Sebastian Stan Short Stories

Bucky Barnes [16]

"Ask me in a few years," he muttered. There was a knock on the front door, and Grant stared at the rest of us like a deer in headlights.

"I think you should go get that," I advised. He nodded to himself and looked at the door, then back at us. He finally rushed off and opened the door while the rest of us gave Grant and his date a few minutes. I held my wife's hand and kissed the top of her head, enjoying a brief moment of peace without the boys going at each other.

"God, when are they going to stop growing?" she whispered.

"No time soon, I'm sure."

*

It took major holidays and social events to keep the Barnes boys at bay. Christmas was just too exciting. At Thanksgiving, they were focused on food. When Easter came around all three, even fully grown and out of the house J.J. and Grant, were under threat from their mother to behave at their best. Besides holidays, funerals and weddings made them sober up too.

But not J.J.'s wedding.

"I think the last wedding I went to was my own," Peggy told me. We watched the couples dancing in front of, trying to spot our spouses and children. Steve was three inches taller than most of crowd, and he was dancing with his daughter. She took after Peggy, with her dark hair pulled up in a ponytail. Meanwhile, I could only find J.J. because of he was in his dress uniform.

College had only stuck for about two years before J.J. announced he was following in my footsteps and joining the army. His mother had bawled the night he told us and again on the morning we sent him off to basic.

The song ended, and Steve let one of J.J.'s friends have the next dance with his daughter. He left the dance floor and joined Peggy and I.

"You look like you're holding up well," he told me. I gave him an incredulous look. He knew how stressful this whole thing had been. "I mean, James Junior is married and in the army and moving off to California. How is the missus taking it all?"

I found her dancing with J.J. as his bride had taken a break to speak with a bridesmaid. She was beaming up at him, straightening his tie, fidgeting nervously, and tripping over her own two feet. She was so proud of him. She was so proud of all of her children.

"She's worried about Vietnam," I told him. "More so, now that J.J. is in the army and SHIELD is poaching anyone they can get their hands on."

Steve and Peggy both shushed me before my wife could hear. It wouldn't do any of us well to bring up work at a wedding.

"J.J. said one more dance and then they're off," she told us. She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. Steve and Peggy were our mirror image. "Come on, I want to dance with my husband."

With a sappy smile, I let her pull me to the dance floor.

*

"James, come on. We're late," she worried. She was smiling anyway and trying to fix her wind ravaged hair. "Where's George?"

"Parking the car," I answered. I finally caught up with her as she stopped to check her map of the campus. I looked over her shoulder, trying to figure out how lost we were.

"I think the auditorium is that way," she said, pointing north. I flipped the map over in her hands, and she blushed. "Never mind. That way."

We both started running again, holding hands and laughing and getting a little less lost.

"Do you think they've gotten to his name yet?" I asked.

"He's a Barnes, so he's right up front," she pointed. We came to the door of the school's auditorium, and she stopped to tame her hair again. She smoothed down her dress and adjusted the narrow belt around her waist. "How do I look?"

"Absolutely breathtaking," I told her. I pulled her in for a very distracting kiss until a round of applause came from inside the building. She broke our kiss with a quiet string of cursing and hauled me through the doors. A handful of underclassmen were serving as ushers, but we were somehow the only two people late.

"You wouldn't happen to know where three empty seats are," my wife asked one of them. They pointed us to the balcony level of seating, but before we left she asked them to send George our way whenever he made it in from the parking lot. We both took the stairs two at a time and snuck into the auditorium. We found our seats as a graduate with the last name Avery crossed the stage.

"I think we actually made it in time," I whispered.

"Timothy Grant Barnes," the announcer called out from the podium. My wife squeezed my hand excitedly. "Bachelor of Science, specializing in Biochemistry and Genetics."

"How did he get so smart?" I muttered.

"He's still surprising me, twenty plus years later," she answered.

*

Christmas was my favorite holiday. All three sons and three daughters-in-law and three grandchildren (so far) took over the house for nearly week.

My wife was in her element in the midst of the chaos. She loved having three surrogate daughters to bond with, even though George's wife had joined the family only a few months ago. She loved to hold and bounce and rock her latest granddaughter, J.J.'s second child, and play games with the two older grandkids. I loved it too, obviously. We were willing to babysit whenever they needed us.

Most of the time, Steve and Peggy joined the party with their progeny for New Year's. They went to England for Christmas and Easter, so they ended up with us to unwind after the stress of either of those trips and catch up on the latest SHIELD drama. He and Peggy were still far more active in the organization.

"I guess this is what we get for never hiding it from the kids," Steve said as we told him about George joining SHIELD's science department.

"I knew my children were smart, but I didn't think they'd be 'get recruited by a secret government organization' smart," my wife laughed. She bounced the grandbaby in her arms and smiled at her. "They just went down the line. J.J., Grant, now George."

"George is a maths genius. It wasn't a surprise," Peggy commented. She smiled up at Steve. "At least we've still got one at university for the time being. SHIELD is far more eager to poach graduates than not."

"It's a family thing," I added. I grinned at my granddaughter and felt some nostalgic punch to the gut. I held my wife closer.

"Well, they've got another twenty years or so before they can start recruiting the next generation of Barnes," she warned no one in particular.

"Or the next generation of Rogers," Peggy hinted.

"Wait. Is-"

"Yes!" Peggy said excitedly.

"We're expecting our first grandchild," Steve explained further. He had started his family more slowly than I had, but he was grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of a little Rogers grandchild.

"Congratulations," I told them. "You're going to love being a grandparent. All of the fun with half the stress."

Steve and Peggy were just as loved up as they had been thirty years ago. Just like me and my wife. Now we all had kids and grandkids and lives that were just a little less than normal. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

*

Wakanda.

Steve gazed at the man behind the glass, trying to guess what might be running through his mind. If there was anything at all. It was still a wild guess if Bucky was dreaming.

"I hope that whatever he's dreaming about makes him happy," Steve decided. He took one last look at his friend, and then he walked away.

*

Author's Note:

A lot of people commented on the first part to this little arc, and @StarryMNA even requested a second part. This turned a lot longer than I expected, and I'm quite happy with it. I hope you all enjoy!