Sunday Visitor

Bucky didn't really care what movie was on the television right now, and not just because it was Steve's choice, but because he was far more interested in the lovely form spread partially over him on the couch.

He knew that he had been a bit grouchy for a while after the incident with the drunk guy last night, but he had not expected Vic to give him an 'angry' face when he tried to point out that he and Steve were there to protect her. Granted, even he had not been able to get there in time. He was just glad that it had worked out and that Vic had been fine, but he wondered where Vic had picked up the elbow maneuver. When he had tried asking her about it later, all she would say was that it was an old trick, then she gave him a kiss on the cheek and walk away.

After getting home last night but before bed, they had watched the news to get an update on the weather and found that by late Monday, if the storm finally reached them, the city should possibly expect its first snowfall of the season. So Vic had informed them that since it would be the last time in a while for her to ride her bicycle, she was going to lap the park twice this morning once she woke up.

Both he and Steve had then decided to join her, not by biking with her, but by running next to her. Vic laughed saying that there was no way the two of them could keep up with her by running. He had gone and gotten two extra earcoms for the two of them to use, so it would be easier to talk as they exercised. It had been slightly exhausting but was glad that they had been able to prove her wrong. But, when then had gotten back to the Tower, Vic had then informed them that once the snow melted in the spring, she expected their company on future rides. Not that either one of them had a problem with ever spending time with her.

Vic had then taken her bike to the garage floor, telling them that she needed to get it ready to store it for the winter. They had gone their separate ways to shower and get changed, while she did whatever she needed to. By the time Vic finally got to their floor, they were already on the couch trying to find something (or maybe arguing about what) to watch.

Since it had been close to lunchtime, they agreed to order Chinese delivery, which Vic did by speaking Mandarin to the person who had answered the phone, before going and taking a shower. Not long after she appeared in an outfit comprised of shorts and a thin-strapped top, the food arrived. Vic then headed back to her bedroom and reappeared with the fanciest set of chopsticks that he had ever seen. He had inspected them as she and Steve sorted out the different items onto the counter so they could fix their plates. Bucky was not sure why, but that was the best take-out they'd had from their usual restaurant.

Now, they were resting with full stomachs, watching something with two good looking dames and a monkey mixing chemicals. But all he could concentrate on were the set of smooth, bare legs lying across his lap, which he had been absently rubbing his hands over for the past half hour. Vic was stretched across the couch, her legs on him, while using a pillow to rest her head on Steve's lap. He noticed that Steve's hands were not still either, one hand on her side, while the other was running through her partially braided hair. He thought that Vic may be tired and would take a nap, but he never saw her eyes even slightly close. Bucky smiled at thinking she may just have wanted to be there with them.

Suddenly the strangest ringtone started to shriek from Vic's phone, which was lying on the coffee table in front of them. He only knew the song because of Tony, as Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap played over and over. It was then that he realized that for the entire time since Vic had been living with them, this was the first time that she had ever received a call when he was around. The only other one that he even knew of was from Richie asking about her playing last night. Did she really have such a low number of friends?

Vic casually reached over to the where it was lying, not even bothering to look at the screen before answering it.

"Now whose calendar is off?" she said instead of a normal greeting.

"Hey there, little darlin'," he could hear from the ear piece, even without it being on speaker. There was no denying that it was a deep male voice on the other end, which he was not sure if he should be worried about. Why was someone else calling their Vic 'darling'? Glancing quickly at Steve, he saw that he was also listening, and also not sure about the caller by the look on his face.

"What's going on, Anciano?" Vic asked, still calmly resting her head on the pillow.

"I was just listening to the radio, and I couldn't remember your two favorite Elvis songs!" he heard the voice say…very clearly, and very precisely. That phrase changed Vic's whole demeanor.

In a second, her entire body stiffened, before she suddenly rolled to her left side, her body falling off of the couch, as she tucked over. He heard her knees hit the hard floor as she was suddenly kneeling between the two of them, staring at the back of the couch.

