the tables have turned | steve/bucky

chapter fifteen

Steve's Story

Post traumatic stress disorder.

They said me and Buck had that. Apparently, he had it a lot worse than me, but a tragedy is still a tragedy no matter how bad it is, right? Tony said that the condition could be treated with various forms of therapy, but I think Bucky's wounds will only heal with time.

Time. That's the only common factor left between Bucky and I.

I know damn well that there's no going back to when life was simple and aliens didn't come out of holes in the sky and robot armies didn't raise cities from the ground, but...

I'd trade all my tomorrows for one yesterday.

After Bucky's not so little episode, Stark decided not to send him back to the hospital wing, fearing that he might put staff in danger if something triggered it again. Instead, some medical equipment was delivered and set up in Stark's lab.

By nightfall, I was more than relieved to discover Bucky snoring loudly on the floor behind one of Stark's giant projects. He seemed comfy there, so I didn't bother picking him up and moving him.

"Rogers." Tony walked up beside me with the usual half-full glass of alcohol in his hand.

I folded my arms across my chest. "Stark."

For a moment, we both were watching Bucky sleep. Of course, Tony had to break the silence.

"If you thought that I was planning to do something malicious to him earlier..."

"Tony I-"

"... you would be right. Listen Cap, revenge tastes sweeter than well made crepes after good sex... oh, wait, virgin, I forgot..."

"Very funny. Now get to the part where you explain why the hell you abandoned me a gentlemen's club to get to him?"

"Why do you ask questions that you already know the answers to?"

Stark had a point. I knew why he did it. I sucked in a long breath and exhaled, allowing my mind to float.

"What were you going to do with him?" I faced Tony. He took a long swing from his glass before responding.

"I was going to take him somewhere nice," he said. I didn't even have the time get angry and spit something back. Tony walked away very hastily, leaving me with Bucky and my thoughts. I settled myself down next to Bucky and watched him until I eventually nodded off.

Morning came with Natasha shaking me awake. She was talking very fast. Her words mashed together to create on jumbo word that didn't make any sense. She socked me in the mouth and then I was really awake.

Breathless, she rapidly spoke. "Cap you have to get up Bucky and Tony are having a talk outside and Tony is throwing things and yelling and Fury will be here any minute and he's going to rip you a new asshole-"

I'm not sure how I got up so fast. It was an even bigger surprise to me when I started to run out of the lab. I'm still not sure how Natasha managed to keep up with me. We sprinted across Stark tower like two speeding bullets in search of Stark and Bucky.

Too bad Fury found us before we could find them.

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Holy shit guys. Today marks the one year anniversary of this story... and I'm not even half way done with it... ha.

- Bri