Later that night Bucky was sleeping when his new work phone rang waking him up and he reached for it.
"Agent Barnes." he said half asleep.
"I need you to come in." Fury said waking Bucky up immediately.
"What did you do?" Bucky asked sitting up.
"He's called Loki. He's- not from around here and he's got the Tesseract, along with Barton. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in."
"Oh my god Nick." Bucky said, got up and started getting dressed into his uniform. "I told you not to touch it just like I told Howard to keep it in the water as soon as he showed it to us." he said. "What do you need?"
"I need you to get Stark."
"Why?"
"I want to get the Avengers Initiative done."
"They declined that years ago Nick."
"Just go to Stark while Romanoff goes to Banner for his Gamma radiation experience and I'll go to Rogers."
"Fine."
"I'll have someone come to your apartment with the laptop and everything you need. They'll be there in a few minutes."
"OK." Bucky said and they hung up then he sighed. "First day back and I already hate it." he said and went to meet him the SHIELD car.
When he got outside he saw a SHIELD car stop and Coulson came out with the laptop.
"I'm guessing you're giving me a ride?" Bucky said and Coulson nodded. "Then let's go." he said, got in and they headed to Stark Tower.
Soon Bucky was on the elevator and felt guilty about hacking JARVIS but had no choice.
Then the elevator opened and he walked out catching Tony and Pepper's attention.
"Bucky! Come in!" Pepper said and they walked over to him.
"Uncle Bucky?" Tony said and they noticed him wearing his old uniform and equipment.
"Hey guys." Bucky said and Pepper gave him a hug.
"Come on in, we're celebrating." Pepper said and let go.
"Sorry Pepper, but I can't. I'm gonna need to talk to Tony about something and go."
"What is it?" Tony asked and Bucky put the laptop on the table in from of him.
"We need you to look this over, as soon as possible." Bucky said and Tony stared at the laptop.
"Why are they making you do this?" Tony asked. "You retired with aunt Peggy!" he said and Bucky sighed rubbing his forehead.
"This isn't a consultation Tony." Bucky said and leaned on the table.
"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked and Bucky looked at her with his arms crossed. "Sorry."
"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought, and I didn't even qualify." Tony said and Bucky sighed.
"Just look Tony. It's not good and that's all I know which is what bothers me. Fury did something after Howard brought that damn Tesseract back in '45. I just don't know what." Bucky said and Tony nodded.
"I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight." Pepper said knowing Bucky's stressed out.
"Tomorrow." Tony said.
"You have homework. You have a lot of homework."
"Well, what if I didn't?"
"If you didn't? You mean when you finished? Well, um, then-" she said, leaned in and whispered in his ear.
"Square deal. Fly safe." he said and they kissed.
"Work hard." she said and looked at Bucky. "It was nice to see you Bucky." She said and gave Bucky a hug.
"Nice to see you to. Have a safe flight." Bucky said and she left.
"So, what happened?" Tony asked and Bucky sighed. "Do you need me to get you a lawyer or something?"
"No. I made a deal with Fury. I start working at SHIELD again if Steve can have a free normal life like before." Bucky said leaning on the table.
"Why?"
"We swore to stay together until the end. On Sarah's funeral I said I'd be with him until the end of the line. I knew he was going to say yes to that SHIELD offer and he can't live off that shield anymore. It's not 1945 anymore."
"I get it. Just like you promised to look after me when you agreed to being my godfather and when mom and dad died. You're keeping that promise now that he's back." Tony said and Bucky looked at him and nodded.
"Now, you get that laptop looked at while I go watch TV. OK?" Bucky said and Tony nodded so Bucky headed to the living room while Tony started looking at the Tesseract in interest.
Later Tony came in with the laptop in hand while Bucky was watching a movie.
"That's a lot of stuff." Tony said and Bucky looked at him.
"Yeah." Bucky said and stood up. "I told Howard to put it back in the ocean but he didn't listen. And now here we are. Someone holding onto it controlling a SHIELD agent and a scientist." he said shaking his head and took the laptop when his phone rang so he answered it. "Agent Barnes here."
"We found him. He's in Germany." Fury said.
