AUTHOR'S NOTES: Only one day late, but that's okay!

Since it's been a while since it last happened, here's a reminder that full sentences written in italics means that the characters are speaking in Spanish.

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It was the middle of the night, and a noise suddenly woke Roxanne up. She sat up and turned the light on to find Bucky sitting up on the floor panting heavily with his head in his hands, his long dark hair drenched in sweat. Once Bucky was aware of the light, he looked up and turned towards Ro, locking onto her eyes as he trembled slightly. They sat in silence, unable to tear their shocked expressions away from one another.

Finally, Roxanne spoke, "James, are you alright?"

She could tell that he wasn't. The way he struggled to steady his breath and the fear in his eyes were a dead giveaway. Her question was probably stupid, but she couldn't think of anything else she could ask to show her genuine concern.

Bucky wanted to tell her that he was fine, that whatever she had just witnessed was nothing serious, and that she should just go back to sleep, but he thought better of doing so and just shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about it," he added. He turned away from her, hanging his head and slumping his shoulders.

Roxanne sighed. She had a feeling Bucky would say that, but she had given him her word to respect his privacy, and she intended to keep it.

Instead, she nodded in understanding and replied, "Okay, we don't have to talk, but would it help if I just sit with you?"

Bucky just shrugged, which Roxanne interpreted as him not caring either way. Ro got up from the bed and sat on the floor, shoulder to shoulder with him. Bucky scooched away from her, which Ro found odd, considering that distressed people tended to move closer to sources of comfort, not farther away from them.

Before she could further ponder the seemingly insignificant action, however, Bucky turned towards her and looked her over as if he was searching for something on her person.

"Where's that knife I gave you?" he demanded, growing more agitated. "You didn't try to put it back in my bag like you did last night, did you?"

"No, I left it on the table," Ro answered before confessing, "I was going to put it back in your bag, but I thought we should talk about why you keep giving it to me first before I do anything with it."

"What part of 'make sure you always have it on you' did you not understand?" Bucky grumbled, getting up to fetch the knife from the table.

"James, wait," Roxanne called, getting up to follow him. "Why do you keep giving it to me? I get that you might not be comfortable talking about it, but please try to understand that I don't feel comfortable having it."

As the two reached a table that was near the entrance of their temporary residence, Bucky suddenly paused before it, his eyes fixed on the knife resting on top of it. He let out a harsh, frustrated sigh, before turning around to glare at Roxanne.

"If I tell you," he asked irritatedly, "would you stop returning it or placing it far away?"

 Ro, getting annoyed with the return of Bucky's abrasive attitude, exhaled through her nostrils and crossed her arms.

"I don't know," she plainly admitted, shrugging. "I probably still wouldn't be comfortable carrying a knife around even in my sleep, but knowing why you want me to might help me understand."

"That's as good as it's going to get, isn't it?" the man noted with another sigh.

Shooting him a look, the girl didn't answer. Instead, she turned on the light, took a seat at the table, and pulled out the other chair, signaling for Bucky to sit down as well. Rolling his eyes and letting out a groan, he wearily did so.

Long, uncomfortable seconds passed without Bucky uttering a word. He ran a hand through his hair as he contemplated how much he should say and how he should say it. He lifted his eyes to glance at Roxanne, who was looking at him with an expectant yet patient countenance. The softness in her eyes shot right through Bucky's core and tore down his defenses once again. How often was this going to happen around her? He didn't know how, but he felt safe enough to speak at last.

"Back when I was, uh, that guy," Bucky began solemnly, avoiding Ro's gaze, "HYDRA trained me to always arm my handlers if they aren't armed. That way if they ever lost control of me, they'd have a way to take me down. Now, I know you're not my handler and that you don't want me thinking of you as such. But," he paused, trying to keep his voice steady, "that guy could come back at any moment. And if it happens, I want you to be able to protect yourself."

Roxanne was completely stunned. Everything Bucky had just told her did not line up with what little she knew about him, at least the current version of him. Now, Ro didn't believe that Bucky was a terrible person, but from the moment they met, really, truly met, she had this sense that Bucky did not and could not care about her, that she could just vanish from existence and Bucky wouldn't even feel the least bit sad about her being gone. The fact that he would risk being "taken down" to keep her safe and alive showed just how wrong Ro's initial assumption had been.

"James," Roxanne uttered once she found her voice again, "are you, afraid? That you're going to hurt me?"

"I can," Bucky replied, still looking away from her. "I don't want to, but I know I can. I've done it before."

"That wasn't you."

"I meant yesterday," he clarified. "At the museum when I grabbed your wrist."

"Oh." Ro had already mostly forgotten about that. All she had remembered about that moment was how anxious Bucky had been when she had reached for his hand. Upon further reflection, Bucky did seem especially guilty afterwards. "It didn't hurt that much. Besides, you didn't mean to hurt me."

"I know, but I still did it."

Seeing Bucky so racked with guilt and remorse made Roxanne want to cry. It also made her want to comfort him, but how?

"So, that guy," she began cautiously, "what would make him come back? Do you know?"

"I don't," Bucky replied dryly. "I do know there's some sort of process that HYDRA did every time they needed him, but I was barely conscious every time that happened. And well, he hasn't come back ever since I left, but I'd rather not risk it. Especially not around other people." He exhaled and, still facing away, closed his eyes tightly as he spoke under his breath. "Especially not around you."

