The Winter Soldier and the Waitress

Chapter 12

Two weeks later

When the doors of the elevator opened, Steve stepped inside, his eyes going to his friend who didn't look as happy as he did a few weeks ago.

"Hey Buck."

"Hey."

"So uh—you've been a ghost around here lately. You been with Grace?"

"No, her and Trey have been packing and I just decided to keep my distance."

"Is that what she wanted?"

"Well it was sort of implied when she told me that she was looking ahead to her future and that future was Trey."

"So you and Grace..." the elevator doors opened.

"There is no me and Grace anymore." Bucky stalked out and Steve stood there watching as his friend stalked away.

Grace found herself stuck in another moment from the past. It had been happening lately since they started packing their things. This time she was in the living room, packing up their pictures when she picked up one that made her smile. It was a picture from last Christmas, Trey was on Bucky's shoulders, putting the star on top of the tree. She remembers pushing down feelings for the man even back then, especially moments like this when he was with Trey. He was always so good with Trey.

"Ma!" the boy yelled before running into to living room. Grace lifted her eyes to look over to him. "Do we have to leave?"

"Boy, we not having this conversation again. I've already told you that staying here was always temporary and that once it was safe we would go back home. Are you done packing up your room?"

"Yeah," it was a muttered response as he turned to leave the room but then he stopped and turned back to her. "I haven't seen Bucky in a while, is he out on another mission?"

Grace shrugged. "I don't know baby."

"I thought you were supposed to know. You are his girlfriend."

Grace glanced back down to the picture and let out a heavy sigh.

"I think he might not be happy with me right now." she spoke quietly.

"What happened?"

Grace looked over to her son, realizing she definitely shouldn't be talking about this with him and so she shook her head.

"It's nothing baby, don't worry about it."she nudged her head. "Go check your room again, make sure you've got everything."  Grace once again dropped her eyes back to that picture and Trey noticed the sad look in his mother's eyes.

"Mama?"

"Yes baby." she looked over to him with a smile.

"One day in class, I said something mean to another kid. He was wearing a Dory shirt and I said only babies like Dory. Charley didn't talk to me the rest of that day. When I asked her why she said because of what I said and that it was mean."

"She's right baby. I hope you apologized to that boy."

"I did. The next day I told him I was sorry, and asked if he wanted to eat lunch with us. He's actually really funny." Trey laughed and Grace smiled. She was raising a boy who was starting to take accountability for his actions and correcting them. She was a proud mama.

"Did Charley forgive you?"

Trey nods. "She did. It was weird because the day before she was really mad, but then the next day we were cool like nothing had happened. I didn't really understand it, so I asked Bucky because he knows a lot about girls."