There is silence as they process what they just witnessed. Bucky had shown them some particularly gruesome days as the Winter Soldier. Days that they tortured him, and days when he 'eliminated targets'.

The grief displayed on both Bucky and Steve's face hold different meanings. Bucky's is anguished grief, and Steve's is guilt-ridden. Natasha speaks gently about her own experience as a Widow, feeling like she had no control over her life, her missions, or who she killed.

Neither soldier moves but they are listening. Dr. Raymond only speaks occasionally, usually backing up something Natasha is saying, but letting the spy do most of the talking.

"Steve?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you like to go next?" Steve inwardly grimaces, of course he doesn't want to go, but he's made a promise and Steve Rogers doesn't break promises. So he nods and thinks.

He looks at Bucky and something dawns on him.

"Hey, Buck?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember, when we were watching my memories back in Detroit, the memory of the guy who showed up in the tent?"

Steve feels Bucky's eye train on him, and the rest of the group falls deathly still. He knows they had expected him to avoid this topic as much as possible, but if he faces it now, he can get it over with.

"Yes."

Steve's eye's close and the group finds themselves back in the 30's, an impossibly small 19 year old Steve walking with his head ducked down and shoulders hunched against the cold.

The man appears and while Bucky watches, eyes glued to the horrific events unfolding in front of him, the rest of the group watches him. The comment the man makes about Steve being childlike has Bucky growling in anger and disgust. As the man is forcing Steve down and trying to unbuckle Steve's belt, Bucky stands up, fists clenched in fury.

"Just wait, Buck." Steve whispers. Next the man is dragging Steve backwards after he'd started to run, pulling up Steve's shirt and running his hands across his stomach as Steve struggles to escape, finally Steve is able to shove him off, losing his jacket in the process and running as far and as fast as he can. When Steve stumbles behind a dumpster and passes out, an angry snarl rips from Bucky's lips.

He grasps the back of his metal chair and it crumples a bit under his strength.

Before the group can ask, the memory shifts to Bucky running up and down the streets in Brooklyn, calling out Steve's name and asking any passerby if they have seen a small blonde kid, probably beaten up. No one knows and the group can see the desperation and terror running rampant behind his eyes as he searches every back alley and crevice he can find. It's not until he sees a small shoe poking out from behind a dumpster that he almost has a heart attack.

"Steve!" He shouts, running towards the shoe. He slides to a stop behind the dumpster and his voice chokes. There Steve lies, bruising up and all over the right side of his face, his nose crooked and bleeding, but worse is his jaw, hanging open at an unnatural level and blood pooled on his shirt beneath it. The group has already seen this image, but somehow, from Bucky's perspective it's infinitely worse.

The thought "he's dead" rings out in the room so strongly that the group startles. Steve's eyes widen as he realizes they just heard the memory of Bucky's thoughts.

But Bucky isn't paying attention, he's too busy staring at the broken body of his best friend.

"Steve?" He cries out. The body moves and Steve's eyes flutter open just barely. The relief floods Bucky's face but only lasts a second before blinding rage takes over.

"What happened! Who did this to you?" The memory of Bucky is shouting. He leans back, ready to find whoever did this and kill them, but a small scraped up hand clutches at his jacket.

"Do-don't." The young Steve whispers, obviously in pain and struggling to get the words out, "don't leave."

"Steve, you've been missing since yesterday-"

"Stay." The anger Bucky feels is written all over his face, but he tamps it down and helps his friend up, practically carrying him to their apartment. Any time he tries to ask and broach the subject of what happened, he watches the light fade out of Steve's eyes and curls up into himself. After a few weeks, he stops asking. But he watches as Steve jumps at small sounds, flinches when people touch him out of nowhere and he no longer wants to stay out too late at night.

Bucky stops asking, but he never forgets.

—

The memory fades and Steve and Bucky are both breathing a bit unevenly.

"Now you know." Steve says, his voice uneven.

"I want to kill him."

"He's probably already dead, Buck."

"I'll dig him up and kill him again."

