Winter was silent, studying my face and I knew that he didn't recognize me. Months of gradually gaining his trust little by little, all gone because Captain Rogers had set off some spark of recognition inside of him. How in the hell could he possibly know Captain Rogers anyway? I realized that I was glowering at the burns on his forehead, and I forced my eyes to the ground instead.
I got up and shuffled over to the other side of the room to grab a bottle of water and some food that I had stuffed in my purse earlier. I sniffed loudly and wiped my eyes on the sleeve of my sweater.
I brought the food to him, a peanut butter and banana sandwich, a peach, and the water and I sat down heavily in the plastic chair at Winter's feet. Winter's eyes moved between me and the food. I could feel that my face was puffy from crying, but I didn't care anymore. It was safer to show what I felt in front of him than it was to in front of anyone else.
"What is this?" Winter asked, looking down at the sandwich suspiciously.
"It's got peanut butter and banana on it," I said hoarsely. I coughed to clear my throat. "You don't have to eat it."
I pressed my knuckles into my eyes and sighed.
"…They…need me for something…?" Winter mumbled after a few minutes of silence.
I swallowed and sat up. "…Yeah. I don't know what for – they didn't tell me."
I sat up and glanced at the clock on the wall. 4:57 am. I briefly thought of all the people being jarred awake by their alarm clocks across the city.
"They'll probably come soon," I said in a brittle voice. "Pierce, I mean."
"…He has new targets for me?" Winter asked gruffly.
I wrapped my arms around myself and I pulled my sweater tighter. "…Yes."
Voices bounced off the walls and my head snapped up to search for the source behind me. My wide eyes locked with Winter's when I turned back around and I felt my stomach drop. Tears pricked my eyes and I swallowed hard to stop myself from crying.
"Winter, I…" I whispered.
Winter narrowed his eyes. I wanted to say something, anything, else, but my throat wouldn't let any sound out. I just stared at him, my bottom lip trembling in fear. Winter's expression changed slightly; was it possibly recognition that crossed his face?
The cage door screeched open and I flinched involuntarily and I closed my eyes for a second.
"How is he, Doctor Martin?" I heard Pierce's voice ask.
My hands were shaking in rage again. "…He's calm, sir," I said in a honeyed voice.
"Excellent," Pierce said approvingly. "That will be all for now then, doctor.
I glanced between Winter's eyes one more time and I stood up. I walked out of the room, nodding at Pierce as I did.
Feeling sick to my stomach, I walked into my lab where I was relieved that there wasn't a bot for me to work on. Dr. Chambers was engrossed in working on a large gun of some kind, and he didn't look up at me when I entered. I sat down in a chair close to the lab windows and pulled my knees up to my chest and chewed on the skin of my fingers.
"Doctor Martin, do you know what I consider to be my greatest achievement?" Dr. Chambers barked loudly, startling me.
I stared at him, surprised. Was he drunk? Here?
"I must humbly admit that it was wiring the Winter Soldier with that safe word," he slurred, looking up at me and letting the tool he had been holding slip out of his hand and hit the ground with a clank,
"You – you did what?" I stammered in shock. "How?"
"Keaton was a brain surgeon," he said brightly. "You'd be surprised how much brains are like machines once you dig into them."
My back stiffened and I put my feet on the ground. What?
"What are you talking about, human brains aren't even comparable to a robot," I said quietly.
"They are though!" Chambers insisted. "He kept thrashing around and screaming though. Of course, I'm used to the bots doing that sort of thing, but he made a different sort of outburst entirely –"
"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents," a voice suddenly came over the intercom. "This is Captain Rogers speaking."
Dr. Chamber's face hardened and I perked up to listen to Captain Rogers.
"You've probably heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think that it's time you learned the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been taken over by HYDRA and Pierce is their leader. STRIKE and INSIGHT are HYDRA too and I don't know how many others. But I know they're in the building."
Dr. Chambers held my eye, a dangerous glint forming in them.
"They almost have what they want; absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If we launch those helicarriers, then HYDRA will be able to kill whoever they want unless we stop them. The price of freedom is high, it always has been, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet that I'm not."
Silence followed Captain Roger's speech and I felt myself start to panic. I didn't know about the helicarriers. I didn't know that they wanted to kill people. God have mercy…
Chambers was glaring at me, seeing how I was going to react. I was standing up now, facing him and trying to discreetly run my hand over the table to find something to defend myself with.
