The knock on her door came just as she was about to open it. Steve and Bucky stood on the other side, dressed for training.
Marley was also ready. Steve's warm smile faded as his gaze slid down over her form.
"Marley, how are you today?" he asked.
"I think I'm okay." She had maybe slept two hours total, both after she'd taken some of her chocolate to Bucky. Her muscles were screaming at her in various places from training the day before and she felt drained.
"I was assuming you'd take at least today off and recover from yesterday," Steve's tone was polite. "If you can use a day of rest, go ahead and take it."
Steve was giving her permission to stay in all day.
And do what? Stay in a bed for hours when she couldn't sleep. Pretend to watch television all day while she was drowning in her fears?
"If I can't keep up, I'll come back," Marley told him. "If that's okay."
Noticing that she'd been about to walk out, Steve nodded and backed up to allow her to lock the door to her apartment behind her. He headed in the direction of the elevator.
Bucky fell into step next to her, keeping a respectful distance. Marley's heart picked up speed as they walked. She realized now that he'd provoked her yesterday in the glass cell to see if he could scare her into displaying her powers. The realization did little to quell the fact that she was more than a little intimidated by him.
Say something nice to her.
Bucky's thought surprised her.
"I didn't thank you last night," Bucky said quietly.
What? Steve glanced back at them out of the corner of one eye.
"For the chocolate," Bucky pressed on.
Marley cast a sidelong glance at him. He was looking straight ahead as they reached the elevator.
"You're welcome." Marley meant it. She knew all too well what long nights were like when she was trapped alone with just the dark echoes of her mind.
After she'd talked to him, she'd decided to hit Google and read everything she could about him since she wouldn't be sleeping anyway. Like her, he was a product of HYDRA. It wasn't like she hadn't read about him before. She had. Only before S.H.I.E.L.D. found her, he was the stuff of legends. Now she'd met the man himself with his imposing form, wild hair and eyes. How he must have suffered during those long decades. It was unimaginable.
The good news? Marley wasn't completely alone. The bad news? He was so out of her league.
"I have to ask…"
Steve had hit the button on the elevator, listening to them curiously but trying hard to act like he wasn't paying attention.
"Okay," Marley said, looking up at Bucky now.
"Did you heat that on the stove? Or did you…?" Bucky made a cup of his hands, the fluorescent lights from above them shining off his bionic arm.
Just a corner of his mouth tipped up. He was teasing her.
Marley laughed, felt her face heat up. "The stove. Definitely."
Bucky smiled back at her as the elevator doors slid open and they walked in. Oh, when he smiled… Her heart squeezed in her chest. He looked almost boyish with that grin.
Even her laugh is beautiful.
Marley's breath caught at that thought. He thought she was beautiful?
Steve did his best to suppress a smile as the elevator started to move.
There's the Bucky I remember. Some things don't change.
Steve's thoughts were happy. Apparently, it was the first time Steve had witnessed Bucky flirt with someone since he was brought into the Avengers. Marley stood there silently, awkwardly, and enjoying the simplicity of that moment.
When they arrived on the floor where they trained, Marley followed them out and started with running. It was miserable because she was so tired, but she managed to finish it. Calisthenics was worse, but the soreness and fatigue mostly distracted her from the comments in the heads of everyone around her.
Those thoughts had gone from wondering what Marley was doing there to being concerned about her being there in varying degrees of curiosity to downright worry.
Natasha, who had mostly ignored her the day before, was very interested in her today. Admiring even. The spy's thoughts mostly indicated that she wanted to personally see what Marley could do, was happy to see a woman in their company who posed a very real threat. Marley caught her staring as she limped, making her way in for weapons training. Natasha nodded and smiled, Marley returned it. At least it was a positive interaction. She couldn't say that about many of the others.
Peter sat next to her again, his interest in her doubled after the tales he'd been told. Someone had told him that she'd singed three people in the lab yesterday and that she'd nearly destroyed the entire cell. She knew that wasn't true, Steve promised her no one had been hurt and he wouldn't lie. With a mental shake of her head, she tried so hard to focus on the training, given by an agent named Maria. By then she was fighting sleep, trying not to nod off.
On the way to the same cell Marley allegedly almost destroyed the day before, she passed Clint Barton who eyed her warily. He didn't think her being there, amongst the hard-working men and women of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a good idea. Trying to ignore his thoughts, Marley walked faster.
Steve and Bucky waited for her in the cell, talking as she approached them.
Poor kid. She's dead on her feet. Steve's concern was in his expression.
Bucky's expression held no pity as he watched her approach them. I've got an idea.
A glance around the room showed her that more lead shields had been placed there. Her view of the technicians was mostly obscured now but that didn't keep the odd person from peeking into the cell and staring at her.
"Marley, how are you holding up?" Steve asked.
Marley nodded. "Were people burned yesterday because of me?"
"The seven people with severe burns?" Steve asked with a smirk. "Rumor. That's all. No worries."
But she did worry about it. A lot.
"You up for this?"
"I hope so." Marley stood before them, unsure of what they wanted her to do.
