Epilogue

14 Months After the Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Avengers Tower

New York City

2:45 AM

He slipped into the room silently, checking to be sure he wasn't noticed before closing the door.

Moving gracefully across the darkened room, he made his way to Natasha's bed. She would already know he was there. She was as well-trained as always and would have detected his entrance—

Natasha jackknifed off the pillow, the blade in her right hand swinging up to slash his neck. She was fast. Almost too fast. But James was still faster, catching her wrist with his flesh and blood hand. He turned her hand and kissed just below the wrist.

"Is that a no?"

She smiled in the dark. "Just playing hard to get."

He grinned, plucking the knife from her hand and returning it to her handle-first. Five times in three weeks, and they were still doing that little dance. James couldn't decide if he should be amused or turned-on. He was a little of both.

Natasha grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down. His grin turned more self-assured. "Does this conclude negotiations?"

"You talk too much," she said, kissing him.

He returned it enthusiastically, then chuckled. "Don't hear that too often."

She went to pull him in again, but he pushed back, eyeing the silver arrow necklace around her neck. He'd tried to ignore it before, but things were moving a little faster. "Will he mind?"

Natasha glanced down, following his gaze. "Oh...no. It's not like that. We're just friends. We were a team back when S.H.I.E.L.D. was around."

"Partners, huh?" He said softly, then nodded. "Good. It would have been awkward if I'd had to kill him."

She resumed pulling him down on the bed. "That's not funny."

James nuzzled her neck, moving toward her ear. "My come-on lines are a little rusty."

He felt her smile against his cheek. "Steve told me a few of them. Trust me, they're fossilized."

James frowned, vowing revenge on the not-so-little traitor Steve Rogers. He slid his arms around her. "This isn't as easy as it used to be."

Natasha moved her arms up around his neck. "You're doing fine."

CAP WS CAP WS CAP WS

Avengers Tower

8:50 AM

Tony looked up as Steve and Bucky entered the kitchen, each grabbing a handful of fruit and breakfast bars.

"Where are you two off to so early?" Pepper asked pleasantly from the table. She, and Tony were at the table eating breakfast with Sam, Barton, Thor and Jane.

"Heading down to Washington for the day. Going to go see Peggy and Betsy."

Tony paused as he processed that. He knew Peggy Carter of course, but...

"That why you rented the motorcycles yesterday?" Sam asked.

"I didn't want to stare at his back the whole way." James replied. "This way he can stare at mine."

"Right." Steve scoffed, dropping more food for the trip into his duffel. "We'll see about that."

"Don't get a speeding ticket," Clint warned. "If Captain America is stopped by a traffic cop it will be all over CNN."

Rogers and Barnes shared a look, then shrugged. Steve smiled deviously. "We'll do our best."

"You boys have fun," Pepper waved as they departed.

"Imagine what it was like back in the '30s, when they were normal," Sam mused.

"I'm not sure they were ever 'normal,'" Jane shook her head.

"Anyone else know who Betsy is?" Tony finally asked.

Barton pondered that. "I dunno. Didn't Barnes have a sister or two?"

Pepper frowned. "One, I think. But her name was Rebecca. I'm not sure if she's still...you know."

Tony resumed eating, but decided that it was the right time to bring up the other elephant he'd spotted in the Tower. "Um...did anyone else see Barnes coming out of Romanoff's room this morning?"

Barton, Sam, and Thor glanced at him sharply, then all looked away.

"Nope."

"No."

"I saw nothing."

Tony arched an eyebrow at them. Pepper and Jane shared a knowing look but both covered their smiles with a forkful of pancakes.

CAP WS CAP WS CAP WS

State Highway 96

West of Haswell, Colorado

Midnight

Brock Rumlow kept his eyes on the floor of the prison transport. He was surrounded by four heavily armed MPs, none of whom were talking. It made for a boring trip.

The ride from Fort Leavenworth to the Supermax prison in Colorado was nine hours plus...the least they could do was entertain him. He smiled to himself. These guys don't enjoy their jobs enough...

He'd stopped testing the heavy steel chains around his wrists and ankles. The metal was too strong for him to break, and Talbot's men had been well-briefed. He'd been searched before loading on the truck, and didn't have so much as a paperclip on him. He wasn't getting out without help, or a key.

By his estimate, they were somewhere in the middle of nowhere Colorado by this point. Even if he could get out, there would be no where to go on foot.

The transport slowed abruptly. Rumlow looked up at the other men, who were frowning. The guard in charge touched his radio.

"What's going on?"

"There's an obstruction, Sergeant. Matthews is going out to—"

The report was cut off by a hail of gunfire that peppered the forward half of the vehicle. Bullets pinged off the armored shell around them. The MPs readied their weapons.

