Captain's Hart

Chapter 17 Fugitives

Steve P.O.V.

He walked into the hospital, heading for the ER section, or rather the vending machine outside it. He'd stolen some civilian clothes, and made his way dressed in loose training pants, trainers, and a hoodie, with the hood up just in case.

He stopped before the vending machine, and then froze. The gum slot where he'd hidden the flash drive was empty, all the gum and the drive gone. He stared at it with a frown when suddenly a familiar redhead appeared behind him. He saw her casually blow a pink bubble through the reflection on the glass as she stopped behind him.

He turned slowly, before shoving her quickly into the room opposite. He slammed her into the wall, shutting the door as he pulled down his hood and stared at her angrily, demanding quietly: "Where is it?"

"Safe." She replied shortly and he snapped: "Do better." "Where did you get it?" She bit out, and he snarled: "Why would I tell you?" Her eyes narrowed as she figured it out anyway and she realized: "Fury gave it to you. Why?"

"What's on it?" Steve countered, and she replied, sounding a little exasperated: "I don't know." "Stop lying!" Steve ordered as he pinned her harder to the wall, and she snapped back pointedly: "I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

Steve paused, glanced around and then spat at her: "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Her eyes flickered and she muttered: "Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you. Ria's guard on me only confirmed it."

Steve grabbed her shoulders as he growled at her: "I'm not gonna ask you again." She glared at him, and searched his eyes briefly before she told him flatly: "I know who killed Fury."

That made Steve pause and she told him in a low undertone: "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So he's a ghost story." Steve said flatly, and she replied just as flatly: "Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot at 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 lifted her shirt slightly to reveal a scar on her stomach just beside her belly button. Steve glanced at it and then back at her as she told him: "A Soviet slag, no rifling." Steve recalled her saying that earlier with Fury, and he frowned. Nat added a little sarcastically: "Bye-bye bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve muttered just as sarcastically. Nat almost smiled at that, but then she became serious again as she told him: "Going after him a dead end. I know, I've tried." She finally held up the flash drive, pulling it from her pocket as she said dryly: "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Steve eyed her carefully before he took the drive. He pocketed it himself as he said monotonously: "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."

**********

As the pair walked through the mall, Steve couldn't help but feel uneasy. He felt too exposed and continuously glanced around, checking their surroundings when Nat said quietly, sounding a little annoyed: "First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk."

Steve turned back to face the front as he muttered: "If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." Nat almost smirked as she led them up the escalator, heading for the Apple shop on the second floor. As she turned on one of the Macs on display, Steve lowered his cap further over his face, trying to cover it as much as possible while not looking too suspicious.