He shifted his head to follow her as she moved to lean over him, his eyes never leaving hers. He reached over to trail his fingers through the soft fall of brown hair that drifted over one shoulder, her words helping him to gain some further insight into what made her tick. "That doesn't make it any easier. You're a healer. It's your job to help people get well, but when you can't, then at least, maybe you can relieve their suffering. It's different for me. I've seen too much death. Too much suffering. I'm just trying to save as many as I can from dying. I think Johnny is, too. It's the same, but different." He was actually in agreement with her on that. Though they both faced death, they faced it in different ways. "It's funny, you know....I've lost everyone I ever cared about, and there was nothing I could have done to save them. It's just the way life is, I guess."

Her smile turned sad as he spoke, understanding a little of what he meant, though she would never turn around and say she understood entirely. "There'd be no point to living if we didn't have to die," she said very gently, drawing her fingertip down along his jaw in a slow caress. "Without the certain knowledge that one day it will all end, where is the incentive to do anything with our lives?"

"I've thought about that," he continued, cracking open just that little bit more, allowing her into his deepest kept thoughts and secrets. "What if the serum keeps me young" What if I don't age" I don't wanna live forever, Luce. Not while everyone I love grows old." In a way, he'd done that once already and didn't really want to live through that again. He didn't want to be a science experiment anymore, but he needed to know exactly what had happened to him, what the serum had done. He wondered if she could help him find that out.

She frowned, not liking that thought at all. The thought of living out her life with him only to leave him all alone was a horrifying one. "You don't know?" she asked softly, startled to discover this. "I thought you'd know all the side effects." There was a moment of ethical horror as she realised exactly what had been done. "They injected you with something without knowing exactly what it would do to you? What the hell gave them the right to do that, to take that risk with your life?"

Steve shrugged his shoulders, not really surprised at her reaction, which was one of the reasons he hadn't brought it up until now, but now that they were to be married, there could be no secrets between them, no matter how big or small. "I knew the risks when I volunteered. I was a science experiment, Luce. The....what do they call it' Prototype" They needed someone to test the formula, and they chose me. Dr. Erskine thought he knew most of the side effects, but nothing is certain. He was killed before he could finish his studies, and all his research was lost. I'm all that's left."

"And no one thought to study your blood, or do anything toward finding out what the potential side effects were?" she asked, still fuming with the so-called professionals who had failed him so dramatically. Sighing roughly, she twisted, dropping down onto her back at his side as she frowned up at the ceiling. "It's a horrible thought, Steve, that you might not have a natural aging process. I couldn't bear living out my life with you and then having to leave you behind when I die." She drew her hands onto her stomach, drumming her fingers against the soft fabric of her t-shirt. "I ....Would you mind if I took a look at you sometime? We should find out, for your peace of mind."

"After Erskine died, there wasn't anyone around who knew what to look for," he explained. "And then..." He trailed off. And then it was too late. Another thought came to him, one that was even more disturbing. "You'd think S.H.I.E.L.D. would have run some tests while they were thawing me out," he mused aloud. It would be kind of nice to know if he was going to have to watch everyone else grow old around him while he stayed young, and there were others questions that had been left unanswered, too. Like the question of children. He turned to face her with a frown on his face. "I'm sorry. I should have mentioned all this sooner. I didn't think it would matter, but it does."

Her head turned, the frown on her face wiped clean by a gentler expression, touched more with concern for him than any anger or resentment for the delay in being told any of this. "It matters to you, and that makes it important," she told him softly, rolling onto her side once more, propping her head on her hand as she looked down at him. "Once I'm in S.H.I.E.L.D., I'll be able to pull medical records. If they did test you, the information should be in there."

And yet another thought came to mind, as all of this information seemed to weave itself together like an intricately woven web. "You realize Fury probably knew it was only a matter of time before I asked, and that it would be you I trusted to find out for me," he said, looking up at her from his back. How did the saying go' Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. "I'm sorry, Luce. I should have told you sooner."

"I would rather be the one to find out for you, than trust it to someone we don't know if we can trust not to falsify the information or hold it back," she told him gently, shaking her head at his apology. "Don't be sorry, Steve. It isn't as though any of this is going to make me change my mind or my heart. And to be fair, you've been doing a good job of making sure the shocks are spaced out enough that I don't turn into a dribbling ninny." She smiled, leaning down to kiss the tip of his nose. "We'll find out the truth, baby. I promise."

