Ready to Comply: A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Six ~ The Monster Inside

"Bucky, the police! We have to get out of here now! You just killed a guy!" My voice is shaky and I'm terrified that it's too late to run, that Bucky will not listen to me.

Finally, he looks down at me and his eyes widen in shock. He drops the man, who crumbles to the ground coughing, and he takes a step back and looks around at the damage he has just done. He seems scared for a moment, and then a look of determination crosses his face. He turns back around to face me.

"Come on, back to the apartment," he orders, grabbing my hand and racing out of the alley.

My eyes take a moment to readjust to the sunlight, and my legs are not nearly as fast as Bucky's. I hold onto his hand as if my life depends on it as he races down the street, turns the corner, and runs toward the door to our apartment building. My eyes catch flashing lights on the street beside us, and my heart stops. He must see them too, because he stops and pulls me behind a car parked on the side of the street. We both crouch behind it for several minutes, until we hear the police cars screeching around the turn and passing us, going toward the alley we had just been in. My heart was beating so hard I was afraid everyone in the city would hear it. As soon as the lights are out of sight he pulls me back onto my feet and we both run into the building and up several flights of stairs to our room.

Once we are inside, he locks the door and pulls the blinds down over all the windows. Meanwhile I'm still standing in the middle of the room in shock, trying to catch my breath. I try to get my hands to stop shaking as he peeks through one of the blinds of the window facing the street. Eventually he sighs and steps away from the window, his hands both clenched into fists, as if he is still prepared to fight. For the first time since I met him, I feel afraid of him. How did I not know what this man was capable of?

"B-Bucky," I stutter, taking a cautious step toward him. He turns around, and I see a mixture of anger and fear in his eyes. "Who were those men?" I ask.

He takes too long to answer, and I am already doubting his words as he speaks them. "I don't know."

"Why would they want to take you away?"

"... I don't know."

He won't look me directly in the eyes, so I know he is not telling the whole truth. "You said something odd when you were interrogating that guy... Hydra. What is Hydra?"

He inhales sharply and squeezes his eyes shut as I say the word Hydra, and I grow even more afraid.

"Bucky, what's going on?"

He starts to speak, but stops before a single word comes out, clenching his jaw shut.

"...It has to do with your past, doesn't it?" I ask softly, trying not to sound like I am accusing him or angry at him in any way.

He still says nothing, but this time he nods slowly, shutting his eyes again, as if he is trying to block something out. I take a deep breath and try to collect my thoughts before I ask him anything else. I knew his past was bad, but I thought that whatever had happened, it was over. But the threat is clearly still imminent.

"Bucky... I think you need to tell me exactly what happened to you before we met. How did you really get that arm, because it seems more like a weapon after what you did with it back in that alley."

"Sophie, you know I can't tell you about that."

"Are you serious?! We could have both been killed back there for something I was never even involved in, and you're not going to inform me on what they wanted?"

"The threat is taken care of." he says, his voice growing deep as his anger begins to build.

"How do we know there aren't more people after you?"

"I can take care of us. I won't let anything happen to you. But you have to trust me."

"Trust you? I don't know anything about your past, and you want me to trust you?" I am beginning to cry, but I fight back the tears in an attempt to look strong. On the inside I am ready to break down, both from fear and a distinct pain in my heart as I yell at the man I thought I loved.

"Please, Sophie." He steps toward me and puts his hands on my cheeks, and I cannot resist putting mine over his, feeling the warmth of his real hand on my left cheek. "I am not the man I was before. These people must have been misled. Please just trust that no one else is going to come after us. You're safe with me."

I look into those steel blue eyes, and I know he is not lying this time. I reach up and kiss him slowly, then bury my head in his chest.

"Okay, Buck. I trust you. Just promise me we'll always stay together, whatever happens. Promise you will never leave me."

"I promise." he whispers into my hair. I close my eyes as a tear streams down my cheek. I am still afraid, but I know that if I could choose anyone to protect me, it would be Bucky.

I hear a faint clicking of metal in his left arm as both of his arms wrap around me in a tight embrace, and I wonder if this is how a mouse feels as it is being suffocated by a snake, just before it loses consciousness. No more fear, only bliss.