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Chapter Quote:
“What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.”
~Tony Stark in Avengers
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Chapter 12

Annabeth

I needed to contact Steve and Sam.  I didn’t know how though.  My phone was dead, I didn’t know their numbers off the top of my head, and I couldn’t find their numbers online for the life of me.  Bucky had no clue what I was up to.  He spent most of his time reading and watching television, trying to learn everything he could about himself and what he missed over the past seventy years.  After my incident in the woods, Bucky had become fiercely protective of me but also very shy.  I wondered why.

“Annabeth?” Bucky whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Get up.  Hide.  Now,” he ordered, staring in the direction of the door.  I hadn’t heard anything but I listened.  Bucky handed me a gun.  I wondered where he kept it where I wouldn’t see it but I decided not to question it.  I heard the lock being picked.  I dashed to my room hiding behind the door and peering between the crack into the hallway.  Bucky hid in his room.  He didn’t have a good vantage point but considering he was a master assassin, that wasn’t something that needed to be worried about.

The door opened.  I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Steve Rogers poke his head.  I heard him whisper, “Hallway’s clear.”

Did he come with Sam?

“Kitchen’s clear,” Sam announced, walking into the hallway.

“Bedroom at the end of the hall is not,” a female voice added.  I whirled around.  My gun was knocked out of my grasp.  A hand closed down on my throat and the person knocked my legs out from underneath me.  I let out a short, startled scream.  Hell broke loose because of that.

“FOUND HIM!” Sam shouted.  I heard the crunch of the plaster on the wall followed by some swearing by the Falcon.  Bucky charged into the room, hollering my name.  By now I realized the person who’d knocked me to the ground was Natasha Romanoff.  He charged her.  She barely rolled out of the way.

“Bucky stop!” I said frantically, trying to grab onto him.  I missed him by an inch.  Steve and Sam came rushing in.  Bucky had gone into soldier mode.  His eyes narrowed in on Steve and I realized he really had relapsed into the Winter Soldier.  He was going to kill them.

He and Steve were duking it out, Steve on the defensive and Bucky on the offensive, getting in some nasty hits.  Sam and Natasha latched onto his arms, pulling him off Captain America.  I jumped into the small space between Bucky and Steve.  Bucky slammed his arm into my stomach, sending my flying into the wall.  I fell to the ground in a daze.  A similar thing happened to Natasha except she got knocked out stone cold.  Sam was struggling to get up.  Bucky had Steve pinned to the wall, choking him with his metal arm.  I stumbled up, using the wall as a support.  I made my over to Steve.  Bucky’s fury turned on me.  He let go of Captain America who slumped to the floor, gasping for breath.

“Bucky, stop.  Look at me,” I said, backing away from him, my hands up in front of me even though I knew it wouldn’t stop him.  He picked me up by my shoulders like I was a feather and smashed me into the wall.  Pain erupted in my head but I ignored it. “Listen to me, my name is Annabeth Drew.  I’ve been taking care of you for ten years.  You were and still are my mission.  Let me help you.”

“I don’t know you,” he growled.

I racked my brain for words that would convince him I was telling the truth but nothing came to mind.  His grip was tightening on me.  My bones were going to break soon if I didn’t do anything.  In desperation, I kissed him.  It caught him off guard so badly that he dropped me to the ground.  Our kiss was broken off briefly when my feet hit the floor but rather than give him time to gather his wits again, I pulled his face towards mine and kissed him again.  A few seconds later his hands wove themselves in my hair.  He pushed me into the wall but this time it was different.  The wall helped him close the gap between our bodies.  He wanted me as close as possible to him.  His hand brushed over the part of my head that had taken the brunt of the hit when he’d slammed me into the wall.  He pulled back when I let out a short whimper.

“Why did you kiss me?” Bucky asked, his eyes closed, forehead touching mine.

“I had to get through to you and since words weren’t working…” I trailed off.  I felt faint.  His hand caressed the back of my head, hitting the same spot as early.  Bucky jerked his hand in front of him.  He paled.

“A-Annabeth?  What did I do?” he demanded, voice trembling.  I stared at his hand.  There was blood on it.

“You had a relapse.  It’s okay now.  You’re okay now,” I said, finally leaning against the wall.  I shut my eyes as a new wave pain tore through my head.

