#1940sau

Fic Summary: In January of 1945 Corporal Maggie Ramirez of the Women’s Army Corps gets a message from her GI beau (James Barnes) that he was wounded and getting sent home. Rushing to the evacuation hospital, Maggie has to make tough choices that will shape the rest of the war and possibly her life. AKA: Bucky Barnes actually sent the letter he wrote her in January of 1945 rather than letting her think he was dead (See: “Ch 7: Don’t Get Around Much Anymore“ from “When the Lights Go On Again)

Excerpt:

It was cold, and the streets were filled with slush from the snow that had fallen and started to melt the night before. The damp aircaught in her lungs and made her chest ache as she walked as fast as she could, practically running. Her mind however was calm, eerily so, as she focused her body and mind around her singular task. Get to the evacuation hospital before they flew James back to America.

The note had fortunately come just as she’d gone off shift and had received her signed pass off base for the remainder of the weekend. She hasn’t expected James. He normally stayed out two to three weeks after a deployment, and she would see him that third or fourth Saturday at the cafe. All the same she liked to go anyway, as part of her routine, and as a way to keep her seat warm. In all likelihood she would’ve already left if her relief hadn’t run just a few minutes late, leaving her with a tricky call volley and putting her twenty minutes past when she should’ve been off duty.

The note had come via special courier, but she had immediately recognized James’s handwriting. And the news had been bad but succinct. He’d been wounded sometime in the week prior and was now at the evacuation hospital waiting to get flown home.

‘I hope to see you again, when the war’s over.’ He’d written.

But to blazes with that. There were no guarantees that either of them would make it that far. Even if the odds were slim that she’d actually achieve her purpose, she wasn’t going to let him leave without at least trying to say goodbye.

It was a silly, perhaps sentimental thought. Only she knew that terror threatened to take hold and frantic desperation propelled her forward. She’d seen and heard of too many people who’d left without proper goodbyes—had too many people leave her without a proper farewell. She wouldn’t let him slip away without at least trying.

His note clutched in her mittened hand, chest heaving, her mind bent around her singular task, Maggie barreled through the doors into the front lobby. Stumbling breathless to the counter, she was met with an unperturbed and frankly unamused Nurse on duty. “Can I help you, Corporal?” The nurse, a lieutenant, asked dryly.

Pairing: Tom Holland x female reader

Au: 1940s soldier

Warnings: graphic description of war, smut, domestic abuse, angst, bad language, mentions of death

A/N: This is quite a mature series. Proceed with caution.

Today was the day. The day you had waited six years for.......

It was the 4th November 1945. The war ended two months ago, and soldiers were slowly being sent home. The children had returned three weeks ago, and today you would be reunited with your husband , Thomas. You hadn’t seen him for almost four years, and your children barely remembered their father. You pinned your hair up, and painted your lips red. The last time Thomas came home, he bought you a red lipstick. “Tessa? Come inside now darling, we need to leave” you called into the garden to your 7 year old daughter, who stayed with you after the evacuation, she was but a babe in arms at the time. “Tommy! Make sure you dress smart, it’ll make your father proud!” Tommy came down the stairs, his red hair slicked back with brill cream. He had grown taller than you since he got home. “You look very nice, darling, now, when you see your father, be sure to show him respect, none of us could possibly imagine the horrors he has seen.” You said sternly to the children. “Peter can.” Tommy corrected you. Peter was your seventeen year old son, who was drafted to the army on his sixteenth birthday. You had not heard from him since. Tears started to form in your eyes as you thought of your poor child, dying on the battlefield, or worse, being tortured and held prisoner in one of those awful camps. Your heart ached every time you thought of him. Tommy looked into your eyes and saw them welling up. “I’m sorry Mama, I didn’t mean to upset you, I miss peter, is all” Tommy kissed your cheek. “It’s alright darling, I miss him too.” Peter and Tommy were just under a year apart in age, and had been thick as thieves their whole lives. You visited Tommy shortly after Peter left. And it was like half of him was missing, and that half never returned.

