Steve Rogers, Agent of SHIELD

June 21, 2010

Triskelion – Washington, DC

Steve arrived in Washington, DC three days before he was supposed to meet with Nick so he could have plenty of time to see how the capital city had changed in six decades. The answer was a lot. It, like New York, was much bigger, and much taller. The government buildings hadn't changed much, but they appeared to be newer, as though they had been renovated in the last few years.

The Triskelion looked nothing like an office building, as was his first assumption. The taller portion was cylindrical in shape, while the flatter part was a slightly curved rectangle. The latter half was attached to what looked like four very long docks. There were small airplanes parked in strategic spots in front of the harbor. It was in the middle of the Patomac, on Theodore Roosevelt Island, so the only way to access it from the mainland was by bridge.

Steve's rental car was at the mouth of the bridge when he was stopped by two men in black suits. He immediately flashed back to when he woke up and was chased by those men in black armor. He shook his head and rolled his window down. "Morning, fellas. I'm here to see Nick Fury."

"Do you have clearance?" one, bald with a neatly trimmed goatee, asked succinctly.

He didn't. He only just barely got his driver's license renewed after Fury sent him some forged papers that made it look like he hadn't been born over eighty years ago. The only thing he had was the card Nick gave him last week, so he pulled that out of his wallet and showed it to him.

The man in black took the card and scanned it with some contraption. The thing beeped twice, which apparently was good, as the man nodded and handed him the card. "Go ahead."

He nodded and drove ahead once the bridge was opened up. The security around this place was airtight. Just through casual glances, his keen eyesight picked up at least ten snipers posted on top of the building in strategic places. That wasn't surprising; this place was apparently SHIELD's global headquarters.

He pulled into the parking garage and found a place to park. It was filled with nondescript, unassuming vehicles. That was likely because their owners were superspies, and superspies had to keep a low profile.

He didn't have any idea where to go, so he just followed a man who also just arrived. He was shorter than Steve, around 5'11, and stocky in build with sandy blonde hair. His arms were massive, as if he worked out exclusively with them in mind. The rest of his physique was athletic in build.

The man, and Steve behind him, both walked briskly through a metal corridor that led from the parking garage to the main atrium. There was a soft humming noise that wasn't emanating from the light-bulbs overhead. Steve frowned and looked around for the source, but found nothing but smooth metal walls.

They entered the main atrium almost at the same time, but whereas the man kept walking toward his destination, Steve stopped dead in his tracks. It was massive. There were dozens upon dozens of men and women in suits striding purposefully toward their destinations. If some stopped to chat, it was only for a brief few moments, no meaningful words exchanged outside of a casual greeting. In the center of the atrium stood a fifteen foot tall metal eagle, which was apparently SHIELD's logo, as the same logo could be seen on the walls.

There was a receptionist's desk against the near wall, adjacent to the entrance he just stepped through. Politely pushing his way past various agents, he walked up to the desk. The receptionist was a pretty Asian dame with striking brown eyes and long, straight black hair. "Good morning, sir," she greeted, with no hint of an accent. "How may I help you?"

"Ah, yes. I'm here to see Nick Fury." He pulled out the same card he showed the men at the bridge and handed it to her.

He watched her scan it with the very same contraption and nodded when it beeped. "Yes, you must be Captain Rogers. Wait here, and an agent will be here shortly to escort you to Director Fury."

Her tone was friendly, if not clipped and hurried. Not surprising, she probably had quite a lot to do. Not wanting to hold her up, he said a quick, "Thank you, ma'am," and went to stand somewhere out of the way.

A familiar blonde woman exited an elevator, sighed heavily, and approached him quickly. "Captain Rogers, hi. I'm Agent 13. I'll be escorting you to Director Fury."

"Hello, nurse." She was the nurse who fooled him a few months ago. He hadn't seen her again, so he thought that she was an actual nurse that Nick hired for the show, but apparently not.

She sighed again. "I'm sorry about that, but—"

"It's fine. Nick already explained it to me."

She nodded and gestured for him to follow her.

So, doll, are you rationed? Bucky's voice echoed through his head. He shook the voice free and stepped inside the elevator after Agent 13.

"Carter, Sharon – Level Six."

The sudden voice startled him. He looked around for the source, but to his absolute bewilderment, found no one. There was no one else in the elevator except them. He heard her let out a disappointed scoff. She mumbled something under her breath, a curse at the stupid voice in the elevator, and grabbed his card so the elevator could scan it.

"Guest verified."

"Director's suite," she stated.

