Chapter Text
They hadn’t moved since she’d checked on them a few hours ago, and Nat could tell that they both were restless. Bucky was still sitting in the chair, staring at the lock screen on Andy’s phone. If Nat remembered correctly, it was a picture of Ben proudly brandishing a toy shield in front of Steve, who held his own. The home screen was an adorable close-up of Ben grinning. She considered telling him the passcode. She’d at least have to bring a charger later.
Steve, on the other hand, was glaring a hole into the ceiling tile now instead of sleeping. He was probably contriving a way to get out of the hospital and go find the missing Douglases. Who was she kidding, of course, he was.
“You’d think the ceiling tiles had personally offended you,” she said, perching on the foot of the hospital bed. Steve shot her a look.
“Do you have an update?”
“We found Clint. He was in a dumpster a few streets north of the van.”
“And?”
“He’s downstairs. He hasn’t woken up yet, and until then, we don’t have much more than we had last night. But we’re working on it. You two aren’t the only ones worried about them,” Nat said, glancing at Bucky. He had turned the screen off. “Her passcode is 031015,” she said, getting up and leaving.
Bucky glanced down at the screen. He didn’t care about opening it, he was too busy thinking about what he’d missed. He could have come back with Andy when she offered. He should have come back with her. None of this would have happened if he had.
But more than that, he’d missed out on Ben. He’d convinced her to keep him, she’d named him after him. And he hadn’t met the kid yet. (And now maybe he never will.) Ben seemed like a good kid. How could he be anything but with his family?
*****
They let Steve go two days later. Clint still hadn’t woken up. To stay close, almost everyone was staying at Andy’s house. Bucky was impressed — not because it was big (which it was) but because of how modest and homey it was compared to her neighbors.
The drive a long curve, gated by the road. Natasha had to lean out of the car to punch in the security code to let them in. The front lawn was well-kept and green, and there was a simple fountain in the circle inside the curve of the driveway.
The house itself was two stories with a grandiose front porch. A balcony on the second floor created the overhang, which was supported by smooth stone columns. Everything was a warm brown tone.
The inside was nice, too, though it probably would look nicer when several adults weren’t living in it. Vision and Tony were camped out at the dining room table, sifting through things on the internet. Looking for a reason behind all this.
Wanda and Pietro were in the kitchen, cooking dinner. Bucky was surprised how big it was (he was pretty sure you could have fit his apartment in Romania in it). The granite countertops were hidden under prepared dishes and what the twins were working on. Wanda stopped as soon as she saw Steve, brushing off her hands on her apron before hugging him and leading him to another room to sit down.
Sam grabbed Steve’s bag from Bucky and disappeared around a corner, taking it upstairs to wherever Steve was going to be staying.
Bucky felt like he was in the way.
“Bucky,” Natasha said, “why don’t you help us look through these articles and news clips?”
“Sure,” he said, sitting down at the table. Something to do. He pulled up the first article.
*****
An Afternoon With Lady Liberty
By G. Harper
June 15, 2018
A mbassador Douglas is an interesting woman. Having entered the world stage anonymously at first as a companion to Loki, she has since captured attention on her own merit as an associate of the Avengers, long-term girlfriend of Captain Steve Rogers, ambassador for Polaris, and finally U.N. Ambassador and Presidential Cabinet Member. All by the young age of 24.
Now, at only 26, she once again is turning heads with her involvement in the Sokovia Accords, international legislation dealing with the rising numbers of enhanced, mutant, and Inhuman individuals. But people know hardly anything about her.
I set out to change that and arranged an interview with America’s “Lady Liberty.”
A s I pulled up to her house near the East River in New York, I noticed that Amb. Douglas is quite obviously not used to having a lavish lifestyle, as everything was very modest. While speaking with her over the course of the day, I learned that she is from a small town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a far cry from New York.
She introduced herself as Miranda, saying “titles have their place, and that is not my house,” with a smile. I obliged.
Most of our interview was conducted on her terrace overlooking her backyard, much of which was a beautiful garden. The garden was no surprise since she spent so much time at the White House and Versailles, both of which have beautiful gardens.
We sipped on iced tea as we talked. I asked her how she felt about being in public eye.
“I don’t like it,” she admitted, “but as long as Ben is left alone, I don’t really mind. I knew I would be from the moment I went to the Palais Garnier. But it can get stressful.” I asked if she got to spend much time with Ben, her 4-year-old son.
“Not nearly as much as I’d like to,” she said. “But I know I’m helping to build a better world for him. Hopefully, it’s one that will accept him,” she said, referring to her son’s parentage as half-human and half-Asgardian.
