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When Steve’s moratorium on television news expires, it’s been two months since he bought some land. He refuses to think about how much it is. The lawyers set up a fund to keep an eye of everything. They get regular donations from ordinary people. It’s kind of mind boggling.
He and Bucky are lightly sparring in the gym when Jarvis interrupts.
“Excuse me, gentlemen. Miss Darcy is requesting your presence in her office,” he says.
“We’ll be there in ten,” Steve says, laughing as Bucky attempts to pin him to the mat.
Ten minutes and one shower later, they walk into Darcy’s office. She’s sitting at her desk with a pile of official looking papers on her desk. She gestures for him to sit.
“So, what’s the what, dollface?” Bucky asks.
“I actually just needed Steve, but you should hear this too, and be a witness,” Darcy says, pushing the papers forward.
“And this is?” Steve asks.
“A contract. If you sign it, you stipulate that you will limit your activism to one thing a month.”
“Darce, that’s....”
She holds up a finger, reaching out to turn the pages. “Physical activism, meaning protests, sit-ins, or marches. Talk show and news appearances, interviews, and social media stuff is unlimited.”
Steve glances over the page she turned to and nods. “And if I miss a month?
“You can’t double up. Use it or lose it,” Darcy says, pointing to a paragraph. “There’s a list of shows you can go on and print media and journalists you can talk to. Anyone else, you have to get permission for.”
“Like Fox News,” Bucky chimes in.
“Like Fox News,” Darcy agrees. “There’s also an emergency exception clause. “If you’ve used your one per month and something comes up, you can bring it to me, Bucky, or another approved list of people.”
Steve turns a few pages to see that Sam and Pepper are both listed there. He nods in approval. “Okay, this all sounds good. Where do I sign?”
Darcy turns to the last page, handing him a pen. Steve signs, Bucky signs as witness, and Darcy signs. When it’s all done, she turns to put the contract in the filing cabinet behind her.
“Now, for being so agreeable, you get a present,” she says.
“You taking the rest of the day off?” he murmurs, looking her over.
“Sorry, I’ve got meetings. But, I do have you booked for a two p.m. interview on Fox and Friends for a talk on vaccinations.”
Steve grins, standing immediately. He crosses behind Darcy’s desk to sweep her up in a kiss. “You sure know how to treat a fella right, Darce.”
She just blushes and waves him off. “Go on, you’ll want to look your best.”
Steve nods, then turns to Bucky. “Wanna come?”
Can’t. Shuri’s flown in to have a look at the arm. Said she had a few upgrades.”
Steve pouts. “Fine. You’ll be here after?”
"We both will” Darcy assures him,
With that, Steve kisses her again, goes back around to kiss Bucky, then leaves.
***
Bucky finishes with Shuri early, the upgrades were quick and easy. But then again, working with the princess is always easy. He loves her quick wit, and she loves his willingness to indulge her experiments. He’s glad for the early end because that means he gets to watch Steve tear some idiots new ones. At their suite, he raises an eyebrow at seeing Darcy there.
“Thought you had meetings.”
“Two of them got moved because of more urgent business and the one finished quickly,” she explains. She holds out a huge bowl of popcorn. “Come, sit, let’s watch our man.”
Bucky joins, digging the remote out from the couch cushions to watch.
***
Steve is ready. Darcy almost never lets him come talk on Fox News or any of its similar ilk. Everyone is fairly polite when he arrives. He’s show to a waiting area, given an overview of what’s on topic, who else is going to be there. There’s a quick make-up session, which he’s more than used to now. He watches from the wings as the show starts. There’s about fifteen minutes recent news coverage. He tunes most of it out. He wants to save his energy for the debate.
“We’re ready for you, Captain,” one of the interns says, showing him to the table.
“Thanks,” he says. Steve knows most of the people here. He’s even traded barbs with the ‘moderator’ of the talk before. He sits up when the director counts them in. And then he waits. He could jump right in, but the tactician in him says wait. The right moment needs to come by for him to strike.
“And of course, we’ve seen a huge spike in autism cases in the last decade.”
Steve grins internally. He puts his best “Captain America is Disappointed in You” look and leans forward.
“BULLSHIT.”
***
“YES!” Bucky crows, tossing a piece of popcorn at the screen.
“You get ‘em Steve, show ‘em what for,” Darcy yells, scooting closer to Bucky.
***
“Excuse me?” the previous speaker says.
Steve’s expression goes menacing. “I said bullshit. Vaccines don’t cause autism. The doctor that put that out into the world has been proven time and time again to be wrong. He lost his licence to practice and has been shunned by the medical community.”
The moderator chimes in. “But there are studies that show an increase in autism diagnoses.”
“Because doctors know mostly what they are looking for now. There’s still room for improvement in diagnosing girls and minorities. Back in my day, you were special, crazy or a word I won’t say because it’s a slur. The eugenics programs were in full force. I coulda been a victim of that. Others were tossed into institutions where they were locked up, drugged up, and exposed to all kinds of things that are considered inhumane in this day and age.”
***
“God, I love it when he gets riled up,” Darcy says. She runs a hand over Bucky’s leg, moving slowly up. “I see that you do too.”
“Fuck, yeah. First time I caught him yelling a guys bigger than ‘im, I damn near got a stiffy.”
***
“If we’d had vaccines when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have had to turn to Doctor Erskine. I had scarlet and rheumatic fever. Damn near didn’t live through either of them. I just missed getting measles, that would have definitely killed me, And my ma... ma died from TB. She worked on the wards. Caught it there. A vaccination would have meant she’d’ve lived. Lived to see me healthy.
“Every discovery that’s been made, like penicillin, the polio vaccine; they’re miracles. Live saving miracles in a small needle. I would have given anything to have those as a kid. Vaccines save lives. Every single parent out there should get their kids vaccinated. IF you are against them, you are saying you are more afraid of having a kid who isn’t “normal” by some arbitrary standard than you are of them dying. Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I need to go make a large donation to vaccination programs.”
Steve stands up, pushing away from the table angrily. He tugs off the mic, hands it to an intern, stalking out of the studio. His phone buzzes. It’s a picture text. He waits until he’s in the car on the way back to open it.
Darcy is splayed out on the couch, half naked, reaching for Bucky who must have taken the picture. The accompanying text reads. “Hurry home, punk. You inspired us.”