Bucky's POV:
I zip up my backpack after double checking that I have everything I need.
Warm gear, first aid kit... weapons. You know, the usual.
I hate this part. It's the worst. Having to say goodbye to my family knowing that there's a slim chance I might not ever see them again, having to hold it together in front of them so that they themselves don't break.
I huff as I sling the bag over my shoulder and take one last look in the mirror of the changing room. I'm dressed in denim jeans and a leather jacket so at least the kids don't have to see me in my combat gear, I hate it when they do.
I head out to where everyone including Steve who is already ready waits. Straight away I see my family standing there, somber as they wait for me to come say goodbye.
I walk over to them and try to put on a smile.
"Hey, cheer up guys. I'll be back before you know it," I say.
Islas already too busy crying, Theo is propped up on (Y/N)'s hip looking sad, (Y/N) herself has tear blurred eyes as she rocks the double pram back and forth and Luke is looking at the ground.
I go along the line, hugging and kissing each of them, including picking up each of the tiny twins for a second, whispering goodbye and I love you and telling each of them to look after each other and that it'll be okay. Then I get to (Y/N).
"Hey, look at me." I murmur and stroke her hair out of her face with my flesh hand as she tries to move away from my touch.
I can tell that she's trying to hide the fact that she's on the verge of tears. Her lip trembles.
I pull her chin around so that she has no choice but to look at me.
"Doll, it's gonna be okay. You can do this. I will be home before you know it." I state seriously.
"I know but I just worry." She whimpers. "And now there's so many kids to worry about." She tries to joke.
"You are such an amazing mother that you will be fine. You care for them pretty much full time by yourself during the day anyway." I reason.
She just nods trying to hold herself together.
"I love you." I add.
"I love you too." She smiles sadly.
"Now go get out of here before this gets any harder and I decide to come home." I say in a strained voice.
She laughs a little. "You know I would actually like that." She chokes out.
I pull her in for one last hug and kiss her forehead, hug each of the kids one more time and then literally steer them around towards the door or else I know they won't leave.
I look back one last time to see Luke looking back, he smiles and waves happily when we lock eyes. I do the same.
Once they are gone, Steve and I start to walk towards the back entrance with Peggy in tow to give us our final run down.
"Now, it's about a 7 hour drive so you will need to stop for fuel and supplies along the way. You've got a long journey ahead of you. Lay low and stay unnoticed. You're heading for the top of that cliff that we talked about. Leave your bikes hidden there, it's far enough away that they won't hear you coming but it will mean a trek for you guys, down What is pretty much a cliff. So please, no injuries or else you will have fun getting back up. All we have is that Hydra are operating somewhere out of one of the buildings in the old abandoned railway yard at the bottom of the cliffs but it's a large area and we can't determine exactly where so you're going to need to scope it out. We've intercepted lots of activity from the area but can't pin point its exact location as it's too far away. We don't know exactly what you're in for so be prepared." She stresses the last part more than anything.
"Yes ma'am." I salute jokingly.
"Thanks Peg." Steve huffs absentmindedly as he pulls her in for one last hug and kiss at the doors. "Tell Sarah I love her as usual."
She squeezes him back tightly.
"Of course." She whispers, a sad look in her eyes.
With that Steve turns and heads out to his bike just outside the door.
"Bye Peggy," I say and pat her on the shoulder as I walk past, pursing my lips.
I feel like I've already said enough goodbyes for today.
"Bucky wait," she says desperately and grabs my arm much to my surprise as I try to pass her.
I look back at her confused.
"Look after him please." She begs.
"Of course, I always do." I shrug.
"No. Please Bucky, I know you do." She pauses and then looks down at her stomach, laying a hand on it and it clicks before she even says anything else it clicks.
My jaw drops.
"I'm hoping to wait to surprise him at the wedding." She smiles sadly.
Oh yeah, that's another thing. Steve and Peggy's wedding is in less than a month, finally. They decided they just needed to do it or else it wouldn't get done.
"Peggy, that's great. And of course I will but I-" I start.
"I know you have your own family to get back to and look out for too. And I would never want to compromise that. But I trust you to look after yourself, whereas you know what Steve gets like. All self-sacrificial and reckless." She looks at me desperately. "And I just have a really bad feeling this time around for some reason."
I laugh a little and nod. "I know Peg. Don't worry, I won't let him do anything stupid."
"At least not until you guys get back here." She grins, catching on to our little tease.
I laugh again and pull her in for a hug.
