Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sometimes—not very often anymore—Toni Stark would decide to walk from her Malibu offices back to her mansion. It’s not a trip anyone makes in an hour or two, unless they were a god of some sort; no, it was well after ten, and she was fully expecting to still be walking when ten rolled around the next morning. She didn’t have anything, or anyone, waiting for her at home, and for once she just didn’t want to be at work. So, walking home in the middle of the night was, sadly, her best option.

Peter had gone back to New York. He stayed with Toni for a week, missing school the entire time, and Toni wasn’t going to let him miss the rest of the term, no matter how much he wanted to (and how much she would have loved to have him there with her). She didn’t make him go back to the mansion; he chose to go on his own.

“Clint said Steve’s been staying at SHIELD,” Peter told her.

“That’s not fair,” she replied. “The mansion’s his home too.”

“He hurt you…”

“Doesn’t make it right. Tell someone to bring him home.”

“What about you? It’s your home too…”

“And I’ll come home when I’m ready.”

That was two months ago; Steve was back in the mansion, but she still wasn’t ready.

Which was a shame, really; she loved New York in the winter. Pepper had called the other day and said it was snowing. She could imagine a light dusting around the city, the frost patterns on the windows, the clouds of breath coming out of a stranger’s mouth…

The thoughts of winter and longing to enjoy it made her miss the man following her. She’s not proud of it, but that’s what happened. She didn’t know he was there until she felt a gun press into the back of her neck and heard a voice tell her not to move. She could hear the footsteps of more people surrounding her, leading her to decide to actually do what she was told.

Which made them knocking her unconscious completely unnecessary.

Toni woke up with a headache that she could unfortunately liken to her last hangover; the one she’d drank herself into over Steve, the one she reminded herself of when she wanted to drink after the break up.  The one that would always remind her of how low she could get if she let herself, because honestly? To go through your dead father’s study just to find the quality whiskey you knew he’d stored there once upon a time for the sole purpose of drinking yourself stupid meant you were pretty damn low.

She could feel blood trickling down the back of her head, likely from where the rifle butt struck her (she thinks it was a rifle, anyway; it’s not like she saw it strike her from behind). She could also feel it pooling against her neck. She was lying down, then. She tried to push herself up, only to find that she was strapped to whatever she was lying on. Whoever brought her here didn’t want her moving.

She didn’t like the sound of that at all.

Toni knew what this was all about, of course; it was about The Question. The question she’d been asking herself since October, since she base jumped into a canyon to find a frozen soldier. Since she’d found that frozen soldier and managed to get him out safely… and back to the arms of his loving boyfriend, who had once been hers. The question that no one else was asking; if they had, they would have contacted her about it, gotten her thoughts and probably told her to stop looking into it. The question that wouldn’t leave her alone.

Who left Sergeant James Barnes in that canyon as bait for Steve Rogers? Toni was certain she was about to find out.

But that’s not what made her blood run cold, what made her want to get sick… what terrified her the most. The air around her was hot and thick, and held the familiar taste of sand, gunpowder and blood.

Toni Stark was back in Afghanistan. And this time, she was alone.

Chapter Text

Toni Stark wasn’t sure exactly when she’d fallen asleep, but it wasn’t long enough ago to warrant being woken up again. Peter had left a day or two ago, and she’d spent the time following down in her workshop, working on suit upgrades to keep her mind off of Steve. Did she really need a suit that would withstand deep space exploration, possibly get her to Mars and back faster than anything NASA had? Probably not. Did she want one anyway? Fuck yes.

“Jarvis,” she muttered into her pillow. “Is the person at the door likely to kill me?”

“I wouldn’t think so, Miss Stark,” he replied. “He is short an arm, you should be able to take him.”

“I’m removing that sense of humor in your next upgrade, you sarcastic son of a bitch.”

“I am quaking in terror, Miss.” Toni opened her mouth to say something else, but closed it quickly, thinking over what Jarvis had said.

“Wait, one arm? Barnes is here?”

“Yes Miss Stark, unless you have another acquaintance lacking an arm.”

“Your newfound sass is clearly the work of Clint Barton, and I’m kicking his ass when I see him again.”

“I’ll put it on your to-do list, Miss Stark, but until then, you may wish to greet your guest.”

“Yeah, sure, fine…” Toni pushed herself up off the bed. “Am I wearing clothes?”

“Yes, Miss Stark.”

“Are they appropriate?”

“I would suggest a robe, Miss Stark.”

“Right.” She got up off the bed, standing beside it for a moment. “Do I own a robe?”

“In your closet, Miss.”

“Right, closet… tell him I’m coming.”

She made it down stairs about ten minutes later; after not being able to find the robe that Jarvis insisted was in her closet, she took the initiative to actually get dressed. Or, at the very least, she threw on pants and a shirt. She found Bucky sitting on the couch in the living room with a cup of coffee in his hand and another waiting on the table in front of him. If she didn’t have an artificial intelligence system running her house, this probably would have worried her. Or at least it probably should have, but she was never worried about things when she should be.

“Sergeant Barnes,” she said as cheerfully as she could manage without proper caffeination.

“Miss Stark,” he replied, nodding towards the cup of coffee. “Your robot butler said you might want that when you made it downstairs.”

“That’s Jarvis, he runs the house.” She grabbed the coffee and took a sip, savoring the bold flavor in her mouth, not caring that it would likely scald her tongue. “You talked to him in the canyon, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, right…” There was an awkward silence, which made Toni regret bringing up that day but she couldn’t think of what else to say…

“Wait, what the hell are you doing here?” She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. “How did you even get to California, you’re missing an arm!”

“Agent Coulson dropped me off,” he said, a grin forming on his face. “He said that off the top of his head, he can think of five or six different ways to kill me with only the contents of your knitting bag, and he will prove this to me if I do anything to upset you.”

“Yes, that sounds like Agent alright,” Toni admitted, taking another sip of her coffee. “That explains the how, but not the why.”

“You promised me a new arm.”

“That’s going to require more coffee.” His grin widened.

“There’s a full pot in the kitchen, Miss Stark; why don’t you grab it and then show me what you can do.”

The arm building took the majority of the week; Toni complained it would have been done quicker if Bucky hadn’t kept making her stop for food.

It wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be.

She called him James, because she liked the way it rolled of her tongue; he’d call her Antonia if she’d let him, but understood why she didn’t like it. He told her stories of the war that she’d never heard before and she showed him how to work computers and smart phones. She laughed when he told her about what Howard had said about her name, and even though he didn’t say so, she could tell he knew she was holding something back. She never told him what growing up was like for her, but he never asked either.

She found herself understanding why Steve loved him so much.

