I have been dreadfully amiss in failing to acknowledge Browarod for being my test audience and Slayer of Extraneous Commas. His input has gone a long way toward making this story better.

Despite Tony's misgivings, Rhodey's enthusiasm about the possibility of a mission was contagious and it was quick work to determine which version of the leg designs to include in the redesigned armor. It took a little longer to finalize the armaments but the specifications were finished within two hours. Fabrication would take six hours, so it was entirely possible that Rhodey would be able to participate if the mission went forward.

Their work finished, they went back upstairs to find out how the others were faring. Natasha and Clint were fairly certain the entire intelligence report had been manufactured but didn't yet have any proof despite having Friday scan the files for digital inconsistencies.

Steve, Sam, and Vision were poring over maps of the region, examining the area of the possible HYDRA base and the vague location of the alleged enhanced, and discussing strategy. Wanda was watching half-heartedly and levitating the fruit from the fruit bowl.

Tony had checked the progress of the document search while they were in the elevator-nothing new yet. He and Rhodey joined the conversation on strategy, debating timing, approach, and everything else. The routine they had established in the past was irrelevant, both due to certain absences and overall numbers.

And, of course, Tony wouldn't be participating directly. "I don't care that you have to leave me here, I will be on comms," he said bluntly when the issue came up and no one tried to argue. Having someone reviewing the feeds from beyond the fray would be beneficial, especially if HYDRA was there and put up a fight.

The preliminary discussion was finished by mid afternoon; more specific plans would have to wait for additional intel, assuming the mission would occur at all. Steve dismissed everyone but Natasha and Clint from their pursuits and suggested they rest in case they had to set out that night.

Rhodey took that advice. Tony didn't, on account of having had a nap before lunch. He lingered near Natasha and Clint and watched what they were doing, which mostly amounted to methodically going through the report and arguing about the provenance and reliability of each piece of information. Then his watch started pinging, and he opened the screen to see several documents had been identified by the search parameters. He stepped away and pulled out his phone, flicking the screen into the air and scanning each document quickly.

"Friday, where is Steve?" he asked, already striding toward the door.

"Captain Rogers is in the office."

It was a short distance to the office, so he was there before he had fully settled on what to say. The door was open; he knocked on the doorjamb. "I've got something," he said, holding up his phone.

Steve straightened in his chair and minimized the map he'd been studying. Tony sent the data onto Steve's monitor.

"So far there are six more documents indicating the presence of HYDRA in that area," he said. "The most recent of them is from a few days before Nat dumped these files on the internet."

"Do we have any reason to believe they're still there?" Steve asked, examining each document in turn.

"Do we have any reason to believe they aren't?" Tony countered. "We never raided this area; we didn't know we needed to. There haven't been any reports of HYDRA activity here, so they're good at lying low. If you want a reason to go, here it is. But if you're still hesitating, and I understand why you would, this can provide reason for that, too: we have nothing recent to go on."

Steve silently considered this. "What do you think?" he asked at length.

"With this, I think the situation is more easily salvaged if we take the mission. We know for certain there should be traces of HYDRA, and dealing with that now means we won't have to later. It will be good to confirm they're no longer a threat."

Steve nodded. "Friday, tell the team to meet at the conference table in fifteen minutes."

When everyone had assembled, Tony explained what the program had found, displaying the documents for them to see, and Steve summarized their conversation. "So, do we go?"

"Let's do it," Sam said. "As we said earlier, it's the only way to come out of this on top."

There were murmurs of agreement from around the table.

"All right, let's tell the panel." Steve put his phone to his ear. The call was answered almost immediately, judging by how quickly he said, "Yes, sir. We are willing to accept the mission. Do we have permission to proceed?" He nodded, then hung up. "We're on. When should we go?"

During the earlier discussion they had concluded that arriving before dawn or after sunset gave them the best chance to do reconnaissance without being seen if HYDRA personnel remained in the area. The quinjet could get there in just under six hours, so either time was still possible, though trying to get there before dawn on Sunday would mean leaving immediately. Before dawn on Monday was also a possibility, but that would be cutting it close to their deadline.

Tony didn't contribute to that debate, since it mattered to him not at all. Most of the team had no preference either; Rhodey's preference was to wait long enough for his suit to be ready.

Steve agreed that more air support would be helpful, as would more time to plan their strategy. It had been months since any of them had done a similar mission. "Wheels up at eight a.m.," he said finally. "We'll talk tactics after dinner."

Dinner happened shortly after their impromptu meeting was finished, then they gathered around the conference table once again. Tony took a chair along the side since his input wasn't relevant and he listened while using his phone to confer with Friday about satellite placement over the area and what the scans showed (or failed to show, in this case). Since he wasn't going to be there, they needed as much data as possible. The number of trees in the area was an annoyance, but nothing he couldn't handle.

