Chapter 14 - Reunion

Harlow hadn't taken her eyes off Bucky from the backseat of the car since they drove away from the blazing warehouse.She was worried that Hydra had managed to knock her out and she was in some hazy torture-induced dream. So she watched every blink, every smile and every time Bucky's eyes met hers. She had let some traitorous tears fall into her lap when she broke eye contact with him and turned her attention to the dim street lights that ran alongside the moving car.Hydra had taken him. He was never on the plane when it sunk into the ocean. For weeks he had been their prisoner and they didn't know. By the cuts and bruises peppering his face and down the side of his neck he had been through hell and Harlow did nothing but mourn a man that was still very much alive.Harlow swallowed the hard lump that had begun to creep up into her throat."How did you escape man?" Sam grinned, the smile hadn't left his face since he first saw Bucky.Bucky chuckled, "Hydra forget, I know how they operate. I was easy to control when I still had the soldier in me but thanks to Harlow, I was able to get out" he replied with a hint of a smile, meeting her eyes again in the mirror.

Harlow could see there was something else behind his look like he was trying to communicate with her via sight alone.

What's with this lingering look? Was there something else he's not telling us? Something he didn't want to say in front of Sam?When Harlow shot him a puzzled look, he simply smirked and returned to his conversation with Sam. Harlow started to drown out both the men and rested her head against the seatbelt, the low drums of the engine grew lower as her eyes started to close. She was exhausted. She was safe with Sam and Bucky, so she let her eyes shut for a while._____________________________________________________________________________As much as Harlow wanted to sleep in the bottom of her shower for 3 days straight, they needed to check in with Fury and if Fury didn't know Bucky was alive yet, he would soon because the walk from the underground carpark to the secure meeting room was met with a flutter of gasps and shouts as if they had all seen a ghost.Harlow kept her head down the entire walk, all of the attention although not on her made her feel exposed and anxious, Bucky on the other hand looked determined. She wished her will was as strong as his but she guessed she would be the same, seeking out revenge for those who had hurt her if she was captured and tortured.They all collapsed into the uncomfortable office chairs and waited.Ten minutes later, John entered the room in a huff, annoyance clear as he was called away from his friend's bedside."Bucky?" John stood on the spot with his mouth gaped."John" Bucky nodded back, "You're well" he asked."Uh yeah, how?" John tried to form words but for once the knock-off Captain was stumped."And Lemar, how is he?" Bucky ignored his question."Getting better" John replied.Bucky moved his attention to Fury as he had appeared behind John in the doorway, if he was surprised he was alive, the man refused to show it. Both men took their seats. John chose to sit the furthest away from the group."Good of you to join us" Fury stated. "Out of all the things I expected to find in that warehouse, you weren't one of them" he continued, eyeing Bucky with a tinged of annoyance."Yeah well, think of me as a constellation prize compared to what was actually stored in that warehouse," Bucky said nonchalantly.Harlow sat grinding her teeth and putting nail-sized holes in the arm of her chair. She couldn't understand why they were both acting like this. The only person who seemed happy that Bucky was alive was Sam but everyone else? It's like the past few weeks never happened. Harlow had grieved and mourned and listened to the horrible words people had said about Bucky's death.He is a person that is trying to be better, to make up for all the horrible things Hydra made him do and people were mad that he was back to help them. That he survived.She was fucking pissed off.Just as she felt like one of her nails was going to snap and embed itself into the chair her hand was suddenly very warm. She broke her gaze from the small smudge she had been staring at on the table and looked down to find Bucky's hand holding her own. She was thankful that her chair was tucked close to the table so that the others couldn't see the small comfort he was giving her, a comfort that he deserved at that moment."Now that we've established that Bucky is very much alive, can we move on to why we're here, I have places to be" John's irritating voice cut through Harlow's thoughts."Super Soldier serum" Sam stated bluntly."And what about Super Soldier serum" John asked, clasping his hands together on the table."Hydra is making it, a lot of it" Harlow said, meeting John's eye. "Or at least they were until we burnt to the ground but that doesn't mean that they don't have more out there, somewhere" Harlow continued, "Or If they haven't administered it to other people already"."Didn't Hydra already try to make more of you and it failed?" John asked, directly addressing Bucky."Yes the test subjects that were made after me were unable to be controlled however, that was decades ago. Who's to say that with more testing, and more experiments they could be successful? I mean we already know of two cases that were successful" Bucky suddenly spoke."I managed to snag some before the building went up in flames, three viles" Sam stated, producing three blue vials from his pocket and placing them on the table in front