Detroit, Michigan

"I swear, if that kid calls me 'Herman-German' one more time—" Bucky grumbled to Lucy as they sat watching the young blonde haired kid run back to the living to rejoin his cousins.

"You wouldn't do anything." Lucy replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Might I remind you this is still all your fault?" Bucky retorted defensively.

Lucy chuckled. "For the last time, I gave you the chance to pick your own name! But apparently the task was too beneath you. So Herman German you shall forever be."

Bucky sighed in defeat. "I'm still getting you back for this someday, just you wait."

"Mm-hmm, whatever you say." Lucy answered with a smirk.

"I hope Caiden isn't giving you too much trouble." A woman's voice said behind them, coming from the kitchen. Lucy spun around to find it had come from Peter's wife Nina. A basket of unfolded laundry sat in her hands. "He can be a bit much at times." She added as she hefted the basket onto the counter.

"Not at all." Lucy smiled back. "The kids are great."

Another woman entered, Nina's mother in law, and she made her way to the counter. "Here, let me help with that." She said, reaching for the basket."

"Oh, that's alright Margaret, I can handle it." Nina assured. "You should go rest in the front room with dad, I think they were talking about getting the cards out soon."

"Nonsense." The gray haired woman said waving away her daughter in law. "If anyone should be resting, it should be you." She added, motioning to Nina's protruding abdomen. Knowing any further argument was going to get her nowhere, Nina sighed in acceptance and stepped over to let the older woman join in.

"I'm really glad you guys could come stay with us, even if it's just for a week." Nina said, directing her words to Lucy and Bucky across the counter. "Peter was so excited to tell us all about you two when he got back from Germany, we couldn't wait to meet you for ourselves."

"We're just grateful that you were so eager to have us. This has truly been wonderful." Lucy answered. "You have a beautiful family." She glanced over to the living room where half a dozen children of various ages were all squirming about, playing some sort of tag while one of their uncles tried to dodge airborne nerf pellets.

Margaret piped up, holding a pair of worn out cargo shorts in front of her, "It's a good thing you've brought Addy, we were beginning to wonder if there were ever going to be any girls to even out all these rambunctious youngsters."

Nina sighed and lifted a hand to her stomach, "After four boys, we're desperately hoping for a girl." She set a stack of shirts aside. "We're waiting until he or she is born to find out, but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet."

Lucy smiled, "Well I wish you luck whatever it turns out to be. We've found that you don't get an instruction manual either way."

"Oh don't I know it." Nina replied lightheartedly. "Addy seems to be warming up to everyone pretty good though." She commented.

"She's never been scared of much." Lucy replied simply.

Nina looked past Bucky's shoulder and chuckled. "Speaking of which, it looks as if she's made a new friend."

Lucy and Bucky both turned to see Peter walking in, Addy sitting happily in his arms. Somehow she had gotten a hold of a pack of stickers and was now placing them sporadically across his face. "I rather think it becomes me." He stated, setting the giggling Addy down on the counter so that her short legs could hang off the side. Carefully he set to work peeling the baby animal stickers from his face.

Lucy opened her mouth to make a comment but was interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone, buzzing in her pocket. She and Bucky exchanged brief glances, both knowing there were only a handful of people who had that number. "I should probably take this, I'll be just a minute." She said before excusing herself and heading to the front door and the porch just beyond.

Feeling the door latch behind her, Lucy lifted the phone to her ear. "I thought the whole point of us taking some time off was to get away from work."

"In our line of work 'time off' is a term used loosely." Coulson voice stated from the other side of the line.

Lucy sighed, feeling the warm breeze of the outdoors drifting over her arms. "Where are you?"

"Naval carrier off the coast of Myanmar. Bit of a standoff with Jiying and her army of Inhumans. I'm sending coordinates to you now, there's a quinjet docked forty miles from your location."

"Coulson—" Lucy interrupted.