"Don't worry, i promise I'll get him back in one piece. Congrats again Peggy. Look after yourself and my wife while we're gone," I say and wave as I start to walk off.
"Of course." She calls out after me.
"Took your time." Steve jokes as I get outside.
"Sorry, I was just ah, checking that I 100% knew where we were going. Wouldn't want to get lost that far away from home." I lie.
"How you feeling? First mission in a while." Steve points out.
"Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. We've been training and prepping hard leading up to this one. As long as we find them it should be pretty straight forward." I shrug but at the same time I'm thinking that all of a sudden I feel a little added pressure to make sure we are both okay.
Steve nods and smiles. "That's good. Yeah, as long as they don't know we're coming it should be easy. Just have to hope they don't have cameras or anything."
"Well." I huff and sit on my motorbike, put on my helmet and flick back the stand before cranking on the engine. "We might as well get on with it then. No use putting it off."
Steve nods and pats me on the helmet before doing the same, just before we take off riding, straight onto the highway knowing we've got a long and uncertain trip ahead of us.
The sun is still only just coming up. Since it's such a long ride ahead of us we figured we needed to head off at around dawn... which meant the fun task of getting the whole family up at 5am.
Luckily the weather isn't too bad, id hate to be riding in the rain. Not only would it be a pain but it would be dangerous too.
We ride for a solid few hours before stopping at a diner for a feed, keeping our jacket collars pulled up and switching out our helmets for baseball caps and tinted shades. Over bacon and eggs and black coffee we discuss what happens when we get there depending on the time; whether we try get it done tonight or wait until morning and decide to just wait and see what we are facing when we know more. After we've eaten we quickly fill up at the gas station at the end of the little town, grab a few more snack to put in the side bags of our bikes incase there's nowhere else to stop for a while - it seems we are getting further away from civilization with every kilometre - before heading off again.
We ride side by side, occasionally having races to try and entertain us and pass the time. We must've been travelling for about five hours, out in the middle of nowhere literally looking like we are surrounded by dessert when the sky starts to cloud over and a cold wind starts to pick up.
We pull over at the side of the road and pull off our helmets.
"I wanna say thank goodness because I was starting to overheat in this leather but that also really doesn't look very good." Steve huffs as the dark clouds inch closer every second.
"Yeah." I cringe. "The last thing we want is bad weather when by the sounds of it we are basically going to have to absale down a cliff."
"Hm." Steve ponders. "We better get going then and try make it before it gets much worse. We've still got at least two hours to go."
But as if on cue a few spits of heavy rain start to fall.
"Let's go." I nod and take off without another word, Steve following straight behind and catching up in a matter of seconds.
In only a few minutes the rain is falling so heavily that visibility is extremely limited and I'm soaked right through my jeans. I'm pretty sure I can hear thunder over head too.
"Isn't this great?" I shout sarcastically to Steve.
"What?" He yells back.
I shake my head as if to say 'don't worry'.
All of a sudden a massive fork of lightening cracks across the sky. Both of us screech to a halt and just watch it. Sure enough a few seconds later a booming clap of thunder rolls overhead.
"Maybe we should drive a little more carefully." I breath.
"Yeah." He agrees and we take off at a much slower pace than we have time for.
The rain pelts is, feeling like knives on the exposed parts of my skin. I have to keep wiping my glasses of water so that I can actually see. I can feel how slippery the road has become. Also because of the thick cloud cover it starts to get dark earlier in the afternoon than usual.
Finally three hours later we pull up at the edge of an extremely steep hill, that can only be the 'cliff' that Peggy mentioned because it's basically steep enough to be considered a cliff overlooking a very much abandoned looking rail yard when we hop off our bikes and have a look over the edge.
The hill face is basically a cliff consisting of large, treacherous looking boulders and gravel and a few scatterings of trees and bushes. It's at least 100 meters high and there is a bit of fog and mist at the bottom but from what I can see as I peer down is a bunch of run down buildings, each a fair few stories high with broken windows and crumbling walls, half destroyed, half covered, rusty old railway tracks and derailed, very sad looking trains.
Steve and I look at each other horrified at exactly the same time.
"There's no way we are getting down there in this weather." I state.
He nods. "One of us will get killed before we even reach the bottom. Guess we should look at setting up camp here then until this weather clears."
We set to pulling out the tarps from our side bags and string them tightly from the seats and handle bars of our bikes to the ground, holding them in place with nearby rocks. Nothing fancy but it's not like we are going to risk setting up a big elaborate camping set, it's low key and makes for a quick getaway. All we need is enough room to be sheltered from the rain, as uncomfortable as that may be.
