When Steve woke up, it felt a bit like that time he had been unfrozen. He wasn't sure where he was, or why, and then, he thought he'd just had the worst nightmare… until he saw Bucky, lying on the sofa next to him, with dust in his hair and a pained expression on his face. It had really happened… Hermione was missing. And Bucky…

Steve leaned over him, touched his cheek, then called his name, but he didn't react. Not one muscle twitched, his breathing didn't waver. You could mistake it for sleep if it wasn't for the anguish painted in the lines of his face. Steve needed to do… something. Anything.

So he went to look for Tony. Jarvis helpfully pointed him in the right direction, which was the upstairs floor he was more familiar with, where he and Hermione had dinner with Tony and Pepper what seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"Steve, how are you doing? Barnes any better?" Tony asked as soon as he stepped out of the elevator.

Jarvis had probably warned him of his arrival, but still, it was nice being greeted by a friendly face when his whole life had gone to shit. Again. And that he went so far as to ask about his former archnemesis too? Just because he was important to Steve? Yeah, Tony was a good man, a better man than him, and Steve suddenly feels like a shitty friend in comparison.

"Ah. No change. I think I'll need to set up a nurse to-"

"Already taken care of. They should be getting here in half an hour. Credentials checked, as well as family, friends, social media and bank accounts. I'm 99% certain they're not HYDRA. He'll be in good hands, and Jarvis will monitor everything."

"Here?" Steve asked.

"No, in your small, drafty, and completely unsecured apartment," Tony replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Tony, I… I don't know how to thank you. For that, and for yesterday-" Steve frowned as he played back the way he had barged in the previous night. "I was a complete asshole last night."

"Yeah, you trying to steal my crown and all," Tony snarked.

How the heck did the guy manage to make him smile at a time like this? It was Tony's own brand of magic, he supposed. Steve wiped the amusement off his face, though, because he had a lot to apologize for. No excuses.

"I'm sorry. I'm really-"

"Hey! Stop that now," Tony intervened, raising his hands before stepping closer and setting them on his biceps. "It's what friends do. Right?"

"Yeah, but you stuck your neck out to get me out of a real tight spot-'"

"So… like you did for me with the Mandarin? Come on, Steve, we're friends. Let's leave it at that. What I'd really appreciate right now is being kept in the loop. You did promise."

"I did," Steve agreed, slumping on to one of the kitchen stools before he began telling the whole debacle from the beginning.

"Shit," Tony concluded

"Yeah," Steve agreed, dropping his face in his hands, pulling at his hair, feeling powerless.

Tony was hovering silently nearby, his fingers tapping against the counter in a rhythmic pattern, until he suddenly stopped.

"Hey! You remember when Brucie Bear and I were trying to locate the Tesseract, and barged into your PG13 bedroom?"

"Hard to forget," Steve replied. "And those bunk beds were Fury's idea of fun, not ours."

"Hey, I don't kink-shame. Anyway, Hermione was giving off the same signature as the Tesseract, remember, so-"

"Oh," Steve exclaimed, rising from where he was slumped over on the counter, startling Tony bad enough that he took a step back. "You think she still emits that? And you can find her? Like… like a beacon?"

"How are you only good at science when it concerns your lady love? But yeah, in a nutshell."

"You can find her," Steve breathed out, feeling the warm glow of relief spread through him.

"We can try," Tony agreed, and that was all he needed to hear.

He grabbed some coffee for himself, then paused, and grabbed another that he pushed in Steve's hands.

"You're gonna need it," Tony said as he led him to his lab.

Steve expected the computers, robots and other machinerie, but he was surprised by the amount of Ironman suits standing around the room like silent vigils. They reminded him of those he had sacrificed during the second Chitauri invasion, each one of them slightly different from the next. Steve had no idea he had been rebuilding all of them. And he managed it in such a short time too. Did he ever sleep? Steve would be worried about Tony trying to take over the world if he wasn't one of the kindest men he knew. Actually, Tony might be doing the world a favor if he took over. He'd get everything up and running like a Swiss clock. Steve might even help him.

Tony's hands moved fast as he brought his lab to life like some kind of mad techno-necromancer. Robots twitched to life, a whole chorus of beeps and low hums wailing throughout the lab, and then ethereal holograms popped up into existence like ghosts.

"Whoa," Steve said, because this was much more impressive than anything he had seen at SHIELD.

Tony grinned at him, happy with the reaction he got, but then he focused back on his screens, typing and giving Jarvis directions, moving things around from one hologram to the next. Steve had no idea how that worked. It might as well be magic.

"The Tesseract is off-planet, right?" Tony asked after a while.

"It's supposed to be," Steve muttered, but who knew with SHIELD/HYDRA?

Since he woke up, SHIELD had proven time and again they could not be trusted.

