Well, I see that you all enjoyed my lovely little cliffhanger. Tehe So I bet you all are SUPER anxious to find out what's going to happen next! Here you go!

Chapter Thirty-Five

I was caught. I had done the unthinkable; bringing a stranger into the Tower without permission. And now I had an angry soldier staring at me, fury raging in his eyes.

"What was that?" He demanded.

"That was Derek, remember?" I snapped back.

I couldn't help but blame him for this whole mess. If I hadn't felt so alone and miserable, maybe Derek wouldn't have been here in the first place. But I noticed he was surprised by the anger in my voice. What had he been expecting; me to just sit back and take all the garbage he flung at me like I had been the last few weeks? Well, he could forget it. I wasn't taking it anymore.

"I meant what were you doing, bringing him here?"

He seemed genuinely curious, hurt even.

No. He can't be upset. He hates me.

He had caught me off guard. I had expected anger, blind rage, a phone call to my uncle, even. But all he could think about was why I had brought Derek here. Why would he care about why I had brought Derek here when he should be more worried that I had brought him here in the first place?

"We were having coffee, as you can see." I gestured to the two empty coffee cups sitting on the kitchen counter.

His eyes locked on the coffee cups, his face unreadable.

"I see you're making new friends."

The accusation in his voice stung. And I almost felt guilty. Almost.

"Well, it's not like you were around."

He wouldn't even look at me. He just stared at the two coffee cups.

Why are you so obsessed with those things?

He continued to ignore me and stare that those blasted cups until finally I had had enough. I was hurt and angry, and not even breaking the biggest rule in the Tower could make him talk to me.

It's over.

And at that point I knew it was over. Every moment of our friendship was gone, and there was no returning to that relationship again.

"Hannah!" He suddenly yelled. He latched onto my arm, causing me to jerk back and almost fall over. I quickly caught myself.

"I need to talk to you."

"Let me go! I don't want to talk to you." I replied coldly, trying to wrench my arm out of his grip. But he was too strong for me.

"Hannah, I'm trying to make amends."

"Not by the way you're acting. You treat me like a heartless jerk!"

"I'm only trying to..."

"You've been different since that Friday night, Steve. You barely talk to me, you yell at me and you don't even show up for coffee!" His face deadpanned.

How could he hear me say all these things and still act like a lifeless human being? I had tried everything to get him to open up, but he wouldn't budge. I felt so hopeless, standing there and waiting on words that were never going to come.

"What did I do to you, Steve? What did I do to make you hate me?" I pleaded, my eyes starting to water.

Come on, Steve. Please talk to me!

No words. Just a blank stare. I shook my head in disbelief. Where had my friend gone? Where was the Steve I had cared about? The Steve I went everywhere with, shared my secrets with and spent almost every waking moment with?

What's happened to him?

"Forget it. I've got to go." I couldn't take another second in that room; not with him in it. The anger was quickly subsiding to the dreadful heartache, and I couldn't break down in front of him. He let go of my arm in a daze, allowing me to escape.

I turned and started to run away, only to trip over a stair on the main floor in my rush to get away from him. I lost my balance and yelped as I landed on my side; the side that had been hit in the car wreck arranged by the Dark Hand years ago. Even after all that time, it was still terribly tender.

"Hannah?" Steve was at my side in an instant. I grasped my side in pain as he rolled me over gently.

"It hurts." I groaned, unaware of how redundant that sounded next to my moaning.

"Let me feel your side." He instructed, but it wasn't in the commanding tone that I had heard the last few weeks. It was the old Steve; my best friend.

I lifted up part of my shirt enough for him to see the ribs. The old scar from the surgery was still there, ugly as ever. It was a constant reminder of what I had endured, and it would be there for the rest of my life.

"No broken ribs" was the verdict. I watched him as his eyes focused on the scar. Softness had replaced the coldness that had once been there and any anger had quickly been replaced with concern.

