Stranger Who Knows All My Secrets [A Marvel FanFic]

Chapter 3: This Idiot & That Fossil

Of all the things Bucky was sure of, the one which he had absolute confidence in was that the universe absolutely enjoyed making all the assignments he went on with Sam turn into absolute disasters. Not long after Belize, Bucky, Sam, Natasha, and Lieutenant Torres went to Belarus to provide security for a member of the Global Repatriation Council who was intent on righting the wrongs inflicted on those who felt marginalized by their recent activities. It was supposed to be light and breezy, the head Flag Smashers were gone, defeated back in New York by him and Sam and some freak car bombing but as it turned out, you can't kill an idea and they were quickly cornered in the airport by a local faction seeking retribution for the death of their leader Karli Morgenthau even though it was totally Sharon Carter who had killed the girl.

Again, Bucky blamed Sam for everything that happened, mostly because it was him who accidentally pissed off the faction members, who ended up being very heavily armed, which then caused chaos to ensue in the terminal. Bucky and Torres ended up covering the council member, getting him to safety while also clearing out hundreds of civilians onto the tarmac while Sam and Natasha got to work kicking ass. Ten minutes later and Bucky was in the fight, the Air Force officer saying he could handle clearing the rest of the airport with the local authorities. It was just as Natasha got thrown through a shop window that Elena Constantin showed up from seemingly nowhere in an oversized purple denim jacket he swore looked familiar along with black sweatpants and a tank top like she had just rolled out of bed.

She slid across a counter and was an absolute savage as she launched at the man who had tossed Natasha like a rag doll, grabbing the man by the back of the head and smashing him face-first into a water fountain. Elena was not as smooth or methodical as her friend in fighting style but she was forceful, one strike after another, full contact, using anything as a weapon and damn the risks. Those risks included taking more blows to the head than one person should ever take along with picking up a trash can to use in beating another enemy before tossing a chair at someone coming up behind Sam who managed to duck at the last minute.

"Damn, what kind of martial arts are you trained in?" Sam joked as he knocked someone down with his wings.

"Bare-knuckle boxing." Elena told him with a grunt as she looped her foot around the ankle of the person who had grabbed her from behind, causing them both to fall backward.

"Fuck." She mumbled in pain, as she slowly got up.

"We should spar sometime." Sam suggested as he swung at someone else.

"Be careful Sam, she hits almost as hard as Steve." Natasha groaned as she finally picked herself up from the glass-covered floor where she had landed and shot one of the four men currently trying to subdue Bucky.

From the way Elena held Bucky in that chokehold back in Belize, he could actually believe that especially as she tackled one of the guys trying to take him down, climbing onto the man's back while holding him in a headlock until he finally collapsed. She took the guy's gun, shooting both of the Flag Smashers still grappling with Bucky which for some reason only annoyed him. When the fight was over, they all sat down in the empty waiting area to catch their breath, Torres muttering a curse as he ran into the terminal to see the damage and the assailants strewn out across the floor. A quick check that everyone was good, a thumbs up from Sam and Torres let them know that thankfully, the council member was alright and there had been no civilian casualties before looking over at Elena.

"Don't I know you?" Torres asked, seeming to recognize her.

"Constantin, Elena." She introduced herself, holding out her left hand.

"Constantin... S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Elena Constantin?" Torres questioned excitedly, coming over to shake her hand.

"Former operative." She corrected him.

"Holy crap, uhhh... Joaquín Torres, U.S. Air Force. I provided the intel for your Damascus assignment in '17." Torres said, shaking her hand for longer than anyone should.

"Oh yeah, you knocked over my coffee." She recalled, pulling her hand free which made him chuckle nervously.

"That offer still stands to replace it, we could even do lunch... Or just coffee. Coffee's cool. What are you doing in Belarus?" Torres asked, rambling now, clearly embarrassed and Sam raised his eyebrow, grinning in that cheeky way he usually did.

"I was sightseeing... Heard there were Flag Smashers in the airport and figured this one would be here." Elena smiled at Natasha innocently.

"Yeah, sightseeing." Natasha teased, looking over Elena's attire curiously and pulling at the collar of the purple jacket, letting out a sound of disgust because she apparently knew something the others didn't.

"Okay..." Torres said, confused.

"I was working." Elena said defensively to Natasha, swatting her hand away.

"Well if you're done with work, come hang out with us. Let Torres buy you that coffee and listen to this idiot and that fossil fight like an old married couple. It'll be just like old times." Natasha pleaded playfully.

"We're sitting right here Ramanoff." Bucky reminded her.

Elena seemed to ponder it for a moment, looking over at him and Sam who was smiling, then Torres who was trying very hard not to blush, and then Natasha who was giving her a pouty please face. Finally, Elena chuckled and sighed, simply saying yeah okay, and asking Torres if he liked Indian food which made the soldier smile ear to ear and for Sam to declare that if she was going to go on a date with the kid, she should also consider going on a date with him as well. Torres just pointed out that he wasn't a kid and was actually the same age as Elena with Natasha telling them both to keep it in their pants and shut up. Bucky couldn't believe the two of them were seriously interested in the woman, tension and unease crept into his shoulders the longer she was around. He secretly hated Natasha for inviting her to stick around with them but they cleaned up, stopped for coffee, and were on their way back to New York in no time. Still, it was too much time with Elena and for some reason, Bucky's unease began to turn into suspicion.

It was her face that bothered him, that strangely familiar face, and unfortunately for Bucky, Elena turned out to be a pretty reliable backup, always showing up when the Black Widow called. It irritated the hell out of him. She was like Torres in a way, but deadlier; one of a handful of Fury's favorite agents as it turned out. According to Thor, she had actually retired from S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Battle of Earth but not long after Nick Fury offered her a spot on a handpicked team he had put together when he decided not to return to S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Blip. Apparently, she was also one of Steve's eyes on the ground during The Snap Years which made her an asset to numerous people including Rhodey and Banner. And an asset she was.

Do you need intel at the last minute? Boom, there she was with all the details of an Armenian delegate up to what he ate for lunch on the first Tuesday in March of 1984. Need to bring down a security system in a Chinese military base? She had an app for that! Need to get face to face with a Russian general? There she is, making his security guard fall hopelessly in love with her! What about cover in combat? No problem, there she is parachuting out of the sky to cover your ass in Iraq or hiding out on some distant rooftop with a sniper rifle to take out Sudanese extremists who are firing three hundred rounds a minute at you!! She was absolutely the person you wanted on your team and yet Bucky couldn't get past that uneasy feeling Elena gave him.

After a few too many times of helping, his suspicion turned into full-on mistrust and hatred. Often her presence fanned an unwarranted panic within Bucky, one that made him want to open up the cargo bay door and toss her out of it as if maybe she was a danger to all of them, a bomb ready to go off. He had the urge to bash her head in sometimes like she shouldn't even be there. She wasn't supposed to be there!!! She made his body scream to run for cover, to push her off the roof, or just lock her in a closet and tell everyone else that he had no idea where she went. He swore he knew her, he knew her face, and yet he still hadn't managed to figure out where they had met before because he knew they had absolutely met before! It ate away at him, even at home in his tiny studio apartment in Brooklyn where he lay on the floor staring at the ceiling trying to figure out when they had crossed paths. Yet he came up with nothing, even after reading through all his notebooks filled with memories of The Winter Soldier.

Her name never came up.

He had never met her and yet... He knew he had.