Hey guys, I'm super sorry I haven't updated in a while, things just got away from me! I'll try and get chapters out as regularly as I can since now the story is heading into my own original storyline separate from the movie and I'm pretty excited about that. Anyway, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas & happy holidays to you all!

Jess wasn't at all surprised by how much her mood improved after Steve woke up. Ever since she opened her eyes in the hospital that morning, all she was worried about was if Steve was going to be okay. Even with the reports saying he was recovering at a rapid pace and was getting better every hour, nothing gave her peace of mind like his voice. If she had lost Steve after everything they had done, she would be lost.

However Steve was still having trouble keeping his eyes open, so after their brief conversation letting him know what happened after he fell from the helicarrier, Sam was instructed to take Jess back to her room next door and rest until the next morning when she insisted she would be signing herself out. She may have had multiple injuries, but none of them called for a long stay at a hospital in her opinion.

So the next morning, just as she said, Jess was ready to leave. Sam had done her a favor by going to her apartment and grabbing a few things since she really had nothing to wear but her bloodied, dirty clothes from a few days ago. Jess was surprised at how helpful and good he had been to her. After what he had been dragged into, she was sure he wouldn't want to stick around any longer, but he continued to prove her wrong.

''Maybe if you grabbed it with your other hand,''

Jess turned to glare at Sam standing in front of her watching as she tried to navigate her bulky broken arm into the right sleeve of her jacket.

''It doesn't exactly reach,'' she groaned, her left arm twisting around her back.

It was Sam's laugh that really made her snap, dropping her arm to the side and letting out a frustrated huff.

''Hey, you got out of this whole thing with no broken bones, you don't get to laugh. Don't rub your luckiness in my unlucky face,''

Still chuckling at the sight of her awkward maneuvers, Sam walked over and took the sleeves of her jacket and slid them over her arms, adjusting it over her shoulders. Once it was sitting comfortably on her, Jess sighed in relief and sat down on the edge of her hospital bed to pull on her shoes. She was lucky that her apartment was just as messy as she left it so Sam could just pick any item of clothing off the floor for her.

It definitely felt weird allowing someone she barely knew to go into her home and fish through clothing for her, but Sam was more than willing to help her out. Plus, after everything they'd been through, they all felt a lot closer than they did before.

''Did I have any angry letters from my neighbors stuck to the door?'' she asked, slipping on one shoe.

''Not that I noticed. You get those often?'' Sam asked, folding his arms with a grin as if he was intrigued.

''I basically live on the senior floor of the building, nothing gets by old people,''

A few moments passed until Jess eventually got both her shoes on, refusing to accept Sam's help again. The nurse came in for her to sign the forms she needed to sign herself out and give her advice for if she suffered any headaches or pains later on. Jess was also forced to put on a sling for her arm, a suggestion that was met with refusal but eventual relent. Once that was done, Jess was a free woman. However her first act as not being a hospital patient was to head next door to someone who still was.

Steve was sitting up in his bed looking over the newspaper which had multiple reports on every page about what happened two days ago. Unmasking Our 'Security' was the headline and all the articles still focused on how Shield had betrayed the world.

''How are you feeling?'' Sam asked when they walked in.

''Good,'' Steve nodded, setting the paper down. ''Sore, but alive still,''

''Well how about you just rest instead of reading this garbage,'' Jess frowned at the paper and tossed it over by the metal bin. ''They don't even know what they're talking about,''

''They know everything, that was the point of leaking all of SHIELD online,'' he sighed.

Having the whole world know everything about him wasn't new to Steve considering he was admired by the nation after his death and numerous books were written about his efforts, but SHIELD had information on everyone. Every agent and employees lives were exposed, every mission handed over with in depth details. A majority of the reports were muddled and confusing to those who didn't understand what was going on, but it was all out there for the world to see.

It needed to happen though. It was the only way to expose Hydra from within SHIELD and know who the real enemies were, but Steve had lost his trust in almost everyone apart from a few. And Bucky was still out there somewhere, hiding from whoever was after him. Steve wished he could go and find him right now but to be honest he didn't even know where to start looking.

''What about you?'' he asked, turning to Jess and eyeing her cast. ''Did you get discharged?''

''Signed myself off,'' she smiled proudly. ''Because I'm fine, so don't lecture me,''

''If you were fine they would have discharged you,'' he frowned. ''Have you heard from Natasha?''

''Not today,'' Sam answered. ''She's going through the government system. Got a lot she has to deal with before she gets to the hearing,''

Even though Natasha had done a lot of SHIELD's dirty work by covering up their trail, Steve didn't like that Natasha had to do this on her own. Granted, she had volunteered to do it, but Steve knew it was because of how guilty she felt. They were all betrayed by those at SHIELD who were Hydra and now they all had to pay the price.