"We need to find a way for you to be able to call on your powers without being terrified or having people yelling at you." He cut Bucky a sharp stare at that.
Nodding her agreement, Marley walked to the dead center of the room while the men tucked in behind an opening in the shields across from the technicians. Natasha entered the cell, making her way around the shields to join and Steve and Bucky.
Thinking about what happened yesterday, what had happened when she'd been HYDRA's prisoner, she knew she'd only been able to call upon what was inside because she'd been afraid. She'd been, on some level, defending herself. Now, she felt so tired. Had no idea how to wrap her mind around that kind of fear, even if Bucky came storming up to her as he did the day before.
Well, she had to try.
Marley picked a shield and focused on it, making sure it was safely away from Natasha, Steve, and Bucky. At first, she pretended the shield was someone trying to hurt her. Marley closed her eyes, focusing, trying to make anything happen.
"Marley," Bucky whispered in her ear, making her jump. It was rare that anyone was able to sneak up on her like that. Normally, she could hear their thoughts well before they reached her.
He stood behind her shoulder, speaking almost into her ear. "Find your anger."
"What?"
"Use anger," his whisper was harsh. "Instead of trying to imagine someone hurting you, imagine yourself hurting them for what they did to you. Imagine them trying to hurt someone else. What would you do?"
A flashing image of a cold room in his mind, crowded with equipment and large military men filled her mind. Pain. Bucky's pain. He'd channeled that pain into something darker to complete his missions, to kill people.
Bucky dashed back to Steve, leaving her in the dead center of the room. Turning her attention back to her chosen shield, she thought about his words. What if that shield were a HYDRA agent? What if that shield were Grant?
Nothing happened. No smoke, no heat.
The image she'd pulled from Bucky's mind then. He'd been strapped into a chair, while they'd sent electrical current coursing through his brain. How could they have done that to him? Over and over for seventy years?
Heat tingled in her fingertips and she broke out in a sweat. Marley focused harder on the shield. It was Bucky's pain she was drawing upon as she forced her mind to hold that image from his past. It was her anger that someone had done that to him.
As she looked around that memory room, she saw a small girl with red hair and frightened green eyes. Wait, she knew that girl. Then another girl with dark hair. Two girls with dark hair.
Pretty maids all in a row of beds, shivering in hospital gowns when they should have been home safe with their families. Only they didn't have families. Neither had she. It wasn't the same room as Bucky's, but somehow it all mixed together, fear bleeding on desperation.
Fire ripped from her chest at the vision. Or was it a memory? She didn't know. All she could see was Bucky's metal arm reaching out, trying to reach the girls. To help them? To hurt them? She didn't know. Marley just wanted out of there. She wanted to be anywhere but there in that room.
She could burn it all down, she realized. Marley wanted to burn it down.
More fire pulled from her chest, the second time leaving her breathless. The room around her was moving in ways it shouldn't and patches of black were floating around her as she tried to stay on her feet.
"Marley!" Steve called, approaching.
Bucky reached her first, stopping behind her but staying back because of the heat. It was so hot.
"Doll, you did it. You did good. Now… make it back off. Okay? Can you do that for me?"
Marley collapsed at that point. Bucky's metal arm caught her before she hit, eased her to the ground.
The heat still rolled through her in waves.
"Make it back off," Bucky whispered, crouching behind her.
Marley was struggling to breathe, struggling to stay awake. She grabbed Bucky's metal arm and held onto it as the world threatened to spin away. Marley exhaled, focused on her breathing as the heat faded.
"That's it," he whispered. "You're doing such a good job."
Marley's hands tightened on his arm, so much that she felt it vibrate under her hands.
"Stay with me."
"I got you, Doll. I'm right here."
"The glass," Steve said from somewhere above you. "See that?"
"Sure do," Natasha replied, her tone somewhere between impressed and shocked.
"Yeah, that's something." Bucky added distractedly. Just hope this isn't hurting her. She's about to pass out.
"Better make sure everyone in there is okay. Natasha, with me. Stay with her, Buck." Steve's footsteps along with Natasha's faded as Marley's heart clenched in her chest.
Looking up, Bucky's face began to appear in the smear of black around her. Concern clouded his blue eyes.
"Did I hurt someone?" Fear spiked in her as she waited for an answer.
He shook his head. "Steve's gone just to make sure."
How could she believe that? Did he understand how many people she'd killed already?
"I've hurt people. I… don't want to hurt anyone else," she whispered.
"I know. Me too." Bucky's eyes were sad, kind. "Can you walk?"
Marley nodded. If she could hold onto him, maybe she could.
Gently, Bucky hauled her up to her feet with his metal arm.
"Good because I forgot my oven mitts and I'd really need those to try and pick you up with both hands right now."
Marley had to laugh, she couldn't help it. "I'm not a lasagna."
But I'll bet you're delicious.
His thought stole her breath. Too bashful in that moment to make eye contact, she held onto his arm and they slowly walked out the room, the spray of the sprinkler system overhead misting her as they made it back into the hallway.