Soldier in Winter (A Bucky Barnes FanFiction)

Ellie

(Earlier That Same Day)

"Grăbește-te, copilule! Ai intarziat!" (Hurry, child! You're late!) a voice said from behind a book counter. It was Ellie's elderly boss, Andreea.

"I know, Andreea. Imi pare rau," (I'm sorry) Ellie replied in broken Romanian, rushing behind the counter of the small, run-down antique store. She had not been there very long and she didn't intend to, but she needed whatever money she could get while her and her siblings were in Bucharest.

The old woman sighed, frowning, "Nu fi târziu data viitoare, Ellie!" (Do not be late next time!) She took a giant stack of seemingly ancient books and set them down on the counter as Ellie tied her hair up in a knot. "Ma duc sa fumez. Mă voi întoarce curând. Du-te la treabă, fată!" (I'm going out to smoke. I'll be back soon. Get to work, girl!") The old woman appeared as ancient as her books as she hobbled out the door clutching tightly to her cigarettes. Ellie shook her head.

She took a moment to glance around the shop. She had wandered by it one day when on the lookout for food, and she had gone in to ask for directions to the nearest food pantry, but had come out with a job. Ellie looked down at the giant stack of books in front of her. She ran her hand gently over the ancient leather bindings. It was beautiful. She hadn't read a book in nearly two years, let alone one that was worth as much as these.

Ellie picked up the stack of books and carried them over to a vacant display case, being careful not to knock into any other displays. There were things of great value here, and she was surprised that Andreea did not keep higher security on the place. When she had first started working there, she had asked Andreea about it, and Andreea started going off about the government and the army, and she had whipped out a large rifle and shaken it in the air.

Ellie never spoke of it again.

The day went on as it had for the past few weeks. Ellie moved around the displays and did all of the manual labor while Andreea spoke to the customers. For such a rundown place, Andreea got a surprising amount of high-end customers. At lunchtime, Andreea would hand Ellie three sandwiches, and give her a ten-minute break to eat. During those ten minutes, Ellie would run down the street to where she, Charlie, and Ava had slept the previous night, and she would give them their sandwiches before running back to work.

The rainy afternoon was just the same as the morning, but unlike the hours before lunchtime, Andreea seemed awfully quiet. Andreea was much more docile than usual, having no stories to tell in Romanian to Ellie about her younger days, most of which Ellie could barely follow anyways.

As it came time for the shop to close, Charlie and Ava would usually show up and prepare to move to a new location to sleep the night. Andreea would usually see them and smile, offering them sweets and pinching their cheeks, cooing to them in Romanian.

But tonight, when the showed up at the shop, Andreea saw them and shooed them away. She stuffed the day's pay into Ellie's hand and pushed her out of the back door. Ellie frowned and looked down at Charlie who was staring up at the closed door, the pitter-patter of raindrops starting to get louder.

"Come, Charlie, she's not feeling-" Ellie was cut off by a loud torrent of Romanian coming from the alleyway beside the old shop. She peered around the building out to the front where Andreea was standing with her gun pointed at two men, who also held guns. Ellie turned back to Charlie.

"Go. Now. Our secret place, okay?" Charlie was frozen in his spot, but Ellie had already run out into the alleyway, getting a defensive vantage point behind a dumpster in case things got messy. The men noticed Ellie heading their way and pointed a gun at her.

"Du-te dracu'!" One of them yelled at her. Ellie flinched at the vulgarity of his words.

"Las-o în pace," (Leave her be) Ellie yelled back, her broken Romanian giving away the fact that she was English. The men turned and laughed. One of the men left Andreea and began to approach Ellie.