''I don't suppose you have any idea-''

''No,'' Jess shook her head, already knowing what he was going to ask. ''I don't where he is Steve, I'm sorry. I'm trying to get in touch with a guy I used to deal with who's got a talent of tracking people down through city surveillance facial recognition but it was a bit hard from a hospital bed,''

Steve nodded and gave her a slight smile. He knew it was unreasonable to want answers on Bucky's whereabouts right away, but he couldn't help feeling anxious. That may not have been the Bucky he remembered, but inside was still his best friend. Hydra had broken him and turned him into a person Steve knew he would hate, but he was determined to get him back. Bucky was out there alone and he couldn't even stand the thought.

It was still hard to believe that the woman beside him was Bucky's granddaughter as well, that he still had family and coincidentally enough she had ended up alongside Steve. They were his family as far as he was concerned and they were going to find him.

''This thing doesn't have wings or anything, right?''

Sam couldn't help the loud boom of laughter that escaped lips when he saw her worried expression. After their visit to Steve, Sam insisted on driving Jess back to her apartment and hadn't realized that her intense fear of flying now extended to a fear of being in the car with him.

''Not that I know of,'' he told her, still laughing.

''Thanks for driving me. And thanks for going to get my stuff this morning,'' she looked over to him as they headed into traffic. ''Actually thanks for everything since...well, since I met you I guess,''

''Don't worry about it,''

''No, not a lot of people would help someone they just met let alone still be around after they almost got you killed,''

''Well, technically you didn't get me into this, I volunteered. Besides you and Steve are two of the few good people still left out of all this, we gotta watch each other's backs,''

Jess smiled at his words, agreeing with the idea of them looking out for one another. Without SHIELD, none of them knew who the good guys were or the bad guys, everyone could be anyone. It was a scary thought to think the people that helped run an organization as big and established as SHIELD were working for Hydra, but there was a lot out there in the world now that just didn't make sense.

They drove in silence for a while as they passed news crews still reporting on what happened at the scene, the destruction in the background that took both Jess and Sam back two days ago to when it all was happening. The were both very lucky getting out of that alive, but there were plenty of people who weren't in their position. Innocent people.

They were both so caught up in their thoughts, neither of them realized they were so close to her building. Jess let out a sigh of relief when the car stopped, the thought of going back to her apartment giving her some comfort. Even through it was only a few days, she had to admit she felt quite homesick.

"You good on your own?" Sam asked, leaning over to look out the window when Jess stepped out.

"Yeah, no reporters bothering me," she nodded. "The beauty of being an unknown,"

"I agree with you on that,"

"Thanks again Sam,"

"No problem. I'll drop by tomorrow morning, but 'til then I'm overdue for doing absolutely nothing,"

Jess chuckled as she closed her door, watching as he drove away. For a moment it felt like everything had returned to normal. She was going back to her apartment after a long day, she was going to call Joe and pick up a shift at the diner later on and maybe fall asleep watching some reality TV only to be woken up by Steve stopping by with a pizza. But that routine wasn't possible anymore.

Fortunately, none of the neighbors were poking their head out their doors when Jess walked up the stairs, fumbling with her keys in her good hand. If the woman next door hadn't have been speaking so loud on her phone, Jess could have sworn they all moved out.

Pushing the door open, the smell of her apartment made her grin as it hit her senses. It was a mixture of the vanilla candle she always had burning and the floral scent of her fabric detergent with an undertone of bad food she probably needed to clean out of her fridge.

"Home sweet home," she sighed, throwing her keys down on the coffee table.

That's when she caught sight of an unknown intruder standing at the counter in her kitchen. Her body jolted in surprise and her back immediately slammed into the wall behind her as she backed away. It only took a couple of seconds for her to identify him as the man she fought at the Triskellion, the one who tried to choke her with a metal wire. The one who had provoked one of her bursts of abnormal strength.

"You…" she gasped, a look of horror on her face as she watched him.

Jess thought he would have went down the with building as it crumbled to the ground in flames, but here he was. Bruised, beat up and clearly in pain, but here nonetheless. When she was brought out of her brief moment of shock, Jess ran to the table she had just thrown her keys on and reached down below to grab the gun strapped underneath, but her fingers froze when she heard the familiar click of the gun in the man's hands.

''Don't do that,'' he ordered, his voice coming out with a slight tremble from pain.

Turning to him with a look of fear in her eyes, Jess slowly stood back up as she watched him carefully.

''Hydra is in ruins, your agents are exposed, why are you here? What do you want from me?'' she asked.

''A conversation, Miss Barnes,''