"My two favorite songs by Elvis are In The Ghetto and A Little Less Conversation," she stated, also making sure to clearly speak in a voice that had no chance to be misunderstood. This was some kind of code phrase, he instantly knew.

"Then care to explain to me why the fuck I'm standing in front of this monstrosity of a building?" he heard the man ask.

"No way…are ya really here!?" she asked now standing, bouncing up and down a little, making his eyes grow wide from the unexplained double-bouncy show, before Vic jumped over Steve's legs as she made a bee-line for the elevator, hitting the call button. "Go into the lobby and wait, we'll be down in just a minute!"

"I'll be here," he heard before she pressed the button about three more times hurriedly.

Turning around towards them, she saw that they were watching her, waiting for an answer. But her mouth just hung open, the look of shock all over her face. Vic then looked down, taking in the shorts and tank-top she was wearing, and then did a full blast run for her bedroom, yelling back to them that she needed to change.

"Any idea what is going on?" Steve asked him, looking probably as confused as he did.

"I'm not sure, but that was a code phrase if I ever heard one," he supplied, standing up from the couch as Steve did the same. "I don't know who that was, but I suspect that it's a good friend of Vic's."

When the elevator door opened, they asked FRIDAY to hold it there for a moment until Vic returned, which was only a few seconds later. She had thrown on some black baggy yoga pants and a Kiss t-shirt, along with neon yellow socks. It was just enough to cover her skin, but not something dressy. She latched onto their arms, pulling them both into the elevator, as she still slightly bounced.

"Alright, don't worry, how do you both look? Ya'll look fine. Everything is fine," Vic began to mumble as the elevator made its way down. Somehow they were both patient and didn't bombard her with questions during the descent, seeing how nervously excited she already was.

When the doors finally opened, the lobby was fairly sparse being a Sunday, mostly security guards, the welcome desk lady, and one very scary looking older gentleman with a large military green duffle bag slung over his shoulder. At the sight of him, he heard Vic's sharp intake of breath, as if she wasn't sure he was really going to be here.

Suddenly, Vic dropped both of their arms and started running for the man. Just before she got to him, he dropped the bag onto the floor, which gave a metal-against-metal sound from inside, echoing slightly in the lobby. As Vic leapt up into his arms, with her hugging tightly around his neck, Bucky grew a bit jealous as the man's arms then encircle her waist.

"The only other time I've seen her do something like that was with me," Steve told him, as they walked out of the elevator towards where the two of them were standing.

When they reached them, he could see that her face was red, and that she had tears running down her cheeks, but he knew that they were happy tears. The man then eased his hold on her waist enough so that he could let Vic down onto her own feet. As the man stared at the two of them, his eyes were scrutinizing them very carefully. Vic turned around towards them, her arm wrapped around his waist, the way she did with them, as she wiped the tears away with a wide smile.

What kind of relationship did Vic used to have with this man? Ex-boyfriend? He hoped not. He seemed a bit old…but considering how old they were…

Feeling the man's gaze passing between him and Steve, Bucky began to evaluate him as well. He was tall, a few inches taller than Bucky, putting him at the exact same height as Steve. He was well built, making him a fighter, but with the way he held himself, Bucky knew that he was ex-military of some kind. To go with a bushy mustache, he had long hair resting on his shoulders with a similar length to his own. It contained a strong mix of grey and black, and Bucky put him probably around his mid-fifties. The man wore a black leather biking jacket with a couple of patches that looked quite a few years' old, black jeans, and riding boots, which he guessed were steel-toed.

"Guys," Vic said, pulling his eyes away from the man he had judged as a partial threat, if he wanted to be, "this is Wade Garrett, an old friend of mine."

"Pleasure to meet you, Sir," Steve, reaching out and shaking his hand, sounding like a teenager meeting a parent, but she hadn't used the word boyfriend, so what type of a friend was he to Vic?

