Tony's laughter drew Steve's attention as he and T'Challa watched him, Vision, and Okoye try to determine anything on a location. Ross's Siberian location had been fake. It had been a couple of hours and Steve's anxiety was wearing on him.

Tony was cackling with delight. Nat frowned at him. "What's so funny?"

"C'mere," Tony told them.

Steve beat Natasha to him at the panel of screens and as much of a techno-dunce as he was, he immediately saw what Tony was talking about.

Athena.

Steve's heart swelled with hope seeing the user name. "Is it her?"

Tony nodded, pointing to a series of commands that made absolutely no sense to him. But it was her. At least he hoped it was because if so, she was alive.

"She's using this network," Nat observed. "What's she doing?"

"Fucking with Ross," Tony told them.

But what were the consequences of her actions?

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes, boss."

"Fire up our jet," Tony commanded. "We've got a rescue mission."

"Right away, boss."

"We have a location?" Steve was almost afraid to hope.

"Oh, we do," Tony told him. "New Zealand. Let's go get 'em, Cap."

Tony rose and stretched, noticing Steve was rooted to the spot as the others filtered out. A look of realization crossed his features.

"What's wrong?"

"Are they going to catch her doing… whatever she's doing?" Steve wanted to know.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. She's planning a prison riot from the looks of it," Tony's grin widened. "We need to leave now. She's calculated the amount of time it will take us to get there and has her protocols set within thirty minutes of that time."

"She knew you'd see her?" Steve wanted to know.

"She did."

Steve followed Tony as he headed out of the offices. "What did she do?"

"She's made it look like she's sound asleep in her bed," Tony flashed his phone at Steve who grabbed it, seeing their girl curled on her side and looking fast asleep on the camera feed.

Steve was trying to understand the situation.

"She's planning complete chaos for around the time we get there. I've got FRIDAY pulling up layouts of the building. Fury and Barnes are in holding cells in the basement. Shouldn't be too hard of a rescue."

Steve was suited up and on the jet in record speed, hoping with everything in him to get them back safely. To get them back home.

"Anything else?" Steve asked. "She still online?"

Tony shook his head. "She's done for now."

"Hope they don't figure out whatever she did," Steve mused.

Tony shook his head, motioning Steve onto the ramp. "Ross was right about one thing whether you want to admit it or not. Your girl was an international cybercriminal. A damned good one."

He didn't care what Chris was at the moment. He just wanted his family – her, Bucky, and the baby – back home with him where they belonged. They were his.

And once they were secure, he would deal with Ross himself.

God help him if he'd laid a finger on his guy, his girl, or their child.

The slight hum kept Bucky from nodding off. The small click of the cell door got his attention, had him leaping up to push the door. It gave to allow him to exit.

That got Fury's attention. He'd been stretched out on the narrow bench that was supposed to be a bed. By the time he sat up, Bucky had slung open his door.

"Steve must be here," Bucky mused, checking around the cell holding area for any weapons…

"Looking for this?" Chris smiled at him, holding up a pair of keys.

Bucky's heart dropped, his gaze moving up and down her and not seeing any injuries. She looked tired but unharmed, standing there with one hand on their son inside her and the other holding a key ring bigger than her hand. He snatched her up for a quick kiss. "I love you," he whispered in her ear. "You feel okay?"

Chris nodded, smiling and snuggling into him.

Bucky had to get them out of there.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Steve and Tony are on their way with the team," Chris explained. "They'll be here any moment."

Bucky didn't know how she knew that but decided to go with it. Snatching the keys from her, he tried the door behind her and found a nice arsenal. He selected several handguns and a rifle, handing off a couple of things to Fury and Chris, when they heard running in the hallway.

One soldier ran into the cell holding area, looking twice at the cells in his surprise to see them empty. It gave Chris the opportunity she needed to hit him on the back of the head and bring him down.

"What are you doing?" Bucky hissed, not able to reconcile watching his tiny, pregnant lover knock down a fully outfitted soldier about his size.

Chris just stared at him like he'd spoken a foreign language.

Before she could say whatever she was going to say, Bucky shoved her behind him and Fury stepped in front of her too. It didn't take the rest of the guards to figure out something was amiss. Bucky had just started firing when the alarm started blaring.

"Okay, we have to start heading for the exit now," Chris told them.

"Stay behind me, doll baby," Bucky told her. "I mean it."

"I will," she promised.

After dispatching the first squad, Chris guided them in the direction of a control room. There were a few office types in there, looking distraught at the panels around them.

"They are wondering how the quinjet was just cleared for landing," Chris snorted.

"You been busy?" Bucky asked with a smirk.

"I've missed this," she said. "Not going to lie."

