As they made their way into the dark hall way following T’Challa, and his guard, Steve made sure to keep his hold on Bucky as he barked out orders to Barton. “Ross will be looking for us. He’ll go to Tony immediately. I need orders of protection on Laura and the children, Fury, Selvig, Cho, and Foster.” He watched Barton wince at the last name.
“Does Thor know?”
“He’s not here, is he? I’m assuming he has bigger things to worry about right now. That’s why he left.”
Barton immediately nods, and pulls him aside the two men aside. Bucky almost conscious, against his side. “I’m all for issuing orders of protection, Cap. You gotta know that. Right now the fact that no one knows where my wife and kids are, or that they exist is the only thing keeping me here. I’m on your side Cap. But how are we going to get security to those that need it. Cho? Selvig? They’re at the compound. Probably with Tony, Vision and Rhodes. Foster? Dude. That’s a risk, and you know it. Most of the time she’s so far off grid that Tony doesn’t know where she’s even at. And she’s HIS daughter. Is it a good idea to issue protection over her, when he’s probably doing the same?”
“Tony won’t issue a protection for her, because very few people know she’s his daughter, Barton. Ross doesn’t know. And he’s watching Tony like a hawk. It’s up to us.”
Steve could see Bucky frowning out of the corner of his eye, and prayed that he’d stay quiet. As much he was loving that his friend was slowly remembering things from the past, this was one memory that needed to stay a secret. At least for now.
Steve’s words had calmed Barton down drastically, and he watched him gather Sam, and follow the guards into what the king called the “War Room,” where he had his own associates who were not afraid to get their hands a little dirty in this political discord.
Steve led Bucky down the quiet hall, where he was told the Medical Unit was. Bucky’s cuts, and scratches had already all formed over. The loss of his arm had caused him to be unbelievably imbalanced now. “You remember her?”
“I think I do. I use to think it was a dream. But then you were there. And then I remembered how much she actually looked like Howard. How she said she was from the future. How she didn’t know if she’d ever make it back. I didn’t know if she actually had. ‘Been searchin’ for her Steve. Since I started rememberin’. She was ours. We went to war and fucked it up. What were we thinkin? Bringing a dame like that into this? She’s alive?”
“Yeah Buck,” Steve’s smile is pensive as he remembers. “She’s alive. Gorgeous. Smart. Everything we knew she was then, just in her own time.”
“You talk to her?”
“It’s complicated.”
“How,” Bucky struggles to get onto the examination table. “How is it complicated? She’s Stark’s daughter?”
“Yeah,” Steve nods. “She is.”
“Fuck Stark.”
“She doesn’t remember us, Bucky? To her, I’m Captain America. That’s it. She doesn’t remember me as Steve Rogers. She only knows me by what the History Books say. I’m not even sure she knows who the Winter Soldier is. She tends not to pay attention. She favors staying up at night, and working with her stars.”
Bucky grumbles something unintelligible, and lays down. “Well, we haf’ta make her remember then, Steve. She’s coming here, right?”
Steve nods, and hands Bucky a cloth so he can wipe his face. “Yeah. I think Barton will get her here. It’s the safest place at the moment.”
“I can’t be in the same area as her and not reminded.”
Steve nodded, and pushed some of Bucky’s hair away from his face. He remembers. He remembers every day. Jane was meant for him. For both of them. She complimented them in a way that put them both at ease with what they were. Bucky had dated other dames before. Steve never got jealous. That was the way of things back then. It wasn’t proper to have the feelings he had for his best friend. For the feelings they had for each other.
Jane popped in one day. A flash of light in their living area. She was curled up in a ball, hands sheltering her face, and absolutely terrified of what had happened and where she was. He understood her reaction now when they had introduced themselves. “James Buchanan Barnes, doll. And this guy here is Steve Rogers.” Her reaction was borderline pensive and misunderstood. They’d helped her clean up, and listened to her story.
She was lost. Or at least she thought she was. The whole story to them had been a little unbelievable. Nobody really believed in time machines, did they? At least not back then. Especially since she had said that it wasn’t specifically a time machine. It was a bridge? What the hell did that mean?
