Explaining to Wanda why it is that she no longer needs the crutches – how she can shuck off that miserable brace and stride unimpeded through the halls – is difficult enough. After all, the idea of healing one's self is, well… batshit crazy. But add to that the fact that Tessa is positively buzzing from the excess energy firing through her system, and it makes perfect sense why her attempt at an explanation comes across as… absolute nonsense.

She hadn't planned on the steady hum in her ears, the odd whirring of her brain, the persistent thrumming in her chest. But being ten years out of practice had led her to overshoot – just a bit – when the pull began, leaving Logan pale, pained, and passed out in the Professor's study.

But it isn't just his energy coursing through her that has her bouncing around like an overly excited puppy. She had used powers that – up until recently – she never even knew she had. And she had managed to control them. Mostly. And in so doing, she now feels herself – for the first time since this all began – truly starting to accept these powers that she's been gifted.

And her leg is healed… she can walk!

So of course she's excited. So excited, in fact, that – upon returning to her friends in the kitchen – she's able only to emit tiny, indecipherable gleeful utterances. And she's forced to rely on a positively beaming with pride Professor Xavier to explain to them just what they had done.

The two hour car ride back to the compound does nothing to quell her vigor, much to Wanda's annoyance. The minute the car is put in park down in the garage, Tessa bolts for the elevator, bouncing rapidly on the balls of her feet as she waits for the irritated-looking young woman to join her.

"I know it won't do any good," Wanda sighs out as she presses the button for their floor. "But I'm going to tell you again to calm down." She glances at her from her periphery, notes that the woman at her side almost seems to be vibrating with pent-up energy. "It'll be easier for them to take if you can calmly explain."

"What's to take?" she asks with a snort. "I'm better. That's good. I used my powers. That's good. I didn't kill Logan. That's good."

Wanda raises a single questioning brow. "Logan is nearly invincible, isn't he?"

Tessa just shrugs and bounds out of the elevator the minute the doors part, making a beeline for her apartment across the hall. She fumbles with her keycard, her fingers trembling maniacally, and leaps back in surprise when the door swings open in front of her. "Oh shit," she exclaims, hand dropping the card and leaping up to cover her heart. She looks up into Steve's stunned face. "You scared me!"

"Yeah," he utters, his own breath catching in his chest from the surprise. "Sorry about that."

She shoves past him, grabbing onto his arm and spinning him back into the apartment as she makes her way in. He trips over his own feet, nearly tumbling into the sofa as she bounces around him. "Look!" she exclaims, dropping his arm and standing upright before him.

Bucky appears suddenly from the kitchen, his brow furrowed as he steps into the room and asks, "What the hell is going on?" She swings around to look at him, throwing her arms out wide and showing off a gleaming, self-satisfied smile. He frowns deeply in response. "Where are your crutches?" Then, an almost seething sort of anger bubbling from his words, "Where the hell is your brace?"

"Gone," she breathes out. "I'm healed! All better."

"What…" he starts, cocking his head to look past Tessa and over at Wanda, who's now standing by Steve's side. The young woman gives a tired shrug. "What do you mean, all better?"

"Well," she starts, sounding more than a bit out of breath. "There's still metal in there." She leans over and harshly taps her left shin with two knuckles, causing Bucky to start towards her. "But the bones are all healed!" He swipes her hand away from her leg, eager to prevent her from doing any damage. "I still have just the one kidney, though," she goes on, the words tumbling so fast from her mouth that they run into one another. "Can't regrow organs. At least, I don't think I can. I didn't really try." She gasps sharply. "What if I can regrow organs! I could get a spare liver and drink all that I want!"

"Are you sure you're not an alcoholic?" Wanda inquires from behind, a hint of sincerity to her voice. She lets out a huff upon seeing Bucky's utterly confounded face – his wide eyes and wrinkled brow. His gaping mouth, just hanging open, waiting for words to come. "She used her powers to pull energy from Logan," she explains slowly, ducking her head to meet Bucky's eyes so that she can be sure he's hearing her. "And she used that energy to heal her leg."

