The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the apartment as Steve stirred a teaspoon of sugar into a mug of hot, black liquid, just the way she liked it.
She was standing on the other side of the kitchen counter watching his every movement as if seeing coffee made for the very first time.
"There is so much I want to tell you." She said, her eyes shining.
Steve smiled shyly as he handed her the coffee and walked out of the kitchen to the lounge. She followed him and sat down next to him on the couch. She breathed in the aromatic steam rising from the mug in her hands before taking a sip, relishing in the feeling of the warm liquid as she swallowed.
"Good?" asked Steve, still grinning.
She nodded 'yes', before putting the mug on the coffee table. She thought about how to tell him what had happened while she was out, but she found that the words didn't come easy.
"Steve..." she began. Frowning as the right words kept eluding her and letting her eyes drop to her lap.
"Hey," he said gently, putting his mug on the coffee table before turning toward her. "It's okay, you can tell me anything." He hesitated, but reached out and took her hand in his, like he did in the hospital and blushed when she looked up at him.
"I..." she tried again. "When you gave me your blood, something happened."
Steve frowned as he listened.
"I remembered..." she held up her hand just as he wanted to interject, she couldn't lose momentum now.
"I remembered, but they weren't my memories. They were yours."
Steve's frown deepened. "What do you mean they were mine?"
"I mean that I lived or relived your life while I was out, right up to the point where Shuri took the needle out of your arm in the ER."
Steve felt his jaw go a little slack as his mind went into overdrive.
A long silence hung between them until Jane could't bear it anymore.
"Please say something." She pleaded, squeezing his hand. He came out of his reverie and blinked, focussing on her.
"Y-you saw, my whole life?" he asked. She nodded slowly 'yes', looking away, afraid that she'd lost him.
Steve got over the fleeting moment he thought he felt violated in the blink of an eye. To his surprise, he didn't mind that she'd seen the whole story - all he was afraid of was that she'd think less of him because of it.
He watched as a tear fought its way down her cheek. In one movement, he wiped it away and pulled her closer.
"It's okay." He whispered. "I'm glad you saw it. Now there's nothing you don't know about me."
His answer knocked her off kilter. She was expecting the complete opposite.
"Then why do you look unhappy?" She questioned.
"Because now you also know what I've done and I don't know how you feel about that."
"What you've done? Steve..." she took his face gently in her hands, making him look into her eyes. "All you've done is what you've believed in and what you've thought was right. You've sacrificed everything for this world. How could I ever think anything but the best of you?"
That knocked the breath clean out of him.
"I wish I could do the same for you... show you everything about me, and I'll have you know that not even I know everything about me, who knows what nuggets of horror lie in wait for you there." She had the promise of a smile on her face and watched as he grinned at her and it reached his eyes. It made her feel like she could pour the molten mess he had turned her heart into over them and gild them in the moment forever.
Steve's stomach was doing backflips and his heart felt like it had burst open, waiting for her to make her home there.
She pushed herself up and put her one leg over his lap, sitting down gently, facing him. Steve's jaw clenched as his cheeks grew hot.
She watched his cheeks flush and it endeared him to her even more. Such a formidable man he was, so sure of himself when it came to facing monsters and doing what's right and here he was, completely vulnerable in front of her.
"Will you go on a date with me, Steve Rogers?" She asked him. His eyebrows lifted in surprise and he cleared his throat.
"It would be my honour ma'am." He replied.
She threw her arms around his neck, unable to contain the huge grin on her face and melted as he grinned that lopsided grin. Suddenly aware of their proximity, she felt her heart quicken and watched as he closed the distance between them for a kiss, feeling herself disappear into his embrace. A long moment passed before they pulled away, breathless.
"I can do this all day." She whispered.
Steve chuckled, "okay slugger, let's get some breakfast."
Halfway through scrambled eggs on toast, there was a knock on the door.
"Steve, it's me, Natasha."
"Come in." He answered.
"Since when did you stop barging in?" Sam's voice echoed down the hall as Nat walked in and took in Steve and Jane having breakfast together. She smiled and half-frowned at the same time.
"Good morning." She said - it sounded more like a question.
"Good morning." Chimed Steve and Jane at the same time.
Sam walked in, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Jane. She looked around. "Hi, Sam."
"Hi." He returned the greeting, eyes wide, trying his best to look as composed as Natasha. Something moved behind his legs and it caught Jane's eye. From behind the half open door, appeared first a black muzzle with a white stripe down the nose, followed by a pair of friendly brown eyes set below ears that were just a little bit too big.
