"Make me get out of this chair at your own risk," Grey threatened as a shadow fell over her in the sun lounger. She opened one eye behind her sunglasses and saw Pepper had crutched out to the pool to join her. "It's not time for PT, is it? I thought that was at four."
"It's still three," Pepper said, poking Grey's ankle with the end of her crutch. "Budge though, I want some sun before PT."
Grey scooted over as best she could with a broken collarbone, and a pregnant belly. It took a moment of finagling to get Pepper seated, with a broken leg in a cast. Eventually, both women were laid out, listening ot the ocean under the cliffs below.
"Did you hit dad with your crutches?" Grey asked twenty minutes later. Pepper wasn't too surprised by the outburst, too used to Bambi popping up in her own comms with tidbits of information. "Pepper found it useful in high level meetings, able to rebuttal arguments quickly and accurately with Bambi able to pull numbers up instantly.
"He tried to carry me out here, of course I did," Pepper laughed. Grey snorted and shook her head. "I broke my ankle, so what, he nearly blew himself up in a nuclear reactor!"
"Twice," Grey pointed out. Pepper elbowed her in the side for the reminder, but Grey was unrepentant. Tony and Jim had raced straight to the nuclear facility to help fix the broken coolant tank, and were able to prevent three explosions within the span of the week. Pepper and Grey had been left to give orders to the legacies that had followed them to Japan.
"We spent three weeks in Japan, trying to put everything back in order. We spent nearly two billion dollars for repairs, and another half billion just paying people to help with those repairs," Pepper whined. "Jim and Tony prevented a nuclear meltdown, and we pulled over a thousand people alive out of the rubble."
"And Marsha Smith is still writing that we're self-centered, unamerican Billionaire elitists." Grey pulled her phone out and shook it in the direction of Pepper's, signaling to Bambi to send her the article she was talking about. "Apparently we went to Japan just for the press it would give us."
"Yes, because you totally broke your collar bone, while pregnant, just to get sympathy from the world," Pepper scathed. Grey shrugged with her one good shoulder, her good hand on her belly.
"Same woman says Dad's done worse for less," Grey grumbled, a sour expression on her face. "And if you remind me that I have no grounds to sue her, I'll kick you into the pool."
"She's literally just on the line of what's legal and what's slander. Samantha and Jennifer are watching, and they've promised that the minute she crosses the line, they'll have the paperwork off and running," Pepper promised. Grey just sighed.
"I just miss the days when I could just tell someone to go fuck themselves." Grey shook her head, watching a bird circle above the ocean. "And I knew what I was getting into, but shit do I hate playing politics with every little thing."
"I get it," Pepper commiserated. "Felt like that after my first month of being Tony's PA. I always compared it to a microscope, but this is next level."
"Did Bambi tell you about Jim's secret?" Grey asked, a sly grin on her face. Pepper immediately grinned, accidentally matching Grey's expression.
"Which one? We all saw Helen try to sneak out of his room. Or are you referring to the fact that we now live in a no-fly zone?"
"I'd like to say that I'm surprised that People Magazine was willing to risk it all for an exclusive on our furniture? Was it? But honestly, after that creep was found in our bushes, I've stopped being shocked."
"I think that creep regretted his choices in the end." Grey snorted at the understatement. When Grey had noticed the photographer, trying to catch a photo of her in a bikini to sell to the highest bidder, Grey had simply called for Pepper. Pepper nearly threw the man off the cliffs. Then the Stark Family Lawyers got involved. "Odds on it cooling off once we're in New York?"
"Three to one," Grey said, shrugging again. "It's New York, so there's a different standard. But we are going to save the world from aliens pretty much day one."
"Which will bring infamy."
"And people standing outside our tower wanting pictures or autographs," Grey sighed. She winced as her arm twinged. "But we'll be able to hide in the tower if necessary. Or the compound."
"Pepper, Grey, time for your meds," Bucky called from the house. Grey sagged in relief.
"Out here!" Pepper called back, sticking a hand up so he could see them. They could hear the sliding door, then a yelling cat. Grey snickered as Bucky swore. There was a brief scuffle, resulting in more cursing and a victory yell from Chenin. When Bucky finally made it poolside, he was sans cat, but sporting a scratch above his eyebrow.
"Damn Barnes, I've seen you fight bad guys without breaking a sweat, but bested by a single cat?" Pepper couldn't help but tease him as he handed over the pain medication. He just gave her a dirty look before pulling a bottle of water out of a pocket.
"Chenin is a menace to society. If I didn't think he'd run away from us afterwards, I'd let him fight the chitauri. Thanks." Grey accepted the Tylenol, the only pain killer she was allowed while pregnant. She sighed, but knew it was for the best. Only the best for her little baby.
"Grey, you gotta talk to your dad," Bucky said, sitting carefully on the edge of the table near them. "He's gone straight down the mother-hen spiral and is debating cancelling the trip to the Hamptons since you'll still be in the sling."
"Fuckin' hell. I'm gonna be wearing a sling for another ten weeks! He is not allowed to take away my vacation just because Japan was a disaster." Grey shook her head, and tried her best to sit up. Pepper put a hand between her shoulder blades and pushed, enabling her to sit up fully. "Honestly, for someone who needs to be forced to look after themselves, how is he this much of a worrywart?"
Grey finally stood up and shook herself. With a dramatic eye roll, she headed back to the house, expertly pushing Chenin back with her foot. He yelled, but Grey's curse was muffled by the door closing behind her.
"I'm gonna tell her," Bucky said, laughing to himself.
"Her and Tony are the exact same person, and that is very worrying for me," Pepper said, trying not to laugh. "Jim caught them in the lab, they had the exact same expression while staring at a sheet of metal."
"The scrunched nose, and the eyebrows of disapproval?" Bucky imitated the expression, and Pepper doubled over in peals of laughter. "She makes that face so often when she's responding to emails that I'm afraid it's going to stick like that."
"Jim was telling me, Tony used to make that face all the time in college, when he was stuck on a problem, thinking something through, even just tinkering, but eventually he stopped, because of Howard."
"We weren't close during the war, but what happened to Howard to have him treat Tony like he did?"
"Grey says that Howard got consumed by the search for Rogers, Tony says that he was just a work obsessed bastard." Pepper sighed, as always, sad that Tony didn't have the childhood he deserved. "Whatever happened, Tony ended up an amazing man."
"Oh, I heard how amazing he was, last night. You have a broken leg; you cannot be doing that." Pepper turned bright red and buried her face in her hands. Bucky doubled over with the force of his laugh, his hand even slapping his knee as he cracked up at Pepper's mortification.
