Victoria pulled back from Bucky after a few minutes, sniffing and wiping her nose. He watched her continue to avoid his gaze, noticing her moving around the study, hands dropped to her hips and crumpling the fitted dress she wore. He folded his arms over his chest, knowing that he should go and find Sam and Zemo. If he had to go to this party then he suspected he should keep an eye on Zemo, not trusting him entirely. How could he after everything that he had done? It would be impossible.

"Sharon told me to stay here and hidden," Victoria said to Bucky, perching on the edge of the desk, holding onto the side of it. "My father made a few enemies while we were in Madripoor and he was trying to rebuild HYDRA. It's possible that some of them still recognise me."

"And what's the plan?" Bucky questioned.

"Head back to New York, I guess," she shrugged.

"You sure that's the best idea?" he wondered from her.

"What else can I do?" she asked him. "He isn't dead and he…if he comes after me…after you…then I don't know what to do. I can only be prepared when he comes for me."

"Prepared?" Bucky asked and she nodded.

"I spent the entire time during the Blip learning how to shoot a gun," she said to him and his eyes widened in surprise at that. Her lips upturned as she noticed the shock on his face and she cocked an eyebrow. "You surprised?"

"Guess I just never thought of you shooting…or being able to shoot anyone," he responded.

"I'm not the kid you knew all those years ago," she said. "Well, you knew me through everything…university…I got my degree during those three years we were trapped with HYDRA."

"I can remember this one time…a night before an exam or something…you were patching me up and you accidentally used the wrong type of cream on the cut or something. It burned like a bitch," he said and Victoria chuckled at that, his lips also upturning. Nodding her head, she remembered what he was talking about.

"It was the final exam," she said to him. "I had to get over seventy per-cent to keep my first. Ended up getting it so I probably didn't need to worry so much…or nearly burn your skin off."

"It was the only time you did it," he responded and went to perch by her on the desk, giving her some space. "It was weird seeing you change and…and not being able to help you…and now look at you. You're a thirty-four year-old lecturer with a doctorate. Never imagined that kind of life for you," he said and Victoria turned her gaze over to him, looking at his profile as he kept staring straight ahead, almost as though he had distracted himself once more.

"And you're…what? A hundred and six now?"

"Don't say that," he responded, turning to gaze to her, "makes me sound old."

She laughed at that and nodded her head. "Well, I guess you kind of are," she responded. "So, go on, what kind of life did you expect me to have?"

"Want me to be honest?" he looked at her, his eyes roaming over face while she nodded. He gulped and took a moment to continue staring at her. Looking into her green eyes, he spoke honestly to her. "I never thought you'd escape," he said and she dropped his gaze. He didn't want to hurt her, but he had to be honest. He moved a gloved hand out, curling a finger under her chin and lifting her gaze up to meet his once more. "I thought that you would still be with them, Victoria, because…because I'd tried to persuade you to get away, but you wouldn't listen. I didn't know what more I could other than go there and kidnap you," he said and then spoke in a low growl. "And in hindsight I should have done that."

"And in hindsight," she said, shrugging at him, "perhaps I would have done things differently…perhaps I could have tried to harder to get away. It's just that once you get used to living in fear, well, it's hard to be brave."

"You always were brave," he said.

She scoffed. "I don't think so," she said and slipped down from the desk, escaping from his hold. "Anyway, you should go and head down to that party and stick with your…what are you guys? Like the Three Musketeers?"

His lips quirked. "Just three guys trying to save the world," he joked with her and she rolled her eyes, but she still smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back at her. Her green eyes lit up for a moment and he wondered how many times he had seen her genuinely smile before.

"Well, go and save the world."

"Come with us," Bucky implored her.

"Bucky," she groaned his name. "We both know that I can't come with you."

"Why not?" he wondered. "We'll be out of Madripoor tomorrow. You can come with us and if Alistair…if he is following me…following you…then we can deal with him together. We can handle him like we should have handled him and your father year's ago…together."

"I don't want to get you into trouble, Bucky," she replied.

"The way I see it, I'm already in trouble," he said, but he sounded so nonchalant about it that it made Victoria's nose wrinkle and her face scrunch up. "If Alistair wants my blood then he'll come for me. I can deal with him, I have a vibranium arm. So, stay with me, Victoria, and we can deal with this together."

