Chapter 3

The next few months breezed by. I still haven't heard from Bucky. It was strange not having him around. He was probably trying to find more HYDRA labs to destroy. He missed his check in a few weeks ago. Fortunately school kept me too busy to worry about his safety too much. I still worry, but right now I'm getting quite cozy in Denial Land.

Christmas arrived much too fast. I was spending a few days during Christmas break with Grandpa and Grandma Mazur. My Grandma, Edna Mazur, is my Mom's mother. She made an excuse about Henry's nephew, Nate, visiting for the holidays. Mom and Nate did not get along. Since Mom refused to invite Nate to dinner, it provided a great excuse for them to not attend the Plum meal this year. In order to keep up appearances, she invited Nate at the last minute.

I was surprised when I saw Nate waiting for me in the dorm building lobby. "Hey squirt. Long time no see," he said as he put his arm across my shoulder.

"It has been way too long. How have you been? I heard about Susan, I'm so sorry." Susan was Nate's romantic soulmate. She was driving their son to visit Columbia University when a tractor trailer jackknifed, running their car off the road into the embankment. His son Charlie survived with minimal injuries, Susan wasn't so lucky. She was in the hospital for a few weeks before succumbing to her injuries. I didn't hear about her death until after the funeral.

"Taking it one day at a time. I still miss her," he admitted. Charlie's waiting in the car for us. He grabbed my luggage before leading me to his parked car.

"Hi Chucky," I greeted.

"Hi Stephyawnie," he replied using his nickname for me. It was an implication I was boring.

"Sorry about your Mom. She was an amazing woman."

"Thanks. I miss her. I've been keeping myself busy with school."

"What's your major?"

"Pre-med right now. I already have my sight set on Johns Hopkins," he became more animated as he talked about his courses at Columbia.

"I thought you wanted to be a lawyer?" I asked.

"It's what my Grandparents wanted me to do. Grandpa was hoping I would work with Dad at the firm. Mom made me promise to follow my dreams. I plan to specialize in neurology."

"That's going to involve a lot of school. I hope you can keep up," I joked.

"What about you Steph? Dad said you're hoping to graduate in less than 3 years. Will you continue for your MBA?" he asked.

"That's the plan. I just finished my second year. Only 3 more terms left for my undergraduate degree. I can submit my MBA application in August."

"What's the hurry?" he inquired.

"No hurry at all. I just have no desire to live in the same house as my controlling mother. If I attend the summer semester, I have an excuse to stay in my dorm. I also take extra classes to finish sooner." He noticed how happy I was to avoid my mother.

We continued talking about school and future goals. Nate rarely contributed to the conversation. A few minutes later, we arrived at our destination. Grandma opened my door, "Stephie. I'm so happy to see you." She pulled me into an embrace.

Mom called while Nate, Charlie and I were watching Child's Play 3 in the basement. Charlie loves these horror movies. We watched all 3 when we were vacationing at Point Pleasant when we were 12. After he played a few pranks on me and Mary Lou, I started calling him Chucky. The nickname obviously stuck.

Grandpa came downstairs to see if I wanted to talk to my parents. "Not today Grandpa. They don't know I'm visiting you. I told Mom I was staying at school to work on an assignment."

"As you wish, little one. Your secret is safe with us. How did you send their gifts?" he asked.

"I shipped them last week. They should have received them by now," I answered, feeling extremely proud of myself.

Grandma called downstairs asking for his assistance in the kitchen. I thought their dynamic was amazing. Dad never helped Mom prepare meals. She always insisted it was her duty as his wife to tend to the children, keep the house clean, do all laundry and prepare all meals. After all, it was what good Burg wives are supposed to do. Grandpa, however, insisted on helping Grandma prepare meals on a daily basis. When he was working full time, he always prepared meals on the weekend, giving her a much needed break.

Mom grew up with Grandpa helping around the house, yet she insists it's the wife's responsibility to take care of her husband. I wonder when and why her ideology changed. Did she think less of Grandma for allowing Grandpa to help? I think her attitude changed the day they moved into that house in the Burg. Mom wasn't raised in the Burg, but she did attend the Catholic high school in the Burg. I wonder if they taught the girls to be the perfect 50s wife during home economics.

Nate had been following actions carried out by HYDRA. He knew Bucky should have made contact and wondered if he was recaptured and possibly had the brainwashing triggered. I was hoping he was completely wrong. "Has Bucky checked in yet?" he asked when my phone indicated a new message.

"Not yet. Stacey just wished me a 'Merry Christmas,' her family absolutely loves Timothy," I replied with a tone of disappointment. "I'm really worried about him."

"You told me he broke through the brainwashing before. He will again. Have faith in him. He'll come back to you." He pulled me into him embrace to comfort me.

"Thank you Chucky. You're an awesome friend."

We spent our remaining visit playing cards or watching movies.

After my brief visit, I returned to school. I walked in on Stacey and Timothy having sex on the couch. "Guys!" I yelled. "I'm going to need some bleach to remove that image from my mind."

Stacey giggled, wrapped herself in the blanket then dragged Tim to her room. An hour later they returned to the shared living room and apologized. "I forgot you were coming back today. We'll keep it in the bedroom from now on," she promised.

"Okay. You're forgiven only because you covered the couch with a blanket first."

"Remember that hot Cuban guy on campus?" she asked.

"What about him?" I was wondering why she was suddenly mentioning him.

"He and your classmate Pierre Sherman joined the Army. They start basic training in January," she said.

"How did you get a hold of that information?" I wondered.

"Daddy recruited them." Ah, that's how she knew. "Ricky was in one of my classes. He was talking to a few guys in the class about joining the Army. I don't think he enjoyed attending classes. He was always distracted, even though his grades were high. I mentioned Daddy was a recruiter and he was setting up a booth over the holidays. Daddy said they joined on the first day. Please don't be mad at me."

