One week after coming home, Bucky was asleep in bed next to Summer and dawn was only just breaking outside of their windows. Adelaide was snoozing in her own bed which was only a few feet away from theirs, and all three of them were sleeping seemingly peaceful. But looks could be deceiving.

Bucky's nightmares used to be theatrical things where Summer would wake up right away the very minute he'd start writhing in misery or clenching his fists in the sheets, his distress obvious and easy to catch early. But now they seemed to come on much more subtly, and Bucky wouldn't move an inch as he dreamed. It was almost like he was paralyzed until he woke, forced to just lie there and watch his worst memories or fears play like a movie in his mind's eye. This time the nightmare wasn't of his memories but of his fears when it came to his family and their future, and those were always the very worst.

Sometimes he would dream of being ripped away from Summer and their kids again, or of them being taken from him, or some sort of combination of the two. He'd hear Adelaide's cries from the night he was arrested, see that look of innocent and heartbroken horror on David's face and watch tears fall from Summer's eyes once again, only with a sense of finality that was unmistakable. Every time, the worst part of the dream was the same: being utterly powerless to do a thing to protect his family and the people that he loved the most, and knowing that he'd never see them again.

Then, just as the dream was reaching its end, Adelaide's piercing, terrified cry in his ears jarred him awake. He shot up in bed out of a rapid, deep instinct, and he looked around wildly in the almost-dark as the sound of Addie's cries lessened from its terrified pitch to her more normal cry. As his eyes adjusted and the last traces of his dream faded, he blinked and realized that he was watching Summer walk over to Adelaide's crib and pick her up.

He furrowed his brows, still trembling slightly from the stupid dream as he muttered, "Summer?"

Adelaide quiet now that Summer had picked her up, Summer looked over at Bucky and then said with surprise, "Oh, you're awake. I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?"

He shook his head. "No. I think she did. I..."

Even in the darkness, Summer could see the lingering distress on his face and the sweat on his brow. She climbed back into bed with their baby and then reached over to briefly lay a soothing hand on his right shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

He hand a hand through his hair, halfway expecting to find his long hair and then remembering that Summer had cut it a week earlier when he found nothing but short strands. "Not really."

"Nightmare?" she guessed, getting comfortable with Adelaide and nursing her.

Bucky leaned back against his pillows and the headboard, just a few inches between himself and Summer as he nodded. "Can't sleep for more than three hours before it starts. Every single night. It's just..."

"I know, I've noticed," she said sadly, touching his arm with her free hand. "You haven't slept this badly in a couple years."

He continued to stare off as her hand slid down to gently hold his. Her fingers intertwined with his own and it was a small, sweet comfort. "I'm so tired. I feel like I could sleep for a week, but..."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Summer asked quietly, keeping her voice down for Adelaide's sake. She was already falling back asleep.

Bucky shrugged slightly. "I don't think so. Guess this is just how it is now."

Summer frowned sadly at that, glancing down at their baby before giving his hand a soft squeeze and saying, "Well... it's gonna be awhile until the trial actually starts. You can't live on three hours of sleep every night while we wait. It's gonna be months."

"I know," he muttered, and the thought of sitting around the damn tower for months just waiting to go on trial for his past crimes made his skin crawl with dread. It was better than being locked up beneath the FBI building, of course, but being imprisoned in the tower was still being imprisoned. And his mind didn't cope well with confinement. Panic was always just a thought away, on the edge of his mind, threatening to overcome him at any moment.

"I used to be able to knock you out," Summer said with a little smile. He looked at her, watching the smallest of blushes touch her cheeks. "But that didn't work the last time we tried it."

He smiled back weakly and regretfully. It was true. A few nights before, Summer had woken up with him in the middle of the night had tried to get him back to sleep through exhausting and relaxing him as best as she could. It had been wonderful and distracting, but after it was over she was the only one who drifted off into a mild coma. He'd held her in his arms stared up at the ceiling, a little more relaxed but still wide awake for the remainder of the night.

"Doesn't mean I don't enjoy trying," he replied with just a touch of a grin. She smiled back and then let go of his hand to fix her shirt, Adelaide already finished nursing and back into a deep sleep.

Summer gave the baby kisses on her fat little cheeks before getting up and carefully walking to her crib, depositing her there safely and making sure she stayed asleep before heading back to bed. Once she returned, she climbed in next to Bucky and motioned for him to come and lay in her arms, rather than vice versa. He didn't argue, gladly letting her gather him to her and laying his head just above her breast and closing his eyes.

She softly kissed his forehead, her fingers working gently and soothingly through his hair. He kept his eyes closed and wished for sleep to come, tired as hell and yet fully aware that he'd never get back to sleep that night. But he still tried, focusing on Summer's comforting touch and the sound of her heartbeat under his ear. His metal arm was slung lightly around her waist, curling protectively around her as he wondered how much longer he'd get to do this before they took him away again, for good this time.

It was in the midst of these morose thoughts that a warm ball of fur jumped on the bed and made a beeline to him, walking across Summer's stomach and then rubbing its whole little body against his face. He scrunched up his eyes and nose and then pushed the kitty away, muttering, "Go away, stupid cat."

