Safe Haven | B. Barnes

welcome home

"Angie? Honey, its time to get up. We're here," Marge said loudly as she glanced at Angie's sleeping form. Marge turned the wheel into the long road heading back home.

The trip had been an interesting one. After dinner their first night, they headed back to the apartment when Angie said she was tired. Marge had Diane help her with setting up the room for Angie to sleep in. After dressing her and having her brush her teeth, Marge kissed the top of Angie's head before turning off the light and leaving the room.

"How can I adopt her?" Diane asked Mary, her lawyer when Marge re-entered to the room. "We'll have to have CPS come in and do some checking on the house, on you and then have them go back to the Safe Haven House to talk to Ms. Wilson about Angie. Finally, Angie would have to know that she's coming here to live with you. It sounds easy but know this, Diane. Its a lot of paperwork and once you have Angie in you're custody, you're responsible for her."

"Honey, it ain't easy raising a child, especially if she was traumatized the way she was before she came to me," Marge added as she sat down next to Angie's aunt.

Diane sighed and looked down at her hands playing with the hem of her sweater, "I know, but I'm ready to try. She's my brother's kid, I can't just let her go like that. I have a steady job, a steady income, I'm nearly twenty-seven years old." She began listing. Marge put a gentle hand on her's, "If she can, Angie will love you anyway. The thing with her is, she has special needs that can really be stressful sometimes, especially in the beginning. There are nights she can't sleep at all and wanders the house singing to herself and crying. Any male friends you have over can stress her out and she'll lock herself in her room until they leave. On top of that, because you're new to her, she won't trust you for anything. When Angie first came to me, she would sit in one corner the whole day and all night, only getting up to use the restroom. It took Morgan, another child in my house, giving Angie her favorite Black Widow doll and convincing her it can protect her from anyone, just like the real Black Widow can," Marge paused and sighed.

Diane looked at her with an uncertain yet determined expression, "I'll try it anyway. It's the least I can do for her."

Marge inhaled as she brought her mind back to the present, "Angie, wake up. We're home," she announced as she brought the car to a slow at the entrance to the house. The sudden pause caused Angie to stir and open her eyes, "We're home?"

------

Bucky sighed and leaned against the wooden railing at the back porch and looked out.  His arm felt heavier than the one Hydra put on him, but it had more things in it than the last one. He flexed his metal fingers and turned his palm, I can't believe I talked myself into this.

Behind him, the screen door creaked opened and slammed shut. Based on the slow, heavier footsteps that still indicate his weight being tossed from one foot to another, it was Steve. "Hiya, Buck," he greeted.

"Heya, Steve," he blurted. It must've been too long since he responded like that. It felt weird, but familiar when it left his mouth. Steve inhaled and leaned his backside against the railing, "How's the arm?"

"It's okay. It does take some getting used to, though. Nothing better than having three extra pounds on one side than the other," he answered truthfully. "Yeah, we can have Tony look at it when it's all said and done," Steve suggested as he crossed his massive arms over his chest. Bucky hummed and shrugged his human shoulder. He balled the metal hand into a fist, hearing the small whirs of the gears inside.

"Hey, Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember Old Man Joe and his wooden arm?" Bucky inquired with a ghost of a smile on his lips.

"The old, wild west guy? The one that had an older brother in the Union Army during the Civil War?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. Do you remember how he tried to hobble after us when we were kids after we threw rocks at his door and tried to throw a rock at us with his fake arm?" Bucky continued. Steve snickered, "Then he took it off and threw it after us and it broke?"

"And your mom had us help him do things until he got a new one?"

They both began chuckling loudly at the memory. Even after they agreed to help him, they continued pulling harmless pranks on Old Man Joe. "Imagine what he would have done with an arm like this." Both men looked at Bucky's new arm, trying to see it differently than for what it really meant. "We were really a handful, weren't we?"

"Yeah, Bucky we were."

A comfortable silence settled between them before Steve asked a question he'd been holding on to for a while now. "Bucky? Do you remember how you were before... everything happened?" At this sobering question, Bucky frowned with a pensive furrow in his brows. "I don't know, Steve. Sometimes the old Bucky, the one that got us into trouble and always knew how to talk to ladies, the war veteran that's in the Smithsonian, he's still in there. He always tells me things, things that I used to do, used to love, used to know. But sometimes, he is in there. The Winter Soldier. Cold, dead, ready to take orders like the perfect soldier and strike his enemies down.

"So now I have two different kinds of soldiers, the ghosts of either one always trying to kill the other for my sake. Since you told me that end of the line thing we used to tell each other as the ship was going down, the old Bucky has been winning," He paused and harshly rubbed the metal palm with his flesh hand, "All I know is that no matter who ends up winning in the end, you'll never get good ole James Buchanan Barnes back."

Steve stepped back, the surprise really hit him. "Buck, I knew that. When I was trying to tell you that people were after you in Germany, I knew no matter how much you'd come back, you'd never be the same. If it makes you feel any better, I still see that jerk from Brooklyn sometimes," With a lopsided grin, Steve heartily clapped Bucky's shoulder before turning around to go inside.

"Punk," Bucky said under his breath.

"Guys? Marge's is back," Sam hollered from the end of the house.

--------

Marge popped open the trunk after asking Sam to help her take in the luggage. Angie, bleary-eyed, shuffled behind Marge before heading inside. Immediately the rush of kids came out like a wave, all of them surrounding the loving woman. "Mama Marge, Mama Marge, guess what!?" began one.

"Hey, you wanna hear about what happened?"

Everyone tried to tell Marge about the interesting weekend they had without her but no one could tell her. It wasn't until Bucky came behind Steve with a new arm did Marge turn to Sam with raised brows. Angie, who had somehow managed to avoid the flood of kids, began walking up the steps until she nearly collided with Bucky's leg. Using his left arm, he reached out and caught her before she fell back. "Ow!" she exclaimed as she tried to shield her eyes from the shiny metal glinting in the sun. Angie stepped into the shade and stared at the arm that wasn't there before she left.

Bucky mentally chided himself as he reached under his arm and pressed the button for the holographic, skin colored tech to spread over the cold metal.

"What's this, Mr. Barnes? You got a new arm?" Marge asked as she climbed up the steps herself. Bucky offered her a sheepish grin as he turned aside to let her pass. Both Steve and Sam were helping Marge by carrying in the luggage.

"Mr. Barnes and Captain America left and Sam was in charge, then Mr. Barnes came back with a new arm!" Qui'Ziya exclaimed, causing Marge to raise an eyebrow.

"Is that so?"
------------------------------------------

Dun dun dunnnnnn! So this is completely unedited, completely made up in less than 24 hrs and completely necessary. Don't forget to leave a vote and comment! Let me know what you think!

Soon I should have some more parts done to the story on there and add some new ones.

Thanks, hunies!