remains • b. barnes

12

"Hey—come down here to the foyer," Sam said into his phone. He'd let go of me when we were safely inside the building. "That wasn't Grace that freaked out on you. I've got her right here, and she doesn't know anything about that."

A pause. "I don't know," Sam said. "Just get down here. Come talk to her."

Another pause. "She saw something too. Out in the ruins." He glanced at me cautiously, like he wasn't sure how close I was to losing it completely. "She saw Tony Stark."

Bucky emerged from the stairwell, into the foyer as Sam spoke. They both hung up their phones, but Bucky lingered, yards away, across the expansive room. He was in all black like this morning, in the same uncomfortable tactical clothes that I'd happily cuddled into. But he didn't look so inviting now. He was tense, defensive. He stared at me across the space, reading me intently.

"What's wrong?" I asked timidly. I felt Sam's hand return to my shoulder long enough to squeeze in support, and I felt better. Sam wouldn't leave.

"Seriously, it wasn't her," Sam added.

"Did you get a phone?" Bucky asked me lowly, as if he hadn't heard us at all.

"What?"

"You left that note in my office. About a phone. Why'd you go to the ruins?" He took a couple steps closer and his eyes scanned over me, the dirt on my shoes, my scraped knees. "Pretty far from the parking lot."

"Relax, Bucky," Sam said.

"You're mad at me?" I asked.

"Mad at—" He broke eye contact only long enough to search for the words. But when he found them, they still didn't seem to be the ones he wanted. "I feel like I'm fucking crazy."

"Did you...ask about your sister?" I asked. "And my sweater?"

"You knew. I asked and you knew."

"So that means it was—"

"In my head," he said. Afraid—he sounded afraid. "Yeah. It was either in my head or you want me to think it was."

"Why would I—"

"Don't accuse her of—"

Sam and I spoke at the same time, but Bucky cut both of us off. "How well do you even know her, Sam?" he asked, turning away from me. "Because I couldn't find Foyle earlier. No trace of him in his office. It's like he just up and left. Starting to think we made some bad hires."

"You can trust her," Sam said. He turned to me. "Why don't you go upstairs?"

I didn't move.

"Everything that's not right around here has been her," said Bucky. He was quiet, almost difficult to hear. There was no venom in his voice, but there was pain. And there was still fear, too, that made my body rigid, that made my teeth clamp down on my tongue. "Did you see a ghost?"

Sam spoke with forced patience. "No, but—"

"Why do we think her apartment was broken into?" Bucky cut in again. "Because she said the door was open. And it was her tech that went crazy. How do you know she wasn't in control of those Redwings? Then she starts talking about shit that I didn't say—that I don't remember."