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January 11th

Maggie stood outside the dam watching the water flow beneath the bridge. They had a plan for the mission: she was going to stick with Steve or Sam, which meant it was likely she would encounter Bucky, but it kept her away from Pierce. She wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse. She had a score to settle with the man and being away from him would ensure that would never happen.

"Hey, you," Steve called as he walked towards her. She looked up at him as he leaned on the railing next to her, "Guess we still think alike, huh?"

"Because we came to the same place to think in peace?" she asked, "or are you just making sure I'm not sending a signal out to Hydra?"

"I trust you," he said with a sigh, "And I want to believe you…"

"He's in there, you know," she said looking down into the water again.

"Is he?" Steve asked with a sigh, "You seem to have seen a different version of him than I have. I tried to tell him you were alive—to try and get him back—and I think he wanted to kill me more."

Maggie let out a strained chuckle.

"He's gotten a little more possessive over the years," she muttered, "I mentioned it a bit earlier, but when our brains are scrambled, it only lasts for so long. For whatever reason, I never took as well to the reset. I'd remember things quickly and they come in waves. When I first get a memory back, I don't even know if it's real or just my imagination… But Bucky always took longer. Except when it came to me. He always knew who I was and at first, I thought it was because they trained him to know me.

"So, when they paired us together for a handful of missions, I asked him," she said continuing on, "He was incredibly obstinate about it and wouldn't answer the question. I gave up asking, but a day or two later he told me that he didn't know why he knew me. They had never given him information on me, just told him I was another asset who wasn't capable of doing missions by herself, but the moment he saw me he knew me.

"I failed that mission," she stated looking up at Steve, "but he completed it for me. And he lied to Hydra because he didn't want to see me reset. He said he had seen them do that to me before and he couldn't stand the sight of it. I assumed at the time that he meant my weakness disgusted him, but I realize now that it actually hurt him to see me in pain. It still does."

"How…" Steve trailed off afraid to ask.

"How do I know?" she asked. Maggie sighed and lifted the back of her shirt and showing her back to Steve. He looked at the scars covering her back and couldn't help as his hand lifted and traced one of the brighter ones.

"The night Bucky took me from Pierce…two nights ago…" Maggie lowered her shirt and turned to face Steve, beginning for a third time, "Pierce was angry I failed. And not only had I failed my mission, but I also saved my target. He wanted Bucky to hurt me, and Bucky disobeyed him. So, Pierce made him watch as he carved into my back and then told him I would be reset. Bucky, instead, took me away from Pierce while I was sleeping and brought me to a safe house he had gotten in a past life. Pierce had told him to take advantage of my weak state, to use me as a perverse toy that couldn't fight back…

"Bucky instead cleaned my wounds and helped me get to bed. He took care of me… and even at his safe house, continued to do so," she looked at Steve's chest continuing on nervously, "He's scared of losing me or worse, hurting me himself and I'm not going to just forgive him for locking me up, but I can understand why he thought it was the right choice. And he did make it easy for me to get out, you know. Pre-breaking the cuffs and what not."

Steve looked down at her wrists where the handcuffs were still in place. He sighed and wrapped his hands around the one before yanking and breaking it. He dropped the pieces into the water below. Quickly, he did the same with the other.

"So, you think he's still in there, even if they reset him?" Steve asked.

"I know he is," she replied, "And I want to get him back."

"Then I'll help you," Steve said, his hands holding hers, "We'll get him back, together."

"Steve," she said leaning toward him, "I have to warn you I can't be fully trusted around Hydra. If we go in and someone starts saying my trigger words—"

"They won't," he interrupted.

"But, if they do," she continued slowly, "you have to stop me. If you need to kill me to do it, so be it—"

"Maggie, I just got you back, do you really think I'm going to kill you for being brainwashed?" Steve asked, "besides, aren't we going in to save Bucky who is arguably farther gone than you?"

"If it means keeping others safe—"

"I think I'd rather kill the guy trying to control you," he stated, and she responded with a defeated sigh.

"So, I'm sticking with you just like when we were kids, then?" she asked, and he smiled.

"Just like when we were kids," he said, pulling her into a half hug. She returned it smiling. He continued, "Any specific words I need to listen for?"

