The End of an Era

Steve was sure he was in the middle of a nightmare and not reality when, before his very eyes, he felt as though he was watching Bucky fall from the train again, but this time...it was Liv. This was his partner, his best girl! Just like before, he was too far away to stop it, to reach her. And, just like before, he felt like his entire world was falling apart, because from this height there was no guarantee Olivia would survive the fall or that she'd even land in water.

He might lose Olivia...at Bucky's hand.

How was he supposed to handle that?

How COULD he handle that?

"Target system's on override," Hill reported in his hear, forcing him back to the present, to the situation at hand, to the mission, "Get out of there!"

Steve's gaze drifted from the hole in the floor, to the man getting up from it and glaring up at him, "Fire now," he gave the order.

He felt a constriction on his heart at doing so...Olivia would have been the one giving that order, she outranked him.

But she wasn't here.

"But, Steve..." Hill hesitated.

"Do it!" he commanded, "Do it now!"

He refused, absolutely refused, to let everything he and Olivia had endured be for nothing by not making sure these carriers came down. With him in it or not made little difference, Olivia wasn't there, he prayed to god she was safe, but she wasn't there. It was just him and Bucky, and now the Winter Soldier couldn't use her as leverage or a trap or hurt her.

He staggered as the carriers began to fire at each other, grabbing onto the railing next to him, looking over only when he heard a strangled cry to see a piece of the ceiling had been torn apart and fallen onto Bucky, trapping him.

Anyone else would have told him to leave the Winter Soldier, would have tried to use what the man had done to Olivia to goad him into abandoning the fallen individual.

But they didn't know him and they didn't know Olivia if they thought he'd ever leave Bucky behind or that Olivia would ever ask him to.

No matter what the man had done to him or to her, even, Olivia would have been the first one down there to help him, the medic in her seeing someone hurt and trapped and in danger and needing someone to pull him out of the fire, get him off the field and to help. The Winter Soldier had just pummeled the two of them and Olivia still moved to monitor him, make sure he was ok.

Steve had been a soldier, felt it in his soul that that was what he'd been born to be, but right now, with something so terribly wrong with Bucky, it was time to take a leaf out of a medic's book. Look past sides, look past harms, and help those who needed it. And this was Bucky.

Steve hefted himself up, gritting his teeth against the pain of the bullet lodged in his leg, of the beating he'd already sustained at his best friend's hand, and made his way down to where Bucky was. He braced himself, gripping the underside of the debris, and lifting with all his might, only managing to move it enough for Bucky to crawl out from under it before he dropped it, panting.

He looked to Bucky as the man struggled to catch his breath, "You know me."

"No, I don't!" Bucky insisted, lashing out at him, a firm punch from his metal arm against Steve's shield sending Captain America flying back.

Steve pushed himself back up, "Bucky, you've known me your whole life..."

But Bucky lashed out again, striking Steve in the face this time.

Steve had never been one to give up though, especially not on Bucky, "Your name is James Buchanan Barnes..."

"Shut up!" Bucky cried out, striking him once again, sending him stumbling back.

Steve shook his head, choosing instead to take his mask off, "I'm not gonna fight you," he told the man, dropping his shield out the broken floor of the helicarrier, "You're my friend."

Bucky let out a roar and tackled him to the ground, "You're my mission!" he insisted, slamming his metal fist against Steve repeatedly, "You're my mission!"

Steve gasped when Bucky paused in his attack, both men exhausted, but he could see Bucky wouldn't stop till the mission was over, he wouldn't leave this crashing carrier until it was done. He swallowed hard, "Then finish it," he said, a note of acceptance in his voice, "Cause I'm with you, to the end of the line."

Steve could barely see Bucky through the blood, sweat, and tears in his eyes, but he could see enough to know that something had gotten through, that Bucky was holding back the final strike...but before he could even try to speak another word, the floor shattered beneath him, sending him plummeting down from the carrier towards the water below...

~8~

Olivia gasped as Steve coughed, water coming out his mouth as she rolled him over, the mouth-to-mouth she'd performed resuscitating him enough to get him breathing again. She let out a breath, resting her forehead onto his moving chest and just taking a single moment to utter a prayer of thanks. She had been in the water, not daring to swim for land while Steve was still in the helicarrier. It was a rather foolish move, she understood that. At any moment a piece of the carrier or the carrier itself could have crashed down right on top of her, but the third carrier was drifting on top of the water and it stood to reason that anyone escaping it would hit the water. She needed to be there to help when Steve escaped, because he HAD to escape.

