Helmut noticed Amelia yawn as they moved through the immigration queue at the airport in Madrid. They had caught an early morning flight, finding that they'd had to travel into London for the only seats available to the city in Spain for the following day. Amelia had driven them to the airport and parked up before they had caught the flight and landed in the early morning. The weather was quite cool still, Amelia wrapped up in a blue coat with her hair tied into a high ponytail.

She had still kept yawning even when they had checked into the hotel and Helmut wondered if she had slept well recently. He had found her most nights sat awake in the living room, seemingly unable to find any solace or peace in sleeping. He would try and distract her, but there was something on her mind that she wasn't telling him.

He knew she was keeping things from him, but he never pushed her on exactly what it was she was hiding. He knew that it wasn't his place. On the surface, she gave off the impression that she was fine. She was talking to him and acting as she normally did, but it was when she looked away and he knew something was wrong. He could sense it when he saw her biting her lip and almost looking anxious.

"Rosie White should be quite easy to get to," Helmut informed Amelia.

She was sat at the end of the bed, one leg folded over the other. They had separate rooms in the hotel, Helmut unable to book them anything but basic double rooms. Amelia had wondered what they would be like, but they were still much fancier than any of the hotel rooms she had stayed in growing up. She pulled at her ponytail, tightening the bobble in her hair and looking at the images in front of her of the woman they had come to find.

"I did a quick sweep of where she lives. She has a house…in a row of terraces down the backstreets on the outskirts of the city. There's no CCTV or any chance of us being recognised by anyone. It seems that she has taken to living on her own like a hermit from what I can gather."

Amelia nodded and placed the paper down beside her as Helmut furrowed his brow. He was wearing a grey shirt with the top two buttons undone, his dark trousers on his legs and his clean shoes slightly scuffed from the amount of walking he had just done. He folded his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side as he watched Amelia.

"What is it?" he questioned from her.

"Nothing," she promised him. "I'm just tired, Helmut…and groggy…"

"Really? Because I get the feeling you haven't been yourself for the past few weeks," he said to her, but she shook her head.

"It's nothing," she said. "Just worry…wanting to get on with the job…everything feels real and now that we've found this woman who we think worked on the Winter Soldier program…well, you know, it just feels like everything is coming together."

"I know," Helmut promised her, but he wondered if she was still lying to him. "Listen, if you do not want to come with me tonight then you don't have to. I will be able to handle this woman on my own."

"We're in this together, right?" Amelia said to him. "I'll be fine by tonight."

Helmut nodded again, but he was still unconvinced. It took him a moment before he sat down on the stool at the dressing table in her room. She had already unpacked, her things strewn everywhere and he moved the jumper she had placed on the stool onto the chaise longue to the side of the bed. Folding one leg over the other, he leant forwards and clasped his hands together, toying with his wedding ring on his finger.

"I do not intend to leave my work unfinished," Helmut said to Amelia. "There were five scientists who were prominent in HYDRA's ranks. We have taken care of two of those…in London and then in Brussels. The other was arrested by the Avengers and I have heard that another has passed away from natural causes."

"So that leaves one."

"And there might be a way to find him at some stage. His name is William Edgington."

"Fancy name," Amelia commented. "But can we focus on finding this guy after we have dealt with White? Take one step at a time."

Helmut nodded. He didn't mean to overwhelm her with everything. Holding an apologetic hand up, he watched as Amelia stood up and moved through the room, hands on her hips. The material of the a-line skirt she wore over her thin tights crumpled and Helmut noticed that her white shirt was slightly un-tucked at the back.

"I know you're hiding something," Helmut said to her.

Standing by the window, Amelia closed her eyes firmly. She bit down on her bottom lip and then chewed the inside of her cheek. Her hand held onto the frame of the window as she bent over slightly and knew she had to tell him. But she didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to tell him anything because she had no idea what would happen or what they would do. But he had to have noticed because over the past few weeks she had been ignoring it. She had been pretending everything was fine.

