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"Sergeant Barnes!" an altogether too smug voice calls out to Bucky.
He's gotten more used to hearing people call him that the more he works with the military. He knows what it's like being a soldier well enough to know they won't call him by a given name, so he has made peace with the rank, even if it leaves him feeling like the title belongs to a ghost.
The voice that calls out to him today, however, knows fucking better.
Bucky hands off his rifle to the nearest serviceman, glaring over at Maria Hill.
"I feel like it's been too long." She says brightly, falling into step next to him. The compound is crawling with the military and agents from various governmental acronyms, which means his work here is well and truly done.
"Really? I feel like it hasn't been long enough." He mutters back to her. He thinks they had told him there was a central tent where most of the coordination was taking place and he thinks he should be able to catch a ride outta here from there. He heads to the biggest tent he can spot, dodging around a group of scientists much too concerned with some alien doodad to look where they are going.
"Oh, you wound me, Barnes. And here I thought we were doing so well together." Maria responds, dry as the Sahara.
"A couple of days where I helped you and Rhodey answer some questions and in return no one tried to kill me? Yeah, it was swell." He replies, weaving through a line of servicemen carrying out a caravan of boxes filled with alien weaponry. "What are you doing here, Hill? I didn't think you worked with… well anyone really. Unless Fury is gonna jump out of one of these boxes," Bucky says gesturing at the chaos around them.
Hill just shrugs in that all-knowing way she has. "I needed a word." She replies easily.
Bucky stops abruptly, turning to face her, expression impassive. "So you flew out to a top-secret joint military operation in Nebraska instead of say… calling?"
"I was in the area" she continues vaguely.
"How'd you find me anyway?" He asks, eyes narrowing.
"Tracker in the arm," she responds lightly. He doesn't bite. While it wouldn't be above her to try something like that, Shuri monitors the thing and Bucky trusts her with his life. He maintains his flat stare. Hill eventually relents and rolls her eyes.
"God, you’re no fun.” She grumbles. “I asked, Barnes. You're working with the government here. I really was in the area you know, and believe it or not you're still more willing to talk to me than Captain America."
He can see she's telling the truth this time. He scowls, resuming his stride away from her. "I'm not your messenger boy,” he calls out over his shoulder. “You got work for Sam, you talk to him yourself. It’s not my fault you pissed him off"
Hill continues to follow him. Just his luck. This is what he gets for being nice and agreeing to lend a helping hand to S. W. O. R. D.
"Sam doesn't work in the real world. Sometimes decisions have to be made and all the options are bad. You know that. He'll hopefully never learn that."
Bucky doesn't pause, ducking into the central tent and scanning the room for someone, anyone who looks to be in charge. He's heard this all before. "Sam's not Steve, and both of them were more in touch with your reality than you give them credit for. Tell Fury people will start trusting him when he stops acting so fucking shady."
"Ou, nice use of the term shady. 10 points for Gryffindor." Hill replies with a smirk.
Bucky stops, facing her, "Gryffindor?"
She rolls her eyes. "Every time I think you're getting better… look. All I'm asking for is 5 minutes. The case is of interest to you too. You don't like what I have to say, exit is that way." She says pointing out the back of the tent.
Bucky frowns at her, eyes not leaving her face. He's shit at reading emotions but he's pretty damn good at picking out lies, and Hill is still telling the truth. He sighs. "Five minutes."
She smiles. "The room, please." She calls out, and immediately all the staff in the tent pack up and exit. He watches it happen with annoyance and not a small amount of astonishment.
"Is there any room you are in that you aren't in charge?" He grumbles.
Hill shrugs, dropping the file on the table and starting to rifle through it. "Well if Fury's around, technically I'm second in command."
Bucky glares. She seems unbothered.
"You remember that group in Cambodia you went after a few months back? Looked and quacked a little like Hydra but we couldn't find any solid links?"
He nods, mostly to himself. "Yeah, thought they were the first people that ever came up with the clever idea of stealing alien technology for their own use. Spent a lovely afternoon reminding myself why I don't travel to southeast Asia in monsoon season."
