The Man Behind the Shield

Escape

Sitting in this room isn't helping much. I sit on the edge of the bed, waiting for Steve to open the door and tell me things are going to be fine. That there was a light at the end of this ongoing tunnel of darkness.

But my gut tells me this is just getting started.

Looking at the time, I see it's been almost two hours since Steve left. I hate to me a nag, but my mind needs to know what's going on.

There is a rattling noise above my head and I jump from my chair that I'm sitting in.

The sound moves closer to a large air vent which makes me feel like something is going to fall down from the ceiling.

"Spumoni" I hear from the vent and I let out a breath.
" Steve!"
" Get the chair, we're getting out of here."

I nod and  pull the chair from the table so I could stand closer to him. He moved the panel from the ceiling and encouraged me to grab hold his hand.

As I reach for Steve and I'm inches from his hand. Why do I gotta be so short? I stand on the tips of my toes and feel his fingers. I'm almost there.

I heard a loud banging from the door and lost concentration for I felt the chair tip and couldn't catch my balance. I would have fell to the ground if Steve didn't lean down and grab my wrist.
The banging happened again and this time I heard a voice from through the door.
" Ma'am, This is Alexander Pierce. I need you to open the door. It's an emergency.

Looking up at Steve, he shakes his head no as he pulls me up. I needed to buy us more time.

"Sorry, I'm all wet from a shower. Can you wait like Five minutes?"I yell, just as Steve pulls me up through the vent.

Once I'm inside and the vent is back in place encourages me to follow him and we rush in a crawl through the ceiling.

We crawl as far as we could before coming up to the vent splitting left and right. He turns to me and hands me a set of keys.

"Follow the right vent down to the garage. The car will be at the end of the row. Drive somewhere unsuspicious and ditch the car. Meet me at the diner. I can explain more there."

I shake my head. " No! No, I can't...."

He sighs, and caresses my face. "You can ." His voice in desperation. "Please...trust me."

I nod, and kiss him quickly.

" Be safe." I beg.

" Be safe. Go!" He then rushes down a different vent as I make it down the opposite way.

When I made it to the end of the vent, I saw that there were two agents underneath where I hovered. I felt like they could hear my pounding heart and any minute they would look up to find me.

One of their radios ordered "Rogers is in the south east garage." Both agents ran down and away from me.

As quietly as I could, I moved the vent and looked at my surroundings. It was empty. I got down to the ground as quietly as I could and rushed to the only car at the end of the row.

A blue Volvo.

The car beeped and I opened the door, but another sound made me freeze in place. The sound of a gun being clocked.

" Turn slowly." I heard a voice behind me. It was a woman voice but she sounded serious.

Instinctively, I raised my hands to show I had no weapon and turned slowly.

The red hair gave her away before I could see her face.

" Natasha..." I say, hoping she would put the gun down once she saw it was me, but she didn't. She stayed perfectly still.

" Where is he going?" She urged, in a calm deadly voice.

I shook my head. " I don't know." I answered truthfully.

She moved closer to me and put the gun inches in front of my face. " I'm not going to ask you again...Where is Steve going?"

I stood in place. Fear must have been written on my face because she showed slight guilt.

" I honestly don't know. But we were told by Nick not to trust anyone. I really want to trust you Natasha...but that gun in my face...isn't making my choice any easier."

She gasped. "You saw him get shot?"

I nodded. "I was there when it happened."

Natasha heard something I didn't and put her gun away, then urged me. " Get in the back.Don't say anything and keep your head down."

She kept the driver side door open as I heard a rush of foot prints.

" Rogers escaped. Took out the cameras on this floor. We believe he got the girl out. We were ordered to find her and bring her in. Have you seen her?" I heard one of the agents.

" Rogers wouldn't leave his best girl out of sight. Most likely she's already escaped with him. Tell Rumlow to report back to Pierce. I'm going to the apartment to see if he headed back to the scene. Obviously Fury was there for a reason. GO!"

The men scurried away from the car as Natasha got inside. "Good thing this car has tinted windows." She said.

I sat up and breathed a sigh of relief.

She pulled out of the spot fast and sped through the garage to get out.

We drove for a few miles until she pulled the car over in the hospital where Nick died.

" Why are we here?" I asked.

"Steve left behind something, and I know he will come back for it." She got out of the car and moved the seat to let me out. She handed me an old Yankee cap to put on my head.

"Seriously? You know what this represents?"

" Yeah, 27 World Series wins, now unless you want to be recognize put on the hat and lets go."

I sighed and sent a silent prayer to the METS gods for forgiveness.

We walk inside and I already feel uncomfortable. Flashbacks of last night make my heart race. The sounds of the beeping and numbers being called is unsettling. But I follow Natasha and she stops me at a vending machine.

"There it is." She says and puts in money. I see her pick the same number over and over.

510 Hubba Bubba Gum.

Why? Then i can make out a small silver stick. A USB. That must be what Nick gave Steve before he lost consciousness.

We moved to an empty room across from the vending machine and watched as a hooded man moved to buy something.

"Stay here until it's safe." She instructed and moved out of the room.

I watched from the window that the man stood in front of the glass, staring at the empty spot of 510. I watched Natasha moved behind man and I recognized immediately it was my captain. He shoved her back into the room next to the one i'm standing in.

I hear muttering. It's too low for me to make out anything they are saying. I move quietly out of my room and into theres. I make out something along the terms of 'The Winter Soldier' but I watch as Natasha looks my way.

Steve on instinct turns to see what she's looking at and is relieved to see me. He rushes and hugs me. "I'm sorry I got you involved in all this."

I shake my head. "Don't talk like that."

" Next time you feel like you don't wanna trust me...don't send her to my car Rogers." She then goes back and hands him the drive "Like you said, Winter Soldier...It's a ghost story."

Steve sighed. "Then lets see what the ghost wants."

Another Chapter. Please Vote and comment.-LisaBGreen