Beauty in All She Is

Steve had spent most of his days fighting the good fight, always thinking of others and never himself. During World War II, it was about helping his country, he wanted to be somebody and prove himself. At the same time he wanted to save people and help his country while trying to save Bucky. When that failed he couldn't live with himself, then was frozen for 70 years. It all came as a shock to him and he missed out on so much, but the guilt of not saving his childhood best friend really killed him.

When Fury had asked him to join the Avengers, he felt like he was needed again and did his best to stay true to himself. He made new friends and began a new life in New York. There was so many things he had to catch up to and get used to. Things began to get complicated lines especially when it came to Washington DC. When Steve found out about Bucky being alive, well, that really ate him up at night. He had bad case of survivors' guilt. He spent months looking for him and could never find him.

At the same time, the Avengers began expanding and getting complicated especially after Ultron. Things have become tense with Tony and he wanted nothing more than not have conflict amongst friends. Steve just wanted to do what was right and be a good man and that would not work if he had to obey orders from the government. He didn't trust people with agendas and wanted to be on his own.

After Vienna and everything that happened, he dropped everything to help Bucky. Bucky wanted to be frozen again but Steve wouldn't have it, he told Bucky there had to be another way and that he would find Bucky all the help he needed. Steve had so much on his mind that he wasn't paying attention to anything while he was on his daily run. He hadn't noticed the woman that he bumped into. "I'm so sorry miss, I wasn't watching where I was going."

---

Emily Snow, was you're everyday nerd who enjoyed nerdy activities like reading comic books or building a computer from scratch. She enjoyed the simple things and get found herself working on complicated technology. She had been offer a great job in Wakanda helping the king, she just couldn't say no. She was in the middle of building a robot prototype when she received the call. It wasn't her only offer though, Tony Stark had called but she turned him down. Telling him she wasn't working woth someone with as self centered as him and someone who was willing to arrest his fellow friends or keep a young woman captive because of her powers. Oh she knew all the horrible things that Stark had done. From someone on the inside. She refused and she might have been stupid for turning him down because he was willing to pay so much for her intelligence but she wasn't going to compromise her morals.

Emily couldn't turn the king down, it was such an honor really, a bigger deal than Tony Stark. At least she thought so, he would offer the same thing maybe even better. She would also get to travel something she always wanted to do but couldn't because of financial issues. If it wasn't for her grants and scholarships Emily wouldn't have gone to school so that was something she was thankful for, her big brain. "You have everything right? Your phone is turned on?" Emily's mother asked. "Mom, I'll be fine I promise, I'll call when I land, this is something I have to do" she nodded.

Emily smiled as she carried her carry on into the plane and made herself comfortable. First class wasn't something she wasn't used to but the king had insisted and how could she argue with a monarch? She took out a magazine and flipped through it. She had some Intel on what she was going to be working on. A living metal arm had certainly caught her interest, at least that's what the classified file had said. Emily couldn't talk about it with anyone so it must be big.

@ Epiphany.

Since the age of eleven Laila had known what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be a nurse. And she knew it'd be tough, she'd have to work her butt off and she knew that there were some things she'd just have to sacrifice in order to reach her goal. So, of course, the day she'd graduated from nursing school was a huge deal for her. Just like landing her first job at a hospital had been a huge deal. And now here she was four years later still happy with where she was.

She'd had to find a way to de-stress though because sometimes her job could get a little stressful. And she'd tried the whole yoga thing but it hadn't been much help. Maybe it worked for some people, but she wasn't one of those people. Running, however, had easily become the best way for her to de-stress after a long day or a bad day. She really enjoyed feeling the wind through her hair when she left it down and how easy it was for her to let things go if she went for a run. She actually enjoyed it so much that she often found herself going out for a run to start or even end her day on a regular daily basis.

"You're fine, I wasn't exactly paying attention myself," Laila said running her fingers through her hair smiling at the handsome man in front of her. "Are you new around here?" She asked him kind of out of the blue, but curious given she ran this same path every day and usually saw the same people on the same days because people around here all kind of patterns they stuck to. And this guy was not someone she'd seen before. Which was kind of nice actually, meeting new people was always nice and helped them feel welcomed. She'd really liked how welcoming the town felt when she first moved there and just kind of assumed other people would like to feel welcomed as well.

---

Bucky laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling letting out a sigh. He kind of hated this, and would've rather went under the ice until they could come up with some way to fix his mind. But he knew Steve better than anyone, and really should've known that Steve wouldn't let him do something like that. What sucked most though was that he couldn't exactly leave the facility he was at because he could easily revert back to his winter soldier self as long as hydra supporters were still around. Or until his mind was fixed.

Oh yeah and the fact that he was missing his arm. So he'd be pretty useless at protecting himself or doing things for himself really. At least until he got use to only having one arm. Which was certainly proving to be a challenge. He'd heard that they were bringing in some kind of specialist or something though to work on fixing that for him. At least if that were true and he did get his arm fixed he'd be able to use both of them again. And oh maybe he'd finally be able to do more to keep himself entertained.

