Dance
Days had passed since the gate-crashed day trip, days since Steve and Bailey spoke, and days since Bucky and Bailey realised that they were able to touch. Only if it wasn't skin on skin. Bucky was impartial to the disagreement Steve and Bailey had. He could see why Steve did it. Being the kind of man he is, he was thinking of the danger the public were potentially in. He could see why Bailey was mad. She was a good doctor and cared about her patient, Steve going behind her back and arranging for them to be followed could have triggered something in Bucky and it made her feel like Steve didn't believe in either of them. Steve had visited the complex since, but it was only on an evening when he knew Bailey had left. Bucky and Steve had it through and he had forgiven him; he just wanted to move on.
Bailey was a stubborn person, and she always has been. This was something Steve knew all too well after the years of working together. He knew the best was to go about it was to let her calm down before he tried to speak to her. Bailey had been quieter over the last few days because of their fall out, as well as the added pain of her personal life. Grandma Josie was declining at a rapid pace and Bailey felt like she wasn't getting the time to come to terms with her impending death. When she wasn't working, or visiting her grandmother, Bailey should have been resting, but when she did have a moment's peace, she was absorbed with the thought of her and Bucky. The memory of him grabbing her hand and her gasping at this played over and over in her mind until she was so tired that she passed out. Neither of them had acknowledged this yet. Bailey scoffed at herself when she thought about bringing it up, for her there wasn't a reason to talk about it with him. She knew she wasn't strong enough. Bailey was first and foremost his doctor, and in terms of his treatment, she was very set on her powers not being used with him. Her powers have always been personal and private, with only a select amount of people knowing: The Avengers, Michaels and his team, Patsy, and of course Grandma Josie. It was those that needed to know and who Bailey, to a certain degree, trusted.
Bucky was laid out on the sofa, like he had been for most of the day, and he was bored. Bored was not a feeling he reacted well to. He had worked out how to access YouTube on the TV and had found a playlist of music from the era before he went to war. Even though this should have him occupied, he was distracted, and wanting Bailey's attention. Bucky ripped a page out of his notebook, balled it up and tossed it at her across the room, it bounced off her shoulder. She ignored him.
"Bailey, I don't think you've smiled in like three days." He called.
"It's not my job to smile," She picked up the paper ball and tried to throw it back at him but completely missed, James tried to suppress a laugh. "It's my job to write up our disastrous attempt at food shopping."
"Haven't you finished that yet? You've literally been working on that from morning till night." He pointed to the darkness out of the window.
She drummed her fingers on the table, "I know, I'm finding it hard not to let my irritation and anger seep into my report. So far, not so good."
Bucky took a pen from the side-table, he wrote into his notebook before ripping this page out too. He too had been very conscious of his actions since the day of the grocery store. James didn't know how to feel about it all, and it unsettled him. To him, it felt so natural to grab Bailey the way he did, he had felt a sense of urgency to keep her safe. But he knew he wasn't supposed to feel this way, or he was not allowed to. Or at least, this is what he told himself, truly he refused to let him think of Bailey as more than his doctor or friend out of fear of rejection.
Bucky was saddened over how Bailey looked and had acted over the last few days. She was quieter, stressed, and tired. She wasn't partaking in the casual conversations that they usually had throughout the day anywhere near as much as she usually does. Bailey was so overwhelmed with work to the point that she had Patsy conducted a few sessions with James rather than herself. Bailey was stuck in a rut of working late, visiting the hospital, and struggling to shut her brain off. The lack of sleep was apparent, Bucky could see how tired she was from the dark shadows under her eyes.
Bucky folded the note into a paper plane and threw it at Bailey. He threw it harder than he meant to; its tiny point stabbed her in the side of her head then caught in her hair.
"Wow, you are being annoying today! Better add that emotion onto my list, it's nice to see you branching out." She said as she removed it from its entanglement with her white streak.
James pretended to be offended, "Jeez Doc, is that any way to talk to your semi-stable patient?"
Bailey unfolded it, in very typical male handwriting, it read 'Dance?'
"Dance? You're kidding me, right?" She looked at him like he had just requested her to do something outrageous, like speak in Latin or flash him her breasts.
"I'm not." Bucky picked up the TV remote and turned the volume up. "I think you need to relax, have some fun."
She rolled her eyes, "I'm not sure I know how to have fun anymore, and are you really the person that is gonna show me fun?"
James furrowed his eyebrows but there was a hint of amusement, "God you're mean today."
Bailey giggled softly, the tension she felt subsiding, "Sorry, let me try that again. Fun, you say. Are you sure dancing is the way to do that?"
He smiled at her increase in effort, "It can be. With the right person."
"Oh, and I suppose you're the right person?" she raised one of her sharp, dark eyebrows.
"We'll see."
Bucky pulled out the leather gloves Bailey gave him out of his back pocket and put them on, he gestured for her to come over to the living room. He picked up the coffee table with ease and put it to the side out of the way. Bailey stood awkwardly folding her arms and holding her elbows. The next song loaded on screen.
Bucky looked up and smiled, "The Mills Brothers!" He said with such familiarity Bailey questioned whether she should know them.
