Amelia's eyes widened as they pulled up to the airbase on the outskirts of Paris. Climbing from the car Helmut had been driving, she looked at it and placed her hand against her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun. She knew that Helmut had a private jet, but a part of her was now concerned as she looked at it. Helmut observed her as he went to the trunk, popping it up and grabbing her case from the back of it alongside his own.
"What is it?" Helmut asked as he saw her look back to him.
She shrugged. "Nothing," she said. "Just…I guess…it's a bit small, isn't it? Are you sure it can handle turbulence? I mean, I'm just a bit apprehensive about going on something smaller than a normal sized plane."
Helmut chuckled and shook his head. Her logic never ceased to confuse him. He found it to be quite entertaining. She went to take her suitcase from him, wheeling it along her side as a man descended from the steps of the jet. Amelia looked to him as Helmut threw his arms out wide at the sight of him, a smile taking hold of his face. He moved to embrace him warmly as Amelia stepped back, listening to him greet him in Sokovian and then kiss both of his cheeks, squeezing his shoulders and stepping back.
"Oeznik," Helmut spoke. "This is my friend, Amelia Baker. She was Lukas's fiancée. Amelia, this Oeznik, an old family friend."
"And also his butler," Oeznik added on and Amelia couldn't help but think that he had a kind face, just like an elderly uncle. He was balding on the top of his head, his white hair receding. He had a wide smile and glimmering eyes. He stepped closer towards Amelia and offered her his hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you Ms Baker."
"Likewise," Amelia said, shaking his hand and then moving to adjust the strap of her bag on her shoulder as she looked up to the jet once more. "So you flew all the way out here to meet us?"
"I came from Berlin where the plane was being kept," he informed her.
"Do you live in Berlin?"
"No, Miss," he responded. "I live in Munich, but as soon as I got the call to come and meet you here with the jet, I left."
"Oeznik has always been a good friend," Helmut informed Amelia and she nodded her head at hearing him.
"Thank you, sir, it's kind of you to say," Oeznik said.
"It's the truth," Helmut said. "Now, shall we get going? I believe we have quite the journey to Ohio."
He nodded his head, agreeing with him on that point. Oeznik took his bags from him and went to collect Amelia's as Helmut climbed up the steps and noted her fretting around the butler, insisting that she was fine to carry her own luggage. Helmut chuckled at her insistence as she struggled to pick the case up and he knew his own butler would struggle too. Moving back down the steps, he took it from Amelia without saying anything, simply throwing her a sly smirk before moving up and into the jet.
Amelia chased after him as Oeznik came up last. "I could have done that…holy shit," she trailed off, losing her train of thought as she looked around the jet and drank in what she was seeing. The carpet was a plush beige and the seats were cream leather, looking comfier than anything she had sat on while flying.
There were two screens at the front and behind a wooden panel at the back there was a door that was open, leading onto a bar that was no doubt stocked with the most expensive alcohols. A sofa was behind one of the four chairs that faced each other.
Helmut took a seat on the chair in front of the couch and Amelia simply stood in the doorway of the cabin. He watched her as he saw her drink it all in and he couldn't help but be amused.
"Amelia, I believe you're in the way," Helmut commented and she turned her head over her shoulder to see Oeznik waiting politely to get past her.
"Oh, sorry," she said to the older man and she moved off to the side, standing in between two chairs and ducking with the curve of the plane.
"No apologies needed, miss," Oeznik assured her. "Allow me to store your luggage safely and we will be on our way."
"Do you need a hand?" Amelia questioned. "I can help you put that-"
"-It is fine, miss," Oeznik promised her, wheeling her suitcase towards the back of the plane and down the galley with the bar and the toilet across from it.
"Sit down, Amelia, you are making the place look untidy," Helmut informed her and she shot him a glare as he continued to smirk. She took the seat across from him and glanced down and onto the runway as Oeznik finished storing the luggage securely.
She pushed her bag underneath her seat, content that it would be fine there. That was what she usually did on airlines anyway. It was another moment before she tossed one leg over the other and Helmut reached for his seat belt.
"Oeznik," Helmut spoke as soon as he saw his friend. "I believe we are ready to depart when we get the all clear."
"Of course, sir," Oeznik said when he returned, shutting the door to the small galley and adjusting his tie against his white shirt and Amelia wondered just what it was he did. It didn't seem as though he worked for Helmut, not really. That much was true considering Amelia had been living with him for months now and Helmut had never even mentioned paying for a butler.
