Alex's POV:

I wake up the next morning to find mum and dad still asleep. Turns out that the chair I was sleeping in is really uncomfortable so I get up to stretch. I walk over to the window, my arms raised above my head and my back arched while I yawn.

Looking out over the street below us it just looks like any other regular day today. You wouldn't think that last nights disaster would have even happened if you didn't know about it. The sky is clear with the sun rising over the buildings, people are walking along the streets to work with their morning coffees, their babies in their prams or on catch ups with their friends.

How can everything seem so normal after something so terrible? How do we just move on from something like that? People are dead, people are hurt.

"Morning." Mum mumbles sleepily from behind me and reaches back to grab my hand. "You okay bud?"

I look back to see her stretching in her chair, eyes still bleary with sleep but smiling at me none the less.

"What happens now mum?" I frown and go back to sit next to her again. "How do we get back to normal?"

She scans my face, something hidden in her eyes before answering. "We just have to I'm afraid." She shrugs. "What happened was awful, but we've got to let the people who are meant to figure it out and fix it do their jobs and protect ourselves. Which means carrying on with our lives and looking out for each other."

"Oh." Is all I manage.

Just then dad groans and rolls over so that instead of facing away from us, his head is turned towards us. His eyelids flutter a little and he frowns before finally his eyes open and land on us.

"Dad!" I exclaim.

"Hey." Mum whispers and reaches up to stroke his cheek.

He smiles at us and then coughs before speaking.

"Hey." He croaks as he lies there still looking sleepy.

"How you feeling?" Mum asks him.

"I'm okay." He shrugs. "Throat's just a little tight and chest a little sore is all, but I'm sure I'll survive." He manages a small grin.

"That's great." She beams back and squeezes his hand.

"Hey bud," he says hoarsely, turning his attention to me. "How you holding up?"

"I'm alright." I nod. "Better now that you're awake."

He smiles to himself and looks down. "Oh man what a day that was." He huffs.

"What a night actually." Mum corrects him. "I can't believe all of that happened hardly twelve hours ago."

"I can't believe it happened at all." I mumble sad and confused, leaning lazily against dad's bed.

Out of the corner of my eye I see mum and dad share a worried glance.

Dad then clears his throat and adjusts himself so that he's sitting up more. "Any news on Steve?"

Mum nods. "He's gonna be okay. I'd say he'll be staying in the hospital for a bit longer but the nurses think he will make a full recovery."

"Thank god." He sighs in relief. "What about the others? Have you heard about Sam? Is everyone else okay?"

"We don't know yet. Stop worrying about them right now." Mum chuckles softly and leans over to look at him sincerely. "We can figure all of that out once we get you home."

                                     ~~~~

Harper's POV:

Bucky doesn't do much for the rest of the day, and for good reason. The nurse said that anything too strenuous could irritate his throat and lungs so he pretty much just lays on the couch all day and then goes for a nap in the afternoon.

During that time I make sure to call Tony and try to wrap my head around where everyone is at. There is going to be a memorial for the six that died at the end of the week and Jesse's funeral the next Monday. Hearing those words are the first time that it really hits me that she is dead. Other people are dead too. I hardly knew her but that doesn't still mean that it's not a god damned tragedy. And I know Sam, and how much this must be hurting him. He loved her.

After that I actually hang up the phone and have a little cry, just sinking down into the couch as the reality hits me of what has happened and the fact that we really are lucky that our family all made it out alive. Silent tears fall down my face and I cup a hand over my mouth as I try to muffle my strained sobs so that Alex won't hear me and come out of his room to see me like this. Then I realise who I really do want to see right now.

I slip down the hallway and into our bedroom. His hunched figure is under the covers turned away from me but silhouetted by the afternoon light still making its way through the closed curtains. I slide onto the bed as quietly as I can and snuggle up behind him, trying to be silent. But he must hear my sniffling because he rolls over to face me.

"Hey," he says groggily and wraps his arms around me. "What's wrong?"

"We have to tell him buck." I whimper. "I know it's hard but something awful has just happened and he's going to be even more worried now, asking more questions."

He lets out a huff. I know he's been thinking the same thing judging by the stolen glances we've been sharing all day.

"I know." He confirms what I thought.

"I know we said we'd wait till he's older but you and him have gotten so close over the last few weeks. I think now is the right time." I continue more calmly now that I'm nestled into his chest.

"I'll tell him tonight." He mumbles. "You just get yourself calmed down first."

I draw in a long, shaky breath and nod. "I called Tony. They're having a memorial outside the centre on Friday night for the people who died, and Jesse's funeral is next Monday. He also said he went to see Steve this morning and he was awake and seem okay, just a little sore and annoyed that he's on bed rest for a week or so but they think he will be discharged by the end of the week too in time for the memorial."