"He said the walls were soundproof," Pepper mumbled, mildly horrified.
"They are, for normal humans," Bucky said, slowly calming down. "My hearing is so enhanced I can hear your heartbeat clearly. If I try, I can hear Grey's from here."
"Doesn't that suck?"
"So much," Bucky said. "So much. But I got a double if not triple dose of the serum. Thankfully Steve only got the one, so he shouldn't be as bad as me."
"That would explain why your metabolism is so fast," Pepper said, the blush still firmly on her cheeks. She tilted her head to the side, a habit she got from Grey. "Apparently, it's time for physical therapy. Help me up?"
Bucky stood and easily scooped Pepper up in a bridal carry before helping her stand on her good leg. Once she had her crutches, she was able to hobble to the house. Bucky had to catch Chenin before he could make his escape.
"How are you, really, Pepper?" Bucky asked, deceptively quiet. They had all left Japan in some form of shock. Sharon had held a four-year-old as he died from his injuries. Trip had to choose between a husband and wife, only able to save one with their child. Even Bucky, who had killed indiscriminately for decades had been shaken when he found an entire family, complete with grandparents dead in their living room, still holding hands. No one would forget the tsunami that rocked Japan, especially not the Iron Family.
"Tired all the way down to my bones," Pepper said, leaning against the assassin. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm, trying to give comfort. "Japan was horrible, all that destruction? All those people. There are still two and a half thousand people missing. I might have to cut fish from my diet for a while, the scent still makes my stomach turn."
"I can still hear that mom screaming," Bucky admitted softly. "When I brought her her daughter's body."
"That was rough. Sometimes there's nothing we can do, and that's the worst part of this job. Is Grey sleeping?" Pepper had to ask because sometimes her and Tony would lay awake for hours, staring at the ceiling in silence.
"Thankfully the baby or something tends to knock her out, but it's restless. She moves around all night, even with her broken collarbone."
"Are you sleeping?"
"More than I first did. Still less than I would like." Bucky hesitated a beat, then guided them down to the lab for Pepper's physical therapy. "Still have some nightmares. Howard and Maria's murder, this man I killed just because he saw me. Training some of the girls in the red room. I did a stint there in the sixties, then again in the nineties. Tamara, Natasha, Little Mia. Yelena was a perfect student, loved weapons training, hated dance."
"Grey practically vibrates with rage when the red room gets mentioned," Pepper said. So did she, thinking of all the young girls that are taught to use their bodies and sexuality as a weapon. But Grey's anger went above and beyond even what Bucky could fathom. She was always so angry – it fueled her, a seemingly bottomless well of rage, filled by the injustice of the world around them.
"Dreykov was a piece of work. Had an entire science division to make sure his weapons couldn't turn on him. Grey probably knows exactly how and what he did, which is probably why she's so angry."
"I'm always angry," Grey said from her spot on the floor. Hali was standing next to her, holding her sling. "The world is shit and it's only gonna get worse."
"You know the rules, no anger during physical therapy," Hali said brightly. She was a constant ray of sunshine. It only annoyed Grey ten percent of the time. This was definitely one such time. To be fair, Grey had been annoyed since she broke her collarbone supporting a roof, without her suit. Grey took a deep breath with her eyes closed before nodding. She wasn't calm, but she would survive PT.
Line Break
"And you have the Tylenol?" Tony asked, taking Grey's bag from her good shoulder to dig through it. "And sunblock? Yes, I see the hat, where's the sunblock?"
"Dad if you don't calm down with the hovering, I'm going to have Sharon bodily throw you into the Atlantic Ocean," Grey threatened. She took her bag back and shook her head. "I love you, but I'm only wearing the sling for another twenty days."
"But-"
"Dr Cho and Hali already signed off on it. There is no argument that you can make that they haven't already . April thirtieth and I'm setting this sling on fire." Tony stared at her, his mouth slightly open as he tried to find a different path.
"I am your father and you will do as I say in my house," Tony said finally. Grey snorted, then smiled, then doubled over with hysteric giggles. She crossed her legs as she bent over wheezing. She was still laughing a few minutes later when Sharon and Trip came down from their rooms, dressed for an afternoon by the pool. "It's not that funny, Grey."
"I'm your father and you will do as I say in my house," Grey mocked back, gasping for breath between words. Sharon and Trip started laughing. "Oh shit, I have to pee."
Grey ran off, and Sharon looked at Tony for an explanation.
"She wants to take her sling off at the end of this month instead of in late May like she was told," Tony said.
"She has to open Stark Expo! You all do, and she already has to hide her pregnancy on top of that! Honestly, she's lucky she's not any farther along, Rosalind, Jim's wife? She waddled from six months on." Rosalind Morita had been a slim woman, but her pregnancy gave her so much water weight she gained fifty pounds with their first boy. "And besides, have you seen your schedule for the first day alone? Pepper was telling me you have eight different commitments on May first, Grey has ten. She's gonna need that arm. She's not a kid anymore, Tones."
Grey came back in, just in time to reassure her dad with, "it's alright. You know I love you, despite the hovering."
"I don't like it," Tony said petulantly. He knew he was being irrational. But he could hear her scream through the comms.
"You don't have to," Grey said, smiling softly at him. "You just have to do it, remember?"
It was what they said to Pepper to get her on board. She didn't like that Grey was, well, was. Now the girls were best friends. Tony sighed and held up his hands in surrender.
"C'mon girl, we got sunshine waitin' on us," Trip said, bumping Grey with his hip. "This our one week off for like, ever. Let's go!"
Trip pulled Grey out of the house, down the short path to the pool. Brian and Lizzie were already lounging under the cabana, Zora was playing in a floating ring in the pool. Sam was there, pouring margaritas from a pitcher while Riley quizzed him about wedding venues. Sharon threw her arm around Tony's shoulders.
"Are you gonna take her to visit Aunt Peggy? The Alzheimer's is starting to progress. The doctor's think we're only going to get a few more months of lucidity."
"Fuck," Tony muttered, shaking his head. "You know she's gonna beat my ass for not bringing Grey sooner."
"Probably. Although when I found out you kept a daughter from me, I nearly beat her to it."
"You always were my favorite," Tony said. "Don't tell Lizzie that, she still scares me to death. Were you at that party, in ninety-nine?"
"You mean when she threw mister grabby hands out a window? That was the funniest shit I'd ever seen," Sharon laughed. "He's just lucky it was a first-floor apartment. I was living on the fifth floor at the time, and I was originally supposed to host."
"Really?"
