Legendary

After work, Damian picked me up and we had dinner at a family-friendly restaurant. He came up with me to say hi to Bucky, who was pleased to see him and the babies. After a brief conversation, Damian took the babies and left. He was going to hunt up Uncle Steve and Emma while I had my chat with my uncle. I kind of regretted him taking both babies with him; I had no compunction about using one or both as a human shield.

Bucky looked a lot better than from the conference the night before and was hugely improved from when I found him; the bruises and swelling had been so extensive I hadn't been able to recognize his face. Those at least were gone; he still couldn't move on his own. Even supersoldiers with healing factors had to allow for more time for broken bones to repair. He still had an IV, but this was filled with nutrients to support his speed healing. Before he could yell at me, though, a nurse came in with a cup of liquid. Since he couldn't use his arms or fingers yet, he had to be fed, and the nutritious shake-type thing was the best solution. It didn't look very tasty, and Bucky made a face but sucked it down obediently and with no comment. I brought out Torunn's jammer and placed it on the side table, activating it quietly and noting when the light went from blinking as it checked for eavesdropping devices to a solid green. I picked up the medpad from its holster at the end of the bed and noted Bucky's injuries and how he was healing, the supportive therapy they gave him, the treatments with the accelerator to give his body a hand.

After the nurse left, he turned a dark, fulminating look on me. I smiled brightly, my only defense since I couldn't brandish a baby at him. I felt like a mouse faced with a cobra. After a moment, he sighed and the fight ran out of him. Maybe he was just tired. Speed healing took a lot out of him.

"Alex," he started. "I don't think that you should have done that. It was too risky, you've got kids to think of, and frankly, one person wasn't worth it."

"Oh, not this again," I said on a sigh. "Look, Uncle Bucky, I let you chew me out in front of a bunch of people which was frankly embarrassing, and I love you, but frankly, that's a bunch of horseshit." He looked indignant, and I talked over his intake of breath. "First of all, I'm a grown woman, with a lot of experience beyond my physical appearance, so the lecture about risk and reminding me that I have kids is not only unnecessary, it's insulting, as if I'm incapable of making my own decisons. Since I gave birth to all my kids, I'm well aware of their existence. I talked to Damian about the risks and what they mean for the kids, so I can assure you that their interests have been protected. And I didn't go strictly to rescue you. If rescue looked impossible, or they'd already started to brainwash you, I was prepared to kill you rather than let you become the asset again. And part of it is self-interest. You were in the meeting last night and heard about HYDRA's interest in me. I would kill myself before I would let them acquire me because I have no interest in being their tool. And you know that my babies are also of interest to them. I would have preferred to go in as part of a team, but that wasn't possible, so everybody who could worked with me to create the best plan possible. And the intelligence I got is going to be very valuable. So please stop acting like I was unreasonably reckless." Bucky shut his jaw with a click. It was odd to me that HYDRA had left that bone unbroken, but it was nice that they had.

"Well. I do appreciate the rescue, sweetie, and I'm grateful that you had an alternative plan. I never want to go through that hell again." He was silent a moment and I let him have the time to collect his thoughts. " I worry about you is all. You have so much promise. And you've never wanted to be a hero. I don't mean to seem like I'm treating you like an idiot."

I scooted my chair closer. "And I don't, really. All things being equal, I'd rather somebody else do the heroing. But the reemergence of HYDRA changes things."

"Considering trying to be a superhero, Ms Barnes? Or have you already taken steps in that direction?" The Senator. I hadn't heard him come in. Shit.

"I've already been a hero, Senator," I said coolly, looking at him like he was an insect I was considering squashing. "I was at Raganrok, didn't you know? The Asgardian government considers me a hero, anyway."

"I thought your wings went away.'

"There are ways to compensate for that. Just ask Tony, he'd build me a suit if I asked him. Or maybe I could talk him into creating metal wings like the ones on the news." I let him stew a bit, then continued when he opened his mouth. "But to do so would mean that I'd have to join the Avengers, which would place me under your authority. I think we'd both prefer that not happen."

Daniel slipped into the room. "Hello, Senator," he said pleasantly. "Grandma." I smiled at him. "Uncle Bucky, how are you today?"

"Doing better, kid," Bucky said affectionately. Daniel looked at me.

"He's healing," I said encouragingly. "Look at his chart." He did, the Senator casually approaching to look over his shoulder.

"No offense, Grandma," Daniel murmured as he scanned the information, "but I don't think you'd be a good fit on the Avengers. You're not the best team player I've ever seen, and besides, you're irreplaceable." He smiled at me and put the pad back in the holster.

"Nobody's irreplaceable, honey," I said to him affectionately, but I looked at the Senator.

