What felt like minutes later, the door once again slid open. The loud sound was enough to make everyone glance over, but, at the sight of who stepped through, almost everyone looked away. Q was one of the ones who didn't. Her eyes narrowed as Tony Stark walked into the main area that their cells wrapped around.

His arm was in a sling from an injury he sustained during the fight, and there were a few cuts on his face, but otherwise he looked fine. He took a quick, cursory glance around the cells as if to see who exactly had been locked up.

A flare of anger began to burn in the pit of Q's stomach at the sight of him. The reminder that he dragged her baby sister into this was still fresh in her mind. And then, he had the audacity to show his face? Pings started going off in her head with possible reasons as to why Tony decided to show up.

"The Futurist, ladies and gentlemen!" Clint called out, sarcastically clapping as he did so, "The Futurist is here!" Tony turned toward his cell, which was a few down from Q, "He sees all! He knows what's best for you, whether you like it or not." he ended in a mumble. Tony stepped up to Clint's cell, already trying to defend himself.

"Give me a break, Barton. I had no idea they'd put you here. Come on." he tried to play innocent. Maybe a part of him really did believe what he said, still he had to know the government was going to put them somewhere. Something that Clint relayed to Tony, only to have Tony continue on the defense, "Not some super-max floating ocean pokey though. This place is for maniacs. This is a place for…" he trailed off, but Clint helpfully supplied an answer,

"Criminals? Criminals, Tony. Think that's the word you're looking for. Right? That didn't used to mean me. Or Sam, or Wanda." Q noticed that he had left her off that list, but kept Wanda on there. Meaning he both knew about her stint in prison, and believed Wanda wasn't a criminal. It didn't hurt, but it didn't feel nice to be grouped in with criminals after all the time she had spent proving she wasn't one. Especially considering Wanda had made the list of non-criminals after what she had done to all of them.

"Because you broke the law. I didn't make you." Tony had given up his act of innocence, "You read it, you broke it. You're all grown up, you got a wife and kids. I don't understand, why didn't you think about them before you chose the wrong side?" Now he was berating Clint, hell, trying to guilt trip him, but Clint wasn't fazed in the slightest. Not bothering to answer Tony's questions directly, he instead called out to the rest of the group,

"You gotta watch your back with this guy." he slammed his hands on the glass of his cell, "There's a chance he's gonna break it!" Tony scoffed, shook his head and then turned away from his cell. He started down the line of cells that came after Clint, ones that housed Lang and Sam.

"Hank Pym always said you never can trust a Stark." Lang seethed, but Tony didn't pay any mind to him, instead focused on stepping up to Sam's cell.

"How's Rhodes?" Sam asked after a moment. Q couldn't see Sam, but she could tell by the way his voice sounded that his back was still to Tony.

"They're flying him to Columbia Medical tomorrow...so fingers crossed." he responded, but gave no other information on his friend. Eyes glancing down at Q, he quickly returned them to Sam's cell before she could catch his eye, "What do you need? They feed you yet?" Sam let out a scoff,

"You're the good cop, now?" he had turned and she could hear his footsteps as he walked up to the glass of his cell.

"I'm just the guy who needs to know where Steve went." Q wished she could've been surprised by that. She wasn't though. While he was making his rounds, it became clear that he was trying to feel out who would give him anything on where Steve and Bucky had headed off to. Clint hadn't, and it was pretty clear that Sam wasn't going to either considering how he began to tell Tony off,

"Well, you better go get a bad cop because you're gonna have to go Mark Fuhrman on my ass to get information out of me." he snapped out. Loyal to Steve even when he could've used it to his advantage. A weird sense of pride flooded through Q when she realized both Clint and Sam stood by their decision and hadn't given up Steve only because Tony had tried to play them into it.

Now, it was her turn.

Stepping away from Sam's cell, he moved down to the last cell that was occupied. Q's cell. She stood there: arms crossed, face set. Her eyes burned into his with such an intense anger and disappointment that he had to look away for a moment.

"Listen, I know you don't owe me any favors -" he started his pitch as defensive as he could.