When she had hit the water, it had been a stroke of luck that she had managed to get her bearings enough to hold her breath despite how her ribs protested. She'd slammed into it on her back, and truly if it hadn't been for the serum she was sure she'd have shattered a number of bones and sustained severe damage to her body. As it was, her back felt like it was one giant bruise and her lungs ached, but she was alive and able to move.

When she'd seen Steve falling, she'd immediately swum to where he had landed, but she'd been too far away still to dive down and get him when he didn't surface...

Bucky had though.

She'd seen him dive straight in after Steve and haul him to the surface. He had glanced at her for a single moment before looking away, looking down, and then swimming towards the shoreline with her following. The moment he was on solid ground, having been dragged out by Bucky, she'd assessed him and begun mouth-to-mouth when he wasn't breathing though she felt and heard his heart beating.

She looked up when she heard a crunching noise to see Bucky walking away, the man not having made a move to leave till Steve was ok.

"You saved him," she called out, making the man stop.

"Yes."

Even with his back turned, she could hear the grief and guilt and agony in his voice.

Bucky's voice.

Not the Winter Soldier.

"Why?"

The man tensed, "I don't know."

She shook her head even though he wasn't looking at her, "I do," she remarked, before slugging off her medical pack, trying to make the man feel less threatened if her 'attention' wasn't fully on him, he seemed tensed like he was ready for an attack, even from her, "Thank you...Bucky."

She watched out of the corner of her eye as his hands clenched into fists at his side, "I'm not him anymore."

She nodded, understanding, too much had happened to her and Steve as well to ever be the people they had been before the war started, "You're not the Winter Soldier anymore either," she reminded him, pulling out a bandage from her bag and moving to tie it around Steve's leg where she could spot the bullet wound, "Who will you be now?"

For some reason, THAT was what got him to turn around, or at least to twist just enough to look at her over his shoulder, "You're going to let me find out?"

"I don't think I'm in any position to stop you," she countered evenly, tying the bandage as tightly as she could to stem the bleeding before she looked up at him fully.

It was in the way he tensed that she could see it, the expectation, the man waiting for a blow to strike him...and not a physical blow.

She could have remarked about how she was injured, bleeding from two wounds, caused by him. She could have told him she was exhausted from keeping herself afloat after experiencing such trauma in her fall and fight with him. She could have gestured to the patient lying by her knees who required her immediate attention after the beating he'd sustained from a metal fist. She could have reminded him that said metal fist had nearly snapped her neck twice now and created the bruises that dotted her skin, that it was proof he could easily subdue her if she tried to apprehend him.

She could have brought up all the ways he'd hurt his best friend and his best friend's best girl in just this last hour alone, neverminding all the other harms he'd caused them in the hours before.

But she said none of it.

Because she was a medic, and her purpose was to heal, not harm.

"My first priority will always be the wellbeing of those I tend to," she said instead.

It went without saying that she counted Bucky among those, and that this was what he needed most for the good of his wellbeing.

Broken things needed time to heal and Bucky would never be given that chance if he went with her and Steve or if he stuck around long enough to be captured by either side of this new war.

Something about that must have resonated with Bucky, for the man turned without another word and walked away, leaving her with a heavy heart and an even heavier patient to tend to.

She looked down at Steve, knowing he'd be heartbroken to wake with Bucky 'at large,' but knowing she needed to do her duty and get him to safety to ensure he did wake up. She reached out and lightly touched his cheek, stroking her thumb, careful of his bruising and cuts, across his cheekbone for a moment before taking a breath. She trailed her hand down to his neck, to his shoulder, his arm, to his hand, and gently but firmly lifted it and tugged, maneuvering herself to get his arm around her shoulder, to get most of his body across her neck, wrapping her other arm around his thigh and surging to her feet before she started to walk back to the rendezvous point they had agreed upon before the mission.

