A/N: Okay so, I know everyone's dying for the verdict so I'm gonna keep this note brief :D now, in the past I have been known to skip to the end of books and stories I was reading when they got to a certain point to see what happens because I HAD to know, but I really hope none of you lovely readers do that this week lol. Just... read from the beginning, and when you get to the end, please PLEASE leave me a review with your thoughts because, well, just WOW I cannot believe this story has come as far as it has, and I am so grateful to each and every reader and reviewer, more than words can say. Thank you all so, so much, thank you to midnightwings96 for playing such a huge and irreplaceable role in helping me get here, and I hope you guys enjoy! I'll see you guys soon with the next chapter :D
It wasn't nightmares, an alarm clock, or a sudden rush of fear and dread that awoke Bucky the next morning. Instead, it was a tiny wet nose sniffing at his face and a dry, rough tongue licking at the tip of his own nose that jolted him into the reality of the new day.
Scrunching up his face and shifting away, Bucky cracked an eye open and found none other than Loki the cat to be the culprit, standing on his chest and staring at him with his unnervingly green eyes. When the cat then began sniffing at him again, this time near his cheek, he batted the ball of black fur away and groaned, "Get away, little fucker." Everyone else could call the thing Loki all day long, but to Bucky, he would always be little fucker.
Rather offended at Bucky's rejection, the cat made an unimpressed sound and pranced away, diving off the bed. Bucky then turned on his side, expecting to find Summer laying there next to him, but her side of the bed was empty. Blinking in concern, he began to sit up, rubbing at his eyes and glancing at their clock. It wasn't even six in the morning yet, and it was still dark outside.
He looked towards the bathroom door next, which was ajar and illuminated, and then the sounds of Summer retching rather loudly made it clear why she was out of bed and in there.
Because she was pregnant. Summer was pregnant again, and she had hid it from him until the night before because...
The verdict. Feeling like his heart dropped into his stomach and like his insides were crawling and twisting on themselves, reality dawned fully on him and reminded him that today was the day. It might be his last day to wake up here, under the same roof as his family.
He didn't sit there and mope, however. One more gagging sound from the bathroom had him up and on his feet, grabbing his pants from the floor and throwing them on as he made his way to Summer, even though he knew there wasn't much he could give her in the way of help. He would still try anyway.
He found her sitting on the floor and hugging the toilet, wearing his shirt and nothing else as she coughed and tried to catch her breath. She glanced up at him when he entered, pale and looking like hell in the throes of nausea, and then she groaned and muttered, "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"You didn't," he assured her, sinking down to sit against the wall opposite her, giving her space.
She sighed and flushed the toilet, hanging her head as she muttered, "Only a couple weeks in and I'm already extremely sick of puking."
He grimaced on her behalf, unable to imagine what it would be like to constantly throw up the way that she did when she pregnant. "You've been hiding it pretty well."
"Not really," she shrugged, though he detected a bit of guilt in her eyes. "You've been distracted."
He paused, looking down at his hands with a frown. "Yeah."
She opened her mouth to say something else, but vomit literally came out instead. Returning to hurling into the toilet, Bucky winced at the sounds and felt himself grow a bit nauseous himself.
"Ugh, dammit," she groaned once she was done, sitting back and letting the back of her head hit the wall. "I should have known better."
He furrowed his brows. "Better about what?"
She opened her eyes and flushed a little, like she'd briefly forgotten that he was there, and she half-stuttered, "Oh, I... well, see, I don't usually throw up in the middle of the night like this. It's usually mornings. But then we... I mean I... when we were... doing things..."
He raised an amused eyebrow. All this time later and she still referred to having sex with him as "doing things".
She gestured vaguely and went on, "When you... you know... in my mouth, I didn't really think twice about it, but... once we were finished for the night, my stomach kind of... well, let's just say that it didn't settle very well, so... yeah, that's why I'm barfing."
He stared at her blankly before it suddenly dawned on him what she was talking about. "Oh! Shit, Summer, I'm sorry." Now he had something else to feel guilty about, as if there wasn't already enough.
"No, no, no," she waved him off, "it's okay. Not your fault."
"It... is one hundred percent my fault," he pointed out. "I'm so sorry. Why didn't you just -"
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I know what you're gonna say, and that's quitter talk. And I'm no quitter."
She sounded so incredibly serious that he stared at her with equal seriousness for a good few seconds. Then they both grinned and started laughing, and Bucky felt like a mess inside - nervous, anxious, guilty, unsure, and now on top of it all, he was laughing like a moron with his slightly delirious, poor pregnant wife.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked after their giggles had subsided, to his relief.
"Yeah, in my purse I've got these little ginger candies. Not very good but they settle my stomach," she replied.
"Okay," he nodded, immediately getting up to go locate said candies.
He came back less than two minutes later, right hand opening up and dropping no less than ten of the candies into her waiting hands. "Oh wow, I only needed one," she chuckled, "but thank you."
"I didn't know how many you'd need. Figured I should be safe," he replied, sitting back down against the wall. He watched her as she popped one of the candies into her mouth, wincing at the strong flavor but relaxing knowing that relief was on the way. He looked her over, tired and sleep-deprived and every bit as torn up as he was inside, and yet she just... kept going. She always kept going, no matter how hard it was for her to do.
She juggled so much, their kids and her job and her writing and Bucky's defense, and now she was even nurturing a new life inside of her on top of it all. A new life that she had borne the burden of alone to spare him the pain and stress of it.
