"I'm still not sold on the ending," your agent stated as he dropped your manuscript on his desk with a thump. He sat back in his chair while drumming fingers on the desktop next to his computer. "Casting is almost finished, they start filming in two weeks, and I don't have a finished script."

"You DO have a finished script, Tony. Just not the conclusion you want. I tried other endings and none of them seemed genuine. This ending is the most organic and it's where the characters took me. You know how it is, sometimes they have a mind of their own," you replied with a shrug.

He narrowed his eyes, stroking his well-manicured goatee. "You know you sound like a crazy person when you talk like that, right?"

You laughed. "Not to my fellow writers."

"Didn't you get my notes on the last edits?"

You looked away from the screen, lost in thought. "Hmm...the last edit email I got was from Pepper and there was nothing in there about altering the ending," you said with a smirk.

"That sneaky little..." he trailed off with a shake of his head.

Another chuckle escaped you. "She liked the ending, didn't she? That's why she didn't add your note," you smiled triumphantly.

Tony shifted in his chair, hesitating. "That remains irrelevant. I am your agent and I say..."

"Please trust me on this, Tony," you said quickly, interrupting him. "Using the sort of ending you want would mean a total rewrite and it would suck because I would hate it. This script is important to me and I don't want to ruin it just because you want a predictable ending all tied up in a bow," you said with conviction, standing your ground.

He leveled you with a supposedly intimidating gaze before slipping off his tinted glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. You win. I'll send it through to the director and producers, BUT...if they have a problem with it, we're revisiting the subject," he threatened through your iPad's screen.

You beamed with a grateful smile. "You're the best, you know that?"

"Yeah, whatever, just go be with your family. We'll talk in a few days," he replied, waving off your praise.

"Thanks, Tony," you said, about to end the Skype call when Tony noticed something, leaning closer to the screen.

"Does Rogers know you had a poster of him in your room?" he teased, pointing to something behind you.

You paled slightly. "Goodbye, Tony," you said forcefully before ending the call and setting your iPad aside.

Dropping your head in your hands, you slowly turned around and dared to look up only to see Steve Rogers in a superhero stance staring back at you. You'd forgotten all about it. Your childhood room was basically the same as it had been when you left two years ago. Now you were faced with Steve, along with several other movie star crushes plastered upon your walls, some of whom you had now met in person. Your first instinct was to be embarrassed, but honestly, they'd probably find it funny.

Glancing around the room, you took in all the small mementos and photos with memories tied to each one. It was a strange feeling to be back, but not a bad one. You never imagined you'd be having a conversation with your editor of two years in the room where back then your current reality was merely a pipe dream. It goes to show how far you had come.

Shaking your head, you climbed off the twin bed and got to your feet, straightening your skirt. You had settled on a black pencil skirt and a cream-colored blouse. Family was beginning to arrive, you gathered, hearing the murmurs of conversation below you. You stepped down the hall and descended the stairs to see faces turning your way. There were exclamations of "welcome home" and "you look great" and "I saw that movie of yours, it was way too violent". You just smiled kindly and offered hugs. Family is family, no matter what.

Your mom came out of the kitchen and embraced you as well, even though she had seen you less than 20 minutes ago. Not that you minded. You were soaking up all the hugs and enjoying the limited time you had here. Heaven knows L.A. isn't big on genuine hugs, more like handshakes or if you knew the person well, air kisses on each cheek.

Moving through the entryway, you finally made your way into the living room to see bouquets of flowers surrounding a large photo of your recently departed Uncle Nick. He may not have been a blood relative, but you still considered him family. He always had a bit of a scowl on his face, but deep down you knew he was a softy.

The funny thing was, no one really knew what he did for a living. He would disappear for months on end and then return as if nothing had happened, sometimes a little worse for the wear. He always came home with incredible stories to tell, though. Always telling harrowing tales of great adventures and daring escapes, as a child you hung on his every word. Now as an adult, you realized he may have been exaggerated slightly, but honestly, his stories were partly why you became obsessed with action films and story telling.

The biggest story of his life, though, was still a mystery. According to your mom, Uncle Nick's body couldn't even be release because of "security reasons", so there was no burial this weekend. Instead, tonight was an informal, intimate gathering and tomorrow was the official memorial at the church.

