Savage

by awalkerlifeforme

She was everything people feared. She wanted to defend the world but also wanted revenge on those who wrecked hers. The ones who forced her to leave Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Now she's back and while Steve attempts to get back the woman he's always considered his sister, Bucky hopes to thaw the ice that has formed around her heart. A heart that he had always believed was his.

39. Chapter 38

Upon our return to the base in London, we were naturally the talk of the city. Actually, that wasn't quite true. I was the talk of the city - as I so often was. Not that it really bothered me. I was actually quite pleased to know that the story of my heart-throwing stunt had made its rounds and most of the people in London had thought that it was rather funny. No one had been particularly upset about our accidental dismissal from the Swiss base. I supposed they were finally just getting used to me and my somewhat cruel sense of humor.

Back in London, everyone had continued to move about with their lives. Peggy was working closer than ever with MI6 and the S.S.R. to hunt down the remaining Hydra bases. Howard continued working with the Tesseract to break down Hydra's new weapons. He utilized their designs to try and create some new weapons for our own men. In the meantime, he continued trying to replicate the super-solider serum with his own team. I continued to train the men. They were utterly amusing to beat up. Chester kept reports of our work moving into other parts of the government.

Surprise, surprise, no one was particularly happy that I was working so closely with 'sensitive' information. I supposed that the mind-reading hadn't quite occurred to them yet. I didn't need paperwork. Surprisingly enough, President Roosevelt had declared me a non-threat, at least, until the moment came that I posed myself as a threat. Essentially, it was their way to keep me acting in line. For Bucky's sanity, I never told him what was going on back in the States - their constant confusion over whether I was a threat or could be trusted. In all honesty, both of those depended on the day.

They mostly just seemed happy that I hadn't been in the States for half a year. It was now early on in the summer. Steve's birthday would be in just a few weeks. The weather had finally begun warming up and I was extremely grateful for it. As the long days passed, we slowly grew closer and closer to my wedding date. Everyone seemed more involved in it than I was. The last I'd even heard about the wedding was when I had allowed Bucky to send out the wedding invitations a few days ago. I didn't really care about any of that. It was all up to him.

Currently, I was down in the training room with Steve. The two of us had been fist-fighting for the past hour or so. Steve had a number of bruises from accidental punches and kicks. As per usual, he hadn't managed to get in many direct hits on me. Steve made a move to hit me in the stomach, so I hooked my arm underneath his own to lock it in place before reaching up and swinging out, punching him dead across the cheek, which I really hadn't meant to do. My eyes widened in surprise as Steve fell back against the ground.

"Damn it," Steve groaned, placing a hand over his eye. "I thought you weren't going to hit me that hard!"

We had made a promise to each other before we had started fighting that I wouldn't hit as hard as I could. "Sorry. I thought it was slightly lighter than it was," I said guiltily, dropping down to his side.

"Okay… I'm done," Steve said, hitting the ground again as he tried to stand up.

"I really am sorry about that," I said, placing my hand against his cheek.

"It's alright, Vic."

"You sure?" I asked suspiciously.

Yeah. Why?" Steve asked.

"Because I broke your nose," I told him.

His eyes widened again as my index finger traveled down the slight ridge on his nose from where the bone had snapped. "That's why it hurt that badly," Steve said carelessly.

"Sorry. Wasn't going for that," I said. Steve got to his feet, feeling around for the break. "Come here. I'll fix it." I rose to my feet as Steve walked back to me and placed my hand against his nose. "On the count of three, okay?"

"Okay."

"One."

The moment that the word had come out of my mouth, I flicked my wrist off to the side quickly. His nose made the slightest crack as it moved back into place. My hands heated up as the flames sank underneath my skin, working into the bone to mend it. I was hoping that he wasn't going to end up having a slightly misshapen nose. As I pulled back away, I smiled at my handiwork. His nose was center again. All he would have was just the slightest ridge from where I had snapped the bone. Maybe it would be a fun story to tell his kids.

"What happened to two and three?" Steve gasped, holding his nose.

"You would have been expecting it," I explained.

"That was the point!" Steve barked.

"They say that it apparently hurts less when you're not expecting it," I argued.

Steve groaned, running a hand over his nose again, trying to dull the pain. "Trust me when I say that's not true at all."

"I'll keep that in mind," I giggled.

"What the hell are the two of you doing in here?"

We both turned back to see Bucky standing in the doorway, his arms folded over his chest, watching us with a vague smile. "Your fiancé just broke my nose," Steve groaned, glaring at me.

"You say it like I did it on purpose," I snapped back. "Come on! It was an accident. I'll buy you an ice cream, big guy."

Steve laughed as Bucky walked into the room. "Can we have a second?" Bucky asked me.

"Sure. Go put ice on that," I ordered Steve.

Steve walked out of the training room, one hand on his nose to try and dull the pain, still muttering under his breath about his annoyance with me. I rolled my eyes at him. Drama queen. It hadn't hurt that badly. Once Steve was gone, I turned back to Bucky and smiled. He responded with one of his own. But there was something tense about it. The alarm bells immediately began going off in my head. Something was wrong. Just as Bucky opened his mouth to talk to me, Howard walked into the training room.

"Sorry to interrupt, lovebirds -"

"No, you're not," I interjected.

Howard smiled at me. "We need you in the lab for a few minutes."

But someone else apparently needed me too. "Can it wait?" I asked Bucky sadly.

"Yeah. It's not urgent," Bucky said, waving me off.

"Okay," I said suspiciously. "See you later."

"Bye," Bucky responded.

Something still seemed wrong. I forced a smile on my face as Bucky pressed a brief kiss against my mouth. His heart was beating slightly faster than normal. He was definitely anticipating something. I turned away from Bucky, somewhat confused about everything, and headed out into the hallway with Howard. I turned around just long enough to see that Bucky had begun pacing in the training room. I arched a brow curiously. What was going on with him? Something that wasn't urgent, apparently, but definitely important enough to be upsetting him.

Howard placed a hand against the small of my back and gently pushed me toward the labs. He must have known that my mind was somewhere else. Namely, I was curious about what the hell was wrong with Bucky. He had seemed just fine when we had woken up this morning. What had happened in the past few hours to put him in such a strange mood? Nothing had happened with us. Right? We had been together perfectly normally this morning. We had only left each other's presence because we'd both had work to do.

There was no way that something had happened in such a short period of time. "Does he seem... off?" I asked Howard curiously.

If there was anyone who noticed slight changes in personalities, it was Howard. "I'm sure that it's nothing to worry about," Howard said flippantly.

His answer was too fast. I narrowed my gaze. "You know something," I said sharply.

Howard paled slightly. I nodded at him to explain it to me. "A few days ago he was on the phone with someone," Howard said. I nodded for him to continue. That wasn't surprising. Bucky got the occasional call from friends or family here at the base. He had never seemed affected by it. "I didn't hear much of the conversation, but it seemed to be a little strained."

"Do you know who he was talking to?" I asked curiously.

Howard shook his head immediately. "Couldn't hear and I didn't think it was my business to ask." He hesitated a moment as if debating whether or not to tell me the rest. "Victoria, he loves you," Howard added carefully. "He's not being -"

"I don't think he's being unfaithful," I interrupted, already well-aware of where Howard was going with it.

Howard looked relieved at my revelation. Bucky wasn't foolish enough to cheat on me. He knew that I would literally kill him for that. Not only that, but I would have known without a doubt. I would have smelled the hormones that were released during sex, just as I could most evenings before we went to sleep. I could have smelled a woman's perfume. Plus, I would have noticed that he wasn't around as much as he had been before. Bucky had always been faithful to every woman he had been with before - I would be no exception to that rule.

"But I think something's got him nervous," I finally added.

"Anything you can think of?" Howard asked curiously.

"No," I admitted, annoyed that I didn't know what was bothering him. "Last I knew, he wasn't having any problems. I know that he's a little stressed because of the wedding. I mean, he's been doing most of the planning." The only thing I had really done was to buy a wedding dress and suggest a wedding. Everything else was all on him. "But I doubt that's enough to have him on edge like this."

"Is he really that on edge?" Howard asked.

To the average person, Bucky probably seemed completely normal, if maybe a little tired. But I knew the difference. "I've known him almost my entire life. When he has these little personality changes, I notice them," I explained.

"It might not be anything that bad," Howard said as we walked into the labs.

"It's not bad," I responded confidently. If it were something bad, he wouldn't have let me walk off with Howard. This was something that he was trying to avoid. "Whatever it is, it's something that he thinks that I won't like."

"You could always read his mind," Howard suggested.

It had been my first thought. "No. I made him a promise a long time ago that I wouldn't read his mind. I try to keep with that promise," I said. If things were reversed, I wouldn't have wanted them to know what I was thinking. At the end of the day, it was my friends' choice whether or not to tell me whatever it was that they were thinking. "Besides, if it's something that I don't want to know... I don't know. I'd rather wait and find out when he decides to tell me."

We remained silent for a long time as we both moved into our spots. Howard sat at his desk for only a brief second before taking a chair and moving over to mine. I smiled as he laid his hand over mine. For a while, we worked in silence together. Howard was pulling apart the disc that Steve had taken from the Hydra facility so many months ago. He worked with it whenever he wasn't in the mood to pay complete attention to whatever else he was supposed to be doing. I assumed that he was concerned about me.

Right on cue, Howard looked over to me and asked, "How are you doing, Victoria?"

"Fine. Why?" I asked.

"You seem... tense," Howard said slowly.

My shoulders constantly felt like they were being compressed. That was just a part of my personality. "What else is new?" I asked humorlessly.

Howard smiled. "Let me know if you ever need to talk, okay?"

Talking and I didn't get along very well. "Thanks. Right now, all I want to do is work," I said honestly.

"Work we shall do," Howard said brightly.

The smile on his face made me laugh. Howard pressed a small kiss against the top of my head before pushing his chair back to his own desk. He worked on the disc for a little while longer before eventually taking off. I smiled at him. The way that he was muttering to himself, I could tell that he wasn't getting anywhere on the Hydra disc. He eventually let me know that he was planning on trying to design another round of the mock-Hydra guns. I let him know to be careful and not blow himself up this time. He laughed.

In the meantime, I went back to using my Chronicle. The other men in the room watched as I stuck a needle in my arm and pulled out about a pint of the Chronicle. It remained firmly locked in my stations during my off time to ensure that no one else got a hold of it. Most of the men didn't spend too long in the lab anyway. Everyone had better things to do with their time than hang around inside. The only reason I was here was that I couldn't focus on anything else. It took Bucky hours to return. When he finally did, he lingered outside of the lab doors.

"Hey," Bucky greeted, lingering in the door frame.

Somehow annoyed that it had taken him this long to return, I leaned my head in my hands and snapped, "Just get it over with."

Bucky's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

Swiveling around in my chair, I faced Bucky with an even stare. "You only come and knock on the door to follow up with a simple greeting when it's something you know I won't like. I prefer not to beat around the bush when it comes to those things. Get to the point," I said.

"Yes, dear," Bucky teased. I smiled at him. "My siblings are coming to visit."

His answer had been so blunt and direct that I had reacted before I'd gotten the chance to really process the news. I had definitely expected him to beat around the bush for a little while longer. I was so surprised at the news that I dropped the vial of Chronicle I had been holding, trying to figure out how it related to Hydra's weapons. Thankfully, before the vial hit the ground and shattered everywhere, Bucky ducked down and grabbed it. I let out a breath of relief about halfway as he placed it gently back on the work table.