Her brows knitted together on her forehead. "You have a vibranium arm?"

"Is that all you got out of that?" he wondered from her and she rolled her eyes.

"I got the rest of it, you wanting to be the noble knight in shining armour because you still feel guilty-"

"-For God's sake, Victoria, I don't want to do this because I feel guilty. I want to do this because I actually care about you," he pointed at her. "I actually care about what happens to you. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?"

"Because I haven't had that," she said to him. "I haven't had anyone care about me or want to protect me…not in a long time…and you…when you were under HYDRA's control, I know that you wanted to do that, but I didn't know if it was because you felt bad for me and just pitied me."

Bucky continued to watch her and wondered just how broken she was. What had happened to the confident girl he had seen in that lecture hall? Was it just an act? Or did he just see the real her? Was he the only one who saw the real Victoria? He didn't know, but he wasn't going to push her, not tonight.

"I cared," Bucky emphasised for her. "I still do."

"Even after all these years?"

"Do you still care about me?" he retorted.

"You can't answer a question with another question."

"I can and I just did," he said. "So answer me: do you still care about me?"

"I…of course," she said to him, nodding her head. "Bucky, of course I still care."

Bucky nodded. "Then understand this, Victoria," he said. "I still care, okay? So we'll find a way through this."

"But-"

"-Could you just not argue with me?" he interrupted her and saw her purse her lips. She kept silent though, her arms folding over her waist and he smiled despite himself. "You're still just as stubborn," he mumbled.

"Always did get me in trouble," she said.

"I know," he responded.

There was silence between the two of them. Bucky nodded his head. "So that's settled."

"Well, I don't think it is. You kind of just decided what-"

"-Again, stop arguing," Bucky said and moved over to her, holding tightly onto her shoulders in his grip, looking down to her. "I'm helping you."

"And you're not going to give this up?"

"As stubborn as you can be, Victoria, I can be just as stubborn," he responded. "So, come on, you should at least meet Sam."

Before she had time to argue, Bucky was leaving the study, heading back to the main living space. Victoria rolled her eyes at his back, but she did follow him. She could hear the faint vibration of music from the floors beneath alongside the noise of laughter. In the main room, Sam had changed into a new suit with a brown, leather jacket while Zemo still wore the same clothes he had been wearing before.

"Sam, this is Victoria," Bucky said.

Sam stood up and glanced to Bucky. "That was longer than five minutes."

"We had a lot to discuss."

Sam held a hand out to Victoria as she followed Bucky. She took hold of his hand and shook it. "I've heard a lot about you," Sam said to Victoria.

"That doesn't sound promising," she mumbled back to him.

"Bucky told me about how you helped him…while he was in HYDRA," Sam said to her. "And listen, I'm not here to judge you or what happened. As far as I know, you were just as unwilling to be there as Bucky was and if he vouches for you then that's good enough in my eyes."

She dropped his hand and gave him a nod. "Thanks," she said to him.

"And we're already acquainted," Zemo spoke up and Victoria looked over to him.

Moving to sit down on the sofa, she folded one leg over the other as he remained in the armchair, nursing a glass of whiskey in his hands. "We have been," Victoria confirmed. "But last I heard, you were in some German prison."

"James kindly provided a distraction to help me escape," Zemo shrugged and Victoria turned to look to him, her mouth open and eyes aghast.

"You broke him out?" she demanded from him.

"Technically, he broke himself out," Bucky said with a raised hand and went to sit down next to her on the sofa.

"Why do I feel that you still had some part in it?"

"For the record, I had nothing to do with it," Sam interjected and Zemo took another sip of the alcohol in his glass. "So what's going on here? What's happening between the two of you?"

Bucky looked to Victoria and she nodded at him. "Go ahead," she said, urging him to tell the story. She didn't have it in her to go over it again and, truth be told, she hoped that Bucky kept things simple and to the point.

"Victoria's former fiancé is after me," Bucky said. "He's a scientist and he wants to recreate the serum like Nagel has."

"Then why not just work with Nagel?" Sam wondered.

"The Power Broker doesn't share," Victoria interjected then.

