Welcome to the fourth installment of my MCU story! At this point, if you are new to Odette's story, I would highly recommend you at least skim the last story Swann's Migration. It's a long one, but it holds a lot of important character development and relationships! (also, you absolutely don't have to read The Black Swann and The Swann Flies, but if you did read them that would be cool too...just sayin...)
If you've read the previous three stories, welcome back! I am thrilled with your continued support! So far, I have only written out to cover the events of the first few months following The Snap, and if I'm going at the pace I'm at, you guys may get a few more chapters than I originally anticipated. But, I am super happy with how they're coming out, so I hope you enjoy them too!
Get ready for some heavy feels!
As always, Italicized text can represent several things (dialogue in another language, inner thoughts, flashbacks, etc.) please be aware of this and the context to better understand what is happening!
2018
Wakanda
The Farm
Odette Swann rose with the moon still in the sky. She silently rolled out of bed, leaving her sleeping companion lying as she stepped into the open air. Her bare feet barely shifted the dirt under her as she crossed the small space between the hut she'd been living in for the past year or so and the lake nearby. She stood on the edge of the lake and took a deep breath in, closing her eyes and enjoying the glow of the moon reflected off of the smooth surface of the lake.
She stood in silence for several minutes, breathing deeply and focusing on every little sound and movement her body made. She barely flinched when a hand wrapped around her midriff and a scruffy face buried itself in her neck. She rested her head on Bucky's.
"Come back to bed," He whispered, "It's late."
She smiled faintly, resting her arms on his, "I know...I couldn't sleep." She admitted quietly, not wanting to break the quiet and calm.
"Nightmares?" He asked, his eyes still closed as if to emphasize that it was too late and he was too tired, even if the stiffening of his body told her that he would stay up all night if she needed him to.
"No. I was just...thinking too much." Odette admitted. Bucky's breathing hitched for just a second, but that was all Odette needed to know that now he would be up all night overthinking things. She quickly added, "Nothing about us. I love what we have here."
Bucky had constantly voiced his worries—especially in the first few months of him being freed of his brainwashing—of Odette hating the simple farm life with him. She had spent every waking moment since thawing out in the blinding awe of technology. Everything she could have ever wanted was at her fingertips. As a hero, the world had adored her. As a vigilante, the world continued to adore her.
And then she'd come home to him...to the little farm hut he lived in. He was terrified his life would be too...safe...too...boring. He was afraid she would find only stagnation with him and would leave him behind.
But, and Odette had to constantly remind him of this, she chose to come home to him. When she could easily stay where AC was abundant and coffee was king, she chose to come home to him.
Bucky seemed to calm at her words, and—as if testing his luck—he murmured into the skin on her neck, "Then come back to bed. Think in bed. It's late."
Odette chuckled, "Are you sure it's not just an excuse to get me in bed?"
"That's always the plan." She could feel Bucky smile against her skin, "But the sun just went down," he pointed out, "Please," He applied a little pressure to her midriff, hoping to guide her back to their little hut, "Come back to bed."
Odette sighed, but obliged. She could never resist the temptation to lay in bed and relax with Bucky. She turned around, Bucky smiled sleepily at her, she smiled back at him, reaching up to fix his wild bed head. Bucky deadpanned and rolled his eyes at her. Odette chuckled, linking her arm with his, "I'll put your hair up in the morning." She promised him.
However, when they got back to the hut, Odette's blood ran cold.
Her phone, which she kept for emergency purposes alone, was ringing and vibrating angrily on the little shelf she'd made. Bucky stiffened beside her. Odette stepped away and grabbed it.
Steve
She hesitated for only a second before she swiped her thumb across the screen and held the phone up to her ear. Her voice got caught in her throat. She couldn't get her words out.
"Odette?" Steve called.
"Steve." Odette sighed out his name.
Bucky sat down heavily on their bed. She could hear him sigh behind her.
"Did I wake you? Were you already asleep?" Steve asked.
Odette smiled fondly, "No. I was still awake...what can I do for you?" Steve calling could only mean one thing…
"It's Bruce."
Okay that...she was not expecting. Her breath got stuck in her throat, "Bruce?" She repeated. She reached up and clutched Bucky's dog tags around her neck, "A-are you sure?" She asked, wrapping an arm around herself as if that could protect her from the implication of Steve's words.
"He called me on the burner phone." Steve answered.
Odette felt her knees grow weaker, she covered her mouth to keep from gasping out loud and startling Bucky. "The burner phone…" Tony had the burner phone…
If Bruce called from Tony's burner phone.
Odette spun on her heel and sat down beside Bucky, eyes vacantly staring at the floor. She removed her hand from her mouth just enough to say, "So...Tony…Tony's..."
"Missing." Steve answered, confirming her worst fears. She closed her eyes.
Missing.
"We have to get to Vision."
Odette felt a familiar weight settle on her shoulders as she stood back up. She crossed the hut to the storage bench they had and she pressed the phone between her ear and her shoulder, "We?" She asked, even though she was already taking her and Bucky's bits and ends off the bench in order to lift its lid. She dug around inside as Steve sighed in her ear.
"I know you go there for rest, but," Odette pulled out her suit from under everything else stored inside the bench.
"Give me a time and a place and I'll be there." Odette sighed, standing up and letting her suit fall to its full length.
"Scotland. As soon as you can." Steve answered.
"Scotland?" Odette asked, "How'd you know?"
"Wanda keeps us updated on where they go."
"They? Vision's with Wanda?" Odette asked, frowning. Vision had signed the Accords, "Although Brooke did too, and she helped break Pietro out of the Raft." she realized, recalling the reunion between her great-niece and the speedster.
"It's a long story." Steve sighed.
Odette gripped her suit and took her phone in her hand once more, "Okay. I'll meet the team there."
"Odette?"
"Yeah?" Odette chewed on her lip.
"Thank you." Steve said quietly. "And tell Buck I said, 'hi'."
Odette's lips twitched up in a soft smile, "Will do, Cap. See you soon."
"See you soon." Steve answered.
Odette pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up. Her jaw was tight as she turned back to Bucky, who had not yet laid back down. He looked up at her through his hair.
Odette crossed the hut to him and knelt down beside him, "Buck…"
"I know." Bucky sighed tiredly, "You have a job to do." He smiled at her, though Odette could tell it was forced. He reached out and tucked his finger under her chin, pulling her up until their foreheads were pressed together. "Just come home soon, and come home safe." He emphasized his second point.
Odette rolled her eyes, "It wasn't that bad." She said, referring to her last mission away from Wakanda. She may have returned a little bloodier than she had left, but it certainly wasn't the worst she'd looked. "It's just a mission to check on one of ours." She reassured him.
"Odette," Bucky made her look at him, "Don't do anything stupid."
Odette smiled as she stood up, "That's my line."
"And don't forget the bracelet thing." He sighed, looking up at her with his eternally sad eyes.
"Good catch." She thought, turning around to lean across the hut and grab her Kimoyo beads that laid dormant next to where her phone had been. She smirked down at him as she turned back. "I'll be back before you can even miss me."
"That would mean you don't get the chance to leave." Bucky pointed out.
"He makes it so hard to leave sometimes." Odette thought as she leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Bucky's forehead. "Go ahead and get some sleep." She urged him, though she knew he struggled to sleep when she was away. "Hopefully this will be done and over with soon." She thought.
Bucky gave a half-hearted shrug, already laying back down.
Odette sighed and turned to the door. She stepped back out into the evening air and looked down at the suit in her hand. Putting it back on meant carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
She did it in a heartbeat.
See you Tuesday!
