Control (Avengers Fan Fiction)

[ 40 ]

"I can't believe she managed to walk as far as she did on a broken ankle and fractured femur." Bruce shook his head. "Hell, she's got three bullets in her chest and she's still breathing."

"She's a fighter." Natasha murmured gently. She was standing next to the bed Scarlett was laying on. Bucky stood at the foot of the bed, silently watching his daughter's breathing. "Are you going to remove the bullets?"

"There's no internal bleeding and it appears that the wounds have healed. Opening her up could do more damage with where the bullets are. Not to mention the fact that she heals fast. By the time I open her up, the cut would heal before I could even get in there. I don't know how HYDRA operates on her, but I don't have the knowledge and I'm not willing to take the risk."

Natasha softly nodded her head, understanding why he didn't want to do surgery. Green eyes flickered over to Bucky. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes were focused on Scarlett.

"You're awfully quiet." She commented. His blue eyes flickered up to meet hers. He shrugged his broad shoulders. "What's wrong?"

"You have no idea how what you said will effect her." Bucky turned to leave.

"You're kidding me. That was almost a month ago, Barnes." Natasha sighed out.

"Since then, she decided to go on a killing spree." He called over his shoulder.

"You can't blame that on me, James."

He turned back to face her, brushing a hand through his hair.

"She really wanted things to workout for all of us. She wanted to get better and she wanted to have some sort of a relationship with us. She already thinks poorly of herself. She probably doesn't trust what emotions she's feeling. You saying she's a psychopath makes her think that you, her own damn mother, thinks she's incapable of being good." His voice was calm but full of hostility and anger.

"Did she tell you this?" Natasha furrowed her eyebrows together. Bucky shook his head.

"No, but I'm not too different from her. If someone I wanted to trust and care about told me that when I first got out, I can't tell you what I would've done."

Natasha was silent. She watched the Winter Soldier leave the lab.

"People say things on accident all the time." Bruce spoke quietly from the desk he sat at. He had been going over the multiple x-rays and scans he had taken of Scarlett. "But did you mean what you said?"

"No." Natasha shook her head, biting her bottom lip for a moment as she moved to sit at the desk with him. "I.... I don't know why I said any of it because I've done similar things before.... but I-I don't know, Bruce." She crossed her knees and folded her hands into her lap. "The way that light in her eyes switched off when she went to kill that boy. I just.... I guess I was just trying to look out for Pietro. I don't want her doing anything that could hurt him."

"She cares about him."

Natasha said nothing. Scarlett had been with Vince Warren for nearly ten years and easily killed him. Even if she did care about Pietro, who's to say that she wouldn't kill him if she felt the need to?

———

After pacing around the Tower for almost thirty minutes, Bucky found himself back in the lab. He was now sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on a table and his hands folded across his stomach. Though his eyes were closed, he didn't sleep. He was listening. Just like Scarlett, his senses were enhanced. He could hear many things. Three floors up, Clint and Sam were fighting over who would get the last piece of pizza. One floor down, a secretary was guiding a class of high schoolers through the halls for a tour of the Tower. But the one thing he did his best to focus on was listening to Scarlett's heart softly beating.