Amelia turned around in her seat, watching Oeznik close the door to the plane and then she looked to back to Helmut. "Is he qualified in doing that?"
"What? Closing the door?" Helmut wondered.
"I imagine there is a right way to do it, isn't there? I mean, cabin crew do it on an aircraft, but is he also...like...trained in that as well as being your butler?"
"Oeznik has been in charge of this aircraft numerous times before, Amelia. He knows what he is doing."
She saw Oeznik move through the door into the cockpit and her head whipped back around to look to Helmut. "Is he flying the plane too?" she asked and Helmut couldn't stop himself from laughing. Shaking his head, he leaned back in his chair and continued watching her with a smile on his face.
"No, Amelia, I do pay trained pilots to fly the plane, but I have no doubt Oeznik would make a fine pilot too," he told her and she nodded her head as he continued to observe her. "I never knew you would be such a nervous flier. You've been fine when we've flown before."
"It's being on something so small," she said to him and glanced out the window. "Makes me feel like it's not…as safe," she commented and looked back out onto the runway as she heard the engines roar into life and she suspected that they would be going soon enough. It was only as the plane moved when she realised where she was sat.
"I can't travel backwards," she said to Helmut. "I feel sick sitting backwards on a train, never mind taking off on a plane."
"Then I would suggest quickly moving before we actually take off," Helmut told her and she did as he suggested, jumping up quickly and moving to grab the other seat next to Helmut so that she was facing forwards.
She pulled the seatbelt over her lap and buckled it up as the plane continued to taxi along the runway and she looked out of the window. Helmut did the same, but he found that his gaze kept on straying over to the girl with the nervous expression on her face. She was drumming her fingers against the arm of the chair as they finally gained speed and hurtled down the runway. The plane finally left the ground and moved up through the air, everything growing smaller beneath them until they hit cloud and couldn't see anything again.
"See? Perfectly safe," Helmut told her over the noise of the engine and she glanced across to him but said nothing for a moment. Looking out the window once more, she called across to him.
"I'll wait until we're safely back on the ground. Don't want to jinx it," she commented and Helmut couldn't even stop smirking at hearing her. He was finding her to be quite endearing. he didn't know if he would ever stop feeling that way, but there was something about her that he found enchanting.
"Champagne, sir?"
Oeznik was back out when the plane levelled, two glasses in his hands. Helmut nodded, thanking him in Sokovian before he handed a glass to Amelia. She thanked him and took a sip of the liquid, letting it sit on her tongue for a moment and savouring it before she swallowed it down. She held the stem of the glass and folded one leg over the other before turning to give Helmut her attention.
"So…what's the deal with Oeznik?" Amelia questioned him.
"What do you mean?" he asked, taking a sip of the champagne before resting the base of it on his thigh and looking across to her.
"Well, you haven't needed a butler for a while, have you? Unless you've been sneaking him into my apartment to clean your room without me knowing?" she questioned and Helmut laughed once more.
"No, I haven't, although that might not be a bad idea," he said, teasing her back. "But no, I have not needed Oeznik ever since we left Sokovia."
"But he comes here now? Like he's still at your beck and call?"
"I don't see it that way. I see him as a friend. He has been in our family's employment since he himself was a young man. My grandfather hired him and we never had the heart to let him go and he said that he enjoyed working for us," Helmut told her. "But, when the events in Sokovia happened, I told him that I did not think that he would need to stay by my side."
"So he went to Munich?" Amelia continued asking him questions.
"He has a wife," Helmut told her. "Her name is Angela and they met when he was in his thirties. They never had children…Angela…there were complications," he said, not going into detail. "When Sokovia was destroyed, I told him to go with Angela back to Munich. She had lived there before moving to Sokovia and she has family…sisters with children. I wanted them to go and be with their family and so I gave him enough money to keep them comfortable…ensure he doesn't have to work again."
Amelia nodded her head. She bit down on the inside of her cheek and tilted her head to the side, one shoulder lifting up. "That's really sweet of you, Helmut," she told him. And it was. He wanted Oeznik to be happy and he had done everything he could to ensure he had that happiness.
"I just did what anyone would have done."
"I don't know about that," she said to him. "But it was still nice of you."
"Well, that has been known to happen," he said.
