2016

"Fucking horrible eighties piece of shit song." I murmured to myself as my car slowly came to a stop at a red light.

I had the oldies station on due to the fact that it was no longer an oldies station, because they now play stuff from when I was in high school. It's 2016 and I only graduated six years ago. When I was a kid the oldies station used to play stuff from decades prior. Nah, they're just trying to target millennials as a new market and that's why they play stuff from the 2000s. And it's working, because I'm listening. Not that I didn't mind the classic tracks too, but "Boom, Boom Let's Go Back To My Room" was creepy and weird.

I was given some reprieve seconds later as the song ended and the radio cut to the news. It was eight am on the dot and thus time for the hourly updates.

"Making news this morning, international authorities are still searching for a key number of people over the battle at Berlin Airport." The professional voice of the radio newsreader began.

"Clearly not making news this morning if you don't know shit about the news now is it?" I angrily spat at the radio. In reality I wasn't annoyed at the dumb choice of words. I was annoyed because it was my wedding day and one of my brothers was unable to be here because of exactly what events were being announced.

"Interpol have confirmed multiple people are now in custody over events that transpired in Berlin after the assassination of Wakandan leader, T'Chaka, last Tuesday. Those in custody include Clint Barton, Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff and Scott Lang, all known associates of Captain America, Steve Rogers."

I nervously turned up my radio now that it was confirmed that there may actually be news after all. I was so distracted that I actually had a car beep at me angrily to inform me that I hadn't noticed the traffic light turn green.

"However authorities are still searching for Steve Rogers and associates James Barnes and Alexander Coulson. Captain America is accused of harbouring fugitive James Barnes, whilst Alexander Coulson, son of the late decorated S.H.I.E.L.D agent Phil Coulson, is accused of assisting the efforts. Authorities have made a statement that Barnes is no longer a person of interest in the assassination of King T'Chaka however there are still multiple crimes the trio are wanted for."

The newsreader let out an extremely subtle grunt to clear her throat as she switched her neutral professional tone to one of a happier nature.

"In other news, last night's AFL match at the MCG marked the lowest attendance for a Collingwood game since 1940, with only 20,320 people attending the game against Fremantle. The Pies defeated the Dockers with 85 to 37. Star Collingwood Magpie player Justin Cartwright was the lead goalkicker of the game."

I was now outside the garage of my apartment complex and I had to crack a smile as I fumbled around for my remote and opened the garage door. It was an amusing thing to hear news stories about my two half brothers back to back. One was an international fugitive wanted for involvement in some massive international incident, the other was a charming sports star who won a game in a sport most people outside the state of Victoria didn't care about. This was definitely a funny moment to talk about at parties in the future.

What wasn't funny, however, was the fact that when I turned my car into my parking spot I saw one of my brothers with two other people. And it wasn't the brother who had the news report about his fantastic win against the Fremantle Dockers.

"So you see-" My brother tried to explain, but I held up a finger to make him wait as I opened the can I was holding and downed it's contents.

"Annabelle it's ten thirty in the morning. Should you really be drinking beer?" Alex piped up, as he crossed his arms in disapproval.

I didn't bother to reply as I gulped down the last of the contents of the precious liquid gold, and wiped my mouth with the back of my hoodie sleeve in a very unclassy manner. When nobody else spoke up, I decided to let rip the quips currently in my head.

"It's my wedding day, and I've already been to the gym this morning. Also, you're an internationally wanted fugitive. So don't lecture me on my choice of a beer at ten thirty in the morning." I mocked Alex by putting my hands on my hips.

The three occupants of my apartment were silent for a few moments until the friendliest of them broke into a large grin.

"Well no one can deny you're definitely Australian." Steve Rogers piped up.

Once upon a time being in Steve's presence made me feel so inadequate that I couldn't even speak properly. However I no longer felt this way in the years that had passed since Phil Coulson's funeral. Partly because I was now far more confident about myself and my self esteem, due to the fact that I had spent significant time out of high school. But a big part of it was because of what happened after the funeral.

Steve and I had gone on a "date" (if you could call it that). We had dinner and a dance at a jazz club where we enjoyed each other's company for a fun night out. Even though nothing ever progressed between us, it gave me a big confidence boost. If I could capture the attention (albeit extremely briefly) of the world's most eligible bachelor, surely I wasn't destined to date losers like my exes from back then. Hell, maybe I wouldn't even be getting married today if I hadn't received my confidence injection from Steve.

