Run (A Bucky Barnes Recovery Story)

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The target was a man named Ruben Summers, age 52, in an apartment building just a frighteningly close walk away from theirs, but as Bucky had learned, he shouldn’t be surprised when he discovered his area of DC to be surrounded in Hydra agents. He knew it was no coincidence. Bucky joined Natasha as they found his apartment and waited outside the building.

“When he leaves, we’ll go and start setting up cameras,” Natasha said to Bucky as they paced back and forth up the block. Ever since the first time they had gone out to dinner, Bucky had hesitated in offering her his arm, flesh or not, but this time, she laced hers through his and leaned into him as they walked. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure if that was because she enjoyed being near to him as much as he enjoyed being near her or because it made a good cover to blend in on the streets. Either way, he was simply glad they were linking arms.

The target brushed right past them, his collar turned up and his eyes on the ground. Bucky angled himself and Natasha away from the man, making sure to use Natasha to hide his left side.

“I’m not exactly inconspicuous,” Bucky had said before they left. “They’ll be on the lookout for a one-armed man.” Natasha frowned, thinking.

“We’re going to have to work around it,” she said. “Try to blend in.”

“Not that that wasn’t the plan to begin with,” he retorted and she gave him an exhausted expression that made him laugh a little.

“Well, it’s the only plan we’ve got unless you can magic yourself up a new arm,” she said. Now, on the street, Bucky just tried to hide himself from the target and appear normal. Luckily, the man didn’t seem to suspect anything and before he knew it, Natasha had him by the hand and was dragging him back towards the building, fast.

“I don’t think he’ll be gone long,” Natasha said. “We have to be fast. I’ll pick the lock, you stand guard.” Once they slipped inside, Natasha located the door quite quickly. It was a 134, and she dropped to her knees fast, whipping materials out of her sleeve and beginning to tinker with the door handle. Bucky turned and stood in front of her, his hand at a fist by his side and his feet spread apart, an unapproachable expression set in the frown on his face.

“Tasha, hurry,” he muttered.

“This lock is weird, he’s rigged it somehow,” Natasha replied through grit teeth. Bucky waited another second, looking up and down the hall.

“Natasha,” Bucky said again.

“James!” Natasha cried and then there was a click and the door swung open and Natasha was on her feet and inside in a hurry, before Bucky could even have time to question her use of his first name. He hurried after her, although his initial instinct was to stop and go slowly in case of attackers in the shadows, he trusted Natasha to know what she was doing.

Inside, he found Natasha attaching the smallest cameras he’d ever seen into corners and walls and he watched her from behind as she carried on for several minutes.

“Remind me what I’m here for,” he said and she turned around over her shoulder and smiled at him.

“I just bring you along ‘cause you’re cute,” she teased and pecked him on the cheek as she passed him on the way to another camera-less wall. “And because you can help me reach the ceiling,” she added, waving him over. “Come here, can you reach this?” Bucky walked over and looked up at the corner where the walls and the ceiling met. “It would be a great angle to get,” she said. Bucky got as close as he could and reached, standing as tall as possible, but he still wasn’t quite there.

“I think you could get it if I picked you up,” Bucky said thoughtfully.

“That would be an easier feat to accomplish if we had four arms between us,” Natasha said and Bucky rolled his eyes.