Summer fidgeted on her feet, chewing on her lip and deciding that she was quite sure that she could not do what Natasha was asking her to do.
Standing in front of her, Natasha crossed her arms and sighed quietly. "It's really not that big of a deal."
"I know," Summer said, nodding. "I just... um... I know I'm going to look like an idiot doing this, so..."
"You're not going to look like an idiot," Natasha replied. "You're going to look like a beginner. We all have to start somewhere. And trust me, I'm not one to judge."
"Yeah, but," Summer continued fidgeting, "I just hadn't realized that this would be what we'd be starting with."
"Well, ultimately, there's no point in learning a burlesque dance if you don't know how to strip properly," Natasha explained. "So we need to work on this first."
"Right," Summer breathed, looking around Natasha's room and putting her hands on her hips. "I just have to stand here and practice taking off my bra and stuff. Over and over."
"If you're that uncomfortable," Natasha said, taking a few steps back and sitting on the edge of her bed, "I could always make it even and be in my underwear, too."
"... Yeah, somehow I don't think that'll help me much," Summer shrugged, pretty sure that such a thing would have the opposite desired effect and make her feel even less secure.
"Okay. Well, time's ticking," Natasha said with a slight grin. "Being an Avenger and all, I don't have all day."
Summer sighed, briefly closing her eyes. "Okay. Fine. Let's do this."
"Good," Natasha nodded. "Start with the bra, and once you've gotten better at that, we'll move on to taking off a garter and hose."
She said it like she was discussing the weather or mentioning ingredients needed for a pie. Summer groaned inwardly and willed herself to just get over it, taking off her shirt and turning around, officially beginning what she was mentally calling "wedding night boot camp".
Reaching both arms behind her, she found the clasp of her bra and proceeded to fumble with it like a pubescent boy trying to get his first look at real boobs for the first time.
After an entire minute had gone by, she dropped her arms and slumped her shoulders with a groan. Behind her, Natasha asked, "How do you normally take off your bras?"
She turned and muttered, "I pull the straps off and like turn it around and then unclasp it from the front. So in a completely non-sexy way, in other words. I've always sucked at taking them off the normal way. Plus half the time I don't even have to take them off myself."
It was true. Bucky could get her bra undone with a hand that wasn't even made of human flesh in the blink of an eye, while both of hers took about a million years to get the same result.
"Okay, well, let me show you," Nat said, standing up and shedding her own top. Then she turned and, with all the grace and effortless skill of someone who extremely competent and good at these things, reached back and unhooked her bra perfectly. Then she glanced back at Summer and said, "That's your goal."
"... I'm doomed," Summer decided.
Natasha simply chuckled and then re-hooked the clasp, and that might have been even more impressive than how easily she had unhooked it. "No, you just need practice. Now keep trying."
"Okay," Summer muttered, turning back around and trying again. If she couldn't do this, then she really did need to just pack it up and go home, and figure out something else to make her wedding night more interesting.
But then, what else could she really do? She ran through a number of options in her head, each one more embarrassing than the last, ranging from letting him find her tied to a bed or just doing nothing and letting the night go as it would, but she really wanted to make this work. It would be amazing if she actually pulled it off, and he would absolutely love it...
Then she felt the clasp snap apart, and she startled out of her thoughts and exclaimed, "Hey, I did it!"
"You did," Natasha smiled. "But it took you about thirty seconds. Now keep practicing. Remember what I showed you."
"Okay," she sighed, her motivation improving as she re-hooked the bra - with even more difficulty - and then began practicing until she was blue in the face.
The nice thing was, as her struggle continued, she stopped thinking so much and feeling nervous, mostly thanks to the repetition of what she was doing and getting used to the idea of doing it in front of someone. Of course, her anxiety had a good shot at returning full-force once it was time to actually get mostly naked, but she'd worry about that when the time came.
After an unknown amount of time that Summer didn't want to measure in order to maintain her dignity, she finally managed to unhook her bra quickly enough and in enough consecutive times that Natasha gave her an amused slow-clap.
"Okay, I think you're getting it now," Nat said, and Summer sighed with relief. "You'll need to keep practicing, but let's move on to the fun stuff."
"The fun stuff?" Summer asked warily, though she was pretty sure she knew what was coming.
Natasha nodded. "Now you get a lesson in taking off garters and hose."
She suddenly wished that she could go back to the bra stuff.
About an hour later, Summer had learned the finer points of shedding lingerie by both watching and by practicing taking the various items off, and she also picked two songs to use when that fateful wedding night finally came. The first song, a slower one, was one that she knew from Bucky's records, and the second was a more modern take on another song from his time. Both were on the shorter side and quite different, but when played back to back, they were perfect for what Summer had in mind. With Natasha's seal of approval, it was one more decision regarding the wedding night surprise down.
By the end of the hour, she was already a bit tired, and she hadn't even started the dancing stuff yet.
Those things, however, would have to wait for another day. It was still morning, and she had somewhere rather important to be.
She took a little bit longer jumping in the shower and getting ready that day, making sure that she looked almost at her best, and she made sure that David was in tip-top shape too. Once she was satisfied in their appearances and refusing to feel silly about it, she grabbed a thin folder containing a set of legal papers, her purse, and a bag of snacks for the road, then got on the elevator with David and headed down to the gym that Bucky was currently in.
Once they arrived, Summer blinked at the Fort Knox-level of reinforcing that Tony had apparently done with the space. What had once been a fairly normal gym now looked like some kind of government training facility, still full of exercise equipment that catered to everyone but also expanded and more open, enclosed by thick glass and... steel walls?
