Author's Notes: Welcome to Part 3! Thanks for all the reviews, ya'll are the best! Enjoy!
amberhardy- I'm glad you're happy with how it turned out! It's going to take a lot more than a bullet to take Steve Rogers down! Haha, but in all seriousness, their circle grows liiiiiitle by little as time goes on. Sometimes it works out... sometimes it doesn't...
Nikkita Starr- I know you love some Tony Stark. I'm glad you think I did him justice!
Jemfalls23- What happens to Sarah? You'll just have to wait and see! Lots of chaos with her brother of course... see if you can figure out which child takes after which parent haha!
Three Years Later...
There was the wind up before the scream. The gasping for air that preceded the shrill wail warned James that he was in big trouble, so the four-year-old blonde scrambled to put as much distance as possible between himself and his little sister.
"DADDY!" Sarah screamed loudly before breaking into a coughing fit. She gasped for air, trying to get enough force in her lungs to let out another ear-piercing cry. "DADDY JAMES BROKE MY DOLL."
Kayla moved around the corner of the kitchen to see her little girl with tears streaming down her face. Steve came careening down the stairs to his daughter's aid, kneeling beside her as she held up both halves of her plastic doll. Steve looked toward Kayla, finding that James was huddled behind her legs, peeking around his mother's bare thigh.
"James..." Steve started, eyes narrowing at the boy from beneath his glasses, "Did you apologize to your sister?"
"I'm-I'm- so- sorry." James whimpered out, pressing his face to the skin of Kayla's leg just below the hem of her jean shorts. "I didn't mean to. We were playing, and, and I tried to make her sit, and the doll broke."
"We've talked about being careful. Toys are very breakable. We need to be very gentle with them, just like we need to be gentle with Sarah and our friends." Steve said evenly as James nodded, looking at the floor. "And you," Steve turned his attention to Sarah, who cowered in his sights, "You know we don't scream like that. It was an accident. James apologized. You cannot act like this, do you understand? We'll replace your doll, but if you act like a brat, we won't." Steve told her sternly, and little tears started escaping Sarah's big blue eyes as she nodded, hugging Steve's knee as he knelt beside her.
"Go to your father." Kayla prodded quietly, patting James in the back to nudge him toward Steve. Steve looked up and smiled at his son, opening his left arm to invite James in for a hug.
James approached slowly, his head hanging low but his eyes holding tight onto his father's. When he reached Steve, he grabbed onto Sarah's hand and held it, offering her an apologetic smile as Steve's large hand covered most of his son's back. The boy was still very round, he still held a lot of his baby fat, but Kayla suspected he'd grow up to look like his father- pre or post serum was TBD.
"Now that we've sorted through all of this, are you kids going to behave enough for pizza, or do you need to be fed Brussel sprouts for dinner?" Kayla teased as she waved the pizza cutter nonchalantly in the air. Her green eyes studied the moment in front of her, wanting to capture it forever. Her husband, her daughter, her son. Everything was perfect.
James and Sarah faced their mother dutifully and chimed in unison, "Yes ma'am." The two children ran to their seats on opposite sides of the table and waited as Steve rose to his feet, pressing a kiss to Kayla's lips as he followed them to dinner.
Meanwhile, a thousand miles away, Captain America and his partner- the Winter Soldier- crept through the back door of an infamous drug dealer just outside of Atlanta. Sam led the way, his shield held in front of him while Bucky kept his rifle raised, turning and watching their backs as they moved through the house, looking for evidence of occupants.
"Area is secure," Sam said into his comm before lowering his shield. He turned to Bucky, who didn't lower his rifle, "Dude, the area is secure, I was very clear about that."
"Can never be too careful," Bucky answered, his voice low as he continued to watch the world through the scope of his gun.
Sam shrugged, rolling his eyes as he walked toward the table, pushing aside a pile of unopened bills, "Suit yourself. Let me know if you see anything. Got a hit that this guy is supplying something pretty damn strong. Everybody who meets with him disappears soon after."
"I'm aware." Bucky's gruff voice answered. He turned quickly, aiming his gun toward the doorway of the basement, taking another step closer before he kicked the door with his boot, causing it to swing open with a loud creak.
Sam nodded, holding up his arm to type in the code for his Redwing, sending the little drone downstairs before he and Bucky followed. Sam kept his goggles on, watching the feed as Redwing descended down the stairs, looking around for any sign of life. After a moment, Sam paused, turning off his feed to look at Bucky, "There's someone down there. The audio feed is picking up some weird noise. The man seems to be singing and chanting to himself."
"You first Cap," Bucky smirked as he gestured with his metal arm toward the open door. Sam lifted the shield higher, slowly but surely making his way down the stairs into the darkness of the basement.
It was cold and wet, even though both men wore heavy boots they could still feel the broken tiles beneath them. There was a couch, and a chair, and a projector aimed at a white sheet hanging from the ceiling. On the left was a bathroom with the door wide open, and from inside came the muffled sounds of talking.
"Twenty-nine. Meatlocker. Starboard. Fourteen."
Sam watched as the dirty man sat on the floor, his wrists bound to the towel rack on the side of the clear shower. Sam's stomach twisted in knots as the man spoke, his voice low and determined as he muttered words without reason. He looked like he hadn't been fed in days, and his eyes glossed over as his head finally lulled to the two men who invaded his haven.
Bucky stared down at the man, seeing the resignation and complacency of someone who no longer had control of their mind. He knew it well, and it made him shake from head to toe as he tried to pull himself together. Decades in the control of someone else had broken the man's soul, and he was trying to repent for those sins, one day at a time.