"Dog!" Yelled Jane, jumping out of her chair. Dog bounded into her arms, his tail wagging so animatedly that the whole back half of his body swayed with it. She had her ear pressed against her shoulder reflexively at the sniffles and licks he was trying to plant on her cheek.
"You'd think she'd be half as excited to see me." Shrugged Sam.
Jane stood up, out of breath and smiling, wiping her cheek with her sleeve. "I'll be sure to leap into your arms and lick your face the next time I see you." She teased.
"Where did you find him?" She asked, pointing to Dog.
"We found him where they took you, that same night." Said Steve.
"So he's been okay this whole time?"
"Yeah," said Sam, "he's been living the life up here."
"Thank you," said Jane.
"It's my pleasure, but you should know we all looked after him," replied Sam.
"Then I am grateful to all of you. I thought I'd lost him forever."
Sam whipped up another batch of scrambled eggs and toast for himself and Nat and they joined Jane and Steve at the table.
Nat kept shooting loaded glances in Janes' direction, who bit her cheek, trying not to smile.
A long silence hung between the four of them like the truth of who assassinated JFK. The clatter of cutlery against plates the only breaks in the silence. Sam sat back and folded his arms across his chest.
"Not to be the one to poke the elephant in the room, but what the hell is going on?"
Steve and Jane exchanged a high browed glance but said nothing. It was Natasha who spoke first.
"I got a call from the hospital just after midnight saying that she'd woken up." She began. "When I got there, she was ready to go, so I got the go-ahead from the doctor on call on condition that she goes to see her doctor there today for a checkup and here we are. By the way, your appointment is in an hour," she said to Jane.
"Thanks." Said Jane.
"Well, I guess we better get going." Said Steve.
"Oh come on!" Sam was not at all happy about being left out of this particular loop.
"Actually," said Natasha, "the doctor will be at the Design Institute, they notified T'Challa as per his request that she'd woken up and Shuri has arranged that he see her there."
"Of course she has," said Steve.
"So we have thirty minutes to kill before we have to go anywhere." Nat's eyes darted expectantly from Jane to Steve.
Jane sighed and began telling them about what happened when she was out. She told them that she'd come to tell Steve earlier that morning, but left out the parts where they affirmed their feelings for each other.
"Is that it?" asked Sam.
"Yes," answered Steve.
"You're a terrible liar," grinned Nat before she turned her gaze on Jane.
"You said you'd lived his life, so you know everything there is to know about him," she tilted her head towards Steve suggestively.
Jane managed to hold her poker face for about a minute before she had to bite her cheek to keep a straight face.
"Ha! I knew it!" bellowed Sam, pointing.
Natasha smiled and sat back in her seat, holding out her hand to Sam.
"Pay up, Wilson."
"Uh-uh, the deal was if they kissed, then you win. She just told him she felt the same." A loaded silence followed his argument.
"Tell me you just told him you felt the same?" Sam was fishing for affirmation of his win, but Steve blushed and clenched his jaw and Jane was chewing her cheek.
Sam sat back in his chair, defeated, and pulled a hundred bucks out of his wallet and slapped it into Nat's hand. "I'm framing this one." She grinned.
Shuri threw her arms around Jane. "I'm so glad to see you!" She exclaimed, stepping back and examining Jane at arm's length. "How do you feel? Have you remembered anything?"
"I feel fine," smiled Jane at her friend, "and I remembered something, though I think you may be disappointed to learn what."
Shuri frowned but was cut off by the doctor before she could say anything.
He did a thorough examination, making use of all the imaging technology Shuri had available.
Finally, after what seemed like more than an hour, he asked them all to assemble.
"Physically, I can't find anything wrong with her." He frowned at his own statement. "Though that doesn't mean I didn't find anything. There is a lot going on physiologically that I can't explain."
"That doesn't say much." Jabbed Shuri.
"I know, but I haven't seen anything like this before, there is no term, no condition and no way to describe it."
Shuri conceded with a sideways nod. She knew a bit of what that was like when it came to Jane.
"But she's okay?" asked Steve, concerned.
"She's more than okay," assured the doctor, "I dare say she's stronger than us all."
"Thank you, doctor," said Shuri, with a small frown.
"It's my pleasure, I will take my leave." He nodded his head in greeting and turned to leave.
Jane wasted no time and turned to address Shuri, Steve, Nat and Sam. "Now that I have the 'all clear', would someone mind telling me who took me, why, and where you found me?"