Everly || Steve Rogers

42. A Ghost Story

Everly kept her hands buried deep in her pockets and tried her best to keep her head down as she hurried alongside Steve. He had the hood of his sweater pulled up over his head and kept his eyes locked on the floor as they strolled through the hospital. He frowned when they finally reached the vending machine to find that the flash drive was missing from behind the row of bubble gum. Everly groaned as Natasha Romanoff's reflection sauntered up behind them blowing a big pink bubble. Steve slowly spun around to face her and hesitated before shoving her into a nearby room. He pushed her up against the wall and yanked his hood down. Everly shut the door behind them and peeked out the window, checking to see if they had been spotted.

"Where is it?" Steve growled.

"Safe." Nat responded. His glare only intensified as he leaned in closer until their faces were inches apart.

"Do better."

"Where did you get it?" Natasha stared him in the eye.

"Why would I tell you?" 

She paused for a moment. "Fury gave it to you. Why?"

"What's on it?" He asked, the anger present in his voice. 

"I don't know."

"Stop lying." He hissed, pressing her harder against the wall.

"I only act like I know everything Rogers." She remarked. Everly folded her arms across her chest, listening intently.

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Nat blinked a few times.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."

"I'm not gonna ask you again." Steve's grip on her jacket tightened.

"I know who killed Fury."

Everly's face softened and her eyes widened in the slightest. She took a step closer to the pair and her gaze flickered between them. Steve remained silent, waiting for her to continue.

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years." Everly's breath caught in her throat.

"So he's a ghost story." Steve concluded.

"Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out 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 threw me." Nat lifted the bottom of her shirt to reveal a large scar on her lower stomach. The sight of the scar was enough to knock the wind from Everly's lungs. She slipped her hand beneath her own shirt and traced her fingers over the big round scar on her stomach.

"Soviet slug." She said shakily. Steve glanced back at her, his face softening a bit. 

"No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis." Natasha added with a smirk.

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve sassed.

"I know him." Everly's voice was quiet and she stared blankly ahead, as if in a trance.

"What?" He twisted around to look at her once again.

"I remember him." She explained, knitting her eyebrows together. Her brown eyes locked onto his bright blue ones and she let out a puff of air. "From my... dreams." She added softly. Steve's mouth fell open slightly, knowing very well she hadn't met the strange man in a dream. Natasha glanced between them before filling the silence that had flooded the room.