Falling in the Black

Raylee started to stretch her tired sore body and that’s when she realized she had fallen asleep. The events that happened the day before came rushing back to her mind and her eyes shot open. Still sitting in the chair and staring at her was the Winter Soldier. Her heart was pounding in her chest but she was thankful to still be alive. Raylee glanced down at the cushion next to her to see if he took her gun while she was sleeping and was surprise that it was still there. She looked back up at him and he was still watching her every movement like he had done the day before.

“How long do you think we will be safe here?” he asked as he rolled his neck cracking the stiff bones.

“At least a week, it could be longer but I don’t know if that should be chanced.” Raylee said as she flexed her knee.

“What happened to your knee?” he asked as he watched her wince in pain.

“The group I had been walking with attacked me and during the fight I was kicked on the side of it.”

“Do you need medical attention for it?”

“I can’t go anywhere and I’m not even sure who my friends are anymore or who I can trust.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know who sided with HYDRA and who sided with SHIELD.” Raylee said as she sat forward. “Plus if any of those SHIELD agents back at the docks saw my face I’m pretty sure they reported back that I was helping the Winter Soldier and that would end any alliance I had with them.”

“Does anyone at all know about this safe house?” he questioned and she shook her head no. “Can I trust you?”

“As much as I can trust you.” Raylee said calmly. She was happy that his softer side had seemed to be in control at the moment. “Did you get any sleep last night?” she asked and he shook his head. “Why?”

“I don’t feel safe.” He said glancing around the place. “I need to go somewhere but I don’t want to leave you here.”

“I won’t go anywhere… I have nowhere to go but here.”

“I can’t leave you alone knowing they will kill you if they find you.” He said shaking his head. “If your knee can take it we can be back before night fall.”

“Ok.” Raylee said.

He gave her time to shower and change into some clean clothes. When she came back out she noticed their small arsenal of weapons was down to two guns only left on the table. He picked them up and handed them to her explaining that he felt safer with the weapons but didn’t want to leave her completely unarmed. Raylee sucked in a deep breath then slowly released it trying to calm her own anger with him. She wanted to yell at him about her own fear of not being safe especially considering she was following him a known HYDRA assassin to an unknown location that very well could be a trap for her.

He could sense her anger and he got worried she wouldn’t leave with him. “Where we are going could possibly be dangerous and I need you to trust me.”

“At least tell me where we are going then maybe I can trust you a little.”

“A HYDRA hideout.” He said and she began instantly shaking her head no and kept repeating that she wasn’t going with him. “Raylee.” He said softly, the sound of him saying her name aloud for the first time silenced her. Raylee looked up at him and he could see the fear in her eyes. “I have things I need there and I will keep you safe.”

“Give me a name… if I’m going to trust you I need to know what to call you, I refuse to keep referring to you as the Winter Soldier.”

“Barnes… just call me Barnes.” He said hesitantly and she let out a small chuckle causing him to tense up. “What?!” he snapped at her.

“I’m sorry… I just couldn’t believe the irony in that.” She said shaking her head at how easy he got upset with her. “Two years ago I had used that name as an alias a couple of times… that was all.”

“Why did you choose that name?” he asked in a soft curious voice.

“It was the first name that came to my mind at that time… why did you choose it?”

“Same thing.” He said walking over to the door and looked out the peephole, he didn’t want to tell her that it might have been his real name because he wasn’t sure himself. “We should go before the sun comes all the way up.”

Barnes grabbed the coat he had on the day before and slid it on to cover his arm. Raylee signaled for him to wait one minute as she ran over to her closest and pull out a baseball hat and handed it to him with a pair of sunglasses. As he put them on she pulled her hood up and slid her own sunglasses on then they left the apartment. Raylee noticed how nervous he was walking and her knee was still bothering her a little so she agreed to let him steal a car when they got a good distance from the apartment.

When they got about a mile away from the compound they ditched the car and he got rid of the hat, sunglasses and coat. Once he felt comfortable in his own clothes again they began the trek to the hideout. When they got there the place looked deserted from the outside but he didn’t trust it anyways, he was stern with her when he told her not to leave his side unless she was told to do it by him. When she tried explaining that she was trained for stuff like this he glared at her so she just agreed with him.

They climbed over a fenced area and he led her over to a hidden door he uncovered. When they got in they both silently made their way down a maze of tunnels, if he had not been there with her Raylee knew she would have gotten lost in there on her own. Barnes came to a door and he quickly went into the room and cleared it then had her come in behind him. Raylee stood there watching the door as he packed a duffle bag with clothes and somethings he gotten out a drawer then he slipped a leather coat on.

“Take that sweater off.” He said turning to face her.

