Joana

She went to work the next day feeling better than she had felt in 70 years. She went with a smile and no desire to forget. Her boss noticed a difference, but he still wanted her to go home after lunch, thinking that she was still sick. She would get the day's pay and nothing made Joana happier. All the wanted to do was go home to Bucky, especially after the night before. Her face flushed at the thought of it.

Unfortunately, I must inform you reader, that there was a bombing in Vienna not a day before and Bucky was the main suspect. But not only were there German police officers after him, but a man in a suit made of impenetrable metal, and a soldier who he once called friend.

When Joana arrived at her apartment building, she didn't even have to enter to know something was amiss. There were people talking in hushed voices, looking up at the building beside her own. In the sky was a helicopter, one very different than the kind she had in the 40s, but its was one nonetheless. A man with wings, a literal man with literal wings, came out of no where and hit the back end of the helicopter, shoving it off course. Joana ran towards the building feeling utterly helpless. She knew in her heart that Bucky was up there. They both knew that someone was going to come after them eventually. Eventually came too quickly. Bucky jumped down from the top of the building and landed on the ground with a thud a few feet away from her.

"Run, Joana!" He yelled as he sprinted past her.

"I don't-"

A man covered head to toe in black came falling from the sky after Bucky and, completely ignoring her, chased after Bucky. And only seconds later, a man in blue came falling from the sky. All Joana could think was 'It's raining men'. Looking up for a brief second to see if anyone else was coming, Joana ran after the three of them. She was ten times slower than all three of them, which was aggravating. It was worse even when they all three jumped through a skylight in a tunnel that was at least two stories high. Joana wouldn't survive the jump. Looking behind her, she saw the flying man coming, probably following the other three. She waited and as he flew over her she jumped, grabbing on to his leg.

"Hey!" He yelled angrily as he dove into the tunnel. He shook his leg but Joana held on until he flew over a car when she let go and fell flat on her stomach on the top of the SUV. He then shot ahead. Joana stood on top of the car, trying to keep her balance. Preparing for a jump, Joana ran, leaping off the hood of the car and on to the one in front of her. The cars were going much faster than she ever would have been able to run, yet she was no where near as fast as the four men she was following. The sirens of a police car wailed behind her as she landed on the top of a Mustang. The car was going much faster than the others and would probably catch up before she did. So she waited for the right time, getting ready for the jump.

She leaped from the Mustang and hit the car with a jarring land that swept the breath from her lungs. She clung to the top of the speeding car, her ears ringing from the siren just inches from her face. But the police car was too late. She was too late.

There was a wall of cement barricading the car from going any further, but it wouldn't stop Joana. She slid off the top of the car as it stopped.

"Hey! You, freeze!" The cop inside yelled as he climbed out of his car, but Joana was already scaling the cement. When she jumped down from the top, she realized how slow she really was. The other three men were being shuffled into a van, while Bucky was being forced into a chair of some sorts. He seemed resigned, as if he was fine with being strapped down, but Joana saw this and remembered all the years she spent chained to a chair.

"No!" She shrieked across the expanse of the road. Bucky looked up and saw her. The three men in the car turned to look at her, but Joana wasn't paying any attention to them. All she could do was run towards Bucky as fast as she could. They would not take him away from her, not again, never again.

A man in a metal suit turned towards her, arms raised, a small gun on his forearm.

"Freeze!" He yelled.

"James!" Joana yelled, nearing him with every step.

"Joana, stop!" He told her, but she didn't listen.

"Freeze!"

Joana ran and she ran and she ran, tears gathering in her eyes. They would not take him away. Not again. Never again.

"Stand down!" The man in the suit yelled, finality in his voice. If she didn't stop he would shoot. If she didn't stop they would take Bucky.

"James!"

The man in the suit fired the gun and the stunning bullet hit her side and she fell to the ground without another step. And she'd barely gotten half way to Bucky. Her body twitched, not fully unconscious yet, watching them lock Bucky's arms to the metal chair and put him inside a cage.

"Bucky," she murmured as the world around her went black.

Joana woke up in a room, an empty room. She sat up quickly, as if she had never even been unconscious. She was in a lone room with a double sided mirror and a bed and a door and nothing else. Joana slid from the bed, ignoring the pain and weariness of her legs. She ran straight to the door and started pounding on it.

"Let me out!" She called. "Where's James?"

When the door seemed futile, she turned and charged the double sided mirror with a guttural scream.

"I know you're there!" She yelled, banging on the glass with her fist. "I know you're watching me. Let me out!"

Still, there was no response. She demanded to be let out, asking for Bucky, until her voice ran hoarse. It was only then that she realized that she was here, once again, in the same room she had always been locked away in. Maybe it looked different, but it didn't feel any different. It was a cage, a prison, just like HYDRA had been.

Her breath caught in her throat as she realized this. Bile rose and her stomach churned and her heart stopped.

