You Must Remember This (WIP)

Chapter 21 - An offer he can't refuse

Wakanda, 2016

Steve shut himself away in his room. He didn't see or speak to anyone. Natasha checked on him several times, but he refused to open the door. Bucky would go himself, but he was stuck on bed rest. Even though his injuries from fighting Nemesis three days ago were completely healed thanks to Shuri and the skilled Wakandan healers - and his super-soldier genes - he still felt like hell.
It wasn't just because he lost a fight (though that was a contributing factor). Nor was it because he had come so close to dying. He had faced death before, both as himself and as the Winter Soldier. It was just... everything. Everything he learned about Evelyn, Nemesis, Steve, and himself... The twister that took Dorothy to Oz was nothing compared to the whirlwind currently raging through his mind and heart.

Sam told Bucky more about their meeting with Sharon Carter. From what they learned from her, and from their own, albeit limited, investigation into Nemesis, Steve was even more convinced that the young woman was his daughter. Bucky searched desperately for anything that would prove differently, but all evidence pointed to the same theory for now. Her connection to Howard Stark and Peggy Carter, the DNA match, her super-soldier genes, her work for S.H.I.E.L.D., and hatred towards HYDRA... Sure, Nemesis looked younger than she appeared, but that was normal since she was put in cryo. The SSR could've fertilized any woman with Steve's semen after WWII, and then she and her family (or anyone who adopted the baby) would've taken care of Nemesis under Howard and Peggy's protection right up until HYDRA found out about them.

And then there was the matter of Bucky's own connection to the young woman. His... attraction, for lack of a better term. He caught himself pulling up the live feed from the security footage when he couldn't sleep to look at her. He would watch her pace or sit in tailor-pose on the floor and wonder what it was they shared. Did she save him from HYDRA at a certain point in her life? Had they been friends or... lovers?
No, Bucky wouldn't even consider that last option. Because it would mean... if their current theory about Nemesis' identity proved true, he would've... with Steve's daughter! Nope, definitely not going there. Besides, she wasn't even his type. Well, maybe just a little.
Even so, Bucky certainly couldn't imagine himself with anyone so young. Yet, there was no denying she was a good-looking girl. More than good-looking even. She was beautiful, fierce, passionate... like... His eyes traveled to the journal on the nightstand. Leaving out the question of whether or not Nemesis was indeed Steve's daughter, they were related. Meaning Nemesis was also related to Evelyn. It made sense she was like her.

Bucky reached for the journal, but his hand froze mid-air. He chewed on his lower lip and then sank back into the pillows. Every day he thought he was ready, but he just couldn't bring himself to continue reading. The migraine was almost gone, and he wanted to savor that peace a little longer. Also, deep down... he didn't want to continue. Bucky didn't want to read how Evelyn put herself in danger to save him. Lord knows he didn't deserve saving. Not then, not now.

But that was who she was. Evelyn Rogers saved people. She saved them from each other and themselves. And those she couldn't save, she remembered. She wrote their names in a little notebook she kept with her, and she would read those silently each morning at breakfast. Not in prayer - Evelyn stopped going to church after her mother died - but in silent respect.
Bucky recalled she wrote down Prue's name, too. He took Rebecca home from the hospital, leaving her with their father, to join Steve at his house to wait for Evelyn, but she didn't return until early the next morning, exhausted from talking to the surgeons, the police, and Prue's parents. And yet she still took a minute to write the dead girl's name in her booklet. Another person she failed, she'd said then. And before Steve could even move, Bucky was on his feet and had his arms around her, whispering she hadn't failed anyone. Evelyn had stood in shock for a second but eventually accepted the embrace and held on to him, drawing comfort from it.