Disclaimer: I own nothing Captain America-related, not even Bucky Barnes…though I might consider asking Marvel to loan them and the rest of the Avengers to me for a while. Until then, only original characters and plots/ideas are mine.

AN: Here's the next chapter. Please enjoy, and please don't forget to review. Thanks!

Chapter 13: Tension Runs High:

Taking a deep breath, Anna counted herself lucky for having gotten off so easily. There were a lot of other ways the conversation could have ended –a lecture was the best she could have hoped for, and boy was she grateful it was all she got.

Glancing over at Bucky, she saw that he was still upset from his talk with Coulson. "Bucky?" she whispered, getting his attention. "Why don't you go to your workout room for a bit? I'll call you for dinner."

He nodded and headed off. Once she was alone, Anna headed up to her room, her mind spinning with thoughts about the chat she'd just had with Phil and Natasha.

She supposed that she ought to have known that SHIELD would have eyes on the house. They probably monitored it constantly, just to make sure that neither she nor Bucky went outside and caused trouble.

'I wonder if they check to make sure that he hasn't lost his temper and killed me yet,' she mused, half joking.

The other half of her was angry, mostly at the agency she was employed by. She didn't like having people spy on her, even if it was for a good reason. Did they have eyes inside the house, watching her every move?

Anna truly didn't care if they were monitoring what she looked at and shopped for on the computer Natasha had given her. She figured that SHIELD had a right to know how she was spending the monthly allowance they provided her with. That sort of thing, she could live with.

What bothered her was the thought that, maybe, there were cameras hidden throughout the house, and that someone in a small room over at SHIELD was watching every little thing she did. The thought very much freaked her out, and a sense of paranoia began to settle into her brain.

'Stop it,' she told herself. 'You aren't a prisoner or someone worth keeping a 24/7 watch on.'

She wasn't –but Bucky was. Okay, he wasn't a prisoner, but he was dangerous, and she wouldn't put it past SHIELD to have eyes both in and on the house, to make sure that Bucky didn't lose it and cause a large problem for them.

Smacking herself upside the head, Anna firmly told herself that wasn't helpful. 'You are not a conspiracy theorist, and you are not going to let this affect you, because paranoia isn't part of your nature.'

Besides, Natasha wouldn't let people invade her privacy -Anna had a feeling that the female Avenger would beat up anyone at SHIELD who tried it.

'So, it'll be just business as usual. Don't freak out and start worrying about something that isn't happening.'

However, something was nagging at her. Bucky seemed very upset over their talk with Coulson, and she didn't know why. Anna felt that she needed to talk to him about all this, but a gut feeling told her that now wasn't a good time to interrupt him.

'I'll give it an hour, then go see him.'

Heaving a sigh, she opened her laptop and began typing up an e-mail for the family.

Slamming his right fist into the punching bag, Bucky savored the sound it made as his other fist took its turn pummeling his target.

Even though he probably had no right to be, he was angry at Director Coulson for the way he'd treated Anna. Coulson might have had his reasons, but Bucky did not agree with them.

'I asked her to take me outside,' he thought as his fists hit their mark. 'She could hardly say 'no' to me.'

In all fairness, Anna had refused his request, at least a first, but being the kind, considerate person she was, she'd changed her mind. Many members of HYDRA had thought it brave or foolish to refuse the Winter Solder, out of fear of what his reaction might be. Anna had done what few did: refuse what he'd asked of her, and come out unscathed. If she had done so months ago, there would have been hell to pay.

He took a deep breath. 'I'm not that person anymore. I'm different now.'

Yes, he was different, but even if he was doing better, Anna had been brave to refuse a man who could, potentially, kill her for denying him what he wanted.

Not that he would dream of hurting Anna, but the knowledge that it could happen was very real. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before he lost his temper and lashed out, and when he did, he could only pray that Anna wasn't anywhere close by.

'I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I harmed one hair on her head.'

Letting his hands fall to his side, Bucky stood and watched the large bag sway back and forth in front of him, its momentum almost hypnotic. For a while, he stood and watched it slow, his mind clearing as an important realization came to him.

Anna was the reason he was able to keep a hold of his temper.

The thought surprised him, but not as much as it should have. As Bucky had suspected, long before this whole mad experiment of his had begun, a feminine touch was what he needed to change from a monster back into a man. He hadn't really thought that it would happen at all, much less this quickly.

Yes, Anna's presence made him hold back his anger, but it was more than that. He could have achieved almost the same results with drugs, or a psychiatrist, but Anna's kindness towards him was something he hadn't experienced since before HYDRA had gotten hold of him.

'It's like…going from constantly slamming my head against a brick wall, to falling onto a blissfully soft, warm, comfortable bed.'

That truly was the only analogy he could think of, when it came to his situation. HYDRA had been hard, brutal, and unfeeling on many different levels –they'd kept him restrained on a torturous leash, one that choked him if he tried to pull away from them. When direct orders failed, beatings came next –and when those failed, the memory-wiping had been one of their most sadistic and effective resorts.