"Whoa. I got it," Bucky said, pushing away my hand. I wasn't sure what I was trying to do. My hand was just fumbling over the table. "It's okay."

Once I had the vial back in its holster, I looked Bucky in the eye. He wasn't kidding. Jessica, Rebecca, and Justin were coming here. "Your siblings are coming?" I asked weakly.

We weren't all supposed to see each other for another six months. "Yeah. Just got the confirmation from them today. They'll be here in a few days," Bucky explained. There was no smile on his face either. He had been nervous to tell me this because he had known that I would react this way. "I was talking to Jessica. She said that they were planning on staying for a few days."

"Why?" I asked sharply.

"Why?" Bucky repeated. I nodded. "Because, Vika, I haven't seen my siblings since the day before I deployed. It's been over two years. Plus, I know that they've always wanted to see London. Not to mention, I'm sure they'll be excited to see you again."

A bark of laughter escaped my throat before I could stop it. "Sure," I scoffed.

"What?" Bucky asked, obviously confused.

"Sure they'll be excited to see me," I said.

Bucky's eyebrows raised in confusion. "You don't think they will?"

"Not particularly."

Bucky shook his head, smiling at me. "That ridiculous. They'll be thrilled to see you again," he said brightly. I shook my head, sitting back down at my desk. "It's been so long and so much has changed since the last time we were all together."

"That's what I'm concerned about," I answered.

"Concerned?" Bucky asked.

"Yes, Bucky. Concerned." I swiveled around in the chair to face him. "You think that they're going to want to hug and catch up?"

"Yes."

"No," I corrected.

"I thought that you were okay with my family," Bucky said slowly.

"I am. I'm concerned about the reverse," I admitted.

To come all this way after having not seen each other for so long, coincidentally just shortly after the wedding invitations were sent out, told me that they weren't just here for a visit. There was something wrong. Bucky stared at me for a long time. I couldn't believe that he didn't understand my concerns. I was sure that his family was coming here to warn him away from me. But he seemed to have only been concerned with the way that I would react - which was fair, I supposed. Bucky was shifting awkwardly on his feet, trying to figure out what to say now.

"Vika…" I rolled my eyes. I hatred the patronization in his voice. "They were going to be at the wedding anyway. You knew that you would have to see them again. Why is it so hard to hear that they're coming to visit?"

Some part of me had vaguely been hoping that they wouldn't come to the wedding. Or that I could ignore it up until that day came. "Because I thought I'd have a few more months to prepare myself for the many questions that are sure to come my way," I told him.

Explaining what and who I was, was exhausting. "They love you. They'll have questions, but no more than anyone else had," Bucky argued.

"If they hate me?" I argued.

Bucky shook his head disbelievingly. "As I said, they love you. They always have. They won't hate you. They just want to come to see us," Bucky said.

"Have they mentioned anything to you?" I asked him curiously.

"That they want to wait and talk about it in person," Bucky said.

Because they didn't want to give him the chance to hang up the phone on them. "They'll warn you away from me," I told him.

"No, they won't," Bucky argued.

Was he that stupid? "Why else would they want to wait to talk to you in person?" I asked. I continued speaking before he got the chance to answer. "Do you think they would have made this trip before the wedding to come to see you in person if they just thought that this was a good idea? They're coming to warn you that this is a bad idea. Trust me."

Bucky stared at me for a long time before shaking his head. "You need to have a little more faith in people."

Once upon a time, I had. Right up until those people had betrayed it. "That's not exactly my strong suit," I growled.

He knew damn well why I didn't trust people. Bucky let out a soft breath as he walked over to me and grabbed my hand. "Come on, Vika. I want you to be there," he goaded quietly.

"I'm not setting foot near them while they're here," I snapped.

Bucky raised a brow. He looked slightly disappointed. "Vika, I really want -"

"I don't care!" I yelled suddenly. Bucky looked extremely surprised at me. I was surprised with myself. "I've had enough people stare at me like I belong in a zoo for my entire life. I'm used to it by now. But a feeling that I won't ever get used to? That fading grin when people who once liked me finally realize what I am. The look on their face that says that they don't care about all of the time we've spent together. All they can remember is that one word. I'd like to just live with the illusion that they still look at me like I'm good enough for you."

Bucky was silent for a long time. He looked shocked that I had said something like that. "Do you think that highly of everyone?" Bucky asked, looking quite disappointed with me.

"No one's ever given me a reason not to," I replied before thinking better of it.

A hint of hurt flashed through Bucky's eyes. "Thanks," he said stiffly.

What had I just done? Bucky stared at me for a long time. I tried to think of something else to say, but I couldn't. There was something horrible flitting through them. Disbelief at what I had just said. Even I was surprised by what I'd just said. My mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came out. Bucky eventually turned and walked away, not bothering to say anything else. The door slammed shut behind him. It was the first time that he had ever left me without another word like that.

My eyes watered slightly as I watched him vanish down the hallway. I realized far too late that I had said the wrong thing. This hadn't just been a passing moment. I had genuinely hurt him. I turned without hesitation and smashed a vial of blood against the wall. It splashed over my hands and flowed down the wall, dripping onto the floor. I didn't bother to clean it as I turned and left the lab. The other scientists were staring at me. I had almost forgotten that they were there. I ignored their pitiful gazes and stormed out the door.

Almost immediately, I ran into Steve. He was leaning against the wall just outside of the lab. Obviously, he had heard everything. He gave me a sad stare as I came to stand in front of him, still staring down at the ground. "Hey..." Steve greeted carefully.

"I didn't mean that," I told him.

Steve nodded. "I know. He knows, too."

That didn't change the fact that I now had no idea how to make my previous statement up to him. What was wrong with me? I had never been cruel to Bucky before. "Something's wrong with me," I said.

"Nothing's wrong with you," Steve replied.

"Really?" I snapped. Calm down, Victoria. He's trying to help you. I took a deep breath, trying to slow down my heartbeat. My voice was much quieter the next time I spoke. "I purposely drive off the people who care about me."

Steve shook his head. "You're not driving him off. Not him and not me," he argued. I smiled weakly. I didn't know what I would do if I ever genuinely did drive them off. They were my entire world. "But those are his siblings and he doesn't want to see you standing against them."

Why had I done such a stupid thing? It was in my nature to speak before getting the chance to really think about it, but I almost never did it in regards to Bucky. The last time had been when I had accused him of only being with me because I was something familiar back during his training. After my comment, we had ended up barely speaking for days, only exchanging the occasional comment. I didn't want the same thing to happen to us now. But I knew that I had just overreacted that day. I was positive that I was right about this.

"Do you think I'm right?" I finally asked.

"Yeah," Steve answered immediately. I laughed humorlessly. At least I knew that I wasn't crazy. "Want to get dinner?"

"Not in a chatty mood. Tell the guys I'll see them in the morning," I said quickly.

Right now, I just wanted to sulk in silence. "Not with all of them. Not even Colonel Phillips or Howard or Peggy. Just the two of us," Steve offered. I raised a brow. It might have been good to get out for a little while to clear my head. "It's been a while since we've done that."

"Yeah. All right," I said.

So, the two of us walked off to have dinner together. We ended up going to a small cafe on the other side of the street from the army base. Neither one of us wanted to be around anyone else. I knew that the men would be in the cafeteria on the base. That was where they almost always went. Peggy would either be with them or having dinner with Howard in the labs. Chester tended to avoid everyone. It took Steve some time to get me to open up, but we eventually settled back into our old routine, just as we had during our days together on the USO Tour.

It was the first time in days that I had really enjoyed myself. I'd felt so tense lately, it was nice to relax and enjoy some time with my best friend. I didn't forget what had happened between Bucky and me, but I was very grateful to have Steve around. Throwing food at each other, making jokes at each other's expense, and teasing him for being slow enough to let me break his nose. Ordering almost everything on the menu and eating way too much chocolate cake. I found myself almost in high spirits when the time came for me to head back to my room for the night.

Unfortunately, by the time I had kissed Steve goodnight and wandered back into my room, Bucky still wasn't there. I couldn't really be surprised. I knew that he didn't want to talk to me. Or, more appropriately, he didn't want to confront the issue. Not that I blamed him. I wanted us to just forget about what had happened. Annoyed with myself, I dropped back into bed. I didn't know where he was and I wasn't in the mood to search for him. Even if I did know, I wouldn't go looking for him. There was no use in worrying over something I couldn't change.

More than likely, Bucky had sulked on his own for most of the afternoon and evening. I could only assume that he had gone out with the rest of the men. He would have known that Steve wouldn't have been a good bet. He knew that Steve would have asked what was going on - plus, he was with me. I laid back in bed, watching the blades on the ceiling fan spin around and around, listening to the alarm clock tick away the minutes. Even as it passed midnight, I still didn't fall asleep. Was there a chance that he wasn't coming back tonight?

My worries were put to rest about an hour later when the door opened and closed gently behind him. He didn't turn on the light as he began changing into his pajamas. I didn't open my eyes or speak. I could tell by the scent of smoke that surrounded him that he had been at the bar - just as I was thinking, likely with the men, who wouldn't have dared ask him if something was wrong with us. I relaxed slightly as Bucky pulled himself into bed gently. He didn't move close enough to touch me, as he normally did. I frowned slightly.

The minutes ticked by and neither one of us fell asleep. I laid in bed for a while and listened to his breathing. It was slightly quicker than normal. He was anxious about something. Probably me. His heartbeat was rattling the bed. At least, it felt like it was rattling the bed. That was just because I could feel it so well. I always had been able to. Bucky eventually shifted toward me slightly. His hand reached up to brush the hair back off of my forehead. I tried to resist the desperate urge to lean into his touch.

"I know you're still awake," Bucky whispered. I stiffened slightly but didn't move. "I still love you. That'll never change."

Even after everything, he still loved me. Even after the many times I had been an asshole to him, he still did and always would love me. I couldn't help but smile slightly. Not that he could see it in the darkness. Bucky still didn't touch me and I never bothered to respond to him, but I did lean back to press my spine up against his arm. Only a few seconds later, I felt his fingers gently work underneath my shirt to brush against the lower vertebrae in my spine. Not long after, I began slowly drifting off to sleep.

How I had ended up here, I didn't have the slightest idea. What was I doing here? I stood at the edge of a dark platform. The world was rushing along at my feet. I didn't know what was happening, but I felt the wind whipping around me and through my hair. It was icy. Wherever I was, it was cold. I found myself trembling in the bitter air. Why was I alone? I couldn't find anyone. None of the men were nearby. Steve and Bucky weren't here. All I could see was the bright blue flashes of weapons firing nearby. What the hell was going on?

There was another brilliant blast that shot through the area I was standing. I ducked down as the brilliant blue shot fired straight over my head. When I stood back upright, I finally noticed that I wasn't actually alone. Not far from me were both Bucky and Steve. If they were here, it meant that the rest of the men weren't far. Where were they? What the hell was going on? I was shaken from my stupor when I spotted Bucky standing near an opening not far from me. Steve was in between the two of us. Why was I so far away from them? Why couldn't I move? What was happening?

Not long after, there was an even louder blast. I gasped in horror as I watched Bucky get knocked straight off of his feet and thrown from the opening. I screamed and sprinted after him, but I couldn't get there. Not in time, at least. Steve was already there, hanging by his arms, trying to get to Bucky. But he was too far away. He couldn't grab him. I was steps away from the edge of the opening - which I was planning on jumping from - when there was a loud snap. Bucky fell into the darkness below - Steve and I powerless to save him.

