Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel; only Rebecca and the world surrounding her.

How Do You Feel - The Maine

Welcome to Impulse from the To Build A Home Series!

Thanks to Love Fiction 2019, Lord Disick, D'elfe, Taylor Noelle Hood, Jmhslm, Potato-Faye,

and everyone that reviewed, favorited, and subscribed to this story!

Let's just get into this!

How Do You Feel

How do you feel?

What's your condition?

You are alive but are you living?

Give me your voice and I'll give it a listen

Are you complete or is something missing?

May 2013

Living a life in the spotlight and learning how to talk to someone when they were trying to tear you down had put her ready for this new job that was assigned to her. Over the past few weeks, Becca had been in constant meetings with government officials, on top of paperwork. It was a lot of the same questions over and over; what was SHIELD keeping secrets of, why were the Avengers not announced to them and so on. SHIELD in D.C. was such a different atmosphere then New York, more uptight. She was wondering if it was because of the different characteristics between Directory Fury and Secretary Pierce.

Becca's heels clicked against the floor as she walked down the hallways, folders in one hand and cup of tea in the other. She had spent the morning in conversations about a possible talk with the UN. It was around the opening of select borders to allow SHIELD access into countries in case of major threats. It was going to be a hard subject to get them to agree to, unlike now when they had to be approved before targeting a major threat on soil. But it was Friday and the thought of the weekend upon her was greatly needed.

Her new office was a mighty difference than her former one in New York. She was alone in a corner room, the same floor as Secretary Pierce. It was overly large for her taste, bigger than her living room and dining room put together in her former apartment. The one saving grace was the giant floor to ceiling windows she could gaze out of. Something that she had been taking privilege of since starting.

Becca had just sat behind her desk with a heavenly sign of relaxation when there was a knock on her door. Her brows knitted together in exhaustion at the thought of having to be presentable.

"Not the reaction I was expecting." Natasha walked in, seeing the expression etched in her friend's face. The same one that evaporated at the sight of the redhead.

"What are you doing here?" Becca's voice was full of surprise, but the question got an eyebrow raise. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, just surprised."

The redhead smirked. "Nice save," she continued her walk over to the windows, taking a look out over the view, "nice digs you got here."

"Thanks…"

Natasha could feel the apprehension in her voice."But?"

"It's not New York." Becca sighed but gave her a half smile. Their New York office truly was one of a kind. The two of them and Clint having their personalities splitting the small room into three. With her moving, and Clint on hiatus, Natasha was barely using the office as well. Just didn't feel right. "For real though, what are you doing here? I thought you were out on assignment."

"Done." The older assassin plopped down in the chair across the desk from her.

Becca's eyebrows rose in astonishment. "Already?"

"You were right," Natasha shrugged, "Rogers does do good work."

Natasha and Steve had left around late Tuesday afternoon for a mission in Austria. Becca wasn't privy to the details, just knowing they had a full day of prepping before heading out. Clearly the work they did beforehand had got them in and out quick.

"When did you guys get back?"

"Early this morning. I just got out of the mission report."

Becca chewed on her bottom lip, quickly checking her phone but finding no missed messages. "Steve still in his?"

"No, he finished before me." She watched her friend become anxious at the knowledge of having no contact with the male. "You good?"

"I'm fine," the brunette brushed it off as nothing, "How 'bout you though? No problems?"

"Nope." Natasha crossed her legs to get comfortable in the chair. "Pretty standard. Just wanted to stop in quick to say hi before I head north."

"Can't stay for the weekend?"

"No can do. Fury wants to talk with me about a new undercover job."

Becca raised an eyebrow at the idea of her going back undercover since the knowledge of the Avengers. Natasha and Clint were truly the only two now that people didn't have the faces of. "Back to Russia?"

"I almost wish, but it's Chicago." Natasha agreed with the same stunned face looking back at her. "Not a clue, but it must be something big if Fury wants me back in ops."

"And with Fury you won't know the true mission of your involvement until it's about to blow up in your face."

"Precisely." The two laughed, enjoying the easiness between them for as long as they could. The softness didn't last as long as they wanted because something had been rolling through the redhead's mind since the end of the mission, knowing the girl in front of her was the best to ask. "I do have something to ask, just to see if you even know the situation."

