Everly || Steve Rogers

18. Avengers Initiative

"Well..." Fury dropped his palms against the metal interrogation-style table. Everly flinched and looked up to him, finding herself once again studying his eye-patch. "Captain Rogers vouches for you. Says you're one of the good guys." He stood up straight and folded his arms across his chest. "Your little display suggests otherwise."

"What's the story with your eye?" She blurted curiously. His glare only intensified.

"Excuse me?"

"Your eye, it looks like claw marks. Was it a dog or something? Touchy subject?" She leaned back in the hard seat she had been forced into and tapped her fingers along the metal table. Steve quickly wiped the smirk from his face and shook his head lightly from where he watched behind a panel of one way glass. She was definitely the same Everly, but entirely different all at once.

"You think you're funny?" Fury scoffed.

"No of course not." Everly's face grew serious. "I think I'm hilarious." Director Fury scoffed and peeked over his shoulder at the man that guarded the door. She immediately recognized him to be the man she nearly strangled with his own tie. The smallest of giggles escaped her lips and she moved a hand to cover her mouth. Fury glared back at her.

"Something wrong?" He asked slowly.

"Nope." She snickered, trying her hardest to stifle the laughter that arose in her chest. The guard shifted awkwardly and his face grew red when Fury's attention snapped back to him. "I just hope he's not your head of security." She added. Director Fury's face contorted in anger and his hand shot across the table, grabbing a fist full of her shirt. He yanked her forward until their faces were inches apart. Everly's eyes widened in fear.

"Is everything a joke to you?" He growled. She pushed past the lump that had settled in her throat.

"I mean, yeah." He frowned, narrowing his gaze. "I don't know who I am, or who anyone else is. I can't remember my family, I can't remember my friends... I'm assuming I had a few of those." Steve's heart sunk as she continued.

"I can't remember my birthday, or my favorite color. But what I can do, is I can crack a few jokes." She blinked a few times and tried to distance herself from the angry man. Fury's face seemed to soften in the slightest. His fingers uncurled from the front of her shirt and she sunk back into her seat. A suffocating silence consumed the room, she was sure they could hear the pounding of her heart against her ribs. "What do you want to know?" She said quietly, peering down at her hands. He raised an eyebrow questioningly, surprised that her demeanor had changed so quickly.

"Why did you run?"

"I don't know." She answered honestly. All she knew was that some part of her needed to get out of there. It had been as if she was acting purely on instinct. Like a wild animal backed into a corner.

"Bullshit." He hissed.

"I can give you answers, but I can't promise you that they're the ones you're looking for." Everly finally brought herself to look him in the eye. He was silent for a moment as he rubbed his forehead.

"Do you have any idea what you were doing in that compound?"

"Apparently I was taking a nap." He threw his arms up in defeat and huffed, letting them slap back against his sides. Everly's eyes flicked from the frustrated director to the mirror that was built into the wall. She knew there was somebody watching from the other side, it was only a matter of who.

"She's all yours, Rogers. I can't deal with this right now." He grumbled as he left the room. She flinched as the door slammed shut behind him, leaving her alone with only her thoughts to keep her company. Her eyes wandered the room, bouncing from the concrete walls to the shiny tiles beneath her feet. She let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. Her attention snapped back up to the door as it slowly creaked open, the blonde man slipping into the room. He messed with his hands nervously as his blue eyes locked onto her from across the expanse. Though she'd learned the man to be Steve, some addressed him as Captain. Her gaze slipped from his kind eyes back down to the metal table. She ran her fingers gently over the scratches scattered across its face, wondering how many bad people had sat right where she was. Horrible people, she'd assumed, who had all done horrible things. And somehow, she fit into that category.