Amelia said nothing back to him, moving to her feet after a moment and handing him her champagne glass to hold while she went to use the bathroom. She moved down the galley, observing the bottles of spirits sat there before turning the corner into the small bathroom. It was nicer than your average plane's bathroom, of course. There was a small marble counter with a sink in it and Amelia's eyes widened when she saw the small gap behind it. There was even a shower. She peeked into it and knew she would make use of that.
She freshened up, splashing her face with cold water, before she left the bathroom and took her seat once again next to him, holding onto the glass of champagne and downing it in one.
"It is quite the flight to Ohio," he informed her. "I believe it might be almost nine hours until we arrive."
"And when we get there?" Amelia wondered.
"I have a hotel booked for us where we can rest for a few nights. Karpov…we go to him and find a way into his house. Hopefully he will prove to be useful and give us what we need."
"And if he doesn't?"
"We will cross that bridge if it comes to it," Helmut promised her and she nodded her head. "But I have everything under control for finding Karpov. Do not worry."
"You know, funnily enough, I tend not to worry when it comes to you and your plans," Amelia confessed and Helmut didn't know if that made her too trusting or him too happy that she relied on him to do the right thing.
He watched her pull out her book and flip open to the page that she had folded down. She moved so that her legs were underneath her body, her long flowing skirt cascading down the chair. She rested an elbow on the arm and dropped her head onto the back of the chair, gazed focused on the words in front of her. Helmut placed his own champagne glass down into the cup holder in the chair and picked out his laptop, opening it up and resting it on his lap as he looked over the HYDRA notes and the day's news.
They were silent for the next hour as Helmut looked into the Avengers, seeing that there was something called the Sokovia Accords being drafted that would take away power from them. It would stop them from going into conflicts without being told that they could go in. He wondered if they were all in agreement over the Accords, suspecting that there might be some hesitation, particularly from those who were not used to sitting back when suffering was going on. He couldn't know for certain, but what he did know was that the news was worth keeping up to date with.
"She's a lovely girl, sir."
The sun had begun to set and Helmut had hardly noticed that Amelia had drifted to sleep in the chair next to him. She was still curled in a ball, her legs tucked underneath her and her book having tumbled to the floor. Helmut hadn't even heard her drop it. Her head was hanging to the side, her neck stretched and he couldn't help but think that must be uncomfortable for her. He looked up to his butler who was glancing down to him, taking the empty glasses away.
"She's…she is," Helmut said with a nod of his head.
"How long have you been with her?" Oeznik questioned.
Helmut shook his head then. "It's not like that," he promised his old friend. "We're just friends."
"I see," Oeznik said to him and Helmut arched a brow.
"You see?" Helmut wondered. "What are you implying, Oeznik?"
"I do not wish to speak out of turn, sir."
"As my old friend, I do not mind," he told him and Oeznik nodded, moving to perch on the chair across from him, holding the two empty glasses in his one hand. "Go ahead."
"You've hardly stopped smiling when you were talking to her," Oeznik observed. "Plus, I imagine that this is the woman who you have been spending so much time with?"
"She is."
"And she…she seems like a kind, young woman," Oeznik said and Helmut nodded.
"She is," he agreed with him on that point. How could he not agree with him? He knew all of this about Amelia, but it did not mean that he had deeper feelings for her. Or did it? There were days when he had no idea what it was he felt for the young woman he travelled with.
"I just want you to be happy, sir," Oeznik simply said. "I don't know why you are going to Ohio and it is not my place to ask…but she…if she makes you happy then just permit yourself to be happy. I suspect you both deserve it after everything that has happened."
Helmut nodded, saying nothing more and Oeznik knew when Helmut had finished with a conversation. He stood up and moved to the front of the plane one more, no doubt busying himself with something going on there. Looking to Amelia, Helmut wasn't entirely convinced that he did deserve happiness after what he had planned.
…
Amelia had to admit that she was feeling particularly jet-lagged after they touched down in Cleveland. They had gone to the hotel, Oeznik staying with the plane and sending them ahead. Helmut told him that he would return in a few day's time. He wanted to go through with his plan to find Karpov as soon as possible and waste no time. He knew what he had to do if things didn't go as he had hoped. He would have to come up with another plan and he knew what that plan would involve.
It would involve using the Winter Soldier himself and programming him to tell him what exactly happened on December 16, 1991 and then finding evidence himself. The issue he had was that he needed to bring the Winter Soldier out of hiding if he was going to do that. He knew from his time in EKO that there were ways to bring people out of hiding. He needed people looking for him. He needed people convinced that the Winter Soldier was their neighbour. He could flush him out of hiding and then he would get to him.
