A/N. Hey guys. I am so, so sorry about the wait. School has been kicking my ass. It had temporarily RUINED my writing mentality (not to mention eaten away at my time like it's a box of chocolates). I still exist and I fully intend on finishing this story - PROMISE. Anyway, here's to the next chapter! The unlucky number 13 (which also happens to be Sharon Carter's codename). So, without further ado, I introduce... the Winter Soldier highway scene! Enjoy :D

Chapter Thirteen

There was no time to lose. Steve grabbed Sitwell roughly and dragged him toward the stairs. Tania, Natasha, and Sam followed. The five of them ran down all of the flights of stairs back to Sam's car and piled in, Sitwell seated between Tania and Nat in the back. "Step on it, wingman," Natasha ordered, slamming her door shut.

The engine revved and they pulled out into traffic.

Steve twisted in his seat to face the others. "We have to get back to the Triskelion," he said in a tone that left no room for argument - not that there was any. They had to stop those helicarriers from getting up in the air before mass destruction happened.

"I know how to get there," assured Sam as he pressed harder on the gas pedal.

Tania buckled her seatbelt nervously. "How are we going to do this?"

"Not sure yet," Steve admitted, turning back to the front. "But-"

"Hydra doesn't like leaks," Sitwell interrupted, gripping the seat with both hands.

"Then why don't you try sticking a cork in it?" Sam suggested, checking his rearview mirror.

Natasha poked her head up front. Was no one wearing a seatbelt? "Insight's launching in sixteen hours. We're cutting it a little bit close here."

"I know," Steve sighed. He wasn't wearing one either! "We'll use Sitwell to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly."

"What?" Sitwell's eyes were wide. "Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea-"

BOOM-BOOM. Something large and heavy landed on the roof of the car just as they were merging onto the highway. The metal of the ceiling dented and Tania's window shattered. She screamed as a metal hand reached inside, brushed by her nose, and grabbed Sitwell by the scruff of his neck. She tried to grab him but the metal arm was fast and strong and yanked Sitwell right out the window. She heard him scream before a sickening squelch. Whatever other noises that followed were drowned out by her pounding heart.

The person whom she assumed was the Winter Soldier climbed back up onto the roof. Gunfire sprayed the back of the car and she screamed again, pressing herself to the door and closing her eyes.

Natasha scrambled up front and clambered into Steve's lap, simultaneously pulling out her gun. Tania's baton was in the trunk. She cursed eternally-

The car slammed to a grinding halt and she was thrown forward, caught by the seatbelt and yanked back, bonking her head against the headrest as tires squealed. The bullets stopped. She pushed the hair away from her face and peered between the two front seats. There, several meters in front of them, standing in the middle of their lane (and traffic), knelt the Winter Soldier.

Tania watched as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. This was the first time she had seen him and he looked every bit as menacing as Steve and Natasha had described. He was dressed in black and grey, a vest of weapons strapped to his torso and a silver arm with a red star painted near the shoulder. He had long brown hair and a mask that covered his mouth and nose. She briefly wondered how he was able to breathe, then decided that she didn't care. His eyes were obscured by black goggles, but even wearing them, she could feel his stare.

Natasha raised her gun. A force smashed into the rear of the car and Tania felt her seat turn convex. Sam's car skidded forward as the car behind them kept pushing. It became abundantly clear that the Winter Soldier was not alone.

As the vehicles approached the Winter Soldier, he jumped and flipped over the roof. The rear window exploded and Tania ducked, covering her head with her hands. "Sam!" She shouted.

Tires screeched as he presumably slammed on the brakes, but they hardly slowed. She looked up, clawing at the hair in her face once again.

The metal hand crashed through the ceiling once again. It grabbed the steering wheel and yanked it right off.

Sam's cry of "Shit!" said it all.

Natasha began firing. The frame of the car shook as the Winter Soldier leaped onto the armoured vehicle behind them. Tania twisted in her seat just as Sam's car began to swerve. The left side scraped the right side of a nearby car, which kept them in their lane. Without steering, they were doomed if something didn't happen fast. Miraculously, they were still going straight.