"Was it hard?" he asked as the candy did its job, helping her to relax and ending the early-morning vomitfest. "Keeping it a secret?"
Her eyes grew sad and she groaned, "You have no idea. I don't even know how I did it. Every day I was on the verge of just... exploding, but... I just didn't want to make it harder for you." She paused and muttered, "I still feel like crap for not telling you."
He sighed and shook his head. "Don't feel like that. I wish you would have told me, but... really, the thing that upsets me the most is you putting that burden on yourself when you didn't have to."
She shrugged a little, smiling ruefully. "I don't get the chance to protect you a lot. I just... wanted to while I still could."
Those words sparked a sadness within him that he knew wasn't going to fade any time soon. He sighed quietly, looking down at his hands again, and they sat there in a comfortable silence for the next few moments.
"Here," she said after clearing her throat a moment later, making him look up. She tossed him one of the candies and grinned, "Suffer with me."
He gamely opened the little candy and then popped it into his mouth, watching her eye him with clear entertainment. It wasn't so bad at first, but once it was in his mouth longer than a few seconds, the true flavor came through and he furrowed his brows. It was actually kind of... spicy, in a weird way. It wasn't terrible, exactly, but...
"This settles your stomach?" He asked in disbelief, making a face.
She chuckled and reached out to pet Loki the cat as he came meandering into the bathroom, the feline shooting Bucky a look that let him know that he was still unhappy with him. "It's all in the ginger. It's weird but it totally works."
Loki then rubbed against her legs, winding his body around and around and then pushing his head against her hand, and she scratched at the back of his neck as he purred happily. Then he settled at her feet, eyeing Bucky with the same disdain as before.
Bucky sighed. Loathe as he was to admit it, he was gonna miss that little fucker once he was locked up.
He was even gonna miss the tower, big and ugly as it was. He was gonna miss everything about his life as a free man, as someone able to make his own choices and decisions and be able to live.
His fate would be set in stone in a matter of hours. But for now, he threw away the candy's plastic wrap and then helped Summer to her feet, lingering nearby while she brushed her teeth and washed her face, and then returning to bed with her to steal away a few more hours.
For the next two hours, he held her close and they whiled the time away by talking about anything but the verdict. They talked about their early days together, their first kiss, their first date, the first time he ever got her top off (one of his top five favorite memories, if he was being honest), their first fight. As fights go, it wasn't that bad, especially considering how it ended with them tearing up Clint's barn in the throes of angry, dress-ripping sex.
"You never did buy me a new dress," she recalled, using his chest as a pillow as he ran his warm fingers through her hair.
"No I didn't," he admitted. "Thought I made up for it with the whole night after night of earth-shaking orgasms thing, though."
She giggled against his skin, tickling it slightly. "So humble."
"S'my middle name," he grinned, eyes on the ceiling.
All was silent for a few moments, and the sun was mostly risen outside their window now. The day had arrived, and there was no getting out of it now.
"What do you want to name this baby?" she asked quietly.
He blinked, sighing. He hadn't thought that far ahead yet, but... well, what should a new child of theirs be named? "I don't know. Any ideas?"
"A few... but I wanna know what you think."
He let his mind roam the possibilities for a moment, settling on what to name a boy first. "If it's a boy... I'm not sure. Something after Steve, maybe."
"Like for a middle name?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Then you could pick the first name."
"I like Jesse," she replied. "Means gift in Hebrew. And we've got a David, and David in the Bible had a father named Jesse, so... it's kind of related."
"Jesse Steven," he mused, testing the name on his tongue. "I like it. How'd you come up with Jesse?"
"A baby name app I've been secretly browsing," she admitted with a small smile. "So... what about a girl?"
One name immediately came to mind. He tried to ignore it for a moment and think of something else, but it didn't quite work. It rather stubbornly stayed at the forefront of his mind. "Could we... could you maybe name her after my sister, if it's a girl?"
"Rebecca?" she asked. "Rebecca... yeah, I like it. It's pretty. Classic."
He smiled, happy that she liked the name. "I'll leave the middle name up to you."
"I kind of already had one in mind," Summer said. "And it's funny, since you thought of naming a boy for Steve, because I was thinking for a girl, the middle name could be Natalia."
"Rebecca Natalia," he said, instantly fond of the way the two names flowed together. "That sounds surprisingly good together."
"It does," Summer smiled. "And Natasha would be over the moon."
He chuckled, shaking his head. "You'd better watch out if it's a girl. Nat already tries to steal Addie away every chance she gets, so just imagine if it's a girl named after her."
"Well, Steve'll do the same if it's a boy," Summer pointed out. "He might actually cry, too."
"He will. He'll try to act calm and cool, but the minute nobody's looking, it'll be big crocodile tears. Patriotic crocodile tears."
Summer giggled again. "Oh gosh. As God Bless the USA plays in the background."
"And an eagle flies over the building," Bucky added. The conversation had taken a turn for the ridiculous, but it was distracting them both and they were grateful for it.
"Man... did we really just come up with names that fast?" Summer asked, marveling at such an idea. "Took us way longer with Addie."
"Well, we don't have the luxury of time this time around, so..."
And there it was, reality rearing its ugly head at them yet again. Summer sighed and burrowed deeper against him and under the covers, both of them wishing they never had to leave their bed and that they could just freeze time and stay safe right there forever.
