Shadows and Secrets (A MCU FanFic)

Chapter 40: Lost

Bucky's POV

    "Don't get mad," cautioned Nat over the phone.

    "That never means anything good," said Bucky.

    "But... I may have lost your girlfriend." Nat said that very quickly, like it would be better to hear this fact as soon as possible.

    "Right..." said Bucky, looking at Marjorie, who was curled up with a book in her lap. She had teleported back about 20 minutes ago, apparently without telling Nat.

    "We looked for her, of course," Nat continued, "but her footprints stopped."

    "Uh-huh." Bucky was curious to see how she would explain this.

    Of course, he could tell Nat that Marjorie was with him, but letting her sweat a little was far more tempting.

    "We searched for her in a radius around the end of the trail, obviously, but we found no trace of her. Erik and I think she teleported."

    Bucky wondered when Lehnsherr had become 'Erik.'

    "We don't really have any way of knowing where she teleported to," she said nervously, "but we should be able to find her through other channels. We could check locations that she might have gone to, or people she might contact, or..."

     "Nat," he said. She was spiraling, best to come clean before she started the man-hunt. "Mar—"

    "I know you're probably really upset and worried," Nat interrupted. "But—"

    "I'm not upset—"

    "We will find her in no time," Nat assured him.

    Marjorie regarded him with a vaguely curious expression. "What are you not upset about?" She could only hear his side of the conversation, and Nat could only hear him.

    "Nat thinks you're missing," he filled Marjorie in.

    "What?" said Nat.

    Bucky sighed. "Marjorie is here."

    A pause, and then: "What?!?! Why didn't you say so?!" There was a muffled noise of talking from Nat's end, and Bucky assumed Nat was filling in Clint and Lehnsherr.

    "I thought it would be obvious that I teleported," Marjorie worried, biting her lip. "I probably should have told her..."

    "Can I talk to her?" Nat asked, and Bucky handed Marjorie his phone.

    "Hi, Nat," she said unenthusiastically. "Yeah, I'm okay... No... Yeah, don't worry about it... No?"

    Bucky glanced curiously at Marjorie.

    "That's not how teleporting works... I dunno, it's more of finding somewhere to go to. Distance doesn't really matter."

    He really wished he could hear both sides of the conversation, that would make way more sense.

    "Yeah, I guess so," Marjorie said reluctantly. "Hey, Erik."

    Bucky sat up and stared at her, not even pretending to not listen anymore. She rolled her eyes at him.

    "Yes... Yeah... Right... ... Oh my god, Erik. Why do you care?... It's none of your business," she said irritatedly, and then hung up the phone and handed it to a bemused Bucky.

    "What was that about?" he asked.

    Marjorie sighed. "Just Erik being overprotective as usual."

     "You know him well?" he asked, surprised.

     "Yeah." Marjorie paused uncomfortably, like she was going over a painful memory. "He was the one who found me."

    Oh.

    A lot of things suddenly make sense.

    "What happened?" he asked gently.

    "He found me after I ran away," she said matter-of-factly. "Erik has been making sure I am alive and well ever since, annoyingly."

    "Oh." Bucky paused for a minute. He probably ought to tell her. "I met him once," he said casually. Marjorie looked at him curiously. "He tried to kill me, I tried to kill him. The usual."

    Marjorie frowned like she was trying to solve a complicated math problem. "But you have a metal arm?"

    "Yeah, I don't know how I'm still alive."

    Marjorie continued staring off into the distance. "Now I'm kinda tempted to tell him we're dating, just so I can tease him about losing to you."

    Bucky stared at Marjorie. "You're not serious, are you?" he worried.

    "Maybe," she said, to his frustration.

    Marjorie resumed reading.

    As always, she was incredibly gorgeous. The purple circles under her eyes did little to diminish this fact.

    Maybe that was a factor in her obsession with makeup; hiding her bruise-like purple circles.

    It was an interesting theory, and it corresponded with Marjorie's tendencies to stay awake until well after midnight and to prevent anyone from knowing if she was injured.

    Honestly, Bucky didn't actually try to sleep until after midnight as well, but he really didn't need as much sleep as her. Because he was a supersoldier, he did not need to sleep as much to recharge, and he had more energy than a normal person.

    He didn't see how Marjorie wasn't always tired though.

    The average teenager needs eight to ten hours of sleep (via internet research), but Marjorie only got five to six.

    Bucky may have researched that.

    Maybe.

~

    "When are you going to sleep?" he asked. It was about 11.

    "I don't know," said Marjorie, seeming thrown. "Are you tired?"

    As usual, she was missing the point entirely. "Aren't you?"

    Marjorie hesitated. "No, not really."

    "You hesitated," Bucky accused. "If you're tired, you should go to sleep."

    "I'm not tired."

    "You're a horrible liar."

    "I am not," she argued, slightly offended.

    "Okay, you're a decent liar," Bucky allowed. "But I can still tell."

    Marjorie muttered something under her breath that he couldn't quite make out. Bucky would hazard a guess that he was probably better off not knowing.

    "You should probably sleep now," he reiterated.

    "Fine," Marjorie said, rolling her eyes.

    Well, it was a start.