So after updating the last chapter I was inspired and I have a plan for the next few chapters! The next chapter will focus mostly on Charlie (I think) with a few smatterings of Steve. Let me know what you think! Thank you all for continuing to read this story! It makes me happy :) Also, this chapter correlates with Aulizia's story Broken Pieces in chapter 20. Definitely check it out to see Bucky's perspective - it's amazing!
Charlie waited and waited. She waited for something to happen, something to break. It felt like the pressure was building to something but she couldn't figure out what would happen. If it truly was HYDRA, would they come in the night? The middle of the day? How did she prepare for something like this when she felt she couldn't breathe?
So she waited.
And waited.
Charlie waited for ten days. She got up earlier than usual, in part because she couldn't sleep and in part because she still couldn't get the oven to work at the diner. She was baking at the house and walking all of the food over to the diner, multiple times a day. Bentley was always at the diner, sitting in the corner drinking his coffee. Watching. She told herself that he was why she was so on edge. It was easier to push the blame on someone else than admit that there was a problem.
The woman hadn't returned to the diner, but Charlie felt like she was there. Just out of reach, and watching. Is this how Steve felt on a mission? Was this his every day? Thinking of Steve calmed her for some reason, helped her rattled nerves to rest for just a moment. She knew she should call but – she didn't know what to say.
So Charlie waited until the pressure broke.
Steve tapped the table with his finger, staring at his phone. He wanted to call Charlie but there was so much he needed to do and he wasn't quite sure what to say. Steve rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the time. 6:45pm. Bucky should have been back by now, but that didn't bother Steve as much as it would have two weeks ago. Bucky had been by Amy's side whenever he was allowed, from the minute visiting hours began to their end. Steve was surprised Bucky wasn't sneaking in, to be honest. Especially after his comment that he was worried Amy wasn't sleeping, but he was following the rules. Surprisingly.
Steve pushed back from the table with a sigh and went to get a glass of water. After checking up on Amy's family and kid neighbor, sending Natasha out to sniff out a few leads from Kraus' base, pouring over Bucky's file to find his connection with Natasha, making sure Sam got home safe, waiting for Tony to call back – Steve's brain was fried. And he wanted to call the one person who seemed to make everything simple but –
Before his brain gave another half-hearted excuse, Steve snatched his phone from the table and called Charlie. If he'd let his brain work for another second, he would have realized that it was rather late in Wyoming.
"Hello?" Charlie answered groggily.
"Ugh, sorry I didn't check the time."
"Steve?"
"Yeah, it's me. Sorry about the time, I can call tomorrow-"
"Don't be silly. Is something wrong? Are you okay? I haven't heard from you in a while," Charlie fired off quickly. Steve let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. How could she make him relax so easily?
"Things are better now. It was a little hairy for a while, bit of a roller coaster."
"But you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm alright. I'm good," Steve answered, nodding as if she could see him.
"You sure about that?" Charlie asked, humor coloring her voice. He chuckled and walked back to the kitchen to grab his glass of water. On the way, he took a frozen dinner from the freezer and popped it into the microwave. Charlie would probably have a fit if she knew he was eating this.
"I guess I should be okay soon, once a few more things settle. Can't say too much, but there's just a lot of moving pieces right now and it's stretching my brain like a rubber band."
"Don't stretch it too far, it'll hurt when it snaps back."
"Speaking from experience?"
"I've been there a time or two. It's not too pretty."
"Yeah, I suppose not," Steve said. He took a sip of water and sat back down at the table. He slowly rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Now that he was allowing his body to relax, even just a little, it ached to sleep. Steve really wished he could talk to Charlie in person rather than cryptic messages through the phone. He wanted to just talk to someone, but not about business. Just talk.
"Have you been able to draw lately?" Charlie asked, breaking Steve out of his thoughts.
"No, there hasn't been time."
"Wow, that busy, huh?"
"Oh yeah. Full business mode for…two weeks now?" Steve thought back to the last time he wasn't on a mission. It had been about two weeks but it felt like so much longer.
"I'd reckon it's been longer since you're – uh – friend returned. Went from personal stress to business stress, am I right?"
"Spot on." Steve thought he heard something through the phone and frowned.
"Are you baking right now?" he asked. There was a pause on the other end before Charlie responded. Was something wrong?
"Yeah," Charlie sighed. "I – uh – haven't been sleeping well, so I'm baking instead. Hopefully this batch of sugar cookies comes out well or I might just scream."
"Sugar cookies? Don't you usually bake those for the diner?"
"You remember that?"
"Yeah, we talked about it a while back. Is everything okay, Charlie?" Steve asked, his frown deepening. There was another heavy sigh, as if she were weighing her words.
"Well I-"
Steve's phone started vibrating in his hand and he looked at the caller. And cursed.
"Charlie, I'm so sorry but I'm getting another call I need to take. I'll call you back?" Steve interrupted.
"Yeah, sure. Call me when you have time," Charlie responded. Too quickly. Steve sighed, frustrated that he didn't have time to figure out what was wrong. Something definitely felt like it was off but that just seemed to be his life right now. Everyone had a problem that needed to be handled. And Bucky would never agree to Steve's idea if he didn't have this call with Tony.
"I'm sorry again. And sorry I woke you. Talk to you soon."
"Stay safe, Steve."
Steve smiled, took a breath, and switched calls to Tony.
"What's up Capsicle?" Tony greeted. There was a faint mechanical whir in the background then a clank.
"I need a favor Tony," Steve said, mentally rehearsing what he was going to say. His brain was having trouble keeping up after it's short break. And he was still bothered by Charlie's hesitation –
"Yeah, I don't give out favors for free old man. What do you want?"
