Wet kisses pressed up Nova's back as James worked his way over her, dropping onto her without so much as a warning. Nova groaned, sore in all the best ways. Twenty questions had led to sex questions and sex questions led to… well, sex. Not that she was complaining. It wasn't like Nova would say no to the hulking mess on top of her. He was everything she wanted and more. The best sort of man.

"Jamie, you're suffocating me," Nova whined as he shifted positions.

"Comfortable," he sighed into her hair.

"We have to go before Steve comes pounding down here and gives away the location of the safe house and any other safe house in a hundred mile radius," Nova reminded him. James groaned in annoyance, biting her shoulder hard enough to pull a yelp from her lips before he was pushing up and off of her.

"How far is it until we're at your house?" James asked, moving to the bathroom. Their shower about half an hour ago had been interrupted by Nova's own wandering hands, though they were both clean. No way was Nova showing up at her parents' house reeking of sex. That would be way too embarrassing. As far as her parents were concerned, Nova had never had sex and wasn't interested in ever having it in her life. It was safer for everyone if her family thought she was a virgin.

"About four hours. Not too long if you get your ass moving," Nova hollered after him. He stuck his head out the door of the bathroom, long hair sticking in every direction with a tooth brush between his lips. The soap foam of the toothpaste dribbled on his chin and he didn't look the least bit impressed. He disappeared for a moment before peeking back out.

"You're the one still in bed, sweetheart."

Shoving off the bed, Nova fell to the floor with an uncoordinated thump. James snorted when he looked down at her, teeth all clean. He was dressed in a pair of low riding jeans and the same shirt from yesterday, which was blood stained and ripped. With his warm expression, it was a hysterical picture. Nova wished she had a camera to capture that look in his eyes. Soft and warm, the blue was deep and never ending this morning. He reached down and captured her hand, drawing her to her feet with one smooth motion that pulled at all her sore muscles.

"Get dressed. We should be able to stop and grab coffee and still make it before noon," James offered. Nova groaned.

"Coffee…" she zombie walked to the bathroom, ready in under five minutes. As she tugged her hair into a knot on the top of her head, she came out to see that James had everything packed. Their meager belongings. They'd run out of clothing and everything they owned was ripped and bloody. Such a good picture to make when they got to the house.

Nova skipped over to James and pulled him down for a kiss, lips pressing against his firmly. He tasted like mint tooth paste and Nova knew that she did too. Underneath was all James and Nova appreciated that too, nipping at his bottom lip as she pulled away. James palmed her ass, squeezing gently.

"If you start something like that, we'll never make it in time," James teased.

"We have to go, sorry, Jamie. No play time," Nova smirked up at him and James let her go to grab the bags from the ground. They were going to have to get another car, this one Maggie's. She would be happy to see it, though she probably wouldn't be as ecstatic that they'd actually had to use it. Maggie was protective of those she loved and Nova knew she'd never hear the end of this adventure. Everyone would say that they should have made contact, but going dark meant no contact for safety reasons. Apparently no one else listened to Uncle Nick's lessons on subterfuge.

"Later. Definitely later," James muttered as Nova wrapped herself in her coat. She laughed.

They were in the car a few minutes later, all bundled up with the heat on. Snow was blowing and Nova kept both hands firmly on the wheel. James's hand never strayed from her knee, though she was aware that he was still watching any car that passed them for suspicious activity. They probably wouldn't be able to see an enemy before it hit them in the face with this snow, but Nova was used to driving in shitty weather. Snow was kind of a given up in Maine and it wasn't like they were going South. They were driving head on into it.

"Do you think I'll get grounded for this?" Nova asked suddenly, just to keep her mind off of what could happen. They could be attacked. They could crash. The car could careen off the road into the ditch and they'd never be heard from again. No one would know where to look for them. What if they were lost like Steve?

"Didn't you say that they would try to keep you in the house no matter what happens? You made it sound like no one wants you to go back to the Tower," James reminded her. Oh, yeah, they were in Maine, not the Arctic. And someone did find Steve… just seventy years later.

