SAM

I stood in the kitchen, staring down at the messages on my unlocked phone.

Me: New lead on the mole. How soon can you be here?

John: On the way now.

Kate and Yelena were already waiting in the office. We were hopeful that, by the end of the week, Indy would occupy it again. Our team wouldn’t quite be the same anymore, but we would all be together. Er, most of us. I paced agitatedly around the kitchen, mulling over what Kate had uncovered only two days previously. The conversation she’d overheard-

“Hey,” John greeted me with a nod, stepping off the elevator with brisk intent. “You said there’s news?”

I gave him a short nod in return and waved over my shoulder for him to follow me into the office. Yelena lounged, cool as a cucumber, in one of the armchairs in front of the desk (a little less comfortable than the ones Indy had had the place furnished with previous to the attack). Kate stood tensely by the bookshelves, looking out through the new, wide windows that offered a pretty view of the wooded areas that obscured the compound. Her arms were wound tightly around her body, holding her elbows to herself. A direct contrast to Yelena’s nearly bored investigation of the cheap tacks that held the cheap fabric to her cheaply constructed chair.

“John made it,” I announced calmly as we entered the room. I took my assumed seat at the desk and John settled down into the other armchair, cringing slightly at the pained-sounding squeak it gave. Kate turned with a deep frown, not meeting anyone’s eye as urgency settled across the room.

“Before we start,” I said, scanning the three sets of eyes around me. “Do any of you have anything new to share?”

Yelena cut her eyes sideways at John. John glanced at Kate. Kate scowled and turned her face away.

The slight prickle on the back of my neck was all the warning I got of the rapidly thickening tension in the room. “Kate,” I shouted quickly. “Door!”

It all took place in the space of a single deep breath. Kate shot across the room to lock the door, standing firmly in front of it. John leaped from his seat to attempt to stop her. Yelena jumped onto John’s back, yanking his arms behind him. He probably could have thrown her, given a few minutes. But I already had a gun in hand and aimed at his chest.

The lock on the door clicked into place as everyone in the room stilled, the silenced filled with heavy breaths and loaded glares. John’s eyes fell on the gun turned on him and stopped jerking in Yelena’s grasp. She didn’t release him.

“Why’d you do it, John?” I asked in a low voice, gun unwavering. “To your teammates. Your friends.”

He scoffed, lips pulling up in a sneer. “Friends? You people barely tolerate having me on the team! When was the last time I was invited to one of your little ‘hangouts’? Not till Bucky and Indy went on the run, right?”

Muted guilt barely touched the surface of my anger. “Bucky, I could understand you targeting. But Indy? Why?”

His sneer became a smile that made me entirely uncomfortable. “She knows more about all of us than probably anyone but Fury. That’s reason enough not to trust her. I’ve got no issues with her personally. But she went digging where she shouldn’t and got the interest of people way above my questioning.”

I felt Kate and Yelena’s curious gazes on my face, but I didn’t know anymore than they did. What had Indy gotten into?

“Like I said,” John continued conversationally. “Nothing personal. Bucky, on the other hand…”

“How long?” Yelena barked into his ear.

He chuckled darkly. “Long enough.”

Kate pulled her phone from her suit’s pocket and said, “Fury’s on his way up.”

John’s jaw stood out in relief as he scowled at her. Then his eyes swiveled to me, over my shoulder. And he smiled.

The room erupted into motion once more. Yelena struggled to maintain her grip on John, but he managed to buck her off his back, flinging her into the wall away from him. I took a couple shots at him, but he was already on the move, Kate on his heels as he barreled directly into me, sending my bullet into the ceiling. He shoved me aside with his shoulder and vaulted head-first through the brand-new window. Kate and I ran to the wide, busted pane and watched him fade into the distance, hanging by his fingertips from the open bay door of a small, very subtle aircraft.

“Our systems should have picked that thing up miles away,” I griped through heavy breaths.

Yelena, Kate, and I couldn’t do this all on our own. Indy would have had our systems working at peak performance. Bucky had the abnormal physical strength to stop John. We needed them both back - especially now, with our team effectively cut in half.

