Clint shakes his head and looks up, waiting for the 'gotcha' on the super not funny joke.
But Howard Stark, aged and wrinkled and guilt stricken with grief just stares at the picture.
"Uh… what?" He asks not so eloquently.
His eyes get far away. "'I think you're right, you ruddy bastard. I'm pregnant.'" His mouth forms a frown that starts to tremble. "That's what she said to me. Whispered in my ear while Maria and Steve were at the back of the church, walking towards us."
"Dad—" Tony starts, leaning forwards, "what do you mean, 'he still doesn't know?'" He shakes his head, "the woman who made you promise not to tell, died, why wouldn't you tell him!?"
Howard's face turns ghostly, like he's remembering some haunted memory. "You don't understand. I couldn't." He's waving his hands, "you weren't there. You didn't see him. He already blamed every single one of their deaths on himself. If he'd known…" he shakes his head, "no, he would have—"
Sir—
Jarvis' voice cuts through and they all startle at the interruption.
"Yeah, J?" Tony asks.
Except Jarvis doesn't respond.
"I would have done what, Howard?"
They all jump again, startled at his presence in the doorway. He has a mug of something in his hands. He eyes all of them and sets the mug down in front of Howard. "Your fake version of Jarvis asked me to give you this."
Tony huffs, "that's actually my fake version of Jarv—" his eyebrows raise, "you knew the real Jarvis?"
Steve nods once, "I did." Then he shifts back, his eyes boring into Howard, "if I had known, what?"
Howard eyes the mug like it might go off, "how much did you hear?"
"Don't change the subject, Howard!" The man's chest is widening with the large breath he drags in, "if I had known what?"
They all stand there like silent idiots while Steve stares each one of them down. And maybe Clint gets why Howard never told because just knowing the secret is like having a 2 ton chain around his neck weighing him down. He can't imagine saying the words. Hey you know that wife you loved and blamed her death on yourself? Turns out, she was pregnant with the kid you both thought you couldn't have, wowzers huh?
Steve shakes his head and scoffs, "see, this is why I stopped trusting you." He shoves off the desk and stands, slowly looking at the room in a circle. "All your little secrets and your reinforced walls so I can't hear and your butlers, always protecting you. Doing your dirty work." Steve turns to them, stabbing a finger, "I'm heading to DC with or without you. T minus 10 minutes."
Then he stalks out the door again.
Howard sags into his chair, head in his hands. "Jarvis?"
Yes, sir?
"How much did he hear?"
Just your last few sentences. I alerted you when I felt pertinent.
Howard nods, looking exhausted, "thank you."
—butlers always protecting you, doing the dirty work. Clint bets there's a story there.
Howard stands and looks at them. "If it is them…" he sighs, "he'll need all the support we can give."
"If it is them…" Natasha repeats, "them…?"
Howard opens the picture book and flips to another page and Clint looks down to see a team of men, dressed in old army gear and smiling at the camera. And she's there too, off to the side, talking to someone with an extremely grumpy look on his craggy face. "They'd danced around each other all during the war." a sad smile crosses his face, "Steve was so head over heels. Everyone knew it. She knew it. And everyone knew everyone knew it. Except Steve. Thought he was subtle. But it didn't matter." A sad smile crosses his face. "She loved him back just as fiercely." He closes the book. "We had some close calls. Barnes took a dive off a train but we got him back. Steve took a nose dive in a plane but we found him. She was at the front lines the whole time. Never gave up. And once the war was over, they shifted into more specialized operations. Took him a few years to actually work up the courage to propose but then he did. And—" he raps his knuckles on the desk. "They spent their first decade of marriage fighting down the remnants of evil." He chuckles, without much humor, "and when people asked about kids, Steve would always say he didn't think it was possible. His poor health before the serum. But I already knew. Peggy had taken a lower gut wound during the war. It was… bad. Made her unable to bear. Back in those days, people would whisper if a woman was unable. Like she was a broken useless toy or something just because she couldn't have kids." He shakes his head. "Stupid idiotic bastards."
Clint can see the question on all of their faces. "So, Steve always said it was his fault they couldn't have kids. And even though she hated him saying it… he never backed down. Always took the "blame" from the idiots who asked. Always. And that's why—" he swallows thickly, "I always thought—" he grimaces, "when she told me she was, it all but confirmed in my mind…"
He falls silent and Tony leans forward, "what?"
