𝗀 𝗁 𝗈 𝗌 𝗍 | | 𝗌 𝗍 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗋 𝗈 𝗀 𝖾 𝗋 𝗌

𝖿 𝗂 𝖿 𝗍 𝗒 － 𝗇 𝗂 𝗇 𝖾

𑁍 𝟤𝟢𝟣𝟩, 𝗎𝗉𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝗒𝗈𝗋𝗄 𑁍

IT HAD BEEN THE LONGEST year of Marta's life. One year with practically zero communication between her and Steve. One year without Natasha, Sam, Vision and Wanda. One year being separated from Bucky by a vast ocean. She had a bi-weekly call with T'Challa on Saturdays at ten a.m., and he updated her on his sister's work trying to free Hydra from Bucky's mind. He was still frozen, and Marta went to Wakanda to see him and feel involved in his treatment every three months.

        Her life was busy, yet lonely at the same time. She worked for Secretary Ross with Rhodey, monitoring threats and flying missions once or twice a week. Marta was bored just doing that, so she also worked in the VA as a physical therapist, helping war veterans get used to their new lives. Her schedule didn't leave room for a whole lot of thinking, which was beneficial.

        Marta had never been this alone in her entire life. Even when she had nothing, she had Steve, and he was just gone without a trace. She called him one day using the phone he had left her about four months after he had left. He didn't answer right away, and just as he went to pick up the phone, terrified something was wrong, Marta was already leaving him a scathing voicemail, yelling at him for never making an effort to contact her, let her know he was alive. She was drunk.

        That very same day, she had retrieved divorce papers. She signed them three months after that, in a fit of rage over the fact that he ignored her call about Bucky. He was too afraid to answer after their previous missed conversation. Now, the divorce papers sat on her dresser beside a bottle of vodka, part of her daily affirmations.

        If Marta knew where Steve was, she would have sent him the papers and closed the chapter of their marriage forever. Poor Tony had to listen to her every thought and rash decision she made regarding Steve every time they were in the lab or he stayed at the compound to eat dinner with her. Sometimes he brought Pepper with him. Marta liked seeing her. Tony didn't live at the compound anymore, he hadn't since three months after Steve and the others disappeared.

        He had made things right with Pepper, and they lived together. So Marta stayed in the compound all alone. It wasn't as bad as she thought, actually. Marta enjoyed time to herself, in silence. She cooked for herself and read books and watched movies Tony and Pepper recommended that she see. Marta couldn't bring herself to open her notebook and see Steve's handwriting all over it. It was locked away in their old bedroom with the rest of his things, including all of their pictures, notes and their chess set that Marta had destroyed one angry, drunk and lonely night.

        She still wore her wedding ring, though. She didn't know why. Every time she went to take it off, she stopped herself. They were still married. Separated and damned, but married. She drank a lot more than she did in the year she and Steve were married. His voice wasn't in her ear, telling her with deep care she had had enough. Marta was always up for work in the morning, so she had as much alcohol as she pleased.

        Marta had cut her hair eight months into her lonely year. It was easier to manage, with Tony working on her almost every day. It was a difference she needed, to be the new person she was. Her time with Steve was over. It didn't matter to her that they had known each other since third grade. It didn't matter to her that she had been in love with him since sixth grade. Their past, their almost future didn't matter. They were nothing now.

        "Are you done yet?" Marta asked Tony, frustrated. She had brain wave monitors attached to her head, lying on a table in the medical wing of the hospital. Her arms were crossed, their natural position these days.

        Tony rolled his eyes, going over the scans of Marta's brain. It had been a year with hardly any progress on the removal of the Hydra device in Marta's head. He said he could do it if he had the activator, and Steve had given it to him. Marta was losing faith that she would ever be herself again. "Not yet." Tony answered, tapping his pen against the side of his face, thinking.

        His methods of trying to remove the disk in Marta's brain were tolling, so they couldn't practice more than once a week. Tony would tie her up in technology advanced restraints and then activate her, observing her brain while she was attempting to find and kill Steve, trying to figure out the best way to get the device out of her brain without killing her. "Can you be done?" Marta asked. She was sick and tired of getting no results.

        Realizing there wasn't anything else to do that day, Tony obliged, shutting off the screens as Marta sat up, pulling the small wires off of her head. "We'll try more tomorrow." Tony said.

        Marta stood up, grabbed her bottle of vodka and walked to her lonely bedroom. "Can't wait." she said with mock enthusiasm, spending the night drowning her sorrows, trying to forget how depressing her life was.

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