A/N: These next few chapters will be some of the very few in this story that aren't told from Steve's perspective, as there's no real way to do that with information he doesn't have. I think this is important to the story, so I'm doing it anyways. Consider this a plot interlude.

-Also, I hope you kept your puppies handy for hugging, because things are going to get dark.

"Sergeant Barnes. You look like you're feeling better."

Bucky jolts, immediately snapping to the sharpest attention he can manage while sprawled across a cot in his undershorts, and salutes crisply.
He hadn't been expecting anybody, or he'd have put on some pants…

"Sir, I-"

"At ease, Barnes," The colonel waves his salute away, dragging over the same chair Steve vacated only a few hours ago. "This isn't a surprise inspection son; I need information. I understand you had quite the adventure out there, Sergeant, and I'd like to hear about it."

"I already told the last half a dozen guys that came in what I remember, sir." he answers, before realizing that came out a lot more irritable and insubordinate than it probably should have. This guy is still his CO, cryptic as he's been, and he did keep Steve out of a court-martial…
"There's nothing else I can add to the telling, sir. There's not all that much to tell that somebody else can't tell better. I promise, I'm not keepin' anything back. I told 'em all of it."

"Yes, I'm very much aware of what you already told the doctors, Barnes." Phillips replies evenly, showing no indication that Bucky's big mouth has gotten him into trouble yet. Guy must just be too used to Steve's over-the-top little-scrapper attitude to notice one more smart-mouth. The colonel takes his time before he continues, making himself comfortable in the chair like this is just an average Thursday afternoon for him.
"Believe me, I have read a god-awful amount of notes on the whole thing." He leans forward, holding Bucky's eyes with disconcerting intensity. "Problem is, there's still plenty I don't know; so I want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth."

Bucky shifts uncomfortably. He thought he was finally done reliving his worst nightmares for a clinically detached audience. He'd started to think that maybe, just maybe, he could start forgetting they ever happened.
He's had more than enough of sitting there spilling his guts, of having people 'hmm' and nod when he talks about the living fire that burned him from the inside out. He's not sure he's got it in him to go through the whole mess again. He might not make it to the end in one piece this time.

How much more is his country going to ask of him before this is over, he wonders? Aren't the night terrors and phantom pains enough?

"There's honestly nothing else I can tell you that you don't already know, sir." He tries again, ashamed of himself for the way his voice catches. It's nothing but a story. It shouldn't scare the living shit out of him the way it does. He feels his hand starting to shake and shoves it under the edge of the blanket so the Colonel won't see.

"Look, Barnes…" Phillips leans back, setting his hands in his lap wearily. He looks suddenly very tired. "Do you know why you're still here?" He indicates the infirmary tent around them with a loose wave of one hand, before returning it to his lap.

"No sir. I don't." Bucky makes himself bite back the irritation that's rising in his throat.

"You're here because I don't know what to do with you, Barnes." The colonel sighs. He looks like an old man for the first time. "Rogers tells us that you were in isolation for a period of several weeks during which time nobody seems to be able to account for what happened to you. Those who can corroborate that timeline also inform me that you are the only individual ever taken to that lab who walked out of it alive, and that there were numerous rumors of human experimentation taking place in that very same lab.
Now we already know the enemy has been attempting to develop their own version of the serum to create super-soldiers - Close your mouth, Sergeant, you look like a dead fish." Phillips interrupts himself with a frown. "I already know Rogers told you about Project Rebirth. Kid couldn't keep his mouth shut if the free world depended on it."

Bucky stammers something that might be acknowledgement and snaps his mouth shut. The colonel goes on as if nothing had happened.

"Now see, I could discount those rumors as just that, given how shaky your account is, but here's the thing: I'm told you were not only suffering from a nasty case of pneumonia before you were removed from the common cells, but that they beat the living hell out of you too. Now, pneumonia might go away on its own." The colonel acknowledges. "Not likely, but we'll say it did for the sake of argument. ...But broken bones don't just disappear overnight, Barnes. You grew up with Rogers, so you know as well as I do how long it takes a fractured rib or a busted arm to heal up - and I don't see any mention of them being a problem for you in any report on this incident that I've read."

"Sir-"

"Shut up, son, I'm not finished. Now most interesting to me is that you come out of there, you walk half a mile on pure adrenaline, you hit the dirt. Not surprising.
But then here's the part I don't understand, Sergeant. Less than eight hours later, you wake up with a headache and shaky knees, and not much else. You're up and walking two days later. You're marching 8-10 miles a day, one day after that. You're hitting targets most of our top sharpshooters wouldn't even see, from over a mile away, and you're doing all of that within 72 hours of an experience that has killed many other men.
Now, you can, I imagine, figure out what about that whole scenario seems just a little bit off."

"Colonel-"

"Tell me what happened, Barnes. This is vital intel. We are at war and right now things do not look good. Lives are at stake. I get it's not a fun conversation, but war is hell."

Bucky closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and steels himself. He's not going to get out of this. He nods.

"Yes sir."

A/N: Those of you who have read my other story, 'Who the Hell is Bucky?' will probably remember a similar conversation taking place in that story.

It remains my headcanon that Phillips is a smart man and an experienced officer who notices things other people don't. I think he'd put two and two together pretty quickly once he debriefed everybody and the doctors saw how much healthier Bucky looked than he should've.

I refuse to believe nobody noticed that something was up with Bucky. Especially not once the spotlight was firmly focused on him as A) Captain America's best friend, B) The only guy ever to survive Zola's lab, and C) clearly suffering lingering effects from his experiences, above and beyond the normal 'my life sucks' reaction of a soldier who's seen combat. Somebody has to have been paying attention.