After Tony successfully escapes, Steve feels the butt of a rifle against his still disfigured jaw and the pain sends him into unconsciousness.
Howard is sitting at his kitchen island, the kids are playing and having fun in the pool. Maria, Jarvis, and Ana are out there watching them as he and Sam sit quietly.
Sam's nerves are as frayed as his.
It had been days since Steve had tried to call him and he'd unwittingly alerted the kid that Tony was missing.
Sam had been deadly silent when Howard had told him.
Now they've been waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
Bucky stares at the burning wreckage in horror. The scorch marks on the side of the mountain, the splintered wood, the shreds of crisped canvas and the remains of dozens of bodies make him viscerally ill.
Was Steve one of these bodies? Was Tony?
He turns to see Clint also looking at the mess but eyes glazed, jaw slack.
"We need to start identifying bodies," Castle says calmly. And only because Bucky knows his intonations well enough by now does he hear the quiet rage in his captain's voice.
"I'll start scanning faces," Morita says, his voice removed and distant like he can't believe what he is saying.
"There's more in there," Blaze says flatly, "over there." Bucky follows his finger to the mouth of the cave where another pile of bodies lays burnt.
He turns and walks to a still smoldering vehicle and throws up behind it.
Natasha lays on her bed, staring at the wall. She's barely been able to sleep for days and each night is worse. The horror stories of what could be happening is building in her mind. From the few texts they'd been able to exchange, she can tell that Bucky is hanging on by a thread.
She'd had a phone call with Peggy just a few hours ago and the woman was also on a razor's edge of frayed emotions.
Howard is fragile as a piece of cracking glass and Sam isn't doing much better.
Laura had told her that Clint has been withdrawn over their few conversations.
The glue of the family is gone.
Without Steve her world is shattering apart.
And Tony isn't even around to give her a funny quip and keep everyone's spirits up. Had Tony even known Steve had been taken?
A now familiar pain in her chest ached as the anxiety of everything washes over her.
The sand burns as they make their way, stumbling blindly through the wind storm. He has no idea how Yinsen is still functioning.
He's not sure how far they flew before the power had sent them hurtling out of the sky and landing in a painful pile of metal and limbs, but he thinks it was pretty far. He'd seen a commercial plane far off in the distance and somehow the sight had seemed foreign.
But they were now following it's direction, hoping against hope there was civilization close.
Howard groans awake and squints into the darkness.
The soft ringing of his cell gets his attention and he reaches over, "hello?"
"Howard Stark?"
It was a British voice.
"Yes?"
"We have your son."
His heart rate plummeted and then skyrocketed almost instantly, "WHAT!" Maria turns, waking up at the noise, "You do? Where! Where is he?"
"We're medi-vacing him to Tehran."
"He's alive? He's okay?"
"He seemed to be okay. He's unconscious now and very dehydrated, malnourished, and a few minor injuries. But stable. The man found with him is more severely injured with gunshot wounds and is also being transported out."
"Man?" Howard asks, "an american soldier? Blonde?"
"No sir, we're unclear on his identity just yet but he looks like potentially a local."
"I'm on my way. Send location details immediately."
"We will."
The man is gone and Howard is already out of bed and grabbing his things.
Clint breathes a sigh of relief as Morita scans the last face and looks at them, shaking his head 'no'.
"So neither of them are here," Blaze says slowly.
Castle walks up with a grimace.
Clint goes on alert, "what?"
"Tony Stark has been found. Alive. He's being taken to Tehran to recuperate-" Clint sucks in a deep breath and holds his eyes. The relief is palpable.
"But?"
He looks over to see Bucky glaring at their captain.
Castle frowns deeper, "but Steve wasn't with him." The relief dissipated as fast as it arrived. Castle looks at their surroundings and shakes his head, "which means-"
"Both Steve and Raza are unaccounted for," Bucky finishes, sounding like his throat is shredded with glass.
"Yes-"
"It's quiet for a long minute until Morita says, "that doesn't mean…"
Blaze is somber, "wasn't Steve after Tony?" He gestures to the mess, "was this the circumstances of an escape? An ambush? What?"
"We don't know anything yet. Tony was found conscious and then passed out almost immediately after being found," Castle replies, "we need to find out what Stark knows."
"If Tony is alive then we need to be looking for Steve!" Bucky snaps.
Castle gestures to the desert. "We have no idea where to start. Unless you have something you'd like to share?"
"We split up."