"Confirmed."

He wanted to ask where the voice was coming from, but didn't want to seem like an idiot. More than likely, it was coming from a speaker and the woman speaking was somewhere else controlling the elevator. Perhaps it was the receptionist, which was why she was so hurried. He would be too if he had to verify everyone coming into the elevator.

Also, he noticed that Agent 13, apparently whose real name was Sharon Carter, didn't press any buttons before the car started moving upward. Now that he was paying attention, it turned out that there weren't any buttons at all! How the—how is it working? He kept all of these concerns to himself and tried to make friendly conversation with Sharon.

"So, Ms.—"

"Agent 13," she corrected before he could barely get started.

"Sorry. Agent 13. This is some place you guys got here."

"Yep. You weren't too overwhelmed by everything, right? This elevator is controlled by a... ah, a computer, by the way."

It was as though she was reading his mind. Then again, he supposed that his confusion was obvious. "Thanks. And, I guess I'll be honest and say that I was. There's just a lot to take in." He assumed she was referring to in general and not overwhelmed by the building. Even if she was, his answer was still valid.

She nodded slowly. "I can imagine." There seemed to be more that she wanted to say, but for seem reason stopped with that.

The rest of the ride was in silence. Sharon, he noticed, very rarely looked at him. When she did, it was a very brief glance.

The doors opened on the Director's Suite. It was amazingly simple. There were only two offices. The larger of the two was at the end of the single hallway, and he assumed that one belonged to Nick. The slightly smaller one likely belonged to his secretary. Said secretary came strolling out of her office, a stack of black clipboards in her arms. She nodded at him and Sharon when they walked out of the elevator. "Carter. Captain Rogers, I'm Commander Maria Hill."

Maria Hill was a youthful looking doll, with keen green eyes and her hair cut real short. Her face was set in a stern grimace that would have put the meanest substitute teacher to shame. He shook the hand she extended. A firm handshake, rare for a dame. "It's a pleasure, ma'am." Commander? Strange title for a secretary.

She nodded again. "I'll take it from here, Carter."

He noticed Sharon's face sour a bit before disappearing. "I'll see you around, Cap. Hill."

"Right down here," she said. She strode quickly through the empty hall.

He kept looking at her hair. He had noticed that a lot of women had their hair cut short nowadays. Not to say that women didn't keep their hair short in his day, but not quite this short. She looked kind of like a dainty fella, but obviously feminine.

They stepped into Nick's office. "Director Fury, Rogers is here."

Nick, who was looking out of the massively expansive window that overlooked the Potomac River, turned and nodded. "Glad you decided to stop by, Rogers." He took the folders Hill handed him and placed them in a drawer behind his desk. "Have a seat. Hill, tell Romanoff and Barton to get up here."

"Yes, sir."

He watched her stride away before taking a seat in one of the two chairs in front of Nick's desk. "That's some secretary you got there, Nick."

For some reason, Nick laughed uproariously. It must have been something he said. "Yeah, she sure is," he said once he calmed down. He pulled a folder from the drawer and removed a pen from a cup full of them on the corner of his glass desk. He then took the time to explain what each page was and where Steve should sign or initial.

Steve spent several minutes reading over every sheet. It was a habit is mother taught him so he could avoid being flimflammed by some con artist. From what he read, everything appeared to be in order, so he put his signature or initials where needed. He also recorded his fingerprints, retina scan, and had him say his name into some kind of miniature microphone.

At some point during all of this, the door opened and two people walked inside. "Hill said you wanted us, sir," a man stated.

Steve turned to see who it was and, upon seeing that one of them was a woman, scrambled to stand from his seat. "Ma'am. Sir. I'm Steve Rogers." He held his hand out.

The woman just nodded, but didn't take the hand. The man did. The same man that Steve followed into the atrium earlier. "Clint Barton. This rude woman is Natasha Romanoff."

"Hi." She looked him up and down. It wasn't in the same way that woman usually looked at him. This was as if she was sizing him up.

"Alright, that's that." Nick took the folder and placed it in a filing cabinet behind him. "Now then, since you're new around here, you're gonna need someone to show you how it's done. There's no one better for that job than Romanoff."

She hesitated very briefly, so briefly that only Nick and Barton noticed. "Yes, sir."

Barton frowned. "But, sir. What about our op next week?"

"I'm temporarily reassigning Agent Drew to take Romanoff's place. Is this acceptable, Barton?"

From his tone, it didn't sound like it was up for debate. Barton sighed through his nose and nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Romanoff, take Rogers down to HR so they can get him set up with a place to live."

