TIB: Writing this chapter was so insanely difficult. I'd start it, delete it, start again, delete again. No lie, I spent at least two straight days staring at a blank document before I was finally able to write this and be somewhat satisfied. I'm still not one hundred percent sure how I feel about this chapter, but I'm not going to rewrite it. Again. I am sorry about taking so long to update, but this chapter fought me the entire way.

One last thing before I stop rambling, huge THANK YOU to Valerie E. Mackin for being the 500th reviewer! (Yeah, I might have cried just a little.) If you're a Boondock Saints fan, you should go read some of her stories. Because they're amazing.

[For anyone that's curious, I changed my username from TheIronBat to Words Fly.]

Word Count: 7830

sometimes in our lives we all have pain
we all have sorrow
but if we are wise
we know that there's always tomorrow
Lean On Me by Bill Withers

.xXx.

Chapter Forty-Nine
A Family

November 1, 2014
Continued

JO

Jo stepped into the gym and stopped to watch how Steve and Sam easily moved around each other, it was more like watching a dance than a spar, and Jo knew the moment that they recognized her presence. Sam side-stepped the punch aimed at his jaw and spun on his heel so that he could grin over at her, and Steve was smiling just a little as he raised his hand to wipe some sweat off his forehead. They were happy, relaxed, and she was going to have to ruin that. She felt herself smile back, felt the muscles in her face shift, and she had to look down at the ground as she walked farther into the gym.

"You here to join in, Tank?" Sam asked as she got closer. She felt like hitting something for a few hours, but there wasn't time for that. This needed to be handled, as quickly as possible.

"Sorry, boys. I'll have to kick your asses another day." Her smile felt fake even to her, and they must have been able to read something in her expression because they exchanged a quick look before looking at her in concern. "Look, I don't really know how to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Okay? So let me get this out and then you can ask me whatever you want."

Steve nodded at her first, and Sam crossed his arms as he waited for her to gather her words. JARVIS had suggested the Band-Aid method, and it still seemed like the best strategy. So she started at the beginning and was careful to only give the facts. (She could still see and feel everything Skye had experienced with her stranger, and Skye deserved to have those memories remain private.) She told Steve and Sam that Skye had been meeting a stranger when she left the Mansion to get some air, and she assured them both that Skye had been careful and had never been in any danger.

Then she skipped right to the important stuff. The night before, Halloween night, Skye had met the stranger again and he'd said her name even though she'd never told him. It had left her rattled, so Skye worked on the SHIELD and Hydra files while everyone else enjoyed their Saturday. She'd uncovered a Hydra file on Howard Stark, but she hadn't decrypted the file. She did watch the attached video file, and Jo didn't give the full details. Just told Steve and Sam that Skye had watched as The Winter Soldier killed Howard and Maria Stark.

Jo could tell that Steve wanted to speak after that, but she raised her hand and watched as his jaw clenched. She told him that she understood that it hadn't been Bucky who killed them, and she'd started rolling the bottom of her shirt between her fingers as she prepared to tell them the next part. Skye had recognized The Winter Soldier as the stranger she'd met on a bench, and she'd left the Mansion to confront him. Jo left out the more descriptive details about that meeting too. She told them Skye confirmed that the stranger was Bucky, and that Bucky admitted to being the one who shot her the day that Viper first approached her.

"Where is he?" was the first thing Steve asked when she paused.

"Skye asked him to come back with her, but he's not ready. We don't know everything that Hydra did to him, and he's still trying to figure out who he is." In Skye's memories, Bucky had looked lost. Jo knew that Steve was worried about his oldest friend, but Jo didn't think it was in Bucky's best interests to be found. Not yet anyway. "He doesn't want to be found, Steve."

Jo raised her arms up to wrap around her middle as Steve nodded and then turned on his heel, and her eyes clenched shut and she jumped a little as his fist connected with the back wall. She couldn't read his thoughts, but she could feel a few things slipping out of his door in her mind. He wasn't exactly angry. All Jo could really feel was hurt. She wanted to go to him, try to say or do something to comfort him, but she also knew that sometimes people just had to work through everything in their own time. This wasn't something that Steve could just get over after hearing a small speech or receiving a hug. He'd need time. So Jo looked away from where Steve was braced against the back wall and met Sam's eyes instead.

"Skye told me and Tony first. Tony doesn't blame Bucky, he knows that The Winter Soldier never had a choice, but he's probably going to need some space. Same goes for Skye. They were friends, Sam," Jo stressed in an attempt to make him understand. Sam had helped all of them, listened to them and tried to make them a stronger team, and Jo trusted him. She wanted him to know that things were going to be a little tense for a while.

"What about the others?" Sam asked. Jo looked around him at where Steve was still facing away from them and tightened her fingers against her sides.

"I'm gonna go tell them now. We can't keep something this big quiet, and I don't want anyone to accidentally say something that'll upset them." Them being Skye, Tony, and Steve.

