This is an OC/Bucky ship, start to finish. I hope you enjoy Maggie and her story!

In response to your review basementToNowher: Both? Both is good. -Road to El Dorado :)

With love, Dubs

Maggie Hargrove grew up fighting along side best friends Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. He always inspired her to be better than she was, so when the war started, she signed up and got a position in the Army Nurses Corps. The problem is when you're good at helping people die in peace, they start to call you names. And that's where Captain America came in.

Early May 1943 – London

The raid sirens began their mournful cry and Maggie found herself holding the hand of a man who was not only missing his right leg, but most of his body covered in bandages after having stepped on a landmine near the front lines. He screamed in panic as the sirens wailed and she tried to soothe him by softly telling him that everything would be okay and quiet would come soon. He gripped onto her tightly with his one good hand, causing pain in hers but she continued trying to soothe him—it was the least she could do for the dying man. A few hours later and he was gone from the world and she felt numb as she sat in the hallway, his blood and gore on her once white clothes.

"She was with another one when he passed today," one of the nurses whispered loudly down the hall. Maggie didn't even look to see the source. She knew the voice well enough; it was another nurse by the name of Helen. Helen was convinced Maggie was the Angel of Death and in a lot of ways Maggie couldn't argue with the name. Not a single patient of Maggie's survived to go home to their families, and she was good with the men in their final moments—far better than any of the other nurses—so that had become her assigned duty. She hated it, but she would never let the dying men know that.

"Margaret," an English doctor called. She looked to him, summoned from her stupor and her eyes glazed over. His name was Doctor Gabe Samuels, and he was her commanding officer. He sat next to her and handed her nearly a dozen letters, "these came for you today. Looks like you have someone on the front lines who's been trying to get ahold of you." She looked to the letters and instantly recognized Bucky's handwriting and a smile graced her lips. It was the first real smile Dr. Samuels had seen from the woman.

"Why don't you take the rest of the day off," the doctor said and kissed her head, "You look like you need it."

"Thank you," she said standing. She began to head to their breakroom area to put the letters away for later reading, "but I have work I need to do still."

"That's an order," he called, and she turned back to him. She nodded, saluted, then left the hospital floor.

When she went through the letters while sitting on the bed in her room, she saw three were from Steve, one was from Daniel, and seven were from Bucky. She read Daniel's first. He thanked her for the date and said he had actually ended up getting together with Steve's date that night. He asked if she thought it would be too early to propose, then apologized if it seemed like an uncouth question for her. She made mental notes for how to respond to him.

The letters from Steve were strange at first. In the first one he wrote to her he seemed like he might not live and iterated repeatedly how much he loved her and how much he was glad to have gained a sister like her in his life. In his second letter, his writing was different. Most of it was imprinted further into the paper and the loops on his letters were larger. He kept telling her how he couldn't wait to show her what he was able to do. He also told her that Erskine had been killed and how he just wanted to make the man proud of him.

In the third letter, she got some answers to his strange sentiments from the other two. In it he included a picture of himself, but she hardly recognized the man in the picture. He was giant and lifting a motorcycle over his head with several girls atop the bike, while other girls danced behind him. 'I'm Captain America now. Bond sales rise 10% in every city I visit. They're going to be sending me overseas soon to do European tour of shows. I'm hoping when we stop by, we can see each other and catch up. Drinks on me. Until then, Steve'

She sighed as she looked over the letters again.

Finally, she looked again at the ones from Bucky, her fingers sliding over her name written in his sloppy cursive. She opened the first one and unexpected tears fell before she even realized they were forming.

Bucky wrote to her about everything and nothing at the same time. Four of the letters came after particularly difficult missions that he told her during them he had expected to die. As she opened the final letter, a familiar old ring fell from the envelope. She looked at the beautiful, ornately crafted, golden band with a small dirty diamond in the centerpiece and her breath hitched. She looked to the letter and as she read it, she felt like her heart was exploding in her chest:

'Dear Maggie—

God how I miss you. I mean, I knew I would, but I never thought about how much, and it's only been a couple months. I heard England—especially London—has been getting bombed a lot. Every time I hear about sections of London destroyed, I just want to get out of here and come find you—to make sure you're okay—but I know you. I know you're tough and I have to believe you're safe. Still…

Maybe it's a bit presumptuous but

If you'll have me…

When we see each other next—

You've seen this ring before, it was my grandmothers. My mother gave it to me to give to you years ago—she's always wanted you as her daughter.

