And finally, Chapter 18 is here.
Now I don't own any of the following: Still don't own Misfits, don't even own any copies of the show, just the Hulu account I watch it on. Don't own any of the characters from Mortal Instruments, and also nothing from Harry Potter, or Umbrella Academy – just a sci-fi and fantasy nerd borrowing these things.
I didn't actually incorporate the song into the chapter, but the premise is, "Don't ask me no questions, and I won't tell you no lies" – don't actually own the song either, just a copy of the cover by Chris Cagle.
June had smoothly gone into July, and that was where the trouble started.
Case had promised Bucky barring any unforeseen emergencies she was free to spend a full seven days with him – the longest period of time they'd had alone together since the forties – which had been the plan when he showed up on her doorstep that night.
It had still been the plan when he swept Case into his arms and carried her all the way to the bedroom, where he deposited her on the bed.
Neither cared that that was the plan when she flipped them, so he was on his back with his shirt open, and she kissed up and down the exposed skin while managing to suck a hickey into his collarbone.
She had reached his waistband and had him straining in his jeans when the first bars of "The Star-Spangled Man" came from her nightstand.
"How the fuck does that punk keep doing this?" Bucky groaned.
Case was mumbling curses under her breath in French as she reached over to her nightstand, hitting ignore on her phone. She'd gone back to Bucky and was able to undo his belt buckle before the blasted song could be heard again. "No, no, no!" She snapped, picking up the ringing device, "Power…off!" she threw the phone back onto the nightstand, and worked Bucky's jeans open, "Now…where were we—"
And that was when a garbled sounding voice announced, "I am Iron Man!"
As the opening bars to the song began, Case gave a groan.
"Fuck!" Bucky shouted as Case opened the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out her Stark Phone.
Case answered and set it to speaker, "What the hell do you want Tony?"
"Why'd you ignore the Capsicle?" Tony asked.
"Because I was busy, Tony!" Case sighed.
"You didn't seem that invested in the continuing adventures of Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw."
"I was trying to find out how the Umbrella Academy guys were going to handle the White Violin," Case said with a roll of her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, well Klaus lives, if that makes you feel better," Tony told her. "Now get a move on Howlett, I've got the Quinjet coming your way."
"Come on, Tony, you said I could have a week!" Case whined as she hopped off the bed and disappeared into her closet.
"I know, Howlett, but come on, the Hargreeves will be there when you get back," Tony pointed out. "We'll brief you on the way, we need to be wheels up in less than ten minutes."
"Yeah, yeah," Case said, ending the call. She left the closet with a black bodysuit, a pair of boots and a utility belt. She then walked to her dresser and opened the top drawer, where a few pairs of underwear popped up into the air.
Bucky sat up, "So I guess our week is up."
"Hey, don't…" Case sighed, walking back over with a sports bra. She pulled her shirt off, "It might be finished quickly."
"Yeah, but…" Bucky trailed off as Case unhooked her bra and tossed it on the bed.
"Buck!" Case snapped her fingers. "Hey, focus!"
"Right…uh…" Bucky shook his head as she pulled the bra over her head, "Look, I'll stick around, but I'm not holding my breath we'll get that week."
Case sighed and grabbed the suit from the bed. She stepped into it and said, "This is getting ridiculous…even if we weren't sneaking around, this would be hard on any relationship."
"Yeah, but you want to be a hero," Bucky pointed out. "And heroes don't have regular work hours, and don't get to say they want to stay home and get laid."
Case chewed on her lip as she zipped her suit up, "Yeah, but those heroes didn't get a second chance with the person they love after seventy years either."
Silence filled the room as Case finished getting ready. She grabbed a duffel bag from the closet and walked over to Bucky. She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and gave him a quick kiss with the promise she'd hurry back.
That was four hours ago. Bucky was stretched across the sofa, trying to focus on the show in front of him, but he let out a loud yawn of boredom when the group let out terrified screams when they found the dead body stuffed in a locker.
