"And now Rhodey won't stop calling me Stank." Tony groans as he rubs his forehead. "Anyway, this is for you." He hands me a folded up piece of paper with my name written on top in familiar handwriting. "I promise I didn't read it. Rhodey wouldn't let me."
"Well tell him thank you for me." Tony rolls his eyes as he begins to walk out of my room.
"Curiosity isn't a bad thing, Riley."
"Neither is privacy." Tony closes the door behind him as he leaves the room and my thumb glides over the neat writing on the paper before unfolding it.
Riley,
I know this may not be the choice you would have made if you were given one, but I hope we can agree that this is the safest for you. I'm glad you're back at the compound with Tony. He needs you and I know he will keep you safe. You don't deserve a life on the run.
I know I just wrote of safety and staying where you are, but I do want to give you one choice. Bucky is going back under cryo. It was his decision, no one else's. He was hoping to see you one more time before going under, so if you would like to say goodbye, I'll be in the forest outside the compound at midnight tonight. It will be a short trip, 24 hours at the most before I return you to the compound.
Don't freak Tony out.
Steve
The letter remains in my hand as I go walking out to where Tony and Rhodes are, both of them looking up as I enter the room.
"Tony, can I talk to you?" Tony nods his head, leaving Rhodes to support himself with the bars while using his, hopefully, temporary braces. Tony and I make it out the doorway before Tony speaks.
"You're leaving." His face shows no expression as he looks at me.
"Not for a long time, I promise. Only a few days."
"You're supposed to be under house arrest, you know? That's how I actually managed to get you out." He runs his hands through his hair.
"I know, but they aren't coming with the ankle bracelet until next week."
"If you get caught-" I put my hand up to interrupt him.
"I won't. You know why?" He raises an eyebrow instead of answering. "Because I have you looking after me." I poke him but he still keeps his stubborn emotionless face. "I'll be safe. I just have to do something, and then I'll be right back here with you so we can help Rhodey."
"It doesn't matter if I give you permission does it?" I shake my head and he nods knowingly.
"You have two days. Then I send out a search party." I nod my head before pulling him into a hug.
>.<
"How'd you get Tony to agree?" Steve asks, pulling away from a hug after I made my way up the ramp of the quinjet.
"I don't think he technically agreed, but stubborn person to stubborn person, he knew telling me no wasn't going to make any difference." Steve laughs and shakes his head before sitting down in the pilot position and taking the quinjet up into the air.
"Why is he doing it?" I ask quietly as I sit down in the seat next to Steve.
"In Wakanda, they have technology way more advanced than anything we have here. The princess said that she could try and get whatever HYDRA put into Bucky's head out, and he didn't want to hurt anyone else. So, he's going under until Shuri can fix whatever it is." He doesn't look at me as he speaks.
"Are you okay with it?"
"I just got him back," He takes a deep breath before continuing. "But, it's his decision. And I think it's the first big decision he has made for himself in awhile." He smiles slightly before glancing over at me and saying, "Except for helping you when I couldn't. That was all Bucky." I smile as I think of Steve reading through my journal from Bucharest but my smile quickly fades.
"He helped me then, but saying goodbye isn't going to be easy." We both go quiet as a mix of emotions go through my body as I think of Bucky going back under cryo.
>.<
"Are you serious?" I march my way into the lab in Wakanda and walk right up to Bucky, pushing his chest slightly as I approach. "We go through all of this and you just want to go back under?" I push him slightly again, trying to get some sort of reaction. "What good is this going to do? What am I supposed to do?" He catches one of my hands this time as they raise towards his chest again. "What am I supposed to do?" I repeat the phrase as tears fill my eyes without spilling over. He places my arm down at my side before using his one arm to pull me up against him.
"I just got back and now everything is messed up. Everyone is separated. You got me back here to everyone. You helped me. You can't just leave." I speak into his shoulder.
"I'm not leaving. I'll be right here." I pull away so I can look up at him. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. This is for the best until they can fix whatever is in my head."
"Why do you have to be so goddamn sensitive and smart." I push him once more before wiping the single tear that fell.
"You're calling me the sensitive one?" He smiles and blocks my hand as I once again go to push him. "What's with all of this violence?"
"I'm mad at you." He laughs and shakes his head.
"Yeah well, I've seen you mad, and this isn't it. But, I'll make it up to you, I promise." He pulls me in for one more hug and a shiver goes down my spine as I feel his lips graze the top of my forehead.
>.<
I stand beside Steve as I watch Bucky look into the cryo chamber. I'm happy that it's his choice this time, but I'm not happy to be losing him. I can't even imagine how Steve is feeling, how much he is trying to hide from me.
"This is for the best." Bucky says, looking at the worried expression on my face.
I nod and smile slightly at him before saying, "I'm going to miss you, though."
"I'll be back before you know it." I take a deep breath. He keeps trying to reassure me that everything will be okay, but I'm not so sure it will be.
"You don't know that." He remains silent, simply giving me a reassuring smile and I leave him and Steve so they can talk amongst themselves.
>.<
A/N
And there's the end of Hurt! To make it clear, Riley does return to the compound after this, but there was already so much jumping around and I didn't want to add in any more cause I thought it'd seem kinda messy and confusing.
Although this is the end of this book, I may add in a few extra scenes of Riley and Bucky in Bucharest if anyone wants it but we'll see. I also might add more memories from HYDRA because I have a few more written out, one of which is actually really important to Riley's story, that I didn't end up squeezing into the plot of this book. I might save them for later though and see what I can do.
Lastly, and most importantly, there is going to be a third book and it is halfway planned out. It is only halfway planned out because I really wanted to fit something in and I thought I had it worked out, but it created a HUGE plot hole so I'm still trying to work out how to fit it in, if I even can. If anyone is super imaginative and creative and wouldn't mind a spoiler maybe DM me or something if you want to help because I have been struggling to fit this in in a believable manner.
Anyway, please be patient with the third book because I've been super stressed lately and and I'm having trouble finding motivation to do pretty much anything, and I don't want to put out updates simply just to update, I want to give you guys actual quality chapters.
Thank you so much to everyone who has continued not only reading Riley's story this far but has stayed through this super long and dragged out authors note. You're the real MVP.
Stay tuned for book 3! Xx