Broken

Three

I did research on the man from the park that we picked Steve up from. Sam Wilson, works for the VA has group therapy today. I pull in and stand in the doorway listening. He catches a glimpse and gives a small smile, not to make the veterans feel like they weren't being listened to. I just give a small smile and wave back. I feel steps come from behind me. "Don't you have some secret mission for Fury." I hear Steve in my ear. "Not that I know of at the moment." I shrug as I listen to their confessions.
"The thing is, I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week. He thought I was drunk.. I swerved to miss a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED." A woman says sounding upset and humiliated."
"Some stuff you leave there. Other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase, or in a little man-purse? It's up to you." Sam says calmly closing up their session. "What are you even doing here?" I ask him. "I can ask the same to you." He says looking at me. "Wanted to check the reliability of the people you surround yourself with.. that a crime?" I ask. He just walks away and we stop by Sam.
"I'll see you next week. Definitely." Sam says saying goodbye to one of this members while tidying up his station. He looks up to see us, "Look who it is, the running man." He smiles. "I never caught your name." He stops and looks at me, "Agent Jackson. But you can call me Alice." I say with a smile and go to shake his hand but it's cut short from Steve talking right after me. "Caught the last few minutes. It's pretty intense."
"Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret."
"You lose someone?" I ask being apart of the conversation.
"My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op. Nothing we hadn't done 1,000 times before. Until an RPG knocked Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch... I'm sorry. After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?" He confides in us.
"But you're happy now, back in the world?" I ask with a comforting smile. "The number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell yeah." He answers. "Are you thinking about getting out?"
"No.. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did." Steve answers not paying any mind to me right next to him.
"Ultimate fighting?" Sam jokes. "Just a great idea off the top of my head. Seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?" Steve quickly glances in my direction before looking back to Sam. "I don't know."
Was that glance supposed to mean something? Was I just supposed to put together his mess of a puzzle without any reference? I walk outside and stand in the breeze. I hear Steve walk up behind me. Silence rings between the two of us. "Did you bring your car?" He asks breaking the silence. I shake my head. "We really need to talk, Alice."
"Please, Steve. Not here." I say looking back inside the building to see some people walking down and across the main hall.
"Then when?" He asks. I stayed silent but tears welled up for no reason other than stress. Steve backed off, "C'mon, I'm not my bike let's go home." He says leading me with his hand on my back.

We walk up the stairs to see our neighbor walking out of her apartment. "Hi." She says to us while on the phone. "I got to go, though. Okay. Bye." She says to it before hanging up. "My aunt, she's kind of an insomniac." She says to us as we passed by her. "I see you're back home." She says somewhat surprised. "Well I live here. Didn't know you were up to speed on my living arrangements." I say to her but looking at Steve. "Oh we just had a drink, after I heard the commotion I wanted to check on things." She says trying to reel in the intensity. Steve looked uncomfortable and that told me everything I needed to know. "Well so glad to have neighbors who care." I say giving a fake smile to her. "Yeah." She finished locking her door and kept a walking with her laundry basket on her hip. "Oh," she pauses and turns back, "And I think you left your stereo on." She points out.
"Right. Thank you." Steve says before she kept walking. "A drink, huh?" I pester. He just shushes me as the music was blaring. It was the same song we danced to when we first moved in. He opens the door slowly and makes sure I make it in. I pull out my gun and keep it low while Steve picks up his shield as we walk through the apartment, to only notice Fury on our LaZBoy. I place my gun back and Steve stands down too.
"I don't remember giving you a key." Steve says to him tensely.
"You really think I'd need one?" He asks unreclining the seat. "My wife kicked me out."
He's not married.
"I didn't know you were married." Steve points out. "A lot of things you don't know about me."
"I know, Nick. That's the problem." Steve says aggravated turning on a light, just to show Fury looking beaten, lacerations on his face, bruising. He holds his finger up for us to keep quiet and shuts the light off again. He pulls his phone to face us.
EARS EVERYWHERE
I keep my hand on my holster just in case.
"I'm sorry to have to do this to you two, but I had no place else to crash." Fury says while writing in a new message.
SHIELD COMPROMISED
"Who else knows about your wife?" I ask him. He types, "Just..."
Us three
"My friends." He finishes. "Is that what we are?" Steve asks him. "That's up to you."
Suddenly shots come through the wall a piece of shrapnel going into my leg. I pull Fury out of the way and Steve helps. I apply pressure while sitting next to him, staying off my leg. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out the flash drive. Hands it to me. He looks up to Steve.
"Don't.. trust.. anyone."
Our door bangs open. "Captain Rogers?" It's the neighbor. "Captain, I'm Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Service." She says moving closer to us. "Kate?" He asks meeting her in the entryway. "I'm assigned to protect you." She says to us.
"On whose order?" He asks but she looks to Fury and I. "His." She quickly pulls out a radio. "Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs." She looks at my leg.
Do we have a 20 on the shooter?" The dispatcher asks. "Tell him I'm in pursuit." Steve orders before busting out of the room. "Charlie Alpha is in pursuit.." She looks over to me. "You need pressure on your leg." She says walking over Fury to my leg. "We need those EMTs now." She says before putting the radio away, then applying pressure. "I can barely feel it, just use my belt for a tourniquet. I say giving her easy access to take my belt off of me. She does and wraps my leg, "I'm sorry," she says before tightening as much as she can. I grunt but it wasn't the worst. "What the hell happened?" She asks. But I don't answer, I just keep holding pressure and wait for the EMTs to arrive.

