Hello Sergeant (Bucky Barnes)

May I Have This Dance?

James' POV

"Hey, I'm home, guys!" Sarah said wearily as she came in the door. "What did you guys do today?"

I watched as she dropped her keys on the little table by the door and leaned tiredly back on the door to close it. Jace stood up, alerted by something I hadn't caught.

"You look like shit, Sarah." Jace said as he walked over to her. "Where were you shot at?"

I raised my eyebrows and stared at her, realizing he was right. I studied her closer, noting how she was favoring her right leg and kept her arm held close to her side. If she'd been shot it couldn't have been that bad for her to be walking already.

"Thank you for the lovely compliment, Jace; you sure know how to turn a girls head." The level of sarcasm in that statement didn't faze Jace, who kept his eyes on hers. Sarah sighed. "What gave me away?"

"Several things, but you didn't put your keys in the bowl. You only get sloppy with the little things when you've been injured or are exhausted."

It was a small detail that only someone who knew her very well would know, and I tucked that nugget away to remember later. Given her line of work, there would be another time when knowing that might come in handy.

Jace crossed his arms as he confronted her, not satisfied with what he saw. "Did you get it treated?"

She looked away, finally giving in to his demand for information. "Dr Blake already gave me my lecture, thank you very much. I took two to the leg and broke my left arm."

She shrugged out of her jacket, wincing when she twisted her arm wrong. Jace helped her get it off and hung it up. She limped over to the couch and slumped down next to me, exhaustion radiating from her.

I looked at her in concern, never having seen her like this before. She was always so animated - so vibrant - that seeing her so drained worried me. "What happened?" I asked quietly, taking her hand in mine.

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "My dumbass teammate decided to be a macho fucking idiot and not follow the plan. I got us all out in one piece, no thanks to him! Nat said to tell you she'll be by in the morning."

"Did Natalia get injured, too?"

"Don't think so, but I haven't seen her since this morning; we weren't together today, Jace."

He gave me a look, but didn't say anything more about it, having gauged her mood.

"Did you eat yet?" he asked.

"I'm not hungry; I just want a shower and sleep."

"Pizza will be here any time now."

"Hmm."

I looked at Jace, who shook his head and walked into the kitchen, tapping at his phone. I assumed he was messaging Natalia, but I took advantage of his absence to reach over and stroke Sarah's face. She leaned into the caress and smiled. "How are you, James?"

"Amused," I replied, smiling at their interactions.

She cracked open her eyes finally. "You're welcome? I should go get cleaned up. Tell Oscar the Grouch I'll talk to him when I get out of the shower." She closed her eyes again and sighed, clearly not motivated enough to get back up again.

"Who is Oscar the Grouch?"

She smiled wryly. "I'll put it on the list, okay?"

I leaned over and covered her lips with mine in response, needing to be sure she was really okay. She didn't fight me, just going along with it, which told me how tired she really was since she still didn't like to kiss me in front of Jace. We'd talked about that today while she was gone and he'd told me today he didn't think we should be involved, at least not until my memory returned some more.