Who: Bucky and Doc What: Meeting When: Late March Where: Lou’s Warning: Low/None Status: Completed via Gdoc
Doc was never one for a fancy bar. He happened to always favor the ‘hole-in-the wall’ joints. The places where there might just be a layer of dust on the bar and maybe a rip or two on the bar stool. Lou’s was not nearly that rundown, but it did fill that yearning Doc had for a small bar. It wasn’t Shorty’s, but it would have to do.
Setting onto a barstool, Doc ordered himself a whiskey and took a moment to survey the other patrons. He noticed a man seated next to him who he vaguely recognized from speed dating. No, they hadn’t spoken, but perhaps now was as good of a time as any.
“Evenin’,” Doc offered, tipping his hat. The bartender set his drink on the counter in front of him.
With the Speed Dating and the robots, Bucky had a lot going on in his life lately. Social stuff, and saving-the-world kind of stuff. He was still looking for a job, another thing that was pressing upon his mind, though he was exploring while he did so. Checking out all the restaurants and bars in the area. He decided to head to Lou’s tonight and check this place out, too.
He turned when the man beside him greeted him, and lifted his glass in response. Then he remembered what Sam might have said back home about being polite and using his words. “How’s your night?”
Shuri would have been proud of him, too, for initiating conversation.
Doc wasn’t always the most social himself. He had the ability to be the life of the party or the guy drinking alone at the bar. Tonight, he speculated he would be the latter, but when the man responded, perhaps his prediction was void.
“Don’t know yet. I suppose after a whiskey or two, I’ll find out. How about yourself?” Doc took a sip from his glass. At least those replicator things were gone. Of course, they’d left a lot of destruction in their wake, but technology was one again safe from their wraith.
“Off to a slow start,” Bucky responded, though it sounded like that was how he preferred things. Slow was better than alien invasions or bar fights. He could handle slow. “I’ll probably have a better idea after another couple drinks, too.” He offered the man his hand to shake.
“James Barnes.”
Doc didn’t exactly mind that things were slow right now either. He would happily pass on alien invasions and bar fights if it meant his daughter had a peaceful existence here. She deserved that. Hell, they all did after dealing with the danger and craziness found in Purgatory.
Doc took the hand and shook it. “Doc Holliday,” Doc introduced himself. “Good to meet you finally. I believe I saw you at speed dating.” Doc released his hand and cupped his glass of whiskey once more.
Bucky had a firm handshake. He always shook with his fleshy hand, though, so it wasn’t like he was squishing someone. This Doc guy seemed pleasant enough. Bucky was meeting all sorts of pleasant people lately.
He nodded, releasing Doc’s hand. “I was there. That was an experience unlike anything I’ve ever had before.” He’d been on plenty of dates in his time… but a five minute date was something else. “How’d you like it?”
Like Bucky, it was a new experience for Doc. Hell, Doc hadn’t even been one for courtship centuries ago. His relationships were usually over after a round of strip poker and a few hours in bed. There wasn’t usually much talking involved. Five minutes seemed like an eternity after that.
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before as well,” Doc replied. He shrugged his shoulders. “Let’s just say it wasn’t nearly as horrible as I imagined it would be.” Doc took a sip from his whiskey.
“How did you like it?”
Bucky broke into a grin at that. “Yeah, I wasn’t, either.” He took a moment to think about Johanna. How strange the beginning of their courtship was, and how much he was looking forward to seeing where it went next. After all, Bucky remembered having to work pretty hard to get a woman to bed. Back in the 40s it wasn’t especially proper for young women to sleep around. Not like today when women had the agency to make those choices for themselves.
“I met someone,” Bucky said, sounding quite surprised that he had. “I have no idea how that worked out, but it did.”
Doc also had the pleasure of a speed date with Johanna Constantine. However, after one run-in at a bar and a night together, Doc hadn’t spoken to Johanna since. He thought about reaching out, but he also didn’t want to push for something that clearly Johanna wasn’t ready for. Not every woman was cut out to date a man who was also a dad. Besides, he knew all too well the rules of a one-night stand. If there was no call, there was no animosity between them. He just hoped she found what she was looking for.