“No, I hurt you.  I hurt you and- oh my god…” I opened my eyes.  Bucky was staring in horror at Steve, Sam and Natasha (who’d woken up) slowly getting up. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to.”

He backed out of the room, shaking his head.  Steve started going after him but I placed my hand on his arm.  He looked down at me.

“Don’t.  Let him have some time to himself,” I said.

“But what if-”

“He won’t leave.  He’ll come back.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he always has.  Let’s go to the kitchen and fix up any wounds we have,” I suggested, holding my hand to my head.  Steve looked reluctant but listened.  Sam, except for a black eye and a busted lip, wasn’t too injured.  Natasha was just dazed.  Steve had a few bruises around his neck from Bucky trying to choke him.  Naturally I sustained the most injuries.  Surprisingly, Natasha helped me clean up my head wound.  It was just a few small cuts but they sure let out a lot of blood.  I pulled out an ice pack and sank into a chair.

“How’d you find us?” I queried.

“Natasha tracked the IP addresses of computers that were searching for anything related to the Winter Soldier.  She saw how many hits your computer had and tracked you down.  Took a hell of a long time.  We didn’t know if you were still here because the searches just sort of stopped,” Sam explained.

“I’m glad you found us,” I said.

“Why didn’t you contact us?” Steve questioned emotionlessly.

“I couldn’t.  My phone died before I could call you to tell you what happened.  When we stopped by Sam’s house, I forgot to grab my phone charger.  I didn’t know your numbers and I even searched online for them.  No luck.”

“Why didn’t you drive back to DC or go into a nearby town to get a charger?”

“Bucky would’ve had to go with me and he wouldn’t let us go into a big city.  He thinks there are people looking for him and he doesn’t want to risk being on cameras in a big city.  He’s probably right.  No stores were close enough that I could go get a charger.  I wanted to call you Steve.  I just couldn’t.”

“Why didn’t you leave in the night?”

“I had to stay here.”

“Why?”

“I had to take care of him.  Nighttime isn’t easy for him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Imagine what you would dream about after finding out what you’ve been doing the past seventy years and having no recollection of it.  I had to stay here Steve.  I had to take care of him.  He was my mission.  He still is.  I made a promise to him long before I made my promise to you.  But I am sorry for breaking my promise to you.”

“When will he come back?”

“After sunset most likely.”

“When you said he’s left before, what do you mean?” Sam asked.

I looked at him. “I’ll wake up in the morning and he’ll be gone.  At first I thought he’d run out on me but he just goes out for long walks to think things through.  He always comes back.”

“Has this happened before?  Where he goes into relapse?” Natasha chimed in.

“Yeah, just once.”

“Did he hurt you?”

I nodded. “But he didn’t mean to.  He tried to choke me.  He thought I was Hydra.  It’s not like Bucky was wrong.”

“How did you get through to him?”

“I repeated what I used to say to him when I took care of him when I worked for Hydra.  It freaked him out when he came to.  Wouldn’t let me come near him for days.”

“Why didn’t you use that time to leave?”

“I wasn’t going to leave him over something like that,” I said firmly.

Steve sighed. “You’re tired.  Go get some sleep.”

“I’m okay.  I’m going to take a shower and get the blood out of my hair.  We have plenty of food in the cupboards.  We have four rooms total.  I’ll sleep in Bucky’s tonight.  One of you can take my room.  When I’m done, I’ll make dinner.  Sound good?”

The group nodded.  I walked off.  I had to keep the water pretty cool because if it was too hot, it hurt the cuts on my head even more than the water itself already did.  I put on warm clothes.  I put on minimum makeup: mascara, foundation and powder.  Walking back into the kitchen/living room, I saw Natasha asleep on the recliner.  Steve and Sam were conversing quietly on the couch.  I didn’t say anything.  I was pretty sure they were mad at me for not contacting them.  Silently I made some macaroni and cheese, two pots since Steve and Sam typically had appetites and when Bucky came back, he would devour a ton as well.  Cap and Falcon thanked me for the dinner.  I sat by myself at the table.  I wasn’t that hungry.  Worry over Bucky was gnawing at me.  Around seven, I put my dish in the sink.  Natasha went to bed, taking my room.  Steve took the room next to Bucky’s.  Sam was in the room between the former two.  I sat in Bucky’s room, reading a book until nine.  I got up and headed to Sam’s room.  I knocked softly.