"Why would I be mad? Sure he was gorgeous, but I wasn't exactly his type. Besides, my romantic soulmate uses the word ma'am. I seriously doubt Ricky would have that word in his vocabulary," I reasoned.

School was too important for me to waste on a relationship. Too many girls either flunked out or lost a full grade because of men. I currently have a 4.0 GPA and there was no way I would sacrifice all that hard work for a man.

Stacey and Tim understand the importance of having an education. They may spend all their spare time together, but they also ensured their homework and assignments were completed on time. I hope my romantic soulmate is as attuned to me as Stacey and Tim are attuned to each other.

Studying and assignments kept me extremely busy for the next 20 months. Bucky still hasn't checked in. I was glad I had my studies to keep me distracted. Stacey, Tim and I were attending our convocation in September. They could have attended the June convocation, but they wanted to receive their diplomas at the same time as me. Stacey finished a 3 year English program. Tim's Economics program was 4 years as was mine. I finished my degree in 3 years and was accepted into the MBA program. All of us graduated with distinction.

I wasn't surprised when my parents didn't attend my graduation ceremony. Grandma and Grandpa took us out for dinner. Stacey and Tim's parents readily joined us. "Why didn't Mom and Dad come to my graduation?" I asked Grandpa.

He saw the expression of hurt and rejection clearly displayed on my face. "Your mother said you told them not to come. She said you didn't want your family at your graduation, but I knew you wanted us here with you," he answered.

"Why would I say that to them? I thought Daddy wanted to see me graduate." I was visibly upset.

"He did, but your Mom told him you insisted they not attend."

Before I could ask for more details, my phone chimed. 'Can I join the group?~B' Grandma noticed the huge grin on my face.

"What made you so happy Steph?" she asked.

"My friend Bucky asked if he can join us," I addressed the group. "He looks a bit intimidating, but he's a very nice guy." I was ecstatic he was finally back.

"Yes," Stacey answered for her family. "I can't wait to see him again." My grandparents also agreed.

'YES,' I quickly replied. 'Please,' I decided to add as a sad attempt to be polite. He motioned to our group when he approached the hostess. She seemed to find him intimidating.

As Bucky approached the table, I moved closer to Stacey on the bench seat so he could fit on the seat beside me.

"Congratulations, Doll. I'm very proud of you. We'll talk later," he whispered as he pulled me against his side. He looked around the table and noticed my parents were not here. Instead of commenting, he handed me a long, thin velvet covered jewelry box. I quickly opened the box to find a gorgeous charm bracelet with a mini Wonder Woman, Soldier, shield, margarita glass, donut and dollar sign.

"Thank you Bucky. It's gorgeous." I kissed his cheek and saw him blush. He carefully helped me put on the bracelet. I watched as he passed one to Stacey as well. Her bracelet had a pair of glasses, margarita glass, book, donut and a heart with the initials SP .

"Oh Bucky," she cried. "It's beautiful." She asked Tim to help her put on the bracelet. I noticed Tim nodded to Bucky, silently thanking him for such a thoughtful gift. He wasn't jealous of Bucky.

"No problem Doll. Thank you for taking care of Steph while I was away." He slightly shook his head to prevent the questions he knew she wanted to ask. She wisely kept her questions to herself.

We discussed our futures and my MBA program, which was already busy. I applied for an internship at EE Martin to work between semesters. If all goes well, I'll have a full time job when I graduate in August. Stacey was moving to New York to attend Teacher's college. Her goal was to teach high school English.

"Tim starts his new job as a financial advisor next week. I'm missing classes today for convocation. My professors were very understanding and gave me the chance to make up the classes next week," Stacey explained.

"You're very lucky. My professors gave me the course material and expect me to hand in my assignment by tomorrow morning. I'm just glad there wasn't a pop quiz today," I shuttered thinking how much it would affect my grades.

"Here's to us," Stacey announced while holding up her margarita glass.

"US!" Tim and I yelled.

I started to yawn and decided it was time to go home. "Thanks for coming out Grandpa and Grandma. You made this day extra special for me." I gave them hugs and kisses before they left. Bucky held my hand as he led me to his car. He drove me back to my dorm and stayed the night.

Bucky found more HYDRA labs. He said, "I need to work on overcoming the brainwashing. At the third lab I uncovered, someone knew the series of words to trigger my brainwashing. He said the words multiple times a day to ensure I remained under his control. It took too long for me to finally break through the brainwashing enough to destroy the lab, kill him and continue on my mission to find and destroy labs."

"How many did you find?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Six. I ran into my old friend Steve at the fifth one. He gave me intel for more labs in Columbia, Australia and Europe. I can stay with you for a few months..." he trailed off, not wanting to say he was leaving again.

"You need to go, right?"

"Yes. I need to shut these labs down. If I allow them to continue, more people will fall victim to their experiments," he explained.

"Okay. Check in whenever you can. I'll understand if you can't, but I'll worry about you all the same." I wrapped my arms around him, suddenly needing to feel him close to me.

We spent as much time as possible together before he had to leave. I took him to the private airfield and gave him another tight hug before he left. "Who knows? Maybe you'll find her out there," I said, referring to his romantic soulmate. "I wonder what you said to get that type of response from her." His romantic soulmates mark said 'You too, but there are some things you need to find out for yourself.' It had the same script as one of my platonic soulmate marks on my upper back. I wonder who will meet her first. Maybe we should bet on it.

As though he read my mind, he asked, "Do you want to bet who meets her first?"

"Sure. What are you willing to bet?"

"If I win, you must agree to meet my friend Steve. If you win, you must introduce us ASAP."

"Deal," I quickly agreed. After another quick hug, he boarded his flight.