Amsterdam, Netherlands

Bucky let out a long, breathy sigh as he flopped face first onto the crisply smoothed hotel bed. Lucy followed in stride behind him and slumped into the desk chair. Aside from a pair of duffel bags and a laptop, the room looked as though it had been entirely uninhabited. Lucy echoed his sentiments with a sigh of her own.

"Well that didn't go quite as expected." Lucy commented, rubbing the space between her eyes with her fingers. "Still, it could've been worse." She added with an edge of forced optimism.

All she received in return was a muffled groan from Bucky, whose faced was buried in the comforter. Laboriously he hoisted himself up until he was sitting on the edge of the bed, and tried to stretch his neck. "I guess we were pressing our luck to think HYDRA wouldn't be looking for us. Especially once we started going after them."

Lucy glanced over to see Bucky's eyelids resting closed in exhaustion. She felt fairly tired herself, but Bucky really had done most of the work and it didn't surprise her that even despite his enhanced physicality he was still feeling fatigued. Wordlessly she shuffled her feet to push the rolling chair to where he was sitting. When she placed her hand on his, his eyes immediately shot open and he looked up to see a faint grin on her face.

"Lou you didn't need to do that." He said, not bothering to hide the disapproval in his voice. Ignoring his tone she settled back into the soft embrace of the chair and propped her feet up on the bed in front of her.

"Sure I did." She replied, letting her eyes fall shut.

Bucky simply glared at her. "No, you didn't. I heal just as fast as you do, I was fine."

"Almost." She corrected, feeling the weight of Bucky's fatigue compiled onto her own. "Almost as fast as I do."

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips. If he could count on anything, it was that Lucy was going to be stubborn as ever until the bitter end. "Well then you shouldn't have."

"What, and listen to you sighing and moping around for the next half hour? No thanks." She said with a teasing smirk. Bucky could only shake his head, knowing he never had a chance at winning the argument anyway. He had to admit, it felt nice to have his energy instantly restored, but the cost at which he had received it left a sickening feeling in his stomach. He couldn't shake the feeling that one of these days she was going to be too reckless and kill herself just trying to save someone from a cold.

"I was kind of surprised though." Lucy commented after a moment. Every part of her body felt heavy and exhausted, but she wasn't about to let Bucky know that. "I always thought the Dutch would be more considerate."

Bucky recalled the last several hours with a lack of fondness towards the events that had transpired. When their cut and dry operation to plant a bug on the HYDRA agent they'd been tailing the last few days was cut short by the semi-automatic bearing posse of HYDRA mercenaries, he and Lucy had been forced to retreat to the roof of the speeding train, an activity he already despised for various reasons. The plan had been to simply re-enter in another car until they reached their stop, but their plans had to take a different turn when each time they reached another railcar, the passengers inside refused to let them inside. Some barred their luggage against the windows, some took to shouting at them angrily, while others gave a nearly convincing performance of being entirely oblivious to the whole matter. In the end, the result was the two of them clinging tirelessly to the bottom of the railcars where the now thoroughly alerted HYDRA mercenaries could not find them.

"Our looking like half crazed lunatics probably didn't help things." Bucky replied as he stood. She didn't bother opening her eyes as he stepped carefully over her outstretched legs and headed towards the mini fridge.

"You know, I actually wish I could've seen what we looked like, peering into people's windows like that." Lucy said with a chuckle, envisioning the ridiculous scene in her head. Bucky shook his head with a smile as he retrieved a half empty water bottle from the fridge.

"Hand me that, would you?" She said. He looked over to see her eyes now open and her outstretched arm pointing to the laptop setting on the desk beside him.

"Why?" He asked, not moving from where he stood. He was fairly certain he already knew what she was going to say, but he wanted to hear it from her own lips.

"I need to look up the Amsterdam airport floorplan." She responded plainly, her arms still extended, waiting for him to hand it to her.

Bucky sighed, her response being precisely what he had predicted. "Why do you have to do it now? We just got back and you can't even stand yet, for crying out loud!"

For the sole purpose of proving him wrong she defiantly pushed herself out of her chair and forced her legs to carry her across the carpet to retrieve the laptop and returned to her chair. "His flight still leaves tomorrow, and if we don't finish it now, we might not get another chance." She said as she clicked away in the search bar and hit enter. "We have to have a thorough plan in place so that even if something unexpected happens, like today, that we won't miss our chance."

Bucky placed his hand on the top of her screen, ready to close it if she didn't pay attention to him. Her cells may regenerate fast, but they weren't this fast, and just by looking at her he could tell she was still nowhere near being back at full capacity, even with as much effort as she was putting forth to hide the fact. "You need to rest. He's just one of their workhorses, so what if we don't get him this time around? There are bigger things to worry about."