"Germany? How the hell did he get there in a few hours? Never mind, I'm with Tony and he's got everything he needs."
"Good. Tell him to suit up and get ready for the show."
"Yes sir." Bucky said, hung up and looked at Tony. "He's in Germany. I need you to get there and stop him with Steve. Keep an eye on Steve for me will you? Whatever it takes during this fight, look after him."
"OK." Tony said nodding. "Want a ride?"
"I got a SHIELD car outside and need to bring that laptop back to. I'm fine. Be careful OK?"
"OK." Tony said and Bucky left.
Later Bucky was on the Helicarrier in the Carrier when he heard bickering and groaned.
'Way to go Nick. I knew this was going to be a hard mix of people.' he thought and sped up.
When he got into the Wishbone lab he saw Fury, Tony, Steve, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff and Thor bickering so walked over to Tony and Steve.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked.
"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve said.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
"Our old friend's son and my godson." Bucky said catching Steve and Tony's attention and stood between the two of them. "What the hell is going on between you two?"
"Just talking uncle Bucky." Tony said.
"I can see that." Bucky said with his arms crossed. "What are you really talking about?"
"Oh Stark was just telling me how he's just a rich genius and nothing without that suit of armer." Steve said with his arms crossed. "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony said.
"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Tony said and Steve smirked.
"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."
"Back off!" Bucky said and shoved Steve away hard getting everyone to stop and shocking Steve and Tony.
"Bucky?"
"If you talk to him like that again I will show you what the Winter Soldier really holds after all those years of being SHIELD's best agent, a fully trained soldier unlike you, metal arm and everything. You may be a Captain, but in reality you're nothing but a Private. You were trained for a week as a candidate for of Project Rebirth. I was trained because I was enlisted and approved. I worked with Peggy, Chester, Howard, Falsworth, Jones, Dernier, Morita, and Dum Dum everyday at work until we retired while you sat in the Arctic Ocean frozen. I pretty much raised Tony with Maria and their Buttler Jarvis while Howard worked at SHIELD 99% of the time. So if you wanna fight someone, you're fighting me. The day you saved the 107th and found me in that lab I was being brainwashed and given a serum like yours. I'm immortal because I'm a Super Soldier just like you. So, Super Soldier verses Super Soldier. But I can live without that shield while you live off of it. You don't know how to fight unlike me because you were always being beaten up! So you are going to leave Tony alone and treat him like a normal person or I will show you what and who the Winter Soldiers is." Bucky said glaring at Steve and Steve looked at him hurt when Thor laughed.
"You people are so petty, and tiny." Thor said.
"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce said.
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-" Fury started but was cut off.
"WHERE? YOU RENTED MY ROOM!"
"The cell was just-"
"IN CASE YOU NEEDED TO KILL ME. BUT YOU CAN'T, I KNOW, I TRIED!" Bruce said and stopped while everyone stared at him. "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" he said while everyone watched him and Fury and Natasha reached for their guns.
"Doctor Banner, put down the scepter." Steve said and Bruce looked down, surprised, to see the spear in his hand.
Then the monitor made a noise, signaling the Tesseract had been located so Bruce put the scepter back on the table and walked over to the screen on the other side of the room.
"Got it!" Fury said.
"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce said.
"Located the Tesseract?" Thor said.
"I can get there faster." Tony said.
"Look, all of us-" Steve said.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor said and Tony turned to leave but Steve held him back.
"You're not going alone!" Save said and Tony smacked his hand.
"You gonna stop me?" Tony asked.
"Put on the suit, let's find out!"
"Steve!" Bucky growled.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit." Steve said and Bruce saw something on the monitor.
"Oh-my-god." Bruce said and the blast destroyed one of the engines.
Everyone in the lab went flying in different directions.
Fury and Thor fell to the ground behind a table, Bucky, Tony and Steve were blown to the entry way and Bruce and Natasha flew out the Wishbone lab and into the lower equipment room.
Then Bucky, Steve and Tony scrambled to their feet.
"Put on the suit." Steve said.
"Yep." Tony said and Steve helped him up and they ran out of the lab but Steve stopped and looked at Bucky.
