The Assistant

This fic got way out of hand. Enjoy!

"How's Stark Tower?" Darcy asked as she paced slowly down the laboratory corridor of the prestigious Culver University.

There was a heavy sigh from the other end of the phone before Jane answered. "It's a great facility, really, but Tony hasn't stopped taking apart my machines and 'making them better' since I got here."

Darcy grinned knowing how much Jane hated her equipment being handled. She had put those machines together herself with spare parts from junk yards and kitchen appliances. They ran on prayer and duct tape, but they worked. She listened as Jane rattled ranted and raved about life as a Stark employee, dragging her feet down the hall. She was stalling her way to Professor Morgan's lab. It was her least favorite lab to work in not only because he was generally unpleasant to work with, but also because he was doing some kind of mad scientist research on fertilizer. At the end of the day she went back to her dingy apartment smelling like three kinds of shit.

Darcy says as much to Jane when she finally breaks off from her rant and asks how school is going. "...but thanks again for the letter of recommendation. I seriously doubt I would've gotten this work study without it."

"Honestly Darcy, you don't have to keep thanking me," Jane said with a huff. "I'm more surprised they accepted you with my name attached."

Darcy laughed, stopping to lean against the wall. She didn't get the chance to talk to Jane often now that she'd gone back to school and Culver wouldn't give Jane back her teaching position. The girls couldn't be sure, but they both agreed SHIELD had something to do with Jane's original research grant being pulled after Puente Antiguo.

"Yeah well, now that everything is declassified and everyone knows you were there at first contact - and second contact - your name holds a bit more clout."

"Not enough for Culver-" Jane's no doubt, bitter remark is cut off by a loud, shrill alarm blaring above Darcy's head. Wincing at the volume, Darcy covered her exposed ear with her free hand and ran down the hall.

"What is that?" Jane yelled from the phone.

Darcy rolled her eyes as she answered, her voice an annoyed drone. "Evacuation alarm," she sighs in frustration. "These things go off at least once a week. It's probably nothing… or a nuclear meltdown."

Whatever Jane said in response was lost to the noise as the few people left working in the labs filed out wearing varying shades of put-upon irritation or genuine concern and alarm. Once Dary has signed off with Jane - with a promise to stay safe - she considers her options. On the one hand, protocol demands she exit the building in an orderly fashion immediately. She honestly couldn't be faulted for doing so. On the other hand, Dr. Morgan's latest test run was due in the greenhouse today. Leaving the plants in the lab over the weekend would jeopardize the experiment. Compromised results would mean that the professor would have to start over again and that would set him back. What it really came down to was whether or not she want to risk Dr. Morgan's wrath. After weighing the pros and cons, Darcy decided a false alarm just wasn't worth it and headed for the stairs.

Darcy turned the corner to use a back stairwell that she knew would be empty to go to the Professor's top floor lab. She was on her phone, flipping through Facebook and shaking her head at the 56 picture update a high school friend had made of their baby. Darcy like babies as much as the next person but she still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that people her age were making them. Implanted birth control for the win! Five years no muss, no fuss, no coconuts. She was still congratulating herself on outsmarting human biology when the door at the end of the hall opened.

It took a moment to register the black tact gear was absurdly out of place before she noticed the gun being leveled at her. Instinct, more than any skill, is what saved her life as she lobbed to the side and her phone slipped out of her hand making a nice cracking noise against the ground. She swore and as much as she hated leaving it there the sound of the gun being fired had her spinning on heel and running back the way she came.

Darcy didn't make it more than a few steps before another guy in black turned the corner in full Terminator fashion. Now was a good time to panic, Darcy thought and tried closest room door, almost sobbing in frustration and fear to find it locked. Everything happened too fast after that.

The Terminator came up on her fast and raised his gun. Darcy screamed, but instead of shooting her he pushed her behind him and shot the guys coming down the hall. She screamed again when he dropped both of them without breaking stride and turned back to regard her with fierce blue eyes.

"Oh my god! It's you!" Darcy said stumbling away from him.

The bottom half of his face was covered with a hard black mask, but those eyes had been haunting her since New Mexico. She wouldn't be forgetting them anytime soon. Oh, and the metal arm was a dead giveaway. He was dressed as she remembered him: head to toe in black leather and guns. This time he had a black duffel bag slung his chest with probably more guns in it. It was shameful but just the sight of him gave her stomach a pleasant flip. Once again, the exact opposite reaction she should be having to someone who had just killed two men just as easily as look at them and who had once come to kidnap Jane Foster.

"You're the Winter Soldier. Holy shit. Why are you here? Jane isn't here." Great, panic was already making her ramble.

"Not here for the doctor." He said, eyebrows furrowing and Darcy felt her face heat at the sound of his voice, roughened by the mask. "Not here to hurt you either, doll, but HYDRA's crawling all over the place -"

"I'm sorry, did you just say HYDRA? As in that Nazi organization you work for. As in the one Steve Rogers took down a few months ago?" Darcy crossed her arms over her chest. "Or did you have a change of heart after blowing up the Triskelion in DC?"

She probably shouldn't be getting sassy with a guy who still had a gun in his hand, but seriously. What the fuck?

"Something like that," he said narrowing his eyes at her. Darcy took a moment to appreciate how expressive his eyes were considering most of his face was covered. "And I'm pretty sure it was Steve Rogers that blew everything up. I was just trying to kill him."

Darcy blinked hard, absolutely floored. She didn't know what was more shocking. His admission or the fact that he seemed to be teasing. "You've got to be kidding me. What do you want from me?"

"Right now? I want to finish my mission and get out of this school. As for you, HYDRA has expressed interest in Dr. Foster's work. I imagine they'd be happy if they could get their hands on you."

"I don't know anything about Jane's work." Darcy said and something in her gut twisted. Kidnapping was not how she wanted to start the weekend.

"You know enough. Stay close and I'll get you out of the building or take your chances with the others." He said and started walking away.

"Come with me if you want to live," Darcy said in an absurd Schwarzenegger impression because when faced with impossible scenarios she fell back on sarcasm and irrelevance. It was a way of life.

She followed him to the back stairwell, pointedly not looking at the bodies on the ground. They shot first. It could've just as easily been her lying there and to be honest, she was glad it wasn't.

"Why are you helping me?" Darcy asked. "I mean, not that I'm not stoked you're turning over a new leaf and want to keep people from shooting at me, but why bother? It was the really hot sex, right?" Might as well just put that out there.

Darcy thinks she hears him laugh and he's looking at her more amused and less murdery. "Everything before a few months ago is hazy. A lot of things are still confusing, but when I saw you I remembered. Not around many nice people. You stood out."

"I bet," Darcy said softly and looked up at him through her lashes. Hot lab sex for the win. Still, she felt a pang of sadness at his words. "My name's Darcy, by the way. Can't remember if I introduced myself the first time we met. Honestly I don't remember there being a whole lot of talking."

