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When it happens it’s one of those things that neither Bucky nor Steve can understand. It’s happens so quickly it blinds the both of them. One day Grace is perfectly fine and the other…well…the next day is something completely different.
“What do you mean she got suspended?” Steve asks his eyebrows up his forehead in shock. He’s on a mission but Bucky may have blackmailed Tony a little into letting him hack SHIELD’s communication blackout so he could talk to Steve over this SKYPE thingy he’s still not too sure about.
“She got suspended for throwing paint all over another girl and threatening to hit her” Bucky repeats his own tone betraying his own confusion. This doesn’t make sense. And the school had been no help.
What had happened however, whatever it was they weren’t telling him and Bucky had been quite persuasive with the secretary over the phone-if you called threatening her with the disappearance of a few family members unless she told him what the hell was going on persuasion.
Either way. Nothing.
It was easier in the 40s Bucky thinks. All you had to do was smile and make a few casual threats and pretty secretaries would fall over. Now however…he imagined the harpy could give HYDRA a run for their money.
It doesn’t matter that Grace is in her room probably pouting in that little four year old way that makes Bucky melt like ice cream. It’s Grace- who even though she is adopted could pass for Steve’s child. She wouldn’t threaten to clock someone in the jaw unless that child had done something bad. And when (not if when) Bucky gets the truth if it involves so much of one golden hair on Gracie’s head has been hurt then Bucky will destroy them.
And he won’t have to worry about Steve because at that point he knows his husband will be supporting him.
Nobody hurts their daughter. The one thing that makes the shadow of the Winter Soldier return is even the thought of someone hurting his family. Ask the people who hurt Steve-well those that can talk anyway.
Anyway Steve returns that night after Fury (probably being made to by Hill) decides that the mission can be carried out by the ever competent threesome that is Natasha, Clint and Coulson. Steve demands and explanation from Gracie in the gentle way he always does and he looks just as confused and hurt as Bucky feels when Gracie just shrugs biting her bottom lip.
Bucky’s bone tired and exhausted by the time he collapses into bed and he can feel Steve’s confusion and hurt next to him even as he falls asleep. They’ve been on the same wavelength for so long that when Bucky reaches out with his metal hands Steve grabs on tight pulling him close and linking metal with flesh.
But when something pokes him awake an hour after he falls into an uneasy sleep Bucky snarls under his breath ready to snap opens his eyes and comes face to face with Grace.
She’s watching him and even in the dark with his highlighted vision Bucky can see she’s clutching her teddy bear, the ridiculous one that Tony had made for her first birthday. It has a Captain America shield in one hand and the other stuffed arm is covered in silver-an imitation of his metal hand. Steve thinks it’s adorable.
Bucky has a few other choice words for it and for Tony but Gracie can’t sleep without it so he makes do. Barely.
“Hey Princess” he says sitting up and reaching for Grace who seems to catch where this is going and reaches up her little arms sticking in the air so Bucky can pull her onto his lap and cocoon her in his blankets.
“Dada…” she lisps quietly snuggling up her little fingers coming out of her small mouth and curling around the metal of his arm. Only two people have ever helped him feel at ease with what HYDRA gave him and their both in this bed.
“Gracie…everything ok?” he asks carefully brushing back some of the blonde hair out of her eyes so he can look at her.
Grace sniffs quietly the type of sniff where she isn’t sure whether or she was going to cry. That has Bucky sitting up straighter curling his flesh hand tighter around his daughter. “Is something wrong? Did you have a nightmare sweetheart? Does something hurt?”
Gracie just shrugs her shoulders before tightening her small grip on Bucky’s metal fingers curling into her teddy bear. And…yeah ok that’s very cute but not enough to distract Bucky from whatever is making his daughter upset.
“…Buck?” comes a sleepy voice from his left and Bucky breathes a small sigh of relief because Steve always knows what to do.
“Gracie’s upset” he hisses low enough for Steve to hear and Gracie not to. Steve sits up his hair all messed up and adorable. “Angel?” he asks carefully reaching so he can lift Grace’s chin so her eyes are level with his, “You wanna tell us what’s wrong?” his voice is so low and gentle that even Bucky relaxes by a fraction. God he loves this man.
“You…you love me don’t you?” Gracie asks her voice small and much to Bucky’s horror her blue eyes filling with tears.
He blinks a sinking feeling entering his stomach. “Course we do angel” Steve says wrapping both his arms around Grace-and by association Bucky who leans his head against Steve’s shoulder to hide the small tremors running down his spine. If Grace is questioning this, if she’s question whether or not she’s half of Bucky’s whole fucking world then he’s clearly done something wrong.
