Bucky's Choice

Chapter 31

TWO WEEKS AGO

Bucky walks down the quaint little cobblestone road, wondering if this was such a good idea. He left a little over a week ago, leaving everyone behind. He stops in front a small, cottage style house, a small bike in the front yard. This is stupid, she won't talk to you. As he walks up, he hovers over the doorbell, his heart racing faster with each moment passing by. He finally presses the button, a small ring echoing throughout the house. He hears someone walking to the door and he wrings his hands together, the gloves making a squeaking sound. A young woman answers the door, "Hello, can I help you?" "Uh, yes. My names is J-James and I umm..." He keeps looking down, his nerves getting the better of him. "Are you ok? Here, come in." "O-ok ma'am." He steps inside and he can feel the warmth seep into his bones. She directs him to her parlor and he takes a seat. "Would you like some tea?" "No, thank you." "So, what can I do for you, James, is it?" "Yes ma'am. I umm was looking for a Georgia Payne? Her last known address was here." "Yes, well, it's Georgia Valens now, but that was my name at one point." Ok Bucky, you can do this. "Oh, well, hello. Well, I wanted to speak with you about Kelsey McCollum." He sees her face pale at the mention of her name. "Oh god, is she ok?! Has something happened?" "Oh no! She is good. Very good actually. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to indicate something was wrong." He can hear her heartbeat start to slow down, though it still fluttered a bit. "Thank God. Do you know where she is? How is she?" "Umm, she is in New York. She's practicing again." "Really?" Bucky can see tears were welling in her eyes. "Why are you here about her?" "It's....complicated. I guess I wanted to know what happened to her before the blip, and after." "I'm confused, why aren't you asking her this? You obviously know her."

 Bucky takes a deep breath and tells Georgia the basics of what has happened. Leaving out some of the more unsavory parts. Georgia takes this all in. "Well, it sounds like she hasn't changed much then." "What do you mean?" Georgia stands up and paces around the room. "When the blip happened, we were, umm.." She swallows and breaths. "We were making love." He nods and smirks. "I was fighting an alien war. It never really occurred to me to think what other people were doing at the time." "Well, when she disappeared, my world shattered. I fell into a deep depression and I ended up sleeping around. Both men and women. One of these one night stands ended up in my son. He's 11 now." "Yea, I saw the bike outside." "By the time the snap brought everyone back, I was with someone else. She showed up in my bedroom naked and my partner at the time kinda freaked out." "I would imagine so." "It took Kelsey a bit to really grasp what had happened. She asked me if I was happy and I told her I was. I could see that she wanted me to choose her, but that damned selflessness of hers.." This makes Bucky chuckle. "What's so funny?" "Nat, Kelsey's wife, says the exact same thing." Georgia smiles. "Anyway, that night, I realized that I still loved her and that I wanted to be with her. So, the next morning I was going to tell her, but she had already left. She sacrificed her own happiness for mine." He sees a tear fall and he put a hand on hers, trying to comfort her. "Please James, if you love her, fight for her. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Don't let her go without a fight!" He nods and stands up. "I still have some things to figure out, but I really do appreciate your time and advice." "Your welcome." She walks him to the door and when she grasps his arm. "James, could you tell her that I would like to see her again? I would love to catch up with her."   He nods his head and she hugs him tight. "It was nice meeting you Georgia." You too James. Please don't hesitate to call me if you need anything." 

PRESENT

Kelsey paces her living room, waiting to hear anything from Nat or Steve. It's been over a day since they left and she can't take it anymore. She grabs her keys and heads to work, knowing she can't really do anything at the moment. When she gets to the office, Julia is already there with a cup of coffee ready for her. "Hey Kelsey, you ok? You look a little glum this morning." "It's ok Julia. Just some personal drama. What's on the books today?" "You have Mrs. Micker in thirty minutes then the Horracks after that." "Ugg, I can't stand Mr. Horrack, I really wish she would leave him." "Why don't you tell them that?" "You know why Julia. They're on a court mandated judgement. I can't influence her like that." "I know, but it is wishful thinking." After her sessions, she checks her phone and all she sees is a text from Nat saying they haven't found anything yet. She sits in her office, thinking about where Bucky would have gone. It would help if she knew why he left like that. She calls Nat, missing her voice. "Hey baby." "Hey, what's up?" "Could you ask Steve why he would've disappeared? I have a feeling he may have said something or done something to set him off." "Will do. How are you holding up?" "Wishing I could be of some help with finding him." "Hey, Steve's back. I got to go." "Ok, love you." "Love you too." She hangs up and stares around her office, looking for some spark of inspiration to trying to find him. "Ok, James Barnes, where would you go if something upset you? Before, it was my place, even before we got together. You are a creature of habit..." She stands up, talking out loud. "Even if you were with Steve, you still may have had a place that he didn't know you had. You always needed a place that was yours to let go. Julia?" "Yea boss?" "You still have your relator license?" "Uh, yea. Why?" Kelsey writes an address down and hands it to Julia. "Can you look up the sale history of this address? See who owns it now?" Julia looks at the address and nods her head. She hops on her computer and starts her search. It doesn't take her long to find the history of the condo. "Here ya go. The latest owner is...Rebecca Winters. Is that what you were looking for?" Kelsey swirls this in her mind for a second or so. A smile slowly creeps onto her face. "Julia, cancel any appointments for the next couple of days. If anyone, and I mean ANYONE asks, I left and you have no idea where I went. This includes my wife. Do you understand?" "Of course, but, what's this about?" "I will tell when I can. Thanks so much Julia!" Kelsey runs out and hops into her car and drives back toward the bar.