Using his metal, gloved hand, he reached out for Bailey's, she gave it to him hesitantly. He pulled her in close at a speed that made her take a sharp, intake of breath. The smirk on his face told her that he heard it. Bucky kept hold of this hand, and with the other he placed on her hip. An electric shiver ran up her spine. She tried to ignore it. Naturally, yet nervously, Bailey reached up and rested her palm on his shoulder. His smirk turned into a reassuring smile and he began to sway her to the music.
"Should I know this song?" She asked, dying to break the silence so that they weren't simply staring into one another's eyes.
"Hmm, you probably wouldn't. It's way before your time, but you do now. It is called You Always Hurt The One You Love."
"The brothers aren't wrong there." Bailey agreed.
"Oh," Bucky was intrigued, "Are you telling me you're a heartbreaker?"
She scoffed, "No, not me. You just see it a lot, don't you? We are around it all the time, whether it be on the TV, in films, in books, or hearing it from your friends and seeing it within your family."
"I much prefer the heartache in books, it's much less painful." He stated.
"I feel inclined to agree." Bailey said before changing the direction of the conversation.
Bravely, she moved her hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck, under his hair. Bucky lightly closed his eyes for a moment or two before he realised what he had done and snapped them back open.
"I bet you were a heartbreaker way back then." Bailey said, after seeing him do this. It made her wonder whether she had a similar effect on him as he did her.
Bucky was puzzled, "What makes you think that?"
"Your face." She blurted out before blushing, "I mean like, you're obviously an attractive guy, but like, the confidence that sometimes makes an appearance and your wittiness. I imagine girls went wild for it."
"Wild," He laughed, "I mean I can't lie, I was pretty successful, but almost to the point of arrogance. I tried to charm Peggy before."
Bailey stifled a laugh, "Steve's Peggy?"
"Yeah, Steve's Peggy before I knew it was Steve's Peggy, but it was blatant that she only had eyes for him. It was like I was invisible." He explained then laughed.
"Bet that was a kick in the teeth for Sergeant Barnes." She teased.
"Kick in the balls more like." His face turned sad, "But no, I haven't broken hearts that way, not in the way you are thinking. Even those who supposedly don't have one."
It did not take much for Bailey to know what Bucky meant. He had broken the hearts of the families of every person who was on HYDRA's blacklist. This included Tony. His swaying slowed as he drifted into thought. Bailey held the back of his neck a little tighter then brought herself closer into his chest, wearily he watched her, cautious of her actions, then picked up the movement again.
"I think he has it in him to forgive you, you know Bucky. He knows deep down it wasn't you. There's just a lot of layers of pain, and grief, and regret he needs to wade through himself first." She tried to comfort.
He sighed and didn't comment. Instead, Bucky moved the conversation on, "I promised you fun when I asked you to dance didn't I?" He spun Bailey out and around with their hands above her head, making her spin on the spot enough times to cause her to be dizzy. She stumbled into him as he pulled her back in.
This made Bailey laugh, properly laugh, for the first time in a while. The kind of laughter where you don't care what you look like when you do so, the kind you can't control and throw your head back. Her laugh was contagious, and Bucky found himself laughing along with her.
Seeing Bucky like this, Bailey was blinded from his reality and found it hard to imagine him hurting anyone. The soft smile, how he crinkles his nose up when he laughs, the wrinkles around his eyes when he smiles with his teeth. How could someone so sweet looking have the most horrendous demons? His moments and flickers of happiness hid a lifetime of pain and abuse.
The two danced to the next song, one Bailey knew very well. Frank Sinatra, Strangers in The Night. The song made her feel so exposed, the lyrics rang loud around her head. She looked to their interlocked hand rather than Bucky's face which was looking down to her still. Sinatra sang, 'Love was just a glace away, a warm embracing dance away,' Bailey peered up to him, he had his lips pressed, his eyes mesmerised. The song ended but Bucky kept hold of her hand.
"We should..." Bailey drifted.
Bucky cleared his throat, "Yeah," he said and let go.
They retreated to the couch. Bucky began searching for live performances from the 40s whilst Bailey made herself comfy on the other end of the sofa. She crossed her legs and sunk her elbow into the pillows whilst propping her head up by her hand, watching Bucky flick through. He was chatting about who he used to listen to and who he was lucky enough to see perform live, but Bailey struggled to take in what he was really saying as her eyes turned heavy. She fell to sleep.
Bucky looked to her, her head now on the couch cushion and her eyes closed. He smiled at her looking so peaceful, every ounce of stress she showed on her face this past week was erased. He turned off the tv before reaching over to Bailey. Bucky lifted her legs onto the sofa and took off her shoes. From the back of the couch, he pulled down a blanket and laid it over her. Bucky hovered over her for a moment, with one gloved finger, he moved a strand of her wild white hair from her cheek to behind her ear.
"Good night," he whispered before heading to his bedroom.
___
The complex was dimly lit, Bucky had left the living room lamp on in the corner. It shone a yellow light, making the place look cosy for the first time. Everything was still and quiet apart from a drip from the tap in the kitchen.
Dragged out of the most peaceful sleep Bailey had experienced in a while, she heard screams from another room and jolted awake in a panic.