Steve glanced between Bucky and Sam, his mind working through the problem at hand. But no matter how he approached it, there were no real alternatives.

"We're on our own," he murmured to Sam. But he paused when Sam looked back to him with a minute shrug, an equally thoughtful light in his eyes.

"Maybe not," he answered just as quietly, before glancing up at Steve, "I know a guy." And if that didn't spark another idea... Steve's mind was suddenly working again. When it came down to it, they both knew people they could call on. After a few moments they had an action plan worked out. Now they just needed to implement it. It was going to take a little doing, but they'd manage.

They had to.

It was then that Steve turned back to Bucky, heaving a sigh. Sam turned too, fixing the former HYDRA agent with a hard look.

"What are we going to do about him?" What indeed. Bucky still sat slumped against the vise, his cybernetic arm still tightly secured in the industrial machinery. Steve knew where Sam was going with his question. They needed Bucky to get to Siberia and the bunker and they needed his undeniable combat skills, but he was also a huge liability. If they got to Siberia and the doctor was able to activate Bucky's programming again? They were already likely going to be up against five more Winter Soldiers. It was going to be hard enough even if they could get as many others on their side as they hoped. If Bucky were to be forced into fighting against them instead of with them?

But they didn't really have a choice.

"We need him. It's a risk we have to take," Steve answered, meeting Sam's concerned gaze before looking back to Bucky. Sam obviously wasn't entirely happy about it, but Steve could see in the set expression on his face that he understood why. He knew Sam. The former paratrooper could read their situation the same way Steve could; their need outweighed the risk. They needed Bucky on their side. After a moment Sam nodded in agreement, just as Steve knew he would.

"Alright then. I'll make some calls." Steve nodded, running a tired hand over his face as he began running over in his head what needed to be tied up before they left, forcing his own, more personal worries aside; there was no time to dwell on things he couldn't change. They began to ease their way back across the room toward Bucky. It was probably as good a time as any to let him loose. There was little reason to keep him restrained anymore. They were barely halfway across the dusty space when the Captain looked up to Sam, another thought hitting him.

"And the girl's okay where she is?" Before Sam could even open his mouth Bucky's head shot up, his pale eyes wide as they latched on to Steve.

"Girl? What gir—" If it was possible his eye went wider still before his face fell, the man looking utterly defeated. Steve watched, startled, as Bucky's shoulders seemed to slump even further. "Iris," he breathed, his voice choked and hollow. "Did I hurt her?" Bucky looked up as he spoke, his expression nearly desperate. Sam frowned at the restrained man, eying him warily as he hesitated over whose question to answer first. He glanced to Steve for direction, knowing the Captain could still read Bucky better than he could.

But that only set Bucky off.

With a screeching wrench the former assassin jerked forward, his face twisted with anguish and furious desperation, nearly pulling his arm free in his anger. "Damn it! Answer me! Did I hurt her?" His voice broke even as his temper did. The instant the metallic shriek had echoed through the warehouse Steve had taken a quick step forward, gesturing for Sam to back off as he fixed a suddenly coolly feral Bucky with an assessing glance.

"Buck, she's fine," Steve finally said softly, keeping his voice low. It did little to ease the wild look in Bucky's eyes. After a moment he spared Sam an entreating glance, taking in the way the former paratrooper was trying and failing to hide his shock. Sam cleared his throat at the look, still eying the restrained man warily.

"Yeah. Yeah, no, she's okay. Shaken up, a little bruised, but fine. I left her holed up in a hotel just outside the city. I tried to convince her to head back to the States on the next flight out, but she was having none of it. But she's safe where she is for now." Steve's attention was fixed back on Bucky as Sam made his report. As soon as Sam confirmed she was okay, relief surged onto Bucky's face, his entire body nearly going limp with it. His free hand, tightly fisted until now, slowly loosened. A glint of light from the movement caught Steve's attention, but he was too far away and Bucky's hand tilted just so that he couldn't make out what it was.

Satisfied that he was in control of his temper again, Steve eased forward to loosen the industrial vise. With a wince of discomfort Bucky lifted his arm down, flexing the metal fist before shooting Steve a grateful but reserved look. But then his gaze fell back to his flesh hand, his metal one rubbing harshly across his face.