Howard flips open the book again and points to the wedding picture, "how old do they look in this photo?"
"I dunno—" Tony shrugs, "early 20's?"
Howard snaps, "exactly, even though Peggy already had amazing genes. Do the math, she's mid forties there. Bucky is almost 50 and Steve is almost 49."
Clint gapes, "what?"
Natasha sits down, "did they have the serum too?" She asks, looking a bit overwhelmed.
Howards face twists to a grimace, "Barnes wouldn't ever let anyone take blood. Not after his capture and Steve's rescue of him. But he was different. He hid a lot but he couldn't hide everything. He healed quicker, was hungrier. Didn't bruise from the rifle to his shoulder like he used to." His head is swinging back and forth. "That fall off the train should have obliterated him. But we found him, just missing an arm and disoriented." He blinks at them. "I remember Steve staring at me, eyes wide. Like he knew. He knew and we all just never said a damn word!"
"And Carter?" Tony asks.
"That same gut wound that made her unable?" Howard starts, "Steve is O negative." He sighs, "he donated so much blood he should have been empty. But he never even blinked. Never took his eyes off her or left her side. And she healed. Somehow from a wound that should have gone septic with how far removed we were behind enemy lines and how long it took us to get her to medical." Then he looks ashamed, almost embarrassed, "and… after they got married… Since they thought they couldn't bear, I figured they weren't being careful during their nighttime activities."
Clint feels his cheeks heat and Natasha is pursing her lips in embarrassment as Tony groans, "geez dad!"
Howard looks helpless and annoyed as he shrugs, waving his hands, "I'm just explaining to you the whole damn facts!" His eyes glaze again, "she threw a shoe at my head when I asked! I told her I thought it might do her some good. The serum is in every cell of Steve's." A sad chuckle escapes his mouth, "Steve turned so beet red I thought he might explode…" then his face gets sad, "so when she told me she was pregnant…" he sighs, "she and I both thought I had been right."
Sir, Jarvis cuts in, Captain Rogers is starting the vehicle outside the house.
"Go." Howard commands, "and I almost hope it's not them." He looks tired, "because if it is…"
He doesn't finish the statement and they all file out of the room slowly.
—-
Steve's in the driver's seat when they get out of the house and Clint quietly gets in the backseat without argument. Natasha slides into the passenger and Tony stares at the house for a long moment before he too quietly gets in.
When no one says a word, Steve takes a deep breath and slides the car into drive, taking off.
—-
An hour in, Steve speaks the first words. "I need to stop for food. Is that alright?"
And Natasha's voice has a very soft quality that Clint has never heard before, "of course."
—
The man seems to eat the combined weight of all three of them at the little roadside diner they stop at. Natasha sips at coffee and doesn't eat. Tony orders a plate and then seems to not be able to stomach it.
Clint stares at his waffle and feels like each bite is a lead weight.
Steve finishes and gets up. Before they can react he pays for the bill and waves for them to get going.
Clint feels sick. It's such a dad move. Not that he knows what having a dad is like. He's just heard.
"I can pay for my own meal." Tony snaps as they approach the car.
Steve looks up and there's a confused expression on his face before it hardens. "Okay, and?"
Tony seems stunned, like he's unsure how to answer that. "Next time, I pay. I'm the billionaire."
Clint wrinkles his nose, not liking the implications to that statement.
"And what makes you think I'm not?" Steve answers, his hand still on the open driver's side door, his voice icy. "What? Just because I don't live in a huge mansion? Or wear clothes with the price tag of a normal family's monthly wage?" His eyes flick up and down Tony's outfit. "How about you stop making assumptions based on appearances and I'll do the same, huh?"
He gets in and the door slams behind him.
Tony stares with wide eyes at them and Natasha rolls her eyes at him before getting in the car.
Clint looks at Tony and he feels sympathy. "Paying for a meal isn't going to make up for your dad's fuck up of not telling him." Tony glares at him and he shrugs, "just saying." Then he gets in the car.
—-
The rest of the drive is mostly silent. Clint glances over to see Tony reading up on files. He catches the name Carter and Barnes and knows he has to be hacking into some deeply classified files.
As they near the address Natasha had given to him. Tony makes a sound in his throat and Clint looks over.
Tony's staring at his phone and then he's turning white.
