Chapter 22 – Stevie

January 11, 2014 – 12:30 p.m.

They walked without speaking, following Wanda's elfin form, their feet crunching on dead leaves and fallen twigs. Stevie kept seeing his face in her mind, hearing his voice.

Who the hell is Bucky?

No. One step. Then another.

Maggie wailed as they walked, her cries doubly loud in the otherwise silent parkland. Stevie tried to soothe her, but she supposed after the day she'd had – the days she'd had – the girl was entitled to a tantrum. If only it didn't make her afraid every moment that they'd be followed – by the police if no one else.

Please hush, Stevie thought, patting her daughter's back as she stepped over a fallen tree limb. Or someone will think I'm kidnapping you.

One step. Then another. Don't think about...him...try not to think at all.

Pietro looked back impatiently. He'd been...flickering...as they walked. Scouting ahead with his unnatural speed and darting back to join them, creating little gusts of wind that rattled branches and sent dead leaves whirling into the air. In the pauses when Maggie stopped for breath, Stevie could hear Natasha's labored breathing. The other woman's face was white, but she walked doggedly ahead, still clutching her left arm. She stepped over a root and stumbled, and Stevie reached out to her.

"I'm alright," Natasha said, tightly. Then, more gently, "Look after Maggie."

And suddenly, they emerged from the overgrown perimeter into a manicured park. Gravel paths wound between little ponds, and elegant bridges arched over waterways still fringed with ice. Maggie's wail reverberated in the open space, free from the cover of trees.

"I could calm her for you," Wanda said, reaching a slender hand toward Maggie's back, a slight, red glow around her fingertips. "She would sleep, and we could talk."

Stevie slapped Wanda's hand away.

"We'll talk now," she growled. "Who the hell are you? I need more than just your names this time."

In the blink of an eye, Pietro stood in front of his sister, trying to stare Stevie down. She met him glare for glare. Wanda took his arm and pulled him back.

"Alright." She sighed. "We grew up in Novo Grad."

"Oh," Natasha said, her voice heavy with understanding.

"Yes," Wanda said. "During the first wave of bombings, when the Sokovian People's Army besieged the city, two shells hit our apartment. The first detonated. The second...didn't."

"We were hiding under the bed," Pietro growled. "It was three feet from our faces. A shell with Tony's Stark's name on it. For two days we waited for Tony Stark to kill us."

"Our parents died," Wanda continued, as if he hadn't spoken. "And we...changed."

"You got your...powers," Stevie said, shifting to her other arm, bouncing her. Maggie had quieted to a moaning whine.

Powers, like those children at the castle. Why does everything keep coming back? She saw him in her memory again. Green eyes, long hair. So confused. Who the hell is Bucky?

No!

"What happened to you?" Stevie asked.

"What do you think?" Pietro said. "In that meat grinder, two children, scared and alone?"

"We were weapons," Wanda said. "For whoever could pay."

"Or threaten."

"We worked for one side, and another. For gangsters, and warlords. And then, for Hydra."

"So what brought about this change of heart?" Natasha asked.

"I looked into Pierce's mind," Wanda said. "And I saw annihilation. We were told if we helped him there would be a place for us, and people like us. I want that, Captain. We've seen so many friends disappear."

In Stevie's memory, a voice was shouting, I watched them disappear into labs, cut apart by madmen your government set free...She shook her head. Wanda shook back her hair, looked at Stevie with those familiar dark eyes.

"But not at that cost. Please, put an end to this."

"We know you keep your word," Pietro added. "We want your protection, after this is over. For us, and others like us."

"Of course," Stevie said. "Of course I will."

The twins looked at each other. Nodded ever so slightly.

"It's happening tomorrow," Wanda said.

There was still snow in the shadows of the trees, but most of it had melted.

They had talked, and planned, until Maggie's cries had subsided into sniffles, then silence. Now she was snuggling against Stevie's chest, inside her jacket, sucking her thumb. Stevie was always warm. Stevie sat by the shore of a small pond. The trees rose straight and bare, reflected perfectly in the still water. A family of deer walked out of the trees in front of her across the pond. Stevie held her breath, looking at them, a slender doe and spotted fawn.

