Chapter Sixteen

Most of the time the tension in Bucky's shoulders meant trouble. There was not much that could rattle him, so seeing him worried always put Steve on edge as well. The look on his face as they got closer and closer to the venue of Becca's birthday and Barnes family reunion was endearing, and downright funny in little bursts.

Steve understood his nervousness, but was adamant that none of his worries were justified. He might not have kept in close touch with any of Bucky's sisters, but he knew enough about them to be certain. Still, he tried to be as gentle with Bucky's nerves as he could. If Steve were in his shoes, he'd be anxious too, no matter what anyone told him.

Which is why he agreed to get inside first while Bucky snuck in behind him like a shadow – or an assassin, Steve did not like to think about that way – unseen. They had to get the big reveal out of the way before some of Bucky's younger relatives got wind of Steve's arrival. Becca did warn him about a bit of excitement about him going, which Steve understood, but found nonetheless embarrassing. Fortunately, they've arrived well before the dinner was scheduled to start, so not every distant family member has arrived yet, while Bucky's sisters were already present. Steve really only had to mention needing to speak to them in private about Bucky and all four of them were happy to leave the final arrangements to kids and grandkids and settle in one of the smaller rooms by the main dining hall the hotel had.

The weather was nice, so Bucky waited outside on the open balcony, well hidden by the curtains inside and the big plant pots on the other side. Steve felt some of Bucky's tension settle on him as the three of them settled down on the couches in the small waiting room. Steve remained standing.

Becca was the first to sit and she looked great for her age, Steve was glad to note. Her hair still lush, long streaks of mostly silver, but with some brown still, all in a tight braid rolled up into a bun at the back of her neck, probably done by a hairdresser for the occasion. Louise wore pantsuits and a jacket, her glasses rectangular and thick-framed. Steve knew they were stylish on the account of Tony having some yellow-tinted sunglasses with the same design. Evelyn was all blonde, a more rare trait in the Barnes family. Maybe it was hair-dye now, but Steve could tell just by looking at her firmly shaped eyebrows that she was a natural blonde. He could also easily tell that she was the one who stuck to Brooklyn, just the way she was and not just because her two older sisters lost some of their Brooklyn accents over the years.

'You look like you have bad news,' Becca said to him, breaking him out of his musings. 'Not sure what bad news you could have though after all these years.'

'No bad news, sorry,' Steve hurried to make the frown on her wrinkled face vanish. 'I guess I just realised I should have thought about how I was going to say this. Usually, I can think on my feet a little better.'

It was different, giving a rousing speech to friends or fellow soldiers marching into a battle with him. This was a more delicate situation. It made him hesitate, even though he knew he was stalling.

Louise sighed. 'Whatever it is, you better just spit it out then,' she said. 'Whatever it is. We have a busy night ahead of us.'

That made Steve chuckle, because it was rare that people didn't have the urge to maintain a polite distance with the way they spoke to him. Becca did say they considered him family, which was a feeling both warm and unexpected in his chest. It also brought a more cheeky smile onto his face.

'Trying to be mindful of your poor old hearts,' he teased. 'There's a whole hoard of Barneses out there that would be awfully cross with me.'

Evelyn scoffed at him, which widened his smile. 'I'm about to be awfully cross with you.'

'Okay, sorry-sorry, it is about Bucky, I just didn't want to break the news too harshly,' Steve told them. 'It is a big thing though, so I guess I'll just come out and say it.'

They stared at him expectantly, which made Steve pause again, despite his insistence to just say it outright.

'It's easy for us to forget that it's only been a few years for you,' Becca spoke up then. 'For us, the war and loosing Bucky has been so long ago, but for you… take your time, Steve, it's all right.'

Steve smiled at her, appreciating the sentiment. 'Bucky is…'

'Really regretting letting you talk, Rogers,' Bucky spoke up from the balcony, his tone both fond and long-suffering. Bucky's sister's turned in synch at the sound of his voice and Louise did jump a little at the sudden appearance of another person in the room, while Evelyn seemed to frown deeply in reaction.

Becca though, she gasped, hand going up to cover her mouth. It only took Louise and Evelyn a second to realise too. They couldn't have remembered his face clearly just from memory, only perhaps Becca, but there were plenty of photos and film footage left of Bucky from all of the propaganda and news material from the time, so they would recognise him nonetheless.

