Fury had followed up his first call to Bucky with another urgent one not long after he left his session with Alex. He now found himself with Sam pulling up in front of a large office complex halfway across the country. "Do you know what's going on?" Bucky asked Sam.

"No," Sam said as he parked the car. "Why would I know what's going on?"

"You're Captain America. Captain America always knows what's going on."

"But, you're the one meeting with one of Fury's right hands. What do you know about it?"

"I know about as much as you do. What do you mean one of Fury's right hands?" Bucky asked as he shut the car door and looked around.

"C'mon. She may be a good therapist and all, but he calls her into our meeting. There's gotta be more to it."

"Alex was there to observe Walker," Bucky told him.

"Alex?" Sam asked with an arched eyebrow.

"That's her name."

"What does she call you?"

"Ja...," Bucky began but stopped when he saw Sam's face. Bucky uttered a low growl and turned away.

"You're blushing," Sam told him

"Stop."

"For a second there, I thought you were going to tell me she called you Buck. I'm not allowed to do that and I know you longer," Sam teased. "You're really blushing now."

"Just stop!" Bucky ordered as they stood in the parking lot. He had donned his gloves along with a jacket that fully covered his arm to avoid scrutiny and now he tugged on the sleeve self-consciously.

Sam chuckled as the pair walked to the front of the office building. They were stopped by a security guard almost immediately after entering the front doors. The guard checked for both their names on the visitor list and came up empty. Sam then informed the guard that they had been sent by Nick Fury hoping that his name would allow them entry.

"Who?" the guard asked as he looked at the clipboard.

"Spell that," the guard asked seconds later. Sam and Bucky watched as the man typed and clicked, occasionally pausing as he read the monitor. Again, they were denied entry.

Annoyed, Sam pulled out his phone and called Fury as Bucky stood by shaking his head. Seconds later, Sam handed the phone to the guard.

"Sorry. I'll let them know you're here," the guard said as he handed the phone back to Sam. As they waited, Bucky began pacing. When Sam told him to stop, Bucky replied that he didn't have a good feeling about the whole situation.

They waited a short time longer and finally Ryan Sciple appeared. The researcher greeted the visitors and led them down the hallway. Sam returned the greeting cordially. Bucky nodded curtly and eyed the researcher suspiciously. Although Fury had not told them much about why they were there, he did mention that there was reliable intel that the missing Flag Smasher was somewhere in the area and most probably in that building.

"Sorry you guys came all this way. I'm sure it's nothing. Cleaning staff probably pulled the plug accidentally," Sciple told them.

"How many plugs are we talking?" Sam asked. He and Bucky hadn't been told anything about a plug and had no idea what Sciple was referring to. However, he wasn't about to let the head researcher know that.

"Just the two," Sciple replied and directed them into a room. "It's in here." He then hesitantly glanced at Bucky who had been closely watching him since he met them at the entrance. Bucky maintained his somber expression and intense gaze further disconcerting the researcher.

The trio walked into a lab room. In a corner, there was a large refrigeration unit and a smaller one next to it. The area was filled with tables, computers, microscopes and other testing equipment. Peering at a computer screen was a lone figure in a lab coat. The man looked up when they entered. Sciple explained that the visitors were from the government to see about the seeming vandalism to the coolers which had resulted in the loss of some of the super soldier serum.

"Again?" the man who was Zemo in disguise asked. Sciple shrugged.

While Sam began asking some innocent questions about the serum, Bucky locked eyes with the disguised Zemo. His senses on alert, the Winter Soldier immediately froze and gave him a once over. Zemo gave a slight nod in greeting and returned his attention to the computer screen. Sam gave Bucky an admonishing look but continued his conversation with Sciple. For a second or two, Bucky looked around the room before turning his attention back to Zemo. He was sure he had met the man before.

"Did you see that other guy in the lab? There's something strange about him," Bucky said when he and Sam returned to the car.

"The guy from Transia? Didn't really notice," Sam replied. "I did think it was strange that Walker was poking around a day before we were."

After filling in Bucky on the rest of his conversation with Sciple, Sam called Fury to let him know what they had learned. Fury told them to stay put for a bit and see what else they could find out and made the suggestion that they ask their new friend for a tour of the facilities. He also warned them that if they happened to run into Walker to keep things on good terms.

"That'll be useful," Bucky said sarcastically after Sam hung up. "They aren't going to show us the Flag Smasher if he is there."

"They might. As far as they know, we're there to help out," Sam replied.

Bucky shook his head. "You really didn't notice that other guy?"

"Nope. What's the big deal? Lots of people work there."

"I could swear I know him."

"Maybe you do know him and you don't remember. You've met a lot of people over one hundred years," Sam said.

"I'd remember," Bucky assured him.

"Whatever. You can try to jog your memory tomorrow. I'm gonna see if I can get Sciple to give us the grand tour," Sam replied and called the lab.

Despite a relatively uneventful day, Bucky awoke in the middle of the night startled by a nightmare. This time it was different from all the previous ones. Instead of being haunted by his victims and reliving his past missions, Bucky was hunting someone in the present. The someone in question was a faceless being who had been following him. He had managed to get the jump on them and came up from behind, knife in hand. Before he could strike, the figure turned around. He found himself face to face with Alex.

He automatically reached for his phone and then looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was twenty minutes to three in the morning. Bucky silently chastised himself for even considering sending a text to Alex. Before he did anything further, he stopped to think. If she wasn't asleep and replied, she was sure to want an explanation of some sort of his nightmare. If he asked if she was collecting information on him for reasons other than she had shared, it could lead to a lecture on trust and he would still have no answer. Bucky shook his head and sunk back down into the pillow chalking the whole thing up to Sam's comments earlier. Eventually, he fell back into a restless sleep.

The next morning, the nightmare was still fresh in his mind. Before meeting up with Sam, he sent a text to Alex asking if there was any word on who had accessed her files. Even though, she thought it an odd question to ask out of nowhere, she answered with a succinct no and waited for his next query. The only thing that appeared was a text saying okay.

Alex had barely gotten to work and sat down when Fury's name showed up on her phone. After her strange interaction with Bucky earlier, she braced herself for Fury telling her that he was MIA. Her apprehension was misplaced. Instead of foreboding news, Fury inquired if she had discussed her theory with Bucky.

Although she didn't want to get into the details with Fury at that moment, Alex reluctantly shared that she had broached the subject in their last session. When pressed for more details, Alex told Fury that she believed that Bucky's serum was further enhanced by the Tesseract which had, in turn, provided him with strength beyond Steve Rogers.

She heard Fury's intake of breath as he was momentarily without words. He recovered quickly and demanded more information. Alex shared little which aggravated him.

"There is no more. I didn't tell you this so that you have another weapon in your arsenal," she said.

"What would you like me to do, Alex?"

"I would like you to do nothing. Pretend you don't know. This is not something you deal with in a few minutes or a few hours. He needs time."

"You said Barnes didn't deny it," Fury replied.

"He also didn't really acknowledge it. He knows what he can do, but anyone outside knowing – and that includes me – is a whole other thing. He needs time," Alex said.

"Alex," Fury growled.

"Barnes is on your team. He's perfectly capable of doing what needs to be done, as we've all seen. My theory affects nothing."

"That's what you think."

"Nick, unless you are prepared to give me something concrete, don't push this with me or him."

"Fine," Fury relented.

"That was too easy," Alex said. "What are you up to?"

"It's not me that you should be concerned about."