Steve takes a step forward and drops his hand to Tessa's shoulder. His voice is soft but commanding, a serious and official sort of inquiry. "Like how you healed after…"

She nods. "I didn't think I could do it," she spills out in a hurried breath. "But I've remembered so much. And I remembered doing it… sort of. And the Professor thought I was ready. And Logan really wanted to help. Though I think he ended up regretting it."

Wanda gives Steve a weary look. "She took a bit too much of his energy, if you couldn't tell. She's been like this for hours." She turns to watch, along with the two dumbfounded men, as Tessa brushes past all of them and bounds into the kitchen. She gets a glass of water and downs the entire thing in two huge gulps, then she begins doing deep lunges across the length of the kitchen. "When we left, Logan was passed out. Alive… but dead to the world," she almost whispers, her eyes still closely following the antics of her friend in the other room. "Professor Xavier said he'd be fine. And she should calm down… eventually."

Bucky shakes his head quickly, all of this information being just a bit too much to process. He steps into the kitchen and into Tessa's path, grabbing her by the shoulders and hauling her upright. "You're saying that your leg is healed?" he asks in a demanding tone. She shows a big bright grin and nods enthusiastically. "Completely healed?"

"You don't believe me?" She sidles up close, wrapping her hands around his middle. "Wanna take me for a spin and test it out."

He sighs and reaches around his back to unhook her arms. "No," he tells her, frustration lacing the word. "No, I just want to know what's going on."

"She told you," she says, voice high and a bit shrill as she throws up a hand and points to Wanda.

"You were supposed to have just another session with him, not a…" He throws up his hands in an annoyed gesture. "Not a workshop with your powers." His brows draw tightly together as he looks down at her. "What if you hurt yourself?"

She shakes her head emphatically. "I healed myself."

"What if you hurt Logan?"

"Psh. He can take it."

"Baby," he starts, a frustrated growl building in the back of his throat.

"I don't think that Professor Xavier would have let her try if he thought that anything bad would happen," Wanda interjects. "Everyone there seemed to have faith that she could manage just fine. Including Logan. And he was the one who was at risk."

Tessa stares up at Bucky with big, round eyes. "You don't have faith in me?"

He blows out an exasperated breath. "Of course I do. That's not the point."

"Have you done this before?" Steve asks suddenly, looming largely in the kitchen doorway. "Other than that one time?"

Tessa turns to look at him, notes his almost comical frown. "That one time I slit my wrists, you mean?" Steve's eyes go wide and his shoulders drop in shock, just her utterance of slit my wrists sending him into dismay. From over her shoulder, she hears Bucky sigh heavily and all at once, she regrets her words. "Yes," she says, voice about as clear and calm as she can get it. "I've done it before. Just a couple of times."

"Okay," Steve nods, hitching his shoulders back in place.

A warm smile spreads across her face and she takes a step closer to him. "This is a good thing."

Again, he nods, his face relaxing just a bit. "Okay."

She stands directly in front of him, hands on her hips, sly grin building on her lips. "I do have a lot of… extra energy right now," she intones. "And there's something that we haven't done in a really, really long time." Steve cocks his head to the side, brow furrowing as he tries to figure out just what she's getting at. "Wanna go for a run?" she asks with a brilliant, childlike enthusiasm as she wiggles her eyebrows at him.

Ever so slowly, his lips pull up into a wide, earnest smile. He gives a short nod and pushes out of the doorway, past a bemused Wanda. "Give me five minutes to change," he tells her, an elated gleam in his eye.

000

"I don't understand why now," Tony mutters, pacing the floor in front of them in the common room. "You spent weeks in the hospital. Months… recovering. And the medical bills!" His hands fly wide in exasperation as he quickly turns on a heel to face Tessa. "And now you just… heal yourself?"

She shrugs. "I didn't know how before. Believe me, if I had known, I would've done it then." She flops down into a chair at the large conference table, the excess energy she'd been harboring most of the day finally beginning to melt off of her, leaving her muscles tight and limbs heavy. She lets out a long sigh. "Besides, it's not something I can do on my own. I still would've needed Logan."