A horrible scream tore from my throat as I bolted upright in bed. Sweat was running down my face as I sprang up again. There was a hand on my arm, trying to keep me where I was. I jumped again, surprised to see that the man I had just been dreaming about was right in front of me. Bucky was staring at me, concern evident in his eyes. He was alive... It had been a dream... It was just a dream... I was still breathing heavily as I laid my hand over his, clutching onto his arm, refusing to release him. I couldn't believe that I had just dreamed that he had died in such a horrible way. Alone and afraid.

"It's okay. You're okay. It's okay," Bucky whispered, pulling me into him. I let out a soft breath, keeping my hands firmly locked around his arm, refusing to let him move. "It was just a dream."

"You - You're here," I stammered.

Bucky grinned playfully. "We have one little argument and you think that I'm going to leave my own room?" he teased.

"You died..." I gasped, still having a hard time breathing properly.

Bucky seemed to finally realize that this wasn't just a normal nightmare. I was trembling from head to toe and sweating. "Hey... Vika, look at me," Bucky said quietly, grabbing my chin and tilting my head up to look at him. "It's okay. It was just a dream. I'm right here. We're both okay. Listen to me, we're okay. I'm okay. Nothing's happening to me." His lips tilted up in a smile. "Even if you might want it to sometimes."

He was still wearing his stupid smile. I punched him in the stomach. "Don't say that. It's not funny," I snapped.

Bucky gasped for air as he held up his hands in surrender. "Okay. I'm sorry," Bucky said quickly. I scowled at him. "But I'm okay. I promise."

My hands were latched so tightly around his shirt that the material was actually beginning to tear. I released him. Bucky grabbed my hands and pressed a small kiss against my forehead. This was certainly one way to end our fight. Bucky grabbed me around and the waist and pulled me to lay back against him. I was still breathing out raggedly. My dreams were never just dreams. Not ones like this. This was a warning. Something was going to happen to him. Whatever it was, it would result in his death. I would never let that happen.

"Hey, it was just a nightmare," Bucky said slowly.

"They're not just nightmares when I have them," I replied, trying to figure out where we had been in my dream. Wherever it was, we would have to avoid it. "They're... warnings."

Bucky pressed a small kiss against my forehead. "Nothing's going to happen to me, Vika. I'm fine. We're fine," he said confidently. "I'm not dying for a long time. I promise you that."

But that wasn't the truth. In comparison to my own life, Bucky would die in the blink of an eye. My heart sank into my feet. I loved him so much, so why did I feel like something was so wrong? Why was I dreaming that he was going to die? Was it really a warning? I wasn't sure, but I absolutely hated the thought that he could have died while we were still fighting with each other. My head slowly turned up to Bucky's. He was smiling down at me. The fight appeared to be over. I supposed that was the one good thing about the nightmare.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"For having a nightmare?" Bucky asked. "You're not the first person to -"

"Not the nightmare. The fight," I corrected him. He flushed slightly. "I shouldn't have said it the way that I did."

Bucky shook his head, grabbing my hand tightly. "Oh, Vika... You didn't do anything wrong," he said. But I had. I was the one who hadn't just agreed to go to the airport to see his family. "At the end of the day, we're just two people who have been through extremely different kinds of lives. You don't have faith in a lot of people and I understand that. You need to see action rather than just hope."

Something in his words seemed almost like an insult. I knitted my brows as I stared at him. "That doesn't exactly make me seem like a great person," I said lowly.

"Nah," Bucky chirped, smiling at me fondly. "You're the best person I've ever met."

"Are you kidding?" I asked.

"Do you think I am?" Bucky replied.

No. He didn't lie. That was just a part of his personality. "I don't think that you are, but I also don't believe that you could be telling the truth," I said slowly.

Bucky let out a soft breath and grabbed my hands. "For the last time, you're the best person I've ever met. I wouldn't trade you for the world. I love you and I love everything about you. I promise you, Vika," Bucky said seriously. Everything about me? That seemed like a little bit of a reach. "I'm going to be alright. I'm not going to die for a long time. You're stuck with me."

There was a playful smile on his face that spread onto mine. "I wouldn't want it any other way," I said quietly.

Bucky would always be the love of my life. I hated that I seemed to always be finding some way to doubt his love or our relationship. It wasn't something that I tried to do. It was something that I tried to avoid. But that didn't seem to work in my favor. Bucky was still smiling stupidly at me and I tried to force one onto my own face. It lasted for just a few moments. I was extremely relieved that his death had just been a dream, but I wasn't as relieved as I should have been. My smile quickly turned down into a scowl.

My unhappiness was evident. Bucky stared at me, the smile falling off of his face. He knew that something was wrong. There was no doubt in my mind that something was wrong with me. I just wished that I knew what it was. Every time I found myself even mildly happy about something, I would then find my happiness fading just hours or days later. What was it that was bothering me so much? Maybe it was that lingering doubt about what he really wanted. Maybe that difference in our personalities was finally coming to light. The thought made me frown.

"Vika…" Bucky whispered quietly, knowing that I was upset about something. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," I said honestly.

"Vika -"

"I don't know, Bucky!" I shouted, startling him. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. He hadn't done anything wrong. "I genuinely don't know what's wrong with me. I'm just... I don't know. I don't feel right. I'm not sick. I just - I don't know what it is. I couldn't begin to figure it out. I don't feel happy. Maybe it's that foreboding sense of danger that I have that you're not taking seriously."

I'd been relatively calm right up until the end, where I had accidentally become slightly accusatory. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to get you upset over a few bad dreams," Bucky said. It was more than a bad dream. That was my point. "We all have them. Vika, I used to get them too."

That caught my attention. "From your time at the Hydra base?" I asked.

"You know about those?" Bucky asked, shocked.

Oh, shit... I had tried so hard to make sure that Bucky never knew that I knew about his nightmares. He was always trying so hard to protect me and that included protecting me from the things that hurt him. I had tried to help when he was asleep. His nightmares would go flitting through my head from time to time when he was asleep. He would dream of the abuse he suffered at the hands of the men who worked on the base. Even worse were the times that he had nightmares of my own time in Stryker's lab. I hated that I caused him any pain.

"Yeah… Sorry," I muttered awkwardly. It had always been something that I had tried to keep secretive. "I used to stay up to try and relax the sensors in your brain. I could hear the nightmares. I saw you twitching."

Bucky flushed slightly, looking quite embarrassed. "Oh… I'm sorry if that kept you up," he mumbled.

"I don't mind. I never mind," I said, grabbing his hand.

Bucky smiled slightly, pressing his lips against my hands. When he pulled away, he looked me straight in the eye. "Those aren't the nightmares I was talking about," he said quietly.

"Which ones?" I asked.

"After you were taken, long before I ever found out what had really happened, I used to have these lifelike nightmares about what had happened to you," Bucky explained. I arched a brow. That one, I hadn't known. That had been well before I was good enough with telepathy to connect to him from such a distance. "I would dream about these men killing you or… or doing worse."

We both twitched slightly at his insinuation. That was one thing that I had never thought of. Not even during my time with Stryker. That was one thing that had never come into the conversation. It was one thing that I was extremely grateful for. They had never even dared to think of doing that to me. The chances were that they were far too afraid to ever lay a hand on me, knowing what would happen to them if they dared touch me. I had taken a lot during my time with Stryker - I would have never taken something like that.

We remained in silence for a long time. Bucky laid a hand on my thigh, keeping me steady. "Sometimes I would think that they were real. They would terrify me when I woke up. I was so afraid for what had happened to you," Bucky said. As it turned out, he'd had every reason to be afraid. What had happened to me was something out of nightmares. "Sometimes I prayed that you were dead, just so that there was no chance that those things were actually happening to you."

"And reality turned out to be much worse," I answered coldly.

What the hell is wrong with me? Bucky frowned. "That wasn't the point that I was trying to make," he said.

"I know. It's the point that I was making," I responded. Bucky arched a brow curiously. "Reality can be so much worse than what we'd ever even imagined."

Bucky stared at me for a long time. In the back of my mind, I knew that what I had said was the wrong thing. I was doing everything wrong and I knew that. For some reason, I just wanted to start screaming. At him and everyone else I knew. My anger was misdirected. In fact, the only person I should have been angry with was myself. I was the one who was making up all of these issues. But it didn't matter. For some reason, I seemed to be angry with the entire world these days and I was taking it out on the people closest to me.

Bucky's voice startled me from my reverie about my behavior. "Get up," Bucky ordered.

"Why?" I asked, surprised by his sudden change in behavior.

"Now," he snapped.

Since when had he been the one who ordered me around? Bucky reached over and wrapped a hand around my arm. I gasped as he jumped from the bed and yanked me along with him. "Hey!" I snapped, pulling my arm back. Bucky grabbed me again, pulling me toward the door. "Give me a second to get changed, at least."

"Doesn't matter," Bucky replied angrily.

"I'm not in the mood to play games tonight, Bucky," I growled.

"Good. Neither am I."

"That's an almost oddly threatening tone in your voice," I pointed out.

Bucky turned back and rolled his eyes. "Do you have to talk?"

"Is it wrong that I like it?"

That time when he turned back, he was smiling slightly. It was enough to tell me that he wasn't genuinely angry with me. He was just annoyed - which he had every reason to be. I was annoyed with myself. Bucky dropped his hand from my bicep down to my head to wrap around my hand. He continued dragging me down hallway after hallway, leading me into a slight offshoot of the base. One that I could have sworn I had been down before, but couldn't really remember where I had seen it.

The look on Bucky's face told me that he was as aware of the sudden change in my attitude as I was. But I didn't know what it was that was going on with me. Things were worse now than before I had ever found my connection to the Soul Stone or gotten engaged. There was something that had put me in a rotten mood and I wasn't sure what it was. All I knew was that something had to change. I knew that I was upsetting him more and more with each passing day and - whether or not he would admit it - slowly driving him away.

He dragged me along with him for a few minutes before pushing me down a hallway that jutted off from the base slightly. I was extremely surprised as I staggered down the unfamiliar hallway. We walked down it for a few minutes before Bucky gently shoved me through an open door. He released me just long enough to slam the door that we had walked through shut behind us. There was a loud clang that sounded very much like a lock had just been engaged. I raised a brow curiously. What, exactly, was he planning on doing?

Before I got the chance to ask him what the hell he was doing, Bucky placed a hand on my waist and shoved me back. Having been unprepared, I stumbled back into the cold steel wall. He had me pinned in between himself and the wall as he leaned down and pressed a painful kiss against my mouth. I didn't bother fighting him on it, instead, allowing myself to melt into his body. It felt like my entire body was releasing the tension that had been building up for months. The kiss never softened as Bucky held a hand behind my head, keeping us together.

When we finally pulled apart, I smiled playfully up at him. "This wasn't something that we could do in our room?" I asked.

"Oh, we could have done that in there just fine. But I couldn't do this," Bucky said.

"What are you -?"

Bucky never gave me a chance to finish speaking. I yelped quietly as Bucky leaned down and yanked me from underneath my knees. I immediately collapsed as he pulled me up and tossed me back over his shoulders. Something in between a laugh and yell came out as he whacked me on the back of my thighs. I continued laughing madly as Bucky spun around in circles. As he straightened up and started walking off, I realized very suddenly where he had brought us. I also realized exactly what he was planning on doing.

"Don't you dare!" I shouted.

"Too late!" Bucky yelled back.

It would have been easy enough to do something nasty to him to get him to drop me, but I knew that I wouldn't. Maybe this was something that I needed. Maybe we both needed a moment of fun. I shrieked loudly as Bucky pulled me off of his shoulders and tossed me headfirst into the underground pool. My hip hit the concrete on the ground and I laughed, pulling an air bubble out around my head. Even from the bottom of the pool, I could see Bucky grinning down at me. This was definitely one of his brighter ideas.

