Back to You [An Endgame Continuation]

Closer

Here's a short edit I made of Steve and Peggy to commemorate how far this book has come! Thank you for participating in their incredible story! XxLauren_Luv

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|p.o.v: Steve|

I sat in the bunker behind the SHIELD facility for what felt like hours, the events of how I got there blurry and disconnected.

Agent Hill had taken a hold of my arm after giving me the news, motioning for his team to help escort me to safety. He said something about it being dangerous out in the open, but at that moment I wasn't caring about my safety in the slightest. All I wanted was to get into one of those police cars and drive as far and long as it took to get to Peggy and bring her home. Even with the skills I knew she possessed, I still felt like I needed to get to her. So when I was told I wasn't allowed to leave the premises, my anxiety and rage that I was holding against myself and the captors quickly bubbled over.

"What do you mean you're not letting me leave?" I asked Agent Hill, my voice beginning to rise in cynicism.

He looked up at me from the table, having watched me pace feverishly in front of one of the walls in the meeting room for the past three hours. "Look, Cap. I get it— it's your girl and all. But you just can't be the hero this time."

I stopped, my arms crossing as my voice lowered to a growl. "I don't have to be the hero as long as we get Carter out as quickly as possible. And we have a higher chance of that happening if I'm there."

Hill clenched and unclenched his right fist, beginning to grow impatient at this endless argument that had been going in circles. All the other agents in the room had cleared out and were being assigned to different scouting locations. He took a breath as he repeated his point. "Like I said, this is what's safest for you—"

I slammed a hand down on the long table in the middle of the low-ceilinged room. "This isn't about my damn safety. I'm not the one who's being held hostage, although now I'm starting to feel like I am."

Hills voice came over mine as he rushed a hand into the air. "Do you even understand why she was captured in the first place?"

There was a beat of silence as my jaw tightened.

"She's the bait," Hill spat, leaning forward with an intense gaze. "They're trying to get you to come after her so they can get rid of both of you once and for all."

"Then why didn't they come after us when we were tracking down the bullet or investigating Nobakov?"

"Because all of that was a part of their plan to get you exactly where they wanted you," Hill stressed as the single Edison bulb in the room swayed above him. "Even the girl you went to question behind our back."

My face contorted into a frown as I recalled what I had told them about my meeting with Elena. She couldn't have been a part of this, had she? To me she had just been a woman who had lost her father and was trying to live a life away from things like this. Had that all just been an act?

I struggled to admit my mistake. "How do you know that for sure?" I questioned further as I turned away from him, my voice a pained mumble.

"Well for one: the lead she gave you isn't in our database, which.. you would've known if you had come to us first." He gave me a lingering glance. "And also, given the distance it was from the compound, it seems like it was just a ploy to get you away from where they were actually targeting."

I exhaled a puff of air, staring into the table as I realized how much sooner I should've noticed these signs. None of this would have happened if I hadn't gotten caught in her web of lies. But she had reminded me of people that had always been my weakness, and even those qualities might not have been real either.