The worst was the freezing chamber they put him in when his services were 'no longer required.' Every time he went in, part of him wondered if he would ever come out again –his last thoughts were faint questions of whether he would wake up in that same decade, or in another time, where he would be unable to recognize anyone or anything around him.

'More often than not, it was the latter,' he sneered, clenching his fists as he took another dozen swings at the bag.

Bucky had always hated it when that had happened. He would see the faces of random strangers as he went under, but when he was brought out of it, it would be with another swarm of HYDRA scientists, soldiers, and top officers or agents standing over him, scowling as they waited for him to be fully functional again.

It would take another seventy years for him to forget about that particular experience.

Anna, however, was a soothing balm to his wounded mind. Her kindness was softening the barriers he had put up to try and restrain his emotions when it came to dealing with HYDRA's techniques. HYDRA had no sympathy for anyone or anything, and those who showed it were severely punished, or even killed, so Bucky had done everything possible to become and stay the killer they wanted.

With Anna, he was allowing himself to feel emotions that HYDRA considered weak and insignificant, emotions that he found, for the most part, rather pleasant.

And it was only now that he realized how much he cherished Anna's sympathy and gentleness. She seemed to understand his internal struggles and pain, always taking it upon her self to raise his spirits when he was upset, or assure him that he was a good person and that he was now very different from the man he had been a short time ago.

Halting his punches to look at his hands, Bucky watched the metal of his false arm gleam in the light trickling in through the closed blinds dangling over the window. He had lost count of how many lives he'd taken with that one arm –it was by far superior to his flesh-and-blood one, and therefore far more effective in carrying out the many assassinations he'd been ordered to perform.

'I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for what I've done to all those people,' he thought with a sigh, the guilt weighing heavy on him.

But in a way, Anna had begun to lead him down that path. Even though she was still somewhat afraid of what might happen if Bucky lost control of himself, she still treated him like he was a person. She didn't call him a murderer or an assassin, which is what most people would have done. Anna knew what he had been, and told him that was all in the past; that things were different now, and so was he. Then she would give him a smile that seemed to lighten his mood and make everything alright, if only for a moment.

Closing his eyes, Bucky's shoulders sagged as some of his darker thoughts popped up in his mind. Even after he'd confessed to wanting to kill the man in the pastry shop, Anna had forgiven him. She had even thanked him for wanting to protect her, calling him a hero for it. Never had he considered himself a hero, not until she had called him one.

Opening his eyes, he watched as the metal of his hand gleamed as he wiggled his fingers, remembering how quickly Anna had accepted the prosthetic limb. He especially remembered the sensation of her smaller hand on his own.

Swallowing hard, Bucky admitted that he rather liked the physical contact. A touch of Anna's hand calmed him, and he often felt himself relax as she offered silent support.

Then there was that hug she'd given him…

After that hug, Bucky knew that he was willing to do anything for another one. He remembered hugging his mother, and the embraces he'd shared with other women in the past, but those memories were faded and distant. When he tried to reach for the emotions or sensations those embraces were supposed to accompany, he came up empty.

Anna's hug stayed with him, especially the sensations that it had invoked. Warmth, joy, safety, calm, and relief were only a few things that had swelled up inside his chest as her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close to her.

He swallowed hard as he recalled how nice she had felt in his arms. There was just something about holding someone, and being held, that made him feel human again. He'd held women before, but with Anna, it was different. He wasn't sure how, it just felt that way.

There was a soft step and a tentative knock on the door, drawing his attention. It was Anna, of course, come to check on him. He couldn't help but smile a little as he called for her to enter.

When she poked her head in, she returned his smile with one of her own. "I wanted to see how you were doing. You seemed upset with what happened with Director Coulson this morning."

He motioned for to come into the room. "I was upset. I didn't like his attitude towards you."

Anna sighed. "I know you didn't, but please consider the pressure he's under to keep not only you, but all of what's left of SHIELD under wraps. The world doesn't know it's still around; if it did, they'd do everything possible to bring it down for good. Phil has to think about the bigger picture, which includes a lot of other people, not just you and me."

She had a point, but Bucky still didn't like it. "Do you think he'll punish you for taking me outside?" he quietly asked.

He watched her consider it for a moment before answering. "It's possible, though I can't imagine how he'd do so," she admitted. "Best case scenario is that we're off the hook. Worst case, he decides that someone else should be brought in."

Bucky stiffened. 'If Coulson sends Anna away, I'll refuse whoever he tries to assign to me.'

Part of him began to panic, his mind whirling with the possibilities of what would happen if Anna were to leave him. He imagined Anna's room becoming bare and empty, void of her warmth and creativity. A vision of a SHIELD operative moving in there was an unwelcome one. It would either be a cold, distant agent, or a therapist –Coulson would either put two separate people there, or one single person with qualifications in both fields.

