Not That Lucky

#26: There Are No Strings On Me

A/N: Guess what, bitches! We're officially at AGE OF ULTROOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN. Long ass chapter ahead, be warned, although if you've made it this far you know I'm long winded with my words lol.

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"What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?"

"A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it."

"What does he need?"

"Revenge."

"For what?"

"Bein' born."

—Wyatt Earp & Doc Holliday (Tombstone)

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February had ended kind of nonchalantly. Granted, maybe the end just felt nonchalant because the first half of it had been so eventful. The first two weeks consisted of nightmares and me nearly killing Steve with his own shield, but the last two were a collection of things settling into place.

Things on the PR scene were going great. Everyone loved the Avengers. Mostly. They were loved enough that Beth and I's job was made almost too easy at the least. Boss had been quiet. A part of me expected him to show up in my life, I think I still looked around corners for him, but he hadn't made a sound. That was almost scarier. I'd be worried except Clint told me Coulson had a team tracking the asshole down. Daisy had felt really bad about me not being inhuman so I think she thought she could make it up to me by finding Boss. Not that she owed me anything. It wasn't her fault I was just a dumb little human with no cool, kickass alien genes.

The best thing to come out of February was that the Avengers had whittled down their list of HYDRA bases even further. They still kept me mostly in the dark about certain mission details, but from what I understood the mission they were on today was very, very important. Important enough for Thor to be on Earth. Important enough that it could be their last HYDRA base busting mission.

"You know I really don't need a babysitter anymore." I said with a shake of my head.

Sam, who sat across from me in a jean jacket, chuckled, "Tell that to the Avengers."

"Coulson says the agents following Boss are right on his tail. He's left Vegas and is heading to some place in California. Which last I checked is super far from here?"

"Yeah, do you know why he'd do that? Go to California, I mean. He know someone out there?"

I shrugged. Truthfully, I had no idea. The only things I really learned about Boss while I had worked for him was that he was a greedy asshole, a masochistic devil, and that for some reason he really loved specifically torturing me. I was his own personal brand of heroin, but not in a creepy vampire teenage romance book way.

"Maybe he wants to be a movie star." I joked. The idea of Boss going out west and ignoring me for the rest of my life didn't sound right, but Coulson seemed sure. I took another bite of my sandwich and after chewing and swallowing it, I spoke up, "Have you heard from any of them?"

Sam shook his head, "Nah, not since they went dark. We'll probably hear from them in the next few hours though." I nodded and went back to my food. He leaned forward in his seat suddenly with a grin, "Good news though."

"Oh yeah, what's that?" I asked with food tucked into my cheek.

"I think I may have found Bucky."

I immediately sucked the food in my mouth down my throat. Sam's eyes widened as I choked on my meal. He pushed my glass of water closer to me and I threw some back in hopes to clear out my throat. Sam fucking what?