The Winter Soldier throws himself out of the car and follows her, pleading.

“You can have a house!” He cries. “And clothes! And food! Steve will help, I’ll even work for you if I can, this check isn’t worth your life!”

“It is,” Natalia says adamantly as they walk right back into the hell pit they came from.

“It can’t have even been that much money!” The Winter Soldier cries and he puts his face in his hands and back again and stares at her. “Please, let’s go!!” Natalia turns and looks at him and she sucks in a breath and wipes tears off her face.

“You can go if you want,” she says. “In fact, I do want you to go. Get in that car and drive back to Rogers. You have everything you wanted! You have all that love and comfort that you’ve always dreamed of so just leave!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!” He cries. “I love you, Natalia!”

Natalia looks him up and down.

“I love you, too,” she says quietly.

“Then come back with me,” he begs and she swallows and blinks hard and shakes her head. “What will this money buy that I can’t eventually give you?”

She looks at him.

“The freedom for people like me,” she says quietly. “You’re remembering things, aren’t you, James? Do you remember how I escaped the KGB?”

The Winter Soldier stares at her.

“I…,” he says. “I got you out. I stole you.”

“Exactly!” Natalia says. “And there are so many people like me, James, so many. I want to save them all like you saved me! I want to take them here, smuggle them out like I smuggled you! But it takes money, James! The plane tickets and the train tickets and the food and the board, so much I can’t even steal it all! That’s why I needed that reward, that’s why I was looking for someone to impersonate you! I need that money so I can save these people!”

The Winter Soldier didn’t think he could love her any more, but he suddenly does.

“Alright,” he says quietly. “Alright, okay. We’ll go get your money back.”

“We?” She asks and he shrugs.

“I’m not leaving you,” he says and she takes a deep breath and looks him up and down and bites her lip. Then, before he can say anything, she’s throwing herself at him and pressing her mouth to his. She takes his face in both bloodied hands and kisses him and when she comes up for air, she looks him straight in the eye and then turns around and runs.

“Let’s go!” She cries and, still a little shell shocked, he breaks into a run to follow her.

They dive back into the grey cemented halls they’d just escaped from and the Winter Soldier follows Natalia. A few times, she stumbles and he catches her and asks if she’s alright, but whether she is or not, she kisses his face and then continues to run.

“Do you know where they could have taken it?” The Soldier asks.

“I’m sort of hoping we can just do a search and kill anyone who gets in our way?” She calls back.

“Impressive plan!” He says sarcastically and he can’t see, but he thinks it makes her smile.

They battle their way through walls of agents and the Winter Soldier takes a bullet in the shoulder, but now’s not the time to complain about it and they keep going. After maybe a half an hour of searching and fighting, Natalia finds the room she claims they’d brought her originally and they tear it apart together.

“Here!” Natalia cries and the Soldier turns around and sees her holding up a tiny piece of paper. Tears are welling in her eyes again. “It’s here! I found it!” She looks at him and squeals. “I found it!”

“Great!” He cries. “Now lets go!”

Back out into the halls they go and they reach the car in record time, leaping over the bodies of agents they’ve dispatched, and the Winter Soldier throws himself into the drivers seat again. Natalia collapses into her chair, squeezing the check, and tears roll down her face. The Winter Soldier backs the van up and pulls it out of the garage and speeds out onto a nearby highway.