Do You Trust Me? // Bucky Barnes

32

Ava

She was still warm. Sharon was still warm and loose and staring up at her. But her wound was no longer spilling crimson pools and her lips were blue now. And she was still warm.

Ava rocked as she held her, hugging her to her chest and screaming into the wind. She howled as the hope she'd felt flickering to life inside her dimmed into darkness and died once again. She wailed as she felt strong arms wrapping around her, and she pulled away, pushing off the comfort she didn't deserve. She pulled in heaving breaths as sobs racked through her chest and tore her in half and the arms came back to her, wrapping around her and holding her as she begged for this not to be her reality.

"No," she cried, her throat hoarse and torn. "He's gone. He - I killed her and he's... I killed her. Bucky. Bucky, I killed her."

She cried with all the pain she had felt since her return and she shook violently as Bucky's fingers wrapped around her wrists and he pulled her away from Sharon's lifeless form. 

Sharon was dead. Sharon was dead and, with her, so was the hope of getting Teddy back.

When his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her together, and his lips brushed her hair as he pulled her closer and tighter, keeping her back against his chest as she keened and cried, he whispered to her and she closed her eyes.

"It's okay, baby." Bucky's voice was the calm in a sea of pain and devastation. "You're safe now. I've got you. It's okay."

"What did I do?" She whispered as she sobbed and Bucky tried to pull her away.

"We gotta go, Buck." Sam crashed onto the scene, startling Ava as she curled closer to Bucky and shook her head over and over. The men she had been with were nowhere to be seen and sirens were blaring as flashes of red and blue began to pulsate in the distance. "Now."

"No." She whimpered as Bucky tried to pull her to her feet, thrashing in his arms as she dove towards the lifeless body now at her knees. "I did this. I killed her. I killed her and he's gone."

"Sam." Bucky grabbed at her hips, pulling her up and into his arms as she continued to fight, carrying her as she kicked and punched and screamed for him to let her go. "Get her out of here, Sam. Now."

Ava felt as he pushed her into the arms of the man looking at her with wide, broken eyes. She felt the final warmth of hope seep from her skin as his fingers slipped away from her and he stepped back towards the bodies she had left in her wake.

"Now!" Bucky's voice boomed. It echoed off of the walls around them. It tore her from her stupor. "I mean it, Sam. Get her out of here!"

"We all have to go, Buck." Sam tried to step closer, holding Ava close to his body as she froze in his touch and stared, wide eyed and afraid at the man now refusing to look at her.

"What was the plan, Sam?" Bucky shook his head and Sam held her tighter. Something wasn't right. "Sam?"

"Get her out safe."

And it clicked. Ava thrashed against Sam's hold as his mechanical wings whirred to life and boosted them away from the scene immediately. 

"No! Sam, no! Go back!" She cried as she watched police cars skid to a halt and men with guns aimed stood behind open car doors, bellowing at Bucky. She sobbed as she watched Bucky drop to his knees and place his hands on his head, rifles aimed at him and red dots on his chest. She went limp as she witnessed officers shove his hands roughly behind his back, cuffing him with ease, before guiding him to the backseat of an open car. "Please."

Sam let her go as they landed safely on a rooftop nearby and she dropped to the floor. 

There, she broke over and over and over again as Bucky was driven away.