Drea slowly opened her eyes and was greeted with an familiarly unfamiliar sight. The room looked like an exact copy of the room she'd woken up in 2 years ago after her, well, overdose. But that couldn't be right…

"Urgh…" Okay so her voice still wasn't working.

"She's awake…" Clint's sing-song voice was actually a blessing to her frazzled nerves.

"Yes she is and she would appreciate it if you kept it down because she has a headache and is confused."

"Oooh and she's touchy. Time to get the doc." Natasha quipped from somewhere. Drea didn't want to turn her head to look. She heard Nat and Clint leave and decided to close her eyes until the doctor came in.

The doctor was in practically as soon as Drea's eyes closed, asking 1,000 questions about how she felt and examining her. She found out she was on tramadol for pain after being shot with whatever those energy weapons were. Drea got a dose of tramadol and an ambien to help her rest followed by a visit from the nurse to let her know to call for FRIDAY if she needed anything.

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes miss?"

"Nevermind...I doubt they'd show up." Drea was at the point where she was relaxed from the sleeping pill but not blitzed enough to actually ask the AI to call Steve and Bucky.

If she thought she'd been in pain when she woke up the first time, woah boy had Drea been wrong.

"Motherfucker what the fuck did I get hit by a bus or some shit last night?" She groused to what she assumed was an empty room.

"No you just tossed and turned a lot." Bucky's voice made her jump, which made her groan and cover her face with her non-injured arm.

"Do I want this to be a hallucination brought on by the enormous amount of pain I'm in or do I actually want to open my eyes and see you sitting there?"

"Well I'm not going anywhere so might as well open 'em up. As for the enormous amount of pain, FRIDAY, have Doctor Cho step in when she's done with Sam please?"

"Of course, Bucky."

Drea lowered her arm and opened her eyes but wouldn't look at Bucky, who she could see was sitting in a chair that hadn't been there when Clint and Natasha left yesterday. "So you're calm about this. Should I be worried?"

"Natasha explained what you've been doing."

Right of course she had. "Nice to know her not giving personal info only goes one way."

"What?"

"Nothing. So no lecture about putting myself in danger? Or does that not apply to me?" She stared straight ahead, not trusting herself to look at him.

"Doctor Cho is on her way." FRIDAY chimed in and Bucky practically lept out of his seat and was out of the door. As soon as the door closed, tears were streaming down Drea's face freely. So much for any residual feelings there.

There was some fancy procedure where the tissue where she'd been hit was regenerated but there was still internal damage that needed time to heal so Drea had atleast one more night in the medical section of the Tower. Clint kept her company to and from the first tissue regeneration session, chattering away about nurse gossip he'd picked up on. Drea didn't hear any of it, however, as she caught a glimpse of Natasha, Steve, and Bucky having what appeared to be quite the animated discussion.

Drea settled back in her bed and had FRIDAY turn on what appeared to be unlimited cable with the smallest glass remote she'd ever seen. Nothing was holding her attention and the tissue regeneration on her lower abdomen was itching. Clint had made his excuses so there was no one to keep her company. She checked her phone and returned a couple of text messages but apparently she'd been spotted on news coverage while helping the wounded during the attack and the coverage even got her being injured so work was blowing up her phone. She had to call her regional managers to let them know that she was okay and was being taken care of but would be out of commission for a couple of days.

And then there was her sponsor.

S: OH MY FUCKING GOD ARE YOU OKAY I SAW YOU GET HIT ON THE NEWS TEXT ME

D: I'm...well I'm gonna be fine. I'm in Avengers Tower. Don't ask how I got here I don't know.

S: THANK GOD YOU'RE OKAY. First important matters. You good, medication wise? Do we have anything to talk about?

D: No. Tramadol for pain and that's by injection only.

S: Excellent. Now, have you seen Them?

D: No comment.

And with that, Drea put her phone down because she didn't want to get upset and make her newly regenerated skin pull and be any more uncomfortable. So she curled into that side and pulled the covers up around her, trying to get into the fetal position and failing when she remembered that she still had a shoulder injury. A news story about the attack came on and she found herself paying attention to find out what the hell had happened.

