Familiarity

Chapter 6

"No! No, no, no, no! I did nothing wrong let me go. I wasn't involved in that!" Emilia screamed trying to wiggle her way out of the guards arms. She dragged her feet on the ground, threw her weight around, but anything she did had zero effect. "What the hell?" She hollered when they threw her in the back with Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon. Her eyes widened as she realized what she had gotten herself into, "Shit."

She looked down at her hands, her fingers laced together, she could feel them looking around.  "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck," the Falcon said looking at the guards.

At his words one of the guards pulled out an electric rod, making Emilia flinch, as she tried to hide in the van walls. Instead of knocking the man out, she neutralized the other guard and pulled the helmet off, "That thing was squeezing my brain. Who are they?" she asked.

"Agent Hill?" Natasha asked.

"Not much time to explain now, we need to get out," she said as the truck came to a stop. "Follow me," she instructed pulling out some type of weapon putting a hole in the floor. All five jumped out the bottom making their escape.

"You'll be safe here," she said entering an old looking building. They group followed Hill inside, and everyone's attention was on Natasha's wound, but Maria Hill insisted that we might want to see him first. As Emilia walked through the building following the superheroes she was pretty sure they forgot about her presence, not like she was doing much. Her mind was completely blank, she had no control over anything, she was walking with no purpose.

"About damn time," a man in a bed called out seeing the group approach him.

"Isn't he supposed to be dead?" Emilia asked recognizing him as Director Nick Fury.

"Yeah," Natasha answered.

Emilia turned away from the group of people she was with before vomiting up her lunch. "Just breathe," she started breathing in and holding her breath, "and enjoy life." She repeated her mantra that her grandmother taught her trying to rationalize the situation she found herself in. She could feel Steve's eyes watch her as she exited the room quickly after embarrassing herself.

Emilia got cleaned up while everyone who knew each other caught up. Turns out Fury was never really dead, he took tetrodotoxin B, a serum developed by Bruce Banner for stress. It can slow someone's heart rate down to one beat per minute. "Okay, so Fury's going to live, Natasha's fine, but who are you?" Sam Wilson -the Falcon- asked.

"That is Doctor Emilia Hate, had an encounter with the Winter Soldier two nights ago but wasn't harmed. I wanted to know why," Maria explained looking at her.

"I don't know," Emilia mumbled her entire body still shaking.

"Are you sure you don't know?" Steve asked quietly, wanting any detail that could help him find Bucky.

"I don't know," she said again, trying to hold back tears.

Steve saw the fear and panic in her eyes and quickly changed the subject, "Emilia, it's okay, I'm Steve, that is Sam"-he pointed at the Falcon- "and Natasha"- Black Widow- "you already know Fury and Maria Hill. We just want your help to find my friend," Captain America-Steve- explained. 

"Who's Bucky?" she asked thinking back to when she said his name.

"James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. He is my friend I want to help. He is from the forties too, fought and died for his country, or so we all thought. Apparently, he's back, as the Winter Soldier," Steve explained, "how did you know who he was?"

"Wait, did you say James Barnes?" she said, gaining control of her thoughts again, her mind slowing down.

"Yes, how do you know him?" Steve questioned.

"The thing is, I don't know him," she said looking down at her hands, "my grandmother did."

"Connie?"

Emilia looked up, her big doe eyes meeting Steve's bright blue ones. She nodded not breaking eye contact.

"How?" Maria asked not following half of the conversation Steve and Emilia were having.

"My grandmother was dating Bucky when he left for war, she waited her entire life for him to come home. I mean, people always say I look just like she did when she was my age, for the past ten years people have been saying that actually, and are still reminding me."

"I still don't understand how you know who James is," Sam said.

"Well, the only explanation I have is genetic memory," she paused. "I not only inherited Connie's looks, but some of her memories may have been handed to me as well, the stronger ones; like Bucky," she explained.

"No such thing," Fury called out from his bed.

"You're really saying that? You realize there is a man in this room who is in peak physical shape in his twenties, yet is supposed to be ninety years old. Oh let's not forget about the guy who can 'Hulk out' and turn into a green 'smashing' machine that gave you a serum that can slow the heart rate enough to have doctors believe you are dead," she snapped rolling her eyes. "I'm sorry, just had a long day," she said not wanting to piss off the guy who has already come back from the dead, and could probably do it again.

"She has a point. It's not an impossibility," Natasha said nodding at the doctor as he finished wrapping her shoulder. "And you've stopped him from killing before?"

"Well, no. I stopped him from running, he recognized my looks, even remembered her name, they must've really loved each other for him to remember her, but not his own name," she sighed. Her heart raced at just the thought of Bucky, she never would have told anybody what she was thinking, they would have killed her. It was stupid, but what if her grandmothers love was carried through with the memories to her brain. Emilia shook her head at the thought, feeling ridiculous for thinking such things. "I need a drink," she moaned holding her head in her hands.

Maria waved her hand, and the doctor ran off, presumably to get Emilia a drink.  "Such a romance," Natasha said rolling her eyes.

"Nat," Steve said quickly, his eyes flicking over to Emilia, as if he was telling her to not be such an asshat. The doctor entered the room and brought a glass of water over to Emilia.

"I was more thinking of a drink of vodka," Emilia said trailing off.

"No," Maria interrupted spiking Emilia's nerves once again with her loud voice. "We need your help, and you cannot be drunk or hungover."

Emilia wanted to say something witty about how she worked best when she was drunk, but thought better of it with Captain America sitting across from her. "What do you need my help with?"

"You're working on some type of memory serum, it might help Bucky," Steve explained, shocking everyone in the room. As far as they all knew, only Maria kept tabs on her.

"It's on hold," Emilia scowled throwing back her water as if it actually was alcohol.

"Please?" Steve asked, looking like a lost puppy.

"I, I don't know," Emilia stuttered trying very hard to not make eye contact with Steve. She looked up into his blue eyes that held so much emotion and broke. "Fine but I'm gonna need more than just water."