A few months later we woke Bucky up.

Those files had been as helpful as I had hoped and there had been more than a few ideas tossed around that could work, might work, but not a single one of them could be tested while he lay there in the cryo chamber.

So we woke him up and I volunteered to be there when he finally regained consciousness.

"What the hell happened to you?" Bucky asked when he laid his eyes upon me, leaning against the wall across the room from the bed they'd moved him to so he'd be more comfortable as he woke.

I'd cleaned up, but the bruises had yet to fade from my skin. Even my impressive healing factor needed more than twelve hours to hide the damage after having part of a mountain fall on me. Wanda had been the one to dig me out, so to speak, her telekinetic talent able to get to me hours before any mundane rescuers ever could hope to.

A mine cave in this time, with dozens of workers trapped within. We'd gotten them all out, though sadly not all alive, but many of those had died in the initial collapse and nothing we could have done would have saved them. Sam had felt left out, his wings all but useless on this occasion, but had scouted what he could from the air and added his strength to shifting the tons of rock that had fallen.

I shrugged. "Tripped," I answered, which made his lips twitch. I used to tell him that back in the day when I'd stood up for myself yet again and taken a beating. I'd always had the heart of a fighter, just lacked the strength to back it up.

"Punk," he muttered, sitting up to rub his face with his single hand, the stump of his cybernetic arm twitching in an effort to echo the action of the other. "How long was I out this time?"

"Four months."

"And you have a... solution?"

"We have ideas," I tell him and watch him frown, clearly not liking that answer.

"Then put me back under. It isn't safe."

I have to admire his resolve, his unwillingness to put others at risk, that's more like the Bucky I knew back during the war, but he hadn't thought it all the way through, so focused on not being the monster he'd forgotten we might need some assistance from the man.

"Buck, we can't exactly test the ideas while you're playing sleeping beauty."

He glared at me.

"Look, we're secure, or near as we can get anyway, in a reasonably controlled environment, and unless you plan to go running down the streets of the capitol shouting exactly who you are, no one will care." I shift, the still healing ribs shouting their unhappiness at me. "I know you don't want to be the Winter Soldier ever again-"

"I won't, Steve, I'm done with that life. I'm just not certain I'm deserving of any other."

I knew that, he'd expressed similar sentiments when we'd been on the run trying to prove his innocence in regards to the Vienna bombing, which he had indeed been cleared of, still there were any number of other assassinations the Winter Soldier was wanted for. No chance I would permit him to stand a trial of any sort even if he thought it might grant him some sort of atonement. "You don't believe in second chances?"

He pulled his legs in and rested his elbow on the his knee, looking like he wanted to clasp his hands so tightly the knuckles would turn white with the tension. "I already got one. You got me away from Hydra."

I shook my head. "Doesn't count, not really, you didn't know who you were. You do now."

"What am I gonna do? Join SHIELD?"

Well, no, but he was on the right track at least. "Why not? Nat did. Wanda did."

He snorted, shaking his head. "SHIELD is dead, even your Natalia knows that and Wanda... she joined the Avengers, not the same thing."

Damn, he really must want to go back into cryo.

"You could just go live your life," I suggested, realizing he might not have any interest in playing soldier or hero ever again.

"I was doing that when you led the authorities straight to me," he grouched sounding bitter.

I shook my head. "No you were surviving, that's not the same."

He dropped his head down, long hair hiding his face from prying eyes and sat there silent for several long minutes before sighing heavily. "I'm not the same person I was before... before they screwed with my head."

"I know." And I did. Oh, I could see hints of my old friend buried under everything, but the person before me... It would take time for him to figure out who he wanted to be now, once his memory fully returned he'd need to make a few decisions about how he would want to live his life. I just kind of hoped it would include me somewhere in there. I'd given up a hell of a lot because I believed in my friend, I hoped he'd do the same in return. "Don't let what was done to you keep you from taking the chance to start over, that's all I'm saying."

He lifted his head slowly. "It's too dangerous. I'm too dangerous."

"So, what, then? Go back into cryo and never come out? Might as well bite a bullet, it'd get the job done quicker."

A gasp escaped from him at my harsh words and tone, but I could see in his eyes that I was dead on. He would use that damn cryo chamber to avoid facing what he had done. "I can't change the past."

"You're right, you can't change what The Winter Soldier did. You," I stabbed a hand in his direction for emphasis, "did nothing of your own free will. People may not like it, but they will understand."

"And play hero instead? For how long? How many lives do I have to save to atone for all those I destroyed?"

"I don't know," I tell him, "but you won't figure it out by going back in there." I can't tell if I'm getting through to him or not, he's perfected that poker face of his, add in the stubbornness and he might just do something stupid solely to get shoved back in.

"The world doesn't want me... want us. The Accords are proof of that." He tipped his head, eyes narrowing. "You could go under as well. Wake up in fifty years and start over, give them a chance to forget."

I had to admit it wasn't that horrible of an idea. I'd slept seventy years with no obvious ill effects and he had been in and out of cryo stasis for nearly the same length of time, neither of us having aged appreciably since the early 1940s. We each looked maybe months older than we had been the last time we'd seen each other. "I should have looked harder for you," I muttered softly, but along with all the other enhancements came improved hearing and he didn't miss my soft statement.

"Damn it," Steve," he growled. "I fell off a fucking train into a gorge in the depths of the winter, I have no clue how I survived, I shouldn't have."

Neither had I, but others had figured it out. "We think Zola or one of his minions created a primitive version of the super soldier serum and dosed you with it when you were captured in that battle with the 107th." Once the aftermath of Hydra being inside of SHIELD had been dealt with, I'd read that file Nat had gotten for me and it had all sorts of tidbits buried within it. Granted, Buck had never shown any signs of the enhancements I'd been gifted with when with the Howling Commandos, but it seemed the seeds had been planted then and had been enough to allow him to survive that long, icy fall. They'd done plenty more to him after, including the robotic, and later cybernetic replacement arm. Whatever formula used on him had clearly been lost based on the theft of Howard's version of it to create the five recently discovered and killed winter soldiers.

He stared at me for a long moment. "They stuck me with all kinds of stuff before you showed up, so, yeah, I guess that makes as much sense as anything." He rubbed the back of his head, thinking hard. "I'm supposed to be the one saving you, y'know."

I shrugged, trying not to crack a smile. "We can take turns. Just... give this a chance. If it doesn't work-"

"I'll eat that damn bullet before I hurt anyone ever again."

He's serious and I can't really blame him. When Zemo turned that buried programming on he - Bucky - had no clue who any of us were, his focus solely on the mission he'd been given and his need to complete it. We had never even figured out what Zemo had ordered him to do, but it was doubtful it had been good.

"Fair enough," I agreed, only lying the tiniest bit. I'd do everything in my power to keep it from coming to that, but at some point you need to let people decide their own lives, no matter how much it hurts you personally.