This is War

XI

Steve flew the Quinjet towards mountains. Bucky and Michaela sat behind him. The blonde still had a death grip on the armrests.

"What's gonna happen to your friends?" Bucky asked.

Steve stared ahead, heavyhearted. He sighed and shook his head before saying, "Whatever it is... Mick and I'll deal with it."

Bucky looked thoughtful before saying, "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve, Mick."

Michaela took Bucky's hand and said, "Of course you are. The things you did as the Winter Soldier, that wasn't you. I know the real you, and the real you is a good man."

Steve glanced around at Bucky. "What you did all those years... it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice. Mick's right."

"But I did it," Bucky said, turning to the blonde, who was once again gripping the armrests as though her life depended on it. "You okay, Mick?"

She nodded, facing forward, then shook her head. "No, I kind of have this problem with flying."

"You didn't before."

"No, not until Steve crashed an aeroplane in the middle of the ocean. Since then, flying and I have not been courteous."

Bucky shot Steve a look, not happy that he'd given Michaela a new fear, squeezed her hand and she rested her head on his shoulder. Bucky glanced down at her, then rested his head on hers.

HOSPITAL

Rhodey laid inside an CT-scanner. He was in a blue gown covering his body. Tony paced up to Vision who watched Rhodey grave-faced.

"How did this happen?" Tony asked.

"I became distracted," Vision replied.

"I didn't think that was possible."

"Neither did I. "

Tony left Vision looking in on Rhodey. Along the corridor, Tony spotted an equally concerned Natasha.

Tony and Natasha stood on a balcony looking towards a row of trees.

"The doctors say he shattered L4 through S1," Tony said. "Extreme laceration in the spinal cord. Probably looking at some form of paralysis."

"Steve and Mick aren't gonna stop," Natasha told him. "If you don't either, Rhodey's gonna be the best case scenario."

"You let them go, Nat."

"We played this wrong."

"'We'? Boy, it must be hard to shake the whole double agent thing, huh? It sticks in the DNA."

"Are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?"

"T'Challa told Ross what you did, so... they're coming for you."

"I'm not the one that needs to watch their back." She walked away.

Tony activated holographic images appearing on his wrist device and asked, "What am I looking at, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Priority upload from Berlin police," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.

"Fire up the chopper." Tony flew over a stormy sea in the chopper. He looked surveillance images on a tablet computer.

"The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as Barnes was captured. The UN dispatched Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva within the hour. He was met by this man."

"Did you run facial recognition yet?"

"What do I look like?"

"Uh, I don't know. I've been picturing a redhead."