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Hawkins was a small town in the middle of nowhere America, somewhere usually Bucky Barnes was not taken to. The Winter Soldier had been predominantly used in Eastern Europe, he didn’t know why, but they had their reasons, and he knew better than to question them. He had awoken to be told it was the mid 1980s and he was going to be watching a young girl, something he hadn’t been tasked with before.
He was HYDRAs best weapon, he was usually used to kill, so being more of a bodyguard was both surprising and unexpected. Still, to Bucky, it was a nice change of pace he had imagined this girl was someone important’s daughter. But he couldn’t have been more wrong….
He reached the laboratory through underground tunnels; nobody could know that The Winter Soldier was in America. Once he had been given a briefing, he realised this girl was different, they had been doing tests on people. Using LSD, they had changed people and tried to turn them into the perfect weapon, some of those women was pregnant and they were going to be the weapon.
Most of the children had died, all but one of the Eleven, had survived.
The child had been born and the town was led to believe the child had miscarried, but she was being raised here in the lab. HYDRA was trying to find a way to harness the power of another dimension, if it could be done, they would be the most powerful group in the world. Eleven was how they were going to do it; she was valuable and so they needed their best weapon to guard her.
She had the ability to kill using her mind, the very gifts HYDRA had been longing to use for so long, and Bucky was going to keep her safe. He stood in the room, his breathing heavy, wondering if his ugly metal arm would scare her. He wasn’t sure how small a child her age would be, or if she was going to be easily afraid.
As the door opened, he tried to relax his face so he wouldn’t look so intimidating, this child was his chance to not have to kill. If he could befriend her, maybe he could stay in America and maybe he could have a life. Even a life lived in a laboratory would be preferable to being frozen or used as a weapon.
She seemed small as she walked in holding the hand of Dr. Brenner, a man high up in Hydra’s science departments here in the USA. Bucky didn’t like him; he was willing to do anything to push forward HYDRA and their plans for the world. He wanted to grab the girl and get her as far away from him as possible, especially when he remembered she called him Papa.
He smiled softly as Brenner bent down to look at her, “Eleven, this is Bucky he is here to keep you safe. Wherever you go, he will go, there will be no need for you to ever be afraid again.”
Wide eyed, she looked from the doctor to Bucky and back again, “Hello Eleven it is nice to meet you, I heard you like drawing? I like art too maybe we could draw together some time?” She smiled softly and nodded, he took that as a win because he knew she didn’t speak very much.
Seemingly satisfied they would get along, dr Brenner stood up and nodded, “Well I shall leave the two of you to get better acquainted.” He gave Bucky a pointed look, as if the super soldier would hurt or scare her and then left. The click of the door behind him made it very clear they were locked inside, for whose safety it was not so clear.
They sat in silence for a short time, neither of them used to talking much, but he noticed that she was watching him closely. Then out of nowhere she said two words, “Your arm?” The question was asked innocently, but he pulled down his sleeve self consciously anyway.
Finally, he cleared his throat, “It was stolen, by a gremlin it was a trick but it lost it so the doctor was nice enough to let me borrow this one…” Eventually, Bucky glanced over at Eleven wondering if his made up story scared her, but she was smiling.
Bucky scratched the back of his neck and looked over at the table, “You want to draw?” he asked her, and they moved over to the white table and chairs. After taking a seat, they grabbed some paper and chose a crayon each and began to draw.
They didn’t chat much, but somehow it didn’t feel awkward, both of them were used to being quiet and being told what to do. He wasn’t sure if she suffered the things he did when he stepped out of line, but from the way she reacted to the people around he guessed so. But maybe he could stop that if he was looking after her?
A spark of something, a memory, hit him like lightening, of a small guy who looked sickly drawing Bucky. He snapped back to the present and glanced at Eleven, but she hadn’t noticed, what was that? Shaking his head, he wondered if this was the first time he had looked after someone, maybe that was why it felt so normal to be with her?