Captain America: The Winter Soldier
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Rex's head rested on my lap the entire car ride to the apartment complex S.H.I.E.L.D. set up for me and I absentmindedly stroked the fur between his ears while watching simple pedestrian activity out the window. The traffic was surprisingly dull at that late hour. It appeared like there was more people walking the streets and even more of them on their bikes or jogging than on the road but I could understand the reason why.
There was something special about having a plain but steady life. A beauty nothing else could've really compared to.
I didn't know what that kind of life felt like anymore but still, I liked observing other people having it.
The neighborhood we stopped in seemed like the type friendly and big families or single people with successful careers would settle themselves into. I had neither of those therefore I'd stick out. That'd make it easy for agents to watch over me if they suspected I'd try to run. I wouldn't. Not after knowing what I knew about Mom and Dad. It didn't feel real, the possibility of them being alive out there somewhere, waiting and wondering as I was. They must have been afraid or maybe thought I was long dead too if they had yet to come out of hiding. Was someone hunting them? Or were they just really gone?
And maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. had brought me back here for nothing at all.
The tick tick tick of Rex's paws followed hot on my heels as I turned in the key to my new apartment. Faint yellow light from the outdoor street lamps streaked in through the window blinds and when I flipped the wall switch, the whole place lit up, showing the fully furnished living room and kitchen. I supposed that meant they intended to keep me here for a while. I wasn't sure how I completely felt about that but I was grateful me and Rex had a roof over our heads and I was only a few blocks away from a market store where I could find something to feed Rex. He was my priority now.
Rex wandered into the other two rooms and I went in after him, finding the bedroom and bathroom fixed up with things that would get me by for the time being. Rex put his nose into almost every corner, sniffing and inspecting everything until he deemed it safe for us and came trotting back to the living room, staring up at me with round black eyes like he was asking what we were gonna do next. I wished I knew. But I couldn't think that far ahead anymore.
Removing my boots, I started with finding some meat in the kitchen freezer and cooking it plain so Rex could eat well for the night. He stuck to my side like glue. Even after he licked his plate clean and drank from the water dish I set up for him, he waited right outside the open bathroom door as I showered, changed into a clean set of clothes, then followed me back to the living room sofa where we'd hunker down for the night.
The microwave time stamp read 12:25 AM. I sat with my knees to my chest on the couch, Rex jumping up on the cushions and curling up into a sleepy ball as I fiddled with the TV remote. How long had it been since I used a television? Long enough and it'd clearly been a little too long since I winced when the screen boomed in a blast of sound and color and I hurried to turn the volume down before it woke the neighbors. Even Rex lifted his head a little at the noise and I stroked a hand down his head while my thumb clicked clicked clicked through multiple channels.
I stopped at an old movie.
One of those colorful musicals where the man and woman struggle to find love between misfortune and miscommunication, beautiful ball gowns and equally beautifully sung duets and they did so happily where the TV had become a time machine transporting you to another world, disrupted only by the cutting commercials in between. I tried picturing myself as the man on screen, joyously dancing under the fall of rain, no cloud dark enough or thunder loud enough to measure against the feeling of being loved.
I remembered being that happy. With Rex at my side, I wasn't alone anymore but that wasn't quite the same.
"Alina?"
A muffled voice and knuckles anxiously rapping at the door stirred me from a deep sleep and my eyelids slowly peeled open to find the entire apartment pitch black, the television turned off and not even outside light from the windows could be seen through the shutters. I patted around the couch cushions and my fingers met the thick coat of Rex's fur, breathing heavy and still sleeping soundly beside me and even though the knocks at the front door came on faster and louder, he didn't budge an inch. It wasn't too strange... he'd had a long day.
The voice behind the wood door called out for me again and I swung my legs over and onto the scratchy carpet, recognizing it as the man from the interrogation room but when I stood up the door violently swung open and banged against the wall. I jumped back, dull white light from the apartment hall highlighting two figures crossing the threshold.
