New Memories, New Problems
Time had passed more quickly than Bucky believed possible. It had been nearly a year, and honestly, he had loved every second of it. When they weren’t working, they were adventuring and making up for lost time. He’d seen more of the world, and experienced more in a year than he had his entire life before HYDRA had taken him. Jumping had gotten easier for him; it was no longer the disorienting sensation it had been previously. Taking advantage of that, Anwyn dragged him all over. Wherever he wanted to go, without question.
With her full strength and control of her abilities recovered, Anwyn was able to move them both through jump points with relative ease. They’d traveled to Cardiff where she had been born so she could visit the small cemetery that contained all her family except Eira and Bucky. The cool, damp air made his left shoulder ache. Nights were spent with her massaging the pain away with warm hands until he fell asleep. The same damp air that made his shoulder ache made her hair curl. He’d laughed at her as she fought to tame it.
They’d visited the tiny London church they’d married in, surprised to find it still standing. Bucky surprised her with something she never expected: a ring that was nearly identical to the one he’d given her seventy years ago. He'd found an old wedding photo in Anwyn's things and asked Vinnie to help him have it made for her. She didn't watch Vinnie as closely, so he had an easier time slipping off to a jewelry store than Bucky did. The old man had beamed at him, slapped him on the shoulder and laughed. "You soft bastard, of course I'll help. I get to give her away though, when you tie the knot again." That was one condition that Bucky was more than happy to agree to.
Sobbing with happiness and sadness, she’d slipped it on and kissed him with her tears wetting his own cheeks. “I love you, more than anything.” he whispered into her hair. A quiet pastor had watched from a doorway, smiling broadly at the two of them. She had stepped out of the small building teary eyed and he’d thrown his arm over her shoulders, lost in his own memories of that day so long ago in 1944. Bucky was living a dream come true, floating on cloud nine. The life he’d had stolen from him was inching forward again. In many ways, right where he left off.
Next was Brooklyn so Bucky could walk the streets and reminisce. Some of the buildings he remembered were still standing, but everything was different. They’d walked along the Brooklyn Bridge and visited the botanical gardens. Anwyn showed him the apartment building she lived in briefly after his death, and he showed her the neighborhood he grew up in. Shockingly, the building that Steve lived in was still standing, flooding him with bittersweet memories.
Los Angeles alone had been an adventure for him, and Anwyn had taken him to everything she could think of. Hollywood Bowl to see multiple musicians play. That had been too much for him and they’d left early. So instead, she’d taken him up a trail near the Hollywood sign so they could still watch the lights from the distance. The dark and quiet paired with her warm skin against his and the view had helped to calm him. They’d made love in the dust on a dark trail, slow and soft as the lights of the city glimmered below.
He had liked the La Brea tar pit museum, but the pits themselves stank to high heaven. They’d gone hiking near Griffith Park, and drinking and dancing in Hollywood a few more times. Shot for shot, she always kept up with him. Jose Cuervo made a fortune on those nights and they’d stumble home, unable to keep their hands free of each other. Ripped clothing left on the floor, shattered vases and broken photo frames marked their trail from the door to the bedroom. They’d trip over one another, shoving each other into walls as they yanked at clothes and roughly ground their bodies together in a frenzy. Vinnie usually gave them shit the next morning for the mess when he came in for breakfast.
More than once, she’d roused him in the wee hours with kisses and soft words. A way that he never got tired of being woken up, regardless of the time. He’d get up and put on his “watch” and they’d drive out past Malibu and sit on the beach in the moonlight. Sometimes Anwyn would strip down to underwear and dive into the waves.
Bucky would settle for kicking off his shoes, hiking up his pants and wading. They’d talk about the past he remembered, present plans…and plans for the future. The plans for the future were the ones Bucky loved best. He’d been robbed of his future, including the one he wanted with her and to have that back made him so happy he could just die.
One weekend she’d surprised him with a trip to San Francisco, driving up the coast in the car she babied so much. The Golden Gate Bridge was a sight to behold, as were the brightly colored houses packed together like sardines on steep streets. The redwood trees were his favorite part of that trip. So giant, so ancient...they'd survived so many changes in the world. The trees made him and his problems feel so small. It was no New York, but he’d become fond of California. If for no other reason than it was warm, and a place for a new life that he had long given up on. Until now.
