A/N: Oops, another little mistake. It should be COLONEL, not Captain.

"Pig-headed little twerp, ain't he?" 'Dum Dum' Dugan, the big moustachioed man, says conversationally, catching Steve's eye wandering toward the canvas of the truck again. Dum Dum's casually strolling just behind Bucky's former spot in line, carefully pacing himself to keep it vacant, like he's saving the space. Now that Steve thinks about it, Dugan's been just over Bucky's shoulder pretty much all day. "I'm glad Jimmy listens to somebody, cause he sure as hell don't listen to me. Thought he was gonna drop flat on his ass again. Stubborn bastard..."

"Bucky's tougher than he looks." Steve tells him crisply, feeling oddly defensive. Bucky is pig-headed, and he did look ready to drop. But Steve's not about to let anyone, right or not, give Bucky a hard time right now.

"Sure he is." Dum Dum agrees amiably. "Doesn't mean he's not still a dumb kid when he's beat to shit." Dugan shakes his head. "I'm gonna tell you this, cause I know he won't, and somebody's gotta keep an eye on his stupid ass." The big man shifts closer, dropping his voice slightly. "Kid had pneumonia -bad- in there. Could barely keep it together, but he was tryin' to hide it, see, cause the krauts didn't care if you were sick. You worked or you got dragged outside and shot. There was this colonel, real bastard. Just shit on everybody because he could. Beat the livin' daylights out of Buck one day for slippin' up, just laid him out."
Steve feels himself tense, blood singing in his ears. His hand curls unconsciously into a fist, though there's no one to aim it at.
"Jones - you met him last night- he figured the kid wouldn't survive one more shift on the floor, messed up like that, and we knew Colonel Shithead wouldn't let him off. So we arranged for a real nasty accident; just squished the fucker like a bug before he could get to Bucky." Dugan offers him a shadowed grin. "Made one hell of a mess."
The big man sighs, some of the ease going out of him. "That kept him outta the fire for a day or two while they tried to sort out what happened, but Jimmy still couldn't work... So once things quieted down, they came t'take him away…"
Steve grits his teeth. He has an idea of what happened after that.
"Didn't see him again for weeks - not 'til you busted us all out. Figured he was a goner... " Dugan hesitates for a second. "We all knew the guys they took didn't come back. They shot the lucky ones… Sometimes you could hear screamin' late at night, and we'd just try not to think too hard about it."

"Weeks…" Steve murmurs softly.
Bucky doesn't know what they did in there, but he'd said it was painful. Incredibly painful was the implication. The raw fear he'd shown at the tiniest unexpected touch...
And they'd had him for weeks. Weeks of torture.
Weeks.
Steve abruptly veers from the line and plows his fist straight through a tree. The wood splinters around his fingers and the tree groans ominously, though it miraculously doesn't fall. He wrenches himself free and stands, staring at his handiwork and breathing hard for a few moments, ignoring the scratched and sliced skin on his hand. Dugan just watches him with an eyebrow raised. The rest of the company slows and stares.

"Keep moving." Steve orders cooly, turning on his heel and setting off again. "We've got a long way to go."

After a while, Dugan falls back into step with him, posture casual, but his face thoughtful.
"Bucky's a tough kid," He says quietly, "but they busted him up good in there. He ain't gonna admit it, but he needs somebody t'watch out for him. I wasn't kiddin' when I said you're the only one he listens to. Take care'a the stubborn jackass for me, will ya? "

"I will." Steve tells him softly. "You don't have to ask." There's an edge of hardened steel in his voice. "And neither does he."