The Price We Pay for Family

 

So, I had mixed feeling about Disney+'s Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show. But I utterly fell in love with the Wilson Family. 

I was watching and was going, 'this is great. The new Captain America has a liability that could take him and his partner out of the game. is NO ONE SEEING THIS???' (I'm odd, I know) 

I know it was touched on in the show, but I feel like it was a missed, or not yet recognized, potential. And it seemed like the perfect place for me to fill that void. 

"I hate you!" Cass's voice cracked as he screeched at his mother. 

Sarah had been expecting a lot, but not that, "Young man, I will not tolerate that kind of behavior in my home, so you either straighten it out right now or go outside and start on the weeding that needs to be done until you can talk to me without screaming."

 "You never listen!" Cass screamed as he slammed the door on his way out. 

Sarah sighed as she heard him slamming things around as he grabbed what he needed to go weed. She'd had to tell Cass he couldn't go with the rest of his class on the field trip to New Orleans. It was too dangerous with the ripples their Uncle Sam was making recently. 

AJ had taken the news fine; he was disappointed, sure, but he was old enough to remember the Blip itself. Old enough to remember the terror as people simply floated away in the wind. Only enough to understand the gravity of what his Uncle was doing. He understood that the danger was real.

 On the other hand, Cass only understood that he couldn't go to the basketball game at the stadium like all his friends. 

Sarah sighed again. She understood the frustration she really did. But Sam was poking a lot of bears with sticks as he cleaned up the Super Soldier Serum mess. The list of buyers was extensive, and the people willing to try their hand at making it was even more impressive. But if you didn't get it just right, you had a bad alternative that was worst than regular drugs, and that was where most people ended up. So yeah, Sam was ruffling a lot of dangerous feathers cleaning up that mess. Why did her brother have to be a superhero?

 "You tell Cass?" AJ asked quietly, coming over to the island.

 "Yeah, he wasn't too pleased." Sarah nodded, looking at her oldest.

 "I'm gonna try talking to him, see if he can't calm down. He'll understand once he's calm." AJ assured her. 

Sarah smiled, "I hope so. When did you get so grown up?"

 "Probably while you weren't looking." AJ grinned cheekily. 

Sarah laughed and pressed a kiss on his head, "Go find your brother before he yanks out more than weeds." 

AJ chuckled as he headed out the door. Sarah watched as her two boys talked outside of the shed before Cass stomped off around the back towards the docks. Sarah sighed again, watching AJ follow after him waving his arms in a way that reminded her of Sam. 

Sarah's eyes landed on a picture of all of them on the docks a few months after the Blip. Her two boys had grown so much since their Uncle came back. Two years ago, he'd just been a story she'd tell them; now he was "Uncle Cap!" 

The five years of the Blip had been hard, but being without Sam had been harder. Even now, two years later, part of her expected it all to be a dream, that he wasn't even there. That neither he nor Bucky was. 

Sarah felt her cheeks color and was instantly grateful that no one was inside with her. Bucky Barnes was the unexpected blessing that had come grumbling after her brother almost a year and a half ago, and from then on, the sparks had flown. Secret smiles had turned to rusty but endearing flirting to slightly awkward dates to now quiet stability of another person to trust with everything. Trust with the boys, the boat, the bad days when getting up wasn't worth it. But also laughter and stolen kisses and the bright feeling in her gut whenever he smiled at her. Yeah, Sarah was head over heels in love. Too bad Bucky Barnes was still drowning in too much self-loathing and doubt to ever fully reciprocate. Sarah knew she was something to him, what was lost in the deep recesses of his mind. But he smiled at her whenever she looked over, cared for the boys like they were his own, and kissed her breathless now and then when Sam wasn't looking, and it was enough. 

Sarah started on the dishes and began thinking about what was in the fridge for dinner tonight and purposely pushed Bucky Barnes out of her mind. By the time she finished the dishes and dinner, it was getting dark. Sarah set the table and made some lemonade before her gut told her to be worried. 

It was dark now, and the boys knew the rule, get home by dark or get a week of no electronics. The boys were good about that rule, and if they were going to be over, AJ would call, or someone in the community would for them. But sometimes they would be longer and had a good reason, so Sarah waited for a few minutes when it hit half an hour after dark; Sarah let her worry take over. 

Grabbing her phone, she called the closest neighbors to see if they'd seen the boys go by. They hadn't. Neither had the next neighbors or any of them all the way to the docks. 

Now Sarah was scared. She called the shop on the docks, and Carlos answered. "This is The Wilson's Kitchen; how can I help you?" 

Sarah didn't have the mind to scold Carlos for answering instead of the staff, "Carlos, have you seen the boys?"

 "Sarah? I haven't seen the boys today, no. They're not with you?" Carlos asked, voice laced with concern. 

"No, it's been hours since they left the house. I'm getting worried. I was gonna go look for them." Sarah's gut tightened into fear, "They were supposed to head to the restaurant." 

"Okay, you start over there, and we'll head your way and look. They probably got distracted." Carlos soothed. 

Sarah hung up and grabbed the high-powered flashlight that looked more like a radar gun than a flashlight and set out. The spotlight that the flashlight emitted illuminated everything as it swept back and forth over the area the boys would have taken to the docks. "AJ! Cass! Boys!" Sarah called, looking around. The longer she went without hearing anything back, the more panic built up inside of her. But that was nothing compared to when she could hear the others calling for her sons. No one had found her children. Nothing felt worse. Nothing until her flashlight hit something shiny. Her gut dropped out as she stared down at a pair of broken glasses and a smashed phone lying among gardening tools. All doubt flew away, being replaced with cold hard fear. Her boys had been taken. 

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