That surprises a weak chuckle out of Steve and then he sighs. "When the USO girls finally gave up, and rumors started to go around that I was into guys." Steve grimaces, "Like the memory showed, I didn't really care because it meant the girls stopped pestering me. But then an officer—" He cuts off and the memory flashes before the room so quick that they almost miss it. "And then when I rescued you, I used you as a barrier. I thought that would stop guys from trying and I shouldn't have, I should have known something like that would happen and I—"

"Steve." Both Bucky and Tony say at the same time.

Tony holds up his hands, waving for Bucky togo first.

"Don't you dare apologize! I wish you would have told me, but I'm glad I could be there. Some jerk touched my face that night and that's it, nothing compared to what you went through. It's actually a good thing I didn't know why he was there or I would have killed him too."

"Steve," Tony cuts in, "You were assaulted— multiple times! And no one in this room thinks less of you for it. Honestly, the fact that you were basically emotionally and physically assaulted for months by these girls, constantly bringing up one of the worst experiences in your life, and you still continued to fight, is deeply impressive and—" Tony's faces goes red and he grimaces, "I want to say, that I am so so sorry, for the nasty joke I played on your birthday. Obviously I wouldn't have done it if I'd known, but truthfully, it was a jackass move, even if you hadn't had that experience, it was wrong of me to do that. And I'm really sorry."

The apology catches everyone off guard, and Steve feels his throat tighten. He's never seen Tony apologize for anything before, and somehow, it means that much more that he's saying it and meaning it.

"I forgive you, Tony." He says a bit hoarsely. Tony looks relieved and Bucky sits back down heavily.

"How could those women think acting like that was okay?" Bucky huffs, remembering the way they kept forcing themselves onto his friend.

"And those generals who just told you that 'it's not a problem, enjoy it'? I'd like to give them a piece of my mind." Clint interjects.

The group continues to rag on the people who treated Steve wrongly and it's only when Natasha catches Steve, subtly wiping at his eyes, a soft smile on his face, that she realizes that no one in this century has ever been protective of Steve until now. She vows to not make that mistake again.

—-

They are now on their 14th session and have almost reached the end of the list that Dr. Raymond has of their time in Detroit. Steve stands up, not wanting to be sitting for this next part, and he lets the memory wash over him.

He's sinking in the Valkyrie, cold water up to his neck and he's just thrown the gun away seconds before. He shivers involuntarily and Bucky's eyes dart to him.

"No. If he drowned in a river, then that's what I deserve. No easy way out." The memory of himself whispers harshly. He cuts the memory off soon after and breathes out deeply. Somehow he feels cold even though the room is a perfectly normal temperature.

Bucky opens his mouth to speak, anger on his face but Steve cuts him off.

"I know that I said some choice things a few sessions ago. But I want to make it clear that I have not once, desired to commit suicide. I have been very low, and depressed, and achingly lonely many times, but I have never considered taking my own life. When I said 'struggling to find reasons to live', I really meant finding a purpose for myself in the new century. Many times I felt like Captain America was useless. Why would you—" he gestures to the Avengers, "need me, if you had Thor and the Hulk? They're stronger than me. And Tony and Natasha are both smarter and better at the business side than I am, and Clint can get anyone to follow his lead and is incredibly gifted in many ways. What reason did I have for joining the team?"

All the members of the group look like they have something to say to that, but he quiets them with a look.

"When I stormed Schmidt's base, I did feel reckless. Anger and guilt over not saving Bucky, pushed me to be willing to do anything to right some of the wrong. So I may not have been as careful that day as I should have been, but I wasn't trying to die." He turns to Bucky. "I would never have wished the icy waters of the Arctic on you, and I shouldn't have shouted that, but I— " he huffs and sits back down. "It's not like I wish you'd been captured, but somehow it means that you're not dead. That I have you back. And that moment, where I took that gun and thought about putting myself out of my misery? It's because I didn't want to drown. I already knew how terrible that would be and I didn't want to die that way. Not because I wanted to die. There was a clear difference in my mind. And look—" He reaches out and holds his hand out to Bucky, palm up. He waits and Bucky finally reaches out and places his own hand over Steve's, palm down. "I was being dramatic in what I thought were my last moments. You always said I was a dramatic little brother and you were right. But me thinking I didn't deserve to die the easy way out of some messed up sense of guilt, saved my life in the long run. If I'd gone through with it, I would have actually died in that plane and I wouldn't be here right now. You," he points to Bucky, "would never have been released from Hydra, and Project Insight would have killed all of you." He gestures to his team. "So I'm glad I was dramatic in that moment. I'm glad I chose to suffer and drown the way I did. Because it led me to waking up and finding you." He squeezes Bucky's hand and Bucky is grasping it back, eyes a bit red. "And to gaining a new family." Steve glances at his team and is a bit surprised to see misty eyes staring back at him.

