Miss Velvet

6

After Velvet left the barn, Bucky sat on the bales of hay she had been sitting on and dropped his head to his hands. All he wants is to go back before deskgate so he could ignore Velvet and continue his life of casual sex with new women every week or so.

Seems like every time he gets close to Velvet he says or does something stupid. It's all too complicated. Bucky hears a groan and sees Matt starting to move, sighs and goes to call Steve to help him deal with this drama. Steve shows up a few minutes later with Tony and Sam tagging along behind, to see Bucky holding Matt to keep him from leaving.

'Geez Steve, you didn't need to bring back up its just this one douche who tried to force himself on Velvet.'

Tony's eyes flash 'Is Barnes telling the truth Landers? Because that's grounds for expulsion from SWORD, at the very least.'

Matt scoff 'No, that little tease dragged me in here and then changed her mind.'

Tony sighs 'you absolutely sure about that?'

'100%' Matt replies.

Tony grins 'ok, just give me a few minutes. FRIDAY?' 'Yes boss?' 'Could you pull up the video from this stall for the last 30 minutes?' 'Of course boss'

Matt looks shaken 'there are cameras in here?'

'Of course, the horses here will be a significant investment so I'm not going to leave them unprotected'

Matt stammers 'maybe it was just a misunderstanding, I'm sure she wasn't meaning to lead me on.'

'Yeah, I still have to check the feed. Landers, I'm sure Barnes and Rogers will be happy to show you to your room. I expect you in my office first thing in the morning to discuss the footage.'

The next morning, while Velvet and Mi are feeding the horses and mucking out stalls, she gets a call from Tony, asking her to tell him what happened the evening before with Landers. She tells him her side.

Tony asks, 'so off the record, what happened with Barnes?'

Velvet scoffs, 'Barnes is an idiot, I'm impressed he's lived so long.'

Tony chuckles 'I told him to watch his ass.'

'Must be a slow learner. I gotta go, Tony, the rest of my herd is at the gates.'

'Pretty sure that's my herd there, Miss'

'Whatever you say Tony, come check them out this afternoon.'

Velvet and Mi head over to the new facility thru her barn, crossing the gate at the property line and into the new barn. 7 new horses of various ages, sizes and colors adding to Velvet's 5 and Pepper & Morgan's new rides so a total of 14 horses. The day passes quickly getting all the horses and their gear organized and put away giving Velvet no time to think about starting work with Barnes or whatever the deal was with that kiss.

Monday morning, Velvet starts with her usual routine until Indy starts barking when someone comes up to the door. 'Didn't I tell you to meet me by the barn, seargent?'

'Yeah' Bucky replies 'But I thought I'd bring you coffee'

'Thanks, Barnes but I don't drink coffee. Hold on to it, you might need it yourself.'

They head out to the barn and Velvet explains the program. 'What we do here with Avengers and agents is different from your typical therapeutic riding program, like Mi runs at Serenity where we work with special needs and at risk kids plus veterans. Y'all have a different life here so I had to tweak things but it seemed to work for Tony who was my first Avenger rider. I'm a certified therapeutic riding instructor and know all the physical and mental health benefits of horseback riding so that's one aspect, you'll be riding at least 3 days a week. Sometimes it will be like a lesson with me on the ground instructing you, others we will go on trail rides. We are lucky to be surrounded by some beautiful nature and trail rides can be very therapeutic.