Difficult as it was to unplug and turn off that part of your brain that wanted to fixate on everything you needed to be doing back in L.A., you did your best to be in the moment and stay focused on what was important. In fact, the only reason you had to check in with Tony was because you had been unintentionally ignoring his messages the past few days. You could blame that on the lack of both cell service and wifi, and perhaps also a handsome mechanic who never failed to put a smile on your face whenever he popped into your mind. Which was fairly often, to be honest.

Someone tapped you on the shoulder then, bringing you out of your thoughts, and you turned to see Maria's kind face. She asked about L.A. and wondered if you had a chance to use the hair kit she had gifted you before you left town. You were actually able to say yes, smiling at the memory of running your fingers through Bucky's chestnut locks in that motel bathroom. You didn't mention that part to her, though. She brought you up to speed on the hair salon and her growing kids. One last embrace and she let you go as the next person caught your attention.

The evening was exhausting and emotionally draining, a few tears falling when stories of Nick were shared. As you ascended the stairs and got ready for bed at the end of the night, your thoughts swirled around the word "home". It's not always just the place you live, and although family can also help make that distinction, another phrase continued to resurface in your mind: Home is where the heart is. Somehow, without even meaning to, there's a chance you had left your heart in a small town four hours east of where you stood. What that meant for your future, you really couldn't say just yet.

_________________

The memorial service was lovely. Nick Fury was a private man, but each person whose life he touched had a story about him. There were tears as well as laughter, keeping his spirit alive with each memory shared. There was a luncheon afterward and nearly everyone in town showed up. You saw one familiar face across the room and headed his way, then slugging the man's arm as you came to his side.

"Ow! What was that for?" Brock exclaimed, clutching his 'injury'. "You know this is a memorial service, right? Isn't violence frowned upon?"

"So is selling cars with the knowledge that it has a cracked radiator, dillweed," you retaliated with a hard look. You had gone to high school with Brock, so your interactions tended to involve childish insults. He always was a bit of a shady character.

He at least had the decency to look a little guilty. "Y/N, I..."

"Forget it," you cut him off, softening your tone slightly. "You're lucky it worked in my favor. BUT. If you do that to anyone else, I'll hunt you down, Rumlow. You hear me?" you threatened, holding his gaze.

His mouth gaped open to speak, but he then just nodded.

"Okay, then," you answered, then walking away as quickly as you came.

After the memorial service on Saturday you stayed one last night with your mom, but then had to fly out Sunday to start your work week. So badly you wished you could have made the drive again and run back into Bucky's arms, but you knew it would be even harder to say goodbye with such short a time together.

You called him from the airport, making him promise to keep his phone on him from now on and to charge it each night. Apparently, he had a bad habit of letting it die and forgetting about it for days on end in the past. There was so much you wanted to say, but you knew that now you could say it all over time. You were in it for the long haul.

Soaring through the sky at 35,000 feet, you looked down and tried to imagine that you could see the tiny dot of a town just off the highway with part of you wishing you were there. As the clouds parted, you thought back on the small towns you had spent the past few days in and realized that you now had a soft spot for them despite trying so hard to leave them not too long ago. After all, your memories lined the walls of a house filled with family in one of them and now your heart resided in another.

_________________

Four Months Later

"I know that a cliffhanger is just a matter of speech but sometimes it can be literal, I mean that's how that term came to be, right?" you asked out loud, which was slightly odd, considering you were alone.

You were deep into one of your writing sessions, but got stuck on a plot point so you decided to talk it out. Sometimes just voicing your thoughts to an empty room would shake another idea loose enough to move forward.

"Okay, so an actual cliff...but how does he get there....is it near water? Where did I put the location notes?" you continued to mutter, scanning your plot board for the information you sought. Just then, your phone chirped indicating a text message. Usually, you would silence your phone while writing or even leave it in a different room, but when you were waiting to hear from Bucky, you muted everyone except him.

Picking up, you saw the message and grinned.

Hey doll. Writing ok?

Bucky's texting abilities had improved quite a bit, considering sometimes that was the only way you got to talk. Phone calls were harder to pin down, especially when you were on a deadline.

Pretty good. How's the shop?

Slow today. Package 4 me?

You squealed then, hurrying to peck out a reply.

Yes! It came!! Don't open yet, please! A few more hours of work and I'll call.

10?

Perfect.

You glanced at the clock to see it was about 4:30pm your time and he was 2 hours ahead, so that gave you some time to write and eventually eat something before you could call him. Now with something to look forward, your conviction was renewed as you stared at your notes and dove back in to writing with a smile on your face.

