The rest of the evening remains uneventful; Mary quickly packs her few possessions, discarding the tourist clothes she would no longer need. She makes sure to be in bed before Steve comes back in the room. In the shadows of the night, she doesn't trust herself to not spill anymore secrets.

She hears him enter the room and listens as he makes up his spot on the couch in the living room area. She waits to hear the sounds of him settling in, followed by the heavy breaths of sleep; she then forces her own eyes closed, in hopes sleep would come for her too.

Sleep does come and with it a dream full of turmoil. She wakes with a start; images of a metallic arm, shouts, blood and absent black eyes, play out like a horror film behind her eyelids. The clock on the stand reads 2 a.m. She crawls out of the bed, grabbing one of the hotel robes and slips out the rooms sliding door to walk down along the beach.

Mary digs her toes into the sand and sits, breathing in the salt air. She hears him come before he speaks.

"Why does Fury have information about you he wants to give to me encrypted?" he asks her, his voice tense with betrayal.

"Of course he knows. The bastard knows everything." She mumbles and looks over her shoulder at Steve. "Sit." She says.

He obliges, stiffly and puts space between them. Mary lets out an audible sigh and hugs her knees to her chest.

"I don't know how to say this. I should have told you sooner, but I didn't know how. I don't know who you'll hate more when I tell you." He furrows his brows at her words, but she plows on. "I met Bucky before I went into the coma. I attempted and failed to…" Here, at these words she falters. "He was an assignment. I was instructed to take him out." She forces herself to look at his face. There are so many emotions: confusion, hurt, anger. "S.H.I.E.L.D. knew?" He asks. "Fury knew he was alive?"

"I guess." She shrugs her shoulders.

"Ok." He says and he pulls himself out of the sand, turning to leave.

"Steve-wait." She calls, desperation pulling at her heart. "I'm sorry." He nods his head and just repeats himself again, ok and walks away and this time she lets him.

The next morning is quiet and tense as they go through the motions of checking out and then leaving the hotel via towncar. They make contact with their S.H.I.E.L.D. transport at an undisclosed location in the desert of mexico. There they are given new, warmer gear, to weather the Canadian winter they are headed to. They are travelling by an unmarked, single engine airplane with just the pilot and one other destination is a remote, northern town in the province of Manitoba. A group of locals sighted a man with Bucky's description camped out in the surrounding forest. The townspeople wouldn't have said anything, except that livestock and people have gone missing since the man with the silver arm appeared.

Mary looks up from the file she's reading to gaze at the back of Steve's head. He chose to sit apart from her and she gave him the space they both needed. Mary stretches her joints and stands up to approach him, he's too much a gentleman to come talk to her himself. She leans against the chair in the row across from him and he notices her presence by looking sideways at her.

"You can't be mad forever." She says to him, crossing her arms and sitting down in the chair so they're at face level. He takes in a deep breath and looks out the window.

"I know." He replies. "But he's my family. He's all I have left. And they kept that from me." He doesn't look angry when he turns to her; he looks tired.

"Steve, there are levels to this world even we cannot understand." She moves so she's sitting in the seat beside him and places her hand on his arm. "And he is not the friend you remember. He tried to kill you."

"No. He saved me." He shakes his head. "He pulled me out of the water that day in Washington. I saw it in his eyes. He remembered me."

"Maybe so. But he's a broken man. He's the perfect machine and the things they did to make him that way...``she trails off sadly, leaning back in her chair.

"Tell me."

She slowly shakes her head side to side on the back of her chair. "No. You're a strong man Steve, but there are somethings better left unknown."

"You're probably right." He looks at her hand still on his arm and takes it into his own and lets his thumb slowly rub the back of her hand. "I do care about you." He says after a moment.

"And I you." She gives a small smile but his eyes do not meet hers.

"But I don't think we should get involved with each other right now."

"Right." She swallows back tears stinging her eyes, "Of course, I agree." She pulls her hand back into her lap, looking down at her palms. "I'm going to talk to the pilot, see where we are." She says standing up quickly.

"Mary wait. Let me finish." She barely hears him as she rushes the short distance to the cockpit and closes the door behind her.

"Ma'am." The pilot nods in her direction.

"Where are we Captain?"

"We're flying over the Dakotas. Should be there in a couple of hours if the wind stays behind us."

"Good good."

"Would you mind taking the yoke for a moment so I can have a walk around?" He asks her.

"I'd love to." She says excitedly. "It's been too long since I've been behind one of these."

"Well don't tell me that." He says laughing.

"Oh I'm more than competent sir. Go stretch your legs." He gives her a mini salute and leaves the pit. Barely a moment passes when she hears the door re-open. "Well that was quick, you don't trust me then?" She jokingly asks.

"Well I saw the pilot walk out and became slightly concerned." Mary hears Steve's voice and turns to see him smiling at her.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told him, I'm more than competent. You're fine."

Steve holds his hands up in mock surrender and takes the small co-pilot seat beside her. "I would like to finish our conversation while you're stuck here then." She rolls her eyes at his trickery but doesn't protest.

"I only meant that right now we shouldn't get involved because I don't think I would be able to give you the attention you deserve. I already worry about my friend. I don't think I can afford to get attached to someone else. I've already lost so much. I would hate to lose you too." Mary nods in understanding. "I just don't think it would be fair to you."

"Shouldn't I get to decide that?" She asks, keeping her eyes forward.

"I suppose."

"If the world has already taken so much from you, should you not get to decide what you want?"

There's a long pause before he says, "Up until now, I didn't know what I wanted."

"And what do you want?" She asks quietly, her hands are squeezing the yoke tightly as she waits for his answer.

"I want to dance. I want peace. I want you." She finally looks at him and sees the face of a lonely man; a man who has had it all and lost it all. She is spared from saying anything as the pilot comes back in.

He regards the scene before him, "I can take it from here now Ma'am."

Mary trades places with the pilot and Steve stands up beside her, she takes his hand into hers, "Come with me." She says and he follows her down the short aisle to the last row of seats where they sit down side by side. Mary turns to face him, "You have me. And the rest will come." She says, placing her hands on the sides of his face, her thumbs grazing the strong line of his jaw. She places a gentle kiss to his cheek and pulls back to look at him and he smiles shyly at her. He pulls her closer and they share a long kiss over the plains of the Canadian prairies where a new mystery awaits them.

Sorry for the long delay in posting! Life happens. Thank you for the continued support by reading my story 3