Catching her breath, she took up the stance he'd shown her again. He'd finally gotten her to start doing some offence.
She learned at an astonishing rate, hitting harder every round. He was surprised a couple of times every hour.
Holding back, he blocked her as she launched her attack. She came at him every so often with what seemed to be all of what she was feeling, leaving nothing behind.
By 6:30 am she managed to break his defences for the first time, and landed a blow square on his jaw, knocking his head to the side. He was surprised again by how hard she hit him. That easily had more force than some of the strongest men he'd fought.
Her hands came up to cover her mouth, and her eyebrows shot into her hair.
"I'm sorry!" she gasped as she stretched out her hands, unsure of what to do.
Steve grinned, rubbing his jaw. "That's quite a right hook you got there."
"I hurt you, I'm sorry." She was feeling terrible for having hit him.
"Don't be." He smiled, taking a step closer. "If anyone comes at you, you hit 'em like that or harder if you can."
She looked down at her feet.
"Thank you, Steve." She said.
"For letting you hit me in the face?" he teased.
"For making it better." She said earnestly.
The corner of her mouth began to twitch and then she smiled: "And for letting me hit you in the face."
"Do you want to talk about what happened?" He risked asking.
Her face grew dark again, and he regretted it instantly.
"I remembered." She said, not offering any more than that.
"Come on," he said after a pause, "let's go get some breakfast, I'm starving."
Natasha was waiting in Steve's apartment. She listened as he took his leave of Jane at her door.
"Isn't it a little early to be this tired?" She jested as he walked in.
"She remembered something last night. I'd only been asleep an hour or so when she nearly banged down the door." He was annoyed with her.
"Did she tell you anything?" asked Natasha, unphased.
"No, she didn't, but whatever it was must have been pretty awful." He replied.
"At least we know it works." She said, trying to make light of the situation.
"Congratulations." He was in no mood. He left her standing in the kitchen as he disappeared into his room for a shower.
By 9:30 am Steve and Jane walked into the Design Institute. She was scheduled to see the psychologist for her psych evaluation.
Nat and Sam had gone to meet a contact.
Shuri introduced them to Dr Leloka, a tall, slender woman with a kind face.
Jane went with her down the hall to the room she usually had her sessions in with Hendrik.
The Dr opened her notepad, crossed her legs and sat back in her chair looking Jane over.
"How are you?" She asked after a dramatic pause.
"I am fine. How are you?" Replied Jane.
"How are you really?"
Jane pondered the question for a second before repeating. "I am fine."
"You don't look fine."
"How do I look?"
"You look like a woman who hasn't slept and who's been crying."
"I had a bad dream."
"It was more than just bad, wasn't it."
Jane didn't answer.
"Can you remember your dream?"
"Yes," said Jane, offering nothing more.
"Would you please tell me about it?"
"No." Replied Jane.
"Are you sad that your lessons with Dr Schnell are done for the year?" The Dr changed tack.
"I am not sad. I miss learning." Jane said flatly.
"Do you not miss your friend, Dr Shcnell?"
"I am still angry at him for making me go to Nakia's party with him."
The Dr raised her eyebrows slightly. "You didn't want to go with him?"
"No."
"Who did you want to go with?"
Jane's eyes dropped to her lap, and she considered whether or not to tell this woman who she really wanted to go with. She couldn't find any harm in her knowing, and part of her hoped this information would somehow reach Steve.
"I wanted to go with Steve."
The hour flew, and before she knew it, she emerged from the study room with Dr Leloka. Her head was hurting from all the questions, and she wondered where Steve was.
As they reached the spiral ramp into Shuri's lab the Dr told more than asked:
"Why don't you wait for us here, we won't be long," before she continued down the spiral ramp on her own.
Shuri was so excited to hear what the Dr had to say; she'd been chewing Steve's ear off about it.
"So? How did it go?" she beamed.
The Dr's face dropped. "She is fascinating, and I have never spoken to anyone quite like her. She's remembered something, but she would not tell me anything about it."
Shuri looked like she was going to explode. "Why wouldn't she tell you?"
"I don't think that what she remembered was entirely pleasant, it seems to have upset her very much, she's very guarded." Her eyes glanced at Steve, who was listening intently while looking at the floor.
"I am willing to wager, that the only person she will confide in would be you, Captain Rogers."
That drew Steve's gaze, but he said nothing.
"She seems to be very attached to you."
