ONE WEEK LATER

★ ★ ★

Marlena lay on the couch in the loft with her feet propped over the back of it, her cell phone in her hand, and her headphones in her ears. She had just returned from speaking with Tony and Bruce about her issue regarding being taken off the suppressors. The two were more than ready to finally take her off of them, but Marlena was anything but. She had suffered a mild panic attack due to her fear of being taken off of the suppressors, which in turn made both Bruce and Tony feel awfully terrible. . .for the third time that week.

The past week had been a fairly difficult for Marlena. She was dealing with the fear of what could possibly happen if she were to be taken off the suppressors, yet no one except for Bruce and Tony knew it. She had done a good job concealing her emotions from everyone else, as well as the fact that she was even still on the suppressors. She feared she wouldn't like the reaction she received from her friends and Bucky if she told them she was going to stay on the suppressors until she felt comfortable enough to be taken off of them; she feared she would end up hurting one of her friends if she were to be taken off of the suppressors, and that was something she would never be able to forgive herself for allowing to happen.

The possibility that she could hurt the people she cared about without any effort whatsoever was what really prompted Marlena's need to remain on the suppressors. It was her number one fear at the moment, and although she was not exactly aware of just how powerful she was as an individual, she could feel it inside her to an extent. Not to mention, Tony and Bruce had done an excellent job explaining to her how catastrophic her abilities could prove to be if they weren't controlled properly.

Marlena scrolled aimlessly through her Twitter feed as she lay on the couch, singing Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" to herself. She was in a particularly good mood now that she had gotten out of yet another attempt in trying to take her off of the suppressors. It was either that or the suppressors had put her in a good mood themselves; they did affect her emotions, after all.

Bucky made his way into the loft with Steve, dragging him into the room by his wrist so he could hand him over to Marlena. The two had spent the last hour and a half talking about Steve's relationship with Natasha, which was nonexistent according to Steve. Their talk had proved to be nothing but annoying for Bucky, and, as of right now, he was more than done with his best friend. He decided it would be best to let someone he knew could talk some sense into him take over.

"Marlena," Bucky said as he and Steve stepped further into the loft.

Marlena could not hear him, though, nor could she see either of them. She was now busy singing "Colors of the Wind" from the Pocahontas soundtrack, as well as scrolling through her Facebook feed. Steve snickered at her, while Bucky merely raised his eyebrows in response to what he was witnessing.

"I know that song," Steve said. "It's from that Pocahontas movie."

Bucky gave him a look. "There's a Pocahontas movie? With singing?"

"Yeah. Don't worry—I didn't understand it either."

Bucky only shook his head and stepped away from Steve, making his way over to Marlena. He pulled the headphones out of her ears, which startled her. She jumped into a sitting position and looked up at Bucky, who now had an amused smirk on his face.

"Are you having fun, sweetheart?" he baited, handing her headphones back to her.

She tucked her phone and headphones into the couch cushion. "What do you want?"

"I need you to talk some sense into Steve," Bucky said, gesturing to his friend who only gave a small wave.

Marlena chuckled and pulled her feet onto the couch. "About what?"

"Natasha," Bucky sighed, sitting down across from her on the coffee table.

Marlena looked at Steve and smiled, patting the open spot beside her. He let out a breath and sauntered over, plopping down onto the couch beside her.

"So, why don't you two tell me what's going on?" Marlena started, glancing between the two of them.

"I have these feelings for Nat, but I haven't told her and Buck is kind of mad about it," Steve told her.

"I'm not mad," Bucky muttered. "I just don't understand why you're so afraid to tell her how you feel."

Steve rolled his eyes but didn't answer.

Marlena shook her head at the two of them and shifted herself into a more comfortable position on the couch. "You really should tell Natasha how you feel, Steve."

Bucky scoffed. "He won't—"

"Hush," Marlena chastised him, looking at back at Steve. "You shouldn't be scared to tell her how you feel, though. Just pretend you're twentieth century Bucky Barnes and go for it—I'm sure she'll throw herself right at you."

"Excuse you," Bucky said, raising a brow at Marlena.

"Don't blame me. Steve's the one that said you had all the dames," Marlena smirked.

Steve shook his head. "It's not that I'm scared or nervous, really—it's something else."

"What the hell is it then, Steve?" Bucky questioned.

Steve shrugged, scratching the back of his neck. "She's just. . .Natasha. She's a deadly assassin who takes her job very seriously—she doesn't seem like the type to be into romantic relationships, let alone a relationship with her team member."

"I'm an assassin and look where I'm at," Bucky chimed in, gesturing to Marlena.

"You and Marlena are different, Buck," Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Plus, I have no clue if she even shares the same feelings for me that I do for her."

