Saved - A Bucky Barnes love story

Nightly meetings

It's been a few months since the day Zemo picked me up. He helped me build my life again. In the beginning I helped him by doing small messenger services for him. But he quickly realized what I can do and the "favors" got bigger and bigger. In the meantime I don't just work for Zemo but for pretty much everyone who has jobs to do that the general public shouldn't know about. It may be a side effect of Hydra's experiments, but I have absolutely no conscience when it comes to my jobs. I don't care if I'm chasing people, robbing, hurting or even doing worse. Most jobs are lucrative and I've already earned a fair amount of money. In the beginning, Zemo let me live with him, but now I've moved into my own apartment in the city center. I am very grateful to him for everything he has done for me. He's pretty much the only person I really trust and who is always there for me. Even if our relationship has a professional component, I would call him a friend. I still can't remember what was before Hydra used me as a guinea pig. Meanwhile, I don't even know if I still think that's so bad. I've gotten used to the fact that my life only started a few months ago. It is quarter past 3 a.m. when I sit in my local bar and wait for Zemo to contact me about an upcoming job. We actually had an appointment a while ago, but he had informed me that he would be late because of an "unexpected call". Whoever that unexpected caller was, he made me kill some time. And what better way to do that than with a few drinks? "Emily, will you make me another whiskey sour?" I ask the bartender, who is smiling and pushing the next drink over to me. Emily is a nice girl, I put her in her twenties. Since the pub is not far from my apartment, I come here quite often. I wouldn't call us friends, but we kind of like each other. At some point when I was getting drunk, I poured out my heart to her and told her about the amnesia. She was so understanding and really tried to help me remember through articles she read on the internet. Small tasks and things like that that should help you bring back hidden memories. But apart from a severe headache, nothing happened. "Tough day?" Emily asks when she comes over to me and wipes the counter. "More like a hard life," I smile at her sarcastically before taking a long sip of my drink. "Still no memories of the past?" I shake my head. "Nope. My life starts a few months ago and what was before ...... no idea." The ringing of my cell phone tears me away from the conversation. I look at the display and see that Zemo is calling. "Hey Zemo, it's about time you called" I answer on the phone. "I'm sorry dear. Something unexpected came up. To be honest, something I brought with me. We're at our usual meeting point, are you coming to see us?" "Ok, I'll meet you there." I hang up but make no move to leave. I still have a half full drink in front of me and Zemo made me wait too. Twenty minutes later I finished my drink and paid. I wave to Emily, who is chatting with a couple of guests at a table, as I leave the pub. I go to our meeting point, which takes another fifteen minutes, but I don't identify myself right away. I purposely stay in the shadow of an empty building and first check the situation. First make a picture of Zemo's "unexpected caller". I see Zemo and two men. I only see both of them from behind, which prevents me from getting a proper picture. Both grown tall. One has short brown hair, the other has very short black hair. So far the two look like ordinary men, if it weren't for a lightning flash from the brown-haired man that arouses my attention. There is no normal human hand protruding from the left sleeve of his jacket, but a hand that looks like it was made of metal. Maybe the two are not as normal as they seem at first glance. "Are you sure someone else shows up here?" asks the black-haired man. "Don't worry. I'm afraid they haven't taught her to be punctual in all the experiments," Zemo waves off and has to suppress a smile. In fact, I'm always kind of late. But today I made them wait on purpose. "Woe to you waste my time Zemo" grumbles the man with the metal hand. I see that as my cue and take a step forward, my sight still hidden in the shadows. "Zemo may have a lot of flaws. Wasting other people's time isn't one of them," I say and all three turn in the direction my voice is coming from. "We really have to work on your punctuality, dear. Please step into the light, not everyone can see as well in the dark as you can" Zemo asks me. "I had just ordered a new drink when you called. I couldn't possibly just leave it there," I step out of the shadows and immediately notice that the two strangers seem confused. "Better?" I ask Zemo when I can now be seen