A Promise of Forever

Chapter 2: Her Boys

Ophelia stayed in the hospital for just over a week due to her fast healing, Steve and Bucky continued to visit whenever they could, each time thanking her profusely for saving them. Steve and Bucky were the only things keeping Ophelia sane, she hated hospitals but what she hated more was the pitying looks everyone gave her, and the pity of the overbearing nurses who looked at her as if she was incapable of just about everything. The boys could not be a better reprieve from hospital life, Bucky was loud and funny yet he was kind and sweet and Steve was quieter but not by much, and he was fiery and empathetic. Steve had taken longer to not feel uncomfortable in her presence, to feel anguish over her amputation, but once he did he felt as if he must protect Ophelia to the best of his ability, because just like him she was small and she was vulnerable in this world.

Ophelia was allowed to leave exactly 10 days after her accident, she was confined to a wheelchair for the time being just until her fitted prosthetic was finished. Even though she was out of hospital the boys didn't stop visiting her and trying to help her. Which lead her to another problem, she had no money, Death had secured her a small apartment near to where Bucky lived and set her up with a full backstory and fake family but he neglected to give her any way to support herself. Which lead her to the conclusion that she would need a job, this became the start of her problems.

Ophelia knew she would struggle in the 40's. Her stubborn personality and her belief in women's rights had made it hard to blend into the 40's life. She found comfort in her new friends but it didn't last long. Ophelia also had no experience in any common 40's work. Hell! She had never actually worked in her life. She became the master of death at 18 and had never been undercover anywhere long enough to warrant getting a job. It didn't help that many people wouldn't hire her due to her amputee status. She knew that she could still access the Potter fortune due to the Goblins system of blood identification, however she didn't want to risk messing up the time streams considering that was her job and she would eventually have to clean that mess up and surviving on conjured food was impossible. This is what made her eventually lower her standards, so she accepted a secretarial job for an office. The job payed her a barley liveable wage, but she made do.

Ophelia quickly learned to keep her mouth shut after almost losing her job after the first day. She, on multiple occasions, had to remind herself not to reply viciously to the blatantly sexist remarks made by employees. The only light in her life at the moment were the two boys she had made friends with. Their conversations flowed easily despite the boys censoring themselves unsure how to act around her. What she once thought would be a tiresome assignment became what Ophelia had craved for after having to leave Ron and Hermione.

Ophelia's life soon became a routine of dealing with the men in the office and hanging out with Steve and Bucky, and with the help of the longer dresses and stockings of the 40's she was able to conceal her prosthetic and, with the help of her magic, walk fluidly without hindrance from her leg. While her life seemed to be looking up her job however steadily got worse. She worked for Jones and James packing that was heavily involved in shipping materials out to the front line and as the war got worse so did the mood of the office.

"File these for me sweetheart" a man said condescendingly, handing her a pile of stacked paper.

"I will get to that soon. You can leave them in the pile. Have a good day sir" Ophelia exclaimed biting her tongue,

"Do you know who I am?! They need to be filed now!" the man bellowed.

"I'm sorry, but I have some work that takes precedence over filing. If you will just wait a minute I will get to it soon." Ophelia said a fake smile covering her features, she was in fact trying to organise the shipments of food goods to the frontline camps as half the staff was incompetent, which left her with double the work to do, as men thought that just because she was a woman that she could be walked all over.