It was true what Bucky said--Steve couldn't just disappear entirely, he couldn't do that to the people who cared about him. He would have to at least be able to alert Natasha and Sam, give them some clue to his and Bucky's whereabouts if they needed to find him again. And they would have to, he thought, with the crisis that was growing around them, threatening hundreds of people who could be said to possess some kind of "power", Bucky most of all. But then, Steve could think of no better time to go into hiding. He had Bucky again; he would protect him at any cost, and had no doubt that Bucky would do the same for him. It wasn't just that his friend had been lost and in pain for so long. They were bonded, it was their responsibility to protect one another.

"If you'll trust my judgement on who to alert, I'll go anywhere with you," Steve assured him. "You can hide us better than I can." He chose his words deliberately--deferring to Bucky's choices, putting his trust in his hands. Steve was sure of him, always had been and always would be. He hadn't been a ghost for the past seventy years for nothing. The Winter Soldier's rare skills were probably just what they needed right now.

He looked at Bucky, shifting a little to lean back against the wall and center the man more in his lap, so that he could straddle Steve if they wanted to, so that they could be eye to eye, on equal ground. "You saving me was the only thing that made it possible to go on," he said quietly. "Knowing that you wanted me alive. That was enough."