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Doreen started searching through some other places for archival footage from the war, since the exhibit only used clips, and managed to find a bunch of digitized footage. Grinning, she settled in to watch that for a bit.
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Barnes paid attention to all of it, even though it was beginning to get overwhelming. He needed to know everything he could about Bucky.
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After a little while longer, Doreen shut off the feed and got to her feet, stretching a bit.
"We can watch more tomorrow, if you want, but you should probably get some rest," she said, glancing down at him. |
Barnes just gave a stiff nod and turned away a bit. He had a lot to process.
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Doreen let him be for the moment and headed into the kitchen to cook. It didn't take long for the team to gather for dinner and discussion. Doreen was just waiting to see who would ask first, since they all by now knew that she'd been going in and talking to him.
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Inevitably, it was Tony who asked first.
"So, what's the story?" he asked, leaning against the counter with a roll in his hand. |
"He wanted to know who Bucky is," Doreen said with a shrug. "Jarvis and I took him through a virtual tour of the Smithsonian exhibit to give him an idea, and I found some archival footage, too."
Steve looked somewhere between someone just punched him in the gut and stupidly hopeful. |
"Well, then, we'll have to see what happens," Tony said. Because that much information at once wasn't good for anyone not named Stark.
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Dori nodded. "Yeah, I'd give him a day or two," she said, stirring the soup pot. "So far he's been good, though."
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"Well, keep on it, then," Tony said. "Since you're clearly the only one he'll respond to, though god knows why."
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Doreen rolled her eyes. "Alright, keep ordering me around and I'm cutting you off the cookie supply."
Steve sat down, the normalcy of the bickering helping to steady him. |
Tony snorted.
"I can totally build something to make cookies for me," he said, smirking a bit. "No problem." He was teasing at this point, but that was alright. The teasing felt more normal. |
"Oh, yeah, that's going to end well," Dori snarked right back. "You'll end up with cookie batter on the ceiling and burned cookies that will be all lumpy and deformed and tasteless, and then you'll come back." She smirked. The teasing did feel more normal, and she was relaxing really for the first time since they'd brought Barnes back.
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"No, no that will not happen, I refuse, I will make a perfect robot for this," Tony said, smirking back. "Challenge accepted."
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"They won't taste as good," Doreen said with a smirk. "I can make a better cookie than any robot you can make, we can have a taste test to prove it."
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"Done, this is happening, we're doing this," Tony said. He was grinning, now, clearly having fun and anticipating the sweets he would get out of it.
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"Done, any time." Dori grinned. She was always happy to bake for them, after all, she didn't even need the excuse of a competition. "We need taste testers too, because knowing you, you'll have it done this time tomorrow."
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Tony nearly cackled.
"Probably," he agreed. "Let's do this thing, this is going to be awesome." |
"I'm volunteering Clint as a taste tester because he eats everything anyway. Same with Thor." Dori grinned. "We need one more volunteer."
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"I nominate Steve," Tony said, smirking. "Man eats as much as Thor, and I have literally not found anything he dislikes yet."
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Steve shrugged. "Alright," he agreed. "I'm fine with that."
"Excellent." Dori grinned, already picking three separate recipes to try out (and sneak a few to Barnes after). |
Tony grinned.
"Good," he said. "I need to start this, so you all behave and don't set anything on fire, Pepper frowns on that." |
Doreen snorted and finished up dinner. Then she headed into the living room to turn on a movie and settle in.
Steve joined the group forming in the living room, settling in slowly. |
Laurel went into the living room as well, cautiously settling next to Steve.
"You alright?" she asked gently. |
Steve considered that for a few moments before he shrugged. He was still working that out. But he did settle in for the evening there, actually holding still for an extended period of time for the first time since he'd seen Bucky.
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