"And to what do I owe the pleasure?" came Tony's sing-song voice over the phone.
"Tony, we need you to do some research for us," said Steve as he sat around the table with Sam and Bucky with the phone on speaker.
"I'm sorry, you seem to have mistaken me for someone else, do I look like your personal servant Capsicle?" he said sarcastically.
"Steve rolled his eyes, "we just need you to look up a couple things for us."
There was an audible sigh over the phone, "Fine, what is it?"
"Charles Levine, he would've worked for Hydra about 15 years ago," said Sam as he pulled his chair in closer.
"What's this for anyways?" asked Tony after a few moments of silence.
Bucky shifted uncomfortable in his seat and casted his eyes downward into his lap. Ever since finding out that he was responsible for Howard and Maria's death he had felt guilty and had kept his distance from Tony and Tony had kept his. He needed Tony's help, but he knew well enough to stay clear of the millionaire whose parent's he had offed on Hydra's orders.
"Just tracking down some members of Hydra," Steve said into the phone; leaving Bucky out of it.
"I can't find anything on a Charles Levine so far, but I did find a Dr. Arnold Levine, a Neuropsychologist that started working for Hydra in 1969 until his retirement in 1984."
Bucky's head immediately snapped up when Tony mentioned the man's name, recognition written all over his face. The Winter Soldier had had many handlers over the years, but he clearly remembered the tall grey haired man with the horn-rimmed glasses that would attend to him before and after missions.
"Where is he now?" asked Steve.
"He passed away from a heart-attack in 1993," came Tony's voice.
"What about-," Steve said he grabbed the file that had been in front of Bucky, "a Natalia Andreyev?"
Bucky leaned forward in his seat at the mention of the name, the woman's name was listed on the file along with a few others. He hoped that this woman could be found so he could have some answers.
"There's really not much information on her, she worked for Hydra in the late 90's in Ukraine before she disappeared, and her body was later discovered in a motel in New York in April of 2000."
Something in Bucky's head clicked and the memory came flooding back into his head.
"She tried to defect," Bucky said softly as he started to relieve the newly unlocked memory. The memory had hit him like a train and it brought him back to that night in New York when she had been his mission. He remembered entering the room through the fire escape and walking into the bathroom where she had just finished her shower. He remembered the look of surprise and fear on her face as she looked up and saw his reflection behind her in the mirror. He felt nothing as he used his metal arm to wrap his fingers around her neck and squeezed.
She had struggled to no avail before she became still in his arms, her lifeless brown eyes staring up at him sadly; as if she knew something he didn't.
"What about a Julian Bernotus?" asked Steve desperately.
"Dead as well," came Tony's voice, "poor bastard was gunned down while at the park with his daughter."
Bucky hung his head in shame as the memory of the man and little girl tossing the ball to a dog came flooding back into his mind as well. A well-aimed shot to the head had sent the surrounding people running and screaming and the little girl fatherless. She was probably scarred for life…
"So basically everyone important that ever worked on this project is dead? Except for maybe this Charles Levine?" asked Sam incredulously.
"Pretty much, whatever this project was Hydra really wanted to cover it up."
"Are you sure there isn't anything about a Charles Levine?" asked Sam, "Surely there has to be something about him in the files Natasha leaked."
"Possibly," came Tony's voice, "but a lot of these have yet to be decrypted and files can be erased from databases, of course not totally erased," said Tony, "once somethings on the internet, it's out there forever. But still a pain to find."
"So were basically looking for a ghost?" asked Sam as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
"Was Dr. Levine ever married?" asked Steve after a few moments; his face determined.
"In 1953 he married Susan Lockley, who was half his age. She's still alive and residing in Falls Church, VA."
"That's a 20 minute drive," said Sam leaning forward in his chair.
"What the address?" said Steve.
"1309 Birch St, NE."
"Thanks Tony," said Steve as all three of them grabbed their coats.
"Yeah yeah, just don't make this a habit, you know I always-," he didn't have time to finish his sentence before Steve hit the end button on the phone.
Within a few minutes they were all piled up in Sam's car heading east on I-66, Sam and Steve sat in the front while Bucky took the back seat. Nobody was really in a talking mood and it left Bucky with some air to breathe and think.
Bucky had never really wanted kids, it was just something that didn't appeal to him like most and it seemed almost impossible after the war and especially after becoming the Winter Soldier. It was something he had accepted as never happening to him, and he was okay with that. He didn't even know if he was mentally capable of providing for someone else after all he had been through.
His parents and sister had been long dead by that point, and Rebecca's family didn't feel like family to him. Steve was his only family as of right now, and there was her. But could he even really consider her family? They shared nothing except for DNA, but that didn't make them family.
"Hey punk, thought I'd find you here," said Bucky coming to sit next to Steve on the park bench.
Steve barely paid him any attention as he watched a father and his son fly a kite on the other side of the park and then he'd look down at his art book and back up.
Bucky leaned in to get a better look at his friend's art and whistled, "Did you do that now? It's good," he said as he admired the shading and the blending of the pencil strokes.
"Do you ever think about ever having kids?" Steve asked out of the blue as he carefully used his finger to blend the shading on the kite.
Bucky shrugged and leaned back against the bench, surprised by his friend's question.
"Nah, kids just really aren't my thing. What about you?" he said as he watched the kid laugh and point up at the sky, his smiling father kneeling next to him.
Steve paused his drawing and looked at Bucky, "Yeah, but I don't know if I'd be any good."
Bucky laughed and punched his friends arm, "you'd be a great dad, Steve."
"Oh really?" he said laughing as he continued with his art.
"I'm not kidding," said Bucky putting a lazy hand over Steve's shoulder, "any kid would be lucky to have you as a dad."
"And what about you?"
