She started to feel the pulse of excitement when Fifteen pulled up to an abandoned looking building. She'd driven past the building multiple times and taken no notice of it. Its windows splintered in the middle with cracks and the roof caved in.

"Just wait out here, and take this," She was handed a pair of comms. She suddenly felt five years younger, "If you see anyone follow in, let me know and just stay safe."

"Me stay safe? What about you?"

It had only just occurred to her that Fifteen had absolutely no idea what was about to happen and all she had asked was for Bea to stay as a look out. Looking at the glove box where she knew a gun was hidden and for a moment, considered taking it out and going with her inside.

"I'll be fine," Fifteen assured, "I'm just going to find out what he wants, then advise him to get into hiding."

"And if he's still Hydra?"

"Then I'll kill him."

Or he'll kill you. Fifteen opened the van's door and sped away. She watched as she entered the building and her silhouette disappeared into the darkness, leaving Bea alone. She wondered if Fifteen ever got nervous. She didn't seem nervous, but that didn't mean she couldn't hide it.

Maybe taking the gun out and keeping it on her lap wouldn't be a bad idea. Just in case – She had to slap her own hand away as it reached out for the glove box, searching for a sense of security.

The minutes tolled by.

To distract herself, she thought about what on earth she could get Brooke for Christmas and pulled her phone out to start making a list of possible ideas. Perhaps something to do with Space as she loved everything to do with stars and spaceships, but she was pretty sure she overheard Steve and Natasha talking about getting her a literal NASA tour as a present. Nothing she could get her could compare –

Not unless she could give her dad back to her.

She felt for the dog tags, hanging always around her neck. Maybe she could-

BOOM!

In an instance, the ground below her shook. The car belched forward from an invisible force and the sky exploded in a spray of orange and red.

Bea had ducked from the explosion, but looked up and blinked away the harshness of bright flickering flames erupting from the building. Her heart missed a beat. Oh my god, the though screamed inside her skull. Grabbing the gun. She shakily managed to find the door handle with some success as she stumbled out face first. Only just catching herself from crushing her nose against the concrete.

She pushed herself up, "FIFTEEN!"

People who'd been walking past the building at the time, started getting closer. Gasps. Screams, and even some people pulling their phones out to film it.

There was no response. The comms… she'd forgotten about the comms. Quickly, pushing a finger to her ear, she screamed, "Fifteen? Come in? Fifteen! are you there…. FUCKING ANSWER ME!"

The flames were raising higher and the smell disturbed her thinking and her grip on the gun was only getting sweatier and sweatier as if it would slip out of her fingers any second.

Fuck. Fuck. Shit. What – WHAT WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO DO?

"FIFTEEN!" She tried one more hopeless time, but to no answer.

Do something! Fifteen could – she could already be – no, not if she did something.

She ran into the building. The heat slowly burning at her skin the closer she got and the fumes filled her lungs. Covering her mouth and sucking in a deep breath she searched through the thick smog of smoke. Her eyes burned against it, but she held her gun up in case the Ex-Hydra agent appeared.

"FIFTEEN!" She continued to yell, her voice stretched as it disappeared amongst the sound of flames flickering upwards, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

A shadow moved past her. She turned and pointed her gun. The shadow fell beside her as a falling with an almighty crung as beam crushed from the ceiling. Jumping to the side, a great vibration sounded only feet from her. The further she walked, the more her head filled with muggy visions and chest could no longer heave in a breathe. If she didn't find her soon-

"Beatrice…" Came the almost unrecognisable voice of Fifteen, croaking on the floor. Her hands were stretched out in an attempt to reach Bea, soaked in blood and mud whilst her face had rips and slashes penetrating her skin.

"shit!" Bea leapt to action and helped Fifteen be pulled up around her shoulders. She gave a groan of pain, "Come on. I know it hurts… I know. Let's just get you out of here."