"I knew this was a bad idea." The third 'guest' spoke up with a sigh, the first words I had heard him say all morning.

"Let's hope this is the only bad idea of the day, shall we? Would be a bit awkward if I mutter those words after I tie the knot later on." I weakly joked in order to try and ease the tension. It was a terrible and forced joke but I managed to get a very small smile from Bucky Barnes, which I noticed caused Steve to grin widely.

"I'm sorry to be a bit brash Anna. But we're on a pretty tight schedule and we need to know right now if you agree. Because if not, we need a new plan, pronto." Alex quickly spoke up, ruining the moment immediately. He always had a knack for that sort of thing.

"Of course, we're not trying to pressure you. This is your big day and we understand what we're asking is a very big ask. You're more than welcome to say no and there will be no ill feelings whatsoever." Steve quickly added on.

It was now for me to cut the crap and begin to actually consider what Steve and Alex were asking me to do.

Their master plan was to eventually hide out in a location that they had refused to disclose to me. But if they could be "spotted" here in Melbourne, Australia, authorities would think they're hiding somewhere on this huge island, and not in the place far away that they were actually hiding at. Interpol would probably start searching the outback thinking they've set up base in the desert and thus they'd spend a lot of wasted time looking for Steve, Alex and Bucky. This gives them plenty of time to safely settle where they actually do plan to hide.

My wedding was a great event to use as bait. Unlike a public event like a sporting match, security would be far less sparse. It also meant that my brother would be able to attend my wedding. It was honestly a genius plan.

"I'm down. I'm just considering how Shaun will take this. It's his day too, ya know? This is going to catapult this wedding into international fame, and probably end up with the Australian Federal Police storming in towards the end." I mused.

"It's alright, we can-" Steve began but I cut him off.

"-Let's do it. This will be a great event to get his name out there for when he finally finishes his book."

The three looked at each other and were silent for a few moments. It made me wonder if they didn't plan on me saying yes and getting this far.

Bucky confirmed this for me.

"Those two won't want to admit this, but they planned the backup more than the actual plan as we didn't know if you'd say yes."

"Yeah, we're kind of light on wedding clothes…" Alex cringed.

After a bit of awkward back and forth I agreed to lend my car to Alex and Steve so they could go and buy wedding appropriate attire, as well as a few supplies they would need for their onward journey. I did worry about them being spotted but Steve comforted me. He said it would form part of their plan. No one expected to see international fugitive Steve Rogers at a suburban shopping centre in the outer suburbs in Melbourne, Australia. But when things would blow up after my wedding there would be eye witnesses to come forward to say they didn't quite realise it at the time but they did indeed spot him here.

Bucky on the other hand didn't want to join them. I didn't know the full story on why but I assumed it had something to do with the whole Winter Soldier stuff. I didn't question it, instead I insisted to them all it was fine if he hung around here.

"Shouldn't you be running around being all panicky and stressed?" Bucky asked me sarcastically as I flopped onto my couch next to him and picked up a remote.

"Nup. My hair and makeup artist isn't coming for three hours so I have nothing else to do in the meantime." I shrugged.

"Fair enough. It has been about eighty five years since I last attended a wedding. What do I know?" Bucky asked dryly and this earned a chuckle from me.

"You didn't get married back in the day, did you? Steve never mentioned you had a wife or anything." I asked curiously, but tried to look busy picking a television show to watch so it didn't look like I was being too nosey.

"No. It wasn't exactly easy to meet women during war time and then later on during battle." Bucky bitterly responded.

"Psh. My great-great uncle managed to get three wives during World War One." I shrugged.

Bucky was quiet for a few moments as he contemplated my words. I guessed he was deciding on whether he wanted to engage my teasing or not. He relented and indicated for me to continue with the simple act of raising an eyebrow to show his curiousity.

"So, he had his regular wife he got married to just before he went interstate for training. Then he met his second wife whilst he was living in the baracks, so he married her using my great grandfather's name to get away with having a second bride. Then he got shipped to the European front and eventually meets a nice English girl and marries her as well." I went on to explain.

"I just…why?" Bucky eventually spluttered out after blinking in confusion.

"I dunno, hey. Most people back then collected baseball cards or whatever, but this dude collected wives instead." I shrugged.

Bucky was quiet and the conversation fell flat again.

"What was the last movie you ever saw in your last life?" I asked Bucky in an attempt to make conversation again. It was the first topic I could think of after a movie advertisement flashed on the TV.

"Casablanca." Bucky responded.