"Turn back time, stop this happening!"
"I don't know how it works!"
"That's great! That's really useful!"
Suddenly the doorknob rattled. Bucky sat up, frowning at the door. Case would have called or sent him a text that she was done early.
"Dammit…"
That was definitely not Case's voice. The show forgotten, Bucky got to his feet and booked it toward the coat closet with the intention of catching whoever was breaking in off guard.
The show continued to play in the background as Bucky closed the closet door behind him, leaving it open a crack to see outside.
The door opened and shut behind the person, and a voice yelled out, "Cassidy!"
Bucky's heart stopped when he heard the voice.
"Is he dead?"
"Well…I'm no doctor, but you see the way the back of his head's caved in like that—"
"Goodbye, Nathan," The woman said, grabbing the remote and turning off the television. She tossed the remote back on the coffee table, and turned toward the hallway, "Cassidy! Where the hell are you?"
No, Bucky thought. No, she can't be here…that's impossible!
No, that was not true. Hydra knew where to find Case, so it made sense that she would know where to find her too.
"Did she really leave so fast she left her television on?"
Bucky held his breath as the woman walked back into the main room of the apartment. Through the tiny gap in the closet door he could see her pull her phone out of her pocket and dialed. She cast one last look around the room before she left the apartment.
Two hours later Bucky emerged from the closet, quickly grabbing his boots and his guns. He wanted to stay until Case came back, honestly, he did, but if Hydra was creeping closer, Bucky did not want her caught in the crossfire.
As he left, he made sure the door was securely locked behind him and sent Case a text message about the situation – Silverfox broke into the apartment. Your location is compromised.
Three days later Bucky was in a new motel room about twenty miles outside of DC, considering changing phones as well when he finally received a message from Case – Don't panic, I will handle it.
Bucky frowned at his phone. Don't panic? Really? They were talking about a woman who had the capacity to send him back to Hydra to be wiped and put back on ice before any of them could even blink, and Case was telling him don't panic?
Apparently, Case must have realized how she'd sounded, because he received a text a few minutes later, Trust me, James. You'll be safe.
Well, that solved half of his problem.
Please stay in the Tower for a while, Bucky sent in response. Until we're sure you're safe too.
There was a longer period between responses, and then he received, Okay James, I will.
Bucky sighed and ran the fingers of his flesh hand through his hair. What Case really meant was Fat chance Bucky. I'm going to do something stupid.
Since he had no other option, though, Bucky decided to give Case the benefit of the doubt. However, that did not mean he was willing to return to her apartment anytime soon.
After that, July had quickly moved into August. Bucky had been avoiding Case's apartment for over a month, using that time to work behind the scenes to track down some of his old Hydra haunts, trying to make sure they were no longer threats, while Case had been center stage, fighting off anything and everything under the sun with the rest of the Avengers – whether it was new alien invaders, or new superhumans and others trying to be heroes.
"Squirrels, Bucky! The girl talks to squirrels!" Case had told him one night during a phone call.
"Yes, but this report here says she helped Stark out of a tight spot," Bucky had pointed out, spreading a newspaper out in front of him, which had a picture of Tony Stark with the aforementioned 'Squirrel Girl'.
"That's not the point, James!"
"Then what is the point?"
"Squirrels! Weren't you listening?"
"Good evening James!"
Bucky, having been lost in his own thoughts, nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the elderly voice, giving out a small yelp as he jumped away from the speaker, nearly colliding with the door of one of Case's neighbors.
Mrs. Connors grinned up at him, with her blue and teal hair flowing down her back in soft curls and humor making her eyes sparkle. "Did I scare you?"
"N-no," Bucky stammered defiantly, feeling like a disgrace to assassins everywhere as his heart hammered in his chest.
"Okay," The not-so-older woman said with a chuckle, "Haven't seen you for a while James. You coming to pay Case a visit?"
