The Captain's Husband

7. Titanic

The joyful keys of a classic Frank Sinatra song fall silent. I look up from my sketchbook to check on Bucky.

"Hey, Stevie," he says as he rests his fingers on the keys of the piano. "I've got a question."

"What is it, Buck?" I ask him as I set my sketchbook and pens aside.

"There was a song I heard in Romania back before T'Challa tried to kill me and Tony nearly killed you," he tells me. "I figured out how to play it, and I remember all of the words, but I don't know where it's from or why I remember it so clearly."

Hmm...

"Can you play it for me?" I ask him as I get up from the armchair by the window and walk over to the grand piano.

He smiles, "As long as you sing it with me, I will."

What the hell song is it?

"Do you want me to turn the intercom on or something while I'm at it?" I ask with a smile. "Because if you want to sing a duet, the others will probably want to hear it."

Bucky laughs, "Whatever you want, Steve." He smiles warmly at me. "I don't mind if they hear it."

I go over to the door and hit a switch on the intercom panel next to the doorframe.

"Piano room intercom is live, Captain," Jarvis announces.

I walk back over to Bucky and sit beside him, saying, "Alright, how do you want to do this?"

"I want you to take the first verse and carry the harmony on the second," he tells me softly. "That means I'll carry the harmony on the first and then lead the second verse." He presses a kiss to my cheek. "Is that all right?"

I press a kiss to his cheek, "Of course."

I wonder what song this is...

Then, Bucky's fingers find the keys, and I immediately recognize the song. I have no idea why on earth he heard it or how he even remembers it's so well, but it makes my heart break.

Oh, Bucky. You're such a sap.

It's Celine Dion's greatest hit..."My Heart Will Go On."

Bucky smiles to himself as I kiss his cheek again, and then I start singing, right on cue.

"Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you, that is how I know you go on," I sing softly. "Far across the distance and spaces between us, you have come to show you go on."

Bucky softly joins in, creating a beautiful harmony with me, "Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on. Once more, you open the door, and you're here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on."

Bucky carries the second verse, "Love can touch us one time, and last for a lifetime, and never let go till we're gone."

I join him for the harmony, singing, "Love was when I loved you, one true time I hold to, in my life we'll always go on. Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on. Once more, you open the door, and you're here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on."

Then it all comes rushing back, everything from World War II, and tears flood my eyes. I pour my heart into the song as I look at Bucky, feeling so very overwhelmed by the fact that he's actually here...and that he really does love me. James Buchanan Barnes, oh, how I love you.

"You're here. There's nothing I fear and I know that my heart will go on."

He looks up from the keys and smiles sweetly at me as we close the song.

"We'll stay forever this way. You are safe in my heart, and my heart will go on and on."

"Come here, you big sap," he whispers after a moment of quiet, opening his arms to me.

I hug him tight, burying my face in his neck as a sob rocks through my chest, saying, "I can't believe you're actually here."

He wraps his arms around me and presses a kiss to the top of my head, saying softly, "Steve, baby, I know."

I breathe him in and let a sob choke me, tears rolling down my face as I cling to him. And then I feel a sob rolling through his chest, and I hold on even tighter.

"You saved me," he sobs, my heart shattering as he cries into my shoulder. "Stevie, you saved me."

"I couldn't let you go," I tell him as my heart throbs in my chest. "You were hurting so many people and couldn't control it. I had to stop you. But on that damned helicarrier...when I heard you screaming after that beam fell on you...I realized that no one else was going to save you. As the Winter Soldier, you were trapped and alone. If you couldn't get out alive, it didn't matter because they had others to replace you. But you can't be replaced."

He pulls back to look at me as I go on, tears streaming down my face.

"That damn shield and Captain America mean nothing without you," I tell him. "My first mission as Captain America was to rescue you from that lab, and because of you, I took up the shield and the mantle of actually being Captain America and fought like hell to reach you. I rescued you. Then you fell off that goddamn freight car and I thought I had lost you forever. I was so confused and conflicted when I saw you again, after so many years apart. Then that mask came off, and I knew that I wasn't finished yet...because you were my mission, Buck. Howard and Peggy were right when they said I was meant for so much more, because I know that they meant that I am meant for you. I can't thank you enough for fighting your way back to me."

A sob rips through him as he says, "You don't have to, Stevie. You brought me back home to you. That's all I could ever ask for."

I pull him back into my arms, saying softly as I try to steady my breathing, "I love you."

He hugs me tight, pulling me onto his lap as he says, "I love you."