Tania ripped the elastic off her wrist and began frantically tying her hair. She was of no use to anyone if she couldn't see.

The car behind them nudged the trunk with its nose and Sam's car veered to the left, turning almost three hundred and sixty degrees. Tania lost the elastic and grabbed the handle above her window holding on for dear life.

Up front, Steve picked up his shield from the floor and grabbed Natasha and Sam. He reached past them to the back. "Tania!" She saw what he was planning. He had lined the shield up with the door and was going to throw them from the car.

She moved, but was held back. So this was why superheroes apparently didn't wear seat-belts. It didn't matter. There was no room for her. His shield (and the door) was only so big. She and Natasha locked eyes. Tania nodded.

Natasha kicked at the driver's seat and shoved them out. The car hit a bump and flipped. The passenger door popped open. Steve, Natasha, and Sam fell out. Tania was whipped around in midair. It felt almost like zero gravity.

The car hit the ground upside down and the roof gave way, slamming into her skull even as it kept rolling. The car rolled over and over and Tania couldn't tell which way was up, down, left, right, forward, backward, or the way to the Emerald City. Shards of glass flew through the air and dented pieces of metal protruded from every section and everything was moving. It felt like it would never stop.

Something stabbed her leg and she screamed.

The car came to a grinding halt.

Her head smashed into the ceiling and she lost consciousness.

"… nia… ani… Tania!"

She gasped and tried to sit up, but quickly found that she was hanging sideways from a seatbelt and trapped inside a thoroughly destroyed car.

She panicked.

She tried to kick, but her thigh protested by slicing pain straight through her. She shouted something between a yell and a groan.

"Tania!"

That was Sam. Sound began to filter back in. Gunfire. Holy shit, that was a lot of gunfire. But she wasn't currently swiss cheese so she could only assume that it wasn't aimed at her. There was also tires screeching and cars honking and people shrieking.

Everything was still spinning.

She knew one thing for sure: she had to get out. She fumbled with the seatbelt, her hands shaking. Her hair hung uselessly in front of her face and she blew it out of her way. Click. She dropped and hit the ground shoulder-first with a grunt. The car was on its right side. She had been sitting on the left. Right. Okay. Good to know.

Her legs were currently above her, lying on the seats. There was a piece of metal of some sort impaling her left thigh, which was soaked in blood. Also good to know.

Okay. Quick injury assessment. Probably concussion. She felt along the back of her head. Sure enough, there was a sizeable bump and a puddle of blood clumping her hair together. That was going to be a pain to get out later. She could feel all fingers and toes, but she could also feel bruises all along her arms, legs, and back, as well as where the seatbelt had dug into her skin. Her right bicep was cut and bleeding, but the pain was dulled by her adrenaline. Let's not forget her thigh that was now part metal.

"Tania!"

Right. Sam was outside. Where were Steve and Natasha?

"Coming!" She called back. She shuffled backward, scraping her elbows on the pavement she could feel beneath her through the nonexistent glass window. Her legs came tumbling down into the place where the passenger in the back right of the car normally left their feet. She grunted again and slid her knees underneath her, pushing upward, using the seats as a wall and support. She reached up and gripped both sides of the shattered window, the one that Sitwell had been pulled through, and yanked herself up and through.

It was hard to believe that before she met Steve, she couldn't even do a pull-up.

She blinked under the Washington sun, observing her surroundings.

It was chaos.

Several cars were overturned. Some were smoking. People were screaming and fleeing. A police car was on fire. Men, presumably Hydra agents, began to jump off the bridge onto the street below carrying large machine guns and wearing bungee cords or something. One of them spotted her.

Squeaking, Tania flipped herself over the other side of the car and landed behind it. Her left leg gave out and she crumpled to the ground, her hair once again obscuring her vision. What she wouldn't give to be bald right now.

