A/N: For those that were wondering, yes, this fic is going to contain a rewrite of Avengers Assemble/The Avengers (2012). Also, I really enjoyed writing this chapter for reasons ;)
(for disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 5 - 5th & 7th February 2012
When Bucky woke up, he immediately knew what day it was and what that meant. The last time he had been alive in the world on February 5th it had been 1944. He and Steve had gone after HYDRA, and specifically Schmidt, with everything they had. That was the day they had to put the plane down in the water and ice. The day they were plunged into a comatose state for the better part of seventy years.
Bucky shivered and not just from recalling the cold. He never did get back any solid memories of the moment of impact or after. He wasn't sure if he and Steve were both knocked unconscious immediately or if there had been time before the hypothermia set in. They talked about it once, but Steve was as foggy as he was on the details, and it seemed too grim to fixate on. It still was.
Getting up out of bed, Bucky grabbed his clothes and headed for the bathroom. Showered and dressed, he did feel better about the day, but not by much. There was no way for an anniversary like that to be swept under the carpet. It would be on Steve's mind too, he knew. He had lost a whole lot more than Bucky had.
Walking out into the living room, he wasn't surprised to find his friend already there, staring out through the window at the streets that were no doubt already full of hustle and bustle. It was far busier than it had ever been when they were kids, or even from what they remembered as being just a few short months ago, never mind the fact it had been decades.
It was too much to deal with. Bucky turned back to the bedroom without saying a word, went into Steve's room as well as his own, then returned, armed and ready for the day he would rather not face.
"Hey, Steve?"
The moment his friend turned around, he threw his gym bag at him. Of course, Steve caught it with ease, then he glanced up and met Bucky's gaze, a look of understanding passing between them. He knew what day it was too and it was getting on top of him already. Better to get out of the apartment, go work out some frustration on the punching bags a while.
"Let's go." Steve smiled and nodded once, before they both headed for the door.
That was all that needed to be said. After all, talking over and over about what they had lost, how things had changed, it wasn't going to help. They already did all that, aired their frustrations, vented their spleen, and everything. At this point, there was nothing to do but move on, press forward, as much as they could anyway.
Out in the hallway, Steve headed straight to the stairs, but Bucky hung back. The sight of Natalie's door gave him pause for thought. It was a couple of weeks since she returned home, obviously hiding injuries. Since then, he had barely seen her at all, but knew she was there on a semi-regular basis, the noise of the door opening and closing easily heard in their apartment when it was quiet, which it often was.
"Have you seen her at all this week?" he asked Steve in a low voice.
"Yesterday," he confessed, "but only for a second. I tried to say 'Good morning' but she closed the door before I even got the words out. I think maybe she just wants to be left alone."
Bucky considered that idea but very soon dismissed it. He had seen this before, back in the day, before he was old enough to even understand. A woman with a husband twice her size, who cowered and shook when she thought no-one would notice, putting on a big painted smile more often than not, pretending everything was okay. Bucky remembered seeing her once through the window, with a black ring around one eye and a bloodied handkerchief in her hand. When he tried to tell his mom about it, she told him he probably didn't see what he thought he saw, but Bucky knew better. He also knew he had seen bruises on the husband, on his knuckles specifically. He hadn't known then, as a scrawny kid of maybe ten, what he was supposed to do about it. Now, he was older, apparently a whole lot older than he looked or felt, and he wasn't going to stand idly by this time.
"What are you doing, Buck?" Steve asked, the moment he knocked on the door, hurrying back up the few stairs he had made it down so far.
Before Bucky had a chance to answer, Natalie opened the door and peered out at them
"Something I can do for you?" she asked, glancing between them.
"We're sorry to disturb you, Miss Rush," said Steve right away.
Bucky rolled his eyes - he loved the guy like a brother, but he really was such a goody two-shoes sometimes!
"We were headed to the gym around the corner," Bucky explained to Natalie. "And we were just wondering if you wanted to come along?"
She frowned at the question. "To the gym? With you guys?" she double-checked.