“Well, that’s all she wrote, Sergeant,” she said, wiping her forehead with her oil stained arm. “You are now the proud owner of a completely functioning cybernetic arm. All you need is a matching leg, change of clothes and a blonde wig and you’ve got yourself a perfect Edward Elric cosplay.”

“You’re not making sense again,” he told her, smiling as he moved his arm around, wiggling his fingers. “Do I want to know what you’re talking about?”

“Probably not, I’m still not over chapter five.” She shuddered slightly, a sickened expression covering her face as she closed her eyes. “Probably never will be.” She opened her eyes again, smiling at him. “I trust your arm meets your satisfaction?”

“You said you’d build me a fantastic arm, and you certainly did that.” He quickly took her in his arms, hugging her carefully. She tensed at first, but soon returned the hug. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She looked at him and smiled; he loved it when she did that. She was beautiful, but even more so when she smiled. He leaned in to kiss her lips; she turned, offering him her cheek. He looked at her, more confused that hurt by the action.

“Toni?”

“I’m sorry, James,” she replied softly. “I can’t.” She turned to face him, tears forming in the corners of her eyes with a small, pained smile curling her lip. “I like you, James, I really do… god, you’re everything someone could want in a guy; you’re brave, funny, sweet, but…”

“But?”

“But as much as I like you, I am still completely in love with Steve.” She turned away shrugging her shoulders a little. “And us being over doesn’t change that, I can’t just turn it off…” She took a deep breath, letting it out slow. She turned back to him, a look pleading for understanding on her tear stained face. “And I can’t pretend that I don’t love him, because in the end, that wouldn’t be fair to you… I’m sorry.” Bucky was silent for a moment; he then took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, his lips lingering for a moment or two.

“Steve’s a lucky guy,” he said finally. She smiled.

“I was a lucky girl.”

“Yeah… I should go. Will you be okay here by yourself?”

“I’ve spent much of my life alone, James; this is no different.”

“Call if you need anything?”

“Yeah.”

Bucky walked up the stairs from the workshop, shaking his head a little. He’d never come here to try and woo her away from Steve, even if he now wishes he’d been able to. She was a quality dame, that Toni Stark. Hopefully that dumbass he called his best friend would realize that. He glanced wistfully towards the stairs before grabbing his coat and walking out the front door.

“She really does care about you, you know.” The voice came from someone waiting outside next to a beautiful car that Bucky didn’t know the name of (nor did he really care); a tall black man in an Air Force uniform. “If she didn’t, she would have let you be her rebound. She may not love you, but she likes you. More than most of the world can say.”

“Thanks,” Bucky replied, walking over to the man. “I think.” The man chuckled, holding out a hand.

“Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, USAF; call me Rhodey.” Bucky took his hand, giving it a firm shake.

“Sergeant James Barnes, US Army. Call me Bucky.” They held each other’s hand for a minute or two. Bucky could feel Rhodes’ eyes surveying him, sizing him up. It didn’t bother him; he was doing the same thing.

“Coulson said you might need a ride home,” Rhodes continued, not releasing his grip. “But there’s no rush… want to go grab a beer?” A fond, honest smile was on his face, one that almost made Bucky forget he’d just been turned down by a beautiful woman moments ago.

“Absolutely.”

Chapter Text

The phone rang and Steve Rogers groaned in displeasure. Blinking sleep out of his eyes, he reached around for his cell phone. He liked that his phone made a proper ringing sound when he got a call, something that Toni had let him know was an option and showed him how to set up.

Toni. He missed her, god did he miss her. Clint had told him to man up and go talk to her, but… he couldn’t. He wasn’t ready to face what he’d done to her.

The surprising part (though maybe it shouldn’t have been) was that the person who gave him the most grief was Bucky.

The phone was still ringing.

“Rogers,” he said groggily once he’d finally found the phone and turned it on. The sound of the panicked voice on the other end snapped him awake; it was Pepper.

“Captain,” she said urgently, the sounds of tears in her voice. She hadn’t called him Steve since the incident; he couldn’t say that he blamed her. “It’s Toni… she didn’t return to the mansion last night, and this morning…”

“Ransom demand?” Steve asked quickly, getting up and heading for his closet. “How much?” She paused; Steve could hear the hesitation in her breathing. “Pepper?”

“It’s not that... do you have your laptop?”

“I can have Jarvis pull whatever it is up on my television…”

“Right of course… Jarvis, pull up StarkTrial dot com.” Within  seconds, the website appeared on screen; “Stark Trial” was at the top, written in a horror movie-esk font that was dripping blood. Just underneath was an image of Toni, strapped to a rusted operating table. Steve would have thought she was just sleeping, if not for the small pool of blood next to her head. He forced himself to look away from the photo and read the caption below.

Billionaire-Genius-Playgirl-Philanthropist… Watch her fight for her life. Unlimited Access: $99.99.

Someone was trying to kill Toni, and they were charging people to see it.

“I already paid for it,” Pepper said quickly. “Jarvis is logging you in now… oh god, Toni don’t!” Steve kept his eyes glued to the screen, finally seeing what Pepper was seeing: Toni, no longer strapped to the table, walking towards one of three doors in the room.

***

Once she realized that she wasn’t actually in Afghanistan, Toni was able to calm down. The dirt and blood she smelled earlier wasn’t similar, but not the same. Once she realized that, she was able to think; the straps holding her down were snug, but not tight enough to keep her from grasping the edges on the table and pulling herself down, sliding out of their grasp. The moment she was free and her feet touched the floor, a voice sounded through the room.

“Good morning, Fräulein Stark,” the chipper, male, German voice said. “Welcome to your nightmare.”

“My nightmare started about two months ago, thanks,” Toni replied, looking around the room. It was simple, old stone work with doors on three of the four walls. Interesting.

“Yes, I know,” the voice continued. “You had the grave misfortune of ruining our little surprise for Captain America. Do you have any idea how long we’ve been keeping Barnes on ice, Miss Stark, waiting for our moment?”

“I’m gonna say about seventy years.” She’d been right then; Bucky had been bait, not for herself, but for Steve. They expected her to tell Steve about finding Bucky, for him to go looking and not her. And this was pay back. “What don’t you get to the point, and tell me what I’m doing here.”

“But of course, Fräulein Stark. You are now in the very death trap we had planned for Captain America; make it out alive, and you win. Otherwise, you lose.” Lights above the three doors turned on. “Two of these doors will lead you out of this room and into the next stage; the third will kill you instantly. Good luck, Fräulein Stark.” She heard the high pitch of microphone feedback, followed by a click. He was done then; she was sick of talking to him anyway.

