Howard misses the turn by a second, the wind howls and the water a thousand feet below sings it's welcome, and for a second Maria Stark is afraid they will go over the edge.
They don't.
Howard corrects their course, and they are safely within the thick white line again. So when the car misses for a second time she doesn't realize what has happened until it is too late.
The car swerves violently, the white line disappears but the car does not rush to the water, but to the ditch full of thick bushes. Maria screams with the car, metal crumples and twists with the force and the windshield turns into a web before exploding in all directions. She pulls her arms up to protect her face, and by the time she lowers them everything has come to a screeching halt, her own screaming included.
I takes a moment for her mind to come to grips with the situation, when she does she looks to Howard.
He is slumped over the steering wheel, still with blood coating the thing that had been an extension of his own body a second ago. Maria reaches hesitantly and barley lets her fingers brush her husbands wrist before drawing back out of sheer terror.
What if he isn't alive?
The idea of not knowing the sickening truth is a much pleasanter course to follow, all she has to do is close her eyes and pretend, what she doesn't know can't hurt her. She pushes aside the easy path, and once again reaches out for her husbands wrist, only letting go the second time when she is sure.
There's a crunch outside the car and another, and the face of a man appears in the drivers side window, he's younger than Maria by more than a few years, closer to Tony's age. Something about his face is familiar, as she struggles to remember the man's name he reaches into the car and places his fingers against Howard's neck and waits.
"Have you called for help?"
Her voice seems to surprise the man, his head shoots up and his hand is on his belt, his muscles and coiled and ready for a fight.
"Help? Have you gotten help?"
Maria attempts to move her legs, and the fact that she can't move then becomes the focal point of her attention, her legs are twisted up with the metal of the car.
"I..."
The man looks like a deer caught in the headlights.
"They didn't say..."
We're both panicking.
"Listen I need you to get help," Maria makes a jerky attempt to move her legs which frightens the man back a step. "I'm stuck, and I can't find my phone..."
"I heard you scream."
Maria's head jerks up in shock, and takes in the man's appearance truly for the first time.
Fear coils in her gut.
He's dressed in black, one arm looks stiff under the sleeve, his fingers glitter like polished metal, like a blade. On his belt is a knife of sorts, other small pouches that undoubtedly hold weapons but on his hip, as clear as day, is a pistol.
"Oh..." Is all she can manage to squeak out.
"I didn't know."
Oh god.
The man looks lost, scared, terrorized. "I though... I don't hear things, maybe he had lived... I didn't know?"
The idea of this man being an assassin is completely sickening, he can barley stand her being in the car but the idea of killing her husband is something he doesn't even blink an eye at.
"Listen to me," Maria grips down on the part of her that is calm, a false calm she knows, but calm all the same. "If you get help none of this will matter."
He shakes his head.
Suddenly the assassin isn't scared or weak, he stops shaking and his eyes harden. The pistol from his hip is in his hand and Maria can see the bullet at the far end of the barrel.
The name comes to her then, suddenly the face has a name and she has to hold off the acid creeping up her throat.
"J-James Barnes, right?" Maria manages to chokes out.
Bucky-Fucking-Barnes is alive. He's killed Howard.
She wants to scream.
The pistol is lowered from her face and pointed instead to her lap, 'Bucky's' eyes are filled with confusion.
"I'm Maria Stark, Howard's wife. You know Howard, right?" The fake smile is obvious but 'Bucky' doesn't seem to notice. "Howard and Steve were friends. Steve Rogers."
"Rogers..." 'Bucky' echoes.
"Yes, Steve Rogers. And I'm Maria Stark."
"I..." He frowns deeply, the man is back.
"Can you help me, my legs are stuck." The fake smile is still firmly in place.
He makes his way around the car silently. With every step closer to her, her muscles tighten and she pushes the fear down to prevent herself from screaming.
Trying the door first, Maria attempts to smile gently. Her hands are shaking. "Can you get the door, I think it's stuck."
'Bucky' reaches for the door handle with his shinning fingers and the door comes off like he is ripping paper out of a book, and he tosses the door behind him.
"Put the gun away... Bucky."
He obeys, sliding the pistol back into it's holster.
"My legs, you see." She points to where the car has closed around her shins, "Would you be able to bend the car off with you arm?"
For a second she is sure that is exactly what he is going to do, and then he shakes his head; his hand comes up and twists itself in the dark curls of her hair, before slamming her face into what's left of the dashboard.
(18/2/24): I rewrote this a long time ago on AO3 but didn't bother updating this version, now I have.
A/N: This was not the ending I had originally planed. The one I did here:
"When he's out of sight of the mirror, not even a dot between the land and sky, is then that she moves. Like a striking viper the short blade plunges into her calf, puncturing the soft material of her skirt and in turn her skin, not once or twice but until her arm is too heavy, and her lap is no more than a pool of blood.
She can't help but turn and get sick on Howard's corpse then, blood loss makes the world turn inside out, and she lets the tears fall. Salty trails down her face, she doesn't sob or hiccup with sharp breathes, she isn't strong enough for even that. So she thinks, focusing her mind one last time, the image of her son in her minds-eye.
"I love you..."
When S.H.I.E.L.D.'s people arrive in their dark cars and suits Maria Stark doesn't see them."
Much more cheesy-dramatic, but ruthless Winter Soldier was more fitting.
Meh. Thanks for reading.
somedayisours