Of course, Thor and Bucky had almost destroyed the whole place with just their friendly sparring months ago, so it made sense that Tony had upgraded the place.
Standing on the safe side of the glass, Summer slowly walked forward and peered in, her eyes landing on Bucky almost instantly. Today, it was just him and two others, Wanda and Vision, though it was technically their day off. Normally they did their training now at the new place that Summer had yet to visit, but Bucky was always up for it and Wanda didn't seem to believe in days off when it came to almost obsessively working on gaining complete control of her powers.
And Vision, well, it didn't matter what day of the week it was. He seemed to always be close to Wanda, if not by her side then likely somewhere in the same room, unless she was alone in her bedroom. His proximity wasn't at all off-putting or creepy, however, but instead entirely innocent and, if Summer's impressions were right, incredibly protective. He still had his own things to do, and he was soaking in the world around him with all the wonder of a child and all the intellect of a... whatever brilliant thing he was, but Wanda never seemed to be far from his thoughts.
Everyone had noticed it, and nobody had said a word, because nobody knew what would ultimately come of it. All Summer knew was that it was fricking adorable.
Something else that brought a smile to her face in that moment was watching Bucky gently but firmly guide the woman in what she assumed were various bits of hand to hand combat. She could see him talking, showing her how to block and how to hit, and she thought it was quite funny how he very stubbornly believed that even a literal powerhouse of a girl still needed to know how to manually beat somebody up and had decided weeks ago to personally see to that.
They needed to leave the tower and get on the road soon, but Summer took a few moments to watch. She didn't often get a chance to see Bucky in action, let alone helping to teach someone the basics of fighting. She watched them go a few rounds, practicing the same move over and over - her trying to land a hit on him, but being too slow each time - then decided it was safe enough for her and David to stroll inside and get a better seat.
Once they had, Bucky looked up and noticed their presence while he held Wanda in a lock, having just thwarted her latest attempt again. He threw Summer a grin, then told Wanda, "See, if I was actually attacking you, I'd do this -" he twisted her arm behind her, though her lack of a pained response gave away how easy he was going on her, "and snap your arm in half. Then the other one. Which might make it hard to do all that voodoo stuff."
Summer snorted at the term, and then Wanda rolled her eyes before replying, "No, because before you even had a chance to break my arm, I would do this."
There was a sudden blast of red between them, and while Bucky's left arm took the brunt of it, he still flew backwards some feet and was instantly reminded of who he was dealing with when he hit the wall with a harsh thud. Summer gasped, and Wanda whipped around with wide eyes as he groaned at the unexpected impact.
"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to... hit you so hard," Wanda said, genuinely surprised. "I thought it would take more to throw you."
"Guess not," Bucky said, grimacing as he straightened up. Then he looked down at his metal arm and furrowed his brows, shifting it back and forth a bit. Summer hopped up to her feet and hurried to him.
"Are you okay?" she asked, touching the arm and noticing that the plates looked somehow different now, like they had shifted and crunched together slightly when Wanda's energy had hit them.
"Yeah," he nodded, and Summer felt his arm start vibrating under her fingertips. He was using the function that caused the vibration in the first place, which was a self-checking and repairing one, and Summer watched with ever-growing respect for Tony Stark's genius as the plates returned to their normal positions.
"I'm sorry," Wanda stated again, relieved when she saw the arm right itself.
Bucky merely shrugged and said, "Occupational hazard." Then he gestured to her hands and said, "You're getting stronger."
Summer looked at Wanda with a bit of awe, much like David did at basically all times. Then she chimed in, "Well, seeing as she can stop a moving train..."
"Yeah, but I mean her concentration's better," Bucky replied before going back to addressing Wanda directly. "Next time, don't hold back."
She blinked. "But..."
"I can take it," he reminded her before turning to Summer. "What time is it?"
"Time to go," Summer replied with a small but brave smile.
Bucky paused before nodding. Then he turned to Wanda and gave her shoulder a pat and said, "You and Vision keep practicing."
Summer immediately snickered like an idiot and blurted, "I bet you don't have to tell him twice."
Everyone then stared at her with varying degrees of blankness, none more so than Vision himself, who merely replied after a moment of confused silence, "I am always willing to help in any way that I can."
"I know," Summer said quickly, feeling her face flush in mild embarrassment. "And that's totally what I meant. You're... super helpful. Especially to her. You know. In a super friendly way."
The hilarious thing was, Wanda looked almost as clueless as Vision did. Bucky merely chuckled, apparently the only one to understand why Summer was rambling, and he took her hand to lead her away after they both bade the two others goodbye.
"Real subtle," Bucky said quietly as they made their way back to the elevator.
"I just ship it so hard," Summer half-whined, half-whispered, smiling at her own stupidity. "You know what I mean?"
"Not really," Bucky admitted. "But I trust your judgement."
Summer sighed as they stood in front of the elevator and waited for the doors to open, contemplating super-powered badass chicks and guys who were actually sort of robots and how they obviously made perfect matches. Then Bucky squeezed her hand and stole her attention, and she looked up to find his expression much more serious as he looked at her.
"You sure you still want to do this?" he asked her.
The not-fully-pleasant flutters in her belly briefly took Summer aback. She had been mentally preparing herself for this day for a week, and now that it was here, she wanted to equally get it over with it and run away and pretend that it didn't have to happen.
But it did have to happen. She nodded as the elevator opened, and as the three of them stepped inside, she sighed and said, "Yeah. I'm sure."