This was genuinely what I had needed. Just a moment to mess around with each other. A moment of lightness that I didn't get too often. After spending a few minutes drifting from one side of the pool to the other, I finally popped back up. Bucky had been watching me the entire time, grinning at me. As I broke through the surface of the pool, I stared up at Bucky, who was laughing at the stunned look on my face. It wasn't too often that he got the best of me. Much to my own surprise, I started laughing too.

Bucky grinned, seating himself on the edge of the pool. "I knew that would get you to laugh," he said.

His grin continued to widen. I stared up at him, my laughter slowly fading. Not because I wasn't happy. Surprisingly enough, this was one of the happiest I had been in a long time. It was because I was so surprised at the look on his face. There was no other way to put it. He looked... in love. It was that same look that seemed to almost never fade. I would never understand exactly why he looked at me the way that he did, but I was eternally grateful for it. I knew, without a single doubt in my mind, that no one would ever look at me the way he did.

He didn't speak as he watched me float around the pool. But his eyes did follow me. I reached down for the hem of the shirt that I was wearing and pulled it free from my shoulders. The rest of my clothes followed not long after. Unlike the last time we were at the pool together, I wasn't exactly nervous for him to see me like this. I smirked slightly, facing away from him, as his thoughts began screaming in my head. Most were things that I knew he would have never dared say out loud. I turned back and tossed my clothes up onto the concrete near him.

"Thank you," I said.

Bucky tilted his head. "I didn't -" He stopped speaking when he realized that I had heard his thoughts. He paled slightly and nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly. "You're welcome."

"Why don't you join me?" I offered.

Bucky merely grinned down at me. "No."

"No?"

"Why would I want to get all wet?" Bucky asked. I laughed at him. "No, you enjoy yourself."

Of course. He knew that this was something that I needed. Not to mention that he was probably enjoying the view. I laughed again as I leaned back and sank down into the water. Even with my eyes closed, I knew that his eyes were following every line of my body. Not that I minded. I opened my eyes and stared up at the ceiling, allowing the heat to flow from my veins and into the water. It began bubbling slightly. Bucky's laugh echoed off of the walls as the golden glow from my skin illuminated the room.

"You're beautiful," Bucky whispered suddenly.

His voice broke me out of my reverie. I leaned back down to place my bare feet against the concrete floor of the pool. He was staring at me, his eyes blazing with intensity. I smiled up at him. He didn't need to put up with me but for some reason, he did. I slowly swam back over to his side of the ledge and pushed myself up by my hands. The water poured over his lap but he didn't look the slightest bit upset with me. He was smiling down at me. He raised a hand, threading it through a strand of hair that laid over my chest.

Bucky slipped a little closer to the edge of the pool as I pushed myself up slightly higher to press a long kiss against his mouth. He released the strand of hair he had been holding to wind his hands around my bare back, his fingertips dragging along the shallow of my back. I smiled into the kiss, quickly deciding not to pull him into the water - as I had initially been intending to do. Instead, I allowed myself to just relax. Much to my surprise, a calming feeling settled in my stomach as his hands wound around the back of my hips, keeping me pressed in between his legs.

Long minutes passed before we finally broke apart. I pressed a small kiss against his temple as he nudged me gently underneath my chin. "Thank you. For this," I said, swallowing thickly.

"We all need to take a step back sometimes," Bucky said quietly, fingering my hipbone.

"Me more than anyone," I huffed.

"Oh, no," Bucky said, grinning at me. I arched a brow. "I don't want you taking a step back."

A small and somewhat pathetic snort escaped my mouth. Yes, this was the wrong time to take a step back. I smiled again as Bucky reached back around me to yank me half into his lap, pressing his lips against mine. This was, without a doubt, the most relaxed I had felt in weeks. I giggled as Bucky ran a hand through my wet hair and I finally pushed back off of him. Bucky laughed as I kicked back off of the concrete and dropped down into the water. As I popped back up, I saw that Bucky was still smiling at me. He knew that I needed this.

For a while, I ducked underneath the water and lapped the pool over and over again, spinning and flipping underneath the water. I wished that my life was like this - swimming through the water, free and without restraint. It wasn't. But, for this one moment, it could be. When I finally popped back out of the water, I realized something. This was the only time that I had been genuinely happy in months. Just being around him with nothing else in my mind. These were my happiest moments. So, I said something that I had been thinking about for a long time.

"I don't want to do this anymore."

Bucky's head snapped up. "What?"

There was a slightly horrified tone to his voice. I realized too late that he didn't realize what I was talking about. He thought that I was talking about my relationship with him. The truth was, that couldn't have been more wrong. The truth was that this was the place I was happiest. Nowhere else. Not even the places that I had once thought that I belonged. The battlefield. Once upon a time, the only place that I could have been myself. I swam back over to Bucky and leaned up against the edge of the pool, staring off toward the walls.

"For so long, I didn't think that I could ever settle down. Sometimes I still think that way. But I don't think that's true anymore. I think that I can settle down. In fact, that's what I want. I don't want to be a warrior anymore," I whispered. Bucky stared at me, looking quite confused. "I'll always be here if the Earth ever needs me to defend it, but I don't want to go looking for a fight. It's all I've ever done. Find one fight after another, no end in sight. I've been thinking about it a lot. I'm the happiest when we're together. Laying in bed or laughing - just like this.

"Or being out with the guys in the tavern. Beating Steve up. Gossiping with Peggy. Experimenting with Howard. Driving Chester out of his mind. But all of those things are just for fun. I'll always be like this, I'll always need to release that pent-up energy and I'll never truly be a housewife, but I can't do this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. I just want some time off. I want to enjoy my life. Maybe for the first time. I've never enjoyed being alive. And that's not fair. I want to build that house in the woods and… I don't know what else. But I know that I won't always want this life."

Bucky had been staring at me for a long time. By now, I was starting to wonder if he was okay. He had never been silent for this long. I wondered if I might have said something wrong. I wasn't sure what it was, but there was something wrong. He looked oddly emotionless as he processed my words. Was I now changing the idea of what he thought that he wanted with me? Maybe he really had liked the idea that I wouldn't ever settle down. Maybe this was the wrong choice. But Bucky completely surprised me when he jumped headfirst into the water. I stumbled back.

It looked like Bucky was slightly deranged with the way that he was smiling at me. It was a smile that I hadn't seen on him in a long time. He was grinning madly as he swam over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug. I began laughing madly as he swung me around, pushing us through the water. He wasn't upset by my words - he was just surprised. It was very obvious that he was happier more than anything else. As it turned out, this was what he wanted. He wanted it to just be us and I had finally gotten myself to that point.

Bucky finally stopped spinning, instead, holding me up against his body, unable to reach the ground. "You have no idea how happy that makes me," Bucky said, laughing somewhat insanely.

"Really?" I asked breathlessly.

His smile fell slightly, but it was still shining in his eyes. "I would have always stuck around, no matter what you'd decided to do, but this was what I always hoped for," Bucky said brightly.

"I'll never be like those girls you dated before me," I said quietly.

"There's a reason that I proposed to you and not to them," Bucky teased.

Yes, I supposed that he was right. He had always wanted someone who was slightly different. If there was anyone who was different, it was me. I smiled at Bucky as he pulled me in for another bruising kiss. He pushed me back against the concrete wall of the pool as I laughed into his mouth. One of his hands remained on the back of my hip as the other wound up to my hair. He had always been hoping for this. I knew that he was thrilled that I had agreed to have even a semi-normal life with him.

A long time passed before I broke away from him, breathing heavily. "We have to finish what we started here," I told him. Bucky stared at me blankly. "Clear the Hydra bases. We made a promise that I intend to keep. But after that… I only have so long with you. I want to spend all of that time with you. Not like this."

"Well… this isn't too bad," Bucky teased, looking down at my body.

"You can make it better," I added suggestively.

We both laughed as I began disrobing Bucky, not bothering to ask if he was okay with me doing it or if he wanted it. I knew that he did and he made no move to stop me. My hands traveled to the top of his shirt. In my attempt to pull it over his head, I accidentally shredded it right down the middle. The seam split effortlessly. Bucky looked down and laughed as he pushed it off of his shoulders and into the pool. It was things like that. These were the times when I meant what I had said about being unable to ever be completely normal.

"Sorry," I muttered awkwardly.

"I like it better that way," Bucky said, laughing.

I giggled again as Bucky pulled me back into another kiss. My hands worked at his clothing and, piece-by-piece, they were tossed somewhere far away from us. We maneuvered around each part of the indoor pool, both of us laughing madly at the moment of happiness. Bucky eventually pulled us both out of the water, laying on the stone floor, rolling around together. Unlike that night where we stopped with only the zipper of my dress pulled down, we didn't stop tonight. And it was well into the early hours of the morning before we did.

When the morning dawned, I didn't wake up on my own. Much to my own surprise, I was awoken by the sound of clanging metal. There was a small squeak as the door to the indoor pool opened. In a brief moment of panic, I jumped upright and used my telepathy to break off a piece of metal from the railing into the pool. Without bothering to look, I telepathically threw it toward the intruder. The jaded edge stopped just inches from Howard's eyes. He hadn't even flinched at the near-skewering he had received.

"Good morning, lovebirds," Howard commented brightly, turning to smile at me. "Good aim." I released my grip on the pipe, allowing it to go clattering to the floor. "Thank you."

The only good thing was that I had at least thrown on Bucky's undershirt before I had gone to sleep - the one that I hadn't torn. It laid around the middle of my thighs due to our difference in height. The other good thing was that I had thrown my leg over his waist as I slept, just barely shielding any of his more intimate areas from Howard's eyes. But Howard wasn't looking at either one of our bodies. He was instead watching the shocked looks on our faces. He seemed to be having a hard time not laughing.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Howard.

"Everyone's looking for you," he answered, still grinning at me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you work here and you're quite useful most of the time," Howard teased.

"Right," I said slowly. "Get out."

"I'll be in the labs," Howard said.

He gave a quick nod in Bucky's direction before turning and leaving the room. I rolled my eyes as the doors shut behind him with another loud clang. Once I was sure that he was gone and not coming back, I rolled back over my shoulders to face Bucky. I leaned onto his chest and looked down at him. He was as red as a tomato. He had a hand pressed over his face. I knew that he was mortified by what had just happened. For some reason, I wasn't. Maybe it was because I had already been well-aware that Howard knew that I had been sleeping with Bucky.

"You okay?" I asked Bucky carefully.

He let out a pathetic groan. I laughed at him. "Think that'll get back to everyone else?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah," I answered bluntly.

Bucky threw his head back into the stone floor. "Awesome."

He let out a few more nonsensical moans of embarrassment. I laughed, leaning up on my elbows. "Since they already know what we're doing…" I began suggestively.

Bucky laughed. "You're a bad influence."

"Yeah," I agreed.

We both laughed as I leaned over him again. Bucky wrapped one hand around my thigh to tug me back into his lap. I grabbed him around his shoulders and pulled him up against me. His hands went to the hemline of his shirt that I had put on last night, quickly pulling it off of me. I reached up just long enough to raise my hand and slam the lock on the doors again - ensuring that Howard couldn't get back in. It was safe to say that it was well into the afternoon by the time that we finally made it onto the base.