"You go handle them. I got him," Sam said and tilted his head in Steve's direction. Jo nodded because she couldn't think of anything to say, and she turned around to walk out of the gym.

She asked JARVIS to call for a meeting in the den, with a few obvious exceptions. Skye was asleep in her room and didn't need to sit through Jo telling everyone what she'd been through that day. Tony was in his lab and already knew what she had to say, and Steve and Sam would probably be in the gym for a good while. So Jo just needed to tell everyone else in the house what had happened. She could feel a lump rising in her throat as she thought about the words she was going to have to repeat, this time for everyone to hear, and she shifted on her feet as she started biting the inside of her cheek.

"Everyone has been alerted, Miss Jo." JARVIS's voice was quiet in the elevator, and she sucked in a deep breath and then released it as the elevator doors opened.

PEPPER

She was sitting on a couch and talking quietly with Darcy as people started to walk into the den, and she checked off each of the names while continuing to discuss Monday's upcoming meeting with Darcy. Jo was already in the den when Pepper got there and talking to Bruce, but Tony was still missing. After they got home from their date, Tony said he was going up to the lab to talk to Jo and Skye. Skye wasn't in the den either, so maybe they were both still in his lab?

"Alright, everyone! I'm going to try to make this quick. Please hold your questions until the end," Jo said and moved to the center of where they were all sitting.

Bruce moved to sit down on Pepper's side, so she was sitting between him and Darcy on one of the couches. Maria, Doreen, Logan, and Illyana were sitting on another one of the couches. Thor and Loki were occupying a loveseat, and Clint was sitting in a chair with Natasha perched on the arm of the chair next to him. Four people were missing, and Pepper sat up a little straighter. Had something happened to Skye and that was why she was missing along with Tony? Or had something happened to Steve and Sam?

Once everyone was quiet and looking at her, Jo started talking. Pepper knew that Skye frequently took walks, Tony had mentioned it more than once because he worried about the young woman's safety, but she hadn't known that Skye was meeting with a stranger. Apparently no one did, because Darcy looked just as surprised as Pepper felt. Before anyone could ask if Skye was okay, Jo told them that Skye had recognized the stranger after viewing a Hydra file on Howard Stark. Pepper's fingers laced together and squeezed as Jo told them that Tony's parents were killed by The Winter Soldier, not in a car accident, and it took every ounce of her willpower not to jump up and go find Tony immediately. Tony's relationship with his parents had been strained, his relationship with his father even more so, but Tony had loved them. If he knew this, and Pepper assumed that he did, then she couldn't imagine what he was feeling at the moment.

Jo powered through the shocked looks on everyone's faces and then told them that Skye had left to go confront the stranger. For the past couple of months, Skye had been talking to Bucky Barnes on a bench. (Not The Winter Soldier. Jo had made sure to turn and look everyone in the eye as she made that distinction.) Bucky had also admitted to being the one who shot Skye the day she came to the Mansion, but he didn't know what Hydra's plans for her were. When Skye had asked him to come back to the Mansion with her, Bucky had declined. After everything that Hydra had done to him, he was still trying to put the pieces of who he was together.

"Tony knows everything, and so do Steve and Sam. All I'm asking is that all of you give them some space. If they want to talk, they will. Don't be surprised if they're a little out of it for a while though, okay?" Jo asked and looked around the room.

"Don't worry, Tankster. We'll look after them from a distance," Doreen said first. Thor nodded along to her statement, and Clint and Natasha exchanged a glance and seemed to have a silent conversation before nodding as well.

"Where are they now?" Maria asked.

"Skye's asleep in her room, Tony's in the lab, and Sam and Steve are in the gym," Jo quickly listed off. Pepper held still as everyone started to leave the room, while talking quietly amongst each other, until only Jo and the people on her couch were left. Darcy and Bruce were still sitting on either side of her, and Pepper's eyes widened as Jo knelt down in front of her.

"You have to help him," Pepper said as Jo's dark eyes met hers. She unclenched her fingers and pulled her hands apart, and she could see the way her hands were shaking as she reached out to Jo. The other woman didn't hesitate to reach up and hold onto her hands, and Pepper felt a hand rubbing slow circles over her back. A large hand, gentle, Bruce's.

"You mean Tony? Don't you want to go see him?"

"Of course," was Pepper's first thought. Pepper had been in love with Tony for so long that she couldn't remember when she actually fell in love with him, and he'd always been her best friend. She knew that he had to be hurting, and she wanted nothing more than to go comfort him. To hold him to her and tell him that everything was going to be okay, even if it didn't seem like it at the time.

"I think he's going to need you tonight. Take care of him for me?" Pepper could hear the way that her voice was shaking now too, and Bruce's arm had moved to curl around her shoulders. Jo looked away from her and to the side, over at Bruce, and Pepper watched as Jo's cheek twitched.