~8~

Sam sat rigidly in a hospital room, two former-SHIELD agents, cleared of any connection to HYDRA, guarding the doors, the 'Trouble Man' soundtrack playing softly, his attention focused on a chair on the opposite side of the hospital bed he was sitting beside. So intent was he that he nearly jumped when he heard a tired, "On your left," from the bed and looked over to see Steve coming to.

Waking up days before the doctors thought he would, yet only an hour after Olivia had guessed he would.

He shook his head, smiling, "I think I should warn you, they're never gonna let you live it down."

"What?" Steve frowned.

Sam reached over and picked up a newspaper, placing it onto Steve's bed so the man could see the bold, colored picture of Olivia carrying him across her shoulders, the girl wounded, bleeding, looking like hell, yet carrying Captain America like it was nothing.

Whatever reaction Sam thought he'd get, hopefully some sort of indignant sputtering, maybe a laugh, probably just a fond shake of the head, it was none of them. Steve shot up in bed, wincing at the tug of his injuries, looking almost frantic. It wasn't till Sam noticed the man's eyes trained on the picture, the wounds Olivia sustained, and flashing to the door, that he realized Steve was completely terrified. His first thoughts weren't of feeling a bit embarrassed by the turn of events, but a consuming fear for where Olivia was and how she was doing.

"She's fine!" he rushed to reassure the man, "She's fine, well..." he winced, "As fine as can be..."

"What?" Steve let out a breath, though his heart monitor was still racing.

Sam just nodded to the side, to the other side of the hospital bed...where Olivia was sleeping, curled up on what looked like an actually comfortable, plush armchair that seemed quite out of place in a hospital room. The girl looked just as much like hell as she had in the photo, with bruises dotted around her neck, though faded somewhat, white bandages peering out from where her own hospital gown had tugged away from her shoulder, a few minor cuts everywhere. But she was alive, Steve could see it, her one arm draped over the side of her stomach, though her hand was splayed as though subconsciously putting pressure on a wound.

"She refused to leave you," Sam told him, watching as Steve struggled to sit up more to get closer to the girl, "Refused to let the docs treat her till you were taken care of."

"That's Liv," Steve murmured, reaching out to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear, resting his hand to her cheek, relieved, "She never lets herself come first."

Sam was silent, but he knew it was that way for a lot of medics, probably even more for Olivia given everything she'd lived through, the role she played. When he and Natasha had seen her staggering through the SHIELD crowd that gathered around their helicopter when it landed, sans Fury and Hill, her only concern had been getting Steve to a hospital for further treatment. And as soon as he had been laid out in the chopper, she'd instantly turned to the other agents, looking worn and pale, but offering to patch up any of them that were hurt, asking if anyone needed a medic.

The girl was literally standing there, bruised, beaten, and bloody, having carried Captain America god knew how far, sopping wet...and all she cared about was making sure other people were ok.

It had taken every single agent there insisting she go with Captain America, swearing they were fine, before she'd even entertain the thought of walking away. After Natasha exposed every single agent of SHIELD and HYDRA by dumping their information into the public, the only agents left there were true to SHIELD, those of HYDRA had fled into hiding. But he had a feeling, even if a HYDRA agent had been there, Olivia might have treated them anyway. They'd be in handcuffs and tied up, but she'd still help if they were seriously injured.

"They wanted her to rest," Sam continued, "Had a room set up for her too, but she just camped out here. Curled up on one of these god awful chairs, and kept monitor on your vitals."

Steve glanced at him, at the chair he was sitting on, and then to the plush chair Olivia was currently in.

Sam chuckled, "Apparently you have friends in some high places. Tony Stark had that delivered just for her."

Steve let out an amused breath, but promised himself he was going to thank Tony for looking out for Olivia, no matter how it was he'd found out about her ignoring doctor's orders. Probably Natasha gave him a call or something, he didn't really care how it all happened though.

Steve let his hand drop from her face to her hand, holding it lightly, his thumb running over her knuckles, "How is she?"

Sam was quiet a moment, not sure how much Olivia would want him to tell, not sure he even was able to tell. Wasn't there some doctor-patient secrecy thing? Did that apply here? She wasn't his patient, he wasn't her doctor, but she sort of was kind of HIS doctor? In a way? Did that count?

