Leave Me Broken [Winter Soldier] II

These Nights [Chapter 2]

"And we will step outside
Checking that the coast is clear on both sides
'Cause we don't wanna be seen"

"Run" - Daughter

               Two years is a long time to break down walls and open up to a single person; Bucky had done that with Ophelia, and yet he still kept so much of his past a secret. Not only the violent past, but the past before Ophelia knew him as well; he was a different person than he was back then, and she could tell that when he talked about it, it was not easy. Bucky wrote everything down in his journals, but he did not always tell her what he penned into those books. 

               Though she knew where he kept his journals- even though he didn't think she did- she would never have read through them without his permission. Sometimes he spoke his thoughts before writing them, and Ophelia would catch bits here and there. Some of it she even remembered, though most of her memories between the 1960's and 2012 were fuzzy and distant, there were very few memories to begin with as she had not been out of her cryogenic chamber as much as he had. But she wasn't like Bucky, she didn't want to remember all of it, and so she had stopped digging too far once she had discovered her identity and his. This was their chance to start off as new people, but Bucky would never let go of the past.

             It was only when Bucky was out of the apartment that cloudy spring day that Ophelia brought in the papers to read. Obviously she couldn't stop him from reading them, and sometimes left ones that she thought he would want to read out on the table. However, as much as she knew that he clearly wanted to read anything on Steve Rogers, some days it just wasn't in him to read about what great deed his distant best friend had done to make the world a better place. 

           Ophelia arrived home after her first driving lesson, and had the place to herself. The stairwell didn't tire her, despite having to go up several floors and always taking two at a time. With two bags of groceries, she was struggling with the door when she noticed the discarded newspaper on the floor; it looked as though someone had scoured through it and taken the comics out, leaving the rest behind. 

            She didn't need the comics; she never understood them anyways.

             Crouching down, she grabbed hold of it and scanned the picture on the front. It was of Steve Rogers, a man who could make headlines around the world, apparently. But they were not always such great headlines, unfortunately. Sighing, she managed to get the key in the door and twisted it. When it finally opened, she stepped in and closed the door, locking it again behind her as Bucky had always told her to do. It was supposed to make her feel safe, but she still felt locked in and being on such a high floor level there was little escape. So far, she had never needed to escape, but it was always in the back of her mind. Eighty-something years of being controlled and held a prisoner could not be erased by two good years. 

           Before reading more of the paper, she walked over to the balcony window and shoved it open. She sat on the sill, one leg outside to remind her that she was free. The grocery bags had been tossed on the floor when she entered, because it was the paper that she was more interested in. It held more weight.

               Lagos, Nigeria. A lot of people were killed because of Wanda Maximoff, the blame was mostly upon her, but the reporter didn't hesitate to blame the rest of them involved as well. She studied the image of Wanda; she was beautiful, and yet the despair in her eyes was palpable. Ophelia knew that look, because she'd worn it too. Ophelia knew who was really to blame for the deaths that had occurred. The report stated that Brock Rumlow was leading a raid on the Infectious Disease Institute in Lagos with the intent to get his hands on a biological weapon.