Fun Fact!
I am actually a model and a photographer and I specialize in self-shot photography.
The vast majority of these photos actually exist and I am the subject of every single one of them. I either modeled the photos or took and modeled them myself.
I have changed a few of them slightly to better fit this story and my OC.

Chapter 30

Ella had to snap Sam and Bucky out of their thoughts.

"Do you boys want to head to the next series or do you want to write a thesis about your thoughts and opinions regarding this one series in particular?"

Ella's smile widened as she let out a laugh, she was about to say something but was cut off by boisterous laughter from the very end of the hall.

All three of them turned towards the noise to see the two men standing in front of the photos of Ella in the child's bed.

Then Bucky heard one of them say something that he knew all of them had heard. Including Ella. When the second the man with the unkempt beard said what he had said, Bucky knew there was going to be major trouble.

"Now if only that guy will let me have a go with her once he's done. I'll make her scream even more."

Bucky and Sam both immediately turned their eyes to Ella. Her face had reddened and her hands had balled into tight fists. Her eyes were full of a fire that Bucky had only glimpsed once. At a fraction of what he was seeing now. Before either of them could do anything, she was off.

She made straight for the two men who were still laughing. The sound of her boots and heavy footfalls echoing off the walls. Her hair and dress flowing out behind her. Bucky and Sam were close behind.

When Ella reached the two men they stopped and looked up at her. Due to the added height of her heels, she had a few inches on both of them. They both stopped laughing, but neither of them stopped smiling. Not even under the full force of Ella's gaze.

"Can we help you, sweetheart?" Said the one with the twat knot.

"You two need to leave. Now."

Ella's voice was quiet, threatening, resonating deep in her chest in a way Bucky had never heard from her before. Sam even took a step back, not expecting it to ring with the power, the pure authority, that it did. As low as she was speaking, every word carried down the hall with the weight of her vehemence.

"You disrespected me and my work multiple times. Now leave. I will not ask again." Ella stared them down, literally and metaphorically speaking, for a moment before she turned her back on them and headed back towards Sam and Bucky. Sam physically recoiled at the look on her face.

The man with the bun just scoffed, humor smeared across his ugly face, and turn towards his friend.

"Yeah, right, princess. Go running back to your boyfriends before you get hurt."

Sam and Bucky could only watch. It only took a few seconds. Just a few seconds and everything was turned upside down.

It was in slow motion, just like in the movies. Ella stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened them again another person was behind those fiery green eyes. Her right hand shot towards the top of the slit in her dress.

As she turned towards the men, her right side leading, Bucky saw a glimpse of a throwing knife emerge in her hand.

She was so quick Bucky almost missed what happened next.

Ella flung her right arm sideways like she was throwing a frisbee, at the man who had made the remark as she took a step towards them. Using the momentum to her favor. The knife cut through the air, tumbling sideways, end over end. It flew right above the asshole's head and buried itself past the hilt into the drywall behind him with a dull thud.

She took another step forward with her left leg, then kicked her right leg straight up, leaned forward slightly, and brought it down right in front of the other man with the dirty beard and the black coat.

The only sound in the gallery was of the vibrations of the metal knife embedded in her heel making contact with the wood floor. And the buttons of the man's coat clattering across to across the ground.

Then Ella spoke softly.

"The only ones around here who will get hurt are you two."

The knot of hair on top of the head of the man who had made the threatening remark fell in a limp mess around his shoulders. The knife Ella had thrown had severed the hair between his head and the tie that held it in place. The hair that had not parted ways with his scalp was hanging limply, jaggedly cut.

As his friend started gathering the now severed remnants of his twat knot, the man with the scraggly beard looked down to see that his coat had been slashed clean open by the heel of Ella's boot. Every button was scattered across the floor as his feet. He grabbed his leather belt only to see that it too had been slashed.

The two men looked at each other in complete disbelief and shock at the damage Ella had inflicted.

The one in the coat was the first one to find his voice again after realizing he had come millimeters away from losing something very, very near and dear to him.

"What the fuck, you bitch! I'm calling the cops!"

Ella threw her head back and laughed before she went to get into the faces of both men.

