A/N. hey hey :) Another two updates in one day? WHAT? I must have no life xP So here is the Stania mini road trip! Hope you like. Enjoy! :D

Disclaimer - The Avengers do not belong to me, and neither did that Michael Buble song I used that chapter. I own Tania and Graham and any other OCs or people you don't recognize.

CHAPTER VI

Tania gripped the steering wheel firmly with both hands and stared out the front window of the car. It was Bruce's. Tony had steadfastly refused to let her borrow one of his cars unless he was the one driving so the good doctor had offered up his own, seeing as he never used it.
The bright green vehicle wasn't exactly conspicuous, more like ostentatious, but because it was never used, the press didn't suspect that any of the Avengers might be inside.

Steve sat beside her in the passenger seat, fiddling with the box in his lap. Tania had given it to him and told him not to open it until they got to their location. There were air holes in the box so there were only so many things it could be.

The two of them had left early that morning to walk to the coffee shop together, bundled up nicely. Tania wore a black pencil skirt with thick grey tights and tall laced up black winter boots. She also wore a black wool jacket with a cinched waist and large white buttons. Her red, white, and blue scarf was tucked into the collar of her coat and her hair was in a nice bun behind the matching ear muffs she wore on her head.

Steve was wearing beige trousers, thick brown winter boots, a vintage dark brown leather jacket (a gift from Pepper for Christmas) zipped all the way up to the top and his Captain America gloves. He stuffed his hands in his pockets like Tania did though so that no one would notice. The two of them had walked side by side until they reached the restaurant, where they entered quietly. They had talked to the owner long ago and made an agreement not to ever sell them out to the press. He himself came in and greeted them whenever they stopped by and made sure no one ratted them out. That morning had been no different.

After he had seated them at their usual table, they had ordered breakfast and made small talk. If Steve was being honest, their conversation was amicable but awkward. He didn't like the feeling of not knowing what to say to her. It made him feel like all this progress in their relationship had been for naught.

And then in the car, they had turned the heat up to the maximum and rode silently while listening to the radio. It had been about twenty minutes when Steve decided to look up from the box and out the window. He did a double take.

"This is Brooklyn," he pointed out lamely. He was surprised to say the least. Sure, he'd been to his hometown a few times since he'd woken up from the ice, but never with anyone. Not since his time travel with Tania.

"Yes it is," she confirmed, not taking her eyes off the road. She turned the steering wheel slightly as they rounded a corner.

"Why are we in Brooklyn?"

"There's someone here I think you need to talk to."

"Who?"

"If I didn't tell you yesterday, I'm not going to tell you today."

"Can you at least tell me what's in this box?"

"Not until we get there. Besides, I think you'll understand when we arrive."

He sighed. He was losing patience with this. He hadn't been in that great a mood since yesterday and he was honestly just wanting to go home and sketch some more.

Another fifteen minutes passed when Tania pulled up to a cemetery. A cemetery in Brooklyn. He paled. She unhooked her seatbelt and stepped out of the car after removing the keys from the ignition. She slammed the door shut and walked over to his side when he didn't move. She opened his door.

"You know, I think it's supposed to be the other way around," she joked, leaning her elbow on the door as her breath came out in white puffy clouds from the cold.

He gripped the box tightly. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I told you. You need to talk to someone and I know who you need to talk to."

"No you don't."

"Don't fight me on this Steve, please. Just try it." When he still didn't move, she sighed. "You can open the box now."

He looked down. He was only going to open it because he'd been curious the entire ride here and he wanted to see if his guess now was right. At least, that's the reason he told to himself when he lifted the lid. Inside was a small bouquet of lilies.

"I don't know what his favourite flower was or what your favourite flower was, so I ended up with my own. I hope that's okay."

He sucked in a breath. "It's… it's fine."

She held out her hand, bare and to the cold. "Come on." She nodded her head in the direction of the entrance. He eyed it for a moment before unbuckling his seatbelt and taking her hand as he exited the car. She closed the door and they turned to face the graveyard together. There was a very thin layer of snow covering the ground and it was rather cloudy in the skies up above. It would probably snow soon.

The two of them made their way inside as Tania locked the car and observed the dozens, maybe even hundreds of gravestones dotting the ground. Steve had a giant lump in his throat as he stared at all of these people's graves. He forced himself to keep going. They walked until they came upon two headstones, side by side.

Grant Pierce Rogers

Soldier
Husband
Father

Anne Marie Rogers
Friend
Wife
Mother

Steve felt the tears welling up in his eyes. He bowed his head and knelt down in front of them. Tania rested a hand upon his shoulder as a sign that she was there for him. He grasped her left hand with his own over his right shoulder and stared at the rocks in front of him.