Raylee wasn’t sure why he said that but she did what he asked just to keep from fighting with him. Barnes walked up to her with a holster like he had on and handed to her. She tried to strap it on but it was too big and he had to adjust it to fit her. Once she had it on he went into another drawer and pulled out two more guns and placed them in the holster she had put on. Then he handed her the sweater back and they were making their way down the tunnels again. Raylee didn’t understand why they didn’t go back the way they came until he stopped in a vault like room. After he grabbed something and placed it in the bag she watched as he stood there staring at a chair that was connected to some kind of machine contraption.

“What is that?” Raylee asked as she came to a stop next to him but he didn’t say a word he just stood there staring at it. She noticed his breathing had picked up a bit and the cold demeanor he had the day before was slowly creeping back into him as he balled his hands into two tight fists. “Barnes what is going on… what is that?” she asked nervously as she took a few steps away from him.

Her movement caused his head to snap in her direction and the coldness in his eyes had her scared. The eyes that were staring at her were the same pair that looked down at her before he brought his fist back then launched it into her jaw. Within a blink of an eye there was a gun in his hand aimed towards her causing her to take few more steps back. He instantly pulled the trigger and Raylee squeezed her eyes shut waiting for the impact of the bullet.

“Open your eyes.” He snapped at her and her eyes shot open. “We have to go.”

Raylee looked at him in shock then glanced behind herself to see a dead agent laying on the ground. “I thought…” she trailed off not sure how to tell him that she thought he was going to kill her in that moment.

“I know what you thought… we need to go, there will be more agents.” He said grabbing her arm and pulled her out the vault.

Just as they cleared the door he told her to run as he tossed a grenade back into the vault and it exploded behind them. He wanted to make sure that they could never use that machine on him again so he knew he had to destroy it before leaving and then had to find any others that may exist. Raylee didn’t have time to question anything that had just happened because when they exited the building there were more agents that started firing at them. Raylee and Barnes took cover behind a dumpster and he glanced at her to see she had two guns in her hands and was ready to fight back.

After a few moments Barnes signaled which way they were to run then they both quickly got up and began shooting back as they ran for the fence again. Raylee could hear the clinking of metal and knew that he had to have been deflecting bullets. When they reached the fence Raylee reached up to start climbing but she felt a bullet graze her arm. She grunted as she yanked her arm back down, Barnes glanced at her then at the fence. When he moved to the fence himself Raylee covered him and continued to exchange gun fire with the agents. Barnes ripped an opening into the fence and pulled her through it with himself and they began running again.

Raylee had no idea where they were, the exit they took and the fence they went through was nowhere near where they came in. She glanced at him for direction and he pointed where to go so she nodded and kept running. Suddenly she heard shots being fired again and when glanced over to see if they should return it he was gone. Raylee came to a stop and surveyed her surrounds but there was no sign of him. When the shots sounded closer Raylee took off running again.

The Winter Soldier didn’t want to part from her but knew he had to in order to keep her safe like he told her he would. Once he pointed what direction he wanted her to run in and she turned away from him he doubled back towards the compound to eliminate anyone that could follow them. He was just hoping that when she realized he was gone she would keep running and not come back looking for him.

Raylee came to a stop again and was breathing heavy as she glanced around. This was her chance to get away from him and try to contact Clint in hopes of him believing her. Raylee took several deep breaths to calm her breathing then checked to see how much ammo she had left. Two of her guns were down to one shot each but the two he gave her were fully loaded. Raylee looked back at the way she ran from shook her head and began running again. It wasn’t long before someone fired a shot at her and she hid behind a wall for cover. When she glanced around it to see where the shots came from another shot rang out giving her idea where to shoot back.

She quickly fired back two shots and when she took cover again she almost screamed but a metal hand clamped down on mouth as Barnes glared at her. “You were not supposed to come back!” he snapped at her in a cold voice that sent chills down her spine as he removed his hand.

“I’m a trained agent… I don’t run away.” She growled at him in a low voice.

His hand quickly lifted up and he pulled the trigger of his gun successfully scaring her again. “That was the last one, let’s go!” he snapped walking away.

Raylee glanced behind her to see he had killed the agent she was exchanging gun fire with. The silent treatment was back in effect and he didn’t say a word to her while they walked. They kept hidden in the shadows as quite a few cop cars went racing down the road. She wasn’t sure how long they had been walking but the sun was going down and her stomach began to growl. Raylee couldn’t remember the last time she had anything to eat all she knew was that it had been sometime the day before. He glanced over at her when her stomach growled a second time when they reached a parking lot.

The first car he saw was the second stolen vehicle that was taken by him. They ditched the car a couple of miles away from the apartment and walked back to it. By the time they were back inside the sun had gone down completely. After removing the sweater and holster Raylee rummaged through the cabinets for something to eat while he went through his bag. When she found a few things that seemed good enough to eat she turned to see he was on some kind of tablet device. He had once again placed himself in a defensive position, his back was to the wall with a window to his right. The guns were in front of him and so was the front door and the bathroom door was to his left.

