Can We Keep Her?

The First Mission

Bucky paced. Being a parent always came with this lingering concern that when your kids went out by themselves, they may not come back. Bucky had that too. Maybe more than most people due to the fact he had been taken as an adult and he knew the worst of the worst of what could happen if the wrong people take you. His kids were strong, he would try and tell himself that he was being over-cautious. There was, of course, the risk of them being specifically targeted. But he couldn't just wrap them in cotton wool. They needed a life and he wanted them to be able to make their own choices.

So he talked to his therapist about coping mechanisms and kept telling himself that they were super soldiers and they all had some level of self-defense training. He had them carry Stark phones with smartwatches so that if the worst came to worst, they could be tracked.

They'd be fine.

They always were fine. Coming home throwing their backpacks randomly in the middle of the floor. Laughing loudly. Sometimes they'd have friends with them. Or people they were seeing. They were always fine. More than fine. Anthony, Sarah, and Rebecca had grown into three very happy, healthy sixteen-year-olds.

So he managed to keep it under control. It was just a niggling fear. Checking the clock to see if they were late. Reminding himself that kids will sometimes be late. Mentally apologizing to his dad who probably went through this exact thing a million times because Bucky had had the tendency to randomly decide to go off with friends after school pretty much every day of the week.

He had the hang of it. It didn't control him.

Only now - now - he had two kids who wanted to be superheroes and today they had their first mission. They'd both been training. Rebecca had been for years now. The team was good and there were some heavy hitters on it. Even if his kids weren't on the team, he'd feel confident they could do it. This wasn't a hard mission. Just a small clean-up job. That was it. They were trained. They were strong. They had a good sense of right and wrong.

They were his kids and he was freaking out.

He'd walk up beside Tony in the command room and look at the feed that relayed back for each member from their wristbands or suits. His eyes would linger on Rebecca and Anthony's vitals and then he'd walk back to the other end of the room telling himself everything was fine. Steve was with them. They were fine.

By the time he'd walked to the other end of the room again all the 'what ifs' would have taken over again. What if it was something alien? What if they were outnumbered? What if one of them fell? What if? What if? What if?

So he'd turn around again and walk back standing beside Tony and looking over their vital signs. Again and again, he'd repeat this pattern. Wearing a groove into the floor.

"If you don't stop your damn pacing, cyberman, I'm gonna lock you out of the room," Tony said.

You looked up at him from where you sat with Wanda and Vision. "Come here, honey," you said, patting the couch.

He huffed and made his way over to you flopping down and then curling into your side. "I hate this."

"I know. Welcome to my life," you said, kissing the top of his head. "I used to stay up baking and eating the cake batter before I even managed to get it into the tin."

"They are all highly trained. I have faith they will all be fine," Vision said, patting Bucky on the back.

"Besides, America is with them. That girl. I've seen her train. She could do this without the rest. I am sure of it," Wanda added.

"And there are basically two Iron Men there," Tony said, pressing a few buttons on the console.

"Yes, yes, the suits are very impressive," you teased. Tony looked at you with a smirk on his face and flipped you off. "Keep your wife under control, Barnes."