Winter Soldier's Soulmate Ch. 04

Lucy woke up with a start, she made to move and speak, but a hand covered her mouth, keeping her quiet. She looked up with fearful eyes to see Bucky crouching above her. He was in a push-up stance with his arms on either side of her head and his legs covering hers. He kept his weight off of her and wasn't really touching her, except for the hand over her mouth, but he was within a hair's breadth. Every time she took in a breath of air, her breasts brushed against his muscled chest.

Bucky wasn't looking at her; he was scanning the windows of the car, looking for something.

Lucy's heart rate picked up, and she couldn't help the slight whimper of fear that escaped her mouth that was then muffled by Bucky's hand. His eyes flicked down to her face then went back to scanning. He lowered his body another inch until his form was against hers. From chest down to knees. He wasn't heavy because he was still holding his weight, but the comfort of his body over hers helped ease some of her fear.

Lucy's hands crept up from where they lay at her sides, moving slowly so as not to make a sound. She pushed them between Bucky and her own body until she could center them between their chests. She lay one against his heart. She felt the steady, unhurried pound.

If Bucky was this relaxed, she could be too. She closed her eyes and sucked in a long breath through her nose, filling herself with air. She then released it in a slow stream, letting all her tension exit with the exhale.

She needed to trust Bucky.

******

Bucky felt Lucy relax under him. He was impressed by her ability to let go of her tension when there was obvious danger around. She was alert but not in fight or flight like she had been a minute ago. His eyes stayed focused on the man walking through the woods roughly thirty yards away.

He looked like an innocent fisherman, headed towards the creek, but Bucky knew better. He would have been alerted by one of his traps. This man had crept up silent as a mouse. His one mistake was the fishing gear itself. It made him bulkier, which meant he brushed up against a few trees on his way through, causing the bark to fall. Bucky had woken within an instant upon hearing the first tumble of bark. He had rolled instinctively on top of Lucy, shielding her from view. She had been woken up by his movement.

His right hand still covered her mouth in a light grip. It was his only way of signaling to her that she needed to be absolutely quiet. Her hands moving had worried him, but she had done so silently and pulled them, so they were resting against his chest. If he wasn't so focused on keeping them alive, he might have taken a trip down memory lane to remember the last time he had been on top of a dame.

Bucky watched as the "fisherman" made his way closer and closer to the vehicle. To the untrained eye, it looked like he was just meandering, but Bucky could see the purposeful way he put as many trees as possible between himself and the SUV as he moved.

Bucky removed his right hand from around Lucy's mouth and inched it down his side to grab the handgun in his side holster. He pulled it out carefully and lifted his body enough to hand it to Lucy. Lucy took it with shaking fingers. He put his finger to her lips before grabbing another handgun out of his shoulder holster. He flipped the safety off as he moved. Bucky shifted slowly off of her making sure to keep Lucy shielded by his body from the attacker.

There was no way to exit the car without making noise, meaning Bucky would have to be quick. He looked behind him and signaled Lucy to move towards the back of the vehicle and stay low. She shimmied her way back holding the gun like it was a bomb. He would have to teach her how to shoot after this danger was gone.

He moved towards the right-hand side door, the same side the fake fisherman was on. The assailant was only ten yards away.

Bucky got in position, then moved like lightning. He popped the door open and fired. The man ducked behind a tree, but Bucky had been expecting that so he flung himself out of the car and rolled. He pulled himself up into a crouching position again that put him at a different angle to the tree and fired again. The bullet hit; right between that man's eyes. This all took about 5 seconds.

He didn't stop to look at the body; where there was one, there were always more. Bucky slammed the side door shut, leaped over the hood and jumped into the driver's seat. He started the car and took off. He looked in the rearview mirror to see Lucy lying on the floor of the trunk shivering. He didn't have time to comfort her right now. She would have to console herself this time. Bucky's stomach flipped in guilt that he couldn't do more.

He shook off the feeling and focused on keeping them alive, that was more important.

He tore down the back roads, spitting dirt and gravel. He moved the car with precision and skill, keeping the vehicle under control even at 70 miles-per-hour on gravel.

