This is an OC/Bucky ship, start to finish.
A couple notes:
-The story cover art is my own drawing.
-A big thing I would like to address: for me none of this is triggering, however I know I handle gore and violence better than some of my friends. So officially I want to give all of you a potential trigger warning. I am going to add it to the description as well because while there will remain fluffier times inherent to the romance genre, Bucky's story is a dark one and Maggie's will also be dark. I've tried to write this tastefully enough that it hopefully wont be a problem, but I'd just like to cover the bases and let you be aware of potential problems.
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.
November 1943 – Italy, behind enemy lines
Maggie sat in the front of the silver aircraft next to Howard Stark. She had her guns out and was checking them, but the brief serene setting in the sky above her had caused her to pause for a moment. It had taken her and Steve far longer than normal to fall into their old habits or running in to fight people they probably shouldn't have than she would have ever though possible, although being a soldier or a nurse in a war was a little bit different of circumstances.
Peggy filled them in on the details of the Hydra camp that they would be infiltrating, and while Maggie didn't know who Hydra was, she got the impression they were worse than the Nazis. Maggie took in as many details and as much information as she could. She turned back as Peggy gave details on the whereabouts of the camp just in case her and Steve got separated, she had a direction to go. Howard was going to drop them as close as he could, Steve and Maggie would walk the rest of the way if they had to.
Maggie faced forward in her chair again and began to look over the pistol she had 'borrowed' from the armory, making sure she was familiar enough to shoot it. After a few moments, she put it in the holster on her hip and switched to looking over the rifle she had at her feet.
She paused before picking it up, looking at her stolen clothes. She was glad for the barracks to have been empty so she could grab some clothes and a pair of boots. It would be much easier to move in them that her tight skirt and heels.
Maggie took a deep breath as her nerves started to get to her and looked back to the rifle, picking it up.
"I gotta be honest," Howard said beside her, "It makes me nervous seeing you playing with a gun next to me."
"I know how to use them," she responded, and he smirked.
"I can tell, I think that's the part that scares me," he teased, "You know, I've been thinking, you look familiar to me."
"You made a funny joke about my higher level of thinking at your Expo a couple years ago. The one with the hover car that landed back on the ground before it was over."
"Ah, that's it. You were the girl on the guy's shoulder," he said, "that's why you looked familiar."
"Do you commit to memory every woman you lay eyes on, Mr. Stark?" she asked putting the gun away happy with the shape it was in. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised.
"Just the beautiful ones who tease back," he said looking over at her, "I remember you blowing me a kiss."
"All for the show, Mr. Stark," she said getting up and moving into the back with Steve and Peggy so she could start putting on her parachute. She had never jumped from a plane before, but Steve told her it was easy enough.
"Touché, Ms. Hargrove. Touché. Agent Carter," Stark called back as Maggie left him, "If we're not in too much of a hurry I was thinking we could stop in Lucerne for a late-night fondue."
Peggy rolled her eyes and Maggie chuckled, understanding the annoyance with unwanted flirting. Steve however missed it and sat awkwardly, looking toward Stark, then to Peggy. Maggie elbowed him and he looked back at Peggy as she started talking.
"Stark is the best civilian pilot I've ever seen," Peggy commented, "He's mad enough to brave this airspace. We're lucky to have him."
"So are you two… Do you… Fondue?" Steve asked awkwardly and Maggie's jaw dropped in surprise and she let out an awkward laugh for him.
"What?" he asked looking at her and she shook her head in disbelief.
"This is your transponder," Peggy said trying to pretend she hadn't heard those words come from Steve, "Activate it when you're ready and the signal will lead us straight to you."
"Are you sure this thing works?" Steve asked holding up the transponder to Howard.
"It's been tested more than you, pal," he called back.
Explosions started going off around them. Steve hurried to the door and Maggie followed immediately behind him.
"Get back here, we're taking the two of you all the way in!" Peggy said as she stood to go after them. Steve opened the door and sat on the edge. He looked to Peggy.
"As soon as we're clear, turn this thing around and get the hell out of here!"
"You can't give me orders!"
"The hell I can't! I'm a Captain!" he yelled and threw himself out the door.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Maggie yelled looking at Peggy before jumping out the plane and diving after him.
When they landed, Steve landed on the ground, but Maggie ended up snagging a branch of a tree. Steve ran up to her and pulled out his knife, helping to cut her down quickly before they could be spotted. He pulled out his compass and pointed in a direction, "Come on, this way."
