Author's note: You are all the best! Thank you very much for the kind words! Hopefully you like this one, too!

Hide & Seek – Chapter Four

Eight hours into the trip, Sam was asleep in the back seat and Sharon was driving the car. Steve was in the passenger seat, looking at the countryside as they drove through.

"Have you had a chance to see the states since…you know…?" Sharon asked.

"A lot of the missions that I've been sent on were outside the US. Actually, they all were, save for one or two."

Silence fell over the car again for a few minutes. There had been a few times of awkward silences in the first part of their trip, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle.

"It's been since the forties that I've had an opportunity to see the different parts of the country."

"Oh, right. They sent you around to different cities to promote the government and war bonds, right?" Sharon said.

"The origin of the suit and shield…" he told her with a small smirk. "I got sent overseas to talk to the troops, too," he explained. "And it was on one of those 'rally the troops' trips when I ended up going after the 107th…"

"And somehow you singlehandedly saved all those men," Sharon said with admiration in her voice that she couldn't hide. Her quietness was beginning to fade and she was finally getting more comfortable with him. "I'm familiar with the story."

"The Smithsonian exhibit…"

Sharon laughed. "Well, there is that. But you're part of the high school history curriculum and I have heard plenty of first-hand accounts from my Aunt Peggy."

Steve looked at her with disbelief in his eyes. "What?" He believed the part that Peggy told Sharon stories; he didn't think he'd be in a history book.

"You don't believe me?" Sharon replied. "I mean, it wasn't Captain America-centric, but you are a huge part of the World War II unit in most high school history curriculums."

Steve sat silent for a beat, then finally replied.

"I don't know if I should be flattered or…"

"Well, since I don't know how you feel about the fact that there are before and after pictures in the particular text book that I had, I would go with the 'or' alternative," Sharon smiled. "But Aunt Peggy had your original army picture framed on the mantle for my entire childhood, so I was familiar."

"Well, I suppose they couldn't ask me for my permission," he finally laughed. "I was a little out of commission for a while."

"I was there when you woke up, do you remember that?"

Steve had done his best to forget waking up in the SHIELD's version of a 1940's Brooklyn hospital room. He didn't like it. But usually he remembered faces and it sincerely bothered him to have forgotten the dark-haired woman in the forties get-up. He'd been so angry at everything that he hadn't paid the woman any more mind.

In his silence, Sharon began again. "You don't," she smirked. "I had to kick Coulson out. Almost had to actually kick him…"

"I'm sorry, that day was kind of a blur and…"

"And you ran through a wall…"

"I should apologize. It was nothing personal…"

The woman's face finally came back to him. He thought he never forgot a face, but he had. But when he thought about it…it was Sharon.

"I thought when I met you in the apartment hallway that I recognized you and I couldn't place you. Then when I found out that you were related to Peggy…but…yeah…you were there," Steve said, smiling. "How did you manage to get stuck with babysitting me?"

"I pulled some strings – I have a little pull within SHIELD as I am related to a founder…" Sharon explained. "Fury recruited me right out high school. Graduation day, actually…" she said. "How could I refuse? Gave me a change to carry on the family legacy and it got me away from my family…"

"Not so good?" Steve asked.

"It wasn't like I lived a deprived life, far from it, actually. I think my parents were too involved…" Sharon said before realizing that he lost both his parents and any remaining family had long since been gone. "I'm sorry…I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. It's probably boring you to tears and I've probably simultaneously offended you."

"It's okay…" Steve said. "I've come to terms with my circumstances; some of them long ago, others more recently.'

Sharon pulled off of the highway at a rest stop. It had been three hours and she had to stretch her legs.

As the car came to a stop, Sam woke up and their cone of silence was broken.

"Is this Nebraska?" he said sleepily.

'No," both Sharon and Steve answered together.

"Rest stop in Indiana," Steve said.

"Oh, okay," he said and went back to sleep.

"I guess he won't be taking the next leg of the driving," Sharon laughed. "I just need to walk around for a few minutes," Sharon told Steve as they climbed out of the car and walked towards the building. It was about three in the afternoon as they walked around.

"I think my butt fell asleep," she laughed.

Steve's eyes accidentally fell and he found himself checking her out. He was in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt that showed off a lot more of her shape than the scrubs did. He shook himself and continued to follow her.

There was a family milling around a picnic table and another car pulled into the lot when Steve and Sharon moved away from their car. Soon after another minivan hauling a pop-up trailer pulled in and a zillion kids hurried out and past them.

