January 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON, D.C

Time of Death: 1:03 AM

He was gone.

Fury had died.

He was dead.

Steve thought of the last thing Fury had said to him, 'Don't trust anyone.' Those were Nick Fury's dying words to Steve. A warning. Trust no one. The hospital had been shut down, only SHIELD allowed inside and their team of doctors who had taken over Fury's care.

Steve stood in the hallway, holding the flash drive in his hand. He shoved it in his pocket when he watched as Maria Hill and Natasha followed after the doctors who had worked on Fury, taking him to a private area where they could say their goodbyes.

He stayed in the room with Natasha for however long she needed. He understood that Fury meant a lot to her. She just stood there, arms folded over her chest, tears in her eyes as she looked down at Fury. She hadn't moved for a whole five minutes. Natasha was frozen.

Maria came in and stood next to Steve, watching Natasha before she cleared her throat to let Natasha know she was in the room. But of course, Natasha already knew.

"I need to take him." Maria told Natasha. Steve looked to Maria and then back to Natasha, before he headed in her direction, wanting to show her some comfort.

"Natasha," He said her name in a whisper, But, Natasha didn't respond to Maria or Steve. Instead, she moved her hand over Fury's head, tenderly, and made her way to the exit with Steve hurrying after her. "Natasha!" He called out her name again.

She stopped this time, eyes puffy and red but an emotionless mask on her face. "Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha asked once she faced Steve.

Don't trust anybody.

Natasha was a friend...right? He could trust her.

Don't trust anybody.

Steve shrugged. "I don't know." He lied.

"Cap," Rumlow said from behind him, making his way over to them. Steve turned and face him, "They want you back at SHIELD."

"Yeah," Steve told Rumlow, "Give me a second," He turned back to Natasha but looked back to Rumlow when he spoke again.

"They want you now." His voice was stern.

Steve looked to Brock, slightly annoyed. "Okay." He said and Rumlow turned and walked in the other direction.

He looked back at Natasha. She shook her head at him, "AJ was right...you're a terrible liar." She said and then walked away from Steve too.

He stood in the hallway for a long moment, hands on his hips as he looked around – the flash drive needed to be somewhere safe. That's when something caught his eye. A vending machine that was currently being re-stocked.

Steve hid the flash drive behind a row of bubble gum and headed over to Rumlow.

AJ was right, you're a terrible liar.

He stopped dead in his tracks.

AJ.

She should be here – why wasn't she here? Steve turned around and started heading towards the door only to have Rumlow follow after him. "Rogers – we gotta go!" He told him, "They're waiting for you at the Triskelion."

He shook his head, "AJ isn't here – I left her a message earlier but she's not here." Rumlow cut Steve off.

"-I already sent some men over there to check on her when she didn't pick up my call either. I would have gone myself if I wasn't needed elsewhere – my guys are bringing her to the Triskelion as we speak. She's good. Just turned her phone off."

Don't trust anybody.

"We gotta get going, come on – you'll see her there." Brock said, ushering Steve back to where they were supposed to be heading.

He didn't know if he could trust Rumlow.

He didn't know if he could trust Natasha.

But Steve did know one thing: AJ was the one person he truly trusted.

And if she was headed to the Triskelion, he would go there too.

Steve looked at his watch.

5:30 AM.

Had that many hours passed already?

_

January 10th, 2014 - Washington, D.C

5:30 AM

AJ woke up earlier than she had planned – earlier than she would have liked to be awake. But her body was telling her to get up and start her morning routines. It was instinct. A way to keep AJ busy before she went into work. But today she wouldn't be going to the Triskelion because Fury had told her stay on bed rest for the next few days. So, AJ got out of bed and got in the shower.

She winced when the water hit her skin, the stab wound not fully healed yet causing the hot water to sting against the vulnerable skin. AJ pressed her fingers to her cheek, still feeling the cut when she had fallen to the ground, slicing open her cheek.

Those wounds should be fully healed now – why were they still there?

