"Guess what came in the mail today?" Connie exclaimed breathlessly as she lugged a cardboard box into the loft where Bucky sat on the couch flicking through the television channels.

He tore his attention away from the plasma screen television and looked over at her, getting up to assist her immediately as he noticed her slight struggle with the box. Connie's wound was almost three weeks old, but she had ripped out one of her stitches by reaching into the cupboard to grab a jar of spice to cook dinner with. Of all the physical exertion she had been doing over the passed couple of weeks, all it had taken to defeat her healing wound was her need for a jar of spice. The fact of it was rather amusing to Bucky, though it was also worrisome for him at the same time. He hated knowing that the wound he had caused refused to heal; it made him feel horrible.

"You've got to stop exerting yourself like this, Connie," Bucky chastised as he plucked the box from her grip. "What's even in this?"

Connie smiled happily and skipped over to him as he sat the box down on the coffee table in front of the couch. She ripped the box open without much thought at all and pulled out its contents, very hastily shoving them into the arms of the confused soldier standing above her.

"They're some of our old photo albums that Peggy recovered from our apartment after you, Steve, and I went missing," Connie informed him. "Peggy made sure I got them back when S.H.I.E.L.D. found me in 2008, and they've been at mine and Steve's apartment since he was pulled from the ice. Phil had them shipped out here a couple days ago, per my request, of course."

Bucky's eyes widened slightly at the information, and he took the albums in his hand and sat back down on the couch, wasting no time at all in flipping through them. Connie smiled at his eagerness and grabbed an album of her own. She sat down beside him and began flipping through the pages, smiling fondly whenever she would come across a picture behind nothing but good memories.

It had been so many years since Connie had seen the contents of the photo albums, seventy or so, give or take. She had been in such a broken emotional state when she was found in 2008 that there was hardly anything anyone could do to help fix her. Phil tried as hard as he possibly could to bring her some sort of happiness, and that included giving her a 1900's inspired apartment filled with all of her old belongings that Peggy had the SSR recover from her previous apartment after Steve had gone missing. Her photo albums had been among those belongings, and they were quite possibly the belongings that held most of what could help brighten her mental state, but they had done the complete opposite.

Connie knew exactly what was inside the photo albums, which was why she refused to open them. In her eyes, the albums served as a look back on the life that had so wrongly been taken away from her; the albums to her were a constant reminder of the life she wanted but couldn't have. Even now she was a bit hesitant about peering into the albums for the first time in over seventy years, but her mental state had improved drastically since 2008, and it had improved drastically since she had found Bucky.

"I think I remember this," Bucky chimed up from his spot beside Connie.

Connie looked over at him. He was looking at her with bright blue eyes, while his index finger rested on an old picture of him, Connie, and a pre-serum Steve in front of the ferris wheel at Coney Island. Bucky's arm was wrapped tightly around Connie's shoulder; Connie was pressed into the side of Bucky's body with a wide smile on her face and a stick of cotton candy in her hand; Steve stood to the opposite side of Bucky with his hands shoved into his pockets and an annoyed expression on his face as he glanced over at the couple beside him. Connie smiled as she remembered the events of that day; Coney Island with the two of them was always a highlight for her.

"Steve was so agitated because you and I had just started dating," Connie giggled. "He was afraid of becoming a third wheel even after we promised him that wouldn't be the case."

"By the look on his face in this picture, I'm assuming we broke that promise," Bucky mused with a raised brow.

Connie nodded and let out a small laugh. "I felt bad about it, too, which is how this picture then expunged."

Bucky followed Connie's finger down to the corner of the page where a polaroid picture of the three of them from the same day was clipped inside the plastic. It was now Steve, rather than Bucky, who was holding Connie. The small blond had a very smug smile on his face as Connie's red lips were pressed to his cheek, while Bucky stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest and his blue eyes rolled back in annoyance.

"I think I was upset because you kissed him but didn't kiss me?" Bucky spoke, though his tone indicated that he was unsure about how genuine his memory of the day truly was. A nod of Connie's head, however, assured him that he was in fact correct.

"You're right," Connie told him with a small smile. "You were always so possessive over me and I could never understand why, especially considering Steve is my adoptive brother."

Bucky's eyes softened dramatically as he looked over at her, though she was too busy looking over the pictures in her album to pay attention to him. Bucky understood perfectly as to why he was so possessive over Connie. He had only been with her for a short span of two weeks, and he was definitely nowhere close to having all of his memories in order, but he knew enough when it came to his memories and feelings for Steve and Connie.

Connie was important to Bucky, so much more than he would've originally thought her to be. Her presence alone was enough to ignite a plethora of seventy-year-old feelings inside him in the span of a week and a half. Bucky still wasn't aware of the extent in which those feelings were supposed to stretch inside him, but he knew he felt what he felt deeply, and he felt it for her.

