Pepper would have been confused by Tony's actions the next day if he had not told her the evening before where he had been, and who he had spoken to.
Over the course of the day, Tony had:
- Smashed three panes of glass in his workshop, only two of which were intentional
- Had three dozen bouquets of flowers delivered to Maggie's workshop and living quarters, leaving her very confused
- Threatened to fire the poor admin assistant who had dared to stop him in the corridor outside the contracts office, then thirty minutes later promoted the assistant to office manager
- Tried to take Maggie to lunch in Hawaii (Maggie had called Pepper to ask about Tony's sanity after this incident)
- Laid on the comfortable chair in Bruce's workshop for an hour and a half
- Disassembled an Iron Man suit
- Called Maria Hill an interfering, useless spy when she tried to pin him down for a meeting about the Avengers
At the end of the day, when she couldn't find him, J.A.R.V.I.S. informed her that Tony had driven out to the cemetery where his parents were buried. Pepper thanked J.A.R.V.I.S. tiredly, and rubbed her forehead.
She hadn't been sure about Tony going to speak to Barnes. She still wasn't. But it was ultimately his choice, and despite the chaos… this could have been worse. Tony wasn't the man he'd been five years ago, which was lucky, because Pepper didn't think that Tony would have survived this latest revelation.
She supposed that was why Maggie hadn't told him.
Pepper leaned back on the couch of her and Tony's private rooms and sighed. She worried about both of them. But the best she could do was be there for them, a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on. She couldn't imagine how anyone would be able to heal after what they had been through. But she supposed if anyone could do it, it would be Tony and Maggie Stark.
April, 2014
Natasha Romanoff returned to Avengers Tower.
Maggie had just come upstairs after her appointment to have her wrist brace removed (she'd asked to have the appointment in an office, instead of the medical wing, and they'd humoured her). She walked into the main common room, and instantly spotted a redhead wearing a brown leather jacket and black jeans making herself a martini behind the bar. Her hair was shorter.
Maggie stared as Natasha turned around to pour the martini. "You're back."
Natasha looked up at her, utterly unsurprised. "So are you."
Maggie slowly crossed the room, still staring, but stopped a few feet away from the bar. Natasha finished her drink and sipped it experimentally, her eyebrows rising.
"You didn't come after me," Maggie said. It had surprised her, when she returned to the Tower, to learn that Natasha hadn't tried to stop her from going after the Winter Soldier.
Nat nodded once. "It was your choice to make."
"And?"
"And," she echoed, taking another sip, "I'm glad for the choice you made. Not just for Steve's sake, but for yours."
Maggie set her hands on the cool metal countertop. "Are you… back for good?"
"Yes." Nat set down her drink. "We have work to do. I've been setting up my new covers, but also tracking HYDRA."
Maggie nodded. "I've been doing the same, on and off. We need to coordinate."
"Yes."
Maggie cocked her head at her friend. "You're not even going to ask?"
Natasha cocked her head back, her green eyes calm. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I mean, not particularly," she said. "But the guy did shoot you twice."
Natasha's expression didn't waver at the mention of her encounters with the Winter Soldier. "He's not going to hurt anyone where he is, and Steve isn't likely to do anything stupid to protect him in the near future," she said glibly. "I'm satisfied."
"Well." Maggie put her hands on her hips. "That's that, then."
Natasha's expression was even, but Maggie knew she was examining her. "You don't look good."
"Thanks."
Natasha's lips pressed together in a rare show of concern. "You're not taking care of yourself."
"I eat. I sleep," she protested. "I'm fine." She flexed her left hand. "I've got a clean bill of health as of today, even."
"Health," Natasha said, "is subjective." But then she finished her drink, and appeared to move past the topic. "I'll call Clint. Do you have Thor's number?"
"Thor doesn't have a phone, but I have his girlfriend's number. Why?"
Natasha looked her in the eye. "This is his fight, too. We need to assemble the Avengers."
Cell A
"Why don't you tell me about the arm, James?" Dr Raynor said, using the name they had both agreed on. Bucky was for friends and family. She sat in a stiff-looking chair, her hands laced together in her lap and her expression as keen as ever.
Bucky, sitting on the end of his bed, looked at the arm. The interlocking silver plates gleamed in the warm light of his cell, the red star an ugly reminder. "The prosthetic? I think… HYDRA designed it. To make up for the arm I lost, and to make me stronger."
"And now?"
He looked at her in confusion.
She nodded at the way the arm rested by his side. "You don't use it."
His expression cleared. "Oh. It's been deactivated."
Her eyebrows flew up. "By the HYDRA handlers?"
"No, I assume by…" his voice dropped. "By Ms Stark." Raynor frowned. "The arm was working before we… before. Then when I woke up in here, it wasn't."
Raynor was still frowning. "She didn't tell me that."
"I don't mind it," Bucky said. "The arm is… I am dangerous."
She leaned back, contemplating him. "What would you do if you got full use of the arm back?"
He shook his head. "It's not about that - if I lost control…"
She raised her eyebrows. "If you lost control, then what?"
"I could hurt someone."
"You could hurt someone anytime," she challenged. "If I'm understanding your abilities correctly, you could end my life in seconds just as you are now."
Bucky flinched. She was right. Part of his mind still calculated how to do it, every second of every day. He knew where her jugular was.
"So why haven't you hurt me?" Raynor asked.
He glared. "Because I don't want to."
"And if you lost control?"
Raynor had seen him slip. They'd watched the footage back together - when they dug too deep into a memory or a thought pattern in their sessions, Bucky felt the cold, hard presence of the Soldier slip back over his mind. But he'd just… sat there. Staring at Raynor. He'd responded to her questions in one-word answers, as if waiting for a mission. Once, he'd spoken in Russian. Raynor had been remarkably calm about it all.
But he hadn't tried to hurt her.