I asked the ambassador what her biggest regret in life was. She laughed and said she’d have to think about that.
“There’s so many things I wish hadn’t happened, but I don’t know if I necessarily regret any of them.”
So I asked what she would call the most defining moment in her life.
“Oh, gee, I guess having to switch to my backup thesis in college.” I asked her to elaborate. “I majored in history, and my original idea for my senior thesis got shot down, so I had to switch to my second option. Luckily I got to do that one since I didn’t have a third!” I asked why she thought this was so defining.
“If I hadn’t switched, I wouldn’t have set up a study-abroad in Norway. I was waiting in JFK [International Airport] when Loki attacked New York. I ended up not leaving New York for about a year instead of a few hours.” I asked if she’d ever made it to Norway.
“No, not yet,” she laughed. “Hopefully someday I’ll finally get there.” I commented that it would make a great honeymoon getaway. She blushed and looked away.
“That would require a wedding first,” she said. “Which isn’t happening anytime soon. Steve’s old-fashioned, and I know he won’t ask for a while yet.”
But it is something you see in the future?
“Someday, maybe. Part of me certainly hopes so,” she said with a small smile.
I asked her what she thought of the “Lady Liberty” title.
“At first I thought it was kind of ridiculous, but it’s grown on me I think. I just hope I live up to it.”
M iranda Douglas has spent the last four years of her life in the public eye, something she still isn’t used to. That has, to some extent, worked in her favor as she remained humble and grounded despite everything that has happened to her.
“I was told that my twenties would be spent figuring out who am I as a person, but I didn’t expect it to go anything like this. I expected to be scrounging together enough money for rent each month, but here I am,” she said, gesturing to her house. “Sometimes I can’t believe any of it is real.”
Amb. Douglas also struggles to grasp her importance on the global scale — she understands her political importance, but her social importance eludes her.
“I’m surprised every time someone comes up to me and asks for an autograph or a photo and tells me their story because of my work with Polaris. I never expect it. And then people call me ‘Lady Liberty’ like I’m a superhero.”
I told her that people do think of her as a hero. There’s even art online. She smiled and admitted that she has seen some of it. Her favorite is a parody poster of Rosie the Riveter.
H istory, she said, was her first love. Her uncle was a historian, and she looked up to him and followed in his footsteps as a Captain America aficionado.
“My best friend and I always worked things back around to the Howlies. I think our teachers got tired of it or at least warned the next teacher because eventually we were told to not do reports on them anymore. But we did anyway.”
She said that her favorite Howling Commando was Sgt. James Barnes, now more commonly known as the Winter Soldier. She spoke very fondly of Sgt. Barnes, as she met him while he was assigned to be her personal protection for most of 2013.
“I always admired him for being at Steve’s side through everything. I felt the same way about my best friend. Loyal till the last, even after everything he’s been through.”
I asked what her boyfriend thought of her admiration for both Sgt. Barnes and himself.
“I thought it was more awkward than Steve did. I still do. I mean, I used to have posters of them tacked up in my bedroom. It’s very strange to go from that to actually knowing them, let alone dating.” She added that she never thought she would become a part of history.
“I always thought that I would study it, but now it’s up close and I’m shaping it. It’s a scary thought sometimes — it’s a huge responsibility.”
That it is, but as we all have seen Amb. Douglas is prepared and capable of fulfilling that responsibility.
M any readers want to know more about Amb. Douglas’ personal life, but she requested that her personal life stays private.
“But if people want to know my favorite color, it’s purple,” she joked.
While I didn’t get all the answers that people are dying to hear, or get to ask all the questions that are buzzing around my brain, I consider that summer afternoon last week to have been very productive. The globe got a glimpse into the life and mind of one of the most powerful people in the world.
*****
That wasn’t so bad. So of course the comments sections was going to be hell to go through. And they were in reverse chronological order, with the most recent ones at the top. Bucky to the tenth death threat before he stopped.
“There’s got to be an easier way than going through these manually.”
“Once Friday reboots, there will be,” Tony said. “But whoever is behind this, they wanted to make sure that we couldn’t find them quickly.” He scowled, turning back to his own screen. Bucky continued going through comments.
*****
Later that night, after scrolling through half a dozen articles and a handful of news clips and the thousands of comments on each, Bucky excused himself to get some rest. His eyes were burning, and the list of internet douchebags (Natasha said they’re called “trolls”) that he wanted to punch was getting obscenely long. Bucky understood why they weren’t letting Steve help.
