"Katya!"

The woman took her boot off of the agent's throat, still holding her gun to him, and turned to face who called her.

"Stay out of this, Winter!" she hissed back.

"You won't get your answers from him!"

"No, I won't," she agreed as the gun clicked, ready to fire at the twitch of her finger, "So, he's useless to me."

Without any other option, Bucky raised his own gun toward her.

"Don't!" he barked out as an order.

"You gonna shoot me, Soldier?!" she sneered, "Then you better not miss this time!"

"Look at him, Katya! He's young and scared! He doesn't know anything!"

"He's SHIELD!" she snarled, "He deserves to die with SHIELD!"

"I don't care! Focus on the real target! Who really needs to pay for what they did? SHIELD or HYDRA?"

Kat could practically feel the crosshairs of his scope zero in on her.

"They're the same! They won't stop! It needs to be over...to be final!"

Bucky slowly stalked forward, closing in on her. Turning to see his movement, she grabbed the shirt of the SHIELD agent and wrenched him up a bit off the ground, holding the gun flushed against his trembling forehead.

"One more step and he'll need washed off the floor!"

"Bucky! Fall back! She'll kill him!" Steve's voice roared over his comlink.

"Sorry, Steve," Bucky sighed, pulling the device from his ear, easily crushing it in his hand, and dropping it onto the cement floor.

"Katya…" he sighed, lowering his weapon, "You don't want him."

She all but growled as she lifted the agent onto his feet by her one armed hold on him and threw him in front of Bucky. He landed harshly on his hands and knees, blood dripping from the gash on his face. Bucky pulled him back up.

"Run," he hissed.

A second later, the man took off as fast as he was still able.

"You saved your rat," she scoffed, aiming her gun forward at Barnes now, "Now get away from me."

"I told you, I didn't come for him. I'm here for you."

"Do your new friends know that? Don't think I don't know they've got this place blocked off and watched."

"No."

"Like I said," she repeated, holstering her gun to her thigh, "You'd better not miss this time."

"I'm not here to shoot you."

"Pity. That's the only way you're going to stop me."

"What's the point of all of this? This won't solve anything!"

"Objective: eliminate remaining SHIELD personnel and intel in the event of the fall of HYDRA."

"SHIELD fell too. It's over."

"Objective: eliminate all-"

"Katya, it's over! There's no mission left! You can't finish this!"

"Ob-...Objective-"

"Kat, look at me," he sighed, stepping forward and placing a hand on the side of her face.

"R-ready to comply…" she stated weakly, staring up at him.

"Mission aborted. Stand down."

"But-..."

"It's over."

"I am required to report back to-"

"Your S.O." he finished, "Since we're the only ones left, looks like that's me again. You'll come with me."

"No!" she shrieked, stepping back away from him as he reached out his hand, "I...I don't wanna die…"

"Katya…"

She continued to back away further.

"Kat, I won't hurt you," he sighed, voice softening to match a tone that she hadn't heard in a long time, "You know that. Come with me."

He kept his hand outstretched for a long moment of silence, as she just seemed to try to read and study his face and body language.

"I can't….I can't go back!"

"We're not going back. We're not ever going back. It's over."

"And you," she breathed out quietly, "You remember it?"

"I remember everything. I remember that you trusted me. I need you to do it again. I've got you."

The familiar words seemed to sink into her very bones, as she felt herself instinctively reaching toward his hand and taking it. He pulled his hand back toward himself, causing her to step forward slowly, closer to him.

"You're hungry," he noticed, "And tired."

"How can I trust you?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "But I promised that I would always take care of you. I never forgot that. Trust that."

The intensity and drive had long since faded from her face. Now, she seemed pale and afraid, clinging onto his hand with both of hers like a child who didn't want to get separated and lost. Bucky listened intently to the surroundings and could faintly hear the engines of a quinjet. It was only a matter of time before Steve would call the op off and go in to get him. They were running out of time.

"We need to go. Now!"

Kat just nodded weakly and looked over his shoulder at one of the warehouse's side entrances. Taking the gesture, Bucky led her quickly that way, still holding her hand for assurance that she wouldn't run. When he kicked the door open, there was a motorcycle waiting for them.

"Good girl."

Clint flew the jet in low enough to get eyes on the exit of the warehouse. They saw the SHIELD agent running out, not hurt enough to merit worrying about too much. As the jet hatch opened, Steve walked to the edge, ready to leap out and diffuse the situation, since he had already loaded up the wounded agents. There were no vehicles nearby and Bucky would be trying to neutralize the threat, or so Steve thought. Before he could jump, the engine of the harley echoed out of the warehouse, followed by the speeding bike itself, with two riders. Even over the roar of the jet and the rumbling of the bike, Bucky could hear Steve call after him as he sped off.

"Bucky!"

"Sorry, Steve," he mumbled, "I made a promise."

The quinjet followed as far as they could, but, if the Winter Soldier wanted to disappear, there wasn't much that could stop him. Steve sat back down on the jet as Clint and Sam both turned back from the pilot and copilot seats to look at him.