"And tell them what? Exactly? How you have been making inappropriate comments about me and my work the whole time you've been here? How I asked you to leave and you didn't? Or how I told you I wouldn't ask again? Or how you looked at photos depicting child rape and said 'Now if only that guy will let me have a go with her once he's done. I'll make her scream even more.' And besides, luckily for you two, I missed. Twice."

Venom oozed from Ella's words. She wasn't yelling or screaming, but she had the same effect.

The man whose hair had been cut off was stupid enough to speak again. His voice wavered as he floundered in fear.

"I'm going to find the manager and the owner of this place and have your show kicked out!"

Bucky couldn't see her face, but by the way that she was standing, he knew that she was releasing the full force of her wrath on both of them. They were now cowering and scrambling to find a way out from under her ire.

Then Bucky saw her right hand slowly moving towards the slit in her dress. There must be more knives where the first one had come from.

"Oh, great. A male Karen. By the way, I own this show. I own this gallery. I own this building. And if you think I don't have this whole place wired for cameras and audio, you're fucking wrong."

When Ella went to grab at another knife Bucky shot forward in a split-second decision and grabbed her left hand. Ella froze.

"These pigs are not worth it. I know what you want to do. They are not worth the blood you are about to spill. Find another way." Bucky pleaded in German.

Ella looked down and then back at Bucky, the fire and fury in her eyes still very much present, but cooling as she looked at him.

"You're right, love. I think I may have a better idea for these two inferior specimens."

Ella looked back at the two men who were looking terrified and confused at the exchange that had just happened in front of them that they did not understand.

Ella brought the knives she had grabbed, took one of the two in her other hand, and put them to the men's throats forcefully. She lurched forward and pinned them against the wall by their necks. She then called out in an authoritative voice that echoed through the halls.

"First Lieutenant Habecker, Second Lieutenant Masterson!"

The sound of synchronized footsteps was heard behind them. Sam and Bucky turned and saw the bouncer from the front door, and another man he had seen throughout the gallery their first time around, sprinting towards and then past them.

They both stopped, stood at attention, and saluted in unison.

"Yes, Captain!" They said, also in unison.

Then she pulled the knives away and stepped back.

"Please escort these degenerates off of my property."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

Both men saluted in unison, again, and each grabbed a man. Bending their arms behind their backs in a way that they were forced forward or else they risked breaking their arms. They then began making their way towards the exit.

"Oh, and Masterson?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Make sure you tell Habecker exactly what you heard. You two may deal with them as you see fit."

Masterson smiled at Ella.

"Of course, ma'am. It would be my pleasure."

With that the two men who Ella had summoned forcefully lead the other two, calling out in pain, back out of the gallery.

Ella watched them go, the air of authority wafting around her. Bucky watched her. He was trying to gauge what to do or say next. What had just happened was way more than what had happened at the bar. He was still processing the incredible accuracy of the knife thrown, and the way she had used the knife in her heel as a weapon with such precision that it was unbelievable.

Sam was standing and staring at both of them. Eyes wide, mouth opening and closing slightly. Trying to find and form words. He could not understand what he had just witnessed. Any of it.

Ella turned around and took a few steps forward. She reached out and dislodged the knife she had thrown from its place in the wall.

She blew on it and wiped it clean of drywall dust and put all three back into the holster on her right leg, just above the slit in her dress. Bucky was surprised he had not seen or noticed any weapons on her that night.

He remembered seeing something there earlier, but his inclinations and extensive training in detecting concealed weapons never alerted him to anything. Was she that distracting or was he losing his edge? Or was there something else at play here?

Considering the stunt Ella had just pulled, he guessed a little of both.

"I think I need a drink. Can I get you two anything?"

Sam and Bucky both agreed to a drink.

"I'll be back in a moment."

Sam and Bucky then watched her leave back down the hallway. The same way the four men had gone. The only sound was over her boots hitting the wood floor. When she was gone Sam got his voice back.

"What the fuck was that?!"

Bucky sighed and looked back at him, eyes shining with pride, adoration, and maybe something more.

"That was Ella. I told you they didn't make them like that in my time."

Sam looked back at the way Ella had left. Still is some form of shock.

"Are you kidding me!? They don't make them like that now! That was… that was… something else."

"She's just something else."

Bucky said as he went to stand back in front of the photos of Ella in the fish tank. Where they had been before everything had occurred. A smile on his face as the memories of what had just happened played through his mind.