"I've been here since she woke up. She'd probably just as soon tell Shuri; she's spent the most time with her." He rationalised.
The Dr smiled a knowing smile.
"Other than the fact that she's repressing and refusing to share what she has remembered, and given the fact that she is not a normal case, it is my opinion that she's a young woman who feels lost, alone and like an outsider. I am glad that she has you, Steve, it seems to be the only thing holding her together. I am also glad for the therapy animal, whoever thought of that has impressed me."
"Therapy animal?" asked Steve.
"No no," said Shuri waving her hand. "That's just a stray that followed her home."
"Regardless, it has helped her cope, better than you or I can." She said to Shuri. "I seriously doubt that she holds any threat."
Shuri seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Your time would be better spent trying to get through to her. She has repressed her memories because of some psychological trauma; they are there, she just needs to be willing to dive in and get them."
The Dr greeted them at the doors to the Design Institute. They watched as the car drove out of the courtyard before Shuri turned to Steve.
"You knew she'd remembered that whole time and you didn't tell me?" She belted him.
"I know as much as you do." Said Steve. "You would've spent that time speculating, which would've been a waste of time."
Shuri's nostrils flared.
Jane cleared her throat to remind them she was there. Shuri spun around at the sound and composed herself, before putting her hands on Janes' arms.
"Do you want to get a cup of coffee and talk about what you remembered?" she asked.
Jane looked her in the eye, wishing she wouldn't ask, before looking down and shaking her head. "No."
"Jane," she started again.
"Don't push it." Interjected Steve.
"Fine," she turned and spat at him, "can you at least tell me if there was anything unusual that happened that may have caused her memory to surface."
Steve said nothing, folding his arms across his chest.
"I had some wine." Came Jane's voice. "I remembered something insignificant after the wine, and then I drank the Whiskey, but nothing happened, it was only when I went to sleep that it..." She trailed off.
Shuri's eyes were sparkling. "Alcohol." She mouthed, her mind running in several directions, almost forgetting that she had company.
Steve would have preferred it if no one other than himself, Nat and Sam knew what had triggered Jane's memory, or as Dr Leloka put it, broken down her repression. He trusted the Wakandans, but he had an uneasy feeling in his gut about it.
"We should be going," said Steve, as he took the first step down the stairs.
Shuri snapped out of her flight of fancy.
"Before you go, Jane should probably not show up with you at the party; we don't know who may be watching." She said. "Hendrik has offered to accompany her."
Steve found it hard to hide his irritation. "That's one way of putting it."
"I told him not to take no for an answer." She said. "We have to be careful."
She turned to Jane. "Which reminds me, you don't have anything to wear to a black-tie event."
Jane raised her eyebrows. "Black tie?"
"We can get lunch in the city."
She spoke to someone via her bracelet, and five minutes later, a jet landed in the courtyard.
"I'll drop her off at the apartment when we're done." She said to Steve, who watched as Shuri practically dragged Jane into the jet.
"Stop fidgeting," Natasha's husky voice reprimanded him. She was pulling at the jacket he'd just put on. Sam was next to him, in front of his own mirror, trying on something more traditionally Wakandan.
"This is much more comfortable than a suit." He grinned at himself in the mirror, pulling at the collar.
Natasha tied the bow tie around Steve's neck and stepped back so he could take a look at the whole picture.
"I'm not sure I can pull this off." He said, tugging nervously at the bow tie.
"You should try one of these," quipped sam.
"I definitely can't pull that off," chuckled Steve.
Natasha pulled the bowtie out from under his collar and tied a slim black tie around his neck before she stepped back.
"How about that?" She asked.
"That's better," he said. "Where's the waistcoat?"
"Lucky for you," she smiled, "they're back in fashion." She showed him the suits' accompanying waistcoat draped over her arm.
"Okay," he muttered to himself, inspecting his reflection nervously.
"Now, are we done here? I'd like to go and meet Jane and Shuri." She said.
"Yeah," nodded Steve, looking over at Sam, still turning in front of the mirror, admiring his outfit.
"This one does nothing for me." Said Shuri flatly as Jane came out of the fitting room in the 5th dress she'd tried on.
Nat came walking in with three dresses over her arm, she gave Jane one look and said "not that one," before she disappeared into the fitting room with her picks.
Jane sighed at Shuri and turned to go and try on the next one.
"You hate me now, but you're going to thank me tomorrow night." She laughed, a little tipsy on champagne.
