Amelia was sat on the double bed in Helmut's hotel suite later on that evening, stifling yawns behind her hand as they poured over the folders that they had taken from Karpov's house earlier that day. Amelia saw Helmut sat at the desk, holding a red book with a star on it. She finished looking at the folder on Karpov and tossed it off to the side in frustration before moving to her feet. She stretched her arms above her head, standing on her toes as Helmut closed the book and placed it down on the desk.

"Well, I can't find anything," Amelia complained to Helmut. "There is no mention in any of those books about what happened on December 16, 1991."

"There is nothing in here either," Helmut said to her. That much was true.

"What is in there?" Amelia wondered, moving over to the desk and he handed her the book. She flicked it open and looked through it, eyes narrowed and head tilted. "The Winter Soldier…and these words…are they Russian?"

"I believe so," Helmut said to her. "I believe that, based on that book, those are the words spoken in order to control him."

"Christ, how horrible," Amelia said, wrinkling her nose and tossing the book back onto the desk out of disgust. She went to sit back down on the edge of the bed, crossing one leg over the other before she tugged on the short a-line skirt she wore over her tights with a white shirt tucked into it. She ran her fingers over the black material of the skirt and spoke to him. "It's just…I mean how could you control someone like that? You've basically enslaved them and there was nothing he could do about it. It's disgusting."

"I agree," Helmut said, not telling her that he intended to use those words.

The TV was playing in the background and Amelia turned her gaze up to the side as she heard the Avengers being mentioned. Looking at the large screen on the wall across from the bed, she watched on as the King of Wakanda insisted that the Sokovia Accords would be good for the Avengers, noting that they needed this. Helmut looked at it as well, swivelling around in the black leather chair he sat on at the desk. He folded one leg over the other and watched the news presenter.

"Do you think that they will sign?" Amelia questioned from Helmut.

"I think some of them will, but last I heard there were some concerns," he told her. "Some of them are not entirely convinced."

"If that's the case they'll probably tear themselves apart," Amelia mused and Helmut considered that could be an option. Reaching to the side, Amelia picked up the papers and began adjusting them into neat piles. "Anyway, I'm starting to wonder if we're ever going to get the evidence that we need. It's starting to feel like it's impossible…the only one who knows what happened is the Winter Soldier and he's in hiding. It'll be impossible to find him."

"Not impossible, but very time consuming," Helmut agreed with her.

"So what? Do we go back to the drawing board? Do we try and get him to come out of hiding? I wouldn't even know how to do that."

"Nor would I," he lied to her and Amelia shook her head, frustration taking hold of her and he saw her pull her fingers through her hair, clearly annoyed with what was going on. "We will think of something, Amelia."

"But that's…I thought that we were coming so close to getting what we needed," Amelia said to him. "We just needed Karpov to tell us what he knew and we'd have had it. We'd have had what we needed to rip them apart and to destroy their little Empire, but now we have nothing without him. It feels like we've taken one step forward and about ten steps back."

"Amelia, listen to me," Helmut urged from her, moving over to her slowly as he grabbed hold of her arms and hauled her up from the bed. She let him handle her as he placed his hands onto her cheeks, cradling them in his grip gently. "We'll do this. They will pay for what they have done, I promise you."

"How?" Amelia asked. "What do we have, Helmut?"

"We'll find something," he assured her in a soft voice, moving to brush her hair behind her ears as he let his gaze meet hers. He knew that this was going to be difficult, but in the end she would see why he had done this. She would see why he was about to leave her. "They will get what is coming to them."

"Yeah," Amelia agreed. "I just don't know if it will be by our hands."

"I assure you it will be," Helmut said. "Now, come on. We have had a long day and I don't know about you, but I am famished."

He let go of her and grabbed hold of his jacket that he had tucked over the back of the chair. He shrugged it onto his shoulders and Amelia watched him pull the black material over his black shirt. She nodded her head, agreeing with him on that point. She needed to get out anyway, tired of looking through the files and finding nothing that was of any use to either of them. She picked up her light brow mac and pushed her arms into the sleeves, gathering her hair out of the collar and letting it hang down her back loosely.

"What do you fancy?" she wondered from him.

