"When she first came to me, she was on the run from Hydra. I've been keeping her hidden, keeping her a secret, so that they don't find her again." Tony explained, choosing his words very carefully.

"Why was she on the run?" Wanda asked.

"I...I'm not entirely sure. Something to do with her parents, they were involved I think. Hydra wanted to tie up loose ends." Tony caught Bucky's eyes as he glowered at him from the back of the group. Tony cleared his throat. "The Hydra attack, someone figured out she was here, so they waited until we were gone to try and take her."

"How did they know we weren't here?" Rhody said.

"That's what we are trying to find out. I didn't lie when I said we have a leak."

"Just what the leak was about." Nat confirmed.

"Regardless, someone in this compound has ties with Hydra, and told them that we were going to investigate the Peru base."

"There are numerous times that we have all been absent from the compound, why would they attack now?" Vision queried. The others waited for Tony's answer.

"Well, you all know she uses a fake name. Her real name is pretty..." Tony glanced back at Bucky. "Identifiable" Nat frowned. "She also changes how she looks, changes her hair and things like that, to try and avoid someone noticing her. The theory is, she keeps that up, stays hidden, she'd never be on their radar."

"But she is." Steve said, and Tony nodded.

"She also...kind of has a habit of sneaking out."

"What?" Rhodey blurted out. "You have someone who is being targeted by Hydra and you let her sneak out?"

"I don't let anything! She's a grown woman. In case you hadn't noticed she's also pretty smart. I have to keep upgrading my security system every other month cos she finds ways around it." Tony sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "Bottom line, is that it's gotta be someone that works here, that also worked in the tower in New York. Must have spotted her from whenever she escapes, spent all this time putting two and two together, fed the information back to Hydra that she was here."

The team was silent for a moment. Bucky was still glaring at Tony, silently simmering in anger that he still wasn't telling them the whole story. Simmering in anger that he could tell there was more to the story that even hadn't heard.

"You guys just need to trust me on this." Tony said in a soft voice. "I would have told you about her if I thought it would be safer than keeping her a secret. It seems that either way, I was wrong. We need to find out who the rat is, and then it's finished. I'll tell you her real name, you can ask her whatever you like. But until we end this, you just need to trust me."

"Alright." Clint said, shrugging slightly. "She seems cool. Plus, it's our jobs right? Protect the innocent and all?"

Bucky snorted at the word innocent. You were anything but. A few of them looked at him, but he coughed, pretending like nothing happened.

"And uh...this Nick guy..." Sam said, a questioning tone to his voice that he hoped Tony caught on to. Bucky stood a little straighter.

"He's solid. I've known the kid for over a decade. He's known...Amy for about as long." Tony answered. Bucky still wasn't convinced. "So, anything else? Or shall we get back to work?"

The team let out a variety of shrugs, grunts and nods as they started to disperse, some of them returning to training, some heading out of the gym. Steve approached Bucky with his arms crossed.

"You told me the other day there was nothing else to tell." Steve said, an accusing tone to his voice. Bucky grimaced internally, but sighed outwardly.

"I know."

"Any reason you lied to me?"

"We...we gotta let Tony lead this. It's not my thing to tell. Hell even I know that I don't know the full story." Bucky tried to chuckle, catching Steve's eye, but his friend looked unimpressed.

"If it's gonna put us in danger," Steve said, walking up to him and putting his hand on Bucky's shoulder. "I need you to think about whether it's worth Tony's wrath to tell us."

Bucky nodded. He would consider it, really. He hated not telling Steve, or the others, everything he knew. He wanted to talk about it. He wanted to work it all out with someone. But he couldn't. Not yet.

As Steve walked off, Nat approached Bucky.

"So, what do you think?" She asked him. Bucky shrugged, and she eyed him. "You know more than he said?"

"Doesn't matter if I do." He replied, stepping around her to leave the gym. She walked beside him.

"What do you think he meant by 'her name is too identifiable'?"

"No idea." Nat rolled her eyes at the soldier's blunt tone.

"Well considering we are the only two people that know her real name, and the fact that neither of us leaked it, it's safe to assume that we have no double agents on the team."

"You thought we did?" He asked as they walked down the corridor.

"Not exactly. But it doesn't hurt to cross them off the list."

They walked in silence for a minute.

"So, you don't like Nick?" She teased, a smirk on her lips. Bucky grunted in response. "Better sort that out quickly then Barnes, cos I don't want to deal with you being miserable the whole time."

She turned down the hallway to their left, and Bucky slowed to a stop, thinking about what she said. He didn't think he'd been obvious about his attraction to you, but then again, Nat had superhuman powers on knowing what's going on in people's minds. He clenched his jaw.

