Chapter 15

I caught my skip, without any big muss or fuss, and I dragged him into the police station triumphantly. There was a tense moment where Morelli locked eyes with me from across the room, but much to my surprise, he simply turned on his heel and walked in the other direction.

Thank God. I did not want to deal with that on Valentine's Day of all days.

When I stepped back out of the station, my phone buzzed with another incoming text.

It was also from Bucky, and all it said was, "what kind of food?"

"Whatever kind you want," I texted back, feeling a little excitement creep in.

"Steak," he told me.

Well sure, that would be easy. There was just a freaking blizzard starting up, and everyone would be at the grocery stores, but sure. I could get some steaks.

"Still think he'd rather spend the night alone with you," Bucky texted when I didn't reply.

"I'll make it up to him," I reassured him.

"Make sure Widow is there too," he responded.

It was radio silence after that, so I assumed he was done with his demands.

Much to my surprise, Steve wasn't waiting for me in the car when I got back to it- Natasha was. That was convenient.

She made a show of tapping a button on her watch after I got in. The motion and deliberateness with which she made it reminded me of the key fob Ranger used to scramble cameras in Rangeman when he didn't want his men to see something I was doing. So when she asked me, "what were you keeping from Steve earlier?"

I answered honestly. "I decided to get him his best friend for Valentine's Day."

Natasha went so still it was spooky.

"You got Barnes to agree to come in?" she finally asked.

"As long as I get some steaks and you're there too," I told her.

I almost missed the surprised and considering look on her face when she took in the information, it was gone so quickly. And what she said was, "better get a few extras."

I started to panic about WHERE I was going to find all those steaks when Natasha said, "actually, I know a guy. I'll handle it."

If God kept this luck up, I was going to have to seriously consider going back to church. It was a red letter day so far.

Except for the whole Ranger confrontation and kiss thing. That had been awkward. And then Natasha had interrogated me about my intentions.

So maybe God and I were even for the day.

I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I didn't get struck by lightning, I figured the big guy in the sky and I were square.

I cranked the car engine over, and started to ease away. From the corner of my eye, I saw Natasha push the button on her watch again. Then she opened the car door and disappeared.

I could only assume she'd tucked and rolled, but somehow I didn't see her anywhere.

Fucking spies.

I drove around for a while trying to decide what to do. I only had a couple of outstanding skips at this point, and they were really only worth chump change. I'd have to clean them up eventually, but I really wasn't feeling motivated to do so in such crappy weather. And the roads were starting to get gross.

An alert had popped up on my phone earlier about a state of emergency being declared and highways being closed before long anyway.

I realized I was only a few blocks from Giovichinni's, so I drove past. Seeing that it was still open, I parked outside and dashed in.

It was crowded inside, and I knew then that the day had gotten away from me. It was almost dinner time for senior citizens, which meant the crowd from St. Francis Hospital a few blocks away was starting to trickle in, on top of the increased load due to the impending storm.

I didn't know how to cook though, so my options were limited.

I tried to be quick and deliberate as I went through the store. I grabbed some large tubs of potato salad, macaroni salad, and then figuring I had to look somewhat like a responsible person, I added green beans before going to the freezer section and picking up chocolate ice cream.

Then because I couldn't remember exactly what was left and what wasn't, I grabbed some bread, and some prepackaged turkey and sliced provolone.

When I reached the deli counter, I asked for four pounds of olive loaf as well. While she was slicing that, the impulse buy section called to me and I ended up with two more Entenmann's (raspberry swirl for Valentine's Day), and several packages of cookies and brownies.

The deli worker was eyeing the amount of food I had in shock, and good old Mrs. Wexler, one of my mother's friends, popped up next to me to say, "wow, that's a lot of food you have there. You having a party?"

"Nope, just hungry. And I figure I gotta get some extra just to be on the safe side with the storm," I told her, offering a smile.

"The storm will be gone by tomorrow afternoon," Mrs. Wexler told me.

