Audrey shook her head once more as Bucky blushed, "Sorry, my bad there...", with a sheepish chuckle. "It's alright. Not exactly as usual as those American boxer names like Joe "Black Bomber" Louis.", she said.
"Shoot, Steve and I knew a guy that went to one of the fights Louis had with Max Schmeling. That was a huge deal...", Bucky paused for a second. "Not saying that Nena's fight isn't either!", he quickly waved his hand.
Audrey smiled, squeezing his hand as she grabbed it gently, "Relax. Now, let's encourage Nena when there's an opportunity to do it when she needs it. This is going to be a big one!", as they heard the announcer count off.
And so, the match went off, as they watched, encouraged, and cheered as the match went through three rounds as it's mandatory, with Manuel advising Nena each round with an encouraging nod and smile, and indeed, it was a big match as it kept the crowd on their feet.
Finally, the last four minutes of the final match was announced as the announcer was just as excited as the crowds, "This is it, ladies and gentlemen, the last hurdle for the Championship belt and the trophy and the swell prize of five thousand pesos!".
Audrey whispered, "It's close to 300 USA dollars.", helping Bucky with the math, and he widened his eyes, whistling lowly. "That could certainly cover things for a couple of months..." Bucky said as Audrey nodded.
"Pity the cash prize though isn't like some of those MLB salaries...", Audrey replied. Bucky shrugged, "Yeah; I wouldn't know what to do if I had Joe DiMaggio's salary.".
Audrey chuckled, "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure something out.", before they heard the bell ring, and didn't leave the ring with their eyes as they watched the fight.
"Looks like they are judging each other for weak spots, and whoa, Diaz came in with a left uppercut, but Ramirez was quick, dodging, using her knee to give him a blow at the side! Diaz took it with determination as he's turning around to hit her, barely got her by the hip, chasing her, and oh, what's Ramirez doing? Wait, she's going for the Firebolt move, ladies and gentlemen!", the announcer shouted as Nena used the ring ropes to sling her around her nemesis, and went to punch at the knee, dodging narrowly with a grazing hit to her shoulder, and punched at his face, and slides past a missed punch at her face, and used her leg to hit the arm, causing his own hand to clobber himself in the other shoulder.
It may seem fast to them, but the last four minutes was flying through each move that took 30 seconds, and Nena then whipped around, using the balls of her feet as she strikes once again, punching in an angle, knocking Diaz out as he spun around, falling down to the mat. Those boxing mitts and other things are effective yet crude as Nena panted with adrenaline rushing through her body, watching the referee do his procedure.
"Well, he's not gonna like that...", Bucky whispered, in regard to Diaz being knocked out by a woman. A moment later, the ref called the match, walking over to Nena.
The ref held up Nena's arm as the announcer screamed in excitement, "Diaz's out! And Ramirez got her third championship of being the middleweight champion, and another trophy for her wall, and a spanking prize of 5 thousand pesos! What a finale, ladies and gentlemen! Give it up for Nena 'Firebolt' Ramirez!".
The crowds went wild, cheering, yet Manuel, Audrey, and Bucky were the loudest, as Nena smiled widely, seeing her father and her sister and hopefully her brother-in-law, putting up her other arm as she was given the trophy belt, making the crowds cheer louder.
It was a mess for a few minutes before eventually, the family was able to reunite in the locker room. "That didn't even seem close...", Bucky admitted. "You honestly had him out matched the moment the bell rang.".
Nena smiled softly, "You have to consider even if I'm fairly muscled and fit, I'm smaller and faster, but doesn't mean that he wasn't close a few times. I was lucky enough to have bruises on my shoulder and hip, and my knee. And you shouldn't worry. Tulio is one of the good ones, and for being in second place in the championship, he gets about 2,500 pesos which is manageable for him.".
"Close to 150 USA dollars.", Audrey translated for Bucky, and Bucky nodded, relieved to hear it, and Manuel replied, "Do you two have a rental car?".
"Yes, Papi.", Audrey replied, and Manuel smiled, "We'll be in the back lot behind the stadium for you to pick us up with a signal after I and Nena get the money, alright?", and Audrey nodded, "Okay. Have you been staying at a hotel for yesterday and all?".
Manuel shook his head, "Spent the day yesterday at a family friend's place, since hotels are a bit fancy, and besides, prefer to keep the money mostly intact for Nena here.".
"Hey, Audrey, why do you also go with your family while I get the car by myself... more safety in numbers, you know?", Bucky suggested. "Besides, like anyone's going to pay much attention to some random gringo with a missing hand.".
Audrey looked at him, "You sure?", and Bucky smiled, "I may not fight as good as with two hands, but I can still handle a left hook, and if needed, lean on it if I make a good kick and all.".
