Sam Wilson opened his door to find three very dusty, dirty and tired heroes.

"Hey man." Sam greeted.

"I'm sorry about this." Steve said. "We need a place to lay low."

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha said. Except for a few unreachable people that we don't want to endanger/drag into this anyway.

"Yep." Bucky confirmed.

Sam looked between the three of them. "Not everyone." He said, and stepped back to let them in.

~~~~~~

While Natasha washed up in the bathroom, Steve turned to Bucky. The man was still pale and sickly looking.

"Hey. What's wrong?"

Bucky swallowed. "Howard Stark. And his wife. Maria."

"What about them?" Steve said, crouching so that he was level with Bucky.

"It was me." Bucky whispered.

Steve's eyes widened.

"I killed them. Not only did I kill them... But I know Stark, a little. I killed my little sister's grandparents." Bucky said. 

Steve pulled Bucky into a hug. "We'll figure this out."

Bucky appreciated that he hadn't said 'It's okay'. Because it really wasn't.

~~~~~~

"You okay?" Steve asked Natasha.

"Yeah."

"What's going on?"

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but...I guess I can't tell the difference anymore." Natasha said.

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Steve commented.

"I owe you."

"It's okay."

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?" Natasha asked.

"I would now." Steve said. "And I'm always honest."

"Yeah." Bucky said from the bathroom where he was cleaning his metal arm, "Sometimes it's a pain in the ass."

For a moment, Natasha had forgotten he was there. But Bucky seemed to be nice enough not to gossip. So she guessed it was okay.

Sam poked his head through the doorway. "I made breakfast, if you guys... Eat that sorta thing."

~~~~~~

"Now, I know who she is. But who're you?" Sam asked Bucky in the kitchen.

"I'm the boyfriend." Bucky replied.

Natasha's eyebrows rose almost as much as Sam's. Steve sighed, and did his best not to blush. Sam looked between Bucky and Natasha.

"When did you get together?" Natasha asked the two super soldiers, sending Sam into momentary confusion.

"After Percy took Steve to Camp." Bucky replied.

"And you didn't think to tell anyone?" Natasha asked.

"Didn't want to make it a big deal." Steve said shyly.

"Woah woah woah." Sam said. "Are you tellin' me that Captain America has a boyfriend?"

"Yep." Bucky said, giving Sam a very clear look. 

"An old classmate of mine owes me five bucks." Sam said, smiling as he shook his head.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Field trip to the museum. One friend made a joke when we saw a video of you a long time ago... Hold up, you look like the other guy." Sam said, looking at Bucky.

"Uh, probably. I'm a year older than Steve." Bucky said.

"Dang. I'm not even gonna ask how that happened." Sam said.

~~~~~~

 "So, the question is: who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked after they had eaten some.

"Pierce." Steve said.

"HYDRA." Bucky nodded. "He was my superior."

"Great. He happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." Natasha said.

"But he's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve said.

"So was Jasper Sitwell."

"So, the real question is: how do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?" Steve asked.

"The answer is: you don't." Sam said, and dropped a file onto the table in front of Steve.

"What's this?" Steve asked.

"Call it a resume." Sam said as Natasha and Steve began to look at the file.

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you." Natasha said, then looked to Steve. "You didn't say he was a para-rescue."

"Is this Riley?" Steve asked, taking the photo from Natasha.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use, a stealth chute?" Natasha asked, while Bucky looked over Steve's shoulder.

"No." Sam said, and handed Steve the file. "These."

"I thought you said you were a pilot." Steve commented.

"I never said pilot." Sam replied.

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

 "Dude, Captain America needs my help." Sam said. "There's no better reason to get back in."

Steve briefly looked to Natasha and Bucky, before looking back at Sam. "Where can we get our hands on one of these things?"

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall." Sam said, arms crossed.

Steve looked back at Bucky and Natasha, who both shrugged.

"Shouldn't be a problem." Steve said.

~~~~~~

Sitwell's phone rings in his pocket, and he sees the caller ID before addressing the men around him. "I need a minute. Bring the car around." After the men leave, he answers. "Yes, sir?"

"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch? I hear the crab cakes here are delicious." Sam said.

"Who is this?" Sitwell asks.

"The good looking guy in the sunglasses, your ten o'clock." Sam replied. Sitwell looked to the right side of the stairs. "No, that's your two. Your other ten o'clock."

Finally, Sitwell's eyes landed on Sam, who raised his glass. "There you go."

"What do you want?" Sitwell asked.

"You're gonna go around the corner, to your right. There's a grey car, two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."

"And why would I do that?" Sitwell retorted.

"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up." Sam said.

Sitwell looked down to see a red dot on his tie. On the other end of a pair of binoculars and a laser pointer, Bucky felt satisfied and behind him Natasha was smirking proudly.

~~~~~~

Sitwell tumbled across the roof. 

"Tell me about Zola's algorithm." Steve said, marching after Sitwell.

