Chapter 44

June 25th, 2016

Avengers Facility, Upstate New York

Rhodey was in his wheelchair when they arrived.

He hadn't wanted the wheelchair, he'd wanted to go straight from the hospital bed and into the exosuit that Tony promised. But when F.R.I.D.A.Y. alerted him to the aircraft about to arrive at the facility he heaved himself into the wheelchair chair and rolled toward the large window at the other end of the medical bay.

Ever the airman, the first thing he noticed was the aircraft. It was a glossy black jet, sleeker than the Quinjet, with smooth lines and a glowing blue engine. It wasn't any model he recognized.

The jet touched down on the landing pad, and a hatch at the back swung open. Rhodey noticed that a whole host of Facility staff, mostly armed guards, met the jet on the landing pad – Tony must have called ahead.

Tony was first down the gangway, wearing a black leather jacket and a sling. There were dark bags under his eyes. Rhodey's brow furrowed at the new gashes and bruises on his face – where had he been? Seconds later, Tony was followed by none other than King T'Challa in the Black Panther suit.

Tony gestured to the waiting Avengers employees and they streamed onto the jet. Rhodey watched, frowning, as Tony and T'Challa spoke to each other on the landing pad, occasionally glancing back at the jet. Tony looked like hell.

Another few seconds passed and the Avengers employees filed off the jet again, with a new person in tow.

Rhodey forgot about trying to work out what Tony and T'Challa were talking about. The person being escorted off the jet, cuffed and bloody, was Maggie.

Rhodey had seen the CCTV footage from Chile, and he'd seen Maggie in the Wyvern getup, but this felt different. If he'd thought Tony looked like hell, she looked worse. She was barefoot on the tarmac, wearing filthy, ripped scrubs. Burns and gashes littered her bare skin, her lip was split, and she was holding her swollen, purple wrist gingerly to her chest. She limped between the guards escorting her, her head downcast.

Rhodey's heart dropped. She just looked like a kid.

Tony didn't even look at Maggie as she was marched past him. Rhodey noted that the guards were leading her to the holding facility.

A few other Avengers staff carted the Iron Man armor, broken and lifeless, off the jet, as well as a few black duffel bags.

Tony and T'Challa spoke for another minute, still occasionally glancing at the jet, until T'Challa nodded once, climbed back on board, and flew away.

Rhodey sat back in his chair and waited.

Sure enough, a few minutes later Tony limped into the medical bay. His face was sunken with bruises and covered in dried blood. They made eye contact and Tony's mouth turned down, as if he'd hoped Rhodey wouldn't be there.

For once, Tony didn't say anything. He averted his gaze and started limping around the medical bay, grabbing wet wipes and bandages. His silence was tense and angry, disturbing the air around him.

Finally, Rhodey couldn't stand it. "Well?"

Tony gritted his teeth. "We got the guy who did the UN bombing. Helmut Zemo, Sokovian, he wanted to…" he cut himself off and shook his head angrily. "T'Challa's taking him to the CIA now. It's over." He kept his back to Rhodey as he started wiping the dried blood from his face.

Rhodey cocked an eyebrow. "And?"

Tony slammed his fist into the metal bench. The resulting clang made Rhodey flinch.

"And nothing," Tony hissed, hunched over the bench with his back still facing Rhodey. "It's over. All of it." He grabbed his bandages and stormed out without another word.

In the silence that followed, Rhodey dropped his head back against the window behind him and closed his eyes.

The next day Tony went to get the Spider kid from Berlin, and when he came back he presented Rhodey with the newly fabricated exosuit. Rhodey had been reading Tony for decades, and though Tony looked better Rhodey could tell from the stiff, closed-off expression on his face that this wasn't the time to bring up his angry outburst from yesterday, or the new resident in the holding facility.

Tony helped him try out the exosuit and they managed to make each other laugh, but then Tony got a package and disappeared to his office.

Rhodey stumped around in the exosuit under the watchful eyes of a physiotherapist, determined to get it right. And if his thoughts kept straying to a holding cell on the other side of the compound, he could hardly blame himself.

Tony,

I'm glad you're back at the compound, I don't like the idea of you rattling around a mansion by yourself. We all need family. The Avengers are yours, maybe more so than mine. And you and Maggie deserve a chance to be a family again.

