#SHE'D TOTALLY LEAD THE MARTHA RESISTANCE

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Some ppl might not like this and thats perfectly fair and u can totally ignore this but um,, Wintershieldshock in a The Handmaid's Tale au, anyone? Also no powers/superhumans in this AU. 

Darcy is June, Bucky is Nick, and Steve is Luke. Not sure who from the MCU could be the Waterfords tho

more plot and who-would-be-who under the cut (edited bc the tags were limited)

I see Jane as Emily/Ofglen and Nat as Moira. And like Moira, Nat escapes and lives with Steve in Canada, hopefully cooking up plans to get Darcy back and destroy Gilead with the information she has. I also see Wanda as Erin?

I can explain why Bucky would be part of Gilead/Sons of Jacob. I wanna say that maybe Bucky and Steve were in the army together and were discharged from service pre-Gilead. War hardened them both, Bucky lost an arm, Steve can’t forgive himself for it, and things just weren’t the same after they got back. While Steve tried to get better, Bucky was getting worse, mentally and financially. This leads to him getting recruited by SoJ (which is, if you think about it, HYDRA), a terrorist organization that has no qualms targeting angry and vulnerable war vets like Bucky who lost their sense of purpose. They offer him benefits he can’t refuse, namely a new arm that works just as good as his old one, if not better (It’s God’s gift to him, they said) and a new direction in life. He starts working for Commander Pierce as a spy. 

Steve goes for therapy to cope with his trauma. One day, he meets Darcy, they fall in love, get married, and later have a daughter named Sarah. Steve tells Darcy about Bucky and everything they’ve been through. Every year, they invite him for holiday celebrations with the Rogers but he seldom attends them. Since his first visit, Darcy decides she doesn’t really like Bucky but she can see how much Steve and Bucky care about each other, and Bucky is Sarah’s favourite uncle who spoils her rotten, so she plays nice when he’s around. Steve thinks the ice between them is funny, his best pal and his best girl at odds with each other despite being eerily similar. 

The two men eventually reconnect and catch up on the years spent apart, sharing their personal and very different struggles coping with life after the war. Everything was going well until Bucky confides in Steve about his association with SoJ. Steve begs him to leave but Bucky’s stubborn, firmly believing that SoJ could make the world better. It’s the final nail in the coffin of their childhood friendship. But even then, it’s Bucky’s name that Steve still cries out in his nightmares at night. As she holds him, Darcy finds herself hating Bucky, hating him for hurting Steve like this, hating him for ever leaving them, his family.

Then shit goes down in the US. Bucky warns Steve about Gilead going military, about the coup in the white house, he tells Steve to get his ass to Canada with Darcy and Sarah ASAP. But Steve doesn’t listen, not at first, still blinded by his disgust that Bucky is working for the SoJ but also because he stubbornly believes America can win this fight, that things will get better. They don’t. After that, it’s a race to get past the border. Unbeknownst to the Rogers, Bucky tries to help,and while he’s not there to do it himself, he calls in for a few favours. The plan goes sideways when they’re intercepted by a group of Guardians. Steve gets separated from his wife and kid (who are taken elsewhere) during the chase, gets heavily injured, but manages to cross the border with the help of a few friendlies. Meanwhile, Darcy gets sent to the Red Centre for handmaid training, thinking Steve died and that Sarah is gone forever. (So basically what happened to Luke, June, and Hannah in the flashbacks.)

During the training, she reunites with Jane and Nat. When she gets assigned to the Waterfords, she’s surprised to see Bucky as their Guardian and driver. Their reunion is not sweet, Darcy can barely look at him and has to restrain herself from lashing out at him in the presence of the resident Martha and the Waterfords. Bucky’s equally stunned, all this time he thought Steve and his family made it to Canada. He feels heavy with guilt but puts that aside, understanding now what he’s meant to do, what he was supposed to do. He vows to protect Darcy, to find Sarah, and to get them both to safety, even if she hates him along the way. 

(And it’s true. She can’t stand him. How detached he is from this fucking nightmare. How obedient he is to Mr. and Mrs. Waterford. How he guards himself and his secrets, she doesn’t even recognize anymore. But mostly, how tender and gentle he is around her when they’re alone, how apologetic he is, how he smiles at her and cracks jokes to cheer her up like Gilead never happened, like he never had a fucking hand in what transpired, the fact that Steve was right, they were very alike and it was still so easy to banter with him despite all these years, despite everything, but the thing she can’t stand the most is how much he really, really reminds her of Steve.)

But things aren’t as simple in Gilead, even when you’re an Eye. It gets more complicated with Mr. Waterford being sterile. Mrs. Waterford eventually takes things into her own hands and asks Bucky to impregnate Darcy. Unfortunately, he can’t say no. When it’s done, he stays away from the Commander’s home and avoids her, unable to talk to her, look at her. Steve’s girl. Sarah’s ma. What has he done? What did he get them into? 

A few nights later, Bucky wakes up to Darcy knocking on his door. It’s the first they’ve seen each other since that night, like properly seen each other and it’s her 2nd time in his room. She doesn’t say anything as she steps in, just closes the door and starts undressing. He’s calculating the risks in his head, the punishment for a handmaid caught with a guardian, but he’s too distracted by what’s happening to stop this. He can’t stop looking at her. He can’t stop wanting her. And Bucky would admit, he’s always been captivated by her beauty and strength, always wondered how Steve could get a dame like her. Fuck, he really shouldn’t be thinking of Steve right now.

When she moves forward to press her lips against his, he stops thinking and allows him to only feel. In the dark of the night, they’re given a choice, one they both offer to each other, and they take it.

A few weeks later, Bucky escorts the Waterfords on their diplomatic trip to Canada. He meets Steve and they have a very, very long conversation.

Cue angsty romantic triangle, depictions of trauma and survival, coping with grief and loss, and finding happiness in a fucked up world! And an OT3 I normally wouldn’t ship