Fresh Bread and Victory Gardens

A Witch in Downtown New York

 "Hey, Frostbite. I need a favor." Tony looked cooly at the quiet man on the other side of the desk. The only response he got was a raised eyebrow. It was more than he was expecting.

"One of my secretaries has the day off but I have some urgent and highly sensitive papers to get to her. I was hoping you could run them to her apartment and drop them off." This was apparently worthy of a response. A rough voice crawled from the man's throat, still strange to Tony's ears even after living with the man for almost two years now.

"Don't you have people for that? Or an email? Why me?" Tony sighed and put his face in his hands. He didn't want to talk about it, but he was worried. This particular secretary wasn't really a secretary but an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D agent who had started working for him after Hydra was exposed and S.H.I.E.L.D collapsed. She had a vast knowledge of many of the projects that had been being conducted in secret and with her knowledge she had been able to fill in more than a handful of missing information and provide several valuable leads. She also had another skill set but that wasn't relevant.

"She's an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D agent and she has a habit of attracting trouble. She isn't answering her phone and I think she might be in trouble. Just swing by, check on her, and drop off the papers. Make sure she isn't being held against her will or something." Tony pushed the papers across the desk, they were in a thick envelope. Bucky eyed them suspiciously.

"Fine, but only because she might be in trouble and you can't be bothered to help her yourself apparently." Tony held up his hands in surrender.

"She made it very clear that if I blasted down her door again I'd have to find a new helper. Her address is already programmed into the car. She's on the fifth floor, room 538. Good luck soldier." Tony threw Bucky a sloppy salute as the soldier grabbed the envelope of papers and walked out the door without another comment.

Tony was right, the car knew where to go. That was good since Bucky wasn't the best at driving. He couldn't quite remember how. He simply watched out the window as the car navigated the traffic, watching the lovely heart of New York fade a crumble into the bad side of town. It was older, much older, and dirty. He didn't like it at all, and he didn't like the idea of a girl living alone in this area. At least he assumed she lived alone, why else would Tony be worried?

The car stopped in front of a building. He could tell from the architecture that is was prewar, but besides that nothing. It didn't look like somewhere an agent would live. She was already at a disadvantage living in this shitty place, noises like gunshots and fighting wouldn't raise any alarm. Any signs of an attacker would blend in. When you live in a dangerous place, eventually everything seems safe.

He got out and walked into the lobby, there was no one there. He quickly realized there was no elevator. This pulled a groan from him. She was on the fifth floor. Maybe she had been onto something when she decided to move here. The stairs would slow any attackers and create a choke point. He pushed his thoughts aside and headed up the stairs.

The stairs weren't much better than the rest of the building. Every floorboard creaked, destroying his super soldier stealth honed by years of training with Hydra. Wallpaper was peeling from the walls, brick showing through in more places than not. In addition to being ugly and loud, the stairs were hot as hell. There was no ventilation or air conditioning. It brought back memories of his past, but not good ones. Hot summers spent next to open windows, the suffocating heat of Brooklyn.

Not a moment too soon he arrived at her door. Something felt... off.

He could swear that he could hear a vinyl playing on the other side of the door, it was playing a song from before the war. He heard a soft voice singing along, or was it humming? He couldn't tell. His senses were jumbling everything together, the heat and still air creating a muggy fog that clouded his mind. The hall smelled like fresh bread and incense, they made him drowsy. He shook away his thoughts and knocked at the door. The sound was oddly clear in the confusing environment.