Fury and Bucky took over the control room and once the three men were herded out by Fury, Chris took charge of the controls. Bucky watched in amazement as she began typing in crazy sequences of commands and he had no idea what any of it was.

"Tony?" Chris final spoke into a mic. "You guys there?"

The quinjet was out there. She'd pegged it.

"I'm here, Danforth," Stark's voice answered.

"I'm here too," a deep familiar voice said.

"Steve?"

"Everybody okay?" Steve's tone was gentler than his usual Captain's tone.

"So far," she told him. "Really looking forward to going home."

"That's why we're here," Steve said. "See you in five."

An alarming number of guards swarmed out of the compound as he watched, heading for the jet. Bucky watched as Tony and Vision flew out first, followed by Sam. Steve, Nat, and bless him, King T'Challa, ran down the ramp followed by Okoye, her Doa Milaje then Wanda and Clint.

Now it was a party.

Still, Bucky had to get Chris safely out of the compound and to the jet without her being hurt. The last time he'd tried to get her onto a jet to safety flashed in his mind. It was the day he'd met her. And she'd gotten shot.

Not today.

Bucky crowded her to get to the mic. "How secure is this?"

"It's okay for the moment," Chris told him, her eyes widening as she watched approaching soldiers through the huge glass windows of the room.

"Steve," Bucky spoke into it. "We need to get her out. Ground floor, center. We're in a control room."

"On my way to you," Steve's Captain voice was on now.

Bucky grinned, missing that voice, that face.

When the soldiers aimed at the glass, Chris dropped to the floor before Bucky did, amazing him with her speed given her condition. The glass shattered, not bullet-proof and Fury was firing on them with Bucky a beat behind as they exchanged gunfire.

One bullet hit Bucky's shoulder. He heard Chris hiss, saw her draw her revolver and ready herself.

"Don't you fucking dare," Bucky yelled at her, terrified she'd try to jump into the fight.

"You're shot!"

"I don't feel it, baby doll."

Chris stayed down until Bucky hauled her up, knowing they couldn't stay where they were.

A man ran down the corridor aiming for Bucky but then his throat was pierced by an arrow.

"I've got eyes on Barnes," Clint called into his com.

T'Challa was behind him but so were dozens of armed men and everything just got crazy.

Wanda was able to clear the hallway for the most part, Nat and Steve on her heels.

"Where's Chris?" Steve's voice was tense.

Bucky whirled around to find her gone.

"Chris!" His heart leapt. She'd been right behind him.

And there she was, standing off against one of Ross's men who had Fury in his sites.

"Drop it," Chris said calmly.

"Chris!" Bucky yelled at her.

"Quiet!" she hissed back, not moving.

Bucky knew Steve couldn't risk slinging his shield in that direction. The corridor was too tight, and he couldn't risk hitting her. Bucky's heart flew as he crept closer, trying not to draw the other man's attention.

Bucky was for sure restricting her to the apartment when they got back. He couldn't take this. He hadn't known that sort of fear since he'd fished Steve out of the Potomac when the Triskelion fell and then he hadn't had full control of his own mind. Now he did. That fear of losing someone he knew he loved, that he needed, put him on the path to freedom. To Steve and Chris.

Oh God, they couldn't lose her.

The second the soldier pulled the trigger so did Chris and Bucky's heart stopped, realizing the man had aimed at her and not Fury. Bucky was pretty sure he yelled as the soldier dropped, Chris got him in the throat, and he ran in her direction, waiting for her to slump lifelessly to the ground.

Only she was still standing, unharmed. Her gray eyes were wide on him as he reached her. He saw the bullet drop a foot from her, surrounded by familiar red energy.

Wanda.

The witch smiled, blowing out a relieved exhale as she lowered her hands.

On some level, Bucky was aware of taking the gun away from Chris and grabbing her up into his arms. He was going back to the jet with her. Now.

He must have yelled as much because Steve jumped in front of him, shield at the ready, to cover them. When he saw Okoye and her soldiers flanking him, he came a little out of the haze he was in. He felt he was coming back to himself. Maybe they'd make it. Just maybe he could get their girl and their baby out of harm's way.

Sam had them covered from the air as they fought their way out of the compound to head for the jet.

The whistle of a missile overhead stopped everything around him, had him dropping to the ground, shielding Chris with his own body. The Dora Milaje ducked around them and though it sounded muffled, he heard Steve's voice.

"Bucky, get her out of here!" Steve was deflecting bullets, trying to push past where they'd stopped. "Go!"

With the jet in sight, Bucky knew the greatest relief and fear. They were almost there. He just needed to get their girl there.