"But I have… I have been dangerous," Bucky continued. "Like after a nightmare, like when I did that." He nodded at the hole in the wall beside his bed.
She eyed him. "Do you think it's the arm you're afraid of?"
"I - it's not about being afraid, which I am, for the record," he argued back. "I don't - I don't want to be any more dangerous than I already am."
"We've talked about this before," she said evenly. "About what makes a person dangerous. Are you dangerous because of the serum, or the arm, or because of your programming, or because of your emotions? You define what you are, James. My number one priority is to keep you and the people around you safe, so I hope you trust my judgement on this. I think keeping that arm deactivated is a way of you continuing to give up your control. I think you need to take responsibility for it."
He stared at her for several long seconds. "I… it's not my choice, anyway. I don't know how to reactivate it."
Her gaze went steely. "Well let's make it your choice."
Sitting in a meeting room, Maggie stared unseeing out at the view of Manhattan as she listened to Doctor Raynor's request.
Raynor had contacted Pepper yesterday, asking to meet with Maggie, but she'd been busy trying to coordinate this Avengers thing. So she'd set aside some time to call the doctor today.
To be honest, Raynor's request surprised her. She hadn't even considered giving Barnes control back over the arm, though when she thought about it… she was pretty sure the arm wouldn't get him out of that containment cell. Even if it could, J.A.R.V.I.S. would dose him before he got anywhere close to escape.
She rubbed her throat, remembering the feel of those metal fingers pressing into her skin, and winced.
"You really think this is a good idea?" she questioned Raynor. "It's your safety on the line."
"I'm certain," Raynor said. "And Captain Rogers says he'll be on hand."
Maggie rubbed her forehead, considering it. "Okay. Sure. I remember how I deactivated it, I'll… I'll draw a diagram for Steve, he should be fine to do it on his own. It was just a switch."
"I'll take your word for it," came Raynor's usual clipped tone. "Thank you, Ms Stark."
Maggie hesitated. "Is he… how is he doing?"
There was a long pause, until: "I recognize that the doctor-patient rules are a little blurred here, Ms Stark, but... I'm afraid I can't comment on James's progress beyond offering my evaluation of his safety and the conditions of his imprisonment."
"Sure, I understand," she said woodenly. James. "Thank you again for all your help."
There was a pause. "Forgive me if I'm overstepping, Ms Stark, but do you have a mental health professional of your own?"
The question clearly wasn't intended with any judgement or underlying meaning; more of a professional enquiry. But it made Maggie's skin crawl.
"Thanks again, Dr Raynor. I'll be in touch." She hung up.
"Well this brings back memories of good times."
The people gathered in the conference room either ignored or rolled their eyes at Tony's comment.
It had taken a few days, but the Avengers had been brought together once more. Maggie perched on the edge of the long, glass conference table as she caught up with Clint and Natasha, both wearing their 'civilian' clothes which still made them look like they knew how to kill people. Clint seemed more at ease with himself these days, healing from what Loki had done to him. He'd been off the grid who knew where for the last few weeks, but he seemed suntanned and happy now. Steve and Thor stood by the wide windows, sharing battle stories, and Tony and Banner were seated at the table with Maria Hill. Sam had opted out, saying he wasn't an Avenger.
They'd chosen this conference room because it had been designed for Avengers operations, back when they refurbished, and no one really wanted to bring work into the place where they lived. The common room was meant to be their refuge, not a place to discuss missions.
Beyond the windows lay a sprawling view of New York, bright sunshine filtering through into the sleek corporate space. It felt strange having everyone in the same space again, for the first time since they'd farewelled Thor in Central Park almost two years ago. They'd all changed slightly, either in look or in bearing, but Maggie still felt that same energy as the first time they'd gathered - these were powerful people. But that undercurrent of energy was tempered by friendship now. They'd broken off into separate conversations to catch up, to ask after mutual friends and share memories. It was the strangest group of friends Maggie had ever had.
"We may as well get started," Hill said, leaning back in her chair and resting her Stark tablet on her lap.
The rest obeyed, breaking up their nice-to-see-you-again conversations and taking their seats around the table. Maggie ended up between Tony and Natasha, across from Steve - who had a pensive look on his face.
"So," Hill began, looking around at them all. "HYDRA."
"A blight upon this world," Thor offered with a dark expression. Steve had filled him in on everything when he arrived. He'd been following Jane from laboratory to laboratory across Europe, content to enjoy the pleasures of Midgard. He wore jeans and a red sweatshirt today, which Maggie was still getting used to after only seeing him in armor.
"Sure," Hill agreed brusquely. "They're a problem that's not going away. In fact, I'd argue things are getting worse."
"I've been tracking HYDRA resources," Maggie chimed in. "Lots of funds have gone missing, after being diverted into puppet accounts and that sort of thing. Whoever it is is being smart about it, but we know there are ex-HYDRA operatives out there securing funds and resources. And probably planning to use them." Steve's face went grim.
"That's what the analysts downstairs have noticed too," Hill confirmed. "We suspect that several cells of HYDRA have survived, or have been created by ex-HYDRA agents who escaped the immediate arrests after the fall of SHIELD. Other organisations are tracking the surviving cells down - the armed forces, the FBI, the CIA, and other anonymous groups. But I'm concerned some of these organisations don't have the… resources to deal with the unique challenges HYDRA presents."
"You mean they don't have superpowers," Tony said, pulling apart a pen he'd found on the table. "Neither do half of us," he added, nodding toward Maggie, Clint, and Nat.
Hill, to her credit, masked her frustration with a simple tilt of her head. "Nick Fury gathered you all in the first place for a reason. To solve the problems that the rest of us can't, to protect the people who need protecting. I'm no idealist, but I think the Avengers are still needed. Especially now that SHIELD is gone."
There was a long silence. Tony and Steve traded a glance that Maggie couldn't interpret, and Bruce fidgeted nervously.
