Chapter 4
They get to the non descript vehicle and the man stares at them. "Who sits where."
"I drive." Clint offers.
"I pick the music."
"I'm in the back, tony finishes.
The man reaches for one of the back doors and Clint turns to him, "do you have a name?"
There's a moment when Clint thinks he's not going to answer. But then his eyes flick to Tony and there's a resignation there. Like his past has come back and there's no hiding.
"Steve." He says slowly, as if he hasn't said that word in a very long time. "My name is Steve."
"Clint." He offers, not remembering if he's said that before.
"Natasha."
"Tony."
The man dips his head, "nice to meet you."
Clint hears Tony making a snorting sound and they all get into the car.
—
After they're safely out of the city limits, Steve speaks for the first time in the car, "what about the room you found Phil in. He saw something in there he wasn't supposed to. What can you remember?"
"Why do you think he saw something? Couldn't Pierce have just killed him to get rid of him?"
The man nods, "Pierce did kill him to get rid of him. Or so we assume. But why in a way so public? Why when young agents loyal to Phil would or could find him? Pierce could have done it in an infinitely more private and less suspicious manner. Phil found something out, and he died for it. What was it?"
Clint eyes Natasha and she closes her eyes. "It was an underground room. Square. Industrial, high powered with a generator backup."
Clint furrows his brow, "there was?"
"It was situated in the corner your back was to. You were focused on Phil." Then she makes a square with her fingers and 'hmms'. "The ground was concrete, but there was lots of metal plating. Coverings for conduits or pipes or breakers on the walls, I don't know. The most unusual things were the circles."
Clint nods, jumping in, "the set in circles in the ground."
Steve's voice is calm, and Clint can see he's holding something and looking at it. He hears scratching. Clint's eyebrows raise, he knows that sound from his niece. He's drawing, "describe the circles."
"They were each probably 3 feet in diameter. Maybe a bit smaller—" more scratching, "each had what looked like power and cooling systems entering it. Insulated pipes and wiring. So water or something. They also had latch locks."
The scratching continues and then stops. "You said Phil said 'them'."
"Yes."
The man lets out a deep sigh, "shit."
"What?" Natasha asks, her eyes flicking back.
"You're describing cryo cell holds. Or water chambers."
Natasha reaches a hand back, "can I see?"
Clint's eyes dash to the paper she pulls up and his mouth gapes, "what the hell?" He looks up at Natasha's surprised face and then to the rearview mirror where calm blue eyes stare back, "you've been to this room before?"
Steve's eyes blink, "you see one hydra room, you've seen them all." Natasha hands back the sketch pad and Steve looks out teh window, "I just wonder who they're holding that Phil would single me out for."
"Maybe an old work buddy?"
Steve snorts and shakes his head, "nope."
"How can you know?"
"Everyone I worked with is dead." Then he points to Tony, "or Howard Stark."
Natasha's voice is strangely sharp, "surely not everyone. You worked with Shield. I know higher ups who have worked there for 15 plus years."
"Phillips." Tony says. Then he repeats it, sounding strangled, "Phillips."
Clint looks back to See Steve's jaw is tight. And Tony's eyes are far away, "What about Phillips, Tony?"
"Nothing." The guy manages out, and CLint sees the shift in his eyes, from surprise to calculating.
And the car falls silent.
—-
They pull up to the Stark mansion and they walk slowly through the house back down to the lab.
Howard is now laying on his back on the ground, beating at something with a wrench.
"Dad." Tony calls, "DAD."
"Anthony?"
"Yeah, pops. We're back."
"Back from where?"
"Collecting Steve."
An eerie silence fills the room and they can't see Howard's face but they hear his voice, "who told you that name."
"I did." Steve speaks.
Goggled eyes appear and Clint tries not to smile at the singed mustache below them, "Steve?"
"Hello, Howard."
The man rips off the goggles and blinks a couple times. "You came."
Steve steps forward and stops right in front of Howard, "I heard about Maria. I'm.." true guilt lies under the surface, "I'm very sorry."
Howard shakes his head. "No." He waves a hand, "no, it's not your fault. You told us to stay. Even Maria thought we should stay. It's on me."
"No, Howard, you came to me—"
"And then I left. You told us we shouldn't drive in that storm—"
Clint is watching Tony's expression of shock.
"You left because I said 'no'."
