Still Breathing

Chapter 13: Your love is my drug

Bucky Pov present day 2022

As I'm packing up my work to leave early, there is a knock at the door. I say loudly to the closed door, thinking its Steve again trying to talk me out of my plan. "I still haven't changed my mind, and I won't."

"what's that?" a deep male voice says.

I frown in confusion when I see my father peek his head in and grins at me. I stiffen and don't return his smile. If he is here and smiling at me, he either wants something or something is horribly wrong. I sigh and go back to packing up.

He walks in and closes the door behind him. I glance up at him, still refusing to return his smile and I say, "I thought you were Steve."

He walks around my office and says "Yes. Steve. he is a good man. he's about to be a father soon."

I nod at him as I snap my briefcase closed.

He sighs sounding weary, "raising kids is a tricky thing. You never know how they will turn out. I just hope he's prepared for the heartbreak that comes along with it."

I choke on the scoff that is itching to claw its way up my throat. I resist the urge to ask him, what do you know about raising kids? I just wish he would get to the point. He continues on rambling, "You know son, you've really impressed me lately. you've cut your hair and that horrible beard. Finally taking pride in your appearance. I was afraid of what happened at the Gala would have caused you to spiral but you've handled everything with such grace."

I sit down in my chair, fold my hands in my lap. still waiting for him to get to the point. he continues on, "I was glad to hear you would be attending the board celebration this weekend. That will certainly please your mother."

I grunt out in agreement. I don't move, I don't add anything to the conversation.

Still beating around the bush he walks over to a stack of papers and picks up a few folders and look through them. he wont recognize any of it. it's a side project I've been putting together to present to Tony. he looks up at me with a slight grimace on his face and ask, "What is all this?"

I shrug and say, "production performance charts from starks Midwest region."

He arches a curious eyebrow and say, "Stark?"

"Yes." It's all I say, not wanting to offer up any other information to him.

"Are you in contact with Stark?" he asks as he studies the papers looking intrigued.

I shake my head no. but I think to myself, not yet. he laughs and I can see the wheels turning. He thinks I conducted some master plan to get this information, possibly to take him down or take over his company. But its quite the opposite. I want to combine certain parts of both of our companies and put stark on the board. I figure since Pepper runs his company and Morgan is getting older, he will have time to help run a sister company made up of both of our companies. But my father doesn't see the possibilities in that. he turns to me and ask, "How did you get all this information?"

"Well... its available in most quarterly stock reports."

he just looks at me for a long moment before grinning at me again. he hands me a few of my own files and says, "take this to my office on your way out. I suspect your packing up to leave early to get ready for this weekend..."

I stand and take the files from his hands. I walk to the door and open it. I look back at him and ask, "You're not coming?"

He walks around my desk and sits in my chair and continue to rummage through files. "Ill be there in a minute."