"There's more than just HYDRA," Maggie finally said, and everyone's eyes darted toward her. "Losing SHIELD has put a hole in the global security network. Dangerous incidents and people that SHIELD would normally handle are falling through the cracks. People are getting hurt."
Natasha nodded. "I've been keeping track of what I could. There's been an influx of HYDRA activity in Europe, so we think that's where most pre-established HYDRA cells survived. But I came back to the States because I isolated a cell in the Midwest."
"Then let us go to battle!" Thor exclaimed, slapping his hand down on the table and making it rattle. "My Jane is often busy, and it has been some time since I've had a worthy fight."
"There's something else," Clint said in a dark tone. "Loki's Scepter has gone missing."
Silence fell. Maggie glanced at Tony, whose brow had furrowed, and then back at Clint.
"What?" Steve said.
"The theft was disguised by a well-laid paper trail," Hill explained, leaning forward. "We didn't realize it was missing from the storage facility until Barton started asking questions." She nodded to the archer.
"We think it was removed before Project INSIGHT, when HYDRA knew they had to start moving their big ticket items. No idea where it ended up, or who has it."
Steve rubbed his forehead. "Or what they might be doing with it."
Thor sat back. "This is grave news indeed." His head bowed. "I should have returned the Scepter to Asgard along with the Tesseract."
"What was SHIELD doing with the Scepter?" Maggie asked, remembering the uncomfortable energy that had crackled around the weapon when she'd been working on it on the Helicarrier. "What kind of experiments?"
Hill's jaw tightened. "Monitoring it, trying to understand how its energy core worked-"
"You didn't learn your lesson from the last alien tech you messed with?" Bruce interjected, his eyebrows high.
"We didn't try to harness its energy-"
"You just lost it," Tony interrupted.
Hill sat back and spread her hands. "Listen, I admit it - SHIELD made mistakes. Big ones. I'm trying to make up for those now by solving the problems caused by Project INSIGHT and the fall of SHIELD. That's why I took on the job here." She looked around the table at them all. "But if you're not willing to help, then I'll go elsewhere."
Maggie sighed. "That's a poor attempt at manipulation, Hill," she said. "But you're right. It's on us to make sure HYDRA doesn't hurt anyone else."
Tony looked around. "So we're doing this?" He met their eyes, one by one, and everyone gave him either a nod or a grim yet affirmative look. He last looked to Maggie, and she nodded once. "Alright then. The Tower's already equipped to support Avenger operations, and Magnolia stole that Quinjet, so this should act as our base. Cap?" He looked to Steve.
Maggie watched the look that passed between them with fascination. She'd always been interested in the transfer of power between them that they'd forged during the Battle of New York, the respect and deference to their individual skill sets. She felt quietly relieved they could still work together, after how strained things had been.
Steve nodded once to Tony, a look of something deeper crossing his face, before he straightened. "Hill, you've got the analysts and the tech team downstairs - mostly ex-SHIELD, right?"
She tipped her head. "About 70-30 with recruits from SI and other organisations. But they've all been vetted by me, Pepper, and a government investigative body, they're clean."
"I'll also go over their personnel files with Nat," Steve said. "I don't think you can blame me for being a little paranoid."
Hill nodded.
"So we've got two goals here," he said, "identification of HYDRA cells and survivors, and capture of said cells."
"And filling in for the gaps SHIELD has left," Natasha added, to which Steve nodded.
"Exactly. We're going to be stretched thin for a while, but I think we can make this work."
Maggie thought she could identify another need: HYDRA - and SHIELD - had hurt people. Left scars and stolen loved ones. What did those people get? But she held her silence for now.
Steve continued laying out his plan. "We need to work together. The Tower will be our base. Banner and the Starks will work with the analyst team on tracing - find the Scepter like you found the Tesseract, and also identify other HYDRA cells."
Maggie nodded in time with Tony and Bruce.
"Nat, Clint, I'm thinking we need a mobile search team in the field to track leads on the move; like you've already been doing, Nat."
The former Strike Team Delta nodded.
"Maggie can sub in," Clint said with a glance across at her. "I've seen her tracking skills in the field, she's good."
It was meant only as a complimentary suggestion, but there was a sudden awkward pause in the room as everyone put together the background of why Maggie was such a good tracker.
Steve cleared his throat. "I'll work with Hill on coordinating operations, and working with other organisations. We've got contacts in most areas now-"
"Sharon ended up in the CIA, didn't she?" Nat said evenly, but Maggie recognized the faint edge of a tease. Steve ignored her.
"And how can I be of use?" Thor asked, looking restless.
Steve met his eyes. "You, me, all of us - we're the response team. Banner too, as long as…?"
Bruce sighed and appeared to shrink in his chair. "Yeah. If you really need the other guy, I'm okay with that. But only for the big stuff."
Steve nodded. "Good. So when we identify a HYDRA cell or base, we hit them and we hit them hard."
"Cut off all the heads," Maggie murmured.
"And cauterise the stumps," Tony added.
"Exactly," Steve said.
There was a long pause. Maggie could feel them all clicking into place, a team once more. Though this was unlike anything they'd done before - instead of handling a single incident, they'd be… coworkers.
"And the elephant in the room?" Tony said in a hard-edged voice.
"Hey," Banner said.
"Not you, Professor Green. The, uh, Boo Radley in the attic." He cast his eyes upward, the direction of the detention level.
Steve's face fell, and his confidence appeared to falter. Any mention of Bucky appeared to have that effect.
"Intelligence organisations around the world are looking for the Winter Soldier," Natasha commented. "Some know his true identity, and most have him on watch lists."
"So I guess the question here is, do we think we're above the law?" Tony asked. Maggie shot a look at him, but he just shrugged.
"Bucky's not a criminal," Steve said firmly, and Maggie saw more than one person roll their eyes.
