Amelia had walked around the airport, searching for clean clothes and warmer clothes too, knowing that where they were going it would be cold. She had bought her ticket to Moscow with Helmut, refusing to let him out of her sight until they were through security. He had wandered off with his brown, leather bag on his shoulder after telling her that he was going to go and find something to eat and drink.

Wandering through the clothes shops in the airport, Amelia wondered how strange she looked. She was buying her luggage literally before flying. She wasn't prepared for any of this and she was paying a fortune for clothes that she doubted she would ever wear again. Amelia didn't do the extreme cold. She hated it. The shop assistant was really helpful, speaking to her in English considering her German was lacking.

She packed her a duffel bag of the clothes she had bought while she changed into something a bit warmer in the changing room. She paid for all of her new clothes and went to find Helmut, now carrying her satchel and a duffel bag. She soon found him sat at a stool in a restaurant by the large glass windows that overlooked the runway.

"Here."

Amelia handed him the cup that she had picked up with her iced tea. One was full of ice cubes and the other contained her drink. Settling the plastic cup of ice down onto the table, she slid it across to Helmut and he took a glance down to it.

"Your nose is looking slightly swollen," Amelia explained and placed her duffel on the floor and hung her satchel on the back of the bar stool. Climbing onto the chair across from Helmut, she watched him pick out an ice cube and wrap it into a napkin. He placed it against his nose and winced slightly.

"I wonder why my nose is swollen," he drawled sarcastically and Amelia rolled her eyes.

"Get over it," she demanded from him.

"You could have broken my nose," he complained once more.

"Well, luckily I didn't, did I?" she retorted, her voice harsh "Besides, you can't tell me that you wouldn't have deserved it after everything you've done."

He was silent at that. Perhaps she had a point. He picked at the sandwich he had bought as Amelia slurped on her iced tea, looking out of the window and onto the runway. He studied her features, drinking in the sight of her and he felt that familiar pang in his chest while watching her. She was so worried. He could tell just by looking at her, noting the way she was chewing down on her bottom lip and nervously drumming her fingers against the clear plastic cup.

"You can go back home," Helmut told her and she turned her attention back to him.

He had changed out of the clothes he had been wearing while she had been shopping, now dressed in a shirt with a jacket over it and dark jeans. He looked more like his usual self as opposed to wearing a fleece with a tweed jacket.

"I'm going nowhere," Amelia told him. "After we've done this…found what we need…then I'll go home."

"It will be safe for you," Helmut informed her and her brows knitted together in confusion as he explained to her what he had done. "I had Oeznik go to your apartment and destroy all evidence about what we have done. No one should be able to trace anything back to you…HYDRA…you'll be safe."

Amelia glowered at him and tried to keep her anger controlled. "You're telling me that you had your butler break into my apartment?"

"To protect you."

"And none of that will make a difference, will it?" Amelia retorted with a snap at him. "Because as soon as they find out that you did all of this then they'll retrace your movements and what will they find? Me, sat with you, in an airport. They'll find out we've travelled together…been staying in hotels together…people aren't stupid, Helmut. I'm linked with you in this. I'm involved."

"I would take the fall."

"And you think that anyone would believe that?"

"Why would they not?" he responded. "There is nothing to connect us to what we have done to HYDRA. All that they will have is room bookings and plane tickets. And, if we were connected to what we've done, then I would say that it was all me. You would be safe. I will see to that."

Amelia shook her head and looked up to the ceiling. "There's no point thinking about that right now," she informed him, placing her cup on the table and running a hand up her throat to cup her chin in her pam before looking to him once more and shrugging. "We just need to focus on the task at hand."

Helmut agreed with her on that, looking over to the TV screen as something caught his attention. He sat up straight and Amelia turned her head over her shoulder to follow his gaze. She managed to read the headline news that informed her how Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson were on the run.

"There was a woman too."

