Elevated

Nora’s dad continued to call her.

In the week and a half after the holiday, he called her four more times. Nora continued to send him to voicemail. It put her in a poor enough mood every time that she seriously started to consider just answering it and giving him whatever it was that he wanted so that he would leave her alone. It was almost guaranteed that if she caved, she wouldn’t have to hear from him for another six months. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She pretended to be busy instead.

Not that she had to pretend very hard, Pepper had won her fight with the board and the lab was undergoing extremely rapid repairs. The empty lab with the particle splitter had been under slow construction for months but Bruce’s lab was home to work crews round-the-clock and was rapidly turning into something they could work in. Nora thought that Tony might be the kind of person who expressed his love with money, and he really loved Bruce, so he was throwing a lot of money around.

Bruce wouldn’t go to the lab with the crew working, it turned out he was still nervous about what had happened, but he was also a little particular. He sent Nora to oversee them instead, and make sure they got everything set up in the right place. She spent hours directing people she was sure were overqualified for what they were doing. She also spent hours gawking over the new equipment, which was somehow even nicer than the stuff that had been ruined.

Bucky started to text her at noon; coffee?

The first time Nora was confused. She didn’t understand what had changed that he would suddenly think she might not want to go. It was only after staring at it for a while that she realized he probably didn’t know where she was. She texted back Yes, I’m on 90. And a few minutes later there he was, standing in the opening of the dented door, wearing his leather jacket and the hat she had knit.

Her heart did a little flop. She ignored it.

She had Luna so when they got in the elevator she passed him the leash and focused on her breathing. The elevator really was less scary with Bucky beside her and she was barely frightened at all when they rode it together.

She asked what he’d been up to and he shrugged. She was pretty sure that meant nothing in particular. She asked him what movies he’d watched lately (Jaws) and if he liked it (Shrug). She told him about Tony springing for insane top shelf equipment, despite the fact this was the second lab he’d lost within six months. Nora was used to Bucky being annoyed at Tony with her. She’d tell him the man was acting nuts and he would make one of his soft growly noises. This time he sort of hummed and she could only assume he was pleased.

When they got to the Spruce Nora had to deliver some bad news.

“Do you know what you want?”

Bucky was surveying the patio the way he always did before he took the exact same chair he always took, “Gingerbread.”

“Oh no.” He turned to look at her, then rapidly scanned the patio, sidewalk and café windows before looking back at her face, “Sorry,” she said automatically.

He spent a lot of time checking the space around them when they were out. Nora thought it must be because he was nervous, but didn’t totally understand why he would be. Maybe it was like the elevator and he just was, and there was no reason at all.

“It’s just that they’re done with the holiday flavours. I saw it on Instagram this morning.” She explained. She had followed the café when they’d started making a routine of visiting and watched the page closely so she would know if they had new drinks, “No more gingerbread, sugar cookie, chestnut or peppermint. I know you didn’t like that one but,” she shrugged.

Bucky frowned. She thought he might be disappointed. He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and said, “Maple.”

Nora nodded and stepped through the door of the shop. She was pretty disappointed herself, she’d been getting the sugar cookie lattes and she really wasn’t ready to let them go. She got a caramel macchiato instead. She also got a cookie for Bruce and one for Tony because Bucky had reminded her, he really was being nice. She hoped it didn’t break him again.

On the way back to the tower she started to tell Bucky about the other seasonal flavours he would have to try, “Spring ones are usually disappointing compared to the fall/winter seasonals, but I guess when it’s warm we can start ordering iced drinks. You’d be surprised how much a-“

“Nor!”

It was a little bit like when the lab exploded. No, that was dramatic. Well. It was a little bit like when the lab exploded.

Her heart gave a single loud thud, and then seemed to stop in her chest. Her breath whooshed away and was gone. A cold sort of horror wound through her entire body and left her feeling slow. Bucky, beside her, straightened to his full height and put his hand on the middle of her back.

Nora turned her head, dreading what she was about to see the whole way. Her dad was bouncing down the tower steps towards her, grinning widely. He was wearing a black coat and a ball cap. He hadn’t shaved lately and had a sort of scraggly grey beard. He looked, Nora thought, like a person who might be fun. Somebody’s nice suburban dad who barbequed on weekends and worked in an office.

“Dad,” Nora greeted, entirely dumbstruck, “What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit, it’s the holidays don’t you know!” he crowed.

He opened his arms to hug her and as much as she would have rather run away down the road, Nora stepped forward into them. Bucky’s hand slid down to the small of her back and he grabbed a fistful of her coat. The second her dad let her go, he pulled gently until she was tucked against his side. Her dad looked at him curiously and his wide grin faltered.

“Who’s this?”

“Bucky,” Nora supplied, still feeling pretty dumb, “What are you doing here?”

Her dad returned his attention to her. The smile returned, “I couldn’t get ahold of you, so I thought I’d come by. Security said you moved up and they wouldn’t let me in though. Hey, are you free to grab a bite?”

Nora shot a silent thank-you to Tony Stark and his competent security, “No. I just- I have to get back my boss is waiting.” She really would have liked to leave it there. She knew, even as she couldn’t help herself, that her next sentence was a mistake, “I’ll uh- I can text you. For dinner?”

“Fantastic!” He chirped, “When are you off, I’ll just meet you back here.”

“Four,” Nora answered, feeling a bit like the world had tilted on its axis.

