Chapter 14

James woke up to warm breath ghosting over his sculpted chest. He squinted against the steams of light through the window; he got to be semi-mindful of his new surroundings. He paused a minute to register the solace of her wavering body heat enveloping over his rigid muscles as the deep weariness clawed its way into the weaves of his tormented mind; he languished on his internal guilt for a long moment. He felt the raging storm in his heart. After they had kissed in the alleyway, Felicity dragged him onto a train, and barricaded him against a window seat.

It was dangerous for him to be so close to a woman, since he had been subjected to become dehumanized on the operating table in 1945, butchered to have no emotional attachment towards anything... He forgot how to share love with someone. Being condemned to serve as the 'Fist of HYDRA' made him ultimately feel dead inside. He had been frozen in a dark world...eternal winter... until her acceptance, trust and heart thawed him out. Felicity was his girl, and James had to keep on convincing himself that he was free to love her without the binding strings of HYDRA holding him down.

His pale blue eyes captured the strange and blurry shapes of buildings, shadows in between the golden rays of early dawn. It was a new day...A second chance to enjoy a life that was stolen from him.

Combing his hand through his messy tresses of his long hair, James paused for a moment, and stared at the outside world. There was something ominous about clusters of olden buildings forming darken Gothic styled labyrinths in the background of hazed morning fog. It wasn't their final destination. Just a city on the route towards Central City.

He focused his intent gaze on the sign bolted on bridge, and muttered out the name with curiosity laced in his sleep-dazed voice. "Gotham..." It seemed to have sent a feverish chill down his spine as he stole another glance at the foreboding island connected with the , the sounds of the wheels clashing with steel rails lulled him to full the dry paste over his lips, James instantly flicked his eyes down and stared tenderly at Felicity, her angelic face was resting over his muscular pectorals as he inhaled and exhaled the soothing scent of ginger and lavender mixed within the mass of her golden ringlets draped over her cheeks and fanned across his torso. Her small hand was enveloping possessively over his metal knuckles.

He lightly smiled and pressed a kiss over her mass of hair. When she started to stir from a blissfully, he listened to a faint sigh escaping from her lips. He nudged his cheek against her head. "Felicity," he whispered as her name fell over his lips. He gently slipped out his hand from underneath hers and stroked her long strands as he felt the silky hair between his fingers.

Felicity groaned and slowly lifted her head; she opened her sleep-hazed eyes as he stared into her melting pools of aqua with a still gaze. She stretched her limbs over him and the seat slightly, feeling the comforting warmth of his body seep through her bones. He watched the messy ringlets fall gracefully into place over her neck and shoulders. A deep exhale pierced from her lips as she became fully alert and fluttered her curled lashes to adjust the brightness of the sunlight. He became entranced by a silent compressed yawn that broke through the air; she shifted her eyes to the window and allowed her eyes to gaze at the fluffy clouds tinged with light rose as the rays of the rising sun warmed her skin.

"Good morning, Felicity," he said quietly, bringing his face closer to hers. It was still foreign to him having this efficient and beautiful woman this close in contact with him. Inside, Bucky felt his heart unwilling to separate from her. When he looked into her light irises and became entranced with the gleams of sunlight that her pupils held captive. He felt a sword pierce his heart as he became slain by the concealed depth he stared into. He became a victim of her mysterious allure.

"What happened to me last night?" she mumbled out, crinkling her eyebrow before looking into his handsome face" She was marveled with the contentment she saw beaming over his refined features. Carefree. Youth. Daring. Almost like he was reborn... She felt a gravitational tug in her chest; he stared deeply into her eyes. She averted her gaze and said, "I remember banging my head against the window. After that...It's all still a blur..."

"I had to put an ice bag on forehead." He replied in a hushed voice. His hand moved down the planes of her back. "You were knocked out cold." He watched her countenance change; her walls were slowly building up. He knew that she was hiding her fear of attachment underneath a veil of semblance that she wore when her emotions were starting to betray her. He also knew that she had a greater fear of abandonment that pinned against her heart. He can see the unspoken torment in her eyes. "You had another dream about your friend?"

