I needed to get the events of Winter Soldier out of the way so I could continue on with my own story, so this is a bit of a transitionary chapter. I do have a question for you all, the next chapter has a *scene* between Lucy and Steve. Should I change the rating of the whole fic for that chapter (there will be more sex later on in the story too) or do I just put a warning at the top of the chapter and keep the rating? Let me know, and be sure to review!


I wish I could say I hatched a plan to save Steve and my family, but that would be a lie. I tried calling Steve almost right away, but he had used a burner phone and I had no way of contacting him. I was put in a cell covered with metal and glass walls, the monitor showing my family was placed outside the cell for me to constantly see.

"We're not in the business of killing people who don't deserve it." An older man wearing a nice three-piece suit walked into my line of site. "I'm Alexander Pierce, I sort of...head all this up." He smiled at me, he looked like a politician.

"Let my family go." I said evenly, not breaking eye contact. "I don't know how to get a hold of Steve."

Pierce laughed. "Captain America? Not a concern anymore, or at least he won't be. We found him."

My stomach plummeted and I felt all the color drain from my face.

"Why am I still here if he's dead?" I had to force out the last word. It was impossible that someone or something had actually successfully killed Steve.

"Do you think you're only as useful as the man you're with?" Pierce opened my cell and sat down on the bench opposite me. He clearly didn't see me as a threat. "You are still here, because you can do something maybe no one else can." He pulled a notebook out of the briefcase he had carried in. "You can decipher this."

He handed me the notebook and I slowly opened it. Inside was page after page of my father's handwriting, I would have recognized the spidery lettering that covered the lines anywhere. The bulk of the writing was in German, but there was also Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Hieroglyphics, and even Cuneiform wedged into the corners.

"Your Dad never trusted me, not like I got others to trust me." Pierce started talking after giving me a minute to rifle through the notebook.

"Well he was an excellent judge of character." I couldn't help the snarky comment from rolling off my tongue. Pierce ignored it and continued.

"I had him working on decoding and translating the old Hydra files, under the guise of SHIELD intelligence, of course. He gave me his reports, but I always felt like he was leaving something out. After his death, I found this in belongings. It's his own personal enigma code, I've had all the best codebreakers working on it, but none of them have been able to read it."

I heard what he was saying, but it wasn't registering exactly. I was already consumed by the notebook, after one glance I was able to identify the patterns in the writing. Dad had raised all of us kids to learn how to break codes and decipher secrets. He even hid our Christmas presents every year and we had to go around the house looking for clues to their location. This was one of his games, one he left knowing I would be able to solve.

"You solve the mysteries of that notebook, your family goes free and you can put this all behind you."

"What if I can't solve it?" I looked up from the notebook into Pierce's calculating eyes. He glanced over to the monitor.

"Then I guess your old man would have died for nothing." The threat was clear. Solve the code or my family dies. He stood up to leave the cell but left the door open. "You'll find access to everything you need in the laptop in that briefcase."

There was no way of telling how much time passed in that cell. I know at one point they brought me food that I didn't eat, I asked to be taken to the bathroom approximately an hour after that, at some point I fell asleep on top of a pile of my own notes and the notebook itself. I was quickly learning the patterns, but the translations were still a mystery at some points and when I could translate them the words didn't always make sense. I was sure not to write down too much on my own notes until I could figure out what to do. My father had kept this a secret for a reason. If Hydra wanted the notes, if was no doubt for something nefarious. Dad died for whatever was in this notebook so there was no way in hell I could just hand the information over to them. At the same time, the lives of everyone I loved were at stake.

I jolted awake when I heard a loud voice come over the intercom speakers.

"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this is Steve Rogers." I woke up fully. Steve was alive! "You've heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time to tell the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury. And it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay." Steve paused here for a second. "And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

"Steve!" I yelled out for him, stupidly hoping that he could somehow hear me.

"Is all of that true?" One of my guards pointed his gun at me. He looked to young to be in the position he was, barely older than twenty. "Is what Captain America said true?"

I raised my hands to my head defensively. "Yes, it's all true. Hydra has taken over SHIELD."