But soon the alarm on Summer's phone went off, and they ran out of time to waste. It was time to get up, get ready, and face the music at last.
The minute the sound of the alarm hit Bucky's ears, he knew that he wasn't ready. But then again, he never really would be.
He got up and out of bed anyway, and so did Summer. Whatever happened, whatever fate awaited him... they would face it together, just like they had faced every other hardship thrown their way.
He still didn't think that he was getting out of this one this time, but damn did he want to. He was sure that he'd never wanted anything so badly before in his life than to be given the chance to live free with his family and watch it continue to grow.
But he wasn't going to get that chance, though. He just knew it.
Most days, the kids were used to the routine of being dressed, fed, and then handed off to Paul or Sarah or one of the tower's other occupants to be watched for the rest of the day. David was very well used to it by now and never put up a fight, but Adelaide still had her rare days where, for whatever reason, she simply refused to give up without a fight to the death.
Unfortunately, the day of the verdict was one of those days.
"Come on, sweetheart," Bucky cooed, trying to loosen the death grip that his daughter had around his neck, "you've gotta go to Wanda now, okay?"
But the little girl in question only made a noise roughly translated to no, never! and held on even tighter. Bucky sighed and looked to Summer for help, but Summer didn't know what to do. She took a breath and frowned at them, locking eyes with Bucky for a moment as the same thought ran through each of their heads.
This was hard enough for Bucky, kissing and hugging his kids goodbye one last time before the verdict, and the last thing he needed was this. This was the proverbial twisting of the knife, and he just... he couldn't handle this.
"Come on, Addie," Wanda said softly, walking around Bucky so she could look at Adelaide's face. She had Addie's favorite doll in her hand, floating just above her palm and swirling it around the air in flickering shares of red, and she smiled, "We're going to have lots of fun today, but you have to let go first."
Adelaide ceased her wailing for a moment, eyeing the toy silently though her grip didn't falter at all. Hoping it would work, Bucky started to put her down, but that only blew it all to hell and she started crying and fighting him again, refusing to let go and part with her daddy.
Summer furrowed her brows and looked away, finding it all simply too cruel and sad to take. It was a testament to Bucky's strength that he didn't start crying right with their daughter, because she knew that he wanted to, but for the sake of the kids, he held it together.
When Wanda's attempt didn't work, Bucky sighed and took Adelaide across the living room, towards the big windows overlooking the city. He talked to her in hushed tones, patting her head and her hair, and as Summer watched, Natasha entered the room and came to stand by her.
"What's going on?" she asked, watching Bucky pace lightly.
"She doesn't wanna let us leave," Summer replied. "And we have to be at the courthouse in half an hour. But Bucky doesn't have the heart to just put her down when it might be... when he might not..."
Natasha nodded, understanding. Dressed for court herself in a stylish, unfairly body-hugging black suit with a knee-length skirt, Natasha walked the short distance across the room as Summer crossed her arms and watched.
Bucky looked up at Nat as she approached, watching her hand reach out and gently rub the little girl's back. "Addie," she said softly, tilting her head to look Adelaide in her tear-filled eyes. "Mama and Daddy's gotta go, okay? They'll be back later. Right now you've gotta go with Wanda for awhile. I know," she quickly added when Addie immediately began to tense up again, "I know you don't want to, but you have to, okay?"
Most other people likely wouldn't have bothered trying to reason with a child as little as Adelaide, but Natasha was never one to underestimate intelligence of children, knowing full well how much they understood even though they never got credit for it. Adelaide sniffed and rubbed at her eyes, the fight in her possibly starting to wane, and then Natasha sealed the deal with her next words.
"If you hurry and come to me," she grinned, "we can dance before I have to leave with them."
Adelaide's head flew up immediately, a smile on her face replacing the pout that was there before. She then started wriggling to get down all on her own, and dumbfounded, Bucky put her down on her feet and looked at Natasha in amazement.
"You're welcome," Natasha grinned at him before kicking off her high heels, grabbing the little girl's hands as she reached for her.
What followed was a little dance that Natasha had been doing with Adelaide since she could walk, where she held her hands and helped her balance on the tips of her toes as she twirled around like a baby ballerina. Adelaide loved it and ate it up, giggling and even snorting a little bit as she was danced around the room by the woman who would always be her Aunt in every sense of the word, blood be damned.
Bucky came to stand by Summer and David, watching the whole display with a slight shake of his head and a smile on his face. His eyes were still shiny, but he was doing his very best to keep his emotions in check. Summer wasn't faring quite as well, but she blamed all the hormones.
Towards the end of their little routine, Natasha glanced at Wanda and said, "Ready for the big finish?"
"Always," Wanda smiled before holding out both of her hands, and when the thin wisps of energy flowing from them reached Adelaide, Wanda propelled her up into the air and spun her around, making Addie giggle with glee and hold out her arms like she was flying.
Bucky and Summer were both smiling at their daughter's adorable antics when Natasha looked at them meaningfully and mouthed go while she's distracted. They looked at each other and sighed before nodding, Bucky turning to David and dropping down on one knee to face him fully first.
"Take care of your sister, buddy, okay?" Bucky said, pulling the boy in for a hug. He didn't mean those words for only that day while they were gone, and he hoped that David understood that. When they pulled apart, Bucky smiled at him and said, "I love you, David."
