recollection
5 HOURS EARLIER
You were so close to being done with this mission. Only a few more days to go as you were being transferred to the prison. You were finally going to meet the ringleader.
When Steve contacted you asking for your help with a mission that required an unknown face going undercover as a high-risk drug dealer you immediately accepted. You were tasked with figuring out who was running the whole operation as no one knew exactly who the ringleader was. Months preparing and gaining trust from low-risk dealers allowed you to rise in the ranks of the drug community. You intentionally let some of your talents be known as you brutally injured a few dealers who were causing trouble on your domain. The men you hurt were huge, burly, scary men to the normal eye, but with a few tricks up your sleeve, you basically left them for dead for all to see. It soon became known that if you messed with this girl, you'd get your shit rocked. Because of your anonymity, dealers decided to create a name for you, the White Raven.
Once you made a big enough impact in the drug community you began to receive messages from the ringleader himself. You found out he was in a high-security prison a few states away, but still managed to run the entire drug trafficking ring. Honestly, you were impressed. He begged to meet the darling White Raven and you knew in order to get close to him to gather intel, you had to get yourself arrested.
You got arrested and were being transferred to prison, finally after all these months of preparation. You were surprised to see that it was an old school bus that picked you up, but thought nothing of it as you had been driving for more than 6 hours and switched vehicles twice. Allowing yourself a few moments of weakness as you closed your eyes for a few seconds, you got that feeling. That sickening feeling that something was about to go wrong. Cracking your eyes, you watched as the bus driver glanced at you in the rearview. The two guards on the bus glanced at you. The two other prisoners on the bus glanced at you. With one steady breath, you got ready.
The bus driver slammed on his breaks causing you to lurch forward, your face hitting the cushion in front of you. You quickly recovered and ducked down between the seats just in time as the guard swung his baton right where your head had been. On your back on the floor, you kicked your legs up, hard, and set the guard flying into the other aisle, his head smashing into the side of the bus, knocking him out cold. You sat up and watched as both prisoners started running towards you from the back of the bus. You glanced towards the other guard at the front of the bus who was raising his gun towards you, ready to shoot. Timing his shot, you hesitate for a split second, and when you saw his finger start to squeeze the trigger, you ducked down and rolled to the other side of the bus.
The guard didn’t realize in his haste to shoot you one of the prisoners was in his direct line of sight, and he was shot once in the chest. You pushed yourself up and wrapped your handcuffed hands around the second prisoner's neck, pulling him down on top of you. You choked him out as you heard the guard run towards you and when he arrived in front of you, gun drawn, he shot into your shield of a prisoner 4 times as you forcibly pushed off the ground with him, and shoved him into the guard. The guard dropped his gun as they fell so you lunged for it, snatching it, and raised it towards the bus driver.
He saw the gun raised and in a panic, slammed his foot on the gas and you were thrown back into the middle aisle. In all of the commotion wrestling with the guards, a piece of metal had been dislodged from the seats, poking out into the aisle and as you fell, it caught the skin on your back. Horrified, you felt your skin split apart as it tore through your entire back and you slammed down into the ground. Adrenaline and instinct took over and you shot every body you could see swiftly through the head.
As your last shot exploded through the bus driver's head into the windshield, his dead foot pressed even harder onto the gas pedal. With body’s blocking your exit point you looked up towards the roof, unlatched the emergency exit, and pulled yourself up out of the bus. You had to jump off before the bus picked up too much speed so you threw yourself off, hoping you would hit something soft. Luckily, you hit some grass and rolled out of your fall, watching as the bus kept driving off into the gully that laid to your right.
You looked around and saw basically nothing. You were in the middle of what looked like farmland, there was a small gully with a creek to your right, and to your left was all green grass and pastures. You shoot through the handcuffs and cursed to yourself, starting to feel the familiar threat of anxiety creep up into your bones when you heard a small humming coming from behind you. Turning around, still clutching the gun you took from the guard, you watched as a civilian on a motorcycle drove up to you. You hastily hid the gun in the waistband of your pants and attempted to plaster a convincing smile on your face. As he drove up, the look on his face made you uneasy, like he was literally licking you with his eyes. Gross.
“Hey there darlin’, are you doin’ alright? You look a little banged up.”
You eyed the stranger, ultimately deciding not to respond.
“Small thang like you shouldn’t be out this far in the country. No one comes out around here unless ya live here. If you want I could take ya back to my farm a few miles thata way.”
He motioned behind him and you saw as his jacket pulled up he had a gun strapped to his waist. A sleek, black pistol, identical to the one in your waistband. You reacted. Brought your gun up while he wasn’t looking and you shot him right between the eyes. Scorching anger had taken over and you didn't regret it.
"No thanks sugar, but I'll take your bike.”
Gaining a lot of worried looks from people as you rode into town, covered in blood, you found out where you were and stared at the location and rolled your eyes.
“Of course I’m here, of all fucking places.”
You knew there was a safehouse nearby that you could stay but you groaned and grumbled as the image of that cabin came into your mind. Great.
As the hot water ran down your back you sigh in relief as it ran over the fresh, but angry scar that ran across your back. It didn’t sting and you made a mental note to thank Tony for his giant brain. You're still angry and confused as to why your mission went south but decided to call Steve once you got out of the shower, enjoying it too much not to think about anything else but the feeling of soap on your skin.
Once you scraped off all the dried blood on you and got properly clean, you got out of the shower and dried off. You guiltily revel in Bucky’s scent as you pulled his shirt on over your head. You went into the bedroom to find emergency underwear and sweats in the closet before pulling them on and marching out into the living room, determined to find out why Bucky was here.
Bucky was sitting on the couch waiting for water to boil in the kettle when he heard you turn off the shower. He couldn’t get over how different you looked standing there, topless in front of him. You were skinnier but you looked just as deadly as you used to. You were one of the most ruthless people he had ever sparred with, sacrificing your body to prove that you were more than just the Avengers pilot. He respected that about you. The thought caused a small smile to coat his face but he quickly wiped it away. Now is not the time for that.
You looked feral as you eyed him, full of disdain and regret and surprise. But you almost looked relieved? That surprised him. You didn’t know, but your eyes were the most expressive things he has ever seen. He spent weeks trying to figure out what hid behind them; you were never good with words, but your eyes gave your emotions away in an instant. He sighed as the kettle began to whistle. He got up and grabbed an Earl Grey teabag out of the cabinet and began to make your favorite tea. His brow furrowed and waited for you to come out, anxiously waiting for the conversation he had been avoiding for so long.