Chapter Text
James was munching away at a meatball sub as he went onto his next quest in Skyrim. He’d played the game a few times before but it was always fun to reset and try to beat it again. He had a pile of papers he needed to grade but he needed a break right now, his planning period was an hour and thirty minutes today so he split it in two, he still had fifteen more minutes to unwind. He waited for the next battle to load as he took a sip of his water. He was surprised though when his phone went off by his computer, he wasn’t used to getting calls or texts during the day, he didn’t have many friends (read, zero, aside from Sharon, his coworker and Sam, who had started using email since being on the Avengers… he hadn’t been sure why he’d switched back, but now he knew. He paused the game, reaching over to pick up his phone and swiping to read the message.
Hey is this James?
He furrowed his brow, Yes, who is this?
Oh hey! Glad I got the right one, it’s me, Steve!
He furrowed his brow again… Send me a selfie…
Steve sent back a really bad selfie, James snorted as he could practically see to his brain at the angle the camera was positioned up his nose. It was definitely Steve though.
Oh, hey, how did you get my number?
Steve sent back a wincing face emoji, Used SHIELD resources, sorry… I realized I forgot to ask back at the party. I hope you don’t mind… if you do, we can just forget this ever happened and i’ll delete it!
James just smiled at Steve’s concern and adorableness. No, it’s fine… so, what’s up
Was just thinking about you
James blushed furiously, he looked up at the time, he had time to chat.
Oh really? What would have the great Captain thinking about me?
-
David, actually. How would he like to come get ice cream with Kevin later? Sam is here with him. He’s staying for the next week since it’s fall break.
I bet he’d like that a lot, I can text you our address, when will you be by to pick him up?
James couldn’t help but feel a little let down,
Well, I was hoping you’d grace us with your presence too ;)
Oh, oh... a winky face
Oh, okay. Yeah sure, that would be fun.
Great, how is 5PM?
That’s usually when we head out of school, would 4:45 work instead? You could meet us outside the school,”
4:45 it is, see you later ;)
Ok, see you :)
-
James couldn’t help the way his heart fluttered in his chest. He tried to tamp it down though, this was not a date. Sam would be there, Kevin would be there, heck, David would be there. Plus, dating Steve was a bad idea considering his uncanny resemblance to Bucky Barnes.
He sighed as he turned back to his work. He looked up at the clock, he had fifteen minutes of his planning period left. It was time to start grading papers or he wouldn’t be ready when Steve came later in the afternoon.
-
“Hey buddy, how was your day?” James asked David as he hop-skipped into the room, practically vibrating from excitement.
“We learned about POOP!” He shouted. “And Pee!!!” James’s eyebrows rose,
“You eat your food and your stomach goes ahhhhnomnomnom and squishes it up with acid and then it goes to your int-inter-intest-intestines! And then to your BUTT!!! Where you poop it out!” David shared.
James couldn’t help but laugh, “Who taught you that?” He said with a laugh, somehow he couldn’t see Ms. Carter, David’s teacher, teaching them that.
“Dr. Narton he’s from the science museum!”
Oh that’s right, they’d had an indoor field trip this week. Well, good to know what James was spending $25 on.
“We made POOP slime!” David said, “You wanna see?!”
James went a little green at that, “Uh, you can show me later bud, but how about for now you show me your homework, we gotta do it fast tonight,”
“Why?” David asked,
“Cause, Kevin and Sam and Steve are coming to pick us up for ice cream,” James smiled, waiting for David to pick up on what he’d just said.
David stopped rustling in his bag and looked up with wide eyes, “CAPTAIN AMERICA IS GETTING US ICE CREAM? And KEVIN TOO?!”
James laughed heartily, “Yup, he’s picking us up at 4:45 here, that’s in an hour and fifteen minutes so hurry hurry, show me what you’ve got,”
David pulled out his homework folder and shoved it at James, practically bouncing in place as James looked over it.
“Okay one math worksheet, addition only, a writing prompt due on Friday, and spelling words, today you’ve gotta write them five times each, and we have to read for twenty minutes, we can do that when we get home though okay?”