"Neighbor's hot water heater broke, top two floors were flooded. Completely ruined the suede shoes Aunt Peggy bought me."
"The cute red pair?" Tony asked. Sharon raised an eyebrow at him curiously. "I did pay attention to things back then. I was usually just too drunk or high to do anything about it."
"I'm really glad you got sober, Tony. I missed my best friend." Sharon pressed a kiss to his cheek in a very rare show of affection, before leaving through the sliding doors. Tony smiled after her, thinking the exact thing she voiced.
"After this trip, I will never doubt that Grey was the best thing to ever happen to us," Jim said. Tony turned in surprise, not having heard him come in. He was leaning casually against the far wall nursing a mug of coffee. "Now everyone can see the kid I met at MIT."
"Awh, honey-bear," Tony said.
"I mean it Tones," Jim insisted, pushing off of the wall. "I haven't seen this version of you since you were fifteen. I missed you."
Jim grabbed the back of Tony's neck and held him there, just enjoying having his best friend back. If both men had tears in their eyes, only Jarvis was there to know.
"I'm glad to be back," Tony said softly. "Now come on, this is a vacation trip, teach me how to relax!"
"I don't think there's a God powerful enough to get the great Tony Fucking Stark to relax. We might just have to settle for iced coffee by the pool with the family."
"I've always wanted a big family," Tony said softly. There was an indecipherable look in his eyes, one that had equal parts grief and love. Jim changed his grip, so his arm was around Tony's shoulders, and started guiding him outside.
"You might have the biggest family in the world." A cheer went up around the pool when the boys finally joined them. Zora and Luna might have been the only kids, but Pepper and Tony had been whispering in the night about settling down, getting married and having a child or two of their own. Pepper wanted a giant family too, and Tony was happy to oblige – she had to do the hard part, so he would support any decision she made.
"We've got premade mocktails in the red cooler for you, or if you want something fancy, Kat has the blender set up for frozen drinks!" Pepper said brightly, moving her sunglasses so she could smile at Tony properly. Her cast had been upgraded to a boot, but she wasn't wearing it, sunning her legs so they tanned evenly. Her cheeks were pink from the sun.
"I'll take a virgin daquiri if you have the time, Kat," Tony said, kicking back on the lounger next to his girlfriend.
"Honey, I have all the time in the world. Any flavor?" The birds had been a surprise for both Tony and Grey, but they were adored nonetheless. Kat was a teacher turned stay-at-home mom, who was likely to homeschool the girls until Zora felt comfortable enough for public school. In all their academy planning, they had Kat down as principal of the school.
"Surprise me," Tony said, adjusting the towel under his head.
"One spicy mango daquiri coming up for the generous billionaire, and a peach one with whipped cream for his daughter!" Kat had a wide smile on her face as she crossed to the wet bar on the patio and started mixing up the requested drinks. Her wife joined her, scooping a beer out of the blue cooler.
No one noticed, but father and daughter had the same wistful expression, watching everyone talk and relax in the sun. Tony looked like he had finally found the perfect life he'd always wanted. Grey looked like she was memorizing everything around her as if she'd never have it again.
Line Break
Grey had sand in her hair, in her teeth, and in her panties. She huffed and rolled over, trying to sit up, something not so easy when pregnant.
"What did we learn?"
"Not to chase frisbees with a broken collarbone," Grey said to the sky above her. "Or when pregnant. Or both. My bad, y'all. Can I get a hand up?"
Brian laughed as he walked over, first grabbing the frisbee and throwing it to his sister. He stood above Grey for a moment, laughing at her expense, before he used her good arm to pull her upright.
"Are you okay? That looked like it hurt," Brian asked, trying to dust Grey off. She heaved a sigh and shook like a dog, sending sand everywhere. Brian laughed again, covering his eyes, just in case.
"That's because it did," Grey said, nodding. "Hurt like a motherfucker. Who has my bag this time?"
"Jayne's got everything back at the house. You good to get there yourself?"
"Bucky's probably already heard about my faceplant; I'll be surprised to make it over the ridge without him popping up at my elbow. It'll either be him or dad." Brian glanced up, and sure enough, there was someone hustling from the house, still too far away to identify, but there was only one person that broad at the shoulders.
"Look's like it's the assassin here to save the day."
"Good, that means I don't have to walk." Grey turned and started up the path, intent on meeting Bucky halfway. Brian laughed and returned to the beach, where Sharon and Allie were playing volleyball. Lizzie was chatting with Kat, the frisbee dangling lightly from her fingertips. He hadn't made it two steps before Lizzie threw the disc back at him. He snatched it out of the air and sent his sister a glare.
"Grey okay?"
"I think she's more mad she fell than anything else," Brian said, shaking his head fondly. "Still can't believe she broke her collarbone like that. Freak accident."
"She wasn't expecting the roof to collapse," Sharon defended. She would've done the same thing. "And that woman was too injured to get out on her own, sending her away in the suit was necessary."
"But why didn't she leave the house?" Brian asked. He hadn't been part of the team doing search and rescue. He fell in with the incident chief and had started barking orders before they'd even properly landed.
"It came down the moment Grey sent them away. She had two options, crouch behind the bookshelf to avoid the roof and risk drowning in waist high water or hold the roof up until her suit came back." Allie had been in the house next door, helping an elderly couple get out to wait for the next boat. She was the one that sent the alert that Grey was in trouble. "That scream was… awful."
"I was down the block and I heard her," Sharon said, shivering in the light breeze. When Grey's collarbone had broken, Grey let out a miserable scream. And then she had to keep supporting the roof until her suit returned and carried her out. "I broke my collar bone in high school, so I get the pain. What I don't get is how she keeps going. I was barely able to handle a backpack."
"You were also fourteen," Lizzie pointed out. "She's nearly twenty."
"She was trained by the Winter Soldier, of course she keeps going with a broken clavicle. Do you really think he'd tolerate failure like that?" Katherine asked. She still wasn't very warm to Bucky, and no one understood why. She would work with him, but was quick to dismiss his contributions.
"Bucky's not like that," Kat defended. Allie had come home from her special assignment talking about how Bucky was the gentlest hand to hand teacher she'd ever had. She wouldn't let Katherine talk poorly about the man she was coming to know. "Sure, he might have been under Hydra, but he's really changed since they rescued him."
"Are we sure they even rescued him? The Winter Soldier is a myth. Are we sure Howard didn't fish him out?"
"Are you really questioning whether Tony is Hydra?" Sharon asked, defensively. Katherine immediately held her hands up.
