Hey all! Here we are with chapter eight! I hope are all enjoying this journey, and this ended up being a second chapter in Bucky's POV. I make no apologies, you know you all enjoy it :P

As always, all places, persons and things Avengers related belongs to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No money is being made from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Eight- Time to Talk

Bucky fought not to go on the defensive and become belligerent, but damn if Steve's expression didn't make him feel like a small child being scolded by his mother. "I didn't think I'd hit him that hard, Stevie, I swear. We…dammit he goaded me and I lost it. Is he going to be okay?"

Steve stared him down and nodded slowly. "Buck…man, he was a mess. I get that he goaded you, damn Tony has been goading everyone of late, and to be honest, I think I would lamp him one too. But I don't have a metal arm. I'm not blaming you, Buck, man I swear I'm not, just asking that you try keep a lid on the arm?"

Bucky nodded and sat next to him. "For a moment there…I was worried you were gonna tell me to get out." His flesh fingers with traced the grooves in his metal forearm, his way of fidgeting.

Shock flickered across Steve's face and his features lost their coldness. "No, Buck. I wouldn't do that. I'm damn scared, is all. Tony is in a bad way, worse than he probably looks. But it looks like he got in a few good hits…"

Bucky raised a hand to his face and his flesh fingers came away red. Huh. Looks like Stark had gotten a few good hits in. "Stevie…I really need to talk to you. In the gym…something…well, something happened. And…fuck I'm scared."

Steve laid a hand on his knee and squeezed, his blue eyes open and caring. "Buck, you can tell me anything, you know that."

"In the gym…when Tony goaded me, I did so back. And our fight was…well, I suppose a bit more of a wrestle than anything. But something…Jesus, Stevie. I lost control, for a moment I wasn't me. I was…him."

It took Steve a few moments before he cottoned on. "The Soldier?"

Bucky nodded miserably. "Everything HYDRA put in me is still there, except this time no phrases were needed. Something triggered him and if I'd hit Tony a second time…fuck, I would have killed him. And he knew it. He might have used murderer to goad me, but even he recognised I wasn't myself."

Silence stretched out between them, neither daring to say anything else. Finally, Steve broke the silence and stood with a sigh. "Okay, so we need to figure out a way to make sure either the Soldier can't come back, or maybe that he can be…taught, how to be a part of you without killing."

Bucky jumped to his feet and shook his head violently. "Absolutely not! You can't trust him! The Winter Soldier isn't me, Stevie! It never was."

"Okay, okay, calm down. Whatever you think is best, Buck. We'll work through this. Tony will recover, and then we can see what he has to say on a solution to putting the Soldier to rest permanently."

An expression crossed Bucky's face that no name could be put to, a cross between a look disbelief and disgust. "Stevie, he isn't going to want to help me. He can't stand me!"

Steve laughed and gave him a quick hug. "Try and give Tony a little more credit. Yeah, he's behaved like a spoilt little bitch, and he's really pushed his luck, but he isn't a bad person, Buck. He's hurting and it really is time we took a more proactive approach into healing that hurt. Lord knows, I'm a massive cause of it, and I need to answer for my actions. I know that. And yes, you weren't you when Howard was killed, but we need to get Tony to see that."

Bucky laughed quietly, rolling his shoulders to try and ease out some of the tension. "Stevie, I don't think that's ever going to happen. I think we should think about putting me back in cryo-stasis, just for a little while, until the Soldier can be silenced."

Hands grasped his shoulders and tried to massage the tension away. "No, Buck. I'm not losing you again. We'll find a way through this."

"And what? In meantime no one is allowed to say boo to a goose in case it sets me off? Fucking hell, Stevie! What if Tony hadn't been as tough as he is? I could have killed him!"

He shrugged Steve off and stood, his hands shaking. He paced, trying to keep himself busy. "I really think we should look into cryo-stasis. It would help, keep me alive, and mean that no one would be in any danger."

But Steve wasn't going to go for it, there was no way that he was going to let him go, and Bucky knew it. And lord knew, he loved Stevie for it, but this was bigger than that. He was putting everyone in the Tower in danger. It was then that Vision appeared through the wall, making Steve jump.

