Chapter 6
AHA, I did not abandon Oakleigh and Bucky I did however decided to change the plot and rewrite the last five chapters of this fic :P
(PAST SA WARNING)
"She loved daisies." Oakleigh explained, as her and Bucky walked along the cemetery fence his hand resting on her lower back.
"Do you remember our camp near the cliffs?"
Oakleigh laughed, "Oh yea, there was a huge meadow a couple yards to the west. Donna use to go there and pick flowers and put them around the med tent. She always said a little beauty promoted healing."
Bucky's hands slid possessively around Oakleigh's hips squeezing. "It always helped me." Oakleigh snorted.
Their smiles turned sad as they made it to the end of row. There is was Donna's name etched in stone, telling them very little about the long life she led.
loving mother
"She was a mom, she always wanted to be one. Always said if the war lasted over a decade that she would hook up with one of the soldiers. She didn't care who, just as long as she got to have a couple kids." Oakleigh took a knee.
"It was pretty slim pickings." Bucky mumbled.
"I told her she could borrow you if no one else panned out." Bucky snorted, "I'm happy you got the life you wanted Dawn. You deserve it after taking care of everyone, after everything you did for me."
Laying the daisies against her grave, Oakleigh felt the tears slip from her eyes. She leaned forward, cold stone connecting with her forehead. She sobbed, letting all her grief bubble from her body. The grass and dirt under her fingers was spongy and cold, she hoped that Donna was happy and warm wherever she was now.
Bucky let her cry, feeling the ache in his chest as well. For her pain but also some of his own for the people he had lost along the way. Fallen soldiers, his mother and sister, for who he and Steve use to be.
"Misses Blake, I'm sorry about Miss Cauffkia. Zola's notes mentioned that you two were close."
Bucky body tensed up, he stepped around Oakleigh to put himself between her and the stranger. Oakleighs sniffles got louder as she got to her feet behind him.
"Who are you?" He clearly had some relation to Hydra if he knew about Zola.
Bucky felt Oakleigh lay a small hand on his side peeking around him.
"Kenny." But it was Oakleigh who answered, not the man in front of him. "You're Kenny right?"
The man smiled, "Ah you remember me, we only met the once when I was little. I wasn't sure you would."
"The memory is hazy. Kenny's father was one of the last men to have control over the Winter solider." She explained to a very tense Bucky.
"Why are you here?" Bucky demanded.
Kenny nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. "Oak cares deeply for people, I figured she would have to come and visit her old friend eventually. I'm not the only one who had learned of your escape, I hoped I would make contact with you first."
"Listen kid, your idol threats aren't-"
"On the contrary, I'm here to save Oak's life. She was very kind to me when I met her, despite the horrors she'd faced that day."
Bucky's jaw locked, if this Hydra jr said 'Oak' one more time like they were old friends. Taking the chance to look back at her, Bucky saw confusion on Oakleigh's face, she did not know what he was talking about either.
Oakleigh had very clear and vivid momories from her time within Hydra. All concerning Bucky. There were a few however that remained fuzzy. Like Kenny's face, she remembered him being scared, she was in pain and her trying to reassure him.
"What are you talking about?" She asked.
Bucky shook his head and started leading her toward their car, despite her pushing back against him.
"Do not follow us. Let's go O. He's a lier, that's what they do, you know this."
"Owen Ozwald." Kenny raised his voice to say.
Oakleigh her mouth fill with saliva and her skin prickle. "You may not remember him, but he certainly remembers you. He's been using Hydra resources to try and track you down for weeks. He finally located you on camera with Natasha Romanoff at an inner city mall. He had knowledge that the Winter solider had been turned Avenger, Ozwald figured the Sargent had come back and taken you." Seeing her footsteps pause he added. "You remember him don't you."
Pushing Bucky's arm away, Oakleigh rounded on Kenny before a metal took hold of her wrist again.
"I remembered the name but, I don't remember what happened that day." She tried hard to see more than just a little boys tear stained face.
