HEllllloooooOOoo! Happy Endgame Day *air horns*.
Welcome back. Hope everyone is doing well. I am doing fantastic. First trailer for my movie dropped *looks at Twitter feed* like two weeks ago lol. I've been in and out of the doctor's almost every single day for over a week so that sucks :( But I feel much better already than I was feeling a few weeks ago when I didn't even want to leave my bed I was in so much pain. I still have *checks calendar* two and a half months of doctor's appointments scheduled out the whazooooo.
Anyways...For those of you who have seen Endgame: I hope you liked it. For those of you who have yet to: I hope you like it.
Enough drabble. You all know I don't own Marvel soooo...
On we go...
"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache…," Fury listed off as he reclined in his bed sometime later. Max had woken after a solid twenty minutes- just enough time to send Steve into full-on panic mode. The doctors had assured him and the rest of the team that she was fine, simple exhausted and in shock that her stepfather was in fact not dead.
Now they all sat around the room as Fury explained the elaborate plan he had executed to fake his death. Max leaned into Steve's side as they perched on a desk across from the director while a doctor tended to him. Nat and Sam sat at a round table a few feet away. And Maria Hill, stoic as always, stood beside Fury's bed.
"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor said and he checked the monitors.
Fury rolled his eye. "Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."
Steve glanced down at Max. She was staring at her shoes, her hands tucked inside the sleeves of her hoodie to make sweater paws. Since re-entering the room, she hadn't made any attempts to look at her stepdad. He tightened the arm he had wrapped around her back, his hand gently squeezing her hip for reassurance.
"They cut you open," Nat said, confused. She peeked over at Max with a sad expression. "Your heart stopped."
"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it.
Steve decided to speak up and some answers, "Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?"
"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Maria answered instead.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury said, nodding in agreement. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."
With that, Max's head snapped up. Steve could hear her heart rate pick up; she was upset. She pried his hand off her hip and slid off the table, stomping towards the exit. Everyone watched her as she went, showing the first signs of life since waking up.
She retched open the heavy iron door like it weighed nothing and slammed it shut, the force of it rattling the bolts of the doorframe. Steve looked around at all their shocked faces. All except Fury's who wore his usual blank, unimpressed expression.
Pissed, Steve stood and moved in on the director. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know what you mean," he said in a cool tone of voice.
"What I mean," Steve began, "is how you just lumped Max in with the rest of us. I understand not trusting Nat and I with your plan, but Max is different."
"Max is on a need-to-know—-."
"She's your daughter!" The air in the damp room grew thicker as Steve's voice bounced off the cement walls. He took a deep breath, then said sternly, "She deserved to know."
He turned to head for the door in search of Max when Maria spoke up.
"It was more believable if she didn't know."
"It was cruel," Steve muttered before he left.
Shiny black patent leather shoes sparkled in the rare Michigan fall sunlight. The straps going across the tops of her feet were going to leave blisters from all the walking. She was too big now for mom to carry her.
The lace on her long sleeves scratched against her delicate skin, but every time she reached for an itch, her uncle would stop her. She pouted and tugged on the skirt of her black dress.
The curls in her hair were falling out; perfectly little ringlets her mother had spun them into that morning. She hated wearing her hair down.
People pinched her tiny cheeks and patted her head as they passed by, sharing condolences. "She looks so much like you," they would tell my mother. "She acts just like her father," she would reply with tears in her eyes.
She fell asleep on the couch in front of where the laid her dad. Mom was chatting with the people who are going to put him 'to rest' tomorrow.
Uncle Nick sat next to her with a frown on his face. He didn't usually show emotion, but since her mom had been sad, so had he.
She hoped she would sleep for a long time. She wasn't ready to wake up and face the next day. Once it was over, it would officially be just her mom, her and Uncle Nick against the world.
How was she going to survive without her dad?
The cold metal pressed into his hot skin. His breathing was heavy as he watched the scientists circling him like sharks waiting to come in for the kill. He knew what was about to happen- it happened every time he became aware of himself again and again. They strapped him to this chair and prepared to scramble his brains like eggs.
"Sergeant Barnes…"
Suddenly he was back in 1943. The frosty air nipped his exposed flesh. His heart was racing as he stared back at Steve standing safely on the train, a look of terror on his face. His body was weightless. It felt like his stomach was lodged in his throat from the unexpected drop. And then he was falling down…
"Bucky, no!" his best friend screamed.
Down…
Down…
Things shifted.
Bright lights shined in his eyes. His memories were hazy, his body numb. He didn't know where he was or what had happened.
"The procedure has already started," a thick Swiss accent said above him. A short, balding man stepped into his view. "You are to be the new fist of HYDRA." He moved his gaze to people standing across from him. "Put him on ice."
