Chapter Ten

When Howard finally passed out on the sofa in Tony's lab, Tony sighed in relief, running a hand over his face in exhaustion. As Howard was snoring obliviously just a few feet away, Tony decided to throw himself into the analysis of all the data they had collected so far. There were energy readings, accounts from the two time travelers themselves, and a running analysis on the building they had found the two in. There had to be some sort of common denominator, something the two situations had in common.

Tony was flinging information around when he heard the doors slide open. A quick glance showed him that Natasha had wandered in, a large bruise forming on her cheek and her wrist in a splint. Instead of looking vaguely pissed off like he was expecting, she actually looked a little pleased with herself, which raised his wariness up a few notches.

"Jarvis!" he shouted at the ceiling, a nasty habit he had picked up from the others in the tower. He never had these problems when he lived alone, what the hell. "I thought we were on lock down, down here! I'm busy." When Jarvis started to say something, Tony just waved him off, his frown morphing into an exasperated smirk. As Natasha sauntered further into the room, Tony turned his attention to her. "Ah, Natalie! What's up?" he ribbed. Though it had been years since she had infiltrated his company, he still enjoyed teasing her with her former alias. As she came to sit on the edge of his desk, he flicked away all of his work with the snap of a finger. In the background, Howard continued to snore on, happily oblivious to their little conversation.

"So. They're having nightmares. Steve's trying to calm Peggy down and I heard Howard screaming all the way up on my floor. Do you know what's going on?"

Tony sighed, rubbing a hand over his face once more. He glanced up at her, but finally decided that if he didn't tell her she would just find the information herself. He had learned that lesson the hard way. "I'm not really sure what's causing it. Stress? Time-displacement? Aliens? Really, it could be just about anything. We still have no information on what brought them here, what might happen to them because of it, or really anything at all. We're stumbling in the dark, here."

Natasha nodded along, following his movements through the holograms, before flashing him her best PR smile. She was oozing false confidence and insincerity as she batter her lashes at him playfully. "Well, that's when you do your thing best, right? When you have no clue what you're doing?"

Tony huffed out a startled laugh, reaching out to shove her lightly. It was rarely when the Black Widow joked with him, but he enjoyed her gentle ribbing much more than her vicious baiting. "Don't you just know me so well, Agent Romanoff?" He tried to laugh away his anxiety and worry, but even he knew he didn't do such a good job of it.

Her face softened ever so slightly, then, her eyes shining brightly. Her small hand wrapped around the nape of his neck in a rare show of physical affection, squeezing lightly. "We'll figure out what's going on, Tony. Don't worry." She paused just long enough for sincerity, and then wrinkled her nose up in over exaggeration. "But right now, you need to go take a shower, before Pepper gets here at two."

Tony nearly spluttered at that, jerking his arm around to look at his watch. "I forgot she's coming home today. Oh shit. Shit! But, what about Howard?" His worried gaze flew over to the exhausted man lying on his couch before swiveling back to Natasha. "This is longest he's stayed asleep for a few days, now."

She gave him an indulgent smile back, smacking her hand against his neck before leaning back against the desk again. "Go. Take a shower. I'll stay here with Howard. Go on," she continued, nudging him over toward the door. "Pepper will thank me, I promise." Tony smiled thankfully, still looking exhausted himself, and shuffled into the elevator.

When the door slid shut, Natasha settled down comfortably in Tony's seat, spinning idly in circles while she thought. She kept catching glimpses of the sleeping man on the couch, mentally comparing him to Tony. Howard was short, just like Tony. They both had the same dark hair. Howard's skin was a few shades lighter than Tony's, but that was no surprise; Natasha had always assumed Tony got his coloring from his Italian mother's side of the family. Tony's build was thicker and sturdier than Howard's lithe form. Something else they had in common were the dark circles under their eyes. Howard's were from lack of a good nights' sleep, but Tony's were usually from a weekend of binge inventing. All in all, the younger man looked extremely exhausted; more so even than Tony, who practically had a monopoly on the look.

