Chapter 19
Several weeks later, I was walking down to the labs, a massive coffee cup in hand. I guzzled it down steadily, staring down at the tablet I balanced in my other hand. A little more than a week beforehand, after years of begging, Tony was letting me design a suit for him, and I was ecstatic. Ever since he finally caved, I'd been pouring over my work station, creating the perfect designs. And today was the day that I was going to present them to my brother. I was terrified, to say the least. Tony was always the most critical of my work, and even though I'd worked my ass off, I was convinced he'd find something wrong with it.
Bucky had taken to visiting me in the lab as I worked into the night, and became my own personal cheerleader. Even though he had no idea what ninety six percent of what I was working on meant, he still told me that everything I did was perfect. He made me feel more confident.
So when he and Steve got called out on a mission the night before I planned to pitch it to Tony, I got even more nervous. I woke up that morning and called Bucky to check in on him, and tell him that I was sick and couldn't go pitch the suit to my brother. Of course, he knew I was lying, scoffed, and told me to suck it up. And now there I was, trying to think positive.
I reached the lab and kicked the door open with my foot, my eyes still glued to my tablet.
"Cara!" Tony jumped in front of me and I stopped in my tracks.
I looked up at him. "Yeah?"
"Is there something you'd like to tell me?"
Bruce's face appeared from behind a stack of paper, and he grinned over at me.
"Um, excuse me?" My thinking quickly went from positive to negative.
Tony stepped aside, and my eyes widened when I saw my desk. A huge bouquet of light blue peonies sat right in the middle of it. I tried my best to not grin; but I couldn't help myself.
"Are you gonna tell me who sent you those?" Tony asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"There's a card," Bruce called.
Tony's head snapped my way, and we both flew towards my desk, trying to beat each other to it. I shoved him as we got closer, and whooped triumphantly when I grabbed the card from the flowers before him.
Cara, You'll kick ass today. I know it.
I smiled to myself as I read the note, and quickly tucked it away into my pocket as Tony tried to peak over my shoulder.
"Oh come on! Tell me who it's from! What does it say?!" He whined.
"Nope," I said. "MYOB, dear brother. Now, are you ready to see the plans for your new favorite suit?"
*******
That night, I sat in bed, watching reruns of Friends on Netflix and drinking a celebratory glass of wine. Tony had loved the suit I designed, and we had even started working on it. I had tried calling Bucky to tell him the good news, but he didn't pick up. As I reached for the remote to confirm that I was, in fact, still watching Friends, there was a soft knock at my door. I rolled off the bed, opened the door, and grinned.
"You're back!" I cried, and threw my arms around Bucky's neck eagerly. "I have good news! God, what time is it even?"
"Um, almost two AM, I think," he said, standing rigidly.
I stepped back, my hands still on his shoulders. "Bucky, what's the matter?"
"I need help."
"What's wrong?" I repeated.
He motioned to his metal arm. I looked over at it, and my breath caught in my throat. There was a large hunk of metal missing close to where it fused with his skin, and wires poked out of the hole.
"I can't move it," he told me weakly.
"Oh my god," I breathed. "You were with Steve, why didn't he help you?!"
"I hid it under my jacket," he mumbled. "He's Steve, he couldn't do anything about it."
"Come on," I said, taking his hand and pulling him down the hallway.
Moments later, we were in the lab. Bucky sat in a chair in the center of the room, and I was rummaging through drawers.
"Um, this might, could, hurt," I said hesitantly.
"It will."
I dragged a stool and small tray over to his side and sat down quickly. Bucky stared blankly ahead as I got myself situated, and I paused for a moment.
"Are you alright?"
"I don't have the best memories of people working on me," he said lowly.
I took a deep breath in and put my hand on his cheek gently. "It's gonna be okay. I promise. But you need to trust me."
"I trust you," he nodded affirmatively.
I nodded too and picked up a pair of pliers in one hand, and a narrow metal sticklike tool in the other. Exhaling loudly, I looked into the hole, trying to figure out what exactly I needed to do to fix it.
"Okay, it looks simple enough," I thought aloud. "I think some wires got torn and ruptured the sensory nerve, wire things. So I replace the wires and place a few different pieces of mesh or something to keep them from rubbing and spontaneously combusting and-"
"Cara," Bucky cut me off sharply. "I know you're nervous and you talk a lot when you're nervous, but I beg of you; if you're going to talk, don't talk about whatever you're doing to me."