Steve gently rocks the two of them until Grace is half asleep one hand still tight on Bucky’s metal finger. Steve looks at him to say “Yeah I know something’s wrong…just try and get some sleep and we can try and fix it in the morning” he presses a small feather light kiss into Bucky’s temple and Bucky closes his eyes suddenly feeling utterly exhausted and drained and not in the way that demands sleep.
When sleep does comes…it’s restless at best.
The next day is…stranger…Grace is clingy which normally doesn’t bother either one of them but this is just strange, she’s always demanding to be picked up, she freaks whenever Steve or Bucky have a debriefing or have to train curling up around them. She doesn’t cry, she just shakes a lot. This is… (Heartbreaking Bucky thinks) strange.
Grace was never like this as a baby, even when they adopted her she was never much of a crier, she had just been quiet mostly as a baby sleeping through the night easily enough an adorable blue eyed baby with a small tuft of blonde hair. To see her this gaunt and unsure is just…unnerving.
She sleeps between them again and Bucky grits his teeth at the unease in her face even in sleep. “I want to damn well know what is going on” he mutters to Steve who is also looking down with a worried expression. “I want to know who or what has made out daughter upset and then I swear Steve I am going to destroy them”
Steve nods letting Bucky leans into the hand that’s cupping his face.
He looks just as worried and frightened as Bucky feels.
Steve has to be debriefed by Fury the next day on the mission he missed so Bucky spends the morning with Grace on their floor in the Stark Tower. She mainly curls up next to him watching cartoons her eyes not moving off the TV unless Bucky shifts even the slightest bit.
“Angel will you tell me what’s wrong?” he asks carefully once the program has ended.
When he gets no answer he elaborates wishing that Steve was here with him “We know something happened at school to make you sad” he says carefully “Me and Papa we don’t like it when your sad…what hurts you hurts us…”
Actually it nearly kills them but he figures Gracie doesn’t need to know that…
“Tell you what…if you want we can have all the bad stuff when Papa’s back…I’ll talk to him and we can have pizza and Ice Cream and brownie’s for dinner and then we can stay up all night and watch TV in the big bed”
It seems to be a comforting thought for Grace who opens her mouth before shutting it again, shit…
“Do you want one of us to speak to your Principal…doesn’t she have a daughter in your class? Poppy something?”
And that is when he finally learns what happens, because at that moment Grace’s eyes go impossibly wide and she bursts into tears, huge sobs that rack her small body. She’s trying to form words but is hyperventilating so much in her panic and Bucky can feel his own heart jump because if she doesn’t calm down soon she’s gonna pass out.
“Angel breathe” he says carefully framing her face with his hands, both of them in his panic “Look at me Grace, just look at me and breathe…” much to his relief she does.
“Now Grace Sarah” he says adding the middle name though he’s not sure it makes a difference “Wanna tell me what’s going on?”
And then finally she does…
Only the true story doesn’t help, it just makes the shadow of the Winter Soldier reappear for a frightening second before Bucky squashes it down. One the story is out he hugs Gracie to him ignoring the rushing and roaring in his ears before fixing her a big bowl of the Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream and telling her she can eat it in their bed he then tucks her in turning the TV on to the channel that specifically only plays Disney Films before leaving the room, shutting the door and picking up the phone to place a call to Nick Fury’s deputy Hill and demanding that she pull Steve out of his meeting.
Now.
His husband barely has the time to say hello before Bucky is ranting…
“It’s the fucking Principal’s kid Stevie” he snarls down the phone “It’s the Principal of the school we send our daughter too…the place where she is supposed to feel safe…” he breathes carefully in and out.
“Her brat of a daughter has been telling our baby that we don’t love her anymore…Gracie told Poppy-whatever-her-name-is that she’s adopted and of course this brat tells her that we’ll give her up just like her birth parents did because apparently adoption…it’s like taking a toy back…apparently once we get bored with Gracie were gonna get rid of her”
He takes another deep breath so filled with anger that it does little good “And then Grace who isn’t going to take that lying down obviously throws paint on this girl and because obviously the brat’s mother is the Principal everyone thinks that it’s Gracie’s fault and then she’s the only one punished”
He lets out a harsh laugh down the phone “And so therefore Gracie thinks…because she’s four Steve, fucking four…she thinks that obviously this girl is telling the truth and that if she’s not perfect were gonna leave her at the nearest foster home and adopt a new baby!” he’s well aware that he’s ranting at this point he just no longer cares.