Thor ran a hand over his jaw. He and Clint had been filled in on everything. "The laws of this realm are different from those of Asgard. But the Allfather is known to be merciful, in cases where someone has their agency taken away by means of seiðr."
"Magic," Maggie explained for the others, having heard more than them about Thor's homeworld. "Sort of."
"For what it's worth," Bruce said haltingly, "some people, the government just doesn't know how to handle appropriately." They all looked at him consideringly, and he appeared to wilt under their attention. "I mean, there was a time when I thought maybe I should turn myself in and be locked up for the things I'd done. But I… they wouldn't just lock me up, would they? They'd use me."
Maggie's skin crawled.
Bruce fidgeted. "It wasn't until I ended up here," he nodded at the Tower around them, "that I felt like I could stop running."
Clint rested his elbows on his knees. "Maybe we could negotiate some kind of deal for him? Like a supervised custody arrangement, overseen by the government."
"And announce to HYDRA exactly where their asset is?" Natasha questioned. "There's no question they'll want him back."
"Bucky doesn't deserve to be in prison," Steve interjected.
"Then what does he deserve?" Maggie cut back more forcefully than she'd intended.
Steve turned to her. "He deserves help. And sure, he might not be safe out in public right now, but there's a big difference between that and locking him up and throwing away the key."
She scowled. "You're saying that I-"
"No-" he began, holding up a hand.
Hill leaned forward. "No one's suggesting-"
"If it comes out that the Avengers have been hiding a wanted fugitive," Natasha said in a much more measured voice, "we'll lose our credibility."
Steve turned on her. "Who's side are you on?"
"I'm on the side of destroying HYDRA," she said coolly. "Barnes might not be a part of them any more, but he throws a big spanner in the works."
"All I'm asking for is time," Steve said. "Give Bucky time to heal, and - and then maybe we can talk about what happens next for him. But he deserves time. If things go south then that's on me."
"No," Maggie said, and they all looked to her. Steve was starting to look desperate. "It's on me. I brought him in. I made the decision to keep this in-house." She frowned and drew a deep breath. Then she looked up at Steve. "Time. I can do that."
She looked around the table. There were a few clenched jaws, and Tony's hands were balled into fists, but no one voiced any further disagreements.
"Then it's agreed," she said. "As far as the Avengers are concerned, the Winter Soldier is a ghost on the run."
There was quiet assent.
Hill cleared her throat. "Given that his identity is leaking out, I'd suggest that you" - she nodded at Steve - "still give at least the appearance of looking for him."
Steve nodded. "I can put out some feelers with Sam's help."
"In the more immediate future," Natasha said pointedly, "the reason I came back was because of this HYDRA cell in Missouri. I've got their base coordinates." She made a gesture and a holoscreen appeared over the table, displaying a map of the state with a glowing dot south of St Louis.
"The hell did they choose the Midwest for?" Tony murmured.
"I don't think I could eliminate the whole base on my own," Natasha said, pretending not to hear Tony. "They've got some experimental tech, and as far as I could tell, more than a handful of agents. Some ex-SHIELD, some private hires."
Everyone in the room looked to Steve. His eyes were on the glowing dot, but, sensing their attention, he looked around the room.
After a moment, he nodded grimly. "Suit up."
Upstairs, the Winter Soldier stood under the spray of a steaming hot shower, staring at his own distorted reflection in the palm of his metal hand.
Steve went through their attack plan on the Quinjet. Clint was flying, so Maggie sat strapped into one of the crew seats, her goggles already over her eyes as she looked down at her hands in her lap.
Everyone had suited up. Some still wore their old uniforms - Steve was in the dark navy stealth suit that had been retrieved from SHIELD, and Clint and Nat were both in their old SHIELD gear. Maggie had noticed Tony eyeing them all earlier, and she suspected he was planning a big redesign.
Maggie fidgeted with the edge of her wingpack. She'd fixed her wings, conservatively, scared to do too much with them. She and Rhodey had gone flying as promised, and it had been nice, but… Maggie wasn't so sure who the Wyvern was now. And now the Wyvern was about to go out on another mission, leaving the Winter Soldier behind.
She'd repaired her flightsuit as well, but she couldn't stop thinking about how the last time she'd worn this suit she'd had her claws to the Soldier's throat. She flexed her fingers restlessly.
"You got that, Wyvern?" Steve asked.
Maggie nodded without looking up. "Fly Hawkeye down to a sniper's nest, then infiltrate through the roof."
Steve nodded. "Great. And Banner's on backup here in the Quinjet, emergency callup only."
Bruce seemed so small in his crew seat, wearing canvas trousers and a purple shirt, his hair slightly tousled. He hadn't had an incident in over a year.
"Ah, my friends," Thor said, swinging his hammer in a small arc as if to test it. He had a smile on his face, and looked as imposing as ever in his armor. "It is good to fight by your sides once more."
"I almost feel sorry for the poor bastards holed up in that midwestern base," Tony said as he ran diagnostics on his suit. He looked up and met Maggie's eyes. "Almost."
Three hours later, Maggie stood outside the converted sewage treatment plant that the HYDRA cell had been using as a base, watching as the whole east section of it crumpled to dust. Smoke rose into the sky from the other end of the structure, and the facade of the building flashed blue and red from the lights of the dozens of police cars and ambulances parked out front.
"Well that was easy," Tony said, standing by her side with his hands on his hips and his face plate retracted.
Maggie shot him a look.
"What?" he said. "Sure, it was a little trickier than we expected, but we once fought off an alien invasion. That was nothing."
Sighing, Maggie glanced around. The police and FBI had been notified of the Avengers mission in the area, and had been asked to converge on the base once the Avengers finished clearing it out. They were currently busy arresting all the HYDRA survivors and packing them into detainment vans. A few of those being arrested were family members of exposed HYDRA agents who had gone on the run with them - they looked exhausted and terrified. Maggie felt for them, but they'd chosen their lot. Some people didn't get a choice.
