Okay, so I took a well-deserved break from the angst that was Bucky's story (If My Life is a Dream…). Being that relentlessly dark takes a toll sometimes. Anyhow…isn't it about time that we get these three together? I know you've been waiting for it.

This arc of the story will contain various POVs. This is the fourth installment in the series. It began with When Passed My Friend and Left Me Standing Bleakly, continued with To Soothe the Savage Beast, then moved to If My Life is a Dream, I Want to Wake Up.

Steve was filthy, sore, exhausted, and very hungry. One of the side effects of the super serum was an insanely fast metabolism, which required fuel on a regular basis. This mission hadn't really allowed for that, and his body was threatening to start cannibalizing itself soon.

At his side, Bucky slumped in a debriefing room chair. His feet were propped up on the table, and Bucky was pointedly ignoring the multiple scowls aimed his way. He was dirtier than Steve, if that was possible, and probably even more tired. But there was an inner calmness about him that hadn't been there before. Having a job, a purpose, suited Bucky. Without it, he tended to be hyper agitated, restless, or depressed.

Many of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents very clearly did not trust Bucky, and weren't shy about how they felt. Steve worried at first, but when it became clear that Bucky didn't give a shit, he stopped worrying as much. It didn't stop him from glaring furiously if someone made a nasty comment, and Captain America's disapproval was enough to prevent some rough times. Clint and Natasha's disapproval was even more potent, and both Avenger agents made it clear that they trusted Bucky.

Still, Steve worried. They hadn't been able to find out who had been behind the kidnapping and detaining fiasco yet, and Steve had no desire to have his best friend reprogrammed into an unthinking assassin, again. Bucky's performance during Darcy's rescue illustrated that his skills were still there, and could be accessed when needed, but the last thing either of them wanted was to see those skills put to use only for assassination.

Bucky would kill when necessary. He'd told Steve and Darcy that much, after a long heart to heart following Darcy's rescue. After all, he'd done it while a member of the Howling Commandos. He just didn't want to be used, against his will, as an emotionless assassin. A killing machine.

They had gone back to a slightly uneasy peace all together. After the fiasco with Darcy's kidnapping, Stark had offered them an apartment in one of the buildings he owned. Ever since he'd become Iron Man, the billionaire had started collecting properties around the world, owned in a corporate name that he was pretty sure could not be traced back to him, just to have safe places to stay. And since S.H.I.E.L.D, or the World Security Council, was screwing things up, Tony thought that Steve might not want it known where he was.

Steve didn't want to owe a debt of any kind to Stark, but he also didn't want S.H.I.E.L.D to be able to knock on his door and shoot him with tranquilizers again when he opened it. Plus, their old apartment was trashed. Bucky had destroyed the floor in the closet of his old room, and S.H.I.E.L.D had put metal bolts through the living room floor. And there were bullet holes in the walls. It was a mess. Upon being cleared by medical and returning to the apartment, Darcy had taken a quick tour, and had laughingly declared that they weren't getting their security deposit back.

But any decision would have to include Bucky, because Steve had no intention of letting him go off by himself again. He shouldn't have allowed it in the first place, but he wanted to respect Bucky's decisions. Then again, when coming back to yourself after being programmed to be an assassin, after almost dying, well, maybe those decisions had been compromised.

So after Bucky recovered from his gunshot wound with a little help from Stark's medical team, Steve and Darcy sat down with him to discuss things. They didn't want to be separated from him again. Bucky reluctantly admitted the same thing, even though he also didn't really want to be the 'fifth wheel', whatever that meant. Basically, living with a couple made him uncomfortable. Steve sort of understood why. Back in the day, pre-serum, Bucky had regularly brought girls home to the tiny apartment he shared with Steve. Steve had gotten quite a second-hand education at that time, and it was uncomfortable.

But with the size of apartments nowadays, it wasn't as much of an issue. There was plenty of room to avoid hearing and seeing things. And Bucky admitted that being by himself was a bad thing. Too much time to think. He also did not want S.H.I.E.L.D easily able to find them, so supported the move idea.

Fury hadn't been pleased when he found out Steve was moving himself and Bucky to an undisclosed location. He'd even gone so far as to have the S.H.I.E.L.D HR department call Steve to get the new address, for 'payroll purposes'. Steve was ready for that though, and had a PO Box address to give them, that was registered through Stark's company. Stark thought of everything. He was surprisingly helpful.

The moving itself had been a masterpiece of Stark's cleverness to outwit S.H.I.E.L.D's best. Steve still chuckled when he thought about it. It had been effective. S.H.I.E.L.D didn't know where they were. It was driving Fury nuts. But Fury wasn't the one Steve was worried about. Whoever had sent Fury off to Calcutta was the one he was after, because that was the person who had masterminded the whole thing. That was the person who thought that he (or she) had the right to take Bucky away from him.

