I thought I lost you

[stephrogers]

Steph could feel her heart stop when she entered the baby's room. She managed to carry Becky to full term without incident. Even give birth without too much incident. The girl was beautiful, head already full of brown hair and light brown eyes. Rebecca Winifred Barnes. She left the child in care of a carefully SHIELD screened babysitter as they went off on a mission.

But there was something deeply fishy about the mission. About the babysitter. About everything. They managed to destroy the lab and apprehend the small time villain. But Dr. Skoval's boss escaped, shouting about a swell prize.

There had been a rogue agent that had beaten the Avengers to a few minor assignments in Europe. Someone with a damn good shot. IT didn't matter to Steph as she urged Natasha to fly the jet as fast as she could back to Brooklyn.

The scene before her was a disaster: the pink crib was thrown on its side, little ponies and stuffed toys ripped and flung everywhere, the star night lamp that she bought was broken. Steph's hands shook as she read over the letter. Maria and Tony were calling orders already to trace it and follow it.

Which was how she ended up in Switzerland again, shivering not due to cold but to the memory of losing her man here. The facilities were almost too easy to break into and she proceeded with caution with Tony and Natasha as backup.

Comments

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"I went in the army with my maiden name so they wouldn't put me far away from you." She took a step toward him, heart in her throat over Becky's safety.

"Bucky, just look at her!" she shouted desperately.

Becky began to whine a bit when she couldn't spot her mama and reached up toward this man.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

The moment she takes a step toward him, he takes a step back. That gun is still trained on her even as he looks down at the little girl in his arms. Those eyes boring into hers.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

Becky just stared up at him, giggling and reaching out toward him. He was the man in the picture mama kept! This was daddy! The girl gurgled.

Steph didn't take another step. "Look in your heart. It's me. Don't you remember me?"

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"You're the one they sent me to kill," he says simply, hand absently rubbing up and down the little girl's back. He may not know his own daughter but the instincts were there. Though if Stephanie kept talking like that something was bound to click.

Slip through the cracks they'd made in his mind.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"No, Bucky," she insisted. "I'm the one you beat up bullies for. That you ran to the hospital for. You were there for me for...everything. When pop never came home. When mom finally..." She felt herself get choked up. "Don't you remember? We didn't have two pennies to rub together but we had each other."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

That metal hand holding the gun clenches and she'd finally see it, hear it as it almost sounded like it would squeeze the gun in half. Metal against metal. "I don't know what you're talking about." But so much of it sounded familiar...

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Look at me, Bucky."

When she was certain he was looking at her again, Steph pushed back the cowl, letting the blonde curls free and settle around her shoulders.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

Those eyes... that face... No, this was some kind of trick. They were trying to mess with his head. Trying to rip things away again. Trying to put things there that didn't belong. He doesn't say a word though and has no intention to. Not yet.

For now he's just drinking her in.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"It's me, Bucky." She had actual tears in her eyes, almost not believing this. "It's me. Come home. Come home with me and Becky."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"My home is here,' he grounds out. Though he shakes his head taking another step back. Like he was afraid she was going to come close. "What is it you think you're trying to accomplish?"

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"I'm trying to get a stubborn jerk to come home. So we can have a proper homecoming that's seventy years overdue. And so Becky could know her dad," Steph replied.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"Watch yourself, Cap," he grounds out, eyes narrowed and that gun still pointing at her. Though her words... seventy years... What? "What're you talking about?"

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"It's 2012, Bucky." Her voice is quiet. "Seventy hears passed by us."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"Stop calling me that," he grounds out. It's not a name they've been calling him. That's a name that died when he died.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Why? You're Bucky. You're Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Born and raised in Brooklyn with me," she insisted.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"That's not who I am," he grounds out, eyes narrowing that much more. But there were bits of that; that just felt right. He didn't get it and he didn't want to.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Look in your heart, Bucky! Tell me I'm wrong!" she shouted, desperate.

Becky began to fuss a bit in his arm.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

That hand of his keeps rubbing the fussy little one's back before scowling. He looks toward the little girl not sure why he's bothering to see what's wrong. However, he's also watching Stephanie out of the corner of his eye.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

Becky reached up toward him and fussed some more. She heard mama but couldn't see her since she was swaddled in pink blankets.

"Don't you remember the church, Bucky?"

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"What church?"

It's asked even as he uncovers the little girl some, giving her a bit more room to move around. Something about her... about the woman here with him. It was all starting to give him a headache.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"St. Mary's. Where we got married. You had your hold man's suit. I had my mom's dress. We couldn't afford much. Our money was going toward rent in a boarding house. And we went for burgers and fries after the wedding," she continued.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

He scowls slightly at that because none of it was ringing any bells. He'd never... "I don't..." He didn't remember it. Any of it. They'd done a damn good job on taking away his memories. Though some were... "You used to get sick a lot." Not that it's relevant.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I did." That was something. "But you didn't give up on me."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"Why are you even doing this? Tell me why it's so important," he says turning his eyes from the little girl in his arms to her.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Because I thought you died. And now you're standing right here in front of me." Not really Bucky but still Bucky somewhere deep down inside. "And there's a chance for you to come home. So we can be a family."