In the Still of the Night

A/N: Can…can it be? Have I actually written a new chapter for a fanfiction that I haven't touched in months?! Oh goodness, it's been what, eight months? Yeesh…Well, I would say I'm sorry for not updating, but my life has been too hectic to do anything besides homework, work, and sleep so I'm not too broken up about it. But I'm so glad that some of you stuck with this story and are reading this new chapter anyway!

A big thank you to everyone who has favorite, followed, reviewed, or even just taken the time to read all the chapters of this story. I'm excited for the direction it's going in and hopefully with summer coming up soon I will have more time to write. But no promises!

Happy reading! :)

-PenPaperParadise

Chapter 18: Good Night, Soldier

"Vera? We're here."

Opening her heavy eyelids, Vera woke from her not-so-peaceful slumber in the stolen car and saw where "here" was – it was a pretty white suburban house with a blue roof covering the second story. From what she could see – it was still rather dark outside despite it being almost morning – the house looked empty, with all its heavy curtains drawn on the other side of the large windows and no lights on that Vera could apperceive. The black mailbox stationed just outside the picket-fence gate was unnamed.

She stepped out of the car that Steve had parked in the evenly-paved driveway and Vera looked around. They were in a suburban neighborhood with other cookie-cutter two-story houses up and down the street, nearly each one with a car parked in their driveways so clearly they weren't in the middle of nowhere. It looked like a very normal, peaceful, non-descript place to live.

"Where exactly are we?" Vera whispered to Steve as she followed him through the white gate and up the porch stairs to the door.

Steve put a finger to his lips to signal quiet and he got out keys and unlocked the door. They stepped inside the dark foyer and Steve quickly shut and locked the front door behind them. He turned to her.

"This is a safe house," he explained. "We have a bunch of safe houses across the country that we use from time to time, and this one is on the outskirts of D.C."

"Right..." Vera said as she looked around at the house – surprised at how clean and well-kept it looked for being a superhero squad's safe house.

But just then Vera heard a low sound coming from a faraway room, almost sounding like voices. She looked at Steve and his concerned face showed that he heard it too. Gripping his shield and silently motioning for Vera to stay put, Steve crept down the dark hallway as Vera watched him. He tiptoed into a bigger room which looked like a living room, and suddenly Vera noticed a flickering blue light on Steve's face. He sighed and lowered his shield.

"Clint. What are you doing here?"

Confused, Vera carefully followed Steve into the living room and she came across a man sprawled out on the couch, watching TV in the dark. He was only wearing blue plaid pajama pants and had a band-aid across his nose. He was frowning up at Steve, looking as though he had just been woken up.

"I should ask you the same question, Cap," he answered groggily. "Who's she?"

Steve glanced over at Vera and said to Clint, "She's with me. I'm protecting her from HYDRA, they're trying to kidnap her."

"They're not going to find her here, are they?"

"No. We only need to stay here a day or two until we can figure out a plan."

Clint looked Vera up and down as she said nothing, unsure of what to say to this strange person.

"Hey man," he finally said, "as long as she doesn't bring HYDRA here, I don't care what you guys do."

"Thanks, Clint," Steve said insincerely, and he motioned for Vera to follow him. Vera, still a bit confused about who Clint was and why he was there, obeyed Steve.

He took her upstairs into one of the bedrooms, which was tidy and had a seemingly comfortable bed. And a closet as well, which Steve opened and Vera could see had some clothes hanging in it.

"Natasha always keeps a change of clothes here in case she needs to go incognito," explained Steve. "Feel free to use them if you find anything in your size."

"Okay..." Vera said, eyeing the wardrobe and seeing most of the clothes were leather jackets and tight shirts. Of course.

"I'm going to go downstairs and find us something to eat," Steve continued, speaking like he was giving orders. "You can freshen up if you need to. Bathroom's right down the hall."

Vera just nodded, too tired to ask questions and hear answers. Steve left the room with the door closed as she rifled through all the clothes hanging on the hangers in the closet. Finally, she found what looked like a soft pair of grey pajamas that – thankfully – fit her decently after she tried them on. Then, feeling like she'd been to hell and back, Vera searched for the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water in the sink when she found it. There was a medicine cabinet above the sink, and Vera could not resist her curiosity so she opened it. Inside she found several useful items – a toothbrush, toothpaste, aspirin, deodorant – that were all, conveniently, still sealed in their packaging.

She finished getting ready for bed and headed back to her bedroom. Just as she was pulling back the sheets there was a light knock on her door. She invited Steve in and he stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. Vera went and sat at the edge of the bed as Steve folded his arms.

"Tomorrow we'll try to figure out where to go from here," he explained. He was clearly tired but he somehow felt the need to inform Vera of how their day was going to go after they slept for a few hours. "We'll have to figure out a way to keep you away from HYDRA as long as possible. If HYDRA finds you they will try everything they can to get you to admit the password," Steve explained. "Which means they would…"

"Torture me," Vera finished for him. "I know, you told me that before."

"They wouldn't kill you, though. If you die, then the password dies with you."

"That's cheering."

"So we need to keep you hidden some place until we can figure out a way to get them to stop chasing you."

Vera looked around. "This place isn't protected enough?"

Steve shook his head. "It's meant to be an in-between house. We'll have to keep moving you around every few days anyway just in case they track us down."

Vera exhaled slowly, closing her eyes. "So…we basically just have to wait until we know for sure that HYDRA will leave me alone?"

"I'm afraid so…" said Steve, eyeing her carefully. "They probably know where your house is by now so they'll keep trying to track you until they find you."

"I can't believe this…" mumbled Vera, running a hand over the top of her head. "One minute I'm at home, tossing and turning in bed, and the next I don't even have a safe place to live."

