Eleven weeks post the Battle of Liepzig-Halle Airport...


The folder full of reports sat between them as Pepper looked at it in confusion in Miriam's kitchen, stunned. "Where did it come from?"

Miriam shook her head. "Mason wouldn't explain, saying he didn't quite understand himself. Pretty sure none of them were at the party, though. We made two copies, and then let Mason take one of them to give to Lucinda to send anonymously to the President. Though what that's going to do, I have no idea."

Pepper nodded slowly as she traced the Avengers logo on the cover with her finger. "Did you read them?"

"Sure did. Stark's lucky he wasn't there when I read the psych report on Uncle James from an actual psychiatrist, too. And James's report on the week from heck that started with fruit shopping."

"Miriam! Not you, too!"

Miriam rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't wish him ill, and I understand why he lost his temper, and... there's an and. He's getting therapy to deal with things, right?"

"Reluctantly." Pepper paused when Miriam handed her a copy of the reports in a plain folder. "Why...?"

"Because the jerk you love needs to read those, too. And I mean that respectfully, Miss Potts. I'm not editing myself right now because I managed to get Aunt Becca to go shopping with Daniel, and... emotional release is good."

Pepper winced at the understandable emotional honesty. "You're not wrong... Tony can be a jerk, even if he doesn't mean to be." She looked at the other woman who had invited her over for coffee, only to spring the reports surprise on her. "And how are you?"

Miriam smiled. "Me? In dire need of some non-idiocy and for Steve not to be in exile, and for the situation to get solved sooner rather than later. Other than that? Fantastic."

"Ah."

"What are you two doing in here, all by yourselves?" Rebecca asked as she entered the kitchen with a grandma cart full of groceries, Daniel behind her with a helpless expression directed at his wife. "Coffee without me?" She glanced at them, saw the folders... "Oh. Right. I was going to suggest that."

"Glad to know we're on the same page, Aunt Becca. Get anything good?"

Rebecca paused while Daniel took the pull cart from her and began unloading it onto the counter. "You want me to start complaining about how everything is expensive? Because it is!"

"She did that while looking at candy bars," Daniel supplied humorously. "And Miriam? You owe me a well-cooked steak."

"Yes, dear."

"With broccoli."

"Right..."

"And potatoes."

Pepper chuckled. "That does sound good."

"See? Even Pepper wants that for dinner."

Miriam rolled her eyes at them again, glanced at Pepper. "I even almost wish to cook for a super soldier right now, you know? And that... it's a lot."

Daniel paused in his unloading of the pull cart. "Are we going to be cooking for super soldiers? Because, if so, we didn't buy enough. Not, especially, for two. Please tell me I don't have to brave traffic again..."

Miriam laughed. "No, Dan! We were venting! Or I was, anyway." She stole a glance at Rebecca, who was staring at them. "Though it'd be nice to have to, right?"

"Yes," Daniel said immediately. "It would. Rebecca? Help me?" He handed her the eggs. "Fridge."

Rebecca stared down at the container of eggs in her hands. "Dan, I..."

"Do it. The eggs want you to." Daniel watched her go to the fridge, then glared mildly at his wife, who winced in acknowledgement. Then he pulled out two pineapples. "And how's this for a find? Two for five!"

"Which one of you wanted pineapple?" Pepper wondered.

"Me. Rebecca thought it was extravagant, but it's good to have something fun once in a while." He turned to find her staring at the door of the fridge, lost in thought. "I want my helper back, Mr. Fridge." She jumped and turned back to him, hands on hips. "What? I do!"

"I'm fine," Rebecca told him. "You don't have to-"

"Becca?" Daniel handed her the mayonnaise and the jug of milk. "Back to the fridge with you. Come back this time, okay?" She went, and he looked at Miriam, mouthed 'bad day.'

Miriam pursed her lips, stood up, and led Rebecca to the table just as she'd finished opening and closing the fridge again, made her sit. "Enough."

Rebecca blinked up at her. "What?"

"Stop faking for us. We know you're not fine. You're not in public, you can be as down as you please." Miriam sat back down in her chair and glared at her aunt. "It's just Miss Potts, Dan, and me. So... stop it. Or so help me, Rebecca, I will find a way to punch your brother for being an idiot long-distance for freezing himself to protect everybody but himself."

"I..." Rebecca frowned at her. "Punch him long-distance?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way, no matter how ridiculous." She glared at her until Rebecca started giggling, and then outright laughing at the situation, and then the laughing turned into laughing and crying, and the three of them converged on her as a unit and waited it out together. Eventually she calmed, only sniffling occasionally, and Miriam hugged her. "Better?"

"No, but it felt good." Rebecca stared at her hands. "I hate this, you know. The not knowing." Pepper tapped her shoulder lightly. "What?"

"You're not alone," Pepper told her. "Not in this. Remember that. And when Tony finally is ready to talk to you again, ask him about Nebraska."

Rebecca looked at her funny. "Nebraska?"

"Granted, he wasn't actually in Nebraska, but getting him to admit he was even in Siberia and met people was like pulling teeth... and he still didn't say they were from Siberia. Nice guys."

