A/N:Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited or followed! I'm so sorry for the long wait, my exams had to take priority, but exams are over now and I'm now free until university starts at the end of September so updates should becomes more regular again! Not much Steve/Bucky/Marilyn action in this chapter, but it was necessary for the story, and I'm kind of still getting back into the swing of writing after that break for exams. Hope you like the chapter anyway! x

Against All Odds: Chapter 11

Explanations

Marilyn spent far longer than was necessary washing up, but just the thought of going out into the main room and facing Bucky sent her mind reeling. This was admittedly not how she thought the day was going to go. It was meant to be a cut-and-dry mission – get in, retrieve the files, burn the place down and get out. Instead, an entire compound of HYDRA soldiers greeted them at the door, Bucky got shot, she only just got there in time to save him, and then he went and God damn kissed her before she'd even had the chance to wash his God damn blood off of her God damn hands.

It was bound to happen eventually. Logically she knew that. They could only ignore the bond for so long before things would have had to escalate. It's not like she wasn't ready for it – or that she hadn't been ready for it for several weeks already – it was just… unexpected. She'd always figured that when they were ready to move their relationship into something more than what they already had, then it would come after a lengthy talk between the three of them and they'd be back at their base in London so that they'd have time to work through everything, not just a spur of the moment thing after a mission gone south. She had expected Steve to want to talk everything through and insist on taking everything nice and slow, whilst Bucky would want to jump straight into it because he's all-or-nothing about everything in his life. They'd probably find a nice compromise in between that all of them could be happy with.

God, Steve.

Steve wasn't even there – wasn't even close by. Steve was still in the middle a HYDRA camp, actually doing his damn job, and was most certainly not making out with their 'platonic' soulmate like some lovesick teenager in the middle of their make-shift base camp. How would he feel about this? Was he even ready to move past anything but a friendship? Did he even want to now that he'd spent several months with her and knew what she was really like? Would he be upset that they had taken that step without him?

A door hitting the wall in the main room caught Marilyn's attention and finally brought her back to the present, followed by Dernier's loud voice proclaiming the mission a success and that drinks were in order (and Jones immediately telling him to keep it down, for God's sake – we're at war, man). With a sigh, Marilyn finally finished drying her hands before making her way out of the washroom – the boys would need to clean themselves up, and some may need medical attention, and there was no way she'd shirk on her duties or make them stew in their own filth in their combat clothes just because she didn't want to face her soulmates. No, she was a grown woman and a well-respected nurse in the American army, and she was going to act like one.

Her eyes immediately fell on Steve. His jacket was torn and the sleeve was practically hanging off, but there was no blood, and his face showed no signs of pain (instead it sported a look of concern aimed over at where Bucky was sat on one of the mattresses, though Marilyn decidedly kept her eyes on the Captain). Marilyn almost chided herself for automatically checking over Steve first when he was practically a super soldier and the other Commandos were only human, but quickly made up for it and scanned the rest of the team for injuries. Besides the usual scrapes and bruises, and a rather nasty cut across Falsworth's temple, there was nothing to see or to worry about, and they'd all be good as new within a few weeks.

With her checks done, Marilyn was left with nothing to do other than let her eyes wander over to where Bucky sat. He was staring intently at Steve, as if trying to convey some secret message that only the two of them could decode (though Marilyn bet she could hazard a guess as to what the message entailed). He suddenly looked over at her when he felt her eyes on him, and quirked his eyebrow in a silent question. A small grin played at his lips – it was nothing like his normal smiles at her, though. This one was hesitant, and much more like one Steve would shoot her back when they'd first met and he thought he'd crossed some sort of line. She couldn't help but smile back, throwing a little nod his way and then towards Steve to indicate that they needed to talk, and getting a simple nod back in return. Bucky was just thinking up an excuse to get the three of them alone when Dum Dum spoke up and put his plans on hold.

"What the hell was that, girl?" Marilyn startled, her eyes whipping up from Bucky's to meet the man's, thinking their little exchange had been caught.

"Huh, what?" She was stalling, but honestly she had no excuse to give him.

"What?" He huffed, walking up in front of her until he was barely a foot away and gesturing wildly around. He didn't sound angry, more in awe, and Marilyn could only frown up at him in hopes of an explanation. "Back there! What was that back at the compound? You have some talkin' to do."

Oh.

After everything that had happened after leaving the HYDRA compound between Bucky and her, Marilyn had honestly forgotten the little show she had given Dum Dum and Jim back in Bucky's sniper's nest. With a quick glance around, Marilyn noticed the rest of the team looking on with apprehension (aside from Steve and Bucky, who could only wince sympathetically at her situation) and she figured that the Dum Dum and Jim had informed the rest of them of her 'power' on the way back to base. There was no way of getting out of explaining that one, and in all honesty she didn't want to – this was her team and they deserved to know. It looked like her talk with her soulmates was going to have to wait.

"Oh, right, okay. Could ya…" She made a small shooing motion with her hands, and Dum Dum frowned but backed up regardless to give her some space. She took another quick look around the room, before her eyes landed back on Dum Dum. "You remember back when I first met y'all, and Steve told ya I had a certain skillset that would come in useful?" A few scattered nods and grunts were her acknowledgement, so she took it as a positive and soldiered on. "Well, I heal. I heal myself, I heal other people. That's what I do. You saw it, and I hope ya never have to see it again, but we're in a war so that ain't likely." She brought her hands up in front of her, showing her palms to the men. They could only watch in fascination as a small mint green light appeared in her palms, before quickly sizzling out as she dropped her hands.

