Beckett couldn't help the smile that crept across her face as she watched Castle and Ryan survey the outer walls of the castle. While Ryan was all business, focused primarily on keeping the perception filter maintained...Castle, in his heart, was an eight year old at play.

Castle cast a shield spell with only the barest thought given to the task. "Okay, Beckett," he deferred to his partner, "where should we start?"

Beckett opened her senses to the world around her, focusing on every visual and audible detail that could tell her where the entrances were and, most importantly, where the guards were posted. "Two guards at the front gate," she told the two men. "Two cameras."

"I can handle the guards," said Ryan, "but there's no way that a couple of cameras is the full extent of their security system."

"Leave that to me," said Castle. He closed his eyes, bent down on one knee and put his palm on the ground, then whispered a quick spell. The security camera exploded in a shower of sparks before the floodlights - and every other light in the castle - went dark. "If I worded the spell right," he told his partners, "they shouldn't be able to bring the power back up until after we're long gone."

Ryan drew in a quick breath and forced it out just as quickly. Then I guess I'm up, he declared, opening a mind-link to signal the end of verbal conversation. Stay close. The Guardians moved as one group, walking up the hill with deliberate purpose. The guards scattered when Castle, Beckett and Ryan reached the front gate, each soldier turning their backs on the entrance as they pursued some other necessary-looking task.

Maybe I should be our eyes, Beckett suggested.

A wave of agreement went throughout the group. Ryan and Castle closed their eyes as Ryan widened his connection to Beckett, allowing the two men to see through Beckett's eyes as if they were looking through their own. Beckett then took the lead, guiding the men through the empty halls of the compound.

Being relegated to mostly simple defensive tasks allowed Ryan's mind to wander. So, he asked through the mind-link, how's the elopement planning going? The wave of mixed, mostly frustrated emotions that flooded him from both ends of the mind-link told Ryan everything he wanted to know and more. That bad, huh?

We haven't had time to work on *anything*, Beckett insisted.

Castle nodded. So unless we hand all of the wedding planning off to my mother...

A torrent of anger and frustration made Beckett's opinion of that suggestion clear to all. Yeah, that seems like a bad idea, Castle, Ryan agreed with a chuckle.

Castle wasn't nearly so amused. At this rate, I'm starting to wonder if we're *ever* going to get married...

Ryan felt a flash of relief cross Beckett's end of the mind-link, but he held his tongue, praying that Castle didn't recognize where the emotion had come from...

Unfortunately, Castle had had more than enough practice to recognize the feelings of his soul-mate. Kate? he asked, taking tentative steps into a conversation he was dreading with every fiber of his being. You think that's a *good* thing?

Beckett ignored the question, her focus consumed by far more urgent matters. I think I've found the scepter, she declared. About fifty yards west of here...

Then why are we stopped? Ryan asked, half-sure of the answer to his own question.

Castle confirmed Ryan's suspicions. They're using the same shielding protocol that killed us in Germany. Which means unless we can find some way to defeat it...

We'll never be able to get the thing out of here, Beckett agreed. Okay then. Let's go back to the warehouse and tell them what we've found.

The lights went on as the three Guardians vanished.

#

Bucky chuckled as the echoing thump of a fist connecting with a punching bag told him where his best friend was probably blowing off some steam. Sure enough, Steve was exactly where Bucky believed him to be: dancing around a punching bag, alone, in a training room on the other side of the warehouse from where he knew the Guardians were hard at work processing the intel that had just been brought back from Germany. Bucky stood in the doorframe, watching the younger man as he worked out. It didn't surprise him that Steve would be hitting the bag; Bucky's few, hazy memories of fighting with 'Captain America' told him that his friend had finally been able to act on his lifelong passion for the sport that he had only been able to watch from a distance in his youth. What did surprise Bucky, though, was what his hearing was telling him: Steve wasn't holding back, using the punches as a meditative practice. On the contrary...Steve was hitting the bag with every ounce of force that the super-soldier had once used on him.

Steve stopped to catch his breath, his eyes never wavering from their focus on his 'opponent' even as he opened his mouth. "You just gonna stand there, Buck," he teased his old friend, "or are you gonna join me?"

"I'll jump in," Bucky agreed, "if you answer me one question first."

"Name it," said Steve.

"How many of those bags do you go through in a week? Must take one hell of a chunk out of this place's budget..."

Steve stepped back from the bag and smiled. "Why don't you take a crack at it?"

Bucky raised a wary eyebrow, curiosity overwhelming him when he realized that Steve was holding something back. "What aren't you telling me?"

Steve's smile widened as his eyes sparkled. "Hit the bag and see for yourself."

Bucky studied his friend, looking for any hint as to what the younger man wasn't telling him. Unable to find what he was looking for, Bucky decided to just go along for the ride. Turning his attention to the bag, he squared to the section of the bag that was in front of him, clenched his hand into a fist, and threw a 'gentle' right cross.

