TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter features a school shooting-type situation. If this could possibly trigger something, skip it.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any of the characters contained therein.

WORD COUNT: 1654

Darcy burst into the room, her cell phone clutched in her hand and playing the same news broadcast that was currently up on the big screen. "Tell me it's a mistake!" she half-sobbed, "Tell me they've got the wrong school or even the wrong classroom, anything!"

Maria shook her head sadly. "They didn't get it wrong. The team is on their way right now- hang on." She answered a video call, bringing up the image of a stern-faced politician whose name Darcy probably should know but didn't really care about it. "Senator," Maria greeted him coolly.

"Agent Hill," the senator said back, "Would you care to explain to me why the Avengers have been deployed to a hostage situation without authorisation?"

Darcy fumed. Who cared about authorisation when her baby was in danger?!

Luckily, Maria was there to communicate that very sentiment in a way that wasn't likely to get her fired. "With all due respect, Senator, you try telling an Avenger to not rush to the rescue of a family member." She gestured at the news broadcast about the grade school classroom being taken hostage. "That's right, Senator, one of those children is a close relative of an Avenger. In this case, they all felt it was better to act quickly and ask for forgiveness later, rather than sit around and wait for permission and possibly for her to die. You have children, don't you?"

The senator, suitably chastised, quickly ended the video call, telling Maria to wish the Avengers luck. Once that was taken care of, Maria turned her attention back to Darcy.

She knew she was one piece of bad news away from bursting into tears, but she had to know. "What's going on, Maria?"

Maria gently steered her to the nearest chair. "A man entered the school about an hour ago, armed with an assault rifle. He's already been identified as a father of one of the students; his wife filed for divorce last year on grounds of abuse, and she's just won a lawsuit for full custody of their son. The boy's classroom is right next to the one he entered, so we think he got mixed up and burst into the wrong room, looking to take his son."

Darcy choked out a sob. "Rebecca?"

"None of the children have been harmed," Maria assured her, "Although the teacher appears to have taken a few hits, and another staff member has been sent to the hospital. FBI is on the scene, and plans are being made to get the children out safely. And with the team being on the scene now, their chances just got a whole lot better."

That was Maria for you; she would give you all the facts, but knew how to do so without upsetting you any more than possible. But still…

"That's my little girl in there," Darcy whispered, "I don't think I'll be able to breathe until she's back in my arms."

Bucky felt like he couldn't breathe. When FRIDAY informed them of the situation, he was praying to whatever god existed that it was all a horrible nightmare, and that he would soon wake up in bed with his wife, their daughter sleeping safely and soundly in the next room.

But no matter how hard he tried to wake up, he couldn't. He was still on the Quinjet, en route to Rebecca's school and the hostage situation taking place there.

When they'd first sent her off to school, a huge part of Bucky had wanted to just bundle her up and have her tutored at home, instead. Even though her birth certificate was sealed, and measures were taken to keep any record of him having a child off the record, he would always fear that HYDRA would find out and come for his daughter. Frankly, when he found out that a man with a gun had attacked her school and taken her hostage, he was honestly more surprised to find out that it wasn't HYDRA or any one of Bucky's other enemies.

He stepped down off the ramp of the Quinjet, fighting the urge to charge in, beat down the gunman, scoop up his daughter, take her home, and never let her out of his sight. He clenched his fists at his side, watching while Steve held a quick but tense conversation with the FBI agent in charge, and stayed silent when they were lead to the makeshift command centre and filled in on everything.

The gunman had been identified, and his motives for the initial break-in were confirmed: he was an abusive, divorced father who'd just lost custody of his son and was trying to kidnap him out of the school. And somehow, he'd been too drunk to remember the correct classroom number, and now he'd locked himself in there with the teacher and twenty-one children. Including Rebecca.

Plans were made to incorporate the Avengers into the rescue mission. This required a lot more finesse than their usual missions. This was a delicate operation, and not one that could be solved by bursting in there and shooting things and busting heads.

Wanda and Bucky were both stationed just out of sight of the back window of the classroom, where they hoped to evacuate all the children if the classroom door was not an option (and it was looking like it wouldn't be). Wanda was using her telepathy to monitor the thoughts of the gunman and his hostages. "They're scared," she whispered over the comm, "They don't know what's going on. But Rebecca's staying calm. She knows you'll come for her." She gave Bucky a reassuring smile.

Steve was with the head negotiator, although he hadn't said a word, or even made his and the Avengers' presence known to the gunman. Sam, Thor, Tony, and Vision were flying overhead.

The negotiator was trying to convince the gunman to let the children go; the teacher himself offered to stay behind, so long as the kids went free. "He's considering it," Wanda murmured, "His mind is so scattered, so full of rage. He wants what he feels belongs to him – his son – and he's ready to go through anyone to get him."

The gunman made a new demand: he would let one child go if his son was brought to him in that child's place. They had ten minutes to bring the boy to the door, or he would start shooting, beginning with the child he planned to release.

That child was Rebecca.

The selfish part of Bucky wanted to beg them to go through with the deal, to save his little girl. But he knew he couldn't go through with dragging someone else's little boy into the arms of a gun-wielding maniac. So they had ten minutes to take down said maniac.

They didn't waste much of that time. The negotiator started talking again, claiming that he had agents fetching the boy, in order to draw the gunman's attention towards the door. Bucky and Wanda crept over to the building, pressing themselves against the brick wall below the windows, which Wanda telekinetically unlatched.

The gunman was growling at the negotiator through the door when Wanda pulled his rifle out of his hands, taking away the thing that made him the most dangerous. Bucky darted in through the window and immediately engaged. It took him less than a minute to take the scumbag down, and all of his self-control to not go any further in front of the kids.

"DADDY!" Rebecca cried, running up and latching herself onto his leg as soon as the FBI agents took the gunman away. They would probably have to deal with that later, since only select school administrators knew Rebecca was the daughter of the Winter Soldier, and now she had just announced it to her entire class.

But for now, he just held his daughter in his arms, relieved that she was finally safe.

Rebecca clung to her father all the way back home. She didn't remove her arms from around his neck until she spotted her mother, and practically launched herself into her arms, instead. The exhausted family excused themselves from the debrief, and retired to their apartment. Bucky stripped off his armour and collapsed onto the bed, joining his wife and daughter. Rebecca, wrapped in her mommy's arms, clutched at her daddy's undershirt with shaking fists. "I was so scared," she whispered, "I'm sorry. I tried to be brave like you, but it was so scary!"

When the tears started falling, Bucky gently turned her face up to look at him. "You have nothing to be sorry about," he told her, "Being brave isn't about not being scared. It's about not letting the fear control you."

"He's right," Darcy added, "When the big robot attacked in New Mexico, I was so scared that I would get burned or stomped on. But I didn't run around screaming and crying. And you didn't do that, either. I'm so proud of you, my Little Spark."

"You are?" Rebecca turned her wet eyes onto her mother. "Really?"

"Really, really."

Rebecca turned back to her father. "Do you get scared, Daddy?"

He kissed her on the forehead. "I was scared today, Маленькая Искра. I was terrified, just thinking about something bad happening to you."

"So was I," Darcy whispered into her daughter's hair.

Rebecca sniffled. "It was so scary. I knew Daddy would come to save me, but I was still so scared!" Her crying began in earnest, but her parents just held her tighter, shedding a few tears themselves after a stressful and terrifying day.

Is it just me, or do a lot of my chapters in this end with them cuddling in bed? By my count, Chapters 2, 11, and 13 all end that way, and other chapters usually feature some variant, though not necessarily at the end.

Маленькая Искра: Little Spark

Up next: Exhaustion