"It's okay."

Elizabeth sat upright on the bed with Bucky's head in her lap as she stroked the hair back from his face gently. "You're fine," she assured him once more as she looked down at his face to see both his eyes shut tightly.

On the sadly not-so-rare occasions that Bucky Barnes woke up from a nightmare he would look around frantically in the dark of the small apartment for Elizabeth. The days that she happened to be there, his breathing would calm ever so slightly when he saw her sleeping figure beside him. Selfishly, he'd wake her up just to hold her in his arms.

But when she wasn't there that was when he spiraled out of control. Every shadow that he saw in the dark place seemed like a threat in his mind. His head feeling like someone was trying to split it open with an axe.

Usually there was nothing to be done except to ride it out, to endure what could be hours of mental torture. If Alpine was there, it would help sometimes to stroke the cat's soft fur. But the animal was usually out at night, not returning till the early morning.

But tonight, much to Bucky's relief, she was there. "It's alright," Elizabeth continued to soothe him. Both with her words and her powers. Making sure that she didn't let him slip back into his own head. "You're here now, with me."

Elizabeth watched as the erratic rise and fall of his chest slowly calmed down to a steady pace. "I'm here?" Bucky asked unsurely as his eyes remained closed with a crease between his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I'm here too." She continued to brush back the hair from his face gently. "Come on open your eyes," Elizabeth says as she taps the side of his face with her two fingers, feeling how hard he clenched down on his jaw.

Hesitantly, Bucky opened his eyes slowly to look up at her. His eyes darted around her face for a minute before he reached a hand up to touch her face gingerly. "You're real," he repeated to himself as he stared into the blue of her eyes.

"Of course I'm real," Elizabeth brought her own hand up to place over his with a smile on her face. "You're safe now, you have nothing to worry about," she continued on as Bucky stared up at her with eyes full of love. She felt his fear and panic slowly fade away at her words. "I'll protect you," she tried cheering him up.

Surprising the both of them, Bucky let out a light laugh. His mind now only on the person who smiled down at him. "You gonna protect me, dollface?" He questioned, not knowing that Elizabeth truly meant what she said. The old nickname coming out unexpectedly.

"You got a problem with that?" She retorted, trying to keep his mind off whatever nightmare he had.

"I'm supposed to be the one protecting you," Bucky corrected as his thumb absentmindedly went back and forth across her cheek. He looked up at her face and knew that he'd never let anything bad ever happen to her. He'd make sure of it.

Shaking her head softly, Elizabeth brought his hand away from her face to lay beside her as she played with his fingers. "Says who?" She challenged with a raised eyebrow.

Reaching up once more with a metal hand, he cupped her jaw and brought her down for a light kiss. "Says me," he told her while she rested her forehead against his.

***

The next morning, Bucky and Elizabeth walked side by side with their arms looped together as they approached the farmers market. Both of them wore dark baseball hats pulled down to cover their faces. Alpine sat comfortably inside Bucky's jacket that was zipped halfway up, the cat purring softly.

"No one's gonna know," Elizabeth said once she took note of how her partner constantly looked over his shoulder as if expecting someone to jump up behind them.

"You can never be too careful," He muttered before readjusting the gloves on his hands. Glancing down at the cat, he patted it's head softly before they came up to the familiar stall.

The two glanced at the array of fruits laid out in crates on the tables. People around them bustled about and talked loudly in a mix of Romanian and English. A woman stopped beside Elizabeth for a second too long, making her tilt her head forward to let some hair cover her face.

"What do we need?" Bucky asked lowly as they both scanned the rows of fruits. From behind the table, the owner of the stall came up to them and muttered a greeting in Romanian. Bucky answered for the two of them while Elizabeth simply smiled politely.

Elizabeth picked up an apple in her hand as she continued to look for whatever fruits they might need back at the apartment. She let out a gasp when she saw what was once her favourite fruit. Tugging on his arm, Elizabeth got Bucky's attention before putting down the apple and picking up the other fruit.

"Look!" She exclaimed happily as she showed the plum to Bucky.

Not sure what her excitement was about, Bucky glanced at the fruit in her hand with a frown. "A plum?" He questioned confusedly.

"Yeah!" Elizabeth smiled widely as she looked at the fruit in her hand. "God, I haven't had these in so long." She rolled the fruit around her hand as she admired it's dark purple colour.

"Okay, I may be old," Bucky began, still unsure as to why his girlfriend was looking at a plum as if it were a gold bar. "But I do remember there being plums back in America."

She rolled her eyes playfully at his comment. "I used to love these when I was a kid," she explained to him. "I don't really eat them anymore, Sam's allergic so we don't keep it around." Elizabeth frowned as she put the fruit back in its place.

Not liking how the smile disappeared from her face, Bucky proceeded to ask the man at the stall how much it would be for a bag of the fruit. At the mans answer, he took out the money and dropped it into the mans hand. Getting a paper bag to fill up with the fruit in return.

