1941 {Bucky Barnes x OC}

We spent the night talking until we couldn't keep our eyes open. The next day we're eating brunch together and again chatting each others ears off.

Peg looks around the kitchen and smiles at the photos of myself with Bucky or Howard or her. "You've really settled in here." She notes.

"Yeah..." I nod then glancing around. "Bucky really made me more laid back."

"You never used to have much for trinkets or photos. Now look at you." She grins.

"I can't really explain it well." I laugh at myself. "I think before I worked so much that I was never home, so I never bothered to overly decorate, I lived here but it wasn't really home. When I started seeing James..." I smile at a photo of us on the refrigerator. "I don't know if we really spent more time here, but him being here with me... him at all really... made me feel at home. Then I guess I started to actually settle in here. We started settling in. Now I almost feel like I'm back at square one...."

"Oh Elizabeth," she offers her hand across the table. "You're hardly back at the beginning. You have started a lovely life together, so it's on pause for right now." She shrugs. "He'll come home to you sooner or later."

"I just miss him so much Peg, having him tell me he was going was one of the worst things I've ever heard." I hold her hand.

"It's hard when they get drafted, knowing most don't want to leave."  She sighs.

"I think It's harder when they enlist, knowing they do want to leave." I groan.

A perplexed look crosses her face for a moment.  Since when did he enlist? She thinks to herself. "That is awful darling. At least you've got some good support here with Howard and James' family."

"I'm glad you came to visit Peg." I squeeze her hand gently.

"Well if you ever decide to take up nursing again, we have a shortage of them."

"Who knows, maybe I will. A change may be best." I nod. "Something a bit different from the office each day..."

"You let me know." She grins.

When Peggy departs that afternoon,  There's a knock on the door shortly after.

"Hey Peg, did you forget something?" I ask as I open it, only to reveal Steve.

He smiles awkwardly with a plate of dinner in his hands. "I brought this for you."

I move to the side so he can come in. "Thanks Steve."

"Of course." He goes to the kitchen and puts the plate on the table then grabbing me cutlery. "Come eat." He instructs.

I smile once I'm done eating. "Steve I really appreciate you looking out for me."

"Betty, it's the least I could do for you and Buck. You guys have helped me out a lot this past year and hell even Bucky has been looking out for me as long as we've known each other."

"I'm so thankful for you." I smile. "Some girl is going to be really lucky to have you one day."

"Yeah right..." he sighs. Maybe you? No. She's Bucky's girl.

"Steven Grant Rogers," I scold. "Just you wait, you're going to meet the love of your life. It'll catch you off guard and your head will spin." I chuckle.

"I'll hold you to that Betty." He smiles. He washes my plate and follows me to the living room. He sits in Bucky's arm chair by the window and I sit across from him and gaze at a photo of Bucky and I.