Danielle, Sam, and Steve all stood around the small table at the restaurant for the post-service lunch. In front of them sat a small bowl of French fries Steve had gotten Danielle after hearing her talk about them back at the church. She happily snacked on them, talking and hanging out with Sam and Steve while Sharon chatted with a few of her family members.

While eating her fries, Danielle occasionally checked her text messages. Sending updates to Wanda, Michelle, Liz, and Betty about how her trip was coming along.

"You enjoying those?" Steve asked, prompting Dani to glance up from her phone screen mid-bite with two fries in her mouth.

"Girl hasn't said a word since those fries were set in front of her. I'd say she enjoys 'em," Sam quipped, grabbing a few fries of his own to snack on. "Mm. Those are pretty good."

Danielle chuckled before continuing to eat. Once her and Sam had all but cleared the bowl of fries, a waiter came to their table to refill it along with bring drinks for the trio. Sam and Steve were given glasses of liquor while Danielle had been given a small glass of ice tea (not that she was complaining; the liquor smelt disgusting).

"Here's to an honorable discharge." Sam held up his glass and tapped the edge f Steve's before the pair took sips.

"So, you're really retiring?" Danielle asked with a small frown, playing with one of the fries in the bowl.

Sam shrugged. "Just can't bring myself to sign those damn Accords." Danielle wished it could've been as simple as just retiring. But, the difference between her and Sam was that he could hang up the Falcon pack and suit, Danielle couldn't just turn her powers off.

"You sure you're okay with this?" Steve asked the pilot – or, now former pilot.

"Ah, I'm not worried about me, I'll make a great civilian," Sam assured his friend. It wasn't long before Sam glanced to something past Danielle and added, "You could, too." Both Danielle and Steve followed his gaze to find who he had been gesturing to. Sure enough, Sharon was standing a few yards away, finishing up a conversation with a few people.

Danielle smirked as she turned back to the pair of men and said, "You know, I'm getting kind of tired and I'm sure Sharon doesn't want to leave here just yet."

Steve glanced down at her in both confusion and slight worry. "You need us to take you back to your hotel?"

"Uh..." Danielle blanked, her plan quickly backfiring on her. She then turned to Sam and gave him a pointed look.

The pilot, luckily, picked up on what the young girl was getting at and chimed in, "Why don't I get her back? I'm feeling kind of exhausted from the jet lag too. You stay behind, have a few more drinks for me, maybe talk to Carter over there."

Steve glanced between the pair as Danielle and Sam packed up their things (Danielle shoving a few more fries into her mouth) before heading out. Danielle sending Sharon a quick text about where she had gone, hoping the pair would take the bait.

Once Sam and Dani were outside of the restaurant, they broke into a fit of laughs and giggles. "Let's get going before Steve chickens out of talking to her," Sam said, guiding Danielle over to the car him and Steve had driven in.

Danielle had given Sam the name of the hotel her and Sharon had been staying in, which just so happened to be the same one Sam and Steve had checked in at (man, it couldn't have gotten any better of a set up than this one).

When they arrived at the hotel, Sam helped Danielle out of the car and started walking her back up to the room. Midway there, Sam decided to spark up conversation. "So, how's everything been going for you, kid?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, pressing the button for the elevator.

"I mean... I don't know, everything." She gave him a look that told him he had to be at little bit more specific. "How is school, how are your grades, is everything okay with... the Accords, your Mom, Rumlow-" Danielle visibly cringed at the mention of Rumlow's name.

To be honest, she hadn't thought about him much after Lagos. Launching him into a building while he was enveloped in an explosion kind of out him in the back of her mind. But now, hearing Sam mention her Mom and Rumlow in the same sentence brought her back to the things he had said to her before he had blown himself up.

"I didn't touch a hair on that bitch's head... But I wish I had."

Oh, God...

Oh my God...

Holy crap.

"Danielle?"

Rumlow didn't kill her mom.

Rumlow didn't kill her mom.

Rumlow didn't kill her mom!

Rumlow didn't kill her mom!

"Danielle!"

"Rumlow didn't kill my mom," Danielle whispered out loud.

Sam looked at her incredulously. "What?"

"Rumlow didn't kill my mom," she repeated, a bit louder this time. "Sam, he didn't do it. He didn't kill her. I killed the wrong person! I killed the-"

"Ssh!"

She was cut off when Sam quickly pulled her into a hug, her face pressing into his chest, muffling her cries and panicked words that fell from her mouth in a babbling mess. She was shaking and her knees were slowly giving out from under her as sobs began to overtake her body. Her chest felt like it was being crushed in the palm of the Hulk's hand. Her mind was racing at a million miles per hour, yet it felt like it was blob of goop. She was crying and she was shaking and she just wanted to curl up into a ball and stay there.

