Clara x Bucky

This has been in the works for a hot sec.

Summary: While traveling with the Doctor, Clara found herself in New York in the 1940s. There, she briefly separated from the Doctor and met Sergent Bucky Barnes, who asked her on a date and was charming enough for her to say yes. Now back in the present, she can't forget him. She thinks she'll never see him again, but, when she gets left in present day New York without the Doctor, she might be wrong...

QOTP: Iron Man or the Doctor?

Word Count: 3903

All is, surprisingly, calm.

There are no threats to humanity — at least not large ones that they could physically fight anyway — and Bucky Barnes is trying to enjoy it.

Nearly everything he remembers about his life involved some type of conflict, usually a war, in the distant or not so past, small or large, fighting on the bad or the good side — take your pick. But now, the world is mending itself. Humanity is recovering, getting back on its feet, celebrating what was regained after Thanos was defeated.

Bucky doesn't know what to do.

He's living in a new Shield facility, bonding with the others who've decided to stay there, Sam being one of them. All the while, he's waiting for something else around the corner, some new enemy, another threat, and it surprises him to think that, in way, he's looking forward to it. Having nothing to do and no one to fight is strange. He felt this way in Wakanda, too, as he waited for a new enemy, though the environment and the people themselves made it easier. The work.

Without Steve — at least just knowing that he's out there somewhere — the world just isn't the same. His only real, living connection to his past is now dead, and, if he's being completely honest, he feels alone, at least sometimes.

It makes more sense for him to feel that way when he really is alone, though, so he often ventures out in the city, walks the less crowded streets. People rarely stop him, as he isn't as recognizable as some of the others, especially now with his hair cut short, and, really, he looks pretty intimidating without even trying. It's beneficial for this purpose.

One of his favorite places to walk is Central Park, and he'll often come when it's less busy, seek out the emptier paths, though it's obviously not unusual for him to pass people. And one day, one woman in particular gives him pause.

She looks familiar, but he can't quite place it.

////

All is, decidedly, not calm.

Just when Clara thinks she'll have a break — a respite from the chaos and heartache of traveling the universe off and on for five years, trying to help those who'd lost everything after Thanos snapped the first time. Just when she thinks she can go back to dealing with merely Cybermen or Daleks, things have to go wrong again.

She meets the Doctor for another adventure after leaving the school where she works, and she has half a mind to ask if they can return to New York in the 40s again, a destination they landed in about a month ago, shortly after Thanos was defeated. The Doctor already said no once, since they'd already been, but she often thought of trying to persuade him.

While they were there, they managed to quietly defeat an alien race that was trying to kidnap soldiers and essentially take away their free will, forcing them to robotically fight in a war the alien race was losing on their home planet.

Somewhere early in the process of that, Clara and the Doctor had to split up to look for any clues or anything amiss amongst the soldiers, and Clara had met Sergent James Buchanan Barnes. He'd charmingly insisted that she call him Bucky, and then, after more flirtations — and banter which Clara returned, surprising him — he asked her to go out with him. She mightn't've said yes if the date didn't include a live demonstration done by Howard Stark along with the dancing, but it did, and she agreed. She even procured a friend she'd recently made named Bonnie (a daughter of an officer who was involved in recruiting) to be a date for Bucky's friend.

The Doctor, of course, told her it was a complete waste of time when they had other things to worry about, but she assured him that she would ask Bucky — and, if she could, his friend — for any useful information that they might've had. She did, and, even though his friend left (unsurprising, considering how rude her friend had been to him), Bucky had a few things to say that ultimately helped them stop the aliens.

The night, on the whole, was better than she'd expected. He was sweet, and, when they danced, gentlemanly, even if he did flirt — though only with her, even before Clara's friend had managed to find another soldier who was perfectly willing to dance with her. Clara found herself agreeing to a second date even when she knew it would never happen.

"You know, this war can't last forever," he'd said, "and I'd really like to have something to look forward to while I'm over there..."

"Besides getting to go home?" Clara replied.

He laughed. "Yeah, besides that." He looked at her sincerely, then. "How about we go dancing at eight o'clock? The day after I get back?"

Clara forced a smile. "The day after? Why not the day of?"

"Well, I have to go see my mother first, of course. And my sister. But you're third on the list," he joked.

"Only because they're family," Clara replied. "I'll see you at eight." But she knew there was no guarantee he would even survive the war at all.

Just after they began to part ways, Clara decided he wasn't going to leave and most likely head off to his death in a few hours without one thing. "Bucky," she said.

He turned back to her. "Yeah?"

And then she kissed him, and she knew that it wasn't just for him, but for herself. Because in the few hours she'd known him, she'd begun to care for him, in a way. It wasn't just his looks or his charm, but his character. She could already tell he was a good man, and he was going to war.

