Chapter thirteen
Barry sat next to Tracey on her bed, rubbing circles on her back. The two had just left the group on the elevator. The entire ride up was quiet. No one had said a thing, only taking quick glances at the girl. Tracey the whole time had her head down casted; her hair covering her face. Barry knew his sister too well. She never liked people seeing her cry. She never liked looking like the weak little girl compared to her twin brother. He knew that, but he had always tried to reassure her that even crying was okay. She was still strong even if she showed emotions.
"I'm sorry, Tracey," Barry said, pulling his sister closer to him. He tightened his arms around her as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"I'm an idiot, Barry. I should have broken up with him a long time ago, but I don't know why I didn't. I just didn't want to leave him. I kept thinking he would change and everything would be like how we were when we first started dating," Tracey said, hiccupping at the end.
Barry rubbed his hand up and down her arm comforting her. "You're not an idiot."
"Yes I am," she argued. "Barry, we've broken up three times, four now. I should have broken up with him sooner. I was stupid."
"No don't say that," he soothed. "He's the idiot for treating you the way he did. He's an idiot for not realizing what kind of a girl he had."
Tracey let out a small laugh. "I'm an idiotic girl."
"No you're not! You're a smart and amazing girl and he never saw that. Don't ever tell yourself you're an idiot. Don't sell yourself short, Trace." Her twin paused as he looked at her. "Tell me this," he said, making Tracey look up at him with bloodshot eyes. "Did you love him?"
Tracey looked down at her lap before quietly speaking, "I don't know…"
"Okay then, what if he had asked you to marry him today, would you have said yes?" Barry pressed on.
"No," she whimpered out after a moment's hesitation.
"See," he said, giving her a small sympathetic smile. "If you can't see yourself spending the rest of your life with him then it's better this way."
Tracey smiled up at him with a teary smile. "Thank you, Barry," she said, wrapping her arms around him.
"Any time, sis," he said squeezing her tightly. He kissed the top of her head. "Do you want me to stay for a bit longer?"
She shook her head. "No, you go on and hang out with the others. I just need some time alone."
"Alright. Just call me if you need anything," he said before walking out the room.
Tracey sighed. She laid down, grabbing a pillow and pulling it close to her as she curled up on her bed. She closed her eyes tight, trying to hold back the tears. Dexter jumped up a minute later and crawled over to her. He whimpered and licked her face. She smiled, patting his head.
"You're a good boy, Dexter," she said, a few tears slipping. "And I'm an idiot…"
ooOOoo
"You cannot be serious," Sam said in shock. His mouth was ajar as he stared at Barry. "He cheated on her with his best friend's girlfriend? How low can a guy get?"
"Pretty low apparently," Natasha said, crossing her arms over her chest as she frowned.
"Well at least they're not together anymore," Clint commented with a look of hope to cheer the group up.
"Yeah," Sharon began, "but at the cost of breaking Tracey's heart?"
Bucky's face was scrunched up in anger. He sat on an arm chair, staring at the ground with his hands clenched into fists. He couldn't believe that bastard. How could he do that to Tracey? He couldn't even feel relieved knowing they weren't together anymore, not when he hurt Tracey like that. What he wouldn't give to hunt Dave down and punch his face in.
Steve caught a glimpse of Bucky out of the corner of his eye. The dark haired man looked ready to throw things around the room. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Buck," he whispered so he wouldn't draw attention to them. Bucky snapped his head up. "Calm down. You're practically shaking."
Bucky didn't say anything, he just leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms. He glowered at the wall as the rest of the group talked amongst themselves. He didn't notice Natasha staring at him until she spoke up.
"что не так?"
He looked up at her only to glance away to the side. "ничего." He blinked. He hadn't spoken Russian since that day on the bridge in DC.
Natasha smirked. "рад знать, что вы до сих пор помню, как говорят на русском. Я волновался, я должен был бы научить вас. Теперь вы рассердились о других слуховых, что я собираюсь спросить."
Bucky rolled his eyes, glaring at the red head. She continued to smirk. "что вы хотите, Наташа?"
"Вы, кажется, немного безумным о том, что случилось с Трейси. Слишком ума." Her smirk grew when she saw him raise an eyebrow at her.
