Chapter Text
The screaming had worn him out. First from the fall, then in the vain hope that anyone would find him. The snow was red near his left arm, and he couldn’t look for more than a few seconds at a time. The sight of his own blood made him queasy, and he didn’t need any more problems at present. The most shocking thing was that he was still alive at all. He absentmindedly wondered what that mad scientist injected him with all those months ago. Must’ve been pretty potent stuff. The crunch of snowy footsteps stopped him from musing any further. He was too weak to turn and look, but he ventured a weak “Hello?”
As the figures came into view he could feel his heart pounding. Not friends. Not even Allied forces. No, these uniforms were swathed in a familiar malice. Hydra. Summoning the last of his strength, he tried to drag himself away from their advancing forms, but all he got in return was a wash of pain from his bleeding arm. His chest heaved with his racing thoughts. No, no, not again, not after all this…
But before he could finish his thoughts, a muffled gunshot drew their attention. He could hear the sounds of a fight, then their bodies falling limp to the snow. As he began to lose consciousness from the blood loss, he glimpsed a shock of golden hair, and familiar, worried eyes…
He woke in a warm darkness. He was moving, he thought. A jostle every once in a while, but something kept him in place so his injured arm was never knocked into the surrounding crates. He could feel a carefully wrapped bandage on his arm, and his head was clearer now. He tried to sit up, and gentle hands guided him until he was resting against a wooden crate.
“Careful Buck, you’ve lost a lot of blood. Don’t want you fainting again.”
Bucky chuckled softly in disbelief. “Steve? But you were on the train, how--”
“Shhh.” whispered Steve, his fingers absentmindedly caressing the shape of Bucky’s cheek. “It’s a long story. Better told when you’re less delirious.”
“Steve, I fell off a train on a mountain. That was hundreds of feet, I’m gonna need more than ‘it’s a long story.’”
Steve rolled his eyes, and a breath of laughter escaped him. “I should’ve known that line wouldn’t work on you.” He took a deep breath, then began. “There’s no easy way to say this, Buck, so I’m just gonna launch in. The world is stranger than we could have ever imagined. Time travel is real, and that’s how I’m here. Strictly speaking, I’m not ‘your’ Steve. He’s grieving your death in a bombed out bar with a bottle of whiskey that won’t get him drunk.” Steve paused for a moment, the memory washing over him.
Bucky took the opportunity to interject, “Steve, slow down, what are you talking about?”
Steve met his eyes, and Bucky could see a dark melancholy. “In a few days, your Steve is going to storm Hydra headquarters in your memory. There he will find Schmidt, along with a bomber ship whose targets are every important city in America. Left with no other options, he will crash that ship into the Atlantic, where he will be frozen in ice and presumed dead. 70 years later, he will wake up in a strange new world.” He stops, looking down, then up again, with a small, sad smile. “Well, I'll wake.”
Bucky paused for a moment, taking it all in, but he couldn’t keep the childlike gleam out of his eyes for long. “So you’re telling me you’ve seen the future?! Did Stark ever figure out his flying car?”
Steve laughed, a real laugh this time. “I forgot how much of a nerd you are. No, he never did get the flying car into the mainstream, but his son made one hell of an armored suit.”
All at once, a question overtook the excited gleam in Bucky’s eyes. “Steve. Why did you come all this way?”
Steve’s silence was nearly a physical entity.
“What happened to me?”
Steve looked away, and Bucky could see more tears gathering behind his eyes. Focusing on anything that wasn’t Bucky, he said quietly, “You… you lost yourself. For a long time.”
Bucky’s eyes were curious, but wary. “Steve? What did they do to me?”
“They took your mind, Buck, they made your their personal assassin, and I, I couldn’t let that happen again, I…” And he trailed off as a sob shook him. Bucky winced as he leaned forward to cup Steve’s jaw and bring his eyes back.
“Did I hurt you, Steve?”
Steve took a deep breath, “It wasn't your fault. You didn’t know me. They took that from you, too.”
Bucky paused, considering. “But that doesn’t happen now?”
Steve smiled ever so slightly. “Not this time.”
“And what about the other me? Your Bucky? Is he alright without you?”
An image of Sam and Bucky bickering flitted across Steve’s eyes, and he laughed, soft and full of fondness. “Yes. He needs redemption, and he can’t find it in my shadow. I made sure he wasn’t alone.”
Bucky considered for a moment. “So what now?”
Steve smiled. “For now, we hide away somewhere and take a breath. Once your Steve is presumed dead, we go back and find Peggy.”
Bucky laughed, “Oh now I see why you came all this way. She was always your favorite of the two of us.”
Steve laughed again, deep and full of life. “You bastard, you know I love you both equally.”
Bucky rolled his eyes, leaning back against the crate. “Sure you do.”
Steve settled in beside his longest love and pressed a gentle kiss to his temple. “Oh god, Buck, it’s good to be home.”