Steve looked to Sam as he sat in the passenger seat of the car. Bucky was sat in the back, hands laced together and in between his legs. He was feeling guilty, wondering if he was really worth all of this trouble. He didn't think that he was. In fact, he was convinced that he wasn't worth it in the slightest. He was doing his best not to let his mind wander too far towards negative thoughts, but it was difficult not to when he knew that he could still be controlled.

"A woman?" Steve questioned and looked at Bucky in the rear-view mirror. "Did you see anyone else?"

"Not with him," Bucky said with a shake of his head. "He was the one who said the words to me and asked me…about Siberia."

Steve nodded. He believed his friend implicitly. Looking across to Sam as he drove down the highway, he threw glances in his direction. "Did you get a good look at her?"

"Not really," Sam confessed. "I just saw her with him by the elevator after you'd been thrown down it."

Sam began to described her as best as he could. Bucky, again, felt guilty at what he had done to Steve. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and continued to stare out of the window, allowing his thoughts to remain uninterrupted as he tried to work out what would happen if that man did get to Siberia and wake up the other soldiers. It would be a catastrophe.

"You think he has an accomplice?"

"I'm not sure," Sam admitted. "She seemed angry with him and he seemed annoyed that she was there. It didn't sound like he expected her to turn up."

"So…not an accomplice, but someone who he knows?"

"Again, I can't be sure," Sam said, not wanting to jump to conclusions. He knew what could happen if he did that. They needed certainty, not assumptions. "He took her with him when he left though. I saw him drag her away so I guess that, whoever she is, she might know more than we do."

"Chances are she could still be with him," Steve commented and nodded thoughtfully, overtaking another car on the highway. "We need to be prepared for what we come up against, so for now it's best to assume that she could be dangerous as well."

Amelia swore that she was frozen. Her teeth were chattering and her hands were shaking. She was sat in the compartment on the train, legs pulled up to her chest and doing her best to keep warm. The heating was on in the private room, but she was still frozen. Helmut was sat on the bench across from her, holding the red book with the silver star on it. He was also dressed in his winter coat, gloves on his hands and a hat next to him. They were on the Trans-Siberian railway line until they came to the nearest stop closest to the facility where the Winter Soldiers were being kept.

Amelia laid her cheek against her kneecaps and closed her eyes. Helmut peered up from the book and glanced over to the woman who had intruded on his plans. He let his eyes roam over her and he knew that they still had quite a while before they arrived at their destination. The journey took the entire night and the sun had now set beyond the landscape, snow falling against the window and the flakes dripping down the glass.

"Here."

Helmut reached for the quilt that had been folded up at the end of the bench. The room in the carriage was small, a bathroom with a shower and toilet behind the door in the corner. There was a bench either side of the wall with two fold-down beds above them that were currently not in use. Unfolding the quilt, Helmut stood up and draped it over Amelia.

"Thanks," Amelia managed to say to him as he let it cover her and he saw her lay on her side on the bench, curling into a ball and resting her head against the arm of it. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried not to think about the cold as Helmut looked to the heater against the wall. Turning the knob on it, he managed to get the heat turned up and he rubbed his hands together.

"What did he tell you?" Amelia suddenly asked, eyes remaining closed.

"Who?"

"Barnes," Amelia said. "He must have told you something."

"We were right with what we assumed," Helmut said. "He did kill the Starks. The facility in Siberia was where he stayed when they didn't wake him up. He told me that there were more of them. There are more Winter Soldiers who are currently sleeping…almost like they have been put on ice until HYDRA want to wake them up."

"Christ," Amelia mumbled and pulled the quilt right up to her chin, her body still shaking despite being covered in numerous layers. She chewed down on the inside of her cheek and Helmut picked the book up once more. He closed it and rested it in his lap. "So, when we get there…we can't let them wake up, can we?"

"No," Helmut agreed with her on that point. "If HYDRA got their hands on them then I do not want to know what they would do."

