YOU.
"JAMIE, get your ass back here!" You chase him around the mansion as he runs around in nothing but his diaper.
One year olds like him shouldn't be running around this early but his doctor made it known Jamie's development is always going to be a year early. So he's basically a 1 year old in a 2 year old's body.
He doesn't say anything, Jamie just giggles uncontrollably as he continues to use his strong legs to run throughout the house.
"I got him!" Peter calls out from the upper level and attaches one of his spider webs to Jamie's body, flinging him up towards Peter.
"Thanks." You tell him, catching your breath.
"Jamie, no more overworking mama." Peter says to him, holding Jamie on his hip while he rips the webs off of him.
"Akay." He smiles, showing off his two newly grown teeth.
You've decided to take the elevator upstairs instead of the steps because Jamie literally had you chasing him throughout the entire house and that kid is fast.
"C'mere." You take him from Peter and walk over to Jamie's bedroom.
Today's his first birthday and you have to admit, you woke up this morning in tears. Not because Jamie's growing up so fast but because Bucky isn't here to see his son grow up.
You were distraught when Tony came back from the mission with just Jamie and the dog tags. When you heard that Bucky gave his life up to save Jamie's, you couldn't express how conflicted you were. You love Bucky but you also love your son, you would've felt the same if it were the other way around.
There was no better option.
However, you still have hope that he's alive and not dead in a HYDRA facility somewhere.
"Dada?" Jamie points to the family photo up on his wall.
Even though he's grown up a lot without Bucky, he still hasn't forgotten him. You've made sure of that by showing him pictures and videos on your phone.
"Yeah, that's Dada." You respond, lifting Jamie up so that he can see Bucky properly.
You miss him.
Since you received the horrible news, you hadn't gone out to one club or hooked up with any other man, like you used to. From the first night you spent together, your body was only supposed to be touched by him. You couldn't bring yourself to let someone else please you the way that he did.
"Alright J, we gotta get–" You start.
"Where Blu?" He asks, his bottom lip sticking out.
See, 'Blu' is what Jamie calls his blanket– yes he still has it. Even though the blanket is very clearly green, he still has a little difficulty trying to differentiate blue and green.
"Blu is taking a bath." You grab one of his 'Winter Soldier' T-shirts and pull it over his head.
This is probably his favourite shirts to wear. It's just a black shirt with the left side sleeve coloured grey and a red star but Jamie thinks its the best shirt in the world because it's 'Dada'.
"Is Dada be here?" He asks, his big blue eyes staring up at yours as you help him into his grey shorts.
"Um," You try and contain yourself. "I don't know if Dada's going to be here, honey."
"But I wan' Dada." He pouts. "I miss him."
You put a smile on your face, regardless of the tears forming in your eyes. "I miss him too. He'll come back soon, I'm sure."
~•~
"Ony!" Jamie exclaims excitedly as your dad picks him up. He can't really pronounce his T's properly either so he always skips that part out with people's names.
"Hey, little man!" Tony matches his energy. "Happy birthday!"
Since Bucky's been gone, you and Tony managed to put the rough past behind you and he took the role of being a temporary father figure for Jamie.
"How old are you?" Tony asks and Jamie puts up five fingers.
"One!" He squeals.
"That's not what your fingers say." Tony teases.
Right now, you're at the compound having a mini birthday party for Jamie. Of course, you would've liked it if he'd been here too but you figure you're just going to have to have enough fun for the both of you.
"Here you go." Yelena hands him a wad of cash and Natasha slaps her arm. "What?"
"It's a baby!" She hisses.
"So?" Yelena shrugs. "I worked hard for that money, he can use it to buy toys and stuff."
"Where the hell is my wallet?" Tony mutters feeling his pockets up.
"Don't tell me you stole from Tony again." Wanda chuckles.
"I need to use the bathroom." Yelena winces, standing up to leave the room.
You're never leaving your purse unattended with her in the room again.
"Sasa, up?" Jamie requests, standing in front of Natasha.
"You wanna go up?" She asks in a playful voice while picking him up from his armpits.
"Spin, spin!" He giggles.
Natasha spins around, her red hair flying around and Jamie squeals with joy, dribble going down his chin from his mouth being open too much.
"Alright, that's enough." Natasha recovers and sets him down on the ground.
Clearly, she forgot about the side effect of being spun around because as soon as she places Jamie on his feet, he drops straight onto the floor like a drunk man.
Nobody says anything for a minute but then you all start cheering for him as Bruce picks him back up.
A trick– always act happy when kids hurt themselves. That way they don't start overreacting and crying their eyes out.
"Well done!" You say, way too excitedly, as you straighten his outfit up.
"I fell?" He asks, giggling.
"Fell like a champ." Clint chuckles.
"Tell you what, let's go out for ice-cream." You say once you see that Jamie's got a little bruise on his knee from the fall.
"Iceshweam?" He repeats, his eyes lighting up.
The way he pronounces names and words will always make you smile.
"Yeah, Iceshweam." You copy him and grab hold of his hand.
It's getting a little dark, since it's November, but there's still some sun peeking out meaning that there's a chance the ice-cream guy is still out. That man never leaves until he's sees the moon.
"Question?" James asks as the both of you walk along the grass of the compound, heading for town.
"You can ask me as many questions as you want." You respond and he skips beside you.
"We go to Lint's house?"
The fact that Jamie calls Clint 'Lint' will never not be funny to you.
