𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄━︎━︎ B. Barnes ✓︎

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

TWENTY-EIGHT:
OFF THE GRID

SHE WAS OFF THE GRID. She had been for five years. Ever since that day that she watched Thanos' head get chopped off by Thor, that anger only continued to swell inside of her, and she was scared of it. She knew what her anger could do. She knew the person that she would manage to turn into. And she couldn't be around the people who had helped her and showed them that she was falling apart. So she ran. She ran away, and it was something she had never done before.

Fallon couldn't do anything right, it seemed. She couldn't even walk straight. This was why she didn't get close to people. This was why she stayed closed off because emotions clouded her better judgement. The man that had managed to drag her away from that dark side of her was gone. And that was her fault, or at least that's what she had convinced herself. They had all failed that day, but Fallon even more so.

The one family that she had managed to create, the family that she chose, she feared they saw her as nothing but a failure. And she couldn't meet Natasha or Steve's eyes and see the disappointment that lingered within them. She couldn't do that all over again. So, she fell of the the face of the earth. Natasha continuously trying to track the girl down just like she was with Clint who had turned into an assassin killing all the bad people he had once come across.

The girl through her head back as she took another shot before placing the glass back down on the bar, waving off the bartender and paying for the many drinks that she had had. She walked out, the cool breeze ruffling her red hair. She had almost dyed it blonde, like Natasha had done when she went under the grid, but then Fallon remembered how much Bucky had claimed to like her hair, and that was enough to make her put the box dye back down and walk out of the store.

Fallon couldn't understand these emotions. Why did this one man have so much effect on her? He was just another human in the world, and yet her heart seemed to call out to him and so did her mind. Every thought she had seemed to be about Bucky Barnes. The memory of him falling to the ground and turning to dust played in her mind on constant repeat. It was the only thing that she could think about. And there was nothing that she could do. She had lost him. She had lost the man that she loved. The man that had helped her from her rough situation just as she had helped him.

She couldn't help but finding it amusing that her original goal had been to kill him for what he had done to her. But, she came to terms with the fact that that indeed was not Bucky. It was the twisted HYDRA version of Bucky that couldn't remember what humanity was like. And when she managed to get that through her head, she forgave him. She liked to believe that she forgave him when he first looked at her in that restaurant and she saw nothing but constant worry and paranoia in his eyes that HYDRA would find him.

Fallon grabbed herself some food from the few shops that were placed all up and down the roads, popping a berry in her mouth before walking down the street and making her way to the place Bucky had shown her when they had been here all those years ago. She entered the familiar cave, stopping upon noticing the reflection shining on the walls. This was the place Bucky had shown her, the place she would now forever identify as their place. She continued forward until she was standing right in front of the waterfall. She reached out her hand, the one that wasn't carrying her food that she had ate most of on the way to the place, allowing the cool water of the waterfall to flow over her fingers.

This was the last place the two had stood when they had had a true moment of peace. Before the fight between Steve and Tony, and before Thanos. This was her safe place. She sat down, leaning her back against the wall as she closed her eyes and she started to crying. She sat there, sobbing. She had never cried so much in her life. She just wanted him back. But she didn't deserve him. She had done too much cruel in this world to deserve someone like James Buchanan Barnes.

She looked up when she heard footsteps, and somehow she wasn't at all surprised to find Steve standing there with his hands in his pockets, looking at the woman with a small frown on his features. Fallon tried to stop crying, but when she met Steve's eyes it only made her cry more. Steve walked over to the girl, sitting down beside of her and holding onto her as she let all of her pent up emotions out. All of the heartbreak, anger, agony, all of it came pouring out all at the same time.

"How did you find me?" It wasn't until she had managed to calm down and form words that she had asked the question. But her eyes stayed on the flowing waterfall.

"Natasha told me about a place that you claimed to be the first place where you truly trusted Bucky." Steve answered.

"What are you doing here, Steve?" Fallon questioned, finally turning her head to look at him. Steve looked at the redhead for a moment before he nodded his head.

"We have a chance. To get him back. To bring everyone that we lost back." Steve explained and Fallon sat up a little straighter.

"What? How?"

"Have you ever went time traveling?"