Chris stretched when her alarm went off Monday morning, reaching for her phone to silence it. Scanning her phone before she got up, she wasn't surprised to see texts from both Steve and Bucky.

SR: Good morning, beautiful. Hope you slept okay. I can't wait to see you.

BB: I don't sleep as well without both of you. Can't we talk about this?

Both were sent just after midnight. But there were more…

BB: Are you awake? I know you and Steve think we need to maintain appearances, at least for a while. But why do we care? I miss you. Get your ass back over here.

That was just after 3 AM.

BB: Are you running with us? At least I'll get to see you in a couple of hours. Still. Not. Happy.

The last text was just after 4 AM and Chris smiled.

Steve thought it would be prudent for them not to go out of their way to let the others know of their unique relationship and Chris agreed with him since a steady relationship with one guy had been a challenger for her so far. Bucky wasn't so easily swayed, having enjoyed getting to spend the weekend with the two of them. While they were discussing keeping things under the table, he was plotting how to ask Tony to remodel their rooms for the three of them.

Chris sighed, jumping into the shower, and getting ready for her run. She rode down in the elevator with Sam and followed him down to the trail.

"Hey, how was your weekend?" Sam's smile was amazing at such an indecent hour on a Monday morning.

Chris nodded, stretching. "I'm okay." She was sore in certain places, but he didn't need to know that. "How are you?"

"Good, good. You want to go running with me?" Sam asked.

"Sure," she told him. "As long as you don't mind that I'm not exactly a morning person."

Sam shook his head. "Another one, huh? Hopefully, you're not as bad as Bucky. He's a grumpy asshole this morning."

Chris snorted at that before she caught herself.

"He is," Sam laughed as they started out.

They'd maybe made it a quarter of a mile when the fog rolled in and Chris was disappointed because the view was pretty spectacular the last time she'd run. At least they had the path to follow. The fog was dense.

The sound of heavy footfalls came up behind them along what a voice that was most definitely Steve's.

"On your left," Steve said as he and Bucky raced past them.

"Come on, man!" Sam yelled back.

Bucky had stopped, waiting for Sam and Chris to catch up.

"Hey, doll," Bucky said giving her a heart-melting grin.

"Oh, uh-uh," Sam waved him off as Bucky fell in with their slower pace. "You go on and catch up with him. Chris already agreed to go runnin' with me."

"Is that so?" Bucky moved behind Sam to the other side of Chris.

"That's so," Chris said to him with a wink.

Bucky shook his head, looking like he hadn't had a moment's sleep. Still, his beautiful blue eyes were lit with happiness as he kept pace with her.

"Fine," he conceded. "Will you work out with me later?"

Chris acted like she was thinking about it.

"Okay, yes," she said with faux resignation.

Happy now, Bucky winked at her before speeding up, she assumed to catch up with Steve.

"On your left!"

Sam yelled in fright as Steve sped by at an incredible speed, leaving Chris laughing behind him.

"Asshole!" Sam yelled. "You can work out with him. But Steve? I wouldn't do it."

Chris grinned. "Why?"

"Oh, he'll kill your ass," Sam explained. "Especially his upper body workout. The first time I did it, couldn't move my damn arms for three days."

Chris laughed. "I'll take that under advisement."

After their run, Sam went in search of coffee which Chris detested so she decided to find something to eat before working out. She'd grabbed a small container of eggs and bacon, putting it away with alarming speed for her. She washed everything down with juice and decided to head for the gym in search of her fellas.

"Hey, Chris," Tony called to her looking as if he were just getting started and she waved.

"Hey," Nat caught up to her, dressed for a workout. "How are you?"

Chris was a little uneasy about Nat knowing their situation, but she decided she'd give getting to know the renowned spy a try.

"It's Monday," Chris said. "I'm here. How are you?"

"Long weekend?" Nat asked with a slightly raised brow.

Chris stopped in the hallway. "Can you not do… that? I know you know but…."

The eyebrow raised into a full question mark. "I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable," Nat explained. "Does it bother you that I know?"

"Kind of," Chris admitted. "It bothers me more that you think I'd hurt them."

