He’s here. Steve’s not a dream, not a hallucination. He’s really here.

Steve cups his chin, hand sliding up to stroke Bucky’s cheekbones with his thumb. There’s something in Steve’s eyes, like a knowing look that he knows what Bucky is thinking. He’s not surprised if that’s the case. The punk’s always been preceptive.

“I’m here Buck,” is all he says and he takes Bucky’s hand to palm his face. “I’m here.” Nose sliding down his as he presses his soft lips against Bucky’s chapped ones. Slow and calm, it isn’t Steve but Bucky knows it’s all he needs now. The reaffirmation that this is not some dream.

“I’m sorry,” he tells Steve when Steve releases his lips, gazing at him from between Steve’s elbows. His arm holding onto Steve’s waist. They haven’t been in this position before without having sex but there’s first times for everything. “-For not believing you were alive, for not searching for you.” His jaw clenches under the weight of the guilt that threatens to drown him. “For not searching for her,” he adds in a voice almost too quiet for Steve to pick up.

Steve leans his forehead against his, placing another lingering kiss. Bucky can taste the salt of Steve’s tears or even his own in the kiss. Steve doesn’t reply for the longest time, just holding him tightly.

“It’s okay, you wouldn’t have known,” Steve replies. “If-” His voice breaks off and Bucky hears him take a tremulous gasp before continuing. “-I was you, I might ended up the same way.”

Steve wouldn’t have. He would have persisted in searching for them, driving himself past his limits to make sure he brings a body back, dead or alive.

“Don’t Bucky.” Steve presses his head against his neck. “Peggy told me how you refused to sleep and eat while searching for Skye and me. Don’t tell me you couldn’t try harder. She told me how it took you decades before you gave up. You tried your best. It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s but Hydra.”

Bucky shakes his head, scoffing, “I gave up, Steve. I gave up on you guys.”

Tony wonders what they did to her. All the Hydra bases he had burnt down hasn’t managed to give him the information he wanted. He knows the knowledge of what they did to her would follow him forever but he also knows that if he ever wants to get his daughter back, he would have to know exactly what he’s fighting with. “I’m your dad. Your best friend. We did everything together, don’t you remember the Iron Man? We worked on it together.” He holds his arms up so still that he never knew he was capable of. He’s not scared of Skye shooting him, he’s not scared of her beating him up. He’s scared that if he spooks her, she’ll run and he will never see her again and that scares him more than the possibility of death.

Her eyes flicker to his suit before snapping up back to his face, her face is so expressionless that it almost hurts. Tony wants to rage and strangle whoever who did this to her, who stripped off everything that Skye had been known for. Her wits, her snark, her chatter that is almost so endless that Pepper sometimes just rubs her temples and tells that she can’t deal with two Starks. “We even painted a lightning blue one for you because you love blue,” he continues, mustering all his willpower to not rush into her and hold her tight. “We even have air codes. Uncle Rhod is War Machine, I’m Iron man and yours was Bubblegum…”

Tony fights back a sigh. It is too much for even to hope for her to bicker about her air code. They have might jokingly suggested Bubblegum, but it was never that, they just loved teasing her.

“We even have matching tattoos! Let me remove my suit and show you.”

She doesn't move not even so much as a twitch, so Tony just disengages the armour. Perhaps it is Jarvis that had changed the setting of the suit's disengagement speed, because the suit peels with almost excruciatingly slow speed. He steps out, all too aware of the twitch in her jaw with every movement of his.

“I'm turning around,” he tells her and turns his back to her, fingers inching the shirt up. There was a monolithic tattoo inked in black on top the wings of a raven, a tattoo that they designed together. Tony knows the meaning of the words without any reference, they spent days poring over every written word. “Do you know what it means?” he says over his shoulder. “We need neither shepherd nor guide for it is us that builds the road. Fire on our wings, we will blaze through obstacles without faltering.”

Not a single look of recognition in her eyes.

The tattoo had been one of the biggest thing in their lives. Skye fought to get a tattoo then fought with him on what to get. Even Rhodey and Pepper had one; similar but slightly different. Skye had proclaimed after the four of them had gotten it that it should be a Stark tradition and any other Stark siblings that came forward later should get one as well.

Was the therapist correct? That with what they did to her, it'd next to impossible to get her anything remotely close to his baby girl? No more snark, no more hilarious laughing or prank wars. He isn't sure if he wants that anymore. Maybe if she stopped looking like a beaten dog and a genuine smile. That went without a doubt that she’d be safely in the tower. He could settle for those.

Skye clutches her head, her face paling more than what Tony ever thought it was humanly possible.

“Blue Skye?”

“That's not my name. I am the Winter Soldier.” The words tear from her lips and he felt it was like ripping duct tape from his heart.

“Your name is Skye. Skye Daisy Stark. You were born in-”

She groaned, knees buckling briefly before she righted herself.  “Winter Sol-”

“Skye-” Tony turns around and takes a step forward before stopping as she raises the gun at him.

‘Sir. There are hostiles incoming. Shall I deploy the iron legion?’ Jarvis interrupts over the in-ear comms.

“Yes, yes,” he mutters. “Listen baby girl we have hostiles incoming. Jarvis- you remember Jarvis? Jarvis activated the Iron Legion. You remember the Iron Legion right? We coded it together.”

“Hostiles-” She freezes, her eyes catches his. The same slant of eyes that he watched growing up but instead they are filled emotions that Tony isn’t prepared to see in them.

“Skye?” He takes a step towards her and this time she doesn’t pull the gun back into his face. Slowly, he pulls her close to him and she buries her head in the crook of his neck.

“Papa?”

The relief that fills him is more than Tony can express, he bites on his lip and just holds her close, murmuring words of comfort, trusting Jarvis and the Iron Legion to keep them safe.

“You’re safe now. We can go home now,” he rubs her head, telling her softly.

“Can’t-” Her breath stutters and speeds up. Skye pushes away from him, clenching her head. “Not safe. Not with me. Monster.”

“No!” he catches her wrist and holds it tight. “I’m not letting you go again, if you’re not coming back home with me then I’ll come with you. If you want to burn Hydra bases down, then you’re damn sure I’m going to be right beside you. Please never think you’re a monster.”

She motions at the papers and whispers as her expression seems to change, “need to remove the trigger words-” Her face falls back into the same blank expression he had seen on her and she raises her chin at him, pulling herself to attention. “Mission objective incomplete,” she tells him in a hard voice. “Awaiting punishment.”

Punishment. The words drips ice to his core, paralyzing him. His daughter stands before him but she is still a stranger; still a stranger until he can remove the trigger words.

“No punishment,” Tony forces himself to say. They are bitter and he wants to punch something. “We are going to find more bases. And burn them all down.”