Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or Winter Soldier. They belong to their respective owners. I do own my OC. I am writing for fun and not for profit.

Chapter 25: Dead Tears

The phone buzzed loudly and annoyingly in Zoe's ears, making her angry. She hated being woken up by anyone or anything. She jerked awake, clasping her pillow within her arms, and quickly searched for her phone beside her as if she were in dyer need of aspirin with a migraine until she finally found the smooth surface underneath her finger tips.

She swiped to answer her phone, and held out her phone when a familiar voice was trying to talk to her on the other end. Rumlow. It was just Rumlow. She looked at his name highlighted across her screen, and swiped over to her alarm, ignoring Rumlow's rumbling concerns, wondering why her alarm didn't go off. Even though she hated it, she needed it so she could get to work on time.

Her alarm didn't go off like she thought, huh.

She frowned and looked at her alarm again, remembering that she had set it for the right time, or at least she thought she did. She looked outside her window, confirming that dark skies were upon her. She'd slept through the day, which meant she missed a round of training, whatever job she had with the S.T.R.I.K.E. team, and… "Oh, fu…dge…me."

She was nearly ten hours late for work. She was sooo going to get it this time. Didn't she have sick days she could use up? Zoe thought curiously, trying to wrack her brain for an excuse to use just in case she needed one.

"Gladly, but I don't think now's the best time, thank you for your gracious presence by the way," Rumlow said, on the other line of her phone.

"Do you have any idea what time it is? It's-"

"I was just going to ask you the same question, Zee," Rumlow replied on the other end, as Zoe moved her phone to the other side of her ear, and away from her thick bed head of hair that looked like a bush. She scratched the top of her head and yawned, glancing out the window. "You missed work today."

"Oh," she chuckled. "I did. Oh. Shit."

"Fury's going to kill you," Rumlow said.

Zoe cringed, and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. She emitted a low groan, trying to ease the tired and grogginess from her deep sleep that she'd fallen under.

"Sorry," she said with a cringed voice.

"Well, you're kind of in luck actually," he said.

Zoe frowned, noticing his tone had changed in a dramatic way to momentous and weighty, like he was holding back on something. "I am? Why?"

"Fury's…" he sighed. "I'm sorry, Zoe. He got into an accident earlier today."

"Wasn't anyone with him?!" Zoe demanded.

"Well, you were going to be on Fury watch when you were supposed to come in and work today," Rumlow said on the other line of her phone.

Zoe looked forward, eyes straining into a gaze, landing heavily on her purple and gray colored comforter. Her eyes started to travel up the flower stem in like a trance as if she was going through the motions in her head.

"Zee, Zee, Zee, Zee!" Rumlow repeated louder, blinking her out of her trance. She shook herself out of it, and ran a shaky hand across her face, and let out a deep sigh. She was now fully awake. Her heat was beating so fast.

"He was fine, Zee, relax, he was in his car, heading down Madison…" Rumlow began, but she clicked him off, not wanting to hear his dumb excuses or anyone elses and she climbed out of bed, flipping her comforter covers off of her.

She didn't even shower, didn't even bother to put some real clothes on. Instead she just threw a jacket on over her spaghetti-strap blue shirt, and black yoga pants she liked to wear because they were comfortable, and stuffed her feet into her boots. She was in such a rush that she nearly forgot her phone and keys.

She definitely in panic mode, unsure of what to do, but all she knew is that she had to get to the hospital.

~*WS*~

Zoe ran through the hallways of the hospital. Everything around her seemed like a blur. She didn't have time to think or access what was going around her, instead she just had to get to her destination to where Fury would be,

She weaved in and out of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team that was blocking the entrance way. Zoe heard Rumlow calling after her, but she ignored him like a bad boyfriend, and stopped heavily beside Steve. There it was. The operating room where Director Nick Fury laid upon the table covered in plastic.

"Do we know anything?" Zoe whispered.

