Summary: As the team try to come to terms with Michelle's death, a new terrifying threat is looming over them. Clint and Grace are forced to confront their darkest fears and enemies, as they prepare for their baby's arrival. Co – Written With snowqueen79. Clint/Grace, Bucky/Sophie and other pairings.

The Cradle Will Fall

Chapter 14

Lilia's heart ached at the sadness in Tony's eyes, he thought that he didn't deserve her. She gave him a fierce but loving hug, and he held her tightly as they simply held each other.

"Because you're a good man, Tony. You don't think you are, but I know you're one of the bravest, kindest and compassionate men that I've met. I love you three hundred; Tony and I love our little boy." She said softly, Tony hugged her tightly and simply held her.

She felt safe with Tony, and Howard.

Grace was medically cleared by Bruce and Helen to leave the medical bay, but she now had a faded scar on the upper left side of her stomach to add to the collection. Clint was walking by her side as he helped her into their room with Connor in her arms, as he helped them sit down.

"How are you feeling, Grace?" He asked quietly, he had never been so afraid like he had two days ago when he'd found Grace bleeding from being shot by her older sister.

Grace smiled at Clint reassuringly, taking his hand as she breastfed Connor who was starting to fuss. At just five months old, he wa getting bigger and would soon be on solids as she and Clint got Connor ready for his afternoon nap in the nursery next to their bedroom.

"Sore but I'll be fine, my side just stings slightly when I lean over or bend too much on my left side. Are you alright?" She asked gently, as she saw him sitting down next to her and tickling Connor.

"I'm fine, Grace. I just hate that we can't get a freak with HYDRA, but I'm not going to let them hurt you or our son. I promise," he said fiercely, Grace held onto him and Connor tightly.

He wouldn't let anyone hurt his family, no one lived and hurt his family. HYDRA had taken Cooper, Zach, Lila and Quinn from them, caused all of them pain but he wouldn't let them win.

No way in hell, would he.

Adrian and Sam sat in the living room pouring over files of known HYDRA, and Red Room operatives who were listed as dead, were alive and unknown. As he looked at the photos of the men and women, his eyes drifted to the face of a stern man with cruel, cold eyes. It felt like he knew him, and then the memory hit him like lightning.

Flashback, 1997 March 23, Belarus, HYDRA Base.

Adrian stood next to the four other boys and two young girls, as their instructors handed them each a gun and instructed them to shoot the traitors to HYDRA. He watched numbly, silently horrified as Misha, Dmitri and the young girl all coldly shot the four out of six so called traitors in the head. When his name was called and he was forced to step forward, his hands were shaking as two little girls stared at him in terror.

They both had blonde hair, but the younger one had lighter blonde hair that was in a Dutch braid. He swallowed back bile, as he remembered that he had sisters who were most likely the same age as them.

"Soldat what are you doing?!" Misha asked angrily, he knew it was a risk, but he couldn't...wouldn't kill children. His father and mother might believe he was dead, but he could make them proud.

"I won't kill them, comrade. They're children." He said firmly, praying that his spider abilities would help him this one time and he could at least wipe some blood from his hands.

The room became deafeningly silent as everyone stared at him in shock, that he was openly defying one of the Winter Soldiers. He knew he might due, but he didn't want to kill any more innocent people.

Before Adrian knew what was happening, a young blonde haired woman coldly shot one of the sisters in the head, as blood sprayed up on the wall behind her.

The younger sister screamed in horror and tried to run to her dead sister, but Misha effortlessly shot her twice in the back and neck. As Adrian looked on helplessly, before a deep-seated hatred took hold of him.

"You bastard!" He roared enraged, he charged at the older man and knocked him on the floor as he started punching him. He wrapped his hands around his throat and started strangling him as Dmitri and one of the guards grabbed him.

"Wipe him now! He's still got his damn emotions, Lozchenko! He's still too much like his father, and the first Winter Soldier!"

