Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 18

Once again Ava tried to avoid overtime as much as possible. Her desk was barely recognisable among the piles of documents and her email inbox seemed to be overflowing. She had to hurry if she wanted to get to the meeting point with the mysterious stranger on time.

Exasperated, she tapped away at her keyboard and kept looking up at the clock. Time seemed to be moving far too fast. It was already 5 p.m. and she still had a pile of work ahead of her. Would Ranner still let her leave on time?

"Miss Summers!" Ava startled. Ranner had appeared in front of her desk. His hair was slicked back as usual and there was a certain madness in his eyes.

"There's a lot that needs to be done today and it's not long until the printing deadline. I will need your time longer today."

Before Ava could protest, he was gone already. She sat in her chair with her mouth open. In the distance, she could hear his piercing voice yelling at someone.

"Ava, are you okay?" Ava regained her composure and looked into Peter's chocolate brown eyes. She exhaled deeply, slid her hand through her fringe framing her face on either side, and paused for a moment.

"Can I ask you a favour?"

"Of course, anything!" His eyes began to light up.

"I have to be at the park at seven to meet with an informant, but Ranner wants me here longer today. Could you cover for me for half an hour?"

"An informant? Did Ranner finally give you your first own story to work on? Surely he'll let you go early then!" He beamed at her.

"Not quite. Could you cover for me? In return, I'll be happy to tell you all about my first and very own research over an after-work beer." Ava owed him that much if he helped her.

"Sure, you can count on me! How about we go to Jim's later? That's actually a cop bar, but the beer there is cheap," Peter grinned at her. Ava remembered that she had heard some of her colleagues talking about Jim's in the break room. Apparently the New York Times people met there regularly. She had hoped to see James again, but she wanted to repay Peter for his helpfulness and niceness.

"Sounds good." She gave him a smile, which didn't quite reach her eyes. He didn't seem to notice, but walked back to his own desk almost jumping.

Ava tried not to let anything distract her for the next two hours. At a quarter to seven, she looked contentedly at her to-do list. She had managed to get almost everything done and only had to sort a few texts later. She looked around, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to her. Men and women in smart blouses and jackets were hurriedly walking around, talking tensely on the phone or hastily typing on their keyboards. All hell was breaking loose today. Ava stowed her phone in the pocket of her long-cut, dark blue blazer, which she wore over her Radiohead shirt, and rose from her desk. She looked in Peter's direction, who nodded slightly at her, and then disappeared towards the lift.

Outside, the warm summer air greeted her and she regretted putting on her Doc Martens. It was still too warm for boots. Hastily she ran down the street, apologising to some passers-by she bumped into in her haste, and reached the meeting place shortly after escaping from the editorial building.

She took a seat on the bench and looked at her phone. 18:55. And no message from James. Why was she so desperate to hear from him? She had only seen him this morning. Surely he was busy with his work. His work! She really needed to follow up on that. What had he meant by I thought you would have found out by now? How was she supposed to know where he worked? Why couldn't he just tell her? What was he hiding?

Ava tucked thoughts of James away in a mental drawer as she saw a young woman with long copper-red hair that fell in waves almost to her waist approaching her. She had lowered her eyes and was wearing a dark red sweatshirt in which she had buried her hands. She came closer and Ava could see her face better. She was incredibly pretty, but the dark circles under her eyes told her she hadn't been getting much sleep lately. She looked worn out.

Without lifting her eyes, she sat down next to Ava.

"I've talked to Banner. So unless something has changed in your research since you spoke to him, I'm up to date." Straight to business then, Ava thought to herself. The woman spoke with her voice lowered and Ava could pick out a slight accent.

"No, nothing has happened since then. That's why I called you. Why are you willing to help me with my research?"

"I haven't decided if I'm willing to help yet," the woman replied, slightly irritated.

"Yet here you are," Ava stated stubbornly. What was that all about? Why was the woman so offensive?

"I am here to give justice to my brother. I hope to do that with your help." With my help?, Ava fell silent.

"Banner told me you're a journalist. If we work together, we can expose the bastards who took my brother's life."

"What happened to your brother?"

"Pietro was shot dead. Since this happened in an area where shootings are more common, the police apparently don't think it's necessary to investigate his killing. It's just ridiculous," the woman shook her head and paused for a moment, "Then Banner told me you asked questions about those vans and warehouses. That's where my brother got shot. That's why I'm helping you."

Ava needed a moment to process the new information. She remembered the double date with Steve and James that Natasha had to leave early because of a murder.

"When exactly was your brother shot?"

"It's been ten days now."

Ava's thoughts were racing. Could it be that Natasha had been called to this murder? She did the math in her head – it had been exactly ten days since she had gone on the double date. Natasha had told her later in the car that the murder had taken place at the warehouses. What did Natasha know? What was she not telling her?

"Anyway," the woman interrupted Ava's thoughts, "Banner also said you were able to take a picture?"

"Yeah, but it's not very good." Ava pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent it to the woman. She glanced at her phone as well.

"I'll see what I can do. I'll also go through police files again and run the photo through the database." So Ava was dealing with a hacker. She didn't want to probe further, sometimes it was better not to know all the details.

"I'll get back to you as soon as I have something." The woman rose from the bench and was already hurrying away.

"Wait, you didn't even tell me your name!" Ava had jumped up as well. Why was the woman allowed to know so much about Ava, but she didn't even know her name?

"I don't usually tell business partners my name," Oh, so now we're business partners!, Ava thought to herself, "But since I know your name too, it's only fair. I'm Wanda." Ava nodded her thanks and with that Wanda disappeared.

Back at the office, no one seemed to have noticed her absence. Ava walked over to Peter's desk.

"Has anyone asked for me?" Ava asked cautiously.

"Ranner asked for you," the colour drained from Ava's face. Was she in trouble? "But don't worry!", Peter continued hastily, "I told him you were in the copy room."

Relieved, Ava took a seat at her own desk and within an hour was through with the rest of her tasks. She had just sent the last email when Peter stood expectantly in front of her.

"Ready for an after-work beer?" he beamed at her.

"But really just one," she returned, exhausted.

Together they got into the crowded lift and rode down to the foyer. Ava followed Peter away from the crowded main street into a side alley to Jim's, a small but cosy pub.