#rip wheeler x ofc

[itsstrange]

The Promise

Relationship: Rip Wheeler x Reader

Fandom: Yellowstone

A/N: A small idea I had while daydreaming at work, hope y’all like it. 🥹

Summary: Saying Goodbye Is Always The Hardest. So Is Keeping A Promise.

Word Count: 4.7k

Warnings: (No) Angst, Mention of Military, Farewells, A Little Sad Moment, Angry Rip, Sad Rip, Arguments, Small Confessions.

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ENJOY 🐎

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“So… you’re really goin’ back?”

You look up, meeting his eyes before averting them back down to your duffel bag where you toss the stack of clothes inside. The clothes that have been folded, locked away underneath the bed for the past five years. The clothes you swore you wouldn’t wear again, wouldn’t dare to see until you had kids in the future to explain to them why you had a pile of clothes and photos locked away in some old worn trunk that dusted away underneath your bed.

Unfortunately it didn’t last to reach that day because here you are, packing away the clothes into your tactical duffel bag that was also locked away.

“How long?”

You inhale deeply through your nose before slowly exhaling, still not meeting their gaze you continue packing away, placing the frame photo of you and the boys in the center before zipping the duffel shut.

“Not sure.. too early to say,” You answer as you move the bag to the foot of the bed before sitting down,

“When do you leave?”

You swallow, feeling the way your chest tightens at the thought, “Tomorrow, before sunrise,”

Thick silence hovers the room. Everyone thinking and feeling the same thoughts, emotions.

“And why are you going back again?”

“Will you morons knock it off with the questions,” Lloyd’s husky voice bouncing off the wooden walls brings a small smile and a chuckle from you,

“A buddy of mine needs help,” You still answer Jimmy’s question, which he doesn’t respond with another mostly because he can see the way Lloyd gives him the look,

No other questions were sent your way, neither of them wanting a look from Lloyd as well, nor did they want you to dwell on the heavy mood that hovered. So instead, Ryan and Colby were the first to bring up a farewell party, change of topic. You kindly decline their idea, but of course neither men listens to you.

As Ryan and Colby begin listing items on what to bring for the farewell bonfire, and yelling at one another on who gets to keep your bunk (because it’s the closest one to the bathroom) you couldn’t help the small chuckle that falls from your lips. You were really going to miss every single person in this room. Despite them making you lose a few strands of hair from their idiotic actions, and constant bar brawls, you were surely going to miss them.

They made every other day interesting, every night annoying and fun at the same time with their childlike games that they come up with that sometimes leaves them with bruises or a chipped tooth. Everyday, every night, they made it special and you were definitely gonna miss it.

“Hey I’m not leaving just yet, I still got the whole day and the night before y’all start fighting over my bunk,” You say as you stand from the bed, punching both men on their shoulders,

They both share a laugh with you as they continue listing whatever alcohol they should buy, asking if you preferred hotdogs or burgers as you all walked out the house.

Saying goodbye to them was hard, but not as hard as it’s gonna be when you say it to him. Now that.. that will definitely break your heart. The look in his eyes when you tell him, you can already picture them and from the way your chest tightens, you know it’ll be difficult.

*******

You were currently feeding the rest of the horses inside the stables. Marking down the ones who needed a wash and a trim, which stables needed cleaning. Same old routine before having to check up on the rest of the animals, considering your main job at the ranch was analyzing and tracking the animals health. You weren’t exactly a veterinarian, but you learned a few things throughout the years which John persuaded you to take up on his offer of being in charge of the animals when it came to their monthly health checkups. So of course you took classes to advance your knowledge, to help around the ranch, make it easier for the old timer.

Yes he did have actual trained, experienced, veterinarians working on his animals before, but knowing how you easily picked up the job, how much love and care you gave to the livestock, he knew it was a good investment on both parts. Besides, he trusted you dearly in that department.

Hours had flown by, nearing six o’clock in the afternoon as you were finishing up in the stables before heading out to help Lloyd and the boys to check out some of the cows that were further up in the land. As well as putting up a new fence since the one hanging on was already rusting away due to the weather these past few days, as well as some idiotic trespassers cutting through the fence simply to test the Dutton family.

Just as you throw some fresh hay into one of the stables and patted the horse in its neck as he eats his dinner, the sound of loud rough boots marching against the ground ring in your ears.

“Were you ever gonna tell me?” His loud, rough voice settles behind you, words firm as you dumped hay into the last stable,

You sigh, taking off your gloves and placing them in your back pocket before looking up at him. Eyes wide, angry, betrayal, and fear were written in them. Just like you pictured.

“Yes.. I was,”

“When? Tomorrow? When you leave apparently?” Betrayal can be heard in his voice, blue eyes confirming his tone,

“There hasn’t been a good time to let you know,” You tell him, voice calm, tired, heartbroken,

It wasn’t a lie. When he had gotten back from running an errand with Kayce you were determined to lay it on him, but things got hectic that you weren’t even able to spare him a word. It remained that way for the rest of the day, work after work, problem after problem, when lunch came around he wasn’t at the table eating his supper with everyone else, he was out with Dutton, doing the man a favor, so wanting to talk to him during lunch didn’t happen like you were hoping for.

You told yourself you’d let him know when he came back, but apparently he was out and about with Dutton for the rest of the day. So by the time he had came back was at this very moment, catching you feeding the horses inside the stables. Dutton must’ve told him at some point during their errand runs, who else could have? You weren’t annoyed it was your boss who gave him the news, but you were hoping it’d be you who told him because it came from you, no one else.

“Do you not remember what that place did to you?!” He harshly whispers, taking a step closer to you, “Cause I sure as hell can!”

You lower your gaze to the floor with a faint sigh at his words. Of course you remember. How can one forget something like that? The constant nightmares, the flashbacks, mood swings, not knowing what was real or not, the cold sweats, all of it you remember. The first few weeks of being home after being honorably discharged were rather difficult, your body knew it was home, safe, but your mind was still at war. Constant nightmares played in your in head, bullets flying everywhere, blood stains surrounding you, staining your hands and vest. Screams echoing in your mind on a daily from those who were gunned down, who were injured and were slowly bleeding out in your hands.

It was an everyday thing. The boys, Rip, would beg you to get help, to talk to someone, but you’d just shrug them off telling them you were fine, that it’ll pass.

But you were in fact not okay and the nightmares never ceased.

It was after one particular night that everything had changed. The one night that had you finally reaching out for help, the night that had you admitting that you were not okay.

You had been home for two weeks when it had happened. All it took was a hectic, drunken brawl to trigger the episode. One minute you’re enjoying your beer, slightly laughing at a joke that one of the boys shared, letting lose to ease the noise in your head, then the next you’re being pulled off a blonde head who’s face was nearly disfigured beneath you. Blood covering her once fresh face and clean hair, along with your hands that shook from adrenaline, anger, fear, shell shock.

Once Rip got word of what happened he stormed his way to the bunkhouse which is where he had found you staring at your own reflection in the bathroom. The way a cold and lost look was written in your eyes will forever be embedded in his mind. It wasn’t you who stood standing in front of the mirror with tensed shoulders, hair a mess from sweat and dried blood, the real you was trapped in your mind.

It nearly took all night to bring you back, but not once did he give up.

“Rip,” You softly call his name with an exhausted sigh as you close the door to the stable,

“No. You’re not going!” Blue eyes widening more with fear and rage,

“Yes I am,” You respond in a whisper, “They need me,”

“And we need you here!” I need you here.

It was what he should’ve said, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. Wasn’t exactly how he wanted to let you know the truth, wanted to do it the right way, a more intimate, genuine way. But now, he’s out of time. And most likely lost his chance.

He lost you.

“Rip-,” You begin to say but was interrupted by Kacey walking in the stables,

“We’re loaded to fix the fence,” You turn to him before giving him a small nod,

The youngest Dutton switches his gaze from you to the brute man staring intensely at you, knowing then he had walked into something and immediately sensing the tension surrounding the air. He’s felt this mood before, felt tension between you two every so often, but for some reason this time it was stronger, as if one wrong word said would ignite the awaiting flame. So without another word and only a simple nod, he turns to walk away, giving you two privacy. However, you didn’t stick around. Both to just get the day over with and also to postpone the argument.

If you even get a chance to talk about it with him again.

You hear Rip call out to you as you walk out the stables, halting your steps. You glance over your shoulder, meeting his eyes, but no words were said, so instead you let out a sad sigh through your nose as you continue walking out the building. Leaving the brute man alone in the stables with angered thoughts.

*****

Hours had flown by. After fixing the fence, which took nearly the whole day since it was worse than anyone thought, doing daily health checks on the animals, running a quick errand with Beth, everyone was finally able to wash up and spend the remaining hours with you. Everyone sat around the bonfire sharing stories about anything and everything, chatter, laughter and music can be heard in the darkened night.

Empty beer and whiskey bottles, sticks with dried marshmallows and chocolate littered the ground around everyone’s feet. It was a night you’d deeply remember, a night you’d miss, a night you wished would happen every Friday, but you knew it wouldn’t be possible. At least not with you. Not anymore. You tried keeping a strong face, positive thoughts, positive energy, for the sake of everyone around you. They all had high hopes of you coming back home, claiming you’d be home in less than two months because you were tough as a bull, but you knew the truth. The reality of it all.

Obviously you didn’t remind them of the truth, didn’t want to take away the little happiness they held onto for you, the strong faith they had. So all you did was smile at them, raise your glass and down the last bit of your drink. Every so often you’d get lost in your thoughts, thinking of the mission, the serious consequences, the challenges that will come with it, the horror you’ll soon face, but before you can trap yourself in such thoughts they were there to bring you back. Invite you to their conversations, their stories they were sharing, their jokes, which you were thankful for.

What you didn’t notice was the way a pair of blue eyes have been secretly staring at you from across the fire pit. A dark corner where the fire barely illuminated his features. Light or not he didn’t care if he was caught staring at you, everyone was able to read his opinion of the whole situation but no one dared to ask him about it. He was already a fumed bull waiting to be provoked.

There were times where you’d glance up and catch him staring, but not once did you confront him. Making a scene in front of everyone was the last thing you wanted, so you ignored him and his glaring daggers.

Although, at one point during the night, Colby was the one to mention they had ran out of marshmallows, which you volunteered to grab the extra pack from the bunk house. Slightly buzzed you make your way through the Dutton ranch with sluggish steps till you push open the door to the bunks. Walking to the kitchen you grab the new pack of marshmallows sitting on the counter along with another couple chocolate bars. Just as you turn to head back out, your steps come to a stop when you see Rip standing by the couch.

Face emotionless, but eyes dark, red. Was he crying?

“Havin’ fun?” Rip questions, tone cold and firm, yet his blue eyes have another written emotion in them,

You shrug a shoulder, “Tryin’,”

He scoffs, “Yeah I see that.. but it ain’t workin’,”

You knew exactly what he was referring to. The constant lost in thought when the conversation was directed somewhere else. What you didn’t know until now was those same eyes that have been staring at you from the dark were analyzing you throughout the entire night. Watching the way your smile quickly faded as you once again lost yourself in your thoughts, watching the way your fingers peeled off the label from your beer bottle, the way your leg bounced uncontrollably from nerves, fear, and anxiousness. He knew you were afraid, he read you perfectly, but he knew nothing he’d say would change your mind. Not now, not ever.

You were stubborn like a goddamn mule.

“Yeah well, it’s a little hard to have fun when I got two sets of eyes throwing daggers at me all night,” You say, matching his tone as you stare into his eyes,

Heavy tension once again surrounds you two, the muffled music coming from outside was the only thing that can be heard in the room. Neither of you said anything for a good minute or so, just staring at one another with pain written in both your eyes with tears threatening to build. This wasn’t how you wanted to give your farewells to him. Having an argument with him before you left was something you did not want, but yet here you are.

“Can we just..,” You pause, letting out an exhausted sigh before continuing, “Enjoy the rest of the night before I have to catch a flight in a few hours?”

Rip stares deep in your eyes. Hurt, sadness, anger, and fear were written in his blue ones, they were easy to read, especially when he stared at you the way he was staring. He didn’t bother to hide it, yet he didn’t express it to you verbally. Not like he had to or wanted to, it was obvious on how he felt of the whole situation.

“They’re out there celebrating your death..,” He says pointing a long finger at the door then continues with, “.. and I ain’t being apart of it,”

His voice slightly breaks with each word. His blue eyes standing out more when tears begin building, but not one dares to slide down his cheeks, at least not in front of you. Not saying another word, he turns around and heads out the door with a harsh shove that has it banging against the wall.

Whatever string was left holding your heart in place had finally snapped as you watched the door shut behind him. The last memory you’d have of him. This wasn’t how you wanted to leave things with him, he was the only one who could have helped you through it, fought through the dark times, the constant noises in your head. He was the only one who you stayed alive for while you were out in the field, but now that he’s walked away, not wanting any part of it, you didn’t know if it was even worth staying alive once you landed on base. He was your anchor to it all.

And now you’d be stranded in the dark, drowning with nothing to hold you upright. Keep you up float when you felt like sinking, when you felt like the water was too strong for your fighting body. The one person who could’ve saved you from it all was now walking away, leaving you alone.

‘Maybe it was for the best.’

You tell to yourself. You convince yourself. Maybe him not being apart of it, apart of your life would one day guide him to a better life with the love of his life, guide him to someone who can make him happier, stronger, happier.

It was for the best that he left.

*****

4:30 am

Throwing your duffle and backpack in the backseat you shut the door before facing the small crowd. You give everyone a big hug, including the man himself, John Dutton who hugged you for a good long minute before being slightly shoved by Beth who took you in a stronghold as she secretly let the tears fall down her cheeks. You don’t know how, but you kept your own tears from spilling down. Once departing from the woman you go ahead and start hugging the cowboys, sharing a few laughs with them as they joke with you one last time. Which you appreciated their effort in trying to lighten things up, but you knew they knew nothing they can say now will help. But still, you appreciate it.

“So.. who won?” You say when Ryan and Colby stand in front of you,

They both share a look, small smile forming on their lips, “Neither,” Colby says,

You give them a confused look, but Ryan continues with, “We decided to leave it ready for you when you come back,”

Come back. Something you knew was a big word at the moment.

“Can’t have it ready forever,” You say with a sad chuckle,

“We can and we will,” Ryan firmly states, letting you know no one will come near the empty bed unless it’s you,

It was a faint demand from them. They wanted you to come back, no matter how hard it will be, they demanded that you come back to reclaim your bed at the bunkhouse, and that alone brought the ball back in your throat.

“Gonna miss you dorks,” You manage to say before quickly bringing them both for a group hug,

Both men wrap their arms around you, burying their faces in your hair as they cherish the moment. As you go to pull away both their hands on either side of your hip tighten, not wanting the hug to end, but eventually step away from you.

You give them a small smile and then a small wave to everyone huddle in front of you before turning around to climb into the truck where Roscoe patiently waited for you.

“Ready?” The soldier asks as you take one last glance out the window, watching everyone wave at you with saddened smiles, the ranch standing tall and beautifully behind them.

Letting out a small sigh you give him a nod.

In a matter of seconds the truck roars to life before beginning to move down the driveway and out of the Duttons ranch. Silence engulfs the car, only the sound of the radio softly playing in the speakers is heard. Leaning your head against the headrest behind you, you let your mind drift away, thinking about everyone at the ranch, playing their faces in your mind to not forget them, your fingers softly playing with a small deer origami that Tate had made for you last night for good luck. Then thinking about him once again.

Remembering how things were left between you two. Wishing you could’ve fixed things before you left, wished you could’ve said the truth, wished he could’ve have given you the chance to let you show him just how much he meant to you. But he didn’t. None of it happened.

So now, all you’ll think about is What If.

While driving halfway out the ranch and you still being lost in thought, you didn’t capture the moment a large black figure blending in the dark speeding in your direction until the truck comes to an abrupt stop. Causing your seatbelt to lock just in time to catch your body from going forward.

“The fuck?” Roscoe reacts, putting the gear in park as he eyes the figure that is currently blocking his way,

You clench your jaw as you make eye contact with him, even in the dark and with the only source of light from the headlights you both immediately lock eyes.

Of course it’s Rip on top of his horse. Black hat on his head with his black jacket wrapped on his frame.

“I’ll take care of this,” You say, never breaking eye contact with him as you unbuckle yourself and open the door,

“(Y/n) we don’t have time for this,” Roscoe tries arguing back, but you repeat yourself as you hop off the truck,

Shutting the door and standing by it you face him, where he still remained on top of his horse.

“Rip seriously what is your problem? I don’t have time to deal with you right now!” You yell as the brute man climbs off his horse,

A grim look was written on his face as he makes his way towards you. A look he only has when he’s angry about something, and right about now he’s angry at you, you knew that.

“I swear to god Rip if you don’t get out the way I’m gonna-,” Your words were cut off by a pair of rough lips latching onto yours,

Your eyes grow wide in anger, shock, and confusion. But once you feel the way his hand gently cups the side of your face you realize what exactly is happening and only react back. Your own hands finding their way to his face, fingers slowly tangling themselves in his soft, dark curly hair at the base of his neck. A deep, saddened relieved sigh escapes from you two as you both pour the hidden truth into the kiss. Deepening it and cherishing the moment at the same time, neither one wanting or planning to break it off, but you both knew it had to happen, you had to leave.

Which is why Rip got a little selfish for a second, he deepened the kiss, licking his way into your mouth as he held a tight grip on your hip to not let you out of his hold. Just a few more seconds of this, he had to. If this was the only time he would get this opportunity until you came back home, then he was sure as hell he would take every second that was available to have you in his arms, have your lips molding with his, have your fingers tugging on his hair, have your breath fanning his lips, have both your hot tears smear against his own cheeks. He was taking advantage of the moment because he knew it would be more than a month that he would be able to feel it again. Feel this moment again.

Eventually, you both do break the kiss, but not once did he let an inch form between you two. Leaning his forehead against yours, he lets you both catch a breather from the intense, beautiful moment.

“You come back to me you hear?” He whispers, beautiful blue eyes now searching for your own,

When he finally does find your (E/c) eyes that he has grown to love, he whispers once again, “You come home,”

New tears fall down your cheeks at his words, you knew you couldn’t make such a big promise, especially in your line of work. It was a rule, a rule everyone in the military who serves knew they should never make, because they knew reality was always behind that promise.

You stare into those blue eyes of his that have tears of their own, some finding their way down his rough skin, while the rest build at the brim of his eyes. You knew he knew you couldn’t make that promise, but he knew you’d fight for it no matter what, no matter how impossible it might seem, because he knew you always kept your promise. That’s who you were. Loyal, loving, protective, unafraid, and a true fighter.

You stare into his eyes a little longer, feeling the way another tear slides down your cheeks then feeling the rough pad of his thumb gently wiping it away. The words get caught in your throat, the words where you wanted to tell him to be realistic, to not make you promise anything because disappointment and pain is the only thing he’ll receive, but before you can even force them out you hear your name being called from inside the truck.

“We gotta go,” Roscoe softly says, hating to interrupt the moment, hating to part you from the man you clearly love,

You sniff, looking down at the ground then back up to Rip where he only gives you a small smile.

“C’mon,” Rip whispers as he leads you back into the truck,

Once sitting inside, shutting the door, Rip points at the man behind the wheel before saying, “You look after her you hear?”

Roscoe nods at him, “You’ve got my word man,”

Rip nods back before averting his eye to you. You sat there, tears still slowly sliding down your cheeks, you weren’t ready to say goodbye to him, not after you both finally confessed to each other. Which reminds you, you had to say it, in fear of not being able to ever again.

“Rip I-,” You try but he cuts you off with a shake of his head,

“No. Don’t say it. You say it when you come back,” He demands, small smile tugging on the corner of his lips, “Just know I do too,”

I do too.

You sniff once again, tears falling down as you glance behind him, seeing the ranch and the bunkhouse glow in the background. Memories flash in your mind. All those laughs, tears, injuries that you’ve accumulated over the years with everyone who lives and works at the ranch played in your head, reminding you that you had a family to come back to once again, you had friends who were also waiting for you to come back with open arms. You had a life to get back to.

Come back.

Averting your eyes back to his that had tears of their own falling down his cheeks, you stare at him as you remembered, you had him to come back to. He was your main reason to come back home, he was the reason why you weren’t going to die in the field, he was the reason why you weren’t going to give up when shot down, he was the reason why you weren’t going bleed out. He was your reason why you were coming home.

And if anyone tried stopping you from doing so, then it would be the last thing they ever did.

Because you are coming home.

Reaching a hand out the window, you let your small held cup his bearded cheek before letting your own thumb wipe away the tears that fall down. Looking into his eyes with a firm stare, a promise, you let him hear the words.

“I’m coming home,”

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-Ahhh It’s Finally Here!!! I’m Not Kidding I Have Been Going Back & Forth With This One. Mostly Because I Had Writers Block, But Also Because I Would Change A Lot Things & Finding New Ideas To Replace The Old Ones.

-But Again! Thank You To Those Who Have Been Patient & Have Been Waiting For This Wheeler Fic! More To Come!!

-Lastly, Make Sure To Turn On Post Notifications!! 🔔 🔔 For More Updates!

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Part 2

[moonlight-joy]

Between Two Flames

Fandom: Yellowstone

Summury: A night of unbridled passion unfolds as Beth's fiery dominance and Rip's quiet intensity converge with your boldness, blurring boundaries and deepening connections on the Dutton Ranch.

Pairing: Beth Dutton/Reader/Rip Wheeler

The Dutton Ranch was quiet, save for the occasional rustle of the wind through the trees and the soft neighing of horses in the distance. You stood in the kitchen of the main house, swirling a glass of whiskey in hand. You had been working on the ranch for a while now, long enough to gain the trust of the Dutton family—and maybe a little more.

Beth Dutton sauntered in, her green eyes sharp and knowing as always. She smirked when she saw you, her gaze sweeping over your figure like a predator sizing up its prey.

“Didn’t expect to find you here at this hour,” Beth said, pouring herself a drink without asking.

“Could say the same about you,” you replied, leaning against the counter. Your tone was playful, but there was an edge to it. Beth had that effect on people—her presence alone felt like an unspoken challenge.

Before Beth could respond, the sound of boots echoed down the hall. Rip Wheeler entered the room, his broad shoulders and rugged frame commanding attention. His dark eyes flicked between you and Beth, a subtle tension crackling in the air.

“What’s going on in here?” Rip asked, his voice low and gravelly.

Beth shot him a mischievous grin. “Just keeping your favorite ranch hand company, Rip.”

Rip raised an eyebrow at her, but there was a glint of amusement in his eyes. “Is that what you’re doing?”

Beth took a long sip of her drink, her gaze never leaving yours. “I think we both know I don’t do anything halfway.”

Beth moved closer, her fingers brushing lightly over your arm as she leaned against the counter. Her touch sent a jolt through you, and you caught Rip watching the interaction with an unreadable expression. It was clear this wasn’t the first time Beth had pushed boundaries—and you couldn’t deny that you were intrigued.

“What do you think, Rip?” Beth asked, her voice dripping with suggestion. “Should we play nice tonight, or are you in the mood for something a little more... interesting?”

Rip’s jaw tightened, and for a moment, you thought he might call her bluff. But then he stepped closer, his presence as commanding as ever. His hand rested on your lower back, the heat of his touch seeping through your shirt.

“Depends,” Rip said, his voice a low rumble. “What does our friend think?”

All eyes were on you now, and the weight of their attention was intoxicating. Beth’s sharp gaze, Rip’s quiet intensity—it was a lot to take in, but you found yourself leaning into it.

“I think,” you said slowly, your voice steady despite the fire building inside you, “I’d like to see where this goes.”

Beth’s grin widened, and she reached out to trace a finger along your jawline. “Good answer.”

The three of you moved upstairs to Beth’s bedroom—a space that was as chaotic and fiercely personal as she was. The whiskey glasses were left behind, forgotten in the haze of adrenaline and anticipation.

Beth was the first to close the distance, her lips capturing yours in a kiss that was equal parts demanding and thrilling. Her hands tangled in your hair, and you could feel the raw energy that she exuded in every touch. When she pulled back, her eyes were blazing.

“You taste better than I expected,” Beth said with a smirk, and before you could respond, Rip was there, his hands settling on your waist.

He kissed you with a slow, deliberate intensity that contrasted sharply with Beth’s fiery approach. His rough hands anchored you, grounding you even as your head spun. When he pulled away, Beth was watching with a gleam of approval.

“Not bad, Rip,” she teased. “I might even let you go first.”

Rip shot her a look that was equal parts exasperation and affection, but his focus quickly returned to you. “Don’t let her scare you,” he murmured. “She talks big, but she’s all bark.”

Beth laughed, the sound low and wicked. “Oh, I’ll show you bark, Wheeler.”

What followed was a blur of passion and tangled limbs, the lines between dominance and surrender blurring in the heat of the moment. Beth’s sharp wit and bold confidence kept you on your toes, while Rip’s quiet strength provided a steady counterbalance. Together, they were a force to be reckoned with, and you were more than willing to be caught in the crossfire.

Beth’s nails raked down your back, her lips ghosting over your neck as Rip’s hands explored every inch of your skin. The way they moved—sometimes in sync, sometimes in deliberate opposition—was exhilarating, like being caught in the eye of a storm.

At one point, Beth leaned back against the pillows, her gaze heavy-lidded as she watched Rip pull you closer. “I have to admit,” she said, her voice rough with desire, “you two look damn good together.”

Rip didn’t respond, but the way his hands tightened on your hips spoke volumes. His gaze met yours, and the intensity there made your breath catch.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice softening for just a moment.

You nodded, a smile tugging at your lips. “Better than okay.”

Hours later, the three of you lay tangled in the sheets, the room filled with the faint scent of whiskey and the lingering heat of your shared passion. Beth lit a cigarette, her expression smug and satisfied as she exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“Well,” she said, her voice dripping with amusement, “I think we just set a new bar for fun around here.”

Rip rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide the small smile tugging at his lips. His arm was draped over you, his touch comforting in its familiarity. “Don’t let it go to your head, Beth.”

“Too late,” she replied, her grin widening. Then she glanced at you, her expression softening ever so slightly. “You’re full of surprises, you know that?”

You chuckled, feeling a warmth that had nothing to do with the lingering fire in your veins. “Guess you’ll just have to keep me around.”

Beth exchanged a look with Rip, and for once, there was no argument between them. “I think we can manage that,” she said, her tone laced with promise.

As the first rays of sunlight crept through the window, you found yourself wondering what the future held—but for now, tangled in the arms of Beth and Rip, you were exactly where you wanted to be.

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[keep-the-wolves-close]

Steady Heart

Chapter 13: The Devil Never Sleeps

* Pairing: Slow-burn Kayce Dutton x OFC Stella Daniels

* Rating: M? (Still figuring out the rating system) (might eventually be M anyhow)

* Warnings: language, serious injury, feelings of being stalked

* Word count: 3,260ish

I would love to give credits to @dameronscopilot and @deanscroissant for being sounding boards for me during this whole process, giving outsider insight, being cheerleaders, and allowing me to screech at them about things that have happened during the writing process. I seriously couldn't have gotten this far without y'all

Author's note: I hope everyone is enjoying so far! I hope you love this chapter as well!

Stella and Rip galloped up to the barn. They were running on a time clock and it was almost out. The fish and wildlife officer was almost done setting up Snoopy. ‘Fair choice,’ Stella assessed. She knew Snoopy well. He was as solid as a rock for the most part. Lee, Kayce, and she had made sure of it. She quickly got the idea the officer wasn’t fond of having to be here.

“You the ones taking me to see the bear?”

They both nodded, but Stella decided to let Rip do the talking. “Yes ma’am.”

The officer turned around to look at them. “Officer Skyles, not ma’am.”

“Alright.” Rip mumbled. Stella clenched her jaw and had to use every ounce of strength she possessed to hold back the eye roll at the lady officer’s attitude.

“How fars the ride?”

“Mm, it’s a few hours.” Rip answered shortly.

“You Mr. Wheeler and Miss Daniels? The ones who shot the bear?”

“Yes ma’am— Officer Skyles. I’m the one that shot it, yeah.” Rip admitted.

“Is this the rifle?”

“Yes.”

Officer Skyles took the rifle from its saddle holster and locked it up in her truck. Rip huffed and rolled his eyes. Stella frowned from her saddle. The officer walked back to the gelding she was borrowing and climbed up into her seat. Stella observed that she sat well, but you could tell the woman was uncomfortable.

‘For fish and wildlife you’d think she would be more comfortable on a horse.’ Stella thought. “So are we headed out?” She asked.

The officer’s eyes lit up. “Oh so she speaks?”

“Sometimes.” Stella replied curtly. Rip eyed her, giving her a silent warning. The last thing they needed was Stella popping off. She glanced at him and hoped he picked up on that there wasn’t anything to worry about. She was practicing her best impression of him. Stoic, monosyllabic, not giving much to go on.

“Yeah let’s get this show on the road.” The officer cut through Stella’s internal monologue.

Having a quiet ride with other people seemed to be the running theme of a joke that Stella felt like she was the butt end of. She ignored the voice in her head trying to weave its negativity through her thoughts. Her head teetered back and forth in a pattern, keeping an eye out of anything troublesome. Rip did the same, but slower.

Officer Skyles attempted to make small talk. “Heard a lot of rumors about you Mr. Wheeler. All of them bad. Even a few about you Miss Daniels.”

Rip hummed in response. “Well most are probably true.”

“I’m not sure what you heard about me, but depending on who it’s in connection with, it’s likely true.” Stella acknowledged.

Officer Skyles looked at Rip. “I sure hope not. For your sake.” She glanced back at Stella. “Also for yours.” Stella made a face behind the woman’s back. “Hey, both of you ride in front of me please.”

Stella started to come around the left side of the officer. She didn’t feel like arguing. She’d had enough of that the last few days. Rip didn’t move from where he was positioned. He pointed at the Snoopy’s hind end. Stella followed his hand and saw there was a horse fly.

Rip mentioned it to Officer Skyles. “He’s got a horse fly on his rump there.”

“I don’t see a horse fly.” The officer scoffed.

“Well I can see it from here. It’s massive.” Stella offered.

“You want me to swat it before your horse—” Rip tried.

“Don’t fuckin’ touch my horse, do you understand me?” Skyles interrupted.

“Just let him get it, my god.” Stella said exasperated.

“Listen if that fly bites his ass—” Rip couldn’t finish his sentence. The officer’s horse neighed loudly at the intrusion of the fly bite and started crow hopping. It turned into a rear and he took off. “Nobody ever fuckin’ listens to me,” Rip said in disbelief and kicked his horse into gear.