It might have been a good hour later when Jarvis got her attention at the computer. She stopped spinning the chair long enough to bring up the alert, opening a video file. A familiar darkly dressed soldier marched into a known Hydra base, the base then exploded some twenty minutes later, and then the same soldier marched back out. She checked the time stamp and the location, only pausing for a moment in her decision to call up Steve.

She hoped Peggy wouldn't hold it against her.

"Nat? What's wrong?" He sounded sleepy, and Natasha had to wonder if anyone in this tower was getting any sleep. At least he sounded curious.

"We have a hit on your boy. Just destroyed a Hydra base single handedly. It's about an hour's drive from here," she revealed, already typing out a message to Steve and Sam.

She heard someone squeak on the other side of the phone, and then the sound of Steve hurrying to dress. "I need the location and a ride. Is Sam available, do you know?" There was more rustling, and then she heard Steve murmuring to someone in the room with him, before she heard the tell-tale sounds of him jogging.

"Way ahead of you, Rogers. Sam will meet you there, and I sent the coordinates to your phone. Did you really just high tail it out of your girlfriend's bedroom without telling her anything?" Even she could heard the disappointment in her voice, laying it on thick as she shook her head.

"I kind of left Peggy hanging," he said. At least he sounded a tiny bit regretful. "Do you think you could come and keep her company?" Steve asked, and she heard a few more doors swish open as he no doubt made his way down to the garage.

"I don't think that's such a good plan, Steve. We did kind of attack each other yesterday," she said, as dryly as possible. Even she could see the humor in this situation.

Steve scoffed, practically audibly rolling his eyes. She could just picture it. "I think you're both over that, by now."

Since he was no doubt rolling his eyes at her, she did it right back, with even more exasperation. "Fine," she relented, checking her phone to see that Sam had sent her his confirmation. "I'm watching Howard, too. I'll just have her come down here and they can keep each other company. Take your bike, it'll be faster. And Sam says he should be en route in about twenty minutes. He'll meet you there." She paused, a terrible sense of foreboding overtaking her as she suddenly thought of something. Cautiously, she asked, "Steve. How much do you want me to tell Peggy and Howard about your little mission? Does she even know what's happened to him?"

There was a long, damning silence, before Steve replied, slowly and awkwardly, "No. Do you think you could explain for me?"

Natasha crushed that immediately. "Absolutely not! I am not going anywhere near that conversation. She your girlfriend, you can suck it up and explain what the hell is going on yourself. I have to warn you now, though; she's probably going to be royally pissed off at you when you get back." She sighed at the grumble Steve let out on the other side, and then sighed. "Stay safe, Steve. Check in at regular intervals. Promise me."

"Yes, mother. I promise," he snarked, before taking a deep breath, sounding much calmer and appropriately appreciative. "Thanks for this, Tasha. I'll call when I get there."

And then the line went dead and she groaned, leaning back in her chair. "Jarvis, could you ask Peggy if she'd like to join us down here?"

Jarvis did so, and a few minutes later the elevator opened once more. Peggy stepped over the threshold, looking around warily before making her way further into the room.

"Hello. Sorry Steve had to run off. I know he didn't give you much information, but it's a bit of a delicate situation," she tried to explain, giving her an empathetic smile. Peggy eyed her warily and moved over to the sofa where Howard was somehow still blissfully snoring away. She settled on the cushion by his feet and continued to study the lab with her sharp, intelligent eyes.

"Steve said he had to go help a friend. I suppose that's a good enough reason." She gave Natasha a tentative smile, before turning her gaze onto Howard. He snorted in his sleep, and then jerked up, staring at Peggy wide-eyed.

"Pegs? What are you doing?"

Peggy looked just as surprised as him at his sudden reaction. "Nothing. Steve had to rush off for something or other, so I thought I'd come down here and bother you. Are you quite alright, Howard? You don't look so well."