"Grandma," Daniel said sternly. "Don't antagonize one of my oversight committee, please." Unspoken was that he was needed, and I knew he was a better choice than any of the alternatives. The Senator began to smirk. "I'm not quite sure why you're here, though, Senator," he continued. "Isn't there an appropriations bill coming up for a vote soon? I appreciate your interest in my relatives, but you have more important things to do than hang around the tower."

"Barnes is a part time member of the Avengers," he said. "I am concerned of course with his recovery and what must have been a terrible ordeal." Bucky snort-coughed.

"You're looking peaky, Uncle Bucky," I said, a little concerned. He was, too, it wasn't just me trying to get out of an irritating conversation.

"Bring the babies next time you come, and Damian," he instructed, yawning. "They're growing so fast."

"That they are," I said, and leaned over to kiss his cheek, very gently. The chart said that some of his teeth were still a little loose and sore. "Do you want anything tomorrow?"

"Emma's bringing me cookies," he said smugly. "But maybe something to read, a real book? My hands should be ok in the next day or two."

"I can do that," I said, smiling. Wishing I could break the hands of whoevere'd worked my uncle over. I turned off the little jammer and the Senator raised an eyebrow.

"It's legal," I said coolly. "I've gotten over thirty calls from the media today and there's a bunch of them camped out with the latest parabolic mikes. I'm sure they don't need to hear that we don't get along, now, do they?"

"An answer for everything, is that right, Ms Barnes?" he asked, biting off the words.

I shrugged. "I'm on my second lifetime after a really educational afterlife, Senator. I have a lot more answers than I used to." I smiled at my uncle. "I'll be by tomorrow and I'll bring the family. I'll see you later, Daniel."

"Can you and Grandpa come to dinner this week?" Daniel asked. I agreed, and he walked me to the door. I nearly slipped on the wet floor outside; one of the custodians was fixing the automatic cleaner which apparently wasn't sucking up the water. I found my family upstairs in the office that Steve shared with Bucky and reclaimed them. We went home and were partaking of coffee and tea and chatting with Alfred as the kids, energized by the break in routine, crawled around on the floor with the dogs. Eira was feeling much better about the human puppies these days. Miles could still be too loud at times for her (really, for everyone--we needed the kid to learn an indoor voice) but Iris was her father's daughter and frankly adored the animals. Somewhat to my surprise, she'd learned how to stroke rather than pat too energetically, and the cats felt pretty good around her. But it was Eira who fascinated her the most; she seemed to enjoy burbling words at her and Eira indulgently relayed images of how Iris saw her to me: enormous, awesome, and fluffy. Torunn took off the evening once we were home and took her brother out to sample some of the city's night life.

Alfred asked questions about Bucky and was pleased that he was recovering so quickly. Then he cleared his throat. "I would like to ask an indulgence of you." I sat up straight. I had never heard him say those words. Before I could say anything, he hurried on. "I would like to request an evening off tomorrow night. Alan would be pleased to serve you dinner. I.. er... have a date."

I sucked in a breath and Damian's eyes brightened. "Of course, Alfred, Daniel invited us to dinner this week," he said.

"Oh, Alfred, what's her name? What does she do? Where did you meet her?" I asked raptly. I had also never heard of him dating. Alfred blushed.

"Her name is Fiona McGuinness," he said, and there was just a hint of dreaminess in his tone. "She's a hippotherapist. We met at a 5 k fun run last month." Now there's two words that don't go together: "fun run". There is nothing more boring than slogging around the city streets at a run with nothing fun to break up the monotony, no fun obstacles to provide a good time. I kept this to myself, however. To each her own.

"When do we get to meet her?" Damian asked. "What's a hippotherapist? Isn't that more in Bucky's line of work in the zoo?"

"Soon, if all goes well," Alfred murmured. "A hippotherapist uses horseback riding as a therapy for people who have physical or neurological disabilities because horses have a pelvis that has a three-dimensional movement that mirrors the physiology of the human walk. It is beneficial for those with physical or occupational disabilities. It used to be useful for conditions like autism or multiple sclerosis, but modern medicine has successfully treated these."

"Whenever you're comfortable," Damian said. I nodded and I think Alfred was relieved when there was a tap on the door and Dick and Barbara walked in. Dick grabbed Damian in a headlock and gave him a brisk noogie before sitting down. Damian scowled at his brother, smoothing his thick hair as Alfred placidly offered them coffee.

"I know that we aren't scheduled to go out tonight, Dami," Dick said as he sipped his coffee. "So I thought that now would be a good time to let you know that I'm going to be transitioning out of being Nightwing." He sighed. "I don't feel like I've really been accomplishing much lately. There are so many new heroes out there. My backside is more famous than me." He wasn't wrong there, there had been a poll in one of the city newspapers, and Nightwing's butt had won in that category.

"Your abs are also famous," I pointed out. They'd taken second. Barbara laughed. Nightfall had taken best shoulders and second best thighs. It was a little weird to see my husband cut up and polled like that. I had voted him for best overall, but he came in fourth. Probably because he's not as tall as some of the other superheroes. He doesn't need to be tall; he's a fun-sized hero, concentrated.

