Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3

June 12, 2012 – Manhattan, New York – Stark Tower

"Oh, honey, don't cry."

Darcy couldn't help it. Her lower lip trembled and she hastily swiped at the tears gathering beneath her big blue eyes.

Seeing both of them together was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her. Seeing Steve and Bucky whole – ignoring the metal arm – and healthy made her heart soar. Kissing them goodbye in 1936 had nothing on finally, against all odds, being reunited. Seeing both of them individually had nowhere near the impact of seeing them together and Darcy was surprised she didn't face-plant on the soft carpet of Steve's apartment.

"I'm just so happy," she whispered, sure that they could hear her.

Bucky hovered near the couch, more than content to watch how she and Steve interacted, but his resolve crumbled when his girl started crying. He was across the cozy living room in a mere of matter seconds, holding Darcy tightly against his broad chest.

"Shh, baby. Everything's okay," he rumbled, carefully squeezing her small waist with his metal hand.

It wasn't long until she was smooshed between two super soldiers, her sniffles dissolving almost completely as she relished in the feeling of having both of her boys back.

"I'll keep you safe, honey. Both of you," Steve promised with a kiss to the crown of her head. "I'm not letting HYDRA come near this place."

Her hands reached up and cradled Bucky's face between her palms. Her eyes were wide in awe and gratitude practically radiated off of her. "I'm so lucky," she said softly, a smile tugging at her plump lips. "I never thought I'd have this again. Never thought there was a chance in hell that I'd feel this normal after everything. I…" she faltered, mentally cursing the tears she felt again. "I'm the luckiest girl – "

"In Brooklyn – "

"In Manhattan – "

"In New York," she giggled. Her eyes closed and she let out a sigh of contentment. Things couldn't get better.

After a brief struggle to untangle themselves, they were situated on the couch – once more making a Darcy sandwich – and she held each of their hands. Bucky on her left and Steve on her right.

"Your bracelet – "

"I got it, punk," Bucky said gruffly, pulling the slim metal band from his pocket and handing it to her. "Didn't mean t' take it off – "

"I don't…I don't want to put it back on quite yet," Darcy said, twisting it in her hand. "We've never…never really talked about our words. It's about time, don't you think?" She looked between them questioningly.

The brunet looked down, a look of shame coming across his face. "Baby, I don't…I don't really remember all that much besides you. I'm still a little on guard with Stevie here since he looks so different."

She nodded. "You have a meeting with Tony tomorrow, right?"

"Gonna try to get my head straight."

"I'm going with you," Steve announced protectively. "I trust Tony, but I don't want just anyone picking your brain apart."

"Thanks," he said quietly. His eyes shifted back to grey for a moment before he asked, "Do you stay here with…Steve? Or do you have your own place?"

"Why? Trying to move in with me already?" She smirked before she shrugged. "I originally moved in with Clint – the archer dude – but then I found Steve and, well, I have a few places to choose from. I normally stay here, though."

"Clint?"

"They're just friends, Buck. I'll explain it to you."

"I've got a meeting with Talia tomorrow…"

Steve squeezed her hand softly. "I'll stay with Bucky. You and Nat can work on your memory at the same time. You're already making so much progress, honey."

Darcy yawned heavily, laying her head against Steve's shoulder. "Is it naptime? I feel like I haven't slept in a week."

"That's because you haven't," the blond quipped back. "C'mon, honey, let's get you to bed."

She allowed him to scoop her up in his arms, nuzzling her face against his neck. "Fine. But both of you are getting in with me. The bed is plenty big enough now."

"When was the last time you slept?"

Bucky blinked down at the small brunette currently drooling on his chest. He gave a one-armed shrug. "I don't remember."

Steve was fitted against Darcy's back, his own voice belaying his own exhaustion. His head popped up and gave the other man a stern look. "Get some shuteye, Buck. You've got a long day tomorrow."

"The…Asset didn't normally sleep. They put me on ice after a mission. Stayed up most o' the time I was out."

"I'm gonna burn every goddamn HYDRA facility to the ground."

Bucky nodded. With his jumbled mind, he was only sure of a couple things. The first was that Darcy was the single most important thing in the world. The second was that HYDRA needed to be dismantled at all costs. "The three of us. We'll take them down for everything they've taken from us."

They took his life, his death. They took his mind and his free will. They took his girl and hurt his best guy. They took his child. Darcy had miscarried because of them.