Kenny frowned, looking down. "Maybe it's best that way."
"There are lot's of Hydra out there, why risk coming here. Why find me and warn me about this one guy."
"Because of his insidious obsession with you."
She heard Bucky's intake of breath from behind her. He drew her back toward his body, looking around for a hidden threat.
"Hydra is not honourable Oak, you both know that more than anyone could. There was one rule, one law that no one ever broke. You were never to be touched, never to be harmed or used like any of the other girls. No one dared to go against it, until Owen."
Oakleigh swallowed the thick saliva the pooled in the back of her throat, body shaking from something she could not remember. She would remember being assaulted, surely that would have ended up in some patient record somewhere along the way.
"You said they never-" Bucky growled in a low voice.
Her head was shaking before he could get out a whole sentence. "No. I would- why don't I remember?"
Kenny took a step forward. "This is a sensitive topic, maybe we should go someplace privet."
"She's not going anywhere." Bucky had had enough.
He pulled Oakleigh by her arm, with more force than he had a minute ago.
"Stop. James." He froze. "If he ra- I deserve to know."
Bucky turned to Oakleigh with ire in his eyes. Pissed off that he had been right there, probably rooms away from where some animal had forced himself on her. That Zola had promised him this one thing and as soon as he was buried, that promise was violated.
"You don't remember Oakleigh, we don't know if what he is saying is true. Do not let this asshole shake you."
Oakleigh wrapped her arms around herself, "It feels true."
The couple stared at each other for a long while, finally Oakleigh turned back to where Kenny seemed to have frozen in time.
"I what to know what he did, Owen."
Kenny nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone.
"I was a child at the time, my recap is hazy and probably not as accurate as the security footage. My father erased all footage of the assault, except for this singular copy. I think he was afraid it would some how get in front of the Winter Solider, so he scrubbed it."
Oakleigh turned back to Bucky. "Stay here, please? I don't want you to watch this, me. I can't have you watch it."
"I'm killing him either way O." Bucky's body was shaking with furry.
"Fine. But you don't need another nightmare from that place. Another painful memory to agonize over."
"O I love you. A video is not going to change that." He wanted to reach out and touch her, but it suddenly felt forbidden.
"Please?" Her whispered plea finally breaking his resolve.
She was right anyway, he did not need a visual to want to hunt this man down and kill him. This was for Oakleigh, so she could know the truth, this was not about him.
Leaving him with a small smile, Oakleigh made her way over to Kenny.
"You now have the only copy, your thumb is the only thing that can unlock the video. You can keep it, burn it, blow it up. I would not recommend watching this with sound, but incase you want to, here are some earphones."
Oakleigh nodded silently, collecting the tech and walking twelve feet away to a nearby bench. Taking her time to prepare herself for what she might see, she unlocked the video by pressing her thumb to the phones camera, then pushed the earphones in and turned the volume to midway. She kept her finger there in case she changed her mind and wanted to mute it.
FLASHBACK SA WARNING.
She felt heavy, her heart aching for Bucky. It had been a couple months since she had seen him, since he was being punished for failing a mission. They usually frozen them at the same time, but because she was not injected like he was. They kept her out of cryo so they could run some tests, make sure she was healthy. Zola had died since her last 'outing' and now a new guy controlled Bucky.
Since their attempt at escaping, Oakleigh was strapped down to a table any time they had her in the lab. She was laying there now waiting for someone to come back and get her blood work.
"Oakleigh Blake, it is nice to finally meet you unthawed I am Dr Ozwald, but you can call me Owen."
Well that was a first, no one had ever offered up their first name before. They also had never bothered much with polite chit chat, usually they worked silently and left quickly.
"Hi." She replied, he worked for Hydra, he was not her friend.
The guy looked to be in his early twenty's, maybe around her age. His hair was ear length, his face passably handsome, in a more boyish way. A small beard across his jaw, striking green eyes.
"You really are gorgeous." The table she was on hissed as it moved, propping her up into a standing position. "Mouth watering."
