The Shield and the Rose || S. Rogers

Calm

"What do you mean about the intruder?" Steve's eyes were a bit worried as he looked at Katherine who continued to stand in front of the desk. His gaze dropped momentarily to the surface of the desk where he saw the papers strewn across it.

"I'm sorry, I bumped it on accident when I was passing by it and saw that you were still looking into it. I know that you told me not to worry about it and that you would take care of it, but I'm worried if you're still looking into it now," she bit her lip.

"There's just a lot going on with us trying to find Loki's scepter. I'm just looking into anything that may seem like it could be a connection to it," he began as he walked over to the desk. "Tony had found some files and asked me to look through them in case I saw anything that he didn't."

"I see," she nodded. "And have you?"

"Do you want the truth or do you want to feel comfortable?" his lips turned into a thin line as he frowned.

"The truth," her heart began to pound against her chest. What if he had found something that connected her to her past actions? Did he know?

"I have suspicions of who I think the intruder was," Steve admitted.

"You do?" Katherine was taken aback at how he was confirming that he was on a trail.

"Yes," he nodded.

"Do you them?" she continued.

"Not really. But you do," he looked down at the ground.

"I do?" she tried to think of who it could have been that he was assuming it was. Dread settled over her as she suspected that maybe Steve thought that it was Kurt.

"You do," he nodded.

"Are you going to tell me who you think it was?" she frowned.

"Your sister Victoria," he admitted. "And I want you to know that I wasn't really planning on telling you, but..." he trailed off as he walked over and pulled out the group image of everyone Hydra that had been hiding inside S.H.I.E.L.D. just a year prior. Standing in the group was her sister in plain view.

"I see," Katherine looked to the ground.

"Did she ever give any indication that was a part of something like this?" he asked her softly.

"No, she didn't," she shook her head. "Are you sure it's her?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure about it, but I am pretty close to it. There's too many coincidences with it that make me think that it was her," he sighed. "At least, whoever it was they claimed they had a boyfriend from World War II and the only other person they could have meant was Bucky. Did Victoria ever mention a boyfriend?"

"No, but she did talk about being in love with a man named James," Katherine risked sprinkling in a bit of truth to make her innocence seem believable. If Steve was going to believe that it was Victoria, she might as well lean into the naivety that came with the concept.

"And Bucky's real name is James," Steve sighed as he looked back up to her.

"That's right," she said softly. "I'm sorry that I can't be of anymore help."

"I'm sorry that your sister is a part of something like this," he frowned.

Walking up to her, he wrapped his arms around her and began to rub his hand gently against her back. Katherine sighed and turned back to the pictures and papers that were scattered about. Frowning, she looked through the different images and recognized them to be the same ones that she had gone through when she had been the true culprit breaking into the Tower. As she looked through the documents that sat amongst the messy worktop, her brow furrowed in confusion before she looked back at Steve.