"No, please, no. Not again," she mumbled to herself, pressing herself into the wall. She placed an hand on her stomach, trying not to throw up. Tears sprang into her eyes. She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth, the tears in her eyes overflowing. She slid to the ground, pulling her knees to her chest. She buried her face between her knees and covered her head with her arms. She couldn't stop the wave of sobs and dry heaving that followed the nausea that grew in abundance inside her.

Every second she was waiting for the thundering of HYDRA footfalls. She waited for the door to open and for Pierce or the Commander or Aleksi or Rumlow to walk in and use her like they always did. 2 years of freedom and she ended up in the same place she had always been. Freedom was the one thing she desired over all things and yet it was the one thing she could no obtain.

By the time she could no longer sob from the pain in her throat and no more tears could fall from her eyes, Joana was so exhausted that she simply lay on the cold ground next to the wall, not moving, not blinking, hardly breathing.

When she felt like giving up here and now, the door opened. Joana hardly cared. She expected a man to walk in, to grab her by the ankles and force himself upon her like they all did or force her to fight someone like they always did. She was surprised to hear the sound of heels against the hard floor. Joana closed her eyes, not caring who it was. The final tears she could spill fell from her dark eyes and his the ground just as the woman knelt in front of her. The woman put her hand on her shoulder and spoke.

"Oh, Joana, what has the world done to you?"

Joana's eyes snapped open at the sound of the Russian words. She looked up to see a familiar face, a face she thought she'd never see again. Her red hair and hazel eyes were so familiar, and her scent the same, even after all these years.

"Natalia?"

At the woman's smile, Joana threw her arms around her neck.

"I thought you were dead," Joana whispered into the crook of her neck. She was surprised at how easily Russian came back to her. She had to stop speaking it when they got to America, but now it came back to her as if she had been speaking it every day of her life. Natalia, now Natasha Romanoff, put her arms around Joana's waist. "Wait, am I dead? Did I die?"

Natasha laughed.

"No, Joana, you aren't dead." Natasha kissed Joana's head. "I would suggest speaking English from now on. You don't want these people thinking you're KGB."

Joana nodded. Natasha helped her onto her feet and the two walked over to the bed where they sat.

"Natalia, how did you survive? What did they do to you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Joana. Last I saw of you, you'd been shot through the stomach."

"You know Pierce, he couldn't let me die."

The two women fell silent.

"I go by Natasha now," the redhead said. "It's easier than Natalia. Sounds less Russian."

"Natasha. I like it," Joana replied with a smile. Natasha lowered her head, as if ashamed for some reason.

"Two years ago, when we found out that James was alive, I thought that maybe you might be alive too. I looked for the both of you, but you were ghosts. I guess after HYDRA, you were good at laying low," Natasha said.

"We were in Romania," Joana told her, even though Natasha knew already. "I worked at a restaurant. He worked at a general store."

"Does he...never mind." Natasha looked away, the ghost of a laugh on her lips, but Joana knew what Natasha was trying to ask.

"He doesn't really remember anything. He remembers his name and his sister, Becca. He hardly remembers me." Joana felt terrible, ashamed as her lips tingled where Bucky had kissed her the night before. "But he mostly remembers our old friend Steve."

Natasha lifted her head quickly, her eyes lighting up.

"Steve Rogers?"

"Yeah, he was one of my best friends growing up. Why?"

Natasha stood and grabbed Joana's hand.

"Come with me. I need to show you something." Joana slid off the bed and followed Natasha to the door.

"Natalia- uh- Natasha, where are we going?" Joana asked nervously as the woman waved a card over the scanner that opened the door easily. Outside were two guards, both holding guns. Their hands tightened as they saw her and Joana went into defense mode, her hands curling, her war face painted on her face, but Natasha pulled on her hand.

"Ignore them. They won't hurt you. Come on."

Joana walked through the maze like halls, trying not to note how similar this base looked like HYDRA. She scanned every exit, every face, every weapon. She tensed and untensed, her senses going haywire. Bucharest, for how busy it was, never did this to her. She could hide in Bucharest, but here, she was vulnerable and open and an easy target. Natasha walked by her side, still holding her hand.

"You'll get used to it," she whispered in Joana's ear. "It won't always be like this."

Joana didn't know if she could believe her.

When they finally stopped at Natasha's desired destination, she waved her card over the scanner again and the door slid open. A short, grey haired man tried to stop her.

"What are you doing, Romanoff?" He asked, his voice commanding.

"None of your concern," Natasha shot back.

"Watch your tone," he warned.

"Sorry, Ross. I need to introduce her to Cap," Natasha told him, obviously sweetening her words so he agreed to it.

"Fine. Just make sure they don't break anything."

Natasha dipped her head.

"Who's Cap?" Joana whispered to her, feeling completely out of place in the room surrounded by TV's.

