Battlefield ★ Bucky Barnes

XXV. Never A Mistake

Connie made her way up to her hotel suite as fast as she could, though it was quite difficult to do so with the copious amount of shopping bags the brunette was now carrying. Had she not been so injured, carrying them wouldn't be much of a problem, if one at all, but she pushed through it in order to get them upstairs to Bucky. They were the result of a very impulsive decision she had made after leaving the hospital, and it was a decision she didn't regret at all.

When Connie remembered that Bucky had been in the same outfit for the past day, and quite possibly the past week, she realized that he didn't exactly have much clothing, if any at all, and so she went out and purchased close to $1,500 worth of clothing on him. Normally, she wouldn't have spent so much money in one setting, but she got a bit carried away. The thought of providing Bucky with a privilege he hadn't known since the early 1900's made her feel good inside.

Connie finally approached her suite door and kicked it with her foot. "Bucky, open the door, it's me," she called out to the man inside the room.

"I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name, miss."

Connie rolled her eyes at him. He was getting his sense of humor back along with the rest of his memories, and she was happy about it, but at the moment it only annoyed her. Her fractured wrist was aching with a great intensity and her stance was irritating her abdominal wound. "Open the damn door, Bucky Barnes," Connie exclaimed rather sternly.

The suite door then opened immediately, revealing a rather discombobulated Bucky Barnes. He looked down at the amount of bags hanging on Connie's shoulders and arms and his eyes widened slightly. "What on Earth?"

Connie pushed her way past him and into the room, leaving Bucky to shut the door behind him. She quickly relieved herself of the bags and collapsed on the couch, heaving in a heavy breath as she did.

"What is all of this, Connie?" Bucky asked curiously as he looked to her.

"Your wardrobe," Connie answered him breathlessly. "You've been in the same clothes for days. You need new ones, so I got you some."

Bucky was almost surprised with the fact that she had spent her money on him. He was grateful to know that she thought about him, but he was also annoyed knowing that she had put him before her own self. He didn't want her wasting her money on him. "Why'd you waste your money on me?" he asked her with a frown on his face.

"Because." Connie sighed as a thought crossed her mind, "If I remember correctly, I would always ask you the same thing all those years ago. I never bought a thing for myself back then because you were so keen on taking care of me, so let me be the one to take care of you now. I think I owe you that much."

"You don't owe me anything."

"We will agree to disagree, Buck," Connie replied as she got off the couch.

She headed into the kitchen to fetch a drink, leaving Bucky alone in the living room to sift through the bags of clothes on the floor. After grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, Connie made a move to head back into the living room, though she stopped when she caught sight of the booklet of hotel stationary sitting on the island. The booklet was open; Connie could see the pen laying across the paper, as well as Bucky's handwriting scribbled across one of the pages. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and grabbed it, her eyes scanning across the words quickly.

I'm starting to remember more and more. The longer I'm out of cryo-freeze, and the longer I go without being wiped, more and more of my memories start coming back to me. Being around Connie helps me, too. I've only been with her for a day, but I can already tell she means a lot more to me than my mind is currently letting on. I can feel it, and I can also feel whatever I used to feel for her all those years ago beginning to make an appearance as well. I don't know exactly what those feelings were, really, but they were good, just like Connie is. She's the only source of positivity I have in my life right now. I'd love to keep her around, but a part of me is scared that one day she'll wake up and realize what a mistake she's making and leave me. I really don't want that day to come.

Connie stopped reading and took a deep breath. She wasn't aware that was how Bucky felt at all, but she was more than thrilled that he was making progress. She was sad, however, knowing that Bucky believed her to be making a mistake. Connie saw the soldier as many things, but he would never be a mistake to her. She would never dream of leaving him either, at least not by choice. She had lost him once, and she refused to lose him again. Bucky was one of the few people on earth she would fight to the death for, so losing him was not an option.

"Bucky," Connie called as she headed back into the living room, the notebook in hand. "What's this?"

Bucky turned around to see what it was she was talking about, and the moment he noticed the small notebook in her hands, his eyes widened ever so slightly. "Um, it's a journal, I guess," Bucky answered her nervously as he got up to grab the notebook from her hands.

"Oh."

"Is that wrong? I'm sorry, I just remembered some things and wrote them down so I wouldn't forget them again, I'm sorry, it's stupid," Bucky muttered quietly to himself.

Connie frowned and shook her head. "No, it's not stupid," she assured him. "Please stop apologizing."

"D-did you read anything?" Bucky stammered, slightly nervous to hear her answer. He had written several things down inside the small book, both good and bad things, so it was hard to tell what she came across if she had read.

"I read something," Connie admitted. "It kind of upset me a little bit."

Bucky let out a shaky breath. "I'm sorry, I–there's a lot of bad stuff in my mind. I never meant for anyone else to see it."

"Why do you think that one day I'm going to wake up, think this is a mistake, and leave you?" Connie asked him, completely disregarding his words.

"Why wouldn't you?" Bucky frowned. "I would."

"I'd never dream of leaving you," Connie reassured him. "I made my decision and I'm standing by it. You're stuck with me, Barnes, whether you like it or not."

Bucky opened his mouth to speak, but wasn't allowed the chance before Connie's phone rang inside her pocket. She pulled it out quickly and checked the caller ID to reveal that Phil was calling her, and without a moment of hesitation she pressed the device to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Con," Phil greeted her. "I'm currently on my way to pick up you and Sergeant Barnes, so I hope you have all of your things ready to go."

"They are," she answered him. "I do have to ask about my car, though?"

"Everything you need is ready for you in Bucharest, including a new vehicle," Phil told her. "A friend of mine is actually picking your car up later and having it transferred to a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility where it will be waiting for you when you return."

"Fantastic."

"I'll be there in ten minutes," Phil informed her before hanging up the phone.

Connie placed the device back into her pocket and looked at Bucky, a small smile coming onto her face. "Looks like our lives are about to change."

"Yeah?" Bucky chuckled softly and met her eyes, his own softening as he did. "I think mine already has."