Baz was not going to be okay.

At least, not right away.

She still woke up sometimes and needed to silently check Bucky's breathing as he snoozed next to her.

She still needed Natasha and Gia to bring her tea and stay with her when she had panic attacks.

Clearly, that one bad dream was only the tip of the iceberg of problems.

Baz was still fighting crime through all of this, although the Avengers were between world-ending villains at the moment. She mostly took care of bomb threats, being the demo expert on the team. It was almost calming to her, being in her element. She spent a bunch of time in the Middle East, setting or diffusing bombs for one group or another. No one came with her on the trips to active warzones, except for her custom Stark-manufactured bomb suit.

She loved that suit. It used some of the same technologies as space suits; cooled with a tubing and cold water system and reinforced with Kevlar and titanium panels, it was lightweight, air conditioned, and generally much easier to work in than standard-issue Army bomb suits.

Things like that were just one of the benefits of being related to Tony Stark.

Sometimes, she called Gia in the middle of the night on these trips, whispering so no one could hear her fears. Baz's absence was rough on both of them, but Gia encouraged her to do what would help her heal.

She communicated with Bucky almost nonstop when she was away from home. The only time she ever cut their calls off was when she actually had to go out and work. They fell asleep on the phone (Bucky waited for her to fall asleep and then hung up so her phone wouldn't die). They didn't actually talk very often. They just carried their phones around with them as they went about their days, with the occasional "Sorry, dropped my keys," or "I wish you were here to smell this bacon."

Tony was less insistent on constant communication with his sister, although they sent each other daily updates (Baz was pretty sure that JARVIS sent Tony's, judging by the formal language and proper punctuation.)

He usually asked her how she was feeling, and Baz answered for both Tony's and JARVIS's sake, writing a paragraph for the AI and a TL;DR for her brother.

She would think for a bit, then include the same things as she always did: she was currently okay, but she was on edge all the time; she didn't sleep well in her unfamiliar surroundings; and she was avoiding the causes of her issues. JARVIS would send her a short reply filled with concern almost immediately, and she would tell him not to worry about her. JARVIS inevitably did, and the cycle would continue the next day.

It was a cycle that Baz began to get comfortable in. She went from going to Israel for three weeks at a time to three months at a time. She called Bucky less. She ignored more of Tony's messages. She worked in more and more dangerous situations. And her mental state went, as she put it, "over the waterfall in a plastic cup."

"Okay. This is-it's just ridiculous. I haven't heard from Baz in over a month. What do I do, Pepper? You know things about girls."

"Well, Tony, maybe you should try calling her instead of having JARVIS send her emails. She might appreciate the extra effort or, alternatively, it'll get her out of whatever rut she's driven herself into."

Tony nodded gratefully. "Thanks, Pep. You're the best."

Pepper smiled and went back to the phone call that Tony had (albeit politely and accidentally) interrupted.

Tony stepped out of her office and sighed. "JARVIS, call Baz."

"Yes, sir. Do you want me to be there too?"

"Not this time. I need to talk to her alone."

"Of course, sir."

"Baz? You there?"

"Tony. Hi."

Tony breathed a sigh of relief, glad his sister wasn't in a grave somewhere in Pakistan. "How are you doing? You've ignored like thirty of my messages."

"Noted."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "I'd appreciate some multisyllabic words if you don't mind."

"Don't quote me to me, Tony."

"But...c'mon, it's a good quote!"

Baz's exasperated sigh crackled a little on the way through the line. "It doesn't even count. 'Noted' and 'Tony' are both two syllables."

"Shush."

"If you say so."

"Anyway, I thought I would try and convince you to come home. We all miss you, sis."

"I'm not...at my best right now. Maybe it's better if I stay here."

"Well then I'm coming to visit you. This behavior isn't like you."

"No! No, don't do that."

"There's a Stark jet headed to Tel Aviv tomorrow morning whether I'm on it or not. And you're getting on it and coming home. I'm worried about you, Baz."

"Tony. Please. Don't send that jet."

"Why not?"

"Because I am a hot fucking mess, Anthony."

"Ooh. Bringing out the full names and everything. Fine, Basil."

"God, Tony, I don't want you to see me like this."

"Then I'll send Bucky."

"Not him either."

"Gia. Peter. I'll even find Wade and fucking send him if that's what it takes."

Baz put her face in her hands and Tony heard a muffled, "Fine. Send Wade and Vanessa."

"I'm not sending both. Those nymphos'll screw each other the whole way there and back and if I wanted my plane to light up under black lights, I would have used flourescent paint. It's one or the other."

"Fine. Wade. Please. He's seen me in worse states than this. Oh, and send Spider-Boy please."

"I'm not sending two fucking planes, Baz. You can't tell me you trust those two together. They'll manage to crash in an active warzone on the way over."

"Fine. Just Wade, then. And no one at the airport to meet me except Vanessa and Parker. If I see anyone else I swear I'll blow them up."

"Okay, sis. You got it. Wade'll find you tomorrow if you don't send JARVIS your location."

"Sending it now. Please leave me alone now."

"Got it. Bye, Baz."

Tony heard a quiet, "Fuck me," from the other end before the call cut off. His eyebrows furrowed as he worried about his sister, but he reminded himself that she'd be home tomorrow. Then he could fix everything.

A/N-Next chapter, there shall be memes.