AN/ Ah so, in this AU Tony Stark survives, and stays in a coma for the duration of Falcon and Winter Soldier which I believe takes place 6 months after everyone comes back. This is a oneshot, or may be a series of oneshots because I need it for my sanity, I NEVER liked Bucky or Sam until Falcon and Winter Soldier, now I love them and I need more but I have to wait for Captain America 4 I guess.

Tony Stark's mind slowly rose into consciousness. Bits of information was filtering into his brain and was now being processed. There were sounds, he knew, possibly voices, lights, maybe. He would know if he opened his eyes but that idea seemed difficult to grasp and instead he gave into the urge to stop trying to process new information and succumbed to real sleep.

"Hey man you goin in?" Sam Wilson asked, his tone light, like it wasn't even a big deal if Bucky said 'yes'. "Now's as good a time as any."

Bucky palmed the small journal tucked in his jacket for the fifth time "I need to. But it just feels-" Bucky couldn't finish. He felt so wrong, conflicted. So...

"Selfish?" Sam put his hand on Bucky's shoulder, "You want to cross off that name?" He shook his head, "Remember what I told you Buck, it's not for you, its for them, to make them feel better. And I think that man in there, could still use that, don't you?" It was true, after Siberia things had soured, then he'd gone to Wakanda but just when he was free Thanos had come and he'd blipped out with half the universe.

"I'll do it. He's had a lot of visitors today though, I don't want to overwhelm him just yet."

Sam released his shoulder in acceptance and turned towards the infirmary door but it opened before he could reach the knob. It was Pepper who stepped out and she froze at the sight of Bucky, her gaze landing heavily on him. Bucky's eyes fixed on the wall just past her, dark and downcast.

Sam took a quick step towards Pepper, "Hello Pepper, I was just about to see how Tony is doing. I heard the cradle did a damn miracle job."

That was enough to distract Pepper from whatever initial thoughts she'd had. Truthfully she wasn't sure how she should react, or how Tony would react, he hadn't been in the best headspace the last time he'd seen the Winter Soldier. And she felt for the man, she did, she knew he had been brainwashed by Hydra, used for years like a tool. Used to start the civil war. Used to hurt Tony. But that wasn't his fault, she knew that. She broke her stare and turned to Sam with a small smile, "It really did, between Helen Cho and Shuri's help, its a miracle. Words cant express how grateful I am to them."

Bucky thought of his own gratitude, the Wakandans had given him his life as well, he needed to be worthy of it, to make amends. He finally shifted his eyes from the wall, darting to hers, willing her eyes to meet his, to see his desperation to make things right, to make amends. She held his stare, and finally she gave a nod and stepped aside.

When Tony turned and saw who had entered his room, he felt nothing. No violent urges, no rage, it was an unnerving quiet within him that reigned. How he reacted would depend on Bucky.

When Bucky stepped in he saw the man sitting up in the infirmary bed, a tablet in his hands. His face seemed impassive. Bucky didn't know what to think of that. The last time they had seen each other neither one had been in the right frame of mind. The fight was a blur, Tony had been relentless, he couldn't get away so he had fought back (not that he'd blame him after what he'd just seen), it had been brutal. He stepped closer, mouth working to find the right words. But there were no right words were there? No closure he could give to Tony Stark.

"Are you going to stand there and smolder all day or did you come to," Tony paused, stopping himself from saying something along the lines of 'finish the job you and Steve started' but he was past that wasn't he? Didn't he work with the man to stop Thanos? But no, the betrayal by Rodgers was too deep, he had played nice, but the agony clawed at him whenever he thought of Steve Rodgers. And now they told him he had run away in time? Nice, Rodgers, run away. Instead he finished with "Say something to me? I see you got yourself a new arm, clashes less."

Bucky looked down at his metal hand and started to say 'Wakanda', but instead blurted, "I hurt you Mr. Stark, sir. I hurt you and I can't change it, I can't fix it. I..."

Tony really had no idea who Bucky Barnes was, oh he knew the history, Steve Rodgers best friend fell from a train yada yada yada. But who really was the man? This man had been Hydra's tool, had killed countless innocent people, his parents, his parents, and he knew Steve Rodgers had betrayed Tony for him. Betrayed and then beat down for this mans freedom. And Tony had been willing, he had been willing to go and help Steve, he was going to do it. And then the tape had played. And Steve hadn't pulled any of his punches... But then, neither had he. The shield.. Tony's eyes began to gloss.

