Nightmares
Bucky was trapped. Someone had tied down his arms, legs, and neck; the harder he struggled to get out, the tighter the bindings became. Somehow, he was back at a Hydra facility, oh God, they caught him somehow. Bile started to rise in his throat when he realized the torture that would be coming. He saw someone move on his right, a woman. It was the doctor from the hospital. She was wearing a white sundress and a ribbon of blood was slowly winding its way down her shoulder. He screamed at her to run, but nothing came out of his mouth. The doctor started to beg for him to help her, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t even speak.....
“Fuck!” Bucky jolted awake and grabbed for the knife he always kept under his pillow. When it wasn’t there, he reassessed his surroundings. He wasn’t in his apartment, or Avengers tower, or the bedroom at Steve and Tony’s he stayed in sometimes. He had fallen asleep on the couch. It was just a dream, he was in Steve’s living room. There was a newspaper next to him, he must have fallen asleep reading the paper. While Shuri and the medical team in Wakanda had cleaned the programming out of his mind, there was nothing to be done about the nightmares. He thought about getting up and finding something nice and sugary to eat but heard shouting from the kitchen. Steve and Tony were going at it again.
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“I can’t believe you’re actually entertaining this idea!” Steve didn’t quite shout, but it was almost as close to shouting as Tony had heard in a few years.
“I can build him a better suit, hell, we can bring Shuri here and she’ll build him a better suit.” Tony put down his drink and tried to wrap his arms around Steve’s waist but was pushed away. They had been home from the hospital for two weeks and, following the doctor’s orders, Peter had been spoiled like crazy by his parents and the rest of the team. Even Bruce, who was normally unsure of himself around the teenager, dropped off a beta version of a new computer program for him to tinker with ‘so he wouldn’t get bored.’
One day after being home Peter called in Steve and Tony and confessed everything about being Spiderman to them. He explained how he wandered off during a field trip to Osborne labs and was bit by one of the spiders they had been experimenting on. Tony immediately wanted to call up the school and the lab, but they couldn’t think of a way of doing so without blowing Peter’s cover. Both parents nearly broke down when Peter told him why he kept it secret; “Ever since I snuck on that ship with Dad and couldn’t do anything to help, all I’ve wanted is to be strong like you two. And now I have these powers - and, maybe I would love to finally get on the football team - but when you can do what I do and you don’t do anything to help people, you’re just as bad as the bad guys.”
Those words had cemented it for Tony, he fully supported training Peter to be a member of the team. Steve, on the other hand, could only see the small boy he had left behind in one of the worst mistakes of his life. The argument they were having today felt like a broken record that just kept playing the same song over and over again.
“Tony, I left him once.” Steve said softly, sinking into one of the dining room chairs and resting his head in his palm. “I left and we lost him, it doesn’t matter if it was real or not, I missed two years of his life and then he was dead. What kind of father would I be if I let him do something that would get him killed?” Steve’s face was turning red and his eyes started to glisten with tears. They rarely spoke about their fight that nearly split the team in half and lead to them almost killing each other. The wound of their civil war was too raw and neither acknowledged it after Steve and Tony agreed to forgive each other - and Tony promised to forgive Bucky - in order to work together to get their son back.
“Don’t you trust me?” Tony put his hand between Steve’s shoulder blades and started to rub in small circles. “I can protect him.”
Steve shook his head and stood up. “It’s just too reckless.” He left the room intending to go beat on the punching bag of their home gym but stopped when he heard Bucky chuckling in the living room.
“So I take it you heard all that.” Steve angrily looked at his best friend. “Don’t tell me you find it funny I’m trying to protect my son.”
“I’m not laughing at you.” Bucky put down the paper he was reading and looked over at Steve. For about the millionth time, Steve was struck by how far he come since his time under Hydra control. He was definitely not Bucky from Brooklyn anymore, but he was also not the mindless killer either. This new James Barnes was the conglomeration of all his past lives; soldier, assassin, friend. Steve loved this version just as much as the original and Tony, well, even he was coming around.