of Fury."I don't understand how they now have the ability to make it, they haven't touched it in decades, why now" Fury added as he examined one of the vials."They've never stopped trying to perfect the serum, they're becoming desperate, if I'm given the chance to look at the serum I can see what we're working with" Harlow pipped up."Why you?" John asked, almost wanting to brush her off."Before the Blip, my family and I were working on how to perfect the serum, because my great grandfather is Arnim Zola, the creator of the serum" she added, realizing she had just given John more ammunition he could use against her."So you're basically Hydra royalty" John stated, the disgust in his voice evident.Harlow shot John a dirty look."Okay that's enough, you" Fury pointed at John, "Get out, you" he pointed at Sam, "Get that to a guarded lab, take Harlow and you" he pointed to Bucky, "Go see a damned nurse, you look like shit, dismissed".______________________________________________________________________________After being stuck in a lab all morning until the late hours of the night, Harlow dragged herself back to her room and showered. She stood in the spray for what felt like hours, she didn't get to speak to Bucky. She needed to rage at him, cry at him, hit him or kiss him. She couldn't choose, but that's what led her to take the elevator one floor down and stand out the front of his bedroom door in her standard-issue light blue matching cotton pajamas.She would decide what she would do once he opened the door. Harlow puffed up her chest, thinking of the words that were about to spew out of her mouth when the door opened.Bucky stood leaning against the open door, gripping a whiskey glass in one hand, his jeans riding low and was completely shirtless.Harlow faltered."Harlow, what can I do for you at this late hour?" he smirked, that's the second time he had done that, she noted."What you can do for me" she stated, pushing her way through the door and into his room. This had become a lot harder than she thought it would be, due to the lack of clothing and her now declining willpower. She turned on him as he shut the door,"You were captured for weeks, going through god knows what and you show up like it's not a big deal" she explains,"You're mad at the fact that I was taken" he stated bluntly, raising his eyebrows while taking a sip and setting his glass down on the counter. "You were worried about me?" he asked, stepping closer."What, no, I mean yes, we're a team, and Sam well he..." she started to say, backing up closer to the wall."I really don't want to talk about Sam right now, I don't really want to talk about anything right now, Harlow" he whispered, his breath hot against her skin.The latter, the latter, Harlow was choosing the latter.Bucky grasped Harlow's chin and smashed his lips onto hers. All her thoughts vanished, she was still mad but she didn't want to think anymore, she needed a break. A release. This time was different from the others. She'd never been kissed like this before. It was raw. It was animal. It was desperate.Bucky's arms slid around her pulling her closer, and he deepened the kiss, nipping at her bottom lip until she gasped and opened for him, allowing his tongue to slide into her mouth, and twine with her own. He smelled of soap and tasted of whisky, the spice of the drink attacked the buds on her tongue.He moved his hands further down, caressing her curves, her breath quickened as she struggled for air, wondering when he would break away, stop himself like all the times before but when she pushed further into him with a whimper, he replied with a low growl of approval. His hands made quick work of her buttoned bed shirt, pulling it from her body, she shivered fighting the urge to cover herself but she had little time to think when Bucky unattached his lips to trail kisses down the center of her chest. Harlow's hands shot into his hair, grasping and pulling with each slow caress of his mouth on her skin.Bucky paused for a moment, standing back up to lean over her. Harlow caught her breath and gazed up at him, suddenly her heart thumped.Oh no.She was falling for him.Hard.Bucky latched back onto Harlow's lips, she moaned in response. She suddenly felt the chill of Bucky's metal hand slide beneath her thigh, lifting her into his arms. He made short work of carrying her into the bedroom and laying her down on the bed. All while not taking his mouth from hers."Bucky" she whispered. He stilled, staring at her with dark eyes and that same smirk he shot her in the car ride back.As he continued with his assault on her mouth, Harlow heard the soft zip of his jeans and he pulled them down lower on his thighs. Her own hands caressed the hard edges of his sculpted body, his defined muscles rippled as he discarded his pants onto the ground below. He knelt back on his calves, sliding his hands along her loose pajama bottoms and slowly pulling them down her legs to join the other discarded clothes.Bucky was one of the most dangerous people in the world but right now, in this moment, she had never felt so safe. They had both exposed themselves in more ways than one to each other and this felt right. Harlow almost smiled at the thought that many months ago they had been in this exact position but for very different reasons.She was ready to kill him.But now?She was ready to love him, all of him."Open for me" he demanded, his voice soft but dangerous.Harlow was pulled from her thoughts.She would let him have this. He had spent a long time fighting for control so who was she to deny