His hand slowly reached toward the scar. His fingers jerked back once in apprehension, but they slowly inched their way back until they graced the marred skin curiously. He traced it from the ribs down to my hip.

What...what's going on?

Something was happening. Something...

"Steve." He didn't hear me. His hand found a resting place on my side and it didn't move, and neither did his gaze. It wasn't until I gently placed my hand on his that he looked up at me.

I instantly regretted what I had done. I wanted to jerk my hand back in fear that lose him like the last time I had touched him like that. I looked into his eyes, scared that the anger and rage would swell again. But it didn't come. Instead, he placed his hand on my cheek, caressing it gently.

"I'll never let anyone hurt you like that again."

"Steve." I whispered. His face moved slowly toward mine, his hand moving behind my head, pulling me closer still. I welcomed him in, allowing his lips to touch mine. I could barely breathe as I took him in; the smooth touch of his lips, the warmth of his body. Everything was...

Perfect.

Maybe I should have been nervous, terrified even. But I wanted it; every second of it I wanted. And I wanted it with him; him and only him.

I didn't want to let go. I wanted to clasp onto his shirt, beg him not to stop. But I desperately needed to breathe. In surrender to my body's need for oxygen, I gasped for air, Steve still holding me tightly in his grasp. After a few breaths, I looked up to find him looking as miserable as he had the past few weeks. My heart literally sunk in my chest.

He doesn't want me.

"I'm so stupid." He let go of me, covering his face with his hands.

"Steve, please..."

"I shouldn't have done that. I needed to let it go."

He quickly shifted to his feet and started to leave. But I couldn't let him go. Not now.

Maybe I could make him stay. If I tried hard enough, maybe I could...

"Steve!" I yelled after him, forgetting the pain in my side and making a mad scramble to his side.

"Hannah, I can't do this." His face was contorted in pain as he looked back at me. I clasped his hand in earnest, half-hoping, half-praying that I could summon enough strength keep him there.

"Steve, what are you talking about?"

"This is why I've been so angry, Hannah. Not with you, but with myself."

"What's wrong with this? Why were you pushing yourself so far from me?" I begged.

"I had to fight. I couldn't let myself get hurt. Not like last time."

"Last time?" He looked at me, his mind caught in a struggle with his heart. I was shaking as he stood there, fighting the urge to tell me or walk out the door. If he chose to leave, I knew nothing would ever be the same.

After what felt like an eternity, he quietly led me over to the couch, his hand absentmindedly holding mine. When we sat down, he kept himself a few inches apart from me, much to my disappointment. He let out a loud breath before finally meeting my gaze.

"I fell in love a long time ago. Her name was Peggy Carter." He squeezed my hand gently. "I went down in the ocean before I could got a chance to be with her. I woke up seventy years later to find her old and dying of Alzheimer's."

He pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a photo of the woman in the photograph on his wall. She was as stunningly beautiful as the last time I had seen her. I could understand why Steve had fallen for her. I carefully took the photo from his hands. When I flipped it over, there was a message that read, "Yours Forever."

"It hurt. Every time I went to visit her, my heart felt like it was going to burst in my chest." He took the photo and laid it aside. "I didn't want to fall in love again, because it meant that I could get hurt again. And then I met you."

His hand smoothed my hair, his eyes looking on me with fondness. I had never noticed how blue his eyes were. They looked hard at first, but if one took the time to admire them, they could see the softness hidden behind their tough exterior.

"I didn't want to lose again. So I pushed you away." He broke away from me now in shame, but I moved closer, closing the gap between us.

I shook my head at him with a small smile, tilting his head toward me. "You won't lose this time."

It was a long time before we broke apart. He held me close to him, his hands placed on my hips, my arms wrapped around his neck. It was like one of those old movies where you see the hero finally kissing the love of his life. It was everything I could ever dream of and more...except for one little problem.

"Who's going to tell my uncle?"

*Breathes a sigh of relief* Well, I'd say the cliffhanger was worth the wait, don't you?