In his mind's eye, he saw a jet and knew that Chris was running behind him. He remembered the sound of her scream when she'd been shot.

Not this time.

"I've got you," Wanda yelled, shielding his back as he began running towards the jet. Okoye motioned for her soldiers to fall in behind Steve as Wanda kept pace with him, finally reaching the jet.

Wanda followed them up the ramp, watching him as he gently sat Chris on the first seat they reached. A blinding explosion came from nearby and his heart lurched.

"You okay, baby doll?" Bucky kneeled in front of her, looking her over.

Blood. Blood ran down her left shoulder and arm in deep scarlet stains. Fear rooted him to the spot.

"Doll baby?" Bucky's gaze and hands began to frantically move over her. Wanda moved closer, her expression fearful.

"Bucky, no!" Chris gently pried his hands away. "I'm okay. It's not my blood… It's yours. Your shoulder…"

He stared numbly at her for a beat before looking to his right shoulder where he'd been shot. Sure enough the blood was his. Exhaling his relief, he nodded.

Both women were looking at him like he'd lost his mind.

"Bucky," Chris said gently as the battle raged on outside. "You may be a super soldier, but you can bleed out."

Chris and Wanda started scrambling faster than he could think, the sounds of their movements and voices muted.

"There's an exit wound," Chris said from behind him, roughly pulling at his shirt. "We need to stop the bleeding."

"Wanda?" Steve's voice sound in the com the small witch wore.

"Go," Chris told her. "Go help Steve. I've got him."

As Wanda scrambled back off the jet, Chris pushed him down into a seat, it didn't take much, and got to work on stopping the bleeding.

"Stay with me," she whispered low in his ear and she pressed down on both sides. "Stay with us. We need you. Okay?"

"Doll baby, I'm not going anywhere," Bucky assured her though he did feel as if he were in a daze as the battle outside continued violently.

When Steve spotted Ross walking up amidst all the chaos, he signaled his team to halt.

He was choking on his fury as he watched the man who took his family away stroll up dressed for combat, a small JSOC squad at his back.

"Rogers, stand down," Ross ordered harshly. "Immediately."

Steve waited, not wanting to say anything he didn't have to.

"Want to tell me why you're here? Taking more innocent American lives?" Ross asked with deadly calm. "Haven't the lot of you done enough damage?"

The Accords. Always the Accords.

"Want to tell me why you took Bucky Barnes and Christine Danforth against their will?" Steve said with equal calm.

Ross smirked at him. "I had authorization from the council to take Barnes into custody Rogers. It's widely believed he's unstable. It's only a matter of time before you lose control of him and what damage could the infamous Winter Soldier do if activated and turned loose? Do you really believe the Wakandans were able to remove all the triggers HYDRA placed there for several decades?"

"I do," Steve said.

What the hell was the man talking about? Bucky was nearly as stable now with him and Chris as he'd been before they'd ever gone off to war. He'd never been safer.

"My sister Shuri removed those triggers," T'Challa walked up now. "There is no question."

Ross smirked at the Wakandan king. "And you have nothing better to do than run around with the Avengers, your Grace?"

T'Challa squared his shoulders more. "I'm there for my friends when I am needed."

"Why Danforth?" Steve pressed. Why had he tried to take his girl?

"Agent Danforth is not our responsibility and never has been," Ross growled. "Fury and Stark had no right to move her under the umbrella of protection provided by the Avengers."

"She's an employee of Stark Industries," Tony landed next to Steve. "I'm sure you remember that. Let me guess. You were just keeping her here until you could safely return her to Crenshaw? Because her old boss? He hasn't heard anything about her from you."

Ross laughed. "Danforth is to go to a safehouse until such time it's deemed safe for her to return to her former life."

"She's pregnant with our child," Steve said forcefully.

"And that's a rather tawdry situation, isn't it, Rogers? You have no idea which of you is even the father," Ross told him. "Depraved as that is, once word gets out, it won't matter to your enemies who fathered the child. There will be a line of people trying to grab him, hoping to unlock Erskine's formula once and for all."

"Like the doctor with you who said our child would be part of her research?" Steve's temper was getting the better of him. "Who are you trying to fool? We can protect her and our child just fine."

"It's irresponsible and I have the council's approval to relocate her," Ross told him.

"She's mine!" Steve yelled, slinging the shield at Ross and taking him down to the ground. The man took a shot to the shoulder as the men with him resumed their attack.

It all went a little crazy after that. Steve saw red, taking down anyone and everyone who dared come at him until he could see a substantial thinning in the amount of soldiers left at Ross's disposal. Wanda had his back with her magic, Vision covered her, and Tony and Sam covered him from overhead. Nat and Clint were quite a wrecking crew, guarding the ramp to the jet with their lives. T'Challa fought at Steve's side with his general and her Dora Milaje and their ferocity enabled them to cut through the men Ross had with impressive speed.