"That makes two of us," Amelia agreed with him on that point. "And is there any evidence that Barnes did kill the Starks?"

"I believe there is in the facility," he said. "I just need to find it and lure Stark there…I have no doubt that Captain America will be on his way to try and find me. You heard the news, he's on the run with the Winter Soldier. I imagine they think I intend to travel to Siberia to wake the rest of them up."

Amelia chuckled darkly and shook her head, rolling onto her back and stretching her legs out in front of her, the compartment now becoming warmer thanks to Helmut adjusting the heat. "That would be the most ironic thing to have happened," Amelia said and Helmut's own lips arched upwards for a second, agreeing with her on that point. "So…you think that they will be coming after you, but what about Stark? He's not on the run like they are."

"I have a plan for that too," Helmut said and he looked over Amelia as she turned her head to the side and looked at him once more. Her hair pooled around her face and he couldn't stop himself from staring at her, unable to take his eyes from her dark eyes or her plump lips.

"And?" Amelia wondered, questioning why he was staring at her like he was. It seemed almost too intense and she knew there was something wrong.

He didn't want to tell her how he was going to lure Stark there too because that meant giving himself up. It meant revealing his identity and, while Helmut knew it was necessary, he knew what it then meant. He had been so determined in his convictions the other night, telling himself that after he had what he wanted then he was done. He would welcome death. He would welcome the option not to be filled with so much hate and vengeance.

But then he looked to Amelia. He looked to her as she lay on the bench across from him with her questioning stare and he began to wonder about what might have happened if he had chosen differently.

"And I have left just enough breadcrumbs for him to suspect that something is happening in Siberia," Helmut said. "He will be with them, don't worry about that."

And she didn't bother questioning him. She simply shrugged and moved onto her back once more. Helmut sat silently and looked out of the window. He intended on Doctor Broussard being found in his hotel room. Stark would hear that news and he would find out that it was Helmut who had killed the doctor after meeting him at the train station. He would come after him then too, believing that Captain America might have a point that the Winter Soldier was innocent.

He had done his best to keep up to date with the news, checking his phone continuously for any updates. So far all he had was that Captain America, Falcon and the Winter Soldier were still on the run. Iron Man had been tasked with bringing them in, but Helmut knew that he couldn't let that happen. They all had to come to Siberia for his plan to work, his plan to tear them apart. Once he had done that then he would rest. He would finally be able to rest and so would Amelia.

He would take the fall for all of this. He had Oeznik clear her apartment to put her in the clear. He had left a letter in his satchel that he had written on the flight over to Moscow, claiming that she had nothing to do with any of this. She hadn't been staying in the hotel with him in Berlin. She hadn't been with him when he had met Broussard. She was simply a friend. She was simply someone who was trying to get him to see sense. Whether or not anyone believed him or not, he couldn't be certain. All he knew was that he had ensured there was no evidence linking her to any of his crimes. He owed her that much at least.

Watching her as she slept on the bench, Helmut leant forwards and laced his fingers together against his chin. She was breathing softly for the time being, but she soon began moaning in her sleep, her hands pushing against the duvet as she grunted.

"Get off…no…get off me…"

The nightmares. Helmut knew she suffered with them. He knew how they stopped her from sleeping as well as she should. He had seen that first hand. He took a moment to ensure she was having a nightmare, seeing her tossing and turning, before he moved. He knelt down on the red carpeted floor and reached his hand out to her arm. He held it in his grip gently and shook her. She woke up quickly, eyes blinking profusely before she turned to look at him, gathering her breath.

"You should see a doctor about these nightmares," Helmut said, but Amelia shook her head.

"I'll be fine."

"What one was it this time?"

"Edgington," she whispered his name and Helmut moved his hand from her arm. She sat up, her back pressing against the arm of the seat as Helmut also moved to sit back on the bench across from her.

"He's gone, Amelia. He can't hurt you," Helmut assured her.

