4
Washington, 1994.
Pulling her floral smelling sheet closer to herself Daisy yanked it to her chin, she was on the verge of waking up, though it was still late in the night, a distant noise had broken into her sleep and caused it to break. Daisy herself was aware she was waking up, not sure why, so only giving a gentle moan she turned over, not opening her eyes to admit she was stirring, she was too comfortable. Being only 5years old Daisy usually slept unbroken through the night, but after a day of having Renata run around after and make cookies for Renata’s elderly neighbour (who Daisy had never meet but regularly made chocolate chip cookies for) Daisy had gone to bed earlier then usual from exhaustion.
Through her closed eyes she heard a familiar voice, her Father.
Throwing her eyes open Daisy smiled to herself, her Father was finally home, he had been gone for over a week and Daisy was excited to know he was finally home. She had to tell him about school, tell how she won a gold sticker in gym, how she was now the top of her class and year! Daisy flung the pale pink covers off herself, jumped into her white bunny slippers, grabbed her fluffy dressing gown and she charged herself out her pink room, past the soft toys and dolls that were on the floor around her bed that she had been playing with before she decided to was too tired and had gone to sleep.
Opening her door, the light from the hallway flew in, from the banisters stairs below the whole of the house seemed to be lit up, causing shadows all around the upstairs floor she was on. Daisy looked over to her sister’s Caitlin’s door, as always her older sister’s door was shut, Caitlin wanted privacy for her self and to not spend time with her much much younger sister when she came home for spring break. The thought about waking her sister up vanished quickly from Daisy’s mind, her sister hadn’t been in the best of moods with her Father when he had gone away for work, so his surprise return in the night wouldn’t matter as much to Caitlin Pierce as it did to Daisy Pierce.
From downstairs Daisy heard an electric noise, like a drill. Was her Father working on something, he was’t the type who did any sort of work with any drill. The thought never once occurred to Daisy that it was’t her Father downstairs, because of her young age, Daisy was still very unaware of such possibilities of danger, safety in the home was her father's top priority.
There came a clutter of noise from below, sounding like pots and pans being banged about and Daisy smiled to herself, maybe her Daddy was cooking, trying to make a surprise for Daisy and Caitlin in the morning, Renata would be mad, Alexander Pierce was not the best cook, nor was he the best at cleaning up after himself, there was bound to be scoldings from Renata in the morning.
Without a second thought Daisy run down the stairs, through the entrance, dashing into living room past the glass windows hoping to see her Father standing in the kitchen amongst the mess he had created but instead she found something else entirely.
For a brief second Daisy thought there was no-one there, walking around from the counter in the kitchen she couldn’t see anyone, but as she tilted her to the side in confusion she found a man sitting at the round glass kitchen, alone and still.
From the fluorinate light above in the kitchen Daisy could see how pale and dirty the man was, his hair was long, down to her his ears, dark and unkempt, he wore all black and looked very strong, for a moment Daisy studied him but her mind rang confused when she saw the slivery reflection coming off his right arm nearest the doubled glazed door behind him that led out to the family pool and garden.
Daisy still had her head tilted to the stand still, not sure what was going on, she could’t fully see the man’s face, the light in hers eyes, the gleam of his arm, the dark dirty hair that fell into his face. She went to say something, a greeting and question when she felt two strong hands pick her up from her armpits off the floor and begin to carry her out the room.
There wasn’t a moment of worry for Daisy, the familiar warm aftershave smell of her Father told Daisy straight away that it was him. Alexander Pierce was hurriedly walking upstairs with his 5year old daughter in his arms towards her room.
“Daddy,” Daisy as her small arms reached around to hug him as she went up the stairs. “I’ve missed you!”
“I missed you too Flower.” He said with a firm tone in his voice and keeping his eyes on her, checking her over.
“Daddy.” Daisy quizzed still hold on her Father’s neck. “Who’s that man downstairs? He looks….”
Alexander Pierce pushed his daughter bedroom door open and put her on the bed with quick military speed. Daisy had never seen her Father move so fast, he had her laying in bed and was pulling the covers of her before she could finish her sentence.
“But Daddy…” Daisy started.
