A/N: According to a vid I watched on the subject of Siberian Huskies as service dogs... it depends on the dog in question, and what you need the dog for. If you need an affectionate dog that loves to run and is great with kids and is a pack animal and you don't mind that it sheds like crazy, this is the dog for you. (On the service dog side: you also need a dog that follows basic commands like sit, stay, and come.) Thank you, Qweb. :)

Attack of the Ten Hour Nap...

Pepper watched as Steve got up off the couch after looking down at his bathrobe for a long moment. "Going to change?"

"That's what I was on my way to do, before," Steve said with a smile that wasn't reaching his eyes. "Buck?"

"Go change, Steve," Bucky said through another yawn, and now Jill was frowning at him. Steve nodded and left the common room. "I shouldn't be this tired."

Jill glanced at Pepper, then looked at Sam. "Watch him for me? There's something I need to do. And James?"

"Yeah?"

"I'd be more surprised if you weren't tired. What happened this morning wasn't an easy thing." At his tired nod, she stood up and left the room.

The tablet still in her hand made a 'you've got mail' beep, and Pepper looked down to find a text from Natasha: Dog treats and a parka? Will do, even if I want an explanation later. Tell Steve I also found his jacket and want to know what he was doing at the bottom of an elevator shaft when Barnes got triggered.

Pepper frowned at that and looked at Sam. "You wouldn't know why Steve ended up at the bottom of an elevator shaft, would you?"

Sam nodded to Bucky, then got up and went to sit next to him. "Sort of. I got thrown across the room, and... Barnes?"

"No control," Bucky mumbled as he leaned hard into the cushions. And then he was snoring almost inaudibly.

Sam frowned and tried jiggling his knee. When he didn't even flinch from that, Sam shook his head. "Well, that can't be good..."

Steve had just finished changing into jeans and a t-shirt when a knock sounded at the door. Frowning, he went to answer it, wondering all the while why that person hadn't just poked their head in... and found Jill standing there, an uncertain expression on her face and a very thick binder and her laptop under one arm. "Oh. Hi."

"I need a minute."

Stepping back, he allowed her in, then closed the door because he knew that tone in her voice. He'd heard it on her first night back in Wakanda, seventeen days ago. When he turned around, he found her sitting on his bed, hugging herself. "Jill?"

"I can't fall apart out there," she said after a moment. "And... crap, Steve. I've been calling you an idiot, in regard to certain things that I didn't tell you about James due to patient confidentiality. You're not an idiot, you just didn't know. Not unlike Marie Curie, really. For that matter, if I'd known how deep the conditioning ran before Bucharest, I'd have told you that you could have caused a seizure just asking certain things-"

"Klonopin," Steve interrupted as he sat down beside her. "I had some in my pocket that Becca got for that eventuality, if it came down to that. And I realize how idiotic it was in hindsight, Jill... more so after today and yesterday."

She nodded. "And I admit to trying to force you to release some emotional pressure, too. Rebecca isn't here, and I'm not her, but..."

Steve chuckled at that. He'd started to suspect that, and it was good to hear her admit it. "Points for effort, and at least you've been preparing Buck for seeing her eventually. She's not the same girl he remembers, seeing him off for England. No one prepared me for her, and that was one reason she sent me into shock. Not the only one, but one of 'em."

Jill took a deep, settling breath. "There is that. And... what do you think? We didn't ask you about service dogs."

Steve glanced toward the door with a sigh. "He sleeps better with someone in the room, or with one of us right next to him on the couch, and talking, as much as he complains when he's half out of it. There isn't always going to be the option of a person, and he does need all the support he can get. And what happened this morning? He seemed..."

"More comfortable in his own skin afterward?"

"Yeah."

She smiled and stopped hugging herself. "Not completely certain, but I think, judging by those idioms in Klingon, that he smashed right through some of the conditioning by himself, with our support. That's why I had Khamisi hug him... first he had to want it bad enough, and then he needed us to hold him up while he did it. Call it traumatic integration, if you want a label."

"Oh."

She nudged his knee. "And while we might have another attack of the ten hour nap today, at least he'll sleep off the rest of the Ativan. I really did not want to do that to him."

Steve nudged her back. "Worry less about things you can't fix than things you can, and find the joy." She blinked at him in surprise. "That incident Buck half-way remembers about saving me in an alley? There was a guy mouthing off at a war newsreel in a theater. Also in the audience was a friend of Emma's whose husband was on a ship somewhere in the pacific. She would have been next in line to get into a fight with the guy had I not gotten him out of the theater when I did."