One afternoon, a few days after my night down in the indoor pool with Bucky, I was out in the labs with Howard. Bucky and Steve were off with the rest of the guys, training for the afternoon. I was working with Howard to try and pick apart the weapons that Hydra was developing. We only had a few of their guns, but it was something. The problem was that there were thousands of them in production. I wanted to see if it was at all possible to shut down their weapons remotely. It would have made things a lot easier on all of us.

It wasn't helping that my mind wasn't completely on my work today. I glanced up and rolled my chair over to Howard's desk. "Remember that house in the woods you offered to build me?" I asked him.

"Of course," Howard said, still looking down at the gun.

"Still up for it?" I asked.

Howard finally looked up. "It's being designed as we speak."

"Thanks," I said happily.

"Will we be wanting a pool?" Howard asked.

Oh, yeah. There was no way that I was ever getting away from that one. "How many people have you told about that?" I snapped.

"Just Peggy. You have my word," Howard said.

"Uh-huh," I growled. Somehow, I believed him. I knew that I would have heard it from the men or definitely Chester if he had told the rest of them. "Why did you even tell her about it, nimrod?"

Howard grinned. "You didn't expect me to honestly keep that to myself?"

"No, I guess I didn't."

It would have been stupid of me to think that Howard would have kept that all to himself. Howard looked at me for a long time. I was about to snap at him to look somewhere else when he spoke again. "You look happier," Howard noted. I nodded blankly at him. "I knew that if you just -"

"Shut up!" I sneered angrily. The others were starting to look at us. I blushed and ducked down, sneering at Howard. "Damn you. That's not what I'm happy about. I told Bucky that I was done with all of this. Fighting. I'll always be around if Earth needs me and I don't think I can ever give up that part of my personality, but I'm sick of being a soldier. For now, at least."

Howard smiled broadly at me. He looked thrilled to hear about my change of opinion in my future life. "That's really good to hear, Victoria. I'm happy for you. You deserve a chance to enjoy life," Howard said, hugging me tightly.

"Thanks," I said happily, pulling out of his hug.

"In that case, I'll make that house in the woods a priority," Howard said. I smiled at him again. He smiled slyly at me, speaking quietly so that no one else could hear him. "Should I put a few extra bedrooms in there? Looks to me like you might need them."

His own way of asking if we were getting ready to have children. "I'm not there yet," I said seriously.

Perhaps in a few years, but definitely not now. "I'll get you there if it's the last thing I do," Howard said brightly.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

Bucky wanted kids and sometimes I thought that I wanted kids, but I could never decide exactly what I wanted. "Because I'm not planning on having any little ones anytime soon and I want a kid named after me," Howard explained happily.

"Not a chance in hell," I snapped.

"Why not?" Howard pouted.

"Because they might end up like you," I snapped.

"Handsome, intelligent, enigmatic?" Howard asked proudly.

"Big-headed, egotistical, self-indulgent?" I shot back. "Shall I go on?"

Howard scowled. "Just you wait, you never know -"

"Sorry to interrupt what sounded like a fascinating argument," Bucky interrupted, standing in the doorway. Howard and I smiled at each other as he shifted back in his chair. "Can I borrow Victoria for a moment?"

"Just a moment, hmm?" Howard teased, grinning.

"Out," I snapped. Howard patted me on the back before turning and walking off, nodding at Bucky as he passed. Once the door had closed behind him, Bucky took his spot. He was blushing again. "You know that he'll reference that until he dies, right?"

"Oh, I'm prepared," Bucky said, chuckling. "What are you doing tonight?"

"You?" I offered playfully. Bucky's face burned with embarrassment. It really was easy to embarrass him in regards to anything like that. I grinned at him. "Sorry. Couldn't resist. I don't know yet. Depends on what you've come to offer, I suppose."

"I want you to come with me," Bucky said.

"Where?" I asked.

"To the airport," Bucky answered.

Things had been so good lately that I had almost forgotten that Bucky's siblings were planning on visiting. My stomach began churning in knots. I knew enough to know that me being there when Bucky saw his siblings for the first time in almost two years would not be a good idea. They weren't here to reintegrate ourselves as a family. They were here to warn him that he was making a mistake marrying me. That wasn't something that I wanted to be a part of. He was more than welcome to be there. I wouldn't be. But I didn't want to start another fight.

"Oh…" I muttered dumbly.

That was the best that you could do? "Their flight is landing tonight. It'll be here in about half an hour," Bucky explained. That was far sooner than I had been hoping for. "I'm going to go pick them up. Do you want to come?"

"No," I said bluntly.

Expressing myself politely wasn't something that I had ever excelled in. "Would you stop? They just want to catch up before the wedding," Bucky said sharply. He calmed down almost immediately, taking a deep breath and smiling slightly at me. I knew that he was just trying to get me to do what he wanted. "Come on. It would mean a lot to me if you came."

"Tell you what. Come back here and see if they want to go to dinner. If they say yes, I'll go," I said.

"You're being dramatic," Bucky said. I glared at him. I was not being dramatic. I was being honest about what was going to happen. Bucky let out a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. I'll see you later."

"Have fun," I snapped.

Bucky leaned in and pressed a quick kiss against my mouth before stalking off. I knew immediately that I shouldn't have said it the way that I had. Or maybe I should have just given in and gone to the dinner. But I didn't want more people staring at me. Especially not ones that I had once considered friends. I let out a little breath of disappointment as I leaned back up against my desk. If nothing else, Bucky would at least get some time with his siblings before his hopes were crushed. The clacking of heels behind me was what finally drew my attention away from my thoughts of Bucky's siblings.

"Why didn't you go with him?" Peggy asked, stepping up to stand with me.

"They don't want to see me," I told her.

"I thought that you were friends with them?" Peggy asked.

We had never really been friends. The only friends I had ever had in my childhood years were Bucky and Steve. "Years and years ago, before anyone knew what I was, we were acquaintances. They were friendly to me during his training - again, before they knew what I was," I explained to her. "I'm not in the mood to be stared at like an animal."

Peggy was silent for a little while, thinking back on my words. "What if they're really just coming to visit before the wedding?" she asked carefully.

"Then I'll be perfectly nice and happy to see them again," I told her honestly.

"You really think they're here to warn him off?" Peggy asked.

"I know that's why they're here," I answered.

Bucky's P.O.V.

Bucky drove down the road toward the airport slowly. The civilian airport was just a few minutes away from the base. Bucky was borrowing one of the many Army cars that littered the base. He really was happy that his siblings were coming to visit. It had been a long time since he had seen any of them. He really did miss them and this would be a good chance for him to see them for a few days before they would come for the wedding. He would be able to talk out the many things that had happened since the last time they'd all seen each other. He just wished that Vika was coming.

As much as he wanted to understand her, Bucky couldn't understand why Vika was so concerned about his family coming to visit. They were all family. They had always been family. While they might not have been quite as upset as Bucky was over Vika's disappearance, they had definitely been heartbroken once she had left. They had been thrilled to see her during training. They had been so happy that the two of them had gotten together. Sure, they might have been a little confused over the mutation, but they had always loved Vika.

He drove up toward the entrance of the airport, parked, and walked inside. There were a lot of families and couples who were reuniting all over the place. It made sense, seeing as they were on an Army base. He remembered his own reunion with Vika fondly. He had been expecting it to look much like the ones that he was seeing now. But he liked the one that they had gotten just fine. Bucky smiled as he saw the children running toward their father's and wives darting up to their husbands. It took him a while, but he finally spotted his own family.

Jessica was in the front, standing just a few inches shorter than Bucky himself. She had always been tall. She was no longer pregnant. She had given birth a while ago. Her daughter was just a few months shy of turning two. Jessica spoke highly of her each time the two of them talked on the phone. Rebecca was just behind his oldest sibling. She was wearing a sparkling wedding ring on her hand. Bucky hadn't been able to attend the wedding. Justin was in between his two sisters. He was smiling brightly. Bucky took note immediately that he wasn't wearing a wedding band.

"Bucky!" Jessica chirped loudly.

All of his siblings were laughing as they pulled him in for hugs. Jessica was smiling happily. Rebecca was laughing. Justin slapped Bucky roughly on the back. Bucky savored the moments of happiness he got with his family. Had had never been extremely close to his family but that wasn't to say that he didn't love them. He loved them to death. Especially since this was the first time that he had seen any of them face-to-face since the day before he had been deployed. They had all spoken over the phone to each and he had talked to them about everything that had happened since.

Seeing them face-to-face was something that the phone could have never lived up to. "We've missed you," Rebecca said, ruffling Bucky's hair playfully. He smiled at his sister.

"I've missed you guys, too," Bucky said honestly.

"You look good," Justin said, looking him over. "Healthy."

Bucky knew that his siblings had been terrified once they had learned what had happened to him. Bucky had found out after his rescue that a letter of condolences for his death had been sent to Jessica, who had passed it along to Rebecca and Justin. The family had been in the midst of mourning when they had discovered that Bucky was still alive and had been saved by Steve and Vika. The phone call that had followed had taken hours. His siblings had been absolutely hysterical. They had almost come to see him - only stopped by their jobs and personal lives.

"All thanks to Vika and Steve," Bucky told his siblings, smiling at them. "Would have died in that Hydra facility if they hadn't come to rescue me."

"We saw what happened to Steve. That's incredible," Rebecca said breathlessly.

"Again - all Vika," Bucky said. He smiled at them but the smiles weren't returned. Bucky realized suddenly that he wasn't completely right about that one. "Actually, I think she was just a part of it."

He knew that it was true. Vika had done almost everything in regard to the radiation and the chamber - which had only been built by Howard - but she hadn't done much in regard to the serum. She had once told Bucky that it was almost all Dr. Erskine who had done that part. His siblings all shifted around nervously as forced grins appeared on their faces. Bucky found himself getting a little bit nervous too. Was there any chance that Vika could have been right about his siblings' attitude toward her? He only knew one thing. He wasn't ready to find out yet if they were.

"Tell me what's been going on," Bucky said suddenly, breaking the tense silence.

"Well… I think we've all been good," Jessica said slowly, looking between the three of them.

"How's the baby?" Bucky asked.

"Winnie," Jessica said.

As horrible as he felt about it, Bucky hadn't remembered his own niece's name. But he smiled the moment that he realized what his sister had named her daughter for. "You named her after Mom," Bucky said fondly.

"Yeah. She's going to be two soon. Can you believe it?" Jessica asked excitedly.

It seemed strange. His oldest sibling already had a two-year-old. "Not at all," Bucky said honestly. "Time's flown."

"It really has. You'll have to meet her sometime soon," Jessica told him. Bucky nodded at her. He would have loved to meet his niece. "You're the only one of her aunts and uncles she hasn't met."

"When we're back in New York, yeah, I'll definitely have to come by," Bucky told her. He then turned over to Rebecca. "How about you? Heard about the wedding. Sorry that I couldn't be there."

"We know that you had other things going on," Rebecca said, shaking her head at him. Her eyes started sparkling as she began speaking about the wedding. She had always wanted to be a wife and mother. He was happy for her. "Oh, but the wedding was beautiful. Almost everyone was there. I wished that Mom and Dad could have seen it, of course, but I know that they were watching from somewhere. He was in his uniform. We're talking about starting a family."

It was a lovely story. He was happy that his sisters were both making their own lives work out just the way that they'd always wanted. "That's good, Beck. You deserve it," Bucky said, brushing her hair back. She smiled at him as he turned to his brother. "And how about you, punk?"

"Met a girl," Justin admitted, grinning madly.

Bucky's face split into a bright smile. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Her name's Astrid. We live on the same block. We've been going steady about a year now," Justin explained. Bucky nodded happily. "I'm thinking about asking her to marry me soon."

