I'm beggin' you, PLEASE drop me a line and let me know what you think!

Pretty pretty please!

Also, take a listen to the song 'Hello/Lacrimosa' by The Piano Guys as you read through this latest chapter, I promise you'll adore it.

-G.

The dull hum of chatter and the fizzing of electrical lines made up the underlying clamor, the pitter patter of shoes squeaking against tiles, an intercom mumbling gibberish, and a song played off from a street performer a bit off which the rest of the noise seemed to compliment made up the first sense of reality Tala regained.

Her throat burned as if she'd just taken a large swig of Fireball, a cinnamon liquor, and gave a soft cough which increased the pain for a moment before clearing her lungs to breathe a bit smoother.

Tala took a deep breath, filling her lungs until capacity, the oxygen slowly reaching her arteries and blood vessels seemingly filling her deflated skin bringing her back into her own body.

Her palms itched and felt tender as she opened and closed her hands softly, her back lay against a hard surface warm from her own body heat signally she'd been there for some time now.

With a few more breaths her mind began to clear out of the fog that had made her pass out. That's what had happened, she had passed out.

Slowly as if an old time movie, slides presented themselves within her mind showing her collapse, her chase of a man, a rushing blade, and a hand being given to her. A jawline and dark crystal eyes glared at her, as fog filled her minds vision again.

The last slide was of both hands sending a large shock wave throughout the ground towards all the heart beats she felt of pain, the pain she'd felt when her father had passed cursing her and their gods. Only one mind she left untouched, using the last bit of flailing consciousness to create the hole in the grid of her power to give Bucky a chance to escape whoever was attacking them.

She could have easily used that last ounce to force one of the masked men to be drowned in guilt and plant a purpose of righteousness to take her away, save her.

Tala had ever been the one for self-sacrifice, ever a martyr.

Her head rested on cloth, a hard surface underneath that, as her eyes slowly opened a dimly lit face of Bucky Barnes watched her with a calm annoyance flowing beneath his skin, his eyes flickering over the points of her face assessing her as she awoke.

Tala glanced from side to side, taking in the underground area filled with many people and the signs above her.

Foggy Bottom.

What an appropriate subway station, Tala thought with a hint of humor as she turned her vision back to the man hoovering above him as in the back of her mind she accepted she was laying out on a bench, her head in his lap.

Bucky's ball cap was pulled low, one arm thrown across the top of the bench in a show of relaxation. His other with his hand in a pocket where from his emotions of security she knew he held a hand gun ready for anyone to make any sudden movements towards them.

She had to give him credit, to the common passerby they would look like a young couple taking a rest and not like two people who'd just escaped a mass attack and were hiding.

"Took you long enough. You should be dead." His tone was matter a fact as he again scanned the passing crowd before looking down at her an eye brow lifted, his mouth a thin line of annoyance.

Tala couldn't help herself and again smiled at the rigid Bucky raising her hands to touch her head checking if her hair had descended into knots in the time shed been knocked out.

"Maybe. Was I heavy?"

"Like a passed out moose."

"Oh, goodie. To think I thought you've had trouble while I was out." Her lower limbs came to finally and Tala found herself hesitating as a soft thrum of yearning trickled off Bucky his eyes watching her hands as she flattened her curls against her head winding her hands through the strands as much as she could without expressly touching his lap.

Bucky had been fighting against himself for the better part of two hours, his training and solider etiquette screaming at him to leave the woman on the platform and get the hell out of dodge. He'd done his good deed for the woman, he'd pulled her from amongst the bodies of passed out mercenaries and had carried her quickly through countless streets before selecting the subway station whose lines would lead them out of the city quickest if needing to move in a moment's notice.

The things that stopped him from moving were ones he'd tried not to dwell on as they passed through his thoughts in whispers.

He had known even from his time with Hydra that there were many people throughout the world with special abilities, and although they hadn't possessed an exact list, if needed for a specific reason he'd been tasked to track them down for his keepers.

Had they known of Tala and her powers… Bucky felt the pricks of anger and a wave of guilt wash over his body making him even more rigid if possible at the reality that as the Winter Solider, he would have dragged this woman by the very hair she finger combed into the grips of Hydra.

As Bucky, he stayed guard as she'd slept refusing to leave her as scared and confused as he had always after waking with no memory of what had passed while out.

Her hands continued to work their way through her hair, and Bucky suddenly couldn't think of his own self-hatred as her knuckles bent, her finger nails cut to a medium length and clean.

Bucky had never before looked at a woman's hands as erotic, and yet for the second time now seeing her fingers uncovered by her silly pink gloves, He'd felt true desire to feel them against his cheek, against any and all parts of him really…

Tala nearly bolted up from her protector's lap as his emotions of yearning turned to lust, reminiscent of deep chello's music sliding against her psyche. Although breathtaking, it left chill, and Tala needed none of that for the moment.

Bucky grunted as her hand grabbed his thigh in an attempt to push herself up, and Tala couldn't help but laugh suddenly and merrily at the stupidity of the scenario.

Turning towards Bucky, Tala now sitting up, her bottom against his thigh, her legs now tucked crisscrossed around one another, she demanded lightly.

