Steve pushed himself to sit upright in the pilot's chair with a weary sigh, once he was confident that the coordinates were set and their altitude was comfortably below radar detection. A brief check over the cloaking systems reassured him that they were concealed from anyone that might be attempting to follow. The autopilot system could take it from here.

Now all they had to do was wait. Wait and prepare.

No one had spoken, not since they had left behind the devastation in Leipzig. He couldn't bring himself to feel that what they had done in the airport had been any sort of success - not when it left such a bitter taste in his mouth. He couldn't call it a victory. They had turned on their friends and left team members behind to face the consequences of their combined actions.

No, it wasn't a victory, but it had been necessary.

Glancing over to the co-pilot's chair, he laid a hand on Kat's shoulder, watching as she paused the methodical, light touches she had been placing over the console. Familiarising herself with the controls, silently questioning, exploring, learning. Desperately trying to occupy her mind. She hadn't quite been able to hide the fact that her hands were shaking slightly.

He wondered if he had placed too much on her shoulders today.

"You good?" He murmured, watching as a pair of tired, grey eyes lifted to meet his, before flicking over his shoulder to check in on the man seated silently behind them.

"I... Uh, I'm getting there." She breathed out, looking back to him as her lips pulled into a weak grimace, as if she were trying to smile but couldn't quite find the will. "You?"

Steve felt his own expression tug at her murmur of concern, granting the young woman a small nod; "Getting there." He echoed honestly, drawing his hand back before following her gaze to watch the rural landscape of Eastern Europe whip away beneath them. It would be hours before they made any considerable headway across the continent, they had time to recover. He just had to hope the increased speed of the Quinjet would be enough to catch them up to the doctor.

"What's gonna happen to your friends?" The low question came from behind him, the despondent tone of his friend encapsulating the grim outlook that their team members faced. It was enough to draw a small sigh from Steve as he shook his head at that thought. Arrest, trial, imprisonment... But it would be more complicated than that. The world was already terrified enough of Wanda, there was no telling what they'd do to restrain her. Clint wouldn't be able to make it back to his family - Scott had a kid too, and a criminal record. They wouldn't go easy on him after this.

Hell, Natasha had defected for them. She'd turned on her own team and attacked the King of Wakanda to let them escape. The UN would be out for her blood, never mind the fact that Tony would - well, he wasn't sure what Tony would do. Snap and snarl and sass like he usually did, covering up just how deeply all this had cut him.

And Sam... Loyal, unquestioning Sam. The veteran who had got back into the game to follow Captain America, would now be branded a criminal. It was an unsettling echo of what had happened to the man currently sitting behind Steve. After he had been captured during the War, Bucky could have gone home. There'd have been no dishonour in that, he'd served his country and given more than most, but no. He'd followed Steve back into battle, and up until a year ago, he'd been under the belief that his friend's decision had resulted in his death.

"Whatever it is, I'll deal with it." Steve informed him quietly, unable to bring himself to look back at either of his companions.

"We'll deal with it." A grim murmur at his side drew him to glance over at Kat in surprise. "They had our back as much as they had yours, and given the choice they'd have been right here with us." There was a heaviness to her words, an aching guilt that Steve only felt too keenly in his own chest. "Whatever needs done to fix this, we'll be there."

"I can't ask you to do that." He countered her gently, seeing the way her grey eyes had hardened as she stared out at the snatches of landscape whipping away beneath them.

"Hey, if we make it through today alive, there's no chance I'll be able to sort another civilian cover." She wryly forced a smile that didn't touch her eyes, "If we've gotta be fugitives, I'd rather be doing something worthwhile." Her words came on the back of a heavy sigh, as she raised her left hand to massage her right shoulder with a small wince. The small, circular burn mark on her leather jacket an indication that she'd been on the receiving end of Nat's Widow's Bite. Perhaps it was no wonder that she sounded so tired, so defeated.

"There's med kits stashed in the back." He advised her softly, eyeing a drying smear of blood at her hairline that the young woman didn't seem to have noticed. He wasn't sure where she had picked up the scrape - the only time their paths had crossed on the runway had been when he had caught sight of her dropping a few feet through the air after letting go of Redwing, being pursued by War Machine - but then Steve had engaged with Rhodes and the fight had moved on, and he had lost sight of her until they met again in front of Vision.

Evidently, she'd been able to hold her own through whatever had come next - she'd made it this far.

"I... Yeah." She nodded in response to his low comment, her eyes refocusing as she blinked heavily to return from her methodical examination of the console before her. Sniffing a little and shaking her head to pull herself back from whatever space her thoughts had travelled to, she pushed herself up from the co-pilot's chair and edged her way towards the back of the jet.

Steve didn't miss the way Bucky's eyes followed her movements so attentively, or the way he reached out his metal fingers towards her as she passed him - though she didn't see as she scrubbed one hand over her face wearily, leaving his hand to curl around thin air as she moved from the cockpit to the main cabin.

She was rattled, they all were - but out of the three companions currently in the jet, Kat had the least combat experience out of all of them, and her first glimpse of it hadn't exactly been entry level.

"I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."

The low, defeated murmur over his shoulder drew a small sigh from Steve's lips, as he glanced back to where his friend was sitting. His eyes, which Steve had seen begin to recover a little of the light he remembered, were now shadowed. His gaze hollow and haunted as he stared blankly at the wall of the jet.

Evidently the air of guilt hanging over the Quinjet was laying heavy on the shoulders of everyone. He could guess it pressed a little more firmly on Bucky though. More so than just the guilt of leaving behind teammates - he knew the fight at the airport had boiled down to one thing.

Steve had chosen him. Over the Avengers, over the Accords, over his teammates and friends. Over the family he had found in this century, he had chosen Bucky.