They all swivel to Morita who is now staring back at the scanners. "Barnes, Barton, go see Tony. Find out what he knows. We stay and search the surrounding grids."
"I'll stay-"
Castle's voice is clipped and commanding, "you'll go. The minute we know something, we will call. As will you. We will get Logan, Spector, and a few others out here to help us and we will be thorough but you-" he points to Clint, "and especially you-" he points to Bucky, "need a break. And that's an order."
Bucky looks ready to argue but Castle narrows his eyes, "I have the power to remove you from this team in total. Which means even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be allowed to search for Steve and I could have you sent to prison if you tried. Do I make myself clear."
Bucky grits his teeth in annoyance and tosses his helmet in anger, stalking back to the helicopter.
Clint sighs, "we will call when we can."
Castle nods and he follows in Bucky's angry footsteps.
"Hello?"
"Pegs?"
"Michael?"
"Yeah, it's me. They found Tony Stark."
She sits up straighter, pen dropping to the desk, "what? When?"
"Not sure, but I've got channels telling me he's been found and is alive."
She sighs, leaning back on the chair in the massive student lounge. "And…?"
"No word on Steve yet. Just thought you'd want some positive news."
"Thanks… I am glad."
"Maybe he knows something that will help find Steve."
She looks at her textbooks, seeming so frivolous and useless in the real world of what was happening, "I hope so."
Tony groans awake. His body feels like it was hit with a truck full of sand. Everything's dry. His eyeballs, his mouth, his skin, his hair. He sits up, and looks around. His dad is asleep in a corner, as is Bucky.
Something about that makes his heart rate rise. If Bucky was here, then maybe that meant-
"Tony!"
He turns to the door opening and sees Clint walking in with food piled in his arms. That turns his stomach. He's starving and yet the smell makes him nauseous.
"Tony!" Another voice joins the fray and soon after he feels his father's arms wrap around him. His dad is crying and soon he is too.
After a bit, they manage to pull themselves together and his dad looks at him with such sad eyes, "tell me what happened?"
But Tony looks around the room and then to Bucky and Clint, "where's Steve? Why was he there without you guys?"
They frown, "he was taken hostage by someone who was going to sell him to Raza just before you were taken. So we were hoping you might know something-"
Tony's eyes went wide, "you mean… he… "is that why his face was all screwed up?"
The three of them grimace.
"How bad was it?" His dad asks. "We've only seen grainy photos."
"Like someone ripped one side of his jaw off and then used elmer's glue to put it back together."
"This isn't time for your shitty jokes-" Bucky snarls at him.
"I'm not joking!" Tony says, his heartbeat ratcheting up, "he's out there! We need to find him! He needs our help!"
"Why the hell do you think we're here, Tony!?" Bucky snaps back, "you're the last person who saw him!"
The way Steve's eyes had looked relieved as he flew away… it starts to send him into a panic attack. "Raza has him!" He heaves out, "Raza-" His heart beat monitors were starting to sound, his chest was aching, the device sat like a lead weight.
"Breathe, Tony!" his dad was holding his face, "breathe! Calm down, you need to calm down!"
He pulls in a deep shaky breath that aches and then another. He can't lose it now. He has to help find Steve.
After a few minutes he asks, "did you find the encampment where they held me? In the mountains?"
"Yes-"
"And Steve wasn't there?"
"No. It was burnt to a crisp and empty."
Tony sighs, head hanging down, "he was there-"
"There? At the site?"
"Yinsen and I," he turns to his dad, "Yinsen! Is he okay?"
"If you're asking about the man you were found with then yes, he's okay for now. He's been through surgery and has come out, but that's all I know so far."
"Steve, Tony, focus-"
He winces, "right. Okay, so Yinsen and I were escaping, and then suddenly I'm blasting Steve off his feet because he comes barreling around a corner in the caves."
Clint and Bucky's eyes are wide. "But then he gets back up and helps me with Yinsen who was already shot at the time. We make it outside and Steve's already made a hell of a show out. It's the reason we were able to get as far out as we could-" He turns to his dad, "Dad. They had boxes and boxes of our stuff. AIM's Hammers. Weapons and more. I don't know how… but they did."
"Tony-" Bucky grits out.
"Right-" his mind is so scattered, but his tongue is so dry and the talking isn't helping. "Can I get water?"
Clint is silent and he gets a nurse who does a quick check and then gets him a cup and a pitcher full. He downs two glasses before resuming.