"что ты намекаешь?" he asked. He waved his hand at Steve seeing the confused look the blonde soldier was giving him.
"вы любите ее, не так ли?" Bucky's eyes widened, but quickly tried to cover it up. It failed. Natasha's smirk changed into a shit eating grin. "Наконец."
"Только то, что я видел, как вы действовать вокруг нее. Ты гораздо удобнее говорить с ней, как никто другой, но Стив." She leaned against the table where she stood next to Clint.
"уходи, наташа," Bucky glared.
"Hey, Red, Frosty," Tony called out. "Would either of you like to let us in on your little Soviet Russia conversation?"
"It's nothing," Bucky mumbled, turning away from the others.
Clint raised an eyebrow at Natasha as she had a smug smile on her face. "What did you say?"
"Let's just say that I told you I never give up," she said with a wink.
Clint blinked. He shook his head. "Of course not…"
"Now, I believe you owe me lunch, if I recall the terms of the bet," the red head said to her partner.
Clint smirked. "Alright fine, you win. Where to?"
"I'll let you know on the way out," she said, grabbing his arm and leading him to the elevator.
"You made a bet?" Bucky nearly yelled.
"It wasn't against you. It was whether I was right or not which I was," she smirked just as the elevator closed.
Bucky groaned, sliding down in the chair and putting his hands over his face. "I'm so done with her."
"You and me both, pal," Steve laughed. "She constantly tried to set me up on dates."
"Which you should thank her for giving me your number," Sharon winked.
He chuckled. "Yeah, I probably should."
"Yeah, well, I'd prefer it if she didn't with me," Bucky muttered.
"Can Sam and I be let in on the conversation?" Barry asked.
Tony's eyes lit up, his face slowly breaking out into a wide grin. "So what I saw earlier is what Spy Barbie was talking about?" he asked, looking at Bucky.
The super soldier glared. "Stark, I swear…" he warned
"What's going on that Bucky is threatening Tony?" Sam asked, a smirk on his face.
"What happened earlier?" Barry asked.
"Nothing," Bucky said quickly. "Just drop i-"
"I may have caught Bucksicle and Boris dancing earlier," Tony smirked.
Steve and Bucky made a face. Sharon looked at him curiously with a tilt of the head.
"Who's Boris?" she asked.
"Boris. You know, Boris Greshenko? The computer nerd from James Bond?" Tony said, looking at each face in the room.
"Wait, you mean you were dancing with Tracey?" Barry exclaimed, looking towards Bucky. The dark haired soldier looked away, his face heating up. Barry grinned at the silence he received. "You like Tracey?" Still silence. It only made his grin grow. "That's awesome!"
Bucky turned his head to the chestnut haired man. "What?"
"Dude, if you like Tracey that's awesome," Barry repeated. "If anything happens between you two I'll know that my sister is with a better guy than Dave. Do you need any help setting you two up? I know Natasha has been trying to do that, I can help with it." He grinned.
Bucky's face grew redder as he listened to the male twin speak. Was Barry giving him the okay to date his sister? I'll know that my sister is with a better guy than Dave rang through his head. His blood boiled at the thought of the other man. He shook his head and turned away.
"Buck," Steve spoke up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he answered, not looking up. He stood uip. "I just need some air."
"Alright," his friend said slowly. "See you later then."
"Yeah," Bucky grunted.
"So he does like Tracey?" Sam asked Steve once the super soldier was out of the room.
Steve chuckled. "Yeah, talked to him earlier about it."
"So what's the plan on getting the two together?" Tony grinned.
"We don't," Steve answered, shaking his head. "It's up to them if they want to get together. It's also up to Bucky to ask her out on his own. Just let them be."
"Steve's got a point," Barry pointed out. "Tracey's in no way possibly ready for a relationship. She's heartbroken. As much as I'd love for Bucky and her to get together, it's up to Tracey and Bucky to do it themselves. Bucky has to be the one to ask her out on his own. And Trace needs to be ready to be in another relationship."
"Wise words from a big brother," Sharon said with a smile.
