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“Hey Darcy can you grab that table for me before you leave for the day? I’ve got a few Karens and they demand my “undivided attention”.” Darcy looked over at the group of well-dressed women who were shoving their phones at each other and snapping photos of the cafe and menu. Probably to write nasty reviews on Yelp.
Not a table she’d want before her shift was up. She was only too happy to take the table for Donna. A single soldier sitting in his Army greens.
“I got you. Thank you for not asking me to take them. I’ve got a lot to do tonight.” Donna nodded, plastered on her best customer service smile and returned to the women.
Darcy fixed the bow tying her hair back; grabbed a fresh pot of coffee and headed to the booth.
“Hey Soldier, what can I get for you?” She smiled and raised up the coffee pot in question.
When he looked up at her, Darcy was struck with a pair of the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen on a man. Deep and blue like an ocean on a stormy day. Trailing her eyes down the rest of his face, she noticed the light pink tingeing his cheeks.
“Uh, yes. Please, and a turkey sandwich if you don’t mind.” She smiled softly at him, and poured a hefty cup of coffee.
“No problem hun.” She turned to put the order in, but as she was moving to walk away, he grabbed her arm gently.
“I’m sorry if this comes off as weird, but would you mind sitting down for a minute? Just to talk to me? I’m just...just a little low right now.” Perhaps it was the brutal honesty, or his obvious desire for any sort of human interaction. But Darcy could not, would not refuse this man.
“I’m off an hour and I know where we can go.”
An hour and half later, found Darcy and “James Barnes, but call me Bucky.” down by Darcy’s favorite spot in the park. A quiet area just along the river, underneath the railroad tracks.
Darcy had never felt like she’d known someone so quickly before. They’d never gone too deep into each other’s lives, staying on pretty safe topics, but she found herself craving to give this man anything he wanted. Just so he would keep that carefree, relaxed smile on his face.
Even his laugh wrapped itself around her heart like a ribbon.
“I bet you got a boyfriend, but I don’t care. I don’t have anyone to send a letter to. Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?”
Darcy took his phone and quickly typed in all her information, any way he could possibly want to reach her. Even the Cafe’s number.
“Of course, whenever you want.”
Bucky was leaving for California for training before heading overseas, the next morning, this night was all he had.
He walked her back to her apartment, his rucsack slung over his shoulder. He had to take a red-eye to make it in time.
“Stay for a little while? I’ll pack you something for your flight?” He glanced at his watch and nodded, stepping into her hallway. She swiftly made her way into the kitchen grabbing a few TSA approved containers for him. She’d flown a few times and while her memory was hazy, she was confident he’d be able to enjoy them. At least before he had to board.
With few of her homemade cookies tossed in for good measure she handed him a reusable bag with a ribbon tied around it.
“Thanks Doll. Though I think I’ll have to hide this at the bottom of my bag so they don’t confiscate it.” The smile in his voice spread a warmth Darcy could feel all the way down to her toes.
“I left my info here,” He handed a sheet of paper with various numbers and addresses and how to get anything she sent to him.
“Thank you for being kind to me.” She couldn’t contain herself, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him the biggest, tightest hug she could, hoping to convey all the things he deserved in life.
“I’ll be waiting for my letters Barnes. I’m pretty impatient.” She teased as they made their way to her door. Desperate to avoid him leaving, she tried to lighten up the mood.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She took on one side of the door frame and he on the other. “I gotta go now Doll.” He leaned in one more time, placed a soft kiss on her cheek, and waved, holding the bag in his hand.
“Bye Bucky, be safe.” He nodded and disappeared down the way. Darcy closed her door only after she couldn’t see him anymore.
Darcy didn’t have to wait long for his first letter. It was sitting on her kitchen table folded in half with her name on it. He must have written while she was busying herself in the kitchen making his snack bag.
From that moment on they communicated as often as possible, and while, there was email and text, they both seemed to stick to their letters each dutifully sending them as often as possible. Darcy sent care packages, for a while only for Bucky, but after learning about the “Howling Commandos” from him, she began sending them for the whole unit. Bucky made fast friends with their leader, Steve Rogers, who quickly became a friend of Darcy’s for the amount of slack he’d give Bucky to communicate with her.
