Anna was pretty sure she had just heard a gunshot. Its sound ricocheted around the hallway, making its way to Anna's room where she sat playing with the tags she'd ripped off of her new clothes after finally being allowed to shower. Frozen in fear, she waited for more shots, and instead just heard yelling. She was going to ignore it, hoping it had been her imagination, but a Hydra agent flung open her door and told her she was needed, forcing her to follow him down the hall to the right of her room.

There was a pileup outside of the door the agent stopped her in front of, and Anna had to shove her way past the agents crowding the doorway before she made it inside. When she did make it past the agents, it was to find Rumlow with his gun smoking and pointing at James, who was very clearly stressed out. His breathing was labored and his whole body was tensed as he stared down Rumlow.

"Stop it!" Anna cried out, moving forward and pushing Rumlow's gun so it was no longer aimed at James. "You're only making it worse."

Anna had seen this before at the VA: soldiers with PTSD having an episode, usually triggered by a sound or action that reminded of them of another place and time. In their mind they weren't in reality, but in the heat of a traumatic experience. Having a dozen agents pointing their guns at him wasn't going to help James' situation. It was obviously only freaking him out more. Which was why she approached him slowly, with her hands raised to show him she meant him no harm.

"Get away Stark, it's not safe," Rumlow called out, trying to grab her and pull her back. This time Anna was able to evade his grip, ignoring his order completely as she inched closer.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," Anna murmured as she came to a standstill a little ways in front of James. "Remember me?" James' eyes squinted in concentration as he stared at Anna's face. It took several moments before it clicked.

"Anya," he answered, recognition shining in his eyes as he said her name softly, his body relaxing at her familiarity. She was safe.

"That's right," She encouraged, smiling at him saying her name and slowly taking a seat on the edge of his bed. "I'm going to need to take a look at your shoulder, if that's all right with you?"

She waited until he nodded his agreement until she leaned in closer. The bullet hadn't seemed to have hit anything too important, but it would still need to be removed. After explaining that to him, Anna proceeded to lead the way out of his room to the infirmary, with James keeping close beside her.

"I can't believe you shot him," She spat at Rumlow as she passed him. There were many different, much better ways he could have handled the situation. Shooting hadn't been necessary. Violence of any sort hadn't been necessary.

James didn't seem to fully return to his present surroundings until they reached the infirmary. Once Anna was sure he was okay, she turned on her heel to face the dozen agents who had followed them, ordering them all out. He didn't need the people who shot him around just then. Surprisingly enough, they listened to her. Well, except Rumlow, who remained standing just outside the door, staring down the wall across from the infirmary. Deciding to just ignore him, Anna made her way back to her patient, who was already bleeding through his white t-shirt.

"The shirts going to have to go," Anna told him once she was standing before him again. Nodding in understanding, he attempted to remove the item of clothing, only to wince in pain when his right shoulder moved and jostled the bullet around. "Here, let me," Anna offered, taking the shirt from his hands.

Being as careful and gentle as she could manage, Anna pulled the shirt over James' head and dropped it to the floor beside the chair. James was used to the familiar situation of being shirtless in the infirmary, as it was required whenever they tuned up or fixed his mechanical arm. It wasn't as if it was a new concept for Anna either, as many times her patients would require stitching up that required various levels of undress. However, she couldn't deny the touch of pink that colored her cheeks when James sat shirtless before her. He was easily one of the more defined men she had ever worked on, and that was saying something as she'd worked on her fair share of military patients.

Eager to hide her reaction, Anna crossed the room to the table and began loading a tray full of the supplies she would need. When she returned, she set it on the ground beside the chair so she wouldn't have to go back and forth to the table, and made herself focus on her work. James' watched as she loaded a syringe with some liquid from a vial, and gave her a hesitant look when she approached him with it.

"I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to sting. But it will make the area numb and make it hurt a whole lot less than if you didn't get it," Anna warned him before she injected the numbing agent into the area around the wound. James gripped the arms of the chair tightly in response, but loosened his grip once the sensation faded away.

Once the numbing effect had taken hold, Anna sanitized the tweezers she would use to extract the bullet. It wasn't the first time she'd done it, but it never got any better. When she finally pulled the slug out of his shoulder, the hardest part was over. All that was left was to disinfect the wound and stitch it up.