The man smiled up at Bucky and Sam, and they got a better look at his dull orange eyes as his lips parted, "Hail Hydra."
Sam prepared to speak, but he didn't get the chance as Bucky fired a shot into the man's skull, putting him out of his misery. Sam's eyes stayed focused on the corpse as the orange light faded from its eyes. He understood why Barnes did what he did, but he still had to ask, "Why?"
"Trust me, it's what he would have wanted."
Barnes said nothing else about the matter, he just turned on his heavy heels and silently went back up the stairs to stand guard while Sam looked around the basement. He left the restroom and ran his hand over the couch, trying to see if there was anything suspicious. As he came around the front of the sofa, his calf bumped into something sharp, odd for couch cushions.
"What the hell?" Sam mumbled as he knelt down, running his gloved hand over the flat surface of the brown cushions. Sam grabbed the edge of the fabric and pulled, revealing a glass box with boxes of pills behind it. Sam slowly turned the plastic handle, opening it up to grab one of the pill bottles behind it.
"Sam. We've been compromised." Bucky's voice cut through Sam's earpiece, pulling the Captain's attention away from reading the label. He couldn't quite make out the scrawling handwriting on the tube, so Sam shoved it into his utility belt and sprinted up the stairs.
When he reached the doorway, he found Bucky to the left of the doorframe with his rifle by his boots and his hands in the air. Sam's gaze followed his friend's, finally seeing three police officers with their guns trained on himself and Barnes.
"Can we help you?" Sam asked, placing his shield onto his back as he raised his hands in surrender.
"You aren't authorized to be here." One of the officers explained as he lowered his gun.
Sam spared a quick glance at Bucky before shifting his weight and looking back toward the man, "We were asked to investigate the place by the owners family who suspects him of creating something dangerous. We got cleared by the Chief of Police to enter the premise for investigation. So I ask again: can we help you?"
The three men looked to each other as the first one held back a snort, "Sorry for the miscommunication. We were also sent here by dispatch. However, we're going to have to ask you to leave while we sort through your permit."
"No need. Our search has been completed anyway. Be advised though, there's a body downstairs in the restroom. Might want to contact the boss about that." Sam sneered, meeting the man's dark eyes as his two comrades shifted uneasily. Sam passed the three, nodding toward the broken door with his head for Barnes to follow. The soldier never took his eyes off the trio as they left the home, gripping his rifle tightly.
Once they were both outside, Sam turned to look at the men in the house, two of which were already heading down the stairs toward the basement, "They'll figure out it was a rifle that shot that man."
"Then it's a good thing I can disappear," Bucky mumbled, snapping his weapon in half and holding a piece in each hand as he led the way farther from the house.
Sam nodded, understanding that Barnes was going to go on the run for a while. "I'll take the pills I swiped back to base and get them tested. Have Banner take a look at them. Stay in contact alright?"
"I will," Bucky grunted, then tossed his rifle into the trashcan of a nearby home and turned down a side street, walking briskly away from his partner.
"Cyanide Sam. It's just cyanide." Bruce stated as he looked up from his high tech microscope as the mechanical hands poked and prodded the little white pills. Professor Hulk waved his large hands and brought up several screens in front of Sam, showing off the information he'd found. "It's kind of odd though, that there would be an underground cyanide factory, don't you think?" Bruce adjusted his glasses as he zoomed in on the chemical properties of the little pills, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.
"Odd is an understatement. This is bigger than a neighborhood drug ring Bruce. The man in the basement... his eyes were glowing. Like Kayla's had."
Sam looked up at Bruce, waiting for an answer from the doctor. Bruce raised his brow, but he didn't speak right away. After chewing on the inside of his cheek for a moment, Bruce finally shut down the screens, turning his back to Sam Wilson. "Where is the man now?"
"Barnes shot him. He was muttering unintelligible words and I think... I think it really struck Barnes." Sam explained, leaning against the lab table as the mechanical arms continued working on the cyanide pill. "I think Red Skull is behind this. And I don't know how to proceed."
"Don't. Don't fall into this trap. This isn't about cyanide- you know that. Let the cops know what you found, let them know what you know, then step away." Bruce warned as he started walking toward the door to his lab, looking through the glass panes at Natasha Romanoff working diligently on a case with Maria Hill. "Where did the tip come from Sam?"
"Chief of Police. Little town in Georgia. People have been disappearing Bruce... not coming back." Sam argued, but Bruce just scoffed, turning to gesture to his microscope.
"Guess we know why now. If you pursue Schmidt, he'll exploit you, and your friendship with Steve. I miss them too Sam, but... we can't risk another massacre. Schmidt's been hiding. Let the police flush him out. He hates them a lot less than the Avengers." Bruce took his glasses off and placed them into the chest pocket of his thin shirt under his massive white lab coat. "Think about it, Sam. Don't do anything you'll regret."
Bruce had nothing else to say, so he left the Captain alone in his lab to check on Nat and Maria in the next room. When he entered, Natasha looked up with a grin. When she saw Banner's solemn expression, Nat's own smile fell as she stood to greet him. "Bruce?"
"Schmidt's back." was all that Bruce said as he slumped into a chair beside Natasha, rubbing the bridge of his nose with thick fingers. "He's behind the kidnappings along the east coast. Sam and Bucky found a man with glowing orange eyes outside of Atlanta and a cyanide factory in the basement."
Natasha's green eyes narrowed as she sat down slowly, looking to Hill questioningly, "Call it in. See what we get back. We need to control this before it gets out of control."