If the first day following Bucky's arrest was difficult, the first month was hellish in nearly every sense of the word.
As Summer's shock wore off and reality began to set in with all of its unforgivingly harsh truths, she did her best to stay afloat in the face of growing adversity. Within hours of her name being released on the news, cable news networks began debating who the mysterious wife of the Winter Soldier was. Photos of her were shown on the corner of the screen next to Bucky's mugshot, and website after website plastered the same photos above pieces speculating on just how a seemingly simple girl from Virginia ended up married to the most prolific assassin of the century.
The photos of her came from old social media profiles she'd never bothered to delete and even older yearbook photos, but as outdated as they were, they were still clear depictions of her face and they were everywhere. Not much was known about her to the general public, but news outlets were quick to dig up the basics - that she was 29, a mother of two, online college graduate, and an employee at Stark Industries. They hadn't uncovered her pen name or the novel she'd published under it, and the kids' names hadn't been divulged yet either, but Summer figured those things were likely a matter of time.
She decided to temporarily cope with these things by staying in the tower and never leaving. She also decided to take David out of school as a pre-emptive measure, since she could only imagine what would happen to him once his teachers and the other kids found out who his father was. He wasn't happy about that, nor about anything else, and his moods hadn't been so tedious in years. Just the slightest upset to his day would send him spiraling, and there was only so much Summer could do to help him. Adelaide was better but she wasn't sleeping quite as soundly and she greatly missed her Daddy, and neither child fully understood why he was gone.
But the three of them were hanging on. Pepper gave Summer time off from work so that she could devote her time to finding a good lawyer and figuring out how to navigate the new dire straits of her life. She had her things moved completely out of her home and into the tower, breaking the lease which was the very least of her concerns. Meanwhile, she and Steve worked more closely together than they ever had before. He helped her in every way that he could, interviewing a couple of lawyers with her and also keeping her constantly updated on the efforts by him and others to get Bucky moved from his undisclosed location and into a real governmental facility.
Steve's contact inside the CIA was helping them, along with Nick Fury and a few other high-up officials who were doing their best to pressure or persuade the FBI to charge Bucky as a civilian rather than a foreign terrorist. Their efforts weren't getting them very far as of yet, but they were also attempting to persuade others in power - senators, congressmen and women, and high ranking military officials - to back them in their calls for Bucky's history as a fallen war hero and ex-POW to be honored. Steve had released a public statement saying as much, and he'd agreed to a slew of coming interviews all over the network news circuit. It was all part of a concerted effort to not proclaim Bucky's innocence but rather at the very least give him a fair shake and a day in court.
And Summer, being the slight masochist that she was, spent the little free time she had reading pages upon pages of comments and debates online regarding her husband. There were those who felt that his crimes spoke for themselves and that he was getting what he deserved at last. Others noted the leaked files that spoke of his brainwashing and cryo-freezes and wondered if he hadn't been fully to blame for what he did. Those people supported giving him a fair trial. The others didn't want to waste the time and money and preferred he go straight to the electric chair or lethal injection.
One thing was certain: Bucky was the year's biggest news story by far, and the fact that he'd been taken from a house in the suburbs where he lived with a wife and two kids only raised interest in what was already a huge story. Comprehending the sheer scope of it all made Summer's head want to explode.
She was barely sleeping. She would fall asleep late and wake early, and she felt completely useless. Steve was all but campaigning for Bucky and the others were helping him to do so, but all Summer felt like all she was doing was choosing the absolute worst lawyers to interview and making life harder for everyone else, convinced that she and her kids were a burden on them even when they insisted that she wasn't.
A full four weeks after Bucky had been arrested, Summer was sitting at the big kitchen table in the midst of the communal floor, sipping on an enormous cup of coffee and reading through lists of more defense attorneys on her phone. The kids were still asleep - it was eight in the morning and David always reverted to sleeping in when school wasn't a factor - and while she would have found such a morning to be relaxing and nice under normal circumstances, this morning and every other one was the complete opposite of relaxing. The minute she woke up for the day, her stomach was already twisted in knots and a vague sense of nausea would stick with her the entire day, making eating almost impossible.
She wasn't pregnant. She'd checked. She was simply full of almost debilitating anxiety.
And that day, her anxiety was in for an even bigger blow. The private elevator across the floor dinged, and the doors opened to reveal Steve arguing with a woman Summer had never seen before.
Summer swiveled in her seat and furrowed her brows, watching as Steve muttered mid-sentence, "... Can't be legal, especially at a time like this when they're already -"
"It's completely legal, Captain, and if you don't mind, I'll take it from here," the woman replied, dressed smartly in a pantsuit and clutching a tablet under her arm as she walked into the large, otherwise empty room and instantly laid eyes on Summer.
Summer looked at Steve, who looked absolutely aghast and very apologetic. Her stomach dropped, and as the woman walked up to her and put on a smile as she held out her right hand, Summer knew that this just had to be bad.
"Hi, I'm Margo Davis and I'm with the New York City Department of Children and Families," she said cordially, apparently expecting Summer to shake her hand.
If Summer had managed to eat anything that morning, she just might have vomited on the woman's shoes at that point. "Oh," she said dumbly, shaking the offered hand and feeling like she just might start crying and never stop at this point.
"You are Summer Barnes, correct?"
She nodded. "Yeah,"
"Okay. And this is where you're currently residing with your two children?"
"I... yeah, we just had our things moved here a few days ago, but -"
"Okay. I'm sorry to drop in on you like this, but I'm afraid that this is protocol in situations like yours."
Summer tried to swallow but her throat was too dry. "My situation."
"Yes," Margo nodded.