Sitting down by the side of her bed Daisy took a look at her Father’s face, he had a thick long smear of dirt on his right cheek and his usually neat fair hair was an ash covered mess on his head. The shirts Alexander Pierce wore were expensive and of high quality, always clean and pressed, tie and cufflinks always matched and always neat, now, however, his tie was gone and his shirt was an unbuttoned mess with ash and oil marks all over it, his sleeves were rolled up to show his hairy strong arms, with fresh red welts on them, with dirt all over them.
The sight of her Father in such a state shocked and frightened Daisy more than the man downstairs in her kitchen, she went to jump up from the covers but her Father put a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder to keep her down.
“Sweetheart, go to sleep, its no-one you need to worry about.” Pierce told her smoothly, still keeping his hand on her shoulder. “Daddy is fine.”
“But…but….your.” Daisy started to say something as she looked worried at her Father, when she felt a small pinch on her arm.
Looking down to her arm Daisy saw her Father holding something against her forearm, his large hands covering it. He pulled it away and then pressed his thumb to it, a small trickle of blood pushed past his thumb and down her arm on to pale pink sheets.
Frowning in confusion Daisy went to say something when her eyes grow heavy and her head tilted to the side and she begun to drift away. Her Father helped aid her head back on to the pillow and pulling her sheets comfortable over her.
Daisy felt strangely aware of things around her, she felt her body become further from her control and everything around getting further away. One of the last things she could hear was the voice of Caitlin Pierce and Alexander Pierce.
“What did you do to her?” Caitlin Pierce shouted.
“She’s just sleeping.” Pierce replied firmly back. “Daisy came downstairs and saw The Asset, he’s come back from a mission and he’s needs to be put into Cryo, his 6 months is up and he needs reconditioning.”
“And you left him downstairs!” Caitlin screamed.
“He obeys me and only me.” Pierce said, his voice form but becoming further and further.
The last thought Daisy had as everything drifted away and her body went into a deep sleep was; who obeys Daddy? Everyone don’t they?
4663.45 Miles From New York
This time Daisy jolted awake and sat up instantly. She would of sat and stayed up if she been able to use her hands, but because her hands were still bound together Daisy more flopped her body up like it was being propelled and stayed up angled as she sat on one bum cheek. Her breath was heavy and tense, coming from the dream into her current reality didn’t help steady her breath intensity or ease of her state of being. Her dream had definitely been a dream but it had had happened…she had just forgotten it.
Daisy turned her head towards the cockpit where she could the back of her capturer's head, his long and bulky form taking over the pilot seat, his eyes were directed straight ahead, fully focused to where through the cockpit windows daylight came through the automatic tinted screen, shielding the bulk of the suns-rays.
How long had she been asleep? She had laid her head against the panel behind her, with only the intention of resting for a while, but apparently she had fallen alseep.
“Its 10am and you’ve been asleep for 6hrs and 23mins.” Came the voice of metal armed man in the cockpit.
Slightly shocked at his voice seeming to read her thoughts and his knowing she had woken up, Daisy sat frozen, wide eyes looked at the man’s direction.
From the cockpit there didn’t come another sound for a few minutes, only the sound of the engine beneath them, roaring and humming away as the Quinjet moved over the clouds. After a few minutes Daisy begun to feel cramp in her legs, then another feeling, the call of nature.
Great. Daisy thought annoyed: time to ask the man that’s kidnapped me if i can use the toilet.
A thought occurred to her that she wasn’t even sure if Quintets actually had factuality’s like that in them, they weren’t built for such luxuries or necessities. Maybe she could hold it, couldn’t be that far to get to where…where were they going? In the few words he had said to her no actually mention of where they were heading had been mentioned, not that people that capture and kidnap people were as informative as that.
“Sir…” Daisy said slowly and more quietly than she intended.
Nothing. No movement. No response.
“Mister…Sir…” Daisy tried again slightly louder.
Again nothing, no movement, no response.
“Si-“
“I am not a sir!” Breathed the man from the cockpit, still sitting. “Or a mister.” He turned his head slightly to the left towards her, so that he could see her sitting from the corner of his eye. “What do you want?”
“I…need…” Daisy started, thinking how best to phrase it, she could speak 6 languages but she couldn’t think what was the best phrase to use to say she needed to use the bathroom. “…to…pee.” The words that came out of Daisy mouth were slowed and pained because it was basically what she needed, it was all she needed but she felt for sure she may have been after for dinner and show from her the metal armed man.
