Bucky had been in the Avengers compound for a few months now. He was mostly stable after his time in Wakanda, and after the attack by Thanos and his time inside the soul stone. Returning from that place had actually left him more intact then he had been going in. Somehow the soul stone had restored more of his memories, he was more himself than he had been in seventy years.
So why couldn't he talk to her?
Steve was thrilled to have Bucky back by his side. Tony less so, but he was coming around. With everything that had happened recently, he couldn't help it. I mean the whole thing just seemed a little less important in the grand scheme of things. Not that he was anyless upset by the death of his parents, but he was well past blaming Bucky for the atrocities he was forced to commit. Everyone else seemed to welcome his presence in the compound, even if he was still finding his place on the team. Bucky liked them all too. He spared with Natasha, watched Dog Cops with Clint. Went on long jogs with Steve, if mainly to humiliate Sam even furthur. Seriously the guy had it coming.
Why couldn't he talk to her?
Bucky had also come to terms with the labs and the scientists that worked there. It still made him a bit nervous every time he had to go down there, but it was all in his head. There was no chair, no more memory wipes, no more cryotube. Bruce assured him he was safe there, and Bucky did like to see the wonders of the new age. It certainly didn't hurt that she was down there to.
The first time he had seen her she was dancing.
The first time he had seen her she was dancing. Her brown hair bouncing as she spun around the lab she was in. She had headphones in and appeared to be filing paperwork. The whole lab was a mess, papers everywhere, a trash can filled with shiny poptart wrappers. There was a blackboard in the corner with math well beyond Bucky's understanding in the corner, and some electronic equipment quietly beeping up against the wall.
Bucky was walking through the corridor with Bruce Banner, listening to him explain the gamma radiation accident that caused what he called a condition. Bucky felt the transformation into the Hulk was more than just a condition, but he didn't want to say anything. When they approached the glass walls surrounding the lab that Dr. Foster, Bucky couldn't help but stop and stare at the vision in front of him. As the woman spun around to the music only she could hear she noticed her audience. She stopped and smiled at the two men before removing her earbuds and heading over to them.
"Hey Doctor B, what's shaking?" She literally bounced up to them and Bucky was taken aback by the brilliant smile on her face.
Bruce smiled and Bucky figured he was stumble over his words as he did at times around a pretty woman. Surprisingly though Bruce seemed completely at ease with the younger woman, "Darcy Lewis, let me introduce you to James Barnes." Bruce gestured towards him and Bucky flet the full force of this woman gaze on him.
She held out a hand which him took almost automatically in his, "Hey there tall, dark and metallic. I'm Darcy, Dr. Foster brilliant intern." She gave his hand a solid shake, and he was surprised to find he had no words. He was dumbstruck by this gorgeous woman in front of him. She continued talking as though she hadn't noticed, "I must say I like the new arm better than the old one. Black goes with everything."
"Uhm… thanks." Bucky managed to squeak out. Darcy let go of his hand and turned back to Bruce, slapping him on the shoulder.
"Well better get back to work, this mess won't clean itself. See ya later Doc, and you too Chatty Cathy." Then she made finger guns at him as she back back into the lab. Bruce just let out a chuckle and continued down the corridor in the direction they had been previously heading.
Then second time he saw her she was baking.
Bucky had wandered into the common floor kitchen late one night. He had been awoken by a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep. He figured a glass of warm milk might help. He hadn't thought that anyone else would be awake at this time of night, so when he got close to the kitchen and heard someone moving around it was surprising. Bucky was on alert and silenced his steps. Part of him knew that there couldn't be any danger or Friday would have set off the alarms, but part of him felt the need sneak up on who ever was in the kitchen.
Just before he made it to the doorway to the kitchen, he heard a small crash of metal on marble and a familiar voice cursing. "Fuck, fuck fuck. God damn it, ow." Then he heard the faucet turn on. He stepped into the kitchen to find Darcy with her hand under the running water, still cursing quietly, a tray of cookies tossed haphazardly on the counter and the oven door open. Bucky closed the oven door and stepped up to Darcy, taken her hand gently to look at the burn. "The oven mitt slipped and I touched the hot cookie sheet. It's fine, it barely hurts anymore."
