Winter's Fire. ~Book Three~

Epilogue: What Comes Next?

In the days that followed the fall of SHYDRA, they-being herself, Sam and Tony, stayed in the shared and well guarded room that belonged to Steve and Red. Across from her, Sam was reading a newspaper while the Trouble Man soundtrack played in the background, and Levi had her head resting on the bed, her hand in Steve's as she watched him sleep. Behind her, Tony was still sleeping next to Red's bed. 
When Steve finally opened his eyes, he turned his head to look at Sam. "On your left." He croaked. Sam chuckled but said nothing in reply. 
Levi slowly raised her head and smiled as she heard his voice for the first time in nearly a week. She carefully got to her feet and leaned over him, still smiling as she brushed his hair out of his face. "Hey, Love." She whispered to him. 
Steve gave a painful smile as he reached up to touch her cheek. "Hey..." He whispered back as he forced his eyes open. "How long have we been here?" 
"A few days, but you guys are able to come home tomorrow." She said before she chuckled. "Tony and Clint have been planning a welcome back party." 
He slowly nodded before he glanced behind her and at Red's bed. "Has she woken up at all?" 
Levi hesitated for a moment before she nodded and still continued to gently rub his forehead with her thumb. "Yeah, a few times, but every time she has, she's asked for Bucky before going back to sleep." She clears her throat. "Tony's uhh... not taking it very well." 
"That makes sense." He said as he closed his eyes. "We did everything right? We saved everyone?" 
Levi sat back down in her chair and took his hand back. "Yeah, we did everything just right, saved everyone and stopped the bad guys." She pressed her lips against his knuckles. "Get some more sleep." 
Steve nodded again as he gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. "Okay... I love you, Lev." 
Levi smiled a little brighter as she glanced at Sam, who had set his newspaper aside to listen to the two of them talk. "I love you too, Steve." 
When Natasha finally entered the room, Steve was asleep again and Levinia carefully took her hand back from him. All week, while Steve and Red had been in the hospital, she and Natasha been talking about some sort of committee meeting they had to do regarding the rise and fall of HYDRA. 
"It's time, isn't it?" She asked as she got back to her feet. 
Nat gave her a grim smile. "Yeah, we won't be long." 
Levi sighed as she leaned down and kissed Steve's forehead before she followed Nat out of the room and the hospital all together. 
+++
Tony had stirred awake again as Red woke up with another quiet gasp of, "James."
He sat up straighter in her seat and rubbed at his eyes before he took her hand. "Hey, Red." He said softly as he carefully ran his thumb over her knuckles. "Still not sleeping well?" 
Red blinked a few times as she turned her head to look at him. "Yeah... I'm sorry, Tony. It's just-" 
"Bucky was a big part of your life." He finished for her. "I understand, you don't need to be sorry." 
He hated that he couldn't find it in him to be mad about her asking for someone who was supposed to be dead, but it made sense that she'd be asking for him again now that he was seemingly back from the dead. He wished he could find it in him to be angry about her wearing the engagement ring again, wished he could get angry about how he knew he would never be the one for her, and finally, he wished that she was the only one out of the two of them that was longing for something neither of them could have. 
Red weakly gripped his fingers as she closed her eyes again. "When do we get out of here?" 
"Tomorrow morning." Tony said as he reached over to brush her hair out of her face. "Then you'll be out of here and can heal up the rest of the way at home." 
She managed to give him a weak smile. "With waffles?" 
"Yes." He said with a chuckle. "With waffles." 
"Good." Red muttered drowsily as she settled back against her pillows. "It'd be a damn shame to have to do it without waffles." 
Tony leaned forward to kiss her forehead as he pressed a button over her head to give her her sleeping meds. "Have a good sleep, Red." 
And as she watched her fall back asleep, he sat back in his seat and rubbed his chin, knowing that their relationship wasn't going to survive this newly found Bucky situation. 
