(Hey guys! Here is a new Grace and Steve fanfic that I hope you'll like. This one is set in Winter Soldier. For any of you reading my Star Trek, Harry Potter and Twilight fanfics I have a new chapter in the works for all of those right now as well and I am doing my best to finish them soon. Again I hope you enjoy! I own nothing but my OC.)
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Okay!...I am never...going to take...that pace...again! Sam panted as he finished taking his final lap around the reflecting pool.
He slowed down to a walk as he took a turn towards the street that led to his house, picking up the hem of his damp t-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face as the early morning sun steadily grew warmer overhead.
"Ohh!" Sam cried out in surprise, dropping his t-shirt in shock and stumbling forward a bit when something..or rather someone barreled into him.
"Whoa! Sorry are you-? S***!" Sam cursed, barely managing to catch the woman who had bumped into him when she suddenly pitched forward and collapsed into his arms.
"Hey!..Hey Miss! Are you all right? Can you...?" Sam started to try to rouse her and trailed off when his left hand brushed the woman's side and his fingers touched something wet, warm and sticky.
"Ohhh..." Sam groaned, blanching at the sight of his fingers coming up covered in blood. "Crap! I got to get you to a hospital!" He started to pick her up into his arms, but then the mysterious woman suddenly sprang to life.
"No!...No don't! Can't trust...anyone!" She gasped, grabbing onto the collar of Sam's shirt with one hand while clutching at her wound with the other.
Sam furrowed his brows together. "But, you're bleeding out right now. I got to get you some help, Miss!" He said urgently.
The woman pressed her lips together into a thin line before tightening her grip on Sam's shirt. Opening her eyes, she stared into his worried dark brown eyes for a moment before responding.
"Take me...to Steve...Steve Rogers...He lives near. Please!" She begged.
Sam's frown deepened. "Steve Rogers?...But he hasn't been around the past couple days." He blurted out before he could stop himself.
The woman's face fell momentarily before she looked back at Sam. "Then...take me to your place." Her hand crept slowly from her still bleeding wound down to her hip line.
"I can patch myself up there...please!" She pleaded, a tear sliding down her cheek as she moved her crimson-stained hand back to cover her wound.
Sam let out a sigh, a part of him wanting to demand how this strange woman knew his new friend, but a larger part of him knew he needed to focus on getting that gushing wound tended to first. "Miss, I don't know-."
"Please!" She repeated, cutting him off. Sam let his eyes shut and shook his head once. "I must be out of my mind." He muttered to himself, carefully getting a better grip on the injured woman before turning to carry her in the direction of his house.
...
"Ahh!"
"Got it! Finally!" Sam breathed in relief as he turned to toss out the bullet he'd just removed from his new acquaintance who immediately raised a shaky hand clutching a needle with a thin thread already knotted into it.
"Here, let me do that." Sam quickly offered, reaching to take the needle. The woman pulled it from his reach.
"You need to keep watch. Let me know if you see anyone wearing black combat uniforms heading here." She ordered, gritting her teeth as she slowly injected the tip of the needle at the top of her wound.
"When I'm done here I'll add some extra defenses that should hold until I'm able to move on."
Sam frowned at her words and grimaced at the sight of the needle going into the opened flesh before quickly averting his eyes.
"Before I go...I think I have the right to know who you are, and why you were out there stumbling around the city with a bullet stuck in your gut." He said bluntly.
The woman frowned as she continued to sew herself up. "My name is Grace." She answered after a moment, pausing in her work for a moment as if to give herself respite.
Sam waited quietly for a moment to see if she'd continue, but when she didn't he decided to return the introduction. "I'm Sam." He took a step closer as Grace continued to stitch herself up.
"Where did you learn to give yourself stitches?"
Grace shrugged, biting down on her lip as she pulled another stitch in. "Every Agent in my organization learns basic wound assessment and treatment before completing their training." Finishing the last stitch, she tied off the thread then pulled a small knife from the same pouch she pulled the bullet removal kit from and cut the extra string.
"Eventually I may need to get the wound treated properly, but this will hold for now." Grace finished, letting her shirt drop back down to cover her exposed belly again.
Sam raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest. "And...what kind of organization do you work for?" He asked.
Instead of answering, Grace turned and tried to move off the sofa Sam had laid her down on after carrying her into his house.
Instinctively Sam lunged forward to stop her. "Whoa whoa! What do you think you're doing?"
Grace shot him a pointed look. "I have to secure your house. If the wrong people find out I didn't die and that I'm here, you will be in danger and I have to reach Steve before it's too late." She rambled, wincing briefly as she came to a standing position.
Sam's frown deepened when he heard her mention Steve again. "But..you just got shot. And too late for what? How do you know Steve?" He asked.
Instead of answering, Grace began to walk around his living room, raising her hands as she passed the front windows as well as the doors.
Sam gaped as some sort of transparent energy field covered the panes of the windows and the entire frame of the front door.
