Venus | James B. Barnes✔️

lxvii. 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚙

Rhodey nodded. "We have to figure out how many are gone," he said, thinking of his best friend alone in space.

Evelyn walked into their home, grabbing a bag to pack their limited amount of things since she knew she could not stay there. It was for two reasons, of course. One, she would have to get back to New York to help the search and find a way to contact Tony. Two, she would not live in their home without him. She closed her eyes, forcing down a sob as her hands shook.

She could not even finish packing because she could not keep her hands still.

Warm, calloused hands set themselves on hers. Her eyes flickered to Steve's in fear as she saw the emotion on his face as well.

He grabbed the clothes from her hand, placing them in the bag for her. She felt lucky to be standing next to Steve at that moment. What if they had gotten snapped away?

"I-I can do it," she murmured, "on my own."

"The thing is," Steve said, lifting his hand to wipe a fallen tear, "you don't have to." Evelyn's lips twitched a bit before she fell into his embrace. He hugged her tightly. "We'll get him back, Eve. Whatever it takes." He heard her let out a shaky breath. "Come on. We're leaving."

"Where?" she asked softly.

"Home."

When Evelyn stepped off of the Quinjet, she had Rhodey standing close to her. No one dared speak to Evelyn on the ride due to the eerie silence as she twisted her wedding ring on her finger. The others had taken off their gear for the most part, but Evelyn refused to take off her weapons or suit as she walked with confidence he knew was fake by the shake of her hands at times.

While everyone separated to go shower before they would meet in the briefing room, Rhodey grabbed Evelyn's arm. She turned, only raising a brow at him.

"Hey," he said. "You think your helmet could reach Tony?"

Evelyn had not thought of her Stark helmet in her bag. She bit her lip with a shrug. "I can try."

"Tony's always been independent, but God, I hope he has some help up there," Rhodey murmured more to himself.

"If he's up there," Evelyn muttered bitterly.

Rhodey glared. "Don't say that. Don't."

"Sorry," she said with a sigh, eyes flickering to Steve as he waited for Evelyn. Evelyn finally gave Rhodey a smile. "For what it's worth, Tony's going to be all right. He always is."

Rhodey's lips twitched with a nod.

Evelyn walked off to Steve.

"Tony kept your things in a room in case you returned. He even bought Barnes clothes and things, too," Rhodey called, causing her to freeze. "I just thought you should know... he won't forgive him, but he was willing to try for you."

Evelyn pushed back her cries again as she took Steve's extended hand. He led her to the room where Tony kept the three supersoldier's things—in Steve's old bedroom. Both Evelyn and Bucky had a box, and she almost laughed at the sight of Manchurian Candidate on Bucky's.

"You shower first," Steve said.

"D-Don't go anywhere," she told him firmly.

"I won't. Not again."

Evelyn nodded, grabbing some things from her own bag that was Bucky's. It felt like she had lost him all over again, like when she came out of the ice. She just did not have his dog tags or his wedding ring to hold. It made her feel like absolute shit.

After her shower, she stepped out of the bathroom with red eyes and a flushed face. Steve did not have to look at her to know she was crying. He had heard it.

She sat on the bed, waiting for Steve to finish. When he came out in a white t-shirt and jeans, he motioned for her to follow him.

They had gotten to the briefing room to see Natasha and Bruce staring at something in their hands. Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows at the noticeable missing Rocket and Thor.

"What's that?"

Bruce's head snapped up. "You're a genius; you come look at this."

Evelyn saw they were holding an old pager/transmitter in their hands. "What about it?"

"It was next to Fury's car," Natasha informed her. "Found it when one of his agents who didn't get snapped away went looking for Fury and Hill. It seems to have sent some signal. Can you maybe try and figure out what it was connecting to?"

"We'll have to bypass the battery," Evelyn murmured, grabbing it from Bruce's hands. "You and Steve find Rhodey. Start tracing the census' in other countries. Find out how many went missing. If you can get a who, get that as well."

Steve nodded, walking out of the room with Natasha following. Bruce and Evelyn set up the transmitter in a chamber to figure out what the hell was going on inside of it.

"The star keeps flickering... reminds me of Cap's logo," she murmured to Bruce.

"When it stops, we'll try rebooting it?" Bruce asked her.

"Mhm," she hummed, eyes going to her ring.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked her cautiously.

"No."

Bruce did not reply because he was not either.

Rhodey walked inside of the room after about ten minutes, staring at the transmitter in confusion. "3.2 million so far," he told them.

"How about the deep space scans?" she asked quietly.

"We haven't found him," Rhodey said in reference to Thanos.

The transmitter suddenly shut off.

Rhodey went to get Steve and Natasha. When they walked inside, Evelyn brought the pen to her lips, trying to figure out what was the best course of action.

"What have we got?" Natasha asked.

"Whatever the signal is sending, it finally creeped off," Bruce answered.

"I thought we bypassed the battery," Steve said to Evelyn, hearing her before.

"We did. It's still plugged in, it just... it just stopped," Evelyn said, eyes flickering to his.

Steve nodded. "Reboot and send the signal again."

"We don't even know what this is," Bruce voiced his fear.

Natasha shook her head. "Fury did. Just do it, please. You tell me the second you get a signal. I want to know who's on the other end of that thing."

Natasha turned around just as Evelyn felt a shift in the air. She turned sharply to see a woman standing there with the same symbol on her chest that was on the transmitter.

The woman looked between them all before muttering, "Where's Fury?"