"God there is just so much going on I don't even want to think about any of it." He groans and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Neither." I sigh. "But we will get through it together."

~~~~

That night after dinner, instead of telling Alex to get ready for bed we ask him to come sit on the couch with us for a little bit. Instantly judging by the confused frown on his face he knows something is up. We sit down together, Bucky in the middle and us two either side. One of my hands is in Bucky's metal one while the other is resting on his thigh, both for support.

"Son..." Bucky starts nervously and clears his throat. "You remember all those questions you were asking me about on the first night of the tour and I said it wasn't the right time to answer them?"

"Yeah?" Alex asks hesitantly.

"Well I think that given the events of yesterday, now is the right time to tell you a little bit more about who I am. But why don't we start by you telling me what you think you know?"

"Um." I can see Alex thinking hard to himself, probably trying to make sense of what he does know. "I know that you were a soldier in World War Two but then some bad guys captured you for a long, long time and gave you super powers and a metal arm when you got injured. But I don't see why people think you're bad because of that. It's not your fault that they took you. And then when the good guys got you back they recruited you into the avengers. But again, I don't know how on earth you've been alive for that many years and still look young. No offence but shouldn't you be an old man? Oh and-"

"Okay, yep. I'll get to all of that." Bucky holds up his hands in reasoning and screws his eyes shut as he tries to stop Alex bombarding him with questions already.

We all go silent for a moment while Bucky collects his thoughts.

"Ah, yeah." He huffs. "So that's kind of it... sort of. Actually not really." He fidgets around nervously. "Do you want to know the real and full truth?"

Alex nods eagerly, silent and eyes wide with curiosity. I lean in to listen properly too, I'm always fascinated by his story and still trying to understand it myself.

"Okay. Well then, here goes." He mumbles. "Oh boy."

I can see how scared and nervous he is.

"Hey, it's okay. You can do it." I whisper and squeeze his hand.

He looks back at me and nods thin lipped.

"So I was born in 1917. Steve was born in 1918. We met before we even started at school and were best friends ever since. But Steve was a very, very sick little boy, as hard as that is to believe. I'm sure I have photos of the two of us somewhere, I'll find them and show you. But anyway, that meant that... and I'm not trying to brag here, but... while I excelled in all areas of school and sport, he really struggled. He fell behind because he had to take so much time off because he was ill, was too weak for sport. But one thing that he's always been good at is art. But art doesn't get someone into the army. So when World War Two started and he wasn't allowed to fight he was beside himself. I've never understood it, I didn't want to go. The only reason I ended up going was because I was draughted and forced to go. Meanwhile he was breaking the law to try any possible way that he could to enlist. Eventually he got chosen for an experiment to test out what a man named Dr Erskine claimed to have created called the super soldier serum. I mean, clearly it worked because look at him today. Meanwhile I was off fighting, but my unit got captured and were used as slaves by Hydra. But the conditions were so poor that we all got really sick, and whenever you got too sick they would take you away and do experiments on you with the bad guys own version of the super soldier serum. One day I collapsed so was taken away to be experimented on. I don't really remember what exactly they did to me, the whole thing was a blur. But by pure coincidence, Steve, now Captain America, came to rescue us and got me out. After that we formed a commando squad called the Howling Commandos, a great group of guys who I miss dearly."

Alex watches his dad explain in absolute awe, completely enraptured in every word he says. But I know that Bucky isn't even including all of the details. He's avoiding talking about the amount of pain those experiments caused him, the fact that he nearly died and how he lay strapped to a table for days straight without food or water.

"I didn't think anything had happened to me during those experiments." He continues. "But apparently it did because on one mission we were on to try and take down Hydra..."

He falters for a second, his eyes flickering out of focus, his brow creasing and his jaw setting.

"Dad?" Alex asks unsurely. "You were talking about Hydra?"

Alex knows exactly who Hydra is, he just didn't know that his dad worked for them.

"Right, yes, sorry. I fell from a train... hundreds of feet. Meaning that I should've died. But I didn't. Something that Hydra had put in me helped me survive such a big fall. The worst thing that happened to me was loosing my arm during the accident. So while Steve had every man and his dog out searching for what they rightfully assumed to be my body, some bad guys found me... alive and then proceeded to sell me on to Hydra. And, um, lets just say that after fixing me up with a new metal arm they finished those experiments that they had started on me... and some. Ahh, I'll jump back to Steve for a bit." His brow is creased and I can tell he's really nervous, trying to avoid talking about his own story. "Later on Steve was in a battle to defeat the red skull. You know all about him right? Yeah, well,  that was when he crashed that plane into the snow and froze. So that's how he ended up here seventy years in the future. They found the wreck, thawed out his body and turned out he had survived because of his strength. Oh wait you already know that part from school aye?" He falters.