"Really, Steve?" Marlena exclaimed. "Please don't tell me you're that oblivious!"

Steve seemed slightly startled by her outburst. "What do you mean, Mar?"

"She's head over heels for you, dude," she told him. "It's really obvious."

"Of course it would be to you—you can read everyone's mind," Steve retorted. "You know all of us better than we know each other."

Marlena shook her head at him. "I don't have to read her mind to know she has feelings for you."

"Neither do I," Bucky said. "She just told me she did."

Steve smiled slightly, looking down at his hands. "So, she really has feelings for me?"

"Yes," Marlena answered. "I can't believe you were so oblivious."

"Girls are confusing, okay? You wouldn't understand," Steve murmured.

Marlena scoffed and sat back in her seat. "I understand more than you think I do, trust me. Bucky uses my shampoo and he cries every time Luke finds out Darth Vader is his father."

Steve burst out laughing, while Bucky only groaned and ran his hands through his hair.

"What the f—Marlena? Why would you tell him that?" Bucky muttered. "He's never gonna let me live it down."

Marlena smiled and grabbed his hand, rubbing it with the pad of her thumb. "It's okay, Buck. You make a cute girl. And I'm sure Steve thinks so, too."

"At least now I know why you always smell like vanilla bean," Steve said through his laughter.

Bucky's cheeks reddened as the two most important people in his life continued to tease him. He couldn't bring himself to formulate a response, though. All he could do was sit and listen.

"He let me french braid his hair one time, too," Marlena said, continuing the tease session.

Bucky glared at her as Steve's laughter grew stronger. "You have way more embarrassing instances, Marlena Claire. Need I enlighten Steve about them?"

Marlena chuckled and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I'll stop."

"That's what I thought."

Marlena took a deep breath in order to control her laughter and looked back at Steve. "Okay, okay—lets get back to the original conflict. If you want my advice, I'd say you're ninety-some years old, Steve. It's about time you grew a pair of balls and just came out with how you felt."

"Shit, Marlena," Bucky muttered.

"I mean, if Bucky can do it so can you," Marlena said to him. "And you can probably do it better."

"That's it," Bucky said, standing from his spot. "I'm not dealing with this shit, I'm leaving. You can talk to him without me!"

Bucky left the room before either of them could respond. Marlena couldn't help but laugh at his behavior.

"He's such a whiner," she snickered. "Okay, now let's get down to business. Let's talk about how you're going to tell Nat that you're in love with her."

Steve scoffed, shaking his head in denial. "I am not in—"

"It's love," Marlena cut him off.

"But—"

"It's love, Steve!" she exclaimed. "Don't you dare fight me on this. I see the way you look at her all the time, and weren't you two the ones Bucky was after when he was. . .y'know?"

Steve nodded and sighed. "Yeah, yeah we were."

"And what was your main priority during that period of time besides protecting the people?" Marlena questioned.

"To protect her."

"Yet you know she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself," Marlena followed. "It's how Bucky is with me."

Steve took a deep breath and began playing with his hands, unable to process Marlena's words. "I never thought of it that way."

"You're scared and that's okay," Marlena assured him. "But you need to tell her before it's too late. I know Natasha feels the same, and I know she'd do anything for you, but us girls can be pretty impatient. She won't wait on you forever."

"How exactly am I supposed to go about it, though?"

"Just don't think too much about it and you'll be okay," she told him, giving his arm a comforting pat. "Overthinking a situation makes the situation a lot scarier and a lot more difficult to deal with, so don't do it."

The corner of Steve's lips pulled up into a smile as he looked at Marlena. "Thank you, Mar. My conversation with you was considerably more helpful than the one I had with Buck."

"What can I say?" Marlena chuckled, "I have a way with people."

Before Steve could respond, Tony strolled into the room, tinkering with a tablet in his hands.

"Rogers," he called upon entering. "Mission update: band of Hydra agents have taken hostages down in Pennsylvania."

"For what reason?" Steve questioned, his brows furrowed in confusion.

Tony shrugged and typed away on his tablet. "I'm not sure. I think it was to get our attention, and it worked."

Steve sighed and pushed himself off of the couch. "Who's my mission partner?"

"There aren't that many agents, so I thought you would be best alone. Romanoff and Barton are on a mission of their own, Bruce and I are working, and Metallica and Clair de Lune aren't exactly fit for a mission involving Hydra," Tony explained. "We don't know what kind of system shutdown shit they implanted into those little assassin brains of theirs, and I'm not losing my little flower."