“Okay!” David said, grabbing a pencil and running to James’s reading corner to sprawl out and start on his homework.
Today, was not one of the days where David was happy to do his homework quietly.
“Daddy! Is Mr Steve Captain America gonna bring his shield?“
“I’m probably not bud, I think this is just a casual outing.”
David frowned. A few moments later he piped up again,
“I don’t have my teenage mutant ninja turtles! Kevin said he’d bring his Donatello and Raphael, I supposed to bring Michelangelo, Leonardo and- and, Casey and April! Daddy! Why didn’t you tell me!”
James gave him a sorry look, “I’m sorry buddy, but Steve only texted me this morning after school started. My guess is Kevin won’t have his either, and if he does, next time you can bring yours okay?” David gave an over dramatic huff and rolled over to starfish out on the rug. James
just shook his head fondly at his kid. He didn’t know where he got his dramatics from. Surely he wouldn’t have slept with a girl that high maintenance.
“Finish your work,” he told him,
David gave another sigh but continued working.
-
“I’m all done!”
James jumped a mile in his seat. He was really focused on trying to read this one kids handwriting on a paper and almost forgot David was there. As his heart rate slowed down he looked up at David with a smile,
“Alright, come show me,”
David ran over, his iron man shoes lighting up as he did. He shoved his papers at James who looked them over. First the spelling words and then the math. He was impressed, David had done all the math correctly,
“Good job buddy, you got all of them right on the first try! High five!” David giggled as he smacked his dad’s hand,
“Only one mistake on the spelling you spelled “shoe” wrong the last two times, instead of “shoe” you put “schoe” David took the paper back, aggressively erasing the mistake and correcting it.
“Good job, now go out those in your home work folder and bring it back to me to sign,” James managed to drop a kiss onto David’s head before he ran off again and David just laughed again,
“Ew! Daddy!”
“Ew? Kisses are ew? I remember you asking for one this morning, now there ew!” James tickled David’s sides as he made a kissy face and slobbered a few all over his cheeks and nose and forehead until David was practically screeching with laughter.
“Daddy! Stop! Daddy! Stop it!” He giggled. James pulled away grinning. He was surprised when David then turned to him and kissed him right on the nose.
“EWWWW!” He shouted dramatically. David laughed again,
“Oh, I love you,” he told him, “Now go, get me your folder and then you can play on the iPads until it’s time to go,” he said, giving him a pat on the bum towards where his stuff was.
-
James’ phone pinged as he was putting his things in his satchel to head out.
“Hey! We’re here,” it was from Steve.
“Awesome, we’re coming out,”
“Alright David, got everything. David nodded patting his book bag that was still too big on his kindergarten shoulders.
“Good, cause guess who’s here!”
“Kevin! Sam! Mr. Steve Captain America!” He shouted. And he was out the door.
“David-!”
But before he could tell him to wait he was out the door and zooming down the hall. James just scoffed as he shook his head and shifted the last batch of papers he needed to grade into his bag. He headed to the door ready to lock up when he realized he’d forgotten to turn on the iPad charging station and grab his computer from where it was charging at the horse shoe table. He sighed, turning to head back across the room. He bent down to fiddle with the charging station when suddenly, glass shattered across the room.
He stood up, shocked, his fight or flight kicking in. The entire window of his classroom had been shattered, glass raining down on his students desks and the reading corner. He was at attention quick but suddenly a pain ripped through his chest and another through his legs. He looked down. He’d been shot. But not fatally. Just enough to incapacitate. He bent over at the waist in terrible pain.
Suddenly, two men in Kevlar and all black climbed up and over the broken widows inside. His eyes widened. They had guns and stun batons. He had... pens, scissors and a ruler with a metal edge...