Ro pretended not to hear Bucky's last sentence. She thought about reaching for his hand again or pulling him into a hug, but her intuition was telling her that Bucky wasn't quite comfortable with physical touch, which she will have to address later. Right now, she needed a way to help him calm down. She could try carrying the knife around with her like he wanted her to, but the last thing Ro wanted to do was reinforce Bucky's belief that he was a dangerous weapon that needed to be shut down.

Ro picked up the knife from the table and studied it, turning it over in her hands a few times. She thought back to the last time she had a weapon and a man's life in her hands. The man in question had wronged her horribly and threatened her life and the lives of her family, and she still couldn't put a bullet through his skull. If she absolutely had to, could Ro willingly hurt Bucky badly enough to make him bleed to death?

"Okay," she said to Bucky, prompting him to turn towards her. "I'll start carrying this around with me but only during the day time, and I am never using this on you, ever."

Bucky let out another sigh and scolded, "If you're never going to use it on me, that completely defeats the purpose of you having it in the first place. Besides, your life or someone else's life might depend on you using it on me one day."

"Fine," she relented. "I'll only use it on you if someone else's life depended on it, but other than that, I'm never using it on you. Don't try to change my mind."

"So, if it was just the two of us in a room together and I suddenly tried to kill you, you'd just let me?" Bucky scoffed.

"Of course not," Ro shot back. "I'd fight you off and try to get you to come back to your senses first."

He stared intently at the girl for a moment, once again trying and failing to find any hint of hesitancy or deception in her face. His expression suddenly softened as he let her words sink in and considered them carefully, looking down once more.

"And, you really think you'd be able to do that?" Bucky questioned, his voice quiet and unable to fully hide the genuine worry he was feeling.

Ro took a few seconds to think of this hypothetical scenario, and how badly she didn't want "that guy", the Winter Soldier, to return. But the desire to avoid the Soldier was no longer fully about her own fears. She was still terrified of that man, of course, but that terror suddenly paled in comparison to her concern for Bucky. Even though he was still basically a stranger to her at this point, she was starting to notice that there was indeed still a heart beneath his cold, troubled exterior. A good heart, still capable of caring for others. And, for reasons she couldn't fully explain, she didn't want that to go away. She didn't want James to be lost again.

"Honestly? I don't know," she admitted, nervously fidgeting with the knife's handle. She then stopped and placed the weapon back on the table, looking at Bucky with a resolute expression. "But I wouldn't give up until I succeeded."

Hearing this, Bucky turned his head back towards Ro, and stared at her unbelievingly, her statement taking him completely by surprise.

The two of them looked into each other's eyes for a while, and the young woman's determined expression didn't waver for even a moment. Bucky genuinely couldn't believe this girl. How could someone who didn't even know him, someone who he had harmed and terrorized as the Soldier before, have such a strong belief that there was still enough humanity left in him to be worth fighting for? Was she even real?

Blinking a few times, Bucky finally took his eyes off of Ro, biting his bottom lip thoughtfully. He turned his head to glance at the clock that was hanging on the wall right next to them. It was a quarter past 2 a.m. As he turned to look back at Ro, she placed a hand in front of her mouth to hold back a yawn.

Bucky tightened his lips into a straight line. "We'll talk about this later, okay? Right now, you should go back to sleep." He got up from his chair. "I, I'll try to do the same."

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Later that morning, Roxanne and Bucky grabbed breakfast from the lobby and took it up to their room to eat. Bucky had specifically requested that they do so. For once, he actually wanted to talk to Roxanne and didn't want to risk attracting eavesdroppers. He wasn't as well rested as he could have been but much more rested than he was expecting to be, so the morning was already off to a great start.

"So, what was it that you wanted to talk about so badly that we had to eat breakfast here?" Ro asked, setting her carry-out container and her morning beverage on the table and taking a seat.

Bucky set his breakfast container and his steaming styrofoam coffee cup at the empty space next to Ro and took off his jacket and gloves as he sat down. He glanced from the tabletop to Roxanne and back again, wondering how to best word his question.

Finally, he asked, "What did HYDRA want you for exactly?"

Roxanne paused. She was halfway through taking a bite out of her cinnamon roll, which was a rather awkward time to be caught off-guard. Ro had been expecting Bucky to ask her that question at some point during their acquaintanceship, just not at that exact moment. She finished biting into her sweet, spiced pastry and chewed as she carefully contemplated how to best answer her companion.

She swallowed and explained, "It's a pretty long story, and I'm not quite comfortable telling you all of it just yet. For now, let's just say someone thought HYDRA needed a new weapon, but I escaped before anyone could actually use me."

"Oh, so, how long ago did you escape?" Bucky asked before taking a sip of his coffee.

"About 10, maybe closer to 11, years ago."

Bucky nearly choked on the hot liquid when he heard Ro's answer. Bucky cleared his throat and turned towards her, staring disbelievingly.

"But that would mean...," he uttered. "Wait. How old are you now?"

"24. I'm turning 25 in October," she answered as she grabbed her own cup, which contained chamomile tea.

"In years?" he further questioned, his voice and face denoting complete shock.

As Ro finished taking a sip of her tea, she raised an eyebrow at Bucky. "Yes, in years. As far as I can tell, I still age like a normal human."

