victoria let out a deep breath, a hand moving to her neck and Bucky noticed that she was shaking as she nervously scratched at her skin for a moment.
"Alistair was a wealthy entrepreneur and a great scientist," she said to Bucky. "His family had never actively been involved in HYDRA, but after the events in D.C…he got in touch and admitted that he had been interested in the work my father had been doing…the idea of creating an army of super soldiers was something they both seemed excited by."
"Anyway," Victoria continued after taking a moment to stare out of the window. She still wouldn't look at Bucky. "They began to look for super soldier blood. The CIA already had some from another super soldier, but they couldn't get their hands on that. And so they began looking for the only other super soldier they knew who they could use."
"Me," Bucky whispered.
Victoria nodded. "My father figured that he had already been able to control you, so he figured that if he could get you back then he could continue his research," she said to him. "They had contacts in different parts of the world and eventually one of them spotted you in London…but…I got in the way of them."
"And that's why you came to London," Bucky said to her and she looked over to him eventually, her gaze meeting his.
"Yeah," she nodded her head. "Anyway, after that and the events at the U.N. you seemed to go off the radar. No one could find out where you were, but they kept trying. That was until the Blip happened."
"And that's when you got away?"
Victoria nodded. "No one knew if the Blip was going to permanent or not. No one understood what had happened," she said to him. "I figured that was my chance to try and escape. My father had gone…Alistair had disappeared…if I didn't leave then…well, I never would," she admitted with a shake of her head and a glance to the ceiling. "I went to S.H.I.E.L.D…figured it would be the only shot at a normal life I could have…stop living in the shadows. Besides, if they wanted to lock me up for what I had done then that wouldn't be the worst thing to have happened to me. I'd already spent the best part of fifteen years locked away."
Bucky winced at hearing her say that. She didn't seem to notice, her eyes still darting around the room before she stood up, folding her arms over her chest.
"But I gave S.H.I.E.L.D. everything. I told them about the contacts my father had made…everyone involved with wanting to recreate the serum…all of it," she said, heading over to the window once more while Bucky swivelled in the chair, hands resting flat on his stomach, eyes trained on her. "They gave me a new identity in return for all of it."
"So you got immunity?" he checked.
"I got immunity," she echoed back. "Of course, that all changed after the Blip and everyone came back…including my father and Alistair. S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to round up the majority of my dad's contacts and they never disclosed where the information had come from. I was kept out of everything. But I knew that my father and Alistair would never stop looking for me. I'd escaped. I'd ran away."
Victoria let out a shaky breath. "And they were good, Bucky," she said, arms around her waist and he saw her continue to shake, leaning against the window. "Alistair found out that I had gone back to the States. He…him and my father had been working in Madripoor. They'd heard about another doctor here who wanted to recreate the serum…Nagel."
Bucky's eyes widened and he moved to his feet, hands going to his hips. "So you did know his name?" he asked from her.
She nodded once. "It was supposed to be a secret," Victoria said to him. "He's under the protection of the Power Broker. As soon as the Power Broker heard that my father was after Nagel…trying to get him to help…take the vials of blood he had…well, he wasn't happy," Victoria admitted. "Sharon got in touch with me on his behalf and told me what they had been done while trying to locate me," she continued. "She told me that the Power Broker could take care of them…that he would take care of them."
"And did he?" Bucky pushed her.
"I thought so," Victoria muttered to Bucky. "I…the Power Broker told Sharon that they had been taken care of. I wondered what they wanted in return from me, figured that they would think they had done me a favour and I guessed they had in a way. They just told me to stay in touch in case anyone ever got in touch with me about wanting to recreate the serum. As soon as they were gone, I knew that I was free. I had no one to hide from anymore, not really…until you came along."
She turned to look over to him and his eyes widened, wondering what she was on about. She went back to her bag and pulled out the envelope, figuring she had to show Bucky eventually. She reached into the envelope and dropped the images on the desk. Bucky peered over them, brows knitting together and arching on his forehead.
"Someone was watching you?"
She shook her head. "I don't think they were watching me," Victoria said to him. "I think they were watching you…and…I think it's Alistair."
"The scientist?"