Adrian snapped out of the memory, breathing heavily and saw Sam looking at him in concern. He looked at the photo of the man in pure hatred, and remembered his name. General Aleksander Lukin, he had been one of the top HYDRA leaders in charge of the Winter Soldier and Black Widow Ops programs. The man had appeared in more than one of Adrian's nightmares, as he'd been his handler.

"You alright, man?" Sam asked quietly, he nodded and took in a few deep breaths as sweat headed from his neck. He had no doubt that Lukin was behind this, he was loyal to HYDRA, even after the Soviet Union had collapsed.

"I know who this man is Sam, he was in charge of the Winter Soldier Program. He might have been Yulia's handler too, and if he is the one in charge of the remaining Widows and Winter Soldiers, we're in serious fucking trouble." He said grimly, Sam nodded and started calling the others for a team conference.

"We have reason to believe that General Aleksander Lukin a former General in the Soviet Union, is now in charge of HYDRA. Adrian recognised him while looking at photos with Sam, the man was his handler. Now, Bucky, Sophie and Grace do either of you three know him?" Fury asked grimly, as he pulled up a photo on the screen of a man with black hair that was greying.

Grace stared at the photo intently but shook her head, she'd never seen him before in her life. Sophie shook her head, but Bucky nodded grimly and sighed.

"He's the one who gave me to Pierce, after the Soviet Union fell. It was too dangerous for me to stay at the Siberian base, so they gave me to Pierce," he said grimly.

"What?" Sophie's face was white as a sheet.

Bucky's flesh hand gently covered hers. "You okay, doll?"

She nodded but the movement was too quick, too jerky. He knew her well enough to know that wasn't true.

For now, there was a question to answer.

"I served under Lukin for years," Bucky went on. "He maintained many special projects for the KGB, including the Winter Soldiers. The Widows. He dealt in arms. Sold them to the highest bidders, regardless of sides of loyalties. He even sold arms and devices to the Red Skull himself."

Steve, who sat at the other end of the table, sat forward. His gaze intense. "The Red Skull?"
Bucky nodded grimly.

"He didn't die, Steve, up there in that craft with the you," Bucky explained. "He returned to the earth for a time. But he was weak and losing control of HYDRA to stronger men by the day. His only hope seemed to lie in getting his hands on that cube. And he did. They waited until he got his hands on it and then they had him killed."

"You know for sure he's dead?" Steve wanted to know.

Bucky nodded. "I killed him myself. Lukin's orders."

"The Cube?" Fury wanted to know. "The Tesseract?"

Bucky nodded.

Sophie covered her mouth with a shaking hand and fled the room. Bucky rose from the chair to follow her.

Fury held up a hand to stop him. Grace went after his girl instead.

"What happened to Lukin after that?" Fury wanted to know.

"He gave me to Pierce as I said," Bucky replied.

"Where are we going with this?" Steve was very involved in the discussion now.

Bucky found he couldn't focus on it at all. He didn't stick around to find out the answer.

"Later," he said before rising and marching out of the room.

Listening, he heard the girls in the lady's restroom and headed straight for them.

"Sophie?" He tried to keep his tone calmer than he felt on the inside.

She was bent over the sink, Grace stroking her back as she splashed water on her face.

"What is it, doll?" he stood there next to her, more scared than he was willing to admit. Grace shot him a knowing look. His girl's beautiful face lost another level of colour as she turned off the water with a shaking hand and stood straight.

"Sophie?" If she were ill, if something took her away from him, he didn't know what he would do.

"I'm okay," she put her hands on his forearms, stepping closer.

He didn't like the way she was trembling.

"You're sick," he pointed out.

"I think –"

"Grace," Sophie cut her off before she could finish that thought. "We don't know that… for sure…"

"Know what?" Bucky looked from one to the other. "What's going on?"

Grace stood just behind Sophie, smirking.

It only took Bucky a moment to read into that reaction.