She spotted Bruce sitting on the end of an ambulance a hundred yards away, wrapped in an emergency foil blanket and looking gaunt. Unfortunately, they'd had to call in what Tony called a Code Green. Things had gotten a little dicey for Thor in the depths of the base, since the HYDRA agents had some kind of temporary chemical paralytic, and Steve had called Bruce in. Maggie had been in the air when he'd joined the fight.
Seeing him take one step as a man and another as that enormous green snarling creature was still just as frightening now as it had been in New York. Even though Maggie knew he was on her side, the animal, instinctual part of her urged her to run. Still, she'd followed him into the industrial, echoing space of the HYDRA base to join him in the fight.
They'd all worked well together, as they had back in New York. Maggie was still more used to fighting alone, but with the Avengers it felt natural. The familiar metallic clang of Steve's shield as he forged ahead, having Tony and Thor on her six in the sky, Clint and Nat's reassuring deadly silences. Even the roars of the Hulk made her feel invincible in the fight.
Bruce had had trouble shifting back. Natasha had cautiously approached the Hulk once he'd finished smashing through concrete building supports, speaking in her low, even voice, and that seemed to still him until he finally shrank back into Banner.
"That's something to keep in mind," Clint had said with a note of surprise.
For a few moments, Maggie and Tony watched the HYDRA base burn.
"It's a start," Tony murmured.
Maggie glanced at him sideways, but then spotted Steve striding through the crowd of police and EMTs towards them.
"Alright Avengers, back to the Quinjet," he said into the comms. He'd just returned from his mini conference with the lead FBI agent and lead police officer on scene. "We're packing up, they want us to get out of here so they can get on with the legal side of things. Tony, did you gather all the tech for Damage Control?"
Tony gave him a thumbs up. "All the nasty experimental tech is out of the way. The rest should be fine for the feds to handle."
He and Maggie followed Steve back to the Quinjet, meeting Nat and Clint on the way. Thor supported Banner, who still clutched the foil blanket around himself (mostly, probably, because he was naked). Police and bystanders stared at the group.
"Good work, team," Steve said as the Quinjet loading ramp closed behind Thor and Banner. Clint and Nat headed for the cockpit. "Have we got any injuries?"
"Maggie's hurt," Clint called over his shoulder. She scowled at him.
She'd done it to herself. She'd been grappling with a trio of HYDRA agents wielding glorified cattle prods, inside a massive concrete pipe. They'd hit her with a couple of electric shocks and in her attempt to beat them away she'd slashed through the shoulder of flightsuit with one of her wing barbs. The wings had been designed to be strong.
In truth, Maggie hadn't been nearly as focused on this mission as she normally was. She'd done the work and completed the mission, but she'd felt… distant from it. As if whatever had driven her to be sharp and deadly efficient before had fizzled out. The violence had jarred her, as if she'd never been in a fight before.
The idea frightened her. How could she be an Avenger if her head wasn't in the game?
She'd packed the half-an-inch deep wound with wadded up bandages from an ambulance, but hadn't wanted to bother the EMTs with her injury. Clint, of course, had noticed.
Steve looked her over, and noted the bloodstained bandages strapped around her shoulder. "Head to the med wing when we get back, you can skip debrief with Hill."
Maggie shook her head. "I want to give my report-"
"Your goggles film everything now," Tony pointed out, "Hill can just log that footage as your debrief."
"But the HYDRA tech-"
"Will be going straight into the custody of Damage Control when we get back," Tony said. "You don't need to do anything except make sure your arm doesn't fall off."
Maggie wanted to protest more, but Natasha was looking at her with an assessing gaze, so she just pressed her hand to her wound and strapped herself into her seat as Clint took off. Bruce asked for some classical music to help him level out, so they all listened to Vivaldi on their way back to the Tower.
Maggie used the rhythm of it to calm her increasingly sharp breathing.
After the briefing, Tony made his way down to the medical wing.
The briefing, run by Hill and Steve, had been predictably boring. He'd never had to be briefed when he was just Iron Man, and not an Avenger. But he supposed it was a good thing, since they'd been able to discuss what they'd found a facility, and what next steps they needed to take.
It felt strange to be back in the fight. He and Pepper had discussed it extensively, and they'd both agreed that the world needed Iron Man once more. They'd worked out some ground rules though - Tony would stay in therapy (which hadn't really been a question), he worked with the team, and he kept a healthy work-life balance. He promised not to bring Iron Man suits into their private quarters, and Pepper promised not to bring in her work tablet.
He worried about Maggie, though. He was pretty sure today had been her first time back in the fight; she'd done well, but she'd been quiet. Which was hard to judge, because she was normally quiet when she fought. But Pepper had noticed Maggie being more quiet than usual lately too; she was drawing back into herself, putting up walls. She'd been having issues with physical touch for a month, though she didn't like to admit it.
Her behaviour sometimes reminded Tony of when she used to travel around the world and vanish for weeks at a time. She was here, technically, but she was somewhere else in her head.
He didn't think the issue was entirely about Barnes, either.
Tony's meeting with Barnes hadn't gone exactly as he'd expected, and it hadn't made him feel better. He was still angry. His anger wasn't directed in a specific direction any more, he was just… angry. And that, he knew, would take a while to cool.
He wondered what Maggie was doing with her anger.
I'll take her out for a coffee when she's done in the med wing, he decided as he descended the last set of stairs to the right level. She needs some time away from the Tower.
But when he turned down the corridor for the med wing, he came to a stop.
The Avengers Tower medical wing took up a whole half a floor of the tower, a level below the flight deck. There was another one much further down for SI employees and other building staff, but this was the Avengers' med wing.
A pair of sliding doors marked the entryway to the wing. They were closed. And standing in front of them, frozen like a statue made of metal and dark fabric, was Maggie. She was still in her uniform with her wing pack on, the bandage cinched around her shoulder now a dull rust-brown colour. She stared in at the med wing through the closed doors.