"Yes," Victoria nodded her head at him and he took a moment to consider what she was saying. "My best bet is that Nagel is still under the Power Broker's protection so he can't get anywhere near the vials of blood he needs to try and recreate the serum…and so he is after yours."
"You think he's been following me? I know when I'm being followed, Victoria," Bucky shook his head.
"Perhaps so," she said to him, "but I don't know if there is any other explanation…either way…you've led him straight back to me," Victoria said, tugging out the note and resting it on the desk. Bucky read it, noting the elegant scrawl: 'Miss me, baby?' and then she dropped the engagement ring on top of it. Bucky picked the ring up and looked to it before piecing everything together. He looked over to her, gaze etched with concern.
"Alistair…" he spoke his name. "He was your fiancé."
She could only nod. He watched her take a deep breath and move to sit back down in the chair across from him, once again folding one leg over the other. "You didn't think he would give my father his resources without wanting something from him, did you?" she questioned Bucky. "He was more than willing to help, but I sweetened the deal."
"You…you didn't love him?" Bucky continued pushing her.
She laughed, the noise a hollow choke. "Love him?" she asked Bucky. "He was as bad as my father," she responded. "He was sweet at first…handsome…and I…I'd never had anyone show me attention like that. At the beginning, it was odd. It was a novelty, I guess, but I never loved him. How could I? He stood for everything I resented. A naïve part of me wondered if I could change him, but that was never going to happen."
"And in London?" he pushed her. "Were you engaged to him when you came to me?"
"Yes."
"And you still went back?" Bucky questioned her. "Why? I promised that I would keep you safe, Victoria."
"Because we both know that you never could keep me safe," she said and he swore that her words stung him even more than he cared to admit. She didn't mean for them to, but it was just the truth. It was harsh, but it was honest. "They would have continued to look for both of us, but so long as I was with them…I could try and stop them from getting close to you again. I destroyed everything they had on you, but I knew they could start again…and I didn't want to risk that."
"I would have done my damndest to keep them away," Bucky said.
"I know you would have," Victoria assured him, picking her gaze up to meet his. "But I'd spent all of those years…in that god forsaken facility…and I'd never been able to save you from my father. I figured that once you were freed, I would do everything to keep it that way. You did well for a while until the incident at the U.N."
"And is that how you met Zemo?"
Victoria nodded. "He tracked me and Alistair down. By that stage we were living together in London," she said. "He wanted to know how to find the base in Siberia. I…I told him nothing, but he got it out of Alistair. He never was any good at dealing with pain."
"Did he hurt you?" Bucky asked and Victoria recognised that tone. She had heard it on him before. It was outrage. It was outrage that someone had dared to touch her. And the only lips she had ever heard it from was his.
"No," she said. "He never hurt me…strangely enough, he was quite the gentleman to me, but he almost drowned Alistair before he gave the information up. I wondered what he wanted to do…why he wanted to go to the base. I was worried that he wanted to wake up the remaining Winter Soldiers, but he said that wasn't the plan. His plan was to get revenge on the Avengers for what happened in Sokovia."
"Well, he succeeded."
"I'd guessed he did," Victoria said. "And framing you for the U.N. bombing…I wondered what had happened to you. That was until your Captain America turned up."
Bucky looked down then and nodded his head. He played with the gloves on his fingertips before speaking, gulping once and taking a moment to gather himself. He could feel her staring at him still.
"After Zemo…we were on the run," Bucky said to her. She knew that much. "We went to Wakanda to lay low and while I was there…there was this Princess…a genius, really," Bucky admitted. "Shuri, was her name, and I knew that I had to go back to sleep. My mind still wasn't my own, Victoria. Zemo had managed to control me just like HYDRA had done. I was a danger not only to myself, but to everyone around me."
"And…it worked?" she questioned.
Bucky nodded. "It worked," he echoed to her. "I came out of the sleep and those words didn't work on me…my mind was finally free…I was away from their control…when I woke up I stayed in Wakanda and had time to heal. It was the first time I hadn't been fighting or running in decades. I didn't know how to just exist with peace…and then Steve came back and told me what you had said to him. I asked him to try and find you before they put me to sleep. I told him to try and get you away from your father…but you wouldn't come. You still wouldn't come."