"Hi there," he plainly said, giving his head a single nod, feeling hesitant about shaking hands. Wade's eyes wandered to his exposed arm, since he was wearing t-shirt, but they did not linger. The man Wade eyed between the two of them again, before looking down at Vic.

"These are the runts?" he asked, tilting his head in their direction, bringing a chuckle to both of them. His laugh was because Steve hadn't been called a runt since the forties, and while Steve's was because Bucky had never been called that.

"Yep, this is them," Vic answered, actually agreeing to the term with a large smile on her face. "This is Steve," pointing over at the Punk, "and this is Bucky," she said gesturing towards him.

"So, why exactly are we in this architectural nightmare?" Wade asked, looking down at Vic. She looked around the lobby, taking in the stares from the guards watching them, which he had already noticed.

"Um…How about we head upstairs before talking?" she asked, looking at him and Steve for an answer.

"That's a great idea," Steve said gesturing towards the elevator. Wade picked up the sack he had dropped and the group started to walk towards the elevator, only stopping when a nearby guard coughed to get their attention.

"Sirs, all guests must be checked in," he said, trying to sound authoritative.

"What do you need, squirt?" Wade asked looming over the guard, who looked shocked by the title.

"We just need to scan your driver's license, Sir," he answered looking up at Wade a bit worried since he had many inches over him.

Wade then pulled a leather wallet on a chain from his back pocket and handed the card over to the guard. Swiping it through the machine, it gave a quiet ping, which he knew meant that his name had a legal file attached. Then it pinged again, and again, and again. Bucky finally lost track of the number of pings, but each one would indicate that the man had some kind of criminal charge against him.

Then the system buzzed, indicating a scan had picked up weapons.

Both he and Steve moved at the same time, pulling Vic towards and behind them so that their bodies were now between her and this Wade character. He glanced down at the bag that had produced the metal sounds from its impact on the floor.

"Guys, will you stop that?" Vic sounded irritated, as she wedged her arms between the two of them, pushing them apart just enough to slip through, putting herself back in front of Wade. "Let's head upstairs and then we will discuss everything."

He looked over at her, seeing the pleading face she had, one that he had never seen on her before. Looking at Steve for a final decision, he gave him a nod, deciding to consent, since either one of them could easily take this man. Well, maybe not easily, but they eventually would.

"Mr. Garrett is cleared to enter by my authorization," Steve said to the guard, who was still scrolling down the list of offensives. He was actually curious to see what the entire list entailed.

"Mind if I carry that bag?" Bucky asked, not wanting him to have such easy access to whatever weapons he had in there.

Wade then looked over at Vic at the request, wanting her confirmation before handing it over, showing that he was trusting her judgement on them. Vic nodded with a smile, not even having to say anything before Wade lifted the bag from his shoulder and handed it to him. That was a lot of confidence that he had in Vic, to allow himself to be willingly unarmed without a word being spoken. It was slightly heavier than he had expected making him curious as to what was inside, but he just tossed it over his shoulder as they moved away from the security desk.

The elevator opened and Vic announced to head to their floor, instead of the common room. Whoever this man was, she was comfortable enough for him to be in their private space, even if he was still unsure. Reaching their floor, they stepped out, Bucky put the bag near the elevator, a bit out of the way, just in case.

"Alright, let's all sit down and get some proper introduction taken care of before their two heads explode," Vic said, taking Wade's arm and leading him to the side chair in the den closest to Steve's spot on the couch. They followed, taking up their normal spots, Vic eventually sitting down between the two of them, which was the only thing that made him feel a bit better.

Taking Steve's hand in her, Vic said, "Wade, this is Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America."

That seemed to get Wade's attention as he watched the shocked look appear on his face.

"Hell's bells," he gruffed out. Vic huffed at the cursing.

"And this is James Barnes. We call him Bucky, but he is also known as the Winter Soldier," Vic said taking his hand into hers.