"Mags?" Tony called, making her flinch and glance across at him. Has she been standing here the whole time? "What's up?"
She opened her mouth, looking from him and back to the double doors. She drew in a breath. "Y'know what, it's just a scrape really, I can clean it up on my own." She shook herself and turned to go.
"Don't be ridiculous," Tony half-laughed, jogging to catch up with her, "let's go-"
She didn't look back. "No, I'm good."
Tony caught up and darted into her path to make her stop walking. She smelled like smoke and blood. "Maggot," he said, but then looked into her face and whatever he'd been planning to say died on his tongue.
Her skin looked almost grey, and there was a light in her dark eyes that worried him. He considered what to say.
"Maggot," he began again, head tilted. "Remember when I decided to get rid of that shrapnel in my chest?" Her brow furrowed. "I didn't read up on heart surgery until I was an expert in the field, and then operate on myself. I asked for help."
She scowled at the analogy. "Tony-"
He sighed. "There are some things you can't do all on your own, Magenta. And that's okay."
He was talking about more than her injury, and he could tell that she realized that from the way her expression shuttered.
He pressed his advantage. "Come on. Come inside, let them have a look at you. For me."
He took a step, and let out a breath when she turned to follow him, silent and stiff. The med wing doors swished open and she got even tenser, but she followed him inside.
"Hello there," Tony said to the doctor on call, who was peering at a computer screen by the front desk. She looked up and examined the pair of them. "Got a minute?"
Maggie had followed Tony into the med wing through sheer will, focusing on the breathing exercises she'd been reading up on over the past weeks.
She barely heard the questions the doctor and the nurse on call asked her, relying on her injury to speak for itself - with Tony's help. She shrugged out of her wingpack and uniform jacket mechanically, barely blinking at the flash of pain from the gouge in her shoulder.
Her mind was on a loop: memories and images and feelings from those awful weeks stuck in the hospital when she was a kid. Waking up and seeing that newspaper with the news of her parents' deaths on the front page. Losing her leg. The bone-deep ache of healing surgical incisions. The sting of needles and the sharp smell of antiseptic. Grim faces. Tony crying. Feeling alone and helpless and impossibly weak.
She sat very still as the doctor and nurse cleaned her cut and rebandaged her shoulder, her eyes on Tony as he chattered. But she couldn't really hear him.
Then she heard the words all finished, and she bolted upright. She'd done it too suddenly: the doctor had had to step quickly out of her way, her eyebrows flying up her forehead. Maggie didn't stick around to apologize. She rushed out of the medical wing, almost hitting the sliding doors on her way out, and made a beeline for the stairs to her residential level.
She heard footsteps as Tony chased after her. "Mags, what is it?"
She kept powerwalking, her nerves thrumming and her skin flashing hot.
"Maggie-"
"Leave it, Tony," she snapped, and stormed upstairs. Tony's footsteps finally faltered and came to a stop. She could feel him staring after her.
She made it to her room before she fell apart. The door slammed shut and she slumped back against it, sliding down to the floor as if the strength were draining out of her legs. Her shoulder ached.
Her breathing had got away from her; it came short and sharp, and she felt as if her lungs wouldn't fill properly, sending a wave of panic through her. Her heartbeat raced in her throat, in her ears, drowning out even the sound of her hyperventilating breaths, and her fingers began to tingle. Dread crashed down on her and her burning skin abruptly flashed cold. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't make her heart beat right. I'm dying.
Maggie's fingers scrabbled against the floor, as if searching for something to hold onto. Her eyes were wide and wild, but she could seem to see anything.
I'm having a panic attack, she told herself. But the knowing didn't make things any better. Her breath only came faster, and the edges of her vision went fuzzy.
"Ms Stark-" came J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice, but she made a swiping movement to mute him. She knew she wasn't actually dying. But she still felt like it.
She felt like her skin was shrinking around her face, making her eyes bulge and threatening to crush her skull. The room spun and she planted her hands to try to steady herself.
It'll pass, she told herself. Soon, it will pass. She just had to survive until then. And if she was good at anything, it was surviving.
The next morning, Maggie walked into the kitchen on the common room floor to find Steve and Thor having a chat over two mugs of steaming coffee. Steve was in his running gear and Thor wore a genuine pair of flannel pajamas. Eyeing the pajamas, Maggie had an instinctual realization that Darcy had bought them. It made her smile.
"-going to visit my Jane in Paris this afternoon," Thor was explaining, nearly sloshing his coffee out of his mug. "I am told it is a grand city of art and architecture."
"It is," Steve grinned. "I saw it briefly - but that was during the war, and things were a bit messed up. But still beautiful. You'll enjoy it. Take Jane to the Louvre, it's got some of my favorite pieces." Steve sipped his coffee, and in doing so spotted Maggie in the doorway.
"Maggie!" he called, smiling. She hadn't seen him this relaxed in a while. "How's the arm?"
"Severely infected, my death of sepsis is imminent," she said, heading to the coffee machine. She'd dressed well and done her makeup this morning, because she needed to look… well. Like she had her shit together. But she still needed coffee. "Black coffee, please." The coffee machine whirred to life, selecting a ceramic mug from the storage unit beside it.
Thor chuckled at her joke. "You will be welcomed into Valhalla with a mighty feast and a profusion of mead and song, Lady Wyvern!" His hand landed on her uninjured shoulder. She flinched, but Thor's hand was so heavy that no one noticed.
"I told Bucky about yesterday's mission," Steve said, and Maggie glared at the coffee machine. Thor let go of her and she let out a breath. "He doesn't think he was ever at that base, but he said that a lot of the HYDRA facilities he was at were equipped with hidden rooms or bunkers where they kept experiments and weapons that most HYDRA agents wouldn't be in the know about. So I've sent Nat and Clint back this morning to give it a lookover with some of Tony's tech."
