Happy Saturday Readers! Please enjoy the new addition, I switched it up a little in this chapter and added some POV's. Let me know what you think. Continue with the POV's or keep it third person? I'm excited to hear your feedback xooxoxox :)
Silently their eyes exchanged a glance, assessing the situation with warranted caution. They both knew the apartment had been silent when they left this morning and most certainly knew the record player hadn't been used since their dinner a few nights before.
"Fire Escape." Steve concluded, moving to retreat down the stairs.
"You go in that way, I'll use the door." Edie whispered, quietly knocking her bracelets together.
"Edie, no. Follow me. We don't know who or how many are in there." His voice hissed with whispered concern, stern gaze flickering Steve moved to cross the hall when Edie's words halted him.
"Exactly, so we flank them from both sides. I'll be okay. Now go baby, we're on the clock." Edie countered, hoping to appeal with reason she ushered him to trust her instincts.
With a reluctantly sigh, the Captain gave a short nod before retreating back down the stairs, alone. Following Edie's strategy he scaled up the fire escape, and ducked through an unlocked window.
An eerie calm blanketed the apartment, velvety notes of a trumpet floated through the air and Steve narrowed his eyes for any sign of a disturbance.
It was as Steve fully entered their home that he caught a glimpse of Edie's form slinking through the door. Reaching out for her baton that leaned idling near the table, the room was soon dimly illuminated by the glow as the weapon met her gloves.
Their gaze met through the neatly stacked shelves and Steve swiftly waved Edie to join him against the wall. The taller soldier snatched his shield from the hall and they both crept in towards the living room. Glancing back with a finger over his full lips to signal silence Steve motioned their advance along the hall, shield up and baton drawn.
"Sorry to barge in on you like this, my wife kicked me out." The smooth voice of Director Fury hummed against the steady melody of the circling record.
The Super Soldiers exchanged a look of relief and lowered their weapons.
Threat averted…or so they thought.
"Didn't know you were married." Steve stated, shouldering the adjacent wall.
"A lot of things you don't know about me."
"I know, Nick. That's the problem." He murmured, stretching to turn on the light.
Edie's hand flew up to cover her gasp, the sight of Fury's battered face catching them both off guard. Pulling the cord of the lamp the wounded man typed a text.
Ears Everywhere.
The news prompted Steve and Edie to share a glance around their home in a new light. Edie was filled with a wave of unease, a tinge of violation budded in her stomach.
How much had they heard? How long had these uninvited bugs been listening in on the soldiers conversations?
"Had no place else to crash, sorry to do this to you."
SHIELD compromised.
"Who else knows about your wife?" Edie spoke suddenly, following the Director's movements closer.
Us Three.
"Just..my friends."
"Is that what we are?" Steve countered cooly.
Edie could sense the ridgid composure from earlier return to her husband's muscular shoulders, suspicion plaguing his expression.
"That's up to you."
And before any of them could register the actions, the task was already complete. In a blur three pops rang out, lacing the wall and piercing Fury's back.
"Steve get down!" Edie instinctively dove to shield the Captain, pulling them both against the glossy floor.
She then scrambled to drag the Director behind the wall, kneeling beside him. Steve joined Edie's crouched position, idly watching as his wife's hands worked quickly to evaluate the damage.
Cracked Sternum. Shattered Collarbone. Perforated liver.
"Trust..no one.." Fury coughed, limp hand placing a silver flash drive in the Captain's grip. Words escaped the Brooklyn native, witnessing the slow slip of life from Fury's gaze.
"Stay with me Nick!" Edie barked, hands laced over the open wounds. A harrowing feeling of dejavu crept up Edie's back, just as the front door jarred open.
"Captain Rogers? Agent Rogers?" Gun pointed the neighboring blonde scouted the perimeter.
"Captain, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD Special Service. I'm assigned to protect you both."
"Kate?" Edie's head sprung up.
"On who's ordered?" Steve demanded, erecting to his full height to meet the Agent.
