Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Steve brushed a long black hair out of Bernice's mouth, whipped there by the late November wind.

"Are you cold?"

"Not with you here." Bernice leaned back into his warmth. She sank into the shelter of his arms, pulling one arm across her neck to cover where she'd foolishly forgotten to wear a scarf. Or perhaps not so foolish. Ever since he'd seen Bernice with her hair upswept off of her creamy white neck at the party, accentuated by her raven black hair, he'd developed a fetish for kissing her there any excuse he got. The little minx knew it and enjoyed taunting him, tempting him to nibble on the delicious morsel at odd times, such as in front of his gym clients or while waiting in line at the movie theatre.

Steve pulled her closer and stared across New York harbor from the torch of the Statue of Liberty. Officially it was after hours and the Statue was closed, but Tony Stark, the Tin Man who'd suddenly grown a heart, had pulled a few strings to get the caretaker to give them access.

"I still don't understand why Mr. Stark would do this for us?" Bernice asked.

"Pure Machiavellian despotism," Steve said, enjoying the feel of cuddling with a woman who wanted to cuddle with in return. There had been lots of cuddling and kissing since the day he'd told her who he really was. But Bernice seemed to sense he wished to take things slow.

It was a heady sensation, allowing himself to fall in love. He savored each decadent moment as though it were ambrosia. And he was enjoying it. Unlike the unrequited crushes he'd developed as a scrawny asthmatic on girls who wouldn't give him the time of day or Peggy, who'd been oblivious to his affections until the very end, his relationship with Bernice, now that she knew the truth, was easy. Easy to be with. Easy to talk to. And quick to laugh when he got tongue-tied and stuck his boot in his mouth, which he still did with distressing regularity despite how natural it felt to be with her.

"He wants to make sure I owe him lots of favors so the next time he ticks me off, he can remind me how much I owe him."

Bernice burst out laughing.

"You two," Bernice said. "You're like two old prize fighters circling each other at a match of golf. When are you two going to realize you're not in a boxing ring?"

"Meh," Steve said, nuzzling down her tantalizingly bare neck, just begging him to warm it from the biting wind with his lips. "If you think I'm bad, you should see him and Thor go at one another."

Bernice giggled, causing her entire body to tremble against the length of his. Steve nuzzled her neck some more, causing her to shriek with laughter. It did things to him, the feel of her body moving against his. Things that made him think of making their relationship a permanent one. But he was wary. There had been an unusual lull in alien activity. How would Bernice hold up once he started getting called out again? Even as Stark encouraged him to loosen up and have a little fun, his old adversary warned him to make sure Bernice could hold up to the reality of life with a superhero. Most women could not. Steve had given Peggy his word he would shield her granddaughter. That meant not dragging Bernice into a relationship she couldn't emotionally handle once reality intruded back into his life.

"It's pretty up here," Bernice said, the light reflecting off of the golden torch of the Statue of Liberty giving her eyes a golden-brown cast. She turned to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Maybe I am cold after all?"

"Would you like to go inside?" Steve asked.

Bernice cuffed him offside the head for his feigned cluelessness and tugged him down for a kiss, nipping his lower lip. Steve couldn't help but moan, the warm glow he'd been stoking, trying to keep things from getting too hot too fast, shooting flames throughout his body. Bernice had started dropping hints about it being far enough past the third date to no longer be a gentleman. Clint had finally taken pity on him and dragged him aside, explaining the modern notion of the 'third date.'

Wrong thought. That made his temperature shoot up even hotter, making his entire body tingle. If he got any warmer, his thought his heart would burst with happiness. He couldn't remember any time in his life when he'd been this happy. He hoped … prayed … that this feeling would last.

"What are those lights flashing over there?" Bernice asked. She leaned forward, squinting into the inky night.

Steve's eyes scanned the harbor, automatically discarding the normal lights that twinkled both across the busy harbor. His vision settled on an anomaly on Governor's Island. No. Not Governor's Island. But the Triskelion portable command barge anchored just off the former Coast Guard station. The fortress had been designed to hide in plain sight, but since the alien invasion, New Yorkers liked to see proof the government had soldiers capable of taking on the new breed of bad guys. A kind of floating security blanket.

"That doesn't look like authorized activity," Steve said, every nerve fiber in his body coming alive at the small lights converging upon the location from multiple directions.