"Ah. Wasn't about wanting to fight, was it?"

"No. And you've seen Becca's wedding album, so you know they staged an informal, unofficial wedding ceremony in our bathtub. If she sent her wedding album, I won't have to explain it after all."

"Emma really said things like finding the joy?"

"Things to that affect. There was a war on, things looked bleak." He paused, thinking back. "She was the first family member to see me, like this, after. Anyone else, and I'd have gotten a lecture, but Emma? She was happy that I came to Becca's wedding, and happy to see me healthy in a way I'd never been before."

"Hmmm..."

"Ready to face the world again?"

Jill nodded slowly. "Even if I'm the one who wants a ten-hour nap." She blinked, startled when he reached over to touch her hand, bringing her attention to the finger-shaped bruises that were starting to appear. She stared at them for a minute before lifting her head to look at him. "It was worth it."

"You should have told me what you needed."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because when he started to react like that, there was no time to do much more than remember I was holding my laptop. He needed a focus and it couldn't wait for me to explain it, and yell 'Steve, hold his hand for dear life!' Though you'd have done it in a heartbeat." Jill studied the bruises some more. "Good thing I packed my Arnica Montana for mission, just in case."

"Arnica?"

Jill shrugged. "Anti-bruising agent. Lessens the severity and speeds the healing process." She glanced at him to find he was staring at her. "What?"

Steve shook his head. "I knew what it was. It's just been so long since anyone has mentioned herbal remedies to me. Sorry."

She nudged his knee again. "For what? I reminded you of home. It's a good thing. So... question for you. Golf, baseball, or the space program?"

Steve paused. "That was random. Huh?"

"Kristy and Rebecca sent me a bag of entertainment. Golf movie, baseball movie, or the space program?"

"Baseball," he said after thinking about it.

Jill smiled. "Sure you don't want the space program? Apollo 13 was really good."

"How good? And... maybe we should watch that one. Buck loves science."

"Really, really good." She glanced toward the door. "Science, huh?"

Steve nodded. "Yes. And we could watch both?"

"Good plan. Photo albums first, though." She picked up the thick binder from where she'd set it down on the bed and handed it to him. "Pepper brought this."

Steve frowned at her as he opened it and flipped through several pages... then he flipped back, and forward again. "This. This is a lot."

"I wasn't going to show you, but if Rebecca put it all in order after getting even more information than you two found in the vault on the computers there, it matters that you know." He glanced at her, confusion written in his eyes. "According to Pepper, Stark went back out to the base after arriving home, and found their file room. You heard their meeting. And... telling you a month ago about the BARF system thing wouldn't have solved anything or actually explained it. Choices were made, Steve. Yours and his."

"I know."

"Good." She gestured for the binder and he handed it back to her. "And I want you to continue the therapy we've been doing. There's still a story to tell."

"What? Decorating one wall wasn't enough?"

"Nope."

Steve sighed. "Right. It's weird... Bucky said the floating car of Howard's was red, but I saw green."

Jill nodded as her gaze slid to the nightstand next to the bed, which at the moment contained a lamp, a pile of books, two sketchbooks, and a bottle of clear fluid that reminded her of Vodka. "Why are you keeping alcohol on your nightstand?"

Steve reached over, picked it up, and handed it to her, whereupon she discovered that it wasn't Vodka, but Schnapps. "T'Challa got that for me, the second time he went to Berlin for the JCTF. And it's in here, because I have an idea. And am I really banned from writing to anyone?"

"It depends on the circumstances in which you do it," Jill told him as she studied the lettering. "I was mad that you set Rebecca off, Steve. I still am mad, actually. You wrote to her, told her... what did you tell her?"

"It's more what didn't I," he admitted. "And that was before I remembered you were an option, right after I'd written to Tony. And Pepper."

She nodded slowly, taking it all in. "Right. And the significance of the Schnapps?"

"It's from Augsburg."

"Augsburg?"

Steve took the bottle back from her and set it back in it's spot on the nightstand. "Dr. Erskine was from Augsburg. We were going to share some Schnapps after the procedure was done, but... HYDRA."

For a moment, Jill wondered if he would have told her if she'd not noticed the Schnapps sitting there. It had been incredibly hard, getting him to open up, and though she knew some of the details of how Dr. Erskine had died, she'd never heard it from the source. "And...?"

"And I thought I'd send it to Tony. Odd idea, I know, but-"

"No," Jill interrupted. "It's a good idea. A small step to lead to a bigger one. If either of you want to open up to the other and mend the fences, it has to start somewhere."