After his bold entrance, Bucky seemed to lose some of his confidence, fidgeting in place, his gloved hand clenching and releasing in a nervous tick, so Steve crossed the room to stand by his side, shoulder-to-shoulder.

Becca was the first to stand up, but Louise and Evelyn followed immediately and then came a whirlwind of questions and explanations that Steve could just not keep track of. Bucky's eyebrows went up as all three women just descended on them, but at least it made the slightly nervous look vanish from his blue eyes. He put up his hands.

'Okay jeez, stop, I'm not hearing a single word from any of that. One at a time, okay?' It was enough to make the three of them fall silent. Bucky swallowed. 'So, I'm alive?'

Becca was the one to close the distance between them some more, her hand hesitantly lifting up towards Bucky's face.

'It really is you,' she said, blinking rapidly. 'How?'

Bucky reached forward to clasp her hand in his left, enveloping her shaking fingers in a firm grip.

'There is too much to say on the how,' Bucky told her. 'I'm just… more like Steve than I used to be, had been for a long while now.'

Becca rushed forward and pulled him into a hug. Steve stepped back to give them more space, content that Bucky didn't need him for now. There was no tension left in Bucky's shoulders now as he held her close, no tell-tale sign of nerves or panic. He was safe, he was content, happy even, and Steve was so damn glad to had been able to bring him here, to make sure this moment came to pass.

x-x-x

Steve took Bucky's former place by the balcony, but on the inside, and just watched Bucky talking to his sisters. Louise left the room for about five minutes to make sure the extended family would not disturbed them for a bit longer, but after that the four of them settled on the couches and got absorbed into a little world of their own. Bucky and Becca in the middle, then Evelyn and Louise on the sides.

Steve was content to observe them from the side-lines, not fighting the smile that creeped up on his face. Bucky's gentleness was harder to coax out nowadays than before the war. He usually had it reserved for Steve and Loki. So, seeing the soft look in his eyes, the way he let his hands be held, how he leaned into his sisters' hugs, it was a sight Steve would not forget for a very long time.

The peaceful moment, the sound of quiet words and laughs, was interrupted when Steve's phone started ringing. He was about to just say a quick "excuse me" when he realised it was Tony's ringtone. The calm of the room shrank away from him as tension ran down his spine. Bucky's head whipped up, because of course he knew it was Tony's ringtone too. Tony would not call Steve right now for any small reason.

He still gestured at Bucky to stay put and hurried out to the balcony to take the call.

'Tony?' he answered the phone, a question immediately implied.

'Oh, good, you're there, I almost thought I'd need to hack into someone's phone over there, in case you had this one turned off.'

Tony's rambles had flavours, either tinged with annoyance, anger or arrogance, this one… distinctly worried.

'What happened?'

'Uh, so first Vision collapsed,' Tony said, trying to sound matter of fact, but his tone pitching too high for it. 'Reached to that stone in his head and crumbled like a sack of potatoes. Still nonresponsive, stone's giving some awfully chaotic energy levels. I have not figured out what to do about it yet.'

From the way he sometimes sounded a bit further away, Steve could picture him hovering over his holographic keyboards, swapping between monitors, his brain desperately working on a solution.

'Wanda rushed back here immediately,' Tony continued. 'She left the kid at the Sanctum.'

'Need me to pick him up?' Steve asked. He could make a trip to Greenwich Village, even if it would take a bit of time.

Tony made noise, a harsh in- and exhale and ignored his question, which kicked Steve's pulse further up a notch in worry. Tony kept talking, one sentence after another in rapid-fire succession, he was half-distracted by whatever he was doing.

'And now Wong just showed up with Strange also unconscious, because he wears his own fancy stone in a magic necklace around his neck and nobody but him can take it off of him because of some spell.' He made an annoyed sound, but it was probably in reaction to something other than his usual distaste for magic. 'And guess what? That stone is giving off crazy energy spikes too, which is probably what made him pass out in the first place. And uh… well, Wong says Loki's not at the Sanctum.'

'What?'

'Wong was just at the Sanctum with Strange and Loki was not there… tell Barnes not to freak out. I am trying to find out where he might have gone, but CCTV malfunctions a lot around the Sanctum, likely as intended. Not a big help right now.'

Steve forced himself to relax his fingers around the phone and took a deep breath. He wasn't sure how much Bucky heard from Tony's end of the conversation, so he wanted to keep his voice level.

'How?' God, Steve hoped the kid just ran off on his own, he really-really did.