"Vera –"

"Do you think they've been to my house? Ransacked it, looking for answers?"

"I don't –"

"And if they find out where we're hiding –"

Steve knelt down in front of Vera, gently holding onto her upper arms. "They're not going to hurt you," he said with conviction. "I promise you, they won't. If they find us I will do everything I can to stop them from getting to you."

"You say that," Vera scoffed, "but you don't know –"

"I will protect you," said Steve, "because I love you, Vera."

She stared down at him with wide eyes. She felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her and while her mind was racing a mile a minute, she could think of no words to say to him.

"You…" she stuttered, "I…oh, Steve…"

He moved in closer to her slightly. "I do love you, Vera. I…" he laughed softly, "I guess I didn't realize it until just now, but…I know that I would die to protect you."

There was a small part of her that wanted to resist believing that Steve was saying those words to her because they had just been reunited that day after a pretty heavy fight. But none of that seemed to matter as she felt her spirit start to soar knowing that Steve was in love with her. Vera still remained silent, at a loss for words, but when Steve gave her a hopeful little look she felt she had to say something.

"I don't want to say something I don't mean," she said, choosing her words very carefully. "I haven't really thought about loving you…I mean, I know how much I care about you, but…"

"I'm not expecting an 'I love you back' right away. I just…I felt like I needed to say it."

"And I'm so glad you did," said Vera with a genuine smile. "I just…if I'm going to be perfectly honest…I haven't been in love since…"

As her sentence trailed off Steve knew who she was talking about.

"I know," he replied gently. "He was your first love, your fiancé…I'm not expecting you to know if you're in love again."

Vera looked straight into his eyes. "But I want to love you. I really, truly, desperately want to love you, Steve."

Steve was touched beyond words by what she said, so rather than say something he leaned up to kiss her. He put both of his hands on either side of her face as she melted into the kiss, returning it with equal fervor. She grasped onto his shoulders and gently pulled him up closer to her, further and further up until she was lying back on the bed and he was hovering over her. He began kissing her neck as she wrapped her arms around his neck, sighing a breathy sigh of contentment.

Any uncertainty or awkwardness because of their week apart now disappeared and the two became lost in each other. Steve's hands roamed the skin of Vera's hips underneath her pajama shirt and she shivered at his touch. She kissed his jaw and gripped at the bottom rim of his t-shirt, urging him to let her take it off. He relented and leaned up a bit to let her pull his shirt over his head and she cast it on the floor. Admiring the smooth, taut muscles of his upper body, Vera could not resist running her hands over his skin. He grinned a little at her unabashed awe but she knowingly wiped away his smile when she pulled his head back down to kiss him. Wanting to level the playing field a bit, Steve urged Vera's shirt off of her which left her only in her pale pink bra and grey pajama bottoms.

It wasn't until Vera began playing with the rim of Steve's pajama pants that alarm bells started going off in the back of Steve's mind. They had never "crossed the line," so to speak, and though they both knew they wanted to wait until they were ready, Steve did not think that this moment was it. Plus there was another reason he wanted to wait with her that he didn't think she knew about…

"Vera – " he said amidst her kisses. "Honey, are we sure we want to do this right now?"

Panting a bit, Vera looked at him questioningly. "Don't you want to?"

"Oh, I do," he replied quickly, not wanting to hurt her feelings, "I want to, eventually…I just don't think right now is the right moment."

"Oh…" she responded, looking disappointed. She lightly motioned for Steve to move and she sat up.

"It's nothing personal," said Steve as he sat up next to her. He lightly grasped her hand. "I just…I don't know…I just want our first time to be special, that's all. Not some heat-of-the-moment thing."

"But I want you now," she protested. "Screw heat-of-the-moment, I think the timing doesn't matter so much."

"Well…" Steve swallowed. "What if timing wasn't the only thing that mattered?"

Vera cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Okay, well…the thing is…I don't know if you've ever really thought about this before, but…I'm actually not sure to what extent the, uh…the serum works on, um, me."

"The super-soldier serum?"

"Uh-huh. I mean, I know it enhances my strength and muscles, but, uh…"

Vera's mouth formed a little "oh" of understanding. "You think that the serum might affect…"

"…Yeah," he answered sheepishly. "And, to be honest, Vera, I wouldn't care that much if I didn't think there was a possibility of hurting you..."

"Hurting me? Oh…because if your strength is enhanced, then…"

"Yeah."

Vera sighed, but looked up at Steve with a little smile. "I appreciate you looking out for my safety, I really do. But…not to sound too crass, but…" she grinned a little, "…won't you not know until you try?"

Steve snickered. "True, but maybe tonight's not the night."

Vera sighed and leaned back on her palms. "There's no arguing with you, is there?"

"'Fraid not."

"Well, in that case…I think we should just go to bed."

Steve suddenly realized how tired he felt, so he thought that was a good idea too. He gave her a sweet smile as he leaned in and kissed her. "Good night, Vera."

"Wait."

Steve had started to get up but Vera reached out for his arm. "Do you wanna…sleep here tonight?"

Steve's mouth dropped open a bit at her request. He looked at the bed and then looked back at her. "Here? In this bed? Tonight?"

"Why not?" Vera shrugged. "We wouldn't, you know, do anything besides sleep next to each other."

Steve felt a little apprehensive at the thought…but then smiled when he imagined listening to her light breathing as she drifted off to sleep and waking up with her head on his chest. "I'd love to."

With their "sleepover" decided, the two of them took a few minutes to brush their teeth and such and then they finally settled into bed. When Vera nestled into his side and threw her arm casually across his torso, Steve finally felt, for once, a feeling of peace that he had longed for ever since the night when he had thought he had lost the best thing that has happened to him in years.