Caught In The Widow's Web

Ch 1

It was was late at night Steve and I are in the gym, something we've been doing alot lately. I was working out hard, hair sticking to my sweaty forehead as I focused solely on the punching bag.

Steve hits the punching bag hard making the chain snap and fly across the room, something I did a few minutes before. He goes and grabs another bag hooking it up on the hook. I hear footsteps coming in I turn around but turn back when I see it's Fury.

"Trouble sleeping?" He asks.

"We've slept for 70 years, sir. I think we've had our fill." Steve answers.

"Then you two should be out, celebrating, seeing the world." He says.

Steve stops punching and walks over to the bench, unraveling the tape off his hands. He sits down, as J.D. continues her assault on the punching bag not interested in what brings Fury here.

"We went under, the world was at war, we wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." Steve sighs.

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently." He says.

"You here with a mission, sir?" Steve asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I am." He nods.

"Trying to get us back into the world?" Steve asks looking over at J.D.

"Trying to save it." Fury replies making Steve turn back to him and he hands him a file.

Steve opens it seeing photos of the Tesseract, along with other files on HYDRA's projects.

"HYDRA's secret weapon." I hear Steve say and that gets my attention making me stop as I turn my head to look over my shoulder slightly.

Fury notices and continues to speak.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you guys. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs." Fury says.

"Who took it from you?" Steve asks.

"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you two up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know." He says and I shake my head with a scoff then continue to hit the bag.

Also amused, Steve looks over at J.D. then back at Fury.

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise us." Steve says.

"Ten bucks says you guys are wrong. There is a debriefing package waiting for you two back at your apartment." Fury says.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know about?" He then asks and I hit the bag so hard that it slams against the wall more than 10 feet away silencing them.

"You should have left it in the ocean." I say without missing a beat.

Fury then walks out of the gym leaving the two super soldiers alone.

I hear footsteps approach me.

"New mission. What do ya say Sarge?" Steve asks coming to me as I place a new bag on the hook.

I sigh lowering my head as both hands rest on the bag.

"How can I start a new mission if I never finished my last one?" I rasp and he doesn't respond.

"I never brought him home. I vowed to find his body and bring him home to my parents. Then we went down. Never returned. I can only imagine my parents reactions when someone went over to our house and told them that neither of their only two children were coming back." I say with a heavy heart as I close my eyes leaning my forehead on the bag.

"It wasn't your fault J.D." He tells me softly.

"I could've done more! Gotten up faster, made my way over quicker, reached out farther! So he wouldn't- wouldn't-

He places a hand on my shoulder.

"You don't have to say it." He says.

~

We were back in our apartment and it was like 3am. I was on the couch eating a bowl of Lucky Charms watching TV while Steve is next to me going over the debriefing package making obnoxious interested noises.

"Steve, I know what you're doing and it isn't going to work." I sigh.

"But listen to this-

"No thanks." I shake my head.

"But look-

"Nope." I pop the p.

"But this is interesting-

"Steve, I'm not going and that's final." I shake my head as I keep watching cartoons.