"Talk to me," he urged, his voice sounding somewhere between desperation and demanding. He stood up and stood behind her, keeping some space between them, but she knew he was there. She knew that he was there and watching her.

"It's nothing," Amelia said and turned on her heel, ignoring his stare as she brushed by him. "I'm just going out for a bit. I need some air."

"Amelia," he called her name once more as he saw her pick up her satchel and her light coat she had travelled in. She slipped into her ankle boots as he dropped his hands to his hips and shrugged aggressively. "Are you going to stop keeping things from me or do I have to live in this constant state of treading on eggshells and wondering what is going on?"

"I told you that I was fine," Amelia snapped at him, picking up her room key. "Would you just leave it?"

"You're not going out there alone," he protested.

"Just back off, Helmut," Amelia snapped at him, looking at him and holding her hand up, warning him not to come any closer to her. "I'm not going to do anything stupid so just let me go."

And, for some reason, he let her go. He left her to leave the room, shrugging her coat on as she went and then shoving her bag over her shoulder. The door shut firmly behind her and he shook his head, groaning in frustration and running his fingers through his hair. He felt a surge of anger flow through him as he swiped her toiletry bag off of the edge of her dressing table. Grunting in annoyance, he watched the bottles, tubs and tubes fly out of it and he shook his head.

He took a moment to compose himself before crouching down on the ground and picking them up, wondering just how much stuff she could possibly need. He considered himself well-groomed but he hardly travelled with as much as she did. He grabbed the hairspray bottle and the heat protection spray, shaking his head and muttering under his breath before he noticed the small box next to her body yoghurt.

Eyes widening, he felt his hands begin to tremble as he reached out for the box. His fingers ran over it and he picked it up, bringing it closer to his eyes and looking down onto it. His brows knitted together and he did his best not to feel sick, but the churning of his stomach was making that quite difficult. He could hear blood pumping into his ears. This couldn't be. It couldn't be possible. He didn't want it to be possible. But it would make sense. It would explain why Amelia had been acting the way she had been acting. It would explain everything so clearly.

The packet was still intact, indicating that it hadn't been opened yet, but it must be there for a reason. She must have packed it for a reason. And so Helmut managed to stand up slightly, collapsing to sit back down at the end of her bed as he kept the packet in his hand, waiting for Amelia to come back and talk to him.

Amelia had wandered the streets, not knowing where she was going or what she was doing. She suspected that there was much to take in, the architecture of the buildings was striking and she swore that she had even walked past some nice looking clothes shops. But her mind was on one thing and one thing only. She just walked aimlessly, hands in her pockets.

She knew that she had to take the test eventually. She knew that she had to find out if she was pregnant or not.

She knew that they had been careful. They had been so careful and Amelia was unsure how she could even be in the predicament. Her birth control pill had run out and she had gone three weeks before getting the prescription filled in again, but during that time they had been extremely careful. She had insisted on it and Helmut had agreed, knowing that it was the right thing to do.

But that didn't explain why her period was almost three weeks late, hence why she had been acting aloof at times. She had tried to be normal around Helmut, but it had been difficult. She told herself that it was just stress. She was stressed and that did things to her hormone levels. There was nothing else. But she was scared to take the test and find out for certain. She was terrified of doing that.

But it had to be done.

Sighing to herself, she walked back to the hotel and rode the elevator up to the fifth floor in silence. Moving to her room, she picked the key card out of her pocket and unlocked the door. Stepping in, she let it shut behind her as she dropped her bag onto the floor and moved further into the room. Her brow furrowed when she realised that Helmut was still there, sat on the end of her bed.

He was looking down and then Amelia saw what it was he was looking at. Her eyes widened and she shrugged out of her coat, her hands shaking.

"Helmut, what the hell are you doing?" she demanded from him.

