VII - Compromised


Hayley had planned on laying down on Steve's bed and reading over the files she had saved on her computer, trying to wrap her head around the copious amount of information Charlie was informing her to get her hands on. Some of it was easy to get, being public records and SHIELD employee-level access, but others were almost impossible.

Her plan seemed to become derailed however as she woke up an hour later to a much dimmer apartment, letting her know she had literally slept away the rest of the afternoon. She was still in the same position she remembering settling down in, her laptop now lying by her side having slipped from her lap.

"Shit," she winced, moving up and realising she had fallen asleep in the worst position possible.

As she threw her legs off the side of the bed, she heard the window to Steve's apartment being slid open. Her heart immediately began hammering, wondering what was going on. Steve didn't live in a particularly bad neighbourhood, but break-ins happened everywhere. Silently, she moved over toward the bedroom door and tried to peak around the corner.

Her entire body was tense, ready to face whoever it was in the living room. But as she began to tiptoe out of the room, ready to strike at any moment, she heard what seemed to be pained coughs and groans. It only took a few more steps to see who it was that had broken in, and to realize that they had no intention of robbing the apartment, but instead using it as refuge.

"Fury?" she spoke softly.

The Director had his back to her, pulling out a record from Steve's collection and hurriedly sticking it on the vinyl player. All the while holding his arm, blood spilling down his face from numerous cuts and gashes to his skin.

"Oh my g-"

"How are you enjoying your time off?" Fury asked, his pleasant voice contrasting his serious expression.

Hayley watched on in confusion as the director sat down on the couch, his face scrunching in pain as his body settled. He looked like he had been bit by a bus, and Hayley wasn't ruling out that possibility. As she looked over the man's body, noticing the torn jacket and blood seeping through his clothing, Fury reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell.

Quickly typing a message, he looked up to see the utter confusion on Hayley's face before turning his phone around for her to see.

APARTMENT BUGGED.

Hayley's heart hammered in her chest, her fears all being confirmed.

"You look better than the last time I saw you," he continued, his voice not giving off any indication that he was in pain.

"I'll credit that to time off," she replied, her eyes now scouring the room to see any sign of tamper.

Fury reached over the arm of the couch to turn off the small lamp by his side, his eyes too scanning the room.

"I take it you're not here to pay me a visit," Hayley prodded. "But Steve's-"

"I don't think he'll be as welcoming as you've been," Fury explained. "I know he's not a fan of people dropping by unannounced, but this I didn't have a chance to call. My wife...we're having some problems,"

Hayley gave Fury another incredulous look, unable to tell if this was part of his story or he really was having marriage problems. There were a million questions she wanted answered immediately, but before she could take any approach toward attempting to ask, she heard Steve's keys rattling in the door.

Both she and Fury turned their gaze toward the door, watching as Steve pushed the door open and walked in, a smile on his lips as he saw Hayley standing down the hall from him. A smile that very quickly faded. Hayley shook her head, unable to explain anything.

Walking further into the room, Steve's brows creased in concern as he saw Fury sitting on the couch. Hayley watched as his demeanour changed almost instantly.

"I don't remember giving you a key," Steve spoke bluntly.

"Really think I'd need one?" Fury replied coolly. "My wife kicked me out,"

"Didn't know you were married,"

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me,"

Steve looked toward Hayley with concern, quickly checking she was okay before reaching over to the light switch on the wall.

"I know Nick, that's the problem..." he trailed off, noticing the man's injuries as soon as the room was illuminated.

Hayley reached for Steve's arm as he stared at the director with the same look she had on face moment earlier. She wanted to explain, to let him know that they were all being watched and monitored at this very moment. But instead Fury gave Steve the same, non-verbal message on his cell phone that he had given Hayley.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash," Fury continued.

SHIELD COMPROMISED.

Steve and Hayley read the words, both reaching for one another out of instinct. The organisation they had both given so much to was not the same as it had ever been, and finally they both had confirmation. SHIELD was compromised in ways they had no idea about yet.

"Who else knows?" Steve asked. "About your wife," he added, knowing now they were being listened to.

"Just my friends," Fury replied.

Both Steve and Hayley's eyes were on Fury's cell as he turned it to them again, reading the words JUST US.

In the whole organisation, out of every agent and soldier they had, the only people who knew SHIELD was compromised were the people in this room right now. Hayley was immediately reminded of Charlie's warnings, realising that all of the paranoia and fear she felt was justified. But all this time she thought SHIELD were watching just her, monitoring her as if she was an experiment ever since returning.

But she was only a small piece of this chaos. The whole organisation was crumbling, and that included everyone in it.

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked.

"That's up to you."

Fury stood then, his eyes staring into Steve's, forming an unspoken truce. No matter how many arguments they had been in over the past few weeks, no matter how many disagreements, they needed to both be assured they were fighting on the good side of whatever this was.

And then their eyes began ringing, the sound of shattering glass filling the room and bullets piercing through the thick walls. Steve's arms went to Hayley, pushing her down onto the ground as he put his body in front of hers, using his shield to cover any other bullets coming their way. But it seemed the bullets had done their job.

Fury was on the ground gasping for air, blood seeping down onto the floor around him. Steve quickly pulled him into the next room, settling him back down and searching for the bullet wound. Steve knew it wasn't good, there was a very real chance the director was going to get back up from this one. Hayley was by his side, reaching for anything she could use to apply pressure to the bullet wounds.

Grabbing Steve's hand, Fury coughed through his pain, wheezing as he slipped a flash drive into his palm. Steve looked down at it, remembering the silver drive with SHIELD's logo from his mission on the Lemurian Star. It contained all of the information Natasha had extracted for the director, and yet he was passing it on to Steve.