_____________

"Hey, gorgeous. It's really good to hear your voice. It's been what, a week?" Bucky asked, his husky voice coming through the phone. You might have woken him, but you knew he didn't mind. Neither of you wanted to miss out on a single moment of your time together, limited as it was.

"Hi, handsome. I know, it's been too long. I'm sorry, this script, though! Ugh!!" you groaned dramatically, falling backwards onto your comfy couch away from your writing room. You tried to separate your work and home life, even though they often occurred under the same roof.

He chuckled under his breath. "It's okay, babe. I understand. So what's this about a package?" he asked, intrigued.

Straightening up in your seat, you squealed again in excitement. You'd had this planned for weeks and now he could finally see it for himself. "Okay, so go ahead and open it, but I don't want you to think it's a needlessly expensive thing cause it's not. I mean, it's just as much a gift to me as it is to you," you vaguely explained as you heard the sounds of packing tape being severed with most likely the pocket knife Bucky kept handy at all times.

"Okay?" he answered, confused, until you heard the rustling of paper stop. "You bought me a...Apple?"

"Yes, it's an iPad from Apple, just like mine. And before you say that it's too much and that I shouldn't have, first of all, I didn't. It was in a grab bag at a swanky party a while back. And yes, I should have, and you will agree once you see what it can do. Also you got a really good deal on wifi for the next few months, thanks to Clint's cousin. He set it up."

He huffed out a sigh, resigned. "Well, I guess I can't argue then, can I? So what do I do with it?"

"Okay. So, the round button in the middle should be at the bottom. The on button will be at the top, so click that and the screen should light up."

He did as you instructed and then followed your directions to swipe to the right, unlocking the device. You set it up so he didn't have to enter a security code. Best to keep it simple. He then pressed a finger on the small icon of an "S" in a blue circle as you requested, followed by selecting the words 'sign in'. Smiling, you pressed the call button on your own iPad and heard the echo of the tell-tale ringing through your phone.

"What the...is that...?" you heard Bucky's confused voice until his handsome face came into focus.

"Hi, there, Sexy," you cooed, grinning at your boyfriend through the camera before hanging up your phone, which was no longer necessary.

"Y/N? Oh wow...you're right, this is the best gift ever," he beamed at you with those favorite eye wrinkles of his making an appearance. "Thank you so much, babe."

"You're so welcome, hot stuff. I thought you'd like a little more face time," you smirked, wiggling your eyebrows.

He laughed at that, the iPad shaking in his grasp before his expression became serious. "God, I miss you, doll."

He shifted on the couch up to sitting and raised the camera to eye level. Bucky looked as attractive as ever, even with the faint couch pattern on his right cheek. He must have fallen asleep watching another movie that you had recommended. Movies gave you more to talk about besides how much you missed each other, plus Bucky loved that you were sharing one of your passions with him. Luckily Darcy was a great resource for movies.

"I miss you, too," you uttered with a sad smile that then brightened. "However...part of why I wanted to video chat was because I want to ask you something face to face. Ready?"

"Ask away."

"Well, you remember that project I was working on a few months ago?" He nodded in response and you continued. "Oddly enough, the shoot went smoothly and post-production is coming to an end ahead of schedule. It's an Indie film, lower budget, but with a few higher profile stars and some of that Stark publicity magic, it's actually getting some attention."

"That's great, Y/N!" he responded, genuinely excited for you. "You haven't told me much about it, though. Keeping things under wraps still?"

"Actually..." you began, "that's because I want you to experience it firsthand. With me. The premiere is in six weeks and it would mean the world to me if you came, Buck."

"Um...wow," he uttered, eyes wide in shock. "You want me to visit you in L.A.? Is this a whole red carpet thing, cause I..."

"No, no," you interrupted. "I mean, yes, there will be a red carpet, but I'm not at all obligated to show up that way. We could arrive quietly and leave right after, if you want. I know it sounds like a big ordeal, but this movie is important to me and all I want is to have you next to me. That's all."

He paused to consider. "I don't know. The shop..."

"...is doing great now, you said it yourself. DumDum can handle things for a few days and Peter is a great help, right? This gives you enough time to square things away and let them know about anything that might come up if you're gone. I can fly you in, but if you're not comfortable with that, you could make the drive. Please, Bucky?" You knew you were in the territory of almost begging, but this was a big step to take for Bucky. It was important that he knew you had thought of everything and while you would take no for an answer, you definitely didn't want to.

