The apartment was quiet for the most part. The twins were fast asleep in their bedroom. Sam had gone back to his apartment with Mason, who'd very graciously accepted Sam's offer to stay while Marlena dealt with Charlie's predicament. James had gone back to his apartment in the city, and Alena had gone with him. Bucky remained at Steve and Marlena's apartment, simply for the sake of being there for Charlie and Jay. He wanted to know what was going on and what Marlena planned to do to help their little girl, but she was still at a loss herself. She knew what Charlie wanted from her, and she knew she would likely give her daughter what she wanted, but she was unsure how to go about it the right way.

Marlena stood in the kitchen staring at the bottle of water in front of her on the counter. She was so lost inside her thoughts. Every passing minute she was trying to find a way to process exactly what her daughter had done. Charlie tried so hard to be good, but she often found herself falling through the cracks trying to pull it off. That was what hurt Marlena the most. Knowing Charlie was suffering so much at such a young age troubled Marlena tremendously.

The kitchen door opened rather abruptly, startling Marlena slightly. She looked up to see Bucky in the doorway watching her, his blue eyes curious. She'd almost forgotten she'd left Steve and Bucky in the living room to grab a bottle of water. Looking at the time on the stove revealed at least five minutes had gone by since then.

"Are you okay? We were kind of in the middle of a conversation," Bucky reminded her. He was impatient, that much Marlena could indicate from his tone. Marlena figured he was likely ready to wrap everything up for the sake of still being under the same roof as her and Steve. Tension between the three, more specifically between Marlena and Bucky, had gotten worse since their unforeseen conversation in the kitchen just a couple weeks prior. They hadn't spoken much since then. Of course, they both knew now wasn't the time to let their feelings over the situation keep them from being there for Charlie and Jay as their parents, but the painful fracture in their relationship could not be ignored.

"I'm fine," Marlena answered him. She grabbed her water bottle from the counter and started out of the kitchen. Bucky followed closely behind her and together the two headed back into the living room.

Marlena walked over to sit beside Steve on the couch, while Bucky sat down in the recliner. Marlena met Bucky's eyes, though he tried desperately to stray from meeting hers.

"So, she's not gonna get in trouble for this, is she?" Marlena asked Bucky, and he shook his head.

"Officially, the only thing the police know is that the restaurant had three deteriorating columns," he explained to Marlena.

"Do you know how many people were involved? Who they were?" Steve asked.

"Mom and daughter from the Aldeman family; father, daughter, and son from the Crawford family; mother from the Sherwood family," Bucky answered with a frown on his face; couldn't even look at them as he spoke his next words. "They were all DOA."

"And she knows it all?" Marlena spoke quietly. Just hearing the number of casualties made her sick to her stomach.

Bucky nodded his head. "She told me she felt it."

"And that's why she wants me to take it away," Marlena spoke quietly as she looked to the floor. She was more or less speaking to herself and hadn't counted on Steve or Bucky hearing her, but they had, and now their confused faces were now on her own.

"I'm sorry, take what away?" Bucky asked her.

Marlena looked up at Bucky. "All she said was that she wanted me to take away the pain, and now that you mention what she said, I think she wants me to take away the memory of it. No memory, no pain."

"You want to take away her memory?"

"How else do you expect me to help her?"

"I dunno, Marlena." Bucky gave a frustrated sigh. "Maybe talk to her? Isn't that your life's work now? You get paid to talk to people about their problems?"

Marlena let out a breath. Bucky was getting too worked up and it was stressing her out. "Can we talk about this like adults, please?"

Steve got up silently and left the room. He figured the conversation was one he no longer needed to be apart of. Marlena would let him know whatever the two decided to do about Charlie, but as of the moment they needed their privacy.

Marlena frowned as she watched Steve disappear and she looked back at Bucky, who was still just as frustrated as he was before. "I don't wanna do this with you, not now, not when this is happening to our little girl. She's too young for this, Bucky. She's too young to know the shattering pain of living this life. If there's something I can do to take that pain away from her, I have to at least try."

"I get it, but take this from someone who is still trying to piece back together the broken bits of their brain because of having their mind messed with," Bucky remarked; there was a certain desperation in his tone that Marlena could not ignore.

"I'm not Hydra," Marlena said. "I wouldn't be messing with her mind the way they messed with yours. I'd be making her mind a safer place for her to retreat to the way she asked me to. She's a nine-year-old girl who's already got the blood of six people on her hands because of a cosmic burden she never asked for! I don't want this for her. I never wanted this for either of them."

"Neither did I, but manipulating the pain away only makes the situation ten times deadlier," Bucky stood up to grab his jacket. He was ready to go, and while he wanted nothing more than to take his kids home and hold them, he knew the safest place for them was with their mother. "I have lived it, Marlena. Please don't do this. If she can't feel the pain of remorse or the pain of guilt associated with causing someone's death, then I guarantee she'll be more of a daddy's girl than you ever thought she'd be."

"Bucky—"

"I gotta go." Bucky frowned and put his jacket on. "I'll be back over tomorrow and we can talk more, but I just gotta go. Please don't do anything to Charlie. We might not be together, but we make decisions together. They're still our children. I hope you haven't forgotten that."

"You know I haven't."

"Goodnight, Marlena..."

"Goodnight, Buck..."

Bucky left the apartment without another word. The clock on the wall let Marlena know it was nearing midnight. She grabbed her water bottle off the table and started out of the living room, turning off the lights on her way out. After a quick checkup on the twins, Marlena took off down the hall to her room. She opened the door as quietly as possible and stepped inside. She was under the assumption that Steve could've fallen asleep, but he was nowhere close to sleep. He was sitting in bed with his sketch pad, something Marlena hadn't seen him use in almost a year.

