SAM

“McKay is on the move,” I called down the line, flying through gunfire while scanning readouts on my wrist. “Yelena-”

“I’ve got it.” She was already two states over, so her positioning was optimal for chasing after our rogue target.

“Stay in contact. He could be after Buck and Indy or he could be leading you on a wild goose chase.”

“What about me?” Kate asked, sounding wound up. She was on her way back from a scouting mission that turned out to be a bust, and was clearly impatient to get back now that our main Hydra suspect was finally active and John and I had flushed out a full cohort of Hydra operatives near Fort Wayne, Indiana. The task force had accompanied us, but it was still proving to be a pretty evenly-matched battle.

“Kate, you head back to the compound, wait for the rest of us, and be prepared for anything. Security is already doubling up, but be careful.”

“Will do.”

Bullets ricocheted off my wings as I spun through the trees, swooping into the midst of the battle and landing with my back to John’s.

“About time,” he grunted, ducking the butt of a rifle and dropping the guy who’d attacked with one punch to the face.

“Shut up,” I groaned, buffeting back a wave of approaching attackers with a forceful flap of wings. Then I dove forward, coming up from my dive on one knee and swiveling to elbow the knee of a man with his gun trained on John.

BUCKY

“What do you want?” I growled through my teeth, metal fingers whirring spasmodically.

McKay’s eyes danced with amusement, but he lowered the knife from Indy’s throat. Her shoulders relaxed, but just barely.

“What I wanted is something you can probably empathize with. Revenge.” He looked down at Indy with gleeful ire, stepping around her to stand between us.

“You want to kill her because she lied to you?” I asked slowly, keeping my eyes on his and trying to ignore the gunmen behind me.

His lips twitched. “No. I don’t want to kill her.”

He turned and kneeled in front of Indy. I started to take a step forward, but the gun barrels behind me shifted with each inch I did, so I clenched my jaw and stayed where I was.

“Maybe you’d like to see what they did to me once they realized I’d let you find their oh-so-sensitive information.” His voice was calm, but seemed to mask something a little more unpredictable underneath. He lifted a hand, undid the top few buttons of his shirt and folded the collar down.

Indy’s eyes grew wide and round when she saw the raw, red brand on his upper chest in the shape of Hydra’s seal.

“I should thank you,” he continued, not bothering to re-do his shirt as he stood, dragging his knife’s edge along the top of Indy’s thigh, cutting through the denim of her jeans and drawing a thick red line and a quiet whimper from her.

Every muscle in my body flexed. I felt like a predator ready to pounce. The only problem was how outnumbered we were. If it was only me and these three, I could have taken them out without worry. But Indy was here. Breakable and perpetually caught-in-the-crossfire Indy. I had no open course of action yet that didn’t result in her getting hurt. I had to wait. But waiting too long could risk losing our chance. Frustration built like an ache within me.

“Without you, I never would have realized what I had my hands in.” McKay stalked around her chair, sharp face haughty and smug. “Now I have more social power than I could have known to ask for.”

His dark eyes left her finally and rose to me.

“I was just supposed to bring the two of you in. You-” he gestured to me, “Mr. Winter Soldier, for obvious reasons. And her for her helpful little discoveries. But she had a nice third surprise waiting for us all. Now, thanks to you two, I’ll be moving up the ranks much more quickly. On top of those minerals, I think we all know how desperate Hydra is to replicate the results of that volatile serum.”

Shock. Panic. Fear. Anger. That goddamn serum, again. But what would Indy have to do with super soldier serum? She was smart, but she was no biochemist.

Why didn’t I arm myself before I started looking for her?

I kept weapons stashed all over the cabin. Except in the shop, naturally. If only I’d grabbed a gun before I’d run in headfirst. They probably would have made me drop it, but… well, bare hands felt a hell of a lot more limiting than a gun at a safe distance. Unfortunately, panic had forced me to act without thinking.

“How?” I asked.

Indy tried to yell something at me, but the gag in her mouth made it all incomprehensible. McKay slapped her hard with the back of his hand and an inhuman noise rumbled from me, causing gunmetal to clink threateningly behind me.

“How?”