"Well, hell," Wade said scanning the two of them again, even more carefully than the first time in the lobby. "Ain't that some shit?"

"You'll have to forgive Wade, he has a bit of a potty mouth on him," Vic said with a bit of humor.

"If anything, I never could get you to swear properly," Wade grinned at her, leaning back in the chair, getting more comfortable.

"I've known Wade since I was nineteen. We became friends after I left home," Vic told them. He knew that there was going to be a story behind this, but he needed to know...

"I hate to interrupt," Bucky started, getting Vic's attention, "but I would feel much better first knowing why you," he said looking at Wade,"are here suddenly, with weapons, and why you were using a code phrase."

"I'm here because of what I have been watching for the past week," Wade firmly said, regarding Vic hard, who seemed to be running the mentioned time through her head.

"A sudden change of location without notifying you," she stated sounding more than a bit guilty.

"And don't forget about totally disappearing on Thursday," Wade added.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, now sounding confused.

"The signal dropped off entirely mid-morning, and it didn't come back on till later that night. Not a single ping," he said. He had no idea what ping the man was talking about so he looked at her expecting an answer.

"Wade and I track each other with our phones. That way, we always know where the other is. Why would my signal have stopped on Thanksgiving?" Vic asked looking between them. Did Vic already have a stalker before him? Was this why she had not been upset about them following her that first night after finding her?

"The secure location that we went to prevents any signals from getting out and revealing it. The moment we stepped onto the Quinjet, the signal would have died, and wouldn't have started again until we got back," Steve told her but also looking at Wade to know that he was included in the information. "We are so used to it, we did not think to mention it."

"I didn't know," she said looking first at Steve and then Wade. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya."

"It's fine, darlin'. I'm just glad that it was a false alarm," Wade said. "As for the code phrase, it's so that Vic can let me know if she needs help without someone figuring it out."

"So the two songs that she mentioned…" Bucky started.

"Told me that she was fine," Wade offered.

"If I answered Jailhouse Rock, that would tell Wade that I was somewhere without my consent. If I said Hound Dog, it would let him know that hostiles were in the immediate area," Vic said, as she leaned a bit back on him, turning to face Wade some.

"That's a strange, good strategy," Steve said, agreeing with Bucky but actually voicing his opinion.

"What branch of the military were you?" Bucky asked.

"US Air Force Combat Control Team, from 1976 through 1990," he answered.

"So, then, how did you meet Victoria?" Steve asked, getting the conversation back to a story about Vic.

"I was working at a bar in Tennessee. I always stopped at this all-night truck diner off the interstate to eat before heading home. Vic had just started to work there so after only two nights, I easily recognized her with that hair. I was heading to my motorcycle to leave at the same time her shift was ending. She was putting a bag of trash into the dumpster, but I saw that she snuck into the woods afterwards. I waited for a few minutes and when she didn't come back out, I followed her to make sure everything was alright. Vic had put up a cheap tent in the trees, back enough so that nobody would see it from the parking lot, and she was living there using the truck stop showers," Wade told them.

Vic had slightly squirmed in her seat as he talked, probably knowing that they would scold her for such an act, but she would just give them her usual it's in the past excuse.

"We sat and talked for a few hours, and before the sun came up, I had convinced her to come live with me."

"She just went home with you?" Steve asked turning to look at her. "To live with you?"

"It wasn't like that," Vic firmly stated, catching Steve's subtle relationship comment. "Wade had a spare room so I took it."

"The next day, I started her training," Wade supplied.

"Training?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah. She was a nineteen year old female. I figured that if she was going to be traveling alone, she needed to be able to defend herself," he said. "There was no way in hell she was leaving me without being able to fight."

"Like at the bar last night," Steve said at the same time as the realization came to him.

"What about last night?" Wade asked.

"It was just a drunk dude who tried to stomp on my foot," Vic answered casually, as if it were a normal occurrence.

"What did he get?" Wade asked with a smile.