“Come in,” he said.  Sam was lounging on his bed, surfing the internet.  He smiled at me when I entered. “What’s up?”

“I came to see how you were doing.  And I came to apologize,” I said shyly.

“Apologize for what?”

“For getting you injured.  Twice.  For leaving your sight when I said I wouldn’t.”

“Hey, you had good intentions, and the injuries weren’t your fault.  Hell, you tried to stop him.  You did stop him the second time.  Thank you for that.”

“You’re too good Sam Wilson,” I chuckled.

“Nah, I just know how you feel about him.  Has he come back yet?”

“No… I know I told Steve he was going to come back but I’m getting worried.  He’s never been gone this long Sam.”

“If he’s always come back before, I think he’ll do it again.  Maybe it’s just worse this time because he hurt you a lot worse than last time and he hurt more than one person.  It can’t be easy.”

“I know.  Do you know if Steve is up?”

“Should be.  I think he’s going to stay up until Bucky comes back.  He should still be in the living room.”

“Thanks Sam.  Get some sleep.  I’ll see you in the morning.” He said good night and I left his room, walking into the living room.  Steve was watching TV, but it was on silent so he could hear everything going on around him.  I took a deep breath, dreading talking to him.  I was positive he hated me for keeping Bucky from him for so long.

“May I talk to you?” I asked quietly.

Steve looked over at me. “Yeah, of course.  What’s up?”

I sat down. “Listen, about earlier, I know I didn’t sound that apologetic when I was explaining why I didn’t contact you when I found Bucky, but I am.  I’m so sorry.  And it wasn’t just because I couldn’t find you.  I didn’t want to say it in front of Natasha and Sam but when Bucky found me, he told me he didn’t want to see anyone else, including you.  Not until he remembered enough about himself and about you.  But the past couple weeks I’ve been searching for you relentlessly.  I’ve helped him as much as I can.  I can’t help him remember anymore and he knows that, but I think he was scared of meeting you because he didn’t know how to react to you or how you would react to him.  I’m really sorry Steve.  I made a promise to you and I broke that.  That’s unacceptable.  I understand completely if you’re mad at me for keeping him from you and-”

“I’m not mad at you,” Steve interrupted, looking confused. “Did you think I was?”

“Yes…” I admitted.

“Okay, maybe at first I was but you never lied to me before so I believed your story earlier.  I’m not mad at you.  In fact I want to thank you for helping him.  And also thank you for getting through to him earlier.”

“It was nothing.”

“How’s your head?”

“Hurts, but I’ll live.  How’s your neck?  The bruises already look like they’re fading.”

“Perks to being a super soldier.  I heal unnaturally fast.  So you and Bucky, are you…?”

“Are we what?”

“Dating.”

I blinked in surprise. “No.  No, we’re not.  I just kissed him earlier because I couldn’t think of anything to say that could convince him we weren’t the enemy.  I decided to distract him instead.  The kiss didn’t mean anything.”

“Not a thing?”

“No.  Well, maybe I meant it.  I don’t know what Bucky felt.”

“Judging by the way he reacted to it, I believe the feelings are mutual.”

“Really?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“It won’t work, Steve.  Not between me and him.  I still have to go to trial and the prosecutors will make sure I’m imprisoned without the possibility of parole.  I can’t start anything with him.”

“He doesn’t seem to care,” Steve pointed out.  When I bit my lip, he said, “You didn’t tell him.”

“No… I didn’t know how to break the news to him.  I’ll tell him tomorrow.  He’ll be back by then.”

“He’ll understand.  He won’t like it but he’ll understand.”

“Promise me something.”

“What?”

“Promise me that no matter what he says, you won’t let him convince you to come to my trial.  He’ll want to.  I know he will.  Don’t let him, okay?  Promise?”

“Promise.  I’ll restrain him if I have to.”

“Thank you Steve.” I placed my hand on his shoulder. “I know that look.  He’s going to come back.  He’s going to talk with you.  Bucky’s embarrassed.  It’ll be a while before he’ll talk, okay?”