"I could ask you the same thing," he retorted and held the pregnancy test box up in her direction. "Were you intending on telling me what was going on or did you intend on keeping it a secret?"

"I didn't know what I was going to do," she snapped, pulling the box from his hand and setting it down on the white wooden drawers. "I haven't taken the test yet."

"But you bought a test and so that clearly means you have suspicions," Helmut informed her and she chewed down so hard on the inside of her lips she swore that it would bleed. Helmut stood up and watched her intently, hands going to his hips. "How long?"

"How long what?" she questioned.

"How long have you wondered if you were pregnant?"

"Not long," Amelia replied. "I missed my period, but I thought that it would be because I…I just started the pill again and my hormones have been all over the place…what with stress and everything we're doing. It's been about three weeks."

"So you've known for three weeks that you could be pregnant and you haven't told me anything," Helmut confirmed.

Amelia rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest defensively. "And what did you want me to say, Helmut? Surprise, I think I could be pregnant with your baby because we just couldn't resist fucking at any opportunity?"

"It would have been better than keeping it from me," Helmut said to her.

"I kept it from you because I was going to deal with this on my own," Amelia snapped at him and he tilted his head as he watched her. She was angry. She was annoyed. She was upset. She just wanted to be able to deal with this on her own because then she could pretend it never happened.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Helmut questioned.

She went silent and looked away from him, chin jutting out defiantly. Helmut moved closer to her and brought his hand to her chin, forcing her to look back at him. She did so, her gaze set on his as he realised what she was saying to him.

"You wouldn't have told me?" he questioned her and she swore he almost sounded hurt.

"Why would I burden you with knowing?" Amelia asked from him. "We both agreed what this was, Helmut. You think that a child…what…you think that would be the wisest idea? Bringing a child into this world when neither of us want that? And the things we are doing…no…I was going to do this on my own because I didn't want to burden you."

"Burden me?" he retorted to her. "Amelia, how would it burden me? If you are pregnant then I am partly to blame as well. It would be my mistake as much as yours."

"See?" Amelia checked with him. "Mistake…burden…that's why we can't…I can't do this, Helmut. If I am pregnant then I can't do this. I can't have a baby and I can't have a baby…not with you…not when I never told Lukas about how I felt. I can't do this."

Helmut nodded his head, gulping once and looking down to her stomach for a brief moment as he wondered if she was pregnant. He wondered if there was a baby inside of her, part of him. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought about his wife and Carl. He knew what he intended to do after this mission was completed and he knew that it had never involved leaving Amelia alone with his child.

"I know," Helmut told her. "I know."

And he did know. He knew it made sense because neither of them were prepared to bring a child into the world that they were living in. It was too dangerous and Helmut couldn't do it. He couldn't raise another child and he certainly couldn't do it with his best friend's fiancée.

"What does that mean?" Amelia asked him and he composed himself.

"It means that if you are pregnant then we will deal with it, but we will deal with it together. I will support you with your decision," Helmut said and Amelia nodded her head, almost feeling as though a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders at hearing him say that. She didn't really know what else she had expected from him, but she had been relieved to hear him tell her what she needed to hear from him.

"I'll take the test," Amelia said.

Helmut nodded and let her go, watching her pick the box up and head into the bathroom. He sat back down at the end of the bed and buried his face into his hands. He waited patiently for Amelia to finish up, hearing the water running in the bathroom next door. She came out after a few minutes, holding the stick in some toilet roll. She sat it down on the desk and perched on the edge of the bed.

"It should be a few minutes," she said.

He nodded. He'd done this before but under much different circumstances. Toying with the wedding band around his finger, he took a moment to compose himself before speaking to her.

"I know some of the best doctors there are," he told her. "I will come with you…ensure everything goes as it should…and that…you'll be okay."

"You don't need-"

"-I do," he interrupted her.