You held Tessa’s hand as you walked into the train station. The platform was hiding underneath steam from the train, but you could see dozens of men, in green uniforms, running to greet loved ones . You watched all the faces leaving the train carefully, praying that you would recognise your husband, after all this time. And then, it was like time stopped completely, and the person you had dreamt of left the train. It broke your heart to see him, a shell of the man you married eighteen years ago. He was skinnier, and greyer than the last time you saw him, he looked completey vacant. Like the soul of Thomas had abandoned him and left him with a broken body. “That’s him, isn’t it?” Tommy asked behind you. “Yes darling, it is” you could see Thomas scanning the platform, looking for you. You waved your hands a bit and he noticed you, smiled, and broke into a jog in your direction. You passed Tessa’s hand to Tommy and ran to meet him . His smile grew as he got closer and closer, and then your bodies crashed into each other, and you started to cry. “You’re home! You’re finally home , my dear!” You sobbed into his ear. “I always said I’d come back, didn’t I?” He chuckled and kissed your temple. A small voice called “Papa, papa!” And Your daughter ran towards you. “Tessa!” Thomas let go of you knelt down as Tessa ran to him . Tommy was walking close behind. Thomas caught your little girl and threw her in the air. “Tessa, I’ve thought of you every minute, my darling girl” Thomas whispered. Tommy just stood near them , emotionless, as usual. Thomas looked up at his son and gasped. “Tommy? My god! You’ve grown bigger than me!” Tommy gave a half hearted smile . “Well what are you doing , boy? Give your Papa a hug!” Thomas walked to Tommy , and Tommy laughed and hugged his father. Thomas cradled his son and said to him “I’ve missed you, thank you for keeping your promise and looking after your mother, I’m proud of you” you could see Tommy beaming with happiness, he was so scared that he wouldn’t meet his fathers approval. Thomas pulled away from Tommy and ruffled his hair before he looked around, furrowed his brow, and asked “where’s peter?”

“We don’t know” you said, your eyes welling up again. “The army took him, almost a year ago, and we have heard nothing since then.” Thomas’ face fell to the floor. “Oh, darling” he whispered to you and pulled you into his chest. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s alright, he’s a strong lad, nothing could happen to our boy.” You felt Tommy and Tessa wrap their arms around you. “I’ve been telling myself that for a year, but it hasn’t brought my son back” You cried harder and Thomas kissed your head. “Don’t cry Mama” Tessa whispered. “I’ll ask around, ask the officers I served, see if anyone has heard of him. Darling, I promise, we’ll find him.” Thomas reassured you. And the four of you stood, embracing and crying on the platform. “Let’s go home, Mama” Tommy pulled away. “Yes , let’s” you said, wiping the tears from your face. The children ran ahead and you took Thomas’ hand and kissed him a few times on the way out.

Thomas opened the door to the house and let out a huge sigh of relief as he put his bags down. You went straight to kitchen to prepare dinner, and Thomas ran around in the garden with the children. You chopped vegetables at the kitchen window and watched your family laugh and joke while the sun set.

They all came in when it got dark, and you put dinner on the table. Thomas’s eyes widened at the sight of so much food. He had been living on gruel for the last six years. “Darling, this is wonderful! You really do spoil me” He winked and started loading up his plate. “So, son, have you got yourself a girl yet?” Tommy turned bright red. “Uhmmm welll err” Tommy couldn’t form a sentence from embarrassment. “He’s seeing a lovely girl called Katie, aren’t you darling?” When Tommy came home, he met a very sweet girl, and they spent all their free time together, she had come for dinner several times, and Tommy was completely besotted with her. “Uh... Yes..um” he was still thinking of what to say. “That’s great, son. And Tessa, how’s school?” “Its great, papa, yesterday we learnt a poem for Guy Fawkes night!” Thomas chuckled and drank some of the wine that you had been saving for him to come home.

When the Lights Go on Again by Space Case Writer 13

Story Summary: 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 4: An Unexpected Meeting

Summary: Maggie remembers a first meeting between her and James Barnes, just in time to be sent on an errand to the bullpen on the other side of the wall. While on her errand she runs into someone she least expects, putting her in a tail spin.

Excerpt:

Maggie had arrived early and found the restaurant to be something of a nice little café with outdoor seating. Sitting down at one of the outdoor tables, she kept one eye on her surroundings while the other worked on the calculus problem of the week. Emilia—well, all of them really had decided to make it weekly rather than daily to ration out the book longer.

Yet, try as she might, she couldn’t focus, her mind instead wandering to the Sergeant from the night before, her champion (or protector depending on your generosity), the same man who’d invited her to join him for breakfast.

