(Bucky Barnes x OFC Lila Andrews)
Set during the events of CA:CW, Lila joins Steve Rogers as he's hunted by The Winter Soldier, fighting along side of him.
Not many know her secret, her true identity. A former agent, a front runner of SHIELD, Lila worked along side Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandos.
Heartbroken when she lost her fiancé, Bucky Barnes, Lila allowed herself to be captured by HYDRA, experimented on.
Rejoining SHIELD in the 90's, she later fought along side her friend Captain America and the Avengers.
What happens when she comes face to face with the man she loved, a man who doesn't remember her?
Warnings: language, angst, mentions of violence, mentions of death, mentions of sex
"Steve?," Lila said, the panic rising in her voice. She looked behind him. Waiting, anticipating. But she knew, didn't she? She knew as soon as she saw him. He looked hurt.
Broken.
"Steve? Where is he?," she asked and he closed his eyes, shaking his head. "Where is he?," she repeated, her voice increasing in volume. "I...I tried," he said weakly and she felt like she'd be sick. Grief washed over her. He was gone.
Her Bucky was gone.
She woke up screaming.
Again.
It was nothing new. An almost nightly occurrence. The dreams, they never really stopped. Seventy plus years. It was still vivid. It still hurt. She still ached for him.
It got better over time. Somewhat. Enough that she could function. Be a functional human being. She'd moved on, hadn't she? Gotten on with her life, no matter how surreal it felt.
She grabbed the notebook and scribbled in it. Thirty years of keeping journals. Reminders. Any little thing she remembered was written down. On paper and out of her damn head. It was temporary, but it allowed her to sleep for the rest of the night.
She pulled the necklace from underneath her tank top and held it for a moment, closing her eyes and releasing a ragged breath. The ring was another little reminder.
A reminder of another life.
That's what it was, wasn't it? Almost like someone else's. And in a way, she figured, it was. 1940's Lila wasn't the same girl. In almost every way possible. She'd changed. They had changed her. She was stronger. Faster.
And alive.
She shouldn't have been. That was certain. But her grief won over. It got the best of her. She'd felt like she died when he'd fallen. He'd taken her with him. So she let them win. Let them take her. Make her into something else.
But she'd escaped. Caught by a man who claimed to be from SHIELD. She knew that name. She remembered. She'd asked for Peggy Carter, hoping she'd still be there, be alive.
Peggy helped her. Erased the brainwashing. The damage that HYDRA had done. Made her an agent again.
And that's how she'd gotten here.
Joined up with the Avengers. Fighting along side her friend Steve. They understood each other. They were the last two standing. It made it easier for her, to have him there. They shared their grief.
She didn't know what the next few weeks would bring, but she had that feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like things were going to go wrong. Like everything was going to come crashing down.
Like everything would change in the blink of an eye.
She never could have imagined how right she'd be.
Everything happened so fast. The man on the roof of the car. Pulling Sitwell from beside her, tossing him off of the bridge with ease. Adrenaline prevailed over fear, her body going into protective mode.
She watched as he reached through the windshield and ripped the steering wheel from the dashboard. Steve, using his shield to protect them, she went into battle mode, instantly engaging with the man in the mask.
Quickly losing that fight, she repelled from the bridge onto the road below, moving behind cars, her eyes never pulling away from the man. She pulled the two pistols from her hips and began to shoot, getting in enough of a shot to temporarily distract him.
She ran, trying to move people out of the way. She turned to see him jump easily from the bridge, hunting her down. Before she could register, they were engaged again, her back pressed to his front, a struggle for power.
She saw Steve make his way closer and she shook her head slightly, telling him to stand down as the man shoved his blade into her side. "Go on then," she said in broken Russian as she felt it pierce her skin, the blood tricking down.
The words threw him off just enough for her to get the upper hand, her leg kicking at his shins and her elbow at his face, hard enough to knock the mask from his face. She saw Steve move beside her, his face in utter shock as the man turned around.
Her heart stopped beating in that moment.
It couldn't possibly be him.
It had to be a trick.
"Bucky?," she asked, and she heard Steve say the same. He looked confused. He didn't know them. He didn't know her. This couldn't be real.
"Who the hell is Bucky?"