They made it onto asphalt and Bucky pushed his foot down harder on the gas pedal. They roared down the road at close to 110 mph. Bucky swerved past cars, receiving honks, but he didn't care. He wanted to put distance between them and any pursuers first. Then he would blend in.

Within thirty minutes of twists and turns, Bucky got them back on the highway and slowed down a little. He kept moving but didn't drive as recklessly as before.

*****

Lucy slowly sat up once they were on the highway and moved towards the front. With shaking fingers, she carefully set the gun on the front seat.

She had grown up in a redneck community, so she was not unfamiliar with people owning guns, but she had never held a gun before. Her father didn't believe in owning them, not after her grandfather's experience in the Vietnam war. She put up one of the seats in the back and sat in it with a heavy sigh. Her body was still trembling with adrenalin.

Lucy had been terrified that Bucky would be harmed or killed. Surprisingly she hadn't been worried about herself. If Bucky had been injured trying to protect her, she would never forgive herself. Now wasn't that an interesting thought.

She couldn't figure out why she cared so much for his well being, just that she did.

Lucy looked up when she felt the car slow down. She saw that Bucky was pulling off of the highway. He pulled into a gas station and got out. Lucy stayed where she was. Lucy heard the click of the gas and heard the car start to fill up. She wasn't looking though, just staring straight ahead.

She was surprised when the door next to her popped open. Lucy looked up into Bucky's face. He tentatively held his arms out to her, and she took the offered gesture. She got shakily out of the car and allowed him to wrap his arms around her and hold her to him. She buried her nose in his chest, taking in his scent.

A few tears fell from her eyes, but he didn't seem to notice, or, if he did, care that she was getting his shirt wet. He just held on until the pump clicked off. He let go and pulled it out before tucking Lucy in the front seat. She noticed the gun was gone and was very thankful Bucky had moved it.

Bucky got back in the driver's seat, and they were off again. After about half an hour of driving in silence, Lucy couldn't take it anymore and turned on the radio.

She found a pop station; the music wasn't her favorite, but it was useful for distracting her. She listened as Selena Gomez sang the chorus to "Can't Keep My Hands to Myself."

Lucy closed her eyes and started to sing along. It wasn't her favorite song by any means, but it was a good distraction song. It was bouncy and fun, even though it was entirely focused on sex.

Her singing was interrupted when the radio was turned off suddenly. She looked over to see Bucky scowling at the road, his hands clenched around the steering wheel.

"Bucky?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

She watched as his hands tightened even more around the steering wheel, making it groan under his unbelievable strength. Lucy tentatively reached out a hand and placed it on his arm. She had never seen him like this. He glanced over at her, then back to the road.

"I........Just don't like the song," he growled out.

Lucy was startled by that. She hadn't expected a sexy song like that to make him so.....angry.

"Why don't we find a classical station then?" she asked trying to lighten the mood.

Bucky's grip noticeably loosened on the steering wheel and he nodded his head.

Lucy flipped the radio back on and started skimming. They made it through all the radio stations without finding a single classical one. Lucy sighed internally, frustrated. She flipped through the channels again. No luck.

Bucky glanced over at her when she made an external sigh of frustration.

"I can't find a classical station." She said in explanation. "If I had my phone we could just use Spotify and listen to whatever we wanted to" She turned off the radio and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back in her seat.

"what's Spotify?" Bucky asked.

"Oh, it's a music app," Lucy said in explanation.

She looked over to see his brows furrowing. "Ummmmm it's like a program you can download on your phone that lets you play music." Lucy tried to elaborate, even though she knew very little about how computers and technology worked. She knew enough to use it but called her tech-savvy friends when things broke.

Bucky grunted in acknowledgment. He seemed to do that a lot. She wondered if he used to be a talker before whatever horrible things had happened to him. She still shuddered every time she thought about that scar where his soul mark had once been.

Those experiences of trauma would change anyone, and the fact that he survived showed just how strong of a person Bucky was.

They sat in silence for another 10 minutes before Lucy couldn't take it anymore.

"Can we talk?" She abruptly asked.

Bucky's eyes glanced over at her again before flicking back to the road.

"I'm just not so great with silence." She explained when he didn't respond.

He grunted in response.

