Honesty ♧ Bucky Barnes

Serum or Star Wars?

"So you bailed on your date with the Doctor?" 

Erin looked down at her hands, not wanting to meet Doctor Kennedy's eye. She hadn't exactly bailed on Daveed, she's just asked him for a rain check. She couldn't really have gone out with him with the knowledge that a master assassin was on her couch trying to bond with her cat.

"I just postponed it."

The psychiatrist pursed his lips together and gave a small sigh, picking up his pen and jotting something down on his pad of paper. Erin shuffled in her seat, uncomfortable. She had considered skipping her session that Monday and instead going straight home to Bucky, but she had changed her mind at the last minute. She had assured Bruce Banner that she would attend Dr. Kennedy's sessions twice a week until she was better. She was certainly on the path to recovery, but it was still a while until she saw herself getting there. 

She had promised to let Bucky try the MFCTS serum again tonight, after refusing his pleas for it the night before. She didn't know what an overdose of the serum would do to a person. The chances were that it was completely harmless, but regardless, she would prefer to give the guy at least a day in between his dosages. It was weird, going off to the University to teach that morning with the knowledge that she had left a strange man in her house. She was half expecting to get back there tonight and find her cat and Bucky missing. 

"Erin, that was going to be a good thing for you," The doctor sounded disappointed in her, "I thought I told you that new relationships were important for your recovery."

She sighed. It had been slightly awkward seeing Daveed again that morning. Sure, he had been nice and said hi, but she had the feeling that she'd slightly insulted him by basically slamming the door in his face on Friday night. 

"I know, I know," she replied, "I just had some other stuff I had to deal with."

The doctor raised a single eyebrow over a deep brown eye. 

"Other stuff that's more important than your recovery? What on Earth happened, Erin?"

She bit her lip, struggling for an explanation. 

You remember the man with the metal arm? The one from my nightmares, who kidnapped me a few months ago? Yeah, well he's sleeping on my couch and trying to steal my cat's affections from me.

Maybe not. 

"Something came up."

The doctor gave her a stern look over the top of his glasses. 

"Something?" His voice was incredulous.

"Yeah, you know, I just had some things to sort out,"

"Erin. Everything you say in this room is confidential, you know that." The doctor's voice was soothing, "If you start to hide stuff from me again I won't be able to help you."

Erin let out a deep breath that she didn't know she'd been holding in. She was wary discussing Bucky with anyone, even her therapist.

"An old friend came by unexpectedly."

Well, that certainly wasn't what he had expected to hear. Erin had a track record of being bad with people, Bruce Banner was the only friend that she had managed not to drive away with her anxiety and the tiny tremor in her right hand that just wouldn't go away. It was unusual of her to even have a new friend, but to actually offer them a place in her home? The doctor was curious. 

"What kind of friend? Like someone from school, an old boyfriend?"

"No, nothing like that," Erin reassured him. What was Bucky, exactly? "He's just a guy I met in Europe a while ago when I was travelling."