Archive of Our Own ^beta

Miracles. Everything in his life was a miracle. So at what point do you run out of miracles? At what point do you just stop getting “lucky.” How long was he going to need miracles just to survive? Even as he wished and prayed just one more miracle he knew it couldn’t be just one more. Because there would always be more things that only a miracle could fix.

It was a miracle Steve had even made it to 24, to have survived through every cold and every fever and every ailment a single person could possibly have and still draw breath. It was a miracle what Dr. Erskine did, turning him from a skinny, sickly kid to the big strong guy he was now. It was a miracle that after searching all over that Hydra factory, he found Bucky, still alive, strapped to a table. A day later, and he would probably have been dead. But Steve found him. It was a miracle. And it was a miracle that just as the piece of metal Bucky clung to on the side of the train gave way, he pushed off and leapt for Steve’s hand, and Steve was able to wrap his fingers around his wrist and yank him back into the train car. Thank god for super strength. Thank god for miracles.

They lay on the floor of the train car, trying to catch their breath. Steve was hunched up, leaning back against one of the racks of what were probably weapons. Bucky was on his stomach, propping himself up on his elbows. He turned his head and grinned at Steve. “So that was a close one,” he said as if he hadn’t just been hanging over a two-hundred foot chasm, literally microseconds from falling to his death.

Steve could only smile weakly back. Maybe Bucky could be nonchalant about it, or at least pretend to be, but for a moment, Steve’s heart stopped when he was sure Bucky was going to fall. He pushed himself to his feet and offered his hand to Bucky. “Come on, Buck, we still have a mission.”

Bucky nodded and grabbed his hand so he could hoist himself to his feet. He held on maybe a second longer than necessary, but it could have been Steve’s imagination. Steve bent down to pick up his helmet, and it was Bucky who found his shield. He held it up in both hands and looked at it for a moment before offering it to Steve.

“Make sure to hang onto it this time.”

Steve nodded and carefully took the shield from him. They looked at each other quietly for a moment and then Bucky said, “Thanks…”

Steve smiled again before cramming the helmet back on his head. “I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine, right?” He carefully took the shield back and adjusted it on his arm. “Let’s go find Zola.”

“I would love to have a chance to personally pay him back,” Bucky said a bit viciously. He found his rifle and took a moment to reload it before they made their way up towards the front of the train. It seemed like while they were ambushed and nearly thrown from the train, Gabe had managed to complete his task. He’d killed the engineer and had Zola bound while he was pulling the train into a place where the rest of the unit could meet up with them.

Zola looked at them with beady little eyes, but didn’t say anything. Bucky took a bit too much pleasure in cold-cocking him across the head with the butt of his rifle.

Phillips had really interesting ideas when it came to interrogation. But whatever he did, he managed to get Zola to tell him the location of the main Hydra base, which was what they were after, so Steve couldn’t really criticize his methods.

“Hydra’s last base is here,” Phillips told them in a briefing. He held up a photo and pointed to it. “In the Alps, five hundred feet below the surface.” He tossed the photos on the table and Morita picked them up to look at them.

“So what are we supposed to do?” Morita asked as he looked at the other Commandos. “I mean, it’s not like we can just knock on the front door.”

Steve glanced at Bucky, who was sitting to his left, at the end of the table with him. Bucky leaned back in his chair, dangerously close to tipping it back on its back legs, a habit he’d never fully broken from when they were kids. “Why not?” he asked levelly. He met Steve’s eye and shrugged one shoulder.

Steve looked at him and then looked at the map again. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Okay, yes, the plan was a little crazy. But at this point, it seemed like they needed something crazy to actually beat Hydra. Besides, there was a pretty good chance Steve was right, and that Schmidt would want to capture him alive. He double-checked his bike and his gear in their temporary camp just outside Hydra’s area.

Bucky walked up to him and watched him adjust things on the bike for a second. He crossed his arms and looked down. “You’re sure about this plan?”

“It was your idea.” Steve stopped what he was doing to look at Bucky.

“Not for you to go alone,” Bucky shot back. He met Steve’s eyes and he was quiet for a moment. “But I get why it has to be that way. Be careful, okay? You may be Captain America, but a bullet’s still a bullet.”

“I’ll be okay. You watch yourself too.” Finding nothing else to adjust on the bike, he finally swung his leg over the side and flipped the switch to turn it on. He looked at the path that would lead to the road Hydra used to get into their base, and then turned to look back at Bucky before pulling his helmet on.

“Guess I’ll see you on the other side,” Bucky said. His eyes moved back and forth across Steve’s face for a moment, and then he took a step back. “Good luck, Captain.”

Steve nodded. “You too, Sergeant.” He revved the engine and didn’t look over his shoulder as he rode down the path, even though he desperately wanted to see Bucky’s face one more time before starting this suicidal mission.

It was good thing he was right. Honestly, getting into the facility went perfectly as planned. Steve caused a little havoc, was captured, was brought to Schmidt, and then the Commandos busted in. Bucky originally wanted to be part of Team A, responsible for breaking through the windows into Schmidt’s office, so he could watch Steve’s back. But they knew his sharpshooting would be of more use with Team B, leading the assault team. So he joined Morita and Dernier. Which meant Steve didn’t see him at all as he chased Schmidt through the whole place until they ended up in the hangar.

As he tried to run down the plane Schmidt had boarded, he thought he wouldn’t get a chance to see Bucky before this was all over, but then Colonel Phillips pulled up in Schmidt’s fancy ride, with Bucky in the passenger seat and Peggy in the back.

“Get in!” Phillips yelled, so Steve obeyed. He jumped into the back with Peggy and just tried to hold on as the car went much faster than a car should reasonably go.

As they got closer, Bucky rose in the seat slightly like he was going to try to get on the plane too. “What are you doing?” Steve yelled at him over the noise.

Bucky grinned over his shoulder at him. “No way you get all the fun. Besides, I’ve got your back!”

Rather than argue, Steve just nodded and leaned up in his seat as well. “Keep it steady,” he told Phillips as both he and Bucky stood, preparing to jump if necessary.

“Wait!” Peggy said. He turned to look at her just as she grabbed one of the straps on his uniform and pulled him down into the most impossibly soft and sweet kiss, which seemed even more impossible with the chaos around them.

Steve heard Bucky cackle over the sound of the propellers and the car, and he turned to blink at the other two, so Phillips shot off, “I’m not kissing you.”

“Come on, lover boy!” Bucky yelled. He managed to leap to the wheel of the plane, and then he turned and held out his hand. Steve secured his shield to his back and jumped for the wheel just as the plane took off. He grabbed a thick cable in one hand, and grabbed Bucky’s outstretched arm with the other. Bucky pulled him up onto the landing gear, and they both balanced as the wheel retracted into the plane.

Bucky swung himself onto the catwalk and slipped his rifle off his shoulder, immediately sweeping it around, looking for Hydra agents. Steve followed him, but he paused when he saw they were surrounded with bombs. Bombs with the names of American cities painted on the sides, including New York. He nudged Bucky’s shoulder and nodded towards it.

Bucky’s eyes got hard when he saw Schmidt wanted to blow up their home town. He whipped his head up, though, when they heard a door bang open. “I’ll take the ones on the right,” Steve whispered. “You take the ones on the left.” Bucky nodded just as several men clad entirely in black headed towards the bombs, or planes, whatever they were.

Steve leapt over the landing gear and kicked one guy in the side as he heard a rapid crack crack crack that told him Bucky was shooting at the others. But even with both of them trying to stop the Hydra agents, one managed to climb inside his plane and get it started. Steve leapt on top of it and tried to break the glass, but another agent caught him by surprise and tackled him. Then the world fell out below him as the bomb/plane dropped out of the hangar, taking him and the Hydra agent with it..

“Steve!” Bucky’s scream faded in the distance as Steve suddenly found himself in open air, clinging onto the wings of the tiny plane for dear life. He was more fortunate than the guy that had tackled him. That guy got torn up by the propellers when the pilot shot up, trying to shake him. But the upward motion did put Steve in the right place to be able to pop the hatch and pull the pilot’s emergency chute. He went flying and Steve dropped down into his vacant space and steered the thing right through the back of the plane.

A second before he came to a complete stop, he saw Bucky fighting off the two last Hydra agents. He turned and shot one in the head just as the other raised his gun to kill him. Before he could make the shot, however, he got pinned under the bomb/plane Steve was piloting as it shuddered to a stop.

Bucky spun around and then grinned crazily when he saw who was climbing out of the cockpit. “You crazy punk!” He scrambled over the various bits of metal and clapped Steve on the shoulder. “Don’t scare me like that again!”

“Now I guess we’re even.” Steve picked up his shield and spared a moment to give Bucky a reassuring smile.

Bucky’s eyes softened slightly when he looked at him, and Steve could see he had been really scared for Steve. But a moment later, the look was gone. He checked his ammunition and then they made their way towards the front of the plane. They stopped where it split off, with one way leading towards the cockpit, and another leading somewhere else.

“Schmidt is going to be in there.” Steve kept his voice low as he nodded towards the cockpit.

Bucky nodded in agreement. “But there are probably more Hydra goons.”

“You check down that way. I’ll take care of Schmidt.”

Bucky met his eyes, and once again, he just stared at Steve. It was such an unreadable expression, that Steve had no idea what to make of it. He never had trouble reading Bucky before. But he had no idea what was going through his friend’s head now. Finally he nodded once, just a jerk of his head. “Got it. Give him hell.” He turned down the hallway, gun raised, and Steve carefully walked toward the heavy metal door that lead to the cockpit.

Schmidt had been waiting for him, and it was only luck that he managed to not be killed right away. Bucky came back just as Steve tackled Schmidt into the controls for the plane, and the whole thing went into a crazy nosedive. Bucky clung to the doorframe and propped his foot against the opposite side to keep himself from going flying just as Steve had done. He tried to shoot at Schmidt as they were tossed and turned around the cockpit, but the bullet only went out the glass window already broken by the blast from the Tesseract gun.

When Schmidt managed to right the plane, he turned and shot at Bucky, who just managed to duck back outside the door to avoid being shot. “You could have the power of the gods!” Schmidt taunted Steve and shot at him with his handgun. He occasionally shot at the door too, to keep Bucky away. “Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations.” Steve ducked as a shot went over his head. He heard a ping and just saw Bucky duck around the doorway again before Schmidt shot at him. It seemed all those nasty Tesseract weapons had unlimited ammo too.

“Steve, shut this guy up!” Bucky yelled at him.

Schmidt ignored him as he continued to taunt Steve. “I have seen the future, Captain, there are no flags.”

“Not my future!” Steve yelled back as he jumped for his shield. He blocked one last blast and then threw the shield as hard as he could. He hit Schmidt squarely in the abdomen and knocked him into the device in the center of the cockpit. Blue electricity sparked around the whole thing as the center rose out of it, revealing the Tesseract itself. He saw Bucky step into the room out of the corner of his eye. He had his gun raised, but he didn’t shoot. When Steve looked at him, his mouth was hanging open in shock.

“What have you done?” Schmidt mumbled. He picked up the Tesseract and it glowed even brighter before a hole tore open in the ceiling, revealing stars and constellations right in front of them. The two American soldiers just watched in awe, and probably horror as well, as Schmidt dissolved and was ripped through the hole. The Tesseract fell from the hand that had been there, and the hole closed. The blue electricity continued as the Tesseract burned its way through every piece of metal between it and open air.