He had said that last part quietly, but she heard him. A chill running down her body, he locked the door. Where were the other doctors? She may not be a supersoilder, but they never came to visit her alone.
His pale hand skimmed her hip then her stomach.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"You see I'm in charge here, I will have what I please. Take it by force if necessary." He dropped to his knees, nose pressed tight against the seem of her leggings.
"Don't!" She screamed, in hopes that someone would give a fuck and come save her from this.
Oakleigh squirmed but there was no where for her to go. All she suceesed in doing was grinding herself into his face. Now frozen, she tensed, waiting for his next move. Owen reached into his lab coat pocket, pulling out a syringe.
"If I wanted you tied down I would have brought some rope." He slid the needle into her forearm. "Just a little paralytic should do."
Tears filled her eyes at Oakleigh tired to flex and move her body and got a minimul response. This could not be happening to her. She survived threw a soilders camp without being assaulted, at least physically. She would not even get the chance to fight here, just to lay down and take what was coming.
Hot tears slipped down her cheeks thinking of Bucky, he was not even Bucky any more. There was no one left to care about what happened to her. Sure The Winter Solider seemed to care, but only in his own detached way.
Her pants were tugged down her thighs, Oakleigh shut her eyes. Maybe it would be better not to watch that way she would not have visuals to fuel her nightmares. This time he pressed his nose into her panty clad warmth, inhaling deeply. He nuzzled her, beard tickling her thighs making her hips shift slightly.
So she did have some movement left in her, maybe she could fight him off.
Oakleigh whined in digest as a hot tongue dragged over her. The restraints on her legs unlatched, Owen picked up her limbs and held them on his shoulders. He only stayed head between her thighs a moment longer, seeming to realized he was in a rush. Getting to his feet, Oakleigh started praying to the ceiling for anyone to come save her from this.
His belt made a noise as he tossed it to the floor, his zipper and buttons sounding loud in the sterol room.
She refused to look anywhere but at the ceiling as he moaned, rubbing the head of himself over her panties. Oakleigh tired to move to wiggle away but what he injected her with was strong, she could not even wiggle her fingers anymore.
Owen's pointer finger slipped between her skin and panties, his knuckle trailing over her slit. As he applied pressure to part her lips, there was a click of a key unlocking a door, and then a gun shot.
Owen's heavy body fell on top of her. Oakleigh dropped her head to look at the scene unfolding in front of her. Men shouting in German, grabbing at Owen and hitting him. Owen was bleeding from his shoulder, sadly it had not been a kill shot.
Oakleigh cried loudly as the table she was on was tilted back to a laying position and her pants were slid back up her hips. the yelling continued. A small warmth brushed her hand.
Frightened Oakleigh looked to her right. A small boy stood beside her, gripping her hand, his face scared. She hushed him and hummed, he seemed to relax into the side of the table. The soft noises were as much to comfort him as it was her.
Unable to lift her head, Oakleigh listened while Owen was pulled from the room. An older man come over to her.
"Never again." He had said, grabbing the young boy and talked out.
She had never seen Owen after that, the mans promise had been kept. Some time that night another two doctors came in and gave her a heavy dose of some kind of pain medicine. It made her drowsy and a little nauseous. The next day they put her back into cryo.
That was the first time she had ever been eager to enter the pod, it suddenly felt safe.
FLASHBACK OVER
Oakleigh scrolled back threw the video, pausing on Owens face. He would be older now, in his forties or fiftys. While it was her own mind or the drugs that caused her to forget this memory, she was glad. She did not have to spend the last month with this secret memory replaying in her mind. Now she would remember his face, because she would be damned if she let him get the drop on her now.
Getting to her feet, Oakleigh locked the phone and slid it into her back pocket. Kenny and Bucky both watched her looking for an emotion on her deceptively blank face, but they would not get one. She stopped at Kenny first, hearing Bucky shift closer.
"Thank you for coming to find me, I'll be on the lookout for Owen."