"Yeah well, we went through their finances with a fine-toothed comb, and when that didn't work we went through it again. Found a couple of links to one Wilfred Nagel."
Bucky blinks at her with a little consternation. "The guy that supplied the flagsmashers with their serum. He said he wasn't with Hydra anymore."
"Well, Dr Nagel is as truthful as he is alive. I didn’t come knocking for dead scientists though. The same bank account that was paying Nagel was also paying this man. Yuri Kushnir." Hill hands him a photo of an elderly man, clearly an intelligence shot, taken across the street into the window of a cafe. The photo doesn’t mean anything to him.
"You got 3 minutes left, Hill" Bucky knows he's probably being an ass, but it's always in his best interest to remind Hill that he doesn't, in fact, work for her.
"We think Yuri is an alias for this man" she continues, ignoring his interruption. She hands him another photo, this time of a younger man. It's black and white, taken from some sort of identification document. The man in it has a prominent nose, strong jaw and floppy hair. Par for the course circa 1960.
Bucky has a flash of memory then, the same face looking down at him as discomfort curls low in his gut, a familiar too pleased smirk contorting the features.
"I know him," he whispers, glancing up at Hill, who doesn't look surprised in the least. He scowls at her. "You expected that."
She at least has the courtesy to look contrite. "We weren't sure." She says softly. "This is Nikolai Novikov. Was the next hot thing in human conditioning research in the early 60s until some of his theories went too far down the rabbit hole for most academic societies. He all but disappeared in '66. Very little has been turned up with regards to the Winter Soldier program, as you are aware-" she adds, her tone conciliatory given his glare "-but one theory holds that Novikov was recruited by Hydra as a programmer and brought in when they were having problems with… well… you."
Bucky stares at the picture, but apart from a vague sense of discomfort, he gets nothing.
"I don't remember him working with me, but honestly, that doesn't mean much." He says finally, handing the picture back over to her.
"Novikov died in a terrorist blast in Indonesia in '83. Wrong place, wrong time. But, the old man is a 97% facial recognition match according to our best tech." He can feel Hill's sharp eyes on him still.
"So you have someone making a super serum and someone else digging up a supposedly long-dead human programmer." He states.
Hill nods. "One plus one leaves me thinking someone is missing you terribly."
"God, some days I really hate Erskine." He grumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose with his flesh hand. He can feel the headache starting behind his eyes.
"What do you say? Were my 5 minutes worth it?" Hill asks, voice flat.
He finally looks back up at her. Her expression is determined, even with how tired her eyes seem. "Depends. Why come to us? You have access to firepower. Why do you want us?"
Hill glances around her smoothly, sliding the pictures back into the little folder as she surreptitiously checks for eager ears before responding.
"Fury doesn't want this getting out. Too many of our own people are too interested in exactly how the Winter Soldier was created. We'd like eyes we trust to be the first in the room."
She lets him see just how honest that statement is. Fuck. He really wishes that at some point history would stop repeating itself.
"You have a location?" He asks quietly.
She pulls up a holographic map from her watch.
"Yeah, someone was paying to lease this base. It's in-"
"Kuznica?" He interrupts, a confused frown crossing his face.
"Yeah. You know it too?"
He sighs. "It’s an old Hydra holdover. It was never continuously occupied though. Used only as a rally or fallback point. Piece-of-shit little base in the ass-end of nowhere."
"We didn't know about it." She says, both disapproval and curiosity clear in her tone.
"Can you imagine? Something you don't know? How unlikely." Is his only reply.
He finally gets a glare for his trouble.
"Are you sure it was unoccupied?" she asks pointedly.
"I personally cleared it after all the shit with me and Steve in DC. Twice. Nothing and no one was there either time and no. They didn't know I was coming."
She hums. "How many other bases did you clear?" She questions, eyes boring into him. Bucky purses his lips. See, this is why it’s so important to remind her that he doesn’t work for her. She usually ends up assuming it anyway.
