In the Control Tower the radio squawked in the empty control room.
"Agent Carter and Sergeant Barnes, come in..." Steve said on the radio and Peggy and Bucky ran in and grabbed the radio, frantic and relieved.
"Steve, is that you? Are you okay?" Peggy asked.
"I'm fine."
Through the window, the invaders were rounding up the surrendered HYDRA men.
"Where's Schmidt?" Peggy asked.
"Schmidt's dead." Steve said on the radio.
"What about the plane?"
"That's a little bit harder to explain."
"What did you do?" Bucky asked.
On the suborbital bomber Steve stared at the New York map, radio in hand. His compass lied open on the control board.
"Give us your coordinates. We'll find a landing site-." Peggy said.
"There isn't going to be a landing. Schmidt's locked the navigation system." Steve said and eyed the relined engine gauges in front of him. "And there's more than enough power to reach the East Coast." he said and they looked grave then waved Phillips down.
"I'll get Howard on the line. He'll know what to do." she said while Bucky stood there already knowing it wasn't going to work and put a hand on his stomach.
"I'm sitting on a hundred tons of explosives. Hot wiring this thing's not an option." he said and looked out the window at the vast, blue expanse of ocean. "I've got to put her in the water."
Peggy spread her fingers on the wall, her knuckles white.
"But you said you couldn't steer it." she said.
Steve scanned the control panel and saw a thick cable running from the ignition to the engines.
"I can't. But I think I can crash it." he said and yanked the cable out.
Blue sparks flare then all the lights die. The engines stop and the plane went quiet.
"Steve, don't do this. We've got time. We can figure this out." Peggy said.
"I don't think he has a choice Peggy." Bucky said and it hit him. "Because he already did."
Steve eyed the navigation charts.
"Bucky's right, I already did. Right now, I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer, a lot of people are going to get hurt." he said. "Peggy, this is my choice."
Peggy and Phillips looked at each other, slowly accepting what's happening and looked at Bucky seeing him looking pale with a hand still on his stomach and eyes shut.
They felt bad for him and thought about getting him a trash can from feeling nauseous from worrying about his best friend.
"We'll send out rescue ships. We'll find you." Peggy said.
"I don't think there's going to be much left to find." Steve said and leaned on the stick with all his might and the plane started a screaming dive. "Peggy?"
"I'm here."
Steve's compass spun wildly and he just stares at her picture.
"I'm going to need a rain check on that dance." he said and Bucky covered his mouth knowing what that coverup really meant.
"All right. A week Saturday. The Stork Club." she said holding back tears.
"Okay. You got it."
"8:00 on the dot. If you're three minutes late I'm leaving, do you understand?"
"I still don't know how to dance."
She closed her eyes.
"I'll show you. I'll show you everything. Just be there."
Clouds whip past the windows as the plane plummets. Steve pocketed the compass and slid his mask over his face. Arctic ice rushed up at the cockpit window.
"Maybe the band could play something slow, I'd hate to step on your-" he started but the radio in Peggy's hand went silent and Phillips put a hand on her shoulder while she just stared out the hanger at the blue sky beyond.
Then Bucky gave in, grabbed a trash can and threw up from stress, worry, what he found out yesterday morning and what he ate earlier.
The next day at Trafalgar Square people lean from balconies, holding the V for Victory sign. A paper on a newsstand read, "WAR OVER!"
Meanwhile at The Whip & Fiddle Pub amidst the revelry, Morita, Jones, Dernier, Falsworth and Dugan stood at attention with their bags rest against the wall solemnly raising their glasses while Bucky sat there staring at his beer.
Then Bucky snapped out of it, sighed and looked at his stomach.
He was now officially twenty weeks pregnant with Steve's child and had been trying to hide it from everyone.
He knew he wasn't going to be able to for much longer but would take the advantage while he can.
Like the rest of the Commandos he had joined SSR and was one of their best according to Howard, Peggy and Phillips.
Bucky had been promoted to Lieutenant shortly after the war and he gladly accepted that. He hoped over the years to get higher ranks but was going to see.
He was just laying in bed waiting for his alarm to go off when he felt pain in his stomach and winced.
This had been going on since ten last night and had been getting a little worse for the last couple hours.
He groaned when it stopped and his alarm went off so shut it off and got up and ready for the day.
When he got there he saw the Commandos waving and smiling at him and he did the same back hiding his exhaustion.
After losing Steve he took the step up as leader of the Howling Commandos after being second in command.
"Hey Barnes!"
"Hey guys." Bucky said and looked at his watch feeling the tightness go off again and saw it had been seven minutes.
'What the hell is going on?' he thought.
When they got inside people said hello to the crew as usual and they said hello back.
When they met up with Peggy, Howard and Phillips they sat down in their seats and wrote about the last time they worked together.
For the next few hours Bucky's stomach would get worse and worse.
He would need to stop what he was doing sometimes to take a deep breath and focus on fighting the pain.
It was lunch break and he was standing with the others when he felt a strong one go off, grabbed the table for support and shut his eyes.