But to flush him out of hiding would require an event on a global scale and he knew that was when he had to leave Amelia. He couldn't let her keep going with him because he knew that she would try and stop him. She wouldn't agree with his methods. He was prepared to do anything to have vengeance, but Amelia still had boundaries. She had things that she was not prepared to do.
He didn't want it to come to that. He wanted Karpov to be cooperative and that would mean that he could get out. He could destroy the Avengers and not push Amelia away from him because, as much as he told himself he was doing what he had to do, it still hurt for him to know that Amelia would never look at him in the same way again.
"This could be quite the crash," Helmut warned her as they drove down the quiet suburban street and Helmut sat behind the wheel. "You have your seatbelt on, yes?"
"Yeah," Amelia replied.
"Then we're ready."
Amelia gripped onto the side of the door as Helmut sped up, only a bit, and the car jumped up the curb. Amelia's stomach lurched despite the fact she knew she was safe as Helmut smashed the car against the one parked in the driveway. Amelia felt the impact, lurching forwards as Helmut moved quickly. Looking to her as he opened the door to his car, he nodded his head.
"Alright?" he asked from her.
"Let's do this," she said and climbed out the other side.
She stumbled on her feet, despite knowing that the crash was coming. Moving around the car by Helmut's side, she saw him move his hands into his hair, acting distressed as he looked at how the front of the car was slightly dented. Looking to the house, he saw the blinds twitch and he knew that Karpov was in there.
"Let's go," Helmut said.
Amelia nodded and followed him up the path, letting him take the lead as he came to the door.
"Hello?" he asked, putting on a fake American accent that Amelia would have laughed at if the timing had been less intense. "Is this your car out front? I think I jumped the curb? Maybe we could take care of it ourselves…but if you want to call the cops then that's okay too, I guess?"
"No, no cops," the man responded with a heavy Russian accent.
"Alright…thank you," Helmut responded.
The door began to creak, the noise of a bolt being removed. As soon as the wood was open, Helmut lashed out at the man, punching him squarely across the face and knocking him out swiftly. He fell to the floor and Helmut stepped into the house over his unconscious body, Amelia following him. He locked the door once more as Amelia looked around the room.
"This place is dreary," she commented and Helmut wasn't going to disagree on that.
There were papers and books scattered everywhere, the furniture was old and tattered. It had a damp smell to it and the curtains and blinds looked like they hadn't been opened in years. Amelia noted a half-eaten meal on a small table for one as Helmut looked around the space.
"You go and explore," he said to Amelia. "I'll restrain our friend here in case he wakes up."
"Got it," Amelia said to him with a nod. "But if you were going to hide top secret HYDRA files, wouldn't you put them somewhere safe?"
"Like in a locked cabinet or something?" Helmut questioned and he grabbed Karpov by the wrists and dragged him further into the room.
"Ooh…a basement," Amelia said as she pushed open a door just by the kitchen. "I would hide things in a basement. They're creepy, aren't they?"
She moved down the steps and Helmut agreed with her on that one. She came to the bottom and looked around. There was a table, again covered in papers and photographs that were quite clearly from his time in HYDRA. But she frowned, realising that these were out in the open. He clearly was proud of the work he had done for HYDRA and she wrinkled her nose at the thought. She heard Helmut dragging the man down the steps and she set about opening the drawers to the sideboard against the wall, tugging on them as she heard Helmut grunting in the background.
"Do you need a hand?" she asked him.
"I've got him down the stairs…tied above a sink…and you're now asking if I need a hand?"
"Good point," she confessed. "You've got it all under control…there's nothing in here about the Winter Soldier program or the Starks."
"Allow me," Helmut said and he began to help her look through the stacks of paper around the basement, Karpov completely unconscious. He was struggling to find anything and it was then when spotted something against the wall.
"Does that look like it belongs there?" Helmut wondered from her.
"Hm?" she questioned, looking at where he was pointing. There was wood against one of the walls, spanning the length of it. She frowned as she moved her finger against it and noted the rest of the wall was brick. Knocking on it, a hollow noise echoed through the room. "I'm going to say no," she said to him.
"Excuse me," Helmut said and she stepped out the way when she saw him pick up a sledge hammer and move towards it. She took steps back as he hit at the wall, the wood crumbling away with each blow.
He tossed it down to the ground when he had made enough of a gap and could reach in, looking at more papers and books resting in a box on a shelf in front of him. He grabbed the box and carried it out of the hole and towards the table, dropping it down and emptying it. Amelia stood next to him and looked at the folders as she picked one up and looked at the large photograph in front of her.
