Chicago - Wrigley Field
The Next Day

"How have you never seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off?"

"Sorry if not every American movie made it all the way to my small town," she sarcastically told him with a smile while trying to still get comfortable in the hard plastic folding seat.

"Well then, the next movie night, it's getting played. Growing up, it was every high school kid's fantasy to have a day like Ferris had."

"What was so special about it?" she was still cautiously looking around.

"I'm not spoiling the movie for you," he told her bumping his left shoulder into her. "What are you looking for? Or do I even need to ask?"

"It can't hurt to look," she pointed out. No matter how enjoyable a day might be, Keeling was always there to ruin it just a bit.

"I chose these seats for a reason. We're high enough behind home plate that we don't have to worry about getting hit by a foul ball. It's usually not very packed either, which means that nobody should be too close to worry you. There is no way you are going to spot anyone you know."

Teagan felt her face slightly flush at his admission, knowing that Keeling was always on her mind when she went out in public.

"Until that man in pushing up daisies, I'm going to keep looking for him."

"Just promise me that you'll try to at least enjoy our day off," Sam told her holding out the basket of loaded French fries so she could get some.

Lifting up the hot melted cheese fry that was about to drip, she quickly held it up so she could drop it in her mouth. The strange taste of the cheese, bacon, and greasy fried potatoes was even better than she had anticipated. She gave a low moan as she chewed, already reaching for another one.

"And here I was worried that you might not like it," Sam told her putting some into his own mouth.

"It's potatoes, what did you expect?" her eyebrows quickly raising as she ate another small grouping.

"I should have known," he said. "This is just a snack. After a few innings, we'll get a couple of the hot dogs. Since you thought Steve's were good, I know that you're going to like these."

"Have you had them before?"

"No, not from here. But baseball stadiums in general are known for having the best hot dogs around. Some would argue that those street vendors in New York City with those metal push carts have the best, but I think they are slightly insane if they believe that."

Teagan laughed at how serious Sam was about his food sometimes. But so far, every strange American food she been offered she had ended up enjoying.

Their seats were just behind home plate, but just off to the right side. The area was called the Terrace and was up much higher than she would have expected. She would have to admit that this stadium was much larger than any cricket one back home. Sam had given her a small brochure about Wrigley Stadium so she could learn some about it. If it was a larger game, and the place was at full capacity, then it could hold just over forty-one thousand people. Seeing that, Teagan knew that there was no way she could handle being around that many people.

They game slowly progressed and Sam would point out the rules that governed a hit or strike while explaining what was going on. After a few innings, she was getting the hang of what was going on and found herself enjoying the game.

Around the fourth inning, they left to go get their lunch from the vendor stalls. Luckily they had Guinness beer so she grabbed them a couple using the fake ID that Natasha had furnished her with back in South Dakota. Since she'd never had to use it then, Nat told her there was no reason to change it. Sam was at the vendor two stall over grabbing them their hot dogs.

Reaching their seats, they passed each other their items once they were sitting down. That was when she finally got a really good look at the hot dog that Sam had gotten her. Glancing at the one in his hand, she saw that it was a perfect match to her own.

"What is this?" she asked him lifting the item up so he knew what she was questioning.

"That is a Chicago Style Hot Dog," he proudly told her.

Teagan began a second examination of the item.

"But there's tomato slices, mustard, onions, relish, a pickle slice, and a pepper on it."

"Exactly," he told her taking a large bite of his. She could tell by his expression how much he was enjoying it. He looked over at her, seeing that she was still hesitant, "Trust me?"

That was becoming a very familiar phrase between the two of them, and she always said the same thing.

"Yes," she hesitantly informed him before just braving past her fear and taking a large bit just as he had.

Three bites later, she heard a smug, "Told you," from next to her.

"Let's wait here until the leaving crowd dies down," Sam told Teagan as he saw the swarm of people trying to get through the doorways to leave the stadium.

The place was only at about half capacity, meaning they were surrounded by roughly twenty thousand others, but still left a lot of open seats around them, giving a more open area feeling. He knew that Teagan would not have been able to sit in the lower, more popular, crowded areas so he had chosen seats up here for them. Even arriving, the people had been trickling in, but now it was more of a controlled mob as everyone rushed to get home. So far today, even when they went for food or restroom breaks she had not seemed skittish. Sam took that as a good sign.

"That's fine with me," she told him, sitting back in the seat so that she was slightly resting her head against his shoulder.

"So, how did you like your first baseball game?"

"After getting used to the rules, it was a lot more fun than I had anticipated," she told him.

