1946, New York
"Oh no." Jarvis cursed, "Oh shi...shoot."
"Why didn't you stop her?" Howard called from the back seat as Jarvis panicked about Clara doing a runner.
"Why didn't I stop her?"
Howard nodded and reached over to close the door Clara had slipped out from.
"Oh no. No Peggy and now no Clara." Jarvis rambled, "I'm not cut out for this. I can't do this and you most certainly can't!"
"Hey!" Howard protested, "Need I remind you that I control your paycheck?"
Jarvis slammed on the breaks and the car came to an abrupt stop that sent Howard flying into the front passenger seat.
"Why'd you stop?" Howard groaned as he picked himself back up. Perhaps now he'd think twice about not wearing a seat belt.
"We have to go." Jarvis said, clear as day, staring straight out of the windscreen, looking at nothing in particular.
"Go where?" Howard asked but was met with no reply, "Jarvis? Go where?"
"Go to Peggy." Jarvis answered plainly and put the car in reverse.
"No. No!" Howard protested as he realised what Jarvis meant. "We can't go back!"
"We're not going back."
"What?! Then where the hell are we going?" Howard asked, outraged, "Oh you don't mean-"
"I do, sir." Jarvis said defiantly, "And I sincerely hope I will still be receiving my paycheck."
*
Clara stared, wide-eyed and unblinking, at her unexpected stalker.
"It's me." The woman said, laughing slightly, "Maggie. Maggie Jones."
"Oh my god." Clara breathed, "Maggie?"
Maggie stared at her like Clara had lost her mind.
"Yeah..."
"Oh my god..."
Clara didn't know what to do. This was the last thing she expected. She thought she'd never see Maggie again. Maggie was dead! Heather had told her as much. Maggie had died! And here she was, face to face with Clara in a back alley in 1946!
"It is you, isn't it, Clara? I don't want to have accosted some stranger!" Maggie laughed nervously.
"No. It is me." Clara stammered trying to think what to say. What could you say to someone who you thought died. Then again that did seem to happen to her a lot...Phil, Bucky, Steve.
"Maggie, I thought you'd died." Clara eventually said.
"So did I!" Maggie blurted, "They said you'd died in action. Code for you'd gone missing and they didn't want to find you, I suspected. I guess I was right!"
YOU ARE READING
Return | Bucky Barnes x OC | (4)
FanfictionFourth in the Timeline series | Clara Lewis never expected to be back in the 1940s and Howard Stark never expected to have to help her get back...again. But with Howard branded a traitor Clara knows of only one person who can help her: Peggy Carter...