He moved to lunge at me, shouting hoarsely, and my hand found something hard on the table. I lashed out at him with it, a metal wrench, and I clocked him straight across the head with it. His face went blank and he crashed to the floor and I gasped and dropped the wrench.
"Shit!" I hissed, leaping over him and throwing the door open.
The glider. I skid to a halt and sprinted back into the lab. I turned the glider on and it unfolded and hovered a few feet in the air, waiting for commands.
"Follow me, defensive measures," I told it, glancing down at Dr Chambers unconscious on the floor.
I ran down the hall, the glider close behind me.
An alarm blared over the intercom saying "ALL AGENTS REPORT TO DESIGNATED SAFETY ZONES."
The elevator was down, so I had to take the stairs, four flights of them, and by the time I had made it up them I could hardly breathe. I heard gunfire on the other side of the stairwell door. After I caught my breath, I eased it open a sliver and peered through. Everything seemed clear for a moment, ignoring the distant gunfire and screams.
I slipped out and bolted for the nearest exit, but I ran right into a gunfight between who I assumed were SHIELD and HYDRA agents.
The glider shielded me and I cowered behind it.
The gunfire ceased suddenly, and I dared to open my eyes. Five agents lay on the ground, blood spurting out of their bullet-ridden bodies and I let out a strangled cry and covered my mouth with my hands. I fell backward into the alcove and my head swam.
Loud booming startled back to my senses and the ground shook under me. I felt something wet on my legs and I looked down to see that sticky crimson blood covered my pants. Panic spurred me into action and I sprinted, not going in a specific direction, desperate to escape this hell.
I passed a few agents, SHIELD or HYDRA, it didn't matter, and they shot at me. My left arm stung, but the glider had blocked most of the shots, so I just pushed myself to run faster as the glider knocked them off their feet and followed. I felt like a rabbit, desperate to escape a fire but the entire forest was in flames.
By some miracle I made it out of the building and onto the bridge and I saw the helicarriers were engulfed in gunfire and chaos like the buildings below. Winter was on one of those things. I glanced at the glider and pursed my lips. I hadn't built it with the intention of ever riding on it, though I had programmed it to obey me as well as Winter. I hesitated another moment before I stepped onto it.
The glider was controlled by subtle movements, leaning left and right, and I was pleased that it worked, as I had never tested it outside of the lab. The wind whipped my hair as I shot upward and I glanced back down at the ground far below me. I expected to feel afraid, but I didn't. I had to get to Winter.
"Scan for Winter," I told the glider and it beeped affirmatively.
I got the attention of some of the guns on the carriers, but the glider was small and fast and I bobbed and weaved to avoid getting shot with the help of the countermeasures programmed into it. I found the glider easier to control than I had expected.
The glider pinged and the HUD showed me that Winter was in the belly of one of the helicarriers, in the control room.
The glider plunged, avoiding fire, and I saw the control room was in a big glass dome under the carrier. I saw two figures fighting inside, Winter and Captain Rogers.
The glider smashed through the glass into the control room and I saw the two men battling, landing blows on each other that would have killed any normal person.
Winter jerked his head up and saw me. He leapt up to land on the glider behind me.
Winter urged the glider to the floor where I just caught a glimpse of a green chip before he snatched it up.
"Take this," he told me, tossing it into my hands. "I'll take him."
He jumped from the glider, knocking Captain Rogers down off the catwalk and onto the glass dome. Captain Rogers threw his shield at me and it embedded in the glider, causing it to stall and I was thrown off to skid across the floor of the dome.
Captain Rogers wrenched his shield out of the glider and Winter jumped onto it, knocking Rogers back away from me. Captain Rogers held onto the glider, grabbing Winter's leg and throwing him off. I glanced at the apparatus that held the guidance chips.
The glider dumped Captain Rogers off and flew back to me and it took me back up to the catwalk. Winter grabbed on to the glider and landed on the catwalk behind me.
"What are you doing?" He demanded as I typed on the screen to get the guidance chips out.
Winter realized what I was doing and moved to stop me, blocking Captain Roger's shield as it shot toward him.
"Stella, stop," Winter said dangerously and I whipped around to confront him.