Toni focused her attention on the three doors in front of her; apparently these guys, whoever they were (she was assuming HYDRA, despite how racist that might sound) had a fondness for Let’s Make a Deal. She contemplated the Monty Hall complex for a moment, realized that unless she planned on opening two doors, it really had no bearing on her situation, and walked towards one of the doors. Either she got this over quickly, or she went on to the next stage.

Win-Win, really.

She walked over to the door and pulled it open, instantly feeling the sting as something soared into her chest and exited out her back. She turned slightly to look, seeing what looked like a cannonball imbedded in the wall behind her.

“Huh.” There was nothing else she could do; no technology in the world could help her now, not even her own. So she fell to her knees, a hand over the void where her iron heart had once been. She could feel blood and mechanical discharge slip through her fingers, feel herself grow lightheaded from it all…

And she laughed. She dared to smile for a second, maybe two, before falling forward.

The last thoughts of Toni Stark were about how nice the cool floor felt against her cheek.

Chapter Text

December 23^rd, 2035

Franklin Richards had the reputation of being much more likable than his father, which he was honestly quite proud of. It was so much easier to get things done and save the world when Iron Man wasn’t threatening to tie you in a knot and launch you, and anyone that tried to stop her, into the sun (and as much as he loved his father, Franklin would be the first to admit that usually he deserved it). He wished Toni was there now, really. It would help him a lot, having another genius to bounce ideas off of.

Of course, if Toni was there, Franklin wouldn’t be looking for her.

Yeah.

One week ago, Toni Stark had quite literally disappeared. Franklin remembered the day well; even after they found Toni, he was likely to never forget it. She had been talking with Rose, going on about scholarships and dorms and why didn’t Rose just let Toni buy her a grad school, when she started to fade. It started at her arc reactor, but soon spread across her entire body. She fell to her knees just before she completely faded, laughing a little. She then fell forward; she was completely gone by the time she would have hit the ground.

Franklin had been trying to figure out what the hell happened ever since. And today, he finally had it.

“Rose! Captain Rogers!” he yelled, knowing that neither the redhead nor the Captain would be far from the lab. “I’ve got something!” Seconds later, two figures rushed into the room. The first was Captain America himself.

Steve Rogers did not look anywhere near his age of one hundred seventeen years old; rather, he looked to be between Toni’s age of fifty nine and Rose’s twenty three, something he was quite proud of and often teased the two ladies about. His golden hair was graying slightly, but he was still as strong as ever, able to keep up with the youngest of the New Avengers. And Thor. He was still keeping up with Thor.

Behind him was Rose. Tall, ginger haired and violet eyed Rose.

“What’s up, Benny?” she asked before Steve could open his mouth. She never called him Franklin; it was always Benny, or Frankie, or Richie. He liked that.

“You’re not going to like it,” he replied plainly, looking right at Steve. “We’re dealing with time travel.”

“You’re right,” Steve replied. “I don’t like it.”

“How can you be sure?” Rose asked, taking a seat next to Franklin. The young man pulled up a calendar on his screen, pointing to December 16^th.

“Here’s where Toni vanished, right? And here…” Franklin moved his finger to the nineteenth. “Is where we started seeing the public forgetting about her.” Rose and Steve nodded; everyone who saw Toni vanish, whether it was first hand or via the security footage, remembered her and everything she’d done. To everyone else, however, she was dead and gone.

“So, I’ve done some looking,” Franklin continued. “And from what I’ve found out, history states that Toni Stark died on December Nineteenth, Two Thousand Twelve.”

“So?” Rose asked. Franklin looked at Steve, who actually looked pale.

“So, Captain Rogers; what happened that day?” There was silence for a minute. Two. Three.

“HYDRA,” Steve replied. “They’d been dormant for years, but were waiting for the best moment to get what they wanted.”

“You?” Rose asked.

“Me,” Steve agreed. “They’d kept my best friend in cryogenic storage for years, they brought him out to get to me… they didn’t count on Toni. She found him first, got him out before they could do what they wanted…”

“So what are we going to do?” Rose’s voice was hard, angry. She knew this story. She knew about Toni fighting her way off the island death zone, surviving… she didn’t die that day. She lived. She shouldn’t be dead because of that day. “What can we do?”

“Someone changed the past,” Franklin replied, typing on the keyboard before him. “I’ve managed to find the footage, but it’s not pretty.”

“Don’t, Franklin,” Steve said quickly. “I’m pretty sure I know when they changed things…”

“Sure thing, Captain… anyway, I’ve got the coordinates set in the TARDIS…”

“You have a TARDIS, Franklin?”

“Not really, but I do have a time machine and it’s all set to go.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

“I’m waiting for Rose to stand on the transport platform.”

“What?!” A sound similar to keys being dragged over piano wire was heard as Rose vanished from sight. “Franklin, what have you done?!”

“She has to be the one to go, Cap!” Franklin yelled over the noise. “Toni doesn’t know her; it’ll do the least amount of damage to the timeline!”

“What do you mean ‘least amount’?!”

“If I try to explain it, all you’ll say is ‘I Hate Time Travel’!”

“I already hate time travel!”

“Then there’s no reason to explain it!” By now, the machine had stopped and the room was silent, save for the two men yelling.

“Answer me this, Franklin,” Steve said as calmly as he could muster. “What happens if she doesn’t come back?” Franklin said nothing. “What happens, Franklin!” Franklin looked him square in the eyes, glaring a little.

“What do you think happens, sir?”

***

Toni walked over to the door and pulled it open.

“Miss Stark, get down!”

Toni learned long ago, if someone tells you to get down, you don’t question it; you get your ass down. She didn’t know who was warning her and frankly, she didn’t care. She dropped to her knees, covering her head with her hands as she fell the rest of the way to the floor. Seconds later, she heard a loud crash; almost an explosion. She turned towards the sound to see what looked like a cannonball imbedded in the far wall. Had she remained standing up, it likely would have gone right through her.

“Holy…” She felt a pair of hands on her arm, pulling her to her feet, steadying her once she was there.

“Miss Stark, we have to go!” Toni looked at her rescuer, blinking a few times. She was young, older than Peter though not by much. Her hair was red, like Natasha’s but somehow even brighter. Her eyes were violet, her skin was pale… and she was wearing a Stark Industries t-shirt with a logo Toni didn’t recognize. Even with that in mind, Toni only had one question.

“Where the fuck did you come from?”

“Questions later, come on!” The girl placed Toni’s arm over her shoulders and helped her out of the room, past the cannon that had almost killed her moments ago. Toni wasn’t sure she could trust this new person.

She was sure, however, that she didn’t have a choice.

Chapter Text

“Who the hell is that?!” Steve yelled, staring at the screen before him. He’d just watched a red haired woman appear out of nowhere and yell at Toni. There was no audio, but he was able to lip read well enough to know she’d said for Toni to get down. He continued watching as Toni hit the floor, just barely avoiding a cannonball that emerged from the door she opened… just before the entire screen went black.