"My apologies for not using the door, but I thought you would want to know that Mr. Stark is awake."

Bucky was already heading for the door and down the hall to the elevator to get to the Tower's infirmary. He needed to see Tony, to apologise for what happened. He'd been way out of line, and even though they'd goaded one another, Bucky knew he was far stronger than Tony and should have immediately walked away. If anything, the whole fight had been his own fault, there was no excuse for what he did.

Steve tried to slow him down and stop him, but Bucky wasn't having any of it. He was finally stopped when Vision was forced to restrain him, with the help of Wanda, which was a little weird since she really didn't like Tony all that much.

"Listen, Bucky, he isn't up for visitors, and he certainly isn't going to want to see you or Steve," Wanda said, her Sokovian accent still thick, the red light that was her power stretching out from her fingers.

"Wanda, please, I need to apologise," he said softly, his body completely immobilised.

She shook her head but released him from her bind, nodding to Vision to let him go. "Let me see, he might say no, and I won't force him to talk to you." He could see the reluctance in her eyes, but he hoped she could see his genuine desire to apologise for what had happened.

She slipped into the room and Bucky waited, foot tapping impatiently, his stomach rolling. The words he'd wanted to say to Tony suddenly evaded him. He dreaded going into the room and seeing the damage that he had caused to him.

Tony, who had actually let him into the Tower, even though he hated the soldier, was laying hooked up to lord knew how many machines and all because Bucky hadn't been able to keep a lid on himself. Maybe he had kept goading Bucky, even being cruel to him, but he had still allowed him to stay there, to live in the Tower, in his home and sanctuary.

And this was how he repaid the man, by beating him up. He shivered at the thought of what could have happened had no one found him. Which lead him to believe that FRIDAY had alerted someone to the state he was in, and that was why the Avengers had been able to get to Tony so quickly.

Wanda came back out of the room and levelled a glare at him that Natasha must have taught her. "By the grace of god he is willing to speak to you, but I am warning you, Bucky. If you so much as raise your voice to him, I am going to rip that arm off. Am I clear?" It was odd that Wanda was being so protective of Tony, especially since she still wasn't quite over the fact Stark Industries had been the supplier of the weapons that had killed her parents…and that Ultron had killed her brother- Pietro.

Bucky nodded vigorously, his eyes wide. It seemed Wanda's accept grew even thicker when she was pissed off. Bucky went into the room where Tony was and had to stop himself from turning tail. Tony was black and blue, hooked up to machines and wrapped in bandages. Bucky had never felt more ashamed of himself than he did in that moment.

He waited for a barrage of cold words from Tony, harsh glares or something, but he just laid there, staring at him blankly. Nothing was said, and Bucky was terrified to start off. In the end it was Tony who broke it.

"FRIDAY, seal the room and make sure the others can't interfere unless my life is in danger," Tony ordered his AI.

There was a pause while she obliged his orders. "Done, boss. No one can leave the room until you say so."

Fear sizzled down Bucky's spine, and for the first time, he was afraid of Tony. There was no emotion in his words, no flicker of anything in his eyes. He gave the order in a monotone and his eyes remained completely empty.

Still, he said nothing. If this was Tony's way of getting back at him, then he would take it. Eventually, Tony spoke to him, but there was something in his voice he hadn't heard before, and Bucky couldn't put a name to it.

Tony stared at him a little while longer. "Normally, this would be the point where I make several wisecracks and berate you for being a little shit," he started. "But the reality is that this isn't a normal situation. Whatever happened today, whatever was said, it needs to stop."

A kind of calm washed over Bucky, and his brain finally reengaged. "Yes, it does. I can't apologise enough for what happened. No matter how much we goaded each other, I shouldn't have lost control like that, I shouldn't have struck you."

Tony eyed him for a moment and shook his head. "But the truth, is that it wasn't you, was it? The Soldier is still there, still trying to claw his way out and something that was said, or done, triggered him to come out."

There wasn't anything Bucky could say to deny what Tony said, and he didn't plan on doing so. "Yes. Steve is…I told him. Everything. It was my fault. I'm…I'm going to go back into cryo-stasis, so I can't harm anyone else. If the Soldier is still in me, I can't take the chance that he won't hurt someone else."

