Dark and Forgotten • (Bucky Barnes) • CAPTWS (Slow Updates)

2.9

Oh, let our love survive
I'll dry the tears from your eyes
Let's don't let a good thing die

。.✦ ☾

Back at SHIELD.

Steve is brought to Pierce who is talking to Agent 13.

"For whatever it's worth, you did your best." Pierce says "Thank you, sir." Sharon says, finally dismissing her. As she turns to leave she sees Steve. "Captain Rogers." Sharon says

Steve replies coldly as he walks towards Pierce.

"Neighbor."

"Ah, Captain. I'm Alexander Pierce." Pierce says "Sir, it's an honor." Steve says

They shake hands.

"The honor is mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st." Pierce states, both walk side by side towards his office. Pierce opens the door, motioning towards the Captain. "Come on in."

The two enter Pierce's office, with Pierce rounding table, where he shows Steve an old photo of himself and Fury. "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." Pierce says

"So you gave him a promotion." Steve says, handing the picture back.

Pierce nods, staring down at the photo before setting it down. "I've never had any cause to regret it. Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" Pierce says

"I don't know." Steve says "You know it was bugged?" Pierce ask

"I did, because Nick told me." Steve says "Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce asks

Steve doesn't reply obviously not knowing this information. "I want you to see something." Pierce says

Pierce brings up footage of Batroc being interrogated "Who hired you, Batroc?" Shield agent ask

"Is that live?" Steve ask

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

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

"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." Pierce says

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Steve ask

Pierce hands Steve the 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." Pierce says

"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." Pierce says

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

"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.