Partway through the conversation, he wandered back to the kitchen for some coffee. Laura was there, perusing the cupboards and the contents of the fridge. "They'll be gone long enough that taking some food would be a good idea," she explained when he asked. "Especially since Clint doesn't care for the rations and I'm sure he's not the only one."

"He definitely isn't," he agreed. "Unfortunately, all the rations you can buy are similarly uninspiring. I've checked. Maybe I should look into fixing that. I know the military would be interested."

She laughed. "Clint would be a willing taste tester."

"Need help?"

"No, I'm just about done. Take the water pitcher back with you."

Taking the pitcher actually entailed taking a tray with the water pitcher, a stack of glasses, and a small plate of cookies over to the table; he almost didn't have room to stash his coffee in with everything else. He saw Clint eyeing his coffee as he set the tray down and he hurriedly reclaimed it before Clint got any ideas.

The strategy meeting was done by eight so everyone could get enough sleep. As the team dispersed, Tony tapped Rhodey on the shoulder. "How about a test flight?"

Rhodey didn't need to be convinced and within minutes they were in the garage, giving the new War Machine armor a once-over. With Rhodey's leg braces on, getting into the armor was just like it used to be, and Rhodey spent a while walking around in it before taking a brief flight around the building.

"Everything looks and feels good," came Rhodey's voice through Tony's earpiece.

"I'm still concerned about collateral damage when you've got the braces on inside that thing," Tony said, watching the suit carefully and seeing nothing obviously amiss. "Do you think you can take them off after stepping into it?"

"That seems like a lot of extra hassle with no benefit," Rhodey replied as he carefully landed in front of Tony. His faceplate popped up. "Why don't we just see how it goes tomorrow?"

"Because it's already my fault you trashed your spine. I don't want it to be my fault when you trash your legs as well."

"That wasn't your fault, and it wouldn't be your fault," Rhodey said, patting him gingerly on the shoulder. "The shielding on the reactor should be interesting. It'll be fun not to glow like a nightlight while we scope out the area."

"Keep an eye on it, there's a risk it'll overheat."

"Take it easy, Tony, I've got this." Rhodey headed back inside.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, following.

They loaded the suit onto the quinjet then went upstairs, parting ways to head to their respective bedrooms. Once Tony arrived at his, however, he realized he wasn't going to be able to sleep just yet. And he still had to decide where to supervise the action from. The conference screen was the best in the building so he'd use that, with the addition of one or two smaller screens he borrowed from elsewhere.

He was finishing his set up when he realized Steve was watching him. "Can you be helped?"

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Answering a question with a question, I like it. I can't sleep yet and I needed to do this eventually so it might as well be now. Anyway, I can sleep after the rest of you leave."

"Any second thoughts?"

"About the mission? No, you've got that pretty well nailed down. About letting Rhodey fly in an untested suit? Hell, yes."

"We'll keep an eye on him," Steve promised.

"Two pairs of eyes weren't enough to keep him from crash landing," Tony said bitterly, yanking on a power cord harder than was necessary. The cord promptly popped out of the wall outlet. He swore under his breath.

Steve plugged it back in before he could crawl over. "He won't need to be flying at that kind of altitude this time."

"He shouldn't have needed to fly at that altitude then, either," he said with a sour expression.

Steve sighed. "Tony, I'm sorry he got hurt, but you can't blame me for that. At least you still have your best friend; mine is in cryo and may never really come back."

Sometimes he remembered just how young Steve was and how much shit life had thrown his way during his strange, interrupted existence. "Yeah, I know," he said softly. "But they're working on that."

Steve looked startled. "What do you know about it?"

"Very little. In fact, that's all I know."

Steve seemed suspicious but didn't press the issue. "We should both head to bed," he said lamely.

"Big day tomorrow," Tony agreed.

He went to his room then and tried to sleep; at most he dozed, thoughts of crashes and catastrophe crowding his mind whenever he closed his eyes. Having the team go off without him made him anxious even though them doing missions without him wasn't a new idea.

The final straw was a nightmare in which his old vision of dead teammates became a vision of dead teammates scattered amongst the trees in a snowy forest, the chest of Rhodey's armor black and smoking. He couldn't stay in bed after that.

He took a shower in hopes of appearing at least marginally more awake than he felt, then wandered down to his workshop to putter for a little while, as it was far too early for the others to be up. He spent a while tinkering with his suit before switching to his other project for a bit.