Steve and Bucky glanced at each other, both with mirroring expressions of shock. Finally, Steve shook himself and grabbed Bucky’s arm. “Come on, we’ve got to check the controls.” He grabbed his shield off the floor and moved over to the console, with Bucky at his heels. He pulled his helmet off his head and set it aside so he could see. And what he saw wasn’t good.

“It’s heading for New York still,” Bucky said, pointing at the screen that scrolled between New York, and the plane’s current location. It wasn’t far from the Canadian coast. At this rate, it could be dropping bombs over Brooklyn in minutes. He looked at Bucky, and saw the same realization in his eyes.

“See if the radio is still working,” he said quietly, and Bucky turned to the console to do that.

When he thought he had the right frequency, he turned it on and said into the receiver, “Come in. This is Sergeant Barnes with Captain Rogers. Do you read me?”

“Sergeant Barnes,” Morita’s voice said from the other end, which made Bucky smile in relief. “What is your loca—”

“Steve! Bucky!” Peggy’s voice cut him off. Bucky seemed surprised to hear her. Steve was surprised she had called him Bucky. She almost never referred to him by his nickname. If she ever even called him by first name, she called him James. “Are you two alright?”

“Peggy!” Steve said into the radio. “Schmidt’s dead.”

“What about the plane?” she asked immediately.

Bucky looked at him, because he’d been fiddling with the controls the whole time. He couldn’t take it off autopilot. And nothing Steve did could change course either. “That’s a little bit tougher to explain,” Steve admitted.

“Give me your coordinates, I’ll find you a safe landing site,” she said, but her voice sounded strained, like she was trying to keep it together.

Bucky looked at the screen again. There were too many armed bombs still on board “There’s not going to be a safe landing,” he said. He met Steve’s eyes as he said it, and Steve saw the grim acceptance behind his gaze. “We’re going to have to force it down.”

“Buck…” Steve started to say.

“Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have done the same thing if you were the only one here.” His lips twitched into just a bit of a crazy, desperate grin. “I’m with you. Til the end of the line.”

“Til the end of the line,” Steve repeated. He looked back at the radio. “He’s right, Peggy. This thing’s moving too fast and it’s heading for New York.” Steve paused and looked up at Bucky. “I’ve got to put her in the water.”

“Please don’t do this.” Her voice cracked. “W-we have time. We can work it out.”

“Right now, we’re in the middle of nowhere. If we wait any longer, a lot of people are gonna die.” He hadn’t turned the plane down yet, but he knew he could. He needed some kind of confirmation first, someone to tell him it really was for the best. “Peggy, it’s okay.”

She was quiet. She didn’t try to dissuade them anymore. So Steve pushed down on the controls, sending them into a nosedive once again. He could brace himself in the pilot’s chair, but Bucky had to cling to the console to keep his balance.

Bucky reached over quickly and turned the microphone for the radio off, so they would be able to hear if Peggy said something, but she couldn’t hear them. Steve turned his head to ask why, but Bucky caught his face in his hands. His eyes moved back and forth, staring into Steve’s eyes. But then he said, “So I guess this is the end of the line. Which means there’s something I have to tell you before I lose my chance.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Steve’s slowly, carefully, and so calmly that you wouldn’t think he was bracing both feet against the chair and the console, just trying to stay upright. He pulled back, but kept his hands on Steve’s face. “I love you. Always have.” He looked at Steve for a moment more, and then pulled his hands back so he could clutch the chair. He held his hand over the switch for the radio to turn it back on. “Tell her something to make it easier.”

Steve just gaped at him, because he couldn’t very well move with how he was holding down the controls. Bucky had just kissed him. Bucky had just admitted to being in love with him. But before he could form an adequate response, the radio was back on, and he couldn't say anything for fear of who else was listening. “Peggy,” he managed to get out, but his voice was thick.

“I’m here…” she whispered.

“I’m going to need a raincheck on that dance.” It was the first thing to come to mind, and he had no idea why he said it. Bucky grinned, so he figured it was good.

“Alright.” Steve could hear the tears in her voice. “A week next Saturday, at the Stork Club.”

Steve stared out the window, pushing down on the controls with all his might. He spared one hand so he could reach out to the side. Bucky took it in his immediately and squeezed tightly. “You got it,” Steve said in response to Peggy.

“Eight o’clock on the dot. Don’t you dare be late,” she continued. “Understood?”

“You know, I still don’t know how to dance,” Steve said breathlessly.

Bucky laughed beside him, but it sounded shaky too. “I can teach ya.” He slipped into his pronounced Brooklyn accent effortlessly. It sounded like coming home. A home they were never going to see again.

“Yes, we’ll show you how. Just be there, both of you.”

“We’ll have the band play something slow,” he said quickly as the ground rose up to meet them. Bucky grabbed his hand with both of his and held on tightly. “I’d hate to step on your toes.” Just before they crashed, he threw himself out of the chair and knocked Bucky to the floor, covering him with his own body, with the hope that maybe, just maybe he would—

Steve woke up slowly, so slowly, which was unusual for him. Bucky was the one who would gripe and groan and resist getting up. But when Steve was awake, he was up immediately. This time, however, he was aware of being fully awake before opening his eyes. He looked up at the ceiling that was painted an unassuming off-white for a moment, and then he pushed himself up and swung his legs over the side of the small bed.

He was wearing an SSR T-shirt, and combat boots over khakis. Whoever had dressed him, had put shoes on his feet before putting him in the bed. That wasn’t the only thing off. The baseball game creating background noise from a radio caught his attention immediately when he recognized the play. He remembered standing on his feet with Bucky and cheering it on during a warm day in Brooklyn a few years ago. So whoever put him here couldn’t get a broadcast of a current game, and didn’t know any better than to pick one that was a few years old. That narrowed down the possibilities.

Before he could come up with a plan, or make any other observations, a pretty woman walked through the door and said, “Good morning.” She glanced at her wristwatch, and then amended, “Or should I say afternoon?” She smiled pleasantly, and Steve could tell right away it was fake. She was fake to her core. Her demeanor and voice were soft, but everything about this women was wrong. She was trying too hard to be someone who she thought would put Steve at ease. That put him on guard even more.

Rather than mince words, he cut to the chase. “Where am I?”

She opened her mouth like she was unsure what to say. Perhaps she had expected something else from him, instead of the hostility he projected. “You’re in a recovery room in New York City,” she said at last, still calm, still soft-spoken.

Steve looked her over, and then glanced over his shoulder at the radio again as he listened to the announcer describe a game he was now sure he had gone to. He looked back at the woman and said, “Where am I really?”

She laughed like it was a joke, but Steve could tell she was nervous. She was really nervous. “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said, even quieter than before, with a red smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“The game,” he explained, “it’s from May 1941. I know cause I was there.” The smile dropped off her face. Good. Maybe that meant she would stop pretending. He rose to his feet and towered over her. For her part, she didn’t retreat from him. “Now I’m going to ask you again. Where am I? Where’s Bucky?”

“Captain Rogers…” she started to say, probably in an effort to calm him down.

“Who are you?” he demanded as the door opened again and two men in black combat gear walked through. They severely underestimated him. But he realized it wasn’t just his super strength that let him throw the guys through the wall. It was paper thin, a false room. He jumped through the hole and took in the large room that held his make-believe prison. He was in even more trouble than he had originally thought.

He ran through the doors and was confronted by dozens of men and women in suits and more men in black combat gear. He shoved through them all, and found his way out of the building and onto the street. God, he was in a city. He ran down the center of the road and ended up in… No way, it couldn’t be. But it looked like someone had slapped the most ridiculous facades over Times Square, the Times Square in his New York.

He stopped to stare and was surrounded by black cars and more men in black suits. However, they didn’t move towards him, they kept the crowds of people back. “At ease, soldier,” he heard from behind him and he turned around to see a black man with an eye patch over his left eye standing in the rain, looking at him. He didn’t have any weapons. He just looked at Steve, who was busy trying not to panic. He walked over to Steve, and Steve turned to fully face him, but he didn’t say anything.

The man looked at Steve for a moment, and then said, “Look, I’m sorry about that little show back there. But,” he paused, “we thought it best to break it to you slowly.”

“Break what?” Seve asked, with the same accusatory tone of voice he had used on the woman back inside… wherever that was.

The man blinked once. “You’ve been asleep, Cap,” he said calmly, without any emotion. “For almost seventy years.”

Steve opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but nothing came out. He looked around at the buildings, at the cartoonish facades all over Times Square. It couldn’t be. It was impossible. But… But this was New York, and it was obviously not his New York. And honestly, he had seen stranger things. He turned away from the man and looked at the people watching him, the crowds of civilians held back by the men in black suits. No, these weren’t New Yorkers of the forties.

“You gonna be okay?” the man asked.

It was a stupid question after telling someone they had apparently time-traveled seventy years into the future. But Steve said, “Yeah,” anyway. “Yeah, I just…” How could he possibly put into words all the things going through his head? Seventy years? What about the war? What about Bucky? Instead, the first thing that came out of his mouth was, “I had a date,” because it was the only thing he could focus on. He had a date with Peggy and she and Bucky were gonna show him how to dance.

He let them herd him into a black car, and the man with the eyepatch joined him in the back seat. He introduced himself as Colonel Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, an organization that rose out of the SSR, founded by Howard Stark and Peggy Carter. So these were the good guys, apparently. Fury told him about the war, that they’d won. He told Steve how they found the plane and found him alive. They thawed him out and he woke up.

When he couldn’t handle it anymore, Steve cut him off to ask, “What about Bucky? Where is Bucky?” Fury turned to look at him with his one eye. “I mean, Sergeant James Barnes. He was with me in the plane, when it crashed. You must have found him too.” It still felt like ice was around Steve’s heart. Fury was about to tell him Bucky hadn’t made it, that he really did die in the crash, he just knew it.

“Barnes in alive,” Fury said, which made Steve let out the longest exhale in relief. But he said it in that same calm, emotionless voice he had used to tell Steve he had been asleep for seventy years.

“Where is he?” Steve asked carefully.

“We have a special SHIELD-run hospital. For people who can’t go to normal ones, for one reason or another.” That was when Steve noticed they weren’t heading back to the building he had broken out of. Fury had been taking him to the hospital even before he asked.

The car stopped in a loading zone in front of the building. It was not obviously marked as a hospital. Steve had seen his fair share of hospitals when he was a kid, sick all the time. And even when he wasn’t sick, he would sit around and wait for his Ma to finish her shift. There were signs, however, that this building was used for the injured and sick. It just wasn’t open to the public.

Steve followed Fury through the hallways and every person there stopped to look at them as they passed. At first Steve thought they were staring at him, but then he realized they were equally surprised to see Fury. He had said he was the director of the organization. “Your super soldier serum is what allowed you to survive the crash and being frozen,” Fury told him. “But you still woke up sooner than the doctors expected. You bounced right back, Cap.”

“And Bucky? You said he’s alive.”

“He is alive. But he didn’t come away from the crash unscratched.”

Steve’s heart sank. “How bad is it?” He had to see Bucky for himself. How huge could this building be? Why weren’t they there yet?

Fury stopped in the doorway to a private hospital room. There was a bed and a figure lying in the bed, hooked up to machines on either side. It was Bucky. Steve rushed into the room, and reached out, but stopped short of touching him. His entire left side was covered in bandages, but they stopped and wrapped around a stump where his arm should have been, just above the elbow. Steve carefully nudged the blanket down to see better. He was right, Bucky’s whole left arm was gone. He had tubes stuck into his hand and down his nose, and his face was pale and thin. He looked like death, even though his chest was rising and falling almost imperceptibly.

