Captured // A Winter Soldier Story

chapter thirteen // safe

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"I remember it now, it takes me back to when it all first started. But I've only got myself to blame for it and I accept it now."
-High Hopes by Kodaline

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reyna's point of view

"Spill. Now."

Steve didn't look like he was joking as he sat on the couch across from me, his arms crossed over his chest tightly. We had quickly dropped the plane off at S.H.I.E.L.D., given Fury a shitty excuse for leaving and fled to Steve's apartment about an hour ago. Nat and Steve were the only ones he ever saw, though- Bucky and I had stayed well hidden. The last thing we needed right now was Fury to find out that two of his most wanted fugitives were alive and well, right under his nose.

I sighed. Bucky sat uncomfortably on my right, and Nat sat in an armchair to the left of Steve. Her expression was just as stern and serious as Steves.

"Alright. Well, the last you heard of me before all this was after Sacramento, when Fury discovered my....lets go with genetic ties to Hydra, and kicked me out, right?" I started, and Steve and Nat nodded.

"Yeah, the day I came back and you'd cleared all your stuff from here without so much as a note to say why," Steve recalled, somewhat bitterly. I winced.

"...Yeah I'm really, really sorry about that. But Fury wanted me in for questioning which would've led to me being put behind a desk for the rest of my life at best, and if I told you where I was going, you would've immediately followed me, and probably would've convinced me to come back. I didn't want to deal with that. Plus Hydra was after me and the last thing I wanted to do was drag you into my fight," I explained. Steve still looked hurt, but I knew he understood my actions and I knew that he knew how sorry I was to have done that to him. I had never wanted to leave Steve- I hadn't wanted to leave any of them- but Fury would've had no choice back then but to fire me simply because of my parentage.

"You said that Hydra captured you earlier. How on Earth did you get away?" Steve then asked, leaning his forearms on his knees as he gave me his full attention. That's one of the things I loved about Steve- he always, always made you feel like you were worth something. He's one of the reasons I was no longer suffering from depression. He has cured me of mine, but I had yet to cure him of his- those wounds went so deep, and his mind is often in such a dark region, that I can't help him as much as I wish I could. Maybe with Bucky being here, Steve's depression will finally start to dissolve.

I sighed as I stared at him, still hardly able to believe that we were together again. We needed each other more than either of us would ever let on.

"A few months after I left, a group of Hydra soldiers found me in my apartment that I'd bought in Newport News, Virginia. It was the first time I'd been bothered by Hydra since I left S.H.I.E.L.D. They stormed the building, some, like, thirty heavily armed guys, and I managed to escape through the window. I somehow got to my car with a few of my important belongings and took off, driving inland. It was two in the morning by the time I got an hour away from my apartment. I ended up on this creepy, one-way street in the middle of farmland, and..." I started, and then stopped, casting a nervous glance at Bucky. He knew what came next, and he wasn't proud of it, but he gave me a nod to continue anyway.

"Bucky was there, standing in the middle of the road. He was The Winter Soldier, though, not Bucky, and...he took me hostage," I continued hesitantly, and Bucky cringed beside me, his expression remorseful. Steve's expression was pained- his ex- best friend had taken his current best friend hostage while being brainwashed to do someone else's dirty work. It was pretty twisted.

"I blacked out that night. When I woke up again, I was in a cell, and I found out later that I was in a Hydra compound. Bucky was assigned to be my guard. The..the scientists there knew who I was, and they wanted me to take over what my father had left behind," I stopped for a second, chewing my lip. Mentioning my father always gave me anxiety.

"Obviously, I said no, and they weren't very happy about it. They...well, let's just say I have a lot of new scars. After roughly a week, Bucky decided to get me out of there. If he hadn't gotten me out, I'd be laying in a cell somewhere in that compound still, probably dead."

After I finished, it was silent for a while. Steve looked haunted. Natasha looked pained. Bucky....well, Bucky looked very far away. Steve was the first to speak.

"Reyna, I...god. I'm so glad you're alive," he choked, and if I wasn't mistaken, his eyes were watery. It's been a long time since I'd seen him cry. I stood and lunged at him, throwing my arms around his neck. He stood and wrapped himself around my much-too-skinny form. We held on for a little while, waiting for the tears to stop falling. I hated crying, but after a week and a half of trying to be too strong, I needed to break down a little bit.

When he released me, he slowly turned to Natasha.

"Nat, can you start up some food? Reyna hasn't eaten in days and I'll be damned if this girl dies of something as lame as starvation," he said. Natasha broke from her trance and nodded. When she walked by us she place a hand briefly on my shoulder, a look of pity and understanding shared between us before she headed to Steve's kitchen.

Steve turned back to me.

"We still have a lot to talk about, but you're exhausted and need some patching up. Why don't you go get cleaned up?" He suggested, and I nodded. I knew that if it was just us he never would've let me leave until I had shared every last detail, but Bucky was in the room, and those two had a lot more catching up to do than Steve and I did. Our conversation could wait.

I gave Steve one last pat on the back and left the living area, heading to my old room just down the hall. Pushing open the door, I was met with a clean bed, new sheets and empty shelves. It was cold in here, desolate. There was no longer warmth to it.

The girl who used to live in here was different now. She was older, a little bit happier and had a lot more scars.

But she was no longer running. And that made her heart happy for the time being.