The Story Book

  Cont... Cass didn't think he'd ever get over how small adults looked when they thought he wasn't looking. How their shoulders sometimes curled in and true emotions came out and how they seemed to dim when no one was looking.  Mama and Uncle Sam were like that. They were faking normality for him and AJ. Smiling with smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes. Went and did things with them as their faces were not quite there. Said they were fine and cried behind closed doors.  Cass wasn't a fool. He knew it was bad. But what frustrated him most was that they wouldn't tell him anything straight. It was white lies and half-truths. Not the cold hard truth, plain and simple. They were dancing around everything like he was glass. He wanted to scream. He wanted the truth.  That's why he ended up creeping silently down the black stone halls deep in the palace to try and find the medical wing. He wanted to know the truth. Wanted to see just what Mama and Uncle Sam, a

  Cont... Sam had never felt so helpless than when he'd handed Bucky's much too light body to the doctors and had only been left to pray he'd be okay. He'd see Bucky had so pretty huge highs and some pretty deep lows, but Sam had never seen him that still, that dead. Even out of surgery and hooked up to all sorts of machines, he still looked dead. His skin was shallow, his breathing forced by a tube down his throat.  The only way Sam could have told he was alive was the wheeze of the air machine and the steady slow beep of the heart monitor. The doctors had done four surgeries to repair the damage they could. They'd had to infuse most of his skeleton with vibranium to help it regrow. At least now, his arms and hands didn't look deformed.  They'd told him they were keeping him under until they could get his breathing to go on its own. But Sam still stayed with him.  He remembered Bucky had mentioned once a long time ago that he could faintly remember his time

Cont...  AJ felt numb as they descended the clouds into the most beautiful place he'd ever seen. The lush green mountains hid vibrant cities that would have taken his breath away at any other time but now didn't even give him a thrill.  Uncle Sam met them on the platform when they landed and ushered them inside. From then on, it was a blur of doctors and various other people telling them things and dragging them places. Eventually, AJ found himself alone in their scarily big guest rooms.  Mama had been whisked off by the doctors to get filled in on what was going on, and Cass had jumped at the opportunity to see Shuri's lab, which in AJ's opinion, was a perfect distraction. But no one had even asked him if he wanted to come to either place. So he was left in their very big guest rooms to try and busy himself to distract from the stress and questions.  He carefully unpacked his bag in his room and then unpacked Cass's. He didn't get past the first item before fin

  Cont... Cass was dead asleep when Mama woke him up. "Cassian Jeffery Wilson, get your feet on the floor now." Was what he woke up to.  You better net he was on his feet and vertical before even being fully awake, "Ehat-?"  "Get dressed. We're leaving in five minutes." Mama said in way of explanation.  That woke Cass up quick. The last time Mama had said that had been three years ago when the Flag Smashers threatened them. Mama had sounded scared then. She did again tonight. But there was something else too. Cass just wasn't sure what. His muddled brain flagged it as something to deal with later.  He skidded into the bathroom, almost colliding with AJ, "Aye!"  "Hey, slow down!" AJ grabbed him before he tipped over and fell down the stairs.  "Sorry," Cass mumbled, shoving into the bathroom and dousing his face in cold water; there, better. Ish.  "You good?" AJ checked.  "Yeah. I'm good. Any ideas?&qu

  Cont... Yelena Belova was a force of nature. Sam had only made her acquaintances 6 hours ago, but Bast if she didn't make an impression.  They'd found her at Natasha's grave in Ohio, and she'd almost shot John on sight for 'being such a belligerent idiot' and sullying her sister's reputation with charity groups. After they'd ironed that out, she'd had some choice Russian curses to spit about the 'Countessa El moron.' Apparently, Yelena had been working for her in a freelance way and had been manipulated into almost killing Clint Barton under the assumption he'd killed Natasha. Sam could see where the dislike came from.  Between Yelena's and John's freelance records, Shuri had been able to narrow down the locations the phone the two had communicated with had pinged from. It left them with a short list of places that Nakia cross-referenced with chatter in the area to get it down to one, an old drug factory deep in the Venezuelan j

  Cont... The house seemed empty now, with no agents swarming in it. Sarah was more used to uninformed individuals in her home than she should be.  Sam and John and the group left early that morning for Ohio, of all places, to find their middle man. The person who knew where her fiancé was. The person who could find him.  Sarah had thought she'd known hope, but this was something else entirely. It tasted like hope, and it felt like terror. Hope that he would come home. Terror that he wouldn't. Terror that he would, and he wouldn't be the same.  Sarah tried to play normalcy to the boys, feign that everything was fine and move on. But her boys had always been perceptive even before Bucky had taught them how to see. They knew something was up.  The way AJ watched her with eagle eyes when she was on her phone or computer. The way Cass automatically did his chores and any other tasks she didn't have time for, all while watching her with worried eyes.  She saw Sam and her lat

