Edwin was fairly certain that he'd never seen Peggy move so quickly as she jostled Daniel into wakefulness while he did the same with Mr. Stark, who had steadfastly refused all attempts at getting him to go home.

"We can go see him," Peggy said, two inches from Daniel's face and trembling.

"Do you want my crutch or something?" he asked, tiredly, shoving up onto his feet as Angie roused Anna.

"I want to go see my husband, please and thank you," she snapped.

Daniel nodded and moved towards the hallway with her. "Agreed."

Two minutes later, six people were piled into Jack's tiny hospital room. The last one to go in, Daniel shut the door behind them as Peggy folded herself gently onto the side of the bed, brushing blonde hair off of Jack's forehead as she asked gently, "How are you feeling, darling?"

"Like someone shot me in the gut," he deadpanned.

"Don't worry," Howard spoke up from where he stood at the end of the hospital bed. "We're going to take care of whoever did this to you."

Jack's eye widened and he paled even further then he already was, and he startled them all when he snapped urgently, "No!"

"Sweetheart, whoever he is, he shot you," Anna reminded him, taking his hand that Peggy wasn't already clasping.

"You don't understand," Jack rasped, shaking his head viciously. "He said- he was- Oh god. It was Lieutenant Barnes; he's the one who shot me. He said my soulmark words… he shot me, and then he knocked me unconscious. This is the next thing I remember."

"Jack," Daniel drawled slowly, obviously not believing him. "You're exhausted and were maybe even hallucinating after you were shot."

"A dream brought on by the anesthetic?" Edwin offered.

"No!" Jack snarled, jerking his bare right arm into the air as he pointed at the gray words there. "He knew Peggy; he got that startled look in his eye – you know the one I mean – and he said these exact words to me before he knocked me out."

"Jackie," Daniel started patiently.

"Shut up, Susan," Jack snapped predictably. "And answer me this. I don't know what he is now, but he was there to kill me and he had the air of a man who'd killed many times over, so what I want to know is why, if he isn't our soulmate, would he leave me alive? He shot me once; I hit the floor. He stood over me and could've shot me in the head and finished me but he didn't. So I want you to tell me why." Silence met his demand and he said, "Exactly. Let's face it, we all know Barnes and Rogers aren't dead; they're out there somewhere. That's why our marks haven't faded."

"But they would've tried to find one another," Daniel pointed out. "Or Peggy, for that matter, and we would've heard about it by now."

What if…" Peggy shuddered at the very thought. "What if they… can't come to us?"

"POWs?" Anna murmured, wide-eyed.

Jack shook his head. "Barnes is no POW… I don't think. He wasn't dressed like it, from what I saw… but his eyes." He scanned the faces in the room as he finally stated inadequately, "There was something wrong in them… like he was," he winced. "Dead – or dazed."

"Drunk?" Daniel hazarded.

Again Jack shook his head and Peggy whispered faintly, "Brainwashed?"

"What?" Angie choked out.

Peggy turned her head to look at the men in the room, asking painfully, "What if it was HYDRA or something of the like? Dr. Ivchenko could brainwash people; who's to say that's not what they're doing to Bucky… or Steve?"

"They disappeared at different times," Howard finally reminded her at length. "Though I'm not about to strike anything out, it's highly unlikely that we'll find them together if there's actually something controlling them. Being around your soulmate is said to keep you grounded, right? If we're going with your line of thinking here, their being together would make it harder for them to be controlled."

"Then maybe they're in two separate HYDRA bases!" Peggy snapped.

Howard raked his hands over his face before demanding tiredly, "Can you describe the shooter, Thompson? Give me something to work with here."

"Barnes. Unkempt hair down to his jaw, black tactical gear uniform, and a gun I've never seen before in my life, but still Barnes." He paused, before admitting the craziest part of this: "And he had a metal arm."

Jack expected them all to look at him like he'd lost it, but that didn't happen. Instead, Howard exchanged a look with Eddie and Angie drawled suspiciously, "What?"

Howard sighed, glanced at Daniel, and answered, "You remember when you arrested me, how I said I was going to help you with your leg, right, Sousa?"

"Sure."

"So, I made blueprints for a robotic – metal – leg…"

"Don't tell me it was stolen," Peggy begged.

Howard took a deep breath, muttering, "Then I won't tell you."

"You think that they reworked the blueprints to work for an arm and it ended up on Bucky Barnes?" Angie summarized uncertainly.

"That seems a little far-flung," Daniel said.

"Like Mr. Stark said," Edwin asked. "In our world, are we really going to cross off any possibilities?"

Silence descended again until Howard said firmly, "Regardless, it really doesn't matter. I am going to find Steve, I am going to find Bucky, and I am going to find this shooter. If Bucky and the shooter are the same guy-"

"They are," Jack insisted.

"Then that bridge will be crossed when we come to it," Howard finished. "But only once we find them – and we will find them."

"Howard, we've talked about this," Peggy reminded him gently, looking caught between pity and hope – the same way she always did when he got caught up in this subject.

"No, Jack finally said it; they are alive, they are out there, and we will find them… it's the least I can do to… atone."

"Howard…"

"And until then," Howard said, suddenly stretching a bright smile across his face. "I redrew those blueprints, Agent Sousa. How about you come by my place after you're all back at yourselves and we'll discuss it?"

"I'd like that," Daniel agreed, going along with the subject change.

"Great!" Howard gave one more general nod as a parting gesture, shoved his hands in his pockets, and made his way out of the room. "I'll see you all soon!"

Once Howard was gone, Edwin placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder and advised, "Don't get too excited yet; those plans are still in a rather rudimentary phase."

Daniel shrugged. "That's alright; I can be patient for something that I wasn't expecting to get in the first place. It'll be worth it in the end, I'm sure."

"True enough," Peggy said with a shrug, biting her lip as she stared thoughtfully at the door that Howard had closed behind him.

Sensing something of her thoughts, Angie reached over and hugged her from behind. Daniel sat down on bed behind Anna and took her free hand, and Edwin completed their nearly subconscious chain when he put his hands on Angie's shoulders. In the middle of a troubled moment like this one, it often helped when they could simply all be together… but even then they never felt quite… whole. Though they were all happy to have the soulmates that they did, their bond still wasn't complete… and the sad truth was that there was nothing that could make the bond truly whole save for their two missing soulmates.

Thanks for R&R-ing! TBC: stay tuned for the sequel - a Captain America/Avengers crossover, Pieces of the Puzzle!