chapter fifty-seven
do you get déjà vu?

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 𝐓𝐎 the bar in the hotel and smiled tightly at the bartender. "Hi, a martini, please? Thanks." She leaned against the bar top and fluttered her lips. She smiled thankfully at the man and took hold of the toothpick, sliding the olive off the skewer.

"I thought you said you'd given up drinking martinis."

Grace turned her head at the voice and saw Colonel Phillips standing next to her. She shook her head and played with the olive on the skewer. "I have never said that," she replied, glancing at him. "Besides, I get a pass for today."

Phillips pressed his lips together and sat down beside her, looking at the bartender. "I'll join her. A whiskey."

"Since when do you drink?" Grace asked him.

"You don't know everything about me, Stark," he said and she chuckled lightly as the drink was placed in front of him. "Two years today."

She nodded, swallowing the drink. "Two years..."

"Grace, you know he wouldn't want you to continue living in the past," he said and she looked at him. "He'd want you to... live your life."

"I know he would," she agreed with a nod. "I know... But he was the only one who seemed interested in the fact that I wanted to do something with my life. Everybody else just... expects me to be a housewife and a mother."

"Well, don't you?" he asked.

Grace nodded. "Of course I do." She looked back at her half-empty glass. "I want nothing more than to be a mother. But I want the option. And... I wanted it with him."

Phillips sighed and dug in the pocket of his coat, pulling out a photograph. "I thought you might like this. I took it from his file at the end of the war, but you had already left before I could give it to you."

Grace looked over and he held out a small photograph to her. She gently took it and smiled softly at the sight of Steve - before the serum. "Oh, he was so skinny..."

"I thought Erskine had lost his mind," Phillips said and she laughed softly. "I never thought he would become what he became."

Grace shook her head. "I did," she replied quietly and he looked over at her. "He always had that heart. Even before he became Captain America. People just recognized it when he became nationally famous."

"He loved you," he said and she pressed her lips together. "You need to know that, Grace. And because he loved you, he'd want you to move forward. You don't have to forget..."

"I can't." Grace sniffled and looked at the colonel. "I can't. And it's not just because everything that I ever wanted should've been with him... But I actually can't." She let out a breath. "I got into an accident a few months ago on the way to Howard's lab."

"Are you okay?"

She shrugged, looking back at him. "Depends on how you define 'fine'," she said. "My doctor tells me I'm fine, but... Something happened that day that I can't really explain... But for whatever reason, I've stopped aging. Peggy and Howard will get old, but I'll look the same."

Phillips raised his eyebrows. "Pardon?"

"I don't know," she added with a shrug. "I've tried to figure it out, but I don't know..."

Phillips gently rubbed her shoulder and she smiled lightly at his touch. She melted into his embrace and nestled her head under his chin.

"How are you doing?"

Grace looked over at Steve and shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. "Well, I just buried one of my favorite people on the planet and Tony keeps calling me, asking for my opinion about the Accords, so..." She raised her drink. "Just peachy."

Steve pressed his lips together and sat beside her. "She loved you, Gracie," he told her and she glanced at him momentarily, feeling a sense of deja vu. She silently pulled the locket Peggy had given her out from under her dress and looked at it. "You know, she threatened me back on the base."

"About what?"

"Hurting you," he replied and she quirked an eyebrow upward. He sighed. "Do you remember Private Lorraine?" She nodded. "She kissed me before I asked you to dinner."

Grace looked at him before shrugging. "She was that type of person," she said. "But how did Peggy threaten you?"

"Something about killing me if I ever broke your heart."

She smiled softly. "That's my Peggy." She looped her arm with Steve's and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm heading back to New York." He looked down at her. "I want to find a way to start aging again. I will find a way but all of my research is there."

"I'll come with you."

"Steve." Both he and Grace looked over when they heard Sam's voice and saw him standing at the entrance of the hotel bar. "There's something you gotta see."

Grace let out a sigh. "Or maybe not..."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

"𝐀 𝐁𝐎𝐌𝐁 𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍 a news van..."

Grace was pacing the length of the conference room, anxiously trying to get a hold of Adelaide. "Why the hell did she go to the signing?" she asked Sam and Steve. "She was very vocal about her dislike of the Accords."

