A/N

I apologise for the last chapter... I really am sorry...

It was raining. That was as much as Laura registered as she got into the coal black SUV. The journey was quick. Too quick.

Laura wore a black dress with lace layered over the top and making up the sleeves. When she stepped out of the car, her foot slipped and she stumbled into Coulson, who was holding a black umbrella, open above his head, and he steadied her with his free arm. She smiled weakly and walked towards the gate of the church.

She supposed the church should be pretty. After all, she had been married here. It was older than most, with Ivy growing up the cold stone walls and half-worn gravestones.

She was halfway down the cobblestone path when she turned, to see a man with long black hair leaning against a tree on the far side of the graveyard. She stopped, and pointed him out to Coulson, before marching towards him, sheltering her hair from the rain.

"Bucky Barnes?" she asked tentatively, locking eyes with him.

"I suppose I was once… and you are?" he drawled, a hint of remorse in his voice.

"Steve's wife." Laura said, as if it was obvious.

"Jesus, I never thought that kid would get hitched…" he said, laughing softly.

"Why weren't you there?" she cut him off, folding her arms and taking a step closer.

"I-" he tried to answer.

"You could have helped. He needed all the help he could get and you didn't do anything. You stayed in the shadows. But do you know something? He always believed you'd come back. He believed you'd be friends again, and you could put the past behind you. He never, for one second, doubted you. Over there, Agent Simmons is pushing a pram with a baby in it. That baby is our son. Do you want to know his name?"

Bucky closed his eyes, already knowing the answer.

"Jamie Clinton Rogers. After you. That was all Steve; he wanted to remember you, no matter what happened next."

Bucky opened his eyes and just stared at her for a moment, then watched Simmons push the pram into the church and out of sight.

"Nostalgic prat." He muttered, smiling slightly.

"Well that 'nostalgic prat' believed in you. And for one shining moment… so did I." Laura said.

"What exactly was the point of you coming over here? To shame me?" He snapped, almost switching back into the Winter Soldier mind-set once more.

"To recruit you. Coulson needs more people, and we can help you at the same time. Don't accept now… sleep on it and let me know. You know where to find me." Laura said, then turned away to re-join Coulson and together they entered the church.


Kim got back from the funeral with Fitz and Hunter early. They hadn't wanted to stay long and intrude on The Avengers or anyone else who had known Steve better than they had. Kim collapsed on the sofa as Fitz went to make a pot of tea.

"Well that was depressing…" she muttered, making Hunter smile from across the room.

"Tell me about it… but did you see Stark? He looked more upset than Laura if that's even possible." Hunter agreed, pointing out something the other two had vaguely noticed as well.

"He blames himself." Fitz shouted from the kitchen. "It was his decision to have a public trial, and that's where he died, so he blames himself."

Kim nodded slowly, taking the steaming mug from Fitz. "It makes sense." She agreed, taking a sip of her tea. "Bloody hell, Fitz; did you put sugar in this?" she asked, making a face at the taste.

"You take sugar?" Fitz said, looking incredulously at her.

Kim rolled her eyes and stomped over to the kitchen to put sugar in the tea.

"You've gotta feel bad for Laura though… husband dead, father blames himself and on top of all that, a baby to look after single handed." Fitz said, mind returning to the funeral.

"Yeah… imagine if, after all that, she gets inhuman powers or something… wouldn't that just be the tip of the iceberg?" Hunter said, chuckling slightly.

"She doesn't know who her mother is, so you never know." Kim said as she took up her previous stance of being sprawled over the sofa.

"Never know what?" asked Coulson from the doorway.

"Nothing, sir." Kim said immediately, sitting up and smirking into her tea.

"Good. I just wanted to warn you guys that Laura and the rest of the Avengers will be back in about five minutes, so please be careful what you say and how you approach them. Especially Laura." He warned, glaring at the three.

There was a murmured 'yes sir' from all three, and Coulson vanished in the direction of his office.

"Jeez… am I the only one wanting to avoid them?" asked Kim when she was sure Coulson was out of earshot.

"Nope… I might go back to my room." Hunter agreed, making a move to get up, as Laura stepped into the room. The trio froze.

"Hi Laura." Kim said in a very high voice. She looked exhausted; there were only faint traces of the subtle makeup she had on earlier left on her face, she held her heels in one of her hands and the other one was holding Steve's shield.

"Is the kettle on?" she asked, in a surprisingly breezy voice. Fitz nodded, and Laura dumped her shoes in the corner and pushed the shield into his arms.

"Of course, it's not bad enough that it's my husband's funeral… my four week old baby just had to start crying in the middle of it, didn't he?" Laura said, almost laughing at the situation.

"Typical." Fitz agreed quietly.

Laura strolled forwards with her own steaming mug of tea, switched on the television to the side of the room and started to flip through the channels.

"Funeral, funeral, funeral… do the news have anything else to report on? Funeral, Nazi's were bad, funeral, funeral, a bad Superman movie, Twilight, ugh no, funeral… Ah, Harry Potter and the fire cup. Perfect." Laura was right about one thing, the news weren't showing anything but footage of them walking in and out of the church.

"Harry Potter and the fire cup? Hunter repeated, half laughing, half offended at the name she called it.

"Fire cup, goblet of fire… same thing." She said half-heartedly.

Fitz snorted and settled down to watch as well.

During the course of the film, everyone who was at the funeral filed in, and by the time Voldemort had killed Cedric Diggory, the entirety of the Avengers were in the small room, along with Bobbi, Skye, Simmons, May and everyone else.

By the time the film ended, everyone was so engrossed in their own respective conversations about the film that no-one noticed Laura get up and leave.

She slipped down corridor after corridor until she reached her destination: vault D.

"Hi Ward." She said as she reached the seat facing his cell.

"Now what? Can't I be left in peace for once?" he asked angrily, glaring at her.

"No. I'm here to ask you how you brought me back to life." She said simply. The thought had been plaguing her mind for a while, and it was only now she realised how much she wanted to know.

"How do you know I did bring you back to life? How do you know you weren't still alive and we just worked a miracle?" He asked. He was trying to get inside her head. She wouldn't let him.

"Because I wasn't here anymore. I was there. I remember it; it was beautiful… more so than anything I've ever seen. And then I was dragged away, and I was back. It was like turning off the lights then turning them back on again. I just blinked back into existence." Laura explained quietly. The only person she had ever admitted this to was dead.

"Fine… if you must know, ask Coulson or Skye. It's the same method that was used on them."

Laura glared, but strutted away towards Coulson's office. On a day when her whole world ended, she needed answers.