Bucky vaguely remembered his brother talking about her. The last time he had talked to Justin about her, though, it hadn't been that serious. He was glad to hear that Justin was starting to settle down. If Justin actually decided to go through with it, it would have meant that all four of them were going to be married relatively soon. Jessica and Rebecca were smiling happily at their little brother. They must have already known that Justin was planning on proposing to his girlfriend. Bucky brought Justin into a tight hug.

When they pulled apart, Bucky threw his head back over his shoulder. "There's a ring shop not far from here. If you're that serious, I'll take you," he offered.

"Oh, Buck, man, that'd be great," Justin said happily.

"It's a nice place. It's where I bought Vika's engagement ring," Bucky told them.

There was another brief, awkward, silence. "Right. Victoria," Jessica said slowly, looking back over Bucky's shoulder nervously. "Where is she?"

"Uh, back at the base. She was busy," Bucky said awkwardly. The others nodded at him. "But she'll be ready for dinner by the time we get back. There's this great restaurant that I think you guys will really like. We went there on a date not long after we got here. Howard Stark actually arranged the date for us. The two of them are really great friends. It's kind of wild."

He stopped talking when he realized that his siblings weren't reacting well to hearing about her. "That's nice, Bucky," Jessica said, smiling tensely.

"You guys okay?" Bucky asked them curiously.

His siblings looked back and forth among themselves. They all looked awkward. Finally, Jessica was the one to spit it out. "Is there any chance that we can have dinner with just the four of us?" she asked.

Bucky shifted awkwardly. That would definitely only make things worse with Vika, who already didn't think that his siblings wanted to see her. "Umm… I mean, I told Vika that we would all go to dinner together, but -"

"We just want to catch up," Rebecca interrupted, smiling at him. "Family first."

Maybe he was starting to get paranoid, just the way that he had told Vika she was being. There was nothing wrong with his siblings wanting to see him for a while in private. The four of them could have a quick dinner and then he could bring them back to the Army base to have dessert. That would work. He would get a chance to see everyone and he would finally be able to prove to Vika that his siblings still approved of her.

"Okay. Sure. Yeah. Why not?" Bucky said thickly. His siblings smiled at him. "I'll let her know."

"Do you need to go use a phone?" Justin asked.

"No," Bucky said. That was the one great thing about her telepathy. He never had to go far to try and talk to her. But it was tough to reach her. She was the telepath. Not him. He closed his eyes and tried to search for a link to her mind. "Vika? Is that you?"

"It's me. What do you need?" Vika's voice offered in his mind.

"They wondered if I would go out to dinner with just the four of them tonight," Bucky explained to her.

"Did they?" she asked bemusedly.

"Stop it," Bucky breathed into her mind. "Do you mind?"

"I don't care. Enjoy," Vika said stiffly.

Bucky sighed out loud as Vika broke the link in between their minds without so much as a goodbye. He should have known that she wasn't going to handle his news well. She was still convinced that they hated her - or were, at least, unnerved by her. At the moment, it seemed like she might have been right about that. Bucky knew that Vika wasn't happy with him right now. They were right back to the way they'd been the other night. But he knew that she would get over it once she realized that she had gotten all worked up over nothing.

"Shall we?" Bucky asked his siblings, trying to think of anything other than his fianceé.

"What was that?" Justin asked, referring to the way that he had just conversed with Vika.

Bucky grinned at them. "She can make these telepathic links between people so we can speak into our minds," Bucky explained. They all stared at him blankly. "We've got a lot to catch up on."

They all laughed nervously at him. He understood where they were coming from. It wasn't something easy for them to understand. Even he had originally had a rough go of making sense of everything. Bucky stood in between his siblings as he walked them to the restaurant. They spent a while chit-chatting about old high school friends and neighbors as they walked over. Bucky smiled at them as they walked into Criterion. It was good to be back around them again, even though they were only going to be here for a few days.

The conversation didn't take long to shift to their own lives and how they had changed over the past few years. Bucky spent a long time just listening to his siblings talk about their lives. It was kind of humorous, just thinking about how they were finally functioning adults in society. Jessica was having a tough time with her daughter right now, seeing as she was so young. The terrible two's, as she called it. But she was apparently talking with her husband about expanding their family soon. She had evidently quit her job to raise her daughter and become a housewife.

Though he would never say it to his beloved sister, he was disappointed that she had given up her livelihood just to stay home and take care of her daughter. She could have done both. Eventually, the conversation shifted over to Rebecca. Rebecca was evidently still teaching and having a good time with it. Bucky was glad to hear that she was still working. She and her husband were about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. They definitely wanted kids and it seemed that they were getting ready to start their family quite soon.

Bucky knew that Rebecca had always wanted kids. She had wanted a family just about as big as her own family had been growing up. When the conversation finally shifted onto Justin, they all laughed. He was the youngest - only twenty-one. But, apparently, Astrid was making him consider settling down. She didn't work much, instead, coming from a wealthy family. She seemed a bit high-maintenance to Bucky, but if his brother was happy with her, he wouldn't say anything about it. He just hoped that they would extend the same courtesy.

His siblings were fascinated with a restaurant as nice as Criterion, just as Bucky had been when he'd first come. It would usually have been far over their price range. But there were some benefits of knowing Howard Stark. They ate and chatted happily between themselves, but the conversation eventually turned to Vika. Bucky spent a long time telling his siblings all about her. Mostly about how the two of them had found themselves engaged. He tried to only mention her mutations when necessary, sensing that the conversation was unnerving his siblings.

A long time passed before he really got into the details of their upcoming wedding. Bucky was glad that he actually knew the plans for their wedding. Vika hadn't had much to do with the actual planning, which had been just fine with him. Bucky was in the middle of telling them about how he was planning on decorating Colonel Phillips' farm when he realized that his siblings didn't look nearly as excited about it as he was. Bucky frowned. He had been excited for all of them, even when he hadn't thought that it was the best choice.

Bucky stopped talking long enough to wait for his siblings' reactions. "Wow," Jessica finally breathed, seemingly realizing that no one else was going to speak. "Bucky… That's all really exciting. We're really happy for you."

The others started nodding. "Really?" Bucky asked them. They all nodded. "Because you don't seem happy."

"We are, man," Justin said quickly. "It's just strange. This isn't the way that we thought you'd end up."

Bucky arched a brow curiously. "What do you mean?"

Had they all come all the way here to speak to him about Vika? His siblings all looked between each other. "A life with her can't be like a life with just anyone," Rebecca pointed out quietly.

"That was kind of the point," Bucky joked.

It didn't hit quite right with his siblings. They all looked around the restaurant, ensuring that no one was watching or listening to them, before looking back at Bucky. Rebecca tried to force a playful smile on her face. "What happened to my brother, the guy who wanted a family and someone to settle down with?" she teased.

"She's done with all of this. The fighting and the wars. She wants to settle down," Bucky explained.

Her admission to him the other night, that she was ready to settle down, had sent his spirit soaring. He'd never been so happy. They would get to have a real life together. "She might want to do those things but Bucky, look at her," Rebecca said carefully. Bucky stared at her blankly. "Do you really think that someone like that can ever just settle down? It's ingrained in her."

Vika was always right. Even right now, she was right. As much as he had prayed that she wasn't. "She was right…" Bucky breathed.

"What?" Rebecca asked blankly.

Bucky's face fell into a thin line. He couldn't believe that she was actually right. "I asked her to come to the airport tonight. She said no because she knew that you were coming here to warn me away from her. I told her that she was being paranoid but it turns out that she was right," Bucky snarled. His siblings shifted in their seats guiltily. "This was one thing I prayed she would be wrong about."

"We're not trying to upset you," Jessica told Bucky quickly. She grabbed for his hands but Bucky immediately pulled back. He didn't want to touch her. She frowned at him. "Bucky, this isn't what you wanted. She's not what you wanted." Bucky shook his head at her. Vika was exactly what he wanted. "She's barely human if she's even that. I mean, she can't be. They all say that she's not. She's not someone who can just settle down and have kids and have a family." Bucky shook his head again. "Bucky, she's a criminal. Did she tell you that?"

Her last comment struck Bucky as odd. His head whipped up. "What are you talking about?" he asked her.

Jessica looked between the others, but they nodded at her to take the question. "After the news broke about who she was, people started putting two and two together," Jessica explained. Bucky stared at her. He didn't understand what that was supposed to mean. "She killed her own parents."

"I know," Bucky said immediately. The others stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "They tried to kill her."

Jessica, Rebecca, and Justin exchanged a look with each other. Vika had been right the entire time. The world had made her the villain from the very beginning. They would always blame her for what had happened. They would accuse her of hurting her family. The truth was, even if they knew what had really happened between herself and her parents, they would have never explained it honestly. Her parents were high-profile scientists. It only made sense that they would make her out to be the villain of the story, even though they were the real monsters.

"It wasn't just them," Jessica continued after a long silence. Bucky merely stared at her. He knew about the many people she'd killed. "There were hundreds of doctors and soldiers who were all trying to help her. Some of them were during that time that she was gone. She was out there doing god-knows-what to god-knows-who. She's threatened children before."

Bucky shook his head at them. "You have no idea what she's been through. Don't you get it? That's what people want you to believe. They're scared of mutants, so they make them out to be the bad guys. Those doctors and soldiers tormented her when she was a kid," Bucky sneered, getting angrier by the second. "They tried to kill her. When she was taken, she spent seven years being tortured. She's had a hell of a life. She's been through things that you couldn't even begin to understand."

"We're not debating that," Rebecca responded.

If they weren't debating it, how didn't they understand? "The arrest warrant states that she's to be brought into police custody if she ever returns to New York," Justin said, speaking for the first time in a long time. Bucky swallowed thickly. They were supposed to get married in New York. Could they even do that now? "She's only pardoned out here because she's proven useful in the S.S.R."

"What's she being charged with?" Bucky asked them curiously.

"A lot," Jessica breathed. Bucky nodded for her to continue. "God, almost everything you could imagine. Multiple murder charges."

"We'll stay in London, then," Bucky said determinedly.

He didn't know what the two of them would do, but they would just rework the wedding. Maybe they could make it to New York without people knowing that she was there. "They'll just make you an accomplice to the crimes," Rebecca pointed out.

Chances were that she was right. There was no way that he would get out of this entire thing scot-free. But he had known that since he had first gotten together with Vika. Whatever problems she had in her old life would follow them. But he was okay with that. All because he loved her. He was prepared to fight for her and their years of happiness together. Bucky stared at his siblings, scowling at them. They all looked awkward at the situation but didn't seem to be ready to hear him out about his relationship with Vika.

Bucky stiffened as he looked at them. "What good did you three think coming out here would do?" he asked tonelessly.

"We just wanted to make sure that you know what you're doing," Jessica said.

"I do," Bucky snapped.

"That's the problem. We don't think that you do," Rebecca whispered.

"Bucky… I think you're still in love with that little girl who wandered into the apartment. She was an enigma," Jessica said. Bucky scoffed. Vika would always be an enigma. It was part of what he loved about her. "But this isn't that same girl. This is a woman who's murdered men and women alike. You idolize her. I love that you can do that with someone. But I think that you're putting it toward the wrong person."

The truth was that Bucky did still look at her like she was that little girl who had wandered into his apartment. But he was also smart enough to know that it wasn't her anymore. He knew that she had been through so much in her life. He knew that she had every reason to be the way that she was. He just wished that they knew it too. Bucky stared at his siblings blankly for a long time, contemplating their words. For anyone else, they would have had a point. But Bucky didn't care. They were wrong. He knew who she really was. They didn't.