"You don't have to, if you don't want to," Steve insisted.
Seriously, if it was anybody else, Bucky would've hit him by now!
"We were just thinking - at least, I was - that maybe we could show you some moves."
"Moves?" The frown broke a little, but her eyebrows rose very high on her forehead, almost disappearing into her hair. "Really?"
"You know, for defence," Bucky explained, being deliberately vague. "I mean, the city streets have always had their dangers for women out alone, you know, if you're in the wrong part of town with the wrong kind of people hanging around, but from what I see in the papers these days, it's gotten a whole lot worse. So, I was just thinking, since we've had some training in that kind of thing, maybe you'd be interested in learning some ways to defend yourself in those kinds of situations."
She looked like she was going to say no, which Bucky wasn't all that surprised about. After all, he wasn't explaining himself very well. He was usually just fine with dames, never really had a problem getting a date or anything, at least, not until he met Natalie. This wasn't a date, of course, but frankly, it was all the more awkward than that. He was trying to offer to help her with a problem they weren't really supposed to know she had and without ever mentioning that they did.
"Obviously, it's your choice, Miss Rush," said Steve then, "but Bucky's not wrong about the safety of women, or really any person, in the city. It's a tough world out there, I'm sure you know that, given your job. We just thought, if we could be of help..."
Natalie blinked at him and then at Bucky, before finally, she sighed. "Give me five minutes to change and get my stuff together," she told them, closing the door then, before either one could say another word.
"Good job, Stevie," said Bucky, slapping him on the back. "I thought for a minute she was going to say no."
"Me too, and honestly, I think this is a good idea. If she can defend herself, even a little, it might really help with her situation, but Buck, given what we know, or at least think we know..."
"What?"
"I just don't..."
Before he could say anymore, the door opened up again, and there was Natalie, a bag on her shoulder and a slightly more genuine looking smile on her face. "Let's go, boys."
"Oops?"
Natasha did her best to look innocent, but such a thing didn't come easy to a woman like her. Poor James. He really was trying to help. Maybe she should have underplayed just a little more, but he clearly wasn't braced for her to give the self-defence moves everything she'd got, even though that was exactly what he told her to do. Of course, he thought he was prepping Nurse Natalie Rush for some random street mugger or similar. He had no idea he was squaring off against Natasha Romanov, Agent of SHIELD, and she wasn't about to tell him either.
"You're picking this up really fast, Miss Ru... Natalie," said Steve, stumbling on her first name, which she had insisted he use.
He looked vaguely suspicious as he eyed her then, even as he offered his buddy a hand and pulled him to his feet.
"I'm a quick study, always have been," she told him honestly. "But that's good, right?"
"It's great," James assured her, cutting his eyes at Steve for implying anything else.
Honestly, the two of them were just too cute sometimes. Both seemed to want to be the best they could be for sweet little Natalie, which was nice in its way. It almost made Natasha feel bad for fooling them, even if it was for the greater good, especially when it came to Barnes.
After all, while Rogers was clearly out to be everybody's big brother, including hers, his friend had been making eyes at Natalie for weeks now. He had form for being a ladies' man, back in the day, she knew, but lately she got the feeling he really did care. That could really screw up future missions and she ought to put a stop to it somehow. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts to resist, she couldn't help but admit, if only to herself, that the attraction wasn't entirely one-sided.
"Are you okay?" she asked, looking up at him through her lashes. "I mean, I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No offence, Natalie, but it takes a little more than that to hurt me," James told her with a disarming smile. "You still did a good job though. You really don't have to cause much damage. Just stunning an attacker long enough to get away would probably work for you."
"I guess so. I mean, I think I have pretty good legs," she said, standing just so, completely unsurprised when his eyes travelled downward. "I meant I can run fast," she clarified, her fingers under his chin, encouraging his gaze back up.
Not that she minded much that he looked and the smirk on her face ought to prove it. When he continued to smile back at her, she knew they were okay. It was only when Steve cleared his throat loudly that she even remembered he was there.
