"Hey, Steve? You got a call."

Steve and Sam were in a safe house in the middle of Nowhere, Somewhere. Steve looked at his phone and walked into the small kitchen where Sam was. "I didn't hear the phone ring."

"It's called Skype," Sam said. He pointed to his computer on the table "Shuri's calling with an update on Barnes."

Shuri. Steve's heart jumped. She'd developed a a plan to pull the trigger words from Bucky's mind once and for all and had promised to call when she was ready to begin. Steve couldn't get into the chair fast enough. Shuri was already there onscreen, smiling broadly.

"Captain Rogers, I hope this is an acceptable means of communication. I know we usually speak by telephone but I wanted to talk face to face today."

"Shuri – are you ready to start? Is Bucky out of cryofreeze? Is he OK? Is he okay with the plan? When are you going to start? I can be there in twelve hours. What did Bucky say?"

"One question at a time, Captain Rogers. One question at a time." Shuri didn't lose her smile. "As a matter of fact, the procedure is complete. It was lengthy, but it has succeeded. I contacted you this way specifically because I thought you would want to see the results for yourself."

Then she reached out and turned the camera – and there was Bucky.

There was Bucky.

"Bucky." Steve jumped forward, putting his hands on the computer screen, wanting to reach right through and touch him. "Bucky, God – Bucky."

"Hey, Steve." Bucky smiled, shyly. He was pale, with dark eyes and heavy whiskers, wearing a white hospital t-shirt.

"Bucky," Steve couldn't seem to stop saying his name. "What happened? How was it? Are you okay? Are you – do you – how does it feel?"

"One question at a time, Captain Rogers," Shuri's off-camera voice reminded him. He saw her hand pat Bucky's shoulder and Bucky smiled up and back as though she was walking away and then Steve heard a door close. After that, Buck turned back to the camera.

"It wasn't easy. It got pretty bad at times, but -" he let out a heavy, relieved sigh. "It was worth it."

"I told Shuri I wanted to know when she was going to start. I wanted to be there. Bucky, I would've been there."

"I know. I know you would've. I asked her to go ahead without telling you. I didn't want – if it didn't work – I didn't want you to be disappointed."

"Bucky."

"If it didn't work, she could just put me back in cryofreeze and you wouldn't – I wouldn't have got your hopes up for nothing. I didn't want that. I wanted – I wanted this. To talk to you after it was all done. I didn't want you to have to see me put back in cryofreeze. I didn't want to have to say goodbye to you again."

Bucky bit the corner of his mouth and looked down and away and Steve pressed his hand against the computer. It was the closest he could come to touching Bucky right now.

"You look tired," Steve said.

"Aaah," Bucky shrugged that away. "What about you? How're you doing? You're growing a beard?"

Steve stroked his chin and his own whiskers. "Yeah, thought it was time for something new. What do you think?"

"Question is, what does that girl Sharon think?" Bucky asked and Steve felt his cheeks burn.

"I haven't seen her in a while."

"I'm betting she'd like it."

"Yeah, we'll see. Really, how're you doing? How do you feel?"

Bucky had been grinning, but he lost that now. "It feels kinda hollow. Like getting a tooth drilled but the dentist hasn't put the filling in yet. The rot's all gone but the hole's a problem, too. You know? I gotta fill in where that rot was with something stronger. Something – something me. I've been trying so hard for so long just to get back to me, now I finally get here, now I have do something with it."

"No, you don't. You don't, Bucky. Like you said, you just got back to you, so just be you, for as long as you need to be. Don't force it. Don't think you have to force it. Just – " Steve thought back to his own experience. "It's called 'being a fish out of water', that's what I heard it called when people talked about me getting used to this century."

Bucky started to say something, tried to say something, then he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and cleared his throat. "I wanna be the fish that finally gets to go back into the water," he said and Steve reached out again, uselessly again, to try and touch him.

Sorry, Pal, he almost said, that water is long gone. But he couldn't, he wouldn't say that, even though they both knew it was true. "We'll give it our best shot, then, won't we?"

The promise made Bucky smile a little and sit up a little straighter. "Yeah, yeah, we will."

"So, you're doing okay since the procedure? How long has it been?"

"Um, I don't know." Bucky looked around himself a little. "What time is it? If there's a clock here, I sure the hell can't tell. Not long. Forty-five minutes? Just long enough to know -"

"Forty-five minutes? Buck! You should be resting, you should be sleeping. Shuri's told me about the procedure and you're right it wasn't easy. You need to go rest."

"I needed you to know," Bucky said. His voice was soft. "I wanted you to be the first one to know. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for you. I needed you to know. I can rest later. As soon as Shuri and I knew, I needed you to know."

Tears stung Steve's eyes and he swallowed once or twice. His hands seemed to have a permanent grip on the computer. "Buck," and it was Bucky, finally Bucky, after so much horror and heartbreak. He had Bucky back.

"So, you think, maybe, one of these days, you might stop by?" Bucky asked, hesitantly. Like there wasn't only one answer.

"I'm on my way."

And Bucky's expression cleared from worry to relief then to deliberate nonchalance. He shrugged. "I mean, Shuri says she's got some pretty strict visiting hours but I think I can find somebody around here to sneak you in." He grinned. "It's good to see you."

"You, too."

"I'm gonna go get that rest now. You'll be here? Soon?"

And even though Steve would gladly sit there another week talking to Bucky, just being with him, Bucky needed to rest.

"As soon as I can."

Twelve hours was no time and a lifetime. Bucky had showered and slept and eaten and slept again. Shuri promised to wake him before Steve arrived so he could get dressed, get ready, get outside to greet Steve as soon as he set foot in Wakanda, but a sudden buzz of voices roused him from sleep just as Shuri appeared at his bedside.

"Sergeant Barnes, Bucky, you should wake up. Steve is on his way."

"He is?" Bucky pushed himself up and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"Yes, and he's an hour earlier than expected." Shuri sounded annoyed. "Apparently Captain Rogers doesn't believe in speed limits for airplanes."

"When is he landing?" Bucky stood up. He wanted to be on his feet when he saw Steve again. When Steve saw him.

"Landing? He's landed. He's landed and he's running up the stairs and down the hallways to get to you." She smiled. "I have lost a brother and had him returned to me. I understand his impatience."

Then there was Steve.

There was Steve, standing in the open doorway, staring like he couldn't believe it, like he couldn't take another step. "Buck?"

"Hey, Steve."

He took a step, Bucky tried to take more than a step to get to Steve, but exhaustion and relief made those steps unsteady and then Steve was in front of him, right in front of him. "Hey, Buck," Steve opened his arms and pulled Bucky in, hard against him, and Bucky put his arm around Steve and never wanted to let go. "It's good to have you back."

A/N: I read online that the directors and writers of Infinity War said that Steve had visited Bucky in Wakanda after Shuri healed him, and that they probably also skyped. Sebastian Stan said that if that scene in Infinity War was the first time they'd seen each other since Civil War, "their hug would've lasted half the movie." (A man after my own heart.)