As Grace slowly turned, similar forcefields appeared to cover the windows in the kitchen, the bathroom and the small bedroom down the hall whose door was standing slightly open.
A slight whimper escaped through her lips for a second before Grace lowered her arms and exhaled deeply as if disconnecting herself from the energy fields she just poured out.
"There. Those should hold for awhile." She spoke in a low voice, sagging slightly as if the effort to conjure up the forcefields drained her of her own strength.
"How did...What did you just do?" Sam stumbled a bit over his words and Grace finally turned to face him.
"I covered all the most vulnerable spots in your home with energy force fields. That way if anyone tries to snipe us out through a window or take down the door, they'll be met by a wall of pure energy." Grace sank back onto the couch, putting a hand gingerly back on her wound.
"Call it a...gift I was given kind of unintentionally by my Dad. It's a long story." She shrugged when Sam gave her a questioning look.
"Okay." He responded after a minute. "Will you tell me how you know Steve Rogers now? Wait!..." He paused, his eyes widening as a realization hit him.
"Are you a part of...the thing that he's working for now?" He asked, now full on gaping at the woman sitting on his couch as she mulled over his question and the response she would give him.
"We both work for the same organization. Or we did I should say. I...looked after him after he came out of the ice. We trained together, I helped him get caught up on everything and...get through some of the tough times."
A soft smile lit her face as she said this and Sam raised an eyebrow at the light pink color that dusted over her cheeks as well as the gleam that lingered in her eyes.
"He's one of my best friends."
"Ohh...you're her." Sam grinned, crossing his arms across his chest. Grace snapped her head back up at him. "Her?"
"The one Steve said was there for him when it got hard. His Sweetheart. The girl who's got his heart." His grin widened and Grace felt her cheeks involuntarily heat up.
"Uh..no we're not...there is no way he said that. His heart belongs to someone else!" She stumbled a bit over her words making Sam laugh at her reaction.
"All right, I may have made the last two up, but you should have seen the way he smiled when he talked about you. He was even redder than you are though I doubt he realized it." He teased.
Averting her eyes, Grace shook her head. "Steve is...Steve is my friend." She insisted, feeling Sam's half amused and half skeptical stare as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt.
"A really good friend, but...just a friend."
"Well a-." Sam started to retort when a sharp knocking cut him off, making him jump and Grace whip her head around.
"What the...?"
"They can't get through my force field." Grace stated aloud before springing off the sofa and towards the door, wincing when the sharp movement pulled at her stitches.
Sam beat her there and cautiously pulled open the blinds, motioning with his other hand for Grace to stand back.
His eyes widened when he peered through the window and recognized one of the two figures who were standing on the other side of the door.
Snapping the blinds shut, he lunged for the knob only for Grace to grab him around the wrist and give him a warning look before slipping in front of him as he opened the door.
"Who are you?" She snapped in a cold no-nonsense tone once the door was open. Sam gave her a bewildered look.
"Grace you-."
"Agent Natasha Romanoff. Formerly of S.H.I.E.L.D. You and I once had to resort to hiding in a dumpster which you said smelled like a mix of rotted goat cheese and old onions while tailing a mark in Latveria." The red haired woman cut him off, answering Grace without missing a beat.
Wrinkling her nose, Grace nodded her head and moved her gaze quickly to the taller and more muscular blonde man beside the red head.
"Uh...Steve. Steve Rogers. Formerly of S.H.I.E.L.D. I...accidentally broke your nose once because you scared the crap out of me and it was dark." He chimed in, dropping his gaze and missing the slightly amused smirk that came over Grace's expression.
"Can't read any of that in a mission log." She raised her hand and undid the forcefield on the door to let her two friends in.
"I'm sorry." She apologized quickly. "But it's been a long day and I needed to be certain about some things."
Steve nodded in understanding. "Yeah it's been a long day for us too." He glanced at Natasha. "Actually everyone we know has tried to kill us and this is the last safe place I could think of."
"Same here. I mean, my last mission partner tried to kill me an if I hadn't literally run into this guy, I'd probably be bleeding out on the street right now." Grace bit her lip as she glanced back at her new acquaintance who shrugged nonchalantly.
"Well, what was I supposed to do? Leave you on the ground? And for the record, not everyone is trying to kill you guys." Sam stepped forward and grabbed the door to open it a little wider.
With small weary smiles, Steve and Natasha gratefully shuffled in while Grace moved to allow them enough room. Natasha sighed as Sam took one last peek around the corners before shutting and locking the door.
"So...any chance we can clean up a bit here?" She asked a bit hesitantly as Grace moved to replace the force field.
"Oh, yeah sure! There's a bathroom down that way. Soap and shampoo should be in there and towels are in the closet." Sam gestured vaguely down the hall before turning his attention to Steve and Grace.
"You guys good?"
They all nodded. "Thanks." Natasha said gratefully, glancing briefly at Steve before moving to head down in the direction Sam motioned towards.