“Those bastards,” he heard Pepper hiss over the phone line. “They never meant for her to make it out of that room!” Her assessment made sense; why else would the video feed quit right then, when Toni should have died.

“They probably have it on a remote control,” Steve said. “Rigged to go off a minute or so after Toni opened any of the doors.”

“That means they might not be watching anymore…”

“And if they aren’t watching anymore, Toni has a chance to escape before they realize they didn’t kill her… is Peter in school right now?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Send someone to get him… I don’t want him finding out about this from anyone but you or me…”

“I’m on it.” Pepper hung up the phone; Steve took a deep breath.

“Jarvis; assemble the Avengers.”

***

The ginger haired girl helped Toni out of the building and was only mildly surprised when she heard the older woman begin to curse.

“Something else wrong, Miss Stark?” she asked, guiding her over to the remains of a picnic table and sitting her down.

“Yeah,” Toni replied, looking at the remains of a brick smoke stack in the distance. “I know where we are.”

In the middle of New York City is a pair of islands, North and South Brother Island. North Brother Island served as a quarantine hospital for victims of small pox and typhoid fever in 1885. It became a rehab center in the 1950s, but has been abandoned since 1963. There were talks of building a prison on the island, but the costs involved were more than anyone was willing to pay.

At the time, anyway. Toni had bought North Brother Island a few months ago; truth be told, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do with it yet, but Steve had once mentioned how nice it would be to have a nearby summer camp for kids who wouldn’t be able to go elsewhere because of financial reasons, and she was looking into whether or not that was really possible.

“How can you be sure?” the girl asked.

“I have a picture of that smoke stack as my desktop background; got them from a realtor when I bought the place.”

“Kind of creepy.”

“Yeah, so am I…” She ran her fingers through her hair. “These bastards are using my own island against me.”

“Then you know how to get out of here, right?” Toni shook her head.

“This is only my second time here; I didn’t really look around too much the first time.” The girl nodded.

“If only I’d gotten here sooner…”

“And if only it were raining,” Toni replied, “then this could be a movie.” Now would have been the perfect time for Toni to ask the girl who she was, what she was doing there, how she knew to save Toni right then… but what the girl did next stopped her.

“Inspiring everybody with a happy ending,” she sang, a smile curling her lips. “I know that one.”

“I don’t meet many people who do.” The girl shrugged.

“My mom sang it to me when I was a kid, it was one of her favorites.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Oh?”

“That song came out in 2005, and you’re what? Twenty?”

“Twenty-Three.”

“Unless your definition of ‘younger’ is sixteen, there’s no way your mom was singing it to you.” The girl smiled, raising her eyebrows in an amused manner.

“I never said I was ‘younger’ before 2005,” she replied plainly. “Younger for me started about five months ago.”

“…what?”

“I was born July 13^th, 2012. It was a Friday; my buddy Frankie says that’s why I’m so unlucky.”

“So you’re a time traveler?”

“Today I am.” She tilted her head slightly, a small smile curling her lips. “You don’t seem to freaked out by that.”

“I’m on a team of superheroes that includes the demigod of lighting, the Jolly Green Giant’s angry brother, and I fight in a robot suit.” Toni shrugged her shoulders. “This is strangely normal for me.”

“Good to know.”

“What’s your name?” Toni asked.

“Roselyn,” the girl replied. “Everyone calls me Rose.”

“What are you doing here, Rose?”

“Saving your ass.” She took off the red and gold backpack she was wearing and opened it, removing some gauze bandage. “Hold still, I’m going to wrap up your head.” Toni nodded, allowing her to get close. “About a week ago, for me, you vanished. We were able to pinpoint the cause to today; someone changed it so you died when you should have lived.”

“How?”

“Are you asking me how you died or how time travel works?”

“I was going for how I died, but if you’d rather explain the latter…” The look on Rose’s face said it all; she would much rather explain time travel.

“Okay, so… you watch Doctor Who, right?” Toni nodded. “Okay, in Blink, when the Doctor said that time travel was a bunch of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff? He was close.”

“Just close?” Toni asked. “What did he get wrong?” Rose bit her bottom lip, considering for a moment. She then finished wrapping up Toni’s head and sat in the dirt in front of her, leaving some space between them.

“Imagine this,” she said, drawing a line in the sand, “is time. Let’s say a time traveler goes back and changes something small… keeping with the Doctor Who theme, they take a right turn instead of taking a left.”

“And that creates a parallel universe?”

“No, that’s where the Doctor got it wrong.”

“So what happens?”

“It depends on whether or not the turn was, or would lead to a fixed point; if it didn’t…” She drew a small zig-zag in her original line. “A blip occurs, but it’s small and no one notices it. Life goes on as normal.”

“And if a fixed point is altered… don’t tell me the reapers show up?” Rose shook her head.

“No, if a fix point is altered…” She drew another zig-zag; it started out bigger and continued throughout the entire timeline before finally straightening out. “Everyone notices the change, but as time keeps going, people forget; it’s like the original point never existed.”

“And what’s that got to do with me?” Toni asked.

“Today, or something you’ve done after today, is a fixed point in time. If I hadn’t gotten here when I did, that cannonball would have killed you; the blip would have gone to the year 2035, where I know you from, and you would have vanished right before my eyes.”

“But you saved me… doesn’t that somehow negate you needing to be here?” Rose shrugged her shoulders.

“Hell if I know… I never asked.”

“You never asked?”

“Captain Rogers had that “I Hate Time Travel” look on his face when Frankie was explaining time travel to us a while ago, and he gets moody when that face shows up.”

Toni couldn’t help wondering if today was why.

“So what happens now?” Toni asked. “Are you going to be able to get home?”

“Probably. I’d think you’d be home by now, and you’re yelling at Benny…”

“Who’s Benny?”

“Frankie. I also call him Richie.”

“Why?”

“He hasn’t told me not to.” Toni opened her mouth to say something, but found that she really couldn’t argue with that logic. “Anyway, you’re probably yelling something to Benny about coordinates, where to come pick me up…”

“By that logic, I should be coming to get you right now.”

“Unless the you I know knows something that you and I don’t know yet,” Rose replied with a grin. Toni grinned right back.

“That certainly sounds like something I would do,” Toni admitted. “But still… that doesn’t explain you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah; these guys mean business, they’ve already told me that they want me dead. And since you saved me, they probably want you gone too… there’s no way of knowing that you won’t die here.” Toni looked the younger girl in the eyes. “Why would you risk your life to come save mine?” Rose bit her bottom lip, pondering for a moment.

“I owe you one,” Rose said finally. “You ready to get out of here.” There was something the girl wasn’t saying, but Toni realized that was all she was going to get right now.

