Well helloooo, Happy Sunday my lovelies :D
Chapter Seven is here and its the longest of the chapters so far, from now on they will be a little more in depth and longer (Not too much but sometimes I don't know when to stop.)
Hope you guys enjoy, see you at the bottom.
Disclaimer: Marvel own everything.
CHAPTER VII
Maggie had known something had happened as soon as she had step inside of the house that night. Billy hadn't said anything to either of them; Bucky must have known, and he had trying to apologize for wrecking his bathroom, Billy's only response was a clap on the shoulder and telling him to forget about it. The two of them had done their best to put everything as right as they could. There were things that couldn't be so easily rectified, like the broken mirror, the shredded shower curtain and nor one of the t-shirts Maggie had gotten him.
She'd snooped and found the rubbish, the missing mirror and shower curtain and a blood stain on the mat by the bathroom sink they had missed, and she tries to get Billy to open up but he just denies her the chance. She can't help but think Bucky is avoiding her over the next day or two, deciding he suddenly wants to spend his time in the basement. But whenever she came in the morning to take care of Roberta she would come down to see a fresh mug of coffee left on the side, waiting for her.
He couldn't avoid her completely, and she could see his tracks throughout the house, none more surprising as when she arrived back after her shift a little earlier than expected to find him coming out of Roberta's room. There was an awkward moment on the landing where he just returns her hello before heading back to the basement.
She hadn't lingered long, feeling a sense of rush to see if Roberta was okay. Turns out she was fine and sound asleep. Everything in the room had been as she had left it. All apart from one thing. A book. 'Gone With The Wind' which she had started reading to her a few days previously to help her wind down and get off to sleep.
If the book being marked a couple of chapters ahead of where she left it wasn't enough, Maggie slipped into conversation, nonchalantly with Billy on whether he was enjoying the book and his expression told her everything.
She wasn't quite sure how she felt about it, yes to be honest she found it rather odd but at the same time there was something underlining of a feeling of comfort and warmth.
But it also did rouse questions as to why he was only avoiding her, he and Billy seemed to be conversing slightly, and he was now even spending time with Roberta, but he can barely even look at Maggie.
And by Sunday morning when she arrives to find her coffee awaiting her, she had had enough. It seems Billy felt something needed to be done too, and suggested he get some fresh air. That she was to take him out, even if it was to the end of the street and back. Initially Maggie had thought it was a terrible idea. Ridiculous. What if someone was to recognize him? Of course there wasn't much to recognize him with but a few blurred pictures, and okay maybe his arm but every point Maggie made it seems Billy had thought of a convincing response.
So she agreed, she would need to nip to the shop anyway and it was only around the corner.
However it was Bucky who put up the most resistance. There he was on the floor doing sit ups, not even breaking a sweat, and being rude. Okay he was answering her questions, but it was as though he was just talking to fresh air.
In a bit of temper she picks up a mammoth sized book and drops it on his stomach, eyes dark, annoyed.
"Get up!" She commands, "And stop behaving like a moody fifteen year old girl."
The book itself didn't hurt him, but the actions that were behind it triumphed in getting his attention, looking to her as she came to crouch down beside him as he pushes himself up and rests upon his elbows.
"You can't spend the rest of your life in here. And you can't spend the rest of that time behaving like I don't exist." She interlocks her fingers, "I don't deserve it"
She did feel it true, but she also knew it was a card she was playing, one that actually had his eyes reacting to her for a change.
"I don't think it's a good idea" Bucky actually manages to string a sentence together.
"Okay… and what if I said I was scared to go on my own?" She had a whole deck of cards to deal.
"I'd say… you… wouldn't be being honest with me. You don't usually have a problem"
Oh so it seems that since he spoke to her last he had grown an attitude and the art of sarcasm. He was perplexing her; the roles seemed to be reversed.
"Maybe I'm not being honest with you, or maybe I am and this is a dangerous street and neighbourhood. Are you really willing to take the chance?" She bows her chin to her right shoulder and bats her lashes.
Wide eyed and confused, he feels like he should look away. Like there was something hypnotizing about her.
Like magic he sighs the signal of defeat.
She needed to say nothing more, and just gets up and heads up the stairs, talking to herself.
"Why? Why oh why is it always the lashes that do it for a guy?"