"Look I know you said you needed some time away, but there isn't time for us to argue about this. Morse is out of commission and Hunter and May are still tied up with bringing her back. This isn't me asking, this is me telling you we need backup, and you two are the only ones I know I can trust right now." Coulson answered hurriedly, but emphatically.

Bucky stepped out through the front door a few minutes later to see Lucy leaning against the railing, one arm crossed over the other. "You realize we don't actually work for you anymore." She stated into the phone.

"This isn't about whose on the payroll, this is about doing the right thing. We're in over our heads here and we could really use you backing us up." Coulson said from the other side.

Lucy sighed once more, thoughtful. "We'll think about it, but I'm not promising anything." Coulson affirmed, then clicked off leaving her in silence.

"We're not going." Bucky said taking a spot next to her along the railing.

Lucy slid the phone back into her pocket. "You don't even know what it is."

"It doesn't matter." He said shaking his head. "We promised each other we were done, and this time I intend for us to actually keep that promise."

"Buck, the team is in trouble, what do you propose we do, just hang them out to dry?" Lucy countered.

"Whatever mess they got themselves into this time is their problem. We don't work for S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore, we're not responsible for cleaning up their messes." He answered firmly.

Lucy ran a hand through her hair. "I know we said no more fighting, no more missions, but this is different. This is helping out someone in need."

"Don't you see? That's exactly what we did last time, helping someone in need, and look where it got us. I nearly lost you, Lou, and I'm sorry but I'm not doing that again." He insisted, placing a firm grip on her arm. Peter watching silently from inside as Lucy and Bucky argued on the porch. The women were too busy working through the mound of clothes to notice. Addy sat quietly on the counter, distracted by the page of baby ducks in her hand.

"Is this really the way we want to live? Shying away from things because of fear?" She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head softly. "I don't want that to be us, Buck. It's not who we are."

"We're not the same people we used to be." Bucky argued. "We didn't used to have anything to lose, but we do now. There are people who depend on you, Lou. People who would be affected if something happened to you. It isn't about being afraid, it's about realizing that anything you do could come back around to the people you care about."

"Don't lecture me about how my actions affect others." Lucy said shortly. "You don't think I understand that? I would do anything for you, you know that. I'd give my life if it meant Addy was safe, hell I practically did, and I'd do the same for any one of those people in there. I'd do it in a heartbeat."

"So why do you insist on inching yourself as close to that possibility at every opportunity?" Bucky asked, his voice rising.

"Because it's the right thing to do!" She exclaimed. "Coulson and the team are in real trouble, you know as well as I do they wouldn't have called us up unless they absolutely had to." She took a moment to bring her tone back down to one of calm. "You know that I would be devastated if something happened to you, just as you would if something happened to me, but this is bigger than us. We don't have the luxury of worrying about ourselves, not when others are worried about the people they care about and can't do anything about it."

Bucky turned away, biting his tongue. "Do you really want to go?"

"No." Lucy answered simply. "But I think we need to."

He exhaled slowly. "I guess it's decided then."

Lucy pinched her lips together. She hated when Bucky got like this, agreeing even when he clearly disproved of the idea in question. Wriggling under his arm she wrapped her own around his waist. "I guess we should go give our excuses for leaving." She said with a sigh after a few minutes of both standing in silence. "I was really beginning to like it here."

A few minutes later the two re-entered the house, Nina and Margaret just finishing up the laundry. "Here, I'll show which clothes go in which room." Nina said as the two women gathered the stacks in their arms and headed for the stairs.

"Everything alright?" Peter asked.

Lucy forced a smile, "Oh it's nothing it's just work. They called and said they needed someone last minute." She hesitated a moment. "I hate to have to ask this, especially with it only being the second day of our week here, but would it be possible for you guys to look after Addy, just for a few days until we can get everything sorted out at work?"

"Of course, you don't have to worry about it, we're more than happy to have her." He looked down at the brown haired girl who was eagerly waiting to slap a bear cub to his forearm. She erupted into more giggles and he just laughed in return. "You know who I bet wants some stickers?" He said offering to help the girl down. "Uncle Mark loves stickers, especially the kitten ones!"

