Nowhere to Go But Up✓

No Body, No Crime

It was now February. Joey was three months old and doing absolutely amazing. He was lifting himself up when he was doing tummy time and inspecting the world around him. His little feet and legs would start to go too and I was worried that pretty soon he was going to start crawling. Lucy had been closer to seven months before she started crawling but the pediatrician assured me that if he had the strength, there wasn't going to be anything that we could do to stop him.

We had completely moved into the new house by this point and I had sold my old one. It was really sad packing up and leaving that house. It held so many memories. One of the selling points of the new house though, if it needed anymore, was that Steve also had a barn built so we could move our horses over and I was already planning on mini cows and goats and all of the other animals I could fill the barn with.

I finally went back to work in late January but only worked half days. This allowed me to have more time in the mornings with the kids and I trusted the girls I hired to hold down the agency while I wasn't there. They had done an amazing job while I was on maternity leave and I had had a lot of positive client feedback.

As a treat for all of their hard work I let them leave early one Friday night in late February, assuring them that I was fine to close out and lock up by myself. They waved goodbye and I got some last minute work done before closing up and setting the building alarm. I was on my way to my car down the street when I felt the hairs on the back of my head stand up. I turned my head slightly and noticed a figure moving down the sidewalk behind me. I picked up the pace, trying to make it to my car before whoever it was caught up with me. As I passed the last alley before the parking lot, a fist shot out of the dark, knocking me in the back of my head and causing everything to go black.

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*Steve's POV*

It was getting late and Story still wasn't home. This was unusual as she normally called ahead if she was running late. When it got to ten o'clock and I still hadn't heard from her, I called in reinforcements. Sam and Bucky drove down to her office to check there and called to tell me the office was dark and locked up tight but her car was still parked in the lot down the street. There was no sign of her. Shit!

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*Story's POV*

I came to in an unfamiliar room, arms bound behind me and secured to a post in the middle of the room. What in the Jigsaw trap was this? "Hello?" I called out. Hello? Did I not watch enough horror movies to realize that calling out was the first step in getting killed.

The door scraped across the floor as it opened and two people came in. I recognized them both although I had never seen them together before. Sharon Carter stared down at me with an obnoxious smirk on her face. I immediately starting pulling against my restraints attempting to get at her. This bitch had the audacity to laugh at me. The man standing next to her I only recognized from the two brief appearances he made on television before the government cast him out for an incident overseas, John Walker, the one they picked to replace Steve as Captain America.

"You know, if you wanted to see me, you could've just come over to the house." I quipped. She nodded at John who then hit me across the face. My ears were ringing and my eyes started watering but it was going to take more than a bitch slap to shut me up. She dismissed him after

"I couldn't get close enough to get you at your house. Steve made sure of that." She said.

"Well what did you expect? You trashed his house when he told you he needed to focus on the baby."

"I'm expecting Steve to do exactly what I think he'll do. He'll eventually find you here, take care of John for me."

"Why are you doing this?" It seemed so stereotypical to ask this but if I could keep her talking that was just more time for Steve to find me, cause I knew he had to be looking at this point.

"Steve and the entire government forgot about me. I helped him out and then spent the next eleven years in hiding. But I grew in my exile. I made an empire. I recreated the super soldier serum, created enough of them to cause chaos and when the world can't handle it, they'll come to me for more. And with you out of the way, Steve will come crawling back to me. He'll help me train them."

"There's just one small dent in your master plan. Steve will never go along with you. Even if I'm gone, he still has our kids."

"Much like you, that's something can be easily taken care of. Once John is finished with you, your kids are next." Now I like to think I'm a pretty levelheaded person. I honestly don't give a flying fuck what you say or do to me. But threaten my kids and it's over.

With strength I didn't know I had, I ripped the binds from where they were fastened to the post, surprising both me and Sharon. She recovered quickly and charged me, knocking me to the ground. I landed with a grunt and brought my arms up to guard my face from the punch she was aiming there. I was able to push her off of me and we both got up. But Sharon wasn't planning on fighting fair and drew a gun from the holster on her right leg. Shit!

And then something beautiful happened. The door burst open and in walked Steve, Sam and Bucky. My heroes. Bucky had drug Walker in by the cuffs that were around his wrists. They saw Sharon with a gun though and stopped short. "One step closer and I'll shoot her." She said as she came up behind me, grabbing my arm and placing the barrel of the gun against my temple.

"Sharon please don't do something you'll regret." Steve begged.

"You think I'll regret killing her. She's a nuisance and with her out of the way, you won't have a choice but to be with me."

"Sharon, I've already told you. Those feelings, if they were even real are gone. This already isn't going to end well for you. Don't make it worse." While Steve had her distracted I managed to quickly knock the gun out of her hand and kick her, sending her back into a wall, which she hit hard and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Once the imminent threat of getting shot was gone I ran to Steve and threw my arms around him, knocking us both to the ground. I kissed him all over his face before settling for his lips. I'd never been so happy to see someone in my life. "Oh come on man. Keep it G. No one wants to see that." Sam said from where he was, checking Sharon for a pulse. Finding one, he restrained her as the local police department came in and escorted both John and Sharon out.

"How'd you find me?"

"She was too cocky or stupid or she actually wanted you to be found. The van that they used to transport you was parked in front of an ATM. We were able to get someone to follow it on the traffic cameras until they stopped here."

"She wanted you to find me. She was going to try to pin this all on John. She's the one that created the new super soldier serum." All three of them looked shocked.

"Let's not worry about that right now. Let's go get you checked out." He led me out of the warehouse and he took me to the Avengers compound to be checked out.