Steve rounded them up, signaled for everyone to get on the jet. Ross clutched his should and the arm it connected to his body was limp at his side.

"You're not leaving with them, Rogers," Ross yelled at him. "You leave and you're in violation of -"

Steve didn't stick around to listen. He was the last one up the ramp and the moment he was clear, Clint closed it up and he and Nat got them in the air.

Bucky sat in one of the seats, looking washed out. Chris stood, tending to a wound at his shoulder. Steve could tell they were arguing from there.

"Why aren't you strapped in, Sweetheart?" Steve marched up.

The smile he earned just approaching her stopped him cold. When she flung herself against him, he just held on to her, so happy to have her back. The bump of their child thumped against him and he smiled, smoothing a hand over their son.

"He's been shot." Chris turned back to Bucky. "He's lost quite a bit of blood."

Vision moved back to them, scanning Bucky. "He has. He'll require units of blood once we return to base. He'll be monitored until then."

"Cap?"

Tony's voice pulled him away from his family, Tony's expression guarded.

"Ross has put us in one hell of a situation," Tony explained in a low voice. "He's going to have someone at the compound waiting for Barnes. And Chris."

Steve pulled his helmet off, raking his hand through his hair. "Can you drop us off somewhere else?"

Steve hated to ask but no way he was going to wait until the got back the compound and just hand over his family again. Ross was doing this to get back at him after all. No way he'd put the people he loved through more because of Ross's petty vendetta against him.

"I'm already ahead of you," Tony told him with a smirk. "They're aware of my place in the keys since you guys stayed there to find Chris the first time he took her. I've got a place in Cornwall, England that should be off the grid. There's enough technology to keep Athena happy and a mostly retired SHIELD doctor who doesn't live far from there."

Steve knew a moment's relief. That sounded ideal, particularly having a doctor nearby for Chris. They had three months to go if her pregnancy went as it should, and he'd really like to have his situation with Ross, resolved by then. Still…

"Tony, thank you," Steve told him. "It means everything to me."

"That's my employee Rogers," Tony play warned him. "I'm not giving her to you so you'd best take very good care of her."

"Will do," Steve assured him.

He didn't know, and didn't need to know, how Wanda and Vision managed to stop Bucky's bleeding. He just knew that the doctor would be waiting for them when they reached the Cornwall home and if Bucky needed blood transfusions, Steve was compatible. They'd be okay.

Scooping Chris up out of her seat next to Bucky who was sleeping, he took her place and sat her on his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Nat smiled from across the way.

"You okay, Sweetheart?" he whispered into her hair.

"I'm glad to see you," Chris told him.

"Not as glad as I am to see you," he told her. "I was so afraid I wouldn't get to you both in time."

She slid a hand along his dirt-smudged face. "You came for us. I knew you would."

Steve held onto her a little tighter. "I'm just… Scared. Why is he so vehement about this, Steve? Why is Ross just out to destroy us?"

His heart dropped. "He's out to get me, Sweetheart. Making me pay for the civil war that happened when he tried to implement the Sovokian Accords? That's all he cares about. We need to find some way to pull him down before he does us real damage."

"Where will we go?" her voice sounded tired.

"One of Tony's places," he explained. "They're going to drop us off before heading on to the compound. If we go back home, he's just going to have Bucky taken into custody."

"He's not touching Bucky," Chris said with fire.

Proud of her, he pressed a kiss into her hair. "Tony told me you took care of Bucky during all of this. I'm proud of you, doll. I know once he's had some rest, he will be too."

That earned him a happy hum and a cuddle. "I'm getting better at all of this, you know? When I was taken by Odysseus's men, I was terrified. To the point that I just felt paralyzed, Steve. I don't know what I would have done without you, Bucky, and Phil. I wouldn't be here."

Steve nodded, not enjoying those memories.

"When I came around this time, I knew that if I'd survived all of that, I could get through anything Ross could dream up," Chris told him confidently. "And no way in hell I'm going to let them touch our son."

Even though he was covered in mud, blood, and heaven knew what else, he slid a hand protectively over her baby bump. The tiny life that all three of them had grown with their love? He was everything to Steve, just like Bucky and Chris were. Was there anything he wouldn't do for his son?

"I'm going to take care of you, and him, and Bucky," Steve told. "I promise."

Chris nodded, snuggling closer and tucking her head under his chin. In just a few moments, Chris was sleeping against him, along with the baby inside her, and their man. They were safe and with him and for the moment, it was enough.