Now standing next to Summer, Steve said, "I just don't see why you couldn't have called first. You have no idea what this woman's been through in the last week, and -"
Margo, a woman in her forties with short blonde hair who'd clearly seen way too much during her career, stared at Steve dead on and said, "Once again, while I understand your concern, I'm not here to harass her or her kids. I'm only here to make sure that the welfare of the children is being seen to and that they're in a safe and healthy environment."
"Even though you have no reason to think they're not in one?" Steve retorted. Summer had the fleeting thought that wherever he was, Bucky would be greatly appreciative of Steve's efforts to look after his family in his absence.
"With all due respect," she replied with slight false sweetness, "my reason for being here is frankly obvious."
"It's fine," Summer said quietly, taking a breath and trying to mentally calm herself down. "I understand. I probably should have expected this."
"I did try to call you yesterday," the social worker said to Summer. "But I could only find your home phone number and as I quickly figured out, you've moved here."
"Oh. Yeah, we just got our things moved here. I didn't feel very safe going back home, considering my name's all over the news."
"Understandable," Margo nodded, seemingly meaning it.
"I would feel a lot more comfortable with this if you had a lawyer with you," Steve said to Summer quietly, still clearly highly opposed to the entire situation.
"There's no need for a lawyer," the woman said. "Believe it or not, when I knock on someone's door I don't do it with the intent of breaking up families. We try to keep families together. That's our goal. And we try to get help and resources to families that need it."
Summer wanted to believe that, but it was hard to see the woman as anything other than the latest boogeyman coming to further fracture her family.
Still, she nodded again and squared her shoulders with a mostly false sense of courage, and then said, "Let's get this over with."
Summer, not having much experience with child services, wasn't sure what this would entail, but she soon found out. Margo essentially took a tour around the communal area of the tower, Summer and Steve following her every step of the way, and the woman checked things like how safe the general living area was, how much food was in the enormous industrial sized refrigerator and, naturally, how much of it belonged to Summer and her kids. She also hit Summer with a barrage of questions ranging from when the kids' last doctor visits had been, if they were up to date on their shots, and how they were doing with hitting their developmental milestones.
Summer had a lot to explain and not nearly enough time to do it in. There was David's autism and various therapies and testaments she'd tried in the past, his rather impressive success at school and the fact that he's taught himself how to play piano and had further excelled with a teacher. Margo had also pieced together that David was not Bucky's biological child, so there was that to explain as well, and that was when things got a bit dicier. Summer herself wasn't even sure how the adoption had gone through, and she didn't want to incriminate herself or Tony who she knew had called in a favor with a judge to get it approved quietly.
Then, after all of that, the kids woke up. David awoke to a strange woman waiting in the kitchen to speak to him, and she conducted an "interview" with him while Summer fed him and his baby sister breakfast. David, of course, said nothing, and he mostly refused to even acknowledge the social worker's presence and spurned all eye contact with anyone.
"Sorry," Summer said when it became clear that David was going to do nothing but glare at his bowl of cereal. Holding Adelaide on her hip, she added, "He's just been through a lot and it's all been really hard on him. When he has a hard time, he just kind of... retreats into himself."
Margo nodded. "Not unusual considering his condition. You said you pulled him out of school?"
"Just for now," Summer replied. "Until I figure things out."
"Can't keep him out too long," Margo noted, glancing at her tablet and typing something. "Kids like him need the stability and routine of school."
"Trust me, I know," Summer replied, trying to keep her irritation under control. "But he also needs to be safe, and that's why I'm keeping him close for now."
Margo then tucked the tablet back under her arm, glanced at both children, and then nodded shortly. "All right, well... I got what I came for. I'll get out of your hair now."
Summer blinked. "Really? Are you... did I... did we..."
Knowing what she was trying to ask, the social worker replied, "Like I said, Mrs. Barnes, I didn't come here to harass you or break up your family. This visit was protocol."
"But what about... in the future? Will there be more visits?"
"Yes," Margo nodded. "Your case will be open with us indefinitely."
Fantastic. As if Summer didn't have enough hanging over her head, now she got to face the constant threat of DCF looking over her shoulder. And as reasonable as the social worker seemed to be, Summer was not stupid and she knew that she would likely not be treated fairly thanks to any number of fairly obvious reasons.
Steve still at her side, Summer politely bade the woman farewell and watched her walk out of the room and head back into the elevator. When the doors closed and she was finally gone, Summer's shoulders dropped and she all but collapsed in one of the chairs, full of short-term relief even though she knew it was only the start of yet another long-term problem.
"You okay?" Steve asked, sitting down in the chair next to her and looking on sympathetically.
"No," she shook her head. "This is just... I swear, whenever I think something can't get worse, it does. I can't even properly freak out right now the way that I want to. This is basically my worst nightmare, having my kids..." She cut herself off before she could say maybe taken away from me, because David didn't need to hear that. He didn't need to add the fear of being taken from Summer on top of everything else.
"Well, we're not gonna let that happen," Steve said, his tone full of conviction.
Summer looked up at him, trying to muster up a smile and also trying to bat Adelaide's hands away from her shirt. The baby had, in the last few days, decided that one of her favorite pastimes was yanking Summer's shirts down, and while that was fine in the privacy of their own room, it really did get old trying to keep from accidentally flashing everyone, including Steve. "I hope so."
Steve gave her a tight smile and then checked the watch on his left wrist. "You might want to head back to your room soon with the kids. I'm doing an interview in an hour and the news crew will be here soon."
"Really? They're coming here?"
"Yeah, I'm talking to them over a satellite," Steve shrugged. "Like a talking head."
"Oh," Summer nodded. "So... this the start of your media blitz?"
Steve sighed and sat back in his seat, staring off wearily. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't have a lot of pull with the guys in power, so... basically, we decided that I take on the media and Fury takes on Washington."
"Has he had any luck yet?" Summer asked, not expecting a positive answer.
"Well, I'll find out in about... half an hour," Steve said after checking his watch again. "He flew to D.C. last night and is meeting with the President as we speak."