His mother's body lay somewhere beneath him. His father's body lay there too, next to that of his wife's. Steve was assaulted with flashbacks of his parents. He hardly remembered his father, but he knew small things. He remembered his voice, singing him to sleep as child. He remembered the Earthly smell when his father held him. He didn't remember a face. Yet it haunted him.

He knew his mother longer, and remembered her perfectly clear. She had long blonde hair that she curled every morning. She had always been the best cook to him – making do with what they could scrap up during the Great Depression. He remembered the dimples in her cheeks when she smiled and the hollowness of them after she got sick. He remembered how thin and frail she had become. He remembered one time she'd almost fallen down the stairs when he had pulled her hand and managed to have her fall on the ground instead. He remembered calling the doctor but not much more of that day. He remembered her telling him she loved him and how proud she was of him. He remembered that she told him to be good, and how much he thrived to do just that each and every day. He remembered when she closed her eyes and took one final breath.

He gasped. It wasn't the nineteen twenties anymore. It was two thousand and thirteen. Instead of staring into his mother's face, he was staring into her tombstone. He wiped away the tears before they even came as Tania gently pried the flowers from his clenched fists. She plucked two of the lilies and placed them on Anne's grave, and then two more and placed them on Grant's.

There were still two left. She held out her hand again. "Let's go. There's still someone I think you need to talk to." He grabbed her hand and pushed himself to his feet. When had it started snowing? The delicate flakes fell gracefully from the sky as if in an everlasting dance. He let her lead him a bit further to the left and down a few rows until they reached the grave that made his mouth go dry.

James Buchannan "Bucky" Barnes
Soldier
Friend
Brother

He sobbed. The train. The fall. The scream. He couldn't save him. Wasn't fast enough. Wasn't close enough. Wasn't enough. He didn't register that Tania was speaking until she was already mid-sentence.

"… was always the one to look out for you. Help you out of sticky situations. Pick you up and dust you off when you were down. I also firmly believe that he would tell you to stop blaming yourself for the bridge incident and move on. I've never met him though. I want you to tell me what he'd say."

He chuckled. "He'd tell me to get off my ass and do the right thing: focus on the present rather than the past."

"He sounds wise."

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "That man once bought a bottle of beer and practically shoved it down my throat when I was underage. He was anything but wise."

"But he is right, you know."

Steve sobered up and the smile fell off his face. "I know."

"Do you want me to give you some privacy?"

He pursed his lips. "Just a little."

She nodded. "I understand." She passed him the flowers and walked away. He watched her go. She found a nearby stone bench beneath a blossom tree and sat on it. She shivered and crossed her legs, stuffing her hands in her pockets for warmth.

He turned back to Bucky, even if he wasn't really there. His body had never been found. This was just a tombstone over ground with no coffin or anything. He remembered that it had cost him good money to get it done and that he'd never gotten the chance to come home and see it before he crashed.

He knelt down and delicately placed the flower in front of the grave. "Hey buddy. It's me again. I know the last time I came to see you was after I first woke up but I'm back. That girl you just saw was Tania. She's my girlfriend." He laughed as if Bucky had just said something funny.

"I know, I know. Never thought I'd snag a dame either." He turned and looked at her. She was quietly humming to herself and bouncing her leg up and down. He turned back. "But she's the most amazing woman I could have ever asked for. She's perfect Bucky, just perfect. It was her idea to come here. I have to say that it might be one of her better ones.

"I miss you. I was at a friend's wedding the other day it got me to thinking. I always thought that if I ever got married you'd be my best man. Hands down, no substitutions, just you. But now you're gone. So obviously that's not going to happen. But I want you to know that it would have been you. If all this had never happened then it would have been you.

"So there's a lot to catch up on, but the main reason I'm here is because… well… I guess I need some advice." He adjusted his position and sat cross-legged in front of the tombstone. "Recently, there was a giant pileup of cars on the bridge in Manhattan. I saved one cop's life but because I did, everyone left in the pile of cars blew up and died. I know that sounds far-fetched but that's what really happened. Not to mention that I almost killed Clint, one of my team mates and friends, in that fire. If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't trapped inside a car like the others, he would have died too. And it would have been my fault.

"I could have stopped it all from happening. I could have saved them all. But I followed my gut instincts and I just… I didn't think. I didn't weigh the pros and the cons I just did it. And now I have to pay the price.

