Chapter Text
Pepper helped Natasha secure those of her captors who were still alive, collecting weapons while Natasha applied zip-ties liberally and then called the Bulgarian authorities.
"They won't believe three people did all this," Pepper said.
"Four," Natasha corrected. "And if they don't that's their own ignorance. It can only work to our advantage."
"I suppose." Pepper found a chair that miraculously had only a handful of bullet holes in its back, righted it, and sat down, Bucky's Skorpion cradled in her lap.
Natasha came to stand in front of her, her gaze concerned and assessing at the same time. "Are you all right?"
"Fine," Pepper said. "Being kidnapped is easier the second time around, but I really don't want it to become a habit."
"Were you raped?"
"No. They only wanted my blood, not my body."
Natasha nodded, satisfied. Then, "And the rest? The fighting, the killing?"
"That hasn't sunk in yet," Pepper admitted.
"It's little comfort, but know that you had no other choice. You say they only wanted your blood, but when they got what they needed, they would have killed you. Or worse."
"I know." And that knowledge born from this experience had also helped her reach one other conclusion. "I'm not going to be an Avenger."
Surprise flickered across Natasha's expression, quickly controlled. "Why would you want to be?"
"Because I can, thanks to the Extremis."
"That's not a good reason."
"Isn't it? You've heard the saying that with great power comes great responsibility. Aren't I obliged to do something?"
"Are you saying you didn't do anything before the Extremis? That Stark Industries and the various charitable foundations are worthless?"
"No, of course not," Pepper said quickly. "I know they're not worthless. They've helped a lot of people. Just not like you do."
"You want to be a better partner for him."
"Well… yes. However un-feminist or sexist that may be."
"He doesn't need that kind of partner," Natasha said. "He has Steve, and me, and the other Avengers for that. He needs another kind of partner."
"I don't know what that might be."
Natasha smiled. "People have been figuring that out for thousands of years. You will, too."
Pepper laughed quietly. "I suppose so."
Minutes later, Bucky returned. "He's not here."
"Don't sound so disappointed," Natasha said at the same time Pepper said, "We'll find him eventually."
"Woulda been nice to end this."
This was whatever threat to her might still exist, Pepper knew. She rose from her chair and crossed the room to him, offered his Skorpion. He took it automatically, returned it to its holster between his shoulder blades.
"We will end it," Pepper told him. "Maybe not today, but we will. I know that, because I know you, and Natasha, and the rest of the Avengers."
Bucky nodded, but he didn't look convinced, so she pressed on.
"This is a good start," she said. "And it's enough for now. Let's go home."
#
Bucky had barely brought the quinjet to a complete stop at Avengers Tower before Tony and the other Avengers were approaching - along, he noted, with a medical team.
He killed the engines, and reached out a hand to keep Natasha from leaving the cockpit.
"What?" she asked.
"We saying or doing anything about Cardona?"
Natasha considered the question. "That's Pepper's decision."
"We'll back whatever she says."
It wasn't really a question, but Natasha nodded an acknowledgment anyway.
"It was good," Bucky said, "working with you."
She quirked a bit of a smile. "And you."
"Best partner I've had in a while," he continued. "And I'm gonna presume on that for a minute."
Natasha stiffened, but didn't bolt. Bucky took that as a sign that she'd listen, even if she wasn't certain what was coming next.
"My sister was born with her soulmark," he said. "Met the guy in high school under less than pleasant circumstances."
Natasha raised one eyebrow, but was otherwise silent.
"Got a little drunk at the homecoming dance," Bucky clarified. "They exchanged words, and he got a little … presumptuous."
"You sound like Steve."
"Yeah, well, can't help it sometimes. Point is, I hadda teach him a lesson, warn him away from her. Bein' soulmates doesn't excuse - that."
"No," Natasha agreed. "It doesn't."
"I got a letter from her, back in '43. She'd run into him again, and they were getting married."
"Did they live happily ever after?"
Bucky shrugged his metal shoulder, ignoring the sarcasm in her tone. "I haven't checked. Point is, no matter how bad a start you and your soulmate got off to, there've been others just as bad, or worse, that have turned into something special."
"So you're saying I should get in touch with him."
"I wouldn't tell you what to do. But maybe you should think about why you're staying away."
He paused, reached out his human hand to cup her cheek. It was an intimacy he wouldn't normally have dared, but today, it felt less dangerous. "Whatever you decide, I'll back your play. Even break his legs if you want me to."
Natasha looked startled, however briefly, before one side of her mouth lifted in a grin. "Well, the history books do say you were a charmer."
Then she was gone, and Bucky turned back to finishing the post-flight check. Every instinct he had screamed at him to join his soulmate, to affirm their bond in the most primal, physical manner, but that same bond told him that she was on her way to the medical center to be checked out by the staff.