Exhaling, Audrey replied, "Okay, just be careful and act like you know what you're doing, Bucky.", and Bucky nodded, "Yes, ma'am.", before leaving them.
Indeed, with him looking confident and looking like he's knowing what to do, people didn't give him trouble as he made it to the car, starting it up, and went to the back lot, waiting by the curb, and seeing a familiar signal by Audrey as they made out the back door, went to pick them up, with a quick switch with Manuel, sitting with Audrey in the back of the car as Manuel drove out quickly and quietly.
They got out of Mexico City, stopping in Celaya a few hours later, having a late dinner as this is where Manuel's family friend lives, taking up his guest house, which is kind of a generous size, with Bucky and Manuel having to sleep in one room, and the girls in the other room.
Being sisters, Nena and Audrey chatted, catching up, not caring about the late hour as they're not in any rush to wake up early, as Nena needs some destressing time after the whole finals, and driving is kind of stressful.
"You should have seen the troublemaker twins last month! They pranked Papi so good!", Nena laughed, and Audrey smirked, "Oh, yeah, what did they do?".
Nena smirked, "They told him that there was a missing order of wheel nuts for a customer, and he was furiously looking through papers and making calls, and to his confusion, the post office swore that they had delivered the wheel nuts, but perhaps had made a mistake in checking the address number...Little did he know was that the troublemaker twins literally and secretly made a trade with the neighbors' kids who was cleaning up the yard of acorn nuts, and after hearing from Tia Rosalie who said that she forgot that order, having put it in the storage shed in one of the cabinets, Papi went to check it out, and when the cabinet opened, not to reveal the box of wheel nuts, but a whole mass of acorn nuts, filling out and piling over him. The troublemaker twins were punished by completely cleaning the house from end to end for the whole weekend, no help from the women as they were naturally in charge of cleaning the house.", with a grin.
Audrey laughed, "Oh, my lord! Those boys, did they bemoan and complain?", with a chuckle, and Nena snickered, "Yep, but their pleas didn't get them nowhere, as it got them no dessert, and so they shut up then.".
"I wish I had seen that...", Audrey chuckled before exhaling, looking at Nena, "Nena, there's a secret I have to tell you, really personal...I don't know if Papi noticed, and I hope he didn't, but there was something we intentionally left out in my and Bucky's relationship.".
"Don't tell me... he got you pregnant?", Nena gave a small laugh at the joke for a moment, but it slowly started to die down when Audrey didn't laugh either or say anything, "You... you don't mean-".
Audrey replied, "As you know, Bucky and I have been dating mostly at my pace which he accepted so well as he didn't want to rush too fast, courting for about three months before I decided to test him when I wanted to see how it felt to be with a man casually in bed before the intimate stuff, lasting for a week, and Nena, it feels weird without feeling his presence right now...Anyway, that week was before a huge, dangerous mission, and since this was high-risk where he could...The first time, I took precautions, and it was wonderful, incredible as he treated me like an equal, not a piece of glass or anything, but he was considerate all the way...When he was declared MIA, I thought I almost wanted to die, as he was truly the one I waited so long for, the one meant for me...I regretted in taking precautions then as the dream of having a family was shattering into pieces for me...".
Nena widened her eyes in shock yet kept quiet as she listened, seeing the joy and blissful awe in her sister's eyes and body, and then the agony and angst as she recounted the memory.
Audrey shuddered, taking a deep breath, "I had nightmares all that week as I grieved, yet hoping that he would be recovered...at least, to be able to get back to USA like he wanted and all, and by a miracle, answering my prayers in the chance that he survived, there was the call of bringing him to the hospital...The state of him was terrible, but he was alive...When I saw his face, his eyes looking at me, I saw the light in them as he gave me that goddamn smirk I hated to love, proposing to me for the first time, I knew I wasn't dreaming...Took a whole another week for him to recover and heal up as I was there by his side almost all the time, never wanting to leave him if he's gonna disappear...".
"Then after burying our friend in Paris the early morning after some travel, I literally stepped out of my comfort zone by wearing a dress and all for our Parisan date. A dress, Nena! And gods, when he saw me, he called me gorgeous after being speechless for a few moments...I never had the precautions, and he listened to me, didn't interrupt, and talked with me after I told him that I wanted a family with him...He is scared of being a father since he thinks he couldn't handle a kid with his current situation, but he's willing to try, and so, since then, he's getting more used to the idea with every time we...we do it, with that wonderful Parisian night as the first possible conception...It's still early, Nena...but yes...I might be pregnant..", Audrey finished, as she knew that she and Bucky has been making love for nearly three weeks, counting from that amazing Parisian night.