Stella rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe this is fuckin’ happening.” She followed at a trot to the top of the hill in between the trees. They watched as Skyles bounced and lost her balance on the saddle. She grabbed the horn of her saddle and tried to hold on for dear life. The pair saw the officer’s reins slip.

Rip yelled to her. “You lost your reins!”

“Jump!” Stella tried to offer some help.

Skyles disappeared around a group of trees and not long after they heard her scream. Without a second guess, they flew off to find her. When they came around the trees, Stella’s eyes widened and felt the color drown from her face. The woman was laying on the ground with a fence post coming through her midsection, Snoopy stuck in barbed wire on the ground.

Getting closer, Stella slid off Abigail and Rip off of Dude. Rip went up to the officer and Stella went to Snoopy who was tangled. She could hear the conversation in the background.

“Oh my god I’m gonna die.”

“No you ain’t gonna die. Cause if you die, they’re gonna think we did this too.” He went to his saddle to get the walkie to call for Viggo. “Viggo, I need the chopper at pasture 23 right fuckin’ now.” He held his hand out to Skyles. “Give me your gun.”

Hearing those words, Stella knew Rip was going to try and put down the gelding. “No Rip, wait! I’ll get him out!” Her breathing picked up as she worked faster, cutting a few of her fingers and her hands in the process. “Fuck!”

“Both of you listen to me, when that horse catches his breath, it’s gonna go berserk against those wires and it’s gonna drag her ass to death. Now gimme the gun.”

“You do not get my gun.” Skyles put the line in the sand. Stella was starting to come around to her.

Rip growled and went to get his wire cutters. “All this time I wasted cuttin’ this horse loose, I could be saving you.”

Stella snatched the cutters from him. “I’ll do it damn it.” She set to work. She kneeled down slowly by the Snoopy’s head and cut a few wires and Rip tried to get him up gently. Once the horse was up, Stella dropped back on her heels to sit on them and catch her breath and fix her glasses. Rip tried to wave all three of the horses away knowing they would find their way back to the ranch. Abigail whinnied and reared back at Rip not wanting to follow his direction. She trotted just outside of his reach so he couldn’t grab her.

Stella growled. Abigail was already agitated and seeing Rip try to wave her away made her want to hit him with a log. A wave of satisfaction washed over her that Abigail didn’t leave. “Take the fuckin’ cutters.” Stella shoved them at the foreman not entirely sure what he was about to do. “I’ll take Abigail and go back to the house when the helicopter gets here. I’ll tell John where you’re going and what happened. That way no one, including my brother, thinks we’re dead.”

He nodded and bent down behind the officer and cut the few pieces of barbed wire that were tangled around her. She moaned at the movement caused by cutting it.

In a gentle voice he said to the officer, “you’re all right. Okay.” He fixed his hat and came around the front of Skyles. “Okay now, if I pull this post from out of you it’s gonna kill you. So I’m gonna lift you from the ground, alright. Put your arms around me. Stella, come get her other side.”

Stella numbly stood and made sure Abigail would stay. She went to the opposite side of Skyles and braced herself for what was coming.

“We should, we should call somebody.”

“There is nobody to call. Alright? Now listen. You’ve got no reason to trust me. To trust us. But you have to.” Skyles nodded, but to Stella it looked like she was shivering. “Now please, put your arms around me and her.”

The next few minutes of trying to pull the post and the officer out of the ground were agonizing. Stella swore she would hear Skyles’ screams of pain for the next month.

They got her up and supported between the both of them. Stella saw something long enough for the injured officer to sit on. There was enough room next to her and she offered that spot to Rip. Abigail trailed along behind her girl.

Rip wrapped his arm around her back and tried to direct Stella to sit. She unwound his arm, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m fine. You sit. Keep an eye on her.” Rip squeezed her arm back and let go, taking a seat next to Skyles.

It was quiet for a few moments with the exception of the officer’s labored breathing. Considering she had a fence post sticking out of her abdomen, Stella thought she was doing pretty well.

Stella sat on the damp ground and stared blankly into the surrounding woods. She was trying to figure out where in life she’d gone wrong to end up in these weird and awful situations. She leaned an elbow on her knee and rested her chin in her hand. ‘Well the company you keep doesn’t help.’ Her eyes rolled at her thought. Yes, the Duttons appeared to be more trouble than she had thought at 14 years old, but that didn’t change anything now. Officer Skyles speaking to Rip broke her out of her head.

“I’m sorry I lost the horses.” Skyles apologized.

“Don’t worry. Horses always come home.” Rip offered some consolation.

Stella also lended support. “I’m sure they’re there now. Dude probably led the charge home.”

“I’m sure there’s a lesson in here somewhere.”

“Well, you figure it out? You let me know.” Rip said. Skyles moaned in pain. Rip looked concerned. “Don’t be dying on me now.”

“I’m not getting killed by a fuckin’ fence post. My ego won’t allow it.”

Rip and Stella laughed. In the distance Stella could hear the chopper getting closer. She clicked for Abigail and held a hand out for her. The large mare chuffed back at her and walked a few steps over to her girl. Stella grabbed her reins and stood. She petted the mare’s thick neck. Abigail’s eyes were still tinged with a wildness, but Stella wasn’t worried.

“Stella!” Rip yelled over the sound of the large machine getting closer. He jogged over to her. “You get back to the ranch safe without any trouble, you hear me? Tell John I’ll call him when I get to the hospital with her.”

“Okay!” The chopper was close to landing so she had to shout over the noise. She hitched Abigail to a nearby tree, making sure her mode of transportation wouldn’t leave her high and dry with all the noise. “I’ll help you get her to the helicopter!” The pair made their way to the injured officer. Stella on one side and Rip on the other.

“Listen, when the pain gets really bad,” Rip directed Skyles and squeezed her hand, “I want you to try and break it.”

“Okay.” She replied weakly.

“Alright. Come on Stella, let’s get her outta here.” They placed the officer’s arms around their shoulders and helped hoist her up.

After getting her seated as comfortably as they could, Stella grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Alright Officer Skyles. You make it through this, ya hear me? Ain’t no fence posts gonna be taking you out today.”

“Not a chance in hell.” She grinned.

“I’ll check in with y’all later on.” Stella hopped out of the chopper.

Rip went to climb in and swap places with her but stopped short and grabbed Stella by the arm. He brought her into a quick hug, handing her the walkie. “Viggo is channel 6. The bunkhouse is channel 3. Whoever has the bunkhouse walkie will answer. Don’t be afraid to use it.” That was his subtle way of saying they didn’t need to make an extra trip to the hospital today.

“Y’all be safe. Let me know when you get there.” Stella requested as she clipped the walkie on her belt. He nodded and crawled into the helicopter motioning to Viggo to take off.

Stella ducked and hurried over to Abigail. The large craft took off and went in the direction of the hospital. As it made its journey out of the clearing, the decibel level went back to normal and Stella could think straight again. ‘Ride home, tell John, get the horses up.’ She repeated this mantra over and over, trying to focus on the task at hand and not the fact that she was a good hour and a half away from the ranch. Trying to forget that she didn’t have a rifle or a pistol and only had a little hunting knife on her. That it was just her and the wilderness. She’d gone out before by herself plenty of times, but not this far away from the ranch without someone else. They always used the buddy system when it was this far out from home.

She gave Abigail a few pets, and got into one of her saddle bags. Her hands were cut up from that barbed wire. She always kept a small first aid kit, but she didn’t think she had bandaids. At the very least she probably had medical tape, which would do in a pinch to keep her from bleeding all over the place.

Finding the small roll of tape, and the small bottle of alcohol she kept, she set out to clean her hands. With the sting of the alcohol she clenched her teeth and hissed, “fuck,” as the fiery liquid dripped off of her hands. She gave both hands a good shake letting the alcohol evaporate. Reaching into her bag, she grabbed the tape. She wrapped small pieces around a few of her fingers on her right hand, and around her palm on her left. The cut on her left hand was in the center of her hand, so wrapping a few strands of tape around her whole hand would have to suffice.

She put the tape and alcohol back and untied Abigail, giving her a few more pats on her shoulder. “Alright girl. It’s just you, me, and the way home. We got this.” Stepping up into her saddle she turned the large mare around toward the top of the hill where they came from before this mess had started. She squeezed her heels gently and Abigail began to trot off.

45 minutes into the trip Abigail came to a stop. Stella frowned. They were still halfway out from the ranch. Too far for Stella to be comfortable with something happening. She moved her hips forward, directing her to keep on. Abigail snorted loudly and pawed at the ground a few times and refused to budge. The air got still. The only noise to be heard was Abigail breathing and her saddle creaking with the small movements. Stella didn’t want to move. Even her breathing seemed too loud in the dead silence that took over the woods. Her lips parted and her breaths came out in shallow puffs as she listened to the forest.

Her eyes widened and she dared to look around. Everything appeared normal. Trees upon trees on the one side closest to the fence, and high grass on the other side. There were no obvious signs of an animal nearby that she could see at first glance. The large mare swatted her tail aggressively like flies were on her back, hitting Stella every so often, and stomped a few times. She stretched her neck high, almost to the point of straining. Stella rubbed the mare’s neck. “C’mon babe, we’re almost home. We keep moving, we get away from whatever you’re not a fan of.” Stella tried to bargain with the roan.

Abigail breathed deeply, letting out a loud snort. Stella pushed the mare into continuing forward, ignoring her “mare ears”. “The quicker we get home, the sooner this is over with.” She encouraged her. Snapping twigs sounded from the woods. “Let’s pick up the pace baby.” She didn’t want to stick around to find out if it was just the wind or something stalking them.

The hair on the back of her neck was already standing on end. She had pushed her luck far enough. It was starting to get dark. She didn’t want to get caught in the pitch black especially if something was watching her. She had a lantern attached to her saddle, but that only did so much. Her little knife didn’t offer her much solace either. Abigail legged on.

20 minutes later Abigail abruptly stopped again. Stella groaned at her. The groan went ignored as Abigail listened intently to a sound off in the trees. Stella listened closely and thought she heard chirping off in the brush. She watched the roan closely. “You heard that too?” She asked her. Stella examined the brush to her left and there were several spots that could be used as a den. “Sounds like mountain lion cubs.” Abigail shuffled, letting out a snort. “Well I ain’t getting off to go find out.” She clucked at Abigail a few times. “Let’s go before whoever those babies belong to, comes home and is pissed.”

Abigail didn’t need to be told twice and picked up into a long trot. Every so often she would jump at a sound on their left. “Goodness girl, just keep going. It’s gonna be fine.” Stella rolled her eyes at herself. ‘Yeah, fine until you get eaten.’ Stella couldn’t be certain the mother cougar was following them, but with the way Abigail was spooking… Stella would be hard pressed to not believe they were being stalked by something. She touched the walkie on her belt and could hear Rip’s words to use it. “Fuck it.”

Stella changed the walkie to channel 3. She always felt dumb using the walkie. It was the same feeling that leaving a voicemail gave her. It was always so awkward. She squeezed the button. “Uh, bunkhouse?” It crackled as she let the button go.

The object that was her lifeline sprung to life in her hand. •Stella oh my god, are you okay?• It was her brother.

“Yeah I’m good. But I think there’s a slight chance that I won’t be for long. By any chance, you still got BJ tacked up?”

•What do you mean?•

“The officer took Rip’s rifle before we came out here, and I only have my knife. I’m pretty sure I stumbled across a cougar’s babies and she’s stalking us.”

•Oh fuck how far out are you? We’re coming right now!•

Stella looked around and identified what pasture she was in. Since she didn’t help the wranglers every day, she didn’t know the fields as well as they did. Yes, she ran around these parts with Kayce all the time when they were kids, but she never paid attention to the exact layout. Kayce was the one who led them. She was just along for the ride. “Uh I think I’m somewhere past the house side of pasture 11.”

•That’s roughly 25 minutes out. I’ll meet you in the middle, just don’t stop moving.•

“Got it.” Stella clipped the walkie on her belt the best she could with Abigail’s movement. She thought it would be best to keep her at a steady gait versus taking off. If they were being stalked she didn’t want to kick in the prey drive of whatever it was. “Come on girl, Ryan’ll be here fast. Everything is fine.”

[milkmily]

OK OK SOOOOO I REALLY LIKED THE NANCY FIC WITH THE READER GOING IN NANCY WINDOW N STUFF, If it’s ok can I request another Nancy x Reader Fic 😏 but this time could you do something where Nancy and reader get caught kissing and stuff (if you know what I mean ;)) by like Eddie, Steve, and Robin (Maybe Max, Lucas, Dustin, and Erica but also maybe not because they’re young and stuff so you don’t have too for them). BUT OFC YOU DONT HAVE TOO IF YOU DONT WANT TOO OR DONT FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH IT.

OF COURSE I CAN! I LOVE NANCY WHEELER SO MUCH DUDE. LIKE I SAID BEFORE, I AM SO GAY FOR HER 😩 NANCY NEEDS MORE LOVE

Jealousy [Nancy Wheelee]

Nancy Wheeler x reader

Read Sleepover if you want :)

You hated when Steve hit on Nancy or the way he looked at Nancy. You noticed that Nancy looked like she wanted to leave whenever he, CLEARLY, hit on her. You told her what was going on and she called you jealous for that. You showed her how jealous you really were but it got interrupted by an opened door, again.

Warning: Mention of blood, making out, Season 4 vol.2 spoilders

You didn't like the idea of having to be with Steve on this mission of taking down Vecna.

Okay, you don't hate him, but he's been hitting on Nancy lately that it's making you pissed. The way he looks at her and the way he eyes her when she's talking with Robin.

You decided to tell Nancy because communication matters between you and her. "Nancy, he's clearly hitting on you."

"And I don't like him. I love you." And you'd get a kiss. You smile and then pull her into another kiss. "Stop being jealous." She says as she moves a hair behind your ear. "I am not jealous!"

You knew that she loved you, that she didn't have a thing for him anymore. But it still pissed you off that he was clearly hitting on her while she looked like she wanted to leave.

The way he looked at her when he was going underwater to look for the gate, it made you cringe. "Stop showing and get in the Damm water, Harrington." You say as he chuckled and shook his head.

Nancy looked at you and shook her head. You raised a brow and looked away. Nancy sighs and holds your hand, in hopes of you getting in a better mood. She didn't like seeing you like this. And when she saw a smile on your face, she smiled and laid her head on your shoulder.

"Okay, he's taking long." You say. And Nancy noticed too. "Too long." Nancy says as started to take her shoe off and Eddie told her to wait. That's when Steve pops up and greets everyone.

"Jesus Harrington! What the hell were you doing down there!" You yelled, feeling worried for him. "Don't worry. I'm fine. Like I said-" the boat moves as water splashes. "What the hell-" He then disappeared in the water. You all yelled for him and Nancy started to take her shoes off and jumped in. "Oh hell no Nancy Wheeler!" You took your shoes off. "Um, we should not go-"

"I am!" You yelled as you removed your jacket and jumped in. Robin jumps in and Eddie was alone on the boat. He groans and eventually jumps in.

You tried to get the bats off of Steve while Nancy hit them. You kicked one off him and soon all of them were gone. "Ew that's disgusting Harrington." You say as you saw him remove the tail off the bat with his mouth and saw the blood dripping out of his mouth. He chuckled and shook his head.

You looked up and saw more bats, making you wrap an arm around Steve and run away with the rest. You all stopped and Steve groaned from the pain. You looked down and saw him bleeding. "Shit." You whispered and Nancy walked up to him. "Here, let me do this." She kneels down and starts to rip her skirt. She wraps it around his wounds and looks up at him to check on how he is doing.

Robin went on a rambling about rabbis and that if he did that he should tell them. "I really want to punch you right now Robin." She chuckled and Nancy got up. "Alright, let's go then." She says as she walks up to you and rubs your arm. "You alright?" She asks, checking up on you.

"Yeah, I'm good. You?"

"I'm alright. Let's go then." She walks and Robin follows. You saw Steve had Eddie's Denim jacket on. "See, the only reason why I'm here is because those ladies," he points towards you, Nancy's, and Robin's direction.

"Came in straight after you." You looked at Eddie and Steve. You continued to walk as you listened to their conversation. "But Wheeler right there, she didn't waste a second. Not one second." You stopped walking and pretending to look around when you noticed they weren't walking. "Now, I don't know what Happened between you two. But if I were you, I would get her back. That is a sign of true love." Eddie says and turns to look at them. "Are you two going to catch up or what? Stop your chit chatting."

That's when everything suddenly started to shake. You scream as you fall down on the floor. "Hey, you alright [Name]?" Eddie asked and you nod. "L-Lets go catch up." You say as you get up. You run towards Nancy and Robin. Nancy smiles, seeing that you were alright, as she sees you and hugs you tightly.

It happened again. When Steve was driving the stolen trailer. He started to talk to her about having a family. 6 nuggets, as Steve called them. And what he wanted to do and travel with them. You knew he wanted to say that she was in the picture of his imagination with his 6 nuggets.

You bit on your lower lip as you hear the conversation. "Eddie, can I talk to you?" You say and Eddie nods. He walks twords you. You looked and everyone was busy with their conversations. "Um, do you think Steve still had a thing for Nancy?"

"Oh, most definitely. The way he looks at her and all. It's very noticeable."

"But Nancy looks like she isn't interested in him." You say and Eddie looks over at Nancy. And you were right. Nancy looked like she wanted to leave. "Oh shit…" Eddie whispered and you nodded. "What am I telling you?"

"Um, I'll just ask her to switch seats." He walks up to Nancy and asks if he could sit there. She immediately got up and Eddie sits down. She walks over to you and sits down. "How are you?"

"Nervous." You say and Nancy lays her head on your shoulder. "Everything will he alright. We will kill that son of a bitch." You giggled and say, "God, you are unbelievable hot for that." She smiles and shook her head. "You also looked hot kicking those bats."

"Oh my god, I was a mess, Nancy. I was wet." She smiles and snuggles closer to you. "And you looked quite fine"

"Stop, I'm blushing." She giggled and closed her eyes. She wanted to kiss you so badly. She wanted to leave marks all over you.

Perhaps later.

"[N-Name]." Nancy whimpers as she feels your lips on her neck. You were sitting on Nancy's lap as you sucked on her skin as Nancy let out a shaky breath. "S-Stop, they might–god– walk in." She said and you shook your head. "I don't fucking care. If I end up dying, I want to leave so many kisses on you right now." You say and Nancy pulls you into a kiss. You whimper as you feel her hand run under your shirt.

"Don't say that." She whispered as she kissed your cheek. "We will all make it out." She says and kisses your neck. You moved your head to the side, to let her kiss and leave marks on you.

"I love you so much." You say and Nancy smiles. "I love you too." She says and bits down. You yelp and hold on to her shoulders. "Were you jealous sweetheart?" She says, making your stomach tingly by the nickname. "Y-Yes." You breathed out as she sucked on your skin. She hummed and moved to your chest. She cups your covered breast and slowly moves your bra up. You felt the palm of her hand rub your nipple, making you whimper. She grins at your response and kisses you.

"Hey, what the hell is taking you guys so long. We have to kill Ve-" Nancy looks over at the door and you stay frozen where you are. Steve was at the door, looking at the situation. "Hey, Harrington, tell them to- NO WAY" Eddie walks up and sees what Steve was seeing.

"What the hell are you y- OH MY GOD" Robin yells.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!" You yelled as you felt your whole face get hot. Nancy's face was red as a tomato. Steve slammed the door shut.

"That explains it all!" Eddie says and Robin gives him a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?" She asks. "[Name] said that Nancy was not interested in-" he looks over at Steve, who was still trying to process everything, and says, "Sorry dude, but Nancy is not interested in you."

"Yeah! I can tell!" Steve says as he sits down on a bucket and covers his face. His whole face was red. "No wonder [name] was rude to you." Robin says and Steve shakes his head. "Why didn't they tell me? I'm so embarrassed…" He whispered. "It's hard coming out." Robin says as she rubs his back. "But now you know." Eddie says with a grin on his face.

You open the door and walk out with Nancy behind you. You clear your throat and say, "We are ready." Nancy nods as she holds her shotgun. "Let's get going then." Robin says. Everyone goes but Steve stops you.

"I am sorry." He apologized. He noticed you would glare at him whenever he looked at Nancy. And when he flirted with her, you'd walk up to her and talk with her. He just thought you were a friend who didn't want her friend to get back with her Ex. He was completely wrong. You smiled and said, "Nancy wouldn't be able to handle 6 nuggets while being a reporter." Steve chuckled and nodded. "You are right."

"Anyways, let's forget that ever happened." You say as you hold your flashlight . "Next time knock." You say and walk towards Nancy. "Yup." He says to himself and follows the rest.

Eddie is alive so he never died. No one died 😌

[chaotic-simping]

REQUEST GUIDELINES/FANDOM LIST:

last update: 03.01.2022 2nd August, 2022 14th November, 2022 1st April, 2024

If you want to request something pls give me some more or less specific ideas or a few prompts (link for prompt list).

I'll automatically do platonic relationship and they/them pronouns if it's not specified.

Also, english isn't my first language you've been warned.

What I don't take requests for:

Stuff i might write if im in the mood but probably won't ( There are always going on be warnings ofc)

smut

suggestive stuff

toxic relationships (might appear in a criminal minds fic or something like that, never romantizised)

darkfics

arguments

enemies to lovers

What I don't write in general:

romantizised toxic relationships

rape, incest, pedophilia, age gap (teacher/student as well) etc.

romance for characters under 14 y/o

male reader x lesbian character or female reader x gay character

about poc/trans/mlm struggles - they are obviously very very real but i am white and sapphic (not saying i won't write about characters that are any of these things, i'll do my best to make the reader gender, race, body size etc inclusive.)

What I write:

Character(s) x reader

Gender Neutral/Non-binary!, Female!, Male!reader. Obv gender ≠ pronouns but it's th

Mixed pronouns (ex. they/she), THEORETICALLY neo pronouns?

Background ships

AUs (SOULMATES!!!)

Crossovers (read fandom list)

Platonic, romantic, unspecified or familial relationship

Fandoms/characters:

Star Wars:

Romantic: Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala, young!Obi-wan,

Ahsoka Tano, Asajj Ventress, Bariss Offi, Rex, Echo, Fives,

Cal Kestis,

Kanan Jarrus, Hera Syndylla, Sabine Wren,

Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor,

Din Djarin, Fenec Shnad,

Rey Skywalker, Finn

+more

Platonic: Everyone above, Obi-wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, The ghost crew, Grogu,

Won't write: Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, Hux

Ships: Anidala, Barrisoka, Kanera, Finnpoe

Knowledge: All movies, almost all shows/cartoons (except Resistance), books - Master and apprentice, games - started JFO and (barley) SWTOR

Marvel:

Romantic: Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Hobie Brown, Peter Parker, Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff, Kate Bishop

Platonic: Everyone above, Peter B Parker, Yelena Belova,

Stranger things:

Romantic: Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Nancy Wheeler, Max Mayfield (s4!), Lucas Sinclair (s4!), Chrissy Cunningham, Barbara Holland rip, Jonathan Byers, Eddie Munson + more

Platonic: Everyone above, Max (all seasons), Lucas (all seasons), Will Byers, Dustin Henderson, El Hopper, Erica Sinclair, Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper, Murray Bauman, Alexei Smirnoff, Dmitri 'Enzo' Antonov, Yuri Ismailov,

Won't write: Billy

Ships: Jopper, Lumax, Elmax, Ronance, Robin/Vickie, Steddie

Knowledge: up to season 4, none books

Arcane:

Romantic: Vi, Jinx, Ekko,

Platonic: Everyone above, almost everyone else

Ships: CaitVi

Knowledge: season 1

Avatar: the last air bender

Please include if you want the reader to be a bender (and what kind) or not

R: Zuko, Suki, Sokka, +more

P: Everyone above, the gaang, Iroh,

Ships: Suki/Sokka, Zukka,

Knowledge: All seasons, almost all comics, live action

The legend of Korra:

R/P: Most characters

Won't write: Kuvira

Ships: Korrasami,

Knowledge: All seasons, all comics

The Dragon Prince:

R: Claudia, Rayla, Soren, Corvus

P: Everyone above, Ezran, Callum, Amaya, Harrow, Gren,

Ships: All canon ships, Sorvus

Knowledge: up to season 4

Sherlock Holmes:

BBC:

R/P: Most characters

Ships: Johnlock, Mystrade,

Enola Holmes:

R/P: Enola,

Criminal minds:

R/P: Elle Greenway, Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss

Knowledge: Watching season 6

Heartstopper:

R/P: Most characters, comic or show.

Won't write: Harry and Ben.

Ships: All canon ships; Imogen x me😍 /hj

Knowledge: Comic: 7-13; show: season 1

The Blacklist:

R: Elizabeth Keen, Donald Ressler, Aram Mojtabai, Alina Park,

P: Everyone above, Harold Cooper, Tom Keen, Raymond Redington, Dembe Zuma, Kate Kaplan, Agnes Keen

Knowledge: Season 9

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch16: Till The End Of The Line

Summary: The launch is growing ever nearer and in a desperate attempt to stop it before it is too late, the renegade group are intercepted by the Winter Soldier. When he is unmasked, Steve finds himself face to face with someone he presumed dead a LONG time ago, his childhood friend, Bucky Barnes. Only Bucky has no idea who he is…

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Violence, bad language words, and some angst.

A/N: Another wonderful edit from @angrybirdcr​

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Chapter 15

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

 “HYDRA doesn’t like leaks,” Sitwell continued to talk and try to plead his case as they drove down the freeway, heading back towards the Triskellion.

“So why don’t you try sticking a cork in it,” Sam finally snapped.

“Insight’s launching in sixteen hours, we’re cutting it a little bit close here.” Nat stuck her head between the two front seats from where she was sat in the middle of the back row.

“We can use him to bypass the DNA scans.” Steve informed her, clearly having already thought it through. “That way we can access the Helicarriers directly.” "What?! Are you crazy?! That is a terrible, terrible idea-” Sitwell began to protest but was cut off, his screams dying as he was pulled out of the car and thrown into oncoming traffic just as a sixteen-wheeler was going past. Katie let out a scream at the same time as Sam yelled out a loud curse, as a bullet ripped into the seat inches from Katie’s leg.

“Move!” Natasha yelled at Steve as she clambered through the middle of the two seat and onto his lap pulling him down away from the next bullet which was meant for him. As they all looked up, heavy footsteps pounding on the roof, in a bout of quick thinking, Steve pulled on the handbrake and the person on the roof dropped down onto the street.  All four of them in the car watched as he rolled and rolled and used his metal arm to slow his momentum before standing up. He was tall, well built, long dark hair whipping around his masked face.

“It’s him.” Natasha’s voice was nothing but a whisper. “The Winter Soldier.”

Katie aimed her gun through the windscreen, taking aim, when they were violently hit from behind causing Katie’s usual dead shot to ricochet off the side of the man’s arm instead of his head. The car behind pushed them closer and closer to him until he was able to leap back onto the roof as Nat searched for her gun and Katie aimed hers upwards. Suddenly, a metal hand smashed through the windshield and pulled out the steering wheel from Sam’s hand.

“Shit!” Sam yelled.  Natasha, after having found her gun, started shooting through the room but the Winter Soldier jumped onto the jeep behind their car that had started erratically pushing theirs along the road.

“Katie…!” Steve yelled, gesturing for her to climb into the front. “Hang on!”

She scrambled over the central gap between the front seats as Steve broke open the door with his shield pushed up against it, holding onto them all as best he could as the car began to flip. They dropped from the car onto the door as well as the shield and slid roughly along the street. Sam lost his grip and slipped away but luckily he only tumbled a few metres away mostly unharmed.

The three of them that remained hanging onto the shield quickly stood once they had come to a complete stop, the jeep that had caused the crash stopping as well, men all fully armed climbing out and one of them handing the Winter Soldier a grenade launcher, which he immediately used. Steve pushed Katie and Natasha out of the way and took the full force of the grenade with his shield which sent him flying over the bridge, just as the Winter Soldier reloaded and began firing at the rest of them.

They quickly dove for cover behind a car and together moved along the bridge, car by car, Natasha and Katie shooting back at the soldiers with their hand guns. Katie tossed one of her spare pistols to Sam who caught it, and started firing as well. This was working at keeping the advancing HYDRA operatives at bay reasonably well, until they were forced to the edge of the bridge and the Winter Soldier shot another grenade at them.

There was nothing for it, they had to jump. Nat had her anchor so she leapt off, grabbing Katie’s hand as she shot up at the concrete of the bridge. They landed a bit heavier than normal, Katie rolling a few feet over the concrete but she was soon back on her feet and running behind Natasha under the bridge.  Nat skidded to a halt as they reached the other end, the shadow of the Winter Soldier visible on the ground in front of them. They shared a quick glance and with a nod they split up, Katie veering left, Natasha veering right.

With a deep breath, Katie stepped out from the shelter of the bridge, took aim and shot her gun up at the Soldier and she saw his head jerk back, and then he removed his glasses. She had hit where she had aimed but it hadn’t done as much damage as she had hoped. Ducking back under the bridge she carried on running and at this point she could hear machine gun fireand paused as she turned to see the fire trained onto a bus. Steve emerged from the end of it, rolling and picking up his shield and adding to the fray, Sam was firing at hostiles as well from his vantage point above.

“Go, I got this…”He yelled and Steve set off running once more.

Katie turned and looked across the way, the Winter Soldier was stalking between abandoned vehicles, presumably looking for them. She shadowed him, remaining a good distance away, as he rolled something under a car. Next thing she knew, there was an explosion and Nat had vaulted onto his back, attempting to tackle him that way. Katie sprinted towards her, and then slid across the floor, kicking at the back of his knee, making him stumble slightly but nothing more. She jumped up just as he flipped Natasha over onto her back and aimed a shot at him causing him to leap off somewhere to his right. Katie spun round, her gun aimed ready, looking for him but he was nowhere to be seen.

She started to sprint over towards Natasha, yelling at the screaming members of the public to get out of the way as she went, when she felt a searing pain in her shoulder. She gave a scream, stumbled, and dropped to her knees putting a hand to the wound. She backed up against a car, breathing hard looking around again when a thump from behind her had her turning to see that the Winter Soldier had hopped onto the hood of the car behind the one she was leaning on, gun aimed straight at her head.

Steve had heard that scream and he spun round to see Katie was pressed up against a car, her hand on her left shoulder, her eyes fearful. As he turned to sprint towards her, the Winter Soldier hopped up onto the car behind, taking aim with his gun. In desperation, Steve launched his shield with a loud grunt and it knocked the metal armed man off the car. With practiced ease the assassin landed on his feet and made to shoot again but Steve was right there, on him, launching a knee to his chest. The Winter Soldier stumbled slightly, before he cocked his head to one side, threw his gun away and advanced on Steve. The two began to fight, furiously, Steve blocking the swipes the assassin took at him with a dagger, slamming him into cars with his shield. 

