I think that's what's often missing in a lot of what I read, that Steve needs people helping him with his shit just as much as Bucky does. Seeing Bucky there really does him in, he's both happier than he's ever been and maybe more miserable than he's ever been, because all his guilt and sense of failure is hitting him hard, seeing Bucky like that

I really liked that -- I feel a lot of the time like Steve's anger and/or despair gets glossed over, the way Sam gets turned into a kind of unpaid shrink for both of them, and in this fic you really didn't do either of those things.