Not two years later! I do plan on picking this story back up! I'm proving it! I'm no longer "broke college kid" I am now just "unemployed adult" so I have free time. I finally saw Ant-Man yesterday and while it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, it was still awful. So don't expect Ant-Man :P

Comments/Questions/Concerns/Life stories/How ya been etc – please review!

Chapter 18

The silence that had fallen over the room melted after twenty minutes when Steve asked, "Do you want me to find Clara?"

Bucky took a breath but didn't respond. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and ran a hand through his hair. "She's going back to DC," he said finally. "I don't want to bother her."

"Whatever you need." Steve shifted in his chair, the air around them beginning to lighten just a little. "I've got this friend, Sam—"

"The bird."

Steve smiled. "Yeah."

"He's a war vet."

He nodded slowly. "Might take a little convincing, but I think he'd be willing to talk—" He stopped at the deadpan look Bucky was throwing him, a look so unlike the Winter Soldier of the last few weeks, and more like the Bucky he knew, that it took him a little aback.

"C'mon, Steve, be realistic," Bucky sighed.

"Alright, well, Sam is in DC regardless," Steve murmured lightly. "Just come back, see if he can help you. If not, you're more than welcome to stay with me—or we can find you your own place. And Clara is in the same building, if I'm not mistaken."

"How about you? Are you ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death?" a distant voice echoed in his head.

"Hell no," he heard his own voice respond. "That little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight—I'm following him."

Yeah, follow him onto a train and right into a snowy crevasse…but the thought of continuing to be close to Clara…

"Okay."

Steve blinked, surprised. He had been ready to try and convince Bucky to come with him back to DC. "Okay. I'll talk to Tony and Clara—"

"No," Bucky interrupted. "I'll talk to Clara." Steve face smoothed over and he looked up suddenly. "What?"

"Would you be up to meeting someone?"

Bucky's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Who?"

"You actually know her," Steve smiled. "It's a long story…"

XXX

"You should be fine now," Clara stated happily. "Do you feel better? How is your head?"

Bucky leaned back in his chair and stared down at his eggs. They were in the cafeteria at Stark Tower. It had been two days since Steve had offered to have Bucky come stay with him, and he'd been busy ever since, leaving him alone most of the time with Clara or alone in his room. He'd made his way through the first diary of Connie's again, this time starting from the very first entry in the book—dated long before they'd met. Bucky had even managed to start the second diary, struggling through passages about this new man and how happy Connie had felt for the first time in a long time.

"Better," he said finally. "I'm remembering things all the time."

"I wasn't exactly sure," Clara chuckled. "To be honest, I've never dealt with a case like yours. It's really very interesting. You might not remember everything, but I have a feeling you'll remember more than most of my clients with amnesia."

Bucky grunted and picked up his fork and continued eating.

"It'll be a shame when I go back home to DC," she sighed, her mood light still. "You'll have to keep in touch, let me know how you're progressing."

Bucky had remembered a lot in the two days since the surgery to remove Hydra's implants. Most of his childhood with Steve was there, but in contrast, so were a lot of his missions with Hydra.

"Do you have plans?" Clara asked, despite Bucky's lack of responses. She ripped off a piece of toast and dipped it in the little plastic cup of jelly. "I mean—are you going to stay here at Stark Tower?"

"We'll see what happens." Was all Bucky said, not wanting to tell her he planned to return to DC as well. He didn't want her to feel obligated to treat him if she didn't want to—she never had to in the first place, and there were others who needed her back in DC. Others who probably needed her because of him. "I have…loose plans."

"Is Steve going back to DC, too?" she asked around a mouthful of toast. Bucky only nodded and dropped his fork on his plate loudly when he was finished. "Well, you could always come visit."

Bucky met her eyes. "Maybe. I'll think about it." He gave her a smirk and she visibly fumbled, dropping the piece of toast in her hand.

"You should smile more often," she joked. "I think that's the first time you have."

"When are you going…" Bucky trailed off, unsure of how to ask.

"Back to DC?" she clarified for him. She brushed her hands off on a napkin and dropped it on the table, suddenly not looking at him. Bucky's training kicked in and he knew she was nervous. Anxious. He immediately regretted asking. "I'm actually leaving tonight. I have a few last things to finish up with Pepper, but then I'll be flying back."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Clara asked, confused.