"What the hell happened back there?" Sam questioned.

"I...I don't know," Steve admitted, still processing, "It was going fine, but just disconnected his comm and took off."

"I thought he was on our side, Cap," Clint noted, "Something else we should know about."

"I thought so too, Barton. There's gotta be a reason."

"Well, whatever it is," Sam sighed, "It better be a damn good one. We lost 'em."

"Buck, what are you doin'?"

The harley pulled off of the main street and into a more populated area of town, where they could easily lose the jet. When Bucky pulled it off to the side and kicked off the engine, they could no longer hear the jet at all.

"They're gone," Kat noticed, reaffirming Bucky's hopes that they hadn't been followed, "But why'd you do that? You all had me trapped. It was an easy catch."

"They wanted me to stop you. I said I would. I did. I never said I'd let them catch you or take you. No one takes you anywhere you don't wanna go. Not again."

"Didn't you just do that?"

"I didn't make you get on the bike."

"Fair enough," she accepted, climbing off of the seat behind him, "You still drive one of these better than anyone, Winter."

"Bucky," he corrected.

"Bucky? You're serious?"

He just gave her a blank look and waited for her to say more.

"Yeah, okay. Bucky it is," she offered a hand, "Nice to officially meet you, Bucky...I guess."

He climbed off the bike and looked down at her with an almost concerned expression.

"I'm still me, Kat. At least...I think I am. I just have a name now."

"That's gonna take some getting used to. Where are we anyway? Aren't you afraid we stick out a bit? With the leather and that arm of yours."

"We're in Brooklyn," Bucky answered, "There's this diner that's been around forever. I don't think they'd care...too much."

"We went there, didn't we?" she asked, "We went to a diner around here back in the sixties. We were around and you broke protocol to take me here for my birthday."

"Yeah," Bucky smiled a bit, "I did, didn't I."

"I'd never had ice cream before," she smiled at the ground, fondly remembering one of the few good memories she held on to.

"For old times sake?"

Once again, Bucky's gloved hand was offered to her.

"A lot's changed, Winter," she sighed, "We're not the same people."

"Maybe not. Maybe that's for the best…or maybe it's not. Doesn't matter. I made a promise."

"That promise is no good!" she reminded him, "All that promise brought was pain. It was because of that dumb promise that they made me listen to you scream until you couldn't stay conscious anymore, taking a punishment that was supposed to be mine! I don't want any part of that again."

"It was worth it," he stated matter-of-factly, "I'd do it again."

"That's a dumb choice."

"It was my choice then. It's my choice now."

The weight of that idea wasn't lost on her. They didn't have the luxury of choice, and the only choice he made made his life harder. He did it for her. He did everything for her.

"I guess I owe you twenty minutes," she shrugged, taking his offered hand.

He walked her toward the diner. In the dark of the street, she was able to hide the small smile that she couldn't force off of her face.

The diner was small, quiet, and all but empty. Bucky picked the particular booth in the corner, where they had sat the first time they ate there together. Kat slid into the booth across from him, ignoring the odd looks from the waitress who was working the night shift.

"What's this really about, Bucky?"

"I thought you were…"

"Dead? You mentioned that the last time we ran into each other."

"You didn't stick around long enough to talk."

"Self preservation. I had no guarantee you weren't back to finish the job. I don't even have a real guarantee now, except that you'd have probably done it by now. Do you need information from me first or something?"

"I told you," he sighed, "I didn't want to do that. It wasn't my fault, but...I still did it. I'm sorry."

"Apologies don't make bullets go back in the gun. Nothing does."

"Katya, you know me. I wouldn't-"

"I know you?" she laughed, a bit harshly, "The whole time I "knew" you, you didn't even know you! I knew the Winter Soldier and saw glimpses of whatever was left of who you used to be. I don't have any idea who's sitting across from me right now."

"I'm not James Barnes anymore," he stated quietly, "I'm not the Winter Soldier. I'm...something in between...I think. I want to make this right."

"Is that it, then? I'm the only thing in your ledger that you can fix. The only blood you can wipe off your hands."

"Why do you always have to do that?" he hissed.

"Do what?"

"Put words in my mouth. You're not a mistake, Kat. I don't want to fix you, because there's nothing wrong with you! You're the only thing that I don't regret."

"No regrets, huh?"

"Only one. I let them use me to hurt you."

"Other than that?"

"I don't regret another damn second."

She sighed and ordered two coffees when the waitress came around.

"You really do remember then," Kat accepted, "And...it was pretty good, for such a mess. We were. It got harder after a while. Every time we got thawed out, you were less and less the person I knew. There just wasn't much left and I wasn't sure you'd ever really come back."

"But I did."

"So it seems."

