Steve's smile fell as he saw the look on her face. "I don't--" mean to get shot at, it just happens, he started to say, but thankfully his brain was fast enough to stop his mouth from speaking the rest. He moved forward. "I'd rather not get shot at, either," he murmured, reaching up to rub her upper arms soothingly. "I'd just gotten the serum," he explained, wanting her to understand that it hadn't been an everyday occurrence, even back then. "A--friend, the doctor who'd given me the chance, had just been killed. I had to stop the guy. I do try to keep people from shooting at me," he said again.

The thing was, he was Captain America; he may be on reserve right now, but if something happened tomorrow and he was needed, he wasn't going to pass it up just to stay safe. He couldn't. If this thing between them, amazingly strong, but still so fragile and new, was going to work, she had to understand that.