"You don't have to see him again," Bucky said, eyes still utterly sincere and serious. "You don't."
"I do, though," she shrugged, briefly holding up the folder in her hand as proof. "If I try to do this through just lawyers it'll take forever. This way is quicker and he probably won't put up a fight."
Bucky nodded, though he didn't look any happier about this idea than he had when she had initially mentioned it. "I just... if he even tries to touch you..."
"Then I will tase the ever living crap out of him," Summer smiled in reply. "It's going to be fine. We're going to go to this address that Natasha so helpfully got for us, and he'll sign the papers, and then... I'll never have to think about him or see him ever again."
At least, that's how she hoped it would go. One could never be too sure how tracking down their ex and asking him to sign away his rights to a kid that he had physically forced into existence would go, but if she had to guess, Mark would be more than fine with not having to pay child support anymore. And since that monthly check was the extent of his interaction with David, it would be a win-win for all involved.
Beside her, Bucky nodded. She knew he didn't want her anywhere near Mark, but the nice thing about Bucky was that he didn't try to tell her that she couldn't do this or try to force her to stop. He respected her too much to do either of those things.
And so, neither of them looking forward to what the rest of the day held, they pressed on nonetheless and piled into a borrowed car to head four and half hours out of town, to the city that Summer had first met Bucky in. She had opened a huge chapter of her life there, and now she was going to officially and finally close one that was long overdue.
As relatively brief road trips went, theirs couldn't have gone better. Bucky drove half the way there and then let Summer take over at a stop for gas, and David stayed surprisingly happy being stuck in the car for nearly five hours. Summer tortured both men with bad pop music that she claimed was absolutely necessary for long drives, then had fun batting Bucky's wandering hand away from her leg when he ended up actually liking some of the more lively songs. Apparently, Justin Timberlake was just that infectious.
But, the moment that Summer drove them officially into Fall's Church city limits, her happy mood sobered a bit. She had to start paying attention to getting to the address that was scrawled on a post-it in Natasha's handwriting, while also trying to deal with all the memories that the familiar scenery brought back to her.
She drove past her old high school, past the little donut shop that she'd worked her first summer job in, and past a road that would have taken her back to her grandmother's house outside of town had it still been standing. A lot of the memories associated with the city were good, but many of them were anything but, and she recounted some of both mindlessly to Bucky along the way.
"That movie theater's where I had my first kiss," she said, gesturing to a small theater in a shopping center that they zoomed past.
Bucky glanced at the theater and then asked, "With him?"
Summer nodded. "Yeah. Unfortunately. He was my first... everything."
She wasn't sure if Bucky knew that, at least not fully. He turned to her and repeated quietly, "Everything?"
She nodded, then paused. "Well. No. You were the first to ever... uh..." She glanced back at David, who was looking around his old town out of his window with interest and with earbuds in, and she tried to think of a way to covertly get her answer across as she turned back to the road. "You know. With your..." She tapped her mouth, feeling like an idiot, but Bucky got the message.
"Yeah, I thought so. Sure seemed that way the first time."
"... Do I even want to know what that means?" she asked, fighting a cringe. That night had been so long ago. Now, it felt almost like it had been another life entirely when they had still been so new to each other and too scared to do more than simply "fool around" during rare nights to themselves.
But Bucky simply smiled, glancing out to the road as he replied, "You just seemed so... surprised. And nervous. At least until... well."
She held the steering wheel a little tighter, hyper-aware of David's presence and the need to keep the conversation coded and vague, but the distraction of the talk was more than welcome at the moment. "Yeah. Well. I think I was also in shock that you still... um... knew how. After everything you'd been through."
"I guess some things you just don't ever forget," Bucky grinned. Summer looked at him in slight exasperation, and he briefly widened his grin before letting it slowly fall altogether.
"What?" she asked, coming to a red light. He looked like he was just now putting an equation together in his head, one that was long overdue.
"You said I was the first for that, but... you must have done it for him," Bucky said, voice very quiet for necessity's sake.
"Oh. Yeah. A lot, actually," she admitted, not really wanting to recall those particular memories.
"Why?"
She sighed and pressed the gas as the light turned green. "I don't know. I was young and stupid. And he thought that it was good enough on his part to then repay me by just..." She gestured vaguely with her fingers. "Which, by the way, he was awful at. But he said that was my fault, too."
"How could it be your fault?" Bucky asked with highly confused eyes.
She shrugged. "Because he said it worked fine for his exes. So... I guess they just... faked it? But I didn't think of that at the time. I thought I was just difficult."
A sudden, sharp laugh from Bucky stole her attention from the road for a moment. She looked at him curiously, and he merely grinned and replied, "You're anything but difficult."
She smiled and looked away, fighting a blush. "Well, that's not what he thought."
Bucky was quiet for a moment before muttering, "The more you tell me about him, the more I wish I hadn't let him walk away when I met him."
"Well, he technically... crawled away, because... I'm pretty sure you broke his leg, but... yeah," Summer replied, double taking at a street sign. "Oh, here's my turn."
Turning off of the main road and on to a neighborhood street, Summer began looking for the right address on the mailboxes lining the street, silence falling once again as she crept slowly down the road and felt her anxiety return now that she was so close. Once she found the right house, she turned into the driveway and parked behind two cars that were already there.
She glanced over at Bucky as she turned off the engine, finding him quietly sweeping his eyes over the entire property and likely "scoping" it out, as he did with every place they ever went. She then reached in the backseat and grabbed her folder, then tapped David's leg. He removed the earbuds from his ears, and then she smiled and said, "I'll be right back, okay? Daddy's going to stay here with you. Hopefully I'll just be a few minutes."