"That's him," she said.
"He warned me about you two."
Amelia and Helmut turned to look at the colonel who was tied up, dangling over a sink with running water flowing into it. Amelia intended on turning the tap off as soon as they had what they wanted, but a part of her knew that his death wouldn't bother her. She had killed HYDRA operatives before and felt no remorse. She didn't see why she should when they would kill so many people just to get what they wanted.
"Who?" Amelia questioned as Helmut flicked through the folder on the colonel.
"Edgington," he said. "He told me that someone had pretended to be Sophie's niece…but that he was going to take care of it. He wondered if I knew anything about you."
"Well, thankfully you know nothing about us," Amelia retorted to him. "And we don't really want to know anything about you either."
"Although I can say that you have kept your looks, colonel," Helmut added on, still looking at the folder as Amelia glanced down to it alongside him and shrugged her shoulders.
"I'd disagree," she mumbled and Helmut's lips arched at her comment.
"But my associate here is correct. We want one thing only. Mission Report. December 16, 1991," Helmut said to him.
"Who are you?" Karpov asked, clearly trying to find his way out of the ropes that bound him over the sink.
"My name is Zemo," he responded, not giving Amelia's name to the man. "And I will repeat my question. Mission Report. December 16, 1991."
Karpov shook his head slowly, the water now inching its way up his chest. He wasn't answering their question and Amelia knew that he was hiding something big. "How did you find me?" he decided to ask instead.
"When S.H.I.E.L.D. fell Black Widow released HYDRA files to the public…millions of pages that were not easy to decipher because they were encrypted, but I have experience and patience and a man can do anything if he has those."
"What do you want?" Karpov pressed them.
Amelia knew Helmut was getting frustrated with the colonel. She could hear it in his tone when he spoke, his voice low and gravelly. "Mission Report. December 16, 1991," he repeated.
"Go to hell," Karpov spat out and Amelia looked to Helmut as he dropped the file he had been holding and moved over to the sink. He turned the tap off and Amelia watched him rest his hands on the edge of the sink. She hesitantly followed him, keeping a few paces away as he bent over and spoke in a deadly whisper.
"HYDRA deserves it place on the ash heap so your death will not bother me, but I will have to use other bloodier methods to find what I need and I don't look forward to that. You would only be dying for your pride."
Amelia chewed on the bottom of her lip as Karpov remained silent and Helmut turned the tap on once more. She moved closer towards them then, standing over Helmut's shoulder and wondering if she could do anything to get the information they needed.
"We just want to know what happened on that night," she told Karpov. "HYDRA is dead…it's not coming back and you know that because you live in this place in hiding. Do you really want to die for an organisation that doesn't exist anymore…that has no chance of coming back? And, more importantly, is just…horrible." It was the only word she could think of to use for it.
But he kept quiet. He was stubborn and he was clearly willing to die for HYDRA. Amelia rolled her eyes and turned away as Helmut watched the water cover the man's face slowly, but he managed his final words.
"Hail HYDRA," he said and then he began drowning.
Amelia could hear him straining against the ropes as he tried to fight his way out, but he didn't make any progress. Sighing, she tossed a hand through her hair and went back to the papers.
"So what now?" Amelia asked from Helmut and he looked to her. "He didn't give us anything."
"We take these back to the hotel and see what we can find," he said to her and she nodded her agreement with him. But he didn't want to tell her that he already had a plan.
They gathered up the documents and carried them through the house in the box, leaving Karpov where he was. Amelia wondered just how much pain he had inflicted on people in the past and she felt no remorse for his death. They got back into the crashed rental car and Helmut was thankful that it still drove considering he had smashed into Karpov's car with it.
They were silent as they drove away from the house, but Amelia looked to him as he kept both hands on the wheel. "What did you mean? When you told him that you'd have to use even bloodier methods to get what you want?"
"I was just trying to get him to talk," Helmut lied to her and he knew that she was observing him intently. He could feel her looking at him and he hoped that she didn't suspect anything else from him. It was another moment before she looked back out of the window, content with his answer.
His grip on the wheel increased because he knew what he was going to do and he knew that meant leaving Amelia behind, no matter how much it hurt him to do that.
...
A/N: HERE WE GO! We're into the film and things are going to get much more intense. The next chapter should be with you soon but in the meantime do tell me what you're thinking!