"Shoot." Becca leaned forward, intrigued by what the question could be."

"It's really none of my business, but does Rogers have a problem with something in Austria?"

The young Stark was taken back by that, definitely not anything she was expecting. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know exactly, just as soon as he found out the location of where we were going he became rigid."

"Maybe he was just preparing for the situation."

"Maybe," Natasha shrugged but it was still off, "but as soon as we were done I couldn't follow him fast enough to leave. It was different than any situation I've seen him in. I didn't know if you knew anything…"

Did she? She racked her brain for an answer to the super soldier's shifty emotion, but couldn't place her finger on something. Natasha's worry and the fact that Becca hadn't heard a word from him since returning was bothering her. They had made a deal to notify the other when they were back and safe from a mission. Or maybe she was just overthinking it.

"I didn't mean to worry you." Natasha took notice of the overwhelmed look in her friend's eyes. "It's probably nothing and I just over-read the situation."

Becca tried to push past it; to go to lunch with Natasha, to finish her paperwork for the week, but Steve was on her mind the whole time. But also not wanting to text him incase that annoyed him. By the time her clock hit 5pm she was rushing out the glass doors, barely giving anyone else the time of day. D.C. traffic adding to her impatience, she missed being able to walk home then being stuck in a car. Pulling into one of the few empty parking spots designated for their building, she found Steve's bike sitting a few spaces down. The sight of it relieved her for a minute, knowing he was home.

As soon as she made it inside, her heels were in her hand and her stocking feet were racing up the stairs. By the time she was reaching his floor she had to mentally settle down, not wanting to appear on edge. Her knuckles knocked against his door once, twice, three times but getting no response. The sound of a door opening behind her grabbed her attention, finding his neighbor leaving.

"Hey Kate." Becca called out to the women. A tall blonde they had met upon moving in. She was a nurse and extremely friendly to the two.

"Oh, hey Becca." Kate gave her a soft smile, locking her door. "TGIF am I right?"

"Absolutely." She agreed, keeping up the small talk but wanted to keep it moving. "You haven't seen Steve by chance, have you?"

"No, sorry."

"It's okay, have a good night."

"You too." The women gave a quick wave goodbye and turned towards the stairs.

Becca put her ear against the wooden door, listening for anything on the other side but there was none. She flipped through her keychain to find his key and unlocked the door, each of them having the other's spare. She stood in the dark entryway, not hearing or seeing any source of living inside.

"Steve?" She called out, hoping for him to answer her. All she found was his shield sitting against the wall down the hallway. Her nerves were officially shot and finally pulled out her phone to give him a call. What she didn't expect was to hear a vibration echoing off the walls in time with the ringing in her ear. She followed the sound to find Steve's phone sitting on the kitchen counter. Becca checked through his apartment and then ran a floor up incase for some reason he had gone to hers, but nothing. Nothing was out of place anywhere, and he had clearly come home but had gone somewhere.

That brought her to an hour later, sitting on the steps outside of their apartment building, dressed in leggings and a hoodie waiting. She didn't know what else to do. All they had were each other in the new city, so she had no one to call about him to. She now understood the feelings that he must have gone through when she went missing. The past few months running through her head and all she could think was that she had been selfish. Becca hadn't asked him how he was handling the move and regularly working for SHIELD. She had been so caught up in her own head that maybe she missed the signs Natasha had been talking about.

The sun was close to completely set on the spring evening when she finally saw him. Steve was a block down, noticing he wore sweatpants, under armour shirt, and sneakers. Clearly had been running from some sweat patches on his shirt and mused hair. He had made it to the corner of the building when she couldn't sit still any longer. Becca didn't know what came over her, but the small girl rushed to him, bodies colliding as her arms wrapped themselves tightly around him.

Steve grunted from the impact, eyes barely registering her before she had attacked him. His own arms bracing her against his chest before they toppled over. His thoughts and entire mood he had a second prior were squished at seeing her, now replaced by concern for the girl's actions. "Becca?"

Him just saying her name asked all his questions. "I didn't know where you were." Her voice muffled against his shoulder, head tucked tight under his chin. The whole situation is uneasy from both parties.