But little Loki was determined, and after a bit more struggling and verbal insults, the kitten ended up curled up against Bucky's chest, under his arm, laying on Summer but purring contentedly for Bucky's sake. He rolled his eyes and muttered, "Little fucker."

Summer chuckled, petting the kitty's head. "Don't fight his love, honey. You'll lose every time."

Bucky sighed and gave up, letting the kitty be and closing his eyes again. "Do you work today?"

"Nope," Summer replied. She'd been trying to get back to work over the last week, disappearing up into her office for about five hours a day or so, because they needed the money and Pepper had told her that she'd have to get a new event planner if Summer didn't get back to work soon. She was dealing with a reduced workload, delegating what she could to her assistants, but soon she'd have to resume her previous level of responsibilities. "Off today. But Matt and Foggy are coming over around noon to talk about strategy and stuff."

Bucky wanted to groan, but he held it in and lightly nodded instead. He liked his lawyers and they seemed about as genuine as they came, but long meetings with them where they sat around and discussed his past crimes and evidence and brainwashing and potential prosecution tactics... it was difficult, to say the least.

The room soon fell silent, aside from Loki's purring and the soft sound of Summer's breathing. Bucky thought that she had fallen back to sleep, but then she spoke and took him by surprise. "I'm really sorry."

He looked up at her questioningly, furrowing his brows and asking, "For what?"

"For all of this," she replied, looking down into his eyes with what looked like the start of tears in her own. "It's my fault."

The sheer illogic of her words nearly broke his brain. "... How could you possibly think that, Summer?"

"The stupid lease," she said. "That's how they found you. Through my name on our house. Didn't Steve tell you that?"

Bucky frowned. Steve had told him that, as well as the fact that Brock Rumlow had been the one to point the Feds in the right direction. Find Summer, find the Winter Soldier, he'd told them in exchange for getting the death penalty and maximum security lockup off the table. All Bucky got from that was that he should have killed Rumlow when he'd had the chance, during their fight just before his and Summer's wedding.

"That's not your fault," Bucky told her, fully sincere. But she only scoffed.

"Yeah it is. If we had just stayed here and not gotten the house, they never would have found you."

Bucky shook his head. "No, think about what you're saying. Think about everything else your name is on, what it has to be on. You work here. They would have found me no matter what, no matter where we were. It's my fault because I didn't kill Rumlow when I had the chance. I'm an idiot. I just..."

"No, you're not," she quickly countered. "I remember that fight. I remember how hard it was for you. You did the right thing."

Now it was his turn to scoff. "Yeah, and look at where it led us."

Summer couldn't seem to find anything to say back to that, at least not for a moment. Bucky was staring off again when she said softly, "I wouldn't change what happened. I don't think killing him was the answer. Maybe it would have delayed this, but... maybe this was always going to happen. Maybe it was inevitable."

Of course it was. Despite how far they had come - falling in love, getting married, becoming a family with David and then Adelaide, getting their very own house and living there blissfully while Summer realized her dream of becoming an author and Bucky became an Avenger at Steve's side - this was indeed always going to happen. He'd spilled too much blood and built up too much debt to not eventually be forced to pay it all back someday, one way or another. Really, maybe he was just lucky that they hadn't killed him on the spot, and even more lucky that they were actually giving him a trial when everybody already knew that he was indeed guilty.

"One thing I know," she said, her fingers under his chin gently guiding him to look up at her, "is that we are really lucky to have people around us who really believe in you. Everybody helped me so much while you were away, and they care about you so much. Not just Steve. Nat, Sam, Wanda. Tony. So... I know how bad it looks right now and I'm scared out of my mind too, but... we could win. We could, and then all of this could be behind us and nobody could ever come after you again."

He wanted to believe that. Just the mere thought made his heart ache, made him want to fight for that with everything that he had in him. And he would fight, but... believing in that happy ending just wasn't something he could do.

Summer leaned down and kissed him softly, a comforting little touch that made his eyes flutter shut and mind be at peace for just a moment. He didn't know what he'd do without her. He'd surely lose his mind and what sanity was still in his possession.

After she pulled away and he took a moment to look into her eyes, he could see how desperately she was clinging to her hope, how tenuous of a thing that it was. She was trying to be strong for the both of them and be his hope when he had next to none, but it wasn't easy for her. He hated seeing that burden on her shoulders and hated knowing that he was the one to put it there. She would have been better off had they never even met, and believing that brought an extra layer of pain to his heart that he didn't need.

But he couldn't change any of that, or go back in time and make their present situation any different. He was here, she was here, and they needed each other more than ever.

She never made it back to sleep that morning, either, but she didn't protest and he was glad for it. They spent the rest of the morning just lying there, savoring the other's presence while they still could, knowing their days could be numbered.

That afternoon, Summer found herself at a familiar place. She was sitting at the massive kitchen table with Bucky on one side, Steve and Natasha on the other, Matt and Foggy across from her, a truckload of paper work and several electronic devices sitting on the table between them. Darcy was down at the other end of the table with the kids, helping David with his schoolwork in lieu of a formal tutor and feeding Adelaide her lunch. Darcy was, as always, a lifesaver who Summer owed the world to.

