Inspired By Taylor Swift Series

Timeless - Part 3: On A Crowded Street in 1944

"In another life, you still would've turned my head, even if we'd met on a crowded street in 1944, and you were headed off to fight in the war..."

"Ma!" Bucky bellows, the excitement thick in his voice as he bursts through the front door. "You here?"

"Bucky." His mother's voice rings out through their apartment. It's not her normal greeting. It's hollow and distant.

The silence in the apartment is odd. The Barnes household was always brimming with life, filled with the sounds of his siblings running around, the radio crooning songs, pots and pan clattering in the kitchen.

It feels like the life has been sucked out of his home.

"Ma?"

She doesn't reply this time. He finds her in the kitchen, but instead of her normal lively cooking routine, she sits solemnly at the kitchen table.

Bucky crouches down, kissing his mother's cheek in greeting. "Ma, is everything okay?"

His mother, Winnifred, frowns at the sight of him. She still remembered him as the little boy he once was. A boyish grin on his face, his eyes bright, cheeks flushed. Only a few years removed from his boyhood. His whole life in front of him. This was not a person that deserved what she knew was coming.

All she'd ever wanted for her son was boundless happiness, and he'd found it.

She knew it from the moment he met you.

He walked through the door chattering Steve's ear off about how he'd found the perfect women. She knew it that very night. Love was not enough to save him from this fate.

"A letter came for you today."

Bucky quirks his head, concerned about his mother's strange behavior, "A letter? From who?"

She doesn't respond, instead handing him the letter. She'd heard this story told so many times since the war began.

Up and down the block, she watched old friends crumble as they were forced to send their sons away. She watched mother's find that notice on their porch. The break downs had on those same front porches. Sons, fathers, husbands, one by one, shipped off to war.

Some never came back.

Even the ones that did, never came back the same.

Winnifred does her very best not to cry in front of Bucky, she tries not to worry him.

But the sharp exhale that leaves his mouth when he sees that letter is enough to break her.

Two months ago, Bucky would've proudly served his country. Two months ago, he would've taken it in stride. Two months ago, he had nothing going for him here.

And now he was headed of to fight in the war. The deadliest war in history. The look on his mother's face tells him everything he needs to know. The life he knew, here in Brooklyn, with his family, with you, is over.

For a long while, he just stands there, before his grieving mother, taking it all in. After that long moment, she squeezes him tightly like she's trying to give Bucky all the strength and life she has left. He wonders how he'll tell his siblings. He doesn't think he'll be able to take the tears streaming down their faces. And then, he wonders how he'll tell you. How will he find the strength to tell you? How would he find the strength to leave?

The walk to your home is quiet and solemn. Each step he takes is a step closer to his looming fate. Bucky truly wonders if he'll find the strength somewhere along the six block walk to your home. His thoughts revolve around you. Only you.