"Thank you," she whispered after a moment of silence and Helmut noted how she had wrapped her arms around herself. He reached out, his own hand moving to sit on top of hers. He took hold of her fingers and squeezed them tightly, trying to keep her calm. She clung back onto his hand and he knew she was nervous. Sighing, he almost hated the thought of her spending the past few weeks keeping this from him. How alone had she felt? How worried had she been? It was another minute or so before she stood up and he watched her look down onto the test.

She continued clinging onto his hand as he also moved, his free hand going into his trouser pocket. He heard her let out a deep sigh and she began shaking, her eyes filling with tears. She knew how odd she must have looked as she cried with relief and Helmut wrapped his arms around her tightly. So many women would have been disappointed with this result, but it was what Amelia needed to see.

She needed to see the negative test result.

"I wish you hadn't have kept it to yourself," Helmut said as they drove to the outskirts of Madrid. Helmut had hired a car this time, driving them as opposed to having a driver. He navigated the roads with ease, following the navigation system on his phone that he was using. He didn't intend on inputting the address into the car's sat-nav in case anything went wrong.

"It's all fine now," Amelia said to him.

"But you spent three weeks hiding it from me, Amelia, when we could have resolved it sooner."

"Because I was scared," Amelia confessed to him. "I was scared about how you would react, Helmut…scared about what I was going to do…this wasn't part of the agreement, was it? Getting pregnant would have been a nightmare."

"It would not have been ideal," Helmut agreed with her. "But you didn't have to keep things from me because you are scared of me."

"I'm not scared of you," she said as he sat at a traffic light patiently, hands gripping the wheel and foot poised over the accelerator. "I was scared of how you would react. There's a difference."

"How did you think I would react?"

"I don't know, that's the point," Amelia retorted and he set off once more, crawling through the traffic. "I didn't know how you would react and that worried me, alright? It just…I just didn't know what to do for the best."

Helmut sighed, knowing that he was being slightly harsh on her. He turned left down another street and pulled up. They were only a few streets away, but he figured the walk might be good and give them distance. He turned the ignition off and looked to Amelia as she fidgeted with her hands in her lap.

"I just don't want you to be worried about telling me things," he said to her with a softer tone. "You can tell me anything, Amelia, and we will fix it. We can fix it."

Amelia wanted to ask him if that was true. There was one thing she wanted to tell him more than anything, but she was keeping that to herself. She had no intention of saying anything, despite her longing. Nodding her head, she felt him move his hand to her cheek and he leant in, kissing her softly on the forehead. Running his thumb over her cheekbone, he sat close to her before speaking.

"Are you sure you want to come with me?" he asked her.

"I'll be fine…I'm fine…" she assured him. "Come on, let's go."

She climbed from the car as Helmut followed her, locking it and dropping the key in his pocket. Walking alongside her, he saw her put her hands into the pockets of the white and blue striped high neck jumpsuit she wore. She had her hair tied back and a denim jacket protected her from the cold. He kept close to her as they approached the house and Amelia looked to him, nodding and assuring him that she was ready.

He knocked on the door of the terraced house, speaking fluently in Spanish. Amelia stood by his side before there was the creaking noise of the heavy wooden door. Helmut moved quickly then, brushing aside the woman behind it with Amelia following him. He had pretended to be a HYDRA agent, knowing full well that Rosie was still loyal to their cause. He claimed that he had been sent to her by William Edgington and she had seemed to believe him.

They spoke in Spanish for a few more moments, Amelia wondering what they were discussing. She knew French from her time working there for the PR firm, but that was about it. Helmut, on the other hand, appeared to be fluent in a number of languages.

"As much as your dedication to HYDRA is admirable, Ms White, I must insist I stop pretending with you."

Amelia looked around the small living room. The floor was tiled, but some of the beige stones were chipped. The sofa was ripped in a few places, the red material clashing with the light oak furniture in the small space. The curtains were drawn and there was a number of papers dotted around alongside books and journals.