Sam was there, helping her sit up and properly take cover behind the remains of his car. Tania pulled another elastic from her wrist and began tying her hair again. "You okay?" She asked, looking around to make sure there were no surprises.

He nodded, hovering anxiously. "Yeah." He glanced down at her leg. "We have to do something about that. I've got a kit in my trunk."

"You can't get that."

"No. But you can."

"What?"

"I'll draw fire."

"No."

"Relax." He smiled and patted her arm like she was an old friend. "On my signal." He pulled a knife from his pocket and crouched just behind the tires, one of which was still spinning. He twirled out of hiding and Tania lost sight of him. There was gunfire and grunts and hits and then, "Go! I got this!"

Tania crawled out from behind the car and saw only Sam standing, using one of the Hydra rifles to fire at someone or something on the street below. Breathing raggedly, she dragged her legs underneath her and pushed. Crying in pain, she stood and pushed the trunk open. The contents had exploded and were lying all over the place. Many of the items were damaged beyond use. Her batons, sturdy things, were intact. She grabbed them and dropped them beside her. Sam's pack was also in there, intact. She pulled it out as well. The rest of the medical supplies were strewn all over the place.

She spotted a bottle of alcohol, but it had been pierced and was empty. The entire trunk wreaked of it. She could only hope no fire got near this car. It would explode for sure. The bandages had unraveled, but there was enough still clean-looking that she grabbed them and tore off the dirty gauze with her teeth. She grabbed the tape, scissors, safety pins, and wipes before taking cover behind the car again and plopping not so gently onto the gravel.

The contents spilled out of her arms and she quickly gathered them up again. She wanted to make this quick, she really did, but holy shit she had to yank a pipe or whatever the hell was through her leg out with her own free will. It must have been hidden under Sam's seat or something. Whatever it was, she was cursing him very colourfully for it under her breath.

She wrapped her hands around the metal. It was warm. God. She tried to take deep breaths. She could feel the damn thing and everything it touched - her muscles, her skin, her nerves. She had never been more aware of any of those things than right now. She could feel the exact shape of the thing even though it was buried in her thigh because it was buried in her thigh.

Closing her eyes, she pulled - and screamed. Her flesh and muscles tore, but the thing wouldn't come loose. If she let go now, she would never pull it again. With a surge of fear and determination, she yanked the pipe free. It clattered to the ground as hot white bursts of light exploded in her eyes and burned her thigh. She howled and fell onto her side, squeezing her eyes shut against the light.

Two hands wrapped around her arms and she lashed out, swinging her right arm. The bone of her wrist met someone's jaw and she spun onto her back to see-

Shit. Sam.

"Sorry!" She cried, reaching for his hands as he cracked his neck and looked at her again.

He chuckled. "It's okay. I'm fine. Mean backhand you got there. But I'm more worried about you." He pressed both of his hands to her thigh and she growled, throwing her head back against the bottom of the car.

"Ow."

Sam shook his head and grabbed the scissors. He cut through the leg of the jeggings she was wearing and threw it aside. It was a gruesome sight. Her thigh was gushing blood like an erupting volcano and there was a hole in her leg. She could stick her arm through if she wanted to. Gah.

Sam wiped uselessly at her skin with the wipes before grabbing the gauze and wrapping her leg so tightly that it started to go numb - thank God. "I don't suppose you have any morphine in there?" She asked, breathless from pain.

He laughed. "No. But I'll remember that for next time." He taped the bandages together and pushed on his knees to stand. He held out a hand for her. "Come on. The Winter Soldier went after Steve and Natasha."

She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. She whimpered, but stayed standing, which was something. "Can we catch up to them?" Her adrenaline was wearing off. If she wanted the pain to go away, she needed to move. Even if that was bad for the injury.

"I know a way." He looked down at his pack. Right. Falcon wings.

She nodded, picking up her batons. "Let's go."