“Soldat!” One of them shouted. Following the word with another phrase in Russian that he didn’t understand. They had the wrong person. He didn’t know what the hell they were saying. Was this because he was friends with Steve now? Shit, thank god Steve was downstairs and expecting him. He’d save him, James forced himself to move. When he looked up again three more men had entered the room dressed the same. They all wore a weird red octopus symbol on their chest and were still conversing and shouting at him in Russian. As he grabbed a sharp pair of scissors that he left inside the cart he reached for the ruler with the metal edge leaning against the table closest to him and sprung up, one of the guys was right in front of him now and when he reached for him, still spitting Russian, James attacked with a loud primal yell, he swiped out and caught the guy in the cheek with the metal yard stick. Swiping out with the scissors and catching his neck, causing blood to spray, the masked intruder gurgled as he pressed his hands to his neck. James kicked, his strength even surprising him as the guy tumbled backwards into the desks. Another assailant was at his back he could feel it. They were shouting words in an order now, but he didn’t get them, he swiped out with the scissors again and plunged them into the meat of the assailants thigh, as the guy bent down to grab at his injury James caught his neck in a chokehold and flipped him over, slamming him into the desk in front of him.
Holy shit. What the fucking fuck was going on and where was David? Was he safe? Had he been attacked? The one time he lets him out of his sight... and oh shit, there was another, on instinct it was like his body fought, hand to hand, catching the gun the guy pointed at him and with a squeeze of his left hand it was crushed and smoking. Two of the assailants tried to team up on him but both of them ended up laid out with their eyes stabbed out and their necks bleeding.
The next assailant broke the ruler he was using in two so he grabbed a pen from his back pocket and shoved it through the guy's collarbone when he got close enough. But that didn’t seem to be stopping the guy, even with the hard head butt he’d given him. He stood up only slightly woozy and pulled the pen out, advancing on James again. Shit, James thought as he advanced backwards only to be caught off guard someone grabbed him by the ankle making him fall. He struggled and snarled as three of the masked intruders yelled more at him in Russian. He felt feral, suddenly he felt a prick at the side of his neck as his vision started going fuzzy. His arms and legs flailed, he tried his hardest to stay awake. But he soon went limp. Down the emergency stairs the men went with his limp body and out into a waiting van. They left their comrades where they were dead or bleeding out. There was no time for stopping for casualties when you were working for Hydra.
-
Someone knocked on the glass door, David looked up, his face breaking into a wide grin as he saw Steve beaming back at him from outside.
“Mr. Steve Captain America!” David said, pushing the door open for him to come inside, Steve laughed as he came inside, David grabbed him around the leg and hugged him, this only made Steve laugh harder as he bent down to pat him on the back. David looked up at Steve with stars in his eyes,
“Is Kevin here?” He asked,
“Yup, Steve pointed behind him where Kevin was jumping up and down and holding Sam’s hand, David didn’t say anything else as he ran out of the building, ducking between Steve’s legs and crashing into Kevin who he hugged just as fiercely. Kevin giggled and the two began chattering incessantly at each other. Steve looked around, having expected James to come out since David was already here, but he wasn’t there, he wasn’t down the hallway either and the office at the entrance looked dark, like it was closed up and locked for the night. He furrowed his brow,
“David, buddy, where’s your dad?” David stopped from where he was talking to Kevin to quickly answer back,
“Oh… I think he’s still in the classroom, but he said you were here, so he was coming behind me,”
“How long were you waiting for us?”
“I don’t know, a minute.” He said, Steve sighed, he wasn’t sure how much he should be trusting a five-year old’s concept of time. He decided to wait and give James another minute or two, maybe he’d forgotten something to do at the last minute. He exited the building and waited next to Sam who was leaned against a light pole.
“Your boy coming out?”
“Don’t know, and he’s not my boy, David said he was following, should I text him?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” Sam commented, as he turned his attention back to the kids who were still chattering endlessly and loudly in front of them. Steve pulled his phone out and texted James,
“Hey, we’re here, David’s with us btw, u coming?”
He waited as he put his phone back in his pocket. He got more concerned as the time ticked by, after five minutes he looked at Sam with worry in his face,
“Should I go check on him?”
“Might be wise, I’ll keep an eye on them,” Sam told him and Steve entered the school again, he made his way down the endless hallway and around the corner, deeper into the school, as he did he noticed a few odd things, there was a door that seemed to be propped open at the end of the hallway and a red and white light flashing from the ceiling but no alarm going off, all the other classrooms on the hall seemed to be closed and dark, showing that the teachers had left for the day. It made sense since it was getting towards 5PM now. He wasn’t surprised to see the door open for James’s room, Room 514, but he was shocked when he pushed it open to reveal the inside.
