A/N: Oops it looks like I just updated a chapter twice, guess you'll all have to suffer a really bad chapter. This is me at my cheesiest okay, you don't understand how many rom-coms I was watching while writing this (a lot of the movies featured Chris Evans so I suppose it wasn't that bad). You mostly need to applaud yourselves for this update because if it weren't for you guys getting me so pumped when writing this I swear the updates would be so much slower, like I'm talking once every month or something, let's just hope it never gets to that!
To Blondeconspiracy, I'm seriously loving all your comments so this chapter is dedicated to you! And look, I updated twice in one day so I hope this takes you further away from the light, make sure you never walk towards the light okay?!
To IkhandoZatman, thanks so much for that information, it'll come in handy for a later chapter!
And thanks to Soli1894, Guest and KrazyForYourLuv for your comments as well, they were very much appreciated!
Oh, also, HOLY SHIT I JUST HIT 5000 READS LIKE WOW THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE I JUST WANT TO CRY AND HUG ALL OF YOU AND SHARE ICE CREAM WITH YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL AND HAVE GOOD TASTE IN MEN
CHAPTER SEVEN
"To fall in love and to commit yourself to love means you should make your loved one the one thing you cherish the most."
― Kou Yoneda
It was raining hard when Summer arrived at the camp site with the officer, she was extremely tired but refused to fall asleep because if she'd woken up just as they got to the camp her mind would be too foggy so instead she kept drinking from a canister filled with coffee.
"Thank you so much," she smiled at the officer before opening the door so she could step out of the motor vehicle. She took one look at the muddy ground before slowly turning back to the soldier, "hey, one last favour?" She asked, bringing out another bundle of money, "can you give me your boots?"
The soldier sent Summer a raised eyebrow, almost snorting at the fact that she was afraid of a little mud. It wasn't that though, it was simply that she wanted to look respectful around all these men because it's too easy for women to be overpowered in this sort of environment. Though when the soldier took one look at the money he didn't think twice about handing over his military boots.
After slipping into the boots she jumped out, causing mud to splash around her. She grabbed her bag from the back of the car and banged on the side of it so he knew to drive off.
She turned to look around the campus and wasn't surprised to just see numerous tents that were a murky green colour."Excuse me," she called out to a group of soldiers that were passing by, "do you know where I can find the man in charge around here?"
The boys looked at each other and chuckled, causing Summer to have to force herself not to roll her eyes. "Well sure, you're looking at him." The tallest one chortled.
Summer noticeably scanned him with her eyes and made a disgruntled sound, "I highly doubt that, so can we just skip this? I'm kind of in a rush." She said gently, trying not to threaten the animalistic male. As far as she was concerned these soldiers were just as bad as a horny dog trying to hump everyones legs. "Please," She added sweetly.
"Come on George, leave the girl alone." Another man interrupted, he stepped in front of the group and looked down at Summer, "the man in charge is Colonel Chester Phillips, he's in that tent over there." He answered her previous question, pointing over towards the largest tent on the campus.
"Thanks!" Summer called while running off down to the tent, she eventually entered it but was almost pushed out by the soldiers that were running about. At the back of the room there was an older looking man walking back and forth with notes in his hand, he looked like he had the most power in this room so she walked up to him, "excuse me sir, do you know where I might find Colonel Chester Phillips?"
The man looked up at the female voice with a confused expression, "you're looking at him. May I ask who you are?"
"I'm the girlfriend of James Buchanan Barnes, I was hoping you'd tell me if he's come back with Steve Rogers?" She was obviously nervous, she kept rubbing her hands together and would sometimes click each finger individually.
His eyebrows rose in surprise, "how do you know about that?" He asked instead of answering her questioning which did no help for her nervousness.
"He sent me an urgent telegram, to which I urgently ran here in hope of finding my boyfriend and best friend safe." She answered quickly, vaguely trying to push him to answer her question. He just looked back down at the cards though and by this point she was getting angry, "excuse me sir but could you please tell me where James Barnes is before I go and search this campus myself."
"You won't find him." The colonel said as though it was the most unimportant thing on the planet.
Dignity was thrown out the window as soon as she heard his tone, "you, sir, are a bloody poor excuse for a man and as far as I can see as bad as a German!" Silence settled in the tent after numerous gasps filled the room, Summer didn't care, she just needed to get this useless anger out of her body before she was completely overthrown by it. She was sick of being powerless and this feeling had become especially potent whenever it came to Bucky.
"Now you watch your tongue little lady-"
"Or what?" She interrupted loudly, making sure that everyone else in the room was now watching, "you'll kick me out?"
A moment of silence passed, "yes." He shrugged, "soldiers!" Before Summer knew what was happening she was suddenly being carried out of the tent back out to the muddy field outside.
"Get your damn dirty hands off me," Summer shrieked, kicking her legs out and continuing to make a scene.
The soldiers didn't listen though, they just carried on walking through the campus. "Do what she says soldiers!" A female voice demanded, to which the soldiers quickly dropped her onto her feet, "leave." The woman commanded to the other soldiers and they quickly began to walk away.
"Thank you," Summer said softly, partly ashamed of the previous events. She pushed a lock of auburn hair out of her face and looked up at the woman. Summer was surprised to see the woman with amazingly well-kept hair was stood in a army uniform - finally, a woman that had power! She stood straighter, trying to appear serious, "my name is Summer Scotts, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Summer stuck her hand out and the woman quickly shook it, "Peggy Carter, it's a pleasure to meet you too."