"Logan?" Tony asks, pulling back in disgust. "Why?"

It's Steve who answers, eager to relay all that he learned on their nearly eight-mile run an hour or so ago. "Logan's mutation allows him to heal quickly. The energy that Tessa pulled from him… what she used to… repair herself… that's his…" He tosses her a quick, questioning look. "Life force?"

She nods – "Basically." – and looks up at Tony, whose expression is stricken.

He raises his brows slowly. "You're saying that you can drain a man of his life force? And use that to heal yourself?"

"Sounds crazy, huh?" she offers with a tight laugh. Then, clearing her throat and sitting upright. "But, yes, I can do that. And if I did it with someone who didn't have Logan's capacity for healing… well, I'd probably kill them." She stares deeply into Tony's eyes with a serious countenance. "But you already knew I could do that, didn't you?" she asks with a suspicious lilt.

He looks away quickly, turning in a wide arc as he tries to find someone else to talk to, someone else to even just look at. He settles on Wanda, studying her for a long moment before finally inquiring, "Aside from dealing with Lazarus woman over there, how was your trip up to mutant central?"

"Tony," Steve chides with a huff, his arms pulling tighter across his chest.

He swings back around to the pair at the table – Steve and Tessa – and gives them an almost bewildered look. "I don't know what to do with this," he states simply. "I mean," he bends over and leans his palms into the table as he glares at Steve. "I tried for years to get her on the team. To get her to use her… her… incredible powers. And time and time again, she said no. Now you're coming in here and telling me that she used her powers to heal herself, and now that she's healed… and now that she's apparently comfortable with pulling someone's life force – "

"I never said I was comfortable with it," she interjects quickly.

Tony continues on, unfazed by her interruption. "Now you're telling me she wants in? She wants to go out in the field? And what… be an Avenger?"

"Not full time," Steve replies calmly, a noticeable juxtaposition from Tony's irritated verve. "But, yes. Sometimes." He glances at Tessa from the corner of his eye. "I think she could be a real asset."

Bucky pushes off of the wall where he'd been steadily brooding behind the group for the past twenty minutes. "She's just now remembering again… just now getting a feel for what she can do. That's way too soon to be –"

"I went on that mission in Mexico," she interrupts harshly. "And that was when I only remembered… what I could. I only had an inkling of what I was capable of then, and you still said that I was amazing."

He gives her a tired look, tone deadpan when he says, "I don't remember that."

The corner of her mouth ticks up just a bit. "You said that you thought there wasn't anything I couldn't do."

He raises his eyebrows and steps forward, leveling her with an almost reprimanding stare. "I was probably trying to get in your pants."

She leans back in her chair and scoffs loudly. "You didn't have to try," she says with a teasing lilt, earning her a weary grin and a headshake from her fiancé.

"I think it would be good," Wanda says suddenly, drawing all eyes to her. "Tessa and I can… work together. We both control energy, but in different ways. I think that having her out there could be really helpful. For me, at least," she finishes with a bashful ducking of her head.

Tony nods slowly. "Well," he breathes out, his posture looking almost defeated. Tessa feels a raw sort of excitement growing in her gut, knowing Tony well enough to see that the wheels inside his head are spinning – and they might just be spinning in her direction.

"She'd have to go through the paces," Steve interjects. "Some formalized training. But also…" He turns to look at her, gives her a serious stare. "We'd have to talk to Xavier. I'd need to know exactly what you're capable of before putting you in the field."

She nods definitively. "Absolutely. That makes sense. Though I'm not sure that any of us really know what all I'm capable of." She turns quickly to Wanda, and says as a cover, "But the same could be said of you."