David nodded, and she smiled at him before turning to Bucky, who was now staring at her quite seriously.
"You have your taser, right?" he asked quietly.
She nodded. "Yes. It's going to be fine, Bucky."
He shook his head. "But just in case..."
She nodded again. "I know. I'll be right back."
She then kissed him lightly and opened the door, taking a breath and trying to ignore the twisting in her gut as she got to her feet. She shut the car door and looked at the front of the modest house, sighing and forcing her feet to take her to the front door.
Once she was there, she rang the doorbell and waited, clutching her folder in one arm and her purse on the other. She glanced at the car, finding both pairs of eyes quietly watching her, and then the front door opened.
She looked up and was instantly surprised by the sight of Mark's father standing there. He looked as surprised to see her as she was.
"... Summer?" he asked, looking at her like she was the strangest thing he had seen all year. He was in his sixties now, a retired sheriff, but he wasn't nearly as intimidating as she remembered him being. Probably because she lived with people who actually were intimidating and called them her friends.
"Um... yeah, I... hi. How are you?" she asked, not sure what to say. When Natasha had told her that Mark was living back home in Virginia and no longer in Texas, she hadn't realized that it was because he was back living with his dad.
"I'm fine, but what are you doing here?" he asked, though not unkindly.
"I, well... I've got some papers that I need Mark to sign," she said, waving the folder slightly. "It'll only take a minute. I'm not here to bother him."
The man nodded, looking down at the folder and then holding the door open for her. "Come in. I'll go get him."
"Thank you," she said, more than a little surprised by how nice he was being. Back in the day, Mark's father had considered her lower than scum following their breakup, believing that not only was she lying about how she'd gotten pregnant, but that Mark probably wasn't the father anyway. Now he just looked at her with what seemed like sadness as he ushered her inside of his home.
He led her to the living room and asked along the way, "Your boy - how old is he now?"
"Six," she replied.
"He still... have problems?" he asked a bit clumsily.
She fought the urge to roll her eyes. "He's still autistic, yeah. It's not something that goes away."
He nodded, like he immediately regretted the question, and then said, "Wait here. I'll go get Mark."
She nodded, furrowing her brow as she watched him disappear into a hallway. The only thing that seemed to explain his behavior was the idea that he had figured out that Mark had been lying to him since the start, and now he was ashamed of his son, or at least still in the process of coming to terms with what he'd done.
Summer stood there in the living room, not wanting to sit and instead looking at photos that lined a mantle above the fireplace. Most were old, and some included the mother that Mark had lost while he was still just a kid. The most striking thing was how similar Mark and David looked as children.
She was staring at one particular picture when she heard somewhat slow footsteps, and she looked up to find Mark standing in the doorway of the room, just as bewildered at her presence as his father had been.
While Summer had taken care to look her best today, Mark looked somewhere near his worst. He looked distinctly hungover, unshaved, generally unkempt, and if she wasn't mistaken, he was walking with a limp.
"The hell do you want?" he snapped, voice croaking like he had just woken up, at four in the afternoon.
"Not much," she replied quietly, a bit shocked at his appearance. "I, uh... just have some papers here."
"Papers," he muttered, dragging himself further into the room before stopping and asking her suspiciously, "You alone?"
She shook her head. "He's outside with David."
She didn't need to say Bucky's name for Mark to know who she was referring to. She also didn't miss the brief glint of fear that passed through his eyes.
"Right. Of course. So what kind of papers are these? I've been sending you a check on time every month."
"I know. But I don't need you to do that anymore," she said, handing him the folder. Gathering her courage, she added, "I'm getting married soon, and he's adopting David, so... you can finally... be free of us."
She watched as Mark opened the folder, stared down at the papers, and then looked up at her in disbelief. "You want me to sign away my rights?"
She shrugged. "You don't have a relationship with him anyway. Now you can save some money every month and he gets to have my new last name. Everybody wins."
Just like she had feared, Mark shook his head and then snapped the folder shut, then thrusted it back to her. "No. Hell no."
She took the folder back and asked in exasperation, "Why?"
"Because," Mark muttered, looking away from her to the floor.
"That's not an answer," she pointed out.
Then he looked up at her defiantly and said, "Fine, you want an answer? How about I can't have kids anymore because of what your psycho boyfriend did to me, and David's the only one I'll ever have?"
For a very short moment, Summer was speechless. She hadn't seen that one coming, although... now that she thought of it... it certainly made sense. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh," he mocked.
"Well... that sucks for you, but it doesn't change anything," she replied bluntly. "I'm never going to let you in his life and you've never shown interest anyway."
"Except for when I showed up at your house and got beaten half to death because of it," he replied.
"Don't put that on me," she shook her head. "I gave you chance after chance when he was first born, even though I didn't want to, and you ran every single time."
"I was young, I was stupid," Mark muttered, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah? And what are you now? I thought you were making 'big money' in Texas," she said, using air quotes. "Now you're living back home with your dad and wake up hungover at four in the afternoon?"
"You have no idea what I've been through," Mark said, refusing to look at her at this point.
"Maybe not, but that's not why I'm here anyway," she sighed. "I just... I want to be done with this. Forever. You hate me, I hate you. We'll never get along, and you've never wanted to be David's father. But he has a good one now, and -"
Mark snorted out a heavily sarcastic laugh. "Really? He's a good father? Last time I checked he was a killer on the run from the government."
"And you're an abusive loser who raped his girlfriend and then blamed her for it," she shot back.
