Let Me Go (Book Four)

Chapter: 2

DAY: 188

Winter Soldier

She found me practicing back in an athletic department, attempting to blow off some steam again on the punching bags. There weren't that many left since most of them I had managed to tear up with my metal fist, so sand and piece of leather and foam were almost everywhere.

"I've been looking for you." she said. "Didn't know where you went off too."

Lark hopped up on the counter to my right and I stopped punching into the bag and held it to keep it from swinging. I looked over at her and she was braiding her hair over her shoulder.

"Did I wake you?" I asked her.

"No, you didn't wake me." she answered, finishing it up. "I woke up just ten minutes ago."

"Okay." I smiled at her and she smiled back at me.

"How long have you been working out here?"

" 'Bout an hour or more." I answered her, letting the bag go. I stepped away from it and Lark tossed me my waterbottle from the counter.

She hopped down and popped her fingers and knuckles. "Want to go one round? Hand to hand, no weapons, no cheating. First one to pin the other one to the ground wins."

"You are on." I tossed my waterbottle to the side and walked out to the open space we'd made for wrestling and a few other things. They had some mats that we could use but they didn't help all too much with the bruising we were still getting from hitting the floor.

Lark stood across from me and took a stand, bending her legs and putting up her arms. I took the same.

"Ready?" I asked her.

"Ready." she grinned and I saw a spark in her eyes.

Lark moved first, but she didn't trying to strike, she just made it look like she was. Which caught me off guard enough to let her quickly slide past behind me, swing her arms around my neck and swing herself around, dragging me down to the floor where she pinned me.

"I win." she said, straddling my hips.

"You cheated." I said.

"No, I didn't." she said back with a laugh. Lark had her hands on either sides of my head, she was leaning down over me. "I won fair and square. All I did was use the element of surprise, which I see actually works on you."

I sat up on my hands and she sat back. "I must have taught you well, then." I said.

"Probably." she answered back.

I leaned against one hand as I put my hand against her cheek and pulled her close, kissing her. She willingly moved closer to me and kissed back, then she pulled away and took my hand away from her cheek and looked at it. Our hands pressed together and then our fingers entertwined slowly. I couldn't feel it, I could only imagine what it felt like for her to touch my hand that way. I watched her eyes, the way they studied, observed and concentrated. But I could also see concern and pain in her eyes, it was always there. The knew the pain was of her thinking of what her own father did to her at least a month back. She would still wake up from nightmares.

"Lark." I said her name quietly and she turned to me. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing." she shook her head and pulled my hand to her lips, kissed it once. "Nothing at all."

"You know that you can tell me anything, right?"

"I know." she said. She let go of my hand and dropped her eyes. "It's just that, um, when I woke up tonight, you weren't there." She looked up at me with glassy eyes and she didn't have to say anything else for me to know what happened.

"Lark, you should have said something." I said softly.

"I didn't wake up ten minutes ago, I woke up an hour ago." she told me. "And I just sat there, by myself, trying stop crying and trying to keep myself calm."

"What was it about? Can you tell me?"

"About my brother and sister. I watched me die over and over again, only it was done by the hands of my dad, he was cutting into their chests and pulling out-" she stopped and took a breathe. "There was blood everywhere. And it kept replaying over and over again."

"You should have said something first, before we did all of this." I said. I sat up all the way and took her hands in mine. "I could have helped you if you had come to me sooner."

"I know. I know, I'm stupid." she said, she bit her bottom lip. "I was just trying to see if I could handle it on my own."

Lark and I went back to our little corner of the mall. I knew that going back was probably a better idea than staying awake any later than I already had, I was beat and I knew Lark needed sleep more than I did. She barley got any rest as it was, she was always terrified of falling asleep, fearing she'd dream up something terrible or gruesome.

Instead of sleeping I just held onto her and kept her close to me. I knew by the way she held onto me that she was tired and scared, though she kept nodding off over and over again as we sat there. Finally I lifted her up into my arms and carried her over to a little nook that's piled with blankets and pillows that we managed to save for ourselves. I laid her down and pulled one of the blankets over her body, I kissed her forehead gently and sat down on the floor beside her.

She was silent, still and looked peaceful. But knew that it would short lived. But I'd be there, right beside her. Through anything. And that was a promise that I was going to keep, I reminded myself of it every day. I'd be there for her no matter what. If she turned me away, it didn't matter, if she hated me, I wouldn't care. If she never wanted to see me again, I'd have her back from a distance. I promised her I'd be there, I promised her a lot of things. Not all of them I could keep, not all of them I would live up to, but this was one that I would surely honor.

I wasn't going to leave her.

Target was locked in sight. Two hundred meters North-West, slow pace, low artillery and little combat skill. This was all judging from a single glance to a man who was outside of a store smoking a cigarette. I knew that he worked for Hydra, it was obvious by how he held himself standing there.

I was on a rooftop, scoping out the street with a sniper. My hands goes to move my hair back behind my ear, but then I realiezed, it wasn't there. Not long after Lark died I cut it off, got rid of the long hair that reminded me too much of her, going more with something modern day. I don't know why it was such a big deal for me, but it was something that kept reminding me of her.

I fit on my mask and aimed the gun down towards the man, preparing to shoot. I noticed that on his left temple there was a tattoo of a skull. The tenticles were around it. The tattoo was red and prominent, the man was bald and appeared to be on guard of something. But I didn't have time, it was either shoot or release him. Either way, it would help me to Hydra. To Alexander Treadwatter and to Jack Winchester. All of which I would end.

Personally.