"Do you fondue?" she whispered ad him and he hushed her.
"Now's not really the time Mags," he whispered back.
"Come on even you have to admit that was a bad way to ask that," she said.
"Maggie," he pleaded, "Seriously can we talk about this later?"
"Fine," she said, "but we're definitely talking about it.
The continued on silently, Steve leading Maggie as they ran. They seemed to be alone in the woods until they saw lights in the distance. They slowed and Maggie noticed they were paralleling a road. She tapped Steve on the shoulder and pointed at the road to their left. Looking down it in one direction was where the lights from what appeared to be a convoy of vehicles was coming from. In the other direction, about 100 yards out from where they were, was the base they were to infiltrate. The two stopped and crouched together behind a couple of bushes as the lights got brighter.
"You stay out here," Steve whispered, "The men are going to need back up when they get out here and that's where you'll come into play."
"I can help you in there," she said, "there's potentially a lot of people you're going to have to rescue and you're not going to have a lot of time to do it."
"Maggie," he pleaded with her for the second time on their journey, "please, stay out here, and cover their escape. You can shoot, but Bucky would kill me if you got hurt because you went in with me and got into a fight."
"Fine," she said begrudgingly. They heard trucks coming and Steve looked to them.
"That's my ride," he said and jumped into the back of the last one. A few moments later, one man tumbled out, followed shortly by another.
"Damnit Steve," she whispered and ran up to the men, dragging them into the tree line. She checked their pulse and when she saw they were dead she dropped them out of sight and moved closer to the guard shack.
She took in her surroundings, four guards on the lower level, two in the tower above, shining lights onto the yard. She went back to the soldiers and began stripping the smaller one of his clothes and put them on over hers. When she put on the helmet it was too large for her and she grumbled, trying to adjust her hair inside it so that she could see properly out of the lenses. It was probably a mistake but if she was caught, she hoped she would look convincing enough to catch whoever found her off guard.
After a few minutes of watching the front gate, she couldn't take it any longer and let out a whistle. The guards looked at one another before two of the four guards began to approach her. She hid behind the trees far enough in where a scuffle wouldn't be seen.
When the first one went by her, she ignored him but when the second went by she kneed him in the groin and hit him hard in the throat. He began choking and the other guard turned around at the noise. She kneed him as well and when he dropped, she grabbed his face and twisted his neck as hard as she could. Turning back to the other guard she did the same. She stared for a moment at the two limp bodies beneath her and realized she had held been holding her breath.
"That was dumb, Maggie," she whispered to herself taking a deep breath, "That worked out, but that was so dumb." She thumbed her pistol as she looked back at the two guards at the gate. She knew using it would only give the guards reason fire onto her location immediately. She sighed and checked the two at her feet for anything else that could help her and found a couple of knives.
"Shouldn't have left me out here alone, Steve," she mumbled and searched the ground for a rock or something to throw and distract the guards that were left.
After finding a suitable rock, she threw it towards the last two guards. One of them came toward her, his gun raised. She hid from him with one of the knives in her hand. As he passed her, she stepped behind him and put her hand around him, covering his mouth. She lifted her hand with the knife and ran it across his throat as deep and quick as she could. He gurgled for a moment before falling limp and her arms. Maggie almost fell back under his weight but managed to set him down quietly instead.
The fourth guard called out what Maggie assumed were the names of the three men by her feet. When silence was the only response, he started walking toward her slowly. She watched and waited from her hidden position.
As the guard closed in and saw their bodies, she got ready to attack him, but she was a moment too slow. He turned to face her; his gun trained on her immediately as he started speaking loudly in German.
She panicked and ran at him, pushing the gun away from her just before he fired. The shot echoed in the quiet wood but all she could focus on was shoving the knife into his body. When he barely flinched from it, she grabbed her pistol and shot him four times between the gut and chest before he fell to the ground.
Voices called out in the distance and she heard the siren begin to wail.
"I should have waited," she muttered to herself, thinking she had blown their mission, "I absolutely should have waited."
Maggie ran toward the gates hoping to get a clear line of sight and start picking off whoever she could before she was captured. The voices started coming closer and she realized they were speaking English and shouting various directions.
"Cap said we had some help this way!" one shouted. She looked up to the guard tower seeing the guards preparing to shoot in a direction away from her.
She grabbed her rifle, aimed quickly, and shot the first one, downing him instantly. As she pulled the bolt back to discharge the round fired, the second tower guard turned in her direction. She looked through her scope, ready to fire again and saw he was trained on her. She pulled the trigger in panic and staggered backward, feeling the bullet graze her cheek.