Addy quickly looked over to the living room where Mark was lying flat on the living room floor, exhausted from being repeatedly dog piled on by the herd of boys. Her smile widening she took off in his direction, sticker pack flapping wildly behind her.

"Just stay safe, okay." Peter said once the girl was gone and he knew no one else was going to overhear him. Lucy sent him a questioning glance. "Look I know you're not really travel assistants." He said with a chuckle.

"W—what do you—" Lucy stammered quickly, trying to figure out how Peter had seen through their cover so quickly.

"Relax Alisse it's fine. Or should I say Lucy?" Lucy's heart rate sped up, and Bucky felt her squeeze his hand a little tighter. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." Peter assured. "And I don't need to know where you're really going, honestly I doubt I even want to know."

"But—how did you—" Lucy questioned.

Peter glanced over to Bucky. "While getting everything squared away with your father's apartment I—"

"Wait, you know Fredrick's my father?" Lucy asked incredulously, trying to keep her voice down.

"As I was saying," Peter continued, ignoring her interjections, "while I was dealing with it I became a bit of a history buff, particularly with things surrounding the Second World War. I'm sure you could imagine my surprise when one of the faces in the books staring back at me was the same one I had just seen in person a few weeks earlier."

Lucy and Bucky both still stood tense and unmoving. "Of course I then had to do some more research on this 'James Barnes' and eventually I started connecting the dots."

"But how did you know who I was?" Lucy asked, her eyebrows still pinched together.

"Well that was a bit more difficult, in the end it was the photographs that gave it away." Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out a faded photo of Lucy at eight years old. "I had noticed the resemblance before, but didn't think anything of it, attributing it to genetics. But since I'd already figured out about your friend here, I was able to think about it in a new light."

Lucy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You don't seem too freaked out for someone who found out they've got two ghosts standing in their house."

Peter shook his head calmly. "I get it. I mean not the whole not aging and whatever deal that you've got going on, that still makes no sense to me, but I get why you felt the need to hide it. I'll admit I was a bit freaked out at first, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. You needed to protect yourselves, you needed to protect Addy, and you wanted to protect us."

"So you're saying no one else knows?" Bucky asked.

Peter nodded. "Your secret is safe with me. Just knowing there is someone out there doing something to protect us is good enough for me."

Lucy's face relaxed and she gave him a forced smile. "I don't really know what to say."

"Don't say anything." He said waving them off. "Just go do whatever it is you have to do, I'll cover for you."

"Second quinjet ready to land." Coulson sated.

Skye turned towards him from where she was sitting. "Who else is coming; who did you call?" Coulson didn't reply but his silence answered her question. "Coulson, they left the team for a reason. Don't you think they've sacrificed enough to deserve at least some time off before calling them back in?"

"Skye, your mother can suck the life out of someone just by touching their skin." Coulson said flatly. "Now I know you've got powers of your own, but do you really think we're prepared to deal with this sort of thing?" She simply stared back, not having a response. A few seconds later she watched the screen showing the two familiar figures step out of the quinjet and board the ship.

"Might as well give them a proper welcome to this nuthouse." Skye commented before rising from her chair and heading for the door.

"I'm assuming Coulson filled you in already." Skye said after greeting her friends.

"Partially." Lucy said.

"Though somehow I get the feeling it's going to be a bit of trial and error regardless." Bucky added.

Skye nodded, leading them inside. "Every Inhuman is different, so there are no set rules. But we aren't bad people, just mislead." She added quickly. "We don't want to kill them if we can help it, they don't understand the side they're fighting for."

"How are you doing with that, by the way? The whole 'Inhuman' thing." Lucy asked.

Skye shrugged, "It's been an adventure I guess. There's a lot to process and not a whole lot of time to do that in." The trio proceeded down a second flight of stairs to the lower deck. She handed each of them a loaded I.C.E.R. and said, "Basically, keep them busy as best you can."

"Where are you going?" Lucy asked when she saw Skye had no intentions of sticking with them.

