Monster (A Bucky Barnes Fanfiction)

119

FIVE YEARS LATER:

April 7, 2023:

It's been five years since the Snap, five years without Bucky, without my brother and sister, without one of my best friends. Grace is now almost twelve and a half. Luka is almost eleven and a half, Zoya is seven and Rebecca is four. A few months after Rebecca was born, Pepper and Dad had my half-sister Morgan, who is three. And I feel old even though I'm only 27. I have been in contact with Natasha, Steve, and Rhodey. Thor hasn't been heard from in five years. Bruce left after I had Rebecca and I don't know where he is. I needed a break from Dad, but I think I might regret coming to visit Nat; she tried to get me into online dating which I refused, for a while, I went on one date and it was awful, not to mention I'm still very much in love with Bucky. I still wear his dog tags. I now wear my engagement ring around my neck on the chain with my phoenix pendant.

I enter the compound and find Nat in the kitchen, cutting a peanut butter sandwich into a couple of triangles. As someone else was speaking, Rocket; Nebula, Okoye, Carol, who now has short hair, and Rhodey. Nat also has a new hairdo, long red fading to blonde hearing Rocket Raccoon out about his status so far. I wave as I take a seat. They all offer me a quick wave as they continue to talk.

"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged." Rocket says.

"It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula adds, clearly annoyed.

"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket says, also very annoyed, and turns to Danvers.

"Well, you were closer," Carol replies with a slight smirk. I snort behind my hand and Okoye and Rhodey smile at me.

"Yeah." Rocket says, "And now we smell like garbage."

Natasha turns to Okoye. "You get a reading on those tremors?" she asks her. I look at Okoye.

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate," Okoye says.

"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?"

"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it."

"She's got a point, can't really do anything about them," I add.

Nat turns to Carol and asks, "Carol, are we seeing you here next month?"

"Not likely," Carol tells her.

"What, you gonna get another haircut?" Rocket asks.

"Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory," Carol replies irritatedly "The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets."

"All right, all right, that's a good point." Rocket murmurs to himself, "That's a good point."

"So you might not see me for a long time," Carol informs everyone.

"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active." Nat says, "So, if anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me."

Okoye agrees in Wakandan.

"Okay." Rocket says.

"Alright," Natasha says.

They cut off their calls one by one. I watch Natasha and Rhodey closely. I know something else is going on. I had heard a bit about Clint going off the deep end. He couldn't handle losing his entire family in the Snap. And I can't help but wonder if that's what it's about.