After finding a parking spot, Kelsey climbs the five stories up to her old condo. Oh god, please let me be right. She nervously knocks a couple of times and at first doesn't hear anything. She knocks again and still hears nothing. She feels her breath shake as she figures she must have been wrong. Just as she is about to turn around, the door unlocks and when it opens, there stands Bucky, looking like a hot mess. "Kelsey? How the hell are you here? How did you find me?" He looks around her, trying to see who she's with. "I'm alone Buck. May I come in and I can explain?" Bucky looks at Kelsey and his heart aches. His mind races with so many questions and doubts. Is she here for him? For me? Is this a trick? He opens the door wider, indicating to her to come in. "Thank you." She looks around and she sees he is not in good place. There are beer bottles everywhere, old take out cartons on the table. His clothes look like they've been slept in for days and his hair is longer, along with his stubble. Bucky moves some trash out of a chair and she carefully sits. "So, how the hell did you find me?" He see her smile a little, making his pulse quicken a little. "I remembered that you are a creature of habit. You always had a safe place to escape to. I took a leap of faith that to avoid Steve ever finding it, you may have bought my old place. Nice use of the name by the way." "I'm a little impressed, but it doesn't explain why you are here." "I'm here to make sure you are all right. You just disappeared without a trace. We were worried." "Who is we?" She doesn't answer at first, which confirms his suspicions. "So, what you actually mean is that you didn't even know I was gone. I'm assuming Steve asked you to find me." "Actually he asked Nat. I'm suppose to be at home waiting like a good little wife." This makes Bucky laugh a little. "Good to see I can still make you laugh." "You want anything to drink?" "No, thank you. Look Bucky, I just wanted to know that you were safe and ok." "OK. You've seen I'm ok and safe." "Bucky please, don't be like this." "Like what Kelsey? Cause I don't know what I am suppose to be like." Kelsey tries to get her emotions under control. Remember, this is for him, not you. "I'm not going to tell anyone, not even Nat where you are if that's what you're worried about." "Good to know. Anything else?" She feels the tears threatening to fall. "I miss you. I'm sorry I've put you in this position..." "Kelsey stop please." His curt tone surprised her and made her allow a sob to escape her throat. "I can see that this was a mistake. I'll just go. I meant what I said, I won't tell anyone where you are." Shit, what are you doing Bucky? Tell her how you feel! "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.." She puts her hand up to stop him. "No, it's ok. I understand." She gets up to leave and at the door, she turns around and looks in his eyes one more time. "You just do what makes you happy." She swallows her tears. "Goodbye James." At that, she closes the door and Bucky just stares at it for who knows how long. He can feel his heart breaking at her words of goodbye. He falls to his knees and all the pain from the last couple weeks crash into him and he cries out. As his body is wrecked with sobs, he hears Georgia in his head. "If you love her, fight for her. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Don't let her go without a fight!"  He takes a deep breath and starts to stand up. He quickly opens the door and starts running down the stairs, leaping down three at a time. He suddenly hears someone running up at the same time. Within moments, he sees it's Kelsey running up the stairs. She is out of breath and sweat runs down her face and neck. They just stare at each other, both breathing really hard. Then, as if an electric switch was turned on, they run at each other and she leaps into his arms, her lips crashing into his. 

"Buck, I" He shoves her face against him to shut her up and slams her against the wall in the hallway. He pushes his hips against hers and she mewls along his tongue. He reaches underneath her pencil skirt and tears her panties to shreds. He shifts her to his vibranium arm while he pulls himself out and slams balls deep into her. "FUCK!" He quickly clamps his hand over her mouth. "Shh, we don't want the neighbors to hear you." He keeps his hand on her mouth as he rams into her, driving both of them higher and higher. "Baby, cum for me, cum on my cock." She does as she is told and cries into his hand, a muffled scream that echoes around the hallway. As he fills her up, she nips at his fingers and turns his head so she can kiss him again. While still inside her, he easily carries her back up the stairs and goes inside the condo, slamming the door behind him with his foot.