Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter I - Safe with a Stranger

August 1943 - New York City

There was a chill that clung to the air that night. The streets were quiet but not empty. Young girls, barely twenty years of age, walked arm in arm in beautiful skirts and sling back heels, eyeing the soldiers who drank together before their deployment. The men paid them little to no mind for the most part. Their minds were preoccupied with thoughts of honour and glory, or fear and destruction. Some drank to celebrate their assignments and others to drown the voice in the back of their mind, the one that told them this may be the last drink shared with friends.

Elizabeth Halsted pulled her coat tighter around her small frame as a slight breeze picked up and the girls on the street squealed in the cold. The walk from the hospital to the small apartment she shared with another nurse only took half an hour if she walked quickly, but tonight Elizabeth took her time. Although the air was turning, the seasons changing from the soft caresses of late summer to the small bite of early fall, there was something mesmerising about the feeling in New York right now. She watched as two young girls successfully captured the attention of the soldiers in the street up ahead, throwing their heads back with feigned giggles and lightly placing their hands on the arm of the nearest man as they leaned in to ask about the war. The romance of the maiden waiting for her soldier to come home appealed to many and Elizabeth shook her head as she laughed at the notion.

The raucous laughter of the men behind her snapped Elizabeth's mind back to reality. She heard them as they called out to her and picked up her pace slightly. While she knew they were probably harmless, she was tired after a long shift and the last thing she wanted to do was entertain the conversational whims of three drunk soldiers on the dark streets of New York. She turned quickly down the nearest street, hoping for a short cut to the next part of her journey home, and her heart sank as she spotted the solid brick wall ahead of her. The side of the building loomed over her as she assessed her options in this dead end alley way. She turned on her heels, quick to react to the sound of the slurred calls of the soldiers behind her.

"Woah, slow down Little Lady," the drawn out drawl of his voice sent a shiver down her spine. She forced a sweet smile onto her face and walked towards the men.

"Hey fellas, mind if I just squeeze past?" She pushed herself between the men and the wall, shrinking into herself, trying to keep herself as far away from the man whose breath was hot with Bourbon as she could. The laughter of the men echoed around her, forcing her to shrink into herself even more.

The soldier closest to her took a step to the side, cutting off her exit, and grabbed her by the crook of her elbow, pulling her so that her body was flush against his.

"Where's a pretty little thing like you off to in such a rush, baby?" he slurred.

"Won't you stay for a chat?" the soldier who hadn't spoken yet added. His voice was raspy and deep, thick with alcohol and a smokers growl.

Elizabeth looked to the floor, cursing herself in her mind for not sticking to her normal route home and inadvertently putting herself in this position. The soldier holding her was close enough that she could feel the heat of his breath on her cheek as his free hand grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look up at him.

"You're going to take your hands off of my fiancee now Soldier, or we are going to have a problem."

Elizabeth craned her neck as the solider's fingers dropped from her face. She wanted to see who had come to her rescue, she wanted to assess whether or not she should feel the relief that was already coursing through her veins, but the soldier still holding on to her blocked her view.

"Oh really?" he sneered.

"Yes." snapped the velvety voice of the mysterious man. "And I haven't been drinking, so I might fare a little better than you in this fight." His confidence invited no further questions. The soldier loosened his grip on Elizabeth's arm and she stumbled backwards, falling slightly into the wall before scuttling in the direction of the stranger that stepped in to help her.