She pulled away from him, though he was holding her close, and he was completely speechless. After a long, long moment, Clara kissed him again, shortly, and then said, "Try to come back... for your family." And then she left him there, knowing she wouldn't be there even if he did get back.

Unless the Doctor takes her there. There's just the matter of getting him to agree to it.

"Doctor, I was wondering if we could go-"

"We can't go anywhere," he says, agitated, furrowing his bushy brows. "There's something wrong with the TARDIS."

Clara becomes concerned, walking over to him at the console. "Something wrong?"

"That's what I just said." He fiddles with switches and things as he speaks.

"Well, maybe we-"

But Clara can't finish, as the TARDIS suddenly lurches, that familiar noise ringing through the air, though the ride is bumpier than usual.

"Where are we going?!" Clara shouts, hanging onto the console for dear life.

"I have no idea!" the Doctor shouts back, doing the same.

Finally, the TARDIS stops, and Clara stands, about to head for the door. "What-?"

But the TARDIS begins to dematerialize, knocking Clara to the ground, tossing her about, and she soon realizes, as the TARDIS begins to disappear, that she isn't going with it.

"Doctor!" she shouts. "Doctor!"

She hears him say, "Clara!" but it's faint.

And then she's looking up at tree leaves, a blue sky peeking out in between the green. The ground is hard under her, and she can hear indistinct voices in the distance.

She sits up.

She's on a path, winding through sections of trees and grass and even flowers, and people are walking around, talking and laughing. She stands, looking around for a blue box — something — but seeing nothing.

She begins to panic, but tries to breathe, reminding herself that she needs to focus, to do (mostly) what the Doctor would do.

So, step one: figuring out where and when she is.

She turns, and, immediately — impossibly — there he is.

////

Bucky looks at the woman, wondering why she was on the ground as he studies her for the moment or so that she doesn't notice him.

He's seen her before, he knows it, but he can't remember where or when. It would have to be recently, though. Possibly on TV? Maybe she's famous...

She looks at him then, and her eyes widen, utter disbelief taking over her face. "Bucky?"

So they do know each other. Maybe she'll tell him how.

"Um, ye-yeah," Bucky says, stopping in front of her. "I... I'm sorry, but I don't remember you."

She's still in shock. "Oh. Um... No, no, of course not. I... You just... You just look like someone I met a long time ago. I... I don't think you're same the person. Crazy that... you have the same name, though..."

"Um... yeah..." Bucky trails off, confused.

Neither of them walk away though, something hanging in the air between them. Clara finally remembers exactly what her goal is. "Oh, um, well, this is gonna be a strange question, but could you, um, please tell where and when I am?"

Bucky, still confused, replies, "Central Park... at, uh-" he checks his phone "- ten o'clock."

"No, no, I mean... what year is it?"

"I, um... 2023?"

"Oh," Clara says. "Thanks..."

Bucky looks at her, confused for many, many reasons. "Are you... Are you sure we haven't met before?"

"I would think we have if it weren't... utterly impossible," Clara replies, with a hint of sadness in her voice. She's thinking, this isn't him — it can't be. Maybe his... grandson, or something. Which would mean that he survived the war, or that he'd already had a kid before leaving. Clara is inclined to believe the former, though it saddens her that he came back and she wasn't there. He must've thought she forgot about him.

"Um... miss, are you alright?" Bucky asks. He'd just seen her go quiet, seemingly zoning out, but she starts now, looking at him again.

"What? Oh, yes, I'm fine. I'm..." she sighs "... I'm not, really. I'm a bit... lost."

"Well, I can help you. I think. I haven't really navigated the whole city, but I know enough."

"Yeah, um..." She's not quite sure how to explain to him that that isn't exactly going to help her, as she's looking for a strange man in an elusive spaceship. So, she doesn't, and instead asks him another question. "So, um, strange question, but did you happen to a grandfather who lived here? Possibly served in... World War Two?"

Bucky's brows furrow, and he shakes his head. "Uh, no, my-my grandfather wasn't in New York at the time. He would've been too old to serve, anyway, if he wasn't, uh... well, dead."

"Oh. I-I'm sorry-"

"No, it's okay. I don't remember him." He clears his throat a little. "But, uh, why did you want to know?"

Her eyes widen a little, and she quickly fibs. "Oh, just a research project. For... For uni. Getting a PhD in history, writing a paper and all that. That's why I'm here, in New York. To do... research."

Bucky is suspicious, but he doesn't push it. "Huh."

"Yeah." And then she tries again. "What about your... father?"

"My father?" Bucky says. "He didn't serve either."

"Oh. That's... That's strange."

"And why is that?"

"Well, I found this picture of-of a solider, from back that then, and you look like... exactly like him. Also, you have the same name, so I thought, maybe..."

Bucky's brow quirks, and he asks, "Can I see the picture?"

"I-I don't have it with me right now..."