The look on his face did not change, he didn’t move or say anything else, just sat there with his head turned to wards her and looking at her.
Because the need to use the bathroom hadn’t lessen, Daisy fidgeted slightly. She tried to get a closer look at his face, to try and read what he thinking or say.
“Si…Mist…umm…kidnapper man.” Daisy tried again, trying to sound as polite as she could. “I promise you I am not messing around. I really need to use the lavatory.”
“Ummm.” He replied, turning his head back to the front. “Fine.”
Unsure what he meant, Daisy frowned, but found her confusion was soon answered when the Quintet seemed to basically nose dive downwards. All the weapons and random pieces of machinery around lunged forward, with legs and wrists still bound together, Daisy’s body managed to turn itself around and begin to slide towards the front of the cockpit, unable to brace herself, she grabbed onto the nearest thing she could and hold onto it for dear life, lose and unattached everywhere were wires, active or not, Daisy did not know, but she didn’t let the go of entangled mess of them. The Quinjet was zooming downwards at a 90’ angel, the sound of the air rushing past made a whopping and zipping noise in Daisy’s ears, she felt her ears on the verge of popping.
Pushing the Quinjet further downwards it’s metal armed pilot had no expression on his face, he simply kept his gaze focused to the front.
All the thoughts Daisy had had before of needing to relieve herself vanished, her first and only thoughts was if she was going to survive this. The force of the continued pulling downwards caused Daisy to lose her grip on her holding onto the wires, and go lunging forwards to the cockpit, her tiny body spun as it did so and she found herself pressed onto the back of the metal armed man pilots chair, her bound wrists holding her against the chair, so she could see what happening in front of her.
At first all Daisy could see was white, she tried to look more closely despite her frightened and desperate state, when she did she realised that weren’t clouds but snow, which they were shooting straight towards.
“Holy shi-“ Daisy shouted as she braced herself for impact.
Turning his head toward her direction again, the metal armed man pulled the control of the Quinjet forcefully with little effort, so it leveled out and hovered momentarily above the snow covered ground for a moment, the thrusters below the Quinjet working and causing the snow beneath it to begun to melt and alter below it.
Eyes closed tightly, not wanting to feel the full force of the impact, Daisy waited for the shock of the crash but felt nothing.
Still not looking at her from behind his seat, the metal armed man made a grimace like express, then pulled a leaver from behind and the Quinjet landed into the snow below them with ease with barely a shake and twitch to both Daisy and his body.
Eyes, still closed she felt the sensation of falling gone, the whole being forced forwards by the rapid escalation of the speed of the Quinjet now stopped. Slowly Daisy flicked one eye open, she found herself holding onto the back of pilot seat with her head nearly touching the head front of the seat and from where she was she able to smell smoke and ash on the metal armed man in front of her, his head facing out to the front.
“What was that?” Daisy breathed out quickly. “What were-“
Saying nothing the metal armed man stood up from his seat and looked down at Daisy, his eyes and face unreadable. He grabbed hold of Daisy's arm and pulled her to her feet, basically picking her off the ground as he did so, planting back down and having her stand in front of him.
Glaring down her, with her eyes wide with a look of bewilderment, the metal armed man used his metal arm to twist her around towards the back of the Quinjet and then directed her to the hatch at the back, her bound feet only allowed her to shuffle very slowly. Seeming to realising this fact, the metal armed man, in what Daisy considered in a blink of eye, pulled out a knife from his side and then cut through the binds on her ankles, not even touching her or her clothes in the process. When free Daisy nearly jumped her legs apart, feeling instant relief, but then remember the fact she still need to use the bathroom.
Again, Daisy was directed towards the hatch, which the metal armed man open pressing a button from somewhere that she didn’t see. The doors of the hatch opened with a smacking hiss, and the platform of the hatch landed soundly onto the snow.
Stopping just before the exit Daisy looked down into the snow covered ground before her.
“If I ask where we are, will you tell me?” Daisy said, scanning her surrounding, then twisting her head back to face him.
Exhaling and now holding onto her shoulder with his metal arm the man replied with frustration. “Russia.”
“Ooooh.” Daisy breathed, feeling the sharp coldness of the foreign new air into her lungs, she the breath it out and let the steam come out of her mouth. “Why……?”