Friday alerted him when the others began gathering for breakfast and he went upstairs to join them. Not that he was particularly interested in eating anything; his dream still had his stomach in knots.

At eight o'clock sharp, the quinjet lifted off, full of Avengers and two coolers' worth of food while Tony, Laura, and the kids waved. Well, Tony didn't wave, but the kids were excited about seeing them off and more than made up for his lack of enthusiasm.

As soon as the jet was out of sight, Laura herded the kids back inside. Tony followed, not quite sure what he was going to do with the next several hours. It was Sunday, so there were newspapers to read, but that wouldn't take six hours and it wasn't as enjoyable without other people trying to steal sections before he was done with them. Still, it was something.

He felt very alone, sitting with the papers in the middle of the empty common room.

He dozed off a few times, the restless night catching up to him despite the anxiety keeping him on edge. Then Laura and the kids were there, insisting that he join them in an expedition to the compound's cafeteria. He reluctantly agreed and found the sheer level of noise and bustle to be difficult to handle. It was easy to forget just how many people lived and worked in the compound when he sequestered himself in the Avengers-only areas.

By the time they made it back to the quiet of the shared floors, it was nearly showtime. Coffee mug in hand, Tony turned on all of his screens and directed Friday what to display where. Two screen areas were still dark; those would show Rhodey's suit display and the birds-eye view from Redwing when the team was in action. He put in his earpiece and said, "Knock, knock, anybody home?"

"We were just betting on when you'd finally show up," Natasha's voice answered.

"Finally?" Tony scoffed. "You're still at least a half hour out. I had plenty of time."

"We are twenty-six minutes from arrival," Vision said.

"Close enough."

"Anything new from the satellites?" Steve asked.

"Nothing definite. Thermal scanning detected something a few hours ago, but it looks like it was wildlife. I'm sending the coordinates."

"We'll keep an eye out. Any other developments? More documents?"

"Not a peep."

"Acknowledged."

After that the line went mostly dead for a while, the murmur of background conversations occasionally breaking through, then the familiar sound of equipment being strapped on. Tony could hear the clank of Rhodey's armored feet on the deck and the crackle of electricity as Natasha tested her gauntlets.

"Earpieces in, report," came Steve's voice next, and each member reported in to verify their tech was working. Tony didn't pay attention to that part until Steve demanded, "Iron Man, report."

"Iron Man ready," he said.

"Visuals of the area are clear," Clint reported from the pilot's seat. "No sign of activity in the drop zone."

"Aerial reconnaissance, you are clear to launch," Steve said.

Tony's final two displays flickered to life as Rhodey and Sam initiated their respective scanners. Vision was also with them to scope out the area indicated in the 'intelligence' and then move on to the suspected HYDRA base.

As expected, there was absolutely nothing in the area Ross had wanted them to strike, not even signs of a hiker's campsite. After flying over the area twice in a grid pattern with Redwing scoping out under the trees and getting nothing, they cautiously closed in on the other set of coordinates.

They were about a half a mile out when Tony noticed some blips on his thermal scanner. "Guys, I've got heat signatures to your one o'clock. Falcon, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Sam stopped and sent Redwing closer, staying close to the trees. The display lit up with four shadowy figures that seemed to be removing camouflage from an old Jeep. "Yeah, I see them. Four hostiles, heavily armed. We're moving into position."

Tony followed their progress via Rhodey's display. A few moments of silence, the sounds of gunshots and a bright beam of light from Vision, and all four hostiles fell.

"Hostiles subdued. Their gear is definitely HYDRA," Sam reported. "From the footprints, looks like their hidey hole is to our ten o'clock. Scanning now."

"Iron Man, can you scan from above?" Steve asked.

"The thermal scanners aren't picking up anything. Falcon, try x-ray."

"I've got nothing," Sam said. "That's some camouflage."

"Rhodey, I'm going to-" Tony started.

"Just a moment," Vision said, then from Rhodey's perspective Tony could see him calmly drift toward the hillside and vanish within it. Maybe thirty seconds later he reappeared. "There are eight individuals in the main room and a dozen more in the barracks. If we can take down their shielding, the quinjet could make short work of the installation."

"But we'll have to go through them to take down the shielding," Steve said. "All right, the rest of us are coming to you. Do not engage unless provoked."

"Rhodey, when you get inside I want you to get to a computer terminal," Tony directed. "There's a chance I can copy all their files and take down the shields at the same time, but I'm going to have to take over your suit to do it."

"Roger that," Rhodey said agreeably.

Tony converted his phone display to a virtual keyboard and began typing commands furiously. "Friday, are you ready? You're going to have to take over his suit as soon as I disable the onboard AI so we don't leave him defenseless."

