Tony has been keeping a quiet eye on SHIELD and learned very little. His father and Aunt Peggie were keeping thing close to the vest about Bucky and HYDRA. Which was not a surprise. They would make sure they had all their piece in place before making a move.
While they let Howard and Peggie deal with Hydra Tony had the cabin near Aspin remodled. He had a large underground basement with several rooms and even had a small Ark Reactor built to power the place. It had a couple of labs including one to build his suits. Had a medical room fully stocked with everything they would need. The only thing it didn't have was a doctor and nurse. There were a coupe training rooms and a gym. Tony also had an office with a computer system that literly came out of the future. The last thing was it had a living area with a few rooms and kitchen/living area. The entrance was hiddenin Tony's office on the ground floor of the cabin. Tony also had a large barn built that would serve as a hanger for the Quinjet he was having built.
Besides building the secret headquarters Tony made a couple suits for him and made sure Natasha and Steve had all the equipment they would need.
Natasha also kept herself busy. She compiled all the data she could gather on those they knew were part of Hydra. She even made several trips to DC and around SHIELDS New York offices. She would follow those they knew or suspected to gather more evidence.
The last couple things they worked on was steps needed to rescue Steve. First was to gather the equipment that would be needed to get him safely out of the ice. The second was they needed Bruce to monitor Steve as the thawed out. The problem was would they need to tell Bruce about them.
Tony had a lot of the equipment build so they could retrieve Steve safely. He made sure that those working on the project kept their mouths shut. They did not need anyone asking questions. He also bought a lot of equipment that would be needed to support the operation. Like tent, heaters and food. All of it was stored at the Aspin cabin.
When everything was ready and they were just waiting till it was time to go get Steve, Tony and Natasha headed to Columbia to see if Bruce would be intrested in helping them out. It was desided that Bruce could be trusted with the truth but they hope they would not have to tell him.
It turned out They did not have a lot of trouble getting Bruce to help them. Tony and Natasha went to the house they knew he stayed in and just knocked on the door. Tony introduce them and asked if they could come in. Once in they explained they need his help to monitor Steve as they thawed him out and take care of any medical needs. They offered him a place to stay where Ross would not be able to get him. They assured him they were not intrested in the Hulk. They even offered him resources needed to help cure him or get better control of him.
S/N
Natasha was monitoring the special drill that was being used to cut around the ice that Steve was incased in. They were going slow as to make sure they didn't cut too close to Steve. While she was doing this Tony was exploring the Valkrie for Steves shield. Bruce was waiting for them back at the Aspin Cabin.
The machine was on the last of the cuts when Tony came in carring Steves shield. "Natasha, hows it coming?"
Not taking her eyes off the monitor "Good. It is cutting the ice below him now. Should be ready to bring him out of the hole in about 20 minutes."
"Good, I got the shield and covered up the hole I made to get in the Valkrie. Once he is out of the hole we should be able to leave in a hours time." informed Tony.
Once Steve was raised out of the hole Tony place the block of ice he was still incased in on a hover sled. Natasha pushed it up the ramp of the Quinjet while Tony started breaking camp down. Less then a hour later they were in the air and heading back to the Aspin cabin. The Quinjet was kept in stealth mode the whole way.
S/N
Howard Stark was at SHIELD headquarters with Nick Fury and Phil Coulson. They were looking at satellte photos of the Artic. Howard was preparing for aother expedition to find his friend.. The photos had just come in so when they saw what look like a camp. All three headed to the main control room to pull up a live feed.
They watched the live feed come up. They saw the camp had a large tent that had what looked like a Quinjet backed up close to it. They did not see any movement but did see foot prints in the snow.
"What the hell is going on there?" ask Fury.
"Not sure Nick but that looks like a Quinjet similar to the ones I built for SHIELD. What also is curious is most of the foot print go between the tent and the Quinjet but a couple go off and just end." stated Howard.
Phil spoke up "Looks like we have movement."
They watched what look like some one pushing a block of ice. Howard had a tech zoom in on the ice. What they saw shocked them.
"Damn someone else found him." swore Fury. "There is no way we can get there before they leave either."
Howard had conflicted emotions. He was happy someone found Steve but worried since they didn't know who they were. "Best we can hope is to track them and hope we can descover where they are taking him Then we can deside what to do next."
They watched as the camp came down. "Is that some type of robot or a man in a metal suit?" ased Phil.
"I would say a man. It also explains the other set of foot prints. Look he can fly. The question is where did he fly to or from?" asked Howard.
When the Quinjet took off Fury ordered it tracked. When the Quinjet disappeared no one spoke. They just watched as their last chance to recover Captain America just vanished. Later that night Howard informed Peggie.
S/N
Natasha was sitting in the obervation room watching as Bruce worked to thraw out her husband. Tony was sitting next to her but giving her her space. He knew she would be worried till Steve woke up and was the Steve that was suppose to come back.
Bruce had been slowly thawing him out for over a hour. He was out of the ice and Bruce was slowly bring his tempature up so not to throw his body in to shock.
"I was there the last time. I was sitting behind Phil and Fury. Phil was so excited when the descovered he was still alive. I wasn't all that concered. This time I'm scared. Scared something will go wrong." said a quiet Natasha.
"I didn't know what to think when I heard. My father spent so much of his free time looking for Steve. In some way I was jelous and even hated him because my father seem to care for Steve more then me." replied Tony.
They listen as Steve's heart rate started to increase. It was another hour before the first movement was seen. Natasha got up and went in to the lab so her face would be the first thing he saw. They didn't need a repeat of what happen last time.
S/N
Steve felt cold, that was the first thing that crossed his mind. He was confussed at first. He was trying to figure out why he was so cold. After a few minutes he remebered laying on a bed next to Natasha's so the could be sent back in time.