Bucky saw the mans eyes change from unconcerned to shimmering, saw his fist clench around the tablet. It probably should have occurred to him in that moment to step outside and get Pepper, and if she wasn't there Sam was the next best choice. But it didn't occur to him and so he didn't. What did occur to him was that there was a plastic cup with ice on the tray next to Tony and his bare foot was sticking out of the blanket, Tony wasn't quite wrapped in the panic attack yet it was just beginning so it could work. In two large steps Bucky had the ice cube and pressed it against the middle of Tony's foot.

The reaction was immediate, "What the hell Cujo! Is that why you're here?" He was gasping a little for air still but he had lost his glazed look and was now in the present.

"Yes that's why I'm here, its exactly why I'm here. I'm sorry for fighting you in Siberia. After what you saw, you had every right to be pissed, to want revenge on me. I should've...I didn't..."

"You know what hurts the most?" Tony asked. "He knew, he knew and never told me. He broke up the team, threw it all away, we could have worked together on it. We could have done it together, made things better. And then I find out, he hid information about my parents death? Why not come to me when he found out? If I had found out without all that extra baggage, how different would things have worked out. We wont know, we'll never know. And now he gets to run off to lala land while we pick up the pieces ourselves."

Bucky could only listen. He couldn't begrudge Tony those feelings, the man had been wronged and Steve was a part of it.

"I also knew, in the back of my mind I was playing into Zemo's hand, the bastard. Heard you had a teamup by the way, not cool." Tony shook his head, "But I couldn't make myself stop, not when, not when it was my mom. So, I'm responsible for that too, Barnes. I didn't let you guys just walk away, I provoked that fight."

Bucky sniffed, "Two super soldiers versus a man who just found his parents were brutally murdered by the man standing 6 feet away? And that his friend and teammate hid that fact for who knows how long?"

"Not earning points for yourself. I'm just trying to say, you're not the one at fault here, the one at fault isn't even in our timeline anymore...or, I don't know is he olding it up at some park somewhere playing chess? Whatever, the point is I can understand you aren't the Winter Soldier, and that was who murdered my, my parents." Tony was quiet a moment. "And don't call me 'sir' that was really weird."

Bucky's lips quirked, "I was raised to be respectful."

Before Tony could fail to restrain himself from making a rude comment Sam pushed the door open to check for body's, was happy when he saw none bleeding out and stepped into the room. "How's it going in here?"

"Oh you know, nothing years of therapy cant fix." Tony answered with his arms crossed.

Sam raised his hands, "As long as I don't have to go, a couples session with this psycho was more than enough to last me a lifetime."

"C'mon, you know you loved the soul stare."

Sam raised his finger, "You shut your mouth-"

Tony perked up immediately, "I want to hear more of this story! I have six months of gossip to catch up on and this sounds like the best place to start."

"There are more important things to fill you in on Tony, like the GRC-"

"Or Sam's hot sister Sarah." Interrupted Bucky.

"That's it you wanna throw down trash heap?"

"Wow trash heap? This arm is made from the highly valued and rare metal of the Wakandan nation did you hear him? Wait until I tell Shuri what you just said."

At that moment Pepper came in holding a starbucks tray for the four of them, she was pleased to see Tony's smiling amused face, and she handed each of the men a drink.

Sam took his drink graciously with a thankyou, "Pepper just saved you, an ass whooping."

Bucky had also accepted his drink with a thankyou and sheepish nod, "Really, Sam?" He deadpanned. "You want to have this conversation in front of the man who just recovered from saving our planet? Show some respect."

Sam made a move to put his drink on the tray and go at Bucky who was very subtly smiling but stopped when he heard the snap of Peppers smart phone camera. Both men turned to her in surprise, Tony merely watched with a satisfied smirk. "Those expressions were just too cute. Darcy will flip when I send her these."

Bucky looked up, "Whose Darcy?"

Tony snapped his fingers a few times getting their attention, "Worry about that later, the gossip train got derailed but lets get it back on track now shall we? We were talking about soul stares."

Pepper squinted at them, "You were doing soul stares?"

Tony turned to her, "How do you know about soul stares?"

"It was at our counseling session Tony!"

And as Pepper and Tony continued to discuss what may or may not have happened at counseling sessions that Tony may or may not remember, Bucky started to think this could be something nice.