Hidden | Bucky Barnes

thirty five

"Not sure there's much you can do Romanoff, this is more of an Ellie problem." Tony pointed at the brunette through the screen who furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"What's wrong Tony?" Ellie urged him to bring the subject back to the matter at hand.

"I've got a drunk super soldier over here and he won't stop crying." Tony turned the screen so that they could see what was going on. Steve sat in one of the armchairs with Bruce and Thor beside him, a bottle in his hand.

"How is he even drunk?" Natasha queried, knowing that when he was injected with the super soldier serum it no longer allowed him to get drunk.

"He's apparently been keeping some of Thor's Asguardian mead under his bed for a special occasion. None of us can work our what's wrong so we thought we'd ring you."

"And why did you think I'd know?" Ellie asked, crossing one of her legs over the other and resting her hands on her knee's.

"Because he keeps telling us to apologise to you." Tony told her pointedly, "Look, just, speak to him."

Ellie sighed as Tony pulled Steve over to her and sat him down in an office chair in front of the computer.

"Ellie!" The super soldier cried throwing his arms in the air enthusiastically, but that didn't stop the tears from flowing down his face.

"Why are you crying?" She asked him softly as she saw how much of a state he was in.

"It's his birthday you know." He muttered as a matter-of-factly to her.

"I know." She nodded with a smile, but her eyes told a different story.

"I cant even remember how old he is. Well, would have been."

"One hundred and six."

"Oh yeah!" Steve mumbled, "He's a year older than me."

"He is." She confirmed quietly, her voice laced with confusion. "Why are you so upset, honey?"

"I've let him down." The blonde sobbed, placing his head in his hands.

Ellie shook her head forcefully, "No you didn't. Don't ever say that."

"I did, El. I've sat by and watched him die twice."

"None of that was your fault, Steve, you have to know that. There was nothing that either of us could have done to save him."

Steve sat in silence for a moment, taking in what Ellie had just said.

"Tal and Harry asked me to tell them some stories about him last night."

"What story did you tell them?" She asked trying to take his mind off of everything.

"I told them about the time that we went to Rockaway beach, a-and we spent all of our train money on hotdogs. So Buck decided that we should just hide in the back of a freezer truck to get home." Steve told her fondly, making Ellie laugh. "Luckily the driver found us and threw us to the curb just as we got back into Brooklyn." Bucky had already told her that story many times, but it always made her smile when hearing story's about her husbands past.

"Steve if this works, we might have a chance of getting everyone back." She tried to reassure him as the tears continued to fall down his face.