Kenny's eyes roamed over her face. "I'm sorry that happened to you. I am also sorry I had to be the one to drag up old memories."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. Take care of yourself Kenny."
He smiled. "You too. Watched your back, though it seemed you now have a lot of people looking out for you."
Oakleigh nodded, making her way back to Bucky. He watched her with an almost blank face, his brows slightly frowned.
"He didn't rape me." She told him point blank.
It was better to come out and say it now. No matter what she decides to share with him, Bucky is going to cause Owen pain for even thinking he could lay hands on her.
Stopping to say goodbye to Donna one last time, Oakleigh walked silence to the car. The phone like a heavy brick in her back pocket. Her mind replaying the video over and over in her mind. The way Owen thought she was his to touch and play with, it make her want to throw up. His mouth had been where Bucky's had hundreds of times before, she hated him thinking he had the right to do that.
Oakleigh really just wanted to shower. Even thought she had not seen Owen in decades, she felt like his mouth had just been on her yesterday. She wanted to scrub his acts off of her.
She could tell that Bucky wanted to say something, wanted to ask questions. She kept her eyes on her lap the whole fiftyfive minutes back to the compound.
Steve and Sam greeted them outside, their faces sweaty from the run they had clearly just come back from.
"Hey guys how did-" Steve stopped talking as he took in the face of his best friend.
Bucky's eyes here hard and his body tense, he looked like he was ready for war. Locking his emotions away to deal with later, he looked more like the winter soilder than he had in months.
"What the hell happened?" He asked, looked over as Oakleigh got out of the car.
Oakleigh silently pulled a phone from her back pocket, walked a couple feet away then set it down on the ground. Natasha and Clint just inside the bay doors, cleaning and taking inventory of their equipment. Oakleigh walked over grabbing one of the first guns she saw, checking to see if it was loaded before headed back into the sun.
"Hydra is what happened." Bucky growled to Steve and Sam.
The boys quietly asked questions, their words falling away as they noticed Oakleigh approaching with a gun in hand.
"What are you going to do with that?" Sam asked, fingers twitching.
Oakleigh's eyes never left the phone, as she stood over the small device. Her face blank as she empties the clip into it, bullets ricochet off the shattered device.
"Oh shit." Sam startled, stepping back.
Steve sent his worried gaze back and forth between his two best friends. Bucky looked heart broken and Oakleigh looked like she was feeling nothing.
She kept firing after the bullets were all gone, the gun making a click noise around the empty chamber. Once she was satisfied, Oakleigh dropped the gun and bent to pick up the pieces of the damaged phone. It still did not feel like enough, she wanted the entire thing to be obliterated. She did not want there to be a chance of Tony or Natasha pulling images or video from the drive.
Putting all the pieces into a make shift shirt basket, Oakleigh walked inside. There were multiple footsteps echoing behind her. She made her way up to Tony's lab in record time.
"Hey Oakleigh, I thought you and the-" He stopped mid sentence, taking in her face and faces of the men and women following her.
"Is this acid?" The first words she had said in over an hour.
Tony crossed his arms. "Yeah, Thor brought it down from azguard, pretty unstable stuff, I have not started working with it yet."
Oakleigh nodded, perfect. Taking the lid off, she heard Tony's loud protest as she dumped the metal and glass inside. It bubbled as it deteriorated, leaving nothing left in seconds. Oakleigh rolled her shoulders shaking off the last two hours. The sadness she felt visiting Donna's grave and the disgust and fear of what Kenny revealed to her.
"I'm going to go shower." She announced to the room, meeting everyones wide gaze for a moment before exiting.
Bucky was left, stuck in place wondering if he should follow her.
"The fuck was that?" Tony asked.
"Language." Steve sighed, "Buck what happened. You said Hydra ambushed you at the cemetery."
"Tony, look into Owen Ozweld. He was with Hydra for a short while."
Tony paused for a moment, taking in the cold eyes of the winter solider. Cleaning his throat he lead the group into the debrief room.
