Yawning loudly, Amelia rolled over on the large king-size mattress and tugged the duvet up to her chin. She hardly wanted to get up, despite the fact she knew she had to because they had a flight to catch back home later on the in morning. She had spent most of the previous night in Helmut's bed, only leaving him after she had started to feel tired. He had bid her goodnight as she picked her clothes up and went to the room next door.
She had showered, trying to calm herself down and not feel het up once again over what they had just done. She shook her head as she stood under the flowing warm water, feeling it drop down her body and causing her to shudder. She'd turned the shower off after ten minutes and proceeded to get ready for bed, shrugging into the short sleeved and bottomed pyjamas she had brought with her. She'd heard Helmut use the bathroom after her and the familiar turning of the shower knob squeaked in the room.
It had taken her a while to drift off to sleep, but finally she'd managed to doze off. The next thing she knew when she pressed the unlock button on her phone, it was ten a.m. Groaning, she could hear moving coming from outside her room and she suspected that Helmut was already awake and prepared to go. Knowing that he would be checking his watch anxiously spurred her on, not wanting to be subject to his annoyed comments about her being late.
She got up and dressed quickly, pulling on her black jumpsuit and buttoning it up at the front. Tugging her hair out of the collar of it, she pulled it into a high ponytail so that it was out of her face. She was in the process of fastening the fabric belt around the middle of her waist when she heard him knock on her door.
"Amelia, the car will be here in ten minutes."
"Yeah," she called back and looked at all of her clothes she had left lying around. "I just need to brush my teeth…and…do my makeup."
He grunted on the other side of the door. "Can I come in?" he questioned her.
"Sure," she said.
The door opened as Amelia laid her suitcase on her bed and grabbed at everything. Helmut's eyes widened at the sight. There were clothes on the floor, her toiletries on the set of drawers by the window. The curtains were still closed and the duvet crumpled on the unmade bed. Sighing, he shook his head.
"We were only coming here for one night, two maximum," he said to her. "Why did you bring so much stuff?"
"I didn't know what outfit I would need or how cold it would be," she defended herself.
"Go and finish off in the bathroom," Helmut said to her, holding his hands up as he tried to take control of the situation, knowing that there was no chance she would be ready in time if he didn't. "I will pack this away for you."
"But…it's all my stuff…like stuff I don't want you to see," she defended herself. "Give me some privacy, would you?"
"You are aware that I have seen your underwear before, aren't you? In fact, I remember last night distinctly taking it-"
"-Yeah, alright," she interrupted him and shook her head. "Fine," she relented. "But just chuck it all in and I'll be right back, okay?"
She left him alone in her room and he heard her go to the bathroom, the noise of running water entering his ears. The noise of her electric toothbrush hummed in the background as he gathered up her clothes from the floor and placed them in the case, trying to fold them as neatly as possible considering his limited time. He picked up her discarded pyjamas from the foot of the bed, feeling the warmth from them as she had just changed. Grabbing her toiletries, he carried them in a heap in his arms and dropped them on top of the clothes. Unplugging her phone charger, he placed it into her satchel for her alongside the copy of Emma that she was still reading.
Smirking at the sight of the battered book, he wondered how many times she had read it. He did another sweep of the room, content that all of her things seemed to have been gone. She came back into the room a minute later, another toiletry bag in her arms.
"Think fast," she said and threw it towards him.
He caught it and shook his head. "What do you have in here?"
"The dead body of my lover I snuck in here after we'd finished last night," she said, tone full of sarcasm as she watched him lay the bag in the case, shifting things around to make room.
"Your sense of humour is truly disturbing."
"Thanks so much," Amelia said and grabbed her grey sweatshirt that she had left by her sneakers. She shrugged it on over her head, knowing how cold planes could be. Slipping into her shoes, she bent down and tied the laces. Helmut closed her suitcase and placed it on the floor. Picking up her red winter coat with the double-breasted brass buttons, he handed it to her and she slipped into it before placing her phone into its pocket. Checking she had everything in his satchel on the way out, she followed Helmut as he moved with her suitcase.