Steve was mature enough to acknowledge that his possessiveness of Bucky was a little strange. But after four years (awake time) of thinking his best friend was dead, his reaction didn't exactly surprise him. Darcy was completely amused by it, especially when he had gone off in a rant one night. He was working with Clint and Natasha to track down the responsible person, and they had run into another dead end. When he had vented about it, in the privacy of their bedroom, Darcy had tried to reassure him.

Steve wasn't really sure what had overtaken him, but at one point, he remembered laying claim to Bucky. "He's my best friend, Darce. Mine! And no one gets to take him away from me again!"

Her speculative look had made him feel slightly ashamed of his base reaction. It had also had him wondering about that reaction. It wasn't…normal.

"Captain Rogers?"

Steve blinked, focusing on Sitwell's face. He was very tired if he was drifting off in the middle of a debriefing.

"Are we done here?" he asked, weariness coming through in his voice. He just wanted to go home. They'd been away from Darcy for two weeks.

Sitwell looked apologetic. "Not quite yet, Captain."

Bucky's boots slipped off the table and hit the floor with a resounding thud, drawing everyone's attention. Bucky leaned forward, and smiled his scary smile. "What the captain meant was – we're done here."

Steve found it hysterical that Sitwell still bought Bucky's 'sociopathic assassin' routine. The bald agent blinked, looking from Bucky to Steve, and then back to Bucky. He swallowed. "I guess we can wrap up early."

Bucky's smile had a lot of teeth in it. "Good decision." He stood, and stared down at Steve pointedly.

"Right." Steve somehow managed to stand, and followed Bucky out of the debriefing room.

Bucky knew him well enough to know that food was needed first, before they could even leave headquarters or shower. Whatever version of the serum Bucky had received didn't burn as quickly as Steve's, so he didn't suffer quite the same if food deprived. Still, he was hungry too.

They ran into Barton just coming out of the cafeteria. He winced when he saw their appearance, and ordered them to sit. Steve propped his head up with his hands and just sort of slumped into the table. He was eternally grateful when Barton returned with two heaping trays of high energy food.

"I could kiss you right now," he mumbled, grabbing a fork and digging in.

Both Barton and Bucky laughed at that. "Darcy might not like that," Clint pointed out, slinging himself into a chair.

"You brought me food," Steve argued. "She'll forgive me."

He streamrolled through the entire tray of food in a very short amount of time, feeling more like a human being once done. Across the table, Bucky looked revived as well, though still very dirty and tired. Steve could feel how dirty he was now, and a shower was definitely next on the list. He wasn't going home to Darcy smelling this bad.

Clint seemed to realize that at the same time as Steve did. "You should probably shower," the archer suggested. "You're a bit…fragrant…right now."

Steve ducked his head, hearing Bucky laugh out loud. "Yeah thanks, Barton. My nose works. Thanks for getting the food. I was about ready to fall over."

The archer nodded. "You two look rough. Heard about the mission. Glad I wasn't on it. Go shower. Please."

Steve laughed this time as he hauled his fragrant self out of the cafeteria and toward the showers. Bucky was gliding along behind him, exhaustion shining through now that he had eaten. They must make some sight – Captain America and his best friend, the former Winter Soldier, looking like they'd just crawled out of the primordial ooze.

By unspoken agreement, or maybe a little help from Barton, the showers were empty by the time they got there. Bucky peeled off to grab towels, while Steve got soap and shampoo. Thankfully, they had clean clothes waiting for them in their lockers.

Steve peeled off the uniform with a wince. It felt like it was practically bonded to his skin, and that was just gross. "Ugh," he muttered.

"Yeah," Bucky agreed, from down the row. He was pulling his jumpsuit off, face wrinkled in distaste. "I think it's alive."

Steve laughed tiredly. "After what we waded through to get to that cartel, it's a possibility." He turned to grab at the haphazard pile of towels and washcloths Bucky had dropped onto the bench, and paused for a moment as the overhead lights shone off of Bucky's fake arm. It was a marvel of technology, seamlessly integrated into his shoulder muscles and nerves, and as flexible as a real arm. Bucky hated it, but also relied on it quite a bit, since it was very strong, and nearly indestructible.

"You know I hate when you stare at it."

Bucky's voice was quiet, but not as angst-ridden as Steve expected, and that was a good thing. "I just…whenever I see it, it reminds me that you're really here, and not just a figment of my imagination. I wouldn't have dreamed up a metal arm, so I know you're real. And that just makes me happy. Everything was dark, after you fell."

