Tell Barney to stop looking at you because he needs to do some fucking work - Flippy

Charlie looked up at her computer screen as she heard the sound of an IM message being delivered. She couldn't help but laugh when she read Felipe's message, and when she looked up, she could see Barney wasn't exactly concentrating on his work. Felipe wasn't either, but for an entirely different reason. He was scowling at the long blond hair, every so often looking to Charlie and shooting her a do something look.

Concentrate. - Charles

You're distracting. - Dinosaur

I don't care. Felipe is going to kill you if you don't start now. - Charles

Whoops - Dinosaur


She rolled her eyes and started working again, smiling a little. If she was honest, she liked the attention. She liked the thought of someone paying attention to her. She hadn't felt affection from anyone in over six years, unless the Soldier was counted. But he didn't count, because for those four years she'd worked with him, she'd had to keep things strictly professional. Occasionally he would grab at her hand in confusion, or murmur something that sounded like a compliment, but other than that, they rarely stretched further than Doctor and Patient.

With Barney it was different. She didn't have to be afraid of the consequences. She didn't have to worry that at any moment he would snap and kill her. He was like the Soldier after a wiping, but all the time. With the soft blond hair and the charming, boyish smile that he obviously hadn't managed to shed through puberty, he reminded her of a Golden Retriever puppy. He was simple. He was Barney. There was none of the confusion or pain that she'd felt whenever she looked at the Soldier. She didn't have the urge to protect Barney, or defend him. She didn't feel guilty whenever she looked at him. And he never had to look at her like she was the only thing making sense to him.

That was what she'd hated about the Soldier. She didn't want to be someone he felt he could depend on, even for those thirty minute sessions together. She hated the feeling of responsibility - what if she let him down? At least with Barney she didn't have to feel responsible for him.

As she worked, she heard one of the lab technicians wander in, and the door close behind them with a click. They were probably delivering another case file. She kept her head down, ignoring the next message from Barney.

Thirty seconds later, she wished she hadn't.

Gunfire exploded across the room, and with a scream she dropped behind her desk. There was a moment of silence, punctuated only by slow, self assured footsteps.

Charlie trembled below her desk, letting her head fall back against the cold metal as nausea swept over her. She knew what this was. She knew exactly what this was. They'd found her. Hydra were cutting off all the loose threads, so that no-one could pull on them and unravel the whole jumper.

Stop with the analogy. Charlie told herself, opening her eyes as the footsteps continued, and another bullet was fired. You have to move, now.

Slowly, she raised her head just above the desk to see what was happening. He was stood over one of the intern's desks, evaluating the body. Realising that it wasn't who he was looking for, he moved to the next desk, firing once again. The sound of the bullet cracking through the air shocked Charlie into moving. She crawled around the side of her desk so she was under a spare one, looking over to see Felipe doing exactly the same thing, clutching some crumpled paper in one hand.

When he raised his head to look at her, she could see the tear tracks that stained his skin.



"You're sure this is the right office?" Bucky asked, peering up at the building. IG Corps were a biological and psychological research company, who mainly dealt with shell shocked victims and people suffered with PTSD. They were trying to improve the drugs used to help victims, but progress was slow.

"Perfectly sure. Got the information from Stark." Sam assured him, glancing at him in the rear view mirror. Bucky nodded, tapping his hands on his knee.

"So what are we doing here, waiting for her to come out of work and then grab her?" He asked. There was no verbal reply, but he took the sudden definition of Steve's jaw as he clenched it to mean yes.

Sam was about to put the radio on for some form of entertainment on their stakeout when alarms started inside the building. All three men froze for a few seconds in shock. Bucky was the first to react, reaching forwards to the glove compartment and pulling out the pistol they'd stowed there.

"It's them. It's Hydra." He grunted, checking the magazine. "They've found her."



Charlie kept moving, weaving her way past spare desks until she was in the corner, opposite Carol, who didn't seem to notice she was there. Her eyes were closed and she was knelt with her hands clutching at the cross around her neck, her lips moving in silent prayer.

That's not going to help you now. Charlie wanted to tell her, but instead, as she heard the footsteps getting closer, she shifted out of the hollow of the desk so that she was behind it. If anyone crouched down to look if she was hiding underneath the desk, they wouldn't see her.

The footsteps continued to advance, and Charlie closed her eyes, shaking as Carol's silent prayers developed into terrified whimpers. There was a scream which turned into a sob, one gunshot, and then silence. Charlie stuffed her hand into her mouth to stifle the scream that threatened to give her away, biting into the flesh so hard that she was drawing blood. She squeezed her eyes shut, holding her breath for a painfully long ten counts before pulling her hand away from her mouth, smearing the blood and exhaling.

She checked to see where the assassin had moved, and made the mistake of crawling out right opposite Carol's body. She froze for a few moments, staring at the lifeless body, watching as the blood pooled around her co-worker's head.

Dumbly, Charlie realised that someone had set off the alarm in the building. That did absolutely nothing to calm her nerves.

Someone, presumably one of the other interns who was still alive, made a break for the door, screaming and banging at the glass. The assassin moved quickly, and Charlie used the distraction to keep moving across the room.

"Charlie."

The voice was barely above a whisper, but as she crawled towards the cupboard, she heard her name and turned. Barney was crouched under a desk. The two of them paused in the silence, staring at each other in silent horror when they heard another gunshot.

