The Quinjet flew them in to a remote, backwater town in Texas and the heat rose up waves as they climbed out to begin the trek to the abandoned site. The entire group was silent for the two-mile hike over mostly flat land and it cooled off quickly as the sunset. It was dark when they reached the base, Steve signaled for them to hold up.

"Bucky, you and Clint do a sweep," Steve said into the comm. "Let's make sure there's no one here before we move in."

Bucky nodded, and Clint followed him through the darkness to the building that looked as if it had sat dormant for a decade. She waited patiently with Steve, Natasha, and Sam for word from their scouts.

"All clear," Bucky's voice reached them.

"Copy that," Steve told them. "Let's go. Agent, stay right behind me."

Chris nodded and did as he asked, admiring how a man his size moved so quietly as they approached a side door of the building. He had a nice ass too.

"Sam, keep watch," Steve ordered.

"Got it." Sam waited outside.

Bucky waved Steve in through the door, Natasha and herself staying with him. "Clint's sweeping the perimeter. I think I've found what we're looking for."

Chris marveled at how efficiently they worked, how harmoniously focused they were. The mission seemed easy indeed. They followed Bucky down a couple of long hallways until they reached a room that looked like an old-fashioned server bank. And maybe it was.

Steve and Natasha ushered her ahead of them and into the room but all three of them followed her in.

Chris scanned the room, starting with the left side, she scanned the rows of antiquated machines.

"They think we're going to find something here?" Natasha remarked.

Steve also looked doubtful, but Bucky stayed right with her, scanning each machine. Just maybe in his time with HYDRA, he knew just how they liked to cloak things. Without a couple of recent cases, she certainly wouldn't have known what she was looking for.

At the end of the third row, a machine caught her eye just as Bucky pointed to it.

"Can you pry that open, please?" she asked him.

Pulling a knife from his belt, he had the front case opened effortlessly.

"Thank you," she told him, kneeling before it.

The telltale signs were there. The casing was thicker, inside there appeared to be a newer machine. Chris ran her hands along the sides of it within the old, dirty case until she found a switch. The instant she hit it, the inner machine came to life.

"There you are," Chris said aloud.

"Tony," Steve spoke into his comm. "You there?"

"You found it, I see," Tony's Stark's voice buzzed in her ear. "The signal just came online."

"I need a couple of minutes to get everything scoped out, okay?" Chris told him.

"Yep," Tony said in the comm.

"Got it," Steve told her.

Natasha took a knee next to her, watching as she worked. Bucky was also lingering above her, watching.

Within minutes, Chris had found the files she wanted, pulled her own equipment from her bag to facilitate the transfer, and had everything ready to go.

"Mr. Stark, when you're ready we'll initiate the sequence," Chris said.

"That sounded very sexy, agent," Tony quipped in her ear.

"Yeah?" Chris continued on with her end of the process, trying not to fangirl over being on the receiving end of her idol's inappropriate humor. "Get your end started and we'll see what else turns you on."

Tony snorted.

"Ass," Natasha said next to her.

"Okay, agent," Tony said. "Let's do it."

Chris hit the key to start the transfer. One beat later, they heard from Clint.

"Some alarm is blaring out here," Clint said. "What did you guys do?"

"Transfer is in progress," Steve told him. "What do you see?"

"Nothing at the moment but I'm kind of afraid to hope it'll stay that way, Cap," Clint said.

"Alarm's loud," Sam cut in.

"Hang on," Chris told them, taking a look at the system's functions.

"Sam, survey the area," Steve ordered.

"Got it," Sam replied. "Thanks for killing the alarm."

Chris struggled to block out the emotions swirling around her even though they were minor. Fascination, curiosity, appreciation, dread. She didn't have time to deal with any of that right now.

"How's it going?" Steve asked, waiting for a progress report and for them to accomplish their mission.

"Transfer is at 9%," Chris told him. "It's going to take several minutes to finish."

By the time the transfer got to 17%, Sam's voice broke in with bad news.

"We've got incoming, Cap," Sam reported. "A couple of hummers loaded with armed men coming up from the south."

"Got one coming in this direction, too," Clint told them.