Marlena chuckled in response to his words but made no move to make a verbal response. She was determined to help Steve, especially since he was now forced onto the mission alone. She just couldn't let Tony know what she was up to. He wouldn't hesitate to lock her in her room until Steve returned, and she didn't want that happening. She wasn't scared of Hydra or anything Hydra related. If anything, Hydra only angered her, as they had tried to take everything away from her, and the fact that they still were attempting to do so only made her angrier. She wanted to put an end to Hydra, and if assisting Steve meant she could do just that she would consider it without hesitating.

"Alright, well I'll head out," Steve said.

"Great," Tony said with a smile. "The quinjet's ready up top—location coordinates are already locked into the system."

Tony took off down the hallway before either of them could respond. The moment he was out of ear shot, Marlena hopped off of the couch and grabbed Steve by the arm. He turned to face her, his brows pulling down in question.

"I'm going with you," she said before he had the chance to speak.

"Did you not just hear Tony?"

"Yes, I heard him. Do I care, though? Not one bit," she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest.

Steve sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Marlena, I can't let you. The risk is—"

"They can't hurt me anymore than they already have, Steve," Marlena said, her demeanor changing as she recalled all the ways Hydra had hurt her. "And, what Tony doesn't know is that my shutdown word was Vostok; any time Rumlow or my doctors used it I would have to feign unconsciousness. Anything mental they tried on me never worked because of the potency of the serum; it blocked any kind of mental manipulation by forming some sort of weird, protective, mystic blockade around my brain; it's why brainwashing me never worked as I have just recently figured out. I'll be okay, Steve. Please just let me do this—let me help you."

Steve thought for a moment before nodding. "You're gonna have to tell Tony."

"I will," Marlena nodded.

She was lying, though; she couldn't tell Tony about going on the mission with Steve. The main reason Tony refused to allow her a spot on the mission was not because of her assassin situation with Hydra, but because of the suppressors she was still currently taking. They affected more than just her mental abilities, and though Marlena was more than skilled in the art of combat, the possibility of her getting injured was greater than normal while she remained under the influence of the suppressors.

"Suit up," Steve instructed. "We leave in fifteen."

Marlena nodded and ran up the stairs, wasting no time at all in heading down the hall to her and Bucky's shared bedroom. She pushed the door open and rushed in, unaware that she was under the watchful eyes of Bucky Barnes. She was too focused on finding something suitable to wear to notice him, as well as the sound emitting from the large flat screen TV hanging on the wall.

Bucky watched as she removed several articles of clothing from their drawers and tossed them to the floor. He wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, but he wanted to know.

"Lookin' for something?" Bucky questioned as he hopped off of the bed.

Marlena squealed in surprise as she knelt down on the floor and turned to face him, her stance leaving her to fall the rest of the way to the floor.

"What the hell?" she breathed out as Bucky snickered, holding a hand out to her.

"I'm sorry," he said as he pulled her off of the floor. "I just wanted to know what you were looking for so aggressively."

She pursed her lips, debating on whether or not she should tell him. "Well, I was looking for something suitable to wear."

"For what?" he asked, his brows raised.

"Mission with Steve," she answered. "Tony wanted me to assist him—he said it would help me with my abilities."

"Sounds. . .risky," Bucky said.

"Sending you would be even riskier."

"And why is that?"

"Because it's Hydra," Marlena told him. "All they have to do is say one little word and you're back within the grasp of the ones you tried so desperately to escape from."

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Word? What word?"

"I can't say it to you, Buck," Marlena chuckled.

"So you do know what it is, though?"

She nodded. "I do—Rumlow told me in case I ever needed to use it. It's intended function is to shut you down."

Realization then struck Bucky. "They had to have given you one, too, then, Marlena."

"They did," she chuckled, "It's Vostok, but it doesn't work on me because of my mental abilities."

Bucky scoffed and pulled Marlena to his chest. "Of course it doesn't, you little brat."

She smiled and hugged him tightly. "I need to go, Buck. Steve is waiting on me."

He pulled away and kissed her on the forehead. "Please for the love of God come back to me; don't leave me here with these idiots."

"I will, Bucky," she assured him with a low chuckle. "I promise you."

She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. Although Marlena would love nothing more than to stay in with Bucky, she knew that she needed to help Steve.

"I'll be back," she informed him as she pulled away.

"And I'll be here. . .watching that Flix thing," Bucky said.

She chuckled and kissed him again. "It's Netflix, Buck, but have fun with that."

"I'll probably have more fun with you when you get back," he smirked, squeezing her side slightly.

Marlena made a face and shook her head. "You're so nasty."

Bucky shrugged and kissed her once more. "Maybe so. But I love you, okay? Stay safe; please don't let them take you away from me again."

"I won't," she assured him as she finally pulled away. "And I love you."