Leave Me Broken [Winter Soldier] II

Haunting Thoughts [Chapter 15]

         It only took about a half hour before the knock came upon the door, followed by the curt announcement, "Zimmerservice!"

         "Maybe you should get the door," Bucky said. "My face is too well known, Sam and Steve too."

          Ophelia nodded. Bucky had taught her some in their time together. "My German is a bit rusty."

           "You'll do fine," He encouraged. 

            As O turned down to the door, Bucky smacked her butt lightly. Sam and Steve were discussing what was going to happen that next day, and Bucky slipped in that playfulness while he could get away with it. He knew O was smiling as she walked to the door, even though she didn't glance back at him after he had done it. Walking back to the couch where he wouldn't be seen, he sat down next to Steve and tuned in to what they were talking about. Steve confirmed that Clint had a chopper that would be ready to go by noon, and that he was getting Wanda out of captivity as well as picking up one more on the way; Scott Lang, not well known by all but certainly not overlooked either.

           Ophelia opened the door, that smile still on her lips, her teeth even showing. "Guten abend."

          "Ihre mahlzeit, ma'am."

          "Ah, Ja, danke." She grabbed two of the trays and began to bring them into the room. "Ich kann diese nehmen."

         "Bist du sicher?"

         "Ja, danke." She pulled out some cash Steve had given her to tip the man, trying to get him out of the room as quickly as she could. 

          When it was all wrapped up, Ophelia felt a small relief rush over her. Finally they were done facing people, talking to people who might recognize them and turn them in, they could eat and sleep a restless slumber. As she brought in the last two trays of food, Ophelia opened them up until she found hers. She climbed onto the cloud-like bed and sat cross legged, studying her meal and feeling her stomach growl and groan with anticipation. Since there was no table, Bucky sat on their bed as well, while Steve and Sam kept to the couch, hunched over their meals.

          "Looks like they forgot part of yours, Ophelia." Sam pointed across the room with his fork.

          "Hmm?" Ophelia looked up, confused.

         "No meat."

         "I didn't want meat." She blinked a few times.

          "You could have ordered a steak, lobster, anything. It was on Steve's bill, after all," he joked, nudging Steve playfully.

           "O doesn't eat meat." Bucky said, digging into his own meal.

           "Why not?"

            "Zola." O paused, trying to think of how to explain how Zola was one of the only people in her life who treated her slightly better than all the others. Though it had been him who thought out all the brutal tests and experiments, he spoke to her as though she had some worth. More so than the others, and once he was gone, that was the end of that. "A sort of father figure, I suppose... He never ate it. So I didn't either, even after Zola was gone, I never ate it when I was given it. Now, free to do as I want, I see no appeal to it."

          Bucky was smiling at her; it was one of those little things that made O up into the combination of who she was. Something he had never truly questioned, among many other things that she did. After that, everyone ate in silence and a heavy tiredness fell over the atmosphere of the room. They placed all their dishes aside where they wouldn't be in the way, and suddenly there was nothing keeping the smiles on their faces. Too much was at stake, there was too much hanging on them to get through tomorrow. Ophelia felt that weight on her shoulders at only a fraction of what the others did, because she knew that she wasn't as strong or as fast as them, she hadn't trained to be an Avenger or to save the world.