"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asks walking in late. Steve and I had our eyes glued to Fury on the other side of the glass. "I don't know." Hill asks on our left side.
"Tell me about the shooter." She orders.
"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm." My hairs raise up.
"Ballistics?" Natasha asks obviously spooked a well. "Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable." Hill answers. "Soviet-made." I add.
"Yeah."
Suddenly his machines go crazy. And the surgical team moves quickly. "He's in V-tach. Crash cart coming in. Nurse, help me with the drape. BP's dropping. Defibrillator! I want you to charge him at 100."
"Don't do this to me, Nick." Natasha says upset.
"Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear. Pulse? No pulse. Okay, 200, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear! Get me epinephrine! Pulse? Negative."
"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me." Natasha repeats. I reach to hold her hand and she squeezes. But the flatline rings through the room.
"What's the time?"
"1:03, Doctor."
"Time of death, 1:03 a.m."
Natasha let's go and looks shocked, we all were. Steve walks out and I follow. I had to lean on the wall, hold my knees from falling over. Tears filled my eyes.
The doctor came and told us we could see him after they cleaned him up. I couldn't grasp on to what just happened.

Natasha stood right next to him and Steve and I stood back against the wall. Hill walks in and stands next to us. "I need to take him." Steve and I look at each other for a moment before i take a step to Nat, trying to get her to step away now. "Natasha." She was frozen for a moment. I didn't want to rush her but she lays her hand on his head for a second before walking by Steve and I. We follow. "Natasha!" Steve calls out making her turn quickly to us. "Why was Fury in your apartment?" She asks us. "I don't know." Steve answers making me look to him.
Rumlow walks up to us. "Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Yeah, give me a second."
"They want you now." Rumlow says with a ordering tone. "Okay." He says sending him back to his guys.
"You're a terrible liar." She says looking as us. Him mostly, thank god. Nat walks away and Steve walks to STRIKE. I was left in the hallway. I grab the flash drive in my pocket just to know it was still where I left it.

~

Natasha was talking to a nurse about Fury's care over and over again. Making sure nothing was missed or skipped. I was nearby just leaning against a door frame, waiting on her. I see Steve had came back, head down, laid back civilian clothes and hoodie over his head. He walks straight to me and pushed me into the doorway I was leaning in and into the room. He pins me up against the wall. "Where is it?"
"What? Your manners?" I ask back looking him up and down. He only pins me back on the wall. "Safe." I answer. "Baby you can do better than that." He whispered making my heart skip a beat.
"Fury gave it to me. Why?" I say. Before Nat walks into the room.
"Gave what?" She asks. Steve doesn't back down just stays looking at me. I give her a look. Cause at the moment it's in her pocket. I knew he'd come in here asking about it. "Oh." She answers.
"You told her?!" He asks me. "She's one of the only other people I know we can trust."
"What's on it?" He asks me.
"I don't know."
"Stop lying." He says pushing me again. "I only act like I know everything, Rogers." I say.
"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you? Along with everything else you haven't told me." He says with anger in his eyes.
"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you." Nat adds in. Steve looks back to me.
"I'm not gonna ask you again." Nat finally moves herself closer and in the way of Steve and I. "I know who killed Fury." She says making both of us look at her.
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years."
I look away it's too uncanny to be coincidence. That's was my situation.
"So he's a ghost story." Steve says not picking up on it. Neither of them did.
"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him straight through me." She says showing us her scar. "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis."
"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." I joke with her.
"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She warns. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."
I look back up to Steve. "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."