"So will this food, probably," I mumbled. But at full volume I said, "I won't let it go to waste. You take care now!"

I grabbed the olive loaf that was being handed to me and scampered off to the registers.

When I got there, pushing a mini cart instead of just using a basket or carrying things in my hands like usual, Leslie Giovichinni eyed me in surprise.

"Hello, Stephanie! Happy Valentine's Day!" She greeted me. "Are your parents having a party?"

"No! Nobody is having a party!"

Okay, I was getting defensive, but honestly, what was the deal here. Couldn't a woman grocery shop in peace one damn time?!

I had TWO super soldiers to feed tonight, plus one Natasha, and I wasn't sure what else SHE had up her sleeve. But she hadn't sounded like she wanted a couple extra steaks in case someone was hungry.

"Ohhhh," Leslie said with a wink. "I think I understand. Sometimes you just have cravings you have to give in to right?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," I responded carelessly. "I'm really hungry and couldn't decide what I wanted. And I wanted to get back home before the roads got too bad."

"Good idea," she said. "Especially in your condition. Say 'hi' to Joe for me."

"What condition? There's no condition. My leg is fine," I told her as I handed over a bunch of cash to pay for the purchase. "And Joe and I broke up, so I won't be seeing him."

"Oh, I just thought…" she trailed off.

"Well, don't," I snapped. "And if you see him, don't say 'hi' for me."

She looked at me a little surprised and then started counting out my change.

I groaned and said, "look, I'm sorry, Leslie. I didn't mean to snap."

"No, no, no," she said. "It's okay. You have a good night, and be careful out there in the snow!"

I was still mumbling to myself about gossips and people not being able to mind their own business when I parked in my apartment parking lot.

Steve was opening my door before the engine was even turned off. He leaned in and gave me a kiss then went to the trunk for the grocery bags while I pulled my messenger bag off the backseat. He had them all in one hand, so I grabbed his free hand with mine when he got back alongside me.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," I grinned up at him. "Decided I didn't really feel like going after anyone else today. The bonds office is back in the black, and everyone else is small money anyway. Connie would have told me if someone big had come in. And I'll take her my capture receipt for Sobota tomorrow or the day after."

"Oh, the day after?" Steve's voice dropped down a register but also took on a playful quality. "Planning on being too tired to go in tomorrow?"

"Well, I don't know," I tried to joke back, but I was a little flustered knowing I was still wearing my earpiece so Sam and Natasha could hear us flirting. Plus I didn't know when Bucky would show. After all, I didn't want to start something and have him walk in on us. Something told me the Winter Soldier didn't exactly knock.

"Steph, I didn't mean to pressure you," Steve started. "I'm certainly not expecting anything to change between us just because it's Valentine's Day or the third date or anything. It was just a bad joke. How am I still so bad at this?"

He finished on a groan, and I couldn't help but laugh a little. "You're not that bad at it, let's just… see how things go, okay?"

"Nah, he's truly awful with dames," a voice gravely from disuse came from inside the apartment as I opened the door. "No matter how much I tried to teach him."

Steve froze at the doorway, mouth dropping open to gape at Bucky.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" I said excitedly. Then I dug through the bags Steve was holding and found the big Valentine's bow I'd also picked out at Giovichinni's.

It was oversized and made up of red and pink ribbons with white hearts on them.

I held it up triumphantly and said, "ah ha!"

Then I figured I'd only get one shot at this while the guys were distracted with each other, so I quickly peeled off the back of the sticker part, walked up to Bucky, and smushed it onto his chest.

He was wearing a white henley top, so it kinda matched.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" I cried wiggling my hands out to the side of my face in standard jazz hands style. "I got you a best friend! It's a classic model- hope you like it!"

There was a snort from further in the apartment, and I had to latch onto Bucky to keep him from rushing Natasha as he turned.

"Yeah, she does that," I told him. "Though I'd think you would be familiar with that trick."