Something strange is going on here. He knows her — he doesn't know how, but he knows her. And she seems to know him. Finally, he offers, "Well, I... I was here, in the 40s. I served in the war."

Clara can hardly believe it, but how can she deny it? He looks precisely the same, except for a bit of age — it's a weathered look, like he's been through the wringer — but not as much as nearly eighty years should've done. "So it is you?" she says quietly.

"So I do know you," he replies. "I just... I'm sorry, I don't know how."

"Well, it was almost eighty years ago, so that's understandable," Clara says with a laugh, still amazed and confused. "I'm Clara."

"Clara..." he says, mostly to himself, trying to remember.

"I told you my name was Connie, then," she adds. "It was my sorry excuse for an alias; I got it from my friend's name — Bonnie — and just changed it to a 'c,' since, well, that's what my real name starts with. I just spat it out to her when we first met in an attempt at an American accent. Wasn't my finest moment." The name rings a bell in Bucky's mind, and he begins to remember, especially as she keeps talking. "We went on a double date. You and me, then Bonnie and your friend — I don't remember his name; he left early. We went to the Stark Expo."

Bucky nods, starting to smile, to remember. "Yeah. Yeah, and then we went dancing."

Clara smiles too. "Yes."

"And... And you kissed me."

Clara blushes. "Well, at the time I thought I'd never see you again, and it was a possibility that you probably wouldn't come back from the war, so..."

"I'm not complaining about it, trust me."

She laughs. "How are you here, anyway? You've barely aged."

He sighs. "Well, I almost did die in the war." He moves his left arm, drawing her attention to it. "Lost this in the process, and... well, a lot more than that too."

And then it begins to dawn on her. "Wait, wait, you're-"

"The Winter Soldier," he finishes. "Yeah."

"I don't... I don't know how I didn't realize before," she says, shocked. "I mean, I don't really know a whole lot of American history, and I don't... see it often. And things have been so crazy, it's like I'm barely in the present anymore."

"I know what you mean."

She stops, looking up at him. "Actually, I don't think you do." He raises a brow, and she continues. "I just met you a few months ago, from my perspective."

That gives him pause. "How?"

"I'm a time traveler." And, before she even gives this time to set in, she corrects herself. "Actually, I travel with a time traveler. In a spaceship. He's an alien. But he looks like a person, though sometimes he really doesn't act like one. And, um, well, I've lost him, and the ship, and I don't really know what to do. I'm in the present, so I could really just get a plane to England and be home, but the problem is I don't know where he is. The way we got separated was... disconcerting. And I'm afraid something is wrong. He could be in danger or something..."

Bucky can see how worried she is, and he immediately says, "How can I help?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. I don't know how to find him. I don't have anything to find him with."

"Well, I live at a Shield compound. We have a time machine, maybe something or someone that can help."

Clara nods. "Yeah, okay."

As they begin walking towards the compound, Bucky asks, "So, what happened exactly?"

And she tells him on the walk there.

////

"Um... hey, Bucky? Whatcha got there?" Sam asks, seeing his friend enter the compound with a random woman behind him.

"Hi," she says. "I'm Clara. Bucky's..." she trails off unsurely, looking at Bucky.

He thinks for a moment, then finally says, "It's complicated."

"Complicated?" Sam asks, his brow raised. "And I never knew about this?"

"Well, I just remembered that I knew her, like, twenty minutes ago."

Sam's mouth opens in surprise as he goes to speak, but Clara assures him, "It's okay. He has a valid excuse."

"It was nearly eighty years ago," Bucky adds.

Sam looks around. "Are there cameras or something? Am I being punked?"

"Nope."

"Then you're both on something."

"Nope."

And only then do they explain everything. Clara has to run through the whole thing a second time for Sam to finally get it, and, when he does, he still hardly knows how to react. "You... I... Okay, this whole thing is absolutely insane, so I'm just gonna call Fury on this one and hope for the best."

"Fury?" Clara asks. The name almost sounds familiar.

"He's kinda our boss," Bucky replies as Sam dials the number.

"The Avengers have a boss?"

"Technically not the Avengers anymore," Sam says, and then Fury picks up the phone, which is on speaker.

"Wilson," Fury greets.

"So," Sam starts, "Bucky has a sort of girlfriend that travels in space. I don't- I really don't know what's going on. There's a problem. Some sort of doctor-"

"Doctor," Fury cuts him off, his voice raising a bit.

This gives Sam pause. "Ye-Yeah...?"

"The Doctor?"

"You know him?" Clara speaks up, trying to remember who this man is, if she's ever met him.

"Who are you?" Fury asks.

Clara sees no reason to lie, especially considering the circumstances. "Clara Oswald."

"Ah," Fury says. "He's talked about you before. The Impossible Girl, he said."

"He told you about me? I don't even know you. Why-?"