Toe to toe they went, the fight was furious. Each landing blows which would under normal circumstances dispatch an opponent with ease, but here, they were equally matched. The man was just as strong as Steve and The Captain realised that whoever he was, he had to be enhanced.

As the fight was raging between the two men, Natasha reached Katie’s side and dropped to her knees, ripping off her jacket and covered Katie’s wound with it in an attempt to stem the blood flow. "Alright, c'mon.” She coaxed, wrapping her arm over her shoulders. “Get up.”

She helped Katie to her feet, and the injured woman looked back in time to see the Winter Soldier launch himself at Steve. Steve managed to grab him under his chin, propelling him straight over the top of him in a huge arc, causing his mask to clatter to the ground right before the dark haired man landed gracefully on his feet. Steve stood up, waiting to see the face of the man who was causing them so much goddamned trouble, but when the guy turned round, he felt his heart stop.

Katie frowned as she saw Steve stood stock still, staring at the now unmasked Winter Soldier who looked oddly familiar. It took her a moment, but then she realised, he was familiar because she’d seen him before. His hair was longer, and he looked a little more ragged round the edges, but it was him.

Steve took a deep breath, his heart stopping as he looked into the man’s grey eyes.

“Bucky?” He gasped, frowning.

“Who the hell’s Bucky?” The man said. Steve paused, it sounded like him. It looked like him. It was him, but in the same way it wasn’t. 

What had Hydra done? 

Bucky seemed to be thinking about something, before he shook his head slightly and aimed at Steve with his last remaining gun, but before he could shoot, Sam swooped down, his wings once again attached to his back, and kicked him away but he didn’t stay down for long.

Katie looked around, and noticed that there was an RPG on the floor, she nodded towards it and Natasha picked it up, and aimed a well fired grenade over Steve’s head, forcing him to duck. It exploded where the Winter Soldier had stood, bringing the fight to an end.

Steve turned and looked as Katie stumbled and slumped against the van, struggling to stay on her feet. It was then that black MPVs and jeeps surrounded them, and the former STRIKE teams piled out.

“Drop the Shield, Captain! Get down on your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!” Rumlow shouted out the orders. Steve did as he was told and placed his shield on the ground while holding his hands up defensively, not once taking his eyes off Katie, as she screamed in pain as a hand sharply grabbed her shoulder, pressing down on the injury. She was hauled forwards, stumbling, her hands roughly snapped in cuffs in front of her.

Steve started to struggle but a gun was pressed into the back of his head causing him to stop. He didn’t listen to what they were saying, he was too busy trying to make sure Katie was okay, and then there was Bucky. As he stood up and was shoved forward, he was directed towards an SUV, followed by Nat and Sam. He turned to see Katie fall as she was shoved forwards before being wrenched roughly back to her feet by Rumlow who grabbed her hair harshly, forcing her head back. He grinned as he leant down, his mouth inches from her ear.

“Of all the times I dreamed of getting you in handcuffs…” He laughed,  loud enough for Steve to hear. The soldier let out a growl in his throat as Katie bared her teeth at Rumlow.

“Fuck you.” She spat.

“Maybe I will, not like you can do anything about it, not now.”

“I warned you what would happen if you touched my girl again.” Steve snarled as with a huge wrench he snapped the cuffs that were pinning his arms behind his back and kicked out at the soldier that was stood at the side of the SUV. He advanced towards Rumlow, who almost lazily pulled a pistol from his belt and held the barrel against Katie’s head.

“One more move Rogers and I’ll blow her pretty little head off.”

Steve stopped dead, swallowing, his eyes blazing as he looked at Katie, her face was contorted in pain from the shot in her shoulder. She fixed her eyes on his, gave a slight shake of her head, and Steve took a deep breath and looked back at Rumlow. 

“In the van.”  Rumlow instructed. 

And Steve knew he had no choice. With a last look at his girl he turned, bowing his head slightly, swallowing down the feelings of fear and inadequacy that were washing over him. Once inside, a pair of masked agents shoved him down, one giving him a harsh dig to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him as they clamped his feet in strong shackles to the side of the van, locking his hands together in equally strong restraints in his lap.

Rumlow just laughed and threw Katie into the SUV, unceremoniously. She staggered to a seat as the doors swung shut behind them and the van started up, beginning to move only moments later.

Steve’s heart was in his mouth as he saw the extent to which his girl was hurt, the left side of her denim jacket was soaked with blood. She lay her head back against the seat and took a deep breath letting out a moan.

“Baby.” Steve spoke, making sure his voice was calm “Come on, talk to me, sweetheart.”

“You know,” she opened one eye. “I’m going to get one of my childhood friends shoot you, see how you like it.”

Steve took a deep breath, glad she was still able to make jokes, but also comforted by the fact she’d recognised Bucky too, and he wasn’t going totally crazy.

“Childhood friend?” Sam frowned. “You mean that dude, Robocop? You know him?”

“Bucky.” Katie whispered, looking at Sam “Steve’s Riley…”

“He was my best friend. One of the Commandos during the War.” Steve took a deep breath, looking at his feet.

 “What?”  Natasha questioned. “I mean, are you sure?”

“It was him.” Steve assured her. “And he looked right at me like he didn’t even know me.”

“How is that even possible?” Sam asked in disbelief. “That was like, seventy years ago.”

“Zola,” Steve immediately answered. “Bucky’s unit was captured back in Forty-Three’. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and…”

“None of that’s your fault, Steve,” Katie sighed gently as she grit her teeth through the pain in her shoulder. She was starting to feel a little light headed.

“Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky.” Steve swallowed, before he heard Katie taking a deep breath through her nose, and suddenly, he was jerked back to the here and now. His girl needed help.

“We need a doctor here!”  Sam’s voice sounded out, beating him to it as she once again rest her head back against the seat, her eyes fluttering shut.

“I think I need to sleep.” She muttered, softly and Steve instantly leaned forward, speaking in his Captain’s voice in a hope it would jerk her out of it.

“Stay awake. Eyes on me, Doll”

“If we don’t put pressure on that wound, she’s gonna bleed out here in the truck…” Sam cut off and Steve turned to see why, watching with an open mouth when he saw the guard on the left whip out an electric rod, before flipping it and electrocuting the other guard before kicking and knocking them unconscious.

"That thing was squeezing my brain.” Maria Hill complained as she pried the helmet off.

“Nice of you to show up.” Katie groaned, “I only called you like what, twelve hours ago.”

“Who’s this guy?” Hill asked, ignoring Katie and nodding to Sam.

"Sam Wilson.” Steve quickly introduced him, happy to see a friendly face. “Sam this is Maria. She’s on our side.” He added and Sam nods accepting Steve’s word as Hill took out a set of keys and began to unlock their restraints.

Steve was by Katie’s side as soon as he was free. Taking the keys off Maria he undid her cuffs and as soon as they were off, she moved, crying out in pain.

“It’s okay.” Steve soothed her, as the truck stopped. “We’ll get you fixed up, Honey, I promise.”

“We gotta’ get moving, Cap.” Hill shuffled to the middle of the van. “Stand back”

What the device was, Steve had no idea, but he didn’t care. It blazed through the SUV floor with ease and he turned to see Katie had now passed out. Giving a groan of frustration, he gently picked her up, and Maria dropped herself out of the SUV, then Natasha, then Sam who Steve passed his girl to gently. Once they were free they dodged down an alley and into another waiting SUV. Sam gently placed Katie on one of the seats, Hill passing Steve a spare jacket so that he could place it over the wound, applying pressure.

“We need to lay her flat.” Sam instructed, as the SUV sped forward. “It’ll help stop the flow.”

With Sam’s, help Natasha managed to manoeuvre Katie so she was lay with her head on Steve’s lap. She murmured something and with his spare hand he gently carded his fingers through her hair, leaning down to press a kiss to her temple.

“We’re not far out Cap.” Maria looked at him “Bout twenty mins or so. I’ll call ahead to medical, make sure they’re prepped”

He nodded and leaned back, lost in his thoughts. Bucky, Katie, Bucky, Katie… like a mantra it kept repeating in his head. Sam and Natasha were busy asking Maria questions, and he vaguely caught her answers-there was a secret SHIELD base outside town, no HYDRA didn’t know, yes she was sure, yes she knew about insight and yes it needed to be stopped.

After what felt like the longest twenty minutes of Steve’s life, they drew up to a stop outside what looked like a huge dam of sorts built into the side of a hill, and Steve stood, easily picking Katie up into his arms, following Maria’s direction. They entered the large concrete doors into a brightly lit corridor and Maria shouted to someone who was running towards them dressed in a white coat.

“GSW. She’s lost at least a pint!”

“Maybe two,” Sam added.

At that, Steve felt Katie stir in his arms and he glanced down to see her blinking, her eyes screwed against the light.

 “Where…” She grimaced slightly at the pain both in her head and her shoulder. Fuck, she had no idea where she was or what had happened, other than she had clearly passed out.

“We’re safe.” Steve pressed his lips to her forehead, relieved to hear her voice even if she did sound like she was in agony. 

“Let me take her.” The doctor ran forward, gesturing with his hands.

“No,” Steve shook his head firmly, his grip on Katie tightening slightly. “Show me where to put her.”

“They’ll want to see him first” Maria looked at the doctor who nodded and gestured for Steve to follow him.

“Who?” Katie asked, blinking.

No one answered and they were led to a room at the back of the facility where Hill pushed aside the plastic divider to where a very much alive Nick Fury was sat up in a bed.

Steve felt his mouth drop open as Fury remarked. “About damn time.”

The doctor came in behind them and gestured for Steve to place Katie into a seat so he could start working on her wound. He did so gently, his hand sliding into her hair once more as he placed a kiss onto the crown of her head, not moving far from her, his hand gently resting on her good shoulder.

“I’m sorry, but this is gonna sting a bit Miss Stark.” The doctor apologised in advance, and she nodded, hissing as he injected the local anaesthetic into the wound, and her spare hand reached up to grip Steve’s.

“You okay?” He crouched down beside her and she turned to look at him.

“Marvellous.” She sassed. “This is the best day of my life.” 

Steve chuckled, as long as she was being snarky she was okay. “You’ll be fine, won’t she doc?”

The doctor nodded. “I know it doesn’t feel like it but this is quite superficial.” He held up the bullet he had removed. “It hasn’t gone in too deep. You’ve just lost a fair bit of blood but I’m not too concerned about you, unlike him”

He gestured at Fury and Katie turned to look at him as Steve stood up doing the same.

“Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache.” Fury spoke.

“Don’t forget your collapsed lung,” The Doctor added.

“Let’s not forget that.” Fury chuckled. “Otherwise, I’m good.”

“They cut you open,” Natasha spoke to Fury. Her voice not accusing but hurt, “Your heart stopped.”

“Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn’t work so great for him, but we found a use for it.”

“Okay, you’re done.” The doctor gently gave Katie’s good shoulder a squeeze as he stood. Steve turned back to see Katie was now plugged up to a bag of blood. “Bit of rest and I’ll check your levels later.”

“Thanks…” She nodded, turning back to Fury.

“Any attempt on the Director’s life had to look successful.” Hill informed as Steve eyed her, remembering how defeated she had looked at the hospital when they announced Fury’s ‘death’. Either she hadn’t known at the time, or she was a damn good actor.

“Can’t kill you if you’re already dead. Besides, I wasn’t sure who to trust.” The Director admitted.

*******

“This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn’t an achievement, it was a responsibility,” Fury scoffed while throwing a picture of Alexander Pierce to the middle of the table they were all sat round once they had all finished telling each other what had happened at the various stages of the day. “See, its stuff like this that gives me trust issues.”

“We have to stop the launch,” declared Steve.

“I don’t think the Council’s accepting my calls anymore.” Fury added with a huff of a laugh, even though there was nothing funny about the situation at all.

“So what do we do?” Katie cut in.“How do we stop it?”

Hill glanced at Fury before she leaned forward in her seat to grab the case which had been sitting on the table. She clicked the locks, opened up the top and spun it round to show them what was inside- three equally sized data chips.

“Once the helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they’ll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized,” Agent Hill explained, opening up a laptop. She turned it around to allow them to see a simulated concept video of what she was saying. “We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own. One or two won’t cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die.”

“We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what’s left-” Fury started but he was cut off by Steve who harshly interrupted.

“We’re not salvaging anything.” He shook his head slowly, and he meant it. “We’re not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We’re taking down SHIELD”

“SHIELD had nothing to do with this.” Fury tried to defend his organization but there was a derisive snort which cut him short. Everyone turned in the direction from which it had been issued.

“Sorry, did I do that out loud?” Katie sat up slightly.

“You gave me this mission.” Steve turned back to Fury, shaking his head “This is how it ends. SHIELD’s been compromised. You said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed.“

"Why do you think we’re meeting in this cave? I noticed,” Fury waved around him as if it was somehow enough.

“How many paid the price before you did?” Steve snapped, voice still hard, as his mind turned to Bucky. 

“Look, I didn’t know about Barnes.” Fury sighed sitting back in his seat.

“Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalised that, too?” Steve’s tone was icy. He knew the director hadn’t been involved in whatever HYDRA had done but he couldn’t help but feel angry. He took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was softer but still as stern “SHIELD, Hydra…” He shook his head gently, “it all goes.”

“He’s right,” Hill finally spoke, sadness tinged her voice.

Director Fury looked at every single person in the room. He made specific eye contact with Katie who raised her eyebrows, defiantly. Natasha didn’t react at all, which in itself was enough. Then finally he looked to Sam, clearly curious as to what he thought about the whole thing.

“Don’t look at me. I do what he does, just slower,” Sam vouched. Steve couldn’t help but smirk slightly.

“Well…” Fury leaned back and let out a sigh as he looked Steve in the eye. “It looks like you’re giving the orders now, Captain.”

Whilst Steve was glad, he took no pleasure in what they were about to do. SHIELD along with Katie had been his anchor after waking up and bringing the security agency to its knees made him quite sad, especially after Peggy, Howard and Chester had been its founders. Nevertheless, it was the right thing to do, and for the next few hours formed the bones of a plan, in which each person had a different role to play.

“We’re going to have to come up with another way to disable the encryption.” Nat looked at Fury as he took a sip from a bottle of water. “Pierce will have erased all of your clearance from the Triskelion system”

“Not all of it.” Hill gave a wry smile

“What do you mean?” Katie frowned, taking the chocolate bar Steve handed to her with a smile. The Doctor was happy with her blood levels but told her to keep her sugar and energy levels high, so Steve was ensuring she ate enough by consistently passing her snacks from the pile that Hill had dumped in the middle of the table.

Fury looked at her, then to Hill, before he reached up and flipped up his eyepatch revealing his badly scarred right eye.

���I build safety switches into most things these days.” He said dryly. “There’s a scan of this eye hidden on an old inactive database one from the Nineties.”

“So if we can access that database remotely and reactivate it, then bingo.” Katie grinned, swallowing her bite of the Snickers she was chewing.

“We don’t have the capacity to do that, not from here.” Natasha sighed.

“Yes we do.”  Katie looked at her as she shifted and pulled her StarkPhone from where she’d hidden it down her bra right before they’d been captured.

Steve arched an eyebrow at her, and she merely shrugged as he smiled at her resourcefulness before drawing himself up to full height.

“We only have…“ He checked the clock on the wall. "Six hours until the launch.” Steve nodded at the people who were watching him from their spots at the table. “Everyone, I suggest we get to it.”

There was a flurry of movement accompanied with the scraping of chairs as people pushed themselves away from the table, ready to put their wheels of the plan into motion.

****

“Hey JARVIS…” Katie said as she accessed the AI on one of the laptops

“Miss Stark…” JARVIS greeted.

“I got another favour to ask. I need access to one of SHIELD’s old databases from 1995.”

“Dare I ask why?” 

“Dare say you can, but don’t expect me to answer”

“It might take me a little while.”

“Fast as you can J.” Katie replied simply. “We’re up against it here.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to contact Mr Stark?” 

“No, I don’t”

It took thirty minutes. Thanking JARVIS, Katie started to scroll through the database to get the name she wanted. She quickly scanned the information. Fury had hidden an alternative retina scan under the name Carol Danvers. She had no idea if that was a significant name to him or just something random, but she didn’t really care. Once she located the name, she let out a low whistle and smiled before she hit a few more buttons as Fury had instructed her and bingo, it was once more live. Her job done, she took a deep breath before standing up, closing the laptop and heading off to find Steve.

The soldier was outside, desperate for some fresh air, lost in his thoughts. To learn that Bucky had survived the fall made him feel sick, because he hadn’t gone back for him. He’d left him to the clutches of HYDRA, who had brainwashed him into becoming their assassin. He ran his hand over his tired face and leaned against the railing, watching as the first tendrils of daylight broke over the horizon.

As always he was aware of her presence before she spoke, so he wasn’t surprised when Katie asked if he was okay, and turned to face her, letting out a sight.

 “Not really.” He replied, always honest to a fault where she was involved.

“You know, this is the right thing to do.” She slid between him and the barricade of the bridge so that her lower back was pressed against the rails.

“I know.” Both his hands dropped to her hips, his eyes scanning to the injury to her shoulder. “Sweetheart, I really wish you’d sit this one out”

“I can’t sit it out Steve. You know that. This is personal for me too. Besides,” she gave a small smile as she shrugged. “You need me. You need us all.”

He understood. And there was no point trying to make her stay behind, she was probably the only person on the planet that could rival him for stubbornness, well apart from maybe her brother that is. And she was right, he did need her.

“He’s going to be there.” She watched him carefully.

“I know.”

“Whoever he used to be, the guy he is now, I don’t think he’s the kind you can save, Steve. He’s the kind we need to stop.”

“I have to try” Steve looked at her, pleading with her to understand. “I can’t just give up on him.”

She did understand, she understood perfectly well, and could only imagine what he was feeling at seeing his best friend, the man he had known all through his childhood, manipulated in such a way.

“We can never give up on those we care about, we can only try our best.” She reached up to gently brush her hand against his cheek. “Just…remember that he’s not the same person he was seventy years ago.“

He raised his eyebrows up slightly. "Neither am I.” He responded matter of factly. She held eye contact with him for a moment, but she knew there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise; Bucky was his best friend. He loved him and wasn’t about to let HYDRA take him away again.

“I know.” She gave him a small smile,  just before he pressed his lips to hers. She kissed him back, eagerly, the kiss grew deeper and his hands crept from her hips up to her hair, pulling her closer as he pressed against her, trapping her completely against the barrier.

Eventually, reluctantly, he pulled away laying his forehead against hers 

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” She pecked his lips again before Steve pulled back and looked over her shoulder at the rising sun. Reluctantly, he took a slight step back.

“Tell the rest of ‘em to suit up, it’s time.”

In the meantime, he had his own suit to get. One which he’d been wearing the last time he took those fuckers down. And he was hoping, albeit probably in vain, that if he did encounter the Winter Soldier, it would jolt Buck’s memory about who he was.

“You gonna wear that?” She asked, gesturing to his chinos and jacket, her eyebrow raised.

Steve looked at her with a smirk. “If you’re gonna’ win a war, you’ve gotta wear a uniform.” He dropped a kiss to her head and took off at a run.

Katie smiled as she watched him knowing exactly where he was going.

*****

“Comms on six.” Hill informed as Steve, Sam and Katie jumped down from the SUV on the side of the Potomac to the Triskelion, not far from where the control operations were. Katie was holding the case that contained her suit in her right hand. She’d confessed to Sam that she’d only flown in it a few times, but Sam wasn’t too concerned and neither was Steve. Sam had promised to fly with her in tandem, and Steve trusted the man completely despite only having known him a number of days.

“Rogers, Hill.” Fury spoke in their ears “I’ll open our lines up as soon as it is safe to do so.” He paused. “Good luck.” They silently and quickly made their way down the side of the Potomac. The first task was to disrupt the coms and security surrounding the Launch Bunker so that no one would know they were arriving. A simple EMP did that.

And then, just as Steve was about to kick the door in to the main room, it opened.

The techy on the other side simply stared as he was confronted with the four of them. His eyes flickered first to Steve, then to the Katie and Mara who had their guns trained on him.

"Excuse us.”  Steve shot the tech a pointed look. He immediately held his hands up and stepped aside to let them enter with a nervous, slightly scared look on his face.

They stepped inside, looking around at the remaining eight or so people in the bunker, all of whom immediately raised their hands.

“You got exactly ten seconds to get the hell outta here.” Sam looked around. They didn’t need telling twice, several of them tripping over in their scramble to the door.

“Bit dramatic don’t you think?” Katie teased, as Sam shrugged, a grin spreading across his face as she dropped her case to the floor. Steve gently pushed past her towards the desk.

“Which one is it?” Steve was looking for the coms button which would project his voice around the Triskellion. Maria pointed to one of the buttons and mics on the desk in front of her, where she was sat, tapping at the computer.

Steve looked at Katie and licked his lips, somewhat nervously. He had given speeches before, but none like this.

“If there’s anyone that can make people understand it’s you.” Katie encouraged, and he nodded, taking a deep breath, before pushing the button, his voice suddenly amplifying as it filled every speaker in the building.

“Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You’ve heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it’s time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it’s been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are Hydra as well. I don’t know how many more, but I know they’re in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won’t end there.” he took a pause before he continued “If you launch those Helicarriers today, Hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I’m asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it’s a price I’m willing to pay. And if I’m the only one, then so be it. But I’m willing to bet I’m not,”

He finished and took a deep breath as Katie smiled at him and Sam looked up.

“Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?” He quipped.

Steve looked at him, trying to keep his face straight, before he turned to Maria who smiled, nodding at the screen.

“Alright, I’m in.” She reached into the briefcase and handed each of them one of the new targeting chips. “Get in, switch them over, get out.”

They all nodded and Katie bent over, pressing her fingers onto the security pad on the case containing her suit. As it sprang open she stepped forward, the metal pieces connecting and flowing over her body, the dark navy and silver suit forming around her before the face plate slid down.

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” Sam muttered, and Steve smiled. He’d only seen her in it once before when she had been running a test flight. Katie turned to Sam and although he couldn’t see her face, Steve knew from her tone she was grinning.

“You aint seen nothing yet, Sammy.”

The three of them made their way around the banks of the river towards the triskelion, Sam and Steve running, Katie flying behind them at a low height. Suddenly, feeling the vibrations under his feet, Steve skidded to a halt, Sam doing the same. Katie landed behind them, and looked down.

“What’s that?” She frowned as the floor vibrated below them. ”JARVIS, gimme a scan.”

“Below the Potomac river is a hangar.” JARVIS said, his voice sounding in Steve’s ear too.  “And it looks like the doors are activated.” No sooner had he finished than Maria’s voice came over the coms “They’re initiating the launch”

“Clearly your speech rattled them enough to bring it forward.” Katie muttered as the three of them headed to where the ground was opening.

“Hey Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?” Sam questioned as he ran.

"If they’re shooting at you they’re bad.” Steve answered a little flippantly. With a roll of his eyes,  Sam extended his wings and flew off after the highest Hellicarrier, while Steve jumped down onto the launching bay beginning to fight, Katie flying behind him, doing her best to clear out as many agents as she could

“Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about,” Sam suddenly reported.

“You alright?” Katie asked.

“Not dead yet,” Sam answered

Together Katie and Steve fought their way across the bay, Katie clearing as much of a path for Steve as possible, before she spiralled through the air and up towards the one she had been designated. Dodging fire easily as she went thanks to JARVIS’ evasion techniques, she landed with a clang on the deck.

“I’m in.” She spoke, before a barrage of bullets ricocheted off her back. She turned, cocked her head to one side before she smirked.

“Nice try.” She smirked, firing up her palm pads and sending a huge beam their way, before shooting upwards once more towards the central control column.

“Falcon, status?” Maria demanded.

“Engaging.” Sam reported, before a moment later “Alright, I’m in…oh,shit!” he cursed.

"Eight minutes,” Maria warned

“Working on it.” Steve’s reply was punctuated by a grunt.

When Katie’s carrier was clear, which didn’t take too long as there were nowhere near as many agents on this than there seemed to have been on the other, she landed by the control panel and stepped out of her suit, chip in hand. Punching in the code Maria had given them, she swapped out the targeting disk and grinned as he pushed everything back into place.

“Alpha locked,” She reported, stepping back into her suit.

“Falcon, where are you now?” Maria asked anxiously.

“I had to take a detour!” Sam’s voice was loud. Katie took off, bursting through one of the glass windows of the Alpha carrier to see Sam spiralling through the air, being shot at by HYDRA missiles. She surged forward, shooting randomly, turning their attention to her as she twirled down towards the glass dome surrounding the next helicarrier before at the last moment pulling into a vertical climb upwards, meaning the beams hit the glass creating an entrance for Sam.

“Oh, honey you fly better than me!” Sam happily exclaimed and Katie chuckled as he dropped into the hole. A moment or two later he spoke again “Bravo locked,” and he shot back out into the bright sky.

“Alright, that’s two down. How’s it coming, Cap?” Maria questioned

“Still working on it!” Steve repeated. And he was. He had no idea how he managed to end up on the damned carrier with the most agents on it but they just kept coming and coming, like a never ending swarm of ants. He kicked out, taking another one down with a huge roundhouse kick and felt a bite of frustration as Hill urged him on.

“Better step it up Cap.” She said, then there was the sound of two gun shots before she spoke again “6 minutes”

It was then that Steve realised he was blocked in. Agents behind him and a Quinjet was aiming at him from ahead. He had no alternative but to dive off the edge of the hellicarrier.

“Hey, Sam, Sweetheart…I’m gonna need a ride,” Steve spoke easily as he fell through the air.

“Roger! Let me know when you’re ready!” Sam answered easily.

“I just did!” His voice remarkably calm for a man who was currently freefalling at a fast pace. Suddenly his arms were tugging upwards, and he was deposited back on the tarmac, Katie and Sam landing besides him.

“You know, you’re a lot heavier than you look.” Sam grunted and Katie laughed, firing at an agent that was to her left.

“Yeah, well, I had a big breakfast.” Steve responded cheekily.

Sam was about to respond when suddenly a blur of black and silver flew out from behind a crate and tackled Steve off the edge of the helicarrier.

“Steve!” Katie yelled, immediately launching to go after him but something grabbed at her foot, crunching down.

“I’m okay!” he informed her, as she kicked out wildly at whatever it was that was currently wrecking her boot.

“Right thruster is compromised.” JARVIS informed her, as the pressure was suddenly released and she looped in the air, trying to gain her balance with only one functioning boot. As she spun to look at her assailant she caught a glimpse of a metal arm grabbing at Sam’s wings, throwing him backwards.

Sam managed to stop his backwards momentum and started to shoot at him in response. Katie joined in with her repulsors and one of the weapon guns from her shoulder, the two of them forcing the Winter Solider to retreat.

“Steve?” She yelled into her comms, flying off the side unsteadily with the one boot working “JARVIS run scan!” “Captain Rogers is there by the port side” 

To her relief she saw his heat signature pulling himself up at the side of the carrier. She turned, expecting to see Sam behind her but instead she saw the Winter Soldier charging forward and kicking him off the Helicarrier. Sam began to plummet, one of his wings not working so Katie dove after him, grabbed his arm and managed to land the pair of them, albeit rather un gracefully, on the roof of the Triskelion.

“Thanks” He mumbled dusting himself down off as Katie retracted her face plate

“Steve, are you okay?”

“I’m alright. I’m still on the helicarrier.” Steve responded. “Where are you?”

“Triskellion roof.” She spoke.

“I’m grounded, the suit’s down. Sorry, Cap.” Sam sighed.

“Katie?”

“One of my thrusters is out.” She sighed, “I’m running on half capacity, but I can get up to you if I need to.”

“It’s okay, I’ve got it. I’ll call if I need you.”

“Half capacity?” Sam looked at her.

“Have to channel double the power to the non-fucked boot!” She shrugged, standing on one leg to show him the now mangled piece of metal. “That or I fall. Problem is it means that the power to everything else gets compromised.” “Huh.” “Tony’s working on it.” She muttered as they looked up at the three hellicarriers, her eyes falling on the one Steve was currently on. “He’s gonna come face to face with him…”

“Maybe he can make him remember who he was.” “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”  Katie observed, glancing at the Sam. He shrugged.

“Falcon, Nova…” Hill called through the comms.

“Yeah?” Katie paused, talking as she still remained with her eyes locked on Sam’s.

“Rumlow’s headed for the council.”

“I’m on it.” Sam responded, unzipping his vest and nodding to Katie. “You stay here, he might need you.”

Katie nodded, glancing back up at the sky before she wheeled round.

“Sam?” She called after him. He turned to her, jogging backward “Give Rumlow a kick in the balls for me, really hard.” Sam saluted, grinning, before he turned on his heels.

Katie’s attention turned once more to the ship above them, and after a while she realised that it had been really quiet on Steve’s end.

“Steve?”  But there was no reply, nothing but static.

“I can’t reach him.” Hill sighed. “And Charlie is still not locked. We’re running out of time.“

"I’m on it.” Katie responded, taking off in the direction of the carrier.

“40% power.“ JARVIS instructed.

“Thanks J, can you run a heat scan, locate Captain Rogers.”

“Located… he is in the central area, near the control room…” JARVIS showed her the thermal image of two men going toe to toe, her stomach sinking. She surged forwards and flew through the glass of the control room just as Steve and the Winter Soldier fell over the edge of the platform they were fighting on.

They both landed hard but the Winter Soldier got up first, standing over Steve, metal arm gearing up to deliver another blow, but as he went to connect with Steve’s face, Katie blasted at him, landing in between him and Steve, sending him sprawling backwards.

“Katie…” Steve scrambled to his feet.

“Get to the control panel.” She yelled as the Winter Soldier came charging back at her “We don’t have much time!” As the metal armed assassin lunged at her she shot upwards, flipping in the air and sailing behind him, firing at his back. He flew forward but jumped immediately to his feet and spun, firing his gun at her, the bullets bouncing off her suit. They continued this twisted dance until she got a little too close, and his metal arm gripped tight around her left gauntlet, the squeal of metal on metal rang out as he began to crush down with his fingers.

“JARVIS… full power!” Katie yelled. “But Miss Stark…”

“Do it!” She fired the suped-up repulsor beams and the blast caused the winter soldier to fall hard backwards. As she wound up for another shot, she had just sent it his way only to see him pick up Steve’s shield using it to block her ray. It rebounded it straight at her, hitting the suit square in the chest and sending her straight through the glass windows of the carrier into the sky.

