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Bucky Barnes stands there for hours, it seems. He is staring at a picture of himself. It was taken at least 70 years ago, and yet he still looks the same. Only that he is laughing and standing next to Steve Rogers in that picture.
Grant Ward is right behind him, when Barnes turns around with a heavy sigh, and almost walks into him. Barnes' instincts and drill take over instantly. He tenses, quickly looking around for more opponents or guns pointing at him. Luckily the Smithsonian is filled with visitors and he doesn't want to draw attention to himself.
"I'm not HYDRA. Come with me, if you want to live," Ward says loud enough for Barnes to hear him, and grabs his arm. Barnes must be too surprised to oppose.
"Who are you?" he asks, when they leave the museum and Ward pulls him behind a memorial stone and out of reach of the security camera.
"Grant Ward," Ward introduces himself. "I'm working for Coulson, who works with Rogers a lot. I can get you there, but we have to be quick – HYDRA is already looking for you."
***
When they arrive at the Playground, Coulson is expecting them already.
Ward brings Bucky to the infirmary, for a medical check-up, after which he'll join the debriefing.
"That's Simmons, our doctor. She'll take care of you," Ward tells him, before quickly scanning the room, an unspoken question in his eyes.
"Hello, Sergeant Barnes." Simmons greets Bucky, and Bucky actually flinches. He has not been called by his rank since... well... ever.
"It's just Bucky," he says. "I'm not a sergeant anymore."
"Alright." She smiles. "But in that case you have to call me Jemma." Then she gives Ward a look. "Can I help you, agent Ward?"
Ward hesitates a moment before shaking his head. "Please bring Bucky to Coulson's office, when you're done, Simmons." With that, he leaves.
Meanwhile, Bucky takes his shirt off and listens to Jemma's explanations of what's to expect, but it's the usual procedure. Temperature, blood pressure, ECG and so on- the basics never change, no matter which century.
She starts with pulmonary, when someone enters her infirmary again.
"Hey, Jem, do you know what's go... You're Bucky Barnes!"
"Bucky, that's Fitz. A friend and fellow agent who apparently has forgotten about his manners," Simmons says with a poignant look. "And Fitz, if you didn't hide God knows where the whole day, you would probably know by now that agent Ward brought Bucky here just..."
"Ward?" Fitz stares at them both. "Ward is here?"
"At the director's." Jemma's look changes to worried, before she moves on with the preparations to take a sample of Bucky's blood.
Glad, that his thoughts are occupied with something else, Bucky uses the little pause to ask: "How do you know me?"
"Everyone knows you! Especially when they work for SHIELD," Fitz tells him, grateful for the distraction. "You were one of the Howling Commandos. You were Captain America's best friend!"
Captain America's best friend. Bucky thinks about it. "I almost killed him," he says finally.
"But you didn't. You saved him," Fitz reminds him, and Bucky sighs. Because yes, he saved Steve, but is that enough? Can they go on now as if HYDRA never happened?
"He has no reason to trust me," Bucky says. "And he doesn't need me anymore. Not even to protect him."
"He may not need a body guard anymore," Fitz agrees. "but he can still need a friend."
"How am I still a friend? HYDRA turned me into a monster," Bucky says quietly, more to himself than to the much younger agent. He thinks of all the people he ruthlessly killed during the last half of a century, just because HYDRA told him so.
"Did you have a choice?" Fitz asks and Bucky winces, remembering cold steel on his temples. Pain, and then coldness and darkness all around him in the cryogenic chamber.
He shakes his head. "HYDRA never gives you the luxury of a choice."
They fall silent for a moment, their thoughts clearly somewhere else. The only sound comes from the other side of the room, where Jemma Simmons is working on her tablet.
"He'll understand..." Fitz's voice is barely a whisper now, and he clears his throat before he continues. "You're his best friend and HYDRA wiped out your memories. You didn't lie to his face for months! You didn't pretend anything that wasn't true!" Fitz sounds angry, but Bucky knows it's not because of him or on Steve's behalf.
He and Ward had time to talk on their way here, and it turned out they had one or two things in common. Like betraying people important to them. Blond and blue eyed, wispy guys, too smart for their own good and braver than they give themselves credit for, to be more specific.
"Bucky, you are dismissed for now. The results look very good," Jemma says behind Bucky's back, so he puts his shirt back on.
"Thank you, Jemma," he says, buttoning his shirt. "Where is Coulson's office?"
"I'll bring you there," Fitz offers, and they leave the infirmary.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to... It wasn't about you..." Fitz tries to give him an explanation for his sudden outburst, and Bucky just nods. He understands. He really does.
"You've turned against HYDRA. That means a lot," Fitz says in a calmer voice now, leading Bucky through the corridors.
Bucky hopes that it's true. That it will make a difference to Steve. That it's not too late.
He clears his throat. "I wasn't the only one who wasn't able to make his own decisions about lying and pretending..."
The way Fitz flinches shows that they both know whom Bucky is talking of.
"He changed sides, too, and you just said that it means a lot," Bucky continues, when Fitz doesn't interrupt him.