When Bucky mentioned meeting someone, Doc looked at him curiously. “Oh? Who was the lucky lady? If you don’t mind me asking of course.” Some people preferred to keep that kind of thing private and Doc could respect that. Even if his own exploits were hardly so secretive.
“It’s still new,” Bucky added, almost apologetically. “I’m probably a bit too old-fashioned for her. Just sort of waiting for her to decide my old-fashioned ways aren’t worth waiting for.” He broke into a sheepish, self-deprecating grin, then lifted his glass for a sip.
“Her name’s Johanna,” he said, then gulped and lowered the glass again.
“Maybe it’s a breath of fresh air,” Doc offered, shrugging his shoulders. Some women liked ‘old-fashioned.’ Doc figured that if she found him boring, she wouldn’t have bothered with him after five minutes. After all, it usually doesn’t take that long for someone to know if they want to spend more time around a person.
Doc barely managed to avoid choking on his whiskey when Bucky said it was Johanna. Part of him wasn’t surprised. She definitely didn’t make it a secret that she was flirty. Not that Doc was judging. He was the same. It was like a natural instinct for the gunslinger. But Doc wasn’t about to mention he’d slept with her.
“I had a speed date with her,” Doc replied, keeping his answer vague.
Bucky worried that old-fashioned meant slow for a lot of ladies. Especially since he and Johanna had a night together before he realized that this could be something more--it was probably frustrating for her that he had hit the brakes.
Bucky raised an eyebrow at the obvious reaction to the name. And then the mention of the Speed Dating. Bucky wasn’t surprised--they all had multiple dates, after all--but he wondered if she’d had a night with Doc as she’d had with Bucky.
“Ah.” Bucky responded. He wasn’t sure how to react to that. He lifted his glass and downed more of the liquid, then flagged the bartender for another. “She’s great.”
Johanna had given Doc her number and then the two met up at a bar a few days later. Following an incident in which Doc ended up going after her, they slept together. However, Doc wasn’t the “kiss and tell” type. He wasn’t sure Johanna had slept with Bucky too, but if he had to put money on it, he would say she had. She honestly could have been a female version of him in that regard.
“She seemed fun,” Doc replied carefully before polishing off his own drink. When the bartender came by to refill Bucky’s Doc asked for one too. If this conversation continued focusing on Johanna, he was going to need it.
Bucky nodded. He wasn’t really a man who got jealous. He hadn’t ever had a need to be jealous before. Something didn’t really sit with him right here, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Was he jealous? He didn’t even have all the information, so how could he possibly?
“She is.” He gulped again from the glass, then set it down on the counter. “Had you ever done Speed Dating before?” Bucky wasn’t ashamed to say that he had never. Then again, Speed Dating wasn’t the kind of thing they did often in the 1930s and 40s.
If Bucky was jealous of Doc, there was a good chance there might be a few other men in town he might be jealous of too. Hell, maybe a few women too. However, he had nothing to fear from Doc. Doc slept with Johanna, but he didn’t know her well. One deep, meaningful connection did not make a relationship. Besides, Doc was hardly relationship material. It was clear Bucky might be. The right choice should be pretty obvious to Johanna too.
When Bucky didn’t push the issue, Doc felt a wave of relief wash over him. “No, this was my first time. It was better than I thought it would be,” Doc replied. “I met a lot of interesting people.” And received a few numbers too. It was an unexpected bonus. “What about you? Was this your first time in that particular rodeo?”
Bucky simply didn’t know how to be a human being in the world. He didn’t know where and when it was appropriate to be jealous. He didn’t know why anyone in their right mind would have any interest in him. He didn’t know what sort of job to have, or how to hold it down. He had no idea whatsoever about how to be in a relationship with another human being. It was probably going to all explode in his face.