"Alina?"
Dad stepped forward, his entire suit jacket and shirt drenched in blood and a big gaping hole where his heart should have been was shot open. Mom was at his side, a trail of blood leaking down her temple and just above that... a bullet wound.
Then they smiled. "We're home."
I felt myself falling backwards, paralyzed and weak but before my back hit the floor, my eyes snapped open and I rolled onto my side on the sofa, facing the television set playing a late-night infomercial. Rex was wide awake, lying down by my feet and lifted his massive head from his paws to look at me, as if sensing the dream. Or was it a nightmare?
I couldn't differentiate between the two and maybe that was because the ones I had were always the same.
That night was nothing out of the ordinary.
A total of four days passed and I had not left the apartment much except for trips down to the nearest convenience store and evening walks so Rex could get in some fresh air. A lot of the time passed was done so in waiting, watching the moving scenery from a park bench or my apartment window and falling into a fitful sleep on the sofa with Rex cuddled to my chest, white noise from the television set greeting me every time I jerked awake with tear stains on my cheeks. Every night.
I had been thrown into a world I'd never thought I'd step foot into again and I didn't know where to go from there. What would my young self done? I didn't know. That girl was no more. And the person I was now walked down a solitary road.
The burner phone gifted by S.H.I.E.L.D. buzzed on the coffee table then.
I stared at the bluish white screen, the glare hurting my eyes in the pitch darkness so I sat up to turn on the lamp, wondering who the message was from and what they could have possibly wanted at that hour.
Are you alone? The black text read from an unknown number.
My heart beat faster in my chest. I might be. Who is this?
I work for S.H.I.E.L.D., and I need to get in contact with Courier Six.
I'm a courier, but my real name is Alina.
A message box popped up seconds later. I know. Your file is under strict security and I needed to make sure it was really you.
What do you want from me? I typed back.
I can't give you all the details now. Come to the monument tomorrow. 11:00 AM, don't be late.
I peered down at Rex's head lying on my lap and my gut twisted like I'd swallowed a poisoned pill at the idea of leaving him in the apartment alone until I came back. We'd already been separated far too long once. It wasn't happening again.
Okay, but only if I can bring my dog.
Of course, I hear you guys are a two for one deal now. I'll send you the directions.
That's okay, I won't need them.
I waited for a reply but nothing appeared after several minutes so I assumed whoever was on the other side had faith I wouldn't get lost, much less show up. Couriers learned to be their own walking map and even though I was now far from my assumed profession, at least I had something to fall back on. Having the skills to navigate foreign streets and get anywhere you needed to be at a moment's notice provided some length of an independence. Meager as it sometimes was.
And having Rex along... I trusted that tomorrow would be okay too.
I felt strangely vulnerable being able to step outdoors and not have to bundle myself up in layers of various clothing, furs and scarves that shielded against every sense except sight. The wind was pleasantly cool rustling my hair and Rex definitely seemed like he was enjoying the extra exercise as he bounded ahead of me on the grassy sidewalks to the Washington Monument. We were fifteen minutes early.
I expected clusters of tourists, their cameras and high tech phones snapping picture after picture of the water and landmark but it was just me and Rex. He slowed down to a walk and sniffed the ground as he went while I looked out at the water, so clear and still like a wet sheet of paper and took in the sight. My line of work used to send me all over the world - both the renowned and remote.
But what I saw over there was nothing compared to what was in front of me now and I wasn't sure why... maybe it was because I was with someone special to me. The comfort of companionship. Being free, but no longer on my own and that in itself was a miracle.
"O'Brien?"
I turned around to a red-headed woman standing five feet away, caution heavy in her eyes. "Your file mentioned you were ridiculously early to your drop offs." She folded her arms and smiled a bit. "They weren't exaggerating." Her posture was so guarded, trained to anticipate any and all outcomes, and a part of me had the inkling she wasn't just any S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
"You sent me those text messages?"