"A sideways kick to the knee followed by an elbow to the cheek," Vic told him with a bit of proudness in her voice.

"Nice," Wade said nodding his head approvingly. "After a couple of weeks of training, I got her a job working with me at the titty bar as a bouncer."

"What!?" both he and Steve yelled.

"How else was she going to practice what I was teaching her?" Wade pointed out. "She was the best sidekick I ever had. She could take down a drunken asshole in no time. They never saw it coming."

Bucky then looked over at Vic, who seemed a bit embarrassed at the praise she was receiving. He had seen her last night, but thinking about her doing that, dealing with drunk guys, made him a bit angrier than he liked. He didn't like the idea of anyone intentionally trying to hurt her.

"I lived with Wade for...about a year and a half. The last three months were the hardest, since I was jumping out of my skin to move on, but I agreed to stay with him until after my coma day had passed," Vic told them. "It was one of the conditions of leaving. After being with me for one, he didn't want me off somewhere when it happened again."

"Those two days were the second and third worst days of my entire life," Wade admitted. "I thought for sure that she was dead the first time, even with the warning. The second time, all I could do was watch over her."

"Mind if I ask what the first worst day was?" Bucky's curiosity about this man and his relationship with Vic just kept growing. Wade seemed very solicitous of her.

"That would be the day that my soulmate died giving birth to our daughter, who also didn't make it," Wade stated very plainly, without a hint of emotion. "My daughter would have been the same age as Vic, so I felt like I needed to protect her. And I have been trying to ever since, but as you might be able to tell, she hasn't made it easy."

That was the piece of information that Bucky felt helped to bring this entire strange background story about Vic into focus. Wade was her surrogate father. There had never been any type of sexual feelings between them, which made him breathe a lot easier.

"Is there a bathroom close?" Wade asked after a moment.

"Sure, you can use mine," Vic said rising as Wade did the same.

They walked down the hallway, so he waited until they were just out of view before rising. His protection mode kicked in, same as last night, but now it was just in case, not a real reason. He heard Steve's voice, trying to tell him to sit but that was an order he was not going to obey. Going into the hall once they reached her room, he crept forward enough so that he could hear them talking.

"Where are your pillows?" Wake asked her.

"I…um…don't need them anymore," she hesitantly answered.

"Are you telling me that you are sleeping with them, barely a week after meeting them?" he asked, scolding her a bit with his tone.

"Yes, but that is all we are doing, sleeping. Wait...are you saying that you knew my pillows were their replacements!?"

"Of course. I never could understand how you didn't seem to realize it," he said,

Bucky heard the sound of a hit, then Wade exclaiming, "Ow…stop that!" He wondered if Wade had just been on the receiving end of one of her punches to the arm.

"I can't believe you never said anything to me...do you realize how embarrassed I was when they brought it up?" Vic scolded him.

"With all of the teasing that I've been put through over the years, you deserved it," Wade told her with a chuckle, which also made him smile. "Sleeping…is that all that you are doing?"

"Yes, we're taking that part of our relationship slow," Vic said, but then his mind began to replay all of their moments together and he could barely call them slow. Well, maybe for nowadays or what Vic was used to...

"I'll be out in a minute. Head back out before the runts get too worried," he heard Wade say before the sound of a door closing reached him. Telling her that made him like the man a bit more.

Vic stepped out of her bedroom, finding him standing right there to the side, making her jump a bit, which made him receive a simple smack to the arm.

"Stalker much?" she asked before wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his left shoulder.

"You know how I can worry," he simply said.

"I know, but you don't have to worry about Wade. He would never hurt me," she told him not moving. Then she grumbled under her breath, "but I may have to hurt him…"

"Come on," he told her, starting back down the hall where he could see Steve straining his neck to see down to where they were. Steve seemed a lot more relaxed about this than he could ever be. Wade came back out a few moments after they had sat down, taking the chair once again.