Steve understanding where he went wrong, immediately began apologizing profusely and holding the girl tighter. "I'm so sorry, I forgot to text you."

"You left your phone here and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't find you."

He had internally known it for awhile. But the words now solidifying it; he had someone that cared about him and cared if he came home. That a little action as disappearing for a few hours turned a highly intelligent agent into a worried mess. His unwavering connection to Becca was reciprocated.

Becca pulled back from him, pushing away her hair to look up at the man. Truly seeing him for the first time in days. He looked tired and upset and she didn't know if it was from the situation or something different.

"I didn't mean to make you worry," Steve's voice was not as strong as he wanted it to be, "I just needed to run to clear my head after that mission."

"I understand, I just overreacted." She was noticing people walking past them on the sidewalk and didn't need this blasted across the news. "Let's go inside."

He followed her without hesitation, like always. The two were quiet, taking the steps to his apartment, thoughts rolling through each other's minds but very different. Becca sat at his dining room table, not wanting the comfort of his couch right now. Something just was off there. A glass of water was placed in front of her along with the one he had gotten for himself. They were each so selfless for each other, yet sometimes there was a barrier between them. Still not wanting to bleed on the other person.

Becca was ready to bulldoze the rest of the wall there.

"What happened on the mission?"

To say Steve wasn't expecting the question would be a lie. She read him easily, and hoped the run would push his haunted past away, but it didn't. "What did Natasha tell you?" He leaned forward on the table, arms resting crossed.

"She said your demeanor was rigid and asked if Austria was a problem for you." Becca noticed his jaw clench at the mention. "I didn't have an answer for her."

The soldier was quiet for the moment, spinning the glass against the wood table. There was only one road he could take. "It's where I lost Bucky."

She wanted to fall through a hole in the floor. It felt like when he opened up to her about Peggy for the first time but this was so much more. He didn't like to talk about Bucky because it brought up the absolute worst moment in his life.

"It was on the train in the mountains where he fell." His blue eyes found hers, a shrug bunching his shoulders. "Never thought I would have to go back there again."

Those blue eyes were clouded by something behind them reaching out to her to understand. To take the weight off his shoulders, help him stand back up. But then there was the other side that was telling him to move on. The side of him that said he needed to help others before himself, that his problems are minuscule. It was the thought set that had been becoming more and more prominent each time he put the suit back on. What he didn't know was that Becca had taken notice of this change.

"I just need to deal with it-"

"Stop." Becca cut him off, not allowing him to go down that road. "Just stop."

Steve however was not understanding where she was coming from. "What?" He sat up straight, shoulder broad in defense.

"Stop trying to minimize yourself. You don't have to do that with me." Her eyes still help compassion even though her words were blunt. "You are Steve Rogers to me. Unless we're in battle and you're wearing your uniform, Captain America is not on the table."

His posture dropped, his head turned down to his lap. He couldn't hide. "Nothing I do eases the pain and guilt. Thinking about Bucky...I can only see him falling over and over again. And I can't change the past."

"He was your best friend, your family, and I can't understand that type of loss. The thought of losing Eve...I just can't fathom it. But you have to find a way to remember the good parts. I'm sure the two of you ran your course over Brooklyn."

"More times than not people were surprised that we hadn't been kicked out of places yet." He gave a soft chuckle at the thought of the two boys from ages ago.

"Why do I have a feeling you were the instigator?" She joked, happy to see him coming alive.

"You have no proof." Steve looked up at her with a dark smile, memories of happy time now dancing behind his eyes. The sight brought a grin to her own lips.

"How about you go take a shower, I'll cook us dinner, and maybe we can slowly revisit some good times?"

"Okay." Steve pushed up away from the table, and took a few steps before turning back to her. "Hey Becca?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you...just, thank you."

He didn't wait for her to respond before heading to his bedroom and quite honestly she was taken off guard. It wasn't the words, more the feeling she felt while hearing them as she looked into his eyes. Something foreign was brewing.

July 2013

"Rising Tide is offline."

Becca's head snapped up at the words that just left Director Fury's mouth. Her text message to Eve was forgotten.

"What?" She leaned forward in her seat across from him at his desk. Fury shared his computer screen to the display on the wall next to them. Her eyes seeing exactly what he said. Confusion settling on her brow bone. "And we had no control of this?"