"You're one of them, then? Those 'defects' that keep showing up in the newspapers?" Falsworth was the one to break the silence, and Marilyn bristled at the wording. Defect was not a term very much liked in the mutant community. Steve and Bucky both seemed to notice, because both were on their feet in a second, but a quick head shake got them to stay in place. It was a common enough term, and Falsworth didn't know. She was flattered that they were so protective, though.

"We prefer 'mutants'. Or literally anythin' other than that." Falsworth nodded and at least had the decency to look apologetic, obviously getting the hint that his comment had hit a sore spot. She'd let it go this time, because he didn't know, but if there was a next time she'd give him hell to pay (and, she was sure, so would Steve and Bucky). "Okay, any questions? I ain't gonna talk about this again so y'all better air your grievances now or forever hold your peace."

"Were you born with it?" Jones was the first to break the silence.

"Yes sir, my family started noticing it when I was still crawlin'. Or so they told me." She shifted slightly in place, trying to work out what information from her vast knowledge of mutants they should know to help explain everything more. "You're born with it, but most folk don't know about it until they go through some sort of trigger."

"Trigger?" Steve asked, now also interested. Whilst they had spoken at length about Marilyn's own abilities, she rarely spoke about mutation and the mutant community as a whole. There was a whole population of people like Marilyn, whose lives he knew nothing about, and he wanted to know more.

"Yeah, hon, a stressful situation. My friend saw his daddy's murder when he was little, and that triggered his." She paused for a second, thinking. "Could be anythin'. Stress, danger, hunger. If your body thinks it's in danger, it can trigger."

"What can you heal, exactly?" Jim asked, and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Most things. If I can tell ya what the problem is, I can fix it. Some stuff is easier than others – like gunshot wounds." She shot a quick glance at Bucky, who only grinned in response. "They're standard, easy to fix if they ain't gone and hit nothing important. Diseases are harder, sometimes no one knows what causes it. If I can't tell what I need to fix, then I can't fix it." She paused again, looking around the room, trying to think of anymore limitations that they should know of. One hit her and her face soured – this was something that at least some of them were definitely going to need in the future, and she couldn't provide it. "I can't do brain stuff. If you have a bullet hole in it, or a knife, sure, I can fix that. But I can't fix shell shock, and I can't fix any demons y'all might have up in there."

"Why's that?" Jim pressed. From a medical standpoint, Marilyn's mutation was a goldmine and his medic side couldn't quite believe it. His soldier side was more than a little disappointed that she couldn't fix their brains, because they'd sure as hell need it after this war, but he'd take what he could get.

"Too intricate and too messy. None of the mess in anyone's brains is ever clear cut. There ain't ever a single cause so I can't fix it. A lot of the time there's nothin' wrong with the actual brain itself, just the chemistry, it's invisible so I can't fix it." She shrugged helplessly. "I've tried."

"Do you need to be touchin'?" Dum Dum asked, nodding over to Bucky. "You put your hands on 'im earlier." If there weren't so many eyes on her she would've have blushed, because yes, she definitely had her hands on him earlier, though maybe not in the way Dum Dum was asking. As it was, Bucky was already grinning wildly over at her, something only she and Steve had seemed to pick up, and Steve seemed to have figured something out because he was suddenly grinning over at her too. God, they really needed to talk.

"Touchin' makes it easier an' wastes less energy. And if I'm moving then it's way easier to focus on what I'm doing if I'm touchin' the person." She looked over at Falsworth, and the cut large gash across his temple, and nodded at him. "But I don't need to." Suddenly the same light green that shone in her hands earlier was forming around the cut on his head, and seconds later it died out and no cut was there to be seen – the only evidence that it ever existed being the blood dried to his skin. "As so."

"That was…"

"Fantastic!" Dernier cheered, leaping to his feet from where he'd sat on a mattress. "You are amazing, my dear!" There was a general noise of agreement from the room, and Marilyn swore she was floating. She'd expected some form of resistance or resentment, but her team seemed to accept her as she was. Still, she had to check.

"You don't mind then?"

"Dear, it is a gift! And you saved Barnes today, and will no doubt save us in the future. I, for one, welcome it!" Falsworth announced, gently prodding at where his cut once was, and the rest of the Commandos quickly added their own acknowledgements.

"Okay, good, great, because you fellas need someone to look out for ya. You guys are a mess." Almost collectively the boys went to disagree, but a single hand up had them stop. "No, go clean up, I don't want blood everywhere. I gotta talk with Buck and Steve." Before any of them could disagree she'd left the room, leaving her two boys to look at each other before trailing after her hopelessly, and leaving the rest of the team in confusion. They would have to deal with it.

She and her soulmates needed to talk.

A/N: As always, feedback is hugely appreciated! NOTE: My tumblr has changed to shanniepatz. If you're interested, I posted some stand alone pieces about Marilyn/Steve/Bucky on that tumblr account, so feel free to check them out!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! x