"Two bullet wounds," Olivia answered instead, slowly coming round to the feel of Steve's hand in her own, "Shoulder and side," he didn't need to know just yet that the one bullet from Bucky had needed surgery, "Minor tenderness around the throat area, cracked ribs, bruised back and some other areas, but other than that," she blinked her eyes open to look at him, "Right as rain. In better shape than you."

He just shook his head, tugging on her hand, earning a smile as she got up from the chair and moved to sit on the edge of his bed. Until another, firmer, tug moved her to lie beside him, allowing him to gingerly wrap his arm around her, not wanting to exacerbate her back, but needing to hold her close after nearly losing her the way he had.

A small sniffle from Olivia told him she needed the same thing after nearly losing HIM.

Sam quietly stepped out of the room.

~8~

Olivia and Steve stood in a cemetery, just before Fury's 'grave,' watching as the very-much-alive man walked off, having offered them jobs as spies to help him discover some operatives of HYDRA that were scattered through Europe. When they, and Sam, who had accompanied them there, refused, he'd merely shaken their hands and turned to go.

"You should be honored," Natasha called over as she joined them, a manila folder tucked under her arm, "That's about as close as he gets to saying thank you."

"How'd it go?" Olivia asked, knowing she'd just come from some sort of committee meeting meant to determine the fallout of them taking down SHIELD.

Natasha shrugged, "Same as always, blame everyone but themselves. Talk about locking us up. Got real quiet when I reminded them that they still need us."

Steve glanced at her for the use of 'us' and how she wasn't heading after Fury, "Not going with him?"

"No."

"So you're staying here then?" Olivia smiled.

Natasha shrugged again, "I blew all my covers, I gotta go figure out a new one."

"That might take a while," Steve remarked.

"I'm counting on it," she smirked at them, "I mean, I do have a wedding to help plan and..."

"Tasha," Olivia shook her head at the woman.

"We just took down a huge portion of HYDRA," Natasha reminded them, "I think that's earned us a celebration."

But Olivia just kept shaking her head, glancing at Steve as the man let out a breath and gave her a go-ahead nod, "Tasha, we don't need you to plan a wedding for us."

"I won't plan the whole thing," she promised, "I'll just be..."

"No, I mean..." Olivia let out a breath, "You really didn't notice?"

"Notice what?"

"Steve had his shirt off, and you didn't see it?"

Natasha gave her an odd look, "I don't know what it was like in the 40s, but it's sort of rude to ogle someone else's man."

Olivia merely turned and reached over to Steve, lightly running her finger along the side of his neck where the edge of his necklace was visible, hooking her finger around it to gently tug it out and show the spy what was dangling on the end of the chain.

"You've got to be shitting me."

Olivia had to laugh at Natasha's exclamation, for there, nestled by Bucky's dogtags, was a ring.

A man's wedding ring.

Olivia turned back to Natasha and tugged her own necklace out from under her shirt as well, revealing an engagement and wedding ring dangling from the end of it.

"Seriously!?" Natasha demanded.

"We got married a few days after I proposed," Steve told her, chuckling, before tucking the necklace back.

"It was my Christmas gift to him," Olivia added with a soft smile.

She and Peggy had scrambled to find a way to do it. When Steve had proposed to her for Christmas, it was just...words failed to describe how she felt. She loved him so much, she just wanted him to know she loved him just as much as he did her. She didn't want to wait till the war was won to let him know. Marriage wasn't all about the easy times, it was about the hard times too...and if they could survive a war, they could survive anything. She didn't want to begin a new year without him as her husband.

One well placed call to Howard from Peggy and, before she'd even realized it, Bucky was leading Steve to a small clearing, where the Commandos, Peggy, and Howard were waiting with a kindly priest from the nearest village. They had been married before the new year began, and Howard had pulled strings to get them a temporary leave, citing he needed to upgrade their suits for the final stretch of the war but really he had flown them to an island he owned so they could have just a moment's peace.

It hadn't lasted long before they were right back in the thick of it, helping to rescue the soldiers belonging to Peggy's future-husband's division and then going after Zola.

But it had been a dream in the middle of a nightmare.

They hadn't felt they could or should wear their rings on the battlefield though, what with him punching people and her, more often than not, yanking her gloves off and getting blood all over her hands. So the necklaces came into play, they never took them off, considering them good luck charms. Steve would sometimes get sentimental and kiss her knuckles, where her ring would be, he was endlessly sweet that way.