"So we make it out past the encampment but-" he groans, "I hadn't expected Steve to show up! And the boots weren't calibrated for his weight! Hell even if I had known he was there I wouldn't have had the supplies to create so much energy. He's heavy dad, you know that! He's heavy!"
His dad was frowning, "back up, Tony, you lost me."
"Me too," Clint adds.
"I had too," Tony says, his voice getting higher and more panicked as he realizes what he has to tell them, "It was that or we'd all die!"
"Tony-"
"Raza caught up!" Tony blurts out, "he had a gun to Yinsen's head! And Steve knew- he already had figured out about the boots! I had to. I had too."
"Had to what?"
He felt sick, the water sloshing in his stomach, "if I'd stayed, Raza would have killed all of us! And the jet boots could only carry me and Yinsen-" he chokes back a sob, everything weighing on him at once, "Steve told me too. I had too." He shoves his palms against his eye sockets and tries to pull it together.
"You…" Bucky's voice is icy cold, "left him?"
Tony winces, looking up to the astounded face of his friend, looking at him like he's a total stranger.
"I had too! There was no other choice!"
"There's always another choice!" Bucky shouts, fury in his eyes, "you fucking left him!? With fucking RAZA!? The terrorist who would-"
"THERE WAS NO OTHER CHOICE!" Tony bellows back, "You think I would have left if there was!? You think I would abandon Steve for nothing!?"
"Calm down," his dad tries to intervene.
"You just admitted it! You abandoned him!"
"We all would have died if I'd stayed!"
"Oh!" Bucky huffs out, sounding furious, "Well good for you that YOU get to escape and survive! But Fuck Steve right!?"
"Hey-" his dad says.
"Bucky-" Clint warns.
"Steve was there to rescue you and you LEFT HIM!"
"I KNOW!" Tony bellowed, voice cracking in anguish. He keels over, hugging his arms around his chest and struggling to pull in air,"'I know."
"Bucky," he can hear Clint say, "take a deep breath-"
"Shut up, Clint!"
Clint sighs, "Howard, we need to talk."
"Clint!"
"Bucky, I'm tired of you losing your shit! You know why-"
"We're focusing on Steve now! Not your imaginary issues with my attitude!"
"Oh, yeah! Imaginary!? You think I didn't watch you tear through those guys at the train station!?"
"They were bad-"
"GUYS!" His dad bellows, shutting everyone up. He looks over to see his dad's eyes closed, and his hands gripping the metal railing of the bed. "We're losing focus. I know we are all going to need to work through and talk about everything. But right now, time is of the essence. And finding Steve is a priority. So-" he opens his eyes and looks at Tony seriously, "was there anything in those caves or that you overheard that might give us some insight into where Raza would have taken Steve?"
Tony takes a deep breath to try to clear his mind and he thinks back. "They talked in so many different languages. Even Yinsen could barely keep up. But they were pretty careful not to talk location or logistics in front of us. So…" he sags back onto the bed, "no. I don't know."
Bucky stands and exits the door and guilt washes over him.
"Don't worry about him. You know how we are about Steve and-" Clint grimaces, "Howard?"
"Yes?"
"Bucky has some of Steve's blood. It happened during the mission where Steve and Raza first met. And he didn't want to tell you because he was so worried you'd be mad. But from what any of us can gather from that mission… It was life or death. And Steve made a choice he felt like he had too. So whenever we get him back… just know that. And that's why Bucky-" he sighs, "is on the fritz. I think he's experiencing some of Steve's growing pains."
Tony looks over to see his dad stunned, but Clint just shrugs and then looks at Tony, "glad you're safe and back home. We will find Steve."
Then he's gone, the door swinging shut behind him.
"WAKE UP!"
A bucket full of ice water washes over him, startling him into consciousness and making his adrenaline spike.
He looks up to see Raza glaring at him, scars from their first encounter on the side of his face.
He feels groggy and hazy. And he wonders what he's been given. It would have to be strong to make him feel this way. Really strong.
The chains are back, and a pair on his ankles as well. He's laying on a cave floor and this time his wrists and ankles are chained together, giving him almost no leverage to pull free.
Great.
He sighs and tries to blink the water out of his eyes. The way the ice slips into the spaces where his jaw hangs down makes him gag, spitting and drooling onto the floor.
Raza kicks his stomach and it's so empty that he swears it echoes. He groans, the haziness clearing for a second through the pain before clouding back over him.
Raza is saying something but he can't understand. Another kick, this time to his ribs and he tries toe curl up as natural instinct but his hands and feet being chained together won't allow it.