What was going on? Why did she feel this way? It hurt. Make it stop! Why wouldn't anyone make it stop?!

Because she was a killer! She had taken Rumlow's life; watched him become encased and wrapped in a ball of fire and fury, his screams bringing pleasure to her as she watched pain cross his features. She enjoyed watching him die!

Was that why she got distracted? Did she let him go on purpose? No! No. She wouldn't have done that. No matter how much that man took from her, or tried to take from her, she wouldn't have done that to him, to Wanda, to those innocent people in danger around them in Lagos.

But... She can't help but wonder if she did... She closed her eyes to try and remember, but she couldn't. Why couldn't she remember what she was thinking in that moment? She remembered being satisfied by Rumlow's screams, but why couldn't she remember whether or not she had let the explosion go on purpose?! Did she? Did she kill him on purpose?

Oh, God. She was, wasn't she? She killed someone on purpose. She murdered someone... She was a murderer. She was a murderer! She was a murderer!

She didn't realize this, but Sam was quickly having to usher her from out of the middle of the lobby by the open elevator towards the lounging area off to the side. The pilot's eyes darted across the room as he began to notice the lights starting to flicker slightly, paintings on the wall shaking, and the glass on the chandelier clinking against each other as they vibrated from an unseen force that was Danielle's growing panic.

Doing what he only knew how, Sam sat her down on one of the couches and tried his best to comfort her while also trying not to draw too much attention towards them.

"Hey, hey," he said, moving to kneel in front of her. "Look at me. Danielle, I need you to breathe and look at me." Trying to hold back her sobs and blink back the tears, she did as he asked, looking at him through the water glazing her eyes and trying to force her rapid and jagged breaths of air to slow like Sam had taught her in some of their sessions.

"That's good. Just breathe, alright? Here." The pilot quickly jumped up and walked to the nearby water fountain, grabbing a small cup on the side and rushing back to hand it Danielle. But the moment he returned, he noticed her eyes glued to something off to the side. "Hey, Danielle, what are you...?" Sam trailed off as he followed her gaze to the TV across the lounge... As if this day couldn't get worse...

Plastered in big letters blinking across the TV screen we're the words: 'U.N. BOMBING IN VIENNA'.

"Oh my God," Sam breathed in horror.

"Jack," Danielle said in a small, broken voice. Sam looked down at her and she met his gaze with a look of utter and complete terror as she repeated, "Jack." It then dawned on the pilot that not only were there innocent diplomats at the meeting, but so were his fellow Avengers, Natasha and Jack.

Sam felt his chest tighten at the thought of either of his friends or teammates being harmed, but he had to put the thought aside. Danielle was his main concern, and right now, he needed to get her out of here before she went into another full blown panic attack and the entire building started to shake. He needed to find Steve and Sharon.

"Come on." Without another word, Sam set down the cup of water to the side before wrapping an arm around Danielle to lead her out of her seat towards the elevator. As if on cue, the pilot spotted both Steve and Sharon waiting at the elevator door. "Steve," he called to the taller blonde, both of them spinning around to face him. It was clear he had obviously interrupted something due to the brief look of agitation they both seemed to give him before the quickly caught on to his worried tone and spotted the pale girl beneath his arm.

"Danielle?" Sharon straightened, about to go full Mom-Mode at the sit of how out of it Danielle looked.

"There's something you gotta see," Sam explained.

Steve and Sam exchanged looks of both confusion and worry before the super soldier stepped forward to take Danielle in his arms, her weight feeling like a feather to him as the small group started into the elevator. "What happened to her?" Steve asked, using the back of his hand to feel the teenager's forehead and cheeks. She was pale, her eyes puffy – clearly from crying – and her face felt hot and sticky.

"She had a minor panic attack in the middle of the lobby," Sam explained. When Steve and Sharon threw him looks of concern he added, "something to do with Rumlow and her Mom."

"Is that what we needed to see?" Sharon asked.

"No," Sam said, adding to the worry. "But it sure didn't help her state."

Eventually, the elevator door opened, but when Steve tried to usher Danielle out of the doors, her knees were starting to give out again as her eyes began to close. With a swift movement of his arms, the Captain managed to sweep the girl into his arms, caring her with ease the rest of the way to her and Sharon's hotel room.

"You said it was a 'minor panic attack'?" Sharon asked the pilot as she unlocked her suite door and let them all in.

