Chapter Text
The sound of sheets rustling jolted Bucky awake. He’d come a long way over the years, mostly thanks to your positive influence in his life, so he didn’t immediately reach for his gun. Instead, he blearly peaked an eye open and glanced around the room, looking for a threat. He sighed when he saw you stepping towards the door. “Doll.” He whispered. “Come back to bed.”
You didn’t respond as you stretched your hand out for the doorknob.
“Doll?” Bucky asked, lifting his head from the pillow. He cursed as you continued to ignore him and he scrambled out of the sheets and reached for the jeans and the sweatshirt he had thrown over a chair at the end of the bed. By the time he’d finished dressing and had grabbed his gun, you were halfway to the front door. Bucky ran around you and glanced at your face. Your head was cocked so hard, Bucky knew he was going to have to rub the knot out of your neck later, but it was your eyes, that glazed over expression, that made Bucky nearly freeze in his tracks. “Not again.” He murmured, squeezing his eyes shut for just a second.
He sighed before he turned and flanked you, following you out of the apartment, keeping you safe while you couldn’t.
Bucky locked the door behind the two of you as you continued walking towards whatever you were heading to in an almost zombie like way. He kept a careful eye on the shadows as you both moved into the street and started heading in a seemingly random direction. He pulled out his phone, and dialed Steve’s number.
Steve answered after only two rings. “Buck?” His voice was groggy and Bucky almost felt bad for waking him up. Almost.
“We’re headed south.” Bucky cut right to the chase. “We’re on foot.”
Steve was more alert as Bucky heard the sound of sheets rustling in the background. “How bad is it?” He asked.
Bucky rubbed a hand down his face and looked down at your bare feet. You hadn’t even stopped to put shoes on. “It’s bad, Stevie. I think we might need back-up on this one.”
Bucky heard Nat murmur something in the background and whatever it was, Steve agreed. “Alright Buck. Nat’s got a lock on your phone now. We’ll go round up Tony or Wilson or whoever’s awake and follow you there.”
“Bring the bag, too, Stevie.”
Steve paused for just a second, hearing the worry in Bucky’s tone. “Of course, Buck. We’ll see you soon.”
Bucky nodded, and hung up first before he tucked his phone back into his pocket. Beside him, you kept walking, completely obvious to everything else around you.
The sun was just starting to come up over the horizon as a dark tinted SUV pulled up beside the two of you. Bucky glanced over wearily as Steve rolled down the passenger door window. “How is she?” Steve asked, leaning his head out so he could look at you. His eyes trailed down to your bare feet and his lips tightened as he saw the bloody footprints you were leaving in your wake.
Bucky followed his line of sight and swallowed hard. Tears prickled at his eyes, and a sense of failure washed over him so strongly, it nearly sent him to his knees. “Broken bottle.” He explained. “I didn’t… I didn’t see it in time.”
Steve glanced at Nat in the drivers seat and she nodded, slowing the car just enough so that Steve could easily get out and come to walk beside the two of you. He slapped a comforting hand on Bucky’s shoulder, and tried to reassure him. “It hurts her worse to pull her out of this.” Steve offered. “It’s just a flesh wound. She’ll be okay, Buck.”
Bucky nodded his head, but didn’t feel it in his heart. You were never more vulnerable then when you were being pulled around by the fates like this. His one job was to keep you safe. If he couldn’t do that, what good was he?
Steve seemed to sense that Bucky didn’t want any more reassurances and he fell silent, the two of them watching over you like guardian angels as you finished your task.
There was never any way to know how long you would walk. Once, Bucky had walked with you for two days straight until you finally reached your ultimate destination. He was always with you to the end of the line, for all time and always, but tonight, thank God, you came to a stop forty minutes later, and for the first time since Bucky had woken up to see you slipping out the door, your head slowly straightened and that dazed expression started to fade as you blinked it away.
Everything after that happened quickly.
You let out a choked sob before you spun to a bush beside you and vomited what little you had in your stomach. Bucky wrapped one hand around your waist, keeping you upright, while the other went to pull your hair back.
Behind you, Natasha threw the SUV into park. In the next instant, she, Steve and Sam got out of the vehicle and wandered a little further down the path and knelt to the two very dead corpses lying in the middle of the street.
You finished vomiting and tapped on Bucky’s arm on your waist, signalling that you were done. The two of you had been through this often enough that he already had a bottle of water and a stick of gum waiting for you. He had to tip the bottle to your lips, you were shaking too hard to do it yourself.
Another sob broke through your lips and you burrowed into Bucky’s chest. No words passed between the two of you as Bucky wrapped himself around you, tucking your head under his chin as he put himself between you and the rest of the world.
Bucky kept his eyes pinned to Steve and the rest of the team as they investigated the scene. Steve’s eyes met his and he shook his head. “Same as the others.” He mouthed.
Bucky’s arms tightened around you and he let out a shaky breath.
Someone was murdering former SHIELD agents.
He couldn’t let you be one of them.