A/N: Hello! This is the third in the series, but I'm sure you can just hop in and follow along fine. I hope you enjoy slow burns, because this will be a long one :) Titles are from the MS MR song. Thanks for reviewing!

God knows things could be worse

An alarm began to sound, with lights all along the concrete corridor flashing. It was deafening and Steve stopped short to look at Bucky. "I think they might suspect we're here," the former remarked conversationally.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "I told you I'd be fine by myself. But, no, the big damn hero has to come in and set off alarms with his lumbering around."

"I don't lumber," Steve replied, sounding offended as he led the way forward.

"Yeah, well, you weigh a ton. Back me up, Sam," he added into his comms.

What sounded like Sam snorting could have been attributed to the static. "It isn't a picnic catching either of your dumb asses when you jump. Let's try to stay focused here, because some of us don't want to go back to that ocean prison. Looks like it'll be twenty yards ahead on your right."

"Copy," Steve said.

The three of them worked well together. Sometimes Barton joined them in the field. Lang and Wanda had abilities that were pretty unique, so they were usually in charge of pre-mission groundwork. The man who sent them, Nick Fury, never showed up in person. He worked in the shadows and contacted them through Barton. Bucky had not seen Fury since shooting him three times in the chest, so he definitely preferred this arrangement.

It had taken about a month after he'd been awoken from cryo for N'Kana to complete his arm and be satisfied with it. Then he had left Wakanda to join Steve and his friends, who were always on the move. Staying together would attract attention, so they were not often all in the same country. Sam was clearly Steve's second in command since he took half the group when they were apart, though Barton was known to go off on his own quite a bit.

Bucky was enjoying his new line of work. It was kind of like being in the Howlies again, albeit with less government support. Significantly less – they were all wanted fugitives now. But the people they helped were generally willing to turn a blind eye. Their main goal was taking down organizations like HYDRA and AIM, and anything else along those lines. Wanda could usually find their operations using her abilities somehow (Bucky wasn't clear on exactly what she could do). Sam did recon with Redwing, sometimes with Barton. An ex-thief like Lang was pretty handy at figuring out how to get in the place, with some input from Barton and occasionally Bucky. Then Steve led the charge with whomever he felt would be most effective on that particular mission. He was a good leader and made sure everyone had a part.

Barton was likely given other jobs that he took care of on his own, since he only joined them on about half of their field work. That was mainly why Bucky had started going – he was wary of facing any HYDRA agents who might know things about him or know about other ways to trigger him that N'Kana and his assistants hadn't addressed. So he'd been content to hang back and help out his new friends from their base. But Barton being gone so much made leaving a sniper/spy at home less than ideal.

Thus far, Bucky had been in the field six times without incident. He hadn't killed anyone and no one had made him do anything he didn't want to do. So he was becoming comfortable with the job. Besides, he liked working alongside Steve again, and Sam was a great partner. Maybe because they were all former military, but they were usually on the same page and Bucky found it easiest to get along with Sam. Lang and Barton were fine, but Lang seemed a little intimidated by him (and a lot in awe of Steve), while Barton was pretty focused on missions whenever he was with them. Wanda… Well, she was in a category all her own, wasn't she? But she was nice to him and he made an effort to return the favor – he knew it must be boring to hang back by herself so often.

They found the door Sam had indicated, and Bucky crossed in front so they were standing on either side of it. Steve met his gaze with a nod, then he moved over to kick the door down with Steve covering him. Inside, there were piles and piles of crates – hundreds of them. There was no way they'd find the one they were looking for before reinforcements arrived. They had barricaded doors along the way, and Lang had managed to lock down the place using their own security measures. But those weren't going to be enough.

"How's it looking, Sam?" Steve asked, undeterred as he headed for the nearest section.

"Hostiles still contained. Couple of trucks headed your way, though – your escape route might be compromised soon."

Bucky and Steve exchanged a grim glance. If it came to it… There weren't a lot of places that could hold the Winter Soldier (or the former Captain America) for very long. But both of them hoped it wouldn't come to that. "There's got to be two hundred crates in this place. How do we know which one it is?" Bucky asked Sam.