"Why was she there," Bucky mumbled, eyes fixed on whatever it was in his hand, causing Steve to frown as he retreated back to stand with Sam, "She's supposed to be safe back in DC." His fingers tightened again, hiding whatever it was he was holding. He didn't quite seem to be expecting an answer. Steve sighed, suddenly worried this woman was going to be a much bigger complication than he thought. He'd gone along with Sam's insistence that she needed to be kept safe, inferring from his guarded resolve on the matter that she was significant in some way—not that he'd mentioned she was significant to Bucky—but Steve hadn't really given her much more thought once his attention had turned back to his oldest friend. Now...well, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together.

"Buck?" At first he wouldn't look up at the sound of Steve's voice. But Steve was patient, waiting until his best friend's face lifted to meet his. "Buck, how serious was—is it?" Bucky didn't need to say anything. Steve could see it in his face. Funny how, even after everything, after all this time, he could still read Bucky like a book. He sighed again. "That serious, huh?"

"I'd do anything to keep her safe," Bucky finally said softly, grimly, his gaze dropping back to his hand. The glint caught Steve's eye again, and this time he was able to place it; it was a fine chain, like that of a necklace. He glanced back to Sam, easily reading what was written in the other man's face as the former paratrooper watched Bucky. Steve crossed his arms, one hand rising to rest against his chin as he thought.

"And how does she feel about you?" A wan grin peeked out from behind Bucky's curtain of tangled hair.

"If she followed me here? Far more than she should...unless she's here to kill me too. Then about as much as she should," he said blandly. Sam snorted, drawing the gazes of both Steve and Bucky.

"I don't think she wants to kill you," he said, an amused grin playing about his mouth, his dark eyes twinkling. Steve was nearly inclined to chuckle, a small huffing breath as close as he got. Bucky's face fell.

"She should. She knows now...all of it. And I...she just should..." It should have been bitter, but Bucky only sounded tired and dejected. Sam and Steve exchanged a concerned look before Sam turned back to Bucky.

"She knew you were the Winter Soldier before you left; she figured it out all on her own. She also knows you weren't you back there. She doesn't hate you for what happened." Bucky froze in shock at Sam's assertion, his eyes wide and horrified before he squeezed them shut to hide the myriad other emotions surfacing. But that wasn't all of it. Instinctively, Steve knew there was more to what was bothering him.

"Why?" he prompted quietly. Bucky looked haunted as he glanced up to Steve, his head slowly shaking no.

"Considering how I left?" Steve frowned at the answer, his gaze questioning. Bucky didn't say it aloud, but the shamed way his eyes slid from Steve's said more than enough. The Captain swore under his breath, causing Bucky to wince. Steve was the first to admit it took a great deal to get him to curse beyond the odd mild oath.

"I didn't want t—I couldn't stay—I couldn't—I had to keep her safe..." He groaned, his face falling to his metal hand as his flesh one tightened around the necklace; that's what it had to be, Steve concluded; her necklace. "As long as I stayed she wasn't safe. So I left...one morning, before she woke up, I left." Steve said nothing, his expression guarded. But the pained look on Bucky's face as he glanced up said he could see past it. Sam whistled low.

"Damn, that's cold." Bucky shot him a scathing look.

"I left her because of you," he snapped in response, chastening Sam at once, "because you showed up and started asking questions about me. If you could find me HYDRA wasn't likely to be far behind; they weren't far behind—it's what I've been doing this past year; hunting them down; keeping them away from her. I couldn't risk them finding her.

"I'm not proud of the way I left." his irritation had faded quickly to a bitter, exhausted resignation. His face dropped back into his hand, his voice pained and muffled, "but I didn't have any other choice."

After a long, quiet moment Bucky sighed heavily, pulling himself wearily to his feet. "Why is she here?" It was said with the most peculiar combination of despondency and low, hard anger. Steve glanced to Sam, curious himself what the answer to that was. He nearly smiled as Sam bristled at the aggression suddenly pouring off the former HYDRA agent even as a flicker of guilt surfaced in his dark eyes. Taking in a bracing breath, Sam straightened.

"She was there because she made me promise to tell her when we found you. And I keep my word." Bucky glared at him while Steve stared in surprise. Sam hadn't told him that. Although, Sam hadn't really told him much about this Iris, save that she'd seen Bucky before he'd left DC. Sam boldly met Bucky's eye. "She contacted me after you left and made me promise to keep her in the loop. So when we tracked you to Bucharest, I let her know we knew where you were—nothing more." He shrugged then, grimacing, "but then you know how that turned out. I guess she got impatient waiting for me to contact her again. Once she heard on the news that we were heading to Berlin, she hopped on the next plane here." Bucky frowned, his ire at Sam momentarily forgotten as he processed what Sam had just told him. Steve couldn't help but watch the exchange with interest.

