Chapter 7

December 21st, 1948 Russia

The Hydra tech member who was in charge of keeping tabs on the Winter Soldier's whereabouts was nervous as his hand was shaking.

"Report."

"At last known location we pinpointed the Soldier in Nebraska, just inside the border of Holt County." The man wished he had a glass of water as he licked his lips dread curling up into his stomach.

"The asset reported as promised and then the receiver went dead due to the horrific weather the Mid-West America is having. There is no way to retrieve the Asset and his handler until the storms and weather clears up. There had been stirrings that Howard Stark had asked for supply drops for a project he's working on. At best guess he's trying to redo the Soldier's arm as the reports indicate its for a metal project. I don't know how he'll do it as time goes one the Asset will lose some of his conditioning and start to malfunction. We might end up losing the project sir."

The man was suddenly slammed into the wall. "What do you mean we'll might lose the project?"

"Without repeated sessions in the chair to wipe the Soldier's memories they might start coming back to him and he'll regain his old self."

The smile that suddenly appeared on the head HYDRA's face was chilling. "Regain the asset's memories? I don't there's enough time to regain the memories in two months or however it'll be stuck in Nebraska. If the asset did, well, that's another thing we'll take." He gave a chuckle. "At least Stark is upgrading the arm for us free of charge."

A little over 5,000 miles a way in Nebraska in the dead of night, reports of the last month was under way.

"I'm pleased to say that the only words that trigger the Winter Soldier is just the six words in Russian and only those six words said out loud. No other languages, not written or spoken affect him in anyway. We'll doing well." Natasha said to the three women who were sitting around the kitchen table.

Barnes for once was sleeping deeply. It probably helped that it was the day after the third attempt to get rid of the silver arm, and Stark was determined to replace it. Finally Natasha had hit on the compound that knocked out Steve when he needed to be kept under. The operation was a success at least for part of the operation. There were things that couldn't get done while stuck in farm house in the middle of a massive winter storm again.

"How can we get him back though? I want my brother back." Becca was frustrated, pregnant without her husband and plain feed up with the whole situation. It did help that there were times that they could get out of the house to the barn and on the rare, rare occasion to town but that was after Stark's car was unblocked and carefully driven for supplies they needed. They only did it twice since the roads and fields were covered with snow and it as hard to tell where anything was.

"We'll…" Yelena said while eyeing the last piece of peach pie that was set out. The coffee and tea had gone a while ago.

"Not. Doing. Enough. We'll never get Bucky back." Becca didn't realize there were tears running down her face when she snapped at Yelena who just raised her hands in defeat.

"He's in there. I know it Becca." Winnie didn't have much hope but the sight of her son the last few months and that day when he came out and wanted his arm gone was a glimpse of hope.

It was just after Bucky had been startled, hurting Becca accidentally, the bruise was still there and ran to the bathroom. After a few minutes Natasha went and gently got Bucky back out after about a half hour.

The Asset, no Jimmy, Bucky, James Buchanan Barnes, or whoever he was, shook, even if the water temperature was scorching hot. He could kill himself easily, but something stayed in his hands, even if he shook like he was outside shoveling the never-ending drifts of snow.

It was a few weeks after everyone blow in with the storm which had stranded everyone for as long as it took for the snow to melt.

The Asset, no now called Jimmy and at times Bucky, which struck a chord of something that made him relax, had run to the bathroom, the one place that he was left alone after the woman called Winnie without raising her voice made dread pool in his stomach. He didn't mean to hit the pregnant woman, Becca, but he got startled enough to fight back from the, now he realized, soft touch on his arm. That's when Winnie yelled a name, a stern but loving tone to it.

That name was burned out of his brain, and with that burn came pain. He could see the red of her blood as it pooled down her ravaged form, or was it the first woman that he was thinking of? Or the third one, or after a while, the women blurred together. The only thing that separated them was the sound of a gunshot and the blue gown that they all wore at one time or another. It made him hate the color blue the color red, and he could taste copper in his mouth.

