The Captains Granddaughter (Bucky Barnes FanFic)

Chatter

-James-

I watched her walk back to her table and her friend handed her a drink and they ducked together talking. "Talk Sam."

"That can wait" he had this smug ass smile. "You actually asked a girl to dance. And she looked like she enjoyed your smarmy ass company." Sam started following me back to my table in the corner. I wouldn't say I growled in his direction but I got to point across. "There's chatter about this place tonight. Didn't expect to find you here."

"I like the music. What's the chatter."

"An old Hydra Target, she's been kidnapped as a child twice already then went completely off-grid and reappeared a few years ago. But even then she's been keeping it quiet. She works at a bookstore, rents in the Lower East Side, no social media, very little digital footprint." Sam kept talking. I kept my eyes across the floor at Maggie. She sat alone while her friend left the table to dance with someone. I was waiting for him to get to the punch line. "And you were just dancing with her."

Now he had my attention. "Why her."

"Not sure. Chatter is calling her Vnuchka."

"Granddaughter."

"Yeah. Any ideas?"

"Yeah."

"You going to tell me."

"Nope."

"Keep an eye on her." I watched as someone came up to her and asked her to dance and she refused, motioning to the bags and drinks on the table. "Someone wants her, and they want her tonight."

"What do you want me to do, seduce her?"

Sam laughed before getting up. "If you think that'll keep her safe." He handed me a ticket for the valet. "I'll be around." Sam walked off and I leaned back watching her. She was alone at the table while her friends danced. One of the suits I saw earlier came to talk to her, and again she pointed to the bags on the table brushing off an invitation to dance. Well, if I have to keep her safe, might as well make my therapist happy and get to know her. The suit lingered trying to talk with her, she looked more and more annoyed.

I started walking over to her and grabbed a passing waiter. Slipping a $50 into his pocket I ordered a bottle of prosecco and 5 glasses for her table and told him to keep the bottles coming. She was watching the floor when I came up behind her. "Hey Cookie, who's the cold fish?" She smiled and offered me a seat. When was the last time I called someone Cookie?

"Just a dead hoofer who was leaving." The slang sounded normal coming from her. Not overdone and not a costume. She draped her hand onto mine and moved a little closer. He got the hint and left.

"Sorry about Sam. He can be a dick."

"Probably no more than my friends. I get it." She remembered her hand and moved it off of mine, shifting back to where she was.

The waiter arrived with the bottle and glasses. "I hope you don't mind, I ordered you and your friends some bubbles."

"Not at all. Champaign will always buy friends. But I'm almost at my limit for the night. Someone has to get the group of us home." We spent the next two songs talking and laughing. Maggie was just easy to talk to. She would pause the conversations right before the bands began their swell, partly to enjoy the music, partly so she didn't miss what was said. Her eyes kept looking at the suits, counting and keeping track. When her friends came back, I asked for a dance and she took my hand and told her friends to enjoy the champagne.

"So where did you meet them?" I asked casually watching the suits as we moved across the floor for a slow dance.

"We all live in the same building. Oddly enough, we all went to NYU just not at the same time." I made note that there was an age overlap between her and her friends trying to decide where she fell in the age order.