“Bucky…” He glanced back to see Fury still standing in the doorway. “What happened?”

“When they found you, his arm was mangled, mostly severed. Doctors couldn’t save it, so they had to take it off.”

“When will he wake up?”

“No one knows. He didn’t quite recover like you did.” Fury paused. “But the longer he stays in that coma, the less likely it is that he will wake up.”

Steve looked back at Bucky. He wanted to reach out and touch his face, but not with Fury standing there. So he just looked down at him.

“We could use someone like you, Cap. The war may be over, but there are still battles to fight. What do you say?”

Steve didn’t turn and look back at Fury. Instead, he reached down and squeezed Bucky’s hand. It was cold, but he could feel the the slow pulse of blood running through his veins. “Yes.”

So Steve tried to find his way in this world that was so different from the one he left. SHIELD helped him find a place to live in Manhattan and helped him catch up on everything he had missed over the last seventy years. In the mornings, he wandered around New York, trying to relearn a city that he used to know so well.

In the afternoon he went to the hospital and he sat in Bucky’s room. It started so he could be there when Bucky woke up. But as the days passed, he realized it was less likely Bucky would wake up when he was around. But still, he went, just in case. He bought a sketch pad and some pencils and started drawing when he sat in the chair by Bucky’s hospital bed. He sketched New York as he remembered it. And he drew the people he remembered from Brooklyn.

But mostly he drew Bucky. He drew Bucky smirking, hair disheveled from a drunken night. He drew Bucky looking perfect, dancing with some dame. He drew Bucky lying on his stomach, over his rifle, with one eye closed, as he aimed to take down a Hydra agent. And sometimes he just drew Bucky smiling out at the viewer. He wished he had colors then, so he could color in his eyes. But then again, Steve probably won’t be able to get the color right. So he traced the graphite around the eye he was sketching, trying to get the gleam Bucky always had, that said he was up to mischief.

There were so many things he needed to say to Bucky. So he needed him to wake up. He spent so much time thinking about what Bucky had said right at the end, and about that kiss. He didn’t have time to respond. So while he waited for Bucky to wake up, he thought about what he would say.

Even though it was a SHIELD hospital, there were still visitor hours. So in the evening they kicked Steve out. Steve would lean down and squeeze Bucky’s hand before leaving, just to feel his pulse and make sure he was still alive. After, he would wander the streets again. But he eventually ended up in the basement of a gym, beating a bag. It started as once in a while, and then it was a few nights a week, and then it was every night. Punching the bag kept him from sleeping, because when he was asleep, he dreamed. And he dreamt about the plane crash, and Bucky swinging from the outside of the train, and finding Bucky on that table.

Sometimes he had nightmares about things that didn’t happen. He would dream he hadn’t found Bucky in time, that by the time he got to him, Bucky was dead on the table in that Hydra factory. He dreamed he hadn’t managed to grab Bucky’s hand and had to watch him plummet to his death. He dreamed that he had woken up from the ice only to be told that Bucky hadn’t made it.

So he pounded those thoughts and images out of his mind every night, and returned to his apartment in the early hours of the morning to collapse into his bed for a few hours of sleep. Lucky for him, the super soldier serum kept him functioning on little sleep. The next day he would repeat the process.

Months went by, and while the injuries Bucky had from the crash healed, he came no closer to waking up. At first the doctors and nurses checked on him a lot, especially when they realized he had some version of the serum running through his veins from his time as a POW. They thought he would make a recovery like Steve had. But as time went by and that didn’t happen, they checked in less and less, until it was only Steve who was there every day, still thinking he would wake up. They still took care of him sure, but they thought he would sleep the rest of his life away.

One day, Steve sat staring at Bucky. His sketchpad was open on his lap and his pencil hung loosely from his hand as his elbow rested on the armrest of the chair. He hadn’t managed to draw anything today. Every time he started, he would glance at Bucky again and his mind would wander. So finally he closed the sketchpad and set it with the pencil on the beside table. He pulled his chair forward and took Bucky’s right hand with both of his.

“Bucky…” he whispered, aware of the open door behind him. But by this point the nurses paid him no attention anymore. “You’ve got to wake up, Buck. I need you. This is…” He bowed his head and squeezed Bucky’s hand. “Everything here is so strange. You wouldn’t believe it.” Steve smiled to himself. “Actually, you’d probably like it, all the stuff they have now. It’s hard to adjust. Everyone else we know is gone. So you’re all I have left.” He looked down at Bucky’s face. “So you need to wake up.

“I have something I need to tell you. Before we went down, you said… I don’t know if you thought I would yell at you or… or hate you. But I couldn’t. I would never. In fact I…”

Steve closed his eyes and leaned his forehead down over his clasped hands around Bucky’s one hand. “Please. Just one more miracle. I just need one more miracle. Just let Bucky wake up…”

He sat like that for a long time, holding Bucky’s hand tightly between his own. But it didn’t matter how long he sat there, Bucky didn’t wake up. Finally, when he realized the sun had gotten much lower in the sky, he let go of Bucky’s hand and gently set it back on the bed. He grabbed his sketchpad and got up to leave before the nurses could ask him to.

That night, while he was beating the punching bag especially hard, hard enough in fact, to send it flying across the room, Fury walked in and asked, “Trouble sleeping?”

“Slept for seventy years, sir,” Steve said without pausing in beating up a new bag. “I think I’ve had my fill.”

“Then you should be out celebrating. Seeing the world.” Fury walked over to him.

Steve glanced over to spare him an unhappy look. Especially today, he didn’t feel remotely like celebrating the fact that he was alive. “When I went under, the world was at war. Sometimes I think we still are.” He glanced at Fury and walked over to the bench that had his stuff. He started to unwrap the wraps on his hands and then he looked up at Fury as he stopped next to him. That was when he noticed the folder in Fury’s hands. “You here with a mission, sir?”

“I am.”

“Trying to get me back in the world?” Steve asked as he dropped the wraps in his bag.

“Trying to save it.” He held the file open and handed it to Steve.

Steve looked over and was greeted with a picture of the Tesseract. He took the file and sat down carefully on the bench. “Hydra’s secret weapon...” he muttered.

Steve flipped through the pages as Fury continued, “Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought—we think the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That’s something the world sorely needs.”

Steve flipped the file closed and handed it back to Fury. He could see where this was going. “Who took it from you?”

Fury took back the file. “He’s called Loki. He’s not from around here,” he said slowly. The way he said it made Steve think there was way more to the story than just that. “There’s a lot we’re going to have to bring you up to speed on if you’re in.” He looked at Steve, and that was when Steve could see Fury wasn’t actually as collected as he usually seemed. This had him shaken up. Steve remembered the kind of awful power the Tesseract possessed. Fury was right to be worried. “The world has gotten even stranger than you already know.”

“At this point, I doubt anything could surprise me.” He stood up and grabbed his bag before he headed towards the other punching bags lined up on the floor.

Fury was quiet for a second, and then he said, “Ten bucks says you’re wrong.” Steve didn’t look back at him as he picked up the first punching bag and hefted it up onto his shoulder to put it away. From behind him, Fury said, “There’s a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment.” Steve could tell Fury’s eyes were on his back. “Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. He could feel anger simmering under the surface, at everything that had been done with that stupid cube, and at the fact that SHIELD had been messing around with it. “You should have left it in the ocean,” he said without looking back.

He did end up helping SHIELD, fighting against Loki, meeting Howard’s son, scrambling along the outside of the Helicarrier as it fell out of the sky, and ultimately fighting off an alien invasion in Manhattan. When Tony told him to call the orders, he was hyper aware of how close they were to the SHIELD hospital where Bucky was currently still comatose. He wondered, vaguely, in a distracted sort of way, if they were evacuating patients, and what they would do with Bucky since he couldn’t move on his own. It was lucky for him that the hospital was just outside the range of the attack. But it wouldn’t be for long if they didn’t stop it right there.

And somehow, miraculously, the six of them did it. They even managed to survive without any life-threatening injuries. Sure Tony had almost died, and Agent Barton griped later about going through a window, but it was a battle they were all able to walk away from. Fury still sent him to SHIELD’s hospital to get checked out, though. He might be able to walk, but he had cracked a few ribs and had a nasty burn on his side that needed attention, even if it would heal in a few days.

He let a nurse look over his injuries, and wrap bandages around the burns. When she pressed down on the bruised skin, he sucked in air because, yup, his ribs were definitely at least cracked, but probably broken. They told him to take it easy, but no one really thought Captain America would have any real trouble healing.

As he walked through the hospital, he could tell they had been on the verge of evacuating before Tony was able to send that missile through the portal and end the invasion. There were also lots of injured SHIELD agents from the attack on the helicarrier. So the hospital was crowded and busy. But it got less busy as he got out of the ER and into the long-term rooms.

He felt guilty about the fact that he hadn’t visited Bucky for three days, even if it was ridiculous. While he liked to think Bucky was aware of his presence, he had been told Bucky probably wasn’t aware of anything. Still, he didn’t like to think that if Bucky did know, what it would be like for him when Steve suddenly didn’t show up. So he walked the familiar hallways to Bucky’s room, moving slower because of his ribs.

He walked through the doorway, but grinded to a halt. The bed was empty. The bed was empty and the machines were off and the sheets were turned up, as if the occupant had been gone for more than just a few minutes. Steve did the reasonable thing. He panicked.

“Nurse!” he said loudly and then ducked back out into the hallway. The usual nurse on duty wasn’t there. She was probably called downstairs to help with the wounded. The next nurse’s station didn’t have anyone either. It was a hospital, so Steve couldn’t start running down the hallways, but the panic made him feel he had to find a nurse soon. If something happened to Bucky while he was gone…

He finally found a nurse when she turned down his hallway, heading for one of the empty stations. She seemed quite surprised to find Captain America standing in front of her, clearly on the edge of some kind of emotional break down. Her mouth even opened in shock when she obviously recognized him.

“Where is James Barnes?” he asked, or he tried to. It came out like a demand. A worried, panicked demand. She didn’t answer, but instead continued to stare at him in awe. She wasn’t one of the regulars on this floor. They were all used to him by now. But Captain America was still impressive to some people in SHIELD, it seemed. “James Barnes, coma patient, room 403. Where is he?” he demanded more firmly this time. “I thought you hadn’t started evacuating this hospital yet. But he’s not in his room.”

The nurse finally snapped out of her surprise and turned to the station to check the patient files. Before she got a chance, however, he heard a weak, whispered, “Steve…?” from behind him.

He would have thought he would spin around fast, trying to locate the source of that voice. Instead, he turned slowly, impossibly slowly. It wasn’t for his ribs. It was because he was afraid of what he would see. Finally, his eyes landed on the regular nurse pushing a wheelchair, and in the chair… Steve met his eyes and no, he would have never been able to get that color right, no matter what he tried. He couldn’t believe he had ever forgotten that shade of blue. He silently swore to god that he was never going to take for granted getting to look in those eyes again.

“Bucky…” he said, and so help him, his voice shook. He had been running on fear and adrenaline all day, and had just come out of a hopeless battle that they had somehow won anyway, for crying out loud! To say his nerves were shot would be an understatement. So no, he couldn’t keep his voice from shaking. “You’re awake…” Steve said weakly.

He still looked like hell. If possible, he looked worse than he did when he had been comatose. His face was thin, in a way Steve imagined his had always looked before the war. There were dark shadows under his eyes, which still couldn’t hide their brilliance. He looked tired, and frail. But months in a coma would do that to anyone. Not to mention nothing came out of the left sleeve of the shirt he wore, which hung loosely on his frame.