She’d debated about if she should accept his invitation. Even now, she had the overwhelming urge to flee. How many times had this tall, handsome, dashing Sergeant had occasion to extend such an invitation? How often had he invited women to breakfast with him? Was this a regular spot? Or was she somehow special?

Special? Ha!

She wasn’t so green that she had any such romantic notions. No. She’d had more than her fair share of unwanted attention stateside when she and the girls would go out in the evenings after training. Soldiers were soldiers, and she had no intention of letting just anyone sweep her off her feet.

‘Oh goodness, no wonder Baker accuses me of being unromantic.’

Not everyone could afford to be as romantic as Emilia Baker, nor was she willing to give any sort of life to all the nasty rumors about WAC girls. Not that she was unwilling to be wooed, she was human so far as she was aware, but she was also not without standards. And she didn’t want to be anyone’s last ‘hurrah,’ least of all for a handsy soldier boy thinking about his girl back home.

However, Maggie was also not without a heart. She knew why things were so urgent. It was the reason all of them were here. Many of these boys were going over to the front. How many would return remained to be seen. So naturally, they were interested in one more warm memory with any woman who’d give them a chance. She knew why, and although sympathetic to their situation, she was not about to oblige on that basis alone. It was a matter of self-preservation, not just of reputation but of mind and body as well.

Yet here she was. Waiting for the man who’d swooped in, taken her in his arms, and pulled her from the jaws of—trouble.

The breakfast invitation intrigued her. An invitation for breakfast without any of the nocturnal activities such an invitation might invoke was…unusual and certainly gave a chance for any passions from the dance floor to cool considerably.

To Maggie’s mind, it was oddly measured, not simply the passion of the moment. It was part of the reason she’d resolve to fulfill his invitation. She also hoped to uncover the source of his apparent selfless intervention and to thank him for coming to her rescue properly. After all, he’d been chivalrous enough to extract her from the clutches of that handsy private and further kind enough to offer to deliver her back to base when she’d announced her intentions to leave.

Had her heart not been pounding and her head threatening to split in two from a headache, she might have taken him up on that drink, if only to see if the earnest expression was a permanent feature or the façade hiding an over-eager school boy. There had been enough of a mischievous spark in his eye when she’d asked about “Peggy” for it to be the latter, while his measured response had hinted toward the former.

Either way, she was curious about the Sergeant and, dare she admit it, a little nervous about their breakfast meeting.

“You’re early, Corporal.”

Maggie looked up to see none other than the Sergeant from the night before. Only now, in the daylight, was she able to get the full measure of the man. He towered over her across the table from her. His cover cocked in a jaunty disposition over his chestnut hair, his eyes a bright piercing blue surveyed her with an edge of concern, his expression cautious as if weighing if he should approach her at all.

When The Lights Go on Again by @spacecasewriter13

Fic Summary: 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 8: I’ll Walk Alone

Chapter Summary: After her conversation with Bucky at the library, Maggie spends the evening in pondering old memories as she tries to find her way forward. Sunday, Bucky spends time with friends, trying not to dread what comes next.

Excerpt:

“Is this seat taken, Corporal Ramirez?”

Maggie looked up into the beaming face of none other than Lieutenant Antonio Ramirez, tall and proud in his full-service uniform. His hat was cocked slightly, which only made his expression look more jovial and pleased.

“Tony! Oh, Tony!” She leaped from her seat and threw her arms around his neck.

“Good to see you too, baby sister,” he laughed as they embraced. “Now, let me take a look at you.” He continued as they parted, his dark eyes doing a quick survey, crinkling at the corners as his grin grew somehow even bigger. “All grown up and in the Army.”

“Same could be said for you. Look at you with all those ribbons!” She returned the smile, feeling drunk with her giddiness. “Are you sure you’re not Captain America?”

At this, Tony snorted, “no, afraid not. I’m not sure they’re accepting applications for Captain Mexican-American. And at any rate, I haven’t even made Captain yet!”

“You’ll get there, Tonito. You’ll get there.” She chuckled, hugging him again quickly. “Oh, it’s so good to see you. Sit down. Sit down!” She urged as they stepped away from one another.

“You order yet?” Tony asked as they settled at the table.