"Yeah dad... it's you that I don't know about." Alex explains intrigued.

Bucky draws in a shaky breath as if to buy himself time before continuing. "So Alex, I want you to listen carefully. I'll explain everything that I can remember and then try to answer your questions."

Alex frowns unsurely. "W-why wouldn't you remember?"

"Alex-" I huff but Bucky cuts me off.

"It's okay." He sighs and holds up his hand. "I've got this. Alex, I was... I was brainwashed by Hydra so that I couldn't remember anything from my life and coerced into working for them, against my will. They finished their experiments on me once they had their own version of the super soldier serum that they were satisfied with and put me through an intense training regime. They forced me into it by torturing me and I didn't know any different because Hydra was all I knew by the point they were finished with me. They manipulated me, they kept me hidden, I was treated like an animal. Whenever they didn't need me they froze me in cryostasis." His voice is strained and tight and quiet as he talks.

I feel a lump form in my throat and tears start to prick at my eyes. Alex's face just displays absolute shock, horror, and confusion. I can't even begin to imagine what he's thinking right now. I'm actually surprised that he doesn't start asking questions yet and actually does let Buck continue.

"And when they did need me they would unfreeze me, re-brainwash me and send me on stealth missions to kill whoever their latest target was." He pauses for a second. "I know what you're probably thinking right now. But I went along with it because it was all I knew, I thought they were the good guys. That's what they convinced me. Plus if I failed or if I didn't do as I was told they would torture me even more." He's whimpering by now which makes my heart break.

I reach for his arm and squeeze his bicep, resting my head on his shoulder and trying not to cry myself.

"They masked me so that people wouldn't recognise me or see me, and also so that I couldn't talk. That went on for seventy years. So that's why I'm still alive and look young today. The same kind of thing happened to Steve and I I guess, although I was sort of in and out of being frozen more. But not for long enough for me to age significantly, just grow long hair. But that's gone again now anyway." He mumbles hoarsely.

He sounds ashamed. He always does. But I can't understand why. None of this is his fault but still he always blames himself.

"There was one mission that I was sent on... to kill Captain America. I didn't know who he was of course. Just that he was a massive threat to Hydra. I don't remember much about those encounters with him during that time because that all really messed with my mind. I just remember that he matched me in strength and speed and all that and I hated him for it. I couldn't understand it. I couldn't understand him. He infuriated me, because he was familiar to me and I hadn't known anything familiar in decades. He didn't know who I was of course. Steve assumed I had died way back in the 1940's. But then during one fight he ripped my mask off and once he saw who it was he made it his goal to make me remember. And he did that. God only knows how it worked. It sounds so stupid and simple. All he had to do was say something that we used to say to each other all the time when we were younger. Kind of ironic I guess since all Hydra had to do to trigger me was say their own goddamned stupid words too."

His fist is clenched in frustration now, his jaw set and brow creased. But he softens again when he continues.

"When I remembered I was in absolute turmoil. I nearly killed Steve during his attempts. I ran away for a while... quite a long time actually, to Romania. As you can imagine there was a lot of stuff I had to sort out. But again, Steve came and found me and tried to help me. It wasn't as simple as me being accepted into the Avengers just like that though. Turns out that ah, I, um... I killed Tony Stark's parents as one of my missions. So understandably Tony didn't want a bar of me. That wasn't helped by Baron Zemo trying to use me to tear the Avengers apart either. But luckily, Steve and Tony ended up managing to see through it and worked their issues out eventually, just before it was too late. But there was still a whole lot of government issues that needed to be sorted out so T'Challa took me back to Wakanda with him into hiding for a while. And during my stay his sister Shuri fixed me, as in got rid of the words that Hydra used to trigger me so that it couldn't happen anymore. Being there was really good for me actually. It was reinvigorating, taught me so much, calmed me down. Once everything had died down as much as it was going to in terms of media attention I came back here to New York and was extremely lucky to be allowed to start training with the Avengers. And yeah, that's pretty much that I guess."

He stops talking for a minute and Alex just sits there speechless.

"So, ah, yeah. That's why people hate me, that's why Tony and I have a strained relationship at times... why a lot of people and I do I guess. But the main thing is that I'm fixed now. I just have to move on from it," he says a bit more optimistically but I know it's not that simple. "But... the thing is, with things like what happened last night, it's possible that the attack happened because of me."

"Among many other possibilities Buck." I can't help but interrupt.

"Regardless, it's one of them." He huffs. "Some people take their views to the extreme. It's happened before because of me too."

We all fall into silence for a minute. Bucky just looks at his lap, hands fiddling nervously. I can see Alex processing everything over and over in his head trying to make sense of it all.

"You okay Al?" I ask softly.

"Wait." He states and looks dead at Bucky. "Were you the Winter Soldier?"

