Saving Grace ★ BUCKY BARNES

Chapter 3

❊ SAVING GRACE ❊
"For a star to be born, a gaseous nebula must collapse."
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Chapter dedication to the lovely and amazing -ummarvel

It was almost an inevitable truth, that Livia had started feeling something for James. She couldn't avoid that fact anymore now that it was as clear as day, however what she exactly felt for him was still to be determined.

She couldn't really pinpoint if what she felt was love, or if it was just some protective mother hen type of feeling. Sure it could've been both of those combined, after all James did have a special place in her heart.

But could it really be love she thought. Livia was not too familiar with love. Love never existed in the type of work she did. They were taught to be never attached to things, or ever be emotional, so how could she feel something like love when she was never exposed to it?

But it was something about James that simply made her feel attracted to him. Maybe it was years of working with him, or years of being his handler and being close to him that had finally taken its toll on her. Being this close with him had ignited something for him in her.

It was obvious now that she really did feel something for him, because she got defensive and almost possessive when James was hurt or even when he got threatened. And the whole fiasco with James snarling and growling when Pierce had hit her left her even more confused about her feelings.

Livia know it was futile trying to understand all of this and to gather her thoughts right now, especially now that she was still waiting for what was about to happen.

Right after she was thrown out of the electroshock room, two guards came and hauled her to another room that looked exactly like the one James was in, expect instead of being shocked she was just simply told to stay put.

Of course the two guards stayed in with her, they knew better than to leave her alone because they knew she would not stay put, even Livia knew she was not going to stay put either, not until they had stopped hurting James.

She wouldn't have done much though. Her stitches had opened up again from all the struggling and fighting with the guards, she could feel the blood soaking through the fabric of her t-shirt. She wasn't losing that much blood, but she could still feel the dampness and how sticky that area had gotten.

Pain was moderate, not too much but still there to cause discomfort but it was nothing she couldn't tolerate. She had a high pain tolerance, but just to make it a little comfortable and less painful, she leaned on the side of the wound and applied pressure.

It was well after almost half an hour did the door open and Livia saw Pierce come in. He was accompanied by her step brother Rumlow. As soon as Pierce had stepped in, both the guards stepped out and she was left alone with the two people she hated most on earth.

"You know I must say, you caused quite a commotion back there, I had to give James a couple extra shocks just because of it. He would not stop thrashing around. Man he was struggling to just get out of those restraints and strangle me to death. You've done some magic on him." Pierce said as he sat down in front of me, while Rumlow stood beside him like a loyal dog.

It took all her will power not to say something snarky back at Pierce. She saw his smirk as he turned around to give Rumlow a look. She was definitely angry mostly because he was doing this on purpose, to evoke some type of emotion. But she was getting even angrier because of what he said he did to James. That definitely made her blood boil.

Her thoughts went back to what she was thinking about earlier for a fleeting second, she thought back to when she would get beyond mad and protective whenever talks about hurting James came around, and that was when she realized that she really did have something for James.

Pierce leaned in and grabbed her jaw roughly, "Seriously? No response? I guess you finally learned how to talk to someone like me."

He let go of her jaw as he signaled with his hand for Rumlow to give him something. Rumlow pulled out something from behind him. It was a Manila colored file that seemed pretty thick. She knew it was their next mission.

As Pierce opened the file he started to explain, "This is your next mission. Both you and The Winter Soldier will be working on this. Now I want you to listen to me carefully, this is a very important mission. I do not, I repeat, do not want any mistakes in this mission, like the last one. This is the mission I've been waiting for a long time, and I wish to see it be successful."

Livia looked up at Pierce attentively. Of course every mission was important, the fact that Pierce himself had came and told her was already very puzzling, but him emphasizing that there should be absolutely no mistakes, and it was the mission he was waiting for definitely had her attention.

He almost smiled wickedly, "Good, now I have your attention. Seems like you finally came around. Guess you finally learned your place."

Brock laughed quietly in the background as he looked at Livia with disgust and disdain. She knew he enjoyed this very much, Brock had always had hatred for Livia but she did not know why.

Maybe it was the fact that she excelled at everything and was considered best, while he was just average and was only good and not the greatest. He always fell behind Livia, she had always shown she was the one for the job, and of course that bruised his already inflated ego, more so then ever after she got his job of being James' handler.

She did not care if he laughed at her or not. At least she was getting things done, while all he did was just laughed at people's misery while people laughed at his failures. And honestly he could go to hell, he maybe her step brother, but all she ever felt for him was hatred and every other word that was associated with hatred.

Pierce turned back towards her as he handed her the file, "This mission is very important because you will be targeting the person we have been waiting to annihilate for a long time. He is the antithesis of what Hydra is running on and believes in. We want you and the The Winter Soldier to wipe him out completely. There should be nothing, meaning nothing left of him. And to ensure nothing goes wrong I'm sending Rumlow with you and The Winter Soldier. He will accompany you and make sure everything goes right. And I mean it, I want no mistakes at all what so ever."

With her slightly bloody hands, Livia grabbed the file and looked at it curiously. Who exactly was this person that Pierce was talking about that had him so worked up. Of course she knew Hydra's number one enemy was S.H.I.E.L.D, but then again S.H.I.E.L.D was just an organization, not a person. Then who was this one sole person that was capable of bringing Hydra down?

"Who are you talking about?" She asked Pierce.

By now Pierce had gotten up and was buttoning up his coat jacket as he got ready to leave with Brock.

"Why don't you find out." He said as he closed the door behind him.

Curiosity was definitely getting to her, and she flipped open the file and was met with a familiar face. And to her utter horror she saw one name being highlighted in the file.

Steven Grant Rogers.

Oh that was not good, not good at all.

Author's Note
I just wanna say a very big big BIG thank you to -ummarvel for helping me out on this book. I know I haven't gone far into this book at all, and some of you may not even show interest in it, but she was the one to go read over it and see how it would turn out and gave me pointers and basically and helped me out with my book because this was my first time. So yeah all of you should definitely go check her out and give her a follow. Sorry for the long note, but I dedicate this chapter to you and possibly many more -ummarvel . Thanks a million!