"Pepper's right. Tony's going to need you tonight. Don't worry about us. I'll look after Pepper." Jo's dark eyes looked a little watery at the quiet tone of Bruce's voice, and she nodded once before turning her head to look at Pepper's other side.

"You okay, kid?" Jo asked quietly. She was still holding onto Pepper's hands, but her body was turned so that she was facing Darcy now.

"Skye never…she never told me anything." Darcy didn't sound mad or upset; she sounded more confused than anything, and Pepper turned to look at her. Darcy looked pale, but she was holding herself steady.

"What the two of you have been through…your whole lives got flipped upside down, and she just needed to take a moment for herself sometimes. The man that she met on that bench? He was kind to her, listened to her, and he might be the one who convinced her that being happy here was worth the risk of losing it all someday. It didn't matter that they never traded names or that she never saw his face, they were friends. She cared about him," Jo explained quietly in her rough voice. Darcy looked almost like she was in a trance as she listened to Jo speak, and Pepper felt her heart breaking for Skye as Jo continued. "And she watched him kill people. Watched him kill the parents of the man that she works for, the man that she looks up to. She was worried about her friend, and she hated that she knew something that could hurt Tony. Then after talking to Bucky? To Bucky and not to the stranger that had become her friend, she realized she was going to have to hurt Steve too. Because Bucky isn't ready to be found, by anyone. Skye's going to need you, Darcy. She's going to need someone to be on her side."

"I'm always going to be on her side," Darcy said instantly. The answer made Jo smile, just a small twitch of her lips, and Pepper felt Jo's fingers flexing against her hands.

"Let her rest for now, and I'm sure she'll talk when she's ready," Jo said and tried to smile again.

"And Tony?" Darcy asked. Before Pepper came back into Tony's life, before everyone else was in the Mansion, Darcy only had Tony and Jo. Pepper's heard enough from all three of them to know that they grew very close very quickly, and everyone can clearly see how much they all care about each other. If Pepper didn't know better and wasn't good at guessing ages, she would've believed that Darcy really was Tony and Jo's daughter. They both loved her, and Darcy loved them.

"I'm gonna go check on him now, but he'll be fine. Because he's got all of us, right?" Jo asked and looked at all three of them. Pepper nodded, and she guessed that Bruce and Darcy did as well because Jo continued. "They all do. We're not just a team of superheroes and geniuses and mutants. We're a family."

"A family," Darcy echoed.

"A family," Pepper agreed and finally let herself relax against Bruce's side.

"A family," Bruce repeated quietly. Jo squeezed Pepper's hands one last time and then stood to her full height, and she looked down at all of them with dark eyes after releasing Pepper's hands.

"If you need me, just knock." Jo tapped against her temple as she took a few steps backwards, and Pepper let her head fall against Bruce's shoulder. When no one said anything else, Jo spun on her heel and quickly walked out of the den.

"I'm going to go up to my room, just in case Skye needs me," Darcy said a moment later. Pepper twisted enough to look over at Darcy, and the young woman looked determined. Determined and worried.

"You can come to us if you need us," Pepper said as Darcy got to her feet. She turned to look down at them, and Pepper felt a little relief when Darcy smiled shakily.

"I know, because you're the best step-parents ever. See you at breakfast."

Darcy walked out of the den with her head held high, and Pepper sighed as she turned her face against Bruce's shoulder. Over the past several weeks, they'd become friends. Pepper loved Tony, loved Jo, but the two of them could be quite loud. Pepper actually thought it was cute the way that they yelled and teased each other, but sometimes it was nice to sit in Bruce's quieter presence. They both understood that their significant others were close friends, that there was some kind of special bond between the two of them, and they both accepted that close relationship because they wanted Tony and Jo to be happy. Bruce loved Tony just like Pepper loved Jo.

"Can we sit here? Just for a little while?" Pepper asked. She felt Bruce moving backwards, leaning back against the couch, and she was pulled along with him since his arm was still around her shoulders.

"They'll be okay," Bruce said quietly. Pepper hummed her answer, because she didn't disagree with Bruce. She knew that Jo would take care of Tony, and they'd all take care of Skye and Steve. Because that was what families did.

JO

The elevator stopped at the sixth floor instead of going up to the seventh, and Jo trusted JARVIS to know where Tony was. So instead of questioning the AI, she stepped off the elevator and took a look around. The door to her and Bruce's room was shut, and so was Darcy and Skye's bedroom door. Tony and Pepper's door was cracked open, and that's where Jo headed. The door didn't make a sound as she pushed it open, and the room was dark except for the small light mounted above the head of the bed. It was just enough light for her to see Tony sitting at the foot of the bed, and she closed the door behind her before walking farther into the room.

"Pepper?" Tony asked as she stopped in front of him. She knew that Tony hadn't mixed them up, even though he hadn't looked up from the floor, and she slowly reached out and ran her hand through his clean hair.

