"So why exactly are we here?" Bucky asked as he took the ticket from the lady at the front desk.

"Because you've been a shut-in since you moved back to the states, and Steve's kind of worried about you." Sam tells him as they walk through the museum.

"Well in case the two of you forgot I didn't have a very good time after the Blip. I just wanted to be alone, away from people." Bucky said as he stopped to look at one of the items on display. Sam let out a sigh, almost immediately after everyone had come back the government had swooped in and arrested Bucky for the things he had done as The Winter Soldier. They had sent him to the Raft to wait out his hearing, Steve had gone to visit him a few times but one day he came back in tears. It took Sam a while to get him to calm down enough to tell him what was wrong and that's when he found out that when he had gone to visit him that time he had a bruised cheek and he could see one peeking out from under his shirt that was slightly torn. As soon as they heard the other Avengers went to visit him and they all reported the same thing, he had a couple of bruises somewhere on his body but he refused to tell them what had happened so Tony had hacked into the camera system to see if he could figure it out.

Tony watched the video first and everyone knew it was bad when he came out of his lab looking pale, what they saw made Sam sick to his stomach. One of the videos showed Bucky just sitting down to eat his meal in his cell, he was halfway through it when the door came open and he looked up in confusion. A second later he braced himself and they watched as two other inmates rushed in and attacked him "Why isn't he defending himself?" Wanda cried out as they watched them fling him around his cell his grunts and groans filled the air. As it turned out Ross had tricked Bucky into believing that if he did anything to defend himself that he would be found guilty and put to death for what he had done so he had been taking the beatings not wanting to tell Steve or the others what was going on. The only way they found out was by a friend of Tony's named Renata who had taken a temporary job on the Raft as a nurse, as soon as she raised the alarm as to what was going on Ross was in trouble, and Bucky was moved to another facility two weeks before his trial.

Ever since then, Bucky had withdrawn from everyone even more and everyone was worried that the progress he had made in Wakanda had been for nothing. "I understand Bucky. I do. But you have to blow some stink off of you." Sam said trying not to laugh when he saw Bucky quickly smell himself. "At least you look better with the haircut. Nat did a good job." He said pointing to Bucky's now shorter hair.

"Yeah. I was surprised, thought the only thing she could do with sharp objects was stab people." Bucky said as he ran his fingers through his hair. He would have asked Pepper to do it for him but she was with Tony and Morgan while Shuri put Tony's new arm in for him. They walked around for a while before they saw a section dedicated to the Depression and World War II, Bucky slowly walked in and looked around, there was a screen that showed how stocks went up right before it all came crashing down. He remembered it well, so many of his friends' parents lost everything when the crash happened. His family had been lucky enough to make good enough decisions to support them.

The only one that didn't have it easy was Steve so when his mother died Bucky had moved in with him to make it easier on his family, they'd have more food for the five of them, and whenever he had extra money he sent it their way despite his mother telling him over and over that she wanted him to use it for himself and Steve. He moved down further and looked at the papers that announced the crash before stopping at a display of the camps that people set up after they lost their homes. He had seen those too, people holding their hands out asking for anything the people leaving work could give them, he couldn't give them much but if he had money on him he'd give them a few cents and tell them he hoped that their situation got better. He was at the paper announcing the start of World War II when he bumped into her, he was looking at the screen that showed old newsreels of what was going on at the time instead of where he was walking when he felt himself run into someone. The other person let out a yell as he heard them hit the floor "Oh my gosh I am so sorry!" he said as he turned to see a woman sitting on the floor, she looked up at him and her look of annoyance quickly disappeared and was replaced by one of shock.

"You're James Barnes!" she said and he let out a groan.

"Yeah and I'm sorry for knocking you down." He said as he offered her his hand. She took his hand and he helped her stand up, she brushed herself off and looked down at the tablet that was laying on the ground.

