Steve was feeling almost claustrophobic, his hands trembling and his heart still pounding even though they were on their way back to the tower. They'd won, all was well, why wasn't he calming down?

It took Lizzy a while to stop panicking completely, although she was still anxious. Her Extremis rippled under her skin like thorns, and she rubbed at her arms reflexively before shaking herself. She needed to get back to the apartment.

Hillary managed to get just calm enough to choke out an excuse to her co-worker and rush out of the store. She needed to get somewhere safe, and the safest place she could think of was home.

Bucky glanced at Steve and could tell his friend was feeling the same thing he was. They were both trembling and he could see Steve was pale underneath the dirt and grime from the fight. Something wasn't right at all.

It dawned on Steve that it might be coming from the other end of the connection, which caused him to panic more. He walked over to Bucky, frowning.

"Buck, what if this is the girls?" he asked quietly. "What if this is what they're feeling?"

Lizzy made it back to the apartment and into her bedroom, slumping over on the bed. She could hardly think straight. Calm down first, then figure out what had just happened.

"I'm amazed we're not hyperventilating," Bucky replied, hands clenched tight enough that his metal limb was protesting a bit. "Stevie, they must have just had front-row seats to that whole throwdown."

Hillary was already there, curled up in her own tail underneath her heated blanket. She was slowly calming down from whatever had happened, but she could still see flashes of it behind her eyes and feel phantom aches all over.

"We have to find them," Steve said. "That can't have been good for them, we have to find them and check on them, talk to them."

Lizzy was also slowly calming down, although her left arm ached from the shoulder all the way down. But her heart rate was slowly approaching something more like normal.

"They're not going to be out in public, not after that," Bucky said as he forced himself to take slow, even breaths. "I don't have the first idea of where to start looking."

Steve looked frustrated for a few moments before a metaphorical lightbulb went off.

"Natasha, we need you to help us find some people."

Natasha blinked at the two. "What kind of people and what kind of finding?"

"Steve thinks we might have found our soulmates," Bucky said, his good hand trying to stop the trembling in his metal arm. The limb was a wreck, and would need to come off for repairs. "And they probably just saw that whole thing that just happened, and I think they're freaking out. We need to find them."

Natasha looked between the two. Nope, not joking. They looked too wrecked to be joking. So she nodded.

"Alright. What do you know about them?"

"Not a lot," Bucky said. He grimaced a bit. "I ran into her in that coffee place around the block from us. She goes there a lot. Name's..." He searched back in his memory. "Liz, I think. Last name Tyler."

Natasha nodded and looked at Steve expectantly.

"She works at that little boutique you dragged me to, the one a few blocks from here where I had those odd sensations. Hillary, I think."

Natasha nodded. "I'll see what I can find."

"Thanks, Nat," Bucky said, fingers already working to disconnect his arm. He couldn't wear it anymore, not right now. For some reason, it just being there was bothering him. He had to get it off. He fumbled a bit, but managed to disconnect it.

Nat slipped out of the tower, and Steve steered Bucky back to his room. The two were in each other's rooms all the time, so neither of them cared. And clearly they both needed a bit of quiet and cool-down time right then.

Bucky didn't even care that he was being herded into Steve's room. He didn't want to be alone right then, but he didn't want to be around anyone else, either.

Steve made sure he was okay, as okay as either of them could be, and got water for both of them. Keeping busy was helping, some. It at least kept him from freaking out more or speculating the worst that could have happened on the other end of the link.

Bucky kept himself busy by trying to go through some basic repairs for his arm. The complex stuff was beyond him, but he could at least make sure the major parts were all still working. It kept him from freaking out, at least.

It took Natasha only an hour or so to find their apartment, and she was rather amused to find that the two girls lived together. Then she made her way down to Steve's rooms.

"They live here," she said, holding up a piece of paper. "They share an apartment."

Bucky just held out his good hand for the paper. He wasn't even surprised Natasha had information so quickly; that's just how the Black Widow worked.

Natasha handed over the paper and left. They could work things out for themselves, after all. They'd let her know if they needed more help.

Besides which, this way she could go back to digging up information on the two.

Steve strode over to get a look at the paper as well. That apartment building wasn't too far from them, actually, oddly enough. But he couldn't just show up at the door, either.

Bucky was already making something of a plan. He knew Steve would waffle about it for a bit, but Bucky had no such qualms about going to find the apartment Natasha had located for them. As soon as his arm was repaired, he would go and take a look.

Indeed, Steve did waffle back and forth for a bit, trying to figure out what he should do. By the time he thought he had a plan, he looked over for Bucky, and Bucky was gone.

Where are you?

Doing something.

Bucky was careful to hide the glow of his cell phone as he typed, and he put it away again quickly. Then he sighted down the scope he'd brought with him and hunkered down low on the rooftop he'd found. He hadn't brought his whole rifle with him; the scope was all he needed at the moment. It had taken a few tries, but he finally found a window that let him see in to Liz.

Doing what? Did you go to their apartment? Steve had an idea that's what had happened, but on the other hand he couldn't see Bucky as he was now just talking to some dame.

Lizzy was doing better, sitting on her bed and watching the news on her laptop. She still looked rather freaked out, especially as she put two and two together and got fish.

Sort of.

Bucky just observed, taking in what information he could. There was something about her that tugged at him, and he had no idea what it was. But at least she wasn't totally freaking out anymore, that was good. It meant that he had been able to calm down, too. He paused and blinked when the other girl came into the room. Well. He hadn't expected that.

The other girl's got scales. Thought you should know that.

Hillary made her way into Lizzy's room and sat down on the bed next to her friend.

"So what was going on earlier?" she asked. "I heard something about a battle downtown right about the time--" She cut herself off, trying not to let the panic rise again.

Steve groaned. Bucky, where are you? Are you watching them? He was already scrambling to get a little more cleaned off and presentable.

"Yeah. I know." Lizzy turned her laptop around. "Just watch for a minute, I want to see if you come to the same conclusion I did." She leaned back, watching Hillary.