'Wong says the Sanctum had not been breached, but that's not reassuring right now. Look, maybe it's… hold up, HELEN what am I looking at?'

Steve did now hear HELEN's reply.

'Steve?' Bucky was now standing behind him. Steve turned around, but had no idea what to even start with.

'Cap, you need to get moving,' Tony said then, even more urgency in his voice

'Put it on speaker,' Bucky told him in a tone that Steve could not argue with, so he moved the phone away from his ear and pressed the speaker button.

'Tony, what is it?'

'Explosion on the corner of the 9th and West 24th. Fuck, it's a big one.'

It was about 20-30 minutes from the Sanctum, but Steve wouldn't have immediately thought it would be related.

'Took out three shops!'

'Tony, focus! Is it connected?'

'The fire's all green, you tell me,' Tony said. 'Wanda's on the move. I'm suiting up.'

'We're on our way,' Bucky said and immediately turned back towards the room to leave, Steve scrambled to follow. Tony already hung up.

'Look, I wish we didn't have to go-' Bucky was saying. Becca waved him off.

'No, go-go! Whatever it is, it's important. We're not going anywhere.'

'If it's more aliens, keep them over in Manhattan!' Evelyn yelled after them.

'We'll try our best,' Steve told her on their way out. Bucky was already out of the room and moving towards the exit, so Steve rushed to keep up with him.

'We'll get as close as we can with the car, then we'll have to take it on foot, traffic's a bitch right now,' Bucky said to him once Steve caught up with him and they picked up the pace. 'And you can tell me what I missed from Stark on the way,' he added.

x-x-x

Steve drove, Bucky sat silently next to him. Tense, looking resolutely ahead, not saying a word. Steve couldn't stand the silence, but struggled to decide what to say other than to theorise on what happened, which seemed pointlessly self-flagellating without further information first. But there was only so much he could take.

'Talk to me, Buck,' he prompted.

There was a long pause and Steve wondered if Bucky would ignore him. That would have been very telling of his state of mind.

Instead, Bucky sighed, finally uncrossing his arms, looking frustrated and angry. 'We've been gone one fucking day,' he said.

'I know you've been concerned about the dreams, but you couldn't have known… we couldn't have known!'

'It was something! Something that was wrong… I… it might not be connected at all.'

'Do you think so?'

'I don't know, Steve!'

Steve's fingers shifted on the steering wheel and he sneaked another glance at Bucky from the corner of his eye, keeping his attention mostly on the road.

'He'll be fine,' he said. 'It's Loki. If there is one thing Loki excels at, it's survival. Whatever is happening right now, he'll be fighting and waiting for us to catch up with him. He knows you're coming to get him.'

Bucky stayed silent again for a long moment, but his lips tightened a bit more resolutely. He took his glove off, Loki's rune was dark, no hint of light yet.

'Yeah, he knows,' he agreed.

They made it over to Manhattan when Steve's phone rang again, the screen flashing up with Tony's name in the phone holder. Steve tapped the screen even before the first ring was over.

'Tony, what's happening over there? We're still a far bit away. Might have to leg the last couple of blocks.'

'Oh, you're still in the car, good. There's a case in the glove box.' Bucky reached for the compartment, digging around inside. 'Should have some ear pieces so I don't have to rely on your phone.'

Bucky clicked the case open and immediately took out an earpiece and put it in, then handed one to Steve.

'Yeah, we got it,' Steve confirmed. Tony's voice shifted from the phone to the earpiece channel, but the call did not disconnect completely on the phone.

'Wanda managed to get the flames down, but some of the buildings… a bit melted. Loki's not here.'

'Casualties?'

'A few, but here's where the weird comes in,' Steve could just picture the look on Tony's face, he sounded uncomfortable and rattled, so whatever he was facing, it made him uncomfortable to look at. 'Right before the explosion some guy started screaming out on the street, blood spraying out of his neck. Then… boom, green everywhere. At least the people in the bakery and the takeaway were far away enough from back of the building to get out in time because of the commotion.'

Steve shared a look with Bucky. 'Who was it?'

'Just a guy who worked at the pharmacy across the road. He was walking to the bakery for a donut run.'

'A diversion?' Bucky asked then.

'There's more,' Tony said. 'Ther's one body behind the bakery at the epicentre… not pretty, and one scorched black SUV, all doors wide open, one more dead on the passenger side. Registered as belonging to a shoe company in Jersey. Guess what I'm staring at in the trunk? Not shoes.'

'They were armed?'

