The surface of the running path around the pools edge was wide enough for several people to run side by side and coated with something like rubber, Shay bounced a little on her toes as she walked along it. Tightness at the back of her heels checked her stride and she slowed as she neared the workout area and beelined for a large mat that dominated the corner next to the shower room.

Lowering herself slowly to the mat she groaned and laid flat on her back, her arms splayed out and her knees bent. Glow was spilling again and she couldn't be bothered to restrain it. She was tired of holding back. Fredricks had lived up to his promise, asking increasingly personal questions, accusing with surprising venom for the placid demeanor he usually wore. Then he'd turn around and coach her on the right responses with head-spinning sensitivity.

Feeling Bucky's continued glare prickling at her senses, she huffed out a breath. Okoye had sent her to this oasis for some much-needed recuperation.

Opting to ignore him, she took several deep breaths and sat up. Slipping off her shoes Shay unbuckled the ankle holster that held her emergency stash and taser, one forearm holster and three ceramic blades. Now she was properly disarmed. Sam had suggested she practice carrying fewer weapons, to teach herself to feel safe without a blade strapped to every limb. Shay wasn't convinced, but she was trying. Gathering her braids into a low pony, she focused on stretching away the tension she'd been carrying like armor all day.

Heavy and repetitive thumps to her right indicated Bucky had found a punching bag to punish for whatever he was chewing on and she tried to tune him out.

Finally feeling loose and warm Shay grabbed the top clothes from the bundle that she wanted and wandered into the showers to change. There were no doors, only curtains to give the shower stalls privacy. Shay stripped down quickly and pulled the sports bra and shorts on hastily. She trusted Bucky not to breach her privacy, but there was still a kind of primal fear in being so vulnerable in a strange place that her logic failed to overcome.

Bucky knelt on the mat, a pair of swim shorts in one hand, thumbing through the thin wallet she'd left in the pile of her things with the other.

"What are you doing?" Shay asked defensively, hugging herself again as Bucky's suspicion and anger rang through the space between them like a clarion call.

The ID card in his hand read Sadie Lyn Reinfeldt and bore Shay's image.

"You going somewhere?" Bucky's voice was rough, harsh in the bitterness of the accusation he laid under his words.

Shay tugged the wallet from his hand and pulled out a second card, dropping it at his knees and tossing her wallet back on the pile next to her taser before walking to the edge of the pool.

Benjamin Martin Wagner

Date of Birth: October 3rd 1980

Bucky swore softly under his breath, inspecting the reflective provincial shield and the signature under his photo.

Shay floated on her back, her eyes closed and arms outstretched, letting the running water take her where it would. Her body was still adjusting to the temperature and she fought the shiver that raised the goosebumps across her body.

A shadow fell across her face and she blinked, squinting at the silhouette of a conflicted man.

"You could have told me." Bucky was walking along the rim of the running path, keeping pace, his arms crossed.

"Yup." Shay agreed easily, "and you could have trusted me." She kicked away gently as he left her line of sight.

The brooding sense that had possessed Bucky for the past few days grew in intensity as she completed the circuit. He was waiting on the foot bridge, having changed into the swim trunks and tied his hair into a knot at the back of his neck.

Shay exhaled and let her feet drop. On her tiptoes she could just reach the bottom, though she had to bounce to keep her chin above the waterline. "You getting in?"

Bucky shrugged, dropping to the rim and swinging his feet into the flow. Cold.

Shay grinned as she felt the shiver that Bucky was using every ounce of skill to restrain. "It'll get better."

His stony face said otherwise.

"Come on, take the plunge." Shay softened her tone, recognizing the lost look in his eyes, "I can take the edge off for you if you'd like."

Bucky shook his head and the haunted expression was replaced with determination. Pushing up on his hands he launched himself in without hesitation. The wave he created washed over Shay and she bent her knees, dropping below the surface so she wouldn't be pushed back by it.

A metal hand grasped her arm, dragging her up into cool air so her feet no longer touched bottom. Bucky was gasping, shuddering and tensing every muscle in his control.

"James." Shay wrapped her hand around his and sent a warning surge into the vibranium knuckles, "you can let me go."

"Uh, uh." Bucky shook his head. "Too deep."

Flares of burning pain in her arm spurred her to subconscious action, tripping the synthetic wiring. Shay pushed off his chest and hauled up on the edge of the bridge with her free hand, pulling herself upstream and out of his reach.

"Snap out of it, Barnes!" She ordered; her tone coloured by fear that wasn't all her own.

Bucky stilled; his eyes pressed tight together, his flesh hand clinging to the scaffolding of the walkway over his head.

"Get out." Shay commanded. "Now."