David, not used to such words being a part of the daily routine, furrowed his brows in concern before signing the sentiment back. Bucky smiled again and forced his emotions down, hugging the boy one more time before forcing himself to stand up.
Then he took Summer's hand and, while they always hated doing this, they slipped into the elevator while Adelaide wasn't looking. It was for the best and it was a well-known trick that parents used all the time when dealing with a child who had separation anxiety, but it always left them feeling a bit guilty afterwards.
Summer could tell, looking Bucky's way in the elevator and feeling a pang in her heart when she saw the way that he was staring unfocused at the doors, jaw clenched and eyes shining. She gave his hand a squeeze and laid her head on his shoulder, just wanting to fast forward through the next hour and find out one way or other what their fate was.
About an hour later, an entire army of press had converged upon the courthouse to await the verdict of the trial of the century. That day, the cameras were allowed inside of the courtroom so that the verdict could be read aloud to the entire country and broadcasted to anyone who wanted to watch.
Bucky walked inside the courthouse as stoically as he always did, eyes focused on his destination and nothing else. Summer's hand was firmly in his as they walked behind their lawyers, Steve and Natasha behind them, Sam on a nearby rooftop providing extra security just in case they ever had to deal with another sniper situation again. Tony was already inside the courthouse in the gallery, Pepper at his side.
That day, there were protests in the streets behind them, both for and against the Winter Soldier. The lines were just about equally divided, and that didn't serve to soothe neither Bucky or Summer's nerves one bit. The jury had taken a week to reach a decision, and whatever it was, they had all clearly reached it unanimously despite the time it took to get there. Matt and Foggy couldn't tell them whether this was a positive or negative sign, since really, it could go either way.
Once they made their way inside the courthouse and into the correct courtroom, Summer kissed Bucky one last time and whispered an I love you before having to head into the gallery with the rest of the onlookers. Bucky gave her a tight smile and mouthed the words back, eyes sad and without hope as he turned to follow the lawyers to the defense table.
Now all that was left to do was wait for the judge and jury to arrive. It was the longest 20 minutes of both Bucky and Summer's life.
When the time finally came, Summer had a white-knuckled grip on Natasha's hand, and Bucky was as pale as ghost as he looked on and listened to the jury foreman begin to speak.
The list of charges were long and varied, some of first degree murder, manslaughter, and less severe ones like obstruction of justice. Altogether Bucky had been charged with 30 crimes, but it was the first ten - all murder charges - that carried with them the steepest sentences and spelled his potential doom. And those were the ones that the the jury started with.
First, the jury foreman - an older man in his 50s who had been the most difficult juror to read over the course of the trial - read off the name of the case, the case number, all of the information that was required for court records. Bucky swallowed hard and tried to stay steady and calm, even though his heart was pounding against his ribs and his limbs were shaking - even the metal one. He was even praying, something he didn't do often, but hell if he wasn't begging for a second chance that he knew he didn't deserve.
The first charge to be read was, not surprisingly, the first degree murder of President Kennedy. It was the crime with the most historical significance, and part of the reason why the trial was the most major one of the still-young century.
Bucky held his breath. Behind him, Summer was trying not to hyperventilate.
Reading from the paper in his hands, the foreman said, "We the jury in the above entitled case find the defendant, James Buchanan Barnes, not guilty of murder in the first degree of -"
Not guilty. Hardly anyone in the room heard the rest of the foreman's words, because those two alone carried with it a shockwave that hit everyone watching and waiting like one from a detonated bomb.
Unable to believe what he'd just heard, Bucky's mouth dropped open and he let out the breath that he'd been holding, stoic act gone in a heartbeat. He blinked and furrowed his brows, shock evident on his face, and behind him, Summer had let go of Natasha's hand to cover her mouth with both of her now-violently shaking hands, eyes wide and already shedding tears.
Not guilty. But that was also only the first charge, and there were many more to go. The next to be read was that of the murder of Howard Stark, and after that, Maria Stark.
Tony listened as intently as one possibly could as the results were read. Once upon a time, back when he had first found out how his parents truly died, his knee-jerk reaction hadn't has been as generous as his current opinions were. But Pepper had been there to help him see reason, talking him through it all after he'd learned the truth from the HYDRA/SHIELD leak, and now he was, against all odds, one of Bucky's most ardent public defenders and supporters. It didn't mean they could really stand each other behind closed doors and Tony still could only stand to look at him for so long, but yet here they were with Tony literally behind him, hoping that his parents' killer was let off the hook.
And when the foreman declared Bucky not guilty of those charges as well, Bucky's eyes instantly filled up with tears he had absolutely zero hope of fighting. He heard a very faint sound behind him that sounded like a cross of a sob and a gasp, and he knew that it had come from Summer.
Steve had put his arm around her to keep her steady. Behind them, Tony let out a deep breath and Pepper tightened her hold on his hand, looking at him in a way that told him how proud she was of him.
Meanwhile, Foggy was so wide-eyed he was in danger of becoming the next Internet meme, possibly to be named "Shocked Lawyer Guy".
All the while, the foreman kept reading through the list of charges. Bucky listened to each one with inhumanly sharp ears, waiting for one of them to be guilty and the hope surging through his veins to be crushed, but that moment never came. What did come was another not guilty, then another and another, until the murder charges had all been read through and next to be read were the lesser ones.