"She said she was going there to defend Pietro and Wanda," Sam replied and she sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "She wasn't actually going to sign anything."

"...ripped through the UN building in Vienna."

Grace paused and let out a breath. "And now the building where they were holding the signing has blown up. And at least twelve are dead, including the King of Wakanda." She looked at Steve. "Anything?"

He shook his head, hanging up his phone. "No."

Sam glanced between them. "You both look like worried parents."

"We are," they responded in unison.

"Officials have released a video of a suspect who they have identified as James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier," the news anchor continued and Grace looked at the television. "He and his associate, Kennedy Sullivan, are two of HYDRA's most infamous agents, both linked to numerous acts of terrorism."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Could today get any worse?"

"It depends..." Grace looked at Steve who let out a breath. "I gotta go to Vienna."

"What?" she asked, shaking her head. "No."

"Grace, I have to be the one to bring him in," he said and she fluttered her lips, sitting in a chair. "If he's this far gone... it has to be me."

She rubbed her face in frustration and looked back up at him. "The last time you went up against him, you ended up unconscious in the hospital."

"And it's not gonna happen again," he told her and she tilted her head. "Gracie... it's Bucky. It has to be me."

She leaned forward and held her head in her hands. "I know," she whispered, pursing her lips together. "I know..." She glanced at him. "I better not get a call that you're unconscious in the hospital again, beaten to a pulp."

Steve nodded. "You won't," he promised, kissing her forehead. "Besides, Sam is my backup."

The man in question looked at him. "I am? Hold on, I did not agree to this." Grace and Steve both looked at him and he sighed. "I'm his backup," he said, half-heartedly. "Your friend is starting to annoy me. I hope you know that."

"Find Addy in Vienna," Grace told them, standing up. "She's alive, so find her. And I have a feeling, when you do... and she finds out Kennedy was a part of this... she won't be very happy." She crossed her arms. "In the meantime, I'm catching a flight to DC."

Steve furrowed his brows. "I thought you were going to New York."

"That was before the UN building was blown up," she replied with a sigh. "Now US officials are pressing me about the fact that your friend is the main suspect. So I'm going to defend your honor. Don't mess it up."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 the UN building, looking around at the many ambulances that lined the streets. There was still a faint ringing in her ears from the explosion as she looked around at her surroundings. T'Challa, the son of the now-dead King of Wakanda, sat on a bench with a shocked look on his face while Natasha spoke with him.

She turned away from the sight when she heard two government officials talking about what had happened.

"James Buchanan Barnes and Kennedy Sullivan." She looked over at them. "Yes, that's who they said did this." Adelaide furrowed her brows. "HYDRA's most dangerous assassins."

"Kennedy did this?" she whispered to herself when she felt her phone vibrate.

She looked down at it and was surprised to find that it had not been destroyed in the explosion. She saw several missed calls and texts from both Steve and Grace, but one in particular her attention.

[ STEVE ROGERS ]

3:39 pm

Look up.

Furrowing her brow, Adelaide did as the text said and her gaze settled on Steve standing a distance away, wearing a baseball cap and aviator sunglasses. Glancing over her shoulder, she hurried over to him, immediately being engulfed in a tight hug.

"Are you okay?" he asked once he had let go, checking her over for serious injuries. "You nearly gave Grace a heart attack. And me."

"I'm okay," she replied quietly. "Steve... Th-They're saying that it was-was Bucky? And-And Kennedy?"

Steve sighed and nodded. "Yes."

"But how?" she asked, furrowing her brows. "And where's Gracie?"

"She's going to DC," he told her. "Come on," he said, pulling her away from the chaos. "Sam's waiting for us."

Adelaide looked at him in confusion. "Waiting for us?" she repeated. "Why is he waiting for us?"

"We're going to get Bucky," he replied. "And bring him into custody. Kennedy, too." She tilted her head and he looked at her. "I thought that would pique your interest."

"The King of Wakanda is dead," she said and he nodded.

"I know."

"And his son is mad," she added, stopping to look at him fully. "Which means... I don't think we'll be the only ones going after Bucky and Kennedy." Steve glanced at her. "I think he will be, too."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀 distance away from Bucky in Bucharest while he spoke briefly to a vendor to buy fruits. She was glancing around the city at all of the people; her guard had never fully gone down - she was always on edge.