It took her a while to right herself, but eventually she flew back inside just as the solider stabbed Steve in the shoulder. Steve yelled, and head butted the man three times, which forced him to let go. As Steve turned to pull the knife from his shoulder Bucky made a grab for the targeting chip and Katie fired at him again, knocking him into one of the metal beams at the back of the carrier, his head making a horrible noise as it connected before he fell face down. Steve wasted no chance in grabbing the discarded chip and heading up to the control panel as she stood between him and the Winter Soldier.

“Systems are seriously compromised…” JARVIS told her. “If you continue using your repulsors the way you are, I fear you won’t have enough power to make it down…” “We’ll worry about that later J.” Katie mumbled, looked up as she watched Steve

“One minute.” Maria Hill spoke and she had barely finished when Katie heard the sound of a gunshot. She turned to see The Winter Soldier getting to his feet looking dazed but his metal arm held his gun aimed up at the control panel where Steve was still climbing. Before she could stop him, he shot again and Steve let out a yell, gripping at his thigh.

“Thirty seconds!” Maria said urgently.

As the assassin position himself and steadied his gun to take aim again, Katie flew forward, knocking into him just as he fired. He on his back as Katie stood over him, one foot on his chest, in a last ditch attempt to buy Steve a bit more time. He grabbed at the leg of her suit, pulling it from under her and she crashed to the floor, the man’s metal armed rained blow after blow down on her suit, the glass eye holes cracking.

“Suit integrity is at 50% and falling.” JARVIS urged and she did the only thing she could do. She fired her thruster causing her to shoot out from under his hold, colliding with a steel piece of the structure which send her ricocheting once more out of the side of the hellicarrier.

“Charlie locked.” She heard Steve’s strained voice as she continued to fall through the air, struggling to fire her boot back up again.

“Okay, get out of there.” Maria spoke as Katie continued to plummet, JARVIS also speaking to her saying he was trying to stabilise her tumbling.

“Fire now.” Steve demanded.

“NO!” Katie yelled as her boot suddenly kicked to life about twelve feet above the Potomac. She could hear Maria trying to argue too. But Steve wasn’t having any of it.

“Do it now.” Steve yelled.

Maria’s sigh was heavy on the coms link but she did as she was told pushing the button that started the helicarriers firing at one another. The ships began to tear each other apart and as more shots hit the one that they were on the inside began to break apart.

“Steve… STEVE!” Katie yelled hovering unsteadily, only being able to use the one thruster. She instructed JARVIS to channel more power into it to keep her upright and then Sam’s frantic voice sounded in her ear.

“Please tell me there’s someone in the air!” 

“Sam! Where are you?” Nat’s voice sounded and Katie took a deep breath.

“Forty first floor!” He yelled as he got closer to the window. “Northwest corner!”

“Stay where you are!” Nat instructed as Katie shot up to find him, her boot stuttering as she went.

“Not an option!”

Her scanners picked him up and Katie spotted the helicopter Fury was flying a few floors below where it was supposed to be. She flew as fast as she could to grab Sam as he jumped out of the window of the collapsing building, catching him and tossing him into the helicopter flying in herself.

“Forty first floor!” Sam yelled as Katie retracted her helmet. “Forty first!”

“It’s not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building!” Fury yelled back.

“Hill, where’s Steve?” Natasha asked. “You got a location on Rogers?”

“He was on Charlie…” Katie swallowed. “The one that hit the building…”

*****

On the carrier Steve had tried to make Bucky remember, just one final time. It didn’t work. The man with Bucky’s face tackled him to the floor and he landed on his back against a fallen bar, head dangling off the edge. He was anchored by the assassin’s legs around his waist and the tight hold he had of his uniform with his flesh hand. The man looked at him, hatred etched in every line on his face and it broke Steve’s heart. What had HYDRA done to him to make him this way? They had turned his friend, his brother, against him and there was nothing he could do but try and remind him of his life before.

Then came the blows from the metal arm, raining down on his face.

With every punch that landed, along with the agony, memories flashed across Steve’s line of sight – some of them to do with Bucky, bailing him out of a fight in an alley behind a movie theatre. Punch. A Thanksgiving with the Barnes family. Punch. Games of cards in the army camp. Punch. But the ones that came more vividly were of his girl. The way her face scrunched up when she laughed. Punch. The dress she wore on their first date. Punch. The way they lay tangled up with one another after making love, her hand threading through his hair. Punch. The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn’t paying attention - like he was the best thing that ever happened to her.

He loved her. He loved her so much it hurt.

“You’re my mission!” Bucky screamed out. Steve’s vision was blurry, his face was throbbing in pain; he was beaten, he knew that. But if this was it, the last moment he had, then he wanted Bucky to know how much he meant to him.

“Then finish it.” Steve gasped out, pausing in an effort to get his breath back. “Cause I’m with you, till the end of the line.”

He could’ve sworn he saw something in the man’s face shift. His eyes became wider, like he was panicking at the phrase. The metal fist was raised up high, but didn’t move from its position. Bucky’s chest rose and fell rapidly as his eyes softened, just slightly, and the metal arm lowered out of the wind-up. But before he could do anything else, a massive piece of steel from the helicarrier broke off. It crashed against the beam that Steve was up against. And then he was falling, as Bucky managed to hang on to the beam with his metal arm, a sick, twisted reversal of the incident seventy years ago when Steve had watched as Bucky fell into the snowy canyon below.

Steve plunged into the icy water of the Potomac, the light gradually growing darker, and darker as he sank further into the depth. It was a peaceful way to die, he supposed, after the brutality of the fight. And as his vision went, the last thing he saw was his girl’s face and the fact he was leaving her behind broke him just that little bit more.

I love you. Doll, I love you.

*****

Katie engaged her helmet again and took off from the helicopter, flying alongside it for a short while as it circled the outside of the hellicarrier.

“JARVIS, you got anything?” She asked, making her way shakily forward, but as she spoke her scanners locked onto Steve, where he was lay on the floor of the carrier, the Winter Soldier raining blows upon blows down at him, and he wasn’t fighting back.

“What have we got left in the tank?” She asked desperately.

“25% power.”

“Put everything we have into my thrusters.”

“Miss Stark…”

“Just do it, J!” She yelled.

She felt the power surge as she shot upwards but as she went, her scanners trained on them both, Steve was hit by something falling from above and was sent crashing down through the floor of the carrier and then her repulsors cut out and once more she was falling.

“Emergency back-up power…” JARVIS spoke as her suit fired up again, giving her just enough time to level out before she went head first into the Potomac. She weaved her way through the falling debris under the surface avoiding it before she shot upwards again, but there was no sign of Steve or the Winter Soldier.

“Miss Stark you need to land. I can only sustain you for another sixty seconds.”

“Yeah I know.” Her voice cracked slightly “But I have to find Steve.” In desperation she circled around the river, “Any sign?” She asked into the coms.

“Nothing.” Hill sighed. “The suit he has on doesn’t have a tracker!”

“Come on.” Katie mumbled, hovering in mid-air, her suit stuttering slightly. “JARVIS hit the scans again.”

“Running…”  He muttered and she watched before the display locked onto him. He was quarter of a mile or so out from the Triskellion…and the Winter Soldier was pulling him out of the water onto the river bank.

With her last bit of remaining power she flew to them, landing behind the Winter Soldier. He immediately spun round but this time Katie saw fear in his eyes. They weren’t steely or dead like they had been before, instead they sparkled with emotion. For that reason she took a deep breath and stepped out of her suit, hands held up in a conciliatory manner.

“Bucky.” She spoke gently, glancing behind him to where Steve lay motionless on the bank. She bit back the panic in her throat at the site of him hurt and unconscious before she focussed on the man in front of her.

“Who are you?” Bucky’s voice was deep and he looked at her, but he wasn’t attacking. Taking a shaky breath Katie took one step forward and he instantly grew defensive so she stopped, shaking her head.

“It’s okay, my name’s Katie. I’m Steve’s girlfriend. You know Steve, right?”

His chest heaved, his eyes widened and for a split second she thought he was going to come towards her. Instead he stood to the side letting her get a full view of her man before nodding towards her.

“Get help.” He spoke gruffly before turning and running.

“I’ve got him.” Katie spoke into her coms as she scrambled over to Steve, stumbling as she ran. “South West bank, clearing in the trees. Look for the flare.”

At that she shouted to JARVIS. “Supernova Protocol…” before she dropped to her knees next to Steve, hearing her suit shoot upwards before it exploded with a bang. Her heart stopped for a second as she looked down at her man, letting out a sob as she noticed his chest was rising and falling slowly, the only sign he was alive. His face was badly beaten, his right eye almost completely closed. There was the knife wound on his shoulder, several deep cuts to his face, but it was the gunshot wound to the middle of his abdomen that worried her most. It was bleeding heavily. She pressed one hand to the wound to stem, her other stroking his battered face…

*****

Steve realised he wasn’t dead. He felt like it, god the pain, but there was a familiar voice, a familiar touch, one heavy on his abdomen, the other stroking his sore, battered face.

“Shh…its’ okay”

It was her. He tried to speak but she shushed him.

“Baby I’m here.”

“Katie…” He opened his eyes, looking at her. Those beautiful green eyes looked back at him and he realised then, he wasn’t ready to go. He didn’t want to go, not when she was still here. The thought of leaving her behind, when they had so much to look forward to, a future together, made him start to panic. “I…”

“Shhhhh.” Katie soothed him, her hand gently brushing his sodden hair back off his face. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”

He believed her.

Man he was so tired, and the pain.

And then his eyes shut.

******

Katie sat back, her hand still pressed to the wound and she glanced across the Potomac. Pieces of the helicarriers were still falling, splashing into the river, the groans and grinding of metal cut through the air as she sat still.

She had no idea how long she waited, it can’t have actually been that long, but it felt like ages as she simply sat, her hand clamped over Steve’s abdomen, listening to the sirens ringing loud through the air as emergency responders got closer.

In an odd way, it was all proof they had won. But at what cost? 

Then, she heard footsteps behind her and instantly wheeled to see Fury stood barking orders to four men following him with a stretcher, but she couldn’t really hear him. She stood up, moved back, in somewhat of a daze, to allow the medics access to Steve, but once he was loaded onto the gurney she moved back to his side, taking his hand.

They emerged from the bank and another medic made to drop a blanket round her, but she shrugged him off, her hand still round Steve’s until she had to let go as they loaded him into the ambulance which was parked in the clearing near the chopper.

“He’s gonna be fine.” Sam noddedd as he appeared besides her, dropping an arm round her shoulders as she watched them anchor the stretcher in place. The paramedic inside the ambulance gestured to her, and she climbed in without so much as a glance back.

**** Chapter 17

**Original Posting**

[debbiechanclub]

Best Two Out of Three, Part 18

Well it’s still a decent hour for me, but I think I failed to get this posted before @what-does-mine-say fell asleep. She’s been the real MVP of these last couple parts, too, just saying.

Anywho, no long note this time. All I have to say is thank you to everyone who continues to read and support this lil fic (that’s not so lil anymore), and I really do hope you enjoy :)

Best Two Out of Three

Part: 18/26

Pairing: Kenny Omega x OFC x Cash Wheeler and Adam Page x OFC

Word count: 5.7k

Warnings: Language; angst.

Catch up on previous parts here.

Adam spent the entire fifty-minute drive home bracing himself to face Callie. He knew she’d be upset; she had every reason and right to be upset. He’d turned her down, pushed her away, disappeared and left her to find out when she woke up, alone. It was cold, what he’d done. Heartless. And someone as warm and loving as Callie shouldn’t have to put up with it. She deserved better—better than what he could give her; better than him. And the longer he drove, the more he felt like that was all he could say to her.

His stomach twisted in knots as he turned down the road to his house. It only got worse when he pulled into his driveway and saw that Callie’s car was gone.

He put the gearshift in park and cut the ignition, but he didn’t get out of the truck. He sat there in silence, staring at the spot that Callie’s car usually occupied. He had a sinking feeling that she hadn’t just run around the corner or gone for a drive herself. This felt like a more permanent absence.

He got out of the truck and walked to the front door. It was locked. He fumbled with his keys to get it open. When he stepped inside, he found a note waiting for him on the kitchen island.

He could guess what it said before he read it.

              I decided to head to Florida early and stay with Britt for a while. You need space to figure out what’s going on in your head and in your heart. It breaks my heart to write this… but we can’t go on the way we have been. I hope you’ll figure it out soon. I’ll miss you. I love you. x Callie.

Adam read the note over and over, until the words started to warp and blend together. There was a crinkled spot on the paper from where a tear had fallen as she wrote. He set it back down on the island, numb. It had to be a ten-hour drive to where Britt and Adam Cole lived outside Orlando. If Callie would rather take on that than face him, Adam had a feeling she wouldn’t be coming back. She was gone.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Imagine that it’s Tag Team Appreciation Night, and the number two ranked tag team in all of AEW doesn’t have a match, not even on Dark. Oh wait—we don’t have to imagine it, because we’re fucking living it!”

Alex frowned across the locker room at Chuck. She didn’t blame him for being upset; she was upset for him. Outside the Young Bucks, Best Friends were the most established tag team on the roster—and yet, they’d been completely left out of this so-called “Tag Team Appreciation Night” that FTR was hosting on Dynamite that night. It was a slap across the face. And, in the back of her mind, Alex couldn’t help but wonder if her situation with Cash was to blame for why Chuck and Trent had been excluded.

“They’re not even gonna interview us about who our favorite tag team is,” Trent lowly said. “They interviewed Kenny and Hangman.”

“Of course they did,” Chuck said with a roll of his eyes. “No offense, Alex,” he added.

Her eyebrows arched. “Why would I be offended?” she quickly asked—maybe a little too quickly. She’d been paranoid ever since Saturday that Chuck somehow knew what she’d done with Kenny on his balcony. Granted, she absolutely would have heard it by now if he did… but still. Just the thought of him ever finding out made her want to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment.

He gave her an odd look. “Because Adam’s your friend. And Kenny’s… whatever.”

Alex swallowed. That answer didn’t help her paranoia. “Oh. Well, none taken. I don’t blame you for being upset.” She looked sheepishly down at the floor. “I wish there was something I could do about it.”

“It’s not your fault, Alex,” Trent assured. “They’re just trying to hold us down because they know we’re better than them.”

A corner of Alex’s mouth turned up. But she didn’t know if it was sweet or just pathetic that Trent knew she needed to hear that they didn’t blame her. “I’m gonna go to catering,” she said as she stood from her seat. Another thing she needed was coffee—and probably a chocolate chip cookie or two. “Does anyone want anything?”

Trent and Chuck both shook their heads no; James didn’t even respond from where he sat on the couch, leaned back with his arms spread out, one ankle crossed over his knee. It looked like he was asleep. He had a match against Chris Jericho that night and he was completely unbothered. Alex only wished she could be so carefree.

She pushed her way out of the locker room and pulled her phone from her pocket, her thoughts turning to other things. She hadn’t heard from Callie in days, not since she’d tried to text her when she was in Philadelphia; since she’d left her on read Saturday morning. It was obvious something was wrong—she just wasn’t sure what. Adam hadn’t really talked to her since Saturday, either. And Alex didn’t know if she should ask or just mind her own business.

Catering was just around the corner now. She turned it and slowed to a stop. Dax and Cash were right in front of her. Her eyes met Cash’s. Her heart jumped into her mouth.

“Alex,” he said. He looked just as unprepared to see her as she felt to see him. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she returned. She flashed back to the middle of the night in Philadelphia, to the balcony underneath the moonlight. Guilt gripped her so tight that she struggled to breathe.

Dax looked awkwardly between them. “Okay. Well, I’ll let y’all catch up.” He made a hasty exit. Cash watched after him as he disappeared into catering. Alex couldn’t tell if he was annoyed with him for bailing or not.

She awkwardly cleared her throat before the silence could drown them. “Um, how are you?”

He let out a wry laugh. “I didn’t hear from you all week, Alex.”

His tone implied a follow-up statement: How do you think I feel? She knew the answer: hurt, forgotten, cast aside. But she felt all those things, too. “I didn’t think you wanted to hear from me,” she said.

His brow puckered. “What? All I wanted was to hear from you.”

That surprised her. “Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because—” he cut himself off with a frustrated huff. “You need to figure out what you want, Alex. Not me. And the fact that I haven’t heard from you at all… it feels like you’ve made your decision.”

Alex’s eyes burned and her stomach turned. She could almost feel the hot summer air on her skin, hear Kenny’s voice in her ear. Her actions that night spoke louder than her silence. But she’d been drunk and emotional. She’d given in because she was hurt that she hadn’t heard from Cash. Right?

He let out a sigh and moved closer. She didn’t expect it when he reached out and took her hand in his. Her skin tingled at his touch. “I want us to talk, sweetheart. But not here. Maybe we could go somewhere after the show? I know you have a Dark match, but—”

“Wait, what?” she cut him off, suddenly confused. “I don’t have a Dark match.”

He gave her an odd look. “I just saw it on the card; you have a match against Anna Jay. Did no one tell you?”

Alex bit down on her jaw, frustration bubbling up inside her. No, no one had told her. And she had a feeling she’d been left in the dark on purpose.

She gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I have to go,” she said, and she pulled her hand from his and marched toward production. Her anger built with every step she took. It was near boiling-point by the time she found the match card taped to the wall. There it was, printed on the paper as clear as day: Alex Hawthorne vs. Anna Jay, slotted as the second match after the end of Dynamite.

She ripped the paper from the wall, crinkling it in her clutched fist as she marched back out of production and through the halls of the arena. She knew exactly who was responsible for this, and he had another thing coming if he thought she’d just lay down and take it.

She arrived at the EVP room and knocked hard and fast on the door. Someone called, “Come in”; she barged in before they even finished. Adam, the Bucks, and Brandon Cutler stared up at her, matching looks of wide-eyed surprise on their faces. Alex walked right up to Matt Jackson and slapped the paper down on the table in front of him.

“What the hell is this?”

The entire room went still. Matt’s eyebrows arched, obviously stunned by her nerve. He glanced down at the paper. “Well, it looks like the match card. Did you take that off the wall?”

Her eyes narrowed. “And when were you planning on telling me that I have a Dark match against Anna Jay?”

“Oh.” He looked her right in the eye and said, “You have a Dark match against Anna Jay.”

Alex’s other hand curled into a fist at her side. She could have hit him she was so angry. Knocked that indignant look right off his stupid face—

“Alex,” Adam stood and put a hand on the small of her back, trying to diffuse the situation, but she ignored him.

“Is this about Cash?” she charged. “Are you punishing me for what he did?”

Matt’s brow lowered. “I didn’t realize giving you a match was punishment.”

She gaped back at him. “I didn’t know I had it until two fucking minutes ago!”

“Alright, come on.” Adam took her gently by the arm and whisked her out of the room. Alex let him lead her down the hall and around a corner into a private corridor. She started to shake as she leaned back against the wall. Adam gripped her shoulders.

“Take a deep breath,” he said.

She took his advice, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Her anger started to give way to embarrassment and shame. Had she really just done that?

“That was ballsy,” Adam commented. She breathed out a rueful laugh. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Alex tilted her head back against the wall as she looked up at him. She was tired of everyone asking her that. She was just tired all around. And that was exactly what she told him.

“I’m tired,” she breathed. “I’m tired of feeling like everything is falling apart around me. I’m tired of doubting myself and feeling like I have no control over anything. I’m tired of trying to do the right thing just to have it backfire in my fucking face.”

Her voice cracked, and Adam pulled her into him. She looped her arms under his and buried her face in his shoulder, drawing in another deep breath. She didn’t want to cry. She was tired of crying, too.

“I know exactly how you feel,” Adam said. “More than you realize.”

Alex pulled back and looked up at him. That was her opening to figure out what was up with him and Callie. “Why?” she asked. “What’s going on with you and Callie? She hasn’t said a word to me since she tried to text me when I was in Philly.”

Adam let her go. His arms fell to his sides as he took a step back. It looked like the weight of the entire world was on his shoulders. But she couldn’t have predicted what he said next.

“Yeah, you and me both. She left.”  

“What?” Instinctively, Alex reached out and clutched one of his hands in both of hers. “What do you mean, she left?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” he returned. “When I got back from driving to your place, I found a note in the kitchen. She’d just gone.”

Alex squeezed his hand. “What did it say?”

He shifted, avoiding her gaze, but he didn’t let go of her grip. “That I need to figure out what I’m feeling. That she’s gonna stay with Britt for a while.”

His eyes finally met hers, and she swore she felt every emotion coursing through him herself. She’d already felt all of it, for days now. Pain. Guilt. Hopelessness. They were stranded in the same fucking boat, up shit creek without a paddle. But even though misery loved company, Alex didn’t want Adam to be stuck there with her. She’d push him out and make him swim if she had to. She wanted him to be happy.

“I’m so sorry, Adam.” She reached up and pulled him into a tight hug. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“I wanted to,” he said into her shoulder. “But you’re dealing with your own shit. I didn’t want to bother you with mine.”

“You wouldn’t have bothered me,” she assured. He hugged her tighter. She did the same. “She hasn’t said anything to you since she left?”

“No,” he said. “I haven’t even seen her today. I don’t even know if she’s here.”

The resignation in his voice broke Alex’s heart. But before she could think of anything to say in return, he flipped the conversation on her.

“What about you? Have you talked to Cash?”

She pulled back and unwound her arms with a heavy sigh. It was only fair that she fill him in on her shit, too. “I ran into him before I burst in on you guys. But no.” She chewed on the inside of her mouth. “I think he wants to talk after the show.”

“Well, that’s good,” Adam offered, hopefully. “Right?”

She looked away, down the hall. “I honestly don’t know.” She thought back to the look on Cash’s face, to how he’d taken her hand and called her “sweetheart.” But she shook her head, snapping herself back to the present before her overthinking could carry her away. “Right now I just need focus on getting through this fucking match I just found out about.”

“You’ll be fine,” Adam said. “Just don’t let Anna or any of the other Dark Order freaks get in your head.”

His eyes turned dark; introspective. Alex frowned. It seemed like he was speaking from experience. But it wouldn’t benefit either of them to go there right now. “You’re defending the tag titles tonight, right?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, against Jurassic Express. I need to focus on getting through that fucking match. Although Kenny seems to be in a better mood this week, so that helps.”

Alex’s cheeks flushed when she heard that. “Oh? I haven’t seen him.” She and Kenny had talked since Philly—of course they had. But if Adam wondered if she had anything to do with his tag team partner’s improved mood, he thankfully didn’t ask.

“I guess I should get back in there,” he said. “We were going over some stuff for BTE when you burst in and bit Matt’s head off.”

“Jesus.” Alex pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m probably gonna pay for that, aren’t I?”

But, surprisingly, Adam waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. Just focus on winning your match. And not joining a cult.”

A corner of his mouth quirked up. It was small, but it was nice to see him smile; hear him joke. They needed to do more of that, like they used to. “I don’t know,” Alex returned with a sarcastic laugh. “Joining a cult might be a nice change of pace at this point.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Dynamite wasn’t over yet, but FTR wasn’t sticking around for the rest of the show. They’d done what they’d set out to do with Tag Team Appreciation Night: prove that they were the best tag team in the business. It wasn’t their fault that Rock ‘N’ Roll Express had gotten in the way. Those old-timers should have hung it up a long time ago, anyway.

They burst back into their dressing room to grab their things and get the hell out of dodge. As Cash waited for Dax to finish packing up, he pulled his phone from his pocket and looked down at the lock screen. He still hadn’t changed the background; it was a picture of him and Alex from the night they’d gone out with Adam and Callie, at that fancy restaurant downtown. She smiled wide at the camera as he held her close, his arms tight around her waist, his face nuzzled against her cheek. That night had only been two weeks ago. But it felt like a lifetime.

“Hey.” Dax got his attention and he looked back up. He nudged his chin at his phone, at the photo on the screen. “You sure you don’t want to stay for her match?”

Cash looked back down at the picture. The screen went dark. “Yeah,” he returned. “She can find me if she wants to see me.”

He pushed the phone back into his pocket. And then he grabbed his bag, and he and Dax left the arena.  

* * * * * * * * * *

Smack!

Alex saw stars and fell backward to the mat, stunned by the unexpected bicycle kick from Anna Jay. She covered her and hooked her leg. It was only on instinct that Alex was able to kick out. Her head hadn’t been in the match from the moment it had started.

She knew Cash had left. She’d gone to talk to him after the melee in the ring with the Young Bucks and Rock ‘N’ Roll Express only to find FTR’s dressing room empty. It cut deep that he’d just up and gone without so much as a text, especially after claiming that he wanted to talk. It made her wonder if he’d really meant it.

But Alex had no choice but to focus on Anna when she climbed on top of her and started choking her.

The ref counted as she struggled to breathe, clutching at Anna’s wrists. “1! 2! 3! Come on, Anna, let her go!”

Anna let out a sadistic chuckle as she released her. Alex had barely managed to gulp in a breath of air before Anna pulled her up by her hair and threw her hard into a turnbuckle. She let out a cry and charged; but Alex threw up an elbow, hitting her in the jaw and stunning her. She climbed to the top rope as quickly as she could. When Anna stumbled back around to face her, Alex launched herself into the air and hit her with a missile dropkick.

She scrambled to cover her; Anna kicked out at two. Alex clutched her throat as she glared at Anna.

That crazy cult bitch had choked her.

That crazy cult bitch had made a terrible mistake.

Alex grabbed a fistful of Anna’s long blonde hair and sat her up. She didn’t let go of it as she kicked her hard in the back with a resounding whack that made the people watching in the audience wince. Anna arched her back, bending her knees and fingers in pain, and Alex ran toward the opposite ropes, rebounded off, and nailed her in the jaw with a running knee. She sat on top of her and hooked her leg. She kicked out and powered her shoulder up at the last possible second, sending Alex tumbling off of her. She stared at the ref in disbelief. “It was two,” he confirmed, holding up two fingers. She bit down on her jaw in frustration.

Alex pulled Anna to her feet. She grabbed her forearm, pushed her back to the ropes opposite the ring entrance, and Irish-whipped her to the other side. Anna rebounded and Alex ran toward her—but someone caught her eye as they appeared on the entrance ramp and she stumbled, rolling her left ankle. She managed to lift her right knee at the last second and hit Anna in the gut, sending her flipping to the mat, but Alex fell with her. He ankle throbbed as she looked back at the ramp. Brodie Lee, Evil Uno, and Stu Grayson stood in a line. Watching.

Alex knew she needed to act fast. She crawled over to Anna and locked on her finishing submission maneuver, the ’88 Sleeper. Her ankle screamed in protest as she put weight on it, but she channeled the pain into wrenching Anna back harder. It wasn’t long before she tapped.

The ref called for the bell. Alex threw Anna aside and fell back onto the mat. She reached for her left boot, fumbling to undo the laces and loosen the pressure on her ankle; but she stopped when a pair of brown dress shoes appeared in front of her. She looked up, and up, until her eyes connected with the cold, dark stare of Mr. Brodie Lee.

He grinned down at her. “Hello, Alex.”

She froze. Grayson and Uno flanked his either side. She was surrounded.

“That’s a helluva submission you have there,” Brodie complimented. “Granted, I’m not happy Anna lost…” he cast a glance at Anna Jay, who laid still clutching her back on the mat. “But you impressed me.”

He held out his hand. People throughout the arena shouted and booed, but Alex didn’t hear any of them; Brodie’s eyes were arresting. Haunting. Inviting. She didn’t even realize that she’d reached up and slid her hand into his until he gripped it and pulled her to her feet. Her ankle smarted and she stumbled; Brodie put his other hand on her waist to steady her, and Alex grabbed his arm. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. They were so dark that she almost couldn’t tell the pupil from the iris. Two black bottomless pools. She wanted to jump in and see how far she’d sink—

“Alex!”

Someone wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her away from Brodie, breaking the spell. Chuck. Trent and Adam were with him. They stood between her and Dark Order like a barricade.

“Keep moving, pal,” Trent warned. “She’s not available.”

Brodie let out a laugh, slow and deep in his chest. He looked back at Alex. “Do they think they own you?”

Adam shoved him then. “Get the hell out of here before I make you.”

Grayson took a threatening step forward; but Brodie held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t bother,” he said. “The inner demons will take care of this one.”

Adam bit down on his jaw; but Trent put a hand on his shoulder. “He’s not worth it, let’s just get Alex out of here.”

Alex’s eyes stayed glued on Brodie as Chuck helped her hobble to the ropes; Trent held them open so she could gingerly duck through. When she was on the other side, her gaze connected with Brodie’s again. He smirked.

“Think about it, Alex.”

It wasn’t until Chuck draped her arm over his shoulders and turned her away that she was able to pull her eyes from his.

“Can you put weight on it?” Chuck asked as they started to walk.

Alex winced, but nodded. “Yeah, but it hurts.”

“It’s probably just a sprain, then.”

He helped her through the tunnel into the back. Trent and Adam were close behind. “Jesus, Alex, I thought I told you to focus on not joining a cult tonight,” Adam quipped—but Alex didn’t hear him. Kenny had just run into Gorilla.

“Alex!” He hurried toward her, worry etched on his face. “Are you alright? What happened out there?”

Alex didn’t answer; she couldn’t. She was too overcome with emotion at just the sight of him. Cash had left—but Kenny was still here.

She removed her arm from around Chuck and limped over to him. She practically fell into his arms. “Hey, it’s okay,” he soothed as he hugged her. “Tell me what happened.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I got distracted when Dark Order came out and I stepped wrong and rolled it. And then Brodie was suddenly there and—”

“It’s okay, forget about him,” he gently returned. “Come on, let’s get you to the trainer.”

He took her by the waist and helped her out of Gorilla and down the hall toward the trainer’s room. And as they walked, Alex couldn’t help but think, over and over: Cash left, but Kenny’s still here.

* * * * * * * * * *

Callie had left Daily’s Place right after the tag title match. She’d wanted to stay and watch Adam; she was happy that he and Kenny had retained the titles against Jurassic Express. But after that, she caught an Uber back to the hotel. Even though she’d wanted to see Adam wrestle, she still didn’t want to talk to him.

Besides, she needed some time to herself. While she was beyond grateful to Britt and Adam Cole for letting her stay with them, Britt had been, for lack of a better term, smothering her ever since she’d arrived at their house late Saturday evening. And because she and Britt were sharing a hotel room, too, she decided to take the opportunity while the doctor was still at the arena to grab some dinner and air to breathe.

She pushed the down button for the elevator. When it arrived several seconds later and the doors slid open, she was surprised and confused to see Cash standing inside.

“Hey.” His eyebrows arched, obviously surprised to see her, too. “What’re you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same,” Callie said as she stepped onto the elevator. She pressed the button for the lobby. “Aren’t you supposed to be hosting Tag Team Appreciation Night right now?”

