"I can't believe what happened at the court..." Sam mutters in disbelief, the shock still visible in his dark eyes. My whole body would feel hollow and numb right now if the pain killers for the wounds would finally kick in. "We won. We freaking won. Can you believe that? Barnes is free."

Steve, Bucky and Tony just remain silent in the elevator and I, too, can't really find the right words to express anything. The tape ruined the feeling of freedom and victory and only left a sweet, toxic bitterness. I want to enjoy it, I really do, but I keep seeing how the Winter Soldier kills Howard and this thought makes me want to vomit. The other three don't seem to feel much different about that either, even though the price Bucky has to pay for his penance is pretty low. Only proper therapeutic treatment and of course, supervision by us.

"C'mon, guys, we should at least try to be positive." He tries to cheer us up, nudging Steve. "I mean, how often does justice happen for such a difficult case like Barnes'? You and Eve were convincing enough."

"I'll go to my room." Bucky pipes up, leaving the elevator once it stops on his floor. Steve shoots me a short glance before following Bucky and I try to force a smile. He hasn't spoken since the trial and I have the feeling that he tries to keep his distance from me.

"C'mon, Farrell, I need to check on your wounds, you need a new bandage." Tony's voice is dry, still carrying the marks of the silence. He sounds tired and exhausted. I look down and just now spot the dark stain on my thigh that bleeds through my dress, I've been way too distracted with Bucky to notice it. "Let's go to the lab."

"I'll see you in a bit, I'm gonna check in on Wanda and Vision." Sam waves and leaves the elevator on the Avengers floor while we go to the lab.

"Welcome back, sir." FRIDAY greets her boss as we enter the room. "Miss Farrell, congratulations on the case. The news is filled with the trial of Mr Barnes and your defense gained a quite positive reaction."

"Thanks, FRIDAY." I sigh and press my hand against my thigh, Tony handing me the bandage.

"I swear, you and Rogers need to stop getting injuries." He groans as he sits down in his chair and I clean the wound on my thigh. "Because of you, I need to get new bandages again."

"Oh, poor you, how are you ever gonna afford that?" I almost roll my eyes and press my lips together when the antiseptic meets the wound, the pain burns into my flesh. Then I bandage  my thigh and take a look at the mirror. My face is still covered with bruises and stitches, I look pretty tired and like I've been through a lot. "Do you wanna talk?"

"About the bandages? No, thanks, I actually don't care much about it- "

"Tony, you know what I mean." I cut him off, referring to the footage of the trial. "You can't just ignore it. Not this time."

"I'll talk with Barnes about it. This is something between him and me." He decides, dismissing the topic. "And Barton and Romanoff are gonna be back today with a new recruit. He'll replace you on the mission, you can't fight with these injuries."

"Are you kidding?!" My voice rises in frustration as I get up, not caring about my leg. "I want- I need to fight, Tony. This is my mission, it's my duty to go! Crossbones, Hydra... they need to end. You can't just replace me because of some injuries!"

"You can barely walk, let alone run, your injuries won't be gone within the next two weeks. And not only I agree to this, Rogers and Barnes do too. You can go with us and stay in the quinjet, but that's it. You're not gonna invade the facility, we can handle this without you. You'd just be a drawback."

"Can you stop Tony-ing this situation and just suck it up?" I groan. Why does he have to always this? "Have some trust in me."

"No, I- Did you just use my name as a verb?"

"You always pretend like you don't care because you're apparently too cool to do it, so you act like a complete asshole instead of just simply saying that you don't want me to get hurt. It's okay to show feelings, Tony."

In this moment, Clint and Natasha enter the lab with a third person trailing behind them, his eyes widened at the equipment of the Avengers Tower. Our conversation ceases and Clint grins at me in his own goofy way. "Congrats on the trial! You all were badass as hell, I'm proud and for once not ashamed to know you guys."

