Trying Your Luck - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 4: Blip and Snap

"Shannon, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have looked at that stuff."

"Why?" She laughs. "It was on my bathroom counter."

Bucky follows her to the small dining room next to the kitchen. She's set the table beautifully. The roses he's bought her for the past three days sit in a small vase in the middle of the table.

"I took the liberty of dishing out food for you."

"Thank you," he whispers.

As Shannon goes to sit down, Bucky puts a hand on her arm and smiles.

"Let me."

He pulls her chair out for her and she laughs.

"Such a gentleman."

"Like I said," he purrs. "Old fashioned."

"Well, I appreciate it."

Bucky sits down across from her and rests a napkin on his lap the way his mother always taught him. Shannon cuts into her meat and shoves a small forkful into her mouth. She chews thoughtfully as he picks at his potatoes, waiting for an explanation.

"You know when everyone disappeared — well, half of us."

Bucky nods.

"Well, before that, I was married. His name was Will. The day that everyone disappeared..." she laughs. "I don't know what else to call it. But we were on the way to see my parents. He had a big bouquet of daisies in his lap for my mom. I reached over to turn up the radio, looked back at him, and he was just gone. Dust. I was so afraid, I didn't know what to do. I accidentally ran the car off of the road and ended up running it into a tree." She takes a sip of wine. "The daises were still in the passenger seat, and Will was just..."

Bucky puts his fork down and leans forward.

"Keep going."

Shannon laughs, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. He reaches out and grasps one of her hands.

"I accepted it. I tried to move on the best I could. And then everyone came back. I had grown without Will for five years. I was a different person. I changed jobs, I downsized our old apartment and moved into this place. I got a dog — he always hated dogs. He couldn't accept that I had made this new life without him in it, and he left me."

"I'm sorry," Bucky whispers.

"It's okay. Like I said, I had moved on." She laughs. "If I'm being totally honest, and I assume that we are."

Bucky nods. Shannon continues.

"Will and I hadn't been working for a while."

"How long were you married?"

"Four years — or nine, I guess, with the blip? Is it the blip or the snap?"

"Snap's when we died, the blip brought us all back."

"It got you?" Shannon asks.

Bucky nods. Shannon frowns. He can't tell her. Not yet.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he whispers. "Therapy helps. Sort of."

He can't help the bitterness that creeps into his voice. Shannon laughs with relief.

"I agree with you there."

His eyes go wide. The relief surging through him is almost too much. He wants to laugh and cry and shove all of this food into his face at the same time. He doesn't want to tell her exactly why he has a therapist, but it's nice to know that someone else is going through bullshit too. He takes a few bites of his food and swallows them as fast as he can.