Summer's eyes widened. "The President?!"
Steve nodded. "And the Attorney General."
Summer drew a breath and found it hard to wrap her head around it all. Life with Bucky had gotten so domestic and normal that it had been easy to almost forget what he'd done in the past and how very huge his crimes had been. They were so big that his boss had to meet with the freaking President of the United States just to try to get him a trial of his peers.
Steve's hand on her shoulder interrupted her thoughts. "This isn't over, Summer. None of us are giving up."
"I know," she smiled. "I just... something good needs to happen soon or I might lose it."
"Well, we're working on it," Steve replied before his phone made a noise. He looked at it and then said, "That's the news crew. They're on their way."
"I'll be going back into hiding, then," Summer nodded, getting up from the table. "Keep me updated on the whole... President thing."
"Will do," Steve nodded back. "And if you want to watch the interview, it'll be live on CNN."
"I'll be watching," Summer replied, hustling the kids back towards the hallway. "Good luck."
"Thanks," he replied with a half-hearted smile of his own. Summer smiled back, taking no comfort in knowing that Steve was basically just as miserable as she was. But without him, she wasn't sure how she would have coped.
After grabbing a few drinks and snacks for the kids and then getting them back to their room, Summer shut the door and set Adelaide down on the floor. David went straight to his little corner of the room, where his toys and tablet and other favorite things were, and Adelaide set off towards her own toys, leaving Summer standing there alone just long enough for it to hit her how very lost she truly felt.
If Bucky knew that DCF had been there to visit them and that they now had an open case that could eventually result in her losing their kids, she couldn't even imagine the kind of reaction he'd have. It was hard enough to lose him and not know if or when she'd get him back, but if she lost her kids... she didn't think it was overdramatic to think that she might not recover from that.
She just couldn't dwell on those things. She had to keep moving, and that meant going about business as usual and getting back to one of her primary tasks, which was looking for a decent lawyer.
She got settled in her bed, sitting up with her computer on her lap and a notebook and pen at her side. She turned on CNN on the television on the wall, then kept one eye on the kids while she began searching lists of prominent defense attorneys in the city of New York.
Steve was giving live interviews on CNN and Nick Fury was trying to persuade the most powerful man in America to have Bucky charged as a civilian, and yet all she could do was sit in her bed and search yellow page listings for lawyers. She didn't just feel useless - she felt fairly close to a waste of space. She was supposed to be the most important person in Bucky's life, and yet she could do absolutely nothing of real value to help him.
She was staring blankly at the phone number of some random law firm when the news anchor's voice on the television grabbed her attention. Her head snapped up and she swallowed as Steve's interview began, and nothing stole her attention until it was over.
Adelaide came scampering into her lap after the interview began, chomping on a toy and pointing at the TV and exclaiming dada! when Bucky's mugshot was, inevitably, flashed on the screen. Summer had seen it so many times by now that it almost wasn't a stab to the heart anymore. Almost.
Within the first few moments, Summer found herself incredibly impressed with Steve. This was a man that she'd seen stutter in front of Natasha and trip over his own words as badly as Summer herself did, depending on the situation, and yet the Steve that she saw on the television was the man in his element. He was eloquent, clear, succinct, and not lacking one ounce of conviction. He wasn't on a battlefield, but he was fighting all the same, and he was fighting for someone that he'd follow to the ends of the earth.
"You know, Captain," the anchor said after a few minutes had passed, "there's more than a few people saying that maybe your friend isn't the only one who should be locked up. Apparently, based on what we know now, you and the rest of the Avengers were hiding and protecting a fugitive for several years. You're a pretty black and white kind of guy - what do you say to that? Can you even argue that you haven't broken the law?"
"Well, to be honest," Steve replied, "you're right that I'm pretty black and white as far as right and wrong and what I believe. And if the authorities think that I broke the law, or that any of us broke the law, they know where to find us. We're not hiding from anyone. The issue here is that they're pinning crimes on an innocent man and not even letting him have a day in court. That's all we want."
"That's all you want? A trial, for the Winter Soldier?" the anchor asked.
"Yes, absolutely, because I am 100% confident that if he has his day in court, we can prove far beyond a reasonable doubt that he's innocent."
"Now when you say innocent -"
"I mean innocent," Steve replied firmly.
"So do you deny what the HYDRA file leak revealed, that the Winter Soldier was responsible for the deaths of JFK, Howard Stark, almost two dozen others at least?"
"I do deny that he was responsible," Steve answered. "He was HYDRA's gun. They pulled the trigger. Those same files you're talking about also tell in great detail the things that they did to him to force his cooperation."
"Well, and there's what makes this case so uniquely complicated," the anchor agreed. "But there's a lot of people in this country who feel that someone has to pay for these crimes."
"They're right, someone should," Steve replied. "But it should be the people who are actually guilty. And like I said, all I want - all we want - is a fair trial. We just want what he's entitled to under the Constitution. And if the government thinks they've got an airtight case, they shouldn't be afraid of giving him that."
"Understood," the anchor nodded, glancing down at the papers on his desk. "You know, this entire process has just been such a shock to so many people - finding out that HYDRA had been infiltrating SHIELD for years, and that the conspiracy theorists were right and that Oswald didn't shoot Kennedy. Now we get yet another shock, because it turns out this... extremely prolific, very old assassin has been living under our noses with a wife and kids in New York all this time."
"Well, look," Steve began with a slight shake of his head, "I'm not going to comment on his family because they're completely innocent in all of this and they're having a hard enough time as it is. I strongly disagree with the Bureau releasing his wife's name - I'm still shocked that they even did that."
"Well, for what it's worth, I agree with you," the anchor said.
"It's not right," Steve shook his head. "Like I said, she's completely innocent in this and she doesn't deserve the media dragging her name through the mud. She's become a really good friend of mine and she's a great mother, great person, and that's all I'm willing to say about her."
