I am not very good with history. So I hope some of the flashbacks are at least ligate. Or at least believable.
Hope you're still interested. Italic means flashbacks!
If you haven't seen the movie Now And Then with Rose O'Donnell, Christina Ricci, and Demi Moore you might recognize the swearer scene. I couldn't think of anything else, and as I started it I couldn't stop.
If you haven't seen Now And Then go check it out. It's a good movie.
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The three children happily played tag with each other as the remaining Avengers walked down the path as they headed back to Wakanda's city. Wanda and Bucky didn't mind at all, Melina has some friends her age and playing with them out in the open would help her and the other two sleep on the way back to New York. The children giggled and laughed as they ran circles around each of the adults, incept for Rocket who scared them on some level, but they were nice to him.
Bucky lingered behind everyone as they got close to the city. Wanda noticed first and grabbed Sam's arm for his attention, he looked at her confused before he realized she's looking behind them.
"Barnes?" He called, gaining Steve's attention from the front who stopped and looked back. "You ok?" Sam asked.
Bucky just stuffed his hands in his pockets as he kept a slow pace. "Fine!" He called back. He watched as Steve approached him.
"Buck?"
"I'm fine, Punk. Really." Bucky tries to shrug it off, making Steve roll his eyes.
"Right." He turns to look at everyone who had all stopped and are watching them. Melina walks over to them.
"Daddy?" She asks with worry, looking up at him.
"I'm alright doll." Bucky smiles down at her. "Go to your Ma, let me talk with Uncle Steve."
Melina pressed her lips together but nodded. "Ok." She turns and runs back up the hill and towards her mother.
"Everything ok back there?" Natasha called to them.
"We're fine!" Steve called back. "You guys go on, we'll catch up!"
The remaining Avengers continued on, Wanda lingered a little but she too turned to head for the Quinjet.
Steve clamped his hand on Bucky's shoulder. "Talk to me pal. What's going on?" He asked as they started to follow the others.
Bucky took a deep breath. "Ever since I got completely free of HYDRA, I couldn't stop thinking what the public would think if the Winter Solider even daring to come back."
Steve squeezed his best friend's shoulder. "You don't have that title anymore."
"Can't stop thinking it." Bucky then sighed. "I'm the White Wolf now." He smirks, and Steve laughs.
"You have a new title now! And with that new title you're coming back to citizenization!"
Bucky kept his hands stuffed in his jacket as he stared ahead. "Back then I didn't have a care in the world with the women." He said suddenly, causing Steve to look at him.
"But when you did have a dame, you treated her with respect and never had a wondering eye." The blonde clamped him on the back again. "But you could only keep them for a month. Two at best. You always had one on your arm."
"Wanda is different than any of them." Bucky shook his head. "How the hell is she and I together and with a kid when you and I should have our butts in rocking chairs or should be plant food. And to top everything off you and I should be wooing somebody's Grandmother."
Steve shook his head. "I don't know." He shrugs. "A second chance at life maybe?" He said lamely. "The serum keeps us alive."
Bucky gave him an annoyed glare. "Second chance. Pfft! As if Punk."
Steve gives him a look. "Come on pal. You also get to experience love again. You and Wanda found each other."
Bucky was quiet. "Yeah." He smiles. "With her strong will, I don't think my Ma or anyone else would approve."
"Things were completely different back then." Steve states.
Bucky stared ahead. "I think nows a good chance. What happened with Johann Shmidt?" He asks.
Steve hummed in thought. "During my final fight with him, he picked up the Tesseract and taunted me with it. But, I dunno, I think the Tesseract killed him." He answered. "He disappeared in a blinding white light, the Tesseract fell to the floor of the plane. Then it melted onto the floor and fell into the ocean."
"I wish I had been there to help." Bucky huffed. The two were coming back into the city and saw the Qunjet. "What happened to my family after I fell?" He asks quietly.
Steve sighed and sagged his shoulders as he stopped, Bucky turns to him.
"Stevie?" The brunette asked turning to fully face him. "What happened to them? Please tell me."
Steve chewed on his lower lip. "In the beginning, a rift formed between your parents and your sister." He began.
