A/N:I hope you're all safe and not bored out of your mind for those in quarantine. If so, I hope this update will help. Take care ❤️

Steve and Hermione spent the night at Stark's Tower, back in what was already becoming "their" room. It did feel safer crashing in the high-tech, self-aware building instead of some random hotel where the receptionist or bellboy might be Hydra lunatics just waiting for the chance to take them out. Besides, now that they were on friendly terms with Stark and his dame, their stay wasn't nearly as awkward as before.

"You seem to get along better with Howard's son. I saw you two have an actual conversation last night, and you're more relaxed around him now," Hermione said as she rummaged in the drawers for a tee shirt to borrow for sleep.

"Yeah. Although… I guess I don't really see him as Howard's son most of the time now. They're both geniuses and terrible gossips, but that's about all they have in common."

"Well, for someone who loves to gossip, Tony sure knows how to keep his word. He didn't tell Pepper anything about me."

Steve's eyebrows shot up.

"Impressive. I would have thought he might at least have let slip you were a witch."

"Or a time traveller."

"Or lived in sin with me back in the day."

"That must have been particularly difficult."

Steve chuckled as he imagined the poor guy doing his best not to spill the beans to his sweetheart. It would be like him not sharing a secret with Hermione. It would eat him alive from inside. They might have been a bit hard on the poor guy, but on the bright side, he had proved his trustworthy he could be.

"By the way," Steve said as he suddenly remembered something. "What is it you saw in Fury's mind that made him so mad?"

Her cheeks flared red.

"That was entirely your fault."

"Oh, really?" Steve asked with some amusement

"You just had to mention a bed."

"Yeah?"

"Having sex on a large bed. You and me? Just what image do you think immediately popped into Fury's mind?"

A bark of laughter escaped him as he held his stomach, fighting not to devolve into a fit of giggles.

"It's not funny!" she exclaimed. "He's only human."

"Well, I'm glad to know he's not one of those cold-blooded lizards wearing human masks which are secretly governing our planet," he said, still chuckling.

He pulled Hermione into his arms so she'd stop being mad at him. He had only alluded to the bedchamber to wrong foot Fury after he had started to berate them for haring off without authorization. It was just a diversion. It never crossed his mind the Director would take a fancy to the idea.

"Dork," she mumbled against his chest, before pushing herself up on her toes to give him a kiss. "I'm going to ban you from the Internet. It's been a terrible influence on you."

Steve laughed and pulled her down with him on the bed, throwing the blankets over them, deciding she didn't need to go looking for nightclothes, especially if they were more of Stark's weird rock band shirts that looked like Hydra propaganda with all the skulls, reptiles, guns and overall violence depicted on them.

It had been a nice parenthesis. Just the two of them in a safe island of quiet. The calm before the proverbial storm. And that storm's name was Fury.

"Captain, Sargeant, I'm sorry to wake you," came Jarvis' voice from all around them, like a giant alarm clock you couldn't turn off or throw out the window. "But there's an informal meeting right this minute in the common room."

"Really?" Steve asked the ceiling, already fully awake.

"If this is Stark's idea of a prank, I'm going to dangle him upside down the side of the building for the rest of the day," Hermione grumbled, trying to bury herself further into the bed.

"I assure you that Sir is just as disgruntled, Sargeant," Jarvis answered more snappishly than usual.

"I don't think you should threaten its creator, love," Steve whispered as he tried to dig her out of her nest of blankets.

When they walked into the common area ten minutes later, Steve wasn't surprised to see Fury there with his two sidekick agents, namely Natasha and Clint. Agent Hill on the other hand… Steve didn't really know her much, but thought she might be Fury's right-hand man. Or woman, in this case, just like Peggy had been to Phillips. Steve slowed down. Hermione, noticing his change of pace, immediately scanned and analysed the scene. Natasha gave his witch a slight tilt of the head towards Hill, so Steve guessed they wanted Hermione to check her mind for HYDRA allegiances. Natasha didn't have her insignia however, only a wilted flower in its stead. The same Hermione had picked to create the insignia with magic in the first place. She had warned them those transformations from one object to another didn't last. Thank God for plan B.

"Hail Hydra," Steve said the way he would usually say good morning.

