𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 | barnes¹

xxxi. the end of the line

She kept working for the SSR, now being the only super-soldier left in their possession. Peggy, Howard, and the rest of the Howling Commandos stuck by her side, attempting to help distract her as they went on small missions.

Everyone told her that things would get better. They said that her broken heart would hurt less and less as time went on. But without Bucky, Lucy felt like her heart would never heal. Each day, she missed him more and more.

When she reached the middle of the cemetery, Lucy paused and stared at the two graves she had come for. She visited them each Sunday, sometimes even more, but seeing their memorials would never fail to render her speechless.

She knelt in front of the first desired grave, laying the white roses that she had in her arms down on top of the grass. Placing a hand on the cool gravestone that stood there, Lucy leaned forward and touched her forehead to it. "Hi, Stevie."

After a moment, she pulled her head back and studied the setup in front of her. Steve's grave had dozens of gifts littered around it, new ones appearing even years after he died. It was decorated with ribbons and thank you notes, picturesque for the memorial of Captain America.

The grave beside Steve's, however, seemed to be unacknowledged by the rest of the public.

Lucy shuffled over to the lonesome grave, taking a deep breath in as she laid another set of flowers down. These were a small bouquet of lavender, the kind that Bucky had always carried with him because they reminded him of her.

She had to brush the snow off of the front to be able to see Bucky's name engraved on the front. Obviously, neither his nor Steve's bodies were ever found, so Lucy had to try and make the graves feel as personal as possible.

Fiddling with the dog tags around her neck, Lucy cleared her throat and dropped her voice to a whisper. "Hi, sweetheart."

She always paused after greeting him. Some part of her still thought she would hear his husky voice greet her back. But the only sound she could hear was the chilling wind whipping past her ears.

"I kinda feel dumb talking to you like this but I'm never gonna stop. You can laugh at me all you want from up there, I get it."

Silence once more. "Anyways..." Lucy used the back of her hand to push her blonde hair from her face. "Uh, things are okay. I've been doing a lot of training with Peggy and helping Howard with his new work. And..."

She didn't truly care about any of the small things like that. Truth was, none of it helped to distract her from the hole in her heart.

Realizing that she had paused in the middle of her sentence, Lucy sighed. "I really miss you, Buck." Her voice cracked a bit.

After taking a moment to compose herself, looking up to the sky to stop the tears from falling, Lucy continued, "I just don't know what to do anymore. I thought that continuing to work for the SSR would help but each night after a mission with Peggy or the Commandos, I always go home to an empty apartment. You're not there waiting for me, and I hate it. I hate not having you by my side."

She leaned forward to lightly press her lips to the stone, leaving a ghost of a kiss in her wake. As she pulled away, she left her forehead resting there and closed her eyes. "I love you. Please come back, Bucky."

A small beeping sound came from her pocket, causing Lucy to retract her hand from the grave and search for it. She pulled out the pager that Howard had made her, the eagle emblem for the SSR flashing in an attempt to get her back to the facility.

"Okay." She gripped the pager, leaning forward to leave one more kiss on the stone. "I've gotta go. I'll be back. I love you."

As she stood, she turned and pointed at the graves. "I mean it, you two. Stay put."