Steve sighed and waited till Natasha had disappeared into the bathroom and turned on the shower before returning his attention to Grace.
"So...you got attacked too?" He asked a bit awkwardly as she slowly shifted her weight from one foot to the other before looking up at him.
"My partner on the Laos mission." She said as non-chalantly as if she were explaining why she was late to a board meeting.
"Apparently the whole thing was a set up to cover up Hydra's tracks when they shipped the serum we took from the train straight to one of their hidden facilities. I figured out what was going on after we got back into town to perform follow ups and tried to warn Moser, but then he shot me and left me for dead in the lab."
Steve frowned. "He's Hydra."
Grace half nodded. "He was."
"Was?" Steve pressed. Grace pulled in her lower lip between her teeth, trying to hide a smile.
"I...may have suffocated him with a forcefield after he admitted to taking this mission just to secure the serum for one of Hydra's experimentation programs. Something about an army that could take down the world in less than a month." She shrugged with a dark frown.
"Don't worry. I burned all the serum before the blood loss started to kick in." She started to gesture to the side with her arm casually when the movement made her injury sting.
Steve frowned at the wince that crossed her face. "Are you okay? Where were you hit?" He asked, reaching towards her. Grace tried to wave his hands away.
"I'm okay. I already stitched myself up. The entry wound is still fresh that's all." She tried to reassure him, but Steve turned his hand in her loose grip and grasped her fingers.
"Can I still take a look at it?" He asked gently, not loosening his grip. Grace hesitated. "Please?"
Grace sighed. "If you insist." She slowly pulled her arm away and pulled up the hem of her shirt. Steve frowned at the sight of a bit of blood still dripping from the hastily sewn together wound.
"You should wrap something around it. Sit down. I'll ask Sam if he has any bandages." He started to push her backwards towards the couch. Grace instinctively grabbed onto his arms to steady herself.
"You're the Captain."
She shrugged as she lowered herself onto the couch with Steve's hands pressing gently down on her shoulders.
Without replying, Steve left the living room returning a few minutes later with a good sized roll of gauze.
"Okay. This is all he had, but it will do. Lift up your shirt again. Just past your bellybutton." He ordered briskly, seating himself next to her on the small couch before unrolling a good length of the bandage.
Silently, Grace did as she was told staring down at Steve as he got to work carefully wrapping her waist with the gauze.
"So...how do you know Sam?" Grace asked after a moment. Steve sighed.
"We ran into each other a few days ago at the Reflecting Pool early in the morning. We were jogging." He started to explain as he pulled the roll around her middle again.
A slightly amused smile lit up Grace's expression then. "Ah I see. And I suppose he recognized you rather quickly." She grinned. Steve grinned back, not looking up from his work.
"Kinda." He said casually, tying off the bandage and raising his gaze. "Is that too tight?"
Grace shook her head. "No. You're surprisingly gentle for someone strong enough to send a frisbee straight through an alien." She joked lightly, playfully nudging him in the shoulder for good measure and feeling satisfied when Steve chuckled.
"Well I'm glad you think so." He gently tugged her shirt back down though his fingers lingered at her injured side a little longer than was necessary.
"So what about you?" Grace asked, drawing Steve's attention back to her eyes. "Are you okay after...whatever it is Hydra did to try to kill you and Nat?"
Steve shrugged. "Well we managed not to get shot." He pulled away to put the appropriate amount of distance between himself and her.
"Although I did wind up having to fight about 20 agents in an elevator and we both got chased through the mall by some of my former squad mates." He ran a hand through his hair.
Grace frowned. "I'm sorry." Steve shook his head. "Ah, it's not like it's your fault." His hands curled subtly into fists.
Grace reached over and covered his left hand with her right. "It's not yours either." She said softly. Steve exhaled softly and nodded his head.
"It just sucks." Grace nodded in agreement, gazing into the half helpless half determined look in her friend's bright blue eyes.
Steve leaned slightly towards her as if trying to move closer to her touch and without thinking about it Grace leaned in as well, realizing too late that they had moved a little too close to each other.
"Uhhh...I made breakfast." Sam's voice sounded less than a foot away from the back of the couch, causing the two former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents to spring apart from each other, their faces flushing noticeably and uncomfortably.
"You know uh..if you guys eat that kind of stuff." Sam shrugged, strolling back into the kitchen just as Natasha walked back out from the shower still towel drying her hair.
"Did I miss something?" She asked, soundingly partly curious and mostly amused. Steve cleared his throat and popped up from the sofa first.
"Not really." He said dismissively, turning to offer Grace a hand up. Grace accepted it and turned to give Natasha a reassuring and easy going smile. "We were just talking about how we all almost got killed today."
Natasha raised an eyebrow at that. "Really?" Grace turned her head in Steve's direction and nodded when she saw his right hand slip into the pocket of his pants where a certain antique compass was kept.
"Really."
