Somber Reminiscence

CH. 23

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Song Rec. - Tell It Like It Is by Aaron Neville

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We ended up walking to the bistro down the street, sitting at a table outside of the restaurant.

"You want something?"John asks, holding the menu up to read it, even though he didn't speak German.

"Okay, John cut the shit. We're not on a date, so why did you need to talk?" I say bluntly, Lemar staying quiet to my left as John lays the menu on the table.

His mouth opens in hesitation, trying again as he looks into my eyes. "Look, Lemar and I are worried about you're safety okay?" I sit back in my chair, crossing my arms as he finished. "You've never dealt with situations like this."

"And you have?" I reply.

Lemar cuts in this time. "No, but Sam and Bucky have." I look over at him, "and you shouldn't try to keep up with their shenanigans."

I nod my head slowly, showing that I was listening but desperately wanting to leave.

"I can handle myself. But even then, they seem to care about my safety more than you two would even think to know." I shoot, glaring at them as I find myself more and more irritated. "I make choices on my own though, and I choose to go with them."

John leans onto the table, his forearms resting on the table as he looked at me. "Elena we're not trying to tell you what to do but can't you understand where we're coming from? You had us when you came out of prison."

I stay silent because he was right.

They granted me an opportunity to have friends and partners in the field, even when everyone else chose not to trust me. I didn't hate them, as much as I dislike them right now, I just found everything they were doing to be disagreeable.

"I know." I finally say, dropping my arms down as John raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Thank you for always being there. It's just that Sam and Bucky mean something to me too."

John sits back in his chair at that.

"What?" I ask shortly.

"Is there something going on with you and Bucky?"

My phone buzzes right as he asks. I pull it out and check the screen, sure enough of it was Bucky calling.

I silence it and lay it in my lap.

"What are you talking about John?" I ask shortly, recalling a jealous tone in his voice before the ringtone.

"All of a sudden you care about him, I mean I get Sam but why Bucky?"

I turn and look over at Lemar, his face resting in a baffled expression as he simply watched our exchange.

I look back over at John who's still awaiting my response.

"Bucky and I were together in the '40s." I finally confess, watching as their mouths dropped in sync.

"What do you mean?" Lemar asks, a weird vibe hanging around our heads as we looked at each other.

"Well I'm guessing you guys already know I'm from the 40s and didn't tell me so it's not that. But yeah before he died, we were dating."

Their eyes shift from each other and to me in a pattern, sighing as I waited for someone to talk.

"To be fair, we were ordered not to tell you," John finally admits.

I tilt my head as I look at him, still not understanding who would withhold that kind of information from someone.