Chapter Text
If the whole Thanos and blip incident hadn’t happened, Sam would say that was the longest and most difficult fight of his life. But it sure took a lot out of him, and he’d say he deserved a well earned vacation. If he thought Ross was too much to handle as a secretary alone, he was proven way wrong when he became president.
Sam felt bad for showing up almost around midnight, but Sarah was still awake, and said she was driving herself crazy with worry. So now he felt bad for taking so long. Apparently the boys enthusiastically refused to go to bed, so they were still awake as well. It was nice, being able to see his family safe and sound, being able to eat and talk with them. All of it was somewhat therapeutic.
All the stress just flooded out of Sam’s body, being replaced by a comforting warmth that made him almost completely forget everything that just happened. He gladly fell asleep sprawled out on his bed, not even bothering to cover himself with a blanket.
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Sam woke up late, like afternoon late. He hadn’t slept that long since…. He can’t even remember how long ago.
Sarah cooked breakfast and then they all went out to the docks, fishing for almost three hours. If a certain Steven Grant Rogers had never run past him (multiple times) that day, Sam would be living this kind of life. He would’ve been able to watch his nephews grow up and help his sister with all that was dumped onto her shoulders.
But he couldn’t really find it in himself to be angry about that. He helped stop a world ending event that could have hurt his family, that makes it all worth it, doesn’t it?
“So Joaquin is ok, right?” Sarah asks him as they put dishes away. Sam had introduced them at some point, and like everyone else, Sarah instantly adored Torres. He was a good kid, you’d have to be insane to not like him.
“Yeah, he’s all good. Got a break too, went to Mexico to see his family.” Sam explains. He, Captain America, looked up to Torres in a way. The kid left his family and country to serve a different one, and he did his job well. When Sam was his age, he wasn’t even close to being in wings yet.
Sam never saw himself being able to live in a different country from his family. Being on the run was hard enough.
Sarah nods and smiles. “Aw, good for him. You’ve both worked hard.” She gives Sam’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze. And Sam’s about to respond, but a knock on the front door interrupts them.
“Did you plan to have any visitors?” Sam raises a brow, half turning to the door. He doesn’t want to seem ‘paranoid’, but after all that had happened, he couldn’t help but wonder if the person at the door was friend or foe.
“No, especially not now, it’s almost eight.” Sarah states.
“Okay, okay. I’ll go see who it is.” Sam tells her, tapping the hand she still had on his shoulder before he walked away.
The person knocked again, more insistent.
Sam opened the door cautiously, and he found that some army clad soldier pointing a gun to his head would have been more welcomed than the person that was standing on the front porch.
“Wilson.”
“Fury.”
Nick Fury, the man he could swore went to space was standing right in front of him, looking much, much different. And Fury only showed up if he wanted something from you. Nope- he was on vacation.
Sam sighed and leaned back against the door frame. “Look Fury, I just got back from one of the biggest fights in my life, I’m really not in the mo-”
But Fury cut him off, his usual ‘I dont give a shit’ voice giving the next sentence a harder hit. “It’s about sergeant Barnes. Something happened.”
The last time Sam saw Bucky was when he said goodbye at the airport, when he was flying off to go join the ‘Thunderbolts’. And Sam thought villain names were bad. Sam had been mad at first, the two had just really stabilized their friendship and the idiot left. Bucky had told him there was a reason, but did he tell Sam that said reason? No, no he did not.
Sam missed Bucky, cared about him too. But he didn’t realize how much he did until he heard those words. The thought of Bucky getting hurt and not being able to help him made Sam want to puke.
The thought crossed briefly. The ‘Thunderbolts’ was supposed to be a team, why was Bucky the only one ..taken? Hurt? Sam didn’t have the details yet. But ”Something happened.” usually doesn’t mean that ‘something’ is good.
Sam realized he’d been quiet longer than he wanted to be. He looked Fury in the eyes- eye- and nodded slightly.
“When do we start?”