"Great," she said. The thick black coffee finished pouring, so she swiped the mug up and drained half, not caring that it burned her tongue.
At that moment, Tony burst into the kitchen, his expensive shoes slipping slightly on the smoother surface. "Maggot!" He was abuzz with nervous energy, his eyes darting over her as if looking for an injury.
"Morning," Maggie said, propping her hip against the counter.
"Are you… okay? You didn't come down yesterday."
"I guess the mission made me more tired than I expected. Why, did you need a hand with getting the weapons to Damage Control?"
He stalled for a moment, his brow furrowed. He glanced around at the impromptu morning coffee-chat he'd run into. "No, I just…"
"Welcome, Stark!" Thor exclaimed. "You battled well yesterday, I particularly enjoyed your use of the empty suit to fool our enemy."
Thor's eyes darted to Thor, then back to Maggie, who was sipping her coffee. His face loosened, and then he appeared to relax. "You liked that huh, big guy? I've been thinking about making some Iron Man drone-type things to act as crowd control and backup, that sort of thing."
Thor nodded. "A legion of Iron Men," he said. "A fine idea."
"Legion," Tony said contemplatively. "I like that."
Steve met Maggie's eyes and jerked his head. "They could be at this for hours. Walk you out?"
She nodded and slipped past Thor and Tony, who paused to glance after her until she waved him off. She didn't need Tony looking too closely at her right now.
Maggie and Steve walked side by side through the quiet corridors of the Avengers common area for a few moments, coffee mugs in hand. Maggie's mind whirled for a topic of conversation that wasn't to do with her, until she had a sudden thought.
She looked at him. "Hey. Have you… have you seen Peggy, since everything with SHIELD?"
His cheerful mood fell. They came to the common room and strode down the stairs together. "Not in person. But we've spoken on the phone, and I've told her… about HYDRA. Wanted to warn her before she read the news, y'know? She took it hard. Of course."
"Right." Maggie didn't blame Peggy for what SHIELD became. She'd seen how insidious HYDRA was, how it could hide in plain sight. She'd been looking for twenty years and been blind to it.
"Fury made sure her nursing home security wouldn't be affected by the fall of SHIELD, so she's safe," Steve was explaining.
"And what did you tell Peggy about Barnes?"
He shook his head. "I haven't. I didn't know what to say at first, when he'd gone on the run. And now… I've just been so busy trying to make sure he's okay."
She nodded again. "She knew him, didn't she? Before."
"Not well, but yes," he acknowledged. "After he… after he fell on that mission, she sat with me. After."
Maggie reached out to touch Steve's arm. They'd come to a stop on the common room floor, the early morning light washing over their faces.
Steve looked into his coffee mug. "You think I should tell her."
"I… I think you want to tell her, but you don't want to hurt her."
He let out a shaky breath. "Yes."
"Peggy's a tough lady, Steve."
"I don't…" he shook his head. "I can't do that over the phone."
Maggie drew a long breath. "I'll go with you." But then she abruptly remembered that D.C. was several hours drive away and she couldn't sit in cars anymore, so she hurriedly tacked on: "We'll take our bikes, they've been shut up in the garage too long."
He shot her a look. "What, now?"
She shrugged. "No time like the present."
He thought about it a few moments, before… "Yeah. Okay. Meet you downstairs in ten."
Washington D.C.
Maggie regretted her impulsivity several hours later, as she sat on one of the nice comfy armchairs in Peggy's residential unit and listened as Steve explained in halting sentences what had happened to Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes.
The ride down had been nice, with the wind rushing over her and the engine beneath her and the bright sun on her back. Steve drove like an absolute demon. Her shoulder had hurt a bit, but the drive took her mind off it.
And the first part of their visit had been alright; the nursing home security had seemed bemused by the two Avengers showing up on motorbikes, but had let them through to a surprisingly lucid Peggy, wearing a housedress and thick slippers. The fall of SHIELD had clearly shaken her deeply though, leaving her weaker than Maggie had ever seen her.
But now…
"Alive?" Peggy croaked, pressing a shaky hand to her mouth. Her faded eyes gleamed with tears, and Maggie wanted to sink into the floor. Steve looked utterly heartbroken, Peggy's other hand held between both of his as he sat beside her on the long couch. Peggy looked into his face. "But… how?"
"HYDRA," Steve said, heaving a steadying breath. His voice was low. "They… they found him after that mission in Switzerland."
Maggie sat on the armchair in silence, her elbows on her knees, as Steve told Peggy everything. He was clearly trying to be gentle, but his voice still shook. He told Peggy about the metal arm. About the Winter Soldier. About his role in the events at the Triskelion, and how he'd broken away and then been brought back to Avengers Tower.
"He's doing… okay now, Pegs. He remembers who he is, more or less, and he's getting help to work towards healing. He asked about you a little while ago, actually. He remembered you, from the war."
Tears had long since been spilling down Peggy's lined cheeks, but at that she pressed her eyes shut and more slid down, painting her skin silver. Steve reached up to brush away the tears, and Maggie looked away.
So she didn't see Peggy's eyes snap open again a few moments later. She didn't see Peggy brush away Steve's hand as she turned to stare at Maggie, her eyes wide and dark.
"Maggie," she breathed, horror in every syllable.
Maggie glanced over, her own eyes widening and her muscles tensing, as if Peggy had seen something. The other woman's gaze was intense as she searched Maggie's face. "What is it?"
Peggy's lips parted. She was shaking in earnest now, her fingers trembling and a threatening rattle in her breath. Maggie stood up and moved over to the couch so she could take Peggy's hand.