"It's a reoccurring nightmare that never ceases to go away." Felicity pursed her lips into a firm line. She hated feeling so vulnerable. Powerless. Her emotions were slicing in the deepest part of her. She couldn't escape from the grief of losing Sara. Her friendship had become a burden for her to carry alone, without Oliver's muscled arms cloaking over her. What the Hell was happening to her? She was teetering closer to the edge. She was ready to fall into the abyss of her past and drown into her regrets. She knew that somehow her nightmares wouldn't allow her to escape. They would chase her-condemn her to feel the dull throbs invade her heart. Over and over again. For a moment, she felt stillness, her eyes stare into his pale blue ones as heat increased in her veins. She couldn't resist him. She hoped that he wouldn't ask her about the dreams. "Oliver wanted me to forget and allow Sara to stay in the past...I can't not when I could have done something to prevent her murder. Maybe I needed to hack into the traffic cameras or tell Digg to track down her location...Ughh...I feel so useless-"

"Felicity," he sighed. His metal fingers wove through her ringlets. The fullness of his lips slacked into a frown. "I'm not good with understanding emotions. I can feel a pain that doesn't come from my wounds...It's almost like I've lost a friend."

She lowered her head back down and rested against his broad shoulder. "We both have lost so much, James," she paused, feeling her heart flip-flop in her chest. "I'm not sure if I can adapt to this stage in my life. Everything is falling into pieces back home and the people that I have trusted for eight years keep on dying off because of the mistakes all of us had made in the past." Her mind snapped back and forth. Images of Sara's hollow and cold body on the table invaded her memory. Sara, a precious friend and sister frozen in the darkness with three arrows stuck into her midsection. And suddenly, she couldn't escape. She couldn't breathe as fear and guilt seized in her bones. She was numb, sitting in the cushioned seat with feverish sweat pouring out of her at an alarming rate.

It felt like poison had flooded through her veins. She was blaming Oliver for everything. Blaming her cherished friend, the man who risks his life dozens of times to protect her. Inside she was starting to feel terrible. "You see back in Starling City, we're a family. Yes, we have our differences, but at the end of the day we're still humans cleaning up our mistakes. When Sara was murdered by the League of Assassins, I felt dead inside and some part of me still does." She lifted her aqua eyes to his face, and her hand traced over the metal plating of his arm.

She wanted to tell him the truth that waved inside her soul. The confession that she had kept from him since that day when he emerged from shadows of the alley. Instead, she breathed a low breath and allowed those feelings to seep back inside her. She had to break the walls of tension before he felt unsettled by distress. "The place we're headed will help you remember how to feel again. They're good people that I can trust with my life, mind you, Barry Allen is very different from what your use to...He can run very fast."

James wrinkled his eyebrows. "Quick?" he rehashed, raspy.

"Very fast," Felicity felt a tender smile tug over her lips. "He's a hero. Not like the Avengers, but still someone who risks his own life saving people. Good and bad."

James placed a light kiss on her brow; he inhaled the scent of her hair. "You're good, Felicity." he whispered in a grating honest voice. His blue eyes shining as she reined her head away from his chest, looking deeply into his steady gaze through wispy strands of messy hair over his cheeks. His metal fingers grace over her bare skin, allowing coldness to deduce over the fever in her veins.

"Only when I need to be, James," Felicity said, sweetly.

He laughed gently against her.

"So he laughs," she shot back, lifting her head off his shoulder. "I'm serious. I'm not the type of woman who enjoys shopping for flowers to make her apartment presentable. I have a complex life." She said as her gaze wondered to the red emblazoned star painted on his metal shoulder. "It will be interesting to have more complexities in life that don't involving playing the game person of interest with dealers in the Glades."

She idly roved her long fingers over his heavy and sweaty chest. His black shirt was drenched. She was complicating on the new lifestyle she had been enduring- creating spyware programs, triangulating criminal activity and feeling pulled in half between emotions and choices. Most of all, she was actually getting use to leaving on the edge and involving her in the game of risk.

"We're complicated people," he replied, caressing her pale cheek with his fingers before she felt his hands wander down until he snaked his grasp under her slender waist and massaged her gently. "I want to get to know the real, Felicity Smoak." His voice had had edge of softness. "The woman behind all the masks."

"That's going to be difficult for you." she said, with in a low whisper.

"Why?" he asked, rising one eyebrow.

"I wear many masks," she replied with a purr rattling through her vocal cords. She smirked defiantly. "They're practically glued on to me."

"True," he said, with a sincere gaze of icy blue and his full lips curved into a tender grin. "But I can see right through them."

