Sam Wilson
After Steve went to see Peggy he goes to pick Bucky up at the museum. He walks in wandering the place, until he sees Bucky just staring at a picture of Ava, he can tell he's been there for a while, by how his hands are stuffed into his pockets, and his body slouched over just a bit, shows Steve that he's comfortable where he is. He can also see tears in Bucky's eyes. Steve sighs and walks over to Bucky, putting a hand on his shoulder, and looking at the picture too.
"I miss her so much, Steve," Bucky breathes, a tear finally making its way down his cheek. Bucky reaches his hand up and quickly wipes it away before anyone can see, though Steve does.
"I know," Steve nods. "I miss her too."
…
"The thing is, I think it's gettin' worse," a woman says as Bucky and Steve walk into the VA center. They are here to talk to Sam, it will hopefully be nice to make a friend that doesn't work with them. Everyone they know is either part of the Avengers or their boss, this is a good opportunity to change that. "A cop pulled me over last week. He thought I was drunk. I swerved to miss a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED." Steve lends against the doorway of the room, and Bucky looks around before looking back at the group. Sam is at a podium, listening to what the woman is saying.
"Some stuff you leave there," Sam starts. "Other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase, or in a little man-purse? It's up to you…" Bucky listens intently, he should be going to one of these things, to get over his grief for Ava, but the thing is, he hates the VA. He just hates therapy in general. A couple minutes later they wait for Sam to walk out, so they can talk to him. They see him walk over to a table that has water cups on it. "Look who it is, the running man. And his sidekick," Sam jokes. Steve chuckles and looks to Bucky with a small smirk.
"Sidekick?" Buck asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He is not Steve's sidekick, if anything Steve's his sidekick.
"Caught the last few minutes. It's pretty intense," Steve says, ignoring Sam's jab at Bucky.
"Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret," sam sighs, thinking to a time in his past when those things took over his body.
"You lose someone?" Bucky asks, noticing the tone in Sam's voice. He knows it well.
"My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op. Nothing we hadn't done 1,000 times before. Until an RPG knocked Riley's dumb ass out of the sky," Sam explains. He shakes his head, pausing for a moment. "Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch." Both Steve and Bucky can relate to that, they had to watch Ava fall probably 100 meters down a cliff, all they could do was watch, they couldn't help or do anything. They couldn't even try to find her body, because they were called back into the army after that.
"I'm sorry," Steve says, he feels tears collecting in his eyes, but they aren't visible, yet.
"After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?" Sam says, with a small nod of his head.
"But you're happy now, back in the world?" Steve asks, looking down.
"The number of people giving me orders is down to about zero," Sam says, looking around for a boss, but he doesn't have one. "So, hell yeah. Are you guys thinking about getting out?"
"No," Steve and Bucky say at the same time. If they walk away from their job, it would be bad, not only for them, but for the world as well. The world needs them to fight for them.
"I don't know," Steve shrugs. "To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did."
"Ultimate fighting?" Sam jokes, with a shrug of his shoulders. Bucky and Steve laugh at that, it would be hilarious to see Steve in a fighting ring in spandex. "Just a great idea off the top of my head," Sam says, but then gets serious after that. "Seriously, you guys could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?" Sam says, going into therapist mode.
"I don't know anymore," Bucky says, and Steve nods, agreeing with him.