*T*C*
"Anyone told you, you take longer than a woman to get ready?" Her eyes look on over him and he is wearing jeans, a t-shirt she had bought him, a hoodie zipped right to the top. Then a cap and his hood over the top.
"I don't want to risk getting any attention" Bucky thought she would have been in full support of him keeping his identity a secret.
"Well dressed like that you will. You look like you're about to rob a bank. Here…" She steps closer, right before him and he stops breathing.
Maggie reaches up on her tiptoes and pulls his hood down, screws up her lips as she thinks about the cap and decides to let him keep it in order for him just to feel secure. But she pinches the zip and pulls it in one swift swoop to the bottom, letting it hang open.
She's wearing perfume, and he picks up scents of flowers and a citrus sweetness that has him swallowing, suddenly feeling like he could drink a sea dry.
Maggie keeps her eyes trained on anything from the neck down, she can feel his eyes on her and they're burning her flesh, the heart sending a burst of red up her neck to her cheeks.
"That's better. It's summer after all." She reminds them both, as she was attempting to palm herself off with the idea that her blush was nothing more than flushness from the hot weather, and her hasty retreat to the door for fresh air, calling out to an oblivious Billy that they wouldn't be long.
*T*C*
So things were pretty quiet, and not just meaning the shop was pretty vacant. You could cut the atmosphere between them with a knife, and yet neither of them wanted it to be there.
Maggie lets the basket swing between them as they wander up the aisle, her jade eyes scanning the shelves for anything of interest.
"Just get whatever you want" She tells him for the second time.
"I will"
Silence.
Once finished the basket between them was replaced with a bag.
Silence.
Bucky was beginning to feel warm under the thick fleece-like material of the hoodie.
Silence.
Maggie wonders if she forgot her bank card in the shop. Nope it's in her pocket.
Silence.
'This Neighbourhood doesn't look at all dangerous' Bucky thinks to himself.
Silence.
'Well no need in protecting me from possible street crime, the silence will kill me,' Swims through Maggie's mind.
Silence.
'Maybe I should comment on the weather' Bucky parts his lips and then closes them again.
Silence.
'Jesus Christ, say something. Anything. Talk to him about the weather!' Maggie's subconscious attempts to give her a kick up the backside.
Silence.
Both: 'Wait did he/she say something?'
"Roger! Roger get back here now!" Both their heads spin to the right to see a middle aged man running across the park after his Spaniel who must have gotten a smell under his nose.
Harmoniously they share a gurgle of laughter.
Finally having enough Maggie stops in her tracks, and it only takes a couple more step ahead before he stops and turns. Rolling her head, Maggie signals for him to follow her, and he obliges.
"Where are we going?" Bucky questions, not really too bothered about the answer, just wondering what is going through her mind, as they cut down a grass bank and across the lawn of green to the fenced area.
"I don't want to go back just yet. It's really sunny today." To her it is stating the obvious, but to him he was just thankful to hear her voice. Maybe he should make more of an effort. He had been the one to stay out of her way the past couple of days.
Walking off in front, Bucky trails behind just willing to go wherever she was taking them. It turns out she wanted to sit on the swings.
"Do you want me to push you or something?"
She shakes her head in partial response, "No, I want to you sit down and tell me why you've been avoiding me these past couple of days"
Maggie figured they'd beaten around the bush for long enough with all the silence, and she was willing to beat it out of him if necessary.
Bucky glances around, everything was pretty quiet. No children were playing on the park, as it was school time and just a few owners walking their dogs but at a distance.
Eyeballing the metal chains that embraced the rubber seat, he accepts her invitation to sit. However the second part, he wasn't sure where to start.
"I ruined the one of the t-shirts you bought me" He deadpanned.
"Bull-shit!" She called and Bucky was take off guard with her tone, language and also calling him out.
While a part of it was true, he realized he wasn't going to get away with mediocre excuses and needed to be honest.
"I…" Looking to the sky for inspiration, he realizes he owes her the trust, "I watch you walk around and everything you touch, every thought that passes by your eyes is a way for you to help somebody. And some of the time that someone is me, and I can't… understand… Why?" He looks to her, bearing himself to her in order to have an understanding.