Summer took a breath and a touch of a smile spread on her lips. As if it was possible to love Steve even more than she already did...
"Fair enough," the anchor nodded respectfully. "One other thing I wanted to ask you about was your friend Tony Stark. He was silent for a few days following the arrest, but he finally released a statement yesterday seemingly in support of Barnes, and I have to ask - considering the nature of his father's death, does it surprise you that he's not out on the front line demanding your friend's head?"
"No, not at all," Steve replied. "Tony's, he's... we didn't start out the best of friends, but we've been through a lot together. He's a great man and I have nothing but respect for him, so no, it doesn't surprise me that he understands the nature of what Bucky went through and why things happened the way that they did. I mean, I can't speak for him, obviously, but I think that if he can see the real story and understand where the real blame lies, then we all should."
Summer, hugging Adelaide close, glanced away from the TV towards David. He was still sitting on the floor with his toys, but he was intently watching the television as well. Summer wondered just how much he could understand of all of this, but knowing David and how smart he was... he likely understood it all very well.
The interview ended a few moments later and the station cut to a commercial. Summer let out a breath and then gave Adelaide a smile when she turned her little head around to look at her and give her a cute giggle. She kissed the baby's cheek and then briefly closed her eyes before turning off the TV. She didn't want to see or hear anything else.
A little over an hour passed. Her stomach was growling but she still felt too nauseous to eat anything, so she ignored the hunger as she continued to browse law firms. Adelaide ended up getting off the bed and toddling over to David, and they were playing together when there was suddenly a thunderous knock on Summer's door.
She nearly screamed and jumped a foot into the air, but she relaxed when it ended up just being Steve. He opened the door looking like he was out of breath and a little crazy, all but exclaiming, "Summer, turn on the TV!"
Thinking the absolute worst at first, she scrambled for the remote and quickly turned the TV back on. David's attention was on the television as well as she turned it on, and though even he expected something bad, what they saw was the complete opposite of what they expected.
On the bottom of the screen underneath the obligatory "breaking news" banner were the words "Winter Soldier" James Barnes to face charges as American citizen, and playing live above those words was a feed of the front of the FBI headquarters in New York. It was empty for the moment, but Summer barely noticed it. All she could see were the words and what they meant.
She got up from the bed and walked closer to the TV, as if she had to get physically closer to it believe it. "They're... is that true?"
Steve nodded, looking genuinely and not forcibly hopeful for once. He was even smiling a little bit, and that wasn't forced either. "Yeah. I just got off the phone with Fury. They're moving him here to the city and they're gonna formally charge him. They have to set a court date first, but... this is what we wanted."
Summer wheeled around and looked at Steve before breaking out into a smile and launching herself at him in a fierce hug. Bucky might not have been free, but this was huge and the very best news that they could have realistically hoped for.
"Oh my God, Steve!" she exclaimed as she squeezed him. "I can't believe it!"
"Me either," he admitted, pulling away and looking immensely relieved. "I don't have all the details yet, but apparently it was his service in the war that did it. Nick said the President was already almost on our side, that it was the Attorney General who needed convincing."
"And he convinced him?"
"Looks that way."
Summer could have fainted with relief. "So this means he'll get a trial? A real trial?"
"That's exactly what it means," Steve nodded, "so we need to hire a good lawyer as soon as possible."
"Right," she nodded seriously before glancing over at the TV screen, which was still showing a live feed of the FBI headquarters. "Why are they showing that? Is that where they're taking him?"
"Yeah, for now," Steve nodded. "They have holding cells there built for enhanced people."
Summer nodded, then turned back to Steve and asked, "Will I be able to see him? Visit him?"
"I don't know yet," Steve replied. "Let me make some more calls and figure out some more stuff. I promise you'll be the first to know everything."
"Okay," Summer nodded, squeezing in one more hug before watching him essentially sprint out of her room with his phone in hand.
She sat back down on the edge of her bed, feeling more hopeful than she had dared to even try to feel since all of this had started. Bucky was getting a trial, a real trial of his peers, and surely a jury could be convinced of his innocence. Maybe, just maybe, they had a real shot at this after all.
Maybe all was not lost just yet.
On the news and on the vast and volatile environment of the Internet, reactions to the news were mixed. Some felt that it was only right that Bucky would get a full and fair trial, while others felt that the decision was ridiculous and only happened due to some kind of perceived special treatment of the Avengers. For the first time, however, Summer didn't care one bit what anybody thought.
That afternoon, Bucky was transferred from his previous undisclosed location to the FBI building in New York City. There was no clear footage of him being escorted into the building, but there was a grainy aerial video released of it that Summer watched about ten times in a row. She could only faintly make him out, wearing what looked like plain gray prison-style clothes and his hair loose around his head. After that, one of the lead investigators gave a short statement to the press that didn't really say anything new, only that the investigation was ongoing and they were still working on it, and that was the end of that day's breaking news.
Summer wasn't able to visit Bucky that day, but Steve managed to talk his way into being allowed a brief visit himself. Summer told him to tell Bucky that she loved him and that the kids were fine and they were all working on getting him home, and Steve assured her that he would pass the message along before heading out of the tower.
Natasha left with Steve and Tony wasn't around either, and Sam and Vision were busy working that night at the facility. That left Summer and the kids mostly alone aside from Wanda, who Summer didn't even realize was there until she headed into the kitchen to make herself and the kids a slightly late dinner.
Wanda was carrying a handful of candles out from her room towards the kitchen when Summer noticed her. Throwing some leftovers into the microwave, Summer smiled and said, "Oh, hey! I thought you were working tonight."
"No, not tonight," Wanda replied, giving David a smile when he perked up some upon seeing her. He was sitting at the table, playing with an action figure while Adelaide sat in a high chair next to him, smacking the tray happily. "Have you heard from Steve yet?"