“No. Not yet.”

“Well, sorry to keep you waiting. This place is out of the way and tucked out of sight. How did you find it?”

“A friend of mine recommended it to me.”

“Oh. Really? A friend or a ‘friend’?” Tony asked wryly.

Maggie rolled her eyes, shaking her head in a weak attempt to not blush. “A friend.”

“Ah. Well. Serves me right for asking,” Tony shook his head, opening the menu.

Maggie said nothing, focusing on the menu, trying to decide if she was going to change up her usual order or not. Her eyes darted up every so often just to make sure she wasn’t imagining that it was her brother sitting across the table from her. How on earth he’d managed to secure a pass was beyond her, but he was a paratrooper. They had odd schedules and stranger deployment timetables. She wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“So is it true? You got to see one of Cap’s USO shows?” Tony continued after a moment.

“Before he went and started punching Nazis for real?” Maggie replied, peering over the top of her menu at him.

“Allegedly.” He said meaningfully.

“Yes. Allegedly.” She agreed, remembering the wartime gossip code. “And yes, I did see one of his shows and some of his movies.”

“You know Danny is green with envy.”

“Oh. I know. He may never forgive me.”

“Well, you keep him plied with plenty of comic books and trading cards, and he may find it in himself to forgive you.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is. And Besides, you boys have a higher likelihood of actually meeting him.”

“Yeah. But not exactly under the best circumstances.” Tony snorted, shaking his head. “But you know. I’ll tell you what, whenever I run into Cap’ and his Howling Commandos, I’ll be sure to ask the Nazis and Hydra and the rest to stop shooting so I can ask for an autograph.” He laughed.

“Oh. Well, of course. I’d expect no less. I am your baby sister.”

“Well. I’m glad to indulge you every once in a while, Magdalene.”

She stuck out her tongue but was denied an opportunity to respond when the waitress arrived to take their order.

When she parted again, leaving them with their coffee cups filled, Maggie could survey the man sitting across from her more thoroughly. It was her brother. Yet, somehow, even despite the warm smile and the teasing she knew from before the war, he was a stranger to her. He was older, graver—there were heavier lines on his face, darker circles under his eyes. The round glow of youth stripped away into hardened lines of—well, not manhood, so much as the face of war.

‘How bad is it out there?’ She wanted to ask but knew better than to ask questions he couldn’t answer and that she didn’t really want to hear the answers to.

“Uh-oh.”

Tony’s voice pulled her back to the present, and she looked up to see him smiling at her with a look of inquisitive mischief in his eyes.

“What?”

“I know that look.”

“And what look is that?”

“It’s the ‘worried about things way above your pay grade’ look,” Tony answered.

“Perhaps I am, Lieutenant Ramirez.” She conceded, sticking her tongue out. “Would I be your little sister otherwise?”

“Well, cut it out. Would you?” He chuckled. “Didn’t swing this pass to have to chase you around the world just so we can have breakfast.”

“Well. Fortunately for you, the Army paid for our tickets overseas. I don’t have far to run on this tiny little island, and so you won’t have to chase too far.” Maggie grinned.

“It’s only a shame Danny is out in the bush somewhere and couldn’t join us. Or this friend of yours.”

“And to think I was going to say I’d missed you.” She snorted, taking a sip of her coffee.

“You DO miss me. Only, I can’t let you forget that Daniel and I told you explicitly that you’re not allowed to meet anyone over here where we can’t give him a good talking to—you know to make sure that his intentions are honorable.”

“You are so sure that this friend of mine is a GI. Who’s to say this isn’t one of my friends from the unit.”

“Because you’re being so damn tight-lipped about the whole thing. You won’t even tell me his name.”

“Have you ever known me to be a gossip, Antonio Ramirez?” Maggie raised an eyebrow. “Besides,” she added with a shrug, “loose lips sink ships.”

“Yeah Yeah. You girls and your secrets. I’ll let you have this one. But rest assured, Danny will hear about this and won’t like it either.”

“Fortunately for me, that won’t be for some time. I’ll have more than adequate time to defend myself.”

“So. Since you’re being tight-lipped about your personal life, what else have you been up to? Read any good books? Still doing your calculus?”

“Remember your training Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward - not that forward! - slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike…”

RWBY 1940s AU 2/?

Weiss Schnee