I Will Always Find You

by Sara, the Lady Dalian

Rome, Italy, 1950

Ali left the Biblioteca Storica Nazionale dell'Agricoltura, and walked through the streets of Rome towards the little cafe where she usually ate her lunch. She had spent months combing through the libraries of Europe looking for information on topics that she could barely name because she didn't know yet what had happened to her Jamie. She was studying traditional herbal healing here and had made plans to move onto Athens, then Istanbul when she had finished in Rome. Walking along the narrow streets, she pulled the hood of her raincoat over her face. The late April weather had brought a slow drizzle all day and she was soon soaked to the bone.

It had been a little more than five years since Bucky had been listed as missing and while she had only felt cold for the longest time, she had recently felt him warming and moving. Each time she listened, she could feel more, get more of a sense of his surroundings, get more of a sense of what was going on, and she didn't like what the connection told her one bit. Ever since that day when she met James Buchanan Barnes, she had always had a connection to him. It had developed into a knowing as her mother called it. She always knew where he was. She had skirted the coast of the Baltic Sea to the edge of the Gulf of Finland, down the border of Soviet countries and down through Greece and Turkey. By triangulating the headings she read, she got a good idea of where he was, but she had no way to safely travel into the heart of Russia.

Still restless from Jamie's movements, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. as she started to cross the road. Just steps away, she heard the staccato beat of gunfire and felt an arm around her middle as she was pulled away from a car running into the building right where she had been standing. The gunfire sounded again in her ear as she looked up at the person shooting and holding her. She could see the side of his face as he moved her back further up the street. As he turned her away from the people shooting at them, his arm catching bullets with a metal ting, she saw his eyes sweep over the street, looking for more enemies. It was then she saw more of his face and recognized the eyes, the cheeks and jaw of the man she had been searching for these last five years.

Looking around his chest, she saw nothing moving, but she had no desire to wait around until the polizia or the carabinieri showed up. "There's an alley about ten meters up on the left that leads out of the neighborhood." Living on the outside of normal society, as she did, had done nothing to endear those organizations to her, and she wasn't keen on meeting up with them just now. Not just then. Not with Jamie here.

"You better hope so." Jamie, in a voice she hardly recognized, pushed her up the street towards the alley she pointed towards. Running quickly down the alley, they passed by building after building, until he found a dusty, chained up storeroom door. The chain was easily broken and he pushed her through the door.

As he closed it, she pulled him away from the door. Running her hands over his face and then down his arms looking for blood she found his metal arm. "James Buchanan Barnes, what have they done to you?" He looked at her without recognition, trying to move away from her. "Stay still just a moment. I'm trying to see if you're hurt."

"What did you call me? Who are you?" He turned her around, back to the wall, as he looked into her eyes. It was several years since he had seen her, and she had no doubts that even her mother would struggle to recognize her now.

"My name is Alianna. You are James Buchanan Barnes. Most everyone calls you Bucky. I've always called you Jamie. You were born on March 10, 1917. Your best friend is Steve, you served in the army with him. We all lived in Brooklyn. You love the sweet rolls from Kowalski's. You hate carrots but you eat them to make your mom happy." She looked up at him to see if there were any recognition in his eyes. "You fell from a train in 1945 and were taken somewhere cold. You've been there a long time, so long." Tears started down her cheeks. "They hurt you there. I don't know what all they did, but..."

"I… I am Soldat. Nothing else. I exist to follow my mission. I don't know who you're talking about." He moved away from her, while he kept her in his sights.

"Will you tell me if you're hurt. I am studying healing, I can help, Jamie." She takes a step towards him, still searching for injuries.

"No, I'm not hurt. You have to go. You can't be here. It's not safe. I'm dangerous." He moves further away from him.

Alianna stopped. He was becoming agitated, and she didn't want to upset him further. Something was dreadfully wrong with his memory. She knew Jamie had been a soldier, but wartime was one thing, shooting people in the street was another. Whoever had done this to him hadn't done this for a one time action, this was a long term operation. "Someone sent you here, on a mission? Have you completed it? Do you need to go? Is it safe for you?"

He looked back at her before turning away and walking towards the door. "If they find you, they'll kill you." His voice was closed and measured, but she thought she heard a bit of sadness as well.

She smiled a little as she told him, "Well, I've found I'm not the easiest to kill nowadays." He looked back at her as she said this. "Stay safe and do what you have to do to stay alive. I will find you again someday, Jamie." Knowing that she would continue to monitor his movements as much as she could, she did the hardest thing she had ever done in her life and let him go. There was much that she would have to think about.

But one of the first things she would have to do is get out of Rome.

AN: We finally see them together, even if it is short. I'll be updating on the weekends and the chapters do get longer, it's just that these first episodes are so short themselves. We will see Jamie and Ali in several places all over the world before we end up in Washington and New York after CA: WS. As a reminder, everything after WS doesn't happen and never will in my head cannon.