Thank you guys for all the reviews

The next two weeks are dreadful for both sides of the argument. For Nat, it was taking the precautions for having an ex-HYDRA assassin living in her house and dealing with how she might've destroyed her and Steve's only chance of being something more. Explaining why Steve left was less than comfortable for Nat to explain to her daughter. Luckily, Nadia remembers Bucky from when she was younger so Steve's absence didn't bother her as much. Nadia also went back to school. Thankfully, in the last two weeks, Bucky was able to help out with Nadia, giving more time for Nat to get ready for the ballet. After kissing Casey, they almost never spoke. It felt to her like she lost another friend. She wanted to explain, but that would be putting Casey in a strange place that her mind isn't clear enough to handle.

Steve has been tracking Bucky with Sam, another dead end like usual. He doesn't even know why he tries anymore. Sam just told him to sort things out with Nat, though both he and Sam know that he was just trying to come up with something encouraging. Those two weeks being spent in Alaska didn't help their esteem either. So he's heading home. Hopefully he won't have to leave again like that. Hopefully Nadia doesn't have to witness the fight that he knows is coming for him and Nat.

"Do you think Nadia's mad at me for leaving?" Steve nervously asks Sam as they step outside Nat's apartment building.

"No, she's a kid and she loves you. Nat is the one that I'm not sure about. Just tell her what you want."

"Ok, ok" He buzzes up to the apartment, having left his keys in Nat's room after they...

"Hello" answers a voice from the apartment, one that Steve doesn't recognize. His mind rushes, immediately going to that director guy.

"Hey, umm if Natalie's up there please tell her that her friends Steve and Sam are here." Steve replies perhaps a little too nervously. There is a while of silence and Steve starts to think that they won't be let up. Finally the door buzzes without another word. "Ok" He and Sam trudge up the stairs, consequences of being knee-deep in snow. Sam looks at Steve encouragingly. Steve blabbed his word vomit about Nat all over Steve while they were searching, it gave him a sort of perspective about what Nat's going through. Still didn't explain why she said it. She is also a superspy, did she hear him and mean for him to hear it?

Nat's head pokes through the door. "Hi"

"Hey, can we come in?" He moves to show her Sam. Nat nods and closes the door to take off the chain. She opens the door for them. "So who was the man on the intercom?"

Nat gives him a look and Sam huffs before going to the bathroom. "You left Nadia for two weeks and that's the first thing you ask."

"What were we going to do? Talk about the weather." He stares at her, makeup done, a harsh look gracing her features. You wouldn't think that she was anything other than a mother who ran a dance studio. "I just want to know the man that's at the apartment that my daughter lives in. Is that a crime?"

"I ummm..." she tries to come up with something but before she can...

"Hey Talia, we're out of-" Bucky walks out if the bathroom. Could he seriously not hear that Steve was here?

"Bucky?" Steve's face contorts from confusion to anger. "What are you doing here? We've been looking for you for months."

Bucky starts taking a protective gaze over Nat. "After you ran out of here, I showed up at the studio. I was able to lose the detail that was following me. I promised her when she had Nadia that I would always be there to help her when you couldn't, so I did."

"Wait, I left over two weeks ago." He turns to Natasha. "Did you hide him? How did he know what happened?"

Natasha stares at him. "What? No. I found him after he broke into the studio. And no, I would never hide him from you. It would've been damn near impossible after you walked all over my life here."

"Oh, I'm sorry that I wanted to see my daughter more than once a month." Steve mocks her tone. "Those months were hard. You had time, you had space. Why did you do that Natasha, doing that and saying that to Laura, with me in the room was just cruel. And, yes you did hide him. Every time I spoke with Nadia, she didn't tell me anything."

Natasha's eyebrows rose through the roof, Steve never picked up her calls. Nadia never said that she spoke with him "Steve-"

"You know what, I'm done with you treating me like crap. I'll be back soon to see her, don't be there when I do." Steve grabs his pack and slams the door on the way out. Natasha trembles. She slides down the wall, not being able to hold it out any longer, she cries. Her almost perfect look now streaked with eye makeup.

"Oh Talia, I'm sorry I put you and Steve at odds like that" James puts his metal arm around her shoulder.

"No, it was my fault. He wouldn't have responded like that if I didn't screw this all up. Why the hell did I sleep with him?" James takes her upper body and tucks her in against him. "If I hadn't, he might still be here. Nadia wouldn-Nadia. What am I going to tell her if he never comes back."