He was freaking out as he came back to the present.
He shoved the scientist working on his left arm. The tray with the man's tools scattered to the floor. Agent Rollins snatched his gun from his belt and aimed it straight at Bucky. Right then, Alexander Pierce decided to make his entrance.
Rollins's eyes snapped to his commander. "Sir, he's...he's unstable. Erratic."
Pierce approached Bucky, the Strike team close behind.
"Mission report," Pierce demanded. Bucky stayed silent and still. "Mission report, now."
Pierce grew aggravated after another bout of silence and struck the super soldier across his face.
"The man on the bridge," Bucky finally voiced a moment later. Flashes of Steve floated through his hazy mind. "Who was he?"
"You met him earlier this week on another assignment."
"I knew him."
Pierce takes a seat in front of Bucky. "Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But, if you don't do your part, I can't do mine and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves."
"But I knew him…," he repeated, confused.
"Prep him," the councilman told the scientist, ignoring the soldier's words.
"He's been out of cryo-freeze too long," the scientists informed him.
"Then wipe him and start over."
Bucky watched as Pierce exited the room. He didn't fight as the scientist slid the mouth guard between his teeth and started up the computer program. He knew what was coming.
He tried not to scream this time.
Steve was cautious and quiet as he crept into the room Max had been sleeping in earlier. He figured she had rushed back here after the disaster of a meeting with Fury. It was hard to be quiet, though, when all the doors in this place were made of heavy, creaking metal.
He peeked in before fully opening the door to make sure it was safe to enter. Max was curled up on the twin-sized bed, a pillow trapped against her chest as she cried softly into it. The sight of her like that broke Steve's heart. This was all Fury's fault. He could feel the metal door handle giving away from the force of his grip.
Carefully, he crept into the room and over to the bed. She was facing the wall so she had no idea he was coming for her. Steve slipped out of the silly skater shoes he'd stolen from the mall and slid in behind Max.
Instantly, he felt her body go rigid and her heart rate pick up. She hiccuped and shyly peered over her shoulder at him as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Max let go of the pillow and turned to face him, resting her forehead against his chest so he couldn't see her crying.
"H-h-he shoulda told m-me," she whispered after a few more minutes of quiet.
"Shhh," Steve hushed her. He ran his hands up and down her back, gently moving her closer to him. He could just barely feel her tiny bump pressing against his abs and it warmed him from the inside out. It killed him that she was stuck in the middle of this mess with him. But, if he was being honest, he and the rest of the team would be locked in a cell while HYDRA took over the world without her help.
Her breathing evened out and her tears dried up. Steve was sure she'd fallen asleep until she spoke up.
"Want some strawberry pancakes," she said, drowsily.
He chuckled, softly, "Yeah?"
"Mhmm...and dill pickle chips. Maybe some fishsticks, too."
"What kind of meal is that?"
"A good one."
"I'll have to disagree."
"Your kid, Cap."
He smiled, "Take a nap."
"Hungry," she countered, snuggling closer.
"Nap now, food later."
"Yes, daddy." He tensed. Half of him was shocked, while the other half of him was…. "Not kinky."
"What the hell does that mean?"
She laughed. "I'll explain after my nap."
Max sat at the round table with a plate of pancakes and a bag of chips in front of her. She felt better after her nap, but she wasn't exactly ready to interact with her stepfather just yet. Steve had convinced her to eat in the room with them so she would know their plans. She agreed as long as she didn't have to acknowledge Fury the entire time.
So she focused on her food instead.
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, 'Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility'. See it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
Max snorted as she bit into an extra syrupy piece of pancake.
"We have to stop the launch," Natasha stated the obvious.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore," Fury joked. He walked over to the desk and opened a case. Inside were three computer chips.
"What's that?" Sam asked.
"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized.," Maria explained.
Fury nodded. "We needed to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own."
"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work because, if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die," she added.
"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get passed them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left…,"
Fury ended.
"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D.," Steve retorted.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with it," Fury disagreed.
"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."
"And how many paid the price before you did?"
Fury sighed, "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."
"Even if you did, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that too?" Steve snapped. "S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA….it all goes."
There was a pause before Maria chose to speak up, "He's right."
Fury glanced around the room to see if the others agreed with her.
"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower," Sam said, pointing to Steve.
Max didn't bother meeting his eye as he passed over her. She didn't seem to matter to him in these kinds of decisions before, so why make a move now?
"Well...Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."
WoO!
Some of you requested more Steve/Max fluff. I had already planned on it for this chapter, so I hope it was sufficient.
Let me know what you think. I love hearing from you all :)
Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes.
Until next time -KAITi-