"For helping me. You didn't have to go through all this trouble, especially after all the trouble I've caused…" he glanced around the room, eyes spending a few seconds longer on a flat screen in the corner that was replaying news footage from DC. "…literally everyone."

Clara smiled. "Bucky. You have served this country—and while it might not be my country, it was my Grandmother's. You've done plenty for this country."

"And plenty to it," he muttered.

"Maybe. But you're here and you're alive. You deserve to be treated as such. You've done terrible things, but find a way to atone—help people."

Bucky had no response.

XXX

Steve hadn't taken Bucky to his apartment when they got back to DC. Their plane landed and he immediately headed in the opposite direction of Steve's place.

"Not to freak you out or anything, Steve, but we're going to wrong way," Bucky pointed out quietly.

Steve pressed his lips together briefly. "Does freak me out a little—"

"I had to stake out your apartment during my mission—"

"I remember," Steve pressed gently. His face softened and his tone lightened. "She's having a good day today. Thought I'd take you by since you seem to be having a good day, too."

Bucky stared out the window, briefly remembering Steve mentioning a friend of his and wanting to take Bucky by.

"Your days will get better," Steve murmured.

"Like yours?" Bucky shot back, tone bordering on a jocular one. "Do you have bad days?"

"Every once in a while, yeah. Mostly when I become sedentary and just start to think and remember too much. It'll get better."

"When they first started brainwashing me, I remember. They tried a bunch of different things to see what would work, what would stick," Bucky told him. "Dr. Ivchenko. Before they made the chair, he made me think I was still fighting with you in the war."

"Really?"

"It was pretty convincing for a while."

"Well, from what I understand, they made you think a lot of what you were doing was for the greater good."

"Isn't that what anyone thinks they're doing?" Bucky challenged. "Everyone thinks they're the good guys. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist."

Clara had said the same thing, Steve realized, wondering if she'd told Bucky that. Steve smiled and said, "You were just a freedom fighter for the wrong side."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Easy for you to say. You've always been on the same side."

Steve chuckled as the car came to a stop. "There are some people out there who think I'm secretly working for Hydra." He pushed open his door, handed a few bills to the taxi driver, and climbed out, waiting on the curb for Bucky to follow.

"Are you serious?" he demanded as soon as he was out of the car. "Has this country met you? I've seen that exhibit of you—have they?" Steve let Bucky rant as he led his friend down the street. "You were a symbol for this country—literally standing against everything Hydra stands for."

"Calm down, Buck, it's fine. I'm not Hydra. Come on." He led Bucky into a tall, gray building.

Metal letters spelled out a company name on the wall behind the receptionist Steve stopped in front of. "I'll fill out the check-in form," The blond woman smiled at Steve. "She's having a good day but we all know how quickly that can change."

"Right, thank you," Steve said, turning to Bucky and jerking his head in the direction of a hallway. "C'mon."

They were silent as Steve led the way down the hall, up a flight of stairs, and halfway down another hall. He stopped in front of a plain brown door and turned back to Bucky, who had been following wordlessly.

"If you don't remember her, that's okay," he assured with a small smile. "She might not actually remember you."

As Steve opened the door, Bucky's eyes drifted over the nameplate on the wall outside the door. Something sparked in him and he felt…proud? He couldn't name the emotion at remembering the name, but it felt good.

"Hey, Peg," Steve greeted.

The old woman in the bed looked away from the window and up at the tall blond man pulling a chair closer to her bed. Bucky hung back near the door. "Steve," she grinned.

"Peggy Carter," Bucky breathed, a small smile playing with the corners of his lips. He remembered her.

Peggy blinked at him a few times before her face contorted into a look of sheer shock. She glanced back at Steve, who only grinned back at her. "Sergeant Barnes?"

"One and only," Bucky murmured, hands at his sides in a gesture Steve could only see as his old friend.

Peggy gestured frantically at the other chair by her feet. "Sit, sit," she ordered quickly. She looked at Steve, "How?"

He licked his lips and pressed them together into a hard line. "It's a long story."

Peggy looked at him expectantly. "Well, I'm not getting any younger, here."

Bucky snorted. Yes, he did indeed remember this woman.