"You," Bucky muttered, now absolutely horrified, "you were just a kid."

Furrowing his brow, the man looked down and shook his head in disbelief as he continued to process the information, his growing nausea rivaling the one he had felt at the museum a few days prior. Suddenly, he looked up back at Ro and asked, "Did it hurt?"

Still a bit too absorbed in both the pain and resentment that particular memory made her feel to notice the surprising amount of concern in Bucky's question, Ro answered, "Getting experimented on? No. I was unconscious when it happened. Crashing through the window of my dad's car before I passed out? Yes. A lot."

Taking a calming breath, she brought her attention back towards Bucky and caught him staring at her with a pained expression, but he quickly looked away from her in a failed attempt to hide it.

Having caught Bucky's reaction and understanding what it potentially meant, Roxanne let out a mournful sigh. "You know about my dad, don't you?"

"I don't have to," Bucky replied, his disheartened tone matching Ro's, "I know enough about how HYDRA works to figure out what they did to him."

"Not just him, my mum too," Ro continued gloomily as she absentmindedly moved her scrambled eggs around with her plastic fork. "I'm pretty sure I was supposed to die in that crash also, but," she sighed, "you can guess how that worked out for them."

Abruptly, Bucky's body tensed up and his breath became agitated when the thought of an awful, dreadful possibility crossed his mind, terror taking over him. He turned to look at Ro with an intense stare.

"Roxanne, I need you to tell me the exact date your parents died, right now," he demanded, trying with all his might to keep his voice from erupting with panic.

This question finally made Ro break away from her dejected trance and look at the man with confusion. "What?"

"WHAT YEAR was it? Just tell me!" he urged, finally losing his cool as he leaned closer towards the girl.

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Ro exclaimed, leaning back a little and raising her palms in front of her. "It was August 2003! 20-something of August, I, I don't remember the exact date, but it was definitely late August, because my mum's birthday had been the week before."

Bucky released the breath he had been holding and ran his right hand over his face as if he was trying to rub the terrifying thought from earlier out of his mind. Roxanne couldn't help but be reminded of what she had woken up to earlier that day when she saw the expression on Bucky's face. He looked as if he had seen a monster only to discover at the last second that the monster was just a fuzzy sweater.

"James," she began, realizing the significance of Bucky's questions, "did you think you had something to do with what happened to my parents?"

"I did at first," he replied, "but I don't remember doing anything on those dates."

Roxanne shot him a perplexed look. Despite Bucky's visible relief, she knew that his memory wasn't exactly reliable at the moment. If Bucky had been involved that night, would things change between them?

"No offense, James," Ro pointed out calmly, "but you don't remember a lot of things."

"This is different," Bucky insisted before clarifying, "One of the first things I started remembering after I ran away were from my Winter Soldier missions. Nothing much, just names and dates and reasons. They just started coming back to me all at once."

And now, he was reliving them one at a time in his sleep, but Roxanne didn't need to know that. True, the probability of his involvement in Fred and Debra Brooks's murder hadn't gone down to zero, but it was low enough that Bucky didn't have to worry about them showing up in his nightmares. For now.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind." That was what Bucky's last handler had said to him, and his previous handlers have all said something similar. After hearing the sadness in Roxanne's voice and seeing the pain in her lovely, green eyes, Bucky couldn't help but wonder what kind of a gift would do something so horrible.

"For as long as I can remember, I was always told that the things HYDRA did were for the greater good," he said to Roxanne, "but that, that's just wrong." Had he been inflicting that same suffering on every one of his targets and their families? "All of it was wrong, wasn't it? Everything I had to do."

As Bucky spoke, Ro saw nothing but sorrow and regret invading his expression, and her heart ached as she thought of his situation once again. He had shared close to nothing about that particular portion of his life with her during the time the two had spent together so far, but from what little she knew, and from what she had picked up from either Bucky's behavior or even comments from other people, it was all clearly a source of great torment for the poor guy. However, as awful and painful as that part of his past had been, Ro knew first-hand that there was no use in pretending those dark memories never happened. They eventually find a way to catch up to you, so, for your own good, you eventually need to find a way to come to terms with them.

"I think you already know the answer to that," Ro replied. Even when she was telling him things he didn't want to hear, she tried to remain so gentle and understanding.

As was now usual around her, Bucky was baffled. How can someone who has obviously had her heart broken so badly still be so kind and caring?

"Why are you the way you are?" he blurted suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Ro asked, a bit worried that her previous answer hadn't come across as intended.

"Roxanne, you lost EVERYTHING the day they got their hands on you," Bucky elaborated. "You were a child, and you were hurt and left completely alone in the world. How do you still have enough of a heart left in you to care about other people, especially me?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she retorted. "You lived through actual war, yet you're still capable of feeling sorry for me. You were even willing to let me end your life just to keep me safe."

Bucky's energy depleted as he averted his eyes from Ro again. "I was a soldier. Giving my life to protect people was part of the job. At least, that's what I was supposed to be doing."

Well, they've done it. Ro and Bucky have officially reached a point where the subject matter had gotten so uncomfortable that neither wanted to continue the conversation. The sad part wasn't even the realization that they've both lived difficult, painful lives. The sad part was that Ro and Bucky both felt as if they were finally forging a connection with each other, and they wanted to keep the conversation going more than they wanted to stop talking about horrors they've lived through.