Dick just rolled his eyes. "And there are the kids to consider. Bab is going to continue her work as Oracle. She gets data to supers all over the world, so it's important that she continue that."

"It's low risk but time-consuming," she shrugged. "How about you, Alex? Was your rescue of your uncle a one-off?"

"Oh, hey, you probably haven't heard," Dick said, brightening and snickering.

"Oh?" I inquired cautiously.

"They've come up with a name for you." Still snickering, he found the remote and a glass screen emerged from behind a few shelves of books. He switched the channel from a sporting event to the most neutral of the 24 hour news stations. We had a bit of a wait and a few commercials before the segment he referred to came back on. There was an image of me from the leaked recording, decking some HYDRA scum. You could almost see the comic book "POW!" off to the side. I sighed. The anchor had a couple of geopolitical guests on, who had been discussing the importance of the recovery of Bucky Barnes, the need to keep HYDRA from creating supersoldiers and assassins.

"So here's the interesting thing," one guest said, gesturing to the freeze frame. You can see part of the air gurney and Bucky's face. Yikes. That'll scare some children. "So out of the clear blue we have this superpowered woman nobody's ever seen before, nobody's heard even a hint of her. Where did she come from, how did she get her skills? These are the obvious questions. The more important one is why and how. Why was the recovery of Barnes so important and how did she learn and plan the rescue?"

"Well, the first answer is obvious," the other guest said. "Keeping Barnes from becoming HYDRA's asset was critical. He's had a long time to learn new skills, and that, combined with a resurgent HYDRA, is enough to scare the pants off anybody sensible and cause a run on the liquor stores. There's been so much societal and political upheaval since the Great Winter and the Return that I think everybody feels a little unstable, hoping that the ground isn't going to be knocked out from under them again. Valkyrie is an apparent white knight who stepped out of the shadows for a crucial, brutal moment, and has faded away again. Who knows if she'll come into the light again?"

"Valkyrie?" questioned the host.

"Alex Barnes may have been in Prague at the time, but there's no doubt in my mind that if she could have, she'd have gotten a team together to rescue her uncle. So, a woman, with those curious wings.... it's appropriate, and the woman hasn't named herself."

The other guest chuckled. "You're assuming that she would have needed a team. Alex Barnes was the assassin's apprentice and if you've seen that documentary, you know she has the ruthlessness and abilities to do a lot of damage on her own. The only thing that makes me think that she was in fact where she said she was is that I don't know how she could have traveled there. There is no hint that she was able to buy, rent, beg, borrow, or steal any conveyance to get her down to the HYDRA installation in time. And Senator Fitzgerald is not her biggest fan and has certainly tried to establish that. Well, also that there's not record or even a story about her learning to use explosives. And she's always been low tech, using her own fighting skills and really anachronistic weapons. She used the guns at the emplacement against the Kree that once, but she wasn't the most skilled user. Valkyrie used an EMP, that replica of Odin's spear, and showed a keen understanding of modern weaponry."

They had a brief discussion about the dislike between me and the Senator, which was pretty accurate. Oil and water personalities, plus both of us were willing to drop the gloves when necessary. It hadn't really been, so far, but that was because people kept intervening. I needed to get a grip. We didn't have to be enemies, and I could keep my distance. Maybe, if I could plan it right, I could call for a truce that gave me the upper hand. No, no. I needed to stop thinking of this as a conflict I should win. I needed to take a draw and be happy about it. I needed him to move his attention over to some other target. I really didn't want him to have power over me.

Then the segment ended, with speculation about what the Avengers were planning next, and Dick turned off the screen. "Well, never say never, but I'm inclined to regard this as a one time thing. Like you said, there are a lot of new heroes out there, and I really don't like to brawl. It hurts."

"I think I 'll also take the opportunity to transition out of Nightfall, then," Damian said briskly to his brother. "I've done enough costumed crime-fighting in my time, and I think I'd like to focus on other things as well. Not waking up in the morning sore or with something broken has its appeal. And this time, I want all the time I can get with my wife and kids. See what I can build for myself, instead of just being one in a line of Waynes at the helm of the company." Dick nodded. "Besides, Alex may still have a few missions to help bring down HYDRA. She's of interest to them, and so are the kids. So I think there will be opportunities for support staff."

"Really, Alex?" I nodded at Barbara. "Well, you need to do something, come to me and I'll get you intel," she said briskly. Then Dick and Damian started planning on how to phase out their activities. Who'd they need to tell, the timeline on that as well. Barbara picked up Miles and snuggled him as they talked. I left Iris curled up with Eira and we talked about the restorations and renovations at the library. It was, overall, a good night.

When we were upstairs getting ready for bed, Damian put his arms around me and kissed the side of my neck. "Can I have a pony, beloved?"