She shook her head. "It's not me who he's hurting in the nightmare," she whispered and Helmut's eyes widened at hearing her.

He was silent as Amelia let the quilt drop to her lap and she swung her legs over the bench once more, planting her feet on the ground. Running her hand through her hair, she closed her eyes for a second and remembered what she had just seen. Edgington had her pinned down onto the ground, Helmut storming in and demanding him to let her go. But he shot him. He shot him without a moment's hesitation and all Amelia could do was wail on the rug beneath her, unable to move and do anything but watch the life drain from his eyes.

Helmut suspected he knew what she was talking about and he was doing his best to find the words to speak to her. His mouth dried out and Amelia stood up, unable to stand being in the compartment for much longer and dwelling on the silence between the two of them.

"I'm going to see if I can find anything to eat," she commented.

"Amelia, wait," Helmut urged as she grabbed her purse from her satchel, grateful she had exchanged money for the local currency at the airport.

"Do you want anything?" she asked, ignoring his comment.

"Yes, you not to run away."

"I'm not running away, I am going to fetch some food," she retorted. She wasn't even hungry, that was the ironic thing about the entire situation.

"You are."

"And you would be the expert on that," Amelia threw the comment back to him and she shook her head, looking upwards again. She tried not to cry, knowing that her emotions were going to get the better of her at one stage. She had been so strong until that moment, but then she had to fall asleep and have a nightmare. She had to see him, even when she wasn't awake.

"I told you why-"

"-Do you know what you did to me?" Amelia interrupted, not bothering to listen to his excuses. "You gave me hope, Helmut. When you stopped me from walking out of that door…you gave me hope that there could be something more and then I woke up and you had gone. You'd gone without even bothering to explain anything to me and you can tell me that you did it for my own good…to go through with this insane plan…but you still left me. You gave me so much the night before…belief that there might be something else other than the lonely hell we've been living in and then you snatched it away."

Helmut was silent, looking down to the ground. He bit down on his tongue as Amelia watched him and waited for him to say something to her. But he didn't. He didn't have the words to make any of this better.

"And then you went through with this plan and I knew then that you'd made your choice…that loving you was a stupid thing to do because you would always pick revenge over me."

"Don't say that," Helmut urged from her.

"What?"

"That loving me…it's not stupid," Helmut promised her and she looked to him. "But you deserve someone better."

"I know that," she said to him. "But I didn't until yesterday when I found out what you had done at the UN for certain. Just tell me one thing, Helmut, was any of it real? Have I imagined it all? Did you ever care for me?"

"Of course I care for you," he responded. "You know that I care for you."

"Do I?" she replied. "Because if you really ever did care for me then you would have just let me leave that night in Cleveland. Why didn't you? Can you at least tell me that? Why did you want me to stay?"

Helmut looked down to the ground. How did he tell her that he had wanted her to stay because he did want her? How did he admit to her that he was scared that he felt something deeper for her? It wasn't love. He knew what love was because of Heike. But he was certain it was something close to it and, if he let himself, he could see himself loving her. Of course he could. She was, to him, practically perfect.

Amelia took his silence to mean the complete opposite. She thought that he couldn't tell her that he had asked her to stay because he simply wanted one final night with her. She felt used and abandoned by him. But deep down she wondered if there was something else.

Sniffing when he didn't respond, Amelia reached for the door handle and Helmut considered grabbing hold of her, wrapping her into his arms and kissing her just like he had done before. He wanted to feel her gripping onto his hair, her body pressed to his and her legs wrapped around him. But he knew that would be selfish. He knew she probably wanted nothing to do with him now. And he owed her that. He owed her it to keep away from her and not hurt her anymore.

"I'll be back soon," Amelia said and she left the compartment, closing the door behind her.

Stumbling down the corridor, she made it to the end of the carriage before grabbing the wall besides her and sobbing away from his prying ears, wondering just when the heartache would go away.

A/N: Thanks all so much for reading. Would love to know what you think!