Steve gasped as he woke up abruptly. He scrambled to get the helmet off and tossed it aside while he fought for air. His inhaler was nearby, thankfully, and a couple puffs got him breathing properly again. His next target was his phone, which he picked up just in time to receive a call from Tony.
"Tony?" He asked.
"Yeah. Get ready to go. I'm coming to pick you up." Tony insisted. Steve's brain was feeling a little sluggish but he got his body moving anyway.
"Where are we going?" He asked as he checked over himself. His shirt was fine but he needed to put on real pants rather than pajamas.
"While you and Zola were talking I finished the code, but I had a little extra time so I searched for Bucky's login point in the real world. He's at a Red Skull facility just outside New York. Fury and the police should both be on their way there already." Tony said and Steve nearly dropped the phone.
The jolt of adrenaline woke him up and Steve hurried to get ready as quickly as he could without stopping the phone. "Tony, you're a genius and I would kiss you if you weren't straight." Steve informed him and Tony laughed.
"Still could; I don't think Pepper would mind too much. But I'll be there in five." Tony said.
"Copy that." Steve confirmed before he hung up. It was much easier to get his pants on with his hands free and he used the bathroom quickly too before grabbing a protein bar and hurrying down to street level. Tony was just pulling up in a red sports car when he got there and Steve didn't waste time before getting in.
Tony didn't even wait until he was properly buckled before he started driving. "It's in the warehouse district, about 25 miles out." Tony informed him after they'd driven in silence for several seconds.
"Thanks, Tony." Steve said softly and the brunet offered him a quick smile.
"It's not just for you I'm doing this. I worked alongside Red Skull to program the AI and NPCs in the game. If anyone should have realized something was off about Bucky it should have been me. It should have been me long before the game went public. So Bucky being hurt, being kept from his family, that's on me." Tony informed him and Steve reached out to squeeze his arm.
"You aren't at fault for this, Tony. Red Skull were the ones who did this to him. You freed him and helped find him." Steve insisted and Tony gave him a flash of a weak insincere smile. "I mean it, Tony." Steve insisted and Tony nodded
"I know. Maybe I'll believe it when I know that Bucky will be alright." Tony finally said and Steve gave his arm another squeeze before pulling his arm back. They spent the rest of the roughly twenty minute drive in silence.
It was obvious which facility they were looking for. There were police cars all over the parking lots, their lights flashing and sirens going, and there was one guarding the gated entrance. There were police officers everywhere inside. Tony stopped next to the man at the entrance. "Can I help you?" The officer demanded.
"I'm Tony Stark, a friend of Fury's, and this is Steve Rogers. We need to get in." He said as he held out his ID. The officer eyed Tony and the driver's license for a moment before he lifted his radio.
"Sir, I have a Tony Stark and Steve Rogers here, asking to enter." He said.
"They're clear. Let them in." Came the immediate response.
"Yes, sir. Go ahead." He waved Tony onward and Tony quickly pulled into the grounds. There were several large buildings but Tony parked near the one with the ambulance waiting outside.
Steve had just gotten out of the car when the door to the building opened and several EMTs came out with a gurney. Steve almost ran up to them to see who was on it. The occupant looked a lot like Bucky and he didn't. They had the same hair color and very similar faces (in the same way Steve's was similar to Nomad's), and even the same basic build.
Well, they would have had the same basic build if the man on the gurney wasn't a hundred pounds or more lighter than Bucky with extraordinarily pale skin that hung off his bones and basically no muscle. He looked fragile, even more than Steve did and that was terrifying. The EMTs let him move next to the bed and he offered a tentative "Bucky?"
The man stirred a little and slowly his eyes opened. They were almost identical to the ones he had in the game and Steve gave him a small smile. "Steve?" He whispered rasply.
"Hey, Buck." He answered softly as he set his hand on Bucky's arm. Bucky gave him a flicker of a smile, while Steve tried not to let his concern show because Bucky's arm felt so very thin under his hands.
"I thought you were taller." Bucky mentioned and Steve nodded.
"Just in the game." He corrected.