Natasha rose to her feet. "Shall we?" she asked Steve, the sheer level of her ferocity surprising Chris.

Chris glanced up at her companions.

"Buck, stay here with her until the transfer's finished," Steve said. "We'll hold them off."

Bucky nodded, watched them run back out to help Sam and Clint.

The transfer had reached 21%.

"You guys okay?" Tony asked.

"Should be," Steve explained. "We've got company."

After a couple of beats, Tony answered. "That's because we've got some genuine data," Tony sounded as if he were scanning over it. "This is exactly what we were hoping for."

Chris nodded, knowing it was. She stayed focused on the information transfer, ready in case something happened to interrupt the connection.

The sound of fighting broke out around them, had Bucky pulling a rifle from his shoulder and getting it ready. Chris didn't feel fear or worry coming from him, just determination.

"Stay down," he told her.

Chris nodded. The transfer was at 46%.

"Shit, they've got RPGs," Sam yelled.

An explosion rocked the building, not far from their room.

"I got the one," Clint said quietly.

"Got him," Sam yelled, sounding as if he were in the air.

"Agent, status on the transfer," Steve called into the comm.

"50%, captain," she told him.

"Keep going," Tony said from the compound. "Everything's coming in solid, just like we hoped for. Just hang on."

"Trying, Tony," Steve told him, sounding as if he were fighting as he did.

Chris stayed focused on her job, counting on the man keeping watch above her to keep her safe.

"Buck, you guys okay?" Steve called.

"So far."

Several minutes passed, the fighting continued on.

"How you guys doing?" Tony asked from the compound.

"Okay for now," Steve answered, "Status, agent?"

"90%, captain."

By the time the transfer got to 95%, Chris was sweating bullets. They were almost done. Yes, there were four Avengers out there but even they couldn't hold off HYDRA and its agents forever and it sounded bad out there.

Another explosion rocked the building, closer than the first one and Bucky looked on edge, ready to jump into the fray. His feelings of fear, restlessness all came from concern for his friends outside, especially… Steve.

"Clint!" Steve yelled in the com.

"M'Okay," Clint muttered. "It went in and out."

Clint had gotten shot?

98%.

"Are we done yet? I see another transport," Sam called, sounding as if he were in the air.

"99%" Chris said.

When it hit 100%, Tony jumped in. "Wind it down, agent. Looks like we've got everything on our end. Have a copy?"

"I do." Chris zoomed through the process and then killed it.

"Done!" she yelled.

"Get out of there, Cap," Tony called. "We've got it."

Chris tucked away her gear as she stood, going as fast as humanly possible. With it tucked away, she pulled out her Glock 9mm and looked to Bucky.

"You stay with me," he told her and began to lead her out of the room.

Chris did as he instructed, not surprised when they encountered HYDRA men the minute they stepped foot outside. Bodies littered the ground already and Bucky was taking more down with the rifle.

"You out?" Steve yelled.

"Yes," Bucky told him.

"Just head straight for the jet," Steve told him. "We'll be right behind you."

"We hope," Nat breathed into her comm before an explosion lit up the world not far from where they ran.

The explosion had knocked Chris down and for a moment she was dazed, looking around frantically. Bucky held out a hand to her, pulled her off the ground and along with him as he ran. He was a one-man wrecking crew, taking down anyone who came close to them.

Her lungs felt like they were on fire as she moved closer to the jet. By the time it came into sight, Chris was struggling a little to keep up but thought she could make it.

That's when the bullet hit her, in the gut just below her Kevlar vest and out the back, the pain so sharp it caused her to double over.

"Agent!" Bucky yelled.

Chris tried to straighten up, tried to keep walking, but it wasn't working the way she wanted. And it hurt like hell.

The world spun around her then as she was scooped up, Bucky carrying her the rest of the way and up into the jet.

Bucky tossed her onto one of the seats. "Put pressure on that," he yelled with one eye on the monitors.

He'd been about to go back down to ensure none of them made it up into the jet when he spotted Steve running full-throttle at the jet, taking HYDRA's soldiers down as he went. What he missed Sam swooped down to finish. Then he saw Nat and Clint, running together in their direction. Clint had been shot in the leg from the looks of his limp.