Maybe this was all going to be more okay than he could have hoped.

—-

The movie ends but no one moves. They've taken to meeting as a group for dinner after every session and it would usually devolve into some chaotic group activity, but no one complains. The time together is forming a bond that none of them could have expected, given the number of assassins in the group, but one they were growing to cherish.

Clint kept marveling internally about all the new information he kept finding out about Steve through Bucky. Now that Bucky's memory was getting clearer by the day, he always had some nugget of information that would surprise the group and make Steve either blush, groan, or laugh.

"You're kidding." Natasha hisses.

"I'm really not." Bucky scoffs, affronted at her disbelief.

"I know he can hear well. But he can't hear that well." Bruce states, furrowing his brow. Tony eyes Steve, who sits suspiciously quiet on an armchair. He's staring out the window, but Tony can tell he's listening.

"When I tell you that he could hear us shouting from over half a mile away, I am not exaggerating."

"You're not exaggerating, you're just straight up lying." Clint quips.

Bucky's face morphs into annoyance. "Oh yeah? Let's bet. I bet he can tell which one of you is close by him by your heartbeat alone."

Tony's mouth drops open and the group falls silent.

This seems to be their thing now, Clint muses. Bucky drops some wild piece of information, and they just go silent, unable to respond to the new fact about Steve, that they probably should have known about, but had no idea.

"What's your bet?" Tony asks, "something for you this time. Cap's already getting a new bike, suit, and shield design." The last two ingredient tests had not gone Tony's way. But he didn't mind, seeing Cap in action was entertaining.

Bucky thinks for a second, before giving a half smile. "You build me a new arm." Steve jolts in surprise and gapes at Bucky.

"Bucky! I mean of course I want that for you if you want it, but what if I mess up?"

Bucky doesn't even glance his way, "Steve, barring the concussion off the bridge and—" He stops himself short. "Well, we haven't gotten to the other one yet—" The statement sets the rest of them on edge a bit as he is obviously referencing some traumatic memory they haven't seen yet, "you've never been wrong."

"This can't be true." Bruce wonders, eyes staring at the wall.

Steve reaches into his ears and pulls a tiny device out of each one. He sets them on the table in front of them and looks at Bucky. "I'm ready when you are."

Tony is staring at the little devices. His mouth opens and shuts a few times before he can speak. "Are those… the sound dampeners from your 2012 cowl?"

Steve blushes a bit, acting like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Yeah… When you asked if loud noises were distracting during battle, I was surprised. But later you explained that your dad had always talked about me needing ear protection. So it made sense. But yours worked a lot better than his ever did, because I could adjust it on my own whenever I needed to. They worked so well, and helped so much that I asked JARVIS back then how to remove them for me to wear permanently." He shrugs and eyes the devices. "It's been really nice not having everything blaring at high volume in my ears all the time."

"Cap," Tony admonishes, "I could have made you something."

Steve's brow furrows and he gestures to the devices. "You did."

Tony sighs, "I mean something that you didn't have to rip out of your suit. I could probably have improved upon the design a thousand times by now!"

"Works fine for me." Steve shrugs.

"Do you need these too?" Tony asks, pointing accusingly at Bucky.

"Nah, my hearing is nowhere near as strong, and I don't like having any sound blocked out. The buzzing doesn't even bother me anymore."

"The buzzing?" Clint queries.

"Yeah."