"Are we seriously going to be joking about him having been in Nebraska when he wasn't until the end of time?" Rebecca glanced at Daniel, who had gone back to unpacking the pull cart, and Miriam. "Rhodes thought he might have ended up in Nebraska when he was missing after the Battle of Liepzig. Apparently, there's a story there."

Miriam smiled. "Oh. So... the not-Nebraskans were nice?"

Pepper nodded. "Nice enough. I walked in on him consulting on James's arm with them over Skype. Said he wanted a medical and engineering opinion."

Daniel paused as he put the crackers in a cabinet. "From Siberia?"

"That was one of the questions I didn't get to ask. Whatever he's thinking or planning..." She shrugged. "I don't know." Pepper looked directly at Rebecca to find her expression was unreadable. "What's wrong?"

"I'd managed to forget the arm. Almost." She sighed. "Miriam wants to punch him long-distance, and I want to strangle Arnim Zola, even though the man died in the 1970's. We're a matched set."

"I didn't say I'd actually do it, Aunt Becca."

"No, but... darn it all." Rebecca sighed. "And now I'm going to have to pretend I don't know he has it unless he mentions it."

Pepper sighed. "He has the shield, too."

"Or that. Pepper!"

"What? If I can't tell you, who can I tell? Miriam isn't the only person who needed to vent a little bit today." She peered suspiciously into the corners of the room. "The State Department didn't actually bug your house, did they?"

Miriam smiled. "They tried, but Mason found all the bugs and did interesting things with all of them. I'm sure Secretary Ross will enjoy hearing the contents of the Fox News 24 hour broadcast, among other things."

"He did what?"

"You mean Mason wasn't supposed to bug the studios of Fox News for the State Department? At the very least, the Secretary will learn things!" For the second time in twenty minutes, someone broke out in laughter. This time, it was Pepper. Miriam smiled unrepentantly. "And being that it's an election cycle..."

Pepper giggled some more, then sobered. "Miriam!"

"Felt good to laugh, right?"

"Yes. Oh, lord yes. He really bugged Fox News?"

Miriam nodded. "If there's one thing I've learned in all of this, it's that you don't want to make Mason mad. He gets really creative and it leads to things like the bugging of check stand number five at the local grocery store, Fox News, a really random street corner in Harlem, and... what was the last one, Dan?"

"A sushi restaurant two blocks from the Tower in Manhattan. They know it's there, too."

Pepper paused. "A sushi restaurant?"

"For international flavor."

"That... kind of makes sense."

Daniel motioned to Miriam. "Like she said: creative."

Pepper smiled. "So why would Mason get that creative? Other than being mad?"

Rebecca held up a hand guiltily. "I told him family stories of antics from the twenties and thirties. Steve and James? They were rascals. And besides, if you can't be a bad influence on your grandnephew, who can you be a bad influence on? The way I heard the story from Sam when he called to tell me to meet them to see them off at JFK, Ross used the example of a heart attack giving him perspective on international politics, and compared Thor and Bruce Banner to nuclear weapons when they aren't. So am I for Mason repeatedly pranking the man? Yes!"

Pepper stared at her. "Rebecca..."

"And I haven't forgotten how Harlem got broken, either. It's possible to get perspective from a near-death experience, to strive to be a better person and all that, I've seen it happen. But Ross? As crooked as they come." She looked away for a moment, took a deep breath. "I haven't had a chance to actually talk to Dr. Banner about the circumstances of his accident, but..."

"It's be easier if he wasn't also in exile," Pepper mused.

"It would, yes."

"What else did Sam tell you?"

"Enough to have Mike look into the circumstances of every Avengers intervention we've had," Rebecca told her honestly. "One, you can't lay all of the blame for New York on the first responders. It'd be like blaming the firefighters for not saving the World Trade Center buildings when they were going to fall anyway. And two, Project Insight was sanctioned by the government, and HYDRA corrupted it." She paused. "Oh. Angle."

Miriam leaned forward. "What angle?"

"HYDRA. The world governments and the press swaying public opinion and leaving HYDRA out of everything when it's at the core of... both New York and the Fall of Shield." Rebecca glanced at Pepper to find her frowning again. "The Tesseract?"

"Oh." Pepper's cell phone when off, startling them, and she looked at it with a deeper frown. Holding up a hand to forestall them from talking, she answered it. "Stark Industries, CEO Virginia Potts speaking... Oh. Hello, Mr. Secretary. To what do I owe the pleasure today? ...oh? Really. Well, I'm sorry, but I am nowhere near him right now to even consider letting you speak to him. And didn't I tell you at least once to talk to Legal first, no matter what the subject is? That's right. You do that. Good day, Mr. Secretary." She ended the call and simply looked at her cell phone for a moment. "You'd think that after the forth time getting me, and who knows how many times getting legal at this point, that he'd stop trying."

"Ross has your cell phone number?" Daniel wondered.

"No. After the sixth time Tony put him on infinite hold, I started having FRIDAY screen his calls and direct calls like that one to me, because I will at least talk to him, if not actually be helpful."

Rebecca smiled. "So..."