Thankfully, Roxanne made the sensible yet awkward decision to change the subject. "So, have you remembered anything new that you're comfortable with sharing?"

"Hopefully something that isn't about how sad our lives are," she thought to herself.

Bucky bit his lip before giving a sort of smirk, which Ro was immensely grateful for. Lately, whenever Bucky was remembering a fairly pleasant memory, he would smirk. Roxanne couldn't help but pray for the day when that smirk would become a full smile.

"Well, there was this one memory from yesterday, but it's pretty vague," he replied, turning towards Ro. Suddenly, to Ro's alarm, his smirk disappeared and was replaced by a probing stare. "Hold on. You're a girl."

"Uh, yes," she answered, self-consciously examining herself. Did Bucky not notice she was a girl when they met three days ago? "It would seem as if I am."

"And you know Steve?"

"I guess it depends on what you mean by 'know.' I mean, I did just meet the guy a few months ago, and we've only talked on the phone a few times since then." Roxanne couldn't help but find Bucky's current line of questioning strange, even taking current circumstances into account.

"So, you and him? Has anything happened?"

"Where are you going with this?"

"Well, remember when we went back to the museum yesterday to see if anything else there would bring up any other memories?" Bucky explained.

"Uh, yes?"

"Well, the display showing Steve before and after he became Captain America reminded me that before Captain America, Steve," he continued, "he had the absolute worst luck with women. I don't remember anything specific, but I remember trying to set him up and him striking out the moment his dates took one look at him, which was a crying shame. I mean, I know Steve wasn't exactly anyone's picture of Prince Charming back then, but they could have at least tried to give him a chance."

Roxanne bristled at the mention of "Prince Charming." If Alex Vidal ends up ruining fairy tales and Disney movies for her, she is going to punch in that devilishly handsome face of his. Let's see that jerk charm another girl with a jawline as crooked as his heart.

"Looks can be deceiving," she spat bitterly before taking a rather long sip of her tea.

The sharpness that Ro had injected into that statement made Bucky raise an eyebrow. Clearly something he said struck a nerve with her, but what?

Since he didn't know where to even begin probing, Bucky shrugged off his earlier surprise and instead clarified, "I guess what I was trying to ask was if you and Steve are in a relationship, a romantic one."

"Oh," Ro gasped before shaking her head. "No, nothing like that. I mean, someone tried to set me up with him, but I sort of turned him down."

"You turned down Captain America?" Bucky asked disbelievingly, and he unexpectedly felt offended on Steve's behalf at this revelation.

"Well, not directly, but yes, and I've been questioning that decision every time I think about it." She paused and looked at Bucky curiously, a small smile crossing her lips. "You know, James, I didn't take you for someone who would be interested in other people's love lives."

"I didn't either, but that memory is telling me otherwise," Bucky noted, his smirk returning. "You should give Steve a chance next time you see him. You could do a lot worse than him."

Her smile faded and the bitterness from earlier returned to her voice. "I know, and I have."

Once again, Bucky's smirk disappeared, this time into the same face he made when he deduced how old Ro was when she first escaped HYDRA. Realizing the implication of her statement, Bucky wanted to say something to her, something encouraging and comforting, but all he could do was stare in sympathetic silence.

"I don't really want to talk about it right now," she sighed and looked away from Bucky. "I know I should be over him already, but I still feel like crying whenever I think about him."

Damn. How much more punishment can this girl take? Bucky didn't know who Ro's last boyfriend was, but he knew the guy was a complete idiot. What else would you call someone who would mistreat someone like Roxanne? Roxanne would do well with someone like Steve. Steve would definitely treat her better than her last boyfriend did.

Noticing the girl's downcast mood at the mention of her previous heartbreak, Bucky began to desperately rattle his brain for any subject he could possibly bring up to get her mind off of it. In sharp contrast to his attempts to push Ro away and avoid conversation with her a couple of days prior, he was starting to find a certain comfort in their exchanges. He couldn't quite explain what it was, but there was something about hearing her voice and watching her face as she spoke that made him feel safe. Seeing her typically sunny disposition turn into such a sullen one because of a topic he unthinkingly brought up made him feel incredibly guilty, and he wanted to amend his mistake.

Finally, he thought of something. "So, how much longer are you planning for us to stay here?"

Much to Bucky's relief, Ro visibly perked up at this question. "Oh, yeah, I was actually hoping to discuss this with you sometime today." She paused for a moment, beginning to nervously tap her disposable cup as she tried to figure out how to best ask her question. "Uhm, how would you feel about us going to New York next?"

"New York?" Bucky repeated. According to the exhibit, that was the place where he and Steve grew up. "You mean, going directly to Brooklyn?"

"Well, not just Brooklyn," Ro clarified. "I mean, yes, I'd like to take you there to see if that can help you jog some more memories. But, you see, I'd also like to check on," she trailed off before continuing hesitantly, "my family."

"Your family? But, I thought your parents had..."

"They did," she affirmed before further explaining, "See, a few years after the death of my parents, I met the García family. From the moment I first met them, they were nothing but kind and welcoming to me, and long story short, they ended up adopting me."