"Is's cute." Bucky muttered sleepily, slurring the words a bit as his eyes fluttered.
"They did good on your avatar. You almost look as good in real life." Steve teased, mostly to help keep him awake, and Bucky weakly swatted at his arm. Even that small movement had seemed to exhaust him. "Little more Winter Soldier than Bucky with that hair, though."
Bucky didn't make another attempt to hit him but muttered "Punk." under his breath as a smile played on his lips. They had reached the ambulance and Steve started to move back so they could get Bucky inside when the brunet caught his hand. "Stay with me?" He requestly softly, desperately, and Steve gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
"To the end of the line." He promised and Bucky smiled softly before he took a deep breath and nodded off. One of the EMT's gave Steve a warm smile and, after they got Bucky settled, helped him up into the ambulance as well. He took a seat near enough he could hold Bucky's hand and the ambulance started moving as soon as the door was shut and locked.
"Do you know each other?" She asked and Steve nodded.
"In a manner of speaking. I can't tell you about any medical conditions or allergies he has or anything, but I know about what he's been through." Steve answered.
"Can you give us any insight?" The female EMT asked, and the others were listening in too as they got Bucky hooked up to an IV and various monitoring devices.
Steve gently brushed Bucky hand. "He, um, was trapped in a VR game. For the DeepDive Headset? For probably a year or more. The people that did that to him also messed with his head. Somehow they took away his real memories and gave him fake ones. Made him think he was a character in the game. I don't know how." Steve explained. It sounded crazy to say out loud, but the EMTs seemed to roll with it fairly easily.
"I'm Lillian, by the way." The female EMT introduced and Steve smiled at her.
"Steve. And he's… Well… Just call him Bucky." Steve added and she nodded.
"Is that the name from his fake memories?" She asked and Steve nodded. "Tell me about them. VR is very lifelike, right?" She asked and Steve nodded. "Then it's likely his fake memories will affect him as if they were real ones. I want to know what kind of trauma we might be dealing with."
"Okay. Um, so his full name is James Buchannan Barnes, but he goes by Bucky. He was a soldier in a war and got captured. I don't know exactly what happened to him as a POW, it didn't seem important at the time, but I'm pretty sure he was tortured. I rescued him and spent some time with him. Then he fell off a train into a ravine and, I thought, died. There was about a two month gap, in real time, before he showed back up in the game as an assassin called the Winter Soldier. They'd taken his memories of his time as Bucky, but he recalled them when we met again. He said he had at least a memory of the real world, of men taking him from somewhere cold and doing things to him. Hurting him, before they sent him back in." Steve explained.
Lillian was listening closely and nodding along. She seemed to believe him, though Steve wouldn't have blamed her if she didn't. "So, physically we're dealing with atrophied muscles and possibly other standard symptoms of a coma patient, and likely brain damage as well from the memory alterations."
"Likely some form of PTSD, from the fake memories they gave him if not the real ones he's gotten." Another EMT offered and Lillian nodded.
"We should get brain scans as soon as we get to the hospital. And check in with the NYPD, see if they can find any matching missing persons cases. That'll probably be our best bet for finding his real identity." Lillian directed, to nods from the other EMTs. "Thank you for telling me." She added to Steve, who nodded.
"I'd like to stay with him, if I could." Steve requested and Lillian smiled at him.
"Of course. You're basically the closest to a medical authority we have for him for the time being so the doctors will likely want to consult with you, at least." Lillian said and Steve nodded.
He looked down at Bucky and pulled the blanket one of the EMT's had given him a little higher over the brunet's fragile body. "He's going to be alright, won't he?" He asked.
Lillian reached over and touched his hand, the one still resting on Bucky's. "I can't speak for his mental state, but physically, he will be fine. It will be hard work and will take time, but he will recover." She promised.
"He's strong enough to do it." Steve insisted and Lillian smiled.
"Good. But I'm sure he'll need your support too." She reminded gently before she pulled her hand back. Steve just swallowed and looked down at Bucky, who was asleep and breathing steadily. He still looked fragile, but Steve was certain Bucky could pull through this.