Agent Mikaelson

Chapter 7: Steve and I Have a Heart to Heart

Hope's POV:

When I wake up I groan, an ache in my neck. I'm laying on a concrete floor. I open my eyes and sit up, observing my surroundings. I'm in a warehouse of some kind. I hear voices in another part of the building so I stand and make my way towards them.

When I get there I see Steve and Sam talking over an unconscious James who has his arm trapped in a machine. They hear me approach because they turn to look at me. Relief washes over their faces and Steve pulls me into a hug. "You're ok."

"Yeah, breaking a vampire's neck is the equivalent to knocking them out. I'm good, just a sore neck." He nods, pulling away. I nod to Sam who nods back. I then turn my attention towards James. "How is he? What happened?"

"Fought Sharon, Nat, Tony, and T'Challa before trying to escape via helicopter. I caught up with him and brought it down to the small river running by the building. He was knocked out in the process. Physically he should be fine. Mentally..." He trails off and I nod.

If he remembers snapping my neck...I've never told him that doing that won't actually kill me. He'll beat himself up about it. Sam's phone rings. "It's my sister, I've gotta take this. I'll be right back." Steve and I nod and Sam walks off to answer the phone. There's silence for a while.

I hate this. Steve was my best friend long before we dated. It shouldn't be this awkward between us. "I get that you needed time and Bucky didn't want my help, but you scared me Hope." He finally says. I can't meet his eye.

"I get that, really, and I'm sorry. Really, I am. If things were any different, you would have been the first person I would have gone to, but things are the way they are. They happened they way they were meant to happen." "I hate they way they happened. How we left things-"

"We can't change the past, we can only make better decisions for the future. Steve, no matter what happened, no matter what happens in the future, you'll always be my best friend." I finally look up at him. He has a sad look in his eyes.

"I don't know if that's what you want us to be, but it's all we're meant to be. We tried, and it didn't work out. We work better as friends. I love you Steve, always have, always will, but as a brother." He's silent for a second before a sad smile crosses his face.

"You know, all that time you were gone, it left me time to think. I thought of ways to make us work when you got back, but a few months ago I came to a conclusion. You're right, we were at our best as friends. We make a damn good team." I smile at this. We really do.

"You were right, back on Barton's farm. I never stopped loving Peggy. I'll always love her. I'll always love you, but I do think that we mixed the type of love we have for a relationship type love." I nearly sigh loudly in relief. I'm so glad he's seeing things the way I see them.

"You know, back at the apartment, I saw the way he protected you." He says, glancing back at James who's still out cold. "We've been living together for half a year. I'm the only person he kinda trusts, it was instinct." I shrug.

"No, Hope. I know instinct and I know the fear of losing someone so important to you, you'd break if they were gone. They way he protected you...it's the ladder." My breath catches in my throat slightly.

I noticed my feelings for James the day of the dance almost three months ago, but I never initiated anything because we were both in a healing stage of our lives. Feelings complicate things, and I didn't want to lose him.

"Don't Steve. Neither of us are ready for...anything like that with each other." "I get it, I do, but I'm telling you, what we had and what you two have, completely different. You two can claim friends all you want, but the way you look at each other says differently."

My cheeks heat up at this. "You two are good for each other." I smile at the last part. "He's patient and understanding. He listens and comforts in his own way, which is somehow, my favorite way." His smile grows and I roll my eyes, shoving him slightly.

"Don't even think about it Spangles." He laughs at this. "It's good to have you back Hope, really." My smile softens as I pull him into a hug. I really had missed Steve. Like I said, he's my best friend. Besides Nat and Clint, I've never had a real friend before.

Phil was more of a father figure and the people at the Salvatore School hated me too much to be my friend. Before any more words can be exchanged between us Sam enters the room again. We both turn to him. "Everything ok with your sister?" I ask him. He nods.

"Yeah, she just wanted to check up on me cause she heard of everything that went on today. I nod in understanding. I pick up the sound of a helicopter with my enhanced hearing and vamp speed to the other side of the building, looking out through a crack in the wall.

Steve appears by my side soon after. "They're really going all out." I mutter. "Yeah." He breaths. "Hey Cap! Hope!" Sam calls. We turn and jog back toward where him and James are. James is now awake, head bowed low. He finally looks up. "Steve." He sounds miserable, but normal.

He then looks at me and lets out a breath of relief. "You're ok." He sighs. I nod. "Takes more than that to get rid of me Barnes." I tell him softly, not wanting to make him feel worse. I go to take a step forward when Steve stops me. "Which Bucky am I talking to?" He asks.

"Your mom's name was Sarah. You used to wear newspaper in your shoes." He chuckles. James laughing is a rare occurrence, and it never ceases to make me smile. "Can't read that in a museum." Steve smiles, recalling how James said he only knew him from the museum.

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asks. "What did I do?" He asks. "Enough." Steve tells him. "Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything Hydra put inside me is still there. All he had to do is say the goddamn words." He tells us. "Who was he?" I ask. "I don't know."

"People are dead. The bombing, the setup...the doctor did all that just to get 10 minutes with you. I need you to do better than 'I don't know'." Steve tells him. "He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he need to know that?" I ask, confused. "Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier." Shit.