But he hated the gunshot more, and it shattered something in him that made him emotionally gone. After all, that's what he did: killed the woman in blue, and then it turned into other faces, lives, and people, not just a target on a board like when he was in the army. He was never in the army, was he?

The asset blinked as he saw the sink was being filled with blood from where? His hand became red as he wiped his face. His nose, he got a running nose. He was fascinated with the blood, and he just watched as it dripped down his nose to the sink with a silent plonk. Maybe this was the way out, drip by drip, and he'll never.

It took him a few more minutes to realize not all the red was coming from the sink, but the sharp, green-eyed, most gorgeous dame he had had ever set eyes on was humming to the side of the sink on the toilet lid with bandages nearby.

"Gotta tell ya seeing your own blood pour out of you does help with the pain but it doesn't do any good in the long run. It only hurts more. The loop hole you discovered won't help your…"

She was cute when she was cut off mid-sentence. "My orders are clear, I'm not going to leave this place undefended. I just needed a few minutes."

"Which orders?" The dame asked as she gently took over the sink and started to wash away the blood that was still pooling there. The cloth she gently placed by his nose was warm like the summer unlike the cold he lived in.

The asset, no he was call Jimmy or Bucky but he was beginning to like Bucky better….The sink and his hand were clean once more he realized that time had passed. For some strange reason he felt comfortable around this handler, almost as comfortable as he did with other ones. The Winnie was a bit scary at times, and the Becca well she was her own sort of trouble expectancy with being knocked up like she had gotten. Yelena got on well with Becca.

It was Howard Stark who was a bucket of trouble. Why in the world would HYDRA want him? The Asset Bucky froze as dread curled in his gut. It had been two whole months since he and Yelena had been stuck with these people because of the impossible blizzard that stranded them there.

He liked these handlers much better than the ones he knew. He wanted something, something forbidden. He wanted to stay. He wanted to continue to dance with Becca when she asked him to. It was a good exercise for the cooped-up soldier. He wanted to keep sparring with Yelena and Natasha, Natalia, as he called her in his mind. He wanted to patiently help out Hattie with her wheelchair and endlessly annoying puzzles, as well as Carter with her sharp wit against the others and the ability to bring out something in him. He wanted so much he didn't, couldn't have. His gut tightened harder. He wanted Stark to make a new arm, one that wouldn't hurt as much.

He didn't know he spoke out loud until Natasha smiled saying. "We can help you become free of HYDRA. It'll take time."

"He asked for something. The asset only obeyed, he, it never asked for anything before. The last time we got through to Bucky was when Steve was willing to be beaten half to death. I asked later how he got through to him and he said, something about the 'end of the line.' We don't have Steve but we have you. We need you Becca. You do something we can't."

"He watches you though." Natasha didn't blush but she averted her eyes and shrugged. "I'm pretty, that's probably why he watches me."

"Right. He watches all of us not like you though." Carter said, eyes sharp. "I asked once how you knew Steve. You didn't tell me. I've waited long enough."

Peggy Carter had seen many amazing things but the thought of time travel being possible was new one for her. She was thankful that Howard was asleep else he'll be trying to time travel on what he got at the farmhouse.

"You can look at the suit she had if you want. I got it tucked away in their room." Hattie commented as she refilled the now full cups of tea and coffee. She also put another pie on the table, making Yelena sigh and grab the piece of pie she was eyeing.

Their room was Yelena and Natasha's as Winnie and Becca were sharing one and the boys sleep wherever since Bucky had nightmares and Stark usually crashed in his workshop. Hattie used the downstairs bedroom and somehow Peggy got stuck with the master bedroom. Or at first since then she moved into Winnie and Becca's room while they got the master bedroom because of the bathroom en suite.

"Oh Steve." Peggy had a small smile on her face. Her face shifted into determination. "He's not here but we'll do all we can for his best friend."

Author's Note- Next update will be in June. Hopefully by then I got this story in the bag. But who knows. Comments are liked and very appreciated.