The woman was middle-aged with chestnut locks that had clearly been dyed. She was tall and muscular, her face all sharp angles and pointed lips. Her eyes were a deep green and showing nothing but suspicion and anger. She pushed a hand through her straight hair as Helmut watched her intently. Dressed in white linen pants with a long white shirt, she looked almost angelic. But there was a darkness there. Amelia could sense that much.

"Who are you?" she demanded, switching to English once more. She was American. There was an obvious lilt in her voice that gave away her accent.

"My name is Helmut Zemo," he answered her.

"Amelia Baker," Amelia said before he could introduce her and he silently cursed her for giving the woman her name. "We've read a lot about you, Ms White."

"Hmmm…all bad I hope?" she questioned and she casually moved around her living room. She sat down in the armchair by the bookcase and folded one leg over the other. She didn't look scared. In fact, she looked entertained. "So, who are you? CIA? MI5? You're clearly British," she said, pointing at Amelia. "But you…you're European…Russian?"

"Sokovian," he answered.

"Ah," she said and placed her hands onto the arm of the chair. "So, what is this? You've come to arrest me? Because I've got to tell you, I don't think that would work out for you."

Helmut chuckled darkly as Amelia remained stood by the doorway. He moved further into the room and sat down on the couch, clearly making himself comfortable. Amelia noted the way he moved, so gracefully and elegant. It was like nothing phased him. He wasn't worried about anything in the slightest. He had this situation under control.

"We're not here to arrest you," Helmut said to her. "We're here to ask you about the Winter Soldier program."

She went silent then and Helmut noted the way her hand hovered on the arm of her chair. It was like she wanted to reach for something. And then her eyes flickered to the bookcase and he picked up on it. She most certainly was hiding something from them.

"I don't know anything about that."

"Really?" Amelia questioned. "Because your name is linked to it."

She shook her head once more. "I just recruited them…HYDRA asked me to find people who were desperate…people just like Steve Rogers who were so desperate to prove their worth…but these people had nothing. They had nothing to lose and when you find people with nothing to lose, they're so willing…so excited…to then have a purpose."

"And that purpose was?" Helmut wondered.

"To become Gods," she said simply. "They would have been HYDRA idols if the mission had succeeded."

"But it didn't," Amelia said lowly and the woman eyed her. "Because the serum didn't work."

"That was bad luck," Rosie confessed. "But whatever you want to know about HYDRA…let's just say that you're not going to get it from me. So, do your worst."

"Oh, I don't think it will come to that," Helmut promised her with a soft tut in her direction. "But I do think that you are going to tell us everything because I know you are hiding something. I know that you've been looking at that bookcase ever since we walked in which tells me that you're hiding something there."

"Very good…Zemo…wasn't it?" she questioned. "But it won't matter. You see, as soon as you knocked on my door and told me who you were, I knew it could be a trick. I've been waiting years for the authorities to get their hands on me, but you two…I confess I am intrigued as to who you are."

"You know our names."

"But not who you are…not really…" Rosie said. "Has HYDRA wronged you in some way? You know that we don't really care whose toes we tread on to get what we want."

"Oh, I know, and I confess I do find your motives to be rather despicable," Helmut said to her. "But we have our own plans that we would prefer not to divulge with you."

"You know, I'll give you one chance," Rosie said, holding a finger up in his direction. "If you leave here right now then I won't come after you. I will pretend this never happened."

"And if we don't?"

Rosie stood up and Helmut watched where her hands were going. He hadn't seen any obvious weapons when he had walked in. There had been no outline of a gun or a knife pressed into the pockets of her trousers and, with them being linen, he had quite a clear view.

He stood as well though as he noted her moving towards Amelia and she stood still, a smirk forming on her face.

"Your first thought was to protect her," she commented. "Blocking my way towards her…and I've seen her engagement ring…your wedding ring…are you married?"

"No," Amelia answered.