While he stood there with his eyes shut tight, he took deep breaths and turned his hips to the side a few times.
Then he groaned a little and the others looked at him concerned.
"Lieutenant Barnes, is something wrong?" Phillips asked and got nothing but a groan back from him.
"Hey Barnes!" Dum Dum said but only heard Bucky panting for a minute. "You OK?"
"Y-yeah." Buck said.
"You sure?" Morita asked and Bucky nodded.
"Just a, just a bit of a stomach bug. I'm gonna ditch lunch and get back to work." Bucky said and they nodded.
When he got to his desk he sat there with his hands on his face biting his lips.
"It's to damn early. Why are you doing this?" he muttered and took a deep breath when it stopped.
Then he looked at the clock and sighed.
"Only five hours left." he said and got back to work.
Half an hour later he was having another when he felt something wet come out of him and looked down.
"Shit." he said and felt his strongest one yet. "Oh god." he muttered, shut his eyes tight and bit his lips tight trying to be as quiet as he can.
When it was done he took a shaky deep breath and covered his face with his hands.
"I really hope you can wait until after work and survive." he muttered and it hit him. "You're the child of two Super Soldiers, o-of course you'll survive." he said and put a hand on his stomach.
'Right?' he thought.
An hour later he was with the others looking at something when he felt the pain unbearable and squeezed the table forgetting about his serum and causing him to break it.
"Crap." he said while everyone looked at him in shock. "S-sorry." he said turning a little red.
Then he felt another go of and could feel the baby a little deeper.
"Colonel." Bucky said with his eyes shut tight.
"Yes lieutenant?" Phillips said while everyone stopped what they were doing to see what was wrong with their youngest soldier of the team.
"I need you to help me lay on my back, take off my shoes and all my bottom clothes." Bucky said and shut his eyes tight feeling a contraction go off. "Nugh!" he said with his head up.
"What's wrong Barnes?" Jones asked while Bucky looked down biting his lips.
When it stopped everyone looked at him confused, worried and horrified at the same time.
"Just help me and I'll explain!" he said and they got to work.
Phillips helped him with his shoes and pants while the Commandos helped him get down, some water to help him cool down and whatever else he needed.
When he finished another contraction he looked at Phillips.
"Where. Is. Zola?" he asked.
"In a lab, why?" Phillips asked.
"I want those files he has of the day he got the 107th. I wanna know what the hell he did to me that day." Bucky growled and Phillips nodded.
Then Bucky felt another contraction and did everything he could from yelling in pain.
They were all shocked and impressed at how he was doing this but at the same time knew he was always a strong man, a strong kid and a strong soldier.
When it stopped he took deep breaths and looked at Phillips.
"I, I need you to see where I am before you get that file." he said and Phillips nodded so bent down and to his shock he was already crowning.
"Lieutenant, you're already crowning." Phil said and everyone looked at him in shock.
"OK then."
"How long have you been in pain?" Peggy asked.
"Uh, since around ten last night?" he said and they looked at him in shock. "What? I thought they were Braxton-Hicks!" he said trying to defend himself and they shrugged agreeing until he felt another.
"Alright Barnes, I need you to push as hard as you can." Phillips said and Bucky did as told but stopped to take a breath from it for a minute. "One more big push and it should be here." he said and looked at Peggy. "Can you go get the file?" he asked and she nodded and left to go get it while he focused on Bucky pushing.
When it came out there was no crying, no breathing and no pulse so Phillips used his training and did CPR.
"Come on little guy." Phillips said while Bucky sat there watching already knowing it didn't make it.
"Sir." Bucky said and Phillips looked at him. "It's gone. I was only twenty weeks so I already knew it wasn't going to make it." he said fighting tears and Phillips stopped doing CPR.
"Do you at least want to hold it?" Phillips asked and Bucky nodded so Phillips grabbed a blanket from Flasworth, cleaned it up a little and handed it to Bucky so he could hold it for a while.
Bucky looked at it and could see so much of Steve in it but also so much of himself.
"Do you know if it was a boy or girl?" he asked.
"It looked like it was a girl." Phillips said and Bucky smiled a little. "Do you, have any names?"
"Rose. Rose Jasmine Barnes." Bucky said smiling.
A few minutes later Peggy came in with the file Bucky wanted to see him holding his daughter.
"Is it?" she asked but Phillips shook his head.
"Her name was Rose Jasmine Barnes." he said and she nodded. "He was going to ask you to be her godmother and one of his teammates to be the godfather when he told us."
"Well, I would gladly accept it." she said and walked over to him. "Here are the files you wanted." she said and handed them to him.
"Thanks." Bucky said and looked at Rose. "I'll always love you and miss you." he said and gave her a kiss.
Then Phillips took her away and Bucky took the files and started digging through them.
"Damn, you would think he'd at least put them alphabetical order." he said and she chuckled.
He kept looking for five minutes until he finally found his.
"Finally! Jesus! You'd think he'd put me on top after all the shit he did to while I was there." he said, put his finger down and started reading and following the files closely until he found what he was looking for. "There you are." he said catching everyone's attention.