Perhaps a small part of that was how she was raised. She was raised to cause destruction and death. How could that not cause someone to have their guard up?

Another part was that ever since all of HYDRA's secrets had been released along with SHIELD's, she felt as though everybody was always watching her. As though they were aware of the secrets she had been trying to keep hidden for years.

A newspaper headline caught her eye and she walked over to the newsstand, picking up a paper. 'Winter Soldier cautat pentru Bombardementul din Viena.'

Kennedy blinked at the headline.

Winter Soldier and associate wanted for Vienna bombing.

What bombing?

Hurriedly, she dropped the paper and walked back to Bucky, grabbing his arm without a word and leading him back to their makeshift apartment. It was a small apartment with little to no furniture, and what little furniture they did have, it was extremely cheap.

"What's happening?" Bucky asked quietly but Kennedy did not reply.

Instead, she silently brought a finger up to her lips and slipped into the apartment without a sound, motioning for him to follow. He did and they saw Steve Rogers and Adelaide Snow standing in their living room. Steve was looking through Bucky's notebook. He slowly turned around and saw the two former assassins.

He glanced at Kennedy momentarily before looking at Bucky. "Do you know me?"

"You're Steve," he replied, staring back at him. "I read about you in a museum."

"Forgive him," Kennedy said, tilting her head. "His memory isn't what it used to be." She looked at the notebook in Steve's hands. "Don't you know it's rude to go through something that isn't yours?"

"So is setting a bomb at the UN in Vienna," Adelaide commented and Kennedy looked at her.

"That wasn't us," she replied, shaking her head. "We don't do that anymore."

Steve shrugged. "Well, the people who think you two did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive."

Kennedy and Bucky looked at each other before the latter nodded. "That's smart," he said. "Good strategy."

"I'll commend them on that," Kennedy added.

Adelaide looked at the assassin. "This doesn't have to end in a fight."

She chuckled softly. "Oh, you have so much to learn... it always ends in a fight."

Just as those words escaped her mouth, the door to the apartment burst open and several officers ran in. Adelaide ducked a punch being aimed at her head before maneuvering her way between another officer and Kennedy, allowing the former assassin to help Bucky. The blonde knocked the officer unconscious and turned to see Kennedy talking to Bucky who punched a hole in the floor, pulling out a backpack. Before either Adelaide or Steve knew it, the two HYDRA assassins were running out of the apartment.

"Really?" Adelaide huffed in exasperation. "Really?"

Letting out a breath, she and Steve followed them and, because he was a super-soldier, Steve arrived first and saw Bucky continuously punching a cop before throwing him over the side of the building. Steve caught him and looked at the brunette.

"Come on, man."

Adelaide looked at Kennedy. "Stop running."

Kennedy shrugged. "I can't."

The former SHIELD agent let out a whimper of annoyance as she ran off once more with Bucky, but this time, they were followed by a muscular man in an all-black suit. He had claws and was very graceful while attacked.

"Is that a human cat?" Adelaide asked, blinking at the sight in confusion. "Or have I taken too many hits to the head?"

"Sam," Steve said into his earpiece. "Southwest rooftop."

"Who the hell's the other guy?" he asked in response.

Adelaide nodded. "Well, at least others see him, too..."

Sighing, she ran after Steve and Sam, but due to her being the only... normal one in the group, she was far behind them. Once she had finally caught up to them, Rhodey was flying down just as Sam, Steve, Bucky, and Kennedy were being arrested. The man in the black suit took off his mask and was revealed to be T'Challa and Adelaide looked at him.

"Huh," she said to herself. "I was right. He was going to go to after them..."

Kennedy looked at Adelaide as she was forced to the ground forcefully. "I told you." Adelaide looked back at her. "It always ends in a fight."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

an: i am so so sorry
that this took so long
to update.

but, civil war makes
me sad and it's sad
to write too...

anyway, addy is very
focused on kennedy
because they are
basically two sides
of the same coin and
how easily addy could
have been kennedy...

so she both feels pity
for her but also finds
her annoying :)