Do You Trust Me? // Bucky Barnes

43

Ava

She had wanted to give it a few days - wanted to give Bucky time to feel okay again after he'd barely held himself together for her - but once he'd pulled himself out of her arms and off of the floor, he started packing again. And now they were staring up at a high rise building, flanked by more red-brick buildings and winding fire escape landings and ladders.

"This was a mistake." Her words were whispered as she took a step back towards the yellow cab idling behind them. "I can't ask him to -"

"Sweetheart, stop."

Bucky's hand wrapped around hers, his fingers weaving between her own and holding firmly as he dropped their bag to the floor and turned to face her.

"He wants to help us. He adores you, and he wants to help you. You're not asking him to do anything he hasn't offered a million times over."

She wouldn't look at him. Not while he tried to talk her off of this ledge. Not while he soothed her with truths and comforts. She wouldn't look at him because then she'd have to accept that he was right.

"Look at us, James," she said, her eyes scaling the building in front of her. "Look at us and tell me how we can do this, James. Tell me how we can justify pulling a child into this mess with us. Tell me we're not gonna fuck him up in the process. Because we're both fucked in the head, you and me, and we know it. But he's not yet. He's still good and pure and excited about everything. What happens if involving him in this hurts him, James? What then?"

When he let go of her hand, his fingers moving to her cheeks, brushing hair away from her face as he waited for her to meet his gaze, Ava closed her eyes.

His lips brushed against her forehead, and he sighed deeply.

"What if," he whispered when she leant into his touch and her eyes opened to his. "What if it doesn't hurt him, Ava? And what if it helps to heal a part of you?"

***

Teddy

He'd lost track of time in here.

There was no light, no sounds, no signs of life. Just him, and the darkness, and the aching pain of the metal trap biting deep into his skin. His mind was groggy and his limbs were heavy, and he couldn't be sure when he'd gotten here or how he'd ended up with a claw trap wrapped around his ankle - biting into the bone - but the pain was never ending.

He'd lost consciousness. He knew that much. And Grey had been with him when... when what? He couldn't piece the images in his mind together. There was just static and fuzz and darkness where memories should have been. Did he hit his head?

He shifted slightly - his aim was just to touch his head, to look for a wound - but fire exploded in his body, racing from the tearing muscle at his ankle and up, up, up.

He screamed.

No one came.

"Help me." His throat felt like razor blades and his mouth was dry. His voice didn't carry. "Please. Grey? Beau? Someone?"

Silence greeted him.

Where were they?

In the darkness he tried to piece it together, what little he could. They'd been in Ohio, in a small house that belonged to some guy Sharon knew from before. She'd gone on a trip with some of the guys. A work trip. She'd said she'd be back. But she didn't come back for him. None of them did. And then Grey had shown up and he'd brought Beau with him, and they'd told Teddy they needed to go.