It took a few days before Bucky contacted her, he would start a text only to delete it two seconds later or he'd bring her name up on his contacts only to never hit the button to call her. "So you ask her for her phone number and now nothing? What are you afraid of?" Sam asked him while he was packing his suitcase, he was heading home to DC hoping that he would be able to start up his old group at the VA again.

"I don't know Sam. What if someone realizes who she's talking to? I don't want her to get in trouble or something." Bucky said as he stared at his phone for what had to be the hundredth time.

"I don't think she cares. If she did she would have never given you her number. Just text her already." Sam said as he double-checked to make sure he had everything. Bucky looked down at his phone one last time before he let out a sigh and sent her a text instantly regretting it as soon as he hit send.

Bucky walked up to the front desk with the money for the ticket in his hand already, the lady sitting at the desk looked up and smiled at him as soon as she saw him "You're James right?" she asked as he walked up.

"Uh yeah." He said while backing up a bit.

"Oh. Tessa's in the cafeteria waiting on you. You don't need a ticket for that." She said while waving him away.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Are you going to look around the museum?" when he shook his head no she smiled at him and pointed him in the direction of the cafeteria. He slowly walked over to the cafeteria debating with just turning around and leaving with every step he took. He saw Tessa sitting at the table closer to the entrance, her head was down and he could see her swiping at something on the tablet in front of her. He walked over to her and cleared his throat, she jumped slightly and looked up.

"Oh, James hey. Sorry, I zoned out while I was waiting. I was just getting the files ready that I need you to look over." She said as he sat down and she slid the tablet over to him. He looked down at the tablet "If you need help figuring anything out just let me know. I don't know how tech-savvy you are.", he at least knew how to scroll up and down but editing anything was different. She had to show him how to do it several times before he got the hang of it. Tessa goes and gets them something to eat while he goes through all of the information, she watches as he slowly sips on his soda while he rereads a particular paragraph about him and Steve growing up. "How did you two meet?" she asks and he looks up at her for a second before looking back down and then up again when he realizes that she's asking him something.

"I'm sorry what?"

"How did you meet Steve? All he'd ever tell me is that you met at school." Bucky scoffs and looks away for a second.

"Figures he wouldn't tell you everything. Okay, so yes we met at school. What he didn't tell you was that I had to save his ass from the biggest bully in our grade. He made a comment to Steve about his parents and he snapped and started…..I don't want to say that he was punching him because well Steve couldn't punch his way out of a paper bag back then but he was trying his best to hurt this kid. He'd picked on me a few times he thought my last name was stupid so he'd make farm jokes at me all the time. I watched him hit Steve in the face and something just snapped in me, I picked this big heavy tree branch up," he said as he mimed doing it, he stared at his fist for a second with a smile "and I hit the bully in the head. Knocked him out cold. I was grounded for two months and had to stay after school for four. Steve didn't get grounded but he had to stay afterward for four months like me. I remember him walking up to me while we were in the empty classroom, he held his hand out looked at me, and went 'Hey I'm Steven Rogers. I wish I had thought of the branch first.'" He says and the two of them start to laugh.

"Could he have even picked it up?"

"Without falling over? Probably not." He said before laughing even harder at the image. It took another half an hour before he was sure he had corrected everything she had shown him and they were just talking back and forth before she had to head off to work before he figured he had to ask since Steve wouldn't tell him. "Where do you know Steve from? You said that he's come to visit every so often and other than to see the old neighborhood I don't see any reason for him to travel up from DC."

"Oh. I met him at one of Tony's parties."

"And how do you know Tony?"

"He was friends with my parents. He's my godfather." She said with a smile. She watched the smile on his face drop.

"You're his goddaughter? And you're willing to sit here and talk to me?" he asked ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

"For what? What happened to Howard and Maria? Bucky I know you keep hearing this from Steve and Sam but it wasn't your fault. I know that you would never have hurt them if you were in your right mind. What happened to them was HYDRA's fault, not yours." Bucky shook his head, he wanted to believe her he did but there was something in the back of his head that still wouldn't allow him to.

"Tessa you don't know me."

"Really? Historian James," she said while waving a finger at her face "and you just sat here with me for an hour and told me all about yourself. I do know you."

"I could have fed you a bunch of bullshit."

"But you didn't."

"Maybe I did."

"No. You didn't."

"You are way too trusting for your own good."

"Not really. Not anymore. Believe me, James if I thought that you were going to hurt me I would have never asked you to come here." Bucky narrowed his eyes at her, she wasn't lying.

"Why do you keep calling me James?"

"Because that's your name." she said with a laugh.

"Well yeah but everyone calls me Bucky."

"I thought only people you liked could call you Bucky."

"Did I give off the impression that I don't like you?"

"No but."

"What? Come on just one time." He said putting his head in his hands and grinning at her. He watched her hesitate a few times "Just once. I just want to hear you call me Bucky just once and then I don't care how many times you call me James."

"Why do you want me to call you Bucky so badly?"

"Because I like being called Bucky better." She let out a huff and looked away while shaking her head and he took the chance to steal one of her fries. She turned just in time to see him eating the said fry.

"James these are mine."

"Each time you call me James I eat a fry."

"That's so childish."

"For that, I'm eating two." Bucky said before swiping the fries and stuffing them in his mouth.

"Are you 106 or 6?"

"106."

"Then act like it." She said before he stole more.

"These are good." He said no longer able to help himself.

"Stop. Hey! Stop! Bucky stop it!" she said as she tried to push his hands away. He looked up at her in shock before he broke out into another grin and swiped one last fry.

"I have to get going anyway. I have an appointment with my therapist soon and I'm not allowed to miss it. I'll probably see you around." He said before standing up and throwing their trash away.

"You owe me fries the next time you come you asshole!" she called out and he turned with a smile.

"Of course. Maybe I'll get cheese on them next time." He said before he walked out the door. Tessa let out a huff before she turned and walked to the break room sending an email to her boss with the corrections Bucky had done mumbling the whole time about her fries.