"Go," Sharon urged, face still deathly white. "There's a clearing out in the woods about a mile from here-."
"I showed it to me already," Melody interjected, cutting Sharon off as she leapt to her feet. Turning, she glanced at James who was tensed up, eyes darting about, clearly ready for a fight if such a thing were to come and pass them by.
She grabbed the gun holstered at her hip and thrust it into his hands. "Go," she urged him. "We can handle things here, it's just a precaution."
That was a lie. Melody had no idea what was going on. She had no idea of removing James from the premise was a precaution or a necessity. She had no idea who had been on the phone with Sharon or what they wanted. It didn't matter though. What mattered was making sure James was nowhere near this house when they arrived.
His long fingers closed around the gun and his dark blue eyes locked on Sharon. "What's happening?"
"We're about to get a few visitors," the agent said, grabbing a towel and wiping down every surface she could reach. Removing fingerprints, Melody figured which made her blood run cold. If someone were to search this house now they'd find traces of another person there everywhere they looked.
She touched James's shoulder, drawing his attention back to her. He was still frozen stiff in his seat. "Go," Melody urged him again. "I'll find you then it's clear."
He didn't look convinced. Melody knew that stubborn expression, she'd seen in on his face for weeks, back before he'd managed to stab his hand with a steak knife. Melody tensed up a moment, fear like poison in her veins. He needed to go, needed to get out of this house so he could be safe. But that fear only lasted a moment and she closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath and she went back in her mind, back to the smallest corner of it. The dark, little space in the farthest place of her thoughts, not unlike the closet Moria had locked her in as a child. The dark place was cold and empty. There was nothing there. Nothing to feel, nothing at all.
She opened her eyes and met James's fearful gaze. "Go," she said again, her voice firm, but not pleading. There was no reason to plead-pleading implied feeling. Melody felt nothing now. There was only logic in her and logic dictated that James being found in her house alongside Sharon Carter would spell out chaos for all three of James.
James, who'd been trying to avoid prison since he'd woken up would either be arrested and on the run after being spotted.
Melody and Sharon would both lose their jobs and be arrested for aiding and abetting a known criminal.
The logical reaction was to prevent those things from happening and the best way to do that was to remove James from the premise.
James's jaw tensed but he stood up. He held out the gun to her. "Keep this."
She didn't take the gun and backed away from him. "No."
"Melody-." He began, a pleading, fearful edge to his tone. If it had been five minutes ago, the sound would've broken her heart, but Melody had no heart now.
"If I am armed it will look suspicious," she said, her voice firm, but devoid still of any fear or empathy or anything else. "No one expects attacks in their own house." She began to walk out of the kitchen, footsteps echoing on the wood floors. Her pace was easy and steady-confidence in motion.
She walked up the stairs, hearing James call after her one more time. Melody didn't stop as she climbed the stairs.
I'll strip the bedding and throw it in the wash, she thought to herself. That would have the most physical evidence on it. She entered the room, moving quickly but efficiently a she tore apart the bed she and James had occupied only a few hours before. Gathering the mass together, she walked down the hall and tossed it into the washing machine and spun the dial.
There was a whir as the machine came to life and Melody paused, considering her next step. To remove evidence from the whole house in such a short amount of time would be impossible. They didn't have the time or the numbers to accomplish that. The best thing to do would just be to tackle the largest areas and hope the coming agents would be fooled.
She walked towards the bedroom again, grabbing a rag and furniture polish from the rack in the laundry room as she passed by. She re-entered the room and began to wipe down the bedframe, nightstands and doorknobs. Melody did not work frantically-that would have been foolish.
Those agents, she inferred were going to be on her doorstep any moment. If they heard her, carrying on and hurrying about like a maniac, they would have been altered to the fact that something funny was going on. Raising suspicion would have been foolish and wasteful.
Melody wiped the last of the door handles and returned the rag and polish to their place in the laundry room. Her eye fell on the door that had been James's room when he'd first arrived. She debated moving to it for a moment, but then thought better of it. He hadn't been there in months. Time would've eroded away some of the evidence by now. Not all of it, but enough, hopefully that it wouldn't arose concern in the agents.
There was a loud knock that sounded below her and Melody walked down the stairs to answer it. She cleared the final set of steps and looked over at Sharon who was white-faced and frantic as she hurried into the kitchen, broom in one hand. She'd been cleaning the living room.
"Put that away," Melody instructed her as she walked towards the door. "We can take a break from it."
"Mel," Sharon hissed but Melody ignored her friend and walked towards the front door.
