A/N: I have literally gone through living hell to write this bloody chapter, I'm about to go take a well deserved break now and maybe cry for an hour. Enjoy my blood, sweat and tears.

Thank you to IkhandoZatman, Guest, Stinker126, dramione245, WinterSoldier13(please note this comment pushed me to finish this even through all the bull, so a special thanks and applause to you) and Guest. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

P.S. HOLY COW 3,500 READS THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR THIS, IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME!

CHAPTER FIVE

"Love is a decision, it is a judgement, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgement and decision."

― Erich Fromm

Dusk had fallen, stars were shining and reflecting off the wet cobbled ground which Bucky and Summer were walking down hand in hand. They'd been dating for five months now and this was their last night before Bucky went of to be Sergeant Barnes. Summer - who could confess easily to being selfish - was not happy about this, she hated the whole idea; she felt that their relationship hadn't even started and now it was about to be over.

It wasn't Bucky's fault, no, it was definitely Summer's problem. She was unable to love. Her scientific brain had made love seem like a word with a lot of power behind it, it was simply lust which people have tried to make seem romantic - love was not a possibility in her mind. This didn't mean she didn't like Bucky a lot though, and she certainly felt emotions for him that she'd never felt for anybody before, but it would take a lot of time before she'd even think that maybe, possibly, she was in love with James Buchanan Barnes.

The couple was taking the long way back home after visiting Steve, he'd been pretty upset about being rejected once again from joining the army so Bucky and Summer went over and took him to go to Howard Stark's convention where they got to see the starting piece of hover cars - it was truly thrilling. After they left Steve, Bucky said that he wanted to ask Summer something and so they took the long way.

"So what did you want to talk about?" She pushed, getting tired of the silence between them. It would usually be filled with insulting quips that had ounces of humour behind them so both knew that the insults were jokes.

Bucky tightened his hand around hers, "I'm leaving tomorrow for the army right?" He was stalling, he knew that she knew about the army as she'd been asking him countless questions on the matter all day.

"Just spit it out Bucky," she sighed, trying to sound gentle but her anticipation did get in the way and her voice ended up sounding slightly snappy.

He stopped them from walking any further and moved to stand in front of her, his eyes searched hers as though he was trying to find a sign, of what she wasn't sure of. "Will you marry me?" He asked quickly, leaving a stunned silence to settle afterward,

Summer stared at him with wide eyes, obviously shocked, she could also feel guilt beginning to seep out of her pores as the answer was in her head the second she heard the word 'marry'. "I-I'm sorry, but…"

He took a step back and his head fell to the floor, obviously this wasn't the answer he wanted. Though it should have been the answer he expected, she simply wasn't the type to be emotional for these matters - she was good at explaining emotion but she wasn't good at expressing them. She cared for Bucky though, after five months of dating a life without him already seemed pointless.

"You're going away to fight for your life and what if you don't survive, I can't…"

"What if I do survive?" He pushed, "what if I do survive, and when I get back we could get married then."

His voice had raised in obvious hope and she felt her heart break again at the idea she'd have to kick the puppy once again. "No," she said, "I made it quite clear when we began dating that I wasn't good at this sort of stuff, five months isn't enough for me. I'm sorry." She apologised again.

Bucky looked heartbroken, though he tried to be manly and hide it behind a dark look, he frowned down towards the ground and his jawline seemed to stiffen.

"I'm going to go to the bar," Summer had her own glum expression growing, "I'll see you back at the apartment." She said the last part to herself mostly in hope for herself that maybe he'll forgive her for this.

All her life she'd followed a philosophy that being herself was important, but for once - and because of a man no less - she wished that she could be someone else, someone who was better with their feelings.

Her walk to the Pineberry was longer than usual as she had to walk back to where they came from and then through many dirty alleyways which she was very determined to get through as quickly as possible.

When she arrived at the bar she sits herself down at the bar and orders a whiskey as per usual. "Well, well, well…" a memorable voice snickered from beside her,"if it isn't my scrumptious looking woman, alone again I see."

Summer laughed bitterly while turning to the fat balding man beside her, "we really should stop meeting like this. I didn't think a man such as yourself would have the time to go around stalking women." She snickered.

The man wiped his head with his hand, making sure that all his locks were pushed down by the large amount of grease he'd put on to make sure no one noticed his balding head. He, of course, took her snicker as an attempt of flirting and leaned forward. "And what kind of man do you think I am?"

"A man who really needs to step away from my woman before I knock him out... again," another voice interjected the conversation, the tone of the voice was immensely dark and Summer recognised it immediately. Her heart fluttered at the way Bucky used the term 'my woman', did that mean there were no cold feelings about their previous argument?

The fat man turned to Bucky, "I was actually hoping you'd come again, this time I came prepared." Before either knew what was happening, two people appeared and grabbed a hold of Bucky's arms. The fat man smiled menacingly as he moved closer to Bucky and soon began punching him in the stomach.

The bar man quickly grabbed a bat and jumped over the bar, joining in the fight. One by one, numerous men wishing to prove their manly hood had joined the fight and Summer could no longer point Bucky out in the crowd.