They've exited the stairwell on the basement level and The Winter Soldier held up a hand for her to be quiet as he slowly stalked to the intersection, weapon drawn. Darcy's hands flew to her mouth as he fired in quick succession. Pressing her back against the wall with her eyes squeezed shut trying not to scream as there was return fire. It was over quickly and then he was standing in front of her.

"James," he said unhooking his mask.

Darcy licked dry lips at the sight of his stubbled jaw and soft lips. She could still remember what they felt like and suddenly wish she was back in that New Mexico lab. They regarded each other silently for a moment then he was stalking back down the hall.

Darcy shook herself and followed him. "Oh yeah, like James Bond. I guess that makes you The Spy Who Shagged Me," she said with a strained laugh. "You know you could totally work the Bond angle though I'd be sad to see all that leather go."

James smirked at her like he knew something she didn't. "I think Bond was based on me, actually."

Darcy laughed again, this time more easily than before. "Right," she said and shook her head. "Um, care to explain why HYDRA is shooting up my school?"

"They're after me," James said watching her from the corner of his eye as they made their way to the end of the hall. "HYDRA's severance package is shit."

Darcy snorted. She couldn't believe this guy had jokes. How was this her life? "So, what? Did you wake up one morning and decide you hated your job and that world domination was so 1945?"

"You could say that," he responded, stopping in front of a door at the end of the hall. "HYDRA's service isn't exactly volunteer based."

Darcy was going to ask more, but she was distracted when she realized where they had stopped. They were standing outside of a locked storage room in the basement level of the school. It wasn't unusual to find rooms like this, even if this room seemed to have more security than others. Culver had deep ties with the military and a lot of the research was classified. What Darcy found odd was that this was the storage room for the psychology department.

"Okay," Darcy said, letting her confusion bleed into her voice . "Are we here to talk about your feelings?"

Bucky shot a look that said he was thoroughly unimpressed with her. Darcy just grinned, pointing a thumb to her chest. "Not a psych major, dude. Poli-sci and sometime lab rat. Sorry."

She was a little thrown off when he grinned back at her, one side of his mouth curving into an amused smirk and she remembered the look from that night in the lab with some trepidation.

"Exactly." He said and Darcy froze when he reached for her, swearing to herself that if he knocked her out again she would taze him.

Somehow.

Before she had any chance to react, his hand was on her hip. He gave her a gentle squeeze and her eyes shot to his to find them filled with humor and something a little darker. Darcy's brain stuttered trying to find something clever to say when he traced the curve of her hip with the palm of his hand. Warmth bleed through the fabric and she was instantly reminded of the last time his hands were on her hips.

And then it was gone and he was tugging at her shirt and her mouth was dry at the sudden unbidden thought of him pinning her to the wall with his body -

Too late did she realize he had snatched her ID card from where it was clipped on the hem of her shirt.

"Hey!" Darcy cried, reaching to grab it back, but he was quicker than her and slid it under the barcode scanner. Darcy had access to a lot of the rooms down there since she worked in the labs and the scientists often needed something for their research.

"What the hell?" Darcy said."You could've asked."

He gave her a smile that made her heart skip a beat. "My way worked too," he said and Darcy rolled her eyes even if her pink cheeks gave her away.

"Whatever." she said a little annoyed with being teased. "What are we doing here? Why the psychology department?"

The office was small and filled with filing cabinets full of ancient research now that the school used electronic storage. There was a grand bookcase filled with books published by professors on the backwall and a newer computer system near the door.

"HYDRA took something from me, I'm here to get it back." James said as he booted up the computer.

"Wait, are you telling me that HYDRA is storing their work on campus? How is that even possible?"

James gave her a look that made her press her lips together in frustration. "HYDRA has their hand in everything. If you think SHIELD was their only cover you are going to be disappointed. Culver is only one of the schools that unknowingly funds their work." He said.

Was everyone a fucking HYDRA agent? It was terrifying when she thought about what they wanted to do with SHIELD's Helicarriers. Darcy started thinking through the list of staff members and pinpointing who would most likely be an undercover HYDRA agent. Definitely Professor Morgan.

"Great. So what do you need if you don't work for them anymore?" Darcy said making her way to him and making herself comfortable on top of the desk, not really caring that she was invading his personal space after his little stunt in the hall.

"Files," Bucky murmurs, his attention only partially on her legging clad legs as she crossed them. "Sometime around the mid 1950s Arnim Zola and Johann Fennhoff began collaboration on a project to create compliant soldiers," James said staring hard at something on the computer, that Winter Soldier face back on and murder in his eyes.

It's kind of terrifying and Darcy's not sure she wants to know, but she's down the rabbit hole already. She glances down at the screen to see what he brought up and froze. She blinked, opened her mouth to say something, closed it and then blinked again for good measure. On the screen was the SSR file on James "Bucky" Barnes and the picture of the devilishly handsome man on the screen belonged to none other than the same man before her.

"Hoooow?" Is all that she manages and it doesn't even come out as an articulate word.

Darcy knows who Bucky Barnes was in the same way anyone who studied World War II history or had visited the Captain America display at the Smithsonian. And now that it was laid out right in front of her, she couldn't believe she didn't make the connection before. He had been the only member of the Howling Commandos to die and had been Captain America's best friend since childhood. Everybody knew that.

"Is that really you? How is that really you?" Darcy stammers.

"I need find Zola and Fennhoff's original files to find the answer to that."

Darcy's chest hitched as he suddenly looked very lost and confused as he looked the file over. She remembered that same look from the lab in New Mexico. She had a lot of problems with that look. Mostly she didn't like it on his face.

Pushing the keyboard out of the way and knocking a bunch of stuff off the desk in the process, Darcy scooted until she was sitting directly in front of him and covering the screen. She planted her feet on either side of him and got as close as she could and brushed the hair from his face. His hands were on her thighs sending tingles straight up her body. He was looking at his metal hand, bright contrast to her dark leggings and flexed his fingers. She got the feeling the arm was something HYDRA had done to him and he was less than happy about it.

She was buzzing from their quiet, intimate contact, unfortunately Darcy didn't do quiet well for very long.

"So I'm guessing that's not the file you're looking for since even I've seen that one." Her voice sounded overly loud in the silent room breaking whatever spell they were creating. She cleared her throat. "Where do I start looking?"

He considered her for a long moment, his eyes unreadable. "There's a hidden room with all of HYDRA's files. I've been informed that what I'm looking for will be in there."

"Awesome. Just gotta find the hidden room with the secret files." Darcy said, sliding off the table into the slight space between his legs. There was barely enough room without her falling over into his lap. And didn't this all seem incredibly familiar?

Darcy snatched her badge from the table, and slips out of his grip to look for his hidden room and also to process what she's learned. She spares a thought to worry that she's being played by the real HYDRA agent, though there's still the question of why? She wasn't lying when she said she didn't know anything about Jane's research. She was just a tech girl, there to record data and get Jane's coffee. HYDRA would have no use for her.