Across town at Avengers tower, Wanda and the kids were watching the coverage of the verdict. David understood what he was watching and looked at the shocked and smiling Wanda with an equally happy smile on his face. Adelaide, blissfully unaware of how close her family had come to being forever broken, merely pointed at the TV and babbled about everyone she saw on there - Mama, Dada, Teeb for Steve, A-na for Aunt Nat.
Behind Wanda stood Vision, watching with a serene but pleased expression on his face. "The jury chose logic over fear."
"Yeah," she sighed, her smile growing when David barreled into her side for a big, happy hug. "Maybe there's hope for the world after all."
"Maybe," Vision mused.
About forty-five minutes away, Paul was halfway through his shift at the hospital and watching a live feed of the verdict on his phone. The chief of surgery, the same man who had saved Summer's life with the transfusion of Steve's blood, stood next to him and watched as well.
They were in a patient's room, an elderly woman who was in for a routine procedure, and Paul was sitting at her side and holding the phone so that all three of them could watch.
"Well, good for him," the woman declared. "Poor guy. It's a shame he had to go through this trial to begin with. Worthless government."
Paul laughed, wiping at the corner of his suddenly not-dry eye and saying, "That's my brother in law. He's married to my sister."
The woman's eyes widened and she looked at him like he was nuts. Then she looked him up and down and said, "You? You're related to that woman?" Paul nodded, and she raised her brows and said, "I'm sorry, son. I saw her on the cover of People at the store the other day, and boy, is she a looker. Stunning. You got the shit end of the gene pool, didn't you?"
Paul didn't even have it in him to be offended by the patient's hilariously inappropriate question. He just laughed and shook his head, the chief laughing next to him as they continued to watch the verdict.
All day long, Paul had been consumed with worry. Natasha had secretly told him a few weeks earlier of what she and Bucky had planned for if the verdict was bad, how Summer and the kids would disappear to Florida and possibly stay disappeared for good. But now it looked like things might actually be all right, and that he wouldn't lose the only family he had left to the Avengers' version of witness protection.
Outside of the courthouse and down the street, Esteban and Nicolo were also watching on their phones as they stood in the midst of the pro-innocent protestors. They had been organizing the protests for weeks now, and as more and more charges were dismissed, they celebrated and nearly fainted with relief. Throughout the whole trial they had felt painfully helpless to do much for their friends, but they found a way to do so by shoring up more support and representing their side on the streets. And to their relief, it looked like they were gonna win after all.
Across the country in California, in a medium-security correctional facility that Brock Rumlow was set to spend the rest of his life within the four walls of, he watched as the verdict was handed down during his one hour of recreational time a day. Watching with a handful of other prisoners in front of a small TV that was made around the time Nixon was President, he shook his badly scarred head and laughed softly to himself. "Son of a bitch."
Despite Rumlow's best efforts, it looked like the Winter Soldier was going to escape the fate that he'd condemned Rumlow to not too long ago. But that was fine, Rumlow mused as he turned and ignored the rest of the coverage. Time would tell how long Bucky could avoid vigilante justice, or one of his earlier foes putting a bullet in his pretty little head.
Across the very universe itself, Asgard's gatekeeper watched the scene unfold with his nearly boundless vision. He almost cracked a little smile to himself, planning to tell Thor the good news as soon as possible. Thor was rather busy those days, but he had asked Heimdall to keep an eye on the trial and on his Midgardian friends, and Heimdall had faithfully done precisely that. Thor would be greatly relieved once he was made aware of the trial's outcome.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, in the courtroom where Bucky and Summer still sat in almost identical states of relief and shock, the final charges were read. It seemed impossibly unlikely but in the end, Bucky was acquitted of all the charges against him.
The prosecutor, though she tried to seem impassive, was in a bitter state of denial. Foggy looked like he was about one breath away from putting on a party hat and dancing on top of the table they were seated at, and Matt had turned his head towards Bucky, as if he could see him, and put his hand on Bucky's shoulder. Bucky turned towards him to find a confident, pleased look on his face that spoke volumes.
The judge accepted the jury's verdict. He then with only a few words declared Bucky a free man once more, his house arrest over, and then dismissed the court. For as long as the trial had been, it was over in mere minutes, and the judge seemed more than a little relieved for the circus to finally be over.
Bucky then stood up on shaky legs after the judge left, feeling dizzy and strange and relieved and overwhelmed all at once. The minute he turned around, Summer was right there, all but leaping into his arms over the divider, tears streaming down her face and body clinging to his like she planned on never ever letting go.
He laughed - really, fully laughed - for the first time in weeks and held her tight, being careful not to smash her belly but hugging her as closely to him as he could.
"Oh my God, oh my God," she said through her tears, pulling away to look him in the eye and cup his face with both of her hands as she smiled more brightly than the sun itself. "We did it! We - see, I told you there was still hope! I told you we could do it!"
"Trust me, I'm never doubting you again," he said with a huge smile, the weight of the world finally off of his shoulders as he pulled her close again and kissed her with all of the relief and all of the joy that they both felt.
But they couldn't stay there like that forever. The bailiff began impatiently trying to expedite their exits, so Bucky clutched her hand and shot her another smile as they made their way out.
Once they had all filed into the hallway, Summer jumped on Bucky again with another exuberant hug. He laughed again and squeezed her tight, setting her down just in time for her to jump on Foggy next. While she gave him the hug of his life, Steve smiled at Bucky and gave him a hug of his own that was even more bone-crushing.
