Tessa wasn't sure what woke her up at first; as she wondered what had woken her up since she hadn't set any alarms, a scream rang out. She sat up, her heart beating a mile a minute; in her still half asleep state she wondered who was in her apartment screaming when she remembered that Bucky was there. She grabbed a baseball bat she had sitting nearby and slowly walked out of her bedroom. She could hear thumps coming from her living room, followed by grunts and groans. She walked into her living room and looked over at where Bucky was supposed to be sleeping; the top blanket had been kicked off save for one corner stuck to his left foot.

The bottom blanket was bunched up underneath him, the pillows had been pushed away from him, and there was a soft thump from his head hitting the floor. "Bucky. Bucky, wake up." She said as she put the bat down. She stopped about a foot or so away from him; not sure what to do, he let out another scream, and she slowly walked over, stopping a few inches from him. "James, wake up. James." She said before she reached out towards him. Suddenly he sat up with a gasp before he looked around, taking in his surroundings; as soon as he saw Tessa, he calmed down a bit.

She watched him take several deep breaths before he put his head in his hands as he rubbed at his eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked as she scooted closer; he quickly moved away, putting his right hand up to stop her.

"Don't touch me."

"Well, do you want something? Water, food, a bucket." Bucky looked up at her in confusion. "You look nauseous."

"Water would be nice. Not sure about the bucket, though." He said he did feel a bit nauseous, but he wasn't sure if he would be sick. A few minutes later, Tessa came back with a cold bottle of water and a bucket that she sat beside him while he sipped on the water. As he calmed himself down, Tessa's phone went off; she looked down to see a text from Renata asking her if everything was okay because she and Alex had heard screaming. She sent a quick text back telling her that Bucky had stayed the night and had a nightmare. "I'm sure your neighbors hate me right now." He said.

"I don't have any upstairs neighbors at the moment, and the only neighbors I have are Alex and Renata because their apartment is right beside mine. They were worried because they thought that someone was killing us." She said with a laugh.

"They could give me some credit. It will take more than someone taking me on in my sleep to hurt me that badly." He took another sip of the water before he stood up.

"Are you okay?" Tessa asked.

"I'm fine. I'm just going to get dressed and head home." He watched as Tessa blinked before she looked him up and down. She hadn't realized that he was in just his underwear. He watched her jaw drop open as her face turned red before she turned her head away and shielded her eyes.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry, Buck! It didn't even click." She said before she grabbed his shirt and held it out to him. He took his clothes from her and quickly got dressed before he gathered up the blankets and the pillows and put them in the dirty hamper to be washed before he put his hoodies and coat back on.

"I'll see you later." He said before he walked out the door. He walked down the sidewalk, still trying to shake off the nightmare when he heard it, it was faint at first, and he wasn't sure he had heard anything, but a second later, he was convinced that he heard the soft meow of a kitten. He stopped and looked around, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from; he stopped at one of the nearby alleyways where he saw a little gray kitten come tumbling out. It let out a little sneeze before shaking its head and looking around. As soon as it saw him, it let out a pathetic little meow as it wandered over to him.

Now that it was closer, he could see it shaking from the cold, and he knew he couldn't just leave it there. He unzipped his coat and hoodies before placing the kitten against him and zipping everything back up before heading back to his apartment.

Tessa was cleaning up around her apartment, feeling better when her phone went off. She grabbed her phone and let out a soft little aw when she saw that Bucky had sent her a photo of a little white kitten staring up at him. I found her outside in the cold, and I couldn't just leave her, and I didn't have the heart to dump her off at some shelter, so I guess she's mine now. I named her Alpine. "Who would have guessed that you're a cat person Buck." She said as she sent back heart emojis before getting back to cleaning.

Tessa put her stuff away in her locker as she let out a sigh. Everyone was talking about the new Captain America, and she hated it; she had been too sick to watch the news when they paraded the man out, and honestly, she wasn't too upset by it. She had just turned her tablet on when Emily walked out of her office and turned the television in the room on. "What's going on?" Tessa asked.

"Good Morning America's interviewing the new Captain America." Emily said as she flipped through the channels. She found the right one and put the remote down before sitting down in one of the chairs while a few others sat down around her to watch. Tessa rolled her eyes as she heard the first few notes of 'Star-Spangled Man With The Plan.'

"Ladies and gentlemen. Your new Captain America."

"He looks like the Wish version of Steve." One of her coworkers said with a laugh.

"Guess this is what we get when the government gets him for Walmart." Another one said, and Tessa did her best to hide her laughter.

"Good morning, America." John Walker said with a smile. Everyone groaned and waved their hands at the screen while looking at each other like they couldn't believe they were seeing this.

"How many times do you think he had to practice that?" Emily whispered to Tessa.

"Sounded like he was still practicing." She replied with a smirk.

"John, I think the first thing everyone wants to know is what is it like being Captain America? Do eagles fly overhead wherever you go?"

"Oh, unbelievable." Tessa mumbled as she rolled her eyes.

"Uh, yes. Yeah, that and flags tend to start majestically waving in the wind." They all watched as they went over John's career. Tessa had to admit that it was impressive, but she wondered if he had the one thing that Steve had. The one thing that had made Erskine pick Steve out of everyone else. "Look, here's the thing, uh, I'm not Tony Stark, I'm not Dr. Banner, okay? I don't have the flashiest gadgets, I don't have super strength. But what I do have is guts. Something Captain America always had," swing and a miss John "always needs to have, and I'm gonna need every ounce of it. Because I got big shoes to fill."

"Do you know Steve Rogers?"

"I was two years out of West Point when Steve came back on the scene. I followed his career very closely as an Avenger. I like to think that I modeled my work after his."

"You've always wanted to be a hero?"

"I liked that what I was doing would make people feel safe. Steve Rogers is the kind of guy who does that," okay, so maybe he wasn't too bad; she had to admit that she admired people who wanted to help people and only wanted to be the good this world needed so badly "he gives me hope. Even though I haven't met him yet, he feels like a brother." And there it was. The one thing that instantly made her dislike him.

"Fuck this shit. I'm done. You guys can keep watching this shit, but I'm out." Tessa said as she got up from the chair, she was sitting on. She grabbed her tablet and started to head out the door, her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she saw that it was a text from Bucky.

I'm going to talk to Sam. We have to do something to make this right. She sent him a text asking him not to be too hard on him when he went before putting her phone away.

"Let me know if an eagle shits on his head." She called out before walking out of the room.