Anna had to lean in even closer to stitch up the hole the bullet had left. Resting her right arm against James' chest for stability, Anna bent her head down until it was inches away from the wound, and remained in that position until all 20 stitches were in place. It was the closest Anya had ever physically been to James, and he seemed hyperaware of every part of his body that she touched. The pressure of her arm against his chest felt oddly relaxing and her hair, which was still damp from her shower earlier, smelled like the generic shampoo that Hydra had provided her with. All of those things were reasons why James hadn't even considered telling Anya he healed fast enough that stitches weren't necessarily required.

Her warm breath tickled his skin as she worked, and James had to concentrate hard to stop his muscles form twitching at the sensation. Not that Anna noticed any of his reactions to her touch, her full attention was on her work. James had so many emotional scars on the inside, she wanted to alleviate the chance of him getting physical scars to match. So she was being extra careful with her stitching.

"There, as good as new," Anna announced as she pulled back from her handiwork. "I think it's my best stitching work to date." James didn't really register what she was saying, too preoccupied at the sudden absence of her body heat.

"James?" Anya called his name. It was the first time she had referred to him by the name she had given him, and he found he liked it: having a name to be called, something that could belong to him. "You didn't hear a word I just said did you?" Her smile gave the words a less chiding edge, and remained it in place as she repeated her spiel about not getting the stitches wet and resting his shoulder for the next few days. As if it were up to him when he left on missions.

Anna made a sling out of an ace bandage as best she could, tucking the end in when she reached the end of the bandage. Satisfied with the result, she turned to return her supplies to the table for sterilization later, before returning to James in order to check his vitals. It was then that she first noticed the mark on the side of his face that was just starting to discolor.

"What happened?" Anna asked, brushing the mark lightly with her fingers before she moved her gaze to James' eyes.

James stiffened when Anya discovered the bruise that he had felt forming on his cheek. It was nothing new to him. He had come to expect being reprimanded when he did something Hydra didn't like. Sometimes it would be physical, they would strike him or withhold meals, and sometimes they would wipe him. That time it had been the former. The situation had escalated without him meaning it to, all leading to him with a bullet in his shoulder for reacting to the reprimand.

The only answer Anna got to her question was James shifting his eyes towards the door, movement that almost went unnoticed. It didn't take long before Anna put two and two together, as Rumlow was still standing guard outside the door. He had shot James, why wouldn't he beat him down as well? Seeing Anya's anger growing by the tightness of her jaw and the look in her eye, James was quick to reach out to her with his mechanical arm, the only one he could really move at the moment.

"Don't," he warned her once she turned towards him. She had been lucky and gotten away with her little rebellions, but it was only a matter of time before they punished her for misbehaving just like they did with him. He didn't want her getting hurt, not because of him.

Snapping the hair tie around her wrist to let out some of her pent up frustration, Anna abruptly turned on her heel, moving towards the safety deposit boxes where James had gotten the inhaler. If she couldn't berate Rumlow, she would channel her energy into medicine, something that always calmed her and made her actually feel useful. After shuffling through the many boxes, she finally found the two bottles she'd been hoping she'd find: Vicodin and Penicillin.

"From the one with the blue cap, take one every 6 hours as needed for the pain," Anna announced as she handed the first bottle to James. "From the white one, take one twice a day with meals to prevent infection," She added, handing off the other bottle to him.

As soon as he had taken the bottles, Anna was turning away once again, towards the table that time to clean the equipment. Keeping busy helped her feel better, and it was a habit instilled permanently in her: cleaning up as soon as she was finished with a patient. The normalness of the habit made her feel a little more in control of the situation. James remained where he was, and simply watched Anya as she worked. It was as he was watching that he noticed she was wearing the black tee he'd brought her. When he had first brought it to her, he wasn't sure she would accept it. Seeing her wearing it made him feel good about his choice to acquire it.

Glancing down at his own shirt by his feet, there was no missing the patch of red that stood out vibrantly against the white. There would be no salvaging it, blood stains never really came out. Which meant he was down to just the one shirt. Not that it really mattered, he couldn't really see how he was supposed to get a shirt on with the restricting sling Anya had twisted around his torso. James didn't like the sling, not just because it complicated the process of dressing himself, but also because he didn't really appreciate his movement being restrained.

Anna had deduced as much when she was wrapping the bandage around him. The look on his face had been enough to understand he wasn't thrilled at the idea of not being able to move one of his arms. Still, it had been necessary for the healing process. James' would just have to suck it up and deal with it until it could be removed. Just like Anna had to accept the fact that there was nothing she could do about Rumlow beating James, except distract herself from that fact by cleaning.