“Then what are you laughing at?” Steve let out an exasperated sigh and leaned against the door frame, he could tell by the look on Bucky’s face he had something important to say.
“I’m marveling at you.” Bucky chuckled again and Steve raised an eyebrow at him, signaling him to explain more. “I’m marveling that the tables have finally turned and now Steve Fights-Guys-Twice-His-Size-In-Back-Alleys Rogers is worried about his reckless kid.”
“This is a totally different situation, Buck. Peter wouldn’t just be fighting-” Steve tried to defend his stance but Bucky continued on.
“Your ninety-five pound asthmatic ass also signed up to be experimented on AND threw yourself on a grenade in the middle of basic training!”
“Well yes, but-” Steve tried to interject but Bucky was on a tangent.
“THEN you marched into a Hydra facility with nothing more than a showgirl stage prop shield and rescued me and the whole 107th! And after I fell, when I had been gone for maybe five minutes, you dive bombed a fucking plane into the ice! And you have the gall to call Peter reckless!” Bucky’s voice got louder the more he went off. Truthfully, he could fill a book with stories of Steve’s exploits both pre and post serum.
“You tell him, Winter Boo Bear!” Tony’s voice sounded from the kitchen, earning a chilling glare from Bucky.
Steve took in a breath to respond but was interrupted again, this time by F.R.I.D.A.Y informing them their was a visitor at the front door. Still angry, Steve told the computer to let whoever it was up. The elevator to their door dinged and out stepped Dr. Augustin, her right arm in a sling and looking much more casual than she had been at the hospital with her reddish-blonde hair pulled into a messy bun and wearing jeans and a black tank top.
Quinn could sense the tension in the room, but took a hesitant step out of the elevator. “Sorry for interrupting, Mr. Stark asked me to come.”
“Yes, doctor!” Tony walked into the living room and greeted Quinn. “Let’s all take a seat. How’s that shoulder doing?” Tony motioned for Bucky and Steve to stay in the living room and sat Quinn down on one of the accent chairs.
“I’m fine.” Quinn responded to to Tony. “Thankfully, people in the middle of a psychotic breakdown have terrible aim. Nothing major was hit, and I’ll be able to get back to work in a few weeks.”
Quinn took a few seconds to take in her surroundings. She had grown up wealthy, so the size of the Gilded Age Stark-Rogers mansion was not too overwhelming, but the remodeling and technology was. The living room they sat in was a harmonious blend of the Vanderbuilt the home was originally built for in the 1800s and the technophile currently inhabiting it. A giant television screen was surrounded by a gold scroll frame. They sat on brand new Swedish style furniture, but their feet rested on an intricate Oriental rug. One of the walls was filled from floor to ceiling with books and another boasted a large portrait of Tony, Steve, and Peter when the boy was only about eight years old.
“I brought these.” Quinn pulled a medical file out of her bag. “It’s Peter’s x-rays and bloodwork, didn’t seem like the kind of thing you wanted the hospital to have hold of.” Quinn handed the file to Steve.
“Because he’s Enhanced, right?” Steve asked as he sat down next to Tony on the couch and briefly looked through the file.
“Well, yes. It’s...”Quinn worried at her bottom lip, unsure of how much she knew on the subject she could share with them. “A growing number of the medical community wants more to be done about Enhanced people. Peter’s such a great kid, I would just hate for him to get caught up in it. Now, if anyone asks, City Hospital just misplaced his records.”
“By the ‘medical community’ you mean, your father of course.” Tony looked at her smugly. “William Augustin of Augustin Medical, the leader in human experimentation.”
“So you know how to use google.” Quinn bristled at Tony. She had been working for years to distance herself from William.
“I’m betting the old man would be thrilled to hear about Pete.” Tony continued with that same smug tone to his voice.
“Yes he would.” Quinn said matter of factly, now officially annoyed. “Just as much as he would like samples of their blood,” Quinn pointed at Steve and Bucky. “Or Bruce Banner’s or the Scarlet Witch’s or just about anyone else on your team. But if you were really worried I’m some kind of corporate spy for my dad you wouldn’t have made me meet you in your private home.”
