Lay Me Down

Katherine sat at Howard Stark’s desk, her mind focused on the papers in front of her. As pompous and completely irritating as Stark was, she had to admit that the man knew his stuff. The breakthrough technology that he had developed and seemingly continued to develop was going to change the world of science.

She sighed, stretching her arms above her head. She needed a coffee. In a big mug. In the biggest mug she could find. There was only so much she could take on genetics before her head began to swim. And Stark had decided Katherine needed to update herself on all of his current research over the week. She flipped the next page over, quickly judging how many pages were left of this folder.

“Okay,” she murmured to herself. “Finish these pages and you can have coffee.”

Resting her head on her hands, Katherine continued to read page after page. Just as she was thinking that this file was never going to end and she was never actually going to get a coffee, a loud thump pulled her from her reading. Katherine jumped at the sound behind her, spinning around, her hand reaching for the small gun she knew Howard kept in his desk.

“Shoot, I’m sorry Katherine.” The breath she had been holding escaped her. Bucky stood before her, his hands raised in surrender. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Her hand left the drawer’s handle and rested on her temple. “It’s fine,” she closed her eyes. “I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading alone lately, so a sound that wasn’t a page turning made me nervous.”

Bucky nodded, picking up the book he had knocked to the ground and laying it on the table next to him. “Steve may have mentioned you had yourself holed up in here.”

Katherine quirked an eyebrow. “Did he now? I wonder where he heard that.”

Bucky grinned. “He has been spending a lot of time with Agent Carter.”

Katherine couldn’t help but smile at her two friends. The attraction between the two was evident, perhaps to everyone but themselves. She closed the files on her desk, keeping her eyes trained on the sergeant.

“Did you need something, Bucky?” She smiled and gestured to the chair next to her. “Take a seat, please.”

“Actually, Kat, I’m here to take you on a break.”

“A what?”

Bucky’s grin grew. “A break. You’ve been at this desk for days. I’m here to pull you away from it.” He could see the hesitation in her face. “Kat,” he said, softly. “Fifteen minutes isn’t going to be detrimental to your work. In fact, it’s probably going to help you. Give you a fresh mind and all that.”

She had promised herself a coffee…

She felt a tightness in her chest at the smile that crossed Bucky’s features as she stood from the desk. “Okay,” she said. She picked up her coat from the rack in the corner and wrapped an arm around Bucky’s elbow. “Fifteen minutes.”



“So what’s with all the intense reading?” Bucky asked, turning to the woman sitting next to him. “You got a test coming up?” He grinned at his own joke.

“No test,” Katherine chuckled. “Stark wants me up to date on all his notes before we leave. He has a lot of notes.”

“Another Russian trip?”

Katherine shook her head, her hands twisting together and she mindless watched soldiers walking by. “Not this time. Somewhere else.” She shared a tight smile with him. Stark had kept the details of this research trip tightly under wraps.

Bucky nodded, noting her vague response. “How long is this trip?”

“I’m not…” she cleared her throat and turned back to Bucky. “I’m not sure, to be honest.” Stark and his team had only brought the trip to her earlier the week. As with the majority of trips planned by Howard, the exact date would be unknown until he was ready to leave; the length of time they would be gone would be unknown until he thought they were finished. “I think if I had known that I were to be under the rule of Howard Stark, I may not have taken this job.” She shared a small grin with Bucky.

“Stark is a character,” was his diplomatic response.

“Stark is Stark.” Katherine smoothed her hair back with her hand, checking if her bun was still intact. “He’s good at what he does. Not so great with people.”

Katherine closed her eyes, letting the breeze dance across her face. Bucky watched her - loose tendrils of her hair falling around her face.. The doctor was beautiful. Bucky spent much of his time thinking about the night they had spent together in the hotel. He had woken up before her and all but forced himself out of the bed. Steve had not approved of his actions, but Steve also needed to lighten up.

“I, um, I did have somewhat of a selfish reason to see you.”

Katherine opened her eyes, looking at Bucky after his confession.

“Oh?”

He nodded, and cleared his throat, looking somewhat nervous. “They’re planning another mission trip. Steve. And whoever else plans these things.”

Katherine nodded. “You have been getting restless,” she smiled. “You must be happy to have something to do.”

Bucky shrugged. “Yeah.” He hesitated, then said, “it feels different this time.”

Pulling her eyebrows together, Katherine rested her hand on his shoulder. “You can talk to me, Bucky. Anytime. About anything.”

Bucky chewed the corner of his lip, and Katherine was surprised at her desire to reach out and touch him. Instead, she folded her hands on her lap, and waited for the man sitting next to her to speak.

“We leave tomorrow.”

Katherine met Bucky’s eyes. “Tomorrow?”

He nodded sadly. “Bright and early.” It was her turn to bit her lip and Bucky reached for her, running a hand along the side of her head, brushing his fingers along her temple, pushing hair away from her face. “I knew you’d be in Stark’s office and I-” he cleared his throat, suddenly looking embarrassed. “I wanted to see you before we left.”

Katherine smiled, a blush rising to her cheeks. “You did?”

“I don’t know how long this is going to take,” he admitted, “and I wanted to make sure I did this before we headed out.”

“Do what?” She was aware of how close Bucky was to her. She was more than aware of the fact that his hand was still hold her face.

“Say goodbye. See you. I’m not sure.” His jaw tightened before he whispered, “I just knew I’d miss you even more if I didn’t see you.”

Before Katherine could speak, Bucky moved forward, pulling her head to meet him, and he kissed her. She responded immediately. Her hands found his hair, as their lips moved together. This was not like any other ‘first kiss’ Katherine had ever had. There was no innocence or hesitation. There was only her and Bucky, and she found herself wondering why she had never kissed him before.

It felt like he held her for hours, but when he finally detached his lips from hers, she thought it had not been long enough.

“Will you be there?” He whispered, his forehead resting against her own. “Tomorrow morning? This was supposed to be my goodbye, but I’d like to see you just one more time. I don’t want this to be the last time.”

“I will be here when you get back. This isn’t the last time. But I will be there tomorrow,” she promised. “I will be there.”