Chapter Text
Steve sighed, "don't you dare say it Sam."
"Remember what I said about the cookies?! Remember? You said they wouldn't be useful!"
"Okay, so the cookies got us out of a tight spot with the Russian torture chamber of doom but, what now?!" said Steve exasperated pointing to cell walls they were trapped in. "They are expecting your Mom's super secret recipe Sam"
"Don't worry I'll give it to them," Sam chuckled leaning casually back against the cell wall.
Steve whispered in a low voice, "You don't even know your Mom's cookie recipe!"
"Don't worry Cap, I'll make something up. Something so complicated to make that it will buy us time to get us out of here."
"Let me get this straight Sam, you are betting our chances on the KGB taking a long time to bake a cookie recipe that doesn't exist?!"
"Well, not all our hopes. I was thinking you can deal with the other half of this."
"Don't worry. I've got an idea," said Steve with a mischievous grin.
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"No Tony" said Pepper arms folded in front of him. She sat impatient in the sagging couch in his lab. Her heels were tapping the ground feverishly with much impatience.
"But Cap could be in trouble. Last I heard he was negotiating the KGB with a box of cookies," said Tony a little defensively as he sat across from Pepper on his work stool.
"No, Tony" Pepper repeated. "No more monitoring Captain America. You've got work to do."
Tony then played his dirtiest card, the puppy dog eyes. Pepper's arms only seemed to fold together even more, and her eyes rolled.
"Those puppy dog eyes hardly worked even when we were dating Tony. No, means no and that's final."
"But Pep-" he tried to protest.
"Steve's got Sam with them. I'm sure they are fine," she said rising from the couch to pat Tony's shoulder reassuringly.
Tony sighed, she was probably right. I mean Steve probably offered the guy cookies, and sat him down for a cup of tea because Steve was too damn nice. Heck, he might even have gotten the guys to sing the Star Spangled Banner, and do a slow dance with him. Tony shook his head at the image. Even that bothered him, and of course it bothered him Cap was his friend. He shouldn't have to play nice with the enemy.
"Is it really necessary to spy on Steve this much Tony? It's not like you spy on Rhodey all the time."
"You don't know that for sure."
"Tony I'm the executive of your company. I'm pretty sure I would know if you were spying on Rhodey every time he headed out on a mission."
"Steve is different."
"Tony, Steve doesn't need your help."
"He isn't adjusted to this time. Things are different."
"Tony, lets be honest they aren't that different. Plus you can't deny that there are millions of people right now that could use your help. People who need something to save their lives, look out for them."
"I guess your right."
Pepper sighed, and rested a hand on his shoulder. Rubbing it in comforting circles.
"Of course I am Tony. The company needs you to pull through and make the next big thing. I know your worried about Steve but try to keep the checking in on him to once a week."
Pepper was right, she often was. He just needed to get Steve out of his mind and invent things. Perhaps he could invent modular shelters to protect disaster victims. He should also work on Ultron, he had been neglecting it. He just hoped he could focus on the work at hand.
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"Both of your come out," says a tall lanky guard now standing at the adjacent cell door.
"No," says Sam icily
"Excuse me?"
"This is a top secret recipe. Even he can't know it or my mom will bury me alive."
"Fine," snaps the guard. "Оставьте другую здесь!"
Sam winks as he is unchained from the wall and led out by KGB guards. Steve grins internally as the cell door closes. One guard down, two more to go. While the guards are shouting in Russian, Steve flexes his muscle and snaps the handcuffs. He looks at the cell wall. It's old brick , and then to metal door. He sighs inwardly, his choice of course is painfully obvious. He is going to have to burst through things again. He runs through the wall, and drop kicks a guard in head grabbing his keys, and throws a brick at the head of the other one knocking him unconscious.
"Well that was easy, I hope Sam is keeping them busy."
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Sam sighed, "No, no, no. You cannot not use that type of butter. You're going to ruin the consistency of the the cookie dough. And what is this? You call this eggs? You think my grandma's cookies would use egg whites from a carton? Common, get it right. You're going to need to send your men on a serious shopping trip because, these ingredients are definitely not the quality needed to recreate this recipe."
Sam watched as the men started shouting viciously at one another in Russian, one higher ranking soldier dumped flour on the others mens heads. When Sam planned on following Captain America into battle this wasn't quite what he had in mind. He imagined more punching, and running. Less threatening KGB members with the prospect of less than superior cookies. Not that he was complaining, because this was entertaining.
The reaction of the soldiers reminded him of his wing-man Riley. Riley had been more than a little addicted to him mom's cookies. Sam smiled to himself remember how Riley would tear open Sam's mail, and they would end up wrestling each others after Sam would find the box of cookies empty. He was pulled out of him memories by the a sudden command.
"You," said a soldier pointing at him. "Make a shopping list NOW."
"Got a pen and paper? This might take a while."
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Captain America had retrieved his shield, and Sam with a little work. He was impressed how Sam had some how managed to sneak copious amounts of vodka, and absinthe into the cookie dough, and got the KGB drunk on it. However, it didn't change the fact that they were no closer to retrieving Bucky. Steve tried using Natasha's hacking software on the KGB computers. No files on Bucky to be found, nothing, nada. No sight, or rumour to be heard of him in Russia. They had meet other brainwashed soliders that had been trained by Bucky though.
Not that had helped any. If anything there had been too many close calls on this trip. Seeing Sam drunken KGB members with cookie dough was probably the moment closest to success they had in the whole mission. Which considering they had gotten almost no intel in that whole debacle described the mission.
The only thing Steve had learned about was the machine used to create soldiers like Bucky. He had gotten the specs to give to Stark for analysis.
He felt ill. He had failed his friend, and now he was getting excited to go home and see Tony. He was pathetic. His best friend was lost, and brain washed, and not only had he managed to get almost nothing out of this excursion wasting Tony's time, money, and equipment. The file in his hand probably wouldn't even help Bucky that much if at all. It was if anything, and excuse to talk with Stark.
"So, I think we lost the KGB plane about 15 miles back. I'm no pilot but Stark's auto pilot is a life saver that's for sure. Nothing's on the radar. I just hope they don't hunt us down for that cookie recipe in New York, or worse find my mom. Once we are not overseas I'll give her a call, she's always worried about extra charges and- Wait are you okay man?"
Steve sighed, his head in his hands.
"I don't know. "
Sam sat next to him, "What's wrong? Well, I can guess what's wrong. This is about Bucky isn't it?"
"I just hoped I would get something more concrete to help him, to save him."
"Steve, that file in your hand is a start. We will get Stark on it"
"What if this doesn't help at all?" Steve asked desperately. Sam looked down at him, and patted him on the back gently.
"Then we keep trying. Just because I lost Riley doesn't mean you'll lose Bucky. This is my promise to you as your other best friend."
Steve looked up and gave Sam a heart felt smile.
"I'm lucky to have you around."
"Damn straight you are. Now let's get back to the tower."
Steve looked as Sam went back to the pilots seat. Steve had been half honest, he just wished he had someone to talk about the rest of this with. He wasn't sure who would accept that maybe just maybe, he was a little intrigued in Tony Stark as more than a friend.