"I did see an Italian just down the road," he said.

"Sounds good," she replied.

They left the bedroom suite, Helmut placing his key card in his pocket. They ambled leisurely along to the Italian restaurant, Helmut asking the waiter on the door if they had a table for two. The restaurant wasn't entirely busy, but there was just the right amount of people so that everyone could talk at a comfortable level. The waiter led them to a table towards the back along a long row of other tables. Amelia settled down on the chair against the wall, letting her coat fall open behind her. Leaving it there, she folded one leg over the other and then flicked through the menu in front of her.

Helmut hung his jacket up on the back of his chair and also took his seat, looking across to Amelia as she studied the menu observantly. He could feel a strange ache in his chest as his eyes widened while observing her, drinking in her every detail and observing her with a sense of longing. She finished looking at the menu and when she glanced up she could see him staring at her intently. She blinked quickly and moved a hand to her face.

"What is it? Do I have something on me?" she asked him, but he shook his head and coughed into his fist, glancing down at his own menu and opening it up.

"Not at all," he told her. "Did you decide what you wanted?"

"I think I'm going to go for the seafood linguine," she said, glancing back at it on her menu. "It was either that or a pizza. I can't really decide."

"A difficult choice," Helmut agreed with her weakly as the waiter brought a jug of water to the table and Helmut ordered a bottle of wine to go with it. Amelia finally settled on the linguine and closed her menu for the final time. "I might go for the linguine too."

"Oh, well in that case I am going for the pizza," she said to him. "And then I am going to steal a mouthful of your linguine because you don't mind, right? I mean, I did cook you an amazing breakfast the other morning."

"And I do believe that I cooked every night when we were in Paris," he retorted and Amelia's lips curved upwards at hearing him. Shrugging her shoulders, she shot him a smile across the table and he felt his breath hitch in his throat for a moment. "But," he said, gathering his thoughts once more, "I guess that I can accept this."

"Glad to hear it," Amelia retorted. "So, what do we do now? Do we head on back to Norfolk and regroup?"

Helmut nodded his head, the lying to her eating him up inside. But he was doing this for her. He was doing this to keep her safe and to protect her from what was coming. Besides, if she knew his plan then she would only try and stop him. She would insist that there had to be another way, but Helmut couldn't see another way. He knew that they would just be wasting more time.

"Sounds like a plan," he said, easily fooling her.

"Okay," Amelia said. "Anyway, I need to go back…there's some things that I need to get sorted out."

"What's that?" Helmut wondered.

"Well, I still need to sort out my grandmother's accounts and possessions. They're all in boxes at the storage unit in the care home. I just…I haven't had the heart to go through them," Amelia said to Helmut. "And I…I didn't want to tell you this because I only got the email when we were in Paris, but there's finally been an offer on my parent's house too. It's been on the market for six months and I thought it would never sell."

"But it has?" Helmut checked with her.

"It has," she confirmed. "And the worst thing is that I still have to empty it. All of their stuff is still in there and I…I went once and couldn't even get through the kitchen without breaking down."

Helmut watched her with a sorrowful expression on his face.

"I can only imagine how hard it must be."

And he could. Everything he had was destroyed in Sokovia. He hadn't had a chance to sort through his wife's clothes or his son's toys. They had all been reduced to nothing but dust and ash. He didn't know if that was worse or better than the predicament Amelia found herself in. He wanted to offer to go with her. He wanted to tell her that he would help her sort everything out, but he couldn't. He couldn't tell her that.

"I'll manage it," Amelia said to him. "It might take a while, but I'll do it. Anyway, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put such a damper on tonight."

"You haven't," Helmut assured her. "And I do believe that I told you that you could tell me anything, didn't I?"

"You did," Amelia said to him. "I just don't know if you really meant it about everything."

"I did," Helmut said and Amelia knew that she would have to tell him tonight. She would have to tell him everything that was on her mind because she didn't want to hide it any longer, especially now that they were going back with no plan. And what if they never did get a plan? What if things never did work out for them?

