Hail HYDRA

Chapter Five

As the pair walked outside Bucky was still clutching the woman's wrist tightly. Aileen could feel it starting to hurt as he gripped it harder, but she did not make a face or a noise. She knew he didn't trust her. Why would he? So for now she let him hold on to her.

"You've got to be kidding me." The sandy blonde hair girl complained as she saw the scruffy brown dog sitting in the spot she had left him. He noticed her and got excited as he trotted over to her. He gave a cautious look to the man that was at her side. His little tail wagged back and forth and he quickly fell in step with her. Aileen didn't focus on the dog or pay him attention as she swore the man was gripping her wrist harder. The dog seemed to sense her uncomfortableness with the man and let out a low growl, that honestly wasn't very threatening. The dog was maybe 15 pounds at the most. He wasn't some big dog that could bite the man's handoff.

"You're hurting me." She said as she slowly tried to twist her wrist away from the man. Bucky had not realized how hard he was gripping her until she said something. He wanted to apologize, but it was like a part of him wouldn't let him and the other part couldn't see to find the words so he just stayed silent. He did loosen his grip though.

"I know you don't trust me, but we have to go back to my apartment to get the tracker off." Aileen told him with apprehensive eyes.

"If this is a trick, I will kill you." He said in a harsh tone, but deep down inside he didn't want to. He didn't want to kill or hurt anyone ever again.

"It's not a trick." She reassured him. "I have no one to go back to. No one to report to. I'm..." she paused for a moment, thinking he probably wasn't even listening to her mad ramblings anymore. But to her surprise, the man seemed to be hanging off her every word, like he knew exactly where she was coming from. "...free" she finished.

Soon the metal-armed man, former HYDRA agent, and scruffy street dog arrived at the woman's apartment. As she unlocked the front door she felt a little nervous. HYDRA knew where she lived. What if they were right behind the door? That would certainly be the end of her. Bucky would think it was all just a trick and kill her on the spot.

Aileen's apartment was pretty simple. As they stepped inside there was a furnished kitchen directly to their right. The counters were scattered with papers and documents. A couple of pistols and combat knives were set on top of the papers.

Directly across from the kitchen was the living room. There was a black couch and coffee table and a TV that was directly across. On the wall were a couple of cork boards with various pins and pictures. Most of the pictures were of Barnes or more notably the Winter Soldier. Aileen realized how much of a stalker she looked like.

"Uh, you can sit down over there." She said as she motioned to the couch. She had to get a couple of things so she could get the tracker out. She didn't have the high-tech stuff like HYDRA had in their labs. She dug around in one of her drawers. As she did Bucky eyed her carefully, making sure she wasn't going for any of the guns or knives on the kitchen counter. She didn't seem the slightest bit interesting in them, but that didn't mean the man took his blue eyes off of her.

Aileen finally came up from the drawer with a pair of pliers. That was the best she could do. As she walked over to him she remembered what happened last time when she messed with his arm. He had flung one of her "co-workers" across the room. She sat down next to him eyeing him wearily. His blue eyes stared forward at the TV, even though it wasn't on. Aileen took notice and saw that his eyes were becoming more cold and hardened. It was the way his eyes always became before he started killing people before he became the Winter Soldier.

She put the pliers on her lap as she reached over and grabbed his right hand instead of his left. She gripped it tightly and looked in his eyes. "Calm down." She spoke this time in English. He was obviously more comfortable with it now. "I'm not going to hurt you." She reassured him. His eyes went back to the same pained expression as they had when she said that to him in Russian as if all the memories had come rushing back. Bucky slowly nodded, trusting her. She let go of his hand and grabbed the pliers. She squinted her eyes as she started to work on getting the pliers deep into the vibranium arm. She closed her eyes, trying to visualize where she had placed the tracker.