Women In War

Bonus

~~|July, 2024|~~

"Are you sure about this?"

Maggie put her hands on her hips and glared at the man on the gurney. "Listen, mister, I've spent weeks analysing your DNA with some of the brightest minds this time and universe has to offer--"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Bucky said, holding his hand out. "You worked with two seventeen-year-olds for two and a half months and you expect me to trust your anti-serum?"

"Excuse you," Shuri said, folding her arms, "you had no problems with me handling you when I was fifteen."

"Uh."

"Come on, Mr Soldier dude, don't be so mean!"

Bucky raised an eyebrow at Shuri. "Because when you were fifteen, you did not know Loco and Loco 2.0 over there."

"Am I Loco or Loco 2.0?" Peter asked.

Bucky sighed and watched Maggie fill the syringe with her anti-serum. "How do you know this will work?"

"I tested it on Steve, obviously. Look, it's simple really. I helped develop the serum. With the knowledge of the inner workings of the serum, I was able to develop the anti-serum. Working with Shuri and Peter, I managed to isolate your version of the serum from your DNA. Once we had that, we were able to determine where it differed from the original serum and thereafter develop something to counteract your version of the serum."

"Steve let you do that?"

Maggie nodded. "He said that I had to offer you the same. If I managed to go back, then he would come here and the two of you would age normally with your friends and family. If you didn't accept but I still got back, then I was going to give him the serum back and send him home. Seeing as I can't go back, Steve will most likely age with Peggy, Howard . . . my old family. Buck, you don't have to do this. You can keep the serum. It's your choice."

Bucky thought about it. For so long, he'd done things because it was orders or because it was the right thing to do. Never because it was his choice. Without the serum, he'd go back to being Bucky Barnes. Shuri had already developed a lighter prosthetic that he would not find heavy once he let go of his super strength. Peter promised to stop calling him Mr Soldier -- and he was working on designing new uniform for Bucky.

"If this works," Bucky said, looking at Maggie, "I'll get my hair cut."

"You -- what?"

"You mentioned often, when you first came here, that the hair was a distinct reminder that he and I weren't the same."

"Parker," Shuri murmured, gesturing for him to follow, "come look at these designs."

Subtly, the teens left Bucky and Maggie alone.

"I'm getting used to it," Maggie said with a smile, reaching out and tucking a lock behind Bucky's ear.

"The way you talk about him . . . I want to be him. I want to be loved the way he was loved. I want Becky to see me as her brother. I -- I want to be myself again. I know that I can't ever be your Bucky, but I want to be who I was. I want to be me."

"Oh, doll," Maggie said, threading her fingers through his hair, "you're already my Bucky. You're right that you'll never be him. You are you, and this? The anti-serum? It's about you and what you want. Tell me right now that you want to stop and I will, no questions asked. Just . . . don't do this because you feel like you have to."

"This is kind of the first time in a really long while that I'm getting something I want. Don't stop."

Maggie nodded and turned back for the syringe. "Because of the nature of your serum, we're going to have to do this gradually, monitoring the process. You'll come in for a monthly shot where Shuri will compare the data with the record we will build. Hopefully, all goes well. Are you still sure you want to go through with this?"