Not many knew they were married, not out of any need or desire to hide it. Fury had sworn to secrecy the doctors and agents who tended to them from the ice, who had seen the rings they wore and made the connection, which they hadn't fully understood the need to do. Anyone with eyes or a computer to look up their history knew they were together as more than just war-partners. They would automatically be the target others would go to to try and get to one of them. Being married wouldn't change anything, but they had gone along with the secrecy of it only because, despite being the faces of their countries, they were rather private people in some areas. Their marriage was no one's business but their own.

Natasha let out a disappointed huff, grabbing the file and thrusting it at them, "Well then consider this a belated wedding gift," she told them, "That thing you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev."

Steve looked down at the file, No. 17, which they knew contained information about the Winter Soldier, and handed it to Olivia to examine first, "Thank you."

Natasha nodded, "Be careful," she spoke, looking between them, "Both of you. You might not want to pull on that thread."

Sam watched as Natasha walked off, the woman grumbling about having to cancel the 'wedding of the century' and muttering about how long couples should wait before renewing their vows and did being frozen for 70 years count towards that? He shook his head, she was NOT going to let it go that easy was she? Before he focused on the duo, approaching them with a call of, "You're going after him?"

"Of course we are," Olivia remarked, so easily and so surely that Steve had to smile. She had his back, always.

"You don't have to come with us," Steve glanced at the man.

Sam nodded, "I know," before adding, "When do we start?"

Steve just shook his head when Sam smirked and saluted them before walking off, giving the two of them a moment.

"Well?" Steve asked, looking at Olivia as she flipped through the file.

"It's as terrible as we thought it would be," she murmured, a frown on her face, "Even more so," she sighed, handing him the file to see for himself. She crossed her arms, watching as his expression grew more stony the further he read, "Steve," she began when he snapped the folder shut, "What are we going to tell Tony?"

Steve let out a long breath, it would have been too much to hope Olivia wouldn't put the pieces together the way he had. She loved puzzles and codebreaking. Zola showing them snippets of the Winter Soldier and alluding to how 'accidents will happen' in relation to Howard Stark's death? It was clear to him, and Olivia as well, that Zola was implying the Winter Soldier had been responsible for it.

That Bucky had murdered Tony's father.

"Nothing," he said.

"Steve..." Olivia dropped her arms, shaking her head.

"We don't know," Steve looked at her, "We don't know, 100 percent, what happened," he reminded her, "Zola hinted at it, yeah, but there's nothing in this file about it, there's nothing that proves it was Bucky," he ran a hand through his hair, "I just...I don't want to tell Tony without knowing, for sure. Because the second we do, he's going to go after Bucky. You know he will. He won't care if Bucky was a puppet or tortured into doing it, he won't go after the people that did this to him. It won't be like him forgiving Clint, it's too personal for him this time," he pointed out, a rather hard truth. Tony HAD forgiven Clint for his brief stint as an enemy, being mind controlled by Loki, but he wouldn't forgive Bucky. The people Loki hurt, weren't as close to Tony or as important to him as his own parents were, "And what if Bucky doesn't remember it? What if he was supposed to but the mission changed? What if he didn't do it?"

Olivia shifted slightly, knowing Steve was grasping at straws with that last question. With everything they had learned, there was a fairly high chance that Bucky HAD done it.

But she supposed that was his point. There was a high CHANCE, not proof, not a guarantee, not hard evidence that that was what happened. They only had Zola's word to go on and the man could just as easily have told them because he might have known who the Winter Soldier was and just wanted to cause strife.

And Steve was right. Tony might have had his differences with his father, but the man clearly loved him and was still hurting even now over losing him the way he had. If he heard even a whisper that the Winter Soldier might have killed his parents, and learned who the Winter Soldier was, nothing would stop him going after the man, whether he did it or not.

"Fine," she agreed, "But, if we find out that...that it WAS..."

Steve nodded, grim, "We tell him," he promised, "But not until we KNOW."

Olivia could only give a nod in return, unable to help but feel like this was going to be a no-win situation no matter how it played out.