"No," I said defensively. "We have to stop this-"
"This is my mission, don't get in my way."
"No," I said again, turning around to the open guidance system. "HYDRA deserves to burn, we-"
He picked me up around my waist and threw me but I was only in the air for a moment before the glider caught me. I had dropped the chip.
Captain Rogers had made it up to the catwalk and engaged Winter again as he scooped the chip up. Winter tackled him off of the catwalk and my heart went into my throat. This dangerous game of keep away was going nowhere. I had to do something. If I didn't it meant the death of thousands. My parents. Isabel. Captain Rogers. Me. Even Winter, in all likelihood.
Captain Rogers wasn't playing around anymore, he had managed to get Winter's arm pinned behind him and was yanking on it painfully.
"Drop it," he grunted and Winter tried to punch him.
He grimaced and I heard Winter's arm snap. I winced.
"Drop it," Rogers demanded and Winter tried to flip out of his grasp, but Captain Rogers put him into a headlock as he thrashed wildly.
Winter noticed the broken part of the dome where I had burst through at the same time I did and he threw the chip. Rogers cried out and let go of Winter and dove for it, but he was too late and it bounced off of the glass and fell into the open air.
I shot after it and glass rained down around me as I urged the glider on. The wind stung my eyes, but if I closed them I would lose sight of the chip.
I caught it, just in time to pull out of the dive before I hit the concrete and the glider roared as I sped back upward.
The guns on the helicarrier shot at me but I managed to avoid them and I burst back into the dome with the precious chip clutched in my fist.
Winter was beating Captain Rogers, over and over, and screaming. He whipped up to look at me as I went past and made a grab for the glider. I avoided his outstretched hand, but he shot a wire that caught the glider and he yanked it backward. The glider jerked backward without me and I sailed forward and I hit the railing on the catwalk hard and it knocked the wind out of me. Somehow, I managed to cling onto the railing and lean forward over it and I fell onto the catwalk.
"Stella!" Winter shouted and I forced myself to my feet, gripping the railing.
Captain Rogers was unconscious on the glass floor and Winter was scaling the apparatus to get to me and I had mere seconds before he did.
"Don't!" he roared as I stumbled forward in desperation.
My hand was an inch away from the tray of guidance chips when he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"Let go!" I shouted, trying to wrench my arm out of his grip.
"Why are you doing this?" he barked.
"You think you're not on their list?" I yelled. "Or me? This is bigger than either of us!"
Winter's face was conflicted. "This is my mission."
We were out of time. I had to get the chip into the tray and I had to do it now. I had a weird idea and I only thought about it for a second before I stepped toward Winter and I grabbed the back of his head and kissed him.
He froze and I felt his grip on my wrist loosen. I turned and leaned forward and jammed the chip into the tray.
Winter was staring at me blankly, still frozen.
"Charlie locked," I heard Steve pant from below us into his ear piece. "Fire now. Do it!"
Winter snapped back at Steve's voice and he whipped around but before anyone could move the glass dome around us exploded. I was thrown back and my head slammed into metal and I blacked out.
"…Devushka," I heard a rough voice say and my eyelids fluttered. I groaned.
I was in Winter's arms and I saw trees above us. I blinked rapidly and remembered the carriers.
"What happened?" I managed.
"You're bleeding," Winter said, ignoring my question.
He stopped walking and put me down on my feet. I looked down at myself. My left arm was steadily leaking blood, but the rest of the heavy stuff wasn't mine. We were both drenched.
"It's just my arm, I'm fine," I told him. I stepped back from him and looked him over, my eyes widening. His right arm was clamped close to his body and his face was bleeding and scratched, but he was here and he was alive.
"We need to get somewhere safe," Winter told me gruffly, his eyes scanning around us.
I nodded and tried to take a step forward but I stumbled and Winter caught me.
"I – we can go to my friend Isabel's house," I said. "She would take us in – I don't know where else we could go, and – you're hurt."
Winter frowned down at me.
"We don't have a lot of options here," I argued.
Winter sighed, glancing behind me.
"Will she tell anyone about us?" He asked.
I shook my head.
Winter pursed his lips. "…Fine."
The glider was gone, much to my chagrin, so Winter said that we would just have to walk.
