What Matters {B.Barnes Daughter} ✔️

~Twenty-Three: Watch~

"Where the hell have you two been?" Natasha asked, storming into the room with anger raging in her eyes.

"Nat, listen, we-..."

"Steve has been worried sick about you two. You better have a damn good reason for missing the funeral. I can't imagine how Steve felt when you two didn't show up. Do you realize that he-..?"

"Nat, we were in a car crash!" Lizzie exclaimed. Bucky, who was leaned against Lizzie like she was a support beam, gave a sigh.

"A car crash?" Natasha asked, knitting her eyebrows together.

"Yes. We were rammed at an intersection, but it was a complete accident. We couldn't go to a hospital, because HYDRA would've been on our tail within minutes, so we had Stephen patch us up as best he could. I broke my arm," she said, rolling up her long sleeve shirt to reveal a black cast surrounding the entirety of her wrist. Her half-lie was convincing enough to explain why they missed the funeral, and reasonable enough to not arouse suspicion. Hopefully.

"Oh, my God," Natasha gasped, mouth agape. "Are you guys okay?"

"Not really," Bucky said, his voice strained from pain.

"Oh, right," Lizzie said, muttering an apology afterwards. She wrapped her arm firmly around Bucky and held him up, slowly leading high over to the couch.

"What happened to you, Barnes?" Nat asked, rushing over to his other side.

"Uh, you know. Broke my leg in two," he said, sighing as he placed his hand on the couch's arm rest. He eased himself down into a sitting position, and took a deep breath once he was settled.

"Oh, God," Nat muttered, wincing. "Why didn't you let one of us know?"

"We were in really bad shape, Nat. Stephen was patching us up the whole time we were gone. I didn't even think about it," Bucky admitted, shaking his head.

"Oh, right. Yeah. Well, I'll go let Steve know. Poor guy's going to give himself an aneurism," she said. With that, she quickly turned and jogged out of the room, red hair flowing like a cape behind her.

Lizzie let out a sigh as she sat down beside Bucky on the couch. "I hate lying."

"I know. But, when it's for someone you care about, sometimes it's your only option," Bucky said.

"Are you sure we can't tell them the truth?"

"Yes. Like I said, Steve doesn't need to worry more than he already does."

"If he finds out we lied..." Lizzie said, shaking her head.

"He won't find out. I can make sure of that. Besides, it's not like we're completely lying. We were in a car crash."

"But it wasn't an accident."

Bucky gave a sigh, rubbing his forehead and wincing.

"What is it?" Lizzie asked, concerned.

"Oh, nothing, it just..." He gave another sigh. "It hurts. A lot."