Hello lads!

Cheers to everyone that followed, favourited and left reviews, I hope this story won't disappoint! :-)

This chapter is one of the longest I've evr written, and that is mostly due to the fact that I got most of the procedure of Captain America's defrosting off tumblr, I can't remember the URLs of the people that posted these extremely helpful posts, but if I find them I'll post them at the start of the next chapter!

Hope ye enjoy!

"Thank you all for coming together so quickly," Coulson said as he strode in, Bucky's file in his hand, "I know you are all still excited about HYDRA's defeat."

A round of applause followed Coulson's words. Coulson held his hands up for silence. "Yes, and congratulations to all, but I have another mission."

Mutterings started up at that. Coulson held his hands up again. "Not everyone will be needed for this, I'll only need a team of eight or nine, but I'll need a variety of skills, and that's why you are all here."

"Anyone who was involved in Operation CAP, raise your hand."

A single hand punched the air at the back.

"Yes, Agent Lewis?" Coulson said in surprise. Agent Cecelia Lewis was one of their youngest agents, he knew for a fact she hadn't been recruited until a year after Rogers was found.

"Sir, the only agents that were involved in Operation CAP that are still with the agency are my sister Agent Amanda Lewis, along with Agents O'Brien and Downey, and they are both deep undercover looking for human traffickers," Cecelia Lewis said.

"What about your sister, Cecelia?"

"She's in witness protection for the next five years," she supplied softly but readily. "However, she familiarised me with the machinery used and procedures followed, and I still have her 40s uniform from when Captain Rogers first woke up."

"Excellent. Lewis, you're on the team."

"Sir, what's all this about?" Simmons interrupted.

"We think we may have found a solider from World War II that was exposed to the same serum that Captain Rogers was exposed to. There is a chance that he is still alive, so we need experienced agents on this team," Coulson briefly explained. He pretended not to notice Agent Lewis bite her lip. Instead he looked to Fitz and Simmons, who were standing next to each other. "I'll need a biochemist and a mechanical engineer." They both nodded and moved to stand next to Agent Lewis, who was still staring at the floor. Jemma squeezed her shoulder in comfort and smiled at her.

Coulson also picked Bobbi, Hunter, Skye and Lincoln. "The rest of you are free to go," he announced to the other agents assembled. "Thank you for all your hard work."

The crowd quickly dispersed until it was only the team were left, standing in a small group. Fitzsimmons stared talking to Agent Lewis about the mission, as she had just fetched the Operation CAP file from the filing room and was studying it hard. They both knew her well, seeing as she was one of the few assistants in the lab that could keep up with most of what they did and even more of what they said, so naturally they both knew that it was her first field mission, and she had been thrown straight into the deep end, being put smack bang in the middle of Coulson's famous team.

"Let's get loaded up," Coulson called and they all moved to get the machinery that they would need if they found Barnes alive. They loaded everything onto the newly refurbished Bus, strapped themselves in, and the plane took off. Coulson waited until May had the plane on cruise control and she met them in the meeting room.

"This is the man we'll hopefully find alive," Coulson said, putting the video of Bucky with Captain America on the holographic table. It was the video he had found from the Smithsonian, with the two of them smiling and laughing as the camera filmed them. "His name is-"

"That's Bucky Barnes!" Lewis blurted out. The team all turned to look at her. "Sorry sir," she apologised immediately.

"That's alright, Lewis. Have you heard of Barnes before?" Coulson questioned.

Agent Lewis nodded nervously, already cursing herself for interrupting the director. "Yes sir, when Mandy- when my sister was assigned to Operation CAP she had to research Captain America and find out all she could, and Sergeant Barnes came up an awful lot. They were best friends," she addressed the rest of the team, many of whom hadn't ever heard of Bucky before, "and he fell off a freight car to his presumed death somewhere in the Swiss Alps while trying to recover Dr. Zola of HYDRA along with the rest of the Howling Commandos, in late 1944, if I'm not mistaken, sir."

Coulson was impressed. "You have done your homework. Well done Lewis."

Agent Lewis looked at the ground, trying to hide her proud smile and the blush that was creeping across her cheeks.

"Lewis is correct, he fell to his presumed death, but a body was never recovered. Until now." He brought up the scans that the drones had captured. "The drones I sent out seem to show him being under about six feet of snow," Fitz and Simmons both shuddered simultaneously, "and landing the plane isn't going to be easy either. But, once we find him, and if he is alive, there are a few procedures that we will all have to be familiar with so Barnes is defrosted as painlessly and as harmlessly as possible. Agent Lewis," he gestured to her, "is familiar with these procedures." He motioned for her to stand where he was, at the head of the table, to address the team. She took a deep breath as she took several photos and documents out of the file, and laid them over the table.

