Longing •Bucky Barnes•

36. Too Young

"What is it?" She asked looking up at me.

"You know how your dad was a superhero and all the suits he made in the garage?" I asked her trying to think about how to word this.

"Yeah." She said nodding.

"Well there was a lot of people who needed your daddy's help. There was a big bad guy who wanted to stop him, but your daddy was too smart for him." I said I was already biting my lip to hold back my shaky voice. I was running my fingers through her hair nervously.

"Did my daddy win?" She asked.

"He did." Bucky said talking because he knew I was trying to keep myself composed. "He saved a lot of people, more than you could even count."

"Well?" She asked. "What happened?"

"You're dad got very hurt saving everybody, I don't know how to say this to make it any easier, but he passed away." I said and I saw her face drop and we all sat in silence. I didn't know what else to say or do to help soften this blow.

"Did he die?" She asked as her frown deepened.

"He did." I said softly.

Her face formed into pout and I saw her eyes water. My hand reached up and grabbed the side of her head and pulled her into my chest and her arms wrapped around me. I heard her cry and I looked up the ceiling and felt my own tears streak down my face. Bucky too was red eyed and there wasn't much noise except for her cries.

"Where's my mommy?" She asked nearly sobbing at this point.

"Your mommy is with the doctors. She hit her head very bad fighting the bad guys, but she's being taken care of." I said and I was past the point of hiding my own emotions.

"I want my daddy." She said crying into my shirt.

I looked to Bucky and he placed a hand on mine knowing there wasn't anything he could do to help this. I held Morgan myself knowing there was nothing I could do. She had lost her father and her mother was unconscious in a lab and she wasn't even 6 yet. She hadn't even started 1st grade and she was an orphaned child.

I would watch her and take care of her for however long I needed to, but I know there was nothing that could fill that hole. I myself never even remembered my parents, if I even had them to have felt the loss of them. Her world was so small and she just lost the two biggest parts of it. She had one of these greatest, funniest, and most caring fathers in the world. Watching him change from a billionaire, philanthropist, superhero to a father was unreal.

Often times his mind would wander faster than his feet could move, he had almost always been erratic and spontaneously stupid at times. He had completely slowed down because he had a small human who relied on him and Pepper for almost everything and it's like something switched in him. He had a reason to slow down and think before he jumped into anything. He hardly cared about half of the things he did before hand.

I hugged her for a long while and she looked up and her red face was wet with tears still, but she seemed to be slightly calmed down. She turned to look at Bucky but he was just wearing a solemn face as he looked at her. She reached out to Bucky and he hugged her tightly and I saw tears start to leave his face again.

"What's going to happen?" She asked laying her head on his chest.

"You're going to stay with us, if that's what you want." Bucky said and I was wiping tears from my face. "If not I'm sure you could stay with Happy or-"