A flash of light.

The sound came a few milliseconds later. The sound of an explosion.

"That's the Triskelion!" Steve said, his arms instinctively tightening around Bernice, seeking to protect her from an explosion that was too far away to cause her any harm. "I've got to go!"

The rat-a-tat-tat of a semi-automatic weapon returning fire echoed across the harbor. Almost the same second, his cell phone rang. Bernice looked up, her eyes round and anxious in the reflected light of Lady Liberty's torch.

"Y-You'd better get that," Bernice said. Despite her stutter, she jutted out her chin.

Adrenaline surged through Steve's body, the urge which had always battled against his measured nature taking over, the instinct to fight. His first love had not been Peggy or the little girl who'd sat across the aisle from him in fifth grade, but that adrenaline rush which proceeded rushing into a fight, even back when it had meant getting his scrawny butt kicked and handed back to him. He grabbed the phone.

"Rogers," he answered, his heart accelerating, pumping the oxygen his body would need into his tissues so he could react on a hair-trigger.

"The Triskelion is under attack," Nick Fury's voice crackled. "Gliders. Don't have any more information than that."

"What's your twenty?" Steve asked.

"Agent Romanov and I are on West Street, approaching the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel," Fury said, the sound of a racing engine and horns blaring in protest audible in the background. "Stark is suiting up. Thor is out in New Mexico and Banner in the Bronx. I'm calling them next. How soon can you get there?"

Steve looked down at the small boat he'd rented to get them here this evening tied to the dock. It was nothing out of the ordinary, just a small boat with an outboard motor, but it was little more than a mile to Governor's Island across the treacherous current.

"I'll be there real quick," Steve said. "But I don't have access to my armor. Or my shield. I'm wearing civilian attire."

Damn! Damn damn damn! He had a sidearm stashed in the duffle bag full of picnic supplies stowed in the boat, but he had not come prepared to have his romantic date with Bernice turn into defending against an armed incursion. His armor was inside the Triskelion. As was his shield. Bernice stiffened in his arms, giving a fearful squeak as she realized he was about to go into battle without his primary weapon or armor.

"We'll meet you there," Fury said. With a beep, Fury cut off the line.

Bernice stared up at him, her eyes wide with fear.

"I've got to go, love," he said, pulling her in for a kiss. It was funny, the way adrenaline heightened his senses, made him want to override his instincts to proceed cautiously with their relationship and take her right there on the spot, finish the thing he knew both of them wanted to happen. He drank in the sensation of her lips, her scent, the way her body trembled against his, the low burn he kept militantly under control igniting in his loins.

"G-g-go," Bernice stuttered, clinging to him even though her words said otherwise.

It was the sound of a second explosion which forced him to override his reluctance to leave her. He released her, pausing to brush the ever-present strand of dark hair which forever found its way into her mouth off her cheek so he could memorize her features.

"I'll be back for you as soon as we deal with this," Steve said, prior experience as a military commander causing the words to naturally tumble out of his mouth. "The caretaker will help you get off the island if I'm not back before dawn."

Bernice nodded, tears springing to her eyes. To her credit, she did not beg him not to go. But he could see she was terrified of what he might be facing. So was he. But that had never stopped him before.

Her beautiful dark eyes haunted his thoughts as he ran down the narrow steps of Liberty's arm. Peggy's eyes. Bernice had that same look of terror he had seen in Peggy's eyes moments before he'd jumped out of the car onto the landing gear of Red Skull's warplane. It was the last memory he'd had of her until he'd found her again 67 years too late.

This time he'd make damned sure he didn't get himself killed…

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Note: The following action thread is being adapted from Ultimate Avengers. However, we have a not-quite OC (Bernice) and fewer/different Avengers in the Avengers movie than in the Ultimate Avengers series, as well as my own original intrigues. Therefore, for those of you who are canon purists, I suggest you think of the next few chapters as being 'canon decorated.'

Governor's Island sits directly across New York Harbor from Liberty and Ellis Islands. The current from the Hudson River converging with the East River just past Manhattan makes the short passage treacherous. The Island is accessible via ferry, subway, and a bus line that passes underneath New York harbor a short distance from the Island. Passenger cars are banned from the former military outpost, which is now a national park, but official vehicles can gain access.

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