But he still pushed himself out of the chair, perhaps putting more weight on his right hand than one normally would. He waved off the concerns of the nurse behind him and took one step forward. Steve crossed the rest of the distance and wrapped his arms around his friend. He wanted to hug him as tightly as he could, but he knew that would do neither of them any favors. So he was careful, holding Bucky tightly to his chest, but gently, mindful of how weak he was. He ignored the protest from his ribs, however. After a second, he felt Bucky’s right hand around his back, and Bucky’s forehead rested against his shoulder.

“You’re awake…” he whispered. “You woke up… I can’t believe it… You woke up. You made it. You made it. You’re here,” he babbled.

“Steve…” Bucky whispered again. Where Steve was babbling, Bucky just said his name quietly, like a sigh. Like everything was going to be okay, because Steve was here. And he knew exactly how that felt, because it was how he felt every time Bucky came to his rescue when they were kids.

The nurse cleared her throat behind them. “You should really get back to your room, Mr. Barnes…” She said quietly, but firmly.

Steve pulled back, but kept his hands on Bucky’s shoulders, to keep him steady. He glanced over Bucky’s shoulder at the nurse. “He’s a Sergeant. Sergeant Barnes, not Mister.”

“Oh, um…” The nurse was clearly flustered at getting told off by Captain America. Bucky just laughed, though it was not nearly as strong as his laugh used to be. “Sergeant Barnes, then… you should really get back to your room.”

“Yeah, yeah…” He turned to look at the wheelchair, and then looked at the door to the hospital room, judging the distance. The nurse clearly wanted him to sit back in the wheelchair and be wheeled the ten feet back to his room but instead Bucky moved around it. “I can walk that far,” he said, somewhat annoyed, when she tried to insist. The two nurses exchanged glances, and Steve stayed at Bucky’s side, an amused smile on his face.

Bucky made it into the room, and even all the way over to the bed. He spun around and dropped down onto the edge of it. The nurse silently set the wheelchair just inside the door and shook her head before leaving. Bucky propped his palm against the edge of the bed and smiled up at Steve tiredly.

Instead of taking his usual chair beside the bed, he sat down on the edge of it next to Bucky. It was so similar to how they used to sit on the edge of Steve’s bed when they were kids and he was sick. But now Bucky was the one in the hospital. Bucky looked at him, and he was aware of how close they were sitting.

Steve looked down at his hands in his lap, rather than meet Bucky’s eyes. “When did you wake up?” he asked quietly.

Bucky watched him. “Yesterday, I think… I dunno. It took me a while to really grasp where I was. And then I kept trying to reach for things with…” he gestured at his left arm, or where it used to be. “So that was messing me up.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here.” Steve glanced over. “I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

Bucky shook his head. “It was the middle of the night, or something.”

So even if he wasn’t on that mission, he wouldn’t have been here. Somehow, that was a bit of a relief.

“Besides, I heard you were…” he screwed up his face like he couldn’t believe what he was about to say, “fighting aliens or something. When I heard the nurses talking about it, I thought it had to be some kind of code word. But no, they meant honest to god aliens.”

Steve smiled weakly. “Honestly, fighting the aliens might have been the part of all that that made the most sense.”

Bucky shook his head. “Sorry I wasn’t able to help…” He looked down and picked at the knee of his sweat pants.

“It’s okay. You’re awake now.” It was easy to forget when Bucky was lying in that hospital bed, but now it was painfully obvious he only had one arm. While Steve looked the same, Bucky looked like he had barely survived a plane crash.

“How long was I out?” He didn’t look at Steve as he asked.

Steve looked at the side of his face that he could see, but Bucky wouldn’t meet his eyes. He hesitated, and then asked, “What have they told you?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “They said I was in a coma for a while, but that I had to wait for you or someone named Fury to explain everything.” He looked at the door. “When I asked about the war, they said it was long over, that we won, but…” He bit his lip. “There was this look like at first the guy had no idea what I was talking about.” He finally looked at Steve, his eyes searching his face for some kind of answer. “How could he not know, though? It’s the fucking war.”

Steve took a deep breath and met his eyes. “Bucky…” he started, “It’s been… Technically, you’ve been in a coma for eight months.”

“Technically?” Bucky asked.

“But you’ve been asleep for sixty-eight years.”

A lot of emotions crossed Bucky’s face then. First there was disbelief, then shock, then disbelief again, then horror, then contemplation, then grim realization. “Years?” he finally asked.

Steve nodded. “I know. It was… I didn’t take it too well when I first found out. But with me, they tried to make me think it was still ‘44 with this fake room. But I could tell it was fake. So I thought I’d been caught by Hydra or something. All I could think about was getting out, finding you, getting us out of there. But then I ended up on the street and…” Steve took a deep breath as he remembered his reaction to Times Square. “We’re in New York, Buck, but you wouldn’t even recognize it.”

“Sixty-eight years…” he mumbled and looked down again. “How?”

“We froze. Apparently it didn’t kill us, though.” Steve couldn’t help glancing past him to where his left arm should have been. “Almost did, but we froze first, I guess. They finally found the plane last year, that’s why we’re back.”

Bucky frowned. “They mentioned something about a plane crash, and ice…”

Steve looked at him. “Wait, Bucky, don’t you remember the plane crash? Schmidt’s plane?”

Bucky looked at his face, and just watched him for a moment, and then he shook his head. Something cold settled in Steve’s stomach. He had assumed that when Bucky finally woke up, when he finally had a chance to answer him like he’d wanted to ever since Bucky kissed him eight months ago and sixty-eight years ago, he would be able to just say it. But Bucky didn’t remember having kissed him or having told him he loved him.

Steve licked his lips, as his mouth suddenly felt dry. “What do you remember?”

Bucky knit his brows together in concentration and fiddled with the knee on his sweatpants again. “Your suicidal plan. Storming the Hydra base with the assault team.” He looked off to the side in thought. “Met up with Carter, and she said she had seen you running after Schmidt. Phillips pulled up in this snazzy ride, told us we were gonna help Captain America get on that plane to stop the bastard.” He frowned. “I think we made it. We must have, cause that must have been the plane that crashed.” He shook his head, then looked back at Steve. “Then just flashes, like blue electricity, shooting at faceless Hydra agents… nothing specific.”

So he really didn’t remember. “We crashed the plane. We had to.”

Bucky nodded. “Makes sense. What happened?”

“We got on, just barely. Then we had to fight all these Hydra agents. The plane was filled with bombs, that were actually little planes themselves. I guess Schmidt was inspired by what the Japs did at Pearl Harbor.” Bucky’s eyes were hard as he nodded. “I accidentally got to take a ride in one. Then you went to make sure there weren’t any more Hydra agents sneaking around and I found Schmidt in the cockpit. During the fight, he did something, set it on autopilot or something, so it was headed for New York. I knocked the Tesseract out of its device, and then it… I dunno, it destroyed him…” Steve looked past Bucky’s face, remembering the way Schmidt had screamed and dissolved into light. He couldn’t understand the stars he saw on the ceiling of the cockpit then, but now he knew the Tesseract had opened a portal to the other side of space, just like Loki had recently. “It melted straight through the floor.” He looked down. “Apparently Howard found it while searching for the plane. That’s what all this was about.” He waved back towards the window, to indicate New York, out there. “Fighting the aliens, and everything. It was still about the Tesseract.”

“Fucking thing…” Bucky muttered.

Steve nodded. “Then we tried to take control of the plane, but whatever Schmidt had done, we couldn’t turn it off. It was still headed for New York, with at least half a dozen armed bombs.” Bucky watched him. “You were the one who said it, but we both were thinking the same thing. We couldn’t turn the plane around, and we couldn’t land it, but we could crash it. We were pretty far north, so we crashed into ice, and that’s what froze us.”

Bucky nodded like that all made sense, but he had a slightly expectant look on his face, like he knew that wasn’t all there was to the story.

So Steve took a breath and said, “There’s more.” Bucky’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t say anything. “We got on the radio, and Peggy was there. That was when we realized we were going to have to force the plane down. She tried to convince us not to, but eventually she accepted there was no other way.” He paused, unsure exactly how to say it. He hadn’t thought he’d have to explain what Bucky did to Bucky himself. Bucky just watched him, that same damned unreadable expression on his face. “You turned off the radio and then you…” He could feel his face flush, like he was some school girl. “You kissed me and said you loved me…”

Bucky didn’t seem very surprised to learn what he did when he thought they were both about to die. He continued to study Steve’s face. “And?” he asked.

“And?” Steve repeated stupidly.

“And, what? You wanted me to know, otherwise you wouldn’t have told me that. So there’s got to be some reason for that.” Steve finally noticed his body was tense, preparing for rejection, or worse. Because with something like this, much worse was a huge possibility. “So… and?”

“And you didn’t give me a chance to react!” Steve shot off, and then realized how unintentionally loud he’d been. He glanced at the door, and then said more quietly, “You put that out there and then turned the damn radio back on and told me to talk to Peggy. And all I could think to say was something about dancing. And then we were crashing, Bucky. And I thought we were dead.” He closed his eyes and took a breath. “And then I woke up, but you didn’t. And no one thought you ever were going to.” He opened his eyes and met Bucky’s blue ones. There was still hesitation in his gaze, like he wasn’t sure yet how Steve was going to react. “You didn’t give me a chance to respond.”

Bucky licked his lips nervously. “What would you have said?”

Steve huffed out a breath. He reached up and slid his hand up the side of Bucky’s neck, and then into his hair at the back of his head. He brought their heads together to rest his forehead against Bucky’s and closed his eyes. “You’re so stupid…” he whispered. “Of course I love you.” After all that agonizing, and worrying how he was going to say it for months, when it came out, it came easily.

He felt Bucky’s eyelids flutter closed, and could hear his breathing in that quiet room. They sat like that for a moment, without talking. Maybe they didn’t need to talk. Steve said what he’d been wanting to say for eight months, what he’d been waiting to say for sixty-eight years. They were alive. They were together. Everything was changed from when they each left Brooklyn, but they’d figure it out.

Steve finally pulled his head back, but kept his hand in Bucky’s hair. When he did, Bucky opened his eyes and looked at him. He wasn’t sure who leaned forward first, but they met in the middle. This time Steve was an active participant in the kiss, but Bucky still led. His right hand moved to Steve’s knee and he felt his fingernails dig in through the fabric of his pant leg. Steve combed his fingers through Bucky’s hair, keeping him close.

Steve tilted his head slightly and pulled Bucky closer. As he scraped his fingernails across Bucky’s scalp, he heard and felt him moan softly. His hand slid up Steve’s thigh, just a bit, gripping tightly, as he leaned closer. Steve turned more and slid his other hand along the side of Bucky's neck. He stroked the pad of his thumb along Bucky' jawline, and could feel the barest hint of stubble.

Bucky tilted his body closer and leaned into Steve's hand. Steve could tell it was just killing him that he didn't have another hand, but not for the obvious reason. With how tightly he was clutching Steve's leg with his right hand, he had to want to be able to touch him more, the way Steve had both hands on him. Steve moved his other hand to the other side of Bucky's jaw, cupping his face tenderly.

They pulled back slowly, keeping their faces barely a hair's breadth away from each other. Steve still had both hands on Bucky’s face, and Bucky still gripped Steve’s leg tightly. Steve finally opened his eyes and found Bucky was watching him. “Don’t know how long you’ve wanted to do that, but I think I have since we were kids.”