completely. "Michelle?" asks the brown-haired man, looking really shocked. "Nice name but unfortunately not mine. They call me Yvoria." Since I have no idea what my name was before my time at Hydra, I decided to stick with the name I came up with at the diner. When nobody says anything and an uncomfortable silence spreads, Zemo is the first to speak. "Yvoria dear - these two men have questions about the explosion at the Hydra base." "You know how much I hate to talk about it," I say to Zemo with a stern glance. "You're lucky I like you. So guys, what do you want to know?" I ask, turning my gaze to the still shocked looking men. I am amazed at their strange reaction. The two look like they saw a ghost. But neither of them says anything. "Are you two asking your questions now? Or have you just come here to stare at her?" asks Zemo, looking somewhat annoyed. He's pretty protective of me, and if there's one thing he doesn't like, it's when someone is wasting his time. "I guess our questions have just been settled. This is the person we're looking for," stutters the companion of metal hand. This answer confuses me now. Why should they look for me? And why only now? Zemo looks as confused as I feel. "Don't you remember? It's us - Sam and Bucky," says metal hand, sounding almost pleading. "Well, nice to meet you both. How should I know you both?" "I would be interested in that too" Zemo looks at Bucky, waiting for an answer. While Bucky can't take his eyes off me, Sam starts to tell how I should know them both. That the two of them belong to the Avengers, that I was with a guy named Brock Rumlow, whom I instantly recognize as the bastard who abused me at Hydra. That he should have mistreated and abused me back then, which ended up in the fact that he pushed me through a window. Shortly before I had met Bucky who has since made it his business to protect me and bring Rumlow to justice. When he tells about Bucky and I falling in love and we even have a son together, I interrupt him. "Wait a moment. I could remember it if I had given birth?" It's all so confusing. I mean, if what he's saying is true, why are they only looking for me now, months later? But if it's not true, how should they know about Rumlow? On the other hand, I've made enemies since I've been working for Zemo and other shady characters. Maybe they're just here to turn me off? They might have found out about Hydra somehow and the rest is just made up? On the other hand, Zemo seems to trust them enough to bring them here. Zemo would never betray me. All these questions make me have that raging headache again. "Take a look at that," says Bucky with a broken voice and holds out a picture that he has taken from his wallet. I look at Zemo suspiciously, who just shrugs his shoulders. I take the picture and cannot process what I see on it. It shows a young woman holding a baby in her arms. The baby is cute and looks a lot like her. When I take a closer look at the woman I am even more confused than ever. She looks like me. Not only does she look like me, it's a lot more like looking in a mirror. But how can that be? And how can it be that I feel absolutely nothing at the sight? "This is Leon. Our son," says Bucky and when I look up I can see tears in his eyes. "Sweet child and yes the woman looks like me. But sorry, I don't remember." The headache is now so strong that I can hardly concentrate on my surroundings. "Let's look at the whole thing with an open mind," Zemo tears me out of my thoughts and my headache. "You don't remember anything that happened before you came to Hydra." "That's right. But just because I don't remember it doesn't necessarily mean they're telling the truth." "But it doesn't necessarily mean that they are lying either." I hate Zemo's logic. I can't deal with that now either. The headache is growing again and I have work to do tonight. "Yeah ... I don't have the time or the strength to deal with it now. As you know, I don't just work for you. I have something else to do tonight." I dig my house keys out of my purse and toss it to Zemo. "You can go to my apartment. Feel at home. Zemo you know where everything is, the two of them can sleep in the living room." Without waiting for another reaction, I turn around and just want to escape from this confusing situation. "Michelle please wait" Bucky calls after me but I don't stop. When I feel someone grab my wrist, I turn around out of instinct and push him against the wall. Bucky looks puzzled and hurt. "Never do that again or I'll rip your hand off," I hiss before throwing him to the ground and running away. I have to put my thoughts in order and get rid of this headache. I hope so much that the job waiting for me to get information on a gang boss's daughter will give me the distraction I need.