"You know why."
"No, I don't," Bucky said with a shake of his head. "You would have been safe in Wakanda. They would never have found you there."
"I was scared," Victoria blurted out to him, struggling to keep herself composed. "I…I didn't know any better…I was scared that they would find me…that I'd never able to hide from them and the things they did. You know what they did, Bucky…to both of us…I wasn't, no, I couldn't, see them do that to you, not again."
Bucky's mouth dried at hearing her say that and he watched her wipe her eyes with a fingertip, trying to keep the motion subtle.
"Do you still have nightmares?" he asked from her.
"I don't sleep…not well, anyway…I still see what they do to you…how they hurt you…and I blame myself…I blame myself for all of it."
"Every night," Victoria nodded her head. "Some nights they're not so bad. But…yeah…"
"I know that feeling," Bucky said.
She shook her head. "The things they made you do weren't your fault."
"I still did them," he responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
"You had no choice," she reminded him.
"Doesn't make it easier," Bucky said and moved to his feet. "And knowing that I left you with them in D.C…abandoned you."
"They'd wiped your memory before what happened with the Hellicarriers," she reminded him. "They'd done that to you, Bucky."
"But I still remembered you," Bucky replied. "I always remembered you, Victoria. And I should never have just ignored you. I should have just gone back for you and kept you safe. I owed you that much."
"You owed me nothing."
"Are you serious?" he demanded, his tone harsh and his face scrunched up. He turned to face her, abandoning his pacing. She shifted in the chair, feeling herself squirm under the intensity of his stare. He had a way of doing this to her. He always had a way of making her squirm. "You were with me for eight years. You were the one who looked after me…talked to me…kept some part of me sane…and you were a kid. You were a kid who needed protecting."
"I was a kid," she agreed, "but I didn't keep you safe, Bucky. They used me to get to you. You know that. It was because of me…because of how you reacted…that they kept on experimenting on you…trying to break you down."
"Did you ever think…" he trailed off. He had been wondering this for years. He began to wonder if he was too brave to say what he wanted to say to her. But he had to. He had to do it or he never would. "Do you ever think that the only reason I kept being able to fight them…to stop them from completely wiping away the man I was…was because of you?" he asked her.
There was silence then. Victoria could feel her eyes watering. How could he even say that to her? How could he possibly think that to be the case? She had no idea and she was struggling to come to terms with it. Sniffing loudly, she bit down on the inside of her cheek and Bucky watched her look down. He sighed. He didn't want to upset her. The last thing he ever wanted to do was upset her.
"Why would you not come with me?" Bucky whispered down to her as a sudden knock on the door interrupted them.
"Buck, we should head on down," Sam's voice called into the room.
"Five minutes," Bucky responded, his voice stern, indicating that this was not up for negotiation.
Victoria moved to her feet, shaking on them as she gathered up the items to put back into the envelope, stuffing them into her bag. "You should go," she said to Bucky.
"Victoria-"
"-I'm fine," she interrupted him before he could continue talking to her with that voice, pleading with her not to leave him.
"No, you're not," Bucky responded, voice haughty. "You're anything but fine and that's okay. Why would you be fine? Just…listen to me."
He planted himself down in front of her, stopping her from moving any further. His hands went to her upper arms, holding onto them. She still kept her gaze from his and he sighed. Moving slowly, he curled his finger underneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. She looked different, now that he was up close to her. She had aged, he could see that much. But she still had those green eyes that held so much sorrow. She had been a teenager when he had first seen her. He had seen her grow into a young woman. But, while her appearance might have changed, she remained the same. She remained the same kind, gentle, girl who had nursed him back to health and been there for him.
"You don't need to do this," he promised her.
"Do what?"
"Run…hide…not anymore and not from me," he said. "This isn't like before. Things have changed…we're not HYDRA's anymore. We're free."
"I thought I was," Victoria said, "until I got that envelope."
"And we will deal with that."
"There isn't a we."
"There should be," Bucky retorted. "You've spent the best part of eighteen years running away from my help, but don't do that…not anymore."
"I don't want you to help me because you feel that I am a burden," Victoria whispered, struggling to compose herself. "I never wanted to be a burden for you."