Doing the maths in her head, Charlie realised with a sickening sweep of nausea that Felipe was dead.



Bucky paused down the corridor. "Did you hear that?"

Sam shook his head. "I can't hear anything over this alarm."

"No, he's right. That was a gunshot." Steve pointed to the left. "It came from over there."



She crawled into the desk, hugging her knees to her chest and staring at Barney. They were the only two people, other than the assassin, who were left alive in the room. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she rocked back and forth. She didn't want to die like this. Not like this, being picked off by an assassin while she cowered in fear. Not after her friends had all been executed.

The footsteps were faint at the other end of the room as the assassin checked the desks methodically. Barney motioned to her to get her attention, whispering so quietly she had to strain to hear him.

"I think there's a back door out of the lab. If we run now we can make it."

She didn't trust herself to speak, instead shaking her head violently. The door would be locked. He would have seen to it that it was locked before he came in. All ways in or out of the room were sealed off. They were trapped in here. They were going to die in here.

For a few seconds the two of them crouched in silence, with Barney trying to plead with her. Charlie counted a full thirty seconds before Barney whispered "I'm so sorry." And made a break for the lab.

He barely made it ten feet before he was shot in the back, hitting the floor with a very resounding thud. Her rocking became more violent as she pressed her forehead into her knees, trying to stop the sobs that threatened to wrack her body.

The footsteps moved closer, still with that same slow, confident gait. Terror took over, and Charlie scrambled out from behind the desk, crawling out in between a few of the desks to get closer to the door of the lab. After a few seconds of waiting, she ran.
It didn’t take long – maybe ten seconds – for the assassin to fire. Burning white pain shot through her right arm, and she dropped, rolling to the floor and grabbing at the now bleeding wound.
The assassin approached slowly, gun aloft.


“What the hell are you doing?” Steve snapped, watching as Bucky pushed the grate of the air vent away and hauled himself up. He didn’t get a reply, but when they heard another gunshot Bucky began moving faster, scrambling up into the airvent and crawling through.


Charlie tried to move away from the assassin, pushing herself backwards on her one good arm, but she knew it was no use. They paused to reload, and she squeezed both eyes shut, whimpering pitifully, waiting for the inevitable.
This would have been the end for her back in Hydra anyway. With the Winter Soldier missing in action, they would have found no use for her services. In fact they probably would have blamed her for the fault in their glorious weapon. It was her job to make sure he didn’t feel anything. And she’d failed.

And now she was going to die.

The assassin paused, confused, as a scraping and bumping could be heard from overhead. Another bump and a crash later, and Bucky landed gracefully in the room between Charlie and her would be killer.

Taking the distraction, she crawled behind a desk off to her right, hugging her arm as she rocked back and forth, tears rolling freely down her cheeks past her closed eyes. This was what she’d been afraid of. This was what she’d been trying to avoid. She didn’t want to get close to people so they wouldn’t get hurt, and now all of her friends were dead.

There was another gunshot that she barely registered, and then someone was calling to her, gently shaking her.

“Doc, can you hear me?”

She shook her head, refusing to look at her saviour.

But…

She recognised that voice.

“Doc?”

Slowly, she opened her eyes. He was blurred because of her tears, but it was the Winter Soldier. Fear clogged up her throat, and she tried to move away (to no avail). “No, please. Please don’t. Please…”

“Doc, I’m not going to hurt you.” Bucky promised. “But I have to get you out of here. Hydra sent him, and they’re going to send more people after you. Do you understand me? Doc? Can you hear me?”

Charlie moaned, pitching forwards towards Bucky’s chest. He grabbed hold of her to steady her, and put one arm around her waist, hauling her to her feet so she could walk with him. The body of the assassin lay sprawled out in the middle of the floor, just underneath the grate Bucky had hopped through. He led her down the gangway between desks, and past another body.

“Don’t look.” He ordered, but a mixture of morbid fascination and guilt got the better of her. As Bucky led her through the room, she glanced down, and wished she hadn’t.

Barney was on the floor, his glasses smashed from where he’d fallen, bits of broken glass and metal cutting into his handsome features. His light blond hair fanned out around his face like some kind of morbid halo, marred with dark blood which was starting to congeal.

Bucky tugged her sharply upright as she started to lean heavily away from him and towards the body they’d passed. “I said don’t look.”

She couldn’t even apologise. She didn’t know what was happening to her. All she knew was that she could smell blood, and she could feel something wet on her fingers.

Bucky continued to move her, until they passed another body. Charlie realised with a jolt that it was Felipe, who was propped up against his desk, his head tipping to one side, blood seeping down the bridge of his nose from the hole in his skull. She looked down to see what he’d been clasping in his hand when she’d last seen him, and felt another sweep of nausea. The baby scan, which he’d gotten not that long ago, was crumpled up in his right fist.

She couldn’t help herself, she pitched forwards, surprising Bucky, and threw up. He grabbed her around the waist with both hands in an attempt to steady her, and stepped back a little while she continued to retch in his arms. When she was done, she leaned back against him, her legs barely supporting her.

She only just managed to register what was going on around her as the Soldier walked her through her old office. When she realised she was passing her desk, she struggled to push out of the circle of his arms. He obliged, allowing her to stumble to her desk. She wanted to see the last message she’d received before all hell had broken loose. She wanted to read the last thing Barney had sent to her before he’d died.

Get down. He’s got a gun. - Dinosaur

Notes