He smiled back at her, a little relieved that she wasn't angry at him, even though she was angry at those who'd experimented on him without completely knowing the consequences of their actions. "I'd rather it was you, too. I trust you, Lucy. Fury keeps too many secrets." His smile warmed at the touch of her lips to the tip of his nose, his worries at least temporarily forgotten, feeling better for having been honest with her. He slid his fingers through her hair, drawing her down for a kiss, not nearly as awkward as his first kisses had been. He was definitely a quick learner.

Drawn down to him, Lucy let him kiss her as he chose to, encouraging the gentle sharing of affection with a contented sigh and the smooth caress of her hand from his cheek to his chest, her thumb absently picking at a button on his shirt. As the kiss ended, she drew back just a little, gazing into his eyes with loving sincerity. "I will never lie to you," she promised him quietly, the fervor in her voice fierce and low. "And I will never keep a secret from you without a damned good reason."

"You're wearing too much," was her answer to his whisper, but though the words were pointed, the tone was anything but. She spoke to him with husky, breathless words that rippled with the same need he'd confessed to, the only real difference being her confidence that those others in the apartment were too caught up in each other to notice anything outside their own little world. She gasped again as he pulled her snug to him, the tight press of his body to hers sending a flickering lance of heat and pleasure through the gentle tremble of her spine as she moulded to him, soft to hard. Her hands slipped over him once again, pushing at his shirt, the t-shirt beneath, as eager now as she ever was to have him bared to her, to make him her playground, if he would let her.

Oh, he would definitely let her, but the feeling was mutual and he wanted to play with her as much as she wanted him. He helped her get his shirts off, both of them coming off quickly and a little clumsily in his hasty removal of clothing, but instead of finishing with his pants, he turned his attention instead to her jeans. He rolled her onto her back, straddling her body as his fingers worked the button and zipper open, but instead of tugging them away, he boldly slid a hand inside her jeans, feeling the warmth of her beneath his hand, even though there was still a layer of cloth between him and her flesh. He felt a swell of desire coiling inside him, like a snake ready to strike, and still he restrained himself to focus on her.

She rose and fell beneath him in a slow undulation that invited as much as teased, biting her lower lip with a breathlessly enticing smile as he pulled the denim that encased her open. But she hadn't expected what came next. As his hand slid inside her jeans, pressed snug to the flickering, tender throb of her desire, she felt the breath whoosh from her lung, her eyes opening wide to show him the sudden powerful flare of want that made itself known. Her body tensed eagerly, the sharp arch of her back became deeply pronounced ....her hand rose to curl to his cheek as her lips curved once again, inviting him without words to keep exploring.

Encouraged by both her reaction and her smile, explore he did, his hand further enticing that flare of desire, shifting his weight to settle himself beside her as fingers stroked the heat that lay beneath the thin lacey covering. He watched her face for a moment, studying her expression, eager to learn what made her sigh and moan, before leaning down to claim her lips, his kiss gentle at first, taking his time in slow exploration of her lips, even as his fingers stroked and teased her beneath her jeans.

Eager to please her and even more eager to explore the secrets that were only Lucy's to share, he deepened the kiss, parting her lips to taste all the sweetness her mouth had to offer, just as his fingers slipped beneath the lace covering in further exploration. Taking his cues from her every reaction, his fingers teased and tormented, finding the place that seemed to drive her most mad with desire, stroking and rubbing and nudging, groaning beneath her lips as his own body caught fire.

It took everything she had not to roll into him as he settled at her side, not to demand with hands and lips and hasty words that he stop teasing and get on with it. There was something almost magical about the way he touched her, teasing sense and sensation from a body she had thought could not react any more plainly than it had already. But when Steve's fingers slipped below the soft lace of her underwear, he was rewarded with a deep, tender moan that could have vibrated through the hallways, had he not caught it with his kiss and passed it back to her on his breath. She writhed in slow, wonderful torment, each sound she made ghosting into his mouth as he coaxed from her something wonderful in itself, something that trembled and shuddered and rose in throbbing, pulsing light to burst from her in an explosion that was for his eyes only. And even as she came down from that blinding pinnacle, softening the kisses shared to let herself breathe as she gasped in amazement, she smiled lazily, looping her arms about his neck to pull him close.