THen someone is grabbing his face and the pain screams through him, making his sense sharp and fired.
"I'm speaking, American dog!"
He can only growl out a response, and Raza narrows his eyes, "tell me how you have survived it all?"
Steve glares back and then rolls his eyes. How does Raza expect him to tell him anything with his jaw like this? His arm, the broken one is pulled and throbbing with pain as well. Whenever he escaped, because he would, healing was going to be a hell of a process.
You come back to me-
Peggy's voice is still clear in his mind and he has no intentions of breaking it.
A shout pulls Raza's attention and the man thrusts his face back into the ground before stalking off.
After a few minutes, he can sense whatever they gave him wearing off. His adrenaline being up was helping his system burn it off faster. Taking stock of his surroundings didn't reveal much, but it did help him feel more present of mind. The chains were back but they obviously were relying on the drugs to keep him subdued as they weren't reinforced or heavier set chains.
It would be difficult to rip them out of the wall though at this angle and with the way they have him chained. The door was a basic metal door, so if he did get free it shouldn't be a problem.
Which means he'd probably be home free if he could get out of these chains.
He shifts and feels a rock press into the skin of his back and for some reason it reminds him of his glasses.
Glasses that saved his life by cutting through the trash bag and allowing him air.
Strange the memories being chained up in a foreign country will bring up.
Then his mind wanders to Clint and Bucky finding him and how they'd told him they'd originally thought he was dead.
And that gives him an idea.
After a heartfelt farewell with Yinsen in which future visits are planned, Tony boards a plane back to New York.
He falls asleep, but wakes up gasping, clutching at the chest piece. His father's reassuring hand rests heavily on his leg and he is able to relax back enough to fall asleep and this time he stays asleep until they land.
When he gets to the house, he gets the longest hug from his mom, which he returns heartily. A rather heartful and teary hug from Jarvis, and a firm but meaningful hug from Ana.
He lays on his bed staring at the ceiling for a long while.
"Honey?" His mom calls, "there's someone here to see you—"
He's about to say that he's not feeling up to visitors when coppery red hair flash in his peripheral and he sits straight up.
Pepper stands there, red rimmed eyes and pursed lips.
A sense of relief washes over him, "few tears for your long lost boyfriend?"
Her laugh is watery, "tears of joy. I hate first dates."
Tony stands, opening his arms and she rushes into them.
—-
"He left him?"
Natasha grimaces, "not on purpose. He had to. the suit he'd built wouldn't have held Steve's weight and also if he hadn't left then all three would still be captured and—"
"Natasha."
Natasha falls silent as Peggy's clipped voice cuts her off.
It's quiet for a long moment before she takes a deep breath and tries again. "It's Tony, Peggy." She says quietly but firmly. "Tony. The kid who paid 50k for Steve's location. Bugged him multiple times to figure out where he was and what was happening. Worked with his dad to bring him back from the dead. He didn't leave him willingly."
"I know you're right," Peggy says quietly. Her voice coming through the speaker in a whisper. "It's just hard to be happy about it. Steve could be…"
All the options run through her mind as well. Dead, injured, starving, being tortured, etc.
"I know," Natasha answers calmly. "But Bucky and Clint are already back searching. They'll find him."
"He promised he'd come back to me."
"And he will." Peggy doesn't respond verbally. "He will."
—
"Doing some thinking?"
Steve looks over to see Clint climbing up and over into the bell tower.
He sighs, feeling achy and strange, "yeah."
"Makes sense."
Steve furrows his brow, "it does?"
Clint nods slowly looking out at the city's horizon, "of course it does. I mean… you've been through so much. You'd need time to process."
"I guess that's true."
"How's the house? The kids?"
His mind is struggling to understand why Clint is asking. "Don't you know?"
"I've been gone as long as you have, buddy," Clint says with a grin.
"They're… fine?" He's suddenly not sure. "I talked to Sam-" his brain can't supply an answer. When had he last talked to Sam?
"So…" Clint presses, his elbow gently nudging Steve's ribs, "are you going to make it back to us?"
Steve's breathing starts to agitate, his chest moving up and down more forcefully, like he's struggling to take in air. "Make it back?"
Clint nods looking sad, eyes staring a million miles away, "yeah. We don't know where you are."
Steve studies Clint's profile and tries to breathe, "I'm here."
Clint turns to him, eyes blank, terrifyingly so "where is here?"
