Better Love || A Bucky Barnes Fanfiction

- The Star Cross'd Lovers -

She counted the days with every meal that came through, always the same. Breakfast: Eggs on toast with tea or coffee (The eggs were too liquidy for her taste and always made the toast soggy.) Lunch: A ham and cheese sandwich, two pieces of fruit, and a small green smoothie ("A luxury all of you don't deserve, but Stark had insisted upon," Ross had told them. Clint had thrown his one at the glass wall.) Dinner: Beef meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and a glass of milk (the milk was needed; the meatloaf was always dry and made Elena feel like she was swallowing dirt.)

It never changed, so every morning when the eggs on toast with tea or coffee was slipped into her room, she knew it was another day. Right now, Elena was getting started on her twenty-second meal of dry meatloaf, an announcement she had made to the boys.

"I'm sick to death of meatloaf," Scott complained, poking at his food with a plastic fork sadly. "I want Taco Bell. Do you hear me?!" He raised his voice, looking up at the camera in his cell and holding his fork up angrily. "I want Taco Bell, you bastards!"

While he said it in an effort to lighten the ever dark mood, Elena didn't miss the hint of hysterics in his voice. She put her tray down and stood up.

"They can't keep us here forever," she said. "They can't just - just keep us prisoner here forever. Where's our trial? Our lawyers?? This is inhumane."

"We helped a so-called fugitive and his so-called terrorist friend evade capture by the government," Sam replied, arms crossed as he continued to pace in his cell. He had been doing that a lot lately. "That's enough for them to chuck us in here and throw away the key."

"That's not how it should be and they know it," Elena argued, glancing up at the camera. She would stare at it every night as she lay in her bed, unsettled by its stare. It reminded her too much of Thomas, of always being under his surveillance when they were together. Because of this, she had been dreaming of him a lot lately. Once, Bucky had saved her from him. In her dreams, though, he was nowhere to be found. That's why she would wake up screaming. Not because Thomas was beating her within an inch of her life, but because Bucky wasn't there. Her dark circles were growing bigger everyday and the lack of sleep was severly hurting her mind. 

She had never tried to to starve herself before, but she had in an attempt to get away. They started feeding her intravenously until she agreed to eat properly. She started trying to break herself out of her cell, her knuckles connecting with the glass wall again and again, then eventually her whole body weight. They had handcuffed her to her bed to avoid further injuries. She had only been released from those bonds yesterday, but she was thinking about trying it again. She was so close to getting out, she was certain of it. There are little cracks on the glass, Elena thought as she stared at the wall, one finger coming up to rub against it. She felt nothing but smoothness and she sighed, looking past the glass and at the other cell across from hers.

Clint had been silent for a long time. That didn't stop him from doing the exact same things Elena had done. They had even shared the same doctor when getting fed through needles, sitting next to one another strapped into their chairs. He had looked at her with hard, determind eyes, and she had done the same, but there was a pain that lay between the pair. It wasn't worth it, not this way. If they wanted to escape, they had to be healthy and ready to run. So they had traded in the starvation for the physical attacks. No luck there. But both were unrestrained now, and Elena could see Clint sitting on the floor, frozen. He's missing his family, she thought. He's feeling betrayed by Tony and the others. He's hurting just as much as I am. She wondered if he was losing his mind too. The thought made a flash of anger pass through her body. With a yell she picked up her tray and chucked it at the glass wall, making Scott jump and Sam turn to look at her.