He felt her shudder beneath him, muffling her moans that were breathed against his lips, and he knew he had succeeded in sending her over the edge, but what now" Though painfully aware of his own arousal, he made no demands, wondering if he should continue or let her rest. Should he take what he wanted or wait until it was offered" He hesitated, uncertain, his kiss gentling against her lips, even as his body burned with desire. He kissed her again, softly, slowly, his fingers lingering where they were, unmoving now that she'd crested without him. After a moment, he drew back, looking down at her with a question in his eyes, the boldness fleeing, uncertain what do do next, though he knew what he wanted.

Dark eyes fluttered open to meet his uncertain gaze with encouraging confidence. Her hand gently slid down along his arm, extracting his from the heat where it lay nestled and drawing it up. Still holding his gaze, she wrapped her lips around his fingers slowly, one at a time, and, in a flurry of movement, suddenly she was on top of him, knocking him onto his back, leaning down to tease his lips with hers as she rolled her body over his with lovingly wicked intent. "You're still wearing too much," she murmured impishly, catching his lower lip between her teeth and tugging gently.

He would have replied, but she was too fast. He made no resistance as she rolled him onto his back, looking up at her with eyes that were bright with adoration and smoldering with desire. His lips gave way beneath hers, and his breath caught in his throat as she caught and tugged at his lower lip. "Lucy..." he breathed, his eyes moving over her, desire rising just looking at her, more scrumptious than the sweetest candy. His hands moved to his pants to finish what she'd started, in a hurry to put out the fire that had flared hotly with nearly unbearable heat and need.

Her pants had to come off too, her body falling to his side in a peal of exhilarated giggles as she wriggled about, sliding denim and lace down her legs to kick off in some random direction before her hands joined his, as eager as he to have him bare to her touch, her heat. As she threw the last of his clothing over her shoulder, her other hand curved to the back of his neck, drawing him up into a languid kiss as much to distract as to tease while that burning, longing heat settled over him once more, no longer hidden away beneath layers of restrictive cloth.

She laughed, easily drawn in by the sweet sense of humor he usually kept so very well hidden. Rising over him, she drew her fingers through his hair for a moment, reaching across to turn out the light and plunge the room into gentle semi-darkness. "Well, I hope the little guy doesn't mind, but I fully intend to make the most of having him in me and all around me," she murmured, nipping teasingly at the end of his nose. "Because after tonight, lover, no more playing until the wedding night." Because, oddly, Lucy was a bit of a traditionalist. The wedding night was a special night, and she intended to make sure it stayed that way, even if it meant a little self-deprivation to make certain.

He arched a brow up at her in the semi-darkness. "Should I go sleep on the couch?" he asked, wondering how they were suppposed to resist each other if they were sleeping in the same bed, dressing and undressing in the same room, using the same shower. They were bound to be tempted to break that tradition, if they kept on playing house the way they were. "You're not gonna make me bunk with Johnny, are you? He's a nice guy, but he never shuts up."

Laughing again, Lucy wrapped herself around him once more in the dim light, nuzzling the tip of her nose to his. "Well, Liv and I could always take over the lounge and couch, and leave you boys to your private rooms," she offered impishly. She knew what Johnny was like, and frankly, hadn't even considered making Steve bunk with him. The thought, however, was just funny enough to make her giggle a little louder. "Definitely separate rooms, though," she admitted, drawing her hand fondly over his side. "I'm far too weak-willed not to take full advantage when you're right here. But not until tomorrow night."

He pouted up at her, looking all of his twenty-three years, but didn't argue. It was such a small thing to ask, and it was only one or two nights. Once they were married, they'd belong to each other for the rest of their lives. "It's okay. I can sleep anywhere. The couch will be fine." As chivalrous as a knight in shining armor, he wasn't going to put her or her sister out when he could make do on the couch. He wondered if they should make up for lost time, but that thought seemed to defeat the purpose.

She smiled, kissing his pout lovingly. "It's only a couple of nights," she reassured him, as though reading his thoughts. "Besides, you'll be able to hear all the giggling when I start complaining about not being able to sleep without you." Nestling in close, she laid her head against his shoulder, not quite able to wipe the smile from her lips.

One or two nights ....and the day after, if Fury had pulled all the right strings in time, they'd be married. After that, if she had her way and excluding heroic endeavors, they'd never spend another night apart.

((Ain't they sweet' And kinda naughty, too, given how very strait-laced Captain Steve is. :lol: Keep your eyes peeled for the next part! And, naturally, hugimongously magniflorious thank yous to Steve's player!))