"Bruce is gonna look after her tonight, so me and you can have a sleepover. How's that sound, boss?" She tried to keep her tone easy and light as her fingers combed through Tony's hair, but it wasn't easy. She kept picturing Pepper's wide eyes and felt the way her hands had shook, saw the worry in Bruce's eyes, and remembered the lost look in Darcy's eyes as she worried about her twin.

"Sounds good, sweetheart." Tony finally looked up at her, and Jo felt some of the weight pressing against her chest ease as their eyes met.

"Come on then. Bath first and then cuddle time," Jo decided. Tony had spent the day out with Pepper, so there wasn't any grease in his hair for once. That didn't really matter though. Jo knew what worked for them, what brought them both some sense of calm, and Tony didn't protest as she reached down to grab his hands and pull him up off the bed.

They were quiet as they shuffled into the bathroom, and Jo sat down on the edge of the large tub as she started the water. Once the temperature was just right, because she knew that Tony liked hot baths without the water being too hot, she plugged the tub and turned around to tell Tony to get in. The words froze in her throat though, because Tony was just standing in the middle of the bathroom and looking straight ahead with a blank look in his eyes. He hadn't made a single move to start undressing himself, and Jo swallowed before getting to her feet.

Tony held perfectly still as she reached up to take off his suit jacket, and the blank look on his face stayed put after she dropped the jacket onto the floor. He normally told her that she was ruining a perfectly good suit whenever she did that, but this time he didn't say a word. Jo already had his shirt off and was working on his shoes when he finally tilted his head down, and she glanced up to meet his eyes as she pulled his second shoe off. He didn't say anything though, just watched as she slipped his socks off. Tony was never the quiet type, it was throwing her off a little, and she resisted the urge to open his door as she started working on his slacks.

"Is it wrong if I'm angry?" Tony didn't ask the question until he was sitting in the bathtub, with Jo's legs on either side of his body as she massaged shampoo into his hair, and her fingers stilled.

"Angry at Bucky?" It didn't matter that Tony didn't see the video; he knew that The Winter Soldier was responsible for his parent's deaths, and they all knew that The Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes. Just like they all knew that, despite technically being the same man, they were two completely different people. Still, knowing all of that logically doesn't make it easy to separate the two emotionally. Or something like that. It'd been a long day, and Jo's own thoughts were all over the place.

"He didn't target them. The Winter Soldier didn't even target them," Tony answered quietly. Jo started moving her fingers again, working up some small suds, and she grabbed the cup that they kept specifically for rinsing out Tony's hair.

"So you're mad at Hydra," Jo guessed. She moved Tony's head so that he wouldn't get water or shampoo in his eyes, and she placed the cup back in its usual place before reaching for the conditioner.

"I'm always mad at Hydra. I think I'm angry at…I don't even know," Tony sighed. Jo moved even slower than usual as she made sure to completely cover Tony's hair in conditioner, and she tried to think over the situation from Tony's point of view. It was a little hard to do, because she'd been close to her ma and lost her to natural causes. Her father died before she was born, but the man she considered as a father figure was alive and currently living under the same roof as her.

"Come on, Tony, you can tell me," she said as she rinsed his hair again. He kept quiet as she lathered up a sponge, and he waited until she was washing his back to speak again.

"I'm angry at my dad for being involved in dangerous stuff that got him and my mother killed, because I'm sure Hydra had a reason for killing him. I'm angry at Hydra for what they did to Barnes and for making him kill someone that was once his friend, because I remember my dad talking about Sergeant Barnes when I was a kid. I'm angry at Barnes for hurting Skye by leaving, even though I understand why he's leaving."

Tony's hands moved down to grip her ankles and squeezed, and his temple pressed against her bare knee because she'd stripped out of her shorts before stepping into the tub. Jo knew what he wanted, she could hear him knocking lightly on his door, and she used the cup to wash the soap off of him. Once he was all rinsed off, she wrapped her arms around him until her hands were braced over his arc reactor. Then she leaned down to press her cheek against the top of his head, and she didn't care that she was getting soaking wet.

"I'm angry because we had a fight before they left. We were always having a fight. What if he didn't know…I told her, but what if he didn't know?"

"He knew, Tony." Howard Stark had been a flawed man and hadn't been the best father, but Tony had still loved him in his own way. Just like Howard Stark had loved his son, even if he rarely showed it.

"You can't know that. You're a telepath. Not a time traveler." Tony's tone was too light, too easy, and Jo tightened her arms around him. No, she didn't have proof that Howard had known. She didn't really need proof though.

"If he was even half the genius that you are, then I'm sure he knew," she whispered into his hair. Tony's hands rose up to hold onto her wrists, to press her hands tighter against the arc reactor, and Jo clenched her eyes shut. Tony's door was wide open now, and she could hear and feel everything.

