"All I Wanted Was the Dream"

Bucky Barnes found himself in Budapest. A strange place, and he wasn't sure he'd ever been there before. If he had been, it was probably while he was under HYDRA's control.

Having recovered most of his memories, remembered enough of who he was to start back towards the States, he thought over Phil Coulson. The various assassinations he'd undertaken were jumbled – but God, he remembered the Starks all too well – and he knew that he'd seen Phil. Or thought he'd seen Phil. It was impossible, wasn't it?

Green tie… red tie… hospital bed.

Was he still there?

No, he couldn't have been. It was 2015, and the newspaper in the hospital was dated 2012. If Bucky really hadn't dreamed that – if, by some miracle, Phil was still alive – then it had been three years. Even if he could recall the name of the hospital, Phil was very unlikely to still be a patient there.

Had he… had he even made it? A heart injury, stab wound from what the doctors had said (if Bucky hadn't dreamed up that part, either). It would be hard to bounce back from that.

And it'd been decades since they last saw each other. If Phil had been enhanced, who's to say he hadn't found someone else in that time?

"Hey."

A dark man stepped out of the shadows. He was the one with wings, Bucky reminded himself. He knew Steve.

"I've seen you before," Bucky said, moving closer. "You're friends with Steve?"

"Yeah," the man said. "But he was always closer to you, Barnes."

"You know who I am."

"Of course I do, man. Sam Wilson." He held out his hand. Bucky took it, and shook. "Do you know who you are?"

"Sergeant James Barnes," Bucky said. "Where is he? Where's Steve?"

"Waiting for you," Sam said. "C'mon. He wasn't sure how you'd react to seeing him."

"You've been following me."

"Trying to. You're damn hard to find. I'm impressed."

"You can fly," Bucky said. "That's even more impressive."

Sam grinned, his teeth pearly white in the moonlight. "That's right."

It was a whirlwind after that. Steve peppered Bucky with questions virtually the entire time it took to fly back to America. To New York, not DC.

"We're staying with Tony Stark," Steve said. "He's got a reinforced room while Bruce is away."

Bucky's head spun. "I can't. Not Stark."

Steve sighed. "He doesn't blame you. He's had a long time to get over it, and we all know… we've discussed it. He wouldn't make you welcome in his home if he couldn't handle the fact that you were used to kill his parents."

"I was supposed to go after Anthony, but Howard begged me not to. I was punished for that."

"That… is something you should tell Tony. Eventually. Not right now."

"We're not even there yet," Bucky pointed out. Sam chuckled, and Steve rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, jerk," he muttered.

"Punk." He paused. "Listen, I know this sounds… strange, but I can remember something from my… I should call them my nightmares, but when I saw him they were more like dreams."

"O-oh?" Steve asked. He wasn't looking at Bucky.

"About… Do you remember Phil Coulson? My…" He turned pink, and coughed. "You know?"

"Yeah, I remember Phil."

"I could've sworn I saw him, or someone like him. Did he… have children?"

"No, he didn't. He never married."

"You mean you know what happened to him? I'm so confused. I've tried to read what I can, but there was nothing on Phil."

"He worked for SHIELD."

"Yes, I know that," Bucky said. "I remember that from the dreams. But does he still work for them? If there's anyone left?" His stomach dropped at the look on both Steve and Sam's faces. "He died because of me, didn't he?"

"No," Steve said. "No, Bucky, he didn't."

"Then where is he?"

"He…" Steve looked down at his lap. "A few years back, aliens hit New York. Phil died trying to stop the bad guy. I didn't know it was him until after his funeral, when I worked it out. I'm so sorry, Buck." He met Bucky's eyes. "I should've protected him for you."

"Wasn't your job," Bucky said. So Phil hadn't made it out of hospital.

"If it's any comfort… he never stopped believing that you were alive. I was the one who told him after you… fell. He wouldn't believe it then, and he died still thinking that you had to be alive somewhere. He was the one to keep pushing for the search for you."

"Not that it worked," Bucky muttered bitterly.

"If I'd had any idea… I should've believed him."

Bucky shook his head. "No. He can't be dead. Hurt, maybe, but not dead. It doesn't feel like it."

"Bucky, you're in shock—"

"It doesn't feel like it!" The Soldier raged inside him, but Bucky kept a tight lid on him.

"Buck—"

"I'd feel it here." He clapped a hand to his chest, over his heart. "He has to be alive, and I'm gonna find him. I dreamt about him. Something was different. He wouldn't die just `cause he was stabbed through the heart."

"It's starting all over again," Steve said. "He reacted just the same way… Wait. I didn't say anything about him being stabbed."

"You didn't have to," Bucky said. He glanced at Steve. "I saw him in hospital. Heard the doctors."

"You what?"

"It was in two thousand and twelve. There were people after him, and Pierce sent me to watch over him, and take out anyone who got too close. Only had a chance to kill two of them before I remembered who I was, and was knocked out before I could run."

"In hospital? That can't be right. He died on the scene."

"No. There were definitely bandages over his chest and his head."

"He must've had another injury earlier that year," Steve said, shaking his head. "`Cause that can't be right. The paramedics called it on site."

"Steve." Bucky clenched his hands. "If he was revived in hospital, then maybe he was sent away somewhere by SHIELD. I never heard anything else about him while I was with HYDRA. Any time I saw him in the field, I couldn't hurt him. All I knew was that he was mine, and he couldn't be hurt."

"Maybe HYDRA kept him alive to control you," Sam said, piping up for the first time in awhile. "Maybe they brought him back to life somehow, and have been holding him hostage."

"For three years?" Steve said, raising his eyebrows. Bucky glared at him. "I'm not saying it's not impossible, but… what if they've brainwashed him?"

"Then I'm the one person who can help him," Bucky said. "Is there any way we could find out?"

"Bucky, you could be wrong…"

"And I'm sure people said the same thing to Phil. But he was right all along, as you can see." He spread his hands. "So I'm gonna do him the same courtesy. First, was he buried?"

"Yes. I attended the funeral."

"Then we're gonna dig up his grave and see if he's there. I won't believe he's dead until I see the evidence for myself."

"You should contact Fury," Sam said. Bucky winced.

"He's still alive?" he said.

"Yes," Steve said. "If I had his number I'd contact him."

"He… had an eye patch and a leather coat?"

"That's the one."

Bucky frowned slightly. "He visited Phil in hospital."

Steve and Sam looked at each other, and then at Bucky.

"I'll have Tony find him," Steve said.

Ooh! Yeah, I had different notes for what I was going to do, but then there were many possible ways I could go. More action was involved, including HYDRA kidnapping Phil while they still had control of Bucky and using Phil to make him behave… but then they learnt in previous chapters that it's not good to unite them, because it just breaks Bucky's brainwashing. (Alliteration!) Didn't make sense for them to keep making that mistake.

Please review, peeps!