The Asgardian And The Human (Fem Reader X Steve Rogers)

Chapter 16 - Collar

Steve takes me into the Shield building, he holds my hand as we walk down the hall to see 'Kate' the neighbor. "Captain Rogers." She nods.

"Neighbor." Steve says coldly as we approach a man.

"Ah, Captain. I'm Alexander Pierce." He shakes Steve's hand. "And you must be Y/N." He shakes mine.

"Sir, it's an honor." Steve nods.

"The honor is mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on in." We walk into the office and sit down. He passes over a photo of Fury and him, "That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met. When I was at State Department in Bogota. ELN rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the Shield station there. And he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, 'No, we'll negotiate.' Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

"So you gave him a promotion." Steve looks up.

"I've never had any cause to regret it. Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

"We don't know." Steve shakes his head.

"You know it was bugged?"

"We did, because Nick told us." Steve nods.

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it? I want you to see something." He brings up footage of a man being interrogated.

"Who hired you, Batroc?" The agent in the video asks.

"Is that live?" Steve asks.

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers."

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line." Steve looks up.

"No, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer. And then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."

Steve looks at him, confused. "Am I supposed to know who that is?"

He hands Steve a file. "Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 14-35 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 14-37."

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?" Steve asks.

"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death."

"If you really knew Nick Fury you'd know that's not true." Steve nods.

"Why do you think we're talking? See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today, makes me really, really angry." He hesitates a moment. "Captain, you both were the last ones to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident, and I don't think you do either. So I'm gonna ask again, why was he there?"

"He told us not to trust anyone." I hesitate.

"I wonder if that included him."

Steve pauses, "I'm sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse us." Steve picks up his shield, places it on his back and starts to make his way out of the office, I hurry by his side.