Tony's thoughts were always moving at hurricane speeds, and now wasn't any different. She could feel the swirl of anger, both directed at others and at himself, but that was just scratching the surface. She caught glimpses of his memories, of his father and mother. Of hearing the news that his parents were gone. Heard Obadiah Stane's voice saying, a truly terrible accident. Saw Skye through Tony's eyes, sitting on the couch and shaking next to Jo. It didn't matter that Skye had only been with them for a couple of months, Tony loved her. Just like the both of them loved Darcy only a few weeks after she moved in. Tony spent the majority of his time with Skye, and the two of them seemed to always be on the same wavelength. Seeing the young woman hurting, seeing how upset she'd been…Tony kept replaying it over and over, and he felt helpless because he didn't know how to help her.

"How did Steve take the news?" Tony asked around the time that they started to prune.

"He didn't say anything, but Sam was with him." Steve had been so focused on finding Bucky ever since SHIELD fell, and Jo wasn't sure what kind of impact the news was going to have on him. Jo could easily say that she loved Steve, in the same way she loved Kitty and Peter, and she was worried about him.

"Wilson will look after him." If they stayed in the water any longer, they'd get permanent wrinkles. So Jo carefully slipped her wrists out of Tony's slack grip and moved to her feet.

"We'll get through this, all of us," Jo said confidently and stepped out of the tub.

Together, Jo and Tony dried off without slipping on the wet tiles. Tony put on a pair of his own silky boxers, and Jo pulled off her wet tee shirt before slipping on the gray Hulk shorts she'd been wearing before bath time. She listened to Tony pad his way over to his bed as she ducked into his closet, and she grabbed the first tee shirt she saw. A black Rolling Stones shirt. She could work with that. Since she was fully clothed, she walked out of the closet and immediately moved over to the bed. She crawled up the bed until she was lying on her back, and she let her arms flop against the mattress so that Tony could roll over onto her.

Tony's hands gripped her tee shirt as his head was pillowed on her chest, and her legs spread a little more so that he could lay down between her thighs. Her hands instantly reached down, and she pressed one palm flat against his back while the other disappeared into his wet hair. She could hear his thoughts slowing down as he started to count her heartbeats, and her eyes closed as she listened to him count.

SKYE

The main light in her bedroom was off, but the lamp on Darcy's bedside table was on and lighting up the room just a little. Skye's eyes opened into slits, just enough for her to get a good look around, and it was a little startling just how normal everything looked. Darcy was sitting on top of her blanket with her back braced against the headboard, and she was reading something on her tablet. She'd changed into her pajamas, a pair of baggy red pants and a plain white tee shirt, and her hair was even up in a sloppy bun as she squinted down at her tablet. Skye could almost pretend that it was any other night, but her face still felt hot and swollen from hours of crying.

"Did they tell you?" Darcy jumped at the sound of Skye's voice, she even dropped her tablet onto the bed, and Skye held still as Darcy looked over at her. Her thick purple blanket was wrapped around her and tucked up under her chin, so the only part of her that was visible was her head.

"Yeah, Jo told us," Darcy said quietly. Skye nodded a little, she figured that the older mutant would make sure that Steve and everyone else knew the truth, and she bit down on the corner of her lip as she met Darcy's eyes again.

"Are you mad at me? For not telling you about my…about Bucky?" She'd almost said my stranger, but that wasn't who he was. His name was Bucky Barnes, and he was gone now.

"What? No!" Darcy said immediately and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She must have noticed the widening of Skye's eyes, because she stopped with her feet braced against the ground and took a slow breath. "No, I'm not mad. I think I get it. All of this, living here, biological family, adopted family…it's kinda overwhelming sometimes, huh?"

"A little," Skye admitted. Sometimes she forgot that all of this was new for Darcy too. Yeah, Darcy met everyone before she did, but all of the family stuff was just as new for her.

"And the dude you met, he was easy to talk to?" Darcy wasn't trying to force her to talk. She just looked curious to Skye, like she wanted to hear the story from Skye's perspective, and Skye felt the words just start pouring out of her.

She laughed as she told Darcy about the first time she'd met her stranger, sitting on a bench that faced a horse's ass, and Darcy laughed along with her as Skye recounted all of their meetings. Darcy never moved from where she was sitting on the edge of her bed, and Skye stayed curled up under her blanket as she talked. It felt good to actually say the words, instead of just showing Jo and Tony a quick slideshow. This time she got to actually talk about how she felt whenever she saw her stranger sitting on their bench, and it looked like Darcy actually understood. Her stranger wasn't an ex-assassin for Hydra or Steve's best friend from the forties. Her stranger was a guy that was always there to listen to her ramble about whatever was on her mind and who looked out for her.

By the time Skye reached the end, she didn't bother with holding anything back. She told Darcy everything. From sugar-crashing on the bench, to her stranger carrying her to the Mansion and then saying her name, about seeing that awful video, and talking to Bucky. She was crying again as she told her twin what he'd looked like as she hit him and demanded him to say his name, and she admitted that she couldn't stop thinking about how it'd felt to stand next to their bench and watch as he disappeared.