The waiter came back with the wine and took their orders, giving them chance to change the topic onto something a bit easier. They talked about light-hearted stuff, like books, movies and other things that didn't invoke emotions or deep talks. Helmut let Amelia take a bite of his meal, watching as the pasta dropped against her chin while she tried to eat it gracefully. He leant across and brushed away the mark on her skin with his napkin, his thumb skimming along her jawline as he made the motion.

He insisted on paying for the meal and Amelia didn't bother complaining with him as they walked back to the hotel, knowing that they should get an early night. Helmut knew that come the morning he would be gone. She would knock on his door and he wouldn't be there. There would be no sign of him. There would be no note. There would be nothing to lead her to him. And he wondered just how she would react. She would be confused, of course, no doubt wondering what he was getting up to. He just hoped that she would go back home and be fine in time.

But then he realised that it would be his last night with her. If things went to plan then he would never see Amelia again. He would never lay eyes on her and he felt sick at the thought of it. They came to the corridor in the hotel and Amelia stood by her door, Helmut loitering behind her as she unlocked it and then looked to him.

"You fancy another drink? I noted mini whiskeys in the minibar," she told him.

And he said yes. He followed her into the room, not wanting the night to end just yet. He wasn't ready to say goodbye for the time being. She walked into the room and tossed her bag into the corner under the desk and shrugged out of her coat. Helmut also removed his coat as she crouched down and pulled out the small bottle of whiskeys from the fridge underneath the desk.

"Catch," she said, throwing one over to him.

He caught it easily, pulling the lid off and then taking a sip, not bothering with a glass. He sat on the comfortable chair by the table and Amelia went to sit on the chair next to it as well. She took a sip of her own drink, also forgoing a glass.

"I struggle with how far we've come sometimes," Amelia admitted to Helmut. "I think about everything we've done…and it was us…we did it…and I don't think that I could have done it without you."

"Likewise, Amelia."

She scoffed. "Helmut, come on," she said to him. "You're more than capable of doing this alone. If anything I've just got in your way…look at what happened in Madripoor…France-"

"-Do not mention France," he interrupted her quickly and she noted that he was looking down to the ground, nursing the small bottle in both hands before taking a large gulp. Amelia sighed and moved to her feet, kneeling down in front of him and taking hold of his hand inside of hers.

"Are you going to stop beating yourself about that?" Amelia asked from him. "I'm fine, Helmut. I'm alright now."

"You're sure?" he questioned from her.

"I'm sure," she assured him, squeezing his hand. "Besides, I…after that night…I…I know that we haven't slept together again."

"I didn't want to be presumptuous or pressure you, Amelia," Helmut said. And that had been true. He had been keeping his distance, respectfully, of course. He wanted her to be the one to tell him if she was ready for them to be together again. He handled her with care, treating her like a fragile bird. And Amelia respected that. She respected it so much and she loved the fact that he was so caring towards her.

"That's really sweet of you," Amelia said to him and chuckled darkly. "I mean, a part of me wondered if you didn't want me anymore."

"What?"

She shrugged. "I don't know," she commented. "It's been a weird few weeks since Madrid, hasn't it? We haven't been together since then and it's given me time to think as well."

"What about?" Helmut wondered and Amelia shrugged, moving to stand back up. She took another long sip of her whiskey and then prepared to tell him everything. It was now or never and she had the confidence after half a bottle of wine and a shot of whiskey.

"I need you to promise me that you'll stay quiet," she urged from him. "I need you not to say anything and just let me get this off my chest because if not then I'll never say it and I want to say it…because…I can't keep doing this."

She dropped her hands to her hips. Helmut placed his own bottle down, suddenly feeling lightheaded at hearing her speak. He clasped his hands together and he leant forwards, eyeing her intensely as she began pacing, nervously drumming her fingers against her sides.

"Amelia, I-"

"-Please?" she interrupted him before he could say anymore and she turned to meet his eye, feeling sick at seeing him. She swore that she was about to be violently ill, but she kept herself composed, telling herself that she had to do this. She would be fine. It would all be fine in the end.

Helmut nodded tightly once and sat up straight. He saw her sigh and shake her hands by her side as she began talking and he bit down on his tongue, telling himself that he owed her this much after what he intended to do to her.

