The sun shone brightly through the living room windows and the soft sound of the television could be heard in the background. Marlena and Bucky lay fast asleep on the enormous couch, with Bucky's arms wrapped protectively around her and Marlena's hand resting soundly on top of his chest. The two of them looked so comfortable with each other that Miranda or Mason didn't have the heart to wake them up. They knew, though, that Marlena would eventually be woken up by the strong smell of food radiating throughout the house. It was one of the only things that could wake her up, so it was only a matter of time now.

Marlena let out a small groan as she was met with the smell of spiced chicken, as well as the bright sunlight. She rolled over on the couch, thinking it was her bed, and nearly fell off. Bucky's arms tightening around her prevented her from doing so, and she took a startled breath before tightly latching onto his arm.

"I've got you, Mar," Bucky assured her as he pulled her back onto the couch.

"Thank you for that," she whispered as she sat up. She looked an absolute mess, but she didn't seem to care that much about it—all she cared about was Bucky Barnes and food.

She smiled at Bucky and placed a soft kiss on his lips before hopping off of the couch. She held her hand out to him, and he chuckled before taking it and standing up.

"You seem pretty chipper," he mused as she pulled him towards the kitchen.

"Well, I have you in my life and food waiting on me in the kitchen," Marlena chimed as she pushed the kitchen door open. "Nothing could be better."

"It's about time you two woke up," Miranda teased as she munched on a piece of chicken by the stove.

"You could have woken us up when you woke up, but you didn't," Marlena retorted. She let go of Bucky's hand and walked over to her, stealing a piece of the Italian chicken off of her plate before heading over to the fridge to grab her and Bucky a drink. She grabbed a bottle of Coke from the fridge, as well as a bottle of root beer. She slid the glass bottle over to Bucky who now sat at the opposite end of the island and he grabbed it, wasting no time at all in opening it up.

Miranda scoffed and shoved another piece of chicken in her mouth. "You looked so comfortable and cute; I didn't want to disturb you."

"Surprise, surprise," Marlena murmured as she moved to stand beside her mom.

Mason looked between the two of them with a smile on her face. He loved Bucky and Marlena, and the thought of the two of them being together made them happy. He could tell just how happy Bucky made Marlena, and he wanted her to stay that way. He remembered how upset being with Dylan made her, and he didn't want to see her upset like that again.

"You two are gonna stay together, right?" Mason spoke, catching all three of their attention. "I mean, he makes you happy, Mar—anyone can see that."

Marlena glanced at Bucky before looking back at her brother. "Mason—"

"I remember how that Dylan guy made you feel, and I don't want you to feel that way again," he said, cutting her off. "With Bucky, I know you won't feel that way again, so you have to stay with him, sis."

Marlena smiled and ran over to her brother, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I love you so much, Mason. And yes, I will stay with Bucky but only if he wants me to."

"Of course I want you to," Bucky said with a smile.

"Wait a minute," Miranda chimed in. "What the hell is this? When you were nine you tried burying him in the sandbox out back, and now you love him? Am I really at work that much?"

Marlena laughed and nodded her head, still not bothering to remove her arms from around her brother's shoulders. "Yes, you really are."

"Besides Bucky over there, Marlena is my best friend, momma," Mason informed Miranda.

Bucky chuckled and took a sip of his Coke, while Miranda shook her head and put another piece of chicken in her mouth.

"I love not being loved," Miranda grumbled as she chewed on her chicken.

Marlena laughed, but before she could respond the doorbell rang. Marlena rushed out of the kitchen and back into the living room to answer the door.

She pulled the door open to reveal Hallie, standing at the threshold with two Starbucks cups in her hands and a small smile on her face.

"I come bearing caffeinated beverages," she squeaked happily as she held a cup out to her.

Marlena took it from her hand and moved aside to allow her to come inside. Marlena was confused and slightly caught off guard. She was definitely not expecting Hallie to show up, let alone show up with coffee.

"What are you doing here, Hal?" Marlena asked as she sat down on the couch.

"I just came to see how you were doing," she spoke slowly, sitting down beside her on the couch. "Is your mom home? Because that smell is very familiar."

Marlena took a sip of her coffee, despite the fact that she had a root beer sitting in the kitchen. "Yes she is, and yes it is."

Hallie hummed in response and turned to smile at her best friend. "So, how are you doing?"

Marlena smiled as she recalled her the way her life was going. "I'm doing fantastic, really. Life is as good as it could get at the moment."

Hallie shifted uncomfortably in her seat and scratched the back of her neck. "Really? So, like. . .you and James? Did you-did you. . .you know. . .?"

It was obvious that Hallie was feeling rather awkward about the situation, and that made Marlena frown, as well as the mention of Bucky had. She should have figured he was the reason for her random visit, especially when he had been the reason for all of her random visits for the past month.

"Did I what, Hallie?" Marlena wondered.

"Did you get rid of him?" she blurted.

Marlena's face fell at her choice of words, but before she had the chance to respond to them, the kitchen door burst open, and Bucky walked into the living room, his Coke bottle in hand. Hallie took a deep breath and looked at Marlena.

"He won't hurt you, calm down," Marlena tried to assure her, but her words were ignored.

"He's still here?" Hallie exclaimed, fear evident in her tone. "Why is he still here, Marlena?"

Bucky didn't respond to her words. He only frowned and watched the exchange between Marlena and Hallie unfold.

"Because I want him to be here," Marlena murmured. "Why do you even care?"

"Because he's a murderer, Marlena!" Hallie practically screamed. She wasn't handling his presence very well at all. She thought Marlena would have kicked him out or at least attempt to turn him in. That definitely didn't seem to be the situation though.