"It's Steve. I've known that idiot from before I could count, he wouldn't leave Nadia like that. And you slept with him is because you're in love with him." Nat scoffs, "I'm serious Tals, you love him, it may not be to you, but it's obvious. You saying that it meant nothing was what drove him away. He's in love with you, he couldn't handle you saying that. I know that you can't either. He's not like Ivan, Steve won't ever leave her,"

"He went to Portland. I'm not sure why, I just got a text." Sam came into the apartment. Bucky and Nat kind of forgot he was there.

Bucky holds his hand out. "Why don't you go after him. Punk's lost his manners all over again. His mother raised him to not be chasing after dames, but this is a whole other thing.

Nat shakes her head. "No, he obviously doesn't want to see me."

"Alright, then can you please tell me what happened while I spent my life chasing him around?" Sam asks as he sits on the couch. She wipes her nose.

"After Steve left, after he heard my talk with Laura, it wasn't like I could cancel classes, so I went. James was sitting in the reception area in the shadows so I told him where to go. He's been with me since you left. I didn't know where you guys were since Steve wasn't responding to my texts or calls. It's also not the best thing to tell someone over the phone." Nat tells him. "Sorry that you had to spend the last few weeks in a tundra."

"Wait, he didn't pick up on any calls?" She nods her head. Sam's eyes open. "No, he called a lot, your number. Only Nadia ever answered. Where we were, we had to use secure lines that only we could call from. He was so upset that you never answered. He talked a lot about you." Natasha starts crying. She doesn't care that Sam's around. Sam and Bucky grab her hands. "It's ok. I can't say I understand because you two are obviously made for each other. We'll watch Nadia if you want to go after him. Make him understand what happened" Sam offers. She looks in his eyes, seeing nothing but compassion, she believes him. Eyes are a window to a person's soul.

Nat weighs her options, to go she would have to tell Steve the truth that she loved him, a revelation that she didn't even come to by herself.

"I'll go, please don't burn the house down, I have one disaster to deal with."

The boys agreed to get Nadia at school and Nat cancelled her meeting with Casey for that evening. Cancelling that meeting was the only good thing coming out of this argument.

She made her choice. She is going to tell Steve the truth, explain to him why Bucky was in her apartment, and hopefully not lose him in the process. Now she only has a few hours to figure out how to tell him. How does someone even start to explain everything in a situation like this?

The ride to Portland is short, filled with tears and Christmas songs that make her want to rip her hair out. She wants-no she needs to tell him how she feels. But there was some truth in what he said, she treated him like crap and she takes that as she can't be the woman he needs. It's all a huge misunderstanding. It's not like she purposefully hid Bucky from him. She understands that he thinks like this because of how she treated him, but why was he going to Portland of all places?

Well, he was here according to Sam. She'd barely gotten that information out between his bickering with Bucky. Those two are the fun uncles that the kid usually ends up babysitting instead. They would be trying to be adults, an interesting theory for them.

The house she had tracked him to was a small, all-American home with the white picket fence and everything. But one question remains in her mind, why is he here?. It certainly looks to her that he bought this house, hundreds of miles away from Nadia and her. She shakes her head as she thinks of that last one. No, not after what she did. She can't think about him like that anymore. She wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to speak to her again, but Steve wasn't the kind of person to do that.

With a heavy heart, and a large amount of air in her lungs, she walks out onto the porch. Immediately she's stopped by the sound of swing music. She tries to figure out the source of it, but there's no denying that it's coming from the house. A thought crosses her mind of knocking, but there's no chance he would be able to hear it over the music. So she picks the lock.

Walking into the hallway, but making sure to stay hidden with the creaks in the floorboards showing where she was taking her every step. A house like this would be a large step up from her apartment. Stopping where the music is the loudest, she looks upon the sight in front of her. She can't even breathe. How could he? She runs away before he or the woman could spot her. She takes out her phone once he gets back in the car, calling the only person she can now.

"James"

"Talia, what is it?"

"It's Steve. I-I just walked into someone's house. He was making out with someone."

"Who?"

"Sharon Carter"

"Carter, as in-"

"Yep, Steve's ex"

She can hear the annoyed groan through the phone, "what has punk gotten himself into now?"

Pls don't hate me, I'm going to have Steve's look at how these events in the next chapter.