January 19, 1968

"All right! Time to settle down, everyone! Nathan, in your seat, please. You, too, David." The students of Ms. Hollis's ninth grade class quickly quieted down and focused on the chalkboard at the front of the room. Lucille waited until the last of the chatter died. "Who can remind us what we began yesterday?" A few eager hands flew into the air. "Gwen?"

A petite, curly-haired blonde girl sat up a little straighter in her seat. "We started talking about how the Allies began taking down HYDRA in World War Two," she answered.

Lucille nodded. "Thank you, Gwen. Can someone else tell us on whom in particular we were focusing? Jack?"

"The Howling Commandos?"

"Very good. Thank you, Jack. Yes, the Howling Commandos, led by...?"

A chorus of voices supplied, "Captain America!"

Lucille smiled. "Indeed. Okay, notebooks open, pencils ready, and let's take some notes. In November of 1943, Captain America had been sent overseas to the 107th Infantry Regiment to boost morale. We talked a little bit about this yesterday. What happened? Katie?"

Katie read aloud from her notes, "He was supposed to just do his show like he'd been doing here, but then he found out that a lot of soldiers were being held prisoner by HYDRA, and he decided to go rescue them without anyone else."

"Excellent, Katie. So yesterday we left Captain America as he was in the middle of his rescue mission. Yes, Maggie?"

"Wouldn't it have been smarter to wait for backup?" Maggie asked. "I mean, I know he was really strong and all, but he was still only one guy."

"He was a super soldier, dummy! He didn't need anyone's help," a boy on the other side of the room interjected.

"Harry, this is your one warning; we do not call each other names in this class." Lucille held her stern gaze for another moment before turning back to Maggie. "You bring up a good point, Maggie. His plan does seem a little poorly thought out. But let's remember why he went alone. Betsy?

"Because they didn't want to risk the rest of the soldiers in a mission that they thought wouldn't work at all. And didn't you say that he was really going because his best friend had been captured?"

Lucille pressed her lips together and nodded. "That was his original motivation, yes," she said after a short pause. "But, being the man that he was, he liberated all 400 prisoners from the HYDRA base, bringing back not only the men, but various HYDRA weapons and vehicles, and, more importantly, the locations of the other HYDRA bases in Europe. That one mission went a long way to helping the Allies gain victory over the Axis powers." Lucille let the students have a minute to jot down their notes. "Any other questions so far? No? Then we'll continue."

Lucille went back to her desk and picked up six photographs. "Of the men he rescued, six would become Captain America's Howling Commandos." She placed them one by one on the ledge of the board next to the picture of Captain America that already rested there. "James Buchanan Barnes... Timothy Dugan... Gabe Jones... Jim Morita... James Montgomery Falsworth... and Jacques Dernier." Her gaze lingered for a moment on Bucky's photo, and then she turned back to the class. "These seven men were among the finest the Allies had to offer. Together, they managed to take down all known HYDRA bases, ensuring the later Allied victory." She paused once again to let her students catch up on their notes. "Yes, Nathan?"

"Are these guys still alive?" Nathan asked, eyes wide and curious.

Lucille swallowed. "As far as my information goes, all but Captain America and James Barnes are still living."

"How did they die?"

The classroom was silent as the students waited for her reply. Lucille fought against the lump in her throat and stole another glance at the portraits of Steve and Bucky. "Captain America went down with a HYDRA aircraft that was carrying bombs to targets all over the United States. He was able to take control, but because of the bombs, his only course of action was to... to crash it into the arctic. Neither he nor the plane has ever been found.

"As for James Barnes... He was lost during one of the final Commando missions to dismantle HYDRA. Their objective was to capture HYDRA's lead scientist, one Arnim Zola, from a train. Captain America, James Barnes, and Gabe Jones carried out this mission. After gaining access to the train, Jones was sent to take control of the engine car while the Captain and Barnes looked for Zola. HYDRA had taken precautions, however, and had a handful of soldiers with their advanced weaponry ready for such an attack. Captain America and Barnes took them on..." Lucille took a deep breath and carefully kept her expression neutral. "Barnes fell from the train, which was riding on tracks on the side of a mountain. H-his body was never recovered and officially labeled 'Killed In Action' a week later."

The class was silent except for a few pencils scratching on paper. Then Nathan wondered, "How do you know all this?"

Lucille gave him a small smile. "It helps to be friends with one of the top brass from the S.S.R."

"Cool!"

The end-of-day bell sounded through the halls. "No homework tonight, ladies and gentlemen. We'll pick up where we left off tomorrow," Lucille called over the bustle of students packing up. She waited until the classroom had emptied before going over to the chalkboard. She picked up Bucky's photo, taking in every detail of his face, imagining his infectious smile in place of the solemn, military line of his lips.

She had thought becoming a teacher and teaching her students about Bucky and Steve would make the holes they left hurt less. Almost ten years in, and she found it wasn't working. Talking was supposed to help. There was an entire, expensive field dedicated to that premise. But even though she had shared their story with her students dozens, maybe even hundreds of times, she still got the lump in her throat, her heart still constricted painfully in her chest, and the holes in her soul still never healed.

-0-

Here we are, about twenty years on and seeing how Luci is dealing with everything. What do you think? I don't have a whole lot to say this time (I do realize that the first chapter said there wouldn't be many A/N's, and that plan went and swirled nicely down the drain. Whoops!), so I'll leave it here and reply to you all from last time. Love.

[Guest: I'm feeling much better, thanks! Losing Bucky never gets any easier, unfortunately. Thank you for your spectacular review!]