"Looks like you're never getting rid of me," Bucky said, his voice wobbling just enough to give away how incredibly emotional he was under those joking words.
Steve smiled and hugged him tighter. "I'll survive."
Meanwhile, Summer pulled away from Foggy beaming and gushing, "Thank you so, so, so much. I'll never be able to thank you enough for what you did for us."
He blushed. "Oh well, just doing our j-"
Before he could finish that sentence, Summer had already flung herself at Matt next, making him stagger back an inch or two as she showered him with gratitude. He laughed and hugged her back, smiling as she pulled away and continued gushing. "Thank you. Thank you so much, the both of you... we're in your debt forever."
"Not at all," Matt smiled. "It was our pleasure."
She just smiled and hugged him again, one more time, thanking God that she had taken a chance and hired those two green lawyers from Hell's Kitchen. They were the least obvious and least conventional choice, but they had kept her husband out of prison and kept her family together. She owed them her life, and she would never forget that.
Natasha appeared at her side next, and the two women hugged with smiles and quiet words between them, Natasha mentioning how now Bucky wouldn't miss the birth of the new baby. Summer held her tighter, sharing a joyful smile with her before Nat turned to Bucky.
Bucky eyed her curiously, knowing that Natasha was really only one for hugs when it came to certain people. She shot him the same look right back, then let a grin curl across her lips as she opened her arms and pulled him into a hug anyway.
"Thank you, Nat," he told her quietly as he embraced her back, "for everything. Everything you did for us."
"You're welcome," she sighed, drawing away and offering him a genuine smile. "All I ask in return is that you name at least one child after me."
Bucky chuckled. "It's funny you should mention that."
But before Bucky could tell Nat what they'd chosen to name the new baby if it was a girl, Tony crashed the party and put an arm around Summer, walking her towards the others. "Okay, so, seeing as I bankrolled the entire defense -"
Steve rolled his eyes. "No you didn't."
"Okay, but I posted the zillion-dollar bail, so almost the same thing," Tony shrugged. "Anyway, as I mentioned before, my contributions to this little cause means that you're both my bitches now." Summer laughed and Bucky grinned, and Tony went on, "From you, Lady Solstice, I'm thinking... cookies. The biggest batch you can make of those triple chocolate ones, every two weeks for the next 20 years. Deal?"
"... I think I might be able to pull that off," she smiled as he patted her shoulder, pulling his arm away.
"Awesome. And from you," he said, turning to Bucky and furrowing his brows, "honestly, I can't really think of anything I want from you. You've already let me tinker with your arm. Honest to God, I'm drawing a blank here."
Bucky smiled and then let his expression sober, knowing full well how Tony used humor to deflect emotional moments. Then he told him quietly, "Look, I just... wanted to tell you again, I'm sorry for my part in what happened. I'm sorry for all of it. And if I could, I'd do anything to go back and change it."
Tony nodded, expression sober now as well. "I know you would." Then he held out his hand, and Bucky shook it. No more words passed between them, because no more were necessary.
As Pepper shared a hug with Summer, Steve let out a relieved sigh and said, "There's gonna be a lot of people who aren't happy with what happened here today. We need to get you guys out of here and back to the tower now. You both need to lay low for awhile."
Summer nodded, returning to Bucky's side and clasping his hand. Natasha said, "We can stage their exit while they leave a different way. Switch cars, too."
Steve nodded, glancing at Summer and Bucky and smiling at the way that they were looking at each other, full of relief and happy and blown away by how everything had turned out. "All right," he said with a stupid grin of his own. "Let's go home."
Bucky smiled at Summer and kissed her one more time after those words were uttered. He had seen crazy, impossible things in his unnaturally long life, from (somewhat) flying cars to his twig of a best friend becoming the world's first superhero overnight, but he didn't think that anything had ever surprised him so much as this had. Standing trial for the crimes that haunted his memories, everything being laid out for all the world to see and for a handful of strangers to decide his ultimate fate, and then being able to walk away from that and go home... he half expected to wake up any minute and find out that it was all a dream.
But it was no dream. He and Summer slipped out of the courthouse covertly, through an emergency exit, and slipped through the crowds and the traffic without being detected. They had Natasha to thank for that, as well as her car and its tinted windows.
With their hands linked between their seats and stubborn smiles on their faces, Bucky glanced at Summer and felt his smile grow as the same moment hers did, the moment their eyes met. Then he turned back to the road and drove them home.
In the aftermath of trial, there was a lot of work to do. Summer needed to thank all of her blog followers for their support, arrange a full time return to work, write a check to Matt and Foggy to cover what legal fees she hadn't paid yet, and then somewhere in the midst of all of that, make an appointment with her midwife and also figure out if they were going to stay in the tower long term or move somewhere else.
However, that night, Summer did none of those things. Bucky had things to figure out too, like whether or not he was going to be able to go back to work with the Avengers and how he was going to help support his family if not, and he also needed to make an official statement to the press through Matt and Foggy following the acquittal. But like Summer, he did none of those things and paid them no mind that night.
Instead, Bucky and Summer turned off their phones, left them both on their dresser charging, and climbed into bed well before their typical bedtimes with the kids in tow. It was storming outside, nothing major but enough thunder and lightning to make Adelaide occasionally squeak with fear, and the little family of four dived under their blankets and decided to spend the night doing absolutely nothing but being together.