But for then, she focused on the task at hand, which was researching and brainstorming and trying to come up with an airtight defense for Bucky. As much as she believed wholeheartedly that he was innocent in every sense of the word, proving this to a jury wasn't quite as simple as she would have liked. And Bucky was going to have to relive the worst of his memories in order to give his defense the best shot.

Natasha slid a flash drive across the table to the lawyers, explaining, "These are the videos we recovered from HYDRA. One of them was recorded after the Howard Stark assassination."

"Is that the one you were telling us about?" Foggy asked Summer as he took the flash drive from Natasha, who rather obviously made him quite nervous from time to time. He reminded Summer of Paul, for whom it had taken months to get used to being in the presence of the famous Black Widow.

Summer nodded. "Yeah, it shows how confused he was afterwards. He was starting to remember, and then they just..."

After Summer trailed off, not wanting to say the words for the sake of sensitivity, Bucky pressed his lips into a thin line and then said, "They tried to force me down into the chair that they used to wipe my memory. I snapped and killed a couple of them before they strapped me down and did it anyway. Then that's it, that's where it ends."

Matt looked thoughtful, not particularly fazed by this, and then Summer looked around before asking, "Would that... be a problem, using it as evidence, since he... killed some people? Would it maybe... make him look worse?"

"Well, it was self-defense," Steve noted. "They were torturing him."

"We need to see the video before we can say," Foggy said, turning to Bucky. "But if it shows that you were non-compliant and shows how they forced the electroshock, then that's really the most important thing because it's proof that you weren't co-operative. We need all the proof we can get that you were a victim and never a willing party to the crimes."

"And there's something else you both need to consider," Matt added, directing his words to Summer and Bucky. "I've said since the start of this that I fully believe we can prove your innocence. Most people, when they see the evidence, will understand what happened and that the guilt belongs with HYDRA. But a part of your defense will involve proving that you're also not currently a threat."

"He's been working with the Avengers for a couple years now," Summer pointed out. "And he hasn't snapped and blown up a building yet. I think that's a pretty good sign."

"It is," Matt agreed, "but the prosecution's going to play on people's fear of the unknown. Here's a guy who obviously went through hell and was tortured within an inch of his life, killed a lot of important people maybe against his will, but what's left after all of that? Do we really want someone like this free, roaming society, even if he was brainwashed into committing these crimes?"

"That shouldn't play into a jury's decision of whether he's guilty or innocent of specific crimes," Natasha said, listening carefully.

"It shouldn't," Foggy agreed, "but this is a dicey case. The prosecutor knows he was brainwashed. Everyone knows that. So they have to do everything they can to plant doubt in the jury's mind and make them think he's dangerous."

"So what do we do?" Summer asked.

"My advice would be to use the media to your advantage," Matt replied. "There's no point in fighting the press. You're both all over it, and it's only going to get worse when the trial actually starts."

"So... embrace the media?" Summer surmised. "How? Maybe give some interviews or something?"

Foggy nodded. "You'd at least be getting your side of the story out. Right now it's mostly a back and forth between the the government and Captain America, which is fine, but..."

"But you don't want the government controlling the narrative," Darcy piped up from down the table, airplane-ing a spoon of applesauce into Adelaide's mouth. When everyone turned and looked at her, she looked back at them and said, "What? I'm working on my Master's in political science. I'm not useless."

Summer smiled. "Useless is the last thing you are."

"See, here's what I'd do," Darcy said, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. "Where do most people get their news these days?"

"Social media," Natasha replied.

Darcy nodded. "Exactly. Facebook, Twitter, you name it. And the government kind of gets that, but not really. So if you want to get people's attention and try to make them see things your way, use social media. Do something that goes viral, like... I don't know, a picture, or you write that blog, so maybe a blog post. Or a video."

Summer glanced at Bucky, whose frown gave away how little he liked that idea. "Yeah... maybe. It's just that I've tried so hard to keep us private and keep the kids away from all of that, and..."

"That's understandable," Matt said sympathetically, "but realistically... it's a losing battle."

Summer sighed. Deep down, she knew that. She just didn't want to admit it.

But Steve saw the logic of the argument and was the first to endorse it. He looked at both Summer and Bucky and said, "They're right. People like transparency. Maybe laying low isn't the best idea. Maybe instead you should both get out there a little bit, show who you really are."

Summer let out a sigh, feeling a headache coming on. "Well... my blog is under my pen name, so we can't really use that."

"Actually, you could," Darcy replied. "You could tell all of your followers the truth. Post something on there, let it take off from the ground up."

Summer contemplated that. She hadn't posted a single thing on her blog since Bucky had been arrested, and some of her readers had dropped comments asking if she was okay thanks to her uncharacteristic absence. It would be one hell of a comeback to then reappear out of the blue and reveal her true name, and who her husband - codenamed Batman - truly was.

"I'd do a video," Darcy added, "but that's just me."