"Not yet," Summer replied. "But hopefully soon."
A few minutes later, when the food was heated through and David and Adelaide both had their dinners sitting in front of them, Summer glanced over at Wanda again and ended up staring at her in a slight stupor.
She'd been carrying candles from her room to place them in a drawer in the living room and put one in a silver menorah that she'd just set up in one of the windows. Was it really that time of year and had Summer really forgotten all about it?
She checked her phone for the date and found that she had indeed forgotten entirely about the start of Hanukkah. Her grandmother would have been highly ashamed.
"Oh man," Summer muttered, glancing at the kids and making sure they were still good before she headed over to the window. "I totally forgot that Hanukkah starts tonight."
"Well, I think you have a good excuse," Wanda said with a small, understanding smile, putting one lone white candle in the furthest holder on the right. "You have been more than preoccupied."
"Yeah, but still," Summer sighed. "David loves Hanukkah. And this will be Adelaide's first."
"True," Wanda replied. "I always loved it when I was little. My parents felt that the holiday had been commercialized and turned into a substitute for Christmas," she smiled, "so my brother and I never got gifts. I didn't really mind, but Pietro, he would tell all of our friends and try to guilt their parents into buying us things since ours wouldn't."
Summer grinned and asked, "Did it work?"
"Sometimes," Wanda nodded, smiling fondly at the memory. "He had this charm and he always knew how to use it, even as a child just trying to get new toys."
"Sounds dangerous," Summer chuckled.
"Very," Wanda smiled, looking past the menorah to the city outside the window. "And he always found something to give me each night. Whether it was a piece of chocolate or some little trinket, he always thought of me." Then she refocused her gaze back on the menorah and explained, "This belonged to my grandparents. It had been in the family forever. They hid it under the floorboards during the war."
"Were they taken?" Summer asked quietly. Wanda nodded.
"Yes. My grandfather lost his mother, father, and all three of his sisters. He was the only one who survived. Then when he came back to his home after the Allies won, this was still there, under the floorboards."
"Wow," Summer marveled, looking at the menorah. It looked its age but that only made it even more of a symbol of what it stood for, in Summer's eyes, and something like that surviving wars and so many years was incredible.
"This also survived the bombing that killed my parents," Wanda added. "Pietro would light it for us every year after that. I didn't want to. Things like that have a way of making you lose your faith."
"Oh yeah," Summer agreed. "But you got it back?"
"I don't think I ever really lost it. I was just too angry to realize it," Wanda replied. "Would you like to light it?"
"Oh, gosh," Summer said with slight surprise. "All that family history... no, I think you should. I wouldn't feel right doing it."
"But this tower," Wanda said, gesturing to the walls, "and the people in it are the only family that I have now."
Wanda then handed Summer the shamash candle that would be used to light the sole Hanukkah candle, and Summer looked at her as if to make sure that it really was okay. When Wanda merely gave her a look like she was being exceedingly silly, Summer took the candle and smiled.
Wanda then recited the traditional Hebrew prayers for the first night of Hanukkah far better than Summer could ever hope to, and after Summer lit the candle, she took a deep breath and hoped against hope that maybe she could get a miracle of her own. Though the day had been a pretty good one and they'd won the first battle, winning the war seemed like it would take nothing short of a real, genuine miracle.
But miracles were exactly what the candle burning in the window commemorated, and Summer couldn't lose her faith now. She needed it more than she ever had before.
"You know," Summer said quietly, smiling at the other woman, "I'm really glad you're around."
Wanda simply smiled back, echoing the sentiment back through her green eyes, and Summer hoped as she turned back to the window and gazed out of it that Bucky, though he was still far from home, hadn't lost hope himself.
That night, Summer stayed up late waiting for Steve to get home. When he finally did, she all but tackled him at the door while shooting questions a mile a minute, but soon she got to hear exactly what she'd been hoping for: that Bucky was okay, that Steve had given him her message, and that yes, he had arranged for Summer to visit him in the morning.
She thought that she'd be able to sleep after having had a pretty decent day compared to all the other recent ones, but as it turned out, she barely slept a wink. She was wired and her mind was racing, anticipating her trip to the FBI building the next day and all of the other things that needed to be considered now that he was officially getting a trial. A date for a hearing hadn't been set yet and she had no idea how long even getting a trial started would take, but wondering about such things was far better than wondering if she'd ever see him again.
When morning came, Summer got up and with newfound energy began getting herself ready for the day. Paul was coming by to pick up the kids and take them for her, making her life that day much easier, as she couldn't even imagine trying to wrangle both kids through such an official, intimidating building as the one that Bucky was being held at.
She was still too nervous to eat a decent breakfast, so instead she downed an enormous cup of coffee after she was ready and waiting for Paul to show up. She was all aflutter with energy, anxious to see her husband for the first time since he'd been taken and equally afraid for his mental state. Steve had said that he was hanging in there, but she knew Bucky and she could only imagine the havoc that all of this had wreaked upon him. She'd bet anything that he hadn't slept and he probably wasn't eating either, and most of his waking hours were probably spent in a perpetual state of self loathing and fear for the family he'd been ripped away from.
And that, if she was right, was what she hated more than anything. He'd come so far and had reached what was for him a true state of peace, only to have this happen and likely plunge him right back into hell. It wasn't right.
But she tried her best to put those thoughts aside when Paul arrived to take the kids. She kissed them goodbye and gave Paul a huge bag of supplies for them, thanked him profusely for his help, and then watched him drive them off towards his house about an hour away.
Then it was time to leave. Steve, who had immediately volunteered to take her to the FBI building, wasted no time in getting her into a car and getting them on the road.
On the way, Summer's mind ran amok.
"How long did you talk to him last night?"
Eyes on the road, Steve replied, "Not long. Like I said, maybe five minutes at the most."
