[ WWII AU ] a ghost story

[from_the_outside]

It's been almost two years since she's been home, and little by little, the grief has gotten easier to live with.

It hasn't gone away. But she's able to focus on her job, watch movies, chat with friends, sleep most nights. She still dreams about him, but the dreams are tinged with wistful longing and only sometimes does she wake up with tears on her cheeks. She can't have his picture out in this apartment, Kate's apartment, but it's safe in the mountain house, along with his last letter to her, and she has a scan on her phone to look at when the long day is over and she's in bed, the stars from the lamp he'd given her filling her dark room.

Steve has helped, more than she could ever explain, and she hopes she's helped him in return. Aside from a few deeply classified missions here and there, they haven't worked together all that much, but she still sees him almost every day. In the halls, she's undercover as his mild-mannered neighbor, Kate, but in her secure apartment they can talk over anything, everything.

And it works. Every day is a little easier. They lean on each other when they need to, and they spend hours remembering and reminiscing about Bucky, talking shop, chatting about how Steve's fitting into the future. It's nice. She still misses Bucky, an ache that never really goes away, but they can both breathe through it, work through it, live through it.

She's on her way up from the basement laundry machines when she hears a familiar step in the hall, and has to smile to herself – first her own, then Kate's sweeter, more open one. "Hey, neighbor."

Comments

[from_the_outside]

"Let's head to Sam's, first, unless there's anything you need," Sharon says. "We can stop by before we head out of town."

[marvel_npc]

"Probably better that way," Nat puts in. "People are going to start looking for you soon, Cap. Let's not give them the advantage."

Steve sighs at that and slumps down in his seat.

[from_the_outside]

Sam and Nat keep the conversation going as they head through the city, until they turn off and onto Sam's street. Any chatter stops abruptly as they approach Sam's house, and each of them stare at the motorcycle now parked at the side of the drive.

"I didn't do that," Sharon murmurs.

[marvel_npc]

"That's my bike," Steve realizes, and in the next instant he's out of the car almost before Sam's brought it to a stop, running for the house, hope wild inside him.

He doesn't have a key, he realizes, barely in time, and scrambles around the side to the back so he can try to pry the glass sliding door open without damaging Sam's property.

[from_the_outside]

She's not sure she thinks he's inside the house, but she follows Steve anyway, coming up on him just as he manages to get the back door open.

But the house is quiet and empty. There's no evidence that anyone aside from her and Nat has been here since yesterday.

[marvel_npc]

He looks over his shoulder at Sharon as she catches up with him and gives her a rueful, pained flicker of a smile. "I thought, maybe-- never mind." Steve starts for the front door, opening it with a shake of his head for Sam, who's coming up the walk with Nat beside him.

"No one's here. Let's see why he brought it."

[from_the_outside]

She sets a hand at the small of Steve's back, trying to comfort him and herself in equal measure. It hadn't been likely that Bucky would be inside, so why is she so disappointed?

Following Steve to the bike, she starts examining it, then flips open a saddlebag. There's a small wrapped parcel inside that she takes out and uncovers, only to find her phone, the one Bucky had stolen.

[marvel_npc]

"This guy's really starting to get on my nerves," Sam mutters under his breath, as they watch Steve and Sharon search the bike. "Why's he jerking them around like this?"

Nat loops her arm through his and leans against him for a moment. "You're a good man," she says, lightly. "If it helps, I doubt he's trying to do that. He's a little confused right now."

Her gaze sharpens as Sharon unwraps her phone. "Isn't that the one you had before?"

[from_the_outside]

"Yes." She turns the phone on, and her expression shifts, something complicated shading across it. "Looks like he made us a video."

[marvel_npc]

"Inside," Nat says, briskly. She keeps her tone casual, but she's scanning the area around them, taking in every possible sight line.

It's not that she thinks James wants to hurt them. But ... it's probably better for Sharon and Steve to be able to watch that in relative privacy.

"Come on, let's go."

[from_the_outside]

It's more effort than she'd like to not just hit play, but Nat's right.

Still, it's a second before she lowers her phone and looks at the others. "We should see if there's anything else on the bike."

[marvel_npc]

Steve tears his gaze away from the phone in her hand. "Right." He goes back to searching the bike, coming up with nothing else other than a piece of scrap paper with a sketched picture of a key inside a square.

He frowns at it for a second or two before realization strikes. Steve turns around in a slow circle, searching the ground near the bike, near the sidewalk, near Sam's front door -- there. He walks over and picks up the brick that's resting on the grass, nestled against the side of the house, and retrieves his bike's keys from beneath it. Steve looks down at them as those he's never seen them before, an aching pang of mixed hope and sorrow slicing through him.

[from_the_outside]

Steve's face falls, and she comes to join him, her phone in her hand and her expression wry. "Come on," she coaxes, gently.

"Let's see what he has to say for himself."

[marvel_npc]

"It's where we used to hide the spare key," he murmurs. "For the apartment. First for the one where I lived with my mother, and then later, ours." Steve looks up at her. "Under a chunk of brick near the door, just like that."

