Chapter Text
Somewhere near Iguazu Falls Argentina
Sam was hotter than he’d ever been in his life. Not even the dry heat of Afghanistan could compare to the constant muggy, wet humidity of Central America. The Argentina rainforest had a wet, deep heat that sunk into his pores and burned him from the inside out. The heat was inescapable. It was more(finally!)than what could be said for his target. Sam promised Steve he would help him find Sergeant Barnes, and he meant it.
Steve had helped Sam find more purpose in his life a month ago by allowing him to help with the fight against Hydra. As much as he loved helping fellow vets at the Veterans hospital, this felt just as important. He was doing something that felt honest and bigger than him, and that was finding and helping Steve’s friend. The historical figure that was James “Bucky” Barnes. He was still helping a soldier. James Barnes just happened to be the world's longest P.O.W in history. He’d tried to kill him, and Steve, and Natasha but Sam could sort of look over that when he thought about the Brainwashing part.
Which brought him back to why he was in Argentina. As good as Steve was at being a leader, he knew that Bucky was more than just a Sergeant in the Military. He was trying to figure out who he was again. Which is where Sam came in as a former soldier who had to come home and find who he was and what that meant to himself. While the same could be said for Steve, Sam’s job was to get into other soldiers’ minds and help them find some peace as a civilian. So, it was decided that Sam would be the best man for the job. Even though Sam thought that Barnes could be found a lot quicker with Tony Stark's help, Steve had refused. Saying this was their mission and they could find Bucky by themselves.
Sam looked around the outskirts of the rainforest he was near. He’d started a trek down the road from the bar that the locals tended to visit. Using the information, he was given. Bucky was on his way to Brazil. He’d tracked him first to Mexico, and it seemed Barnes was making his way in a very jagged pattern west through the continent. Barnes was attempting to lose his tail, but Sam had finally caught up to him, if his information was correct Barnes had left the bar only 10 minutes before Sam walked in.
As he walked on the side of the road, he looked for any signs of the Soldier. He would not have turned back as the road only went one way. So he walked two more miles until he got to the entrance of the forest. There was no way in hell Sam was going to go into that tree trap, and even if he didn’t know any better the locals had warned him against it. He pulled out his phone and typed in the code to let Steve know that Bucky was close and that he needed him to get his ass to his coordinates. Before he could look down to reply to Steve’s rapid response, he saw movement just out of the corner of his left eye.
The first thing Sam noticed when he realized he was not on his feet anymore was that he had the breath knocked out of him. The second thing he noticed was that Barnes was standing over him with a hunting knife in his hand at rest, while his other gloved hand was clenched tight into a fist. His storm grey eyes were focused on the only other soul on this road.
“Why are you following me?” Barnes said while clenching the knife tighter. Sam knew he had about 5 minutes to distract Barnes before the quinjet arrived. He had to make every second count.
“Steve sent me” he wheezed, because fuck-his wind was gone, and Sam found it a little hard to get air back into his lungs. As Barnes stepped forward, turning the knife up Sam knew he had to at least deescalate the situation.
“You know Steve, right? The guy you beat the hell out of and pulled out of the Potomac?” When Barnes stopped moving towards him, Sam thought he could see the recognition in the soldier’s eyes. That was good; it meant Barnes wasn’t suffering short term memory loss. Sam took the moment to do what he did best. Talk.
“He’s worried about you, you know? You saved him and he knows that means that you remember him, but he wants to make sure that you’re okay. There might be people out there that want to hurt you, and you’re not shaking a full hand of marbles if you know what I mean?” Maybe not the nicest way to put it, but he wanted Barnes to react not flee, and being honest might get him killed but Steve might also get there to save him in time.
Again, quick as a flash, the knife that was in Barnes metal fist, found itself in the dirt road and a 250-pound super soldier less than a foot away from his face.
“No one can help me. Especially not him, he…he was so little. Now he’s big, and he was my mission….” Barnes brown eyes had begun to glass over a little bit. Signaling to Sam that he was going back to a place and time before he was born.
“He was a little guy before, but remember he got big and he saved so many people. You helped him! You and the Commandos, you guys took out so many Nazis. You’re known around the world as a hero- “
Barnes punched his flesh hand into the dirt on the other side of Sam’s head. Sam exhaled slowly, and estimated they still had about three minutes until Steve and Natasha arrived. So, he kept talking.
“I know that what those guys did to you messed you up, but…. but we know it wasn’t your fault Barnes! You were taken by Hydra. Experimented on. I read those files man, you held them back for years. Most men would have gone crazy way before that. They still couldn’t fully beat you fair and square. They had to put you in that damn chair to get you to do their bidding.” Sam could hear the leather of Barnes glove squeak as he clenched his fist tighter. But he didn’t speak.
