Everyone is whole and healthy again, and it's time to get back to work. The spy's still out there, though. And probably feeling pretty annoyed that their last attempt to get the Howlies didn't work but came so close...

Though Bucky had been released from the infirmary, it took him another week or so to really feel like himself again. He felt tired a lot—not falling asleep in the middle of a conversation, as Steve had told him he'd done while in the infirmary, but not really up for going out on any missions either. The rest of the team, Steve excepted, was in the same boat, and Peggy and Phillips seemed in no hurry to send them out again until they were one hundred percent.

Bucky appreciated the break. It gave him time to catch up on the schoolwork he'd missed while he was sick, and he got to spend more time with Becky, who was still feeling a little down about her break up with Matthew. Bucky remembered the first time he'd broken up with Vicki and how morose he'd felt about that—though he did hope that Matthew and Becky weren't going to be an on-again off-again couple like he and Vicki seemed to be. (Speaking of Vicki, he missed her. He knew she was busy, but he wondered if she might want to start things up again.) He remembered Mrs. Rogers cheering him up, and though he didn't have the option at the moment to buy his sister any pie, he did get some of the really good cookies from Winston, and he spent a lot of time being silly and trying to make her laugh. She had a great laugh.

He'd also been thinking about the fact that he was very nearly a legal adult wizard. His birthday was coming up before the end of the term, and he'd be seventeen. Seventeen had always seemed so old when he'd been a kid, but he wasn't sure if he felt grown-up enough to actually be an adult now that it was coming up for him. It also made the end of school and the future loom closer. He still had no idea what he wanted to do after school, except he was more sure now that once the war was over, he'd be done with all that. He was getting tired of fighting. Still, that left him an almost infinite array of career choices that seemed at times paralyzing in its vastness. Whenever that happened, he just reminded himself that he may be turning seventeen, but he wasn't leaving school yet. He had another year to work things out.

Seventeen also meant he got the big coming of age party, and he was looking forward to that, even if it was going to have to wait until he got home and had already been seventeen for a few weeks. And, he'd get to do magic without parental supervision. So, turning seventeen did have its perks. (And, he'd have almost four months of being legal on Steve. If the little punk was going to keep getting taller than him, he could at least have that.)

It was the last week of school when their last mission for the term came up. Even though they'd been on the bench for a while, they'd kept up with their regular Wednesday afternoon briefings with Peggy, just to stay in the loop of important information. There'd been a lot of piecing together of things after what happened in Zurich—thankfully, that refugee-moving op had gone off without any trouble, and those people were safe in Istanbul now (which they still weren't technically supposed to know). The spy appeared to have gone to ground for the moment, but Peggy and Phillips were still being careful with everything, and Bucky couldn't help but look at the S.S.R. staffers suspiciously.

"So, where are we headed?" Dugan asked, dropping down into his seat eagerly. It was nice to see his enthusiasm back—Bucky thought Dugan might just be worse at being sick than he was. There had been a lot of whining and complaining and Jacques teasing him about being a baby for the past few weeks.

"Not France, right?" Steve said.

"Not France," Peggy confirmed. "Austria. Salzburg."

"What's in Salzburg?" Gabe asked, stretching his neck up to peek at the folder in her hands.

"Lots of Nazis, lots of Grindelwald, and lots of Hydra," Peggy replied. "And, lots of resistance. The resistance hasn't seemed to be able to get itself very organized until recently, and, unfortunately, that's where our problem comes in. Once the resistance got going, they proved to be quite a nuisance, and so either Grindelwald or Hydra, we're not sure which, decided to retaliate by kidnapping their children."

"What?" Bucky demanded. The rest of the faces around the table were staring at her just as grimly as he was.

Peggy nodded gravely. "They're taking their children. Holding them hostage in an attempt to coerce them to stop fighting."

"Are they hurting the kids?" Steve asked, in that deceptively calm voice that meant someone was about to get their teeth knocked out.