"She's going into shock," Sam explained in a hurry as he helped Steve into the room before rushing to the nearby kitchen to grab a small towel, grabbing some ice and setting it inside before re-wrapping the towel and running back over to hand it to Steve. "This'll help cool her down."

"Thanks." Steve took the towel and set it onto the little brunette's forehead.

"Sam," Sharon spoke up from her spot beside Danielle. "What's going on?"

Sam pursed his lips before walking towards the couch nearby, snatching up the remote and turning on the TV. Sure enough, the first thing to appear on the screen was Breaking News about the UN bombing.

Steve and Sharon stated at the screen in horror as clips of firefighters on the ground worked to out out the burning building. Plumes of smoke rose from the charred skeleton of a large portion of the structure, people scattering from all around down below on the ground.

They were all abruptly pulled from their trance when Sharon's phone started to ring. Steve looked at her questioningly before she explained, "Work." Without another word, she answered, leaving the pair of men to continue watching the news as it unfolded on TV.

"Jack and Nat were there," Steve stated, it wasn't a question. The question did, however, lie within his statement: were they alright? Though the soldier didn't have any answers, he now understood what had Danielle going into shock and panic.

"They would've said something by now if either of them were injured," Sam tried to assure his friend, but he could tell that he was still concerned nonetheless.

The pair went silent. Aside from Sharon speaking on the phone in the background, all that could be heard was the anchorman on the television. "A bomb hidden in a news van ripped through the UN building in Vienna. More than seventy people have been injured, at least twelve are dead – including Wakanda's King T'Chaka-" Steve stiffened slightly. Seventy people injured, any of which could've been Jack or Natasha.

"Officials have released a video of a suspect, whom they have identified as James Buchanen Barnes, the Winter Soldier. The infamous HYDRA Agent linked to numerous acts of terrorism and political assassinations-"

Bucky...

Steve straightened, his fists clenching on either side of him as he watched the footage of a man that looked like his oldest friend walking towards a news van dressed in all black. But... it jus didn't feel right. The Bucky he knew wouldn't do this, but he had to remind himself that that man on the television wasn't Bucky. But, Steve also knew that whoever pulled him out of the Potomac River those couple of years ago wasn't the Winter Soldier that the world was now accusing him to be... It wasn't him...

Just then, Sharon stepped forward and sighed heavily. "I have to go to work."

"Vienna?" Sam guessed.

Sharon nodded. "Task Force is calling me in... I don't know how I'm gonna explain Danielle to them, but I have a feeling you two are gonna want to come along." She said, glancing at Steve knowingly.

Steve turned back to meet her gaze. "Thank you."

She gave him a small smile and nod. "We have to pack. Our flight leaves in an hour," the Agent explained. "I can grab our stuff. We can meet back up in the lobby in fifteen?"

Sam and Steve exchanged glances, Sam turning back to answer, "You got it."

It was white. It was all white.

... and hot?

As Danielle slowly started to wake up, her senses started to take her surroundings in. The first few things she noticed was one: she was in a bright area, and two: her body temperature was through the roof.

As the teenage girl began to sit up and open her eyes, she realized that she was in some sort of tent laying on a cot? There were loud sounds outside, sirens, engines, shouting, taking.

Danielle, still sore for some reason, began to lift herself up off the cot and make her way to the exit of the tent. But, the moment she opened it, she realized that this wasn't her suite back in London.

There were people in tactical gear, uniforms, and heavy duty equipment rushing last her, throwing orders at each other and ushering people dressed in fancy suits away from a single direction. She noticed these people were injured, bleeding, or full of dust, ash, and soot. And when Danielle turned towards where they were coming from, she saw something matching the scene from Lagos.

An inferno of fire enveloping a building...

Screams and sirens echoing through the air...

Dust, smoke, and ash funneling up into the sky...

People running from all around her...

Was this a nightmare?

"Danielle!"

The brunette spun around at the sound of her name being called. Suddenly, she found herself standing face-to-face with Sharon, only instead of being in the nice dress she had last seen her in, she was dressed in her work uniform. What was going on?

"What are you doing out of the tent?" She asked.

"I... I..." she tried to think up an explanation, but she found her mind kept coming back to their surroundings and the question of how she got here. "Where are we? What's going on?"

"The bombing of the UN meeting, do you remember that?"

She did. She also remembered panic. Why was she panicking? The fire, the bombing, but something else... Something important. What was important? No... Who was important? Natasha. Jack. Jack! Jack!

"Jack," Danielle blurted out.