Slowly he opened his eyes. The room was bright. He heard someone order the light to be turned down. When he opened his eyes again he saw a beautiful redhead with bright green eyes looking at him with concern. He tried to speek but had trouble. Steve felt a straw placed in his mouth. He drank the water provided.
Looking at the concerned redhead "He beautiful, you come here often?"
Natasha smiled "To many times, you need to stay out of medical."
"Tony?" asked Steve.
Tony moved where Steve could see him. "I'm here Steve."
Before Steve could ask any more Natasha spoke. "We will explain everything to you after Bruce checks you over. When he is done you can eat while we talk."
Bruce did a full medical on Steve. When he was done he informed the others that Steve just needed to eat and rest for a coule days. After that he could start working out.
As promised While Steve ate 3 full plates of food Tony and Natasha told him what had been going on the last 18 months. Natasha told him of her escape from the Red Room and meeting Tony in France. They told him about staying in the tower while they started working on their plans. When they told him about Bucky he asked
"Have you heard anything?" asked Steve.
"Sorry Steve, my Dad and Aunt Peggie are being closed liped about him and Hydra." explained Tony before continuing.
Lastly they told them of Tony working on the Aspin Cabin base and their equipment and Natasha gathering intel on Hydra agents that had conections to SHIELD an DC.
"OK, what's next?" asked Steve.
Natasha spoke "First we get you back to 100% then we start planing on how we deal with Hydra. We are on our own here. Outside of Bruce here nobady knows about us."
Steve rubbed his face when Bruce spoke up. "What about Barton. You said that he was part of the original Avengers and that he was family to you Natasha."
"We know we can trust him. Question is how do we approach him?" asked Tony.
"If we want to talk with Clint alone we need to wait till he moves to the farm. That wont be till 1999 after he marries Laura. Copper will be born in 2002 and Lila in 2007. I say we wait till then. I don't want to rob Clint of his kids." Natasha informed them.
"So we wait to contact Clint. In the mean time we can setup a place in Europe and go after the Red Room. We will leave Hydra to Howard and Peggie for now. Before we head to Europe though we need to arange to get what ever intel you have Nat to them." said Steve.
S/N
Steve spent 2 days in bed before he started getting back in shape. While he rested Tony started working on setting up a place in Germany near the Alps for them to be based out of. Natasha work on organizing all her data to give it to Howard. She sent him a message 2 weeks later for him to meet her at the WW2 memorial in DC. Steve went with her but stayed in the shadows.
Natasha sat on a bench at the entrance to the WW2 memorial. Steve was walking around looking at all the pillers. It was in the middle of the day as to not look to suspicious by meeting at night.
She had not been there long when she saw Howard Stark walk up with Peggie Carter. Natasha was not all that surprised she came but they had hoped he would come alone. With her there it inceased the chances of Steve being discovered.
They passed her and headed to the pool. She stood up and followed them coming to stand by Howard.
"You were suppose to come alone Mr. Stark." Natasha said with a cool demeter.
"My friend wanted to meet you." informed Howard.
Peggie spoke up. "I heard rummers about you when we found out about the Red Room and their Black Widow program. I was surprised you save Howard and Marie."
"I did what I did for a friend and no before you ask I do no longer holed any loyalties to the Red Room or Russia." stated Natasha.
"Howard says you have no desire to work with SHIELD so who do you work for?" asked Peggie.
Natasha should not have been surprised by the questions but this was not the time. It would not take long for Peggie or any back up they may have brought to spot Steve.
"I don't work for anyone, I work with Friends to bring an end to Hydra and those like them like the Red Room. I ask you here to give you some data. Use or don't that's up to you. Now if you will excuss me I have places to be."
With that Natasha shook both their hands slipping a disk in Howards hand. Once done she left and caught a cab to a restraunt a few blocks away to wait for Steve.
S/N
Steve watch what was going on on the far side of the pool. He could see Natasha get a little agitated and figured Peggie was questioning her. He was also looking to see it he could spot their back up. He saw both Fury and Phil.
When he saw Natasha leave he waited a couple mnutes before leaving himself. He walked by Fury and told him. "Director, you and Coulson stand out too much." Then left not letting Fury get a look at his face not that he would reconize him with a beard and brown hair. 20 minutes later he was eating lunch with is wife. He knew Tony was close by watching to see if either of them had been followed.
S/N
When Howard and Peggie got back to SHIELD they headed to Fury's office. Both Fury and Coulson was there with Clint Barton.
Peggie asked "Did she have any back up?"
Fury spoke while Clint tried to hold his snikering. "Yes but I didn't get a good look at him. He walked right up to me and knew who I was and who Coulson was. He spotted the both uf us."
A surprised Peggie looked to Coulson "Did you get a good look at him and how about you Barton.
Phil spoke first. "He was to far away to get a good look. He ws a good size man from what I could tell. Hawkeye."
"He was over 6ft. He wore loose fitting cloths. I would say to hide that he was very fit. Brown hair with a beard. He wore a hat and sun glasses." Clint told them. "I got a picturs though. He pulled them up on the screen on the wall.
Peggie and Howard studied the pictures of the Black Widow and her companion.
"Natasha looks the same as she did the first time I saw her. Her companion looks familar but I can't place him." Howard stated.
Peggie continued to look through the pictures of the companion. Howard was right he look familar. He was probably in disquise.
"Natasha's friend does look familar. My guess is we know him and he changed his facial features. We need to run facial recognition software on his pictures. Lets see if we can figure out who he is." stated Peggie. "Nick run it yourelf. Phil can help you. We can't take a chance that Hydra or Red Room discover Natasha is here."
A week later Fury and Coulson had several computer generated pictures of what the other guy might look like. When Peggie walked in and saw the pictures she froze.