"I'm here," Steve tries to say more confidently, "right here."
Clint's face shifts to reserved and somber, "we don't know where you are Steve. No one knows where you are." Steve feels gravity shift and he tips sideways, "not even you know." He hears Clint whisper as he tumbles out of the tower.
His stomach flips, reaching and grasping for the stone wall or the roof or the scaffolding or something. But they all slip through his grasp and he plummets further towards the city street.
Terror shrouds his mind as he's about to make impact-
Steve jolts awake, gasping for breathing and then groaning in pain as his screwed up jaw lances pain through him.
He wishes he could see his hands. He'd just been looking at them as he fell, reaching, grabbing, trying to hang onto something. And they'd been his old hands, boney and frail and achy. Something in his chest set heavily that he needs to see them make sure they haven't reverted to that.
His breathing starts to calm as he fully hits consciousness and he closes his eyes.
No one knows where you are.
Clint's voice echoes in his mind. He scrubs at the needle pricks and the scabs that have collected there and feels a sort of barren desperation.
No one knows where you are.
After the first day, Raza had sliced him with a knife on his face while he was chained up and then watched in a morbid curiosity as Steve had healed at an unnatural and inhuman rate. Since then, he's been pricked, jabbed, and experimented on all while half drugged and immobile.
So… all in all not the best.
The only sliver of hope he has is that he thinks they might be running out of the drug they were using to keep him sedated. His grasp of their language was miniscule, but even in his drugged haze he'd noticed himself getting smaller and smaller doses.
Which means it might be time to enact his plan.
So he waits until the shift of the guard and the gruff man with the tranquilizer gun approaches him. When the man gets close enough, Steve lashes out, yanking and pulling and groaning, acting like he's trying to get free. The man freaks out, scrambling back, but of course Steve is locked down. So the man huffs and glares at him, speaking something that Steve can tell he's angry for being startled. As the man approaches, Steve goes for it again, making the only noise he can with his throat and pulling at his chains some more.
The man is truly annoyed this time and threatens him with the tranq gun. Steve does not back down, pulling harder and acting insane. The man steps closer, but behind Steve, and he feels the needle thrust into his neck.
Steve goes wild, doing everything he can to seem like he's a genuine threat and about to break free. The man is yelling, scrambling out of the way of Steve's thrashing body, but Steve doesn't stop. Knowing how delicately this must all play out. The man is shouting for reinforcements and loading another dose. His addled mind is glad about this.
He continues to move, thrash, and yank on his bonds to get free. His already messed up arm and wrist protest like crazy but he can't stop, acting like a wild animal.
Another dose gets injected into his neck but he allows that to boost his insanity, forcing his mind to stay clear enough to keep up the act until-
He doesn't have time to react as the man brandishes a real gun. He just keeps up his act until he hears three shots ring out.
He feels the blistering pain of each one of them. One in his neck, one in his chest, and another in his gut.
As his heart slows down, half because of the drug, but the other half because of his enhanced healing, he hopes, prays, begs it to be enough to fool them.
Then he slips to black.
Bucky sits glaring at the screen. The infrared was showing nothing as they flew silently through the air.
Clint sits next to him, twirling his phone out of habit.
Sixteen days. It's been sixteen days and nothing. Not a peep.
The bounty on Steve's head had also disappeared from online. Which meat Raza really did have him.
He can barely sleep thinking about what was happening to Steve. A sickening lead weight resides in his gut and he knows it can't be anything good.
"No, Obadiah's out of town," He hears his dad say, "I'll make sure the invoice gets to the right place."
He's scratching at the skin around the device as he enters the kitchen. His dad turns, hearing him, and smiles, "hey kiddo."
"Hey dad."
He looks at the TV that's quietly playing the news. "Any word?"
"Not yet. They're searching every inch though. They'll find him."
"Maybe I should go-"
"Tony-" His dad's voice was sharp. "You're not going anywhere. You don't know anything. You'll only be putting yourself back in danger. The new device isn't tested."
Tony rapped on the new arc reactor in his chest, "it's working fine."
"Tony."
He sighs, "I know. I just feel…"
'It's not your fault."
"I know."
"We will find him."
"Alive?"
His dad winces, then his face turns grim, "even if we don't I've fixed him once before."
Tony's eyes widen, "Dad-"
His dad's phone starts to ring and Tony sees his dad shift, picking it up and sliding answer.
"Hello?" He watches as his dad's eyes widen and then he looks up to Tony but asks a question to whoever is on the other line, "where?"