At that, he frowned deeply. "You mean I can't stay in Brooklyn."

"Later on, sure. But, for right now, you need to be close by until your training is complete," Nick explained.

That made sense, so Steve nodded. "Okay."

Without a word, Romanoff walked out. Her strides were quick, but he was easily able to keep up. Barton stayed behind to talk to Nick about something in private. Whatever it was, it wasn't any of his business.

He followed her into the elevator.

"Romanoff, Natasha – Level 8

Rogers, Steven – Probation"

Again, he looked bewildered. The voice in the wall knew his name this time. It likely had something to do with when he said his name in the microphone. "Probation?"

"It means you're a rookie," she said with a small smirk. "Human Resources."

"Confirmed."

The car started to descend. The two stood in silence, Romanoff standing several feet from him with her arms folded over her chest. Steve took that opportunity to size her up in the same manner she did him. She was tiny, barely coming up to his shoulder. She also looked like a swimsuit model. Her figure put him in the mind of those femme fatales that he read about in those spy novels he and Bucky checked out from the library when they were kids.

She had long, wavy red hair and alluring green eyes. He didn't know what it was, but it felt like she was hiding something. Her stature was guarded, like she was ready for something to jump out at her at any moment. "You know, back in my day, these things played music," he said to break the silence.

"Can't afford music," she said with a ghost of a smile.

It sounded like a joke, so he chuckled. "I know the feeling. We could only afford an old beat up radio that only got one station. I was lucky that one station played the Dodgers."

"Fury tell you they moved to LA?"

He sighed sadly. "Yeah." Besides Peggy being in the bad shape she was in, and Howard being murdered, that was the worst news he had received since coming back. His beloved Dodgers were no longer in his hometown. If he wanted to see them play, he would have to either fly to Los Angeles, which was expensive, or settle for watching them on television. The televisions nowadays were so crisp and almost looked like he was sitting at the ballpark, but it wasn't the same.

"Cheer up. They'll be in New York six days out of the season." The elevator doors opened, letting them walk onto the Human Resources floor. The entire area was bustling with activity. Male and female agents were sitting in offices, talking with other agents about some matter or another. Most of them had large, thick books opened up on their desks and were reading out of them. The only other books he had seen that thick were the dictionary and the bible. He doubted it was either of those.

Natasha led him past these busy offices and around the corner leading to another corridor. This one wasn't as busy, but was still humming with activity. She knocked on the door of one that was momentarily empty. "Agent Nelson, the rookie here needs a place to live."

The mousy blonde haired woman looked up suddenly and flinched when she saw Natasha standing in the doorway. "I-I, okay, Agent Romanoff." She gestured for Steve to sit down. "Name?"

"Steve Rogers, ma'am."

She typed his name into the computer and pulled up his dossier. "Hm." She typed some more, and paused to read whatever was on the screen. "Okay."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see several female agents walking past and looking inside. They seemed particularly interested in whatever it was Natasha was doing. Which was nothing but standing in the corner, arms folded. His enhanced hearing could pick up soft whispers from down the hall.

"...is that her new boyfriend?"

"I thought she and Agent Barton were still dating."

"I don't know who that is but he's cute."

"Cassie, did you finish that story I asked you to write?

"Almost. I fell asleep last night, but I'm..."

He frowned deeply. It wasn't right to eavesdrop, and that was why. He didn't know that Natasha and Barton were dating. That was likely what he stayed behind to talk to Fury about: making sure Steve didn't try anything with his girl. Well, he didn't have anything to worry about. Steve was no dog. He wasn't going to try and steal another guy's best girl.

"Here you are," Agent Nelson said as she handed him a piece of paper fresh out of the printer by her desk. That's your address, and this," she handed him a set of keys, "are you're keys. Your furniture will arrive tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, ma'am." That was fast. He shook her hand and stood to take her leave.

"Oh, Agent Romanoff, how's Agent Barton doing?"

Natasha didn't answer her, but leveled a scary glare at her. "Do yourself a favor and mind your own business," she said coldly. She marched out before the girl could respond.

An awfully rude way to answer someone. The question seemed innocent enough. "That was awfully mean," he stated when they entered the elevator.

"Atrium."

"Confirmed."

She didn't acknowledge his statement. There was something real fishy going on here, and while he knew it was none of his business, Natasha was going to be his partner for the time being. If there was potential trouble in the air, he felt that he had a right to know. The last thing he wanted was to be roped into some office drama with all these dames.

These dames and their drama. Some things never change.