She was stunned for a moment before she heard the voices again. She shook herself and began running towards the clearing, shooting the first three she saw in Hydra uniforms. A group of nearly half a dozen men stopped as they saw her with the gun and raised their hands in surrender. She dropped a new clip in the magazine quickly and pointed it behind them. A Hydra was running up with his pistol out as she shot.
"Get down!" she yelled and three of the Allied soldiers who were in the direction her gun was pointed fell to the ground, then looked to each other to see if they were all still alive.
"Sorry," she said lowering the gun. As she ran to them, she took off the helmet, her hair falling past her shoulders. She helped one of the men on the ground get up them turned to the group and pointed at the gate, "That way should be clear, now go! I'll keep covering you!" They looked at each other for a few moments and she saw more Hydra soldiers coming.
"Go!" she yelled at the Allied soldiers before raising her rifle and moving past them. The men stood behind her stupefied until the sound of the bolt action brought them back and they ran out of the compound and into the tree line.
Maggie was doing well, counting her shots so she could plan her reloads, but the last clip she dropped into the rifle was missing one of its rounds and in her rush, she didn't notice, so when she went to fire her final shot the chamber was empty and the gun clicked quietly.
The Hydra soldier she had been aiming at hesitated before realizing her mistake and charged her. Quickly she spun the gun around to hold it by the barrel and swung it as hard as she could. She hit the soldier hard on the side of the face and she heard a sickening crack before he fell to the ground. She pulled out her pistol and shot him for good measure.
Ducking behind a truck, she took a breath before holstering her pistol again and lifting her rifle back to proper firing position. She took the brief reprieve to reload her nineteen-ot-three and checked to make sure the clip wasn't missing and rounds. She took another breath and ran the back of her hand against her forehead.
Maggie jumped at a sudden large explosion. She peaked out from behind the truck to see one of the tanks firing on the others. Chaos began to break out all around her and she stepped out from behind the truck. She continued firing on Hydra soldiers and continued giving any Allied man she could direction into the tree line. As she continued fighting a couple stood with her, picking up guns off soldiers that she helped drop. One of them was an Englishman who immediately offered her his full name. All she heard was something along the lines of Monty.
"Have any of you seen Steve?" she asked, yelling over all the noise around them. Monty shot another Hydra soldier and turned to her as he ducked behind their hiding spot with her.
"I'm sorry darling, who's Steve?" he asking asked lowering his gun.
"The man in the stars and stripes!" she yelled back, turning to him.
"Cap?" he said lifting his gun and shooting at someone behind her, "He was heading to the isolation wards! Looking for a guy named Bucky!" The factory began exploding suddenly and she looked around. They were too close to the building and several Allied soldiers were running towards them.
"This way!" she yelled waving as she stood, "This way to the front!"
The men started running towards her and she shoved them in the direction of the front gates as she felt a fiery pain in the side of her back. Monty pulled her down, immediately placing his hand on the spot.
"Are you okay?" he asked as she hissed at his touch.
"I'm fine," she said, "we need to get out of here though. Move, I'll be right behind you." He signaled for the other two to go first and as he did so, Maggie looked to the sky and saw a strange looking flying machine.
"You're turn," Monty said pulling her focus away from the black object, "Ladies first, and all that."
She looked around them. Most of the men were on their way out of the gate. She turned back towards the facility just as it systematically started exploding and collapsing in on itself.
"No!" Maggie screamed and began to attempt to stumbled toward the building. "Bucky, Steve!" Monty grabbed her and began pulling her towards the gate. He tried to drag her but after a moment he bent down and lift her onto his shoulder so she would stop resisting him. She struggled, trying to escape his grasp but wasn't able to get out of his grasp until he set her down outside the gates
"Darling, we have to go," he said grasping her shoulders and trying to get her to see reason, "We have to get out of here."
"No, I can't leave them!" she screamed and tried to run back in.
A man in a bowler hat and egregious mutton chops who had been inside one of the tanks, hopped down from the tank and grabbed her.
"Alright princess, we gotta go," he said trying to turn her around.
"No Steve was in there! He was looking for Bucky, he—"
"If he was in there, he's dead now," the man said sternly, "there's no way he could have survived blasts like that!"
"I have to make sure! I've seen how explosions can keep people hanging on!" she yelled trying to get away from him, "If he's still alive I have to be there for him!"
