Powerless | b. barnes

09 - safe house

T H E first night in the safe house, Bucky made a surprisingly delicious fettuccine alfredo. In fact, Ivy thought it might have been the best pasta  she'd ever had. But it also could've been the fact that she hadn't eaten all day after the grueling mission, Tony and Steve's lecture and the drive to their new temporary home.

The pair ate their meal mostly in silence that was only broken by a comment Ivy made after she had the first bite complimenting Bucky on his cooking. Bucky only grunted and shrugged in response.

Other than that, they ate quickly and Bucky disappeared to his room while Ivy did the dishes before scurrying into her own.

'He must've remembered how to cook from before his Hydra days,' she thought to herself, 'I didn't think men cooked in the 1940s.'

Ivy plopped down on her bed suddenly realizing how completely and utterly exhausted she was. She was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

~ ~ ~ ~

Ivy woke feeling cold and stiff. She was in a cell–a room she knew all too well–she could hear screams coming from the outside. Nasty, blood-curdling screams that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

The one window Ivy had in her concrete cage was in the top right corner, it had no light flowing through it. It must be the middle of the night.

The screams came closer and closer until she could hear the frightened man speak, "Please, please! It was a mistake, take me! Do not hurt my sisters. Let them go! We just wanted to help... we just wanted to help."

The voice was panicked and filled with desperation, but Ivy knew it anywhere: Pietro.

She sprang up from her uncomfortable metal box that Hydra considered a bed and ran to the locked door.

Ivy began to pound on it and yell to her poor brother, "Pietro! Pietro, it will be okay I promise!"

"Ivy!" He yells back.

"No, no, no. Let him go!" She screamed through the large door that separated them, hoping that someone, anyone, would listen.

Ivy felt hot tears begin to fall from her sunken and tired eyes.

"Ivy," Pietro continued to plead with the agents who are no doubt strapping him to a table now to give him another round of treatments, "Ivy! Ivy! Ivy!"

Pietro's voice started to fade and so did the depressing scene around her. Her brother's voice was replaced with one that was quieter but still panicked and somehow also soft, "Ivy!"

Ivy's eyes fly open. She's breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. She looked around to find herself back in the room at the safe house with Bucky on top of her holding her down. His comforting blue eyes were ridden with worry, "Ivy?" He spoke softly as if he wasn't sure if she was all there yet.

Ivy felt sticky, there was a layer of sweat covering her. She was still breathing heavily and trying to process everything.

To her surprise, Bucky put her into a seated position, she was practically on top of him now, and pulled her into a tight hug.

He hadn't hugged anyone since... well he couldn't remember.

"I read somewhere that hugging someone tightly when they're having an anxiety attack makes them calm down. Supposed to feel like you're being swaddled or whatever." Bucky explained, "It probably works after a nightmare too, right?"

Ivy nodded into his shoulder, she felt safe in his strong arms.

"So this is why you're up so late?" he asks, she can sense that he's smiling a little.