How do you heal?

Chapter 86: Shout It Out

Annie awoke to the sound of her door banging open and Alex walking in.

"Rise and shine, Honey Cakes, I want to go get bre- oh." Annie lifted her head to glare at her friend over Pietro's shoulder before Alex continued. "I love it when you listen to me. Now both of you get dressed, I'm starving."

With that Alex turned and walked out, slamming the door behind her.

"Why is she so bossy so early in the morning?" Pietro asked around a yawn as he pulled Annie close to him.

"She's not bossy, she's just domineering. Especially when she's hungry."

"If I weren't so afraid she might kill me I would make her wait just for waking me up early."

"You don't call her she-wolf for nothing." Annie said before tossing the blankets back to get up and get ready.

With Iris and Thor the sextet sat at a breakfast table looking over menus.

"Alex, how are you liking the new job?" Iris asked before sipping at her hot tea.

"The job is fine. A lot busier than the old hospital but also more rowdy which means I get to fight with patients more and we all know how much I enjoy making assholes aware of their fragility."

The table let out a round of affirming nods and Iris continued her catching up. "Sam, how do you like being out of the compound?"

"I like the apartment. I'm shocked we found something so big at a reasonable price in New York. Having a commute isn't ideal but flying means I get to skip the traffic." Sam finished with a huge smile and tossed an arm around Alex.

The group chatted a bit more and Annie could feel Iris eying her after Pietro had leaned in to kiss her. Sure enough when Annie locked eyes with Iris her brow went up in question and Annie just nodded.

"Look who it is!" Thor boomed before standing up to greet Steve, Nat and Bucky who had just walked into the restaurant.

Bucky hadn't slept that night. After he had calmed down he began to clean up the box he knocked over when he saw some of the papers peeking out from the leather file folder. He'd pulled it from the mess on the floor and took it to the couch, spending the rest of the night going through the file and researching on his phone. He'd hardly registered that it was morning before Nat came knocking at his door to invite him to breakfast with her and Steve. He'd cleaned up the papers and accepted, wanting to run an idea by them.

He'd spent the ride over organizing his thoughts and started as they walked into the restaurant. "Hey so I have something I want to run by you guys."

"What's up?" They asked in unison before they all turned at the sound of a booming voice.

"Look who it is!" Thor said as he stood and walked over to them. "Seems we all desired some nourishment after last night's revels. Come join us, we haven't placed our order yet. We can push some tables together."

Annie scooted her chair closer to Pietro to make room. The servers had pushed a small two top table up to theirs and added a chair at the end so it was going to be a tight fit. As Nat sat down next to her Annie felt Pietro start to pull his arm from around her but she caught his hand.

Pietro flicked his eyes over the additions to their group. "You sure?"

"Positive." She replied and gave him a quick peck.

Sitting at breakfast watching the group around him interact only affirmed Bucky's idea. He didn't need to talk it over with Nat and Steve, he was going. He needed to get some space, understand who he was now post Wakanda, post trigger words, post trauma. He couldn't do that at the compound. He couldn't do that if he was in constant guilt over his fuck ups with Annie and inability to fix it after she had been willing to let him try. Especially not now that he saw how fucking happy she looked.