Rather than dispute this, Mark simply raised his eyebrows and said, "Yeah, you sure know how to pick 'em, don't you?"
Now she was getting angry. She knew that she shouldn't let him goad her into fighting or a shouting match that would get them nowhere, but he had just belittled her and her fiancé in one sentence.
"You don't know him. You don't know me. Don't act like you do," she said. "Just sign the papers so I never have to see your face again."
"Or I could call the cops and they could come and arrest him," Mark said, a despicable smirk on his face. "I bet there's a big reward for bringing in the Winter Soldier. And then they'd probably give me custody of David and lock you up for being an accomplice."
For one fleeting but terrifyingly dark moment, it was as if she was nineteen again and at the mercy of the very same man who had ripped her innocence away at that same age. He saw the fear in her eyes and let his smile widen, and she let the fear turn her very bones cold until she very consciously decided that she was not going to let this happen again.
She had been through too much and overcome too many obstacles to let this speck of a man get away with even idle threats. He didn't get to scare her or hurt her anymore, and her true reaction to his threat came without so much as a second thought or a moment's hesitation.
She tossed the papers down into an armchair and then reached into her purse, grabbed her taser, then dropped her purse to the floor. Then she closed the distance between herself and Mark, grabbed him by the collar of the ratty old shirt he was wearing, and slammed him harshly against the wall as she pressed the weapon to the crook of his neck.
The look of terror and pure shock in his eyes was something she'd never forget or cease to be utterly tickled about.
"Go ahead," she said, her voice sounding strange to her own ears for how suddenly terrifying it sounded. "Threaten us again, I dare you."
"What the f-"
She jabbed him harder with the taser, shutting him up, then said, "You say you've been through a lot, but I guarantee you, it's nothing compared to the last year and a half of my life. I am not the girl you remember me being, and I do not have time for this. Either sign the papers or don't. But don't think for a minute that I'm gonna let you threaten me or my family, or try to scare me into doing what you want. It's not going to work anymore."
"You're crazy," he said with wide eyes.
She paused, staring at him and truly seeing for once what and who he really was. He was a coward, like all men who did the things that he did, and he would likely die a coward.
"No, not crazy. Just finally not scared of you anymore," she said quietly, releasing him with a shove that she hoped hurt at least a little.
Her heart was racing, adrenaline pumping, sort of like it had the time that she had beaten up a HYDRA operative with a riding crop, but this time was so much better due to the sheer emotional relief of facing this man and finally winning. Whether or not he signed the papers, she had still accomplished something very real, and as it turned out, Bucky had walked inside the house just in time to see it all unfold himself.
She glanced towards the front door, saw Bucky standing there holding David's hand and covering his eyes with the other, surely just in case Mark did end up getting tasered. Her eyes met Bucky's, and the look of sheer pride there made her spirits soar as she stepped away from Mark and picked the papers back up.
She handed them to Mark, and with a steady, fearless voice, told him, "Sign the damn papers."
She was sure of one thing: she should have done this ages ago.
Bucky had begun to get nervous in the car as the minutes that Summer spent inside the house had dragged on. He'd tapped his fingers on his leg impatiently, watching the clock with a fierce concentration, debating how long "too long" was and how long he was willing to sit there and wait for her.
It wasn't that he doubted her ability to handle herself. He just didn't trust Mark not to do something stupid, and if he did, he didn't want Summer to have to deal with it alone.
So, when he had decided that she had been there too long, he grabbed David and headed inside. He hadn't expected to walk in and find Summer holding Mark against a wall, brandishing her weapon at his neck, threatening him with a tone that he'd never heard come out of her mouth before. Not only was she handling it, she was handling it damn well, and Bucky was instantly overcome with a mixture of pride and admiration for her.
This time, his presence wasn't necessary to put the fear of God into Mark.
Once Summer let go and looked at Bucky, allowing him to tell her how incredible he thought she was with his eyes rather than his words, she handed the papers back to Mark and told him to sign them. Mark then looked back and forth from Summer to Bucky, as if he couldn't tell who he was more scared of, but then his eyes fell to David, who was still clutching Bucky's hand and was now watching the scene unfold with curious eyes.
Mark stared at David silently for what felt like an eternity. Bucky glanced at Summer, who was quiet now and simply waiting, and then he looked at David, who didn't know that he was in the presence of his biological father.
They really did look a lot alike, and there was no denying that. But that was where their similarities ended.
Mark's gaze moved from David's face to his hand, small and engulfed within Bucky's larger one, and then he tore his eyes away, almost as if he couldn't stand to look anymore. Then he looked at Summer again, but only for a moment before he looked down at the folder in his hands.
He looked at it like it was both everything he wanted and the last thing he'd ever want. There was a long moment where he did nothing, but then finally, he threw it open and again and muttered, "Fine."
Bucky's eyes flew to Summer, who was instantly overcome with relief. Mark flipped through the pages, grabbing a pen that was inside the folder, then quickly signing in all the necessary places. Once it was done, he snapped the folder shut and handed it back to Summer, then muttered, "Now can all of you please get out of my house."
Summer nodded, turning and not looking back once. "Thank you."
Mark ignored her, once again staring at David, who was staring back just as intently. Once Summer was at their side, Bucky gave David's hand a gentle tug and turned him back towards the door, breaking the eye contact.
Bucky looked back at Mark as Summer opened the door, just long and threateningly enough to watch his already-pallid face pale. Then he followed Summer out the door, leaving the man in the past where he belonged.
Summer's shoulders relaxed as soon as they were out of the house and the door was closed behind him. "Oh, thank God that's over. I didn't think he was going to sign."