"Right, so it's a good thing I kept a copy of the wavelength it emits, just in case, you know, and I'm piggybacking on a few dozen satellites so we can search the whole surface of the Earth simultaneously. Well, I say 'we', but of course I mean Jarvis. No human and no other AI can actually do that sort of thing right now, which is lucky because it means chances are no one else can find Hermione but us…"

Tony continued to natter on. Steve knew by now he babbled when he was anxious. Maybe he had put too much pressure on his Tony's shoulders, between hiding a stone two powerful factions were after, and finding Hermione who could be just about anywhere in space and time? Yeah, it was a lot, even for a genius like Tony Stark.

"And if the Tesseract's signature wore off," Tony continued as if Steve had not zoned out for a while from all the technical babble.

Those words did startle Steve though, because he had not even thought of that possibility. Oblivious to his plight, Tony went on.

"Because this is totally new territory, I'm going in blind here you know, but if it did wear off, we do have another artifact that's similar to the Tesseract and interacted with her in a similar way, right? She said it herself, or so you told me. And since I kinda analyzed that pretty stone you gave me yesterday-"

"Tony!" Steve exclaimed. "I told you to hide it! It's dangerous!"

"You can't offer a man jewels and expect him to keep them in a box," Tony joked, winking at him, relenting when Steve didn't laugh. "Don't worry. It was just a very quick scan, nothing too invasive. Anyway it's got its own frequency, so if it imprinted on Hermione…"

"We can search for it too! But wait, it doesn't work if the source is here…" Steve looked around. "Or wherever it is."

"Nah. It's buried under so many layers of lead, reflective, and concealing protections that I doubt even Hermione could find it."

Tony launched the two scans for each frequency as well as another of both frequencies combined.

"And now our watch begins," Tony said ominously.

"Really? Doesn't it sound an alarm when it's found something?"

"God, I miss Hermione," Tony pouted, so Steve guessed he had missed some obscure reference again.

Steve went to check on Bucky, surprised to see the nurses Tony had hired were two tall and muscled men in soft blue scrubs. He supposed he still was a bit backward in his ways, since he had been picturing two pretty dames in white dress uniforms. They'd done a good job setting Bucky comfortably in a medical bed and getting him cleaned up. He almost looked peaceful like that, except for that constant furrow in the middle of his forehead. Steve leaned over him, trying to smooth it out, wishing he could do more except sit with him and try to talk him back to consciousness, if only so he'd tell him to shut up.

Bucky didn't, of course, but Steve jumped out of his chair when something flickered next to Bucky's bed. He got between whatever it was and Bucky, but when the vision came back into view for a few seconds longer, it was obvious it was Hermione. He'd recognize her anywhere. He called her name, but she was gone.

It was a good sign, though, right? She was alive. He'd believed she was, but seeing it with his own eyes was a weight off his heart. And she was trying to make it back to him, to them. She was doing her best, and so should they.

"See that, Bucky? Hermione came to visit you too. You better wake up soon, because those nurses do not know how to comb your hair."

Tony came barging into the room just then, skidding to a stop next to him to shove a tablet under his nose.

"She's here! She's here! Or she was. Lost the signal just seconds ago!"

Steve gently lowered the tablet.

"I know, Tony. I saw her."

Tony's face fell.

"What did she say? Was she alright?"

"I don't know, and she didn't say anything. She was more like a mirage. Here and gone. I'm not even sure she saw us, but I think that means she's trying to make it back."

"Okay. Good. Here, keep this," he said, handing him the tablet. "It'll save me the trip next time," he added, clapping his hand against his chest as he walked out. "Jesus," Steve heard him mutter. "I need to work out more."

Over the day, Tony informed him Fury-Pierce had tried contacting him several times. Sure, now he knew how to use a phone… Steve supposed it was unavoidable. However the master-spy knew he was back in the country, he also knew he was staying at Stark Tower. There was no hiding it. Steve was going to have to report to the man sooner or later. Later was more appealing though. Fury was no doubt going to make a nuisance of himself until he answered his call, but if Steve couldn't hide, he sure as hell could be unavailable. There was no development with either Bucky's health or Hermione's location anyway, so it wasn't like he could give a full report of the mission.

That night, the tablet woke him up twice. Hermione had been located once in Sokovia, but only for a few seconds, and the next time right here again for almost a minute, but try as he might, Steve could not see her anywhere around. She was somewhere, at least. He'd have to be content with the knowledge she wasn't completely lost, just in transit.

The next day came with its share of surprises. Clint was there, uninvited and unexpected.

"I only let him in because he said he was here as a friend and not a SHIELD agent," Tony said, but he was glaring at Clint, as if daring him not to keep his word.

"I swear. Come on, I don't have a deathwish," Clint said with a disarming grin, raising both hands in surrender, but his expression fell the next second. "Sorry. Poor choice of words. Not really my thing, but… it's just that I heard rumors at SHIELD that your mission went to shit and you went AWOL."

Steve's eyebrows rose.

"How…?" He began asking, not sure how to phrase it.

"SHIELD's cafeteria is gossip central. Whatever happens on the other side of the world at night is whispered about over caffeine by breakfast. It's scarily efficient," Clint replied with a satisfied nod at his explanation. "Anyway, word is you're the only one who walked away, and I remember you weren't doing so well the last time you were without your sergeants, so here I am… so you remember you aren't alone, even if it feels like it."