"Uh, I'm going to go work out solo with the bag for a while," he said, hiking his thumb to the other corner of the room. "I'll leave you two to work on your moves," he said pointedly, turning to walk away before anyone could respond at all.
"So, what's next?" she asked, forcing herself back into character before she did something dumb.
"Well, we covered how to deal with an attack from in front and disarming someone with a weapon. I guess maybe what to do if somebody comes at you from behind?"
"Sure." Natalie nodded. "Where do you want me?"
She really did mean for it to come out as an innocent question, but even she heard the edge in her voice and was sure he did too. These guys may be old-fashioned, but they weren't stupid. James would know a come on when he heard one and the last thing she should be doing was encouraging him. She really never should've accepted this invitation to learn self-defence at all, not least because she absolutely did not need that kind of help, but somehow, she just couldn't help herself.
"Okay, so you're walking down the street," said James, his hands on her shoulder, putting her in front of him, facing away, "and some guy comes up behind you, demanding your purse or something. What do you do?"
As he asked the question, his arm wrapped around her upper body from behind and Natasha fought conflicting urges within herself. There was the one that knew exactly how to twist out of that particular hold and knock her attacker to the ground, usually unable to see or pee. Then there was that other urge, the one that made her want to back up closer into James' embrace, encourage him to hold her tighter, and then do a whole lot of other things that she was sure she could never say to the face of a guy born almost a hundred years ago.
"I... I don't know," she floundered more than she even meant to for her character's sake. "Try to get away?"
"Sure, but it's how you're going to do that..."
He went on to explain a couple of different ways to get out of the hold he had her in and Natasha meant to listen, if only for the sake of being polite. Unfortunately, she found it almost impossible to focus. There were too many other things to think about, like how she was ever going to get this guy out of her head when they parted ways, or how she would ever deal with the way he would end up looking at her when he learned the truth of who and what she was.
"So, you wanna give it a try?" he said then, presumably asking if she was ready to try to escape him again.
"Not really."
The words were out before she could check them, but they were as true as she was standing there, his arms tight around her, the length of his body, all solid muscle, pressed against her back.
"I'm sorry," she said, making the rookie mistake of turning around in his embrace, finding his face incredible close to her own - those baby blue eyes really were dangerous. "I guess I just don't want to end up hurting you, but I do appreciate you trying to help me out. You're a good guy, James Barnes."
There was more truth in her words than he would ever understand and far more unsaid than she could ever tell him. Making a fast decision, the way agents like her always had to, she reached up to plant a quick kiss on his cheek, then slipped effortlessly out of his arms and rushed away. Bag in hand, she bolted from the gym at top speed, not even pausing when he called out for her to wait.
"Seriously, Buck. Maybe you should just let it go."
"I just want to apologise," he insisted to Steve, knocking firmly on Natalie's door on their way out.
It had been two days since she ran from him at the gym, with no real explanation as to why. He couldn't imagine that he hurt her or scared her at all. If he had, she would've told him, and he had taken such good care to be as gentlemanly as possible while manhandling her during the self-defence teaching process. Besides, her parting shot had been to call him a good guy and kiss his cheek. He didn't really believe she could be all that mad at him, yet she had run away and not been seen since.
"She's obviously not home," said Steve, when no immediate response came to his knock. "Maybe she's working extra shifts or something," he advised, just as the door began to open, catching both their attention.
"Can I help you, gentlemen?" asked the man who appeared.
"We were looking for Natalie," said Steve, frowning some, an expression Bucky was sure he was wearing too. "Is she home?"
"Oh, you mean the chick who lived here before? Yeah, she had to move out, kind of a sudden thing, so I took over the lease. I'm Clint," he said, holding out a hand to shake.
Of course, Steve immediately obliged and then Bucky did the same, even though his mind was somewhere else entirely. It seemed Natalie was gone, maybe back to the same person or people who had clearly been hurting her before. Bucky felt sick at the very idea, and worse still when he realised he might have, inadvertently, been the one to drive her away.
To Be Continued...
