The cabin
He knew he had forgotten things but he had forgotten how hot new york had gotten in the summer. With school out for the summer Peter was around a lot more often. His therapy appointments were going ok but there was still plenty of room for improvement. He had to admit he was going stir crazy in the tower.
This particular week nearly everyone was away. Peter was on vacation with his aunt and Steve was doing a fundraiser for veterans. Clint was home with his family and He assumed Natasha was with him. This was going to be a long week with jist Tony Pepper and Morgan around. He planned on just ignoring them if he could.
"Sarge Tony wants to speak with you in the lab he says its important." He wasn't completely expecting Friday to talk to him. He made is way down to the lab to find Tony waiting for him. "Barnes get in here take a seat." He pointed over at a beat up couch. "So it's gonna be miserably hot here this week and while everyones away it seemed kinda shitty to leave you here alone so you are coming with us to the lake. Be ready to leave in 20 minutes."
He wasn't sure how to react. He couldn't tell him no. "Um..ok...guess I should go do that." He got up and headed up to his room. He grabbed a couple books and some clothes. He found Tony Pepper and Morgan waiting for him in the lobby. "You're coming too?" She squeaked as she latched on to his leg. "Yea your dad asked me to come." They climbed into the car. Tony taking the driver's seat. Bucky went for the back seat but Pepper stopped him. "Sit up front. I'm going to sit back there with Morgan to keep an eye on her. Last time we drove to the lake she had taken the consol apart and Tony spent hours putting it back together."
He got in and pulled out his book. Steve had finally convinced him to start the Harry Potter books. He was on the third one. Tony was quiet for the first hour as Pepper and Morgan sang and played in the back. He finally cleared his throat. "See Rogers got ya to read the Potter books." He nodded. "Yea I watched the first movie with Steve and Sam a few weeks ago." He was quiet again.
A little while later he spoke again. "Ravenclaw." Bucky gave him a confused look. "My house. Its Ravenclaw. You figure yours out yet? We all took the test together a few years ago but I think the website was wrong. Rogers got slytherin." He was familiar with the house system and the qualities of each one. "No that's not wrong. Everyone swears he's Gryffindor and he is to a point but I'm sure you have seen how damn well he can get himself out of a problem and get his way." Tony chuckled quietly. "Never saw it that way but ok I get it. So what about you? Where do you stand?"
"I haven't really gotten there." They were quiet for the rest of the ride. After a few hours they pulled down a long gravel drive and arrived at a cabin by a lake. Bucky helped grab the other bags and followed Pepper into the house. Your room is right down the hall across from the master bedroom. If you need anything just like the tower you can ask Friday or ask me.
Morgan came bounding over. "Can we got swimming before dinner please please pleaaaase!" She picked her up and smiled. "As long as daddy goes with you yes." She placed her back down and she bolted toward Tony. "Do you want to go swimming with them James?" He looked at his arm. "I'm not exactly built for swimming." She didn't argue just accepted his answer. "Ok well make yourself at home."
He grabbed another book from his bag and sat down on the couch to read it. A while later Tony and Morgan came in to change before dinner. Bucky noticed Pepper frantically bouncing between a few things in the kitchen and walked over taking the cutting board she was working with and finishing with the veggies she was cutting. "Thanks you didn't have to do that." He moved on to the next task helping her. "I was taught to help out. My mother didn't raise me to just wait for food like a caveman." She smiled "Steve is like that too." He smiled. "Well his mom and mine were close. His mom was very stern about men learning to do domestic things and she convinced my mom to go along with it so we learned to cook and fix our clothes so we didn't have to wait around helplessly for some dame to do it." Pepper gave him a bit of a side eye. "Dame?"
He couldn't help but chuckle. "Peg Carter would have loved you. Saw a guy call her a dame and she knocked his teeth out. Hell of a woman." She seemed satisfied with the comparison and he meant it. They finished cooking and setting the table just as Tony came back out with Morgan in tow. "Looks fantastic Pep." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I can't take all the credit. James helped." He sat down and looked at Bucky. "Barnes you didn't have to." He couldn't help but glare. "Seems like I did. Pepper had her hands full and it wasn't right for me to just sit there." He put his hands up. "Fine fine. No need to be defensive."
Dinner was mostly uneventful with Morgan occasionally asking Bucky about his arm. She was fascinated by it and wanted so bad to take it apart. Something Tony repeatedly shut down. "Sweetie I know it looks interesting but you can't take it apart and play with it we don't really know much about it." It was once again a reminder that Tony didn't fully trust him.