I shove my bag under my little cubby hole and go to look over the edge again, wiping the constantly dripping water from my face. Steve comes over to beside me.
"I can't see a damn thing." I exclaim frustratedly. "It'll be pitch black before we know it too."
"We'll just hope it passes in the morning and worry about it then. If we are really that pushed for time for some reason we will have long enough while we are trying to scale that hill to figure something out, we might even get a pretty good view from there." Steve huffs.
"Guess we'll just take turns sleeping then? One keeps watch while the other rests? We don't know what's out there."
Steve laughs almost sarcastically. "It'll be just like the war all over again."
I smile sadly, unsure of what to say. "I'll take first watch when we decide to go to sleep and wake you after about two hours."
Steve nods. "But for now we will eat."
Both of us slide in under our shelters. I pull my bag to be in front of me and dig around in it, not able to remember what I bought at that gas station store and praying it was something decent. Eventually my biggest score is a prepacked sandwich that is a little soggy by now from the rain soaking through to my bag. It's the best thing I've got and now I need to remember that I'll need breakfast too.
I look at my watch. It's 7pm. The weather currently doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon. I poke my head out and look over to Steve's bike and see his head sticking out too. I grin at him unenthusiastically.
"What should we do?" I ask.
He shrugs. "I would say play camp fire games but it's not exactly outdoor weather." He jokes.
I laugh. This kind of does feel like a summer camp type situation, apart from the fact that we genuinely do have to lay low or we risk getting caught, it's not just a game of spotlight.
I think of things we could talk about. "You excited about the wedding?"
At the mention of it I can literally see him light up under the darkening sky. He gets this dazed look in his eyes and a goofy grin as he nods. It makes me so happy that my not so little brother is finally getting his happy ever after. I used to worry that he would never find anyone when we were teenagers. And now although this isn't how I imagined either of our lives turning out, he's now got a growing family and a soon to be wife. All that he's ever wanted. And he's happy.
He rolls over and flops down onto his back, looking up at the clouds.
"I cannot wait. Never have I ever wanted something more." He sighs.
"That's great Stevie. I'm so glad you're happy." I smile as I watch him.
But then for a second I get completely overcome with anxiety thinking about his life ahead of him.
Peggy literally just left it all in my hands.
"Peggy is my best girl. She's the greatest thing that has ever happened to me." He continues. "I just want the day to go perfectly for her."
"Well as your best man I will make it my duty to ensure that it is." I huff cockily making him laugh. "And I can guarantee that my wife, the maid of honour will do the same."
"Thank you." He turns and smiles at me.
"Got anything planned for the honey moon?" I joke and wiggle my eyebrows.
"Pfft I wish." He scoffs. "Wouldn't be surprised if knowing our luck we get called out to a mission that night."
"I know what you mean." I sigh. "It feels a bit that way all the time doesn't it? But I'm sure this time around you'll get a great evening at least."
"Here's hoping." He huffs.
We continue talking for a while longer, until we can no longer see each other through the dark. We don't even realise until the conversation starts to wind down that the rain has relented to a light spit.
"Well, I think we're going to have a long day ahead of us tomorrow so if you don't mind I might hit the hay for now. Wake me up when you want," Steve eventually says.
"Will do." I nod.
Then all I am left with is silence and the soft sound of the drizzle hitting the ground. This place is pretty far out from anywhere, I didn't see any cars for at least the last hour of our journey.
After a while lying in the cramped space becomes uncomfortable. I wriggle out and walk around to the other side of the bike, stretching before pulling my jacket up over my head and sitting back down leaning against my bike. Keeping an eye out in all directions.
With nothing else to do I think about all the possibilities of what could go wrong tonight while we wait.
What if someone is out there watching us and knows what we are doing and we don't even know it? Sure Peggy said they won't know we are hear but you never really know.
I'm facing the direction we came from but I don't have eyes in the back of my head and what if someone comes creeping up the bank behind us?
Then of course I start wondering what's going on at home too. How's (Y/N)? How are the kids? How's Peggy? They all seem so far away right now.
Just then I swear I hear a twig snap. I'm on my feet in a flash, whipping around to see if there is anything in any direction. There are a couple of clumps of bush and trees around us so I first head for the one closest to us. I don't take a torch incase that draws any attention we don't already have.