"Haven't heard a word." He confirmed her question. "Something seems wrong. We have been back tracking them for months and now they go on their own accord. That's quite unusual."

The hacktivist group hadn't posted any new videos in a long time. SHIELD thinking that since the organization is being open about their existence, Rising Tide had been losing steam. But no matter how much Agents had searched, they still couldn't find the culprits, which looked sad on their end.

"So am I free from my duties?" A hopeful grin found Becca's face.

"No."

The facade dropped as well as her body back into the chair. "Worth a shot."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before agreeing to your new position." Fury's eye narrowed at the girl sitting across from him. Exactly the reason why the World Security Council didn't want him anywhere near the discussion because he would have fought it. "Any issues arise?"

"Besides nearly having a catfight with Secretary Ross and Senator Stern yesterday on Capitol Hill? Nope. It's been a walk in the park." Pure sarcasm dropping from her words.

"You're an adult. You can quit if you want."

"You know I'm not going to do that. Wouldn't mind going on a mission, though."

"And you know you can't. You're a high risk right now." Before more could be said, his phone was ringing. "I got to take this, we'll talk more later."

Becca didn't even reply before he was answering the phone, prompting her to get up and leave at once. With Fury now spending more time in DC, she thought she might have someone on her side finally, but not with the position she had put herself in. A good amount of SHIELD agents and employees had been moved to the capitol because of the news to the people. New York keeping a moderate group together in the building downtown.

She looked to her left, dreading walking the way to her office, having no desire to sit in those four walls. Instead, she went right, taking the elevator to the gym on the middle floors. Becca had been told recently that she was now on hiatus with STRIKE, which was really driving her sanity into the ground. She hadn't been out since February, and it looked like not anytime soon to be reinstated. This led her to more time than ever spending multiple hours in the gym to get her adrenaline out. She couldn't help but wonder what Coulson would think of her new position and if he ever expected her to get to this point. She missed his insights.

Becca quickly got changed in the locker room and entered the gym. It was quite busy for it being midday, but there was new training from the Academy happening during the summer months. Pulling her honey brown hair into a long braid, definitely needing a trim. She scanned the area for a tall blonde. She found Steve in the weights area, sliding the maximum weights on each side of the bar for the chest press. And like she had been doing for the past two months, Becca ignored the deep, gut warmth she had been feeling at seeing him. And she planned to harbor whatever that was until she was physically ill. You know, the healthy thing to do.

"Question, if you stopped working out altogether would you still have insane muscles?" She joked, stopping above him so he could see her face above the bar. A smile pressed on her lips.

Steve just continued on, "If you weren't sarcastic for one day would you be able to go on with your life?"

"No, it would be physically impossible. I might self combust."

He chuckled, finishing his reps before putting the bar back to sit up. "No meetings?"

She shrugged, weary of who was listening around them. "Just got out of one with Fury. Rising Tide is offline."

"Really?" Steve's eyes had widened, taken back by the situation. He stood up, keeping their body's close to have a more hushed conversation. "Well, that's good. Right?"

"I have no idea, cause they took it down themselves." She watched him nod at her answer and begin taking some of the weights off. "You been here long?"

"Over an hour." Steve gestured to the bench with the now decreased weights that he knew she could handle. "Let's go."

The girl rolled her eyes, but sat down anyways. "Is this payback for the muscle comment?"

"Oh no, I'll trade that in when you least expect it."

Becca began her own reps, Steve spotting incase of any problems. She could feel the tension slowly slipping off of him now that she was around. Since their talk about Bucky, the soldier had left his guard down around her even more if that was possible. But being around other Agents, or just the idea of being in the building period, he brought a shield up around himself. Pun not intended.

The spy had also begun leaving her problems at the door. Trying to find a happy medium. Her now much bigger apartment had given her more room to expand her plant selection. Her green thumb becoming more prominent especially in the summer months. While she enjoyed watching Steve truly putting together his own apartment which held artwork that varied from wall to wall and books on every surface you saw. The two of them trying to find themselves. Steve more so with the tiny book he kept with him at all times to remember something new.

"So, I think I want to go to the Smithsonian."

