Green Eyes

Ch. 1 - Dreams

"NO"
"GET OFF OF ME!"
"STOP"
"HELP!"

The Winter Soldier sat by long enough. The tech that was responsible for his care was being assaulted by guards. He broke out of his chair and took down the 4 men clawing at the woman in chains. He then picked her up from the mass of nearly dead men and sat her in her chair at her work station before he returned to his own seat. She was trying to catch her breath and her face was hidden behind a mass of roughed up and tangled blonde locks. After a moment she straightened herself up and looked at him. The only things that were clear in the vision were red-rimmed bright green eyes and a voice.

"Thank you Tin Man."

*The memory faded and swirled into another*

"There was a man on the bridge... Who was he?"

The Winter Solder asked knowing good and well he wouldn't get a straight answer.

"I knew him."

He said, trying desperately to get the answers he was searching for in his own mind and the others in the room. No such luck.

"Prep him, wipe him and start over."

The Winter Soldier felt helplessly defeated but this was his life as a living killing machine. The work is the only thing that matters.

The machine whirrs into place and his body is tilted back, but a commotion outside the lab clears the room of everyone except the green eyed tech. The chains around her ankles make noise as she rushed to the computer that runs the machine. She begins typing into it furiously as she begins to speak quickly.

"Listen up Tin Man we have only a moment. You saved me once... I'm gonna try to save you. The man on the bridge was your best friend. You are not a machine or tool, you're human and you had a life before Hydra. You deserve to live it again. I'm blocking part of the reprogramming code and with any luck you will keep some memories intact. Hold tight to them because your life depends on it. Get free. If you remember this... And me." She begins to sniffle. "Come save me too. You get out Tin Man and come back for me."

He glanced over to her and saw her green eyes filling with tears. Suddenly he felt the back of her fingers stroke his cheek. The softness of the contact making him flinch.

She started up the machine as people began to file back in.

" I'm so sorry Tin Man, so very sorry." She whispered as she backed away from him tears falling as the machine blinded him in searing pain. Her bright green eyes flashing in his mind as the pain and screaming took over.

****************

Bucky awoke from the dream panting and covered in sweat. Nightmares and memories resurfacing was business as usual at this point but this was new. Tin Man, the name was clever but why couldn't he remember her face? Guilt washed over him clinging like an invisible sheet sticking to the sweat on his skin. A knot was forming in the pit of his stomach, sitting like a hot dog after riding The Cyclone on Coney Island. Is this girl one of the reasons he made it out?
Where is she now?
Surely she was free by now but that did nothing for the sick churning that had begun in his stomach.
She had been kind.
Treated him like an actual human being and not just a programed killing machine. Another memory flooded in.

*****************
It was just the two of them in a room. He was staring off but he could feel her tinkering with his arm.
"Ok just open and close your hands into a fist."
He complied.
"Fucking hell the servos are misaligned again." She said with frustration evident in her voice. She began working again and after a short time she tested it again.
"Ok wiggle your fingers for me?"
He did as she asked again.
"That's better, ok Tin Man bad joke of the day... Why is grass so dangerous?" She paused.
"Because it's full of blades." She chuckled to herself as she cleaned up and sealed up the section of his arm she had repaired.
"I'm over here giving you my best material, one of these days you're gonna laugh."

The soldier thought briefly that the cost was too high.

" You shouldn't get too close to me." He said. "They'll make me kill you."

He wasn't looking at her but he heard her freeze at the sudden interaction with her. When she spoke again the cheerful lilt in her voice was all but gone and her words were cold and hollow.

" I was dead the minute I told Hydra to shove it up their ass. But here I am in chains anyway serving their 'higher purpose'. I'm not gonna make it out alive anyhow."

*********
The memory faded and Bucky pulled himself up from where he slept on the floor. He walked over to the counter and opened Steve's little red notebook bypassing his lists and finding his own list of people to make amends. The names seemed to mock him from the page and he finally reached for a pen. Tentatively adding to the list, green eyes.