'Discreetly. HELEN's been digging into every CCTV and satellite footage we can get our hands in the relevant areas and I'm about 90% sure this car was parked close by the Sanctum only an hour ago… and has been for about four weeks now.'

HELEN helpfully sent over some pictures that popped up on Steve's phone, various CCTV screenshots of what looked like the same car parking in various locations around the same block across from the Sanctum. That was fast, but Steve could tell Tony was sparing no resources trying to locate Loki and figure out what was going on. It was scary how much he had access to, incredibly illegal too, but Steve hardly cared about that in this situation.

'They've been staking out the Sanctum?'

'HELEN's now cross-referencing all other vehicles that showed up near to the Sanctum in the last few weeks, see if any of them popped up today in this area.' There was sound of more noise in the background, police sirens, a crowd of people. It got muffled after a moment, so Tony either moved away or closed his helmet.

'The kid's not here, so they either got him or he gave them the slip.' Tony's voice sounded relatively business-like, but Steve could hear the stress in his tone, the urgency.

'If Loki thought he was in danger at the Sanctum he would have tried to get somewhere safe,' Bucky said then. 'If he went north, then he was trying to get to Hell's Kitchen.'

'I still don't get how they could have done this to Vision and Strange,' Steve added. 'Who are these people?'

'I'm not sure it's related,' Tony said after a moment of thought.

'That's an awful lot of coincidences, Tony,' Steve argued.

'Not coincidences,' Bucky cut it. 'Causation. If they've been staking out the place, they've been waiting for an opportunity.' Bucky ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a harsh breath. 'Loki's not been anywhere alone since we found him,' he added.

'We'll focus on the area between here and Hell's Kitchen,' Tony said. 'But if they did get him, that's… it's a big damn city.'

'He fought back there and he will keep fighting if he can,' Bucky said. 'We just need to keep looking.'

'Oh, trust me, the police would not be happy to know how closely HELEN's monitoring all of their dispatch calls right now,' Tony said. 'Want to go straight to Hell's Kitchen? Not much here for you to do, Wanda and I have it under control.'

'Yes, we'll call Gigi,' Steve told him. 'If Loki's on the run, he will try to get there.'

'Right, good plan,' Tony agreed. 'I'll be up in the air once I sorted everything with the cops. HELEN will patch you through as needed.'

'Ok, let us know if there's any updates,' Steve said.

'I'm getting that kid a Starkphone first thing, I swear.' The last part did not sound fully directed at them. Then there was a tell-tale click as Tony's side disconnected. Steve tapped his earpiece to click it off for now.

His head was buzzing with possibilities. Someone's been watching the Sanctum, closely enough that they were able to move at the first chance that presented itself. The big question that kept popping up in his head was "who?" but he did not ponder out loud. If Loki got away in that magical explosion he caused, then it did not matter yet who was chasing him.

'Traffic's slowing, we need to get out soon,' Bucky told him, reaching forward to Steve's phone, tapping on it.

'Three blocks,' Steve agreed. He glanced down and saw that it was Gigi's contact Bucky's been looking for.

The call rang for a about half a dozen times before finally connecting. 'Yah?'

'Hello, Gigi, it's Steve uh…' he realised they never gave her their full names, and saying it now like this might not have the desired effect.

'Classified?' Gigi snorted.

'Look, Gigi, something happened. We don't know where Luke is, but he might be trying to get to you.'

There was a sound of her putting something down harshly. 'What? I trusted you fuckers, if he ran away on you-'

'It's not that,' Bucky interrupted. 'Someone was after him. Dangerous people, so if he does show up, you need to call us immediately, all right? It's… we need to find him safe.'

Gigi cursed again and some scraping static noise came out of the speaker, like she put the phone down to her shoulder for a moment, then the sound of a door slamming shut.

'Gigi, everything okay?' Steve called.

There was a sound of loud knocking on the other end and when Gigi replied she was a bit out of breath. 'What people?' she asked. 'Burch again?'

Steve frowned and shared a look with Bucky. 'We're… not sure.'

'Fucking useless,' Gigi cursed at them, then yelled; 'Jessica!" loudly banging on a door and hung up.

'We need to split up,' Bucky said after a moment of pause, not commenting on the abrupt end to the call. 'Cover more ground.'

'I don't think we can cover as much as Tony or Wanda,' Steve told him. He had to slow down the car a bit due to the thicker traffic and he could tell it tensed up Bucky even more, he was itching to jump into action. 'HELEN has eyes everywhere, we'll find him.'