"Victoria thought that the Power Broker had taken care of him…and her father who was working with him," Bucky said and Victoria looked down. How bad did that sound? She sat back and let the Power Broker kill her father and fiancé. She didn't plead for their life. She did nothing. Instead, she stayed in New York. She stayed out of everything. "Turns out that Alistair, her ex, isn't dead. He's been following me…and Victoria, maybe…he sent her a note to tell her as much."

Sam groaned out loud at that. "So on top of having to deal with the Flag Smashers, we have to deal with some other scientist who wants your blood?" he checked with Bucky.

"Never a dull moment," Zemo chuckled as Bucky nodded to Sam. But Zemo continued talking. "If I had known the trouble that Alistair Dunpoint would cause, I would have taken care of him when I met him."

"I wished that you had," Victoria muttered and headed to the drink's cart, pouring herself a glass of whiskey and downing it in one before she looked over to Zemo.

"He gave me what I wanted. I saw no need to spill more blood than was necessary," he said to Victoria. "But…thinking back on it…not once did you plead for his life. Not once did you beg me not to kill him."

"Makes me a horrible person, right?" she commented. "I didn't care if you killed my fiancé or not."

"It made me pity you," Zemo admitted while Sam kept his gaze focused on Victoria, trying to weigh up the type of woman she was. "To be in a relationship…where you clearly didn't love him…I cannot begin to comprehend how that would feel."

Victoria reached for another glass of whiskey and drained it in one again. She placed the glass back down as Bucky watched her. She moved back to the sofa and flopped back down, tugging her dress down her thighs as she completed the movement.

"Victoria's coming with us," Bucky declared.

Sam arched a brow. "Are you sure about that?" he asked Bucky. "We're going after Karli. Things could get dangerous, Buck."

"I told him that I would be fine going back to New York," Victoria pointed out.

"And I told her that wasn't going to happen," Bucky shot her a glare. "If Alistair is after both of us then we're sticking together. It's not negotiable."

Sam sighed, but he knew when not to argue with Bucky. Zemo kept his gaze narrowed, eyes darting between Victoria and Bucky as the two of them stared at each other, almost as though they were having a conversation without any words. There were little movements on her face and Bucky's tilted head and changing expression made Zemo realise that they had done this before. The two of them clearly had a history: that much was obvious.

"We should go down to the party," Sam said, "see if Sharon has a lead."

"I'll be down in a minute," Bucky said to Sam with a stern nod.

Sam stood up and looked to Zemo. "You're coming with me," he pointed at him.

"I could do with partying," he said to him and followed with no complaint, finishing his drink off in the process and placing it down on the table before leaving.

Once Bucky was certain they had gone, he turned to Victoria once more. "You're not going to run away if I go, are you?" he asked her. "You've got a history of doing that to me."

"I'm not going to run away," she said.

"Promise?"

"Promise," he echoed back and he nodded.

"That's good enough for me," he mumbled, knowing that when she promised him something she stuck to it. That had always been the case. He reached out and moved to brush her hair behind her ear, his hand lingering on her cheek for a few moments. "'l'll be back in a bit."

"Enjoy the party," she said and he chuckled.

"Haven't partied since 1943," he said to her. "Doubt what's going on down there is my type of party."

"You told me about it once," Victoria remembered. "You told me about how you enjoyed dancing..."

"You remember that?"

"Yeah," Victoria said. "Couldn't help but think how you didn't look like the dancing type."

He stood up, moving his hand from her cheek and chuckling at that. Standing up, he clasped his hands to his thighs and moved to his feet. "I've probably still got some moves," he said. "But it's like everything, got to warm up for these things."

"I guess being over a hundred you might be out of practice," she said and he realised she was teasing him again.

Shrugging, he headed over to the door, calling back to her. "Like I said," he called back and she swore she heard that Brooklyn accent of his shine through in his voice, "just got to warm up for these things…find the right gal."

"Doubt you'll find her in Madripoor, unless you like a life of crime."

He turned his head over his shoulder as he approached the door, a smirk in her direction as he made the movement. "Never had an easy life before," he said to her. "Why start now?"

He left her then and she shook her head, lips upturned as she watched him go, wondering if he had any idea of what she had felt for him before.