"Did he look okay? Did he look like he's been sleeping?"
Steve hesitated before glancing at Summer and saying, "He looked okay, but I doubt he's been sleeping. You know how he is. How he gets when..."
Summer nodded, sighing and looking out the window sightlessly, not really seeing the tall buildings that lined the streets as they passed them. "I just... I want to see him so bad but at the same time I'm scared because... I don't know. I don't want to make it worse."
"You won't," Steve replied. "Right now he needs to know that's there's hope and he needs to remember what he has to fight for."
Those words were the last ones Steve uttered before they arrived at their destination. The FBI building was large and there was a slew of reporters all lined at the front of the building, still reporting on the case and trying to gain new info, and while Summer had expected to go in through some secretive back door, apparently they had to go in through the front.
After putting the car in the parking garage, Steve explained, "I don't have a lot of pull here, so we won't be getting any special treatment. Just stay close to me and keep your head down until we get inside, okay?"
"Okay," Summer nodded as she opened the car door and got out. "I should have gotten one of those giant pairs of sunglasses that celebrities wear when they try to get past the paparazzi."
Steve smiled a little as he replied, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure they'd still know who you are."
He was probably right. In any case, Summer stuck to his side as he instructed and did her best to avoid eye contact as they made their way inside.
The minute the reporters recognized Steve, they all began throwing very loud and overlapping questions at him. Cameras turned on them as they kept walking, and Steve remained stoic but not impolite as he simply looked at the reporters and told them a neutral no comment.
Summer, on the other hand, kept her mouth shut tight as questions were shouted at her the minute it became clear who she was.
"Are you the Winter Soldier's wife?"
"What would you say to those who think a trial is a waste of time?"
"How are the kids holding up?"
"What's it like being married to one of the most famous assassins in history?"
She ignored every word they said and, after nearly sprinting to keep up with Steve's power-walk to the entrance, she walked through the front doors with him and escaped the voices and cameras.
"Good job," Steve told her, just before they went through the motions of entering a highly secure federal building.
It wasn't much different to entering the Avengers facility. They were searched and put through scanners that were almost disturbing in how thoroughly they searched both Steve and Summer for any manner of weapons or other banned items, and after that, it was simply a matter of staying quiet next to Steve while he did all the talking for them both. He got them both badges that would get them where they needed to go, and then they were escorted to a waiting room where they would sit and await the arrival of the same agent who has overseen Steve's visit the night before.
Summer's heart was pounding and she was nearly trembling with anticipation, expecting to be taken back to see him any minute. But instead, they waited in that room, alone, no less than an hour and a half. It was just long enough to get the message across that the Bureau and the people running the investigation thought very little of the both of them and had far greater priorities than allowing visits to their most prolific detainee.
But when the agent finally did show up, it was a woman who spoke in clipped tones and seemed bored from the moment she came to fetch them. She eyed Steve like she was already sick of him and Summer like she was either an annoying insect buzzing about or simply someone hardly worth her valuable time.
Summer, of course, couldn't have cared less and neither did Steve.
"So," the woman said, leading them out of the room towards a pair of elevators down a relatively long hallway behind two guarded doors, "Captain, you already know the rules, but I'll say them again for her. The detainee is being held in a very secure cell underneath the building, which is where I am taking you both now. You will be taken to a room where you can communicate with him through a glass window and a phone, like in a regular prison, and you will have exactly five minutes to speak to him. No more, no less."
They stepped inside the elevators and Summer's anxiety spiked. She looked at Steve, and he gave her an almost imperceptible nod. She took a deep breath and tried to draw on his strength and borrow some for herself.
"And please keep in mind that we are under no obligation to allow these visits," the agent said, eyeing Summer as she said this. "Try anything or fight the time limit and this will be the last time you step foot in this building."
Summer nodded. "I understand."
"Good," the agent said as the doors opened and she led them forward. "This way."
This way was down another corridor to another set of elevators, taken two more levels down and through another secure set of doors that the agent opened for them. Another corridor and two left turns later, the agent opened a door and stepped aside as she motioned for Summer to enter. "Go on and have a seat. I'll be watching and listening from the next room."
Summer nodded, looking into the room and then glancing at Steve. He gave her a tight smile and patted her shoulder, then said, "I'll be here when you're done."
"Okay," she replied, giving him a tiny smile back before walking on into the room. She jumped a little when the door closed nosily behind her.
The whole set up really did look like what she'd seen in the movies as far as prison visits, what with the single chair in front of a big glass window and a phone hanging on the side. She would have expected something more high tech, but just as long as she got to see Bucky and speak to him, she didn't care where or how it happened.
She took a seat in the chair and then looked around, wondering how many cameras were on her. That perpetually unimpressed agent was watching with Steve in a neighboring room, apparently, and while she hadn't expected privacy, she couldn't pretend that the whole thing didn't feel odd and uncomfortable.
But then she heard the sound of a door being opened and shackles clinking on the other side of the glass, and she looked through it and felt her heart nearly burst right out of her chest. Not one or two or even three but four highly armed guards had opened the door on the other side and were now leading a weary and stoic Bucky through it.
He looked up from where he'd been staring a hole the ground and then looked at the glass, and their eyes met. Her heart jumped and his entire expression changed, going from stony and blank to surprised and maybe even stunned as his eyebrows lifted slightly and his lips parted.
He was marched to the chair and then not entirely gently shoved down on it, one of the guards muttering five minutes before joining the others near the door. Bucky didn't take his eyes off of Summer once, staring at her like she'd end up being a mirage and go poof any minute.
She grabbed the phone with shaky hands and put it to her ear, then watched as Bucky did the same with both of his hands, bound by unforgiving chains.
For a moment, she had no idea what to say. He saved her the trouble, however, by speaking first.