"He has a file, one singular page but it's all blacked out. Hydra has no information on this guy, except for his picture, name and birthdate."
"Zoom in on his face." Bucky requested, palms resting on the table.
He glared down at the screen, trying to find any memory of this guy but there was nothing.
"Is that the guy the was at the cemetery today?" Steve tried again to get an answer.
"No." He needed to talk to Oakleigh.
"Bucky hold on." Steve stepped in his way as he tried to leave. "Fill us in, what are we missing here?"
Bucky pointed to the screen, displaying Owen's face. "He's looking for O. I'm gonna kill him before he can get his hands on her again."
He left without another word, making his way up to the dorms.
"Anyone feeling a little ice coming off those two?" Clint muttered.
Steve sighed, "Tony can you look into Owen Ozwold we need to get information on this guy. He's clearly a threat and we need to see if he still has any Hydra contacts."
"I'll put JARVIS on it."
"Everyone leave Bucky and Oakleigh be for now. I'll try and talk with one of them later, see if I can figure out what happened. Right now all we know is Hydra is coming after O, we're going to make sure we keep her safe."
.
The shower burned away the phantom feeling on her body, of being touched while helpless. Her mind however was another battle, she can't bring herself to feel mad that this truth was dropped on her. She had be assaulted, her body touched and she had not known about it for decades.
It would have been even worse to be blindsided by Owen himself. Someone that demented would not be deterred just because she lived with the avengers. Oakleigh blushed wondering how much Bucky had shared with the team after she left. They would have questions and Hydra is not something they could ignore and Oakleigh's safety is not something Bucky could.
Bucky, what the hell was she going to tell him? Oakleigh already decided that she would explain what she had seen, but would not get into detail about it. Getting the whole story was not going to change anything for Bucky, she knew him well enough. He was going to kill Owen for laying hands on her and for the upset it was causing her now that she knew.
After washing her body three times with her loofa, Oakleigh felt clean enough to get out of the shower. Her body bright red, like she had been in the sun all day from how hot the water had been. Her jajaba vanilla body wash stayed in the vapours the filled the bathroom, making her feel safe.
Black leggings and a sky blue oversized hoodie kept her warm when she left the safety of the bathroom. Bucky was sitting on their bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his head dropped down. His body was tense, Oakleigh suspected his mind was going over everything Kenny had told them.
Oakleigh internally rolled her eyes, why was she suddenly feeling so uncomfortable? It was the situation not Bucky, she knew that but it did not seem to matter.
"I don't know why I'm feeling so awkward right now." Oakleigh muttered, standing by in the middle of the rug. "It's not like things have changed."
Bucky's head snapped up. It had changed in his perspective it was apparent in his eyes.
"You shot the phone into parts and then burned the fragments in Azgardian acid, O. We can't ignore that Ozwald raped you."
Oakleigh flinched, "Ok. I already told you, he didn't do that. I got rid of the footage because I did not want to risk you or anyone else seeing it. Everyone knowing it happened is bad enough."
"I didn't give the team a recap, they don't have to know what happened unless you want to tell them."
"But you have to know. Want to know?"
Bucky wanted the info because the fear of being blindsided by the facts by someone like Ozwald was too off putting to think about.
"That's not up to me."
"I was strapped to one of those tables that you can stand up. He came in alone-" She scoffed. "He offered up his first name. He started touching me, pulled my pants down to my knees, injected me with a paralytic so I couldn't move. He got down on his knees in front of me placed my legs on his shoulders, he hand to hold them to keep them from falling back down. He took his pants down and looked like he was reaching for my panties. Then a couple lab coats rushed in and some soldier shot him, then they dragged him away."
"You don't remember it?" He asked carefully.
"I think maybe they dosed me with something. I remember one time you came back really hurt and bloody, I was hysterical because they would not let me see you. They injected me with something, it made the memory foggy. Not that they were letting me see you at this point but, I assume they would not want to risk me telling you what happened. They probably gave me something to calm me down and help me forget."