"What?" He asks quietly. Tony slowly hands his phone over and Clint looks down at the screen.
It's a report. Shield's original logo at the top.
Strategic Scientific Reserve
Report of Incident
Incident: Underground Facility Implosion
Details: The Howling Commandos team was caught in an implosion on Mission #5619. The explosives were Hydra made and no information about whether they were accidentally tripped or purposefully set off is available. Captain Rogers reports that he was on the top floor of the factory section, engaged in combat with a few hostiles while his team was on the ground level. The team was collecting information, weapons, and engaging hostiles until the first explosion took place.
Captain Rogers reports looking down and seeing only one member of the team, James Morita, laying unconscious and possibly already deceased on the ground floor.
This is when Captain Rogers took machine gun fire to the back, and was thrown over the railing and down three stories onto the factory floor. Another explosion took place at this time. He states that at this point his helmet and shield were missing.
While expressing difficulty breathing, he searched the facility, and then was caught in a third and final explosion that caused the entire factory to collapse.
Confirmed Deceased:
Cpl. Timothy Dugan - Click here for Medical Examiner's Reprts on Deceased
Pvt. James Morita - Click here for Medical Examiner's Reprts on Deceased
Pvt. Jacques Denier - Click here for Medical Examiner's Reprts on Deceased
Pvt. Gabriel Jones - Click here for Medical Examiner's Reprts on Deceased
Pvt. James Falsworth - Click here for Medical Examiner's Reprts on Deceased
Pvt. Jonathan Juniper - Click here for Medical Examiner's Reprts on Deceased
Presumed Deceased
Agt. Margaret Carter
Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes
Click Here for Medical Report on Rogers, Steven Grant
Clint looks up and Tony is just staring at his hands.
His finger barely ghosts over the link. And it loads.
The photos make him grimace. A mangled body on a hospital bed. Gunshot wounds oozing blood between the burnt and charred skin. Bones showing and chunks of hair missing.
One of his eyes is so swollen Clint can't see his eyelashes or eyeline where the skin splits.
He clicks back and is about to hand the phone back to Tony, but the man taps on the screen and a new report shows up.
Strategic Scientific Reserve
Report of Incident
Clint notices that the date is less than two months after the factory implosion.
Incident: Hydra facility
Details: While the mission to retrieve data was considered a partial success, concerns have been raised about Captain Rogers' behavior. Refusal to allow any of his new subordinates to enter the facility or assist in the mission may have been the cause of some of the data to be lost in the resulting destruction of the facility.
Howard Stark has raised concerns about Captain Rogers being reckless and impulsive—
Clint looks up, drawn out of the report as the car pulls to a stop.
Natasha and Steve are already getting out. Once their doors are closed, Tony looks at him, "you wanna know what reports they were supposed to get from that facility that day?" he points out to the man who is walking towards the sidewalk, "the complete Hydra employee roster. Or as complete as they could manage to find." Tony clears his throat. "Every single one of the people on that list are dead."
Clint furrows his brow, "how could they know that if they never got the list?"
Tony looks at him and there's a haunted expression, "there's a later report. Two years later he turned it in. Admitted that it had never been lost and when he'd found it in the facility, he kept it. But he only turned it in after he was done killing each and every one. All while in SSR's payroll."
He taps something and there's footage. A stone-faced Steve is sitting in handcuffs that look like a child's toy wrapped around his wrists.
"What do you have to say for yourself about the violation of SSR protocol?"
Steve doesn't look up or blink at the voice. "I'm not going to stop. Not till all who were involved are killed or captured."
"You'll be reprimanded. This will go in your official file. You'll be demoted from Captain and placed with a new leader above you."
"Now that they're dead, I don't care where you put me. You can fire me for all I care."
The voice is quiet for a moment before it remarks smugly, "The government owns you, Rogers. They're not going to waste an asset just because you turned into a murderer. Hell, we have Zola on payroll, don't we?" Steve's jaw clenches so tightly Clint can hear it crack in the audio.
A knock on the window startles them both and Natasha is peering through the car window, "let's go—"
Tony shakes his head, "that's as far as I got." He opens his door and steps out. Clint follows and they walk through a few alleyways until they see the building Phil died in.
Natasha gestures forward, "this way."
Clint watches the man, quiet and calm and… Clint shudders, terrifying… and sad…
—