"I did. I would have done it sooner, but like I said, S.H.I.E.L.D. has your file locked up tight. Not tight enough to keep me out. I'm Natasha."
She already knew my identity so I settled on introducing my other half, who gazed at her with his head tilted. "This is Rex-"
"I know, we've met. I hope you've taught him some discretion because this isn't exactly your regular FedEx route."
"You... want me to deliver a package?" I asked in disbelief. She said she read my file and clearly they had everything in there about what I did - why else would she want to meet me?
"I need you to hold on to something for me," she responded, walking closer now. "No questions, no suspicions, just some good old fashioned smuggling."
"This must be really important if you're asking me."
"It might be." She slipped a silvery grey USB drive from her pocket into my palm then. "I don't know yet... it's a work in progress."
I inspected the small device, turning it from side to side and it looked like any flash drive they sold at an electronic store. Except for the emblem engraved on both sides. "But we're strangers to each other. Why me?"
"Because I'm running out of people to trust and you're an outside connection. I'm risking everything by coming here and handing this over but at this point, I'm out of options. If something happens to me I need to know that it won't fall into the wrong hands."
"What's going on?" I shifted my footing, glancing over at Rex who was sitting at the edge of the pool, ears pointed high in alert. "Does it have something to do with S.H.I.E.L.D. bringing me here?"
Natasha hesitated, eyebrows crinkling deeper the longer she couldn't come up with an explanation. "I don't know. If what I'm thinking is right - and it always is - I should have answers in a few hours. Stay under the radar." She turned away then, boot heels thumping in the direction I had came from but before she reached the grass, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at me. "Tread carefully now, O'Brien. I think whatever is on that is tied to your parent's disappearance."
My blood went cold at her words and it brought me back to the day in S.H.E.L.D.'s interrogation room, that thick filed centered around the night my life ended, those pictures of bloodied footprints and puddles like the man who shot my Uncle had cut off parts of my body too and scattered them around the building. Around the world where I could never find them. I was not whole. Not without my family and it all came down to what happened on that fateful date, why they were targeted and what exactly went down.
I believed Natasha... I believed that tiny sliver of metal held a lot of answers for everyone who came across it.
"I understand," I told her, tucking the flash drive deep in my pocket.
"I'll be in touch."
Natasha disappeared past the treeline then and I stood there by the monument a little longer, the sun hanging higher and brighter in the sky and it dawned on me then that I just received a new job. Not at all like ones I was used to taking and it was unusual being left to my own devices with no exact end goal in sight. No destination, no definitive answers. Or not yet, as Natasha put it. From that moment on, I was both a courier and the drop-off point - two things I'd never thought could mix and I knew I had to approach everything with vigilance now.
I wasn't traveling alone anymore.
"Come on, Rex," I called out. "Time to go."
For the first time in fifteen years, I didn't return to hiding.
The apartment, a wooden cell with limited escape routes, didn't feel like the safest place to be anymore. So much like a liberated teenager on their eighteenth birthday, I spent the whole twenty-four hours in the busy city streets, lingering at the back of tourist crowds as they admired various attractions and landmarks, making rest stops at overnight convenience stores, on park benches where Rex could sleep on my lap and I would have spent even longer in the nearest library if it wasn't for the warning sign taped to the front door deterring anyone who wanted to bring their pets in. It worked on me. I wouldn't part with Rex for anything.
As long as he was fed, slept, and had access to water, I could push myself that much farther. My bones were ragged with exhaustion but somehow my feet kept moving... it wasn't safe to go home. Not yet.
At midday, I was at the steps of the art museum when my phone vibrated in my jacket pocket. Another unknown number.
Do you still have it? Even though it was only a text, I knew it was the red-maned woman Natasha and I could almost read the message in her raspy voice.