Howard scrubbed a hand across his face before giving Peggy a cocky smirk. "I'm just peaches, Peg." A cursory glance around the room told him that Tony had disappeared, but in his place was a tiny, beautiful redhead.

"Why, hello darling," he schmoozed, leaning over the side of the sofa to leer at her. Natasha knew a diversionary tactic when she saw one and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him in response.

"Don't even start, Mr. Stark. I just watched you snore for an hour straight." Howard's flirty smile died a quick but painful death, and he turned back to Peggy with a crestfallen look.

"Peggy! It's not working anymore," he complained. "My charm has disappeared. What will I do now?" He threw a dramatic arm over his face and fell back on the sofa. That drew a dry chuckle out of Peggy, and even a small, surprising smirk from Natasha.

"I'm sure you'll survive," Peggy consoled, patting his knee in mock-sympathy. Then she let her eyes rove the room once more, before settling on the files on the screen behind Natasha. When the spy saw where she was looking, Natasha twirled in her seat, closing all the files with one fluid motion. She turned back to see Peggy glaring at her coolly.

"Was that information about Steve's friend?" she asked with a strained smile, looking like the picture of a vaguely curious socialite. Natasha was an expert at using masks to find out information, however, and she wasn't fooled for a moment. After all, she knew just how dangerous this woman could be when she wanted something. She had heard stories; God, but she had heard stories.

On the outside Natasha may have seemed calm, cool, and collected; on the inside, though, she was berating herself fiercely. How could she have been so careless as to leave that information up? "It was," she admitted, wincing slightly as the ice in Peggy's eyes hardened further. She wasn't going to be Peggy's favorite person for a long time. "I'm sorry, Ms. Carter. I really can't tell you what's going on. I told Steve he would have to explain when he gets back, because I want no part of that conversation." Peggy's glare intensified, but Natasha kept shaking her head. "He already tried to guilt me in to telling you for him. If I didn't break under his sad 'I'm going to be disappointed in you' voice, then I'm not going to break under your scary death-glare."

Peggy sighed and rolled her eyes, exchanging a quick look with Howard as she did. Well, if they wouldn't tell them what was going on, she was sure she and Howard could find out for themselves.

The thing was, though, that Natasha wouldn't leave them alone for a moment. Oh, she might disappear from their sightline, but they were sure she wasn't ever too far away. Sometimes, as they wandered the tower, they were sure they heard scuttling in the air vents. Why anyone would want to crawl through the vents was a mystery to them, but whatever.

It was really very annoying.

Howard and Peggy had decided to wander back up to their penthouse to bother Tony some more, but instead came face to face with a very irate redhead in a business suit.

"Tony! I reminded you yesterday, and I told Jarvis to remind you, and I even called you three times today! I told you how important this meeting was. Where were you?" she shouted at Tony, who was milling around near the bar, looking wide-eyed and spooked.

"I was working on what the hell is keeping those two from getting a good nights' sleep!" he answered, waving a hand in the time travelers' direction. Howard and Peggy just sent him unimpressed looks back.

"You can't blame us for not going to your meeting!" Peggy ground out, not wanting to be used as a scapegoat. She was already exhausted from a lack of sleep and irritated that Steve had left without an explanation; she didn't need Tony's shit on top of that, too.

The intimidating woman turned to look them over, her face set in angry, disapproving lines. When she saw them, though, she calmed down ever so slightly.

"I don't blame either of you," she said gently. "Tony is always doing this; getting caught up in some project and then conveniently forgetting about board meetings he promised to show up for. If it hadn't been your problem, it would have been something else."

She waved a dismissive hand at them, and then turned on Tony again. "You will be at the next meeting, Tony. Even if I have to drag you there myself."

Tony nodded, looking chastised and apologetic. He reached beneath the bar and offered her a flute of champagne. She rolled her eyes at the gesture but reached out for it none the less, downing half of it in one swallow.