The air was knocked from Sharon's lungs and her gun fell to her hip at the bloody sight of Fury sprawled against the floor.
"His"
"Can you save him?" Agent 13 questioned in a panic, dropping to her knees beside Edie.
"I'm trying but the bullets are deep." Edie grunted, feeling the tightness rising in her own chest as the cracked fragments of Fury's sternum and shattered collarbone pieced together like a puzzle.
Steady hands skated across his form, halting at his liver and spinal cord. Edie breathed through her own pain as a faint burning crept up her back, nerves standing on edge the further she ventured.
Lacerated spinal cord, Edie gulped internally.
Keeping a calm exterior and racing thoughts focused on Fury's recovery, the Healer continued. Unable to keep it all contained it was her hiss of pain that caught Steve's attention, on instinct he knelt to Edie's level and hooked a gentle knuckle under her chin.
Steve felt the tightness rising in his own chest when he was met with a faint circle of white clouding Edie's jade pools.
"I'm okay. He was just hit pretty severely." She assured, returning the tender gaze of her husband.
"Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs." Agent Carter's voice shouted over the radio.
"Do you have a twenty on the shooter?"
A sudden gleam of metal caught Steve's eye.
"Tell them I'm in pursuit."
Before Edie could infer his plan, Steve launched himself through the window and over to the next building. Thrashing through the office levels in a sprint Cap followed the assailant to the roof. In an effort to cripple the stranger's advance, Steve hurled his shield across the gap between them.
Their eyes met for the first time, hollow and calculating the blackened orbs cut through Steve. The metallic arm halted the shield and returned it through the air with a titan's ease. Steve's body was careened backwards as the shield met his chest with a crushing force and in a blink he found himself alone.
Sprinting to the building's edge, Steve scoured the very street that he and Edie had just came from but there was nothing.
Vanished before his very eyes, Steve concluded this was no ordinary mercenary.
-0-
The next thing Edie knew they were staring through a streakless pane of glass, bearing witness to the final moments of Director Fury.
"I thought you said you saved him."
"I did, at least I was sure I did. I accessed his injuries, I-I did everything I could." Edie's voice cracked as she answered Agent Romanoff, tears welling when the stark white sheet was pulled over his still form.
"Apparently that wasn't enough."
"Natasha." Steve scolded, stern eyes studying the icy expression of the redhead.
"No, she's right. It's my fault, I'm so sorry." Edie stumbled back, swallowing the tightness constricting her chest.
"Edie, wait-"
"I'm okay, I just-just need some air." Halting Steve with her small hand Edie retreated towards the exit, blinking back the burning tears.
Taking a deep sigh through his nose, Steve shifted his attention back to the glass.
"Tell me about the shooter." Natasha gritted, Agent Hill falling in line beside them.
"He's fast and strong. Had a metal arm." Steve recalled, vacant stare of the assailant still clear in his mind.
"Ballistics?"
"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable." Hill answered.
"Soviet-made." Natasha concluded.
"Would you like to go in and say goodbye?" Agent Hill asked gravely, hand lightly grazing the redhead's arm.
Steve stared down at the small drive in his grasp, Fury's last words echoing.
"I'll meet you in there, I'm going to find Edie." The Captain excused himself, steering around the women he followed Edie's trail.
The cool night breeze kissed his face as Steve exited through the double doors, eyes scanning the area when he noticed a shift behind the concrete pillar, a muffled cry joining the distant sounds of city life beyond the hospital.
"Marco?" Steve called out lightly, earning himself the weak giggled 'Polo' he was hoping for and watched as Edie revealed herself into the pale glow of the street lamp.
"I'm sorry Steve I-"
The tall blonde closed the gap between instantly, her distressed condition too much for him to stand idle. His body engulfed Edie and attempting to shield her from the grief.
"Don't do that to yourself. Edie, you did everything you could." Steve soothed into her shaking curls, broad hand rubbing the length of her back in slow circles.