"Tracey and I have been looking out for each other since we were little. After our dad died I basically became the man of the house and I made it my job to look out for her as much as I could – and as much as she would let me," he said with a laugh. "Joining SHIELD allowed me to help keep the country safe and Tracey safe at the same time."
"Damn," Sam said after a small pause between the group. "You two are really close huh?"
"Yeah," Barry said with a small smile.
Tony cleared his throat. "As much as I love this bonding time I have a question about the HYDRA file Picassa procured." He turned to Steve. "If HYDRA tried to recreate project Insight don't you think they'll be trying other things as well? Let's be honest, if we thought that they were gone after you got rid of Red Voldemort only to appear seventy years later don't you think they'll try other things to continue with their crazy Hail HDRA crap? I don't think stealing one blue print is the only thing they are going to be doing."
"Tony's got a point," Sharon spoke up. "If they showed up after seventy years and were taken down again only to show up months later they have to have other plans and possibly bases set up all over the place."
"That's possible…" Steve said, nodding his head. He frowned, his face set in a stern glare. "We need to think of some plans and figure out how we can find them."
"The released files," Sharon exclaimed after a pause. Everyone looked to her with questioning glances. "After Natasha released SHIELD's files she told me that she also released all of HYDRA's since they were hiding among SHIELD. If we can get those files off the internet and into our hands there's bound to be information on possible plans and headquarters."
"That's genius, Mrs. Smith," Tony said with a grin. "Steve, how come you've been hiding all these cool people from me?" he asked, placing a hand on Sam's shoulder.
Steve rolled his eyes with a smirk. "Sorry, didn't think you deserved to know them." He stood up. "I'm going to call Bucky so we can start discussing plans. We're going to need Tracey to help us get those files," he said, looking at Barry.
Barry pursed his lips. "I know…but I'm not sure if she'll want to help at the moment."
"I know," Steve said with a sympathetic look. "I'm not trying to push her into helping, but if it's possible, can you ask her?"
"Yeah, I'll go ask her," he said, heading to the elevator.
"I've got Brave and Spiderwoman," Tony said. "JARVIS, contact those two for us?"
"Right away, sir," the AI said as Steve rolled his eyes.
"Thank you, JARVIS," he said.
"My pleasure, Captain Rogers."
"Hey, I helped," Tony defended.
"Yeah, you did a great job," Sam snickered.
ooOOoo
"You don't have to help," Barry said as he and Tracey got off the elevator. "Honestly, if you're not up to it you don't have to."
"I'm fine, Barry," Tracey snapped. She walked over to the living room where everyone was sitting and sat down at the couch. Opening her laptop she looked to the group. "So what do you need me to do?"
"Tracey," Steve began after he and Tony shared a look. "You don't have to help us if you're not up for it."
Her mouth was set in a firm line before she spoke. "I'm fine. Let me help. It will keep me distracted. Plus I don't feel like I do much to help."
Bucky stared at her, a look of concern on his face. He could see her cheeks had faded tear streaks, most likely from being washed off. Her eyes were puffy from crying. He gave her a sympathetic look. She wanted to work to keep her distracted. He could only guess as to what she wanted to be distracted from. "Tracey, you do enough. You help everyone out just fine."
She looked over at the super soldier and gave a small smile. "Thank you." She turned to the rest of the group. "So what's going on?"
Okay seriously, I have no idea how I knocked yet another chapter out. This is honestly a first for me and school just started!
Translation time! 1. What's wrong? 2. Nothing. 3. Glad to know you remembered how to speak Russian. I was worried I would have to teach you. Now you won't get mad about the others hearing what I'm about to ask you. 4. What do you want, Natasha? 5. You seem mad about what happened to Tracey. A little too mad. 6. What are you getting at? 7. You like her, don't you? Finally. 8. What do you mean finally? 9. Just that I've seen the way you act around her. You're a lot more comfortable talking with her than anyone else, but Steve. 10. Go away, Natasha.
Sorry for the shorter chapter than normal. I got stuck on what to write next. I promise next chapter will be longer!
Like the last goodness knows how many chapters ago I started this blog, but look me up on tumblr if you want to ask the twins or the Avengers any questions. Just look me up under
winter-is-ending
I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts and if you have any advice or critiques those are always welcome. Thanks for reading!
Have a great day!