Pepper knew she was all right, and Bucky knew she was all right, but apparently some of Steve's mother hen instincts had rubbed off on Tony, and the billionaire was insisting that she get checked out, even offering to bring the best doctors in from nearby hospitals. It would be a while before Pepper would be free of the doctors' clutches.
Or Tony's.
Bucky supposed Tony would be having a talk with him soon.
Oddly, the thought didn't bother him. Before the war, back when he'd been just Bucky Barnes, even a hint of that kind of talk would have sent him running far away from whatever dame had inspired it.
Now, though - now he was more than just Bucky Barnes. The man that he was now welcomed that talk and all that it implied about his relationship with his girl. His best girl. His only girl.
The girl who was getting checked out in medical. He'd be waiting for her when she was done.
#
"For the love of God, Tony, I'm fine." It wasn't the first time Pepper had told him that since he'd hustled her off the quinjet without so much as a hello/goodbye to her soulmate - her soulmate, of all people - but it was the first time she'd let that tone into her voice.
Tony obviously remembered that tone, because his mouth snapped shut. But only for a moment.
"Okay, you're fine. But what about Barnes? Is he fine?"
"Oh, very." That wasn't the question Tony had been asking, though, and Pepper cleared her throat before answering again. "Yes, Tony, he is. He's not just Bucky Barnes, or James Buchanan Barnes, or the asset, or even the Winter Soldier. He's none of them and all of them, and he's my soulmate and he saved my life."
Tony sputtered to a stop, looking momentarily nonplussed. But, Tony being Tony, he recovered quickly. "Well, sure, anyone would. Any of the Avengers, and he's an Avenger. But -"
"He's my soulmate, Tony," Pepper repeated. "I know what he's like. I feel what he's like."
"I did not need to know that."
"I wasn't talking about that," Pepper said. "There was a moment, during the fight. It was almost as if I was thinking his thoughts, feeling his feelings, knowing his knowledge. If I'd ever had any doubts about him - which I didn't, because I trust Bruce - they were put to rest right then."
Tony studied her for a long moment. Then, apparently satisfied at whatever he saw, he nodded once. "You know I'll have to give him the shovel talk."
"He's a super-soldier."
"I'm Iron Man."
Pepper smiled at that, and stepped forward to kiss his cheek. "Don't ever change."
Then she left the medical center behind, heading to her own quarters, still in the hospital gown she'd worn while she was a prisoner of Ten Rings. After they'd won that fight, Natasha had procured a doctor's lab coat from somewhere, and now Pepper wrapped it around herself, more for warmth than modesty in the Tower's climate-controlled air.
"Home, Ms. Potts?" JARVIS asked when she stepped into the elevator.
"Sergeant Barnes' quarters, please."
"As you wish. But he is not there."
"No?" Disappointment surged through Pepper. She'd been looking forward to exploring the moment she'd felt in the heat of battle.
"Following your instruction, I allowed him access to your apartment. He went in twenty-six minutes ago and has not emerged."
"Home, then, thank you."
Bucky met her at the door with a drink in his metal hand. "Figure you need this."
Pepper smiled. "I probably do. But I need this more."
She stepped forward, sliding her arms around his neck and pulling him down into a kiss. She felt his metal arm wrap around her waist, and his human hand came up to caress her cheek.
Pepper gave herself over to the kiss, to her soulmate, to them until she had no choice but to breathe, and even then she only allowed the barest space between them. No kiss had ever felt as good, as right, as this one had, not even the earlier ones she'd shared with Bucky. Maybe that was thanks to the release of tension now that she was home.
"No," Bucky said. "It's because we bonded back there."
"Did I say that out loud?"
Bucky chuckled. "No. Hold this."
She accepted the glass he offered her, puzzled, then laughed when he scooped her up into his arms. He crossed the few steps to her sofa and sat, settling her across his lap with his arms wrapped around her.
"But how could we have bonded?" Pepper asked. "We haven't had sex yet."
"This century's obsessed with sex," Bucky observed. "Bonding requires intense emotion. It doesn't get more intense than fighting for your life, and our words touched when we were back to back. Didn't you feel it?"
Pepper took a sip of the drink he'd given her and thought about that. "There was a point when I was shooting better than I can. I remember thinking that must be how you would feel."
"And your knowledge of computers helped me anticipate Natasha's instructions to destroy whatever data they collected."
Pepper nodded slowly. "Does that mean we're not going to have sex?"
"We were never going to have sex," Bucky said.
"What?" Pepper stared at him. "After that comment about how I taste -"
A cool metal fingertip touched her lips, and she subsided. "We were never going to have sex, doll. We're going to make love."
"Oh." Pepper smiled slowly. "Now?"
"Now." And he kissed her again.