"Are you ready now?" he asked.
"Yep," she said with a pop of her lips. "And with…oh…three minutes to spare."
"Your willingness to push things too far concerns me," Helmut said and he picked his own bag up, slipping it over his body and letting it sit on his shoulder. Amelia shrugged, putting her phone away after she had checked the time.
"Only some things," she said. "Come on, do you want to be late or what?"
He was about to snap back at her as she walked off in front, but she threw him a teasing glance behind her shoulder and he shook his head. When she turned back around, he let himself smirk at watching the back of her, almost enjoying how she teased him.
…
"So…the Winter Soldier program," Amelia commented.
They had been back at her home in Norfolk for another week as they tried to look into this program. They were doing all that they could to try and find some connection between what happened to the Starks and the fact that the Winter Soldier had been awoken the night before they died in a car crash.
Rolling onto his side, Helmut pushed a hand underneath the pillow, looking at her. She was laid on her front, pieces of paper in front of her as she looked at the notes they had made on what this all could mean. They were doing their best to try and find evidence, but so far it was proving to be quite difficult. Amelia hummed in the back of her throat for a moment as Helmut moved the back of his hand to brush her hair behind her shoulder.
"What about it?" Helmut questioned.
"How many do you think were enrolled into it?" Amelia wondered. "I mean, what happened to them after the serum failed?"
"I hope that they died peacefully," Helmut responded. "However, the question we should ask ourselves is…what serum was used?"
"That is a good question," Amelia said to him and placed her chin into her hand, turning to look over to him once more. "I mean; we know that Erskine created the serum, don't we? He created Captain America and then Zola tried to recreate the serum. HYDRA recruited scientists around the world to try and do the same thing…but…"
"But?" Helmut questioned.
"Well, they must have thought they succeeded at one stage if they injected it into people and had an entire program?"
Helmut nodded thoughtfully. He sat up, the duvet pooling to his lap and leaving him bare from the waist above. Amelia looked up to him, drinking in his lean torso and noting the soft hair on his chest. She tried not to get distracted by what they had just been up to moments earlier as Helmut climbed from the bed.
He reached for his underwear, tugging the boxer briefs over his feet and up his legs. Amelia's brow furrowed as he moved from the guest bedroom and she rolled onto her other side. Sitting up, she grabbed the first item of clothing she could find. Shrugging on his loose fitting grey top, she stepped into her pants and pulled them up to her hips before following him from the room.
"What're you thinking?" she asked from him.
"We know that Howard Stark worked on the Captain America serum, don't we? He was there when Erskine changed Steve Rogers."
"He was," Amelia said and she watched Helmut bend over the dining table and pick up pieces of paper, clearly looking for something.
"It's here," Helmut said and Amelia walked to stand next to him, her bare arm brushing against his. He made no mention of how it was his top she was wearing, noting the way it came just down to the tops of her thighs. She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at where he was pointing down to.
"Program abandoned March 5, 1992," Amelia read out and Helmut grabbed the newspaper article of Howard Stark's death.
"What if HYDRA had discovered that Stark had recreated the serum?" he questioned from Amelia. "What if they sent the Winter Soldier after him to kill him and take what he had made…hence they would have their own serum for their own program."
Amelia bit down on her bottom lip. "So the program was abandoned in 1992."
"Just months after Stark's death," Helmut said. "Plenty of time for HYDRA to realise that the serum did not work and give up on the program."
"I guess," Amelia said to him with a nod of her head and he let the paper flutter back down onto the table before him. Crossing her ankles together, she watched him move into the kitchen, completely unbothered by his lack of clothing. "But the fact is that we need to do something to prove this. At the moment all we have are theories. We need a name…something we can use…"
"And those documents are the key to that," Helmut said, pulling out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. "There had to have been someone in charge of the Winter Soldier program and we will find whoever that might be. We'll get that concrete evidence."