Sleep didn't come easy that night. When it did it was ripped apart but nightmares and memories bleeding into each other. He was grateful he didn't get sick any more at night but the nightmares would never stop. He got up to get a drink and calm himself down. Just as he stepped out into the hall Morgan poked her head out of her room. "Why are you awake?" He whispered. She stepped out more. "I heard you have a bad dream like daddy has." She took his left hand and walked toward the kitchen.
She sat him down on the couch and went to the kitchen coming back with two glasses of milk. "This normally helps daddy." He carefully took the glass. "Thanks." He was surprised that it was warm. "Has this been sitting out?" She settled on his lap. "No I asked Friday to help me warm it up." They enjoyed the milk in silence. Soon Morgan was sound asleep in his lap. He had no choice but to get comfortable on the couch in an effort not to disturb her.
Tony woke up near dawn. He normally slept better at the cabin. Maybe not through the night but more than he did at the tower. He was surprised when he found Bucky on the couch his left arm cradling Morgan both of them sound asleep. He took a blanked off the chair and carefully covered them up. He grabbed himself a cup of coffee and headed to the garage to finish a few projects before everyone was up.
A while later Pepper was woken up by Morgan peeping over the bed at her. "Morning pumpkin." She crawled into the bed. "Mr. Barnes has nightmares like daddy used to." She nodded. "Yes he does. Sometimes adults go through things that they think they can handle but the truth is when we sleep our brain tells us what's going on for real." She frowned. "He seems sad and scared. I showed him what helps daddy when he wakes up at night." She hugged her close. "That was very nice of you. Did he go back to bed?" She smiled "kinda he fell asleep on the couch. He's still there."
She got up and went to check on him. He was just sitting up when she walked in. "Morning James. Did you sleep well?" He shrugged. "Guess so. Morgan has a pretty good handle on dealing with adults who can't sleep." Pepper brought him a cup of coffee. "She caught on to Tony very quickly. The first few times it upset her but we explained it to her and she even learned things to help. I'm surprised she felt comfortable to reach out to you."
He waved his arm. "I think she has an ulterior motive there." Pepper laughed "she is her father's daughter. She drives them crazy at school she is forever taking things apart." Tony came in covered in some kind of grime for his garage. “Sleeping beauty is finally up.” He couldn't help but feel embarrassed that he fell asleep on the couch. “Hey, it’s ok that couch claims everybody at least once especially Thor. Rogers says you have mechanical experience think I can pick your brain about something?” He froze. “You want me to help you with something?” He rolled his eyes. “Yes that’s what I just said, isn't it?” Pepper gave Tony a look before getting up from the couch. “You can go play on that old car after we eat breakfast.”
A little while later he followed Tony out to the garage and saw he was working on a beat up old jeep. “Where did you get this thing?” He laughed. “Dad had it literally rotting away in storage. It doesn’t run. I have looked at the books with it but nothing adds up or makes sense. Pretty certain it’s a leftover war toy.” Bucky was immediately underneath with the book in hand, He slid back out from the car. “Hey genius wanna know why you cant get jack shit outta this car?” Tony looked at him. “There’s no way you figured out the problem in less than five minutes.” He stood up. “Wanna bet? You have a manual for a US army jeep...That hunk of junk is German. A Hydra prototype we snatched from one of the factories. Looks all the world like what the allies had probably because the frame was sourced from whatever scrap they had but the parts inside are 100% experimental. Either you get a fancy car that just sits there or you gut it and replace everything.”
Tony was now frantically pulling parts out to try and prove Bucky wrong but really only succeeded in proving him even more right. “Well shit. This has been a waste of 6 or so years.” Bucky couldn’t hold back the laugh. “You pout like your dad.” He looked up at him and for a moment he seemed offended at the comparison. “Peg used to tell me the same thing.” He offered him a hand up off the ground. “Does this mean we are square?” He grabbed his hand. “I guess so. At least as much as we can be.” They spent the rest of the week replacing the parts in the jeep with ones that actually worked. The entire time Tony asked questions about his dad and Bucky answered what he could. It ended up being far from the disaster of a week it could have been and nearly every night Morgan was waiting for him when a nightmare had him up and out of bed and every morning Tony found him on the couch normally with Morgan curled at his left side.