This chapter is pretty short, but it is kind of a transition chapter into the next one where the action happens.

Steve was in the kitchen making lunch. Bucky had indicated it would be fine so he'd decided to let Sam and Bucky talk alone today. The last few days had been a roller coaster. His friend's moods were hard to predict. One moment it was like old Bucky was back and Steve could almost pretend things were the way they used to be. Then, just like that, he would switch to angry and defensive and nothing Steve said could break the barrier between them. Sam said that was normal. Often time's people who had been victimized were angry at their helplessness in the situation and would attempt to reassert control over their lives. Since survivors didn't often have the opportunity to take out their anger out on those who had actually hurt them, they would instead lash out at the people close to them.

Steve hated those times, not just because it separated him from Bucky now, but because it reminded him of all Bucky had been through and was still dealing with. He was learning to accept it though and take each situation as it came.

He was trying to help Bucky make some good memories too. It wasn't terribly easy since they were confined to the house, but Steve tried to make the most of it by meticulously watching to relearn Bucky's preferences, preference he used to know almost as well as he knew himself. Time and HYDRA had stripped that away from them as well. Recently, he'd learned that Bucky liked coffee and popcorn. He didn't like eggs, no matter how they were cooked. He really liked the movie Sandlot, they both did. They had watched it multiple times and Bucky had almost, almost, smiled on more than one occasion. The boys in the movie reminded Steve of simpler times before the war.

Bucky also really seemed to want to see Steve draw. It was apparently one of the clearer memories from their childhood. Steve found a small notepad and pens in one of the kitchen drawers drawers he could use. He also text Sam asking if he would pick him up a sketch pad. He forgot how much he missed drawing; he hadn't drawn in a while. It had seemed selfish to take time for himself while they were looking for Bucky.

He strained his ear to pick up on any disturbances outside. He trusted Sam implicitly with Bucky, but he didn't want Bucky to feel like he abandoned him so he'd made point of making several trips out there to check on things. Over the last few days Bucky had watched the DVDs Sam left and paged through a few of the books. He seemed serious about getting better and Steve was more than happy to provide any assistance.

Sam had invited Bucky and Steve to go to a meeting as soon as S.H.I.E.L.D. cleared him to leave. Bucky balked and was decidedly less thrilled about being in a crowd of people but Steve and Sam had both assured him he didn't have to go until he was ready or never at all, if he didn't want to.

Steve was glad Sam was here today to give Bucky some more tools to cope because tomorrow Agent Hill was coming and wanted to discuss Bucky's future.

Everywhere Tony went the file Romanoff left seemed to follow him. He didn't need to ask Jarvis to know Pepper was behind this. Damn her and her freaky ninja ways and nearly unlimited access to the tower.

Tony finished his fourth glass of whiskey and stared at the file. He pulled it toward him, knowing even as he did it he didn't want to, and flipped it open. The file wasn't too thick; still it was detailed and seemed to only recount one specific mission of the Asset.

Reading past the clinical tone of an official report, Tony got the picture of a confused young man, who had already endured years of experiments and brainwashing. Some of the methods used were referenced with passing casualness as if they were talking about adding a part on a gun or trying out weapon's modification. Which Tony supposed, to them, that's probably what it was.

The report irritably recounted the Asset's hesitation at being asked to take out Stark. Though, when pressed, he didn't know why. The impatience to have this mission finished drove HYDRA's senior officers to ignore the handlers' recommendations for more programming and training. He was dispatched anyway. Their trepidation proved true when the Asset went the opposite direction of his target's location and then failed to appear at the extraction area.

He was quickly retrieved and put through another round of reconditioning and imprinting, tortured into submission for all intents and purposes, before eventually being sent out again.

Tony stared at the file for a long time. He sighed and poured himself another drink.

"Jarvis. Pull HYDRA files."

"Any in particular, sir."

"Yes, any that reference the Asset."

He had moved from glasses of alcohol to bottles. Toward the end of his second one, he pulled out his phone and fumbled through a text to Natasha.

Thank you so very much for reading!