"Oh." After catching glimpses of the tragedy and suffering this girl had lived through, Bucky felt immensely relieved to hear that life had been kind enough to send a bit of good fortune her way.

"Anyways, it has been a long time since I last contacted them," Ro explained, "and it's been even longer since I last saw them, and I really miss them. And I know they're probably worried about me. We live in the Bronx right now, it's not too far from Brooklyn. Would it be okay with you if we go there next?"

Bucky felt his hands shake at Roxanne's request. "Uhm, I, I don't know. Are you sure you're willing to have me around people you care about?"

Ro replied with a sigh, "I know it's risky. But if you've been able to feel safe enough around me during the short time we've known each other, I really think you'll also feel safe around them."

Bucky's eyes drifted towards his left arm as he answered, "It's not exactly my safety I'm worried about."

Ro's gaze followed Bucky's before turning back towards his eyes. "It'll be fine, James. I know we can't guarantee that, but let's give it a try."

Ro waited for Bucky to speak. When he didn't, she continued hesitantly, "Plus, uhm, I didn't really want to bring this up, but I'm, kind of starting to run out of money, and Mrs. García also happens to be my boss at the restaurant where I work. So, I don't think a few days' pay would hurt us right now."

Bucky lightly tapped his fingers against the table as he gave Ro's request and her arguments some deep thought. Both of them were aware of the risk he presented to those around him. What if he lost control of himself and harmed a member of her family, or worse? He couldn't possibly live with himself if he did that to her. On the other hand, after everything Roxanne had done for him in the past few days, all the compassion and generosity she had shown him, how could he deny her this? After all, "the other guy" hadn't shown up in several weeks. Perhaps he could keep avoiding him for just a few days more?

After what felt like a really long time, the man let out a defeated sigh. "I'm gonna regret this later", he muttered under his breath. He then turned towards Ro and spoke clearly. "Alright, fine, you win. We're leaving for New York this afternoon. But all our agreements remain in place."

While maintaining a serious expression, Ro's face lit up at Bucky's confirmation, and she nodded solemnly. "Sure, I know." She then blinked and allowed herself to smile tenderly at him. "Thanks, James."

Seeing that smile again, the same one she had shown him when she wrote down Steve's number on the back of his notebook, made Bucky feel simultaneously warm and fearful inside. Bucky really didn't want to do anything to bring this sweet girl any more pain than what she already had to unfairly endure. The mere possibility filled him with dread and anxiety. It occurred to him that, in the best case scenario, reuniting with her family would make Roxanne finally come to her senses and choose to stay with them, and he'd be able to go on his way without having to worry about causing her any more trouble or stress.

Deep down, however, Bucky wasn't exactly thrilled at this option either. Based on the agreements the two had made at the start of their acquaintanceship, he knew he too was in the right to walk away from Ro at any time. Yet, the longer he spent with her, the more comfortable he got around her, the harder it was to bring himself to leave her. He had tried to, but how does one simply walk away from the first sense of safety you find in a world that feels so hostile and unknown? It would make things so much easier if she was the one to make that choice instead. Would Bucky like it? Honestly, not really. But he knew that would be for her own good.

He exhaled dejectedly and grabbed his plastic fork, finally beginning to eat his own breakfast. "Don't thank me just yet."

_______________________________________________________

It was long past midnight when Roxanne and Bucky arrived at the neighborhood where the Garcias lived. They had hoped to arrive earlier in the evening, but large amounts of unexpected traffic had delayed their bus' arrival by several hours. Most, if not all, the neighbors had already turned in for the night, but the two of them still hid in the shadows to keep from being seen. Ro took out her cellphone and quietly pressed a number in her contacts.

Meanwhile, in Ro and Camila's shared bedroom, Camila was sleeping soundly when her phone began to ring, waking her. She groaned as she grabbed the phone and checked the caller ID. Her eyes widened when she saw who was calling her.

"Hermana?" she gasped, answering the call.

"Sí, Cami, it's me," Ro replied in a whisper.

"Oh my God, what happened to you? Where have you been?" Camila worriedly asked. "It's been almost a month since you last texted!"

"I'll explain everything later. I promise, but right now, I need you to help me sneak into the house."

"You mean like how you used to do for me back when we were younger?"

"Exactly like how I used to do for you," Ro affirmed before adding, "but with one big difference."

"What's that?"

"You'll see once you let me in, and please try not to wake anyone. I don't want to make Doña Andrea worry or cause a big scene or anything."

"Oh, okay. Fine," Camila agreed before hanging up with a sigh.

"You sure we can trust these people?" Bucky asked Ro, staring at her with uneasiness as she hung up.

"They're my family," Ro affirmed without a trace of uncertainty in her voice. "If I can't trust them, I can't trust anyone."

Ro peeked her head out from the alley they were hiding in, watching the door to the Garcias' diner. She heard the latch turn and saw Camila stick her head out the door.

"Psst, Ro?" Camila beckoned. "Where are you?"

Ro stepped out of the alleyway into Camila's line of sight and motioned for Bucky to follow her. When Camila saw the tall, mysterious man walking with her sister, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and her jaw hit the floor. Ro held up her right hand and put her left index finger up to her lips, silently begging her sister to be quiet. Camila bit her lip and slowly nodded, her eyes remaining wide and fearful. Camila held the door open for Ro and Bucky, letting them both inside the building.