"What is it?" she repeated again, worried now. Peggy had been having flashbacks more often, she knew that. Her eyes darted to Steve, then-
"I didn't listen to you," Peggy whispered. "You tried to tell me - to tell all of us-" her lips trembled. "You were so young, and so scared, I thought you'd imagined it…"
Realization sank into Maggie and she closed her eyes for a moment. She could feel Steve's questioning gaze on her. "Aunt Peggy," she began, softly.
"And I called - I called Pierce, and he…" a glimmer of anger sparked in her faded eyes. "Oh, Maggie, how did you bear it? All these years?"
Maggie still couldn't speak. She hadn't meant to burden Peggy with this truth. But she was a whip-smart woman, and she could fill in the blanks still.
More tears slipped down Peggy's cheeks. "It was Barnes that did it, wasn't it? They sent him after poor Howard and Maria, and you-"
Maggie squeezed her hand. "Please, Aunt Peggy, I know…" her voice shook. "Please try to calm down, this can't be good for you. I don't want to upset you."
But the older woman was steadily weeping now, and on the other side of the couch Steve looked like his heart was breaking.
"I have been such a fool," Peggy murmured.
"No," Maggie said, more firmly. "This is not your fault, and you couldn't have known. And if you'd have taken me at my word when I was a child, Pierce would have no doubt found a way for you to end up in an accident as well. I'm sure if I'd kept talking about it, they would have done the same for me." Her heart was fragile and cracked, but she kept the surety in her voice. "Things happened the way they did, and it's over now."
Peggy seemed to take heart from that. She stopped crying, at least. After a few moments of shaky, rattly breathing, she reached up and ghosted her wrinkled fingers over Maggie's cheek.
"I understand, now," she said in a steadier voice as she looked at Maggie. "The woman you have become. I'd wondered where all that fire came from, because Howard - he wasn't like that. Nor Maria. But it was all your own. For what you were forced to live with." Her fingers shook. "I'm so sorry."
Maggie leaned into the touch. "So am I."
Peggy leaned forward, and Maggie let her press a kiss to her cheek. "Just make sure that fire doesn't burn you up, sweetheart."
A few minutes later, Maggie left Steve and Peggy to talk in private. She waited in the corridor, with her hands on her knees as she focused on breathing. The panic from yesterday crawled across the back of her neck and twisted in the pit of her gut. She focused on the breathing exercises she'd researched, which kept the panic at bay.
"This was a mistake," she whispered to herself. She'd hoped that seeing Peggy might have… made things make sense, a bit more. But she just felt sad, and tired. It hadn't been fair to dump this on Peggy. She'd had enough grief in her life.
When the door swung open again, Maggie straightened abruptly and brushed her hair back from her face. Steve shut the door behind himself gently, then let out a gusting sigh.
He turned to face Maggie and eyed her with a heavy expression.
"That sucked," Maggie said, to break the silence.
His brow furrowed. "Yeah." He was still looking at her. "I didn't realize… didn't realize you tried to tell people. After the crash."
Maggie wanted to cross her arms, but she kept her stance neutral. "No one believed me," she said matter-of-factly. "I was five, and injured, and terrified. I can't really blame them."
"Can't you?" Steve asked, hollowly.
She shrugged. "I don't want to."
He leaned against the wall opposite her, his hands in his pockets and his face drawn. "Is there… what can I do for you, Maggie? I've been… I've got Bucky back, and the team, and Sam, but I can't imagine what it's been like for you and Tony. How can I help?"
Maggie forced a smile to her face. "I've got it, Steve. I've made it twenty three years without falling apart, it's hardly going to happen now." She made her voice strong. "Nothing's changed."
He looked back at her for a long moment, not her team leader in that moment, but her friend Steve. "If you're sure," he finally said. "But if you ever need help, you know where to find me."
Maggie nodded, still smiling. Truth be told, she had no idea what help looked like any more.
Reviews
DBZFAN45: Maggie is definitely a bit lost right now, but it would be too easy to just have everyone happy and getting along! I'm glad you liked Bucky's POV, it's so wonderful to have more screen time for him :) Definitely a long way to go until they're okay! Hope you had a great week x
shorttrooper: I want to say a big kudos to you for making the amazing decision to get into therapy, and also a thank you for your absolutely essential and very difficult work. I can't imagine the sacrifices you've had to make this last year and a half and I'm glad you're doing better :) Mental health has always been a big part of my writing, especially with Maggie, and this time around things are slightly different but no less important (especially for the parts of myself that I see in Maggie). Hopefully Maggie's continuing journey will offer more catharsis! Thank you for being a wonderful reader x
Nina: Thank you so much! We're definitely at a big emotional point in the story and there's going to be a bigger focus on mental health from here. Bucky definitely needs therapy. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Themugglepadme24: Maggie might be Bucky's prison guard, but she'll be damned if he doesn't get the help he needs! And I'm glad you liked the confrontation with Tony, he really does like to hurt himself.
Orange: I definitely get that! I think Marvel (and Hollywood tbh) still has a long way to go with portraying mental health and therapy, so that could explain some of it. I share some of your issues with Dr Raynor's approach, but I hoped to sort of use her character for my own ends here. I think there was also a bit of Bucky not being entirely open with her, which is a side effect of having ~mandated~ therapy as opposed to reaching out on your own.
Aqua: Ahhh thank you as always for your wonderful reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying the slower pace and the focus on all these little character interactions and fights and growing moments. Maggie and Bucky still aren't interacting much with each other, but that will change ;) And thanks for what you said about my discretion - it's usually because I have no idea how I would get into the meat of a really tough conversation between Steve and Peggy, or Bucky and his psychiatrist, so I just do the old 'well that can happen off camera' lmao. And thank you for your kind words about how I characterise Tony - he's not really one for a lot of emotional angst and agonising, he's quick with a joke and doesn't want to hold grudges. But he's kind of stuck in that position at the minute.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though Maggie's still in struggle city, and I promise we'll get plenty more juicy interactions soon! Enjoy your 3 day weekend :)