"You're exactly the kind of people who are the reason that people like her need to hide," Bucky snarled at his siblings. "You buy into what the news tells you about her."

"It's not just news. It's facts," Justin muttered.

"You wasted a trip coming here," Bucky said.

"Bucky, please -"

"I'll arrange for one of the planes to fly you back to New York," Bucky interrupted Jessica coldly. They were all staring at him sadly. He saw Jessica's eyes watering. He needed to get out of here before he lost it with them. "Good to see you."

"Please don't go like this," Rebecca begged.

"Whether or not you like it, she's going to be my wife," Bucky told them all lowly. His voice broke slightly. "You were her friends. That all changed just because she's a little different?"

"She's dangerous," Justin said quietly.

"Crossing the street's dangerous too. I don't see you running scared from that," Bucky pointed out angrily. They just stared at him. "I thought that the three of you might have been different."

If he stayed here another few minutes, Bucky was sure that he would blow up on his siblings. They had all fought before - over stolen toys and broken games and missing homework assignments - but it had never been something like this. This was a serious fight. One that he wasn't sure would ever be solved. Bucky gathered his things and stood from the table. There were people all over the restaurant who were watching them, as their voices had gotten louder during the argument. Bucky flushed slightly as he desperately avoided the gazes that were being sent his way.

He was about to leave the restaurant when something dawned on him. "Oh… and since I know how you genuinely feel about it now, don't worry about coming to the wedding," Bucky told his siblings.

Their faces fell. "Bucky -"

"Let me rephrase," Bucky interrupted Rebecca. "You're not invited."

"Open your eyes, Buck," Jessica told him. "She's not who you think she is."

"Neither are you, it seems," Bucky responded.

He was about to leave when Rebecca's voice called him back. "Bucky." He turned back to her, wondering if there might have been a change of heart. "You'll spend the rest of your life running if you're with her."

No. They would never change their position on this one. They would never approve of the two of them. Bucky couldn't stand here and look at them any longer. He hated their pathetic faces. Bucky turned on his heel, his keys in hand, and stormed out of the restaurant without so much as even looking back at his siblings. He had to wonder, would his parents have reacted the same way if they had ever gotten to know the truth about Vika? Would everyone? He shook his head. Why couldn't the rest of the world see her the way that he did?

Victoria's P.O.V.

Well over two hours had passed since Bucky had left to go to the airport to pick up his siblings. It had been just over an hour since he had asked me whether or not I was okay with him going to dinner with his siblings. I wondered how it had gone. I was sitting, perched on our bed, waiting for Bucky to return from his dinner with them. When he finally did walk in, almost three hours after he originally left, I noticed that he was alone and appeared to be quite flustered. I had an immediate feeling that I had been right about everything.

"So? Was I right?" I asked brightly, knowing that it was the wrong way to broach the subject.

"I'm sorry," Bucky whispered, walking over and dropping onto the bed with me.

I reached over and grabbed his hand. "Don't be sorry. They're your siblings. You want to believe the best in them. That's just the kind of man that you are," I told him quietly.

"I was so sure that they would be supportive," Bucky said sadly.

There was no way that they would have ever been supportive of our relationship. "They've got every right to be afraid. The media doesn't exactly paint me as the unsung hero of my story. They'll always find some way to idolize Stryker and all of those men and women who tried to kill me. Instead, they'll paint them as people who fought so hard to try and save me or make me a normal human - remove the mutations. They made up those lies for years. They'll keep them going for the rest of eternity," I explained.

"That's not fair," Bucky said sadly.

"Fair's never been a part of my life," I said, smiling bitterly.

"Why don't you just show everyone the truth?" Bucky asked.

We had already tried that one. People either didn't believe me or still feared me. "That would require me getting near them and they do not want that. Trust me. Humans don't like accepting things that they don't understand. Hence why we still don't know about life on other planets. Even if I showed them the truth, they'd try and find another explanation for it," I told him.

Bucky let out a soft breath, placing his head between his knees for a moment. He looked up a little while later, staring at me with sad eyes. "You deserve better than this," Bucky told me.

"Look in a mirror, Buck. I have better," I said. Bucky gave me a sad smile before leaning in to press a short kiss against my mouth. I barely got a chance to respond before he pulled away. "His heart definitely wasn't in it. "Come on. Who can really blame them for being nervous about this? Maybe they'll get used to it."

Bucky shook his head. "They… genuinely think this is a bad idea."

"I know."

"So bad that they won't support it."

That was why he sounded so upset. "Oh," I mumbled stupidly.

Bucky nodded. "Yeah." Now it made sense as to why he was as upset as he was. "I told them that if they couldn't learn to support the woman I love - someone they once loved too - I didn't want them at the wedding."

Had he really done that? I gasped quietly. "You uninvited them?" I asked disbelievingly.

"I did," Bucky said. "They're going back to New York tonight."

"No. Don't do that," I begged him. "Those are still your -"

"Family doesn't end in blood, Vika. I'd have thought you of all people would understand that. They're my siblings. They always will be. I get why they're afraid and think this is a bad idea. But I don't forgive them for not giving their support that I'm making the right choice for me. At the end of the day, this choice doesn't concern anyone else. It's between us. I don't forgive them for not remembering that we were all family not that long ago. My real brother is right out there. You're my family. All of you. I'll forgive them one day. When this is all just a memory. But I'll never forget it."

It killed me, listening to the way that he spoke so highly of all of us here on the base. I knew that he loved us. But I also hated that he wasn't looking at his real siblings like family. He had cast them aside so quickly. I stared at Bucky for a long time as he leaned forward and pressed a small kiss against my mouth. I tried to force a smile onto my face. I loved him more than anything and deeply appreciated what he had done, but I couldn't just let this one go. I needed to stop him from potentially ostracizing his family for good.

"I need to do something," I said suddenly.

"Where are you going?" Bucky asked curiously.

"I'll be right back," I told him.

Without saying goodbye or giving him a kiss, I hopped up from the bed and sprinted toward the door. Bucky called after me but I ignored him, dashing out through the door and slamming it closed behind me. He had still looked quite confused at my sudden disappearance. I sped through the building as fast as I could and ran out into the street. Ignoring the strange looks that I was receiving, I sprinted full speed through the streets. People stumbled back away from me as I nearly trampled them. If there was one thing they all knew, it was to let me through if I ever seemed to be in a hurry.

As I finally arrived at the airport - in record time - I wandered into the gate for the first flight back to New York. The airport wasn't that crowded for this time of the day. I began scanning the crowds, searching for Bucky's siblings. They had to be around here somewhere. They wouldn't want to linger. I just had to find them before the flight took off. I knitted my brows in confusion. Where the hell were they? A few minutes passed before I finally spotted them, moving to board the plane.

"Jessica! Rebecca! Justin! Hang on!" I shouted.

Their heads all snapped back as I stared at them. They looked much the same as they had the last time I'd seen them just before Bucky's deployment. Although Jessica was no longer pregnant, Rebecca was now wearing a wedding ring, and Justin appeared just a little older. The entire family looked quite nervous as I ran up to them. I was a few feet away from them, but they still stepped back from me. I decided to stop where I was, knowing that it was for the best to keep a slight distance between myself and those siblings.

"Hello, Victoria," Jessica said stiffly.

"You can relax. I'm not going to rip your throats out or burn down the building," I told them irritably. The comment that would have made Bucky laugh only made his siblings twitch nervously. "Look… I want to make this fast. You don't have to like me. In fact, I don't really care if you like me. If you don't, I can just add you to that ever-growing list. But Bucky cares about the three of you. You're his family. Whether or not he tells you, he's genuinely hurt that you won't come to the wedding."

"He's the one who uninvited us," Rebecca pointed out.

"Why do you think that is?" I asked her sharply.

"I'm sorry, Victoria, but you're not right for him," Jessica said. It was the very thought that I'd had many times before. "Being with you is something that he's always wanted and he's so blinded by the fact that he has it now that he hasn't realized what being with you genuinely means."

"Tell me. What does it mean?" I asked.

"A life with you isn't one. I'm sorry. But it isn't," Jessica said regretfully. I huffed at her. She wasn't sorry. She was just afraid that I would attack her. "He'd be on the run forever. We all know that you're dangerous. He wanted a girl who would stay home and take care of the kids."

"Not one that would kill them?" I asked darkly.

"You've killed people, Victoria..." Rebecca whispered.

"News flash: so has your brother," I snapped.

"Hydra soldiers," Rebecca pointed out.

"Not just them, honey. Do you think the German soldiers think that they're doing anything? They're just following orders. They think that they're doing the right thing," I told her. The German soldiers were just normal people who were fighting for their own country. Just the way that we were. "But your brother killed them."

His siblings shifted awkwardly. "There was a man who was on the radio and in the papers not long ago," Justin said suddenly. I glanced over at him. "He was burned all over and his bones were so badly broken that he could barely even sit without being in pain."

"Jefferson Lester?" I asked curiously.

He hadn't committed suicide yet? "That's him," Jessica said curiously.

"Good. He knows his choices. If he ever sets foot near me again, I'll hunt down his wife and daughter and kill them. I'll bring their bodies back to him, though. Just so he can know how much he's really lost," I said happily. The three of them paled as they watched me. "I'd tell you why, but you won't believe me."

"You think this makes things better?" Rebecca asked me bluntly.

"No. But if you want to make me out to be a monster, I'll be one," I said.

"This is why I said that Bucky is wrong to stay with you. It's just in your nature to be cruel," Jessica said.

"Not cruel. Savage," I corrected her.

All of his siblings stared at me. "What happened to that sweet little girl who lived with us?" Justin asked sadly.

"Her parents never spoke to her. They tried to kill her. Everyone always hated her. She spent seven years being tortured in ways that you couldn't imagine. The list goes on and on," I told them darkly. My entire life had been a nightmare when Bucky wasn't in it. "Yes, maybe I am a monster. But I won't apologize for it. After all, who ever apologized for making me this way?"

There hadn't been a single part of my life that had been free or without pain. Bucky had mentioned it himself. My life wasn't fair. It never had been and it likely never would be. But one thing that was fair was my relationship with Bucky. It was finally something for me to be happy about. Bucky's siblings all stared at me for a long time. I knew that I had made them all incredibly uncomfortable. For right now, I didn't really care about their feelings. I cared that they couldn't see past their distaste for me to be there for their brother.

"Your little scientists are the real monsters. But you trust them blindly," I continued. His siblings shifted back again. "You look nervous. It's a funny thing. People don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed."

"You don't even seem to love him," Jessica whispered.

"No. The truth is, I love him more than I love anything else on this planet. Myself included. I do love him," I argued. "I just don't need him. I'm not like you. The darkest time of my life wasn't a bad hair day. The darkest time of my life... there are so many. Acid poured in my eyes to melt them back into my skull? Hanging me by the throat from a meat hook until I was actually starving to death? Blowing me up just to see what part takes the longest to put back together? I went through those alone. I don't need anyone, including him. But that doesn't mean that I don't love him."

They had twitched in disgust each time I'd described just a single moment of my torture. But they would never understand that description didn't even begin to do the real horror justice. "I believe that you love him," Jessica finally whispered. "But I also believe that you're wrong for him."

"Probably," I admitted. "But that's his choice or mistake to make."

"It's not personal, Victoria. I would think that you, of all people, would know that," Rebecca said.

"I, of all people, know that it's always personal," I snarled in response.