She wanted to trust him and believe him and that felt like the most dangerous thing she could do given her situation. Darcy found she had to remind herself that this man was an assassin and had come to hurt Jane and even though she'd slept with him, and wanted to do it again if she were being completely honest here, didn't mean she could just blindly trust him.

Bucky Barnes was a good guy, but The Winter Soldier was anything but.

Darcy was having a hard time reconciling the two. The more she thought about it the more messed up it became. His face as he looked at the picture of himself with Steve while in SRR back in the 40s would haunt her. He looked hurt and confused as if he knew that was him and that the other guy was his friend but he had no memory of the event itself. Darcy didn't want to know what would make someone like Bucky Barnes a compliant soldier. Enough to kill his best friend.

She was in over her head.

As she brooded she decided the bookcase was the most obvious choice and stood in front of it with a frown. It was overflowing with every textbook the school had probably used for it's psych courses for the last 20 years. She didn't bother to look at each one instead grabbing at random and pulling them off the shelf hopping to find a catch or discover a latch.

"Jesus, sweetheart. Did you have to pull every book off the damn shelf?" Bucky said from behind her.

Darcy looked down at the pile of dusty old tomes at her feet and smiled. "Yes," she said in triumph as one of the books caught and the bookcase sprang an inch off the wall. Grinning, Darcy held her hands out Vanna White style.

Bucky shook his head and pulled the bookcase back to reveal a vault door with a complicated looking locking mechanism she was sure her ID card wouldn't work on. He pulled his bag over his shoulder and dropped it to the ground with a heavy thud. He then pulled a device with a bunch of wires out and she watched as he hooked it up to the door and let it run until it beeped and the light turned green. Darcy rolled onto the balls of her heels as he pulled the door open, and she gasped.

It was more of a tunnel than a room, with low ceilings and dim lighting that blinked on as Bucky stepped into the room. What really stunned her however were the filing cabinets, lined floor to ceiling against each wall and stretching as far back as she could see into the dark. Darcy followed him in, looking warily over the unmarked drawers. She understood then that HYDRA did not keep their most important files on a computer that could be easily hacked and duplicated. These were all hard copies, probably originals. The space was just wide enough to walk through without squeezing and with nothing but sheer curiosity fueling her, Darcy followed Bucky until he stopped.

"What the hell is all this?" She asked as she watched him open one of the drawers and rifle through it, his mouth pressed into a grim line when she joined him.

He didn't answer, so Darcy sated her curiosity by rummaging the files herself. She had no idea what she was looking for, but she pulled manila folders at random and flipped through them. Most of them were in languages she couldn't read. The dominant one looked to be Russian and something about that just seemed right. There were a few pages in English she could read, but she didn't entirely understand. It looked like research on sleep and memory loss, but a lot of it was confusing and didn't make much sense to her. There didn't seem anything really linking the works together.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Darcy finally asked.

"The Winter Soldier Program."

Frowning at his detach and strained voice and she looked over to find him a few cabinets away with a thick folder spread open. His jaw was tensed and locked tight enough that it must hurt, his metal hand clench at his side and even from this angle she could see the absolute coldness in his eyes.

She went over to him and took his metal hand in both of hers, wrapping her slender fingers around his wrist. He looked down at her contact and Darcy's breath caught. He looked like he was about to come unhinged. This look was more severe than when he had looked over the old SSR files. There was fear this time.

Darcy did the only thing she could think of to distract him. She leaned up onto the tips of her toes and kissed him. It takes him a second to respond, but when he does it's electric. Very quickly she forgets she's supposed to be distracting him when his other hand cups the back of her neck to keep her in place as he kisses her senseless.

Then he's pulling back with her bottom lip between his teeth and she sighs. Even as brief as it was, his kiss is just as she remembers with toe curling sweeps of his tongue and fingers that dig into her flesh. Every nerve is at attention and her trash brain wants her in trouble as she wonders how fast she can get her leg wrapped around his waist.

Instead she licked her lips and kept her eyes somewhere near his shoulder. She was afraid if she looked at him right now that would be it, so she let go of his hand. He watched her, his thumb brushed against her cheek before he let go and Darcy finally turned to the file spread across the cabinet.

Darcy didn't think she wanted to know what a man like The Winter Soldier would be afraid of, but she glanced at the file anyway. The pictures were blurry, but she could tell it was him sitting in an odd looking chair looking as if he had just woken up. The room was filled with people, but the picture made it feel as if he were a piece of the furniture. No one was looking at him and his gaze was distant and unfocused.

Something like horror rose in her stomach at the sight and she flipped away from the page. The language is mostly in Russian though she thinks she recognizes some German too. The files are all similar to what she had seen earlier: sleep, memory, diagrams with sections of a brain with various parts circled or highlighted. She doesn't really have the training to understand the scientific jargon, but even in another language Darcy catches onto what this is. Classic sleep deprivation torture. Years of it.

Her eyes dart to him, a sick sinking feeling settling deep in her bones as she begins to understand just how the man that was Sergeant Barnes could betray Captain America. She's grateful then that his back is to her because it gives her time to school her face into something less than the nausea she's sure is plain to see there. He had moved on to another set of cabinets and is busy cleaning them out, stuffing stacks of folders into his dark duffle bag. A red timepiece on one of the folders catches her eye, but he shoves it into the bag before she can be sure.

He's a bit more agitated as he closed the drawer. "We need to move," he said, sweeping past her and grabbing the folder from her hands to shove in the bag.

"What's going on," Darcy asked, following him with trepidation out of the hidden room. He doesn't bother to shut the door and Darcy hopes someone comes down and uncovers what the school is hiding.

"Company's comin'."

He stops and presses a finger to the piece in his ear, listening to the chatter before he yanks it out, throwing it on the ground. "They found the others and we've got about three minutes before they're on this floor."

"What are we going to do?"

Darcy's throat is dry at the prospect of facing HYDRA's goons again. She's done a decent job of not dwelling on what happened upstairs, but the memory of being shot at unprovoked hits her with a wave of vertigo. She sways, grabbing onto his arm to steady herself. He looks down to her and she doesn't bother to hide the mounting panic from her eyes. She scared, there's no doubt about it. Probably more scared now than when he'd shown up in the lab in New Mexico. He considers her for longer than they have time for, his mouth pressed into a thin line before telling her to stay close.

They crossed the room and Bucky pulls the door open just enough to check the hall before dropping his overstuffed duffel, unzipping it, and pulling out one of the largest guns Darcy has ever seen up close.

"Holy shit," is her succinct response and his little grin is not lost on her as he checks the ammo, zips the bag back up, and slings it over his shoulder.

Darcy doesn't know whether to feel safer for being with him or seriously question her sanity. Either way she follows him, keeping an eye over her shoulder and staying close as he stalks down the hall.

Her nerves are so frayed that by the time they reach the stairs, she sure she's going to have a heart attack. The office had provided a false sense of safety that she's missing right about now. She was glad more than anything that she still had her taser. It wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it gave her some sense of protection.

