Steve heard an unusual meaning in Bucky's words and quickly walked over to him, holding his arm and saying, "Don't be , Bucky, I think we can talk..."
The look on Bucky's face was always numb, as if being controlled for so many years had made him unable to express emotions. But Steve saw a sense of desperation in his eyes.
"Someone has already paid the price for you." Stark glanced at Steve and then said to Bucky, "You should be grateful that your friend here chose to...sacrifice himself as usual when faced with a choice that had nothing to do with him."
Stark threw his head aside and said, "...a real sucker for punishment."
Bucky turned his head to Steve, having figured everything out from Stark's words. He saw Steve looking extremely haggard. His sudden bout of anxiety and insomnia had given him heavy dark circles, his face was pale, his lips were colorless, and his blue eyes were surrounded by red veins, looking nothing like Captain America.
Bucky stared into Steve's eyes and said, "I've never seen you ."
"Sorry, I've been a bit tired lately, maybe I'll be fine after a night's rest."
"No, I mean, I'm glad the first person I saw when I woke up was Steve Rogers, not Captain America."
Bucky's numb mood finally fluctuated a little. He said, "Forget the damned lies they've indoctrinated you with, the war is over, it's just us now."
Steve's arm started shaking again. Acute anxiety brought a lot of negative impacts which made his mental state so unstable that it seriously affected his physical control.
Stark timely interrupted everything, he said, "Now we need to discuss the issue of Shiller's condition."
"Presumably, if that personality is Hydra's, he would have no reason to help Bucky remove his brainwashing." Steve let out a sigh and said. "I calmly thought about it on the way here."
"If he really was Hydra, what destruction did he cause exactly?"
Stark followed his train of thought, thought for a moment, and said, "Although our fight against Hydra suddenly became more difficult, the ultimate result was we went into that tentacle monster's lair and destroyed it."
"My monitoring shows that Hydra seems to be a lot quieter recently, the cases that used to be endless have decreased a lot."
Steve rubbed his chin, struggling to focus on thinking. He said, "Although he kidnapped Bucky, he helped him remove the brainwashing. If we overlook this somewhat violent method, maybe he was the only one who could do it."
"But it cannot be denied that he confessed to being Hydra, and the evidence for the assassination attempts points to him." Stark continued.
"But now, he's gone back inside Dr. Shiller's body, we can't be violent to him. Shiller didn't do anything wrong. Wait, is he willing to cooperate?" Steve looked up at Stark and asked.
"He said he's willing to cooperate, just not with me." Stark shook his head, "He said it's because treating him would be dangerous, but I can't figure out what's so dangerous."
"Tony, I don't mean to belittle your learning ability, but I think you can't master any subject by just learning theoretical knowledge for a few days, especially a profession like a doctor, which may require a lot of practice, so..."
"You don't have to be so tactful, I know I'm not professional. Since he doesn't want to cooperate with me for this reason, I'll go and find him a professional."
Stark seemed determined to deal with Shiller. He picked up the phone, called Pepper and said, "Invite all the world-class psychologists and psychiatrists that you can. I need to consult about a doctor who is seriously ill..."
The next day, Steve and Stark stood outside a consulting room at Arkham Sanatorium, watching the scene inside without a word.
"Hey, Tim, long time no see, are you still messing around in Florida?...What? You are already married? Congrats, that's really surprising, I remember when we were at Harvard, you were very infamous as a playboy, how did you change your mind?" Shiller patted a black doctor on the shoulder and said.
While they were chatting, another somewhat skinny white doctor walked up and said, "Shiller, long time no see, why didn't you tell me when you came to New York? Speaking of which, why did you leave the Elders Council Hospital to come to a sanatorium?"
The black doctor also said, "Yeah, back then, you were the best of us, even if you didn't stay and teach, why would you come to a sanatorium?"
"I was at the Elders Council Hospital before, but someone there was giving me trouble. You know how it is, I came here for some peace."
"Oh, Professor Tiel, you came too? How's your health? Are you still teaching pathology?" Shiller turned his head and said to another old professor with graying hair. The old professor seemed to have a bit of a temper. He said, "The manager of the Stark Group called me in the middle of the night asking me to come and see a patient."