Chapter One

When Fury told them that he was adding a new member to the team, they weren't sure what to expect, but they certainly didn't expect her. They knew her as Marksman, a violent mercenary.

"Why is she here? Shouldn't she be in a cell?" Clint questioned.

"Miss Wilson has made a deal with Shield, she helps us and she gets to breathe free air." Fury explained.

"She is a murderer." Steve huffed.

"Oh please, spare me Captain righteous, I know for a fact you have blood on your hands." She hissed and lit a cigarette.

"For the the last time Miss Wilson, you can't smoke in here." Fury reminded her. He then yanked it out of her mouth, dropped it to the floor, and stomped on it.

"Get her settled in the tower and go over rules and protocol with her." Fury instructed and left the room. None of the others were willing to do it, so Steve, being the leader, did it. After he got her settled she stopped him.

"Ok, I really need a cigarette now." She told him.

"Fine, I'll take you outside." Steve grumbled. She lit the cigarette and took a few puffs before visibly relaxing.

"Those will kill you, you know?" He said as though no one had ever said that before.

"Yeah? Well maybe I'm trying to speed things up. I have to meet up with a few people who said they'd see me in hell." She told him and he rolled his eyes.

"So are you going to spend the rest of the day acting like you're better than me?" She questioned.

"You kill people for money, you're a monster." He said in anger.

"You've killed people, have you not? And I don't see shield leaving you empty-handed. We're the same Cap, I'm just honest about who I am and what I do." She growled and finished off the cigarette. They went back inside and he went over protocols, which she couldn't care less about.

"So what do you want to be called? Miss Wilson or Marksman?" Steve asked.

"Well, my friends call me Alex."

"Ok, Alex."

"Oh, we're definitely not friends." She snapped and left the room. Steve sighed and ran his hands over his face. He decided to go hit some punching bags and pretend they were Marksman's face.

About a week later, Steve and Marksman were sent to Germany on a mission. When Steve was shielding himself from enemy fire, a bullet ricocheted off of his shield and buried itself in the meat of Marksman's thigh. She grunted and tried to block out the crippling pain as she fell to her knees. She took cover and shot from her hiding spot. When the firing stopped she spoke to Steve through the coms.

"Steve, I'm hit. Not fatally, but it hurts like a mother." She groaned.

"Just stay hidden, I'll come and find you." He eventually found her and saw that she had already put her leg in a tourniquet. They were in a foreign country without a medic, supply kit, or a safe place to hide. Steve checked them into a sketchy hotel and used what he could to operate. She wasn't keen on the idea of Captain American cutting her pants off, but it had to be done before the bloodsoaked material dried over the wound. All he had on him was a pocket knife, a lighter, and a sewing kit.

"Ok, this is going to hurt like hell." He warned before grabbing the tweezers and running them over his lighter to sterilize them. Once they were cool enough he started to extract bullet, she screamed through the wash rag he had put in her mouth and dug her nails into her palm. He stopped stopped halfway through.

"Why'd you stop?" She asked after removing the rag.

"Because you're hurting yourself." Steve put a pillow in her left and put her right hand in his hair.

"Do you want me to rip your hair out?" She questioned.

"Just concentrate on not scalping me." He said and went back to retrieving the bullet. He knew if she was concentrating on something else it would help to ease the pain. He sat the bullet on the nightstand and disinfected the wound with sugar water (An old battle field technique), which would also stop the bleeding.

"Ok, the hard part is over." He sighed, her hand still resting in his sandy blonde hair. She ran her fingers through his hair as he stitched her up. Steve couldn't believe this mercenary, this monster, was doing something so gentle.

"Do you have any alcohol on you?" She asked as he cleaned up.

"No, thanks to the super soldier serum I can't get drunk." He told her.

"That must suck." She mused aloud.

"I'll get you something to drink and some loose pants to wear." He told her and grabbed some cash he had on his person. "I'm going to lock the door and take the key, don't let anyone in." He ordered.

Steve returned twenty minutes later with a bottle of jack and a pair of grey sweat pants. After a few drinks, Marksman was much more relaxed and a bit tipsy. She laughed and he looked over at her.

"What?"

"It's just funny, my brother was your superfan and I'm the one that's working with you. I brought him a Captain Ameribear when he was diagnosed with cancer." She said and Steve could have sworn he saw a glint of tears in her eyes.

"Did he make it?" He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Yeah, yeah he did, him and his girlfriend are talking about kids now... I think as a kid you were kind of my hero too, just because you helped him get his mind off of dad running out on us." She sighed. Steve knew she had probably suffered some sort of childhood trauma, but he wasn't expecting her to talk about it. Marksman eventually fell asleep with the bottle in her hand. Steve put the bottle on the nightstand and tossed a blanket over her.