Chapter Text
Bucky defects from Hydra in mid 2001 when on a routine Winter Soldier mission. Get in, get out, no witnesses. He’s up against some pretty big guys. One gets a hit on him right to his head and it jostles something in his brain. He becomes disoriented and stumbles away retreating to safety.
“Damn. what is going on” he says as he’s running out of the building he was just in. His thoughts are a jumbled mess and all he can think about is getting out and getting to safety. Taking his mask from his face as he runs, his outfit feeling too constrictive. He's ripping off pieces of his uniform leaving him in just a black shirt and his tack pants. He finds a car and hotwires it not really thinking about how he knows how to do that but also not caring and gets out of there as fast as possible. As the days following his escape he starts regaining some of his memories. Not all are coming as easy as you would think. The nightmares are horrible. Waking him up every night and not letting him sleep. He's on the run so he can't stay in one place for too long. He travels for months well into the new year.
He ends up in DC for a while where his life changes forever. He's there for about two weeks when it happens. The farmers market is held every weekend in the busy part of DC. So pretty crowded and easy to disappear into. The produce stands are packed so everyone is standing close. It puts Bucky's guard up. He's looking at the fruits when he gets bumped into. “Ah sorry man! I didn't mean too….” he trails off catching Bucky's attention and he turns around so quickly ready to be on the defense when he halts and stares at the man. “Uh hey I'm Sam.” Sam puts his left hand out to shake Bucky’s hand. He's unsure about it at first but there's just something about Sam that he can't figure out. Like he's drawn to him, he feels safe in his presence. He reaches his hand out and takes Sam’s hand in a shake and as he does it a warm tingly feeling runs up his arm. It's nice, comforting. He has a smile on his face, the first smile for quite some time. “James, well my friends call me Bucky.” “Can your soulmate call you Bucky too?” Sam says with a sly grin. It actually gets a chuckle out of Bucky and he grins back at him and says “Yeah you can call me anything you want doll.” He catches himself off guard with that remark too. Unsure where all this confidence is coming from but it just feels right. “You wanna get out of here?” Sam says to Bucky. He nods and they head off somewhere quiet and more private to talk. From then on Bucky doesn't leave DC. He stays in the area for Sam. They get to know each other. Open up about themselves. He tells Sam how he became a POW and about the things he's done. He tells him about Steve and the 40's and some of the crazy things he got up to with him. Sam takes it all in stride. Telling him it wasn't his fault and he wasn't in control of his own body. laughing at the crazy things he can't believe Captain America did. "No that was all Steve. His Captain America persona was to stoic to do anything stupid but Steve man Steve could be real dumb" Bucky says while laughing so hard he's almost crying from it. Sam in turn tells him about his time in the air force about his wingman Riley and the turmoil and how he just couldn't find a reason to be over there anymore. Why he was back in DC working at the VA and helping soldiers back on solid ground. Their relationship from there becomes romantic and soon enough Bucky moves into Sam’s apartment. They're always on guard and watching their backs. You never know where Hydra could be.
A year flies by. Bucky meets Sam’s sister Sarah and one of his Air force buddy’s Rhody in that time. He hits it off with Sarah and they have an almost brother-sister/ best friend type of friendship with loads of bickering and picking on each other. Sam gets a kick out of it. With Rhody it’s different. Bucky doesn't trust anyone from the government. Too worried that they might be affiliated with Hydra. So it takes some time to warm up to him. One day Sam receives a call from Rhody saying that he has someone he thinks they should meet. That it's important that they meet him actually. Bucky is super wary of the whole situation but eventually Sam talks him into it. He tells them to meet him at Stark tower. They make the trip from DC to NY. Bucky begrudgingly so. They take the 6 hour drive up to NY. Too worried that if they fly something might happen with Bucky. When they get there Sam texts Rhody and he lets them up into the penthouse suite. Not really sure what they’re about to walk into. Not really understanding why they're meeting in Stark tower and in Tony’s penthouse suite to be exact but they're not asking questions. More curious than anything and on guard in case anything happens. The elevator doors open up to an enormous living room with a kitchen attached to the one side and a hallway that undoubtedly leads to more rooms. “Hey! Sam, Bucky. Good see you guys! How was the drive up?” Rhody says in greeting. “Hey Rhody. Good to see you too! It's been a while hasn't it? The drive was fine until we got into the city. The damn traffic here is ridiculous!” He hugs Rhody. Bucky shakes his hand in greeting and says a curt hi. “Aw yeah New York traffic sucks and there is nothing you can do about it.” Rhody says with a shrug of his shoulders. As they're talking they start to hear bickering coming from the hallway that's getting closer. “Tony, we can't paint the baby’s room pink.” “Well I like pink. I think it would be fine and I don't see an issue with it!” “We can’t do pink. What if it's a boy? We have to do a more neutral color.” They continue until they come into view. “Oh boy here they come. They've been fighting about baby room colors ever since they found out Tony was pregnant.” Rhody says. But he's met by silence when each person realizes who's in front of them. “Bucky!” “Steve!?”