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[b]March 20th, 2005
8:37pm[/b]

The chopper ride back to the Triskelion had been conducted in stony silence. To the SHIELD agents packed into it their mission had been a failure. To Bucky it had been something else. He’d met Steve’s daughter and though she’d been a little full of herself she seemed like a good kid. So much so that he’d let her walk away with Steve’s shield when the thought of someone else carrying it had made him feel nauseous this morning. A part of him sympathised with the agents, knowing they’d receive a shellacking once they got back but that couldn’t be helped. That was on Nick Fury for sending him into the field without all of the facts.

Bucky dismounted from the helicopter and nodded knowingly to the pilot who was still as star struck by him as he’d been when he’d picked him up. On the walk down to Fury’s office Bucky asked himself over and over again what Fury could possibly have hoped to gain by hiding Stephanie’s parentage from him.

As Bucky opened the door he found Fury waiting for him, his eyes widening a little as he noticed that Bucky had returned without the shield. "Where's the shield?"

There was no way that Fury hadn’t found out about Stephanie “getting away” with the shield the second Bucky had reported back to the SHIELD agents at Sharon Carter’s apartment. He got the feeling that Nick Fury wasn’t only the Director of SHIELD but that he was SHIELD for all intents and purposes. Nothing went on in these hallways or outside of them without Fury’s explicit consent or at the very least his knowledge.

"Never mind the shield," Bucky said dismissively. "I think you have some explaining to do, Fury."

For a few seconds Nick feigned ignorance as if testing the limits of what Bucky knew and upon receiving a hard stare in return, he smiled and let out a little laugh. "Carter never could keep her mouth shut.”

"Why don't you start with why you neglected to mention the person you sent me to wail on Steve's daughter?"

"You seemed like you could use the practise," Fury smiler from behind his desk. "From the look of you I can tell you probably know by now the girl has Erskine's serum running through her veins too. Could I have told you? Sure, but I wanted to see whether you had what it took and I didn't want the fact she was Steve's girl clouding your judgement."

Bucky shook his head angrily. "That wasn't your call to make."

Fury didn’t strike Bucky as the type of man to back down and his facial expression on hearing those words leave Bucky’s mouth all but confirmed it. 

"Oh? You've been awake for five minutes and you think you're qualified to tell me what calls I can and [i]can not[/i] make? This is what I do, Bucky, and I make no apologies for it. It's what keeps the world safe."

Begrudgingly Bucky had to admit Fury had a point. Carter wasn't going to hurt him. As much as Bucky thought going into their fight he'd take her apart she had more than stood her ground against him. He'd been tired, out of practise, and were it not for the cheap move near the end he likely would have been walking out there [i]far[/i] more worse for wear. Fury was a hard-nosed man and he certainly wasn't easy to get on with but staring into his eyes Bucky could sense Fury's steely determination to do exactly as he'd said: keep the world safe. In the end that was all that mattered.

Fury stood up from his seat and peered through the blinds on the wall to his office. "I'm guessing seeing as you've shown up empty handed she got away with the shield."

Bucky nodded.

"How is it even possible, Fury? How can she be Steve's daughter? He died decades before she was even born."

"Arnim Zola," Fury said with a heavy sigh. "After the war he was granted asylum in the States in return for putting his... [i]skills[/i] to work for the American government. He claimed using Steve's old blood samples he could create a child that would be every bit as fast and strong as Steve had been. That child became Stephanie Carter."

He'd joked to Maria Hill earlier that the world had gone to crap after he'd gone into the ice and every detail he'd learned since then convinced him that he'd been right. It wasn't that they'd used Steve's blood samples, because Bucky understood the government wanting to recreate Erskine's serum, but to force the serum on a child, robbing it of the decision that Steve had taken willingly, felt completely wrong.

Bucky stared down at the ground and muttered. "They had no right."

"For once I agree with you," Fury turned to face Bucky, nodding in his direction. "But what's done is done, kid, all we can do now is play the hand we've been dealt."

The two stood in silence for a moment before a look of recognition flashed across Director Fury's good eye. "Seeing as you let a twenty-one year old girl kick your ass and get away with the most valuable piece of metal in the known world, I reckon you'd better take a trip downstairs. We have a visitor that says he can fashion you something every bit as good as Steve's shield."

Fury handed Bucky a file, the name "Stark, Anthony" was printed across it, and he thumbed through it for a few seconds. A smile crept onto Bucky's lips at the name as he realising where he'd recognised it from. Stark International had produced almost all of the weapons, munitions, and parts that Bucky had handled during the war. It was nice to know that [i]some[/i] things stayed constant. From the looks of things they'd branched out a lot since then.

"Stark's got a mouth on him so I'd be careful if I were you. You might end up strangling the son of a bitch. He's good people though and damned if he's not the cleverest son of a bitch on God's green Earth. Speak to him, see what he's managed to rustle up, and then check in with Smiley once you're done."

Bucky nodded and handed Fury back the file. He walked towards the door to Fury's office but stopped in his tracks as he remembered he'd forgotten something. With his hand still on the doorknob he looked over at Fury and conjured up a voice dripping with malice. 

"You ever keep anything that important from me again and Stephanie Carter will be the [i]least[/i] of your worries."

Bucky felt a wave of satisfaction sweep over him as he slammed the door shut behind him. As he made his way through the building's halls to meet Stark he tried to get his head round having so recently been thawed out of the ice, Steve having a daughter of sorts, and that either of those things were even possible. Things had [i]definitely[/i] changed a lot since he'd huddle around the radio at night for entertainment as a child.

As Bucky reached laboratory he noticed a dark-haired man stood alone, swirling his hands around at brightly-coloured projections that seemed to dance and move with along with them. After a few seconds the dark-haired man sensed Bucky's presence and turned to face him.

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"You must be Tony Stark," Bucky said impassively at he stared at the billionaire. "Nick Fury sent me. Apparently you have something for me."