The bag gave underneath his knuckles, but never budged.

Bucky threw a left jab, harder this time.

The bag didn't move, even though no one was holding it.

Bucky glared at the bag before starting in with a combination that took a full minute to execute, throwing every ounce of energy he had into the bag as he fought with all his might.

The bag never moved.

Bucky backed away from his bag, catching his breath as he stared at Steve in disbelief. "How...?"

Steve just smiled. "Alexis. I used to go through two or three bags a day...six if things were really bad. After I finally told her about who I really was, she created this for me." Bucky turned his awe back to the bag in question as Steve continued, "it's a combination of magic and basic physics. Simple explanation? The shield that protects this bag can take anything thrown at it." When Bucky turned his attention back to Steve, his smile widened. "Perks of dating a wizard."

"Talking about me again, honey?"

The two men turned their attention to the gentle voice that called to them from the doorway. "Buck was curious about the bag," Steve replied.

"It's...it's incredible," Bucky exclaimed in amazement. "Can I get one?"

Alexis smiled and nodded. "Once you have a place to hang it up, sure. Until then, I'm sure Steve wouldn't mind if you two shared that one."

Steve chuckled when Bucky turned back to him with an excited, hopeful expression. "In this case, what's mine is yours, buddy. Unless you'd rather just spar with me?"

Bucky instantly grew cautious. "You sure?"

"You've had a healer work on you," Steve replied. "And she's just a few doors down. So unless you're planning to try and kill me again..."

Bucky flinched at the reference to his past. "Not today," he muttered under his breath.

"Then don't hold back," Steve declared.

Bucky nodded warily, and the two men moved away from Alexis to give them ample clearance at the other end of the room. He threw a couple of very tentative punches, which Steve easily dodged. When Bucky then threw a half-hearted roundhouse kick, Steve caught his friend's leg and used it to drive his friend into the opposite wall. "C'mon," Steve grunted, taunting his friend angrily. "You can do a hell of a lot better than that..."

It was then that the fight began in earnest.

Alexis sat up, tensing as she watched Bucky do a backflip, wresting his leg out of Steve's grasp while kicking him in the chin at the same time. The only thing that stopped her from throwing an energy shield between the two men was the hand that she felt on her shoulder. "Let 'em fight," Stephanie insisted. "Bucky needs this. I think they both need this."

Alexis looked up, watching as Stephanie knelt down and took a seat next to her on the mat. "You...know this?" she asked, referring to the other woman's telepathic gift.

"Mostly I know guys," Stephanie shrugged. "Girls like to talk stuff out when they need to resolve things. Guys will go to a batting cage, or shoot hoops..."

"Or throw punches," added Alexis.

Stephanie nodded. "Especially if they know no one can get seriously hurt. This, I suspect, is how two super-soldiers try to put the past behind them."

The corners of Alexis' mouth turned up in a gentle grin as she considered her friend's wisdom. "So you didn't...?"

Stephanie's smile matched Alexis' as she blushed. "Well...maybe a little." She turned her attention back to the two men fighting at the other end of the room. "He's...he's asked me to stay in his head for now. Says it's comforting to have someone who's able to help him sort out fact from fiction."

"I'll bet," Alexis agreed.

"So I keep a connection open with him most of the time," said Stephanie. "Keep an ear out for anything that sounds...off."

Alexis turned her own attention back to the fight. "So how is Bucky doing?" she asked.

"Surprisingly well," Stephanie replied. "Especially under the circumstances. His biggest problem right now is the crap-ton of guilt he feels over what happened in DC."

Alexis raised a curious eyebrow. "DC?"

"Bucky's the reason you had to fish Steve out of the Potomac," Stephanie replied. When Alexis' eyes went wide, Stephanie felt the need to continue. "He feels awful about that, Lex. Combine that with everything that HYDRA did to him...every time his thoughts wander they always go back to his number one fear: that he's going to snap, go back to being the 'Winter Soldier' and kill his best friend in his sleep."

Alexis conjured a bottle of ice water and took a long draw from it, then handed a second one to Stephanie when she motioned her own desire for one. "So if Bucky can have a knock-down, drag-out with Steve and prove to himself that he's not going to hurt Steve, no matter what he does..."

"It could be the best thing to happen to Bucky since Lanie healed him," Stephanie declared.

Alexis mouthed a silent "oh," then nodded in agreement with Stephanie's last statement. Bucky turned toward the two women as they wrapped up their conversation, smiling when he saw Stephanie sitting next to Alexis. The look on Bucky's face...Alexis smiled when she studied it. The man was practically glowing...

Until Steve took advantage of the distraction and swept Bucky's legs out from under him.

#