When everything was cleaned, and Anna had nothing else to steal her attention away from the fact that Rumlow was an ass, Anna finally turned back to James. The bruise on his cheek was starting to swell, making her wish she knew where to get ice for it. There had been nothing resembling a freezer in the infirmary, and she was pretty sure if she requested Rumlow or another agent get her some, they'd turn her down. They had hit him for a reason, and they wanted him to feel the after effects of it.

"Are you ready to head back to your room?" Anna inquired, giving him the option to stay there if he needed more time. She knew going back to the setting of a stressful event could be daunting and could trigger a flashback. When James rose to his feet, graceful even when he only had one functioning arm, Anna figured she had her answer.

Unfortunately, leaving meant Rumlow 'escorted' them back to their respective rooms. Mainly he made sure his gun was plainly visible when he motioned for them to walk ahead of him. It wasn't the best feeling, having Rumlow with a gun behind her, but there wasn't much Anna could do about it. If she even tried to say something to Rumlow about putting his gun away, Anna would probably end up berating him for his earlier actions.

With the tension building, it was probably a good thing they arrived at Anna's room first. That was, until Anna had to watch Rumlow stalk off with James. The man had a tendency towards violence and had already done enough physical damage to James. She could only hope that Rumlow had gotten it all out of his system.

There were no more interruptions that night, at least none loud enough to wake Anna. Still, she felt relief when she arrived at the cafeteria to find James sitting at their table looking no more beaten than he had the night before. He had managed to get a shirt over his injured arm, though only his right one actually made it through the arm hole. The other arm was still in the sling, and therefore was pinned to his chest inside of the shirt. Anna tried picturing how he managed to slip it on himself, and came to the conclusion that one of the agents must have helped him. It made her wish she had insisted on going with Rumlow to James' room to help. She was sure whoever helped him hadn't cared about favoring his hurt shoulder.

"Morning," Anna greeted him as she took her seat. "How's the shoulder?" He attempted to shrug in response which, of course, only made his forehead crease in pain.

"I told you to take the pain pills if it was hurting," Anna pointed out, to which James simple wrinkled his nose in distaste. It was so…unexpectedly endearing and so not like the 'Winter Soldier' that Anna couldn't help laugh. "I've never understood every man's insistence that they don't need any pain medicine, when they are quite clearly in pain."

"It makes me feel weak," James responded softly, surprising Anna a little. Though he had proven he did have a voice, he hadn't used it very often. That one statement had to be the most words James had ever said in front of her.

"Trust me when I say you are not weak," Anna insisted when she finally found her voice again. "If I had been shot in the shoulder I'd still be crying like a baby. I don't handle pain well. When I was younger, Tony and I got in one of many sibling fights, and he ended up chucking the remote to the robot he'd made at my head. The ironic part was my crying only made it bleed more and hurt worse." James simply stared at her after that story, his eyes shifting to her forehead and examining it for a scar. Now that he was looking, it was easy to see the crooked white scar on the top right side of Anya's forehead.

"The scar's more prominent because Tony immediately wanted to fix it himself, and used his electrical tape to do so." Anna added, a little self-conscious when she realized where James was staring. The electrical tape had been successful in keeping the wound closed and helped it heal, but it left a jagged scar that Anna had always hated. "That is why I am the doctor in the family."

Anna couldn't even imagine Tony trying to be a doctor. His sarcasm and ego oftentimes prevented him from being empathetic. If he had been a doctor, Anna was pretty sure he'd be one with a God complex. He already had one of those as a scientist, businessman, and most recently as Iron Man.

"Stark!" Anna jumped at the sound of her name being bellowed over the hum of the cafeteria. Turning her head she found Rollins across the cafeteria standing by a man whose face was twisted in pain and whose hand looked incredibly red.

"Duty calls," Anna sighed to James as she rose from her seat and scurried towards the injured man. It turned out he was the one who had made her breakfast, and had subsequently suffered severe burns from the grill. Instead of rushing him to the infirmary Anna brought him back to the kitchen while sending Rollins for the materials she'd need. There was no ice or water in the infirmary, but there was in the kitchen, and water baths were used to treat burns.

After treating the chef's burn, and wrapping gauze around his hand after applying a burn salve, Anna snuck a Ziploc bag of ice from the freezer. James' face had seemed a little more swollen earlier, and she finally had a chance to get some ice for him. She hid it in her jacket pocket, hoping it wouldn't melt by the time she got it to James.