"No. I'm thinking it's very convenient that Tony gets kidnapped and suddenly his daughter has the deadliest assassin in the world as a boyfriend." Katherine frowned lightly, but ultimately shrugged. "It's not Tony I don't trust, it's the motives behind Grey's seemingly too easy heist."
"She'd been talking about Bucky for months before Tony was taken," Jim said, shaking his head. "And trust me, getting him out was a pain in the ass. Not some waltz in waltz out like you're accusing."
Everyone's head turned to face Jim, who was approaching from the house with a cooler, and Helen on his arm. She blushed, unused to the knowing stares of the legacies. Jim just kissed her on the cheek and handed her the beach towel to set up.
"Then what did happen?" Sharon asked.
"She found the highest up person in the Winter Soldier program. She'd had a dream of him putting Bucky in the chair, electrocuting him until he didn't know who he was anymore. Once she had a face, Jarvis was able to find him."
"But the way she tells it, she asked for him. No threat, no violence, nothing." Katherine knew no one did anything for nothing. Not even the selfless.
"Oh, there were a lot of threats. Grey named every Hydra agent she knew about. That was when he caved and literally escorted her to the Winter Soldier." Jim knew Bucky felt better when they called the assassin by his codename, rather than Bucky. It helped remind him that it was done against his will and for a purpose he didn't believe in. But Jim also knew the legacies all had the same training growing up. Question everything, trust nothing. Take no prisoners and give no answers. They were only doing what they knew how to do. But he wasn't going to let them question his Goddaughter like that.
"And the press conference against Pym was how she got caught, sorta," Sharon said. "That was how they knew to send the goon squad with their fancy book of Russian trigger words."
"And they probably would've tried again, if Grey hadn't crossed off the, what did you call them? Goon Squad?" Jim said. "We're taking a risk, betting that Hydra isn't going to stick their noses out until later. We all know that, but we trust Grey. And we trust her visions."
Jim was never going to point out that there were several moments when one of the immediate family had to be talked down from calling Grey on her shit. And those months when Tony was missing – those were the hardest months of their lives. Blindly trusting a woman they didn't know, one who spoke in riddles on accident, but loved Tony more than anyone had since Maria died. And then Tony came home. Exactly as she promised. When faced with that much proof, they couldn't deny anymore.
Sharon never trusted someone until they had proven themselves. So, taking Grey at Tony's word grated against her skin like sand. Until the night Hydra came after Bucky. Hearing how she shot four men, only to try and save the fourth man - a man she had every reason to hate, put Grey firmly on Sharon's good side. Very few people turned to violence for selfless reasons. Even her reasons for joining SHIELD were selfish.
"Still can't believe there wasn't a bloodbath," Trip said, breaking any tension that was on the beach. "I mean, it's Grey. Are we sure she didn't kick this guy out of the window?"
"She definitely considered it," Jim said, laughing. He dropped onto the towel next to Helen and opened the cooler. He grabbed a beer for himself, and a premade cocktail for Helen. Candied lemons floated around, dancing with the bubbles.
"I think there's something in my contract about Stark Industries not being held liable for defenestration," Helen said lightly. It took two seconds for Jim and Trip to nearly snort their beers out of their noses, while Sharon laughed so hard Helen worried she'd fall over. Brian and Lizzie were trying to hide their laughter while Kat and Allie were leaning against each other, giggling. Once he settled down, Jim tapped his beer against her drink. Helen couldn't help but smile.
Line Break
"And this happens?"
"Monthly," Jayne sighed, melting into her chair while the nail tech covered her legs with a hot towel. "Pepper insists we take care of ourselves first, especially with a high stress job like managing the Starks."
"Every year, Pepper treats the upper-level women to a spa package along with our Christmas bonus." Samantha said, similarly relaxed, but holding a frosted glass of rose.
"I love this company," Jennifer purred. "You think they'll pay for my masters?"
"Providing Grey doesn't first, you mean?" Jayne asked, getting giggles from the girls. "That girl is going to be the death of me, with her generosity alone."
"Let me guess, she saw another disaster in the news and wants to singlehandedly fund the repairs?" Sharon asked, looking up in interest. "No, that's too tame. She saw an orphan refuge and she wants to sponsor them?"
"She saw a dog sad that they were in the shelter and sent them two hundred grand in funds, kibble, toys and treats."
"That's not terrible," Sharon said. That was actually tame for the Starks. Then it hit her. "Two hundred grand in funds, and two hundred grand of food, and two hundred grand in toys… She gave nearly a million bucks, for a sad dog? Why not just adopt the dog?"
"Chenin," Jennifer and Jayne said in unison. As much as Grey whined about the cat, she adored him. She had Jarvis fabricate her a sweater with his face on it.
"Was it at least her own money?" Samantha asked, curious. "Finance might kill her if she keeps using company funds."
"Why though?" Jayne asked. "Stark Industries has so much money it might as well be all the money."
"Taxes," Jennifer said sagely. Samantha snorted.
"Is this even a monthly requirement?" Lizzie asked, ending the Stark Industries giggles. "This seems to be a lot."
"For us, yeah," Sharon said. "Grey and Pepper are constantly in the press, if they look anything less than a hundred percent in public, they're crucified. And it ends up affecting stock."
"Of course it does." Lizzie had never been more glad to be a secret agent. Sharon and Katherine felt much the same. "And that trash reporter doesn't help. Should write for The Sun, that one."
"She's stayed right on the line of what we can and can't sue her for," Jayne said with a heavy eye roll. "We've got a betting pool on when it's going to happen. General expectation is when Grey turns twenty one."
"I think I want in on that pool," Sharon said. Jayne gave her a wide grin that showed too many teeth.
Line Break
"No, Pepper won't let me," Tony whined. "Grey wouldn't either, if I asked her. She believes in honor, can you believe that?"
"It's a reporter, Tones, what would you even be able to do?" Jim asked. The men were in a top box at a baseball game. They couldn't tell you who was playing, or at least, Tony couldn't.
"Prevent her from ever publishing again?" Tony suggested. Trip, across the room adding another basket of wings to his plate, snorted and shook his head before walking over to join them, Riley on his heels, two plates in his hands. Jim offered him a beer, but Trip declined, instead joining Tony in having sparkling water. Riley pulled off a balancing act to get both plates on one arm to grab two drinks and tuck them in his pockets.
"Freedom of speech means freedom of speech, T," Trip said. "Not even you can take that away. You have to wait until she crosses the line to do something. You know Grey believes that."
"Ugh." That was Grey's core belief. People could change, and they should be encouraged to do so, especially if they were heading down a dangerous path. When Tony found out that Grey had arranged meetings with people she'd also named as bad-guys, Tony thought his heart was going to stop – arc reactor be damned. "She also believes people are inherently good."
