Lives We've Lived

Fighting Chance

There was only one room in the entire Tower locked down enough to keep Winter hidden from the others - the lab. Peter had set up a little corner in the back with a couch and a whole stack of blankets and a mini-fridge. Tony even opened up the bathroom on the lab floor so Winter could take regular showers.

It was nice. Really nice.

They were even starting to make some progress with Winter's brainwashing and conditioning. It was slow, but it was real, and that was all they could ask for. A fighting chance at fixing what HYDRA had done, at least to one of them.

Peter would never get to go back and have his childhood with Tony. Never be able to separate the spider from the human.

Tony would never be able to look at wired and metal and small, almost pin-like screwdrivers without thinking about HYDRA's labs.

But Winter? Winter could remember being Bucky and remember his life. He couldn't take back the years they'd stolen, but he could remember them.

"Готовы ко второму раунду?" Tony asked, taking one of Winter's hands. Peter had a tight hold on the other. (Translation: Ready for round two?)

Winter nodded, his movements tight and tense. "Как я всегда буду. Вы оба останетесь?" (Translation: As I'll ever be. You'll both stay?)

"Конечно. Мы с папой никуда не пойдем," Peter said, tightening his hold on Winter's hand. (Translation: Of course. Dad and I won't go anywhere.)

Winter nodded. It hadn't been a huge surprise - Peter and Tony had always been alike, and even back in the old days, he'd theorized they might be related. Project Secondary was a bit of a legend around the base, so Winter had heard all about it, and when he first met Peter, he'd almost asked. Almost.

Tony got to work. Having spent years as HYDRA's go-to mechanic, he was acutely aware of how Department X had twisted Bucky Barnes into Winter. If anyone could undo this damage, it was Tony. That being said, it was taking longer than they'd expected.

But in the end, undo it he did. It took 4 tries, and on the 4th time waking up, Winter looked between Peter and Tony and smiled. A real, genuine smile.

"Guess who remembers Cathy Lee in the 4th grade kissing his cheek," Winter said, his Brooklyn accent meeting Russian half-way through and slurring the words in a comfortably familiar way. Peter had always loved Winter's Russian drawl. Tony had always thought the Brooklyn-ese was cute when Bucky woke up and remembered something.

"Oh, thank, God!" Peter launched himself into Winter's arms. "Winter!"

The man wrinkled his nose. "I don't really feel like Winter anymore."

"Bucky, then?"

"No, not really." Winter- Bucky- the man looked up at Tony. "I don't feel like either of them. I can remember everything so clearly, it's like I'm watching both of those lives from the outside. Like I'm someone else now."

Tony pursed his lips. "James?"

"Buchanan?" Peter asked with a playful smirk.

"James works."

The three all breathed a sigh of relief. In the dark hours of early morning, when Peter and Tony had spent all night working on the algorithms and the machines and the process, the teen had confessed to Tony that he was scared they wouldn't be able to do it. They'd be stuck with this half-lit explosive of a man, who was neither their best friend, nor their enemy, who couldn't remember the last time Peter had hugged him or Tony had given his hands tight, reassuring squeezes.

James pulled both Tony and Peter into a tight hug, burying his face in Tony's shoulder and holding Peter against his side.

"Thank you both so much."

Peter finally pulled away and gave an exaggerated gasp of air. "Sheesh, you're going to kill me."

Tony laughed, his throat rumbling against James' ear. "We should go give the good news and receive our punishments for keeping it a secret."

It was an instant kill-switch. The smile on James' face slipped off, his eyes going darker and his mouth flattening into a solid line. "What?"

Tony looked down at Peter for a second, almost like he was making sure they were on the same page. "Well, we should tell the team. They're going to be a little miffed we didn't tell them before, but once we get Steve in here, I'm sure they'll let it go."

"No way," James said quickly, pulling away further and crossing his arms. "I don't want them down here."

"Not even Steve?" Peter asked, his face drawn up in confusion.

James shook his head. "Listen, I appreciate everything you two have done for me, but I don't want the others to know. Not yet. They are going to want to- look, I just- Stevie is so- so hardheaded. I can't... I just don't want them to know yet, okay? Can we please keep this in this room?"

Tony dug the heel of his palm into his eye, but he didn't say 'no' right away, and that was a very good sign. Peter took one look at James' face and decided to close the deal.

"It's not a terrible idea, papa," Peter said, pulling out the ultimate weapon. Tony always gave in when Peter used the Italian word for dad. "We've kept him hidden for weeks now."

Tony gave a rough sigh and shoved a hand through his hair. "Fine. Fine, whatever, it's fine. We won't tell them. If they murder me, or have me court marshalled, or throw me in maximum security prison, though, that's on you two."

The billionaire stomped off, leaving James and Peter standing in the lab alone.

"Could have been worse," James said finally. "Shoulda seen him when I banged up the arm for the first time."

"What happened?"

"It was run over by a train. Tony nearly took the other one off to make it 'even'."