“Stop talking.” The man told her firmly, giving her shoulder a squeeze with his metal hand, so the clicking of the insides of the mechanics could be heard. His expression was annoyed and tight as he looked down at her, with his flesh hand he pointed in the direction to the left, her eyes followed the movement of his hand as he did so, fearful of he was might hit her to clarify she was truly to stop talking. “Relieve yourself over there.”
Looking over the direction he was pointing, Daisy’s eyebrows raised high on her brow. “There’s no cover…i can’t go there.” To her realisation she saw there was no cover anywhere, just snow, further off into the distance she could the starting of a forest and from the distance behind the Quinjet she saw something she only guess as possible mountains or raised land, but nothing else.
“I don’t care.” He told her firmly. “You go there or you don’t go at all.”
In her years of working in as a Doctor in some of the most poverty ridden places, with little to no decent sanitation, Daisy had come to think she could cope with anything, in the field you came to accept what was around you and use the restores you had, but Daisy had never had to lose her dignity in anyway like what was in front of her now.
“Can’t you…” Daisy started slowly, then turned to face him and spoke quickly so that she could’t be stopped by him. "…land or park somewhere where there’s more trees or anything.”
What Daisy could only guess was a growl from his throat the metal armed man gave her shoulder another squeeze before shoving her down the ramp of the Quinjet on to the soft snow. The shove was unexpected and Daisy nearly lost her feet and slipped, but she managed to stable herself and hold herself steady.
Take that as a no then. Daisy thought bitterly to herself.
“Wait….” Daisy said. She held up her bound wrists to him without turning around, worried she might loose her feet again.
Another growl came from him, he took two long strides to her, pulled out his knife and cut through the binds in the flick of an eye. Daisy rubbed her wrist, already red welts had formed from where it had rubbed and pulled at her skin.
“Go then.” He hissed at her.
Daisy pulled her head up and begun to walk forward, trying to hold her weight even in the snow, aware of how easily she could unbalance herself and fall. For a moment she was doing quite well, despite the snow beginning to reach up over her ankle she was moving swiftly and with ease, then her foot was sucked in by the snow and she went to lift it but was unable to, her already raised foot in motion to take another step caused her to fell forward in the snow face first. The cold wet snow meet her face with a whoosh and Daisy was engulfed by it.
Like a person drowning Daisy throw her head up and spat out the snow that stopped the scream she had attempted to take before she had eaten the snow it in the fall. Momentary shock held her in the snow, part embarrassment, part frustration and shock, she begun to push herself up, but doing so in the snow was impossible, her palms fell through it and her knees, that she was trying to push herself up with only sunk into the snow.
Whilst struggling with her inability to get her up, Daisy hadn’t heard the footsteps of the metal armed man from behind her, it was only when she felt strong hands grasp around her middle, pick her up and place her back upright, that she realised he had walked the distant to her silently.
As soon as she was upright, he removed his hands and stood behind her saying nothing.
“Thanks.” Daisy said quietly.
There was no response from behind her. Daisy didn’t turn to face him, worried what express of loathing and dislike she would get from him.
Again Daisy begun walking forward in the snow, more slowly this time, trying to measure the distance in her steps in the snow better this time.
When at a distance she thought would be a safe distance, she turned to look at the Quinjet. To her surprise she hadn’t walked as far as she thought, in fact her distance, despite her efforts, was quite pathetic. Looking at the Quinjet, still in the snow, with the hatch still open, she couldn’t see the metal armed man, who against the snow would be very easy to see, all in black.
Shaking her head to push away the unease she felt about where he was, she begun to think about how to do what she needed to, which she knew in the cold, in the open, was not going to be easy.
In all life Daisy didn’t think she had been so happy to relieve herself, and never had she been so quick in doing so.
Rubbing the snow in hands, away from where she had just used, she turned back to the Quinjet.
Still she couldn’t see any sign of the metal armed man. Daisy turned her head back to the forest way in front of her. From where she stood, it looked extremely dense, though she was at the same level of the forest she could tell that it would go on for quite some many miles. Russia wasn’t somewhere Daisy knew at all, she knew her Father and Sister had been there many times, but from she didn’t know, it would only have been in the capital for political dealing, something which as a Doctor Daisy had no dealings with, dealing with the impracticalities of politicians only angered her and frustrated her, knowing actions was where she was more suited. Daisy had worked in parts of Syria and the Ukraine but Russia was a further and farther and a more vaster place she knew nothing about, even if Daisy had a clue where she was, she wouldn’t know where it was, Russia was too wide and deep, borders and lands separated for many hundreds if thousands of miles, entire parts of it unliveable and too dangerous to foreigner like herself to go to. The forest in front of her could be one of the forest she had heard about where no-one had been before, a wild part of the country where nature ruled and she, with nothing but the clothes she wore, would most likely die within days if not hours.