~8~

Steve jerked awake, his heart racing, his breathing fast, feeling like he was shaking despite the sweat that broke out over his body. He immediately turned to the side, reaching out for Olivia, and nearly stopped breathing when he saw the other half of the bed empty. The nightmare he'd just endured raced across his memory. He had been back on that train, going after Zola, he'd been hanging out the warped side of it...but instead of reaching for Bucky, he was reaching for Olivia. She had been there instead, reaching out to him to save her, when the metal warped even more and she fell from the train. He'd stared in horror, frozen as she'd fallen, much like how she'd done from the helicarrier, when a shot rang out. His head snapped up to see Bucky, no...the Winter Soldier standing on top of the train, a smoking gun aimed at where Olivia was falling to ensure she didn't survive either way. He'd screamed out in horror...and jolted awake.

But Olivia wasn't there and for one, brief, terrible moment he'd thought...what if it wasn't a dream? What if that was how it happened? What if it HAD been Olivia that fell? She wasn't there. Why wasn't she there? Where was she if not falling from that train and...

A glow of light, soft, caught his attention from under the door of the bedroom.

And then he remembered, he'd been reading Bucky's file in bed, waiting for Olivia to finish something in the living room...when he must have fallen asleep, still quite worn from everything that happened.

Though...as he looked down, he was sure he hadn't been under the covers, nor had he turned the lights off in the bedroom, and the file on Bucky was nowhere to be seen.

"Liv," he breathed, just knowing she must have gotten him to bed and taken the file. It was her in the living room that was causing the light. He quickly moved (did NOT scramble, thank you very much) out of bed and out of the room, stepping into the living room to see only one lamp on. A small smile grew on his face when his eyes adjusted to the change in light.

Olivia was asleep, half sitting, half laying on the coffee table, piles of books before her, a handful of them open, with a pen in hand and a notepad beside her, Bucky's file on her lap. He moved to her side, about to try and wake her gently...when he saw exactly what she was reading. Psychology books, conditioning and training books, ones about PTSD and torture...all the medical books she could find geared towards anything even remotely close to what someone in the file Natasha gave them might have endured.

"I'm a medic," Olivia murmured, starting to wake as she sensed him beside her, "I'm supposed to help with wounds. The mind an be hurt, I need to know how to fix it."

Steve let out a gentle breath at that, understanding now what she was trying to do, find a way to help reverse whatever lingering affects the brainwashing that had been done to Bucky might cause and help him cope once his mind was restored. They had just had their world torn apart for a second time by HYDRA, and yet here she was, already trying to learn how to heal a battered mind, for HIM.

"And I'm your husband," he reminded her, putting Bucky's file on the table and shifting her slightly to wind his arms around her back and under her knees, scooping her up in his arms, "I'm supposed to tell you to sleep when you're exhausted."

"Husband you may be," she spoke, "But I still outrank y...oooouu," her words would have had more of an impact if she hadn't started to yawn at the end of it.

He chuckled lightly in her ear, stepping into the bedroom and placing her down where he'd been lying, the bed still warm, before walking around to the other, cooler side, to slip in with her, "Rest, Liv," he told her, pulling her closer, "The books will still be there in the morning. I doubt we're gonna find Bucky before you get through them."

Olivia was silent, though more awake now, looking at him as she reached out to gently trace his face, "I'm sorry," she told him, adding on, "I shouldn't have let him go like that."

He gave her a soft smile, the initial despair and disbelief and slight anger he'd felt when she'd first told him that it had been Bucky to pull him out of the water and that she'd allowed him to walk away, fading, even more so now that he'd read the file Natasha had given them, "Do you remember," he said instead, "That time HYDRA managed to get a grenade at us, and I jumped on it with my shield so the Commandos could get back?"

"And you went flying through four trees?" she gave him a look, "Dislocated your shoulder and sprained your elbow too."

He nodded, "Remember what you did when Buck tried to see how I was?"

She laughed a bit at the memory. It was one of the times she'd been close enough to assist the Commandos if they got injured, with that particular mission being one of the more daring and dangerous ones they'd undertaken. The grenade had been right at the end of that battle, and the moment Steve had groaned in pain, she'd been at his side in an instant, gotten him in hand, and rushed him back to where they'd made camp. Apparently she'd been quite fast in her reaction to seeing Steve down for the count, and had already gotten his shoulder seen too and his elbow bandaged before the Commandos could make their way back. Steve had just fallen asleep when she'd heard the ruckus of them approaching, Bucky's voice the loudest.

