Hell Bound

Thirty-Eight

I didn't know when I'd see Bucky again, but I had a vague idea of what he was doing. I didn't believe he'd left just to protect me. He still had whatever "time-sensitive" issues he'd been dealing with before getting hurt. Now that he could move well enough on his own, nothing was stopping him from getting back to it. I was just sure that whatever he was up to now involved me too. Maybe it always had. When I got home from work, I realized he'd taken Russell's book with him.

Clara called me while I was waiting for Graham to finish his job interview at Arby's. I was sitting in the car, bored out of my mind, trying to find a decent station on the radio. Then Jarvis cut through the music.

"Miss Hayes, forgive me for interrupting," he started. "Your sister would like to speak with you."

"You can put her through, Jarvis," I told him. Then I flopped back into my seat since I could no longer play with the radio.

"Jo?" Clara asked through the speakers.

"I'm here," I replied.

"Why are you in your car? Are you getting lunch?"

"No, I'm just—hanging out at Arbys." She was silent for a second.

"Are you messing with me? It's hard to tell sometimes." I laughed and leaned my arm against the window, but it just made my shoulder hurt.

"I'm waiting for Graham to finish his job interview."

"Oh, okay. That explains it."

"So, what's up? What's going on?"

"Um. Well. You never called me back like you said you would."

"Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot."

"I figured."

"So, what's up?" I hated talking to her in the car. Unless I was driving. I had nothing to do with my hands, and my shoulder hurt. I moved to rest my head on the window and thumped it as she took her time answering.

"There's just something I wanted to talk to you about. Something kind of important." Here we go.

"Is this about the uh," I started. I waved my hand even though she couldn't see me. It was a nervous reflex. "The gremlin? Growing in your body?" There was no response for a long moment.

"How did you know about that?"

"I kind of figured it out."

"But how?"

"Well. First, it was your sudden change of footwear. Then you started getting uncharacteristically lazy. Going to the bathroom five thousand times a day. All things I could have easily overlooked if it wasn't for your sudden decision to switch to decaf."

"And that made you think I had a gremlin?"

"You guys always forget I was medically trained."

"Yeah, but I thought you just learned how to stitch wounds and pull bullets out of people."

"That was my specialty, yes. But it's kind of obvious when a woman you've known as a caffeine junkie your entire life suddenly decides to up and quit for no reason. Cold turkey even. That must not have been easy."

"How did you know I can't have caffeine, though?"

"Seriously? I just got done saying I was medically trained. You guys should write that down somewhere. Stick a note on the fridge."

"But they taught you that in the army?"

"They taught me a lot of things."

"Why didn't you say anything?"