Leave Me Bleeding [Winter Soldier] I

Change of Heart [Chapter 18]

                 She looked solemnly at him, seeing the pleading in his eyes and knowing she had to tell him even if it pained them both. It took her a few moments to collect the thoughts and collect herself, then she told h

                "When they found him, they gave him that metal arm; his had been severed in the fall." She explained how she had been given time to talk to him, to abuse his amnesia and try to trick him, but he had humanity in him and he knew better. She told him about the time he was sent after her, and how he let her go when he remembered her. She told Steve everything that he would want to hear, and tried to skim over the details that pained her to think about. They were all bittersweet memories. 

                "So there is a chance he can come back from this...?"

                "I don't know anymore. I cannot link with him, that was how I got him to remember those other times... but this time.... I'm not so sure."

                "I won't give up on him."

                "Neither will I."

                "Do you love him?" He asked the question quickly, but there was a lot of weight behind it. In his eyes there was hope; it revealed to Ophelia that Steve hoped Bucky hadn't always been this way since captured, but that he had gotten a glimmer of light here and there because of her.

                "How would I know?" Ophelia cocked her head to the side.

                Steve smiled; a perfect smile. People would fall over his charm if it was tangible, but Ophelia simply saw a good person and a kind heart. Sort of how Bucky was before they changed him, but she did feel differently about Bucky than she did with Steve. It was that spark inside of her that had been created a long time ago, in a dark and desolate place. Despite efforts by HYDRA to douse the flame, it burned throughout the years and still burned now. Ophelia wondered if that was what love was supposed to feel like, she was learning a whole new spectrum of emotions, ones that she liked feeling. 

                "You care enough about him to help us, to risk your life for him..." Steve brought her out of her thoughts.

                "Is that what love is?" she asked, curious as ever.

                "Something like that." He chuckled. "I actually don't really know the feeling either. I used to."

                Ophelia pondered that for a moment, wondering if that was what she felt for Bucky. Perhaps she had loved Bucky, but he was not Bucky anymore. She had to face that fact that right now he was The Winter Soldier, and she couldn't love him. She just couldn't. That made all of this a lot more painful. But if love was what she was feeling inside of her, that flame, then she would do anything she could to retrieve Bucky from the Winter Soldier. HYDRA could not put out the fire inside of her, but by giving up she would be doing it herself. 

                "You're coming with us," Steve said suddenly, startling Ophelia. From down the hall, Natasha and Sam were making their way towards Ophelia and Steve. "To SHIELD. Bucky is going to be our biggest threat, I have no doubt, and I think you can stop him. You are valuable in many ways, Ophelia."

                "I'll need your help," Ophelia stated, her eyes glancing up at Natasha and Sam as they joined Steve. "I'll need all of your help."

                "We need yours," Natasha said. There was something in Natasha's eyes; she understood Ophelia and her change of heart because she too had been in a similar situation. "You know HYDRA. You know how they work. And you know the Winter Soldier."