Nothing that had happened to me wasn't personal. No matter what people said, it was always personal. Whether or not they actually knew me, it was a personal attack. All of Stryker's punishments had been personal. We all stared at each other for a long time. My body began buzzing with an energy that was desperate to be released. I hated that there was this itching in the back of my mind, begging me to kill them. No matter what, I wouldn't do that. Not only would it not be good, I still cared for them in some strange way. Hurting them would only make things worse on everyone.

There was no way that I would hurt them. They were allowed to fear me and disagree with our relationship. I might have hated their reactions, but I did understand them. So, I swallowed, knowing that my previous comments had only made things worse. I knew that I had almost ruined things. Some part of me wanted to blame them, though. Because people had a habit of provoking you until they brought out your ugly side, then played victim when you went there. I just knew that I needed to try and calm down and make amends with his siblings. It was what I'd come here for, after all.

"I remember the day that you all came to visit Bucky during basic training. He told me that you were happy that he was with me. What changed that? Just because you found out I'm a mutant?" I asked them quietly.

"Bucky was the kind of guy that always wanted a family and someone to grow old with. He wanted to settle down. You had to have known that. Even if you've been trying to fool yourself that he doesn't need it. He's not going to get that with you and you know it. We thought that you might have been able to change your ways before we found out that it's impossible for you to change," Jessica explained.

"Change for a man?" I asked her.

"Well, you love him," Rebecca pointed out.

What pathetic excuse was that for changing yourself? "Yes, I do. But I would never change for him," I told her honestly. The choice to stop fighting had been completely my own decision. "I hope that you wouldn't change for your spouses."

"We all have to change things about ourselves," Jessica said doubtfully.

"No, we don't. You're not their property," I told her, looking down at her wedding ring that suddenly appeared to have a vague resemblance to a shackle. "But you don't realize that. The moment that you do is the moment that we make some real progress. In the meantime, maybe I'm just too progressive. Bucky knows that I won't change. He accepts that."

"He doesn't understand what he's giving up. A chance to have a real family," Rebecca said.

Since when had being a mutant meant that people couldn't be real families? "Because having a kid like me wouldn't make us a real family?" I asked them.

"Can you have kids?" Jessica asked me.

"I don't know," I admitted. That was an answer that only time would tell. "What I do know is that I love him and he loves me. We mean the world to each other."

My words clearly had no impact on the siblings. The people I once considered siblings were now just the same as the men and women who demanded I be locked away and studied. They all stared at me sadly. The longer that I stared back, the more that I realized that there was nothing to be done. I was either going to manage to convince them to come to the wedding or they would never listen to me. The latter choice was much more likely. So, I nodded at the siblings and took a few more steps back. I hated to admit that this conversation had actually managed to upset me.

"The truth is, you'll always see me the way that they describe me," I explained quietly. They stared at me blankly. "Right now, I'm a villain. If the world ever needs me, my powers, I'll be a hero for a few weeks. But the second they need their villain again - because we always need one - it'll be me."

It was just the way that the world worked for people like me. We would take everything - the abuse, the stares, and the shaming - in stride, but the moment that the world needed us, we would step forward in a heartbeat. I'd meant what I had told the woman in Switzerland. I might not have liked the way that people looked at me or talked about me, but I would always be there to defend them if they needed it. There was a long and somewhat awkward silence while we all looked at each other.

Finally, Jessica took it upon herself to speak first. "If it means anything, I genuinely do hope that you two have all of the happiness in the world."

"Happiness isn't in my nature," I answered. She frowned. I swallowed and nodded to them all. "Treasure your kids and loved ones. Enjoy your lives. Because you have no idea just how good you have it. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Victoria," Jessica responded.

"I wish you all the luck in the world. I really do," Rebecca whispered.

"Take care of him, alright?" Justin asked.

No matter what it took, I would always protect him. None of us touched each other as I turned on my heel and stalked off. I didn't want a hug from them and I doubt they wanted me to touch them. I was more than a little annoyed that tears were building in my eyes. I was better than that. I didn't have to cry for them. They weren't worth it. I wiped the tears away and stormed back to the base, ignoring the looks that I was getting. At least my real friends and family were back there.

It took me just a few minutes to arrive back at the base. I turned down my hallway and slipped silently into the room that I shared with Bucky. He immediately looked up from his paper to meet my eyes. I hated that they were rimmed with red, giving away what had happened. He jumped up from the bed and pulled me into him, pressing a kiss against my temple, pulling me into bed with him. We laid in silence for a long time, neither of us mentioning the elephant in the room.

"I've been thinking," Bucky said slowly. I looked up from my spot on his chest. "I want to stay here. In London."

An interesting time for him to tell me about his desire to move. I looked up at him and hummed. "They told you about the arrest warrant then, did they?" I asked, putting two and two together easily.

"You knew about that?" Bucky asked, shocked.

As always, I knew everything. "Honestly, I'm surprised that it took them as long as it did to put one out there," I said honestly. "Bucky, people will never believe the stories that I tell. I'm untrustworthy. Instead, they ruin my life and spin the story to make me look like the monster that threatened their families. The survivors of Stryker's lab had a hell of a story to tell when it was all over."

"That's a lie," Bucky said fiercely.

"Sure," I agreed. "But to them, I murdered some of the brightest minds in science. And, honestly, they'll start wondering what right someone like me had to live in the first place."

"That's horrible," Bucky snarled, shaking his head.

So went the life of Victoria Davies. "That's my life. That's what your siblings were talking about. No matter what I want, I'll never have a normal life. I'm not helping the mutants. I seem to only be giving them a worse name," I mumbled.

All I had wanted was to show that we weren't dangerous. I seemed to be doing the exact opposite. "Hey," Bucky whispered, pressing a finger underneath my chin. "There's no one better than you."

"Oh, that's a lie and we both know it," I huffed.

"It's not. I wouldn't trade a second with you," Bucky responded.

"Even if you might want to?" I asked teasingly.

"I never do," Bucky said honestly.

And I had to believe him. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew that Bucky would never give me up. The thought was heartwarming. I smiled slightly as Bucky reached a hand behind my neck and pulled me in for a lingering kiss. I let him lean me back into the bed, laying himself over me, pressing me down into the springs of the mattress. Despite everything that had happened today, I was happy to have him back. Things had been so tense for the past few days. With Bucky's siblings gone again, maybe there was a chance that we could go back to normal.

When I finally pulled away from Bucky, he was staring down at me, running his fingers along my ribs. "I never asked you how you feel about this entire thing," Bucky commented.

"Doesn't matter. They're your family," I told him.

"They were yours a long time ago, too," Bucky pointed out.

I supposed that telling him the truth wouldn't kill me. He deserved to know, after all. "It hurts a little bit," I admitted. He laid a hand on my hip. "They used to be my friends. Not close, but we all liked each other. Now they look at me the same way that everyone else does."

Bucky let out a deep breath and stroked over my spine. "I love you," he whispered.

"I know," I answered. Bucky laughed loudly. I realized too late just how big-headed I had just sounded. "You know what I meant. I know that you love me. Why else would you be willing to give up everything to be with me? Even your siblings." Bucky shook his head. "Your life isn't going to be anything like you originally thought that it would be like."

"I don't care. You're what I want," Bucky said determinedly.

He was what I wanted too. But right now, I really wanted to do something stupid. "You know what I want to do?" I asked him. Bucky raised a brow curiously. "You know that bakery down the street?"

Bucky nodded slowly. "What about it?"

"Remember when we were kids and we lived by that bakery? It had the best chocolate cakes," I said dreamily. Bucky nodded, grinning at the memories. "I loved the cakes. You loved those sugar cookies. Steve would have eaten his own weight - granted, it's not that much - in the cannolis." Bucky laughed. "We used to always go there when one of us was having a bad day. Didn't matter what it was. Eating something terrible for us would cheer us up right away."

"Those were good times," Bucky said.

Maybe it was time to recreate them. "Come on!" I chirped.

Bucky laughed as I threw him off of myself. He clearly wasn't prepared for me to move him. But I wanted to do something stupid and childish for once. Things were too serious these days. We deserved some time to just have fun. I grabbed Bucky's hand and dragged him with me out into the hall. He never even got a chance to ask what we were doing as I sprinted away at near full-speed. His feet were barely hitting the floor as we darted out of the base and down the next block to the bakery that I had taken Raven to a few months ago.

As soon as we wandered in, I went looking through the cases. Bucky stood back and watched me in amusement. But it didn't take long for him to join in on the fun. We ended up ordering one of everything, charging it to the base, which Chester would likely be furious about. The woman at the register who rang us up looked very confused as we grabbed the bags and brought them back to the base. We stopped very briefly at the bar to pick up a few bottles of wine to share among ourselves.

Once we made it back to the base, I sent Bucky off to the training room with the wine and pastries, telling him to grab a few glasses and plates. In the meantime, I ran over to everyone's bedrooms and pulled them along with me. All of the men, Steve, Howard, Peggy, and even Chester looked quite confused as I shoved them into the training room for a little impromptu party. It didn't take long for everyone to start having a good time, each thanking Bucky and me for the dessert and drinks. No one even seemed to mind that I had woken them up just to have our little party.

"You're right," I whispered to Bucky as we all laughed, watching Howard attempt a handstand.

"Hmm?" Bucky asked.

"Family doesn't end in blood," I said.

He turned a warm grin on me. I smiled at him as I leaned in to give him a small kiss. The others, partially inebriated, all began hooting and howling at the brief display of affection between us. I laughed as I heard Chester's thoughts, loud and clear, warning Bucky to stay away from me. I pulled back long enough to turn and throw a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie at him. As we both laughed at each other, I leaned back. Not a single one of us sitting there might have been related by blood, but we were all the closest things to family that we had.

A/N: So, there will just be a few more chapters until we get to Bucky's fall. Sorry! I know, I'm not looking forward to it either. Here's hoping that you liked this one! Thanks for the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

lovingvamp346: Yes, I definitely agree. It's tough to decide whether or not I want to enjoy their relationship for a little while longer or get to The Avengers storyline. I would love to get to modern times. The Swiss were so terrible to Victoria, but that kind of thinking toward her will carry over into modern day and won't end for a long time. The heart throwing was definitely a last minute addition and I'm so happy that I did! It was totally worth it. Hope you liked this one!

.2019: Glad you loved it! Hope you like this one too!

gogotomago: Of course, that's usually how we stumble on good stories. That's some seriously high praise! Thank you! I'm so happy that you've enjoyed the story so far. I'm really glad that you love Victoria! I worry that people won't always like her since she's so tough. Have you written something? I'll have to take a look! I absolutely adore her relationship with Bucky. It's one of the best relationships I think I've ever written. I'm sorry to make you wait so long in between updates! But we're finally here! I think I'll cry writing out Bucky's fall too. If it goes the way I hope it will, there won't be any dry eyes when people read it. Trust me, Victoria and Bucky will have some serious and dramatic interactions in The Winter Soldier and beyond. They do deserve happiness! Unfortunately, that's not coming for a long time. Endgame will be wonderfully horrible! That's so true! She would have been a huge help in Infinity War. Something to look forward to! Thank you for the wonderful praise! I hope you liked this one!

Crazy Devil Girl: Me too! I can't wait for The Avengers and the modern day storyline. Tony will be in her life but maybe not quite like how you're expecting. You'll see soon enough! I love their moments of happiness since we all know that after this, it'll be a long time before we see it again. The changes in Victoria's personality will be huge after Bucky and Steve 'die' and I really can't wait for that. It'll take a long time before we really find out everything that will happen to her between The First Avenger and The Avengers, so stay tuned. There'll still be a few chapters left of happiness, so enjoy them while we have them. Hope you liked this one!