One small child bumped into Steve as he ran and turned to apologize. There was a flash of recognition in the kid's eyes, but he had elsewhere to be; he tore off toward his siblings and the bathrooms.

Steve smiled awkwardly and pulled the hat on his head down further over his eyes.

"Do you think he recognized me?" Steve asked.

Sharon nodded. "Kids seem to retain faces. And since you've been saving the world since you were un-frozen…"

"Thawed out?" he offered.

"I dislike using the word 'thaw' when it comes to humans…" Sharon said. "It's a personal preference."

The sound of a shoe scuffing on the cement behind them caught Steve's attention and then Sharon's. He turned slightly to see behind himself. A man and woman were walking behind them, slowly.

"It's beautiful out here, isn't it, honey?" Steve said, the words sounding foreign on his tongue. But he covered well and smiled down at her.

She took a split second to catch up to his train of thought and slipped her arm around his. They continued to walk with their arms looped as they approached the bathroom building.

"It sure beats the city. I'll bet you'd be able to see star out here," Sharon said.

"Yeah, you were right about driving out there instead of flying," Steve smiled down at her genuinely.

Sharon playfully hit the bill of his baseball bat cap. "You just said I was right," she giggled.

Steve decided that he really liked the sound of her laugh. He wanted to hear more of it.

"There's a first time for everything, right?" Steve said as he caught the man's eye. It was clear that they were watching Steve and Shannon.

Steve took a chance and while they were stopped, he bent down and kissed Sharon full on the lips.

The 'couple' behind them watched uncomfortably for a second before they continued past them and whispered something to each other before splitting into the different bathrooms in the building.

Once the people were inside the bathrooms, Steve broke the kiss and looked down at Sharon.

"Sorry, it just…"

Sharon shook her head and tried to get her voice to work. "No, it's…fine…" she said. She was breathless. She was trying to regain her balance and failing. She'd be lying if she said she never imagined kissing Captain America.

"Do you think they've been following us since DC?" Sharon asked as she looked around.

"They were pretty interested in us," Steve said.

"Do you think they're…?"

"I'd rather not take any chances," Steve said.

The man came out of the bathroom and did a horrible job of covering the fact that he was watching Steve and Sharon.

"I'm going to go after the woman," Sharon said. She put her hand to his cheek and pulled him down for a kiss to further distract the man who was watching them. He turned away and Sharon slipped away before Steve could protest her going after the woman alone.

And when he turned back from watching after Sharon, the man was in front of him.

"No shield today, Cap?" the man said.

Steve thought he recognized him as one of Rumlow's men from DC, but he couldn't be sure. And he also realized he didn't care.

"Don't need it," he said confidently.

Steve braced himself for whatever could be coming at him. Who knew what bag of tricks this guy had on him.

The man drew a knife and swung at Cap. He was good, but he wasn't that good. He was fast, but Steve was faster. He landed a couple hits, but Steve knocked the knife out of the man's hand and it flew into the grass. Steve hit the guy twice and he fell unconscious to the ground.

Steve dragged him out of the way and moved to go help Sharon.

He heard grunting and a scream from the women's bathroom as he dashed for the door. He opened it just in time to see Sharon back the woman, who had her hands wrapped around Sharon's throat, into what was left of the broken sink and up against the wall. The other woman collided with the cement wall and there was an audible thud. Sharon was able to move her elbow up and force the woman's head back into the mirror behind them both. It shattered all over the both of them and the woman, now-unconscious, released Sharon.

"Thanks for the help," Sharon said as she wiped the blood off of her lip. It was already swelling from the one punch she'd let the other woman give to her face.

"You had that," Steve said. "I couldn't have done it any better," he smirked.

The other woman slumped to the floor of the bathroom.

"These two clearly weren't first string," Sharon said as she observed the non-rumpled or bleeding Captain America before her. "What should we do with them?"

Steve forced open the janitorial closet that was inside the women's restroom. There would be plenty of room for the both of them. While Steve went to go get the man he'd left around the back of the bathhouse building, Sharon dug through the janitor's closet and first tied up the woman's wrists and ankles and checked all of her pockets. She took her cellphone and the waited for Steve.

All of the other cars, except their car and the Hydra car, were gone. Sam was still sleeping in the back seat when they climbed back in; this time, with Steve back at the wheel.

He woke up and sleepily looked at them both. He saw Sharon's fat, bleeding lip first.

"Did I miss something?" Sam asked.

…

Author's note: Please let me know what you thought! Thanks!