Chapter 4

'I knew who I was this morning but I've changed a few times since then.' - Lewis Carroll

Ally had seen him begin to relax, to see her as no longer a threat to him. Yet the unfortunate timing of her phone ringing caused him to immediately tense up, liking a volt of electricity had just been streamed through his body. He didn't even need to move. The look in his eyes warned her enough that she shouldn't even try to reach for the phone.

They both kept perfectly still, watching each other, listening to the seemingly never ending rings of the phone before it finally clicked onto voicemail. After listening to the posh lady's standard message that Ally had never quite gotten around to changing, well in truth she hated listening to her own voice and was quite happy to keep the generic one. When eventually the message ended, Ally gasped when she heard her mum's voice coming through the speaker. Instinctively she leaned forward, wanting to be closer to her mum, when the man took a step closer to her, his eyes cold, dark, the warning clear.

'Allison MacLean, where on earth are you? I've been worried sick?' came her mum's voice from the other side of the room. 'I can't even keep track of how many times I've called you. Please, please call me back and let me know that you're okay.' Ally ached to answer the phone, every part of her wanting to reach out and speak to her mum and tell her that she was fine, that she hadn't been caught up in all of the crazy things that happened in Washington D.C that day. She could just imagine her mum watching the TV in horror, just like everyone else. Ally's mum and dad had never wanted her to move to America in the first place. They had wanted her to stay at home in Scotland and settle down but Ally had wanted her freedom and a bit of adventure. Not that it was working out quite so well for her at the moment. She knew her mum would be going mad with worry, pacing up and down the living room and phoning every family member they had to keep them up to date of the no news that they had. As much as she knew that her mother's worry for her would be completely genuine, the woman did thrive on drama and would be in her element. Once she knew that Ally was fine (Ally was still thinking positively about the terrifying HYDRA agent standing in front of her), her mum would probably tell half the town that Ally had been there and seen it all. That three children in her class had lost parents and wasn't it all terribly sad.

Whatever her mother's faults Ally was still desperate to speak to her. She looked pleadingly at the man in front of her, silently begging him to let her answer the phone, but he didn't budge. He didn't even flinch when the first tear rolled down her cheek, if anything his eyes became even steelier and she knew that it was a hopeless case. She wouldn't be able to persuade him.

She angrily tore her gaze away from him to give her attention back to the phone and her mother's voice. '… so I called Mark to see if he had heard anything and he said he might pop round to check on you.'

'Oh, mum,' Ally couldn't help but moan, wishing that for once she could not interfere. Ally knew she would be worried, but if there was one person that a mum should not contact, it's your ex- boyfriend.

'…so it is rather late Ally and I'm sure your fine, they did say that there were issues with the phones because of demand but please just let us know that your fine. Love from everyone here. Bye,' she said before the apartment was swallowed back into a deathly silence.

Ally didn't know what to feel. Of course she was worried about her mum and her family and the worry that they would be going through. Her family had been through so much recently, it was the last thing that they needed. But then there was the added stress of Mark and the fact that she would possibly have to face him. She hadn't seen him in weeks and she really wasn't sure that she was ready for that today, when she's had no sleep, had spent the night knocked out and tied to a chair and had a scary looking HYDRA agent standing in her kitchen whilst her kitchen table was covered in what she sincerely hoped was his blood and not the blood of people he had killed.

Ally had moved to Washington D.C a little over a year ago. It hadn't been her first choice of places to go to, but when she had been offered a teaching job there she jumped at the chance. Working Visas weren't that easy to get for the USA so she wasn't about to turn down a job offer. Quite frankly she would have taken a job anywhere if it meant she got to escape, this one just happened to be the one that came up first. Not that she didn't like it, she did, even if a lot of the people she met were serious government types. Ally had met Mark two months after moving to D.C. He had gorgeous blue eyes, sandy blonde hair, was incredibly cute and he was interested in her. Not knowing many people he quickly became the person that she spent most of her time with. All until six weeks ago when he had inexplicably decided that it wasn't working anymore and they had moved in too soon.

She was ashamed to admit that she hadn't taken the break up very well. She had begged him to reconsider. She couldn't understand what had happened. They were in love. That was when she'd been in the denial stage of their break up. She was firmly in acceptance now, although she was still clinging onto a tiny bit of the anger that had come before. However acceptance didn't necessarily mean that she had moved into the 'I'm completely over you and I'm happy and confident and have moved on and my life is just awesome without you' stage. Not that she would have to see him. He wouldn't come over. Why would he? He'd left her. And even if her did come over, there was no way that scary HYDRA guy would let him through the door.

He felt as though his control was slipping away by the second. He had patched up his body, popped his dislocating shoulder back in and removed the bullet, cleaned the wounds. The movement in his arm was easier now and he knew that it wouldn't be long before he could use it properly again. He was anxious to get back to full fitness. He felt vulnerable injured. He knew that he would be discovered eventually and he wanted to be able to fight off an attack when that happened.

Although at this rate he was going to be discovered sooner than even he would have thought possible. He had made a mistake in hiding in someone's residence. He would have been better taking his chances on the streets. He could at least have run away in that situation. He would still have had speed on his side. As it was he had trapped himself. This girl, this Allison, the woman on the phone has said, had seen his face and she knew he was HYDRA. It was simple what he was to do in this situation. There was one option. Only one outcome. It was in all of his basic training. No one was to ever see him. Until this last mission, he has worked in the shadows and the cover of darkness. No one was to know he existed. No one was to see his face. This girl had seen too much. All of his training, all of his instincts said that he should eliminate this girl. It should be easy. Just one more to add to his list.

Yet something was holding him back. He didn't know what it was. This was easy for him. It was what he did. But up on that heli- carrier he'd done the same. For the first time he'd hesitated and now he was doing the same again. He never hesitated and he didn't like it. He didn't like feeling unsure. Uncertain of himself, of his decisions and his actions. He needed to take back control of this situation. Usually he was given a mission and it was up to him to calculate the best plan and then execute it. All he needed was a mission. Then he would formulate the best plan and act upon it. For now his mission was to get out of this apartment and then get back to HYDRA base and find out what the hell was going on. The only decision he had to make was what he was going to do with his hostage.

A/N- Just a wee short chapter here. Kind of a filler chapter.

Anyway thanks again for reading. It's so cool seeing all the people from different countries that are reading this. Thanks again to the people who have favourited and followed. Really means a lot.

So thanks to my first ever reviewer Kitxo and your lovely comments. This is actually my second fanfic, the first was published on a different site. It is the first time I've not written in the first person which I'm finding hard but it's easier to show Bucky and Ally's differing perspectives. I'm glad you're enjoying the character of Ally. I've read a lot of Bucky/ OC fanfics that I loved, but I wanted to create a very normal girl. Not someone connected to the Avengers, not a doctor or psychologist, or someone with PTSD or someone he rescues so she's grateful to him. I wanted to create an ordinary girl who's thrown into a crazy situation. I wanted her to fall for him as he begins to remember who he is. At the moment he's The Winter Soldier, not Bucky. He's abrupt, he's cold and he won't have had a proper conversation with a person in a long time. I didn't want her to fall for him in the first few chapters. I wanted it to seem as real as possible and I know that if this scary assassin with a metal arm popped up in my life, I would want to run for the hills. Anyway thanks again for the review. It really made my day.