"The same person who will threaten violence at the slightest inconvenience?"
"That's the one," Tony said. His smile was proud, his eyes held a fond exasperation.
"You've got a good kid, Tones," Happy assured. "Who else could pull this off?"
Bucky was watching the game with rapt attention, flinching, and swearing with each pitch, catch or run. Brian was sitting next to him, occasionally leaning over to whisper something to Sam, who was paying more attention to his wedding Pinterest board.
Tony smiled softly, thrilled beyond expression at all the changes Grey brought into his life. The legacies, Barnes, the suits, the birds, Pepper. Tony thought he was happy enough to fly without his suit every time he thought about his beautiful girlfriend.
"Jim, there was something I wanted to ask you, before we went back to LA," Tony said.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"Would you help me pick out a ring for Pepper?"
"About damn time, Tony," Jim said, clapping him on the shoulder.
"Total dibs on the bachelor party," Trip called in excitement. "Brain, Barnes, Wilson, you hear this? Tony's gonna propose!"
"He's only been in love with her forever," Bucky said, laughing. "Are you gonna let Grey plan the wedding?"
"Pretty sure she already did," Tony said, nodding sagely. Happy couldn't help but laugh because he knew it was true. She'd sent him to pick up the custom design wedding bands weeks ago. "Shit, she's probably got the engagement ring picked out."
"She definitely does," Bucky said, though whether it was fact or belief, no one could tell. "Talk to her before you go shopping."
"I'm gonna make Pepper my wife," Tony said with a dopey smile on his face. His family laughed at him good naturedly. Happy and Jim hid a fist bump from him.
Line Break
Grey flopped heavily on the couch, only remembering at the last moment that she had a broken collarbone. She made a pained noise but gave no effort to move. Bucky grabbed her by a leg and her good arm and flipped her like a pancake onto her other side.
"It's so nice to be home," Grey said, wiggling herself deeper into the couch. "Hate New York. It's cold."
"It was eighty degrees on Tuesday," Pepper pointed out.
"And on Wednesday it was back down to forty! I spent three hours with a migraine that I could feel in my teeth. I had to miss girl's day!" Grey pouted. "Here, the weather never changes. It's beautiful."
"You were the one that wanted to move to New York," Tony said, his feet up on the coffee table while he read through a backlog of emails.
"Because that's where the aliens are," Grey whined. "And it's where Spiderman lives and Dad, you're gonna love him. Irondad and Spiderson trends on twitter, Tumblr, and TikTok."
"Irondad?" Tony questioned, looking at Grey in mild alarm. She just nodded as if it was the best thing in the world.
"You're worse than Batman, adopting every stray child you meet. It's a trope."
"I thought you were forbidden from tropes?" Happy asked. Bucky didn't really understand the conversation, still unused to some of the modern terms, but Grey blushed scarlet, causing him to laugh.
"Is it really me, if it's Dad's fault?"
"Starks," Jim whispered to Bucky like it was a conspiracy. Bucky snorted and tried to hide his laughter. It didn't work.
"Hey now, I've never done anything wrong in my life," Tony said, full of indignance. It was Pepper's turn to snort out loud.
"Uh-huh, sure," she said, in the same tone of voice parents use when they assure their small child that Santa is real.
"I'll believe that when Hell freezes over," Jim teased.
"Hell last froze over on February Fifteenth of this year," Jarvis said from the ceiling. "Hell Michigan, experiences tough winters and beautiful summers."
There was a moment of silence before Grey cracked up, laughing so hard she wheezed as Tony sat there with an open mouth.
"I've never been so disrespected in my life," Tony pouted.
"Give it a while, I'm sure they can top that," Jim said, out of breath from laughing. Tony crossed his arms with a huff, starting another round of laughter. Eventually he caved in and started laughing too.
"Is it wrong that I'm glad it's just the family again?" Bucky asked quietly, as if he was afraid of the answer.
"Goodness no," Pepper assured. "I love having everyone over, but it's nice to have something resembling quiet again."
"Alone time is a big part of self-care," Grey said, lying flat on her back with a couch pillow on her face. "So are naps, so shhhhhhh."
Bucky and Pepper struggled to keep their laughter quiet as Grey shoved her finger against the top of the pillow, as if she was putting her finger to her lips. Grey shifted her hand and threw the pillow at Bucky, sitting up and pouting.
"What do you mean I have three hundred unread emails?" Grey shouted, glaring off to the side. "There's no way in fucking hell."
"That nap sure lasted a while," Bucky stage whispered to Pepper, keeping the pillow on his lap. Grey shot him a look of loathing as she left the living room, still whining to Bambi under her breath.
"I'm afraid to ask, but I might as well. How many unread emails do I have?" Pepper asked, looking up.
"You have four hundred unread emails, one hundred are labelled urgent, seven are marked as important, and eighty-three are from finance," Jarvis said. Pepper turned slightly green.
"We were only gone a week?" Bucky asked, horrified. Pepper shrugged and followed Grey's trail to the hall. Bucky stood up and followed her, planning on bouncing between her and Grey to help with the emails.
"And then there were three," Tony said, looking between Happy and Jim in amusement.
"Speak for yourself, I have an entire security department to run. I get weekly reports from seventy different locations. I'm just waiting for tomorrow because I can."
"Lazy bones," Jim teased. "I'm good because I checked in with General Morrow the second, we landed."
"Miss Stark would like me to remind you that you are resuming your morning activities, tomorrow at four. Sergeant Barnes has declared this non-negotiable." Tony huffed at Jarvis but nodded.
"Guess that means I'm off to stretch. Tomorrow is going to hurt." Tony got off the couch and groaned. "Grey's so lucky Barnes is taking it easy on her right now. Makes me wish I was pregnant!"
"Tones?"
"Yeah, I know," Tony said, waving his hand at Jim. "I'm just not wanting to go back to hand to hand tomorrow. Wonder if we can switch out for weapons, just this once."
"Have Grey ask, he'll cave."
Line Break
"Falcon to base, we have two in hand, coming home at your eight o'clock, permission to re-enter base airspace in zero one hour?"
"Falcon, this is Penguin at base, you are clear for re-entry in zero one hour," Allie said through comms.
"You seriously have to talk like that, every time?" Grey asked, one hand on her back as she sat down carefully. Between the chronic pain, and the pregnancy back pain, Grey was so glad she was benched. She could barely carry a bottle of coffee creamer without getting a cramp.
"Not the whole time, only for specific reasons. Just be glad they tend to keep their comms closed on these longer missions, I love them both, but if I have to hear one more thing about their wedding, I might scream," Allie teased.