Until then though he mostly just spent his days laying around in bed eating when someone brought him food, and watching some of the things they put on TV in the 21st century. He didn't really understand any of it, though. So usually he ended up turning it off and then questioning how anyone could actually sit and enjoy watching the nonsense. So much had changed over the last seventy years it was kind of crazy.

Steve had spent the last few months hiding out after he broke his friends from the prison. He was sure the government wanted to find him and he wasn't having thay. Not yet, not until he helped his best friend from his childhood, he owed him that much. After everything that Bucky went through, Steve felt so guilty when finding out about Bucky and his Winter Soldier past. All he wanted to do was make up to him even thought Bucky had forgiven him.

He smiled at the young woman who appeared to be in her mid twenties he smiled softly at her. "Really, it's my fault I was in your way, clearly you were here first" he grinned. He shook his head when she mentioned seeing him, "I'm a little new to the area, I haven't been able to get on my running routine yet." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly like always when meeting women,he stuck his hand out, "my name'so Steve by the way"

---

Emily had a long plane ride to WaKanda and she had spent hours reading some books and sleeping. As she woke up ten hours later she noticed that the plane was coming to a stop. She yawned as she gather her belongings it was dark out and she just wanted to stretch her legs.

Emily opened the files trying to read into what she would have to work on for weeks or months she wasn't sure. As she gathered her hotel information Emily decided to call the people who were in charge of setting all this up. Of course she couldn't just call the King that would be outrageous so she called his people who she mostly talked to anyway. "I should be arriving soon, did you want me to take a look at the patient?" She was excited about this, something different finally.

Laila laughed softly and shook her head gently, "it's fine really. I mean I think the path is big enough for the both of us," she told him not wanting someone to feel like they couldn't run on the same path as her or something absolutely ridiculous like that. Honestly, it was just nice to see someone else out for a run with how little people wanted to get out anymore it might actually be nice to have someone she could potentially run with some time.

"Oh well welcome to the area, I'd be happy to show you around sometime if you'd like. I mean after all I know this place like the back my hand," she joked with a smile. "Ah, I'm Laila" she added figuring she could at least be nice enough to also tell him her name. Really it was nice bumping into people who were new to the area, especially when they seemed like nice people. There were, of course, those times when people weren't very nice, that was just something she'd learnt to deal with. Especially given her job required her to deal with people like that on a regular basis.

---

Bucky was just minding his own business, as usual, trying not to think about how much he kind of wished he was just on the ice again. The only reason he wasn't was because Steve didn't want him to go under until who knew when and had promised they'd find someone to help him, and Bucky didn't want to upset Steve. He had to admit though that he kind of hated this, being kept here under watch 24/7 to make sure he didn't do anything. And he didn't mind that people were keeping him in line. What he minded was how hard it was to keep himself occupied so he didn't go crazy. And it wasn't even that he was confined to one room because he could walk around and talk to some of the other people there if he wanted. It was just hard for him to adjust to everything in this time because he wasn't used to any of it and it made no sense to him.

"Okay Barnes there's someone here for you," he heard one of the people in charge say as they walked into his room. Which could've only meant a few things, that Steve was there to see him, that one of the other people in there wanted to see him, or that whoever they'd hired to try and help fix him was finally here. And honestly, he hoped it was the latter because he was ready to be better so he could get out of here and maybe feel like a normal person again. Something that'd hadn't happened in a long time.

[ sorry for such a late reply! ]

Steve hadn't meant to run into the young girl, he was surprised of his lack of attention. He had been so focused on his friend Bucky that his mind wondered and his attention was lost. That only happened when Bucky was involved, he smiled softly at the young woman. "If you insist. I didn't think I'd see so many people out here, not this early anyway. "

Steve stuck his hand out and took hers gently shaking it, "I'm Steve, it's a pleasure to meet you miss, Laila" he grinned. Hewas always polite and called ladies by ma'am or miss he didn't want to be so casual unless they were comfortable with it. "Oh, I'd like to take that offer then it took me a while you find this area actually"he laughed. Steve was trying to lay low for awhile or until the whole Tony thing blew over.

---

Emily took a good look at the picture of the man and recognized him quickly how could she not? She looked at the damage of the severed arm and cringed the only way to help him was to just cut the whole thing completely and attach a new one. Of course that's easier said than done but she pondered about how this was going to work. She quickly gathered everything and stuck all the paper work into folders before leaving. Soon she'd see this man, the Winter Soldier or James Barnes. He didn't scare her, if Steve Rogers a man of many values and who was not corrupted from today's government could trust this James so could she.

Emily stepped into a large building that seemed to be well hidden from the world as she walked with security and clutching the folders in her chest she looked at her surroundings. Once in front of the king she wasn't sure what to or say she bowed her head it was respectful right? Was that even still a thing? She knew nothing of monarchy manners either way he seemed kind enough and began to explain the situation to her and once everything was said the doctors and assistants led the way. She stepped in once they had told the man who was there to see him. She was nervous stepping in and turned around d when everyone left . Turning back to this soldier James, it was just the two of them. She breathed softly and looked at him as he stared back at her.

[It's okay]

@ Epiphany.