a/n: and now I can't answer reviews but thank you all for the feedback!

"What's up with your new puppy, Stevie?" Bucky asked when the door to their room closed behind them.

A small room with only one double bed, which was barely any larger than when Hermione used to fuse their two cots together. The layout only convinced Sam more that he was right.

"I'm right! You guys are a throuple!" Sam burst out, practically vibrating on the spot. Steve was having to re-evaluate how much of a fan he actually was.

"Is that even a word?" Bucky asked flatly.

"I think I've heard it before," Hermione said with the frown she always wore when searching her memory.

"Is it another word for threesome? Because that's not quite it." Steve added, because the language is what had evolved the most if you asked him.

"You guys are killing me," Sam interjected.

"Steve, keep your puppy on a leash," Bucky muttered.

"Stop calling me a puppy."

"Stop wagging your tail, then. Jeez, I bet you'd be humping Stevie's leg if we weren't here," Bucky snapped, waving at himself and Hermione.

"Oh, I get it…" Sam said with that same Eureka voice he'd had earlier after he discovered what the three of them were for one another. He pointed at Bucky. "You're jealous."

Bucky scowled, but he didn't deny the accusation, surprisingly.

"You're jealous of me. You, Bucky Barnes, jealous of little old me..." Sam laughed. "Hey, don't worry, man. Steve only has eyes for you and Hermione. I swear he says your names every other word. Honestly, I should have figured it out sooner."

Steve raised an eyebrow at Bucky. Had he really been that jealous of Sam? It sure would explain why he had been sulking since they met up. If Bucky doubted him, Steve would have to make sure his sergeant remembered how irreplaceable he was in his eyes. But not now. As usual, they had more pressing matters coming in between them, stealing their precious time together.

"The Hydra situation has been taken care of for now, but we need to talk about Tony," Steve said somberly.

Hermione sighed and sat on the bed with Bucky. Sam perched on the chest of drawers while Steve fell back in the lone chair, feeling exhaustion creep in. Hermione started the tale from when she had disappeared from Pierce's mansion. Her version of events was short and to the point, but much as Steve had expected.

"I got to Bucky first, but I thought I would have ample time to leave through the door. I mean, I lost a whole bunch of hair on my last jump," she said as she took off her cap, revealing how much shorter her locks were on one side. "So I didn't want to lose an arm, or worse, hurt Bucky by apparating again... if I could avoid it. Did you know Tony could give Jarvis orders remotely from his armour? Because I sure didn't. He locked us in the elevator on our way down. Bucky got us out by breaking the doors open, but we couldn't find a way out… doors kept locking, elevators out of order… "

"Stark caught up to us. Knew exactly where we were…" Bucky continued when Hermione stopped to take in a shaky breath.

"I didn't have a choice," Hermione resumed. "Tony was still in his armour, but he wasn't himself, you know?"

Steve nodded. Even if he had not seen his face when Tony wore the Ironman suit and heard of his parents murders, his unusual stillness and silence were more ominous than any threat he could have made.

"You teleported?" Steve concluded. "With Bucky?"

"Never doing that again," Bucky agreed.

"But you're okay? Or did you lose more hair on the way?" Steve demanded, looking them over for anything else missing.

Bucky could have done with the haircut, to be honest. Hermione winced, so Steve knew something was amiss even if he could not spot it himself.

"Bucky…" Hermione trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

"It's okay, doll," Bucky replied, pulling her closer to him. "Not like it hurts."

"What…" Steve began, but Bucky was already taking off the glove on his left arm.

Steve had assumed it had been to hide the metal prosthetic, but as he held up his hand, it was clear three of his fingers had been cleanly cut off at an angle, the pinky almost non-existent.

"Index still works. I can pull the trigger, that's all that matters."

"And how are you going to hold the gun, genius?" Sam asked.

"Tape it into my hand, of course," Bucky replied immediately, as if Sam was an idiot for even asking.

"Oh, of course. Yeah, that's the first thing that comes to mind," Sam mocked. "People walk around with guns taped to their hands all the time."

"I could bolt it into place, I suppose," Bucky continued.

"That's even worse!" Sam exclaimed.

Bucky rolled his eyes, then looked at Steve.

"You saw him, then? Stark?"

Steve nodded and told them their end of the story. Steve hesitated at some of it, but Bucky told him to lay it on him. Hermione had already told him why Tony was on the warpath, so the rest probably couldn't hurt him that much more.

"Do you remember… that day?" Steve finally asked about the "accident" that had taken both Howard and his wife's lives.

Bucky shook his head.

"Hermione has been helping me find the pieces of myself, but like she says, it's a mess up in there," he said, tapping the side of his head, then looking at Hermione, who nodded and continued explaining.