But she’d been adamant, and after a while her stories seemed plausible. First off, the girl was scary smart. Steve and Bucky had been living off of the meager funds off of Steve’s newspaper job, and Bucky’s job down at the ring. Not much, just barely enough to survive. When Steve’s Ma had passed, she didn’t leave much, so Bucky moved in, and attempted to pick up where she left off. The apartment was always clean. Steve was organized that way. But other than the occasional casserole Bucky’s ma would drop by, every other week, the couple lived off of rations basically. The depression had ended, but the War had begun.
Bucky was the first to be accepted. He was strong, athletic, and healthy. He was Steve’s body when Steve had had enough. Steve caught every cough, every virus, and every case of pneumonia he ran into. He was almost blind in one eye. Deaf in the opposite ear. Steve was turned down at every chance he got. Bucky had started taking him down to the ring. Teaching him boxing, or anything that might let him have a little bit of self-defense, or something that would help Steve, and his self-preservation instincts, which at the time, was an absolute zero.
Jane had helped with some house hold management. Stating that she’d been brought up knowing how to handle money. And that it was important to her family. Steve wouldn’t know until after he’d been serum-ized, that Howard Stark was related to Jane somehow. Some of the mannerisms, that made Jane so Jane, were pure Howard Stark. Whether he was her father, grandfather? Steve never knew? It didn’t matter. Jane had said she was from the future, and Howard had never mentioned any off spring. It hadn’t mattered, anyway.
She was there, every day with them. Getting to know them, and searching for a way home. And each day they got to know her, it was harder for them to face the fact that, if she had her way, she would be gone very soon.
Jane was the first person to call them out on their relationship, and whether it was her from the future, or the fact that she was much more progressive than any girl they’d ever met, they didn’t know. But the entire conversation wasn’t as awkward as they were expecting as they had talked about maybe adding a third, a woman to their relationship. Someone who could manage to love the both of them, exactly the way they were.
She had cornered them after supper one day. She’d made the most amazing marinara sauce, they had ever tasted, probably from her Italian roots, and she’d poured them some coffee, and sat down and stared at them for a few minutes as they drank.
“So what’s the deal with you two anyway?”
Bucky had choked on his drink. Steve had turned as red as the marinara. Nobody had said anything for a very long time. Jane’s smirk was a telling sign she knew what was going on.
“Not sure what you mean, baby doll,” Bucky was the first to regain his composure. Smooth. Satin. Brooklyn.
“Please,” she’d rolled her eyes, and gotten up to pour Steve some more coffee and sat back down. “You guys are inseparable. You guys share a bed every night. And I use to think that you two were nice, and just let me have a bed to myself. But I’ve been here a month. I see things. I hear things. You two were sharing a bed way before I popped in.” She had winked at Steve, who had continued to stare down at his coffee, and then looked at Bucky, who was wearing what she had dubbed his, ‘Panty eating grin.’ He’d gotten a kick out of that one.
It was easy to believe that Jane was “the one.” She treated them both equally. Gave them both the same amount of attention. Reprimanded Steve when he got into another of his fights. Rolled her eyes at James for being a womanizer. She never criticized them, and their decision to be non-platonic in their relationship. And It didn’t bother them that she knew what they were.
In all honestly, they didn’t know when she had begun to see them as something more. And they didn’t question it. They’d all gone to the pictures. She was always their middle. Their way of protecting her in this unknown world. And while she hated them coddling her at home, outside was an entirely different story. Men would call out to her. One even made a grab at her, and met with Bucky’s fist. They’d passed her off as Steve’s cousin. Steve had no family left, and it was an easy story to concoct as a young woman, living by herself with two young men, wasn’t entirely proper.
That night, they heard her crying, and in a rare case of emotion, Bucky had gone into her room, picked her up and carried her back to their bed. She slept in the middle of the already small bed with them, and didn’t make a sound the rest of the night. They however couldn’t believe how perfectly she fit in-between them, as Bucky had rubbed her head. They spoke with their eyes that night as Jane slept on.
It wasn’t until a week later after she had made another fantastic dinner that Bucky had pulled her into his lap and kissed the hell out of her. He was the brave one when it came to women, and they had talked about it for a while. Jane had responded as they had hoped, first in surprise, then with a returned fervor, as she pushed her hands into his hair and kissed him back. Steve had been content to watch, until Bucky pulled him forward into the embrace and carried her back into the bedroom, making sure Steve was following.
