When all he wanted to do was to collapse in the exhausted oblivion of sleep, Steve still decided to check his messages in case Sam had called needing him while they dealt with Ultron. Since he did not carry his cell with him during missions, the exhausted supersoldier used one of the helicarrier's onboard phones, and dialed the number for JARVIS.

"Hello, Captain Rogers. How may I help you?" a very female and very Irish voice greeted him.

Steve pulled the phone away from his ear, wondering briefly if he had dialed the wrong number, and then he remembered.

JARVIS was gone, uploaded and somehow blended into a being they were referring to as The Vision.

"Captain Rogers? Hello? Are you there?"

Leave it to Tony to replace JARVIS with anything but a good ol' American sounding voice!

Steve rolled his exhausted eyes, and put the phone back up to his ear.

"Umm, yeah, sorry about that… what is your name? I don't think I caught it?"

"My designation is FRIDAY, Captain Rogers."

"Okay, FRIDAY, I want to check my voicemail messages."

"Of course, Captain. I'll connect you right away."

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome, sir."

You have 13 new messages from phone number 202-555-7875…

Most of the messages from Sam were updates made over several days about his progress in searching for Bucky, but the last five were not.

"Steve, I'm watching the news and… well call me."

There was a hint of worry in his voice but not overly much.

"Seriously, Steve, call me! It's all over the news about the Hulk wreaking that town in Africa."

More than a hint of worry there.

"Steve, I mean it man, call me. I need to know if you guys are alright."

Although Sam had spoken in the perfectly level tone of voice that befitted someone who had been in combat, Steve could hear the fear in his friend's voice.

"Steve, I swear to…" His voice had faded out to static on the line. "I mean if, man! I will kick your red, white, and blue wearin'…" again there was static on the line. "... or maybe I should just sic Natasha on you for scaring me like this!"

Oh yeah, Sam was worried and scared for them, Steve could only imagine what he had seen on the news!

"Yo I don't care what time it is when you get this, call me!"

Steve hung up, and called back FRIDAY.

"Yes, Captain Rogers?" the AI asked.

"I need you to put me through to Sam Wilson. He's in my contact list."

"Certainly, Captain, one moment please."

The phone barely had time to ring when he heard Sam asked in a hopeful voice, "Steve?"

Steve didn't know why but he was surprised that Sam had answered his call on the very first ring, but he was. "Yeah."

"Thank God, man, you had me worried! I saw what happened in Sovokia. Are you and everyone else okay?"

Running a hand over his exhausted eyes, Steve nodded as though his friend could see him, "Yeah, for the most part. Casualties were mostly on the Sovokian civilians."

"But?"

Steve sighed, "Two of the...gifted people we met at the start of this, a brother and sister, helped us fight Ultron." He sighed again, "He didn't make it out of the battle alive."

"Oh, man."

"Yeah… they were twins. She's not taking it easy."

"I don't imagine that she is."

"Everyone else is fine."

"Good," Sam said, the relief obvious in his voice. "Listen, I'm going to let you go. You sound like you're ready about to fall over from exhaustion."

"Maybe that's because I iam/i?"

"Okay, then. Go get some rest if you can, and I'll talk to you when you get back home."

"So you're home then?"

"For the moment, last lead I had dried up kind of quickly. I am working on another one but I should still be here when y'all get back from Sovokia."

"I'll give you a call then when we get back."

"Sounds like a plan."

Steve was about to end the call when he remembered something he had wanted to talk to his friend about. "Sam, wait!"

"Yeah, Steve?"

"I should probably wait to talk about this when I see you again but if I say it now, you can be considering it, and give me your answer the next time we meet up."

"What is it?"

"How would you like to officially join the Avengers?"

There was silence on the other end of the line, then Sam asked, "As what?"

"As an Avenger," Steve said.

"Seriously, man? You mean it?"

"Of course, I mean it."

"WOO HOO!"

Steve pulled the phone away from his ear, and rubbed his ear, before returning the receiver to his ear.

"Steve, you there? Hello?"

"Yeah, I'm here, Sam," he said with a smile. "So I guess you want to join us?"

"You bet I do! Only you seem to have forgotten something important and that is my wings are still down!"

"That's not a problem."

"That's not a problem?"

"No, I know a… guy who can fix them, good as new. Maybe even make some improvements on them for you."

"If you mean Tony Stark, well I've itried/i to get in with him, and talk about getting my wings fixed but with everything you guys been doing lately, first with HYDRA, now Ultron. He's not exactly been available."

"Well I have a feeling that he'll be available after this because," Steve sighed, "I think Stark is stepping down from the Avengers. He hasn't outright said it yet, but I've sensed it for awhile now and I really think once we've gotten what's leftover from Ultron in the can, he's out."

"So a slot on the team is going to be open, and I'm just a replacement then?"

He heard the disappointment in the other man's voice, "No, Sam, you are not just a replacement! Honestly I have been thinking about this a long time, had thought of inviting you to join up with us, and well the timing was never right."

Sam sighed, "Yeah I guess it wasn't, what with me looking for your long lost best friend. Then you guys decided it was time to take HYDRA out of business once and for all."

"Exactly," Steve confirmed with a sudden yawn.

"I heard that."

Steve could hear the grin in his voice.

"I am letting you go this time. I'll let you the answer to your question when you get home but I'd say the odds are very high that I'm gonna say YES."

Steve yawned again, "Alright, we'll talk then."

"Go get some rest before you crack your jaw yawning, Cap."

"Mmm, k. I will."

"Bye, Steve."

"Bye, Sam."