Bucky inspects Darcy's hand to find a superficial burn on a couple fingers. It won't need any first aid so he lets go of her hand and nods at her assessment. He wanted to ask why she was up so late, but the dark circles under eyes seemed to give him the answer.
As is sensing his question she spoke first, "I bake when I can't sleep. Ever since I was a kid, chocolate chip cookies could always scare away the bogeyman. I suspect he might have a gluten allergy." She smiled at him, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Bucky had read her file already, and knew what she and Jane Foster had been through. It was more than enough to give the average person nightmares, so he just gave her a small grin and nod in acknowledgement.
He turned to the cookie sheet, picking it up with his vibranium hand and placing it on the awaiting cooling rack. Then he pulled out a sauce pan and set it on the stove and grabbed the milk from the fridge. He held it up to Darcy, silently asking if she wanted some. "Warm milk and cookies, that sounds perfect. Bucky grabbed a mug, filling it twice and pouring it into the saucepan to warm. Bucky grabbed another mug and poured the warm milk into the two mugs as Darcy put the cookies on a plate.
They sat together at a small table in the corner of the kitchen sharing the cookies while Darcy prattled on about the daily events in the lab. Soon they were both yawning and all the cookies were gone. Bucky took the dishes to the sink to rinse them off to be put in the dishwasher. Suddenly there were arms wrapped around his waist, and he felt Darcy pressed against his back. "Thanks." was all she said before disappearing down the hallway.
"You're welcome." Bucky whispered into the dark. She was already long gone though, but his heart was warm in his chest, and he went to sleep after that with the ghostly feel of her arms still around him.
The next time he saw her, she was falling.
He had just entered the training hall for a sparring session with Steve when he spotted her halfway up the rockwall. Clint was climbing beside her, helping her find footholds. She must have been at it for awhile if the sheen of sweat on her neck and soaking through the back of her shirt was any indication. It must have been decided she needed some non-combat training, Bucky couldn't say he disapproved. Darcy and Jane had a talent for landing in the thick of things, a few survival skills might save them one day.
He started to walk past the wall, towards the sparring ring, when he heard her yelp. He looked up and saw her falling, just in time to catch her. Her legs landed hard on his metal arm. Bucky grimaced, knowing that it would leave a nasty bruise. "Christ on a cracker! Thanks for the save but maybe it would have been better to hit the mat." Darcy groaned.
"Sorry, it was instinct." Bucky muttered as he slowly set her on her feet. Darcy kept one arm around him even after she had steadied herself. Surprisingly, he didn't stop her or try to back away from the contact.
Clint dropped down from the wall, landing gracefully on his feet right beside them. "You okay Darce?"
"Yeah birdman, I'll live. Hands got all slippery from the sweat. That'll teach me to exercise. Totally learned my lesson, back to the couch with me." Darcy waved him off. "Thanks for the painful save man." She smacked Bucky lightly on the chest, all he could manage with a small smile and nod, "Geez, how does anyone get a word in edgewise with you talking everyone's ear off like that." She smiled before hobbling off to the shower room.
"Just like the old days, eh Buck?" Steve had walked up to him, "Girls always falling into your arms everywhere we went."
Bucky punched the other man in the arm, "Shut up punk before I'm forced to kick your ass."
After their work out the two were changing in the locker room when Steve got a text on his phone. "Hey Buck, the team is doing a movie night tonight, you wanna join them?"
Bucky thought about it for a moment, " I don't think so. Not really in the mood." He felt more like sitting in the dark, thinking about the life he no longer remembered very well.
"Are you sure? Darcy is making empanadas for everyone." Bucky tried and failed to keep his face from showing just how much the mention of her affected him.
He tried to keep his voice even, "Fine punk I'll come along too."
Steve grinned widely, "You like her, don't you."
"What are you talking about, I'm in it for the food. You know I like empanadas." Bucky tried to sound convincing, but Steve wasn't buying it.
He just smiled knowingly at Bucky, "She's a great gal, I think she's perfect for you."
