When Bucky returns with a box from his safety deposit box, he finds Sydney curled up on the floor where he left her, arms around herself as she cries. Utterly devastated. Bucky eyes sadden seeing her like that. Knowing that he did that to her by leaving. He should have explained first before just going. He knows this. But it was shocking. Still is a shock. He sets the box on the kitchen counter and then moves to her. Crouching at her side, he touches her shoulder and tries to get her to uncurl.

"Hey" he whispers, she lifts her head to look at him, her arms loosening around herself. "Breath," He tells her, his hands finding her face. "Breath for me, sweetheart" He begs, she does as he asks calming herself down. Her body relaxing, her breathing steadying, her tears stopping. She blinks a little and looks at him.

"I thought you left..." She admits, he shakes his head and then kisses her. Holding her closer to him. Showing her just what she means to him, even as a vampire, that doesn't change.

"I love you" He promises her against her lips. "I'm not going anywhere" he gives her a small smile. "I just...I needed to get some things" he kisses her forehead and then stands moving back to the box. "It's out in the open now, what you are...and..." he touches the box and closes his eyes. This is it. Sink or swim for them. "This is my....thing" He opens his eyes and looks at her as she appears at his side, they share a look.

"You don't have to tell me" She assures him, he nods.

"Yeah, I do..." He corrects. "It's time...no more secrets" he takes the lid from the box and lets out a breath. "I don't know everything myself" He admits as he pulls a folder from the box. Beneath that is his Winter Soldier uniform. Guns. Knives. Lots of things that remind him of that life. He sets the folder down and motions for Sydney to look. "My name is James Buchanan Barnes," He tells her as she opens the file. "And according to that", he points at the file. "I was born..."

"In 1917" She finishes as she reads that information. He nods. "I'm the vampire yet you are the really old one?" She asks as she looks at him, he shrugs a little. "Wait" she stops. "According to...you don't know?"

"I don't remember" He admits, she cocks her head a little. "I barely remember my name...." he continues. "And...up until a few years before I met you....my mind is...." he sighs. "It's flickers...and the things that I do remember...." He looks down. "The people that..." he takes a breath, struggling to get it out.

"These people?" she asks touching the symbol on the file. He nods.

"They...changed me," he tells her. "They...gave me my arm, they....took away my memories....turned me into an..." he clenches his jaw. "An assassin....and the things I did for them, the people I hurt....the people that I killed...." He whispers, his voice breaking with his guilt and disgust at himself. Sydney touches his arm and he pulls away from her. "No, please...." he tells her. "I can't....I'm a monster, Sydney" It breaks her heart to hear him mean that, that he truly thinks he is a monster, he is literally standing next to a vampire and he thinks he is the monster.

"Hey" she coos and pulls him closer to her, he closes his eyes. "Look at me" she begs, he shakes his head because he doesn't want to see the rejection and hatred in her eyes. But there is none there. "James" she scolds him, he opens his eyes and looks at her. "The world would call us monsters," she tells him. "But we're not" he frowns at her. "Monsters don't care about what they've done. They don't feel guilt. They don't feel love" he brushes his sleeve over his cheeks to remove his tears. "But we do" he nods a little. "I love you...and I know you love me" he nods again. "So how can we be monsters?" he leans closer and kisses her, his arm wrapping around her back to pull her closer to him.

"I do love you" he assures her. "More than anything...." she nods and hugs him, her arms tight around him, he closes his eyes and hugs her back. She is still here. She knows everything and she is still here with him. He knows that there is so much more to talk about. But he got it out, he managed to tell her. And she stayed. He presses his head to the side of hers and lets out a breath.

"It's who you are now that matters to me" She whispers to him, something she has told him time and time again but it now holds more meaning. He knows it holds more meaning. She still loves him. Even with the whole assassin thing. Even with the age thing. She still wants him in her life. He nods a little.

....................

"So who shot you?" Bucky asks from where he sits on the end of the bed, watching Sydney as she goes through her drawers looking for a clean shirt to put on.

"Hunters" she admits as she pulls on a fresh shirt. "They hunt and kill things like me" his eyes follow her as she grabs a jumper and pulls it on. "Urm...those animal attacks that were in the paper" he nods. "It was another vampire, I thought if I could find it, and get it to leave or...." she sighs. "Kill it....but they were already there, they'd already killed it....and vampires, we usually live in nests...." she looks at him.

"They were waiting for more to turn up?" he asks, she nods.