Before Bucky could reply, David let go of his hand in order to look up at Summer and start asking her questions with his hands as they walked to the car. Summer paused, watching his motions carefully, and then she frowned before crouching down to David's level, just beside the backseat door of the car.
"Do you remember how I told you a long time ago that your father was a bad man, and because he was bad, we didn't talk to him or see him?" she asked gently. David nodded, and she went on, "Well... that was him."
Bucky watched David's eyes widen, and Summer kept talking. "I needed to have him sign some stuff, because if he didn't... then Bucky - Daddy - wouldn't be able to adopt you."
David's eyes got even bigger, and he signed back the word adopt questioningly.
Summer smiled and nodded. "Yeah. So when we get married, you'll have his last name, just like I will. Nobody will ever be able to tell you that he isn't your Daddy."
At this, David beamed and then looked up at Bucky excitedly before throwing himself at him in a big hug. Summer laughed at his reaction, then smiled warmly at the affection on Bucky's face as he hugged the kid back.
None of them noticed Mark watching from a window, phone in hand ready to dial the police but stopping when he saw the family's happy little moment unfold. Instead of calling the cops just like he had threatened, he ended up throwing the phone across the room and breaking it, then turning away from the window with long-repressed shame and guilt clawing its way to the surface and replacing his more vindictive urges. He then headed for the liquor cabinet while Summer got her boys loaded back into the car, then got behind the wheel with a stubborn smile on her face.
Bucky held her free hand in his as she got them back on the road, still grinning and catching his gaze as they cruised back on to the highway.
"What?" She asked, though she had to very well know what.
"You're incredible," he told her with the utmost sincerity. Somehow, she managed to smile even more.
"Yeah... that felt pretty good, not gonna lie," she said, turning back to the road. "Kinda proud of myself at the moment."
"You should be," he replied. "And I'm proud of you, too."
She flashed him another smile, then took a centering breath before deciding, "Okay. Now that we've got that squared away and everything is awesome... we need to set a date. And plan this wedding. And figure out where we're going to actually do it, and how." She then paused and added, "And colors! What are our colors going to be?!"
He chuckled at her sudden change in subject, then spent the next few hours fielding questions ranging from what kind of icing he liked best to what colors he was not okay with. All in all, it was a very good day, and Bucky was glad that Summer had the courage to make it happen. Now there was one less obstacle in their way to making their little family official.
But, he quickly and understandably decided, he'd leave all the wedding planning stuff to her.
Before they left Fall's Church, Summer dealt herself one more emotional challenge and drove to where her grandmother's house had once stood. She had gone back and forth in her head for a bit before deciding to just do it, mostly for closure's sake rather than anything else. They didn't stay there long, mainly because the sight of the empty property nearly ruined David's good mood and set him on edge, but Summer was ultimately glad that she had done it.
That land was another piece of her past, a big one, and a living reminder of how HYDRA had personally touched her life in a way that she had never wanted. It had been collateral damage of her decisions, but it had unwittingly pushed her into her future and ultimately helped her to grow. The house had been her comfort zone and a place that she had been terrified to leave, but once she had, it was almost as if her life had bloomed and begun to thrive, in every way possible. She still hated the bastards for dropping the bomb on her house, of course, and she always would, but she could now be proud that she hadn't let it hold her or David back.
They had both come so far, and so had Bucky, even more so. She drove over the Virginia border with a smile on her face, leaving the past behind her in more ways than one.
They stopped for dinner on the way home, at a little cafe outside of some small town, and as they ate, an idea had sprung in Summer's mind. She asked Bucky to make a phone call, and after he obliged, she was incredibly excited to make a very welcomed detour on their way home. The road trip just kept getting better and better.
Bucky then took over driving for the remainder of the night, and some hours later, they found themselves in Pennsylvania, driving a familiar road in the middle of nowhere to a farm that technically didn't exist.
It had felt like ages since they had been at Clint's farm, or even seen Clint at all, and as soon as the previously sleepy David had recognized the dirt road that led to the farm, he was suddenly wide awake and sign-babbling the rest of the way there.
Upon arrival, Summer got out of the car and immediately felt a bit homesick. The farm truly was a home, and no tower, no matter how nice and awesomely designed, could measure up. That was just the way it was, and Summer was already sad to leave the place even though she hadn't even walked inside yet.
As Bucky got David out of the car, Summer smiled to herself and watched Clint open the front door and start heading their way, under the clear night sky.
"And here I thought my open invitation to visit whenever was just gonna be politely ignored," Clint said as David ran past both Bucky and Summer towards the place.
"Well, we were in the neighborhood," Summer smiled, meeting Clint at the bottom of his porch steps. "And since you never seem to be in ours much..."
"Yeah, right. You're just here for the farm, not for me, let's be honest," Clint shrugged, throwing Summer a brief one-armed hug just as David bounded up the steps and ran inside.
"Oh wow, I'm sorry. David's a little too excited about spending the night here," Summer explained, but Clint shrugged off her concern.
"He can knock himself out. So," he glanced at Bucky and then back at Summer, "I hear he finally put a ring on it."
Bucky rolled his eyes while Summer beamed and held up her hand in confirmation. "Yup! He liked it so he put a ring on it."
"I'd break out into my legendary impression of that Beyoncé dance but I think I'll save it for the wedding," Clint said. "Assuming I'm invited."
"Definitely not," Bucky deadpanned.
"Oh yeah? Then no freeloaders," Clint shot back. "The kid can stay, though. Give me a week and I'll have him shooting arrows better than you can."