“Yeah. Let’s get going.”

Chapter Text

Bucky Barnes was pretty happy with how things were going for him. Yeah, Toni had turned him down and that sucked; he was kind of hoping that maybe the two of them and Steve could work something out, like it had been with Peggy… but that was the problem, wasn’t it? Toni Stark wasn’t Peggy Carter.

Their relationship had been an accident that somehow turned into something magnificent. He and Steve (and the Commandos, of course) had raided one of the HYDRA bases from Schmidt’s map and were getting some downtime. The kind of downtime that involves no clothes and a locked door.

Guess who forgot to lock the door.

(Hint: It wasn’t Bucky.)

It was Bucky, however, who asked Peggy to join them after she stood slack jawed in the doorway for a good five minutes while Steve tried to figure out to say to her. He never expected her to say yes, but there was this saying about looking gift horses in the mouth that he never really understood but felt applied to this situation anyway.

And they worked. Somehow, the three of them worked. Bucky was driven and passionate, Steve was easy going and sweet, and Peggy managed to meet them in the middle. They were a team… but from what he could tell, Toni didn’t want to be on a team like that. True, he never actually asked her, but judging by her reaction to his attempt to kiss her, he was pretty sure that was the way it was.

If she and Steve didn’t patch things up, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

“Where are you?” James Rhodes was a damn good distraction from most things; worrying about his ex and his ex’s ex was not one of them.

They were dating now, he thinks; neither of them has actually used that term, nor has the word ‘boyfriend’ popped up, but when one is having truly magnificent sex with a United States Air Force Colonel, one doesn’t worry about silly things like labels. Frankly, Bucky’s just happy that the drunken make-out session they had after their first meeting has turned into something more substantial.

“I’m right here,” Bucky promised, kissing Rhodey’s neck as he pulls him closer, his chest against the other man’s back. And because he’s found that he can’t lie to this gorgeous man, he adds “Mostly, anyway… worried about Toni and Steve.” Rhodey makes a sound that Bucky thinks is a groan, but he’s nodding so if there’s groaning, it’s not annoyed groaning.

“Yeah, they’re both idiots,” he replied, snuggling closer to the warmth that Bucky knows he radiates (mostly because Steve and Peggy used to comment on it, saying that was why he was always in the middle). “Toni wants him to come to her, he thinks she wants him to stay away…”

“She does?” Rhodey nods, yawning a little.

“She never told him not to come after her; he made that decision on his own.” There was silence for a moment as Bucky tried to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. Somehow, Rhodey knows the question he wants to ask, answers it before he has to. “She wants him to come to her because he wants to, not because he thinks he needs to. She doesn’t mind being his princess, but she doesn’t want to be his damsel in distress.” Bucky thought about it for a moment.

“She wants him to apologize,” he says finally. “But she wants him to want to apologize, not apologize because of a near death experience.”

“Yep.”

“They’re both fucked, aren’t they?”

“Honestly, I think that’s the exact opposite of their problem.” That made them both chuckle a little, and Bucky was about to point out that that wasn’t a problem they were having when the phone rang.

“Who the hell is calling this early in the morning?” Bucky grumbled as Rhodey reached for his phone.

“Caller ID says it’s Steve…”

“Tell him if he wants to remain in the land of the living, he’ll call back later.” Rhodey laughs a little louder, but barely says hello when Bucky hears Steve’s voice on the line. He can’t understand the words, but he knows a panicked tone when he hears it.

“What’s going on?” Bucky asks when Rhodey hangs up. He looked agitated and Bucky didn’t like it at all.

“Something’s up with Toni,” Rhodey replied, pulling himself out of bed (another thing Bucky didn’t like at all). “I have no idea what, Steve was too hysterical to really explain it all… I’m heading over to the tower.”

“I’d offer to come with, but I’m pretty sure you and Steve are the only people there that like me.”

“Shouldn’t take too long anyway,” Rhodey promised, giving him a quick kiss. “She’s probably just locked everyone out of the Malibu house and they want me to break her out. Won’t take more than a few hours.”

With that, Rhodey was gone and Bucky was left alone in his bed. He was about to roll over and go back to sleep when he heard his own cell phone ring.

“Forget something?” he asked upon answering, assuming that it was Rhodey. The voice he heard, however, wasn’t Rhodey’s.

“Winter Soldier,” it said. “It’s time to wake up.” 

Chapter Text

Steve called Rhodey right after the screen went black; it probably wasn’t the most coherent conversation in the world and he really wasn’t surprised when Rhodey showed up with absolutely no idea of what the hell was going on.

He also wasn’t surprised that Rhodey got upset when he learned what was going on.

“You couldn’t have led off with “Toni’s been kidnapped”, Rogers? Seriously?”

“I just watched her dodge a cannon ball thanks to a redhead that appeared out of nowhere,” Steve replied. “Forgive me if I wasn’t as levelheaded as I should have been!”

“Down boys,” Natasha said calmly, stepping between the two of them. “Let us focus on finding her and then you can kill each other later.”

“I’m not killing Rhodey,” Steve replied as Rhodey said “Sounds good.”

Steve tried not to think to hard about that.

“Jarvis,” Steve continued, “I need you… Peter, what are you doing?” Peter Parker sat at the SHIELD Conference room table with the rest of the Avengers, his Stark Industries laptop on the table in front of him. He was typing away furiously, his brow narrowed at the screen. He was wearing his glasses, and only had one thing to say to Steve.

“Shut up.”

“What?”

“I said shut up.”

“I heard what you said…”

“Then why are you still talking, Rogers? Shut up and let me work!”

“We are trying to find Toni right now, Peter…”

“You’re trying,” Peter all but growled at him. “I’m succeeding.” His fingers flew over the keypad, faster than before. “Jarvis, bring it up.” Before anyone could ask what ‘it’ was, Peter’s work appeared on the large screen on the wall behind him; a large map of New York City that was gradually zooming in around a red circle. As the image zoomed in the circle would move slightly, getting smaller and smaller until it finally stopped around an island, blinking brightly.

“Pete,” Clint said, cocking his head slightly. “Did you just do what I think you just did?”

“If you think I found Toni, then yeah, pretty sure I did.” Peter leaned back slightly in his chair, putting his hands behind and grinning like a mad man.

“What did you do?” Pepper asked curiously.

“The camera filming Toni wasn’t completely shut down; the feed was still running, and I was able to track it through the website back to the source.” He pointed to the source. “Which is there.”

“How do you know it’s not going through a middle man?” Steve asked. “That could be a relay station or something.”

“It would have been harder if it was something like that; there would have been someone trying to stop me. I just strolled in like I owned the place.” Rhodey laughed.