Bucky nodded slowly. "It was. You and Darcy, you're my light. You brought me back to the light. Don't let me go back to the dark."

"Never," Steve told him fiercely. Neither one of them were looking at each other, but that was okay. They didn't need to.

The shower felt like heaven. Steve started to feel more like a human as the filth streamed off of him. Based on Bucky's almost pornographic moan from the next shower stall, he felt the same way. The sludge they had waded through had clung to them tenaciously, even through a pitched battle and the journey back to headquarters. It had started to feel like a second skin, and Steve was very glad to get rid of it. He definitely felt lighter without it.

"I think my drain is clogging," Bucky called, a hint of laughter in his voice.

Steve blinked water out of his eyes and looked down. His drain was not functioning well either. The water, starting to back up, was decidedly discolored. Steve shuddered to think that all that crap was coming off of him. "Mine too," he called back. "I think we were carrying a new life form."

Thankfully, they were almost done. Steve finished quickly, turned the shower off, and splashed through the not-draining water to escape the sludge.

"Much better," he sighed, finishing toweling off and pulling on clean clothes.

"Agreed." Bucky pulled a shirt over his head and shook his wet hair, sending some splatter Steve's way. Steve threw his wet towel at him, and Bucky retaliated by snapping him on the ass with it.

Now all that was needed was Darcy and sleep. They separated outside of headquarters, in their usual routine to shake off any possible tails. S.H.I.E.L.D had mostly stopped trying to track them, but Steve wasn't relaxing that routine. Stark had gifted both of them with a cool little device that would fry any bugs or tracking devices on their person. When they were on a mission, being tracked was a given. After the mission, S.H.I.E.L.D had no right to track them.

Steve had found trackers in his regular clothes, on his motorcycle, in his wallet, and shoes. Not every day, but often enough. Bucky had found them too, so it was better to be cautious.

Their routine home was convoluted and designed to befuddle any street level trackers. As far as Steve knew, it was effective. So he wasn't going to stop doing it, even though it made the trip home longer than it had to be.

Bucky had edged him out, and was just opening the door to their apartment when Steve stepped off the elevator onto their floor. He heard a squeal of glee from inside the apartment, and had to laugh as Bucky suddenly had an armful of Darcy. She hugged him tightly, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and then saw Steve. With another happy shriek, she squirmed out of Bucky's arms and ran for Steve. She almost knocked him over in her enthusiasm.

"I missed you! You smell good. So do you, Buck. You were gone forever!"

Steve wrapped his arms around her tightly. "It was only two weeks, Darce."

"And we showered!" Bucky called as he entered the apartment. Steve followed, one hand sliding under Darcy's ass to hold her up as he walked.

"A good thing we did," Steve murmured to her. "Barton said we were fragrant."

Darcy wrinkled her nose. "I've smelled Barton after missions. If he said you were fragrant, you must have really reeked."

Bucky laughed from where he was standing at the refrigerator, downing a bottle of water. "We clogged the shower drains."

Darcy giggled against Steve's neck. "That's just wrong. What were you doing?"

"Wading through sludge," Steve answered. "Everything else is…"

"Classified!" Darcy and Bucky called at the same time. Steve rolled his eyes. They both found that funny for some reason. He couldn't understand why.

Darcy insisted on snuggle time after they'd been gone on missions. Bucky had tried to get out of the first one, only to be glared at and chased with the taser until he submitted. So he didn't even try to avoid it. He settled in on one end of the sofa while Steve sat at the other end. Darcy curled up in the middle, and tugged on their arms until they slid closer to her. This was for her, but Steve knew that he took as much comfort from it as she did, and Bucky even more so. It grounded them, brought them back from the precipice that missions could take them to.

And of course, they had to watch horrible television. Although this time, Darcy seemed content to allow Bucky to operate the remote. She had her head on Steve's shoulder, and her feet tucked under Bucky's legs.

"I missed you guys," she said again, drowsily. "You shouldn't leave me for that long."

Bucky's metal hand was curled around her ankle. "Didn't want to, pumpkin. It was necessary."

"Did you kick bad-guy ass?"

"Yep. Some nasty child slavers."

"Good."

Technically, Bucky shouldn't even be telling her that much, but Steve knew she needed some tidbits to feel better about them being gone. So he was fine with the little that Bucky shared.

Either Bucky wasn't paying attention to the television, or he'd been hit in the head too many times on the mission. Steve blinked in confusion at the romantic comedy currently on the screen, some soppy, semi-tragic mess that included a love triangle of the three main characters. From the side, he couldn't tell if Bucky was actually watching it, or just staring at the screen. Darcy was nearly asleep, so it wasn't like the viewing choice was being guided by her preferences.