“I told you,” Bucky said softly. “Always.”

“Wait.” Steve pulled back fully so he could look at Bucky’s face. He slid his hands down to Bucky’s shoulders, keeping him in place. “Always. You said that on the plane.” Bucky looked at him steadily. “You remember? And you made me say all that?”

Bucky sighed. “I don’t remember all of it. But I do remember that last conversation. The rest of the fight and everything is a bit of a blur…” His eyes met Steve’s. “I was offering you a way out. If I didn’t remember what I’d said or did, you could pretend it didn’t happen and we could go back to just being friends.”

“I don’t want that.”

“I realize that now,” Bucky said, with a note of exasperation. “But Steve, if people find out Captain America’s queer…”

“This is between you and me. It’s no one else’s business. And I want this.”

He closed his eyes briefly, and then looked at Steve again. “You don’t think it’s wrong?”

“No,” Steve said quickly. “Funny thing about this century, though… Turns out you can be queer in public without being arrested.”

Bucky’s eyebrows rose almost all the way up into his hairline. “In public?”

“Yeah. Still a lot of people who don’t like it, but… seems it’s much more accepted nowadays.”

“Marvels of the future,” Bucky whispered, and then smirked. It had been entirely too long since Steve had seen that smirk. He couldn’t resist, so he leaned forward again to kiss it off Bucky’s face.

When he pulled back again, he said, “Yeah, definitely should have done that a long time ago.”

Bucky didn’t get the chance to respond to that because Steve’s pocket started buzzing. He looked quizzically at Steve. Steve was equally at a loss until he reached into his pocket and pulled out the cellular phone SHIELD had given him.

“What is that?” Bucky asked.

“Believe it or not, it’s a phone.” Steve looked at the phone. He’d always been raised to be polite. So while he knew he could ignore the call, he couldn’t bring himself to. So he pressed the green answer button, like a SHIELD agent had showed him to, and held it up to his ear. “Hello? This is Captain Rogers.”

“Duh it’s Captain Rogers. You don’t think I wouldn’t know who I called, do you?”

Steve blinked in surprise. “Stark?”

Stark? Bucky mouthed with a tilt of his head.

Howard’s son, Steve tried to mouthe back, but he wasn’t sure Bucky understood, because at the same time Stark said, “Did you even bother to look at the Caller ID before answering?”

Steve blinked again.

“You don’t even know what that is, do you?”

Steve sighed. “Tony, did you have a reason for calling?”

“Yes, yes I did, Cap.”

Bucky frowned, so Steve assumed he could hear the entire conversation. Steve never did figure out how to change the volume on this damn thing.

“There isn’t a problem, is there?” Steve really hoped Loki hadn’t broken out again.

“No problem. Thor’s taking his psychotic little brother back to Asgard tomorrow.” Tony paused. “Along with the Tesseract. He said it’s too powerful for humans to have access to it.” Steve thought Tony sounded vaguely disappointed. He really was more like his father than he knew.

Bucky was still frowning, but at the mention of the Tesseract, a grim expression came across his face. “Good,” Steve said into the phone, but he met Bucky’s eyes. “He’s right.”

“So since you were directly involved, I thought you would like to get a chance to see them off.”

“And make sure Loki doesn’t try anything?”

“Hey, having extra muscle won’t hurt.”

“Yes, I’ll come.”

“Where are you, by the way?”

Steve shifted. “I’m, uh… I’m at the hospital.”

“Still? I thought they cleared you a while ago. It was just your ribs, right?”

Bucky’s mouth opened in surprise and he leaned forward to yank up Steve’s shirt. Steve winced slightly at the motion, but he couldn’t stop Bucky before he saw the bandages that circled his torso.

“What the hell?” he whispered. “Why didn’t you say you were injured?”

“Who’s that?” Tony asked.

“It’s um…” Steve looked at Bucky and tugged his shirt back down to hide the bandages. “Bucky. Bucky Barnes. He was with me on the plane. He woke up.” Steve smiled weakly at Bucky.

“Your friend who’s been in a coma? He woke up? Lost an arm in the wreckage, right?”

Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, while Bucky let his right hand drop back down into his lap. “Yes…”

“Bring him. Can he leave the hospital?”

Steve looked at Bucky in surprise, and found he also seemed surprised, and vaguely amused. “Maybe; I’d have to check…”

“He dealt with the Tesseract during World War II as well, right?”

“World War II?” Bucky mumbled.

“Yeah…” Steve said slowly, both to Bucky and to Tony.

“Then he’d probably like to see it leave this planet for good.”

Bucky raised one eyebrow. “Schmidt’s Tesseract? That fucking thing? Yes, I would definitely like to see it disappear for good. Though I had hoped that was what happened when it fell in the ocean.”

“Yeah, we’ll come,” Steve said into the phone.

“Great! I have something that might interest him too.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow.” Tony hung up, so Steve pulled the phone back just to make sure, then he slipped it back into his pocket.

“Stark?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah,” Steve said. “He’s a lot like Howard.”

“Howard had a kid…” Bucky shook his head.

“Howard’s gone,” Steve said suddenly, then looked down. “Drugan’s gone. Falsworth’s gone. Morita, Gabe, and Dernier are gone.”

Bucky looked at him for a long moment. “All the Commandos… We’re the only ones left…” He leaned forward and ran his fingers through Steve’s hair and pulled his head close so he could lean his forehead against Steve’s shoulder. “Sixty-eight years…”

“Yeah…” Steve mumbled. He wrapped his arm around Bucky’s shoulders, and had never felt them so thin.

“Carter?” Bucky asked.

“She’s… still alive, but… She’s sick.”

Bucky pulled back so he could look into Steve’s eyes. “Have you gone to see her?”

“Not yet…” Steve admitted. He sighed. “I don’t know what I’d say… For me, for us, it’s only been months, but she has lived the past seventy years. I don’t know how to face her…”

“Steve…”

“Also, the last time I saw her, or spoke to her…”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I will, just… Maybe after all this stuff with the aliens dies down.” He looked at Bucky and tenderly brushed a few fingers through his hair again, just because he could. “Do you think they’ll discharge you tonight?”

Bucky laughed lightly. “That would be great.”

Steve leaned forward and kissed him again, and then he stood up. “I’m going to go find a nurse. I figure if Captain America asks nicely enough, they’ll do anything.” He smiled one of his small, innocent smiles, and that made Bucky laugh.

It turned out, they were willingly to let Bucky go with Steve, as long as he brought him to a bunch of doctor’s appointments over the next few days to check on his recovery. Steve tried to make Bucky sleep on the bed while he took the couch, but Bucky wouldn’t let him. He insisted that they’d shared a bed before, so nothing had changed, except for some kissing.

The next day, Tony sent a car to pick them up, since all Steve had was his bike, and he couldn’t carry Bucky on that while he could still barely walk on his own. Bucky whistled when he saw the car and said, “Definitely a Stark.”

He spent the whole car ride gazing out the window, observing all the changes their New York had gone through. But he didn’t say anything. He just watched. When they got to Central Park, he sat on the back seat of the car with his feet propped on the footrest and the door open. Steve stood by the car with his arms crossed and watched Tony and Selvig hand over a metal and glass device holding the Tesseract. He stepped forward to stand with the other Avengers in a circle. Thor nodded at them before turning the device on. A blast of light surrounded Thor and Loki, and sucked them into the sky.

Barton and Romanoff headed back to their SHIELD vehicle, before handing off Dr. Banner to Stark. Steve walked over to them. “Stark,” he said.

“Hey, Steve,” Tony said as he shook his hand. He nodded over at Bucky.

Steve turned and looked back at Bucky to see him stand up and walk over. “You okay?” he asked quietly, resisting the urge to take his arm.

“Yeah…” Bucky mumbled. “So this is Howard’s son?” he asked and looked at Tony.

“Tony Stark,” he said. “So you’re Sergeant Barnes.”

“Yeah,” Bucky said stiffly. He stood to Steve’s right, with his left side slightly hidden by Steve’s arm. “You wanted me to be here.”

“I did,” Tony said. “Guess Cap’s not going to be the only old man around.”

Bucky’s eye twitched slightly, like he was uncomfortable with Tony referring to Steve as “Cap,” even though Howard Stark used to do it back in the day. Or maybe it was Stark’s comment.

“You seem to be older than us, old man.”

That made Dr. Banner laugh, from where he was leaning against the passenger side of Tony’s red sports car. Tony glanced back and then smiled at Bucky. “Suppose so.” He smirked at Steve. “I like him. Why aren’t you fun like that, Steve?”

“Steve’s never been any fun,” Bucky said, but he smiled at Steve, and it sounded more affectionate than teasing.

Tony looked between them for a second, and then said. “So you lost your arm in the plane crash, right?”

The smile dropped off Bucky’s face and he turned cold eyes back on Tony. Instead of responding, he stared Stark down. That was when it was clear in the difference in demeanor, that Bucky had fought in a war, and Tony hadn’t, despite his numerous run-ins with enemies who wanted him dead, and the recent battle. Finally, Bucky said, “Yeah.” His sleeve was pinned halfway up, completely covering the stump, but he thrust his left shoulder forward and pushed the sleeve up passed his shoulder. “Just in case you needed proof.”

Tony didn’t flinch at seeing the red scar tissue that covered what was left of Bucky’s arm. He looked at it, and then looked back at Bucky’s face. “I heard it was above the elbow, and it looks like you still have the shoulder joint. That’s good.”

“Good for what?” Bucky asked sharply.

“Tony,” Bruce warned.

“Right, right. So you know I have my suits, and I’ve been working on neural links for them.” He paused. “Well, maybe you don’t know, being all comatose and all.” He jerked his thumb at Steve. “But he’s seen the suit in action.”

“The Iron Man armor? I read about it last night.” Bucky rolled his sleeve back down past the stump. “That’s a really gaudy name, by the way.”

“Oh, you’re calling Iron Man more ostentatious than Captain America?” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“Steve didn’t pick that name.”

“I didn’t pick Iron Man. Some newspaper came up with it.”

“I’m pretty sure saying “I am Iron Man,” to a bunch of reporters counts as you picking it.”

Dr. Banner chuckled again. “I can see how it’s going to be when these two interact.”

“Hey, Cap and I argued when we first met too.”

“I don’t think that really stopped,” Steve commented. “Even when we were the only ones left on the Helicarrier, you still felt like arguing with me.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Fine. Anyway.” He looked between the three of them. “Like I said, I’ve been working on neurolinks for my Iron Man suits. While the arms on those things are designed to be hollow to allow me to put a real arm through,” he held up his hand and wiggled his fingers, “I think I can alter the design to make a prosthetic.”

Bucky’s mouth hung open in surprise, and even Steve was surprised. “Wait, Tony, are you saying you’d build Bucky a prosthetic arm?”

“Hell yeah. And it’ll even function like a real arm, except for being made of metal.”

“I… That’s…” Bucky looked at him, and then he turned and looked at Steve in disbelief, and then back at Tony. “What’s the catch? There’s no way I’d be able to afford something like that.”

“If it works, then I can start manufacturing prosthetics for vets and stuff. So you’d kind of be a test subject.”

Bucky rose one eyebrow. “Honestly, I’m used to that. Both from being a POW and all the crazy shit Howard came up with.”

“Oh yeah, I read about that. They found super serum traces in your blood, didn’t they? Which means the next time there’s an alien invasion, we’ll probably want you on our side.”

“Next time?” Steve asked.

“Come on, Cap. You know that’s not going to be the last of it.”