"They wiped his mind after each mission, but that's not really how memories work. The best they can do is fade them into almost non existence, but given enough time, or a trigger, they could resurface at any moment."

"Or not at all," Bucky added with an almost imperceptible shudder.

"Or not at all," Hermione confirmed. "The mind is a tricky place. No two minds work the same. I think that's why they kept freezing Bucky," she said softly, squeezing Bucky's maimed metal hand. "So his mind didn't have time to heal. So his memories didn't have time to resurface."

"But they took me out more often of late," Bucky continued. "And for longer periods of time. I remembered you from the roof, Steve. They made sure I didn't when I asked them about it though…"

"But now you do," Steve said, happy, relieved, but also so fucking angry at what they had done to Bucky.

"Most of it, I hope. Hermione, too. Sure as hell don't remember this chump though," Bucky added, jutting his chin towards Sam.

"Don't mind me. I'm just enjoying how wrong the history books and tabloids are. I could make a solid fortune selling this story, you know?"

"Not if you can't speak," Bucky snarled.

"Easy there. Just joking," Sam replied, raising his hands. "Your secret is safe with me, but who else knows about you three? So I don't spill the beans to the wrong person."

"Right now? Just you, I guess," Steve admitted so Sam understood how much trust they put in him despite all the bickering flying around.

"How do we handle Tony? If Bucky doesn't remember, Pierce might have been lying…" Hermione suggested.

"I wouldn't put it pass him," Steve agreed. "Pierce got what he wanted by putting a wedge between us, whether it's true or not."

"But why?" Sam asked. "I mean, Stark can probably weasel his way into any archive, if he puts his mind to it. There's gotta be a record of what really happened somewhere. If it turns out it's true, Pierce disbanded the only group that can stand up to HYDRA, which is already quite a feat. But if it's a lie, you can make up again, and it didn't gain Pierce anything except a little time and a diversion."

"A diversion from what?" Hermione asked, eyes wide at the realization she might have missed something.

"That's the real question, ain't it?" Sam replied.

"Cut off one head…" Steve said as he thought about the HYDRA he knew and had been fighting for too long. "Maybe he just needs the time for the new head to grow. If they launch another attack now, while we're divided…"

"They might actually stand a chance," Bucky finished. "Any idea who that could be?"

"Don't you?" Sam asked him. "I mean, you were HYDRA. Isn't there a face or a name that comes to mind?"

Hermione made a face while Bucky's went blank.

"I don't go there," Hermione said. "I've been doing my best to bring back the parts of Bucky that had been buried deep, but the other part… it's a minefield, programmed like a computer with words that act as switches to activate one function or another. We didn't want to go there without you, Steve. We need you to step in, in case I accidentally trigger something."

"Are you sure it's worth it?" Steve asked, worried Bucky might revert back to the Winter Soldier.

"We have to get rid of HYDRA," Bucky said. "All of them, to the last one, or they'll come back. Let's do it now."

"I'll help," Sam offered. "I'll be glad to punch your lights out, Barns, because I bet Steve won't."

"I bet you punch like a little girl," Bucky replied, but he smiled at Sam for the first time since they had met.

More like a slight quirk of the lips, a smirk, really, but it was progress. Hermione and Bucky had rested that night, and Steve had a few hours left in him, but Sam, despite not being enhanced in any way, insisted he wasn't tired, probably too excited by everything he had learned so far, and too anxious to miss out on anything.

Hermione and Bucky sat facing each other, cross legged on the bed, knees and hands touching, but just barely. Steve could see it was a well oiled routine already. He wondered how many times they had gone through it before, because he had not been gone that long… and yet, he had missed it all. Damn HYDRA.

For a while, that's all his companions did, as if they were… meditating? Steve glanced at Sam who was standing on the other side of the bed, ready to intervene in case Bucky lashed out, and Sam shrugged, as clueless as Steve was.

Finally, Hermione raised her hands to Bucky's temples and their eyes met. Bucky nodded, Hermione whispered a word, and they were still. Steve realized it was the same spell she had done before, but it felt different since they weren't holding Bucky down. It was… consensual, in a way, and apparently, that made all the difference.

Same people, same magic. Only the intent was different, on both sides. Bucky did twitch violently a couple of times though, as if he had been slapped by some invisible hand. The movement was worrying enough that both Steve and Sam felt it necessary to each lay a steadying hand on his shoulders. Hermione didn't appear alarmed however, she neither moved nor blinked, but seeing her so still, eyes wide open, was unsettling.

After about forty minutes of this, both of them jerked back looking out of breath. At least neither was sick from the experience this time.

"So?" Sam asked impatiently. "Got anything?"