Sirens rang through the air and the sound scared me. Winter stuck to my side when they would go by so that we would look like we were together and I held onto his bionic arm so that it wasn't so conspicuous. We could be a normal couple if we weren't the only ones on the streets and we weren't covered in blood. No one approached us; all of the police in the city had a lot more to worry about than two ragged people stumbling down the streets.
We made it to Isabel's house and I knocked on the door, worried that she wasn't home. I noticed an orange tabby cat sitting on the windowsill inside of the house, watching us suspiciously. After a few minutes I heard movement behind the door and the doorknob rattled. Isabel peeked through the chained door at us and her eyes widened when she realized that it was me. The door snapped closed and I heard her fumble with the chain and she threw the door open.
"Stella!" she exclaimed, pushing her glasses up. "What is going on?! I heard on the news that SHIELD was under some sort of attack and I've been trying to call you for hours!"
Her eyes widened when she looked at me and she covered her mouth in horror.
"Stella is that your blood?" she quaked.
"Some of it," I said, throwing a glance behind us. "Can we come in? I don't want to be out on the street right now."
She nodded from behind her hands and moved to let us inside.
Isabel's apartment was modest; one bedroom, one bathroom, a cramped living room connected to a tidy kitchen. There was a desk under the windows in the living room and an overstuffed couch sat in front of a tv and a small table with four chairs around it in front of the kitchen. The cat had climbed down from the window and was warily peering at us from behind a fern by the door.
"Who is this?" Isabel asked after she shut and locked the door and pulled all of the curtains closed.
"Um," I glanced at Winter as he scanned the small apartment. "This is Johnny."
Winter looked at me out of the corner of his eye and I hoped he would just go with it. Isabel stared at the two of us and I realized how unfair it was to just drop all of this on her, she had no obligation to help us. Isabel shook herself and marched into the kitchen.
"Who's hurt worse?" She asked as she dug around under the kitchen sink.
"He is –" I started.
"Take care of her," Winter interrupted me.
I opened my mouth to argue but Winter shot me a look. So stubborn. Isabel pushed everything on the kitchen island to one side.
"Sit," she demanded, pointing to the tabletop.
"He's a lot worse off than I am," I protested. "His arm's broken and –"
"Well he's not covered in blood, and frankly he doesn't look like he wants me to touch him, so sit," Isabel insisted.
I frowned but I reluctantly hopped up on the counter and let Isabel cut the sleeve of my sweater off of me.
"Okay, it's not bad actually," Isabel said when she had carefully peeled my sweater away from the wound. "Is it from a bullet?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't hurt as bad as I thought it would," I said, pulling my eyes off of Winter to look at Isabel.
"That's because the bullet just grazed you, it's very shallow as far as bullet wounds go."
I pursed my lips. "Oh."
She cleaned it with some sort of solution and wrapped it up and I glanced at her curiously.
"Why do you know how to dress wounds?" I asked. "Is that something you run into a lot being a museum curator?"
I was hoping one of them would laugh to ease the horrible tension, but neither of them did.
"It's just generally good knowledge to have," she said, checking my bloodstained pants to see if the blood was actually mine. "In case of situations exactly like this one."
"Fair enough," I shrugged.
Isabel changed the bandage on my skin graft from my earlier injury too and she seemed content that I was okay.
"Okay, it looks like you're fine," Isabel said, standing up. "Where did Johnny go?"
My heart skipped a beat and I looked wildly around for him. He wasn't in the living room anymore and I felt my stomach twist.
"Winter!?" I called, jumping off of the counter and searching the little flat for him.
One of the doors I tried was locked and there was light coming from under the door. I sighed in relief.
"Winter?" I asked, knocking on the door.
I heard cloth rip on the other side, but he didn't answer me. Isabel padded up behind me and crossed her arms in worry.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Fine," he clipped.
I heard an awful slimy sort of sound like someone twisting a knife into someone's side and I gagged silently.
"Winter let us help you, please," I managed after a minute.
"No!" he barked. "Go away."
I turned to Isabel in desperation and she bit her bottom lip and shrugged.
"If he can take care of himself, you might as well let him," she said quietly.
"He doesn't have to take care of himself, though," I replied just as quietly.
