CHAPTER THREE—June 2025

If there was ever a time when Tony wished he'd been in the lab more, this was it. The only remaining pieces of rubble large enough to test from Pepper's last known location in the containment wing were now useless. Any trace of his wife's remains was impossible to distinguish from her daughter's DNA with certainty.

Closure was impossible, and Tony would never know the truth.

"I'm so sorry," Bruce admitted, "but Sam's blood is on everything. It's all contaminated. We don't… I can't tell you what happened that day to cause the explosion."

Stark stood with arms crossed. He mumbled under his breath every so often, things like "why weren't you there" and "why wasn't it me." He kept fidgeting, walking over to the windows and glancing down halls, all as if jonesing for a fix. But Pepper was gone, and the fix would never come. Cold turkey.

Bruce ended the silence. "Sam's going to be fine though—"

"How can I do this?" Tony burst. "Her mother's gone—" Tony watched Barton approach from the living quarters' hall, "—and my kid nearly got herself killed on day one with Daddy!" He finished with venom for himself. "Seriously, Doc—"

"Tony, Hulk has never attacked a chi—"

"It doesn't make any difference. Same problem! What am I gonna do with a kid? By myself?! What can I do? Retire to the country? That's more Bird's thing," he directed at Clint.

"Really, Tony? I'm not even the one who flies," Hawkeye replied, rolling his eyes. "She just needs some time to heal. Few scrapes and bruises. My kids get worse all the time. Things will settle down—"

Tony lunged forward to Clint's face. "When have we ever been guaranteed safety, huh? Who's out there giving us a head's up for some days off? I just wanna know so I can mark it on my calendar. Gotta get a jump start on vacation planning. I'm thinking Disney."

He was spiraling out of control, his breaths short and fast. A Hulk was sitting on his chest, crushing him. Words were stringing together in his dry mouth even he didn't understand

Banner tried to offer tangible information. "No one has claimed responsibility. Containment could have been deliberately targeted, but it could just be an accident…"

"It's nobody's fault," Clint tried to yell over the other two, "so you just need to make sure she's safe from now on, okay? That's the best dads can ever do."

"Because obviously I'm Father of the Year and can be trusted with her?! Pepper was the real parent." Tony collapsed against the wall, shaking his head. "I can't do this. You know me. Is she safe with me? Because I don't think so!"

"Alright," Clint said in his best soothing voice. How could he calm a grieving husband and terrified father? He remembered the instinct to fight for his family came easily but sitting still and confronting reality did not. Plus, Tony was much worse at self-reflection than Hawkeye. "You both need some time. Why don't Laura and I take Sam for a while? Sam will have other kids around and plenty of space—" he paused to consider their location "—that doesn't have the makings of a bomb in every room. Nate would love to have a friend around, too. How about that?"

Tony looked at the closed infirmary door, and after a long pause, he made an odd, rounded nod, blurting, "she can't be here." He pushed himself up and walked off in the opposite direction.

"I wouldn't do that. He's still pretty pissed," Natasha advised, moving between Captain Barnes and the door.

"Stark needs to know I would never endanger—"

"He does know, but," she hardened her eyes to the soldier, "this is a terrible time to go remind him that someone else saved his daughter."

Bucky shifted his gaze from the door to the petite woman before him. "I was just closer. He had enough to worry about. He—"

"Doesn't get to bury his wife?" She stopped his progress forward with a hand on his chest.

"If I hadn't kept my comms on—"

"If you were friendlier to Pepper or anyone, you'd have been too invested—"

"If I got down there a minute later due to schmoozing the grieving, you mean? What even happened at Containment?! We have no active threats."

Natasha silenced him with a look. "Do you want me to take your mind off it?" Her honey words drizzled sweetly as she took in the details of his face. Bucky was stone, his own focus flickering back and forth between her deep blue eyes.

She drew her hand away from his chest. She swallowed. "So you've decided…That's it?"

Nat tried to read him like a book but the pages were all out of order. There were hints of fear, confusion, longing, even pain in an otherwise blank expression. She knew what he learned to hide, she knew he could be more convincing if he wanted, but she also knew this was different. Bucky was being as honest as he could be by letting her see the rat's nest in his brain. Nat remembered the feeling well.

"You are not the monster they made you," she said, lifting her hand to his cheek. He let it touch him for the briefest instant then pulled away.

"But I was and I am capable of the worst." Bucky slipped past her and flashed through the doorway, heading towards the grounds, not the infirmary.

"James," Nat called after him, but she stopped herself. She couldn't think of more to say that she hadn't already argued for months.