You saw him stare off into the distance, scrubbing a hand over his whiskered face before responding.

"Okay."

"What?" you cried out, rising to your feet. "Really? You'll come?"

"Of course, doll. You've made the trip out here a few times now and I should meet you half way, too. I'll admit, I'm nervous about it, but I want to support you. Yes, I'll be there. And I'll make the drive. I could use a little wind in my hair, I suppose," he said, unleashing that devilishly handsome grin.

A high-pitched squeal escaped from you again, nearly losing your grip on your iPad as you danced about the living room. Bucky's laughter rang out through your device. And he was right, you had made two trips out to see him since you reconnected. Now you were ecstatic he would be heading your way soon.

"Okay, okay," you settled back on the couch, having finally contained yourself. "So I have a plan..."

_______________

5 Weeks Later

The gift of being able to Skype face to face became part of your weekly routine as often as possible. You started a tradition of cooking and eating dinner together as you Skyped, even coordinating having the same meal at times. You were trying to cook more healthy meals at home and rely less on takeout.

It just felt good to talk, continuing to get to know each other and feel that comfort of having someone to come home to, even if it was only through a screen. After a while, you needed a bit more than talk. You couldn't help it, though. Things eventually escalated to more risqué behavior as you shared intimate moments alone, but together, when all you wanted was to be in his arms.

Thankfully, the wait was almost over. Through the past month, you had been planning Bucky's trip out to come and see you for the premiere. You were so excited to show him your home and the most beautiful parts of the city.

Back when you were just starting out, sharing a small apartment with roommates was the ideal scenario. You were barely squeaking by at times to pay rent and expenses as you worked odd jobs. Even after you had sold your first script, it took months before you actually saw any money. Once you had a more steady income and royalties, you were still frugal and saved most of what you made. On rare occasions, you would splurge on a stylist and hair and makeup team just for the night when a big event came up that you were asked to attend.

Your one big purchase was a down payment on a gorgeous condo in Malibu with a breathtaking view of the ocean on one side and the Los Angeles valley on the other. You needed the peace and quiet for writing and you had earned it. Steve had actually helped you move in a few months before you headed home unexpectedly and that was when everything changed. You had heard through mutual friends that he was doing really well, working steadily and even dating someone. Steve deserved that happiness and you wished him nothing but the best. He had been so good to you and even had encouraged you to try again with Bucky. You would be forever grateful to Steve for that.

Puttering around the kitchen as you made dinner, you couldn't stop yourself from glancing at the clock every few minutes. You had heard from Bucky while on the road and he should be arriving within the hour. Your heart sped up a little, imagining Bucky driving through the streets of the city you now called home as the distance between you all but disappeared. He had made the drive in good time, stopping where you had recommended as you remembered the first time you headed this way.

Turning on some music, you focused on the recipe before you and tried to distract yourself from the ticking clock. A short while later, you heard the rumble of a car's engine getting louder, but not one you recognized. Turning off the stove, you walked to the window overlooking the street to see a sleek black car parked in your driveway. When you saw who stepped out of the driver's seat, you lost all composure. Tearing down the steps to the first floor and then throwing open your front door, you rushed across the lawn in your bare feet before launching yourself into his arms.

Bucky caught you easily as you wrapped arms around his neck and legs around his waist, your lips finding his in a furiously passionate kiss, conveying all the pent-up emotions between you. You both muttered sweet nothings to each other without breaking contact, finally releasing your legs to stand when you realized you were giving your neighbors quite the show and they might get more of one if you didn't take a step back.

"Hi. You made it," you said with a laugh, beaming.

"I did," he said with a chuckle. "Made good time, too. Just couldn't wait any longer to get to you," he admitted, capturing your lips in another kiss.

Breaking apart, you finally took in the vehicle that had brought him here with a wide smile. "Is that what I think it is?"

He smirked then, turning towards the car but keeping an arm around your waist. "Yup. The Impala."

_____________________________________

Eeeeee!!! So much happening! What did you think of Tony the agent? And were you surprised by whose funeral it was? Long-distance relationships are rough. Do you think they can make it work? Bucky and technology always makes me smile, gets useful though, right? Looks like they got a bit create with that iPad, huh. ;) Would't you? But he's heading to L.A.! And in quite the  hot car, huh? I love adding those easter eggs! I'd love to hear your thoughts and thank you for reading!