Sending a prayer to Thor that they don't meet anyone on the stairs, she swears she feels his blessing when they pass a service door that Darcy remembers leads to a hall and to a way out of the school.

There's a noise at the top of the stairs. The sound of a door opening and Darcy forgets how to breathe. She manages to grab Bucky's attention with a tap on the arm, because she's certain that if she opened her mouth right then the only thing that would come out would be a scream.

Pulling her badge up from the bottom of her shirt, Darcy sent another prayer out to the deity currently boning her friend that she would be allowed access and almost sagged with relief when the light turned green and she pulled the door open.

They quickly darted inside, Bucky pulling the door closed quietly behind him before they took off running down the hall. Darcy could practically taste freedom as they turned a corner and didn't hear anyone immediately following.

She should've known it was too good to expect to make it out without being seen by anyone. Not ten steps from turning the corner a professor stepped out from a room to the left and Darcy smacked right into him, knocking both of them down.

Darcy scrambled to her feet, searching out Bucky who had stopped and was now assessing the threat level of the person she had knocked over.

"I'm so sorry," Darcy gasps. She's out of breath from the short run and somewhere in the back of her mind she swears she'll start jogging everyday if she makes it out of this alive.

"Ms. Lewis," Darcy blinks at the angry snap of her name. "What are you doing down here?"

"Dr Morgan?" She said and she's confused because why is he still in the building when there are gun toting madmen about?

He narrows his eyes at her and an unpleasant snarl curls his lips. "Should I assume my plants have not been moved, if you're down here running around with…"

He trails off and Darcy realizes he's only just took Bucky in and the very large gun that, while not pointed directly at him, was at the ready. His mouth was hanging open and she might've found it amusing if it wasn't for the sound of an explosion and twisting metal.

Bucky turned, gun raised as Professor Morgan sputtered something unintelligible. Time was up, they had to go and Darcy wasn't looking to die in a maintenance hall at Culver University. Darcy moved to push past him to reach the relative safety of Bucky's side and everything after that happened too fast to process.

Dr. Morgan grabbed her arm as she passed, snapping something Darcy didn't quite catch. The only thing she processed in the moment was that he was preventing her from leaving an area that was about to become deadly and that Bucky had leveled his gun on the doctor. She only had a split second to decide what to do, anymore and HYDRA would turn the corner and open fire and/or Bucky would. As much as she didn't care for the cranky professor, she didn't want him dead. She couldn't live with that on her conscience. She needed to defuse and get out with minimum casualties.

And that was why she tazed Professor Morgan and shoved his still twitching body back into the room he came from and shut the door before grabbing Bucky's hand and taking off full tilt down the hall.

What happened from there was a blur. She ran. And ran. And ran. There was gunfire, but she didn't stop and everytime Bucky let go of her hand he found it again pulling her in the right direction.

When she finally stopped, panting and gasping for breath and feeling like she was going to throw up, they were outside in one of the student lots across campus. He led her over to a non-descript, black car where she collapsed against it. She assumed it was his - she hoped it was his - as he opened the trunk and threw in his duffel bag before climbing into the driver's seat.

"Dude, I'm done," Darcy said, pushing off from the car with every intent of making her way off campus and back home.

"Let's go, Sweetheart," Bucky said, starting it up and watching her from the open door.

"No way, I'm done. This day has been fucked up and I am beyond done."

"Get in the car, Doll," and he might've sounded as tired as she felt for a second there.

"Are you kidnapping me now?," It was meant to come out stronger, but instead sounded tired and wary.

"Look, doll," Bucky said, his face that serious mask she was too familiar with. "You ain't out of the woods yet. HYDRA will have this entire school on lockdown soon if they don't already and you don't want them to get their hands on you. Darcy, get in the car."

Darcy definitely didn't huff and cross her arms under her breast as she realized that he was right. And she definitely didn't stomped her way over to the passenger side. The fact that Bucky let out a genuine laugh and shook his head as she got in was something else entirely. The sound made her heart stutter and her stomach flutter and she couldn't help but smile as he pulled out of the spot tore off campus.

The last hour or so would catch up to her soon, but right she could only bite her lip at the tingling feel of his touch still lingering on her skin and the way her name sounded on his tongue.

Darcy wasn't sure how long Bucky drove or where exactly he took them. He made sure there were no cars behind him for more than a few minutes and anything suspicious was left behind in the twist and turns of downtown's back alleys.

They didn't talk. Which was fine with Darcy because she got the shakes about ten minutes into the ride. She couldn't sit still and couldn't imagine what would come out of her mouth if she did try speaking. Her hands were beginning to tremble and she rubbed them compulsively on her jeans trying rid them of growing clamminess.

Darcy closed her eyes and let out a slow breath, trying not to panic. She wasn't usually the type to panic, however, it had been one helluva day. The look on the professor's face when she tazed him wouldn't leave her alone and the twisting, rising horror of running for her life was finally catching up with her in the quiet car.

Finally the car came to a final stop and Bucky's gruff voice pulled her back. She blinked blue eyes taking in their new surroundings and wasn't impressed. They were parked in front of what all appearances would suggest was an abandoned building. In fact all the building around them looked abandoned and run down.

"So this is nice," Darcy said in a light voice, eyeballing the sketchy looking group of people approaching their car.

She wanted to say more, but her companion was already out of the car and pulling his things from the back. Since this seemed to be their final destination, Darcy got out and joined him at the back of the car, not sure what to expect.

"Let's go," he said and he didn't seem too worried about the other people coming at them in the road. Apparently they posed no real threat to the Winter Soldier, but Darcy is paranoid so she slipped her hand inside of his metal one.

She was still shaken and a little more clammy than she would like, considering, and she wonders just how much sensation he gets from the metal. If he notices, he doesn't mention it. Bucky leads her between two boarded and dilapidated buildings. Loud music and yelling can be heard from somewhere inside.

They waste no time finding their way to the back, into a courtyard and to a building across the way where Bucky yanked a rusted door open and she followed him inside. He lead her up three flights and down a quiet, piss stained hallway of unmarked doors before stopping in front of one, unlocking it, and going in.

"Whoa," Darcy says as she steps into the apartment. She'd been prepared for it to be as filthy and gross as the rest of the building, but finds it's the complete opposite. The door clicks shut behind her and something about the innocuous sound triggers the breakdown she'd been putting off since Bucky first grabbed her.

Leaning back against the door, she takes a deep breath and tries to rein it in. It's a lost cause because all she can hear is the sound of bullets whizzing past her face and all she can see is Professor Morgan's face as she tazed him before running away. She has no idea if he was even still alive. What if he's dead? What if the HYDRA goons found him? Why didn't she drag him with her to safety?

Darcy doesn't realize she's started hyperventilating until she feels Bucky's warm hand cupping her cheek and tilting her face towards his. "You alright, doll?"

Her mouth opens to answer him - of course she's fine - but she's not and the only thing she manages is another shuddering breath. Her eyes squeeze close tighter and she knows he can feel the shudder run through her body. Whether its from the breakdown she's desperately trying not to have or just how close he is, she can't tell.