Maggie captures a hold of his diamond blue iris's, so tainted and lost, and she didn't know how to give him what he was looking for. She could give him answers, but it really wasn't answers he was looking for, he was looking for a way to be released from his pain and guilt. Things no amount of words that pass her lips could erase.
She comes to lean her temple against the chain, "I'm not at selfless as you think I am. There is nobody selfless in this world, nor how many others there they may out there. And that day when you stepped out in front of the car and I hit you. It didn't matter to me who I hit, who or what it was. I'd hit something, and do you know the first thing that hit me? I couldn't bear to think I might have killed or seriously hurt someone. Guilt.
"There is darkness inside of everyone. Some people never uncover it, some know it's there but ignore it. Some people embrace it, deluding themselves with fantasy that what they are doing is… somehow what's right. People who the darkness creeps upon them and fall into shadows. Then there are people who are just evil and search for it. And those people, push darkness upon others" She bows her head towards him.
"I cannot take away your guilt, and I'm sorry if I remind you of it. You will never lose that guilt, or turn back time. You have to live with what you did, whether someone made you, or you did it intentionally. Sometimes guilt pushes you back into the darkness and a downward spiral begins. Or you can embrace the guilt and use it." She looks away, down to her feet that move back and forth from heel to toe, rocking herself back upon the swing. "That decision is with you and how strong of a man you are. I just think maybe it helps when you have people around you that care."
"That's enough philosophy from me for one day"
Bucky tears his eyes away, allowing her words to sink in without being distracted by anything else about her. The world truly was a strange place, and it became stranger by the day, but for him he saw a glimpse of hope in what she shows him with her words. Hope, an emotion he had failed to encounter or feel until that moment.
"Wise words for a woman sitting on a swing" His chest rattles with silent humour, and yet he could hear hers.
"True. Very true." She leans down and opens up the bag by her feet and pulling out two chocolate bars, holding one out to him. "Here, Chocolate numbs everything. At least that's my excuse." waving it until he takes it from her.
The two sit there enjoying the sunshine and the chocolate, Bucky even finding it impossible not to rock himself a little in the seat, a small sense of comfort coming with it.
"So… you don't… hate me then?" He blurts out, mopping up any chocolate staining his lips.
"No, of course not!" She hated his past and what was made of him, but she definitely didn't hate the man before her, "You wouldn't even feel the need to ask me, if I did. So no more silent treatment, unless I tell you otherwise." Her flat feet bring her to a stop so she can rise to them and shift to stand before him, holding out her hand like he had to her that first night when he woke up.
"Friends?" Her ear inclines towards her shoulder, awaiting his approval of the truce.
"Can I… uh… think about it?"
Well she was not expecting that, and after everything they'd just spoke about she feels… yes she feels hurt and she isn't afraid to admit it.
"Wow thank a lot. Now I feel like a witch. I thought we were making process" She withdraws her hand and they become uncomfortable so she tucks them away by crossing her arm.
He stands and casts a shadow over her, with his massive head and his ridiculously broad shoulders. Maggie wanted to kick him in the shin, but played the mature card and just turned to pick up her bag.
"I've been wondering how you would react if the tables were turned"
"Tables turned?" She pivots, to see a hand thrust out await her, and a smile playing on his handsome lips.
Handsome lips?
"I might be Mr. Serious of late, but somewhere in my past I've acquired a sense of humour, Friend"
Maggie runs her tongue over her left top set of molars, before poking it into her cheek, "Mmm," she decides since he looked so pleased with himself, she would allowing him his glory this time. The fresh air must have gone to his head.
She slaps her hands into his, "So I guess now being a friend, it's my job to be honest with you and tell you… don't ever take up a career as a comedian"
*T*C*
The new ability enabling Bucky to tease Maggie was one that brought him enjoyment and pleasure. Even if it was for a few seconds or minutes the release was no more prominent than upon his shoulders. He didn't expect he had the right to laugh or even smile but sometimes his inability to prevent was too strong that his resistance wasn't without its cracks. He knew he should, he knew that so many people would insist he only ever felt pain and spent his existence exiled from life and the wonders that bring with it.
Maggie wasn't without judgement, of that he was sure, but neither did she look at him with hatred or disgust if he were to crack a smile. Billy was the same too.