"Not many people can sneak up on me," Bucky distractedly replied, eyes locked onto Natasha.

"You asked for me to be here," she said steadily.

Natasha appeared to be unarmed, but I would put money on her having at least a few weapons stashed on her body somewhere.

"I read your file," Bucky informed her.

"I guess that is the one thing about releasing every SHIELD file onto the internet," Natasha quipped. "No telling who will read it."

A quick smile passed Bucky's lips and he dipped his head in acknowledgment. Then he continued to address her as he said, "I was hoping Stephanie had the good sense to bring you in with her when they first got here. I wasn't sure what would happen when I saw him."

"Hey! I have plenty of sense!" I protested. When neither Bucky nor Natasha took their eyes off each other, I turned to Steve who was still staring at Bucky, completely dumbfounded, "Did I turn invisible?"

All three turned to look at me then, and I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Really? That makes you turn and look."

It was Bucky who spoke first, with a shrug, "we don't know what the Stern Brothers did to you. It was possible you actually could turn invisible now."

"The Stern Brothers?" I asked.

"Yes, they hired Sojourn Enterprises to get you for their research. That much I was able to discern, but I don't know WHY they wanted you specifically or WHAT they wanted to do with you," he told me. "The missing persons case was just a set-up. Granted, they really did kidnap him, but it was because they profiled that you would be brought in if they did which would make you easy to grab."

"Sorry, Steph," Natasha cut in. "There's a few things we need to go over first."

Steve nodded in agreement and finally said to Bucky, "you know who I am? You remember me?"

Natasha spoke over him asking, "you've broken their programming?"

Bucky focused back on Natasha, "I think so, or I wouldn't be here. The first time I thought about coming in, I saw Steve from a few blocks away, and all I could think about was my mission to kill him. It took everything in me to control it, so I stayed away and hunted HYDRA until this one called me in, whining about Valentine's Day."

He pointed at me, and everyone's attention was on me once more.

I gave Steve a small smile and said, "I wanted to get you something really good. You said it was your first Valentine's Day with a girlfriend."

Steve got a gooey, dopey look on his face at that and he pulled me into a fierce hug that still managed to respect how fragile I was in comparison to him and his super strength.

I heard footsteps and got the impression of Bucky and Natasha moving into the kitchen, which would put us out of their view for a little privacy.

I pulled my head back a little so I could look up at Steve. He let go with one hand to quickly dash away a couple of tears that were rolling down his cheek. "Sorry," he said quickly.

I stood up on tiptoes and reached up to pull his face down and give him a quick kiss, "no reason to be sorry."

"I just," Steve's voice broke a little as he whispered to me. "Obviously I knew he was in Trenton, and I knew he'd spoken to you. But the longer we were here without him showing himself to me, the less I believed that I'd ever actually get to see him again."

He cut off once more, and I tried to lighten the mood a little saying, "so good present?"

"The best!" Steve agreed with a smile and a nod.

"Better than spending the rest of the day alone with me would have been?" I asked with a smile of my own.

"Well," Steve started only to be cut off.

"Don't answer the question, Punk!" Bucky insisted. "It's a trap."

"Jerk," Steve taunted in response.

And the next thing I knew the two were locked in a huge hug.

Captain America was a hugger. Who knew?

Scratch that. I suppose that wasn't all that much of a stretch.

The Winter Soldier was a hugger. That was the one nobody would believe.

"Gross." A kind of immediately annoying voice spoke from the open doorway. "Feelings."

I looked around the mass of super soldier that hadn't released each other yet.

"Holy cow," I said. "You're Tony Stark."

"I killed your parents," Bucky said, still locked in Steve's arms. If anything, Steve's grasp tightened as though he was afraid Tony Stark was going to rip Bucky away at that. Which… maybe he had a point… but Bucky continued, "I'm sorry. I didn't want to, but they made me. Howard was a good man."