"Okay...", Nena nodded. "Well, I guess that certainly makes things slightly better than you two just being dumb upon the first-time meeting and getting right into it.".
"Yeah; no way I was giving him that... he was going to have to work for it.", Audrey chuckled, referring to his past relationships. "But... I don't know, we still don't know, and I have no idea how the hell I'm going to break this to Papa.".
Nena replied, "Considering that you are his youngest daughter...yeah, I can see that you'd have trouble to break the news to Papa, but it's early still, and from what I understand with our aunts and such, the signs wouldn't be obvious until like two, three months onwards.".
Audrey glanced at her, "You think I'd break the news when I throw up and all?", and Nena nodded, "Yeah, I mean, as you've said, it's early, and you'd always have a period within the next week or so until it's not there, but sometimes, you know that doesn't mean pregnancy as it would always be stress or the changing of travel. I mean, heck, you traveled over France, overseas, across America, and into here.".
"Yeah, but...", Audrey took a deep breath. "If we had already gotten married, this would've been less of an issue.". Nena answered, "Except for the fact that things might have been a bit too soon, and that would just raise much of the same problems.".
Audrey nodded softly, and Nena replied, "Either way, I promise I'll keep it as a secret, 'Rey. After all, sisters forever, right?", with a smile.
"Sisters forever.", Audrey smiled as she grasped her sister's hand warmly, and then noted the time, "Let's get to sleep. I don't know what Papa's plans are if we're staying a bit later into the morning and leaving in the afternoon, but we need rest, anyway.".
Nena nodded, "Right.", as they settled into bed, with Audrey flicking off the lamp between them, and went to sleep, and indeed, the next day was sleeping in a bit late, but the group took to have a late breakfast, and left long before it became noon.
They made it to Durango shortly before sunset, and there, Bucky experienced an ultimate Ramirez routine of meals and chores, working at the original Ramirez auto shop, and getting to know Audrey's grandfather, great aunt, the troublemaker twin male second cousins, and the triplet first-cousins, and uncle, next to Nena and Manuel, for the next three and half days, and of course, he never left Audrey most of the time until she needs space or such which he happily gave, and respected Manuel's rules of the house, speaking Spanish almost all the time which he was surprised when he had to switch back to English at times, like he had belonged easily into the Ramirez family.
Upon finishing lunch on the last day before the couple had to start their departure back to America, Manuel requested firmly for Bucky to have a talk in his private office, and after a reassuring smile and kiss from Audrey, Bucky nervously yet determinedly went to follow Manuel.
The two of them stepped in as Bucky closed the door, "You got a way to make sure that no one's listening in on us? Sorry, back home, a week ago, my little sister was eavesdropping on conversation that she didn't really need to hear, plus, with all the special forces operations I've been on... you get to be a bit paranoid about what you should say and whom you say it with.".
Manuel replied, "Do not worry about it. Preston has told me of his concerns and such over a secure phone call over the past several months, and with his help and some disguised mail, and a bit of reworking by myself, this room is protected, and besides, the family very deeply knows that the office is mine and it's forbidden and locked until I come here. Mexico may be less protected in some ways, but it's also protected, thanks to most of us speaking Spanish which Nazis wouldn't even know, next to Hydra.".
"Very good points, sir.", Bucky replied as he took a seat before the desk as Manuel seated himself on a comfortable, imposing office chair, and Manuel replied, "This discussion will take long, but it has three points of fact I will take time upon.".
Bucky nodded, "Yes, sir.", and Manuel started, "First of all, from the hints and knowledge I've observed, Atlantis is needed for a replacement, or as to speak, a prosthetic for your missing limb, am I correct?", for Audrey has told him of the expedition here in this office several months ago.
He was enraged when he heard of Rourke and Sinclair's betrayal and attempted murder, kidnapping, and true murder, and was stunned that the Heart of Atlantis wasn't a battery as he had theorized, but something more.
"Yeah, we think that'll be where we can find a fairly solid replacement. If not, I'm sure Audrey can weld something a bit more rudimentary. Might keep me from active duty if it's that case, but that's war sometimes... at least I'm still alive; there's millions that would obviously prefer loved ones maimed and disabled compared to being dead.", Bucky replied.
Manuel nodded with a wry smile, "Audrey has a gift of welding things beyond limits to challenge her, and before you ask, I'll be glad to join the traveling group as I would be over the moon to see Atlantis in my eyes and hold it for a long time to my death with no regrets and assist Audrey and the people there in making the prosthetic. All I can ask of you is to tell Preston that I'll be there in a few days. I need the time to arrange things with the shops so they would manage without me, until I get back after the time to fit and make the right prosthetic for you. Is that clear?".