"He stayed in New York because he wanted to make sure that I was okay." Her throat was tight and the words sounded a little strangled, but she forced herself to say them anyway. "He wanted to make sure that he didn't make me worse."

"I'm going to come hug you now. If you don't want me to, say so now," Darcy said and got to her feet. Skye had never really liked being touched before, not after the orphanages and foster homes, but she'd been getting more and more used to it since moving into the Mansion. The people in this house were always hugging, and Skye could really use a hug at the moment.

Skye uncurled from the ball she was in, and her blanket slipped down as she sat up a little. She realized that she was still wearing Bucky's jacket as Darcy sat on her bed, and she ducked down a little to wrap her arms around Darcy's middle and pushed her wet face against Darcy's shoulder. She could feel Darcy's arms tightening around her shoulders as hands started to comb through her hair, and Skye let herself fall apart against her twin. It felt good to let go, to let it all out…it felt good to know that she wasn't alone.

BRUCE

"Everything okay?" Jo's mental voice was quiet, and Bruce stretched out on the futon as he opened his eyes and looked up at the dark sky.

"Pepper's asleep in our bed. I've been reading on the futon." He and Pepper had stayed in the den for close to an hour, just resting against each other, until Pepper had fallen asleep.

Bruce liked Pepper, they'd become close friends over the past couple of months, and she hadn't even stirred when he picked her up. It still amazed him that Pepper, that anyone really, felt safe enough around him to fall asleep. He knew that Hulk wasn't a danger to anyone, but he'd spent years avoiding people. People who knew the truth about him avoided him as well, for their own safety. Until Tony, who'd never looked afraid. The people in this house knew him and trusted him, weren't afraid of him, and Pepper had even curled closer to him as he rode the elevator up to their floor. He'd laid her down on the bed he shared with Jo, tucked a spare blanket around her, and then walked out onto the balcony to lay on the futon.

"You don't have to sleep outside. I'm sure Pepper wouldn't mind sharing the bed, the thing's huge, or you can come cuddle with me and Tony. He's asleep, but I know he won't mind."

Bruce knew that both options were available.

A couple of weeks ago, Tony and Jo had fallen asleep in Tony and Pepper's room after Jo practiced using her mental link with Tony to move things around in Tony's lab. He and Pepper had just looked at them with fond smiles, and Pepper had said that maybe the two of them should shack up for the night. They'd slept in his and Jo's bed, on opposite sides instead of curled together like Jo and Tony, but they'd been comfortable around each other. They'd woken up with their backs pressed tight together, spines perfectly aligned.

As for sharing a bed with Tony and Jo, he'd done that more times than he cared to count. Instead of being awkward or uncomfortable, it was easy. Tony always held onto one side of Jo, and Jo always turned so that she could hold onto Bruce. He never felt like he was intruding on anything or disrupting them, and he knew that if he went to Tony's room now that he'd probably be asleep within minutes. Falling asleep with Jo touching him was always easy. Tonight though, Tony needed Jo.

"I've still got a few things to work on, but I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Jo. I love you." Saying those three words was getting easier, became easier every time he said them, and he could feel how much Jo loved him because the link between their minds was wide open. She loved him for being so understanding, for loving Tony as much as she did, and she loved him for just being himself.

"I love you too."

SKYE

Darcy was lying face down on Skye's bed when she slipped off the foot of the bed, and Skye paused as she looked down at her twin. At the way her back rose and fell as she breathed evenly, because she was fast asleep. Skye had been asleep too, after crying herself out against Darcy's shoulder, and the two of them had fallen asleep while still holding onto each other. Despite all the sleep she'd gotten that day though, she still felt exhausted. Before going back to sleep though, she was going down to the kitchen to get something to drink. It was like all the crying had completely dehydrated her, and she quietly made her way out of the bedroom and then across the living room she shared with her weird adopted parents.

Tony and Jo joked about Darcy and Skye being their daughters, but they were both overprotective of them. Then there was Bruce and Pepper, who were supportive and always there to help them out. Darcy spent her weekdays with Pepper, and Bruce was always patient and helpful whenever Skye peppered him with questions in between working with Tony on his projects. They really were like a family. Not just the people on this floor, but everyone in the Mansion.

Skye slumped against the back wall of the elevator as she rode down to the first floor, and she thought about all of the others that lived in the Mansion. Logan was growly and rough around the edges, but he was never mean or dismissive. He listened to her and Darcy whenever they came to him, and he never turned down an opportunity to spend time with them. Even if they asked him to go shopping or watch Disney movies. He'd protest or complain, but he'd never hesitate to go along with them. Then there was Thor. Darcy looked up to the god as a big brother, and it was obvious that Thor loved Darcy. Skye hadn't been expecting him to so easily accept her too, but Thor always included her whenever he approached Darcy. (Which was how Skye knew that the god could easily carry her and Darcy on his shoulders while running all over the Mansion.) Loki was still a bit of a wild card, but Skye thought he might be warming up to them. Well, to some of them at least.