I heard another fleshy sort of noise and I shivered in revulsion and moved away from the door. Winter stayed locked up in the bathroom for hours and Isabel turned the TV on so that we had something to listen to other than whatever the hell Winter was doing to himself. I changed clothes and cleaned most of the blood off of me with a rag, and I felt somewhat better. My hands were still shaking badly enough that I couldn't hold a cup. The fall of SHIELD was the only thing on the news now, at least 80 people were confirmed dead at this point and they were still pulling bodies from the wreckage.
"Does Johnny have a metal arm?" Isabel asked in an undertone after a while.
I glanced at her from where I was curled up on the couch.
"Yeah," I said softly. "Don't ask him about it though, okay?"
Isabel nodded. "Of course not."
"He's not…" I started and then sighed. "HYDRA was using him to hurt people, but… he's not bad. It wasn't his fault."
Isabel nodded again. "I understand."
We sat in silence for a few minutes and I stared blankly at the television.
"Izz…" I whispered.
"Yeah?"
"I think… I think that I might have helped kill all of those people…" I breathed in a brittle voice. "I didn't work for SHIELD, I worked for HYDRA. I didn't know what they were doing until it was too late –"
My voice cracked and I felt tears well up in my eyes. Isabel scooted to sit next to me and she put a hand on my shoulder.
"I didn't know how – awful – HYDRA was until I was in too deep," I cried. "They tortured him, and I helped – them –!"
I broke down into sobs and Isabel held me to her and I buried my face in her shoulder and cried.
"None of that's your fault, Stella," Isabel said firmly, rubbing my back.
"Yes it is!" I blubbered. "People died because of me, I was part of HYDRA and I'm to blame as much as any of them are!"
I cried on Isabel for a while and she held me and did her best to comfort me. I calmed down after a while and she got me some tissues and a wet cloth to wipe my face off with. It was dark outside now and I had started to yawn a lot.
Isabel noticed and got me the softest blanket that she had and several pillows.
"If Johnny comes out, he can have the couch and you can sleep in my bed with me. If you're alright with that of course," Isabel said, crossing her arms self-consciously. "I'm sorry that my place is so small, I just don't know how else everyone can have somewhere to sleep."
"That's perfect, Izz," I said, smiling somewhat. "Thank you so much."
She nodded, giving me a reassuring smile. "I'll just be in my bedroom if you need anything, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you," I said and she disappeared into her bedroom.
I turned the volume down on the TV and curled up in the blankets.
I drifted off into an uneasy sleep and when I woke up it was still dark out and the TV was off. I sat up, feeling uneasy, and after my eyes adjusted I realized that Winter was sitting in one of the armchairs by the window in the dark.
"Winter," I said softly.
His head turned and he looked at me, his face unreadable through the darkness.
"Aren't you tired?" I asked through the silence.
"No. It isn't safe," he rasped.
I frowned and pulled the blanket up around my shoulders. I was cold, even though it was midsummer. I heard the ticking of a clock through the quiet. I felt at peace here, curled up in the blankets with Winter in the room. I felt safer here than I had in my own house for a long time. I laid back down and got comfortable in the blankets.
"Are you hurt badly?" I asked.
"No, I'm fine."
"Is your arm broken?"
"Yes, but I'm fine."
I huffed through my nose. "Did you at least set the bone so that it won't heal crooked?"
"Yes. This isn't the first time I've broken something."
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. I shifted around and the couch creaked.
"What happened?"
"You fell into the water. I got you out."
I frowned. "Is Captain Rogers…?"
"He's fine. I pulled him out too."
"You.. Didn't leave me behind. After all of… that."
I could feel him looking at me in the dark even though I couldn't see his face.
"You were right. The carriers had to be destroyed."
Silence followed this. I remembered kissing him and I was thankful he couldn't see me blushing in the dark.
"…I'm sorry, by the way," I said softly.
"For what?" Winter asked, confused.
"I don't know… for not helping you before. For not… helping you escape from the hell that you were in," I whispered.
"…You couldn't have done anything."
"I'm not convinced that's true."
Winter was quiet for a minute and I felt heavy and guilty and filthy.
"You were the only one that was ever kind to me there," Winter said after a while.
"Is that why you saved me from the fire?" The couch squeaked as I moved around again. "Do you remember that?"
"…I remember a few things; hearing you scream and carrying you through the smoke," Winter mused. "And after they… wiped me. You were there."
I heard the leather Winter was wearing shift. "…You were crying."
"I was scared."
"Why?"