"What is it?" Howard asked.
"Sergeant Barnes and his unit were ambushed by the Wehrmacht troops at Azzano on the Italian Front. Although the battle seemed hopeless as the Americans were strongly outgunned and without any reinforcements, the battle turned when another German unit then appeared and used an extremely powerful tank which proceeded to easily kill the remaining Nazis who fled.
As Barnes and crew got out of their hiding place and looked over the remains of the battlefield, the tank then turned its weaponry towards the Americans and they were soon captured by HYDRA. Once they were HYDRA's prisoners they were sent to work at the weapon facility in Austria where they were forced to help make the new weaponry for HYDRA's forces.
In October 1943, Barnes met other Allied POWs. During his imprisonment in the facility, he was viciously beaten by Lohmer, however, other prisoners organized an "accident" which resulted in Lohmer's death. Barnes and his friends worked on parts of the Valkyrie. When Barnes became too weak to continue, he was taken to serve as a test subject for Arnim Zola's super soldier experiments and received Zola's recreated version of the Super Soldier Serum." Bucky said and they gasped while he dug in a little further.
"Anything else?" Peggy asked.
"Same abilities as Steve but more experience and we all know that, same enhancements," he said while he read through it. "Damn, still have my allergies though." he said and they chuckled. "Bingo. Barnes' serum was a more experimental HYDRA version of Rogers', primarily focused on enhancing his strength and durability for use as an assassin and mind control capabilities in the future along with the ability to create and birth children for future generations." he said and turned pale.
"What?!" everyone said while Bucky shut his eyes and thought about something.
"That sounds familiar." he said and they looked at him confused while he opened his eyes and looked through his files some more. "Come on, where are you?" he muttered until he found what he was looking for. "Got it." he said and looked at it. "It's called, the Winter Soldier program."
"The what?"
"The Winter Soldier program." he said and looked at it. "It says erase the man I was so they could rebuild ne as they saw fit. The Memory Suppressing Machine would delivere electroconvulsive shocks repeatedly to my mind, severely damaging his limbic system and giving me extensive brain damage like they tried last tone. As a result, I would lose access to memories prior to this treatment, while rendering my hyperaware of my environment and highly suggestible to commands.
The series of code words to make me into a compliant killing machine would be um, god I haven't used Russian since high school. "Желание. Ржавый. Семнадцать. Рассвет. Печь. Девять. Добросердечный. Возвращение на родину. Один. Грузовой вагон." Once thry would be spoken aloud, I would say "Я готов отвечать" and would become under the control of whomever spoke the words.
With the brainwashing in place, Zola would, amputate my keft arm?! Jesus! And gave me a metal prosthetic marked with the Soviet red star. I would then be trained by HYDRA and, dubbed the Winter Soldier, becoming one of the world's deadliest assassins. HYDRA would continue their mind-controlling research in the North Institute, while hiding behind the S.H.I.E.L.D. facade." he read and they looked at each other in horror and silence for ten minutes straight.
"What do we do now?" Pinky asked and everyone shook their heads.
"I don't know pal, I don't know." Sawer said while Bucky, Peggy, Howard and Phillips thought.
Then Bucky got up and they tried to stop him.
"Oh for Christ sake! Have you all forgotten that I have enhanced healing abilities like Steve? Jesus! If it's small like bruises and cuts, I heal within five minutes. Sprains, fifteen minutes, half an hour. Fractures, thirty to forty five minutes and a broken bone is usually an hour. A concussion takes about a day while headaches depends on who is causing it. Which is usually Dum Dum!" Bucky said and they laughed at the end.
"Hey!" Dum Dum said.
"Anyway, let's just figure out what to do next and then go from there." Bucky said and they nodded and got to work.
"Barnes," Phillips said and Bucky looked at him. "Who is the father?" he asked and Bucky stayed silent.
"James, we need to know so we can call them." Peggy said and Bucky looked at them.
"He'll never know." Bucky said and grabbed the file from Zola.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "You didn't tell him?" she said and he stopped and looked at them.
"I didn't tell him, because I didn't find out until the day before I lost him and needed to process it myself." he said and left while they realized who the father was.
"I thought they were just friends." Junior said.
"I guess not." Sawer said while the Commandos stood there in shock that both their leaders, former and current were dating each other.
"I thought Rogers liked you?" Phillips said to Peggy.
"I thought so to." Peggy said while Howard started to calculate everything.
"They were hiding their relationship and using you and other girls that were after them as a coverup." Howard said and they all looked at him. "When they were alone, they would be using that time as a couple or a team depending on what was going on. I remember the last time they were together alone it was about a a month and a half before Steve disappeared so with Barnes twenty weeks along, that must've been when it happened." he said and they thought and nodded.
Then they stood there in shock realizing that the Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes they thought they knew, was not who they thought they were.
Meanwhile Bucky was at home sitting on the floor against the door in his room crying.
"Steve. Rose." he said and cried covering his face with his arms.