"No," Hill replied.

"He's dropping!" The doctor cried out with tools in his hands as the machines beeped furiously.

Zoe watched the scene before her eyes, listening to the beeping sounds, and the shouts of the doctors and nurses try to save this man's life who'd done nothing to deserve it.

"Okay! Charge two hundred, please. Stand back!" the doctor ordered, and gave Fury another shock. He looked at the green screen. He turned to the nurses. "Give me epinephrine! Pulse?"

"Negative," the first doctor replied.

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Natasha whispered. "Don't do this to me."

She was only voicing what everyone else was thinking right now. They couldn't loose him, not now.

Unfortunately, Fury's line was flat, and long in Zoe's ears. There was no hope in bringing him back from the dead.

Steve turned beside Zoe, and walked away. Zoe swallowed hard and watched Natasha leave the window as well, leaving Zoe with Hill.

Hill looked away from the window, and cast her eyes down at the floor. Zoe dropped her fingers along the edge of the window and felt every bone of her body break with sadness, like the world was slowly caving in.

Zoe turned to look at Hill, and they shared a moment together before Zoe took off to join Steve and Natasha in the waiting room.

Steve was slumped in a chair, while Natasha was leaning against the wall, hugging her arm across her stomach, staring up at the ceiling.

"What happened?" Zoe asked, glancing between the two. She rolled her eyes at the silence. "Steve?" she asked, glancing down at him. Steve looked up at her and pushed himself up off the chair. He walked over to her.

"You forgot movie night," he said, eyes glowering at her. Zoe frowned. Was that like in code or something?

"Who shot him?" Zoe demanded, dodging Steve's ill attempt to cover something up.

Zoe sighed when he didn't answer. "Tasha?"

"A psychopath," Romanoff replied, and pushed herself up off the wall, after noticing the nurses take Fury's body into another room. Hill followed them inside.

"Well, that could be anybody!" Zoe said, waving her hands in the air as Steve walked away from her.

Zoe let out an angry growl, kicked the floor, and winced. "Owe," she mumbled before she stomped right into the room to pay her respects to Fury.

Zoe hated dealing with death. She hated dealing anything related to death. It wasn't her favorite subject and she didn't know how to handle death very well. She didn't even know how to tell someone bad news if there were any.

She just stayed put beside Hill, and Steve, watching Natasha stare at Fury's body covered in a hospital blanket.

"It's okay if you want to say something, Zoe," Hill said in a whisper.

Zoe swallowed hard. "If I say something, I'll start crying," she said.

"There's nothing wrong with that in a time of …" Hill said slowly. "Death."

Zoe slowly took a brave step forward. Hill made perfect sense. Zoe always wondered how Hill could stay so strong and be so….Maria Hill, and stay the way she is without going ballistic or without getting lost like Zoe often did.

"Fury," Zoe said, taking a deep breath. Natasha glanced at her, and then stared back down at Fury's closed eyes. She drew in another sharp breath, trying to steady her nerves, but it was too late. The tears were already threatening to come up. So instead, she just kissed his forehead, and walked out of the room, leaving them all some space.

She let out a shaky breath, and brushed her hair out of her eyes, pacing back and forth in the hospital hallway, still trying to reel it all in that her director was dead. The one who took her in, and found her a home, and a family…and gave her a job to do.

Natasha walked out of the room not a moment later, quickly followed by Steve who called out her name.

Zoe frowned, and she was about to go after them but then she heard Rumlow calling out her name behind her echoing down the halls. She sighed, glaring up at the ceiling. Today was just not her day, was it?

"Zee!" Rumlow jogged down the hallway, and stopped beside her.

"Not now, Brock," Zoe said, trying to keep her tears in check. She shook her head.

"They need you back at S.H.I.E.L.D.," he said.

Zoe looked up at him incredulously. "Are you insane? Do you know what just happened," she pointed angrily back to Fury's room. "Do they know what I've just lost?! Do they even care?!"

