The Story Book

  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 Sa...

  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...