A branch snapped behind her and the deer bolted, hooves ringing off the planks of the bridge like gunshots.

"Sorry," Natasha said. She sat beside Stevie slowly, wincing.

"How's the arm?" Stevie asked.

"It'll be better in a minute," Natasha answered. "How are you?"

"I think Wanda's information is trustworthy. She has no reason to lie."

"No, I mean...How are you?"

Stevie knew what Natasha had meant. As she sat by the lake for the past couple minutes, she had methodically considered everything implied by Bucky showing up on a highway seventy years after he was supposed to be dead.

"He smiled," Stevie said. "Pierce. He came to Maggie's birthday party. He picked her up, and he smiled. And the whole time he had Bucky hidden away in the basement like...like..."

"A frozen pizza?" Natasha suggested.

"I'll rip his head off."

"No," Natasha said. "You won't."

"Well, I want to."

Natasha had been slowly stretching her arm over her head while talking. There was a sudden pop.

"That feels better," she said, wiggling her fingers. She looked out across the water. "You know, in the spring this place will be full of water lilies. Pink and purple and white."

"At this point," Stevie said. "I'm not sure I'll get to visit in the spring."

"Pierce will send him after you." Natasha looked at Stevie, face solemn. "Bucky."

Stevie's part of the plan was to take Wanda and Pietro and get to the carrier, to shut it down before it could initiate the drone strikes.

"I know," Stevie answered. "It's what I would do, in his position. It's his trump card."

"What will you do?" Natasha asked. "If you have to choose between him and...everyone else?"

Stevie looked down at Maggie, snuggled her close. The girl was blinking slowly, clearly tired but unwilling to sleep after everything that had happened. Stevie kissed her hair.

"I took ethics in high school," she said. "The teacher gave us a question. You're on a bridge next to a stranger. Below you is a train. If the train keeps going, it will hit a group of children on the tracks. There's no way to warn them. But if you push the stranger onto the tracks, the train will stop and the children will be saved."

Natasha waited in silence for a long moment.

"And?" She asked. "What's the answer?"

"If I can push someone else, I can jump in front of the train myself."

"You're going to metaphorically throw yourself in front of a train." Natasha shook her head. "And what if he doesn't know you?"

"He will."

There was a sound of wings and both women started. From among the dry reeds, a huge gray bird took flight. Stevie watched it beat the air, wingtips skimming the lake as it flew. At that moment she could imagine the water covered in flowers, all the life underground, waiting to burst forth. At that moment, she felt no doubt at all.

He will know me. If it isn't true now - I will make it true.

"Alright," Natasha said. "I have another issue with your plan, but I didn't want to bring it up in front of the twins. You wanted me to go to the Triskelion and use Fury's codes to declassify all the SHIELD files. To expose Hydra to the world."

"It's all got to go."

"The access point where I can use Fury's voice print and retinal scan is in his office – and either Pierce will be there or he'll have his best guards there. I'm a very good spy," Natasha said. "But I'm not that good. Not on such short notice."

"That's the beauty of it," Stevie said. "You'll just walk in."

"Pierce will never believe I'm Hydra."

"He will, with the right encouragement."

Stevie looked down at Maggie. The girl had finally fallen asleep against Stevie's chest, tucked into her jacket, like she had done when she was a tiny baby. Natasha looked stricken, face white as it had been on her walk through the woods with a dislocated shoulder.

"You can't mean..."

"I do," Stevie said softly. "I said I trusted you. I meant it. Besides, she's safer with you than she is anywhere else right now. You're singularly lethal."

Natasha's lip wobbled for a moment, but then she set her jaw. "I'll keep her safe. I promise."

"I know," Stevie said. "Now help me get this stuff out of my hair."

The plan takes shape! The team is in a real park right now - Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. There are some lovely pictures online, and I highly recommend giving it a google.