Just do everything that we tell you to do, without question, and we won't turn this into a family affair.

"Okay, kids, let's just stay calm and head to the parking lot to find your parents," Tony guided, helping the rest of the children from the building while keeping a sharp eye for his three grandkids to appear in the crowd. You, Steve and Bucky had gone inside to look for them and he was tasked to keep the perimeter secure while helping to get the other kids to their families without any further incident.

"Mr. Iron Man, I can't find my mommy."

"Oh, hey guy," Tony replied gently, opening the mask of his suit to greet the small boy, "don't you worry, okay? We'll find her. Maybe she just isn't here yet."

"Okay," he nodded nervously, "but can I stay with you until she is?"

"Hmm...well...I don't think it's safe with me..." he stopped, a sight across the lot bringing a smile quickly across his lips. "Hey, besides me, obviously, who's your favorite Avenger?"

"Cap 'Merica."

"Oh. Alright, then after him?"

"Spiderman."

"Right," Tony sighed in frustration, "after him?"

"Black Widow."

"Really? Interesting choice, but I like it," he smiled. "How about one more?"

"Falcon."

"Excellent choice, young man," Tony finally agreed, "because look who's here now!" He took the boy's arms gently and turned him to see Sam exiting his car with Bruce, Clint and Wanda in tow. "What do ya say we ask Falcon to hang with you so I can finish helping the rest of these kids out? Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah, I suppose," the boy shrugged with a lack of enthusiasm now.

Tony couldn't help but laugh at the young man's tone, but did his best to keep a straight face under the frightening circumstances. With a gentle nudge, he pushed the little one forward with a misstep in his footing, leaving Sam to arrive just in time for him to fall into his arms. "Hey, Wilson, I've got your biggest fan here who would love to hang out while I get all of his friends corralled like a herd of rabid cats. See, you're getting along great already!" With that, he closed his mask and took flight towards the back of the building before he could be stopped.

"Hey, I didn't come down here to babysit!"

"Just roll with it," Tony continued to laugh, "the three musketeers are in there looking for the kids, so I could use your help out here. They've been in there a while now so-"

"Dad, I need you-"

Only four words in to your call for him and he changed his course to blast through the main doors without a thought to anything else; it was the fastest way to get to you. The tone in your voice carried enough fear for the two of you, but he still managed to surpass that on his own as he struggled to maintain control.

"Stark! Stark, hold up!" Clint called out to him. "You're gonna need back up!"

