The hall was silent when Shay rose from her spot in the corner. The maps on the table had been deserted, two of the mattresses still held the sleeping forms of Scott and Sam. Bruce entered the hall, a towel in one hand and his hair still damp from the shower, making straight for Shay. She met him at the lowest set of benches.

"Hey, uh, I've got a problem." Bruce whispered.

"How can I help?" Shay's face was open and her voice welcoming as she gestured for him to take a seat beside her.

"Hulk. He refused to show up in New York earlier, I don't know why, but if it doesn't work now..." His hands twisted as he stared at the floor, his fear suffused the air around them, raising the hairs on her arms. "I know you can pull me out of the Hulk, do you think it could work in reverse?"

Shay nodded thoughtfully, "it's worth a try, just not in here, let the others rest a little longer."

"There's a training room on the first floor, big and soundproof." Bucky offered quietly, melting out of a shadow near the door. "I can take you there."

"Thanks, James, that'd be great." The corner of Shay's mouth turned up in the shadow of a smile.

The training room was all that Bucky had promised, wide and empty, with a cushioned floor. Unfamiliar equipment lined one wall and the other held weapons which Bucky looked askance at as Shay offered her hand to Bruce.

"Ready when you are." She said lightly, trying to dispel his worry.

"Right, ok."

Bruce's hand settled into hers and Shay closed her eyes as nearly imperceptible light pulsed under her skin. Bruce's mind was at the forefront of her senses, loud in its worry and fear and pulsing with hundreds of threads of thought Shay couldn't read, wouldn't have understood if she could. Way deep down in the fiber of his nerves lay what she sought. She reached for it and Hulk resisted.

Why? Shay struggled to interpret the disjointed sensations that hummed through her. There was anger and resentment, that was clear enough, but why? Communicating with someone through her gift was a back and forth of sensation and emotion rather than thoughts, but if she'd had to interpret it would have sounded something like this:

Puny Banner protection, muscle, I am. not person, not important.

*You are Banner, both are Banner, together. *

Lie.

*Friend, truth. Feel safe? See friend, truth, trust. *

Puny and Hulk? Both? Hulk: first.

*No, need brain and hulk, both, or weak. *

Weak, bad.

*Whole, good, safe*

Good. Whole strong, safe.

Shay dropped her hand and Bucky braced her elbow as Bruce stood unchanged before them.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, staring at his hands as though he expected them to sprout tentacles.

"He's working it out, you keep thinking of hulk like a stranger, but he is a piece of you, accept that and I think it'll work out." She sighed with a weight that surprised both the men.

Steve strode in, looking careworn. "Hey, Nat said you'd be here: look I need to talk to you Shay." His tone was grave and he beckoned her out to the hallway.

"I hate to ask this of you, but we don't need you to be the healer today, there are med teams on standby, but I don't know what's coming and we'll need everyone in the fight."

"I know, Steve, we all know what's at stake here."

"I'm not just asking you to fight Shay, I'm asking you not to hold back." The tumult in his eyes stopped her short. "This isn't like anything we've faced before. If Chitauri show up, or anything like them, lethal force is the only way to end it, more than our world is at stake."

Shay nodded slowly. "I understand." She sighed again, and realized Bucky was standing just behind her, a heavy presence that grew larger in her awareness.

"I'm taking you back upstairs." Bucky said, his tone hard and cold as steel. "Before you wear yourself out completely."

Shay didn't argue as she was ushered away from Steve to the nearest lift, matching Bucky's stride and cool demeanor. The moment the lift began to rise, Bucky's hand flipped a switch and the mechanism stopped.

Shay waited in the dim blue emergency light for him to speak, but he just stood there, glaring at the doors and clenching his fists over and over again.

"Is there something you need to say?"

Clench of fist, clench of jaw. The vein in his forehead pulsed in stark relief against the blue glow.

"I'm listening."

Frozen silence built like an icy wall in her chest as she breathed in his fear.

Bucky's fist tightened until the knuckles of his flesh hand shone blue. And he spoke. "You can't die."

She was taken aback by the crack in his voice. "I'm- I mean, I'd rather not, but that's not exactly in my control."

"Stay in the mountain, stay safe and out of the fight."

"What?" the shock exploded from her in icicle shards. "I can't do that, I'm an Avenger, Barnes, I'm not here to be safe."

"Maybe you should be, you're not like- you can't heal yourself, you're already worn out just fixing everyone else's problems, you're too-"

"Fragile? Is that what you wanted to say? You think I don't know that? You're not immortal either Bucky." She was hot under the collar now, her boiling anger overriding his cold fear.

"I know." He sighed, finally turning to her.

The mask of determination on his face dissolved and he met her gaze.

Blue lights, blue veins, ocean eyes studying hers, wondering, fearing, hoping.

"I can't- I can't let you go, and not." he bit his lip, stopping himself. "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

"Not what?"

Shay could feel her heart pounding, feel the blood thumping through her like it couldn't be restrained. How much longer would it beat, she wondered. She watched in sympathy as Bucky clenched his teeth, chewing on words he couldn't say. She'd often thought of what might happen if he walked back into her life, had dreamt of the moments they'd shared, scattered across the last few years. But there had always been another problem to solve. There had always been tomorrow.

Tomorrow, she'd see him again. Tomorrow she'd say what she hadn't said today.

Tomorrow.

Shay didn't have tomorrow, not in her hands like a promise she could keep.

All they really had was this moment.

"I, well." Bucky scratched the back of his neck nervously, stumbling over words he'd once practiced. "I was going to ask you out. Out. On a- well, a date. Coffee, or dinner and a movie, or whatever I had to say to get you to agree."

"So, ask me."

"Ask?"

Shay nodded; her amber eyes gleaming.

He started closing the distance between them, one hand reaching for her cheek and he bit his lip. "Shay, would you-"

A flashing purple light and shrill ringing froze them as a dry voice echoed out of the kimoyo bead Shay wore around her neck.

"Sharice, your attendance is required in the war room, unless you're otherwise occupied."

Shay pressed a button to respond. "Thank you, Okoye, I'm on my way."

His eyes still sought hers and she pressed one hand to his chest, his heart like a drumbeat under her fingertips. "I wish we had more time. But duty calls Sargent, and I've got to go." her other hand found the switch. The light and motion of the lift returned in a blinding moment, and the moment had passed.

The lift slowed and Shay took a breath, reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, she spoke over her shoulder as she stepped through the opening doors.

"James, don't die today and you can ask me anything you want, I promise I'll say yes."


Notes:

How was that?
Enough angst?
Don't worry, there's more where that came from.
One final note, how do you feel about foreshadowing?