Fitz swallows hard, before pointing at a door to his left. "That's the director's office."
Bucky nods his thanks and knocks on the door.
***
Leo catches a glimpse of Ward standing there, turning around slightly, when Bucky enters the room. It looks natural for Ward to be there. Leo has seen him there countless of times, he has been with him there more often than not. Remembering it is physically painful.
He hears Coulson greet Bucky, and Bucky's answer and realizes that he is still standing in front of Coulson's office.
He makes it to the next corner, telling himself that he has to be elsewhere. The door of the office is being opened and closed again and then he can hear steps on the otherwise quiet corridor. It must be Ward.
Leo remembers how Ward was walked away the last time he saw him. Escorted by armed men his brother had sent to get him. All Leo could do back then was star at Ward in silence and hope that this was part of a secret plan Leo had no knowledge of.
All he wanted to do was step in their way to... do what? Punch Ward? Kiss him? Make sure it's really Ward, somehow? The same Ward who was an important member of the team? Important to *him*?
Leo takes the opportunity and steps in now, realizing too late where Ward is and where he is. Now they are standing way too close to each other.
"Jesus, Fitz, I almost killed you!" Ward says through clenched teeth, but doesn't step back.
"Yes, thank you for reminding me," Leo says under his breath. Ward hears it anyway, of course, because their upper bodies are almost touching.
And yet he can't back off.
Ward probably thinks he deserves it. Leo doesn't want to think about it now. Or about how tired Ward looks. Or how good scruff looks on him.
"So, you're back?" It's still not easy for Leo to look Ward in the face, but he also doesn't move away, Even if he isn't sure, he likes this closeness, after months of being separated, first by the energy walls of Ward's cell and then by this mission, whatever it may be.
"Not for long," Ward says. "But I had to bring Bucky in, before HYDRA could get him."
"Why?" Leo asks. "Wouldn't it be a proof of your loyalty to HYDRA, if you turned him in?"
"Probably." Ward nods. "But I know what they would do to him, and I can't let that happen. Besides, I'm not loyal to HYDRA, Fitz, I just have to make them think I am. And they didn't assign me to hunt Bucky down, so..."
For a moment Ward looks at him without a word, pulling at the feelings Leo managed to store away somewhere inside him, where he can pretend they don't exist.
Now, with Ward looking as if he belongs there, at the team's new headquarter, it's really hard to keep this feeling in.
"Good answer," Leo says, looking into Ward's eyes.
"I'm on my way to grab some food while I can," Ward says, finally stepping away from Leo. "Have you already eaten today?"
Leo tends to forget about eating or sleeping when he is working, but he didn't think Ward knew about it. He thought Jemma was the only one who knows such things about him.
"Tea would be good." he decides and Ward nods. "There also must be a sandwich in the fridge."
Once they are in the kitchen, Ward takes a look at the content of the fridge, while Leo fills the electric heater.
"This will never get old..." He hears Ward's amused voice. and when he turns around, he sees the plastic wrapped plate on the Playground's tiny kitchen table.
"I'll never get to hear the end of it." He rolls his eyes, grinning. Everytime he makes himself a sandwich, and doesn't eat it right away, its wrapping is covered with drawings of rats and dogs when he comes back for it.
Ward chuckles, cutting the sandwich in two. Then he takes a bite, pushing the plate with the other half towards Leo.
"That's a real good sandwich. Now I'm really sorry that I had to throw it away," he admits.
"Are you kidding me?" Leo says disbelievingly, and judging from Ward's grin, this must be the reaction he was hoping for. "And you have to admit that *now*, of all times? Like *a year* later?"
"I see, you're totally over it." He doesn't see Ward's grin go wider, because he is busy with the tea.
Leo places a mug of hot tea in front of Ward before he sits down. "Was it really necessary to throw it away, though?"
"Of course it was!" Ward says with a laugh, after another bite. "No matter how good it tastes. They had *dogs* on our tracks, Fitz. Had they found us, we would still be in a South Ossetian prison and you would probably be someone's princess by now."
"You would have let that happen to me?" Leo's question was supposed to be a joke, but it came out more serious than he intended. Maybe because that's what really could have happened, if they got caught.
"Anyone who as much as looked in your direction the wrong way, would lose their fingers." The way Ward says it, makes obvious he means every word of it.
Leo takes a big gulp of his tea, and regrets it, because it's still too hot. "In that case it's probably been for the better to get rid of it," he says, after swallowing slowly. "There, I admit something too. And thank you." He pushes the plate with his half of the sandwich back to Ward.
"You're very welcome, agent Fitz." Ward smiles, gladly accepting it.
It almost feels like old times, sitting there with Ward, drinking tea, having banter like nothing ever happened, and Leo isn't sure how to handle it.
"What if bringing Bucky in is just one of HYDRA's cunning plans to destroy SHIELD completely?" he asks, just to say anything.
"Then you'd be all dead already," Ward tells him, matter of factly. "The Winter Soldier is the big guns, Fitz. Besides, I wouldn't do that. We're on the same side now, believe me."