"You came in here…"

"Course I did," With the added weight of Fifteen on her shoulders and the sweltering smoke around her, made it even harder to breathe, "You told me to watch your back"

"I told you to stay outside."

It was pure instinct that got Bea to the entrance again, as though the smoke she could barely make out a foot in front of her but when a distant light from the outside could be made out, she quickened her steps until she could feel the heat disappear and relish in the natural sunlight.

Hundreds of people crowded around the gates. Fire trucks had arrived and Police were wrapping tape around the area. An ambulance was parked at the entrance and all of a sudden everyone's eyes were on them. Someone must have called the emergencies service's soon after the explosion as suddenly Fifteen was taken from Bea's shoulders and dragged out on a stretcher. A mask was pulled over Bea's face, as she was dragged to the side and told to sit down. Something pulled over her shoulders.

Flashes of cameras felt heated on her face, hotter than any flames.

"Is she going to be alright?" Was the first thing she asked when a paramedic came over to her.

"We're going to do everything we can, but you running in and saving her – although stupid, may have saved her life. You're a hero."

She doubted Steve would agree with that.

Hands reached out to grab her, as the paramedics put her in the back of an ambulance with Fifteen. She was laying their paralysed, her eyes now shut and with a sick feeling, Bea thought that she looked rather dead.

*~It started with Pizza~*

After Bea was cleared of smoke inhalation, and many oxygen masks placed over her head, she was allowed to spend the rest of her time pacing the hospital corridors. Fifteen wasn't allowed to be seen and after surgeons had raced her across the hospital, Bea was waiting for someone to come out and tell her the news she'd died.

But nothing happened.

The doors to her left flung open. She jumped at the sound and sprung to her feet, expecting to see a doctor strolling towards her with the result. Instead, Steve Rogers, still looking how he did this morning paced forward. His shoulders hunched tensely and a glare focused on Bea.

"Are you okay?" He asked when he was a foot away.

"Yeah – just – just -j-just some smoke inhalation. I-I'm good now." For some reason she was struggling to find the words to speak. Maybe it was because it was the first time she had spoken to someone directly since the incident and the adrenaline was no longer pumping through her veins.

"Good," he nodded, but he didn't sound satisfied. In fact, he sounded angry, "Tell me what happened?"

"Steve…"

"I get a call saying you've been taken to the hospital, then I start seeing news reports about what a fire with photographs and videos, and then I start getting angry messages from the government. Now explain to me what the hell happened?"

"I-I, I was just helping Fifteen…"

"Is she okay?"

"I don't know. No one's told me anything."

Her eyes suddenly felt watery. She knew that if something happened to her, she'd never forgive herself for not doing more.

She expected Steve to reach over and hug her, but his stance was still cold and distant. A mere foot away from her and the gap wasn't closing anytime soon. Realising how stupid she probably looked, she wiped the tears from her eyes and hugged a tight arm around herself.

"She went to go meet an Ex-Hydra agent," She continued to explain, her throat closing up with each word. Steve sucked in a harsh breathe, "She wanted to see what he wanted and asked me to come along."

"And you just accepted?"

"She needed my help."

"You could have called me… or Natasha… hell, even Bruce."

Oh, she had wanted too when she first heard about Fifteen's situation but after she'd explained everything, she knew exactly why Fifteen couldn't go to them and now that he'd shown his reaction to the word 'Hydra', she knew Fifteen had been right not to go to him.

"I just didn't want her to go in there alone," She said, "and at first – I promise – I was only there as a backup. I was meant to sit in the car and keep watch…"

"Then how the hell did that turn into you holding a gun, dragging Fifteen out of a burning building!"

"If you let me explain, I'll tell you!"

"Then start explaining," Steve's eyebrows arched forward. It reminded her of when he told Brooke off after doing something naughty, and she shrunk under his gaze.

"Fifteen didn't want you involved. I mean… the way she explained it, you and Natasha couldn't really expect her to go and kill her ex-co-workers. Really?"

"They're Hydra."