"Shut up punk, nobody asked you." Bucky threw the last of his work out gear in his duffle and headed for the door.
The next time he saw her she was screaming.
AIM had finally gotten up the nerve to make a run at the compound. Dropping out of the sky like locusts, they quickly overran the small security force at the gates and laid siege to the building. They slammed the outer walls with some sort of heavy artillery and sonic weapons. They were slowly chipping away at the walls defenses but seemed unlikely to be able to fully breach the compound. It didn't stop it from causing some damage and the alarms were blaring on every floor. Friday's calm voice directed personnel to safe rooms and bunkers throughout the building.
The sonic weapons did manage to disrupt some of the experiments in the labs, causing a couple decent explosions. There was smoke and fire in a couple different corners of the floor. Scientists and lab techs were in a panic as they tried to find their way through the smoke and debris. Bucky and Steve had just entered the floor when they found Bruce stumbling towards the stairs. He had a look of severe concentration on his face, and a slight green tinge to his neck. He also seemed to be dragging another woman with him, she was struggling against him to get back towards the chaos.
Steve ran up to the pair with Bucky close on his heels, "Bruce, you okay?" The question had many layers to it that all three men were concerned about.
"I'm not injured, but just barely keeping it together. She's not helping matters." He shrugged towards the frantic woman.
Steve took hold of her arm and waved Bruce off, "Go, go we've got this. Take care of yourself." Bruce nodded and headed in the direction of his specially made escape room. It was then that Bucky was able to recognize the woman as Dr. Jane Foster.
She was in a blind panic, "Darcy, I've got to go back for Darcy. She's still in there!" Steve and Bucky shared a look.
"Friday's fire suppression won't kick on if there are any lifesigns on the floor." Steve stated, and without another word Bucky took off in the direction of Foster's lab.
He had a hard time finding the lab in all the destruction, but he eventually was able to locate it. It had been completely destroyed, obviously the epicenter of one of the explosions. "Help! Somebody, anybody help me! I'm stuck, please help." The voice was strong, but the fumes and smoke were getting to her, making her cough.
Bucky carefully made his way through the debris, careful not to step on her, until he finally found her. Her legs were pinned under the electronic equipment that had been beeping the first time he had been there. "I can't move, I'm stuck." She was not her usual cheerful self, and the fear in her voice broke his heart and brought him towards a panic of his own. The fire was getting closer and the smoke was already thick. He took his shirt off and told her to cover her nose and mouth with it, hoping to block out some of the smoke.
After he was sure she was ready he slowly started to lift the machine off her legs. After lifting it just a short bit she let out an ear piercing scream. Bucky then saw blood starting to trickle out across the floor. "I'm sorry Doll, this is gonna hurt but I gotta get you out from under this." He looked at her, true sorrow in his eyes.
"Did you just call me Doll?" She looked up at him incredulously.
"That's what you're focusing on right now?" Bucky couldn't help but laugh, "You can yell at me for being a male chauvinist pig or whatever later. Right now I need to get you out from under this machine."
"Just do it, pull it off like a bandaid. I can't believe I needed a near death experience to get you to talk to me." She tried to be flippant, but pain and panic laced her words. Bucky just nodded, counted to three then practically threw the machine up and away from them. Darcy screamed as the metal tore through her leg again and then fainted.
Bucky found that some bent piece of the machine had punctured her thigh, breaking her femur in the process. She was bleeding heavily so he took back his shirt from her face and decided it would be better wrapped around her wound. He lifted her, carefully holding her injury against him to minimize movement and then sprinted back towards the exit and up to the medical triage that was two floors above them.
The next time she saw him, he was sleeping.
Darcy woke in a small room on the hospital floor. She was trying to remember how she ended up there, but her mind was a bit foggy. She figured that she must be on the good drugs if the bandages on her leg were any indication. Her leg was completely immobilized from the hip down. She also saw a head covered in brown hair laying on the bed near her feet. At first she thought it must be Jane, but the shoulders were too wide. The biceps were fairly beefy too, and one of them made a slight whirring noise in time with the rise and fall of the person's breaths. The man, it had to be a man, was sleeping soundly and she was pretty sure she knew who it was, but why was Bucky Barnes sleeping at her feet.