He smiles at her, the smile that he knows makes other people uncomfortable. The one that reminds them that he never stopped being the most dangerous predator in the room, just got better at hiding it.
"Enough. There was a reason they never wanted me off my leash."
She holds his gaze for 2 heartbeats before looking away, unable to fully hide her shiver of discomfort.
Bucky takes a deep, cleansing breath, yanking back on the reigns of the animal he can still feel prowling under his skin most days.
"I'll take this to Sam. No promises." He says easily, taking the file from her.
She smirks back at him, trying to find her bravado again. "I'll see you in Kuznica then."
He doesn't respond, just turns to head out to the main transport hub.
***************************************
He sends a message that he'll be coming in before his flight touches down in New Orleans, but doesn't expect much of a response on such short notice.
He's not wrong. Sam tells him he's at the base throughout most of the day he lands and he doesn't get a response from Sarah. He decides to rent a car to drive down to Delacroix, keeping his foot deliberately light on the gas pedal because he can feel the excitement crawling along his nerves. He saw her just under a month ago but the longer they continue this thing between them, the harder it becomes to be away from her.
By the time he finally pulls up outside the house he's almost vibrating with excitement, an unusual feeling for him.
He lopes easily up the front steps, reaching to unlock the door when it flies open on its own and his hand moves to catch a falling box before his mind has even caught up with the image in front of him.
Sarah gasps as the box falls but manages to bite back on her shout as she watches him catch it.
"James!" His name is barely more than a breath on her lips but it has his skin prickling in delight as goosebumps spread along the back of his neck.
"Hey, sweetheart. Moving pretty fast aren't you?" He says, mouth curving into an automatic grin at the picture she makes. Her hair has changed. Bulkier twists piled loosely atop her head, still framed by her usual gold hoops that manage to compliment her basic white t-shirt and jeans. He can't help the little flip his heart makes. She's the best thing he's seen in weeks.
He watches her lips curve into an answering smile, doing his best not to jump her just because he's missed her.
"I thought you'd be in around one." She says lightly. His smile only grows.
"It's 2:15." He replies easily. Her lips form a perfect ‘O’ of surprise, glancing behind her.
"Oh, shit-taki mushrooms!"
He makes a face. "Shiitake mushrooms?" he questions.
She rolls her eyes. "AJ got sent home last week for cursing in class. I'm trying to set a better example. The time got away from me. I'm so sorry, I was going to come get you."
"Don't even worry. I rented a car. Are you ok? What's all this?" He asks, looking at the box he's holding and the two that are balanced precariously in her arms.
She huffs, one hand dropping to her hip as she readjusts her load.
"The county decided they needed a whole bunch of records to renew our liquor license about 2 days ago. It's been a mad dash to get it done. The clerk's office closes at 4, I was just heading out… son of a bitch!"
His eyebrows make a break for his hairline at her sudden expletive. She drops the boxes to the ground as her second hand goes to her hip, akimbo, glancing behind her as if some unknown answer will appear.
"That doesn't seem very PG" he mutters.
She gives him a truly unimpressed look.
"I lost track of time. The boys need to be picked up at 3. There is no way I'm making it to their school and then back to the clerk’s office in NoLa in that time." She grouches, huffing out a frustrated breath.
"I can do it." He offers immediately. Her dark eyes flick up to him.
"I can grab the boys or take the documents to the clerk. Whichever you want." He says easily. He watches her chew on her lip as she takes in his offer, the motion distracting.
She glances at the boxes then stares out at her SUV behind him. "The county clerk could decide that they need more information or signatures or… something." She mumbles to herself.
He shrugs. "Then I'll get the boys." He states.
She frowns at him consideringly. "This could take a couple hours. You'd be with them for a while."
"I can topple governments, Sarah. I think I can manage the boys for a few hours." He says, an affectionate smile on his lips.
She laughs a little at that, finally focussing on him for a moment, her gaze carrying enough warmth to make even the Louisiana sun seem arctic in comparison.
