Chapter 14

[Emily's POV]

"That good for nothing, little son of a..." I growled under my breath as I stomped out of the gym. I headed out of the complex and went straight towards the garage, where we kept most of our heavy duty cars. I ducked in between the SUV and the Jeep and curled up in the fetal position, resting my head on my knees. "Why does he always have to get on my nerves?"

"Something the matter?" a voice interrupted. I squeaked and jumped, turning to see who it was. I relaxed when I saw a tall, lithe man wearing a typical mechanic's outfit. "Whoops! Sorry to disturb you."

"No, it's alright," I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. "Guess I should've been smarter in picking my hiding spot." The man took a few hesitant steps forward and asked tentatively, "If you don't mind me asking, who are you hiding from?"

"Bucky Barnes," I grumbled, shaking my head. "We got into an argument a few weeks ago. Now, he refuses to talk to me, and every time he actually does, we end up fighting." I leaned back, resting my head on the giant Jeep's tire. "Right now I could disappear and he wouldn't notice."

"Sounds rough," the mechanic commented, coming a little bit closer. "But thankfully, it works along with my schedule."

"Your what...?" I asked, turning towards him with a confused expression. The man suddenly lunged towards me, and I didn't have enough time to call on my claws. Something pricked my neck and I immediately started seeing stars. I shoved him off of me and gasped, my throat suddenly dry. "What did you give?"

"Zolpidem," the mechanic coughed nonchalantly. "More commonly known as a knock-out drug."

"T-These things take up to ten minutes to affect a normal human being," I gasped, resting my forehead against the floor. My eyelids began to flutter and a yawn escaped from within me. "H-How come it's faster on me?"

"I had a couple of friends in the med lab whip me up one that would take down an elephant," the mechanic chuckled. "Even with your fast metabolism, you should be out in another ten seconds." He leaned over towards my ear and whispered one thing before I blacked out.

"Hail Hydra."

:/:\:

[Bucky's POV]

"Emily!" I called out, racing out of the gym. I searched everywhere in the compound, but she was nowhere to be seen. As I was coming back towards the little kitchenette, I bumped into Steve. "Steve! I'm glad I found you. Have you seen Emily anywhere?"

Steve shook his head sadly. "I know her and Clint were training late."

"I screwed up pretty bad," I moaned, running my fingers through my hair. "I pissed her off and now I'm trying to find her so I can apologize, but she's nowhere to be seen."

"Don't worry, you'll find her eventually," Steve chuckled, a humorous glimmer in his eyes. I looked at him with confusion. Steve rolled his eyes and leaned up against the wall. "You know, you two have that same nervous twitch."

"What?"

"You both run your fingers through your hair," Steve stated again, gesturing towards me. "I've noticed it for a while and thought it was adorable. She's a really lucky dame."

"Dame? Wait...what? No, no, no...Emily and I aren't...we...you're mistaken," I stammered out, shaking my head. "Emily and I aren't together."

"Well, if you stay that way for another three months, then Natasha will win our little bet, and we can't have that happening," Steve said, glancing at a nearby calendar. "So I suggest you pick up the pace if you want your best bud to win fifty bucks." With that, Steve turned around and sauntered down the hall, leaving me spluttering.

:/:\:

[Clint's POV]

I yawned and checked my watch. Nearly midnight, and Emily still wasn't in her room. I shifted my position on the beanbag in her corner and folded my arms again, focusing on the door. Bucky, who was worried about Emily too, was lounging on her bed, staring at the door with intense focus.

"She can't teleport."

Bucky glanced at me in annoyance.

"Emily can't teleport. Not one of the adapted powers she got," I continued, yawning. "So, if you want her to come through that door, then you'll need to get up and actually look yourself."

"I have," Bucky fired back. "Twice. She's not in the compound." Bucky pulled himself to a sitting position and whispered softly, "What if she ran away?"

"Don't be ridiculous," I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Listen, Bucky, just because there's some beef between you and her, that wouldn't be enough to make her run away from the one thing keeping her sane." Bucky raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Out of all the Avengers, who is the one person she keeps on coming to when she needs advice or a friend?"

"Me," he whispered, staring down at his chest.

