I Don't Need New Friends

7. Fun Time Is Over

After listening to the guys argue over whose lunch was better (hers was better than both of theirs, but she didn't want to bother), taking a walking tour of the Bradbury, and driving by some of the other cool buildings downtown, Zoe found herself pretending not to know these two grown ass men, literal Avengers, as they bickered like children in the candy aisle at Target. She'd had enough.

"You're both right. Twizzlers are superior to Red Vines and a day without chocolate is a day wasted. Just throw it all in the basket and let's go! You two are unbelievable." She huffed. "You're lucky no one has recognized you and filmed this little marital spat."

As she was shaking her head, Sam noticed a group of three teenagers approaching them. "You spoke too soon, Z! You ready, Tinman?" He smiled at the kids, waiting for one of them to say something.

As he was smiling, the kids walked right past him and started speaking to Bucky in Spanish. The look on his face went from annoyed to murderous as he instinctively pulled Zoe behind him.

"What the hell?" She argued, trying to get out from behind the large man. "What the fuck is going on?"

"We need to leave. Now." Bucky grabbed her hand and pushed Sam towards the exit. As they walked back to Zoe's car, they heard tires screeching and a black SUV headed towards them.

"Get behind something solid." Bucky pushed Zoe and Sam towards a concrete beam, and away from her tiny Prius. He stood and watched as the SUV got closer, stepping back before it mowed him down. As it whizzed past, someone dropped an envelope out of the passenger window with his name on it.

"Don't touch that! What if it's a bomb?!?" Sam called out from behind the beam. "You think maybe we should call this in?"

"Yeah. Call it in, Sam." Bucky stared at the envelope and tried not to panic. Fuck.

"What the hell did those kids say to you, Barnes?!" Zoe whisper-yelled as she got closer. "Should we be out in the open right now?"

"Hey, the local field office has been notified. Backup's about 20 minutes out. In the meantime, just keep civilians away from the envelope. Z, you might want to stay away from your car in case we're being watched, so it won't be traced to you." Sam reported, putting his phone back in his pocket. "What did those kids say back there?"

"They said that some old friends were waiting for me in Argentina..." Bucky was stone-faced. "...and that my friend was pretty for a Jewish girl."

"Are you fucking serious? They threatened Zoe?!" The veins in Sam's neck were bulging. "What the fuck, man?! What do we do now?!"

"Stay here and wait for backup." Bucky sighed. "Zoe, I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but are you Jewish? If so, how did they know? Have you seen them anywhere before? Did you notice them in the store before they approached us?"

"I've never seen those kids before in my life. How the hell should I know how they knew I was Jewish?! Maybe they saw my couple of tattoos in Hebrew? What the hell do you want me to say?" Zoe was freaking out. "That I didn't file my fucking horns down today? Why is this even relevant?! What is this?!"

"Hydra." was all Bucky said. It figures that their cells in South America were some old-timey straight-up nazi assholes. This was not what he needed right now.

After the field team came and swept the area, Sam decided to go back to the local office and check out a few things. Zoe wanted to go with him, but he insisted on an agent taking her and Bucky home.

The envelope had nothing in it except a couple of photos from CCTV and security cameras at LAX. No prints, no notes, nothing useful.

After sweeping Zoe's place, the agent recommended that they stay in the house with the curtains drawn until they knew more. Sam had driven Zoe's car to the field office, and another agent was coming to pick up his rental.

Once the agent left, Zoe was all questions for an extremely quiet Bucky. "What the fuck is going on? When is Sam coming back? Are we actually safe here? Should we be staying somewhere else? Is this something that usually happens when you travel? Or is this just because I'm lucky?..."

"Listen, I know this is a lot. To answer your questions, we're still trying to figure out what is going on, Sam should be back within the hour, we are safe as long as no one realizes I'm here, this unfortunately happens to me all the damn time, and I'm really sorry you got dragged into it." Bucky fired off. "If it makes you feel any better, Sam and I are both armed, and there's an agent watching the house around the clock until we know what we are dealing with."

"You two brought guns into this house?!" Zoe fumed.

"And knives." Bucky added.

"Fucking awesome." Zoe huffed. "When this sort of thing usually happens to you, what do you do?"

"Sit and wait for the threat to be neutralized or go and neutralize it ourselves." Bucky answered plainly.

"And how long does that take?" Zoe asked frantically.

"As long as it takes." Bucky looked her in the eye. "For what it's worth, I'm very sorry about this. Up until the Hydra thing, I was having a really good time." He smiled weakly.

"Um, great?" Zoe couldn't bring herself to smile. "While we sit and wait, what are the things we can and cannot do? I've never actually been in a situation like this before..."

"Well, if we get the all clear soon, we can go back to normal, just a little more cautiously..." Bucky sighed. "...if not, we might have to go into temporary lockdown here or evacuate to a safe house. It all depends on the threat."

"This just keeps getting better..." Zoe muttered. "And what about when you guys leave? What then? Do I have to move? Change my name? Go back to the east coast?"

"You're from back east?" Bucky asked, realizing he didn't actually know too much about her.

"Boston, originally, but I've moved around a bit." She sighed. "Finally had it with winter and came out here a while back. Is that going to be my punishment for harboring Avengers? Having to go back to the fucking snow?"

Bucky chuckled. "So far, you're not harboring anything. I'm from Brooklyn originally."

Zoe sighed. "Yeah, it may have been mentioned a few billion times where you and Steve grew up..."