He shrugged the pack onto his shoulders and pressed a button by his hip. She stepped back just in time to avoid getting hit in the face with two giant robotic wings. They unfolded and expanded until Sam's wingspan was proportionately accurate. His goggles popped out the back, which he caught expertly and slipped over his eyes. He looked at her. "You ready?"

"Sure. How are we gonna do this?"

"The easy way."

"That's a first," she muttered as he gestured for her to turn around.

"Raise your arms."

She saw where this was going, but raised them anyway. She heard his footsteps as he took a running start at her back. He looped his arms under hers and suddenly they were soaring. She clenched her arm muscles tightly and flailed a little. Flying with Tony felt much more secure than this.

They glided over the street, searching for their friends. Their shadow looked like some mutated, oversized bird terrorizing the city. She wouldn't be surprised if the Avengers faced those one day too.

"There!" Sam shouted.

She spotted Steve having in the middle of an intersection, surrounded by overturned and bullet-ridden cars. He was currently having a staring contest with the Winter Soldier, who was facing away from them. "Take me to them!" She shouted back. Sam obliged and they began to swoop downward. The Winter Soldier was her prey. "I'm gonna hit him!"

"On purpose?!"

"Yes! Keep going!"

They kept going, smoothly diving for the Winter Soldier, who pointed his gun at Steve. Nuh uh. Not while I'm here. When they were close enough, Tania swung her legs forward and rammed her right one into his shoulder blade. He fell forward into a messy roll while Sam and Tania kept the momentum going. He set her down gently into a jog while he flew overhead, spinning horizontally to avoid hitting her and then retracting his wings so that he could hit the ground running.

Tania spun around to find Steve. He was still staring at the Winter Soldier, his shield loosely held at his side. Her heart began to pound. What was wrong with him?

The Winter Soldier got up and she looked at him. He wasn't wearing his mask. From this distance, he kind of looked like-

No. It couldn't be.

The Winter Soldier was wide-eyed and… confused. He raised his gun again.

"No!" Tania moved to step into the line of fire, but a bullet whizzed past going the other way and lodged into the car behind the Winter Soldier. The vehicle exploded and Tania ducked. When she looked up again, the Winter Soldier was gone.

Panting, she looked around. Natasha stood with the gun on the other side of the intersection, leaning heavily on a van. She looked weary and hurt and glad that it was finally over, if Tania was reading her expression correctly.

Steve was a bit closer, standing in the exact middle of the four-way intersection, his jaw slack and his eyes glassy. He was filthy and breathing harder than normal, his shoulders moving up and down faster. If the Winter Soldier was who she thought she saw, then Steve's reaction of complete shock was entirely justifiable.

Sam stood in the middle of the street adjacent to Natasha, his wings retracted and shifting from foot to foot. He pushed his goggles to the top of his head and looked around.

Tania stood a few feet from where the Winter Soldier had been staring Steve down. She was the one staring at Steve now, but Steve wasn't staring back. Well, he was staring, just not at her - at the ground.

Sirens blared and multiple black vans careened around the corner, suspiciously without label. They weren't the police and they weren't SHIELD. At every street leading to the intersection, vans screeched to a halt sideways across both lanes, surrounding the Avengers. Men in full gear with kevlar and guns jumped out of the cars and speed-walked toward them, weapons raised.

Tania ripped apart her batons and spun them in anticipation of a fight, but she was in no condition to do so. She looked to Steve for guidance and leadership, but he just… stood there.

The Hydra agents were on them in seconds, grabbing them roughly and taking away their weapons. Two men each took an arm and led her towards one of the vans. She resisted, pulling against them. The agent she recognized as Rumlow kicked the back of Steve's knee until he knelt and she wanted so badly to kick Rumlow where it hurt, but she was too far. Sam and Natasha were both captured as well. Tania could see the blood leaking from Natasha's shoulder now.

They were in no condition to fight.

She let herself be led into the van and cuffed with her hands in front of her. The adrenaline was fading and the pain was rushing back. She groaned and leaned her head against the wall. Natasha was ushered in next, also cuffed. She sat next to Tania, eyes closed and breathing shallow.