"Yep," I affirmed, shivering slightly. "Bucky, to her you are one of her closest friends. I would say best friend but I don't know how Emily gauges between a close friend and a best friend." Bucky chuckled at my statement and a small smile formed on my face. "So, she wouldn't purposefully run off."

Purposefully.

I threw myself to my feet and raced out of the bedroom, heading immediately straight towards Steve's room. I heard Bucky calling out from behind me, but I ignored him and shoved open Steve's door. The super soldier shot up in his bed, his hand instinctively lying on the shield that stood by his side.

"Clint? What the heck? It's midnight," Steve grumbled, using his hands to rub his eyes.

"I know why Emily hasn't shown up yet," I told Steve. He opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted, yelling, "Listen to me, Rogers! Emily didn't run off or just hasn't come back yet. She was kidnapped."

:/:\:

[Emily's POV]

When I came to, I was strapped in a chair. A bright light shone on my face and I averted my eyes to prevent myself from going blind. A gruff laugh came from a nearby person and I turned to see who it was. However, the light caused the darkness to be darker, so I couldn't see through the shadows.

"Where are you?" I yelled. "Where am I?" I tried to jerk in my chair, and was horrified to find out that I couldn't use my muscles. "W-What happened to me?"

"Have you ever heard of curare?" the gruff voice asked, chuckling slightly.

"I liked history and English, wise guy, not science, so why don't you fill me in?" I spat sarcastically.

"Told you this one had a mouth," a familiar voice remarked. I tensed up as the mechanic from the compound stepped into the light. "Hello! Remember me?"

"How could I forget? You drugged me in my home," I replied, rolling my eyes. "Dude, ever heard of creativity?"

"The name's Norbert, and the answer is no," the mechanic replied cheerfully. "Now, my dear, as my partner was trying to say, curare is a type of drug that paralyzes all voluntary functions. This is why you can't feel your arms or legs. Anything from the neck down, really."

"Bad move not paralyze my mouth," I commented. "I can get very annoying."

"I'm sure your boyfriend agrees with you," Norbert stated smoothly, moving to the other side of the circle. "I wonder what he'll think when he finds you're missing. 'Hallelujah'? 'Was she kidnapped?'? Or, my personal favorite, 'did she run away because she was angry at me'?"

"Just tell me why you decided to kidnap me, an Avenger-in-training," I spat, and the gruff person stepped forward. He obviously was the muscle of the duo. He had a large, thick face with a long red beard and no hair on his head. He worse a plain red t-shirt and a black mountain vest with jeans and steel-toed boots. "You must give me the number of your stylist. Those clothes make me want to die."

"There's a certain person who we want back," the man in red said. "Someone who could prove useful to our plan."

"The Winter Soldier?" I put in, and Norbert looked at me with amusement in his eyes. "I hate to break it to you, but even I haven't met the guy yet. He's been totally MIA since I came into the whole Avengers life."

"Maybe, maybe not," Norbert said, tapping me on the nose. I growled and he took a step back. "That's what you think."

"She seriously doesn't know he's the Asset?" the man in red snorted, folding his arms across his burly chest. "She's been with the X-Men for what, three years?"

"Two," I corrected, but he ignored me.

"My dear, trust me when I say this: The Winter Soldier will come. He will come for you. He will always come for you. And when he does, we will be waiting." Norbert snapped his fingers and the man in red disappeared back into the shadows. "Now, my dear, we can't have you struggling around for another couple of hours, so down under you go again." The man in red returned with a syringe and my eyes widened with fear.

"N-No, please, don't put me under again," I begged, tears forming in my eyes. "Please, I beg of you." I let out a scream slash sob as the man in red injected me with a needle, and I fell unconscious in a few seconds.

A/N: Hey my fellow fangirls and fanboys. So, with the curare and the zolpidem drugs, they are ACTUAL real life drugs. Curare is usually used for as a muscle relaxant during surgery and zolpidem is usually used for treating insomnia. Now, keep in mind I am not a criminology professor, so I have no clue if these drugs could actually be used for the purposes mentioned in story. If so, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

I would like to give a shout out to FanGirlForever19 for giving me the idea of Emily's kidnapping and Bucky being to blame (kind-of).

Now, y'all remember the rules: review if you have any comments, questions, concerns, conspiracy theories, etc. :) Enjoy!