"Bucky and I have been like that with this little one," Grey said. "We've been discussing names. We can't decide on anything I'll suggest Antonia, my favorite, for dad. He suggested Winifred. Then for boys, neither of us likes anything. I think we've driven my parents insane."
"Mayday, mayday, mayday, Falcon to base, we are taking fire, repeat, we are taking fire, Hawk is hit!" Sam's panicked voice came through the speakers, startling Allie into motion.
"Penguin to squad leader, Iron Birds in danger, repeat Mayday call received, coordinates in route, requesting reinforcements."
"Squad leader to Penguin, we are good to go at your signal," came the reply not fifteen seconds later.
"Green light, squad leader," Allie said. Grey used her phone to connect Bambi to their comms, forcing open the connection.
"Sam, what's going on?" Grey demanded, wincing as she put a hand on her side. Of course the stress would give her a cramp. Once this was all over, and the boys had been patched up, she was going to tear them a new one for putting her through this.
"Riley's hit, he's going down, I can't help him, I'm buddy locked." Sam was rescuing a hostage. They both had someone flying with them – there was nothing to be done. If Sam wanted to rescue Riley, if he wanted to fight back, he'd have to risk his rescue.
"Riley, come in, damn it Riley, say something," Grey demanded.
"I'm here, Peacemaker," Riley gasped, his breathing labored. "Buddy lock disengaged, I repeat, my rescue did not make it. I've been hit twice, I'm losing a lot of blood, where's those reinforcements?"
"ETA to rescue ten minutes," Allie said, looking over her shoulder at Grey, wo had doubled over with the strength of a cramp. Grey cut off her comms just in time to let out w whimper. This wasn't just a cramp, there was something else going on. Grey wasn't sure what, but she knew it was bad.
"Allie, do we have medics nearby?"
"Grey, you can't be in your suit right now, you can't be thinking of going to get him?" Allie demanded, pulling away from her mic so the boys wouldn't hear her.
"Not for Riley, for me, I think my water just broke," Grey panted, her hand under her belly to support it. Her pants were dark with liquid, and Allie could see the same labor pained expression Kat had when she went into labor with Luna. "What's that expression, when it rains it pours?"
"Bird nest to base, we need medics at control, we have a woman in premature labor," Allie spat, barking more orders into her headset. "Falcon, Hawk, status report."
"Hawk is down," Falcon said dully. "Repeat, Hawk is down. Beacon has been dropped, reinforcements should be traded for search and rescue."
"Riley?" Grey gasped, tears building. Riley was dead. This was the mission? This was what took him from Sam – it was Grey's fault? "Sam honey… Ah! Allie, I think something's wrong with the baby."
Line Break
On any other day, Grey would've teased Jim and Sam for standing there in their dress blues. Marines have the better dress uniforms, should've chosen a better branch. Any other day, she would've had a joke, or a one-liner about Pepper looking like a mourning widow in all black. C'mon Pep, I'm working hard to make sure you don't wear a widow's garb. But Grey couldn't do anything but hold up Riley's mom as she sobbed and screamed for her son as the pallbearers carried him off the C-130 and loaded him into a hearse. Grey's eyes were red and swollen under her sunglasses from crying most of the night and into the morning.
Riley's mom was praying, or pleading, in rapid Spanish under her breath. Grey couldn't tell what it was as she held the woman upright, until they loaded the coffin in the hearse. Both of their knees gave out, at the final sign that they wouldn't ever see him again.
Strong arms in the form of Tony, supported them both until Rosa was able to support herself enough to walk over to her son's coffin and place a shaking hand on top of the box.
Bucky was supporting Sam, his arm wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Sam was blank faced as he stared in front of him, waiting for reality to make sense again. Grey could only grieve for the loss of her friend, and her friend's loss.
"We are so sorry for your loss," Allie said softly to Rosa, Riley's mom. "If there's anything at all that you need, please, let us know."
Grey couldn't hear her response, tucking her head against Tony's chest. He rubbed her back, already aware of her internal argument.
"There was nothing you could've done differently," Tony whispered. "Just because you knew doesn't mean you could've prevented this. Do not put Riley's death on your conscious."
Grey just looked up at him with tired eyes. Riley's death was already on her conscious. She could see his smiling face every time she closed her eyes. She should've been able to stop his death. She couldn't seem to prevent anyone's death. Two funerals in a week was too many.
Line Break
I knew, logically, that locking myself in my office for three days was a terrible idea for my mental health. I also knew that the isolation was doing terrible things to my guilt complex, but there was too much I needed to get done, and I couldn't afford any more distractions.
I text Sam as often as I could, and Allie kept me up do date with how he was doing (drowning his sorrows in too-long runs and peach cobbler ice cream.) Every time his name lit up my phone, I felt a stab of guilt. I replied to his message; a picture of him smothering his ice cream in caramel sauce and threw my phone in a drawer. I turned back to my three computer screens and sighed.
"Bambi, run those numbers and let me know where we're standing with that. In the meantime, pull up what we have for solar panels?" I went slightly cross-eyed, trying to understand the blueprint for the hexagonal solar panels before changing my mind. "No, that's not helpful. You know what, new project, bring up the tower specs."
"What are you looking for, Grey?" Bambi asked, dutifully projecting the tower hologram. I stood up so I could circle it. I leaned heavily to the right as my left knee wobbled for a moment.
"There was a TV show I saw briefly on Tiktok, where this company had solar panels that slid in and out between floor levels when they sensed sunlight." Bambi segmented the tower, giving me just one floor to look at. "See here, there's enough space for a solar panel that's less than five inches thick. If we have a sunlight sensor on the exterior of the drawer, they can slide out automatically when there's sunlight."
Bambi rendered the idea, showing where the solar panel drawer would be, and the specifications needed to make sure the floors were still properly insulated.
"Like this?"
"Yeah, that looks right. Now we're going to want a way to make sure they can't be pulled out of the building. Or a way to make sure that if that happens, a person can't gain access to anything inside the tower."
"I'll send it up to R with your ideas and have them put it into production." Chenin walked into my office, yelling his head off.
"Where I'll summarily receive an email telling me to sit down and mind my business," I whined, twisting in my chair to crack my back. I meowed back at him, trying to match his pitch to annoy him. "Hey, get down!"
I had to knock Chenin off my desk, again, before I settled back in my chair and glared at the computer screens in front of me. He yelled at me but left my office. I shook my head at his antics. I love him, but he's definitely a pain in the ass.
"You need to take a break, Grey," Bambi said from the ceiling.