He laughed lightly to himself. “Dax and I did what we needed to do and then left. I’ll just put it that way.”

Callie arched a curious brow, wondering what exactly he meant by that. But before she could ask, he asked her, “Why aren’t you back at the arena with Adam?”

The elevator arrived at the lobby with a ding. Callie drew in a deep breath as the doors slid open and she and Cash stepped out. She was both surprised and not that he didn’t know what was going on with her and Adam. But he’d find out eventually—the entire locker room would—so she might as well take the opportunity to tell him herself.

“Actually, Adam and I are kind of on a break right now.”

He stopped walking and turned to face her, his brow furrowed in confusion and disbelief. “What? Are you serious?”

She nodded. “Yeah. He doesn’t want to talk to me about anything anymore, so I left him a note and drove down to Britt’s Saturday morning. And… yeah. We haven’t spoken since.”

It didn’t hurt as much to tell him as Callie had expected it would. After four days of no contact with Adam, she’d resigned herself to the situation. She’d tried to help him. But only he could help himself now.

“Shit,” Cash breathed. He ran a hand through his hair, still obviously thrown off by the news. “I had no idea. I mean, Adam did seem pretty distracted tonight, but that’s honestly not that unusual.”

“Exactly,” Callie returned, more firmly than she intended.

Cash’s brow puckered in sympathy. He looked down at his phone, as if considering something. “Well, I don’t know where you were heading; I was just gonna go to the bar to get a drink,” he said as he pointed a thumb in the direction of the hotel bar. “But I could eat, if you want to go grab something. Misery loves company, right?”

Callie blinked, surprised at the offer. But then she realized: if anyone could relate to what she was going through right now, it was Cash.

She nodded. “Sure. But I get to pick the place.”

* * * * * * * * * *

They ended up walking to a bar and restaurant not that far from the hotel. It was a nice night, and they opted for a table outside on the patio. It was tucked away in the corner; intimate. The hostess had probably assumed they were on a date. Callie had been grateful when her cocktail arrived.

“So, if misery loves company then I guess that means you and Alex still haven’t worked it out?” she asked as she grabbed her straw and took a long sip. The drink was already halfway gone and their food hadn’t arrived yet.

Cash reached for his beer, shaking his head. “No. Back at the arena I told her I wanted to talk with her after the show, but she freaked out about her Dark match and ran off without saying anything.” He took a sip, swallowed it down. “The ball’s in her court. She knows how to find me if she wants to talk.”

Callie frowned. The part of her that had come to value Alex’s friendship wanted to know how she was feeling about all this, what she was thinking. But the jealous part of her still resented that Adam seemed so willing to open up to Alex instead of her. “Kenny practically bragged about what happened,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head and gave a sarcastic laugh. “Of course he did. You know, after the first fight with Kenny, I admitted to Alex that I was worried he could steal her back. I wish I’d been wrong.”

His forearm flexed as he gripped his beer glass in frustration. Callie’s brow furrowed. “You think she’s gone back to him?”

Cash shook his head again. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Sometimes I feel like I made a mistake telling her to choose. But I can’t be with someone who obviously has feelings for someone else.”

Callie reached for her straw again. And before she could stop herself, she muttered, “That’s how I feel about Adam.”

The comment obviously took Cash by surprise. “You think Adam has feelings for someone else?”

Callie bit her lip. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she thought Adam had feelings for Alex. So she danced around it. “I practically offered myself to him on a plate the other night, and he literally pushed me away to get another drink. So that really helped with my self-esteem. I don’t know; I guess there’s someone else he’d rather see in skimpy lingerie.”

Her cheeks suddenly burned, realizing what she’d said. She needed to slow down on the alcohol. But when she glanced at Cash and saw the look on his face, she wanted to down the rest of her drink in a single gulp.

“What?” she asked.

Cash laughed to himself as he shook his head. “Nothing. Just something’s wrong with him if he turned you down.”

Callie’s face flushed again. The waiter couldn’t have arrived with their appetizer at a better moment. She pointed to her drink as he set the dish on the table. “Can I go ahead and order another?”

* * * * * * * * * *

“Why didn’t you go get dinner with Kenny and the Bucks?”

Alex took a sip of her water as she sat next to Adam at the hotel bar. Filming had wrapped not that long ago, and while Alex had come back to the hotel with the boys, Kenny had gone with Matt and Nick to grab a late dinner. Alex had hoped that maybe—maybe—Adam would go with them; but her hopes had been dashed when he’d texted her asking if she wanted to get a drink. She’d agreed to meet him, but she didn’t feel like drinking tonight.

“Please,” Adam scoffed. “They didn’t ask me.” He swirled his whiskey and took a sip. He gave her a sarcastic look as he set the glass back down. “Why didn’t you go with them?”

She pursed her lips. “Really?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. You two seemed pretty cozy when he took you to the trainer after your match.”

Alex’s cheeks burned and she shifted in her seat. Kenny had stayed with her in the trainer’s room the entire time, holding her hand as it was determined that she’d—thankfully—only suffered a bad sprain. She’d be out of action for two-to-four weeks, but it could have been a lot worse. Afterward, he’d kissed her and told her he was glad she was alright. She hadn’t said anything, choosing instead to kiss him back deeper. But she didn’t have to tell Adam that.

“He was there for me,” she said. “And I appreciated it.”

“Didn’t you say Cash wanted to talk to you after the show?”

Alex blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden interrogation. “Yeah, but he left the arena after he and Dax attacked Ricky Morton and didn’t even say anything to me.”

His eyes hardened when she said that. “I can’t believe they fucking did that.”

Alex frowned. “I know,” she agreed. But she didn’t want to go down that road, so she took another sip of water and changed the subject. “Have you talked to Callie?”

Adam shook his head. “Nope.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think I want to.” He downed the rest of his whiskey and set the glass on the bar. He glanced at her as he signaled the bartender for another drink. “You sure you don’t want a drink?”

Alex put a hand on his arm. The muscle tensed underneath her touch. “Adam,” she said, urging him to look at her. But he kept his eyes fixed on the empty glass in front of him. “Don’t throw out what you have with Callie.”  

The bartender swapped out the empty glass for a full one, but Adam didn’t reach for it. He looked down at her hand on his bicep. He reached across and placed his hand on top of hers. “Alex…”

But Alex’s attention was suddenly drawn to the lobby. “What the fuck?”

Adam’s brow furrowed and he turned to look where she stared. Callie and Cash crossed through the lobby—and judging from the carefree looks on their faces, they’d been drinking. Adam and Alex watched as Cash put his hand on Callie’s back, and then they disappeared out of sight toward the elevators.

Adam turned around to face forward again, his eyebrows high on his forehead. “What the fuck,” he repeated. He grabbed his whiskey and took a long drink.

Alex laughed wryly to herself. She wanted to believe it wasn’t what they thought it was. But she didn’t know what to believe anymore. “Yeah… I’ll take that drink now.”

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch16: Till The End Of The Line

Summary: The launch is growing ever nearer and in a desperate attempt to stop it before it is too late, the renegade group are intercepted by the Winter Soldier. When he is unmasked, Steve finds himself face to face with someone he presumed dead a LONG time ago, his childhood friend, Bucky Barnes. Only Bucky has no idea who he is... Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Violence, bad language words, and some angst.

A/N: This was updated on 18th Sept 2020 to include a little more action at the beginning and a bit of creative license as to how the fight between Steve and Buck on the helicarrier went down, with the addition of Katie being there. Originally I deleted this part, but I found it...and thought it was actually pretty good...so here it is.

Open for tags- ping me an ask

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks," Sitwell continued to talk and try to plead his case as they drove down the freeway, heading back towards the Triskellion.

"So why don't you try sticking a cork in it," Sam finally snapped.

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here," Nat said sticking her head between the two front seats from where she was sat in the middle seat next to Sitwell, Katie on her other side behind Steve's seat.

"We can use him to bypass the DNA scans…” Steve said, clearly having already thought it through. “That way we can access the Helicarriers directly, "What?! Are you crazy?! That is a terrible, terrible idea-" Sitwell began to protest but was cut off, his screams dying as he was pulled out of the car and thrown into oncoming traffic just as a sixteen-wheeler was going past. Katie let out a scream as Sam yelled “Shit” and there was a shot fired, a bullet ripping into the seat where Katie had been sat seconds before, Natasha pulling her to the side.

"Move!" Natasha yelled at Steve as she clambered through the middle of the two seat and onto his lap pulling him down away from the next bullet which was meant for him. Steve pulled on the handbrake and the person on the roof dropped down onto the street.  All 4 of them in the car watched as he rolled and rolled and used his metal arm to slow his momentum before standing up. He was tall, well built, long dark hair whipping around his masked face.

“It’s him…” Natasha said, her voice almost a whisper, “The Winter Soldier.”

Katie aimed her gun through the windscreen, taking aim, when they were violently hit from behind causing Katie’s usual dead shot to ricochet off the side of the man’s arm instead of his head. The car behind pushed them closer and closer to him until he was able to leap back onto the roof, as Nat searched for her gun and Katie aimed hers upwards. Suddenly, a metal hand smashed through the windshield and pulled out the steering wheel from Sam’s hand.

"Shit!" Sam yelled again.  Natasha, after having found her gun, started shooting at him but the Winter Soldier jumped onto the jeep behind their car that had started erratically pushing theirs along the road.

“Katie…!” Steve yelled, gesturing for me to climb into the front. "Hang on!”

She scrambled over the central gap between the front seats as Steve broke open the door with his shield pushed up against it, holding onto them all as best he could as the car began to flip. They dropped from the car onto the door as well as the shield and slid roughly along the street. Sam lost his grip and slipped away but luckily he only tumbled a few metres away mostly unharmed.

The three of them that remained hanging onto the shield quickly stood once they had come to a complete stop, the jeep that had caused the crash stopping as well, men all fully armed climbing out and one of them handing the Winter Soldier a grenade launcher, which he immediately used. Steve pushed Katie and Natasha out of the way and took the full force of the grenade with his shield which sent him flying over the bridge, just as the Winter Soldier reloaded and began firing at the rest of them.

They quickly dove for cover behind a car and together moved along the bridge, car by car, Natasha and Katie shooting back at the soldiers with their hand guns. Katie tossed one of my spare pistols to Sam who caught it, and started firing as well. This was working at keeping them at bay reasonably well, until they were forced to the edge of the bridge and the Winter Soldier shot another grenade at them.

There was nothing for it, they had to jump. Nat had her anchor so she leapt off, grabbing Katie’s hand as she shot up at the concrete of the bridge. They landed a bit heavier than normal, Katie rolling a few feet over the contract but she was soon back on her feet and running behind Natasha under the bridge.  Nat skidded to a halt as they reached the other end, the shadow of the Winter Soldier visible on the ground in front of them. They shared a quick glance and with a nod they split up, Katie veering left, Natasha veering right. With a deep breath, Katie stepped out from the shelter of the bridge, took aim and shot her gun up at the Soldier and she saw his head jerk back, and then he removed his glasses. She had hit where she had aimed but it hadn’t done as much damage as she had hoped.

Ducking back under the bridge she carried on running and at this point she could hear machine gun firing and paused as she turned to see the fire trained onto a bus. Steve emerged from the end of it, rolling and picking up his shield and adding to the fray, Sam was firing at hostiles as well from his vantage point above.

“Go, I got this…”He yelled and Steve set off running once more.

Katie turned and looked across the way, the Winter Soldier was stalking between cars, presumably looking for them. She shadowed him, remaining a good distance away, as he rolled something under a car. Next thing she knew, there was an explosion and Nat had vaulted onto his back, attempting to tackle him that way. Katie sprinted towards her, and then slid across the floor, kicking at the back of his knee, making him stumble slightly but nothing more. She jumped up just as he flipped Natasha over onto her back and aimed a shot at him causing him to leap off somewhere to his right. Katie spun round, her gun aimed ready, looking for him but he was nowhere to be seen.

She started to sprint over towards Natasha, yelling at the screaming members of the public to get out of the way as she went, when she felt a searing pain in her shoulder. She gave a scream of pain, stumbled, and dropped to her knees putting a hand to the wound someone had just shot clean through. She backed up against a car, breathing hard looking around again when a thump from behind her had her turning to see that the Winter Soldier had hopped onto the hood of the car behind the one she was leaning on, gun aimed straight at her head.

Steve had heard that scream and he spun round to see Katie was pressed up against a car, her hand up against her left shoulder, her eyes fearful. As he turned to sprint towards her, the the Winter Soldier hopped up onto the car behind, taking aim with his gun Steve launched his shield with a loud grunt and  It knocked the metal armed man off the car, but with practiced ease the assassin landed on his feet and made to shoot again but Steve was right there, on him, launching a knee to his chest. The Winter Soldier stumbled slightly, before he cocked his head to one side, threw his gun away and advanced on Steve. The two began to fight, furiously, Steve blocking the swipes the assassin took at him with a dagger, slamming him into cars with his shield. 

Toe to toe they went, the fight was furious. Each landing blows which would under normal circumstances dispatched an opponent but here, they were pretty equally matched. The man was just as strong as Steve and The Captain realised that he had to be enhanced.

As the fight was raging between the two men, Natasha reached Katie’s side and dropped to her knees, ripping off her jacket and covered the wound with it in an attempt to stem the blood flow. "Alright, c'mon." She said wrapping her arm over her shoulders. "Get up."

She helped Katie to her feet, and the injured woman looked back in time to see the Winter Soldier launch himself at Steve. Steve managed to grab him under his chin, propelling him straight over the top of him in a huge arc, causing his mask to clatter to the ground right before the dark haired man landed gracefully on his feet. Steve stood up, waiting to see the face of the man who was causing them so much goddamned trouble, but when the guy turned round, he felt his heart stop.

Katie frowned as she watched as Steve stood stock still, staring at the now unmasked Winter Soldier who looked oddly familiar. It took her a moment but then she realised, he was familiar because she’d seen him in photos. His hair was longer, and he looked a little more ragged round the edges, but it was him.

Steve took a deep breath, his heart stopping as he looked into the man’s grey eyes.

“Bucky?” he gasped, frowning.

“Who the hell’s Bucky?” the man said. Steve paused, it sounded like him. It looked like him. It was him, but in the same way it wasn’t. What had Hydra done? The Soldier seemed to be thinking about something, before he shook his head slightly and aimed at Steve with his last remaining gun, but before he could shoot Sam swooped down, his wings once again attached to his back, and kicked him away but he didn’t stay down for long.

Katie looked around, and noticed that there was an RPG on the floor, she nodded towards it and Natasha picked it up, and aimed a well fired grenade over Steve’s head, forcing him to duck. It exploded where the Winter Soldier had stood, bringing the fight to an end.

Steve turned and looked and Katie slumped against the van, struggling to stay on her feet. It was then that black vans and jeeps surrounded them, and the former STRIKE teams piled out.

"Drop the Shield, Captain! Get down on your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!" Rumlow shouted out the orders. Steve did as he was told and placed his shield on the ground while holding his hands up defensively, not once taking his eyes off Katie, as she screamed in pain as a hand sharply grabbed her shoulder, pressing down on the injury. She was hauled forwards, stumbling, her hands roughly snapped in cuffs in front of her.

Steve started to struggle but a gun was pressed into the back of his head causing him to stop. He didn’t listen to what they were saying, he was too busy trying to make sure Katie was ok, and then there was Bucky. As he stood up and was shoved forward, he was directed towards an SUV, followed by Nat and Sam. He turned to see Katie fall as she was shoved forwards before being wrenched roughly back to her feet by Rumlow who grabbed her arm harshly and grinned as he leant down, his mouth inches from her ear.

“Of all the times I dreamed of getting you in handcuffs…” he said, loud enough for Steve to here. The soldier let out a growl in his throat as Katie bared her teeth at Rumlow.

“Fuck you.” she spat.

“Oh darling, if only…”

“I warned you what would happen if you touched my girl again…” Steve snarled as with a huge wrench he snapped the cuffs that were pinning his arms behind his back and kicked out at the soldier that was stood at the side of the SUV. He advanced towards Rumlow. who almost lazily pulled a pistol from his belt and held the barrel against Katie’s head.

“One more move Rogers and I’ll blow her pretty little head off.”

Steve stopped dead, swallowing, his eyes blazing as he looked at Katie, her face was contorted in pain from the shot in her shoulder. She fixed her eyes on his, and he took a deep breath and looked back at Rumlow. 

“In the van...”  Rumlow instructed. 

And Steve knew he had no choice. With a last look at his girl he turned, bowing his head slightly. Once inside a pair of masked agents shoved him down, one giving him a harsh dig to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him as they clamped his feet in strong shackles to the side of the van, clamping his hands together in equally strong restraints in his lap.

Rumlow just laughed and threw Katie into the SUV, unceremoniously. She staggered to a seat as the doors swung shut behind them, the van starting and beginning to move only moments later.

Steve’s heart was in his mouth as he saw the extent to which his girl was hurt, the left side of her denim jacket was soaked with blood. She lay her head back against the seat and took a deep breath letting out a moan. It hurt. A lot. 

“Katie…” Steve he said, making sure his voice was calm “Come on, talk to me, sweetheart.”

“You know…” she said, opening one eye. “I’m going to get one of my childhood friends shoot you, see how you like it…”

Steve took a deep breath, glad she was still able to make jokes, but also comforted by the fact she’d recognised Bucky too, and he wasn’t going totally crazy.

“Childhood friend?” Sam asked “You mean that dude, Robocop? You know him?”

“Bucky…” Katie whispered, looking at Sam “Steve’s Riley…”

“He was my best friend. One of the Commandos.” Steve said softly, looking at his feet.

 “What?”  Natasha questioned. “It can’t be…”

"It was him," Steve said "And he looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How is that even possible?" Sam asked in disbelief. "That was like, seventy years ago."

"Zola," Steve immediately answered. "Bucky's unit was captured back in 43'. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Katie said gently as she grit her teeth through the pain in her shoulder. She was starting to feel a little light headed.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

He heard Katie taking a deep breath through her nose, and suddenly he was jerked back to the here and now. She needed help.

"We need a doctor here," Sam’s voice sounded out, beating him to it as she rest her head back against the seat. She was starting to feel really sleepy. Really sleepy.

“I think I need to sleep…” she muttered, softly and Steve instantly leaned forward, speaking in his Captain’s voice in a hope it would jerk her out of it.

“Stay awake. Eyes on me, doll”

"If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck...” Sam cut off and Steve turned to see why, watching with an open mouth when he saw the guard on the left whip out an electric rod, before flipping it and electrocuting the other guard before kicking and knocking them unconscious.

"That thing was squeezing my brain," Maria Hill complained as she pried the helmet off.

“Nice of you to show up…” Katie groaned, “We only called you like what, 12 hours ago…”

“Who's this guy?" Hill asked, ignoring Katie and nodding to Sam.

"Sam Wilson." Steve quickly introduced him, happy to see a friendly face. "Sam this is Maria. She's on our side." He added and Sam nods accepting Steve's word as Hill took out a set of keys and began to unlock their restraints.

Steve was by Katie’s side as soon as he was free. Her arms were released and she moved, crying out in pain.

“It’s ok…” he said as the truck stopped. “We’ll get you fixed up honey, I promise.”

"We gotta' get moving, Cap." Hill said, moving to the middle of the van. “Stand back”

What the device was he had no idea, but he didn’t care. It lazered through the SUV floor with ease and he turned to see Katie had now passed out. Giving a groan of frustration, he gently picked her up, and Maria dropped herself out of the SUV, then Natasha, then Sam who Steve passed his girl to gently. Once he was out, they rolled to the side, dodged down an alley and into another waiting SUV. Sam gently placed Katie on one of the seats, Hill passing Steve a spare jacket so that he could place it over the wound, applying pressure.

“Lay her flat…” Sam said, as the SUV sped forward “it’ll help stop the flow…”

With Sam’s help they managed to manoeuvre Katie so she was lay with her head on Steve’s lap. She murmured something and with his spare hand he gently carded his fingers through her hair.

“We’re not far out Cap.” Maria said, looking at him “Bout 20 mins or so. I’ll call ahead to medical, make sure they’re prepped”

He nodded and leaned back, lost in his thoughts. Bucky, Katie, Bucky, Katie… like a mantra it kept repeating in his head. Sam and Natasha were busy asking Maria questions, and he vaguely caught her answers-there was a secret SHIELD base outside town, no Hydra didn’t know, yes she was sure, yes she knew about insight and yes it needed to be stopped.

After what felt like the longest 20 minutes of Steve’s life they drew up to a stop outside what looked like a huge dam of sorts built into the side of a hill, and Steve stood up, easily picking Katie up into his arms, following Maria’s direction. They entered the large concrete doors into a brightly lit corridor and Maria shouted to someone who was running towards them dressed in a white coat.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint!" Maria was shouting.

"Maybe two," Sam added.

He felt Katie stir in his arms and he glanced down to see her blinking, her eyes screwed against the light.

 “Where…” she grimaced slightly at the pain both in her head and her shoulder. Fuck, she had no idea where she was or what had happened, other than she had clearly passed out.

“We’re safe.” Steve said, pressing his lips to her forehead, relieved to hear her voice even if she did sound like she was in agony. 

"Let me take her," the doctor called out.

“No,” Steve said firmly, his grip on Katie tightening slightly “Show me where to put her.”

"They’ll want to see him first" Maria said to the doctor who nodded and gestured for Steve to follow him.

“Who?” Katie asked, blinking.

No one answered and they were led to a room at the back of the facility where Hill pushed aside the plastic divider to where a very much alive Nick Fury was sat up in a bed.

Steve felt his mouth drop open as Fury remarked. "About damn time."

The doctor came in behind them and gestured for Steve to place Katie into a seat so he could start working on her wound. He did so gently, his hand sliding into her hair once more as he placed a kiss onto the crown of her head, not moving far from her, his hand gently resting on her good shoulder.

“This is gonna sting a bit Miss Stark…” the doctor said, and she nodded, hissing as he injected the local into the wound, and her spare hand reached up to grip Steve’s.

“You ok?” he crouched down and she turned to look at him.

“Marvellous.” she said, sarcastically “This is the best day of my life.”          

He chuckled, as long as she was being snarky she was ok. “You’ll be fine, won’t she doc?”

The doctor nodded. “I know it doesn’t feel like it but this is quite superficial.” he held up the bullet he had removed. “It hasn’t gone in too deep. You’ve just lost a fair bit of blood but I’m not too concerned, unlike him”

He gestured at Fury and Katie turned to look at him as Steve stood up doing the same.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache." Fury spoke.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," The doctor added.

"Let's not forget that," Fury chuckled. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha spoke to Fury. Her voice not accusing but hurt, "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury replied

“Ok you’re done.” The doctor said and Steve turned back to see Katie who was now plugged up to a bag of blood. “Bit of rest and I’ll check your levels later.”

“Thanks…” she said, turning back to Fury.

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Hill informed Steve eyed her, remembering how defeated she had looked at the hospital when they announced Fury's 'death'. Either she hadn't known at the time, or she was a damn good actor.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust," the Director admitted.

*******

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility," Fury scoffed while throwing a picture of Alexander Pierce to the middle of the table they were all sat round once they had all finished telling each other what had happened at the various stages of the day. "See, it’s stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch," declared Steve.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury added with a huff of a laugh, even though there was nothing funny about the situation at all.

“Ok so what do we do?” Katie cut in, “How do we stop it?”

Hill glanced at Fury before she leaned forward in her seat to grab the case which had been sitting on the table. She clicked the locks, opened up the top and spun it round to show them what was inside- 3 equally sized chips with similar designs of code etched into them.

"Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized," Agent Hill explained, opening up a laptop. She turned it around to allow them to see a simulated concept video of what she was saying. "We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own. One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra. We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left-" Fury started but he was cut off by Steve who harshly interrupted.

"We're not salvaging anything.” He said shaking his head slowly, and he meant it. “We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down SHIELD"

"SHIELD had nothing to do with this." Fury tried to defend his organization but there was a derisive snort which cut him short. Everyone turned in the direction from which it had been issued.

“Sorry, did I do that out loud?” Katie said, sitting up slightly.

“You gave me this mission.” Steve said, turning back to Nick, shaking his head “This is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised. You said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed," Fury said waving around him as if it was somehow enough.

"How many paid the price before you did?" Steve snapped, voice still hard, as his mind turned to Bucky. 

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury sighed sitting back in his seat.

"Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalised that, too?” Steve’s tone was icy. He knew the director hadn’t been involved in whatever Hydra had done but he couldn’t help but feel angry. He took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was softer but still as stern “SHIELD, Hydra…” he shook his head gently “it all goes."

"He's right," Hill finally spoke, sadness tinged her voice.

Director Fury looked at every single person in the room. He made specific eye contact with Katie who raised her eyebrows, defiantly. Natasha didn’t react at all, which in itself was enough. Then finally he looked to Sam, clearly curious as to what he thought about the whole thing.

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower," Sam vouched. Steve couldn’t help but smirk slightly.

"Well..." Fury leaned back and let out a sigh as he looked Steve in the eye. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

Whilst Steve was glad, he took no pleasure in what they were about to do. SHIELD along with Katie had been his anchor after waking up and bringing the security agency to its knees made him quite sad, especially after Peggy, Howard and Chester had been its founders. Nevertheless it was the right thing to do and for the next few hours they sat discussing and eventually had the bones of a plan in which each person had a different role to play. Natasha would be posing as one of the World Security Council members, using a Photostatic Veil to bypass the security measures, joined by Fury. And, as Hill had somehow retrieved Katie’s Nova suit from her car (Katie didn’t even bother asking how) her, Steve and Sam would be the ones going from helicarrier to helicarrier with the chips and switching out the old ones with the new ones. Maria would be on the ground, making sure all was going to plan.

“We’re going to have to come up with another way to disable the encryption.” Nat said, looking at Fury as he took a sip from a bottle of water. “Pierce will have erased all of your clearance from the Triskelion system”

“Not all of it.” Hill said with a wry smile

“What do you mean?” Katie frowned, taking the chocolate bar Steve handed to her with a smile. The doctor was happy with her blood levels but told her to keep her sugar and energy levels high, as such, Steve was ensuring she ate enough by consistently passing her snacks from the pile that Hill had dumped in the middle of the table for everyone to munch on until pizzas arrived.

Fury looked at her, then to Hill, before he reached up and flipped up his eyepatch revealing his badly scarred right eye.

“I build safety switches into most things these days.” He said dryly. “There’s a scan of this eye hidden on an old database, a seemingly un-active one from the 90s... “

“So if we can access that database remotely, we can pull that scan across onto the active one and bingo.” Katie grinned, swallowing her bite of the Snickers.

“We don’t have the capacity to do that from here.” Natasha sighed,

“No, but JARVIS can" Katie said

“Alright.” Steve said, drawing himself up to full height “We only have..." he checked the clock on the wall. "6 hours until the launch." Steve nodded at the people who were watching him from their spots at the table. "Everyone, I suggest we get to it.”

There was a flurry of movement accompanied with the scraping of chairs as people pushed themselves away from the table, ready to put their wheels of the plan into motion.

****

“Hey JARVIS…” Katie said as she accessed the AI on one of the laptops

“Miss Stark…” JARVIS greeted.

“I got another favour to ask. I need access to SHIELD's old clearance scans from 1995. We're talking the high-ups, the OG's."

"Dare I ask why?" and Katie rolled her eyes at his response. Fucking Tony.

"Because." she answered simply in the hope it would stop him from questioning her. It did.

“It might take me a little while.”

“Fast as you can J.” she said, “We’re up against it here.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to contact Mr Stark?” he asked

“No, I don’t”

It took 30 minutes. Thanking JARVIS, Katie started to scroll through the database to get the name she wanted. She quickly scanned the information. The database was full of former SHIELD security clearances. Some had moved on to other places - CIA, FBI, etc. Others had to get new clearances when they moved up in the world of SHIELD, few had just simply died and left their clearances behind.

The one she was looking for was still alive, although HYDRA and Pierce thought otherwise. Fury had hidden an alternative retina scan under the name Carol Danvers. She had no idea if that was a significant name to him or just something random, but she didn’t really care. She pulled the access pass and sent it to the main database so they could use it when they got to the Triskelion without going through the backway again.

Taking a deep breath before standing up, she glanced down at the laptop before closing it and heading off to find Steve.

The soldier was outside, desperate for some fresh air, lost in his thoughts. He should have gone back for Bucky. He survived the fall, but Steve had left him. Left him to the clutches of HYDRA, who had brainwashed him into becoming their assassin. He ran his hand over his face and leaned against the railing, watching as the first tendrils of daylight broke over the horizon.

As always he was aware of her presence before she spoke, so he wasn’t surprised when she asked if he was ok, and turned to face her, letting out a sight.

 “Not really…” he said, honest to a fault.

“You know, this is the right thing to do…” she said, as she slid between him and the barricade of the bridge so that her lower back was pressed against the rails.

“I know.” both his hands dropped to her hips. “I really wish you’d sit this one out”

“I can’t sit it out Steve. You know that.” she said “this is personal for me too. Besides, you need me.”

He understood. And there was no point trying to make her stay behind, she was probably the only person on the planet that could rival him for stubbornness. And she was right, they did need her.

“He’s going to be there.” Katie said gently, breaking the silence.

“I know.”

“Whoever he used to be, the guy he is now… I don’t think he’s the kind you can save, Steve. He’s the kind we need to stop.”

“I have to try” Steve said, eventually looking at her, pleading with her to understand “I can’t just give up on him.

She did understand, she understood perfectly well, and could only imagine what he was feeling at seeing his best friend, the man he had known all through his childhood, manipulated in such a way.

"We can never give up on those we care about, we can only try our best." she said.  “Just...remember that he's not the same person he was seventy years ago."

He raised his eyebrows up slightly.

"Neither am I." he responded matter of factly. She held eye contact with him for a moment, but she knew there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise; Bucky was his best friend. He loved him and wasn't about to let Hydra take him away again and eventually she gave a soft smile.

“I know.” she said gently, just before he pressed his lips to hers. She kissed him back, eagerly, the kiss grew deeper and his hands crept from her hips up to her hair, pulling her closer as he pressed against her, trapping her completely against the barrier.

Eventually, reluctantly, he pulled away laying his forehead against hers 

“I love you.” he said softly

“I love you too.” she replied

He looked over her shoulder at the rising sun and took a slight step back. “Tell the rest of ‘em to suit up, it’s time.”

In the meantime, he had his own suit to get. One which he’d been wearing the last time he took those fuckers down. And he was hoping, albeit probably in vain, that if he did encounter the Winter Soldier, it would jolt Buck’s memory about who he was.

“You gonna wear that?” she said, gesturing to his chinos and jacket, her eyebrow raised.