“You’ve been hanging out with Toni too much,” he joked. Peter shrugged his shoulders.

“Someone has to.” He was looking at Steve when he said that; soon enough, everyone else was as well.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve asked, forcing himself to be calm with the teenager.

“Means exactly what I said.”

“You’re out of line, Peter, she’s the one that left…”

“And you’re the one who never went after her.” Steve opened his mouth to argue, but Peter kept talking. "She never told you to stay away from her, Rogers, hell she didn't even throw you out of the house! I would have thrown you out in a heartbeat! And then she waited for you! She waited for you and you never came." His hands were clenched into fists and Steve was honestly wondering if he should step back before Peter took a swing at him (for Peter's sake more than his own).

"Peter..."

"Don't 'Peter' me, Rogers. You're an idiot and you're hurting her and I'm sick of it." Peter stood up. "Get your shit together, Captain America."

"Where do you think you're going?' Steve asked as the teen walked away. He was ready to fight, ready to yell that if Peter thought he was going after Toni, he was sorely mistaken. "If you think..."

"I think," Peter replied, "that I'm taking Castiel for a walk, and then I'm doing my homework." He looked at Steve, glaring a little. "Because that's what Toni would want me to do, and honestly? I'd listen to her over you any day."

No one said a word as Peter whistled for Castiel, who instantly came running with his leash already in his mouth, ready to go wherever Peter wanted to take him. They stood in silence as they heard the front door and close.

"Kid's right," Rhodey remarked. "You're being a dumb ass."

"Well, how am I supposed to know she hasn't started seeing someone else," Steve shot back. It was pathetic and he knew it, but it was the best he could come up with. And Rhodey laughing at him just made it worse. "What?"

"He didn't tell you." It wasn't a question, which confused Steve a little. "Son of a bitch, I'll kill him."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Bucky tried to kiss her after she finished his arm," Rhodey said. "She told him no, because she's still in love with you."

"That was..."

"Oh for fuck's sake, Steve!" He turned to look at Pepper (his eyes passing over Clint and Natasha, who were sharing a bowl of popcorn while watching the event); her hands her on her hips and she looked enraged. "You are being an ass. She has an excuse, Toni's always been an ass, but you have none!" Pepper strolled over to him and poked him on the chest. "Stop being a dick."

"This is better than pro wrestling," Clint remarked once Pepper was a safe distance away. Natasha wasn't a safe distance away, however; she slapped him on the back of the head.

"Where does the map say we're going?" Natasha asked. Steve looked at the screen.

"North Brother Island..."

"What are we waiting for, Christmas?" Rhodey asked. "Let's go!"

***

"So what exactly did you plan to do with Cas?" Peter Parker, donned in his Spider-Man costume, froze in his tracks. He honestly had thought he'd fooled everyone, that he'd be able to slip away and head to North Brother Island to help Toni... he didn't count on being found out by Pepper.

"I was going to leave him with Darcy and hope for the best," Peter admitted. "I'm not going to just wait..."

"Never expect you to," Pepper replied with a smile, holding out her hand. "I'll take him. Just make sure you're careful, okay?" Peter grinned, handed over the leash and gave her a peck in the cheek.

"Always!"

Chapter Text

Things were going way too well and Toni knew it. She had expected some sort of insane death trap arena, like in “The Running Man”. The movie, which was horrible; not the book, which was not. However, it seemed like HYDRA assumed she wouldn’t make it out of the room and therefore didn’t bother to do anything else with the island (which was nice, honestly, as she was still planning to do the whole summer camp thing, and having to uninstall a bunch of death traps would just prolong the process). As she and Rose walked along the overgrown paths, they didn’t see anything deadlier than a mosquito around them.

To quote a band she didn’t care if anyone knew she liked, “Something’s gotta go wrong, ‘cause I’m feeling way too damn good.”

“You okay, Miss Stark?” Rose asked. The girl was insanely quiet and until now, she didn’t speak unless spoken too. It was very polite and slightly creepy.

“Just waiting for the rug to get pulled out from under us,” Toni admitted.

“You’ve got that feeling too? Like, this has been too easy so now Godzilla’s going to spring out of the ocean and eat us.”  Toni started to laugh; Rose just grinned.

“They still have Godzilla movies when you’re from?”

“Oh yeah. My daddy loves cheesy sci-fi like that.” She smiled fondly. “He made Papa watch it with us once, and Papa made faces the whole time, but Daddy kept telling him ‘shut up, you know you like it’.”

“Daddy and Papa, huh?” Toni asked with a grin. “Bet they’re real proud of you.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I’ve known you for twenty minutes—twenty minutes, I might add, after you decided to travel through time to save my sorry ass—and I know you’re a good kid; they’ve known you your whole life. If you were my kid, I’d be proud of you too.” Toni pretended not to notice the surprised, yet fond smile that spread over Rose’s face, the tears that welled in the corners of her eyes.

“Thank you, Miss Stark.”

“Do you call me Miss Stark in 2035?”

“No…”

“Then please, please, don’t call me that here. Sound good, Rose?”

“Alright, Toni.”

“Good, now let’s get the hell out of here; it’s December in New York and I’ve been in Malibu for the past two months.”

“So?”

“So, I’m freezing my ass off.”

It would be nice if things ended there, Toni thought. She and Rose could get off this island, she’d go find HYDRA and show them how very stupid it was to kidnap her, then find a way to get Rose back to her Daddy and Papa. Somewhere in there, she’d get a cup of coffee. Fuck yeah, coffee.

Right now, however, the main focus was getting off the island; HYDRA had likely deposited her (and by extension, Rose) right in the center of the island. She couldn’t remember the exact size of North Brother Island, but it would take some time to get somewhere they could somehow signal for help. Toni could get Rose back home, somehow… maybe her future self was already working on it…

“There you are.” The voice was familiar to Toni, yet she’d never heard it before. Rose knew it though.

“Aunt Toni!” Toni turned on her heel and saw Rose run over the woman, an older version of herself who wrapped her arms around Rose and held her tight.

“You’re grounded until you’re dead,” the elder Toni remarked, planting a kiss on Rose’s head. “I hope you realize this.”

“Totally worth it,” Rose replied. “Totally, completely worth it.”  Toni watched, unable to stop herself from smiling. She’d suspected that it might have been her who sang Navar’s “Raining” to Rose when she was younger. The ‘aunt’ part was a surprise, though a welcome one; Toni was not at a good point in her life to be a mother.

And her older self must have known this, because she just smiled at her rather knowingly, nodding her head.

“Don’t give up on him… Steve either.” Toni blinked, surprised by her future words.

“What?” There was no answer; herself and Rose were gone, and Toni was alone. Again.

Naturally.