"I might actually die if I stop," I said, running my fingers through my hair. I had to stop and pick around a knot. "I am losing my fuckin' mind, I'm exhausted, my stomach hurts, Riley is dead, my daughter is dead."
Riley's death caused me to go into premature labor. Even with everything the doctors knew how to do, my beautiful daughter's lungs hadn't yet formed, so after a few, frantic hours on ECMO, she passed away in her parents' arms. Bucky and I settled on Antonia, after my dad, for her name. The family had a small, private funeral in New York, and baby Antonia was laid to rest next to Howard and Maria Stark on the grounds of the New York manor. Antonia Riley Barnes-Stark 04/20/2011 Beloved. Bucky carried her tiny coffin by himself, settling her gently into the dirt, while dad held me up as I cried. If it hadn't been for Pepper, planning Riley and Antonia's funerals, I never would've made it through.
It was Pepper, who adjusted the Veteran's Memorial Charitable Fund into the Riley Del Sol Memorial Fund and made Riley the inaugural recipient. His mother, Rosa, a proud Puerto Rican woman, wouldn't have let us cover the costs for his service otherwise.
I stopped and took a breath. Focusing on the wrong things would only drive me further down the rabbit hole I was currently falling down. If I stopped, if I slowed down, the racing thoughts that moved too fast for me to hear would slow down, and I would hear them. Your daughter is dead. Your daughter is dead. Your daughter is dead. Your child is dead.
"I don't think I can do this, Bambi," I said finally. My baby is dead. "I'm trying to do too much, but if I stop, I can't think."
"Would you like me to schedule you an appointment with Dr Tyler?" Bambi asked, I put my head down on the desk, then gave them a thumbs up. I knew better than to argue. After Riley's funeral, we all had emergency sessions with our therapists. My daughter is dead.
"Well, you were right," Tony said, unceremoniously barging into my office. I didn't lift my head, just leaned to the side. I waited for him to continue, but he obviously wanted a response.
"That's not specific enough," I said, awkwardly shrugging my shoulders before finally sitting up with a heavy sigh. Time to push everything into a box and deal with what was right in front of me. At least it was my dad this time. I didn't mind it when it was family. "What was I right about this time?"
"Oil prices jumped twenty percent over night," Dad said bitterly, throwing himself into the spare chair against the wall. I turned to face him, kicking my feet up on the trash can. "Is this that energy crisis you were talking about?"
"All I remember is gas prices shot up in 2011. And that was a bitch because I broke my ankle and mom had to drive me to and from school every day instead of me riding the bus home." I tried to remember more, but the only things I remembered from 2011 was the necklace Josh gave me for Christmas, the scooter I had to use instead of crutches, and the geometry class with Zack. And being called gimpy for the rest of my high school career. It had been affectionate, I hoped. "That's all I got, for this year. Actually, no, May is going to be exciting."
"We already knew that," Tony said, confused. "We have the expo in just over a week."
"Seal Team Six will get Osama Bin Laden in May," I explained. Dad's mouth fell open, then he let out a cheer, leaping from his chair to pull me to my feet so he could hug me. I laughed as he spun me around, then dropped us both back in our seats.
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"Are any of us affiliated with the Navy? Or the Seals?"
"No?"
"Then why would I mention it?" I asked, laughing. "It's nice to not have to worry about every single thing that we're going to live through."
"Yeah, but why couldn't we give them the intel and do it sooner?" Dad asked. I stared at him. "Because you only know that it happens, not where. Right, sorry."
"I know more about your world than I do my own," I said, not really apologizing. "I can tell you all about what happens to the superpowered people in the world, can't say shit about politics until 2016."
"Why then?" Dad asked.
"In twenty sixteen, I voted for the woman I thought was going to be the first female president. She was running against a man who openly mocked disabled people, made denigrating comments about women, and wanted to completely shut down our borders to anybody not white. She lost the election. I spent the following four years tracking everything that was happening in DC. Well, technically it was Mar-A-Largo." Dad opened his mouth to comment or question but ended up shaking his head. He would understand, eventually.
"You wanna tell me who won the election?" He asked, waiting. I shook my head, no I definitely did not.
"I don't think you'll believe me." After a brief glare, he nodded. I was glad, mostly because he and Happy watched The Apprentice at least once a week. I wasn't allowed to join them after I threw a couch cushion at the TV when Trump started talking.
"Fine. You wanna tell me about the six emails you've sent to R since this morning?" Tony asked. I shook my head again but ended up nodding. "You don't work for R you don't have to keep cranking these things out for us. You can simply give us the ideas and we can make them happen."
"I'm pulling ideas from fictional TV shows, I have to make sure they can actually work in a real-world application before I send them off to you lot," I argued. "I'm not gonna send over an idea that won't work. Or worse, something that's already patented."
"I send through at least three ideas per week that don't work," Dad said, trying not to laugh at me. I didn't appreciate it, even though I knew he was just trying to make me feel better. "We have an entire team designed specifically for taking off the wall inventions and turning them into something useful. Or just useable."
"I need to relax. I need a vacation," I said, caving. I sorted through my desk drawer until I found the folder I wanted. I handed it to my dad with another sigh. "I did steal a little of your hologram technology, as well as the VR you use for the HUD and the glasses. Some of it is producible, some is specific for training for us and the Academy."
"I can see that. These are good ideas." He leafed through the pages, pausing at interesting ones. Some had rendered images from Bambi, others had paragraph long descriptions.
"Can't claim credit, I think I stole one of those ideas from the Hunger Games," I said, shrugging. "Granted, that hasn't come out yet, but still."
"You're not stealing ideas; you're being inspired by them. You can't steal fictional technology," Dad pointed out. I made a face, I wasn't too sure about that, especially with me now living in a previously thought fictional world.
"Page thirty-four is definitely theft," I said. He rapidly turned the page, wanting to know specifically what I was admitted to having stolen. I could tell he was on the correct page when his mouth fell open in surprise. I grinned, just a little proud. Bambi had been a big help, but so had The Librarians.
"I'm sorry, did you figure out Tesla's Ionosphere technology?" Dad demanded, staring at the page. I shrugged, aiming for bashful. "I can make this work, just adjust this equation here, I can, can I borrow your screens?"
I stood and stepped back, giving control of the holotable to my dad, who pulled up the tower, then bisected it. I watched him stare at it, his nose scrunched the same way mine did when I couldn't make up my mind. Something got pulled out and thrown away, and he replaced it with a copper pipe. Then he threw out the copper pipe and adjusted an equation. The copper pipe became even thicker, with just enough room for three wires to run from end to end. The pipe stretched from the highest point of the tower to the third sub-basement.