Great, he wasn't in the best of moods.
"I found a brilliant engineer that could use a good job," Steve said, getting straight to the point. Tony scoffed.
"First you pull Maxie off my service to go on a goose chase and now you want me to give someone a job for free? Try again, Cap."
"It wouldn't be for free. I've already sent her resume to your email and I think she would be a benefit to your company-"
"Is this about your little vacation in Portland? Got a girl and need to keep her interested?"
"No, Tony. I just need a little help-"
"Then find someone else, I don't give out freebies," Tony snapped. Steve grit his teeth and took a deep breath.
"Look, she knows the Insight carriers. Now are you interested?" Steve asked.
There was a pause on the other end of the line.
"She's not the enemy, I've already checked her out. But she could have mechanical knowledge that's useful, seeing as we almost discovered HYDRA too late to do anything." Steve waited, holding his breath. He knew he was taking a cheap shot. He didn't want to point fingers and make Tony feel bad for not finding HYDRA earlier, but he needed this favor.
"Anything else you need?" Tony asked. Steve sighed and tried not to break the phone.
"Could use a discrete way to get back to Washington."
"Yeah, figured as much. It'll be there tomorrow morning, Happy will call you with the exact time. Now, I have sh** to do so-"
"Tony, just look at her resume. Please." Steve was about to bang his head on the wall. Or reach through the phone and strangle the other man.
"Whatever, I'll try to get to it," Tony replied. Steve knew that was the best he was going to get. He heard the door to the motel room open as he responded.
"Fine. You check that out and get back to me." Steve hung up the phone and turned his head to find Bucky standing in the doorway, watching him.
"Who was that?"
"No one important," Steve responded, throwing his phone on the table. "You're back late." He didn't want to tell Bucky his plan until he knew Tony would agree to hiring Amy. But he was also a horrible liar, so he had a feeling Bucky didn't quite believe him. Too many problems to figure out.
"Thanks for not calling the National Guard," Bucky deadpanned. It almost made Steve smile. That was the Bucky he remembered - the sarcastic jerk with a perfect response for every situation. But Bucky wasn't just that man anymore, and Steve knew it every time he saw Bucky's eyes flit around the room looking for a threat. Was that HYDRA's training or just the result of war? Steve needed to change his train of thought so he asked, "How's Amy?"
Bucky paused before answering, his eyes momentarily looking up in thought.
"Planning her return to Washington."
"Is she well enough to make the trip?"
"She thinks so."
"And her medical team agree?" Steve asked. Bucky shrugged, the ghost of a smile on his face.
"No, but I'm sure they'll have been convinced or overruled by tomorrow."
"Then shouldn't you persuade her to stay?"
"She wants to go home, Steve." He could understand that, intimately. He was about to respond when the microwave beeped. He moved into the little kitchenette and took out his microwave dinner. Would Tony have enough time to go through Amy's file? Would he be able to convince Bucky that she would be safe? Would Bucky even agree to go with him? Steve sighed quietly as the tension rolled back into his shoulders and any relaxation that Charlie brought him was gone. He just needed to push through a little longer-
"I know I'm not exactly up to speed on all this stuff," Bucky called from the other room, "but Tony Start is 'no one important' now?"
Steve nearly dropped his dinner. He was out of the kitchen in an instant, staring at Bucky accusingly.
"That phone is password protected."
"With the most obvious password that you could think of? You need to make it a little harder than that you know."
Steve felt like he'd just got the breath knocked out of him. All at once, Peggy's death came crashing down on him. Their dance. Margaret crying. Robert and Samantha watching him as he told story after story. And then there was Bucky watching Peggy in her red dress. Peggy telling Steve about the right partner. Bucky's sly smile when he realized that Steve was head over heels in love. And now, Bucky's confused glance as he looked around the room. Looking for a threat? Steve's brain wasn't firing right.
"No one else could have guessed it. No one else knows…" Steve whispered. A strangled laugh escaped his lips as he rubbed his face, willing himself not to break. Not now. Not here.
"I can't believe you remembered her name."
There was a pause and Steve heard Bucky put the phone back on the table.
"So what happened to her?" Bucky asked. It almost sounded gentle.
Dead. Gone. Never coming back.
"Life."
"I'm sorry." Steve looked up, somewhat composed and shrugged. Tried to reel his emotions in. Failed.
"Peggy had a good life. She just lived it without me."
Steve slowly took a deep breath in, reminding himself to breathe. He hadn't thought of Peggy for too long. He'd been so preoccupied with recent events and making sure things were taken care of that he'd forgotten. How was that possible?
"It's not as easy at you make it out, is it?" Bucky asked, breaking Steve from his thoughts.
"What?"
"Being you."
Steve smiled. Tried to.
"It's not easy at all," he said quietly. And for the first time that night he was purely honest. "I'm still figuring out where I fit into this world. Still figuring out what I'm supposed to do."
"How's that working out for you?"
Bucky always knew how to hit him where it mattered.
"I have a few ideas. Would like your input on them actually. But I think we need to get Amy home first."
Bucky nodded, accepting the diversion for now. Steve breathed deeply and then snatched his phone out of Bucky's hand. Bucky gave him a side glance but Steve ignored him. He stuck the phone in his back pocket and went back to his dinner.
Stay tuned for Charlie's POV next! And guys, I saw Avengers Endgame this weekend and oh man, no spoilers, but I was freaking out a little. It's such a good movie and I thought it was very satisfying as a wrap up. Let me know what you guys think of the movie!