•••
The three of them sat in an awkward silence, Ellie shuffling through the kitchen to sit at the barstool next to Olly.
"Are you?" He repeated turning to face his sister who was now sat next to him.
"Am I what?" Ellie replied reluctantly.
"An alcoholic!" Jack snapped.
Ellie sighed deeply as she gave a small nod, fiddling with her husbands wedding ring that dangled around her neck.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"The only person I've actually ever told was Natasha."
"How long have you been drinking?"
"After dad died-"
"Dad died 10 years ago, Ellie." Olly interrupted.
"I know." Ellie nodded sadly. "I joined S.H.I.E.L.D when I was 16."
"I thought you joined at 21?" Jack commented becoming extremely confused. "After dad died. That's when I thought they recruited you."
"I was undercover for 5 years. Fury kept me off the grid."
"When did you start drinking?" Olly queried.
"I was 20."
"Why? Why did you start?"
"I was an assassin for fucks sake, it's not exactly an easy job. I don't have an easy life."
"How did mum know if you only told Natasha?"
"When I was 23, I think, my liver..." she paused for moment wiping away the tear that threatened to spill from her eye. "My liver began to fail. If you're an alcoholic you have to be sober for a specific period of time before you can be put back on the transplant list. This is unless you have someone who's a match and is willing to donate some of theirs. Only mum was a match." She explained quietly.
"That's how she found out." Jack concluded, Ellie nodded signalising that he was correct. That was the worst period of her life, she remembered Natasha caring for her as she lay bedridden in the apartment they shared together at the time. She felt helpless, alone, like there wasn't any point in living.
"She um- she didn't take it very well. Told me that I was a um- a disappointment and that dad would be ashamed of me and that I was selfish and if I kept drinking I would join dad. She begged Natasha to leave me, told her that I wasn't worth it."
"Holy shit, that's harsh."
"Is it really though?" Ellie asked.
"Yes!" Olly exclaimed. "It wasn't your fault, it's not like you chose this."
"Does your husband know?" Jack wondered.
"Yeah, he found out after I had a fight with Nat. He kind of worked it out himself."
"Are you sober now?"
"4 months." She nodded.
"Thank you." Olly stated.
"For what?"
"For telling us." He confirmed.
"Didn't actually tell you but uh, okay..."
Jack rolled his eyes and Olly chuckled slightly.
- - -
A week later Ellie was back at the compound when she received a call from T'Challa. He was awake and it had worked, her Bucky was awake. The winter soldier was gone. When she heard the news about her husband, she cried, causing Tony to laugh at her and make some snarky remark about how she'd gone soft, which resulted in Ellie melting some of the plastic cup in his hands, using her powers, causing the water to spill into his lap. She was currently on her way back to Wakanda, Harry asleep in his baby carrier which doubled as a car seat or in Ellie's case, an aeroplane seat. As the plane began to land itself, Ellie stood up, carefully detaching Harry's carrier from the co-pilot seat.
"Welcome back to Wakanda." T'Challa greeted with a smile, as he hugged her gently.
"Thank you." She replied, looking on anxiously as Queen Ramonda stepped forward, holding out her hand as she introduced herself.
"You must be Mrs Barnes?" She asked kindly.
"Ellie." She nodded, shaking the older woman's hand. "This is my son, Harry." Motioning to the baby carrier that she had lifted up so the woman could see the baby.
"He looks a lot like you now." T'Challa told the woman, motioning to her to follow him.
"He has James' eyes." Ellie commented fondly, as she followed the Wakandans through the large corridor which Ellie remembered led to Shuri's lab.
"James, I thought your husband's name was Bucky?" Ramonda queried.
"Oh uh well, His real name is James although he's not particularly fond of people calling him by it so he goes by Bucky." She explained.
"I see." She nodded, offering the younger woman a warm smile.
She wasn't sure why, but she was nervous to see her husband again. She took a deep breath as she saw the wind pick up outside, knowing that her powers mixed with her emotions were the cause of the sudden change in weather. She looked forward to see that they had entered Shuri's lab, expecting her ears to be filled with the usual upbeat music that she played in her lab. Instead she heard what she recognised to be 40's music causing her to smile, knowing that her husband would have had something to do with the music choices.
"Brother, mother, El." Shuri greeted her family before turning to Ellie and giving her a warm hug.
"Unusual music choice." Ellie pointed out, Shuri letting out a playful sigh.
"Your husband is very persuasive." The young genius commented. "He's around here somewhere."
"Thank you for everything." Ellie told the Wakandan, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
"It's my pleasure." Shuri nodded with a laugh, taking Harry off of her and taking him into her arms.