"I didn't know what they had done to you. And while they were wiping you… the way you were screaming… It was the worst thing I've ever heard."
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. It was getting hard to keep my eyes open.
"It was all I could do not to punch Pierce in the mouth," I murmured sleepily.
Winter chuckled gruffly and I sat up a little bit to look in his direction, grinning.
"You punching Pierce… You're so small."
"I'm not that small," I laughed, lying back down. "I could have gotten, like, three punches in before anyone stopped me."
Winter chuckled again.
"Go to sleep, devushka," Winter said softly.
I put my head down on the cool pillow and closed my eyes. I fell asleep not long after that.
We spent two weeks at Isabel's to recover and even though I left with her to get groceries and things, Winter didn't leave the apartment at all, or at least not to my knowledge. I slept curled up with Isabel after the first night in hopes of getting Winter to sleep on the couch, but if he did go to sleep, he always woke up before I did. He never ate anything that Isabel made either, and after a few days I realized that he would only eat anything if I made it for him or if he made it himself. Isabel wasn't offended, she rationalized that it made sense that he didn't trust her. Isabel's cat, Poppy, took a liking to Winter and she rubbed against his leg often, purring. Winter didn't seem to mind. I saw him very gently patting her a few times and smiling to himself.
"What are you guys going to do now?" Isabel asked me when we were out walking one day.
I stared down at the ground. That was the nagging question, never far behind me like a stranger I couldn't shake off.
"I have no idea," I admitted quietly, bumping into someone that was going by us the other way. "I keep thinking that I'll just wake up one day and Johnny will be gone, but…"
I sighed and shrugged.
"I don't know why he's stayed this long," I mumbled.
Isabel raised one of her eyebrows at me. "You really can't think of any reason he's still around?"
I smirked halfheartedly.
"Stella, he's not going anywhere," Isabel said confidently.
I wasn't so sure.
That night I was fast asleep in Isabel's bed, dreaming, when I was pulled out of my sleep by strange noises.
I was in a city that was always day and always night split right down the middle. I was alone in the city; there weren't any cars or stores or anything, the place was like a map of a video game that hadn't completely loaded. I heard shouts echoing off of the walls and I followed them, trying to find someone else in this barren place, but the screams were coming from everywhere and it was impossible to find the source.
"Where are you?" I shouted, my voice warping and echoing loudly with the other voice.
The voice manifested into color, crimson and violet and a sickly green whirling around me violently.
"Where are you?!" I screamed again, but my voice was lost in the frenzy of color and sound.
I jolted awake and sat up, gasping. I still heard the voice, like someone struggling to get out of barbed wire. Isabel had woken up too and she moved to turn the lamp on by her bed and push her glasses on.
"Is that Johnny?" she asked, sleep slurring her speech, and my stomach twisted.
"Winter?" I called, jumping up out of the bed.
I ran into the living room, hitting my shins on something in the dark and I fumbled blindly for a light. Isabel flipped it on and I was horror-struck to see Winter thrashing around on the couch like someone was attacking him.
"Winter?" I said loudly to him.
He didn't seem to hear me and a scream of pain was drawn out of him from deep within his chest. I gingerly padded up to him and touched his arm, hoping to calm him down. His eyes flew open and he screamed again and I recoiled and fell backward onto the floor. Winter leapt up and spun wildly around, his eyes wide and unhinged. His eyes found me and he turned to me, every muscle in his body tensed to defend himself or flee.
"WHERE AM I!?" he demanded loudly. "WHO ARE YOU?!"
I raised my hands and slowly rose to my feet and Winter's eyes darted between mine like he was feverishly trying to figure out if I was a threat.
"You're safe," I said softly. "From HYDRA, from Pierce, from all of that."
He narrowed his eyes at me.
"My name is Stella Martin. I was one of the scientists that worked for HYDRA. HYDRA fell and you found me and we came here to recover."
He glared at me, trying to decide if I was lying or not. His eyes darted to Isabel where she was standing in the hallway. His eyebrows knit together and his eyes dropped to the floor as he pieced things together in his head. His muscles slowly relaxed and his fists unclenched.
"…Winter?" I asked quietly after a minute.
His eyes slowly fixed on my face. Recognition flickered across his face and I gave him a small smile.
Winter suddenly turned and darted to the door, throwing it open and sprinting into the night.