Worse, that agent would want to start everything all over again, trying to force memories out of him with all sorts of scientific methods that Bucky knew wouldn't work, if only because he would refuse to do anything that person would ask him to. Things would go downhill from there as they clashed head-to-head, until Bucky threw the unfortunate person out the front door or out a window. The end result would be him subdued by a flood of SHIELD agents or SWAT team members, followed by imprisonment in a deep, dark cell somewhere.

He would prefer that to being without her.

Then Anna reached out to put a hand on his arm. "I doubt it'll come to that," she quietly insisted. "Coulson knows that, at this point, you probably won't accept anyone else, especially since you're making progress. It's a delicate situation, and he likely realizes that if he shakes things up, that could disrupt the flow of things. I doubt that anyone would call Phil Coulson an idiot who likes making waves when it comes to restoring a person's mental health."

No, that was more a HYDRA qualification, but he couldn't say that to her.

"So we just keep on going as we are," Anna said, her tone cheerful and light. "Now, are you hungry? You've been in here working on that bag for a while."

His stomach growled, causing him to blush and Anna to laugh. "I'll get something ready. Go clean up and come join me, hmm?"

Without hesitating, Bucky went to do as she asked.

Lunch was quiet, as always, and once the dishes where cleared away and set in the dishwasher, Anna motioned for Bucky to take a seat in the living room. He did so, an uneasy look on his face.

"I got a message from Natasha," she said. "I got it while you were cleaning up."

Bucky immediately felt ill. This was it; Coulson was going to do what Bucky feared most, and when he did, there was nothing Bucky could do about it. He could try raising hell, fighting however many agents were sent to collect Anna, but the end result would be the same: she would be gone, and he would be alone.

"She said that Director Coulson was sending a special tent for you to set up in the backyard, so that you can get some fresh air and exercise."

Bucky sat and stared at her. "She said what?" he asked, wondering if he'd heard right.

Anna gave him an odd look. "That you're getting a workout tent for the backyard," she repeated. "According to Natasha, the unique material will keep people from spying in on you while you're inside it. You can expose your left arm and be able to exercise without having to wear long-sleeved shirts and being uncomfortable. Isn't that great?"

He sat there in silence, his head spinning. So Coulson wasn't going to punish Anna in any way?

A hand on his shoulder brought him back. "Bucky," Anna gently whispered to him. "I know you were worried about what Coulson might do, but I told you he wouldn't risk your mental health that way. For all that he's Director of SHIELD, he's also a human being, and he has a good heart."

She smiled, her face filled with genuine amusement and ease. "And don't think for one minute that I wouldn't fight with everything I had to stay here with you. You're my friend, and you need me. I don't abandon anyone I care about, much less those who need my help."

Bucky felt his body go slack with relief, his head falling forward as he buried his face in his hands. A few seconds passed before he felt Anna's arms reaching to pull him close to her.

The next thing he knew, he was wrapped in a comforting embrace, his head nestled in a perfect area between her neck, her hair, and her shoulder. He could smell the apple shampoo she'd used just this morning, the clean baby-powder smell of her soap, and the scent that was all Anna's.

But best of all was the softness of her skin against his. He knew that the stubble along his face, which he fought to keep trimmed and neat, must scratch her, but she didn't seem to mind. She was far more worried about his discomfort than her own.

"It's okay," she gently assured him, one hand on his head and another around his back. "Don't worry, I'm here."

Yes, she was; and he was never going to let her go. He couldn't, not when she was the most important person in his life.

It took a while, but he did manage to relax and (reluctantly) pull himself from Anna's embrace. No words were spoken, but they did hold hands for several long moments before Bucky quietly excused himself and headed up to his room, suddenly exhausted.

She'd never seen Bucky like this, and it worried her. He was so terrified of her leaving that it seemed to eat at him, even more so than his memories of HYDRA and its treatment of him.

Well, she was here to stay, and Anna knew what she'd said was true: if Phil wanted her to go, she was going to fight to remain here with Bucky. She didn't know what she could do against a super-secret spy agency and its Director, but she was willing to do everything possible to get him to let her stay.

Remembering how Bucky had trembled in her arms as he calmed down, Anna scowled. Oh, yes; if Director Coulson wanted to pull her out of this house and thought she was going to go quietly, he had another thing coming.

'Well, right now, it's not going to come to that,' she reminded herself. 'He was a bit pissed off, but he'll get over it.' After all, it wasn't as though they were causing chaos in the streets or anything!

Still, next time, she would be more careful about it. She would warn Phil or Natasha before going out, and do everything she could to make sure that Bucky didn't experience too much stress or become the center of unwanted attention.

'Just be a good girl and report in before and after everything you do,' Anna sarcastically thought to herself. That was what Phil wanted, and that's what she would do.

Glancing at the stairwell, Anna silently hoped that Bucky was okay. She'd done everything she could to reassure him, but he still seemed scared about the idea of her leaving. She could only hope that, with enough time, he would be okay and come down again later to be with her. Only time would tell.

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