Connie made Bucky happy, much happier than he ever believed he could be. She was the reason he looked forward to getting up in the morning, not only in the present, but in the past as well. Connie was the reason Sergeant Barnes looked forward to taking leave from the 107th every now and again. Connie she was the reason Bucky now felt safe from the demon that had controlled his life since 1945; she gave him hope and a sense of home and comfort he hadn't had the privilege of having in years. Bucky felt like he could finally be himself with her around; he felt like he could finally be free.

Bucky's old feelings had redeveloped to the point of him wondering what could have become of him had he been forced to spend the last two weeks alone. He could see himself sitting in a lonely, abandoned building fighting with the voices inside his head; he could see himself struggling to keep hold of what was left of his sanity; he could see himself battling his inner demons in a war he knew he was destined to lose. Bucky wondered if he would have been able to stand it—being trapped inside his own head. He wondered if the suffering would have drove him to do what he had only briefly been contemplating during the short number of days alone after the helicarrier incident. Had it not been for Connie and her company, he feared he may have succumbed to it.

Losing Connie was not an option for Bucky. Bucky could not imagine something of the sort happening, especially after discovering the importance the small brunette held in his life. Sure, he had Steve to fall back on if he were he to lose her, but both of them filled two completely different voids in Bucky's life. Steve was Bucky's best friend, but Connie was something else—she was something more. The thought of losing her, especially now, made Bucky feel terribly sick to his stomach. It was a fear of his that had been buried deep for so many years, only to reappear when the face behind the fear made an appearance herself.

"I could think of a few reasons," Bucky spoke quietly as he looked at her.

Connie looked up at him with a certain glint in her eyes, one Bucky found to be very comforting and very welcoming. The corner of her lips pulled up slightly and she looked back down at the photo album, a very familiar, yet peculiar feeling flooding into her body.

Connie could tell Bucky was making progress each and every day, but his progress regarding her and Steve was exponential. There was now a sense of familiarity with Bucky that she hadn't personally felt in over seventy years. It was like the two of them were back to their old roots again, very slowly working their way up to the relationship that had changed both of their lives for better and worse. Connie loved him so much, just as she had for years, and she could feel that Bucky was beginning to discover the extent in which he did as well. She knew that the two of them could never go back to the way things used to be, no matter how desperately she wished that weren't the case, but as long as she had him she would be okay. Bucky was all Connie could want out of life, and that was something that would never change for as long as she remained alive.

"Nostalgia's a real bitch." Connie laughed as she closed the photo album in her hand and leaned forward to sit it down on the coffee table. She leaned back in her seat and pulled her feet onto the cushion with her, leaning her head against the back of the couch. "Sometimes I just wonder what life could've been like for the three of us had none of this ever happened," she spoke breathlessly, though there was a hint of sadness in her tone as she thought back on her old life.

"I've often found myself wondering about that as well, but fate is a fickle thing, sweetheart," Bucky said to her matter-of-factly.

Connie looked over at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is that our lives aren't at all what we expected them to be," Bucky began as he looked down at her. "I don't think the three of us ever would've imagined our lives turning out this way back then, but when you put things into perspective, this is exactly how our lives were supposed to turn out for us. We were all each other had back then, and one after the other we lost each other. I think this is fate's way of giving us another chance at being together. We are where we're supposed to be, regardless of all the horrible shit we've had to go through to get here."

"Wow," Connie breathed out. "Who knew Bucky Barnes could be so deep?"

"When you've known nothing but a life of pain, abuse, and anguish, it's good to have something inside you that provides you with even the smallest bit of optimism," Bucky answered her casually.

"I hate to say that I understand exactly what you're talking about," Connie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and sinking down further in her seat.

"What was it like?" Bucky asked Connie curiously as he closed the photo album in his lap. "Being in Hydra, I mean."

Bucky had been wondering about Connie's time in Hydra ever since her outburst in the car the day she had taken him to her hotel from the museum. He wanted to know why her experience had been so different from his, yet so similar. He just hoped his curiosity didn't upset her too much.

Connie let out a sigh and looked down at her hands, playing with her fingers nervously as she thought back to her time working for Hydra. "It was hands down the most physically and emotionally painful experience I've ever had to endure in my life. After being captured, they injected me with the super-soldier serum and then put me on ice for a year. They took me out of cryo for an entire year after that; it was the longest I had ever been out in one setting, and, truthfully, I wish they had just kept me frozen."

"Why's that?" Bucky asked her. He could tell the topic was getting to her simply by the expression on her face and her glistening brown eyes. He just hoped she knew that he was there if she needed him, and he always would be.

