Frankie leaned back on her knees and wiped sweat off her brows. In the three weeks they'd been here she had gotten a decent garden going. She decided it would be a good day to weed and get things ready for cooler weather vegetables and plants. The sun was bright and warm, a slight breeze cooled her skin slightly, but it didn't feel like an autumn day.
'I think I'll have to find somewhere to garden at home. Kinda a shame that we won't be here longer to enjoy this.'
The patio doors burst open, startling Frankie and causing her to fall onto her butt. Bucky came out with wild eyes, planting himself in front of her and clutching her shoulders.
"For fuck's sake. I have been in the house shouting your name. You scared the shit out of me, Birdie."
"What in the world is going on? I'm just in the garden? I've been out here plenty of times when you come home from work?"
"BARNES?"
"We're coming in. I've got her," Bucky shouted back. "C'mon, we need to get inside. The team is there and we need to talk." Bucky stood, pulling Frankie with him. He kept his hand on the middle of her back, gently guiding her forward and adding to Frankie's confusion. Bucky was one of the most touch-me-not people she knew. She'd been surprised at how well he'd handled all the contact when they were in public to keep up the charade of being married.
Tony pulled Frankie into a bone crushing hug.
"What the fuck is going on? You all are acting like something bad might have happened to me and I don't know anything out of the normal is going on. It scares me." Frankie looked at Tony, Bucky, Steve, and Nat as they all exchanged uneasy glances.
"Bucky has pretty solid evidence Hugo is connected to what's going on here and in the surrounding towns."
"We've been digging into victim files too. There was a group, before you were born, that was trying to take down SHIELD. Similar beliefs as HYDRA but never as powerful," Steve said.
"They were a joke back then. They did some crazy shit, but they weren't good at hiding their tracks. Abunch of incompetent criminals is the best kind," Tony said. "They haven't been on any radars in over thirty years. Seems like this is a new version of that same group, but they're a lot less stupid."
"Alright. And you all thought I was being murdered on a Wednesday afternoon after you found out this information because?"
"Tony didn't tell us anything more than that you had been abducted," Bucky began. Dread began at Frankie's toes and worked its way upwards. "It seems like this group and whoever had a hand in what happened to you last year are connected."
Frankie let out a breath. "Alright. Well. Still here."
"Franklin-"
"I'd really like some time alone actually," Frankie interrupted Tony's words.
"We need to know the details of what happened to you to know what we're dealing with and be certain of whether or not you're in danger." Steve had an apologetic look on his face that agitated Frankie even more.
"You can't just tell them?" Frankie asked Tony, eyes blazing.
"If I could take this burden from you I would. I know what you've told me. I've never read any report."
Frankie felt trapped and buzzy as she looked around at everyone in the room. It didn't feel like a choice. Logically she knew it wasn't a choice, that she had to relive her trauma for them.
"I'm not sitting down and telling all of you like a show," Frankie spat.
"Will you tell one of us?"
"Don't say it like that," Frankie laughed. "You're saying it like I have a choice at all."
Nat sighed. "You're right. You don't. But you can decide who you want to tell."
Frankie only felt more pressure. She was closest with Tony so she should be most comfortable telling him every detail, but she couldn't stand him knowing everything that had happened to her. He was devastated when he found her. Steve would just say things meaning to be kind and piss her off. She couldn't have Nat train her and also see her as weak.
"Everyone get out so I can get this over with. Bucky, pour me a whiskey. You might want one too."
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"This is annoying."
"I know," Bucky grimaced. "For the record I think this is a really terrible way to have to tell people something shitty happened to you. It should at least be your choice if you want to share things about yourself. Or made totally public so everyone just knows and you don't have to say anything." A wry smile tugged at the corners of Bucky's lips.
"Ugh I almost wish that was the case. I think the bare minimum is what's even on record."
"We can just sit here until you're ready."
"Might as well rip off the bandaid." Frankie shrugged. She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm a child prodigy. Tony likes to call me a genius but I'm not, really. I just understand the mechanics of things, maybe. I'm creative… I started tinkering in my grandpa's lab when I was a toddler. He was with me. At some point I started sneaking in on my own. No one really noticed at first. Then he noticed. But the things I was building were so brilliant for my age he didn't tell anyone. He started teaching me a few things, letting me play with the more dangerous things. Made me promise I wouldn't work with certain things unless he was around" Frankie paused and grinned mischievously at Bucky.
"When did you blow your first thing up?"
"Three days before my fifth birthday."
"How did Tony get involved?"
"My grandpa knew the Starks. Tony's always had a lot of respect and care for my grandpa. Grandpa sent Tony the newspaper article about the explosion and told him what I'd been getting into… Then Tony came to meet me."
