When It Snowed

Chapter 15 - Freight Car

Four more weeks. Over a month had passed and everything remained relatively the same. Bucky and Steve stuck around the new headquarters of SHIELD that Stark has built. It was more of an Avengers headquarters, but it had multiple purposes behind its structure. Meanwhile, the city had begun rebuilding the things that they lost during the fall of SHIELD.

As they did so, there were no assignments for The Captain and the Sargent to go out on; mainly because they didn't want to take any. Steve and Bucky's main priority was finding her and Fury respected that. Her boys needed to keep looking, they needed to find her and bring her back in. Wherever Finley had ran off to, she was alone, scared, and clueless as to what or who she was. They needed to find her, and they needed to do it fast. At least, that's how Bucky saw it.

He didn't want to lose her again, he knew that her mind was her own worst enemy. It was like that before the day she fell as well.

Little did they know though, Finley was a lot closer than they thought. She never went far, not from him.

After a long day of searching for her, Bucky came back short handed just like he had done many times before. They tore through every security camera SHIELD had access too. Facial recognition systems were on the go 24/7 looking for any sign of her in any part of the world. Finley was good at covering her trail- they were right. If she wanted to be found she would, and as of now? It was looking like she didn't and that frustrates Bucky beyond belief. It was true, she didn't remember him, but it had to be because of something HYDRA did. She pulled him out of the river, she dove in after him and he could have sworn that before he fell she heard him call her name. But he was delirious, weak, he could have been dreaming.

She was gone, at least for now. But behind those eyes and that cold exterior, he knew that his Finley was fighting to break free. He wanted to help her do that, she just had to let him.

The sun had dipped below the horizon long ago, and the cool air was telling him that winter would be upon them soon. So, taking off his jacket, Buck tossed it onto the chair in the corner of the room and listened as it hit the back and slid to the seat. Watching it do so however, a familiar feeling began to tingle towards his core. It was one that Finley had trained him to listen to long ago. Someone was watching him. Someone was there with him. His instincts told him so. He wasn't alone.

Her lessons were never wrong.

"Don't turn around." Her voice cracked through the silence of his bedroom. Bucky's blood ran cold hearing it. . It was Finley's voice, just in a more tired and deep tone. But he could recognize it anywhere at any time. It was her. She was in his room.

Listening to what she said, Bucky held his hands out and nodded showing he was willing to comply. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off. She had been in hiding for four weeks, and now she was here- she was here for a reason. . "Alright." He was going to do what she said. Whatever she needed, he would comply.

"Don't talk." She demanded next. Licking his lips quivering lips, Bucky nodded and tried searching for some sort of a reflection. He needed to see her, he wanted to see her. It was all his body craved ever since he knew she was alive, even when she died. All Bucky wanted was Finley. Now here she was, right within reach, but he could touch her. Not yet. It looked as though Finley had planned this through. She had tilted all the mirrors away from her position so he couldn't see her, something he disappointingly didn't notice until now.

All he could do was wait her out now, Finley was in control. Bucky remained right where he was trying to motivate her to continue on with her demands. He was eager to see what she wanted.

Instead of words though, Bucky could feel her eyes looking him up and down. Even in the 1940s, it was like he had a sixth sense about her and everything that she did. Whatever she was doing, he felt it in his chest and knew what it was in his heart. "I just need you to listen." The sound she projected was tired, drained, and on the brink of giving up. "I can't sleep-" she began with a hiss. "But I'm afraid of what I'll do while I'm awake. I know I can't be by you, If I am, I'll end up hurting you again. But something inside me won't let me leave. Whatever they did to me, whatever HYDRA did to me, I can't tell what's reality and what's not anymore." He wanted to talk to her, but swallowing down his own needs- Bucky just listened. "When I close my eyes; I see you, I see Rogers, I see others, but I can't remember their names..." she trailed off. "I've been to the exhibits, I've read the books, but it's not enough." He didn't understand what she was going through, but he wanted to. Bucky wanted to be there for her. He was growing impatient. "I need answers-" She started but was cut off.