"Oh, we could play a game, like 20 questions?" Lucy said excitedly. She had always loved playing road trip games.

She looked over at Bucky hopefully. He flicked his eyes towards her again, his brow furrowing. Lucy recognized it as his face of confusion.

"I think of something, and then you ask yes or no questions until you can guess what it is." She explained.

Bucky grunted. Lucy was getting a little tired of just getting grunts. It made it very hard to hold a conversation when someone just grunted at you.

"Or you can think of something, and I can ask questions. One grunt for yes, two grunts for no." Lucy said, a teasing note entering her voice.

Bucky was always so tense. It made sense in these life or death situations, but it made it hard for her to not stay in a state of constant panic. Humor was one of her best defense mechanisms.

Lucy watched triumphantly as Bucky's lips twitched into the smallest of smiles before returning to his stoic expression.

"We can even narrow it and just do animals to start, then get broader," Lucy said getting excited by the idea.

"Ok," Bucky replied.

"Really?!" Lucy said, disbelief covering her voice. She didn't think he would agree. She was hopeful but for him to say yes was beyond her wildest dreams.

That smile was back on Bucky's lips. "Yes," he confirmed.

"Do you want to go first?" Lucy asked.

Bucky grunted once, then twitched his lips into a bigger smile.

"I'll take that as a yes," she replied, a smile spreading across her face.

For the next hour, they played twenty questions. Lucy was much better at the game than Bucky, but she didn't mind. It was just nice to have a distraction. She could pretend, if only for a little bit that they weren't fleeing for their lives, and instead were on vacation.

However, naive thinking can't last. Lucy was jerked back to reality when Bucky flung a hand over her mouth while she was trying to guess his next animal.

She shut up immediately and looked over at Bucky with fearful eyes. He wasn't looking at her; instead, he was staring in the rearview mirror.

Lucy turned her head with trepidation to look behind them. She saw two black SUVs with black tinted windows close on their heels. Lucy gulped and turned to look back at Bucky. His face was an expressionless mask, as he started to weave through traffic, gaining speed.

He maneuvered the car flawlessly with incredible skill. Lucy considered herself a good driver, but she could never do what he did. He squeezed through gaps between moving cars that she thought were impossible. He put a steady distance between them and the scary black SUVs behind them.

Lucy was a little confused; why they didn't just shoot at their car or something. Or maybe flash some siren noises. With how they were able to track them, the group that was chasing them had to be filthy rich and connected. She had to ask Bucky.

"Why aren't they shooting at us or anything?"

Bucky just shook his head at the question. It looked like he wasn't sure either. That wasn't helping Lucy feel more comfortable.

"We need to get off the highway," Bucky grunted at her before he swerved the car viciously to go from the left lane of the two-lane road to an off-ramp on the right-hand side. Lucy gripped the seat with white fingers, as the swerving caused them almost to cut off a giant semi-truck. They made it, but Lucy's heart rate would never be the same.

Lucy looked back over at the highway to see the two black SUVs still speeding down the road. She sighed in relief and slumped back in her seat.

"I think we lost them," she said to Bucky.

"Not likely," Bucky growled. "Look."

Lucy did. She saw another black SUV following them off the highway.

"There's always a rear car," Bucky said, as he yanked the wheel to the right viciously and had them skidding down a back road. "Luce, I need you to open up the glove box for me," Bucky added.

Luce. She liked the nickname. She leaned forward and opened the glove box, and watched as a handgun slid to the front of the glove box into her line of site.

"Take out the gun." Bucky directed, his voice surprisingly calm while an SUV was chasing them.

Lucy's hands shook as she reached in and pulled the gun out. She looked up at Bucky waiting for his next set of instructions.

"Undo your seatbelt, open your window and click off the safety. The car will most likely be armored, so I want you to aim for the front wheels." Bucky spoke coolly.

"You want me to shoot at them!?" Lucy practically squeaked.

"Yes. I can't drive, shoot, and keep us safe. I'd survive a crash; you wouldn't." Bucky answered.

"Okay." Lucy drew in a shaky breath, deciding to not question why Bucky would survive a crash, and undid her seatbelt.

Next, she hit the button to roll down the window. She maneuvered her body, so her head and shoulders were outside the window and facing towards the back of the vehicle.