“What’s our next move?” Yelena asked in a low, dangerous voice as she joined me and Kate in glaring out at the dark horizon.

“You two catch Fury up. Help him with whatever he needs to track down John. I have some calls to make.”

INDY

We’d expected to be called back soon. We hadn’t realized just how soon, though. Bruce delivered the news, then retreated back to his hut as suddenly as he’d appeared. He’d seemed pensive lately. More so than usual.

Bucky and I packed what we couldn’t do without and met up with Bruce further in on the island, at an all but obscured landing pad. Anxiety curled my stomach and I know Bucky was feeling it as well. His metal fingers twitched restlessly against the back of my hand.

I heard the jet before I saw it. A light, muffled whirring that preceded a patch of sky unfolding to reveal a small aircraft. One of our most covert long-distance vehicles. I held my free hand to my forehead to shield my eyes from the midday sun as the three of us watched its careful descent.

When the jet touched down and the engines stopped running, the silence - the wait for the back bay door to drop open - was nearly maddening. I fought the urge to bounce on my toes and ask, “Who’d they send? Who’d they send? Who’d they send?”

Bucky’s hand tightened gently around mine, and he gave me a slightly strained smile. Leaving was hard. We’d jumped like kangaroos from place to place so many times. Leaving the nursery behind was the hardest. It had barely been decorated, but… it felt bittersweet. We’d allowed ourselves to think about this island as our home. The home we’d planned to raise a child in.

“I’m always home with you,” he’d murmured against my shoulder, his chest pressed to my back with one arm looped around my stomach. “Going back doesn’t change anything.”

A slight hiss of the airlocks disengaging. Then the door was opening, dropping into place to reveal-

“Sam,” I dropped Bucky’s hand and ran forward, tears already leaking from the corners of my eyes as I smiled.

He caught me in a full-strength, two-armed hug and chuckled loudly over the top of my head. I heard Bucky’s slower footsteps approaching, then Sam released me to clasp Bucky in a bro-hug for the ages, both grinning. When they stepped away, Bucky drew me into his side with an arm around my shoulders in that habitual, knee-jerk way he did. And I put my arm around his lower back without thinking about it.

Sam’s eyes, familiar even after such a prolonged separation, widened and darted between the two of us, picking up on the subtext immediately.

“You finally-?” He asked Bucky.

“Yes, Sam,” Bucky said firmly, already impatient with him. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was embarrassed. “I finally.”

Sam’s face softened, glancing between us with something like pride. Then he seemed to remember himself, gruffly clearing his throat and nodded, casting his narrowed eyes out into the area around us. “Well, clearly we have a lot to catch up on. On both ends. Let’s get going.”

At the reminder of our return to more life-threatening issues than morning sickness and high blood pressure, Bucky and I sobered up and shared a heavy look. He inclined his head toward Bruce (who had been awkwardly lingering nearby) and I nodded, catching his hand briefly as I pulled my arm away from him. Sam’s eyes lingered on us curiously.

Bruce shifted uncertainly on big green feet as I approached and took up a spot standing next to him, watching Bucky and Sam haul our few bags into the jet.

“Thank you, Bruce,” I said after a moment. “For everything. If it weren’t for you…” My voice broke and I turned to hug his arm. It was almost too wide for me to wrap my arms around.

He let out a noise halfway between a sigh and a laugh, and rested a single fingertip of his other hand on the top of my head. “Anytime.”

I let go of his arm, and he withdrew his other hand. “If you won’t come back with us, will you at least promise to come see us when it’s time?”

His eyes shot down to my stomach, and I sensed hesitation in him. But he released and a heavy breath and grinned. “Of course, I will.”

SAM

Indy wandered away to say goodbye to Bruce. After a nonverbal conversation with Bucky that I almost felt like I was intruding on.

“You two have certainly gotten close,” I teased him as we lifted their bags and entered the jet. “What I want to know is, how close?”