"Without you Whitehall would still be alive. It's a big loss for HYDRA, for sure... And now they've also lost Bucky..." Leo remembers, taking another sip of tea. "How did you get him to change sides?"
"He did it on his own by saving Roger's life. I just had to find him before HYDRA," Ward says. "And I told him to come with me if he wants to live..."
"You did not!" Leo says, appalled and amused equally. "You did not quote Terminator on him!"
"It fit." Ward shrugs, finishing the other half of the sandwich. "And it's not like he'll recognize it, or like I didn't mean it." He can't hide a grin. "You wouldn't let the opportunity pass to say it, either."
Leo nods, because okay, he would say it, too, in the same situation. He's not sure Bucky would have followed him, had Leo been in Ward's place, though.
"Is he staying with us now?" he wants to know.
"I doubt it," Ward tells him, before taking another sip of his tea. "Coulson already spoke to Rogers. He's coming to pick Bucky up."
"Steve Rogers is coming here?" Leo isn't even trying to hide the excitement in his voice. It's also written all over his face, making him look even younger than he is. He has never met an actual Avenger yet, and now he may meet the very first of them.
"So it seems." Ward watches him, before getting up to wash the dishes. "Thanks for sharing your sandwich, Fitz," he adds, putting the clean plate and the mugs away again.
"Was it easy for you?" Fitz asks suddenly, because he has the feeling that he has to. Now or never. "Lying to us. Pretending, I mean. Even after you decided to be a double-agent."
"Not being able to tell you the truth, after I spoke with Fury and Coulson, has been one of the hardest things I had to do. But the most important of being a double-agent is, the fewer people knew about it, the better," Ward says quietly. "It must be hard to trust me, especially for you. I get that, but me being a friend is not a lie, Fitz. I hope I can prove it to you some day."
Leo nods, breathing in, deeply. "I hope so, too."
"Good." Ward also nods, sounding content, and Leo smiles. "I hope I'll see you before I have to leave again," Ward adds, as they both leave the kitchen in different directions.
"I hope so, too," Leo says once again, and now it's Ward who smiles.
***
He spends the entire next morning with Jemma and Bucky, collecting data about Bucky's bionic arm.
It looks heavy, but it's not. It feels like a very fine chain maille glove. It's solid, but not ice cold. It can effortlessly smash stones and yet has even better dexterity than normal arms.
"It will take some time, but with a few adaptations, bionic technology will be of great help to anyone who needs a prosthetic limb one day," Jemma says happily, probably putting a list together in her head already of how exactly to make this happen.
"Making people's lives easier for a change would be great." Bucky nods. He looks good after a night of sleep and the new hair cut Skye must have talked him into earlier.
"You made my life easier by saving it many times," someone behind them says, and when they look around, there is Steve Rogers, standing at the door to the infirmary, staring at Bucky, who immediately hops off the treatment table.
"Steve..." He takes a few steps forward, and so does Rogers.
"We have to go now..." Leo starts, slowly backing off. For a moment he thinks about reminding Bucky that he is shirtless, but decides against it. It doesn't seem that important.
"...to compare our data." Jemma finishes his sentence, following his lead. Not that Bucky or Rogers would pay them any attention.
"I wasn't sure you would really come for me," Bucky says in a tight voice.
"Always, Buck..." Steve tells him, while Jemma closes the door to the infirmary, giving them some privacy.
Later that day, Leo finally manages to exchange a few words with Steve, as he and Bucky say their good-byes.
"Thank you, for taking care of Bucky," Steve says, shaking his hand.
"Agent Ward is the one who deserves your thanks," Leo says. "I was just keeping Bucky company. Which wasn't a hard thing to do, because he is awesome."
"He is, isn't he?" Steve smiles. "And being in good company is also very important, Agent Fitz. Especially if one didn't have any for many decades." He pats Leo's shoulder and Leo grins, happy about Captain America knowing his name now.
"Thanks for everything, Fitz." Now it's Bucky who shakes his hand.
"I didn't do anything," Leo tries to explain again, and Bucky becomes serious.
"We both now that that's not true. You talked to me, and it helped," he says. "Now you have to listen to yourself and trust him. Just a little," he says. "As impossible as it may be, Steve seems to trust me. Without Ward, none of this would have happened."
Leo nods, because yes, Bucky is right. He sees Ward standing not far away from him, talking to Steve. Ward smiles one of his rare smiles, Leo realizes how much he misses it. And the agent it belongs to.
"Thank you, Bucky," Leo says, and Bucky pats his shoulder just the way Steve did moments ago.
"...it was the right thing to do, and I have a lot of right things to do, for a change," Leo hears Ward say, and swallows hard, thinking about trust and second chances.
He doesn't mean to be eavesdropping, but he also can't unhear the end of Bucky's and Ward's conversation.
"… they are worth it, aren't they?" Bucky's eyes rest on Steve when he says it. And Ward nods at that, looking at Leo and smiles.
"Absolutely. No matter how long it takes."