"Better than cricket?"

He looked down to see her eyes wander a bit before she lifted her hand to wave it back and forth in a wavering motion.

"Fifty-fifty."

"Guess that's better than nothing," he told her, kissing the top of the baseball cap on her head.

Seeing one of the stadium's clean-up crew a few rows down, his eyes met the mans.

"Waiting for the crowd to leave?" the man asked him.

"Yes," Sam simply told him.

Pointing towards a back doorway further away from the center of the stadium, "Not a lot of people usually use that exit to the side street. Too much of a walk to the train station, but if you don't mind huffing it…"

Sam looked down at Teagan who nodded approvingly.

"Thanks, we'll do that."

They stood up and headed up the stairs to the far doorway. He made sure to hold her hand, taking the lead so he could scan the area for crowds or threats.

"So where to now?" she asked him.

"Well, since we're doing a Ferris Day, do you want to be surprised since you've never seen the movie?"

Teagan bit her lower lip as she considered the offer.

"I don't usually like surprises."

Sam felt a small churn in his stomach as the admission. Her life so far had been a series of very bad surprises. At least up until she had discovered they were really releasing her from being a prisoner.

"Then let me ask you this. What's the tallest building you've ever been in?"

Teagan's eyes widened into large saucers at his question. That question alone gave away their destination.

"Four stories," she then told him with all seriousness.

"Four?" he asked while holding up four fingers.

"Well, except for that building over in…you know, with the mission thing we did?" Sam knew she meant the terrorist with the bomb. "Before that, only four, and that's only because we were on the roof of a building throwing water balloons off it at a rival futbal team's fans."

"You little miscreant! Here I was thinking that you were always such a nice, sweet girl," Sam told her while playfully squeezing her hand.

"I don't know where ya ever would'ave gotten that idea from," she told him as they entered the open doorway to the stairwell that was actually empty of people. It seemed the guy had been right.

"Futbal? You mean soccer, right?"

Teagan have a loud, long, exaggerated, single groan that lasted five seconds at the term. The sound echoed off the concrete staircase for a couple of steps, earning them a glance from another couple a flight below them.

"Why the lot of ya ever started calling futbal by the wrong name is beyond me," she told him with a laugh. "Ya don'na even use your feet on the ball."

"I'm just calling it what I learned to call it," he pointed out as they reached the bottom floor.

Pausing at the metal doors, he adjusted his baseball cap to make sure it rode low to hide his features as Teagan did the same.

Pushing open the door, he saw that the side street was indeed a lot less crowded than the front would be. Taking the lead, they began walking back towards the elevated train's station. They had walked the couple of blocks from the safe house to the nearest station, leaving Steve and Nat the only vehicle they had. They could easily get to the handful of places he was taken Teagan using the train.

He remembered how happy she had been at first seeing the train station. It turns out that back in her town, they had a stop for a train passing through and she'd been on it numerous times when she was with friends heading to a city for a cricket or futbal game. He was glad that it was associated with good memories.

It was late afternoon by the time they made it to the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower. They made their way up the elevator with a tour group to the Skydeck. Tourist were wandering all around, taking in the views so they fit right in.

"Wow," he heard Teagan simply say as they came to a stop at the large glass window overlooking Lake Michigan. "This is magnificent!"

Sam felt his chest bolster out with pride at making her sound so happy with the simple stop. Last night was the only other time he could recall her using that word. Teagan reached out and placed her hand on the thick pane of glass, staring down at the ground 103 stories below them. Looking out over the Chicago skyline from such a height, he took a minute to appreciate it. Usually when he was flying around, there wasn't much time for sightseeing.

Teagan leaned in close to him, her mouth almost to his ear, "Have you flown this high before?"

"Yes, higher even," she looked pleased to hear that. "I've even fallen from higher than this."

That made her face fall, and her breath hitch. Making sure that nobody was too close to them, Sam began to tell her about the incident on the Helicarrier where Bucky had kicked him off, causing him to fall and use his parachute. He'd never been more happy to have that item than at that time.

"I forget about how dangerous it really is out there for you," she told him, leaning back onto him as he wrapped his arms around her. They stood there off to the side as others came and went, not disturbing them as they just enjoyed the time together.

Then Teagan broke the silence with a question that chilled him.

"What happens to me if you die on a mission?"

Sam felt his body tremble knowing that Teagan wouldn't ask that unless she was truly worried about the possibility of it happening.