"So was Fifteen."

"That's different. She's proved herself multiple times that her allegiance had been changed."

"Maybe some of these other Hydra agents never got the chance to prove themselves and if Fifteen said they had taken the right path and didn't deserve to die, I believe her."

"So, you're a Hydra sympathiser now?"

"Crying out loud, no!" She exclaimed. Why was he making this so difficult for her? "All I'm saying is, I understand where Fifteen is coming from. Now if you'll let me get on with explaining myself… I just didn't want her going alone but she couldn't come to you guys or Natasha, because look… she was right! Look how you're reacting!"

Steve tensed and his piercing gaze lost her for a minute and focus on the ceiling. For a moment, she thought she'd made him feel guilty, "Where is this Hydra agent now?"

She hadn't considered that, she'd been too worried about Fifteen, "No idea. For all I know they went up in the explosion."

He didn't say anything and Bea felt the need to fill the silence.

"I really didn't think anything dangerous would come of it," She made it very clear, "I didn't touch the gun until the explosion went off and when it did, I couldn't just leave her inside. I know you think I screwed up…"

"Yeah, you did…"

She wasn't expecting the harsh tone, "Excuse me?"

"They're threatening to arrest you again, Bea, and once again it's me that's got to stop it from happening. At worst they'll take Brooke away from you-"

Her body shook violently, "No- no, just tell them I was there by chance."

"Bea, there's footage of you getting out of the car, holding a gun and running into the building. It's not going to work this time."

The clogs in her brain reeled in circles. She'd been out for arrest once before with the Government when she was with Bucky and they escaped. Wakanda. Shuri would take them in. Protect them.

Confidently she claimed, "Then I'll take Brooke to Wakanda. We'll go on the run. I won't let them take her away from me."

"Beatrice! You can't just run away from your problems."

"Did you not just hear yourself," her voice broke, "They could take her away from me. I am not letting that happen over this."

"For god sake. You can't take Brooke on the run. What kind of life would that be for her?"

"One where she's with me!"

"Look! I will sort it…" She shrugged doubtfully. The way he was talking, he had already given up, "I will sort it. I always do but, I'm being serious… you have got to stop this."

"Stop what? I haven't done anything?"

"Really?" Steve raised his eyebrows, "Your daughter might get taken away from you and you've done nothing wrong… Bea, sometimes…" her words were caught in the air and he slowly looked at her, "I made a promise to myself and to Bucky that I would look after you and Brooke, no matter what, and I won't ever stop looking out for you. But sometimes - sometimes you make it so damn difficult."

Steve's harsh words were like a stinging slap in the face. In one swift moment he was no longer standing in front of her, but his back turned and he left her behind, pulling out his phone as he went. She suspected it had something to do with the government as his voice turned quite and he disappeared beyond the doors.

The hallways stretched far and the white crisp walls hurt her eyes.

In her fingers, her phone rang, striking her from her trance. Shakily, she answered it, "um, hello?"

"It's me," Alex's voice called through the phone, "the nursery called saying you hadn't picked Brooke up so I went and got her. She's safe at home right now."

She pulled her phone away from her ear and looked at the time. It was almost twenty past four.

"Shit. Thank you so much Alex!" She exclaimed, "I didn't realise the time."

"No problem. Do you have any idea when you'll be home?"

She was still waiting to hear about Fifteen, and the thought of leaving before she found out would only make her a nervous wreck. She paced across the hallway, "I have no idea. Can you feed Brooke?"

"Already done," Alex said. Then, there was a pause at the other end of the phone, "Is everything alright?"

She really wished she hadn't asked that as the vision of Steve walking away from her and Fifteen's cold paralytic body laying on a stretcher was brought to mind, "Yep," She managed through tears, "I'm fine."

A/N Again not really happy with this chapter. It was a last minutes addition. But I'm really just getting Bea in the position that I want her to be in when the 'five years later' part of endgame begins.

Let me know what you think.