Bucky eyed the small building curiously, wondering just where Steve had brought him. He figured Steve would have brought him to some sort of secret S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters so he could meet the ones who Steve believed could help them find Marlena, but that was far from where he had brought him, unless S.H.I.E.L.D. had went undercover as a suburban family. They were standing on the back porch of a house in a random Washington D.C. neighborhood waiting on whoever it was inside to answer the door. Bucky was unsure about the situation, but he knew he needed to trust Steve. It was the only way he would get Marlena back.

After several seconds of waiting and scanning the residential area for potential threats, the door slid open, catching Bucky's attention immediately.

In the doorway stood an average-sized man looking at Steve and Bucky with an incredulous expression his face. His skin was dark, his eyes were brown, his goatee was perfectly trimmed, and his head was shaved, only leaving only a thin layer of fuzz. Bucky recognized the man immediately, and it was then that the guilt began to flow into him. This was the man on the D.C. Parkway Bucky had tried to kill when he was sent to assassinate Steve and Natasha Romanoff; this was the man with the mechanical wings Bucky was sure he had killed when he'd thrown him off one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarriers.

Bucky couldn't help but feel relieved, though, as he looked at the man. He was alive and that made him feel much better about himself. It was good to know that one other person had managed to escape death at the hands of the Winter Soldier.

"Well, this is definitely an unexpected turn of events," the man breathed out, glancing back and forth between Bucky and Steve.

"I'm sorry about this, Sam, but I really need your help. . .again," Steve said to him.

Sam shook his head in amusement and stepped aside to let the two of them in. He was feeling a strong sensation of deja vu, only this time Steve had shown up at his door with Bucky rather than with Natasha. Either way, he wondered what the two could possibly need from him, especially Bucky. It was shocking to see him with Steve after the two of them spent almost two months without any leads on his whereabouts. He couldn't begin to understand how he had found the assassin, but he assumed he was in for quite a long story.

"He's not gonna try to kill me again, is he?" Sam questioned as he removed a carton of apple juice from the fridge. He had just returned from his daily run when the two of them came knocking on his door, and he was currently dying of thirst.

Bucky frowned at his words and sat down with Steve at the dining room table. "I'm really sorry about that," Bucky apologized as he began to nervously play with his hands. Steve noticed his change in demeanor and spoke up, relieving Bucky slightly.

"Look, there's a situation," Steve said to Sam, his tone nothing but serious.

Sam took a sip of his apple juice and crossed his arms over his chest. "Does that situation have anything to do with how you managed to find him? Because I would really love to know how you managed that."

Steve glanced at Bucky, and Bucky shrugged before sitting back in his seat. Even Bucky wasn't sure how Steve found him, but he was sure it had something to do with Marlena. She was one of the sneakiest people he had ever met, and he was a trained assassin—he was one of the sneakiest people in the world, so he wasn't exactly sure how Marlena managed to get passed him so easily.

"Okay, well when I got back to my apartment about two days ago, Sharon came over and told me about this girl that needed to talk to me about something really important," Steve started, locking the attention of both men.

Bucky shook his head and let out a chuckle. "That explains why she took off without truthfully telling me where she was going."

Sam furrowed his eyebrows and put his glass down onto the counter. He was confused, confused about who the girl was the two of them were talking about. "Who is this girl? Care to clarify?"

Steve gestured for Bucky to explain, and he let out a sigh before doing so. "Her name is Marlena Claire; she's the great granddaughter to one of the Howling Commandos," Bucky told him.

"And how exactly did you come across this girl?"

"After the incident with the helicarriers, I went into hiding," Bucky started. "About a week or so after that, I decided I was somewhat stable enough to begin the search for who I used to be, or who Steve claimed I used to be. I was studying my memorial plaque at the Smithsonian when she came up to me. She didn't have a clue who I was as we stood there—and at the time I barely had a clue who I was—but she began talking about me as if she already knew me. She reminded me that I had been the one to save her great grandfather from falling off the train. I knew she could help me find my way back to myself, so I asked her for her help, and when she realized who I was she had no problem saying yes to me."