He shook his head again and finally opened his eyes. "I'm- I'm ok, just need a second."

Shay blocked the panic she could feel surging against her barriers and softened as understanding came. "Cold water triggers you." It was a statement rather than a question and Shay waited for his short nod. "Do you want to get out?"

"Kinda." His breathing had slowed, though Shay still felt the tension coiled in him.

"You can, there's no shame in that."

"You are."

"Yeah, but the water doesn't bother me."

She had pulled herself closer, and waited a handsbreadth from his face, the rippling water reflected the gold flecks in the deep amber of her irises. Bucky shut his eyes again, willing himself to relax, to let the warm glow steal the cold electricity from his bones. A cool hand pressed gently on the join of metal at his shoulder, warmth, flickering like flame through him.

"Why not?" Bucky asked, letting himself drop into the water and planting his feet against the flow.

Still suspended and now looking down at him, Shay scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.

"The fall should have killed me." Bucky said, surprised when Shay shuddered violently. "I would have bled out, but I landed in a stream. All I remember was the cold." He shook his head and shivered involuntarily, "Zola- he said I would have died but the cold preserved my brain function, that's what gave them the idea of keeping me on ice."

Another soft touch and another surge of comforting warmth blanketed him, smothering the tremors.

"Your nightmares." Bucky looked suddenly resolute. "You dream of drowning all the time, but you seem so comfortable in the water. How?"

Shay shrugged, "dad used to say I was half fish- that I got it from my mermaid mum…" and chuckled to herself at the memory before becoming serious again. She released her grip and slid deeper into the water, bouncing on her toes and moving further away moment by moment. "It's the sudden drop that freaks me out, but once I'm in the water I'm alright. I'm a decent swimmer, and floating is the most freeing feeling. Like flying except that you can't fall down."

"I don't float."

"But you can swim?"

Bucky nodded and he pushed off the floor against the stream. It took him a few strokes to get used to the difference in pull between his arm and the smooth lightweight prosthetic, and when he turned his head to catch a breath between strokes, he saw Shay floating at his side. Her speed didn't slow between easy backstrokes and he pushed himself harder. One arm, and then the prosthetic with its fingers flared to catch as much water as he could. One, two. One, two.

When he looked again, she was still there, keeping pace. Bucky stopped, grabbing for the scaffolding again.

Shay stopped kicking and spread her arms to slow as her feet sunk. Swimming back to him before laying back and letting her feet rise to the surface. "You, ok?" she asked.

Bucky heaved himself up a little higher, watching her feet kick lazily as her body lifted with every slow breath and sunk lower with each exhale. The current tugged at his legs and he asked, "how are you doing that?"

"I'm a floater." Shay grinned, splaying her arms wider and then pulling them back to her sides with a gentle motion that moved her against the flow and closer to the outer edge of the pool where he stayed. "I can swim faster if you'd prefer some actual competition."

Bucky rolled his eyes and grinned in spite of himself, "a swimming race with a half-fish person isn't exactly fair."

"And what would make it fair?"

Bucky looked around, considering. The channel to the climbing wall was just up ahead, and he pointed at it. "Two laps starting there, and whoever climbs to the fifth waterfall first wins."

Shay's grin faded and she eyed the wall doubtfully, "how high is that?"

"40 feet maybe, about halfway up."

"And how do we get down?"

"We jump."

"Right." Shay muttered, covering her reaction in a quick change of direction and gripping the edge of the track to pull herself to the imaginary start line. Trying not to look to her right, not to think about the climb that waited. About the fall.

Bucky set himself in the center of the ring beside her, feeling the edge of the current on the inner lane of the pool tugging at his prosthetic hand. The warmth was wearing off, and he fought against the impulse to shiver.

"Ready?" Shay asked evenly, holding her position as she waited for his grunted response. "Go."

Releasing the bar, Shay dropped to bent knees below the water and propelled herself up and forward into a smooth breaststroke.

Bucky began to fall behind by the middle of the first lap. Shay had the advantage in the water, broad shouldered and tall for an average woman she was still more streamlined than he was and where she was naturally buoyant, Bucky sank like a rock. The energy needed to pull himself both forward and upward where nearly equal. Superior strength and speed aided him, while the stronger current below the surface and his prosthetic arm held him back.

He expected to find Shay halfway up the wall when he finished his second lap, but she was hovering at the edge of the canal, her hands and feet moving to keep her in an upright position in the deeper water. Glowing.

Bucky steadied himself on the rubber edge of the pool, looking from Shay to the wall with a growing sense of dread. the drop, damn.

"We can call it done. Skip the wall." He suggested through heavy breaths. "You win. Name your prize."

