1-Meredith
Of three things Meredith Margaret Barnes-Rogers is sure of. One. It’s Saturday and Saturday means muffins. Two. Papa Steve and Daddy Bucky are both out which leads to three. Grace is the only one who can help her.
Meredith is six. She’s not stupid. Papa Steve is down at the coffee shop getting a morning coffee while Daddy Bucky is out on his morning run. Then there’ll meet there and have coffee. It’s what they do and it gives Meredith and Grace enough time to have a lie in on at least one day of the weekend. But Meredith is up now and more to the point she wants hot chocolate now!
Daddy Bucky hates modern day technology and JARVIS usually programs everything on their floor to work exactly the way he wants it to but for some reason JARVIS isn’t working. So Meredith pads along in her grey pyjamas with white stars her brown hair loose to her shoulders down the corridor of the floor of the Stark Tower that they live in to Grace’s room.
Grace is fourteen now and still asleep in her pale blue room. She buried under her mountain of silver colours and Meredith shivers because it’s still December, early December but the world is heading into Christmas and the floor is cold.
“Gracie” she hisses and the blonde hair beneath the covers shifts. Meredith moves so she’s under the covers pushing aside Grace slightly whose blue eyes open up in annoyance to glare into Meredith’s brown ones.
“What do you want” she checks the clock on the side of the bed and then groans. “At half seven in the morning squirt?” she eyes Meredith with an increasing dislike as she sits up and watches her.
Meredith shakes her head. “Hot chocolate” she says grinning.
Grace shakes her head. “Ask JARVIS” she says irritably.
Meredith shakes her head again. “He’s not working” she says poking Grace again.
“JARVIS?” Grace asks sitting up when she gets no reply. “Uncle Tony’s not due back for a couple of days” she says shaking her head. “He’s up in DC trying to secure Government funding to find Crossbones” she rolls her eyes.
“Ok kiddo, I’ll heat you up the milk” she says. “God I hope that Dad allows JARVIS to let you go near the stove when he gets back…I really need to get more sleep”
She shakes her head and climbs out. She’s sleeping in her loose blue flannel pants and a blue jumper. Papa Steve says Grace feels the cold a lot more than Meredith does whatever that means. She winces as her bare feet hit the cold stone.
“JARVIS is getting old” she mutters.
Meredith follows her sister into the kitchen her own feet slipping in her socks. They reach the kitchen behind the counter away from the windows and that’s when it happens.
There’s an almighty crash as the windows shatter blowing glass inwards. Grace grabs Meredith knocking the pan to the floor and drags her backwards before her hand reaches up to the counter grabbing the end of a knife.
“Move” she says shoving Meredith forwards but she slips again falling and banging her knee as they make it to the stairs.
JARVIS runs the elevators that Meredith knows and the panic room is back down the other end of the hallway where some sort of metal thing is coming through the window. Grace grabs her and throws her down the stairs dragging her behind until they reach the one of the many fire escapes and then there in the fresh cold air and bright morning.
“Come on Meredith” Grace says gently pulling her down the last few flights her hand almost breaking her arm but Meredith is too scared to complain. The six year old in her was scared stiff but Grace seemed to have some sort of a plan and Meredith thought it best to keep her mouth shut.
They were ten floors away from the bottom and the banging and clanging from their floor of the tower was getting lower and lower. “Shit” Grace said looking upwards.
But before Meredith could even say ‘Bad Word’ Grace had picked her up hooking her one her hip like he used to do when she was little. Meredith despite all her bravado suddenly grips on tight and buries her head into Grace’s long blonde hair.
“Ok” Grace says moving so she’s now one leg over the balcony. “Ok Mer, hold on for me ok” and then, just as another almighty explosion rocks the tower Grace throws her other leg off the ledge and throws them down the last ten flights of stairs.
Grace
They land on cold solid pavement separating briefly. Meredith falls but judging a combination of factors such as the way Grace Feels and the fact that Meredith got back up instantly Grace knows she took the brunt of it.
“Gracie” Meredith hisses through the dust and Grace forces herself to listen to her sister’s plea as she forces herself to get to her feet. She doesn’t know what the hell is happening or if she can find Papa or Dad in this mess but she knows the plan.
The plan involves a safe house that only the four of them know about and a routine that both Grace and Meredith know backwards. And she is damn well gonna follow it.
She stands up and then swears all the bad words she learned from Uncle Peter and Auntie Natasha. Her ankle is broken and boy is it letting her know. She looks down to see her knee is covered in blood. She picks up the discarded knife from the kitchen and forces herself to breathe through her nose.
She’s fourteen and Meredith is six. Only one of them should have to brave here and it shouldn’t be Meredith.