"Darcy, they won't find us here." He says, squeezing her chin a little tighter to focus her attention.

"Yeah, no. I'm fine. It's cool…" She stutters out.

She can just make out his frown through a blur of tears when she opens her eyes. His thumb swipes across her cheek, brushing away one that's slipped loose and it's electric. She focuses on his mouth, that perfect bow set in pouty lips and she realizes he's already slipped out of his leather armor as her fingers find the soft fabric of his shirt.

It doesn't take much to distract her now as she'd spent far more time than reasonably wondering what was under that armor. Darcy closed her eyes again and pulled Bucky a little closer. She's not fine or cool and nothing about this was good. The only thing anchoring her to reality was the hard lines of Bucky's body against hers.

When she opened her eyes again he was watching her chew her bottom lip with that same intense expression that'd kept her wake at night for the last few months and it's like a match to a short fuse.

He leaned in and kissed her like he was trying to pick up from where they'd left off at the school. She's pleased beyond measure at his enthusiasm as his tongue to distracted her from unpleasant thoughts.

And she wants him. God does she want him and Darcy's never wanted anyone before. Not the way she wanted Bucky. Her body seemed to remember his touch and she arched into him when he wrapped his hand around her waist. The next instance she's practically climbing him like a tree to wrap her legs around his waist. The ease with which he holds her in place with his metal arm and body pinning her to the door has heat pooling low in her belly.

Darcy pulls away to catch her breath. Closing her eyes, she takes a moment to clear her head, but it a useless with him so close. Darcy's always been direct to the point of awkward and she felt they were probably past beating around the bush anyway. "Um, sorry," she says opening her eyes to look up at him. "Didn't mean to jump you. I just - I need something that's real right now. I need you."

"I can help with that," he says, giving her that cocksure grin and Darcy would've given a snappy retort - she's sure something would've come out of her mouth if she kept talking - but Bucky is kissing her again.

The kiss is far more intense after that. Its all Darcy can do to keep up with him and every moan and twitch of his hips leaves her breathless. His hand snakes up her shirt, pushing it out of the way to pull her bra down. He stops kissing her long enough to suck on hardened nipple into his mouth and Darcy arches against the door. When he comes up for air, Darcy is panting. Bucky pulls her away from the door and walks across the room to a big bed in the corner. She takes the time in between to pay close attention to his incredible jawline with her mouth. He sets her down slowly and she can't help the ridiculous giggle that surfaces as she's clinging to his neck.

Once she's on the bed Bucky pulls back and sweeps his gaze over her and Darcy can't help the grin that spreads across her face. Pulling her shirt over her head, she slowly reaches back and hung hooks her bra, watching his lust filled eyes as she set her breasts free. Leaning back on her elbows, Darcy enjoyed the way Bucky hungrily drank her in. That look may be her new favorite thing about the man in front of her and with a laugh she gives her shoulders little shake to watch those blue eyes narrow in on the girls.

Her mirth dies in her throat however when he shucks his own shirt. She's not sure where to look first as her eyes dart around trying to identify the muscles presented before her while all her brain supplies her with is "holy shit". The shiteating grin he flashes tells her she said that last bit out loud.

She ignores that in favor of running her hands over smooth skin and ripped abs as he settles himself between her legs. The feeling of his skin against hers sent a charge through her body is unlike anything she's ever felt before. As much as she wanted to catalog every square inch of him with her mouth, he created a desperate need within her.

Reaching for his pants, she whispered in his ear for him to fuck her until the only thing she can remember is his name. His response was lost by a growl deep in his chest as he grabs her hips and then they're pulling at the last of each other's clothes.

"I need you," Darcy says again in a broken, desperate whisper against his ear as his tongue sweeps across her breast causing Darcy to arch into the wet touch.

When they've finally shed the last of their pants and socks, he wraps her legs around his waist, but Darcy stops him before he can go any further. She takes his cock in her hand because she likes the control and wants to watch his face as she guides him into her body. He slides home and it's all Darcy can do to watch his blown out pupils before her own eyes roll back in her head. He fits so snug inside her and it feels so good she whimpers desperately. He swears when she clenches down tight on him and it's such a passionate moment that it sends gooseflesh up her arms.

"I'm going to take good care of you," he says before he kisses her and grinds hips into hers.

It's incredible from the first thrust and Bucky pulls out sounds of pleasure from her she didn't know she could make. He keeps to his promise and fucks her into the mattress and Darcy does her best to keep up, she really does. But her body is a taught coil of tension from the day and everytime he hits her spot her hips stutter and it isn't long before she's writhing beneath him, an incoherent, moaning mess.

Bucky seems to enjoy watching her lose control because once she tells him he's hitting her spot, he continues to do so with insane accuracy and faster than she thought possible he's fucking her breathless through an orgasm that sets her skin on fire. Darcy is still blinking the stars from her eyes when his hips grind into hers. A gasp catches in her throat as he comes with a loud groan, face pressed into the crook of her neck.

There's a quiet moment between them afterwards where Darcy traces patterns onto his back and Bucky kisses away the goosebumps on her shoulder.

"You alright, sweetheart?" He asks when he does finally pull away.

Darcy can't help the tired laugh that escapes at the fact that an ex-HYDRA assassin is the first person to ever ask her that. Then again, he's the first person to ever have a good reason.

"I'm good," Darcy replies and give him a satisfied smile. "You're a man of your word, Sgt. Barnes."

"I aim to please," he says, tucking Darcy under his right arm.

If asked, Darcy never would've pegged the Winter Soldier as a cuddler, but here she was and it was absolutely amazing. She lets her fingers dance across his chest, but her eyes are on the metal arm curled across him and the brutal scarring on his shoulder where metal joined flesh. She has a thousand questions, but no appropriate way to ask them. He wasn't shy in using it, not tonight and not their first time so Darcy drifted her hand to his and ran her fingertips over the cool metal.

"Can you feel anything?"

"I can feel you, sweetheart," he says and runs his fingers up her arm. He brings his hand back for her to inspect further and Darcy marvels at the way the plates shift beneath her fingers. "You afraid?"

"No," is her immediate response and she's surprised to find that she means it.

"It's a weapon."

"Anything's a weapon if you try hard enough."

"I'm a weapon," he said, his voice flat. At that, Darcy propped herself up to get a good look at him and he watched her carefully.

"You're not a weapon," Darcy told him firmly. "You're a person who can make his own decisions, regardless what HYDRA wants you to believe. Maybe I should be afraid of you, but I'm not. I don't think I'd be here if it weren't for you and that goes a long way for me."

Bucky gave her half a smirk and said, "I am dangerous. You saw what I can do."

Darcy rolled her eyes and settled back down beside him. "Thor's dangerous too and he's one of my good friends. He can summon lightning from a clear sky, for christ's sake."

"What?"

"Exactly. He's good guy because that's what he wants to be. You can do the same."

