A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the late-ish update! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate christmas then I hope you have had a good week! Please enjoy this chapter and note that most of it is set about 3/4 weeks after the previous chapter, chapter 20.

~O~

The next few weeks passed in a blur of work, sessions with Adeline and hanging out with Ellie and Bucky. For the most part, things got better. Ellie and Bucky began to even get along a little, although they still fought sometimes. Adeline was helpful in all mannerisms of things and Maddy felt her fear of talking about her experience begin to slowly melt away. Ellie was supportive and always there for her. And Bucky….Well, Bucky was another thing altogether.

He began to treat Maddy like glass. Every touch was gentle, every kiss a soft peck. He took her to the movies and nearly punched a guy's head in just for looking at her the wrong way. He checked on her everyday. He asked her what she'd eaten and how much she slept the night before and if she was having any troubles at work. Every time she tried to deepen a kiss, he would break it off and peck her on the forehead instead. She thought that he was just dealing with discovering what had happened to her in his own way and that it wouldn't last long, that this annoyingly overprotective, almost big-brother thing would fade in a couple of weeks. But then one night, after they'd had a nice, quiet dinner together and as Maddy was preparing to go to bed, she said, "You're staying tonight right?"

She was in her pyjamas and her hair was piled in a bun on top of her head. Bucky was packing the dishes into the dishwasher as she wiped down the kitchen bench.

He glanced at her before focussing back on his task. "I uh..I think for now I should just sleep in my own bed," was his reply. Her eyebrows furrowed and she paused.

"What? What are you talking about?"

He sighed, stopping and straightening up to look her in the eye. "I just don't think that I should be sleeping in your bed. I think I might sleep on the couch here, just so I'm in here incase something happens-"

"Bucky nothing is going to happen. I've been in this apartment for nearly a year and a half and nothing bad has happened here. That's not why I want you to stay over," she protested. "I want you to stay because I like being near you."

He shifted, looking down at his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. "I just don't think it's proper for me to be staying in your bed. Not at the moment."

"What does that even mean?" She exclaimed.

He exhaled patiently. "It means…for now I want to be near you to make sure you're safe. But I'm not going to sleep in your bed. It's not right."

She huffed in annoyance, scrunching up the rag in her hands and throwing it harshly into the sink before turning away and storming into her bedroom. She knew she was being childish, running away, but she thought it best so she didn't start a fresh fight with him. She didn't want to fight with him, not when she knew he would adamantly not fight back. He would stand his ground, but there was no way he would actually yell at her or get angry at her, not since she had told him the truth about the kidnapping. Not since he had decided that she was actually a fragile baby bird that needed to be protected, coddled even. It made her blood boil.

She lay in bed, steaming, until he came in and kissed her on the forehead, rubbing her cheek with his thump softly and somehow making all of her anger melt away.

"I'll be on the couch if you need anything," he promised her quietly before feathering his lips over hers, as light as can be, and leaving the room. She woke in the morning and he was cooking pancakes and she was completely unable to stay angry at him.

Maddy let all of the coddling and overprotectiveness go for as long as she could, but, a week later, when Bucky nearly had a heart attack when she changed her shirt in front of him, she decided enough was enough.

"Bucky it's nothing you haven't seen before!" Maddy insisted, still decidedly shirtless - but still wearing a bra, like seriously - whilst Bucky had his gaze averted to the roof.

"Just put your clothes back on!" he insisted, although stopped himself when he realised his tone was a bit harsh, like she couldn't take any harshness. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. Look, I'll go outside while you get changed-"

"Ok enough!" Maddy was the one yelling then. "Look at me." He didn't. "James Barnes I swear to God-"

He finally tore his gaze from the ceiling and looked into her eyes, his gaze adamantly not wandering any lower.

"You are being ridiculous," she ground out. She forced herself to calm down, taking in a deep breath. "I am not a baby bird, alright? I am not broken or fragile because of what he did to me. I am still the exact same person that I was before and I don't need you acting as though I'm someone completely different!"

"Maddy it's not that," he objected.

"Then what? What Buck? If your feelings have changed and you aren't interested like that anymore, then that's fine - even though I think it's kind of unfair considering I had no choice in what happened to me - but you can't keep leading me on if you only want to be friends-"

"What?" He interrupted her. "No! My feelings haven't changed Maddy. Especially not because of what he did to you. If anything it just makes me care about you even more - knowing that you're that strong and brave and-…It's just…"

"You have to stop treating me like your freaking elderly grandma then! It's like you aren't even attracted to me at all anymore!" She wasn't one to need validation, she didn't really care what other people thought of her appearance, but seriously Bucky was acting like she was just his ugly little sister or something.

