Chapter 45: Bedtime Talks

Miss Ealum,

I am settling in well here. Thank you again for sending me to school, for paying my tuition. Thank your friend Stark for my clothes as well. Thus far my teachers praise my work. I'm trying very hard. My mother always wished for me to have a better education, and now I have the opportunity. Thank you for that. My English is improving quite a bit and I've started learning French as well. I am not so good at science, but I am slowly getting better.

Thank you

Erik Lehnsherr

P.S. Tell Yori that I am the only one here who can write my name in Japanese.

That was the first letter I received from Erik Lehnsherr and I treasured it, smiling as I read through every word. I knew he was a bright boy. He'd been through a lot, but I was confident that with a good education he could easily become a politician or industry leader or anything really. Though perhaps not a scientist…

"I'm going to tell Barnes you're mooning over letters from another man," Howard cooed in my ear. I huffed and flapped a hand at him, warding him off.

"It's from Erik," I explained, folding it up and tucking the letter in my pocket. "I think he's a little young for me." I pulled my mother's pocket watch out and flipped it open to check the time. I smiled as Bucky's enlistment picture grinned back at me cockily.

"Though you were a tiger, not a cougar," Howard said, playfully scratching at me. "Mrow."

"And they say you're a genius," I moaned before turning back to the microscope in front of me. The slide under it held some of Bucky's blood.

I was still examining samples, not out of fear, but out of interest. I was confident he wasn't going to spontaneously combust and now I wanted to see what had been done and how. Perhaps HYDRA made the compounds used on him with the hope for super soldiers, but there was nothing that said those same compounds couldn't have a better use.

Thus far I'd figured out that, as expected, he was more durable than before. The raid on the factory where we found Victor came to mind. Jumping off the guard house was no concern to me because my enhanced bones could take the shock and my healing factor would fix anything else. But a normal human should have at the very least twisted something. Bucky had leaped down with ease and walked away without so much as a limp.

In addition to that, I was quickly realizing, after getting a small cold sample, that he was resistant to most diseases. Obviously I hadn't tested it against anything particularly virulent or exotic, as much because I wasn't an expert in diseases as because I couldn't get my hands on samples. But I was very curious to see if some of the compounds could be used as immunizations.

It was ten o'clock at night before I had my answer. No, the compounds couldn't be used for immunizations. After I isolated and replicated them I tested them on different blood samples. The compound ate through the blood with extreme prejudice, destroying white blood cells with a rapidity that made my heart pound. Bucky had survived most of what was done to him by pure luck and every time I was reminded of that it made me realized all over again how much of a miracle it was that I still had him.

I sat up from my microscope and stretched, disappointed but happy to have an answer at least. I stood up and put my samples away in storage. When I emerged from storage, I saw Howard slumped over blueprints at a work table, his jacket thrown over the back of his chair and a bit of drool about to land on his paper.

"Howard," I said fondly, going to my desk and pulling out the thin blanket I kept wadded up in the bottom drawer for just such an occasion. I threw the blanket over Howard's shoulders. He shifted slightly and hummed, but didn't wake. I wadded up his jacket, knowing that despite the expensive label in the collar he wouldn't mind, and carefully lifted his head to slide the coat under him, protecting the paper from any more drool.

"Night Howard," I said, leaning down and kissing his temple.

"Hng, nigh' Josie."

I snorted, realizing that sometime in my mothering he'd woken up. A faint, sleepy smile tugged up the corners of his mouth.

"You want to go to bed?" I asked softly, rubbing his shoulders.

"No, 'm good," Howard said. With a large sigh he pulled the blanket tighter around him and drifted off again. I chuckled at that and left the lab, heading back to Bucky's room. Most of my things had made their way into his closet at this point, and seeing as we were engaged it was slightly less scandalous than before, but only slightly.

"Finally, I was worried you got sucked into a science spiral," Bucky said. He was lying in bed with his hands folded behind his head. His chest was bare and his head was tilted lazily to look at me. The room was dark but for the lamp he'd left on for me.

"Sorry to make you wait," I apologized as I began to strip off my skirt, jacket, and shirt. My pocket watch joined Bucky's on the bedside table. Bucky just watched as I got ready for bed, his eyes trailing me around the room with a soft warmth that made me smile as I slid into a nightgown.

"What?" I asked self-consciously, standing in the bathroom doorway as I pulled the bobby pins from my hair.

"I get to do this for the rest of my life," Bucky said, smiling softly.

"Do what?" I asked, bemused as I tugged a pair of pins out and my hair fell free around my shoulder.

"Watch you," Bucky replied simply. He pulled the sheets back and opened his arms. "I get to watch you live the little moments of your life. No other guy can say that."

I hummed and smiled, contented. "You know, every now and then you put even Austen to shame, my love," I said as I slid into bed next to him, curling against his side. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. I cleared my throat. "My hair is down, darling, you owe me a better kiss than that."

"I am terribly sorry, future Missus Barnes," Bucky said with faux horror. "I don't know what I was thinking." He kissed me sweetly, the long, slow kind of kiss that made my toes curl.

"Mm," I smiled as I pulled back, eyes at half-mast as I observed him. "Missus Barnes. That's a title I can definitely carry for the rest of my life."

Bucky shifted a little at that. "Maybe not. I mean…" he sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "I'm not saying I like the idea of you with another man but… after I'm gone if you met someone else… I wouldn't be mad, you know that?"

I huffed. "You need to forget this idea of you dying. We've got at least thirty or forty years before that happens."

"Maybe not," Bucky said softly. "It's a war, Belle. You can heal but I can't. A bullet can drop me like it can you, but I won't come back."