Steve's words caught her off guard, the bar dipping in her arm, but he was quick to catch it before it crushed her chest. Becca watched him set the weights back in place above her, but the words started to process through her head.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, hands sitting on his waist. "Steps forward, right?"

The brunette sat up, keeping her back to him as she thought. He wanted to go for one reason; to see the Captain America exhibit. She had known about a small display they had always had set up, but now with the living legend alive once again, the museum had expanded their archives.

"Do you think it's a bad idea?" Her quiet response had him second guessing.

"No!" She spun towards him, standing from the bench. "Sorry, I just was not thinking you would want to."

"Neither did I." His shoulders shrugged, being cautious of his environment again with this, but needed to let her know what was going through his head the past few days. "I just want to start being open about my past with myself. I can't run from it anymore."

"Well, as not a therapist, I think that's very healthy of you."

The side of his mouth quirked upward, a side smile at her. "Will you go with me?"

And there was the burning again as she gazed up into his eyes. Becca felt like she was drowning in the best way possible, letting herself sink to the bottom of the ocean as waves crashed inside of her. "Of course." Her words were a whisper, the most she could speak out. She wanted to look away, but couldn't. Not knowing if time stood still as she felt something that had been hiding inside of her awakening.

"Rogers!"

Becca finally broke the eye contact to look over his shoulder to find the owner of the voice. Garrett Nielsen walking towards them, a cheeky smirk landing on his lips at seeing Becca there as well.

Steve turned around himself, a neutral face at finding his team member there. "Nielsen." His body standing tall, a few inches taller than the other male.

Becca stayed quiet, just watching the tension filled stare down between them. It didn't take a scientist to see that there was a problem between the two, but that neither of them admitted to.

Garrett's expression changed when he looked towards Becca. "How you doing, Bex?"

"Fine." She answered, her own soft smile on her face, being the nice person she was.

"What can we do for you?" Steve stepped back into the conversation to get back on track.

"We're being called in."

He nodded, ready for him to walk away. "Okay, I'll be right there."

Garrett turned away from him to Becca once again. "We should catch when I'm back."

"Oh...yeah, sure." She was taken back by his split personalities between the two different conversations. The once strong feelings she had for him were so far gone, leaving only a shell of disgust at ever feeling that way, but not showing it to him.

He gave her one last smile before turning away from them. Not giving Steve another time of day before he walked away.

"That was weird." Becca commented, hoping to express a similar feeling between the two of them.

"I'll see you later." His words were dark, not looking down at her, just walking away. Completely changing his attitude to her from 5 minutes ago.

"Okay..be careful!" She called after him, but could only watch his back as he pushed through the gym doors out of her sight. "What the hell…" She whispered to herself, her emotions jostling back and forth with the man.

The music pumped through the apartment, seeping out the open window into the humid, summer air. Probably annoying a few neighbors along the way, but it was Saturday night and try telling the two city girls to turn it down. Eve danced from the living room into the kitchen, hands in the air as she let the music consume her body. Becca shook her hips to the beat, being careful as she cut the lime into wedges. Right now, there was nothing better to Becca than having her best friend in town to truly celebrate it being summer.

"I'm not doing tequila with you." Eve shook her head at the sight of the limes and moved over to the liquor cabinet.

"Rude."

"No, I'd just rather remember tonight, thank you."

Becca laughed, watching her set the bottle of vodka on the counter. She was not a fan of the spirit, but kept it for Eve and Natasha whenever they were around. They each poured their shots respectively before clinking glasses and shooting it back. Becca biting into her lime wedge, allowing the sour taste to ease the alcohol burn.

"Sucks that Cora couldn't make it."

"Yeah," Eve opened the bag of pretzels to nibble on, "that's what I get for dating a soon to be surgeon." Eve and Cora were the complete opposites of each other; where Eve wanted to spend nights out partying and spent her days teaching dance to children, Cora was finishing her residency and liked waking up early to go to the farmer's market when she could. But they complimented each other so well.

"That's really exciting for her!"

"By the way, she wanted me to ask you and Steve if you would come to her graduation in December?"

"Absolutely!" Becca popped her own pretzel into her mouth, her phone dinging on the counter next to her, seeing Steve's name on the screen. "Speak of the devil."