"Stay here!" he repeated. "I need you guys to make sure that no one gets away if they try to run!" Tony reached the top of the steps and stopped, feeling his heart begin to race out of his control, his breaths strained with his building fear and anxiety at the promise he had made you about what this could bring. "I'm the only one who can do this," he murmured to himself, closing his eyes for a second before aiming his repulsors at the doors, shooting them open to what could easily become the worst moment of his life.

~~~

"Everyone is going to the front, so we should follow them," Anthony offered, holding Brooklyn's hand as he led his siblings through the darkened hallways. "They wouldn't all go that way if it wasn't safe, right?"

"Don't give them too much credit," Grant scoffed, "they also woke up this morning thinking that their school was just a school and not some Hydra hide-out." He stopped at each intersection of hallways and rushed forward, looking in both directions to make sure the path was safe for his brother and sister to pass. When a sound caught his attention too much to ignore or brush off as a coincidence, he grabbed Anthony's arm to hold him back.

"What?"

"I think I heard mom."

"Really?" Brooklyn perked up. She closed her eyes, as did Grant, focusing carefully to find your voice beyond the sounds of classmates evacuating and teachers barking orders, straining her hearing to its limits to catch just a hint of that comforting sound. "I don't hear her."

Anthony shook his head in defeat when he came up with the same conclusion, that Grant must have been hearing things; he wanted to hear you so badly that his mind had made it feel true. "Come on, keep moving, guys...no...wait," he stopped again, "I think you're right." His small body shook at a sensation that coursed through him, feeling a rush of relief when he connected to you; you had to be close, because now your presence was the only thing filling his mind.

"Steve, I think I heard them on third floor," you whispered into your comm, slowly and carefully looking around each corner before advancing forward, "get Buck and come up here." The first hallway was completely barren and silent, as was the next, but when you made it to the third, your payoff was standing right in front of you with looks of pure joy on their little faces. "Are you guys okay?" you rushed forward, grabbed them into your arms.

"Brookie broke her hand," Anthony quickly answered, gently taking her injury in his own hands to show you, "we told her to wait, but she wouldn't listen."

"Baby, what happened?"

"They put something on my arm that stopped my powers, so I had to get out. It's not that bad. I'll be okay."

"I'm sure Uncle Bruce can take care of it for you," you replied softly, taking her hand to give it a light kiss, "and I'm sure he has every color cast you can think of."

"Awesome!" she smiled with a fast shift of her attitude. When Steve and Bucky came around the corner to join the group, her smile only grew. "Dad! Check it out, I broke my hand!"

Steve dropped to his knees in front of her and took her hand gingerly as if he would do more damage even just by looking at it. He carefully inspected the top of it where the darkening bruise was nearly fully developed and the swelling had made her hand nearly twice its true size. No matter how brave his little girl was being, he gave no such guarantee that he would meet her determination. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry that you got hurt," he mumbled to her softly, "and that I wasn't here so you wouldn't have been."

"We managed," Grant interrupted, "and they almost saw what we can really do, didn't they, Anthony?"

"Shut up," his brother hissed under his breath. "You never know when to quit."

"Hey, watch the mouth," Steve turned serious, "I heard that, young man."

"Grant said crap!" he shot back in his only hope of a defense.

"Yeah, because they had Brookie's hand in that stupid bracelet thing and I was worried! You're saying shut up to me now because you're being mean!"

"No, it's because I actually want you to shut up!"

Bucky took a few steps forward to bring himself into the mix, standing next to you but slightly between Steve and his two boys. "Guys, maybe we should take this argument outta here?" He looked nervously around the long hallway, cocking his head slightly at the sound of new voices in an adjacent passage. Taking on the enemy was no problem, and he found himself welcoming it to a point, but not with the kids here; that wasn't anything that they needed to see him do.

"What you got, Buck?" Steve asked, pushing up to take a stand with him and pulling the shield from his back. "Which way?"

"Sounds like maybe five down that way," he paused, pointing to his left, "and maybe seven or eight more to the right." He furrowed his brow in worried concentration, glancing back over his shoulder at the kids, each of them looking to him eagerly for direction. "We should find a way out that's maybe not so...conventional...if you get me."

"We can help, Uncle James," Brooklyn rushed forward, grabbing his hand, "we got away by ourselves once, so we can do it again."

"No, absolutely not," he scolded, "stay here with your mother."

"Hold on, so I'm out too?" you asked in surprise. "Why can't Steve watch them? Is it a woman thing?"

"We're not seriously doing this right now, are we, (Y/N)?"

"Yeah, Uncle James, girls can do stuff too," Brooklyn pressed, taking your hand, "so we seriously are."

It didn't matter that the building was filled with Hydra operatives searching for you, or that Tony was outside trying to keep the peace with hundreds of panicked kids and their parents, and it didn't matter to Steve that you all were wasting precious minutes with your arguing; he was so filled with pride at his two girls standing up to Bucky that he all but forgot what was happening around you. As the bickering continued, now involving the two boys as well, he leaned against a row of lockers with his arms folded over his chest, watching in amusement.

"желание" (longing)

