Time Unchanging

Chapter 15

Bucky took a swig from the bottle of beer he was carrying and said, "You said 'again.' Has she been obsessed like this before?"

Clint sat next to him at the table and nervously said, "Yeah. We got it fixed but," he sighed, "well, it happens every now and then."

That was an understatement. He had seen Nat go so far as stalking people she had her eye on before she tried to get into relationships with other members of the team. But he had managed to talk her down from the precipice before and even got Yelena to help him when he couldn't do it alone. The worse was when they first met and he gave her a second chance. He had to fight her to protect his new wife, but he eventually got through to Nat that they would only be friends.

But this was far worse than what he had seen before. She had easy access to the person she desired and no one would think to keep her away because they trusted her. It was a recipe for disaster. He had to figure out how to stop her before she fell down the rabbit hole.

"How do we get her to back off?" Bucky responded, getting Clint out of his head. "If this continues, I won't be able to stop Steve, and who knows what hell Eva would unleash."

Clint chuckled and replied, "Well, I got married. Does that help?"

"No. I've seen that look before. Wanda has the same look when talking about Vision."

Okay, so Bucky told a lie. He had caught Wanda and Bruce together six months ago late one night in the lab. He promised he wouldn't tell, but Clint didn't need to know that. But before she got with Bruce, and even the relationship before that, she would get a look in her eyes that screamed obsession. Vision had been her first relationship after the hell HYDRA had put her through and the loss of her brother. Of course, she clung to him with an iron grip.

Clint asked, "What look?"

Bucky answered, "That nothing and no one will stand between them and their target."

Bucky took a drink as Clint replied, "She doesn't see Evelyn as a target."

Bucky sighed. "Not in her mind, no. But that's exactly what Evelyn is."

Clint got defensive. "And how would you know?"

"After everything that happened to me," Bucky explained, his tone telling the archer how uncomfortable the super soldier was in talking about it, "I started to act the same way about Steve. Like I couldn't breathe without him there, possessive, etc. I got over it with the help of Dr. Rayner, but he was a target, even if it's hard to admit."

Clint understood that Bucky had a view of the situation he didn't, and he couldn't call Yalena in this time. "What do we do?"

Bucky's voice was cold. "We stop her before it escalates."