She vaguely remembered the accident, there was a shrill noise and the experiment Jane had been running blew up right next to her. Everything that happened next was a bit jumbled. There was pain, probably her leg, and smoke. She remembered the alarms going off and flashing red lights. Then there was a figure kneeling over her, the lights were shining off his arm so she knew it had to be Bucky. He had saved her, she remembered him lifting the machine off her. She also remembered that he had given her his shirt to cover her mouth with, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what he had looked like shirtless. "Fuck my life." She mumbled closing her eyes.
There was movement at her feet and she froze. There was a deep intake of breath and Bucky's head popped up suddenly. Darcy figured the gig was up and gave a small cough to alert her visitor that she was awake. Bucky slowly turned his head to look at her, the look on his face seemed worried. "Good morning my knight in shiny arm."
Bucky blinked at her for a second, then gave a shy little smile. "You had me worried there for a minute doll. Thought you might never wake up."
"Did you just call me doll? Wait, did you call me doll before?" It was hard to remember, and it made her head hurt a bit when she tried.
"Uhm yeah I did. Thought for sure you were gonna get on me about it. You don't remember?" Bucky started to look concerned.
Darcy had a hand on her head and squeezed her eyes shut tight against the pain. "It's hard, some stuff is there, some of it's not quite clear."
"You must have hit your head when you fell. I'll get the doctor." Bucky stood to head out of the room. He stuck his arm out and seemed to wave down one of the nurses.
"Did you take your shirt off down there?" Darcy wasn't sure what possessed her to actually ask, but she need to know if she was remembered that correctly.
Bucky turned back to the bed, "Yeah, I ended up wrapped it around your leg. You bleed all over it. They threw it away when I got you to the doctors."
"Damn that's a shame." Darcy sighed.
"It's okay doll. It wasn't anything special." Bucky shrugged.
"Not the shirt silly, the fact I saw you shirtless and can't remember a thing." Darcy grinned at Bucky's slight blush, but was soon distracted by a doctor asking her questions and shining a light into her eyes. When they left again, Bucky was gone.
The next time he saw her, she was frowning.
Obviously whatever the nurses were trying to get her to eat had personally offended her in some way if the look on her face was any indication. Bucky walked in on Darcy poking at some sort of pasta meal with a little plastic fork and crinkling up her nose at it. If this plate was his competition, he felt like his chances of success were pretty good. Before she had even noticed his arrival he picked up the tray of food in front of her and replaced it with a cake.
It was obviously homemade. No self respecting bakery would sell something that looked like this. It was lopsided and leaning a bit to one side. The frosting looked like it had been put on with a fork in a shaking hand, and it was full of crumbs. On top 'Get Well Soon' was spelled out in those little candy letters that they sell in the grocery store. They were unevenly spaced, with finger holes in the frosting around them. The whole thing was overwhelmingly heartwarming.
"I baked you a cake, it looks horrendous but it tastes good." Bucky explained.
Darcy looked up at him with the brightest smile he had ever seen cross her face. "It's terrific bucky. I love it!" She grabbed a clean plastic fork and dug into it, groaning in pleasure at the taste. "Oh my god, it's so chocolatey and moist."
Bucky smiled as he sat down beside her. Darcy passed him a spoon with a silent invitation to join her, which he did with gusto. Between bites he went on with his story, "I was going to make you cookies, you know to keep the bogey man away, but I got distracted and they ended up more like charcoal briquets."
Darcy couldn't help but laugh, which caused her to choke a bit. Bucky passed her a cup of water. Once the coughing had subsided she smacked him playfully on the shoulder, "Don't make me laugh when I'm eating." They went back to eating the cake, every so often shooting glances to each other.
After she had been cleared to leave the hospital floor and head back to her own rooms Bucky offered to make her dinner. Three small fires and a phone call later they sat together on Darcy's couch with a delivery pizza and a good movie, unable to get enough of each other.