To Go Unseen (A Natasha Romanoff Story)

6 [I-70 and almost out of Illinois]

The next day, at a gas station in Illinois, nothing was fine.

That morning, he and Natalia had decided to make up for their lost time and they got up early and began driving and had gotten decently far until they had to stop again for gas. This time, Bucky followed Natalia into the convenience store. They had been talking together, deep in a conversation and he couldn’t remember what it was about now, but he knew he had been thinking that she was perfect, and then suddenly, a man came up from behind Natalia and Bucky remembered stopping midword to yell in surprise and then everything exploded into a fight.

Bucky turned around in confusion to find someone slashing some sort of knife at his chest and he wasn’t able to back away in time and yelled out in pain as he was sliced. Then, almost on some sort of dark, Winter Soldier instinct, Bucky reached up and grabbed the knife out of the air with his left hand, blade-end, and squeezed so hard he crushed it. His attacker’s eyes grew wide and then Bucky, with the knife in the air, delivered a hard right-handed punch into the man’s nose, sending him flying.

Bucky whirled back around to see Natalia sitting on a man’s shoulders, strangling him with a cord and felt memories of war and torture wash over him. He shuddered, but he was given no time to feel the pain because there were more attackers, everywhere, and they were mostly headed for Natalia, so Bucky leapt to her aid.

And again, as he fought, he could practically feel the mask up against his face, feel the knives and guns strapped to his waist.

Not the Winter Soldier, not the Winter Soldier, I’m not the Winter Soldier

He stripped off his jacket and tore off his gloves to reveal a sleeveless undershirt, showing off his entire left arm as a sort of threat. He’d grown to appreciate it’s power, and even the way it gleamed in the light. And if it would scare off the people trying to hurt him and Nat, well then, he’d appreciate it even better.

not the winter soldier

Of course, Nat didn’t need much help, when he turned often to give it to her. She was good-his equal if not better, and at the end of the fight, when all the men were down, and there must have been at least ten of them, both Bucky’s fists were bloody and he was bending over his knees, feeling panic shiver into his entire body. He was staring down at the floor. He was looking at linoleum tiles covered in blood. He felt pain. He was coming back into himself.

When a hand touched his shoulder, Bucky whirled around defensively and Natalia put her hands up. There was blood splattered across her face. Bucky thought he might puke. She was talking. What was she saying?
“... okay, you’re okay, okay, my darling, we’re safe,” she said softly in Russian. Bucky looked down at his hands. He was shaking. Blood was running into the creases between the plates in his hand, highlighting lines in crimson. It was dripping off his right.

“We were attacked,” he said, his voice escalating with his panic, his shock. “We were attacked!!” Natalia nodded, bobbing her head, and she looked up and around the store. They were the only ones standing. She swallowed audibly and reached up her hands to push back her hair.

Natalia let out a shaking breath and after a minute, her eyes flickered to Bucky and he could see a plan, born out of panic and fear, in her face. She had his arm then and was dragging him back out to the car, almost running. Bucky stumbled behind, trying to keep up, feeling shock set in. He looked down to see a giant slash across his chest, from earlier in the fight. His shirt was ruined, but the cut was closing. He estimated ten or fifteen minutes to being completely closed.

Some of the experiments Hydra had performed on him were successful. Some of those experiments involved healing factors.

“We have to get out of here,” Natalia said. “We have to go home. Now.”

“Not so fast!!” A voice cried and Natalia skidded to a stop. Bucky almost ran into her. His heart was pounding, he felt sick with fear and confusion. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He didn’t know what was going on.

The voice was on the gas station loudspeakers. It was a woman. She sounded young and she was speaking Russian. Natalia’s fingers tightened around Bucky’s forearm and he winced. He saw a bruise there from the fight under her hand, fading already. Bucky watched Natalia look around above her at the speakers frantically.

“Keep going,” she decided in a panicked voice and began to pull Bucky again. “Ignore it.”

“Another step and I’ll shoot your boyfriend,” the voice threatened and Natalia stopped again. She looked back at Bucky and he watched her gasp.

“Hold still, James,” she instructed.

“What?” Bucky asked breathlessly. In truth, he was barely processing everything that was happening.He was too stunned to react.

“Sniper pointed at your forehead,” she said and Bucky’s mouth went dry and he watched her position herself in front of him.

“No, Nat,” he protested.

“Shush,” she cut him off from in front of him. He wasn’t even sure if her using herself as a shield would do much good. She was too short to even clear his head, probably didn’t divert the sniper whatsoever. He felt relieved and let her stand in front of him.

“Who are you!” Natalia screamed. She was reaching behind her and holding both of Bucky’s bloody hands in hers and squeezed his right. He squeezed back. Slowly, she was inching with him towards the car. “What do you want?!”

The voice on the loudspeakers laughed.

“I’ll tell you soon, Natalia,” she said. “I’ll introduce myself when we meet. But for now, you can’t leave. You can’t go home.” The voice grew dark again. “Not if you want Captain America to live.” Bucky tensed up.

“Steve,” he breathed.

“Don’t touch Steve!” Natalia yelled up at the loudspeakers. “What has he got to do with this??”

“Nothing,” the voice answered casually. “He’s just leverage. But he’ll become a part of it all too quickly if you ignore my warnings. Don’t try to go back to DC.”

“Why,” Natalia said.

“Because I want you on the run,” the voice hissed. Bucky felt chills go down his back. He gripped Natalia’s hands tighter. She inched him closer to the car.

“What’s going on,” Bucky whispered to Natalia. “Nat-”

“Your DC plane tickets are false,” the voice began to brag. “All your safe houses are breached. I have all of your secret identities-new and old-on record.”

“I don’t understand,” Bucky heard Natalia mutter, horrified. “I’m so careful, I tried to be cautious…”

“It’s not your fault, Natalia,” the voice said and it gained an edge of arrogance. Bucky almost thought he could hear a smirk behind the loudspeakers. “Truly, you did your best. I’m just better than you is all.”

“On my count, run,” Natalia whispered to Bucky behind her through clenched teeth. “One, two, THREE!” Natalia let go of Bucky’s hands and bolted for the car and Bucky ran frantically after her. He saw out of the corner of his eye a red dot of light he recognized on the ground near him and pumped his arms, trying to run faster when BLAM !!!

He heard the shot and felt the all too familiar tearing as a bullet embedded itself deep into his right shoulder.

“Aah!!” Bucky screamed, but he didn’t stop. If anything, he went faster until he met the car and both he and Natalia threw themselves into the seats. He could feel his shoulder become hot with pain and blood.

“I warned you, Romanova,” the loudspeaker woman shouted. “It’s your fault he’s shot!”

“You’re shot?!” Natalia cried from the driver’s seat, turning to look at Bucky. Bucky looked at her, in pain and alarmed, adrenaline racing through him along with the fear. His left hand was closed around the bullet hole and he was starting to see black from the pain.

“Drive!” He screamed frantically. “Drive!” Natalia didn’t need any more prompting. She pressed the gas pedal to the floor and raced out of the gas station in a panic.