"Are you not getting a dress?" asked Jane as she undressed behind the curtain.
"My dear, I had my dress ready weeks ago. This is not the sort of thing I like to leave to the last minute."
Jane walked out of the fitting room, and Nat was already in front of the large mirror, running her hands down her front over the silver dress that seemed to be made for her. Jane stopped in her tracks.
"You look beautiful."
Nat smiled over her shoulder and then turned around when she saw Jane's dress.
"That's the one." She grinned.
Shuri let her turn around before she agreed. "Yes, I believe you are right."
Jane stepped in front of the mirror next to Nat and inspected herself. She liked this one. It was comfortable.
Steve walked out of the elevator with Dog. They'd been out for a walk. He was worried and wondering what was taking so long with the girls. He'd tried to call Jane, but her phone was off, and she'd never set up her mailbox. He hadn't seen her with it at all since he'd been back and wondered what she'd done with it.
Him, Dog and Sam sat on the couch in his apartment after Sam called Nat on Steve's insistence and checked that they were still okay before they ordered in and watched mostly news.
'Reporting live from what has been called, the 'Umsuka' site, excavations have continued over the past week, and although we have been unable to confirm, there appears to be much more to the site than previously thought.'
The reporter's voice carried through the apartment as images of the site where they found Jane played on the TV. The box was still there. No one had been able to move it.
Sam watched the scenes on the TV with a frown. "We should probably get there before they find something, you know, bad," he worried.
"She's not ready," said Steve.
"She may never be. Time's a-tickin' my friend," replied Sam.
It was just after 19:30 when Steve heard the elevator doors open down the hall and Jane and Nat's laughter bubble out. Relief washed over him. He listened as their chatter grew louder and it moved into Jane's apartment across the hall. After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door, and Natasha walked in with Jane on her heels.
"There you are," she said to Steve and Sam.
"'Bout time, we were just thinking of sending out a search party," teased Sam.
Jane's eyes fell on Steve who got up as they walked in, putting his hands in his pockets. Dog leapt off the couch, and Jane caught him in her arms as she crouched to meet him.
Natasha shot Steve a glance. "Come on Wilson; I could do with an early night."
Sam read her look and he understood that she wanted to give Steve and Jane some space.
"Don't need to ask me twice." He said, stretching as he got up off the couch.
"Goodnight!" They called as they left Steve's apartment.
Jane felt awkward about staying when they left, unsure if Steve also wanted his privacy after last night. She didn't want to leave though; she was afraid to be alone, and to fall asleep.
They both decided to speak at the same moment.
"I should probably..." said Jane, motioning to the door.
"D'you wanna see what movie's on?" asked Steve.
She smiled. He frowned.
"Yes," she said, feeling a blush creep onto her cheeks.
He seemed to relax a bit, and she walked over and sat down on the couch next to him. Dog took his place next to Jane, circling the same spot a few times before plonking himself down.
There were a lot more options regarding movies here, and Steve asked her what she wanted to watch. He ran her through short synopses of the ones he'd seen until they came to The Wizard of Oz.
"Let's watch that one." She said, feeling excited.
Steve smiled to himself as he remembered going to the cinema on a double date with Bucky to see it when it first came out in 1939. The night had been a disaster for him, with his date leaving right after dinner before the movie started and he was left being the third wheel, again.
He moved back on the couch and looked at her from the corner of his eye. She caught his glance and smiled shyly at him before they got sucked into the story.
Steve woke up as Dorothy opened her eyes in Kansas, muttering 'there's no place like home'. He was very comfortable and at first unsure what had woken him. He realised with a wave of heat that Jane was asleep on his chest, her arm hanging limply around his waist. As his heart raced, he worked to keep his breathing steady so that he wouldn't disturb her.
As the last of the credits rolled, she stirred. She slowly opened her eyes registering where she was and pushed herself up, scared she may have overstepped.
He felt disappointment pool in his stomach at her quick retreat. He sat up, reaching for the remote on the coffee table and switched off the TV.
"Come on, time for bed," he said as he got up.
She wanted to stay, but she didn't want to overstay her welcome. So she forced herself to master the fear in the pit of her stomach and followed him to the door.
"Are you going to be okay?" He asked as he opened her door for her.
She paused for a second, swallowing before she nodded, "yes."
He didn't quite believe her, but he was careful not to be too forward.
"Goodnight, Jane," he said as he closed the door behind him.