"Yes! I love that movie. I love quoting it, especially the 'of all the gin joints in all of the towns in all of the world, she walks into mine' line. Classic." I excitedly exclaimed.

Bucky was silent and didn't respond to my excited tone. I wondered if I had offended him. After all, he lived through that movie being released. I was treating it as a classic movie novelty thing.

I contemplated whether to apologise profusely or whether to change the topic. Luckily for me, Bucky got in first with a swift topic change.

"Look, I'm going to be blunt. This is purely out of curiousity and to give me a chance to stir the pot for a bit of fun. But you really don't seem that excited to be getting married today. You also made that weird comment before about that you hope you don't regret saying 'I do' later. What's going on?" Bucky asked.

It was an innocent question, but it was what caused Bucky and I to open up to each other over the next few hours. It started with me telling him about my relationship. How I was excited to build a future with Shaun, but I wasn't sure if I really believed in love as I was of the opinion it was all human biology - just chemicals in the brain. I didn't think it was a big deal getting married without being in love because we could always get divorced at a later date.

Confessing these feelings to Bucky in turn made him open up too. He didn't want to tell me too much about the horrors of being the Winter Soldier but he did confess some things to me that he admitted he had only told Steve. We mainly spoke about how challenging it was for him to adjust to the new world, especially with the anxieties that came with the fact he was a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment should someone wish to control him.

Our conversation only stopped when my hair and make-up artist arrived, where Bucky then went and hid in my bedroom.

Steve and Alex had impeccable timing as they arrived back to my apartment mere minutes after she left, however I strongly suspect it wasn't a coincidence and they had been waiting for her to leave so they could come back in.

"So I came up with an awesome idea." Alex said as soon as I opened the door to let them in.

"Yes?" I asked curiously.

"Since you don't have a dad, you should get Steve to walk you down the aisle. How cool would that be? So many people would be jealous!"

I noticed Steve immediately went to protest out of politeness, so I immediately turned to him to cut him off before he could speak up.

"I'm game if you are."

2018

"Dude, those two hot guys at the bar are totally checking us out. We should go over!" Tess, one of my work friends giggled as she drunkenly grabbed my arm and pointed towards the bar.

I rolled my eyes as I looked over and noticed both were exactly Tess's type. Hipster douchebags, one even had a tight man bun and the other had a moustache like a silent film villain. Yuck.

I felt strange as relief immediately washed over me. I didn't find them attractive and thus it meant that I wouldn't be tempted to stray from Shaun, my husband.

Things were great for the six months of our marriage. But the last year… not so great. There were a lot of issues in our relationship that all boiled down to the fact we never saw each other. I was working a very demanding job for a tech not-so-startup-anymore that was struggling to grow. Shaun was struggling to get his book published and worked evenings as a bar tender.

Neither one of us had been unfaithful, at least not as of yet. I had friends who had told me they had visited the bar he worked at and noticed he had been extremely flirty and available with some of his female patrons. But I wasn't innocent either. I was definitely inadvertedly flirting with a cute French cafe worker at the cafe in my work building. Enough so that he did end up asking me out, which I obviously declined. Now I have to get coffee elsewhere.

We never fought. We'd have to actually see each other to be able to fight. The very few hours we spent together on a weekend afternoon (before Shaun had to go to work) we'd normally watch television in silence, staring at our phones.

I often thought about the conversations I had with Bucky before my wedding. That I didn't know if I believed in love and I didn't see the big deal about marrying Shaun because we could just get divorced. I don't regret marrying Shaun because I was glad I wouldn't spend my life thinking 'what if'. But was it time to pull the trigger and just go ahead divorced? The main problem was that I couldn't work these issues out with Shaun, because yes once again, we never even see each other to be able to hash out these issues. So I was stuck in groundhog day, or at least my thoughts going around in circles again and again.

"Anna…I feel weird." Tess moaned loudly as she grabbed her stomach.

"I told you not to have that sambucca shot." I teased in a sing–song voice.

"No, it's not that. I can't explain it, I jus-" Tess began to describe but then I felt it too.

It started as a pain in my chest. It didn't feel like a heart attack as my heart wasn't thumping, it was just a dull ache that began to spread through my body. First to my arms and up my throat, and then it bounded down my legs.

It was I noticed my surroundings changing. It looked as if the room was floating away, one speck of a time. When I looked down I noticed my hands also begin to float away, as if they were turning to dust.

Okay, what weird shit was my drink spiked with?