“You’re right.” Tony continued, now Steve was glaring at him as well. “You wouldn’t be here unless I knew that you turned down four different job offers from your dad and his colleagues. You haven’t even spoken to him in what, four years? Now what I don’t know is if you quit before or after his lab was shut down for illegally experimenting on humans.”
“Are you stalking me?”
“I like to call it, aggressive research.”
“Tony,” Steve said warningly. “What’s this about?”
“Before.” Quinn sat up straighter. No one, including Tony Stark, was allowed to use her past as a weapon against her. “I thought I was helping develop a cure for certain types of cancers. I left with a gag order when I realized what was actually going on.”
“I see.” Tony steepled his fingers. “And what did you do to get the people out of there who receiving ‘treatment?’”
Quinn looked down. “Nothing. I was barely able to get out of there alive, we can’t all be superheroes.”
“No we can’t.” Tony started to pace around the room. “And now you work at City because, what? You think you can get some kind of redemption by working at a public hospital? Or are you trying to hide your genius so the recruiters don’t come calling?”
“Something like that.” Quinn ground her teeth together. Of course everyone knew Stark was smart, but she had seriously underestimated him.
“And our son.” Tony leaned over the back of the couch and put his hands on Steve’s shoulders. “You’re not going to do anything with the information you have on him?”
“Of course not!”
“What can you tell us about his condition?” This time it was Steve who spoke. “What sort of abilities are we looking at here?”
Quinn looked around the room. All three men were staring at her with hard looks. Steve and Tony both wore the familiar look of parents wanting to know everything about their son’s condition. But James Barnes, he looked like he was solving a puzzle. She wanted to kick herself for it, but Quinn couldn’t help lingering her eyes on him for a few seconds longer than the others.
“I would have to do more tests to be sure but I can tell you what I do know. When I tried to stick Peter with a needle, the needle bent before puncturing his skin.”
“So we never have to worry about tattoos.” Tony joked but was silenced by a look from his husband.
“I was able to get it in after he calmed down. I think it was a defense mechanism.” Quinn fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “That’s all I know for sure.”
“Do you want to know more?” Tony asked. Steve and Quinn both said “What?” at the same time.
Tony addressed Steve first. “I think we should have her run tests to see what he can and can’t do. Then we make some decisions about his extracurriculars. And you,” Tony pointed to Quinn. “He likes you, and you are just enough of a genius that I trust you.”
“Why not have Banner do it?” Bucky’s gravelly voice sounded from the corner.
“Bruce just left for Wakanda.” Steve answered for Tony. “He might not be back for a while.”
“So it’s settled.” Tony clapped his hands together. “Quinn, I can call you Quinn, right? Welcome to the team.”
Tony started to walk Quinn to the elevator door and told her that she started on Monday. Once she was gone he turned back to Steve and Bucky.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Bucky asked darkly. “We don’t know anything about her.”
“You need to learn to trust people sometimes.” Tony started to walk down the hall to Peter’s room. “Besides, hiring her was all Pete’s idea, and he’s a great judge of character.”
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Quinn stepped out of the mansion and onto the busy streets of Manhattan. She couldn’t believe what had just transpired, and still wasn’t sure how she got roped into agreeing to it. Tony Stark, she decided, had earned his money by just talking his way out of an in to things. Getting to know Peter’s condition would be fascinating, sure, but it felt dangerously close to the very thing she had been avoiding for years now. Her shoulder ached, while a .22 was small, it still packed a punch on the average human. The pain in her shoulder coupled with the unease of the day started to make her feel utterly exhausted. She texted her roommate and arranged a nice night in filled with junk food and cheesy movies. If she was supposed to start on Monday she had the whole weekend to just be lazy and not worry about hospitals, or Enhanceds, or bullets, or a blue eyed former assassin whose face would just not get out of her head.