"Bucky?" Steve said and saw Bucky with Fury.
"If Banner became Hulk, this is on you Nick." Bucky said while Fury sat up, groaning. "Hill?" he said on his earpiece.
Steve shook his head and left seeing that Bucky truly did work there and was in agent mode as he had heard about by Natasha and Coulson earlier.
"Stark, you copy that?" Fury asked on earpiece. "Coulson, initiate defensive lock down in the contingent center. Then get to the armory." he said on earpiece. "Romanoff!" he said on earpiece.
"What's going on with Banner?" Bucky asked on earpiece.
"Okay!" Natasha said on earpiece and Bucky and Fury looked at each other when Bucky heard whispering. "We're okay, right?"
"Shit."
"What?" Fury asked.
"I think Banner's getting close to Hulk. God, this might be one time these enhancements comes in handy." Bucky said shaking his head. "I'm going to see what's going on."
"Go. Do whatever it takes but try and get him back to being Banner or out of reach."
"Yes sir." Bucky said and started heading to lower equipment room. "Black Widow, I'm coming to try and help you with Banner." he said on earpiece.
"OK." Natasha said on earpiece.
On his way there he heard a roar and started running.
"Nat! You OK?" he asked on earpiece and heard a gun fire knowing that was her shooting at him.
"Yeah." Natasha said on earpiece and he heard a loud crash.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Thor just smashed him onto the lower deck."
"Son of a bitch. I'm on my way." he said on earpiece and headed to the lower deck. "Thor, I need you to get him on the top of the flight deck." he said on earpiece and used full speed of the serum to get there.
When he got there he saw Thor and Hulk just about to get there.
"Barnes, what are you doing?" Fury asked on earpiece.
"Something I haven't done in a long time and will probably regret." Bucky said on earpiece, started shooting at Hulk, jumped through the window, turned around and kept shooting at the Hulk as Hulk jumped at him.
Then they all heard a loud roar from Hulk through their earpiece and winced as punched Bucky getting him to fall faster.
Bucky turned to the front and saw a tree going down so turned back around, kicked Hulk hard getting him to get away, reached for the tree and was able to stop himself panting to calm down while watching Hulk continue falling down.
"My God. I haven't done that since at least '65." he muttered.
"Coulson's down. Barnes, status?" Fury said on earpiece.
"Hulk is off the Helicarrier and out of reach. I on the other hand am now holding onto a tree and will meet up with you."
"Good."
Then Bucky started climbing down and figure out how to meet up with the rest of the crew.
On his way there he saw a bike and stopped.
"Hey." he said and saw the owner. "I'm gonna need a favor."
A few minutes later he was on the man's bike heading to SHIELD.
"Bucky, we know where he's going." Steve said on earpiece.
"Where's he going so I know where to go?" Bucky asked.
"Stark Tower."
"Damnit. OK, I'll be there. Don't do anything stupid until I get back."
"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you."
Bucky smiled and sped up to meet up with the others.
'Let's hope nothing to big happens while I'm gone.' he thought and sped up.
When he met up with the others he saw Iron Man fly up and Thor and Cap look to the sky.
'What the hell did I miss?' he thought as Iron Man redirected the missile, barely missing Stark Tower, and pushed it up towards the portal while the rest of the Avengers looked on.
Suddenly the Chitauri warriors collapsed, and the Leviathans fell from the sky then Thor and Steve looked around as they did then Steve saw Bucky.
"What happened?" Bucky asked.
"It's a long story." Steve said.
On the rooftop Natasha stood waiting.
"Come on, Stark." Natasha said.
"Close it." Steve said and she plunged the scepter into the heart of the device.
Just as the portal closed, Tony fell through back to earth and Bucky and the Avengers looked up to see him reappear.
"Oh my god." Bucky said and covered his mouth in horror.
"Son of a gun!" Steve said as Iron Man plummeted to the ground.
"He's not slowing down." Thor said, prepared to fly at Tony and catch him when the Hulk grabbed him out of the air, slid down the side of a building and crashed to the ground in front of them.