“Come kiddo” she says holding out her hand and Meredith with tears in her eyes grips it tight. “My knees a bit hurt so were gonna have to take it a bit slower ok, just don’t let go of my hand”
She limps out the alley knife tucked into her pant pocket and gets all the way down the street, past the people running away the pavement cutting into her feet before she turns around.
She has to look away at once least Meredith see.
Their floor at the tower is completely gone, what looks like drones are firing all over the place and Grace can only hope that Uncle Tony made the tower stronger than it looks because otherwise New York is in a heap of shit. Mentally she runs through the people with enough power to do this. Only one springs to mind.
Crossbones.
Shit.
She forces herself to move down the street past the people and into another street, forces herself to drag her sister on her beat up leg until they find a Walmart. Thankfully everyone is crowed round the TV screens or running away including the staff.
“Sit down a sec Meredith while I get us some stuff” she says in what she hopes is a gentle voice but honestly she’s not sure.
She turns to find boots mind racing furiously.
Crossbones is the only one capable of doing this Dad said so once to Auntie Natasha and Grace knows that he and her Papa have a death feud going. Factor in the fact that JARVIS wasn’t working this morning to warn them and you have a winning trifecta.
But…Rumlow didn’t know that Papa and Dad wouldn’t be in the tower. Or if he did then that means that…holy shit Grace and Meredith were the intended targets.
She reaches for boots methodically. Next she reaches for the closest thing she can find to clear alcohol because he knee is bleeding steadily and she needs to stich it up.
Other than herself and Meredith nobody was in the upper floors of the tower. Auntie Natasha, Uncle Bruce and Riley are in London on some sort of vacation/mission thing. Uncle Sam and Uncle Rhodey were away celebrating their anniversary. Auntie Wanda was in Wakanda with Vision. Uncle Tony in DC. Peter and Miles were staying at Peter’s Aunt May’s house, Uncle Thor was back on Asgard and Uncle Scott had took Cassie to LA for the weekend to celebrate her birthday last week. There was no Avenger left in the place to blow up. There had just been the four of them.
Or well…the two of them.
She finishes getting her supplies grabbing a bag of Meredith’s favour chocolate buttons before passing her the boots. “Put them on kiddo” she says smiling through her teeth. “And then were gonna head to the safe house”
“Pops and Dad meet us there?” Meredith says slurring her words together now her adrenaline is wearing down and Grace nods. “That’s the plan” she says with a false smile.
Actually she doesn’t know because they’ve never been a situation where they’ve had to use the safe house before but she figures that Papa and Dad will stick to the plan.
Then she remembers the ‘Grenade Story’
Shit.
“Come on” she says holding out her hand. Getting her boots on had been torture over her knee but she figures the pressure should help with the bleeding. “Let’s go find a car and get going” the house is walkable but Grace honestly doesn’t think she’ll make it that far and the least attention they draw to themselves the better.
Thankfully there is an abandoned car right in the lot and Grace thanks god that Uncle Scott is an Avenger that wants to be cool because Grace roughly knows how to hotwire a car thanks to him and a combination of Peter, Miles and Uncle Tony knows how to drive one.
Somehow in this instance she might just get away with it.
Meredith hopes in the front seat and Grace has to swallow back bile as her foot touches the gas pedal.
Then she says a quick prayer, hopes this is the right thing and puts her foot down.
The house is in darkness when she gets to it. It’s a three hour drive but mostly the traffic is deserted. It’s near the border and Grace flattens it until she gets there. It’s an old house that once belonged to Howard Stark but it’s so small that Uncle Tony had let it go to rack and ruin before her Papa had stepped in and turned it into a safe house. It’s one of many spanning the country but this is the only that is specifically designed for them. Each Avenger has their own and nobody knows the specific location but that Avenger.
The house is small, two up two down and to all around it looks ordinary but it has a reinforced steal door and JARVIS should be activated but Grace knows from using her fingerprint that he isn’t.
The door opens and the house is plunged in darkness and as the door shuts it’s just Grace and Meredith.
“Ok” she says reaching for the flashlight she bought.
“Let’s find some candles” and because to hell with it… “Were gonna pull down one of the mattress of the beds and have a sleepover tonight, let’s make a blanket fort huh?” Meredith nods her face even in the darkness lighting up with something normal.
She bits her bottom lip as Meredith pads of to get the candles. Once there is light she forces her now numb leg to help with the mattress and blankets.
“Gracie” Meredith says now calmed down somewhat by the flickering candles. “Papa and Daddy are gonna come for us aren’t they?”
“Course they are” she says forcing another smile on her face. “Why wouldn’t they”
Meredith falls into an uneasy sleep after that a combination of the day, the shock, the adrenaline and the fact that their in a dark room lulling her to sleep.
