Riding Out This Storm

And by the Holy Ghost

"You alright?" Steve asked.

Bucky realized he'd been rubbing his shoulder again. The new arm didn't hurt or anything, it just felt different. He was getting used to it. But probably attracting too much attention by touching it. "Yeah," he insisted again. Steve obviously didn't believe him, but turned to look out the window instead.

"We'll be there soon."

It was meant to be reassuring, but wasn't. He wished he could be asleep again, instead of having to face people he'd hurt. And be questioned about past victims. That was never something he would look forward to. But he did want to help. So he would just concentrate on that. It's what Steve would do.

Focusing on his friend, he realized he seemed uneasy. This set alarm bells off in his head and he glanced around the plane anxiously. There was nothing out of the ordinary that he could see, and he was fairly confident in his abilities to notice such a thing before Steve would. There had to be some other reason.

Oh. Right. Steve was never very good with girls and that hadn't changed even when the rest of him had. Bucky had hoped there would be some progress in that area over the years, but it would not surprise him at all if he was this worked up about seeing a girl. Though she'd have to be a special girl, to get Steve like this.

"Tell me about Sharon," he suggested, as if he needed a distraction.

Steve turned back to look at him with some color in his cheeks. "You met her. She saved our asses."

With a frown, Bucky waved that off. "I saw her. We didn't exchange pleasantries."

"True."

"Steve."

"What?" he asked innocently. Bucky continued to frown at him. "Fine! She's a SHIELD agent. She was assigned to keep an eye on me."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "I hope it was more than just her, poor girl," he explained when Steve looked affronted.

That made Steve smile. "I don't know. I asked her out when she was undercover, and she declined."

"Who pushed you to actually ask someone out?" Bucky wanted to know.

Steve looked surprised and maybe a little chagrined. "Oh. Nat. Natasha Romanoff. She's the other one who will be there."

"You told me," he said a little too sharply.

"Of course. Anyway, after – after things went down, Nat told me to give her a call. We saw each other a few times before I left DC."

Bucky looked at him patiently but he didn't continue. "And then?" He knew there was a significant time gap between SHIELD falling and the events that brought him from the comfortable life he'd made in Romania. He knew the number of days that he'd been free.

From the ashamed look on Steve's face, Bucky knew he wasn't going to like what he had to say. "Then I moved into the Avengers' compound and helped them dismantle HYDRA. It, uh, it took a while."

"And you never called this girl again, naturally. How awkward was it, seeing her in Berlin?"

Steve snorted. "I called her a couple times in between. And I saw her in London first at – at Peggy's funeral." They were both silent for a moment, remembering.

"Were all SHIELD agents there?" Bucky asked solemnly.

"Um, no. Turns out, Peggy was her aunt. Well, great aunt, I imagine. She gave the eulogy."