"Let's just say that year was the year of my reckoning," Connie told him with a low scoff. "They spent the first three months of that year physically abusing me in an attempt to break me; they knew I couldn't fight back, and I was already convinced that I had nothing left to fight for, so I just let them do what they felt they needed to do. Every single day, one of the officers would drag me from my lonely cell and beat me until I was 'ready to comply.'"

A single tear slipped from Connie's eyes, but she whisked it away quickly before she resumed speaking.

"After that, I spent the next nine months training to be one of Hydra's 'new fists,'" Connie continued. "I spent fourteen grueling hours a day learning the proper way to take someone's life, and if I didn't do right what I was taught, I was punished for it."

"I believe I can relate to that very well," Bucky said shakily.

Connie's lip trembled and several more tears fell down her face. "I wanted to die, Bucky. Had they taken my memory rather than beat me the way they did, it would've been a different story, but they didn't. Everyday I thought of nothing but you and Steve and my life with you two, and that only added onto the pain they were forcing on me. At one point in time I was forced to let the both of you go, but there was no way in hell I could ever completely remove the two most important men in my life from inside my head.

"You both stayed buried in the back of my mind for years, but not so deep that I ever stopped thinking about you or how much I loved you. A part of me even believes you and Steve are the reason I didn't kill myself when I had the chance to," Connie said quietly as the tears streamed down her face, all of which she wiped away as quickly as possible.

"I fought for you both for twenty years before they finally broke me," Bucky admitted quietly.

Connie gaped at him, more tears streaming down her face as the reality of his words began to set in. "Y-you did w-what?"

"It's a vague memory, but from what I can recall, I was absolutely terrified when they found me in the mountains," Bucky began. "I was convinced that you and Steve were gonna come find me, so each time they took me out of cryo, I would fight as hard as I could until they grew tired of dealing with me and threw me back into cryo.

"I remember calling out for you as if you could hear my pleas for help, but neither one of you could, and I think as the time passed the reality of that was really the main factor that helped them tear me down completely."

"You fought for twenty years," Connie stated in pure disbelief. She stood up quickly and began to pace in front of the coffee table, not even bothering to wipe away the numerous amount of tears that had found their way over her cheeks. "You fought for Steve and I for twenty years, yet I gave up on both of you after three months."

Bucky frowned and pushed himself off of the couch, slowly making his way over to her. "No, Connie, don't think about it like that."

"But it's true," Connie squeaked as she stopped in front of him. "I gave up on the th-thought that you could b-be alive and I lost any h-hope in Steve ever c-coming to find m-me. How c-could I do that to both of y-you? H-how could I d-do that?"

"Connie, listen to me," Bucky spoke sternly but reassuringly. He grabbed Connie's arms gently and held her still in front of him, causing her to look up at him with glossy brown eyes and a tear-stained face. "It's not your fault. All the emotional pain you experienced and all the physical pain you endured is not your fault, but Hydra's. You stayed strong for as long as you possibly could, and I admire that about you, okay? I admire the hell out of you Constance Mae, and I am so proud of the woman you have become."

"I'm really proud of you, and I know Bucky would be as well."

Connie sucked in a breath as Steve's words repeated themselves inside her mind. Not only had Bucky referred to her by her birth name, but he had also told her he was proud of her, just as Steve told her he would be just two years ago back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in New York City. Bucky hadn't noticed it yet, but Connie definitely had, and she was more than thrilled about it. He had very subconsciously discovered the extent of his feelings for her, and Connie was sure his story about his twenty-year-long fight against Hydra had done everything to trigger it.

"You're proud of me?" Connie asked him for reassurance.

Bucky nodded and moved his hands from her arms to the sides of her face, eliciting a familiar fluttering sensation inside Connie's stomach. He wiped the tears from her face and smiled down at her. "You've overcome so much in such a short amount of time, and I can't stress just how proud I am of you for it. You're the reason why I believe I can overcome these demons that have found a home inside me; you're the reason why I haven't given up the fight yet, and I can't tell you how much that means to me personally."

Connie let out a breath as she contemplated how exactly to respond to him, but her mind could only conjure up one thing. Before Bucky could even think, Connie was pressing her lips to his, unable to hold back from him any longer. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders and pulled him closer to her, while he moved his to wrap gently around her waist.

Their lips moved in perfect sync with one another, leaving the both of them in a trance of emotions. It had been far too long since the two of them had been shared such an intimate gesture with one another, and even Bucky, whose memories were still working their way to the surface, knew the gesture to be long overdue. She brought out feelings inside him that he wasn't even aware he could feel, and he welcomed it with open arms, both literally and figuratively. He never wanted to lose those feelings, and he never wanted to lose her.

"Wow," Bucky breathed out as Connie finally pulled away from him. "I can't believe I ever forgot just how amazing it felt to kiss you."

Connie chuckled lightly and kissed him again, pulling away after several more seconds and pressing her forehead against his. "Like I said, Barnes—nostalgia's a real bitch."