“Especially if there are that many other hostile races out there, as Thor implied,” Dr. Banner added.

“Gods and aliens,” Bucky said as he looked up at Steve. “Makes you wish we were still just fighting a guy with a red skull face, right?”

“Yeah…” Steve mumbled.

“Okay.” Bucky looked at Tony and held out his hand. “I’ll be your guinea pig.” Tony took his hand and shook it once.

Bucky swung his metal left arm around and tested his balance, before he picked up his sniper rifle and started to disassemble it and store it.

“How’s the arm?” Steve asked as he watched.

“It’s a bit lighter, but has an inch more mobility. Stark did good on this one.” Bucky smirked at him. “Surprising considering he pretty much went crazy around Christmas.”

“I don’t think he went crazy,” Steve said. “I heard it was anxiety.”

Bucky shrugged. “And destroyed all his suits. But he was able to update my arm, so I guess he can still manage.” He put the last pieces of the rifle into its case.

“Yeah, you’d be a one-armed sniper with no mission, otherwise.”

“Screw you, Barton,” Bucky said with a roll of his eyes and he turned to see the smirking sniper standing in the doorway. “You just wish you could keep the limelight to yourself.”

“Why do they need both of you, again?” Nat asked as she walked into the room behind Barton.

“That’s what I asked!” Barton said. “I asked why you need two snipers who never miss for one target.” Never miss was right. Once Bucky had gotten used to the first arm Tony had made for him, and got his hands on a rifle again, he found he still had amazing aim. When Barton heard, he challenged Bucky to a competition at the shooting range, to shoot until one of them missed. They ran out of bullets first.

“So what did they say?” Steve asked.

Bucky smirked widely, and Barton huffed a sigh. “They said we’d be doubly certain to get the mission done. I don’t think they understood what “never miss” means.”

“No, probably not,” Bucky agreed. “So that’s why we’re both going.”

“Try not to be too bored without us.” Barton smirked.

Nat crossed her arms. “Oh, whatever will I do without you to entertain me?”

“How long do you think the mission will last?” Steve asked.

Bucky looked at him. “Five days at most. But we’ll go dark during that time, so no communication.” He smiled lightly at Steve. “But don’t worry. We’ll be back in five days.”

Steve smiled in response. Because he never could resist Bucky’s smile, even though they’d been living together for the past two years. They told everyone it was easier since they both came from the same time period, though that wasn’t the real reason. Even if society accepted homosexuality, it was still hard to admit it.

“You two are so precious,” Barton said to end the moment.

“Shut the hell up, Barton,” Bucky said. Despite the banter, the two of them found they actually got along great. This wasn’t their first mission together, they just liked to hear themselves complain.

“Ready?” Barton asked, grabbing his own case with his bow.

“Yeah.” Bucky pulled the strap of his bag onto his shoulder. He looked at Steve again. “Try to go out and do something while I’m gone.”

“I might go to the exhibit,” Steve said off-handedly.

“The Smithsonian?” Bucky asked. “You mean the exhibit about you? Why in the world would you want to see that?”

Steve shrugged. “I thought it might be interesting to see what they have to say about… you know, my life.”

Bucky shook his head. “The fact that you’re still alive and they’re doing that is weird.”

“You don’t want to see it?”

“See what they have to say about Sergeant Barnes, Howling Commando, or what they have to say about Bucky Barnes, SHIELD agent?” Bucky shook his head again. “No. And you know I hated all that propaganda crap they did about you. It was a fucking war. It wasn’t glamorous.”

“Yeah, I know, Buck.” Steve slipped his hands into his pockets. “I’m still gonna see it.”

“Well, let me know if it doesn’t have the propaganda crap, then I might see it. In the mean time, I’m going to go shoot someone.”

“Unless I get him,” Barton commented.

Bucky ignored him, but rolled his eyes again. “See you in five days, Steve.” He reached out to clap his hand on Steve’s arm, but his fingers lingered a second longer than was necessary. He turned towards Barton and said, “Come on, asshole.”

Barton complained the whole way out.

As it turned out, those next few days were some of the most intense for Steve since the battle of New York two years before. It was less than a day later when Nat and Fury called him in for a quick mission that launched them into a series of events leading deeper and deeper into a conspiracy. After they found out about Zola and Hydra, Steve’s first instinct was to try to get in touch with Bucky and Barton somehow.

“I know they’re maintaining radio silence while on this mission. But this just got bigger than we could imagine. Hydra has taken over all of SHIELD. We need to bring Bucky and Barton in on this.”

“We can’t contact them,” Nat said. She had a rag pressed to a wound on her neck. They were only lucky they managed to get back to the truck they had “borrowed,” and were on their way back to DC. “Any communication we would use is monitored by SHIELD. They would stop us, or find us. Also…” She glanced over at Steve. “We don’t know they haven’t been compromised.”

It was lucky it was the middle of the night and no one else was on the road, because Steve slammed on the brakes so he could turn and look at her. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Clint was in SHIELD much longer than either of us, so for all we know he’s been Hydra all along.” It was amazing she managed to accuse Barton of being their enemy with such a calm voice.

“Clint fought alongside us in New York, when the odds were a million to six.” Steve eased off the brake and started driving again.

“It would have been in Hydra’s best interest to stop the planet from being destroyed by aliens. Up until recently, I’m sure Hydra has been keeping with SHIELD’s best interests.”

“I don’t think Barton is against us.”

“Even if he isn’t…”

“No,” Steve said immediately.

“Barnes was captured during World War II, right? He was experimented on? He was experimented on directly by Zola, who we just found out had recreated Hydra from inside SHIELD this whole time.”

“Bucky would never, ever work for Hydra. He was tortured!”

“You don’t know what conditioning they might have programmed in his brain while he was a POW.”

“If he was a sleeper agent for Hydra, he would have tried to stop me when we stormed the main base, and took down Schmidt.”

“Who pulled you out of the ice? SHIELD, who has been controlled by Hydra. You don’t know what they did.”

Steve stared at the dark road. “I would know.”

“That’s how conditioning works.” Nat adjusted the rag. “Even the person doesn’t know.”

“You’re wrong.”

“We still can’t contact them even if they are on our side. They’re unreachable, on a mission on the other side of the globe. We’re on our own.”

“Maybe not…” Steve just remembered the one person he knew in DC who wasn’t connected to SHIELD in some way.

Bucky cleaned his rifle and glanced over at Clint, who was counting his remaining arrows, and checking his bow. They had been unexpectedly ambushed on the mission, but had managed to take out their attackers, and still finish off the target a day before the deadline Bucky had given Steve. So as far as Bucky was concerned, they made great time.

Clint finished first, so he checked communications.

“Anything?” Bucky asked. “Please tell me SHIELD didn’t issue any more commands. Otherwise we won’t get home in five days, and I will never hear the end of it from Steve.” Barton didn’t have a stupid or snappy retort, and in fact didn’t say anything. So Bucky turned and looked at him. “Barton?”

Clint didn’t say anything. His eyes were fixed on the screen he was reading.

“Barton?” Bucky set down his rifle and turned to fully look at him, but Clint didn’t even notice him. “Hey. Clint!”

Clint finally turned and looked at him. “Fury’s dead.”

It was a good thing Bucky had set the rifle down, because otherwise he would have dropped it. “What? How? What happened?”

“He was attacked, assassinated, from the sound of it. And…” Clint read through the report again. “Nat and Cap are suspects. Not for killing him, but they’re on the run. SHIELD thinks they know something about the killer and were involved.”

“That’s crazy! You know that’s crazy!”

“I know. But they want us to return and help hunt them down.” Barton was way too calm.

“If they think I would ever turn against Steve, they’re fucking crazy.” Bucky balled his hands into fists. “And there’s no way Steve would kill Fury. Whatever is going on, you know Steve’s on the good side.”

Barton sighed. “Yeah, Cap wouldn’t conspire to kill the director.”

The way he said that made Bucky ask, “What, you think Natasha would?”

Clint threw up his hands. “I have no idea what Nat would do! It seems unlikely, but she’s the world’s best spy. She already double-crossed the KGB.”

“To join SHIELD. To follow you, right? That’s what I heard.” Bucky watched him.

“World’s. Best. Spy,” Clint said stubbornly.

Bucky sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “She’s working with Steve, so Steve trusts her.”

“Somehow, I think Steve trusts people too easily.”

Bucky looked at him. “That’s not Steve’s problem.” He looked back down at the rifle. “He actually didn’t trust many people. That’s why the Commandos were such a small group. He’d seen those men in action, so he knew how they fought, and knew he could trust them.”

“And you.” Barton’s eyes were on him, and for the first time, he seemed to really match his codename Hawkeye.

“And me,” Bucky said slowly. “Always me… Except when it matters, apparently…”

Barton continued to watch him. “You’re together, right?”

“Wait, what?” Bucky stared at him.

“You and Steve,” Clint said calmly. “You two are together. I mean, it’s kind of obvious. Anyone can tell Steve is totally head over heels.”

Bucky continued to stare at him. “Um…”

“It’s not the forties. You know you’re not going to get arrested, or kicked out of SHIELD, right?”

Bucky sighed. “I know that. But people seem to still have a problem with it.”

“Well I don’t have a problem with it. Why should I care who anyone sleeps with?”

“Especially when you’re sleeping with Natasha, right?” Bucky quirked an eyebrow, a light smile on his face.

Clint rolled his eyes. “Figure that one out on your own?”

“There seems to be a bet going around SHIELD. Half the people think you are sleeping together and the other half don’t.”

“Oh really? Can I get in on that?” Clint’s tone of voice was so innocent, he almost sounded serious.

“I kind of think the very act of betting would settle the bet.”

“Unless I pick the wrong thing just to fuck with people.”

“You would do that.”

Clint looked at him. “Did you bet?”

“No.” Bucky looked back at him levelly. “Why should I care who anyone sleeps with?”

Clint smiled a wide, toothy grin.

Bucky sighed and ran his fingers through his hair again. “How long have you known?”

“Pretty much as soon as I saw you two together. Though at first I thought he was hyper protective of you cause you had just woken up from that coma.”

“Yeah…” Bucky crossed his arms and tapped his metal index finger against his bicep. “We have to help them. Steve’s in pretty big trouble, from the sound of it, if all of SHIELD is after them.”

“They’ve gone into hiding. Which means, if I do know Nat, no one will be able to find them. Not to mention then SHIELD will be after us too.” He paused and took a breath. “Oh, and we’re still halfway across the world.”

“Then we don’t go against SHIELD. Send them a message that we’re returning ASAP to help track down the fugitives.”

“They’ll know it’s bullshit if it comes from you, you mean?” Barton turned towards the screen and quickly typed out the message. “Better head back, then.” He grabbed his bow and hurriedly started packing it in its case. “Hopefully they’re not dead by the time we get there.”

Bucky took less care with how fast he started packing the rifle. “Let’s hurry, then.”

As soon as they returned to DC, before they could even be debriefed for the mission they had just completed, Rumlow grabbed them and pulled them aside. “Barnes.” His tone of voice was not kind or patient. “You’re good friends with Rogers, right?”

The way he said “good friends” made Bucky narrow his eyes. But he kept his arms behind his back, standing at attention. “Yes.”

“You know he’s involved with Fury’s death. Are you gonna be able to follow orders, even if they involve stopping Rogers?”

“I’ll do what needs to be done,” Bucky said as neutrally as he could.

Rumlow stared him down, and then turned to Barton. “What about you?”