"Zee," Rumlow said slowly. "Now's not the time. Pierce wants to see you."

"Why?" she frowned.

"Not sure, but we better get moving," Rumlow said.

Zoe groaned, "It's late, Brock…and I'm tired…I'm tired of running back and forth, and I'm just tired of…feeling…dead," she said, leaning her head back against the wall. "I just want to go home," she said with a frown like a sad little girl who lost her teddy bear.

Rumlow nodded, and glanced around at his team before he walked close to her and pulled her gently away with his hands cupped around her elbows. "I know. We'll take you and the Cap there safely. I promise."

She sighed, giving him a look. "Why do they need Cap?"

He shrugged. "Not sure. Captain!" he called after Steve who was talking to Natasha by the vending machines.

Zoe looked over at them and chewed her bottom lip curiously. She brushed her hands over her cheeks, trying to keep herself busy so she wouldn't cry.

"They want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Rumlow stated.

Steve turned to face Rumlow. "Okay," he said, and then turned back to Natasha.

"They want you now," Rumlow said a little more firmly than what Zoe would have liked. She placed her hands on her hips, and quirked an eyebrow up at Rumlow.

"What's going on, Rumlow?" she asked.

Rumlow just shrugged. "I don't know a damn thing. But, I do think Pierce is pissed at you. I'd tread carefully, girl," he said.

Zoe sighed, and started to head back in the other direction once Steve finally joined them. Zoe glanced back behind her, expecting to see Natasha or Hill, but neither were present. She glanced back at Fury's closed doors one last time, and continued to head forward.

~*WS*~

Zoe was able to change into some formal attire once she returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. the very next morning. It was another day at work, another time to move on. She could do that, right? She bit her bottom lip and looked around her as she walked the halls.

The sunlight's rays started to shine through the glass windows of the familiar headquarters. Everyone seemed like they were back to working mode, solemn, but work and straight laced. It seemed undeterred what happened the previous night before as she walked down the hallway to the conference room, where Director Fury would sometimes be inside. She looked up from the floor, expecting to see him, but instead all she saw was a man in a grey suit and piercing eyes staring back at her with grey hair and an old face to match his elderly look.

"Oh, God, I am so fired," she muttered, feeling dread wash over her. "So fired, so fired," she said as she walked up to him, feeling the pitfalls of her ups and downs swirl around in her stomach like a rollercoaster. She handed her arm out and plastered a smile on her face. "You must be Alexander Pierce," she said, with one arm curled around her back. She tried to play it cool. "I've heard so, so much about you," she said, totally trying to butter him up.

Alexander Pierce just smiled like a Cheshire cat. "Agent Zoe Sawyer, I've heard quite a bit about you," he said. "And don't worry. I wouldn't dream of firing you. Next to Romanoff, you're one of the many agents I admire, especially of what you went through. It appears we have something in common. I lost my father too at an early age," He said, allowing her into his office.

As Zoe stepped in between the threshold, she looked up into his eyes and he stared back at her. "We'll call it a sick day," he winked at her, and Zoe was trying to figure out what kind of guy he was but she was okay with that. "Right? No harm, no foul."

"Right," she said slowly. "So. In that case, let me just say I've never heard about you. Just that you're name is Alexander Pierce."

He chuckled at Zoe, as she stood in the middle of the conference room. "I like your honesty, Agent. Honesty is like a warm hug, squeezing you to death till you pop," he said.

Zoe wrinkled her nose at that and glanced at him. "What do you prefer then?" she asked.

"I prefer, half-and half," Pierce said, liking that Zoe caught on. "In which I hope that those halves become a whole."

Zoe raised her eyebrows at him as he urged her to have a seat. As she sat down in her chair next to the conference table, she watched him pace back and forth in front of the window, and suddenly got a weird feeling…a weirder feeling than what she's been feeling these past few days. Oh great. She thought. What now?