The continuing memoir of Gail Barnes, wife of Avenger James (Bucky) Barnes, aka White Wolf, formerly known as The Winter Soldier. As parents of the first known super soldier child Gail and James face challenges in allowing their son Steve the free...
2028 started with a humanitarian mission. The Avengers didn't get many of these but circumstances were desperate. A volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo had erupted, a very dangerous volcano. The fast lava flow reached speeds of about 60 mph and had encircled the city of Goma with almost 700,000 people. Even with the Air Forces from surrounding countries evacuation was slow going.
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A call was placed to the Avengers for pilots willing to land in the city and evacuate its residents. It involved potentially flying through the toxic gases generated by the volcano. James volunteered as did Clint and Yelena. Since the quinjet could take off and land vertically they thought it possible to rise high enough to avoid the gases. They crammed 50 people into the jets at a time and some people brought their livestock, chickens and other animals that were important to them. For three days straight they personally airlifted about 1000 people each per day to safety in neighbouring Rwanda. They took a day to recover and check the quinjets for damage from the exposure then went back and airlifted another 8000 people over three days. When the volcano finally stopped erupting the evacuations slowed, then stopped and the three Avengers were able to fly home. It took over 10 hours to fly across the Atlantic, even at the top speed of the quinjets. All three earned a two week vacation. Clint took his wife on a holiday. Yelena went to Vegas for a week, wanting to see if it was as crazy a place as she had been told. James slept for a full day then became a house husband. He took care of the kids, took care of me and enjoyed every moment of it.
At the end of the month he spent his week of firearms training and observing training regimens for staff and Avengers. He started a boxing club that was proving to be popular with both men and women. He still had to pull his punches during sparring but it gave him a good workout and people recognized the skill he had as a boxer.
Rebecca's personality was beginning to develop and it was sweet, vivacious and curious. Everything the boys did she would crane her head to see for herself. She had James wrapped around her little finger but he loved it. If he was home he would always see to her needs first. The boys didn't mind and she had them wrapped around her finger as well. Sometimes they would build a fort in one their rooms then ask if she could come play in it. They would read her books, cuddle her and sing to her. Her red hair was coppery in colour and we would gasp sometimes at how the sunlight hit it. Her scent of wildflowers was still strong and Shuri suspected it was a super soldier, where our senses were so enhanced that it picked up pheromones. Even though I wasn't a super soldier I was in transition so the abilities were there, just not as strong as James.
Life was good for us. In February James was asked to provide his security knowledge in helping to design an off world detention facility. He couldn't say much about it other than it would be like the International Space Station in that it orbited around the earth. At first he was very interested in it but over the next few months he began to rethink his participation in the project. He was often distracted about it, even Steve noticed on his 4th birthday party that his dad wasn't having fun. That night I confronted him about it and at first he wouldn't talk about it.