October 15th, 2008

Victoria had been forced to do an open university course. She was learning remotely and had opted against going into nursing. Instead, she had found Geology interesting and had taken that. The course that she was doing wasn't as intense as she had suspected, meaning that she had more spare time. It wasn't like she could do much with it, however, what with still being under her father's watch. She had just turned eighteen and two years had passed by since they had made the move to D.C. And in those two years, Victoria's only constant had been that lab and the asset.

They still wouldn't tell her his name or anything about him. She had snooped around his lab and tried to find something, anything, but there wasn't anything. All of the computers were password protected, the files locked away. But Victoria was determined that she would find out his name one day.

"You know that…it's been two years," Victoria broached the topic with her father.

In those two years she had seen her father experiment on the asset multiple times. She had seen him wipe his memory, but no matter what happened, he wouldn't forget her. He wouldn't stop showing emotion or getting angry whenever her father would lash out at her. She had grown used to being used as her father's pawn. But no matter how much he experimented on the asset, he was stubborn. There was a part of him that refused to be destroyed, which made Victoria know that there was still a part of the man he used to be in there, no matter how much she wished he would just stop caring about her.

"Indeed it has," Roger mumbled. "It's gone quickly."

Victoria moved a hand over her cheek, feeling the purple bruise that stained her cheek. Roger looked over to his daughter. She had changed, he couldn't deny that. Her hair tumbled down her back in soft waves while her face had matured. She looked more like a young woman. She looked more like her mother. She was growing up, no longer the teenager with the bratty mouth. But she was becoming wiser. She was learning and Roger wondered if that meant she would eventually see the error of her ways.

"And you know that I've given up on even getting out of here," she said to him. "I've spent two years under your watch…but…I just need time alone. I just want to go on a walk by myself."

"How do I know that I can trust you?"

"Because…don't you get it?" she asked from him.

Roger stopped the work that he had been doing and turned to look at his daughter who was stood in the middle of the lab, dressed in a mini skirt with tights, a long black top tucked into it.

"Explain it to me," Roger said, folding his arms over her chest.

"If I do anything then…you know what you can do to hurt me," Victoria said to him. "I'm not an idiot and I know that you're not too. There is only one thing keeping me here now…stopping me from running away. HYDRA has spies everywhere. If I tell anyone then I know it would just get back to you before anything can happen…besides, I have trust issues, funnily enough," she said dryly. "And I know that if I did tell anyone then you'd just hurt me…or…even worse…you'd hurt him."

Roger nodded his head. "The asset," he simply said.

"I know you," Victoria said. "You're a sadistic bastard. You know how to manipulate me and it works."

"I've thought about this long and hard," Roger admitted to her. "You care for him, don't you?"

"He's been the only one in this place who has even remotely looked out for me," she said to him. "And I don't want to see you hurt him anymore, not because of me."

Roger tilted his head to the side and observed her, eyes squinting and focused on her. "I have thought about this," Roger admitted. "I'd considered what would keep you on side and I knew that it would be him. I'm not promising you his safety, Victoria, I could never do that. He's far too valuable for me to stop experimenting on him," Roger noticed the way his daughter winced at that part of information, but he continued talking. "But I know what would hurt you more and what would hurt him too, considering he still clearly has emotions inside that mixed up head of his," he rolled his eyes.

"And what would that be?"

"Sending him to kill you."

Victoria's mouth dried at hearing that and she bit down on the inside of her cheek. She felt her stomach churn as her father watched her, noticing how her cheeks paled and she moved a shaking hand through her hair.

"You know what happens to traitors of HYDRA, darling," Roger continued talking. "And while I think you might reach a stage where you would risk your own life, I don't think you could handle the guilt of us sending him to kill you…could you imagine what it would do to him if he still feel things? Can you imagine the torment? The only person who is here…who he seems to care about…being forced to kill you and he wouldn't be able to stop himself, not really, because we control him. We say those magic words and he takes on whatever mission we demand him to take."

"He's stronger than you think," Victoria responded.

"Do you want to take that risk with him?" Roger wondered, but her silence spoke volumes.

Nodding once, Roger went to sit back down. "You may go for a walk if you so wish, Victoria," he said to her. "Just know the consequences if you deviate."

"Fine," Victoria said.

"But before you go out, I need more of the asset's blood," he said to her. "Now, be a dear, and go and take some."