"So, how the hell are the two of you sleeping in the same bed with her when she only gets a few hours' sleep at night? That one hour of sleep she did years ago about drove me bat-shit crazy," Wade said, looking between them.

"Well, Sir," Steve began, still sounding like a teenager, "After the first night Victoria moved in, sleeping alone, we saw the pillows the next morning and figured it out. We asked her to try an experiment, just for one night, to see what would happen by being in the bed next to us."

"And?" Wade asked

"I've been sleeping the entire night. Usually seven hours or more," Vic said sounding a bit proud.

"Damn, it's about time," Wade said his shoulders dropping slightly, telling him that he was a bit more relaxed knowing that Vic was doing fine. "You should have at least called me to let me know that everything was going fine."

"It's been a strange, busy week, but I was planning on calling you eventually. If I thought you'd freak out and come here, I definitely would have," Vic said pulling her legs up and tucking them under her in his direction, so he placed his hand over them on the funny colored socks.

"Well…it gives me a chance to check on you and intimidate the runts," Wade joked before looking at them. "Has she started cooking for you yet?"

"Just a bit," Bucky told him.

"Well…watch it when she does. Vic likes to make you get fat so she can force you to workout with her," Wade told them with a smile.

"It's not my fault if you felt it was necessary to clean not only your plate, but the pots too," Vic threw back at him.

"She put ten pounds on me during the first month living together, then made me start running ten miles a day, one for each pound," Wade told them, but he could hear from his voice that it amused him more than anything.

"She had us doing fifteen miles this morning," Steve added to the conversation, "and that was just for fun."

"And so it begins," Wade said, shaking his head. "Has she calmed down with all that damn energy some at least?"

"Not really," he said.

"I had her training and working out three to four hours a day, hoping that it would put her ass to sleep at night, but it never did," Wade chuckled.

Leaning down close to Vic's ear, he asked, "Exactly how much does he know?"

"Everything," Vic told him without trying to hide her answer. "Wade knows about all the things that I can do, the music, languages, all of my jobs. It was because of Wade that I learned how to handle my money."

"After a while, I realized what she could do, so I went out and bought her a pile of books on personal finance and money stuff. Before she moved on, she had not only set herself up with savings and retirement accounts, but she even got me started investing using a small next egg that I had saved up. But that girl was the best damn investment I ever made," Wade said, sounding extremely proud of Vic.

"We're still learning about Victoria, but the stuff we know about, her talents, they are incredible," Steve told him.

Vic spent the next few minutes telling Wade about how she was now going to be working for Tony as a mechanic, as well as beating him in the guitar game, winning the Jeep while giving the bike to Bucky.

"That's a big change from where you started out, by walking across the states," Wade said, making him curious about a phrase.

"Walking across states?" he asked Wade, wanting a full answer, figuring that Vic would leave out a piece that would make them upset.

"That was how she had gotten to Tennessee, by walking from that shit-hole of a home across the entire south for a year before finally heading north, where I met her," Wade told them, but it was his term for her family home that had him curious.

"Shit-hole?" Bucky repeated so that Wade knew what he wanted information on.

"Hey," Vic said smacking his leg, but he could see some worry on her face.

"Yep, that damn family of hers. She hasn't told you about them yet?" Wade asked.

"Just a little, but not about this topic," Steve told him.

"The day after graduation, since she was eighteen and a legal adult, they tossed her out of the house, throwing what clothing she had on the front yard for her to collect, with no money. After that, she started walking, scraping up food wherever she could. Backyard gardens, planting fields, dumpsters," Wade told them without holding anything back. "She uses the term 'leave home', but really it should be 'kicked out'."

"Victoria, why wouldn't you tell us all of this?" Steve asked turning to her.

"Because it doesn't matter anymore, it's in the past," she said, with her fallback phrase, but he could see that she was a bit saddened at having such a hard time of her history brought up.

"Vic is a survivor," Wade told them, "but she never let any of it get to her. She was always happy, even if she was shy when we met."