"We don't think so," Peggy said. "The threats the parents received said the children would remain unharmed if they cooperate, but…" She scowled. "We all know Hydra's so very trustworthy and honest."

"So we need to get in there ASAP," Jim said.

"Yes," Peggy replied. "Here." She started pulling things out of the folder. "I've got maps, communication records, rosters of the known resistance fighters and the known Hydra cells in the area. Let's get to it."

They spent the next several hours going over information, throwing out ideas and plans. They wanted to get there fast and save these kids, but they were taking it slow and making sure they were doing it right—they didn't want any kids getting hurt in the crossfire.

Once everything was set, they left after dinner. Apparating in wasn't an option without getting caught, but there was a little S.S.R. safehouse with a fireplace they could use that got them into the heart of the city. They had to sneak through the city and hike a little way after that—the location where the kids were supposed to be being held was a farm just outside the city.

Thankfully, there wasn't a curfew on, but it was a populated area and it took them a while to get through it all. It was nearly midnight when they had the farm in sight. It was dark—no lights along the road or anywhere outside the stone farmhouse they could just make out in the moonlight. There didn't appear to be any guards on the perimeter.

"That's weird," Dugan said.

"Yeah," Bucky agreed. "Do you think they're still here?"

"Well, they warded the hell out of the house up there," Jim said. "Too far out for specifics, but I can feel it from here. So, they're hiding something."

"Is it warded well enough to warrant there not being any guards?" Monty asked.

"I mean, yeah, I guess," Jim said, though he didn't sound confident. "Still, you'd think at least one guy or something."

"Steve?" Bucky asked. Steve was pondering the road up to the house and the seemingly empty yard surrounding it.

"I don't like it," Steve said. "Could be that they know we're coming and they're waiting for us to get further in before they jump us. Jim, can you tell how many people are in the house?"

"No can do, Cap," Jim replied, shaking his head. "Not with all that shielding. I could do it from inside the house, but from outside, the spell will just bounce right off."

Steve nodded grimly. "Okay. Wands ready, guns out, keep quiet and keep your eyes open."

They moved forward slowly in the darkness, every nerve on high alert. Bucky felt like little shivers of electricity were dancing up and down his spine, and every flicker of shadow as the trees moved in the breeze caught his eye.

They made it to the front door of the house uncontested. Bucky and Monty hung back, scanning the yard and the sides of the house for activity. Dugan and Jim worked the entrance, investigating the spells on the door and windows.

"Okay," Dugan whispered. "We can get in here now without setting anything off. Best I can tell, there's no ambush spells waiting on the inside of the door for us. But I'd say shields up."

"Hold your breath too," Jim cautioned. "In case there's a mist or a spray or something."

"Okay. Dugan, you, me and Monty will go in first and clear the entry. Bucky, you and the other guys hang back a minute. That way if something goes wrong, the whole team's not incapacitated," Steve said.

Bucky frowned but nodded. Of course Steve was going to go in first and take the first hit. It made sense to split—especially after what happened last time—but that didn't mean Bucky had to like it.

Steve, Dugan and Monty moved into position and swept into the room on Steve's count. Bucky didn't hear any explosions or shouts of surprise or bodies hitting the ground, so after a sixty second count, he had the rest of them move in.

They were standing in a large, empty foyer. Hallways led off to other parts of the house on each side and in the middle, and two staircases stretched up to the upper level. The stone walls were dusty and coated in cobwebs. "It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while," Gabe said.

Steve, Dugan and Monty were checking the exits to the rest of the house. Jim was shooting little spells off in every direction, scanning for inhabitants. The electricity in Bucky's spine moved around to his stomach and started churning. "Guys, this is wrong," he said.

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Way too quiet."

"Do you think they moved to a new place?" Dugan asked.

Steve shook his head. "I don't think anyone was ever here."

"And there's no one here now," Jim said. "Just us."