AJ finished her shower and got dressed, her phone still powered off on her dresser. Rumlow had ordered her to go offline for the next few days and that if someone truly needed to get in touch with her, they knew where to find her.

She would have argued if she wasn't so damn tired. AJ had turned her phone off and had been unreachable to anyone who tried to call her. Though, she doubted she had any missed calls. Maybe Jordan called to check in, or Natasha – but she didn't think anyone else would call.

Maybe Fury. He had seemed worried when he last saw her.

AJ walked into her kitchen and made a fresh pot of coffee, while she waited, AJ walked into her living room and sat down on her couch. She ran her hands down her face and then through her hair. How was she still tired? AJ blinked, trying to wake herself up as her fingers played with the chain around her neck and Bucky's dog tags rested right above her heart. And that's when she saw it.

Getting up slowly, AJ walked over to the table that was pressed against the wall that she used as a desk. The picture of herself, Erskine, and Howard – the picture she always placed on the table in the exact same spot was facing the wrong way, the frames backside facing her. AJ walked over to the table and grabbed the picture, turning it over and saw that the picture inside the frame was gone.

The frame was empty.

Someone had taken her picture.

Which meant someone had been in her apartment.

There was a beeping noise coming from the kitchen behind her but AJ continued to look at the frame in confusion. Why would someone come into her apartment and take that picture? AJ listened as the beeping continued and realized that it was now her coffee maker telling her that her drink was ready – no, it sounded like an alarm.

No...not an alarm.

A countdown.

AJ spun around, raising her hands up just in time to create an ice wall to protect her from the explosion that came from her kitchen. But the wall didn't hold and the explosion knocked AJ against the farther wall while the windows in her apartment blew out, glass shattering onto the ground below causing people to scream in a panic.

AJ groaned, holding onto her head, feeling a warmth coming from the back of her head. She moved her hand away from her head and looked down to see her fingers were bloody. There was a ringing in her ears and all AJ could really hear was her own pulse. She blinked, trying to see through the smoke as she moved herself up with the help of the wall she had been thrown into. That's when she saw STRIKE team run into her apartment, their guns raised at her and began to fire. She dodged to bullets by ducking behind the nearest piece of furniture still left standing. She rolled on her side and kicked the back of the couch with as much strength she could muster and watched it slide across the floor, hitting STRIKE team's legs, making them fall backwards.

She got up and went after them just as two of them began to stand. The other two were passed out on the ground. AJ was able to disarm the ones who were standing of their weapons and fought them, hand to hand combat. Though, they did try to pull out the occasional knife which AJ was always able to avoid. She really didn't feel like getting stabbed again. Especially since her first stab wound hadn't healed yet. The other two agents woke up, joining the rest of STRIKE team to go after her. She was outnumbered – she could fight them all.

As they ran at her, guns pointed in her direction, AJ knocked them back with a gush of cold air, sending them flying to the other side of her apartment. She managed to escape, dodging the other STRIKE team members who were coming up the stairs. She couldn't just walk out the front door – and SHIELD agents were headed her way. So, AJ headed to the roof and climbed down the fire escape and ran down the alley until she was at least seven blocks away from her building.

Someone had just tried to kill her.

And it wasn't even 6 AM.

Natasha had wanted time to process, time to herself where she didn't have to talk to anyone about what she was feeling or show any emotions that she didn't want them to see. A part of her had urged herself to go to Jordan's apartment. The other part had told her to go to AJ's.

She had made up her mind when she got an alert on her phone from SHIELD saying that Steve Rogers was now a wanted fugitive and needed to be hunted down. They called her in to locate him. Natasha ditched her phone and headed to AJ's apartment.

Natasha had the flash drive Steve had thought he had hidden, probably proud of how clever he thought it was – it wasn't. People were all around him when he had the flash drive in the vending machine. And he owed her twenty bucks that she wasted trying to get the flash drive out without smashing the glass and simply taking it out. No, that'd draw too much attention. So, she put in a dollar and waited until the very last pack of bubble gum dropped and the flash drive appeared.