They're quiet after that with Bucky running his fingers through her hair, untangling the snarls from her thrashing earlier. It's a soothing respite from the day's chaos and as much as she wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the evening, she's compelled to get up when Bucky gets out of bed.

She watches him throw on a pair of rumpled jeans that hang sinfully from his hips and make his way to the kitchen. She rose from the bed, reveling in the languid feeling of being thoroughly fucked. Darcy can feel him watching and tries a sexy stretch as she climbed out of bed. Unfortunately her feet tangle in the sheet and she tumbles over the side instead.

"Goddamnit," she just didn't do sexy well and it was unfortunate because she always thought her body was built to be a pinup.

Being too embarrassed to look to look over at him and knowing he saw her fall from grace anyway, Darcy made naked haste to what she hoped was the bathroom and not a closet. Luck took pity and she found herself in the washroom.

Darcy stood in front of the mirror and cataloged the marks on her neck and chest, reliving the intimate encounter and trying to make sense of her intense reaction to his touch. The entire day had been wild from start to finish, but she didn't think her stress response could quite answer for the heat that licked at her skin when they touched.

Her eyes skimmed over the bruises on her arms from being grabbed a little too hard when trying to outrun HYDRA. Darcy hid her face in her hands as the memories tried to resurface and breathed deeply. She wasn't ready to deal with all that. She would work through that later. When she made it back home. When she was safe.

It didn't feel like she was in immediate danger and Bucky had gone out of his way to make her feel secure, but she couldn't feel safe with so much unknown. As good as this was she had no idea how long it would last or what he really wanted from her. They couldn't stay like this forever, but Darcy decided she could pretend for just a little while longer since she didn't feel emotionally ready to deal with even a fraction of that mess.

It was probably rude to just jump in someone's shower, but they'd fucked twice now and Darcy seriously wanted to wash off the fear and sweat from earlier so if he was going to have a problem with it then the assassin was just going to have to deal.

When Darcy finally emerged from the bathroom she felt much closer to herself again. The shower had done wonders to put her back on even footing. She found Bucky sat at the counter, a plate of food at the empty seat next to him and Darcy suddenly realized she was starving. There was the smell of fresh coffee and Darcy seriously considered declaring her love.

"Oh my god, you're a saint," she said as she sat down next to him and began to eat.

Next to her Bucky snorted and pushed a cup of coffee in her direction. "Nobody's gonna make me a saint. And I'm a shit cook. It's just rice."

"And vegetables," Darcy said around a mouthful of food. "And it's warm, so that's, like, leagues ahead of what I'm capable of. And you're giving me coffee. Where I'm from that's practically a proposal."

This time Bucky laughs out loud and Darcy has to stop and stare. His laugh was inviting, pulling a smile from her and he looked amazing with a genuine grin. It was completely natural and at home as if he had spent a lot of time smiling at one point in his life.

"I doubt it's that easy," He told her.

"I think we both know just how easy I can be." She gave Bucky a mischievous look and bit her lip, watching as his eyes followed.

She leaned into his space, wrapping her fingers around his metal wrist and was pleased by the unfocused look in those blue eyes.

"You saved my life, whisked me away from danger," she makes her voice a little breathy, a little sexier, "you fuck me thoroughly when I ask for it and now you've given me food and coffee. You're my knight in shining armor. I'd say I'm already yours."

Bucky's giving her a pretty intense look that she can't really read, but it sends a shiver through her body that's not entirely unpleasant. He doesn't seem to know how to respond to all that and Darcy gives him a grin that is nothing short of predatory before turning back to her coffee without another word.

And she was totally going to blame that on stress induced insanity because there was seriously no other way to explain that word vomit.

Her mouth was always getting her into trouble, but Darcy wasn't one to mince words. Even if she hadn't fully thought it through. Especially if she hadn't. Even though she said it as a tease, she was surprised by how true the words felt. Bucky Barnes had pretty much ruined her for any other guy. After today there was no way she could go back to someone like Ian. No matter how many aliens he squashed with cars.

The fact that the man could go from brutal murder machine to snuggling post coitus and making her food was hot in an unprecedented way. And she hadn't even thought about the fact that this guy was actual Captain America's best friend and former Howling Commando. But that was a whole other kettle of fish.

She could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to look back. He didn't seem to have anything to say to that and was probably wondering what the hell was wrong with her. She could see his bare chest from the corner of her eye and thought about taking the time to purposely map him with her mouth.

Eventually he got up from the bar and Darcy took her time eating and trying to plan out where she was supposed to go from here. Bucky Barnes persona aside, he was still an incredibly dangerous man on a mission that she didn't quite understand and wasn't sure that she fit in to. And while she hadn't really had a choice, given the situation, she had come willingly, but wasn't sure if leaving would work the same way.

However, Darcy was absolutely exhausted and her brain was utter trash because all her plans ended with her getting back into Bucky's pants so she gave up and figured the flow was still going so she might as well too.

Bucky was sprawled across a chair in front of his computer setup and seemed to be cross referencing some of the files he'd grabbed with information on the computer. As interesting as that seemed, Darcy was just as curious about the space she was in. The longer she was in the apartment the more little things she began to notice, such as the walls were freshly painted.

Not just freshly painted, but repaired in some spots and Darcy watched enough HGTV to know. The apartment itself was large for a studio and sparsely furnished. There was an armchair near the window and Darcy could imagine him watching the street from it. The bed towards the back of the space with the computer set up at the foot. That was it besides the barstools in the kitchen and the bathroom itself. The walls were white, the floor was concrete with not even a rug near the bed and the place was immaculate.

Darcy's first thought was that this was a HYDRA safe house, but that didn't make sense if he really was on the run from them. Unless he was lying and this was an elaborate ploy to kidnap her to get to Jane in which case, bravo. But this kind of set up took time. Weeks at the least, not to mention he knew exactly where he was going in the school, so just as long in surveillance. And just long enough for HYDRA to find him and something about that just pissed Darcy off.

"So what's really going on?" Darcy asked as she padded over to stand in front of him with her arms crossed under her breast.

Bucky raised a brow in response, wary of her sudden tone. When he didn't answer, she elaborated. "You've been following me, haven't you? You've been here for weeks - stalking me!"

He had the nerve to grin at her because he must've found pissed off Darcy adorable. "Just a coincidence, doll."

"My ass," she said with a roll of her eyes. "You knew I was here. This was all part of your plan!" Darcy swept her hand out to the room. Dread was forming in her stomach as the idea that this was an elaborate plot and she'd fallen right for it.

Bucky stood from the chair, getting in her space with his hands on her hips and his eyes searching hers. It was the kind of intimate contact that made Darcy's heart race. "I didn't come here looking for you and this wasn't part of the plan. I've known you were at the school for a while, yeah, but when I first saw you it took some time to place your face and when I did I knew HYDRA was going to try to pick you up and I wanted to get you out of there."

Her response was less actual words and more of a breathy sound. He was so damn pretty close up and every time they were this close things happened and her brain was utter garbage. She couldn't deny however that something eased within her at his words. She probably shouldn't trust him, but he looked sincere and she found she wanted to more than anything.