"I don't get it," Gabe said, looking around nervously. "Why put all this warding up and not have anything here?"

"To make us think there was something here," Bucky said.

"We need to get the hell out of here and rethink this," Steve said. "This is all kinds of wrong. Move out."

They hadn't taken more than a step in the direction of the door when the air around them came alive with magic and the sharp snapping sound of people apparating filled the room, so many it was almost deafening. The team circled up in the center of the room, shields up and weapons ready, and found themselves face to face with at least forty soldiers in Hydra black.

Everything exploded into chaos. Spells were flying so fast the dark room almost seemed like it was glowing, and bullets and crackles of lightning and tongues of fire were flying through the air. The team stood their ground in their huddle, and Bucky saw soldiers going down as they advanced towards them, but it hardly seemed like it mattered, there were so many swarming in to take their place.

Eventually their circle broke apart under the onslaught, and they split into pairs or threes, dueling with the nearest enemy fighters. Bucky found himself back to back with Steve, and they spun in slow circles, Bucky with a gun in one hand and his wand in the other, and Steve holding his wand and shield. Bucky could hear the clanging noise of the shield flying out and around the room before coming home to Steve's hand. Across the room, he could see Jacques and Gabe ducking and fighting and darting in and out, and Monty and Jim and Dugan were in a mad brawl by the stairs.

There wasn't a lot of time for thinking, just reacting and fighting, but Bucky slowly began to notice that there were way more guys coming after him and Steve than the other five. Before he had time to figure out what that meant, Steve was yelling, "DOWN!" and jumping on top of him and ducking behind his shield, and a wave of something hot and painful slammed into Steve's shield and flared out around it, sending the two of them shooting across the floor.

"Am Leben!" shouted an angry voice above the fray. "Am Leben, du idioten!"

Every single bit of air seemed to have been forced out of Bucky's lungs, but getting all two hundred pounds of Steve Rogers dropped on top of you would do that to a guy. Fortunately, he'd managed to hold on to his wand, and he clenched it tight in his fist as he gasped for air. Steve was already on his feet, covering Bucky and fighting back, and something was spinning through Bucky's mind as he tried to remember how to breathe. He didn't know much German—languages were Gabe's thing—but he'd picked up a little over the years and he thought he knew that one. Am Leben, am Leben, what…alive. That meant alive. What did they want them alive for? It probably wasn't good, whatever it was.

"Steve, wait," he croaked, as the fighting pushed Steve farther from him, but then a bolt of whatever it was that sent them into the wall came flying at Bucky and he just had the presence of mind to throw up a shield and roll away. Okay, so they didn't want him alive. Just Steve. Still probably wasn't good.

More soldiers came at him then, and he was on his own this time and there wasn't time to think about anything except staying alive. He ducked and darted and fired and slashed, and either minutes or an eternity later, he couldn't tell, the room was starting to clear. The noise hadn't died down, though, and Bucky looked up to see fifteen Hydra soldiers swarming over Steve.

Steve went down in the wave of bodies, then surged back up, shedding opponents like drops of water as he swung his arms and punched with his fists and his shield. Another soldier popped up out of nowhere and almost took Bucky's head off on his way to Steve, and he had to stop and fight, and he could hear a furious cry of pain from Steve and the ominous sound of his shield dropping to the stone floor.

"Steve!" Bucky yelled, firing a burst of magic that sent his opponent flying back into the wall. He looked up to see Steve bloody and only partially conscious, a Hydra soldier's hand fisted in his collar the only thing keeping him from hitting the floor.

"Alle raus, alle raus!" yelled the guy holding on to him, and before Bucky could raise his wand, the air crackled with magic and every standing Hydra soldier vanished, taking Steve with them.

"STEVE!" Bucky yelled as they disappeared. The room was suddenly deathly quiet.

"What just…" Gabe panted.

A raspy chuckle from the floor had all of them snapping their heads around to find its source. One of the soldiers, bloody but not dead yet, was lying against the front door laughing to himself. "Looks like it worked," he croaked in heavily accented English.