"Ok. If you're sure. You've barely put down your bags, but if you want to." She says a little hesitantly.
He tilts his head. "Will it make your day easier?" He asks.
She nods, teeth once again worrying at her lip.
"Then it's not even a question."
She ducks her head before she looks back up at him, her eyes tired but happy.
"I haven't even said hello." She whispers to him, eyes dropping to his lips.
His smile gets lazy. "We can fix that." He mutters a moment before he captures her lips with his. Her mouth is warm and soft and welcoming. Her tongue slips into his mouth like it belongs there as her arm slides up the side of his neck, her touch setting him alight.
He pulls away from her, knowing his smile is dopey and unable to do anything about it.
"Hi," he says stupidly, tilting his head down to touch their foreheads together.
She laughs. "Hi, I missed you." She breathes like a secret into their little space. She glances down at the watch on her wrist then grimaces. "But I have to go. Traffic is going to kill me getting into the city." She grumbles.
He nods easily, stepping back and grabbing the boxes she was carrying before she can.
"Thanks," she says distractedly, reaching for her phone. "I'll call the school, let them know you are gonna grab the boys."
Bucky nods, sliding the boxes into the passenger seat as she climbs behind the wheel.
"Sounds good. I'll see you later." He replies backing away from the SUV as it starts. She pauses for a moment with the engine running just staring over at him.
"It's really good to have you home, James." She says softly, and the fact that she calls this place - her place- home for him too, makes his insides do an uncomfortable flip, his stomach weighed down with both affection and wide-eyed fear.
"It's good to be home." He replies.
She nods, a small smile lighting up her face and then she's off.
Bucky stands there a while, staring after the car, trying to breathe through the overwhelming swell of emotions he's suddenly drowning in. The cacophony in his head shrieks louder and louder, his skin twitching and buzzing uncomfortably. He makes a fist with his skin and bone arm, pushing the dull crescent of his nails into the callused flesh of his palm. The pain helps to focus him, sharpens his senses to the here and now. He listens to the sound of the creek in the woods behind the house, picks out the lemony fresh scent of the camellias that dot the property, all while trying to ignore the voice in his head that says that he's not worthy, or worse, actively dangerous to the life that's coalescing around him.
The moment passes, leaving Bucky's shoulders slumped as he pants, trying to catch his breath.
"Fucking headcase." He mutters at himself. Who the hell almost has a panic attack at feeling home?
He takes a deep breath, glancing down at his watch and curses. He has responsibilities to maintain.
*********************************
He's waiting in the parking lot when the boys walk out of school, the noise and commotion of almost a hundred kids let free at the same time grating on his advanced senses.
He watches AJ and Cass look around for their mom, then spot him. They make their way over slowly, their normal boisterous nature oddly tame.
He frowns as they get closer, can see faint marks on AJs cheeks that indicate he's been crying.
"Hey, pal, what's going on? What's wrong?" He asks and gets treated to a rare sight. AJ scowls at him.
"Nothing. Where's mom?" AJ grumbles, bony arms crossing over his chest. Bucky almost laughs at the shocked look Cass shoots at AJ, large eyes going wide.
"She had an errand to run in town. She asked me to come get you." Bucky explains, opening the back door and watching Cass scramble into his seat.
This close Bucky can see the small bruise low on AJ's jawline. He knows those bruises, that's not a fall. That's a hit.
He reaches for AJs chin, delicately turning his face slightly to examine the bruise more intently. It's pretty small, likely made from another small hand glancing off his jaw. A fight then.
"What's the other guy look like, slugger?" Bucky asks quietly. AJ's dark eyes flick up to his, then away just as quickly as he takes a deep breath, opening his mouth to answer.
"Just... before you decide on a lie, remember I've been getting into tussles since before your grandparents were born." Bucky interrupts and AJ looks back up at him, mouth frozen.
