Disclaimer: Recognizable characters belong to Marvel. No copyright infringement intended. Any similarity to events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Author's Notes: Filling in a gap... With the best and brightest of birthday wishes to my friend Cindy Ryan.

Allies – When fighting a war, you have to gather your troops. Missing sequence from Captain America: Civil War.

Steve looked at his phone for a long moment before glancing across the warehouse. His best friend sat on the dusty floor, long legs out in front of him, gazing at the metal of his left hand. Bucky was still lost, adrift, and Steve couldn't – wouldn't – let him go down for something that he hadn't done. No matter what the security footage showed, he knew Bucky Barnes was innocent.

And he knew someone who might understand better than most.

While Steve had hoped Natasha would, too, he wasn't overly surprised when she sided with Tony. It was the path of least resistance and he couldn't fault her for making that decision. It matched her nature, something he'd come to appreciate over dozens of missions. They didn't have to be the same to work well together – he appreciated different points of view.

It hadn't been shocking to him when Clint chose to take the early retirement, either. He'd read the incident reports after New York and he knew what Loki had said. As crazy as Loki was, the so-called demigod had been right. Clint had heart, the likes of which Steve himself hadn't seen before, embodying team spirit, providing a much-needed father-figure to the sometimes ragtag forces that pulled together for the common good.

He was filled with qualities that were still needed.

"No, you absolutely cannot feed your baby brother to the goat," Clint admonished, clearly distracted, before he said, much clearer and into the phone: "Hello?"

Steve smiled, but it never reached his eyes. "Clint. Steve Rogers."

"Captain," he returned respectfully, and Steve could hear Clint's spine straighten. "You all right?"

"Well... I need some help," he admitted.

"Nat told me about your friend."

Steve appreciated that Clint hadn't said the Winter Soldier, or Barnes, or something else dehumanizing. "I only know two people on earth who can maybe understand what he's going through. Nat is the other one."

Clint exhaled. There were times he still woke up in cold sweats over what had happened, over the things he'd done to and against his fellow SHIELD operatives, to innocent civilians. His mind hadn't been his own then. "Is he okay?" It was a process for Clint. Some days were better than others. He just kept putting one foot in front of the other – it was the only way he knew how to manage it.

Steve looked at Bucky again, who this time glanced up, feeling Steve's gaze. The haunted, pained, tortured shadows in Bucky's eyes made his stomach churn. While he knew he couldn't be physically sick, Erskine's serum hadn't done anything to prevent his emotions from wreaking havoc. "Jury's out," he admitted quietly. "I want you to know that if there was some other way to do this, I would be going that route instead." If Clint didn't want to be in the fray, he didn't want to strong-arm him into it.

"Someday, they're going to figure out the Accords are a bad idea," Clint said, reading between the lines – something else he excelled at. "In the meantime, we may not be coworkers so much anymore, but we're still friends. You need a couch moved, to borrow a cup of sugar, or somebody to watch your back in battle, well... that's what friends do."

"You're a good friend, Clint. A good man," Steve said, and he felt the weight on his broad shoulders start to lessen, if only a bit. "But your family..."

"What kind of man would I be – what kind of father would I be to my children, or husband to my wife – if I didn't stand up for what's right?"

He hadn't realized he had been holding his breath until his lungs finally expanded, and much needed oxygen rushed through his body. "They're lucky to have you," Steve told him honestly. "So am I."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to make a stop on your way to the airport," Steve said, but Sam caught his attention, holding up two fingers. "On second thought," amended Steve, "make that two."

End.