"Yes," Bucky nodded. Then he frowned and looked at his watch, "Isn't it a bit late to be going out?"
Mrs. Connors cocked her eyebrow, "This from the man who's almost a hundred and sneaking into his girlfriend's home like a teenager?"
"Fair enough have a good night," Bucky said quickly.
"Good night James, have fun," Mrs. Connors chuckled as she headed downstairs. "I'm only eighty-six, I'm not dead yet!"
Bucky closed his mouth, having been interrupted before he could get the sentence out. He shrugged his shoulders and headed down the hall, letting himself into Case's apartment.
He found the mutant stretched out on her sofa, nose buried in a book that read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the cover.
"Finally stopped boycotting the Harry Potter series?" Bucky asked.
"I was never boycotting it," Case told him with a sigh, putting a marker in the book as she put it on the coffee table. "I just needed time to mourn Sirius…failing that I decided to bite the bullet and finish the series."
"What about that other one you started?"
"Main character dies and his wife kills herself 'casue she can't live without him," Case rolled her eyes. "Not exactly a story I'm in a hurry to finish."
"Then how'd you know—"
"I googled it this time," Case told him. She got to her feet, "I'm glad you decided to come back."
Bucky shifted uncomfortably as he eyed the giant window across the room, which still had open curtains, despite Bucky constantly asking her to keep it closed when he showed up. He looked back down at her, "Against my better judgement, yes."
"Come on, Bucky—"
"You understand why I'm concerned, right?" Bucky asked. "This woman…what she's done…you can't underestimate her!"
"I know that James!" Case snapped.
"Then why aren't you acting like it, Cassidy?" Bucky demanded. "You've gone from furious at the sound of her name to brushing her off like—"
"That's not what I'm doing!"
"Then what are you doing?"
Case stared at him for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words. After a few more beats of silence, she said, "I'm not running and hiding just because the Hypno-Bitch broke into my apartment."
Bucky stared at her in shock, "Case, do you understand how dangerous that woman is?"
"Yes, yes I do," Case nodded. "And she knows that if she even breathes in your direction—"
"She's not gonna care about some threat you make!" Bucky shouted at her. "Why the fuck do you think that she's gonna care what you think?"
Case opened her mouth to make a point, then looked at her laptop, which was sitting closed on her dining room table. "I guess she wouldn't…"
"Exactly," Bucky told her.
Case sighed and rubbed at her temples, "Look, what's the alternative? Your place?"
"We can go up to the cabin again," Bucky suggested.
"Yeah, but there's times I can barely get one day let alone a few days to sneak up there," Case sighed again. "And I'm not explaining to Tony why I need the Quinjet to pick me up from a cabin in the woods."
"There's gotta be a better solution."
"Well…there is one other," Case pointed out.
"And what's that?"
"The Tower."
"No."
Case rolled her eyes, "Bucky, Tony's got Jarvis monitoring everything day and night, if someone comes in unannounced, we'd know."
"I'd rather not set off any alarms in Stark's security system."
"So, we get you access—"
"I said no."
Case gave yet another sigh, "Okay, fine…I'm not having this argument. I haven't been sleeping well and I'm exhausted…I'm going to bed."
With a sigh of his own, Bucky trailed after her toward the bedroom. "Case, I'm sorry I just—"
"If you're going to continue this, sleep in the other room," Case told him before disappearing into the bedroom.
Bucky woke the following morning with a stiff back and a crick in his neck from sitting on the floor of Case's bedroom.
He'd spent the night pressed up against the foot of the bed, after Case and run and hid in her closet, crying her eyes out after revealing that her mother was still in fact alive. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he knew for a fact he didn't curl up under the Gryffindor blanket.
He got to his feet and tossed the blanket on the bed before trying to stretch the kinks out of his back and neck. Checking the closet to make sure Case was not in fact still in there – and was grateful to find it empty – with a yawn he made his way to the bedroom door, opening it to head for the kitchen.