Addie was curled up in Bucky's arms, clinging to him and jumping every time thunder rolled through the sky, and David was sitting down by their feet playing with Loki the cat. Summer was burrowed under the blankets, her legs tangled lightly with Bucky's and her fingers running soothingly through Addie's hair, smiling when Bucky's eyes flickered to hers.
He smiled back, and just then, everything was perfect. They were all safe, they were all together, and while the future remained uncertain, Bucky could never again be prosecuted for HYDRA's crimes. The trial was over and done, and outside of their peaceful four walls, the world was reacting to the shocking verdict.
Summer knew that Twitter must have been absolutely exploding, along with every other social media site in existence. The Internet was probably close to breaking entirely, and while a part of her was curious as to just how crazy it all was, she wasn't going to check any of it until the next day. That night was just for them, and until morning came, the world outside simply didn't exist.
"So," she smiled, breaking the comfortable silence, "I feel like I can breathe again."
"Me too," he said with a relieved sigh, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "I also feel like I could sleep for a week."
She chuckled, knowing exactly what he meant. Neither of them had really slept in months, Bucky even more so, but now they had a chance to finally and truly rest.
Another roll of thunder and a jolt from Addie opened his eyes back up, and he soothingly rubbed her back as he murmured, "It's okay. Just a storm. M'not going anywhere."
Just those simple little words brought tears to Summer's eyes - happy ones - because now he could say things like that and really mean it, and say them without a trace of doubt. He truly wasn't going anywhere. The kids got to keep their daddy - including the tiny one currently "baking" in the "oven" - and Summer got to keep the love of her life.
And she never ever wanted to again feel the kind of anxiety, stress, and fear that she had felt since Bucky's arrest. It felt like her heart had finally been removed from a suffocatingly tight vice that had been tightening and squeezing the life out of it for months.
Now she could breathe. Now he could breathe. And they could live again.
David kneed his way up the bed, plopping Loki down on Bucky's chest and thus sticking him right in front of Addie's face. She giggled and reached out, batting at the cat's face and pulling on his ear, and Loki - who was rather used to the abuse at this point - simply laid down and took it. David smiled, pleased at having made his little sister happy, and then he laid down in the small space between his two parents.
"Looks like we're in for a sleepover tonight," Summer said, snuggling her son closer.
Bucky shrugged, smiling. "I'm okay with that."
For the next hour or so, the kids played and acted silly and made their parents laugh with their antics. The storm outside faded and Adelaide forgot all about it, getting up and bouncing on the bed, persuading her brother to do it with her, and Bucky and Summer let them get away with it because that night was not the night for rules or griping of any sort. They even let the kids break into a bag of candy that Summer kept hidden in the closet for bribing purposes, and both kids ended up passing out around midnight in a mutual candy coma.
They didn't move the kids to their own room or even consider doing so. Instead, Summer lifted Adelaide into her arms, nestled her there safely and laid back down. Bucky moved David next to her, and then he turned off the lights before laying down behind Summer, pulling her close with his arm around her waist, her back to his chest.
It was a tight fit, even on their California King bed, but they made it work. And it was all made complete when Loki pawed his way up the bed, curled up at David's side between him and Summer, and fell asleep.
Bucky kissed the back of Summer's neck, and she smiled and closed her eyes. "Not a bad way to end the night, huh?"
"Wouldn't change it if I could," he murmured, his voice sounding incredibly tired but content and without that edge of fear that had been there for so long.
Summer opened her eyes, gazing at Adelaide's sweet little sleeping face, all plump cheeks and slightly parted lips, and she marveled, "Can you believe we're having another one of these?"
"Not really," he admitted. "Don't think it's really sunken in yet. Even though we've already got names and everything."
"I know," she sighed. "I wonder if it'll be a boy this time." She paused and asked, "Do you have a preference?"
She felt the slight shake of his head against her hair. "Not really. Just as long as it's healthy and looks more like you than me..."
She chuckled. "You know, Addie looks just like you, and she's beautiful, so..."
"Nah, see, I don't see it," he shrugged, propping his chin on Summer's shoulder so he could look upon the little girl in question. "All I see is you."
"Maybe because that's what you want to see," she noted with a grin, turning her face so she could look at him. He glanced at her and grinned, leaning down and placing a sweet little kiss on her lips.
"Know what I think?" he said as he pulled away, stroking his right hand thumb over her jaw.
"What?" she asked playfully.
"I think that we should definitely take that second honeymoon you promised me awhile back."
She smiled brightly, cheeks flushing a little bit as she said, "You mean the one where we spend two weeks on some remote, super private island somewhere, and it's just the two of us for the first week?"
"That's the one," he smiled.
"We can definitely do that, but I have one condition," she replied. "It's gotta be once I'm in my second trimester, because I do not want to spend our second honeymoon barfing into the sea."
He chuckled, corners of his eyes crinkling the process, and God if she fell anymore in love with this man, she was sure she'd simply explode. "Okay. Yeah, no problem. Actually," he raised an eyebrow, "second trimester's also when you get really horny, isn't it?"
She blushed and sighed, nodding. "Yeah, like to the point of insanity, at least for me."
"Even better, then," he grinned, kissing her again. Then he mused, "You were so sensitive last time, too. Didn't know a woman could even be that sensitive."
"... Pregnancy has its benefits," she shrugged, smiling.