"Okay, his super soldier hearing cannot be that good to hear me through the apartment building!" Getting a laugh from each of them.

'Home.' The text read, bringing her tension she always held when he was out on a mission back down from her body.

"He's finally home, I'm gonna give him a call. See if he wants to order dinner with us?" She walked towards her bedroom, finding distance away from the music that would bleed into their conversation. She perched on the corner of her bed, listening to the ringing in her ear.

"Hello." Steve's voice broke through the other end, sounding low and gravely.

"Hey, glad you're back."

"Yeah."

The one word answer and the tone of his voice bothered her. "Any problems or was it smooth sailing?"

"It was fine." He sighed, clearly not wanting to talk.

Her own sigh leaving her lips, fingers pressing against her brow bone, finding the same odd tension flowing between them before he left and she had no idea why. "Are you sure-"

"It's fine, Rebecca. How many times do I have to repeat myself?" His voice was hostile now and anger was flowing through his veins.

The same feeling on each side of the phone. "Jesus Christ, Steve! So sorry I give a shit, I won't ask anymore." He stayed quiet after her blow up and that just dug the knife in harder. "I don't know what the hell happened, I don't know what the hell I did, but I'm not doing to sit here and try to pander to you. Eve is here, we're going to order dinner. If you want to come up you can, if you don't, I don't care either. You're a grown man, you can clearly take care of yourself. Goodnight." And with that she hung up the phone, not giving him time for a response. If he had some pressing thing to say he can march himself up the stairs and do it to her face.

Becca let out a frustrated cry and and stomped out of her bedroom. Eve stood there with raised eyebrows, clearly overhearing her side of the conversation.

"Ya good?"

"I am so goddamn tired of trying to play this picture perfect person to everyone, who only cares about others than herself." She grabbed the shot glass that Eve handed her and knocked it back with vengeance. "God forbid I care about what Steve's going through and I don't have all the answers, my father still won't talk to me because his ego was hurt, and this whole fucking government thinks they own me." Becca didn't even realize tears were falling from her eyes until Eve had become blurry in front of her. "I'm so tired."

"Oh, Bec…" Eve grabbed her best friend into a hug, while also moving them into the living room to sit on the couch. Each girl taking an end, legs meeting in the middle, their usual position. "I wish I could come down here more for you."

"We skype every week, you do a lot as it is." Becca wiped away the tears from her eyes, "I'm just trying to be someone that I can't be 24/7."

"We'll from my point of view of things, the government thinks they own everyone, but knowing you you're trying to make situations better for the greater good. Right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Eve nodded, setting out one situation at a time. "I believe you do what you think is best and I wouldn't want you to lose that. As for your father, it might take awhile but he's going to come crawling back. Probably when you least expect it. And for Steve, this is confusing me. Did something happen?"

"I don't know," Becca pushed her hair away from her face. "We were fine, then the day he went out on a mission, Garrett came and got him. The two said like maybe 5 words to each other. Hell I think he said more to me then Steve and then left. After that Steve has been standoffish and just is acting out of character-"

"-He's jealous of Garrett."

The words had her reeling for a second, not understanding where it was coming from. "What? No he's not."

"Really?" Eve rose a perfect blonde eyebrow in question of her doubt. "What did Garrett say to you during this exchange."

"Just that we should catch up when he was back."

"And how would you describe the atmosphere between the two of them?"

"I don't know…" She thought back to that day, she definitely did know. And now she was rethinking everything. "He was very tense with Steve...and weirdly happy with me."

Eve couldn't believe what her best friend just said, but she could clearly see that she was in denial of the situation. "Bec, I have a strong feeling that Steve likes you."

"He doesn't like me," she shook her brown hair hard, not allowing that thought to flow through her thoughts. "It's not possible."

"Why's that?"

"Because he's still in love with Peggy!" That was a loud outburst neither was expecting as her answer. Becca's eyes widened at the deep thoughts that had never broken across her lips. More things that were buried deep finding surface. "I...I don't know where that came from."

"Sounds like something you've been harboring for awhile." Eve had watched first hand the overwhelming compassion each had for the other. She's watched her best friend's eyes light up when he entered a room and how Steve hangs on to every word that Becca says. They were so blind to the emotions that were laid out right in front of them. "You like him, Becca."

