Wow, yay! I wanna thank each and every single person who's taken the time to read this and seem to be enjoying it so far. And I've made my mind up.. The winner of this is... BUCKY YAY! Something just clicked while writing this. I decided that maybe if I show the human side of him, not just the Winter Soldier side, that could make things hella intense and really interesting, especially when she finally gets released? -bites lip-

I'll definitely keep working on this one because so far (fingers crossed) you guys seem to actually like it, and I'm not screwing up royally.

Thanks again for all the support and reviews, I love you guys so much!

CHAPTER 06

–

The men surrounded the cabin, communicating via hand signals with each other against the cover of a heavily wooded area and the darkness of a night sky, the moon their only light. They'd finally managed to nail down a location on their defective weapon thanks to a backup tracking chip that Bucky didn't even know being activated.

"We take him alive. The boss wants him back at the base, alive." the leader of the mission hissed as the other men nodded, one of them asking, "And the girl?"

"Hell, kill her as far as I'm concerned. She's of no use to us, she was a civillian, didn't even know her sister was a government operative. She'd be a liability if she were left alive."

"Good point, boss."

"That's why I'm the commander." the man said as the operatives fell into place, waiting on just the right moment to strike, take Winter Soldier and do away with the female hostage so she didn't go blabbing to anybody about where she'd been, who'd had her.

The last thing Hydra needed right now, was anymore bad press. At least not until the Baron was absolutely sure he was ready to strike again.

There were certain things that had to be acquired before this could happen, and negotiations on those things were at a standstill currently.

It was difficult negotiating with the god of mischief. Now that the man knew what his scepter was capable of, he wasn't just going to hand it off to just anybody.

And currently, Loki was being held in prison on the planet Asgard.

Which, in laymans terms meant, that unless they managed some kind of technological and scientific miracle, and got themselves to Asgard, for now, the scepter was going to remain hidden. But they were close, to some degree.

Closer than they had been during previous attempts to acquire the things needed for an all out uprising.

Then this fiasco with one of their best weapons. If Winter were compromised, there was no telling just how far behind their plans would fall.

But of course, they had countless thousands upon thousands of backup plans, this mess with Winter was just a loose end that needed to be tied up.

–

She kept hearing movement in the woods through her slightly opened window. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and slid quietly out of bed, peering down. She saw nothing, of course.

She'd been just about to get back into bed, but her bedroom door flew open and Bucky grabbed her, the two of them landing on the floor, he slid them under the bed.

"There's somebody out there."

"I didn't see anybody.." Natalie started, concerned about him for a moment. He looked at her and said quietly, "And you're not gonna, either. Not until it's too late. That's how those bastards get an advantage. Just trust me, okay? Stay down." in a firm and almost pleading tone of voice. She looked at him a moment and then said quietly, "Fine. But you don't go do anything stupid."

"I'm already in this, like it or not. But I don't have to let you get hurt too." Bucky said firmly as she gave him a dirty look and said quietly, "Yeah, well.." before falling silent, her mind once again reminding her just how not normal this entire situation was, just how bizarre it was.

"I'm gonna go to the gun room." Bucky said as he went to stand, crouched low, sticking to the walls to cover himself. "That cannot be a good idea." Natalie said as she looked at him, pleading with her eyes. The window shattered and glass flew out of the frame, the fragments and slivers making the floor shimmer and shine in the moonlight.

"Get back over here."

"Stay put, Blondie." he ordered before disappearing from the room. Once in the hallway, he hurried down to the area behind the fireplace, pulling the hidden entrance mechanism, grabbing as much as he could carry. He had a gun in his arm, but he knew that they knew that.

He closed the door to the gun room just as he heard her screaming up the hallway...

–

"You've got a pretty girl here, Winter." one of the black clad agents said as he held Natalie against him, a syringe in his hand, the man beside him pressing a knife into the other side of her throat from behind. Natalie growled and said "Eat shit and die. I'm expendable to him. Whatever you're gonna do to me, it won't matter to anybody."

Bucky eyed her with a raised brow and then said quietly, "She's right. Killin her isn't gonna stop me. But you idiots knew that already, you created me."

Natalie's stomach churned as she heard him say what he'd just said. She looked at him, then down at her feet, the numbness kicking in. She was truly going to have to save herself from all of this. Before now, she'd held out a little hope.

Now she knew.. Nobody gave a damn, really.

Not her sister, not her family, not this guy who'd kissed her with so much passion and intensity last night.. She mattered to absolutely nobody.

"You came for me."

"You had to know we'd find you, Winter. We didn't realize we'd also find a bargaining chip too. With the girl and the other hostages we intend to take, we'll have SHIELD on their knees. So you did good, soldier. It's a shame we're gonna have to kill her and the rest of the hostages."

He bit his cheek as he looked at them, trying to stay neutral, trying not to appear as if it bothered him either way. "If I come in with you.."

"You might live."

Natalie looked at him and he mouthed something to her, she couldn't understand it, but when two of the men holding her dropped to the ground, she realized what he'd been trying to tell her. She gaped at him a moment before passing out as a needle lodged in her neck and someone behind her laughed.

Gunshots rang out one last time as the man who'd laughed after lodging the needle into Natalie's neck hit the floor in a broken heap and Bucky walked over, pulling the man halfway up by the collar. "What the hell did you inject her with?"

"It was..." the man gasped with blood bubbles coming from his mouth as he wheezed and then said "Sedative."

He knew they didn't have much time, and he also knew that she'd be out for at least 4 hours. They'd given him the same sedative shot once, he remembered it all now. He'd been in a zombie like state for a while.

After making sure he killed all of the Hydra operatives sent after him, he picked her up, carried her down the hall to the small room she'd been sleeping in, laying her on the bed carefully.

Then he started pacing back and forth as he tried ot figure out their next move. He still didn't think turning her over to SHIELD was a good idea, because he wasn't entirely sure if SHIELD sent HYDRA men after him, or if HYDRA were acting alone.

–

She woke up with the second worst headache in her adult life, and winced as she realized that she was in a moving vehicle. She looked over at him and he said quietly, "You're awake."

"Where the hell are we going?"

"We have to find a new place."

"Just let me out. You can find a new hiding place."

"You're safer with me."

"How the hell am I when I just almost got killed.. And then there's the night I actually met you.."

"Technically, Blondie, that wasn't my fault. Maybe you just have really crappy timing."

The conversation in the car came to a halt after that, she went back to staring out the window, watching the scenery as it flew by. This went on for about an hour, then he stopped at some little hole in the wall gas station in an even smaller town.

"Back there.. I was trying to make him drop ya."

"I'm not an idiot, James. You meant it. And I knew that. I know that now, I mean.. It just hurt or something." she said quietly as she looked at her toenails, sighed quietly.

"You don't know what I mean and what I don't, Blondie. You're not in my head. Got it?" he said gruffly before starting the car, handing her a twenty.

"And you think I'm not gonna run?"

"You might.. But you won't make it far." Bucky said confidently as she glared at him a moment, got out and walked into the gas station, leaving him to his own thoughts.

She got back into the car and the rest of the ride to their new safehouse was a deathly quiet one.

It didn't bother him that much, actually. He didn't know what he might say, if he were to talk, to try and make her see that he hadn't meant anything he told the Hydra guy who'd grabbed her.

It made him highly uncomfortable, the things she had him feeling, the feelings, the other side of him she'd awakened these past weeks.