the team doctor || bucky barnes (EDITING IN PROGRESS)

21.

Edited 8/29/25

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱᴏɴɢ: ꜱɪɴᴄᴇ ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ᴀʟᴏɴᴇ - ɴɪᴀʟʟ ʜᴏʀᴀɴ

"𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬?"

~

VALERIE AVOIDED HIM AT ALL COSTS.

It wasn't easy. With the team off-mission, the common area was a minefield, and she knew better than to risk crossing his path. Instead, she buried herself in her research, falling back on the same ruthless focus that had carried her through darker days. Efficient. Detached. Unreachable.

Cody texted her a few times—sweet, harmless messages that she should've leaned into. But every time he suggested meeting up, she found herself dodging, hiding behind excuses she barely believed herself.

And still, Bucky lingered in her mind. His words replayed in loops she couldn't shut off. For someone who insisted he didn't want her tangled in his mess, he had a strange way of proving it. He'd gone radio silent for the past week, and though she told herself to expect nothing more, the quiet burned. It was so very him—withdraw after showing too much. Distance himself the moment he feared she might force him to name what he felt.

Occupational hazard.

By the time the week bled toward its end, the impending check-in hung over them both like a storm cloud. Dread filled the silence between seconds, somehow stretching the days while making the moment approach far too quickly.

Sam, perched casually on the edge of her metal table while she finished logging Red Wing's flight data, tilted his head with one brow raised. He didn't press—just waited, easy and steady in a way that made her chest tighten.

Instead of answering right away, she stood, crossing the room to quietly shut the lab door. The click of it closing made her stomach twist. She turned back toward him, fingers fiddling with the cap of her pen.

"Woah, you're not going to confess your love for me, are you?"

"Shut up, Sam."

She sat in front of him with a grave look on her face. "You have to promise you will take this to the grave."

"You're freaking me out. Did you murder someone?"

"Promise!"

"Okay, okay." He held out his pinky. "Promise."

"What are you, twelve?"

"You said to promise! Ain't nothing as sacred as a pinky promise."

She stared at him for a second before hooking her pinky onto his.

"Okay. Remember when I told you about having sex with someone and he said that it was just to get it out of our systems?"

"Uh-huh."

She sighed, trying her hardest to get the words out. "It was Bucky."

"WHAT?" He yelled.

"Shh!" She hissed.

He hopped up from the table, pacing around the lab. "Oh my God. You--Bucky?! Do you know how long Nat and I have had money on this? Oh my--"

"Wait, what?"

"I fucking called that shit from day one, bro!" He exclaimed. "I can't believe--how was it? Don't actually answer that, I just have had theories about how the arm plays into all that."