Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 45

Ava hurriedly walked down the street, her eyes firmly fixed on the pavement. She felt humiliated. Humiliated and not taken seriously. James really had the audacity to just go and interrupt her work. As if what she was doing was nothing more than a game for children.

He was just trying to protect you, her subconscious argued, but Ava didn't want to hear it. It was easier to be mad at James than grateful that he had probably saved her life. She didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if one of the other men had discovered her in the warehouse. And what was it about that strange painting? In any case, Ava seemed to have been on the wrong track. She could now rule out arms exports. Could the whole thing just be about ordinary art dealers? It made sense that they kept their art goods in warehouses and that vans delivered new goods there ... But then why did a taskforce have to be called in?

"Oh, sorry," Ava apologised mechanically. She had been so in thought that she hadn't even seen the man she was now bumping into. She was about to continue walking towards the subway when the man grabbed Ava's arm.

"Ava," the man said, "are you all right?"

Ava finally lifted her eyes from the pavement and looked into two very familiar chocolate brown eyes.

"Peter!" said Ava in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"I don't live far from here," Peter replied. His gaze wandered anxiously down Ava's and lingered on her hand. Ava held her injured hand a little tensely in front of her chest – she was pretty sure the hand was sprained, if not broken. Why did James have to have such good reflexes anyway? God, how strong his arms were ...

"Ava? Are you all right?", Peter repeated his question, bringing Ava back from her thoughts. Dumbfounded, she shook her head.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking." Ava was about to turn back and continue her way towards the subway – she finally had some new insight in her research and was eager to follow it up – but Peter didn't let up.

"Your hand is hurt," Peter stated.

Ava tried to move her hand to prove that it wasn't half as bad as it looked. Cockily, she spread her fingers. Immediately a sharp pain spread through her hand and seemed to travel to her shoulder. She groaned in pain and held her hand in the cramped position in front of her chest again.

"It's really not that bad," Ava replied through clenched teeth. She realised that wasn't very convincing, but she didn't want to have to explain to Peter how she had come to the injury.

"You'd better see a doctor about that," Peter pressed on. His look was plagued with helplessness and concern. Ava hated the sight of it.

"It's nothing, really, I just have to put some ice on it at home," Ava assured him.

"My place is just around the corner, why don't you come-"

"No." Ava interrupted Peter a little too hastily. He lowered his eyes to the ground and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Immediately, remorse spread through Ava.

"It's just – I'd prefer my hand to be looked after in my flat. So if you insist, you can look at my hand at my place," Ava suggested. She could do without being escorted home by Peter – she had better things to do – but seeing his hurt puppy dog eyes was unbearable.

Immediately Peter's mood changed and he grinned at her with satisfaction.

"There, done," Peter said contentedly as he fixed the bandage with a piece of something sticky.

"Thank you," Ava replied and meant it. Peter could be very pushy, but on the subway the pain in her hand had become more and more unbearable and she doubted very much that she would have been able to fix her hand on her own. And she would definitely have been too proud to call Natasha and ask for help. She would have given Ava an endless lecture on how dangerous and reckless it had been to drive to the warehouses all by herself.