She thought about what she had said to herself before she went back to the future (years in the Doctor Who fandom has prepared her; she is not phased at all by the weird phrasing and knows exactly what she’s talking about). “Don’t give up on him… Steve either.”

What other ‘him’ would she need to not give up on?

“Stark!” The voice was familiar and unknown at the same time. She knew who it was, but at the same time she had no idea.

“James?” She turned towards the voice just as James Barnes wrapped the fingers of his new hand, the hand she’d made for him, around her throat and started to squeeze. “Not James,” she gasped, grasping hold of his wrist.

“I am the Winter Soldier,” he replied, tightening his grip. “And thanks to you, Stark, I’m better. Faster. Stronger.”

Toni rolled her eyes—half out of annoyance and half out of lack of oxygen—balled up her fist and punched him in the jaw with all her might.

“Shut it, Daft Punk.”

She ran. Why did it always end with her running? Because running was smart, running gave her time to think, running might save her life. She remembered how she’d literally beaten Hammer; she attacked and she didn’t stop attacking. That wouldn’t work on James… no. Not James. That wouldn’t work on the Winter Soldier. 

Chapter Text

“Miss Stark, Agent Coulson is outside.” It had been two days since Bucky left and Toni didn’t know what was with this whole ‘people waking her up at what the fuck o’clock’, but she wasn’t liking it at all.

“Jarvis, you have my permission to tell him…”

“He says he has coffee and a dozen strawberry cheesecake Danishes from your favorite shop in New York.”

“Tell him to make himself comfortable and I’ll be down once I’ve showered and dressed.” It was really sad, wasn’t it, how she was letting Coulson bribe his way into her house with pastries; if it hadn’t been so long since she’d last had one, she probably would have left him there. But it had been ages…before she and Pepper started dating, because she was paranoid of having strawberry on her lips and kissing Pepper and having to take her to the hospital… after they broke up, she just plain didn’t want any.

She really wanted one right now, however, and if Coulson had bought her twelve of them, the least she could do was hear him out.

“Thank you, Coulson,” she said honestly about half an hour later, after she’s showered and put on something clean and comfortable. She was surprised to find Coulson in a blue polo shirt and a pair of khakis, but hey, who was she to judge. Maybe he was on vacation.

“This is about Barnes,” Coulson replied, handing her a paper cup of coffee (which is fixed the way she likes it and somehow still hot) and a paper plate holding the pastry she’d spent her entire shower dreaming about. “We think he’s compromised.”

“Proof?” Toni asked with a mouth full of Danish. It was delicious and she was happy with it. “Besides the fact that me finding him like that was way to convenient and we got him out without a hitch.” Coulson pushed a file over to her. She licked the strawberry off her fingers, eyeing the file.

“This is the file SHIELD has complied on an assassin called the Winter Soldier.”

“Not a very big file.”

“He’s not an easy man to track down.”  Toni shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her coffee while she looked through the file; it was mostly a list of assassinations thought to have been done by this Winter Soldier, but there were also some pictures. Three to be exact, taken between 1950 and 2000.

“I will admit,” Toni said through another bite of Danish. “That the man in these pictures does look a lot like Barnes.” She closed the file and looked at Coulson. “Except this man has two arms; James was missing one when I found him.”

“They could have cut it off before planting him in the canyon.”

“Why?” Coulson shrugged.

“What is it that Peter says? ‘Some people are straight up cray-cray’…”

“Don’t ever say that again.”

“I make no promises.”

“Anyway,” Toni continued with a roll of her eyes. “Even if they did use James as an assassin, how did he stay the same age as when he went missing? And why doesn’t he remember anything?”

“Cryogenics and brain washing.”

“And even if I were to believe any of that, why on earth wouldn’t you tell me this before I gave him a kick ass bionic arm?”

“We got the pictures yesterday.”

“Oh great.” Toni was going to eat every single one of the Danishes Coulson brought her, purely out of spite. “So what are we going to do?”

“You programmed a failsafe.” It wasn’t a question and Toni knew it.

“Of course I did.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “You hit the right place and the whole thing falls apart. Literally.”

“The right place?”

“Nowhere that would be accessible during regular combat; you have to know where it is to hit it.”

“And you’re the only one that knows.” Again, not a question; within five seconds, Coulson realized that it should have been. “Toni? You’re the only one that knows, right?”

“I am not.”

“…you didn’t tell Barnes…”

“I did not.”

“Then who?” She looked him square in the eyes, a small grin curling her lips.

“Who do you think?”

Chapter Text

She could hear him coming after her. He wasn’t trying to be stealthy, he wanted her to know where he was and how close he was to catching her. He wanted her heart rate up, he wanted her panicking.

Sadly, he was getting exactly what he wanted.

Toni started panicking more when she stopped hearing him, when the forest around her went quiet. She could feel her heart racing, hear it pounding… and the distraction is what doomed her. The Winter Soldier came out of nowhere, shoving her into a tree and using his body weight to pin her there. She struggled as she felt his hand—the hand she made for him—slide up her stomach and rest upon one of her breasts, groping hard.

“James,” she begged. “James, please, snap out of it, let me go…”

“Just relax,” he hissed into her ear, finding her nipple and giving it a rough pinch. She let out a yelp, and it made him chuckle. His other hand traveled south, into her pants to cup her pussy.

“James, please! They’re controlling you somehow, you don’t want to do this…” She felt his fingers enter her, her eyes widening with a gasp. “Don’t, please… please stop.”

“We’ll just be keeping each other company until Rogers arrives,” he told her, his fingers moving quickly, roughly, with no cares about any pain she might be experiencing. “So just shut up and enjoy the ride.

If she’d been having trouble separating James Barnes from the Winter Soldier, she wasn’t having it anymore; James respected her when she told him no. This asshole didn’t. To the Winter Soldier, Toni Stark was nothing more than bait.

Which made it a hell of a lot easier to slam the back of her head right into his nose.

The Soldier’s pained cry was much louder than hers, and Toni hoped the blood she felt dripping down her neck was from his nose and not her head. Either way, it was enough to make him let go. She debated on trying again to reason with him, but she knew that wouldn’t help… she had an idea that might work, but it was a matter of getting him to hold still long enough for her to try it…

“Toni, duck!” an all too familiar voice shouted. She knew it. She didn’t know where he came from and how he’d found her, but she knew that she had to duck. "Here's web in your eye!"

Seconds later, a ball of web flew from the trees and landed right into the Winter Soldier's face. Toni saw her chance and she seized it; she grabbed Barnes' wrist and pulled his arm above his head, pinning it to his shoulder. She placed her hand on his triceps and waited for the scanner to register her hand print. She heard a faint whir, followed by Jarvis' soft voice telling her 'Access Granted'. Two seconds later, the Winter Soldier's arm fell to pieces, just as Toni knew it would. She felt a little bad, for having made Coulson believe that her failsafe was something that anyone could activate, but...