"Then I'll take all the bullets for you."

Bucky chuckled darkly. "Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better…"

I snorted. "Well I don't like talking about you dying. How about this? If, by some miracle, long after you're gone some man comes along who can possibly hold a candle to you, I promise I will at least give him a chance."

Bucky scoffed. "I can see you're taking this very seriously."

I shook my head. "I never expected I'd find anyone Bucky, and then I found you. I don't think I'm lucky enough to find two men as wonderful as you are in one lifetime, even if mine will be longer than average."

"I suppose I'll take that compliment," Bucky said, holding me closer. He breathed thoughtfully, "Missus Barnes." I felt more than heard him chuckle, my head on his chest. "Yeah, I like that. Missus Josie Barnes."

I chuckled, kissing his jaw. "Keep saying it and I'll be tempted to haul you off to a preacher right now, father's request be damned."

"Can't say I'd fight you too much," Bucky admitted. "Tell me Josie, where do you want to get married?"

"Well," I began, "I always thought that I'd get married on the Ealum property. Probably out behind the house, where you can see the wildflowers blooming in the meadow and the lake. Oh," I sighed, homesickness washing over me. "It's so gorgeous at sunset, Bucky, I want you to see it."

"Tell me about your home," Bucky requested, pulling me closer. "It'll be my bedtime story," he laughed into my hair, combing his fingers through it.

"Well, the property is called Willow Creek, despite the fact that the creek on the property is called Dodge Creek," I began.

"Why Willow?"

"Because the lane leading up to the house is lined with willow trees the whole way from the main road," I explained. "Nevade says that she and her husband Walker planted them so that when they wanted time alone they could just pick a tree to hide under and no one would be able to find them."

"I see the appeal," Bucky murmured in my ear. "We'll have to explore a tree or two of our own." I shivered as he dragged his fingers down my spine.

"Very tempting," I agreed. "Behind the house is the meadow, like I said. To the left and right are woods, with the barn and fields on the other side of the trees. The creek runs through the wood. In the spring and summer we'd go down to the creek and jump off the rocks into the water and go fishing. The trees are absolutely dripping with grape vine and we'd find the thickest pieces and use them as swings."

"Sounds perfect," Bucky breathed. "I'm imagining you in that creek, skirt hiked up, with two kids splashing each other around you. I'm lying on the bank watching my family and smiling."

I smiled, my heart swelling at the idea. "You'd want to leave Brooklyn?" I asked him. We'd never discussed where we'd live once we married. My heart belonged to Kentucky but I wouldn't blame Bucky for wanting to stay in Brooklyn. I'd be happy no matter where we lived, so long as I was with him.

"Your home sounds perfect," Bucky assured me. "Hey, do you have horses?"

I laughed. "Yes, why?"

"Nothing, I just always wanted to learn to ride a horse. There was a festival in Central Park once when Steve and I were teenagers. We were city boys and we thought it was so fun just riding around this little circle. Probably sounds silly to you."

"No," I assured him. "When we go home, I'll teach you how to ride a horse. Galloping across the meadows as fast as you can…" I breathed out, wishing I could do that exact thing right now. "There's no feeling like it."

"Promise you won't laugh if I fall off?"

"No."

Bucky laughed and pulled the pillow out from under his head, swatting me with it. "Hey!" I protested, giggling as I seized my own pillow and brought it up as a shield. The war began, me scrambling away from Bucky to get room to swing. He swatted me in the side as I got him around the head. He laughed and abandoned his pillow, tackling me to the bed.

"Yield," he said, pinning my wrists over my head. I smirked and flipped us. He groaned as I pinned down his hands, my hair falling down in long sheets around us. "Should've seen that coming…" He smiled up at me and I grinned back.

"I want it all," I murmured against his lips. "Riding in the fields with you and picnics by the creek and playing in the water with our kids."

"A little girl with long, pretty hair and your brain," Bucky said, twirling his fingers around a strand of hair that had fallen near his hand. I flashed him that smile and retorted,

"A boy with your gorgeous eyes and your sense of humor." I sighed and let my weight rest on him. "It sounds perfect."

"It will be," Bucky promised. "I'll give you all of it, Belle. A perfect life, beautiful children to raise. They'll be as smart and stubborn as you and just as funny."

"God help us," I said drily.

There was a knock on the door. I called, "Come in."

Steve pushed the door open and immediately went red. I didn't blame him. Bucky was shirtless and I was in my nightie, lying on top of him. There was a pretty easy-to-draw conclusion there.

"Oh, uh… didn't mean to interrupt," he mumbled, staring pointedly at his feet.

"You didn't," Bucky assured him. He rose up and I moved off of him so that he could swing his legs over the side of the bed and sit up properly. "What's up?"

"Oh, ah, we're going to be going to be helping with relief and rescue in a town in France," Steve explained. He cleared his throat. "We leave in two days. I'll… uh…" His eyes flicked to me one more time, dragging up and down. On any other guy it would have been a very lewd look but on Steve it was just curious.

Steve smiled faintly. "You always dress up like that just to go to bed?" he asked.

"Yes, she does," Bucky answered for me, draping an arm around my shoulders. "Aren't I lucky?" he asked, kissing my neck. I shivered and Steve shook his head.

"Going now."

"Good!" Bucky called after him laughingly.

"That was mean," I chided. "He'll be blushing for days."

"Nah. He'd be blushing for days if he hung around, though," Bucky disagreed, laying me back on the bed with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Oh?" I asked slyly, draping a leg over his hip. "Why's that?"

"Lemme show ya."