"That's alright, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Neither was I." Bucky admitted as he bent down and picked her tablet up for her. He did a quick once over to see if she was hurt, he felt even worse when he realized that he had knocked one of the workers down when he saw the logo for the museum stitched into her shirt and when he looked down at the tablet he saw that it had a case on it to protect it that had the logo on the back of it as well. He looked up at the woman again, she had wavy auburn hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, her eyes looked to be the same shade as honey, she was several inches shorter than him being about 5' 7", she was curvy and had a slight tan which told him that either she liked to work out outside or she walked to work and he silently wondered how far she had to travel.

"Can I have my tablet back?" she asked quietly and he stared down at his hands, he had completely forgotten that he had it.

"Oh yeah sure. I guess you need this for work." He said as he awkwardly handed it over.

"Thank you." He watched as she checked the tablet over for any damage, he looked behind him noticing that Sam was looking at another display either wanting to give them privacy or not paying attention to them at all.

'You have to get out and meet more people on your own Buck. You can't always depend on Sam and I to start the conversation for you.' He heard Steve say.

"I uh…..didn't get your name. You don't have a…." he said as he pointed to where he expected a name tag to be. The woman looked down in confusion before she let out a gasp.

"Oh. Yeah, I changed shirts and forgot all about my name tag. My name's Tessa." She said as she held her hand out. He looked down to see that she was offering him her left hand, he looked down at his unsure if he should or not. "Come on. You have gloves on, I'm sure it won't be that cold." She said with a smile. He hesitated for a second but took her hand with his left one and shook her hand.

"I'd introduce myself but I'm guessing you already know who I am." He said with a small smile.

"Well yeah. Are there people who don't recognize you?"

"New York's a big place. And if they do I just lie and say that we just happen to look the same."

"And people believe you?"

"Surprisingly yeah."

"And they don't question you wearing long sleeves and gloves all the time?"

"Tell them I have bad circulation." He watched her mouth drop open before she quickly closed it and shook her head.

"He has bad circulation in the left one." Sam says suddenly in the conversation. They watch her bite her lower lip to keep from laughing and Bucky knows that she was thinking the same thing. "Hey. Sam Wilson." Sam says as he walks around Bucky and shakes her hand, she introduces herself and Sam points to her tablet. "So what are you doing?" he asks and she looks down.

"Oh. I'm just going around double-checking any info we have. Just want to make sure we have up-to-date and accurate information." She says.

"Well, you're in luck. Who better to ask about the Depression and World War II than this man right here?" Sam says patting Bucky's right shoulder.

"I don't know. I don't want to bother him. You guys came here to have fun not to work." She says as she waves a hand at them.

"Well I'm sure he wouldn't mind coming back would you Buck?" Sam asks and Bucky knows it's an attempt by Sam to get him to agree to get out more, but if it lets him spend more time with Tessa.

"Yeah sure. I wouldn't mind coming in every so often." He says and she blinks at him in shock.

"Okay. Um. I'll have to let my boss know, I mean it shouldn't be that big of a deal. He's a nice guy. He wanted Steve to come in but with him working with S.W.O.R.D. now I doubt he'll have the time to do it." She said and Sam raised an eyebrow.

"You know Steve?" he asked.

"Yeah. Met him a few times. Nice guy." She said now suddenly avoiding looking at them. "Well I have to get back to work but whenever you want to come over I can meet you here and show you all of the information we have." She said now backing up.

"Hey, Tess you're going to." Sam said and he watched as Bucky quickly reached out and grabbed her to keep her from tripping over a display. She let out a little squeak when he pulled her close, her face went red when she realized how close they were.

"You okay?" Bucky asked and she shyly shook her head yes. She carefully walked around him and continued down the display stopping every so often to take the information down before moving on to the next thing. Bucky watched her slowly walk away and Sam walked up beside him.

"Got a little crush there Buck?" he asked and Bucky felt his face get warm before he glared at Sam.

"No. And don't call me Buck"

"To bad cause, I think she just got one on you. Did you see how red her face got?" he asked and Bucky sighed.

"Leave the lady alone Sam. She almost tripped, it wasn't because of a crush it was embarrassment." He said before turning and walking away.

"Hey, Bucky. You didn't get her number." Sam said, Bucky stopped. He hadn't, he looked around to see where she was at before quickly walking over his phone already out and at the ready.