Steve looked at her with a smirk. "If you're gonna' win a war, you've gotta wear a uniform. He dropped a kiss to her head and took off at a run.

Katie smiled as she watched him knowing exactly where he was going.

*****

“Comms on 6…” Hill said as Steve, Sam and Katie jumped down from the SUV on the side of the Potomac to the Triskelion, not far from where the control operations were. Katie was holding the case that contained her suit in her right hand. She’d confessed to Sam that she’d only flown in it a few times, but Sam wasn’t too concerned and neither was Steve. Sam had promised to fly with her in tandem, and Steve trusted the man completely despite only having known him a number of days.

“Rogers, Hill…” Fury spoke in their ears “I’ll open ours as soon as it is safe to do so…” he paused. “Good luck.” They silently and quickly made their way down the side of the Potomac. The first task was to disrupt the comms and security surrounding the Launch Bunker so that no one would know they were arriving. A simple EMP did that.

And then, just as Steve was about to kick the door in to the main room, it opened.

The techy on the other side simply stared as he was confronted with the 4 of them. His eyes flickered first to Steve, then to the Katie and Mara who had their guns trained on him.

"Excuse us," Steve shot the tech a pointed look. He immediately held his hands up and stepped aside to let them enter with a nervous, slightly scared look on his face.

They stepped inside, looking around at the remaining 8 or so people in the bunker, all of whom immediately raised their hands.

“You got exactly 10 seconds to get the hell outta here…” Sam said, looking around. They didn’t need telling twice, several of them tripping over in their scramble to the door.

“Bit dramatic don’t you think?” Katie teased, as Sam shrugged, a grin spreading across his face as she dropped her case to the floor. Steve gently pushed past her towards the desk.

“Which one is it?” Steve was looking for the coms button which would project his voice around the Triskellion. Maria pointed to one of the buttons and mics on the desk in front of her, where she was sat, tapping at the computer.

Steve looked at Katie and licked his lips, somewhat nervously. He had given speeches before, but none like this.

“If there’s anyone that can make people understand it’s you.” Katie encouraged, and he nodded, taking a deep breath, before pushing the button, his voice suddenly amplifying as it filled every speaker in the building.

"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are Hydra as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there.” he took a pause before he continued “If you launch those Helicarriers today, Hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not,"

He finished and took a deep breath as Katie smiled at him and Sam looked up.

"Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?" he quipped.

Steve looked at him, trying to keep his face straight, before he turned to Maria who smiled, nodding at the screen.

“Alright, I’m in…” she said, before reaching into the briefcase and handing each of them one of the new targeting chips. “Get in, switch them over, get out.”

They all nodded and Katie bent over, pressing her fingers onto the security pad on the case containing her suit. As it sprang open she stepped forward, the metal pieces connecting and flowing over her body, the dark navy and gold suit forming around her before the face plate slid down.

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen…” Sam muttered, and Steve smiled. He’d only seen her in it once before when she had been running a test flight. Katie turned to Sam and although he couldn’t see her face, Steve knew from her tone she was grinning.

“You aint seen nothing yet Sammy…”

The three of them made their way around the banks of the river towards the triskelion, Sam and Steve running, Katie flying behind them at a low height. Suddenly, feeling the vibrations under his feet Steve skidded to a halt, Sam doing the same. Katie landed behind them, and looked down.

“What’s that?” she asked as the floor vibrated below them, retracting her face plate. ”JARVIS, gimme a scan…”

“Below the Potomac river is a hangar…” JARVIS said, his voice sounding in Steve’s ear too.  “And it looks like the doors are activated.” No sooner had he finished than Maria’s voice came over the comms "They're initiating the launch"

“Clearly your speech rattled them enough to bring it forward…” Katie said as the 3 of them headed to where the ground was opening and the Hellicarriers were launching.

“Hey Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam questioned as he ran.

"If they're shooting at you they're bad." Steve answered. Sam extended his wings and flew off after the highest Hellicarrier, while Steve jumped down onto the launching bay beginning to fight, Katie flying behind him, doing her best to clear out as many agents as she could

"Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about," Sam suddenly reported.

"You alright?" Katie asked.

"Not dead yet," Sam answered

Together Katie and Steve fought their way across the bay, clearing as much of a path for Steve as possible, before Katie spiralled through the air and up towards the one she had been designated. Dodging fire easily as she went thanks to JARVIS’ evasion techniques, she landed with a clang on the deck.

“I’m in…” she said, before a barrage of bullets ricoched off her back. She turned, cocked my head to one side before she smirked.

“Hi fellas…” she said, firing up her repulsor beams and sending them their way, before shooting upwards once more towards the central control column.

"Falcon, status?" Maria demanded.

"Engaging," Sam reported, before a moment later "Alright, I'm in…oh,shit!” he cursed.

"Eight minutes," Maria warned

"Working on it," Steve’s reply was punctuated by a grunt.

When Katie’s carrier was clear, which didn’t take too long, there were nowhere near as many agents on this than there was on the other, she landed by the control panel and stepped out of her suit, chip in hand. Punching in the code Maria had given them, she swapped out the targeting disk and grinned as he pushed everything back into place.

"Alpha locked," she reported, stepping back into my suit.

"Falcon, where are you now?" Maria asked anxiously.

"I had to take a detour!" Sam’s voice was loud. Katie took off, bursting through one of the glass windows of the Alpha carrier to see Sam spiralling through the air, being shot at by Hydra missiles. She surged forward, shooting randomly, turning their attention to her as she twirled down towards the glass dome surrounding the next helicarrier before at the last moment going into a vertical climb upwards, meaning the beams hit the glass creating an entrance for Sam.

“Oh, honey you fly better than me!" Sam happily exclaimed and Katie chuckled as he dropped into the hole. A moment or two later he spoke again “Bravo locked," and he shot back out into the bright sky.

"Alright, that's two down. How's it coming, Cap?" Maria questioned

"Still working on it!" Steve repeated. And he was. He had no idea how he managed to end up on the damned carrier with the most agents on it but they just kept coming and coming, like a never ending swarm of ants. He kicked out, taking another one down with a huge roundhouse kick and felt a bite of frustration as Hill urged him on.

"Better step it up Cap." she said, then there was the sound of 2 gun shots before she spoke again “6 minutes”

It was then that Steve realised he was blocked in. Agents behind him and a quinjet was aiming at him from ahead. He had no alternative but to dive off the edge of the hellicarrier.

"Hey, Sam, Sweetheart…I'm gonna need a ride," Steve said easily as he fell through the air.

"Roger! Let me know when you're ready!" Sam answered easily.

"I just did!" he said, his voice remarkably calm for a man who was currently freefalling at a fast pace. Suddenly his arms were tugging upwards, and he was deposited back on the tarmac, Sam landing besides him.

"You know, you're a lot heavier than you look," Sam grunted and Katie laughed, firing at an agent that was left before she dropped down with a clang.

"Yeah, well, I had a big breakfast." Steve responded cheekily.

Sam was about to respond when suddenly a blur of black and silver flew out from behind a crate and tackled Steve off the edge of the helicarrier.

“Steve!” Katie yelled, immediately launching to go after him but something grabbed at her foot, crunching down.

“Right thruster is compromised…” JARVIS said, as whatever had gripped her suddenly let go and she looped in the air, trying to gain her balance with only one thruster. As she spun to look at her assailant she caught a glimpse of a metal arm grabbing at Sam’s wings, throwing him backwards.

Sam managed to stop his backwards momentum and started to shoot at him in response. Katie joined in with her repulsors and one of the weapon guns from her shoulder, the two of them forcing the Winter Solider to retreat.

“Steve…” she yelled into her comms, flying off the side unsteadily with the one boot working “JARVIS run scan…” “Captain Rogers is there by the port side…” he said, and to her relief she saw his heat signature pulling himself up at the side of the carrier. She turned, expecting to see Sam behind her but instead she saw the Winter Soldier charging forward and kicking him off the Helicarrier. Sam began to plummet, one of his wings not working so Katie dove after him, grabbed his arm and managed to land the pair of them, albeit rather un gracefully, on the roof of the Triskelion.

“Thanks…” he mumbled dusting himself off as Katie retracted my face plate

"Steve, are you okay?" Katie asked earnestly.

"I'm alright. I'm still on the helicarrier." Steve responded. "Where are you?"

“Triskellion roof.” She spoke.

"I'm grounded, the suit's down. Sorry, Cap." Sam sighed.

“Katie?”

“One of my thrusters is out.” she sighed, “I’m running on half capacity…but I can get up to you if I need to.”

"It’s okay, I've got it." Steve said “I’ll call if I need you.”

“Half capacity?” Sam looked at her.

“Have to channel double the power to the non-fucked boot!” she shrugged, holding it up “Or I fall…means everything else gets compromised.” “Huh…” “Tony’s working on it…” she muttered as they looked up at the 3 hellicarriers, her eyes falling on the one Steve was currently on. “He’s gonna come face to face with him…”

“Yeah…” Sam sighed “Maybe he can make him remember who he was.” “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”  Katie observed, glancing at the Sam. He shrugged.

"Falcon, Nova…" Hill called through the comms.

"Yeah?" Katie paused, talking as she still remained with her eyes locked on Sam’s.

"Rumlow's headed for the council."

"I’m on it." Sam responded, unzipping his vest and nodding to Katie. “You stay here, he might need you.”

“Roger, oh and Sam…” she called after him. He turned to her, jogging backward “Give Rumlow a kick in the balls for me, really hard.” Sam saluted, grinning, before he turned on his heels.

“Steve…”  Katie spoke in her coms, getting nothing but static.

“I can’t reach him.” Hill said, “And Charlie is still not locked. We're running out of time."

"I'm on it." Katie responded, taking off in the direction of the carrier.

“40% power… “ JARVIS instructed.

“Thanks J, can you run a heat scan, locate Captain Rogers…”

“Located… he is in the central area, near the control room…” JARVIS said, showing her the thermal image of 2 men going toe to toe, her stomach sinking. She surged forwards and flew through the glass of the control room just as Steve and the Winter Soldier fell over the edge of the platform they were fighting on.

They both landed hard but The Winter Soldier got up first, standing over Steve, metal arm gearing up to deliver another blow, but as he went to connect with Steve's face Katie blasted at him, landing in between him and Steve, sending him sprawling backwards.

“Katie…” Steve said, getting to his feet.

“Get to the control panel.” she yelled as the Winter Soldier came charging back at her “We don’t have much time…” As the metal armed assassin lunged at her she shot upwards, flipping in the air and sailing behind him, firing at his back. He flew forward but jumped immediately to his feet and fired his gun at her, the bullets bouncing off her suit. They continued this twisted dance until she got a little too close, and his metal arm gripped tight around her left gauntlet, the squeal of metal on metal rang out as he began to crush down with his fingers.

“Shit…” Katie mumbled, “JARVIS… full power.” “But Miss Stark…”

“Do it!” She fired the suped-up repulsor beams and it caused the winter soldier to fall hard backwards. As she wound up for another shot, she had just sent it his way only to see him pick up Steve’s shield using it to block her ray. It rebounded it straight at her, hitting the suit square in the chest and sending her straight through the glass windows of the carrier into the sky.

It took her a while to right herself, but eventually she flew back inside just as the solider stabbed Steve in the shoulder. Steve yelled, and head butted the man three times, which forced him to let go. As Steve turned to pull the knife from his shoulder Bucky made a grab for the targeting chip and Katie fired at him again, knocking him into one of the metal beams at the back of the carrier, his head making a horrible noise as it connected before he fell face down. Steve wasted no chance in grabbing the discarded chip and heading up to the control panel as she stood between him and the Winter Soldier.

“Systems are seriously compromised…” JARVIS told her. “If you continue using your repulsors the way you are, I fear you won’t have enough power to make it down…” “We’ll worry about that later J.” she said, as she looked up watching Steve

"One minute." Maria Hill spoke and she had barely finished when Katie heard the sound of a gunshot. She turned to see The Winter Soldier getting to his feet looking dazed but his metal arm held his gun aimed up at the control panel where Steve was still climbing. Clearly he was still out of it enough to miss, even a second time as another gunshot went off and Steve let out a yell, gripping at his thigh.

"Thirty seconds!" Maria said urgently.

As the assassin position himself and steady his gun taking aim, Katie flew forward, knocking into him just as he fired. The Winter Soldier landed on his back before Katie stood over him, one foot on his chest, in a last ditch attempt to buy Steve a bit more time. He grabbed at the leg of her suit, pulling it from under her and she crashed to the floor, the man’s metal armed rained blow after blow down on her suit, the glass eye holes cracking.

“Suit integrity is at 50% and falling…”JARVIS said and she did the only thing she could do. She fired her thruster causing her to shoot out from under his hold, colliding with a steel piece of the structure which send her ricocheting out of the side of the hellicarrier.

"Charlie locked." she heard Steve's strained voice as she continued to fall through the air, struggling to fire her boot back up again.

"Okay, get out of there." Maria spoke as Katie continued to plummet, JARVIS also speaking to her saying he was trying to stabilise her tumbling.

"Fire now." Steve demanded.

“NO!” Katie yelled as he boot suddenly kicked to life about 12 foot above the Potomac. She could hear Maria trying to argue too. But Steve wasn’t having any of it.

"Do it now." Steve yelled.

Maria’s sigh was heavy on the comms link but she did as she was told pushing the button that started the helicarriers firing at one another. The ships began to tear each other apart and as more shots hit the one that they were on the inside began to break apart.

“Steve… STEVE!” Katie yelled hovering unsteadily, only being able to use the one thruster. She instructed Jarvis to channel more power into it to keep her upright and then Sam’s frantic voice sounded in her ear.

"Please tell me there's someone in the air!" 

"Sam! Where are you?" Nat’s voice sounded and Katie took a deep breath.

"Forty first floor!" He yelled as he got closer to the window. "Northwest corner!"

"Stay where you are!" Nat instructed as Katie swooped up to find him.

"Not an option!"

Her scanners picked him up and Katie spotted the helicopter Fury was flying a few floors below where it was supposed to be. She flew as fast as she could to grab Sam as he jumped out of the window of the collapsing building, catching him and tossing him into the helicopter flying in herself.

"Forty first floor!" Sam yelled as Katie retracted her helmet "Forty first!"

"It's not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building!" Fury yelled back.

"Hill, where's Steve?" Natasha asked. "You got a location on Rogers?"

“He was on Charlie…” Katie said, looking over, swallowing. “That’s the one that hit the building…”

*****

On the carrier Steve had tried to make him remember, just one final time, remember who he was. It didn’t work. The man with Bucky’s face tackled him to the floor and he landed on his back against a fallen bar, head dangling off the edge. He was anchored by the assassin’s legs around his waist and the tight hold of his uniform with his flesh hand. The man looked at him, hatred etched in every line on his face and it broke Steve's heart. What had HYDRA done to him to make him this way? They had turned his friend, his brother, against him and there was nothing he could do but try and remind him of his life before. And then came the blows from the metal arm, raining down on his face.

With every punch that landed, along with the agony, memories flashed across Steve's line of sight – some of them to do with Bucky, bailing him out of a fight in an alley behind a movie theatre. Punch. A Thanksgiving with the Barnes family. Punch. Games of cards in the army camp. Punch. But the ones that came more vividly were of his girl. The way her face scrunched up when she laughed. Punch. The black dress she wore on their first date. Punch. The way they lay tangled in one another after making love, her hand threading through his hair. Punch. The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention - like he was the best thing that ever happened to her.

He loved her. He loved her so much it hurt.

"You're my mission!" Bucky screamed out. Steve’s vision was blurry, his face was throbbing in pain; he was beaten, he knew that. But he just wanted Bucky to know how much he meant to him.

"Then finish it." Steve gasped out, pausing in an effort to get his breath back, "Cause I'm with you, till the end of the line."

He could've sworn he saw something in the man’s face shift. His eyes became wider, like he was panicking at the phrase. The metal fist was raised up high, but didn't move from its position. His chest rose and fell rapidly as his eyes softened, just slightly, and the metal arm lowered out of the wind-up. But before he could do anything else, a massive piece of steel from the helicarrier broke off. It crashed against the beam that Steve was up against. And then he was falling, as Bucky managed to hang on to the beam with his metal arm, a sick, twisted reversal of the incident seventy years ago when Steve had watched as Bucky fell into the snowy canyon below.

He plunged into the icy water of the Potomac, the light gradually growing darker, and darker as he sank further into the depth. It was a peaceful way to die, he supposed, after the brutality of the fight. And as his vision went, the last thing he saw was his girl’s face and the fact he was leaving her behind broke him just that little bit more.

I love you Doll, I love you.

*****

Katie engaged her helmet again and took off from the helicopter, flying alongside it for a short while as it circled the outside of the hellicarrier.

“JARVIS, you got anything?” she said, surging forward, but as she spoke her scanners locked onto Steve, where he was lay on the floor of the carrier, the Winter Soldier raining blows upon blows down at him, and he wasn't fighting back.

“What have we got left in the tank?” she asked desperately.

“25% power.”

“Should be enough…” she said, spiralling upwards towards them “Put everything we have into my thrusters.”

“Miss Stark…”

“Just do it…” she yelled.

She felt the power surge as she shot upwards but as she went, her scanners trained on them both, Steve she was hit by something falling from above and was sent crashing down through the floor of the carrier and then her repulsors cut out.

“Emergency back-up power…” JARVIS spoke as her suit fired up again, giving her just enough time to level out before she went head first into the Potomac. She weaved her way through the falling debris under the surface avoiding it before she shot upwards again, but there was no sign of Steve or the Winter Soldier.

“Miss Stark you need to land…”

“Yeah I know…” she said her voice cracking slightly “But I have to find Steve…”

In desperation she circled around the river, “Any sign?” she asked into the coms.

“Nothing.” Hill said “His suit doesn’t have a tracker…”

“Come on…” she mumbled, hovering in mid-air, her suit stuttering slightly. “JARVIS hit the scans again.”

“Running…” he muttered and she watched before the display locked onto him. He was quarter of a mile or so out from the Triskellion…and the Winter Soldier was pulling him out of the water onto the river bank.

With her last bit of remaining power she flew to them, landing behind the Winter Soldier. He immediately spun round but this time Katie saw fear in his eyes. They weren’t steely or dead like they had been before, instead they sparkled with emotion. For that reason she took a deep breath and stepped out of her suit, hands held up in a conciliatory manner.

“Bucky…” she spoke gently, glancing behind him to where Steve lay motionless on the bank. She bit back the panic in her throat at the site of him hurt and unconscious before she focussed on the man in front of her.

“Who are you?” his voice was deep and he looked at her. This was good, he wasn’t attacking. Taking a shaky breath she took one step forward and he instantly grew defensive and she stopped, shaking her head.

“It’s ok, my name’s Katie…I’m Steve’s girlfriend. You know Steve, right?”

His chest heaved, his eyes widened and for a split second she thought he was going to come towards her. Instead he stood to the side letting her get a full view of her man before nodding towards her.

"Get help." He said to her gruffly before turning and running.

“I’ve got him…” Katie spoke into her coms as she scrambled over to Steve, stumbling as she ran “South West bank, clearing in the trees…look for the sign…”

At that she shouted to JARVIS  “Supernova Protocol…” before she dropped to her knees next to Steve, hearing her suit shoot upwards before it exploded with a bang. Her heart stopped for a second as she looked down at her man, letting out a sob as she noticed his chest was rising and falling slowly, the only sign he was alive. His face was badly beaten, his right eye almost completely closed. There was the knife wound on his shoulder, several deep cuts to his face, but it was the gunshot wound to the middle of his abdomen that worried her most. It was bleeding heavily. She pressed one hand to the wound to stem, her other stroking his battered face…

*****

Steve realised he wasn’t dead. He felt like it, god the pain, but there was a familiar voice, a familiar touch, one heavy on his abdomen, the other stroking his sore, battered face.

“Shh…its’ ok” she said. It was her. He tried to speak but she shushed him, “Baby I’m here.”

“Katie…” he opened his eyes, looking at her, those beautiful green eyes, and he realised he wasn’t ready to go. He didn’t want to go, not when she was here. The thought of leaving her behind, when they had so much to look forward to, a future, made him start to panic.

“You’re going to be fine…” she said. He believed her, but man he was so tired, and the pain. His eyes shut.

******

Katie sat back, hand still pressed to the wound and looked across the Potomac. Pieces of the helicarrier were still falling, splashing into the river. She had no idea how long she waited, it can’t have actually been that long, but it felt like ages as she simply sat, hand clamped over Steve’s abdomen, listening to the sirens ringing loud through the air as emergency responders got closer. In an odd way, it was all proof they had won. But at what cost? 

She heard footsteps behind her and instantly wheeled to see Fury stood barking orders to 4 men following him with a stretcher, but she couldn’t really hear him. She stood up, moved back, in somewhat of a daze, to allow them access to Steve but once he was loaded onto the gurney she moved back to his side, taking his hand.

They emerged from the bank, and another medic made to drop a blanket round her, but she shrugged him off, her hand still round Steve’s until she had to let go as they loaded him into the ambulance which was parked in the clearing near the chopper.

“He’s gonna be fine…” Sam said as he appeared besides her, dropping an arm round her shoulders as she watched them anchor the stretcher in place. The paramedic inside the ambulance gestured to her, and she climbed in without so much as a glance back.

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@the-omni-princess

@momobaby227

@geekofmanythings 16

[moonlight-joy]

Beneath Montana Skies

Fandom: Yellowstone

Summury: A young Dutton returns to Yellowstone Ranch, rekindling her connection to her family’s legacy while navigating a forbidden romance with rugged foreman Rip Wheeler, challenging loyalty, love, and the unyielding spirit of Montana.

Pairing: Dutton!Reader/Rip Wheeler

The early morning sun casts a golden glow over Yellowstone Ranch, the sound of cattle echoing across the vast expanse. Dressed in a flannel shirt and dusty boots, you swing your leg over your horse, Blaze, and take in the sight of the land your family has called home for generations. At 25, you’re the youngest Dutton, returning after years away studying veterinary medicine in Texas. You didn’t warn anyone you were coming—not even your father, John Dutton.

“You didn’t even call,” John says gruffly, leaning against the corral fence.

A smirk tugs at your lips. “Wanted to see if the ranch could survive without me.”

John chuckles despite himself, his hard exterior softening. “You’re your mother’s daughter, alright. Stubborn as hell.”

Before you can reply, a tall, rugged figure approaches. Rip Wheeler, the ranch foreman, tips his hat. His piercing gaze lingers on you a moment too long.

“Boss,” he says, nodding to John before shifting his attention to you. “So you’re the infamous youngest Dutton. Heard a lot about you.”

“Good things, I hope,” you say, offering him a sly smile.

“Depends who you ask,” Rip says, his lips twitching into a smirk. “I’m Rip.”

“Nice to meet you,” you reply, extending your hand. His grip is firm, his calloused hand a testament to years of hard work. A spark flickers between you—subtle but undeniable.

You quickly find your rhythm on the ranch, your veterinary skills proving invaluable. But your fiery personality sometimes clashes with your siblings, especially Beth. She’s fiercely protective of Rip and watches your interactions with barely concealed suspicion.

One evening, you find yourself alone in the stables, brushing down Blaze. The steady rhythm of the brush and the familiar scents of hay and leather calm your thoughts, until the sound of boots on hay catches your attention.

“You always work this late?” Rip asks, leaning against the doorway.

You glance up, brushing a strand of auburn hair from your face. “Someone’s got to make sure these horses are taken care of. And you? Don’t you ever stop?”

Rip steps closer, his gaze steady. “Stopping’s not really my thing.”

His nearness makes your breath hitch, but you steady yourself, meeting his gaze head-on. “So, tell me—how does a guy like you end up working for my family?”

Rip’s jaw tightens. “That’s a long story. Not sure you’d want to hear it.”

“Try me,” you challenge, your voice softer now.

Rip hesitates, then pulls up a hay bale and sits down. Slowly, he opens up, sharing his troubled past, the loss of his family, and how John Dutton gave him a second chance. As he speaks, you see beyond his tough exterior to the vulnerable man beneath.

When he finishes, his eyes search yours, as if waiting for judgment. Instead, you place your hand on his.

“Sounds like you’ve been through hell,” you say gently. “But you’re still here. That says a lot.”

Rip’s gaze softens, and for the first time in years, he feels truly seen. “You’re something else, you know that?”

You smile. “Guess you’ll just have to stick around and find out.”

Your connection with Rip deepens in stolen moments: glances across the dinner table, late-night rides under the stars, and whispered conversations in the barn. But secrecy weighs heavy on you both. Rip’s loyalty to your father and your fear of family backlash keep you cautious.

One night, by the firepit, Rip finally speaks what’s on both your minds. “We can’t keep sneaking around, not here. Your dad’s gonna find out.”

Leaning against him, your head resting on his shoulder, you reply, “Let me worry about my dad. I know what I want, Rip. And it’s you.”

“You don’t make things easy, do you?” he says, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Never,” you say, your voice full of defiance.

Secrets don’t stay buried long on Yellowstone Ranch. One evening, Beth corners Rip. Her piercing gaze doesn’t waver.

“Whatever you’re doing with her, end it,” she warns. “You know how this ends.”

Rip doesn’t flinch. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Do you?” Beth snaps. “Because if John finds out, it won’t just be your job on the line—it’ll be her heart, too.”

When Rip tells you about Beth’s warning, it forces you to face the risks. One evening, under the vast Montana sky, he takes your hands and asks, “I don’t want to hurt you. But I need to know—are you sure about this? About me?”

Cupping his face, you meet his gaze with unwavering resolve. “Rip, I’ve never been more sure of anything. I don’t care what my family thinks. I love you.”

For the first time, Rip allows himself to believe he deserves happiness. Together, you face the challenges of ranch life and the fallout from your relationship.

When the truth comes out, John’s anger is sharp, but it’s tempered by the undeniable bond between you and Rip. Even Beth, though reluctant, eventually steps back, offering you a guarded warning.

“If he breaks your heart, I’ll break his jaw,” she says, half-serious, half-teasing.

Together, you and Rip prove your love can weather any storm. Whether it’s battling land disputes or facing personal trials, you find strength in each other.

Years later, standing on the porch of the small cabin you share with Rip at the edge of the ranch, you watch the sun dip behind the mountains. The trials you’ve faced have only made your love stronger.

“You ever think we’d get here?” you ask softly.

Rip wraps an arm around you, pulling you close. “Not in a million years. But I wouldn’t change a thing.”

As the sky turns shades of pink and orange, you know your story is only beginning—one forged in fire, love, and the unyielding spirit of Yellowstone Ranch.

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[itsstrange]

The Promise

Chapter 2: One Step At A Time

Relationship: Rip Wheeler x Reader

A/N: Hey Ya’ll!! Here’s part 2 of this series!! I’m not sure how many more updates there will be, but i think it won’t be more than three chapters! But For Now, Enjoy Chpt 2! 💗

Summary: Reader Comes Home After Being Away For 7 Months. Rip Immediately Noticed A Change In Their Appearance, But Keeps His Promise In Getting Them Through It All.

Word Count: 8.7k

Warnings: (Yes) Fluff, Reunited Lovers, Hugs, Comfort, Kisses, Small Angst, Reader Has PTSD, Rip Being A Gentlemen, Protective Rip, Splash of Smut.

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ENJOY! 💗🐎

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“Thank you,” You tell an old couple as you climb off their 1968 F-250. They wave at you and offer to drive you further, but kindly decline as you grab your backpack and duffle bag from the truck bed,

“Well.. you get home safe sweetheart,” The older lady claims as she reaches a hand for you, which you take with a thankful smile,

“I will and thank you, again,” You tell them once again before watching them drive down the street of the small town,

As they turn the corner, disappearing from your sight, you bend down to grab your backpack to shrug on then your duffle. With a heavy exhale you begin making your way down the familiar roads.

Probably would have been best and a lot faster to get a ride to the Dutton ranch, but at this moment, you just wanted to walk alone. Clear your mind, clear the noise, and the walk to the ranch would do just that. The ride on the cargo plane helped ease them, but now your mind fought hard to not rattle. So a walk should help.

Hopefully.

The birds chirping, trees moving with the wind, horses trotting here and there, cows mooing, the peaceful sound of the lake flowing against the rocks was everything you wanted to hear at the moment. It would soothe you, calm you, ease the anxiousness that your entire body felt, ease your mind.

Montana’s cold weather helped ease it just a little. Distracting you by helping you focus on the freezing cold instead of the noise banging on the walls inside your head. Snow still laid on certain parts of Montana, but most of it has already melted, leaving the grounds wet and moist, yet, despite it being somewhere in the middle of February, the weather still feels freezing cold. Another thing your body had gotten use to.

You would receive drive offers from random folks that would pass by, but you’d decline each one, prefer walking to the ranch, it was your therapy without admitting it.

After 7 months or so—you honestly can’t remember— of traveling on your feet, one gets accustomed to walking for so long. Your body is on autopilot, hasn’t left its mission, your mind.. hasn’t left. Yet, with this walk, the peaceful sounds surrounding you helped ease it to calm down, to come back home.

After what seemed like 30 to 40 minutes of walking through dirt roads, passing multiple private homes, declining more lifts from random strangers, ignoring idiotic men on motorcycles who think they can pick up any females they see, you finally make it to the Dutton ranch. Everything was the same as you left. Maybe a few new cattle’s, a brand new fence in one section of the ranch, the Dutton ranch sign at the entrance of the home did look a little off balance, which you made a mental note to fix the following day or at least inform one of the boys to give it a fix. But other than that, the ranch looked the same as it ever did since you were a kid.

Getting a better grip on the straps of your duffle you begin walking past the entrance of the ranch. As you grew closer the familiar smell of the place invades your senses, bringing a beautiful familiar warmth in your chest, a safe space, a home you had fought to come back to. Everything around you brought you such happiness and peace when you knew at that moment you were back on familiar grounds. Yet despite all that, dark, loud cloud still hovering over you, you did your best in ignoring it, blocking it from taking control. What also helped in distracting you from those memories and thoughts was the sound of horses running and trotting, then deep familiar voices talking and arguing with each other.

Getting closer to the home you spot familiar faces inside the gated field. Ryan and Colby sat on the fence as they laughed about something, then your focus turns to Lloyd who leaned against the fence with his forearms as he yelled at someone, which then your focus averts to two people on horses who seemed to be competing.

On one horse was Jimmy and the other looked like a female who you didn’t recognize. Did they end up finding a replacement or something? You think to yourself as you continue inching closer. No one had noticed you yet, until Jimmy makes an odd turn with his horse that has his eyes averting to you. In an instant a high pitched scream comes from the man as he points with a wide smile, he looks over his shoulder to grab the attention of his comrades but ends up falling off his horse completely and landing with a hard thud. Yet, the rough fall doesn’t phase him, instead he jolts to his feet before running towards the fence where he hops over to meet you halfway.