God to be six.
Only one her sister is asleep does Grace stand up limp to the kitchen pull her hair back and is quietly sick in the sink. Thankfully they have water. Not hot but water and she sets the tap running while she kicks of her boots sits at the table and rolls up her pant leg.
Her ankle is defiantly swollen, it’s either a break or a very bad dislocation. The gash from her leg is bleeding pretty heavily. Thanking the Gods above for a her miniature bottle of vodka’s she picked up she loads up the needle and thread like Auntie Natasha once showed her to do and biting her lip painstakingly cleans, stiches and bandages up her cut leg. From knee to lower calf she’s bandaged.
There’s not much she can do about her clothes so instead she reaches under the counter finds Dad’s emergency gun, loads it, prays she doesn’t have to shoot it, sits on the edge of the mattress and listens for the door opening.
And she does that for the next three hours.
Steve
He’s not even at the coffee shop when he hears the first explosion. He hears whispers of someone shooting at the Stark Tower and he’s gone in a second.
Running away from a fight has never been in Steve Barnes-Rogers nature but when he gets to the tower and see’s the smoke from his floor, from his home, and all of Rumlow’s drones floating round it all emblazoned with the HYDRA logo he realises that he is hopelessly un-gunned, unmanned and unprepared. Granted he’s been that before but still…
He has to turn on his heal and walk away because if he goes looking through the rubble trying to find the bodies of his two little girls then he’s going to give Rumlow all the excuse he needs to kill him.
Grace knew about the house, she knew about the plan, she’s so fucking smart and brilliant and she loves her sister and Steve has to cling onto that with all he fucking has because if he doesn’t…if his babies are buried under that rubble dead then…
He forces the vomit out of his throat down the sidewalk and carries on.
It takes him a while to realise that his phone is ringing. It’s Bucky.
“Stevie?” he asks and God he sounds so frightened and Steve knows that Bucky’s seen the smoke rising from the tower.
“Crossbones” he answers shortly. “The whole floor is gone”
“You have the kids?” Bucky says even as Steve’s heart breaks further because Bucky sounds so terrified. “You have our girls? Stevie please tell me you have our girls”
“No” Steve whispers breathe hitching. “But Buck they could have got out, there’s no…” he physically has to swallow. “There’s no bodies been confirmed yet”
“The house” Bucky cries coming to the same conclusion that Steve did with hope filled fingers. Because this…this…cannot be how the story ends for them. Steve won’t let it.
Please he begs, please don’t let me lose my girls.
“Grace…she knows Buck we told her…” it’s not a great conclusion the most obvious one is that Grace wasn’t even out of bed yet but…
“Line isn’t secure” Bucky hisses. “Ditch it and I’ll meet you there. Steve…” he says as an afterthought and Steve squeezes his eyes shut. There is too much to be said and not enough time to say it.
“I know” Steve says back because he does know…because this is Bucky Barnes and he is Steve Rogers and he knows of course he knows.
“End of the line” Bucky grits out and then hangs up. Steve nods swallows, throws the phone away and then forces himself not to think of either Grace or Meredith.
God he thinks as he makes it to the nearest car. Please let them be alive.
He arrives at the house his face wet, his hands shaking and his throat closed up because if his girls are not in that house, if they’re not safe then…
He forces himself to make it up the path, opens the door and slips inside it.
The entire house is dark, it’s not locked. JARVIS isn’t here, it hasn’t been activated.
And that means….
No…No…No…NO…NO…NO.NO.NO
Then there’s a clicking sound he whirls around out of his self-despair and there standing (more like leaning) against the living room door is Grace.
She’s white as chalk and the hand on her gun is trembling but her eyes widen when she takes him in and Steve cannot stop himself drinking her in because she’s here alive and real and where is?...
“Papa” says a voice behind Grace and there is Meredith. She’s covered in dirt and sleep rumbled but alive and Steve cannot stop the sobs raising out of his throat because for four of the longest hours of his fucking life he had honestly thought that…
He holds out his arms honestly not trusting himself and Meredith skips around Grace and throws herself into them. Steve picks her up around the middle and lifts her into his arms burying his face in the brown hair. It smells of smoke but he can still smell Meredith’s strawberry shampoo and he has to squeeze his eyes shut. He gestures Grace Forwards and she places the gun carefully on the side and comes closer until Steve’s pressing a kiss into her blonde hair.
Thank you God for giving him back his girls.
“What happened?” he asks pulling back. Grace shrugs. “I was making hot chocolate when I realised JARVIS was offline” that explains the lack of lights Steve thinks grimly. “Then there was a crash, I managed to get Meredith down the stairs then we kept running and then we…err…jumped…”
“Jumped” Steve repeats dimly still with Meredith on his hip. “How far did you jump?”