"That's not a crime. Even if Shield wanted to pretend it was."
"I wondered why you stopped coming." Steve admits, his voice sad.
"You told me to stop coming."
"You had never listened before. I didn't know why you listened then."
Clint looks up to back to see Tony is gone. Natasha is watching the conversation like a hawk.
"How's Philly?"
Steve nods, "it's no Brooklyn."
Howard huffs a laugh and looks around, "Jarvis?"
Yes, Mr. Stark.
Howard startles and there's a moment of panic and then it settles, "bring some coffee, would you?"
I will have a staff bring some, sir.
Clint wonders how long the AI has routed around Howard's impossible asks. Can't ask a dead person to bring you coffee.
"Howard…" Steve says, "Jarvis died a while ago."
Howard narrows his eyes, "what brings you out of the woodwork?"
"Coulson's death."
"Coulson's dead?" Howard asks, "Shame. He was good. Looked up to you. Saved that company from snakes more times than I can count."
There's a tension as Steve nods, but Clint is lost. "How could Phil look up to him?" He gestures to Steve, "he's barely older than us!"
Howard snorts and then his brow wrinkles as he looks to Steve, "any changes? Grays? Wrinkles?"
A tight, "no." Is all that escapes Steve's lips.
"Lower levels of energy?"
A sigh, "no."
Natasha is gasping at the same time that Clint's lightbulb is warming up. And Tony takes that moment to reappear, "this has to be some sort of joke!" He storms over to the metal table his father is behind and slams something down. "I knew I recognized you!" Then he points to his dad, "and you said Phillips wanted a way to keep in contact! But Phillips died 20 years ago!" He stabs a finger at Steve, "just how old are you?"
When Steve doesn't answer, Tony flips open the book and shuffles through the pages. He stops at a page and Clint can recognize a young Howard Stark, marrying a blonde woman. And, Clint gasps, Steve stands in the background, smiling widely.
Clint looks at the date.
1966.
Three pairs of shocked eyes stare up at him.
"Howard." Steve says with a sigh, "we talked about this."
"I'm not throwing away or editing my wedding pictures, Steve." Howard snaps, "it hurt too much not to keep. And if you think I believe for one damn second that you don't have any photos on you then you're a fool." He holds out his hand, "let me see the compass."
Steve groans, "Howard."
"How. Old. Are. You." Tony cuts in.
Steve's face pinches and nose wrinkles as if he's having to count. "2012, right? So 94."
Clint waits for the punchline. The buh-dum-tss to happen. But no one says a thing. And Howard doesn't look particularly tickled to have pulled the wool over anyone's eyes.
"That's impossible." Natasha says with narrowed eyes.
Steve looks at them and then rolls his eyes, "i don't give a shit if you believe it or not. I'm here to do this mission and then disappear and now that the pleasantries are done with, can we figure this out? Every moment I'm not in hiding is a moment I'm putting you all in danger." He points at Howard, "Hydra has two captives or hostages, or something. Cryo or water cells by their description. What's come across the chatter? Any missing interests?"
"Cryo?" Howard repeats, "I haven't heard of any recent high levelers missing that would warrant cryo."
Steve leans back and crosses his arms over his chest, "well Phil thought they'd be specific to me. But anyone I would know is dead."
"Well." Howard says slowly, and then his face turns a bit wary, "maybe it's them."
Steve's voice is sharp, "don't."
"I told you it was strange. You never believed me—"
"Howard, do not bring this up again."
"Why didn't we find their bodies, Steve! We found everyone else's!"
Steve's up and walking towards the door, "I'm not arguing about this again."
"The shield." Everyone pauses at Howard's words, "you brought it?"
Steve stops at the door and nods, "yes."
"Can I see?"
"I'll bring it from the car." Then he's gone.
"Whose bodies, dad?" Tony asks, "who didn't you find?"
Howard's thin finger points to the picture. First a man with dark hair standing in Steve's right side, "Sergeant James Barnes." He says slowly, then his finger slides directly across to Steve to a woman who is smiling with a raised eyebrow and dark lips. Now that Clint looks closer, her arm is wrapped around Steve and his is around her waist. "Agent Carter for those who worked at Shield. And Peggy Rogers for those who were in the inner circle."
"Rogers?" Natasha asks.
Howard waves a hand up to the door where the man just left, "Captain Steve Rogers."
"He's married?"