A sincere, yet, foreign chuckle slips from your lips as you watch Ryan and Colby fight each other off the fence before they too run towards you. Both men were surprisingly fast and had past Jimmy with a rough shove to either side of his arms, sending the poor man stumbling on his feet before once again darting his way towards you. The first to reach you was of course Ryan who had instantly lifted you off your feet in a brutal hug, leaving a fit of giggles to fall from your mouth as he spins you around the air. Once planting you on your feet Colby shoves the man aside as he takes his turn to engulf you in his large frame.

Both their musky scent of cologne, dirt, sweat and grime invades your senses. Another reminder that you were safe, home.

“Where the hell did you come from?!” Ryan asks breathless, wide smile displayed on his face,

“Yeah why the hell didn’t you tell us you were coming home today!?” Colby asks after, gripping your shoulders to slightly put a gap between you two to look into your eyes,

“Phone was dead. Didn’t charge it. Just came straight here,” You vaguely explained, but they didn’t care about any further explanation because they were back to pulling you into a firm hug,

You let out a muffled chuckle as both men wrap their large arms around you, hugging you tightly as they both overlapped their words as they each shared how much they’ve missed you and how much you’ve missed since you’ve been gone. As they pulled away from you, giving you oxygen from their heated huddle, you watch as Jimmy now stood behind both men, sweat dripping visibly on his face as he panted with a large smile. He spreads his arms to give you a welcoming hug, but before he can Lloyd and his horse cut him off.

The older man swiftly climbs off his horse before hugging you tightly.

“Good to see you again, Lieutenant,” The man claims with a proud smile as he gently but firmly pats your back before letting you go,

You scoff with a shake of your head. Small smile forming at the corner of your lips, you absolutely hated when he’d bring your rank. Something that you were proud of obviously, but just something you’ve never cared for. Something you rather not remember on how you got promoted a few years back.

After partying ways from Lloyd you go ahead and give Jimmy his awaiting hug with a soft chuckle. He hugs you tightly, claiming how he missed you before pulling away. Both Ryan and Colby grab your bags as they all walk with you back towards the ranch. A few more ranchers stopped their work to welcome you back, giving you respectful handshakes or respectful hugs before once again getting back to work while some remained huddle around to chat with you.

As the boys were still excitedly overlapping their words you noticed the female you had seen from a distance make her way towards the small group that huddled around you.

She wore a grey tank top with a red checkered sleeveless flannel on top, washed out blue ripped jeans, cowboy boots on her feet and a black SnapBack cap. Short faded pink strands of hair were displayed on either side of her ears. As she walked towards the group that excitedly fawned over your arrival, you noticed how she had a tough demeanor as she made her way over, an attitude that most likely proves to others that she was not one to be fucked with and an attitude that proves she likes to get in trouble.

She held her head high as she itched closer, small smile tugging on her lips as the boys remained talking over each other, fighting each other to get their chance in talking with you.

“Heya. I’m Tator,” She introduces herself—more like shoving herself between Colby and Jimmy, strong Texan accent filling your eardrums, causing a whistle to fall from your lips at the nostalgia,

“Haven’t heard that accent in a minute. Thought I left it back in basic,” You tell her with a smile, reaching out to shake her hand,

The woman snickers with a wide smile, gripping your hand to shake, “Well we motherfuckers tend’ta stick on ya like a piece of fuckin’ chewing gum,”

You let out a chuckle, “Ain’t that the truth. I’m (L/n). (Y/n) (L/n),”

It literally only took seconds to feel comfortable around her. Her entire aurora read toughness, strong loyalty, but it also read that she would be a good person to count on for a lot of shit. And that, was something you liked about her.

“Just to help clarify, it’s Teeter,” Colby softly joins with a proud, warm smile,

Another, sincere, chuckle slips your mouth, your eyebrows raised, “Yeah.. I got that Colb,”

“You did?” Ryan genuinely asks, eyebrows knitted together at the fact that you were able to understand the woman with such ease,

“Thank fuck to tha’. This old bow legged bastard thought I said Peter when we first met,” Teeter starts again, pointing a thumb at Lloyd who shook his head from embarrassment,

Another round of laughter was shared from the group, reminding you just how much you missed it all. How much you missed them.

Yet, despite them having hired another ranch handler and most likely took your spot, you still were glad they all kept each other company. And speaking of, you turn to face Ryan and Colby, who still held your bags in their hands, wide smile on their faces.

“I see you ended up replacing me,” You tease them, smile tugging on your lips when you see the way their smile slightly falter at your words,

“No we didn’t! Well.. we did.. I guess. But we.. we tried to keep your space ready. Until Rip took the rest of your things to his place,” Ryan quickly explained, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck,

The mention of his name has your heart fluttering in your chest. That excitement and electric feeling travels through your veins to the tips of your fingers at the thought of him. Your eyes are quick to scan the ranch in hope to spot his large frame, but disappointment settled in your chest when he was nowhere to be found.

“He around?” You finally ask the boys after searching the place,

Ryan shakes his head, bringing his hand to fix his hat, “He’s out taking care of some things with Kacey. Should be back in a couple of hours,”

“I’d say an hour. Once he gets word that you’re finally home, he’ll all but cut the break lines on the truck to get here sooner,” Colby joked about his foreman, causing another fits of chuckles to slip from the small group,

“Hell, he’d fly over here if it was optional,” Lloyd joins in on the fun before passing his reins to another ranch handler, who without question takes his horse towards the stables,

You turn to face Ryan. A serious look on your eyes as you hold his gaze, “Anything I gotta worry about?”

He’s quick to shake his head, “Nothing like that. Just business,”

You give him a short nod before they’re once again back to cracking jokes with one another. Even sharing a few embarrassing stories about Jimmy that had happened not too long ago.

Faint chuckles slips from you as you stood there, hearing them joke around with each other, something you missed dearly. Yes there were times where you’d be able to sneak a call or two with the boys while you were away, share some sort of laughter despite of the situation you were in. And it helped sooth you when days were tough, when days seemed long, when it seemed dark. But like always, the Yellowstone boys never failed to not make you crack a smile.

Same thing with Rip. He always managed to keep that faith in you, keep that strength going. When days only seemed to grow worse as you grew closer to finding him, his words, his voice was there to keep you grounded. Keep you from tilting the edge. Hell, the promise you made of coming home to Rip saved your ass. Saved you from those two torturous days.

In fact.

You should have died. You really should have, but your promise is what gave you that power, energy, rage, to fight back. To escape.

If it wasn’t for that, you knew you wouldn’t be here. Laughing with the boys once again.

A soft, but firm, hand settling on your shoulder brings you out of your thoughts. Turning, you lock eyes with Lloyd. A knowing look written on his face as he gently squeezes your shoulder.

“You should head up to the Dutton home,” He softly tells you, then continues with a small smile, “I’m sure he’ll be glad to know that his favorite ranch handler is back,”

You scoff with a roll of your eyes. But still can’t help the smile from forming on your lips as you take his word for it and begin walking towards the home. Not before doing your best in convincing the group— meaning Ryan and Colby— that there was no need for a welcome back party, but of course, when do they ever listen to you.

So after multiple failed attempts of getting them to undo the gathering, you sighed in defeat as Lloyd simply guided you away from the arguing men, telling you it’s no use wasting your energy in talking them out of it and to just go with their flow.

Another exhausted sigh falls from your mouth as you shake your head at the older man. Small smile still playing at the corners of your mouth as you walked down the dirt road.

The sun was an hour or less away from setting. The day was still early but quickly reaching towards nightfall. As you got closer to the breathtaking home of the Duttons, you couldn’t help but glance out to the beautiful view. Seeing the way the sky was forming bright to dark orange colors as the sun was getting ready. Nothing compared to murky dark clouds hovering the sky, the smell of burnt lingering in the air, the sound of rubble falling and breaking against the floor, the sound of distant gunfire. Sounds of painful cries. Of pained screams.

The smell of blood, burnt flesh——

“You little bitch!” A loud voice interrupts your thoughts, causing you to turn around, feeling the way a wide smile spreads on your face as you lock eyes with the one and only Beth Dutton,

“Well that’s one way to greet me back,”

“Oh baby, if my hands weren’t so bruised then I’d gladly welcome you back in a different manner,” The blonde head claims as she walks towards you, large smile on her own face as she hugs you tightly against her frame,

Your own arms wrap around her. Holding her just as tight as you bury your face into her messy golden locks. Another person you missed dearly and who would always send you love letters. Just for the fuck of it obviously. But also to keep in touch. As much as Beth Dutton had the intelligence to work a simple laptop and technology these days, she oddly enough preferred sending you ‘love letters’ as she called them.

What she didn’t know was that you held onto them still. Another reason that kept you from going down to hell. Her and her family. They were also part of your reasons to keep going.

“Am I ever gonna know the why to your bruised hands?” You asked with a chuckle, still hugging her till she pulls away to look into your eyes,

“Not in the slightest baby girl. But just know. I won the fight,” Beth claims with a smirk as she tugs you inside her home, earning a chuckle from you,

“Of course you did,”

Beth sends you a smirk over her shoulder as she leads you further into the beautiful home. Calling out to her father and letting him know a special guest has arrived. A few moments later the famous John Dutton is appearing from the top steps. Shock visible on his face but quickly forms into a rare smile.

“Well I’ll be damned,” His hoarse voice bounces off the walls along with a chuckle as he slowly descends from the stairs, you catch a glimpse of him limping on a leg, but before you can ask John is engulfing you in his large frame, “Welcome home kiddo,”

You smile into his shirt as you hug him back, “Thank you Mr. Dutton, it’s good to be home,”

John chuckles as he pulls away from you. Blue eyes looking directly into your own, “How many times I gotta say it kid? It’s just John (Y/n), you’re apart of this family, whether you like it or not,”

Your heart makes a small tug at his words. Feeling the truth and sincerity in them. No matter how much they’ve showed their love, loyalty, and protectiveness towards you, you never will get accustomed to their love. They always treated and considered you as a Dutton member, but till this day, it was still a foreign feeling.

Loneliness and pain is all you ever felt growing up, so of course when a wealthy man and family took you in under their wing, it was hard to accept. Yet, you were learning to accept it all. Little by little.

“So, what do you want me to start with? How are the animals doing?” You ask the man, wanting to get out of his way to get to work,

John chuckles with a shake of his head, “Straight to it huh?”

You give him a sheepish smile with a shrug of your shoulders, “Just tryna help around. Don’t wanna get in your way,”

This time the older man scoffs at your words, “There’s no work for you today (Y/n), you just got back,”

“I don’t mind. Could use the work anyways,” You tell him as you follow him through the house, Beth right behind you,

John stops in the kitchen to grab a drink before turning to you. He stares at you for a moment, blue eyes scanning— observing your entire frame. You knew what he was doing, he was trying to analyze you, see if a a broken girl stood staring back at him, but you knew you hid it well. It was a negative thing about you, you never did showed what you felt.

After a while, John simply finishes his drink before placing it on the counter behind him and glancing up at you once again.

“Beth take (Y/n) here into town. Have a girls day, ya know the whole..,” He pauses as he waves his hand in the air, “Spa— nail treatment thing,”

You’re quick to shake your head, stepping closer to the island in front of you, “Mr. Dutton—,”

“And I’ll have the boys set up the pit out there. We’ll make something out there and I’ll also have Gator make some desserts,” The man in charge ignores your attempt of declination and simply talks to his daughter as if you weren’t there,

“Please Mr— John I don’t-..,” You try but was once again interrupted by Beth pulling you out of the kitchen with force,

You try fighting her, trying to convince her to not take you out of the ranch, but it was no use because you were simply given a raised brow from the blonde head as a threat. So, with an annoyed, slightly irritated huff you climb into the luxury car, earning a satisfied hum from the woman before climbing into the car herself.

The whole ride a sour face was displayed on your features. Arms crossed in front of your chest as you look out the window, but you knew deep, deep down, it was something you definitely needed.

You were just too stubborn to admit it yourself.

****

Two Hours Later

Okay.. you will admit. The spa that Beth had planned for the both of you was something you definitely didn’t know you needed in life. You’ve had massages sure. But a spa day? You seriously didn’t understand why you’d never thought of doing a spa day. Or go to a spa in general! For the last two hours you felt at peace. Literally at peace. You even woke up with a slight jolt thinking you had died from relaxation, however, when you turned to your left and saw Beth faced down on the bed with a female attendant working on the blonde heads shoulders you relaxed once again.

The remainder of the day was you floating into peaceful thoughts. Gentle, firm massages throughout the body, 20 minutes in the jacuzzi, then another hour of massages onn your tensed shoulders and back. At first you were hesitant, not wanting to be completely bare in front of the worker, not that it made you uncomfortable, only thing that made it uncomfortable was the fact you had to show your old and new war scars. It was something you never liked sharing or seeing, so you’ve always kept them hidden. For multiple reasons obviously.

However, after some convincing and comforting support from Beth, you eventually stripped off your clothes and wrapped your frame in a white towel before letting the attendance get to work. For the remainder of those two hours you were in oblivion.

Sadly, it wasn’t for long because now you were back in the car and Beth was turning into the Dutton ranch once again. It was a blissful day while it lasted, something you’ll consider in doing again.

From a distance the boys can be seen gathering around the fire pit. Chatting, drinking, sharing jokes and laughing with each other. John stood by the grill, flipping what smelled to be burgers with a beer in the other hand. Kacey and Tate also stood next to the man, talking and chuckling with each other. The closer you got the better you were able to see who exactly had joined. Literally everyone who worked at the ranch was huddled by the fire pit enjoying the night, and when they saw you approaching with the bosses daughter they all greeted you with a raised cup in the air.

Tate all but ran and embraced you in a tight hug, nearly unbalancing the both of you. A soft giggle rumbles in your throat as you hug him back with a small smile.

“I knew you’d be back,” The young boy claims, words slightly muffled as his face hid in your shirt,

Your shoulders tense up once again at his words. The heaviness wanting to settle on your chest as your mind tries to wonder back to those dark, brutal days, but you pushed it aside and fought to keep your mind from losing itself. You focused on Tate’s voice as he rambles about god knows what, about things he’s learned at the ranch, movies he’s seen, moments he’s spent with his grandfather. It helped ease the tension but as you walked side by side the young boy before watching him dart towards his mother who waited for him with a plate full of food, your eyes instantly find him.

The heaviness vanishes. Disappears.

He was currently standing by John, handing another pack of frozen patties to the man, but his focus was on you. Your steps halt to a stop as you keep eye contact with him, just observing him, cherishing the sight, reminding yourself that this moment was indeed real, he was real and standing right there. Just a few feet away from you.

John glances up at his foreman with curiosity for his rigid form but then immediately whips his focus to the direction he’s staring at and can’t help the small chuckle to fall from his lips when he spots you standing in the same position. From the corner of your eye you see Dutton tell him something before motioning his head to the side and in less than a second Rip makes his way towards you. The pack of patties left on the grill near the boss. His legs taking long, quick strides on the pavement, eyes never leaving your frame, as if you’d vanish from his sight if he did.

You wouldn’t blame him because you too matched his pace, feeling desperation crawling in your veins to reach him faster, once close you instantly wrap your arms around his neck where you feel his own large arms wrapping tightly around your frame.

You didn’t know when the tears started flowing down your cheeks but you could care less at this moment because all you cared for was Rip, in your arms. And you knew he did too from the way he only held you tighter against his large frame. From the years you’ve known him, you knew the foreman was never the type to show any sort of emotion except leadership and firmness around his men, but at this moment they can all fuck themselves if they decide to tease him. Which of course, would never happen unless they wanted a boot shoved up their ass.

Rip eventually is the one to slightly break the hug, only to hold your face in his hands, fingers placing strands of hair behind your ears to get a better look at your face. Your eyes. Despite exhaustion being clearly visible in your features he still thought you were beautiful. Nothing had changed. Except for the new small scar on your left eyebrow which he gently traced with the pad of his thumb. Heat bubbled in his veins at the thought of your face being marked with any sort of physical harm, but he knew it was part of your job. He knew how dangerous it was and he knew coming back from missions with cuts and bruises was a norm in the military field, but that didn’t mean he liked it one bit.

“I’m home,” You whisper with a small smile, your voice slightly quivering as more tears slide down your cheeks,

Rip softly chuckles at you, tears of his own sliding down his cheeks as he wipes away yours with his thumb.

“Yeah, you are. You’re home baby,” He whispers back, a wide smile of his own spreading on his face as he gently but firmly collides his lips with yours,

Your salty tears blend with your kisses, but neither of you cared or worried about it, in fact he only kisses you firmer as he cherishes everything about you. Your lips, your warmth, your happy sobs and happy faint chuckles that fan his mouth as he pours everything into the kiss.

A few cat calls can be heard from the group of men by the fire pit, earning a chuckle from the both of you, yet Rip still sends them a raised finger without looking over his shoulder. He can punish them tomorrow by making them walk instead of riding their horses when they go check the cattle, or maybe he’ll kill them later in the night as they sleep.

Either way, they’ll never see it coming.

*******

2:40 am

“You idiots better not go strollin’ around this late at night. Or so help me god I’ll cut your fucking legs off and feed you to the fucking vultures!” Rip threatens the highly intoxicated men with a long finger, earning complaints from each rancher,

“Ahh c’mon Rip! What you think we’re gonna do? Go to some bar and cause a brawl?” Ryan speaks with a slurred tone as he finishes his beer,

Rip stares straight at the man. Blue eyes burning with annoyance and irritation, causing the rancher to cower in his seat from the intense glare, as well as flinching when Colby slaps him on the arm.

“That’s exactly what you’d fucking do dipshits,” The foreman starts again, “Now I don’t wanna be woken up at ass crack of dawn being told that you fuck heads got arrested or that one of you got stabbed because I swear to god I’ll fucking strangle each and every one of you and finish the fucking Job!”

“I thought he said he’d feed us to the vultures?”

Now that earned Jimmy a good smack to the head by Lloyd and Colby, as well as an empty beer bottle being tossed his way from somewhere across from him. It was Ryan.

“Jimmy..shut the fuck up or I’ll break your fucking neck again,” The young rancher nods his head in fear before going back to drinking his beer,

You stood next to Rip, softly giggling as you watched the entire interaction in silence. It was small moments like this that you missed deeply. Just watching, hanging, drinking, chatting with the boys and making memories with them, despite them constantly making idiotic choices you still cherished those moments because everyone only had one life on this earth. After another moment of sending a threatening glare and more threatening words at the boys, Rip finally interlocks your fingers together as he leads you both away from the small bonfire and down towards home.

A faint chuckle slips from you when you hear the boys cheer for something that was said between them, earning a heavy sigh from Rip as he continues walking down the path. You wouldn’t be surprised if they woke up in a ditch the following day.

***

After locking every door and every window to keep the cold brisk Montana weather out, Rip grabs your backpack and duffle from the entrance of the home before heading towards the direction of his room. His soft but heavy steps creaked against the wooden floor as he walks up the stairs that lead him to the second floor of the home. The entire home was engulfed in silence, only the muffled sounds of faint crickets chirping, distant coyotes, thunder roaring above before rain beginning to fall onto the roof can be heard.

It’s nothing he’s not use to. He honest to god prefers silence over anything else playing in the background considering he’s surrounded by noise literally throughout the day, so obviously he’d rather do silence for the rest of the night. In fact, he sleeps better with no noise. Sends him into a deep, blissful sleep. The nightmares do come and go at times, only when it’s been a rough day or when he’s slightly drunk, but other than that, he’s usually dreaming of nothing or of you.

And if he was being completely honest, these past few months that you’ve been away, his dreams were always about you. Your smile, your laugh, your beautiful features, your love towards the job, the animals, just you.

It helped soothe him while you were away. Helped ease his anxiousness, his nerves, his fear. Dreaming of you helped keep the nightmares away, but once he’d wake up and wouldn’t find you next to him the same heaviness was back in his chest, reminding him you weren’t there. That everything he’d dreamed about was not real. You weren’t there snuggled in his arms in the morning, you weren’t there laughing with him as you shared your terrible jokes, you weren’t there loving him the way you should, you weren’t there by his side where he can keep you safe.

None of it was real. And it would sour his mood. He was never great at expressing his feelings, so instead he’d take out his frustrations, his anger, his anxiety, his fear on others. Per usual.

However, that was before. Because now, you stood standing in his bedroom. Alive and well. As he hovered by the entrance, his eyes were on you where you stood at the foot of the bed. From his position, he could tell just how tensed your shoulders were, how tensed your entire body was, and he knew right there that’d it be one of those nights where you’ll try and avoid sleep.

To keep the nightmares away.

He remained standing behind you in silence, observing and reading your body language before slowly and carefully putting down your luggage by the dresser that was near the entrance. With soft, careful steps he walks behind you, not wanting to frighten you or alarm you, he didn’t know just how fragile your mind was right now. After analyzing your breathing and noticed it was normal rather than those panicked short breaths you’d let out when it was those types of nights, he knew then you were still here, with him. He gently calls your name before letting a soft finger trace your skin. Beginning from your hand before moving it up towards your arm till he reached your shoulder.

He sees the moment you snap back from whatever thoughts you were trapped in. His finger still lazily trailed up and down your skin, causing a faint shiver to run down your spine.

“You tired?” He softly whispers,

You angle your head to the side, averting your eyes from the bed to the carpeted floor as you slowly shake your head.

“No,” It was a lie obviously. You were in fact exhausted. Both mentally and physically. And you knew he knew it too,

Yet, Rip softly chuckles at your response. He fucking missed your stubbornness. Definitely will not miss it in the future, but right now he was cherishing it.

Without another word you feel the pads of his fingertips tracing an invisible pattern on your skin before feeling them run up your arm till he once again reaches your shoulder. You then feel him slightly pull down your collar of your flannel to reveal new skin, then feeling him place a soft, gentle, warm peck, earning a soft shuddered inhale from you.

Another shiver along with goosebumps travels up your arms when you feel his lips once again latching onto your skin on your collar bone. Instinctively you angle your head to the side to give better access as he continues lowering your flannel to place more and more pecks. Any new skin revealed, Rip was there to kiss it. However, the moment you feel his lips traveling up towards your neck you turn to face him. With no hesitation you bring his face down to finally kiss those lips again.

The kiss was gentle, soft, careful and sweet. Like molasses mixing between you two. Both of you cherished each other’s lips, both your hands finding their place as you lazily kissed one another. He eventually does pull away, just enough to look down at your fingers that were hesitantly playing with the buttons of his dark button up. Hesitation was clearly written on your face, you wanted something but was struggling to ask for it. Yet, Rip being the observant decides to help you out.

“What do you need from me baby?” He softly whispers as he looks down at you,

You stay quiet for a minute. Fingers slowly but successfully freeing one button from its place.

“All of you,” You finally whisper back, your eyes now looking up to meet his beautiful blue orbs, holding his gaze you continue with, “Just all of you,”

Beautiful dark, yet bright blue eyes stare at you in silence for a good second before seeing him close the distance to place a long peck on your forehead. Then feeling his lips latching onto yours once again. The kiss holding a promise to take care of you tonight. For Tomorrow. For the Following. For Forever.

As Rip’s lips softly and slowly mold with your own, your fingers slowly unbutton his shirt before finally slipping it past his broad shoulders and letting the piece of fabric land softly against the floor, leaving him in a simple black Henley long sleeve. Rip’s hands that have been waiting patiently by your hips, giving them a comforting squeeze with each kiss, finally make their way upwards until his fingers slowly begin sliding your flannel off your own shoulders, leaving you in a plain white shirt. The moment the fabric lands behind your legs, a cold shiver runs up your spine when you feel the way Rip’s fingertips begin tracing feathery touches against your exposed arms awhile continuing in kissing you slowly.

His fingertips remain tracing invisible patterns against your skin for a few minutes before feeling them trace up towards your shoulder then feeling his rough palm cupping the side of your cheek. Then feeling him pull away. Opening your eyes you’re immediately met with those beautiful blues of his, staring at you fondly, with pure love.

“Whenever you need a breather, you let me know. We don’t gotta rush this baby,” Rip softly whispers to you. His eyes never leaving yours as his thumb now softly rubs against your cheekbone,

Your own hand that rested heavily against his chest slowly travels upwards until your fingers disappear into his dark locks at the base of his neck. You give him a small smile. The smile that spoke volumes to him.

“I trust you,”

You whispered to him. It was all he needed. The only invitation he needed from you. Rip remained staring at you for another few seconds, his blue orbs scanning you’re entire face, his fingers delicately placing a strand of hair behind your ear before gently cupping either side of your face and bending down to let his lips place a chaste peck on your forehead. Your temple. Your right eye, your left eye, the scar above, then your cheek, the corner of your lips, then finally molds his lips against yours. A soft sigh slips from your nose as you melt against the kiss, savoring his lips, the way they fit perfectly against your own and allowing him to carefully lead you towards the awaiting bed.

The moment the back of your knees hit the bed frame, Rip slowly and carefully guides you onto the mattress, both your lips not once parting from each other. Not even when your back rested against the soft sheets. Rip had chased after your lips as he climbs on the bed, his large frame settling in between your legs as his hands holds him upright. Both your lips continue molding against each other before feeling one of Rip’s hands slowly landing on your hip, then feeling his fingertips softly trace against your skin as they rise the hem of your shirt. Your shirt now bundled just below your bra, Rip’s thumb soothingly rubs against your ribcage, feeling the way they halt when they touch the new texture of skin there.

Your body slightly freezes, which doesn’t go unnoticed by the man hovering above. Breaking the kiss, Rip’s blue orbs stare down at you before seeing them slowly avert down to the scar that was just below your breast line. It was still healing. Looked like it was at least four weeks old, the skin was still red around the edges, but didn’t look to be at risk of an infection.

Then, the feeling of your slim fingers softly curling around his wrist has him lifting his gaze until they lock with yours. An unsettling, insecure and shameful look can be seen in those eyes of yours. Rip knew you weren’t very fond of the new scars that lingered on your skin, knew despite them healing on the outside, it was you who hasn’t fully healed on the inside. Each new scar that has claimed ahold on your skin held a story, a story that Rip knew it’d take time for him to learn about, but he wasn’t in a rush to know. He’d wait. Wait until you were ready to share. So for now, he’d cherish every scar, because they were just as precious.

Sending you a small smile, Rip slowly bends down until his lips softly begin pecking your soft flesh, earning a faint shuttered inhale from you. Your stomach reacting against his lips as they travel upwards, then a soft gasp filling the air when his lips place multiple kisses against your healing scar. Your eyes close at the feeling, tears slowly wanting to build in your eyes as he continues for another second, but the moment your fingers slide against his dark locks, Rip maneuvers his lips away from your scar and begins trailing them upwards awhile continuing in lifting your shirt. A shuttered sigh slips from you when you feel his lips pecking your left breast, then the valley, and onto your right breast before traveling his lips upwards once again until they softly latch on the side of your neck. Hot, warm lips leaving spine chilling kisses against your neck.

“Perfect,” Rips whispers as he trails his lips against your skin, then hovers above you to stare into your eyes, because you had to know just how true his next words were, “All of you. Every inch of you baby is perfect,”

A single tear finally does manage to slip down your cheeks, but Rip was there to wipe it away with the pad of his thumb and place his lips with your own. All the love he bottled up as you were away, all the kisses he wanted to give you, every emotion he held onto for the last 7 months, he poured it into the kiss. Showing, proving to you just how much he missed you. Just how much he loves you. And you, you showed him just as much by deepening the kiss, letting your fingers disappear into his long locks. The kiss started slow, gentle, then slowly began picking up its pace when Rip had removed your shirt completely. Tossing it somewhere in the room.

Your own hands then began pulling his Henley up his body until he helps you by removing it all the way and letting it fall off the bed. Your hands then roam around his muscular, firm chest that has grown and continues to work after hours upon hours of working with the horses, with the ranch. Your fingers then gently trace his outline of a scar, the brand against his skin, feeling the way his muscles contract at the soft touches, then hearing the way he sighs heavily as your fingers trace faint invisible shapes against his skin.

As your right hand rises upwards against his chest, he softly clamps his palm around yours to raise it towards his lips, where he kisses your knuckles, then the inside of your palm before wrapping both your arms around his neck as he bends to kiss you once again. Your hands fall around his waist, your fingers gently digging into his skin when Rip makes the first thrust of his hips, knocking his brick of a member against your own covered mound. Another heavy sigh falls from his lips, yet that same sigh turns into a shuddering sound when your fingers travel between both your bodies and downward until they land on his belt buckle.

Your fingers then make quick work in undoing the belt buckle before reaching for the button of his jeans then his zipper. Rip’s lips remained molding with yours awhile you worked on his jeans. A groan then rumbles in his throat, slightly vibrating against your lips when your hand cups him firmly through his black briefs. He was hard, hot, and heavy against your hand, making you react more to him just two layers beneath him.

Another soft grunt slips from him when you grip him a little tighter, but before you can slip your hand beneath the thin layer, Rip is pulling away from you to undo your own jeans. Once both the button and zipper have been undone, Rip slides the denim down your smooth legs until he stops around your ankles to remove your shoes before he slides the jeans completely off. Leaving you in just your underwear and bra. Quickly shucking off his own boots and jeans, he slowly, predator like crawls back towards you. His fingers tracing up your skin with his mouth following close behind, leaving you breathless and squirming under his touch. He stops just above your underwear, inches away from your naval. He places a kiss on your stomach awhile not once parting his dilated blue eyes from you, earning another desperate shuddered exhale from you.

Placing another soft kiss to your skin, he lets his fingers wrap around the lace of your underwear before sliding them down your legs. Once off and thrown somewhere in the room, Rip gently grips your knees as he spreads your legs open, a faint curse leaving his lips as he takes in the sight of you. Seeing just how soaked and raw you looked without even touching you yet has him ravenous for you. Without a word or wasting any more time, Rip bends down, seconds later his mouth latched on your own while his fingers begin running patterns against your folds. Earning a whine and a heavy exhale to emit from you. Fanning his lips as his fingers continued rubbing circular motions against your clit, rubbing your wetness around your center before slowly sinking two thick fingers past your folds.

Yet, as much as you wanted this. Wanted the feeling of his fingers or tongue doing wonders to you, sending you to the brink numerous times, you just wanted more. More of him.

“Rip.. please. Please,” It was all he needed.

The second those words fell from your lips, Rip removed his fingers before removing the rest of his black briefs. Displaying his thick member for you. The wet, hot tip of his cock rubs against your exposed, aching mound as he settles in between your legs once again. With quick fingers, he unclasps your bra before removing it completely off your frame, leaving you bare before him.