Bucky's jaw was clenched tight, it would not be shocking if his teeth blew out the side of his head. Oakleigh found herself wondering if he squeezed hard enough, if he could dent his own metal hand.
"I don't think he ever actually touched bare skin."
Bucky did not look at her, "You said your thighs were around his head."
"He touch a bare thigh, but he didn't touch anything- ya know important. It was hard to see what he was doing from the angle of the video, it just looked like he was kneeled there." Oakleigh sighed, "Is this going to be a problem for us?"
Bucky looked at her then, beckoning her forward with a tilt of his head. Oakleigh crossed the room, stopping between Bucky's legs.
"I love you." He told her. "His asshole is not going to ruin anything."
Oakleigh's hands played with the t-shirt fabric on his shoulders, "Maybe it won't change our relationship but, you're not going to let this go huh?"
"He's Hydra O, we're already working to eradicate every last one of them. We would have gotten to him eventually. Now that we know you are a target for him, he's our next hit."
"Or we could wait a couple weeks. He's one guy, you really think he's going to try and break into the avengers training facility?" Bucky pulled her to his chest, arms circling her waist.
"I think if he was cocky enough to go against Hydra, he'll be crazy enough to come here and try to take you away from me." He kissed her clothed stomach.
She hummed, "Again you are worrying too much about what possibly could happen. Instead you should be thinking about this weekend, my dress and how I'll look when you take it off of me."
Bucky sighed, "I think we should stay back from the party." Oakleigh was already shaking her head.
"We are not going to stay back from anywhere, and I did not let Natasha slap tape on my boobs and then rip it off in the store for nothing. We are going." Bucky's brows shot up. "Hydra doesn't control us remember? Not anymore."
"I'm having Stark double security, and you're sticking with me threw the evening."
Oakleigh shrugged, "See you on the dance floor." Bucky shook his head. "You're going to get frown lines, don't worry so much."
"I've been worrying for just over a century now. Before you, I had Steve to look after."
"I didn't need your help, you were always butting in." Steve opened their door slightly. "Can I come in?"
Oakleigh nodded, stepping back from Bucky. He countered by standing and placing his hand on her hip.
"I came to check on you guys, make sure you were doing alright."
Oakleigh smiled, "I'm good, just bumped into someone from the facility is all. Brought up some bad memories."
Steve looked over at Bucky, his jaw was clenched tight. Steve figured he was not pleased about how flippant Oakleigh was being about the encounter.
"Owen Ozwald." Steve nodded, seeing how Oakleigh flinched and Bucky stepped closer to her. "We're still trying to track him down. He's hidden himself well. There was only one file on him in the Hydra data base and most of the information was blacked out."
"He didn't stay long." Oakleigh clarified. "He messed up and Hydra does not give second chances."
"Right." Steve placated. "Most of the team is headed down to the training room. I thought I'd offer an invite."
Oakleigh left Bucky's side, headed for her closet. A workout is exactly what she needed right now, shake the last of this day off of her.
"Sounds great."
"O." Bucky's voice was gravely.
"I'm just going to go run on the track. What? Worried I'll smoke you?" Turning to look at him, she saw the fear in his eyes.
She had last been in the gym two days prior, when she had passed out on him. She assumed his protest come from that recent memory and maybe a bit of worry was for her mental health.
"A run is exactly what I need after today. You're not going to make me beg in front of Steve are ya?" Her voice dropped low, turning soft and seductive.
Bucky scoffed and Steve blushed, immediately picking up on the shift in the room.
"I'll see you down there." Oakleigh grabbed her clothes, she could change once she got down stairs. "Leave you boys to talk."
Oakleigh gave Steve a pointed look as she passed. 'Take care of him", it said. Steve and Bucky had a long history, and while Bucky started to learn on her because of their relationship. Steve was who he needed right now. He could voice his worries or anger without feeling like he had to hold back, afraid of scaring her with his rage and violence.
"Talk to me Buck."
