How do you heal?

Chapter 35: This Is a Joke, Right?

After leaving the café Annie and Alex had driven around in circles trying to ditch the sleek black car that had been following them. After several times of being sure they had lost the tail only for it to show back up Annie had dumped her purse and found a small black disc that she didn't recognize. Alex pulled into a small gas station and Annie got out of the car, heading inside. She dropped the little disc in the bathroom and headed out the other side of the building to where Alex had pulled around and they left down the small backstreet heading to the local police office to file a report. Several hours later when they got to the house as Alex went outside to feed her feral cats Annie checked her phone to see dozens of missed calls from Sam. She must have forgotten to turn the ringer back on after the flight and with the following events she never even thought to check it. She walked into her bedroom heading for her safe as she dialed Sam back.

"Annie, are you okay, why haven't you been answering?" Sam said frantically as he picked up the phone.

Annie punched the code into the safe and popped it open. "I'm fine other than some creepy old guy following me and Alex around. I forgot to turn my ringer on after I got off the plane. What's wrong?"

Annie heard a rustling before Sam replied. "You're on speaker, I'm with Cap. What do you mean you were being followed? And what plane, are you in Ohio?"

Annie stood and walked over to the dresser, beginning to load bullets into the magazine of the 9mm. She didn't think the creep would be able to find her but the police had told her to stay on alert as human trafficking was on the rise in the area. "Yeah, I'm in Ohio. I landed this morning and bumped into some guy at the airport. Didn't think anything of it but I saw him at the cafe Alex and I stopped at and kinda freaked out. Turns out I was right to, he'd dropped a tracker in my purse. We already went to the cops. But, Sam, what's going on, why did you call me a million times?"

It was the Captain who replied. "Annie, Bucky is missing and the UN meeting was bombed. Authorities think he did it."

"What?" Annie said shakily, not fully comprehending what Steve had just told her.

"The timeline is close but Sam hasn't seen him since the funeral ended about four hours ago. He left his phone here and there are photos of him outside of the UN building. Sam, Sharon and I are about to get on a plane to head to Vienna to see if we can find him, it's the best lead we have as of right now unless you've heard from him?"

Annie didn't know who Sharon was but that seemed to be unimportant at the moment. "No, like I said my ringer was off and all my missed calls were from Sam but, Steve, you know he wouldn't do this right? It makes no sense." Bucky was against the accords but he didn't feel strongly enough about it that he would do this. I mean he was the one who suggested they move, he was getting out.

"I know. We are going to figure out what is going on just please tell us immediately if you hear from him." Steve said.

"Sure thing." Annie replied softly and hung up. She walked into the kitchen to tell Alex what was going on to find her friend entering from the back sliding door and whisper shouting at a sleek black cat that was trying to enter the house.

"I told you it's just a few days, I'll let you in later!"

Annie opened her mouth to ask what was going on when she heard a pounding on the front window. On edge she whirled and raised her gun taking aim at...Pietro? She walked to the front door and opened it, ushering him inside. "What are you doing here?"

"Sam couldn't get a hold of you so he called me and told me to find you. Do you seriously own a gun?" Pietro said with a cheeky grin as he entered.

"Ohio is a red state, I would say most people here have guns." With all the travel and accords drama Annie had only told Bucky and those staying at the compound she was coming here. "How'd you get this address?"

"I raided your desk and found your address book. Do you even know how to use this thing?" He replied, a blue blur entered her vision and he was sitting at the kitchen table with her gun in front of him as he held his hand out to Alex who he was now sitting next to. "I'm Pietro, nice to meet you."

Alex held out her right hand, shaking Pietros and leaned in. Stealthily, and against Pietro, surprisingly quickly she grabbed the gun. Standing, removing the magazine and emptying the chamber she looked between Annie and Pietro. "Like she said, Road Runner, it's a red state. Guns are kind of big around here. Now does someone want to tell me what is going on?"

Bucky had arrived in Bucharest after driving for twenty-seven hours straight. When he had arrived he went right to the address he had been given to see it was a market. He looked around unsure of what to do next, having left his phone on the bed in the hopes that Steve and Sam would look through it and see the message. He wasn't sure they would be able to find him but it was better than nothing in his mind. Hungry after driving for a day straight and with no further instruction he began to search the market for something to eat. As he spoke with a fruit vendor he could sense someone staring at him and he looked over his shoulder to see a newspaper vendor with eyes locked on him. With no other ideas he began walking towards the man hoping he might be the next step. As he got closer he watched the vendor look at the paper in his hands and then back to him before exiting the stall and running away. Bucky walked to the stall and picked up the paper the man had left to see his face under a headline about the accords signing being bombed.