"They let you come here?" he asked, his voice sounding hoarse like he hadn't used it in ages. His blue eyes were big and far from unfeeling as they stayed locked on hers.
"Yeah, they... well, Steve brought me here and..."
Her voice broke a little along with her heart. He looked pale, tired, defeated. His lack of sleep was written on his face, and she knew without him having to say a word that his nightmares had come back. His hair was somewhat combed and clean looking, so they were at least letting him have showers, but she had no doubt that he wasn't eating and that his sleep was as bad as it had once been before.
"Are the kids..."
"They're with Paul," she replied quickly. "They're okay. I'm okay. We're... we're doing the best we can. We moved back to the tower and I took David out of school. I've been trying to find a lawyer and I've interviewed a few with Steve, but..." She swallowed and continued looking him over, suddenly fighting back tears that wanted to fall. "Are you okay? Are you eating? Are you -"
"I'm fine," he replied reflexively, briefly closing his eyes like such a thing should be the very last thing on her mind.
She shook her head slightly, not believing him in the least. "I didn't know where they took you at first, none of us knew, and I've just been... I had no idea when I'd see you again. Adelaide, she... well, you're on the news a lot, and... whenever they show your picture, she points and says dada. She misses you so much. David misses you even more."
His brows furrowed a little and he smiled in a way that was really more of a grimace, his eyes getting watery upon hearing those words. He looked down, breaking eye contact for the first time, and Summer leaned closer to the glass and placed her left palm flat against it.
"I love you so much," she said quietly, wishing that she could just shatter the glass through the sheer power of her will and take him far away, where nobody could snatch him from her ever again. "I swear we're gonna figure this out."
He shook his head a little, still not meeting her eyes. "Summer..."
"No, look at me," she said, and he looked up and made eye contact once more. The second their eyes connected, it was another blow to her already-aching heart. "Steve is working so hard. Everybody is. Nick Fury met with the President yesterday, and the Attorney General, and that's why you're here now. You're getting a trial and we're gonna prove that you're innocent."
She could see in his eyes and the almost desperate way that he gazed at her that he wanted to believe her with every fiber of his being, but he just couldn't. She could only imagine how he'd probably convinced himself about a hundred times over in his total solitude that this was the end and that there was simply nothing to be done about it. His guilt and that nagging, stubborn sense of self-hatred for his actions had always been his greatest weakness since she'd known him.
"Bucky," she said softly, sincerely, still holding her hand against the glass, "don't lose hope."
He looked at her, staring at her like he was soaking her up and memorizing her all over again, so that at least in his mind she'd still be there once he was all alone again. "I love you."
He said it so quietly, so sadly that it broke her ability to hold back her tears. One escaped, trailing down from her eye as she replied, "I love you too."
Then, though the shackles on his wrists made it rather difficult, he placed his right hand on the glass, right where her left was. It was the closest they could get to touching one another, and for then, it would have to do.
"Tell..." he paused and swallowed, holding himself together. "Tell David and Addie I love them. Tell them I'm thinking about them and... I miss them, and..."
Summer nodded as he trailed off. "Okay. I will, I promise."
He looked at her, eyes trailing to her lips to the wedding ring on her finger against the glass, then back to her own eyes. His voice was barely above a whisper as he said, "I miss you so much."
Another few tears escaped, and as their time together neared its end, Summer replied, "I miss you too. Just hang on, okay? Think about us when it gets hard. Think about coming home. Don't let them break you."
He nodded, clenching his jaw. Then the guards stepped forward, declaring their time up.
"I love you," she said hurriedly, watching the men grab his right shoulder. "Don't give up, okay?"
"I love you too," he said into the phone one last time before being forced to let it drop. The men got him on his feet and, after they shared one last heavy look between them, Bucky was turned around and walked out the door.
Summer stared at the door long after it had closed. She felt crushed, devastated, and yet more hopeful all at once. She'd finally seen him with her own eyes. He was okay, even if she could see how much he was struggling, and if it was the last thing she did, she would see him free again. She would accept nothing else.
As she wiped the tears from her cheeks and tried to pull herself together, the door behind her opened. She turned to see Steve standing there, full of empathy and just as much resolve. She stood up, walked to him, and without a word between them, he hugged her tight and gave her a moment of comfort that she desperately needed.
It just wasn't fair that she could have such comfort and Bucky couldn't. But when the day came that he was no longer in shackles or behind a pane of bulletproof glass - and that day would come, she had to believe - then Summer would change that, and she'd never let a day pass without making sure Bucky knew how much he was loved.
And neither Summer nor Steve would rest until that day came.
Meanwhile, across the city in a small, very modest law office nestled within Hell's Kitchen, a blind lawyer and his blond law partner were sitting across from one another instead of interviewing or representing any clients. In order to do such a thing one needed actual clients, and while business wasn't as bad as when they had first gotten started... well.
Instead of practicing law, they were eating rather sad dollar menu breakfast sandwiches that their lovely assistant had been nice enough to bring them that morning, downing them with equally cheap coffee that wasn't that great but still better than the stuff the aforementioned lovely assistant brewed on a daily basis.
They were used to it. It was fine.
Kind of.
"You know... I have an idea," Foggy Nelson said, wadding up his sandwich wrapper and tossing it successfully in a bin next to the wall. "What if... while you're out at night... you know, beating the crap out of rapists and bad guys and... whatever..."
"Yeah," Matt Murdock replied, finishing his coffee without complaint. He'd had worse.
"What if you like... strategically drop business cards on the ground or... I don't know... put them in the pockets of guys that are gonna need a lawyer?"
"You want me to beat them up and leave them for the cops and then... represent them in court?" Matt surmised.
"Mainly I just want to eat real food," Foggy shrugged. "I mean, that's not really too much to ask for, right?"
Matt grinned. "No, but it would be pretty self-defeating in the long run."