It was the drive she had given to Fury from the data she had collection on the Lemurian Star.

Natasha knew he'd be going back to the hospital for the flash drive, but she also knew it was too risky to show his face around the city. He'd wait until things died down a bit, when everything was less chaotic and he'd be able to sneak in undetected.

That's why she had gone to AJ's apartment.

Her building was surrounded by fire trucks, part of the building missing, firemen and paramedics were running into the building to see if there were any survivors from the floor level that got hit.

AJ's floor.

The explosion had come from her apartment – those were her windows that fire was coming out of. Natasha held her breath as she watched paramedics coming out carrying someone on a gurney, a white sheet covering their body.

She waited for what felt like hours and listened carefully as the paramedics began to try and identify whoever was under the sheet.

"Female, 5'4", skin is too burnt for facial recognition, but she was found in the apartment where the explosion went off. We believe the woman is Adelyn Frost, the tenet. She died on impact from the explosion."

Natasha felt sick but kept her emotions at bay. Fury was dead – AJ was, no, might be dead. She did not know that it was AJ. AJ was a survivor, she had already looked death in the face numerous times and told it to piss off – she couldn't be dead. Natasha refused to believe it. Because AJ was too important to Natasha to ever think of losing. She had grown soft since working for SHIELD.

Barton, Coulson, Fury, and now Frost – she yet again found herself in a situation where she was compromised. Losing Fury was hard, but the thought of never seeing AJ again was damn near devastating. Natasha shouldn't have left yesterday – she should have stayed and made sure that AJ healed properly. But she didn't. Natasha knew that AJ was more than capable of handling herself and they had both believed Jordan when she told them that AJ would heal within a few hours. But now Natasha stood near the scene of the explosion and watched as they put the body in the back of a coroner's van.

Natasha walked over to the coroner's van, making sure she wasn't seen. She waited until no one was near to get inside the van from the back and go to the black body bag they had placed the body in. It took her a minute before she finally moved to unzip the bag but heard the car door open from up front and felt the weight of someone getting into the car.

She waited until they were a few blocks away until she pressed her gun to the driver's head, hearing him take in a shaky breath as the gun clicked. "Keep driving." Natasha ordered him. "And do not make a scene. Do you understand?"

The man nodded, breathing hard.

"Do you work for SHIELD?"

"No. I'm the coroner for St. Joseph's. I'm supposed to take the body there and SHIELD will pick it up." He answered. "But, I, I don't, I don't work for SHIELD. I'm just delivering the body."

"You said the body you found was Adelyn Frost."

"The body was found in her apartment."

"So, it might not be her?"

"Height and weight are a match for the body we found. Female, early thirties, I'm not the one who is going to do that autopsy. But I'm sorry, everything points to the body being Adelyn Frosts."

Natasha swallowed hard, closing her eyes for a moment. She hadn't got a look at the body – and if she turned around to go look, the driver (who claimed not to work for SHIELD) she would be exposed to attack. "-The body. Was it wearing dog tags?"

"D-dog tags?" He said in confusion. "I, I don't under-" Natasha pressed the gun into his head a bit harder. "The body had no jewelry on it – no military dog tags."

The body wasn't AJ's. Since the moment AJ was given Bucky's dog tags after waking up in 2010 she had not taken them off. They were always hanging around her neck. The only thing she had left of him to clutch on to. There was no way in Hell AJ wouldn't be wearing the dog tags – not even a possibility.

"Pull over." Natasha told the man and waited until he pulled into an alley and turned off the engine before hitting him in the back of the head with the butt of her gun, knocking him unconscious.

She was alive.

Natasha didn't lose her.

She was alive and somewhere in the city.

And knowing AJ, the first person she'd try to find would be Steve.

So, Natasha stole a car and went to the hospital where she knew Steve would be.

_

Steve watched from across the street as they had brought the body out. His eyes went to where the explosion had come from. AJ's apartment. It was her floor, her window – and Steve knew that better than anyone because he had stayed with her after she was released from the compound – he knew the view, he knew how many steps it took until he was at AJ's door – he knew that AJ's apartment was just above a woman who always had her plants out in the sun each morning.