Nat's smile was kind. "I like your honesty. I'm a very blunt person at times, I'm going to apologize for that in advance. If you promise me you won't hurt either of them, then think of me as someone you can talk to about things. A friend."

Chris nodded, starting heading for the gym again. "Well, I've got to ask something then."

Nat's smile widened. Of course the gorgeous spy already knew what she was going to ask.

"Have you been in my situation before?" Chris asked since no one else was around.

"I have," Nat told her. "But for a long-term mission. Not in real life."

Chris didn't try to read people. Hadn't for a long time. But in the time she'd spent with her boys, yeah, she was getting reacquainted with it. She wasn't trying to read Nat, but she was getting strong emotions from her thoughts.

Regret. Pain.

"You fell in love," Chris said out loud.

Nat stopped, her gaze searching Chris' face. "You're learning to be an empath again?"

Chris shrugged. "Something like that. Was I right?"

Nat nodded. "I messed up. Any time my emotions get involved? Yeah."

"I'm sorry." Chris meant it. "There's been… no one? I mean, I remember a time in the tabloids that…"

"Me and Steve?" Nat laughed. "I remember. That was bullshit."

Reading the emotions coming off the spy told Chris she was telling the truth. Chris didn't like the sense of relief that thought produced. It was a bit early for jealousy, wasn't it?

"There's been… someones," Nat said carefully. "It just can't work."

"Are you sure about that?"

Nat chuckled. "Pretty sure. Why?"

"I'm terrible at relationships," Chris told her. "Some people don't take no for an answer very well. Things can change. Just sayin'."

Nat grinned at her and there was some… secret behind that smile. There was someone. Someone she loved. But it didn't work out? Why? Oh, Chris would be paying attention. Especially when she could sense Nat was waiting on someone. Hoping to see them.

"Want to start training?" Nat offered.

"Sure, 'til Bucky gets here," Chris mentioned.

And just like that, Nat came at her. Chris dodged, scrambled, tried to hit back. She got in one blow before Nat grabbed her by the arm, twisted and flipped her wildly to the mat.

"You're not bad," Nat told her with something that sounded like surprise as she helped her up.

Chris was already sore from a weekend of sex with two super soldiers. Even if she hadn't been, there wasn't a lot she'd be able to do with the infamous Black Widow. Chris steadied herself, determined she'd try harder this time.

Nat came at her again, Chris dodged one blow, swung out to try and kick one of the spy's legs out from under her. The redhead blocked her easily, grabbing her by her hair and hauled her up.

She felt the distraction rather than saw it. Whoever Nat was looking for came in, Chris felt her emotions shift. With a sharp elbow, Chris caught her open ribs hard and Nat let her go with a cry.

"Good job, doll," Bucky praised her.

"Ow," Nat rubbed her ribs, shaking her head.

Chris felt her stomach drop when she realized that Bucky had entered the room. Nat loved him?

No, her attention was elsewhere. Just outside the door, she saw the shirtsleeve of someone standing there talking to Tony. It wasn't Tony…

"You teach her that move, Barnes?" Nat asked.

"Nah, today will be my first time working out with her," Bucky explained.

That was when the person outside the door stepped up to peek inside.

Bruce Banner.

Chris couldn't help the stupid grin she knew was on her face. Nat shook her head at her.

"You think you've got it figured out now?" Nat asked her.

"I know I do," Chris assured her.

Bucky looked curious but not too concerned.

He and Natasha worked on training with her for the next hour. Bucky gave her pointers and so did Nat. By the end of that hour, Chris was tired and having her ass handed to her repeatedly.

"That's enough," Steve's voice cut Nat off from approaching Chris for another circuit. "Chris, you okay?"

She didn't like the smug little grin he was trying to hide.

"I'm fine," she told him even though she was pretty sure they would get to see her limp out of the gym.

"Why don't you hit the showers and go get started with Tony?" Steve said in his Captain's voice.

Chris nodded, turning back to wink at Bucky before doing just that.

Within an hour, she was showered, dressed in business casual as she normally did for the bureau and reporting for duty.