"Wait," he said, his gaze meeting his girl's. "Are you…"

Sophie dropped her gaze, whirled on her sister. "Grace, I didn't want to say anything without know for sure—"

"You're pregnant?" Delight was clear in his tone.

Turning back to her lover, Sophie shook her head. "It could be a stomach bug, too."

"But you're late," he pointed out.

Sophie's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Pretty familiar with your cycle, doll," he said with a grin. Her grin. "When you hit that week, you always get a little…"

"A little?" Sophie's voice rose with her anxiety while Grace tried to suppress her amusement.
Bucky knew he had to be careful here. "A little… emotional. And it's okay. Your favourite ice cream, a nice back rub and you're usually just fine after a couple of days."

Sophie shook her head, feeling very taken aback by… everything.

"You should have hit all that, I don't know, about seventeen days ago?"

Grace did burst out laughing now.

"Grace," Sophie hissed in her distress.

When her expression went from confused to gobsmacked, he knew she was starting to see things his way.

He knew she was taken aback but his heart was soaring. It was a big relief because up until now, Bucky had no idea if he could even father children. He'd been hoping. He knew his girl wanted a family and he didn't want to let her down. He'd been sure Dr. Cho could probably miracle something for them anyway, but still. It was good news.

And he was happy. So happy. Bucky knew he didn't deserve her. Didn't deserve the child. Didn't deserve any measure of happiness.

But he'd take it.

Wrapping his arms around her, Bucky hauled her up, swung her around.

Sophie squealed. "Bucky, please?"

After another celebratory moment, he put her down.

"I don't want to be sick… on you," she said, a hand on her stomach and breathing through her nose.

Grace looked happy for them. She waved apologetically to the random Stark employee who walked into the restroom at that moment. The poor woman looked lost at what she was seeing.

"Sorry," Grace called.

"Let's get out of here," Bucky told her, unable to contain his smile. "Let's go to medical and confirm this. Come on."

Sophie stopped, taking his face on her hands. "You're okay if I am, right now?"

"How can you ask me that?" He didn't like the fear he read in her face. "I know things are a mess but when are they not? I love you and we just might be having a baby."

Grace gently hugged her from behind. "Let's go."

"Babies?" Sophie's voice hit a new pitch.

The sight of two very small babies were enlarged on Helen's screen. The lovely doctor beamed at the three of them.

"There are two," Helen confirmed. "Congratulations."

Tears brimmed in Sophie's eyes as she looked at the screen that showed two babies moving around in her womb, her and Bucky's babies. She was going to be a mother, and she felt so happy at this moment.

"Thank you, Helen. Could we print copies of these for the others and you as well and Thor?" Bucky asked excitedly, Helen blushed when Thor's name was mentioned. Everyone at the compound knew that Thor and Helen were dating, with Erik being happy for them.

"Of course, I'll let Dr Montgomery know as well. She helped Grace through her pregnancy with Connor, she's a brilliant OB/GYN," she said reassuringly, Sophie was still in shock but was smiling.

She and Bucky were having twins, their baby boys or girls.

Clint noticed that at dinner Bucky and Sophie were exchanging smiles with each other, Grace squeezed his hand lovingly and he smiled at her tenderly. Connor was sitting on her lap, as they all had dessert and were speaking to Tony and Lilia on Skype when he saw Bucky finish eating his third slice of chocolate and salted caramel cake. Sophie was smiling next to him, as they looked around the table, and the large plasma screen TV that Tony and Lilia, T'Challa, and Shuri were talking to them through with Howard who was teething and cuddling Lilia.

"Today, me and Sophie found out a happy surprise and it gives me great joy, to announce that we are expecting twins!" He said happily, Sophie smiling with joy.

Everyone jumped from the table and charged towards the couple, with Adrian, May, Ned, Harry, Gwen and Mary - Jane in lead with Steve, Natasha and all of them.

Clint hugged Bucky and Sophie tightly, knowing how much this meant to the both of them. Bucky had confided in him, Sam, Steve, and Scott that he was worried that he might not be able to have children because of HYDRA constantly using the Memory Suppressant Machine on him.