"A video of... what, though?" Summer asked.

"Introducing yourself," Darcy said. "And him. Thanking everyone for their support, just taking a minute to really show the world that you're real people and a real family. And that he," she gestured to Bucky, "isn't a psycho about to snap and go on a killing spree. I mean, aside from all the World War II stuff, all the world has seen of him are a couple of grainy pictures and videos of him trying to kill Captain America. This would be their first time seeing him as a husband and father, which is what you want."

Summer looked at Bucky cautiously, and she was not surprised to find a scowl on his face as he shook his head. "No."

Steve was the first to try to talk him into it. "Bucky..."

"No," he repeated. "I don't want her dragged into this. I don't want her face all over everything. People will... people are vicious and -"

"With all due respect," Matt chimed in, "she's in the middle of this whether you want her to be or not. It's just the nature of the world in this day and age. What we're suggesting is you use that to your advantage. Show people a different side of you. Show them that you're not a threat. That you're a human being with a family, no different from them."

Bucky's jaw clenched and he looked at Summer pleadingly, and she hated seeing that look on his face. He wanted her to side with him but the more she heard, the more that she was convinced that it was their only move. The more they hid from the world, the more the world would think them suspicious and likely believe what they were hearing from the government and others who wanted Bucky to fry.

"I think they're right," she told him quietly, and the way that he looked at her before turning away and glaring at the table made her feel a twinge of guilt. She didn't want to add to his stress but she also wouldn't spurn a good idea just to spare him, either. And he always seemed to come around in time.

"Just think it over," Foggy told them when the disagreement became obvious. "No rush."

Bucky glanced at his lawyers, then muttered his excuses before getting up and taking a break from the meeting. He headed out of the kitchen and towards the nearest balcony, which was the only fresh air that he could manage to get without setting off the alarm on his ankle monitoring device.

Summer started to get up to go after him, but Natasha gestured for her to stay and keep talking, which really was what she needed to do. Summer nodded and then watched as Natasha got up instead, and somehow, she knew that Natasha was better equipped to handle this one instead.

Natasha joined Bucky out on the narrow, enclosed balcony, noticing the little black kitten that had followed him out there and was currently rubbing its entire little body against his legs. Bucky was ignoring the cat.

"Loki's really got a thing for you," she remarked, standing beside Bucky as he glared off into the city. The kitty ended up laying down on top of Bucky's foot and looking up at Natasha curiously, and since Bucky wasn't responding, she looked up from the cat to ask teasingly, "Is this your new brooding spot?"

He glared at her from the corner of his eye. "Do you want something?"

She furrowed her brows at him. "And what did I do to deserve the attitude?"

He sighed and then went back to staring at the skyline like it had personally wronged him. "Sorry. Just don't feel like talking."

"That's okay. You don't have to talk as long as you listen." She looked away, towards the same empty space that his eyes were locked on, then said, "I'd like to think that I know you pretty well by now. And you usually only do this quiet... angry staring thing when you know someone else is right about something and you're not happy about it."

"Insightful," he muttered. She grinned.

"Believe it or not, I happen to know something about the media. Hiding from it, then having to face it and let the world know everything you don't want it to."

Bucky side-eyed her and said, "You chose to leak all your secrets. I haven't chosen a damn thing."

"That's not true," she replied. "You knew the risks when all of this began."

He furrowed his brows. "When all of what began?"

"You and Summer," Natasha clarified. "You're no idiot. You've known from the start that this could happen and you still chose to marry her and be the father of her children. Now you're being forced to make unpleasant decisions and I'm sure that it's not the last one you'll have to make before this trial is over."

"I just don't want them involved," Bucky muttered, his tone miserable. "I deserve all of this, but they don't."

Natasha rolled her eyes and had to stifle a humorless laugh. "You don't deserve this any more than they do, but that's beside the point. You're in it now - all of you - and there's nothing you can do to change it. And by the way, it's not your place to sideline your wife and try to tell her what she can and can't do to help you."

"You're full of opinions today," he noted, not sounding very happy about it.

"You know I'm right," she said lightly, shooting him a small smirk. "As usual."

He looked at her skeptically, though in reality he was well aware that she was, in fact, usually right.

Natasha leaned down then to pick up the cat, who meowed at her as she scratched behind his ears and mused, "Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Summer has a way with people. Might be completely accidental most of the time, but she does. The world's probably going to love her."

Bucky watched as little Loki sniffed at Natasha's face and then turned his green eyes back on Bucky. He looked up from the cat to Natasha as he replied, "Her life is never gonna be the same."

Natasha merely handed the cat over to Bucky, then said just before she turned and walked away, "You crossed that bridge a long time ago."

She offered him a small pat to his arm before she left, heading back into the tower. Bucky let out a breath and then looked down at the kitty that he was suddenly holding, who was now purring rather happily now that Bucky was paying him a little attention. He rolled his eyes, murmuring his vulgar nickname for the feline as he headed back inside.

