𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝 𝚂𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚛 || ℕ𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚊 ℝ𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚏𝚏

Chapter 16: Sam

"Are we there yet?" I ask for the 8th time as I lean my head on the window looking at the head of the passenger's seat.

"Yes! Yes, we're here now stop asking!" Steve begs. I smile widely and hop out of the truck causing Nat to chuckle at my childish behavior. I turn back and playfully salute Steve.

"Yes sir," I say as he gets out of the truck.

"You're so annoying," Steve grumbles.

"You know you love it," I say twirling and pointing at myself. During the drive, I did a lot of thinking and I've decided to embrace my childish behavior just to piss off Steve. I stop twirling and turn around to look at the abandoned military base.

"This is it," Steve says as we walk to the gate of the base.

"The file came from these coordinates," Nat says.

"So did I," Steve says as we stop at the gate.

We began to walk around the base trying to pinpoint where exactly the signal came from.

"This camp is where I was trained," Steve says as he looks around.

"Change much?" Nat asks him.

"A little," he answers. I walk by Nat's side looking at my feet as she continues to try to find where the signal came from.

"This is a dead-end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off," Nat says looking around. I look up and realize a building out of place and walk towards it.

"What is it?" Nat asks as I hear her follow me along with Steve.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place," Steve explains.

"Correcto Mundo," I say breaking the lock with my fist. We step inside and walk down a flight of stairs. Steve turns on the lights revealing a S.H.I.E.L.D. office.  

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D," Nat says as we all walk around.

"Maybe where it started," Steve says making me turn around and look at him.

"Honey, started?" I question making him turn to look at me with confusion written all over his face.

"There was a S.H.I.E.L.D. back in the early '20s when you were like 5," I tell him as we enter a room with old framed portraits of three people. A woman on the right, a man in the middle, and another man who seems to have been military on the left.

"There's Starks father,"

"That's Howard? Definitely looks like Sr," I mumble to myself.

"Who's the girl?" Nat asks looking over at Steve while I look at the photo of the girl with my eyebrows furrowed.

"Amanda," I randomly say.

"Amanda?" Nat and Steve question at the same time.

"She looks like my uh . . . old friend Amanda Carter," I tell them still looking at the photo of the girl now stroking my imaginary beard.

"Peggy Carter," Steve speaks up making me turn my attention to him.

"That's Peggy Carter, Amanda Carter's daughter," he says.

"Hm, she has her eyes," I say in a soft tone making Steve hum. I look back at the photo with a small smile, a sad one.

At least she found someone who gave her what I couldn't. 

"Anyways let's get back to exploring there's got to be something else hidden here," I tell the two clapping my hands together as I walk away avoiding any questions they may want to ask. I hear the two follow making me let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding in. I looked at the empty bookshelves I didn't see anything wrong or out of the ordinary with them so I began to walk away but Steve speaking stopped me.