A hand grabbed her shirt and tugged her back.

"Not so far out. If they start firing back, you will easily be hit." He explained.

"Oh ok," Lucy said. She had no idea what she was doing.

She looked down at the handgun clutched in her shaking fingers. She had no idea how to correctly hold it, how to fire it, how to turn off the safety, nothing.

"Ummm Bucky?" Lucy asked hesitantly. Her back was resting against the dashboard, and her feet and legs were folded on the seat while she faced the back of the vehicle.

"Yea?" Bucky asked as he swerved around a corner.

"How do I turn off the safety?" She asked as she braced herself and stared at the gun in her hands.

Bucky reached over and flicked something on the back of the gun.

"That's the safety; it's now off." He said putting his hand back on the wheel and swinging them around another curve.

"Ok so if I touch the trigger, this thing goes boom?"

She heard a surprised chuckle and looked over to see Bucky...smiling. That was a little disconcerting. She didn't expect to see someone smiling during a life or death car chase.

Lucy flicked the safety back on, just in case, while she repositioned herself. She leaned out of the window only slightly. She clutched the gun in her hands and pointed it at the SUV hot on their tail. Her hands bounced with the movement of the vehicle, but she tried her best to keep them steady. She was unsure how to hold it, so she guessed based on the crime shows she binged watched while writing papers.

Two hands on the handle and one finger on the piece in front of the trigger. Lucy flicked off the safety and put her trigger finger against the trigger but was very careful not to push down.

She aimed as best she could and fired. The shot went wide. She was startled both by the recoil and the sound of the gun, so much so that she almost dropped it.

Lucy held onto the gun and readjusted her grip. She aimed again and fired. This time she hit the front bumper and heard a pinging sound. She was getting closer, and that was a form of success to her.

****

While Lucy was trying to figure out what it really meant to ride shotgun, Bucky was doing his best to keep them ahead of their followers and not send Lucy flying out the window she was precariously leaning out of.

At least she wasn't sticking her whole torso out the window as she had been before.

He wasn't sure who was following them. If it had been Hydra, they would have had no problem firing on them while they were on the highway. Even with Lucy shooting at them, they hadn't fired back.

Bucky feared that they might be being driven somewhere by their followers. They didn't have the resources they would need to deal with being forced into a trap.

He needed to do the unexpected, see if he could shake them off. Even if it meant having to go south, instead of north like he wanted. They could always hop on a boat, or steal one.

Bucky saw a backroad coming up that led to a house; if he could just maneuver the car around the house and get on a different back road they might just be in the clear.

He used his flesh hand to grab onto the back of Lucy's shirt and hold onto her while he used his left hand to yank the wheel to the right, shooting them down the driveway. He used the four wheel drive to get them across the field behind the yellow farmhouse and put them back on a dirt road.

He knew he had torn the grass and left noticeable marks on the land around the farmhouse. Part of him thought that he should feel bad for causing damage to another person's property, but mostly he was worried about keeping them alive and unharmed.

He made his way back north towards the highway. If he could get on it then maybe they cou-

His trail of thoughts were interrupted when he heard gunshots from behind them. He reached over without thinking and yanked Lucy back into the car. She yelped, but at least she wasn't riddled with bullets as more gunfire sounded behind them. He let go of her long enough to flick the safety on her gun and close her window before pushing her head down. He heard her grumble, but he couldn't focus on what she was saying. He was much more worried about keeping her alive than happy. The shots came in earnest now causing, cracks to form on his back window.

He was so grateful he had put flaps on the car that covered their back tires. A lucky or very skilled shot could still hit them, but most of the shots would fall, if not harmlessly, at least with minimum damage elsewhere on the vehicle.

More and more shots landed on the back window, causing a spider web effect to form on the glass. It wouldn't last much longer.

He must have upset their plans for them to resort to shooting at them. He looked back to notice that the hood of their vehicle was smoking.

He wondered idly if Lucy had hit the engine somehow. Well, he would take the advantage it gave him. He pushed the car harder. He was now up to 90 miles an hour on a partial straight away. A sharp curve was coming up, he slowed down and used all of his driving skill to drift around the turn and then accelerate the car again.