When Bucky doesn't explain further Steve chuckles and responds. "He means the electricity." Steve points to the lights above. "The lights emit a buzzing noise, so does the fridge, microwave, heck even the coffee machine. The elevator always has a low hum and—" he pauses, looking at Bucky. "You hear the creaking?"

"The structure? Eh, only when there's a strong wind." Steve nods as if this makes sense.

"Uh, what?" Tony asks.

"Well, when I first moved into the tower, the creaking of the metal structure almost drove me nuts. You know, these tall metal buildings sway gently in the wind, they're designed to do so, but the noise—" He rubs his palms over his ears, "geez it can give a guy a headache, and I can't even really get headaches. That was probably the biggest motivation to wear the dampeners so I could sleep at night and the shifting of the building wouldn't keep me awake. Bucky's saying he only hears it when there's a strong wind, like a storm, but I can hear it right now."

The group falls silent and Clint makes another mental tally under: Avengers Stunned Speechless Like a Bunch of Morons

"Oookay." Tony finally says. "FRIDAY, make a note of that will you? We're gunna work on some new non-buzzing equipment." Steve begins to protest but Tony just waves at him. "And also, pull up the specs for these dampeners in my lab, I'm going to update them or make some new ones."

"Sure thing, boss." She replies.

"You guys ready to get your minds blown." Bucky says, stealing the phrase from Clint, who he'd heard use it a few days ago.

The group chuckles and leans forward.

—

The rules are simple. Pick a floor, wait until the elevator passes it, and then hightail it to the common room. Steve would be riding the elevator from the lobby, back up to the common room, listening and texting to the group chat who was where as he went up. If he could list who it was, that was 1 point, if he could give an approximation of where they were on the floor that would be 2 points, and if he could tell them what song he heard them humming that would be 3 points.

Once everyone understands the rules, they wait as Steve boards the elevator, salutes them, and disappears down to the lobby. He will be waiting for the text to tell him when to start.

"Barnes, if you're messing with us, and this is just a prank to get us running around the tower, I swear on my great Aunt Marsha—" Clint begins.

"I'm not." Bucky says, an excited smile on his face. "The commandos and I used to do this to Steve all the time. We'd get bored or—" His smile wilts just a bit. "Sometimes, after a mission gone south, we'd do these things to cheer him up. He always blamed himself when things went wrong even though it was almost never his fault. So we'd coax him into tasting food, having him sing for us, or challenging him to guess what terrible tune we were humming half a mile away just to distract him."

"Hmm, blames himself for missions gone wrong you say? Sounds like our Cap."

Natasha rolls her eyes. "Well, at least he's consistent." They disperse and it isn't until Clint is perched in the rafters in Tony's Lab that a piece of what Barnes just said leaps to the front of his mind, "have him sing for us".

A smile spreads across Clint's face, and he suddenly can't wait for that conversation.

—-

"Okay, everyone ready?" Steve texts to the group.

5 Thumbs-ups are all he receives and he pushes the button to the common room floor. He tunes out the hum of the elevator and presses his right ear against the cold metal door. Even though his hearing is fine now, the habit of relying on his right ear, since he'd lost the hearing in his left at 12, is a hard habit to shake.

He hears nothing abnormal until the 5th floor. The slow and steady heartbeat of Bruce is unmistakable. He listens harder and can hear him humming Beethoven's 5th symphony in the guest bedroom. He thinks he might be under the bed because of the way the tune is muffled. He's not sure, but he texts it anyway and continues listening.

On the 11th floor, he hears the soft but slightly faster heartbeat of Natasha. He can't hear what she's humming, because he realizes with a start that she's in the gym's pool and her mouth must be under the water. He chuckles and texts his guess to the group.

He's surprised, but then again, not so surprised to find two heartbeats in Tony's Lab. Tony's heart rate skyrockets in adrenaline as the elevator starts to pass the floor, he can practically hear the caffeine singing through his veins. He's at the back of the lab and the metallic muffling that comes through makes Steve think he's in one of his suits. He's humming War Machine, by AC/DC and Steve almost rolls his eyes at how cliche that is.