“I have no particular connection to Captain Rogers. So I don’t really care what’s happened to him or what he’s done.” Clint shrugged. “I don’t really care who the target is. I would think STRIKE would get that.”

Rumlow didn’t look happy with Clint’s remark, but he didn’t comment on it. He did say, “You better. Project Insight launches today. Await orders.” He brushed past them, and headed towards central command.

Bucky watched him until he was out of sight. “Okay, so Rumlow is definitely on the bad side.”

“He might as well have it painted on his back.” Barton crossed his arms. “So what now? You think this all has something to do with Project Insight?”

“Maybe.” Bucky glanced back in the direction Rumlow had gone. “That means Steve will show up before it launches.”

“With Nat.” Clint looked at him. “So if Rumlow is trying to stop them beyond just SHIELD orders, does that mean all of STRIKE are compromised?”

“Probably.” Bucky glanced around at everyone moving through the lobby, both in suits and combat gear. “What if SHIELD is after Steve because they’re the ones that killed Fury?”

“What?” Barton hissed. He steered Bucky towards one of the walls, away from other people. “Do you know what that would mean?”

“Yeah, I do. But it also makes the most sense.”

“So if SHIELD is compromised…”

Barton didn’t get to finish his thought, because then Steve’s voice came over the PA system. “Attention, all SHIELD agents.” They both looked up at the same time. “This is Steve Rogers.” Bucky noticed many people in the lobby stopped to listen at that. “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.” There was a pause. “SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader.” Clint and Bucky looked at each other in surprise.

“Hydra…?” Bucky whispered.

“Pierce?” Barton repeated. “He’s on the council.”

“The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building.” Bucky glanced through the lobby again. “They could be standing right next to you.” He noticed several people were giving each other the side-eye. SHIELD employed thousands of people. If what Steve was saying was true, then who knew how many were Hydra. “They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there.”

Bucky looked at Clint again, and then nodded towards the stairway while everyone was still listening in shock. “If I’m right about where this is going, then Steve’s got some big plan and is going to need our help.”

“Good thing Rumlow stopped us on our way out.” Clint pulled his bow off his back and followed Bucky into the stairwell. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have our weapons with us.”

“Yeah.” They had made sure their gear was good to go before they landed, just in case. So Barton had a full quiver of arrows, and Bucky’s rifle was fully loaded.

“If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them,” Steve’s voice continued to say.

“So it is about Project Insight,” Barton said.

“That’s where Steve will be. I’m going there.” Bucky looked out the window of the stairwell to the landing strip.

“Knowing Nat, she’ll go after Pierce. So she’ll be up in the council room.”

“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.”

Clint and Bucky looked at each other again. “Guess we’re heading separate ways, then.”

“And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not.”

Barton nodded. “Good luck. Find Cap.”

“I will. Find Natasha. They’ll need our help.”

Clint smirked lightly. “This is just like New York all over again. Glad to be involved this time?”

Bucky smirked as well. “This time I get to help Steve. See you later.” He turned and headed down while Barton ran up the stairs two at a time with his bow raised.

Even with Steve’s speech, the Insight Helicarriers were still launched. As Bucky made his way out to the airfield, he could see a flash of red and blue out there, so he knew he was headed the right direction. The problem was that since the helicarriers had launched, the only way to get on one was going to be to get on board a quinjet. By the time he found the quinjets, there were fires and destruction everywhere. Someone really didn’t want those quinjets to get in the air.

Bucky stopped by one of the pilots, who was clutching a wound on his leg. “I’m Agent Barnes. What happened?”

“This maniac stole a quinjet and went towards the helicarrier.” The man winced.

“Are any of them still operational?” He looked around and found a jacket lying on the ground, so he grabbed it and pressed it to the guy’s leg.

“That one.” The pilot shakily pointed at one quinjet that had managed to avoid the fires. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to help Captain America.” Bucky waved over what he assumed was a SHIELD agent to help the pilot, and then ran for the quinjet. Steve didn’t care much for technology, but Bucky made Clint show him how to fly a quinjet. He never wanted to be stuck in a situation where he couldn’t take a damn plane off autopilot again.

Just as he got the quinjet in the air, he saw something plummet off the side of one of the Helicarriers. It spun around a few times and a piece of metal broke off, then a shoot deployed before whoever it was hit the top of the Triskelion. No spangly outfit, so it wasn’t Steve. But Steve would really need his help.

He landed on the landing strip on the helicarrier and immediately went for cover as what had to be Hydra agents started shooting at him. It looked like he wasn’t the first one to fly a quinjet up here, though, because there were gunshots all over the air strip, and a few fires. Did Steve do that? Somehow, Bucky didn’t think so.

Bucky swung his rifle off his back, took a second to judge the wind, and made two quick headshots at the Hydra agents trying to kill him. They were dead before they hit the ground. And Bucky was across the asphalt and through the door in the same amount of time. These things were huge, as big as any Navy battle ship. Fortunately, he just had to follow the trail of destruction. Steve didn’t head for the bridge, he headed for the computer’s targeting system located in the center.

Bucky came out on a catwalk over what looked like a giant glass fishbowl, with a metal column up the center full of computer chips. He heard a yell, and went to the rail to see Steve struggling with a man in black leather combat gear. The man grabbed Steve’s shield and threw it at him as Steve reached for something green, one of the computer chips, Bucky realized. Steve stumbled, and grabbed the shield as it clattered to the floor beside him. He just managed to get the shield up as the man pulled out a gun and started shooting at him.

“Steve!” Bucky yelled. He ran to the end of the catwalk and jumped down onto a grey plastic thing sticking out from the side of the column. He swung his rifle around and shot at the man as he did.

Steve threw the shield at his attacker, but the man ducked and it bounced off the metal girder behind him. Steve glanced up. “Bucky?”

“Look out!” Bucky yelled as the man lunged at Steve with a knife, but Steve managed to catch his hands. Bucky dropped down into the glass fishbowl and ran at this mysterious attacker. At this range, the rifle was almost useless. He couldn’t get a clean shot without risking hitting Steve. Surprisingly, the man overpowered Steve and plunged the knife into his shoulder.

“Get off him!” Bucky yelled as he jumped the guy and wrapped his metal arm around his throat, abandoning his gun. The man pulled his knife out of Steve’s shoulder, which made Steve cry out in pain. The guy swung it around, trying to stab Bucky, but the blade skidded uselessly off Bucky’s arm. Bucky kicked out the back of his knee and shoved him down, still holding him in a choke hold.

“The computer chip,” Steve said, though it sounded more like he was panting. “It changes the helicarrier’s targets. Stops them from killing millions.”

“Then get it and finish your mission.” Bucky winced when the man managed to slice his leg with the knife he was still flailing around.

Steve met his eyes for half a second. “Buck…”

“Go!”

Steve scrambled and picked up the chip, then he made a jump for the ladder. Bucky turned his attention back to the man he had pinned down. He wasn’t STRIKE, Bucky could tell that now. About a year ago, Rumlow has tried to recruit Bucky for STRIKE, but that was right before it was determined he made a much better sniper. It did mean Bucky knew everyone on STRIKE, however. And this guy wasn’t one of them. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and at least a day’s stubble. There was also something about him, his eyes looked completely soulless.

“Who the hell are you?” Bucky mumbled.

The guy turned just enough so he could glare at Bucky with one eye. Then he flipped the knife around and stabbed it back. Bucky realized what he was doing a microsecond before the knife connected, so he dropped his arm and shoved himself back, which meant he didn’t get stabbed in the kidney, but he still received a nasty flesh wound on his side.

But he didn’t have a chance to recover, because the guy was on him with the knife again. Bucky rolled to the side, and then tried to sweep his legs out, but he was fast enough to jump over Bucky’s leg. He threw the knife and Bucky held up his arm to block. The knife clanked against Bucky’s arm before spinning off across the glass floor.

When he dropped his arm, the first thing he saw was the other guy’s knee in his face. He hit the floor hard and tried to pick himself up, but then he felt the guy’s hand in his hair as he yanked his head back and grabbed his throat. Bucky tried to reach back with his right hand automatically, but the guy grabbed his forearm and yanked it back until his whole shoulder popped out of its socket.

Bucky screamed out in pain and tried to grab the guy with his left hand. From somewhere above, he heard, “Bucky!!”

“Get that computer chip in place!” Bucky yelled back, but then cried out in pain again when the guy twisted his already dislocated shoulder.

“Stand by,” Steve said softly, probably into the comm he was wearing. “Charlie lo—”

Bucky felt a foot on his back, and then heard a gunshot ring out.

“Steve!” he yelled as he twisted his metal arm back far enough to pull the man down. He tackled the guy and forced the gun out of his hand. But he could only fight with one arm, since his right was in too much pain to move. Luckily his left arm was much, much stronger.

Somehow, the guy pulled another knife out of some hidden pocket on his uniform and he slashed at Bucky. As Bucky stumbled back, his foot bumped Steve’s shield. “Steve!” he yelled again. “Steve!” He snatched up the shield and held it up as the man slashed at him again. “Steve, say something!” Bucky managed to catch the man’s wrist and twist the knife out of his hand, followed by a shield smash to the face. As the man stumbled back, Bucky glanced up. “Steve!”

Instead of responding, there was a click and then Steve mumbled, “Charlie lock.” Bucky could hear Steve gasp. “Fire now.” There was a pause. “Do it! Do it now!” Steve must have scrambled for the railing, because he appeared over the edge. “Bucky, get down!”

Bucky barely had time to register the command before the whole helicarrier shook with gunfire and then shook again when it took several direct hits. But then the cannon fire was so constant that he stopped being able to tell if their helicarrier was shooting or receiving fire. Bucky stumbled when the whole helicarrier started plummeting towards the ground.

In the chaos, Bucky had forgotten about the man he was fighting, until a knife landed in his thigh and he fell. Bucky looked up to see the man stalking towards him. Bucky yanked out the knife and gritted his teeth.

“Bucky, look out!” he heard from above him. Bucky looked up in time to see one of the metal girders falling towards him. He rolled out of the way as the other guy dove towards a hole in the glass floor. Maybe that was the better solution, to take a chance by diving into the Potomac, because Bucky didn’t completely make it out of the way. His leg got caught under the girder. On top of the knife wound in his thigh, his whole leg felt like it was on fire.

Steve dropped down onto the glass floor beside Bucky’s head. “Hang on, Bucky…” He did not sound like he was doing well. And gunfire was still going off around them.

“Get out of here!” Bucky yelled at him. He had already tried to lift the girder, but his right arm wouldn’t cooperate.

“Not without you,” Steve muttered.

Bucky couldn’t really argue with him when he used that old line. “I’m stuck. The place is falling apart.”

“Not without you,” Steve repeated. He positioned himself where he could get the best leverage. “Get ready.” He used all the strength he had, and actually managed to lift the girder off Bucky’s leg.

Bucky dragged himself out with his metal hand. He heard Steve drop the girder behind him as Bucky shakily dragged himself onto his good knee. That was when he saw blood soaking through Steve’s uniform, almost completely covering the stripes on his abdomen. It was his old uniform, he noticed, from the war. Bucky clutched onto Steve’s shoulder with his metal hand. “You’re wounded.”

“You’re wounded!” Steve shot back, but he looked like he was barely hanging on.

“You’ve been shot.” Bucky held himself up by holding Steve’s shoulder. “Who was that? He was strong. Super soldier serum strong.”

“The Winter Soldier,” Steve said. “Hydra’s secret weapon.”

“A man?”

“A perfect soldier.”