"You'd probably tell me that I'm being stupid. That it's okay to feel guilty but not okay to dwell on it. I guess you're right. I shouldn't let my guilt affect the way I act around others. It might affect another mission and the consequences might be even worse.

"You were always one to be blunt. Sometimes that was a good thing, other times, not so much. But I think today is one of those times where it's a good thing." He waved Tania back over with a small smile as a gentle breeze tugged at his hair. She looked up and made her way over. She knelt down next to him and waved sheepishly at the headstone.

"Hi." She wasn't unfamiliar with talking to dead loved ones via the rock on top of their dead body. She had done so a few times with her Aunt Gemma.

Steve wrapped an arm around her waist and spoke directly to Bucky. "This is Tania. She's my girlfriend and she's without a doubt the most amazing woman on the planet." She blushed and hugged his neck shyly like a little kid.

"He's exaggerating," she told him.

"Am not."

She rolled her eyes. "It's nice to meet you Bucky. I'm sorry we couldn't do this face to face but this is better than nothing I suppose. I've seen plenty of pictures. You were rather handsome, you know that?" She ignored Steve's chuckles. "I bet all the ladies were fallin' all over you. I'll bet you thought it was rather darby to have so many dames at your feet."

Steve laughed. He found it ironic that when he was depressed, the one place that could cheer him up with the graveyard. "I see you've adapted to the forties lingo."

She nodded. "You can't spend a month in the forties and not pick up a few things."

Steve turned back to his best friend. "You'd have liked her Bucky, I can tell. I bet the two of you would have been great friends."

"In case you're curious, Steve is doing just fine. He's got a whole new team but has vowed never to forget the old one. He and I are doing great and our six month anniversary is coming up on the twenty sixth. Twenty-three days and counting."

"Mmhm."

"So anyway, I just thought you should know that Steve is happy here. I figured you deserved the knowledge that your best friend is living the high life."

"The high life?"

"The good life. Living large. Living well. Living life to the fullest. You know. All together being happy."

"Ah."

"As you can see, he's still adjusting to this century but he's working on it. He's not scared of the cell phone anymore."

"I was not scared of the cell phone!"

"Yes you were! Every time it vibrated you would jump two feet in the air."

"That's because it caught me off guard."

"Uh huh, sure." She rolled her eyes.

He turned back to the gravestone. "Thank you Bucky. Even when you're not here, I know I can count on you when I need you most. Even if the same can't be said for me." Tania elbowed him in the ribs but he barely felt it. He plowed on. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you that day on the train. But I think we're both in our happy places now. And I… I forgive myself. For not being able to grab your hand. I forgive myself." An invisible weight seemed to lift from his shoulders and he sat up straighter. "Good-bye Bucky. I'll be seeing you."

He saluted him with two fingers and pushed himself to his feet with a small grunt. His butt was numb from sitting on the cold ground but he didn't care. He dusted his hands off on his pants and bent his elbow so that Tania could lace her arm through his. She smiled at him and did just that.

The couple walked through the maze of rock that made up the cemetery and eventually found the entrance again. He took one look back and whispered, "Thank you," before getting in the car.

The drive home was just as silent, with the radio playing in the background, but it wasn't an awkward silence like before. It was a contemplative silence.

He turned to her. "Thank you," he said genuinely. "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"Don't worry about it," she assured him as her gaze flicked over to him briefly before returning to the road. "I expected as much."

"I should have trusted you."

"Now don't go beating yourself up about this too or I'm going to turn this car around and take us back there so that Bucky can kick you in the butt again."

He laughed. "I don't think that's necessary. But honestly, thank you."

"You're very welcome. I've always wanted to meet your friend Bucky."

He smiled. "And what'd you think?"

"He seems like a wonderful and loyal man. I bet he was a great soldier."

"He was."

"Do you honestly believe he would have liked me?"

"Of course. I'm positive he would have loved you like a sister the minute he met you."

It was her turn to laugh. "I have enough step-in siblings don't you think? Our family is rather large."

He liked the sound of that. 'Our family.' He filed away this strange feeling for later and replied easily. "A family can never be too big."

"I suppose that's true. I mean, look at Nineteen kids and counting."

"What?"

"It's a reality TV show. We'll google it when we get home."

"Google it?"

"How can you still not know that term? It's been like nine months since you woke up here. Surely you've heard of Google?"

"I've heard of it. Don't really understand what it is."

She spent the remainder of the car ride explaining Google to the ninety something year old super soldier beside her, and loving every minute of it.

A/N. I'm sorry there are no dates on the graves. I didn't want to accidentally get them wrong and I had no internet when I wrote this chapter. Now I just want to post it. So until next time ;)