The second heartbeat, one slower than even Bruce's, is easy to hear, which means it's out in the open, but as the elevator passes through the floor Steve can't locate it. Only as he passes up onto the next floor does the heartbeat get louder.

Oh. It's Clint. He smiles and listens, he's in the ceiling rafters and— Steve begins texting quickly. Theme from James Bond.

He knows Bucky's heartbeat like the back of his hand. Even all the beatings and reprogramming Hydra submitted him to, couldn't change the sound of his heart.

It's on the 24th floor that he finally hears it. The deep and steady pace it sets tells Steve he's sitting down. He closes his eyes and focuses in. He hears the tune before he can locate it. He groans as he types the words. Bucky, 24th floor, Star-Spangled Man with a Plan. But he doesn't hit send. Where is he? He blocks out all other sound, only focusing on the humming. It's quiet, but not too muffled, so he's not under any cloth. It sounds like… water… but he's not submerged. The floor passes and he hasn't sent the text yet. He couldn't have been in the bathroom, he thinks. Bathrooms are the easiest to detect with how much sound bounces around in there. And it definitely wasn't the sound of the kitchen sink.. He's about to give up and when it strikes him.

Bucky, 24th floor, Star-Spangled Man with a Plan, Water Heater Closet.

He hits send and can't help feeling just a bit smug.

He receives a text that says: FRIDAY is going to keep the elevator doors closed when you reach the common room. You have to tell us where each of us is on that floor.

The elevator halts and he presses against the door. He can hear 5 heartbeats and he closes his eyes and holds his breath so he can focus on them. He pictures a mental map of the floor, marking the places in his mind where he can pinpoint their location. He listens for no more than 60 seconds before he responds.

Tony is standing out on the balcony. Natasha is on top of Clint's shoulders, standing next to the fireplace. Bucky is tucked under the kitchen sink. And Bruce is standing in the stairwell on the floor right below me.

He sends the text but then can't help himself. He sends another: Didn't take you for a cheater, Banner.

The doors open and he steps out. The sight that greets his eyes has him bursting out laughing. Natasha is still sitting on top of Clint's shoulders, holding on tight as he tries to get her off. Bucky is stuck under the sink, trying not to break the pipes as he crawls out, Tony is glaring at Steve in disbelief through the window pane. The door to the stairwell creaks open and the sheepish grin on Bruce's face brings another round of laughter out of Steve. He's doubling over, stumbling to the couch.

Suddenly Bucky is cursing and there's water spraying all over the kitchen. He glances over just long enough to see his best friend, drenched and grumbling before he's bent over again, laughing so hard he's gasping for breath.

—-

Once FRIDAY has shut off the water to the sink, they made quick work of cleaning up, and drying off. Now they sit back in the common room, staring at Steve as he sits with his hands behind his head, a smug grin on his face.

"I think you cheated." Tony accuses.

"How?"

"You asked FRIDAY, or something."

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes, Captain Rogers?"

"Did I ask you for assistance?"

"No, and if you had, I would not have assisted you."

Steve's eyebrow arch has Tony huffing.

"I'm just shook." Clint says for the 30th time. "Shook, I tell you."

"I'm thoroughly impressed," Bruce says. "The accuracy of location and the ability to tell us apart by our heartbeats, wild stuff."

"Told you," Bucky says, his grin even more smug than Steve's. Steve has placed the dampeners in his ears again, but he can still hear their heartbeats. He's never taken his enhanced hearing for granted, it had saved their lives many times with the commandos and more recently with the avengers. He's able to tell when someone is lying to him, when a bullet is getting close, or even when Bruce is getting too worked up. But he has the dampeners in because it is good to get some semblance of peace and quiet.

He can feel a pair of eyes staring at him, and he follows the feeling to his right.

Clint is staring at him, a mischievous grin stretched across his face.

"What?" Steve asks.

"Nothin'."

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"Hmm."

"You look too chipper for someone who just lost a stealth challenge." Steve digs.

Clint thinks on that for a moment, but the smile quickly returns. "I got something else on my mind." He says mysteriously.

Steve brow furrows, that doesn't sound good. "And what's that?"

"All in good time, Cap." Clint says, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. "All in good time."