I thought I lost you

[stephrogers]

Steph could feel her heart stop when she entered the baby's room. She managed to carry Becky to full term without incident. Even give birth without too much incident. The girl was beautiful, head already full of brown hair and light brown eyes. Rebecca Winifred Barnes. She left the child in care of a carefully SHIELD screened babysitter as they went off on a mission.

But there was something deeply fishy about the mission. About the babysitter. About everything. They managed to destroy the lab and apprehend the small time villain. But Dr. Skoval's boss escaped, shouting about a swell prize.

There had been a rogue agent that had beaten the Avengers to a few minor assignments in Europe. Someone with a damn good shot. IT didn't matter to Steph as she urged Natasha to fly the jet as fast as she could back to Brooklyn.

The scene before her was a disaster: the pink crib was thrown on its side, little ponies and stuffed toys ripped and flung everywhere, the star night lamp that she bought was broken. Steph's hands shook as she read over the letter. Maria and Tony were calling orders already to trace it and follow it.

Which was how she ended up in Switzerland again, shivering not due to cold but to the memory of losing her man here. The facilities were almost too easy to break into and she proceeded with caution with Tony and Natasha as backup.

Comments

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

The mission was to do everything and anything possible to get at Captain America. Take her out. There was nothing truly left of him that was worth mentioning. Even if slight bits of memory filtered in here and there. Every time they thought they were going to lose their Winter Soldier, they'd put him under and brain wash him again. Anything to keep him with them and away from the memories that would have him seeking her out. Luckily everything was starting to fall into place. Right where it belonged. Soon she'd come to get their little one back. And soon the Winter Soldier would take care of all of their problems.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

Becky's barely a few months old. Steph pushed the thought away. A few months and seventy years, Tony supplied helpfully. Tony had been a real sweetheart through this entirety. As soon as he saw Becky, he immediately tinkered different robots for her to play with.

Those robots were broken and still sparking when they saw the room.

Steph followed her instincts to run deeper and deeper into the facilities. Becky's safety was the only thing on her mind. She had made Natasha and Tony swear that the child would be taken to safety first before she was.

Meanwhile, Becky woke up and gurgled a bit as she tried to take in her surroundings.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

Fingers of his flesh hand run lightly over the little one's head of hair. "You're going to bring her right to us." Not that he really cared. He hadn't needed a little one just to bring out Captain America. His handlers had insisted and then had thrown him in the room with the little one.

After a few moments he picks the child up staring right into those eyes. However his metal hand grips tight at the gun at his side.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

Becky gurgled more and reached to hold onto the hand that touched her hair with a smile. She let out a squeal of delight when she was picked up and held.

Steph forced her way into the room and her breath caught when she saw someone hold onto the pink bundle. "Put her down, please," she called out. "Don't hurt her! She's just a baby!"

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

The hand that was on his gun gets brought up pointed right at her. "Oh I'm not putting her down, Captain." She'd probably recognize that voice anywhere. Except that it's harder than usual. The little one was going to stay right where she was at. Though he's keeping his eyes on Stephanie. Even if that squeal of delight from the little one almost has him looking toward her.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Bucky," she breathed. No, it couldn't be. "Bucky, no, don't! Please!" This was the famous Winter Soldier? Bucky was...? She always knew he was a good shot. Natasha was on her way. Tony was already almost there. "Just...just give her over to Iron Man or the Black Widow. Please."

It couldn't be Bucky. It couldn't be the same sweet, stupid jerk she married. He wasn't a cold hearted killer. He wouldn't endanger their daughter.

Another squeal of delight and Becky reached up toward Bucky. She recognized Steph's voice and squealed happily, looking around for her mama.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

That gun stays trained on her. "I'm not handing her over to anyone. They come anywhere near here and I'll kill you both." That hardness in his eyes says that he would do it too. "So you better tell them to fall back."