"You're goddamn right I don't." she cut him off harshly. He let out a huff of a sigh, still not looking at her, "She's a child, Tony." she stated the facts that both of them knew, but he clearly needed reminding of. She tilted her head a bit, trying to catch his eye again, "She is thirteen years old, meaning her little friend, couldn't have been much older." she knew Molly had skipped a grade, making her younger than her already young classmates. It only made matters worse

"She wasn't supposed to be there. Happy was supposed to keep her in the hotel." he defended himself, once again not taking the blame for his actions. Her eyes widened and she rolled back on her heels,

"She shouldn't have been in Germany at all!" she cried out, gesturing out as if they were still in the country. Who knew, maybe they were, "And her little friend, Peter, or whatever the fuck hi name is, shouldn't have been there either! You didn't need to bring literal children into this, Tony!"

"I was desperate, alright?" he snapped back, breaking his cool, "I didn't know what to do. Half my team had...I had to stop him." Neither one of them was sure if he was referring to Steve or Bucky, or both, but it didn't matter.

"You thought you had to stop him." she corrected him with a slight shake of her head, "And look how well that turned out." she gave a pointed glance around the cell she was locked in as were their friends.

"I'm sorry." the words sounded foreign coming out of his mouth, but still he had said it, "I know you never wanted to end up back in a place like this." she barely contained the flinch at the reminder of her past life. And the fact that he knew something she had told only Steve and Dawson.

"Well...it's much roomier than the six by eight." she started to turn so her back was to him so she could blink away the tears that had sprung up. She tried to casually look around the room as she completed her circle, "And there's no one to fight over the top bunk with. Though the whole being submerged underwater is a new twist." she made light of the situation as best she could, seeing Tony smirk a bit while he fiddled with his watch.

"Well, I just knocked the A out of the AV so they have about a minute until they figure out it's not their equipment." he glanced at her rather matter of factly. She looked around her cell to the security cameras as if she could tell that the audio was really knocked out - she couldn't, of course, which meant she didn't trust him. "You were the one who was supposed to prep the fella who was going to interrogate Barnes, right?" her eyes shifted back to his face, seeing how he was raising his eyebrows curiously. But there was a look in his eyes - he knew something more.

"Yeah..." she answered carefully, still studying Tony. The look on his face made her believe that he knew the man she ended up talking to wasn't the real psychiatrist, meaning he knew who it actually was.

"This was who you were supposed to meet." he expanded his fingers out across the screen, pulling up an image that hovered out of his watch. It was a crime scene photo. One that featured a very dead man in a bathtub. Definitely not the guy she met with. Which meant he knew. Not everything, but at least some of the important stuff. Enough to make him reconsider the stance he took at the airport, "I fucked up." he said after a beat, finally acknowledging what he did was wrong. She let out a slight scoff, "And I'm sorry about bringing your sister into this without asking you first." she gave him a look that made it clear that it wasn't the lack of permission she had a problem with - it was the fact that Molly was involved at all, but Tony moved on, "Listen, Steve's gonna need all the help he can get. You know that. And with his back up all stuck in here -" she cut him off with another searing look because it was his fault they were all locked up in the first place, "I'm trying to help." he ended with rather lamely. She considered him for a moment, letting her gaze soften just enough so it wasn't as harsh while she weighed all her options.

"I'll tell you as long as you promise me three things." she held up three fingers. Tony didn't respond, which led her to continue, "First and foremost, you go alone, as a friend." she gave him a serious look so he knew this was non-negotiable. The last thing she needed was him storming in there with a SWAT team. He nodded a bit, shifting his body closer to the glass divider between them. That and she knew if there was a fight, Steve would do anything to protect Bucky. No matter the cost. She put down her ring finger so her pointer and middle finger were remaining, "Second, you get us a trial. A real one. Clint...you said it yourself, he has a family. Wanda's just a kid, Sam and Lang are good people, Tony." she went to bat for her prison family. He considered it for a moment, glancing down at where the rest of the group was.

"I don't know how much pull I have, but maybe we can get a deal of some sort going." he nodded, indicating he would try, then added, "Hell, maybe we can get your job at the CIA back." she scoffed, rolling her eyes slightly. That would be hard to make happen. "Third thing?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrows. She lowered her pointer finger so her middle finger was up in Tony's face,

"You got my baby sister into this mess. She's your responsibility now. She gets hurt? Anything happens to her? That's on you. Get it?" she raised her eyebrows up. Tony hesitated before nodding a bit.