"Which is why I wanted to know if I was really banned from writing letters or not."

Jill smiled. "Draft a note, explaining the importance of it to you, and I'll proof it for you. No straying from the topic of Dr. Erskine, no meandering into discussing James. Simple, to the point."

Steve nodded. "I can do that." He watched as she opened up her laptop, turned it on, pressed several buttons, and then turned the screen to face him. "What now?"

"You asked, and I couldn't also show this to James without being utterly sure I wouldn't set off another flashback." She frowned. "Come to think of it, maybe we should have considered getting him a cat that likes kids."

Steve chuckled as she hit play. "You're only just thinking of that now?" They watched together for a few minutes. "Oh. That..."

"I didn't tell you in May, aside from the part where I was upholding HIPAA... knowing what he did frivolously with technology doesn't solve anything. You both still made choices."

Steve nodded. "Yes, but-"

The door opened suddenly, startling both, and Sam looked at them funny. "Am I interrupting?"

"No," Jill told him as she closed her laptop again. "Just a little mutual therapy, and we can continue later. What's up?"

Sam sighed. "How much Ativan did Khamisi give to Barnes?"

She nodded to Steve. "His minimum dose, or close to it... one or two MG. Why?"

"Because he fell asleep on the couch in the common room and then I couldn't rouse him," Sam explained. "No reacting like he usually does when people are talking around him, either. Fujo and Pepper are watching him, making sure he doesn't swallow his tongue."

Jill stared at him. "Really? I noticed the yawning, but thought it would abate... Steve, what did Rebecca say when she found it in the vault?"

Steve paused, thinking back... "That the single-use vials were twice the dosage of a normal person's metabolism. In that box was Alprazolam, Clonazepam, Diazepam, Lorazepam, Midazolam, and Librium, among other things."

Jill nodded. "And Khamisi gave him an MG or so of something with ten times the kick of Valium, on my call. Darn it."

Steve frowned at her. "Ten times?"

"One milligram of Ativan is equal to ten milligrams of Valium, Steve." She stood up, sighed, grabbed the binder and her laptop from the bed, and stomped out the door, purpose in her stride that left two men staring after her before they even thought to follow.

Pepper watched from an armchair as Jill stomped into the room with a deep frown on her face, greeted Fujo, and immediately began taking manual vitals on Bucky, then checking his eyes with a pen light. "Elley was concerned about his yawning before. And... you carry a pen light?"

"Both of us were on the same page, then," Jill said as she finished checking his eyes, then stood up and looked at her. "His highness has a cat that does a lot of hiding, and any time Blackie ventures out... not as fun as the red laser pointer, but you know."

"Oh. How is he?"

"Sedated, strong pulse, normal breathing rate... James!" When he didn't react initially to her voice, she shook his right shoulder, he grunted, his eyes opened and he looked at her sleepily but without any wakeful awareness, and then he was asleep again. "Between a two and a three on the sedation scale. So... Miss Potts? Baseball, comedy, or space program?"

Pepper considered that for a moment. "Baseball? And what do you mean, between a two and a three?"

Jill grinned. "I'll be back." She stood up and turned just in time to see Steve and Sam catch up, and she motioned to the couch. "Far as I can tell, just sedation: he'll react, but fall asleep again. That's what I meant by between a two and a three, Miss Potts. And... I have an and. I don't want to think about the and..."

Steve rolled his eyes at her while reclaiming his seat on the couch from Fujo. "Go have your talk with Khamisi about your and."

Jill looked down at the binder again in her hands, glanced at Bucky's sleeping face. Then she nodded and left the common room in a rush, scooping up her laptop as she went.

Pepper frowned at him. "What does she mean, she has an and she doesn't want?"

Steve glanced down at Bucky before looking at her. "Becca and I found Lorazepam in the vault where he was kept, Pepper. Among other things. The box Becca found the sedatives in was labeled 'Cryo-Prep.'"

"Oh," Pepper said, wincing in sympathy.

He was in the middle of a consult with a fellow doctor and the King in the medical lab when Jill entered with a very thick binder, found a flat surface, spread open the binder while setting her laptop aside, and started flipping pages until she found the one she wanted, which had been flagged and labeled 'medical information' by Rebecca. "Jill?"

"Hang on." Then she blinked, pulled a flash drive out of her pocket, and set it down on the counter. "You'll be wanting that."