Tony let her get acquainted with her new office for a few moments while he met with Nick Fury. It gave her time to check her phone.

BB: Your ass looked amazing in those shorts.

Chris: I'm sure you got a good look at it. Nat handed it to me several times.

BB: Doll baby, you'll get better.

Chris: Hope so.

BB: Can you sleep over tonight?

Chris: Just started my job. Not doing this now.

BB: PLEASE? :(

"This work for you?" Tony asked as he breezed in.

"It's much nicer than the one I had," Chris admitted.

"Told you," Tony looked delighted. "Now, let's go over a few things."

A glance at her phone showed her it was only 8:45 AM. It was going to be a long day.

By the time evening rolled around, Chris was working in a lab, getting acquainted with everything Tony had asked her to. She was looking over the specs of Tony's Bleeding Edge armor.

"Pretty impressive, huh?"

Chris found Dr. Bruce Banner standing behind her, glancing at the virtual screen.

"It is," Chris told him. "The thrusters on that thing you could probably use in space."

"Oh, he made sure," Bruce explained. "You remember the battle of New York?"

Chris nodded. Who didn't?

"He had to get the nuke out of the city," Bruce explained.

"He flew it out into space and used it to destroy the mother craft," Chris finished. "It was amazing."

"Yeah, well, what wasn't so amazing was that the suit died before he could re-enter the atmosphere and he was unconscious when we got him to the ground."

Chris hadn't known that.

"He's been working on those thrusters ever since."

"Wow. I can understand why then," Chris told him. "You must have been terrified."

Bruce nodded. "That's putting it mildly."

Chris felt Nat before she saw her, walking by the door to the office. The spy didn't see either of them as she walked by, but Bruce stopped get a look at her.

"You okay?" Chris asked.

Bruce turned around, glanced at Chris. "Yeah," he said too quickly.

"Nat handed me my ass this morning," Chris said mildly as she continued looking at the suit specs.

"Pardon?"

"Nat handed me my ass training this morning," Chris explained.

Bruce chuckled. "She's a hell of a fighter."

"She's a better woman than me," Chris said easily. "Beautiful too."

Bruce hummed behind her, wandering off as if his mind were elsewhere.

The screen in front of her glitched, vanished.

"Shit," Chris muttered, unable to try to restore it with her hands. Going to the laptop on her desk, she tried to restore it that way, watching a screen of scrambled signals and code flying up the screen.

Chris shook her head.

"You'll have to do better than that, Stark," Chris said as she easily cracked his system, easily stopping the dummy protocol he was using to test her. Once she had the mess cleared, she sent a nice big message to light up his screen.

For a first day at a new job, not half bad.

Steve sat on the other side of Tony's desk, watching all of the code and numbers on the screen he'd opened come to an abrupt halt. Tony grinned, watching as the words 'nice try Stark' materialized in front of her and then dropped like broken mirror pieces.

"Was that hard?" Steve pointed to the screen, knowing little about it aside from the fact that Chris had dealt with his test.

"Kinda," Tony told him. "Just a little test. Not only did she realize that, she killed it so easily. The next test will be harder."

Closing the screen with his hands, Tony turned back to Steve. "Chris will be of great use to me."

"We'll train with her," Steve told him.

"That's not as important."

"It is," Steve argued. "If we're training her, she might not realize just how stuck she is here."

Tony's expression said "maybe."

"What did Fury have to report?" Steve asked.

"Nick's helping us keep an eye on certain groups that could come looking for her," Tony explained. "At the moment, there aren't any looming threats to worry about."

Steve nodded. "That's good news."

"We'll keep an eye on things," Tony told him. "That mission at the end of the week looks likely to happen."

Steve had assumed it would. "You're going to have a good reason for her to stay here, right?"

"I will," Tony told him. "The first few missions should be okay. But in time, she's going to start to wonder."

"I know," Steve said. "Hopefully we'll have some time to come up with something plausible."

"Aside from the fact that she's not an official Avenger?"

Steve nodded. "I don't care how, I just want her kept safe."

"We will," Tony assured him, studying Steve hard. "I have to admit, you look… chipper these days. For a man your age."