"Who the hell were those...whatever…"

"The attack was led by Attuma, a leader of a renegade faction of Atlanteans. Whereas most Atlanteans have no use for surface dwellers, Attuma seeks to rule every part of the world, both below the ocean and above. He was behind the attack on the United Nations two years ago in retaliation for continued offshore drilling." FRIDAY chimed in from nowhere.

"So he decided what, he was offended by the Brooklyn Promenade? That makes sense…"

"I'd like to ask him that myself but he managed to get away." Steve said from the doorway.

"A little warning, FRIDAY."

"Apologies, miss, but Captain Rogers and Mister Barnes are at the door." Drea glared at the ceiling but turned so she was angled towards the door. This was going to be interesting.

Steve and Bucky made their way into the room and with them came tension and silence. Steve sat in the strangely comfortable looking chair and Bucky leaned against what Drea thought was a projection of a window. She tried not looking at them but the TV turned off so she really didn't have anything to keep her eyes focused on other than the supersoldiers in the room.

"So do I get my lecture now or…"

"Nope. No lecture." Steve's voice was soft but there was something just beneath his words that made her uneasy.

"Okay so is this where I get told to leave the heroics to the superheroes?"

"Nope. We just came by to check on you." Bucky crossed his arms and looked at her.

"Okay...sounds fake but okay." Drea was trying not to fidget but was failing miserably.

"Why does it sound fake, Drea? We still care about you…" Steve leaned forward and Drea thought for a moment it looked like he wanted to reach out to her. That couldn't be...he, they, had a girlfriend, right?

"But I mean...that day at the deli I heard. I just thought…" She shook her head to stop the unending verbal dribble that was coming out of her mouth.

"Yeah that's what we thought...well, once Natasha explained things." Bucky came to sit on the arm of the chair. "So what you heard, about Evelyn?" Drea nodded her head. "That...Steve will explain."

"Of course I will." Steve shot Bucky a look and Drea had to stifle a giggle. "Evelyn was someone we were dating."

"Were? As in…"

"As in not dating anymore."

Drea was quiet for a bit, tugging on the sheet nervously. "So are you dating anyone now?"

It was their turn to be quiet, looking at each other in such a way that Drea knew they were communicating silently. "Not sure yet." Bucky studied her closely.

"Yeah there is this one particular woman we're interested in. And we think she's interested in us but…"

She shook her head. No, she couldn't be hearing them right. "So you need advice on how to find out if she's interested?" She watched as Steve moved to sit on the bed next to her and Bucky moved to the other side of the bed. No this wasn't happening. Drea tried to watch them both but when she turned her head back to Steve, his hand was cradling the side of her face. "Oh…"

"Is that a no?"

"That was an 'oh I wasn't expecting that please continue'," Drea sighed as she felt Bucky sit down, gently on her other side. She could tell her was being careful of her injuries and her heart honest to God skipped a beat. And if she thought that was something, when Steve pressed his lips to hers, she momentarily forgot how to breathe...until the press of Bucky's lips to her neck forced a surprised gasp from her mouth and into Steve's. "You two really know how to ambush a girl." Bucky nibbled on one ear while Steve kissed along her jaw.

"And you talk too much, doll." Bucky turned her head towards his and leaned forward to cover her mouth with his, his other hand working its way carefully between her back and the bed. His kiss was a little more intense than Steve's had been, Bucky's tongue tracing the inside of her lower lip only for a second and, as if on cue, Steve found hit a sensitive spot on her neck that had her moaning into the kiss that gave Bucky access to her mouth. She fisted one hand in Steve's shirt and the other in Bucky's and shoved them away with a decent amount of force.

"Okay before the spike in my heart rate has the nurse running in here…"

"I've taken the liberty of alerting the medical staff that the increase in your heart rate is not due to any negative health risk." Drea would swear the AI sounded smug.