"Yeah, yep. Got it. Thanks, Office Max." he gave her a thumbs up and stepped back from the glass. She recrossed her arms, readjusted her stance as she shook out her waves, then told Tony what he wanted to hear: that Steve and Bucky were in Siberia at an old Hydra base, about to take on several Winter Soldiers.

"Really think he's gonna keep his promises?" Sam murmured after Tony left. Loud enough where Q could hear, but hopefully quiet enough that the audio of the security cameras couldn't catch it. She let out a small sigh, arms dropping to her sides as she turned to face the wall that was adjacent to Sam's cell,

"Yes and no." she settled on, "But I know he's going to go to help." he let out a slight scoff, and Q could almost picture him shaking his head,

"About damn time." he tsked, moving further away from their shared wall. She stared at it for a long moment before turning away as well. There was nothing they could do now but wait.

And wait they did. Hours passed with zero indication that anyone else was coming through the massive sliding door. No one really talked to each other; either exhausted from the day(s) they had, or just not feeling up to a chat. Q couldn't blame them. It wasn't the greatest environment to have a conversation - especially considering the government officials and soldiers watching their every move, listening to their every word, in order to get something on Steve and Bucky.

Q tried her best to distract herself. While it had been a long time since she had been locked in a jail cell, she hadn't liked it then and certainly didn't like it right at that moment either. It was so easy for her to get lost in her head - thinking about why she had ended up in jail when she was younger, and how even though she thought she had proven over and over that she was better than who she was then, the situation begged to differ.

Instead of going into a panic about how maybe she never really changed at all, she tried to remind herself that this time, she was locked up because she had been doing the right thing. She had been helping stop a global threat, not stealing things that could cause one. If this was going to be her reality for the foreseeable future, she was going to make sure she reminded herself that she had helped stop something, instead of starting something.

There was still the light panic about being locked up again with absolutely no way out, but she still tried to see the positives of her situation. She took into account the differences between the present and the past. She didn't feel as suffocated as she did when she was a teenager. There was no yelling or fighting against the guards who took her to her cell - that was growth. Her cell was bigger than her previous cells, giving her more room to pace when she needed to. While her friends were nearby, she didn't have a cellmate who refused to follow the cell rules she had made. There was no burn in her gut to try and get out as fast as possible, doing whatever it took to do so. She knew that she would get out eventually. It was just a matter of time.

Filling that time proved to be a little easier than she expected. It was surprisingly easy to fall back into the mini routine she had developed during her first stint in prison, even though she was lacking some essentials like a journal or a pen. Mentally, she made herself a schedule as best she could based on what she knew. The guards made their rounds, marking the time even though there were no clocks in the cells themselves. She rearranged her cell a bit. Her hair was braided, then unbraided, then re-braided. She briefly wondered how Wanda was doing - having seen how they put her into a straight jacket just to make their point. Their meals were given to them on lunch trays that were slid through the small door at the bottom of the glass. Not the best, but she wasn't expecting much considering where they were. She picked off all her nail polish, feeling victorious when the paint came off all at once. Lang decided to put on a show with a stool - though Q ended up falling asleep to the drumming for a bit, then woke up when the door slid open again to mark the guards' round.

While she was pacing the edge of the room - moving so she got closer to the center each time, a surge of power went through the electrical system causing the lights to flicker for a long enough moment to be noticeable. She glanced up at the ceiling above her; the lights had flickered before, but this was different.

"Uh, what the hell was that?" Lang called out, but no one paid attention to him. Instead, Q felt a small, excited smile spread across her face. She knew it.

As soon as Steve stepped into the light, the energy in the room shifted. Even though he was out of uniform - and looking surprisingly clean despite what he had just dealt with, everyone knew what his presence meant. Whatever happened had played out well enough that he was able to come back to spring them out of their prison. His eyes met Q's and he gave her an easy smile. One that almost looked like a smirk. Like they were sharing a secret of some sort.

Without another word, he moved over to the keypad on the side of the wall. Punching in a series of numbers resulted in a loud beep with a red light turning to green. Suddenly, all the locks on their cells released with a sharp hiss. The doors slid open and Q didn't even wait for it to be open all the way before she bolted out of the cell - heading straight for Steve.

