A/N: Thanks for all the followers/reviews already :)
2. I Can't Escape, Can't Run
"What was it like?" Bucky asked suddenly. They were sitting on the couches in the living room by the kitchen. The television was on. Bucky had been watching it intently for over an hour. He hadn't asked anything, but his brow was furrowed in confusion frequently. The question startled Steve, who was beginning to doze.
"What was what like?" he responded, looking sharply at the screen for clues.
"Being asleep. Dying," Bucky said quietly.
He turned to look at his friend, whose gaze remained fixed on the flashing images ahead. "It was cold," he said at last, the whole experience running through his head. It was hard to put to words.
"Did you dream?"
Steve thought about it. "I think so. I remembered some stuff. You, Peggy, the rest of the Commandos. The whole life passing before your eyes thing. I don't know if I had any dreams after that." Bucky nodded, but did not say anything else. His jaw was set, though. "Did you?" he asked him slowly.
Bucky met his eye, and he immediately regretted the question. "No. They usually wiped me first. So I would be empty when they needed me again."
Steve was at a loss for how to reply. Bucky returned his gaze to the television, his expression forbidding comment. He watched his friend uncertainly for a few minutes, aching to be able to help him. But he didn't know what to do. Buck was opening up to him, but it was slow. It was clearly painful. It went against his training, to talk about himself. To think of himself as someone, not something. Steve clenched his jaw, enraged at the thought.
"I was flying," he said abruptly. Bucky turned to look at him, surprise very briefly passing over his features before returning to a sort of stoic interest. His soldier face, Steve supposed. "Do you know anything about what happened after you… fell?" he asked.
"Nothing from a good source," Bucky replied, something like a sneer twisting his mouth.
"Well, we caught Zola. Colonel Phillips questioned him. Do you remember Colonel Phillips?"
Buck cocked his head, considering. "Nope."
"That's okay," Steve hastened to say. "Anyway, he told us where Schmidt was. So the remaining Commandos infiltrated his last base. Do you remember the Commandos?"
"Jones was with us, on the train. Dugan, Morita. They were in my unit. Falsworth and Dernier," he seemed about to go on, but shrugged. "I remember them," he said firmly.
"Good," Steve said with a smile. "I went in alone through the front door; they came in the back window after I was captured. It was a good fight for a while, but Schmidt almost escaped. He had some kind of new plane, and Colonel Phillips, Peggy, and I chased it in Schmidt's car. They managed to get me onto the plane before it took off, and there were a lot of bombs in it, each one headed for a different city. Schmidt had some kind of blue cube that gave him power, and, somehow, when we were fighting, it started glowing more. It melted him, or sucked him into another dimension, or something."
"What?" Bucky interrupted incredulously.
Steve was pleased to see the disbelief on his face; he'd be happy to see any emotion besides pain and confusion on his friend's face. "Yeah, things are pretty crazy these days. I was fighting off an alien invasion just a few months ago." Bucky shook his head wordlessly, almost smiling in his disbelief. And admiration, maybe. "So, anyway, I was on the plane and there were these bombs. Schmidt and all his men were gone. I didn't know what to do. We were pretty far north, over a lot of ice. So I put it down," he went on, quietly.
"Did you save the world?" Bucky asked seriously.
"I guess so," Steve admitted with a self-effacing smile.
"Then what happened?"
He looked at Bucky, who was still staring at him intently. "Then it got cold. I thought of what I was leaving behind." He looked down at his hands. "I thought about finally joining my parents. And you."
There was silence. "Well, I bet you weren't picturing meeting up with me like this," Bucky said quietly, ironically, after a moment.
Steve laughed sharply. "Yeah, no, that was definitely not what I was expecting."
Bucky cleared his throat. He didn't laugh, but he almost smiled. "Then you woke up."
He thought about that. "I was in a bedroom. There was a radio playing a baseball game. The one we went to in '41, do you remember?"
"No."
"Yeah, well, it was weird to hear. A lady came in to talk to me, dressed just like she should have been, but I knew something was off. So I ran. It was a set. Like, for a movie. It wasn't real. It looked like New York, but it was painted," he explained. He shook his head. "Then I got outside. Have you been to Time's Square lately?"
Bucky pressed his lips together for a moment, thinking, before he answered. "I went to Brooklyn before I came here," he murmured.
"You did?" Steve asked, surprised.
Bucky nodded silently. He took a deep breath. "But I haven't seen whatever you saw when you woke."
"Well, we might have to check it out. It's pretty … overwhelming. Anyway, I was running down the street and these cars pulled up all around me to trap me. Then this man got out of one of them, and said I'd been asleep for seventy years."
"What did you do then?"
Steve shrugged. "I believed him. It certainly looked like a long time had passed since I was in New York. Much more than a couple of years. I was definitely in the future," he added, looking at Bucky thoughtfully. "I… I told him I missed a date. With Peggy."
"Yeah, by a lot," Bucky mumbled, lips curving slightly. It was hard to tell if it was a grimace or a smile, though.
"Nick Fury was the head of SHIELD. So they took me in. Gave me a job, a home, something to do. I needed that," he admitted. Bucky nodded, brow furrowed, clearly understanding. He thought of how his friend had spoken of his time after pulling him, Steve, out of the river. It was his mission. He'd finished his mission, coming here, back to Steve. Now he didn't have anything to do, not really. No wonder he was tortured by his dreams, and hated the idea of sleeping. He resolved to see about finding his friend something to do with his time.
"Anyway, it was rough for a while. A lot has changed. I didn't know how to fit in the world anymore. Fury came to recruit me after a while for the Avenger's Initiative. It really helped, because it was familiar. I mean, the other Avengers are practically legends, but I worked with Barton and Natasha mostly. They're spies. I gave orders during the battle. It was… Well, a good thing to do. It was nice to be back in the world."
"Now what will you do?" Bucky asked.
"I don't know. Maria Hill is part of the new SHIELD. So I may do some more work with her as times goes on. In any case, she works for Stark Industries, and I'll work with Tony," he added. "What are you going to do, now that you're free of HYDRA?" Steve asked his friend quietly, not sure if he was ready to answer.
"What I've always done, I guess."
"What's that?"
Bucky smiled grimly, the weight of years obvious in his expression. "Follow Steve Rogers," he said frankly.
Steve smiled back, and ignored the damp feeling in his eyes, at a loss for words.