***
“What in the...Oh SHIT!” Anwyn breathed, tapping her fingers on the tablet. The toast Bucky had brought her sat ignored while she’d stared intently at the tablet. He looked up from his coffee, hair a mess, and pinned her with a questioning glance. Breakfast time was too early for whatever fresh hell she was absorbed in.
She grinned at him and turned the tablet towards him. “Lookit this.” She said in a hushed voice. Bucky took it from her and examined the plethora of documents she was pouring over. Maps, correspondence, satellite images. Nothing looked important enough to have her this excited, looked like their usual work. He continued swiping through the trove of information as Anwyn snagged his coffee and took a sip.
A cold chill ran down his back as he flicked over a satellite image. A familiar base sat in center the fuzzy image. Siberia. The maps were of HYDRA bases, existing and planned. De-coded correspondence hinted at future plans and ongoing projects.
What he was looking at was all of what they had collected from the archives of the base in Argentina. “The others sorted out the nonsense and had me decode the rest…” Her hushed voice reached his ears.
One project in particular stood out. Human experimentation. Willing subjects, promising results. They were trying to make people with abilities to rival Steve Rogers or any known Sentinel. He realized at that moment how big of a hornet’s nest they had stirred up. “Holy fuckin’ cow…” he sighed, lowering the tablet back to the table. “This is gonna be trouble when they find out they’ve been made, if they don’t know already…”
A broad smile spread across her face and she passed him his coffee mug. He took it and drained half of it in a few swallows, trying to settle his roiling nerves. “Good. I’ve had a long-standing bone ta pick here. We’re gonna light ‘em up like the Fourth of freakin’ July.” As much as Bucky wanted revenge, a voice in the back of his head screamed for caution. He knew what HYDRA was capable of when backed into a corner. And this information in Sentinel hands was definitely a very, very tight corner. He sighed and tapped metal fingers on the table.
“We have enough people for this?” She chewed her thumb. “We can drop a few leads ta the Avengers…they can run down whoever we aren’t. Just have ta be careful…Steve an’ his new pals have been all over anythin’ HYDRA. He’s been lookin’ for ya with more tenacity since I saw him.” She finished softly.
Bucky shook his head. Of course he was…but he didn’t want to be found. Not yet. If his best friend found out where he was, it could jeopardize the Sentinels AND Steve. He was still a wanted man, no matter how well he was hidden with Anwyn and her associates.
“I don’t want him to know where I am.” Anwyn reached over and patted the hands he’d wrapped around his quickly-cooling mug. “Ease up. I’ll make sure Tall, Blonde an’ Virtuous doesn’t get the drop on us.” Bucky chuckled at her. “Alright. Whose ass is first in line then?”
***
Ultimately, Anwyn had decided to funnel the information about the human experimentation and larger targets to the Avengers and keep smaller targets for her own people. Her logic being that when smaller targets disappeared, they would go unnoticed with the public’s eye drawn to the chaotic way the Avengers functioned. So far, it had worked. Sentinel operations had resulted in the elimination of multiple targets, going completely undetected. And not because Anwyn didn’t live up to her word to “light ‘em up like the fourth of July”.
She’d snorted as they’d watched them on TV one night, eating dinner on the sofa. “They’re exceptionally skilled. But sloppy. Too many people with too many hidden agendas in that group. It’s gonna bite ‘em in the ass one day.” She pulled a pepperoni off her pizza and popped it into her mouth.
Vinnie had nodded in agreement and pulled a pizza box from the coffee table into his lap. Bucky snagged a slice of cheese pizza from said box and got elbowed in the ribs for it. “You got your own damn pie, Frosty. Shove off.” Anwyn rolled her eyes but smiled.
The two had developed a strange friendship over the last year and it made her happy to see them bicker. Vinnie had opened up a bit about his past to Bucky, and it turned out they were both from Brooklyn. They’d been pals since. On any given evening that he wasn’t with her, the former assassin could be found in the garage. Tinkering on the GTO with Vinnie.
As Bucky had formed relationships with other people, his mental state had improved and he seemed more grounded. He still had episodes where he lost touch with reality and rampaged, but he could be subdued…as long as it was Anwyn who did the subduing. His nightmares happened with less frequency and though he still had mental scars, he had begun to slowly heal.
Rocky served as a quasi-psychiatrist and helped him with coping techniques as well as small doses of Ativan for his nerves. She sincerely hoped the peace he had known the past year would hold; nobody she knew deserved it more.