When the Lights Go On Again by @spacecasewriter13
Synopsis:
It is May of 1946, over a year after his fall from the Hydra train and losing his left arm, and James "Bucky" Barnes is struggling to adjust. Working as an analyst at the New York City SSR branch, Bucky tries to put the war and all of its sorted memories behind him. However, try as he might he is plagued by thoughts of Magdalene "Maggie" Ramirez, a Women's Army Corps (WAC) Corporal he met in London and hasn't spoken to since before his fall in January of 1945. Little does he know that Maggie, in her struggle to put the war behind her, has moved to the city and looking for a job with the New York Bell Telephone Company as a switchboard operator. Now, by sheer dumb luck, they are reunited as they both fight come to terms with what they were to one another during the war, and work to figure out how to move forward in a world that was unprepared to deal with the consequences of war in the unsteady peace.
Chapter 40: Time For Things
Synopsis: Now that theyāre cleared to fraternize Maggie Ramirez and Bucky Barnes muddle through what all of this might mean for their future while also trying to find time to celebrate the little things.
Excerpt:
"When the lights go on again, all over the world. And the boys are home again, all over the world, and rain or snow is all that may fall from the sky aboveā¦" Maggie hummed under her breath, watching people walk past the window of the automat.
The street lights were already flickering on as the sun faded quickly in the late February sky. It wasn't snowing as it had been last Friday, but the snow drifts lingered in thick piles on the sidewalkāthe weather was bitterly cold.
She paused, her pen poised over a thin page of stationery paper, and surveyed what she had written.
"Dear Pai,
I'm sorry I haven't written. Things were busy ahead of my friend Sarah's wedding, and I've only now had more than two minutes strung together to sit and write to you, Nelly, and Ingrid. We're well. The weather has been bitterly cold. We got almost a foot of snow last weekend, which has made our commute to work miserable. We hope that you are having an easier winter, and that Charlie and Lizzie can make good use of all this snow, and that everyone is in good health.
Daniel and I are already thinking of warmer weather and hope to make it up to Taunton for Easter."
It was there that the words had failed her. Wellā¦not exactly failed her. She knew what she wanted to write next. She and James had talked about it on Friday. It was the next logical step. Onlyā¦only she wasn't sure if it was the right one.
What did that even mean anymore? What could that possibly mean anymore?
Maggie sighed, setting down her pen, and removed a note from her bag and re-read it for probably the 100th time.
"Meet me after work Wednesday at L&L Automat. ~P.C."
Nothing more. Nothing Less. Turning over the now-tattered stationery a few times in her hands, she returned it to its place.
Friday. She'd seen James Friday, and now, only six days later, Peggy wanted to talk. Well, that wasn't quite true. Peggy had sent the note sometime on Saturday or Monday, so Maggie received it on Tuesday. Meaning Peggy had intended to send the note before Maggie had gone to see James on Friday, or work had somehow caught wind of her visit to the Barnes household, and now Agent Carter was going to warn her against such imprudent behavior.
I signed the paperwork. I was cleared to see him. I haven't done anything wrong.
Not that it would matter. Right or wrong, she was only allowed to fraternize with James Barnes because the U.S. Government thought it was beneficial for her to do so at present. Any change in that evaluationā¦well, Maggie shuddered at the thought.
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