Oh my goodness, we are so close to the end. Just have to get through some Bucky stuff, then some romantic stuff, then we are done! Thank you all for sticking with me on this, this has been such a fun story to write.

Thank you for the reviews and follows, they mean a lot to me. This chapter is mostly from Steve's perspective, which is a little different, although there is a short perspective shift that I thought was important. Enjoy!


Steve let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Lucy was wearing a pair of torn leggings and an old university sweatshirt, her hair tangled into a pile on top of her head, and the circles under her eyes spoke of many sleepless nights, but framed in the glow of the house Steve thought she looked perfect. It felt like a dream, seeing her in person after all this time.

"Lucy," he reached out a hand and brushed a stray strand of hair from her face, anything to prove that she was solid, that his plan had actually worked and he was actually standing in front of her. "I have, so much, to explain. But first-"

He couldn't wait any longer and pulled her to him by her waist into a deep kiss. The kiss felt like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day, it was the first cup of coffee in the morning, the last sip of whiskey at before bed, it was coming home, it was...normal. Except for,

"Uh," Steve pulled back and gently took hold of Lucy's wrist, gingerly relieving her hand of the gun she had been holding.

"Bucky made me start carrying that."

Steve laughed, relieved. She was real. Bucky was alive somewhere. The plan had worked.


I realized that Steve and I were standing in my mother's doorway making out for all the world to see. Still, that didn't seem to matter to Steve, and I found myself past caring what nosy Mrs. Peterson across the street would think. I pulled Steve inside and guided him to the kitchen, not wanting to let go of his hand. I worried that he would disappear if stopped touching him. There were so many questions swirling around in my head but I tried to focus on the one thing that was true. Steve was back. Steve had kissed me. Steve was in my mother's kitchen watching me brew a pot of coffee.

"Where is everyone?" He broke the silence first as I waited anxiously for the machine to start percolating.

"Zared had a basketball game, Mom and Mikey went to watch." I poured two mugs of steaming coffee and sat across from Steve in the small breakfast nook. The coffee smell comforted me and I allowed myself to be hypnotized by the shapes of the steam rising from the liquid. I finally looked up and found Steve staring at me intently. "How - why are you here?" I managed to organize all my questions in one semi-coherent thought.

Steve ran his hands through his hair and sighed.


Steve tried to think of what to say. Sam had once accused him of practicing his inspirational battle speeches, but truthfully, he was just winging it most of the time. He didn't plan what he was going to tell Lucy, he hadn't planned for much of anything besides just getting back to her. She wanted answers, she deserved answers, but how could he possibly explain the things he had done and been through the past few years?

"It's not a great story." He closed his eyes and could see flashes of battles and gore that he had somehow survived. It wouldn't be right to tell her everything, she didn't need to hear about all the carnage he had witnessed. He only opened his eyes when he felt Lucy's warm hand on top of his own.

"Please?" She asked quietly.

"I did what you said. I still lost the tesseract and managed to do, well something, to Red Skull. Then I set the plane on a course for the arctic and ejected into the ocean where a rescue ship was able to get me. It was, nice, for a time. Peggy and Howard worked with the SSR and I helped the army hunt down Nazis to face trials for their war crimes. I even found Bucky and got him out before they totally reprogrammed him."

Lucy furrowed her brow. "But Bucky is still here, I mean, he's still the Bucky I know."

"I know, I'm getting there." Steve squeezed her hand and took a long sip of his coffee. Truthfully, those first years after the war had been great. He and Bucky and the Howling Commandos had executed missions all over the world, brought hundreds of Nazis to justice, and helped liberate camps. And he had Peggy to come home to. Even that had been good, although he wasn't sure if Lucy would want to hear about that part.

"Then things started to get bad. The threats to the SSR got bigger, tensions between the U.S. and Russia got worse, they sent us to Korea. Me, Bucky, and the Commandos."

"Wait." Lucy leaned back in her seat and looked at Steve with wide eyes. "We didn't start sending troops to Korea until 1950, how long were you in the past?"

"Eight years, how long has it been here?"

"Just a few months."

Steve nodded. "We thought that might be the case, I kind of hoped it would be."

"We?"

"Howard and I, but, just let me get there." Steve shook his head, trying to pick up where he was. "Anyway, they sent us to Korea. It was hell. I've never had to fight like that before, not knowing if were killing friendlies or enemies, not even sure why the Army was there in the first place. And then Bucky -"

Steve paused, he could feel a familiar pressure behind his eyes and catch in his throat. He reminded himself Bucky was fine. Lucy told him that Bucky made her start carrying a gun, he was here, now, somewhere. "We were captured and sent to a POW camp in the North, we had a plan to escape and it almost worked. But on our way out Bucky was shot, a sniper took him out right to the head. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to-"

Steve stopped himself and took a deep breath. It was alright. He was fine, he was in Lucy's kitchen and Bucky was alive, somewhere.