Khamisi frowned at her as he picked up the flash drive. "Right. Jill-"

"Wait, I'm reading... thought so. They noted tolerance but abnormal sensitivity to hypnotic benzodiazepines, including Lorazepam, which we didn't know before we gave it to him, dang it." Jill sighed and looked up at him, then frowned at her husband standing next to Khamisi and T'Challa, who was looking at her funny. "Uh..."

Damian smiled. "Surprise?"

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but... what in Green Acres are you doing here? For that matter, when did you get here?"

T'Challa smirked. "I needed a consult with an Orthopedist, as well as my own medical team. And he's been here for half an hour, Dr. Mack."

"I needed a day away from Ituri and wanted to see you," Damian put in. "And what about benzodiazepines?"

"Our patient is sedated on the couch right now from 1mg of Ativan," Jill told him with a pointed look at Khamisi. "Was it one or two?"

"One and a half."

"Right. We're not ever giving him Ativan again." Jill flipped a few more pages in the binder until she found evidence pictures from the bank vault, showing the boxes clearly. "See?"

Khamisi took the binder from her and studied the pictures, then shuddered. "It hadn't even occurred to me that they'd have used hypnotic sedatives to calm him down, prior to freezing. Makes sense, though." He looked at the opposite page, showing the chair. "Is this...?"

"The reason that Cooper sent him into dissociation by accident? Yes." She looked at her husband. "So: Field of Dreams or Three Fugitives?"

Damian smiled. "Three Fugitives. Why?"

"Because I've got two guys who missed seventy years of stuff... and Steve and Pepper both voted for baseball, and I need some comedy, even if James is out cold, between a two and three on the sedation scale." She glanced at the binder still in Khamisi's hands. "Still need him for a consult, or can I steal him?"

"We'll come and get him if we need him," Khamisi said. "Can I study this?"

"That's why it's here: medical history is important." Jill held out her hand, and Damian took it. "You know where to find us, if you want us."

"Oh, go enjoy introducing Captain Rogers to media, would you?"

Jill smirked. "Plan to, but I need a vitals cuff for the wrist first." He handed one to her. "Thank you!" Damian suddenly caught one of her hands in his and inspected it, frowning at the bruising. "It's nothing that won't heal, and also what happened this morning. Psychological crisis."

"Bad?"

"Bad enough." Jill pointed to the flash drive that Khamisi had set down in favor of the binder. "Your Highness? Miss Potts said that Mr. Stark studied the part of James's arm that he blew off and consulted with a doctor and a mechanic. That's what is on the flash drive."

T'Challa picked the flash drive up with a nod. "Thank you."

She paused, looking at him with wide eyes. "Wait a minute. We were so caught up in things that I forgot to ask you, and it's your house. Are you all right with dogs? I've yet to see one, and... oh boy."

"Dogs?" Damian wondered. "What are you talking about?"

"Service dogs. Miss Potts knows someone in Siberia with a litter of six month old pups, and he agreed to let us have two. One is for James, because he needs a companion animal that doesn't hide from a one year old and also belongs to him. No offense, Your Highness."

T'Challa shrugged. "I'm not offended. And it's a good idea." He paused. "Siberia?"

"Apparently Mr. Stark met people on his way out, and kept in touch to the point of him giving them a StarkPad." Jill looked at Khamisi. "Where's that report that Elley found?"

"Oh! Now it makes sense," T'Challa said as Khamisi set the binder down and reached for a piece of paper he'd seen the man reading when he had entered the lab. "I've met Elley."

Jill frowned at him. "You have?"

"Stark did not get out of Siberia by himself without any documentation, Dr. Mack," T'Challa told her with a wink. Then he sobered as he read the report. "And dogs are all right with me. What happened that Barnes bruised your hand?"

Jill sighed. "He had a flashback caused by Nathaniel being a one year old. Apparently, his nephew Amos was a very fussy baby." At Damian's chuckle, Jill smiled. "I know, right? It's hard to imagine Amos as a fussy kid. Anyway... he came out of the flashback, was fine for a minute or so, if confused, and then had a conditioned response reaction when I asked him what he remembered, and I didn't have time to explain what I needed, or it would have been Steve giving him a focus instead of me." She blinked when Damian stared palpating her hand suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if you've got any broken bones in here."

"It only looks bad." He poked at her palm and she winced. "Ow."

"Xray for you, dear wife."

She sighed. "It's only sore."

"Let me be the judge of that." Damian looked at Khamisi. "If that's alright with you."

Khamisi nodded and directed him to one corner of the lab. "No, if I'd thought about his strength versus her hand, even one-handed, I'd have demanded an xray at the very least."

"It's just bruising," Jill objected.

"Let us be the judge of that," Damian told her again.

She did.