Bucky scoffed. "I'll teach him to fight way before you ever get a bow in his hands."
"Yeah, we'll see about that."
Summer looked back and forth between the two men and then said, "Are you guys seriously arguing about how to train my kid to fight, like, bad guys?"
"He's in school now, right?" Clint asked, and Summer nodded. "Well, then, we should make him a nightmare for bullies."
Her eyes widened. "Oh dear God."
Clint chuckled, then invited them inside as Summer envisioned David turning into a ridiculously cute pint-sized schoolyard Avenger. Then, once they were inside the home, Summer looked around and smiled softly at how it looked just the same as she remembered it.
"Oh man," she sighed as Bucky closed the door behind her. "I've missed the crap out of this place."
"Yeah, well... just stay out of the barn," Clint said, eyeing them both knowingly. "That's all I ask."
"Can't imagine why," Bucky said, following Clint as he led them into the living room, where David already was. He was currently crouched down in front of a couch, peering under it, where a cat was hiding and staring at him suspiciously.
"Not at all. So, set a date yet?" Clint asked as they all sat down, making sure not to accidentally step on David in the process.
"Not yet," Summer admitted, "But we agreed on six months a week ago, so... we've got a general time in mind. Not much else though. I can't even decide on a theme, and planning that kind of thing is what I do for a living now."
"Can't be that hard," Clint said, kicking back with his foot on the coffee table between them. "Do you know where you're doing it?"
Summer shook her head a bit sadly. "No clue. I mean... no to the tower. A church would be okay, but I'm a little too Jewish for that, and I'd rather have it outside anyway. I just don't know where. Like maybe a beach but... eh. I just... want something different. Less cliched. More... home-y, maybe?"
Though Summer was pretty sure that she was making zero sense, Clint apparently understood what she was saying.
"So in other words, you want a farm wedding," he deducted. "All you've gotta do is ask, you know."
Summer froze and stared at the archer as if a light bulb had suddenly appeared over her head and flickered on in as a result of his sheer brilliance. "Oh. My God." She turned to Bucky with wide eyes. "Please say you're okay with that idea because I just fell in love with it."
"I... sure," Bucky shrugged. Then his eyes widened as she squealed in reply and then turned back to Clint to squeal at him, too.
"So we can do it here? Are you sure? Because it would be perfect and so cute and I've been on Pinterest so much and I've really liked vintage stuff I've seen on there and oh my God, a vintage farm wedding would be so incredibly pretty and cute and..."
Clint glanced at Bucky, both of them amused and a little scared of her at the moment, then said, "Yeah, I'm sure."
She then squealed again, and the cat that David had been trying to coax out from under the couch suddenly came dashing out, like she had scared it to death. David went after it as Summer gushed, "Thank you so much. This is gonna be great!"
"Who's gonna marry you guys?" Clint then asked, as Summer whipped out her phone to start immediately looking up farm wedding things.
"Oh, you mean like a minister? No clue," Summer admitted.
"Just wondering, because I'm certified," Clint mentioned casually.
She blinked. "You're a minister?"
He shrugged. "I've had some weird covers. But yes."
"... Then that's perfect!" she exclaimed, accidentally tossing her phone across the couch and behind a pillow in the process. She scrambled to retrieve it, and then upon sticking her hand behind the pillow, pulled out something very different from a phone.
"Um..." Summer stared at the very pretty, lacy red bra dangling from her fingertips, then looked at Clint in confusion.
"Oh, that's where that went," he said, getting up and snatching it out of her hand. "I'll take that."
He then headed off, presumably to throw the thing in his bedroom, and Summer glanced at Bucky with an intensely curious expression. "... Think he's got a secret girlfriend?"
"Either that or it's his," Bucky shrugged.
Summer paused. "Probably a girlfriend, then."
When Clint came back, Summer initiated her interrogation. "Who's the girl?"
"Nobody you know," he replied evenly.
"So there's a girl?"
"What, you think it's mine?" he asked. "No matter what Nat's told you about Panama, I don't cross dress unless I actually have to."
Summer furrowed her brows. "The frick happened in Panama?"
Clint merely remained utterly deadpan and then changed the subject. "Let me know once you set a date, so I know which day to plan for. And you're not planning on a big thing with tons of people, right?"
"Oh no," Summer shook her head. "Very tight knit. Only people in 'the circle'."
He nodded. "Good."
She nodded back. Then, after a beat of silence, she said, "So, about the girl..."
He stood up and then deflected, "I made blackberry crumble earlier. Want some?"
Summer grinned and nodded, and after he left the room, leaned back against the couch and said, "Well, he's awfully secretive."
"I don't blame him," Bucky shrugged.
She looked at him and then cautiously asked, "You sure you're okay with getting married here?"
He nodded and smiled. "Yeah. As long as it's what you want."
"I think it is. It sounds perfect," she grinned happily. "I'm so excited."
She then squealed again, and he couldn't help but pull her closer for a moment and give her a quick little kiss before she started tearing her phone apart again. She truly was incredibly excited, even more so now that the adoption issue had been squared away, and now it was hopefully time for the fun stuff: dress shopping, decoration design, and everything else that made planning a wedding one of the most stressfully fun life experiences.
And she even had an Avenger for a minister, not mention one for a groom, plus a maid of honor. Her inner fangirl was screaming.
Later that night, after David had gone to bed in his old room, Bucky found Summer not inside the room they were taking for the night but instead sitting outside, on the porch steps, staring happily but thoughtfully out into the night. He quietly sat next to her, nudging her shoulder gently with his and catching her attention.
