"You know you're going to have to talk to me eventually," I hear Fury say. I look away from the spot on the wall that I had been staring at for the last two hours. The former director was staring at me across the room from his hospital bed. "You've been here two days. That's an awfully long time to go without talking."
If I talk, you aren't going to like what I say, I think to myself as I look away from him. I was beyond furious at him. Faking his death…making me fake my death…making me leave Steve…I wanted to gouge his good eye out.
"Agent Hill left about an hour ago," he says. I already knew that though. "She went to retrieve Rogers and Romanov." That, I didn't know.
"Steve?" It was the first word I had spoken since I arrived at this retched hide-out.
"Yes," Fury says, nodding his head. "He's coming here."
"Am I going to have to hide when he gets here?" I say bitterly. "Keep up the whole charade of me being dead?"
"No," he says. "You can see him when he gets here."
"Oh, well thank you sir. What an honor," I say, sarcasm and bitterness in every word. I knew Steve…the moment he saw me he'd feel betrayed.
"I will take full responsibility of what we made you do-"
"Yeah, you should," I snap at him. I had never been this mad before in my life. I wasn't sure Fury knew how to handle it.
"And I will," he says, some authority in his voice, warning me not to cut him off again. "Maybe faking your death wasn't the best choice, but I was working with what I knew at the time."
"What?" I say, standing up from my seat. "Did you think you couldn't trust Steve? Obviously you could if you went to him first after your crash!"
Fury just stares at me, not saying anything. "Hill should be back within an hour."
"Good for Hill," I say, turning to storm out of the room. I walk out of the room and down the hall, not really sure where I was going. Too many emotions were running through me at the moment. I was furious at Fury, furious at myself for agreeing to it, worried about Steve, worried what Steve would say when he saw me…I wasn't used to this. I hadn't felt like this since my parents had died.
"Dr. Litz," I hear my name being called down the hall. I turn and see Dr. Fine walking up to me.
"Hello Doctor," I greet him.
"I have a question for you," he says after greeting me. "I know you don't have your MD, but I wasn't wondering if you have any medical knowledge at all?"
"Some, yes," I say nodding my head. "I have the standard first aid training and I also read Gray's Anatomy. Why do you ask?"
"Agent Hill just phoned ahead and said they have wounded," he says.
My body grows cold as my heart rate spikes. "Do you know who-"
"She didn't say," he says, shaking his head. "But I may need your assistance when they come in. Can I count on you?"
"Um- yes, yes sir," I say. "I'll assist in whatever way I can."
He thanks me before turning to go check on Fury. I decide to just hang out in the hallway, not sure what to do. Was Steve hurt? What happened? What have they been doing these last two days? I lean back against the nearby wall and slide myself down until I'm sitting on the ground. I stare at the wall opposite of me, escaping in my mind to a different time…
"There's no way you're getting me on that death trap!" I say to Steve, talking about his motorcycle.
"It's not a death trap," he says from the living room. I walk back into his living room and sit on the couch next to him. "Do you honestly think I would wreck-"
"They are called accidents for a reason," I say, cutting him off. "They happen when you least expect it and then your super-soldier butt walks away unscathed and I am roadkill. I'm not riding on it."
"I'll get you a helmet," he says, almost pleading. "We could have Stark design it."
"What? Have a full body protection suit pop out of it when we start to crash?" I say, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah," he says. "If that's what you want."
I stare at him for a moment, as if I was considering it. "Not going to happen pretty boy," I say, picking up a pillow at stuffing it in his face. The puppy-dog eyes he was sending me almost changed my mind. "If we go somewhere, it's in my car…I'll even let you drive if it makes you feel better."
Steve lets out a groan as he slides down on the couch, clearly frustrated by my stubbornness. "I barely even fit in your car!"
"Dr. Litz," Dr. Fine's voice breaks me out of my reverie. I look up at him to see him extending a hand down towards me. "They just pulled up." He says as he helps me stand. I nod my head as I follow him down the hall. Ahead of us, I catch a group of people walking towards us.
"GSW to the shoulder," Maria's voice rings out through the tunnel. "She's lost a pint."
"Maybe two," an unfamiliar voice says.
"Let me take her," Dr. Fine says as he picks up his gait and starts to jog towards the group. I hang back, staying behind Dr. Fine so that the group couldn't see me.
"She'll want to see him first," Maria says. I see her lock eyes with me as they near us. I could tell she wasn't sure if I should be there or not.
"Anyone else hurt?" I speak up. The whole group stops what they're doing to look over Dr. Fine's shoulder at me. Two pairs of eyes stare at me in shocked confusion.
"No, we're good," the guy in the group I don't know says. I look at him, immediately recognizing him though.
"Okay," Dr. Fine says, pressing a gauze pad to the inside of Natasha's jacket. Natasha's hand replaces his as her, Steve, and Sam Wilson turn to follow Maria into the next room.
Me and Dr. Fine follow behind them as they walk into the room where Fury is laying in his bed. "About damn time," I hear Fury say. Natasha and Steve stare at him, probably wearing the same look they had when they saw me. Sam turns a little bit and looks at everyone in the room…he looked out of his element.
"Here," Dr. Fine says, stepping up to Natasha. "Let me take a look at that." She nods her head as she lets him lead her over to a table that has a few medical supplies on it.
I keep waiting for Steve to turn around and say something to me, or at least look at me, but he doesn't. I hang back, leaning on the back wall while Fury tells them everything that was wrong with him. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache."
"Don't forget your collapsed lung." Dr. Fine says, still holding pressure on Natasha's gunshot wound.