Bucky stopped mid-sentence, his mouth agape and a broken thought left to linger in the air between you. His eyes darted from you and to Steve, the two of you suddenly matching the terror he was feeling with your own shocked expressions. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"We need to move," you blurted out, pushing the kids out and ahead of you. "Dad," you called into your comm, "I need you to get over here and get the kids as fast as you can. We're on the third floor, northwest corner heading down your way." The telltale sounds of another group of agents rounding the corner stopped you in your tracks, quickly grabbing the kids by the backs of their shirts to keep them in place. "Shit! We're cornered. Dad, get to the window and I'll hand them out."

"ржaвый" (rusted)

The voice was booming over the school's intercom system, nearly shaking the walls around you with its power and determination. You covered your ears, but the volume was simply too loud to avoid.

"Семнадцать" (seventeen)

"Dad! Now would be great!"

"Рассвет" (daybreak)

"I'm here," he finally replied, thrusting his gauntlet through the glass as gently as he could as to not spray broken shards of glass towards you. He did his best to clear away any remaining sharp points so that you could all fit through the window safely, running the dimensions in his head to be sure that Steve would make it too. "What's going on?"

"Just take them and get as far away as you can, the three of us aren't getting out of here, and it's about to become dangerous for all of you. There isn't enough time for everyone, he's going too fast." You grabbed Brooklyn and handed her to Tony first, leaving a quick kiss on her cheek and whispers of love in her ear before she was out of your reach.

"Печь" (furnace)

"Where the hell is this coming from?" Steve called out, hurrying to hand Grant to Tony next. "Where does the broadcast come from in this building?"

"Девять" (nine)

"I'll find it," Bucky growled, pulling his rifle from his back and running straight into the group of Hydra agents that were just waiting for him to make his move. He came to an abrupt stop when they met him with a wall of their own weapons, their eyes showing no hesitation that they would use them. "Dammit," he hissed, backing up, "I can't risk that they'll fire and hit one of the kids.'

"Ant, you're next, come on," you urged, reaching for him.

"No!"

"Anthony Scott Rogers you get over here now!"

"I'm not leaving you here!"

"добросердечный" (benign)

"Baby, I'm not going to be me in a minute, and I can't have you here when that happens. Please...please go with Grandpa," you begged, catching a glimpse of Steve moving up behind him where the boy couldn't see. "Please, baby. Do this for me, okay?"

The little boy held firm, his arms tightly folded just as his father had done so often when he was being stubborn like this. The look of fierce determination in his eyes reminded you of Tony, and your heart ached at the thought that you wouldn't know him in a matter of seconds. Steve rushed forward, a low growl erupting from his throat as he tried to fight the change that was happening inside of his mind, grabbing his son under his arms from behind and all but throwing him out the window to Tony.

"возвращение на родину" (homecoming)

"Dad, go!" Your own mind started to burn, now that you could focus on the pain with the kids safely with him. Bucky had curled himself into a corner, still trying to hold his ears tightly but it was no use; the sound seeped in even under the heavy metal of his hand.

"Grandpa let me go!" Anthony was still screaming. "I can help her! Just let me do it!"

"Один" (one)

Steve took the last few seconds of his own mind, bursting forward towards you, hurrying to take your face in his hands while he still felt in control of them. "I love you," you whispered to each other just before he pressed his lips to yours desperately, trying to hold on to every last flash of time between you that remained, however long that may be. Memories of the two of you crossed his mind, just as they were in yours, but they were fleeting; they felt as if they were never real, and never meant to last. They felt like a lie.

"грузовой вагон" (freight car)

He pushed back against you with a firm shove that knocked you back into the wall of lockers on the other side of the hallway, wiping his lips clean with the sleeve of his uniform as if disgusted by the contact. You answered in kind with a spit on the floor to cleanse the taste of him from your lips, the thought that he had kissed you becoming repulsive.

"No!" Anthony screamed out to you, but when his little voice caught your attention, he was silenced by the sight of his own parents looking back with no recognition of who he was. "You didn't even let me try," he whispered sorrowfully to Tony.

"I'm sorry, buddy," he choked, "I'm so sorry. But I promise you guys, if it takes everything I have, and every last drop of life in me, I'll get them back. All of them."

"No, Grandpa. We'll get them back," the little boy said with an alarming maturity that caught Tony's attention with a start, "and when we show you what we can do, you'll have to let us help you."

"Stark! What happened?"

Tony broke his concentration away from Anthony and gently landed in front of Sam, handing him Anthony while Clint took both Grant and Brooklyn to get them as far from the building as he could. "All three of them...the same trigger like this was the plan all along. They knew we wouldn't fight all three at once. But Sam, that voice...I can't shake it..." he paused, looking past his teammate and into nothing, searching his mind for a recognition that had yet to appear, "...I know that voice. And this was never about the kids or they wouldn't have let me take them so easily."

"That wasn't easy, Grandpa."

"Right," he finally smiled, albeit weakly, "yeah, you're right. Which is why I want you to go back to the compound where it's safe."

Anthony reached his hand out to connect with Tony before he could pull away, and the sense of calm flooded him at the contact; his grandson watched intently until just the right moment before taking the leap of faith that he would listen this time. "Grandpa Tony, Vision told us that there's nowhere else in the whole world that's safer than with the three of us. You'll see."