I've been on my own since I was 18. I never really fit in anywhere – even in the Army. My faith is in people, I guess. Individuals. And I'm happy to say that for the most part, they haven't let me down. Which is why I can't let them down either. Locks can be replaced, but maybe they shouldn't.

I know I hurt you Tony. I guess I thought by not telling you about your parents I was sparing you, but… I can see now I was really sparing myself, and I'm sorry. Hopefully one day you can understand.

I wish we agreed on the Accords, I really do. I know you were only doing what you believe in, and that's all any of us can do, it's all any of us should. So no matter what, I promise you – if you need us, if you need me, I'll be there.

- Steve

Tony kept the phone.

Maggie's room was nice.

She'd caught a glimpse of the building when she arrived – nondescript, bordering the forest, small compared to the other buildings on the compound. She hadn't really been paying much attention, though.

Her room had a full-wall window that looked out at the forest. She wasn't completely sure if it was a real window or a screen that showed footage of a forest, but she knew that either way it would hold up against even her super-soldier strength. Not that she felt like testing that.

The walls of her room were a soothing grey. She had a bed – a metal frame bolted to the floor and a mattress with eggshell-white sheets – and a small bathroom. That was it. She could see how highly reinforced the room was; heavy-duty construction was obvious in the lines of the walls, and in the thick metal door that vacuum-sealed against the walls when it closed. The room was soundproofed, too – Maggie never once heard a sound originating from outside her four walls.

Her only visitors were the doctors. They came in escorted by armed guards and checked on her wounds, clinical and professional. Maggie cooperated with them, nodding or shaking her head in response to their questions, but she didn't speak, and she didn't let them take her blood. She was relieved when they shrugged and put the needle away. She didn't want to fight anyone.

They categorized her injuries: cracked ribs and spine, a broken wrist, burns from Tony's repulsors on her arms. Her right side was torn up from crashing on the airport tarmac, and there was gravel and glass in her feet from fighting barefoot. Her palms and fingers were near-shredded from physically tearing through the metal bands around her ankles. Her skin was purple and blue with bruises.

The doctors fussed over her, wrapping and bandaging and medicating, but Maggie knew she'd heal sooner than she deserved. The check-ups were short, and the instant they were over the doctors and the guards filed out again.

The room didn't remind her of HYDRA, but if it did, Maggie supposed she would deserve it.

She tried not to sleep, because she woke up screaming every time. But it wasn't like the days after she'd escaped HYDRA – this time, she woke up knowing exactly who she was, and what she'd done. Each time she woke she went through her breathing techniques, desperately trying to clear her head of all thoughts, and then turned to see a tray of food that had been delivered while she slept. Maggie suspected that the A.I. was monitoring her. It had not spoken to her, and she didn't try to speak to it.

Maggie spent her hours sitting on the floor in front of the wide window, watching the forest. It was quiet out there, but if she looked close enough she could see signs of life: mushrooms growing on the trees, small creatures foraging in the foliage, birds soaring out of the branches and into the sky.

She hoped the window was real.

Medical Facility, Wakanda

Steve found Bucky by the arching windows of Wakanda's medical facility, hunched over in a chair as he looked out at the mist-laden forest.

They'd just gotten back from the Raft breakout, and were waiting for the others to be cleared by Wakanda's doctors. T'Challa's sister Shuri seemed more than happy to fuss over the odd bunch. Everyone had been so kind to them – first T'Challa, for offering them sanctuary, and then his people for helping them. Bucky had been resistant to accepting help from T'Challa at first, after the man had repeatedly tried to kill him and then hurt Maggie, but the genuine remorse in T'Challa's eyes swayed him.

The others had been confused when they'd escaped the Raft with only four prisoners.

"Where's Maggie?" Sam had asked. Steve hadn't known what to say.

Back in Wakanda, Bucky had taken the first opportunity to isolate himself.

Steve sighed, taking a moment to look at his friend. Bucky was bruised and cut up, but so were the rest of them. Shuri had fitted a rubber sleeve over what was left of his metal arm, and Bucky still seemed to be getting used to the weight difference.

It wasn't Bucky's external injuries that made Steve's heart ache in his chest, though. It was the lost look in his eyes, the turmoil that churned behind his calm façade as he looked out at the misty forest. Steve had suspected a deeper connection between Maggie and Bucky during the time he'd spent on the run with them, but he hadn't really had time to question it. But after what he'd seen in Siberia, he was pretty sure he knew exactly what Bucky had lost.

