Chapter 51- Trust and Knowledge

Diana sat on James's lap as he gently brushed out her hair with a fine-tooth comb and kissed the back of her head. After three years of marriage, it was hard to imagine her husband, gentle as he was, being the Winter Soldier. He would press his lips to hers, whispering how much he loved her as he kissed her lips slowly, the scruff on his face, gently tickling her lips. Diana would wrap her arms around his neck, obediently kissing him until he told her to stop. Wanting him to stop never entered her thinking as his mouth explored hers and then went to the soft spot that he loved to kiss below her ear. Of course HYDRA was still giving her drugs to make her more obedient to them and James.

"James, I love you," Diana said softly as she stroked his stubbled cheek and kissed him through the scruff on his chin.

"I love you too, doll," James said.

"James, does Elizabeth really have to go today for the exam?" Diana asked, moving her hands from his face to his hair, digging her fingers deep into his hair, relishing the soft strands against her fingers and palms. She looked over at their daughter who had just gone down for a nap.

"I'm afraid so, Родна́я (Dear)," James said. James had been calling her that along with "doll" since they had been married and it had taken four or five months until she had realized what he meant. HYDRA had forced her to learn Russian and had told her that if she didn't learn Russian they would kill her and force James to marry someone else who would learn the language. In fear, Diana had agreed as she couldn't live without him now. James had taught her Russian and if she got a word right, he would kiss her. It was a wonderful way to learn a language!

"I'm just so scared. James, what if they decide not to return her," Diana said, kissing him through his hair and nuzzling her nose to his nose.

"They promised they wouldn't. Do you trust me, doll?" James asked, releasing her hair, to cup her face with his flesh hand. Diana gently kissed his fingers one by one.

"You know I do, James," Diana said loyally as she kissed the back of his hand and the palm.

"Then believe me, sweetheart," James said, pressing a warm kiss to her temples and then kissing from her temples to her lips. Diana closed her eyes, savoring the gentleness and warmth in her husband's love as he kissed her as if he was tasting her lips. Each kiss felt like the first time he had kissed her. The only difference was she was kissing him of her own free will.

Yelizaveta sat next to Bucky and Diana sat on the other side, running her hand lazily over his large flesh hand, resting her head on Bucky's shoulder. "So, you were ordered to kidnap my daughter?" Judge Mackenzie asked in a slight Scottish brogue.

"There is no excuse for it, but yes. HYDRA wanted to have a Winter Soldier and the best way was to kidnap someone and force her to carry my daughter or son. It helped that she grew to love me by the time she said yes to marrying me," Bucky said.

"Is it really love if they had to drug her to make her want you?" Yelizaveta's uncle Albert asked.

"Albert, we have been away from HYDRA for a while. He's my husband. We had a baby together and he didn't really like kidnapping me," Diana said.

"She's telling the truth. HYDRA makes you do things you hate doing. I should know. How many people did I kill before Clint got me out? I remember all of them," Yelizaveta said.

"You do?" Steve asked.

"Yep. Not that I ever really wanted to kill anyone. I'm not going to now," Yelizaveta said.

"Really?" Clint asked. Yelizaveta rolled her eyes.

"Yes, really, birdbrain. If I was gonna kill you, I would have done it when I was eight and you saved me," Yelizaveta said.

"You did think of it though, right?" Clint asked.

"A couple of times. I grew up around HYDRA soldiers. I thought every man in the world was like them, including you and Coulson," Yelizaveta said.

"I'm so touched," Clint said snarked.

""Any time, birdbrain," Yelizaveta said.

"You know you love me," Clint said.

"Yeah. Although, for the life of me, I don't know why," Yelizaveta said.

"Cute, really cute," Clint said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm now gonna go read this book I have about Operation Paperclip," Yelizaveta said, standing up.

"Operation Paperclip?" Her grandmother asked.

"Yeah. My friend Natasha Romanoff brought it up when me, her, and Uncle Steve were in Arnim Zola's brain. He said that he was invited over here after World War II. Nat said it was Operation Paperclip and many Nazi scientists and doctors came over here. They supplied Serin gas and the ear thermometer and contributed to the space race," Yelizaveta said.

"Serin gas? Are you aware what Serin gas does?" Albert asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. Being a Winter Soldier and HYDRA/Red Room defector, I know. I learned a lot about weapons and how to use them. I never really used Serin gas. My handler in the Red Room did, though. I was too squeamish to release that gas on a known traitor. He would have died painfully and I just couldn't do it," Yelizaveta said.

"Refusing a direct order? Wouldn't they have punished you?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes. The Red Room perfected the Chamber of Horrors when it came to punishing girls who didn't follow orders. That day they removed all my fingernails and toenails. And that hurts a lot worse than it sounds when they don't give a sedatives to dull the pain," Yelizaveta said. Albert gave a grimace.

"You screamed?" Steve asked.

"Not really. I just bit my lip until it started to bleed," Yelizaveta said, looking down at her fingernails. The nails had grown back, but phantom pains was a different story. She had watched movies about the Holocaust and Nazis breaking hands with clubs and gun butts and she winced, along with "The Passion of the Christ" and Jesus being whipped.

"So. you never screamed?" Stark asked.

"Once. On a really bad version of a Dostoyevsky book that came on TV," Yelizaveta wrinkled her nose in concentration.

"Russian writer?" Her grandmother asked.

"Yeah. Before Lenin and Stalin, some of the best writers were Russian. I love Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Audrey Hepburn plays an amazing Natasha," Yelizaveta said.

"That is a big book. Isn't it hard to read?" Banner asked.

"Well, Tolstoy had his wife write it seven times by candlelight and a dip pen. And no one here can read it once?" Yelizaveta teased.

"How do you know you know this stuff?" Clint asked.

"How do you not know this stuff, Clint? I actually heard that when I watched A Charlie Brown New Year with your kids and Charlie Brown had to read it," Yelizaveta said.

"Smart kid," Clint said.

"Not any smarter than most," Yelizaveta said.

"You know 20 languages. I don't know a fourteen-year-old who can do that," Banner said.

"That's true. My life was rather sad, so I had to learn languages. I recently took down Georges Batroc with my knowledge of French in the Indian Ocean," Yelizaveta said.

"He's a pirate?" Clint asked.

"Yep. It was the last mission I went on for S.H.I.E.L.D. I was with Uncle Steve and Natasha," Yelizaveta said.

"You knocked him out, right?" Clint asked.

"Yeah, for the most part. I have no idea what kind of torture HYDRA subjected him to until Pierce showed us the video in his office. If it was anything like the tortures I went though, I can just imagine," Yelizaveta said.

"Bad? Clint asked.

"Yea, verily. Well, do svidaniya, everyone," Yelizaveta said as she left the room and opened the history book.