"I know that we agreed what we were," she told him. "I know that we said that we were friends and we were just going to sleep together…that was fine and I knew it…I thought that I could handle it, Helmut. I thought that it would be fine because you were Lukas's best friend and that meant that I couldn't have any deeper feelings. It meant that I thought it would be wrong even to think about that."

She took a deep breath, needing to pause for air before continuing.

"But as time went on, I felt like it wasn't wrong. Being around you became the most natural thing and you…you're kind to me…you make me laugh…and it feels like I can tell you anything. You've been nothing but great and that's probably why it's been so difficult not to feel like this, not to feel like I want more…like I want more than what we have."

She still didn't dare look at him as she chose to look outside, seeing the dark street beneath her. The lampposts illuminated the concrete beneath it, but there was nothing happening. It was still, a complete contrast to how Amelia felt at that moment in time.

"And I know you can't give that to me. I know that you've told me that you'll never want anyone after Heike, and I accept that," Amelia assured him. "I'm not telling you this because I want that from you. I am telling you all this because I can't keep going on how we are…because the more we do it…the worse I think it will get and I've got to try and protect myself as well."

Helmut swore that he wasn't breathing. He swore that he was holding his breath and waiting for her to deliver the final blow to him. He never meant for any of this to happen. He had never meant for them to get any deeper than they had.

"And I had planned on walking away when we had done what we needed to do," she promised him. "After we'd ruined the Avengers, I thought that I would tell you this and we would go our own way, but then Karpov ruined our plans and I don't know how long it will take until we come up with a new one."

She smoothed her skirt down her legs and crossed one ankle over the other, still looking down and out of the window.

"I honestly didn't mean for any of this to happen," she promised him and she was trying not to let her emotions overwhelm her. Her heart was hammering against her chest and she could feel her hands begin to shake by her side. "I love Lukas so much and I want to hate myself for this…for feeling like I betray him…but I don't. And that hurts me even more…and you…I know that you can't give me anything else…and that's fine. I'm fine with that. I just needed you to know that I can't…I don't think I can be with you anymore, Helmut. I don't think I can keep going."

Shaking her head, she turned to look back into the room, purposefully avoiding his gaze. He watched her, completely stoic as he took in what she was telling him and he saw her shake her head as she moved through the room, picking her coat back up again.

"I'm falling for you," she finally confessed and looked to him, a sad smile on her face and her shoulders shrugging as her eyes brimmed with tears. "I'm falling for you, Helmut, and I've tried so hard not to, but I am."

She was silent then. The silence engulfed both of them. She waited for him to say something, anything. She waited for him to yell at her for being so naïve when he had told her that they would never have anything other than what they had. She waited for him to tell her that he was sorry, asking her if he had done anything to make her think that they could have anything other than what they had. She just waited for something. But there was nothing. That was worse than she had imagined.

Nodding her head, she picked her bag up and the key card from the desk. "I'll go for a walk…and then…in the morning we can decide what to do. I've got the key so just let the door lock when you go," she said to him, her throat clenching as she blinked to try and stop herself from crying. "I'm sorry, Helmut. I'll go."

Turning on her heel, she marched straight for the door and he had no other option but to watch her go. He saw her reach for the handle and he didn't even know he was going to speak, but he did. It seemed to come from nowhere as he called out, the one word so simple but holding so much hope for her.

"Don't."

Her hand froze on the handle and he stood up. She kept on facing the door, not letting go of the handle as Helmut steadily walked over to her, drinking in the fall of her hair, the way her brunette curls hung just by her shoulder blades. He saw the tenseness in her shoulders, the arch of her back where his hand seemed to fit so perfectly into the small of it. He moved so that he was just inches behind her, able to feel the warmth of her body against his. He was going to break her heart. He was going to break it more than it had already broken.

But that didn't explain why he was there, unwilling to let her leave the room. He was being selfish. He knew that he was being selfish. He said nothing as he took hold of her arm, his fingers running up it until he had her bag in his grip. He slipped it from her shoulder and tossed it onto the ground before moving his hands underneath the material of her coat, sliding it down her shoulders and throwing it in the same direction of the bed.

