Saving Grace

Chapter LXV

The Soldier stood still as a statue, watching his Shadow from behind a large plate glass mirror. On her side, it was just a wall of mirrors. On his side, out in the hallway, it was a huge window into the room. She sat in a corner with her knees up to her chin, looking very small, fragile, and lost. It had been two days since they had pulled her from the rest of the recruitment group (AKA prisoners of war) and left her alone in that room.

He knew it would soon become her personal training room. Nearly everything would happen in that room, besides sleeping; lessons in languages, etiquette, dance, hand to hand combat, all her meals. It would be several months before they got her up to how to work a room, how to appear and disappear within a crowd, how to fire several types of weapons.

The biggest lesson, however, had already started: complete, unquestioning obedience.

She sported several cuts and bruises from the last two days of fighting her handlers every time they tried to work with her.

He did not like it.

Something could not name burned deep in his chest every time he came to watch her progress and saw a new injury on her body. It........did not sit right with him. She should not have such injuries on her person. She was his Shadow. His asset. His girl. They had no right to..........

He mentally shook himself of such traitorous thoughts. He was having more and more of them over the......last two days..........ever since she came.....ever since he looked at her through the window of the holding room and just knew she belonged with him. She was his. His........... He was not sure what.......

Suddenly she stood and began pacing, her hand clasped tightly at her waist, so hard that her knuckles were turning white.

He knew someone who did that...who would hold their hands like that when scared or nervous..........

She started whispering to herself. Praying maybe. Not that it would do her any good here in HYDRA.

Her voice washed over him.......and he recognized it. He knew that voice.

He knew her voice...as if he had always known it. He knew her as if he had always known her. As if she was his...belong to him - no - with him somehow......... Everything about her screamed to him that he knew her....her golden curls, baby blue eyes, petite frame, graceful walk..........

Ghostly images of the girl floated through his mind, but he could not be sure if they were memories or daydreams. She was cooking.....dancing...............mending a man's shirt.........smiling as a thin, short blonde man gave her a pale pink rose for her birthday........he waved good-bye to her as she boarded a ship...she was wearing a helmet................

Since she only just arrived two days ago, they must be daydreams....right? They could not be memories, could they?

Questions and images of him and the girl whirled around his head bringing up even more questions and images. Finally, he could not take it another second.

Knowing he would be punished for entering without permission, he strode quickly to the door and, when he discovered it was locked, kicked the door in.

Startled, the young woman screamed and whirled toward the sound. He stood in the doorway silent and staring.

As soon as their eyes met, her expression morphed into a combination of relief and surprise.

"Bucky!" she cried and ran to him with her arms outstretched.

The one word brought an onslaught of memories and stabbing pain to his head. "Grace! My Babydoll!" he gasped the words tumbling from his lips. He immediately crushed her to his chest, only for guards, alerted by the crashing door and Grace's scream, to arrive and pull them apart.

"Fight them, Grace!" he cried as they dragged him away for "reconditioning". "Never stop fighting them!"

Bucky started awake in his bed in Avenger's Tower, gasping for air and covered in sweat as if he had just finished multiple marathons. It was a memory-dream. So real and vivid that it was like he had gone back in time to relive the events.

It was the first time he had recognized Grace in captivity. In the end, he always ended up recognizing and remembering her, which was why they had switched to training her separately instead of together. In fact, he was fairly sure that this was the longest time they had been together, and he did not remember her. But if he remembered once before, he could remember again.