"I have to keep tabs on someone like him. We catch up every so often — though he's sometimes very early or very late."

"Yeah, well, he does that sometimes. Especially his last regeneration." Clara thinks for a moment. "He also talked a lot, and I think he mentioned your name before, but he was never specific."

"He wasn't supposed to mention my name at all."

"Like I said: his last regeneration."

Fury sighs. "And for that reason — among others — I prefer his current one."

"Wait," Bucky cuts in. "Can we stop? What do you mean 'regeneration?'"

"He regenerates after he dies — at least a limited number of times. So, he's really old. But he doesn't always look it," Clara replies. Sam looks at Bucky with the utmost confusion, but Bucky has no answer.

He also has no answer for the strange sound coming out of Sam's phone.

But Clara's face lights up. She starts looking around before Fury says, "And speaking of, here he is."

There's a distant creaking noise, then a voice. "Fury, I'm here for your help."

"Let me guess: you lost Clara?" Fury asks.

After a pause, the Doctor says, "You are good."

"What I am is on the phone with her right now. She's at a new Shield compound."

"Really?" the Doctor asks.

"I've got the location right here."

"Alright, well... I'll be going then-"

"Doctor," Clara chides.

"But he didn't even-"

"I don't care."

The Doctor sighs, then says, "Thank you... for the help."

"You're welcome."

A few moments later, the sound previously from the phone is now within the compound. Sam looks around. "What in the world-?"

"That will be him," Clara says.

Fury sighs. "Can I hang up now? I got Netflix I want to get back to."

A blue police box begins to materialize right before Sam's eyes. "Yeah..."

Fury promptly hangs up the phone, and Sam, who honestly thinks he should be cool with this sort of stuff by now, doesn't even notice.

When the box is fully there, an older man with bushy eyebrows, wearing a long, black coat, with black pants and a black vest over a white shirt, steps out of the box and into the room. He only notices Clara at first. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Clara replies with a relieved smile.

"I don't understand- The TARDIS had some sort of malfunction. I believe it was just a fluke, but-" he grimaced and shrugged "- we'll see."

Behind him, Sam is peaking inside the box curiously, and, upon seeing that it's bigger on the inside, declares, "I gotta retire early."

The Doctor turns and furrows his caterpillar eyebrows. "Who are you?"

"That's-" Clara begins, but then realizes something. "Actually, I was never told your name."

"Sam Wilson," he says absently, inspecting the box.

The Doctor, his attention now back on Clara, sees her scoot closer to another man, one he almost recognizes. Clara smiles and gestures to him. "This is Bucky Barnes. Or, as you probably know him... Sergeant James Barnes."

There's a pause, in which Clara waits for a response, but the one she gets is not what she expected. "No, that name doesn't ring a bell at all."

Clara sighs. "New York? The 1940s? I went on a date with him to get more information on the disappearing soldiers?"

This seems to ring a bell. "Him? That's him? But how-?"

"Cryofreeze," Bucky says simply. "It's a long story."

The Doctor walks up to him, looks closely at his face. "Clara... are you sure this him?"

"Yes," Clara answers, rolling her eyes. "I'm absolutely certain."

The Doctor steps back with a shrug. "If you say so."

Clara sighs. "Anyway," she says, turning to Bucky, "would you like to see inside?"

Bucky almost looks incredulous. "What? You mean the super weird spaceship in the middle of the room? Yes."

Clara looks at the Doctor, who ushers in Sam, still standing next to the door, and then enters himself. Clara and Bucky go to follow, but the door is promptly slammed shut, and then won't open at all. Eventually, the Doctor opens it from the inside. "Are you coming in or not?"

Clara tells him what happened, and as she says it out loud, things start to make sense. "She doesn't like me!" she exclaims. "That's why she dumped me in Central Park!"

"Who doesn't like you?" Bucky asks.

"The TARDIS."

"This thing is sentient?!" Sam quickly darts out the door behind the Doctor, even after receiving no answer.

"She doesn't like me, so she tried to get rid of me," Clara says. "And I'm willing to bet that she found Bucky so I wouldn't want to come back."

"That's..." the Doctor starts. "How would she have known about your... date with him, anyway?"

"I told you about him on the TARDIS, remember? And I wanted to go back to New York in the 40s. I asked you to, but we couldn't because of paradoxes and things."

The Doctor thinks over all this for a moment, then shrugs. "Well, then, it's entirely possible. She never really has seemed to like you."

"And all this scheme did was ensure that I'll be traveling with you more; it'd be hard to come to the States so often by plane to see my..." she trails off, looking up at Bucky.

"You know what?" he says, taking her hand. "Let's go with, 'boyfriend.'"

Sam is looking at all of them in disbelief. "Okay, that's cute and all, but is nobody going to address the fact that the spaceship is sentient?!"