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Sophia brings the baby to their door. Well, not exactly their door, but something like it. They’re in a Commando safehouse in Europe, Bucky’s not even sure which one at this point, hunkered down after a few weeks wiping out Hydra cells. They're as close to relaxed as they can get, Bucky riding the steady wave of returning memories, and enjoying the rare downtime, when the perimeter alert sounds.
Bucky goes for their guns while Steve goes for the cameras and they're treated to the sight of a familiar black-clad blond facing down a half-dozen gunmen. The staff in her hand is a steady blur of motion, but she's fighting one-handed. "It looks like she's hurt," Steve says at his shoulder, the words clipped with a feeling Bucky knows well. These kids are family. Anyone who hurts them is going to be in for a world of hurt and Bucky smiles with the thought.
The camera angles aren't good enough and she isn't slowing down enough that they can get a clear look at the injury, but it doesn't matter. They're already heading for the exits.
Sophie's cut down half her opponents by the time they reach ground, closing in from either side of her, and Bucky guesses he's probably not supposed to be proud of that. Fuck 'em, he is anyway.
"Nice night for a fight."
She smiles at him over her shoulder, bright and happy, and fuck that's Falsworth grinning at him. He grins back, ignoring the stabbing pain of the loss, and takes aim at the thug closing in on them both.
Steve's shield whizzes past them both, hitting the guy in the forehead, and bounces back the way it came.
"Show off," Bucky sighs, wishing he could hate himself for loving it, but not really at all.
"Yes, but he loves it so," Sophie replies. "Duck please."
He does and her staff flicks out. There's the dull thud of the metal connecting with flesh, then heavier thud as someone drops to the concrete. Bucky doesn't even look back, just grimaces at Sophie. "I am going to get to kill somebody, right? Because this is friggin' ridiculous."
She fakes a pout at him, then steps back with a flourish of her staff. "Be my guest."
It's that gesture that gets him a look at her other arm and when he does, Bucky puts down the rest of the attackers with quick, merciless efficiency. This isn't the time for messing around. "Inside," he says, almost lifting Sophia off her feet in the rush to get her there, barely giving her a chance to collapse her staff to avoid poking him in the head with it.
He keeps look as he goes, leaving Steve to deal with the bodies. It won't take long. Commandos knew their way around hiding a body seventy years ago; Bucky can see the guys handiwork in everything the kids do. Nice to see the kids listening to their elders like that.
Still, he almost wishes it were longer because this part ain't going to be pleasant. Not when Sophie tells the story about the squirming bundle she's cradling against her chest. She's just unwrapping it when Steve closes the door behind them.
The baby's six months old at the most, in pink pajamas, and squeals at Bucky. Her smile's the prettiest thing that he's ever seen and he can almost forget why Sophie would bring a baby to a Commando safehouse.
Steve doesn't.
"Who?" he asks, quiet with the grief that's just waiting around Sophie's answer. "Who did we lose?"
"Juniper," she says, without looking up. Bucky knows the feeling. It's easier to tell Steve shit like this without having to see the responsibility settle on his shoulders. "His great-nephew, actually. Non-combatants the both of them, but they've been working in Sokovia. He checked in with one of our relay stations yesterday. He had the sense that someone had been following them, but no real proof."
Bucky reaches a hand out toward the baby, entranced when she grabs a finger and holds on tight. "And when you got there--"
"Hydra had already found them." Sophie sinks down onto a chair, the adrenaline fading to be replaced by exhaustion and hurt. "There wasn't much left to do but take Maggie and run."
"Looks like you did a little more than that," Steve says. There's maybe a trace of pride in his voice. Bucky hides a grin. There's not much that keep Steve's demons at bay, but the kids sure as hell give it their best shot. "You're bleeding. Buck, you wanna--" he gestures at Maggie "--while I fix up Sophie?"
Bucky starts to protest. He does. He's the last person that should be holding a baby. It's been a long time since they were kids in the neighborhood, with the little ones hanging off his and Steve's every step. He's not even sure he remembers how to do this anymore and then there's the other problem.
He looks at his arm, at Steve and Sophie, and then at little Maggie again. He can't do this. He can't.
