Hide & Seek – Fourteen

It had been an hour since they'd woken up. Sharon had zipped in and out of the bathroom to shower and had yet to make eye contact with him. Steve wasn't sure if he was going to take it personally or not yet.

But Steve went in and showered in the bathroom, not saying anything to Sharon at all.

It wasn't until later, once he was done shaving and showering that he decided to pluck his ego from the floor and look Sharon in the eye.

"Good morning," he started.

Sharon's eyes remained fixed on her feet. "Morning," she mumbled.

"Listen…about last night…"

Sharon's head finally popped up and she held her hand up to stop him.

"I'm sorry. I acted like a total idiot. I just…I can't believe I'm about to admit this out loud…I like you. A lot. But I am not sure how or if…oh, never mind," she said before turning a deep shade of red.

Steve, however, smiled. "I like you, too. A lot," he added.

Sharon's eyes darted to the ground again. It was too weird. She was starting to really like, even consider dating, the man her aunt kinda-sorta dated 70-odd years ago. And it was Captain America on top of all of that. How could that ever work?

"Hey," he said softly. "Don't get shy on me now," he tried to make her smile. "If you don't want to…" he trailed off. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say.

Sharon looked up at him again. "How about this…let's keep moving forward see what happens?"

Steve nodded. "Take things slowly."

Sharon stood from her seat at the small table and looked up at Steve. She nodded with the hint of a smirk on her face, then blushed. "It won't stop me from being epically embarrassed that you found me half-naked and sleeping in an empty bathtub. Thanks for putting me to bed."

"As comfortable as you might have been, I just couldn't let you sleep in that marble tub. And I would like to say that I didn't look at you as I carried you, but…" he trailed off. "I probably would have dropped you."

"Um, so, do you want to get breakfast before we go? I think the breakfast buffet is part of the deal with the room," Sharon asked as she changed the subject.

"Sounds good. Then we get a new phone and head out, okay?"

"Yeah. I'm sure Tony will be thrilled when I call him."

… …

"I regret to inform you that Mr. Stark is not taking calls right now. May I please take a message?" JARVIS asked through the phone.

Sharon had the cheap phone on speaker as she listened to JARVIS, Tony's computerized butler talk.

"JARVIS, it's me, Sharon. Sharon Carter."

"Oh, forgive me Ms. Carter," JARVIS replied.

A quieter voice in the background confirmed that it was indeed Sharon.

"My protocol won't allow me to direct calls to Mr. Stark when I do not recognize the number."

Sharon nodded on her end of the phone and Steve's expression read that he wasn't surprised by that.

"May I talk to him? Is he around?"

"Of course, Ms. Carter. He's always available to you."

While Tony Stark hadn't always been the most responsible godfather, he'd almost always been there for her when she needed him. Tony had taken time out of his busy days to explain both physics and calculus to her more than once and he'd forgiven her for lying about her job for all these years. He'd always been a part of Carter family celebrations and despite all of her siblings, she knew she was Tony's favorite.

"I thought JARVIS had some kind of virus when he told me who was calling. I haven't talked to you in weeks, little girl."

Sharon blushed again as Steve turned slightly to her smile with amusement.

"Hi Tony. How are you?"

"I'm a hell of a lot better now that I've talked to you. I talked to Maria Hill about you, though. Why have you not talked to me about the guards posted at your aunt's home?"

"I…"

"You can always talk to me about anything," he said sincerely.

Steve almost didn't believe the calm version of Tony Stark. Still, he said nothing. He just kept driving.

"I…we…need your help."

"We?"

"Captain Rogers and myself," Sharon explained.

"Rogers?" Tony asked sternly into the phone. Sharon immediately took the phone off of speaker and put the phone to her ear as Tony kept talking. "You're working with Rogers? Or you're working with Rogers?"

"I don't think I like what you're implying."

"Answer the question, little girl."

"The first one, okay?" Sharon said. "Anyway, we'll be there in about three hours."

"You'll be where?"

"At your house. Also, if anyone rings your bell and wants to deliver a candygram, you might want to not answer."

"Is this a SHIELD thing?"

"Uh…more of a Hydra thing. So, we'll see you soon. Make sure you've got pants on." She disconnected the call and put the cheap cell phone down.

"Well, that could have gone much worse."

"I can honestly say that I didn't think he had a compassionate bone in his body," Steve said.

"Are you sure you're okay with going there? I know you and Tony don't quite see eye to eye on things."

"I'm fine to go," Steve said. And he really was. He liked the soft way that he spoke to Sharon. It was unusual of Stark, but it was certainly a redeeming quality in Steve's opinion.

…

The last part of the cross-country trip was only going to be four hours. It was a cake walk compared to the distance they'd already traveled.

Sharon had taken over the driving and Steve made sure he was watching for any cars that seemed like they were following them.

It wasn't until they were a mile and a half from their final destination of Tony's home that they picked up a tail.

"That black SUV has been following us since we got into town," Steve said.

Sharon nodded. "I am going to try to lose them," Sharon told him. "Hang on."

She moved into another lane, in between a couple other vehicles. The SUV sped up and tried to get next to their car. Sharon took a right and zoomed down another street and for about 30 seconds, Steve and Sharon were in the clear. However, behind them, they heard the squeal of tires and car horns blaring and the SUV appeared in the rearview mirror.