"Yeah it does," he agreed, running his hand over her belly softly. "Can't wait to watch this grow again."
"I'll try not to gain a thousand pounds this time," she sighed. "Maybe now that I've got some super-blood of my own, I won't be as hungry as I was with Addie. Maybe everything'll be more balanced."
"Maybe," he mused. Then he paused, and after a comfortable silence passed between them, he said, "Your blood... I was thinking about that recently."
"What about?" she asked, watching his eyes flicker from her to Adelaide and back again.
"Well... there's a theory," he said quietly, "that Steve... that he's gonna be alive a lot longer than the average person, 'cause of the serum. Not long like Thor long, but... probably twice as long as the average lifespan. Heard him and Tony talking about one day awhile back, how his cells regenerating constantly will probably make him live to 150 or something crazy like that."
Summer quietly marveled at that idea before her eyes widened and he realized where he was going with this. "Wait... are you saying that we're gonna live that long?"
"Not that long, no," he shook his head. "I figure with whatever they gave me, it's not Erskine's stuff but still pretty damn close, so... I don't know, maybe I'll get to 125. And you," he said softly, "with Steve's cells bound with yours now, maybe that'll get you pretty close to that."
Summer let that sink in for a moment. Not once since she had met Bucky had she thought about the potential differences in their lifespans, how he might have outlived her by four or five decades if her lifespan was of average length.
"I didn't wanna live that long without you," he murmured. "I mean, I'd have our kids. I'd have Steve, but... I never wanted to think about it."
"I never did," she admitted. "Wow. So... do you think Addie will live that long?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, if you think about it, the cellular regeneration, the immunity to almost everything under the sun... you'd think she'd have to live pretty long."
"Yeah..." Summer mused as she gazed at the baby. Then her eyes traveled to David, passed out and snuggled with his kitty, and Summer frowned as she noted, "David won't have any of that."
"Well," Bucky replied, "maybe one day when he's grown up, we can explain everything to him, and... if he wants to, I'm sure Steve wouldn't mind giving him some blood too."
"Maybe," she sighed. "I don't know. I just... I don't want to outlive him. Parents aren't supposed to outlive their kids."
"Yeah," he murmured, laying a comforting kiss on her shoulder. "We'll figure it out. Don't worry about it right now. Just... think about us poking around our house somewhere at the age of 115."
She laughed, closing her eyes and jostling Adelaide slightly with how she trembled with giggles. "Oh my gosh. I'd be deaf in one ear and you'd have to yell at me all the time for me to hear anything."
He chuckled, running his fingers through her thick black hair. "And this'll all be gray."
She groaned. "Yeah... unfortunately. See, you on the other hand, will totally rock the graying look. Like... if I imagine you with some gray in your hair, like on the sides, just... whoa, man."
"Like that idea?" he grinned. When she replied in the form of a nod and a shiver, he chuckled and said, "Well, for what it's worth, I'll still think you're incredibly sexy when you're gray, too."
"Well, see, to me that depends on what kind of gray I get," she replied. "My grandma had really pretty white-gray hair, and she kept it long until the day she died. It was awesome. I want gray hair like that."
Bucky nodded. "Well, at least then I'll still have something to hold on to after I take a fistful of Viagra and take you to bed."
She laughed again, mildly horrified at the image that popped into her head. "Oh God, Bucky!"
"That's what you'll be saying then too, long as neither of us break a hip," he replied, dissolving into his own laughter on the last few words.
"That's... oh man," she said between giggles, trying to calm down before she woke up one of the kids. "I don't wanna think about that. Old people don't have sex."
"Yes they do," he pointed out. "They probably have a lot of it. What else is there to do once you retire?"
She covered her face with her free hand, groaning. "That's so gross."
"You won't think it's gross when we're the old people," he said, stealing a quick kiss on her neck, beneath her ear. "I'll still have the moves. So will you."
She sighed and shook her head, still finding the thought disturbing but realizing with a little surge of happiness in her heart how lucky they were to have their future back. Just the day before he had asked her to forget him one day and move on, find someone else and learn to be happy again without him, and now that would never have to happen. They could stay together now, grow old together and spoil (and probably embarrass) the hell out of their kids and grandkids for a long, long time. Maybe even longer than Summer had previously thought possible.
It was an enormous gift that they had been given, and neither of them were going to take it for granted for even a moment.
"I love you," she said quietly, when silence had fallen once more and the pull of sleep began to creep up on her. She covered his hand still resting on her belly with her own, and he nestled in closer against her with a soft kiss to the back of her neck.
"I love you too," he replied, and she could feel how much he meant those words. He loved her more than she thought any man ever would, and even she in all of her lingering insecurities and occasional lapses in confidence could ever doubt that.
He loved her like her grandma used to tell Summer her husband loved her, before the war and acts of evil had taken his life at far too young of an age. He loved her the way she remembered her own father loving her mother, looking at her like she was the center of his whole universe before their time on the earth was also cut entirely too short.
He loved her in ways that she wouldn't have been able to fathom if she hadn't loved him back just as deeply and unshakably, but she did. And she knew how very lucky that made them both.
They fell asleep soon after, safe in the heart of the city and the tower itself, in each other's arms and next to the children that completed their family. Everything was peaceful, everything was okay, and nobody was coming to tear them apart.
The trial, as hellish as it had been, hadn't been the end after all. It was, instead, only the beginning of the rest of their lives together.