Karma // Bucky Barnes

23. Not Partners

'OK so there should be a 316 bolt that goes in the gear.' Sam remarked. Karma wasn't a manual labor person, she was upper class and she was considering time spent with Sam and Bucky to be a vacation, she laid back on her hands, head tipped back soaking in the sun as the boys bickered about the boat.

'There's nothing in there.' Bucky said

'You didn't even look.' Sam remarked

'No, no, no,' Sarah said walking up to them

'Hi Sarah.' Bucky and karma echoed

'I told you specifically that the water pump is not the problem and yet here you are.' Sarah declared clearly frustrated at them.

'In our defense,' Sam began 'we were supposed to be done long before you woke up.' Sam told her and Karma burst out laughing.

"That's why you woke Bucky up? I was contently asleep on him.' Karma reminded him but he swatted a hand at her.

'I don't come up to the sky and tell you how to barrel roll, so don't come down here and start messing around with things you clearly don't understand.' Sarah told him.

'Preach it girl!" Karma declared.

'Wow. Wow.' Sam said offended

'Bye. Off.' Sarah told them 'thank you gentlemen I appreciate you thank you, I appreciate you...' she said shoeing them away. 'Karma, always a pleasure.' Sarah added.

'She's a very mean person.' Sam said

'Tough love.' Karma told him

'We would've had it done before any of this took place.' Sam remarked

+

'Shit,' Karma remarked as the shield lodged itself in the tree

'It feels good picking it up again.' Sam said throwing with more accuracy this time. They have been practicing it bounced off of three trees which they had wrapped to protect hoping it would keep from destroying more plant life and it slipped right onto Karma's grasp. She smiled completely giddy as she threw it.

'The legacy of that shield is complicated to say the least.' Sam added

'When Steve told me what he was planning I don't think he understood what it felt like for a black man to be handed the shield.' Bucky told him 'how could we? I owe you an apology.' It bounced back to Bucky and he caught it on his arm handing it over to Sam 'I'm sorry.'

'Thank you.' Sam said taking it from him

'Whatever happened with Walker wasn't your fault. I get it it's just that shield it's the closest thing I've got left to family.' Bucky told him 'so when he retired it... It made me feel like I have nothing left.' Karma looked back at him sadness filled her as he bared his heart to them. 'It made me question everything you Steve me. You know I've got his book...' he pulled it from his pocket and held it up. 'I just figured if it worked for him then it would work for me...'

'I understand man.' Sam said 'but Steve is gone but he let out a long sigh 'and this might be a surprise but it doesn't matter what Steve thought.' Sam said whipping the shield around again. 'You gotta stop looking for other people to tell you who you are.' Bucky caught the shield as a bounce back. 'Let me ask you do you still have those nightmares?'

'All the time.' Bucky answered 'it means I remember. It means that part of me is still there which means part of the Winter soldier is still in me.' he swung it and it bounced back around karma.

'You up for a little tough love? Do you want to climb out of that hell you're in do the work.' Sam told him 'do it.'

'I've been making amends.'

'You weren't amending, your avenging. You were stopping all the wrong doers you enabled as the Winter soldier. Because you thought it would bring you closure.' Sam told him 'you go to these people and say sorry. Because you think it'll make you feel better right? But you gotta make them feel better you gotta go to them and be of service I'm sure there's at least one person in that book who needs closure about something and you're the only person who can give it to them.'

'Probably a dozen... fuck you're right.' Bucky remarked 'it's a long list.'

'start with one.' Karma encouraged rubbing a hand in soothing circles on Bucky's back.

'Good talk.' Bucky agreed kissing her cheek.

'You know Karly won't quit.'

'You call me when you have a lead and I'll be there.' Bucky told him

'Me too' Karma told him.

'Not necessarily as a team.' Bucky added

'You and me could be a good team.' Karma remarked.

"Oh, you and me are a great team.' Bucky confirmed.

'Yeah you guys don't work the great as a team,' Karma admitted passing the shield off to Sam

'We're not that good.' Sam agreed.

'Definitely not.' Bucky agreed 'we're professionals and definitely...' Bucky thought it through.

'And we're partners...' Karma confirmed looking between them and Bucky and sam nodded in agreement.

'Coworkers.' Sam suggested

'But we're also a couple of guys with a mutual friend.'

'Friends now gone,' Karma reminded them

'So we're a couple of guys.' Bucky agreed

'I can live with that.' Sam said

'Perfect.' Bucky said as they walked off

'Thanks for the help man it meant a lot.'

'You two are weird. You two are friends. You both like each other.' Karma told him as Bucky wrapped an arm around her shoulders leading her away.