But then, with a sigh, his eyes scanned over her half naked body and lust filled his heavy gaze. He licked his lips, his eyes lingering on her breasts. "Trust me," his voice was low and gravelly and it made Maddy shiver. He gave her another appreciative look before meeting her eyes. "I'm still very attracted to you, doll."

Her breathing was heavy and she took a step closer to him. "Then prove it," she challenged quietly. The air around them was suddenly thick and the only sound was their heaving breaths. Then Bucky surged forward and kissed her with such a ferocity and desperation that must have been building up in him for the past few weeks because it was unlike anything Maddy had felt before. His hands were everywhere, running down her back, through her hair, over her ass and then back up again. She kissed him back as best she could, but he was completely dominating, his tongue in her mouth and his lips bruising. She wanted more. She sunk her teeth into his bottom lip and he groaned before she curled her hands into the strands of his hair, pulling slightly. His hands went down over her ass again and he gripped the back of her thighs, lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist, refusing to break their lips apart, every cell in her body practically on fire. He pushed her up against the wall, holding her up with just one arm and resting his other hand on the bare skin of her stomach. He kissed her jaw and the corner of her mouth.

"Do you want me to stop?" He murmured, lips brushing against the skin of her cheek, although he wasn't entirely sure he would be able to stop. She was intoxicating, which was precisely the reason he had been keeping his distance, afraid he'd get caught up in her and end up scaring her off.

She shook her head. "No," she said confidently. His hand slid up her stomach and cupped her breast through her bra, squeezing lightly. She moaned, leaning her head back and Bucky thought it was the hottest and most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. He wanted to hear her do it again and again. He wanted to hear her moan his name.

And then, of course, because the world is an evil place and hates Bucky Barnes with a vengeance, there was a knock at Maddy's apartment door and Marcus's voice rang out.

"Maddy, darling are you ready to go?"

And there was the reason Maddy had been getting changed in the first place; she was going to dinner with Marcus and Gabe.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Bucky growled against her skin, squeezing her breast once more and making her stifle a moan by biting her lip. He reluctantly stepped back, letting her feet fall back to the ground. Her knees were weak and she had to hold onto his arm for support.

"J-just a second!" Maddy called back to her friend. She grabbed a blouse and shrugged it on, buttoning it up and running her fingers through her mussed hair momentarily before pulling open her front door. "Hey," she grinned. Marcus's eyes flitted from her to Bucky and then back again.

"Hello," he said slowly. "Did we interrupt something?"

"Nope," Maddy brushed it off easily. "I'm ready, let's go." Bucky handed her her jacket and she shrugged it on. He looked half murderous and she thought it was kind of adorable, even though she was still unbearably turned on. "I won't be back late," she promised him, kissing him on the cheek. He just nodded, letting her go. She linked her arm through Gabe and Marcus's and began leading them down the stairwell. Marcus teased her the entire night and asked if he could join in next time because 'boy would I love to see him shirtless'.

~O~

When Maddy got home, Bucky was asleep in her bed for the first time in well over a week, curled up under the blankets. She knew he slept better when she was beside him and ever since he had decided that sleeping in her bed was too 'scandalous', she also knew that sleeping would have gotten considerably more difficult for him. She could sometimes hear him having nightmares on her couch.

He was probably tired and could use the good sleep and she knew that falling to sleep in her bed, with her scent wrapped around him, would have been easy. She shed her jacket and clothes and changed into pyjamas before slipping into the bed beside him, his arm subconsciously pulling her close. She fell straight to sleep.

~O~

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Please, Please leave a review and make my day! Tell me what you thought!

Thanks so much for the positive response on the last chapter - it meant a lot. To the Guest that said that Ellie was being pushy and it wasn't good - I completely agree! She was being very pushy and whilst she had very good intentions and it did work out well, there could be situations in which that pushiness backfired. However, I believe that I shouldn't write characters as perfect. they are human and they are flawed and Ellie had good intentions but perhaps her actions were not the best. But it all worked out in the end!

I love you all and will update soon. Until next time my lovelies xx