As for Billy, he did see differences between him and Maggie. He found another enjoyment in just watching them, whether together or apart. Some things about them were similar, their passion to help people and there caring natures, but they were both different in how they approached their aspects of personalities and life.
He hadn't failed to notice Billy had never once left the house since his arrival, something forbid him from leaving the house and he wondered what it was. He wondered if he should ask in case he could help somehow; let him know he had nothing to fear. But how could he when he didn't know what he was afraid of?
With Maggie having left for work and Billy down in the basement, Bucky finds himself left to his own devices and he is quite alone. The television holds no interest for him. Roberta is sleeping and he struggles to find a way to pass his time.
He knew Maggie wouldn't be returning tonight, so he did not have her company to look forward to, but he must find a way to occupy his time and mind.
Bucky began his search for a book; something to read perhaps would do the trick. He could consume his time in the drama of someone else's fictional life.
However among the books upon the shelves lay a small white piece of technology that sparks recollection of music, the night he had woken here in this house. He remembered the voice of Frank Sinatra. At the time he hadn't given it much thought, but now he wondered how music could come from something so small.
Shit, what did he do?
He'd only picked it up and the screen had come on, he might have caught a button but he wasn't sure what.
Unravelling the white wires from around it he begins pressing a series of buttons and from somewhere he could hear music. It seemed very distance and low, but it seemed to be coming from the ends of the wire.
Lifting them to look first, he draws them to his ear where the music because increasingly louder and less muffled. This time he didn't recognize the song and it was music different what he had considered music, but he was no longer in the forties. And from what he recalled, he always had an interesting in what the future might bring. Somewhere in that there is irony.
Holding the earphone to his ear, he perches down into the armchair and discovers it to sit comfortable in the ear.
Running across the screen was reading out 'Michael Jackson'. He didn't know the song, but from listening he understood the high pitched man was very interested in knowing if Annie was okay. He imagined that if he was born in this day and age he would find it something he might dance to. And without him even knowing so by the end of the song there is a trace of movement.
The next song was again upbeat and with several men singing this time, one of them having yet again another high pitched voice telling his girl, Bye in multiple of three's, he had to wonder where the balls of these men resided.
But either way he settled back into the chair and listened to song after song, sometimes men, others women, sometimes both. There were a few tracks with the same title of 'Queen', and he became fond of each as they played on, there were no squeaky voices and the songs ranged between upbeat and quite slow and a lot of meaning, realizing most songs he had listened were love.
Continuing with the music, the sound suddenly shifts, more like a rustling noise followed by a twinge of an instrument muffled with a cough or some sound of clearing of throat.
As a guitar begins to gradually produce a soft melody, his eyes cast themselves down to the screen to read 'Recording 001'. An angelic, almost whispered voice begins to sing.
The sound of the song seemed less professional than all the others, but while it may lack that he felt it made up for in soul, with nothing but the guitar and the beautiful voice bringing the words to life, a new sense of depths to the music. As though personal, someone living there lives within song.
He wasn't sure he'd ever heard anything like it in all of his time, it definitely became hypnotizing for him, and within the words he hears an underlining pain that gave the voice its heart and conviction.
He spent him time listening to every lyric and note, hearing her nail and mean everyone. The rich hint of huskiness pulling him into the mind of the singer, and Bucky founds himself involuntarily smiling as the chorus strikes and the girl pours her heart out as those nobody is listening, mentally encouraging the girl to give it all she got.
He was more than pleased when 'Recording 002', was the same female.
Slowly he rested his head back, eyes closing; hoping his lack of sight would only enhance his sense of hearing. One by one his bones melted into nothingness with an ocean below him just holding him upon its surface.
*T*C*
Across town Maggie takes her stroll towards the nurse's station, a low private hum of song gracing the air that clung around her.
So there we have Chapter Seven, again I hope you enjoyed. I think they reached a new understanding, and Bucky now knows what Hope is.
So random question, (I'm watching World War Z) The world is overcome with a zombie like craze, you have ONE Avenger to protect you. Who do you choose? (I would say Loki, one because he could just take me to Asgard, two he is probably the one that caused it. But since he isn't technically an Avenger I would go for Thor for the first reason. I'm a coward.)
So leave me a review if you're feeling generous, I really do love having feedback :)
See you soon
Danielle xx