"Alright," Tony barks out, throwing up a silencing hand. "Look, I have a thing. I have to go talk to a bunch of idealistic geniuses at MIT." He releases a dramatic sigh – "Perfect timing for a speaking engagement." – then looks over at Tessa and raises a single pointed finger. "I'm not convinced. You have a day to figure out how to convince me. And you should include in your argument how you'll be able to be part of the team and keep up with your duties at Stark Industries. Because I will not accept that resignation. We'll talk when I get back." He spins around and marches from the room, tossing over his shoulder as he goes, "Try not to drain anyone's life force while I'm gone!"

000

"I am so tired," Tessa says once they roll back into their apartment that evening. She collapses, face-first, onto the couch, mumbling into a pillow, "So tired."

Bucky lets out a deep sigh and meanders over. He stares down at her dramatically splayed out body for a long moment and shakes his head pitifully before dropping down next to her. She quickly flings the pillow across the room, opting for laying her head on his thigh instead. "Kind of a big day," he mutters absently, glancing down to see her curled up and gazing up at him longingly.

The moment their eyes meet, her face splits into a wide, childlike smile. "Steve and I went for a run," she practically gushes.

He nods, just a small, quirked grin on his face. "I know. You two were gone a while too."

She rolls onto her back, keeping her head cozily perched on his leg. "It felt so good," she breathes out. "Just to… move."

He brings his left hand down and begins to lazily trace along her temple with his metal thumb. "I'll bet."

She cocks a mischievous brow at him. "Did you know that I used to run when I was a kid? Distance." She releases a soft chuckle. "There was only one other girl who ran with me, but I still claimed that we had a cross-country team. Put it on my college applications. I said I was the captain." He gives her a soft smile. "Did I ever tell you that?" she asks curiously.

"Nope."

Her brow creases in thought for the briefest of moments. "Huh. I wonder if I didn't know." She shifts further into his lap, takes hold of his metal hand and brings it down in front of her. "It's hard for me to know now," she says as she begins playing with his metal digits, folding and unfolding the fingers, her warm skin gliding across the overlapping plates. "Now that I do know and I do remember… it's hard to remember what I didn't remember then… you know?" She glances back up at him with an amused smirk, but the pleased expression drops suddenly when she sees the frown building on his face. "What?"

He shifts involuntarily, her concerned voice breaking him from whatever odd reverie he'd been trapped in. He looks down at her and his frown deepens. "What what?"

She pulls herself up out of his lap, swinging her legs around and off the couch so that she can sit upright. "What's wrong?"

He releases a long, tired breath through his nose, but says nothing, instead fighting to give her a small, placating smile. As though she wouldn't be able to see right through that.

"Are you mad? About me saying that I want to go on missions?" she asks, a defensive edge to her voice.

"No," he mutters simply. "I'm not mad."

"Are you disappointed that I'm healed?" she asks with an accusatory eyebrow. "Are you disappointed that I won't be relying on you as much?"

His brows knit together, a stricken, almost bitter look rolling over his features. "What?"

Her voice rises in intensity when she says, "Well, I don't know. You could be."

"Tessa," he says, shaking his head reproachfully. "I'm glad you're… better."

"You don't seem very glad," she offers with a petulant frown.

He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees, sighs deeply as he drops his face into his hands and tiredly scrubs at it. "It's just…" he starts, dropping his hands back down. "It's a lot to take in all at once."

She nods slowly and concedes, "I can appreciate that."

He turns bodily to face her. "I am glad you're healed. Really. I'm not sure how we'll explain it to Dr. Hammond… or anyone else for that matter. But I'm glad."

Still, he frowns, the expression so at odds with his words that she can't help but roll her eyes dully. "What then?" she asks again, her tone serious, almost demanding.

He throws his hands up in the air and huffs out a tight breath. "For as long as I've known you, you've done everything you can to avoid going on any kind of mission. And now…"

"That's not true," she shakes her head vehemently. "I wanted to be part of the thing with Lobe."

"You thought you should be part of it," he counters. "And this thing in Nigeria… what happened there…"

"I could've helped," she interrupts. "I could've prevented it."

"Maybe," he shrugs. "But what happened… that wasn't your fault. And it's not your responsibility."

"What does it say about me if I have the ability to help and instead I stay here and do nothing?"