You've probably guessed by now that you're my world Mags. I don't want to live in a world without you, so after this war is all over, I was hoping you'd marry me. Unless you've met some nice British guy, then—well I'm not a fan of that idea, but if he treats you right and you're happy that's what's important to me.

If you don't want it—or me—I understand, but I know you'll keep it safe until we see each other again.

Forever yours,

Bucky'

Maggie took a deep breath and set the letter on her lap, her eyes focusing on the ring. She lifted it to her finger and put it on and smiled sadly seeing it was just barely too small. She knew that after the war, her lethargy that had formed would go away and her fingers would get larger again, so the barely fitting ring now would absolutely not fit then and would need to be resized. She took the ring off and put it in a small wooden box with the rest of her little trinkets she had gotten while overseas. The small cigar box was mostly empty with only a couple bracelets covering a singed linen handkerchief at the bottom.

She stared at the handkerchief and sighed before moving the bracelets to the side. She opened the dirty white cloth and tears pricked at her eyes. Inside were the dog tags from soldiers that had had begged her to take them before dying. She slid her fingers over the top of them and a more than a couple of them shifted and clinked together.

The first soldier, Wyatt McDaniel, had begged her to take them and for a while she said no. But the man had been persistent and eventually, she caved. It was a potentially ethical problem, but he had wanted his family to know how much he loved them. He has asked her to tell them his death had been worth it, and he was happy to give his life for their country.

The problem was others had seen it and before they died, they made her promise to do the same for them. So far, she was up to 11 individual families to visit. The hardest one to swallow was a man named Harper, who had two daughters and a wife he was leaving behind. He had asked her to tell his daughters how proud he was of them, even though they were only six and four.

She closed the kerchief before the tears began to fall and moved the bracelets back as if the beautiful trinkets might keep the dog tags hidden. She placed the ring on top and with a deep, sad sigh, she placed the cigar box back on her vanity and sat down with a pen and paper. A moment later, she started writing back to Bucky.

In the first letter she wrote—which she promptly threw in the garbage—she told him about everything she had been doing in the hospital and as she started to write about the men she had 'helped' she crumpled up the paper and threw it away. She grumbled and sat back before she started again, trying to get out of the morbid mindset the dog tags had put her in.

In the second letter she kept it as light as she could, telling him about the beautiful English countryside and wanting to visit it after the war with him and Steve at some point. By the end of the letter, she had for him it was nearly two pages of script on both sides of the paper. She had limited room, and more to say so she grabbed her final piece of letterhead and continued on.

'I didn't mean to make you wait until the end to get a response for your final letter. You know how I go on tangents better than nearly anyone else. We'll have to get the ring sized up when we go home. It almost fits now but I have lost some weight. I'm going into town after my shift tomorrow and I'll be picking up a necklace to put it on to keep it close to my heart. I love you, too, my stubborn man. There's truly never been anyone else.

Forever yours,

Margaret'

The next day on her way into the hospital Maggie stopped to deliver the singular letter to the post-master and pick up more paper. As she was standing in the line, she noticed a poster on the wall of Captain America pointing to the reader and smiled. She was beyond proud of Steve.

When she handed over her letter to the postmaster, he smiled and warned her it could be a few weeks or more before she got a response. She nodded and thanked him and bought the paper she needed. Before she left, she walked over to the poster and noticed next to it were European tour dates.

He would be in London in three months-time, on his way to the front lines to perform for the soldiers. She asked a young gentleman if he had a writing utensil she could borrow, and he cautiously handed her the fountainpen in his breast pocket. She jotted down the dates quickly and closed the pen back up. She thanked the man as she handed it back and scurried off to the hospital.