"But you're clearly fucking," the woman drawled lowly. "I can see that much is true. So, if you're not married then you were, but not divorced. Most divorcees take off their wedding rings which makes me think you're both widowed."

"It's none of your business," Helmut retorted.

"Oh, but I want to know," she said, almost sounding giddy with excitement. "Because it makes it all the more fun to know who I should kill first to inflict maximum pain."

"You're killing no one," Helmut warned her, still stood in front of Amelia.

"I think I'll kill her first, Romeo," Rosie said. "Shame, she's quite the pretty little thing."

Helmut moved quickly, noting how Rosie darted for something behind a plant pot that was on the sideboard by her rickety staircase. He saw her raise the object and he instantly moved towards her, prepared to knock her off balance and disarm her in a second. But he didn't need to do any of that. The bang echoed around the room and he grabbed Rosie's wrist, pushing her aim away from Amelia. But he hardly had to use any force as her body went lax. She fell to the floor in a heap, collapsing with a thud on the floor.

Helmut turned out of confusion before he saw Amelia stood there. She had a gun raised in her hand, but she wasn't shaking this time like she had in Madripoor. She looked almost too calm for Helmut's liking and he wondered just how she had reacted so quickly.

"Are you hurt?" Helmut worried. He could see, quite clearly, that she had pulled the trigger. She had shot Rosie before she could shoot her. Shaking her head, Amelia lowered the gun as he stood before her, fretting as his hands grabbed her cheeks.

"I'm fine," she said to him. "And I know you would never have let her shoot me, but I wasn't taking any chances."

"Where did you even get that?" Helmut questioned from her.

"She was so focused on talking to you," Amelia said to him. "I spotted the gun on the sideboard in the hall. I picked it up on our way in here."

Helmut nodded. He had clocked that too, but had chosen to leave it. He knew that he could beat Rosie to the hallway so long as he stayed closest to the room. Shaking his head slowly, Helmut took the gun from her hands and ensured the safety lock was on before putting it into the waistband of his trousers.

"Come on, we need to act quickly in case anyone notices what happened."

"You said she kept looking at the bookcase?" Amelia checked.

"Yes," Helmut replied, already on his way to the item against the wall.

He reached into his pockets and pulled out a pair of leather gloves. He slipped them onto his fingers as Amelia stood next to him. "Don't touch anything," he urged from her. "Have you touched anything here?"

"Just that gun," Amelia said.

"Easy enough to get rid of," he promised her and began pulling at the books.

He noted a photo frame on the third shelf and spotted something sticking out from the corners of it. There was no photo in it, just the placement photo of some lack in front of a mountain range. Who would have a frame and no photo? Picking it up, he saw the paper that was crumpled in the top corner of the image clearer. Laying it on its front, he undid the back and noted a piece of crumpled paper.

"What is that?" Amelia wondered.

"An address," he said. "Karpov…Cleveland…" he read out the long address too. "1025 Oakfield Lane."

"Karpov," Amelia said with a glance at the paper. Helmut placed the name and address in his pocket before continuing his work. It was then when he found it. There was a book on the shelf. It looked nothing special, but he could tell by its worn out binding that it had been read quite a lot. Pulling it down, he let his lips arch.

"Her journal," he informed Amelia. Opening the book up, he read over the pages and saw the dates. "1991…until 1992."

"Christ," Amelia gasped as she looked down over it. He nodded his head and then closed it.

"We should get out of here," he said. "Come on. It looks like we have some heavy reading tonight."

They had sat in Helmut's room that night, Amelia perched in the middle of the bed with Helmut sat on the chair at the desk. He had the journal in his hand and was flicking through it and trying to find the relevant information. Amelia had his laptop open in front of her and was seeing if she could find any mention of Karpov in the files they had made notes on.