She grabbed the handle, pulling her sleeve over it to wipe away any excess fingerprints and opened the door.
Standing on the porch was a familiar face and one that was not. A broad-shouldered black-man with an eyepatch was glaring at Melody with his good eye-Nick Fury. Melody remembered him well, she'd operated on him after the Winter Solider had tried to kill him. Beside him, another man, but he was a stranger. He was tall and thin with short brown hair and a pointed chin.
"Who's injured?" she asked. It felt like a fair question to open with. That was what had happened last time she'd Fury. He'd been on her table, prepped and waiting when she came in.
Fury's lips twitched. "Always so morbid Mel."
"Doctor Fraiser," she corrected instantly.
"Haven't we moved passed that?" the S.H.E.I.L.D. director complained in his low, authoritative voice. "You've been elbow deep in my guts."
"I know," Melody replied. Normally, with his tense gaze, black clothing, tall stance and voice Nick Fury would've intimated Melody a little bit. But not now. Now the agent who worked tirelessly to protect from alien threats was just an obstacle to her. A threat to her and the life she'd built for herself.
"Very well," he sighed, apparently defeated when she offered no other words. Fury's good eye flickered to the man beside him. "Colson, this is doctor Melody Fraiser, Doctor, this is Agent Phil Colson."
The stranger-Phil extended his hand which Melody accepted. "Nice to meet you," he said with a polite smile.
Melody nodded, but did not repeat the sentiment. It wasn't true. She released his hand and crossed her arms, seizing up both men as she did so.
"Doctor Frasier has been helpful to us in the past," Fury continued. "She saved my life once, after the Winter Solider attacked me six months ago. Fixed up Captain America after his encounter with the guy as well.
Phil nodded, eyes sparkling with interest. "Really?" he asked. "I didn't see your name on the file when I read it." His words had a double meaning which Melody heard instantly. Why wasn't her name there? he was saying. Why would she hide that accomplishment?
"Off the record of course," Melody interjected. "I prefer to be anonymous when it comes to my dealings with S.H.E.I.L.D. I couldn't go to work talking about how I know a few Avengers-word would get around to unfriendly ears."
Phil straightened his tie, regarding her silently. Melody could almost hear the gears whirring in his head as he processed that. "Makes sense, though it does seem a bit paranoid."
"I said the same thing," Fury commented, raising one eyebrow.
"Perhaps," Melody said, shrugging. "But I'd rather have the duties separated anyways. I dislike complications almost as much as I dislike incompetence."
"Ain't that the truth?" The gruff voice of Sam Wilson reached her ears and Melody waited as he walked up the porch.
His goatee was a bit unkempt which spoke of being overworked or otherwise hassled. Sam never let his facial hair get out of control like that. He grinned broadly at Melody. "Doctor Freezer," he teased, his grin vivid white against his mocha colored skin. "How are things at West Memorial?"
Melody didn't return his smile. "I wouldn't know, I'm not there."
Sam's grin fell. "Did someone skip out on their coffee this morning?"
"I was just about to make a pot, care for some?" she offered, standing aside to invite the men in. Melody would not ask them why they had come, they'd tell her on their own time. They always did and to change that routine would've been disruptive.
She led the ways towards the kitchen, noting that both Phil and Sam were looking about the house appreciatively. "Damn Mel," she heard the Avenger whistle. "I didn't know you had a place out here."
"Real estate is always a good investment," she responded as she opened the cupboard and grabbed the Folgers. "I'd offer you some breakfast too, but sadly that was a failed attempt."
"Failed attempt?" Sharon came into view, no longer so white faced and smiling. She was a great actress. "You set off the smoke alarms!"
Melody shrugged as she put the filter into the coffee pot. "I did."
"It wasn't that bad though," Sharon said, striding over to the island where the three men had settled themselves. "Once, in college, Mel and I were visiting Aunt Peggy and while we were there, Mel decided she wanted to try and make us lunch." Sharon paused, shaking her head and smiling even wider.
"What happened?" asked Sam, smiling as well, apparently put at ease by Sharon's inviting manner. Melody saw the sense in that. Laughter and smiling always put people in more comfortable moods and lightened the atmosphere. Well most people anyways, she didn't see any reason to smile.
She grabbed five cups from another cupboard as Sharon told a laughing Sam of how Melody had forgotten the pizza in the oven and how it had lit on fire as result.
Sam was still laughing when Melody set a mug of coffee in front of him as well as the other two men. "Thanks Mel," he said conversationally. "Do you have any creamer?"