In the lull that followed, Natasha appeared from seemingly thin air, sidling up beside Pepper with a commiserating smile on her face. All the tension Pepper had been holding in her shoulders seemed to bleed out of her then, and she handed Natasha another flute of champagne without a second's pause. Natasha accepted it happily and tugged Pepper to a further sofa, tugging them both to flop down.

Though they were too far away to hear clearly, it looked like Pepper was happily venting about her boyfriend to one of the deadliest spies in the world, and said spy was happily taking it. Peggy watched the interaction with a sort of painful longing in her soul. She had had few close friendships in her life; always on the outside, looking in. It seemed, even in this new century, her fate was to be the same.

Howard dug her out of her morose pity party to drag her over to Tony, who had moved on to grumbling to himself at the bar, a Stark tablet laid out in front of him as he tapped at it impatiently.

"You the barkeeper today?" Howard joked, reaching over the bar to shove Tony playfully. Tony eyed Howard unhappily for a long moment and Peggy thought perhaps they might get into an argument as well, but the moment passed with a huge sigh from Tony. He dug around beneath the bar and produced a dusty, half-full bottle, clanging it down in front of them before going back to his tablet.

"Go crazy, kids," he muttered, sliding two shot glasses down to them as well. Howard looked uncertain, like he was slightly shocked or confused at Tony's behavior, before he gingerly took the glasses, liquor, and Peggy over to another sofa. Even as Howard poured their drinks he looked troubled, throwing guilty glances over at Tony every now and then.

"What was that about?" Peggy finally asked, swishing her drink around before taking a sip.

Howard sighed, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa before answering. "I don't think he likes to see me drink, though he always offers. From what I gathered, the older I became the worse of an alcoholic I became. I don't think old-me was very kind to him when he was growing up." Howard looked extremely guilty and like a kicked puppy, and Peggy sighed.

"I guess this whole day was just built for tragedy," she mused, finishing off her glass and slamming it down on the table. "No sleep, no Steve, annoying babysitters, and everyone being pissy and walking on eggshells. Wonderful."

Howard nodded, leaning back into the sofa. He was tilted sideways so he could see Peggy better, and suddenly she just very dearly wanted to be back home, in 1946. She missed Angie, and her job, and even her meat-headed colleagues. At least she knew where she stood with them; now she was thrust into a new environment with people she didn't know but thought knew her, and it was exhausting. The lack of sleep wasn't the only thing attributing to her bone-deep all-encompassing tiredness.

She threw her feet onto Howard's lap and sighed when he started rubbing them for her. "Are you happy here? Are you glad we got brought to the future?" she whispered, her voice so low that Howard almost didn't hear her.

He bit his lip, rubbing his hand over his face before his eyes fell on Tony again, still sulking and grumbling behind the bar. "I really don't know," he whispered back, leaning closer so they weren't so easily overheard. It wouldn't do for his hosts to hear what he really thought of the future. "I feel like I should love it here. I mean, the technology alone is fascinating, and I have a full-grown son that's older than me, and there's no war or secret program to work on and that all makes me happy." He lowered his voice even further as he got to the bad parts. "But my son hates me, can hardly stand to look at me half the time. I know he tries to see me as some distant relative, not his father, but he can't lie to himself all the time. It kills me to see that. And to see the state of the world. Yeah, the tech's great but it hasn't really helped anything. There's still war and famine and genocide everywhere. Not even anything I did while I was alive helped with any of that. I guess what I'm trying to say is, that the future is a bit disappointing. I wouldn't mind going home, but you and I both know that that's not in the cards for either of us, Pegs. If we went back, there'd be two Peggy Carters and two Howard Starks running around. You know the bloody anarchy that would surely follow," he tried to joke, smiling even though it was crooked and broken and wrong.

Peggy had to agree with his reasoning. The future was wonderful but she missed her home. Even if Steve was here, which was wonderful and amazing and brilliant, he was still so different. He kept secrets and ran off without explanation and she hated it. He treated her like glass, even when he had never dared to before, and it rankled her nerves like nothing else. She loved his comforting presence, could lose herself in his strong arms and deep voice, but she hated it sometimes, too. It was like a heavy, suffocating blanket holding her down.