Bucky moved back to her, taking a knee in front of her.

"Hey," Chris tried to ward him off as he attacked the front of her vest to pull it off, but he was focused on his task.

Pulling it off in seconds, he was pulling up her shirt to inspect the wound, both front and the exit wound. From under the seat, he pulled out a first aid kit, scrambling for sterile gauze and using it to keep pressure on the front of the wound. His emotions were tightly held, just a little concern bleeding out.

How was he doing that? She had never run across someone with that sort of iron control over their feelings.

"Steve!" he yelled the moment the other super-soldier's heavy footprints could be heard clamoring up into the jet.

The captain's eyes scanned the interior of the jet until his gaze landed on them.

"She's hit," Bucky told him.

Dropping his weapons, Steve darted over to them, concern rolling off him in waves. Unlike his former assassin best friend, Steve Rogers' emotions were strong. It was hard to ignore them.

Pulling back the gauze he used, Bucky showed him the wound. "Clean entry in the back," he explained.

It hurt like hell, particularly when the captain grabbed more gauze, held it to the wound at her back.

Sam surveyed the scene when he climbed on, walking over. "You okay?" Sam asked as Chris tried to hold still for the soldiers who were trying to cut off the bleeding.

"She's fading," Sam told them a second before she recognized it herself.

By the time Nat made it on board with Clint, Chris didn't know how much longer she could stay awake.

Reaching out, her hand landed on Bucky's. "Just in case," she whispered, "Everything is in my bag. A copy of the code, the schematics. Everything. Just give it to Mr. Stark, okay?"

The man had gorgeous blue eyes. "You're not dying on us, doll," he said, worry for her seeping out from that control.

"No, but if I black out, I don't know when I'll be awake next. He needs all that, yeah?" Chris told him. "Make sure he gets them."

Her gaze moved to Steve Rogers, he nodded still applying pressure to her back.

"You're going to be okay," he said, and that's when she felt it again. Admiration.

What did someone like her do to earn admiration from Captain America?

And then it was dark.

"Buck?"

Bucky turned at the sound of Steve's voice in the doorway. It almost 3 AM.

"How's she doing?" Steve asked, walking into the room in medical where Bucky sat at her bedside.

"Doc said she'd be okay," he told him. "Blood loss wasn't too bad."

Folding his arms across his chest, Steve watched her sleeping.

"You did a good job today, Buck," Steve told him.

Bucky snorted. "She got shot."

"It could have been worse."

"Don't blow smoke up my ass."

He didn't miss the way Steve's cheeks darkened. "You know what I mean. It was a dangerous mission."

Yeah, he was blaming himself for her getting shot. He had one job, to keep her safe and it didn't go so well.

And to make matters worse, she'd been so calm about it all. She hadn't blamed him for anything, just had taken it in stride, telling him to make sure Tony got everything from her bag and he got that done.

"She's going to be okay," Steve told him. "If you hadn't been there, it might have been much worse."

Why did Steve do that? Bucky didn't want false praise or for his friend to go out of his way to appreciate him for doing his damned job. Locking his jaw, fought to keep quiet, not wanting to lose his temper.

"You going to stay here a while?" Steve asked.

Bucky nodded, looking Steve in the eyes.

Steve looked about to say something, then seemed to think better of it and turned back for the door. "Night."

Bucky sat in the darkened room next to the recovering agent, shaking his head.

Steve Rogers had nearly torn the Avengers irrevocably apart for him. After chasing him for two years and fighting his own team and the law for him for another, Bucky admittedly had some high hopes for joining the Avengers. Steve saved him, still wanted him in his life and more than proved it.

And now here he was and…

Nothing.

Sure, they did the best friend thing. They did the best friends on the battlefield thing. They hung out, sparred, watched games, visited children's hospitals. They went to Tony's boring fucking charity events where he got to watch Steve flirting with Sharon Carter when she found an excuse to fly in. They'd even leave the parties together sometimes and then…

Nothing.