He was going to give them hell.

"It's good to have you back, Buck."

He sighed, "It's good to be remembered."

June 13, 2012 – Manhattan, New York – Stark Tower

Memories were a funny thing.

His memories of Darcy were almost frayed at the ends. Like they had been plucked from a bigger story and given back to him. A memory without content, essentially.

Bucky wrote down everything he remembered in a small, bound notebook, hoping one day it would all make sense.

His feisty brunette had given him a soft kiss and a tight hug before running off to her own meeting. Steve seemed torn as to who to go with, but a grumpy, dirty-blond haired man had swept his girl away before Steve could worry too much.

"That's Clint," Steve has said, shrugging when the man offered a half-assed wave over his shoulder. "You'll get used to him."

"He sleepin' with our girl?"

"Nope. Never has, never will."

His knee bobbed up and down as he fidgeted. Stark's lab wasn't as scary as what he was used to, but labs in general put him on edge. With good reason, of course.

"Darcy already had a pretty good handle on her memories before I offered to help," Stark had said as he wiped the grease off of his hands. He looked pretty put together despite his shirt looking worse for wear. "Romanoff has it well in hand. You, on the other hand, might very well be a trap from the damned octopus."

"Tony – "

The older man held his hands up in surrender. "I'm not saying that he didn't defect out of the goodness of his heart, but what if the thought was placed by Nazi scum?"

Steve shook his head defiantly. "It's not like that – "

"Steve, stop." Bucky sighed, his hand running through his hair in exasperation. This wasn't an argument he wanted to have. "He's right. I could be a ticking time bomb. So could Darcy!" Stark startled violently at that, but Bucky kept going. "HYDRA hasn't come after either of us yet. Why would they let her go? She woke up in a hospital and I was taken. We've gotta look at the big picture." He paused, glancing at the blond's wrecked face. "HYDRA has a plan and we've got no idea what it is."

Stark was quiet for a beat before he clasped his hands together. "Well, I'm all for throwing over German war-era organizations. Let's take a look at that arm and make sure there's no trackers."

Bucky huffed. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Darcy said you would."

Stark let out an undignified sound before he shrugged. "Can't argue with her. She's smart."

"Sirena."

Her pinky twitched. Progress.

Natasha nodded in approval. Cocking her head to the side, she asked, "Have you thought about hypnosis? As a way to recover your memories. Maybe help put them in order."

The brunette bit her lower lip thoughtfully. "But what if I never come out of it? What if – "

"There's a lot of what-if's, myshka. If you live your life avoiding them, is it really a life?"

"Have you done it before?"

"Wilson's normally pretty good at it. He helped me with…repressed memories. It may also be a viable option for you."

Darcy trusted the redhead almost as much as she trusted Clint – and that was saying something. With Bucky trying to rewire his own brain, maybe it would be a good idea.

With a decisive nod, she said, "I'll try it. As long as Steve and Bucky don't know about it. Unless something goes wrong."

Natasha laughed. "Nothing can keep you from their sides, Darcy. Unfortunately, they're too smart for that."

"Unfortunately," she scoffed back.

Natasha's smile faded as she closed the notebook that held the other woman's trigger words. "You know that Barnes will start going on missions as soon as he's able, right? The men that share you are much too self-sacrificing for their own goods."

It wasn't something that she'd given much thought, but she knew Natasha was right. Nothing would keep Steve from jumping into a fight and Bucky would jump in after him regardless of the danger.

But that didn't mean that she had to wait at the tower while they were out saving the world. No, she'd be right next to them, kicking ass and taking names.

"I should have Tony buy me some new Kevlar."

"And let me buy you some new clothes while you're at it," Steve interjected as he stuck his head into the communal office. His hair was a little ruffled, his smile a little forced. "While you're at it, I mean."

Darcy tilted her face up and he indulged her with a quick peck on the lips. Her brow furrowed and she whined. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"You look homeless, myshka," Natasha deadpanned as she stood. "Spend some of his money."

"I have my own money – "

"Technically, it is your money," Steve smiled. "How do you feel about a trip to Brooklyn? I've got a few things to take care of."

Darcy liked being the filling of a sandwich. Especially when she was always cold and her boys were heaters. Bucky's metal hand flexed into a fist on his knee, his body radiating more than just heat.