"Any suggestions?" Sharon asked as she turned left down a boulevard in front of oncoming traffic.

Most folks would have panicked with the kind of driving that was going on, but Steve remained calm in the passenger seat.

"How far are we from Stark?"

"I don't think he's going to appreciate us showing up on his doorstep with some Hydra agents," Sharon replied.

"No, I don't think so, either. But he might be able to provide some assistance."

The SUV came back into view behind them. Sharon stepped on the gas and they were propelled ahead even faster than they'd been driving. It was only a matter of time before they were pursued by the police of Malibu as well. And it wasn't going to be good if the police got involved. As Sharon accelerated the car up to 80 miles an hour, she tried to focus at the task at hand, like keeping the car on the road and not causing any fatalities, but she couldn't help but think of what was going to happen when the police started after all of them.

Sharon dodged around the traffic and Steve turned around in his seat to see if he could make out any faces in the SUV following them. The back windows of the vehicle were dark tinted, but the windshield was clear as day. But Steve didn't recognize any faces and that didn't surprise him.

"How long until we're to Stark's?" Steve asked again.

"GPS says a mile," Sharon told him. "But I should reiterate, Tony will not like us showing up with extra guests," she finished.

"I'm not all that excited to have people following me," Steve told her.

Sharon ran a red light and miraculously didn't cause a traffic accident. She continued to accelerate down the road, dodging between much slower moving cars while the SUV was trapped behind fully stopped cars.

"Where did we pick them up?" Sharon asked.

"I don't know, Sharon," Steve replied.

"We're now three-quarters of a mile from Tony's place," Sharon reported.

As the SUV got stuck behind traffic at the stoplight, Sharon took her chance to slow the car they were in. She brought the car down to the correct speed limit and said a silent prayer to hope that they wouldn't get pulled over. The absolute last thing they needed was to get pulled over in Malibu.

But they made it through town miraculously and Sharon steered down the road that would take her up the winding cliff road that led to Tony's humble home.

She hadn't been to the rebuilt home yet. She imagined that the fortress was a lot like the one he used to have. He'd really liked that one. Sharon let out an involuntary shudder as she remembered seeing the news footage of the home being blown up. And she remembered talking to a hysterical Pepper Potts as the both tried to make sense of what had happened when they thought Tony was dead.

Steve, who had been focused on finding his shield in the backseat, didn't notice Sharon's change until he turned back around.

"What's wrong?"

Sharon sighed and shook her head.

"No, really. What is it?"

"I just…I haven't been out here to see him since New York. He…I…Fury had me on assignment when we all thought Tony was dead. And then when Fury alerted me that he was alive and was going after the Mandarin, I still couldn't help him. "I just…."

She trailed off as they finally reached the top of the cliff and saw the impressive sight that was Tony Stark's home.

Steve nodded, having expected such a monstrosity build upon the beautiful ocean side cliff.

"Damn," Sharon hissed. "We've got company again."

The black SUV tore up the road behind them and Sharon looked to Steve.

"Slam the brakes. And brace yourself."

Steve had his shield in his hand and Sharon slammed on the brakes and they both prepared for the impact that was coming.

The SUV slammed into the car at full force and Steve and Sharon dove out their respective doors before they could be trapped behind airbags.

Sharon had her gun pointed as the sandy-haired male that climbed out of the driver's side and Steve was poised and ready to take on the burly dark-haired man that exited on the passenger side.

"Stand down, Captain Rogers," the dark haired man said. "Or we'll make you stand down."

"I think I'm good," Steve replied.

"Okay, well, we gave you a shot," the dark haired man said.

He came after Steve and swung. He had a pair of strength dampening cuffs that Steve knocked off the cliff with a hit from his shield. Steve punched the man and expected blood and a weakened person before him; he got neither.

The sandy-haired man in front of Sharon was smirking as they did their own battle. The both of them had knocked their respective weapons away and were now fighting hand to hand and while Sharon was putting up a good fight, with a few good hits, he was stronger. He'd re-opened her fat lip was now rounding on her after a hard kick to her ribs.

Steve's opponent wasn't giving up as the fight continued. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw the man with Sharon hit her again with a kick to the gut. She went down to one knee in pain and Steve got even angrier than he'd been.

He knocked the man in the neck with his shield and watched as his head broke off and displayed all manners of wires and cords. This was a robot.

The dark haired man blinked once, blinked twice, and collapsed in a heap on the ground in front of Steve.

Steve turned towards Sharon and saw her and the fair-haired man still locked in a fight. Steve threw his shield and connected with the man, knocking him down. He ran over to Sharon and pushed her out of the way as he punched the man in the solar plexus. Something he'd never seen displayed in a human's eyes before this man also shorted out.

Sharon and Steve stood breathing hard and looking at one another. They hadn't said anything to each other, but the Sharon was grateful that he'd come to her rescue. She wouldn't have been able to finish this without a weapon, possibly not at all.

"You brought me two dead guys," a voice said behind them. "You shouldn't have."

Tony Stark.

Sharon turned around and laid her eyes on her godfather. She rushed to him and threw her arms around him. And for a brief second, Steve was jealous of Tony Stark.

…

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