Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter LXII - Memory Lane

December 30th 2011 - Upstate New York

In her hands was the one photograph she had of the life she had known before. Tucked away in the dusty storage unit Tony Stark had left empty and disused for years was everything Howard Stark had ever owned, from priceless pieces of art and small prototypes of inventions still too advanced for today's world, to diaries and notebooks and reams upon reams of memories stacked in cardboard boxes and neatly tucked away for time to eat away at. That's where this photograph had been. Tucked away in a box in New York; a box that hadn't been opened since 1991.

Two decades since it had been hidden away, out of sight and out of mind for the Stark who now stood silently behind her, Elizabeth stood staring at the friends in her hands.

She was leaning over with her hands on her stomach and her eyes screwed shut as peals of laughter ripped from her lungs. Her hair was pinned back behind her ears and even now she could picture the exact shade of the rouge on her lips after she had spent the morning in the muddy fields, where the rain never seemed to end, being dolled up to the nines.

Beside her was the most beautiful woman. Her hair was perfectly curled and she stood tall. She looked over her shoulder at the camera with a sparkling gaze and a smile that could stop any man's heart. Behind those eyes was strength and determination and courage. She was radiant, even now in the faded photograph worn with age and cracked and torn at the edges from fingers and thumbs that held it in the years that had passed. Peggy Carter was as beautiful as she was strong.

The third and final member of the trio stood behind Elizabeth, his eyes crinkled with the laughter of the moment and his hands casually hidden in his pockets as he stood with his shoulders raised and a smile spread over his face. He was soft at the edges, not yet burdened by loss and bitter resentment, and his eyes seemed comforting. Howard Stark had been useless in getting Lizzie ready for a dinner with her Sergeant, but he had ensured that one corner of the mess area was left empty for them and he had flown in a little treat for them both... Thinking back on that night she could almost taste the comfort of the double chocolate brownies that had been snuck to them that evening and her heart ached. Her heart ached for the simple notion of a night with her Bucky and for a time she had been torn out of.

"Miss Halsted?" Tony Stark stepped forwards, unsure of her and anxious not to upset her further. "Are you okay?"

Elizabeth wiped her tears as she turned to face the man who looked so much like her treasured friend and she smiled softly.

"I'm still wrapping my head around it all." She shrugged as he stepped towards her and looked down at the photograph clutched in her hands. "To you, Howard has been gone for twenty years. But for me? I woke up a few months ago and I still feel like I'm going to walk through those doors and find my closest friends exactly as they were here. But they're gone. It's all gone."

She stood, barely holding herself together as the grief wrapped around her and the stranger beside her took her in his arms.

"I know you don't know me Miss Halsted, but I'd like it if you would accompany me somewhere next weekend. Capsicle should come too." Stark pulled away as she glanced up at him and smiled weakly.

"Please call me Lizzie. Miss Halsted is so formal."

"Well if we're aiming for informal, what do you think of Ice Princess?" Tony smirked and Elizabeth let out a tearful chuckle. He was so very much like his father.

"I love it."

*

January 7th 2012 - London, England