She didn't even think he realized he was doing it, but that just made it even worse.

"Well, there's nothing for it," Howard said louder, leaning away from her to refill his glass. "We're stuck and we might as well enjoy it."

At that moment, Tony's AI came over the speakers turning the TV on for them. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I thought you might like to see the news," he said, flipping through the channels until a news broadcast popped up.

Peggy leaned forward, staring hard at the screen. There was Steve, in a darker version of his Captain America suit, something that looked much sturdier and darker, built more for stealth than the bright red, white, and blue of his wartime suit. He was throwing his shield at a group of men wearing black uniforms and body armor. The camera was too far away to see any distinguishing marks on the enemy, but she didn't miss Natasha's grumbled, "Hydra."

That had her ears perking up. Hydra had survived the war? Really? When she looked, Howard seemed just as surprised as her, though he kept his attention on the fight playing out on the screen.

Just when Steve looked to be getting overrun by enemies, a man with silver wings flew by and hit them from above with gunfire. Steve waved up at him and then continued throwing his shield about and slamming his fists and feet into them. It was nice to see that his fighting style hadn't really changed much, no matter how much time between then and now. Even with the winged man's backup, there were too many people for just the two of them to take down.

And then the men in black started dropping like flies.

The moment the first fell out of seemingly nowhere, the Hydra soldiers started to scatter in a panic, like they knew exactly who was attacking them and were scared out of their minds. A few more were picked off from somewhere off screen, and then it was quiet for a few moments until another man in black, this time a different uniform than those of the soldiers, appeared beside Steve. At first glance she didn't see anything interesting about him, and then he turned, his left side to the camera, and all she could see was a shiny, metal arm.

Well. Wasn't that interesting?

Someone commentating on the feed shouted in shock and fear, "Is that the Winter Soldier? Why isn't Captain America subduing him?" The anchor sounded panicked and unprofessional, and Peggy sighed. Just another thing that had changed with the times. The news anchors of the '40's would never. She had never heard of this 'Winter Soldier', but she supposed Steve must know him. No one else was panicking, either, so she decided not to, either. Everyone was suspiciously wide-eyed, however, as Steve and the Winter Soldier worked in tandem to subdue the rest of the black-clad soldier, with aerial support from the man with the wings.

Once the last man fell to the ground, Steve and the Winter Soldier faced off, the Soldier skittering back a few feet while the man with the wings landed behind Steve. They seemed to talk for a long while, Steve waving his arms wildly at one point, and the Soldier striking his hand through the air in one smooth motion, keeping all of his motions short and sullen. He seemed almost defensive in the face of Steve's expressive face.

It went that way for a long while; they traded words back and forth while the news anchors pondered over what they could possibly be talking about for that long. Finally, the Soldier gave Steve and uncertain, jerky nod, and followed him and the winged man off screen, somewhere the camera couldn't follow.

"Well, shit. He finally managed it," Tony said, sounding shocked as he muted the TV. He stood behind Peggy and Howard's sofa, hands clenching the back so tight his knuckles went white.

"Should probably get a containment room set up," Natasha mumbled, eyes wide and wary, even as she stood and rushed from the room.

Just as the elevator doors shut behind her, another alarm went off and a different video popped up, this one black and white surveillance of a deserted office building. Peggy and Howard instantly recognized it as the office they had both appeared in, and silently worried over who had arrived this time.

He was shaking, even as he stepped into the empty room from the records room. He was squinting around, short hair shaggy and falling into his eyes as he looked around, wide eyed and covered in dirt. Then he seemed to notice the camera light blinking in the corner and looked right at it, eyes dead and jaw clenched. He reached down to his hip and produced a pistol, took aim, and blew out the camera in one quick shot.

It was enough time to see that their newest guest was none other than James Buchanan Barnes.

Peggy and Howard didn't quite understand why Pepper and Tony had gone so paper white at the sight.