Once Bucky agreed to participate in what he was affectionately calling the "God-forsaken fucking video", Summer began to nearly vibrate with nervous energy as she went into major planning mode. This wasn't just any video or routine PR move - this was the first time the general public was going to truly meet not Bucky Barnes or the Winter Soldier but the result of the two that he was today. And they had to get it right. There was no room for error.

First there was the issue of where to do it. Summer went back and forth on various options until Tony told her to chill out and just use the living room, which would be emptied of people for her and Bucky's sake. Then, growing ever more nervous as the hours slowly passed, Summer grabbed her computer and worked on getting an area set up for her to take the video as she began mentally writing a speech. Being a much better writer than a speaker, she ended up typing out what she wanted to say in the video in an open document while the kids played at her feet and Bucky took a break to go and spar with Steve. She didn't plan on reading word from word from the document like it was a teleprompter, but having it all written down beforehand would help her remember the words once the time came. Or so she hoped.

The day went by in a nervous flash, Summer handing off the kids to Steve and Natasha once Bucky had returned and was showered and ready to take on the task at hand. Night had fallen and dinner was over, and Summer was adjusting the webcam on her computer when Bucky walked into the room, staring at the computer like he hoped that it would spontaneously combust.

Summer glanced up at him, taking in his unhappy glare and then looking back down as she said, "You know, if you want, I could do this alone."

He immediately shook his head and crossed his arms, the metal of his left one unhidden by his dark short sleeved shirt. "No. You're not doing it alone."

Standing up straight now that the computer was situated, Summer looked at him and smiled slightly. "Don't look too enthusiastic now."

He frowned and dropped his arms to his sides as Summer walked to him, reaching out and smoothing her arms over his shoulders. "I know you don't want to do this. But I really think it's the right thing to do. Honestly I'm sick of hiding, and everyone's right. We need to do this."

"You're sure?" he asked her quietly. "You want to do this and... never be anonymous again? Everyone will know you wrote your book. They'll know almost everything about you."

Summer shrugged. "They already know enough. They've got my name and my pictures and now there's a couple of video clips from when I visited you, too. I get calls every day asking for interviews. May as well just go with it. Besides, maybe it'll give my book sales a boost."

She said the last sentence with a faint smile, and he returned it as best he could before giving her a small kiss and murmuring, "All right. Let's get this over with."

"Okay," she nodded, taking a deep breath. "Go ahead and sit over there out of the camera shot at first. You can come in after I introduce myself first and kind of... you know... get the whole initial shock out of the way. My followers are all gonna have one big collective heart attack when they see this."

"You can still change your mind," he reminded her.

"Yeah... not gonna happen," she replied with a smile, gesturing for him to sit. He followed her lead, walking over to one of the other couches and talking a seat as she took one more deep breath. She ran her fingers through her hair and asked, "Do I look okay? I put a little makeup on but not too much because I don't want to look like I'm trying too hard or even thinking about my face considering what the video's gonna be about and -"

"You're fine," he chuckled, interrupting her babbling. "You look good. You always look good."

She gave him a skeptical look and then said, "Yeah, the problem is that you're supposed to say that." Nonetheless, she put the silly last minute thoughts out of her head before she sat down in front of the computer, resolving to get started and get the video over with.

She hesitated only briefly before reaching forward and hitting record. She then proceeded to start the video and stop no less than four times, starting over each time she tripped over her words or just said hello in a way that sounded weird to her ears. It was frustrating and she was mentally debating giving up, at least until she glanced at Bucky out of the corner of her eyes. He was sitting there on the other couch, watching her with resignation on his face, but there was something else in his eyes too. He believed in her, and he trusted her enough to do this for them both when he didn't even want it to happen.

Like she had many times before, she drew on his well of faith in her and borrowed a little bit of it to do what needed to be done. She hit the record button again, and her fifth take was the one that stuck.

"Hi everyone," she said with a friendly, sincere smile, imagining that instead of the computer screen, it was the faces of her lovely blog followers that she was looking at. "So this is definitely... different from how I would usually check in with you guys, and first before I say anything, I have to apologize for falling off the face of the planet. I've seen every comment I've gotten asking if I'm okay and I really have no excuse for not answering and being AWOL for so long. You all have been so nice and so supportive since I first started blogging and I just... I owe you all so much, and I am really, really sorry for this last month. I've just had a lot going on, which... is kind of the whole reason why I'm doing this."

She took a breath, glancing again at Bucky and moving her hair behind her ears, more out of nervousness than necessity. Then, remembering what she had written earlier, she went on, "So... as I'm sure most of you have gathered, my name isn't really E.B. Carey. It's a pen name that I've used to keep myself anonymous, kind of like how I call my husband Batman and my kids Robin and Batgirl." She paused to smile. "Not that any of them mind having cool codenames, of course, but... privacy's always been a huge thing with us, and... you're all about to find out why, if you haven't already recognized me and put two and two together."