Standing at the edge I peer into the black clump, scanning to find any movement or eye glint or sign of someone around. It's not a large amount of trees so it doesn't take me long to decide that there's no one there. As I head back towards the bikes I peer over the cliff edge to see if I can see anything there... nothing. But as I walk past the bikes my stomach drops. Steve's not where I left him.
"Steve?!" I whisper urgently and look around all over again. "Steve?!?!" I ask a little louder.
I move around, trying not to make a fuss but trying to see where he could've gone.
Instantly my mind goes to the worst. They distracted me and drew me away before moving in and taking him while he was asleep.
"Steve!!" I nearly shout desperately.
"Buck?" A voice returns to me.
Cold relief washes over to me as I whip around to see him walking out from another clump of bush adjusting his pants.
"Oh my god." I mumble and rush over to him.
"What's up?" He frowns under the moonlight.
"I-I thought someone from Hydra had taken you," I say slightly embarrassed now. "I heard a noise and next thing I knew you weren't where I'd last seen you."
He lets out a laugh. "Sorry, it was probably me. I was just... you know, doing my business."
"Yeah I can see that now." I huff. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because when I got up you seemed really deep in thought and I really don't feel like anyone is going to find us let alone be looking for us up here." He explains.
"Hm, weird. I feel the exact opposite." I mumble.
He looks at me concerned. "Maybe I should take over watch for a bit now. Why don't you get some rest? You seem really worked up. I know what you can get like about Hydra and I don't blame you. We'll be okay."
I hadnt really thought about that and he's probably right but it's also the fact that I'm trying to keep the secret of his unborn child and therefore protect him from harm on a whole new level this time. I don't know why I feel this way so much right now. Even if Peggy wasn't secretly pregnant he's still got her and Sarah back home anyway.
"I'll wake you in two hours?" Steve adds when I don't respond.
"Huh? Ah yeah. Sorry. Good idea." I murmur before going and slipping under my shelter.
I must be more tired than I realise because I don't even remember seeing Steve sit down before I'm out to it.
~~~~
We take turns keeping watch throughout the night. Steve takes the last one because the next time I'm being woken up by Steve shaking me the first rays of sunlight are just streaking across the sky.
"Hey Buck." He whispers. "Time to get up and get sorted. Weathers cleared up so we better get a move on."
"Huh?" I mumble as I stretch and sit up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Oh wow would you look at that."
"Take it you slept well?" Steve laughs.
"Surprisingly." I shrug. "Who would've thought it would've turned out like this after last night?"
There isn't a cloud to be seen nor a gust of wind. It seems almost impossible.
"I know. Hopefully that means luck is on our side. But then again, you know how crazy the weather in summer can get."
I look at my watch, 7am.
"We probably want to be moving by like 8am right? It'll take a while to get down that ledge I reckon." I confirm.
Steve nods. "Like an hour I think. And we can't afford any mistakes so we need to take our time and be on the same page about everything."
"Yeah definitely." I agree. "Any sign of movement down there?"
"Not a thing." He shakes his head. "But there's no way Madeline was feeding us false information, she let that slip without meaning too, I could tell by the look on her face. And I trust Peggy's judgement too, like she said, they've picked up activity from overhead."
I nod in agreement.
"Now eat up, it could be a big day ahead of us."
I scrounge through my bag and find two muesli bars and an apple. Not ideal but what else do you expect from a truck stop?
Steve does the same, eating a sandwich the same as mine yesterday.
"So what do we want to do when we get down there?" I ask.
"Stick close together and survey the area. Keep each other's backs because we will be exposed from one angle or another with all of those buildings." Steve starts to explain seriously and I listen with all ears. "Have your gym ready and loaded, you never know if we might need it."
"You sure you don't want one this time around?" I ask even though I already know the answer. "Even though they hopefully don't know we are coming We are at the disadvantage here."
He shakes his head. "My shield and these fists are all that I need."
"Okay, suit yourself." I sigh, but make a mental note to stick another gun down my boot besides the one in my holster, just incase.
We change out of our motorbike gear and into our combat gear, roll our bikes so that they are more hidden under the trees and pack up any other evidence that we had been here, leaving our backpacks with the bikes and only taking what is essential in our belts and pockets.
Finally we walk to the cliff edge and look down, it almost looks like astraight drop.
"Ready?" Steve asks and looks st me raising an eyebrow and holding out his fist.
"Ready." I nod and give him a fist bump.