"Told you it wouldn'ta worked." Cass says from inside the car. AJ huffs and pulls away from Bucky's hand, worming around him to climb into the backseat. He buckles his seat belt rather aggressively and morosely stares ahead.
Bucky stares at him for a moment, the stubborn jut of his chin a perfect imitation of his mom and his uncle. He sighs. That damn jawline is gonna start haunting his dreams any day now. Bucky closes the car door and gets behind the wheel, pulling out of the lot, as silence descends in the car. It remains unbroken for one mile, then another, until AJ huffs with annoyance.
"You really aren't going to ask again?" AJ mutters.
Bucky glances at him in the rearview mirror and shrugs. "If you don't want me to know, that's your choice AJ, but eventually you are going to have to tell someone, probably your mom." Bucky replies.
"My mom? You're gonna tell mom?" He whines, dark eyes suddenly wide and pleading.
"If your school hasn't told her yet," Bucky replies.
"My school doesn't even know," AJ mutters with an impressive amount of exasperation.
"Know what exactly?" Bucky asks lightly. AJ sighs staring out the back window.
"There's this guy in my class. He’s a bully and an asshole." AJ says.
"Hey, watch the language big guy." Bucky frowns.
AJ makes a face like a sourpuss but continues.
"He's been saying some really dumb stuff about Uncle Sam. And you-"
Bucky feels his stomach drop at that but keeps his expression neutral.
"-and today he said something about mom and I told him to shut up and he hit me and I hit him back." AJ finishes.
Bucky waits a minute more after that, but AJ says nothing else.
"Did anything happen after you hit him? " Bucky questions. AJ shakes his head.
"No… I don't think he expected me to hit him back. He went away."
"And you didn't tell your teacher that this kid attacked you?"
AJ huffs again. "I didn't want mom to know." He mutters under his breath.
Bucky nods, refocusing on the road. The car ride is silent for the next 5 minutes until Bucky pulls into the local ice cream parlour a few minutes from their home. He swings the car into a spot and hops out, sliding his sunglasses on as he opens the back door.
AJ just kind of stares up at him in confusion.
"Come on. Out." He says, gesturing with his head. AJ moves slowly but makes his way out of the car as Cass scrambles out the other side.
Bucky pulls a 20 from his wallet and hands it to AJ. "Go get you and your brother something."
AJ regards him with suspicion. "What about you?"
"Surprise me. I'll find us a seat."
AJ pauses for just a breath before he runs off, Cass on his heels.
Bucky lets out a forceful breath, feeling it empty his lungs. He isn't the right person to have whatever conversation this needs to be with AJ. It should be Sam or Sarah. Someone who knows something about children and the 21st century and doesn't have the blood of presidents and women and children tattooed into their fingertips.
Bucky growls at himself, running a hand roughly through his hair. He's the one that's here though, and he's never been able to ignore a scrawny kid getting into fights for good reasons.
He grabs a table at the corner of the outdoor lot, under the cover of an old sycamore and waits for the boys to come back. It doesn't take very long. AJ returns with a cone of what's probably fake pumpkin flavouring for himself cause he's weird like that, Cass with what he's sure is cookies and cream, and a little bowl of something that is clearly meant for him.
AJ hands him his small cardboard bowl and a spoon, then sits, eyeing him suspiciously while Cass goes to town on his cone. Bucky tastes a spoonful of his ice cream and hums approvingly.
"What is this?" He asks absently.
"Rum and raisin," AJ replies easily. "It's what the old people always eat." He adds cheekily.
Bucky gives him a flatly unimpressed look as Cass giggles to himself and AJ gives licking his ice cream cone far more focus than it could ever truly require.
He doesn't say anything else after that, just lets the silence get overlong and cloying as Cass keeps glancing between him and AJ. Bucky holds the quiet though, waiting him out. Ayo always used this method to get him to talk, and he'd like to think he's slightly more stubborn than a 10-year-old.
"Are you gonna tell mom?" AJ finally breaks.
Bucky shrugs easily. "Depends on the story. You wanna tell me what happened?"