"You love her," Steve murmured.

Bucky didn't flinch. He'd known Steve was there. Bucky swallowed, and let out a long breath. "She… She was my victim. And then she got stronger, and I kept waiting for her to kill me. I wasn't going to stop her, she hated me enough to get through the programming and attack me. But then she didn't kill me. And then she forgave me. And then…" Bucky dropped his head into his hand. Steve stayed silent – he could tell that Bucky needed to get this out.

"I don't deserve it," Bucky whispered. "I… I killed her family. I helped HYDRA turn her into…"

"It wasn't you," Steve repeated.

As if Steve hadn't spoken, Bucky continued to talk. "She said she knew what it was like. She said she'd killed plenty of people's parents, she knew what it was like to be a monster." His voice cracked on the word. "We were in that hell together, and then we weren't, and she stayed. I don't know what I'd have done if…" he shook his head, and then turned to look at Steve. His eyes were dark. "I think this is what makes me a monster, Steve, along with everything else that I've done. I ruined her life and I didn't try to save her, not once. And I love her. I want… I want to see her again." Bucky's face crumpled and he bowed his head again.

Steve paced across the shiny floor and sat beside his friend. He couldn't get those last moments in Siberia out of his head: Bucky and Maggie's whispered, tearful conversation in the snow, and the way they'd clung to each other, shaking, as if the world was falling down around them.

I know you'll look after him.

"You're not a monster, Buck," Steve sighed. "Like you said, you both went through hell together – no one could blame you for making a connection. You're both good people."

Bucky scoffed at that, but it was half-hearted. Steve realized that Bucky had a lot more difficulty condemning Maggie than he did himself.

Sensing that Bucky's mood was lightening a little, Steve smiled and dropped a hand onto Bucky's uninjured shoulder. "Besides, I got the sense that your feelings aren't exactly one-sided. Is that what you've been doing for the last two years, Buck, stepping out with your girl?"

Bucky laughed, and leaned back. His face was still troubled, but the laughter made him look years younger. "Maybe next time we could do a double date."

Steve groaned, and Bucky continued: "You could bring that Carter lady, we'll go out dancing, it'll be a great time."

"It was never a great time," Steve complained, shoving Bucky.

"Ah, but this one likes 'ya. She wouldn't mind if you stepped on her toes a little."

Steve laughed again, then stilled. "I missed you, Buck."

"I missed you too, punk."

They sat in silence for a few companionable minutes, until Steve sensed Bucky's thoughts turned dark again. He waited him out.

"Do you think…" Bucky cleared his throat. "Is he… Tony, is he going to look after her?"

Steve sighed. Maggie hadn't been at the Raft, which meant she was probably at the Avengers Facility with Tony – there was no hope of breaking her out of there, and Steve wasn't sure that was for the best anyway.

He was sure that Bucky wouldn't have left Maggie behind if he thought she'd be in danger, but he understood the need for reassurance. Bucky's only experiences with Tony had been violent.

"As angry as he is at me, at us…" Steve rubbed a hand over his jaw. "She's his sister. He's not going to let anything happen to her." The unspoken again hung uncomfortably in the air.

"Okay," Bucky replied in a small voice.

A little later, Bucky broke the silence again. "Listen, Steve… I'm not safe." He bit his lip. "I've been thinking…"

Avengers Facility, Upstate New York

A week had gone by, and Tony Stark was hiding.

At first Rhodey didn't notice, because he was giving his friend some space, and because he kinda had his own thing going on, what with full-time physiotherapy and trying to figure out the exosuit. He'd also been keeping an eye on the reorganization of the Avengers, now that most of them were gone, and finding a place for the items they'd seized over the past few weeks: the JTTF had passed on Barnes' personal effects from his safehouse and his backpack, and they'd found a backpack full of more personal effects in an old Beetle at the Leipzig/Halle airport. The items were inventoried and locked in the acquisitions room.

Tony had taken a duffle bag full of tech to his workshop in the Facility. Rhodey hadn't asked.

Tony checked in every few days to make sure Rhodey's exosuit was running smoothly, or just to chat, but that had been happening less and less.

After finishing a doctor's check-up one afternoon, Rhodey cocked his head and asked: "F.R.I.D.A.Y., where's Tony?"