"No," she replied, taking a drink of her own coffee. The liquid was hot and bitterly strong-exactly how she preferred it.
Sharon rolled her eyes. "Mel drinks black coffee. It makes me think she's not even human."
"Anyone who can drink coffee plain is another breed," Sam agreed. "This stuff is nasty by itself."
Sharon nodded her agreement and backed up towards the fridge where she grabbed a gallon of milk. "Desperate times," she said, unscrewing the cap, "call for desperate measures." And she poured a generous amount of milk into her coffee before passing it over to Sam.
"Thanks," he grinned at Sharon. He seemed to want to say something else, but Fury cut across him.
"Interesting as your coffee preferences are Doctor," he said, his own cup untouched in front of him. "That's not why we're here."
"I never assumed it was," Melody answered back calmly, uncaring at the harshness of Fury's tone or how his one eye was boring into her.
The agent called Phil looked taken aback at Fury's bluntness. "I apologize for that Doctor," he said with a brief glare at Fury. "It's been a long investigation and sadly we don't have much to show for it."
"Don't have much? We don't have anything!" Sam interjected as he rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "It's been dead end after dead end looking for Bucky."
Melody saw Sharon's smile flicker a moment. Her own face did not change, nor did her relaxed stance, leaning against the counter as she sipped her coffee. "I'm afraid I don't understand," Melody said taking another swallow of coffee. "I'll do whatever I can to help you, but I need a better overview of the patient-." They always came to her with patients, assuming this was another time was a logical progression of thought. They would expect nothing less from her.
"He's not a patient," Fury interrupted her musings. "He's a criminal."
"He's Steve's friend," Sam countered, voice harsh but Fury ignored him as he pulled out a file from his coat. Melody neared the counter and gestured with an open palm towards the file.
"May I?" she asked and the agent nodded to her.
She flipped open the folder and saw James's face staring back up at her, along with a list of last known whereabouts and defining markings. She read over the information quietly, intently as though she had no knowledge of any of it.
"This it the man who attacked you?" she asked, looking up at Fury. "The last time we saw one another."
The agent nodded and crossed his arms. "The very same one."
"I see. So you're looking for him then?"
"Correct. Given how you work in one of the largest hospitals in New York, we thought you might have seen him. You get all sorts of strange in the ER, don't you?"
Melody looked over the file again. "I do," she said, staring at James's glossy face. "However, I'm sorry to disappoint you gentlemen, but I've never had a man who looks like this come into my ER."
This time it was Colson who spoke up. "Are you prepared to answer that on a lie detector?" HIs gaze was skeptical and his tone was hard, accusatory.
Sharon answered before Melody could. "Hey!" she snarled, smile fading entirely as she glared at Colson. "Don't you dare talk to Mel like that!"
Colson's expression remained skeptical but his tone was softer when he replied to Sharon. "Forgive me, Agent Carter, I don't mean to disrespect your friend-."
"And yet here you sit, accusing her of lying about whether or not she's seen a fugitive that evaded S.H.E.L.D. for seventy plus years!" Sharon spat, eyebrows drawn down and scowling. "Mel is the reason two of the people sitting here are alive and is the reason Captain America is alive as well. Either you show her some respect or I throw you out of her myself!"
Melody grabbed Sharon's arm, forestalling her. "Easy," she said coolly. "He's got every right to question me."
Phil looked rather surprised at that. His thin eyebrows rose up his forehead. "Oh? Do I? You're reacting very well to being called a liar."
I've built my entire life on lies. I am a liar. "Why should you trust me?" she asked, taking another drink of her coffee which was getting cold. "You don't know me at all. I'm a strange woman your boss introduced you to about ten minutes ago. If you trust me after that brief a period you're fool. And," her gaze flashed to the S.H.E.I.L.D. emblem on his badge. "I doubt very much you are a fool Agent Colson, given your line of work, were you a fool, you would already be dead and buried."
Phil gave her a rueful smile. "That's true enough."
"If you want me to do a lie detector give me and time and place," Melody offered. "I'd be glad to take it if that would lessen your worries about my testimonies."
Phil opened his mouth to answer, but Fury put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you Doctor," he said gruffly. "But that will not be required."
"What?" Phil said, mouth open with shock.
"This was a far-fetched lead to start with," Fury said, his voice ringing with finality. "Only reason I suggested it was because the chances were slim, but still there nonetheless. If she says she hasn't seen him, then she hasn't seen him."
Melody regarded Director Fury. "I never took you for the trusting type Fury."