"Okay," I said quietly, and began to work.
We sat there in silence for a few minutes, Bucky wincing and swearing under his breath on multiple occasions. As I fused two wires together, he grunted loudly and screwed his eyes shut.
"I can't do this," I muttered. "I can't, you need to get Tony. He's smarter, he's better, he can-"
"You can do it," he said laboredly. "Ignore me, keep going."
I worked for about fifteen more minutes, a piece of me breaking every time Bucky cried out in pain. As I finished fusing the metal cover over the hole, my eyes were pricked with tears, and I rushed to blink them away. I threw the torch down and shoved the tray away the moment I finished. He bent his elbow slowly to test it, and stood up from his chair.
"There, it's done," I said quickly, turning away and running my hands through my hair.
"Cara-"
"It's fine, it's done, I'm good, let's go to bed."
"Cara, stop," he said quietly. "Thank you. I know that couldn't have been easy."
I turned back around to face him and folded my arms. "I just fucking rewired my boyfriend's arm! Who does that?! This isn't normal!"
"People who have boyfriends with metal arms," Bucky offered a small smiled. "Nothing we do is normal, Cara."
I sighed lightly and rubbed my forehead with the back of my hand. He came over to me, eerily calm, and put his hands on my shoulders.
"Hey, it's okay. It's over," he said softly. "I'm sorry."
"Whatever, it's whatever," I muttered and shook my head.
"Let's talk about something else. How was your day? Did your pitch with Tony go well?"
My mouth curved into a small grin. "Perfectly."
"That's great!" Bucky grinned as he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground. "That's amazing, I'm so proud of you!" He kissed my cheek as I began laughing, and he put me back down.
"Thank you for helping me get the balls to do this," I said, putting my hand on his cheek. "And thank you for embarrassing me very publicly in front of my brother and Bruce."
He is laugh boomed throughout the lab and my heart swelled. "Steve told me they were your favorites."
"They are," I grinned and kissed him quickly. "It was adorable, really."
"Glad you think so," he said. "How does going upstairs and going to sleep sound? I'm exhausted."
"I'd love to. Just give me a second, I've gotta put this stuff away."
I picked up the tools from the tray and began putting them away around the lab. As I crouched behind a counter in the back, a loud beep sounded from Tony's desk.
"I didn't touch anything!" Bucky yelled and jumped up from the seat he was in.
I smirked and walked over to the desk, looking for the source of the noise. Suddenly, there was another beep, and a notification hologram popped up in front of me.
"Good evening, Miss Stark."
"Jarvis-I mean Friday," I said, furrowing my eyebrows at the sound of the AI's voice. "Friday. God I'm still not used to that. Doesn't help that Vision isn't here with Jarvis's voice."
"Your brother is relieving an urgent message via fax. Would you like to accept it?"
"Gross, fax, who uses that anymore?" I muttered. "I'll take it, though."
"Apparently, the secretary of homeland security uses it, Miss Stark," Jarvis responded and my heart sunk.
"Oh great, Monica Geller's ex-boyfriend Richard is contacting Tony," I grumbled, picking up the piece of paper that had printed out of the small slot under Tony's desk.
"Mister Stark," I read aloud, "attached is a revised copy of the Registration Act. I'm glad you reconsidered your opinion and I look forward to working with you and your team..." My voice trailed off, and I crumpled the paper in my hand.
"What the hell?" I hissed, feeling like I may explode from anger.
"Cara, I'm sure there's an explanation," Bucky said quickly, but I could tell he was just as shocked as I was. "Come on, let's sleep on it and you can talk to Tony about it tomorrow."
"This is so like him! Of course, the shithead would go behind everybody's backs and make a decision that wasn't his to make in the first place," I fumed.
Bucky stepped forward and put his hands on my arms. "Let's go upstairs, it's past two. You know as well as I do that nothing good happens after two in the morning."
"You expect me to just go to sleep knowing that Tony is doing something that could destroy all of our lives?" I cried.
"Well, that's what I'm doing," he sighed. "If you do anything now, you're going to regret it."
"I'm not," I said shortly.
"Alright, well then I guess I should go up to my room."
"Maybe you should."
Bucky turned around and started to walk out of the lab, and I exhaled quietly. He paused and turned back slightly.
"I love you," he said hoarsely.
I folded my arms and bit my lip slightly. "I love you, too."