A silence soon followed the greeting, no one really knew what to say. All Summer could think about was how Bucky was out there, maybe dead, and that if he was dead what would she do? She'd done all this thinking about a future with him and now he might not even be there to have a future with her… she felt broken.
"You're James Barnes' girlfriend right?" Peggy asked, Summer looked up and nodded her head slowly. "Do you know Steve Rogers then?"
"Yeah, he's my best friend." She answered, feeling extremely confused as to where this was all going. "Why?"
Peggy got a hurt look on her face, the same look that Summer had worn quite a lot that day. "Me and Steve had become quite close… I helped fly him to the HYDRA headquarters."
"You helped him what?" She stuttered, obviously still trying to work out what Peggy had just told her. "When, how long have they been away?"
Peggy gulped, "almost a full day now, soon - if not right now - the Colonel will be declaring Steve was killed in action." Her voice was stoic and it kind of reminded her of the voice Steve would use when he was telling her something that he knew would hurt her. Another thing Summer noticed about this Peggy character was that while she was talking about Steve apparently being dead, she had this look of denial in her eyes; Summer was extremely good at analysing and understanding human emotion, so she easily deduced that Peggy was falling for a certain Captain America - no she had already fallen, not for Captain America, no, she'd fallen for Steve Rogers; but she didn't want to admit it yet, she wasn't ready to do such a thing.
"Right…" Summer acknowledged what she had said, but she didn't take it in. She went into defence mode and built impenetrable walls, she couldn't believe that she'd lost the two most important people left in her life in just one day. Her frail heart simply couldn't handle that sort of news.
Peggy noticed this and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "you should go home. I may not have known James but I don't think he would have wanted you sitting around in a pig sty like this crying."
Summer laughed, "the bloody bastard will probably want me to give some heartfelt speech about how perfect his hair was or something… " she chuckled softly, earning a laugh from Peggy as well.
"I need to go see the Colonel now, I'm sorry to leave you like this." Peggy mumbled, pulling her arm away and taking an apprehensive step back, "will you be okay?" She asked the almost crying auburn haired girl in front of her. Summer's heart warmed slightly at the sentiment this stranger had towards her, it was truly touching to think the world wasn't as bad and broken as Summer had thought it was.
Summer chuckled darkly, "I'm always okay." She managed to form a smile on her small lips to reassure Agent Carter that she'd be okay. Though Peggy was still uneasy about leaving the girl but she felt that she had no choice on the matter, and so Peggy walked away, constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure the girl wasn't having a breakdown.
Summer wanted to hit herself, she had no way of getting back to her home and had hardly planned anything when she was rushing around her apartment packing everything in sight. She was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no one to help her and no idea what she could do to help her. She was helpless and she absolutely hated herself for it.
Suddenly, the soldiers around her began to run passed her while yelling incoherent things to each other. She looked up, rubbing her eyes so she could see clearly again as tears had initially gotten in her way. She saw Peggy speed walk out of the tent behind Colonel Phillips.
"Peggy!" Summer called out, gaining the older woman's attention, "what's happening?"
The woman grinned, "something which you'll want to see."
This managed to peak her curiosity and so she began to follow all the moving bodies, that's when she started to notice that some new soldiers had arrived and were being carried off to get medical care. "Does that mean…?" She never finished her sentence as she put all her attention in to pushing through the crowd of people, eventually she finally got to the middle of the crowd where she found both Captain America and Bucky Barnes. "B-Bucky," she stuttered, finally letting the tears fall from her eyes.
He began to sway, eyes widening open and then closing, he quickly turned to Steve, "am I hallucinating?"
Steve turned to look at who Bucky was looking at and his own eyes widened in surprise, "Summer?" He said in shock, questioning whether he was hallucinating himself. She was still distracted with staring at Bucky, it had only been around 2 months since they'd parted and with the way things had gone these past few days, seeing him was making her heart skip an unhealthy amount of beats.
"Bucky!" She yelled, the biggest grin she'd ever had formed on her face as she leapt into his arms. Even though it hurt him slightly he pulled her body as close to his as possible, he swayed them side to side and kissed her cheek. She took it a step further though and pressed her lips against his, something which he gladly returned. Cheers were heard around the campus and both smiled into the kiss but they didn't separate.
Once they pulled apart he nuzzled his nose against her cheek, "I love you so much." He muttered into her ear so that only she would be able to hear what he said.
"I love you too." She said, managing to shock him. He moved away further away from her so she could see the clear surprise on his face. "I really do," she begun to explain, "I didn't really know what it was at first, you know, but you have put me through such an emotional roller coaster these past few days that the only conclusion I can come up to for why I became so broken has to be that I'm irrevocably and completely in love with you James Buchanan Barnes."
He grinned up at her, kissing her again before swiftly pulling away to share an after thought, "does this mean you'll marry me?"
"I'll marry you and grow old with you and have kids with you and, god dammit, I'll even bake apple pie for you." She laughed, him laughing along with her.
There was a loud crash that echoed throughout the entire building, Summer jumped up off the bed and let out a loud scream of surprise. Alarms began to sound throughout the entire building and she heard people's footsteps rushing around outside her prison. "What the hell is happening out there?!"