"To find my mother." She said simply. "Oh, and I almost forgot. If you see my dad wandering around, just…tell him to move on or something." She added with a shrug and then hurried down the hall.

"Who the hell is her dad?" Lucy asked after Skye disappeared.

"No idea," Bucky replied, "but I don't think that's him." Lucy turned to follow his gaze only to see an angry looking woman charging at them.

"This was definitely not in my training." Lucy noted as the woman leapt into the air and morphed into a bear before her feet returned to the ground. "Is it bears you're supposed to play dead with, or is that something else?" She said as she dodged one of the woman's sharp claws.

"Somehow I get the feeling it doesn't apply in this situation." Bucky replied back as he swung around the bear, wrapping his arms around its neck. It let out a loud snarl before morphing into a cat, slipping easily out of his grip. It ran quickly behind his back and he turned to follow it. In a moment it had grown to a tiger, fangs bared and tail flicking behind it.

A rope off to the side caught Lucy's eye and she rushed to cut it free from its stronghold, leaving her with a good sized piece in her hand. Quickly she tied a knot and worked out a strategy in her mind. The tiger was crouched, ready to pounce, with Bucky standing opposite of it. Quietly Lucy stepped out behind the animal and with a sudden burst, leapt towards it. She felt it wrenching its body back and forth as she pulled the looped rope around its neck and gripped tightly with her legs.

"Now, Bucky!" She yelled, and Bucky sprang into action, swinging forcefully at the creature's roaring head. Pausing only a second on each form, it morphed into several different animals, only to find itself still trapped in each one. With a final blow, Bucky felt the animal finally go unconscious and they watched as it transformed back to the woman.

They didn't, however, have time to congratulate each other as Lucy looked up to see another man already storming in. "Please don't tell me you change into animals too." She said, catching her breath.

The man didn't respond but simply scowled back at them, his hands outstretched at his sides. They both watched as the air around his hands clouded and a cold front of air descended on the room. Bucky readied himself to charge at the man but was taken aback when he saw a figure sailing through the air, crowbar in hand. He watched in amusement as Lucy rammed the object hard into the unsuspecting man's head, knocking him out in one blow.

Having succeeded in her goal she turned and walked back towards Bucky who had an inquisitive smirk playing across his face.

"What?" She asked, tossing the crowbar aside. "I didn't really feel like getting frozen to death again." He just laughed and put his arm around her shoulder, the two walking out of the room together.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing." Bucky replied.

"You were giving me that look." She argued, raising an eyebrow at him.

"It was just unexpected that's all." He said with a chuckle.

Both heard the sound of footsteps to their left and turned simultaneously, drawing their I.C.E.R.S. towards the sound.

"Don't shoot, it's us." May exclaimed hurriedly as she and Lincoln raised their arms in the air.

Lucy and Bucky both lowered their weapons. "Any word on where Jiying is?" Bucky asked.

Lincoln shook his head. "No sign of her yet, but she's definitely here somewhere." The four all froze, feeling the floors and walls around them trembling. "I'm going to wager a guess and say Daisy just found her though." Lincoln added as the quaking ceased. Lucy's eyes shot quickly to the stairwell, but three more Inhumans were already approaching from the other end of the hallway.

"Go find Skye, we can handle this." May said, motioning for the two to leave. Lucy nodded and they rushed to the stairs, climbing their way once again to the upper deck.

Lucy inhaled sharply seeing the color quickly draining from Skye's face, her mother's hands gripped around it. "Bucky, wait!" Lucy yelled as he barged past her heading straight for the two women.

Jiying frowned at the man charging towards her and released her grip on Skye to focus on him. Skye scrambled back, trying to regain herself, and Lucy hurried to help her. "He doesn't understand what he's getting into." She sputtered. "She'll kill him!" Lucy nodded, but Skye wasn't satisfied. "He's got no defense, you've got to get him to back off."