It dawns on me that Bucky didn't actually mention that title throughout his whole explanation. God Alex is so smart.

Bucky bites his lip and nods.

"Oh my god." Alex's eyes go wide and I don't know if it's in a good way or a bad way. "... I... I learnt about him at school but I had no idea that that was you. You-you have a different metal arm to him? I thought you were just a prisoner or a slave that had been captured." He frowns in disbelief as he tries to process it all. "Well, now it all makes sense why you act the way you do sometimes... and no wonder you have the nightmares." He adds quietly.

"Yeah, well now you know the truth. The real me. And I have a new metal arm because Tony blew the old one off during our fight." Bucky mumbles without looking up. "Excuse me, I just need a moment."

And with that he gets up and leaves the room.

"Buck?" I call after him concerned.

I don't know if being alone is the best thing for him right now.

He turns back to us at the door. "I'm okay." He assures me and then disappears.

By the time I turn back around Alex is on his feet too.

"Hey Mr, where are you going?" I grab his hand to stop him.

He looks around completely lost, opens his mouth to speak but all that comes out is a sob as he bursts out crying.

Oh no.

"Aw come here bub." I coo and bring him straight into my chest. "It's okay. I know it's a lot to process."

"I-I can't believe it!" He stutters. "I can't believe that dad was the Winter Soldier! How did you guys hide this for so long?"

"We did it to protect you and I'm sorry if it doesn't feel that way. You're not mad at us are you?"

"Yes. No... I don't know!" He wails into my chest making my heart pang.

Immediately I start to regret it. Maybe he wasn't ready to be told yet. But he wanted to know so bad.

"Just please try to think about what he's been through, what he still goes through every single day. What happened to him is not his fault, it was out of his control." I pout and kiss his forehead. "He loves you so very much but of course a past like that can make you act in strange ways. He feels like he owes it to everyone to fight for what's right all the time."

He just keeps crying.

"You're not scared of him now are you?" I ask, searching for an answer to his distraughtness.

"No! Of course not! I-I mean he's not going to hurt us right? He's not that man anymore?" He falters. "But I just don't understand how I could be so stupid as to not know this when everyone else did!"

"You're not stupid. We have a lot of people out there helping us to cover it up... your teachers included. And everyone who thinks he's a bad man doesn't know the full story. You're father is better now. The Winter Soldier is in his past. He physically cannot go into that state anymore. He would never hurt us." I whisper.

He pulls away and looks up at me with glassy eyes. "He-he was really brainwashed?" He asks softly with a waver in his voice.

I nod. "That's why he did any of it. They took his mind away from him Alex. According to Steve he was a completely different man before the war. He would never have done any of what he did if he was given a choice. But he wasn't."

He looks at me for a second and sniffles, before running off to I'm assuming his room. Part of me long to chase him. But another part tells me that he needs some time. However, someone who I do know needs someone right now is Bucky. So instead I get up and head for our room instead.

I open the door to find him lying on the bed facing away from me, his body trembling. Immediately my blood runs cold, worried that he's having a flashback or something so I run straight around to his side of the bed and crouch down in front of him. He's curled up in the fetal position, staring blankly out the window with tears streaming down his face. I take his shaking hands in mine and kiss them.

"Hey, shh, it's okay. You're okay." I press a kiss to them. "Buck, I know that was hard but you did so well." I try to smile softly and stroke a loose lock of hair out of his face.

"Talking about that... was like reliving it all over again." He whimpers weakly and shudders again the thought.

"I know, but it's all over now."

"But he's going to have questions. He didn't even ask any before. Probably so shocked by the whole thing."

"And I'll be right by your side to help you answer them." I whisper.

"Where is he know? Is he okay? Does he hate me?" He asks worriedly and sits upright.

"No, of course not. He's just in his room. A little overwhelmed but I think that's to be expected with everything that is going on right now." I point out.

"The poor boy. I've dragged him into the mess of my life just like I did you," he says guiltily, avoiding eye contact.

"Hey." I tut and cup his face in my hands so that he is forced to look at me. "It hasn't screwed me up has it? He'll be fine. He's got a couple of great parents to help him get through."

He smiles weakly at me and actually lets out a little laugh. I lean up and peck him on the lips.

"We both know that this time was going to come eventually. Unfortunately I just don't think this soon was exactly ideal but as we both know very well by now, circumstances always change when you least expect it. And there's no way I'm backing out on supporting you now. He's both of our child, how he takes this and how it affects you is my burden as much as yours. Don't you dare feel as if this is all your own to deal with. Alex will be okay in the end. He might just need some time to think. But then again he might be fine with it. We don't know yet," I say seriously as I pull back and stroke his cheek, looking at him sincerely.

"Or he might despise me for the rest of his life like everyone else does." Bucky mumbles under his breath, tears pooling his eyes again at the thought.

I squeeze his metal hand. "You and I both know that would never happen. He looks up to you too much to let anything - even a bombshell this big - change that."