"Well HYDRA is a big bag of dicks," Tony Stark retorted. "I've had some time to work through it since I read about it in all those SHIELDRA files. Thanks for the bases to blow up. It was cathartic and shit."

Tony Stark looked at Bucky speculatively again then nodded and turned his head to me.

"Yes, I am Tony Stark," he answered my previous statement, even though it hadn't been a question. "I'd shake your hand, but I don't like being touched. Who are you? Are you the owner of this horrible apartment?"

"Tony," Steve warned.

"No," I replied slowly. "I rent."

"Totally not the point, Steph," I told myself, managing to keep the eye roll at myself internal. I thought.

However, Stark seemed to think I was sassing him because he pulled his sunglasses he was inexplicably still wearing off, and he smiled at me. "You, I like," he declared. "You can have a steak and a new security system."

He kind of waved his hand over me, almost like he was blessing me as he said it.

"Thank you?" I really wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Tony has that effect on people," Natasha said steering me into my living room.

"They're still hugging," I whispered to Natasha as I took a seat on my couch. "Do you think I should be concerned about that? Did I bring in competition for myself?"

"We can hear you!" Bucky and Steve chorused from the entryway.

Apparently it was enough for them to finally separate, and they walked the rest of the way into the apartment.

To my surprise, Steve left the apartment door open. When he got to the couch, he stopped in front of where I was sitting and tapped me on my nose, "Buck is like a brother to me. One I haven't seen in like seventy years."

"Other than when I was trying to kill you," Bucky said remorsefully.

"HYDRA was trying to kill me," Steve insisted.

Rather than letting the silence stretch on and get potentially awkward, I asked, "are we expecting someone else?"

"Tony never travels alone," Steve told me.

"That's not true," Stark said. "But in this case, you are right. Natasha wanted us available to look at your fellow popsicle's head and make sure HYDRA was out of it, so I brought Banner. And then Barton insisted on coming too. Didn't want to be the only one left out. Other than Point Break, who is, obviously, off planet. And Pepper came too because she's wonderful and the light of my life."

"Point Break?" I asked timidly.

"Yeah, Thor. God of Thunder— actually an alien from another planet. Has a hammer and a mean swing," Stark said. "Keep up, Plum. And where is your other bird-y friend? I brought him a present too."

"Did I introduce myself?" I asked the room at large because Tony Stark had already walked away to do I didn't know what.

"He likes to pretend he knows everything," Natasha informed me. "He isn't as good at it as I am, and we try not to pander to his ego anyway."

I decided to let that go and instead I clarified, "your other bird-y friend is Sam, right?"

"Must be," Steve agreed.

"That's a lot of people. I'm not sure we're all going to fit in my apartment," I admitted.

"Why IS it so small?" Tony asked as he walked back in from my bedroom.

"Tony!" Steve sounded practically scandalized, and I couldn't help but laugh at his tone.

I answered though, saying, "it is small because I got it after my cheating ex-husband took the house and all our money in the divorce, and I got laid off from my job as a lingerie buyer."

"That's a job? Lingerie buyer?" Stark asked. "Why am I only now hearing about this? I am now questioning every decision I've ever made in my life that has lead to me doing anything other than that."

"Well, you are Iron Man," I told him. "So you're probably doing alright. And don't you have like a billion dollars? You could probably start a lingerie company, Mr. Stark, if you cared that much."

"Excuse you!" Stark turned on me. "First of all, it is Tony. Or Stark. But not Mr. Stark. Mr. Stark was killed by murder bot over there. Oh, hush up, Cap. He can take it. And second of all, it is so much more than just ONE billion dollars. But you're right about that last part. We should make lingerie."

"Tony," a voice said, warning clear in her tone, from the doorway. "We are not going to become a clothing company."