Lucy pinched her eyebrows together and looked up to see Bucky deflect one of Jiying's advances with the metal of his arm. "God luck with that." He said smugly as she curled her fingers around the smooth metal. His smirk faded as he felt the energy being ripped away from his body regardless, and he looked up to see her smiling over him as he slowly fell to his knees.

Lucy faintly registered hearing Skye's voice calling after her, begging her to be careful, as she marched vehemently towards Jiying, her jaw set. "Let go of him." She commanded loudly. She saw Bucky flash her a glance telling her to get away but she ignored it. "I said, let him go!" She repeated, louder than before.

"Why, you're too impatient to wait for your turn?" Jiying asked. Lucy set her jaw and lunged at Jiying, pulling her shoulders towards her and driving her knee into the woman's stomach. Jiying recoiled and released her grip on Bucky who quickly fell back, gasping for air.

"Impressive." Jiying said, regaining her posture. "Or just stupid, I'm not entirely sure which."

The redhead just gritted her teeth, "Maybe you should try taking on someone your own size." The corner of Jiying's mouth twitched upward and Lucy saw the telltale spark in her eye signaling she was about to lunge at her. Effortlessly Lucy dodged to the side, grabbing Jiying's forearm firmly with her own hand.

As she expected, Jiying instantly set to draining Lucy of her energy, but she was only greeted with a smirk. "Weren't expecting that, were you?" Lucy said as she reciprocated Jiying's actions.

"I've heard of you." Jiying breathed, both now fighting for the upper hand. "HYDRA's little puppet."

"Yeah, and you're so much better." Lucy quipped back.

Jiying glared back a Lucy, her expression fierce. "They thought they could use science to make you something great, but they were wrong. They tried to do themselves what nature had already done itself, but science will never make you what I am." Jiying wrenched her arm sideways and Lucy let out a small gasp as she felt the energy rushing out of her body and into Jiying.

Lucy fervently tried to fight back, to pull back some of the energy from Jiying, but the harder she tried the faster she weakened. Jiying's powers were far stronger than her own and Lucy suddenly felt very vulnerable. She finally understand what it felt like to be her own victim. She blinked several times, trying to fight the fuzziness crowding her senses and vaguely registered Bucky shouting something indiscernible.

Just as Lucy was about to give in Jiying let go, kicking her forcefully to the ground. Lucy felt herself being pushed onto her side, everything still feeling as though it were spinning. Jiying was saying something to her, but her muddled brain couldn't process it. All she felt was the searing pain shooting up her spine where it all seemed to pool in her pounding head.

"Please, don't." She pleaded through strangled breaths, though she couldn't be sure if the words had really been out loud. Her whole body felt like it was burning up from the inside and the pain didn't show any sign of stopping.

"Skye, do something!" She heard Bucky shouting, though his voice seemed miles away. Lucy felt the deck shake, and she knew Skye had done just that. Jiying was thrown violently forward and Lucy saw her sprawled against the ground, Skye charging after her mother once again.

Pushing the searing pain away as best she could, Lucy rolled herself back towards Bucky who was hurriedly scrambling towards her. "Are you okay?" He asked anxiously.

Lucy ignored his question. "You're bleeding." She said reaching up towards his brow where a small trickle of blood was running down his face. She was doing her best to make herself seem fine, but Bucky saw through it in a heartbeat.

"Lou, I swear to god, if you try and—"

Lucy knew what he was going to say but proceeded anyway to place her hand on his face, trying to heal him. "It—it won't work." She said in disbelief, lowering a trembling hand.

Bucky was letting out a defeated sigh. "It's a good thing too, if it had I would've had to bring you back to life just so I could kill you myself. You're a class act stubborn idiot sometimes, you know that?"

"Buck?" Lucy murmured softly, and he met her gaze. "I—I—can't move my legs." He saw the concern in her eyes and he searching for a way to reassure her, even though he had already come to a fairly definite conclusion as to why. Lucy and Bucky both heard a cracking snap, and turned instantly to see Skye's father holding Jiying in his arms, her body limp and lifeless.