The Collection- Bucky Barnes

Collision Course- ii

All she wanted was to bring her husband back. Just one person. One person throughout her whole entire life. Was that so much to ask? After everything she- and they- had been through, was his life too much of a favor? A whole future ahead of them, snuffed out too soon. She'd just wanted that back.

She'd just wanted him back.

Now, there's nothing. She's lost everything. James. The whole team. Her whole life. Fuck. Bones. That damn scraggly dog. All alone at home. She can just see him posted by the window, watching for her, probably still watching for James. But now neither of them is coming home.

"Hey."

The one word, from that voice, makes her entire body go frozen. Her lip trembles as she squeezes her eyes shut. Not him, it's not him. His face, his body, his voice, but it's not him.

This is the punishment, she sees it now. Not just being ripped out of her life, her world and placed somewhere else, but being placed with him. Her husband, but it's not really him. She's sentenced to be in a world where he exists, but as a different version. And worse, a version that has never known her because she's never existed here.

"I'm Bucky," he continues and she can sense him getting closer to her, "but you already knew that, didn't you?"

All she can do is nod. And slowly, she opens her eyes but still refuses to look at him. The taste of metal tangs her tongue. A feeling she recalls all too well. She glances down at the ground, taking in the way the small sticks and pebbles have arranged themselves. She knows that pattern like the back of her hand. The air has gone stale.

Trap.

She has nowhere else to go, though. Then again, wouldn't anywhere be better than here?

"Wanna tell me your name?" He asks gently. "Or we could just keep calling you Crazy Pants, you know, if you're into that."

The surprisingly light-hearted joke is sudden enough that it draws a bleak but genuine laugh from her. She grimaces and makes the decision. When she looks back at him, she's stunned to see his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. James always stood with his arms crossed.

But...But this isn't James, is it?

"Aurora." She says quietly. "Rory."

He cocks an eyebrow. "Which one? Aurora or Rory?"

There's a choice to make. And it's clear as can be. James always called her Aurora. He called her name magic, just the way she was. And she can't bear to hear this version say it. "Rory."

He nods slowly. Takes a cautious step forward. When she doesn't move, he takes another. "How'd you get here?"

She knows he wants to know how she got into the compound. She can't tell him that some weird panel of identical judges zapped her into his dimension. "I did something." Both his eyebrows raise this time. "Something wrong, apparently." She wouldn't go so far as to say that. "They-this is malicious. It's evil."

"What are you-What did you do?"

She glances down at the pebbles in the grass. Cocks her head to the side before leaning down to pick one up. It's unlike the others, misshapen and steel grey. Lumpy and bulbous, where the others are perfectly oval shaped and smooth. Figures.

She drops it back to the ground and looks at James-Bucky. His name is Bucky here. "You can put them on me." It's happened before. The same pebble, same formation on the ground. Another time, another person. Another world. He looks conflicted, like he isn't sure whether to 'fess up or put on a charade. "The handcuffs you're hiding in your back pocket. If it makes you feel safer, you can put them on me."