Lieutenant - Daughter of the Captain

Chapter 21.0 - Trust

**TRIGGER WARNING***
Please skip section outline by this symbol 《 》 if you are sensitive to things such as assault, sexual harrasment/assault/rape, torture, and/or panic/anxiety attacks.

Carter wasted no time trying to be stealthy. She was sprinting towards her target, her only mission being to keep a visual.

Soon it became a pursuit. The shooter spotted her, and didn't stop to think about who exactly was chasing them. They just ran.

She had a head start, and she was closing in, sprinting accross the roof. She could make out a masculine build, shoulder-length brown hair, and a metal arm.

Without much thought, she leapt off the highest roof after him, and landed directly on the shooter's shoulders. Using her momentum, she was able to lean forward and throw them off balance, bringing them tumbling to the ground on the second

Without hesitation, she shot up and aimed her pistol at them.

Her eyes met his masked face, which contorted in confusion.

A little girl.

Pointing a gun at him.

After a moment, she aimed at his leg and fired.

He jerked to the side, her bullet grazing his leg.

He made another run for it, but before she could follow, Steve appeared, grabbing the gun from her hand and signing for her to stay put, before he took off in the shooter's direction.

When he came to a stop at the edge, she new it was too late.

He'd escaped.

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Steve was silent as they walked through the hospital.

But Carter knew he was fuming.

And it pissed her off.

She stared straight ahead as a nurse led them down the hall from where they had spent hours in the waiting room. Finally someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. had pulled rank and they let them go view Fury's surgery, despite not being family.

They stopped at a window, and through it they could see Fury in the middle of his operation.

"Are you going to say what's on your mind or not?" Carter signed, turning to look at Steve.

"I think you know what's on my mind," He said in his assertive, disapproving tone, the one she often heard him use with Tony.

"And I think you're missing the point," She signed, not registering that they were basically having a silent argument in the hall.

"You're right, I don't see the point of you racing off to chase a sniper. You could've been killed," He was clearly trying to keep his composure, signing forcing him to think about his words much more than he was used to. He was still new to the language, and it slowed him down immensely.

"The point is that I made that decision on my own, and you don't have the right to be upset with me-" Steve interrupted her, speaking aloud.

"I don't have the right to question your judgment? I don't have the right to wonder if the nine-year-old that is my responsibility is going to run off and get herself killed?" He paused, clenching his jaw and taking a breath,, "I don't have the right to worry about you?" His voice was no more than a whisper, but Carter didn't need to hear him to know it.

His eyes had begun to water, and he turned away from her, looking in at Fury in an attempt to compose himself.

Before the incident, before the year that she'd spent with him, she would've rolled her eyes. His attempt at protectiveness would've annoyed her to no end.