Only a fool would run. Daisy thought to herself sternly. But…only a fool wouldn’t try.
With that thought in her mind Daisy took a step ahead toward the forest, her foot went deep in the snow with a loud crunch. She was about to take another when she stopped. Because she heard the sound of something behind her. Just as she was about to look behind her, she felt herself being picked up, again by the metal armed and being flung over his shoulder, her body twisted and her front thrown onto this back, her legs dangling at his front..
“Oh man…” She hissed as he did so. “Can you stop doing this, I am not a drag doll.”
Shifting her on his shoulder he begun to walk back to the Quinjet. “I will stop doing this when you stop being a pain in my ass, Flower.”
Allowing herself to flop, Daisy felt beaten. Though her attempt to escape was ill-conceived and hadn’t worked in the slightest, she knew that that was properly the only chance she only to her.
In what seemed like moments, they were back at the Quinjet and the metal armed man was walking up the ramp. When inside, he flipped the switch and closed the hatch with a hiss, then throw Daisy onto the floor, so she landed on her backside.
Before she could try to stifle herself comfortable, the metal armed man, begun to re-bind her wrists.
“No…please don’t.” Daisy said sadly, as he begun. Not looking at her, working swiftly and quickly, he wrapped the binds around and around, then started to tie it all together.
“Do you think I wouldn’t put these back on after you tried to run away?” He asked with a hint of anger.
Grabbing her ankle, he pushed her knees down and pulled her ankle together and started to wrap the binding around them.
“No….” She replied quietly. “I just hoped you wouldn’t.”
“Hmmmm.” He grunted as he tied the knot into the binds.
Daisy looked at his face, the stubble on his face, it had was beginning to turn into beard hair, mixing in with the hair of his moustache. With he facial hair she couldn’t tell what age he was, but she could see, from where she looked at him, that there were scars on his face, deep ones, fine indents and snaked lines covered various parts of his face, some going down his neck, going below to where his collar started. Looking at his ear, she could see that there was signs of burns and more scars, around his earlobe there was a zig-zag of scars, deeper than his facial scars.
The look on her soften as she looked at him, she looked at him as a doctor looking at a patient, where the patient was screaming or spitting, the doctor tired to see what needed to be seen and didn’t try to judge the patient on the action they were taking in front of them, for any number of reasons the patient could be doing what they were doing, that was something which was to be ignored until the main issue could be found.
Maybe it was the feeling of having her look at him and the pitying gaze but the metal armed man lifted up his head to face her and looked into her eyes.
For a brief moment they looked right at each other. Daisy could see inside his deep blue eyes a deep dark sadness, mixed with an angry exhaustion, the lines under his eyes and the way his pupils were solid dark dots that against his iris stood out but what was startling and shocking, but the whites of his eyes, they were a perfect pure white, there wasn’t a hint of red, which was surprising to Daisy, she hadn't never seen anyone with eyes like his before.
The metal armed man looked at her, his face unreadable.
“Let me go…please.” Daisy found herself saying. “I don’t want to be a part of Hydra.”
His head tilted to stand as he looked at her, as if processing something internally, his lips pushed together tightly and but his eyes never left their hold on her.
“I am not a part of Hydra.” He said firmly.
With that he stood up and walked back towards the cockpit leaving Daisy where she sat, unmoving.
Still looking to where he had just been, Daisy heard and felt the Quinjet begin to jolt and shake itself alive, then begun to start off from the ground. Everywhere around her begun to shake and the Quinjet lifted.
Sat there, Daisy thought; He is not Hydra, the asset is no longer a part of Hydra. But…what is he then?
From inside the cockpit of the Quinjet the metal armed man, former Hydra assassin, former Hydra asset, let his hands squeeze around the controls as he remembered the words that had been spoken to him, words that gave him strength and the need to do what he was doing;
“Your name is James Bachan Barnes...”