Chapter Twenty-Three: Epilogue

The Triskelion
Five Years Later

"Uncle Steve!" echoed throughout the large chamber before being followed by the pounding of rapid footsteps.

Raine watched as Steven Anthony Barnes ran across the enclosed courtyard of the Triskelion into the open arms of his crouching, waiting Uncle Steve. Without any hesitation, Uncle Steve picked him up and tossed little Stevie into the air a couple of feet higher than was normal, making her own stomach drop with the toss. The loud, happy squeal echoed throughout the area catching the attention of every Shield agent nearby.

Watching as he fell back towards the waiting arms, she had a slight panic at just thinking about Steve missing him. But he never had and Raine was sure that he never would.

Shaking her head, she knew that no matter how many times she reprimanded Steve for doing that move that as long as little Stevie liked it, it was worth the tongue lashing.

"Again!" Steven requested as she reached them.

"Give me a minute to talk with your mom and then we'll heading to the playroom," Steve told him.

"Yea!" he happily chimed.

"What's that?" Steve asked seeing the plastic container in her left hand her as he lifted Stevie to sit on his shoulders. Her right arm was occupied with the squirming two year old that was determined to get down so that she could also be tossed in the air just like her big brother. But Raine had told Steve that until Lily was at least three, no airplane tosses for her.

"Un'cal," Lily was starting to whine.

"Snickerdoodles for Tony. And he made me tell him exactly how many are in there so he'll know if you or Bucky snatch some on the flight this afternoon," she told him as Lily squirmed and reached out for Steve to take her. "So consider that your only warning otherwise you'll have to listen to his whining."

"I don't get any?" he then asked putting on the pouting face she had been waiting on. Handing over the container to him, she then reached in the kid's bag and pulled out a smaller one. Steve passed Tony's box up to Stevie to hold and took his own treats with a smile.

"Those are for only you," she pointed out. "Bucky ate all of his this morning before leaving the house."

"Un'cal, un'cal," Lily's small hands were flapping eagerly to emphasize her determination to get at him.

With a large smile, Steve took her into his arm. A second later, she heard a giggle from a passing female Shield agent at seeing Steve covered in kids. She then passed over the kid's bag with their snacks and spare clothes, which Steve hung over his shoulder displaying a cartoon picture of Iron Man flying through the sky. Tony had sent it home with Bucky months ago and the kids loved it, much to his and Steve chagrin.

"How is everything?" he asked looking down at her small protruding belly.

"Good. I have an appointment in just over an hour from now so you and Bucky are on babysitting duty until then."

Steve gave her that same look that he did every time she came to the Triskelion early so that she could run her special errand.

"Lorraine, you don't have to keep doing this," he told her with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"I know, but I want to. Now run along before someone tries to throw a very unladylike tantrum," she gave Lily's nose a bop to indicate her. She somehow took after Tony and had a short temper when she didn't get her way.

Steve simply nodded his head in fake understanding of her errand as he headed off towards the training room he liked to take the kids to for them to play in. To them it was a grownup playroom, and they both loved to play on the training equipment and mimic the fighting moves that their daddy and uncle were teaching them. They were already much stronger and faster than any other children their age and with the extra energy they always had, putting them through training routines helped to wear them out.

Heading over to the secured doors, Raine entered in her personal code for them to open before starting her journey through the hallways. Eventually, she found herself floors underneath of the Triskelion still heading down the empty concrete staircase. Coming to a stop at the door, she punched in the code to the last small hallway.

Inside, leaning against the wall was her Bucky Bear.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him closing the door behind her.

"Hopefully managing to finally talk you into stopping this," he told her taking her into his arms as she tried to pass him. "You don't have to keep doing this."

"That's exactly what Steve just told me. How about next time the two of you work out different sentences beforehand, that way it's less obvious."

"How about you come with me upstairs and watch some of the new moves me and the Punk planned on showing the kids instead of…?" his voice waved off instead of finishing as he turned to look at the last door.

"I'm going inside, but I'll be up before my appointment to see."

"Be careful," he told her before giving her a long kiss.

"Always," she smiled at him.

Raine waited until he had shut the stairwell door behind him before going inside of the apartment. It looked almost the same as when she had woken up all those years ago, except that it was much cleaner now. During each of her initial visits, she would clean just a bit more so that now the small apartment would be usable if anyone else were to come here.

The only change from that first day was a small desktop computer on the kitchen table that Tony had put together specially for her after talking with Nick and Maria to get permission.

Walking over to it, she pressed the button to power the device up. It had a very large hard drive, but there was no modem or any type of wireless device hooked into it but there was a small basic camera. There was not any type of external spot to hook in a thumb-drive to transfer files at. Even the screen was what Tony had called old-school.

After a few moments, the familiar green face appeared.

"Good afternoon, Uncle Arnim."

"Good afternoon, Bienchen. How are the children doing?"

"They're doing great. Uncle Steve is upstairs now playing with them."

A few seconds passed before he asked, "Are you ever going to let me see them?"

"No, uncle. I've told you this. They will never know about you. You are lucky that I still come down here to see you. If it wasn't for Nick granting me this favor, you'd never have been reactivated."

"I know, Bienchen. I still do not understand why you do not hate me, even after all I have done to you."

"No matter what, you still raised me. You had your own reasons for doing so, but I still remember how much having you around meant to me. Besides, you are my only other living relative."

"Then I will take these brief moments."

For the next half hour, Raine told him about Lily teething and crying at night, that they found out she was having another boy, and how Stevie was excelling in school. Once a month, he would spend a weekend with Tony working on projects together. It had not taken long for them all to realize that he had indeed inherited a brilliance from her side of the family. But now they were making sure that it was focused in a good direction.

Glancing at her watch, Raine saw it was time for her to go if she wanted to head to the gym before her appointment time.

"I need to head on now, uncle."

"I know. You will come back again, yes, Bienchen?"

"Yes."

Reaching for the button to turn the computer off, his voice sounded a final time, "Will I ever leave this place again?"

Raine looked down at the screen, a bit disappointed in him for even asking that question.

"No, Uncle Arnim. You won't. Gute nacht."

"Gute nacht, Bienchen."

Watching the screen power down and hearing the fan on the tower dying down, Raine stood up and turned the lights off.

Heading up the stairs, she began to smile at wondering what crazy stunts Bucky Bear and little Stevie were teaching her kids today.