"Yeah, they're like that. My brothers were never keen on my work with Tony, they think he's too devil may care to take good care of me. They don't know him like I do though. Tony would never let anything happen to me, he'd die first. Not that I'd let him, but the sentiment is there. All anyone seems to see of Tony is the bad side. They don't realize most of the bad he's done either isn't his fault or was meant to save the world," Nova complained. James laughed.

"I really don't think bringing up that robot thing would help your case," he noted.

"Probably not. But Ultron was really meant to help the world, not destroy it. Of course, ten minutes on the internet and I'd want to destroy the world too, so you can't blame the monster for thinking humans were scum. We kind of are. You know, in the best way," Nova winced, giggling a little. James just snorted.

"Humans are capable of terrible things. But they're also capable of good things. And a lot of people forget that. We deserve the chance to figure that out all on our own," James hummed.

"Did you just paraphrase Thor at me?" Nova teased, glancing at James out of the corner of her eye.

"Thor is a good man," James hedged, shrugging.

"So, you're good with Thor and Natasha. Who else in the Avengers do you get along with?" Nova demanded, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel nervously. Being out this long was throwing her anxiety for a loop. Especially with Ward out there. Whatever Ward was doing, Nova was worried about it. And the snow and being late to Christmas wasn't helping.

"Natalia and I have known one another for a long time. I trained her," James informed her. Nova hit the brakes, the car skidding a little before coming to a complete stop. Nova threw it into Park, twisting in her seat before she was even sure she was in a good spot, eyes wide and shocked.

"You did what now?" Nova shrieked, horrified. She'd read his file. He hadn't been anywhere near the Red Room. And she'd read Natasha's file. HYDRA and the Red Room were complete bastards who deserved to die slow, painful deaths. But they never crossed on paper. James never lied, but… but…

"It's not that surprising. I was brought into the Black Widow program as an instructor. Natalia and I trained together and went on missions together often. I think she called me Yasha, if I remember right. I didn't have a name, so she gave me one. We were intimate for a while, before our handlers found out. She was the best candidate for the Black Widow title and I chose her," James shrugged like that wasn't a surprise or confusing. Now didn't know what to say, just staring at him in shock for a while. "We have an understanding now. We don't bring up the past."

"But Natasha is, like, twenty-eight," Nova pointed out.

"She was given a diluted serum like Steve's. It slows her aging to almost a stop. No one knows how old Natalia Romanova was when she was brought into the program, but it's been said that she might be older than Steve and I. All I know is that Natalia wouldn't want me to be telling you this," James stopped talking, frowning tightly.

"I'm not going to say anything. I just wasn't expecting that. Did you train a lot of people?" Nova asked, reaching out to squeeze his hand and take his mind off of whatever he was thinking that made him frown like that.

"I trained a lot of small spiders. Some of them were really young. Some of them… some I killed under orders," James hung his head a little and Nova pulled his chin around so she could press her lips against his in a reassuring kiss. It also grounded him to her instead of the memories. No need to show up at the Dugan house with not-James.

"That wasn't your fault. Whatever they made you do, that's on HYDRA and the Red Room. Neither you nor Natasha deserved what they did to you," Nova reminded him, pulling back to put the car in gear and start driving again. "The blood of the people who died is on HYDRA's hands. All of them. You would have never hurt them on your own."

"You don't know that," James denied, though his head came up so he could eye her.

"I do too. Steve talked about you a hell of a lot before you came in. You should have heard him bitching on comms. Apparently he thought Evie was his therapist as well as his communication's specialist. We heard all about Bucky Barnes, best friend of Steve Rogers. It was an official title. We called you the BFF when we talked about it later. If you hadn't been taken by HYDRA, you would have never killed those people. You weren't a vigilante and didn't believe in justice like that. Hell, you told me you didn't even want to be in war. Why would you willingly hurt someone then?" Nova chattered at him, annoyed that he thought the death of little girls the Red Room had killed were on his hands. No, it wasn't his fault. And she would blow up anyone who said it was.

