Torn {Bucky Barnes FanFic}

Chapter 10

"Where do you even put your gun when you wear a dress like that?"

I smirked at Bucky's question and twirled a strand of the blonde wig around my index finger. "Well, let's hope you don't have to find out." The dress I wore made it difficult to speak and breathe, so I didn't even want to think about how it would feel to have to fight in it.

We were on our way to the hotel's restaurant, where I planned to make contact with Bruce. When I had hacked into the guest log, I found the alias Bruce was under (Martin McCauley) had a reservation for seven thirty with a few other people I didn't care about. After doing some more digging, we discovered that the hotel was hosting a biochemistry convention over the past week, and we assumed that's why he was here.

We exited the elevator, and Bucky wound his arm around my waist tightly. He looked especially attractive tonight, in a suit he had borrowed from Tony and his hair pushed back off his face. As we reached the hostess podium, she lead us to a table in the center of the room, handed us two menus, and rattled off the specials. Neither of us listened, of course, we were too busy scanning the room for Bruce. She finished and looked at us expectantly.

"We'll need a moment, thanks," Bucky told her, and she quickly left us.

My eyes jumped from table to table, and while there were many interesting characters, none of them were Bruce. There were only a handful of empty tables, so when he did arrive, I would know.

"Nothing yet," I murmured into my water glass.

"What do we do if he...you know," he lowered his voice, "hulks?"

I hesitated and fingered the clutch in my lap. "Again, let's hope that doesn't happen. I have a plan, though. I'd rather not use it."

A waiter brought us a complementary bottle of champagne, and asked how we were enjoying married life. We both bullshitted perfect answers, and smirked as he left. Bucky's face suddenly fell, and his expression grew dark.

"What's wrong?" I asked quietly, looking around the room.

He motioned discretely to a table towards the back of the restaurant, where the hostess was seating a few men. "The bald guy is the one that was at our door earlier."

I stared at the tallest of the three men. His eyes were cold and grey, and his nose was large and crooked. I instantly had a bad feeling about him. Bucky and I made eye contact, and I could tell he shared my feeling. My eyes landed on the man's jacket sleeve, and my heart plummeted. His cuff links were in the shape of the sickeningly familiar octopus like animals.

"Oh, fuck."

"Cara," Bucky whispered, "I think Banner just walked in."

I turned my head, and felt even sicker when I saw Bruce, sporting shorter hair and a beard, walking towards the man's table. When he saw Bruce, he reached to his cuff links and pulled them off before stuffing them in his pocket.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck." My heart started beating faster and my hands shook. "This doesn't make sense. We ran the HYDRA database against everyone that's been in this hotel all weekend. If he exists we should know about him."

"Maybe they've been doing more recruiting and he's new," Bucky suggested.

"No, we would know about that too," I denied. "Hydra is trying to get Bruce, and that'll happen over my dead body. Forget the plan, we've gotta act now." I started to stand up, but he reached out and grabbed my wrist.

"Don't do anything stupid," he hissed.

I grabbed my champagne flute and downed its contents before setting it back down. "I'm gonna do anything it takes to make sure he gets back to New York safely."