Till the End of the Line

Shot.

As they leave the bunker, Becca could feel the tension between them. She expected yelling, a scolding, a punch to the gut or a slap to the face, something. Instead there was silence. She looked at him and saw a cold hard expressionless face, there was no softness like before, there wasn't even anger, there was no emotion at all.

The snowy plains of Siberia somehow felt even colder than before. She could see Bucky's fists were clenched, his posture stiff, his muscles tense. The only indication he was angry. She wanted to reach for his hand, she wanted to feel the same warmth he'd given her before they'd met Alexander. She wanted him to talk, to glare at her, to do something. Finally she opened her mouth to speak. 

"I think that went pretty well—"

"What the hell were you thinking?"

His voice was low and dangerous, his icy blue eyes filled with a fury she'd never seen before. Becca bit her lip.

"I was just trying to—"

"Just trying to what? Get yourself killed? Lead us into a trap? Let that...that thing know all about our mission?! What were you trying to do Becca? Because it sure as hell wasn't listening to my instructions!"

He was raising his voice now, this was the most emotion she'd seen out of him in the year they'd been training together. Becca drops her head, a mixture of hurt, resentment, and anger swirling around in her head, bubbling up, trying to force their way out of her mouth.

"What did you want me to do? Let him stab you? Should I have just sit back and let you get hurt? I was only trying to help! I was doing what you taught me to. Why are you mad at me?!" 

She gets into his face, her purple eyes flashing with a defiance that Bucky wanted to slap out of her. Why couldn't she just be compliant?!

"I can take care of myself Becca. I've been going on dangerous missions long before you were even born. What you did was reckless, dangerous, and jeopardized me and the mission."

Any rapport built between them was gone. Becca's heart was crushed. She'd thought she'd done right. Not only did she save them and get them out safely, she also still managed to find a way to complete their mission. She looks down at the crisp white snow, biting back tears that she tells herself are just from the cold, not because of him. 

"I got us the data, I got us out safely,"

"Wrong. You let yourself be vulnerable. You didn't listen why I told you to shut up, and you explicitly disobeyed my instructions."

His voice is void of emotion now, but it still stung."

Becca kept her head down, refusing to look at him, refusing to let him see how much his words hurt her, refusing to cry. It was getting colder as the sun went down, and despite her special heat-trapping uniform and coat, Becca could feel the cold seeping into her bones.

"How much longer till we get to the drop point?"

She asked softly, after what felt like hours of silence. He didn't even look at her, like she wasn't even worthy of a glance, like she was nothing but an insubordinate soldier. 

"20 clicks." 

Was all he said. 

She did the math in her head. One click was equal to 1 kilometer, which would mean the drop point was around...12.5 miles away. In the snow. Both of them too stubborn to back down, to apologize and admit they were wrong. This was going to be a long walk.

They trudged along for around an hour in silence, before Bucky finally spoke.

"You should have listened to me. I don't want you to get hurt. I can't lose...this." 

The words hung in the air, along with their unspoken meaning."I can't lose you." It almost made the sting go away. Almost. 

Suddenly she heard voices. She turns to Bucky, who's now on high alert.

"I hear them too. Get down." He all but shoves her to the ground, covering her body with his. 260 pounds of toned muscle is pretty heavy. 

"You're squishing me!" She complains, trying to wriggle out but he wouldn't budge,

"Shut up." He grunts, finally getting off of her and helping her up. 

"There are at least four of them. We need cover." Becca looked around. There was no real cover in the flat snowy plains except for a small outcropping of trees. Bucky seems to notice it too and starts pulling her along towards them, unholstering his gun and readying for a fight.

Suddenly four people come into view, two women and two men, all dressed in black, and carrying rifles. They looked like they were military, yet there was no base for miles. They spot them and aim their rifles at the pair."Кто вы? (Who are you)"    

Becca looked at Bucky, who was already pointing his 9mm at them, but what could that gun do against four assault rifles?

One of the men pointed at Bucky's metal arm and starts speaking in rapid fire Russian. 

"Это великое оружие Гидры, Зимний Солдат. Он призрак, убийца (That is HYDRA's greatest weapon, he is a ghost, an assassin.)"

They start arguing on what to do, but Bucky decides to act, he shoots one of them in the leg, and another in the chest. Becca joins the fight and throws her dagger at one of the women, it embeds itself in her thigh causing her to scream in pain and drop to the ground, blood staining the flawless white snow. 

Bucky is fighting one of the men hand-to-hand and doesn't notice one of the women standing back up. She looks ready to open fire. 

"No!" 

Becca leaps and tackles the woman to the ground, a bang goes off and the women is out cold. Becca stands up, right away feeling a burning agony in her right shoulder. She looks down to see warm sticky blood trickling down her arm. 

She's been shot.