Doreen was fun to be around. The older mutant had a habit of saying whatever was on her mind, which was kind of refreshing, but she was also laidback. Skye felt perfectly at ease sitting next to her, and she loved listening to Doreen's stories. About the places she'd been and all the different mutants she'd met. Illyana was younger than Skye, but she knew more about mutations than Skye did. She also visited Tony's lab pretty often, but Skye never had a problem working with the younger girl in the room. Illyana was quiet with a more dry sense of humor, and Skye liked talking to her as she worked.

Then there were the ex-SHIELD agents. Clint was hilarious. Skye knew that he was a complete badass, but she regularly got to see him dancing in the most ridiculous ways and challenging people in the arcade. He could always tell when someone was feeling down or a little off, and he always knew the perfect way to distract them and cheer them up. Natasha was kinda terrifying, but Skye looked up to her. Natasha had been showing her some moves, and she said that they'd start working on real training once Skye's body was ready. (Whatever that meant.) Maria was a little quieter and spent most of her time coordinating things with the new SHIELD agents, but she was also a kind of mother hen. She'd actually noticed when Skye's usual running shoes had started to show wear and tear, and she'd given Skye an identical pair the next day.

Sam…Sam deserved an award for putting up with all of them. Possibly his own national holiday. After he'd told them to either open up or stop wasting his time, he'd listened to her with a kind of patience that none of Skye's government counselors had shown. He'd done more than just listen too. He'd seen right through all of her nervous rambling and gotten right to the root of her issues, and he'd come up with a way to help her. He was also always willing to stop whatever he was doing to hear her out whenever she was freaking out about something, because Sam was just a good guy like that. Which only left…

"Steve."

Skye froze right inside of the kitchen, because Steve was sitting on a stool at the bar. There was a plate with a half-eaten sandwich on it in front of him and a bottle of water, and he looked up and over when she said his name. At first glance, he looked the same as always. The longer she looked though, the more she could pick out the little differences. His shoulders were slumped, like he was shrinking in on himself, and his face was pinched. Drawn tight.

"Did you skip dinner too?" Well, she hadn't been expecting that. It actually took her a minute to think it over, but she couldn't remember eating dinner. She didn't even remember eating lunch. The last meal she remembered was breakfast.

"Yeah, but I'm just here to grab something to drink." Her voice sounded a little rough, and she cleared her throat before taking another step into the kitchen.

"You shouldn't go to bed without eating. Let me make you a sandwich." His blue eyes looked a little darker than usual as he looked at her, and Skye couldn't say no. So she nodded instead and then moved over to sit down on a stool as Steve stood up.

"It doesn't have to be anything complicated. You can just slap some ham between two slices of bread," she said as Steve looked into the fridge. He turned around with his arms full of ingredients and leveled a familiar look at her, and Skye felt her lips tipping up into a smile as she looked down at the bar. Steve was normally the one that cooked dinner for them, usually with help from Logan or Jo, and he liked making well-rounded and healthy meals for all of them.

"Can I ask you about him?" Steve's back was to her when he asked it, she could see him moving to make her sandwich on the counter next to the stove, and she shifted so that she could drum her fingers against the top of the bar.

"Yeah, of course." Her voice still sounded a little tight, but Bucky was Steve's friend before Skye was even born. There was no way she was going to refuse to tell Steve about the friend he'd been looking for.

"Did he seem okay?" Steve still wasn't looking at her, and that made answering him a little easier.

"Physically? Yeah. He kinda looked homeless because of the long hair and perpetual stubble, but he looks healthy. Mentally? He always seemed okay to me. He was easy to talk to," Skye admitted. She watched as Steve nodded and then moved back over to the fridge, and she was trying to think if there was anything else that she needed to say when he turned around. He had a plate with her sandwich on it in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, and Skye sat up straighter on her stool as he walked around the side of the bar.

"Back in Brooklyn, before the War, Buck was always clean shaven. He hated having any kind of facial hair. Said it was itchy." When Skye looked over at where Steve was sitting next to her, she saw him smiling a little as he picked up his sandwich and took another bite. He must have felt her looking at him, because he looked over and then pointed at her untouched sandwich. "You need to eat."

She gave a quick salute and then reached for her water bottle, because her mouth was as dry as a desert, and then she started eating. It was like she didn't realize that she was hungry until after her first bite, and she heard Steve let out a quiet sound of amusement as she started to hurriedly chew. He still looked a little off, a little less like himself, but she thought that he'd be okay. She just wished there was something that she could say to make him feel better or give him hope. She thought it over as she quickly ate her sandwich, and a thought came to her as she washed the last of her sandwich down with a long drink of water. Her eyes stayed on her plate as she spoke, but she knew that Steve was looking at her because she could almost feel his gaze on the side of her face.

"Sometimes when we'd meet up, he'd be writing in a notebook. He told me he was writing a book about his life. Now that I know who he is, I think he was trying to remember stuff. Remember who he was." Skye could see Steve's upturned palm on the bar, and she bit down on the corner of her lip as she slid her palm across his.