When the A.I. spoke, her every word dripped with disapproval. "Boss doesn't want me to tell anyone where he is."

Rhodey blinked. "Okay. What's Tony been doing all this time?"

There was a pause. "He's been working for sixty one hours with less than a couple of hours sleep at a time." Rhodey would never understand how the A.I. managed to sound both disapproving and concerned at the same time. Normally F.R.I.D.A.Y. wouldn't dish so much dirt about Tony to anyone who asked, but Rhodey suspected she had a certain amount of leeway when it came to letting the people close to Tony know when Tony wasn't doing so well.

"Right." Rhodey sighed, and pinched his nose.

For a week Tony had avoided all mention of his sister, and completely steered clear of her holding cell. She was a prisoner in the secure area of the facility and would likely remain there since the Raft had proven to be not as impenetrable as everyone believed. Rhodey had looked over her arrangements himself – one of the nicer secure rooms, designed for Avengers themselves if they got brainwashed or needed to be locked up for some other reason. She had daily doctor's consults, and F.R.I.D.A.Y. monitored her behavior 24/7. So far all Maggie had done was eat, sleep, and stare out the window. Rhodey wanted to see her, but if Tony hadn't yet…

"Okay," Rhodey said, nodding to himself. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., you can't tell me where Tony is, right?"

"Unfortunately not."

"Can you tell me where he isn't?"

When the A.I. replied, it actually sounded like she was smirking. "Sure thing, Colonel."

After an annoying game of where-isn't-Tony with F.R.I.D.A.Y., during which Rhodey staggered through the Facility in his exosuit drawing pitying looks from staff, he finally arrived at Tony's workshop. He should have just gone straight there, to be honest – Tony had always gone to his workshop when he was trying to drown out the feedback loop in his head. Or when he was avoiding real life.

The workshop was locked, but Rhodey had the override codes. And F.R.I.D.A.Y. didn't seem that committed to keeping him out, anyway.

When he walked in, he blinked at the sight before him. Tony was slumped over his main workshop bench, with a minefield of machine parts and half-finished projects strewn around him. Tony wasn't necessarily a neat person, but he'd never usually let his workshop get this bad. Right now he was half-heartedly flicking through a holographic design for… something. Maybe a rocket engine?

"Hey Tony," Rhodey called, clanking awkwardly into the workshop. There was no way he was going to be able to navigate the mess of machinery in here in the exosuit.

Tony blinked and glanced up. He looked terrible – his eyes were glazed and shot with red, and it didn't look like he'd showered in a while. "Yeah?" he mumbled.

Abruptly, Rhodey remembered another workshop, another day many years ago. He sighed. "Okay, Tony. I need you to stay there and just… shut up, for a minute. Don't leave."

Tony glared, and then seemed to realize what was happening. A shadow crossed his face and he turned back to the holographic blueprint. He didn't get up from his seat, though, which Rhodey took as a good sign.

"I don't know what happened with Zemo," Rhodey began. "And I don't need to know. But Tony… your sister is here."

Tony's eyes sharpened and darkened as he manipulated the image before him, but he didn't interrupt.

"You've both lived lives," Rhodey continued. "Very separate lives. And yeah, you were on opposite sides of this thing but you're both here, now. For a guy who thought he'd lost his whole family, I'd say that's a pretty rare opportunity."

Tony's focused, angry look deepened. He gave up on pretending he was busy and looked right into Rhodey's eyes. "Barnes killed our parents," he spat. "He kidnapped her."

The words hit Rhodey like a blow to the chest, and he had to drop a hand onto the nearest surface to steady himself. Barnes.

No wonder Tony had come back so angry. He'd suspected that Tony and T'Challa hadn't brought Zemo in on their own, and this… this made a lot more sense.

After that initial realization, Rhodey felt himself cycle through a series of emotions in seconds: shock, then a hot burst of anger, which faded to dull, gnawing sadness. "So HYDRA did orchestrate the crash," he sighed, and the exosuit groaned precariously. "They sent the Winter Soldier."

When he looked back up at Tony, Tony seemed somehow angrier. "Rhodey, she… she defended the guy who killed our parents. She saw him do it, and then she stayed with him, instead of finding me. I don't understand how she could do that."

Rhodey nodded, unblinking. "Then ask her."