Steve dozed off himself, but started awake when he felt movement on the sofa. Bucky was standing, staring almost grimly at the television.

"Buck?" he ventured softly.

Bucky twitched. "I'm going out for a while, punk. Not tired anymore. Get Darcy to bed, okay? You know she gets cranky when she spends the night on the sofa."

It was such a strange moment that Steve wasn't sure how to react. "We've been out for two weeks, Buck."

"Tell Darce I'll be back sometime tomorrow."

What was going on? "You're spending the night somewhere else?"

Bucky finally turned to look at him. "Planning to. Got needs, Steve. Haven't had much opportunity to take care of them." He flashed a careless grin that felt fake to Steve. "Gives you two some alone time too."

Steve couldn't even identify the feelings he had right now. Confusion. Frustration. Jealousy? He wasn't even thinking of that one. Bucky was a healthy male. He had every right to want to find a girl to have some fun with. After all, it had been awhile, as he said. But…it felt wrong.

"Be safe, Buck."

Steve wasn't really sure why the closing of the door as Bucky left felt like being shut out of his life. He didn't like the feeling. He didn't like the thought of Bucky doing what he'd done in the old days - finding a girl. He knew that Darcy wouldn't like it either.

The slamming of a door woke Steve. He pulled himself away from Darcy's back and rolled out of bed into a ready stance. But lights were flickering on, which told him that Bucky was back. Steve blinked at the alarm clock. It had only been three hours since he'd left.

"Steve?" Darcy mumbled.

"Go back to sleep," he instructed softly, and she did just that.

If Bucky's stomping footsteps were any indication, things hadn't gone well. Steve stumbled out of the bedroom, rubbing at his eyes. Bucky was digging in the refrigerator, and finally pulled out a beer. When he straightened and saw Steve standing in the bedroom door staring at him, he frowned.

"What happened, Buck?"

Bucky popped open the beer and took a long swallow. Steve appreciated the movement of his throat as he swallowed, then shook his head, trying to clear the sleep cobwebs. What was he thinking?

"I got arrested," Bucky finally said in a growl. He was staring at a wall angrily.

"What? What happened?"

Bucky waved at him with the metal arm. "It's a little hard to hide this when the shirt comes off. So apparently, the girl I met, Katie, she actually watches the news. She remembered me blowing up S.H.I.E.L.D agents on the news as soon as she saw the arm, so she called the police. I didn't want to hurt anyone, so I just let them arrest me. The police didn't believe I was a government agent when I showed them the badge, so I had to call Barton to bail me out." His lips twitched. "That precinct will never, ever, forget how to react when they see a S.H.I.E.L.D badge the next time. Barton was…irritated."

Steve was too tired for this. "Why didn't you call me?"

Bucky turned to glare at him. "One – you just got home after a two week mission. You needed time with your girl. Two – having Captain America show up to bail out the man he'd been publicly fighting on the news…probably not good press. Three – just no."

Steve could see how much it bothered Bucky, what had happened. And he obviously hadn't gotten any action that could relieve any tensions, so Steve felt pretty bad for him.

"Buck…I'm sorry."

"Me too. She screamed like I was gonna kill her, Steve. And didn't stop even when I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall, sitting on my hands." He slumped. "And then it got worse."

"How?"

"She…she fangirled on me."

Darcy had introduced Steve to the modern day terms of fangirl and fanboy, so he knew what it meant. He just wasn't sure how it could possibly apply in this situation. "What happened?" he asked curiously.

"She asked me what my supervillain name was, and wanted to take a 'selfie' with me. Then she called the police back and asked them not to come right away, so she could score a supervillain for bragging rights."

Steve felt his mouth twitch. It wasn't funny. It really wasn't, because it had obviously upset Bucky, but at the same time…it was funny.

Bucky slumped even further. "Go ahead and laugh," he grumbled. "Barton did."

Steve moved close enough to sling an arm around him. "It sucks, Bucky. C'mon…go to bed. It will be better in the morning."

Bucky had relaxed enough now that he didn't fight Steve when he was led back to his own room. He was exhausted, Steve could see, every line of his body slumped in weariness. Trying not to sleep, so he apparently suspected bad dreams to be on their way.

It was a little strange to be tucking Bucky into bed like he was a child, but Steve could tell his friend needed it right then. He pulled Bucky's shoes off, and pulled the blankets up over him as soon as he was settled. Then he rested his hand on Bucky's forehead, trying to will good dreams his way.

"Sleep well, Bucky."

He couldn't hear what his best friend mumbled in response, and retreated out of the room, shutting off lights as he went. With any luck, Bucky would have good dreams, or a dreamless night.