Bucky let out a scoffed chuckle, dropping his bags in the cargo area. Then he held up his robo-hand, like he was showing it off. I raised an eyebrow at him. I’d seen the thing as often as his face. What was the-

“Wait. Is that-?” I stepped closer, his smile growing to show teeth as I took in the small golden panel linked in with all the others, just where a wedding ring should be. I let my eyes drift bemusedly from his hand back to his uncharacteristically smug face. “You dog.”

He rolled his eyes, dropping his hand. But his smile didn’t fade. How had so much changed in such a short time? It had been an unbearably long time for us back in New York, but in the grand scheme of things, it was the blink of an eye.

“You used to not be able to make direct eye contact with the girl without blushing,” I laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “How the hell did you wind up convincing her to marry you?” How did you convince yourself to shoot your shot?

He scrunched his nose, still smiling. “There’s a lot you’ve missed. And I assume it’s the same on your end.”

My mood darkened immediately. “You’re goddamn right. Our mole? John.”

“John,” Bucky reeled back a step, face crumpling into calculation mode. “I should’ve known.”

“We all should’ve,” I corrected, crossing my arms. “But now that we know-”

“We can take care of him,” Bucky finished menacingly.

Our gazes met levelly, both resolute. Then I smiled in a way I knew would bug him. “I’ve missed us.”

True to form, he rolled his eyes again and headed back to the jet bay door. “Let’s get Indy and go.”

I jogged to catch up to him, laughing. “Oh, wifey! Lift-off time.”

Indy’s head lifted in surprise. Then she turned to Bucky with a light scowl. “You told him without me?”

Bucky rubbed the back of his head. “W- He saw the ring-”

“Yeah, after you flashed it like a 20-something at brunch,” I muttered in an undertone to him. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

“Don’t worry,” Bucky said in a mollifying voice as she approached us. “There’s still plenty left for you to tell him.”

“How much more is there?” I wondered aloud.

Indy and Bucky shared a loaded look, then shook their heads. “You have no idea,” Indy muttered, chuckling. The three of us turned to wave goodbye to Bruce, who was retreating back into the surrounding greenery with heavy footsteps. Then Bucky threw his arm around Indy’s shoulders again and we re-entered the jet.

I waited until we were in the air, with auto-pilot taking control, to sit and talk with them. Indy was strapped in firmly with every belt available, but Bucky remained unharnessed in the seat beside her, his hand on her leg. I tried not to smile. It was good to see something finally come of all that pining and self-denial.

“So,” Indy said tersely. “John.”

I sighed and nodded, leaning forward on my elbows. “John. He’s been relaying everything important back to Hydra. Probably since the beginning.”

Indy’s eyebrows drew together, lower lip worried between her teeth. Relief hit me like a freight train, unexpectedly forceful. Finally I could pass this off to someone qualified to deal with all the ins and outs of administration and coordination.

“I assume Fury’s been notified?” she asked in her familiar business-like tone.

I nodded. “Kate and Yelena are working with him on fortifying a new base and gathering intel on anyone in the program who had ties with John, no matter how loose. Once the three of us get back, we start on-”

“Taking down the US Agent,” Bucky said in a near-growl.

Indy put a steady hand over his on her leg, giving him a patient look. “Gathering more information,” she corrected. “Running headlong into this will only play out in Hydra’s favor.”

He frowned at her, and I had that feeling again, like they were having some second conversation right in front of me. “We can’t afford to give them too much time to regroup, either. You’ve only got 6 months until-”

Indy cleared her throat pointedly and shifted in her seat, focusing back on me. “We’ll get it done. Quickly. And professionally.”

I stared thoughtfully between them. The urge to hound them for details on this mysterious 6 month time frame was almost overwhelming, but I figured they were saving it for a full debrief with what remained of our team.

Bucky’s gaze lingered concernedly on Indy, lips pressed into a thin line. “Fine. But you’re going to bed by 10:00 every night. No more all-nighters working yourself to the bone.”

She opened her mouth to argue with him, but he raised his eyebrows in a challenging way, his blue eyes firm on hers, and she sighed. “Alright. Fine. Bossy.”

He winked at her, and their stubborn expressions melted into small smirks.

I grimaced at them. “You two are gross now.”