A/N: Welcome to my newest story, everyone! I will be working on this one at the same time while I work on Empty Eyes, so don't worry, I'm not scrapping that story. This plot sort of popped into my head and I want to see if it works out!

Per normal, I am working with the movie 'verse characters. I try to stay relatively close to the movies, but change a few things in honor of the plot I had in mind. I hope that you all enjoy it! Thanks to all my followers for reading all my Captain America-crazed fanfics!

Prologue

This Is Not The End

"Shh, darling, don't cry...everything will be all right."

Sharon Carter felt a comforting hand rubbing her shaking, sobbing shoulders.

"I can't help it, Aunt Peggy...I know I never planned to raise him, but now that he's gone...I…" Sharon buried her face in her elderly aunt's shoulder.

Peggy patted her great niece's head affectionately, "He was your son, you have the right to be emotional, darling."

Sharon lifted her head, wiping her eyes and laughed bitterly, "It has been a week since Sarah came to get him and I don't think I've really stopped crying. Thank you for letting me come here and talk to you. I hope I didn't get your blouse too wet..."

Peggy chuckled, looking up at her eighteen year old niece, "Don't be silly, it's a blessing to see you any day. Even if it is on unhappy terms."

Sharon bit her lip and pushed her messy, blonde hair away from her face as she said, "I didn't even ask how you were feeling."

"Oh, I'm all right, dear, I just can't shake this cough," Peggy said softly, smiling up at her niece from the hospital bed, "I'd still be working, if it weren't for that."

"Oh, no doubt," Sharon chuckled, then looked around the bedroom of the nursing room that Peggy stayed in and whispered, "It could be a little warmer in here, though…"

"I'm absolutely comfortable, don't you fret," Peggy's frail hand on her wrist to keep her from going to tell a nurse.

Sharon stopped and eased back down, looking at her aunt's hand and covered it with her own. She fell silent as she gnawed on her lip, thoughts falling to the baby she'd bore just a week prior. Sharon thought of the event as her hand went to her empty womb, remembering the child's good-for-nothing father hadn't shown up. Despite running off for pretty much all of Sharon's pregnancy, feeling that it was unfair that she kept it to begin with, it wasn't a surprise that he didn't show up for the birth. It would have been a nice sentiment, that was all.

"Your baby will be fine with the Keener family, darling…" Peggy said after a moment of studying Sharon's face.

"I'll make sure of that...I just...I am in academy for SHIELD and once I graduate, I'll be making a high salary. I'm transferring most of it to help Sarah and Mike with taking care of the baby," Sharon told Peggy, wiping the tears that were brimming on her eyelids again.

Peggy smiled at her again and said, "You are already such an amazing person, Sharon. I'm proud of you. And you're going to make a wonderful SHIELD agent."

Sharon smiled softly in return, "Thank you..."

"Well, dear, I believe I'm about ready for a quick nap..." Peggy said, patting her hand with a yawn, "But please make sure you keep me updated on how you are doing. You know how much I enjoy hearing about the events transpiring within SHIELD."

"All right, Aunt Peggy," Sharon giggled and stood up, stretching to lean over and give Peggy a peck on the cheek before moving away to walk toward the door, "I love you. I'll see you soon!"

"I love you too-Oh, wait, darling, I forgot to ask! What did you name the baby?" Peggy asked when Sharon was almost to the door.

Sharon didn't want to say that Peggy had already asked her that same question...once when she'd first come into the room, then another time when they were on the phone together right after the baby's birth.

Sharon chose to ignore that Peggy already asked and answered with a smile, "Harley Grant. His name is Harley Grant Keener."

"Grant...you know, that's-"

"Steve Rogers's middle name, I know. You always said you were going to name your firstborn son that, but didn't...since..." Sharon cringed, knowing she shouldn't have brought up the dead beau from Peggy's past.

"I couldn't rightly name my first son after a man I never married," Peggy laughed, not even taking it as a bad memory, "But I'm glad you honor him and myself enough to include that name in your son's name. I couldn't be prouder."

Sharon gazed at her dear aunt laying on the bed across the room and her eyes welled with tears. Peggy was always there for her, even when her family berated her for being so careless about protection. When they all pushed her into having an abortion, Peggy was the only one who was able to convince them that Sharon needed to do what she thought was right. The woman meant so much to her, and hearing that she was proud...it made Sharon's heart swell.

Eleven years later...

"You are being reassigned, Agent," Nick Fury announced, leaning back in his chair as he looked at Agent Sharon '13' Carter sitting across from him.

Sharon looked up in surprise, not expecting that to be the reason he called her to his office. Knowing her track record, she expected it to be another smack on the wrist for disobeying some rule. Not reassignment.

"Sir?" questioned Sharon, sitting up in her seat slightly.

"We need an agent to guard one of our own by living in the apartment next door to him. You'll move into the apartment by morning, posing as a nurse," Fury told her easily.

"But, sir...I assumed...I thought that I was going to be transferring to our California base?" Sharon asked in surprise, a little disappointed to hear her dream assignment was being taken away from her.

"You'll be reassigned there after this mission is over. This is urgent, as well as a precaution," Fury explained, "We need our best team here in D.C."

"Who is it that I'll be protecting?" Sharon asked after a short pause.

"Captain Steve Rogers," Fury responded, "He lives here in D.C."

Sharon couldn't help the snort that escaped her and got a disapproving look from Fury.

"Something funny, Agent?" Fury inquired, arching his eyebrow.

"No, sir, but...all due respect, I don't think that I can protect Captain Rogers from anything that he can't protect himself from," Sharon smirked, crossing her arms.

Fury glared at her for a moment, then said, "It's a precaution, 13. We want you to be his second set of eyes. Even the best of us need backup."

Sharon sighed and nodded, looking down before saying, "Yes, sir."

Fury handed her a folder and said, "This folder contains any details you might need to know about, and keys that include your house keys and the silver Civic that you'll be using while you're undercover. Captain Rogers can't know who you are. You'll go by the alias of Nurse Kate Harlow and report for 'shifts' by going out every day at 7 and return at 7. Understand?"

"What should I do all day long? Come back here?"

"No, Rogers will be around here sporadically and he'll notice you. Maybe you could find a job, lay low?"

Sharon huffed and stood up, "I guess I could put some of my training to use and find something to do all day."

Fury smirked at her and said, "You do well on this mission and I'll see to it personally that you get transferred to California. With a pay raise."

Sharon's head shot up at the mention of a raise and she grinned at Fury, "Thank you, sir."

Fury nodded in understanding, probably one of the few who was aware that she had a child she was trying to support who lived in Tennessee with her aunt and uncle. He was almost eleven now, and he would probably need more and more money as he got older.

Sharon turned to take her leave and almost was jumping for joy when she got out to the hall. She clutched the files in her hand and made her way toward the garage to get her car. She was beyond excited to pack her clothes and go to her new place.

This was just the beginning of a whole new level for her. She had a feeling that this could change everything.