But hopefully it would be all right until then.
“No, I’ve never heard of this Speed Dating thing before arriving here. Not exactly commonplace where I come from,” Bucky admitted. “But I’d probably go again.”
Doc had spent over two hundred years in a well. He was still figuring out how to survive in the world he’d escaped into. While he’d been confined, the world had changed and shifted around him. Advanced. It still was overwhelming at times and Doc felt as if he would be learning how to survive in it for the rest of his life.
“Seeing as I was trapped in a well for about two hundred years or so, it’s not very commonplace for me either,” Doc admitted. “And I’d probably only do it again if someone signed me up.” It had been better than he thought, but he’d stick to picking up women in bars. He was still a bit old-fashioned that way.”
Bucky’s eyebrows raised at that. Two hundred years in a well sounded pretty terrible. He’d spent seventy or so as a brainwashed assassin, and that almost sounded … well, not quite easy, but definitely less when compared to two hundred isolated in a well. Bucky would never consider what he went through easy. If forced to choose? He’d probably take the well.
“Agreed,” Bucky nodded. He had a feeling that Steve’s wife would sign him up for it again whether he wanted it or not. --If he wasn’t in a committed relationship, that is. (Or maybe even if he was, depending on whether or not it was a good one.)
Was Bucky the type for commitment? He had no idea. He hadn’t been in a position where that was a possibility since the 1940s. And then he’d been a bit busy with the war.
“I just have no idea how people meet people in this time period. I’m a bit new to it, too.”
His reaction of raised eyebrows did not surprise Doc. Hearing someone had been trapped in a well for two hundred years was definitely not typical conversation. Even now, if Doc hadn’t lived it, he didn’t know if he would have believed it himself. How did someone not go crazy in such a situation? It was Doc’s revenge that kept him sane. The ring on his finger kept him alive.
“I’ll drink to that,” Doc replied. He raised his glass in Bucky’s direction and then took a sip. While he didn’t think he’d be able to avoid speed dating, it was nice to know he wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t willingly become a victim next time around. Plus, as weird as it sounded, he actually felt a kind of kinship with Bucky. Maybe because of Johanna or maybe because they both had zero idea what speed dating was before coming here.
Doc set his drink down on the bar once more and pondered Bucky’s words. “Well, if you want, we could always go out to a bar together and see if we can chat up any ladies. I can’t promise anything, but that’s usually how I meet them.”
They did have a couple of things in common. Bucky sipped from his glass and then set the empty thing down on the counter. The bartender brought a second one and set it in front of him a moment later.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve done that myself,” Bucky added. He wasn’t sure if he even remembered how to date. “But if you find yourself in need of a wingman,” he added, almost playfully, “Reach out.” It’s not like he had anything better going on around here.
Doc offered Bucky a smile. “I could always use a wingman. I certainly appreciate the offer.” Doc thought it might be good for Bucky to put himself out there again. It was possible the other man might never adjust to this world. Hell, Doc didn’t think he ever would, but he wanted to at least make an effort while he was still breathing.
Doc’s phone buzzed in the pocket of his coat and the gunslinger dug it out. After glancing at the screen, he smiled and shook his head. “Well, I believe that is my cue to leave. My daughter’s momma has to head in for her shift and it seems like I’ve been called in to uphold my fatherly duties.”
He polished off the remainder of his drink and threw a few bills on the counter. Setting his hat back on his head, he tipped the brim in Bucky’s direction. “It was a pleasure chatting with you. Perhaps we can do it again.”
“Anytime,” Bucky responded with a small smile. It was about as close to friendly as he ever got. With someone he didn’t know well, that is. Steve, Nat, and Darcy were the exceptions to that rule.
“Ah, don’t let me keep you.” Bucky knew how important fatherly duties were. His own father had been a great man. He lifted the new glass in response to the tip of Doc’s hat. “I’d like that a lot.” And he truly meant it. Seems the Winter Soldier--the White Wolf--was making friends in Madison Valley.