Agent Hill froze immediately, and Steve could see her thoughts scramble behind her dark eyes. They blinked rapidly a few times, before she glanced at her colleagues, as if expecting them to react. When they didn't, she looked back at him with narrowed eyes.

"I'm sorry. What did you say?" she asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.

"She's fine," Hermione said with a yawn before shuffling towards the kitchen area.

"I hope you didn't come here just for that," Steve told Fury while Natasha filled in agent Hill and Clint hurried to help in the kitchen when the coffee maker somehow started making purple smoke.

"Did I miss something?" Stark asked, covered in dark grease stains and wearing yesterday's clothes.

"Did you get any sleep?" Steve asked instead.

"I'll sleep when I'm dead. Well?"

"Just Agent Hill getting vetted by Hermione."

"Passed with flying colours, I see. Great. Our army of Hydra-repellant now numbers eight."

"Nine. You're forgetting Thor again."

"Who's number eight?" Fury demanded, interrupting their back and forth.

"Pepper."

Fury grunted in answer, as if disappointed by the name. Steve wondered who else he had expected. Banner? They would have to check where he stood eventually, but Steve was a bit terrified at the prospect of having to deal with a Hydra-Hulk on top of everything else. The green guy truly was unstoppable if even dropping him from several thousand feet only knocked him out temporarily.

Thankfully, the sweet aroma of coffee preceded Clint's return with a platter of coffee for everyone, and they all settled around the couches, eyes on Fury.

"SHIELD is compromised," he said bluntly.

The announcement was followed by a number of colourful curses and grumbling that he waited out.

"How deep and how high the infestation goes, I don't have a clue," he continued. "What I do know is that whatever they have planned has started already. There are files within SHIELD I cannot access."

"I thought you were the Director?" Stark said, a touch mocking.

"I am."

"So who's keeping you locked out of those files."

"Apparently, I am."

"Oho! Smart! No one is going to access those files if it says the Director doesn't want you to, until the Director himself tries to access them, but what are the chances of you doing that? So they hid their plans in plain sight, so to speak. Want me to set my A.I. on it?"

"Won't that alert Hydra we're onto them?" Fury muttered.

"Not unless they have better encryption than me, and I really doubt it."

"Do you need a backdoor?"

"Nope. Already set that up the last time I visited. I'd say I'm sorry, but we both know that would be a lie."

Steve was pretty sure Fury was trying to murder Stark with his one-eyed glare.

"I'm not sure I understood all of that," Steve said, shifting slightly to get in between the two men. "But do you think HYDRA will be so bold as to hide their own plans in SHIELD? Isn't that…"

"A bit tacky?" Stark asked. "Yeah, sure, but I mean, did you see their uniforms? And their mascot. They have mastered tacky and are proud of it for some unfathomable reason. Plus, you know what they say: best way to hide a tree is in a forest."

Steve frowned.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how the saying goes," he said.

"But you get my meaning?"

Steve nodded and Stark grinned.

"There you go then, Cap. Besides, if it turns out to be their grocery list instead, it's no biggie. Jarvis can multi-task, so we won't have wasted any time or resources."

"Do it," Fury ordered.

It was gruelling work, trying to sort the good from the bad, but everyone kept their eyes and ears open. Hermione took the habit of scanning the surface thought of everyone she met on the off chance they were thinking of ruling over the world, and, as it turned out, seeing her, Lady Liberty, Captain America, or both of them together, nearly always triggered death threats to surface the thoughts of Hydra supporters and admiration from their fans. Or course there was the whole middle ground they couldn't place one way or another but the two lists they were keeping of the good and rotten apples was growing, slowly, but steadily.

Not enough to overthrow Hydra however, and they were no closer to finding Bucky either. It was disheartening, so of course, the situation only got worse.

"Sir," Jarvis called out, sounding uncertain despite his synthetic voice. "Someone is bleeding out in the back alley, next to the dumpsters. A preliminary scan seems to indicate it is Director Fury."

It was only him, Hermione and Tony that day looking over the progress Jarvis had made in ferreting out suspicious activity. The A.I. was a great help, but he couldn't always draw the line between regular everyday petty crimes and organized modern nazi conspiracy. They hadn't expected this sort of information however.