She paused and took a breath, feeling as nervous as she would have if the video had been streaming live. Then she pushed aside the slight flutters in her belly and said, "My real name is Summer. I live in New York and I'm married to James Barnes, who... I'm sure most of you know better as the Winter Soldier." She swallowed, staying focused. "We've been together for... well, going on five years now, actually. We have two beautiful kids, as you all know, and... now you know why I've been MIA for awhile. And the reason why I'm coming out and saying this is... a few reasons, actually. And attention isn't one of them. I just want to put that out there just in case, because... trust me, I like my privacy and doing this video wasn't an easy decision for either of us to make, but... I'm sick of hiding and I'm not ashamed of him or us. Mostly - and this is my main reason for doing this - I want to tell everyone who will listen the truth about my husband, and it's not what you're seeing and hearing on the news."

She paused and looked Bucky's way. He was watching her intently, eyes soft, and she quickly kept moving, feeling her anxiety melting away and passion taking its place.

"I've spent the last almost five years getting to know this man better than I know myself, and while I'm sure some would say that I'm pretty much... inherently biased, the truth is that he is not what some people are saying he is. He's the most caring and... gentle and... smart and just... most incredible man I've ever known. He's not a monster. He's not dangerous. I've written a lot about how my son never had a father until I met him, and it's true. He's an amazing father to both my son and daughter and... he's their hero. You guys, my readers, know that better than anyone, because you've been reading about my family and our ups and our downs, and you know how normal we are. You know us, even though you only just now know our real names."

Across from her, Bucky looked down at his hands, and she knew that in light of everything that was happening, her words weren't easy for him to hear. But they were true and the world needed to hear them.

"We've had a really difficult time this last month or so," she continued, "ever since he was arrested. My readers know all about my son and his autism, and he's taken it the hardest of all of us. But for now, we're all back together, thank God, and... I've just been trying to focus on getting everything together and working on getting ready for the trial, whenever it starts. It's a really stressful and... unpredictable time, and that's one of the reasons why I'm coming to you guys now. I love you all so much and you've given me so much support from the start, not just with my book but with this blog and all my little personal things that I've shared, and... now, more than I ever, I need your support. Just in a little bit of a different way."

She then looked at Bucky, and he understood by the way that she almost imperceptibly gestured with her hand that she wanted him to come over. So he did, standing and keeping his eyes on the floor as he walked the short few steps to where she sat, sitting down on her right and entering the camera frame.

Summer gave him a small smile and took his hand - his metal one, which she knew would not go unnoticed by the masses - and she intertwined their fingers as she looked back at the computer, now presenting a united front to the world. "I'm not asking for money, and I never will ask for money from any of you, if I have any say in the matter. All I'm asking is that you take a minute and share this video with people that you know, and that you take a minute to really look at this situation that's become the top story all over the media and just... don't fall for the hype and the fear. Look at the facts and think twice about what you're being told and who's telling it to you. If some of you think I'm crazy or unfollow me or worse, I'll understand, but... I'm really hoping that most of you can give me - give us - a chance. It's really all that I'm asking for. Just imagine if it was you or someone you loved, the mother or father of your children, and they were going on trial for crimes that they never chose to commit, some they can't even remember, and just... think about that. Because that's what's happening here, and the victims of these crimes and their families deserve better. They deserve justice, true justice, and that's not what this is."

The whole time that she had been speaking, Bucky had been watching her with a subtle but heartfelt admiration written on his face. Summer hadn't noticed, and when she turned to him and gave him another small smile, he gave her hand a squeeze and then looked back to the camera just as she did.

"So... yeah, that's all I've got for now," she said, letting out a small sigh. "Thank you guys for watching this and I know this has all probably been a big shock, and I definitely wasn't planning on doing anything like this before this whole situation happened, but... here we are. I look forward to hearing from you guys and... just... thank you again, truly, for your support and... I hope to hear from you all soon."

She offered the currently imaginary audience a small, controlled but sincere smile, and then switched off the webcam. Once it was over and the video was no longer rolling, Summer let out a breath and then leaned back on the couch, the wind suddenly leaving her sails. She closed her eyes and realized that her hands were shaky and her heart was fluttering quickly beneath her chest, and the rush of nervous, surprisingly heavy adrenaline that had come from filming the video was very much unexpected. She looked at Bucky, still holding his hand, and he smiled at her as he said, "Don't ever say you're a writer and not a speaker."

She gave him an unsure look. "Do you think I sounded okay?"

He nodded, fully sincere. "Yes. Better than okay."

She smiled for a moment and then sprang back into business mode, leaning forward and untangling their hands so that she could reach the computer. "Okay, so... let's watch it over again and then I need to send it to Matt and Foggy for approval. I should probably get Steve and Nat's opinion too."

As Summer began tapping away, her focus replacing the leftover nervous energy that had made her feel shaky and unsure a moment before, Bucky watched her quietly. He wasn't quite smiling, but his expression was soft and he couldn't help but reach out and touch her shoulder softly. When she didn't give much of a response, he leaned closer and dropped a kiss on the same shoulder, through her shirt. She stopped typing then, turning her head and looking at him just before he came even closer and gently kissed her lips.

"Thank you," he said quietly after he pulled away, nothing but love in his eyes.

She smiled, melting a little inside from the affection that was so clearly etched on his face. "What for?"

"You know what for," he replied softly.

