"Right." Tony shifted a bit to glance behind Clint. "Brought some souvenirs home?"

Jasmine tensed a bit at that and hunched in on herself. She had been comfortable with Alphas, before, but she was still too messed up to handle this right now.

"Tony." Steve's tone told him to back off a bit as he watched Bucky tense, just a little, the plates in his arm whirring.

"Hydra had them," Clint said, shifting just a bit to keep himself between Jasmine and everyone else. "Things got a bit complicated."

Bruce could see the evasion for what it was. It didn't take a genius to figure out why Clint and Bucky were bringing back a pair of Omegas.

"Do either one of them need any sort of medical attention?" he asked.

"It's probably a good idea," Bucky agreed after a moment, though he didn't look like he wanted Victoria to go anywhere.

"Later," Natasha said, solving that problem nicely. "After they've had a chance to settle in, they'll need a bit of time to adjust."

A while later, Victoria was cautiously perched on the edge of the bed in a room she'd been given. She was alone in the room, for the moment, and she wasn't entirely sure she liked that. But her Alpha had told her that he had to go do something, so she figured the best thing to do was wait for him to come back.

Once Jasmine was in her room settling in, Clint slowly wandered to his and Phil's room to finally 'fess up about what happened.

Bucky was doing the same thing, heading down to Steve's room to talk to him. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

Phil was sitting at his desk composing an email, but he looked up when Clint walked in.

"I was wondering when you'd come report," he said, his voice mild and faintly amused, and also fond.

Jasmine had waited for a little bit after Clint said he had to go take care of a few things. Then she got bored and went to go find Victoria.

"Figured I could take my time since Nat already came to see you," Clint said as he sat on the arm of Phil's armchair. He grinned when a dog came out of the bedroom. The dog looked like some sort of golden retriever-cross, and it wore a purple collar. "Hey, boy, did you behave for Phil?"

Steve was sitting by the window, just sketching a bit. He figured Bucky would show up when he was ready to talk.

Victoria jumped slightly when she heard a knock on the door, and she went to go see who it was. When she saw Jasmine, she grinned.

"Hey," she said, letting her friend in.

Phil smiled. "Of course he did," he said, ruffling Lucky's ears before the retriever bounded over to tackle Clint. "He missed you. You were gone longer than we expected."

Bucky tapped on the wall to let Steve know he was there. "Hey, punk."

"Hey." Jasmine grinned a bit. "You look okay, which is good."

Clint grimaced a bit.

"Yeah, about that," he said as he ruffled Lucky's fur. "You're not going to be pleased with me, Phil."

"Welcome back," Steve said, looking up from his sketch. He smiled a bit at Bucky. "How was the mission? You were gone a while."

"I'm fine," Victoria replied. "What about you?"

Phil paused at that. "What did you do?" he asked, the 'this time' hanging silent at the end of his sentence.

"Yeah," Bucky said, shifting uncomfortably. "There were some... unexpected bumps." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm fine," Jasmine said. "Pretty good, considering, I suppose."

Clint cringed slightly.

"Those two girls," he said. "Hydra had them. They were going to use them for some sort of new soldier program. They had them detoxing from their suppressants." He glanced at Phil, knowing his mate could and would connect the dots.

That made Steve pause.

"Like what?" he asked carefully.

"Yeah," Victoria agreed. She was quiet for a moment. "So now what?"

Phil looked at him, and then his eyes widened.

"Clint," he said, his voice carefully even. "Please tell me you didn't bond with one of them in the middle of her heat."

Bucky sighed. "Hydra had those two girls," he said, in a roundabout explanation. "They were detoxing 'em from their suppressants, so they went into heat just after we got 'em out. Had to split up and wait it out."

"I don't know," Jasmine said quietly. "Not exactly like we can just go back to work. England is a little far away."

"Told you you wouldn't be pleased with me," Clint muttered, carefully not meeting Phil's gaze. He pretended to be busy fidgeting with Lucky's collar.