But now, he'd been proven wrong and Clint was overjoyed for his close friend and future brother - in - law.

Grace had never been so happy for her sister as she was now, she knew that Sophie had been worried about not being able to give Bucky children but she was now expecting twins. For once, it felt like could bring any of them down and she'd noticed that while Tony and Lilia had been Face Timing them, they'd both been relaxed.

She smiled down at Connor as she got him in the warm bath, her heart swimming with love as she looked at her little boy. At now five months old, Connor was starting to crawl, and it wouldn't be long before he started walking and talking.

She sensed Clint before hearing him enter the bathroom, as Connor paddled about. She smiled at him as he knelt down next to her as they bathed their son who giggled and laughed. She saw Clint smile and loved how his face brightened at seeing their son, how his beautiful grey eyes would twinkle in happiness at seeing Connor. The loss of Cooper and Lila wouldn't fade away, just like her sorrow for Zach wouldn't ease up, but the pain would fade away slowly.

"Won't be long before our little spider hawk is walking, talking and crawling?" Clint asked amused, Grace smiled at the nickname that he called their son.

She pulled the plug and rinsed the bath round, before helping Clint dry Connor who was sleepy, and yawning. She breastfed him one more time, as they changed his diaper, put him in a fresh one and put him in a baby lamb onesie.

Clint turned on the night lamp in the nursery for Connor, stars illuminating the walls beautifully. She smiled as they got Connor settled in the crib, and he cuddled his teddy bears and Avenger plushies around him. Clint put a thick dark purple knitted blanket over him, which had belonged to him as a baby.

A dark brown teddy bear that had a red bow tie was near Connor's head, the teddy bear had belonged to Grace and she'd given it to Connor, like she'd done for Zach.

On the left side of the wall, photos in frames of Cooper, Lila and Zach smiled at them happily. Grace leaned into Clint who held her tightly, and he stroked Connor's soft tufts of dark blonde hair.

If he was completely honest with himself now as he held Grace lovingly but protectively in his arms. He'd fallen in love with Grace the day that she'd comforted him after his nightmare about Cooper and Lila.

"He looks like his daddy, he's got your beautiful eyes and hair, Clint and smile." Grace said softly, happiness in her voice as she looked at their baby boy who was fast asleep.

Clint shook his head, a smile on his face as he looked at his beautiful girl that loved him. She loved him and wasn't afraid of him.

"No, he'll have your beautiful smile and laugh, Grace. Your compassion, love and gentleness." He said firmly, leaning his head down as he kissed her.

Grace felt her body glow in happiness, and listened to his heartbeat.

Pepper blew out an exhale as she sat at the monitor, trying to find anything, any mistake, any hole in Tony's network that she could get into. After their last failed attempt to get their hands on the one spider girl, the one who had a child with Clint Barton, she needed to come up with a new angle.

Add to that the fact that Hammer was becoming more useless to her by the day. He had ideas and some know-how, sure. But it's like he studied everything Tony every did, memorized it, regurgitated it on demand and called himself a genius. That wasn't going to do her, HYDRA or the cause any good.

Then there was Yulia who would have been a perfectly useful deadly weapon. And she was most of the time.

But when it came to her identical twin, she lost her composure, made stupid mistakes.

They'd planned the last mission for a couple of weeks. They had Grace right where they wanted her. She'd given birth to a test subject before and the child's strength had been impressive. Hammer had wanted only to focus on her, ignoring the fact that there was also a child she'd given birth to they could grab as well.

Hammer didn't consider the child, Connor she thought his name was, significant enough since his father wasn't an enhanced. Pepper disagreed. She thought the child could have real research value for them.

So she was back to square one, searching through a network that Tony had completely reconfigured to keep her out – bastard – looking for anything, any way she could get her hands on the spider girl Grace and her small son.

And do it without bringing every single fucking Avenger down on them.