She smiled at him. "Hey."
"Hey," he said back. "Thought you'd be tired."
"I am," she said lightly. "Just thinking."
"About what?" he asked, watching her eyes drift upwards to the stars above them. They shined much brighter out here than they did back in the city, that was for sure.
"Just... things. Wedding things. Marriage things. Life things."
"Is that all?" he joked, and she chuckled.
"Well... being here and seeing where my old house used to be just has me thinking. Like... well... how long do you want to live at the tower?" she asked him, and he could see slight anxiety in her body language as she asked him this.
"I'm not sure," he answered truthfully. "Do you not want to live there?"
"Not forever," she admitted. "I mean, I like it there and everything, but... it's not a home. This is a home. I want something like this eventually. Not a farm necessarily, but... a house, tucked away somewhere private, where we can have some animals and David can play outside... stuff like that."
"So you want your old house back," he deducted, and she smiled a bit sadly in reply.
"Yeah. Sometimes I really do."
He looked at the wistful, slightly longing look in her eye, and he again cursed the day that he had been stupid enough to lead HYDRA to that house. He wished that he could take it back and that she and David had never had to go through having that house utterly destroyed with them just barely outside of it.
If he could, he'd rebuild it for her himself.
And then, suddenly, it was his turn to have a light bulb flicker to life above his head.
Slowly, he turned to her and asked quietly, "You still own that land, right?" She nodded, looking at him curiously. He then added, "What if we... one day... built a new house there?"
Clearly, the idea had never even crossed her mind before that moment. Her eyebrows moved up her forehead and she blinked a few times, the wheels turning in her head.
"Would you want that, though?" she asked carefully. "I mean, our work is both in New York."
"Well, mine's sort of... everywhere," he pointed out. "It's just an idea, but... I want you to be happy. And if a real house is what you want, I think it would make sense to have one there."
"It would," she agreed, a small smile touching her face. "And it would mean a lot to me. It would also be pretty expensive, but... if we saved up for it..." Her smile widened. "You know, maybe it could actually work."
He smiled back and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I think it could. And you're right... we can't live in a tower forever."
She nodded in agreement. "No, we can't. Especially if we end up having a few new little people running around."
The sweet smile that she gave him was completely disarming. It was all he could do to grin back and say, "Yeah. Good point."
She giggled quietly and then laid her head on his shoulder, eyes open and staring into the distance as he kissed the top of her head. "Sometimes I still can't believe we're really doing this. I mean, you're adopting my kid for sure now, and we're getting married and we might have babies, and now we might build our own house? Just whoa."
"Don't get cold feet on me," he teased.
"Oh definitely not. My feet are very warm. Except right now they're actually kind of cold. Literally. Like, would you be opposed to taking a bath before we go to bed? In that really big one upstairs?"
He looked at her incredulously, like she was insane for even asking such a silly question. "Let me think about that. Do I want to you be wet and naked in my lap, in a bathtub... I'm not sure, maybe not..."
She playfully swatted him on the shoulder, a silly smile on her face, and he retaliated by pulling her closer and kissing her as if they were already wet and naked and in the aforementioned bathtub. He didn't let up until she mewled softly into the kiss, fingers sliding into his hair and holding him closer as the kiss grew deeper.
"Getting warmer yet?" he asked, breaking away for a quick breath before she grinned and pulled him back, answering him with a nod.
Then there was suddenly a very bright and unexpected light on them, coming from somewhere up on the second story, and they broke apart to look up and squint against the light to find Clint holding a rather large flashlight and standing on the balcony directly above them.
"I take back what I said earlier," Clint called down. "No banging in the barn or on my porch. That's all I ask for."
"You know," Bucky shot back, "if you want to watch that bad, all you have to do is ask, instead of sneaking around with a flashlight."
Clint made a face dripping with sarcasm and then scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself, Frosty."
He then left the balcony and headed back into his room, whistling, and Summer looked at Bucky and asked with a confused grin, "Did he just call you Frosty? Like Frosty the Snowman?" She paused. "He's no Tony Stark when it comes to nicknames."
Bucky shrugged, then helped her up to her feet before suggesting, "Bathtub?"
"Bathtub," she confirmed with a grin, and then they were hurrying inside and up the stairs, trying to stay quiet but laughing and giggling like idiots who were far younger than they really were.
Bucky had missed the farm too, but he hadn't realized it until he had stepped foot upon it again. While no place really felt like home, mostly because he wasn't totally sure what that concept really felt like to begin with, he was starting to think that his home was simply wherever his family was.
And having a family again was every bit as unexpected as having a home. He would never take either for granted, or ever forget what it was like to have neither.
A/N: I apologize for the late update, but real life greatly delayed my writing this last week. Also, this chapter is a bit shorter than usual, but... I guess every single one can't be a 14k-er :p Thank you guys so much for your continuing support, reviews, follows, lurking, whatever the case may be. I LOVE YOU ALL and I've got some goooooood stuff coming up, including what will probably end up being my single biggest action scene ever in the next chapter, so... yeah, little teaser there lol. Hopefully next week I get the next update out on my usual Monday, but if not, like this week, don't worry, because it'll still pop up :D Love to you all, including the ever-amazing midnightwings96, and I shall see you all next week! :)
*update 7/3/15 lol* I just today noticed the weird formatting with the random underlines in this chapter, which I definitely did NOT put there myself, so I guess some of the regular italics translated into underlines somehow during the upload process lol. Sorry about that, and I think I fixed it all, but if not... just ignore it please :)