"So, ah," Darcy cleared her dry throat, breaking eye contact. "why are you here? And, not gonna lie, I'm a little hurt you forgot about me so easily. I thought we shared something." The last part was said with a bit of sarcasm, but honestly that night had been really hot.

"Everything up here's a bit scrambled," he said tapping on the side of his head as he moved to sit back at the computer. "Still trying to sort everything out. That's why I came to the school. Got intel that the files I was looking for were there."

Darcy sat crossed-legged on the bed across from him and picked up one of the folders he'd placed there. It was the same file she'd been looking through earlier at the school. The one with all the weird sleep experiments. "So, what? You've been like a POW for the last 50 years or something?"

"Something like that," he said with a bitter edge to his voice.

Darcy was momentarily distracted as he climbed into bed next to her. He was still shirtless and really those pants were doing an amazing job on her imagination. He didn't stop her from looking through his file nor did he offer up any further explanation so she continued to sift through the confusing pages until she found what appeared to be a summary of a long set of data.

"Is this…" Darcy hesitated using the word, but there was literally no other way to put into words what she had read. "brainwashing? Did HYDRA -"

"Pull out one by one everything that made me Bucky Barnes? Yes."

"That's what you're trying to get back. Jesus." Darcy whispered. "So when you say you didn't remember me, you meant you literally didn't remember me?"

He nodded, his eyes distant, voice flat. "When the asset fails a mission or when the asset starts to ask questions then you wipe him and start over."

"Fuck," Darcy says her horror rising at the dead tone of his voice and the blank way he spoke about himself.

This was way more fucked than she could've known and none HYDRA's brainwashing was in her textbooks when they learned about the war. On the next page is a picture of Bucky, but he's blurry, encased in what can only be described as a pod of ice and the page attached has dates listed with notes to the side, some in Russian others in English. It takes a minute of reading them before she understands that its a record of Bucky's time spent in cryogenic sleep. And that was enough for her. Too much in fact and she pushed file shut and threw it off the bed.

She ran her hands over her face then looked over to find him watching her. He could've easily kept all this from her and yet it was like he wanted her to know. Maybe he just needed to tell somebody.

"That is the most fucked up thing I've ever read." She stated plainly before immediately regretting it and shaking her head to apologize. "God, I'm so sorry. My filter is just broken at the moment. You remember me now, so are the memories coming back?"

Bucky nodded. "Some and slowly. The most recent are the clearest, but some things from the past are there. The more I learn, the more I remember."

"What will you do now that you have your Russian Sleep Experiment file?" Darcy asked gesturing to the nightmare fuel on the floor. She couldn't wrap her head around what it must be like to never know who you are and to have your entire existence revolve around being a murder weapon.

"There's still more out there," he said, his voice still distant. "Things left behind that there's still time to defuse. Seems as good a place as any to try and make up for it all."

"I hardly doubt this is something you need to make up for," Darcy said.

She didn't like the distant flatness of his voice. He always responded to her touch, like it wasn't something he was entirely used to experiencing, so she leaned in close to him and brushed her fingers along his cheek. He glanced down at her damp hair as the curls brushed his shoulder as she bent closer to his face.

"I've never met him, but I know Steve Rogers is looking for you. He's a good guy. If you let him, I'm sure he would help you."

Bucky leaned into her hand and Darcy ran her thumb over the stubble there. "I'm not the person he's looking for. Not anymore. I've done a lot of terrible things. I've hurt a lot of people. More that didn't deserve it than those who did. I have a lot to atone for. I'm not sure if something like that is even possible for me." He said.

"I don't think I believe anyone is beyond redemption." She said softly.

He looked at her for a long moment before closing the distance and kissing her. His lips were like stoking a smoldering fire. His tongue bringing it to flame as he wrapped an arm around her waist, encouraging her to uncoil from her sitting position. She happily obliged, breaking the kiss long enough to lay down and stretch against his body. When she kisses him again it's eager and full of promise. Where before she needed to ground herself in reality now she wants to fully sate her lust for this impossible man.

Her hands run up over his shoulders and through his hair while her legs tangle with his. Bucky makes a little noise in the back of his throat, his arms tightening around around her and its like every nerve in her body responds. Darcy loves this moment so much, the two of them twisted up and making out just like two normal people who were totally not on the run from a terrorist organization.

Its with great reluctance that she breaks the kiss to move from his lips across his jaw and down his neck. She pushes him onto his back to better give attention to the broad expanse of his chest and across his shoulder. She hesitates as she gets the where his metal arm joins his shoulder because she knows from her reading that it was a "gift" from HYDRA and she has no idea of how he feels, but she wants to feel the cool metal under her lips. Their eyes meet as she moves and his hands flex against her as she drags her lips over his arm.

"Kitten," he murmured roughly and she smirked as he shifted to pull her to his lips again.

His kiss is harder this time and both his hands slip under her shirt to spread heat and chills across her back. When she pulled away a second time he made a small whining noise that made Darcy laugh. She push him back against the bed when he tried to follow her up.

"Relax, man. It's my turn to take care of you."

Raking her nails down down his chest, she takes care to kiss and taste as much of him as she can. Bucky brushes her hair out of her face, holding it back and watches her tongue as it moves across his body. The look in his eye encourages her and she bites at the flesh of his stomach while tugging hungrily at the button on his jeans.

Bucky sits up to help her, shucking his pants while she takes her own shirt and jeans, leaving nothing but her black cotton panties and fuzzy kitty socks. He kisses her again, this time sloppy and eager and Darcy is amused that he's just as excited about a blowjob as her boyfriend had been in high school.

"I want to know how you taste," she said.

Kneeling on the bed next to him, she takes his cock in hand giving him a long slow stroke, liking very much the way his jaw clenched with her actions. Bucky leans back on his elbows, watching as she bent and teased the tip with her tongue, circling and licking. Darcy pulls her hair to the side so he can watch as she finally takes him in, sliding against her tongue into her mouth until she can't take anymore and then sucking as she pulls back out. His legs tense and his breathing is heavy each time she comes back up, never really pulling off him before going back down. She has the perfect view of the crunch of his abs from her angle and she drags the nails of her free hand over them in appreciation.

"Fuck," Darcy heard him whisper, his metal hand twisted in the sheets as she hollowed out her cheeks and pulled off him with a loud, filthy pop.

Darcy smiles before going back down, pleased she hadn't lost her touch since it'd been a while. He's touching her now. One hand stroking through her hair while the other slides up her legs to find the inside of her wet thighs. She thinks its a bit unfair as he slides his fingers into her panties because he's distracting her from her good work. He toys with her for a few minutes before he bunches her underwear in a fist and rips them off. Before Darcy can do more than sit up he's grabbed her hips and pulled them back to him and settled her legs over his chest. Then without any preamble he used his tongue to part her lips and licked a long wet strip up her center and fuck if it wasn't just the hottest thing ever.

