Guys, your reviews make my day! Some of you have been so complimentary, it means a lot. I am so glad you are enjoying this story! Here's the next chapter!

Wanda's power snaked through Natasha's chest, quelling her anxiety immediately. It drifted to her head without invading her thoughts, Wanda's attempt to be polite. "Natasha," Wanda's voice echoed distantly, "Steve would like to show you something. If you will open your mind to me, I will show it to you."

Steve? Natasha's mind raced, she knew a Steve didn't she? Wanda sensed her pause, "If you do not wish it, I will not force you." Wanda began to withdraw, "No!" Natasha's thought echoed in Wanda's mind. "Show me." Wanda reached out with her power and touched Natasha's mind, then did the same with Steve.

"She is listening." Steve hesitated, "Will you hear what I say?" Wanda shook her head, "I will detach as soon as I know it's working. Don't try to use words Steve, in her state, she will understand feelings better."

Steve furrowed his brow, feelings? He wasn't sure what to do. He looked at Natasha, so beautiful but so still, and an ache filled his chest.

"That's perfect, I'm detaching now." Steve looked at her confused, what was perfect? Suddenly he felt a small tug on his mind, shy, but letting her presence be known. "Natasha?" He felt rather than heard her confirmation.

"Natasha please wake up, I don't want to lose you." There was no response, a feeling of confusion that was not his own filled him. She did not understand his words. He paused, gathering his thoughts, then tried again. He thought about Bucky, and imagined him falling to his death on the train. He had never been the same. He thought about Peggy, wasting away in that hospital room, he thought of her funeral so recently held. His deep sorrow and loneliness in a time that wasn't his own. He felt the heaviness in his chest, and he knew Natasha could feel it too. Then he thought of her, of her dry humor and how she made him laugh. He remembered her asking him if he trusted her, and let her feel the certainty he had felt in that moment. The weight of his sadness lessened, and Steve tried to make her understand that it was due to her, her friendship, her loyalty, who she was as a person.

Suddenly Steve was filled with a huge stab of doubt and then anger, and images that were not his own filled his head. They were from Natasha's perspective, her murdering people, the Red Room training. They flashed through his mind rapidly as memory after memory flooded through her into him. He felt her despair acutely. With a force of will he stopped her. Pulling up a memory, he opened his thoughts to her. He showed her the day he had learned about her past, the day he had read the files she had dropped on the internet. It had not changed his opinion of her. He pulled up another memory, more recent, Natasha lying broken on the ground rather than let him sign the Sokovia Accords. He lifted the memory before her as if to say, "This is not the same person." Natasha was silent.

Steve let the silence between them stretch for a moment, then he cautiously, nervously, pulled up another memory. He was in the mall, nerves stretched thin, riding down a crowded escalator with Natasha. Suddenly she had turned and looked into his face. Steve let her feel what he had felt, his breath caught in his chest at her closeness, at her beauty. She kissed him, and his whole body tingled with heat, his chest filled with fire. Steve let the memory fade, embarrassed.

Natasha kept to herself for a moment, but Steve could feel a slow warmth flow through her. Steve let his mind move into Natasha's veins, his blood flowing there, her changed DNA. He pictured her wounds, shiny pink and healed. "You have more to do here," Steve thought at her fiercely. Suddenly the connection was broken.

Wanda gasped and rubbed her head, "I'm sorry Steve, that's all I can sustain. I hope you said what you wanted to say."

Steve sat down hard, "I did, almost . I just hope she heard me." Wanda put a hand on his shoulder, "It's truly up to her now."

Tony appeared in the doorway, "Steve, I need you to come look at our promo, it's rough but the basic content is there. We need this to work. They won't let us hide in here forever."

Steve looked at Natasha anxiously as Nanali stepped back into the room.

"Go," she said, "I will call you if anything changes."

Steve nodded, and left with Tony and Wanda to fine tune their last line of defense, the will of the people.