Never Safe

Chapter Forty-Two

"I missed you too, monkey" your dad chuckled as you threw your arms around him again.

"I'm so glad you're here" you muttered. Over his shoulder, you made eye contact with Bucky. You pulled apart from the embrace when you saw him walking over. Your dad turned to see what you were looking at. Despite Bucky's deadpan expression, his smile didn't falter for a second.

"Bucky" he grinned. "You just keep growing, don't you?" He hugged Bucky, patting him on the back as he remained perfectly still until your dad stepped away. He didn't say anything yet. Your dad looked to the person next to him. "Steve. Good to see you again" he nodded.

"Y/f/n."

"What are you doing here?" Bucky abruptly asked.

"Well, isn't it obvious? I came to see my little girl" he smiled and put his arm around you. "But she's not so little anymore. Look at you, almost as tall as me now."

"How did you find her?"

Y/f/n slowly turned to face Bucky again. His smile was almost gone. "She was on the news. I saw a picture of my daughter on the news, and they said she'd been kidnapped."

Bucky tried to suppress how he was feeling, hide the worry that he was the reason your father was here.

"So I came straight over. I was staying in a hotel, waiting for an update, when I finally got the call telling me she was home safe. I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to surprise her. Then I get a text from her this morning telling me she's in hospital."

Bucky turned to you; you avoided eye contact but you knew he was staring at you. "Is this who've you been on the phone with?" he quizzed. "The one you were being so secretive about?"

You didn't respond.

"Y/n, look at me when I'm speaking to you."

You did. He was clearly trying to contain his anger. You knew why, but you didn't care.

"If I told you, you would've just gotten mad."

"Yeah. You're right about that. So why the hell did you think it was okay?"

You hesitated. You glanced over your shoulder. Everyone was still there, listening in. Bucky saw what you were looking at.

"Fine. We'll talk about this later. Steve, take her back to the compound-"

"What?" you questioned.

"I'm taking him back to his hotel, then to the airport. He's leaving."

"No. That's not up to you" you argued.

"Come on y/n/n" Steve placed his hand on your shoulder, but you shrugged him off.

"No! I wanna stay with dad!"

Bucky glared at you.

"And I'm staying with my daughter. You're not taking her away from me, James, not again."

"Again?" Tony queried.

"What does he mean, again?" Sam asked.

Bucky didn't say anything as he glanced at the guys.

"He took her away from me. Of course he did. You think I wanted my baby to leave me?"

"You took her away from her dad?" Tony frowned.

Bucky was about to explain, but y/f/n got there first.

"See, a few years ago, Bucky came to stay with us. I was more than happy to see my step son again, and obviously y/n wanted to see her brother. So I was fine with it. Until one morning, I woke up and he was gone. And so was my daughter and all her things. He left with her in the middle of the night. He deleted my number off her phone so she couldn't contact me. I never reached out before because I thought she wanted to leave. I thought maybe she didn't love her old dad anymore."