The entire window that faced the back alley was shattered, there were bodies on the floor one laying in a puddle of blood, desks were overturned and there were obvious signs of a struggle as a trail of blood smeared on the floor led out the door. What the absolute fuck had happened? He was on high alert as he checked the prone forms on the floor, three, all dead. He rolled one over and his eyes popped out of his head, HYDRA? What the hell? Was this his fault? Had they been watching him again? But why would they take James? Did they know he was related to Bucky? None of it made sense, he looked left and right frantically as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and rang Sam,
“I need back up, as soon as possible, call Natasha, and get Fury to meet me at the tower,”
“Steve, what’s going on?” Steve breathed heavily, he was more shaken up than he’d ever been before, and he wasn’t sure why.
“It’s Hydra, I think they took James.”
-
“What?!” Sam practically shouted down the phone, he paused as he looked at Kevin and David who had stopped talking and had turned to him with concerned faces.
“It’s okay guys, let’s go get ice cream,”
“But what about Steve?” David asked,
“He’ll catch up with us later, at the tower, he has to do something with your dad,” Sam lied,
“Oh, okay.” David said, as he and Kevin held hands making a chain and following Sam as he continued to talk on the phone one handed.
“I’ll send SOS’s out, I’m gonna take them to get ice cream, we’ll meet you at the tower after, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s great, thank you Sam, thank you so much,” Steve said. He waited, as he did he pulled the bodies and stacked them on top of one and other and looked around for any more clues he could find as to what happened and where James had gone, but it was like he was just gone. There were cameras in the School that Steve knew would tell them which way they’d taken him but outside of the back alley, it was going to be hit or miss. Hydra knew how to disappear and they knew how to do it fast and in plain sight.
-
“Fury!” Natasha called out, she stormed into the room, Nick was already standing and looking at holograms with Agent Hill and Agent Johnson.
“I know,” He said,
“No, you don’t fucking know,” She spat, Nick’s eyebrows rose,
“They’ve literally blown everything, Steve is never going to trust us again, did you know they were still infiltrating SHEILD? Did you know they were planning this?”
“I suspected something might be amiss, we had an update about the Goliath Project file being hacked and re-opened.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Natasha snarled, her fingers white knuckling on the table in front of her.
“I was afraid you would blow his cover,”
“You know what? I probably would have, and I wouldn’t have regretted it. What we did, it was wrong, you know how depressed Steve has been since we dragged him back into things. He was fine when we left him alone for the first few months, in fact, I thought he might even have been able to find happiness. But since we brought him back into the fight he’s been miserable, you should have seen the hope in his eyes when he thought his old friend could have been alive, every time, he’s been loyal to us. And James, he didn’t deserve this. He is the longest living POW and now not only is his cover blown and his memory probably back in a blender. Now his child doesn’t have a dad and HYDRA has their greatest weapon back, yeah, if I could have prevented that from happening, I would have.” Natasha wasn’t going to have any of this, she was heading directly down to that school to get information and to put her all into getting James back.
She owed that much to him after all he’d done for her. She’d thought she was doing the right thing beating on SHEILD’s side but her recent conversation with Steve had the tides turning in her mind.
They were basically doing what Hydra had done but on a less painful scale. Manipulating James’s mind with advanced Wakandan tech so he would make the choices that would make it easiest for them to forget about him. He didn’t deserve that. Not after 70 years of being under someone else’s thumb. He deserved to make his own choices and have say over his body and mind. It might be traumatic but everyone deserves a chance. If he wanted to forget they’d help him to. If he wanted to be with Steve and remember he’d also have that option and that was how it should be.
-
“I want Chocolate!”
“I want Peach!”
Sam laughed, ruffling their heads as he handed over his card.
“And a cookies and cream, small waffle cone please,” he added.