"You're not doing nothing," he protests. "I know you want to help people. I know you want to make a difference. But…" He pinches his lips tightly together for a brief moment as he thinks on what to say next.

Impatience and frustration play openly on Tessa's face. "But what?"

"But… you did that through science, medicine. That's how you've helped. That's how you've always wanted to help. This… going on missions… baby, that's different."

She releases an irritated sigh. "Yeah, I know it's different."

"And it kind of seems like it's coming out of nowhere."

She shakes her head. "Not nowhere. Look at what just happened!"

"I know."

"Look at what they're all saying about Wanda!"

His head snaps up, wide eyes quickly connecting with hers. "Wanda?"

"Yes!" she exclaims. "They're all blaming her because she's enhanced. They're saying that she should be locked up or… or registered. Kept away from the public at large. They should be… they should be grateful that someone with her kind of power is willing to help. And is using it for good… trying to do good."

His expression quickly changes from surprise to understanding. "Baby," he breathes out. Then, shifting around on the couch, he pulls his right leg up and drapes his arm over the rear cushions so that he can face her head-on. "Tessa," he starts, serious stare boring into her. "I remember that op in Mexico. I remember handing you my gun and you giving it back saying you've never even fired a weapon." She pulls her eyebrows together, giving him a quizzical look. "Our first date," he begins with a small grin. "It was after running self-defense drills that you were terrible at."

"I wasn't terrible," she claims, a shrillness to her voice.

He chuckles lightly – "You weren't good." – and offers her a soft gaze. "In Sokovia… I could see how much you didn't want to be there. How much you didn't want to fight."

"No one wanted to be there," she argues.

He nods appeasingly. "I know."

"You're afraid I can't handle it? Is that it?" Her words are accusing, but her voice holds nothing more than a sort of curious concern.

"I'm afraid that you're gonna get yourself into something you really don't want to do," he says with a sincere authority.

"I can fight," she argues blandly. "I can."

"I know you can. But do you want to?"

Her mouth drops open, breath catching on unspoken words.

He leans further back and releases a long, drawn-out sigh. "The guys I fought with," he says slowly, reluctantly… talking about the war never being an easy thing for him to do. "They didn't want to be there. None of us wanted to fight. But those who enlisted, they did it because they thought it was the right thing to do. Because they wanted to protect their families and their homes. They wanted to help people and make a difference. And at that time, going to war was the only way they could do that." He raises his brows at her assessingly. "I know right now it's hard. With your company telling you that you have to work on something that… doesn't really help anyone. And might actually hurt you and the people you love. It probably feels like you can't make a difference there anymore. Not a good one anyway."

She pulls her mouth shut, her teeth audibly clicking together as she does so. Her eyes drop down to her lap and she begins to fiddle with her fingers.

He reaches over and lays his metal hand atop hers to quell the fidgeting. "Those guys… the ones I fought with… the ones who enlisted because they felt they had no other choice… one way or another, the war ruined them." He pulls his hand up, moves his fingers over to her face, her chin, so that he can direct her gaze back up to him. "I don't want that for you."

She holds his gaze for a long moment, lets in his energy, his genuine concern and love. "I feel like a war is coming," she says softly, almost a whisper. "And I don't know… I don't know if I can make a difference with science. I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore."

"I know," he nods, pressing his lips together lamentingly.

She clears her throat, her expression steeling. "But I will do what I have to," she tells him in no uncertain terms.

Again, he nods. "I know you will." He looks up at her with a sad, wistful smile. "I've been to war. I know the fight." With a deep, distressed breath, he asks her – pleads with her, "Let me do this? Let me be the one who goes to war. Let me fight for you." His hand quickly finds her face, his open palm pressing against her cheek with a desperation that no words can convey. "Let me do what needs to be done out there. And you can make a difference here… where you actually want to be. Where it's safe."

She gives him an imploring look, her eyes softening as she begins to shake her head. "I don't think," she starts, gaze shifting from his only briefly as she releases a deep sigh. "I don't think anywhere is safe. Not anymore."