"Wait, newspaper article?"
"That's right baby! Do it big or not at all."
Bucky laughed. "So that's how Tony began mentoring you."
"Yup," Frankie nodded. "I grew up being mentored by Tony Stark. I had another place to go besides my grandparents when my parents were being… too much. They would get mixed in with some shitty people… Funny thing being it's the same people Steve was talking about earlier. My parents only ever half-assed things so it makes perfect sense they get roped into a group of people who are shitty criminals. I started living at my grandpa's full time and eventually he told them they couldn't see me until they got their shit together. Life was really wonderful," Frankie shrugged. "I went to a great college, was doing a bunch of freelance work that allowed me to still live near my grandpa and make good money. Occasionally I travelled for work but life has been pretty great until about two years ago. My grandpa died, just from being old. I moved into the house and got rid of my apartment. It was really hard…"
"This is at your pace, Birdie," Bucky said softly. He looked at Frankie without pity, just open interest in everything she had to say.
She nodded. "What made things a little better was my friend Max. My boyfriend. We grew up together, literally known each other since kindergarten. Eventually we started dating and shit everything was wonderful. It all felt too good to be true, and ya know, anything that feels like that usually is. Max somehow fell in with this stupid group and what did they want? Someone just like me to make their weapons and build whatever their minds came up with. Nevermind half of what they wanted wasn't even feasible. They had terrible logistics, all creativity and no brains."
"Sound like a bunch of assholes."
"Max approached me, I said hell no. Then one night Max slips something in my drink and I wake up in a cell. Didn't know it at the time, but turns out I was just in Wyoming. They kept me hostage for four and a half months before Tony managed to find me. At first they were really kind to me, made sure I was clean, fed me regularly. When they got tired of my non-compliance they tried to beat me into doing their bidding. Cutting me. Starving. All the basic torture bullshit," Frankie shook her head. "Max would tell them where my limit was and they would push me right to that edge. Eventually he was the one that started trying to push me over." Frankie ran her hands through her hair, closing her eyes and thinking about the way he looked at her when he dragged knives across her body, threatening to go deeper if she didn't start doing as she was told.
"You learn anything while you were there? What their goal was?"
Frankie shook her head. "No. I mean, they didn't tell me any of that stuff ever. At first they were trying to bribe me with being rich and living a life of luxury. The only thing I really learned was that they had planned on doing this earlier… Max told me that. They were gonna use my grandpa as leverage. But he died before they could. I don't really know what else to tell you, Bucky. I can give you every detail of everything they did to me, but it was all physical."
"What happened when you were rescued?"
"Tony, Fury, and Rhodey came-"
"Fury came?!"
Frankie smiled. "He likes my brand of charm. Helps we met when I was still a kid. They came and beat the absolute shit out of Max. I thought Tony was going to kill him. I almost wanted him to. It was only Max and four other people that kept me there. Small operation, they captured everyone, though I later found out that two of them took cyanide pills. Max and those three others are still locked up as far as I know."
Bucky grimaced. "Max isn't. He said to ask you about Max if you didn't tell me and told me he got out of prison. Tony wanted to tell you himself-"
"When?" Frankie asked, deadly calm.
"A few months. I don't know the specifics."
Frankie flew off the couch and picked up her phone, dialing Tony's number. Fury filled her veins to the point she was crying. Bucky jumped up and grabbed her phone before she could hit send.
"You and Tony need to talk about this but I don't think right this minute is the right time." Frankie exhaled deeply and focused on Bucky's hand on her waist and his chest close to her back. She leaned back against Bucky and closed her eyes.
"I think there are things we need to talk about, like Camille- we hang out almost daily while you and Hugo are at work. So what does this mean?"
"We don't have to talk about any of this now."
"I don't ever have to do anything I don't want to," Frankie replied pointedly. Bucky laughed and pulled them down to be sitting on the couch. He untangled their limbs but left his arm around her shoulders and rested his hand on her upper arm.
"First and foremost, what's your level of comfort? We can pull you out of this mission right now. I'll tell anyone that asks you've gone to visit an ill family member."
Frankie shook her head. "If Max is connected to what's happening here and now at all then he's going to know something's up. I don't really talk to my parents and my grandparents are dead."
"We don't know if Max is connected to this for sure. There's just a strong possibility."
"If you let me see the reports, the specifics of what's being found at the crime scenes I bet I can tell you."
"You're avoiding my question."
She sighed and looked into Bucky's eyes. "I am not comfortable. But I'm also not willing to give any indication that we know something is up and possibly ruin everything we've done so far."