He smiled. “I trust you.”

“Good.  I’m going to sleep but wake me up if you need anything.  Anything at all.” Steve said he would.  I then went and collapsed onto my bed, pulling the sheets up close.  I fell asleep immediately.
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Steve 

Bucky had been gone since five in the evening.  It was two in the morning.  He’d been gone nine hours.  Despite what Annabeth had said, I was starting wonder if she was wrong this time.  Maybe he left because he didn’t want to be around me.  Maybe the memories were too painful.

“Steve?” My head snapped up at the sound of my name.

“Bucky,” I said in disbelief.  I stood up but didn’t move towards him.  I didn’t want to scare him. “Are you okay?”

“No.  No I’m not.  I hurt you, I hurt Annabeth, I hurt your friends.  Are you okay?”

“You didn’t hurt me.  I had you on the ropes,” I said, hoping he’d remember one of our common phrases back in the day.

“Like you had that guy beating you up in the alleyway of the movie theater on the ropes?”

I grinned. “Exactly.”

Bucky hesitated before walking up to me.  He gave me a hug and I returned it.  We stayed that way for while, savoring being together again.  I’d missed my best friend.  He was the one person, memories or no memories, who I could really relate to.  He would know what it was like to be in a completely different world with new technology and laws and norms and attitudes.  I’d adjusted but it felt good to have someone who would be in the same position as me.  No one could relate to me like he could.

“I thought I’d lost you, Buck,” I said.  He pulled back, clapping me on the shoulder.

“Well you didn’t, Steve.  I’m here.  Maybe not fully there in the head, but I’m here.  We have a lot of catching up to do.  Annabeth has helped me as much as she could.  She told me as much.  To help me get the rest of my memories back, I need you.”

“You know I’ll be more than happy to help,” I said.

“Steve?  Did I hurt anyone too badly?  From earlier?”

“We’re all fine.  Annabeth took the brunt of it from crashing into the wall, but she’s fine.  She’s asleep right now in your room.  Go get some sleep.  We’ll talk more in the morning.”

“That sounds like a good idea.  It’s good to have you back Steve.”

“It’s even better to have you back Buck.  You have no idea.”

My friend grinned. “Now I can stop you from doing stupid stuff.”

“I didn’t do stupid stuff!” I protested.

“I told you not to do anything stupid when I shipped out for the front lines and what do you do?  You let some random stranger convince you to be a guinea pig for a super soldier serum that he didn’t know if it would work or not.  I mean it worked and all but what if it hadn’t?”

“You remember that?”

Bucky shrugged. “Seeing you triggered memories.  When I was out, some came back.  That one did.  Along with the alleyway fight.  A couple of those came back.  I’m pretty sure those weren’t all of them either.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I laughed. “Go get some sleep.  I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night Steve.” We hugged good night again.  I headed to bed, sleeping peacefully for the first time since I’d been back in the real world.
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Bucky 

I slipped into my room.  The lamp was on.  Annabeth was in bed, her back to the door.  She was definitely asleep.  I changed into sweatpants and a tee shirt before getting into bed.  I thought I was careful not to shake the bed but she must’ve been in a light sleep because she woke up.

“Hey,” I said, cringing when I caught a brief glimpse of a cut on her head.  Her arms wrapped around me, practically pulling me on top of her.

“Damn it, never leave for that long of time again.  Do you know how terrified I was that you weren’t going to return?!” She chastised.

“I’m sorry.  For leaving, and especially for hurting you again.” I looked down at the sheets in shame.

“Bucky, I’m fine.  Look at me.” I did. “I’m just glad you’re safe and that you’re back.”

“Annabeth, that kiss earlier… was it just to get through to me or was it… something more?” I asked.

She looked at me warily. “Do you want it to mean more?”

“Maybe.  Yes,” I confessed.

“Then it was both.  Yes I wanted to get through to you but I’d also been wanting to kiss you for a long time so I didn’t think too much about it when I did.”

“Why didn’t you kiss me sooner?”

“I didn’t know how you felt about… us.”

“Maybe this will help clarify things: may I kiss you?”

Annabeth blushed. “You may.”
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Stucky reunited!  Hope you enjoyed :)