The flowers were dead.

As was AJ.

Steve bit down on the inside of her lower lip, unshed tears burning in his eyes. He had spent so much time avoiding her – and now she was gone. One of the only things left of Steve old life, and now that was taken from him too.

SHIELD.

Don't trust anybody.

He knew that SHIELD had done this – especially after Rumlow and some of STRIKE team had attacked him in the elevator. And the son of a bitch Rumlow had sent people to AJ's apartment to 'get her' to bring her back to the Triskelion. Rumlow had killed AJ. He might not have done the deed himself, but it was him, Steve knew it deep down in his soul.

Steve watched as the coroner's van drove away, his eyes leaving the destruction of the explosion briefly when he heard the car start up.

AJ had kissed him.

Steve had kissed her back.

She missed Bucky.

And he missed Peggy.

He knew it was wrong to keep kissing her but it had been the first time he had been kissed since Peggy. When she had grabbed him by his uniform and pulled his lips down to hers he wasn't think straight. He missed Peggy, and he had been too scared to go see her while was in D.C - but after AJ had kissed him, in an intoxicated state believing he was Bucky – Steve finally went to go see Peggy. He had watched as tears filled her eyes upon seeing him again. The doctors explained her condition to him, but Steve had already known about it. He had wasted too much time not going to see Peggy. He had wasted too much time avoiding AJ because of the kiss.

The kiss shouldn't have happened. But it made him realize that what he wanted, what he'd always want, was something he could never have now. No, not AJ. Peggy Carter.

Adelyn Frost was Bucky's girl. She had been from the very first time Bucky had laid eyes on her.

And Peggy – she was Steve's best girl. He'd love her forever. Steve would continue to dream at night about the life he could have had with Peggy if he hadn't crashed landed and wake up in the morning feeling empty. It had been that way since he moved back to D.C, knowing that that was where Peggy was. So, when AJ had kissed him, he felt less hollow for a moment. He felt less alone.

But then she had said Bucky's name and he realized that it should have never happened in the first place.

He wasted so much time.

And Steve knew that if it had never happened, or if he had just spoken to her about everything, that AJ would not have been alone. She wouldn't be hurt – she wouldn't be...dead.

She was gone.

His best friend was dead.

And Steve felt a painful hollowness in his chest.

Why her?

Steve's eyes widened when he remembered what he had in his pocket.

He ducked into a nearby alley and pulled the folded-up piece of paper out of his pocket, nearly ripping it in half when he opened it.

Jordan had written to Steve telling him her theory, about her suspicions, that while AJ was in isolation, there had been doctors other than Jordan working on her, taking samples from her. Jordan explained how when she saw the way AJ would sleep most of the day (unless she was training), she thought it had been depression, that AJ was losing all hope of ever leaving the compound, that she was feeling alone.

No, they had been doing something to her (that what Jordan believed). Pierce had locked Jordan out of her records after Steve had left and she was not able to see if it had been documented in her records if anything was given to her.

There were no puncture wounds. No incisions. But they had been making her drink a protein shake before she trained each time. Around the time they started making her drink those shakes was when AJ's powers started to weaken. Jordan hadn't put two and two together, she thought that her powers were affected by her mood.

But they were giving her something.

They had somehow found a way to weaken her, to make her vulnerable.

It had worked.

And now she was dead.

Steve crumpled up the paper and threw it as he through the alley and headed to the hospital.

They would pay for this.

He would make sure of that.

When he got to the hospital, Steve looked at the vending machine in slight horror to discover that the row of gum he had hid the flash drive behind was gone – as was the drive.

The sound of someone popping their bubble gum behind them caused Steve to look in the vending machines reflection to see that Natasha was standing behind him, chewing gum. Don't trust anybody. In an angry state, Steve grabbed Natasha by the shoulders and pushed her into an empty room, shoving her up against the nearest wall. "Where is it?" He growled.