Releasing his arms, he turned her around so they were face to face. Her eyes had a slightly red tint just at the edges, as if trying to hold in a strong emotion. He put in finger under her chin to raise it towards him.

"Teagan, nothing is going to…" he started to say but then stopped.

Technically, he couldn't…or shouldn't…say that. Because of what had happened to Riley, he knew there were no guarantees in life. Telling her that nothing would happen would be a lie, and he couldn't do that to her. He decided to start over.

"Alright, there is always a chance that something could happen while on a mission. But even if something did occur, you would still be safe. Steve and Nat would continue to look out after you, unless you decided to go home once Nat works out your story."

He could see something guilty in her eyes at hearing that.

"What is it?"

"I kind of told Nat that she didn't need to keep working on that story anymore…I didn't want to go home. At least not anymore, right now," she admitted.

Sam smiled at her in understanding.

"You like being with us? Maybe one charming member of our group more than the others?"

"With an ego that inflated, I'm amazed that you even need the wings to fly," she told him, batting playfully at his arm.

"I'll take that to mean yes," he gave her a quick peck on the lips, trying to not bring too much attention to them.

"Can we stay here until the sun sets?" Teagan then asked him.

Sam glanced over their shoulders to look out the west windows, seeing the sun very close to the horizon already. There was no other tall buildings obstructing the view and he could tell that it would be incredible to see from up here.

"Sure," he said leading her over to that area so they could claim a spot. "Follow me. There's one more thing for you to check out."

Seeing the glass floor protruding observation boxes, they both hesitantly stepped into one, having nothing more than a couple of inches-thick glass supporting them over thirteen hundred feet up in the air. The straight down view was not for the faint of heart, and even he had a mild dread as he considered what could happen if the construction was not up to par.

Sam leaned over so he was closer to her ear, "I sure it's safe, but I wouldn't mind having my wings right now…just in case."

Other sightseers wanted their turn at the frightening spot so they moved to the side and stood in front of the west-facing windows as the sun slowly headed for the horizon. Sam liked the feeling of holding Teagan in his arms as they just watched the sky changing colors. The voices surrounding them started to fade away into a background buzzing noise as they just watched the show before them.

After a while, Sam noticed a slight chance in how Teagan's body felt in his arms, as if she had been slowly tensing up. Before he decided to ask if something had scared her, he felt her take a calming breath.

"In that cell, I used to wish to die," Teagan's voice was so low he almost didn't catch her words, but he unfortunately had and they sent a dreadful chill down his spine. A few moments later she continued, "Being trapped in the dark for so long, I thought that I would never see the sun rise or set like this again. No more blue skies. No more rainstorms. No more fog on the moors. No more rainbows. It was all gone and I believed that I would never see any of it ever again. Darkness and pain were all I knew for so long. There was no difference between an hour and a day. I would wake up and spend hours hanging there with nothing to do but cry because I was still alive."

It took a moment for Sam to realize that he had stopped breathing. Never before had Teagan been so emotionally open about her time under Keeling. He'd tried to get her to slowly open up a couple of times, but she would barely say anything before moving the topic on. Hearing her be so open and honest right now, he knew that she finally felt safe enough to speak her mind.

"I used to pray for a heart attack, an aneurism, a bomb going off, a guard with an angry trigger finger…anything that would finally kill me and put me out of my misery. But nothing ever did. I'm sure that it was only a few years in when I finally decided that if I couldn't get out of there that maybe I could somehow kill myself. They had already starting giving agents a gun with a single bullet to use on themselves. I'd already made too many of them die by my command. One day, I started to wonder what would happen if I just commanded the agent to shoot me instead of himself."

The sun was now just about to touch down over the flat, smooth land, casting a vibrant panorama for the depressing remembrance. Even though she had watched sunsets many times since coming to be with them, he was just now beginning to understand how important they were to her. Sam didn't say anything, wanting Teagan to feel free to say the words that had probably haunted her for so long.

"It was all I could think of the next time that I sat in that chair across the small table from an agent. He already had the gun pressed to his temple, his finger on the trigger. All I had to do was tell him to turn it on me and fire. But I didn't," her voice wavered as he felt her body begin to tremble in his arms as she gently wept.

Tightening his hold, Sam was at a loss for any comforting words right now.

"I wanted it all to stop. I wanted the darkness and the pain to go away. All I had to do was say a few simple words that would finally free me…but I was too scared to take that final step. I was afraid that if I died that my soul would be dammed to the worst possible fear I had. Darkness and pain. I would only be moving from one plane to another, and I would find myself right back where I was trying to escape from."