"He'll come back when he's ready." Steve's voice was strong and steady, but the grip on her hand was tight as their fingers laced together.

"And then we can tag-team lecture him on being an idiot for running away," Skye said and looked over. Steve's smile was small and sad, and she tightened her hold on his hand as she felt her eyes start burning.

They were both done eating, but they sat in the kitchen for a little while longer. Hands laced over the bar, looking straight ahead instead of at each other, and breathing slowly in sync. If Skye's cheeks were wet or if Steve's eyes were a little red when they finally got up, there was no one around to see. Their hands laced together again as they walked out of the kitchen, but their eyes didn't meet again until the elevator stopped at the fourth floor. Steve didn't say anything; he just squeezed Skye's hand, leaned down to press a kiss against the top of her head, and left the elevator after giving her another sad smile.

Skye got off the elevator at her floor and walked to her bedroom on numb feet, and Darcy was lying in the exact same position as when she left. Skye crawled up the bed until she was lying next to her twin, and she curled up close to the heat of Darcy's body. Her eyes closed as she nuzzled down against her pillow, and she let her body relax as she stuffed her hands into the pockets of Bucky's jacket. Her day had sucked, she'd cried more in one day than she had in years, but she was starting to feel like everything would be okay. That maybe, if she stuck with the people who were becoming her family (or possibly already were family), everything would work out.

Finis: I know this chapter was sad, so much angst, but it had to be done. As I'm sure you can guess, everything that's happening is going to affect Civil War events. I'll still be writing the Civil War stuff though, and I'm excited to write the changes! I gotta get through Ultron first though, and those chapters are going to be…interesting.

Now, since this chapter was mostly depressing, I'm going to make the next chapter a little lighter. So if there's anything that you'd like to see, any particular characters/pairings/activities, feel free to make a request! Writing the lighter chapters is usually a lot easier for me, so the next update should be out sometime soon. (By soon, I mean anywhere from next week to a couple of months from now. Feel free to send me messages and yell at me to write faster. The motivation helps.) If there's any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to ask!

Oh, and feel free to come say hi to me on tumblr! You can find me as wordsfly-writes-ff

JLBriggs: I think it's always important to note the distinction between TWS and Bucky, because you're right. TWS wouldn't have let Skye hit him like that, I don't think his training would have allowed that, but Bucky would never hurt her. Oh, writing the Steve scenes were the most difficult for me. I'm still on the fence about writing out Natasha and Bucky's past. I have until the Civil War stuff to decide though. I'd probably stick to movie canon though if I did, and not the comic canon. (Even though their history in the comics is much more interesting.) Thank you for the review!

Angi Marie: Civil War in this story is going to be drastically different than the movie, but I think the things that stay the same will be surprising. (I hope they will be anyway lol) Thank you for the review!

LadyPlague: Still, reading this story six times? I'm still insanely impressed. You know, I think I could do a Hulk POV in the next chapter because you're absolutely right. He does need to come out more, and I love Hulk so writing for him would be fun. Haha, if I thought anyone would actually read a Deadpool/OC story written by me, I'd be writing it right now because I LOVE Deadpool. And good news! I also updated my Zsasz story! (I'm on an updating roll! Let's just hope I can keep it up.) Oh, I love that line! Happy people can be killers too. If you ever got that as a tattoo, I'd love you forever. Just sayin'. Thank you for the review!

LoveFiction2017: Who was I missing in the last chapter? There's so many characters at this point that I really am worried about overlooking someone. Thank you for the review!

RandomFandoming: I'm sorry that the updates just stopped! As someone who loves to read long stories and then feels like crying after reaching the end and realizing that there are no more updates, I totally understand where you're coming from. (And I haven't read The Book Thief, but I've heard that it's really good!) Balancing everything, and everyone, isn't easy so I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed the way I've managed so far! Thank you for reading and thank you for the review!

sukondis: I've loved writing the Skye/Bucky scenes, so I'm glad you've liked them as well! I'm gonna miss having Bucky around, but he won't be gone forever. Writing Steve's reaction was difficult, and I hope I didn't disappoint anyone. Thank you for the review!

lana in wonderland: The past few chapters have been pretty emotional, huh? I normally try to balance it all out, but sometimes the story has to take an angsty turn for a couple of chapters. I'm glad you're still enjoying the story, and thank you for the review!

Valerie E. Mackin: Again, THANK YOU so much for all of your wonderful reviews! You have no idea how much they meant to me. Bucky's going to be MIA for a bit, but he will come back! (Or maybe I can write scenes from his POV while he's on his travels…any thoughts?) I am so excited to bring T'Challa in! I'm also terrified because I don't want to mess up his characterization, but I love his character so I'm super excited to reach Civil War. Thank you for the review!

QueenOfTheCrossover: Sorry for the wait, but I finally updated! I hope you like it, and thank you for the review!