"I know," Amelia agreed with him on that point. They were nothing if not persistent. "I just think that…I mean…do you think that it will work? Do you think that we will be able to tear them apart from this information?"
He placed the glasses on the small breakfast bar as Amelia sat on the edge of her dining table, legs dangling from it and feet not touching the ground. Helmut poured them each a glass of whiskey and carried it over to where she was. He handed her the glass and she took it into her fingers.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if the Winter Soldier did this, which we are assuming he did, then…I mean…do you think that he wanted to do it?" Amelia questioned, holding the glass in both hands as Helmut stood in front of her, brow arched and questioning what she was talking about. She tilted her head to the side. "We know that Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier, right? And we know that he is Captain America's best friend…it's just that…if he worked for HYDRA then I don't think he wanted to work for HYDRA."
"I had the same thought too."
"And the way HYDRA talk about him in their communication as 'the asset'…it's like he's some kind of robot for them or something," Amelia said with a slow shake of her head. "And Barnes enlisted in the military, didn't he? Besides, he never struck me as the kind of guy who wanted to be some hit man."
Helmut arched a brow at hearing her. He took a sip of his whiskey, eyes fixed firmly on Amelia as he watched her.
"I'm just saying, that if he had been brainwashed, then he wouldn't have wanted to kill the Starks, would he?" Amelia questioned from him. "And if Stark knows that then do you think he'd want vengeance or be forgiving?"
Helmut shook his head. "Even if that is true, as we suspect, would you ever be able to forgive the Avengers for what they have done to us…our family…they did not mean it, but they still did it."
"Yeah, but they hadn't been brainwashed. Stark just created a monster that helped wreck havoc on Sokovia," she retorted. "I'm just saying that if Stark has a forgiving streak then this plan of ours won't work."
"Have you seen him?" Helmut asked from her. "I've spent time studying them, Amelia, each and every one of them. I know their strengths…their weaknesses…and Stark…the loss of his parents is something that has impacted him. Trust me, this will be enough to tear them apart."
"And Barnes?"
"What about him?"
"Well, he's a ghost, isn't he?" Amelia asked. "Ever since the events in D.C. he's gone into hiding. We have no idea where he is or what he is doing, but I mean…do we need him? All we really need is to get this information to Stark with solid evidence and then watch Rogers defend his friend. It will destroy them completely."
"I have no intention of finding Barnes if we get the evidence we need," Helmut promised her. And that was true. However, he would use Barnes if he had to. He had no regrets about that. He watched as Amelia sipped on the whiskey and he eyed her with intensity. "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"
"What? No," she answered him quickly and finished the glass of whiskey before setting it down next to her. "I'm not having second thoughts about what we're doing because I hate them, Helmut, and I hate what they could be able to do…I guess I just pity Barnes, that's all. I feel sorry for him and what HYDRA did."
"Yes, being imprisoned in your own mind must not be pleasant," Helmut agreed with Amelia. He supposed he knew how that felt. "But if we have to use him then we have to use him. He is simply a means to an end, Amelia, nothing else…and most certainly nothing else to either of us…he's our ticket to getting what we need."
"I know," Amelia said in agreement, nodding her head. "You know that I just don't want people to get hurt."
"I know," Helmut promised her. "But it's all a means to an end, Amelia."
She agreed with him on that point to an extent as he stepped forwards and moved his hands out towards her waist. She didn't wait for him to make the first move as she grabbed hold of his shoulders and kissed him softly, feeling him move his hands underneath the top she wore. He closed his eyes firmly as he finally peeled the top off of her and he had to admit that this was his tactic to stop her from thinking or worrying.
Because a part of him was now wondering if her heart was truly in this. He was wondering if she really did have the stomach to go through with what they were going to do because, as time went on, he began to think that people might get hurt. His only care was his end goal. Vengeance had consumed him and he knew it. He knew that there was nothing more than that, but he didn't know if Amelia was the same. There was still caring and consideration in her. He knew that he might have to leave her behind one day, but he didn't want that. Yet, if he had to do it then he would. He had one end goal and no one was going to get in the way of that, not even the woman he held in his arms.