"What is going on?" Camila exclaimed to Ro in a loud whisper. "Who is that man, and why did you bring him home with you?"

"Don't worry about him. He's a friend," Ro explained. She then turned to look at Bucky. Remembering how the Winter Soldier supposedly knew several different languages, she worried that her sister's language switch in an attempt to keep their conversation private from the newcomer had been in vain.

"What did she just say?" he asked Ro, an extremely confused expression crossing his face.

Okay. Luckily, Spanish didn't seem to be one of the languages Bucky knew, or at least, not one that he remembered.

"Uhm, I'll tell you later." She then addressed Camila once again. "I'll explain everything later, but for now, all I can tell you is that he needs a place to lay low for a little while, and this was the only place I could think of."

"Ro, when mamá wakes up in the morning and suddenly sees him here with you, she is going to go crazy."

Before Ro could even think of an answer, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs and a voice call out, "Camila, cariña, is that you?"

The two sisters looked at each other in fear before Roxanne grabbed Bucky and pulled them both under a table in one of the booths just as the lights came on.

"Mija, what are you doing down here?" Doña Andrea asked. "It's late."

"I couldn't sleep," Camila lied.

An understanding yet pained expression crossed the older woman's face. "Are you worrying about your sister?"

Camila nodded, which technically was not untrue.

"I am too," Andrea sympathized. "Every day she's gone, I wonder where she is, what she's doing, if she's alright, when is she coming home, why she hasn't called. It worries me so much if the people she went with weren't trustworthy after all."

Bucky had no idea what the two of them were saying, but he could tell by the look on Ro's face that what they were saying was making her feel very guilty.

"I overheard some of the neighbors talking. Some of them think we're being silly for worrying about someone who isn't even our flesh and blood," Camila replied, trying to get her mother to stop talking. Clearly, that was the wrong thing to say.

"Well, I think our neighbors are silly for thinking we're silly," Doña Andrea retorted in offense. "So what if she wasn't born into our family? She is just as much my child as you and your brother are, and what kind of mother doesn't worry about her child?"

Ro's face further contorted as the guilt in the pit in her stomach enlarged.

"I just want mi querida back home safe with her family where she belongs," Doña Andrea finished.

"So do I," Camila agreed, trying not to give away Ro and Bucky's hiding place with her eyes.

"It's late. Let's get some sleep. We can keep worrying about Roxanne in the morning."

Just as Andrea turned around to go back up the stairs, Ro stepped out from her hiding place and called out to her adoptive mother, "Doña Andrea!"

Andrea gasped as she slowly turned around. She blinked a few times, afraid that the next time she opened her eyes, her daughter would vanish into the air. She slowly walked forward and reached her right hand out towards Ro's face, cupping her daughter's cheek.

"Oh, thank God!" she cried with tears leaking from her eyes as she pulled Ro into an embrace. Ro returned it, shedding tears herself.

Even though Bucky couldn't get a clear view of the scene from his current hiding place, the mere sound of the two women's happy sobs made him soften his previously tense expression. He couldn't help but feel glad for Ro at this moment.

"Querida, what happened to you? Where did you go?" Doña Andrea asked after pulling away from Ro.

"I'll explain everything soon," she replied, "but right now, there's someone I want you to meet."

Ro motioned for Bucky to come out from under the table. Tensing up once again, and after a moment of hesitation, Bucky slowly and reluctantly did so, taking note of the woman's frightened reaction upon seeing him. Unfortunately, that was not a reaction he was unfamiliar with.

"Everybody, this is James," Ro explained. "He's been having a bit of a, umm, memory problem, and I've been trying to help him. He also needed a place to stay, so I sort of brought him home with me."

Camila shot her sister an unbelieving look, which the latter only took notice of briefly.

"A memory problem?" Doña Andrea repeated, confused. "What happened to him? Did he hit his head? Does he need to see a doctor?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Ro answered. "He just needs to stay somewhere safe away from some very bad people. That's all."

"Mija, are you in some kind of trouble?"

"I," Ro stuttered, unsure how to answer Andrea's question. "I'm not sure. I hope not, but honestly, I think I could be."

At first Andrea didn't say anything, only looking from Roxanne to Bucky and back suspiciously.

"Please, please, please, don't make me turn him away," Ro begged, worried that her mother would kick Bucky out. "If those bad people find him again, they'll make him do some terrible, terrible things."

Andrea's eyes only grew wider at Ro's last sentence, but the pure desperation in her daughter's eyes moved Andrea to pity Ro and her strange friend.

With a long sigh, she asked Roxanne, "Have the two of you eaten? We had your favorite for dinner earlier, and I think we still have some left over."

_______________________________________________________

Bucky surveyed his surroundings uncomfortably as he sat next to Ro at the Garcias' dining table. Even though being next to the young hero gave Bucky some security, and he could tell she wholeheartedly trusted and was comfortable around these people, his guard was still entirely up. These people and their home were still strange and unknown to him, after all. And the unsure looks the other two women kept giving him was all but proof that the sentiment was mutual.

Doña Andrea had brought plates out for them and was in the kitchen reheating some food. She returned with a plate piled high with paches, making Ro's mouth water with excitement.

"Oh my God! I've missed these," Ro exclaimed, taking several steaming, green packages and putting them on her plate.

Bucky looked from Ro to the food and reluctantly followed suit.

