my ghost | b. barnes

PROLOGUE

[avant de commencer]

audrianne shifts her gaze from the thunderous sky to where he had settled on the counter. he was a shell of a man, the aftermath of destruction, if you wanted to go as far as to say that. this was the savior in all of the stories her grandmother hand related to her as a small child. this was the war hero that she wrote her thesis on during her time at rutgers, the soldier who had been effectively turned into the greatest weapon of the 21st century. this was the man who had gone to hell and back, only to find out that the love of his life had married another man, a well-to-due tobacco farmer from south carolina. this was the james buchanan barnes.

"she was still in love with you, up until the very last day," audrianne reveals. "almost seventy years later, she was still counting on you to waltz through the doorway and sweep her off her feet. the stories i heard about you lead me to believe you were a knight in shining armor perched upon a noble steed who stole the hearts of all of the maidens in the land...at least, that's how mrs. prescott always put it."

the revelation prompts bucky to meet the unwavering gaze of the young woman. he had been shaken to the bone when sam had introduced them to one another. excluding the tattoos dotting audrianne's body, it was almost as if he were staring at the ghost of his long lost lover. although it had been months since his case had been assigned to corporal sarantos and he'd moved into the bedroom just opposite of hers, he was still having trouble deciding on what was more unsettling: the fact that his shrink, as a majority of the team called her, was a carbon copy of her grandmother or that he had unexpectedly started to fall for her, just as he had unexpectedly fallen for her namesake all those years ago.

"if she loved me so much, then why did she marry mister richie rich-" "hal," audrianne corrects, furrowing her brow at the venom in his voice, which hinted at a long-lasting hatred for the wealthy southerner. "yeah, good ol' hal prescott."

"james, if she were forced to choose between marrying hal and dying, she would've died a thousand deaths if only it meant she was still 'bucky barnes's girl'. her father and edmond prescott met at a business engagement in october of '43. not even a month later, audrianne and hal were engaged. she didn't marry him because she was in love with him or because she wanted to spite you for leaving," she points out, "she married him out of practicality."

audrianne watches intently as he lowers his eyes to the still-steaming cup of coffee in his hands. there was an undefinable emotion evident in his eyes that landed somewhere in the unnamed valley between unbridled rage and longing. in the time that's passed between audrianne's last statement and the silence she'd received in response, the crackling of the fireplace and the roar of thunder off in the distance had taken place of their voices. all of a sudden, almost as if an invisible restraint had been removed from his face, a pearly grin tugs insistinely at bucky's lips.

"i remember the last time i ever saw her, which would've been at her wedding, she told me we'd undoubtedly meet again one day." there's a slight pause accompanied by a throaty chuckle and a timid glance towards audrianne's strikingly blue eyes. "as little sense as it probably makes, i never thought it would be under these circumstances."

audrianne bows her head to hide the ever-growing grin plastered on her face. the meaning of his words is very clear to her, as she had been told a time or two by their friend sam that the sergeant was quite fond of her. a bright blush spreads over the soldier's cheeks in the aftermath of his confession and he begins to wonder if he should have held his tongue. regardless, the endearing smile that remains on doctor sarantos's face only further emboldens him and sends a surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"you know, i don't know a whole lot about patient-practitioner relationships and what all the regulations on them are. i don't doubt that you could probably get in a whole heap of trouble for having one." bucky pauses momentarily, shaking his head and then whispering something about whether or not what he has in mind would even be considered a relationship. audrianne watches intently, curious as to what his next move might be.

"ah, fuck it," bucky exclaims, slipping off the counter and closing the distance between them in a matter of seconds. "corporal...doctor... i don't know what i should call you- how about audri? how does that sound? audri, i may not remember a whole lot or have a whole lot of experience with the ladies these days, but if you'll allow it, i'll show you what made your grandmother fall so hard for me."

audrianne cocks an eyebrow up in surprise. there were dozens of rules and regulations on patient-practitioner relationships, some of which could lead to her losing her license if they were to be broken, as pursuing a romantic relationship with patient could be perceived as an exploitation of their vulnerability. but at this very moment in time, they were miles away from the closest person, and what her employers didn't know wouldn't hurt them, right?

"well, mr.barnes," audrianne taunts, reaching out to smooth the collar of his shirt, "i always wondered what was so special about you that it kept a woman madly in love with you for seventy years."

a sly grin is the only answer to her question as his lips pressed against hers.