“Are you hungry?” she asked and he just shook his head no, not bothering to look up from the device he had. “You don’t eat, you barely talk, you don’t sleep and apparently pain isn’t a big deal for you considering your arm was broke yesterday.”

Barnes looked up from the tablet and his cold blue eyes locked on her brown ones. “I’ll eat when I’m hungry, I talk when I need to talk, I’ll sleep when I feel safe and pain must not bother you either.” He said pointing his finger at her arm then looked back down.

Raylee glanced down at her arm and noticed the dry blood on her shirt from where the bullet had grazed her arm. She had completely forgotten about that with the adrenaline rush she had from the day’s events. Raylee walked over to the dresser to get another shirt not noticing his eyes following her movements. Barnes stood staring at the bathroom door until she came out again and walked back to the food she had found.

Raylee picked some of the food up and a couple of bottles of water then walked over towards him. “If you’re not going to sleep then you need to at least eat. If you don’t eat you won’t have the strength to defend yourself.” She said placing some food and a bottle of water on the table in front of him.

His eyes looked up from the device to her. “Why did you think I was going to shoot you?” he asked ignoring what she had said to him.

“The same reason you won’t sleep.” Raylee wanted the soft voice he had earlier to come back, not the cold one that was in control right now.

“You don’t feel safe?” he asked and she shook head no. “I told you I wasn’t going to kill you.”

“You’re a trainer killer that I only had one encounter with other than now. Everyone said you were a ghost story and I now know that isn’t true.” Raylee said as she took a few steps back and he noticed the space she put between them. “You don’t look a day over thirty but yet the stories about you go back as far as fifty years.”

“How long have you been an agent for SHIELD?”

“Seven almost eight years.” Raylee said as she shifted her weight to ease the pressure off her sore knee.

“You should sit.” He said nodding towards the couch. “Your knee is bothering you.”

“What did HYDRA do to you?” Raylee asked as she walked to the couch and sat down. “What was that machine you destroyed?”

“I don’t remember everything.” He said looking over at her as he placed the device down on the table and grabbed the water she placed there.

“Why?” Raylee asked in shock. “Did they do something to you?”

“I get these flashes when I close my eyes.” He said then took a drink from the water before continuing. “The last memory that came back was them wanting to prep me but couldn’t because I had been awake too long.”

“Awake? Prep you… prep you for what?” She asked still sounding in shock, she knew she should stop asking questions but she wanted to get all she could while he did talk. It was only a matter of time before the silent treatment would return again.

Rather than answer her questions anymore he picked the device up and held it out to her. Raylee looked from his eyes to the device and hesitated a moment before grabbing it from him. He had been looking through whatever was on there since they returned and now he was letting her see it. She looked down at it to see it had been some kind of file for HYDRA, Barnes had stolen a vital piece of equipment. On a normal day for her she would have been excited to dig through it for any Intel that could be found but this wasn’t just any day. The tab he had open held the name Asset and Raylee knew that was him.

There wasn’t any personal information about him in it but it did list the times he was awake and the length of time. She felt confused and didn’t understand what it meant by awake but she did notice that each time he was awake was for a mission HYDRA needed him on. Clicking on the most recently closed mission she saw her uncle’s picture and the word deceased across it. After taking a couple of deep breaths she closed it and went to the one before it which happened to be the scientist she was protecting and his photo had been the same as Nick’s. After reading his report she read the doctor’s reports and it said they had wiped his memory clean and froze him until he was needed again.

“You don’t remember almost killing me because they wiped it from your memory.” She said looking up at him and his face held no emotion on it. “Why are you showing me this?”

“I need you to trust me so I can trust you.” He said softly and Raylee noticed his softer side was slowly coming back. “You said I killed your uncle.”

Raylee sucked in a deep breath when she realized he remembered her saying that to him. The list of people that knew the truth about her and Fury being related was still sitting at three. Phil Coulson, Bruce Banner, Alexander Pierce and now he was about to become number four. “He was your last completed mission.” She said handing him the device back.

Barnes looked down at the device but the open file was of a scientist so he read that first and in the report he told them the job was done and as he was told he had subdue the female agent but she was still alive when he left. He sucked in a deep breath as he glanced up at her but she was looking down at her hands. He looked back at the device and closed that file and went to his last completed mission. This time when his eyes shot back up at her she was looking directly at him.

“The director of SHIELD was your uncle?” he asked, Raylee noticed the coldness in his voice came back.

“Was… you killed him.” Raylee said in her own cold voice. “You want me to trust you but I find it hard to do… you killed my uncle, attacked me and I could never forget about the bullet you put through my partner so you could kill the man she was protecting.” Raylee snapped in a low voice. “We will never trust each other so I think when this place is a lost to us we need to just part ways, I can find a way to make it on my own and I know you’ll be just fine without the add body weight weighing you down.”