During their five years spent together, during the many emotional ups and downs of the greatest turmoil they'd ever been through together, Marlena wasn't the only one of the two who'd found a way to escape the pain. Steve found his escape through his art. It was a side of Steve Marlena hadn't been given the chance to explore before Thanos happened to the world, but she knew the reason behind that. Nonetheless, it intrigued her. His ability to perfectly display his thoughts and emotions visually was something so fascinating to her, as well as something so bittersweet. The millions who knew Captain America would never know the true face behind the mask. They would never know that the strongest man on the planet sometimes found his escape from the world inside a worn sketchbook.

"You okay?" Marlena asked Steve as she walked over to the dresser. She was still in her day clothes and was desperate to get into her pajamas. Steve, on the other hand, had already beaten her to it. He looked comfortable in his white t-shirt and grey sweatpants.

"Worse things have happened," Steve answered her, his focus on the drawing in his lap. It was nearly complete. "Are you okay? He didn't leave very happy."

Marlena shrugged her shoulders and changed out of her jeans. "There's just a lot going on with him right now. He's still trying to emotionally navigate his way through this new normal, and on top of that he's worried about everything going on with Charlie."

"Do you have any idea what you two want to do about the situation?"

"I know what I want to do, but he doesn't want me to do it," Marlena answered. She pulled her hair into a messy bun and climbed into bed beside Steve. "And I can't go behind his back because it wouldn't be right. Not only that, but he would never forgive me."

"I trust you'll both come up with something," Steve said, glancing away from his book long enough to flash her that comforting smile of his.

"If we can cooperate," Marlena muttered and laid her head on his shoulder. She began tracing her fingertips up the length of his arm and watched as he moved his blue colored pencil so elegantly across the page. The picture was phenomenal, that much she expected it'd be. "What is that?"

"It's a comet, I think—or maybe a meteor," Steve answered and grabbed his red colored pencil. "I've been working on it for a few days now."

"It's beautiful."

"Thank you."

With one last stroke of his pencil, Steve closed his sketch book and pulled away from Marlena long enough to put it away. He looked back at her with soft blue eyes and held his arms out to her. A breath of relief escaped him as he wrapped his arms protectively around her body. After everything that'd happened, after all the stress the day had brought upon everyone, he was just happy to hold her. At least in his arms Steve knew Marlena would be safe.

"Y'know, I can't help but tell you just how amazing you are," Steve started, gently tightening his grip around her. "You've been handling all of this so well."

"I kinda have to." Marlena looked up at him, "Everything's been an absolute mess since last month, but I have to find a way to control the mess and the emotions to protect this little one of ours. If I don't, I'll fail the both of you and I can't let that happen."

"You could never fail me," Steve assured her. "You couldn't fail either of us. You are so strong, Marlena Claire. Everything you've done and everything you're doing is just proof of that."

Marlena smiled at the sound of his words and relaxed in his arms. She laid her head on his chest, allowing the soft beat of his heart to lull her further into the realm of sleep. She was exhausted, absolutely exhausted. "How is it that you always know how to say the right thing?"

"Helps when you've got the right person to say it to."

"I'm hoping one day we'll be past this." Marlena sat up and switched her lamp off before cuddling back into Steve's side. "All I want is a normal life for us and our family. Or at least as normal of a life as we can manage."

"We're not normal people, Mar," Steve reminded her. "You, me, Buck, Charlie, and Jay...we're far from normal, and I think that's been very well established just over the course of the last two days. We're a family full of genetically enhanced human beings with one on the way. I fear we may never have that normal life we're after."

"If we can't have it for us, I at least want it for them," Marlena told him. She was referencing the kids, that much he knew. "I don't want this life for them, Steve, so if I have to avenge the hell out of the planet for the next 20 years to keep them safe, I will."

"I'm not even gonna try to stop you," Steve said with a chuckle. He'd learned so much about Marlena over the last decade. She was compassionate and determined, two very distinctive traits that made her one of the most stubborn human beings on the planet. Whenever she put her mind to something she would do it, and she didn't care what anyone else had to say about it either. It was why the team always considered her an Avenger, despite her numerous protests claiming otherwise. She was always trying to find a way to help them when they needed it and never had an issue jumping into the fight. And, if there was any chance at all staying in the fight meant keeping her children safe, she wouldn't hesitate for a single second to make that choice. It was admirable.

"Finally," Marlena laughed quietly. "I was worried you'd cut me from the team, Cap."

"Eh, I don't think I could do that to ya," he teased. "I need a third-in-command anyway."

"Oh, yeah? Who's your second in command?"

"I picked Sam since Buck's decided to take a bit of a break," Steve answered. He let her go and turned on his side to look at her. Even in the moonlight peeking through the curtains, he could see every flawless inch of her face.

"I figured you would," Marlena replied. She wholeheartedly agreed with his decision as well. Sam was absolutely annoying majority of the time, but he was honorable and courageous just as Steve and Bucky were. She would've chosen him as well. "I don't wanna be in-command at all, though. I'm not much of a leader."

"And you're not exactly a follower either."

"Fair point, but it doesn't really matter to me. As long as what I'm doing is keeping our family safe, I'll be whatever you want me to be." Marlena yawned and pulled their comforter further into her body. She was getting more and more tired as the seconds passed, and Steve noticed this.

"I want you to go to sleep, okay?" Steve placed a hand to the side of her face and whisked away the fringe falling into her eyes. "It's been a long day and we could both use a good night's sleep."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

"Tomorrow will be better."

"I know it will," Marlena agreed. She leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips. "I love you."

"I love you, sweetheart."

Marlena simply closed her eyes and settled in Steve's arms. He kissed the top of her head and she smiled softly before drifting into a dreamless sleep. Her mind was occupied with the faces of her children, and she couldn't help but think about how terrified she was of failing any one of them.