“See you at four!” and then he was striding away down the sidewalk. Nora continued to stare at the place where he had been, not entirely sure how her day managed to fall apart so suddenly.

Bucky’s hand pressed against her back, pushing her gently towards the building. Nora let him steer her all the way through the lobby and into the elevator. He hit the button for the ninety-first floor.

“Nora?” She blinked at the elevator door and then turned to look at Bucky. He looked the same as always, but she thought he might be concerned, “You alright?”

Nora thought about it, “Yeah, I- No. Not really. I don’t know.” She really had no idea if she was or not. There was a confusing tangle of emotions knotting themselves up in her chest.

The elevator door slid open. Nora stared through it until Bucky gave her a gentle push again. He never came more than one step into the lab, and usually not even that much, but he steered her the whole way across the floor and into the squashy leather couch she liked to spin data on. He unclipped Luna’s leash, who jumped immediately up beside her and put her head on Nora’s knee, and then crouched in front of her. Nora thought he really did look concerned.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Tony had been welding something and stood over in his machining station, torch still in one hand and mask tilted up to stare at her.

Bruce spun from the readings he was considering very seriously and said, “Nora? Are you okay?”

“My dad’s here.” She answered.

Tony put down the torch.

Nora told him she was okay and that he could go.

Bucky was pretty sure she fucking wasn’t, but she still insisted he could go.

He didn’t think his fretting at her feet was very helpful, so he went to fret in the lounge instead. Bucky wasn’t really sure why Nora was upset to see her dad. She didn’t talk about him and Bucky hadn’t asked. She had gotten a call from the man on their walk a few days before. The second she checked the ID her body changed. She declined the call and was quiet the rest of their way back to the Tower. Bucky had decided then, that he didn’t care for her father.

He had decided, seeing them together on the tower steps, that he really didn’t care for her father.

The second Nora heard her name she tensed up. It wasn’t quite the same sharp fear as the elevator, but it was something close. He hadn’t known exactly what to do. He wanted to pick her up and escape into the traffic of the city. He was positive he could give the man the slip in fifteen seconds or less and then maybe while he was at it, he could see if Nora wanted to flee the country and live with him somewhere in the Italian Peninsula.

He was pretty sure she didn’t so instead he grabbed a handful of her coat the way Steve did when he was slipping. He kept a hand on her the whole way back up to the lab until she was safe on Tony’s couch. Even then, with her in the company of Iron Man and the Hulk who apparently liked her enough to apologize for crushing her desk, he hadn’t wanted to leave her.

The problem wasn’t just Nora’s reaction, it was Luna’s too. Luna the dog who he had never seen greet anyone with less than a wagging tail, who pressed against Nora’s legs and stared at the man with something like wariness. Like even she knew that the man was trouble and needed to be watched.

And Nora was supposed to meet him after work for dinner. By herself.

There was no fucking way he could let that happen. He just also wasn’t sure how to not let it happen.

“Bucky? Are you alright?”

Bucky stopped his pacing and turned. Wanda was looking at him from the kitchen where she was cooking something. He didn’t recognize the smell but he’d never spent time in Sokovia so he supposed that made sense. She’d been there the whole time, but he’d been so distracted he’d mostly managed to forget about her.

He frowned. He wasn’t okay because Nora clearly wasn’t okay and he wanted to make it better. Wanda had a delicate, concerned expression on her face. He remembered, suddenly, that Wanda spent time with Nora. They had margaritas together with Darcy and Jane. They went to a brewery of some kind. Wanda might be able to help him. Wanda also was the sort of person he thought might keep their mouth shut about it.

If she couldn’t help, he could ask Sam. He really didn’t want to fucking ask Sam.

Bucky crossed to the kitchen and slid into a stool across from where she was stirring a pan at the stove. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Nora’s dad’s here.”

“Oh. That’s-“ She bit her lip. She seemed aware that this was bad news.

“She doesn’t like him.” Bucky prompted.

Wanda stirred the pan and seemed to get that he was looking for a response of some kind. She said delicately, “No, I don’t think so. She doesn’t really talk about it.”

They looked at each other. Wanda seemed to think he needed to explain himself, but he wasn’t really sure how and he found if he looked at people long enough sometimes they figured it out.

“Did she- Is she supposed to go see him?” There it was.

“Dinner.”

Wanda surveyed him like she was trying to read his face. He was pretty sure she couldn’t, but was aware she could probably read his mind instead if she wanted to, “You’re worried about it, aren’t you?”

That one he could answer easily, “Yes.”

Wanda considered that for a while then said, “I don’t know that there’s much you can do about it. If she wants to go, she’s going to go.”

“She doesn’t.” That had seemed pretty fucking obvious to Bucky. He didn’t know why her dad couldn’t tell.

“Well,” Wanda worried at her lip, “You could see if she wants you to go with her. She might like to have someone else there if she’s not happy about it. But it might be something she has to do herself.”

Bucky considered that. He tapped his metal fingers on the counter. Wanda was right, of course. If she wanted to go, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He could ask to go with her, but that came with a slew of its own problems. To begin with, he had no idea how to ask. He also had no idea if he could manage to go sit at the Spruce for half an hour, much less a restaurant he didn’t know, however far from the tower, for who knew how long.

Wanda set down the spoon she was using. Gently she said, “I think she would just appreciate you asking.”