A/N: Set two years after Bookstores, Snowballs, and Dreidels.
Day 7
Snowflakes and Wedding bells
Darcy Lewis December Challenge
xXx
The old stone cottage was beautiful in its own right; sitting beside the lake on lush green grass. Darcy preferred the snow, but this was one of the places Bucky remembered from the war and nothing else really mattered. It just seemed fitting that the last place he had spent any time with Steve and the Commandos before the fall, would be the place they declared their love and started the next step to the rest of their lives together.
They had gone to see the stone cottage six months ago. The owners of the property didn't live there and were more than happy to let them use it for their wedding, especially when they realized who Bucky really was. So with the location and the date December 7th, they were ready to plan the fine details.
On December fourth their family (mostly Darcy's and Bucky's Nieces and Nephews and their kids and significant others) would arrive in New York and stay the night in Stark Tower. Than on December fifth they would board a private plane and fly over the pond and into Europe, where they would marry on the seventh.
Bucky was practically vibrating with excitement, insisting on helping out with planning and detail and not letting Darcy take on the stress all on her own. Darcy however was nervous. She knew Bucky would do anything to make sure nothing ruined their special day, but a little voice continued to nag at the back of her mind, telling her there was always a chance a bad guy would attack or the Avengers would be called away.
Regardless she loved having Bucky's help, especially when he helped talk her down when she could make a decision or something went wrong. He always took any attitude she shot at him with a kind grace which believe it or not was not as annoying as one might think.
The only thing Bucky couldn't help with was her dress and of course that wasn't such a bad thing. Darcy had found the perfect dress. She instantly fell in love with the long white boat neck dress that trumpeted out on the ground. Beautiful detail adorned the corset down to the knee and a matching tool cape fell from the boat neck sleeves. She felt like a snow princess when she wore it and couldn't wait for Bucky to see her in it.
The fourth rolled around faster than anyone could have guessed, and the family members came pouring in with a light flurry of snow. Her parents were first through the door, hugging her and Bucky. Bucky's great and great-great nieces and nephews nearly bowled him over as they jumped to embrace him, while their parents greeted them a bit calmer. Darcy's older brothers scooped her up off her feet and embraced Bucky liked they'd known him their entire lives and the grandparents came through with hugs and kisses.
Darcy couldn't be happier. That night was filled with good food and laughter. Stories of the good ol' days and laughter filtered through the communal floors, and the whole place just felt even more like home.
They went to bed that night feeling lighter and happier than ever, both ready to give them fully to the other.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided she didn't like their plans.
The next morning, Darcy woke to the worried look of her fiancé starring back at her.
"Don't panic." Well that was never a good sign.
"What's wrong?" Bucky looked over her shoulder and cautiously she turned to face the wall of windows. "Dreck(1)." She murmured under her breath sitting up.
All she could see outside the window was a sheet of white blocking out the entire city. Bucky spoke up over her shoulder. "All the airports are closed down. Even the streets and highways are closed. The mayor's asked that everyone stay where their until the worst is passed, and even then the roads are still untrekable."
Darcy was quiet for a long time, just starring out the window with this blank look on her face. Bucky began to worry, watching her carefully.
"It's betrayed me." She whispered absently.
"What has sweetheart?"
"The snow... The snow betrayed me."
"Darcy, doll, no one could have predicted this. Even the weathermen are baffled." Darcy stood abruptly, throwing Bucky off. She marched herself into the bathroom and started up the shower finding denial preferable to the truth.
Buck watched the door until the shower started, before getting up and heading into the main apartment.
"How'd she take it?" Steve questioned from where he was leaning against the kitchen counter. Beside him stood Rebecca's oldest son James, now 59. Bucky sighed.
Beyond the kitchen and into the livingroom sat Darcy's parents and brothers. "That doesn't sound good." Her father, Ronald replied. Beside him, the younger of the two boys, Ronald Jr or RJ for short, spoke up.
"Screechy didn't start screeching, so it can't be all bad." In grade school Darcy had the misfortune of earning the nickname screechy for her loud, bird like temper tantrums. Bucky could only hope their children didn't inherit that trait.
"Please don't call her that today." He pleaded. "I can't be certain she won't actually try to kill you."
"That bad?" Her mother, Norma, asked.
"All she said was the snow betrayed her and then went to get a shower."
"The snow betrayed her?" Steve questioned confused.
"Snow has always been a harbinger of good for Darcy. Good things have always seemed to come to her because of the snow." Bucky explained.
"Wow, that's ironic." Bucky nodded his agreement as James snorted on his other side.
"Yea well, she's not exactly taking this little turn of events well."
"We'll figure it out." Steve assured.
xXx
When Darcy stepped out into the main apartment, seven sets of eye all turned to look at her. She willed herself not to roll her eyes. "Relax people, I squashed screechy a long time ago."
"Doll, that's not exactly what we're worried about." Bucky told her as she fixed her coffee.
"Oh really, what else could you possibly be worried about? Our ruined wedding, the wasted money, and the bad omen this clearly describes? What?!" Her voice rose as she spoke.
"Here comes screechy." RJ mumbled to himself. Darcy turned on him and he sunk down into the couch, Bucky's warning coming to mind.
"I am not screechy!" Bucky moved in front of her blocking her brother from view.
"Okay, doll, it's alright. We will figure this out."
"Figure it out?" she asked incredulous. "Might I remind you that the location of our wedding is a fourteen hour flight across the Atlantic ocean. All of the food is already there, the cake, the caterer, the band, all the flowers, the wedding planner. Everything is gone. We have nothing here."
"That's okay…"
"Stop saying that! It's not okay! Everything is ruined!" she smacked his hand away when he tried to reach out for her and stormed toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Norma asked as Darcy snatched her coat off the hook by the door. Darcy turned around as she shoved her arms into her sleeves.