And she did know. He was thankful for everything, all that she did from taking care of the kids to keeping them afloat financially and now shedding her last layer of anonymity for the sake of defending him in the eyes of the whole world. She carried a lot on her shoulders and it really was too much, but they had that in common. They had from the beginning.

She stole one more kiss from him and then sent the video off to their lawyers. Within the hour, they had approved of it along with Steve and Natasha, plus Darcy who had demanded a spot in the screening party.

And then, just before Summer turned in with her little family to call it a night, she posted the video on her blog. She'd find out what kind of reaction would be waiting for her in the morning. To her surprise, she slept better that night than she had in weeks.

Summer woke up to the sound of her brother's personal ringtone - still Weird Al's White and Nerdy, several years later - blaring in her ears. The sound immediately woke up Adelaide too, who had been sleeping in Summer's arms, and as the child whined and began to squirm, Summer groaned and answered the call as quickly as she could with an irritated, "What?"

"What did you do, kid?" Paul asked in an ominous tone.

"Huh?" she asked, adjusting her hold on Adelaide and quickly getting her to nurse to hopefully get her back to sleep. She glanced at Bucky's side of the bed to find it empty, but that wasn't uncommon to wake up to these days.

"I'm at work right now, about to get off after being on call all night, and I go to grab a cup of coffee from the nurse's lounge so I don't fall asleep and kill myself driving home," Paul said. "And then I look at the TV which is for some god awful reason on Fox News, and guess what I see? A new 'viral video' that my sister apparently posted last night and broke the Internet with."

Summer blinked and then suddenly sat up straight. Adelaide popped off and then glared up at Summer accusingly before settling back down and latching back on. "Broke the what?"

Paul paused and then asked, "Did you seriously post that thing and then go to sleep?"

"... Yes?"

Paul sighed. "You should probably check your email."

Summer then pulled the phone away from her face and, after putting Paul on speakerphone, pulled up her email app. When about five hundred emails proceeded to download, her eyes widened and she muttered, "Holy mother of frick!"

"Yeah," Paul agreed. "Although I doubt frick's holy mother had much to do with this."

Most of the emails were from her blog, alerting her to new comments posted, but she also spotted one or two from her agent, who was likely pissed that she went rogue and spurned her pen name without much of a warning. She randomly clicked a few of the comment notifications, just to see if they were negative or positive, and to her relief, they were both overwhelmingly positive.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my fricking frick," she muttered, mind racing as she tried to process it all. "That got big fast."

"If you weren't a celebrity before, you definitely are now," Paul replied. "Miss Best-Selling Author."

Summer furrowed her brows, able to only process one thing at a time at the moment. "What?"

"Your book," he replied. "It shot to number one literally overnight."

She almost had a heart attack. "No. It couldn't have. They don't get the numbers that fast. It would take at least a few days to find that out, and it was night time, so -"

"They do get the numbers that fast, and we're talking e-books and online orders. I'm sure the regular sales will catch up soon enough. You're number one on Amazon right now. And you're trending on Twitter. So is Bucky. Hey, I wonder if Bill O'Reilly will call you a pinhead!"

All she knew was that her head was spinning. Adelaide was done nursing and now wide awake, so Summer scooped her up and then quickly headed out to the living room after telling Paul she'd call him later and then hanging up. There she found a small assembly of Avengers, all watching CNN. Bucky was closest to the TV, standing and listening to every word that the anchor said. Steve and Nat were there too, both looking half asleep but very alert, and Wanda was there too with kitty Loki in her lap and David, who had woken up pretty early for him, snuggled next to her. Tony, however, was the first to see Summer enter and greet her as he smiled brightly and said, "Morning, Superstar."

Summer looked at him a little wide eyed and then went to Bucky's side. He looked at her once she was there, his gaze shifting to little Adelaide in her arms and then back to Summer as she stared at the TV.

Her face was indeed plastered on the screen. Their video played silently in the corner while quotes from it scrolled across the bottom of the screen, and meanwhile two pundits debated this new and unexpected development. It only took a few second's worth of listening to determine that they were debating her and Bucky's motives for the video, but she had expected that. It wasn't the approval of talking heads that she was looking for.

Adelaide found it all quite exciting, however, and pointed to the TV before exclaiming happily, "Mama! Dada!"

Summer put Adelaide down when the child began to squirm, and she ran up to the TV and continued babbling as Summer sighed and started going through her emails again. Adelaide got distracted pretty quickly by the kitty meowing from Wanda's lap, at which point she exclaimed Oki! and went toddling over to harass the poor creature.

Summer started to skim through the comments that she'd gotten, more concerned with those than whatever the balding old men in bow ties were talking about on cable news, and she flew through one hundred of them at record speed. She was stunned to learn that of those comments, only a handful were less than positive. But even those weren't half as bad as the ones that she was used to from other Internet sources.

