Better Love || A Bucky Barnes Fanfiction

- Bring Him Home -

She hadn't noticed his arrival until Clint began to clap.

"The futurist, gentlemen! The futurist is here! He sees all! He knows what's best for you, whether you like it or not." 

Whatever words he traded with Clint she could not hear. She was sitting at the end of her own cell, curled up against the wall and trying not to think about how long it had been since she had last seen Bucky, or how long it had been since she had heard from Wanda, or whether or not Steve and Bucky had even managed to escape the airport. She had heard about an accident that had occurred at the airport once she had regained conciousness after being thrown across the tarmac. However, there had been no other information about it, and the people who carried them off to this prison hadn't given them anything either. Instead they spat insults about being traitors to their country, to the world, promising that they would be punished for their crimes. Since being in the cell all of the prisoners had kept to themselves, quiet or shouting threats to the security cameras that watched them day and night. They weren't to speak amongst one another, and even if they did, what could they say that would not be heard? It was better to sit in silence, praying to every God that Bucky and Steve had escaped, and that is what Elena would do. 

"You gotta watch your back with this guy," Clint was saying now. "There's a chance he's gonna break it!"

For a moment there was no noise, but Elena knew that the figure was still there. There was an energy in the room that had started to shake when they had entered, and it hadn't left yet. Eventually, the soft footsteps Elena heard came to a stop. She inhaled, let her body stiffen, exhaled, still kept it tight. Of course she wouldn't go unnoticed. He had noticed her as soon as he had walked in, and now it was time for a chat.

"You're with the boys, then?" Tony asked, stopping in front of the blonde's cell. She lifted up her head when she heard him stop, standing up and turning around to face him. He couldn't help but recoil slightly when her blue eyes met his brown ones. While the right side of her face was relatively fine, save for a few scrapes and bruises, the left side had some noticeable scarring around the cheekbone, ear, and hairline that was hard to ignore. He was wondering how she had gotten them when she spoke.

"I don't have superpowers," she said, walking towards the front of the cell slowly, moving carefully past the upturned mattress. "Non-supers in here, Wanda in the other room. I wish they did split the genders up, though, if it at least meant that Wanda wasn't by herself. I've heard rumour that we're the only souls on this damn thing. Must be lonely."

Tony frowned at the mention of Wanda, knowing full well that she was alone, but he didn't let the blonde's words get to him. He tilted his head to the side, watching her carefully. He had barely seen this woman at the airport but he knew she must've been there. He thought he had caught a glimpse of her when Barnes had escaped the headquarters, constantly grabbing at the man as he destroyed everything in his path apart from her. He had seen her at the headquarters in the office space, talking to Steve while her eyes had stayed locked on the screens outside their room. There was a glimmer in her eyes when they had been staring at Barnes on the screen. She still had it now. He knew that glimmer well.

"What's your deal, huh?" he asked. "You and Barnes? Are you two together?"

"Obviously not, seeing as I'm here and he's..." the woman trailed off and Tony had to control himself to not let any of his real emotions show on his face. She looked sick with worry, looking away from Tony for a moment so she could collect herself. When she looked back at him there was an icy glare in her eyes and a sharper tone than before. "I don't get one."

"What?"

"I don't get one. A deal. Deal or no deal - no deal!" she told him in fake cheer, glaring at him through the glass. "Because, according to the assholes who have locked all of us up, I am too intimately involved with the man everyone is calling 'terrorist.'"

"Your words, not... not mine," Tony replied with a frown. The woman laughed tensely, a flash of wildness crossing her face as she stepped right up close to the glass.

"No, everyone's words but mine," she hissed. "Everything you've been told has been a lie. He's innocent. As if you would care, though."

"You fought for the wrong side," Tony said, louder than he had meant to, earning an incredilous look from the woman. Beside her in the other cell he heard Clint slam his hands against the glass. He had heard him too.

"Fighting on behalf of the innocent is the wrong side?! Jesus, this world...." the woman growled, pacing away from Tony before laughing darkly, spinning around to stare him down and throwing her hands in the air. "But fuck it. I'll fight for him, just as he's fought for me and saved me every single time. Remember that everything that's happened, it's not on him, not really. It's all HYDRA. Blame the abuser, not the victim."

He was tempted to tell her the truth then and there: that he knew now that Barnes was not guilty. That the man had been set up. But knowing that their conversation was being recorded, Tony fought against that desire, instead asking her one simple question:

"Who are you?"

"A woman who loves an innocent man and just wants to see him again, safe," she replied, her earlier air of anger, frustration, and desperation melting away. Now she just seemed opaque with her emotions and intentions. It made Tony swallow, eyebrows furrowed as he stared at her, head tilted to the side.

"You love him?"

"To the death," she said without hesitation. "To whatever comes after. He's innocent, Mr Stark. If there's any doubt in your mind about Bucky committing what everyone says he has done, please listen to it. It's right."

Tony allowed her words to sit in his mind as he spoke to Sam. He allowed them to hover there in the back, swimming back and forth with all the other things he knew, the things Sam was telling him right now. When their time was up and Tony could no longer block Ross' microphones without arosing suspicion towards himself, Tony turned to leave. Just as he did, though, the woman spoke.

"Hey."

"What?" Tony answered, pausing to look over at her. She was standing in front of the glass, staring at him with an unwavering blue gaze.

"When you find him - and of course you will, you're dead set on it, aren't you? But when you do, just... bring him back to me. Alive. Do that first. Because if you're planning to find him just to kill him, well then..." she trailed off, clenching her fists and looking away for a second before bringing her eyes back to him. "Then kill me too. Now. Or bring him back to me alive."

"I...." Tony hesitated, looking away from her. Her eyes terrified him. They reminded him too much of his own, and anything that reminded him of himself was too much for him to handle, especially when it was found within someone else. Eventually he forced himself to look back into that smoldering fire, nodding stiffly. "I'll bring him back alive."

Without another word Tony Stark turned and left the room, and Elena watched him go, believing that what he said was truth.

[~]