Slowly Edie felt her tension melting into him, arms laced tightly around his waist, rooting him to her as long as she could.
The Healer ran through her evaluation of Fury's injuries a thousand times already. She swore he had a pulse when they loaded him into the ambulance, strengthened by the electrical shock she'd administered just minutes before, right? Or did it weaken and she missed it? She could still feel the sticky warmth of Fury's blood on her hands. Edie clamped her eyes shut with silent prayers that this was all a horrible, awful nightmare and that she would wake up at any moment.
Pulling back to brush away the tear stained porcelain of Edie's cheeks, Steve placed a comforting kiss against her forehead. He then guided them back into the hospital where he assured with a gentle smile that he'd be right in the hall as she went to freshen up. As Cap waited, the knowledge of the flash drive weighed heavy on the soldier's mind.
Surely it was burning a hole in my very pocket, he thought to himself just before he noticed an opportunity arise.
Vending machine.
The worker had just stepped away for a moment to take a call, so there it stood, open Plexiglas mouth urging Steve to make his move.
-0-
Rolling his neck slowly, the events of the night tightened in Steve's muscles as the adrenaline subsided.
"Why was Fury in your apartment?" An icy tone spoke from beyond the blackness of his closed eyelids.
"I don't know." Steve exhaled through his nose, ocean gaze meeting the agent flatly.
"Cap, Agent Rogers. They want you both back at SHIELD." Rumlow's voice called down the hall, his STRIKE team clogging the corridor in a stream of black.
"Yeah, give me a second." Steve replied, mirroring a narrow gaze with Natasha before Rumlow spoke again.
More sternly this time, Cap noted.
"They want you now."
The Captain's eyes shifted towards the glossy wooden door of the bathroom as Edie filed out, tucking a black strand behind her ear she descended towards the group.
"You're a terrible liar." Natasha hissed lowly before disappearing into the crowd, passing Edie as she fell in beside Steve once more.
"Let's go." Captain Rogers gave a stiff nod, hand lacing through Edie's protectively.
Call him paranoid but something smelled differently to the soldier, something was off and his instincts told him to keep Edie close.
Triskelion Building
At the request of Edie they were allowed to
re enter the broken remains of their apartment to get changed. Swapping soiled clothing for their suits before the couple was then taken to the Triskelion building, just as the first streaks of the next morning lit up the sky.
They filed into the garage and were the heavily escorted to one of the higher levels, though all looked the same to Edie.
Clean, metallic, ridgid.
The car ride over had been ominously silent, packed in with several STRIKE members Edie couldn't shake this feeling as though she should be on alert. The only outlet that kept her conscious at ease was the warm engulf of Steve's hand in hers, stiffness of his gloves a rough comfort.
Agent Rumlow had been close on their heels since the hospital, looming over their shoulders with each step.
Was this a secure transport of valued SHIELD members or the guarded movement of suspects?
Before Edie could further explore that theory, she was met with another familiar face, known to them after last night as Agent 13.
"For whatever it's worth, you did your best." A silver haired gentleman consoled stiffly to the young woman as the duo approached.
"Thank you sir. Captain Rogers, Mrs. Rogers." Sharon greeted tightly in the fluorescent lighting.
It was then that Edie now noticed the refreshed complexion of the agent, not one of a nurse. Edie was all too familiar with the tired look of a real nurse, one beaten down by grueling tasks and constant bloody hands. The realization prompted Edie to study her clean palms, picturing the crimson red of those she'd helped and their cries a forever echo in her mind.
No, Agent 13 was most definitely not a nurse but whether she an ally to them, Edie was not sure.
"Neighbor." Steve replied coldly to the passing agent.
"Ah, Captain. Mrs. Rogers. Pleasure to finally meet you, I'm Alexander Pierce."
"Sir it's an honor." Steve extends a strong hand to the executive.
Edie mirrored his gesture and expressed a faint smile as Pierce placed a charming kiss against her knuckles.