“So our daughter becomes convinced we don’t love her and is miserable and clingy and heartbroken” his voice nearly breaks at the end but Bucky cannot tell if it’s because he’s sad or murderous.
There is a moment of pure undiluted silence and then…
“What?” comes the snarl down the phone and this…this…is one of the many reasons Bucky Barnes loves Steve Rogers with everything he is and everything he ever will be because this…this is Steve giving him the go-ahead to do something really bad…Steve will put down the phone knowing full well that Bucky’s next phone call will be the infamous Natasha Romanoff Grace’s godmother who will already be sharpening her favourite throwing knife.
Steve will hang up and go straight to Tony who prides himself on being Grace’s favourite uncle who will no doubt go straight to Pepper Potts and the two of them Bucky knows will ruin the school and the Principal in less than an hour.
Which means at that point, Sam, Bruce, Rhodey, Clint, Coulson, Hill and Fury (who once admitted that Grace wasn’t the worst thing to happen to the Avengers-granted he was drunk and called her an Ankle Biter, but still…) will all know, then it’s a phone call to Wanda and email to Jane Foster to get in touch with Thor and then Bucky estimates that everyone will be in the Avengers Tower no later than Eleven P.M hungry for blood.
But first he has to deal with his daughter.
Natasha of course finds out and spends half an hour down the phone screaming obscenities in Russian about the Principal of Grace’s school and something about an illicit relationship with a horse or something Bucky doesn’t quite catch, she calms down long enough to switch to English and tells Bucky that’s tomorrow morning she is coming round with the most kid friendly weapon she can find, a bottle of Russian Vodka and plans to teach Grace how to defend herself and that Bucky shouldn’t dare complain.
Then the phone goes dead.
Tony rings later telling Bucky that the school won’t be standing in another hour and that the next time he’s babysitting he’s teaching Grace How to make a Molotov cocktail to throw at the next bully…Bucky’s not entirely sure if he’s being serious but that’s another headache for another day
Because that’s what this is though…bullying…even the word makes him feel sick, reminds him of Steve in the 20s alone and vulnerable. This is his little girl for fuck’s sake.
Bucky is a super assassin like no other, he is a soldier, he can kill easily and even today without remorse but he is also a husband and a father and he has no idea what to do next without Steve…
So he curls into bed next to his daughter and watches Beauty and the Beast with her until Steve gets home.
What he does know however is that nobody messes with his family and is intact enough to tell the tale.
Two Skype calls from Clint and Sam who are both furious, and a message from Maria Hill asking if she can be of use later Bucky is exhausted and more than a little touched when Steve comes through the door looking torn between mutinous and desperate.
It takes a little longer than either Steve or Bucky feel comfortable with before Grace seems to be assured of her place in their lives and soon the four year old is once again curled up in their bed having ate a considerable amount of Ice Cream and Pizza before she declares she’s full.
“Hey Grace” Steve says as the lights go off and Grace is cuddled between them head pillowed on Bucky’s chest and one hand curled around Steve’s. “What did we all agree on today?”
“That I am the most important thing to you and Dada” Grace says drowsily before letting out a little cat yawn that Bucky will swear on his death bed is the most adorable thing he has ever heard in his long life.
Ever.
“Yeah” Steve says beaming his whole face shining with something that can only be described as the love only a parent can feel for their child. Bucky knows it’s mirrored on his own face.
“And if you ever forget that?”
“I will never be aloud Ice Cweam again” Grace lisps sleepily and Bucky’s twisted metal heart melts pathetically at how adorable his little angel is.
And then just like that’s she’s completely out safe and secure knowing that her daddies love her unconditionally and Bucky feels something in his chest wrench because who could have thought he could have ever have had this...that these two boys from Brooklyn, torn apart by War and other enemies could find each other, find redemption and then get this perfect little girl cuddled up between them…
He looks up at Steve whose watching him with that expression he had the first time he saw Bucky holding Grace, he leans over gently linking his hand with Bucky’s flesh connecting with metal as they kiss softly the other one curling around the chain around his neck where his wedding ring is kept secure.
“We did good” Bucky says grinning as Steve pulls back settling himself down into the bed as Steve does the same. He grins at the smile on Steve’s face.
“Yeah we did good Buck” Steve says softly and no matter what anyone else says Bucky Barnes knows right here and now that life isn’t going to get much better than this.