She would NOT have her patient woken from much needed rest, and so she'd stormed out of there, warning them to be quiet. Bucky had not taken well to not seeing his best friend with his own two eyes, and demanded she move aside, tried to shove her too.

Lesson learned, never stand between a medic and their patient...nor should anyone stand between her and Steve when he was hurt.

She'd grabbed Bucky by the arm he'd shoved her with, twisted him and gotten him into a fireman's carry, hauling him a far enough distance away that she was sure she and Steve wouldn't hear them with their improved hearing, and set him down to see that the rather stunned Commandos had followed her. She ordered them to wait there, to sit on Bucky if need be, and to be quiet, that they would see Steve once he had rested enough to wake on his own and not because of their noise. She'd very firmly pointed at them before she'd strode off back to the tent.

Apparently one of the Commandos had, very amusedly, actually sat on Bucky to keep him from following her, citing she outranked them.

All had been well once Steve woke and she'd gone to bring them back, Steve had found it all quite amusing really though it had taken some time for Bucky to see the humor in it.

"He was my best friend," Steve continued, "But, in that moment, you didn't see that. You saw someone that was going to wake me up when I needed to rest. You put me first," he reached up to take her hand, holding it, "I've seen you in Medic-Mode," he teased, having heard a few other people call it that, when Olivia jumped from fellow SHIELD agent to field medic, "I know that, right then, you weren't seeing my best friend, but someone who needed time to heal, to find themselves. I'm not mad at you, I'm actually really glad you did it."

"You are?" her voice was so quiet and unsure that Steve felt his heart clench.

He nodded. He hadn't at first, had kept in his more negative feelings to spare hurting her when she was already physically injured, but Olivia was observant, she could tell he hadn't been happy. The more time he spent thinking on it, though, the more glad he was for her decision.

"If I had been awake, I would have found some way to convince him to go with us, or for us to go with him..." he could admit that, "And it wouldn't have helped anyone. If he went with us, it wouldn't be just SHIELD coming after him," and he'd made his point when they talked about Tony that there was no saying what Bucky would even remember, about his original life or about his life as the Winter Soldier, "If we went with him, HYDRA would probably find some way to spin it that we were all in cahoots and we'd end up on the run."

"It wouldn't be so bad," Olivia weakly argued, knowing how much Steve must be hurting to be separated from Bucky again and to have had her had a hand in it, "Being on the run."

"No?"

"So long as I was with you."

He smiled, "Same here," he fell silent for a moment, "But...we needed time, waking up from the ice. We both needed time," he looked at her, "You needed time before you could see Peggy again. Maybe that's what Bucky needs too, time before he can see me again."

It went unsaid that Bucky, if his memories were all there, would probably feel enormous guilt for what he'd done, the pain he'd caused. It wouldn't be good for Bucky to be confronted with the two people he cared about most and know he'd hurt them so badly. He needed time to come to terms with what was done to him and what he'd done in turn. And while Steve would have wanted nothing more than to be beside him, help him through it as Bucky had done for him so often, it was different. Bucky had never before been the cause of something hurting him, but he was now, in a way. He couldn't deny he'd been physically hurt, even if he knew it wasn't Bucky's fault.

He could only hope that, when Bucky trusted himself enough, he'd come find them.

"And when he's ready, we will be too," Olivia promised, squeezing his hand.

Steve smiled and nodded, they would be. When Bucky was ready to face them, they'd be ready to help him truly heal.

To be continued...in...Home of the Brave!

A/N: I felt that title was fitting as a big theme in Ultron is home, protecting it (for the twins) and also Tony wanting to protect the planet, but also bravery in how Wanda forces them to face their worst fears :( It may take a while before we can get to that story though. I'm going to be aiming for finishing Lyssa, Menna, Sadie, Claire, and Angel's stories first and then evaluating where I am and what stories will come next. But I'll do my best to put a note about it on tumblr when I get to that point ;)