Felicity raised her hand to his face, her fingers stroked against the scruff collected over his strong jaw, as she stared into his unblinking sorrowful azure eyes for a long moment, saying nothing, however she listened his breath and felt the heat waver into her body. Unable to find the right words, she leaned in closer, meeting his face that separated half of diamond. Unison.

She allowed so many to become distractions to her heart. James isn't a distraction. He was needed and lifeline for her to cling onto when darkness threatened to swallow her up. Smiling, she moved disheveled pieces of hair, tucking the strands behind as his ears.

Felicity bit her bottom lip, as he lifted his hand and ran his fingers along her jaw. She was frozen. Her heart was pounding a rapid pulse through her veins, as he did a swift move of motion and turned her over; she felt her body sinking into the seat. Her toes curl against her boots as she felt his body weight pressing against her. She arched herself up until her breasts rubbed over his chest. She smirked a little, when she felt his hips grind against her own with instinctual rocking motion as he settled himself over her. She responded with her fingers digging into the fleshly sculpted planes of his back, sliding over the scars and freckles across his muscles as his shirt raveled up.

She felt the urge ignite through her. She dipped her head and pressed her lips down the side of his neck, tasting him. Then, she lifted her gaze and stare into the pools of molten blue. Her hands trail over the flesh and metal of his arms and she gripped them firmly, feeling the raw powerful they held underneath his skin. She flattened her body back down into the seat, giving him full clearance of invading her.

"People like us only have few chances to take a risk...I'm not sure if you're ready, but I do know that we need each other as partners and maybe something else that is hard for us to say right now. If you want me...The real woman without the glasses then I am yours, James."

She settled a look up right into his eyes. She was piercing his soul. He was not used to this staring into a woman eyes before. She wasn't used to feeling the blinding desires burn inside her. She never allowed herself to become physically close to a man in her life. This was different. They had rawness into their connection. A passionate flare that the coals of their forgotten desires lit as it consumed them both. The question that flowed through her mind was could she finally allow her heart to trust him? To feel the sealed cavern of intimacy finally open up as they could reveal their mortal secrets, personal feelings and allowing someone to finally hold their heart. She knew it was not going to be easy for them. Nothing ever was in life.

She rested her mass of wild hair against the hardness of the seat as he dipped his head lower and kissed her neck with his hot lips. He enjoyed the salty flavor that her pores were producing as she finds his sharp jaw line and mirrors the same. Her nails spread over his back, digging into the glazed skin as the waves of pleasure fill her soul. She closed her eyes, thinking that this moment was just a dream. He didn't exist. She was back in her apartment. When she opened her eyes, she stared into him with a tender look feeling the moisture build behind her irises. She raised her hand and threaded through his thick wavy locks touching the expanse of his shoulders. He was perfection. No man could compare to him. He was a rare treasure to grasp that held a value she deemed priceless.

James framed his hands over her face; he stared down at her with unguarded eyes and slowly dropped his lips over her mouth. He kissed her with his soft lips, creating the electrical charge inside both of their bodies. He slipped his tongue desperately inside her mouth and she responded with a low moan and wrapped her arms around his neck. He slipped his tongue urgently inside her mouth and she reacted with a low groan and wrapped her arms around his neck. Their tongues shushed on the sides of their mouths as he moved his hands down the bends of her hips, he pulled his lips away and pressed a sodden kissed underneath her jaw.

Felicity closed her eyes, feeling her lips curve into a content smile before she caressed his neck lightly with her lips and rested her head on his chest, listening in his heart beat. He lifted slightly up and his eyes fell to her red lips as he plunged back deep into her mouth. "This is what I call living a complex life."

"You don't have to talk. Just close your eyes and feel my heartbeat." he said, his voice low and fierce against her slightly swollen lips.

"So what happens now," she asked in a shaky exhale as he hushed her words with another kiss before bringing his lips back to her neck.

He didn't lift his head nor stare into her eyes. "I think you already know that answer, Felicity.

She curved her lips into a blissful smile before saying in a low voice against his ear, "Careful, James, I'm a girl with too many high expectations."

"I know," he whispered with a wistful smile.

They shut out the world around them and placing their trust into each other as their heartbeats pounded with contentment.

"Captain America," Barry said in a whispering tone, sipping his fourth cup of coffee. His light gray eyes narrowed at the paper Iris threw down in front of him. "Okay, so what does America's greatest super-soldier have to do with Central City?" It wasn't utterly normal for his childhood friend to suddenly put all her interest as a reported into legend whom he had deemed Captain Steven Rogers as his inspiration from collections of war bond comic books his grandfather stashed away in the attic. "I know he is incredible, Iris, but why have you become intrigued with the leader of the Avengers?"