Natasha glared at Steve, "Safe."

"Do better!"

"Where did you get it?" Natasha shot back at Steve.

"Why would I tell you?" He snapped at her.

Steve watched as realization swept over Natasha's features. "Fury gave it to you. Why?"

"-What's on it?" Steve wanted answers.

"I don't know." Natasha said back.

His grip on her arms tightened, "Stop lying!"

She seemed surprised by his outburst, but why would she? Fury was dead, he was just attacked by SHIELD, and on top of that...AJ. He watched as Natasha glared at him, "I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"

She blinked a few times, "Well, it makes sense – the ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."

He was done with riddles. Steve pushed Natasha against the wall again. He knew that if AJ were here (alive) she'd have smacked him upside the head for being so rough with Natasha, but AJ was dead. And it seemed like Natasha was protecting the people who killed her, "-I'm not going to ask you again!"

"I know who killed Fury." Natasha finally admitted. Steve waited for her to give him more information, his grip on her arms loosening, "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So, he's a ghost story." Steve wasn't asking a question – the whole thing just sounded like someone people made up to scare new agents. Or, him.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." Natasha said, pulling up her shirt to reveal a scar on the right side of her stomach from the bullet, "Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."

Steve didn't know what to say to that, "Yeah," He finally spoke. "I bet you look terrible in them."

That earned just the slightest hint of smile from Natasha. "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." Natasha pulled out the flash drive and Steve's eyes went to her hand that was holding it. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

He took the drive. Steve wasn't sure if he could fully trust Natasha, but she was handing him over something he needed as a sign of good faith. And if AJ were with him she'd tell him to stop being an idiot and to let Natasha help. So, he would. "Well," He looked down at Natasha, "Let's go find out what this ghost wants."

Steve stepped back but Natasha grabbed him by his arm, "We can't go yet. We need to wait until AJ makes contact."

She didn't know.

Steve looked down at Natasha, "Jay is dead, Nat." He ripped off the band aid.

"No, she's not." Natasha said, nonchalantly.

What?

"Someone put a bomb in her apartment – I went to her building and watched them bring out her body. She's...gone, I'm sorry." Steve swallowed hard. "Jay is dead."

"I was there too." Natasha told him and Steve looked down at her in confusion, "And the body they brought down wasn't AJ's."

"H-how, how would you know that?" He asked.

"No dog tags."

Steve's brows pinched together. "What?"

"Barnes' dog tags." Natasha clarified. "She has not taken them off since we first gave them to her when she woke up – not even once. The body did not have dog tags around its neck."

"They...maybe they took them off?" He suggested, wanting desperately to believed Natasha but finding it hard to accept. "The explosion came from her apartment – there is no way she could have survived that."

"Her powers."

"-They aren't as strong as they are supposed to be," Steve explained to Natasha what Dr. Connors had given him, the note where she told him her beliefs and why she wasn't healing the way she should and why her powers were growing weaker, therefore, making her weaker. "AJ wouldn't have been able to block the explosion...and after seeing the building...we both know she didn't."

Natasha shook her head, "The dog tags-"

Steve cut her off, "I don't want to believe it either, Natasha."

"She's not dead!" Natasha rose her voice, glaring at Steve. "Do not give up on her."

How can you give up?! He could still hear AJ saying from all those years back when he called off the search for Bucky. Bucky would never give up on you!

"How will she get in touch with us?" Steve asked Natasha.

She took in deep breath, as if she were glad that Steve was no longer fighting her on this. "AJ is resourceful. She'll find a way."

_

January 10th, 2014 - Lancaster, Pennsylvania

In July it would be three years.

Three years since Brian Frost died, leaving his twin; Andrew Frost, to suffer in this world alone. The two had been inseparable since the womb – they day that Brian died was the day Andrew lost a part of his soul. He left SHIELD. The only reason he even agreed to work with SHIELD was because of Brian. He wanted to help protecting their country and after they had both learned that their Aunt had worked for the SSR back in the 40's, the more intrigued Brian became. But Andrew always had a bad feeling about SHIELD. Especially when they came to the Frost Twins and told them that their Aunt who had worked for the SSR in the 40's was still alive.