We drop down to a crouching position and start edging our way over the side, slowly and carefully gradually making our way down, just trying to find little ledges and footholds. We stick as much to the trees as we can for both cover and stability. Some parts are worse than others; sometimes it feels like we are rock climbing without a harness, others we are bum shuffling down, and sometimes when we are lucky we get to actually stand up for a bit. There are a few close calls, near misses, fallen rocks, grabbing onto tree branches for dear life, but after nearly an hour we finally make it to flat ground again.
"Geez, that was a workout in itself, I'm already tired." I puff.
"That sun is already so hot." Steve nods in agreement as he pulls out his drink bottle and takes a swig, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead.
No doubt about it that we are fit men, but that was hard. I'm not looking forward to the trek back up.
"Alright." He whispers as we remain perched just under the cover of the last few trees. "Are we ready?"
I pull out my gun and have it cocked by my shoulder at the ready, nodding. Steve eyes me as he pulls his shield out from off his back and shoved his arm into it, pulling the straps tight.
Just like that a switch flicks within us and we are in full, silent, alert mode. All our training clicking into place. The two of us work so well together, know each other like the back of our own hands so that we don't have to doubt our trust or ask what the other is doing. We move in sync. We step out into the beating sun, backs pressed against each other as we scan our respective fields of view.
We head for the nearest building and hug it's outskirts, trying to keep as hidden as possible. But the issue with this place is that because there's so many tall buildings at every angle we are always exposed in one way or another. As Steve walks forward and looks ahead, I keep an eye out from behind and scan the borders surrounding us for any abnormal activity.
When we come to the door we slip inside without a sound, clicking the door shut behind us. We scour the whole building, going up all twenty flights of stairs, checking all the rooms only to find nothing.
The same thing happens for at least the next two hours, just climbing flights of stairs in many of the buildings and scanning all areas we can find, slowly inching our way closer to the train tracks, slowly running out of buildings to search. We don't say anything but I soon begin to sense his frustration just as I'm sure he does mine. Thank god we are under shade most of the time because if we were out in the heat it would be ten times worse.
The whole time I can feel that I'm just not quite focussed. My mind keeps slipping back to the promise I made Peggy twenty four hours ago and I have to keep drawing my attention back more and more the more time that passes.
Nothing seems to stick out as out of the ordinary the whole time. That is, until we come to stop as we near the corner of one of the rundown buildings.
As i assume Steve is checking around the corner I cock my gun and scan the upper levels and windows of the surrounding buildings. I don't register for a second when I feel that he's nudging my leg ever so subtly with his foot as if to let me know that he's right there that he's actually trying to quietly warn me that he's seen something out of the ordinary. And when I do click as it gets progressively more urgent that maybe somethings actually wrong it's already too late.
"Buck! Look out!" He suddenly yells and breaks away from me, the suddenness catching me off guard.
I whip around to see what he must've spotted only to see someone dressed in all black including one of the tattletale hydra face masks running straight for us from behind one of the adjacent buildings. Steve sprints straight for him only to be sideswiped by another one who came out of nowhere.
"Steve!" I shout, and Immediately run for him where he has been tackled to the ground.
He manages to stagger to his feet. But I'm too concerned about protecting him to remember that there's now two Hydra assassins. One of which who had originally been running for Steve was now in fact running for me since the other had Steve preoccupied. The two of them start to fight just as I'm heading over to back Steve up - even though deep down I should know he doesn't really need the help but I'm so wired up today - when all of a sudden I feel two hands grip me by the shoulders and whip me around to face them only to knee me straight to the stomach.
The shock is instantaneous as all the breath there is leaves my lungs and the wind is knocked out of me. I buckle to my hands and knees, coughing and gasping desperately for air, any little slither of it that I can get, but nothing comes apart from an awful wheezing sound leaving my body.
I manage to look to the side and see for a second that Steve looks over at me worriedly, distracted for just a second, giving the assassin on him enough time to punch him square in the face sending him flying backwards onto his ass too.
These guys are trained very well and they've got lightening fast reflexes.
"St-Steve." I manage to rasp out But all of a sudden I am lifted off the ground, a hand wound tightly around my throat.
All I can see in front of me is the cold eyes of the man who has now taken off his mask as he storms forward, backing me up against a wall until he has me pinned there, just above the ground.
There is something familiar about him but in my frantic daze I can't quite put my finger on it.
But as he begins to say those words in that taunting voice it all clicks.
He's one of my old Winter Soldier trainers.
((A/N): Any words coming up that are in italicises and *astrices* are meant to be in Russian.)
"*Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car*."