Written in the Stars: Bucky Barnes

18. Stark

Stella had spent the past few years traveling after school, she figured she seemed to have all the time in the world and Howard greatly encouraged it. She had a job at Stark Industries whenever she decided to return home, but there was no rush. She went to France first staying long enough to pick up the language her proficiency in Latin being a large help. She then took off to Romania, Russia, and eventually Greece before she finally got homesick. As she packed up the last of her few belongings she looked over the wedding invitation sitting on top of her suitcase. Howard had finally settled down and decided to marry, Stella adored Maria and was so excited for the pair.

Within ten hours she was back home Howard greeted her at the door with a hug and grabbed her things. "Maria is in the kitchen she wanted to talk to you about the wedding," he told her and Stella nodded making her way through the house.

"Hey Maria, Howard said you wanted to talk."

"Oh Stella Hunny, yes come here," Maria patted the seat next to her at the kitchen island. " you mean so much to both Howard and me. You're our first child for all intents and purposes and I was hoping you'd do me the honor of being my maid of honor?"

Stella was shocked as tears immediately starting welling up in her eyes "You really want that?" Maria grabbed her hands and nodded a wide smile gracing her face "I'd love that Maria thank you."

"She beat me to asking you, I wanted you as my best man, well, woman," Howard said joining the women in the kitchen. "But, I did have a question of my own," Stella laughed lightly and turned to look at Howard waiting for what he had to say. "As you know, you've not aged since the day you got your powers. I was thinking, you know you're already family. If you wanted, totally don't have to though it would help with people wondering eventually when you start at the business."

"Howard stop rambling already and just ask," Stella said laughing at his uncharacteristic nervousness.

"Yes well, I know the name Turner is a connection to your past, but what would you think about becoming a Stark officially?"

"You mean as in change my name, take on a new identity?"

"Yes and my connections to the government means I can pull strings others can't. You'd still be Stella if that's what you'd want, but the name change would come with new identification, social security number, even birth certificate we can move your birthdate to fit how old you look. Like I said the choice is yours to make."

Stella looked over to Maria who gave her a nod and a reassuring squeeze on the hand. She got up from her spot and went over to Howard and hugged him once again catching him slightly off guard. "Thank you."

"So I'm taking this as a yes?"

"Yes. I still want to be Stella Rose, my father picked my name and Rose is a family name from my mother's side. Those are the only two names I care about keeping, and you're right it was a pain in the ass to travel looking 26, but my passport stating that I'm 43. You're both my family."

The wedding ended up being perfect though no one could expect any different and Stella was officially a Stark a few weeks after. She went to work for Stark Industries working closely with Howard on any project she also took interest in. She wasn't a huge fan of weapons manufacturing, but that was the family business. Maria became pregnant and in a short few months, a baby boy would be welcomed into the Stark home. Stella was currently visiting Howard at Camp Lehigh she had come and go at S.H.I.E.L.D. as she pleased helping with Operation Paperclip. She didn't like the idea of Zola helping them, it didn't feel right to her. Howard had assured her his help with the Tesseract was essential. She walked over to the car waiting for them saying a polite hello to Jarvis. Howard joined them a few moments later asking if either of them knew the man with which he had just shared an awkward hug. She shrugged and started to get into the car when a familiar face caught her eye for a moment. She stopped and looked, but as quickly as she saw him, he'd disappeared.

"What is it Ella, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"I just thought," she said pausing still not seeing any sign of said ghost "it's nothing this place just probably has too many memories is all." Howard let it go and they went home for the day.

Stella went to her room and pulled a small box out from under her bed looking over the letters and pictures from her past. She rummaged around until she found the one she had been searching for. Steve was to her right head thrown back in laughter. Bucky was to her left his arm around her his forehead pressed against hers and she too was laughing. A few tears slipped down her cheeks as she recalled the night the photo was taken, they had just gotten back from a mission, the one before Bucky fell. They sat in the pub and laughed as the others got drunk and fools of themselves.

"I miss you both."

AN: What?????!!!!!! Over 200 reads, that's crazy to me. I hope you are all enjoying this story. I know there's a lot of time jumps, but it's a necessary evil. 1940-2012 is a long time and I couldn't even begin to fill in all those years with content. I'm also going to warn that not all of the MCU canon timeline will be the same, therefore neither will all the events. We are starting to get close to the events of the MCU we know and love. Sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter I was starting to get writer's block and wanted to get something out before I got too frustrated. Love you all.