…
Amelia sat up in bed one night, laptop in her lap as she looked down at the articles she had been reading. She had no idea why she had grown so interested in the Winter Soldier, but the more she read into Bucky Barnes, the more she felt sorry for him. She pitied him and she wondered just how alone he must feel in the world. He was clearly in hiding for everything that he had done, but Steve Rogers had been adamant that he was still Bucky. There was still his friend inside of the Winter Soldier.
Closing the lid to her laptop, Amelia looked down at the engagement ring on her finger and thought about Lukas. She wondered what he would say if he could see her now, chasing around the world and being consumed by revenge. Plus, she was sleeping with his best friend. She didn't think that he would be proud of her, but she was doing this for him. She had to do this for him and her family. She had lost everything and the Avengers deserved to know how that felt.
They deserved to know the pain and heartache of having no one left. She reached for her mug of tea and took a sip of it, letting the liquid warm her throat before tossing her laptop to the end of her bed. Slipping from underneath the duvet, she moved through to the living room.
It had gone ten in the evening, but she wasn't tired in the slightest. The room to the guest bedroom was closed firmly, Helmut no doubt working furiously. She contemplated checking on him, but thought against it as she headed to the couch. Settling down on it, she placed her mug on the coffee table and picked up her copy of Emma that she had left there.
"I thought I heard you come out here," Helmut said to her.
She nodded her head. "I'm not tired," she explained. "I was going to get an early night so that I could get up and go for a run tomorrow, but I decided against it."
"Well, it is supposed to rain tomorrow anyway," Helmut said.
He was still dressed in jeans and a jumper, his hair slightly ruffled no doubt from where he had ran his hands through it. Motioning to her mug, he jutted his chin out. "Would you like a refill? Herbal tea might help relax you?"
"I'm not stressed," Amelia said.
"Really, because you're looking stressed," Helmut said to her and he picked her mug up anyway, holding it in his hands and standing above her. "What's going on with you, Amelia?"
"Nothing," she lied to him. "I guess I'm just worried about finding these scientists and then we've got to think about the Winter Soldier program…there's a lot going round in my mind…hard to turn off. I bet you're feeling the same."
"I am trying to take it a step at a time," Helmut said, content with her answer. "Heike used to tell me that worrying would never do me any good, but I worried about everything…even more so when Carl was born."
Helmut moved into the kitchen and left her cup on the side. Reaching for another mug, he decided to have his own cup of tea. Flicking the switch on the kettle, he grabbed the boxes of tea from the cupboard. Amelia sat up on her knees, an arm stretching over the back of he sofa.
"You never talk about them that often," Amelia commented to him and he shrugged his shoulders.
"I never know what to say," he confessed to Amelia. "I'm not a man who often talks about his emotions, Amelia. All I know is that I miss them and I am doing this for them…because I lost everything that day I told them to go to my father's. I blame myself, predominately."
"Why?" Amelia questioned, the kettle humming in the background lowly.
"Because I was the one who told them to leave the city," Helmut said to her. "I was the one fighting on the front line where I thought that it was dangerous. Heike…I can still remember her calling me…asking me what she should do. I told her to get Carl into the car and take him away. I told her to get away from the city centre and she would be safe. I had been so convinced that they would be safe with my father."
"They…you just did what you thought was best," Amelia promised him in a gentle voice, trying to be tender as Helmut shrugged and busied himself with tidying the kitchen as he waited for the water to boil.
"She called me while she was leaving," Helmut said. "I could hear Carl say how excited he was to have seen Iron Man out of the window. I…I told her to call me when she got there, but she never did. She never called and I had to leave my phone in my pocket while the fighting intensified."
"She wouldn't blame you, Helmut," Amelia promised him.
He shook his head. "I know," he agreed sadly. "But that doesn't stop me blaming myself for sending her away, just as much as I blame the Avengers for what they did."