The three waited by the ice cream stand for their cones to be ready when they were handed out the kids eyes got wide at how big they were. Sam hadn’t stopped them when they both ordered large, figuring That if they didn’t want it all they’d end up throwing it away.
Sam’s own ice cream was minuscule in comparison to their almost triple scoops. They headed over to a picnic table and Sam watched the two as they chartered endlessly about all things from Avengers to dinosaurs, to Wild Krats, to TMNT, and Teen Titans Go!
He kept an eye on his phone worried about Steve and what he’d found. He was also worried about James, and what this all meant for David.
-
Natasha was furious when she arrived at the school to find Fury already talking to Steve who had his arms crossed and a lock jawed look on his face. She stormed up to him,
“Whatever the tells you he’s lying!” She shouted, Steve looked over at her surprised. “What did he tell you?” She demanded.
“That James is under SHEILD protection due to his military background, and that they think Hydra might have just been the muscle sent to get him and we could have bigger dogs on our hands,”
“Bigger than HYDRA?” She mocked, with a brow raised. “No such thing, Steve it’s all a lie. I lied. You were right. From the very beginning two years ago. It’s him, it’s your Bucky... your James. We aren’t sure how yet, when we found him he was a shell. We figured that they had found him after some time in the mountains like you, frozen. And then kept him in some sort of cryofreeze periodically, his body showed the damage from it. That was our only explanation for how he survived. He hardly remembered anything. Especially at first. It took almost a month before he could tell us his name, we didn’t believe it at first but he knew his serial number from the war and we managed to track down photographs. All he knew was that his friend was supposed to save him, and all that HYDRA had fed him. They called him The Winter Solider. They’d used him as an assassin for the past fifty eight years. He was currently part of a project to combine your DNA’s the Goliath project... to create a super Solider twice as strong with mutant abilities from the mother’s side from birth. We don’t know if it was successful, we just uncovered more files from it the other day about them reopening it. Which is why we think they took him.”
Steve just blinked at her in shock. Like he wasn’t even able to process what she was saying. She didn’t blame him.
“Steve...” she reached out, “I’m sorry... I’m sorry I lied to you... I’m sorry we kept this from you...” Steve just shook his head, stumbling backwards over the desks behind him and knocking them over. He righted them before shaking his head. His eyes still wide before he fled from the room.
-
Fury didn’t say anything to her after the truth was revealed. He just turned and went to the agents telling them to finish up and meet back at the HQ,
Natasha left the building. Her chest felt tight in a way she didn’t think she’d ever experienced. Her feelings were beyond guilt and the physical ache was sharp not just unpleasant and uneasy.
She didn’t want to tell him at first. She thought by keeping Steve in the dark she was helping James. And maybe she was but now that he was gone and probably in serious danger transparency was needed. If there was anyone who would push to get him back it would be Steve. She knew James was the love of Steve’s life and he’d go to the ends of the earth for him and that’s what would be needed this time.
An anger and pain and determination so deep that wouldn’t let them leave any traces behind. When things were said and done HYDRA would be obliterated off the face of the earth. Steve would see to it and she would help him in any way he’d let her.
She knew it was a long shot that he’d even want her involved after the way she’d lied to him.
She knew he was struggling this whole time, there was an ache that would never be filled from waking up in a new century with everyone you knew and loved gone. Nobody who had shared life experience. And the fact that James had been there. Someone Steve loved so much, someone with shared life experience who probably needed Steve to properly heal as much as Steve needed him and she’d condoned keeping them apart.
Where had her head been? She knew she was always an agent first. Always a liar and a spy and a manipulator but since going straight with SHEILD, since actually forming relationships with people like Clint and Yelena, and others who she considered like blood, even Fury who was, in truth, like a father to her, since that she really thought that maybe part of that agent persona was shedding. That her brain was rewiring itself to be less widow and more human.
But this lapse in judgement showed her she still had a long way to go. She needed to continue to think about other people on personal and individual levels and not just the tactical or overall benefits of decisions. It wasn’t okay to use people in plots as a means to an end.
She hoped she’d earn Steve’s trust back someday. For now she’d be by his side and at his service as a teammate as they looked for James and took down Hydra once and for all.