him?She obeyed. Harlow slowly allowed herself to relax and open her legs, they had been clenched since the moment Bucky undressed her. A small blush of embarrassment crept up the side of her neck while Bucky settled between her thighs. He hovered for a moment before he began kissing her once more. He trailed down her jaw and to her breasts, latching onto a nipple while his hand came up to gently knead her other breast, teasingly slow.She could feel him hard against the soft flesh of her thigh but before she had a second thought, he bit down on the tender skin of her breast, hard. Harlow gasped and arched her chest further into his mouth"Fuck" he groaned, kissing his way from one to the other. Harlow writhed beneath him, unable to control her body. He dipped further down and lowered his mouth to the apex of her thighs.One, long, slow stroke had almost completely made her come undone. Harlow cried out causing her to grasp onto the pillow behind her head, anything to keep her from floating away. As his tongue continued stoking her sensitive spots, he added a finger, sliding it inside of her slow and agonizing.Her body hummed with excitement as she felt that euphoric end approaching."Come for me" he growled."Please, Bucky" she begged him.He kept his pace, adding another finger inside of her, still torturing her with quick strokes of his tongue, sucking and nipping at her clit. She laced her fingers into his hair and tugged his face down further, riding his mouth. His metal hand dug into her thigh with an iron grip and would sure leave a peppering of bruises come morning. She couldn't hold back any longer. His fingers, his mouth, it all burned her skin and chilled her at the same time, so she let go.Harlow came hard, riding the aftershocks while Bucky's face was still buried between her thighs.She didn't have time to come down from her high, barely any time to open her eyes before he was at her entrance. Bucky thrust into her hard, pinning her beneath his weight. She gasped loudly, bringing her arms up and around his neck, she lifted her hips to meet his thrusts.There was nothing sweet or slow about this. Bucky fucked her fast and hard. Each thrust hit her right to the end of her core, filling her."Fuck Bucky" she moaned, he suddenly pulled back until just the tip of his cock was still inside of her and grabbed her throat with his metal hand, squeezed, and thrust back inside."I need to feel you come on my cock, Harlow" he demanded, his voice rough.Her body was humming in response to the authority in his voice. She raked her nails down his back as she felt her air supply start to leave her. She needed to come, she wanted to come and she knew Bucky wasn't far behind.He thrusted again deeply and Harlow's body shattered.Bucky surged forward one last time, his face twisted in euphoria as he came. His body collapsed on top of Harlow as he buried his face in her neck.They stayed like that for several minutes before she felt him shift out of her, his release following him. He laid down next to her and when they caught their breath, Bucky threw his arm over her waist tight, bringing her in closer."So that was the lingering look" she muttered.Bucky moved his head, she could feel his confused eyes boring into her, even with her eyes closed."Never mind" she whispered sheepishly, falling into a well-deserved sleep.______________________________________________________________________________John had been taking Lemar to his physical therapy appointments, and helping his best friend get back into fighting shape had proved difficult. Despite Lemar usually being John's voice of reason, he could also be quite stubborn at times especially when it came to his own strength. Besides Lemar's physical strength, his mental strength had been shattered as well. Forced to stay grounded at HQ and not being able to go home to his wife had brought down his mood significantly so John made sure it was his job to be by his side during his trying time.Thinking back to that day on the jet, how John was not able to help his friend and was not able to take down the people who thought that they could blow their plane from the sky.John shook with rage.These people thought that they could take away America's freedom. To try and take the life of a great American soldier who had a wife and a child at home. They needed to pay and once he got his hands on them, they would pay.John let out a huff as he stood in front of Lemar's door.Today would be a better day, Lemar, just you see.John wrapped three times on the metal door before turning the handle and letting himself in. The room mimicked his own. A standard issue self-sufficient apartment with a small living space, kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom. It looked the same as it did every other day except John didn't find Lemar waiting for his arrival on the couch with the same sour look on his face, the same one he wore every time John came to fetch him for his appointment.John turned his head toward the bedroom door to see that it was still closed. He let out a small laugh, closing the apartment door behind him."Lemar, this is a new one" he called out, making his way over to the bedroom, "Pretending to be asleep so you don't have to go isn't going to get you out of it" he slowly opened the door with a grin plastered on his face, ready to see that sour look again, the one look he had grown accustomed to.Only the look that John could see was one of horror, the look of someone's last moments etched onto the face forever.Lemar lay in bed, in a pool of blood. Dead.