+++
As she and Levi were being sworn in before their committee meeting, Natasha took a moment to think about everything that was happening at this very moment. Sharon Carter, or Agent 13, was training to be a part of the CIA while Maria Hill was being interviewed for one of Stark's companies, and Fury was burning his life down so he could start over. 
"Do you, Natasha Romonoff, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" A bailiff said to her as she held hand against a bible. 
"I do." Natasha said firmly. 
He then turned to Levi, who set her hand on the bible and repeated his earlier question. "Do you, Levinia Lokidottir, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" 
"I swear." She said before the two of them were able to sit down. 
The Committee General cleared his throat before speaking. "Why haven't we heard from Captain Rogers or Agent North?" 
Natasha leaned forward in her seat as she spoke into the microphone in front of her. "I don't know what's left for them to say. I think the wreck in the middle of the Potomac made their point quite clear." 
Beside her, Levi cleared her throat. "Besides, they aren't scheduled for release until tomorrow." She took a look around the members surrounding them. "I don't know what you expect them to say while they are unconscious." 
"Well, they could explain how this country's expected to maintain it's national security now that they, and the both of you, have laid waste to our intelligence apparatus." 
Natasha shook her head. "HYDRA was selling you lies, not intelligence." 
Besides the Committee General, Scudder scoffed. "Many of which you, Agent Romanoff, have had a hand in telling." 
"Everyone on all sides lies, Sir." Levi said, keeping her odd, lilac eyes on Scudder. 
He sighed. "Agent Lokidottir, you should know that there are some on this committee who feel, given you and Romanoff's track records, both for and against this country-" he glanced over to Levi. "Or... otherwise, that you two belong in a penitentiary, not mouthing off on Capitol Hill." 
Natasha fought with herself to keep from rolling her eyes as she spoke again. "You're not going to put either of us in prison, you're not going to put any of us in prison, you know why?" 
"Do enlighten us." 
Beside her, Levi smirked as she leaned back in her seat and turned to face Natasha as she continued to speak. "Because you need us. Yes, the world is a vulnerable place, and yes, we helped make it that way. But we're the ones best ones qualified to defend it." She took a deep breath to calm herself down and then said. "So, if you wanna arrest us, arrest us. You'll know where to find us." 
Together, she and Levi got to their feet and got ready to take their leave, but Scudder turned his gaze to Levi. "Is there anything you'd like to add, Agent Lokidottier?" 
Levi's smirk got wider as she leaned forward on her hands against the table to speak in her microphone, her eyes scanning over the committee as she spoke. "I think Natasha put a very pretty ribbon on my thoughts, but to put them bluntly and clearly for the record, you can kiss our ass." 
And with that, they left Capitol Hill and went back to the hospital to keep an eye on Steve and Red.
+++
The day they had gotten out of the hospital, Red found herself in a cemetery in front of Fury's headstone with Sam, Steve and Levi beside her, who were standing hand in hand as they read the headstone in front of them. 

'The death of the righteous man; Ezekiel, 25:17.'

Red sighed as she glanced away and saw Fury coming toward him. She smiled painfully as she toed the ground. "So," he said once they were within earshot of him. "You've experienced this kind of thing before?" 
Red, on the other hand, let out a frustrated sigh and started to struggle with her sling. Turns out that getting your arm broken in two places was harder to handle as you'd think it would be, no matter how easy the doctors made it out to be. "Doesn't... mean it gets..." She said as she tries to make it comfortable again. "Any easier." 
Levi was about to say something before she looked down at her clothes and then at the rest of them. "... why did we decide to wear the same thing?" 
"I don't know, I wish I could tell you." Red said, deciding to give up on her attempt. 
Steve, finally taking pity on his friend, took his hand back from Levi to help her with her sling and cast. "It's so we can lay low." 
Levi gave him a flat look. "And wearing matching outfits helps us with that? I think it draws attention to us." 