"Fury?" Tony repeated as if he couldn't quite wrap his mind around the idea.

"Bleeding out?" Steve added as he got up, ready to run down the whole damn building if he had to.

"I'll get him," Hermione intervened, disappearing with a loud crack one second and reappearing with a small pop the next, kneeling next to the bloodied SHIELD director.

"Not on the carpet," Tony moaned. "Pepper is going to kill me."

"You're right. He'll be more comfortable on the sofa," Hermione said and floated him there, ignoring Tony's whine when the crimson blood splattered across the white leather.

Steve bit back a smile, knowing Hermione could just clean everything up with a swish of her wand. If she enjoyed reading Tony, Steve knew she wouldn't want to besmirch Pepper's carefully chosen furniture. Apparently, a swish of Hermione's wand was all it took to heal Fury because he had already stopped bleeding. Steve loved magic.

"Why's he not waking up?" Tony asked, trying to poke Fury's flank where there had been a bullet hole just a few moments ago.

"Blood loss, I guess," Hermione replied with a shrug. "I don't have blood replenishing potions, so we'll have to wait for him to wake up when he's ready."

The silence that followed was heavy as they all pondered the same question.

"Who?" Steve finally asked, because he was always willing to accuse Hydra first chance he got, but he may be a bit biased.

"Hydra. Who else?" Tony replied immediately and steve kind of wanted to high-five him for once.

"We can't know that for sure," Hermione reasonned. "I bet Fury has made a lot of enemies in his long career."

"True. But who else has a long enough arm to actually knock our pirate king off his throne?" Tony argued.

Hermione conceded the point, especially because Tony was much more aware than either of them of the current big players in the world. It was scary to think Hydra was already onto them when they had barely began organizing themselves to oppose them.

"Do we have a mole already?" Steve asked.

"Impossible," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "Those we let in on the big secret would rather die than betray us for Hydra."

"A spy then? Maybe someone overheard-"

A wet cough interrupted him and they all looked down to see Fury had already recovered. Steve was impressed. For a normal human, he was surprisingly resilient, and even if he didn't look well, what with the light sheen of sweat glistening on his bald head and the greyish tinge to his skin, he had the merit to be awake.

"Motherfucker," he muttered, causing Steve's eyebrows to rise. "That hurt like a bitch."

Fury's hand glided down his side, poking himself curiously before pulling his black shirt down.

"I guess I have you to thank for my miraculous recovery?" he asked Hermione.

His girl shrugged and looked away.

"Let's get down to business, then."

"Starting by who ruined your favourite shirt?" Tony asked. "Because we have a betting pool going on and I can't wait to fleece the witch."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but returned her focus on the Director, as curious as they were to learn how he had almost been taken out of the picture when they so desperately needed allies. Fury sighed, like he was doing them a great favour by even talking to them, but to Steve, he almost looked embarrassed.

"Hydra."

"Knew it!" Tony exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air before thinking better of it. "I mean, damn, that sucks."

"Why did they come after you now?" Steve asked, stirring the conversation back to where it needed to be.

Fury grumbled, eye staring without blinking for too long before he looked away.

"There's a project SHIELD has been working on for some time. You've seen the first if its kind, the helicarrier."

"There's more?" Tony asked.

"More. Better," Fury agreed. "The alien invasion has fast tracked the project too, more so because the original prototype has been badly damaged and the World Council feels vulnerable if a second wave happens."

"Better?" Tony asked suspiciously. "Better how?"

"They are weaponizing these units to the extreme. The purpose of Project Insight is to target and wipe out threats before they even make a blip on the radar. I was backing the project before you dropped the H bomb my face."

"That's… terrifying," Hermione said. "If Hydra get their hands on those Helicarriers…"

"Which is why I've been trying to waylay the project, but someone high up is pushing funds and granting authorization every damn time I put my damn foot in the cogwheels, so I've had to take a more hands on approach."

"Sabotage?" Tony asked gleefully. "You should have invited me along! I'm great at making things go boom."

"The point was not being obvious about it, keep Hydra focused on this one project while never obtaining it rather than looking our way, but evidently, I failed. They must have realized I knew about their existence and decided to take care of the problem."