Chewing down on her tongue, Amelia watched him as he avoided her gaze and she shook her head.
"She loved you," she said to Helmut.
He chuckled. "I know. I never understood why, however. That never made sense to me."
"Why not?" Amelia wondered back. "Helmut, you were so kind and considerate with her…and Carl…you were a great father. You were lucky to have her and she was lucky to have you. Trust me, you were great together."
And that much had been true. Amelia had watched them together and she had seen how in sync they were. It was almost as though they knew what each other was thinking without using words. The way they moved around each other was with the comfort of people who knew that they belonged together. Amelia saw it as nothing other than pure love and she wondered if everyone looked at her and Lukas the same way.
"That's kind of you to say," Helmut responded and he finally made the mugs of tea. "She was everything to me. Heike and Carl…they were my one shot at happiness. I am certain of that."
Amelia looked down and nodded her head once. She knew that. She was well aware of it? Then why did it hurt her to hear him say it? Why did it make her head feel light and a stabbing pain hammer against her chest? She knew what this was. There was nothing going on between them apart from friendship and casual sex. She knew that and yet she was still hurting at his words.
"Thanks," Amelia said and he handed her the mug of tea and he sat down next to her on the couch.
"And you're not the only one who feels guilty over everything," Helmut assured her. "The fact that your parents went out to Sokovia to see Lukas for his birthday while you were working…you feel guilty about that and I know you do, but you have no reason to."
"Just like you have no reason to feel guilty about sending your family away," she responded.
He chuckled darkly and nodded. "It seems that we're both not very good at this," he responded and her lips turned up despite everything. Shrugging her shoulders, she wrapped her hands around the warm mug. "But, the one thing I do not feel guilt over is…us…the first time it happened, I did feel bad. I felt as though I had betrayed my wife, but as time has gone on, I've felt nothing but…but content…"
"You have?"
"Content that while I'm with you I have a companion who understands me, who understands what we are doing."
"I get that," Amelia said to him.
"And for a brief few hours it's nice not to be lonely, isn't it?" Helmut checked with her and she nodded her agreement. She wasn't going to deny that. "And you…I know that you were my best friend's fiancé and I know that Heike was my world…but you are quite something, Amelia."
"Oh?" Amelia questioned him.
"Kind…caring…intelligent and strong…I have no doubt that, when the time is right, you'll make someone a very lucky man," Helmut said to her and she tried not to let her face falter as she hid behind her mug, keeping it to her lips
But it won't be you, will it? Amelia questioned in her head. She knew that.
"I'm going to take this to bed," Helmut said, motioning to his mug. "Can I expect you to join me this evening?"
"Do you want me to?"
Helmut considered her question and he leant forwards on the couch, placing his mug back on the coffee table. Amelia almost spilt her drink all over herself as she felt his fingers trail up her leg, brushing along her inner thigh as her breathing hitched and he knew what he was doing as he teased her slowly, refusing to touch her where he knew he wanted her to, his face inches from hers as she took deep breaths, eyes closed and head tilted back as he kissed her sweetly on the sensitive skin.
He pulled back after a moment, refusing to give her what she wanted, a cocky smirk on his face. "I will leave that up to you," he said and pecked her quickly on the lips.
He stood up and sauntered back into the bedroom, mug in his hand and Amelia glaring at the back of him. She took a deep gulp of the tea and shook her head, contemplating not going to him and seeking her own pleasure instead. But that thought left her mind as she placed her mug down and moved to the bedroom, whispering as she went.
"You're going to get your heart broken, Amelia…" she told herself. And that was true. Because, no matter how much she tried to deny it, she could see herself easily falling for the Sokovian Baron in her spare room that she couldn't stay away from.
...
A/N: Thanks so much to Lyanna and the guest reviewer for commenting on the previous chapter. Things are going to pick up quite a bit in the next few chapters coming up so please do let me know what you think! We're getting closer to the events of the film now!
