Come Back With Me

Why Would They Take Her?

He goes over to the board and rips it up. He reaches down and pulls out a small, but devastating explosive.

He nearly drops it out of shock because he knows this particular explosive. Soviet made and the choice explosive of The Winter Soldier. How many times has his hand set up this very bomb?

He places it gently on the porch and runs inside to grab a kitchen knife. It takes him about thirty seconds to disable the bomb.

Steve runs up to meet Bucky on the porch.

"Is that a bomb?" Steve yells.

Bucky doesn't have time to talk to Steve. Each second The Winter Soldier has Lizzie, the smaller the chance of him ever getting her back gets.

Bucky tosses the disabled explosive towards Steve and he catches it on instinct.

"It was a bomb," Bucky says as he shoulders past Steve.

Steve could tell something was seriously wrong and he needed answers now.

"Why was there a bomb under your porch? And where is Liz?" Steve demands.

Bucky walks over to the trees and finds a locked wooden box. He opens it up and finds his firearms protected in a waterproof cover. He takes them out every once awhile to make sure they are still in good condition.

He grabs two handguns and slings a rifle across his back. The whole time, Steve is following him around and demanding answers. Each question is followed with silence.

Based off of Bucky's actions, Steve knows what's wrong but he needs Bucky to confirm the horrible truth.

The whole time Bucky is getting his gear together, he is planning. He knows that Steve and Peggy will take care of the twins just like him and Lizzie would take care of Sarah if the situation were reversed. He knows his boys will be taken care of so he keeps all his focus on finding his wife.

Steve blocks Bucky's way to the garage and Bucky is seconds away from knocking his brother-in-law out but he knows Steve is scared. If he gives Steve a few answers, he can get on with his mission.

"Ellie is missing. I dont know for how long. All I know is I found her wedding ring on the floor. I found an explosive under the porch that I am incredibly familiar with because it was used regularly by The Winter Soldier. I could assemble and disassemble that particular explosive in my sleep," he says.

Steve comes to the same conclusion that Bucky did.

Hydra took Lizzie.

The Winter Soldier took Lizzie.

"Why would they take her? Sure, she's smart but not exactly the type of asset that Hydra would want. If The Winter Soldier was in the house, why'd they take her and not you or the twins?" He asks.

Bucky was done with his questions. If Steve won't move Bucky will make him move.

"I don't know, Steve! The more time I waste, the further out of my reach she becomes, so either help me or get the hell out of my way,"
Bucky says aggressively.

Steve moves and Bucky shoves past him and into the garage.

He throws his pack on the back of his motorcycle. Lizzie original disproved of the bike but after some begging, she finally bought him one for his birthday. He's really glad she did now.

Steve wants to update Peggy on what's going on but Bucky is going to leave with or without him. Steve knows that he needs to help if it's his sister's life on the line.

Steve sprints to his garage and starts up his similar motorcycle. He takes off after Bucky who has already head down the road.

Bucky follows the long dirt road that leads down to their house. When dirt turns to concrete, he takes notice of the tracks that the tires left with the dirt from the road. There's a lot of marks to the right which is the direction Lizzie takes to work. However, there is one fresh mark that goes left. Bucky knows that if he continues to drive left, he will reach a bunch of warehouses.

He slows down as the trail gets lighter and lighter. There is only a few warehouses near the area where the trail runs out. He searches the first two warehouses and finds nothing.

At the third warehouse, he notices a partial footprint made with what looks to be blood. He knows it must be Lizzie's. The Winter Soldier would care less if she had shoes on or not when he took her and the warehouse is filled with things someone could easily cut their skin on.

He walks inside and finds a single table with two chairs. He is so relieved to see that there is no evidence of torcher. He figured that she told The Winter Soldier whatever he wanted to know because he probably threatened her with the bomb hidden in the house.

The question is, what information did they want from her? Was it information about him and Steve? Somehow he knows that that is not the case. If they were going after himself or Steve, they would have sent a full team in after them.

No, for some reason, Hydra wanted Lizzie and it wasn't because of her relationship with him or Steve.

He takes out a map and spreads it out on the table. He has taken note of every landing strip, train station, or bus stop in the state of New York. It was in his nature to prepare contingencies and he has been planning escape routes for months in case Hydra ever did catch up with them.

If he was still The Winter Soldier, he knows that if he was ordered to bring someone to the base, his first instinct would be to get them in the air.

He sees that the closest landing strip is less than half a mile away.

Steve continues to follow Bucky around but he doesn't say a word. He knows that Bucky is much more experienced in tracking and the fact that he is also tracking himself gives him an additional edge.

After the brief stop at the warehouse, Bucky is back on the motorcycle. Steve follows closely behind him until they pull up to the landing strip. Bucky barely has the motorcycle in park before he is jumping off of it.

Bucky sees one of the most demoralizing and heart breaking sights he's ever seen in his entire life.

Their car is sitting in front of the airstrip completely abandoned.

Bucky falls to his knees in defeat and punches the ground with his left fist until there is a size able chunk missing from the concrete.

If Steve didn't already know that Lizzie was gone by their twin connection, there was no doubt now with how his friend was reacting.

The Winter Soldier got her in the air and that means it's going to be next to impossible to get her. There are several hydra bases that he could take her to and all of them are heavily fortified.

He wants to leave this instant and tear apart every base until they are all just ruble but he knows he can't.

It's not just him anymore, he has two sons to worry about too. He can't just walk into hydra half cocked and hope for the best.

He will stop at nothing to get his wife back but he needs to be smart about it. He needs to play this right or he'll never get her back.

He will get her back because he doesn't know what he will turn into if he doesn't.