“Barnes,” Natasha said, catching him before he could head upstairs. She waved over her shoulder and walked down the hall, clearly wanting him to follow.
She opened one of the doors, revealing Miranda’s office. The computer’s fans hummed. The polished cherry desk was covered in papers and folders. A small dish had several thumb drives resting on it. Next to the monitor was a picture of Ben, and next to that a framed doodle of a family (if Bucky had to guess).
Natasha pulled out a box from the bottom of the bookshelf and put it on the desk, the label facing him. In a clean, looping hand was his name.
“Whenever she found something she wanted to show you, she put it in here,” Natasha said. “Have fun.” With that, she left.
Bucky slowly lifted the lid. There was an unorganized pile of papers and photographs. There was a thumb drive as well. He decided to start there.
The first thing that came up was a file labeled “Open Me.” He clicked on it. There was another file in that one, but there was also a video. He clicked on it and Miranda’s face took up the screen.
She smiled softly, tucking hair behind her ear. She was in a T-shirt cardigan and jeans. The background was unfamiliar.
“ James, if you’re watching this, that means you came home. I don’t know how far in the future that is, but I’m glad you did regardless. And even if you never do, Dr.Arzt said that this would be good for me. ” She wrinkled her nose. “ Have fun going through the Rabbit Hole, I guess. ” The video ended there.
He clicked on the file. It was called “Open Me Too.” The video had been “Watch Me.” The file was a few pictures of Miranda and Ben. He couldn’t have been more than a few months old. Miranda was sickly pale, but she looked happy. There was a document, “Read Me.”
Dear James,
I miss you. I wish you were here to meet Ben. I think you’d love him. He’s a troublemaker, like me. If I’m not paying attention, he crawls off to who knows where. I have to barricade him in the living room. It’s like Les Mis, it’s ridiculous.
It’s hard to put things into words. I want to tell you what life is like, but I don’t know how. I don’t know how to make it sound interesting.
I’m cooking a lot. Helps me calm down. Do you remember all those times I talked about cooking? God, I missed it so much. But now my freezer’s full. Oops.
I feel silly, writing to you and not even knowing if you’ll ever see it.
I wish I knew where you were.
I wish you’d come home.
XO — Andy
He opened the next file. More pictures. Ben was growing quickly this way. Miranda looked healthier. Her hair was growing back. A few of the pictures featured other Avengers. There was another video.
“ It’s weird, doing it like this, ” she said, half-spinning side to side in a chair. The background was the same as the first video. “ Things are kinda jumbled up. The pictures are older, from before this project. If you wanted to know. ” She picked at the hem of her sweater. “I feel like an idiot ,” she said abruptly. “ Steve and I — we’ve been fake-dating for like three months now. And I can’t wrap my head around what Nat’s got up her sleeve. But I know I’m still hung up on you. Oh, god, I hope you never see this. I’d be so embarrassed.”
Bucky blinked a few times, staring at the last frame of the video. Fake-dating? Hung up on him? What?
Bucky dug deeper. More pictures, videos, letters. A few scans of Ben’s “art” accompanied by notes about how he was trying to copy Steve. The background changed to a different office. Miranda looked different in those, like she was slightly paranoid. But it was only for one video. The rest were the office Bucky was in now.
“ I’m so angry at you, ” started the last video. “ I’m so angry, Bucky, and I don’t — I just — argh! Why couldn’t you come home, Bucky? Why didn’t you come with me? Steve and I weren’t really dating, if that’s what it was. It was fake. But now it’s not because I’m a dumbass who decided that if you weren’t gonna take your chance with Steve then I might as well and now I’m kicking myself because I can’t lose either of you. I can’t. And the Accords… God dammit, Bucky, I need you here. You always knew what to say. I miss you. ”
He paused the video. The date stamp was from September 29. He hit play.
“ I miss you so much. If you woulda just come home with me — forget it. I played my cards in Bucharest, right? I didn’t have anything else. Now I just gotta keep your ass out of prison.” She smirked half-heartedly before the video cut out.
She’d forgotten one card in Bucharest. Neither of them were even aware it was on the table.
Her.
******
In the morning, everyone crowded in the living room. They had no theories, no solid evidence of any kind, no leads. Nothing. There was no ransom demand, no hint that they were even alive. It was radio silence outside the media, which was freaking out. Some far-right sources were claiming that their kidnappings and Steve getting shot were all ploys to distract from the Accords and Miranda coming out as a mutant.
They had nothing. It was a waiting game now until Clint woke up.
But they didn’t know how long the Douglases had.