"SCREECHY'S GOING OUT!"
She slammed the door behind her.
xXx
Bucky found Darcy on the roof top balcony an hour later. She was sitting in one of the chairs; arms crossed over her chest and slouched down with her shoulders up around her ears. Quietly, Bucky took the seat next to her.
"I'm sorry." She murmured, knowing he could hear her. Bucky smiled at her, digging her hand out and taking it in his own. "I just, I wanted everything to be perfect."
"Darcy, you and me, that's all we need to get married. Just you and me and justice of the peace. Nothing is going to keep me from marrying you tomorrow; not this storm, not the absence of food and flowers and planners. You and me are getting married tomorrow, with or without all of that." Bucky reached over and pushed her hair behind her ear. She swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. "Now, the last thing you need is to be sick tomorrow, so what do you say we head back inside?" She nodded with a sad smile and let him pull her to her feet and back inside.
xXx
That night, the men took to drinking and poker in the penthouse, while the women took to drinking and girl talk and old movies. Darcy was still nervous about the wedding, but everyone had already assured her she had nothing to worry about; that everything was taken care of. So with the assurances of her friends, she tucked herself between her mom and Jane and watched White Christmas while listening to her mother wonder out loud how they were going to celebrate the winter holidays with two separate belief systems. Darcy just chuckled to herself, reminded of their first Christmas together.
Meanwhile with the men, Darcy's father and brothers were asking the same thing of Bucky. He shrugged. "Everything's worked out so far."
"Right, right, sure." Ronald said, throwing down a few cards. "But what about when you two start having kids? What are you going to do then?"
"Honestly, we haven't really thought about it. The last few years, we've celebrated both."
"We all have." Steve added. "Darcy's been teaching all of us about Hanukkah these last two years and now we celebrate both."
"Most of us don't exactly have religious affiliations." Clint explained, dealing out new cards.
"Right, so we'll most likely celebrate both and then when their older they can chose what they want to believe for themselves." Bucky explained. Ronald nodded thoughtfully.
"Works for me, fingers crossed it works for Norma too."
xXx
Bucky spent the night in Steve's apartment, so when Darcy awoke the next morning, with the snow still falling she was alone. She watched the flakes continue to fall letting them calm her. Shortly after waking up, a knock sounded at her door and she was given time to get ready before being escorted up to the penthouse for breakfast with her friends and her mother. They talked and laughed through breakfast, Norma finding it necessary to tell embarrassing stories to her friends.
After breakfast, Natasha and Pepper led everything onto the elevator and down to the spa on one of the business floors. There they spent the day being pampered and treated like royalty. Darcy had never felt so relaxed in her life, in fact she was so comfortable that when Natasha came to extract her from the meditation room around four in the afternoon, she almost put up a fight. But one look from Natasha told her not to argue and so she followed dutifully, surprised to see the sun already setting and the snow having finally stopped.
Natasha led her back onto the elevator and back to Darcy and Bucky's apartment where she found Clint waiting for them. From the looks of things, he was waiting for her so he could do her hair and makeup. She was surprised to hear that Clint was rather talented with both skills, having done a mission or two protecting super models and movie starlets in the past. "Let me guess, you were Hans the Makeup artist." Darcy teased.
"Ha Ha, you should be nice to me Lewis or I'll make you look like a clown." He replied as he began, sweeping her hair up into a beautiful braided bun at the nape of her neck and accenting her makeup to match her white gown.
By the time they finished the sun had set and Pepper, Jane and her mother had returned from getting ready themselves. They all looked gorgeous in beautiful blue, floor length dresses with lace sleeves. Her mother wore something similar in satin. Clint left shortly after and Natasha and Jane helped her into her dress and Darcy couldn't remember a time where she felt as beautiful as she did now. "You look amazing sweetheart." Her mother cooed.
"Bucky is one lucky guy." Jane added just as a knock sounded at the door. Pepper answered and step aside to allow Thor and Darcy's father in.
"Oh wow." Her father breathed while beside him Thor beamed.
"There is not a woman in any of the nine realms as fair as you at this moment my lightning sister." Darcy blushed smiling shyly.
"I want to wear this every day." She pet dress in awe. They laughed, before her father spoke up again.
"It's time to go. Everyone's ready for you."
"Are we still not telling the bride what's going on or what?" Darcy joked as she took her father's arm and led the way with him to the elevator.
"You'll see." Pepper teased with a smile.
The elevator stopped at the lobby and her father led her off to the side while Jane, Pepper, Natasha, and Thor made their way to the doors that led to the street. Beyond the glass doors, Darcy could see white Christmas lights wrapped around the leafless trees and flowers gathered on columns creating an aisle. She watched as Thor bid Jane a farewell and walked out presumably to join the groomsmen.
It was when the string music began to play that her bride's maids began the trek outside down the aisle. When Pepper, the last to go was through the doors her father led her to the door. "Daddy," her voice was small and he turned to her. "Don't let me fall okay?" he chuckled.
"Sweetheart, you're going to be just fine. I couldn't ask for a better man to watch out for my daughter." She smiled and when the Wedding march sounded she took a deep breath and let her father lead her out into the cold December air.
Darcy's eyes immediately went to the end of the aisle where Bucky was standing; looking handsome in a black suit and long coat. He was starring in awe back at her, smiling as she smiled back. Neither of them took their eyes off each other as Darcy descended the aisle. When they finally made it, Bucky stepped up to shake her father's hand, before leading her the rest of the way. They stood before Sam, ordained for one reason or another in his army days, and there before their friends and family, in glow of while crystal lights, they pledged their undying love for one another. They began the first step to the rest of their lives as one; Mind, Body and Soul.