Battle Scars (A Bucky Barnes Fanfic)

Forty-Five

FIVE YEARS LATER:

I walk into the compound, my five-year-old son Caleb asleep in my arms. I find Nat in the kitchen cutting a peanut butter sandwich into a couple of triangles, as someone else was speaking, I look over to see Rocket; I wave at him and Nebula, Okoye, Danvers, who now has short hair, and Rhodes. Nat also has a new hairdo, long red fading to blonde hearing Rocket Raccoon out about his status so far. The others wave at me and Nat smiles, seeing Caleb and me. I sit in a chair and listen in.

"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged." Rocket says.

"It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula adds, clearly annoyed.

"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket says also very annoyed and turns to Danvers.

"Well, you were closer," Carol replies back with a slight smirk and I almost smile.

"Yeah." Rocket says, "And now we smell like garbage."

Natasha turns to Okoye "You get a reading on those tremors?" she asks her.

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate," Okoye says.

"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?"

"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it."

Nat turns to Carol and asks, "Carol, are we seeing you here next month?"

"Not likely," Carol tells her.

"What, you gonna get another haircut?" Rocket asks.

"Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory." Carol replies irritatedly "The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets."

"All right, all right, that's a good point." Rocket murmurs to himself, "That's a good point."

"So you might not see me for a long time," Carol informs everyone.

"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active." Nat says, "So, if anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me."

Okoye agrees in her language.

"Okay." Rocket says.

"Alright," Natasha says.

They cut off their calls one by one.

"Good luck," Carol says to Rhodes, then cuts off the call.

Nat sighs, exhausted, and sits down, as she notices Rhodes still online in the call. I raise an eyebrow as I run a hand through Caleb's hair as he continues to sleep soundly.

"Where are you?" Natasha asks Rhodes.

"Mexico." Rhodes answers. "The Federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off."

"It's probably a rival gang," Natasha says.

"Except it isn't." Nat realizes something. "It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years... I mean, the scene that he left..." Nat starts to show signs of sadness as she gradually tears up. I grab her hand and she gives me a soft smile. "I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him."