March 25th, 2012
Over the next year and a half, everything had flourished with Holly, Bucky, Tony and Stark Industries as a whole. After the Indian place, Holly took Bucky to restaurants of different ethnicities so the 90 year old soldier could try more and more things. Out of all the foods he tried over the past year and a half, he really liked the Italian and Chinese foods that Holly had ordered for them. And while Tony kept his manufacturing factory open in California and kept all those jobs, he moved the headquarters of the company to New York. And in that time, Tony asked Pepper out on a date, which she said yes to, Bucky met his soulmate when she became Tony's new assistant.
And Bucky was so grateful for this otherwise he could have only met Hermione when he was in England when Holly went to visit family and friends. Then Holly's phone rang out through her office and it caught her attention and she saw the name on the caller id and it was Phil. Holly only picked up the phone because Phil was her only contact in SHIELD that was constantly looking over Steve. And while Fury had all the info Phil did, talking to Phil and Fury at the same time, Fury had delayed info Phil would get.
"Hey Phil. Miss me already?" Holly answered
Holly liked joking with Phil whenever she would pick up his calls just incase the SHIELD agent tells her something bad over the phone.
"Are you still in New York?" Phil asked
Phil only asked as Holly had a tendency of just going off on an adventure whenever she felt like it and drug Bucky with her due to him being her bodyguard. Holly even did trips to Disneyland and Disney World both with her family and just with Bucky alone just because she could.
"Yeah. Why?" Holly asked
"Steve is waking up." Phil said
"He is?" Holly asked in a shocked tone of voice
"I'm texting you where we are keeping him, so please be fast." Phil said
Holly stood to her feet and Bucky took notice of it.
"What's going on?" Bucky asked
"Steve is waking up and he doesn't know that you are alive." Holly said
"Or that it has been about 70 years since he hit the ice." Bucky said
"Exactly." Holly said as the address came through to her phone
The address was near time square.
"Got the address." Holly said as she ran out the door with Bucky following her.
As soon as the 2 reached the roof Holly grabbed onto Bucky and aperated to the address that Phil had given her to see Steve. Bucky was still not used to apperation, but stomached it as he really wanted to see his best friend and telling him that he is alive. When Holly showed up she face to Phil and Fury, they looked somewhat relived when she walked up to them.
"Oh, good you're here." Phil said
It looked like all of the stress Phil was feeling just vanished from his shoulders.
"Where is he?" Holly asked
"Right through here." Phil said
Phil was pointing to the door on the other side of a table full of monitors with security cameras for the room and the outside perimeter.
"Why is Romanoff here?" Holly asked when she saw the red headed agent near the desks the door.
Holly had only met Natasha Romanoff only once before when she went to pick up Phil for their lunch date last year.
"If you were not going to come and help, she was gonna go in dressed as Director Carter." Nick said
And while Natasha looked incredibly like Peggy back in the 40's, her British accent was horrendous and needed some work.
"But Steve has some spy training. He would know that she is not Peggy and was an impostor." Holly said
"That was why we counted on you." Phil said
"Ready to go in?" Nick asked
"One minute." Holly said
Holly used her magic and changed her clothes into something more appropriate for the year of 1945.
"Ready." Holly said
Phil then lead Holly to the door and opened it for her so she could wait in the room till her soulmate woke up from his icy sleep fully. Steve soon stirred and sat up in the bed.
"Baby take it easy." Holly said
"Holly?" Steve asked groggily
The 2 kissed each other deeply and Steve seemed to be happy about this as he loved Holly's kisses.
"Yes it's me baby." Holly said as she handed Steve a glass of water.
Steve gratefully took the water and drank it before looking back to his girlfriend.
"What's going on here?" Steve asked with his voice more clear
"Grandpa found you in the water. He said you almost died of hypothermia." Holly lied
Charlus was not the one to find Steve as the day the super soldier was found, Charlus was in New York visiting his son and daughter in law. Holly only knew that as she had received a mirror call from her mother on that day and heard her grandparents yelling at each other and her father in the background.
"Why didn't I die from the crash then?" Steve asked
"I have no idea love. Maybe it was a combination of the serum and the cube that save you. We are really not sure." Holly said
In truth, Holly did know that in combination with the tesseract, the crash caused a chain reaction that let Steve stay alive. The serum that Dr Erskine injected him with prevented hypothermia in any part of Steve so he could keep all his fingers, toes and limbs.
"What are you doing here? The spell on you should have made you vanish to your year by now?" Steve asked still thinking that it 1945 and Holly's clothes didn't help in that matter.
Steve had been told what was going on with the magic by Holly and thought that the magic would have worn off by now and sent Holly back to her time. Though Steve didn't want Holly to leave as she was his girl, his one reason to keep on going in the war, the one reason why he didn't go completely crazy. Steve was in love with Holly and no one could tell him otherwise.
"I couldn't leave till I had you in my arms." Holly lied
Holly didn't really know how to broach the fact that it was not 1945 anymore and it was now 2012.
"Something is wrong here." Steve said as he looked around the room and listened closely to what the radio was giving out.
"What do you mean?" Holly asked
"The sound of the radio. The look of the light in the windows. The feel of everything. It's all wrong." Steve said
"Nothing is wrong." Holly said with a nervous chuckle
But Steve looked in Holly's eyes and saw that she had some darty eye and he knew that she was lying about something. Steve could tell that Holly was lying about something due to how she held herself and how she spoke about certain things. Like how her voice wavered between high pitch and low octaves when she had told him about not being able to leave without him in her arms.