Gripping her waist, he turned her around so that she was facing him. Moving his hand to her cheek, his thumb ran along her bottom lip as she watched him and he shook his head. He thought about what he should say to her, but he didn't have any fancy words. He didn't have anything to make this easier for her or tell her what he was beginning to feel for her. And so he said all that he could think of.

"You're too good for me, Amelia," he whispered down to her and she watched him as he moved his thumb down her chin, tilting her gaze up to meet his. "Far too good for me."

"I'm not," she responded to him. "Just don't…let me go, Helmut," she pleaded from him. "If you don't feel the same…if you really don't want me…then just let me go."

And he knew he should. He should do the right thing and leave her. He should walk out that door and not go back. But he continued to look down at her, his other hand going to run over her cheek, his knuckles skimming along her cheekbones as he finally brushed them against her hair softly.

"I want you," he said to her, those three words the honest truth. Of course he wanted her, but he knew he couldn't always get what he wanted. He lowered his face so that his forehead brushed against hers. He felt her warm breath on his cheek, the smell of her floral perfume intoxicating him to distraction.

Amelia stood on her toes and closed the distance between the two of them, hope flurrying in her chest at his words. He wanted her. He told her that he wanted her. If that was how he felt then perhaps there was a chance? Perhaps there was hope? She pressed her lips to his and it felt so natural but so exhilarating at the same time. It felt as though it was where she belonged and she adored it. She adored being so close to him and holding him.

Helmut knew that he had no self-control. He should never have given her hope with the words he had told her. He should have left because, as much as that would hurt her then, it would hurt a lot less than what he was going to do to her. But he couldn't. As soon as she kissed him he knew he'd lost. His lips moved over hers softly then and he dropped his hands down her side, grabbing hold of her by the waist and pulling her tight against him, backing into the room and pulling her with him.

His lips never left hers as he urged her to sit at the end of the bed, his mouth fighting for dominance against hers as her hands grabbed at his shirt, fumbling with the buttons of it until she had managed to peel it from him. She ran her hands up his bare arms, grabbing his shoulders as he grasped her shirt and peeled it off of her, lifting her arms up and moving away from her for a moment, giving her a chance to pant for breath. He heard her try and calm her breathing as he grabbed her hips, pushing her up from the bed and giving him chance to pull her skirt down her legs with her tights, kicking them to the side as his mouth found her neck and he somehow managed to force her up the bed until her head was laid just on the edge of a pillow. He felt her hands reach for the belt around his trousers as he continued kissing her neck, hands roaming freely over her bare skin.

"I need you," Amelia gasped out as he toyed with her, knowing how to work her up. He nodded his head, promising her silently that she would have him as he moved to kiss her once more and he finally gave into her. He savoured each moment, knowing that it would be the last time he would be with her, drinking in every shiver and every moan, committing it to memory.

He didn't know how long had passed until they both seemed to be sated. He had managed to pull the duvet around them once he had seen Amelia begin to shiver, her head on his chest and hand on his stomach as he kept his arm around her shoulders. He kissed her lazily on the top of her head as her breathing steadied and she began to fall asleep against him. He moved his thumb along her shoulder, making idle patterns against her skin as he remained awake, looking to the ceiling above him.

It was only when he was confident that she was fast asleep did he delicately move so that her head was resting against a pillow, cheek pressed into it and hair splaying messily on the pillow. Looking down to her, Helmut's heart ached as he left her in the bed and dressed as quietly as he could. He went to her bag that he had tossed into the corner and found her passport from it, pocketing it for himself and glanced back to her on the bed.

He silently stalked back to the mattress, hoping that she wouldn't wake up as he moved his fingers, feather light, over her cheek. She seemed to arch into his touch, but she didn't wake up. Helmut felt her soft hair for a moment and bent down, kissing her forehead tenderly. Straightening up once more, he moved to the door again and quietly opened it, content that he had all of his possessions. He threw one last look to the woman in the bed and nodded once.

"Goodbye, Amelia," he said in a whisper and turned to leave, hearing the door snick closed behind him. Walking down the corridor to his own room, he shook his head. "And I'm sorry."

...

A/N: AND there is the revelation! But things will be changing up as we now move into the film and, subsequently, I think the TV series if people are still interested. As always, would love to know your thoughts/feelings if you're reading!