He needed to find you.

Bucky didn't actually find you for a few hours. Apparently you and Nick had been spending some time in the indoor pool, and the first time he laid eyes on you since the gym was when you both came into the kitchen, your clothes different and your hair wet. You avoided his eye contact.

Everyone was sitting down for dinner, just a simple pasta bake and garlic bread, but you couldn't stop yourself from shovelling it in your mouth. Your appetite had disappeared over the past week, the tension around you shrinking your stomach. Now that you had Nick here, someone that understood you, you felt like you could breathe a little easier, and you suddenly realised that you were fucking starving.

You only really conversed with Nick over dinner, ignoring the glares from a certain someone at the end of the table, and occasionally being drawn into conversation with Sam or Clint when they asked you something. As Wanda and Nat were clearing the plates, the conversation had turned to you, something you had been waiting for.

"So, Stark told us that the whole Hydra thing was about you." Sam said, an innocent smile on his face as he watched yours drop. "So I gotta ask, what did you do to piss them off?"

"Do you not know this girl yet?" Nick interjected with a laugh. "She can piss anyone off."

"Oh, I've seen that." Sam said, looking briefly at Bucky.

"And I mean, she said Nat's been training her, so god forbid if they ever come knocking again, this one's slippery as hell already." Nick added, making Sam, Clint and Nat laugh. Not Bucky though. Nick turned to you.

"Do you remember when we were supposed to go out in Manhattan, and this guy," Nick jutted his thumb over at Tony. "Had you in lockdown, and we had to come up with a plan to sneak you out of the air vents, with me waiting at the bottom with a mattress I'd nicked off the street?"

Both you and Nick started laughing as you remembered the night.

"Oh my god!" You laughed, your hand coming over your mouth as you tried to catch your breath. "I remember looking down at you like 'this is absolutely not gonna work, I'm gonna break my leg!'"

"But you jumped, and as we were running off, all we heard was," Nick cupped his hands around his mouth. "YOU BETTER GET BACK HERE OR YOU ARE SO GROUNDED! And it was Stark hanging out of the window!"

"I was already grounded, can't be double grounded."

"I managed it though, didn't I?" Tony interrupted, a smile on his face. "Came and got you straight out of that nightclub and took your phone away, no more escape plans for a month!" The three of you laughed together. "I had to pay so many paparazzi for their pictures."

The billionaire wiped a tear from his eye as he kept laughing.

Bucky tightened his grip on his glass. He didn't want to say anything. He shouldn't say anything. He really, really sh-

"I don't see why that's funny." Bucky said, cursing himself the tiniest bit in his head. The entire table snapped round to look at him. "I mean, Tony was keeping her inside for a reason. You helped to put her in danger."

"I wasn't in danger-" You started, but Nick cut you off.

"I didn't put her in anything. She wanted to go out, have a drink. I'm sure you snuck out many times back in what, the 1930s?" Nick said, leaning his elbow on the table and staring at Bucky.

"I didn't have Hydra after me then." Bucky retorted, and Nick was silent. "You snuck her out, and I assume you knew why she was locked in, and still you thought, yeah this is a great idea, no repercussions at all."

"There wasn't."

"And what about now?" Bucky raised an eyebrow at him. "She's not on Hydra's radar at all right? Shall we all sneak out for a drink?"

The rest of the team were silent, their heads moving back and forth between Bucky and Nick as they watched the verbal match, not really sure who was winning.

"We don't know how they knew she was here." Tony tried to say, but Nick waved his hand, telling him he had this.

"If I had to place my bets, there's only one person at this table who previously worked for Hydra, isn't that right?"

"He didn't work for them, he-" Steve reasoned, but he was cut off.

"The difference is," Nick continued, watching the anger build in Bucky's face, and enjoying it way too much. "I was helping her out. Keeping her sane. This time round, you've been watching her, I've been told, and the last thing she's felt is sane."

"I'm keeping her safe."

"Well it didn't work."

Bucky's jaw clenched.

"But, what else would you expect? You've been too distracted, staring at her the whole time instead of paying attention to the enemy walking right thr-"

Nick didn't finish what he was saying, because Bucky had stood, charging around the table, and had grabbed him by his Tshirt, hauling him out of his seat and shoving him against the wall. His teeth were bared, and he brought his fist up, ready to beat the crap out of the smarmy guy's face when he felt hands wrapping around his biceps.

A strong pull told him it was Steve. Another set of hands joined as Bucky tried to punch forward, and suddenly, he was pulled off of Nick.

He watched you go to Nick's side, looking at him in horror. Bucky shrugged Sam and Steve's hands off him, and stormed out of the kitchen.