A Heart Break In Time

But Would You Be Able To Rest?

At the diner Bucky insisted on paying. "My goodbye gift to you, doll. Come on. Don't deny an old man this."

I rolled my eyes. "You're being rather dramatic. I'm not running away or hiding. Just on a mission with no end date is all."

"Yeah, but what if I miss you?"

I grabbed his phone. "So there's this cool thing. If you touch my name, here. It calls me! You'll be able to talk to me in real time! And then if you hit this little button here, and then press those letters, you'll be able to send me whatever message you want, and these little pictures-"

He grabbed his phone back. "I know what emojis are, Talia. Come on."

"You're the one who called yourself an old man." I grinned at him.

"I'm just trying to say I'll miss you, is all."

"I'll miss you too, Barnes."

Flashback

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve stood defensively in front of me, I wrapped my hand around his arm.

"Your mom's name was Sarah...You used to wear newspapers in your shoes." He let out a small laugh and I felt Steve's body relax.

"Can't read that in a museum." He reached forward and hugged his long lost friend and I smiled.

Sam hesitantly asked, "Just like that, we're suppose to be cool?" He looked at me and I shrugged. I was never one to question Steve. When he loved you, he went all in.

Bucky was the next to speak. "What did I do?"

My heart ached as I felt for him. Steve replied "Enough."

"Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words."

"Who was he?"

Bucky shook his head. "I don't know."

"People are dead. The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know.'"

Bucky sighed before answering, like he was trying to collect his thoughts. "He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where."

I stepped closer to Steve when he spoke again. "Why would he need to know that?"

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier." Bucky looked down at the ground as he said that and I tightened my hand around Steve's arm. He looked at me and sighed. Bucky's eyes moved to me for the first time and he raised his eyebrow at Steve.

"Bucky, I'd like you to meet Talia Aimilios. My girlfriend. And that is Sam Wilson."

"Hi." I smiled at him.

"No way, little Stevie got himself a dame? Hell must've frozen over." Bucky chuckled. "Nice to meet you, doll. You too." He nodded towards Sam, Sam replied with a simple nod back.

"You too, Steve's told me a lot about you."

"I'm sure he did. He never was one to keep
His mouth shut, no matter what trouble it got us in."

We all laughed and I felt myself relaxing. If Steve trusted him, I could too.

*

We left the diner and were silent as we drove back. We didn't see anyone as we walked back into the compound. I grabbed my bags as Bucky went to tell Sam I was leaving. I took one last look around my home and saw the trash bag full of Steve shit. I suddenly realized what to do with it.

I carried it to his room and knocked on the door. No answer. Perfect. I looked around at the room, mostly boxed up and smiled. Even better. I walked over to his bed and dumped the entire contents of the trash bag on it. I moved things around so the whole bed was covered, placing a picture of the two of us on the center, before smiling to myself and walking out. Childish and petty? Probably. Deserved? Definitely.

I grabbed my things and went to go find the boys. They both were waiting for me by my car. "Come on, please don't make this a big sappy goodbye. I love you both but I don't feel like driving and crying today."

Sam laughed and Bucky rolled his eyes. Sam answered. "No crying. Just hugs." Sam wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead. I smiled against his chest and then pulled away. Bucky stepped forward and hugged me just as tight as Sam did. When he pulled away I kissed his cheek.

"Thank you both. I'll be back soon. And call me! Text me! Anything but FaceTime, really." I smiled and got in the passenger seat and drove away. I pulled up right outside the sign that said Westville, New Jersey. I saw Agent Woo standing next to a woman I didn't know. I got out and approached them.

"Perfect timing, you must be Miss Aimilios. This is Monica Rambeau." Agent Woo stuck his hand out.

"Pleasure to meet you both. I'm a little foggy on the details of why I'm here. But it has to do with Wanda?"

Woo answered. "I'll show you." We walked to the officer who was standing by the sign. "Pardon me, Sheriff. Would you mind repeating your claim about Westview to my colleagues here?"

"No such place."

I looked at Agent Woo and Monica. She replied to the officer. "You're saying the town of Westview, New Jersey, doesn't exist?"

"It's what I keep telling your G-Man here, but he won't listen."

I stepped forward. "I see. And, um, I'm sorry, what town are you from?"

"Eastview."

"Thank you, Sheriff. I'll reach out if we need any further assistance. I, uh, pulled phone numbers for all the residents. I'm only through the Ds, but so far I got Diddly Squat." Woo turned to Monica and I.

"So you can't reach anyone inside and everyone on the outside has some sort of selective amnesia?" Monica asked Woo.

"This isn't a missing person's case, Captain Rambeau, it's a missing town. Population 3,892."

I interrupted. "I'm sorry, so why haven't you gone inside to investigate?"

"'Cause it doesn't want me to. You can feel it too, can't you? Nobody's supposed to go in."

Monica sighed. "What about you?"

"Me?" Woo chuckled. "Well, I'm from Bakersfield, originally. Growin' up, other kids had Michael Jordan posters on their walls, but I had Eliot Ness."

Monica rolled her eyes. "No, no, no, no. I mean, why is it that you have an awareness of Westview? Or me, for that matter? Is it because we are outside of a certain radius, or maybe because we don't have a personal connection?"

"No, that's a really good question. Why do we know?" I looked around and tried to understand what was happening here. Wanda, what the hell are you doing?