Letting You Go.

'It destroyed her'

Bucky sits down on the bench next to Yelena, nervously tucking his hands into jacket pocket, feeling like a child waiting to be scorned by the head mistress.
He inhales sharply, the crisp air stinging his lungs as he mentally prepares himself for what Yelena has to say.
"I wondered how long it would be before you came to me." She gives Bucky a sideways glance, waiting suspiciously for him to speak.
Guiltily Bucky evades eye contact, his morose disposition matching that of the damp mulch he kicks underneath his feet.   
He clears his throat "I need your help, just get me five minutes with Elle. Just to explain." His voice shaking as he stumbles over Elles name.
His brows squeeze together as he waits painfully for Yelena's rebuttal.

Yelena doesn't want to be stuck in the middle of this, but at the same time she can't watch Elle suffer any more, "She wont see you James. I don't know what I can do to help, you really hurt her."
Bucky stares into the distance, guilt perpetually tearing him up, with no escape, no end.
"I know." His voice cracking as he tries to mask a sniffle
Yelena feeling sorry for him, heaves a sigh of defeat "What do you need me to do?" She looks across at him, a small light of hope falters from his eyes.

Bucky wasn't expecting Yelena to give in so easily, nor did he expect her to be so kind, he was fully prepared for her to beat him.
His lips pressed together he turns to look at Yelena in the eyes "Just get her to meet me, t...to talk."
She shakes her head tutting and mutters in Russian
"trakhayetsya sake, I'll have to trick her you know!"
Bucky, understanding her frustrations laughs nervously "Spasibo."
Yelena tucks a lock of blonde hair behind her ear and nods her at at Bucky, a soft encouraging smile spread across her mouth.
They sit comfortably in silence for a few moments, listening to the sound of the leaves blowing in the wind, Bucky stands up preparing to leave.
"James...what if Elle doesn't want to listen, what then?" Yelena scratches her head, brows knitted together as she attempts to contemplate every outcome.
"Then I wont contact her again, I'll leave." He looks out onto the lake, heart full of ache accepting his last chance.
Tossing a bit of a sandwich into the lake for the ducks Yelena stands next to Bucky "I don't know what it is that you done, but it..."
Bucky interrupts "it destroyed her." His heart slumps further.

Yelena casts her mind back to the day Elle floated into her life.
Yelena was weeding around Natasha's grave, tiding up leaves and straightening flowers, whistling her tune to the side of the grave stone, she opened her eyes a moment earlier than usual and watched her dog Fanny jumping around the feet of a young woman, Elle.
"I'm so sorry! Fanny!! Come here."
"Don't be sorry, I'm just sad she isn't a stray! I'd have taken her in. The little sweetheart!"
Elle quickly noticed Yelena's raw eyes, and asked her to join her for a coffee.
It didn't take long for Yelena to realise that hers was not the only broken heart. Elle has some deep rooted anguish, she looked at a door as though she longed for him to walk through it.

Yelena looks at Bucky, a little spark of anger flickers inside her, this was 'him'. "It destroyed her more than you know, she was broken when she found me."
Bucky's entire heart collapses, "I was broken when she found me."
"She really didn't tell you?" He questions Yelena, wondering if she was just being kind, or if in fact Elle was so humiliated she couldn't bring herself to relive it.
Yelena snaps her head round to look at him, brows furrowed "she refuses to talk about it, with anyone." She scowled at him.
"But its easy to see the pain in her eyes." The eyes being the window to her soul, Elle can plaster a smile on her face all she wants but look into her eyes, they are glassed with sadness.
Gut wrenched, Bucky tilts his head back willing threatening tears to go back, not wanting them to fall, but instead they run down the side of his face, filling his ears like a well.
"I'm sorry." He sniffles, his bottom lip trembles over the apology.
Yelena pats him gently on the back "tell her, not me." She encourages.
He stares into the distance, lost in the planning of the words.
"If she'll listen." Accepting his probable defeat.