"Don't...trust...anyone," Fury choked out.

Steve looked down at the man as his eyes fell closed, his gasps and coughs silenced. He almost didn't hear the sounds of someone breaking through his front door, calling out to him. But Hayley did.

Grabbing the gun from Fury's hip, Hayley stood and rushed toward the door, aiming at the intruder. But instead she was met with the neighbour she had met hours earlier. Her eyes grew wide as she watched Kate hurry into the apartment, aiming her own gun around the corners to ensure no one else was inside.

"Captain Rogers?" she called out, making her way into the room. "I'm Agent 13 with SHIELD Special Service,"

"Kate?" he asked in shock, his voice mirroring Hayley's own words.

"I'm assigned to protect you," she answered.

"On whose order?" Steve demanded.

"His," she nodded toward the director, pulling out her SHIELD radio. "Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMT's,"

Steve and Hayley looked at each other only briefly through the haze of the unfolding chaos, Hayley being able to immediately read his next move. Steve wasn't going to let whoever did this get away, and especially not now that he knew they were still outside his apartment.

"Steve," she whispered. "You don't know what they-"

"I can't let them just get away," Steve argued.

"Do you have eyes on the shooter?" the SHIELD responder's voice asked.

Steve looked out the window, seeing a figure in the distance.

"Tell them I'm in pursuit,"


Hayley was outside the building, watching as paramedics rushed Fury out of the apartment and into a waiting ambulance. A few SHIELD agents have turned up to analyse the apartment and talk with Kate, or Agent 13, but Hayley ignored them all. She stood over by Steve's motorcycle, leaning on the seat as she watched everyone work hurriedly to get the director to the hospital.

It had been fifteen minutes since Steve had taken off after the shooter and Hayley had been continually looking from one end of the street to the other, scanning for any sign of him. Whoever had fired those bullets at Fury was a professional, and they obviously weren't opposed to taking a life if anything got in their way.

They could have been hired to take out the Director, or they could have been part of SHIELD itself. Nothing was out of the question anymore, especially after confirmation from Fury that the organisation had definitely been compromised.

"Hayley,"

Turning immediately to the voice, she saw Steve approaching from the corner. There were no patches of wet blood on his shirt, no bruises forming on his face, nothing but the same look of overwhelming disbelief. Scooting off the seat of the motorcycle, Hayley hurried over to him, her arms folded as if she was ready to be briefed on the situation.

Steve reached out for her, one arm on her waist as the other cupped the side of her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked, quickly checking their surroundings that another shooter or assailant hadn't shown up in the time he was gone.

"I'm fine," she nodded, staring back at him. "Are you okay?"

"I couldn't stop him," Steve shook his head. "He...he was strong,"

"Did you see his face?"

Steve shook his head.

"No, he wore a mask. But..."

Hayley's brows creased in concern.

"What?"

"He had a metal arm,"


Hayley didn't feel right being the room. The moment was too raw, too intimate and quiet for her to be a part of. She wasn't close with the Director, in fact she rarely had anything to do with him. Being in defense, she took orders from her commander and those ranked higher than herself. But Steve, Natasha and Maria Hill all took their orders from the man himself.

And right now he was dying. They were standing on the other side of the glass as they watched surgeons try to save Nicky Fury's life, but it wasn't working. The sniper who shot him did a good job, and there was no coming back from the bullets that hit him.

It was almost an hour later when Steve emerged from the room, entering the corridor where Hayley sat against the wall, a long sigh escaping his lips. Hayley wasn't expecting good news, but knowing for certain that the Director was dead sent a chill down her spine.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, slowly wrapping her arms around Steve's body and hugging him tight.

"I didn't think he would make it," Steve admit, nestling into her arms. "But I hoped he would,"

"What are they doing?"

"Natasha and Hill are still in there, they'll move him soon. Other than that...I have no idea what's about to happen,"

Hayley looked up at him in concern, reading his thoughts as if they were her own. In just a few hours, their worlds had been turned upside down. Fury's last words were to trust no one, and right now Steve wasn't sure there was anyone he could.

"Someone sent that shooter after Fury," Hayley whispered. "There had to be a reason,"

"He found out SHIELD was compromised, I don't think they liked that," Steve summed up. "Someone in SHIELD ordered that hit,"

The sound of doors bashing open broke their gaze, Natasha Romanoff storming off into the hall. Steve chased after her, needing to talk to her about all of this. But even if he did have some trust in the assassin, he wouldn't mention anything about SHIELD's position if she didn't.

Hayley stood back, letting the moment play out between the two of them.

"Captain," a man called out. "They want you back at SHIELD,"

Steve turned to the man, nodding.

"Give me a second,"

"They want you now," the man insisted.

Hayley finally looked over at the dark-haired man, her lips parting as her eyes grew wide. Her chest tightened in pain, her stomach twisted in knots, and something felt very, very wrong. The man looked back at her, noticing Hayley's reaction but not doing a thing about it.

The man's face flashed in her mind over and over again, in darkness, in light, she felt pain and she felt fear.

"I have to go," Steve's voice brought her back to reality. "Hey? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "W-wait you're going in?"

"I have to see what's happening," he whispered. "Don't worry, I'll be safe,"

"You don't know that,"

"I promise," he assured, leaning in to press a kiss against her forehead. "Don't go back to the apartment alone, alright?"

"Okay," she nodded, but her mind was far from his words.

It seemed she had no control over any of her thoughts right now, because all she wanted to do was grab Steve's arm and hold him where he was. The idea of him going in to SHIELD after all of this made her more panicked than anything else, but her body was stunned.

After months of no recollection and beginning to get back the life she had, it was beginning to crumble at the worst possible time.

SHIELD was compromised, and Hayley was remembering.


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