"Uh, so, how do you eat these?" he asked, poking at his plate with his fork.

"You take off the leaf and eat what's inside, stupid," Camila bluntly replied from across the table.

"Cami, be nice to him," Ro scolded before turning to Bucky. "Just do what I do," she instructed him, taking off the banana leaf and eating the meat and potatoes inside. "Mmm! Gosh! I haven't had anything this good in months."

Bucky unwrapped the food but refused to eat it, staring at it suspiciously.

"Just try it," Ro encouraged. "It's delicious. I promise."

"That's not exactly what I'm worried about," Bucky muttered to her.

"Cami and Doña Andrea just barely met you and don't know anything about you at all. Why would they try to poison you?" Ro retorted, feeling offended for her family members.

"Besides," Camila noted, "do you have any idea how bad it would be for business if someone died from eating our food?"

Camila took a forkful of the pache on her plate, put it on top of a slice of bread, and ate it. Now that he was doubly sure that his food wasn't poisoned, Bucky was a lot more open to trying it and took a small bite. Judging by the way he raised his eyebrows and how his next bite was a lot bigger, Bucky seemed to enjoy what he was eating.

"Ugh, why are the lights on?" A groggy 13-year-old stepped into the dining room rubbing his eyes. He looked towards the dining room table before shuffling past and heading towards the kitchen. He stopped and whipped his head around when he realized who he had just seen, all his remaining sleepiness snapping away from his now wide open eyes.

"Ro!" Manuel cheered, running to hug his sister. "We missed you."

"Hey, hermanito!" Ro greeted excitedly, tightly returning the hug. "I missed you too."

While he was hugging Roxanne, Manuel saw Bucky from over her shoulder and just stared at him curiously. Bucky stared back. For a while, no one said anything.

Then, as Manu pulled away from the hug, he asked Ro, "Umm, is he yours or Camila's?"

"Manu!" Camila exclaimed, her eyes and mouth wide with shock.

"He's nobody's, hermanito," Ro replied. "He's just someone I'm trying to help, so he'll be staying with us for a while. Don't do anything to make him uncomfortable, okay?"

"Oh, okay, sure," Manuel said to her before turning to Bucky and asking, "No, really, which one of my sisters are you dating?"

"Go back to bed, Manuel," Ro and Camila retorted simultaneously. They were so in sync that if Bucky hadn't known better, he might have mistaken them for twins.

"Alright, alright," Manuel conceded, turning around and walking towards the kitchen, "just let me get a glass of water first. Geez!"

As Bucky watched Ro and her siblings tease each other, he felt a memory come to the front of his mind, a memory that surprisingly did not involve Steve, the Winter Soldier, or the war. In the memory, he was at another family's dining table watching two preteen boys argue over who would get the last slice of an apple pie. Suddenly, his hand had reached over to the middle of the table and snatched the entire pie pan.

"Hey!" the two boys had protested.

"Sorry, boys," 17-year-old Bucky had teased, "but I'm older, faster, and have better reach."

"Can I have it, Bucky?" a seven-year-old girl with soft, dark brown ringlets had asked him, making her blue eyes as large and endearing as possible.

Bucky remembered looking from the girl to the pie and back again before sighing in defeat.

"You're lucky you're cute, Becky," he had grumbled as he pushed the pie pan towards her.

"Oh, come on!" the two boys had cried. "How come she gets to have it? You always let her have her way, Bucky. That's not fair!"

"Hey, if you want it so bad, snatch it up from her yourselves. I dare you."

Becky had pulled the pie pan closer to herself and snarled at the preteens like a hungry pup protecting a piece of meat from a pair of ferocious wolves. The boys had exchanged weary looks with each other before leaving the table muttering something about not wanting to lose their hands. Bucky remembered laughing at the sight.

"Thanks, Bucky. Do you want half?" Becky had asked him.

Before he could remember what he had answered, he was pulled back into the present by the sound of Roxanne calling him. "James?"

"Huh?" Bucky said to her with a jolt.

"There's one pache left. Do you want half?" Ro asked.

"Uh, sure, I'll take half."

_______________________________________________________

Meanwhile, in an upper-middle class apartment in Miami, Florida, a woman in her late twenties slept peacefully in bed. Unbeknownst to her, her boyfriend, a handsome man in his early thirties with flawless tan skin and an astounding physique, was quietly getting dressed and gathering his things.

Making sure he had put everything in his bag, he quickly finished writing out a note explaining to his lover that he had to leave suddenly due to an emergency, reassuring her that last night had been the best of his existence and that he would call her very soon. Signing off the short letter with "Te amo con locura, —A.V.", he folded the piece of paper and placed it on the nightstand next to the sleeping woman. Putting his shirt on, he walked towards the exit without giving her so much as a final glance. Why bother? After all, he had finally gathered all the info he needed from her, and he was never going to see her again. Too bad. This one may have been as meaningless to him as any of his other assignments, but at least she knew how to have fun.

As Alejandro "El Encantador" Vidal stepped out of the building, the cold night air sent a shiver down his spine and made his right arm begin to ache. Frowning, he put on the jacket he was carrying. Ever since he had nearly killed that plain, insufferable freak of nature nearly two years ago and she had broken his arm before escaping, he had had to endure the lasting effects of it, which went far beyond some occasional pains shooting up his right forearm.