"Ready when you are, boss."

Steve and the others were close but hadn't yet arrived, so Tony said, "Rhodey, I'm taking over in three, two, one."

"Hello, Colonel," Tony could hear Friday's greeting through Rhodey's comm.

"Are we ready?" Steve asked. Apparently the answer was yes, because his next words were, "Vision, the door, please."

Vision used his gem to cut open the door, then the team filed in. Soon there were shouts and grunts and gunfire, but Tony had to shut all of it out to focus on getting Rhodey safely to a computer interface and then using Friday to hack in.

Not that it was hard. Maybe a minute later, documents and other files began appearing on one of his displays and, while the copying did its thing, he turned his attention to finding and disabling the shielding. He was especially interested in how they'd done it so he could either reproduce it or design a way to see through it.

It was an unpleasant surprise to find that it was the same stealth tech he'd been using for the quinjets. Given that HYDRA had been a parasite within S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades, it wasn't news that some of his tech had been repurposed for the shadow organization. He was still smarting over the use of the repulsor turbines for the Insight helicarriers that would've wiped him and millions of others off the map.

"Copying complete, boss," Friday said, jolting him out of his discontent.

"Great. Fry their systems."

Friday used the armor to overload the computer and cause a cascade failure that took everything offline.

"Their shield should be down," he reported, sitting back in his chair and taking a deep breath. Trying to do such things from a distance was more work than doing them in person.

"Copy that," Clint said. "I'm moving the jet into position. Everyone, get out now."

There was a burst of chatter on the comm, but Tony couldn't make out much more than 'injured' and 'Cap'. Rhodey was closest to the door and left first, so Tony took a few seconds to return control of the suit to him. It was easier for both of them that way.

The rest of the team trickled out, still fighting a few HYDRA soldiers as they made their escape. Wanda, Steve, and Natasha emerged last, and as soon as they did, Clint strafed the structure, dropping a bomb to seal the deal. The detonation knocked several of them to their knees.

"Sorry, guys. I had to nuke them from orbit, just to be sure."

"Nice," Rhodey said sarcastically.

"Barton, you need to land that bird now," Sam ordered. "We have wounded."

Rhodey turned to look so Tony could also see that Steve was on the ground with Natasha bent over him, trying to keep him from sitting up. There was blood everywhere.

"Shit." Rhodey said what Tony was thinking.

Everyone hurried over even as the whine of the quinjet's engines settled somewhere nearby.

"It's nothing, I'll be fine," Steve was insisting.

"Blood loss can kill even you," Natasha said, firmly pressing down on his abdomen.

Clint ran up with the first aid kit, and he and Sam piled gauze on the wounds, then held it on with more gauze wrapped around Steve's torso.

"Vision, can you carry him?" Sam asked.

"Of course."

Rhodey brought up the rear of the motley parade of superheroes piling back into the quinjet, so Tony could see almost everything. As soon as they were aboard, Clint got the jet airborne and pointed back home.

Vision carefully set Steve on a bunk. Sam went digging in the supplies and emerged with a straw and an energy drink. He stuck the straw in the bottle and handed it to Steve. "You need the fluids."

"What happened?" Tony asked finally.

"I had it handled," Wanda said fiercely. "But still he stepped between me and two of the soldiers as they fired. I tried to shield him but it was too late."

"He'd already taken at least one hit before that," Natasha said. "Without the shield-"

"Whoa, whoa, wait right there. What do you mean 'without the shield'?" Tony interjected.

"He doesn't have the shield," she said slowly, enunciating her words carefully as if he had a hearing problem.

"Why not?"

"I don't know, Tony, I thought maybe you did," she said with a hint of venom in her voice.

"Okay, I think this is a conversation that needs to happen later. In person. Because this is most definitely not my fault." Tony switched channels so he was only talking to Steve. "What's all this, Rogers? Are you trying to get yourself killed? You'd better make it back here alive or I'm going to kill you myself."

Steve just laughed. It sounded a little delirious to Tony's ears.

He switched to talk to Sam. "Dude, is he going to make it? Why the hell didn't he take the shield?"

"Yeah, he'll make it, and I have no idea. I wish I knew."

The next six hours absolutely dragged as he waited for the team to return, waited to ask Steve all sorts of questions, at the top of the list being 'What the hell?' He channeled the anxiety into taking apart his viewing setup, then taking apart the toaster, because it had pissed him off the other day.

Laura insisted that he join them for dinner, which she made and he only picked at. After she took the kids off to bed he realized that Lila had never asked him to read to her that day. Perhaps she hadn't picked a new book yet. Whatever the reason, he felt a little bereft at being left out of that, too.