With her sling, along with her cast, were finally set right, Red gave a relieved sigh. "Hush, we're gonna be just fine, Levs." She then turned to look at Fury, finally noticing that he'd been holding a file in his hands. "What do you have for us?" 
"We've been data mining HYDRA's files," he explained. "Looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship." Fury gave her and Steve a hopeful look. "I'm headed to Europe tonight, wanted to ask if you'd come." 
Steve shook his head. "There's something Red and I gotta do first." 
Red nodded as she reached up with her free hand to hold Bucky's tags, since she found and lost him again, this was something she'd be doing a lot. It was almost as if she was hoping they'd lead her back to him. "I'm sorry, Fury. It's something important." 
He nodded, looking somewhat disappointed, before he turned to face Sam and Levi. "How about you, Wilson? Lokidottir? I could use some people with your combined abilities."
Sam shook his head as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm more of a solider than a spy." 
"And I'm staying with Red and Steve." Levi said as she took Steve's hand again and intertwined their fingers. "Where they go, I go." 
"Alright then." He said before he took his time shaking their hands. Red found it all sort of bitter sweet, she'd known this man his entire career, and spent most of that time seeing him almost every day, and now there was no telling when she'd see him again. "Anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me here." He gestured to the gravestone, then he took his leave. 
It didn't take long for Natasha to approach them next. She was holding a rather thick file in her hands, and she sighed as she stopped in front of the small group. "You should be honored, that's about as close as he gets to saying thank you." 
Steve raised an eyebrow at her. "Not going with him?" 
Nat shook her head with a small smile. "No." 
"Not staying here?" Levi asked. 
Tasha simply shrugged. "I blew all my covers, I've got to figure out a new one." 
Red, staying silent, eyed the file in her friend's hands, hoping beyond all hope that it was the one she and Steve asked for as she listened to her friends talk. 
"That could take a while." Steve said. 
"I'm counting on it." Tasha said with a smile as she caught Red eyeing the file and looked down at it. "That thing you guys asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev." She landed Red the file and she looked down at it. Oeno No. 17, it said. File Number 17. "Do me a favor and make sure he takes care of Levi." 
In truth, there was no one else in the world she'd rather see her daughter date. She knew that Steve would go above and beyond to make sure that Levinia would be safe and happy, and that was more than Red could ever ask for. 
Steve chuckled. "You think I won't?" 
Sam shrugged as he looked between the two of them. "She's an agent, I think we can take care of herself." 
Levi rolled her eyes as she kicked at the ground. "I'm not an agent anymore, Sam." 
Red slowly let out a breath. "None of us are." 
"Well, on that happy note, I'll be in touch." She gave each of them a hug and kissed Sam's cheek. Levi and Red and shared a look and smirked at each other. She hoped that meant more than it looked like it did. "Be careful," she told Red and Steve, looking very serious. "You guys might not want to pull on that thread." 
As Natasha walked away from the small group, Red carefully opened the file and started to read it over. It was mostly about Bucky's transformation into the Winter Solider, and she smiled sadly as she looked down at the picture of him. 
"You guys going after him?" Sam asked as he looked over her shoulder to read it. 
"You guys don't have to come with us." Steve said. 
Sam and Levi looked at each other before he smiled. "We know." He looked back down at the file in Red's hands. "When do we start?" 
Red closed it as the four of them turned away from the gave and started to walk away. "As soon as possible." As they walked, Red struggled to put the file into her bag. 
Levi raised her head to look at them. "Nothing's going to be the same after this." 
Sam, who also decided to take pity on Red, helped her put the file into her bag. "This is true, what with HYDRA and SHIELD being down." 
Everyone HYDRA had been targeting was safe now, Red thought as they walked. The team would be able to take a rest for a moment before they had to take care of the next thing. And that, whatever it might be, might not be the last one, but there was always going to be hope that it would be. 
+++
                                       Red North, Levinia Lokidottir, and the Avengers will return.