Natasha nudges her boyfriend, rolling her eyes and signaling him to shut up, then she slightly pushes the stranger forward. "This is our new recruit and the reason why Clint and I've been busy, Scott Lang- "

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God, someone pinch me, you- you're Voltricity." Scott stutters and I raise a brow in the air at his reaction. It is quite...unusual to meet a fan. "First, I met Captain freaking America and now Voltricity. Hey, hi, I'm a big fan. What an honor, oh, my God. You were such a role model for me when I was a little boy, still are, and for my daughter Cassie too!"

I awkwardly smile at him as he shakes squirrelly my hand, his eyes beaming pure admiration. "Oh, uh, thanks. You can call me Eve though. Nice to meet you."

"He'll help us on the mission. Hydra tried to steal his suit that makes him shrink." Clint briefs me in and I just lift my brow in the air again at that odd ability. "Also known as Ant-Man. I know, right? What a weird name."

"Your name's Hawkeye." Natasha frowns and he shrugs.

"Well, not everyone can have a cool name like me." Natasha, Tony and I share an eye roll at his statement, shaking our heads. The red head then shows Scott the Tower while he looks around with astonishment and big eyes. "By the way, Stark, is it true that you plan to sell the building?"

"Wait, what?" I stare at Tony and he sighs.

"You can't deny that we have barely any privacy here. Crowds of fans and reporters are always at the entrance and we also just have space for one quinjet, which isn't enough." He defends himself, pointing out clear facts. "I also considered that we should move to a more isolated place. More space, less city. Wanda and Vision can break whatever they want then. Barnes could also use some calm quietness. I wanted to tell you and Rogers tonight."

"We would all still live together?" I ask and Clint laughs, ruffling my hair. God, I hate it sometimes when he treats me like a child, I'm technically still older than him.

"Of course, kiddo! We're the Avengers! Even though Bruce is gone and Thor is on Asgard, we're still a team."

"Even if Barton's annoying as hell." Tony comments, earning a nudge from the archer. Yet, I notice the little grin on his lips.

***

Scott has been talking for the entirety of dinner, like a little boy that talks about his newest adventures and it honestly feels refreshing. Just Clint, Wanda and Sam joined us for dinner though, the rest of the team stayed in their rooms, probably getting some sleep before we leave for Germany at midnight. I still have a few hours left till then, so I leave my room and walk through the corridor.

Where are you going? Wanda's sudden voice in my head startles me and I try not to wince, groaning slightly. I'm still not used to her telepathic powers, she's learning more and more every day. I imagine this is how she and Pietro always communicated. Yes, this is how I talked to my brother.

"Wanda, stop reading my mind." I mumble, looking around and trying to see if anyone's in the corridor. Everyone would think I had lost my mind.

You're looking for Barnes. You want to tell him, right? Tell him about the child you lost. I can see how you picture the whole conversation. You're scared, I can sense it.

Yes, I am. But I have to tell him about the child now, otherwise I'll regret it if he... if he loses his memories again. We lost the footage of the trigger words, it was on Bruce' flash drive. If we can't even help his mind, how am I supposed to help him with this? We need to get a list of the trigger words, I just remember a few of them but not even in Russian, then we can free him of the Winter Soldier.

Don't worry, he won't lose his memories again, I'll do my best to assure that. He's on the roof, by the way. Good luck, Eve.

Absolute silence fills my mind now and I take the elevator to get to the roof. Words are not enough to express my gratitude towards Wanda and just pride overwhelms me when I think of how much she has grown. The sound of the elevator informs me that I'm on top of the Tower and as soon as the doors open, I feel the fresh breeze of the night grazing my face.

The lights of New York City welcome me and I spot as expected a tall figure at the edge of the roof, watching the city in silence. Sucking in a deep breath, I go to Bucky and stand right next to him, my eyes attached to Manhattan. He doesn't really bother to look at me, probably because he already assumed I would come, so he keeps drowning in the colorful lights.