She didn't bother answering. She grabbed up the equipment she needed and headed off to where they kept him. The guards unlocked the cell for her and she saw him sat on the edge of the bed. He was due to get his latest mission that afternoon. It had been a while since he had been used, spending his time sleeping instead. Victoria thought about what her father had just said as she turned her gaze over to him. He looked up to her as the guards left and she moved towards him.

"You're awake again, huh?" she commented, but he said nothing. "Listen, I'm sorry that I have to do this, but I need to take some of your blood, okay?"

They went through the usual routine. He rolled his sleeves up and Victoria cleaned along his arm with a wipe. He looked down to her before speaking, his voice low and soft.

"You look different."

She frowned up at him. "Different how?"

He shrugged.

"Well, it has been a while since you last saw me," she said to him. "I guess my hair has grown…but apart from that it's still me. I turned eighteen last month and officially started my university degree…online…obviously. He wouldn't let me actually go to university."

"Geology?" he asked her.

She smiled at that, giving the antiseptic wipe time to dry out on his skin. "Yeah," she said. "You remembered."

He nodded once.

"It's not as intense as I was thinking it might have been," Victoria said to him. "Then again, most people who go to uni also have a social life, which I don't have…so I can spend most of my time studying. I've been thinking that I might even go for a Masters and a PhD one day…what about you? Didn't you ever want to be someone else? Do something else?"

"I don't remember."

He never did remember, not really.

"That's fine," she said. She never wanted to push him into remembering anything. "It's stupid, really…I always thought that I would go into nursing and take after my mum, but in the end I didn't want to." She busied herself with taking his blood. "When I was little I used to think that I could be a ballerina. I took ballet lessons and everything. Mum always said that I was a little prima donna."

"You danced?" he asked her.

"I did," she confirmed with a nod. "I danced until I was about twelve and then…well…we moved. I never kept it up when we settled back down."

"I…I think I danced…" he said to her and she saw his brows furrow, almost as though he was trying to remember something. Placing the vial of blood to the side, Victoria remained knelt on the floor in front of him, holding a tissue against the needle prick in his skin as his gaze continued flickering around, almost as though he was trying his best to think of a memory. "I remember music," he said to her, "and…dancing…"

"I bet you were a good dancer," Victoria said to him, looking up to him. "You look like you'd be able to move well."

Nodding, he couldn't remember anything else. He couldn't think of what else he did. He said nothing further, chewing down on his tongue and almost causing it to bleed. He was doing everything he could to remember, but nothing was coming to him.

"Were you a good dancer?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "I was okay," she said to him. "I enjoyed dancing more than anything else. It was fun and I made some good friends and…I…I remember that my mum used to take me to lessons every Saturday morning while dad worked. She would watch me and I can just remember her smiling at me. We'd go and get lunch afterwards…always a strawberry milkshake with fries and nuggets. I know, not exactly nutritious, but it was a treat."

"Your mom," he continued. "What happened to her?"

"She…she died," Victoria said to him, but she knew there was something more to it. And she would find out one day. She would get the truth. "She was leaving my dad and she died in a car crash. I was ten…after she died, dad hired this nanny to look after me until I was older."

"You…you loved her, didn't you?"

"Of course," Victoria said and she moved to pull the locket off from around her neck. She opened it up and showed it to him, holding it open in his direction. He peered down on the image, looking at the young woman with the little girl in her grip. "That was her."

"You…you look like her," he said.

"Well, I take that as a compliment," Victoria said, trying to move the tone back to being lighter. Closing the locket, she placed it back around her neck, letting it dangle down onto her top, the silver of it contrasting with her black top. "Anyway, I should leave you to rest," she said to him.

"I…I don't need to rest," he said with a shake of his head. "I've spent months resting."

"Then…what do you want?" she asked from him.

"I don't know," he responded to her with a shake of his head.

He saw her cross her legs underneath her body then, almost as though she was making herself comfortable on the cold, concrete floor. She folded her hands into her lap, tugging her skirt down her thighs before she let her fingers settle. "So…after I gave up on being a ballerina, guess what else I wanted to be?"

"What?" he asked her.

"I wanted to play the piano," she said to him and continued talking about all of the lessons she had had. He knew what she was doing. She was humouring him. She wasn't leaving him alone with his own thoughts. He continued watching, noticing that there was something different about her, except for the purple bruise on her cheek that had no doubt come from her father. But what struck him was that she looked exactly like that woman in her picture. And he had seen that woman before. He knew that he had.

