Author's Note:
I had this idea in my head for a while and I decided finally to write it out. I have a plot if I decide to continue it, and this is really just a prologue if I continue, but I don't know. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.
Steve sat in Avengers tower, the screen in front of him rife with leads that had gone cold or had proven failed in the past toward the identity or location of the Winter Soldier. But Steve knew who he was. He was Bucky, Bucky Barnes. Steve's best friend. 'If only he could remember that...' Steve mentally said to himself, and suppressed a heavy sigh.
"Something wrong, capsickle?" A voice asked. Steve didn't need to look up from the screen to know Tony had entered the room - and he thought he was frustrated already. Steve heard Tony open a bottle, of booze, probably, and sat down next to him. "Nothing." Steve shortly replied and Tony scoffed lightly, "Doesn't look like nothing." Bruce Banner added quietly as he slipped in from the lab and Tony nodded in agreement, "My science bro is onto something." He said lightly, taking a swing from his bottle. "It's just...I'm just trying to find Bucky and I'm not coming up with any new leads, that's all." Steve said, sighing again as he threw down a yellow folder in defeat; it was one in a growing pile, estimating at about fifty now. All of the leads were useless. "I find it's best to take little short breaks in between," Bruce began as he appeared, sitting down gently on Steve's other side. Bruce wiped his glasses and slipped them back onto his face, pushing them up. "That's how I cope with Tony." Bruce said calmly and Steve chuckled, feeling slightly better having his team-mates around him.
"Woah!" Tony suddenly cried, grabbing the remote, and pausing the screen on one picture. It was an old photo of a pretty young woman, "Who's that?" Clint asked as he silently appeared, staring at the screen. Steve growled softly, trying to grab the remote off Tony. "Come, Master Rogers - share in your past glories and conquests!" Thor's voice boomed as the Norse God clapped Steve heartily on the back. Steve was right - he definitely wasn't frustrated before, but he was now. "No, Bonnie-"
"-Oh so she's called Bonnie." Natasha interrupted as she padded in from the kitchen, and sat on the ground, shuffling through the yellow files on the coffee table. "Bonnie wasn't a conquest or a glory." Steve said, frustration ebbing into his tone. "Then how come someone so good looking is in these files - she's not your sister, obviously," Tony said, and Steve rolled his eyes, "so who the hell is she?" The playboy asked, impatiently gesturing to the screen. "Fine - I'll tell you." Steve sighed. The group all sat down, shuffling closer. "Gather round kids; it's story time!" Clint chuckled, and Steve threw him a silencing look.
"Bonnie was this girl I grew up with. Her Mom and mine were pretty close. So close her Mom would babysit me when my Mom was working, which was a lot. She also looked after me a lot after my Mom passed away. Bonnie and I had a common enemy; bullies. She had a theory," Steve began, nostalgia clear in his voice as the team eagerly listened to his old ramblings, "that there wasn't such a thing as being 'little', it just mattered who you were up against," The super soldier laughed, recalling the memory, "our problem was - we were always the little one. Then...well, then Bucky came into it."
"So that is why the fair maiden is on the Soldier of Winter's file?" Thor asked loudly, and Tony playfully slapped him, "Shh, almighty God of Thunder." The billionaire hissed. Steve smiled slightly, nodding to Thor. "Yeah, sorta. Bucky, Bonnie and I all grew up together. Bucky was always saving our asses, saving us from fight's that in no way in hell we could've handled!" Steve admitted, laughing. The group laughed, trying to imagine the huge Steve Rogers as a tiny little boy who could barely swing a punch. "Anyway...Bucky and Bonnie...I guess I saw it, but I didn't at the same time. They were close, not like Bucky and me, but they were close in another way."
"They were in luuuurve." Clint said sloppily, and Natasha pinched him. "I guess they were," Steve replied, chuckling lightly. He didn't realise how much it would help - talking about them. "So much so they decided to, what's the line..." Steve trailed off, trying to think of the pop culture reference, "'To put a ring on it'?" Natasha suggested, and Steve nodded, "Yeah, they decided to put a ring on it." Steve said. Clint and Tony childishly snickered, only to be rewarded with a seething glare from the Russian redhead. They quickly shut up. "I still remember the wedding; we didn't have much, and everyone in the neighbourhood sorta donated something to it - a glass, a plate, a chair, stuff like that. Bonnie was a seamstress, and she made her dress herself. That's the picture from their wedding day." Steve explained as Tony decreased the image to reveal it was one of both Bonnie and Bucky. Bucky stood beside her, looking quite handsome, smiling proudly with her arm around his. Her dress was simple; long sleeves, and a plain sweetheart neckline. It came in sharply in the waist, and that was it. Simple as that.
"What happened to her, is she still around, drooling into a cup in some nursing home somewhere?" Tony interjected, ruining the moment. Steve was silent, unable to string the words together in a sentence. His expression was pained, and Natasha placed a gentle hand on his arm. "Steve?" She asked softly, and he looked up, composing himself. "Yeah, sorry." he said, pulled from train of thought.
"What happened to her?" Clint asked, suddenly calm and serious. "She...she died. Pearl Harbour. She was visiting some family she had in the town. They never found her, but..they declared her dead the day after the bombings." Steve said softly as he looked toward the photo.
He found it hard to believe, someone so vivid in his memory had been gone for nearly seventy-four years. Dead and forgotten.
Bonnie Barnes deserved better than to be forgotten in an old case file.