Sam stepped in afterward, distinctly without his wings and goggles, which were tossed in after him. Steve came in last, both forearms stuck in some really thick metal cuffs that travelled from his wrists to his elbows, both arms crossed one on top of the other. He sat next to Sam and stared at the floor. The goons shoved the shield under their feet and hopped in, sitting against the wall adjacent to both Tania and Sam. The doors closed.

They were trapped.

The engine roared to life and they all leaned to the right as the van began to move. "Where are we going?" Tania asked, fiddling with the handcuffs. Natasha had taught her how to get out of normal ones, but these were SHIELD-issue and much more complicated.

The guards didn't answer. So Tania decided to pretend they weren't there. She turned to Steve. "Hey," she whispered, trying to get his attention. It failed. "Steve."

He glanced at her. They made eye contact for what seemed like the first time since their shower this morning. She could see that he was shaken.

"Was that… Bucky?"

He swallowed heavily; and nodded. "It was him," he whispered brokenly, so sure. "He looked right at me… and he didn't even know me."

So that had been the staring contest that she had witnessed. The mask must have just come off at that point.

Sam seemed to put two and two together. "How is that even possible? It was like seventy years ago."

Tania snorted. Had he forgotten who he was talking to?

Steve looked down again. "Zola," he said. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him." Slowly, Steve looked up. "Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall."

Tania knew all of this; had seen Bucky in bazillions of sketches both she and Steve had drawn together. Had seen pictures. Had heard stories. Had visited his grave. Had talked to his ghost. Steve had once told her that Bucky would have liked her. She wondered if that could even be possible now that he was…

"They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha croaked, leaning her head back and closing her eyes against the pain. Tania reached over and took her hands in her own. She couldn't reach the wound, as it was on Natasha's other side, so this would have to do.

Steve didn't even seem to notice. That's how Tania knew that something was extremely wrong with him. He didn't seem to believe what Natasha said either. He turned his head away. "Even when I had nothing I had Bucky."

"Steve…" Tania started, sympathy lacing her tone. She couldn't even begin to imagine what he was going through. Bucky, his absolute best friend and brother from the time he belonged in, back from the death which Steve had been witness to, with a metal arm and a reputation for being a cold-blooded assassin.

Natasha, of all people, started breathing deeply.

Sam noticed. "We need to get a doctor here," he told the guard closest to him. "We don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the tru-".

The guard next to Tania brandished an electric prod and Sam shut up, leaning back. Tania did too, pushing against Natasha as the electricity crackled and zapped. The guard then flipped the rod and stabbed his partner in the chest. The partner cried out and the first guard snapped his foot against the partner's helmet. The partner flopped to the floor at their feet.

Everyone stared at the very helpful guard. This guard removed their helmet and Maria Hill was revealed underneath, her bun a mess. "That thing was squeezing my brain," she said, flipping the hair out of her face. She looked around at all of the surprised faces before turning to Steve. "Who's this guy?" She asked, gesturing to Sam.

The man in question decided to save the Steve the effort of answering in his mental state. "Sam Wilson, former United States Air Force."

Hill raised her eyebrows. "What unit?"

"58th Rescue Squadron."

"A paratrooper."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You keep good company, Rogers. Now come on. I'm busting us you out of here." She reached into her back pocket and pulled out what looked like a taser. She pointed it at the floor and switched it on. A powerful blue laser beam shot out from one end and began searing a hole into the metal of the floor. "Someone want to move him before I cut off limbs he'd rather stay attached?"

Sam kicked him until the guard rolled over, closer to the doors.

"Good enough." Hill continued firing the laser until she'd drawn a square big enough to surround Steve's shield. She flicked the switch and the laser stopped humming, its beam disappearing. Standing up but hunched over because of the low ceiling, Hill stepped forward and stomped on the square. The entire piece popped off and clattered to the moving gravel beneath them.