“We just want to help you, man. Nobody should have to go through this alone. Let us help, please?” Sam fought the shake in his voice so that Barnes would only detect the honesty he felt. It wasn’t the time to show how fast his heart was beating.
Barnes slowly unclenched his fist, rising on his hunches. Eyes never leaving Sam’s form.
“I don’t want any help; I will figure this out on my own. No one can help me, and I’m only letting you live because I remember him from before and I remember you helping him on the bridge. You follow me again- “Barnes eyes shifted, and he quickly stood. Sam knew that he was hearing the quinjet, and considering how quiet that thing was, it was true testament to how well the serum worked. Sam assumed Barnes was going to run away, but he looked down at him with fury in his eyes.
“You set me up?”
Sam nodded
“Why”
Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he spoke.
“Because I want to help you and so does Steve.” Barnes just stared down at Sam, in anger, not quite rage, but he was pissed. Sam could hear the bird landing but was too cautious to move his head. Barnes was still a world-renowned assassin, and he could kill him faster than he could blink. Neither of them said anything as the Quinjet landed, and neither took their eyes off the other man.
Like a good ole fashioned standoff.
The Quinjet doors opened and after a minute of silence Steve spoke.
“Bucky? Sam? Are you guys okay? Sam are you hurt….” Sam saw Barnes finally look up at Steve who was stepping closer to them. Barnes went rigged with tension; even more so than before. He took a few quick steps back and quickly drew his blade again, he threw his body into a combative stance making Steve suddenly stop his movement towards the two men.
“Don’t come any closer, I know you want to take me back. It aint happening, you want to help me? Let me go and figure out the mess in my head on my own!” Barnes had raised his voice into a gruff shout. But Steve took a few more steps closer, moving his hands into the air.
“Buck…We want to help you; you shouldn’t have to do this on your own. Do you remember what we used to say? “I’m with you until the end of the line” I meant it back then and I mean it now. Let us help you, please no one else is going to hurt you.”
Damn Steve was good at that motivational speech shit.
Barnes didn’t seem to really care, though, and before he could pick up his boots to turn around and go into the forest, he jumped back like he’d been shot. He looked at Steve with a look of loathing before taking a deep breath and falling to his knees. His glare fluttering but barely faltering from Steve’s gaze until he fell forward into the dirt in a dead faint. Sam immediately jumped up to check on him.
“Barnes are you okay?” Steve still hadn’t moved but Sam was too busy checking for a pulse.
“He’s fine Sam, just knocked out.”
“He’s not fine he’s been poisoned or something, help me get him up or- “
“Wilson, you really should trust your friends better than that.” A feminine voice said from the forest. It made him look up to see Natasha Romanov standing in the foot path of the forest entrance with a….dart gun?
Sam felt his head drop into the dirt. As he stared at the blue sky, he felt the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding release. He knew Barnes wouldn’t hurt him, but he also knew the soldier was strong enough to slice him in half. He was getting too comfortable with compartmentalizing danger in its face.
“Are we friends now? Because you seriously violated our friendship when you let Barnes drop me like a sack of potatoes. How did you even get in there? How long have you been in there? Did you make a deal with the Black Widows in the forest to not bite each other? Because the people at the bar down the road told me they don’t even go into that forest?” He turned his head to see Natasha Romanov squatting over Barnes with her fingers against the pulse point of his neck.
“I’m still learning the friendship thing; you should ask Steve about how quickly I’m learning.” She had a small smile tilted at the corner of her mouth up. “To answer your other questions, I’ve been trailing you for about a day now. I saw this impasse at the road about 12 hours ago and knew you and Barnes would probably meet here.” She reached into a pouch in her belt and pulled out a cartridge. Sam couldn’t respond to the fact that she had been following him for days and he didn’t know it. The Widow quickly attached the cartridge to the gun still in her hand and sank it into Barnes’s neck.
Sam grimaced.
“Don’t you think that might be too much of… whatever the hell that is?” Natasha looked up at Sam with the smile spread a little wider. She then looked up at Steve who had made his way over to them. She nodded her head, and finally let go of Barnes neck.
“He’ll be fine Sam, it’s the same dosage they used on me a few weeks ago to help me heal from the damage after I fell from the Triskelion. We asked Banner to help us put this together.” Steve crouched down next to Sam-looking him over. “You okay Sam? I figured Bucky got the jump on you when you didn’t respond to my message.”