“Fuck that. Come on,” Bucky pushed himself onto his good leg and held out his left hand. “We have to get off this thing before it blows up.” Before Steve could grab his hand, a section of the machinery fell onto the glass floor Steve was kneeling on, and it fell out from under him. “Steve!!” Bucky screamed and leaned out the hole, but Steve had fallen towards the Potomac.

Bucky didn’t even think about his decision. He dove out of the Helicarrier after Steve and plunged into the water. He didn’t care that his left arm immediately started to weigh him down or that he had to swim through falling debris. He was not going to lose Steve. Bucky managed to grab the strap of his uniform, and forced his injured leg to propel him through the water to the opposite shore. He dragged Steve up and turned him onto his back.

“Come on, Steve…”

Steve coughed and water spilled out of mouth, but he was breathing. He was still unconscious, though.

Bucky sighed in relief and dropped down onto the dirt beside Steve. He waved at a helicopter coming towards them, and then looked down at Steve again. He gently brushed a few wet strands of hair out of Steve’s face. “What the hell did you do, Steve…?”

Steve heard music in the background before he was aware of being awake. It wasn’t a song he recognized, but it was nice, whatever it was. He still felt hazy, and his mouth felt dry. He swallowed and opened his eyes weakly. He didn’t see anyone until he turned his head to the right. He could make out dark hair, but then his vision came into focus just as the person looked at him, and he saw those blue-grey eyes he loved so much.

“Steve…” Bucky whispered. He stood up and leaned over the bed. “How do you feel?”

That was when Steve noticed he was in a hospital bed. “Like I got used as a punching bag by a super soldier.”

“And then almost drowned?” Bucky lips quirked into a smile.

“Something like that…”

“I was worried…” Bucky leaned over and ran his fingers through Steve’s hair.

“How long was I out?” Steve asked slowly.

“About two days.”

“Two days?” Steve repeated in surprise.

“I don’t know how you managed eight months.”

Steve looked up and met Bucky’s eyes. Two years ago, he had decided he would never take for granted getting to look into them. But he couldn’t help but close his eyes when Bucky placed his other hand against his cheek and kissed him.

The sound of someone whistling made them break apart and they both turned towards the door to the hospital room to see Barton standing there smirking. “Um, this…” Steve started to say, but Bucky just sighed.

“He knows, Steve.” Bucky straightened up.

“And I figured it out,” Nat said as she moved past Barton. Clint tossed Bucky a sandwich wrapped in plastic as he moved to another chair in the room.

“And I don’t care,” Sam said. “Glad to see you’re awake, though, Cap.”

Steve tried to sit up, but winced as pain laced through his gut. “Careful…” Bucky cautioned and put his hand on Steve’s shoulder, keeping him down. “You did get shot.”

Steve noticed Bucky was using his right hand. “Your arm.”

“It was only dislocated. It’s practically healed now.” Bucky held up his arm to show him.

“And your leg?”

“Knife wound, so that’s a bit sore, but nothing serious. And a hell of a lot of bruising. Otherwise I’m good.” Bucky smiled down at him.

Steve settled back into the pillows. “So what have I missed?”

“I shot Pierce in the chest with an arrow,” Barton said around his own sandwich.

“Right before Fury shot him with a gun,” Nat added.

Steve looked between Bucky and Barton. “Yeah, we know,” Bucky said. “Seeing someone who was supposed to be dead flying a helicopter was quite a surprise, though.”

“Then you can imagine what it was like for us,” Steve said.

“Yeah, Natasha and Sam filled us in about what happened.” Bucky sighed. “Hydra and Zola…”

Steve looked up and met his eyes again. “Yeah.”

“I should have fucking killed him when I had the chance,” Bucky muttered.

Before Steve could say something, Nat said, “Well you didn’t. And he recreated Hydra from inside SHIELD.”

Bucky turned and glared at Nat and opened his mouth to say something, but Steve took his hand, which stopped him.

“She’s just frustrated about these hearings,” Clint said.

“What hearings?” Steve looked over at Nat. That was when he noticed she was dressed much nicer than usual, in a suit.

“The government wants us to explain why we dumped SHIELD’s information on the internet.”

“But it was my idea to take down SHIELD. I should be the one testifying.” Steve tried to sit up again.

“You are in a hospital, and you were in a coma until recently,” Nat reminded him. “Besides, I can handle this a lot better than you would be able to.”

“She’s got a point, Cap,” Clint said.

“So what happens now?” Steve asked.

“We were hoping you’d tell us, Cap,” Sam said.

Steve looked at them. “I think we’re going to need to figure out how much of Hydra is left.”

“First you need to heal and get out of the hospital,” Bucky said. “Then we can come up with a plan.”

“When you get out, Fury wants to meet with us, too,” Nat said. “I imagine he has an idea where we can start.”

Bucky and Steve exchanged glances, but didn’t say anything else.

By the time Steve was released from the hospital the next day, the cuts and bruises on his face had almost disappeared. He still had stitches both on his stomach and on his back from where one bullet had gone clean through him, and bandages wrapped around his entire torso to cover the other glancing shot he had taken in the side. Even though Bucky said he was fine, Steve noticed he still limped, and favored his right arm.

But that didn’t stop him from pressing Steve against the back of the apartment door as soon as they got home and kissing him hard. He just did it much more gently than he would have if they weren’t both so injured. Steve felt one of Bucky’s hands on his hip and the other against the side of his neck. Steve wound his arm around Bucky’s back and pulled him closer.

After they had to pull back for air, Bucky didn’t immediately go in for another kiss. Instead, he rested his forehead against the side of Steve’s neck and sighed. “So how many near-death experiences does that make?”

“Depends. Are you only counting since I became Captain America?”

Steve felt a puff of air against his neck as Bucky chuckled. “And here I thought I was done sitting by your hospital bed, waiting for you to wake up.” Bucky pulled back so he could look at Steve’s face.

“Well at least I heal a lot faster now.” Steve smiled lightly.

“Yeah. A gunshot wound like that would have killed a regular guy, or so the doctor felt obligated to tell me.” Bucky frowned. “Repeatedly.” He shook his head. “If Clint hadn’t stopped me, I might have punched the idiot in the face.”

Steve raised an eyebrow. “With which hand?”

Bucky held up his right hand. “Come on, Steve, I’m not that bad.” He sighed again. “He was right, though. That guy, the Winter Soldier, he almost killed you.” Bucky’s eyes searched his face.

“I’m okay, Buck,” Steve said softly.

“Yeah. Good to see someone’s still answering my prayers.” He smiled. “‘Please, let Steve get through this. Just one more miracle.’”

Steve gaped at him.

“What?”

“That’s what I always thought, while you were in a coma for those eight months. Just one more miracle.”

Bucky laughed outright. “Guess that helped make it work, having it repeated.”

Bucky still had a big grin on his face when Steve wrapped his hand around the back of his neck and pulled him into another kiss. He kept his arm around Bucky’s back, and slid his hand down to his ass, pressing them closer together. Bucky’s hands moved to Steve’s hips, and he slowly, teasingly, ground his hips against Steve’s.

As Steve shifted for a better angle, he hissed in pain, even though he tried to bite it back. Bucky pulled back immediately and looked at him. “Right. Gunshot wound.”

Steve practically whined when Bucky slipped out of his arms. Which just made Bucky smirk widely. “Besides, we’ve got another mission to start, isn’t that right, Captain?”

Bucky never called Steve “Cap,” like all the others did. Even Natasha was known to call him “Cap” every now and then. Instead, if Bucky ever used his title, he used the full word, “Captain,” perhaps because he’d always been Steve’s sergeant, and it was a sign of respect.

Steve sighed and leaned back against the door. “Yes. We’re supposed to visit Fury’s grave in a couple hours.”

“You have a plan, don’t you?” Bucky looked at him.

“I have an idea.” Steve glanced around, remembering what Fury said about the place being bugged. “I’ll tell you later.”

“So who chose the epitaph?” Bucky asked as they stood in front of Fury’s grave.

“Probably Hill,” Steve said. He pointedly kept his eyes on the grave and didn’t look around, though Sam kept glancing up.

“Huh. Better than ours, though, right?” Bucky crossed his arms.

“I suppose.”

Sam shifted, which made Steve look up as Fury walked up to them and said, “So, you’ve experience this sort of thing before?” He looked down at the tombstone as well.

“You get used to it,” Steve mumbled. Bucky just shook his head.

“We've been data-mining HYDRA's files. Looks Like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship.” He turned to look at the other three. Instead of an eyepatch, he wore dark sunglasses to hide his damaged eye. In street clothes, he looked nothing like the Director Fury they had somewhat come to know over the past two years. “I'm heading to Europe tonight, wanted to ask if you'd come.” Fury looked at both Steve and Bucky as he asked.

Bucky watched him for a moment, and then looked at Steve. As always, he would follow Steve, whatever his decision was. Steve shook his head. “There’s something I want to do first.”

Bucky looked back at Fury. “And I’m sticking with Steve.”

Fury turned to Sam. “How about you, Wilson? I could use a man with your abilities.”

Sam looked between Steve and Bucky, and then he looked at Fury. “I’m more of a soldier than a spy.”

Fury looked between the three of them like he couldn’t believe they had all turned him down. “Alright then.” He shook Sam’s hand, and then Bucky’s, but paused while shaking Steve’s. “Anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me right here.” He nodded down to his grave, and then turned to walk away.

“You should be honored, that's about as close as he gets to saying thank you,” Nat said as she approached. She was once again wearing a blazer, and her makeup was done up more than usual. She must have come from another hearing. Clint stood slightly behind her. He, however, was wearing regular street clothes.

“Not going with him?” Steve asked.

Nat seemed amused by the question. She gave an emphatic, “No,” and smiled.

Clint just shrugged. “Maybe it’s time to get out of the spy business.”

“So what now?” Steve asked as he looked between them.

“I blew all my covers, I gotta go figure out a new one,” Nat said. She glanced back at Clint, which made him smile widely. In many ways, he and Bucky really were similar.

“And I’m going to tag along.”

Nat finally held up the file she had been holding in one hand. “That thing you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev.” She looked at Steve for a moment. “Be careful, Steve. This might be a rabbit hole you don’t want to go down.” She turned and walked off. Clint smiled and waved at them before following her

“What thing did you ask for?” Bucky asked. He stepped up to look over Steve’s shoulder as Steve flipped open the folder. They were greeted with a picture of the Winter Soldier, frozen in a cryotube. “Him?” Bucky asked, and looked up to meet Steve’s eyes.

“Whoever he is, he’s clearly not in control of himself. He was turned into a weapon,” Steve said. “He probably doesn’t even remember the person he used to be. Now that his handlers are gone, who knows what he’s doing.”

“What, you want to save him? This guy that tried to kill you?” Bucky asked incredulously.

“Do you think someone volunteers to be turned into a robot like that? Chances are, he was a prisoner of Hydra.” Steve looked at Bucky very pointedly. He didn’t need to say, “Like you,” but it was implied. They never got far enough to anything like this when Bucky was a POW, but they had experimented on him.

Bucky sighed. “So we’re going after an unstable assassin?”

Steve nodded. “He’s too dangerous to leave alone anyway. If we can’t help him, we’ll have to stop him.”

“That sounds crazy,” Sam commented. He looked at the picture as well.

“You don’t have to come with us,” Steve said calmly. Technically, this wasn’t his problem. He wasn’t SHIELD.

“I know,” Sam said. “When do we start?”

Steve flipped the file closed and looked at the two of them. “We just did.”