We're supposed to talk about it. Everything that happened. His death, the trial and... the child. All of it damaged us so much and now I don't know where we're standing. We were engaged and happy, then I caused his death. I grieved him and woke up in a new world with a dead child. When I slowly tried to cope with his death, he came back and almost killed me. He didn't remember me. He was gone, I looked for him. Then he wanted to leave me to protect me and then there was the trial. And soon, we face another problem, another reason that could drive us apart.

Where are we now? I love him, after all this time, I still love him so much that it hurts. But I don't want to force him into a relationship, what if he doesn't want that anymore? If I force him into something, like Hydra did, I'll lose him again. And I can't survive this, not another time. Instead of talking, we're just staring at the city. But how do you talk about this? I don't know. But I have to.

"When..." The word slips through my lips and he glances at me, his eyes boring their way into mine and my voice already starts breaking as my breath trembles, "When I woke up in- in this new world... I- God, this is harder than I thought it'd be..." The emotions overwhelm me and I roughly wipe the tears away.

"What happened?" He asks softly and patiently, raising his hand to place it on my shoulder but abruptly stopping on its way. His eyes are filled with anxiety, fear to touch me but also with a deep longing.

"I..." I take a deep breath and try to prevent a sob as a painful laugh escapes my mouth, my hands are utterly shaking, "I found out- they told me that, SHIELD told me that I was pregnant... I- I was pregnant."

"What?" I've never heard him so broken, he didn't even sound that hurt at the court. Tears gather in his ice-blue eyes, signs of pain etch his face and it kills me.

"It didn't survive the ice. I- I got it killed, just like I caused your death." I splutter and tears of guilt flow down my cheek. "I'm so sorry, so, so sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't reach further for your hand, I'm sorry that I killed our child, I'm sorry that I ruined your life, the life we could have had, just everything- "

Bucky suddenly pulls me into a hug, his face buried into my hair and his arms strongly around me. I've missed this. His familiar smell that drives me crazy but makes me feel home at the same time and his heartbeat against mine. Even though he has his long hair now and a metal arm that's coldness reaches my skin even through the fabric of his shirt, it still feels like back then in the forties.

"Oh my God... why do you keep doing this, why do you always have to suck it up?" He mumbles into my hair, still refusing to let me go. My arms are wrapped around his neck and I close my eyes for a second, ignoring the rest of the world and only focusing on him. "Don't be sorry, this is not your fault, none of this."

"I know you feel guilty about Howard, I know you think you're a monster because the Winter Soldier hurt me but I let you die. I watched you dying and did absolutely nothing. And no matter how many people the soldier killed, no matter how much blood you have on your hands... I have your blood on mine. And that's the worst feeling in this world. You're not a monster, Bucky, you didn't kill me. But I killed you. Because of me, you suffered so much."

"No, Eve, please, don't do this." He pulls back and looks at me gravely, his hands cupping my face. A tear rolls down his face. "Don't blame yourself for what happened. It was an accident, okay? Just a stupid accident, no one could've prevented this. We can't change what happened."

A sob erupts from my lips and he wipes the tears away with his thumb, the cold metal leaving a chill running down my spine. "Please, don't leave me. Because after everything that happened, I won't survive it again. I know this is selfish from me, but I can't- I just can't bear the thought of losing you again- "

With these words, he completely loses it and presses his lips with an incredibly ferocity on mine as I'm taken aback by the sudden kiss. I can taste the desperation and the salty tears in his lips but also a strong longing. It's been far too long and my heart almost crashes against my rib cage when the kiss deepens, his hand lacing in my hair. My pulse races as the passionate feeling that he causes runs through every single fiber of my body, taking my breath away and awaking a part of me that died a long time ago. Eventually, we both need to breathe and pull back, slightly panting as his forehead is against mine.

"You won't lose me, canary. I promise."

A/N- I hope this wasn't too rushed 😩 But I mean, if Steve and Bucky already made up with each other in the movies, why wouldn't Eve and Bucky who were even officially canon? ;)
I just didn't want to waste time with the two of them avoiding each other although they finally found each other again.