Okay, that was a lie; any time she could lie to Coulson, and get away with it, was awesome.

"Wrap him up, Spidey!" she yelled, shoving the soldier away from her with a slight spin. Spider-Man swung down from the tree he was in and shot more web at him, taking advantage of his  spinning and wrapping him completely from his neck down, the original web shot still all over his face.

"He's being mind controlled or something, right?" he asked.  She nodded. "What do we do?"

"Try to get him back." Before he could ask how, Toni picked up a pipe from a pile of debris and slammed it against the back of Barnes' head, before watching him fall to the ground. Spider-Man blinked.

"By way of head trauma?"

"Cognitive recalibration... but yeah, essentially head trauma." There was a pause. “Go ahead.”

“What?” Spidey asked innocently.

“Get it out of your system,” Toni replied with a grin, which Spider-Man likely returned (he was wearing a mask, how was she to know if he did or not?).

“Toni Stark, on the island with the lead pipe.” Before she could reply in anyway, Peter wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. She hugged him back, feeling herself shaking a little against him.

“You’re grounded until you die,” she informed him without the slightest hint of seriousness in her voice.

“I can live with that.”

“Good.” He pulled away just enough to look at her, pulling his mask off. He didn’t look like the strong, sarcastic superhero anymore; he looked like a young kid, worried about someone he loved.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly, nervously. “I saw what he… I was…” She hugged him close to her again, smoothing his hair as he fumbled to find his words. She knew what he was trying to say; he wanted to stop the Soldier, but couldn’t. Maybe he was worried about hurting her, maybe she acted too quickly… but it didn’t matter why, not to Toni.

“I’m fine,” she promised. “Thanks to you.” It was then that they both heard the sounds of the QuinJet making a water landing. “Do we carry him or just leave him here?” Peter chuckled a little before putting his mask back on and shooting a web at Barnes’ ankles.

“Better; we’ll drag him.”

If the Avengers were surprised to see Toni and Spider-Man emerging from the forest, her arm over his shoulders with a smile on her face as he dragged what appeared to be a body behind them, no one but Steve showed it.

“What happened?” he asked. His face screamed “what the fuck”, but he kept himself calm, cool, and collected.

“Well,” Toni replied with a grin. “I got kidnapped in Malibu, woke up strapped to a table in a building around here somewhere, almost got killed by a cannonball, was rescued by my time traveling niece from the future who was later picked up by my time traveling self, got attacked by a brainwashed James Barnes, was rescued by Spider-Man, initiated a cognitive recalibration on James Barnes and then all y’all showed up.” She licked her lips as she went over it all again in her head. “Yeah, I think that about covers it.” Steve blinked at her.

“You… what?”

“You hit him in the head?” Clint asked with a sympathetic wince.

“As hard as I possibly could,” Toni replied.

“With a lead pipe,” Spider-Man added. “I made a Clue joke, it was awesome.” Toni chuckled, taking the web leash from him and draping it over Steve’s shoulder as she strolled past.

“Now, if it’s all the same to you, I’m freezing my tits off here and really want a cup of coffee.” She waved her hand in a circle above her head as she entered the QuinJet. “Are any of my suits still on board, I need to get to Pepper before she starts selling off my stock in Lego or something…”

“Toni,” Natasha interrupted. “I already called Pepper and told her you were okay; you should head to the hospital…”

“I’ll pass, thanks, but make sure Barnes gets the help he needs, and if he happens to remember anything, let him know I don’t blame him.”

“Blame him?” Steve asked. “For what?”

“None of your fucking business.” While Steve looked at her with astonishment, she found one of her briefcase suits and strolled back off like today hadn’t happened. “Where’s Thor?”

“In New Mexico, spending the holidays with Jane,” Coulson said. Toni looked at him, eyebrows raised; he hadn’t gotten there with the rest of the Avengers.

“Where the hell did you spring from?”

“My mother insists I came from heaven, but the jury is still out on that.”

“Your mother’s a saint and needs to get me her peanut butter ball recipe.”

“I’ll remind her of that.”

“Good man!” Toni activated her briefcase, slipping into it like it was a warm bed, leaving the face plate up. “Tash, you and Pep still living at my penthouse?”

“No, we got our own place…”

“Fantastic, I’ll be moving in there. I leave for sabbatical and you guys let HYDRA kidnap me, I’m starting to question your abilities to function without me…”

“Come home.” She expected the request to come from Peter; she got it from Steve.

“I am going home, have you not been listening Rogers?”

“No,” he said, moving so she was facing him. “Come home, to the mansion…”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not doing this with you right now.”

“Doing what? I’m just trying to get you to come home… I should have done it before and I didn’t… damn it, Toni, I love you and I’m sorry… just come home.”

“No.”

“I don’t get it, Toni,” Steve said angrily. “I just said I love you, everyone is saying you still love me…” Toni shook her head. Despite how well she was hiding it, the pain she had to be in after everything that had happened, and she wouldn’t let him take her home, wouldn’t let him hold her close…

“The reasons that I won’t stay don’t have a thing to do with being in love,” she replied softly. “I won’t stay because I… I don’t know if you really mean it.” She looked him dead in the eyes, her own starting to well with tears. “I needed you to come to me, Steve. That night, after everything happened… I never told you to stay away, but you didn’t come until you thought you needed to save me. Not because you needed me… because you needed to rescue me.”

“I already said I should have…”

“But you didn’t, Steve! I needed that from you and didn’t get it… I needed to know for once that I wasn’t the only putting everything into this relationship.”

“That’s not fair.”

“How isn’t it? I went and found your boyfriend for you after months of having you whisper his name into my ear, of calling for him in your sleep…” That’s when she smiled; it wasn’t a normal Toni Stark smile, this was sad, heartbreaking… “You don’t need me, Steve. Not as much as I needed you… and if you don’t mind, I’ll be heading home now.”

“Toni…”

“Goodbye, Steve.” She started walked away, her shoulders hunched and her head down… defeated.

“Oh, hell no.”

He strode after her, catching up to her in half as many steps she’d taken away from him, turned her towards him and kissed her, softly, but deeply. She didn’t fight him, but she didn’t really participate either. After a moment, he broke the kiss and took her face his hands, raising her head to look her in the eyes.

And she punched him with every ounce of energy she had left. If she hadn’t been wearing the Iron Man armor, she probably would have broken her hand. She glared at him, but didn’t say a word; the face plate snapped closed and she took off, Spider-Man following close behind her.

All Steve could think as he watched her fly away was how disappointed his mother would be in him, if she could see him right now.