Pardon

Chapter 2: Intruders

You flinch a little, hold your breath and throw a sharp look to the door for a quick moment before you turn your head back to Bucky. He stiffened. He doesn't break the eye contact with you as the knocking on the door continues. Someone was definitely outside. The knocking is urgent and rapid.

"Did you lock the door?", you whisper barely noticeable while you slowly reach for the gun on the table behind you, trying not to make any noise at all.

Bucky nods his head. He quickly turns to face the door as the knocking continues. Whoever there was on the other side was not going to leave anytime soon. Suddenly Bucky grabs you and pulls you behind him, putting his body between you and the door. You follows his lead without any protest. Then you cock the gun and put both of your hands around it. The motion causes pain in the cut wound on your right arm and you hiss a little at it, but you push through it and put your focus back on the door.

Whoever knocked on the door got impatient and banged at the door twice as hard. The sounds of it echoe through the room. Bucky keeps his body in front of yours and his eyes locked on the door. You don't move.

The knocking suddenly stops abruptly. Bucky raises his eyebrows. He was waiting for the inevitable. A loud crash. The door gets slammed open and two men burst into the safe house. They are armed and ready to pull the trigger any second but once they see Bucky, they freeze.

You don't have clear view on the intruders. You are still hidden behind Bucky but decide not to move as you could maybe use this to your advantage later on. After all, Bucky was unarmed but you had your hands wrapped around a gun.

You could hear Bucky speak in that steely, harsh tone:

"What do you want?"

The men don't respond for a second. But then one of them speaks up:

"We're here to take you."

You trust Bucky to handle this situation and don't move just yet.

"And why would you think I'd let you take me?"

Bucky is still calm as he stares at them, waiting for a response, a steely, hard expression on his face. You could tell he is not gonna take any bullshit from no one. The two men silently glance at one another.

The fact that Bucky only talks about them taking him makes you realize that Bucky also knows the two men have no idea you were even there. Now you know not to move until he would give you a sign to do so.

The second man suddenly speaks up in a much more intimidating tone:

"I'm only gonna ask you one more time: Come with us."

Bucky remains calm, but his eyebrows arch in displeasure:

"And when I say no again, what are you gonna do?"

Now that the second man also has said something, you know exactly where they are standing. Although you still don't have eyes on them, you are prepared. Yet you still leave Bucky to handle the situation.

He just glares at the men, a harsh glint in his eyes. He was not backing down.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice."

Bucky eyes narrow even more. He clenches his jaw. You can tell he is beginning to get agitated by their persistence. Unnoticed by anyone, you grin at their stupid attempt to intimidate him, knowing full well that won't work.

The intruders get impatient and start to move closer to Bucky. You know he is good at fighting, but you both had been up all night fighting your way through a Hydra base and it was two against one. They seem to be ready to attack him. Bucky stays in place, trying to stay calm.

The two men are about to get even closer when suddenly you see a little motion in Buckys hand – the sign you had been waiting for. You step out from behind him and fire two shots. One for each guy, straight into their legs so they fall to the ground due to the surprise attack.

Both men are taken by surprise by your swift attack. One drops his gun and the other is stunned by the pain of the gunshot. The one who's gun fell, is trying to grab it from the ground quickly, but the other one is kneeling on the ground, holding his leg and gasping for air. Bucky quickly moves and grabs his gun from the table behind him and aims it at one of the men. He is not taking any chances.

As the other man finally reaches his gun, you fire another shot, right at the gun he was holding so he had no other option than to let it get blown out of his hand.

The bullet hits the gun, making it fall out of his hand with a loud, clattering noise. His eyes widen at the impact but he doesn't say anything.

While Bucky keeps them both frozen in their places with his hard gaze alone, you quickly move around and grab their guns. The one you shot at is broken and unusable, but you at least take the magazine out and put it in your pocket. The other gun is still working and you take it before you quickly step behind Buckys shelter again. Bucky stares at you with a mix of surprise and approval as he is still keeping the men pinned.

You grab the leftovers of the bandages, throw them over to Bucky and implie to tie them up with it:

"Might work."

Bucky is amused by your creativity. He takes the bandages and nods his head in approval.

While he ties them up, you swiftly make your way over to the windows to take a careful look outside to see if you can spot any backup. There is a car. But you can't see any other men. Bucky finishes tying them together.

"Good idea", he says with a small smile on his lips.

"Search them for more weapons."

Your voice is commanding but it sounds rather calculated than rude. Bucky nods and starts searching the men. He checks their pockets and then looks for hidden weapons. You could tell he was experienced in searching people, this was all routine to him.

He turns a bit to address you: "Anyone else out there?"

"I can't see anyone... But if these two found us, others will, too."

You then walk over to one of the cabinets in the kitchen and take out a secret phone that was hidden there. You turn on the phone. Quickly you type in a number and called it. As you dial the phone, Bucky keeps and eye on the two men, making sure they wouldn't try escaping as long as you are still doing your thing.

You get send straight to voicemail, just as you were expecting.

"Intruder at the safe house. Two men secured. Identities unknown. No backup yet, expecting it though. Don't expect us at the meeting point in time. Will contact you again as soon as we are safe again."

While you give these clear instructions over the phone, you grab a bag from behind the bed frame. It is a bag with all the things one could need when on the run. Every safe house has one of those hidden somewhere. Then you grab the two bags with your personal belongings and throw one of them over to Bucky. He catches the bag mid-air.

He is impressed at how fast you were moving and at just how prepared you are. He looks over to the two men before looking back at you:

"Let's get out of here."

You agree with a simple nod.