“I’m fine, he just knocked the wind out of me.” Sam looked over at Barnes again, and he still hadn’t moved. He was at least breathing. That made him think about something. “Steve, I thought we were going to talk Barnes into coming with us. I didn’t want to hurt him, and he’s not going to trust us after this.” Sam looked over at Steve who had walked over to the Widow and the Soldier. Kneeling he began to pat at the unconscious man, taking weapons from different compartments and pockets. Steve continued taking the weapons as he spoke.
“Sam, you did a great job, but we knew Buck wasn’t going to just go with you.”
Sam felt his body flush with anger.
“You used me! Steve I could’ve been killed Man! This man has killed so many peo- “Steve quickly looked up at Sam who had finally stood up on his own. “Sam. Natasha has been no less than 30 feet away from you this entire time. We would never let you get hurt.” Steve’s frown deepened as he looked Sam in the eye. He shook his head. “We couldn’t let Bucky know that more than one person was near him. He would’ve felt trapped and lashed out at you” Sam thought about it and even though he did agree he still didn’t like the fact that they didn’t tell him everything about this mission.
“Fine but next time tell me what’s going on. If I gotta trust you, you have to trust me.” Sam walked over to the still unconscious soldier. Looking at him he saw that the man had no less than 15 knives set out around him.
Talk about being prepared for a fight.
Steve reached down to grab Barnes around his shoulders. Natasha was grabbing the weapons Steve had found. Sam reached down to help. He had to ask the question that had been on his mind since they started this plan to rescue the Winter Soldier.
“So…. I know that we were supposed to help Barnes and get him to safety. But where is the “safety”, are we taking him to Fury?” Sam wondered out loud. Sam couldn’t think of anyone who might be able to help them besides the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Steve shook his head as he pulled Barnes over his shoulders. Sam raised his eyebrows at the ease in which Steve picked the at least 250-pound man up like he wasn’t dead weight. Done picking up the weapons Natasha and Sam followed the men.
“No, Fury has gone underground, we have to help Bucky on our own. He won’t trust anyone else.” Sam thought that was bullshit because Barnes didn’t even trust them.
“Okay but we at least need some medical help. His brain has been messed with. Are you sure Stark can’t help us Steve? Seems like he and Doctor Banner may be more equipped to help us deal with this than us doing it on our own.” Steve was laying the other soldier on a cot as Romanov began to pull out supplies for the medical cabinet. Steve began to head towards the cockpit with Sam following him, Steve still hadn’t responded to what Sam thought were reasonable questions considering the circumstances. So, Sam applied a bit more pressure to the situation.
“STEVE, GOD DAMMIT WHERE ARE WE GOING?” Sam slammed his hand on the dashboard of the jet for emphasis because he was hot and pissed and deserved to know what the hell was going on before they went any further.
He expected Steve to yell back at him, not to slump and thump his head forward against the same board Sam had just pounded in aggravation.
“I don’t know, Sam.” Sam in the short time he’d known Steve, had never seen him, or heard him sound so defeated. It was discerning to say the least to see someone that up until that moment always seemed 10 steps ahead, or at least able to think quickly on his toes.
It was with startling realization that Steve Rogers did not always have a plan.
Especially when it came to his best friend. It reminded him of how breathless he became when he thought about Riley. He understood that he and Steve had the same issue in common, and that made him wonder. Did Steve ever have the answers offered to him? Was he always expected to just know?
Thinking quickly Sam began to think of a safe place with enough room for them all to at least heal. Because the tinder burn in his ribs was still there, and none of them had a lot of time to process the fact that a Nazi regime had taken over the government. That they had superficial and mental wounds that needed tending to. They needed a safe space to decompress and heal.
Then it hit him.
Home.
“Steve, how do you put coordinates in this thing?” Steve lifted his head up from the console with a questioning look at Sam as he fiddled with the control panel.
“Listen, I’ll explain it on the way, but I have somewhere safe to take Barnes. -It’s not Stark tower or Brooklyn but it’s the safest place I know.” Steve regarded him with a little skepticism, but Sam refused to break eye contact.
“Boys, I think I think I can keep our friend here out for about 6 more hours, so whatever you decide, it needs to be now.” Steve glanced over at the Medical bay and Sam knew he was watching Barnes. He slowly turned back to Sam and finally gave an affirming nod. Sam felt the urge to preface the next log in their journey by saying something, anything.
“I need you to trust me on this one Steve, because where I’m taking you is special. I need you to put as much trust in me as I have put in you.”
Steve cleared his throat and looked ahead.
“I trust you Sam, let’s get out of here.”
So, Sam put in the coordinates to Harlem.