"Then nothing changes. Keep seeing Camille. We don't know if she's involved or not, doesn't seem the type but if her husband is then we have to assume she knows something at some level. Your ring stays on all the time when I'm not home - that way someone can get here if something happens." Frankie nodded to indicate she understood. "Maybe try and do more things in public with Camille. Shit is significantly less likely to go down in public."
"Got it. Alright. Anything else? I feel emotionally exhausted and I'm going to sleep for several hours."
Bucky looked like he was going to say something, but changed his mind. "Nope. You'll feel better in the morning. Shout if you need anything."
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"I'm so bored," Frankie exclaimed. She sighed and poured herself a gin and tonic. Normally around this time Camille would come over, but she was running late today and not answering her texts.
"Why don't you bake something?" Steve suggested.
"I've baked everything I could possibly want to," Frankie whined. It's cold and rainy outside so I don't even want to go on a walk into town. This fucking blows. I haven't even blown anything up since I've been here or tinkered or anything."
"It could be worse," Natasha said with disinterest.
Frankie rolled her eyes. "You all suck. I'm turning you off and taking a nap." Before anyone could reply Frankie turned the ring off and set it on the counter. She picked up her phone and pulled up the text thread with Bucky.
'I wish you were the one that was listening through the ring. Steve's suggestions are stupid, Nat doesn't care that my brillance is wasting away, and Tony's been so serious ever since we had the talk.'
Frankie hit send and looked out the window at the storm with a sigh. She was pulled out of her sulking by a knock on the door.
"Camille! I'm glad you're here," she exclaimed. "Come in, it's just awful outside."
Camille nodded. "Oui. I can't stand this weather."
"Want a gin and tonic? A martini? Tea?"
"A martini, please. I would have been over sooner, but the strangest man knocked on my door. I never thought I would get him to leave."
"Strange how? Was he, like, trying to sell you something?"
"No. He was just asking a lot of questions. He wanted to know where Hugo was and how long we've lived here and asking about the neighborhood. It wasn't so much what he was saying as the energy he was giving off. I tried to call Hugo but he didn't answer."
Frankie frowned and tried to think of something reassuring to say. "Your gut is usually right." She thought afterwards that maybe wasn't so reassuring. Camille didn't have a chance to respond though, because a knock stopped their conversation.
"Hold on a second," Frankie said. "Just stay in here in case it's that same creep." Frankie swiftly moved to the front door, picking up a knife Bucky had planted in the fiddle leaf pot by the front door. Moving her hand behind her back she opened the door.
"Bonjour mad- Well, well. I have just had my lucky day."
"Got a hot tip that you were somewhere in the neighborhood. Hugo wasn't certain it was you, you weren't our main goal really-"
Frankie rolled her eyes. "You waste a lot of time talking." She quickly brought her arm up and into his side, dragging the knife down. She pulled him inside and threw him to the ground before his yelling could alert anyone.
"Camille, is this the guy that was at your door?"
Camille looked at Frankie wide eyed before she sighed and rolled her shoulders back. "Yes. I wanted to keep the charade up for longer, but it seems that's out of the question now."
"What?"
"I really do like you." Camille walked closer to Frankie. "If there wasn't a bounty on your head I wouldn't be doing this."
Frankie laughed. "You aren't doing shit."
Camille moved quickly, throwing the first punch. Frankie kicked her legs from underneath her and put her on the ground. She moved across the room quickly, putting herself closer to the kitchen full of weapons and the patio door. Camille got back on her feet and advanced towards Frankie. She grabbed onto her hair and slammed her head into the wall.
Frankie ignored the ache in her head and threw her elbow out, connecting with Camille's ribs. She was feeling thankful for the extra training at the Tower. The two women danced around the kitchen, landing blows to each other and neither quite able to get the upper hand, at least until Camille pulled a knife from the butcher block and shoved it between Frankie's ribs.
"Ugh you are such an asshole," Frankie shouted. She took a deep breath and pulled the knife from her ribs and threw it across the room. Frankie took a deep, painful breath, and threw a vase full of flowers across the island at Camille. She moved closer to the patio and pressed on the bleeding wound.
"Never regretted not listening to a man more than now," Frankie mumbled to herself, wishing that her ring was at least on her finger. Camille was quickly advancing and Frankie decided her best bet was to run outside, at least there the neighbors might hear and call the police. She ran out the door and to the middle of the road. The only thing she could think to do felt ridiculous, but it seemed like the best option.
Frankie screamed as loud as she could for as long as she could. Neighbors doors began opening, people egan shouting. Frankie made eye contact with a furious looking Camille before Camille ran towards the woods. The adrenaline finally wore off and Frankie's vision blurred as her neighbors were almost in front of her. Frankie barely sat down on the ground before her vision blurred and she passed out.