AJ huffs but his shoulders seem to collapse in on himself. "The boy… his name is Jordan and he doesn’t like me-”
“Jordan doesn’t like anyone ,” Cass interrupts.
“-he always has something mean to say, you know." AJ continues. "He used to pick on my friend Akshay cause he has that stutter sometimes when he's really nervous…"
Bucky nods encouragingly. He doesn't know Akshay but he's heard enough about him.
"But since Uncle Sam's been Captain America he's always trying to say something to me, but I've been ignoring him like Mom always says to do with bullies, I swear I was!" AJ says quickly, large eyes looking at him pleadingly.
"Ok. It's ok." Bucky replies easily and is reaching over to brush AJ’s cheek reassuringly before he can think better of it. The move seems to quiet AJ and Bucky's heart lurches painfully in his chest. He has not thought of his touch as comforting to anyone but Steve in 80 years and it seems wrong that the innocence of AJ should be comfortable against his skin.
He pulls back his hand and AJ takes a stuttering breath.
"At lunch today he came around and was saying how everyone knew the shield should have gone to you cause you were Captain America's best friend and Uncle Sam stole it and that's why you've been coming around."
Bucky fights hard to keep his expression neutral at that. It's such bullshit. Bullshit he knows this kid is probably picking up from his parents, so he bites his tongue. At no point in the last 100 years has he figured out a way to cure stupid, and overreacting won't do anything except make AJ stop and he wants him to keep talking. "Ok," he says encouragingly.
"And when I told him no, that you were here because you care about Uncle Sam and Mom and us, he said mom was just being desperate and trying to land us a new dad."
Bucky's eyes just about pop out of his head. "And then?" he prompts.
AJ glances up at him and sighs before looking away guiltily. ”And then I said unlike his dad, our dad hadn't left us, he'd died, so he didn't need replacing."
Bucky chokes. Finds himself quietly coughing up bits of raisin as he tries to compute that response.
"Ok, wow. Is that when he got you?"
AJ nods. Bucky takes another necessary bite of his ice cream to buy himself a moment to think. He glances over to see Cass watching him, clearly waiting for his reaction, waiting for him to… parent?
Oh God, that's what's happening right now. He's parenting. A task that neither the military, hydra, nor any other aspect of his life has prepared him for. He's not sure what to say, what the right answer to the question in their eyes is, but he's never been a coward and he's not about to become one now.
He scrapes the last of his ice cream out, not focusing too hard on AJ. "Did it make you feel better?" He asks.
He sees AJ quietly frown out of the corner of his eyes.
"What I said or when I hit him?"
Bucky shrugs. "Either. Both."
AJ spares a quick look up at him then over at his brother who is looking at him like he's Moses carrying the commandments before he lets out a sad sigh.
"No. Not really. I felt kinda crappy after. I… I didn't mean to say that about his dad. I was just.. just tired of him coming at me all the time."
Bucky hums, thinking for a bit about what he wants to say. What he wants them to understand.
"Look-" he starts, voice hoarse with the weight of his thoughts. "I won't sit here and pretend I wouldn't have said something back to him, or maybe even hit him too-"
"You would have?" Cass interrupts, a dubious frown on his face.
Bucky shrugs carefully. "I don't know. I don't think a lot of the time we know exactly what we'd do in those situations until we're there… and I don't want to tell you that what you did was wrong or right, cause what he did was definitely wrong too…" he trails off
"Mom always says two wrongs don't make a right." AJ murmurs.
He smiles. He's heard both Sarah and Sam say that at different times. "Yeah, but she's a better person than me," Bucky replies with the utmost honesty. The thought of her leaves the smile lingering on his face for a moment before he refocuses.
"What I'm trying to say… trying to ask really, is did your response feel like the type of person you want to be? What you did, are you happy with it?"
AJ is quiet for a moment, playing with his own fingers in small, fidgety movements before he shakes his head.
"No. It didn't feel good. I didn't feel good." He whispers.