"Next week, yeah." You answer, laughing. "You can play with Nathaniel, Lila and Cooper."
Believe it or not– Jamie's got a little tiny crush on Lila. He may be only one but he's as smooth as his dad is. Whenever she's around, he always tells you that he's going to 'act cool'. You know for a fact this crush isn't going to last long, since Lila's turning 9 next month but it's cute for now.
To your relief, Pete, the ice cream man is still out, chilling in his van with all the flavours lined up on the window.
"Ey, Jamie!" Pete smiles once he sees you and Jamie. "What can I do for you, buddy?"
"You know the drill." You say, digging in your purse for a dollar.
"Lemon and bubblegum twin cone with strawberry sauce and sprinkles?" Pete recites Jamie's favourite ice cream flavour and you nod.
You watch as Pete makes the order and Jamie stares in awe. However, you can't help but get a feeling that someone's watching you.
Your heart pounds in your chest as you silently beg for Pete to hurry up with the cone so you and Jamie could get out of here, constantly looking over your shoulder to see who it could be.
"There we go." Pete says cheerily, handing James the huge cone.
"What do we say?" You tell Jamie.
"Faink you." Jamie says while scarfing down the ice cream already.
You pay Pete, wish him a good evening and start speedwalking while holding Jamie's hand extra tight all the way over to the compound.
"Come on." You rush him, trying to get there quickly.
Then suddenly– you feel yourself getting spun around and backed up harshly against a wall. The man who did this is wearing a mask and his hair is mid-length but you know exactly who it is.
The metal arm kind of gave it away.
He uses said metal arm to choke you and you try your hardest to prise his fingers off of your neck. Him doing this to you hurt more than a ton of bricks but you know it isn't really Bucky. This is the Winter Solider.
"S- stop." You choke out, struggling under his grasp but he ignores your pleads, continuing to choke you harder.
He pulls a gun out, aims it at your head and is about to pull the trigger.
"Mama?" Jamie asks with tears in his eyes. "Iceshweam fell." He points to the sugary mess on the ground.
The Winter Soldier gets distracted by Jamie's crying and he looks down at the little person who's making all that noise. As The Winter Soldier stares at Jamie, your son stares up at him too and a smile forms on his face.
"Dada?" He grins and hugs The Winter Soldier's legs.
The action startles the Solider, making him take a step back. Hope floods your heart when you start seeing an actual person behind that mask as he keeps his eyes fixated on his son.
He then starts blinking rapidly, like he's having an internal fight with himself as he looks at Jamie. All the wile, he's still got you trapped under his metal arms and you try to push him off of you but he doesn't budge.
It's not like you were completely defenseless, because you know a few self-defense moves that Natasha and Yelena taught you. It's just that he appeared so quick, you didn't have any time to react.
Instead of trying to prise his fingers off of your neck, you notice a small button on the side of his sleek metal arm and you decide to push it. Doing this might be the best chance you have at not dying right now.
Once you press the button, he lets go of your throat immediately, making you gasp at the massive air intake. You also realise that the entire metal arm has fallen off and your eyes widen when you see the arm laying lifeless on the ground. Before The Winter Soldier could do anything, you grab the mask off of his face and use your elbow to strike his nose. Since the nose is a pressure point, The Winter Solider fell unconscious almost immediately and you lean on the wall to catch your breath.
You were overwhelmed with so many emotions right now, it was too much for your brain to handle. Not only did your boyfriend return after almost a year, he came to kill you and very nearly succeeded. You were glad you had Jamie there to distract him for a while or else you would've really died.
You then pull your phone out to give the guys a call. Jamie might be a super baby but you don't think he's strong enough to drag a 200 pound man all the way back to the compound.
~•~
"So, what happened?" Steve asks, looking at the passed out, one armed Bucky in a spare room. His black metal arm is currently in your hands right now, scared of what Bucky would do if you re-attached it.
"He tried to kill me on our way back." You start. "So I knocked him out."
"I don't understand." He crouches down to Bucky's level and examines him. "Why would HYDRA send him here after all this time? Why not send him to kill you as soon as they could?"
"They were probably waiting for a vulnerable moment." You realise. "Today's the first day I went out by myself in a while, I'm usually always with someone."
You fiddle with Bucky's dog chains on your neck once you see that he's starting to wake up. You haven't taken them off ever since Tony gave them to you all those months ago. It seems like you and Jamie are both weirdly attached to jewelry because he still hasn't taken off the rune necklace that Thor gave him when he was born.
Speaking of Thor, he hasn't turned up either. You really do hope he's okay, wherever he is.
"Buck?" Steve asks and he opens his eyes fully.
Bucky mumbles inaudibly for a little bit, sitting up. "Is he okay?"
"Is who okay?" Steve ponders.
"The child. I saw a child...he looked just like me. I think I remember him."
The child? You were overjoyed that Bucky's back but if he didn't remember anything at all about you or Jamie then things just got a whole lot more complicated.
"It might take him a little while to get his whole memory back." Steve mutters to you. "We've been through this a lot."
Panic over.
"What do you remember?" You ask, your hands shaking with fear of him not remembering you.
Bucky stares blankly at the ground for a few minutes, muttering to himself before he looks back up to you. "You. I couldn't forget you."
~•~
I was thinking about making him not remember ANYTHING but I couldn't stand you guys being upset with me again, lmao.
Leave your thoughts/ opinions in the comments!
See you all in Chapter 15 <3