March 9, 2014

"Ms. Hollis?"

Lucille looked up from a stack of papers detailing a new display for the Captain America exhibit. "Charlie? What is it?"

"There's a man asking to talk to the person in charge of the exhibit," the young man said, wringing his hands nervously. "Demanding, actually."

Lucille slid her bifocals off her nose and rubbed her eyes. "If it's another Air and Space fanatic, Charlie, you can tell him the exhibit will not be moving, so he should just move along."

"I don't think it's that, Ms. Hollis."

Lucille sighed, settled her glasses back on the bridge of her nose, and grabbed her cane from where it hung on the back of her chair, using it to leverage herself to standing. She took a few steps forward, positioning herself in front of her desk and sighed again. "Send him in, Charlie." Her junior curator nodded and rushed out, returning moments later with a man in an old baseball cap and a dark grey coat over a blue flannel shirt. The man was keeping his head bowed, and all she could see was a scruffy chin and longer hair poking out from under his hat, the style that seemed to be popular among young men these days. Charlie backed out of the office, leaving the door open just a crack. "What can I do for you?" she asked him, leaning forward slightly on her cane.

"You're in charge of this place?" he asked gruffly, keeping his head down.

Lucille raised an eyebrow. A frown pulled at the corners of her mouth. "I am. However, if you have any questions about the information in our exhibit, I can assure you the men and women wearing blue vests will be able to answer them. They are stationed throughout the exhibit for your conven-"

"Who wrote the display on Bucky Barnes?" he demanded, still resolutely keeping his face hidden.

"I did," she told him sharply, gripping her cane harder than necessary. "Do you have a problem with it?"

It was a moment before he spoke again. "How did you know?" he said, his voice oddly quiet now.

Lucille adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose, trying to study what she could see of the man. A thought was niggling at the back of her mind, but years of practice had made her very good at ignoring that particular hope. "Know what?"

"That he was in an art class with Steve Rogers when they heard the U.S. was joining the war. That they trained at Goldie's before going to a recruiting center to enlist. How did you know?"

Lucille brought a trembling hand to her mouth, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth even as tears welled up and threatened to spill over. "I never wrote the name of the gym." The man stiffened. "And I know because I was there," she finally answered, lowering her hand back to the top of her cane. The man's head jerked up, disbelief draining his face of color. "Hello, James." He blinked rapidly several times, and Lucille began to worry he might be going into shock.

"Luci?" Bucky whispered hoarsely. He took a half a step towards her, and then stopped, and then closed the distance between them in a rush, coming to a halt just a foot away. Slowly, he raised his right hand, but didn't touch her, letting it hover just beside her cheek. The other hand, the one she knew was made of metal, stayed shoved inside his jacket pocket. His brow furrowed. "You don't seem very surprised to see me," he said, his voice a flurry of different emotions.

"To see you here? I am, James, though I'm more happy than surprised. But to see you alive?" Lucille shook her head. "Steve told me… everything." Bucky began to pull his hand away, but Lucille caught it with her own. "I'm so sorry, James."

Bucky stared at her. "Why… why are you apologizing?"

Lucille smiled sadly. "You went through unspeakable horrors, James. Things no person should ever have to experience, for seventy years. I suppose I'm apologizing… on behalf of the human race."

Bucky let out an incredulous sigh. "If anyone should be apologizing –"

"It shouldn't be you," Lucille cut him off, knowing exactly where that line of thought was going. If she was honest with herself, Lucille had never actually thought she would see him again. But that didn't stop her from imagining what might happen if she did. She had played her first conversation with him in her head hundreds of times, and some variation of an apology from him has always come up. Her inward responses to that had invariably been a rejection of his apology and a counter-apology of her own. "No one can blame you for anything that happened." Bucky laughed humorlessly at that, making Lucille scowl. "It's true."

"You don't know what happened, Luci," Bucky muttered, pulling his hand out of her grasp and turning his back to her.

Lucille shook her head and stiffly walked back to her chair, leaning on her cane heavily. She needed to get off her feet, and the rush of emotions was taking its toll. "You're right," she said softly once she sat down. "I don't know what happened. But I know you, James, and you would have never done any of that of your own free will." Bucky turned around again, sadness dimming the brightness in his blue eyes that she had always used to see there. Lucille held a hand out. "James."

Bucky gave in immediately, striding forward to take her hand, so gently, as if he thought she would break at the slightest touch.

With the aid of her cane and Bucky, Lucille stood up again. Her vision began to blur with unshed tears. "James," she whispered, "I've been waiting a long time to see you again." Letting her cane fall to the floor, Lucille wrapped her arms around Bucky's waist. A small sigh escaped when she felt his arms brush her shoulders as they lightly settled around her. "I'm old, James, not made of tissue paper," she murmured into his chest. "It's been a very long time, so you had best hold me like you mean it!" Her demand elicited a genuine laugh from Bucky and he tightened his arms around her.

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I hope this one turned out okay. In my head, the end credit scene with Bucky flows right into this chapter. Let me know what you thought? Review replies should be in soon :) Thank you! Love.

[Guest: I know! Poor Steve has had a rough go of it lately, hasn't he? Hopefully, if there were any tears today, they were tears of joy! I love Luci and Steve as bffs too :) If you (or anyone reading this) is a good artist, I'd love to see a picture of the two of them! Thank you so much for your spectacular review!)