Bucky surged forward and grabbed his collar, yanking him upright. "What worked?! Where did they take him?!" The man laughed again and Bucky caught the glint in his eye and the way he started to move his mouth, and he latched onto his jaw with an iron grip. "Oh, no, you don't," he snarled, squeezing the man's jaw so hard his fingernails were drawing blood, but it kept him from biting down on the cyanide capsule. "Jim!" he called.

Jim was already there, bloody all down one side of his face but muttering spells at the man's mouth, then reaching in and pulling out the fake tooth with a triumphant crow. "Ha! Got it!"

"Okay," Bucky said, letting go of his face. "Let's try again."

The man glared at him, but gestured at the bloody wound in his abdomen. "I'm dying anyway. You can't threaten me."

Bucky kicked him roughly in the side and the man cried out, curling in on himself. "I can make it hurt more before you go."

"Or," Jim said, leaning in. "I could fix that," he said, pointing at the man's wound. "Then we could take him back and let Phillips work him over. I mean, feel free to keep kicking him. In fact…" Jim stepped forward and landed a kick of his own. "We can do both."

"Let's do both," Bucky said, pleased to see the man blanch a little. He didn't know if Phillips tortured people or not, but he did know he was someone you never wanted to cross. He seemed to have a reputation in that regard. He turned back to the man as Jim knelt beside him and started muttering spells over his wound, occasionally stopping to jab him roughly in the side.

"You knew we were coming," Bucky said. "How?"

The man chuckled. "Set the whole thing up. Never had any stupid kids to start with."

Bucky had guessed as much. "To get Steve?"

"The good Captain's turning out to be a lot of trouble," he said. "We wanted him out of the way." He grinned triumphantly. "And now he is. You can do whatever you want to me, but he's gone."

"Where did he go?" Bucky demanded.

"Nowhere you're going to find him."

"Where. Did he go?"

The man just smiled, and Bucky snarled and punched him, knocking his head back into the wall and dropping him into unconsciousness. He looked over at Jim, who had finished with the wound and conjured up a couple of ropes to hold the guy. "Is there any way to track an apparation spell?"

Jim shook his head solemnly. "Not without a trace set up beforehand. They could've taken him to Australia for all we know."

Bucky felt rage and the urge to throw up rising in his throat, then Jim reached over and rested a hand on his arm. "Hey. We'll find him, Sarge."

"Yeah," Gabe agreed. "They wanted him alive. So, he's alive wherever he is, and we'll find him and bring him home."

Bucky nodded. "Yeah." He swallowed hard, looked around at the team. Everyone was alive, but hurt. As much as he wanted to stay here and try to track Steve down, Jim was right, there was no way to know from here. And the team was hurt and Steve was gone, which meant now more than ever it was Bucky's job to keep them safe. "Alright," he said softly. "Jim, fix up what you can, and then we need to get going. Dugan, see if this place has a fireplace somewhere and we'll try to set up an emergency line." It would be a long walk back to the safehouse with their prisoner in tow. And those might be hours Steve didn't have.

Dugan found a fireplace in the kitchen, and he and Gabe spent several minutes on the radio with Howard hooking up a temporary connection to Phillips' office. Jim set to his healing, surprising Bucky when he came over and asked to take a look at his arm. Apparently he'd gotten shot and had failed to notice.

After Jim fixed him up, he walked over and picked up Steve's shield from where it had fallen. On the ground next to it was a wand, and Bucky recognized it as Steve's maple and eagle feather. A lump rose up in his throat and it took several swallows to get it back down. "Hang in there, Stevie," he whispered into the darkness. "I'm coming."

Okay, I know, I know, we just had a big mission where everything went wrong. Sorry. Been a little while since we had a big cliff hanger, though. Come back next year to see how it all plays out! (Which sounds like a really long time, but it's just Friday.)