“I’ve got you. Relax for me baby,” Rip whispers as he pumps himself a few times before guiding his cock to your entrance,

He rubs the head of his cock against your folds, collecting your wetness before slowly sinking his member inside of you. Your eyes immediately shut at the feeling. A heavy sigh slipping along with a broken moan as he eases himself inch by inch until his pelvis connects with your own.

A strained grunt rumbles in Rip’s throat as he fully sheaths himself inside of you. One hand gripping your hip as your walls clamp and unclamp around him, forcing him to take a breather from the blissful feeling. If he didn’t know self control, he for sure wouldn’t have won against the feeling of your compressed walls. Yet, he knew you didn’t mind the breather, your tightness being stretched by his aching member was enough for him to understand, making him feel less guilty for dragging the moment.

Because despite the desperation you both felt for each other, Rip wouldn’t dare to hurt you. No. He only wanted to love you the way you should be loved. And that’s exactly what he did.

After taking a second to compose himself and giving you time to adjust around him, he looked into your eyes. A hand gently cupping your jaw before letting his lips connect with yours, just a soft peck before slowly moving his hips. Causing a gasp from you and a heavy sigh from Rip, your guys’ breath combining between your lips at the feeling.

Once bottoming out, Rip hooks his right arm beneath your knee before slightly hiking it upwards, giving him more space, more access. Which ignites another gasp and a moan from you when Rip slowly but gradually begins picking up the pace. Causing your fingers to pull on his long locks. Not hard enough to ignite pain, but enough to let Rip know you were close to the edge.

Yet, the blissful feeling of Rip cherishing you with feathery kisses against your cheek with each stroke his hips made, the feeling of him moving deliciously inside of you, the way Rip was caring for you, the way you were rapidly tilting to the brink of oblivion, the already broken wall you felt hanging by a thread, the relief of finally being home, of finally being in the arms of the one man you fought to stay alive for, all of it. Everything that you felt at this every moment suddenly felt too heavy. Your senses were extremely heightened that you didn’t notice the hot tears slipping down your cheeks, until Rip is there once again wiping them away with the pad of his thumb or kissing them away.

“I love you,” You whisper breathlessly. The words that you’ve been holding for far too long,

Rip’s, hooded, blue eyes lock with yours. His hips slightly come to a halt as he stares at you, his eyes softening as they hold your own tear-brimmed eyes. His thumb once again wipes away a tear that slips down your cheek.

“I love you, Darlin’”

A few more tears managed to slip down your cheeks at his words, but Rip wipes one streak before bending down to mold his lips with yours. Not caring for the salty taste, just pouring his caged love into the kiss. You softly gasp against his lips as he begins moving his hips once again, but it was the feeling of his fingers snaking between your bodies to rub firm circles against your aching clit. Matching its pace with his hips. It only took a few minutes to finally have you reaching the edge, your hold on his hair tightening as the coil in your stomach finally snapped. Endorphins spreading throughout your exhausted body like a wave crashing on flat land.

Rip grunts from the pain, but it only makes him pick up the pace. Using his free hand, he cups it just underneath your jaw, his fingers cradling the back of your neck, feeling them tightening their hold as his hips soon begin to stutter. Gripping your leg and hiding his face in the crook of your neck, deep grunts vibrate against your ear as his own peak begins rising. A few thrusts later, Rip is groaning deeply in your ear as he buries himself deep inside of you. His warm cum coated your walls, causing a shutter from you at the warm feeling.

Rip sagged against you, but leaned on one elbow to not fully crush you. His head remained hidden in the crook of your neck, hot breath fanning your skin as Rip tries gathering himself. Minutes later, blue eyes are locking with your own. You silently let your hand trace his beard before your fingers gently glide their way through his dark locks at the base of his neck. A shaky inhale is heard from you as you remain holding his gaze, your eyes still wet and red, but Rip didn’t mind it one bit. Instead. He again cups the side of your jaw as he stares in your eyes with his next words.

“You’re home, baby.” You’re safe. You’re here with me. Was the true meaning of Rip’s words.

You knew it the true. It might take a while for your mind to believe it, to relax, to heal, but you also knew you wouldn’t be alone to heal. You knew Rip would be there for you. Through the dark and light. Through the thick and thin. Through the highs and lows. All of it.

He would take it one step at a time with you.

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Tag List:

@sunshinecallie @kingofpiratesluffy @heinmypocket @brookie090 @wxnderingthoughts @mandysawesomeworld @sawarasenaikimiwashoujo @aprildecker-blog @ajordan2020 @jbabyx0 @nfr-girly @trainboom @giorgxx @papichulo120627 @helanaellie @silentbutscreaming @fanboilingwriter @justsimplyme93

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-> Just Want To Say Thank You To Those Who Were Patient & Continued To Support Me After Pushing & Pushing The Publish Date. But Like I Said In My Previous Post, So Many Things Had Happened In A Matter of Separate Weeks. When It Was One Thing, It’d Be Another. As I Wrote This My Family Is Seriously Going Through a Tough Time. We Still Are.

I’m Not Asking For Pity, Just Understanding On Why This Story Took Long To Publish & Why I Pushed The Dates On a Daily Basis. It Was Hard For Me To Write Or Put My Focus On My Stories With Everything Happening In My Life. Yet, I Finally Managed To Finish It and Give It To Ya’ll. I Was Excited Writing It Then, And Excited Now That It’s Finally Yours To Read!

Appreciate The Love & Your Constant Support. To Many More With You Guys. ❤️

Sincerely,

ItsStrange.

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[moonlight-joy]

What Lies Beneath

Fandom: Yellowstone

Summury: After discovering a hidden wound Rip stubbornly tried to handle alone, you break through his defenses with care and resolve, showing him that vulnerability isn’t weakness and forging a deeper bond under the vast Montana night sky.

Pairing: Reader/Rip Wheeler

The sun dipped below the horizon, the last rays of daylight casting a warm, amber glow over Yellowstone Ranch. Inside the bunkhouse, the atmosphere was alive with the hum of chatter and the occasional burst of laughter from the ranch hands. It was a familiar and comforting symphony after a grueling day of work.

You stepped inside, your muscles aching from hours spent wrangling cattle. A drink in hand, you made your way to the couch and sank into it with a sigh. Across the room, Rip Wheeler leaned against the counter, his rugged frame lit in the soft glow of the hanging light. Tonight, his usual fitted ranch gear had been replaced by an oversized shirt, an uncharacteristic choice that made him look almost... at ease. Almost.

“Rough day?” you asked, stretching out your legs and taking a sip of your drink.

Rip lifted his beer bottle in response but didn’t say much. His silence wasn’t unusual, but something about it felt heavier tonight. You watched him for a moment, the tension in his shoulders, the way he shifted his weight uncomfortably.

“You alright?” you asked, careful to keep your tone light.

“Fine,” Rip replied, the word clipped. But when he moved, the hem of his shirt rode up slightly, revealing a flash of something beneath—a streak of red, jagged and angry against his skin.

Your brow furrowed. “What’s that?”

Rip stiffened, tugging his shirt down quickly. “It’s nothing.”

“That didn’t look like nothing,” you said, setting your drink down and standing. “Let me see.”

“It’s fine,” he said gruffly, but there was a defensive edge to his voice, one that only made you more determined.

“Rip,” you said, your tone firm. “Let me see.”

He hesitated, his jaw tightening, but when you reached out gently, he didn’t stop you. You lifted the hem of his shirt carefully, revealing the wound beneath—a deep, poorly bandaged gash running along his side. The makeshift dressing was stained through with dried blood, and the edges of the wound were red and inflamed.

You sucked in a sharp breath. “Rip, this isn’t ‘fine.’ How long have you been walking around like this?”

“A day. Maybe two,” he admitted, his tone begrudging.

“Two days?” you repeated, incredulous. “Are you serious? Rip, this could get infected!”

“It’s just a scratch,” he said, dismissive, but his avoidance of your gaze betrayed him.

“It’s not just a scratch,” you said, crossing your arms. “Why didn’t you say something?”

He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. “Because it’s my problem, not yours.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” you shot back, grabbing the first aid kit from a nearby shelf. “If you’re hurt, it affects all of us. And besides, you don’t have to handle everything on your own.”

Rip watched as you knelt beside him, his expression a mixture of frustration and something else—something softer, like resignation. He sat down heavily on the couch, his movements stiff.

“You don’t have to do this,” he muttered, but his voice lacked its usual conviction.

“Too late,” you said, already peeling away the bandage. The wound beneath was worse than you had feared—angry and raw, but not beyond help.

“This might sting,” you warned as you cleaned it with antiseptic.

Rip flinched, his hands gripping his knees tightly, but he didn’t make a sound. The silence stretched between you, broken only by the occasional hiss of pain as you worked.

“Why do you do this?” you asked after a while, your voice quieter now. “Why hide when you’re hurt?”

He was silent for a long moment, staring at a spot on the floor. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough, like gravel. “It’s how I’ve always been. You don’t survive this life by showing weakness.”

You paused, your hands stilling as you looked up at him. “Asking for help isn’t weakness, Rip. It’s human.”

He met your gaze then, his dark eyes filled with a vulnerability that caught you off guard. “You make it sound so damn easy.”

“It’s not,” you admitted, finishing up the bandage and sitting back on your heels. “But it’s a lot easier when you’ve got someone to lean on.”

The weight of your words seemed to hang in the air between you, heavy and significant. Rip looked at you, something unreadable in his expression, before nodding slightly.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice low but sincere.

You smiled, standing and offering him a hand. “Anytime. But next time, tell me before it gets this bad, okay?”

He took your hand, his grip firm and warm, and stood. For a moment, he just looked at you, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Deal.”

Later that night, as the rest of the bunkhouse settled into its usual rhythm, you caught Rip leaning against the porch railing outside, a cigarette glowing faintly in his hand. He looked up when you stepped out, his expression softening just slightly.

“Couldn’t sleep?” you asked, joining him.

He shook his head, exhaling a stream of smoke. “Just thinking.”

“About?”

He glanced at you, the faintest smile on his lips. “How you’re the only person who could make me sit still long enough to patch me up.”

You laughed softly, leaning against the railing beside him. “Well, someone’s gotta keep you in line.”

His smile grew, faint but genuine, and for a moment, the two of you stood there in comfortable silence, the Montana night stretching out around you. The stars above were bright and endless, and though Rip was a man of few words, his presence beside you spoke volumes.

“Thanks,” he said again, his voice quiet.

“For what?” you asked, glancing at him.

“For reminding me that I don’t have to do this alone,” he said, his eyes meeting yours. “Even if I’m too damn stubborn to admit it.”

You smiled, warmth blooming in your chest. “That’s what I’m here for.”

And as the night deepened, you knew that this moment—this fragile but honest connection—was the start of something more. Something worth holding onto.

Please support my work with like and comment

[moonlight-joy]

The Breaking Point

Fandom: Yellowstone

Summury: In a heated confrontation with Jaime, your anger boils over into a raw, cutting declaration, but Rip’s steady presence grounds you, offering solace and strength as you begin to confront the pain of betrayal and loss on the Yellowstone Ranch.

Pairing: Reader/Rip Wheeler

The air at Yellowstone Ranch was heavy, the kind of weight that pressed against your chest and made it hard to breathe. The golden light of the setting sun seemed to mock the darkness that had taken root inside you. Every step you took out of the main house felt like dragging a boulder behind you, your emotions a volatile mix of anger, grief, and betrayal.

You hadn’t planned to confront Jaime, but when he followed you out onto the porch, his self-assured expression pushing the last of your frayed patience, it became unavoidable.

“What do you want, Jaime?” you snapped, spinning around to face him. Your voice cracked with the effort of holding everything in, and you felt your nails biting into your palms.

“I just want to talk,” he said, raising his hands defensively, as if you were the one in the wrong.

The audacity of his calm tone made your blood boil. “Talk? About what? How you’ve screwed over this family more times than I can count? Or maybe how you can stand there and pretend like you give a damn about any of us?”

Jaime hesitated, his mouth opening and closing like he was trying to find the right words. “I’ve made mistakes, I know that,” he said finally, his voice faltering.

“Mistakes?” you scoffed, taking a step closer to him. “Mistakes don’t destroy lives, Jaime. What you’ve done—what you’ve been complicit in—those weren’t mistakes. Those were choices.”

Your voice rose with each word, and you felt the anger bubbling over, threatening to consume you completely. Jaime took a small step back, but his retreat only fueled the fire inside you.

“You should’ve died in Lee’s place!” The words exploded out of you before you could stop them, sharp and cutting. The moment they were out, you felt the weight of them crash down on you, but there was no taking them back.

Jaime flinched as though you’d physically struck him. His face paled, and his eyes widened in shock. For a moment, he looked like he might say something, but he stayed silent, his mouth pressing into a tight line. The quiet only made your words hang heavier in the air.

Rip Wheeler was at your side before you even realized he’d been watching. His hand gripped your arm firmly, his touch grounding you as the storm inside you raged on.

“Hey,” Rip said, his voice low and steady, cutting through the haze of your anger. “That’s enough.”

You turned to him, your body trembling with adrenaline. “Let go of me, Rip,” you demanded, though your voice lacked its usual force.

“No,” Rip said firmly, his dark eyes locking onto yours. “Not until you calm down.”

The heat of his gaze, steady and unyielding, made you falter. Rip wasn’t just trying to stop you—he was trying to save you from yourself. Still, the fire inside you hadn’t completely burned out.

“I can’t believe him,” you said, your voice trembling as tears pricked the corners of your eyes. You turned back toward Jaime, who was still standing on the porch like a statue. “How can you stand there like this doesn’t matter? Like none of this ever mattered?”

“Go inside, Jaime,” Rip said, his voice dropping into a growl. The warning in his tone was enough to snap Jaime out of his stupor. He glanced at you one last time, his expression unreadable, before retreating into the house without a word.

When the door shut behind him, you felt your legs give out, the adrenaline draining from your body as quickly as it had come. Rip caught you before you could collapse completely, guiding you over to a wooden bench by the barn. He sat down beside you, his arm still around your shoulders, holding you steady as the weight of everything crashed down.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” you murmured, your voice barely audible.

Rip didn’t answer right away. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a handkerchief, and handed it to you without a word. You took it, wiping at the tears that had started to fall. It was only when your breathing steadied that he finally spoke.

“You said what you needed to say,” Rip said, his tone calm but firm. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard to hear.”

You looked at him, your heart aching at the understanding in his eyes. “But I meant it, Rip. I meant every word.”

“I know,” he said simply. “And he knows it, too. Doesn’t mean you have to let it eat you alive.”

“How am I supposed to move past it?” you asked, your voice cracking. “After everything he’s done... after Lee—”

Rip’s hand tightened slightly on your shoulder, his touch solid and grounding. “You don’t forget,” he said softly. “But you don’t let it own you either. You’ve got too much fight in you for that.”

His words broke something in you, and the tears came harder now, silent but steady. Rip didn’t say anything else. He just held you, his presence a quiet reassurance in the midst of your turmoil.

As the sky darkened and the first stars began to appear, you finally found the strength to pull back slightly. “Thanks,” you said quietly, your voice hoarse.

Rip gave you a small, crooked smile, his hand moving to rest against your back. “Always.”

In the silence that followed, the weight on your chest began to ease, just a little. Jaime’s betrayal still lingered, and the wound it had left would take time to heal. But with Rip by your side, steady and unyielding, you knew you wouldn’t have to face it alone.

The sound of crickets filled the air as the ranch settled into the quiet of the night. Rip leaned back on the bench, his arm still around you, and you let yourself rest against him, the warmth of his presence a small comfort in the face of everything that had been said and done.

For the first time that day, you felt like you could breathe again.

Please support my work with like and comment

[itsstrange]

Shattered

Fandom: Yellowstone

Relationship: Rip Wheeler x Brother-Reader

A/N: Okay. First Off, Just Wanna Say I SINCERELY APPRECIATE ALL THE FREAKING LOVE & SUPPORT That Ya’ll Are Giving To The Promise Like… Ya’ll Are Insanely Giving Me Whiplash From The Amount of Love You Guys Are Giving It. So, From The Bottom of My Heart. I REALLY Appreciate It & Love You Guys Fr Fr! 😭🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

Secondly, Because You Are Constantly Blowing up My Previous Wheeler Fic, I Decided To Jot Down Another Quick One For Ya’ll!! It’s Different, but It’s Still Rip ☺️

Another Thing, This Was a Little Rushed. I’ve Been Semi Having This Idea Of a Brother x Rip Fic, So I Quickly Wrote It Down. Another Thing, I Was Completely Buzz While Writing This One (Still Am) So I Hope This Makes Sense Because It Did In My Head. 🫠

Finally, yes I know it’s another Military Reader Fic but I can’t help it. I feel like it suits with Rip 🫠

Anyways! Enjoy This Slight Heartbreak! 🫶

Summary: Former Army Sergeant (Y/n) Wheeler and his older brother Rip Wheeler have been clashing throats for days.

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: (No?) Angst, Hurt Reader, Hurt Rip, Protective Rip, Brother Love, Mention of Blood, Mention of PTSD, Mention of Physical Violence, Younger Brother Reader, Reader Is Brother Of Rip, Slight Heart Break.

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ENJOY 🥀

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Former Army Sergeant (Y/n) Wheeler and his older brother Rip Wheeler have been clashing throats for days now. Everyone knew at the Dutton Ranch that both brothers were vigorously the same. Rip was the foreman, the leader, of the ranch workers, the leader of the branded cowboys. Where (Y/n) was one of the branded cowboys. He followed Rip, looked after him just like Rip looks after him whenever things got dangerous. (Y/n) never minded it. Following his brother, following his orders, he always has since he was a kid, he had major respect for his older brother. Both brothers loved each other immensely, they both went through hell growing up, they only had each other now. And they both knew that they’d both risk their lives if it meant saving the other in whatever situation.

No one truly knows their story besides John Dutton and Lloyd. The story where Rip had saved (Y/n) from getting murdered by the hands of their stepfather, saved (Y/n) the trauma of watching him end the life of their stepfather in order to escape. (Y/n) obviously knew what Rip had done to protect them and till this day he not once viewed his older brother differently.

Despite every ranch worker on the Dutton ranch who showed strong loyalty, respect and slightly feared Rip for his fearless, brutal, serious, angry persona, (Y/n) was the one who did not fear his brother. They were brothers of course he wouldn’t, they understood each other better than anyone else.

However, these last few days their relationship has been on edge. Ever since Rip had benched him and forced him to hang back from a mission that involved.. murder, then again when they had to send a threatening message. Twice he had benched him and because of that their relationship has been rocky. Rip only did it because he knew his little brother was not okay, mentally wise. He had just been honorably discharged from the Army after serving for nearly 20 years and Rip knew (Y/n) was not the same.

Yet, (Y/n) didn’t see it that way.

Instead, he felt disrespected. Felt as if he was being treated like a broken man, a child instead of the strong, fierce man he truly was. He fought in wars, killed men to protect his country, but now that he was home, he felt as if he wasn’t receiving the respect he should be receiving. Especially from his older brother. Rip’s opinion was the only one that (Y/n) truly cared for. Was the only one he needed in his life. But lately, it hasn’t been what he’s hoped to be.

The tension only escalated and simmered between them as Rip once again was putting (Y/n) on the sidelines. They were supposed to wreck a rival ranchers truck as a message to not mess with John Dutton’s land, after they had poisoned a good amount of his cattle, but Rip once again didn’t want (Y/n) involved, he didn’t want him getting triggered by violence. Not that Rip has ever claimed the why in his sudden choice of isolating (Y/n) from missions.

“I don’t give a shit! You’re staying here and mending the cattle till we get back,” Rip demands, pointing a long finger at (Y/n) who argued with his orders,

Rip then turns his attention to the others that stood by.

“As for everyone we’re leaving at midnight! Anyone else got a fucking problem with that?!” Rip barks, his blue eyes challenging the cowboys,

Lloyd, Jimmy, Ryan, Colby, Tator shook their heads. Their eyes avoiding the wrathful man. They all knew very well to not even bother in arguing with Rip, unless they wanted their spinal cord snapped. Especially when he’s in a raged mood.

“Jimmy. Help (Y/n) get the cattle ready,” Rip demands once again before turning to walk away, yet, his entire body freezes at (Y/n’s) voice,

“No,” His brother had said. Loud and clear. The tension grew thicker, causing the other cowboys to look between them with worried, nervous looks,

Everyone knew at the ranch that if one went up against the foreman— Rip, for whatever reason, it meant they were challenging their— his leadership, and right about now, that’s exactly what (Y/n) was doing.

“Work on the cattle. (Y/n),” Rip demands with a dark, low, cold tone. His blue eyes laced with fury and irritation as he turns to look at his little brother,

(Y/n) challenged him. His own (E/c) eyes, laced with irritation and boiling rage held his brother’s darken gaze. His hands clenching at his sides. “Make me,”

And that’s how it started. That’s how both brothers fought for dominance. Fierce punches were exchanged between Rip and (Y/n). The other cowboys and ranch workers stood by and watched with nervous, horrified looks. The Wheeler brothers always argued with each other yes, but not once did they ever harm each other. Lloyd, the eldest of the cowboys, felt a brutal pang in his chest as he watched the brothers fight each other. He’s known them since they were kids, watched them grow up to be the men they are today, and it pained him that their strong relationship was now stained by a heated disagreement.

Lloyd understood why Rip was coddling his brother, he truly did. Lloyd himself was worried for the younger Wheeler, he knew he was mentally struggling from ptsd but he also understood where (Y/n) was coming from. Lloyd knew (Y/n) just wanted to be treated the same as everyone else, treated like he isn’t fragile and waiting to break.

From the years Lloyd had known (Y/n) and Rip, the old man knew just knew how fierce both men can be and they’ve proved it various times in various ways. So it was understandable why (Y/n) felt a certain way towards his older brother, why he felt so.. misunderstood. But again, in Lloyd’s opinion. He was secretly siding with Rip. He agreed with the foreman, (Y/n) truly needed help.

As both brothers continued exchanging powerful punches, the cowboys and other ranch workers continued standing by. Their eyes glued at the scene unfolding before them. They weren’t allowed to intervene, a rule everyone knew about until one of them finally submitted. Whoever remained standing was now considered the new foreman of the ranch.

After what seemed like forever, both brothers were covered in blood. Their faces bruised and battered as they continue to land blow after blow. However, (Y/n) slightly being more skilled in hand to hand combat, due to his years in the military, landed a hefty strike to Rip’s jaw, sending his older brother to the ground. All the cowboys watched in shock, horror as (Y/n) immediately mounted his brother. He gripped Rip’s jacket as leverage as he landed more brutal blows to his face, his vision clouded with dark rage as he kept landing punch after punch. Ryan and Lloyd took a slight step forward in fear that (Y/n) might kill his own brother from how he pummeled Rip to the ground.

Although, their steps come to a stop when the younger Wheeler lands one last, brutal, skull crushing punch against Rip’s jaw. Snapping his head to the side, blood coating the dirt from the powerful strike. They both panted heavily as they try gathering their breaths. Rip on the floor, blood sliding down his mouth, while (Y/n) remained mounted on top of him, his own breathing matching his brother’s. But after a minute, (Y/n) spits a glob of blood on the ground near Rip’s head before standing to hover above him.

The sun behind (Y/n’s) frame casts a shadow down on Rip.

“This is the last time you bench me.” (Y/n) demands with a dark tone, his eyes hooded with rage, a dark clouded glaze as he stares down at Rip,

Rip, still on the ground, stares up at his younger brother. His blue eyes filled with rage, humiliation, betrayal, frustration, sadness, hurt. He never wanted this to happen.

“Keep the title. I don’t want it,” Was the last thing (Y/n) said before walking away,

Leaving Rip alone on the ground. Leaving him with a distaste of humiliation. Not only did (Y/n) just defeated him in a brutal physical fight, but he also stripped Rip from his authority only to throw it back at him with disrespect. Lloyd, Ryan, Colby, Jimmy, everyone watched with pure shock. They couldn’t believe at what just unfolded.

With cautious steps, Lloyd walks over to Rip who slowly began rising from the ground. Faint wheezes can be heard from the man as he leans back on his heels. His blue eyes, that are usually filled with anger were now filled with heartbreak, tears threatened to spill, but he was too goddamn stubborn to let them fall. So instead, he just spat on the ground, coating its light brown dirt with striking red blood before reaching for his hat that had fallen sometime in between the fight and rose to his feet with the help of Lloyd.

With slow movements, Rip turns to watch his younger brother storm away. His heart shattering more as he watched his baby brother that he protected for years—and will continue protecting— walk away from him. Rip wasn’t angry at him, not by any means, he was just worried for him.

Little did (Y/n) know that this fight was merely the beginning. Their bond, twisted and bloody, would take time to heal, but beneath the chaos, the love remained—an unspoken truth that would guide them back to each other when the wounds eventually closed. For despite their struggles, they would always be brothers, bound by blood and shared memories of hell they had both survived, ready to face the darkness that loomed ahead.

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-> I Know I Know, This Was Different. But At Least I Gave Ya’ll Another Rip Story! 🫠🫶

-> Another, I Know I Said The Boys Was Next, But.. This One Came To Mind and Was Finished In Under.. 20 Minutes so.. You’re Welcome? 🙃

-> But Yes, The Boys Fic Is Still Next While I Finish The Reacher x Reader Fic.

-> So Stay Tuned For That!! Make Sure To Turn On Post Notifications🔔!! For More Updates!!

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[moonlight-joy]

Rip Wheeler Masterlist

Beneath Montana Skies

Between Two Flames (+ Beth Dutton)

The River’s Edge

What Lies Beneath

The Breaking Point

Unspoken Words

The Blowup

Cracks Beneath the Surface

The Reckoning

Heat in the Barn

Stay Awake

Unbreakable Grip

Breaking the Mask

Friday Night Promises

Stolen Moments

No Hiding Here

[moonlight-joy]

No Hiding Here

Fandom: Yellowstone

Summary: At Yellowstone’s gathering, Rip’s quiet confidence and bold gestures made it clear you were his focus. A slow dance under the Montana stars sealed his unspoken promise, his devotion evident in every lingering touch and steady gaze.

Pairing: Reader/Rip Wheeler

The Yellowstone Ranch’s annual gathering buzzed with energy—voices mingling, boots scuffing against gravel, and the faint twang of a live country band weaving through the cool Montana evening. You stood near the barn, watching Rip Wheeler lean against the fence, his broad shoulders and ever-present hat making him impossible to miss. He wasn’t one for social events, but tonight, something about his quiet presence made it feel like he was there for more than just the ranch.

Spotting you through the crowd, Rip’s gaze locked on yours, his lips twitching into a faint smirk that sent a flutter through your chest. Unable to resist, you wove your way toward him, the noise of the gathering dimming as his dark eyes stayed fixed on you.

“You’re not exactly blending in,” you teased, leaning against the fence beside him. “Even in a crowd, you stand out.”

Rip chuckled, his voice low and warm. “Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you.”

The air between you shifted, his hand brushing against yours in a way that felt deliberate, his presence drawing you in. Before you knew it, he’d stepped closer, his fingers ghosting over your lower back as his voice dropped to a near whisper. “You’ve been running circles in my head all damn night.”

Heat rushed to your cheeks, and you glanced around nervously. The ranch hands were nearby, and guests lingered just a few feet away. “Rip,” you murmured, your voice soft but firm, “we are in public, you know.”

“And?” he replied, his smirk deepening as his hand settled more firmly on your waist. “Doesn’t bother me.”

“Well, it should,” you hissed, fighting a smile as his boldness sent your heart racing.

Rip’s gaze darkened, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Let them see,” he said, his tone steady and unbothered. “Makes no difference to me.”

Before you could respond, someone called his name, breaking the moment. Rip sighed, his hand dropping reluctantly from your side. “Stay here,” he murmured, his voice soft but insistent. “I’ll be back.”

The evening wore on, but Rip found you again near the makeshift dance floor as a slow song began to play. Without a word, he held out his hand, his intent written plainly in the quiet confidence of his expression. You hesitated for only a moment before taking it, letting him lead you into the gentle sway of the music.

“You know you’re making a scene,” you teased, your smile growing as his hand settled firmly at your waist.

“Good,” Rip replied, his voice low as his dark eyes bored into yours. “Let them know who I’m here for.”

As the song faded, he didn’t pull away, his touch lingering and his gaze steady. The hum of the crowd and the twang of the music faded into the background as his words from earlier echoed in your mind. “You’ve got a habit of making me forget everything else,” he said, his voice a quiet confession.

Your heart swelled as you reached up, brushing a strand of hair from your face. “Just promise me you’ll remember one thing,” you teased softly, your lips quirking into a grin. “We’re in public.”

Rip chuckled, his deep voice full of warmth as he leaned closer. “Guess I’ll have to remind them all over again next time.”

And as his hand found yours, threading your fingers together, the world around you seemed to fall away. Rip Wheeler wasn’t just making a statement—he was making a promise, one that lingered in the Montana air long after the music faded.

[moonlight-joy]

Unbreakable Grip

Fandom: Yellowstone

Summary: A quiet walk with Rip Wheeler turns into a profound moment of connection as a simple touch evolves into an unspoken promise of unwavering support and togetherness.

Pairing: Reader/Rip Wheeler

The cool Montana breeze swept across the ranch as you and Rip walked side by side, the quiet night wrapping around you both like a comforting blanket. The day had been long and grueling, but out here, with the stars above and Rip beside you, the weight of it all felt a little lighter.

Neither of you spoke at first, the silence between you easy, familiar. But then your hand brushed against his, just barely, and a spark of something unspoken passed between you. You weren’t sure if it was the night or the way Rip had been watching you all day, but you found yourself reaching out, your fingers brushing his again—this time on purpose.

Rip stopped walking, his boots crunching softly against the gravel. He turned to look at you, his dark eyes searching yours, and without a word, he reached for your hand. His rough, calloused fingers slipped between yours, and the moment they intertwined, it was like the world shifted—something solid, unspoken, but undeniably real.

“You good?” he asked, his voice low and steady, though there was a hint of something softer beneath it.

You nodded, your throat tight with an emotion you couldn’t quite name. “Yeah,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper. “I just... don’t want to let go.”

Rip’s lips twitched into the faintest hint of a smile, and his grip on your hand tightened just slightly, like he was silently telling you he felt the same.

“You don’t have to,” he said simply.

And he meant it. His hand was warm, his grip firm but gentle, and as you stood there under the vast Montana sky, the two of you connected by something as simple and profound as the way your fingers fit together, you knew he wouldn’t let go. Not tonight. Not ever.

So you stayed like that, fingers intertwined, hands gripping tight as the wind carried the quiet promise between you: no matter what storms came your way, you’d hold on. Together.

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