Awakening Quake
By Misha

Disclaimer and Notes in Chapter One.

Chapter Fifteen: Moving Forward

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked Bucky a little while later, when Bruce had given him the ok.

"I'm getting there." Bucky told him with a smile. "This is quite the set-up you've got going for you… punk."

The addition of the old nickname made Steve smile. "Would you believe that sometimes I miss Brooklyn?"

"You always were crazy," Bucky told him, "this place seems to be the lap of luxury and it's full of pretty girls too."

"I should have known you'd pick up on that." Steve teased. "You always knew exactly where to find the prettiest girls."

"Seems like I'm not the only one," Bucky told him, "it appears you've found a very pretty one for yourself."

Steve raised an eyebrow, not sure what Bucky was getting at.

"That girl, Skye, she's sweet on you," Bucky told him, "So I assumed she was your girl, unless you're not interested?"

Steve was taken aback by Bucky's revelation. "What makes you think she's interested?"

"Her voice would get soft when she said your name and she would get a silly smile on her face." Bucky told him. "I don't even think she realized it, but I could tell."

"You always were an expert on reading women." Steve told him. It had been one of the many things he had envied about his friend.

"You didn't answer the question," Bucky reminded him, "Do you like her?"

"Yes." He answered simply. "But I don't want to rush her, she's been hurt and she's a little cautious."

Bucky nodded. "She told me a bit about her past," He told Steve, "she needs someone like you in her life, someone who will treat her right."

Steve was curious as to what Skye had told Bucky and was actually a little jealous that she had opened up to his old friend and not him, which he knew was silly. He had no reason to be jealous and he was glad that Bucky and Skye seemed to hit it off, he just wanted Skye to feel comfortable confiding in him.

Steve was about to ask Bucky what Skye had said, when they were interrupted by Bruce and Tony.

"We usually treat guests a little bit better than this," Tony told Bucky with a grin, "I promise we'll get you settled in soon."

"I look forward to it," Bucky told him, "I hear you have quite the set-up here."

"It does the job," Tony said with a false modesty that had both Steve and Bruce rolling their eyes, "but before you get the grand tour, I'd like to take a look at that arm of yours and make sure it's working the wayit should or if we need to improve it."

Bucky looked at Steve, who nodded, silent assuring his friend he could trust Tony, and then held out his mechanical arm so Tony could get a better look.

"I heard you were into see Bucky."

Skye looked up from her place on the gym floor where she'd been doing sit-ups to see Steve standing there.

"Hi," she said with a smile, standing up.

"Hi," he said in return, giving her a look that made her blush.

"Yeah, Bruce asked me to talk to him." Skye said, answering his question. "He's very nice."

"He thought the same about you." Steve told her.

Skye hoped that was a good thing. She'd heard the old stories about Captain America and Bucky and knew how close they were once been. She knew that if Bucky didn't approve of her, she wouldn't really have a chance with Steve and she did want that chance. As scared as she was, she really wanted that chance.

"Is he still in the med bay?" Skye asked.

"No, he's up in Tony's lab getting his arm looked at." Steve told her. "Tony thinks it needs a few improvements."

"Well, that's Tony's area of expertise, right?" Skye said softly. She knew her way around computers, but the engineering stuff was alien to her.

"Exactly," Steve told her, "I was just getting in the way, so I decided to come work out for a while." That explained why he was in sweats and a t-shirt.

"I can get out of your way, if you like." Skye offered. She wasn't sure if he wanted to work alone or not. Though the Tower's gym was pretty large and had room for more than one person to work-out at a time.

"No!" Steve told her and then softened his tone, "don't leave on my account. I was looking for you earlier, I wanted to see you… Make sure we were still on for that movie tonight."

"We are." Skye said, she's talked to Pepper and JARVIS and arranged for use of the Tower's movie theatre and picked a movie. "I've picked one I think you'll like."

"I'm looking forward to it." Steve assured her. He smiled at Skye. "Want to run through some moves together? I've heard from Natasha that you're a fast learner, but it's probably good to practice on people in different strengths and sizes."

"Sure." Skye told him. Since moving into the Tower, all of her hand-to-hand training had been with Natasha. She had practiced her powers on the male members of the Avengers, but that was it. She hadn't really sparred with anyone much larger than her since Ward had been her SO.

Skye quickly blocked the thought. She was done wasting thoughts on him. He had no part of any of this. He was the past. One she wanted very much to forget.