Finally, after two years of searching, Steve managed to find a man who appeared to look exactly like Bucky Barnes in Bucharest, Romania. He walked up the stairs of his apartment building to the exact floor he figured Bucky lived on, and knocked on the appropriate door.

Nothing happened.

He tried again a moment later.

"He's not coming to the door," Steve said into his earpiece com.

"He might not be home," Sam replied as he waited outside.

Steve said, "I'll go down the fire escape on the outside of the building and I'll get in that way." He knocked one more time, just to make sure. He pressed his ear against the door to listen for any sort of moment or breathing come from the other side, but was only met with silence. When nothing happened he headed for the roof.

As he broke the balcony door down, he put his hands up and examined the space. "The apartment's empty," Steve said as he examined the space, "but he's definetly living here." He looked on top of the fridge under a couple of chocolate bars and saw a notebook. Inside, he recognized the handwriting, and different pictures pasted in from newspapers and notes were written across the pages, including several of himself as Captain America.

"What are you going to do now?" Sam asked, "Wait for him there?"

"I think that's the best course of action," Steve replied, closing the book, "you walk the perimeter of the building and see if you can spot him walking back here from somewhere."

Sam replied, "On it."

Sam walked the building and he carefully checked each person that passed by him on foot. Eventually, he pretended to get a phone call and quickly ducked behind the corner before he said, "I think I spotted him. A man just walked into the building in bulky clothing that hides his physic and he's wearing gloves."

"Did you see his face?" Steve asked anxiously.

"He's wearing a black baseball cap and looked down the whole time," he explained, "so no, but I have a feeling this is him."

Steve replied, "Understood. Stay put but keep an eye out just in case this is a false alarm."

Minutes later, the door knob turned. "He's here," Steve whispered. He stood at the far corner of the kitchen, away from view of the front door, and put his hands in the air defensively. When Bucky walked in, he put the plums in the brown paper bag he was carrying on a shelf, and immediately turned and looked over at Steve. "I know what you're thinking," Steve said calmly, "but I don't want to hurt you. I'm unarmed, I promise."

Bucky glanced over at his balcony door and saw that the frame was broken, and the doorstopper was smashed against the wall. He looked back over at Steve suspiciously without moving the rest of his body.

"I know this looks bad," Steve said, his hands still up, "but I'm only here to talk."

Bucky scanned him head to toe nervously, seeing what he said was true, he didn't appear to have any weapons on him. Bucky said nervously, "The last time I saw you, you broke my arm."

"And you broke several bones in my face," Steve explained calmly as he motioned to his face, "and shot me multiple times, and stabbed me in the shoulder, and yet you still saved my life when you easily could have left me for dead. Why?"

"I don't know," Bucky lied.

Steve gave him a sympathetic look and said, "I know you're nervous, and you have every right to be, but I know you're lying. I only want to help you, Buck, I swear."

Bucky shifted awkwardly and looked away from him as he asked, "How is breaking into my apartment helping me, Steve?"

Steve took a step forward toward him, touching the table and chair, and explained, "I found your Russian file and translated it into English so I could read it. I have some semblance of what's happened to you since your 'death' in the Swiss Alps back in '44 and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never looked for you that day. I'm sorry-"

"Stop," Bucky begged, "you don't have to be sorry for anything."

"How did you get this apartment?" Steve asked as he gestured around them, "Where did you get all of this stuff? How did you get into this country, because I know you didn't go through customs."

Anxious to his questioning, Bucky refused to look at him as he asked, "Why are you asking?"

Steve explained, "Considering the fact that you're officially dead according to all United States records, I know you don't have any sort of valid identification or a visa to be here, that means you're living here illegally and that's against the law. If someone notices, you're going to jail, nevermind the countless other crimes you've committed over the decades against your will."

"What are you going to do to me?" Bucky finally looked him in the eye and asked shakily.

"We're both going to talk to S.H.I.E.L.D. and figure out a solution with them," Steve said. Bucky frantically shook his head. "We have to," Steve added, "it's the only way. They consider you a criminal that's a major threat to humanity. That means if you don't turn yourself in, they will kill you and I won't be able to stop them."

Bucky nervously paced back and forth across from Steve, the table being the only thing separating them. "I can't do that," he said quietly, "I can't ever come out of hiding."

"Why not?" Steve asked, "What are you afraid of?"

"Myself," he answered.

Surprised, Steve said, "I need an explanation."

"Hydra is still out there," Bucky said.

"How do you know that?" Steve asked.

Bucky slammed his right fist into the table, then pointed at Steve and said, "You know their dumbass slogan and don't say it! It makes me sick just thinking about it. So you, and what was left of S.H.I.E.L.D. took down most of them, but I know there are others still out there, or at least, people that want to be like them, and that's a problem."

Steve replied, "There's less than a dozen left we haven't been able to find at this very moment. I hardly consider that threatening."

"In 1991," he said painfully, "I was woken up and sent on an extraction mission to get super soldier serum. There were five samples. Hydra used them to make five more Winter Soldiers. These people volunteered for it, unlike me. It hardly worked, they lost their humanity, their intelligence, only thought of murder and nothing else. It was basically considered a failure because they were so uncontrollable."

"So these people are still out there?" Steve asked, "That's who you're afraid of?"

Bucky shook his head and continued, "No. After I pieced together some of my memories, I stole a plane and flew to where we were all kept. I shot them through their hippocampuses, killed them right where they were in their cyrogenic freezers so no one would ever use them again. But that Hydra base had been completely raided. There was nothing left."

Steve said, "After all of Hydra's files leaked, a lot of their stuff went for grabs in the black market. There's no way to track anything through there."

"I know," Bucky said sadly, "looters stole everything. They even took the most dangerous thing locked away in there. A red notebook with a silver star in the center front. In it, Hydra documented everything I ever did and everything they ever did to me, including how to control me."

Confused, Steve said, "I'm not following."

Bucky explained, "There's Russian words Hydra put in my head and when someone says them, I turn into the Winter Soldier, waiting for my next orders. They could make me do anything, Steve. Those words are in that notebook, wherever it is. If whoever has it finds me, that's it. I'll be forced right back into that world."

"I understand," Steve said sympathetically, "maybe with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources we can find it faster."

"What makes you think they'll want to help me?" Bucky asked harshly.

"I'll explain the situation to them," Steve said, "and who even had super soldier serum for Hydra to steal in the first place?"

Bucky froze. He confessed, "Howard Stark."

Horrified, Steve said, "No. Please tell me you didn't-"

"No witnesses," Bucky said sadly, "those were my orders. He was with his wife."

"Oh God," Steve said, "I knew Hydra did it and staged it as an accident, but I didn't know how." He looked at Bucky sympathetically, who avoided his glances. "Buck, you can't stay here."

He whispered, "I don't know."

Steve asked, "Do you trust me?"

Bucky glanced at him nervously, then looked at ground, unable to lift his head.

"I won't let them hurt you," Steve said, "I don't want to scare you, but you know what me being here means. It took two years, but I did eventually find you. Who knows who else is looking for you. It might only be a matter of time before whoever has this book finds you. If anything happens to you from this point forward, I'll take the blame."

"You don't have to do that," Bucky said, finally looking him in the eye, "I'll go with you." He walked over to the kitchen and punched the wooden floor to reveal a backpack.

Steve asked, "What's in the bag?"

"Notebooks," he replied, then added, "and money."