"What now? If they know we know-"

"Just me. The rest of you keep on as usual. I'll have to go underground, and hope they assume I died in some shithole somewhere."

"I can help with that," Hermione said. "So they know you died. Hydra doesn't assume. They'll hunt you down until they can put your head on a pike."

Fury raised a brow as if daring her to deliver on her claim. Hermione looked around, levitated a cushion, then turned it into a perfect copy of Fury, one wand flick at a time, like a sculptor giving life to clay. Steve couldn't help himself, he poked it.

"Amazing," he said.

"Creepy," Stark added, giving the copy a poke himself.

"It does look dead," Fury muttered, nudging it with the tip of his boot. "Shouldn't it look injured?"

"I suppose," Hermione agreed, raising her wand once more.

"Wait!" Steve exclaimed as an idea struck him. He looked Fury up and down. "You're tough to kill."

"Your point?" he growled.

"I'm guessing Hydra didn't just send any random chum after you. They'd send their best to make a clean job of it."

Hermione shuddered next to him and he recalled her telling them about her own capture by one of the Red Skull's flunkies, how ruthless he had been, lining them up on their knees in the snow with guns at their heads… He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, eyes steady on Fury.

"I'd hardly call it clean," Fury replied after a considering minute, his hand gesturing at the blood everywhere. "But yeah, the guy they sent was one scary son of a bitch, With backup too, and armed to the teeth."

Tony's eyes were round at the directors admission of finding anything scary, let alone one man, but Steve couldn't help the grin that split his face.

"Good. They take you out of the game, I think it's only fair we take him out in retaliation."

"Are you suggesting using me as bait?" Fury snapped.

Steve shook his head.

"No, sir. Not you. Him."

Steve pointed at the dummy.

"Not sure he's going to fall for it. Like I said, it looks pretty dead already," Fury said, but he wasn't rejecting the idea completely.

"Can you animate it?" Steve asked Hermione.

"Puppet Fury," Tony cut in, fidgeting on the spot like a kid trying not to grab the last cookie. "So many puns."

"Don't," Fury said, then glared at Hermione. "So? Can you?"

"I could if you had hair," she sniped back, looking pointedly at his shiny bald head.

Tony's fidgeting got worse during the silence that followed.

"I have hair, elsewhere," Fury said flatly.

Tony was whistling like a kettle now and Steve had to admit he had been good at keeping his usual gallows humour to a minimum since Jarvis warned them or Fury's presence. Still, he couldn't believe they were now discussing the director's capillary capital, and that the issue was vital to their plan to strike Hydra.

"Chest hair, Stark. Don't you dare suggest anything else," Fury told Stark who mimed locking his lips tight and throwing away the key.

"We can always try," Hermione sighed, holding out her hand.

At Fury unimpressed glare, she conjured a pair of tweezers in her outstretched hand, which he took, plucking a chest hair with as much dignity as he could muster before returning the items to Hermione.

"So weird. So, so weird," Stark mumbled.

The hair was placed on the dummy's forehead and, after a soft chant from Hermione, it glowed and sank into the dummy. They were all holding their breath, waiting for something to happen, even Hermione.

"Well?" Fury demanded.

"Well what? I've never actually done this before. It's not like I need a dummy man every other day."

Steve narrowed his eyes at Tony who was bursting at the seams.

"Tony. No," he warned.

"But you guys are killing me, positively killing me. Do you even hear yourselves? It's like I'm living in a sitcom. I can hear the recorded laughs."

"Sitcom?" he asked.

"Really, Cap? I bet your better half knows what it is."

Except she didn't care. While they had been bickering, Hermione had gotten the dummy to breathe and blink. The motions didn't look quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on why it seemed wrong either.

"Good enough, I suppose," Fury said, eying it critically.

"So where do we set up the trap? Where's you hidey hole? The place you go to lick your wounds?" Stark asked.

"I came here, didn't I?" He muttered in reply.

"Yeah, but here isn't a good place for a trap. You need to look vulnerable so the Hydra clean-up crew can kill you for good this time and give us a chance to capture their best assassin."

Fury sighed. He had a place in mind, Steve knew it.

"Gine. But if I find anyone of you has gone through my sock drawer," he warned, looking at Tony in particular, "You're gonna wish I stayed dead."