She was quiet for a while, as the waitress brought the coffees and gave both of the leather clad assassins an odd look. Kat just took a long sip of coffee and started out the window. Bucky watched her with a gentle expression. Here she was, back at the diner with him, like no time had passed; only, time did pass. Things had changed too much to ever go back to the way they were. His mind wandered back to the days when she would sneak around and break rules, just to see him and know that he was alive and that, for one more day, everything was going to be alright. Now, here she was - his Kat - and she wouldn't even look at him. He watched her in silence as she drank her coffee, deep in thought.

"I missed you."

"That's all you've got?" Kat scoffed in a bitter, ironic humor.

"It's the truth. Did you ever-"

"Miss you? Did I ever miss you?" she cut in, "Did I miss being driven to train until my hands were bloody and broken? Did I miss being held at gunpoint or knife blade when I did something wrong or disobeyed? Did I miss crying in the corner of some cell, because I didn't know if this time they would torture you to death or not?"

"I didn't want any of that for you…"

"Of course not, but that's what happened. That's the part I remember. What we had was awful! It was disturbed and cruel and all kinds of screwed up! Hell, it was downright toxic!"

"But it was ours."

The next things that Kat could remember were the motel door being nearly splintered as it was forced open, the way the mattress knocked the air out of her chest when it hit her back, and the familiar kiss that was so intense that she couldn't breathe until she saw black spots in her vision and pulled away for air. Everything about this was sickeningly familiar to her, but she couldn't find it in her to care. All she cared about was holding on to this very second - holding onto him - and never letting it go. Whoever she'd met at the diner seemed to disappear into the soldier she was used to, as they fell back right into the familiar rhythm as if no time had passed at all. Any thoughts of anger or regret faded away...for then. For now, the only thing that existed to either of them was each other.

The sunlight streaming through the foggy motel window was enough to wake Kat. She groaned at the slight pain behind her eyes as she blinked and adjusted to the light. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, looking around the room. The spot next to her was vacant, which shouldn't have surprised her. She still couldn't help the pang of disappointment and regret.

"Dammit…" she sighed to herself, wrapping the cheap sheets tighter around herself.

She took some comfort in the sound of the shower, when she realized that it was running. It wasn't like him to run out, but she could have done without the fifteen second heart attack of thinking this was the exception. She took the opportunity to quickly gather up her things from where they were scattered all over the room. It took some time to find it all, and she didn't even want to know how her shirt ended up on the ceiling fan. When she was dressed and had all of her gear strapped back on, she took a look at herself in the filthy mirror the room offered. Her hair was a disaster, whatever makeup she'd worn yesterday now slightly resembled Winter Soldier's war paint, and there was no hiding all of the red marks on her neck and shoulders. She was thankful that the soreness in her hips and back could be easily hidden, just like old times. There was no two ways about it: she was a mess. She tried to release the tension in her shoulders, but she couldn't. The thoughts of last night wouldn't leave her alone as her list of bad choices just seemed to keep growing. The satisfaction from the distraction didn't last. She just stared into her own blank expression and hated what she saw even more. The tension wasn't released until it was thrown into the reflection in the form of a determined fist. The glass shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, but didn't fall out of the frame.

"I'm sorry…" she heard from behind her in a quiet tone.

When she turned around, she noticed that he had started gathering his own things. His shirt and tactical vest still laid on the floor, but he'd gotten dressed in the pants and boots and started to gather up holsters.

"I didn't…I didn't mean for this to happen," he continued.

"Did we ever?" she scoffed.

"No."

"I guess it's easier to explain it all away when we thought any day would be our last…"

He looked behind her at the mirror and then at her, ready to go without saying a word.

"You're leaving?"

"We're done here."

Barnes stepped closer, pulling her against his chest. Kat absentmindedly ran her hands over his bare shoulders, taking the time to lightly trace along the scar on his left, where the skin became metal.

"You could stay," he offered, "Or we could both go."

"Where would we go?"

"Anywhere."

She slowly ran her hands back up his shoulders and up around his neck, taking one to brush a strand of shower damp brown hair out of his face. She leaned forward to close the space between them with a soft, sweet kiss.

"Somethin' tells me I'll see you around, Sugar."

She pulled away and sauntered out of the room, leaving the broken door to fall out of the frame behind her. No matter how much he wanted to go after her, there was no way of making her stay. It hurt to watch her leave, far more than he expected, but he knew it was only a matter of time. After all, it was his turn to get left behind and watch her go. Minutes passed and he was still set on the door, but she didn't come back. Finally, he continued gathering his things and getting ready to leave.

"What the…"

He grumbled when he noticed that both the keys to the bike and one of his handguns were gone.

"Damn it, Katya!"

The bike engine roared outside and faded off down the street, leaving him standing half dressed in a motel room, with a broken door and no transportation. He had one option left. He grabbed his phone from off of the floor where Kat had tossed it, opened it to Steve's contact screen, and dropped it back down onto the bed. He'd bailed out on Steve for another chance at being with Katya again, and she was gone. He couldn't go back to Steve now. He didn't have anywhere to go. She didn't stay.