Steve had never been with a woman. He wasn’t built the way that most women found desirable. He was content to sit back and watch his boyfriend with her. But Bucky wasn’t having any of that. He’d laid her on the bed, and crawled over her gently, kissing her shoulder, neck and ear as he worked his way up, and put a hand back, motioning for Steve to come closer. To take his turn with their girl.
Jane welcomed Steve as she had Bucky, with a softer tenacity, but passionate all the same. And when she’d moaned as he caressed her leg, he knew he’d done something right. It was all hands, and tongues, and clothes being thrown to the floor, as one piece after another revealed a little more of each of them to each other.
There were words exchanged. There was no telling that they loved her. It was beyond that at this point. And when Steve took her first, it was blinding heat, and heart, and tears from all three of them. The moment beyond words, and Steve’s wildest dream. Being with her was nothing like being with Bucky, in a good way.
Bucky took her second, as Steve had watched, and he was a little more playful. A little more rough. The perfect complement to his personality. The trio didn’t leave the bed that night, and most of the next day. Enjoying the pleasures that they all brought each other, much more important than food, or a bath could ever be. It was around supper that Jane had to finally call it quits. As much as she loved being with them, hunger and soreness had set in, much to Bucky’s satisfaction and Steve’s horror.
It took her two hours to convince him that she was actually ok.
They continued like that for another month, and the night before Bucky(and Steve) left, Jane was having some serious bouts of emotional breakdowns. Steve didn’t get a last night with her. He hadn’t told her he was leaving. And he’d regretted it ever since.
They’d written some letters. Jane’s mostly angry and confrontational. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t told her. He’d written her back the last time before the serum, and she’d never responded.
Bucky had asked about her the night of the rescue, but Steve hadn’t a clue what to tell him. Bucky had ripped his ass for leaving their girl, at home by herself. Steve was torn between a dream he’d always wanted, and a girl he’d fallen in love with.
Then there was Peggy. War made a mess of emotions. Maybe she too reminded him so much of their Jane. He didn’t know. The kiss they shared after Bucky’s fall was more painful then he’d cared to admit. It was one thing, losing a friend. But putting a chapter behind you, moving on from a woman you loved more than your entire being was the hardest part of the war.
Maybe that’s why it was so easy to make the decision to put the bird in the water.
When Steve had woken up, he’d met Thor, and heard about his “Jane.” He hadn’t put two and two together until he saw a picture. It was her. And she was taken. And he was about as heartbroken as he was the day he lost Bucky. He couldn’t sleep. He’d spend more time at the gym then he’d care to admit. And resisted being set up by Natasha at all costs. Then when he discovered Bucky was alive he thought of her again. Here they all were, alive and in the same time period, and all leading completely different lives. And as much as Steve wanted to fix that, he couldn’t.
Jane was happy with Thor. Bucky had his own issues. One being that he was damn good at hiding, living up to his ‘Ghost Story’ image. Last he’d heard she had just won her Nobel. He was damned proud of his girl. And lived with regret that he left her like that each and every day.
“You’re being very quiet, Punk,” Bucky was good at getting straight to the point, especially when Steve was being a self-deprecating jackass.
“I might’ve ruined that with her, Buck. I left, same day as you. Didn’t say anything. Just kissed her goodbye. She said she’d see me later. And I didn’t say anything.”
Bucky looked angry. “You left her by herself? In a world she didn’t know. Just left her by herself? The girl was so afraid to even go outside, and you left her defenseless?”
Steve couldn’t say anything. He’d already been through this inside his head a million times before, and it did nothing for his guilt.
“So it’s not a matter of her probably not rememberin’ us. It’s probably her being very pissed off. Man punk. I left you for what, two hours? And you royally messed things up.”
“She wanted to go home anyway, Buck. You know she did. She didn’t belong to our time. Our world.”
“No. But she belonged with us. Find her. Fix it. Now.”
Jane didn’t particularly like being shuffled around, especially when it was on Steve’s orders. But Sam was stronger than her, and he’d promised her he’d let her see his wings, so there were pros and cons to every situation as far as she was concerned.
And the scenery in Wakanda didn’t hurt either.