Yes, I do
Good, I knew you would. Meet us here
The following message was a set of coordinates and when I studied the numbers based on the street I was on, I found that it led to the local shopping mall. And it was a big one. Almost four stories from the look of it when I walked through the crammed parking lot, Rex scouting along in front. Natasha's directions also sent me to the exact floor where we'd find each other, but I didn't know which angle she'd be coming from. Or which store. There were so many of them.
It was one giant hum of voices in my ears, more than a hundred pairs of legs walking to and fro, swinging their shopping bags in various sizes and colors, baby strollers with apple-cheeked infants and children running too far ahead from their parents. Everything smelled like grease and melted sugar. I watched it all from my place on the bench, smack dab in the middle of the shopping center as I waited for Natasha. I knew she'd be able to find me. I just had to wait.
"O'Brien."
I looked up into the familiar green eyes framed by sleek shiny red locks, tapered around her face under her jacket hood. A man several inches taller stood beside her, shoulders squared off and it took a shameful second to realize behind the simple disguise of a baseball hat and black rimmed glasses was Captain America. I blinked in surprise at the sight... he really did look unrecognizable out of his costume. Or perhaps it was just me...
"This is the courier?" His eyebrows lifted and I couldn't blame him for expecting someone more experienced. Somebody older, maybe.
Natasha bumped her elbow in his side. "Not the best way to introduce yourself to a lady, Steve-"
"I'm sorry, it's just-" The hero struggled to find the words. "You're so young."
"I remember reading about you once. I don't think I'm that much younger than you when you enlisted," I told him. "They have billboards and exhibits of you all over South Korea. You're common knowledge now. I think they sold plushies of you too."
Natasha smirked at Captain America's dumbfounded expression then. "This is Alina. Fury was the one who ordered her retrieval," she told him.
Fury? The name echoed in my thoughts, cut short by Rex barking excitedly up at the super soldier, tailing wagging happily but he didn't budge from my side.
"Hey, bud." Captain America gave him a scratch between his ears. "I couldn't forget my favorite war dog."
Rex licked his hand and I smiled at the gesture, picturing the famous superhero caring for my dog while we'd been apart, training with him to be the same enhanced soldier he was meant to be, keeping each other safe in the midst of bloodshed and bullets. Memories that I had to miss out on. But without him, maybe Rex wouldn't be as decorated as he was then. Maybe he wouldn't even be alive.
"You replaced me with Captain America?" I murmured down at Rex and he let out a whine as if in protest.
"Please, just Steve," the superhero said.
I stood up from the bench then, Rex rising from his sitting position as well. "You asked to meet, so I guess that means you found answers?"
"We're close," Natasha responded so I carefully fished out the rolled up candy bag I held in my jacket pocket and traded it over. To any bystander, we were a few friends sharing snacks. Nothing suspicious about that.
But when Steve opened the bag and peered inside, he let out subtle sigh of relief at the flash drive buried under the pile of gummy bears.
"My favorite," Natasha smirked at the impromptu concealment and plucked the bag out of Steve's fingers. "You know me so well."
Steve turned back to me then. "Thank you," he said.
I shrugged. "Just doing my job." Rex barked again once like he was agreeing, making Steve pet his head again.
"We should plug this in before someone spots us." Natasha stowed the bag in the folds of her jacket then. "Keep your head down, O'Brien. We'll call you once we've extracted everything."
We quietly parted ways after that, heading in opposite directions but I wasn't ready to leave the mall just yet. It felt like I had been transported inside a snow globe, something you can only fantasize about and in reality only admire from the outside. All these people living their beautifully simple lives. They didn't know how lucky they were. They didn't know.
I'd just entered the food court when Rex started growling. Teeth bared in a silent vicious snarl like there was someone pointing a gun at my forehead but when I scanned the different heads dotting the tables, standing in line, I didn't spot any red flags - no invasive eyes. Not until I turned toward the parking lot entrance. I didn't recognize him but Rex did as his growls became more aggressive as the man stood close in front of the door, dressed all in black like a police officer and his eyes too harsh and jumpy to be a regular onlooker.