A tall, thin woman with strawberry blond hair pulled into a neat ponytail walked over to me. She was impeccably dressed and wearing killer, stiletto boots despite the snow on the ground outside. Stopping in front of me, she held out her hand and said, "hi. I'm Pepper Potts. Please call me Pepper. I'm sorry for— probably everything Tony has said since he arrived."

"He said I could have a steak," I replied. "That was alright. And I'm Stephanie Plum. It's nice to meet you. You can call me Steph."

Pepper's mouth twisted into a smile and she nodded her head in agreement, "well he's right about that. You can even have two if you want. We're pretty informal when we eat as a team, and it definitely looks like we can squeeze in between the couch and your chairs in the kitchen. We'll just have to be friendly, and some of us can double up."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Steve scooped me up and plopped himself in my now vacant spot before settling me comfortably on top of him.

"You and Cap, huh?" Tony commented. "Well that ruined the joke I was going to make about him and Bucky, though it does explain why half the Avengers are still here instead of home in my Tower."

I stilled at that, "are they not supposed to be here?"

"Here in your apartment?" Tony asked incredulously. "Uh no. They were looking for Barnes, and could have just had simple surveillance running on this place for a couple days. As I understand it, there hasn't even been a credible threat on you."

"She was kidnapped!" Bucky finally spoke up in my defense. "And experimented on!"

"Allegedly," Tony said eyeing me suspiciously. "And nobody has seen any proof of it, right?"

"I've seen plenty of proof of human trafficking for experimentation purposes, and I personally pulled Steph out of a location that was set up as a lab for experimentation by the Stern brothers!" Bucky had his arms crossed on his chest, and he was looking very indignant on my behalf.

"Did you say the Stern brothers?" A quiet voice said from the doorway. I looked over and wasn't sure who it was, but his eyes were on me as he asked, "may I come in?"

He was looking as though he expected me to say no, so I wiggled until Steve let me up, and I rushed to the door. "Of course, come in! I'm Steph! Who are you?"

"I'm Bruce Banner," he told me still waiting on the outside of my apartment door.

I squinted at him, trying to decide who he was, "oh! You're the one who turns into The Hulk?"

He just nodded in resignation, and I said, "thanks for smashing all those aliens that time. Please come in, make yourself at home. I believe we were just discovering that Steve's been wasting his time here with me and also questioning whether or not I'm a liar and was ever really kidnapped."

There was an explosion of sound as everyone behind me started arguing, and a strange man dropped down from I didn't even know where. Had to be the ceiling, I guess, though how or why he was up there I didn't know, right behind Banner. My messenger bag was hanging by the door, and I acted instinctively, grabbing my stun gun, shoving Banner to the side, and stunning the man before he could touch Banner.

"What the?" Banner said, and I'll admit I was a little concerned that his skin looked to be tinged a little green.

In a second, Steve was in front of me, putting his body between me and the man who seemed to be fighting not to become the Hulk.

"It's okay," Steve said. Then he looked around Banner to the man in the hall and said, "It's just Clint. You know how he sometimes likes to see if he can wedge himself up in hallways and walk along them? It seems he did a good enough job that Steph didn't see his approach, so she tased him when he dropped down behind you unexpectedly."

"It's a stun gun, not a taser," I offered. "And I didn't want him to hurt you."

Bruce nodded his head and took a few breaths then said, "thank you for looking out for me, Steph. Tony, I knew we shouldn't have made him those gecko gloves. And no, Steve, he didn't suddenly become able to walk on the ceiling on his own."

"Steph," Steve turned to face me. "I definitely have not been wasting my time with you in ANY sense. Please understand that."

"Okay, team meeting!" Natasha declared. "Pepper, you need to come because—"

"Tony," Pepper agreed easily with a smile.

"And Barnes, we'll need your intel as well," Natasha continued. "Steph, I'm sorry, but we'll talk to you about what we can when we get back. Lock the door when we leave."

"Sure," I said. "No problem."

And then they all filed out, and I was left in an empty apartment for the first time in what felt like months, even if it had only really been a couple weeks.