It's Now or Never

Part 3

I sit next to Sam as we drive away in the van Hydra placed us in. Steve sits across from us as he looks down at his hands.
"It was him. He looked right at me like he didn't even know me." Steve finally says.
"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago." Sam asked.
"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..." Steve said in a sad voice.
"None of that's your fault, Steve," I said trying to sound normal and not like I was in pain, even though I was.
"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," Steve said.
Sam then turns to me and notices that I am bleeding from my shoulder.
"We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." Sam says. This causes Steve to look up from his hands and into my eyes.
"Hayes, why didn't you say anything, She's hurt and losing a lot of blood. Come on, help her." Steve pleads angrily with the guards.
Suddenly one of the guards pulls out an electric rod and neutralizes the other guard, knocking him out. The guard then takes off their helmet to reveal themselves.
" Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain." She said comically.
"Maria Hill," Steve said with a smile.
Sam and I look at her in confusion
"Who are these people?"She asked Steve.
"People who are going to help," Steve said looking at Sam and then at me. He held his gaze with me as I smiled at him. Maria Hill or Agent Hill then helped us escape to a bunker. She told us that Natasha was there waiting for us.

As we arrived Agent Hill took us down a long hallway. A man starts to run towards us, calling out to me.
"Gunshot wound. She's lost at least a pint." Agent Hill calls out to the man.
"Maybe two," Sam says. I could tell he was very stressed about this situation. He is like my brother and me, his sister. He never likes to see me in pain, whether it is physical or mental.
"Let me take her." The man says as he approaches me. Cap goes to follow the man and until Maria Hill calls out to him.
"Hey Cap. There's something you'll want to see."
Agent Hill takes Cap towards a room. I push the Doctor away for a second to follow Steve and Sam. When we enter the room, Fury is lying in a bed in the middle of the room.
"About damn time," Fury says to us.
I sit down as the doctor continues treating my wound. Fury tells us what happened and also what happened to him. Natasha and Sam stand on one side of the room as Steve sits next to me. Once and a while the Doctor will press too hard or the sewing needle will hurt my wound causing me to make a noise Steve would react. Steve always seems to hear the noise and check if I'm ok. "Lacerated spinal column, a cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache." Fury continues to tell us.
"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor calls out to Fury.
"Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good." He laughs it off.
"They cut you open, your heart stopped," Natasha said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury answered.
"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked.
"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful." Agent Hill said as she sat down in the chair next to Sam.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust." Fury said looking at Natasha and Steve.

Later on in the day we all still sat down in the facility room, just talking or sitting in silence trying to see what we can do about the situation at hand. Steve would come over and check on me once in a while, which I quite enjoyed.
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues." Nick Fury said as he looked at a picture of Pierce.
"We have to stop the launch," Natasha said.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury said back. Fury then opened a case containing three chips.
"What's that?" Sam asked.
"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized." Agent Hill said.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury said looking around the room.
"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die." Agent Hill said walking over to Fury's side.
"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left..."
"We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD." Steve said.
"SHIELD had nothing to do with it." Fury said back.
"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed." Steve said to Fury.
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed." Fury said.
"And how many paid the price before you did?" Steve got up and started to walk around the room.
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury said. I looked at Steve to see how that those wordsaffectedd him.
"Even if you have, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that too? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes." Steve said sternly.
"He's right." Agent Hill says.
Fury then looked at me, then Natasha then Sam.
"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower." Sam answered.
"Me too. We do what Capsicle wants." I said standing up from my stool.
"Well... Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain." Fury said looking at Steve.