𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝑔𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃
Charlotte Watson deserved a fresh start, a chance to begin her life again and be the woman she was meant to be, the woman that Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes knew she was inside. Her secon...
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Funerals, I've decided, are not for the dead. They are for the living.
It was a line from a popular book that Lottie had been persuaded to read months ago. At the time, she had never truly understood the idea. They never had a funeral for her father, and the funeral for Sarah Rogers was so small it almost wasn't a funeral.
Today, she finally understood the meaning behind the line. Charlotte Watson hadn't even left the bathroom yet and the tears were rolling.
Furiously, Lottie did her best to dab away the tears before it ruined the small layer of foundation that coated her skin. Her eyes were bloodshot as she looked in the mirror, staring down her reflection as she tried to get it together.
"You can do this," her voice came out in a whisper as another tear fell. "Go out there and do it. Do it for her."
A knock sounded on the bathroom door. Quickly, Lottie tried to put herself back together as the knock sounded once again.
"Charlotte?" the voice of Sam Wilson carried through the door. "Char, it's time. You gotta come out."
With one last breath and fix of her black dress, Lottie opened the door and gave Sam a small nod. He gave his friend a sad smile, taking her arm under her's as he led her into the main area of the church.
Eyes followed her as she walked down the main aisle to her seats in the front row. Everyone in that room knew Margaret Carter, which meant they all knew exactly who Lottie was. She avoided their gazes, taking her place as beside Sam as she stared at the memorial placed on the stage and the gorgeous head-shot of Peggy from back in the war.
"Is that why you write to Steve and your friend James?" Peggy questioned, rubbing her now sore wrists as she looked at the woman in front of her. "Are you afraid to lose them?"
"They are all I have left," Lottie admitted, her eyes trailing up from the ground to look at Peggy. "I don't have my mother anymore, and the thought of losing Steve and Bucky is hard to think about, they've been there for so long. I thought joining this program, knowing that Steve might undergo this project, would bring me some semblance of peace but it hasn't."
"Why do you think that?"
"I met you, Howard, and Erksine. Now, I just have more to lose,"
The memories flowed through Lottie's mind even as Peggy's casket was carried down the aisle-way as the soft music of the piano played. Lottie turned slightly to watch as it passed her, tearing up at not only the sight of the flag that was draped across her casket, but at the sight of her fiance.
Steve struggled to carry the casket as the tears flowed heavily down his cheeks. He cried for the loss of one of the last things left of his past life, for the loss of his friend, and knowing that the second he turned around he would see the heartbroken look on Lottie's face.
