Secrets 🖤

Chapter 9

The Avengers are woken up early the next morning by Friday announcing they had received communication from Maggie. Tony gathered them all in the conference room and played the video file they were sent. They see Maggie tied to a chair, blood already dried on the side of her head.

Maggie laughed as one of her captors hit her across the face.
'I'm not making your stupid video. I won't say what you want. You guys took the wrong Avenger. They don't give a shit about me. Kill me, I don't care. They won't come for me.'
Her captor pointed a gun at her, 'you better hope they do.'
They hear a gun shot and her head slink down as the video goes black.

Natasha lunged at Steve, "this is all your fault! God forbid you let anyone in. God forbid anyone take the place of your precious fucking Peggy."

Bucky grabbed her, pulling her off of Steve as he stood up from the floor where she had knocked him down. "Come on Nat. We need everyone if we're going to bring her home." He looked at Tony, "have you been able to get ahold of Thor?"

Tony shook his head, "he's off planet. I don't know where he is. We are working on finding the coordinates for the video now. I will let you guys know as soon as we do."

Steve left them, changing before heading to the training room. He starting punching the punching bag. He knew they were right. It was all his fault. He was being stupid. He could never open up to her and now she had been taken. If anything happened to her it would be his fault. He would be the one that had to live with that. He wasn't paying attention, hitting the bag too hard as it flew across the room. He turned around to see Bucky watching him.

Bucky walked up to Steve and handed him his letter to Maggie, "I assume she read it, but I'm not sure."

Steve took the letter, "thank you Buck." He watched Bucky start to turn away, "Buck. Wait."

Bucky hung his head down, turning back to face his friend, "what?"

"Thank you. For going after her, for going with her. For taking care of her."

"I was only doing what you should have been doing."

Steve sighed, "yeah. I know. I'm sorry."

Bucky took a step towards his friend, now angry, "for what? Acting like a child? For pushing her away? For insuring nobody else could ever have a chance with her either? You've been holding onto a memory of a girl you barely even fucking knew. And she's long gone. Why push away the girl that is actually here? The one that wanted you. Fuck!" Bucky walked away before letting Steve answer as Tony announced they had found her.

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Maggie could barely keep awake the amount of times she had been hit in the head. She was losing blood from the gunshot wound in her shoulder. She almost didn't believe when she saw Steve standing in front of her.

"Margaret?"

She looked up into those blue gray eyes, "Steve? Are you real?"

"I'm real. Let's get you out of here." He starts to undo the restraints but she starts to fight him, pushing him away.

"I want Bucky. Where's Bucky?"

Steve shook his head, "please, just let me help you."

"No! I want Bucky! Bucky!" She started screaming as he backed away from her, tears in his eyes. All he wanted was to hold her, but she wouldn't let him near her.

Bucky heard her calling for him, quickly undoing her restraints and carrying her away from Steve.

Bucky sat on the jet, holding on to Maggie as she came in and out of consciousness. She placed her hand on Bucky's face, smiling, "you didn't shave."

"No doll. I didn't shave. For you."

Steve watched as Bucky held Maggie, full of jealousy. He was angry, mostly at himself. He noticed her hair wasn't brown anymore. He looked at Bucky, "what happened to her hair?"

Bucky started to unconsciously combed his fingers through her hair while she slept on him. He looked up at his friend, "she couldn't take looking like Peggy."

"You told her about Peggy? What did you tell her?" Steve groaned.

Bucky shook his head, starting to feel angry again, "of course I told her. You were never going to. I told her what I knew. It's up to you to fill in the rest."

Steve leaned forward in his seat, "were you guys. Are you guys.."

"Seriously Steve? That's what you're worried about? Don't talk to me the rest of the flight." Bucky looked away from him, angrily. Steve was lucky he was holding Maggie, or else Steve would have been on the floor.

When they arrived at the hangar he carried Maggie to Bruce and Dr. Cho, laying her delicately on the table for them. He turned around to find Steve behind him. He pushed him out of the room and punched him hard across the face.

"What the hell Buck!"

"Bucky." It was Sam who was trying to pull him away from Steve.

Bucky shook him off, "I'm fine Sam." He turned back to Steve, taking a step away from him, "you're worried about if I was with Maggie? How could you ask me that. I'm your friend, I wouldn't do that." He starts to walk away but turns back to Steve, "I could have though. She wanted to. She wanted me!" He hit his hand on his chest, "and god knows I wanted her too. But you honestly think I'd sleep with a girl knowing you're in love with her?" Bucky walked away before Steve could say anything else to anger him.