If he hadn't... Well, the fight wouldn't have happened. His name would be signed neatly on the Sokovia Accords and the Avengers would still be together. Steve would have found himself under the command of the United Nations, unable to choose his missions. Unable to pick the fights that mattered - he'd have signed away his morals and soul to keep Tony on his side. Bucky would be imprisoned, whether in some psych facility or the Raft, he couldn't say. Kat would likely be with him, once her identity had been uncovered, her enhancement and roots within HYDRA revealed.

If he had signed, perhaps the jet rocketing towards Siberia would be a little more crowded. Perhaps he'd have the strength and numbers they really needed, but he wouldn't have the two people who knew exactly what they were about to face. Or maybe they wouldn't have been allowed to go - maybe Bucky wouldn't have been able to warn them on time. There was no way of knowing how things would have turned out. Still, in his gut - and in his heart - Steve knew he'd settled on the right choice.

The only one he could live with, anyway.

Though Bucky didn't think he deserved to be chosen.

He had begun to find himself again, and Steve didn't doubt that the young woman meandering around the back of the jet had played a key role in that, but it was clear that the last seventy years wouldn't melt away with just a smile from a pretty girl and a reunion with an old friend.

"What you did all those years, it wasn't you." Steve reassured Bucky quietly, needing him to know that he understood. That his time as the Winter Soldier held no sway over their friendship, over the choice Steve had made to protect him. "You didn't have a choice."

"I know." Bucky uttered in reply, his tone expressionless, as if he had heard this speech before, or something like it. Steve didn't doubt that he had - he was certain Kat would have made sure to reassure him of as much. "But I did it."

Steve's stomach twisted at the finality of that statement, his gaze returning to the world beyond the window of the jet as he released a weary breath. "We can't change what happened, Buck." He murmured finally, knowing he was teetering on the edge of delving deep into a well of guilt he might struggle to pull himself out of. "If we could, I'd have reached a little further out of that train, that day."

"Steve-"

"We can't change it." He cut over his friend's interruption, the almost chastising way he had spoken his name, as if he were about to tell him that it wasn't his fault, what had happened that day. "All we can do is move on, make amends where we can. Try to make things right."

The man behind him was quiet for a moment, processing his words before shifting slightly in his seat; "I might not get far with that." He sighed, his tone already so fatalistic, anticipating what was to come. "Getting into that base might be my only shot at it."

"You're not alone in this, Buck." He reminded him quietly. "And you've already redeemed yourself in the eyes of two people."

At his mention of Kat, Bucky turned to watch her rifle through the overhead cabinets to the rear - catching the crash webbing with one hand to keep her balance as she pulled down a first aid kit. The concern playing across his features was clear as he watched her settle in the wake of her first fight, and stagger on the edge of the next one.

"She'll be alright." Steve murmured to his friend, low enough that Kat wouldn't hear over the sound of the engines, but it was enough to pull Bucky's eyes back to him.

"Will she?" His question was accompanied by a tightening of his jaw, a familiar tic that Steve remembered well. It had at one time usually preceded his protective friend expressing some apprehension or other - the last time he had seen that look, it had come with some sage advice about not joining the army. "Can't help but feel like I'm dragging her down with me."

"I don't think she'd let herself be dragged anywhere she didn't want to go." Steve reasoned quietly, keeping one eye on where Kat was laying out medical supplies on one of the low benches that edged the jet, her fingers maintaining that slight tremor he'd noticed before. "She's the only girl I've ever seen put you in your place. If there was ever someone I'd have told you to go steady with, it would have been her."

That small comment was enough to tug at Bucky's taut expression, the beginnings of a smile curving his lips; "Do people still go steady?"

"You're asking the wrong guy, bud." He huffed out a weak laugh and shook his head slightly, before watching as Kat's smaller frame slumped down onto the bench she had stood above with a defeated sigh, "She's tough, Buck. She'll be alright - might just need a word from her best guy though." He nodded towards her as she tipped her head back against the crash webbing, smiling to himself as Bucky turned to look, swiftly freeing himself from his harness and moving to follow her.

He didn't hear if his friend spoke as he knelt in front of the seated girl, but he could see that hardened gaze he had been wearing soften as he looked up at her. As much as he would have been grateful for the presence of other, more experienced members of their team, Steve was glad Kat had followed them. Beyond her experience with HYDRA, and her knowledge that could prove invaluable when they got to the base, he was glad she was here for Bucky.

He couldn't pretend to understand just how deeply unsettling it would be for them both to revisit this place. A place where their individual traumas were so solidly anchored and intertwined. In all his years as a soldier, and then as an Avenger, he couldn't quite pinpoint a place like that in his mind. Sure, there had been battles, ordeals, suffering. Events that still haunted him, tracked across a century - but none of it was what HYDRA was to them. Beyond the five assassins waiting for them in that base, there would be ghosts there too. A sea of memories to trudge through without letting themselves be pulled under.

The closest he had come to that was his return to Camp Lehigh, with Natasha at his side. He could still so clearly recall that brief, choking moment he had been confronted with Peggy's picture hanging on the wall. For just a fleeting second, he could have drowned in the wave of loss that bowled into him. The grief and anger as that rare sensation of feeling that a life was stolen from him surfaced.

It wasn't the same though. His life hadn't been stolen in the same way Bucky's had been.

Steve turned back to the console swiftly, deciding to busy himself with pretending to adjust the autopilot settings with unusual focus. They might need each other right now, but they certainly didn't need him listening in.

[A/N: We definitely need a bit of bonding and comfort before we reach Siberia... The next chapter might just have plenty! Don't forget to vote and comment, lovely readers! X]