"He was the Winter Soldier handler," Helmut suddenly spoke to Amelia and she stopped her typing and peered across to him. "Karpov was the handler of the Winter Soldier. He was the only one who was not volatile…the only one who HYDRA trusted. She made quite the notes in here. I almost can't believe she left them lying around."

"Yeah, but she was cocky," Amelia pointed out. "Besides, that book looks nothing like a journal."

"True," Helmut agreed. "But she recruited the super soldiers for experimentation. She found those who were down and out on their luck and used that fact to manipulate them."

"It seems like she did a pretty good job," Amelia informed Helmut. "If people volunteered."

"They did," he said to her with a nod. "And the Winter Soldier…they would wipe his mind and control him. She talks here about certain words that would do that…certain words to make him comply."

"What are they?"

"She doesn't say," Helmut said. "Most of this is just pointless ramblings dedicating her life to HYDRA and their cause. She says nothing about the Starks or anything else which means that our theory remains just that without hard evidence."

"So we go to Cleveland?" Amelia questioned him. "If Karpov was the Winter Soldier's handler then he's going to know what happened, surely? He's going to know what mission he sent him out on and what happened…so we go to Cleveland. We get him to give us the evidence and then we have it. We have what we need."

"Seems like a logical thing to do," Helmut told her. "However, you are forgetting Edgington. He's the last scientist left who we need to deal with and, judging by what Rosie told me in Spanish, she believed he was living in Paris, only a few hours flight from here."

"So you want to go to Paris?"

"Look here," Helmut urged from her.

He tossed her a letter that he had found in her journal and Amelia looked down onto it as he stood up, stretching his stiff limbs as he moved around the room. Dropping his hands to his hips, he paced for a few moments as she eyed the letter.

"Edgington is hosting a party in Paris next week," Helmut told her. "She was invited and clearly had contact with him still. We go to that party, we deal with Edgington, and then we go to Cleveland. Think about it, we wouldn't have to worry about the HYDRA scientists recreating the serum then…we'd have one last job…to tear the Avengers apart…and we'd be done. Our work would be finished."

"You think so?"

"I think so," he echoed back and she shrugged.

"I guess that makes sense," she agreed with him. "And if we're going to Paris then we may as well stay in Lukas's townhouse there. It makes more sense than renting a new place or paying for a hotel."

"You're sure?"

"Positive," Amelia said to him with a nod.

She hadn't been back there since before he had died. She had the key to the house on her keychain with her apartment keys, but she hadn't intended on using it. She wondered if it would still look the same when she went back. His family had paid a cleaner to keep it in top condition considering she also cleaned his parents French home that was a few blocks away. She was apprehensive about going back, but it made more sense.

"Listen, I'm going to head on out for some air," Amelia said, feeling as though the room was becoming stuffy. She just needed space and time to think after the events of the day. It had gone from her worrying she had been pregnant, to stopping a HYDRA operative from shooting her by killing her first. "Maybe find a bar for a drink."

"Mind if I join you?" Helmut asked.

"Be my guest," Amelia said.

They walked to the bar together, moving along the cool streets of Madrid in the dark evening air. There were others spilling out from restaurants, laughing and joking as they found this little hole in the wall down a side street. There were only six tables in it, Amelia taking the one by the window as Helmut stood at the bar and ordered them two glasses of wine.

Carrying them back to the table, he saw Amelia fold one leg over the other and he sat one glass down in front of her. She thanked him and they drank the alcohol together, talking about nothing of importance. Amelia told Helmut she would be back after a moment, heading to the bathroom and leaving him to order more drinks.

He wondered where she had gotten to when he sat back down and time ticked by. She didn't return for quite some time and he grew increasingly worried. Looking around, he realised that there was no cause for concern as he glanced out the window and saw her stood in the street, leant against the wall with her foot kicked back up against the white washed stone.

Picking the glasses up, he moved through the bar and took the wonky stone steps back onto the street. Amelia was by herself, a cigarette in her grip as she blew out a puff of smoke in front of her. Helmut carried the wine glasses towards her and she turned her head to the side as she heard footsteps approaching.