"I'm not blaming you for your emotions, but if you are going to be around me, just know there is no hiding them from me. If you're feelin' it, I'm getting a dose of it to." Bucky's cheeks went a shade darker, which if Tala didn't feel his embarrassment, it would have been easily missed underneath his stubble.

Laying her lips on Bucky was easily done as his mind turned to the fumbling emotion of indecision, and she simply made his mind up for her.

It was quick. Tala wasn't blind, and a virgin she was not. Prude was another word she was not.

In her time, woman from her tribe were more often than not, topless with many beads and hand punctured tattoos adorning their skin. Only because her father had been so integrated into the white man's culture had she grown accustomed to being clothed but had never felt uncomfortable around the former.

His top lip formed a perfect ribbon, although thinner than most lips, but his bottom lip was plump in a perpetual pout and Tala ran her tongue across it delighting at the taste as a shiver ran down Bucky's spine.

A tremble in his hand that he'd brought up to cup her jaw line brought Tala to reality as she finished her nibbling on his lower lip to pull away very slowly as to not offend or wound his pride.

Bucky didn't move his hand from Tala's face, as the street performer he'd been listening to for the last hour was joined by another instrument player filling the area with a euphoric joint melody. Her skin was warm, and pulsed beneath his fingers like sunshine heated the sand on a shore.

He felt a center of calm as he looked at her and sharply fought it. He could not tell if it was Tala's powers once again, and didn't dare trust it. He hadn't been calm ever since he'd been woken by Hydra after they'd begun their experiments with him.

"If it was me there Buck, I'd tell you. I don't play with others unless asked first." Winking at him, Tala turned her body, placing her legs on the floor standing up stiffly her muscles giving a cry of protest.

Raising her arms above her head and standing on her tip toes, Tala gave a squeak as she felt her inner mental wall solidify once more with her full consciousness. With it she shut off all the fluxing auras leaving her exhausted and nearly depleted power center to rest.

Bucky stood awkward, his bionic arm seemingly tucked behind his side as his other hand fumbled with his baseball cap.

"It was… nice meeting you." Bucky's words were forced and awkward as he shifted his legs to situate better within his jeans, as Tala wheeled around to face him a look of confusion present on her dark brows.

"Oh, are we saying goodbye now?"

"I need to go. Those men, they'll be back."

"I figured as much. GI Joe's been found out hu?" The joke seemed to be lost on the taller man as he set his mouth in a thin line glancing behind at the two artists continuing to play the instrumental ballad, a train faintly coming in the distance.

Tala, unsure of her next words glanced down at her clothing noticing her gloves had fallen out of her pocket in the chaos, her earphones and iPod as well as she patted herself to check.

She'd been tasked over the centuries with guiding her people, working nearly tirelessly to aid in the constant battle of depression and pain that plagued the natives of lands conquered by men in the name of religion, conquest, war.

This man, she felt had been a victim of all, and for once she didn't want to be tasked and called to arms.

Tala wanted to choose him, and felt that she'd been placed in the right place and time by something bigger than herself to do so.

"You could run, I'm sensing you've been good at that. I can go into more detail later but my powers… they were a gift to save my people. That's what I do, I can help with what you are going through. I don't mean to sound self-righteous or as if I'm pitying you. There was a reason I followed you. Your emotions, your mind to my minds vision is a thicket, so tangled and knotted around a core of memories blurred of everything but the emotions attached to them. I don't know what you've been through, Hell I don't think you are aware of it yourself. I can help you make sense of it, I can help you untangle that mess and bring it under your skin again."

Her words were filled with such conviction, Bucky felt momentarily reverence for the raw emotion behind them.

Bucky stared at her hard, his mind racing a hundred yards a minute. His entire objective coming to the museum was to see first-hand who he'd been before a monster. Whom he'd been to Captain America, to Steve Rogers. He'd known his face, and it had hit home when he'd spoken a name he didn't quite remember.

Now he knew the small portion of what he'd been while still human. He'd been a hero, but even as he'd read the words, he couldn't place himself in any of the moments the exhibit had spoken of.

To remember the man before the beast, was what his ragged and tired soul wished for above all else now.

But, although he wanted information more than anything, the part of him that was Bucky Barnes couldn't risk putting Tala in danger.

"They will find me, and you'll get hurt eventually. You are strong, stronger than anyone I've ever seen but today was just a taste of what they'll bring to find and kill me. They won't care if you haven't done anything. They'll kill you, or worse they'll take you study you like a lab rat. They'll cage you…" His anger surging on his own last words, the thought of this beautiful woman being a toy as he'd been was nearly unbearable.

She was a pure soul in a world full of shit and evil, and although he'd only seen just a few hours of her being, in that time she'd been a force of good.

That above all else was worth protecting, even if it meant costing him the chance to regain his memories.

With this words, Tala's face suddenly broke out in a grin that reminded him of the old Cheshire cat from the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland his mother had read to him.

A memory, he remembered his mother. He couldn't recall her face or anything else but he remembered her voice as she read to him of a cat speaking in riddles to a lost girl.

Overwhelmed with choking thoughts, he hardly registered Tala as she spoke with smug satisfaction in her voice until she moved to slide her hand into his bionic one with no hesitation what so ever as she tugged him along behind her.

"If that is your only worry, you have quite a bit to learn about my culture. Ever heard stories of Native American's disappearing and appearing like ghosts in the forests? Do I have some tricks to show you."