One of the better ones was from a very loyal reader, who had been among the first to follow the blog back when it had been brand new and Summer was still unpublished. "Oh dear God! When you were quiet for so long I thought the worst, but I couldn't have even dreamed that it was anything like this! I feel so bad for you and your whole family. I for one think that what the government is doing is ridiculous. We all read the reports after what happened with SHIELD, and now they're trying to distract us pinning all these crimes on someone who was tortured and treated worse than an animal for years. It's a disgrace. I'm just still in such shock that the husband you've been writing about this whole time is him! How did you meet? I have so many questions. I just hope you guys hang in there. I'll support you in any way I can."

Another comment was from a fellow mommy-blogger who also dabbled in doomsday prepping - not a bad idea considering alien invasions were a thing now - and combined family-centered writing with the occasional political rant or conspiracy theory. After the HYDRA leak, conspiracy theorists weren't written off quite so easily anymore. She wrote a short and simple, Wow. Didn't see this one coming. You both keep your head up and keep fighting. If you need any help rallying people to your cause, let me know. I've been known to organize quite the peaceful protest, and I'd bet my bunker that a hell of a lot of people would show up.

One more slightly humorous comment from an anonymous follower read, "Holy shit. Just... holy shit. That's literally all I've got. Just... fuck the government, man. I hope you guys take them down. P.S. I'm gonna go reread your book now and faint. For reasons."

Then there was another fellow blogger, a younger one who focused mainly on music and culture, and she had one of Summer's favorite comments of them all. "My grandpa served in WWII, and I just showed him this video. I haven't seen him get so fired up about something in a long time. He said he knew some POWs from the war who were never the same and that us civilians can't imagine what the Nazis and their friends were like and what they could do to someone. He said he'd help you march on D.C. if you want and if you don't mind him marching from a wheelchair. Good luck, guys.

Then, just as she finished reading those comments, twenty brand new emails downloaded into her inbox. She looked down at the screen and then lifted her eyebrows at the sight of the new messages, mostly private ones being sent to her blog, half of them ending up being interview requests from actual recognizable media sources. She figured that she had maybe a day or two before they managed to trace her to her agent, and eventually to a phone number somewhere in the tower that would start ringing incessantly.

She glanced over at David, who was playing with his sister and the kitty they both loved. Wanda was sending little wisps of energy up from her fingertips and then letting them vanish into thin air, and little Loki and Adelaide were both fascinated by this, their heads moving up and down in sync with one another. David and Wanda both found this hilarious and were giggling, both of Summer's children oblivious to how life was changing before their eyes. They were, thankfully, insulated. They wouldn't be forever, but for the time being, things had stabilized for them again and they were mostly okay again.

Summer, meanwhile, knew that she could not comprehend just how much everything was truly changing, so she didn't really try. Some of the comments on her blog were from readers who very quickly deduced that her novel was a retelling of her real life relationship with Bucky - a simple nobody of a girl meeting and falling in love with a damaged, traumatized ex-solider who was missing a limb and had a dangerous and mysterious air about him. The readers who put this together were freaking out, drawing parallel after parallel between the fictional May and Sebastian and their real-life counterparts, and Summer then understood why the book was in all likelihood becoming a bestseller overnight. It was both intriguing, exciting, and horrifyingly embarrassing, because that book contained no less than four sex scenes and now everyone would know exactly how she'd gotten the inspiration for them.

But she didn't dwell on that. The important thing was that the reaction so far among her followers was overwhelmingly positive, and the video had done its job of shifting the spotlight. The media was eating it up just like she had wanted to, and for the first time, she felt a real hope that just maybe they could exert some real influence and steer public opinion their way. Maybe.

She had to savor every last bit of hope that she could grasp on to. She took Bucky's hand in hers, pulling his attention away from the TV, and she handed him her phone so that he could read all the comments himself and see the kind of support that existed among strangers. He ended up sitting down and reading every single comment, some of them twice, and she knew then beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had made the right move. The look of quiet, stunned surprise in his eyes when he saw the support he had among people who he'd never meet was all she needed to see.

They could do this. There was hope. They just had to hang in there and play their cards right, and maybe someday they'd be free again.

A/N: Sorry for the wait for this chapter! I've been busy as always, and this chapter wasn't the easiest to write for some reason, but thankfully now it's done and I'm thinking next chapter will jump forward a bit so that this trial storyline can really kick into gear :D Thank you guys as always for your loyalty and feedback, plus your patience :D the word count of this story is now over 700k which is RIDICULOUS and reviews are somewhere in the mid-800s, so I just really can't thank you guys enough for sticking with me for so long through such a MONSTER of a story. And I hope you'll keep sticking with me because I have future things planned once this story's over that I am EXTREMELY excited about :) also, just a heads up, I'm about to start working on a oneshot that will likely get posted before the next chapter, so keep an eye out for that if you'd like :D it'll be fun. Lots of fun. Two-parter. And an AU. That's all I can say :p

Anyway, my huge, sincere, Thor-sized thanks to midnightwings96 for... well, you all know by now that she's basically my favorite person ever and just so amazing that could wax poetic about it, but I still have to say it as much as I can because she's THAT amazing. And her help is just so HUGE and irreplaceable. I'd be lost without her. LOST, I tell you.

Anywho, I'll see you guys soon! *big giant hugs*