"Was." Natasha says softly, "didn't you listen? Bodies."
Howard sighs and he taps the photo, "Cap and his entire team came to the wedding. This is all of them." His eyes close and his hand rests flat on the plastic covering the photo. And the last one of all of them alive."
Tony looks up, "what do you mean?"
"Three weeks later," he scrubs at his eyes, "we got a lead on some Hydra heads reemerging and sent the entirety of the Commandos to check it out." His hands shake as he tugs at his suspenders, "we don't know if it was a trap or an accident, but they got trapped under the rubble when the underground facility they were exploring blew." His face is a bit ashen. "Steve survived because he is built to survive. I thought… James…" he shakes his head, turning his back to them, "Even burnt to a crisp, Steve wouldn't stop until we found everyone." His hands ghost over each face, "we pulled each one out. Dugan, Jones, Morita, Denier, Junior, Monty." His throat is tight, "he personally dug each grave because we couldn't bury them in a normal cometary. Too worried about people screwing with their graves. But we never found…" he bites the side of his tongue and wrinkles his mustache. "We looked for weeks. Through every ounce of rubble to find something. Even if their bodies burnt up, which was unlikely due to the fact that everyone else was found mostly intact, we should have found something. Dog tags, buttons, weapons. Something. Instead we found nothing." He gestures to the door, "and he was…"
Clint is staring at the picture. The man smiling so easily. Only to have lost everything weeks later, "He has never been the same. James Barnes was his best friend from childhood. Carter was the love of his life. His team was everything to him. And in one fell swoop. They were gone."
"What do you mean built to survive?"
Howard waves a hand, shushing the question from his son, "Once the dust had settled, and he'd healed fully, he worked for the next three years. He believed me that maybe they made it out, or that they'd been taken. He searched the globe, up and down and left and right. That's when he met and fought with—" he points to the two coins Clint had left. The Brazilian Real and the Norwegian Krone. He fought alongside them and followed every thread. Unraveling it." He shakes his head, "but there was nothing." He flips to another page, and there's a picture of Tony as a baby. Then another of him in Maria's arms. "Then Jane died. Got sick and they were all on a mission. Couldn't get back in time. Then they lost Bruce's girl to a hostage situation at her labs. And her father blamed Bruce. Which sent him running. That was the final straw. They all quit. Officially."
"What do you mean 'built to survive'?" Tony asks again.
"Why do you think they could still be alive?" Natasha cuts in.
Howard, much to Tony's annoyance, turns to her, "I have this theory—"
"Which is just that." Steve's voice cuts through. "A theory. Untested. Unproven. Hypothetical." He stands there in the doorway, face tight and leather case in his hands.
"But founded—"
"In what?"
"Your memories. You had told me yourself—"
"I was holding onto hope. Misremembering." He walks forward and joins them around the table.
"You can't misremember."
"I was letting myself believe in a pipe dream."
"But there's a chance—"
"It's been 46 years." He snaps, "if what you're saying is true, wouldn't we have heard or seen them? Been sent a ransom note?"
"Not if my theory is correct-"
A deep angry growl, "it's not!"
"Barnes was different. You know that! Zola—"
"Was a crackpot!"
"A psycho genius, yes, but—"
"Howard!" Metal groans and Clint looks over to see the way five indents reside right under Steve's fingers. As if he'd pressed them into the table like it was putty. Clint, Tony and Natasha look stunned, "stop."
He shoves the leather case on the table and stalks back out of the room, shoulders up to his ears in tension.
It's quiet for a long while until Tony rests a hand on his dad's shoulder. "I'm feeling a little lost. Why do you think they're still alive if everyone else died?"
"He's like Steve. Or we think he could have been. And she… she has to be."
Natasha leans forward, "why?"
"She told me not to tell him. She didn't want him to take her off the mission just because of it. It was so early." His face is wracked with guilt, "I told her I wouldn't tell him. I kept my promise. Steve was going to be with her anyways, what could go wrong? He still doesn't know."
Tony's voice is hesitant, "Dad.. what are you saying?"
His finger ghosts back to the wedding picture, "here. At the wedding, she told me. She was my best man, whispered it to me as Steve was walking Maria down the aisle towards us."
Clint has a curl of dread in his stomach as Tony presses, "told you what, dad?"
Howard's face looks up at them and his eyes are anguished, "she was pregnant."
—