Darcy goes back to sucking down the tip of his cock, but soon she's completely unfocused. Bucky has made it his mission to see what makes her legs shake. It isn't long before she's grinding his face into the mattress, his cock all but forgotten which was a shame since she had been set on seeing how much of him she could get down her throat. He doesn't seem to mind though as he shifts her hips and spreads her lips to suck hard on her clit.

The orgasim that hits her feels like someone pulled a rip cord and ignited her. It rips a cry from her throat that tapers into a soft whimpering moan as Bucky returns to long, slow licks of her quivering flesh. He rubs his hands up the backs of her shaking thighs before gently nudging her off his chest and onto her back.

"No fair," Darcy said with mock pout. "You play dirty."

"Yes I do, sweetheart," He replied as he covered her body with his own. He gave her that roguish smile. The one that made her stomach flip and her heart beat faster.

"That's okay, I like it dirty," she said in a breathy whisper, running her fingers through his hair and wrapping her legs behind his back.

"I know you do," he said.

Then he kissed her as he sank slowly into her waiting heat. His lips were still wet and she could taste her self in his mouth. She found their taste mingling together on her tongue to be erotic. They to moaned together, savoring that first moment of joining.

Then they started to move. Slow torturous thrusts and hips moving in sync. Darcy felt delirious. He fit her body perfectly, filled her up whole and left no room for doubt. She'd never felt so connected to someone. She couldn't stop looking at his face. At the expressions he made as they moved. She pushed the hair from his face and ran her fingers over his cheeks and across his jaw. He would pin her there with his electric gaze each time they made eye contact and it surged her to another level.

He took both of her hands and twined their fingers together, holding them just above her head and Darcy felt her orgasm slowly build with the curl of her toes and the tightening of her thighs around his waist. She could feel it in her fingertips and as it chased down her arms. He could feel it too as she clenched around him, so close.

"Come for me, Darcy."

So she did.

She came apart beneath him in a riptide of pleasure that surged through her body. It came from every pore within her and left her trembling and moaning his name. It was the most intense orgasm she'd ever experienced. Above her Bucky stiffened before coming with a strangled, broken gasp.

Darcy closed her eyes as the pulsing ebbed and she caught her breath. Bucky slipped his hand from hers and brushed the hair from her face. She couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze. There were too many emotions and she had no idea what he would find there. He leaned in to give her a sweet, lingering kiss before moving off her and gently tucking her into his side much like he had earlier.

Her fingers danced over his chest while he softly ran his knuckles up and down her spine. Darcy didn't know what to say. Her heart wouldn't slow down and her stomach fluttered and she wonder how long she could hold on to him because now she didn't want to let go.

Eventually Darcy shifted and propped herself up on an elbow to take him in. His face was flush with satisfaction and he watched through half lidded eyes. Her body was still humming pleasantly and she was certain this ranked at the top of her sexual encounters. Funnily enough he was quickly overtaking all the current top spots.

"Well that was pretty amazing," giving him a pleased smile.

"You're easy to be with," he said.

When she saw the softness in his gaze as he looked at her and the small smile that curled his lips, words died in her throat. She didn't think anyone had ever said something like that to her before.

"Get some rest, kitten," Bucky whispered.

Darcy smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "I am kinda worn out."

His laugh was the last thing she heard as she made herself comfortable and drifted to sleep with him curled around her.

Darcy was rudely woke up hours later when the apartment door was brutally kicked in. She screamed, flailing in the bedsheets as people in suits with guns and badges came pouring into the room. There was yelling and screaming and absolute confusion as Darcy simultaneously tried to put her hands up and cover her naked body.

Eventually one guy stepped forward from the chaos and identified himself as FBI and she understood there was also Homeland Security and a bunch of other alphabet agencies and they all wanted to where was the terrorist named Winter Soldier.

He was.

Fucking.

Gone.

Again.

Darcy managed to find a black t-shirt of Bucky's to put on and it was big enough to cover the important bits and that was all they allowed her before she was handcuffed and placed under arrest. Apparently the US Government frowned upon canoodling with domestic terrorist.

People were swarming the room, crawling over every square inch for evidence, but Darcy knew they wouldn't find anything. Hell, they would probably wring the sheets out for his DNA, but she doubted they would be able to match it to Bucky Barnes. And she wasn't talking. Even though she was mad enough to set his car on fire she had no way of knowing if these people were real agents and not just one of the many heads of HYDRA.

Before they could get her off the bed and out of the apartment there was another commotion at the door. If Darcy's life wasn't already balls-out crazy she would never have believed it, but there standing in the doorway was actual Captain fucking America.

There was heated discussion between the Captain and the head douchebag, but eventually Cap got his way because of course he does. He single handedly took down HYDRA. The rooms clears and then it's just her and him as he stands awkwardly in front of her. Darcy might've found it endearing if the circumstances were a bit different. As it was, this wasn't the ideal situation she had imagined to the start of their love affair, but figured that was off the table now anyway.

"Your friend is a jerk," she said. "I can't believe he just left me here to get picked up by the Feds."

Steve shakes his head. "He always did have a way with the ladies."

"I'm going to taze his ass next time I see him." She muttered.

"I need you to tell me everything that's happened, Ms. Lewis. I have to bring him in and you might have information that can help me." Steve said after a minute, absolute seriousness in his eyes and heavy in his voice.

"I'll tell you everything I know," Darcy replied easily and gave him the most charming smile she could manage in the situation. "But first you have to get me out of here."

"Ms. Lewis…" Steve sounded reluctant, but Darcy was having none of it.

Shaking her head she catches his eye so he knows how serious she is. "If I walk out that door with those Feds, I will never be seen again. This is the second time I've wound up in bed with America's number one terrorist. They already think this is something out of Natural Born Killers. I don't stand a chance if you don't get me out of here. Info for safety."

Steve Rogers considered her for longer than she was comfortable with, his jaw clenched. Finally he shook his head and Darcy let out a long breath.

"Alright," he said. "Put some pants on and stay close."

It's a few weeks later, after she's securely hidden within the walls of Stark Tower and working in Jane Foster's lab again. She kept her promise and told Steve everything she knew about what her wayward lover had been up to. Sometime later Steve told her that he had gotten intel that HYDRA had found Bucky's location that day.

Even though he didn't say it outright, she felt he was implying that Bucky had led them away from finding her. It helped ease the burn more than she cared to admit, but still. He had time to clear his browser history, he could've said bye.

She was definitely going to taze him.

Down in the main lobby, she grabbed Jane's mail after getting lunch from a food cart right outside the door. In the elevator she balances hot coffee and sandwiches as she flips through the envelopes looking for anything important. Slipped between Jane's credit card statement and a letter from Culver is an unmarked postcard.

Darcy pulled the card out with a frown and turned it over. Laughing out loud she shook her head. On the other side is a classic poster of Sean Connery's James Bond.

From Russia with Love.

Thank you for reading. I do have ideas for a third fic, but it will probably be a while before I write it.