The far and few between phone calls.
The downside of being… “friends” with a travelin’ soldier, was all the disparaging comments that seem to entail. Her friends questioned her dedication. Her co-workers worried for her. Even her own mother said she was too young to know what she was getting herself into and that she’d only end up with a broken heart.
Darcy refused to dwell on that notion. Better to NOT put that out in the universe.
They’re more than friends a year into their exchange, Bucky comes home on a 1 week leave and stays with Darcy. He has no other family besides his unit.
It’s enough for them to cement their relationship both emotionally and physically. A few hours before he’s set to leave Bucky pulls out a silver ring with a small ruby in its center.
“When I come home, will you marry me?” He means when he comes back from overseas, they’re shipping out and the deployment is always unknown. Darcy happily agrees. They spend the last few hours together, absently talking about their future.
They keep their tradition of letters and Darcy’s care packages. By now the unit is the most envied and the whole team of soldiers send Darcy their own letters with requests. Darcy has made fast friends with the other partners who are stateside, even though they’re spread across the nation.
It’s months since Bucky left, and weeks since his last letter. The last thing Darcy received was information on him coming home. He’d been granted an early end, and was coming home permanently. Or as permanently as could be with the Army. Bucky wasn’t going to retire as long as Steve was leading.
It was an unfortunate thing for Darcy, being Bucky’s girlfriend didn’t give her the same access to information as the other partners. She was usually the last to know and usually because Steve knew he could swing the info to her.
So when she was working the pop-up stand for the cafe at a football game, it floored her when the pre-game announcements sounded.
A moment of silence for locals killed.
Darcy stood dutifully with her hand held over her heart and prayed for the families of each name read.
“James Buchanan Barnes”
The world shattered around her.
Darcy couldn’t remember what happened next. She woke up at home. Her friend Jane bustled around the kitchen when she stumbled in.
Jane forced a cup of coffee into her hands.
“Drink.”
Life stood still for a while, Darcy didn’t reach out to anyone, holed up in their-her apartment. Ignoring the phone calls and text messages. The knocks at the door were unanswered.
Life was never going to be the same, and Darcy didn’t want to continue with it.
He was supposed to be coming home. Alive.
Not...not.
Darcy shoved the thought away.
Another week went by and the weight of the truth finally forced her into a different state. Rage. Darcy didn’t rage like other people, who shattered and destroyed things around them
No.
Darcy rage cleaned. She completely top to bottom, from the base boards to the ceiling fan blades cleaned her apartment before falling into the shower and cleaning herself up.
Staring at herself in the mirror, a pair of scissors in her hand. Darcy was about to cut the long locks that Bucky used to run his hands through when a knock on the door startled her. She hadn’t seen anyone, and she really didn’t want to know if it was two uniformed men with a flag for her.
But then she heard a key in the lock.
No one had a key to her apartment except herself and Bucky.
“Darcy?”
For the second time, Darcy’s heart stopped.
She sprinted from the bathroom to the hallway leading to the door.
There in the doorway, the setting sun fading behind him, was Bucky. Alive and whole.
He was standing at an angle, his left side a bit hidden from her but she didn’t care. Didn’t see. She cried as she launched herself at him, kissing every inch of visible skin.
It wasn’t until he wrapped one arm around her did she see.
Alive and not whole.
Bucky was missing his left arm. She didn’t care.
He looked at her, his eyes swimming with hesitancy. She kissed him again, dragging him into the apartment and into their bedroom.
“Darcy?” He questioned as she sat him down on the bed and went into their walk-in closet. “Doll...I know it’s a lot. I wouldn’t blame you at all if you...wanted...to.” Bucky lost his words when Darcy walked back out in a white sundress, pearls and her hair pinned up.
She didn’t say a word as she stepped into white heels, grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him back down to the front door.
“Darcy Doll, where are we going?” She finally stopped at the front door, turned, adjusted his tie and fixed his hat on his head.
“We’re going to the court house, you’re going to marry me. Right now.” Bucky wasn’t one to question his woman. Smiled like a fool, held his arm out for her to take and walked into his new life with the women of his dreams.