"Wait here," Natasha said as she entered the glass room within the room they were in. Two men sat inside, probably two of the men she had seen earlier in Romania. Joana waited uncomfortably, looking at the ground, pulling her sleeves over her fists. Her jaw clenched and unclenched. She wished Natasha would come back. She felt too open, unsafe. Until...

"Joana?" That was the second time today that Joana her name by a familiar voice, only this voice was far more distant, far more unfamiliar while still being familiar. She looked up to see a tall, blonde man at to door of the glass room. Natasha stood behind him, smiling.

Joana was just about to ask him who he was, when she saw his eyes. She knew those eyes. Those were the eyes of the boy she spent her adolescent years defending. Those were the striking blue eyes that admired her sister since she was 12. Those were the eyes that she thought were long dead.

"Steve." Her voice broke as she said his name. She thought he was in heaven alongside her sister, merry and happy and safe. But here he was, standing in front of her...and about 2 feet taller and 100 pounds heavier.

She stood frozen in her place, but as soon as he took the first step towards her, she raced forward, meeting him half way through the room. She threw her arms around his neck. He lifted her into the air, something he had never been able to do before. Not thinking she had any more tears to spill, Joana was shocked to find that she was both laughing and crying at the same time. She didn't know that was something you could do. When he finally set her down on the ground, they were both laughing, tears in both their eyes.

"I thought you were dead," he said as she said, "You're a giant."

"It's a long story," they said in unison. They laughed again.

"Romanoff! Get him back in that room!" The Ross man said angrily. Steve and Joana turned back to the room. Joana didn't care that she was about to be trapped in a room again. Her friend was here. Her friend was alive. He wasn't dead. He was alive. Her mind reeled. How was this possible.

"What happened to you?" She asked him as they walked into the room. Natasha closed the door and slipped away. "What's going on here?"

"Two very long and complicated stories that we probably don't have time for," Steve said with a bitter laugh. "What about you? How...I don't even know how this is possible."

"HYDRA," was all Joana could say. The other man in the room (whom Joana forgot was there) groaned loudly. She turned to look at him.

"You're the flying man," she said. The dark skinned superhero laughed.

"Yeah, I guess you could say so. And who are you?" He asked.

"Joana Kegley. An old friend of Steve's."

"I thought all of Steve's 'old friend' s would be dead," the flying man said, looking pointedly at Steve.

"So did I," Steve told him.

"I'm Sam, by the way," the flying man told her. "I'm Steve's only new friend."

Joana managed a laugh. She didn't know she still remembered how to laugh. She looked around until her eyes fell on a TV in the corner of the glass room. There he was, Bucky, strapped in a chair in a box. Joana stood and crossed her arms.

"What happened?" She asked Steve as he rose to stand beside her.

"They think Bucky bombed the UN a few days ago," Steve told her in a low voice. Joana scowled.

"That...that's impossible! He's been with me everyday for the past two years. He can't of done it. If...if I tell them-"

"I don't think they'd listen to you," Sam said. "They won't listen to anyone."

The door opened and all three turned around to see a blonde woman entering.

"Who is she?" The woman asked. Joana didn't know why, but something about her looked strangely familiar. Steve stepped between them.

"Sharon, this is Joana. Joana, Sharon Carter," he said and as soon as he did so, Joana knew why she recognized her.

"Margaret Carter," Joana said, thinking aloud.

"Yes, Peggy was my aunt. Why is she here?"

"Natasha brought her from where they were holding her. She's an old friend."

Sharon managed a smile and so did Joana.

"Steve's old friend have a habit of causing quiet the stir, don't they?"

Joana flashed another smile and turned around to look back at the video of Bucky. Someone else was in there with him.

"The receipt for your gear," Sharon said behind her.

"Bird costume?" Sam sounded hurt.

"It didn't write it."

Sharon must have done something to the audio, because suddenly, Joana could hear what they were saying.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James? I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James," the man in the room said to Bucky.

"My name is Bucky," was his only response.

"Why would the task Force release this photo to begin with?" Steve asked.

"To get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" Sharon offered.

"Right. It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding. Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier," Steve said.

"A frame job," Joana said, turning around, away from the video.

"Steve, we looked for the guy for two years and found nothing," Sam added.

"He didn't bomb the UN. That turns a lot of heads," Steve countered. Joana clenched her job and glanced back at the video, glaring at the guy talking to Bucky. Something about this wasn't sitting right with her.

"This isn't right," she muttered to herself.

"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him. It guarantees that we would," Sharon told them. They all turned back to the screen.

"Yeah."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Joana said.

***

Boo-ya. Two chapters in one day. I knew I wouldn't get very far but jeesh, this is like 15 minutes into the movie.

So I had to include the Star Wars reference because I love Star Wars and because it seemed like a good place to end so I can continue it next chapter from the black out. We'll definitely get the airport scene next which I'm super excited before because Joana meets Wanda and Bucky sees Natasha and there's Peter and they all get captured and yay.

So that's what there's to look forward to.

with gratitude and love,

authorsbane