They'd borrowed one of Tony's old trucks, the kind with the bench seat in the front. The drive to Brooklyn wasn't too long, but Steve was a lot more relaxed than his counterpart.

"You okay, Bucky?" She whispered, placing her small hand in the crook of his metal arm.

"Don't like being out just yet."

Tony had called Bruce in and the pair had worked on Bucky's mind for the better part of almost eight hours. Even with Bruce's protests of 'I'm not that kind of doctor. Tony assured him most of HYDRA was gone from his mind, but Bucky could still feel Soldat on the skirts of his mind. As if he was waiting to protect Sirena. It was…odd.

Steve glanced over and gave him a reassuring smile. "It'll get better, Buck."

"I feel disconnected. Like I'm going through the motions. But…Sam said it'd be good to see things that might remind me of my past," the brunet said. His eyes shifted uncertainly, but his flesh hand curled around the one that wrapped around him. "This is good, baby. I'm just nervous."

"I've only been here a few times," Steve said as he fit the key into the door. "Howard paid someone to keep it up. I guess he never gave up hope that he'd find me."

Darcy nodded, apprehension crawling up her throat. She could see the little rundown apartment in her mind's eye, but the outside looked so different now. The pieces weren't fitting together as well as they should have. "It's the same? My things are still here?"

The blond shrugged, "The same as when I left for Camp Lehigh. We still…we left some of your stuff out to make it seem like you were still here. Still in Brooklyn."

"Made us not so lonely," Bucky interjected, his eyes widening in surprise. "Maybe being here is a good thing."

She shuffled inside after the boys, noticing the yellow wool coat in a heap under the coat rack next to the door, obscuring a pair of low heels.

"You were in the habit of dropping things anywhere," the blond said fondly. "Liked keeping it there."

"It's on the floor," she mumbled, bending over to swipe it up. The feeling of the rough fabric against her fingertips caused her to stumble before hands caught her waist.

"Are ya takin' that with ya?" Steve asked, holding up the yellow coat. It was nearly as big as he was and he scowled when she giggled.

"Nah," she smiled, taking it from him and dropping it on top of the heels she'd kicked off earlier. "Buck got me a new fur coat to take with me. Figure it'd be warmer. Softer, too."

"Honey?"

"I left it here," Darcy murmured, clutching the worn fabric. "I didn't take it to Russia."

"You wanted it here so you'd have something warm to wear," Bucky recalled, his brow furrowed. "Stevie left it there. So, you'd pick it up when you got back."

"And then Buck enlisted and Erskine took me to Camp Lehigh." The blond sighed. He looked around the cramped apartment and he felt his throat constrict. "It woulda been so much different if none of us went anywhere."

Darcy's hands fluttered down to the hands on her waist and leaned back against Steve's bulk, relishing in the feeling of being safe. "I should've never went to Russia."

"I shouldn't have enlisted," Bucky added, his eyes pained.

She swiped at the tears gathering under her eyes. "I could've stayed here. Worked for that library on Sixth Street that needed a librarian. We could've gotten married," she bit her lip, "I would've been pregnant in no time. We would've had that houseful of kids that we wanted. We…we wouldn't have had all this blood and war and missed chances between us."

Bucky's lips captured hers right as the last word slipped from her mouth. He was soft, but insistent against her lips and she was putty in his hands. He pulled away after a few moments, his breath coming in pants as he cradled her face in his hands. "HYDRA may have tried to take you from me, but they never succeeded. I remember you. I remember Sirena. You pulled me back when I was so close to the edge that I'd thought I'd lost everything."

Her voice broke. "Bucky – "

"I love you, Darcy Lewis. We can still have all those things that we dreamt about. The marriage, the house in the country, the babies…we can have it all. Because if anyone deserves it, it's us. All three of us."

Darcy threw her arms around his neck and sobbed against him as Steve's arms snaked past her waist and clutched Bucky.

It had been decades since they'd been in this apartment together. Decades since they'd cried in this very entryway. But they were crying for different things now, different people.

Darcy Lewis was no longer Darcy Lewis of Brooklyn, New York, heading off to a prestigious ballet school in Russia, leaving two boys behind.

No.

She was Darcy Lewis, engaged to two of the most dangerous men to walk the earth.

She was Darcy Lewis, a girl that was finding herself more and more everyday with the help of friends that she considered family.

But most of all, she was Darcy Lewis, a survivor.