"El?"
She knew that voice, it was her husband's voice, the voice that belonged to the person that she loved more than anything in the world. She looked up and she saw him stood there, he had a new arm, it was a darker grey than his other one, his hair was pulled into a half-up, half-down bun and he wore a simple t-shirt with a pair of sweat pants. She practically ran at him, wrapping her arms tightly around him, he held her tightly, their lips connected, a tear falling down her face.
"I missed you." He muttered in between kisses.
"You've been asleep for 4 months, I'm the one that's been doing the missing." She joked, resting her forehead on his.
"Don't make me feel bad." He mumbled as Shuri walked over to the couple with their son.
"I'm kidding." She smiled, watching how and intently and lovingly Bucky was looking at his son who Shuri held in her arms.
"He's gotten so big." Bucky muttered, holding Harry in his flesh arm.
"You're like 10 feet tall so I'm not exactly surprised." Ellie over exaggerated, pulling out her phone and taking a picture of her boys.
"Hey!" Bucky exclaimed, although there was a smile on his face.
"I missed you." She commented, placing her hand on his cheek, watching as Harry smiled at his dad.
"I missed you too." Bucky smirked, knowing it would piss her off.
"I hate you." She deadpanned.
"No you don't" James remarked.
"No, I don't." She admitted.
"Knew it." He announces triumphantly.
"Oh whatever."
- - -
T'Challa has offered Ellie and Bucky a place to stay in Wakanda whilst they found a new house as they had sold their old house.
Ellie sat outside on a picnic rug with Harry led next to her under an umbrella whilst she watched Bucky play with small wakandan children, laughing as they bundled on top of him, tackling him to the ground. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket making her jump slightly.
"Hello?" She asked, answering the unknown call with a laugh, as bucky groaned in pain.
"Ellie? Ellie Ward?" The man asked her taking her by surprise as she was called by her maiden name which she hadn't been called by for over a year.
"Who is this?" She demanded.
"Bruce. Bruce Banner." He informed her.
"Bruce? Haven't heard from you since Sokovia." Ellie answered bitterly, he had hurt her best friend.
"I heard that you ran too." He quipped, causing her to sigh. She'd also hurt her best friend, but at least she kept in contact and had seen Natasha since.
"How did you get my number?"
"Tony."
"Makes sense. I don't mean to be rude but why are you calling me?"
"We have a big problem." He sighed.
"What do you mean by a big problem? What the hell's happening?"
"Check the news."
Ellie put the man on hold clicking onto the news app on her phone which was instantly filled with hundreds of articles about a space ship in New York, but apparently it had left.
"Another alien invasion?" She questioned tiredly. "Been there, done that."
"Tony's missing, and the wizard, Steven Strange, and some spider-boy or something."
"Spider-man." Ellie corrected, anxiety growing inside of her at the thought of Peter being in danger along with Tony. Her breathing picked up and tears gathered in her eyes.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Ellie?" Bucky muttered as he bent down in front of her, she handed him the phone with the news article, as he pulled her into his side. "Just breathe, okay?"
"Bruce is on the phone." She choked out.
"Hello? Banner it's Bucky Barnes." He answered.
"Uh sure sure, we need Ellie and actually you could be helpful too."
"So what, you need our help with the spaceship?"
"Not exactly, I need you to find Wanda Maximoff and Vision, his transponders offline and there's some psychopath after the stone in his head. Do you know who I'm talking about?"
"I know who they are." Bucky rolled his eyes, relaying the message to Ellie.
"I know where they are." Ellie nodded as Bucky put the phone on speaker.
"Oh good. That makes this so much easier. Could you go to them?"
"I'll find them." Ellie reassured him.
"Call Steve, If you still talk to him."
"Of course I still talk to him, why wouldn't I?"
"I don't know who talks to who anymore." Bruce sighed.
"I'll ring Steve, get him to meet me where they are. Then we'll bring them to wherever you are."
"I'm at the compound."
"They're wanted prisoners and you really want me to bring them to one of the most watched buildings in the country?"
"Thank you Ellie." Bruce told her completely ignoring her last sentence as he cut her off.
Ellie sight, running a hand through her hair, picking her son up off the floor and standing up.
"How are we going to find them?" Bucky asked, picking up Harry off the rug as he began to cry.
"I'll explain on the way but right now we news to find T'Challa. You're off on a mission." She smiled falsely.
"They want you."
"Of course they do but I'm staying with my son, so it's down to you." She announced.
"Where am I going?" Bucky sighed.
"Edinburgh."
- - -
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