Sharon quickly held both hands on Danielle's shoulders as she explained, "He's fine. He's okay. He's getting looked over at a medical tent. I already checked in on him, they say he's alright, as is Natasha." Danielle let out a sigh of relief, her body shuddering slightly from just how much hearing her brother and their teammate were okay meant. "Now, Dani, listen to me," Sharon continued. "I'm at work right now and I need you to just stay out, alright? In a little bit, we'll be transported back to my work headquarters to try and figure this out, but for now I just need you to stay out, alright?"

Danielle wasn't sure what to say, how to respond to this, or how to make any coherent words to ask any of the million questions she had swirling through her brain right now. So, instead, all she did was shut her mouth and nod.

"Good," Sharon replied. "Now, please go back to the tent. I'll get you soon, alright?"

Danielle nodded once again before walking back to where she came from, glancing over her shoulder one last time to see Sharon had already vanished into a crowd of other agents speaking and managing the hectic scene.

Today did not go as Danielle thought it would at all...

Meanwhile, down the busy blocked off street in front of the UN building, Jack was just waking up in his own tent.

The young enhanced man awoke with a groan, his eyes still shut from the pain erupting frm his skull and his back and his arms and... well, everywhere really. He felt as though he had been hit by a train then fried to a crisp on a skewer. Oh, screw you UN bomb and whatever terrorist planted it.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the situation came dying back to him. The bomb, Prince T'Challa, the Accords, Natasha!

Despite the pain, Jack jolted upright and cried out, "Natasha?"

"Calm down, Statix."

Jack jumped slightly and turned to his left where the voice had come from only to find none other than Natasha Romanoff seated in a chair at the edge of his... what the hell was he lying on? A cot?

Due to all the moving and head turning, Jack's immense head pain returned and he held a hand to his head as he groaned. "What happened?" He asked through clenched teeth. "What, did I get tackled by a hundred linebackers then thrown into oncoming traffic on a busy freeway during rush hour?"

Natasha smirked a bit. "Is that how it feels?"

"Yeah," he answered. The Russian just shook her head at his over-dramatic antics. "There's also a slight ringing in my ears, is that normal?"

"You have a small concussion, but other than that, you'll live," the redhead told him curtly, standing up from her seat to grab what seemed to be a bottle of pils and a bottle of water from the makeshift table beside him. She walked over to the injured Avenger and gestured for him to hold out his hand. Jack did as instructed and Natasha shook two large white pills into his palm and handed him a bottle of water in his free hand.

Jack quickly downed the pills and a gulp of water with a wince and a disgusted gagging noise to top it off.

Natasha rolled her eyes yet again. "That'll help with the headache."

"What about the soreness in my everything?" Jack prompted. "You think I could request for a massage or something?"

The ex-assassin shook her head. "God, you and Tony are too alike for your own goods."

"Thank... you?" Jack responded with an uneasy laugh. "But, back to the reason I am in pain... What happened?" He asked, dropping his joking tone.

Natasha frowned as she sat back down. She took a deep breath before starting. "Well, turns out there was a hidden bomb in one of the news vans parked outside the building," she explained. "The bad news is, twelve people are dead and counting, including King T'Chaka..."

Jack frowned at that. After briefly meeting the King of Wakanda, he knew he was a wise and kind man who definitely didn't deserve to die. But, what made him hurt most was the fact that Prince T'Challa had now lost a father right before his eyes. He understood his pain... to a certain level at least.

"And the good news?" Jack prompted. But, when he noticed Natasha weary expression he raised an eyebrow. "Is there any good news?"

"Well, they know who planted the bomb," she answered.

Jack looked at her in confusion. Something was off. "And you're upset about it," he remarked, she didn't say otherwise and he continued. "Why? Who is it?"

"James Buchanen Barnes," Natasha answered grimly.

Jack furrowed his brow and made a small face of disgust. "Who names their kid after the 17th President of the United States?"

"15th," Natasha corrected swiftly, receiving a glare from the man on the cot. "But, that's besides the point-"

"Like hell it's 'besides the point'," Jack cut her off. "I want to know who I'm their right mind actually decided to name their baby after an old ass U.S. President that wasn't even that good. I mean, unless they're like some really weird history buff from the 1900's."

"Well, I'm pretty sure his parents were born in the late 19th century," Natasha stated.

"See, now that would make sense, but- Wait, what?!" Jack cut himself off and stared dumbfoundedly at the redhead beside him. "Did you just... Are you telling me that this guy was born in... what, 1920ish era?"

Natasha smirked from his shocked, wide-eyed look. "Remember the Winter Soldier?"