Then Hulk threw Iron Man off him and they ran over. Thor pulled off Iron Man's face plate and Cap listened for a heartbeat, then saw the arc reactor not glowing. Suddenly the Hulk roared and beat his chest. Tony, shocked, gasped and opened his eyes, looking around.
"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." Tony said and Bucky sighed.
"Oh thank god." Bucky said and held Tony close. "You, are going to give a damn heart attack one of these days."
"We won." Steve said and Bucky let go of Tony.
"Alright, Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it." Tony said and Bucky chuckled.
"We're not finished yet." Thor said.
"And then shawarma after?"
On the Penthouse Loki crawled over to a stair and turned to see the Avengers and Bucky surrounding him. Clint had an arrow aimed at his face, Natasha was holding his scepter and Hulk growled.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." Loki said.
Later they were at shawarma and Natasha and Clint had waited long enough.
"Alright Barnes, what gives?" Clint said and Bucky looked at them.
"What do you mean?" Bucky asked.
"Why were you wearing the Winter Soldier uniform?" Natasha asked.
"And why did we bump into you yesterday?" Clint asked.
"Fine. I made a deal with Fury. Let Steve have a free life if I start working at SHIELD again. Till the end of the line is what we said a long time ago and I knew when Fury would offer Steve a job he would accept it. So I agreed to it." Bucky said with his arms crossed.
"I'm still offering a lawyer to free you." Tony said.
"If I leave, then Steve will get into trouble and end up getting hurt."
"Hey!" Steve said while the others snickered.
"You maybe Captain, but in reality, you're nothing but a Private. You were trained for a week because of a program while I was fully trained and a Sergeant Major when I left for England." Bucky said smirking.
"Jerk."
"Punk."
"So you got your job back to look after your best friend just like Pepper took over as CEO for me?" Tony said.
"Pretty much." Bucky said.
"So, what's with you and being single?" Steve asked and Bucky froze.
"I uh, don't like women. I like guys."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's legal now but I haven't really found anyone for me."
"You'll find someone."
"If not, I'm sure Nat will." Clint said. "She usually has a way of doing that." he said and Natasha smirked.
"Oh hell no." Bucky said and Clint and Natasha laughed.
"Oh come on, I always get you just the right person." Natasha said.
"Again, hell no!"
"Fine." she said and shrugged. "But if you change your mind, you know where to find me."
"I'm the reason you got that job!"
"Really?" Steve said.
"Yeah. Clint saved her while I cleared her and got her a job."
"Huh."
"Ya know, there's a certain girl waiting for that dance."
"What?" Steve said and looked at him.
"Peggy's alive. She has dementia but she just retired ten years ago like me. She's in a nursing home and I gave her that ring when you crashed. She still wears it even though she got married. You should visit her like I do every weekend."
"Thanks Buck. I'll visit her later." Steve said and Bucky nodded.
The next day Bucky was in Fury's office getting his ID card and everything he needed.
"Is that everything?" Bucky asked.
"I have one thing to offer." Fury said.
"And?"
"How would you feel about joining the Avengers yourself?"
"I'll think about it. Let me adapt to being back here first." Bucky said and Fury nodded. "So, any missions or not?"
"I got a mission for you and Natasha together. Now that you're back Clint was hoping he could lower his hours a little to spend more time with the kids."
"Yeah, I got it. He can lower them if you let him. I got nothing better to do anyway." Bucky said and took the file while Fury nodded.
"I'll let him know." Fury said while Bucky read the file.
"Looks easy enough. Black Widow and Winter Soldier together, this will be done by tomorrow." Bucky said and closed the file.
"That's what I'm hoping. Go show them that my best agent is still in you."
"You never lost me Nick. Nat maybe good, but no one is better than me." Bucky said and left.
While Bucky and Natasha were on the mission Fury told Clint he could lower his hours to spend more time with his family since Bucky was back and Clint was happy and relieved.
Natasha tried to get Bucky to accept a date during the mission but he declined and focused on the mission.
When they were done Bucky got to his apartment, took a shower, ordered a pizza and relaxed.
"I wondered what kind of shit will happen next time. First aliens and gods, who knows what's next?" he said and sighed.