"Shy? Vic?" Bucky asked thinking that he had not heard correctly.

"Yep, a virgin church mouse," Wade told them, making Vic cover her face with her hands in embarrassment at the adorable term. "It wasn't until she came to work with me that she finally opened up. Dealing with drunk assholes in a titty bar, you have to be able to stand on your own, grow a tough skin to verbal attacks. You should have seen her face the first time she walked in there."

"I cannot picture her being quiet or shy," Bucky admitted as Vic poked him in the side with her finger, causing him to jerk slightly. He grabbed her hand, holding it tight to prevent further attacks.

"Victoria likes to not tell us a whole story because she doesn't want us to get upset," Steve told him, to which Wade only nodded.

"Well, there's nothing in her past bad after she met me. All of it was from before. Has she at least told you about school?" Wade offered to them.

"Yes, we know about that. She finally admitted that one to us," Steve said nodding his head.

"I'll give you my phone number so that anytime you need to know what she's trying to hide, I'll tell you about it," Wade responded with a wide grin.

"Turncoat," Vic said glaring at him, crossing her arms, and taking his hand with hers.

"Captain, Tony wants me to inform you that he demands to talk with you immediately," FRIDAY's voice echoed through the den.

"Who the hell is that?" Wade asked looking around.

"We'll explain in a moment," Vic told him.

"Put him through, FRIDAY," Steve sighed.

"Care to explain to me why you authorized entry to someone with a criminal history bigger than the Hulk's waistline!?" Tony sharp voice asked in a raised tone.

"It took him longer to call than I thought it would," Bucky said smiling over at Vic.

"I was getting my beauty rest, Barnes!" Tony stated melodramatically.

"Well, if you look the same as you did yesterday, then you need more. So either go back to sleep, or stop being overly dramatic, Tin Man," Vic told the absent man, which got a chuckle out of Wade.

"What the hell was that? Did you let Darth Vader into my house?" Tony then asked, now making Vic laugh.

"Tony, a friend of Victoria's stopped by to check on her," Steve went ahead and answered, not getting into a verbal smack-down.

"Oh," they heard, amused that he didn't add more to the conversation. That man had more to say about nothing than anybody, so being at a loss for words was new.

"Tony, if you're nice and invite Wade to dinner, I'll introduce you to him," Vic offered up. Bucky wondered how the two of them would get along. Billionaire meets biker.

"Done, but I want a song," he threw back at her.

"Fine…Wade would love to have a Lamborghini," Vic said with a devious smile.

"Piano song! Piano song!" Tony quickly yelled in response to her comment.

"Spoilsport," Vic told him, but they knew she was enjoying teasing Tony who seemed to have already forgotten that she had backed out of the competition, as a ping indicated that the comm had been shut off.

"What the hell just happened?" Wade asked.

They sat around for the next two hours talking, hearing stories from Wade about Vic from when they were together, as well as things she had mentioned to him while traveling. They learned more about her from him than the entire time she had been with them.

He didn't think that Vic was trying to hide her past, but she didn't seem to care about it in the same way others did theirs. He was always thinking about his past, and so was Steve, while Vic just looked at it as just another thing that didn't matter. Was that why she was so accommodating about his own?

Author's Note: The character Wade Garrett is pulled from the 1989 movie Road House, played by Sam Elliott. I've always liked him and decided to base her 'father figure' on him. If you are not familiar with him, go to YouTube and look up his fight scene.

And, YES, I know that Sam Elliott played Gen. Thaddeus Ross in 2003's Hulk, but since they swapped him for William Hurt, it doesn't count as a 'paradox'. And thank goodness since I hate Ross (cough...spoiler alert...cough).

As for the movie they were watching: 1952's Monkey Business

Translation: Anciano = Spanish for Old Man

Postings for this week and next will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Thanks for all the great reviews. I'm glad that you are enjoying the story. It's about to get interesting over the next few chapters.