There was a pause. "Looks like it's ten feet to your left, C – Steve."

Steve didn't react to the slip, but Bucky smiled slightly. It was hard not to call him Cap when they were on a mission. There was a stack of three crates ten feet to Steve's left, so Bucky quickly joined him and they searched thoroughly until they found what they'd been sent here to get – a sample of a radioactive material that HYDRA intended to use for one of their usual nefarious purposes.

"Got it," Steve reported as Bucky wrapped it up carefully and tucked it into the bag he'd brought for the purpose.

"Hostiles coming your way. Take the first left," Sam ordered as they reached the corridor again.

They followed Sam's directions to a T, but there were only so many alternate routes in the facility. At least they had almost reached the outside door before they were forced to meet the enemy head on. Fighting with Steve, shield or no, was like second nature. Even though both had learned different techniques in their years apart, there was enough of who they used to be to adapt to each other effectively. It took only a few moments – blocking bullets with Bucky's arm, boxing in adversaries between them to be taken down, jumping behind cover from explosions – and they were out. Then they ran. Until they reached where their motorcycles were hidden. Steve checked in on Sam as they sped away – another successful mission.

A celebratory dinner followed successful missions, and Bucky stuck around for a while before he headed outside for some air. It was hard for him to adjust back to civilian life, especially after being in the field. He knew it was important, and he tried his best. But his mind was racing still and he couldn't enjoy having a few drinks with Steve's friends – even if they were becoming more and more his friends. But what could he offer to the conversation? He had decades of torture and murder as his most recent experiences. Or hiding out for two years once he'd escaped – but there wasn't much there he was interested in sharing. So he could talk about the war and before with Steve, but he was aware that the others would not be enthralled by two army buddies reminiscing for the evening. Which was why he excused himself after a while.

Their current safe house had a walled yard around it, and he'd been sitting on the porch for about half an hour when he heard a car driving up. His body tensed but he forced himself to stay where he was. If anyone was intending cause them harm, it was unlikely they'd be successful. Not with Sam and Steve and Wanda and Lang to contend with.

"Hey, Barnes."

It was a relief to hear Barton's voice. "Hey. Didn't expect you back for another week," Bucky replied, getting to his feet leisurely to face the spy.

From the look on his face, his early return wasn't good news. "Yeah. Something came up. Listen…" he trailed off with a slight frown.

"What is it?" Bucky prodded.

Barton didn't answer right away, seeming deep in thought. "I have this – uh – this meet I was supposed to go to in Ukraine. But Fury needs me to reach out to some folks I know in South America. You speak Ukrainian, right?"

Ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach, Bucky nodded.

"It's an easy job, just passing along information to my contact. Should only take a day and you'll be back. You'll have to go solo, though. She'll get spooked by Steve and them."

Bucky frowned a little – he'd never considered himself as the least intimidating person here. "I'd like to help but I don't know about this."

Smiling grimly, Barton nodded. "Come on. Let's go see what the boss thinks."

It was not a short discussion between Barton and Steve, but the next morning, Bucky was packed and ready for anything as he got on a plane bound for Ukraine. He knew he'd been there several times before on missions as the Soldier. So the place was familiar to him. Meeting a contact was not – assassins usually just had drop offs and extractions – but he was best qualified for the job since Barton had to be the one in South America. His contacts there wouldn't trust anyone else, nor could they wait, apparently.

Bucky followed Barton's directions exactly and was sitting in a café that evening, wearing a red shirt and brown jacket as instructed. He scanned the crowd unobtrusively as he waited patiently. Until he saw her. Barton never told him it would be her. But, then, how could he know Bucky would care?

It had been less than half a year since he last saw her, but it had been different then. He hadn't remembered yet, not really. So seeing her again was something of a shock. It was clear she had seen him and was headed his way calmly. But when she got close, she glanced up and stopped short.

"You?"

"Natalia?"