Familiarity

Chapter 12

"So, how are your migraines?" Emilia asked smiling right up into her eyes.

"They're getting better, thanks," Bucky smiled, allowing his blue eyes to lift from the floor to meet Emilia's brown ones.

She always lost her breath when she had the chance to look at his eyes, it was like stepping into a snow storm that matched the icy colour of them. She loved these sessions, when it was just the two of them, and Steve wasn't breathing down her neck trying to keep her safe. She felt safe with Bucky, and every second she spent with him was another second spent with the man she loved.

She was sure now that even though her grandmother's memories may have started her feelings, what she felt was true. "That's good," she answered, scribbling his response down on her clipboard. "I know you don't like to talk about it but I have to ask. What about the nightmares?"

He cringed at the word, lowering his eyes once again. "They, they are still there."

"Every night?"

"Most nights, usually the bad stuff."

"I'm sorry," Emilia muttered looking down at her paper. It has been two weeks since she had treated him for his memory loss, and it killed her for the first couple of days. His dreams were filled with memories from HYDRA, he couldn't get out of bed for five days so her and Steve took shifts watching him, those were good days too, when he wasn't freaking out.

"Doctor," he started but Emilia was quick to stop him.

"Please don't call me that, my name is Emilia."

He looked back up at her, his expression showing distress. "Emilia," he tried again, "I want to thank you for all you've done for me. I know your serum is the most important thing you have ever done, but you don't treat me like an experiment, and I appreciate it."

She sat in her chair, unsure of what to say to him. She knew he was referring to when he was with HYDRA, almost anything she talked about with him could be linked back to them. "I'm glad to hear that," she smiled nodding her head. "That is all that needed to be done today," she said standing up from her desk gesturing to the door, walking him to the exit as she did for the past week. He followed her out of her office and into the elevator.

She held the clipboard to her chest, wrapping her fingers around the edges, trying to distract herself from being in such a confined space with Bucky. She tried hard not to look at him, but when you have looks like he did, she had very little control. Her eyes were constantly drifting from his eyes to his lips and back to the ceiling, itching to drop back to his lips again. When his gaze lifted from the floor to look at her she lifted hers to the ceiling, and shuffled on her feet as the doors opened. "Take care of yourself Bucky," Emilia smiled as he started to walk for the door. She waved at Steve who was waiting outside the building for his friend, his blue eyes shining bright in the sunlight.

"Until next time," he smirked walking out the glass doors.

Emilia turned around trying to hide her blush as the image of Bucky smirking at her froze in her head. She looked back to find the two gone and sighed before heading back to her office.

She was stopped short by Madi who was holding a clipboard of her own in her hands, "I tried to stop him, I swear," she whispered just as Riz was exiting the elevator.

"Ah, Emilia, could you come with me to my office, I was just on my way to the labs to get you," he said holding his arm over the elevators's door, keeping it open. Emilia sighed walking toward him, "Mrs. Allen, if you would be so kind to give us a few minutes alone," he suggested staring at Madi with a funny look in his eyes.