Rollins was the one to lead her back to her room that time, leaving her once they were five feet from the door, claiming he had more important things than to be her guide dog. Anna had planned to sneak off down the hall to James' room once Rollins had turned the corner, but to her surprise James was perched on her bed, his back against the wall with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. It was the most peaceful she'd ever seen him.

His eyes opened when she came into the room, sensing her movement. Anna immediately held out the bag of ice to him, telling him it was for his face when he took it with a confused look on his face. As he pressed it against his cheek, Anna grabbed her bag before going to sit beside him on the bed. James watched curiously as she began pulling different things out of her bag and lined them up in front of her on the bed. She was searching for the pen and pad of paper she knew she had in there, but was distracted when James' metal hand reached out and picked up the item closest to him.

"That's my hospital ID badge," Anna told him as he studied it closer. "Lets me get past security. Tells people I'm a physician and my name. I wasn't at all prepared for pictures the day they took them though, but now I'm stuck with it."

James just continued to study the small picture of Anya that was set beside her name. Her hair was down in the picture, and slightly frizzy from the DC humidity, but she was smiling anyway. It was a different smile than James had witnessed before, a little forced, but nice all the same. He didn't understand why she didn't seem to like the picture. It wasn't nearly as bad as she made it sound. And it was something that had her name and picture on it. There were no pictures of him. When someone's supposed to be a ghost story there's no reason to have a picture or an ID.

"You can hang onto it if you want." Anna told him when she noticed he was still holding onto it. "It'd give me an excuse to get a new picture taken if I make it back to the VA." She added with a shrug when his intense eyes glanced up at her. For a minute she felt stupid suggesting it, what would he even want with her ID badge? Then he surprised her by tucking the little plastic card in his pants pocket. Apparently it wasn't such a stupid suggestion after all.

"Want to play a game?" Anna asked once he had turned back towards her, pulling the pad of paper she'd finally found into her lap. Uncapping the pen she began drawing a tic-tac-toe board, letting James go first. They alternated between tic-tac-toe and hangman, the latter of which was marginally more entertaining. James' voice was soft and soothing whenever he guessed letters, until he started guessing wrong and the growing frustration was evident in his tone.

Anna unintentionally ended up scooting closer to James when it was her turn to guess, trying her best to see the paper. Even sitting she seemed at a height disadvantage, though not as much as when they were both standing. It didn't escape James' notice, nor did the face Anya made when she was really focusing her concentration on solving the puzzle. Her lips would pull together as she drew them to the side and furrowed her brows.

"I think you're cheating," Anna muttered as James' wrote yet another letter she had guessed in the box and drew the right arm on the man. It amused him. James' was quickly learning that Anya was a very competitive person. She wasn't always a sore loser, but there were times she got much too serious for a game of hangman.

"That's it, we're playing a different game now." Anna insisted after losing once again. Grabbing the pen and paper from James she tossed it to the side and pulled out the deck of cards she'd found the day before. "Think you can handle go-fish with one hand?"

A/N You guys never cease to amaze me. Thank you for your continued support and reviews. You have NO idea what they mean to me! I don't have much to report in this note. I was trying to have this out earlier but had to work on a project for my rotation. Just like last time, I'll be responding to guest reviews below! Thanks for all the love and support guys!

To the guest who mentioned my story was replacing one of their favorites that just ended: I want to comment how I too am intrigued and excited to write a part where Tony finds out about Bucky/Winter Soldier/James (he has a lot of names lol). I feel like I could just picture Tony's facial expressions already if that were to play out and it is very amusing.

To the guest who claimed a cameo would be 'VERY awesome': there is a distinct possibility that there will be a cameo in the future. Maybe not for several chapters, but I've got a little idea forming in my head already :)

To the guest who mentioned previously reading violent Bucky fanfics previously: I'm glad you're enjoying my story. It meant a lot to me for you to say you enjoy how Anna isn't a damsel. I like strong female characters, and I try not to make mine too dependent on the men. The Bucky/Steve relationship could be touched on depending how my mind takes the story following the ending of Cap Amer II.

To the returning guest who doesn't have an account and is a fan of Tony/Anna siblingness (not a word but that's okay): sorry for the assumption that you have an account. I am glad that you're keeping up with the updates even when you don't have an account, makes me feel very privileged. And thanks for responding/reviewing again! Never apologize for suggestions! I LOVE to hear the readers' opinions on what they like, what they want to see/think will happen. I know you're not telling me what to write or how to take my story, it's all good. So keep up your speculation and what you'd like to see :)

Rach

xoxo