…

"I need you to meet us back at the airport."

Victoria had dozed off, sleeping on the sofa in Sharon's living area. She had tried to stay awake, helping herself to another couple of shots of whiskey before sitting on the sofa and lying back, eyes moving to the ceiling. That was where Bucky found her. He had almost been hesitant to wake her up, watching her sleep peacefully for a few moments. But he had to wake her. And so he spoke loudly, pretending he had just come into the room and not noticed that she was sleeping.

She startled, her eyes opening and she groggily turned her gaze to the side. Looking over to him, she propped herself up on her elbows, hair falling behind her shoulders.

"Sorry," Bucky said, "didn't know you were sleeping."

"I wasn't…well…not really," she mumbled and moved to sit up, her limbs aching as she stretched, pushing her hands above her head. "What's going on?"

"We've had a hit on Nagel," he informed her. "We're heading over to find him and then to the airport. I need you to meet us at Zemo's jet."

"Zemo has his own jet?"

"Turns out that he's practically royalty," Bucky said to her.

"Of course he is," she mumbled her response to him. "Fine."

He looked sceptical. "No arguments?" he asked from her.

She shrugged and finished stretching. Moving to stand up, she shivered, feeling the cold. She grabbed her jacket from the end of the sofa and shrugged into it. "Is there any point in arguing with you? You're just going to insist on not letting me out of your sights," she said to him. "Besides, you might have a point…you know…about sticking together."

"Are you admitting that I'm right?"

"No, I'm saying that you might have a point," she reiterated. "So, fine, I'll head to the airport."

"Sharon has a car waiting for you," Bucky said to her and moved into the waistband of his jeans, pulling the gun out. "Hopefully, you won't need this, but considering you know how to shoot…" he trailed off and handed her the gun. He watched her toss it from one hand to another, checking the safety lock was on like an expert before picking her bag up and placing it in there.

"Thanks," Victoria nodded to him. "Are you going to be okay finding Nagel?"

"We'll be fine," Bucky said to her. "Come on, we need to get out of here before they leave without me."

Victoria nodded and followed him out, slipping into her brogues quickly after she had kicked them off. She wrapped her coat around her, fastening the belt of it and draping her bag over her shoulder. Sharon, Sam and Zemo were already stood by one car. Looking over to Victoria, Sharon stepped forwards.

"The Power Broker is keeping an eye out for Alistair," she said to the other woman.

"Okay."

"He'll deal with him if he shows his face in Madripoor," Sharon confirmed for her. "But I don't know if he would be that stupid."

"I appreciate the thought," Victoria assured Sharon and the woman nodded. "And thanks for looking into him."

"Pleasure," Sharon said and looked between the three men. "Come on, we should go before bounty hunters find out where you're heading."

"Bounty hunters?" Victoria questioned.

"We got into some trouble earlier," Bucky said to her. "Don't worry about it…just…head out to the airport."

"My butler, Oeznik, will be waiting at the plane. He knows that you will be arriving."

"You have a butler?"

"He has a jet, why is having a butler so surprising?" Bucky asked from her.

"Good point," Victoria said and she felt him move a hand behind her. He didn't touch the small of her back. Instead, he simply just let it hover over her, guiding her to the other car. Before she could reach for the handle, he was leaning around her. He pulled the back door open himself and Victoria looked to him. "I can get doors, Bucky," she said.

"Chivalry isn't dead," was all he gave her.

"Be careful, okay?" she asked from him. "I mean it…bounty hunters are dangerous, Bucky."

"We'll be fine," Bucky promised her. "Now will you please go to the airport and stop worrying about me?"

Victoria chuckled. "I've spent the past eighteen years worrying about you," she said to him. "It'll be hard to get me to stop now."

He nodded once and moved a hand forwards, quickly brushing her hair behind her ear. "I get that," he promised her. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay," she said and finally climbed into the car.

Bucky shut the door and went to the other vehicle, slipping into the back seat besides Sam who turned to look to him. "You good?"

"Yeah," he offered in a low breath, his mind still focused on the girl in the other car.

….

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone reading - do let me know what you think, love reading your comments!