Indy, head hanging low with a welt rising on her cheek, lifted her eyes to mine again and shook her head, that same sad look in her eye.

“You haven’t told him? Oh, well, I’m sorry to ruin your announcement, sweetheart,” he chuckled, tilting his head at Indy. “But don’t you think he might have guessed by now? Surely you’ve been acting differently?”

“What are you talking about?” I snapped.

“She’s pregnant,” he said casually, shrugging like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me.

My ears were ringing, the room spinning, my heart exploding. Indy’s shoulders sagged, moving like she was crying, though her face was angled downward. How could he know that? How had this happened?

Keep it all off your face. Deal with it later. You’re both in danger.

McKay leaned over her shoulder, wrapping an arm around her waist and settling his hand against her belly. I’d never wanted to rip someone’s arms off so badly. “And this baby will be the gateway to Hydra’s newest regiment of super soldiers.”

“You say that like you think it’s mine,” I forced myself to deadpan.

I watched, wound taught as a bow string, as the blade of his knife dipped below the collar of her shirt, hooked into the chain around her neck, and lifted my dog tags so he could inspect them.

“‘James B. Barnes’,” he read aloud, perching his chin on Indy’s shoulder. He looked back at me with a sinister light in his eyes. “Seems like it’s yours.”

“How do you even know she’s pregnant?” I tossed out, hoping I might be able to think up some way to get us both out of this situation without dying if I kept him talking long enough.

He chuckled, straightening and looking down at Indy with a saccharine smile, like she was adorable to him. “We got lucky we found out when we did; we could’ve done irreversible damage. Not that the mere idea isn’t worth a fortune on its own. But she was very conveniently waiting for you when we showed up. Had the tests all ready for you to see. All five of them.”

Five? That’s no fluke.

My throat constricted.

“I understand the serum had a lot of… complications when administered to just anybody,” he droned on, unaware of the numb existential crisis I was spiraling through on the inside. “But natural soldiers? Super soldiers who could be trained from birth rather than tortured and correctively conditioned into submission... No more runaway assets. No more unforeseen results. Just genetically enhanced people born to serve.”

Indy’s eyes, still dripping tears, glared fiercely at his back.

“That’s not happening.” I was glad my voice sounded steady. I was still reeling, trying to hold onto reality because it felt like I was slipping into something else. Some dream fused with a nightmare.

“You don’t have much of a choice,” McKay said irritably, nodding to the men behind me. I heard them each take a step forward, guns raised at the back of my head. “You could probably take both of them down no problem. Maybe even the men we’ve got outside surrounding the place.”

How distracted was I, coming back in from work?

He bent and used the knife to cut through the ropes holding Indy down, dragging her roughly to her feet by the elbow.

“But I’ve got her. So you’ll do whatever the hell I say.”

If there was a time to get us out of here, this was it. But they had the upper hand. And I wouldn’t risk Indy’s life. So I went against every instinct I had and let the fight drain out of me. At least, visibly.

“Good choice,” McKay grinned, dragging Indy behind him as he walked past me toward the door to the cabin.

I looked Indy in the eye, trying to telegraph all the things I couldn’t say. That I loved her. That everything was going to be okay. That these men wouldn’t live past tonight for getting it into their heads to hurt her. She looked terrified, skin once again littered with welts and bruises.

A sharp prod in my back from one of the guns behind me urged me after them. “Get moving.”

I followed a step behind McKay and Indy, staring between the two of them and oscillating between hatred and… some weird, confused happiness that toed the line of absolute terror.

Indy was pregnant. With my baby. And Hydra wants it. Wants us. All of us.

Jesus, what a family.

If it wasn’t for the situation we were in, I might have laughed. Indy’s habit of joking in the face of serious issues was rubbing off on me.

As we approached the front door I had just come in through, I felt a small surge of optimism. He’d claimed to have the cabin surrounded, but if the five of us bottlenecked in the entryway at just the right angle-

“What the f-” McKay jerked Indy to a stop just in the doorway, staring out over the dark driveway, illuminated by the porch light.

Over his shoulder, I could see a few bodies on the gravel drive, limbs splayed and weapons tossed aside. Unconscious. Probably.