"You're starting to sound like Simmons." Lucy said coldly. Bucky's countenance shifted momentarily at her remark. Softening her tone she continued, "Who knows what information he's been exposed to, we can't underestimate the importance of anyone until we clear them."

"Then let me worry about it, I'll handle it." As soon as the words had left his mouth he knew it was a mistake, as had Lucy who was now glaring at him.

"While I what, sit here all day while you attempt to infiltrate an international travel hub with a dozen HYDRA agents hot on your trail?" Bucky let his hand drop slowly back to his side, knowing there was no chance of convincing her otherwise. "You know I can't do that. We left S.H.I.E.L.D. for a reason, and I plan on making the most of every opportunity we've got."

Bucky lifted his hands in surrender and turned around. "Fine. Do what you want, I'm not going to stop you." He said exasperated. Lucy watched from over her computer screen as he grabbed his jacket from where he had previously tossed it, and left, the door latching behind him. Pushing it from her mind she focused on her research and began making a plan of attack for the next morning.

Rubbing her eyes that ached from staring at the screen, Lucy glanced to the clock in the bottom right of her screen to find that nearly three and a half hours had passed since Bucky had made his exit. He still hadn't returned and she felt a twinge of remorse for having snapped at him the way she had. Stretching, she clasped the laptop shut and tossed it to the side where it bounced on the bed.

Her energy had for the most part returned, and she was feeling more like her old self again. She glanced at the desk to see Bucky's gloves sitting atop it and she realized he had left without them. With only the muffled sound of the cars on the street outside to fill the silence of the room, she padded across the floor and felt the texture of the gloves in her hands. She stared at them a moment, lost in thought, before she quickly shoved them in her pockets and headed for the doorway.

A few blocks away as her footsteps plodded rhythmically across the paved walkway, Lucy spotted the familiar brown haired figure sitting at a bench facing out over the bay. His hands were shoved deep inside his pockets and she could see the tip of his nose had grown red in the chilly November air, and his cheeks were pink. He, however, didn't seem to mind. Tucking her face under the high collar of her coat, she directed her path towards him.

Wordlessly she took a seat gingerly next to him and set the pair of gloves in his lap. Bucky glanced up at her momentarily, but didn't say anything. "You forgot these in the room." She said quietly, keeping her gaze fixed on the horizon.

They sat in silence several moments watching the fog of their breaths in the air before them until Lucy finally spoke up. "I'm sorry about earlier." She said softly. "I shouldn't have said that."

Bucky shrugged, "You were right, maybe I'm not being focused enough on this. We've only got one shot at taking down HYDRA, we don't have time or opportunities to waste."

Lucy grimaced at his emotionless tone of voice. The distance she could feel between them chilled her more than the brisk air blowing around her face. "I shouldn't have been so rude about it. I wasn't thinking and I just snapped at you. I feel awful." She said looking over at him. His eyes didn't meet hers, and instead he continued looking straight ahead. Bucky wanted to shout back at her how true that statement was, to tell her exactly how utterly irrational she was always being lately, but somehow he found the strength to keep his mouth shut.

After a moment Lucy managed to add, with a weak voice, "I wouldn't blame you if you hated me."

"What?" He asked, taken aback. Finally, he turned to look at her and saw the glossiness in her eyes that he had come to recognize. "Lou, I could never hate you, don't be ridiculous." He said shaking his head. After everything they'd been through, she still thought him hating her was somehow remotely a possibility. For him, nothing could be farther from the truth. He owed so much to her, he didn't see how something like that could anything but out of the question. Suddenly the thought crossed his mind that maybe this meant it wasn't out of the question for her, growing to hate him someday. Perhaps, he wondered, she already had for a period of time. Unsettled by his thoughts, Bucky took a deep breath of the chilled air and let it clear his mind.

"You've always been so patient with me." She replied. "Even when I screw things up and make a fool of myself. Why do you even put up with me?"

Bucky thought a moment, watching the ships pass soundlessly in the harbor. "I had to deal with Steve growing up, remember?" He said with a small smile. "I'm used to being told to screw off, then watching him get into trouble." Lucy let out a small chuckle, and Bucky joined in. His smile fading he continued, "You're a good partner, and you're a good fighter, but more than that you've got the heart. I'd be a fool to give that up." He desperately wished he could say more, but something inside him wouldn't let the words escape his lips. Instead he turned his gaze to his lap, where his gloved hands lay folded.

"So does that mean we're still on for the airport tomorrow?" Lucy asked.

Bucky forced a smile to play across his face and looked up to meet her inquisitive gaze. "Yes, I suppose it does."