"Steve." Lucy got up and moved to his side of the table and put her arms around him. The pressure of her against him was grounding and he was able to continue.

"I got back to the States and I told Peggy and Stark everything. About the time travel, about the first time I crashed the plane, everything. Howard worked day and night to figure it out. It took him a couple years but eventually he figured out how it worked."

"Howard Stark built a time travel machine?" Lucy pulled her arms back but kept herself pressed against Steve.

"After some trial and error, ya. I realized that my staying in the past messed everything up. I thought I could go back and have the life I originally planned, but it just didn't happen. And the whole time I was there, even when things were good, I just wanted to be here. I was tearing myself in two trying to be the man I was then with everything that I am now."

"And Peggy? How did she react to everything?" Lucy toyed with the hem of her sweatshirt and Steve could tell she was trying very hard to ask too many questions.

"Peggy was...Peggy about it. Her and I tried to be together, just after the war. But she was busy with the SSR and I was trying to ignore the SSR because I knew what it would turn into and I was scared my being there would keep her from turning it into SHIELD. Plus, I just wasn't the same person she had fallen in love between us started to turn sour, it got ugly. I didn't want to lose her as a friend and I hated seeing her miserable, so I stopped trying. She started to thrive as soon she let go of our romantic relationship. She could focus on being an agent and she blew everyone out of the water with the things she did. She met another guy, Sousa, and they were much better together. When I told her the truth about me, after she socked me right in the jaw for lying to her, she was alright. She got on board and gave Howard any SSR resources he needed."

"I got a taste of what it's like for you, when I went back to the war." Lucy chewed on her bottom lip and looked up at Steve. "I was only there a few days but I saw what it's like to be out of time, I can't imagine living with that like you do."

Steve's heart clenched when he thought about that brief period of time when Lucy had been with him in 1945. "I was a jackass to you. I didn't know what to think or how to cope with being back and I didn't take care of you like I should have."

"So Howard." Lucy changed the subject quickly.

"Stark wasn't exactly sure how the time travel thing worked. He figured that our traveling to the past had created a unique timeline separate from the one here. I don't pretend to even understand it, but the things I did there, didn't affect anything here. Bucky still became the Winter Soldier in this timeline because people can't change their pasts. But, we could possibly fix the timeline I screwed up. We tried to go back to 1945, to that cafe in London and fix the timeline, but I don't have any way of knowing if we did. Stark sent me forward and I landed in London a few days ago and have been trying to get to you ever since." Steve leaned his head on his hand, feeling totally spent.

He smiled when he felt Lucy place a sweet kiss on his cheek. "I can't believe you actually came back."

"I should have never left to begin with." Steve lifted his head and swiveled in the bench seat so he was facing her. "I thought I could be happy without you, if you forgive me, I'll never make that mistake again."

"There's nothing to forgive, but if that's what you need to hear, then I forgive you." Lucy leaned in and kissed him on the lips, not the desperate kiss of the front door. This was lingering, longing.

"Bed?" Lucy separated from his just enough to flash a coy smile.

"Bed." Steve agreed and they both slid out of the nook. Lucy lead Steve through her Mother's house. A place that Steve had started to love back at Christmas time. He allowed himself a brief fantasy of growling old and raising a giant family with Lucy in a house like this. They passed the front door just as it opened and Mrs. McAuliffe burst through speaking excitedly with Mikey in sign language. The teenagers eyes shot up in surprise when he looked up and saw Steve and his sister.

"Lucy!" Mrs. McAuliffe, Steve would never be able to call her by her first name, exclaimed. "You didn't tell me you were having someone over." The older woman looked Steve up and down, raising an eyebrow at his uniform. In his haste to get to Chicago he hadn't bothered picking up modern clothing.

"Sorry, ma'am." Steve apologized and flashed a guilty smile. "I surprised Lucy."

"And we were just going to bed so..." Lucy's cheeks burned bright red and she shot her brother a warning look when he started to sign something.

"Well Sean and Roddy's old room is open." Lucy's mom gave her a pointed look. Lucy looked like she was about to protest, but Steve stepped in before she got the chance.

"I'll see you in the morning." He placed a chaste kiss on her forehead and started down the hall, leaving the family to have some time together. As much as he wanted to spend the night with Lucy, it was more important to be on her mother's good side. And besides, if things went according to plan, they would have a lifetime of nights together.