Jack's wide eyes turned to narrow slits at the mention of the man who had helped train his mother into a killer. "... Yes." Natasha gave him a pointed look. He looked at her in confusion. What was he missing? The Winter Soldier was supposedly a HYDRA assassin with the super soldier serum that had trained his mother and had been around for decades, apparently. But what did he have to do with James Buchanen Barnes...?

Barnes...

Barnes. Barnes. Barnes. Barnes. Barnes...

Where had he heard that name before?

James... Buchanen... 'Bucky'... Barnes...

Bucky Barnes, the first Howling Commando of the 107th infantry in WWII to give his life in the line of duty. He had read about that guy when Sam had taken him on a little to to DC to get away almost a year ago. While there, Jack remembered jokingly suggesting they to to check out the Captain America Exhibit at the Smithsonian just to see if he could add a bunch of dumb facts like the fact that Cap likes to sleep like a plank of wood or that he was still a ninety-something-year-old virgin. But, while there, Jack had read up on his team leader and gained a new found respect for all Steve has gone through.

He distinctly remembered walking through the exhibit and watching everyone pass by this one plaque like it wasn't even there. He figured it was worth his while and decided t check it out. Apparently, this Bucky guy had been like Steve's best friend...

Suddenly, it all clicked in Jack's head like a puzzle. It was like that feeling when after two hours you finally got the answers to your Sudoko's on the back of the newspaper and it all added up.

Bucky Barnes, Steve's best friend, had somehow been captured by HYDRA Nad turned into the Winter Soldier...

"Oh," Jack finally muttered.

... Who now was back and bombing the UN...

Jack's eyes widened in horror and realization. "Oh." Natasha pursed her lips and nodded, trying not to smile in the serious moment at Jack's late reaction. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say we're the ones that are going to have to hunt down Cap's friend."

"Not us, but we are on standby," Nat explained. "Ross is calling us to the Task Force Headquarters in Berlin ASAP. We have approximately 8 hours to clean up and get there. Tony and Rhodey are already on their way, so hurry up and get out of those dirty jeans and get ready to leave in half an hour." She ordered before standing frm her seat and stalking off out of the tent.

Jack groaned, laying his head back in his cot, wishing he could go back to sleep. What the hell had he just woken up to?

A/N: HOLY SHIT GUYS! Have you seen the new Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer? I watched it about a million times an hour after it came out. So many Easter Eggs. And I may ship the fuck out of Dani and Peter for this story, but I can't help but squeal with excitement now that I see MJ and Peter. And Happy and May! Oh that's gonna be hilarious. And Fury and Maria Hill are gonna be awesome. AND JAKE GYLENHAAL AS MYSTERIO! IT JUST LOOKS SO AWESOME. So awesome, I already know what I want to happen in Far From Home, I'm that prepared.

Sort of a filler chapter here, but let's summarize, shall we? Danielle has a thing for French fries, her and Sam are mediocre matchmakers, Danielle realizes she killed Rumlow on false belief and has a panic attack, they find out the U.N. is bombed, Danielle goes into shock, Sharon gets transferred to the Task Force in Berlin (I'd written for the plot of the story that she had been stationed in New York wit the CIA, so we're just gonna shift it a bit), Jack woke up with a concussion and an attitude, and Bucky 'bombed' the UN which no one is particularly thrilled about.

Any questions, feedback, or anything really just review them. I love hearing form people because I'm a lonely little writer (that's depressing). So yeah, hope you enjoyed.

Chapter Songs: Almost Back (Acoustic Version) by Phoebe Ryan ft. Kaskade and Lökii and Out of Time by Hidden Citizens ft. Erin McCarley.

Reviews:

Guest: I don't think she ever really had an accent, maybe just a slight bit because she never really spoke Slovakian much due to the fact that her mother was American and knew literally none of the language, but Danielle and Jack managed to pick up some during their time at school before they were captured, but when she was in Sokovia she was mute and after Sokovia when she started really talking again, she was surrounded by English-speaking people so it was easy for her to get rid of the slight accent all together.

emmagnetised: Ah! You made it, lol. But, anyway, yeah, I didn't want Peter's introduction to be huge because he doesn't play a big role until later in the story. So he's kind of one of those 'taken for granted, but meant to be' characters in this story. Because as much as this is Peter and Danielle's story, it's also just a Danielle story really. And yes! I love Ever After... and lasagna... and Sharon Carter, she deserves better.

Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:

Jack: I don't trust Bucky.

Dani: Well, I do.

Jack: Who don't you trust?

Dani: People who pronounce the 'g' in lasagna.