The Story Book

  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