Tania peered into the square, watching as the shades of grey and black zoomed by. She looked up at Hill. "That's a cool gadget, but I don't suppose you could…?" She raised her cuffed wrists.

"Of course." Hill twisted a dial on the laser thing and pressed the tip to the chain linking the two cuffs of Tania's restraints. Slowly, the metal links began to turn orange. In a couple of the seconds, they broke apart.

"Thanks."

"Wait. I'm not done yet." She grabbed Tania's wrist and pressed the device to the manacle. Sure enough, after a few seconds, that split in half and dropped to the floor. Hill made quick work of everyone's restraints. When she caught sight of Steve's, she paused. "That one's a bit of a doozy but I think I can manage it." Very carefully, she knelt in front of Steve and began chipping away at the thick metal with the laser.

With her hands free, Tania unravelled the scarf she was wearing and began tying it around Natasha's shoulder. There was no exit hole, so the bullet was lodged somewhere in there, hopefully not in Nat's collarbone. That would suck.

Steve's cuffs took a few extra minutes, but they eventually came off. He mumbled a thank you and rubbed his wrists. Hill stood up as much as she could and pocketed the laser. "You're welcome, Cap. Now come on. When this guy stops at a red light, one or two of us jumps out. There's a navy van trailing this one ready to accept passengers at a moment's notice."

"Where are we going?" Asked Natasha.

"To see an old friend."

Well that wasn't cryptic. Tania opened her mouth to ask Hill to elaborate, but the truck came to a slow stop.

"Go!" Hill urged, ushering them through the hole she'd made in the floor. Sam went first, sliding on his pack, hopping through and sliding his legs underneath the car. He was gone in seconds. Natasha went next, maneuvering through gracefully despite her injury.

The car started moving again, so they had to wait for the next stop.

Hill pulled out her phone. "We have three traffic lights before we get to HQ." Her fingers flew across the touch screen. "There. They'll all be red when we get there." She tucked the phone away and sat down on the bench next to Steve. "Alright, you two go next. I'll meet up with you after."

It was only about thirty seconds before the next red light. Steve insisted Tania go first, so she did, gripping her batons tightly. Sam and Nat made it look easy. She shimmied down through the hole until her legs were parallel to the ground and in-between it and the bottom of the car. Then she used the hole to propel the rest of her down and under. Then she had to wiggle feet-first out from under the car, crawl to the next one without being seen by the one she'd just escaped, and hop into the back of the van. Sam threw open the door and pulled her in just as the driver stepped on the gas. She fell forward onto the bench. It was the exact same model vehicle as the one she'd just escaped, but this one was apparently friendly.

Steve literally jumped into the back while it was moving, having caught it easily since it was just beginning to crawl forward at a green light. He shut the doors behind him, carrying his shield on one arm. "Maria will meet us at the next red light," he announced, sounding a bit more like himself - well, his Captain America persona, anyway. He settled down next to Tania with a sigh and closed his eyes.

She sidled closer and looped her arm through his, resting her head on his shoulder. She, too, closed her eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept. That was bad, but if Tony could last seventy-two hours without sleep, so could she. Except he had access to coffee… God. What she wouldn't do for a coffee right now - or ten coffees, triple espresso.

"Are you okay?" Steve's question tore her from her daydreaming.

She lifted her head from his shoulder, blinking. "Uh." Right. Impaled thigh. Jeggings with only one pant leg, the other one bare except for a really bloody bandage around her thigh. "Yes?"

His eyes shone with guilt as he caressed her cheek. He was thinking about when he'd grabbed Sam and Natasha, but not her. She just knew he was beating himself up about it. "I'm sorry," he whispered, gently massaging the back of her neck.

She hummed and pressed her forehead to his shoulder. "S'okay," she mumbled, melting into a puddle of goo. "No room for me on your shield. It's an exclusive club. Only people with 's' in their name are invited. I get it." She fake sniffled.

Steve huffed an almost-laugh and pressed a kiss to her hair. "I love you."

She snuggled closer. "Love you too."