She’d been accosted to ‘pick a side.’ And as far as she was concerned both her father and Steve were complete idiots. What part of stronger together didn’t two grown men understand? She had resentment issues to her father, sure. But her resentment for Steve was so much stronger. How could he have done that to her. Idiot that he was. Even though she knew his story. Even though she knew he’d be ok. She loved him damn it. And to just leave her without saying goodbye. Leaving her by herself for weeks on her own. She hadn’t know what to do. Thank God for Darcy and Erik, having picked up enough of her scratchy penmanship to reverse whatever it was that sent her here in the first place.
She missed them. She mourned for Bucky. She knew he hadn’t survived the war. But she couldn’t get over the fact that Steve had just left, he left her. And as much as she wanted to be happy for him. He was healthier now, stronger, and faster. No longer the man that bullies loved to pick on. She thought he they shared something special. And it’s not like she would’ve stopped him. Being in the army was his dream. Obviously she knew the story. She had thought they shared something special. So in the span of a month after he left, she’d lost him, Bucky, and Thor…Again.
She’d seen him at social events. He was an Avenger. She was an associate. And each time she’d caught him staring at her. Those blue eyes that hypnotized her so, still the same on Captain America as they were on Steve Rogers. She’d shake her head and walk away.
Darcy called her petty. She hadn’t cared.
He hadn’t trusted her.
That was pretty big in her books.
Maybe she didn’t have a right. They’d only known each other a short amount of time. But it still didn’t stop Jane from severe heartache. Especially since every time he saw her now he never seemed to want to even talk to her.
The palace in Wakanda was beautiful. Like a fantasy almost. Guards everywhere. Important people. Safe. Secure. Away from the world.
She would have been content just sitting and looking at the sky. You could see some stars out at this time of day. She was more interested in the clear, unpolluted sky that seemed to go on forever. Times like these she’d think of Thor. Did he ever think about her? When he had a free moment? Did he ever look out into the dark expanse that was Asgard’s night sky and think of her down on earth.
He left her too, didn’t he? Like Steve before her. And sure his reasoning, according to her father, seemed sound. But Jane, as much as she wanted to be reasonable, she wanted to be unreasonable, because it was her heart at play. It didn’t seem like it bothered hers.
She’d become jaded at an early age.
She walked the expansive halls only to find herself in the Medical Triage. She let out a low whistle while looking at some of the equipment. It didn’t compare to Stark Tower. “Best minds in the world,” she whispers as she runs a hand over one of the screens. What it did, she didn’t know. This was earth’s ‘Asgard’ as far as she was concerned. Her wandering led her further into the unit. She waved at a couple of people, the sort of wave that would tell a department store manager that you were fine, that you didn’t need any help. You were just browsing.
“Dad would flip his shit if he had anything close to this at home.”
She didn’t know how long she’d been in there, but two voices in the back, one heavy with a thick, noticeable, Brooklyn accent. James. She knew it wasn’t possible. But that’s exactly who it sounded like to her, and her heart skipped a beat. She walked further back and heard Steve’s voice. What was he doing in the Medical Triage anyway? Was he hurt?
The two men laughed at each something that was said, as she peaked in the door, and slate eyes immediately caught her. Her voice coming out in a choked whisper, “James.”
“Hey baby doll. Bout time you showed up. It was getting bored here with Stevie here entertaining me. He’s still pretty dull. He said you was here.” He elbows the gentleman sitting next to him and Steve stands at attention, facing the woman who’s haunted his existence the past three years. “Say somethin’, Punk. She’s here. And you’re standing there staring at her like an idiot,” He turns back to her, and she sees the metal of his arm, laying at his side, and she knows. She knows who she is. What’s happened to him. “Yeah this? This is…” He cleared his throat. “Well Stevie got the shield. I got the arm.”
“What happened to you? I thought you died. You fell.”
“Oh. That. Takes more than that to put me down, doll.”
She wants to cry in relief and anger, because really, Steve should have told her. She could have helped. And suddenly she’s there, in a wave of emotion, banging on the blonde one’s chest. And he’s trying to hold her in his arms. And James is in her ear calming her down. And she’s being embraced by two of the most powerful men she’s ever seen. And she’s crying because the emotion of the day is weighing down on her.
“You should’ve told me. You should’ve said something! Not just sit there and ignore me like I’m nothing. I had the right to know, Steve!”
He’s holding her, in a way that was familiar, yet not. He’s bigger now. But still the same Steve that held her all those years ago. And Bucky, her James is holding them both. And she can’t move. And it’s perfect.
It’s meant to be.