"FRIDAY, make sure Tony gives you an upgrade."

"That will never not be weird." Drea shook her head and smiled at the men in front of her, holding her hands like they were made of the most precious material known to man. "I, uhh, I'm still not good with this whole talking thing but I just, umm, I thought I blew it with you two back at rehab and then that day with the thing…" she tried to gesture but neither one of them would let go of her hands so she just shrugged. "I'm sorry. Not for any of this!" Drea squeezed their hands to reassure them. "But of what I said back that day in rehab. I was mad and not channelling my anger very well. I wasn't even really mad at you. I mean I was but not for the right reasons. I'm not making any sense."

"Drea…" Bucky tugged on her hand but she shook her head.

"No I need to say this. I didn't actually think I was your, what did I say, you dirty little secret or that you were ashamed of me. I didn't know why you wouldn't be ashamed of me. I was mad that you were wasting your time on a junkie, because that's what I was. I was a functional junkie and I didn't deserve either of you. And there's a part of me that still thinks I don't and will always think that. So when you got hurt and I didn't know...I was so mad at myself for letting myself get involved and delude myself into thinking I belonged in your world. And before you say anything, I'm not saying you ever did or said anything to make me think I didn't belong with you but that's how I felt. And that's why I was so angry. Plus, having you turn up there and see me at my metaphorical lowest after seeing me at my literal lowest, neither of which did I have any control over, wasn't something I was prepared to deal with. But that day at the deli," she shook away the tears that she could feel trying to slip out, "all I wanted to do was throw my arms around you and beg you to forgive me for being such a bitch. And then show you how much better I am. I started to but that phone call...and I'm not like that so…"

Nobody spoke for what felt like eons. Steve and Bucky traced random shapes on the backs of Drea's hands and they all looked back and forth between each other, the silence a comfort rather than a curse until Steve spoke. "You really tried to get info about us from Nat?" Drea nodded yes. "Great minds think alike then…"

"She would only tell me if you made it out of a mission without any major injuries. Nothing personal. I kinda hated her for that on more than one occasion."

"Mmmm we know the feeling. All we got was that you were home from rehab and when you started volunteering as an EMT or whatever it was you were doing that got you hurt." Bucky dropped kisses on each knuckle. "Speaking of…"

"Here we go…" Drea dropped her head back and settled in for a lecture.

"No stop. There won't be a lecture. Just...we kind of know how you felt now. Because seeing you get hit by that energy blast. I swear to God I stopped breathing." Steve's voice was quiet and Drea could feel his worry. "I just..everything stopped until I heard Bucky over the comms say you were still breathing and it didn't look like any vital organs were hit. I mean we knew you were helping out as a volunteer EMT but we'd never seen you out on an Avenger call before so…"

"Yeah that was my first one. I didn't think, I just went because, well, I love the promenade. I hope you two don't think I'm gonna stop…"

"Are you kidding? I'm hoping you'll consider riding along as our own personal EMT." Bucky smiled. "Think you can handle dating us and working with us?"

"Wait...you're serious?"

"About the dating thing? I thought we'd made our intentions pretty fucking clear, doll." Bucky grinned.

Drea rolled her eyes. "Smartass. I meant the personal EMT thing."

"Of course you skimmed right over the important part. Way to wound a fella's feelings…" Bucky grabbed his chest dramatically.

"What he means," Steve slapped Bucky to get him to be serious, "is we were wondering if you would be open to working with the Avengers as a mission EMT. I mean if you'd rather not because of the stress and it putting your sobriety at risk, we totally get it. But it wouldn't involve many, if any drugs. Or if it's the whole conflict with your job, I'm sure we could come to an arrangement."

"So what you're saying is...not only do you want me but you want me around permanently and for more than just fun sexy times?" Drea pulled her hands into her lap and twirled her fingers together.

"If you'll have us." Bucky leaned forward, as did Steve, hopeful looks on both their faces.

Drea took a deep breath. This could either be very good...or end very badly. But how could she say no?