  Cont... AJ wanted to come home from school to a glass of iced tea and TV in the background. He got ex-Captain America John Walker and Torres talking shop in the kitchen. He'd come home after the theater meeting a few hours after school ended to find John Walker teaching Torres how to properly lock a headlock.  "See how you put the windpipe in that 'v' of your elbow? Then you really put pressure on it, and that's deadly." John explained as he had his arm around Torres's throat. Torres banged on the table vigorously, nodding.  John noticed AJ and let up with a smile, "Hey, you're one of Sam's nephews, right?"  AJ slowly put down his backpack, "Yes?"  "You're-" Torres coughed, "You're a menace."  Ex-Captain America laughed, "You asked!"  Torres grumbled as he stood up, rubbing his throat and turning to AJ, "You see what I have to deal with?"  AJ blinked owlishly at both men, "S

  Cont... When Cass got back from school, there were cop cars everywhere. The last time there had been this many cop cars was when they had been kidnapped. Interpol was even there, which was scary. Uncle Sam looked annoyed with it all at three different people who were trying to ask him questions. He brushed them off and came over to Cass, "How was school?"  "Good considering the cops didn't show up. What happened?" Cass quipped, looking around as the masses of people milled around.  "I'll tell you later. I need you to go inside and find a quiet place to sit while me and your mom figure this out, okay?" Sam said with a tone that said it wasn't a question.  "Okay." Cass agreed before weaving his way inside. He chose the booth in the corner with some boxes stacked in front of it. He went to slide in and his legs brushed against something warm. Looking down, he found a teenage girl staring back at him.  "What are you doing?" Ca

Cont...  In the many years she'd known her brother Sarah had only seen Sam get angry, truly angry, a handful of times. He was the mediator who made everyone come to an agreement. A negotiator, not someone given to showing his emotions or acting on them rashly.  But when he came storming into her restaurant, the words that came to mind were 'on the warpath.' His eyes were hard, and his stride was barely containing his anger.  Sarah spotted Okoye watching with a neutral face across the room before getting up and dragging Torres with her as she quickly followed Sam into the back. Sarah left quickly, knowing the kitchen would run just fine, and trailed after her irate brother and the professionals.  There was a crash in the backroom, and by the time Sarah made it in, Okoye and John were struggling to contain Sam as he fought and struggled against them, cursing furiously. Sharon was doubled over, holding her face as both Torres and Shuri tried to help her.  "You liar!"

  Cont... Sam stared at the shipping logs and data transfers for hours till the pages blurred. Somewhere in those pages, they hoped to find records of where the blood was coming from. Or another warehouse. Whatever it took to find the source.  But Sam had forgotten how good evil organizations were at hiding paper trails. It was like his brain turned into a pretzel staring at all the data. Somewhere the answer was there, but Sam's eyes wouldn't cooperate.  "You look horrible," Sharon commented as she dropped into the seat next to Sam and thrust a steaming cup of hopefully something caffeinated in his face.  "Wow, thanks." Sam deadpanned, snatching up the cup.  "I think I'm going blind." John moaned from the table over.  "Wowsy, that's such a shame," Sharon said mockingly.  John glared, "You are truly awful."  Sam snorted as Bucky's voice echoed in agreement in his head. 'She's kinda awful now.'  "Have

Cont...   'What if she's in love?' Cass's voice wouldn't leave him alone.  AJ watched how Mama glowed as she piloted the boat out to the water. She was happy. Really happy. Happier than AJ had seen her in a long time.  He could clearly remember the first time he'd seen her like that. The first time Uncle Bucky had taken her on a date. Uncle Sam had thrown a fit over it, but eventually, he'd come around. Mama would have gone if he approved or not, though. AJ knew that.  Bucky had picked her up on his motorcycle, and they stayed out for hours. AJ had been in bed when he heard the gravel crunch softly when they returned.  His bedroom faced the front of the house above the door, and with the open window, he heard the murmuring of voices. They'd murmured at the front door for a good ten minutes before there was a long silence, more murmuring, and then the door opened. The gravel crunched softly away as AJ listened to Mama navigate the creaky stairs. She'd