When he came into the room this time, Case was seated at the dining room table. Her back was to him, and she had her left elbow on the table, and it looked like her hand was over her mouth.
Bucky frowned and made his way across the room; Case was so engrossed in whatever she was watching she didn't notice him creeping up behind her.
She had her earbuds in her ears, and when Bucky looked over her shoulder, he could see it was security camera footage. It took him a few moments to realize Case was in the video along with Silverfox. "What the hell?"
Case nearly jumped and her wide eyes turned to him, "Bucky…I…I can explain I…"
Bucky unplugged the earbuds from the jack, and the voices filled the air.
"Let me take him with me…please!"
"Cassidy—"
"You wanted to know who Bucky was, right? Bucky is the only man I've ever loved. Emotionally, physically…when Steve told me he'd fallen during that mission…I didn't know what to do. I just wanted everything to stop!"
"Cassidy!"
"Please don't take him away from me again, I beg you! I can't lose him again! It was hard enough already back in forty-five! I can't do it again! Please, just let him come with me!"
Bucky closed the laptop panel, he'd heard enough.
Case didn't meet his gaze, she continued to stare at the laptop.
Bucky chewed on his lip and walked away from the table, scrubbing a trembling hand over his face. He wasn't sure if he was downright furious about Case's stupidity, or terrified at the giant target she'd painted on her back.
"Bucky I…"
"Don't."
Case hesitated, then started again, "But I—"
Bucky turned to face her, and in a squeaky voice asked, "What the hell were you thinking?"
Case had tears rolling down her cheeks, "I was desperate."
"Desperate?"
"Yeah…I couldn't lose you. Not again…not after all that," Case was quickly losing what little composure she had left. "I'd just got you back, Bucky…I couldn't let you go without a fight."
"And you do that by telling Silverfox everything?" Bucky asked. "Hell, Case you couldn't even tell me that—"
"That's the pot calling the kettle black, James!" Case snapped, getting to her feet. "You know how I found out you loved me? Ryder told me. After you fell. We screwed around throughout the Eastern Theater, but it never once dawned on you to say that you loved me?"
"I…" Bucky began, then shook his head, "Don't change the subject, Cassidy! The fact of the matter is, what you did was put you in Silverfox's crosshairs if she tried looking for me!"
"That's cute," Case said with a scoff. She headed for the kitchen, "Coffee?"
Bucky blinked, "What?"
"Coffee? Do you want any?"
"Er…no! No! I do not want coffee!" Bucky snapped.
"You should have some, you're a little cranky," Case said, reaching up to grab a mug and helping herself to some.
"Cranky?" Bucky repeated. "You think I'm cranky?"
"No, I think you're furious," Case said, taking a sip from her mug. "Also…a little conceited."
"I'm what?"
"You think everything related to Hydra is about you," Case explained. "And you're the Winter Soldier, sure. But you weren't the only one, were you? The one that kicked my ass was one of them as I recall, as well as that blonde who tried slitting my throat."
"Thanks for that reminder," Bucky rolled his eyes. "Not that I see those events in my nightmares or anything."
"My heart is breaking for you, truly," Case said in an unimpressed voice. "You know, the lovely memories of how my throat burned trying to heal that, and the occasional bouts of sleep paralysis, which can trigger panic attacks or even worse nightmares. Oh, and trying to regain not just function but feeling in the rest of my body, the physical therapy was such a pleasant experience."
Bucky looked down at his boots as he felt his face burn in embarrassment.
"But hey, what do I know?" Case continued. "Again, it's all about you. Except that…you know, as the Howling Commandos we pissed them off on a daily basis during the war. Not to mention my Adamantium fusion, where the only connection you had to it was that you were there. The only reason you were sent here was because you were their asset. Nobody in Hydra was aware that we even knew each other."
"You sure rectified that situation, didn't you?"