"I'm not," he said, rising from his seat. "I just know the facts, if you wanted to cause us trouble, you could've done a lot more already by botching that surgery you did on me or Rogers. We're done here Colson, Sam, you coming with?"
Sam had been silent during the whole exchange and his dark gaze was flickering between Melody and the agents. "I'll be off, but I'll go my own way, find Steve. He's not gonna like this." The Avenger's face fell as he said that. The sight was something Melody would've pitied, had she been in a normal state of mind.
The two agents showed themselves out, but Sam stayed put awhile longer. When the door clicked shut behind them, he looked up at Melody and sighed. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "I didn't know Colson would be like that."
Melody drained the last of her coffee. "It's fine."
"No it's not." Sam scowled, "He shouldn't have talked to you like that."
"You're telling me," Sharon muttered darkly and her knuckles white as she clenched her hands into fists.
"Calm down," Melody said.
"I am calm!"
"You're shouting right now," she pointed out, "and you looked ready to throttle Agent Colson."
Sharon's face turned a bit pink and when she spoke, her tone was much more appropriate for the indoors. "Right sorry-and of course I was ready to throttle him. That was uncalled for. Asking you for a polygraph!" She snorted. "Just because you're file isn't in the archives doesn't mean you're a double agent."
"I'm not an agent," Melody said, setting her cup in the sink. "I'm a doctor."
"You're a good one too," Sam commented as he pushed himself away from the island. "Don't make a bad cup of coffee either. Though I still say cream and sugar is needed. Thanks Mel."
"Don't mention it." She muttered, "And Sam?"
The Falcon turned to look her. "Yeah?"
"I'll keep an eye out for the Winter Solider, I'll call if I see anything."
Sam shrugged. "We knew this was far-fetched Mel. This was more to humor Steve than anything. He just won't give up."
"People are funny that way," Melody commented as she turned on the water and began to wash the dishes in the sink. "I hope your friend takes this okay. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help."
Sam shrugged. "It's nothing to be sorry for. It's not like you have control who comes into your ER. See you around Mel."
"Goodbye." Sam left as well and the door slammed behind him. Melody waited until she heard the metallic unfurling of his armor and the loud swooping as he took off the ground and headed into flight.
She looked over at Sharon, who's eyes were now trained on her phone. "They're gone."
"How do you know?"
"I put a tracer on their car, " the agent explained. "It'll pop off once they're a mile out. They'll never know it was there."
Melody nodded. "Any foreign tech left here?"
Sharon tapped a few buttons on her phone. "I swept the porch and living room before I got here and they were clean. And this place is too," she said as her phone beeped. "It's over."
It was just like stepping out of the OR. The knowledge that the situation was over. Ended and done with. A hand reached into the dark spot in Melody's mind and flipped a switch.
Quick as a flashflood, Melody's emotions slammed back into her. The fear and anxiety that had began when she knew the agents were visiting bubbled back to the surface and her hands trembled violently, dropping the mug from her hands. It shattered loudly in the sink but she barely noticed the noise.
Her heart twisted painfully in her chest as she heard James's voice in her memory, calling after her as she walked away. Fearful and begging for her to be safe, she'd ignored it. She hadn't cared.
Sharon leaping to her defense when Agent Colson had accused of her being a liar. A warmth equal parts shame and gratefulness washed over Melody. Her friend had leapt to her defense, disregarding rank and whom she was talking to. Her belief in Melody was concrete, absolute. Nothing to could shake it. Even though it was incredibly misplaced.
"Mel?" Sharon was at her side, grabbing her shoulders. "Are you okay? You're shaking!"
"Delayed reaction," Melody said, which was not entirely untrue as she tried not to breathe too rapidly. The last thing she wanted to do was hyperventilate. "That was a bit...intense."
"You're telling me," Sharon shook her head, letting go of Melody and leaning against the counter, breathing deeply. "I never thought they'd think to come here asking about him."
"Neither did I," Melody admitted.
"But it's alright. No harm, no foul right?"
"Right," she agreed.
"Are you going to go and get-."
Melody shook her head. "Not yet," she said, "I want to wait until those agents are off the tracker like you said they'd be. Then I'll know they didn't just circle around and come back."
"Good thinking," Sharon nodded. "You know, Mel, if you didn't want to be a doctor, you'd made a good agent."
She laughed then, the sound shaky. "You think so?"
"Yeah," Sharon said, "you handle yourself well, especially under pressure."
The sound of her father's shouting followed by the sound of her own screams filled Melody's head. Sharon, you have no idea how true that is.
Thanks for reading! :) And thank you for all the favorites and reviews I've gotten since posting! Means a lot!
