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After those first couple of days, Bucky and Rosemary were inseparable. It shocked everyone, the two of them included. Steve just about passed out with happiness upon finding out they'd bonded so quickly.
"Told you I had a feeling," Rosemary had heard him mumble to Bucky when he thought she couldn't hear.
Come to find out later, Steve had actually arranged for Bucky to be brought out of the cryo-freeze because he'd been watching Rosemary and thought she'd be good for him, that maybe she'd be able to get through to him. The whole idea of her being assigned to his case had basically been a ruse to get them talking to one another, although she supposed she was still technically assigned to him.
She wasn't sure how exactly she'd done it, but somehow she did seem to be helping him. He still had nightmares and was still hyper-aware of the HYDRA propaganda that was etched into the inner workings of his brain, but for the most part he seemed to be actually doing really well for maybe the first time in a very long time.
Things had even gotten to the point where she and Bucky were working regular SHIELD missions as a team, sometimes with other members of the Avengers, sometimes by themselves. Rosemary had to admit that Bucky was most of the muscle on the missions; she'd never been overly skilled at hand-to-hand combat, although she could hold her own if she needed to, but it felt good just to be working, especially with him.
"Rosie!" Bucky's voice cut through the apartment they now shared, pulling her out of her thoughts.
They'd moved into the Avengers Facility as soon as Tony Stark had gotten wind of the fact that Rosemary was trying to help Bucky return to some sense of normalcy. He'd sent a formal invitation for them to do so and they'd both been skeptical of it at first, but eventually he'd proven himself to have at least decent intentions. At the very least he seemed on board for Bucky's recovery, which was all that really mattered to Rosemary.
"You know I hate that nickname," she mumbled, her focus not totally breaking from the computer screen in front of her that she was working on. She smiled despite herself, unable to stop herself from doing so when Bucky was around.
"Sorry," he replied nonchalantly, and she was positive he was about ten seconds from using it again. Instead he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her to a standing position and twirling her around. She squealed, wrapping her arms around his neck. He held her close for a few seconds before placing her back on the floor and looking at her.
"I missed you," she told him, her heart growing warm when he offered her the smile she'd been expecting him to. He'd been off doing something with Steve most of the day, getting things ready for an upcoming mission and she really had missed him. She'd grown so completely attached to him in the months she'd known him that it had gotten to the point she couldn't even really remember what her life was like without him.
"Missed you too, doll," he whispered, his once-existent New York accent just audible. She smiled back at him, standing on her tiptoes so that she could kiss him.
Before they even had the chance to pull apart, an earsplitting sound echoed through the apartment. It took Rosemary a moment to realize what it was, but Bucky was immediately mobile, pushing her so that he was standing in front of her, covering her completely.
The gunman fired again and Bucky grabbed the weapon he'd discarded onto the bed upon entering the room, also reaching for the handgun in Rosemary's nightstand and handing it to her.
"I love you," Bucky whispered, kissing her forehead before taking steps toward the doorway. "Stay here."
Knowing she should listen but unable to force herself to, she trailed after him, her gun at the ready. There were three masked men in the living room, all three of them descending on Bucky. He took the first one out easily and then fought the other two. Once they were down, he turned to her, panting.
"I told you to stay," he said, and she nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Are you?"
"Yeah."
She walked across the room to him, pulling the mask back on the man nearest his feet. She didn't recognize his face, and Bucky gave her a short shake of his head to indicate that he didn't either. She lifted the other two masks, not surprised when she didn't recognize them either.
"Buck!" she hollered his name suddenly, catching sight of another masked man about to break through the window in front of them. Bucky grabbed him by the neck with his bionic arm as he broke through, the glass showering over him.
"Who sent you?" Bucky demanded. He whipped the man's mask off, revealing yet another face neither of them recognized. "Who sent you?"
"I... we didn't see his face. He paid us... paid us to break in and scare your girlfriend. We... we weren't supposed to kill her and w-w-we didn't know... you were here," the man sputtered under Bucky's hold, and Rosemary put a hand on his shoulder to caution him. He released the man at once, punching him solidly in the jaw with his flesh-and-blood hand. They watched him fall to the floor and Bucky regarded Rosemary in a way she'd gotten used to over the last few months; it was a mixture of protectiveness and adrenaline and it was almost completely irresistible.
"Wait... did you... tell me you loved me just then?" she asked, realization hitting her like a brick wall. Bucky froze, staring at her. She'd known since pretty much that first night they'd spent together that she loved him in one way or another, and she felt that he loved her too, but they'd never said it out loud.
It just wasn't something she ever really thought about usually. She knew where they stood with one another, she knew they'd do anything for one another and anything beyond that just hadn't ever really come up. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized how absolutely in love with him she really was.
"I..." he started speaking, interrupted by a loud siren and flashing lights throughout the apartment. It was an evacuation siren and wouldn't shut off until everyone was out of the building.
"Surprise, there's a threat," Rosemary said sarcastically, clapping her hands over her ears.
"Goddamn it," Bucky mumbled, putting his arm around her shoulder and shepherding her to the elevator.
She let him lead her, her head swimming with thoughts of love.
