Longing •Bucky Barnes•

•Twenty Four•

"Pepper!" I said seeing her as we got off the quinjet.

I ran forward and hugged her and I saw how tired she looked. Her thin arms wrapped around me and I cried out in joy to see her. I held onto her tightly scared to let go. I was so thankful she was okay and still here.

"I don't know what I would have done if you weren't okay." She said and I felt her hand on the back of my head. "Steve told me everything that happened."

"I know." I said softly and we just sighed. "How are you?"

"Staying as positive as I can be." She said and I could hear the hurt in her voice. "Come, let's get you guys settled. Hill has a whole operation of things going on I don't take it she'll let you guys go home without looking over everything."

"As expected." I said with a soft laugh.

It was then Bucky walked silently past us and into the building. Steve and Nat were still at the ship and a few others were landing as we spoke. I looked back to Pepper who was watching Bucky and she gave me a watchful eye. I watched as his new metal arm was covered by a long sleeve shirt. Despite it being the end of summer and the heat being repulsive he was hiding it.

"Everything okay with you two?" She asked slowly.

"As they can be. Things are just tense." I said shrugging.

"They'll come around, they always do." She said with a small smile. "Come on Romanoff, Rogers. Hill is urgently awaiting your arrival."

We met in the new meeting area. I couldn't help, but notice as we all came in and sat there was an empty seat for almost every filled one. I saw that the seat I took was labeled with 'Agent Shade.' Next to me was supposed to be where Bucky would sit, but he's been MIA since we landed. Next to me on the other side was Tony. Thus, another empty seat. Pepper was on his other side and she too looked to his seat for a moment before turning away.

"As you guys can see we have a list of confirmed snap victims and a list of TBD. We have all eyes on the galaxy looking for them, but we had a reason to believe they were outside of the galaxy based on Thanos's ships movements." Mariah Hill spoke. "We know Strange, Stark, and the kid were all aboard that ship when it left so if we find that ship, they won't be far."

"How close are we finding his ship?" I asked speaking for the fist time since this meeting started.

"We're doing everything we can." She said looking to me.

"So no where near it, got it." I mumbled.

"We're doing everything we can with what resources we have left, we all want them back." She said firmly, but I could tell she had sympathy for me. I looked down at my lap and just stayed quiet again.

"No sightings of Thanos after the snap?" Steve asked trying to change the subject.

"We had a lock down on his location when the gauntlet was activated, but afterwards there hadn't even been a trace signal, it was like he just vanished." Mariah said shaking her head looking at the control panel she stood by.

"I mean we don't think he got snapped right? I mean the wearer can't just disappear right?" Bruce asked seemingly confused.

"No, but the stones were destroyed in the snap so wherever he is I doubt we'd be able to use their energy signals to find him. For all intensive purposes they're gone." She said frustratedly.

"Can we reverse it?" Thor asked from the other side of the table.

"With no Infinity Stones, no." She said slouching over her podium. "They're gone. The stones and half the universe with it."