"Natalia has the same thoughts I do. Do you think she's at fault?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not. I might not particularly like her, but I don't think that she's a bad person. If she's really who you say she is, then she'd been manipulated and lied to just as long as you have and that's not on her head. Whatever happened is the Red Room's fault, not Natasha's. But I doubt she'll want to hear that from me," Nova reminded him. James shrugged both shoulders, laying his hand against her thigh again. This time it was higher and Nova had to fight the urge to shoot him a flirtatious look. This was not the time to flirt.

"Why don't you two get along?"

"Honestly, I was really jealous of her at first. I mean, Evie was best friends with her suddenly and I wasn't allowed to know where my best friend went while I was shuffled off to the ass end of Maine. Everyone knows I love Evie like a sister, but that doesn't mean that I'm super cool with her being BFFs with someone else. Maybe I'm a jealous person, but I kind of hate it. Which means I take it out on Natasha a bit even when I don't try. But you have to admit that she's not really making an effort to be friends with me either," Nova complained, poking James's arm pointedly.

"I do agree. I think the two of you would get along well if you could get past that," James allowed.

"I think that's a world we don't live in, buster. I bet Maggie gets along with Natasha like a house on fire, though," Nova informed him, turning on a well concealed road. James braced himself like she was off-roading it, but Nova kept going smoothly. The road was a Dugan family secret and she knew the snow would fill their tracks in less than an hour. From here on out, they were on Dugan land. Not that she was going to tell James that. She wanted to see if he noticed they were being watched.

"Why?" James demanded.

"Because, Maggie idolizes Natasha. Has since she saw her take down Brock Rumlow. It was a good day. No one liked that douche canoe. Anyway, Maggie was a specialist and everyone who was anyone had heard about Strike Team: Delta. They never have an extraction plan and they never fail a mission. That was the ideal back during Maggie's training. She kind of idolized them both until she met Clint. Then she was focused on Natasha. Maggie can do her little deadly thigh hold. It's terrifying," Nova informed him, turning on another road deftly. This one wasn't as smooth and James was suddenly on alert, gun in hand and the fingers on her thigh tightening dangerously.

"Clint Barton is a good man. Why doesn't she like him?" James was too busy staring out the window to see Nova's roll of the eye.

"She loves Clint. They're good friends. But meeting him put a damper on the legend, you know? Clint's awesome, it's just that he's kind of derpy sometimes too. Like when he ran into that wall last week while training. Or how about when he dropped the coffee pot because he saw a bird and it startled him?" Nova offered, steering to the driveway.

"We're being watched," James blurted, gun jumping up.

"Wait!" Nova squeaked, throwing out a hand to grab his arm so he didn't take aim. James turned to her but it was too late. The wheels slid and the car careened to the side. A strong arm grabbed her and Nova braced herself for impact as the world seemed to slow around her. Spinning in a circle, the car slid off the driveway, slamming to a stop…

Right in a snowbank.

Nova's body was held against her seat and the momentum shoved both her and the arm holding her forward a few inches. A loud thump from the other side of the car was the only noise as they suddenly stopped.

The world shifted into motion again.

"Jamie!" Nova screamed, pushing James's arm off her chest. He groaned as she spun in her seat, coughing as the air hit her lungs. The band where his arm had been hurt, but Nova ignored it to see that James must have hit the dash because his airbag had deployed. A little trickle of blood was running out of his nose, but he sat up as soon as she said his name, turning to eye her in concern.

"Are you okay?" he demanded.

"Am I okay?! Holy shit, are you okay?" Nova shrieked. James groaned before laughing, little snorts turning into full out laughter.

"The airbag can kill you," he informed her through his laughter. Nova started to soften, rubbing a hand along her chest where James's arm had pressed against her painfully. He's stopped her momentum with force of will alone and she started to giggle with him.

"Ronald Billius Weasley, you're an idiot," Nova snorted.

"I don't care, as long as you're okay," James sighed and Nova moved in her seat to press her lips to his.

They'd definitely made an entrance.