When Nina was fourteen years old, she sneaked out of her father's place. She went to her neighbor's house, down the street. They were having a party for their son's birthday. When her father realized she wasn't home after he'd grounded her for some stupid reason, she couldn't remember, he called the house and the kid's parents conformed she was there; he ordered Nina to go back.

That walk was all she could think of now, not the beating she got for disobeying; the shell fear of something as simple as going home, plus the unfairness of it all. She thought of that day as she walked home that morning. After she saw her car burn on her way out of the grocery store, a man dragged her to the alley and pined her to a wall, her head hit the concrete hard making the girl grunt in pain. Nina wasted no time, pushing her body back with her legs, taking a turn. The man lost his grip on her; he gave a few steps back and pulled a knife out of his back pocket. He was fast and big, Nina had to use both her arms to stop his blow when he ran forward, raising his arm to stab her. She pinned his arm easily enough then hit his face with her elbow, then his chest her knee. She smiled when she heard him lose his air to her blow, she would have one second, all she needed for a final blow. She took a turn to use her body weight to do a rotating kick to his face that knocked the man out.

The man wasn't Hydra, as it had been her initial thought, those were a little harder to knock out, or at least they had been the last time she faced them, this one was wearing a very distinguishable bulldog tattoo. She knew that was the symbol of the only gang around that area, who also had a number of very personal reasons to be pissed at her. She reached to her forehead, she was bleeding and she could feel the skin beneath her eye heating up it would be black and bruised soon, damn it, Bucky would be so angry. He'd react nothing like her father but she couldn't stop the fear his memory involuntarily brought her.

...

James was seated in the kitchen table in the same position he was earlier that day when Nina left, looking thru some files Gavin left him. Records of arrests for treason and other crimes following the events of DC. The number of arrested top Hydra officials seemed never ending, but no record of the man he was looking for. He thought that maybe he got away and retuned to Russia, that would make it nearly impossible to find him. Nina walked in closing the door behind her and pressing her back against it for a minute to make the courage to explain him what happened.

"Nina? Do you want help with the groceries?" James heard her the moment she walked in and notice she was taking a little bit longer to come in.

"No, I'm fine... Coming! Just, don't freak out, Ok? I need to talk to you about something." he looked up to her when she got to the kitchen her forehead had a large red gap near her hair line and some dry blood in her hair and a bruise turning black underneath her right eye he got up fast enough to knock the chair he was seated in down, she tried to hide her face looking down when he stood but he put his hand in her chin and made her look at him.

"What happened? Who did this?" He said, really trying not to sound too harsh. She didn't have the time to respond the doorbell ringed and he step in front of her pulling a knife from his paints and Nina wrapped her hand in his metal arm.

"Nina, it's me! Open it! I'm alone I promise!" Gavin's voice from outside the door made them let out a breath niter one of them knew they were holding.

"It's ok I called him. We'll need his help." Nina said walking to open the door, James followed to the living room to the living room.

"Did you talk to Bruce, yet?" Gavin said as soon as she opened the door

"No, I only talked to you, I don't know why they would do this now, Gav."

"Did they really burn your car?" Gavin said already pulling his notebook out.

"They burned your car?!" James yelled, surprising Gavin who never noticed he was there. "Nina what's happening" he asked her already losing the battle to his anger.

"I'm not sure." Nina finally answered. "The guys who did this... I didn't think they actually came after me, they're from some street gang, they steal cars sometimes. The owners of two of those cars contacted me to find then, but I... I never even let anyone know it was me doing it." she said typing Bruce's number and putting him on speaker.

"Nina! I heard a bulldog set fire to your car and got a broken nose on his way out. Is that the only way I can talk to you anymore." Bruce said sounding snarky.

"What the hell was that Bruce? Bulldogs just set people's cars on fire for fun, now." Nina said starting to freak out. This lest few weeks were turning more agitated than her nervous system could handle.

"No, they only do it if you snitch on their money laundry place and they lose all their money! There was a police operation last night, the police took about a million dollars the bulldogs were about to move out of the country, along with some stolen jewelry. The word is; it was stolen jewelry you were looking for now there's a price on your head, sweetie… Nina you have to leave the town, girl... fast." Bruce said more serious than Nina had ever heard him "I would have called earlier but I just heard about all this now, I'm sorry girl."

"That's ok, Bruce. I'll figure it out." James watched Nina hang up the phone and take a deep breath.

"We'll fix it Nina." Gavin said but her eyes went glossy, she blinked a few times then looked at Gavin.

"Gavin, can you look into the money laundry operation for me? Maybe see if you can find how they heard I had anything to do with that, I'll try to do that too..." she looked at James and gave him a weak smile. "I'll need a place to hide until I know how to fix this. You think you can help me with that?"

"My old place. It was safe enough from hydra, sure is safe enough for you." James had good reasons to not want to back in the old Hydra safe house. While he was hiding there; the nightmares that house brought him, alone, he would never want to be there with someone else, but in his mind keeping her safe from wherever this was sounded as important as completing Hydra's missions to perfection used to.

"Thank you. I'll go pick some things we might need, then we can go?"

"Sure, I'll drive... Your car burned." he realized mind sentence. "Maybe I should get us another car the place I was in... It's far from here."

"You can take mine. I'll get a taxi or something, just be safe, the two of you."

"Thank you, Gav, you always come thru for me." Nina walked to her room leaving the two men alone waiting for her. The look Gavin gave the girl as she moved away caught James' eyes and he fell back somewhere with a crowd of people. He remembered looking for someone, at the same time he was sure of where to find him.

"Are you really gonna do this again?"

"It's a fair, I'm going to try my luck."

"They will catch you, or worse they will really take you." He remembered fighting a little longer with the stubborn young man until someone called from a distance, he had to go and he knew that could be the last time he saw him "Just don't do anything stupid until I get back." He plead, more seriously then he let show.

"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you?" That little shit would never listen, he would never learn, but it down on him. This time he couldn't be there to take care of him like he'd always had and his heart shattered like glass.

"You're a punk, you know that?" He went back and hugged his friend hoping it wouldn't be the last time, just like he did his father before he went months ago when he was drifted.

"Jerk." And he did what was right, he walked away. "Don't win the war until I get there." the man said at last he turned midway to give a salute. There it was the same look he saw on Gavin, he knew how it felt.

"I promise, I'll keep her safe. Don't worry." Gavin's head went down almost immediately.

"This is all my fault" he mumbled to himself, so quietly James wouldn't have gotten if it wasn't for his enhanced hearing, he put his keys on the counter and walked to the door "Can you tell Nina I'll see what I can find and I'll stop by Mac's to see how he's doing, I... I'm not going to tell him anything I'll just check on him, okay. And James thank you, for looking out for her, she's my sister you know." He said before closing the door behind him.

"I'll take care of her." James promised the empty room.