"Go on," he held the bag out to her with a smile. Alpine meowed lightly in his jacket as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Maybe we can even give it to Alpine," he added.

She smiled at him before taking the empty bag from his arms. "Thank you," she murmured with a light kiss to his cheek. As Bucky watched Elizabeth carefully pick out which specific plum she wanted before putting into the bag, the man behind the table grabbed his attention.

Bucky's eyes widened at the information the man told him before glancing down at the cat that sat in his jacket. "I think we should keep those plums far away from Alpine," Bucky began to tell Elizabeth once they had left the stall.

Elizabeth shifted the bag of plums from her left hand to her right one, using her now free hand to grip Bucky's gloved hand. "And why is that?" She asked as they walked pass more stalls on their way.

"Well the guy back there told me that plums are kinda toxic to cats," Bucky answered her with a jut of his thumb behind them.

"These are going on a high shelf then," Elizabeth said as she gripped the paper bag in her hand tightly as the two crossed the streets.

"As if that's ever stopped her before," Bucky scoffed as the two recalled a very unfortunate incident involving Alpine and a bowl of blueberries.

They passed by an appliance store which made Elizabeth stop her steps and walk back towards the store. Bucky stood beside her as they stared at the many tv's stacked in the window display. All of different shapes and sizes but all displaying the same thing, the weather.

"You still need a tv," Elizabeth reminded the man beside her of the lack of entertainment. The fluorescent lights shining onto both their faces.

Bucky moved closer to her and placed his arm around her shoulder. "Now why would I do that when I have you with me?" He asked as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"As sweet as that is," she started while her free hand wrapped around his waist. "I can't be here all the time," Elizabeth hated to remind him of that. Knowing that he didn't like it when she wasn't around.

He sighed heavily before pressing a kiss to the side of her temple. "Then I guess a tv will fill in your place nicely," he agreed.

"You need a big one if you wanna fill the hole in your heart while I'm gone," Elizabeth joked with a smile. With his gloved hand still in hers, she made a move to pull him with her to the entrance to the store.

She nearly fell to the floor when she felt her weight being pulled back. Once she had stabled herself on her own two feet, Elizabeth looked at Bucky. He was rooted in place with his gaze still on the tv in the display window. His eyes were wide and his head slightly tilted to the side.

"Bucky?" She asked questioningly as she made her back towards him. Suddenly Alpine jumped out of his jacket and onto the pavement below. The cat looked up at her for a split second before walking away past her.

Neither of them were worried too much about the cat, knowing that it would find its way back to them eventually. She was more worried about the man with eyes glued to the screen behind the windows.

"What's going on?" She asked in concern, her back facing the screens. Bucky didn't say anything only jutted his chin out to the screen behind her. Slowly, she turned around to stand by him as they both faced the tv screens.

Elizabeth's eyes darted from one screen to another not knowing which screen to look at. Settling on a medium sized screen in the corner of the window, she saw the familiar faces of her friends and teammates. Mainly Wanda, Steve, Natasha and Sam. Bucky's eyes narrowed at the sight of the blond man.

But then wasn't what made her heart stop, she had seen them on the news plenty of times. Even she had been on the news before. It was the headline that got to her. Instead of the usual thanks and the rundown of what had happened that accompanied them, she saw something way different.

The headline read 'Wanda Maximoff : Terrorist On The Loose'. Elizabeth felt her blood run cold as the newscaster went on to fill them in on what had happened at Lagos. Her head was spinning but she managed to get the gist that it was all an accident. Even if the newscaster didn't say it, she knew Wanda well enough to know she would never do it on purpose.

The screen showed a short video of a building that had a corner of it burned off as pieces fell onto the ground below. The camera panned out and showed the blurry figures of Wanda and Steve, both of them looking at the burning building in horror.

The camera went back to the newscaster who went back to talking about the incident. Comparing the mission that went south to what happened in Sokovia. A picture of Tony, Bruce, Thor, Pietro and even her went up the screen next to the rest of the team.

All their names listed right below. Bucky glanced at Elizabeth from the corner of his eye to see her staring back at the screen with a stoic expression. When a black and white picture of Clint went up next to their coloured ones, she lowered her head to the ground.

Feeling self-conscious at seeing her own face reflected at her, she pulled the cap on her head downwards and over her eyes. "Oh, Wanda," Elizabeth muttered sadly as she thought of what was going to come.

She looked back up at Bucky only to find him staring at her already. "I have to go," she told him, sad that she had to cut their time together short. But she knew if she didn't go there, they would eventually call her down anyways.

Taking a step toward her, Bucky lifted her chin with a gloved hand. He smiled down at her before bending down to press a long kiss to her lips. "I know, dollface." He said before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading them back to the apartment.