Steve was truly touched. Clint had been the only one who had tried and succeeded in getting him out of his funk last time. He was a good listener. Gave good advice too. A bit like Sam. So Steve talked, explained what had really happened, and how he shouldn't trust gossip so easily. He also warned Clint about the enhanced HYDRA woman who could mess with people's minds. After what Loki had done to Clint, he probably wanted to stay as far away from her as possible.

Clint wasn't even his only visit that day. Next came Sam, having come all the way from D.C., "to lend a friendly ear and make sure he didn't fall back into his bad habits".

Steve hadn't though, and Sam almost looked impressed he'd already talked to Tony and Clint. For his part, Sam even talked to Bucky, "to annoy him into consciousness."

"I already tried that," Steve chuckled. "His annoyance threshold must be pretty high."

As he left later that day, Steve told Sam to say hi to Nat since he had no doubt she had been the one to rat him out. Sam didn't even try to act innocent about it.

Steve dragged himself to the Triskelion. It couldn't be more obvious he didn't want to be there and he made a beeline to Pierce's office, closing the door behind him. Fury then made the windows go opaque and Steve guessed that was his clue to speak freely. Instead, he dropped Loki's broken scepter in the middle of his desk, satisfied when it toppled some obnoxious shiny bauble over.

"I take it didn't go well?" Fury said, not really a question.

"As the whole cafeteria seems to know already," Steve replied drily. "HYDRA has enhanced agents now. They were still experimenting on them in a lab in Novi Grad."

"Experimenting. So are they prisoners of HYDRA or-"

"Oh, they're definitely hostiles, whoever they're working for. The man has super-speed, the woman uses some kind of mind-fuckery. She took Bucky down… he's still unconscious."

"Can't Granger get him out of it? She did last time, didn't she?"

Steve clenched his jaw. He was so cavalier about it all. All the more reason Steve didn't want to tell him about the yellow stone. If he knew there was an artifact out there similar to the Tesseract, God knew what he would do to get his hands on it, and what he would do with it if he did. Weapons, probably. Similarly, he had no intention of telling him about the relation and effect these artifacts had on Hermione.

"She's in the same state as Bucky," he lied boldly. "As far as we know, all we can do is wait it out," which wasn't as much of a lie.

Fury's current blue eyes stared at him unblinkingly like a cold blooded lizard. Steve wasn't sure Fury believed him, but he could see why people found Pierce, the real Pierce, a preppy man in three-piece suits, as intimidating as Fury with his eyepatch and all leather black outfits.

"You could bring in the enhanced woman. Make her reverse what she did," Fury finally suggested.

"And how are we gonna make her do that?" Steve asked.

"We can be convincing," was all Fury said.

It was too vague to be anything good. Sounded an awful lot like coercion, or even torture, which only served to convince Steve that he was now working for the bullies of this world, and that did not sit well with him at all. Was he one of the bad guys now? Were they all? On the other hand, his idea has some merit. Not the "convincing" part, but getting that woman to reverse whatever she had done. Steve didn't even know why she had attacked them, why HYDRA had been experimenting on them, who they were loyal to or what they wanted. If he knew that, maybe they'd find an agreement, or at least he could learn what exactly she did to Bucky. If it gave him better chances of waking up, it was worth a shot.

Steve nodded at Fury who didn't even try hiding how pleased he was by his answer. The answer he expected of his good little soldier.

"Not sure where to start," Steve admitted.

"Agent Romanov has been gathering data from the HYDRA base in Novi Grad, but it's been cleaned up, as expected. Any other information you have could help her narrow down the target's location."

Steve thought about it, but they hadn't been there long before things went sideways, then he'd had no time to grab anything other than Bucky, the scepter and the stone.

"I didn't see Smith there. I didn't even get a good look at the two enhanced hostiles, but the guy in charge was called Strucker. Ugly fellow with a monocle. That's all I got."

Fury hummed as he tilted his head slightly, as it checking his own personal database for the name, but giving Steve no sign of recognition.

"That's something, at least," he finally said in a dismissive tone. "I'll pass it along to Romanov. Prepare to leave the instant she finds something."

"Yes, sir," Steve said, playing his part.

It would do no good to anyone to oppose Fury openly, and his compliance would get rid of the rumors of him going AWOL. God but he hated politics.

Steve returned to the tower. He didn't actually have much to do to be ready for when Romanov found the enhanced woman. Mostly, he just wanted to check on Hermione's whereabouts, and on Bucky's health.

The former was off grid apparently, the latter was where he had left him with one notable change.

"Jarvis?" Steve asked, looking up at the ceiling before recalling it was useless, returning his gaze on Bucky instead. "Who braided Bucky's hair?"

He had never seen him like that, and was torn between finding it cute and hilarious. Bucky would absolutely hate it.

"Miss Potts came to visit Sergeant Barnes. She did mention it would keep his hair from getting tangled."

Cute it was then. Bucky might hate the two sloppy braids framing his face, but he would love the reasoning behind it. Out of time as they were, they had somehow managed to surround themselves once more with caring friends.