Bucky's heart sank. "Damn." He breathed, and ran a hand through his hair. "I started it … didn't I?" He asked, voice shaking a little.
"Your parents wanted a funeral."
"They buried an empty casket."
"Yeah. But Becca … she refused it. She refused to bury and say goodbye to nothing, knowing her brother wasn't in that casket. She wanted your body to say goodbye. Your parents wanted the funeral for." Steve paused. "Closure."
Bucky snorts. "Some closure." He looks up at the blue sky. "But if it gave them peace to sleep at night, I'll take that." His voice stayed shaken. "I bet when it was their time to die, they were thinking they'd met me upstairs." He kicks a pebble with anger and it sailed straight ahead, nearly taking Sam's left ear.
"Hey!" Sam yelled. He watched as both super soldiers strolled up towards the Quinjet. "You two done with your pow wow?"
"Ignore him." Natasha said as Steve and Bucky walked up the ramp to join them. "He's got ants in his pants."
"I'm sure he does." Steve teases with a grin as Sam moves to the cockpit.
"Thanks for that, Cap."
Bucky plops down next to Wanda, who rests the side of her head on his shoulder. "Did Becca get closure?" He asks and Steve froze.
"I don't know." The blonde admits. "Colonel Phillips kept me on a tight short leash after that."
Bucky growled. "Since he's long dead, there's no reason for me to Winter Solider him from point A to point b, then point c." His eyes narrowed. "All the way to China! Then the country after China! How dare he not think about what my sister needed."
Steve looked at him guiltily. "I'm sorry Buck. I tried to visit her."
"I know you did, pal." Bucky smiles a little. "It's ok."
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After leaving Steve on the shore in Washington DC, Bucky had disappeared.
It was a stormy night. Bucky laid in an alley of New England. A few hours ago he had passed two middle school girls enjoying the summer day. But now the sun is well gone with the moon high and hidden behind storm clouds. Bucky's jacket and the raggy old blanket somewhat kept him warm as he kept his back resting on the store building behind him as he tried to somewhat sleep. He was just starting to fall asleep when his enhanced hearing picked up screaming, the thunderstorm would drown out the terrified screams.
He knew something was wrong, something happened. Bucky pushed the blanket off him and stood up. He then raced out of the alley and into the dark of night. The thunderstorm is strong and loud, but so is the screams. Bucky had no trouble running towards the screams with his enhanced hearing and came upon the scene.
One of the girls he had passed earlier stood by a drain on the side of the street, the sewer next to her had exploded and water was gushing out. The kid is knelt down and trying to pull hard on a grate but couldn't as the gushing water kept trying to shove her down and pull her in.
And Bucky knew, he knew one of the girls had disappeared. They had been attached to the hip laughing and teasing each other. He didn't know why, but he was running towards the girl. Gently pushing her out of the way and pulling the grate up with ease and pushing it to the side before he climbed in.
The water's cold. But he's use to cold. He tried to swim to the girl who was trying to keep her head above water. The rush of water slashing this way and back, then back and forward. Bucky pushed his hair out of his face as he tried to keep visual on the girl, but the raging water swept her under.
Taking a breath, Bucky dived under and swam in directions blindly. A body hit him, he snakes an arm around the kid and swam towards the surface, both coughed. Bucky swam towards some stairs, the kid clung to his neck.
Bucky grabs one of the railings that would lead up to the grate and the surface world. "Go kid." He turns so she could easily grab hold of the railing and she instantly starts to climb, Bucky followed her up.
On the surface, the girl's friend grabbed her and pulled her out. Bucky started to surface, but the railing under his right foot broke and started to fall back in. But both girls reached out to grab Bucky's jacket and pulled as hard as they could to help him out.
Once completely out, Bucky's enhanced hearing picked up sirens through the heavily rain. Bucky peeled off his jacket and wraps it around the girl who had fallen in, then he turned as the sirens got closer and closer.
And Bucky took off, ignoring the yell of "Wait!"
The next day, there was an article in the newspaper and a picture of the girl who fell in recovering in the hospital, in the newspaper the family was thanking the mysterious man and wants to thank him personally.
Bucky kept that newspaper in his back pocket.
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