He backed up a step, slamming the door closed again and swinging around to face me, mouth open like he was ready to somehow blame me for the unexpected elimination of his little army. He stopped when he looked over my shoulder and a familiar blond head bobbed past me, two dull thuds echoing through the ground behind me as my guards fell.

Yelena had a knife in each hand and was bringing her arm up to swing at him when he yanked Indy to him, holding up a phone with a big red light fading in and out on the screen. Yelena jerked to a halt.

“He signaled them,” she hissed, lowering her arm slowly.

“Of course he did,” I groaned, glaring at him.

He smiled serenely, secure in the knowledge that backup was on its way.

I glanced sideways at Yelena, wishing the reunion had been under better circumstances. “Good to see you. I don’t suppose you brought anyone else with you.”

“Unfortunately, no,” she intoned, still half-glaring at McKay.

The two of us stood tensely, Yelena’s knuckles white around her knives. McKay stared at us smugly, Indy standing as his convenient buffer between us. We were all just… waiting.

INDY

I breathed sharply in and out through my nose, trying to maintain whatever grasp I had on calm. I didn’t need to feel its press to know the blade beneath my chin was sharp. My thigh still stung, a thin trickle of blood absorbing into my pant leg. But whatever pain I felt came second to alarm.

Not only had Hydra caught up with us, but they had shown up at precisely the worst time.

I’d been feeling strange lately. My emotions were unpredictable and fickle. My appetite seemed to vanish at the slightest suggestion and reappear at odd times (like the middle of the night). Which was when I started doing the math.

My period was never super reliable, but it was definitely late. So I bought a handful of pregnancy tests and hauled them back to the cabin while Bucky was at work. I took a test a day for nearly a week, trying to be extra sure. I didn’t have a lot of hope for a false positive when it nearly immediately materialized in the first little stick’s window. And each subsequent test produced the same result.

I think I was in some form of denial. I refused to think about it while Bucky was around, in case he saw it on my face and jumped to this very specific conclusion. We hadn’t ever talked about kids. Hell, it seemed like we’d just finally gotten together. It had only been a few months. I couldn’t verbalize my feelings. I had no idea how Bucky felt about children. There were so many normal reasons this was horrible news, a bad idea.

And then there were all the abnormal reasons. Hydra. Bucky’s altered genetics. Our very high-risk jobs.

But I couldn’t fight a part of me that felt almost unnatural. The part that wanted this. Something half him and half me. A physical manifestation of the love I hadn’t been able to speak. I stayed far away from those obnoxiously loud thoughts. The ones that made my chest feel warm and my cheeks start to lift. Because if Bucky didn’t want this… that was that.

I’d told him from the start that I wouldn’t force him into anything. That included parenthood. I didn’t know what my options were. Would he want me to keep it, even if he wasn’t in the picture? Would he prefer that any extension of himself never come to be? My own ignorance of those answers was exactly why I hadn’t been able to bring it up yet. Why I’d had to force myself to ambush him after work tonight.

And now, I still couldn’t tell what was going on behind the stoic mask he wore. The widening of his blue eyes when he’d heard the news had been almost imperceptible. Maybe no one but me had seen it. But whether it was happiness, confusion, or anger that he covered again immediately, I couldn’t tell.

I just wanted to be able to speak to him. I wanted this gag out and I wanted McKay to feel the full force of a super soldier’s wrath. I wanted to run into Bucky’s arms and tell him everything. From the beginning. Tears formed in my eyes as I realized…

I might never get to tell him I love him.

Yelena’s arrival was as much a surprise to Bucky and I as it was to McKay, and helped us gain the upper hand. The downside was the incoming hostiles McKay had alerted, and the knife he held to my throat. Now we were wedged in the cabin’s entryway in a Mexican standoff. If Bucky or Yelena made a move to attack, McKay would have my throat slit before they even touched him. If he jumped the gun and hurt me… the two of them would be on him like dogs on steak. Time was running out. How far away had McKay’s backup been when they got the signal? How much time had elapsed since? Did we have enough time left to wiggle our way out of this situation?

Despite his cock-sure attitude, I could feel tension though McKay’s body behind me. I would bet he was having a hard time keeping his eyes on both Bucky and Yelena at the same time. The two of them seem to register the thought at the same time as me. Like a couple of pack animals, their eyes sharpened dangerously.