Steve is with it enough to not make any movement or sound when he regains consciousness. He's laying on the ground, but he is no longer chained. He can tell by his position he was dumped here as if he was a dead body. Even the chains from the train are gone. He wishes he could breathe a deep sigh of relief but again he remains still.
Someone is yelling in another room not too far away, but he listens and hears only one heartbeat in this room. While he feels stiff and sore, he knows he can escape. He just needs to do it.
Slowly he starts to open his eyes, just barely wide enough to catch his surroundings. He's been moved rooms, and it's clearly another set of caves but that doesn't matter. Without the drugs in his system… he's going to do whatever the hell he has to to get free. With any luck Tony is safe and now he just needs to make it home.
He lunges, up off the ground, spinning to catch the man by surprise. Which he does.
He's grabbed the man's rifle and slammed it against his head, rendering him unconscious.
Then he's opening the door and running.
Three more men with rifles he takes down by surprise. Thankfully no one gets a shot or warning off and he's still moving through the caves in silence. He has extra magazine rounds stuffed in his pockets and an extra rifle on his back. There's no way in hell he's allowing himself to get caught and trapped here for one more minute.
The shouting from earlier gets louder and he moves towards it.
"-were supposed to kill Stark! And suddenly he's being found and flown home!"
"My priorities shifted." Steve goes still at Raza's voice.
"I paid you! I paid you to kill Tony Stark and you failed! If you do not give me back my money, I'll blow this place sky high!"
Steve inches forward, looking around the corner to see a bald man with a white beard and a tie yelling at Raza, finger jabbed into his face. Raza looks unphased and shakes his head, "you are a fool, Stane. You paid me trinkets to kill a prince."
Confusion wars. Who was this guy? Why did he want Tony dead? Hadn't it been Steve's fault Tony was taken? Apparently not…
Indecision stirs. Does he stay here and fight, get to the bottom? Or does he take off?
Come home to me-
He slinks back into the shadows and gets another idea.
Castle is standing, shouting something at Blaze who is flying the chopper and suddenly they're swinging to the left. Clint holds on, trying to understand the change.
Castle is barking something into a radio and Bucky stands, "what!? Where!"
Clint leans over to see the coordinates of their previous destination shift to somewhere else.
"Where are we going?" Clint asks.
And the first hint of a smile ghosts on Castle's face, "to get Steve."
Steve had gone back to the unconscious men and searched their pockets until he found a phone. Then, after a few more skuffles and the realization that people were starting to catch on he'd in fact not been dead, he takes off, running through the caves and using his hearing to guide him to the outside.
Light burns his retinas but he doesn't stop. Unlike the last well established location, this was more of a hidey-hole. Nothing outside to mark their presence inside. So no guards or any indication people could be here.
If he could laugh he would, instead he just let the adrenaline carry him forward and off into the desert.
Bucky is gripping the handle like it's keeping him from exploding from impatience. They're flying low looking for the little village they had gotten the call from.
Then, his sharp vision sees it, "THERE!"
He's jumping off the chopper before it's fully settled on the ground and sprinting towards the small buildings.
Commotion draws him in one direction and he skitters to a stop when he catches sight of him.
Steve sits on a large rock, back resting against a well. But that's the most normal part about him. His wrists are red and raw. His clothes are filthy, mangy, with a myriad of stains. And his face…
Blue eyes meet his and he can see the relief in them.
Bucky stares at the gaped way Steve's jaw hangs down and the tears and mangled mess of the skin around it.
Steve stands, getting his balance and that snaps him into the present. He strides forward, wrapping his arms around Steve's large frame and feeling arms wrap back around him.
Clint runs up to see Bucky and Steve hugging. He doesn't hesitate, throwing himself onto them with abandon and feeling two arms grab him back.
He hears the sniffles from someone and he won't lie and say his eyes were dry either.
It's not too long before he hears a, "alright men. Let's bring him home."
He looks up to see Castle standing there with a smile. He turns to Steve and then stops, eyes catching on what a mess Steve's face is for the first time.
"Geez," he breathes out.
Steve's nose wrinkles and then he makes some sort of sound, his tongue and throat trying to compensate and speak but it's garbled and soon Steve just falls quiet, shrugging his shoulders.
"Let's get you home, soldier." Castle says quietly.
And Steve's body sags forward, exhaustion taking over. Clint and Bucky don't think twice, each stepping under one of his shoulders, helping him all the way back to the helicopter.