"To thaw a 1.5 metric ton colossal squid frozen in a block of ice," she began, "scientists put it in a big vat of brine just above 0 Celsius. This allows the fresh water to melt while still keeping the squid as cold as possible, which is essential, since for a giant corpse with tentacles, certain parts are bound to thaw days before others and could become quite rotten before the rest comes out of the ice block.

"However, Bu-Sergeant Barnes, hopefully, while still be alive, which complicates things. On the other hand, he's considerably smaller that a colossal squid, so this helps thaw logistics somewhat.

"Much like the squid, Sergeant Barnes will have to be kept at a consistent temperature throughout his body in order to be thawed successfully. If his extremities were to thaw more than a minute or two before his heart and lungs were thawed and reactivated, the tissue wouldn't have any oxygen and would quickly die. Brain tissue becoming metabolically active before the cardiovascular system began functioning would be even more disastrous-possible permanent brain damage."

At this stage several members of the team were looking at her, impressed, while Jemma beamed proudly at her.

"To keep his temperature as equal as possible across his entire body, something like the squid brine, or, in this case, an antifreeze solution is used. We immerse Bucky-Sergeant Barnes in the solution until his entire body is within a degree or two of thawing to begin Phase II.

"At the thawing point, it's important to consider life support functions. I don't know how fast human tissue uses up oxygen at refrigerator-range temperatures, but trust me, the sooner you have oxygen circulating the better. A heart-lung machine is needed to oxygenate and move the blood around for a while before the heart gets started back up.

"As you all no doubt remember, Cap regained consciousness in a 1940's style recovery room, and not during the thaw process. If he had, it would no doubt have been traumatic for him and disastrous for us, so he was put in a drug induced coma. Due to the fact that Cap's metabolism is four times faster than the average man, we can presume Bucky's will be that as well, so the amount of sedatative needed has to be quadrupled.

"So at this point," she pointed to each of the photographs in turn, "we have a giant bathtub of antifreeze solution, a heart-lung machine, oxygen canisters, and lots of drugs. After thawing the antifreeze bath is replaced with gradually warming water in order to bring Barnes back up to normal body temperature. Forced warm air blowers, like giant hairdryers, will be needed once Barnes is fully thawed; his organ systems are reactivated and he is brought back to normal body temperature. At this point it will be necessary to dry and style Barnes and put him in period appropriate clothing to wake up in a vintage hospital room.

"When we got to this stage with Captain Rogers, Director Fury himself oversaw the proceedings, and inputted certain," she paused, "...mistakes, shall we say. For example, there was a radio on in the room where Cap woke up, broadcasting a baseball game from 1941 that Director Fury knew for a fact Cap had been at, to see if Cap was as observant the files said. I think we should use 'mistakes' similar to these so we will be able to establish early on how damaged Barnes' brain is from the cold. Captain Rogers was lucky, his damage was so minimal it was nonexistent, and best case scenario Barnes will be in that condition too.

"Since my sister was the one who went into to him once he woke up, her uniform also had certain details slightly off, like her hair wasn't pinned back like it should be in a military hospital at that time, and her hair was in a perm, not the elaborate curls from the forties. Her tie was wide enough and long enough to be a man's, and she wore a ill-fitting, foam cup bra which shows up against the silk of the shirt, and women working at that time would not have been caught dead with such, ah," she paused for a second, "misbehaving lingerie back then."

She noticed the director hiding a smile as several of the male members of the team were going rather pink in the face. "Sorry," she apologised, "but that's it, really. Questions?"

She met the disbelieving stares of the majority of the team with a sheepish grin.

"All of this only applies if we find him, of course, and really it's just a lot of monitoring and timing and stuff, so um, yeah, that's it, basically."

"Thank you, Agent Lewis," Director Coulson said, as she went back to stand next to Simmons, "that was very... informative."

"We've trained you well," Jemma beamed as Coulson dismissed the team.

"Ahh, so it's your fault that the only parts of that anyone else understood were the 'the's and the 'a's ," Cecy remarked with a smile.

"Glad you're catching on," Fitz winked at her as the three of them left the room to prepare the machines, in the hope that they would find the person they were invented to help.