the world spins in orbit
and the stars glitter in place
you spin me on the dance floor
and kiss me in darkness

war takes the world around us
we watch as though ghosts
til you're called to the front
and i'm left across an ocean

finally have my chance
only a sliver of opportunity
i'll use it to find you, save you
and maybe war won't claim this love after all

written by katie

HOPE ─ feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen; person or thing that may help or save someone; want something to happen or be the case; feeling of trust

Sarah Rogers held Winnifred Barnes hand as Winnie brought her son into the world. James Buchanan Barnes was born in 1917, the very year that the United States joined World War One. Winnie's husband, George Barnes, had been sent to war a few months ago. Sarah's husband, Joseph Rogers, was due to leave in two weeks time. The two women had been friends through school, and in two weeks they would only have each other and James. The two weeks passed far too quickly for the young Rogers couple, and Sarah can still feel the ghosts of her tear stains with each passing day.

Nine months down the road from Joseph's quick visit during a station change led to Winnie holding Sarah's hand as Steven Grant Rogers was born in 1918. The two best friends continued living close by throughout the war, now with their sons becoming fast friends too. The occasional visits of George and Joseph brought sprinklings of relief and happiness into Winnie and Sarah's lives. The eternal fear they held at knowing that they could lose the loves of their lives, that at any minute they could be gone and it would take months for them to even hear of their husbands' deaths.

With the end of World War One, Sarah and Winnie got to kiss their husbands 'welcome home'. Only tension hung in the air, for soldiers that had served were being redeployed to manage and act in clean up and control overseas. George escaped redeployment, but Joseph did not. On James', although he had recently been dubbed Bucky by his father, second birthday Joseph Rogers had to go back overseas.

Sarah Rogers got the most terrifying news of her life only a few months later, Joseph had been murdered. Several troops had been going missing on patrols, and they had been found - gassed, dead. Her insides twisted with the news, sinking to the ground with the telegram in hand. Sobbing on her knees, screaming for the world to explain why? Why they had to take him from her. From his son. From his child that she had only just learned she is pregnant with.

On January 1st 1920, Hannah Grace Rogers brought light into the new year for both her family and the Barnes. For Sarah, she became a second love, a second reminder of Joseph. Hannah grew up with her older brother and her best friend.

There wasn't a day that went by that the youngest Rogers didn't play with Steve and Bucky. That they didn't spend time at the Barne's house. That Sarah didn't teach her children how to be brave and strong and kind.

There wasn't a day that Sarah didn't stand bold in the face of the world and tilt her children's chins up the same. And there was never a night that Sarah didn't whisper, "I love you, and Daddy loves you too," to her children. For their small world had changed before Steve had turned two and before Hannah had been born, but they still had hope and love despite the cruelty the bitter world threw at them.

Hannah Rogers was not raised in the copy paste household of most little girls in the twenties. For one, she was raised in between two households ─ her mother's apartment and the Barnes house. Best friends since their high school years Sarah Rogers and Winnifred Barnes raised their children together. And with the death of Joseph Rogers, Steve and Hannah needed their godfather in their lives more than ever.

Secondly, Hannah was almost never sat down in dresses and taught how to sew or put to cleaning something as a young girl. Of course, she helped her mother whenever she could, alongside Steve, but that wasn't what she did with her time. She spent her afternoons playing with her brother and their best friend, Bucky Barnes. Nothing could stop the girl, nearly two years younger than the two boys, from chasing after them and succeeding in whatever they played. They would find sticks and have sword fights together, or play baseball in the fields between the Barnes house and the neighbors. They would lay out under the stars and their parents would bring out a picnic and point up at all the constellations for them.

Some would stare as Hannah got older, fifteen or sixteen and still playing sports with her boys. Others would laugh and mock her, even more would go up to her mother and ask how she could let her daughter do something like that. Only Hannah had taken all her mother's stubborn teachings to heart, she just raised her head higher and kept on going. Studying harder than the rest in school and using her small frame to weave between the guys and began to best them at the sports 'meant' just for them.

Bucky would joke that Steve was the hard head of the trio, but both knew exactly how reckless Hannah was. Steve could launch himself into a fight, but Hannah was always there to put in a good punch or five herself. There were very few things one could try to change about Hannah Rogers, oh and people had tried. Whether boys mocked her to pieces or teachers forced her to stay behind, nothing could take her resilience. Because the she can do this all day.

The hardest life ever came at Hannah and Steve was that day in 1936 when Sarah was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died only a few months later. Losing their mother crushed the siblings, Steve only just turning turning eighteen with Hannah two years younger than him. They only had each other, but after losing Mom, even on the day of the funeral, Steve distanced himself from Hannah.

It was the day of the funeral that Hannah realized something quite vividly ─ After the funeral Buck offered her a ride home in his parents car and she gladly accepted with Steve off on his own somewhere. (Her short brother riddled with so many illnesses that it was a mystery of how he was alive, and how she wasn't the same). Sitting in the back of the black car sixteen year old Hannah had sat right up next to Bucky like she had so many times before. Except something about that day was different as he put his arm around her shoulders and whispered just a little sentence to her ─ "I'll be with you til the end of the line, Gracie."

As the four pulled up to the Rogers' apartment, they could all see Steve walking up the steps to the door slowly.

"Thanks, Jamie," Hannah grinned as he opened the car door and helped her out. He smiled down at her, sparking butterflies in both their chests before he looked back up at the apartment.

"Let me talk to him for a minute, Grace," Bucky said, squeezing her hand before jogging up the steps to her brother. Hannah watched the two talking, Steve and Bucky each seeming to yell at the other in turn before Bucky hugged him and walked back down to her. Looking at him expectantly Hannah waited for him to share what they had discussed, but all he did was hug her close and whisper a quick 'I love you' before getting into his parents car.

Hannah walked back up to her apartment, breathing in and out in a rush because of the battering of her heart and the unexplainable heat in her cheeks ─ that was of course when she groaned. She knew exactly what she had stumbled into that day, Hannah realized that she had been crushing on her own idiot of a childhood best friend.

Steve floated back to Hannah in a matter of hours after she walked through the apartment door, hugging her tight and promising that he wasn't going anywhere. And she knew he was telling her the truth, except when she asked what he and Bucky had talked about earlier he looked to his shoes and lied to her face that Buck had only said he was sorry. Hannah's world had definitely changed that day, and the world hadn't stopped changing yet ─

In 1938, Hannah graduated from high school with perfect marks. But the world had not yet changed to welcome her into scholarship's arms or colleges embraces. Hannah took a job at a little diner in town, wondering if this was all her life would be.

Of course, life and the world were not yet done affecting the Rogers family, and in 1939 World War Two began. The United States did not join the war until 1941, and for a year Hannah sat in inpatient anguish as tides rolled overseas. For who would this war take from her?

Oh and the world is not yet done throwing punches at Hannah Rogers...

this prologue is setting up the beginnings of Hannah's crush on Bucky, how she was raised, and the start of World War Two. all dates and names of characters mentioned are found in the marvel universe previously ( the events and how they were written were changed by me ). Hannah's birthday is January 1st 1920, this puts her almost three years younger than Bucky and about two and a half years younger than Steve.

so Bucky does not enlist (ever really) and is not deported until 1943 according to the sources I've found meaning that it's time for another thing to change!! the timeline will be moved behind a year so that Bucky is deported in 1942 and the Howling Commandos will very much be active in 1943, giving about 3-4 years of army service before the war is over.

thank you all for reading!! hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions please feel free to speak your mind!! I'd love to hear from all of you, and I'll be quick to respond too!!