Case rolled her eyes, "Aside from that, there was no connection. And then we have the whole thing where Pierce sent you after Fury. Which, again, really wasn't about you except that he wanted Fury dead, and you had the best track record."
"Look, Case—"
"Oh, and let's not forget that the Howletts have been in Hydra's crosshairs for decades. I mean, who do you think fused my dad with the Adamantium to begin with? And that was long…"
When she didn't continue, Bucky asked, "Long before I was one of them?"
Case mulled that over, "Actually, I was gonna say long before you were born, but since you're a year older than me it wouldn't actually have fit since you were probably a few months old at the time."
"Still—"
"The truth of the matter is, James, that my family has had a longtime connection to Hydra, that has nothing to do with you. It's just a very strange coincidence that some of those times involved you. I've known Silverfox longer than you have, and she's been trying to ignore that fact that Ryder and I exist for a long time…and she just can't do it anymore."
Bucky folded his arms, he had forgotten that little detail about the two, that they had known each other previously. "I'm pretty sure I asked this before…how do you know her?"
Before Case had the opportunity to answer, loud guitar music began coming from the bedroom. Letting out a few curses in Russian, Case followed the noise and grabbed the ringing device from her nightstand, "Really Tony?"
Bucky followed her, leaning against the doorframe as he listened to the one-sided conversation.
"Tony now isn't a good…well I know it's never…look, I just…" Case sighed, pinching at the bridge of her nose. "Come on, Tony!" She listened for a few moments, then said, "I'll be ready."
She sat down on her bed, threw the phone onto the mattress, and buried her face in her hands.
Bucky walked farther into the room and sat down on the bed beside her. "Cassidy—"
"I'm sorry, I can't do this right now," Case said, shooting to her feet. "I've gotta get ready…"
He sighed as she disappeared into the closet, "This isn't going to go away Cassidy."
"Thanks for that insight James!" Case snapped from her closet. "That's really useful information!"
"Look, Case, all I'm saying is—"
"Stop!" Case shouted, emerging from her closet in her uniform, "I just said I can't do this right now! I mean do I have to say it in Russian to get the point across? We are not having this conversation now!"
"When will we be having this conversation?" Bucky asked. "Because I'm pretty sure I tried to have it with you before, but you brushed me off."
"I don't know, maybe when I have more than five minutes to breathe between missions!"
"There's always a reason, always an excuse!" Bucky snapped. "There have been plenty of times where we haven't been interrupted, and yet you didn't feel the need to be honest with me!"
"I've always been honest!"
"Oh yeah? Then how the fuck do you know Silverfox?" Bucky demanded. "Clearly the two of you have met before, and yet you won't tell me how or why."
"Because you know what? Maybe it's none of your goddamn business!" Case roared. "Because guess what, James. Who she is to me has absolutely nothing to do with you!"
"It is my goddamn business when she starts sniffing around your apartment!" Bucky shouted back. "What do you think she would have done if she'd found me? Huh? Do you really think she would've just let me go?"
"I don't fucking know what she would have done," Case snapped. "I don't know her, not to a point I understand her idiosyncrasies. But that's not a simple conversation, and I don't have the fucking time to talk to you about it!"
"Then you know what, maybe I shouldn't bother trying to come see you between missions, if you can't seem to find the time to have a difficult conversation with me!" Bucky snapped.
"I…that's not even…" Case stammered, then finally threw her hands in the air, "You know what James? Do whatever the fuck you want! I can't do this right now; I have to go!"
Bucky didn't move, just watched Case storm out, could hear the door slam behind her. With a groan of frustration, he went to the guest room where he usually stashed his guns and began putting them in their holsters.
Case wanted time? He could give her plenty of that – there was no way he was staying in the apartment without her. Not if Silverfox was going to be creeping around more often.
Since her missions were becoming more and more frequent, Bucky would remedy that situation as well. Case would be better off without him anyway.