"You could look at it like that," Foggy agreed. "Or you could look at it as a brilliant, innovative business model."
"But you know how I feel about representing guilty people."
Foggy sighed and leaned back in his seat, convinced he'd never have another proper meal again in his life. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Starting to think we should specialize in divorce law instead. Although even then you might only want to represent the side that's actually at fault. Mr. Smith, you had an affair and that's why you're getting divorced? Sorry, we won't take that big fat check from you, but we'll definitely represent your soon to be ex-wife who'll probably pay us in hand-knit sweaters or something."
Matt chuckled, having heard this about a thousand times before. "I didn't say I didn't have some ideas."
"Then please, by all means, share," Foggy said, crossing his arms. "I literally have nowhere else to be and definitely no clients to follow up with."
"Have you been watching the news?"
"Well, I can't exactly afford cable at the moment, but yeah, I've caught a little bit here and there. Why?"
"I might have found someone we can represent," Matt replied casually. "I've made a few calls and left some messages. Trying to set up a meeting."
"Okay," Foggy replied slowly. "What's that have to do with the news? If you're talking about that Broadway star that just got a DUI..."
"No," Matt chuckled. "Who got a DUI?"
"Oh, dammit, you're trying to change the subject now," Foggy said with sudden concern. "Who the hell is it?"
"Are you sure you haven't been watching the news?" Matt asked, his amusement clear.
Foggy sighed impatiently and leaned forward, moving aside a few papers and a book on the desk in order to get to that day's newspaper underneath. Once he acquired said newspaper, he held it up and looked over the front page. Matt, meanwhile, simply sat and waited, unable to get the small grin off of his face.
A moment later, Foggy dropped the newspaper back on the desk, looked Matt straight in the eyes - well, the reflective glasses covering his eyes - and said clearly and unequivocally, "No."
Matt's grin slowly grew. "What?"
"No," Foggy repeated simply.
"Why not?"
"Well, for one," Foggy replied, holding up his index finger, "nobody in their right minds would ever hire us for such a huge case. We're talking about the trial of the century."
"Probably," Matt agreed.
"Okay, so there's one. Two," he jabbed two fingers into the air, "he killed JFK! He's actually guilty and everybody already knows it! A trial at this point is a formality, so what's even the point?"
"That's not necessarily true," Matt replied.
"What, that he killed JFK or that the trial's a formality?"
"That's he's guilty," Matt said.
"You're joking, right?"
"No. I've read his story. I think there's a solid defense just in those files that leaked from SHIELD a couple years ago."
"Oh, okay," Foggy said, "so let me get this straight. You want to represent the Winter Soldier in court and prove that he's innocent even though we all know he did it, and then have us go down in history books as the two lawyers who got off JFK's killer."
"... More or less."
Foggy paused, speechless for a moment. "I don't even know where to start explaining how horrible of an idea this is. But it's okay. This guy isn't gonna hire us anyway, so I have nothing to worry about."
"Well, it's his wife I've been trying to contact," Matt replied, as if that made all the difference.
"You know what," Foggy said, "if by some miracle - and I mean a damn miracle - we end up actually doing this, I will eat my law degree."
"That's a... really weird thing to bet," Matt noted, smiling again.
"Well, it's because the chances of us getting hired for this are about the same as the chances of me choking down a law degree, frame and all."
Matt nodded, unable to really argue that point. "At least if we got this case, you could probably afford cable again."
Foggy glared at him. "We'd also be all over cable at that point."
"Haven't you always wanted to be famous?"
Foggy tossed a pen cap at his friend, who shouldn't have been able to see it coming but easily caught it anyway, chuckling and wondering which of them would be proven right. He didn't mention to Foggy that he had actually inadvertently crossed paths with the Winter Soldier himself one night not too long ago, and had deducted his identity based on the undeniably metallic sounds that the other man's left arm had been making. He also didn't mention that it wasn't just the leaked files that made him think the man innocent, but also the fact that he was apparently trying to make up for his past crimes by playing vigilante and, according to all the news reports, also working as an Avenger.
Innocence wasn't always so black and white. Numerous defense strategies were already taking root in his head, each of them leading back to the question of what made a person able to be deemed guilty or innocent - autonomy, the knowledge of right and wrong itself, and the presence of choice. From what Matt understood, James Barnes had been denied all of these things and, being without the control of his own mind, was as innocent as a person could be.
Matt was more than willing to prove this on his behalf in court. He just had to get the man's increasingly famous wife to return his phone calls first.
A/N: SO :D more angst this week as you all can see lol but I'm trying to maintain a balance here so you guys (AND I) don't get TOO depressed and miserable lol. And HEY, more Daredevil things! See, there was totally a bigger purpose for Matt randomly popping up a few chapters ago :D
Thank you guys SO MUCH for your reviews and the great response you've shown this new part of the story despite how awful and sad it is lol. One anon review this last week was pretty hard on Summer and blamed her partially for Bucky being arrested, and I'd just like to briefly thank that reviewer for their honesty lol and for also having some kind words to say as well, but I do want to also say that I definitely haven't written this with the intention of setting Summer up as the one to blame. She and Bucky made the mutual decision to get their own house and while that DID contribute to what happened, let's face it, Bucky couldn't keep running forever. This was always going to happen one way or another, and even if they hadn't had the house, her name could have been easily traced to Stark Industries and therefore the tower, being employed there. So... while I OF COURSE welcome all opinions and I get where the review was coming from, the only person I would place blame on is Brock Rumlow. But even without him, it still would have happened in time. BUT! Don't take this as me saying Summer is perfect and blameless and blah blah lol. She has her flaws and she's far from perfect. I would just spare her the blame in this particular scenario. Let's face it, the real culprit in all of this is really Hydra and Hydra alone lol
But anyway, thanks again to ALL of you, I LOVE you, and I'll see you all next week! Happy holidays! :D
