Chapter Twenty Seven

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"Suddenly Bucky's the one with the steady hand and now mine won't stop its tremor

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"Suddenly Bucky's the one with the steady hand and now mine won't stop its tremor."

Breaching the portal my stolen boots sink into the soft forest grass

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Breaching the portal my stolen boots sink into the soft forest grass. In the sprinkle of rain, I let the droplets drizzle over me. My attention tides from the environment I'm now immersed in. It looks just the same. Like time stilled for months. Tearing my gaze from the house I lower myself to my knees in the wet grass. Gingerly I extend my fingers and graze them over the sliced stump that remains of the tree I cut down in my fit of rage. Palm pressed against it I thumb at the rings engrained into the stump like those words. Those god-forsaken words I just couldn't stop myself speaking.

"It's a pipe dream, Addie! You can't just walk up in here and expect me to pull a time-traveling machine out of my ass!"

"That's not what I'm asking!"

"No? Because you cannot even see the consequences of what you are asking! I could lose my wife- my daughter-"

"I LOST THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!"

"You know I always hated that tree. Blocked the entire view of the river from our porch" Glancing over my shoulder I see Pepper adorning her weekend jeans and a protective umbrella shielding her from the rain. Her red hair haloing her hair in the breeze, Pepper sadly nods towards the wet stump under my touch "He sat out here like that too, you know. After you'd left that day. Just stared at the fallen wood like it could give him the answer on what to do."

Rolling my lip I reluctantly return my attention to the poured upon stump under my hand "Why don't you hate me?"

"Why would I hate you?"

Hearing her shift on the grass, I glance up when Pepper perches atop the tree stump. Narrowing her big doe eyes down trying to read what I'm thinking. Dragging my fingers through my drenched hair, my voice breaks unevenly "It's my fault. It's all my fault. I should've left it alone but I just couldn't help myself- I can never help myself." Shaking my head in the rain, I scratch at the wet tree rings with my stumped nail "I should have let it go. I should have let Bucky go but I just- I was selfish-" Cutting myself off my gaze drifts past Pepper to the lake. Watching the rain splatter over the waters, I breathe thickly "I'm drowning in the grief and regret and guilt and I'm just..."

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