"Jarvis, send this to the contractor team, have them run this change immediately," Dad said, clapping his hands together. He was staring at the blueprint as if he couldn't believe it existed. To be fair, neither could I.
"Did we just figure out Tesla's Ionosphere technology?" I asked, staring wide-eyed at the hologram. And slightly cross-eyed. I'd only just learned how to read blueprints a few weeks ago and they still mostly looked like gibberish.
"Holy shit, I think we did," Dad said, breathless. "Well, you did."
"Eh. You did the math, I just gave you the idea," I said. "Besides, no one on this earth would believe I did that if you tried to give me credit. Actually, I think no one on any earth would believe you."
"I would believe him," Jim said, strolling in my office like he owned it. He did that a lot since officially moving in with us. "But then again, I always believe Tony."
"Bullshit," Dad said, laughing as he looked at his best friend. "When I first told you about my kid you were so close to throwing me out of that jet."
"You were claiming a pink haired woman as your daughter," Jim pointed out. "If Pepper and Happy hadn't been playing along, I'd have called the cops, thinking it was a hostage situation."
"That's entirely fair," I said. "I'm still shocked I was believed. Once I realized what was happening, I thought I'd gone insane. Or that my pot was cut with something."
"Jarvis took the footage from that day and ran every single scan he could on it," Dad said. "There's no evidence that you didn't just walk out of a blind spot and into my lab. There was no flash of light, no magical portals, nothing."
"No radiation, no static, nothing?" I asked, kind of shocked. While I hadn't seen anything that could explain how I ended up in a completely different universe, I had expected there to be something. "Well, that's one mystery we'll never solve. That's annoying."
"If we can't figure out how you got here, how will you get home?" Jim asked. Dad and I exchanged looks, causing Jim to frown. "What?"
I sighed, heavily and looked at him. Dad and I had talked about me being stuck. This was my home now. And I'd accepted that. Sort of. Mostly. Or something.
"We don't think I ever will," I said, fiddling with the rings on my fingers. They were one of the last things I had from my original life. My rings, my weed pen that I just started using again, my rust-colored hoodie I was forbidden from wearing outside of the house, and my Birkenstocks. "I think this is my new home, I will live and die here."
It wasn't the most cheerful sentiment, but it was the one I had. Dad gave me a sour-lemon look, indicating he didn't like me discussing my death so casually. I shrugged at him, what else did he expect? It wasn't like I planned on dying soon, old ish age would do. But that still meant surviving Thanos.
"Well, I can promise this depressing ass conversation wasn't why I came here," Jim said, looking warily between me and Dad. He held up a sticky note from Pepper. "Alice White wants a sit down with you two to run a piece on what you plan on doing in the wake of the 20% increase in crude oil prices."
"Great, more work for me. Uh, Bambi, do I have anything tomorrow at one?"
"Your calendar is clear from ten to two tomorrow," Bambi said from my computer. I nodded. "Would you like me to schedule the interview with Alice White tomorrow?"
"Yeah, put her in after lunch if you could. And then reach out to finance and have them put something together for me so I can actually sound like I know what I'm talking about," I shrugged, even though I was talking mostly to myself. "Why is finance suddenly my job?"
"You're quite literally the princess of the press," Jim said, smiling brightly and reaching out to ruffle my hair. The joke was on him, he got his finger stuck in a knot. I laughed as I yanked the knot out of my hair, only wincing a little bit. "They don't want any of us, they only want you."
"That's because her facial expressions can give them more information than what she says," Dad added, already starting to laugh. I had to concede his point, my facial expressions usually needed to use their inside voice. I blamed Covid, and getting too used to wearing a mask that covered my face.
"Or because I manage to explain things at their reading level, as opposed to you and Pepper who tend to use college level math at all times," I said, digging through my drawers until I found my hairbrush. I ran it through the tangles, before quickly coming to the realization that I hated having longer hair again. It was barely passed my shoulders but that was already too long. "I need a haircut. And a shower. Anybody need anything else?"
"Dinner will be ready in two hours," Jarvis said helpfully from the ceiling.
"Copy that, I will see everyone at dinner," I said, standing carefully. Dad and Jim patted me on my shoulders as I walked past them. I turned right and headed for my room; they went left to the living room. "Bambi, order me some hair ties so I can keep this mop off my neck, yeah?"
Line Break
Pepper had just shoved her birthday cinnamon roll into her mouth when the family heard the front door open, and slam shut. Plates were dropped and weapons drawn before the family realized Jarvis wouldn't have let in a threat. Katherine Dugan walked in with a wrapped box, and a CIA folder labelled classified.
"I did say I was coming," Katherine said as she saw three guns disappear into holsters.
"Don't mind them, they're jumpy," Tony said, waving his hand at the trio who had drawn their weapons. Jim smiled apologetically at Katherine. Grey and Bucky just shrugged. She shoved a cinnamon roll in her mouth and went looking for a broom to sweep up the plate that shattered. "What'd'cha bring us?"
"A birthday present for Pepper, and a file for Barnes. Can I have a plate?" Tony jerked his thumb toward the food. Katherine handed the box and the file to Bucky, who passed the file to Tony. He flipped through the pages, impressed with the intel.
"Somalia, huh?" Grey asked, reading the map sideways. "For Stark weapons?"
"Nope. Got a lead on one of the names you gave me. Orisov was spotted exchanging money for identities by a U.C. friend in Interpol. Two IDs, names were John Smith and John Brown." Katherine loaded her plate with Bucky's cheesy eggs and two cinnamon rolls. Jim poured her a coffee and sat it near her. "She was able to get a look at the photos. One is definitely Orisov, the other is unknown."
"Do you think it's another asset?"
"No," Bucky and Grey said together. Grey continued, "they were only able to make what, six more super soldiers? But they're in cryo in Siberia. No, we don't know specifically where. They were a tad, shall we say, temperamental?"
"Bloodthirsty and unlikely to listen to orders," Bucky rephrased.
"Is there anything else we know?" Pepper asked.
"Not yet. Brian is going to flag the passport numbers and keep an eye out for locations. But if they go through back-channel methods, we won't have much advance notice." Jim glanced at Grey, who shrugged. If Hydra was moving an asset into position to take someone out, she had no knowledge of it. "Oh, Grey? Lizzie said you were right."
"Fuck." Grey had asked Lizzie to check with her sources about what caused the fighting in Sokovia. If Lizzie said Grey was right, it meant that behind everything, was Hydra. So, Hydra wanted to play chess. They'd never win.