The Clone

5.

Sara barely hears the elevator doors open, her mind elsewhere, it's all just catching up to her, the last week just hitting her. She'd tried so hard to keep herself in control of her emotions, to keep control of herself and it's all just been building and building and now she is cracking. All noise is just...static in her ears and she is pretty sure she can't actually remember riding home. She doesn't even register Bucky stood across from her on the other side of the elevator.

"Stark?" he asks watching her, a slight wrinkle between his eyes. She's staring at him but her eyes are glassy, blank, lost. "Sara?" he asks. She blinks rapidly and the light in her eyes returns, and she notices him.

"Bucky" she greets plastering on a fake, tense smile.

"Are you okay?" Bucky asks, Sara nods a little leaving the elevator, he looks to her as she drops her bag to the floor.

"I'll see you in the morning" she whispers passing him, he watches her go and frowns, something is wrong, and she doesn't know or trust him enough to talk about it.

................

Bucky watches Tony as he sits in bed reading from a tablet resting against his raised knees.

"She's back" Tony squeals a little and glares at Bucky who steps out of the shadow of the playboy's bedroom. "She's back" Bucky repeats. "Something's wrong"

"Look, just leave Sara alone, she deals with things her own way, she always has, she'll be fine tomorrow"

"And if we wake up and the kitchen is filled with pies?" Bucky asks, Tony raises an eyebrow.

"You've known her three days" Tony argues. "You don't know her at all.....just back off" Tony steps closer. "Men like you only screw her up"

"Men like me?" Bucky asks.

"Broken, damaged men with complicated backstories and massive issues ranging from daddy to aggression" Tony answers. "It's the men she gravitates towards, I blame Howard and so many others....I actually prefer it when she dates chicks...just leave her alone" Tony shoots him a look and then walks away, leaving his own bedroom to escape the assassin. Bucky is left standing thoughtful.

...................

Sara lays in her bed staring at a framed photo of her, Tony, Howard and Maria. She misses Howard. For the first 36 years of her life he was her guardian, her father, her shoulder to cry on, her tutor and mentor and so many more things and even now she misses him. She would have talked to him about this, and he would have joked and told her everything she needed to make her laugh. Natasha knocks on the door before she steps into the room and closes the door behind her.

"Is this a boy hurt or a girl hurt?" Natasha asks, Sara looks to her. "So I know which pronoun to use in the trash talk" Sara stares at her for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"Boy hurt" Sara answers.

"He's a jerk, a big stupid jerk face" Natasha states and then holds up a flask in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

"I can't get drunk" Sara reminds her.

"I know" Natasha agrees. "So I figured" she shakes the flask. "Asgardian mead, I snatched it from Thor"

"Asgardian mead?" Sara asks sitting up. Natasha clears her throat and puts on her best Thor voice.

"Aged for a thousand years, in the barrels built from the wreck of Brunhilde's fleet" Natasha teases. "Come on, it's the good stuff, drink with me....we'll trash talk boys....and girls"

"No, thank you, Natasha" Sara tells her. "I'm not the best company right now....maybe later"

"One drink" Natasha begs. "Just one"

"I said no" Sara snaps, Natasha's eyes widen slightly. Sara had never snapped at her or Clint or anyone else in Shield, Sara is known to be polite and sweet and soft spoken, never snaps, never looks hardened as she does now.

"Okay" Natasha tells her. "But I'll leave this here" Natasha sets the flask down on the dresser. "You know just in case...." Natasha leaves and closes the door behind herself, she pulls the cap off the wine and starts drinking as she walks away. Sara stands from her bed and moves to the flask, she's never been a heavy drinker, she'd have a beer or a whiskey or a glass of champagne when the occasion occurred for but she's never been one for drinking alone to drown sorrows. But right now, all she wants to do is be like everyone else, to drink and forget and cry herself to sleep. She sniffs at the flask and raises an eyebrow.
"Maybe this will work" she mumbles.

................

Steve wakes to Bucky looming over him, Steve jumps a little and gives Bucky a small glare.

"What? Buck!" Steve scolds a little, Bucky stares back at him.

"How do I make pie?" Bucky asks, Steve frowns at him.

"What?" Steve repeats.

"She likes that apple cinnamon pie you like so I figured you knew how to make that" Bucky answers. "So how do I make it?" Steve frowns rubbing his eyes.

"You want to bake?" Steve asks. "What is going on? What time is it?"

"4am" Bucky answers, Steve shoots him an annoyed look.

"4am?" Steve asks. "Come on, Buck, this is not okay"

"Pie" Bucky reminds him. "I want to bake pie" Steve sighs and sits up a little.

"Okay, alright, I'll help you bake a pie" Steve swings his legs over the edge of the bed. "But maybe talk to Wilson about this new.....obsession"

"It's not a obsession" Bucky argues.

"Yesterday you sat staring at the elevator waiting for Sara to come back, in silence, you barely ate, have you slept?" Bucky makes a face. "I didn't think so. You do this thing" Steve tells him. "Or...this you does this thing. You find something and you latch onto it. When we first moved in you were obsessed with the microwave, and then jelly beans, and then that commercial with the singing giraffes...." Bucky nods and smirks a little.

"I liked the giraffes" Bucky tells him.

"Yeah, you did, and then you moved on...to chocolate cake....and then those spray cans of snow....and that weird dancing Sokovian cat that Wanda has...." Steve looks to him. "Do you see my point?" Bucky looks away. "Sara is just the next thing on that list....only difference is that she is a person, Buck, not an object, and when you move on to the next thing she could get hurt. And Tony's hospitality is already thinking after you attacked him in the closet"

"I didn't attack him" Bucky argues. "I stole his phone" Steve raises an eyebrow. "That's not better is it?" Bucky asks, Steve shakes his head.

"No, it's not" Steve agrees. "Sara is a nice girl, the type of girl that you used to be attracted to, so I understand why you've fixed on her. But she is a person, Buck, maybe...back off a little, just make sure this isn't another singing giraffe" Bucky sits on the edge of the bed and sighs.

"I still want the pie" he grumbles, Steve smiles a little and then laughs, Bucky laughs with him.