Hallie's words, though, had angered Marlena. Bucky was not a murderer, and if Hallie knew the whole story she would understand the same way she did.

"No, he's not," Marlena snapped.

Bucky let out a sad sigh and leaned against the wall. Hallie was right about him, yet she was also wrong, and he just had to keep telling himself how wrong she was.

"How can you sit there and say that? All of those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the helicarrier, all of those innocent people on the D.C. Parkway? I showed you the damn video, Marlena. Don't let your petty little feelings for him keep you from seeing who he really is," Hallie countered.

Marlena was growing angrier and angrier with each word pouring out of her mouth. Hallie had no right to say any of that to her. Hallie didn't know Bucky the way Marlena did, she didn't know the true Bucky hiding behind the barrier. There was only one thing Marlena could think to do to convince her of that.

"I'm so sick of dealing with this," Marlena muttered before getting off of the couch.

She pushed her way passed Bucky and headed down the hall, ignoring the calls she was receiving from Hallie. She was done keeping things from Hallie, especially regarding this situation. Her secrets only made things worse and was becoming very toxic to their friendship. She couldn't take the stress anymore, and she needed Hallie to understand why she was so dedicated to Bucky, even if it meant disrespecting her family's wishes.

She ran down the basement stairs and headed over to the mess of boxes her and Bucky had been sifting through his first night at her house. She grabbed as many photo albums and pictures as she could before heading back up the stairs, careful not to drop any of them in the process.

Miranda and Mason had now found their way into the living room as well. Miranda was attempting to calm Hallie down, but it didn't seem to be working. Bucky still stood against the wall, his gaze focused on the floor. Hallie had angered and upset him, but he knew that saying something to her would only make matters worse—he believed it was best to just let Marlena take care of the situation.

Marlena strolled back into the room, the albums and pictures in hand. Miranda noticed this and her eyes widened slightly, but she wasn't given the chance to protest before Marlena threw them onto Hallie.

"My great grandpa Jo wasn't just any World War Two soldier; he was a Howling Commando," Marlena said to her, causing her mom's, Hallie's, and Bucky's eyes to flash toward her.

"What?" Hallie hummed as she looked at the amount of photo albums laying in her lap.

"Y'know, the World War Two military unit led by Captain America himself," Marlena answered. "Members: Timothy Dugan, Jim Morita, Gabriel Jones, Jacques Dernier, James Falsworth, Junior Juniper, Pinky Pinkerton, Sam Sawyer, Joseph Claire, and James Barnes, respectively known as Bucky."

"What? I'm so confused. How come you never told me? What does this even have to do with anything we're talking about?" Hallie asked as she began looking through the albums.

Marlena sighed and crossed her arms before she began pacing back and forth. "In nineteen forty-five, after saving my grandpa from falling to his death, Bucky fell to his, or at least that's what everybody thought," Marlena began explaining.

Bucky's breath caught in his throat as he listened to her, and Miranda frowned.

"Marlena," her mother warned, only to be cut off by Marlena's voice.

"He survived and was taken by Hydra, where they wiped his memory and turned him into their own personal assassin. Blah, blah, blah, he killed a bunch of people; blah, blah, blah, they froze him until they needed him," she continued.

Hallie looked up at Marlena and frowned. "I'm still so confused."

"That's because you don't care enough to pay attention to detail," Marlena rolled her eyes, "Bucky Barnes is James, Hallie—that James standing over there against the wall."

Hallie looked over at him and glanced down at the picture in her lap. The similarities between the man against the wall and the man in the picture were uncanny, despite the lack of facial hair and shoulder-length hair in the picture.

"But," she glanced over at Bucky again before looking back at Marlena. "He should be dead; he should be like a hundred years old, Marlena; this isn't possible."

"It's as possible as it gets, Hallie. Steve Rogers is in the same situation; he's a ninety-five year old man trapped in like a twenty-six year old body," Marlena explained. "What I'm trying to say is that Bucky is not the person Hydra programmed him to be anymore. He's not a murderer, Hallie, I promise. He was brainwashed, he didn't know what he was doing."

Hallie looked up at Bucky and frowned before looking back down at the pictures in her hands. She didn't want to believe what Marlena was saying, but she had no other choice but to do just that.

"So, the help you were giving him. . .you were trying to get his memories back, weren't you?" Hallie spoke quietly, still examining the pictures. She couldn't begin to understand why Marlena had kept such a large aspect of her life a secret from her, but now that she was finally being informed about it things were beginning to make sense to her.

"Yes, I was," Marlena answered as she sat down on the coffee table in front of Hallie. "Do you understand why I'm doing all this? Why I can't 'get rid' of him?"

"I do," Hallie answered.

She began pondering over everything she had just been told, and almost immediately she began to feel guilty.

It only took her seconds to realize that she had made a terrible mistake.

She had been working with Dylan for weeks to try and rid Marlena's life of Bucky. She even made Dylan call the authorities on him the day after the two discovered who he was—or used to be—and although they still had yet to show up and take Bucky away, she knew that they would sooner or later and there would be nothing any of them could do to stop it, not even Bucky himself. She had let her deluded assumptions get the best of her, and there was no turning back, no matter how desperately she wanted to. Just thinking about it made her feel sick to her stomach.

She pushed the albums aside and stood up, grabbing her purse and her coffee. "I'm sorry, Marlena, I need to go," she said before walking over to Bucky. "And I'm so sorry, Bucky. I really am," she told him before hurrying out the front door.

Little did they know that the reason for her apologies would come knocking on the door the very next day, more than ready to take back what was theirs.