"Now I get it. Why you have it as badly for her as you do. You better lock her down, Buck. I swear if you let that one go, I'll kill you in an even more spectacular fashion than that show back there."

"I doubt you could even manage anything more spectacular than her, Sam. I really do."

"I suppose you're right on that point."

They heard her heels before they saw her. Her pace was slower than it had been when she left, Bucky noticed. She came back into the gallery carrying two glasses of dark brown liquid in one hand and one in the other. She certainly did not look like she had almost just killed two people, but there was a different air about her now.

Bucky could not see where the knives were. Even when he was looking for them. She was good. Too good.

"Here you go, boys. I'm sorry you had to see that. I can have quite the temper. And thank you for making me stop, Bucky. That second of hesitation saved me from doing some serious damage that I would have regretted. Although, now my wall has a knife mark in it."

Ella looked down the hall to the place where the knife had embedded itself in the wall.

"It's not that big of a deal. A little bit of putty, some sandpaper, and some paint and it will be good as new." Sam joked.

Ella laughed and took a drink.

"Maybe I'll just put a frame around it. Everyone will think it's part of the show. And title it 'Twat Knot Chop.'"

"Twat knot?" Sam questioned.

"It's what I call man buns. Fucking ugly things. And usually a twat is attached, as we just saw firsthand."

Sam laughed again. Ella was starting to grow on him.

"Who were those guys that came when you called? You called them your First and Second Lieutenants. Were they really?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah. David and Daryl were my First and Second back in the Green Berets. They were also the only two men under my charge that never questioned the fact that I was a woman. They were always there and were always loyal. They were there for me so many times when no one else was. So, when I left, they left with me. I wouldn't leave without them. Or at least not without giving them the same opportunity I was getting. That was one of my conditions for my current job. Now I'm their boss instead of their CO. I also hire them for security purposes on occasion. I look out for them as much as I can, as much as they look out for me. It's good to have people who care about you around."

Just then the two men returned. Bucky noticed that both men sported knuckles that were a bit bloody. As if they had just beaten the shit out of someone. Or two.

They lined up in front of Ella, saluted, and the blonde one from the front door spoke.

"They have been taken care of, Captain."

"Good work, Lieutenant. At ease guys. You can finish out your shifts and head home. Say hi to the wives for me."

Both men were physically relaxed. The blonde one from the door kept weirdly eyeing Bucky. The dark-haired one responded to Ella.

"Sure thing, E. The Mrs. wants to know if you'll come by next week sometime for dinner. David and Amanda are coming, too."

Ella smiled and addressed the dark-haired one who had spoken. The blonde, who Bucky assumed was her First Lieutenant kept giving him the eye. He did his best to ignore it.

"Yeah, sounds good. Have her call me. Or I'll call her. Whichever comes first. Now, back to your posts you two, or I'll call the owner and have you fired."

The both of them laughed. Then saluted again. This time a lot less formally. The blonde went back the way they had come and the dark-haired one went down the hall and around the corner into the next hallway.

"I don't think that blonde one likes me much." Bucky said.

Ella looked at him, a shy smile slowly spreading across her face.

"That's David Habecker. He's very suspicious of you. He distrusts your intentions with me and wonders if you mean well or not. Daryl Masterton is the other, he's been watching you since you set foot in the gallery. My men are loyal. They look out for me as much as they can. They always have. Always will. They aren't just friends, they are family. I akin them as my brothers. They certainly can act like it. That's also why David gave you shit at the door."

Bucky remembered getting shit from the blonde at the door, but he did not recall being tailed their first time through the gallery. He was losing his touch.

"There were a lot more people in here the first time you were in here, and Masterson is good at what he does. I told him not to, but he did anyway. They make it a point to remind me I'm not their CO anymore. That my orders mean nothing to them. Most of the time. But when I need them, they are there. As you witnessed. Masterson is also wondering about your motives, Bucky. Though he isn't as in your face about it as Habecker is. I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't noticed him. Also, take into deliberation how distracted you were by the artwork if you think you should have noticed. I know it's a lot to take in and it is very overwhelming."

"Why are they so concerned about my motivations? What's it to them?" Bucky asked, offended.

"Because I like you. And they know it. If I didn't have any interest they wouldn't care. Then there would be no possibility of casualties."