A long slow exhale between clenched teeth, Shay shook her head. "You braved the water; I can try to climb. Its only fair."

He was formulating an objection but she'd already reached for the nearest grips, and begun pulling herself up with a grunt.

"Shay."

Another grunt, another grip. Two hands and one foot steady on the wall, Shay kept her eyes up and searched the wall feebly with her left foot trying to find a purchase. "If you've got something to say Buchanan, get your butt up here and say it to my face."

It took seconds for Bucky to get on her level. "If you're trying to win some insanity contest, you should know, I was there first." He was rewarded for his cheekiness with an eyeroll that would have made Stark proud. "Three inches up and to your left."

"What?"

"The foothold."

"Right." Shay rolled her eyes again and groaned with frustration as her foot made contact with the raised nub. She managed another handhold and seemed a little steadier this time as she snarked back at him, "I'd have found that myself, don't need your help."

"Right, 'cause you've got nothing to prove." Bucky matched her hold for hold, speaking more freely than usual as the banter seemed to ease her anxiety.

"Well apparently I do, seeing as you don't trust me."

That pulled him up short. "What do you mean?"

"Did you really thing I was planning to run on my own?" Shay asked through clenched teeth, reaching for a finger grip just a little too far out of her reach.

Bucky pushed up on his left foot, angling closer to Shay's position with his next grip. "You shouldn't have to."

"Yeah, and neither should you, that's kind of the point of the whole trial."

Minutes passed in shuffles and grunts as Shay climbed farther up and sideways, ignoring the still-severe aura of frustration roiling around her companion. With a waterfall now directly overhead and a wall of water at her back, the sense of confinement was a strange comfort. She could pretend she wasn't in midair.

"What did you tell him?" Bucky asked as he swung himself higher with ease.

"Fredricks?" Shay asked

"You shouldn't trust him."

"He's a good lawyer Bucky, and he needed to know what the prosecutor might dig up so that we would be prepared for it."

Bucky was blocking the only path around the waterfall's projection and Shay advanced in his direction, hoping he would keep ascending and leave her way free. He didn't move, just looked at her as she got closer. X-raying her with eyes made more blue by the water falling around them.

"Why'd you kick us out?"

"Because you looked about ready to rip his head off and I didn't think that would help convince the judges that you're reformed."

"You didn't see the way he was looking at you." Bucky answered, unable to look away as shame flared through him at the petty admission.

"I can handle the lawyer."

"Right." Bucky said. He watched her face closely as he formulated the next question. "Did you tell him about David?"

A mask fell over her expression like store shutters closing. Still he caught the flash of horror, fear and something that looked like an awful lot like shame as she looked away.

"It's not relevant."

"How can you be so sure?" Bucky pressed again, hating the way she flinched away from him.

"Because you and Sam are the only people I ever gave that name to. Because he's dead, and because if anyone had ever connected the dots between me and him, I would have been caught a long time ago." Shay looked at him again, her chin trembling and eyes wet with pain. But there was fiery conviction in her voice when she added. "He may have taken my freedom, but I won't let him ruin yours."

Bucky staggered under the look she gave him and he swung to the side to let her pass. She was pushing herself harder than ever and he cringed at the tremor in her legs as she pushed herself higher.

"Shay."

"I'm not talking about this right now."

"Shay-"

"No." She turned to look down at him and noticed for the first time just how far she'd climbed.

"That was the fifth set." Bucky gestured at the shelf of flowing water now four feet below her. "You made it."

"Crap." Shay said, clinging to the handholds and squeezing her eyes shut.

"You're alright, just climb down to me and we can jump from the platform." Bucky tried to keep his tone light, to guide her to a safe descent without adding to the panic she showed in every trembling muscle.

"Right, just climb backwards and sideways down the wall. So easy- any idiot could do it." Shay quipped back sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and tried reaching down with her left foot and gave up when she couldn't find a foothold.

"Just wait there a second."

"Right, like I'm going anywhere in a hurry…" Shay mumbled, pressing her forehead against the smooth wall.

Bucky swung himself sideways and grabbed the edge of the projection with one hand. He tested it and it held under his weight. He pulled himself up and onto the two-foot-deep ledge and found a grippy surface under the inch of flowing water. Shay hung frozen in place on the wall to his left, her knees level with his shoulders an armlength away.

"There's a foothold to your right, but you'll have to let go with your left hand." He advised gently.

Shay shuddered and shifted her weight, letting go of the left hold and trying to find a space on the grip in her right to hold with both hands.

"That's it, now just swing your foot towards my voice, nice and easy."

She whimpered as he caught her foot with his vibranium hand, moving it slowly until it rested on the grip. She settled on it and switched hands to grab a grip halfway between them.