For this chapter though, poor Bucky, poor Steve, poor Natasha! Her dreams of their wedding are dashed lol. I hope there was enough hinting and foreshadowing about the possibility of Steve and Olivia having been married in the 40s that it doesn't feel like it came out of nowhere. I tried to allude to it in their necklaces, in Steve's habit of kissing her knuckles, in their remembrance of Christmas and their leave from the army for a short while. Peggy almost gave it away though! Mr. and Mrs. Rogers ;) I was hoping it would be a 'is she teasing because they ARE or her mind has just gone' sort of thing lol ;)

I know some may be very disappointed (probably not as disappointed as Natasha lol) to not see the wedding happen or see Steve propose, so I can say that I am debating doing a one-shot of the proposal/wedding/honeymoon/rescue of Peggy's future-husband in the future, not sure yet ;)

I also hope that Olivia's choice in letting Bucky go made sense. Outwardly and physically, he sustained less severe injuries than she or Steve did, he didn't need her to tend to him as extensively as Steve did. And, like with Natasha, Olivia is always trying to think ahead to the next steps needed to help someone. She knew she couldn't use her hands to keep pressure on Natasha's wounds and still get her to safety, whereas someone else's first reaction might be 'put pressure on the wounds, use your hands!' She has to think ahead in terms of 'will my tending these injuries get them time to be saved off the field' and it sort of carries over into trying to think ahead on other things. She has the forethought to know if Bucky goes with them, or them with him, it won't help him heal. He'd be captured and likely executed, or he'd be confronted with the reminder of the hurt he's caused constantly. That was her way of trying to help him, to let him go. Having him save Steve also was a very big indicator to her that his memories, enough of them, came back to ensure he would be safe to be around and wasn't still the Winter Soldier, so she felt ok letting him go as she didn't believe he'd be a threat to anyone else or harm them now that he remembered enough to save Steve :)

Again with her little moment of not treating herself but others :( She's still got that bullet wound in her shoulder, but she's using her time to wrap Steve's leg and then manages to carry him to safety despite her own injuries. That's so her :'(

For telling Tony, Steve probably knows deep down that Bucky DID kill the Starks (I feel terrible for lol-ing, but 'Winter' killed the 'Starks', terrible Game of Thrones little mini-connection there). But he doesn't want to believe it and he also wants to have physical proof before he says ANYTHING to Tony. If there's even the slightest chance that he didn't, Steve won't tell Tony. Olivia isn't pleased with it, but she understands that they don't 100 percent know, as Steve said. I was holding out hope too that Zola lied just to get to Steve :(

I also felt like, with Steve still trying to help Bucky after the man may-or-may-not have killed Olivia, it was sort of a combination of 'what would Olivia do' and 'this is BUCKY' and a hope that Olivia survived. Olivia would never ask Steve to abandon Bucky to death, even if he had killed her, the same way she would still try to help him even if he'd killed Steve. Because they know there is something so wrong with him, and he needs help. It worked out in the end, thankfully.

Lol, Tony sending Olivia a chair so she won't be uncomfortable is something I could see him doing :)

And, just to end...I really have to say thank you guys SO much! Really, I give each and every reader/reviewer/favoriter/follower/ko-fi giver/anythinger a virtual hug because you guys are amazing :) I write for all of you guys and I'm just so touched that you all liked the story and am truly thankful that you're enjoying Olivia :) I'll do my very best to keep it up in the future, because you guys most definitely deserve it. I love you all :')

Some notes on reviews...

Lol, Steve was quite calm wasn't he? :) I feel like, to him, each time Natasha would bring it up, he just gets a warm feeling inside because 'she's already my wife' sort of thing :) So he doesn't ruin the surprise because he likes being reminded of that ;) We might get to see the proposal/marriage, it may just take a while to get to ;)

I was so torn about who should fall or fall first. But I felt like Steve needed to be the one to spark Bucky's memory, so he had to go second. And I also couldn't see him blowing up the carrier if Liv was still there, he went through it once with the ice, I don't think he could handle it again :( So she had to fall at some point before then :( But yup, Bucky saved him! :) I also thought he needed to be the one to do that as another little puzzle piece to Olivia that his memory, or some of it, had come back and he could be trusted to go off on his own without killing anyone :) I can say Natasha might get to see a bit of Olivia in action in a scene or two to come ;) Tony didn't check on Olivia in person, but he definitely kept tabs on her by sending her a comfy chair :) Liv (and Steve) has her ring, no worries ;)