Iris put her coffee down and leaned in closer. "Maybe it's because I have been asked to write a story about the events that transpired in Washington. There is a lot o detail scattered and if I can find just one piece about the street death battle Captain America had with that masked assassin, this might be my chance to prove to my demanding editor that I have what it takes to become Central City's top reporter..Maybe even CNN."

Barry pulled his lips into a gentle and encouraging smile. In someway he was relieved she wasn't spending her time writing about the Flash. This hunt for Captain America would prevent her from getting into harms way. "I'm so happy for you," He said, his deep, grayish blue eyes lightening in confidence, a beam of assurance crossed over his boyish features as every crease burned with the desire to tell her so much. He had to protect her. He promised Joe that she would never enter his world. "Any leads on your new boyfriend yet?" he asked, jokingly.

"Barry, I'm being serious. I have one lead. The assassin is called the Winter Soldier. He is Soviet military and has a metal arm. I think it's his left." She paused for moment, her eyes drifted back onto the picture of her new crush-Steve Rogers. Her polished fingers traced over the outline of his jaw. "I think he is somehow connected with Captain America's past."

"I glad the Flash will never cross his path," Barry murmured under his breath, taking another sip of coffee. "The Winter Soldier...Huh...It sounds like a name Cisco would make up for his video game villain gallery." He smirked a little, and then focused on her. He didn't want her to walk into that dark world of betrayal, murder and deception. He had read up on the Howling Commandos and HYDRA. He sense that the Winter Soldier was shadow of a tortuous past. Still, he had to keep those secrets locked within him for the sake of Iris's life. "I'll admit it's a pretty cool name. Leaves you feeling haunted just thinking about this masked killer...I know that I would be afraid of this guy if he came knocking on Joe's door."

"Knowing my dad, I would probably invite him in for questioning."

"Yeah," Barry chuckled a little, trying very hard to look into her eyes. "You should just be focusing on the good guys, Iris. They always have stories that are meant to have a chance to be told without false print."

Iris smiled brightly, her dark eyes shone against the sunlight reflecting against the glass windows around them. Her lithe fingers moved ever so slightly to caress a soft touch over his knuckles. "How is it every time I doubt myself you always find a away to help me become stronger, Barry?"

Barry tilted his head, staring at the creamed coffee in his mug. "I guess, that's what a friend does, Iris. You know I will support you with every decision that you make, even if you chose to leave and go chase down the Avengers in New York." He swallowed, trying to avoid her beautiful eyes. His lips curved into a sheepish grin, and his chest ached. He tried to suppress the pain, but his heart wouldn't let him. He couldn't let her go. Years of being together as friends, and watching her grow up into a beautiful and strong woman of integrity and justice, it placed a icy throb of regret in him. He cleared his throat, trying to dispel out the hesitation, coffee didn't help wash out the burning heat scratching in his lungs. He drew out a short breath, and met her brown eyes. "I just want you to follow your dream. If you need any help, I will be there in a flash, Iris."

He looked over her shoulder, and saw Eddie standing outside with a rose in his hand. Of course, Barry felt the flames of jealousy ignite, however, he snapped his eyes down to the printed image of Captain America and allow a sense of ease to wash out the fire consuming in his veins. Before, he could say another word, his mobile phone buzzed in his coat's pocket. Swiftly, he pulled it out, and turned on the screen, reading the message.

Felicity is arriving by train. She's bringing a friend with bad case of memory loss to Star Labs. I need you at the station.

Cate.

"Barry?"

He snapped his head back up, and looked at Iris with unsettled and yet shining gray pools. "Sorry to cut our time short, but I need to help a friend." He said in a fast pitch of breath; grabbing his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll call you later." he promised, shifting his eyes to the doors. "Have fun with Eddie tonight." He paced causally out the door, passing the blonde detective while texting Caitlin back a short message back.

It looks like I have a train to catch.

Barry.

A/N: A big thank you to every one who reads and follows this story. I wanted to write some Barry Allen. He's such a fun and humble character to write. The next chapter will involve Bucky meeting the whole gang at Star Labs. Oliver and Steve being hunted down by Nyssa and maybe some other Marvel and DC characters. Enjoy and thank you so much.