After an hour or so, she found a small vulnerability in medical records. It wasn't much, but it was enough.

She found Grace's records from her time with the Avengers easily enough. She'd recovered from the shot with remarkable speed. She'd recovered quickly from childbirth too. Faster than she had the first time.

When she looked up the child's records there wasn't anything super out of the ordinary about him. He had a higher metabolism. He had some other interesting stats, enough that she thought he could make a viable test subject.

Pepper was tired from a long day, about to log off when she ran across the record of the other sister. Yulia's twin Sophie.

Her eyes rounded as she took in the medical record that wasn't even 24 hours old.

Oh, this was exciting.

Sophie was pregnant.

By the Winter Soldier.

Oh, this was just too good.

Pepper took a closer look at the prognosis.

Twins.

And didn't twins run in families?

It was like the perfect test subjects ever just fell into their laps.

Pepper laughed in the quiet of the office, making copies of all the records she was viewing.

This changed things.

Because if she could get her hands-on Sophie, not only could they test on the children, she could experiment on Sophie and make comparisons with a healthy Yulia.

Hell, if Yulia stayed so temperamental, just maybe they would experiment on Yulia too. They had enough trained killers. They didn't need a loose cannon.

Pepper finished making screen captures of everything and resolved to gather everything tomorrow to her crew. In acquiring Sophie, they would need a stone-cold plan not some Keystone Cops comic routine.

They would need a diversion because Pepper was certain of a couple of things. They'd fight tooth and nail to protect the pregnant woman.

And when he'd been activated and under HYDRA's mind control, the original Winter Soldier had been nearly unstoppable. With his own children in the crosshairs, they'd be fighting the Asset.

Or worse.

Saving all the files to a flash drive, Pepper carried it in her hand. No way she was taking the chance that someone would get this intel before she had the chance to present it.

No, this was too important. It could be the key to some of their more important efforts. And if they happened to shake up the Avengers at the same time? Two birds, one stone.

Bucky had stayed to have a celebratory beer with Steve, Clint, and Sam. When he made it back to the apartment he shared with his girl, it was quiet. For a moment, he thought maybe she'd gone to sleep.

No, he found Sophie in the tub and he just stopped to take her in before she noticed him. Her back was to him, her blonde hair pinned up in a messy knot that had his hands itching to take it apart. All that smooth, creamy skin dotted with clear drops of water.

As usual, she'd used enough bubbles to fill two tubs, soapy ropes hanging over the edge of the tub in a couple of places while he shook his head, wondering how he ended up with such a beautiful dame.

When he quietly approached the tub, he expected her to catch him trying to sneak up on her, say something snarky.

When his hand smoothed over her shoulder, she jerked away from his touch. Her head turned to look up at him, her eyes rounded in fear.
Immediately, he took a knee at the side of the tub, listening to her heart fly.

"Sophie?" He said gently. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to scare you, doll. I figured you knew I was in here five minutes."

Her hand clutched his where it gently rubbed her shoulder. She was trembling.

"Doll, what's wrong?" Now he was worried. "Are you okay?"

He watched Sophie swallow hard, all the colour drained from her face. After a moment, she nodded but something was bothering her.

Rising from the floor, Bucky quickly shed his clothing and she moved up to allow him to slide in behind her in the tub. One he had her settled with her back against his chest, he just held her, let her relax against him.

He wasn't happy until her heart slowed down to something like normal for her.

"Now, you want to tell me why you looked like you saw a ghost?" he whispered next to her ear, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.

The exhale she blew out was a quiet whisper in the silence around them.

"I don't know," she told him. "I just… I feel like something's wrong. Like something bad is going to happen, Bucky."

Wrapping her arms around her, he held her – his family – close. "Sweetheart, you just found out you're pregnant. I'm sure a lot of first-time mothers get the jitters at first."

He felt her hands slide over her flat-for-now tummy.

"No," she told him, shaking her head. "Not them. They're fine… It's something out there."

AN: Enjoy, and review :)