Steve smirked. "Chipper?"

"Isn't that a term you used? Dapper?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, Tony," Steve's cheeks flushed slightly but his smile remained.

"Things going okay?"

Steve nodded, not wanting to go any further with that conversation.

His relationship with Chris, with Bucky, was private.

Steve left the office knowing Bucky was cleaning in the armory and Chris was in her new office working for Tony. Left to his own devices, Steve left Tony's office and headed for the grocery on the compound. He made it back to his apartment with his bags, he hated waiting for them to stock his kitchen, so he insisted on carrying his own items, and got started on dinner for his lovers. It had been some time since he'd cooked but it came back to him easily enough.

When he had everything in the oven or ready, he sent a text to the two of them.

SR: Dinner at my place tonight. 7 okay?

BB: I'm in.

Chris: I'm starving. Tony didn't give me a lunch break.

SR: I'll take it up with him. You in?

Chris: Of course!

Steve was pulling the lasagna out of the oven as they walked in together. The bread had turned out, he pulled the salad from the fridge. Steve was happy with everything.

"Mmmmm," Chris waited until he'd placed the enormous lasagna down on the table before slipping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. "I love Italian. This is awesome!"

"Oh honey, you baked," Bucky teased him. But the dish was one of Bucky's favorite, so Steve just let it go for now.

When they all sat enjoying dinner, Steve felt happy. Chris was telling them all about her first day working for Tony. So many terms he and Bucky weren't familiar with but they smiled, nodded, happy that it had gone so well for her.

Then she started talking about Nat and Bruce.

"That was a while ago," Steve said gently. "Bruce came back from Asgard and things just haven't been the same."

"Haven't been the same my ass," Chris said, her face flushed from two glasses of wine. "She was waiting to see him in the gym. It was the reason I got the elbow in. You remember, Bucky? That's when you arrived."

Bucky considered that.

"Then later he walked in while I was looking at the specs for Tony's latest suits and he saw her walk by," Chris continued. "I could feel it…"

"As an empath, you mean?" Steve asked carefully.

"Maybe," Chris told him trying to look put out by the question but unable to hit that note. "It's your fault, both of you, that's back so much."

Steve was curious. "How is that?"

"All I do is feel now," Chris explained. "I used to get lonely. I'd go into the kitchen, get a cookie. I'd watch some sappy romance movie. I was over it. Now I feel so many things."

"Good things?" Bucky's smile was warm.

Steve's heart clenched in his chest to see him so relaxed, so carefree.

Chris' face flushed. "Mostly."

"Only mostly?" Bucky teased.

Chris blew out an exhale. "I'm tipsy. I should probably get back and get a good night's sleep so I can get my ass kicked again tomorrow."

"Or we can sleep here," Bucky grinned at her. "What do you think?"

"I'm so not up for sex tonight," Chris admitted her pink face darkening.

"We don't have to have sex," Bucky said gently. "Just sleep. That's all. I'll set the alarm for 5 minutes before you normally get up, so you can head over to your place to get ready."

Chris looked so tempted.

"We could get in the hot tub for a little while and then go to sleep," Bucky sweetened the deal.

Chris finished her third glass of wine and nodded. "I'm trusting you not to take advantage of me here," she told them both. "Wine doesn't work on you."

"We won't let you down," Steve told her.

Chris rose and stretched, heading for Steve's hot tub. Steve rose from the table, grabbing his plate.

"What are you doing, pal?" Bucky asked him, heading for the sink.

"I'm going to clean up quickly and -"

"I got it, Stevie," Bucky told him with a grin. "Go jump in the tub with our girl. I'll be back there in a few."

Because he could, he walked up to Bucky, stealing a kiss from Bucky that had his heart hammering in his chest.

"She didn't say we couldn't have sex," Steve pointed out.

Bucky winked at him, getting to work at the sink. "She'll fall right to sleep once she hits the bed. Sounds like a plan."

Steve began unbuttoning his shirt as he headed down the hall. Chris already had the water running.

Steve smiled as he reached the huge bathroom. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so happy.