Hell, he'd feel better if Steve fucked Sharon Carter. Fucked anyone for that matter. Considering what they did every day, the danger they faced, he would have thought that Steve wanted the release, to blow off steam. He never did.

Bucky hooked up as they called it these days here and there, not usually picky about it being either a man or a woman. If he wanted to share a night with them, he did. It never lasted. In the rare case the other person could get their mind around him being the former Winter Soldier, the time he spent on missions, days and sometimes weeks, would finish the job and end things.

Steve watched people leave his room at odd hours. He never said anything. Worse, Bucky suspected he felt sorry for him and that's why he didn't say anything.

It wasn't like Bucky was desperate for a relationship, just any scrap of affection. He honestly thought if he fucked enough people, Steve would wake up, be jealous – care.

It all felt wrong. Why did Steve save him? Why try to help him remember who he once was?

Bucky had once been a man in love - with Steve Rogers.

And Steve had loved him. Even after he'd rescued him from Azzano, they'd resumed the hidden, precious love they'd had back in Brooklyn tucked away in dark tents and buildings. Bucky knew Steve was also in love with Peggy by the time they found each other. While that had made things difficult in the early days of the Howling Commandos, once Peggy figured it out, she'd been willing to share. A few times Peggy had shared Steve with him in a very literal, personal sense and Bucky remembered those nights with a smile.

Neither of them was strictly gay. Most of the team new Bucky fucked men and women both, no one said anything, not even Steve.

Was Steve worried about what people would think?

Or did he just not want Bucky anymore?

Blowing out an exhale, he shook his head. The way Steve looked at him sometimes, so intense… It was hard to believe Steve didn't want him. So hard.

"Are you okay?"

That raspy voice drew his attention back to the bed, the agent they'd taken with them looking over at him with big gray eyes.

Bucky smiled. "That's my line."

"I'll be okay," she told him, trying to weakly pull herself up.

"Here." Rising from the chair, he gently slid his hands under her arms and helped her to sit up.

Wincing slightly, she straightened the hospital gown she wore around her and blew out an exhale.

"Thanks."

"How do you feel?" Bucky asked her.

"Surprisingly good," she told him, her brow knitting. He watched her ease her hands down her side and over her stomach where she was shot. When she didn't find what she expected, she kept feeling. "I thought…"

"Pretty neat, huh?"

"What's neat?" She asked, reaching around to her back. "Where's my bullet hole? It went straight through."

"Healed," Bucky explained. "Medical here has been working with Wakanda to improve their technology over the last year or so. It's amazing what they can patch up."

"I guess, damn." Her blonde brows rose. "I guess that comes in plenty handy for you guys and the injuries you must sustain."

Bucky nodded. It really did.

"Does it hurt?"

Chris shook her head. "So, if I'm basically healed, how long am I in for?"

"They'll let you out later today," Bucky explained. "Tony called your boss who wants you to sit tight a couple of days until you're better. I gave everything to Tony like you asked."

She nodded, tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Thanks for looking out for me," she said sincerely. "Bucky, right?'

He nodded but kept his mouth shut, getting more irritated by the moment.

"Did I say something wrong?"

That got his attention. Those big gray eyes met his when he looked up.

"No," Bucky told her, accepting her gratitude though he didn't deserve it. "I'm, ah, glad to help, Christine."

"Chris," she told him. "So, can I go running with you guys again before I leave?"

Bucky grinned at that. He'd enjoyed that more than he would have thought he would. He'd certainly enjoyed watching her run.

"Sure. But you'd better get some sleep."

"How about you?"

"I'm fine." Bucky held up his phone, earbuds. "I usually don't sleep a lot anyway unless you just want to get rid of me."

"Stay," she told him, smiling.

And he was grateful. He hated being alone.

Chris, Bucky decided, was beautiful. He'd always had a weakness for a girl with big eyes. It didn't hurt that she was slender and curvy, easy to talk to. And considering she was an FBI agent, she had an idea of what life was like for him.

Maybe.

Judging by the way Steve had flirted with her on their run, he thought his friend might have a thing for her too. Bucky wouldn't allow himself to care about that.

Deciding to watch a movie, Bucky got comfortable in the chair. Chris was asleep within minutes.