Three blocks later, as soon as the car came to a halt at a busy intersection, Bucky tossed the door open and got out of the car.

'Bucky, wait, wait!' Steve yelled. As soon as he opened the driver's sider door someone started aggressively honking at him from behind. Steve ignored it.

Bucky turned back. 'There's a few routes he would have taken, some more likely than the rest. I'm going that way, keep going to Hell's Kitchen.'

'And if we need to head somewhere else? If Tony has new intel for us-'

'I'll figure it out,' Bucky told him. 'Keep going!' then he turned and ran off. Steve got back into a car, biting back a curse. Traffic got moving again, so Steve could pick up some speed, but he was tempted to leave the car at the next possible location anyway.

About five minutes later his ear piece clicked on.

'Steve, you copy?'

'Hey Natasha,' Steve greeted.

'I'm on my way. Got the quintjet in the air,' she said. 'Sigyn's with me. Pietro on the move too.'

'Thanks, good to know. What's going on with Vision and Strange?'

'Stable,' Natasha said. 'Wong is undoing some of the protection spell around the Eye of Agamotto. He's quite sure Strange will wake up once it's off his neck.'

Steve knew Strange might be able to shed some light on whatever happened with the stones, so he hoped he would be up on his feet again and unharmed.

'Vision is a different matter,' Natasha continued. 'But HELEN says she's detecting on-going internal recalibrations, so he might not be able to talk to us right now, but looks like he's trying to right himself. If he turns for the worse, Tony will have to get back to base though.'

'Okay, that's good.'

'What's your status?' she asked.

'I'm on my way to Hell's Kitchen. Traffic slowed me a bit, but it's picking up now. Bucky took off on his own. He's probably stealing someone's motorcycle right now.'

'You know we would prefer to catch these guys alive, right?'

'I know that, Nat.'

'Just saying, Barnes might not feel the same way.'

'He'll be fine.'

'If you say so. Can't exactly pick you up where you are, we'll land at Central Park. Tony's looking for those cars. If any of them tries to leave Manhattan, we'll know.'

'Unless they left already,' Steve added grimly.

'Where's your optimism, Rogers?'

'We're on our back-foot here, Nat. Whoever these people are, they've been planning for weeks if not longer.'

'Yeah, but whatever they planned it did not go off without a hitch. Two dead at least already. They were reckless or ill-informed. This is Loki we're talking about.'

'We called Gigi, in case Loki makes it there on his own. I think she went to the detective, Jones,' Steve added.

'Could be good, more eyes on the streets,' Natasha said. 'Lots of vigilantes in that area.'

'Trigger-happy ones too,' Steve told her.

'No more than Barnes himself.'

'When you say it like that, it's not reassuring.'

'We just need to get them first. Call if you need back-up.'

Steve parked the car down illegally, but he was sure Tony would not be too bothered about paying the fine for it later. He was still a block away from Hell's Kitchen and it was getting dark now. He had no idea what alternative route Bucky took. He had not heard from him at all since they separated. It made him nervous and was tempted to try and contact him multiple times just to check in. He held off. Bucky would contact him, if he needed help or if he found something.

Then his phone rang. It was not a number he knew, but he picked up anyway.

'Hello?'

'You're that G-man guy, Steve?' asked a woman.

'Who's this?' Steve asked.

'Name's Jones,' she said.

'The PI?'

'Oh, that makes this easier. Look, just want it on record, I didn't do this.'

'Do what?'

'46th West, close to the Hudson. I'm staring at two dead bodies in a trashed car and I bet the cops will be here soon. Ther's an audience.'

'You think it's connected to Luke?'

'Lady in the retail shop saw a kid jumping out of the car after it totalled the light post, but I've not seen him. Look, these guys are armed and now super dead.' There was a sound of metal crunching that Steve could not even guess what it could mean. 'Gigi thinks you're some government type, you either get here first or the police will. You figure out which one will be more helpful. Like shit, one of the guys in the backseat has a pen sticking out of his neck. What the shit would they want from the kid?'

That, Steve still did not know, so he gave her his best guess. 'He's… special, you could say. Extraordinary.'

'He's got powers?' Jones asked bluntly. 'Fuck, no wonder. Fucking shitheads. I'm gonna keep looking, you either get here or not.'

She hung up, so Steve tapped on his earpiece. 'It's Steve, anyone who copies, we got a lead.'

To be continued…