Longing •Bucky Barnes•

• Fifty Eight •

"Auntie Val!" I heard and I turned the corner of Stark tower to see her running towards me.

I dropped my bag and ran for her and she instantly dove into my arms. I hugged her back to tightly unable to even speak. I cried, but tried to not make it too obvious. I held her in my arms as her small frame held onto me.

"Auntie Val I missed you to much!" She said squeezing me.

"Morgan I missed you so much, you have no idea." I said in a shaky breathe.

"Where's uncle Bucky?" She said looking up at me.

"Parking the car." I said with a soft smile as I ran my fingers through the end of her hair. "How was your time with uncle Peter?"

"It was so much fun, he took me to Essa Bagel everyday before school! Aunt May is so good at braiding my hair and you have to meet Peter's girlfriend Mary Jane she is so cool and- Uncle Bucky!" She said as he saw him walk in the door.

"Well it looks like you two had quite the trip, it's been all over the news." I heard and Peter was walking over.

I shook my head as I stood up and hugged him. He was in his regular clothes which was rare to see up until recently. Bucky picked up Morgan and I saw the loving hug he gave her as the relief of being home washed over him. I hugged Peter tightly missing him so much.

"Thank you Peter, being away form her for so long was the hardest thing I've had to do." I said as I relaxed finally being home.

"It was nothing, the last week flew by. You guys definitely have your hands full, she's got more energy then I know what to do with." Peter said with a soft laugh.

"She's definitely a fire cracker." I said smiling up at him. "What's this I hear about a girlfriend?"

"Oh yeah um- it's kind of new- I mean she's really nice-"

"I'm excited to meet her." I said stopping his rambling. "We'll have to take you two out sometime as a thank you for watching her this week."

"I'd like that." He said with a nervous laugh. "I do have to show you something first."

I was going to ask but he was already leading me towards the next hallway. We came up to the medical wing and we stopped in front of the physical therapy unit. After Tony had come back from Titan he had spent much time here getting his strength back. However, as I looked in now I was seeing someone I never thought I'd see up and moving again.

"Pepper." I gasped.

There was a thick glass between us, but she looked up slowly to look at me. Her eyes looked empty as her glance connected with mine, her emotions almost non existent. She looked back down at the slow treadmill she was on and I could see Helen speaking to her. I looked to Peter with a confused expression.

"What's wrong?" I asked sounding hollow.

"She woke up the night you two left. She doesn't remember anything, Helen isn't sure if she ever will." Peter said softly with his head low. "She could barley stand yesterday so they're at least seeing progress in that department."

"I can't believe she's awake." I said still taken back by seeing her with eyes open. "I mean why didn't anyone call me?"

"Nothing would have changed here. Helen was going to work her hardest no matter what, you would have rushed home for nothing. You guys had a lot more on your plate than we do." Peter said. "Morgan and I tried talking to her, but she doesn't seem to remember us."

"Morgan knows?" I asked horrified how she had taken something like that.

"Yeah, she had a lot of questions, but she understands as much as you could ask of a 6 year old. I was going to let you two tell her, but I didn't think you'd want to come back and bear bad news. At least this way she looked forward to you two coming home." Peter said looking to the ground mostly. "She likes to bring her flowers every Sunday from the garden downstairs."