He raised his hand up to his ear then, lips moving fast like he was on the phone and when his eyes slide over mine, that was when I spun around and headed back towards the center floor. The ticking of Rex's paws against the floor quickened as he caught up with my stride, ears pointed stiff and his coal black eyes stared down everybody coming the opposite way. He must have known... he must have sensed the danger.
An uneasy tingle touched the back of my neck then and I recognized it as the feeling of being watching. I wanted to look behind me, but that would mean bad news. Worse if my gut instincts were right so I kept on going.
As hollow as it seemed, I felt okay surrounded by civilians and I told myself to keep moving through the crowds until I found an exit. There had to be more than one on each floor. I'd find it eventually.
Natasha sent a new message then.
S.T.R.I.K.E. has orders to apprehend. Get far away from here as you can.
I frowned in confusion. S.T.R.I.K.E.? Why did that name sound so-
Then I remembered.
Those men. The group of trained agents that Rex had worked with before, had been on his last mission with before they gave him back to me, who he remembered too. The ones who were here in this mall.
I looked up from the screen then, seeing one more man all in black walking in my direction and another appear at a set of escalators, high up the top where he could see the entire mall first floor. I made up my mind then.
I ran. I booked it straight ahead, dodging anyone and as many people I could, Rex's labored breaths inches behind as he followed like a shadow.
Don't look, I told myself. Don't look, don't look, don't look-
Because if I did give in and glanced behind me, I'd see those trained killers on my trail, growing closer and closer and I wouldn't know what to do with that much fear injected in my heart. I could hear their footsteps thundering after me already. It was enough to spur me on, to trust my reflexes and that one skill every courier drilled in their heads: follow the signs.
The direct exit outside the mall was too far at the opposite end of the first floor but I spotted an unmarked door tucked at the right corner. The employee's entrance maybe or a secret doorway to the underground parking lot.
My way to safety.
I shouldered through the door, letting Rex run ahead of me into an empty, murky grey walled hallway that went on like a train tunnel but I could see all the way down to the end at a black lettered EXIT door. Please be unlocked, I prayed. Please be unlocked, please-
A heavy, well muscled body crashed into my side then, right as I reached the point in the hallway where it forked off discreetly into a shorter corridor. The same corridor another member from S.T.R.I.K.E. jumped out from, knocking us both to the ground and he fell completely on top of me.
One hand squeezed my arm and he touched the radio at his ear with the other. "I have her. I have the courier."
I kicked my legs, making him grunt and move off my stomach as he tried to lock my hands behind my back, but I kept pushing and twisting. His much larger hand snaked around my throat while he reached to his belt for cuffs or his taser and the brief second he removed his weight from me, I slammed the heel of my hand into his nose, hearing a sickening crunch and thick, syrupy liquid dribble down my palm when he stumbled back enough for me to jump to my feet.
His fingers, long and callused, and coated in his own blood pouring out of his broken nose - like the hands of a demon - were inches from my face as he hurled himself at me but Rex's jaws clamped down hard on his arm. His teeth sunk low to the root in the man's skin and they both fell backwards to the floor, the man's agonizing roars echoing throughout the hall as he fought to break free.
"Rex!" I called to him before the man could hurt him and the sound of my voice made him tear his teeth away from the man's flesh, blood splattering all over the walls and me.
He moved to run back to my side and in that exact same moment, I saw the man take out his gun and aim it right at Rex.
"No!" I cried, my heart falling dead at the speed of him squeezing the trigger.
But Rex was faster. A streak of his black and golden brown coloring flew on top of the man, his powerful jaws locking around his throat, teeth crunching through skin and muscle. The man gave a strangled choke, his foot twitching one time before going still, pale lips parting with rivulets of blood. No light in his eyes.