"Yeah," he says, finally, "I got her."
She's heavier than he thought, warm against the metal of his arm, and goddamn wriggly. As soon as he picks her up, she starts waving her arms, squealing and reaching out for him. She ends up with a fistful of his shirt and he swears she practically hauls him over.
Damn, he likes this kid.
"I think she likes you," Sophie says, then yelps and Bucky catches sight of her batting at Steve's hands. "Mind that," she scolds, laughing as Steve holds her still and keeps right on cleaning the wound. "Honestly, you're a barbarian."
Steve's response almost has Bucky covering the baby's ears. He settles for asking,"What happens to her now?" instead.
"Same as always; we take her in."
There's a world in that answer. Bucky pictures child after child being taken out of wreckage, carried away from disaster, and brought to a Commando's home. Instead of a new life, new name, new everything, there's a big, sprawling network of a family that never, ever sees you lost and alone. Fuck everything else, there's always someone.
He smiles at Maggie. She hiccups and snuggles into him. "You hear that, Princess? Somebody's going to make sure you're okay."
"I think someone already is."
Sophie tries to hide the sly note in her voice, a trick she had to have learned from Natasha, but they both hear it. They share a look and then pretty much start protesting at once. No way, absolutely no way, they *cannot* raise a kid. Not with their lives. They're fighting a goddamn *war*.
"And we aren't?" Sophie raises an eyebrow as she looks from one to the other. "I grew up in this war and, I might add, without either one of you to come to the rescue. We've managed to raise entire generations in the midst of this and, if you haven't noticed, gentlemen, we take care of our own. She'll never want for a protection or babysitters." She smiles. "That's what we have Dugans for."
Bucky's all set to make a joke about that being the most terrifying thing he's ever imagined, but then he pictures Dum Dum with a bunch of kids swarming all over him and he can't breathe for a second.
Fuck, they missed so much.
He looks down at Maggie's face, watching her chew toothlessly at the fist not tangled up in his shirt. "She wouldn't be safe with us."
"There is no safety for any of us. Not as long as one member of Hydra lives. Maggie will be safer with you and could be no safer with anyone else," Sophie argues as Steve finishes taping a bandage to her shoulder. "Please tell me just what member of Hydra is going to dare lay a hand on the daughter of the Winter Soldier and Captain America?"
Those words hit him like Steve's shield. He's never thought of the Winter Soldier like that. Never imagined that name could be something that wrapped around a child. The idea of Hydra creating the very monster that keeps her safe after taking one family from her does something to him. It's not quite hope, but it's something.
He wants to believe it. God help them all, he wants to believe it.
Steve comes to stand at Bucky's shoulder, brushes Maggie's fine hair away from her face. "You're thinking about it."
"Yeah," he says, rougher on the word than he means to be. "I am."
Maggie tugs on his shirt, her eyes starting to drift closed, and, yeah, he's thinking about it. He got a second chance with Steve and he wants all of it. He lifts his head and looks at Sophie.
She shrugs, unrepentant. "You two need a life that isn't your own personal traumas, honestly. You've all but walled yourselves up in that bloody tower and if we have to launch a full-scale assault just to drop by for coffee, I'll never hear the end of it from the twins. I've already had to talk them down twice."
"We can't just bring a baby into the tower," Steve says, but the fight's gone out of his voice.
"Not that I think Stark'd care," Bucky says with a shrug of his own, "but who says we have to go to the tower? There's always home." Maggie starts to fuss and he starts rocking back and forth, bouncing a little until she settles down again. "Might be nice to spend some time in the old neighborhood. Maybe get a dog or something."
He can't resist adding, "What do you think, Princess? You mind having a couple of bums from Brooklyn be your dads?"
"You're killin' me here, Buck," Steve sighs, but he's smiling like Bucky remembers. The one smile that Hydra never managed to take. "We're going to need to do some shopping."
"I wouldn't worry," Sophie pips in. She's got a phone in her hand and is smiling with undisguised relief. "This is the kind of mission we live for."
"Still," Bucky says, grinning, "you might wanna pick up some formula. She'll want something to eat soon and you should definitely get diapers. Somebody needs a change."