If she thinks back on what Dr. Skoval's boss said... she might put two and two together. Then again the table not too far off behind Bucky with the different contraptions on it might alert them to something too.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Romanov. Stark. Fall back," she said into her comm. "I've got this one." She left no room for argument. Steph pulled back her cowl. It would break her heart. She didn't want to fight Bucky. She didn't want to fight the man she loved.

But if Becky's safety was at stake, she would.

"I don't want to fight you, Bucky. But you should know. Before we start this. That she's yours. I wanted to tell you after dealing with Zola. Just put her down. Let her live if this is between you and me."

She caught the tale with the contraptions on it in her sight. What did they do?

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"Winter Soldier," he corrects. He hasn't gone by James Barnes in a long time. All he was to them was the Winter Soldier. Nothing more and nothing less. That has him raising a brow before laughing, "You expect me to believe that?" There's no proof that she's his.

"I told you. I'm not putting her down."

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Oh so suddenly you don't believe your own wife?" she snapped. There was a slight joke before, off-collar and made by one Tony Stark that the real widow would be Steph. Natasha helpfully put him in a choke hold. "I haven't, would never be with anyone else. It was the night in the barracks. When I busted you out of the HYDRA base."

She'd just been so happy to get a moment alone with him again, just being with him again. "You're James Buchanan Barnes, we got married in April 25th, 1940."

She didnt' want to fight him. She just wanted Becky's safety.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

He scowls slightly at the 'wife' bit. What in the hell was she talking about? It was obvious that there's pieces of his memories missing. Otherwise he'd of recognized her as his wife but he didn't. Doesn't.

"I'm not married," he grounds out. He's still not letting go of Becky though.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"I went in the army with my maiden name so they wouldn't put me far away from you." She took a step toward him, heart in her throat over Becky's safety.

"Bucky, just look at her!" she shouted desperately.

Becky began to whine a bit when she couldn't spot her mama and reached up toward this man.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

The moment she takes a step toward him, he takes a step back. That gun is still trained on her even as he looks down at the little girl in his arms. Those eyes boring into hers.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

Becky just stared up at him, giggling and reaching out toward him. He was the man in the picture mama kept! This was daddy! The girl gurgled.

Steph didn't take another step. "Look in your heart. It's me. Don't you remember me?"

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"You're the one they sent me to kill," he says simply, hand absently rubbing up and down the little girl's back. He may not know his own daughter but the instincts were there. Though if Stephanie kept talking like that something was bound to click.

Slip through the cracks they'd made in his mind.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"No, Bucky," she insisted. "I'm the one you beat up bullies for. That you ran to the hospital for. You were there for me for...everything. When pop never came home. When mom finally..." She felt herself get choked up. "Don't you remember? We didn't have two pennies to rub together but we had each other."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

That metal hand holding the gun clenches and she'd finally see it, hear it as it almost sounded like it would squeeze the gun in half. Metal against metal. "I don't know what you're talking about." But so much of it sounded familiar...

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"Look at me, Bucky."

When she was certain he was looking at her again, Steph pushed back the cowl, letting the blonde curls free and settle around her shoulders.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

Those eyes... that face... No, this was some kind of trick. They were trying to mess with his head. Trying to rip things away again. Trying to put things there that didn't belong. He doesn't say a word though and has no intention to. Not yet.

For now he's just drinking her in.

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"It's me, Bucky." She had actual tears in her eyes, almost not believing this. "It's me. Come home. Come home with me and Becky."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"My home is here,' he grounds out. Though he shakes his head taking another step back. Like he was afraid she was going to come close. "What is it you think you're trying to accomplish?"

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"I'm trying to get a stubborn jerk to come home. So we can have a proper homecoming that's seventy years overdue. And so Becky could know her dad," Steph replied.

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"Watch yourself, Cap," he grounds out, eyes narrowed and that gun still pointing at her. Though her words... seventy years... What? "What're you talking about?"

[msrogers.livejournal.com]

"It's 2012, Bucky." Her voice is quiet. "Seventy hears passed by us."

[shieldsnotmine.livejournal.com]

"Stop calling me that," he grounds out. It's not a name they've been calling him. That's a name that died when he died.