"You're lying about something." Steve said
"I don't know what you mean." Holly said
Again with the wavering voice that Steve had caught on before.
"Yes you do. You're hiding something from me and you know it." Steve said
"Fine I am hiding something." Holly said
"Then what is it?" Steve asked
"The year. It's not 1945 anymore." Holly said as she looked down to her hands.
"What do you mean?" Steve asked
"Nick! Phil! Can you both come in here please!" Holly yelled to the door knowing the 2 she was talking to may have heard her over the cameras in the room.
Soon Nick and Phil both walked into the room and Steve saw how the 2 were dressed and knew a large amount of time had passed since he went into the ice.
"If it's not 1945, what is the date then?" Steve asked turning back to Holly
"Todays date is March 25th, 2012." Holly said
"Almost 70 years had past since I went into the water." Steve said
"67 years in fact." Holly said
Steve stood to he feet and started to pace around the room while he processed the information he had been given.
"Is there anything else?" Steve asked
"Should we tell him?" Holly asked Phil and Nick
Holly was talking about Bucky who was still on the other side of the door waiting to be called in or go back to the office with Holly.
"I don't know if he could handle it after all of this." Phil said
"Wanna fill me in on what you are talking about?" Steve said
"Send him in." Nick yelled to the agents on the other side of the door.
The door opened and the man that was revealed to be Bucky and Steve was shocked when he saw his best friend. Steve turned to Holly as she was the only one who could confirm Bucky's identity.
"Is this sometime of a joke?" Steve asked almost yelling
"No it's not a joke. His DNA was tested and confirmed. I even did a magical test to double check. He's our Bucky." Holly said
Steve went to hug Bucky as the last time they saw each other, Bucky was falling from the train that Zola was on.
"I've missed you punk." Bucky said
"I've missed you as well Buck." Steve said
"Will you forgive me now?" Holly asked
"Yes I forgive you." Steve said
"Good." Holly said
"How long have you been here?" Steve asked Bucky
"About a year and a half." Bucky said
"What do you do for money?" Steve asked
"I'm Holly's bodyguard. But she houses and feeds me, so all I use my money on is my soulmate and things for my room." Bucky said
"You've met your soulmate?" Steve asked
"Yes I have. She is smart and amazing and the best person ever." Bucky said
"I'd like to meet her sometime soon." Steve said
Hermione mentioned that she even said that she would like to meet Steve if she get the chance to do so.
"I'll make sure that you will meet her babe." Holly said
"You know her?" Steve asked
"Yes. I met her when we were about 13 years old when I went to England to visit some people and she was at a friends house for a few weeks as she is a muggle born and her parents are very weary of magic." Holly said
It wasn't that uncommon for parents of muggle born magicals around the world to be weary of magic and that their kid would turn on them and use their magic on them. And Hermione being at the Weasley's home just proved to Holly that her parents didn't like their daughter's magic.
March 30th, 2012
After a few days in the SHIELD hospital, Steve was finally released into Holly's custody like Bucky had been when he was released. Because he just woke up from the ice, Holly decided to drive Steve to her Penthouse apartment and not apperate there just incase. Holly had moved to the apartment after she had moved from her place in Los Angeles to here in New York.
"This is a nice place." Steve said as he looked out the window and out onto the city.
When Holly got the penthouse, she made sure that there was a good view.
"I paid for the view." Holly said
"How long did it take you to pick this place?" Steve asked
"About a month. This was the second place I looked at and this was the only one that was up to my standards. And in the time that I was looking around, I was crashing with Tony Stark who already had a livable place here that is located in his New York tower." Holly said
It wasn't that uncommon for families like the Starks and the Potters to have multiple homes around the world to have on stand by. Holly hadn't sold her house in California as her parents convinced her to use it as a vacation home for the family and she had agreed to it. Though James and Lily agreed to keep it under Holly's name as she was the one to buy it when she had moved out to California back in 1999. And because of how much money she had in her bank account, Holly kept her California home furnished and bought new stuff for her place here.
Though she did bring all of her game console with her as she didn't want to set up new ones or hack more games onto them. Right now her parents and her brother's family was there now as they wanted to take Charlie's kids to Disneyland. Charlie had a 14 year old son and a 10 year old daughter as he and his soulmate started having kids at 20 all the way back in 1998. Charlie having kids at 20 was way better then when their parents having Charlie at 18 as they couldn't keep their hands off of each other.
"How did he get his tower like that?" Steve asked
"When Tony made up the plans for the tower, he wanted the top 3 floors to be just for him. The top most floor is all bedrooms, the middle floor is the kitchen/dining room and the living room. And the 3rd floor is a gym with a pool and every piece of exercise equipment out there. Though the floor below the gym floor is for the parties Tony throws with an extra large bar and hidden kitchen for the caterers. With you here now, Tony will insist on having you over for dinner." Holly said
"Are you sure? From what you had told me back in the forties, he doesn't really like me." Steve said
Holly had vaguely told Steve that Tony didn't like him as Howard had this obsession with finding him in the arctic.
"If Tony gives you any problems whatsoever, I'll deal with him." Holly said
Holly only said this as when Tony found out what Bucky had done to his parents, he went nuclear and wanted to kill Bucky. He really wanted Bucky to suffer like he had when his parents didn't come home on Christmas that year and was told about their fates. Holly had stopped this and she explained that Bucky was basically being mind controlled and had his memory whipped after each mission. Holly also explained that it took many people about 2 weeks to get Bucky's memories back and get the triggers that turned him into the Winter Soldier out of his mind.