"Oh, let's not forget that." A hint of irony in Fury's voice. "Otherwise, I'm good."
"They cut you open, your heart stopped." Natasha says, still slightly confused.
"Tetrodotoxin B." Fury explains. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."
"Why all the secrecy?" Steve says. I could tell just by the tone of his voice he was angry…beyond angry. I also had a feeling that had something to do with me. "Why not just tell us?"
"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful." Maria explains.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead." Fury says with a shrug. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."
"Well what about you?" Natasha says, looking over at me. Everyone turns to look at me, even Steve, but I can't bring myself to look at him. "Your car blew up…how'd you escape unscathed?"
"There was never an accident," I explain, looking at only her. "I was brought directly here from the hospital after Fury died."
Natasha continues to stare at me. "But why would you-"
"That was my doing," Fury says, sitting up in his bed. I walk over to him, accidently bumping into Steve in the process. I help Fury sit up on the side of his bed as he explains. "If I ever had to go into hiding, Dr. Litz was under strict orders to go with me. Whether she wanted to or not."
I catch a glance of Sam looking around at everybody as I help Fury stand up. "But why would she have to-"
"Samuel Thomas Wilson. Born September 23, 1978. United States Air Force, serving two tours before becoming a pararescueman assigned to the 58th Rescue Squadron. You were chosen as a test pilot for the EXO-7 Falcon." I rattle off.
Sam stares at me, not sure what to say. "You got all that just from looking at me?"
"No," I say as I let go of Fury so he can stand on his own. "I got all that from glancing at your file two years ago."
"Dr. Litz has a brain anomaly that allows her to remember everything she's ever seen or encountered in her life," Maria explains further. "Making her a liability if the wrong people got ahold of her."
"Basically, I know too much for my own good," I say. "Not that I'd ever talk if I was ever-"
"Come on," Fury says, finally shifting the conversation away from me. "You all need to fill me in on what's happened."
Everyone moves to follow him to another part of the room. I don't follow immediately, waiting until Steve starts to walk by me. "Steve, I-"
"Not now," he says, cutting me off. He quickens his gait, walking ahead of past the heavy plastic curtain.
I swallow the lump in my throat as I walk past the curtain. Everyone was already sitting at the table. Sam, Steve, and Natasha start to fill Fury and hill in on what happened. After they're finished, Fury lets out a sigh, looking down at a picture of Alexander Pierce, the man who was now running S.H.I.E.L.D. and now HYDRA, which had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. "This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize." He says, throwing the picture across the table. "He said, 'Peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility.' See, its stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
"We have to stop the launch." Natasha says, talking about the Project Insight carriers.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury says. He reaches in front of him and opens a case, revealing three chips inside. I had seen him tinkering with them the past couple days.
"What's that?" Sam asks as everyone looks at the chips.
"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized." Maria says. She turns a laptop around so we can see a simulation of the carriers.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." Fury says.
Maria turns the laptop back towards herself. "One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die."
"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA." Fury says. "We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left-"
"We're not salvaging anything." Steve says suddenly. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."
My mouth goes dry. "S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with it." Fury says, looking at Steve like he was crazy.
"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends." Steve says. He wasn't Steve at the moment though; he was Captain America. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised, you've said so yourself. HYDRA was right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Fury says. "I noticed."
"And how many paid the price before you did?" Steve says. I could tell he was growing angry again.
"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury says, shaking his head.
"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Steve says, stepping closer to the table. "Or would you have compartmentalized that too? S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, it all goes."
"He's right." Maria says. Fury snaps his head towards her, staring at her in shock.
Fury looks over at Natasha, who just stares at him, leaning back in her chair. He then looks up at Sam who shakes his head. "Don't look at me. I do what he does," he says, nodding towards Steve. "just slower."
Fury looks across the table at me, silently asking my opinion. I just shake my head. I didn't know what to say.
"Well..." Fury says, letting out a sigh and looking back up at Steve. "Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."
I stand up from the table as Maria and Natasha start talking plans on how to get into S.H.I.E.L.D. I walk out of the room and into the main hallway. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been my whole life since I turned eighteen. What was going to happen to me once it was gone? I didn't know anything else. What was I going- "What the-" someone had grabbed my elbow, pulling me along beside them. I look up, finding the source, Steve.
"We need to talk," he says between his teeth. I don't say anything as he leads me down the hall further, eventually veering us off into a make-shift bedroom. He not-too-gently releases me for a moment before grabbing my shoulders and backing me up until I'm pinned against the wall. He doesn't say anything, just stares at me, his nostrils flare with every breath. Then, suddenly, he crashes his lips to mine, fisting his hands into my hair. The rest of his body melts against mine, leaving me no room for escape…not that I wanted to. This, like our last kiss, was like none we had shared before. This one was charge by pure anger and passion. "Why?" he says after breaking the kiss. "Why did you do it?"
"I'm sorry," I say, tears starting to stream down my face. "I'm so sorry…I didn't have a choice."
"You always have choice," he says. He steps away from me and turns away. "You know if you were in any danger, I could've kept you safe."
"I know," I say. "But Fury-"
"But Fury nothing!" he says, turning back towards me. "Fury is the reason we're in this mess."
"This is all I've known Steve!" I yell at him. "If even a hint of threat arises, I hide. That's how it's been my whole life. I don't know anything else!"
"You know me," Steve says, his voice controlled. "I would've kept you safe. These past two days have been…" he shakes his head before looking at me again. "I don't ever want to go through that again."
I stare at him, looking into his eyes. "I'm so sorry Steve," I say again, hanging my head. I feel him wrap his arms around my shoulder, holding me to his chest.