Sam felt tears begin to land on his bare arms that were wrapped around her, trying to comfort her. He couldn't imagine how depressed and miserable she must have felt to almost give into that temptation of suicide. They had talked of her growing up religious and how much it used to mean to her…before Hydra and Keeling.

What they had forced her to do had not only broken her mind, but broken her spirit, making her believe that she was damned to hell, just like she had told him that time after her nightmare so long ago.

"I tried to tell myself that it didn't matter if I committed suicide since Keeling had already dammed me to hell. But then I remembered the promise I made to him. After all that he put me through, I knew that with the evil soul that he already possessed, that when he dies that he is going to hell. And I intended to be the one to put him there. Hoping that one day that I would see him dead by my hands was the only reason I didn't do it."

Teagan's voice had slowly and steadily gone from being weak and frightened to firm and angry. There was no mistaking the sincerity in her voice at what she wanted to accomplish once upon a time. And if he was honest with himself, it sounded like she still wanted to.

Many times over the past few months since they had known each other, there had been times when her anger at Keeling would manifest but this was the first real time she had spoken her dream aloud.

Keeling had instilled a darkness in her that he was sure had not been there before she had been taken. From the stories she had told him, and the videos of her family and friends at her wake, she had been always happy and looking to have some fun. That hated man had taken that away from her, made it hide so deep inside of her that he was still trying to pull it back to the surface.

"Teagan, I know that your anger and hatred for him is never going to go away. He put you through more than anyone should ever have to endure. If I could make you forget everything done to you over the past years I would, just to know that you have some peace of mind. And so I will never tell you to forget and definitely not to forgive. And if given the chance, I will make sure that man is punished for what he has done. But I want you to be happy, like how you were before he came into your life. All I want for you to do is live in the now and know that for as long as I'm alive, you will never have to worry about anyone ever hurting you in any way again."

Sam knew that what he said was probably too much to be able to promise to her but she needed to know that he would always try to be there for her. Accidents did happen but Sam knew that if he was not able to be there for her that Steve and Nat would make sure that she was safe. Since they had taken her from the Raft, he was the first one that she came to trust. They had formed a bond even then, and over the past year, it had only grown into something more.

Even now, he didn't know if they both would call it love or just a deep connection that made them both so happy. But the thought of how she might not handle losing him, Sam knew that it would break her in a way that Keeling could never do. She had begun to rely on him in a way that was more than a therapist, more than a friend, more than a boyfriend.

Teagan had not spoken the word, but had she come to love him?

"I know that all of this is not going to last," her sad voice was heavy with emotion. Her hand came up to wipe her face dry and also the spots on his arm where more had fallen. "Eventually, there will come a time when you need to go with Steve and Natasha and be the superhero that you are. I know that I will have to learn to take care of myself, just like I used to. That I'll have to get over this fear of the dark. That I'll have to keep reminding myself that Keeling is not hiding in the corner of every room just waiting for me. I know that it will happen…"

"But it is not going to happen for a very long time," he interrupted. His arms tightened just a bit more and he placed his chin on her shoulder as the sun crept below the horizon. "Something with the Accords is going to settle the matter in one way or another. There are two outcomes: we will all be free to return to the lifestyle we used to have, or we will find ourselves turning back into normal citizens with day jobs. Either way, I don't see a reason why you couldn't stay with me…if that is what you wanted."

Teagan turned her head just a bit, touching her cheek to his, the warmth of her body a nice feeling.

"You would have me stay with you, no matter which way you had to choose?"

"Why not? In case you haven't noticed, I really enjoy your company. It's very nice."

Teagan laughed out loud, not able to hold it in with him using their shared term of endearment. It had easily become their word for love.

"That's the sound that I want to hear," he told her, reaching up with his hand to turn her face more towards his so that he could plant a kiss on it. The brims of their hats impacted, making hers tip down and fall off, exposing her lovely curly red hair. He bend over, picked it up, and planted it back on her head.

Looking out over the landscape, the sun was now gone, leaving an array of colors splattered across the darkening sky.

"Come on," he told her taking her hand in his. "I think that after all that, that a couple of pints would definitely be in order."

"Pints? You mean real beer, not that piss…"

His hand came up to press into her lips to stop her from using such vulgar terms where anyone could hear her.

"Yes, a real pint. In case you've forgotten, we're in Chicago. Hell, I spotted two Irish pubs just on the walk here from the train."

That sentence brought out the sparkle in her eyes that had not been there for the past few minutes. It seemed that she was really liking his suggestion as they moved with the other tourist towards the elevators.