"The honor is mine, really. Brock if you wouldn't mind showing Mrs. Rogers here to her room for some questions." Peirce waved over the officer from his stoic position against the wall.
"Room? I thought she would be staying with me." Rogers felt that tinge of suspicion again, his back stiffening in an instant.
"Just standard procedure, gives us men some time to chat amongst ourselves." Pierce spread a pearly smile between the two super soldiers.
Steve cast his gaze towards the woman beside him and gadged the suspicion clouding her own expression.
Edie hadn't said much since the hospital, had she too picked up on the unnerving calm that stood in the air around them? Steve thought to himself, reluctantly letting go of Edie's hand.
The Healer fell in beside Rumlow and began to descend farther away from Steve.
Though Pierce continued to ramble on, Cap kept a focused gaze on Edie and just before she turned down an unfamiliar corridor she cast one last look at her husband.
Trust no one…
-0-
"Brock, as I said before I don't know why Fury was in our apartment." Edie reiterate for the third time already.
Frustration panned across the weathered Agent's face, continuing to pace the small office space.
"So you expect me to believe he just showed up? Unannounced and somehow ended up dead because of some mystery man? What was your description again?" Rumlow flicked through the legal pad with furious fingers.
"Ah yes, metal armed assailant. Metal arm?"
Edie sensed the younger man's seething annoyance, body language becoming more tensed the further the investigation stalled.
"Yes. Because that's how it happened. What exactly are you implying?"
"Enough!" Rumlow smashed a heavy fist against the steel table, jarring Edie back with a startle.
"That is quite enough, Brock. I want to see my husband. Now." Edie growled, white knuckling the seat of her chair with a flared temper.
The dark haired man was about to retaliate when a command across his earpiece killed the words on his tongue, and suddenly he was offering Edie a cunning smile.
"I agree, let's take a break for today. Here let me get one of my men to escort you back. I actually have some business to attend to you. It was nice to see you again, Agent Rogers."
And like a switch, the man before Edie gained a whole new demeanor.
Polite and civil before he took his leave, if that didn't put Edie on edge the Agent that took Rumlow's place surely did.
Massive and towering this stranger greeted Edie with a dangerous grin that had her nerves screaming to find an exit as he began to advance her into the corner.
"Hello, Mrs. Rogers."
-0- Steve's POV
Pierce's words planted a seed in my conscious that I couldn't shake and only seemed to heighten the pull to have Edie by my side.
After everything that happened in the last 24 hours, I shouldn't have let her out of my sight. I'd become overwhelmingly protective of her since the attack on New York.
Call me crazy, call me overbearing but when you find something in this world as special as that woman is to me, you protect it with every fiber in your body.
Even though most of the time I find her protecting me with such a fury she can't be stopped, Edie had a temper which only seemed to flare when I was put into the equation.
Now to a scrawny kid from Brooklyn that was almost unfathomable, never would I have thought a dark haired beauty with eyes like gems would protect me tooth and nail. Everytime, no matter what that meant for her well being. But as much love as those actions were rooted in, Edie's risky behavior was rather infuriating sometimes. The thought of losing her broke something within me and to think that could happen because of she was gambling her own life for me dropped me to my knees in an instant.
I vowed that day, as I cradled her fading form in my arms that I could no longer be careless. I had finally found my home in this unfamiliar and new world we'd both been thrown into and I wasn't about to let that slip through my fingers.
I mentally sorted out our sleeping arrangements as I filed into the elevator, remembering our apartment was now an active crime scene.
God I wanted sleep, I could practically feel the warmth of Edie's body against me and the soft embrace our bed.
I decided to wait for Edie in the lobby instead of attempting to navigate the seemingly endless maze of this building. Maybe we could call Tony, I'm sure he has a building in DC with a vacancy. That man had his hand in everything.
The robotic voice answered with a feminine "confirmed" and I was about to drift off into a daydream of relaxation to ease my achy muscles when an arm jarred the metallic doors open wide once more. The face that greeted me flared that very seed of suspicion ten fold.