"So we've got Mason pranking the Secretary of State, your grandson's law firm and SI's legal department looking into the Accords and James's situation, Lucinda doing whatever she's doing with Mason at the State Department, and this..." Pepper motioned to the folder. She reached down and pulled her StarkPad from the purse at her feet, turned it on. "While we're at it, I have medical question for you, Rebecca."

"Oh?"

"Yes." She waited for the tablet to boot, then found the picture she wanted of Bucky in the restraints from Berlin that Tony had shown her weeks ago. "Tony said that this thing used electrical pulses to subdue that arm. Would the pulses have had an effect like the conditioning equipment, even though it was focused on his arm?"

Rebecca took the tablet and studied the image of her brother with wide eyes, then nodded slowly and passed it to Daniel. "I don't have the knowledge of neurology to be able say yes, but... maybe? Why?"

"I have a theory regarding Zemo and I wanted to run it by you before I brought it up to Tony... and Zemo got access when he shouldn't have."

"What is this from?" Daniel wondered.

"The interrogation in Berlin. Such as it wasn't actually an interrogation."

Miriam snatched the tablet from Daniel and looked. "Oh my. And I don't mean the restraints, either."

{{"They put a man who had been mistreated badly in that,"}} Rebecca muttered. {{"At the very least, they knew he had been. It was impossible not to know."}}

Pepper paused, tilted her head thoughtfully to stare at her. "I'm not sure what you said, but-"

"Simplified English version: he likely clammed up due to PTSD, and the Task Force is made up of morons," Miriam supplied. "And this... Mike doesn't need another way to spin anything, but... he could sock it to the Task Force for something."

Pepper nodded. "That's why I needed the medical opinion."

{{"The chair they used had restraints somewhat like that. Sort of."}}

Miriam looked at the picture again. "It did?"

{{"For his arms."}}

"Oh. Same angle, then. Go get the file, so Pepper can see what you're talking about." Miriam watched her go, then turned back to Pepper. "I'm not going to make her get back to English just yet. She has every right to be upset."

"I'm starting to catch some of it. Something about a chair and arms?"

"Yes. James's arms."

"Oh."

Rebecca returned with a thick binder and set it on the table in front of Pepper, opened it to a particular page that showed pictures of a chair in what looked like a bank vault, with monitors and an IV stand. "That thing. See the arm clamps?"

Pepper leaned closer, took in the details... "Oh. No wonder you lost your English like that. Miriam, can I have the tablet back, to take a picture of this?"

"No need. This is your copy," Rebecca told her. "Of what we've got, been able to find, plus the data from the Siberian facility that Stark gave me when I asked if I could take Steve's Kiev File from the NAF. He didn't know that I already had the information in it. He neglected to ask."

Pepper frowned. "No, you distracted him enough that it wouldn't have occurred to him to ask." Rebecca tilted her head in question. "FRIDAY. Watch-link on his wrist. I got to hear the whole thing."

Rebecca winced knowingly. "Oh. What I'm trying to say here is that this is your copy, Pepper. For Stark to see." She nodded to the folder again. "Along with that."

"Why?"

"Perspective and transparency. He needs both. Plus, the part of this where he ended up with the shield that is usually attached to Steve's arm or on his back... because he used Howard Stark's memory as a weapon in a moment of emotion." Now Pepper looked at her funny. "What? I can extrapolate from 'he yelled bad things at me' to 'was emotional and still wanted to fight.'"

"Ah."

"And if it weren't for the fact that our family is probably on a no fly list or something what with all this State Department silliness, I'd be booking myself a flight for Africa right now."

Pepper took that in, then blinked. "They're in Africa?"

"Of course they are." Rebecca glanced at Miriam. "We need your help, too, by the way. Go get the package, Miriam."

Miriam smiled, handed the tablet back to Pepper, and went to go get it. She came back with a large box and set it on the counter. "We need that sent to Wakanda and can't do it ourselves. Sending international mail is somewhat more than noticeable, and if customs searches it... let's just say it would be bad."

Pepper stared at the box. "What's in that?"

"The efforts of the family get well machine... plus a couple things, and two photo albums. Also cards for his highness, though that was a late edition to this party," Rebecca explained. "So what do you think? Will you?"

Now Pepper smiled. "Of course."

"Thank you."

Pepper glanced down at the open binder... "One of these days, you're going to tell me just how you managed to get pictures of that thing."

Rebecca smirked. "Would you believe I played bad cop while Steve played good cop and insinuated that Peggy would have interrogated Brock Rumlow to within an inch of his life? It's a pity he was on morphine. I'd have liked to have met him whole and sober. And, you know... not working for HYDRA."

Pepper turned and looked at Daniel with wide eyes, and he simply laughed. She would, and did, believe it.


Translations to Romanian (AKA: What Pepper Heard... because my normal method is to use the {{ }} symbols for this and not Google Translate.)

They put a man who had been mistreated badly in that.: Au pus un om care a fost maltratat rău în asta.
At the very least, they knew he had been. It was impossible not to know: Cel puțin ei știau că fusese . Era imposibil să nu știe .
The chair they used had restraints like that. Sort of.: scaunul au folosit aveau restrictii ceva de genul asta . un fel de
For his arms.: Pentru brațele sale.