𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐘𝐌𝐈𝐀³ - 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 † 𝘑. 𝘉. 𝘉

𝐗𝐈𝐗

"Have a nice day, Mr Barnes and Miss Stark." She displays her hands in the hallway.

"Thank you." I smile.

We begin to walk down the hallway, reading all the signs beside each door. We ignore the irrelevant sign until we see the exact one we need. But, before we walk inside, we both stop, taking a deep breath. The grip on my hand tightens when Bucky keeps re-reading the words on the gold sign beside the door. I place my chin on his shoulder, standing behind him, and giving him as much time as he needs before we walk into the room. Eventually, he slowly pulls the round doorknob open, creating a slight crack between the door and frame.

"Come in, darling." A voice comes through the room.

We both walk through the door, seeing a cream room, with not much furniture or valuables inside. There is a small bookshelf, filled with antique books, picture frames, and fake plants. There is a door, which I am assuming is the bathroom. And a single bed in the centre of the room, a small bedside table, and an elderly woman tucked underneath the blankets of the bed.

"Oh, my." The woman gasps.

Her hand flies to cover her mouth, muffling her cries. She looks as if she has seen a ghost, her already pale skin, turning even more white. Bucky and I stand at the doorframe, unsure of what to do. We didn't really think this over before we came here. Her cries are loud as she stands up from the bed, hesitantly walking over to us.

"Oh, Bucky." She pulls him in for a hug.

"Hi, Becca." He smiles.

"This can't be real," She looks up at him from arm's reach. "I must have just lost my marbles."

"No, Becca. This is real, I swear." Bucky babbles.

"Oh, and look at you." Becca turns to look at me. "Still as pretty as the day you were born."

"Hello, Becca." I open my arms.

She giggles as she saunters over to me, pulling me in for a hug. She hugs me just like she used to back in the 40s and it still feels like I am hugging the small 5-year-old in the old Barnes house. She hasn't exactly grown fully, still small, yet fierce. I kiss the crown of her head, an old habit we used to do. He laughs at the antic into my chest, tightening her hold.

"I am shocked," She pulls from the hug. "You both are still alive?"

"Yes, a lot has happened since we last saw you, Becca." Bucky frowns.

"Well, sit," She gets back into bed.

Bucky and I take the round couch chairs and face Becca. She smiles at us, her wrinkled skin adding lines with how wide the smile is. She still looks at us as if she blinks and we will disappear. I don't blame her, this must feel surreal for her. Her hands are held together, and she smiles, ushering us to speak.

"Well, to put a very long story short, Bucky was given a serum that makes him not age," I explain.

"The same one as Steve?" Becca asks.

"Yes," Bucky nods his head. "How do you know that?"

"He visited a few times years ago."

"Oh," Bucky's expression is unreadable.

"But, what about you, Bev?" She questions.

"Uh, well, I have powers and they did stuff that makes my ageing process slow down as well."

"Powers!" She exclaims.

"Yes," I point my fingers to the ceiling, showing a small flame.

"Oh, my god. There is so much that I have missed."

We didn't speak much about this beforehand, but there was one thing that we agreed on. Bucky and I knew that it would be too much to tell Becca about HYDRA and everything that has led us here. She should live in ignorant bliss about it all. She deserves that much. We didn't want to taint her with our trauma. Thinking about what to say next, my eyes travel to a photograph on the bookshelf. It is a coloured picture of a slightly younger Becca, an older man standing behind her, and two children, that look a mixture of the two, standing in front of them. A smile appears on my face, knowing that she lived a life and created a family.

"So, what's going on with you two now?" Becca asks.

"Well, we moved into Steve's old apartment," I answer.

"Oh, that place was lovely." She beams. "I remember crawling all over the living room with you chasing behind me, Bev."

"Yeah, I remember that." I smile at the memory.

"God, Steve had a lovely apartment." Becca grins. "He was a wonderful man."

"Yeah," Bucky scoffs.

Anyone who doesn't know what is going on in his mind would think he is angry about Steve. But, I know that he isn't. Becca clearly thinks the same. Bucky is angry, still about the whole John Walker situation. After we watched the news, I made us dinner and we watched TV before we went to bed. He didn't talk the entire time. Anger was prominent all over his face that night.

"Have I missed something?" Becca questions.

"Yeah, uh. We're just a little annoyed about the recent news." I explain.

"What's happened?"

"There is a new guy, thinking he can be the new Captain America." Bucky mumbles.

"He is replacing Steve?" She doesn't seem shocked.

"Trying to."

"Bucky, honey," Her smile is comforting. "You just need to fight for what you believe in. You were always good at that."

"I know I do, it's just, sometimes it's too much." He frowns. "I just want to rest. Have a calm life."

"A calm life? When did you ever have a calm life?" She smirks.

"Exactly! I want one now." He flays his hands around.

"What type of calm life do you want?" She asks. "Oh, please tell me you two finally got married!"

"Uh, no. Not yet." Bucky tries to hide his smile.

I smirk at his words. We haven't really had a talk about all of this stuff, knowing we want to take things slow. To some, that would be a stupid idea. We have been alive for almost over 100 yards, and we should be married, having children, and living with the white picket fence by now. But, we agreed that we want to heal as individuals before jumping into a heavy life together. We had talked about this once, years ago before the war, and we meant every word, but that was before we were tarnished with the traumatic brush.

"Wait, did you call me honey?" Bucky breaks my thoughts. "You do know that I am older than you, right?"

"Oh, honey, the second I got wrinkly skin and the inability to sit in the sun for too long before I get tired, I became older than you." She teases.

"Bullshit, you were and always be younger than me. I just aged better than you." He smirks.

"Yes, yes. Like fine wine. You don't need to rub it in." She rolls her eyes.

"Hey, don't sell yourself short, Becca." I butt in. "You still look 25."

"Oh, I know, darling. I just needed to put this ass in his place."

We all laugh with each other, feeling the familiarity of the situation. When Becca laughs, she looks young again. She doesn't look like years have passed her by, and all the time we have missed. We all talk, laugh, play fight, and enjoy our time together. We dive deep into our memories, resurrecting old moments before life became harder and tougher. Becca has all of them stored in the back of her mind and is telling us everything she remembers from back in the 40s. But, our time is cut short when a nurse comes into the room, preparing Becca for her daily bath. We leave the building with wide smiles on our faces, knowing that we have gained another family member to love.

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