June 25, 2012 – Manhattan, New York – Stark Tower

"Fuck, Darcy."

Small hands smoothed their way up his ribs and around his back as her thighs cradled his hips, pulling him even deeper.

"James."

He growled. Literally growled and she shook around him. Having his name fall from her lips made something inside of him snap and he simply couldn't be gentle.

Sitting back on his legs, he pulled her up his thighs and dug his hands into her hips, forcing himself inside of her as hard as he could. Her hands covered his and her mouth was open in a silent scream.

"Bucky – ya gotta be gentle – "

"Can't," he grunted back at Steve, thrusting his cock into her tight sleeve a bit harder, resulting in a breathless squeal.

"Bucky – "

"Fuck!" Darcy bit out, her body taut with want. "Harder, James! Please!" She screamed when he complied, bucking her hips up to gain more friction. "Steve, touch my – oh yes!"

Steve's fingers circled her clit and brought her to such an orgasm that her voice failed and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly. Bucky felt her flutter around her, but he kept going, feeling the flutter stutter to a stop before he roared her name and forced his cock as deep inside of her as it could go.

Darcy sat bolt upright, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Her thighs were slick and her clit was throbbing almost painfully.

It didn't occur to her that she was in Steve's bedroom until her feet hit the floor. She must've fallen asleep on their couch again, not that she ever really slept in Clint's apartment anymore. Light filtered in underneath the closed bedroom door and she tiptoed towards it, cracking it open.

"Just write down anything you remember. I know that the memories are getting easier to piece together now, but it'll help. Darce still keeps a journal, too."

Her legs were wobbly and she leaned against the doorframe, watching her boys huddled together on the couch. Her heart swelled happily.

They had made it through so much to finally be together again. An ocean, a country, a war, death, HYDRA, a miscarriage…

This was where they were meant to end up.

"Honey?"

Steve's voice pulled her from the haze and she smiled warmly at him. "Hi."

Bucky stood, unsure if he should go to her. The metal of his arm glinted in the low light coming in through the window. "You okay, baby?"

"It's just so surreal." She shook her head. "I keep expecting to wake up in Brooklyn, covered in sweat because the fan gave out again. I don't have to make your lunches or fix dinner…" She sighed. "Everything's different. We're different."

"But we never stopped loving you," the brunet said for the both of them, earning a strong nod from the other man. "We never stopped and we never will. It's surreal, but in the best possible way. This…this is a lovestory that writers dream about writing. We made it, Darce. We beat all the fuckin' odds."

"Language," Steve chided halfheartedly.

Darcy smiled. "How about you two join me in the bedroom?"

Bucky gave her a filthy smile. "Oh? Why's that, baby?"

She stripped off the chunky sweater she was wearing and kicked off her leggings. "I was having the best dream…I'd rather make it a reality."

She swore that she hadn't seen either man move that fast before.

July 9, 2012 – Manhattan, New York – Stark Tower

"I'll be back before you know it," Steve said tightly, clutching his girl to his chest like a lifeline. "Bucky will keep you safe."

Darcy pulled back and sniffed tearfully. "I'm not worried about being safe, Steven Grant Rogers. I'm more upset that I can't go with you. You don't have the best track record when it comes to fights!"

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "I'll be safe. I have Tony and Natasha. Pretty sure Clint will be coming, too – "

"Awh, not Clint!"

" – and the tower will be on lockdown until I get back. Or Tony does."

Darcy had been dreading the call to assemble since they'd began getting back on track – mentally and physically. Truthfully, her sex life had never been better. Especially since she didn't have to worry about giving Steve an asthma attack as she cried for him to fuck her as hard as humanly possible.

"Honey…"

"I just don't want you to go," she whispered, her blue eyes begging him to stay.

"I've got to. If I don't, then who will? Once…once Buck's all right, we'll all be out here. And then, when we're tired of it, we'll retire." He smiled. "Or at least slow down."

She nodded in defeat. "But what if I'm pregnant?"

His hands went to her shoulders and he looked her over critically. "Are you?"

"It's a hypothetical question."

He relaxed slightly. "Then, hypothetically, I wouldn't step more than ten feet away from you for nine months. I'd give up the shield and be home with you and Bucky in our little apartment in Brooklyn. You'd be barefoot and pregnant and so happy, honey."

"I love you so much," she cried as she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. "Go kick some bad guy ass."

Let me know what you think!

~Grace