"You know me," he said shrugging, "as long as I have a dame on my arm I'll be good."
The memory felt like someone else's, but it still rang clearly through his head. Steve had always wanted kids and Bucky hadn't, it was that simple. But life was one big ironic joke, and now he was the one with the kid and Steve didn't.
"Is this it? Came Steve's voice from the passenger seat as they pulled into the driveway of a large and very nice looking house. It was obvious that the Levine family were wealthy folk from the looks of the fancy home and the fact that they lived in a gated community.
"Yeah, let's see if Mrs. Levine is home."
Sam and Steve piled out of the car while Bucky remained seated in the back staring at the beautiful blue house in front of him.
"You coming, Bucky?" asked Steve opening the door.
Bucky took a deep breath before unbuckling his seat belt and stepping out of the car. The home reminded him of his Ma and how she had always wanted to live in a nice big fancy home like this one. Not that they minded their apartment in Brooklyn, but it would've been something else to live in a house.
The door opened to reveal a young blond woman with a yapping Chihuahua in her arms, "How may I help you gentlemen?" she asked curtly, her baby blue eyes widening at the form of Steve.
"Is Mrs. Levine home?" asked Steve politely with a smile plastered on his face.
The poor girl became red-faced at the sight of Captain America, obviously a fan of one of Earth's mightiest heroes.
"Uh y-yes of course," she said stepping aside, "please come in," she said gesturing them in.
"Thank you," said Steve as we walked into the decorative foyer of the house.
"I- I'll inform her of your presence," she turning to walk away but ended up running up the stairwell.
"Nice place," said Sam he came to stand in front of a framed picture of a Renaissance painting that Bucky from when he and Steve were in art class.
"Well well," said a voice from the doorway, "when Lisa told me Captain America was here I thought she had finally gone off the deep end," said the older woman as she descended the stairs. She wore an expensive looking frock with a pearl necklace, her white hair was curled and pinned up and she had quite an expensive looking broach on. She was an aged woman but she wore it well.
"Would any of you gentlemen like tea or water" she said leading them into the living room and gesturing for them to sit.
"Oh we're fine ma'am, we only came to ask you a few questions about your late husband's work."
"Arnie's work?" she asked incredulously, obviously gob smacked by the question.
"Did you know who he was working for in 1969?" asked Sam as he took a seat on the couch.
"I'm sorry, but what is this for?" she asked suspiciously as she looked between the three men, her eyes lingering over Bucky's form. While Sam and Steve were clean shaven and their hair short and neat, Bucky's hair was still long and he hadn't bothered to shave in a while. He knew his appearance tended to set people on edge, so he sent her a small smile to appear friendlier.
Sam snuck a glance at Steve and Bucky before turning back to her, "your husband consulted on with Shield back in the 60's, we're just trying to find out more information ma'am."
"Oh," she said pulling her hand to her chest, "he never told me about that."
"It was classified," said Sam, the lie rolling off his tongue easily.
"Well that makes sense I guess," she said setting her cup down, "In 1969 he got a job here in D.C. working for government research or something like that. Honestly I don't know why Shield would ever need a neuro-psychologist," she said laughing.
"I see you have children, Mrs. Levine," said Sam as he pointed to a family picture on the wall.
"Oh just my son Charlie," she said smiling at Sam, "he was born the same year we moved to D.C. He's a geneticist now, graduated top of his class," she said proudly.
So Charles had been Arnold's son, Bucky had been right about the connection between the two. Charles Levine had been the Hydra scientist that created the girl for the purpose of obtaining the serum, but he had failed and failure was not an option in Hydra. Bucky was surprised that this man wasn't dead like all the others that had worked on the project. Why wasn't he dead?
"And where is your son now?"
"He's now working as a fertility counselor, helping people have children and what not."
Bucky tried not to snort at the irony at that little piece of information as he coughed and looked down at the Chihuahua that was currently staring up at him from the floor.
"Could you possibly give us his work address? We'd like to ask him a few questions if you don't mind."
"Oh sure!" she said reaching for a piece of paper and writing something on it.
"He should be on lunch break right about now," she said handing over the pink sticky note to Steve who pocketed it, "I'm sure he won't mind."
"Is there anything else I can do for you gentlemen?" she asked flashing her pearly white teeth at both Sam and Steve.
"No ma'am, that's all," said Steve standing up and shaking her hand.
"Well Mr. Rogers, don't hesitate to come by if you have any more questions," she said slipping another post-it note with her number into his pocket before patting his chest, "and please, call me Susan."
Steve smiled politely at the woman, overlooking the fact that she had just tried to flirt with him.
"It was nice to meet you Susan," Steve said as they walked out of the house and headed towards the car.
"That woman has no idea, does she" said Sam shaking his head.
"Not from what I can tell," said Steve buckling his seat belt.
"Hey Buck, ya ok?" asked Sam turning to look back at him.
Bucky swallowed his spit before silently nodding his head and buckling his seat belt. In all honestly, he wasn't okay at all. This was such a strange occurrence and he was still trying to wrap his head around it and the more he tried to make sense of it all the more aggravated and hurt he became about the situation. He could still hardly believe that the screaming infant in the picture was his. It was such a strange feeling, one that he was not accustomed to. After years of being the winter soldier, such emotion had become alien to him. And why wouldn't it? He had no one when he was the winter soldier, all he had were his orders and the mission. He was a soldier, not a father and definitely not a family man.
He reached into his pocket where the picture had been safely kept and looked down once again upon the infant. Honestly he couldn't see much of a resemblance, her skin was red and her head was mashed from having been just born. She looked like a potato, but still he could not explain the feeling that started in his chest and spread outward upon the sight of her. He caught himself wondering what she looked like now that she was a teenager, did she look like him? What was her name? And most importantly...
Where was she?