"Sorry," she said.

"I didn't know you smoked," Helmut commented, handing her the wine glass.

Her blue coat was open and hanging loose. She hadn't taken it off all evening, finding the bar to be particularly cool without it on. Helmut's dark jacket was zipped up to his chest, the collar of his shirt peeking up from underneath it.

"I don't," she said to him. "I mean…the occasional cigarette when I've been drinking, but that's it. I saw the bartender smoking outside and wondered if one would calm my nerves."

"After this afternoon?" Helmut asked and she took a sip of her wine, shaking her head.

"After this morning," she confessed. "I just went to the bathroom and my period came, so definitely not pregnant."

"I see," Helmut said to her and she took another long drag of the cigarette. "And are you alright?"

"Fine," she assured him. "I mean, shooting Rosie…she would have shot me so I just did what had to be done. I don't feel any remorse or regret. It's like…nothing like in Madripoor…when I had been unsure and apprehensive. It didn't bother me."

Helmut nodded and looked to the sky, hoping that Lukas wasn't watching him. What had he turned Amelia into by bringing her on this vendetta of his? But he couldn't think like that. She had told him not to think like that. She had promised him that she could make her own decisions and didn't need him worrying over her. He tried not to, but he had to confess that he found it increasingly difficult.

"I'm sorry-"

"-Don't even finish that sentence," Amelia interrupted him. "I don't want to hear you say that you're sorry that I had to kill her or how you feel you let Lukas down. I don't want to hear any of it."

Helmut held the wine glass tightly in his fingers as Amelia placed the cigarette to her lips once more. Looking to the sky, she exhaled away from him and he nodded his head.

"Fine," was all that he offered her. If she didn't want to talk about it then they wouldn't talk about it. "Can I have that?"

He motioned to the cigarette with his free hand and Amelia held it up and towards him. "I didn't know you smoked."

"I don't, but it's been a trying day. You're not the only one on edge," he said to her. He hadn't smoked in years. He remembered having a cigar when he had been on a friend's stag-do once, but that had been quite some time ago. Amelia watched him as he took in a breath and then blew out before coughing once and she chuckled.

"You alright?" she asked and he took a breath for air.

"These things do kill…perhaps I am better off away from them," he said and Amelia took it back from him. She took another drag as he sipped his wine, his gaze hooded as he watched her. "Besides, I suppose we can't all look attractive when smoking."

Looking to him, Amelia leant back against the wall and he stepped closer to her, inches away from his body pressing to hers. She blew the smoke to the side and then looked back into his eyes. "Maybe it's best if we stop this," she said to him and he couldn't help but notice how her body was saying the opposite, seeing the way her pupils dilated and her breathing seemed shaky. "After this morning…we're risking too much…I don't want to go through that again."

"Is that what you want?" he asked from her. "Not to sleep together again?"

"No," Amelia said. "What I want is to go back to that hotel room and forget everything about today because I…I need something…and this cigarette isn't doing what I hoped it would do."

"Then let's go back," Helmut shrugged, sipping on his wine.

"And this morning? We're playing a dangerous game, Helmut and tonight…I'm not sure it's the right time."

"As you wish," Helmut said to her. "But I assure you that things would be fine."

"Besides, I'm on my period," Amelia said to him. "So let's just have another glass of wine and then go back and go to sleep."

She dropped the cigarette to the ground and used the heel of her sneaker-covered foot to stub it out. Helmut watched her take another sip of wine before she spotted the way he was watching her and she shook her head. Moving past him back into the bar, she pinched the bridge of her nose as he followed her back inside and she wondered if she would have the self-restraint to resist him all night.

A/N: We're getting into the movie in another three or so chapters, maybe less depending on how things go. Pretty please do let me know if you're reading - there's much more trouble to come. Love to hear your thoughts!