Steve watched Bucky carefully through the explanation.

"Buck?" he prodded. "What happened?"

"No kidding," Victoria said. "And especially not now that..." She trailed off, glancing at the door and back. She definitely didn't think she could go back to England now that she was bonded to someone.

Phil sighed after a moment. "What do you plan to do now?" he asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Well. This was a new situation. He didn't have any paperwork for this.

Bucky sighed, fidgeting, his arm whirring through settings constantly. "I... sort of bonded with one?"

"Yeah, I know," Jasmine said with a quiet sigh. "It's... unexpected but... not bad?"

"Honestly, Phil, I didn't plan any further than getting her back here," Clint replied. He glanced over at Phil.

Steve blinked at that.

"You bonded with one of them?" he asked.

"Okay, good, it's not just me," Victoria said with a relieved sigh.

Phil sighed. "Alright. We'll figure out what we need to do." He paused for a moment and pulled out two folders, one for each girl. "Which one?"

Bucky nodded, shifting again and refusing to look right at Steve. At least he hadn't blown up yet.

"Yeah," Jasmine said with a little sigh. "I'm not sure yet what I want to do, though."

Clint looked at the folders briefly.

"Her," he said, tapping Jasmine's folder.

Steve was surprisingly hurt by Bucky's admission.

"Tell me what happened," he said, trying to keep his voice even. He wanted to know what all had gone on before he made any judgements.

Phil opened her folder, glancing through it quickly to get the most pertinent details. "Alright. We'll need to give her a few days to settle down, I'd be surprised if she wasn't still recovering from the last month. And then we'll figure out what we need to do." He looked at Clint again.

Bucky sighed but told him everything. It wasn't the prettiest picture he ever painted, but it was the truth. Hopefully Steve wouldn't flip out too much.

Clint nodded. That sounded like a plan.

"So... Exactly how angry at me are you?" he asked, watching Phil's expression carefully.

"I see," Steve said once Bucky was done talking. He was quiet for a bit. "I gotta think about this one, Buck. You best make sure she's settled in the meantime, alright? And you didn't get her pregnant, did you?"

"So far? Middling." Phil gave him a bit of a Look. "At least this one didn't try to kill you first."

"I--no--don't think so." Bucky huffed. "Shouldn't have, don't think I can, anymore." He shook himself a bit. "Just be nice to her, alright, punk?"

"Hey, come on, Nat was a special case," Clint protested.

"We'll see what happens," Steve said. He still wasn't sure if he needed to drive the new Omega off, so he made no promises.

"You seem to be acquiring more special cases," Phil said dryly.

Bucky huffed but didn't protest. He knew that Steve would be nice, if only because she was an Omega who had been tortured and taken by Hydra against her will.

Clint just made a face at him and rubbed Lucky's belly when the dog rolled over.

It took a few days, but Victoria finally felt settled enough to venture out of her room. Three consecutive days of solid meals and sleep had done wonders for her, and she was finally starting to feel like herself again.

Jasmine felt the same. She was feeling much more even-keeled after a few days of good sleep and good food, and she was also interacting with people again. Clint had dropped by a few times to check on her, and let her know to tell him if she needed anything.

So when she decided she wanted to go explore the rest of the tower, she thought to ask him first, just to be sure, and with that in mind set off to find him. She did not, however, expect to find him with Phil. She hid outside the beta's office, listening.

"I think we can safely now discuss what to do with Jasmine," Phil said, looking at Clint briefly.

"Meaning you have a plan already," Clint replied, looking at him. "What do you have in mind?"

Victoria had come to the same conclusion, and went to look for Bucky. She didn't want to poke around and somehow make him angry, or get into something she wasn't supposed to.

"There are ways to annul a bond," Phil said with a little shrug. "She works for SI, so it should be easy enough to get her back to her home and her job. We'll just have to make sure security around her is tightened."

Bucky was, fortunately, not having the talk with Steve yet about what to do about Victoria. Instead, he was playing video games in the main room, swearing to himself.