He eased into the room, the metal arm mostly covered by the white labcoat he'd stolen from a peg earlier.

She was sitting on a steel table, her little legs dangled but the rest was swathed in a set of scrubs that looked marginally too big for her frame. Her head moved ever so slightly when he entered the room.

She looked so small.

Reminded him of a little boy he thought he once knew. Tiny and underdeveloped. Always coughing, always fighting.

'I know you're not a doctor.' The little subject looked up at him from a curtain of red hair. It was the most astute and knowing gaze he'd seen in someone so young. 'You're Winter Soldier.'

Well the lab-coat fooled her for all of thirty seconds. Had they told her about him? What would they tell a potential asset about the current asset?

About her father?

'You've gone rogue. Orders are to suppress you.' She answered swiftly, though she made no move to get up and physically attack him with what little weight she had.

'Why?'

She blinked slowly, her big brown eyes clearly confused - as though the question was absurd. 'HYDRA will it.'

'HYDRA also want to test on you and you don't want that, do you?' He asked.

Her jaw tightened. No, she did not like the doctors and nurses. Of that, he could relate. He wished he had the time to properly turn her against her creators but he did not have that luxury. Straight to the point. 'I'll give you a choice. You stay and endure pain for the rest of your unnatural life - or you come with me.'

Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she muttered 'You're giving me a...choice?' Clearly she had not expected that from him.

'You've never had one before, have you?' No, they wouldn't have given her one. Weapons never had a choice about what to kill, what to eat, how to act.

'No.'

'You have a chance to make your first.'

Clearly she thought it couldn't be that easy - and she was right. it wasn't. Leaving HYDRA's influence was dangerous and life threatening. HYDRA would and could hunt you to the ends of the Earth.

The girl looked completely confused. The concept that she had a choice in any of this would - of course - be completely alien to her. She had always been quite passive in what happened. Had no say in what they did. He knew that well enough too.

'What were they going to do?' He asked after a few seconds of the staring match they'd entered into.

'Bone-marrow extraction.' She mumbled and dropped her head to look at her knees - or possibly the floor.

He exhaled slowly. 'That's painful. I doubt they waste anaesthetic on things like you - do they? They just leave you to pass out from the pain.'

She looked up sharply and then away, but he could tell he'd hit a nerve. Her jaw was tense and her hands had bunched around the medical gown she was in. No, they didn't give the anaesthetic to the weapons. Just paralysed them to prevent them moving, squirming - screaming.

'You don't have to.' He cocked his head, waiting to see how well that statement was received. 'You can defect with me right now and never have to have one of those again.'

She didn't look up at him. Good, she was mulling it over. She was thinking. Had she looked up at him at those words, he would have possibly considered her a lost cause - she would have already made up her mind. But hesitation - hesitation in an answer was a good sign. Not completely under HYDRA control then. If she was - she would have rebuffed him without a second thought. She would have attacked him the second he gave her that choice.

That was where HYDRA went wrong. Children were easy to manipulate - but not just for their own goals.

A sound outside caught his hypersensitive hearing. More soldiers were coming. Clearly, they knew what his target was - or suspected, anyway. It was time to leave. He wasn't going to coddle her; he'd given her a chance - which was more than what he'd gotten.

'Well?' He demanded.

She frowned up at him.

'There are people on the way. If you want to leave, do so now.' He turned to make his way out of the door and heard her frantically scramble off the table to follow him. Soldier turned to look at the little girl cautiously following his six. 'Coming, then?'

'I'm only coming because staying there would be a possible death sentence. They'll know you made contact with me and that I'm potentially compromised.' She answered. 'And those stupid tests hurt like a bitch.' she added with venom.

Soldier smirked. Not dumb then. Wary, and hedging, but not dumb. And how does a six year old science experiment learn the word "bitch"?

She seemed unusually clever for an average age of about six. He'd had to wonder if it was a purely natural occurrence or if it was to do with the serum he and Natalia possessed within themselves. Certainly it had never been active in someone so young - if it was active at all - But judging by the fact she was alive and they were conducting tests - he could safely assume it was and he wasn't about to leave her here if she wanted freedom.

'Let's go.' He grunted.

A/N: I'm not sure whether I love or hate this, to be honest. I love the concept of their first interaction but it always seems a bit too fast for my liking. Then again, how long would it take you to notice something as psychotic and/or destructive as Winter Soldier is in your facility abducting your science experiment that someone is bound to ask about eventually?

Anyway wow I just noticed this thing has interest! Awesome. Anyway I have a few chapters outlined for upcoming events, however I am open to ideas - particularly around poor parenting - so if you've got one you want to see, drop it in a review or inbox!