"No I don't." She refused to admit to that notion. He had become one of her best friends, there was no way she would do anything to sabotage that even if the feelings were 'real'.

The world was spinning on a slow tilt when Becca opened her eyes. It could be the heat playing with her head, the lack of sleep, or the half bottle of tequila she drank by herself the night before. She knew the correct answer to the problem and internally told herself she would never drink that much ever again. Movement from outside of the bedroom caught her attention of what woke her up in the first place. Looking to her left she saw tufts of blonde locks hanging out from where the comforter was haphazardly thrown over their head, signalling to her that Eve was still passed out.

Agent mode kicked into her body, hangover be damned of the situation. She grabbed the knife that was tucked under her nightstand and forced herself into a dizzy standing position. On her tiptoes, the spy cautiously edged her way through the hallway, but the smell of food started to confuse her. Did someone really break into her apartment to cook breakfast and not try to kill them?

The knife slacked in her hand when she looked around the corner to see that the intruder in fact was cooking breakfast but also had a key to her apartment. Becca stood for a second watching Steve bustle around her kitchen cooking, and the remnants of the party for two Eve and herself had last night, cleaned up.

"I want you to know that I almost cut you." The brunette spoke up, walking into the kitchen and dropping the knife on the counter.

Steve turned around to look at her, a soft grin on his face. "Good Morning. Sorry, I didn't want to wake you two." His tone was a complete turn around from the night before. "You want coffee?"

"Steve…" She might be hungover to all hell, but she could read the overly fake tone in his words.

"Peace offering," he brought a mug towards her, "and an apology."

She looked down at the coffee and then back up to the man. She didn't know if she would right out accept his apology but she would sip on the coffee that she was craving. "It's a start."

He watched her sink onto the island bench, taking a deep drink from the coffee that he had made for her with her exact amount of creamer that she liked. After the phone call the night before, he almost ran upstairs automatically. But he needed to clear his own head and deal with internal issues before he took it out on Becca again. "What can I do to make this right?"

"Maybe next time don't freak out at me for reasons that I don't even know what I did."

"You didn't do anything…" Steve turned off the stove and sat beside her at the counter. "Something about Nielsen just...just gets under my skin. Ever since last year when you had your issues with him, I just can't let bygones be bygones." His words reminded her immediately of Eve's thoughts of the situation. "And I took it out on you and I shouldn't have. God, everything you do is trying to make other's lives better."

"I'm not a perfect person," her fingers circled the mug lip, "and I mess up. And when that happens I rather you tell me straight out then holding it back and I do it again. And I try to give you that same option."

"I know, and I appreciate that," he nodded, letting her words sink in. "You remind me a lot of Bucky sometimes." Her eyes found his again with wonder. "Supportive, unwavering friendship...kick my ass when I need it," they each chuckled, Steve watching her in awe of the smile that finally found her face again, "I'm sorry if you felt like I took you for granted in all you have done for me."

"I don't. We're on this weird ride together."

"Good to know. I have something else for you," he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. "I stopped to see Peggy this morning."

Her eyes stayed focused on the folded paper, knowing her eyes would fail her after her odd admission of the women the night before. "Oh, yeah?"

"I thought if an apology, breakfast and coffee wouldn't do the trick, there was something else I could do for you." Steve noticed her creasing the edges, keeping her eyes down. "Open it."

Her fingers unfolded the paper, for some reason anxious for what she was going to find on the other side.

Angela Martinelli

The name was the only thing written in curved handwriting that she expected was Peggy's. Her blood was pumping in her ears, throat finding hard to swallow.

"Maybe we can find out who this Angie is," Steve's voice was low as he watched her fight something inside of herself with the name in front of her. "See if she has something to do with your story."

Becca finally looked up at him, eyes seeing him in a new light for the first time. That burning was back, deep inside of her, but she wasn't fighting it this time. She was letting it consume her body, breath coming in short spurts as she looked deep into his ocean blue eyes. His face held a loose smile that she was sure was making her blush a deep crimson that she could blame the hangover that was bumping up against this other feeling. A feeling that she was finally allowing herself to think about and start to feel.

Becca Stark liked Steve Rogers.

Up Next: Families are defined and crushes are the worst.

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