"Is that what you think you were?" he questioned, tone full of disbelief.
"How could I not have been?"
"You…I've not gone one day without thinking about you," he admitted to her. "So let me help you. Let me help you deal with whatever is coming your way."
Victoria looked up to him then, a shaking hand running over his cheek, touching it softly and feeling the stubble underneath her fingertips. Her gaze met his and he noted the tears there, but more importantly, he saw the fear.
"He scares me, Bucky," she whispered to him. "Alistair…he scares me."
Bucky did the only thing he could think of then. His chest ached with sorrow and anger. His stomach churned thinking of what this man could have done to her to scare her so much. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight against his body. He felt her stiffen for a moment before she relaxed, her own arms daring to go around his waist, her cheek pressed against the black jumper he wore on his chest. Closing her eyes, she felt his hand move to cup the back of her head. Bending down, he rested his chin on the top of her hair, feeling the softness of her curls on his skin.
"I've got you," he whispered down to her. "Victoria, I've got you."
….
September 1st, 2007
Sitting down with the asset, Victoria had her legs crossed as he sat in front of her. She was tending to a wound on his calf and she had seen the other scars dotted across his body. She had been left alone with him, as was common. She knew what her father was doing, but she had continued to insist that the asset not retaliate. She was more determined than ever not to give her father the satisfaction of watching him crumble. She wouldn't let him do that to him.
"I got four A*'s and an A," Victoria said to him, knowing that she was just talking to herself. But somewhere, deep down, she hoped that he was listening to her or even cared. "I'm a bit annoyed about the A because it ruined the perfect scores. I've already started studying for my A Levels and I'm seventeen in a couple of week's time…which is crazy because that means I've already spent a year here."
She moved her hand into the bag and reached for the antiseptic cream as the asset sat on the bed above her, hands clasped onto his thighs.
"And you know…when my father comes back…he's going to want to hook you back up to that machine and check your vitals…see how you react to him…Christ…whatever he's going to do to me," Victoria muttered and peered up at him once again. "But just don't react. I'll be fine, trust me."
"I…I don't find it easy," he finally said.
"And that's because, somewhere deep down inside of you, you're a good man who wants to do the right thing, but save that for another time when you get out of here. Don't bother wasting it on me and letting them break you down any further."
"You think that?"
"Think what?" she asked, going back to the task at hand and the bleeding leg in front of her.
"I'm a good man?"
"I think so," she nodded her head. "And one day you'll be able to show that. People will know what happened wasn't your fault, I promise you."
He remained mute.
Victoria sighed. "Anyway, I need to put some cream on this because I don't want it to get infected. It might sting, but I just need you to hold still," she said and he did as she had asked. She applied the cream, rubbing it over his limb, her free hand going to toss her hair behind her shoulders and she bit down on her cheek.
"You always do that."
She looked up to him, brow arched and head tilted to the side. "What's that?" she asked from him.
"Push your hair from your face…bite your cheek…you always do it when you're nervous or concentrating."
"You're very observant," Victoria responded. "But yeah, I guess I do it without even noticing that I'm doing it."
He kept silent then and Victoria finished her work. She remained on the floor, the bandage covering a good expanse of his calf. She kept her hands in her lap and peered up to him as he glanced to the door.
"They'll be here in a minute," he said, referencing the guards. "You should go and tell them you're finished."
"I will," she said, "but can I…can I just stay here…for a minute? I don't want to go out there just yet."
She knew what they would do as soon as she went out there. She knew that they would take him back to that machine and wipe his memory if they saw how he reacted around her.
"It's weird," Victoria suddenly said. "They keep trying to wipe your memories to make you forget everything, but you…it's like you still seem to remember me…like they can't remove everything."
He said nothing.
"It would be easier for you if you just forgot me."
"No."
The word was firm as he spoke it and Victoria looked back to him, noticing the determination in his stare. She gulped loudly as the door opened behind her, but the asset still kept his gaze firmly focused solely on her.
...
A/N: Thanks so much to everyone following and to those who have reviewed, really means a lot to know that you're interested! Do let me know what you think/any suggestions of things you'd like to see!