Without looking, Yelena unhooked a third knife from her belt and tossed it sideways. Bucky caught it and the two of them took slow steps to the sides, fanning out so that McKay’s head was forced to swivel harshly between them.

“Stop,” he barked. His voice wavered, but he held me more firmly against his chest, pushing the blade closer to my throat. “Stay where you are or I kill her.”

The two of them stilled, but the damage had been done. They were spaced too far apart now for him to easily keep an eye on them both at the same time. He knew it. I felt his palm on my arm become clammy.

“You know this won’t end well for you,” Bucky spoke slowly.

“I don’t know if I should laugh or feel sorry for you,” McKay snarled back. “I’ve got more men on their way now. The two of you might be able to get yourselves away. But these two are coming with me no matter how this ends.”

Yelena’s face was characteristically unfeeling, emotions locked down. But I saw the curious pulse of confusion in her eyes as they darted down to me and back to McKay. Probably wondering how such a privileged dude wound up unable to count to one.

“If you put the knife down,” Yelena started in a low, soothing voice. “We can help you. Hydra has their hooks in you. We’re pretty good at getting them out.”

His eyes flashed to Bucky for a minute, clearly disbelieving. But Yelena drew his attention back to her, promising him leniency if he gave up the fight. He was distracted, that much I could tell by the half-assed strength in his hand on my arm now.

I met Bucky’s eyes urgently, cutting them sideways at McKay. Hopefully he got the message.

If he was allowed to leave this building, news of the baby would be out. Even ignoring the fact that that info leak would set a tail on me for nine months and the baby for life, it would plant ideas in Hydra’s head. Not that they hadn’t already pulled out all the stops over the years to try and get Bucky back, but this would really light a fire under their ass.

If they weren’t previously aware of Bucky’s ability to procreate following the serum and all the extended rounds of cryo, my five pregnancy tests would certainly illuminate things for them. He could be dragged back in and used as a stud to breed a whole generation of those “natural soldiers” McKay mentioned. The thought made me feel physically sick.

Bucky seemed to be thinking the same thing. He met my eyes, nodded with a firm jaw, and used McKay’s distraction to throw his knife, blade over handle, into his jugular with fearsome precision. I was ready for it. McKay, confused and struggling with his grasp, seemed to realize he’d been attacked. He tried to slide his blade into the skin of my neck, but as soon as Bucky had thrown, I’d lifted my still-tied hands and slipped them between his arm and my shoulders. The awkward position gave me the leverage I needed to push back against his hand.

Yelena, shocked at the sudden movement, but never caught off-guard, vaulted forward to yank the knife from the dying man’s fingers. Bucky was right behind her, carefully pulling me in by the shoulders until he could wrap his arms tightly around me, breathing heavily.

“I’m never leaving you alone again,” he breathed to himself, kissing my hair, my forehead, squeezing me like he could absorb me into his heart. I slipped the gag down my chin and leaned into him, wishing that whole absorption thing could really happen.

McKay spluttered liquidly, and I turned to see he’d fallen to the floor, Yelena bending to retrieve his phone, still blinking red. She raised her eyebrows at the close embrace Bucky and I were in, but didn’t mention it, opting instead to pass me the phone.

“The two of you don’t have long,” she said. “Sam sent me. We knew McKay had found you. Apparently, he had contacts down here. Fury sent orders for you to find a new hideout. We’re closing in on our mole. But it’s not safe yet. Pack your things. Leave discretely. Don’t tell me where you’re going. Just pick somewhere you can keep an ear to the ground.”

She started to turn away from us, but spun back around and gave us both an awkward smile. “I’m glad you’re both safe.”

Her down-turned smile sent a pang of homesickness through me. I rushed forward, out from under Bucky’s arm, and hugged her, unsurprised when it took a minute for her to return it fully. When we pulled away, she held a hand out to Bucky. He grinned and took her hand in his, the two of them leaning in to touch shoulders in the closest thing I’d ever seen to a hug between them.

“Take care of each other,” she said quietly before she slipped out of the cabin door and into the darkness.

Then it was just me, Bucky, and a small army of dead assailants.