That was but a reminder of the humiliation he had to endure afterwards and ever since, from his mother, his other superiors, and even his co-workers. Every time he thought of the snide comments, his mother's disapproving glare, and worst of all, the way his own mother had dared Arachne to kill him the moment his near betrayal to their family's legacy was out in the open, his blood would boil with poisonous hatred for that useless Roxanne Brooks.

That weak, pathetic girl had tarnished his impeccable reputation, probably for the rest of his life, and sullied his good image in his mother's, and all of HYDRA's, eyes. Most infuriatingly, she had also bruised his ego, something that no other human being had ever done before, let alone one of his targets. And he was going to make sure she'd pay for that. All he had to do was wait for the right moment, something that became harder to do with each passing day.

As he continued to brood and internally curse Roxanne Brooks's name, the communication device he had recently turned on began to vibrate. This was the phone-like device that anyone from HYDRA used to directly communicate with him, and therefore he had to make sure that his targets weren't nearby whenever he used it. Being several blocks away from his latest assignment and having made sure no other person was out in the streets at this hour, he took it out of his bag and checked the contact info. He had expected the call to be from his mother, as it was around this time that she said she would communicate with him to make sure he had obtained all the required intel, but to his surprise, it was his cousin, Victor Franco, who called. Victor rarely got involved in Alejandro's espionage missions since, as a scientist, Victor mostly worked with Madame Franco in experiments and research, making this call all the more peculiar.

Double-checking his surroundings a final time, Alejandro finally picked up, speaking in a whisper. "Primo? What is it?"

"I'm not interrupting, am I? I'd hate to cut one of your, ahem, missions short," the male voice on the other end asked dryly.

Alejandro rolled his eyes. "What kind of slacker do you take me for? This mission is long wrapped up. In fact, if my mother's too busy to call me herself, you can tell her that I am sending the intel over to her as we speak."

"Tía Adela didn't ask me to call you," Victor clarified. "But since you brought it up, I'll give her the message when we hang up."

"Why are you calling, then? I don't have all night," Alejandro urged impatiently.

"I just thought you'd like to know that one of your spies has reported in recently. Apparently, Arachne is back with the Garcías."

Hearing this, the dark-hearted man's eyes lit up. When Arachne once again had managed to avoid capture over two months ago, Madame Franco had ordered her team to suspend searching for the girl until they figured out a more effective way to subdue and neutralize her. Madame would have never admitted it to the higher-ups, but she also needed more time to perfect the concoctions formulated to enhance Arachne's powers and keep the girl compliant. Fed up and restless to exact his revenge, Alejandro had quietly sent a few lower-ranked HYDRA spies behind his mother's back to search for the girl around a month ago. While her adoptive family no longer lived in the same Brooklyn building they had when the two had been "dating", it didn't take them long to find the Garcías' new residence in a Bronx neighborhood. Still searching for Arachne throughout various different states, Alejandro had ordered one of the spies to keep a close eye on the García home in case their subject of interest should return one day.

And that day had finally arrived.

As he finished processing the news, a devilish smirk crossed Alejandro's face. "Is she now?"

"Affirmative. The spy didn't see the exact moment she entered the apartment, but he was brought to attention when he noticed unusual movement past midnight. He managed to see her through the window having dinner with the family. There was also an adult male sitting next to her, but the spy couldn't identify who it was from his vantage point."

"It was probably just her 'father'", Alejandro guessed, injecting large amounts of irony in that last word. "He must've returned from his work trip early."

"Who knows," Victor shrugged with disinterest, "but one thing is certain: Arachne has finally been located, and she's back with the people she sees as her family."

As dozens of wicked ideas started to flood his mind all at once, Alejandro's mouth once again twisted, this time into an even larger, evil smile. "Thanks for the call, primo. This is truly wonderful news."

_______________________________________________________

AUTHOR'S NOTES: You didn't think we'd get rid of this guy that easily, did you?

A few things to clarify:

- I'm aware that, canonically, the Winter Soldier does know Spanish, but trust me, it will work better for this story if Bucky doesn't understand it. ^^; It's one of the few direct changes this AU is going to make.

- For those confused as to why Alejandro and his mother don't have the same last name, but his mother and cousin do: in Latin America, people's first surname is typically the father's, and the second surname is the mother's. That means Alex's full name is Alejandro Vidal Franco. And since Victor is the son of Guillermo Franco, Adela's late brother from the first chapter and mentioned a few times, he does use that surname first.

- Credit as always to Julienne my co-author for her help, but especially the reunion scene and the Barnes siblings flashback! Both scenes were fully her creation, the former made years ago in the original draft, and the latter a recent addition. EDIT: Apparently, in the MCU, it's only been specified that Bucky was the eldest sibling of four, and that he has at least one sister (whom I think everyone unanimously has agreed is Rebecca). I'm not sure if the comics have ever expanded on who his siblings other than Becca are, but for this story, he'll have two middle brothers, and Rebecca, the only sister and youngest sibling. I'm currently not sure if we'll reveal his two brothers' names in a later chapter or not, but don't worry, I'll tell the names we gave them at some point.

- And lastly, I'm sure a particular exchange during the breakfast scene must've left you with some questions. Don't worry. You'll get your answers in time. As will Roxanne.