Happy Ending *Completed*

Chapter 10

With a sigh I closed the door and turned around, Steve and Bucky were just looking around at my small apartment. "Alright, I need some coffee, do either of you want anything?" I got two head shakes as an answer. "So no words then?"

"It's just a shock that you're still alive, it's just you should be close to dead or already dead by now."

"Yeah, I'll explain that when I've had some coffee." So I went to reheat my now thirty-minute old coffee and went back to the living room to find both guys looking at all the pictures I had around the room. I scared them both a bit when I started talking, "They all span the last 70 years, all the way back to the 40s till now."

"Yeah, we got to see a few before we came over, so care to explain how you're still so young?"

"If you agree to explain that metal arm there Buck, I know why Stevie here is huge and how you are both still alive, but the arm is news to me."

"Deal"

"Alright, let's sit down for this then." With a plop, I set myself in my favorite armchair while Steve took the other one and Bucky situated himself on the couch. Taking a final sip of my coffee I began, "So while Steve here got his powers from Erskine back in the day, Erskine said that the first test subject was Johann Shmidt and Steve was the next attempt, yeah?" Both nodded their heads, "Well that's where the main lie lies." I couldn't help myself, I just had to chuckle a bit at that. "Sorry, lie lies. Anyway, there was another person who was experimented on between Shmidt and Steve, and that person would be me. Erskine wanted to get another trial run in before the main event to be sure everything would work the way he wanted it too. I was asked to do it and I agreed, and I came out fine, but with some new enhancements.

"The main one was my cells started regenerating differently, they kept coming back exactly the same, meaning no aging. (A/N: No idea if this is true, don't trust my google science) I can still die from things like explosions and stab wounds, but I can't die of old age, which was a pain in the butt during the Civil Rights Movement, couldn't walk ten feet without finding some violent person with a weapon in the south. I also did get all the things Steve here got, they just didn't show themselves. So Erskine made some changes to the formula, fixed the anti-aging thing since he was unsure of who would receive it and had the recipient bulk up a bit more, Brandt would be more impressed and what not for more funding. And that's the jist of how I'm still here kickin'." I kept my eyes down the whole time, and when I finished I took another swig of my coffee. "Alright, Stables, story-time about the arm, go."

A slightly confused Bucky slowly started his story of the arm, "Uh, back in the 40s Steve and I were trying to get Zola when I fell out of the train into a ravine and my arm was torn off in the fall, that's when HYDRA found me and made me a puppet, adding a robotic arm."

"Huh, not as exciting as I expected, figured one lady would have been in that story." I chuckled as I took another sip of my coffee, god this is so awkward. With a sigh, I started up again, "Okay, look, I know it's weird, someone who wasn't frozen from the 40s is still here, but it's still me. I know I can talk a lot but I'm not holding the whole conversation on my own. If that's how it's going to be, please just leave."

"Then how about you explain why you left when you did without a trace? Cause I'm not sure why you did." Well, Steve seems a little pissy about that.

"Well, you said you loved me right before you left to save Bucky, and Bucky said he loved me right before he went off to war. Both of my friends had said they loved me, what else would you expect me to do?" They both looked at each other surprised, almost like they didn't know that the other loved me. "And don't think my life was always great after that, you both saying those words was just constantly in the back of my mind playing it's self over, and over, and over. I was left with no hope, or love, or glory. Happy endings gone forever more. I've just been living the rest of my life."

"You could have talked to us, we could have figured out something, you didn't have to leave Doll." I honestly slightly flinched at that nickname, I hadn't heard it in a long time.

"Yeah, bring up how I couldn't pick between the two of you and watch you both slowly grow to hate each other, no thanks. Look, I think that's enough for one day, I have some work I still need to do." They both slowly get up after I do and follow me to the door. "I guess I wish you well."

Just before Bucky walked off with Steve he turned around, "Can we pretend that nothin' ever went wrong?"

With I sigh I responded, "I don't think so Buck, too much just went wrong." And with that, I closed the door.