"Probably any in Russian," she stated, "it's where we were… conditioned."

"You know if you're not ready for this fight—" he began.

"I am ready for it," she said, "I'm just terrified of what could happen to all of us if they win."

"They're not going to," he replied.

"They did before, and we didn't know it."

"They didn't fight against you and I together," he said. They stood together, the sound of the water below and the birds in the trees around them was the only noise to be heard.

"You know, he wasn't the only one they experimented on," she started softly, "they used the Tesseract to give me my powers, but I don't know that we ever really learned exactly what they are… But I can make the knives… and my body heals really fast. The scars on my back were rather deep wounds when Pierce gave them to me. Hell, there's a bullet wound on my shoulder that I think is pretty well healed at this point.

"But?" Steve asked and she looked up at him.

"But it takes up a lot of energy for my body to keep up with it. As Natasha said earlier, Hydra thought my powers use the iron in my blood to make the weapons so I can only make so many before I'm useless."

"Is it painful?" he asked.

"No," she lied and then sighed looking at her hands, "well, I'm used to it, I guess." Steve watched her for a few moments.

"Do you remember when my mom died?" he asked, and Maggie looked at him.

"What about it?"

"Bucky found me as I was walking up the stairs to the apartment. I remember telling him I just wanted to be alone. He told me he was going to ask if I wanted to live with him and his parents. That we would put the couch cushions on the floor like when we were kids. He told me it would be fun. I just had to shine his shoes," they both chuckled. Steve continued, "I was trying to find my key and he went over and grabbed the spare from under the brick. He handed it to me and was like 'come on, Steve' and I told him I could get by on my own.

"Besides, I had you to worry about too. His mom would have only let you stay there if the two of you got married first, which in hindsight maybe wouldn't have been the worst of ideas," he said nudging her, "Anyway, he told me I didn't have to do it on my own, because he was with me 'till the end of the line'. Then you opened the door, trying to pretend like you hadn't been crying. I remember going inside and the three of us just standing together holding onto each other."

"When we had no one else, we had each other," Maggie mumbled as she looked to the water beneath them.

"We still do," Steve said, wrapping his arm around her, "Remember that."

"He will," she said quietly, "Maybe not right away, but he will."

"I hope you remember it too," he said turning to fully face her. She stood facing him, her eyes indicating confusion.

"I do," she started, and he shook his head.

"I mean I hope you remember that you have… Well, for right now, at least me again. And I'm here for you until our tomorrows are no more," he said pulling her into a hug. She hugged him back, squeezing him as tight as she could.

"Until our tomorrows are no more," she replied in a whisper. He smiled and kissed the top of her head, before pulling away from her.

"I actually have something for you," Steve said as he reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out an envelope and set it in her hands. She looked at it curiously before opening it. Her breath hitched as she pulled out the chain and rings.

"Where—"

"Peggy," he said, "she kept it. She believed in you. I think she knew you would get those back someday." She stared at them, her eyes wet with unshed tears and she put them back in the envelope.

"Will you do me a favor," she asked, closing it back up.

"What is it?" Steve asked nervously. She handed the envelope back to him.

"Keep them safe for me? Just for now," she said, "If the worst happens… I don't want to lose them."

"Alright," he said, taking them back slowly. She smiled a sad smile before giving him another hug and walking away. As she left, she passed Sam, and he saw the tears falling down her face.

"You okay?" Sam asked.

Maggie didn't answer and instead just kept walking.

Hey all, so we're getting near the end of this part and I have a question for you regarding future parts. For reasons that will become evident as we come to our conclusion of the Captain America: Winter Soldier storyline, Maggie will have little to do with the Civil War plot lines, but I do have a CW adjacent plot line for just her that I was wondering if you all would be interested in. I could easily make it like a mini-series interlude to the main storyline.I feel its a lot of character growth and detail that is detrimental to her and her relationship with other characters outside of Bucky (and eventually her relationship with Bucky). As I'm writing this it feels like a very silly thing to ask, but I just kind of wanted to put some feelers out and see if you all were just as interested in Maggie's *solo* storyline as the romance between her and one James Buchanan Barnes.

With much love, Dubs.