"She's never left DC; she doesn't even have a passport," he objected quietly, a thread of accusation in his voice as he eyed Sam. Sam shrugged again, an amused grin returning easily to his naturally friendly features.

"I guess she does now."

This time Steve chuckled. "You like her," he stated, catching the black man's eye. Sam shrugged lightly in response, his eyes still twinkling.

"She's got spunk and she's persistent, I'll give her that," he answered with a grin. Bucky glowered at him. Steve nearly laughed at the blatantly jealous look.

Sam's grin widened when he too caught sight of the expression, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace. "Hey, I'm not going to make a move on your girl, man. I don't to that," his eyes crinkled with wry amusement at the way Bucky's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "not that she'd give me the time of day if I tried. She hasn't been texting me for months because she likes me. She's still pretty hung up on you." Bucky relaxed, a faint, smug expression tugging at his mouth and eyes. Steve chuckled again, drawing his oldest friend's attention.

"You always did have a way with women; they were always crazy about you. And somehow, no matter what, you always managed to use that to find me a date. I have no idea how you did it, but you were always able to charm dames to put up with me for an evening." A faint, depreciating grin appeared on Bucky's face, one that Steve almost missed, but it was there.

"Yeah, well, it was a lot easier when my head wasn't scrambled and I was a war hero rather than a HYDRA assassin—a villain," Bucky said, a congenial veneer pasted over a grim expression. He was trying to act like his old self, Steve realized, putting up a good-natured front to distract from his regret and despair. And to hide his fears.

"She doesn't think you're a villain." Both Steve and Bucky turned back to Sam. The former paratrooper stood with his arms crossed over his chest, not looking at either of the supersoldiers in front of him at first, before raising his abruptly serious gaze to meet Bucky's head on, all trace of levity gone from his features. Steve glanced at Bucky, gauging his reaction to Sam's statement. He'd paled, and while there was a flicker of hope in his steel-blue eyes, it was nearly drowned out by resignation...by doubt. Bucky sighed heavily, unable to hold Sam's steadfast and pointedly frank gaze. He glanced down at his hand again, his fingers opening to reveal the necklace. Steve finally got a good look at it.

It was a sunflower.

"I don't deserve her," Bucky finally murmured, raising his eyes back up to Sam, his expression bleak and full of self-loathing.

Sam shrugged. "Probably not." Steve groaned inwardly as he shot Sam a look that said he wasn't helping. Sam ignored him. "But then," Bucky frowned, eyeing Falcon warily when the dark-skinned man continued, face still just as staid as when he started, though the corner of his lip quirked minutely, "you probably didn't deserve a woman like her before HYDRA went and messed with your head, either." Steve looked at Sam in astonishment only for a small sound from Bucky to startle him even further. It was an indignant snort. The self-deprecating grin had returned to Bucky's face, but it wasn't nearly so grim as it had been before. He glanced over at Steve, who was still watching his friend in bewilderment.

"You know, I think that hurts my feelings," Bucky murmured. It surprised a laugh out of Steve. He clapped the dark-haired man on the shoulder, more relieved than he could say to see traces of his old friend emerging from beneath the brainwashed soldier, even if it only lasted a few moments. But then Bucky sobered, looking at Steve.

"Could you..." he hesitated, visibly struggling over just what he wanted to ask, "Could you give her a message for me? Tell her—I'm—that I—" He faltered, looking down to the sunflower pendant before holding it out to Steve. "Just...just make sure she's alright; I need to know she'll be alright. That she'll be safe." Steve looked down at the delicate pendant resting in the palm of his friend's hand before shooting Bucky an exasperated glance, a tremor of unease flickering in his chest.

"Buck, c'mon. Don't be like that."

"Please, Steve." The desperation had returned as Bucky's pleading gaze bored into Steve's, "I need you to keep her safe. To...to tell her I lo—that I'm sorry." Steve inhaled deeply, considering how best to respond. It wasn't hard to tell what Bucky had nearly said. He let out a long breath before reaching out toward the necklace.

He closed Bucky's fingers back over it, enclosing it safely in his grip. He smiled faintly at Bucky's alarmed expression.

"You can tell her yourself when this is all over."    

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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