"Rumlow, where's Edie?"
I studied a flicker of uncertainty shift in his dark eyes before he answered with a lie.
"Oh um, she decided to head to a hotel. She said she'd give you a call with the details."
Red flag.
The muscles in my jaw tensed and I tasted the familiar bitterness of regret.
Should have never let her out of my sight.
I knew Edie well enough to know she would not just up and leave, especially after we came together. A hotel? Edie was still getting acclimated with the city, she was not well versed enough to just walk out and find a hotel all on her own.
I caged the anger rising in my chest and instead answer with a cool 'okay', knowing it would not be smart to reveal my suspicions just yet.
Every level the elevator paused at seemed to collect an increase in Agents, each more heavily armored than the next. Boxing me in the very middle of a bad situation.
It was when we were packed to capacity, tension choking everyone with silence that I could no longer curb my actions.
"So, before we begin. Does anyone want to get out?"
-0- Edie's POV
I wasn't sure if it was reality or my mind envisioning this beautiful mirage but there he was, blond hair peeking through the slats of the stalled elevator doors. Blinking passed the the blotches, I brought Steve's panicked expression into focus. Instinctively I reached out for him with a doped grin, awakening the pain in my broken ribs as my cells worked to fuse the bones back together.
"Edie!"
My name was a muffled demand as I eased up from the marbled floor, shards of glass dug into my palms with a stinging burn.
I struggled to piece together exactly what happened, until I saw the shattered remains of the interrogation room and the cold gaze of the man slumped in the doorway. Charred markings on his chest unmistakable.
It was a soft touch engulfing my back that erected me upward completely.
"Doll, we gotta go." Steve's voice vibrated the shell of my ear, slipping those bulging biceps under my arms and pulling me to my feet.
"What happened?" My voice sounded alien, frayed conscience still a bit hazy.
"Looks like it's just us now." He concluded the reluctant truth, strong hand lacing through mine as he chose a route down an unfamiliar corridor. Those vague words confirmed my suspicions with a cool sweat.
Here we were, branded and on enemy turf for that matter. Our military training took the front seat and soon had us assessing every corner and movement the further we trekked.
My ears perked up suddenly, catching a distant vibration of energy in the air.
"Steve." I whispered severely, giving his arm a tug.
"We've got company." I urged.
"How many?"
Closing my eyes I focused the adapting strength of my supersonic hearing to give a head count.
"9."
"Shit." Steve hissed a curse, head jerking between the open halls before us for any scrap of an exit strategy when his gaze stopped on the crystal window. Quickly glancing to the glass structure below he returned to me.
"You trust me, don't ya Gorgeous?"
Those tempting lips with their fullness and never ending sweetness twitched into a smirk the longer the leaded question hung between us.
Closing the small gap I honed in on those plump lips with a proposition of my own.
"Question is soldier, do you trust me?"
I tasted his mouth with the remnants of a busted lip before snatching the shield from his relaxed hand and giving his massive form a jarring shove.
With the shield to break my fall I hurtled through the whipping wind without a worry. Meanwhile I focused my energy on accessing Steve's nervous system and creating a protective force field around him with every ounce of energy I had.
A second shattering of glass was accompanied by the prompt shrieks and gasps of strangers below. The concrete floor welcomed me with a grueling fist.
Ouch.
Those once healed ribs were broken again, and I think it was safe to say I had some internal bleeding but all that seemed to fade when Steve's voice made itself known.
There was that glass again crunching under my palms, the shield suddenly weighed a ton. Easing to my knees I felt the severity of my fall consume me in a fit of bloodstained coughs.
"Damn it Edie!" Steve barked over my shoulder, scooping me up like a child before taking off in a full sprint towards the garage.
"Language." I wheezed a sickly laugh but earned only a stern and steely gaze.
"This isn't funny. How many times are you going to almost kill yourself?"