"Corporal! Report!" The sergeant called frantically.

The gunfire carried on for about thirty seconds, then everything went eerily quiet.

"All right men. Ready up. No one gets through that door."

A moment later, a small glowing spot appeared by the latch on the rear door. Given its size and the speed at which the glow intensified, Rumlow guessed what it was. He squeezed his eyes shut and angled himself away from the door as best he could.

A painfully bright flash flooded the compartment, and his hearing cut out. The S.H.I.E.L.D.-issue flash bang penetrator had eaten through the armored door in less than five seconds.

Even with his ears ringing loudly, Brock could make out the sounds of gunfire. The guards lasted all of ten seconds. They were better trained than he thought.

Closing his eyes had helped, but even so his vision was blurred for a moment, and his ears took longer to stop ringing. He finally turned and looked toward the door. What he saw made him laugh.

"Grant Ward, you son of a bitch."

The former HYDRA sleeper agent extended his hand, helping Rumlow out of the truck. He nodded in greeting. "Brock."

Ward fished some keys off one of the dead guards and quickly freed Rumlow of the chains. "Are you all right?"

"Better now," Brock replied. "I was starting to think no one was coming. Never thought it'd be you."

"I owe you for getting me out of Georgia in '08." Ward said simply, not smiling.

Rumlow remembered. His S.T.R.I.K.E. commandos had been called in to extract Ward when the war in South Ossetia flared up. "Nice. What's the next move?"

Ward motioned to his right, toward a small railroad bridge a few meters off the side of the road. It was the only landmark in sight for miles in the flat terrain. "Got a car parked over there. Gassed up. She'll take you wherever you want to go."

Rumlow noticed the omission. "You're not coming."

"We're not looking for the same things, Rumlow," Ward replied, handing over a handgun taken from one of the guards.

Brock frowned at the vague answer, watching as Ward nodded to him and walked off toward the front of the truck. "Is that right? What are you looking for Ward?"

Ward didn't look back. "Closure."

CAP WS CAP WS CAP WS

Washington, D.C.

3:00PM

"Aw, look at her, Steve..." Bucky groaned.

"It's been a long time Buck." Steve said, placing a comforting hand on his metal shoulder.

Bucky shook his head. How could they let this happen? He tapped the glass. "I know, but...oh no, look at all the corrosion along the scope."

The M1941 Johnson rifle had been Bucky's favorite during the war. Howard Stark had customized "Betsy" with a scope and converted it to bolt action for use as a sniper rifle. Barnes had left it in London when they had left to raid Zola's train. Steve wasn't sure when it had ended up in the Smithsonian's collection.

Steve wasn't sure who was in worse shape, the old rifle, or Bucky now that he'd seen it after so long. "Hey, maybe the curator will let you help restore her."

"You think so?" Bucky asked despondently.

"Sure. Tony donates an obscene amount of money to this place every year. He could probably talk them into it."

Bucky thought about it for a moment, then started rattling off all the little repairs they'd have to make. Steve smiled and let him talk. It was nice to see him excited about something.

He let his gaze wonder out the storage room's window, which overlooked the main floor of the Captain America exhibit. When he'd lived in Washington, he'd come there once in a while, mostly to remember, but more often than not to sulk and mourn a past that was lost to him.

It felt different with Bucky there. It was less lonely, for one, and Barnes had a way of making the patriotic reverence of the place funny. Steve had never laughed there, until he'd walked through the displays with Bucky.

"Does it feel funny to you?" Steve asked in a low voice.

Bucky looked at him. "What?"

"Most of our lives are right here. Under glass for all to see."

Bucky followed his eyes out the window, then frowned. "Our old lives."

Steve glanced at him. "Would you go back, if you could?"

Barnes shot him a sarcastic glance. "To the Depression? Or the war?"

"You know what I mean," Steve said.

Bucky watched him for a moment, then nudged Steve's side with his metal elbow before going back to studying the rifle. "I'll go wherever you go, Stevie."

END

A/N: The sniper rifle Bucky uses in CA: The First Avenger was indeed a customized M1941 Johnson rifle. A small number were made and sold to the U.S. Marine Corps in 1941, and nicknamed "Betsy" by their designer Melvin Johnson.

The bulk of the latter half of this takes place in the middle of season 2 of Agents of Shield. After Puerto Rico but before the Robert Gonzalez takeover and the Inhumans arc began.

As much as I tried to keep this series in line with canon, I realize that the events of Age of Ultron have already rendered it an AU, and Civil War will completely change it. Nevertheless, I will finish the remaining segments in the series, as close to canon as possible, though they may change slightly to reflect the end of Ultron and the new Avengers line up.