“Ten floors” Meredith says into his neck.
“Ten floors” Steve shouts in shock. He shakes his head. “Are either one of you hurt?” he shouts kicking himself for not checking.
“Grace is” Meredith whispers.
“I’m fine” Grace says her voice wavering slightly. Steve looks down and holy shit that is a lot of blood on her leg.
“I broke or dislocated my ankle and I cut my leg” she fills him in as his eyes widen. “But I’m fine I bandaged it and stitched it up” she shakes her head wincing.
“Hurts though” she says finally. “I didn’t wanna take anything in case” she gestures. “Where’s Dad?”
“On his way” Steve says allowing Grace to learn her weight against him as they make their way back into the living room. He smiles against all odds as he sees the mattress and blankets on the floor.
Grace seems to sag against him as they all collapse on the mattress.
Grace only winces a second as Steve assess the damage. Her ankle is defiantly dislocated and Steve think’s he should wait for Bucky to do it while he holds Grace down but her stiches are neat so he wraps up her leg again Meredith acting as his little nurse.
He pulls Meredith under the covers next to Grace whose exhaustion is beginning to creep up with her and allows himself a second to breath. He picks up Grace’s discarded gun, Bucky’s discarded gun and prays for the first time in a long time.
He can handle anything so long as he has Bucky and his children with him.
Bucky
Bucky makes to the house last. Well he hopes its last. By this point he has a disposable cell. Tony and Pepper are in the air right now and Rhodey and Sam are meeting them on the way. Natasha is in London but she tells Bucky she’s keeping Riley out of the country with Bruce and Bucky knows she’s thinking of Thad Ross and the events prior the Civil War. Peter and Miles are safe and Bucky had told them in no uncertain terms to stay where they were until Tony and Sam picked them up. Murdoch and Cage have their own children to concern themselves with and are far to level headed to jump into a fight unsure (or Jessica and Foggy are anyway) and Wanda and Vision are on their way back stopping in LA to pick up Scott.
So help Rumlow if there is so much of a scratch on either one of his daughter’s head…
Bucky won’t give up hope yet.
He cannot give up hope yet.
He opens the door expecting lights but instead he gets darkness.
He swallows.
Fate at some point has to throw Bucky a spare bone.
Please let this be one of them.
Steve is there in the hallway white as a ghost but alive and then he smiles and nods and a cry wrenches out of Bucky’s throat because Steve is telling him his girls are here that despite all the odds they survived that Bucky hasn’t lost this one.
There’s a padding of feet and then Meredith is there.
“Daddy” she cries happily and Bucky sinks to his knees as she runs into his arms and he’s rocking back and forth because fate has decided to be kind to him and Bucky will never take this for granted again.
“Dad” says a voice from the doorway. It’s Grace. She’s white and Bucky can tell by the way she’s limping that something’s wrong but she crawls over to him and cuddles onto his lap and Bucky knows he’s switched to Russian but he cannot help but be thankful in words that he will never be able to express.
Steve comes forwards then as well still standing and Bucky curls his head against the flat planes of Steve’s stomach. Steve’s hands find his hair and Bucky screws up his eyes because how the hell they all survived this he will never know but he will never stop being grateful. After a second he pulls back eyeing Grace critically.
“Your hurt” he says softly and she nods her eyes welling with tears and Steve bends and carries her in one swift motion to the living room where she settles on his lap her ankle pointing one way. Bucky knows dislocation when he sees it and moves his hands to her ankle.
“Cover your ears Meredith sweetheart” Steve says gently and they wait till Meredith has done so before Bucky snaps Grace’s ankle back in place.
The resounding scream is going to haunt him for a long time and the same can be said for Steve if the look on his face is anything to go by.
Grace is crying in earnest now and Steve, wonderful Steve shushes her. “You did so good Gracie girl” he says rocking her back and forth. “You did so good, better than I ever expected off you. We are so proud of you”
Bucky nods his eyes wet as they catch Steve’s. He pulls Meredith onto the bed tucks the blankets around them and waits until Grace’s shivering stops instead turning to sleep cuddled next to a dozing Meredith.
He looks down at his girls, at his beautiful and real girls, alive and whole and asleep. Steve’s hand cups his face and Bucky leans into it turning so he can brush his lips against it.
There is too much that to be said. There is a monster to defeat, a team to get together, a home to rebuild and a new morning on the horizon but in this instance Bucky has his whole word on a mattress. Steve’s hands find his hair. His hands find Steve’s shoulders and the skin to skin contact calms him down.
Right now they are safe, right now they are together, and right now Bucky knows that for a few minutes, for a few hours he and Steve can breathe again.