"A few names, a few nameless faces," Hermione replied while Bucky nodded. "Wait, I'll make a list."

Hermione did like her lists, but there was little to go on this time.

"You can cross out Rumlow," Steve said, pointing at the second line.

Hermione raised an interrogative eyebrow at him.

"Dead, or as good as," Steve replied with a shrug before pointing at another line. "Who's 'bald guy with glasses'?"

"I'm not sure," Hermione confessed. "I saw him in a memory where he clearly works for HYDRA, but I know I've seen him around SHIELD, too, and he looked important there, not a grunt agent."

"A double agent? Could be useful if we capture him," Bucky said. "He, more than most, will know who is HYDRA. You could ransack his mind, right doll?"

"Sounds revolting, but if I must… We just need to find out his name…"

"Think you could draw a sketch of him," Sam asked Hermione and Steve elbowed him because he was obviously teasing her utter lack of skulls in that domain.

Instead Hermione and Bucky told Steve what to draw and the result was... unexpected. He didn't look familiar to Steve anyway, maybe because he looked like a potato with glasses.

"We could ask Natasha," Steve said, because she knew everyone and their neighbor.

"Do you think she will help? What with the whole mess with Tony?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, she will," Sam replied with certainty, taking the sketch from Steve's hands. "She's not overly fond of Stark anyway."

"You two sure got along," Steve teased.

"Like a house on fire," Sam chuckled.

Steve winced.

"Your house didn't actually burn down, right?"

"No, Cap, stop worrying about it. I'll give Nat a call, and then book a room for the night. Hopefully, they have one that's not next door to you guys. Don't do anything stupid before tomorrow morning, alright?"

"We'll try," Steve chuckled as Sam let himself out.

Poor guy looked knackered, but Steve sure was glad he had tagged along. He had been real helpful. Steve would probably still be scouring New York in search of Hermione and Bucky if it weren't for him. Turning away from the door, Steve stared down at his two loves now lounging on the bed like two lazy cats.

"Well, I guess our best bet is kidnapping this bald guy, so why don't we put this list aside and rest up for a bit?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Bucky replied, shifting back some to make room for him while Hermione curled into his arms, looking like her short trip through Bucky's mind had drained her of all energy.

They had more than enough to think on and they were all exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. So despite it being late morning, Steve undressed, throwing both his tourist disguise and uniform over the chair before joining his two loves in bed. Hermione was back to being the middle spoon, just like she had been in the beginning of their relationship. It was for the best. They should rebuild their bond slowly, with what they were most comfortable with, and, despite Bucky's bout of jealousy towards Sam and the way he talked to him like before, Hermione had the strongest link to Bucky right now. Steve could be patient. It had always served him well in the past.

Cuddling together was more healing than anything else they could have done. The simple show of affection soothed the jagged edges of worry and want, strengthened their bond, the trust and care they valued more than anything else in the world. It was no wonder they soon fell asleep in each other's arms, just like Steve had longed for all this time. He finally felt complete, and he wished he didn't have to let go… but hours later, a knock at their door pulled them back to the grim reality of an imperfect world where friends fought and HYDRA was still a threat.

Sam, bless him, brought food, coffee and news.

"Nat's on her way here if you guys want to make yourselves presentable."

Bucky threw his I SURVIVED NEW YORK tee shirt at Sam's face and they began bickering again while Steve donned his uniform and Hermione tried to magically get her hair under control with little success. It looked even more unmanageable now that it was unevenly cut, so Steve offered to braid it for her instead, like he had done when it was just the two of them living ordinary lives in Brooklyn so long ago.

"Want me to braid yours, Barns," Sam asked snidely.

Judging by the grunt that followed, Bucky had not taken the suggestion well. A few minutes later, two sharp knocks preceded the door opening and Natasha slithering into the room.

"But crowded in here," she commented, taking in the rather domestic scene. "Hope you left me coffee."

Sam offered her one of the styrofoam cups and she gave him a file in exchange. Sam glanced into it, then whistled and passed it to Hermione.

"That's him!" she exclaimed. "Bald guy!"

"You're good, babe," Sam told Natasha who scowled at him.

"You call me 'babe' again, and I'll show you how good I am at breaking bones," she warned.

"Last time you said you'd strangle me with your thighs and I'm still waiting."

Steve wondered if Sam had a death-wish sometimes. He would know if Sam mouthed off the Hulk when he inevitably met him. Steve looked over the file when Hermione tilted it towards him. The face of the HYDRA double-agent was familiar.

"Sitwell…" he read, then grimaced. "Fuck, I met that slimeball. He shook my hand, the bastard."

They all agreed to go kidnapping that day. And if they could scare the slimeball into cooperating, all the better.