Sighing in exasperation, she raised two fingers on each hand to her lips and let out a loud whistle which managed to get every ones attention. She walked over to where Bucky had collapsed on the ground with a man beneath him, his fist was raised as though Bucky was about to hit him. "Come now, James." She muttered, grabbing a hold of his fist and dragging him out of the bar.

She ended up walking ahead of him, making sure that Bucky knew she was in a mood. They eventually got to the apartment, but her angry façade didn't end there. "Sit," she demanded coldly, pointing her finger towards the armchair in the middle of their front room. Once she was saw he'd sat down she left to the kitchen where she retrieved the first aid kit as well as a change of clothes which had just been cleaned.

She went back to the front room and almost laughed at the way Bucky was sat, he was crouched in the chair with a pout on his lips, he looked like a child that had just been scolded. "I can't believe you just did that," she hissed. She all of a sudden began to take off her dress in front of him, Bucky gulped at the sight of her half-naked. "What if we end up being banned from the Pineberry?" She carried on scolding, being sure not to smirk at the way she knew she was making her boyfriend feel at that very moment in time - she tried not to let the power women have get to her head.

After giving him a thirty second show of what exactly he'll be missing, she pulled up his boxers to cover up her bottom half and then put on a button up shirt of his. Bucky tried to take a mental picture of how perfect she looked in his clothing, at how perfect she looked in any type of clothing.

Bucky didn't know how or when but he'd fallen irrevocably in love with Summer Scotts and he didn't feel sorry about that, he didn't care any more whether she married him or not, he just wanted to make sure she was always a part of his life. Bucky just needed to figure out a way to say that.

Once she'd finished getting dressed she moved to sit cross-legged in front of Bucky. "Your cheek doesn't look like it needs any stitches, let me look at your fists." He put them down on to his legs and Summer grabbed each hand, beginning to examine each one. "You're such an idiot, I hope this hurts." She laughed while beginning to dab alcohol on to the wounds, he hissed loudly and she simply smirked. Her facial expression practically screamed 'that's what you get'.

"You don't have to marry me," He exhaled, finally gaining her attention. "I don't care if you never marry me, okay, I just want you in my life." He took his hands out of hers and grabbed the side of her face, "I love you." He finished.

Summer saw in Bucky's eyes what could only be explained as an understanding, he understood that she wasn't able to say it back yet. He understood that she wasn't emotionally vacant, she just wasn't emotionally understanding. "Thank you," she choked out. He was the first and only man to except her the way she was, and this caused happy tears to appear in her green eyes. She sniffled, "when you get back, then we'll talk about marriage okay?"

He nodded his head and leaned closer, connecting his lips with hers in a passionate lip lock. He pushed her back onto the floor, she squealed loudly as he collapsed on top of her but she quickly pushed her lips back against his; this may not have been love for Summer, but she knew it was something extremely special.

Summer woke up at the sound of her cells door opening, she jumped up out of the bed and had pushed her body back against the wall. Instead of the guard holding a baton though, she found Wendy once again holding a tray. "Well hey there." She smiled, though it was slightly painful thanks to the bust lip she had been given just a few hours ago.

Wendy took a second to analyse her face and what he saw broke his cold heart in two, her face was covered in bruises and her body looked like it would match her face. They'd obviously started to try beating her for information.

"Oh, stop looking so guilty." She teased, "you didn't do this to me, if you did then I can assure you that you'd be suffering quite a beautiful broken nose just like the other guy." The grin on her face was extremely proud and Wendy smiled at that, he placed the tray down on to the bed beside her.

"I'll keep that in mind," He said while moving to sit on the floor, he did try and ignore the pool of blood which was drying in the middle of the room.

She shrugged her shoulders lazily, "I get why they think beating me is necessary, I have the biggest and best brain any human could possibly possess. I can remember every single detail of one person's face after not seeing them for one hundred years. I have so much information stored in my head, so many equations and numbers and words. If I didn't already have it, I'd probably do the same to get a brain like this. I just wish instead of beating me they'd offer me a million pounds or something."

"Would you take the money if they did?"

"Probably not," she chuckled. Summer picked up the fork which was placed on the tray and began to mess around with the mash on the tray, using the ends of her fork to draw lines in the mash. "Hey Wendy? Can I ask you something?" She asked innocently, she couldn't even look him in the eyes.

Wendy raised an eye at her, obviously curious as to where I was going. "Sure…" He mumbled, cocking his head to the side so he could get a view of her face. She'd washed her hair now so she allowed it to fall and cover most of her face, hence why Wendy was having to bend down more so he could get a glimpse of her face.

"What's the last thing you remember before waking up to Pierce?" She asked, expecting him to go through another episode of flashbacks.

He didn't though, he simply shrugged and spoke with so much assurance she was sure he wasn't lying. "Nothing."

"Oh," she muttered, bringing a fork of gravy covered mash to her dry mouth, "okay." She swallowed down the food gratefully, her stomach cheering at the single mouthful, pushing her to have a few more. When she looked up at Wendy he had a weird sort of grin on his face, "what?" She snapped.

"You trust me enough to eat the food I bring, finally." He was trying to repress the smile but he couldn't help feeling happy about the step forward he'd made in their relationship.

She copied his previous movements and shrugged, "or I'm just hungry."

"Sure," he chortled, "that's what it is."