MISSING ||Bucky Barnes||

32

*Present time*

The following day was slow for everyone. Since Natasha could disguise herself well, Tony sent her to do some grocery shopping for the compound. At first Natasha would budge, but a hundred dollars added to her wallet played off nicely.

As for Sandra, she was an emotional wreck. She tried slept for about three hours scattered through the night, waking herself up with nightmares and flashbacks.

She tried to avoid going into Bucky's room, but still went when she realized it was starting to get lighter out and the birds were beginning to chirp outside.

"Bucky?" She asked, softly knocking on his door. He didn't respond so she let herself in, smiling to herself when she saw him asleep.

Crawling next to him in bed, Sandra snuggled herself into his side. She could feel his body relax and his arm wrap around her protectively. "What's the matter Sandy?" He asked in his scratchy morning voice, putting his head against hers.

Sandra sighed. "What makes you think somethings wrong?" She asked in a very soft tone.

Bucky smiled, moving his head so he could actually see her. "Well it's about five in the morning, and you've never been the type of person to wake up this early." He said, "meaning you didn't sleep or you had a nightmare."

Sandra frowned and sat up, turning to face Bucky. "Ding ding ding." She said, letting him know he was right. "But I don't want you to worry, I can handle it."

"That just makes me want to worry more." Bucky said, sitting up as well and taking a hold of both her hands. "I want you to know you can talk to me. You know I'd never judge you."

Sandra smiled and leaned over, giving him a quick kiss. "I know. But I'm tired, we can talk about it later alright?" She asked, moving so she was back to laying down.

Bucky nodded, putting his arms around her again and hugging her close. "I'll be right here." He whispered, feeling her body relax as she dosed off to sleep.

- - -

"Rogers we've got a problem." Natasha said to Steve when she returned with all of the groceries. Apparently she had dragged Bruce along with her after Steve noticed him coming in with a bunch of bags as well.

Steve sighed and took some of the bags from the two of them and set them on the counter. "What happened now? Did they recognize Bruce?" He asked.

Bruce shook his head. "No, no they only know me when I'm the hulk." He said, pulling up security footage on the tv in the kitchen. "Our issue is that reporters and government officials are surrounding the gates to get in."

"So then how did you two get in?" Steve asked, beginning to unpack the groceries.

Natasha shrugged. "The Tony tunnel." She said, pointing behind her as if it was right there. "Stark built a tunnel to get his stupid fancy cars in and out of here safely. Good resource, terrible explanation."

Tony came into the room, along with Bucky, Sam, and Wanda. He smiled at the sight of grocery bags, but then looked at Natasha. "Did you call my secret entryway the tiny tunnel?" He asked. "That's a terrible name."

Sam smirked, taking one of the apples and rinsing it in the sink. "You come up with a better one, iron man who flies around in a metal suit." Sam laughed. "Ima start calling you metal man."

Tony groaned, avoiding eye contact with sam. "You know, your lucky your pals with cap." He said. "And if you call me metal man, I'll call you the bird boy."

Sam nodded, taking a bite of his apple. "I could deal with that."

"Sam your an idiot, you know that?" Bucky said, playfully hitting the back of Sam's head. "Now how about we vote that sam puts everything away, yeah?"

Wanda smirked. "As much as I'd love to watch him struggle, I could just-" she snapped her fingers and everything disappeared. "-do that."

Tony groaned, seeing all the food was gone. "Where's all the food!?" He asked. "I wanted to see him put it all away."

"We don't have time to watch that." Wanda said, pointing up at the security system. "We've got company and they aren't going to leave until they get what they want."

At that moment, Sandra walked into the room looking practically dead. Everyone turned to look at her, seeing how different she looked.

Sam smirked. "That was perfect timing Miss America." He said.

Sandra hesitantly nodded her head, slowly walking over to the refrigerator. "Ok what's with the watching my every move?" She asked, taking out a small bottle of orange juice. "It's creeping me out."

Steve pointed up to the screen to show Sandra what was going on, seeing the bunch of people out there. "You've got some visitors outside." He said.

Sandra looked up and saw the screen as well, seeing the news ladies doing their live reports, along with a helicopter landed in the lawn with no passengers. "Guys, who's helicopter is that?" She asked, pointing to it on the screen.

"That would be ours!" A man in a suit said as he entered the room with people who must have been his bodyguards. "The names Gary Clark, an agent of the United States government."

Once the group heard that, they didn't hesitate to put Sandra behind them to protect her. "You do know this is trespassing, correct?" Tony said, "because last time I checked, I specifically said no one was coming onto this property for anything non-saving related. So unless your in danger, I'm ask you to leave."

Gary chuckled, taking a step forward. "I'm just here to have a word with Miss Rogers." He said with a smirk. "I'm sure it won't be a problem if I just-"

Bucky put his arm out to block Gary from moving any closer. "Oh it will be a problem. You have no idea who your messing with." He said, "if you want her, you get through every single one of us... and it's not going to be easy."

Gary nodded. "Right, the boyfriend. How could I forget?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Sandra snarled from behind the others, standing on her tippy toes. Before going back down to her actual height, she caught a glimpse of a pin one of the body guards was wearing.

Steve was the closest to her that she could tell, so she grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and yanked him down to her height. "Bad timing for a meeting sand." Steve whispered.

Sandra sighed and looked at him. "One of them had a hydra pin. It's a set up." She whispered. "Big guy on the right, pinned right in the center of the other pins."

Steve looked back up and saw the pin as well, staring right at it. "Where did you say your from again?" He asked.

Gary looked over at Steve confused. "I- I uh said I was an agent of the United States government. Why ask Captain?" He responded.

"Well as a government agent, you shouldn't need body guards. Actually, agents don't just out their identity like that." Steve said, crossing his arms. "So who are you, for real. I see the pin your guys have and you're not fooling me, or my sister."

Gary smirked. "Well then, you avengers are smarter than I expected." He said. "Boys, you know what to do."