Tony gave a sort of rasping laugh. "And here I thought you were being a man. You aren't planning to go into cryo-stasis to protect the others, you're running from what's happening, trying to hide away so that you don't have to face the fact a monster is residing in you."

Bucky sighed. "Does it really matter? The important thing is that while I'm walking around, everyone is at risk."

The Iron Man just stared at him, a look of disgust entering his hazel eyes. "You're pathetic. Here I thought you were coming in here to tell me you were going to fight this and make sure the Soldier couldn't hurt someone else. Instead, what I get is you trying to hide away. Why am I not surprised?"

"What would you have me do, Stark? Take the chance that someone else could trigger him and end up dead? What about Wanda? She might be tough but she's still only learning the full capabilities of her powers. Or Clint? He's damn good in a fight, but if he went against the Soldier, he wouldn't walk away."

Tony laughed, rasped, more like. "I did."

That pulled Bucky up short and he let out a huffed laugh. "Yeah, I'll give you that one. So what would suggest, genius?"

Tony went quiet as he mulled options over, or at least, that's what Bucky guessed he was doing. He tried not to fidget, but he ended up tracing the grooves in the metal of his left arm.

"Listen up, shiny. I am by no means your friend, and I actually really don't want to help you. But putting my friends…my family, in danger, is not acceptable. So, once I'm healed, I will see what can be done about locking away Soldier for good. In the meantime, you will work with someone, someone who can stand up to the Soldier, and go through every word of earlier, and find the trigger," Tony said. "When you figure it out, bring the info to me, or have FRIDAY relay it to me."

"I don't…"

"Barnes, this is a one-time offer. Don't fucking make me regret it by being a bitch ass little girl. Take control of what's happening, accept that they Soldier used your body to do horrible things, but remind yourself that…that it wasn't you."

Bucky cocked his head and tried to read between the lines. "Like your parents?" He whispered.

Sadness filled Tony's eyes and he swallowed several times before he was able to answer. "Yes, like your parents. Now get outta here, a man needs his beauty sleep. I can't look this good and stay awake at all times."

There was a moment between them, a sort of…understanding, if you will. Although Bucky knew that Tony was by no stretch of the imagination offering friendship, he did understand that it was a form of olive branch, an attempt to…apologise? For what had been said in the past.

There was one thing Bucky was grateful for as he backed out of Tony's room to let him sleep, he hadn't been called a murderer, and maybe Tony was somewhat beginning to accept that Bucky may have committed the murders of Howard and Maria Stark, but they hadn't been by choice, and he wasn't really himself when they took place.

He acknowledged it would be foolish to think of the Soldier as another entity, in a way, it was an extension of him. But for the moment, he was content to leave them as separate people. Bucky was by no means a killer, and there was something that had triggered him, that had brought Soldier out in him, but once they found it, then maybe there would be a way to make sure Bucky stayed as he was now, and not turning.

Bucky knew that he would never be the man he was when Steve was still just a weed, before he went to war, before the torture he had endured to have all feeling wiped away and become a senseless killer.

But, there was a chance that he could be happier, that he wouldn't feel like he should walk on egg shells all the time, keep apologising for things he remembered but knew he hadn't done. Maybe, just maybe, he could smile naturally again, and live a life he wanted, not one of hiding all the time. Yes, he had been revealed at the charity function, but he knew that was staged to a degree, and that Tony did not see him as a member of the team.

Perhaps, though, there would be a day that he wouldn't be considered a danger, and the others might be a little more accepting of him. He counting one thing as a win though, he'd walked out of Tony's infirmary room with his life intact and no one had gotten hurt. That was definitely a win. He chuckled to himself and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Vision and Wanda do some cleaning, keeping out of the way.

So there is chapter eight! I understand that some are seeing this as Bucky and Soldier are separate entities, like he is an alien. No, that is not the case. It's more of a coping mechanism, for the time being.

See you all next time! Oh! and I finally have a new job! I get to leave the one I've had for the last three years and no longer have to worry about fourteen hour shifts and working a ridiculous amount of hours each week! So, all being well, in a couple of weeks I should have a lot more time to write!