Lacuna [1] {Completed}

Chapter Eleven

"What happened?" Erin pushed.

"Your mom..."

Erin's entire body went numb. She didn't feel herself hang up her phone. She didn't feel her legs start to move as she made of straight line for the nearest exit, walked out the doors, and didn't look back.

****

May-July 2017

The weeks past. Everything Erin did fell into a routine. Wake up by 7:30. Breakfast. Train. Lunch. Work on Bucky's arm. Do whatever chores she felt the need to get out of the way. Dinner. Team Meeting. Sleep. Repeat.

However friendly Steve and his team were, Erin still felt like an outsider among them. She felt comfortable with Wanda and Clint kept an extra eye on her, but something still felt different. The rest of the team had a flow that connected all of them. Whatever that flow was, Erin didn't have it.

At least she wasn't alone in that feeling. Bucky was very much the same. He didn't talk much at meetings or meals. He trained with them and would laugh with Sam and Steve sometimes, but it seemed like there was something out of rhythm with him as well.

Since that night in the hall, he hadn't attempted to talk to Erin much. They sometimes made small talk while she worked on his arm, but it always ended in silence. Every day she thought about telling Bucky about who she was and who her grandfather had been. She almost took the photo out of her back pocket dozens of times, but every day she chickened out. She wasn't ready yet and she didn't believe he was either.

If Bucky had any indication of who she was, he didn't show it. Erin wondered if he even remembered her grandfather. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out either.

Work on Bucky's arm was slow but steady. For now he could use his metal arm again for most anything: climbing, firing a gun, punching, and hand to hand combat. He couldn't hang from things or pull him self up effortlessly with one arm anymore, but there was still some room for improvements. Erin knew she could do this. She had to.

This was the sole reason why she was the one who spent the most time with Bucky apart from Steve. They spent hours together while she worked on his arm and he would come to her whenever he felt it was becoming a problem. Other than that, he mostly kept to himself just like she did. Although they had spent many hours in each other's company, the Winter Soldier was still a mystery to Erin and if James Barnes had any interest in her life, he didn't show it.

One afternoon, a book sat in Erin's lap. The Wakanda sun covered her as she sat in the corner of the garden, a place that had become her sanctuary these past weeks.

Erin finished the last line of the page from her book and moved her finger to turn the page when something caught the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw him walking towards her. His dark hair hung over his face. He was wearing a dark blue baseball shirt and his two hands stuck in the pockets of his jeans. One hand was human the other metal.

She dismissed her thoughts as Bucky came to a stop in front of her, his blue eyes bright in the sun.

"Hey," She said looking up from her book at him.

"Hi," He said, looking from her to the bush next to them and back. Did he look nervous?

"Is there something wrong with your arm?" She asked, standing up to examine the metal.

"Umm, no, it's fine," He said. He rubbed his human hand on the back of his neck.

"What's the matter?" She asked him.