The guard didn't lower his weapon right away. I could tell he was fighting an internal battle, deciding if I could be trusted. After a few tense moments he finally lowered the weapon. "Get your stuff." He ordered me, but a split second later I saw blood shoot from his forehead. Rumlow was standing behind him holding a pistol.

"Time to do things my way, let's go Mrs. Rogers."

I screamed and he had me in handcuffs before I could even try to run away. We walked through the building, it was pure chaos. It seemed most everyone was trying to run out of the building, I noticed fights breaking out everywhere, no doubt between Hydra and those loyal to SHIELD. We reached the top floor of the building. I saw Pierce, Natasha, a group in suits, and a man wearing an eyepatch and a long black trench.

"You need to keep both eyes open." Trench coat was saying to Pierce as revealed a mangled eye under the patch and accessed a database using retinol scan.

"I wouldn't do that, Nick." Rumlow pushed me forward and held his gun up to my temple with his other hand tight on my neck.

Nick? From the hospital?

"Do you really think there will be anywhere you can hide if you kill Cap's girl?" Natasha calmly stepped away from the computer she was at and crossed her arms.

"This is bigger than me, Romanoff." Rumlow sounded on the verge of crazy, just like Nate had right before he killed himself. "Hydra is bigger than all of us."

I thought back to the museum, the picture of Steve's transition into Captain America. He lost his best friend and the life he should have lived to protect the world from Hydra. I was a coward if I did any differently. "Nat." I nodded in her direction, giving her permission to let me die. Telling her to keep doing what she was doing.

"I find it ironic of you to be self-sacrificing." Rumlow squeezed my neck harder. "Ask your friend Natasha about Operation Goodnight. Ask her about how she killed your father."

"Enough!" Nick raised a gun and shot Pierce, then Rumlow. Rumlow fell to the ground but I could tell from the gurgling noises he was making that he was still alive. Natasha gave me a wary look, but kept typing on her computer.

I was in shock watching her work, but a sudden noise outside the window drew my attention. A giant hellicarrier was crashing into the Potomac. My mind was on auto pilot, it registered to me that Steve had to be on that ship or he would have been in this room, whatever Hydra had been trying to launch was on that carrier. I started running towards the exit, ignored my burning lungs and aching legs until I emerged into the bright morning sun. Once outside the building I could see clearer where the ship was crashing, I had to get to Steve. Despite the aches in my body I took off again in the direction of the ship until I came to the shore of the river.

People along the sidewalk were stopping and pointing at the ship, some screaming and running away. I crossed over the protective rails and shrubbery, trying to get to the river as quickly as I could. The logical side of my brain told me there was nothing I could do, that it was stupid to run towards the giant ship crashing into water, but I kept moving forward. I had to find him. A glint of metal momentarily blinded me, it was coming from the water. I paused to take in my surroundings and realized I had run to a secluded area of the bank, there was no one around me. The metal blinded me again and I looked for its source. There, in the river, were two bodies. Two men, one was holding the other by the shirt and dragging him to shore. The metal, I realized, came from the one man's arm. I followed the metal arm down and saw a blue uniform and blonde hair.

"Steve!" I yelled out from the shore and started running for the water. The man dragging him pushed his hand out to me in warning and I stopped. Reluctantly, I pulled my eyes away from Steve's body and looked at his rescuer. His dark hair slightly obscured his face, but somehow, I recognized him. I had seen him in the photos at the museum.

"Bucky?" His sharp blue eyes darted to mine as he reached the shore. I gasped when dropped Steve and stared at me. It was definitely Bucky, definitely Steve's best friend and brother. He looked lost and confused, like he didn't quite know where he was. He turned and kept walking up the bank. "Wait!" I called after him but he didn't stop, just kept walking away. I tried following him up the hill, but by the time I reached the top he was gone.

Steve started coughing up water and I ran to him. I couldn't tell the extent of his injuries, but it looked bad. His whole face was a bruised, bloody mess and his right arm was stuck at an odd angle.

"Bucky?" He gasped out.

"He's - he..." I tried getting out through the sobs starting to overtake me.

"Lucy?" Steve reached up with his left hand. I grabbed it and pulled it to my cheek, wanting to feel him close.

"I'm here. I'm here, Steve."