Rex kept his bite tight for a moment, snarling lowly then ripped his teeth away, chunks of the man spilling out on the floor. His muzzle dripped with blood but when he turned toward me, I saw the round, unconditionally loving eyes of someone who wouldn't ever abandon me. Would never snap his canines at my touch. Who never stopped being that puppy I left behind back in 1999.
My childhood wasn't the only one's that died that night. It was his too.
I hugged him close to my chest, kissing the top of his furry head and stared over him at the dead man lying on the ground, eyes cloudy and frozen at the ceiling. He might have tried to hurt us, but knowing that didn't make his own death easier to witness.
It was nightfall when I came within minimum safe distance from the shopping center, hurrying to a jog once we hit the pavement of the parking lot as several passerbys shot us wide eyed looks and I even saw a couple people take out their cell phones. I'd forgotten that I had blood all over me. My heart pounded as I ran as far as I could before police sirens pierced the night air. Or worse... another S.T.R.I.K.E. agent found us.
I ran until I could no longer actively recognize my surroundings, exhaustion taking over and all I remembered next was waking up on a park bench, wetness soaking my cheeks as I blinked away images of the dead man from my memory. Tall and spindly tree branches, leaves trembling from the nightly breeze, hung overhead and I could see a dull twinkling of stars behind the green. I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up. Like a carved statue, Rex sat at attention in front of the bench as though he were keeping guard, listening for threats, watching over me while I slept.
Worry set in when I realized how late it must have been. Natasha hadn't contacted me since the mall exchange... and it'd been several hours since Rex had anything to eat.
Checking my phone one final time, something in my gut told me it'd be best to stop at a convenience store for Rex and head immediately straight for the apartment. I felt better about returning now that we did the trade. I was free from that seemingly inaccessible flash drive, the heaviest package I had to carry in a long time and my hands had came in contact with many.
Rex was weary too while I threw him pieces of dried meats from the supermarket on our way home, panting heavily between chomps of his dinner.
We were on the steps to the apartment complex when my cell phone rung and I picked up on the third ring.
"Alina O'Brien?" The strange voice spoke first and it wasn't at all who I expected. "Nick Fury sent me to bring you to safety. My name is Maria Hill."
Fury... that was the second time I heard that name.
"Is this about the flash drive?" I replied, my confusion scrambled brain making me think out loud. "But I already gave it to Natasha. She said she would call me but... that was a long time ago."
"Do you know where she is?"
"No. Not anymore." My thoughts drifted back to the shopping center and how the cops must have been called for what happened to that man. I was sure they had a much easier escape than I did... but the red headed agent had still yet to tell me they were both okay. "I'm sorry. I wish I could be more of a help."
"Actually," the woman named Maria on the other line said, "You can." She paused for a moment. "Fury knows what happened to your family."
The blood in my veins dropped to freezing temperature then, moisture pricking at the corner of my eyes and I quickly wiped them with my jacket sleeve before they spilled over. I couldn't let hope flare. It'd be too much, too dangerous, too foolish to succumb to blind positivity when there was so much I didn't know yet... so much I didn't understand. But I did... I did hope.
"It's all connected, isn't it? The flash drive and why S.H.I.E.L.D. was sent after me. Are my parents dead?"
"I don't know." Maria's tone was gentle. "If they aren't, Fury is the only one who can help you find them. But right now he could really use your help too."
My phone pinged again with a text message - a long cluster of coordinates that pointed to the center of town. Just a little farther than the shopping mall. It was already past midnight... I could've made it on foot in two hours if I really hurried.
Rex gave a low, throaty whine, gazing up at me with his head cocked to one side as if to say 'well? what are we gonna do?'
I took a deep breath and brought the phone back to my ear. "I'll be there soon."
A/N: Thank you for reading!
Chapter title reference: "It's All Over But the Crying" by The Ink Spots (1947)
The old movie playing in the beginning is Singin' in the Rain (1952).