"Never heard of it." Sitwell said.

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Steve asked, continuing to force Sitwell toward the edge.

"I was throwing up, I get seasick." Sitwell said, and Steve grabbed him by the suit so that he didn't fall. Sitwell smirked. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers."

"You're right. It's not." Steve said, and smoothed the shoulders of Sitwell's suit. "It's hers." And Steve stepped back so that Natasha could Spartan kick Sitwell off the roof.

Natasha looked to the super soldiers. "This whole time I was trying to get a rise out of you two, and you were already together."

"Yeah, that was fun." Bucky deadpanned. "Thanks for the teasing, Steve."

"What?" Steve asked, feigning innocence.

Bucky sighed, and shook his head.

Sam swept over the rooftop, dropping Sitwell. While the three strode over to him, he got to his hands and knees and flung a hand up in surrender. "Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing Insight's targets!"

"What targets?" Steve asked.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

"The Future? How could it know?" Steve asked.

Sitwell laughed. "How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."

"And what then?" Steve asked.

"Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me." Sitwell said.

"Oh, for sure." Bucky agreed. Sitwell looked up at him and his eyes widened even further.

"What then?" Steve demanded.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time."

~~~~~~

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks." Sitwell said from the seat behind Sam.

"Yeah, no shit." Bucky said under his breath from the seat between Sitwell and Natasha.

"Why don't you try sticking a cork in it." Sam said as he drove.

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here." Natasha said.

"I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly." Steve said.

"What? Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea." Sitwell exclaimed.

Before Bucky could vocalize his agreement, there was a loud thud on the roof.

~~~~~~

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint." Maria Hill said.

"Maybe two." Sam added.

"Let me take her." The doctor said.

"She'll want to see him first." Maria said.

"About damn time." Nick Fury said when he came into view.

~~~~~~

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache." Nick Fury said.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor added.

"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good." Fury said.

"Well, at least we know he's a terrible sniper." Bucky said. 

"Buck." Steve chided.

"What? I would've actually killed him. In less bullets." Bucky said.

Steve gave him a look, and Bucky held up his hands in surrender.

Natasha turned back to Fury. "They cut you open, your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury said.

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked.

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful." Hill said.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust." Fury said.

~~~~~~

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, 'Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility.' See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues." Fury said, looking at a picture of Pierce.

"We have to stop the launch." Natasha said.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury said, and opened a case with three chips.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized." Hill said.

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury interrupted.

"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die." Hill said.

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get pass them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left..." Fury trailed off.

"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD." Steve said.

"SHIELD had nothing to do with it."

"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose. It wasn't until Bucky told us that we knew." Steve said. "SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."

"He's right." Hill said.

Fury looked at Natasha, then Sam.

"Don't look at me." Sam said. "I do what he does, just slower."

Fury looked at Bucky.

"You already know where Boyfriend's loyalties are." Sam said.

"Well... Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain." Fury said.

"Really? I'm 'Boyfriend' now?" Bucky turned to Sam.

"Well, you didn't tell me your name, and I didn't catch it with all the screaming and gunshots earlier." Sam retorted.

"My name's Bucky." 

"Good to meet you, Boyfriend Bucky." Sam said.

"I swear to-" Bucky said, but a look from Steve cut him off.

"Did I miss something?" Fury asked.

"Oh," Natasha said, and gestured to Steve and Bucky. "They're together now."

~~~~~~

Steve and Bucky stood on a bridge, looking out over the water below. Bucky closed his eyes, and tried to connect with the water below them. He opened his eyes and leaned over the rail, holding a hand out over the water. Steve watched as some of the water rose a couple feet above its normal level.

"Wow. Have you ever done that much before?" Steve asked.

"No." Bucky said. "Percy thought it was more important for me to be able to find it before I could control it. Even if I can't control a lot of it, it'll still heal me and stuff. That was kinda what we focused on. Getting used to the water."

"We went swimming when we were kids, why's it different now?" Steve asked.

"I guess it was subconscious, and it was different than normal people, but I didn't know. This is knowing, and learning to use it. I guess." Bucky said. "Its like you have a knack for something, but you don't know until you actually try it. I think that makes more sense, actually. Forget the first part."

Steve chuckled. Then he gained a thoughtful expression. "Monsters are always after demigods. Why didn't they come after you?"

"Well, Percy and I, and Chiron, actually, think it was because of the war. There were so many demigods actually fighting, that it drew most of the monster's attention. And afterward... Well, maybe the serum stuff they gave me interfered with my godly side?"

Steve shook his head. "Our lives have gotten a lot more complicated than pillow forts, huh?"

"Yeah. But at least I can do this." Bucky said, and kissed Steve. 

Without his focus, the water sloshed back into place.

A/N

sorry.

Who else loves Bucky right now?

--->Achilles is posted! Check it out, the first four chapters are published!<---