"Now the left foot." Bucky couldn't help smiling at the trust she was showing in following his instructions with her eyes still pressed tight together and her intentionally slow breathing. "A little further. You're almost there."

Her legs trembled as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other and she reached blindly for him.

Bucky took her hand in his right and wrapped his left arm around her waist. "Alright Angel, I've got you." Shay didn't resist as he pulled her into the space between him and the wall. "You're ok."

"Uh-huh, great. Now all I've got to do is hurl myself off a cliff. I'm great." Shay snarked back, pressing her body into the wall like it was the only thing keeping her upright.

"Do you trust me?" Bucky asked, his voice low in her ear, she nodded shortly. "Then turn around. I won't let you fall."

"Hell of a trust exercise, Barnes." She answered with a half-laugh.

Still, she turned, tightly as she could, seeming afraid to take up any space at all on the ledge and pressing her back into the wall the moment it made contact. Blinked, squinted and finally opened her eyes. Bucky had her boxed in with a hand on the wall to either side of her. A position that would normally have made her panic, but here? On a ledge halfway up a climbing wall that felt more and more like a mountain? She felt marginally more secure.

Water dripped from the ends of his long hair, forming perfect pearled beads on his tanned skin and the black finish of the vibranium shoulder. Shay reached unthinkingly to the scars that marked the original prosthetic's archaic grafting point. Warm skin met her fingertips and she traced the pattern, still taking deep calming breaths as she did.

"Do you still trust me?" Bucky asked again, a slow smile building behind his eyes and curling the corner of his mouth.

Shay looked him in the eye, most of the terror was gone, though her wariness of the height remained. "Yeah. I do." Her hand on his chest she glanced down at the golden glow where their skin made contact. "Can you trust me? I-" she looked away again, swallowed and met his gaze with an earnest look. "I'll… When the trial is over, if you can wait that long, I'll tell you everything. I promise."

Bucky shook his head, a smile still playing across his face as he glanced at her lips for a second too long. "But I can't Shay. I can't." Confusion and worry scrunched her eyebrows and Bucky cradled her cheek in his hand, trying to smooth away the wrinkles his thumb could reach.

"I've been waiting for too long." He laughed a little and bit his lip before letting out the words that he'd kept trapped behind a wall of apprehension. "I had to fix the winter soldier problems first, get my brain right. Then the world was ending, again, and I was planning to take you on a date when it was all over. You promised to say yes. But its still not over-and then I was waiting for the trial. Hoping when I was free, that it would make better sense."

Shay's worry had evaporated but she searched his face as though she was trying to read the future somewhere in the space between his wrinkled forehead and the shadow of stubble on his chin.

"It's never going to make sense Shay. Because I'm not the man that you deserve-" he rested his thumb over her mouth before she could interrupt him. "No- And because I'll never be free. Because I will always want to be wherever you are, if that's a prison or on the run or following you around like a whipped dog for the rest of my life, that's where I'll want to be."

Shay shifted under the intensity in his eyes and looked away before tucking her chin to her chest, and staring resolutely at his feet. "You deserve to be free, James. Really free. I can't give you that." She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment and continued speaking, "I know what its like, thinking you can't live without someone. To lose yourself." She swallowed a lump and chuckled bitterly, "you don't even realize how bad it is until they put a lock on the outside of your door, 'for your safety' and only let you out if you agree to do what they want."

The thumping of his heart slowed as his thoughts caught up with her words and he pulled his vibranium hand out of the crushed section of wall ignoring the trickle of dust and debris that fell.

"David?" he whispered, the name like poison on his tongue.

"Yeah." Her head bobbed a sharp yes and leaned away, shrinking in on herself like she could melt into the wall if she tried hard enough.

"Shay," he murmured, placing his hand under her chin with a gentle pressure. "C'mon, look at me Angel." When she lifted her head, he could see the tears sparkling on her lower lashes. "You are not him. You could never be like him. Trust me, I know you."

"There's still the trial- and I've got to-" Shay started, her thoughts spiraling and the words failing her as she pressed one hand to the solid wall behind her and felt the pounding of his heart through her other palm.

"You need more time, I get that." Bucky said to fill the space left by her fumbling words, tucking the braids that had come loose back behind her ear and brushing the tear tracks away with a soft smile. "For you, I can be patient. But we really do need to get down from here before Steve comes looking for us."

Shay choked on laughter brought on by his boyish grin and absurdity of the circumstance. "I was kind of trying to forget about that bit."

Bucky sidestepped and turned to face the open air offer her his hand and grinning like a madman. "You and me angel, its just you and me."

Her stomach twisted as Shay put her hand in his, but she kept her eyes on him as they took the leap together.