"Then I think you have your answer, buddy. You don't need me to tell you if you were wrong or right."
AJ looks up at him with big brown eyes and for a moment his lip trembles, and Bucky is sure he's about to cry, another thing he'd be ill-prepared to manage. But the moment passes. AJ takes a deep breath and seems to find his feet again.
"I think… I think I should tell mom." He says at last and Bucky smiles. "Yeah, I think you should too."
***************************
Bucky manages to get the boys home and get homework and dinner started without too many other crises popping up. It's just past sunset when he hears Sarah's car coming down the main road and he wanders onto the front porch a few minutes before her headlights cut the dusk.
He leans against the railing, his whole body releasing tension he wasn't aware he was carrying as he watches her climb out of the SUV.
"Hey." Her voice floats over to him on the warm currents of the evening, a welcome balm for his battered soul.
"Hey yourself. How'd it go?" He asks as she strolls down the driveway to him.
"As hellish as everything involving tax, the county government and paperwork always is." She mutters before eying him up and down boldly. Her lips curl into a smirk, "Though I could get used to coming home to this view."
The unexpected compliment brings a ridiculous flush to his face. He's a fucking assassin. He doesn't blush.
"But it got done?" He continues, willing himself not to react.
Her smile doesn't dim as she nods. "But it got done. How'd you do?"
He smiles at her inquisitive tone, completely enamoured with the tired affection that shines from her eyes.
"AJ got into a fight at school."
Her smile drops off her face like it carries a weight.
"What?! A fight?! What?!!" She hisses.
"The school doesn't know and he is fine-" he adds quickly, trying to diffuse her temper before it gets well and truly started. " -but yes. He's gonna tell you all about it when you head inside."
She frowns at him then at the door behind him.
"So my son got into a fight that no one but his classmates knew about and told you he was gonna come home and tell me… without any prompting?" She asks dubiously.
He shrugs. "You got some good kids, Sarah. What can I say? You're doing one hell of a job with them."
Her eyes flick to his, a little shocked and a little pleased. She purses her lips, but whether she's fighting a smile or a frown, he's not sure.
"That's a real likely story, James." She mutters.
He huffs out a small laugh. "Maybe, but what matters is he made the decision to tell you all on his own. So go easy on him, ok?"
The frown wins out on her face.
"No promises… What happened? What got my baby to throw a punch?"
Bucky pushes off the railing, stuffing his hands deep in his pockets as he shakes his head.
"What all you Wilsons get into fights over, protecting someone else."
Sarah actually cracks a grin at that and a moment later new headlights swing unto the property. Sarah glances over her shoulder at Sam as he parks the truck.
"Dinner's in the oven," Bucky mumbles and she looks back over at him, her eyes deep and unfathomable as she studies his face. Whatever she finds, she nods, kissing him slowly before heading into the house.
"Aren't you tired of kissing her?" Sam grumbles good-naturedly at him. Bucky's eyes are still following her path into the house.
"Not yet." He replies.
Sam huffs. "You come all this way just to stare at her?"
The question knocks Bucky out of whatever little world he was just seeing, a place where maybe this could be his life, and back into the real world.
He faces Sam, his expression already returning to his baseline frown.
"I had a truly lovely visit from Hill. She came and found me, said she had work."
Sam's eyebrows go up. "Found you? In Nebraska?" He sounds incredulous.
“It's where I was, wasn't it?"
Sam shrugs. "Yeah and that was shocking enough as it is. Poor Nebraska. I don't think it was built for that much excitement."
Bucky rolls his eyes and decides to ignore his smart mouth. "Seems Nagel wasn't as honest as we thought and maybe hydra isn't as dead as we hoped."
The expression on Sam's face gets tight, tension coiling it's way around his shoulders at the news.
"We got a name?" Sam asks darkly.
Bucky nods. "Nikolai Novikov. Even got a location."
Sam sighs and turns, heading into the house with Bucky on his heels
"You just bring me the best presents don't you?"
A wry smile curves Bucky's lips.
"Well... I do try "