I could tell he was trying his best not to jar my recovering body too much, ducking through the double doors with a delicate scurry. Steve stopped in front of a random vehicle, placing me gently to my feet I caught his hand.
"As many times as it takes, to ensure not a single scratch finds your skin."
I studied the softening of my husband's expression, and this time earned myself a soft kiss to the temple.
Butterflies fluttered against the beaten walls of my chest and naturally I wanted nothing more than to stay rooted forever in that moment. But reality had other plans, impending capture knipping at our heels with each ticking second.
"So what's the plan? Which direction do we run? They're going to have us surrounded in minutes."
I stood back as Steve rambled off the possible routes of escape, nodding along with each honest suggestion as I nonchalantly inched closer to the window of the sedan behind me.
"If we could find a safe spot we could call-"
Sandy tresses jerked in my direction at the sound of shattering glass. With a furrowed brow the Captain concluded my plan, as an electrical pulse from my fingertips started the engine with a roar I noticed a certain blue sparkle of mischief.
"We're only borrowing it." He warned a caution.
"Of course." I nodded with a wicked smirk, following Steve's movements to the passenger door where he opened it and swiftly ushered me inside.
I squinted narrowly at the glaring sunlight that welcomed us across the cemented bridge. Steve kept a heavy foot pressed firmly against the peddle, sober gaze locked on the road ahead. Just a few more feet and we were home free, to disappear into the maze of downtown and out of their grasping hands.
But we couldn't get away that easy, now could we?
I noticed the thundering of movements vibrate the atmosphere from afar. Damming my heightened senses, I prayed that I had been mistaken.
Just a little farther, only a little farther.
Gulping back the tension tightening my throat, I dared to glance backward.
Quinjet. Approaching fast.
"Teddybear…um, we're gonna need to pick up the pace."
Steve tore his eyes away from the road and met me with a confused brow before he too picked up on the looming presence. And before we knew it we were face to face with the metallic nose of the aircraft.
A sudden whipping wind caught the waves of my hair and with it my attention.
"Edie, take the wheel!" Steve thundered against the invading sound of the outside world as the the sunroof receded backward.
Obliging instantly, I found myself in a tangled exchange of limbs and shifting into the driver's seat with a fluid motion.
"Get me as close as you can."
Fear gripped my stomach with a rush of adrenaline, I watched his muscular form squirm through the hole and out onto the car's roof, shield drawn.
Too caught up in following Steve's calculated movements through the air and onto the wing of the aircraft I failed to notice the rising spike strips until it was too late, gleaming like hungry teeth at the end of the bridge.
"Oh…dear."
The tension in the brake pads pulsed as I slammed with all my might before everything became a turbulence of glass and searing metal.
-0- Tony's POV
I should have know today was going to go to shit from the moment I woke up.
From the lack of my favorite brew of coffee, to the newly torn hole in my favorite Zeppelin shirt. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I got the call, garbled in a panic and unearthing a whole new can of worms.
"Mr. Stark, Captain Rogers on the line for you."
"Put him through."
JARVIS complied with a polite 'right away, sir' before all hell broke loose at the transfer beeped.
"Don't tell the honeymoon stage is over and you're already in the dog house."
I chuckled at my own jab, swirling the arm of glasses.
"That depends, do you consider being branded a traitor by the government and forced to live on the run as being in the dog house?"
Wow. I was not expecting that, and where was Steve getting his sarcasm from?
Betty Boop must be teaching him.
That's my girl, I smirked at the thought of Edie's delicate eye roll.
"Actually, I call that a Saturday night." I answered, leaning my elbows on the cool glass countertop. Steve filled me in on all the fine details through an exhausted and stern tone, earning a million thoughts to run across my perfect brow.
"So what'd you say, Stark? Think you could help us?"
The question loomed in the crisp air of my office and prompted me to glance out at the gorgeous view of the bustling New York skyline.
"And piss off higher authority?...ahh that's my specialty, Cap."