"So when I turned up....when I looked over his body...." she admits and shrugs. "They didn't even..." She stops and shakes her head. "I could have been a human that just stumbled upon the scene, but they wouldn't have known, they didn't even ask...they just assumed I was a vampire and that I was as bad as he was, but I have...I have never fed from a human...." She assures him, he nods, considering that she lives alone, with a small number of friends, that she is careful and cautious in crowds, just as he is, that she was trying to protect the people around her.

"Where are they now?" he asks her, something hardening in his eyes because these people hurt her, they shot at her intending on killing her, and that's not okay. Sydney looks down and shrugs a little. "Syd?" he asks, she sighs and looks at him.

"Dead" she answers. "I urm....killed them" He stands and touches her arm. "They shot at me and I...panicked"

"It's okay" he whispers and pulls her closer. "I would have done the same....and if you hadn't already dealt with them..." he presses his forehead to hers. "I would have killed them for hurting you" he admits quietly. "I'll kill anyone that hurts you"

"James..." She scolds a little.

"No, I know, that's not who I am any more, but for you....I'd do anything" he assures her, his hands soft on her face.

"I need to feed" she admits when she pulls back from him, veins creeping up under her eyes. "To get my strength back and being this close to you, when you smell so nice...." he chuckles and shakes his head.

...........

Sydney opens up a panel in the wall of the living room to reveal a small fridge, Bucky raises an eyebrow as she opens the door to pull out a blood bag. She looks at him and then chuckles seeing the utter clueless expression on his face.

"Hospital" She admits as she stands. "They urm...don't miss a few bags every now and then..."

"And that's fine, that keeps you going?" He asks. "There's no...I don't know, like a thing about it having to be...from the tap?" she smirks at him and shrugs.

"I don't really know how it works," She tells him. "I woke up like this...and no one was there to tell me the rules...." she shrugs a little as she pours the blood into a glass. "Kind of had to figure it out for myself...."

"Syd" he whispers.

"It's okay" she assures him. "I've had time...."

"How long?" He asks, she glances at him. "How long have you been....a vampire?"

"Nearly ten years now" She admits, he gives her a look. "Oh come on" She teases. "That's nothing, you've been around far longer than I have..."

"Well, yeah, but I don't remember it..." He counters. "And I don't have to drink blood..."

"You get used to it" she comments and shrugs a little. "And it's not that bad...." She holds out the glass to him and he pulls a face. "It keeps me alive" She pulls the glass back. "And that's good enough for me" he nods, he can see her point.

"So is there anything you like about being a vampire?" he asks her, she hums a little and takes a drink as she thinks about that. "Or is it all bad?"

"No, it's not all bad" She answers. "I'm pretty strong.....fast...." he raises and eyebrow. "How much do you weigh?" She asks him, he shrugs.

"I don't know...250...260 maybe" he answers, she nods a little and sets her glass down.

"So a woman my size shouldn't be able to lift you up" She offers, he hums and nods. She reaches out and grabs his shirt, fisting her fingers into it. "And definitely not with one hand?" She asks, he shakes his head. She lifts him up, easily, with one hand, Bucky chuckles a little and looks down at his feet which hover over the ground.

"Okay, so yeah, you're pretty strong" he agrees as she sets him down. "Explains how you broke my nose" he adds, she smirks and nods. She finishes her drink and then heads towards the bedroom, Bucky stares at the glass a moment before following her.

"You know...Before I became a vampire...I was one of them" She admits as she makes her way to the window. "My father, he trained and raised me and my brothers to be hunters, I was like them...."

"You would have asked" he scolds, she shrugs. "You would have made sure...." she gives him a small smile and nods.

"What a pair we make, huh?" He asks her as she looks out the window, she smiles to herself. "Vampire and a...sort of reformed assassin..." he sits on the bed again and chuckles a little.

"What?" she asks as she turns to face him. "What's so funny?"

"All this time, I've been worried about hurting you..." He admits. "And...I didn't need to be...." she shakes her head in agreement and then flops backwards onto their bed. "I feel like there is this weight that's been lifted...."

"Hmmm telling the truth does that" she offers as she climbs onto the bed with him. He holds out his arm for her to lay at his side.

"Those bullets..."

"Wood and vervain" she explains. "It's like a poison to my kind not enough to kill us...but weakens us enough that hunters can get in close....stake us"

she snuggles into his chest, his arm around her.

"We still have a lot to talk about" he admits, she nods in agreement. "But we're okay, right?"

"Yeah" She whispers and then kisses his cheek. "We're great" he looks at her and smiles.

"You and me, huh?" he asks her, his fingers playing with her hair.