He caught her in his arms easily. Her legs wrapped around his waist while one of his arms wrapped around her back to support her. Face burrowing into the crook of his neck, she let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding since she had gotten locked up again. He held her flush against his chest for a long moment, eyes shut as he tried to remind himself that everything was okay.

"I'm sorry." she breathed out, not sure what she was apologizing for anymore, but feeling she had to. She wasn't sure how long it had been since they were processed, but it had been too long since they had seen each other. She hated it.

"I am too." he responded, muffled by her hair. She allowed herself to smile a bit before she detached herself from Steve's body. He helped gently set her on the ground, brushing a piece of her hair away from her face and letting his eyes linger on hers for a moment.

Then his gaze shifted away from her, the motion smooth as he went into Captain Mode. Stepping aside, she allowed him to take control of the room and dictate what was going to happen next. It was clear that they didn't have much time - which was to be expected.

Clint had helped Wanda out of her straight jacket, though the collar wasn't as easy to remove, but both Sam and Lang were out of their cells as well. The group followed Steve out of the cell area, through the security rooms where guards were thankfully still unconscious and up onto the open rooftop area. The waves slammed against the Raft, the air was bitter and stung their cheeks - which only urged them to move faster to the waiting jet. Though it wasn't a usual SHIELD Quinjet. Instead, it was a sleek black model that looked straight out of a movie.

"Who -" she went to ask, but the door lowering to the ground cut her off. Appearing out of the jet was T'Challa in his Black Panther uniform, gesturing for them to come aboard. Q was very rarely surprised these days, but seeing the king of Wakanda on their side was unexpected.

"Captain, we must go." he urged from behind his helmet. The group wasted no time getting onto the jet. The interior looked even more futuristic and advanced than the exterior. Clearly, Wakanda wasn't the country everyone thought it had been. Dawson always did have some conspiracy theory about it - maybe he was right.

T'Challa was at the front, tapping across a holographic display to set their unknown destination as the jet took off. The rest of the group spread out across the jet, taking to the many seats that were available. Q settled down next to Steve, leaving enough space between them where another person could sit between them.

"Where's Bucky?" she asked, having noticed there was someone missing from the rescue team. Steve glanced over to her and let a small, reassuring smile come across his face.

"He's back in Wakanda," her eyebrows furrowed at the name of the African country, not giving much thought to it as an option because it didn't make sense, but before she could ask for more information, Steve was already giving it to her, "T'Challa ended up following us to Siberia. Learned that Bucky wasn't the one who killed his father." she made a face at that because both of them already knew that. Still, they glanced over to where T'Challa was up toward the front of the jet even though he wasn't piloting it, "He has Zemo in custody back in Wakanda. Bucky's there too, but as a friend." he added quickly to reassure Q, even though she figured as much, "He lost his arm again during the fight with Tony -"

"There was a fight with Tony?" she cut him off, knowing she had specifically made Tony promise that he would go as a friend. Sure, a part of her knew that there could be the possibility that he didn't, but based on how he was at the Raft, he had intended to go as a friend. And if there was a fight, it wouldn't have ended well. Steve let out a heavy sigh before pausing for a moment. His grip on the edge of the seat tightened, something that Q noticed and understood why, "He found out you knew about Bucky and Tony's parents." she stated sadly, not posing it as a question because it was true. She figured he knew after what he found in the bunker at Camp Leigh with all the information on the Winter Soldier's kill. And when he realized who the Winter Soldier actually was...Steve wasn't stupid. He nodded just slightly causing her to reach out to take her hand in his,

"I shouldn't have kept it from him." he responded lowly. She shook her head, agreeing with him despite the action,

"But you did. You thought you were protecting him." Her throat tightened up as she remembered one of her reasonings for not telling Steve about Bucky; it was because she had convinced herself she was protecting him.

"I get why you didn't tell me about Bucky now." he said after a moment, glancing over at her. He swallowed hard, eyes staying on hers, "You were just trying to protect me." he could understand her decisions better now that he had lived through the worst possible consequences of them. She gave him a sad, small smile, then sighed a bit.