  Cont... Cass knew something was up when he came downstairs to find mama humming in the kitchen as she fixed pancakes and almost dancing to the music on the radio.  "Morning." Mama smiled as Cass sat on the barstool at the island.  "Morning?" Cass asked, almost unsure.  "Any plans this morning?" Mama asked as she flipped the pancakes.  "No. I was just gonna chat with some friends online." Cass admitted trying to relax. He couldn't remember the last time they'd spent a Saturday morning together like this. Mama was almost always at the restaurant by now. "You gonna be at the restaurant tonight?" Cass asked, trying to find his proverbial footing again.  "Maybe. Carlos offered to cover today, so I thought we might take the boat out. Go down to the cove we used to go to. It's supposed to be nice out." Mama suggested.  Cass was officially off his footing, "...sure?"  "Unless you really need to be here to

Cont... Sarah looked over at the basket of shrimp she still needed to devein and sighed. Her restaurant was getting more and more popular, but some days it was hard for her to get enough hands to work in it. Today one of her line cooks and a waitress called in sick, so Sarah was forced to jump in herself to make sure it all worked out. Not that she didn't mind. Cooking was a passion that had started years ago when she'd met her first husband.  Sarah paused at the thought. First husband indicated she'd had more than one. But she'd never remarried. But you almost did. Suddenly the ring she wore under her shirt felt cold and heavy.  She'd never married him, yet somehow in her head, maybe even in her heart, it felt like she had. They'd barely gotten engaged before he'd- And this was how she felt?  Sarah shook off her stupor and went back to deveining shrimp. No good was going to come from agonizing over it. But the thought wouldn't go away. What would their

Cont...  If the world collapsed around him, Sam doubted he'd notice. Shuri's words were rising in his ears. It's not some reproduction. This was drawn three months ago. Not posthumously. Three months ago, someone drew blood from Bucky Barnes. Which was a problem because six months ago, Bucky Barnes died.  "That's not possible," John said, looking like he might just fall over in shock.  "Well, it's not supposed to be, but the science doesn't lie." Shuri shook her head, "As of three months ago, he was alive."  "What if it's not him?" Sam asked without quite feeling himself ask.  "What do you mean?" Okoye asked suspiciously.  "What if it's one of those shape-shifting things Carol was talking about?" Sam grasped for the right word, "Skulls? Something like that?"  "Skrulls?" Nakia corrected.  "Yes, those. Carol said they could mimic DNA." Sam pointed out.  "Yes. Bu

  Cont... AJ couldn't breathe. Everything was pressing down on him, and when he tried to breathe, he couldn't. He tried to move, but something was holding him down.  This is what it feels like to die. A voice echoed in his head. It sounded like Uncle Bucky.  AJ couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't move. I don't wanna die!!!! AJ screamed in his mind.  He woke up choking on his own breath.  Ever since Cass had found that video, his nightmare had ramped up. AJ's hands were shaking as he sat up. The blood, the pain, the drowning, it wouldn't leave his mind.  The worse part about the whole situation was that now that he knew why those people had wanted his Uncle, he felt SAFE. He knew they wouldn't come for him or his family again. He could go outside without looking over his shoulder, not freak out if someone dropped something loudly. He no longer expected something bad to happen. Because it already had.  It made AJ feel sick. His Uncle had bough

  Cont... Cass always had liked computers when he was little. The logic in them, the reliability of them. Now they were his refuge, a world that he could shape into his own. That never forgot.  It was also how he chatted with his new Uncle T'Challa, who turned out to be a KING of freaking WAKANDA. Yeah, that had been awkward and embarrassing. But it has opened him to a new world of the internet.  It turned out that code and the internet's inner workings were right up Cass's alley. With T'Challa's (oblivious) help, he was able to start burrowing into other systems and computers. Nothing vicious, just picking around Mom and AJ's phones.  But today, he was going to try and break into Uncle Sam's personal computer. Not his work one. Cass knew better than that. And Uncle Sam had taken it with him when he went back to work. So Cass was left with his personal computer.  Plugging it into his own computer, he began working on the password. Once he was in, he was met

  Cont... Torres had signed up to join the Air Force for the duty and a chance to fly. Never in a million years did he think that would entail sitting in an abandoned warehouse filled with seized illegal science equipment that might belong to a thought-t- be-gone terrorist organization watching a national icon and a disgraced former national icon argue over how to do paperwork while waiting for a delegation from the most exclusive and prosperous country in the world that the first national icon had just called up. Yeah, this was not what he had envisioned when he'd signed up. Then again, it was stuff like this that made life interesting.  "Why'd you have to call the Wakandans? They're gonna kick my butt again." John Walker whined as he looked over the paperwork he had piled in front of him.  "No, you won't. If you don't mouth off and don't touch them, you'll be fine." Sam rolled his eyes, "Besides, they're the only ones who know