Sam nodded his head in understanding. "I guess she's the reason why you're not being very assassin-y right now, isn't she?"

Bucky nodded and sighed sadly as he thought about Marlena. "She is—she really is."

Steve frowned as he noticed the way Bucky's feelings had so drastically shifted in the span of only a few seconds. He knew earlier that Bucky was torn over the fact that Hydra had taken Marlena from him, but now he was starting to see the way Bucky was beginning to come to terms with the fact that she really was gone. It was painful to see him that way, almost as painful as it was almost two months ago when he realized that Bucky had no clue who he was.

"So, where is this wonderful woman?" Sam asked the two men.

"That's why we're here," Steve answered quickly. "Today I gave her a call and she told me about Bucky and that he had been staying with her, and she told me I could come over and see him. I hung up so I could get ready and finish doing what it was that I needed to do before heading over, but about twenty minutes later she called me again to tell me that Hydra was in her house and that they were looking for Bucky. She was desperate for my help, but I didn't get there in time to save her. They took her, and now we need your help to find her and bring her back."

Sam let out a sigh and sat down at the table with the two men. "You know I'll help you, Steve. But have you tried calling any of the other Avengers for help as well? With everything that's happened since the incident with the helicarriers, I wouldn't doubt that Hydra is growing stronger. You and I barely managed to stop them the first time; we're gonna need more than just the three of us if we do this."

"Introducing them to Bucky after everything that's happened wouldn't exactly be a smart thing to do, especially introducing him to Tony." Steve's face fell as he remembered what Zola had shown him back in New Jersey. It was Bucky who had been responsible for the death of Tony's parents, and whether or not Tony knew that, he refused to subject Bucky to the emotional stress of being around him knowing that he was the reason Tony was without his family.

"What's the beef with him and Tony? They've never met each other before," Sam chuckled.

Bucky frowned. He knew exactly what the "beef" between he and Tony was, regardless of whether or not Tony was aware of it. He knew he wouldn't be able to face Tony without reliving that entire mission over and over again. Bucky might have been more himself than he used to be, but that didn't mean the flashbacks or the memories went away.

"It's nothing that needs to be discussed at the moment," Steve said to him, relieving Bucky in the slightest. "But I thought about getting in contact with Nick; I'm not so sure how much help he'll be to us while he's working in Europe, though, but we can always figure something out. I wanted to ask Sharon to help, but she has work. Other than the two of them, I was hoping maybe we could get in contact with Natasha and Maria since they are both somewhat aware of who Bucky is. I know Maria is working for Stark now, but we'll find a way around that. I'm just wondering if she could somehow find a way to bypass JARVIS's protocols and use Stark's tech to help locate possible Hydra bases. It would make finding Marlena much easier in the long run."

Sam chuckled. "Four-fifths of The Winter Soldier Squad is back at it—fantastic!"

Bucky was now thoroughly confused and rather disturbed, while Steve just rolled his eyes and shook his head at his partner.

It had become a thing for Sam to refer to him, Steve, Natasha, Maria, and Nick as The Winter Soldier Squad. It started after the helicarrier incident when he, Steve, Natasha, and Maria had met with Nick at his home for an information-filled dinner before he left for Europe the next day. The name was solely based on the fact that all of them had faced the world's deadliest assassin (The Winter Soldier) head on and actually survived it, as well as the fact that the term squad was being used very frequently among the people in the country, so Sam saw the opportunity and he took it. Although Maria hadn't necessarily had a physical confrontation with Bucky, though, Sam felt he needed to include her because of the role she played in helping all of them to survive.

"You've gotta stop with that, buddy," Steve said to Sam.

"What is this squad, and why is it named after the Winter Soldier?" Bucky asked.

"Well, you see—"

"It's not important, really," Steve cut him off. "We need to get to work—if you'll help us. You are helping us, right?"

Sam sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'm helping you. I swear I better get paid for this shit, Rogers. I'm still waiting on my paycheck from the last mission."

"Is my friendship not payment enough?" Steve teased. "Now, give me your phone."

Sam shook his head at Steve and grabbed his phone off of the counter before handing it to him.

It was time for Operation: Locate Marlena Claire to begin.