[from_the_outside]

"I guess he's remembering some things, at least. Come on."

She slips an arm around him and coaxes him towards the house, where Sam and Nat are waiting.

[marvel_npc]

Sam opens the door and leads the way in. He waves a hand at the living room, but doesn't go that way. Instead, he tilts his head toward the kitchen. "Why don't I put some coffee on. Or tea, if you want that instead."

It's an offer for them to be able to watch that video alone, if they want, and he's pretty sure Steve'll recognize it.

[from_the_outside]

"In a minute, maybe," Sharon tells him.

Although, who knows? They might want something stronger. But Sam's involved in all of this, and he deserves to know what's going on. Whatever message Bucky left for them, he and Nat can hear it, too.

[marvel_npc]

"Okay then." It's their call. Sam's not gonna argue, especially as he'd kind of like to hear what the guy's got to say for himself. "In that case, come on over here."

He leads the way into the living room and goes to the television, where he uncoils a long cable that's plugged into the back of it from a hook nearby. As he holds it out to Sharon, it's obvious that the adapter's clearly designed to let a phone project its contents to the television. "I use it to watch my nephews' videos and pictures and things when they send them," he explains. "All the family down in Louisiana."

[from_the_outside]

She accepts the cord and plugs it into her phone, then waits for him to turn on the TV and make sure the volume is good. Looking down at the video, her thumb hovers for a moment over the frozen still before she taps the screen and allows the recording to play back.

[nerves_of_ice]

The video clip opens with a close-up view of Bucky's face, his brow creased slightly in concentration before he sits back, evidently having stabilized the phone on whatever he's using to hold it. It's quiet, wherever he's filmed this, with no background noise other than a faint, distant trickle of running water. The image is a little dim, but there's enough ambient light of some kind that it's easy to see him clearly, as well as the brick and mortar of the wall he leans back against as he stares into the camera. The look in his eyes is bleak, but there's no sign of the emptiness his gaze had held before - only weary resignation.

"Hi." He sounds as tired as he looks, his voice low but still clear. "I figure I'm talking to both Steve and Sharon right now, not sure who else, if anyone. It's morning when I'm filming this, the day after." He frowns for a second, considering, and clarifies. "The day after Insight. After you stopped Insight, I mean. You and Natasha and I guess his name's Sam? And whoever else you had helping you. We all know it sure as hell wasn't me."

He takes a long, shuddering breath. "By now I figure you know more about the Winter Soldier than you did before. Or if you don't, you will soon. The short version is that I've been HYDRA's puppet for the last seventy years. Their weapon. Whatever you've heard, it's probably all true. I'm a criminal, a terrorist, an assassin and a murderer. And that's why, even though you both asked me to - I'm not coming back. I'm sorry."

[from_the_outside]

At her side, Steve makes an abortive motion forward, as if he could reach through the video and bodily haul Bucky out to them. Sharon's hand goes to his arm, her knuckles as white as her face as she watches and listens.

Sorry. He's sorry. If this is what he'd planned to do, why come see her the night before? Why leave this recording? He has to know it will only make them more determined to find him. She makes an idle note of the sound of running water – it doesn't really matter if they found where he recorded this, because he'll be long gone – and grips Steve's arm a little tighter.

[nerves_of_ice]

He waits for a couple of seconds, studying the camera almost as if he's listening to something, then lets out a soft breath. "I don't remember everything," he says, after a moment. "Not yet, anyway. It's like looking in a broken mirror. It's all in pieces, like me. But I remember enough to be pretty sure that you're both not okay with what I just said. I'm sorry about that, too. But it's the right thing to do. There are reasons. More than just one. And anyway, I'm not - I don't w--"

He chokes on air for a second, coughing violently, before he shakes his head and takes another deep, ragged breath. "You got me out of hell. I was in hell, and you got me out. It's enough. More than enough. I'm okay - I'll be okay now. I'll send you a postcard or something from time to time, so you'll know. Don't worry about me. Please."

The corners of his mouth quirk in the faintest of smiles, there and then gone. "Take care of yourselves. And each other."

He leans forward again, reaching out with a gloved hand, and the screen goes black.

[from_the_outside]

The screen goes black, and she feels the now-familiar clench of her stomach, the flood of pain and disappointment. She's holding too tightly to Steve's arm, but she's not sure either of them can even feel it. "You're right, Nat."

She doesn't look away from the blank screen, her voice carefully, so carefully controlled. "He's an idiot."

[marvel_npc]

"Mm-hm," he hears Nat say. He's pretty sure he was staring at the screen hard enough to leave Bucky's image printed on the backs of his eyes, or maybe that's just how it feels. Steve takes a careful breath and covers Sharon's hand on his arm with his own as Nat continues, "I'd guess he thinks he's going to be too much trouble for you, for some reason. And he's trying to protect you both from that."

[from_the_outside]

"I let him make that call once before, and it cost him everything." Her voice is a bare murmur, and she can't quite look at Steve, even with his hand over hers, even knowing he doesn't blame her.

"It's not happening again."