Forgiveness

5.4. Surprise

I knew Bucky had to pretend for the mission but it still brought back unnecessarily bad memories of HYDRA. Bucky grabs the man's hand and crunches it up as if it was as light as a feather. I take a deep breath noticing people recording the situation. My therapist had said I probably should avoid any sort of confrontations like this, because my PTSD from HYDRA's missions could act up, but it's not like I had much choice in the matter.

Still seeing Bucky so easily slip back into the Winter Soldier made me shiver and I suddenly grip Zemo's hand. I didn't realise I had done it until I felt his palm over mine as our fingers intertwined. I leaned into him once more as he gently massaged my hand to comfort me as Bucky kept fighting the guys who had approached us. I hear guns cocking as multiple men surround us, Zemo's hold on my arm tightening.

"Good work, soldier. That's enough." Zemo speaks in Russian as Bucky lets the man go. The same bartender from earlier approaches us.

"Selby will see you now."

"Thank you."

"You good?" I hear Sam ask Bucky who exhales sharply. Zemo pulls me along with him as my friends follow after us. We walk further in the building as the lights get dimmer. I realize Zemo and I are still walking hand in hand so I pull my hand away, a gesture that doesn't stay unnoticed by my friends, but they say nothing. We are led to a small open space where the woman we are looking for - Selby is waiting for us. When she sees Zemo she chuckles.

"You should know, Baron. You can't just start making demands in my bar."

"Not a demand. An offer." Zemo sits on one of the chairs in the room, pulling me near him. Fighting the urge to roll my eyes I smile at him as sweetly trying to keep up the façade of being his wife as much as I can and sit on the edge of the chair's arm stand, with Zemo's hand resting on my thigh. Bucky eyes us with an emotionless face (having to pretend to be the Winter Soldier actually helped right now, otherwise he would be looking extremely angry). I knew he was my best friend, but still, I was getting tired of the judgement.

"I thought you were locked away in a German prison. How did you escape?"

"People like us always find a way, don't we?" Zemo replies in amusement, but I hear his voice slightly waver. What was he worried about? "I'm sure you've figured out why I'm here."

"We will talk about that, but first... who is she?" Selby suddenly asks pointing at me. I gulp at the sudden attention, but remind myself who I'm supposed to be impersonating and chuckle.

"Baroness Zemo." Selby raises an eyebrow. Zemo looks tense as her eyes study me. "You perhaps have heard of me as the Winter Assassin, however." That seems to catch her attention as she nods.

"Well, baron, you've surely managed to acquire someone way out of your league." Zemo lets out a laugh, making me feel more relaxed.

"The offer is you tell us what you know about the super-soldier serum..." Zemo stands up and goes to Bucky, holding his shoulder. I know Bucky probably wanted to throw him off right there and then but we had to maintain our cover. "And I give you him, along with the code words to control him, of course."

"The super-soldier serum is here in Madripoor. Dr. Wilfred Nagel is the man you wanna thank." Selby says we will need to give her something before telling us if Nagel is still in Madripoor when suddenly Sam's phone rings. I tense up. This could very well blow our cover. "Answer it. On speaker."

It's his sister Sarah. He manages to play it off until Sarah says Sam's name and Selby realises he isn't who he claims he is.

"Kill them!" She yells out and suddenly a gunshot echoes in the room. Selby is lying on the ground dead. I had no idea who had just done it and the whole thing happened so fast. People start shooting at us and Zemo basically pulls me along with him as all four of us run out of the place.

"I can't run in these heels!" Sam yells out and if it were another situation perhaps I'd laugh, but everything was way too stressful. As we are running and there are shots echoing all around us I suddenly feel a burning, tingling pain in my leg.

"Damn it." Zemo notices that I've slowed down and walks back to me.

"Are you okay?" Shaking my head I find that it's hard to walk.

"I'll be okay, it's just a graze." Zemo however isn't satisfied with that answer and puts his arm around my waist, helping me follow after Sam and Bucky. Suddenly someone shoots some of the last few people chasing us and Zemo looks around.

"You seem to have a guardian angel."

"Well, this is too perfect." Extremely shocked I take a better look at the woman who appears out of the shadows - it's Sharon Carter.