"I was really just protecting myself." her words echoed the same ones he wrote in his letter to Tony a few hours earlier, "And I still should've told you sooner. Like you should've with Tony." she pointed out, taking responsibility for her mistakes, "I'm sorry." she apologized again, for everything all at the same time. He nodded, then glanced away from her for a moment to let out a heavy breath.

"Eighteen percent." he made a face, looking back at her as he did. Her brows furrowed for a moment, then she understood what he was referring to. Laughing a little, she shook her head, then took her hand back to lay it on her lap. Steve glanced down to it, then back up to meet her eyes with a soft smile, "Maybe twenty." he raised his eyebrows up and she tried not to smile at him.

"Damn. Pretty high jump." she made a face, which made him laugh a bit.

"We can stick to twelve if you like." he reminded her with a slight tilt of his head. She put up her hands, pulling back a bit.

"No, no, I'm fine with twenty percent." she kept her defensive face for a moment before relaxing into a grin. Both of them kept eye contact for a moment more before he got up from his seat to go talk to Sam about something or other.

Getting up from her seat as well, she stepped up next to T'Challa - who was overseeing the flight path of the jet. She waited a beat before sticking out her hand,

"I don't think we've been properly introduced, King T'Challa." she gave him her usual warm, professional smile. He didn't hesitate to shake her head, gifting her with a kind smile of his own.

"Agent Proctor," he spoke smoothly and had a lilted accent, "It's nice to meet you." she responded in kind, shaking his hand firmly for a moment more before dropping it back to her hip.

"Q, please." she gave him a quick smile, "I don't think I'll ever be an agent again." she blew out a breath, thinking back to the last thirty-six hours. There was no way any government agency would take her now. Still, T'Challa gave her a semi-amused smile, as if she said something funny.

"Then, please, call me T'Challa." he held his hands up in front of him, "I am not a king quite yet." he assured her, even though both of them knew that wasn't true. She let a moment pass before offering up her apologies,

"I'm sorry about your father." she kept her eyes on him to see his reaction, wondering if he still blamed Bucky internally. He took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

"I'm sorry I fell victim to that man's plan." he met her eyes, "Your uncle was never the one responsible and should have never been blamed, or the focus of my revenge." she hesitated at him referring to Bucky as her uncle. It was true, but it felt a little weird to hear out loud. That, and she hadn't been aware that he had known about the connection. She had missed some things while in prison.

"No, he wasn't." she agreed with a slight smile, then looked over her shoulder to where Steve was still talking with Sam, "Steve told me he's back in Wakanda? Is that where we're headed?"

"Yes," he agreed with a slight nod, adjusting his stance ever so slightly, "He sustained a very critical injury to his left arm. Our medical staff ended up removing the arm entirely." he told her matter of factly, like he was reciting what someone had told him. While she was surprised by that, she knew how liberating it would be for Bucky, "The team is also working on a way to remove the conditioning Hydra did to him." he added with a reassuring smile.

"Can you do that?" she questioned, not wanting to doubt the king's resources, but also not understanding how the country could be advanced enough to do so. Though considering the very high tech jet they were on, maybe they were hiding something.

"We have the smartest person in Wakanda working on it as we speak." he looked almost proud about the person he was referring to, leading Q to believe it was someone he was close to and trusted. That relieved her a bit, even though she was still curious to see what exactly the method entailed. Maybe there was something they could do to help her as well. "It's the least I can do to make up for what happened and the role I had to play in it." T'Challa continued with an apologetic look. She nodded, understanding what he meant.

"Thank you for your help, T'Challa." she commented quietly, pairing it with a small smile. He nodded once, then turned back to the hologram that was hovering above the central dashboard.

"We'll be arriving in Wakanda shortly." he relayed to her with an easy smile, "You won't want to miss it." her brow furrowed in confusion, but she stayed where she was - curious to see what he meant, and what was so great about Wakanda.

A/N: Oh we're through Civil War? Wild times! I hope you all enjoyed this journey, but just know that it's not over yet! Still plenty more story to tell. What are you thinking is going to happen next? Let me know!

I hope you don't mind an early chapter posting either - figured it would be something nice bc this week has been so terrible with all this pandemic stuff lol. Hopefully this brightens your evening a little. Please feel free to tell me all your thoughts and feelings!