Skye was brought face to face with her dad when they teleported back into their own world.
"Are you injured?" Steve asked her.
"No sir," Skye said.
Steve looked at Bucky.
"She wasn't involved in any battles. I don't think she would be hurt," Bucky said.
Steve landed two very hard swats to Skye's butt.
Skye yelped.
"Room, now," he said.
Skye went quickly.
"Tucker's variant?" Steve asked.
"He and Skye's variant and their daughter and now in your variant's hands," Bucky said.
Steve hugged his husband.
Bucky hugged him. "Look. I get you're angry with her. Which is valid."
"What?" Steve asked a little annoyed.
"I was asked if I could pass on the message. From Skye's variant, there was no way she would have been able to get their daughter out of there without Tucker's help," Bucky said. "And I did see proof that both of them were changing towards the good side."
Steve let out a breath.
"So yes, Skye needs to be punished. But maybe, if we had been a little more open to the idea that she knew what she was asking us to be able to do. She wouldn't have needed to do it behind our back," Bucky said.
Steve nodded slowly.
"I think we both forget that Skye reads people the way we read books or reports," Bucky said.
"I'm not ready for her to be old enough to make sound decisions," Steve said with a soft chuckle.
"Ready or not, she is starting to be there," Bucky said.
"You're right," Steve said.
"Something she does need a real talk about is not using those abilities to tell people how they are feeling before they are ready to share it with anyone," Bucky said.
"Who?" Steve asked shaking his head.
"Our variants," Bucky said.
Steve laughed.
"She asked Steve if they were more than friends, and he told her no that they are just friends," Bucky said. "And Skye made a point of telling him she could sense it. I told her to drop it at that point. I tried to stop her from asking the question in the first place but Steve wanted to know the question. She dropped it but when her variant got back, the two Skye's walked away from the group for a few minutes. All I heard was laughing but Steve used his abilities to listen. Which maybe wasn't fair but. Apparently, that's what they were talking about."
Steve shook his head. "How do you feel about the one punishing her for all this? You were the one who went to get her after all. You saw everything that happened."
"I can do that," Bucky said.
"So it worked out well?" Steve asked.
"Skye's variant. Took down the Hydra base while she and Tucker were saving their daughter," Bucky said.
"Oh wow," Steve said.
"She said some got out, Victoria being one but wasn't sure who or how many outside that," Bucky said.
Steve nodded.
"The little girl looked like your mother," Bucky said.
"Oh wow," Steve said. He sat down with his head in his hands.
"She's okay. They all are," Bucky said.
"I know. And I'm glad," Steve said. "I just need a few minutes to wrap my head around all this."
"I will go deal with Skye," Bucky said. "But you should go talk to her after too. Just so she knows you still love her."
"Was there doubt of that?" Steve asked looking up at him.
"For a moment. I did remind her that nothing she could do would change that we love her," Bucky said.
"Go. I will talk to her after," Steve said.
Bucky kissed him before he went off and knocked on Skye's door.
"Yeah?" Skye said softly.
Bucky went in.
"He's still too pissed at me to be the one punishing me huh?" Skye asked.
"No, I just happened to be the one who saw how things played out. Also, the one who told you to drop a certain topic and you didn't," Bucky said.
"Oh yeah," Skye said softly.
"Okay, we have talked about you going behind our backs to do things so we will get to the punishment for that. But this will be the last time you will be told. Do not. Use your abilities to figure out people's feelings for each other and tell them before they are ready to tell people," Bucky said
Skye nodded.
"I get sometimes maybe you can't control feeling what others are feeling. I'm not going to fault you for that. But it is not fair to tell other people. Do you remember before you knew Tucker liked you and before you had told him you liked him and Carly told him?" Bucky asked.
Skye nodded.
"You didn't like that did you?" Bucky asked
"No," Skye said softly. "Point made."
"Okay," Bucky said sitting on her bed. "Let's get this over with. "
Skye whined. "do you really have to?"
"You disobeyed us. Regardless of the outcome you know this is happening. Don't make it harder on yourself," Bucky said.
Skye moved and he helped her over his lap, pushed her pants down, and wrapped his left arm around her lower back to hold her in place before he started to bring his right hand down onto her butt.
Skye tried to stay as still and quiet as possible but after a dozen swats, she started to whimper softly. And as the smacks kept coming she started to squirm a little and the whimpers turned into tears.
When Bucky heard the soft sobs starting he moved the swats down to where she would feel it the most, her sit spots.
Her soft sobs got louder and she started to kick a little.
After two dozen on her sit spots, he landed another dozen to the meat of her butt before he stopped.
Skye was sobbing loudly when he finished.
He fixed her pants and sat her up wrapping her in a hug.
Skye buried her face into his shoulder and sobbed. Her sobs slowly subsided and Bucky held her until she pulled away a little.
"I'm sorry," Skye said.
"It's forgiven," Bucky said.
They both stood up and left her room.
Skye went into the living room where pretty much everyone else was.
"Work out okay?" Tony asked
"Yeah," Skye said. "Kid is safe, my variant and Tucker's working the good side now."
"Good," Tony said.
"I feel like I should apologize to all of you anyway. I shouldn't have gone about it the way I did," Skye said.
"You wouldn't have had to if we listened to you," Wanda said.
Skye shrugged, "Still sorry."
Everyone said it was forgiven.
Steve came into the living room and gently led her into the next room.
"Sorry," Skye said.
"You've been dealt with it's forgiven. I'm going to start listening to you. And taking what you want and think into account," Steve said.
Skye smiled a little.
"And I'm going to repeat what Bucky told you. You are loved, and that's not going to change," Steve said.
Skye hugged him,
Steve hugged her tight and kissed her head.
"I didn't see Loki in there," Skye said.
"He had pretty much locked himself in his room," Steve said. "Do you want to tell what you know?"
"It's not my place," Skye said. "Maybe I can talk to him."
"I'm going to be honest with you here. I think he's pretty angry with you," Steve said.
"That might be fair, I kind of didn't think about his feeling in all this," Skye said.
"You can try fixing it," Steve said.
Skye went and knocked on his door.
"Who is it?" Loki asked.
"It's Skye, I'm sorry," Skye said.
"Go the fuck away," Loki said.
"I have your device thing. When you want it back let me know," Skye said before she walked away she went and sat in the living room between Bruce and Pepper.
"Did they end up finding something in your lab?" Skye asked.
"They did," Bruce said.
"Oh, well I'm glad they found it but sorry it was in your lab," Skye said.
"Not your fault Skye," Bruce said.
"If I hadn't been hurt. . ." Skye said. "And Dr. Strange didn't come."
"They would have found another way. And don't forget you got hurt because they sent someone to hurt you," Bruce said.
"That's true," Skye said.
"So, the entire compound has been checked only in my lab was a device found, it's removed and we move on," Bruce said.
"Okay," Skye said. "You're right," she said before she looked at Pepper "How are you feeling?"
"Very pregnant," she said with a smile.
Skye chuckled, "Baby still moving?"
"Less so, not as much room for them to move," Pepper said.
"That's normal?" Skye asked.
"Yes," Pepper said.
Skye closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.