"Mags?" a voice past the man in front of her called and she bristled, her breath seemingly knocked out of her. She looked past the man and saw Steve, helping Bucky walk.
"Bucky!" she called and ran to him. She gave the two a hug, tears streaming down her face.
"Hey, doll," Bucky said taking his arm away from Steve to hold her close.
"You got him out," she whispered looking to Steve and he smiled.
"Did you doubt me?" he asked. Maggie gave Steve a once over. He was looking disheveled and singed but otherwise okay. She looked back at Bucky who looked worse for wear and fell into tears again, a smile on her face.
"I thought you were dead," she whispered, and he smirked.
"I'm too stubborn to die," he countered.
"Shut up and kiss me," she whispered, and he smirked before doing just that.
"Are we gonna stand here and watch the two of you kiss and bleed all day or are we going to get moving?" the man with the bowler hat asked.
"Bleed?" Bucky asked leaning back and looking her over. Seeing her cheek, he lifted his hand to it, but stopped seeing all the blood on it.
"Mags?!" he questioned before turning her and seeing the bullet hole in her back, just above where his hand had been placed, "you've been shot!"
"She was trying to call the stragglers over to us," Monty piped in, "stood up and was hit immediately. Took it like a champ, though I must say."
"What I want to know," said a smaller Asian man with a beanie on his head and pointing to the Hydra soldiers just inside the tree line, "did she kill all six of these men? Everyone swears they were dead before we got out here."
Steve, Bucky, Monty, and the man with the bowler hat all looked at her.
"Steve got the first two, I just dragged them off the road to cover our basses and one of them was small, so I took his clothes," she said. Bucky stared at her, concern on his features. Steve looked at other the Soldiers again before looking to her in surprise.
"Three of them are clean," the Asian man spoke up again, "the other one looks more like a woman's work, with the knife in the chest and multiple bullet wounds.
"So maybe I got a little cocky with the last guy then panicked a bit," she said nervously, then tried to redirect, "the important thing is everyone who is here now, is here and not still locked up in there. And we should get going so we can hopefully make it back to the encampment before nightfall."
"She has a point," Steve said looking around and speaking loudly, "We've got a bit of a hike ahead of us, let's get moving!" There was a general assortment of agreements and Steve began to lead the way with Maggie following closely behind him, and Bucky closely behind her.
"Captain Rogers," Monty called, and Steve turned to face him, he was looking and Maggie with concern, "She needs medical attention. That wound is still bleeding pretty bad. She should ride in a truck we stole or on the tank, and someone should definitely try to patch her up."
"I'm fine," Maggie said, and tried to hide the wave of nausea that hit her.
"You're not fine," Bucky said wrapping his arm around her.
"You're doting," she replied, "I've gone through worse."
"You have not," Bucky and Steve said in unison.
"That's it," the man with the bowler hat said walking over to her. He picked her up and walked back to the tank and lifted her onto. He climbed up next to her and turned to Bucky. "You're not looking so hot either. Hop up here and take care of your girlfriend while we travel. I'll try to keep it smooth for you so you can attempt to impress her."
"Alright," he said quickly before he looked back at Steve.
"All of this is new, right? She was never this lethal before?" he asked, and Steve shrugged.
"We never fought to kill before, but she could get pretty ruthless in a fight," Steve spoke the words as he thought them, "although I guess you were never really around for the worst ones.
"You guys only ever lost fights," Bucky stated.
"Only the one's you found us losing," Steve retorted, "there were plenty we won without you." Bucky looked at her on the tank as Monty handed her black cloth and she thanked him.
"If I had a hat on, I'd tell you to hold it, Steve," Bucky said staring at Maggie, "I'm in love with a wild woman." Steve chuckled as Bucky hobbled to the tank and lifted himself up next to her. Steve began to lead the way and the tank immediately fell to the back of the pack. Before they started moving he looked over where she had been shot, then wrapped it up as gently as he could muster. When he looked back at her face he saw it flushed.
"Are you okay?" he asked, bringing his hand up to her cheek.
"I am," she said holding it, "I never… thought about how soft your touch would be." He couldn't help the smirk that formed.
"Yeah?" he asked, "is it going to keep you up at night now thinking about it?"
"No," she said quietly, "but feeling it might." He stared at her for a moment in surprise then his smirk came back, and he planted a hard kiss on her lips.
"Come on," the redhead yelled from inside the tank as he beat on the glass. Maggie laughed, leaving the kiss as the man in the bowler hat carried on, "are we going to have to watch this the whole time? Good for you, glad you can get some!"