Two days.

That's all it took.

Two days of knowing their aunt before Brian was killed, taking a bullet in his head that was meant for their Aunt, the bullet piercing right through the middle of his forehead, killing him instantly. It was meant for Adelyn. Not Brian. His brother died because of her and Andrew told her that much. He screamed at her, telling her that he wished that they had never met her – that he wished that she would died back in 1945 because if she were dead – his brother would be next to him instead of her.

He hated her.

And she never even bothered to come to Brian's funeral.

Why did his father speak so highly of her? She was a damn coward.

Andrew had asked to take some time off and SHIELD agreed, once that was over he asked to be transferred from out of D.C. And they had allowed that to happen as well. But it was just too much. He had never wanted to be a SHIELD agent, that had been Brian's dream. And Brian was dead.

He left SHIELD in 2012 and never looked back, cutting all ties with the government organization and moved to Pennsylvania.

Andrew had a simple life in Lancaster, a steady job as a security guard, a small house that was the perfect size for just one person, he had even adopted a cat the year before named Freckles. It was a quiet life, the kind he had always secretly wanted. And even though a part of him was gone, he continued to live. Because Brian would never forgive him for shutting himself off to the world, locked away in a room drinking until he died. Because that's what he had wanted to do. But he had looked at a picture of him and Brian from when they were ten and realized that he would only be letting his brother down if he drank himself to death.

Pulling up the long driveway in the wooded area of Lancaster, Andrew was greeted by his cat running down the front porch to his car. He chuckled, parking the car in his usual spot and turned off the engine before opening his door to let Freckles jump in.

It was something the cat always did, his little way of welcoming Andrew home. But Freckles didn't jump up in the car, he just meowed until Andrew got out of the car and ran right to the front porch, meowing loudly until Andrew was standing next to him. He watched as the cat ran through the cat door he had installed and listened from the other side of the door as the cat continued to meow.

"You hungry?" Andrew asked, unlocking the front door with his keys.

When Andrew stepped inside the house, something felt off. Everything was in the right place but Freckles was acting so strange, meowing at Andrew until he followed him. Being cautious, Andrew grabbed the gun he had strapped to the bottom of the end table by his couch and followed after Freckles, who led him down the hall and into the master bedroom where he found towels on the floor of his bedroom covered in blood.

He stopped when he heard the sound of water running from his bathroom, walking slowly to where there was yet another bloody towel in front of it, as well as a bloody handprint on the door. When he opened his bathroom door, he found someone laying facedown on the ground. He set his gun down and quickly went to the person, turning them over to try and help.

Adelyn.

His aunt.

"What the hell?" He whispered. Adelyn was shaking as he moved her a little to get a better view of her injures. "-What happened?"

"Ice." She said, teeth chattering.

"Hu?"

Stab wound on her should, split cheek, bleeding coming from her head, and a nasty burn on her left arm. What the hell had happened? And why the hell had she come to his house?

He followed her finger as she pointed to the bathtub, next to it was four large bags of ice. "Ice." She said again, followed by. "Bath."

"You want me to put you in an ice bath?" Andrew looked down at her, so very confused. She nodded her head in a fast motion, teeth still chattering. Why the hell would she want him to put her in an ice bath? She had already lost too much blood – she needed to go to the hospital.

"Please," She continued to point to the bath. "Trust...me."

He hated her. She was the reason why his brother was dead. But their father taught them a saying a long time ago. Family over everything. And Adelyn Frost was the only family member he had now. So, Andrew gently set her back down on the ground and began to open the bags of ice, dumping them in the already freezing cold water filled bathtub that was currently overflowing. He turned off the water and continued to dump bags of ice into the water.

When the ice was all gone, Andrew moved back over to Adelyn and began to lift her. "Help." She said.

"I'm trying." He replied.

"No," he felt her smack his chest with her hand.

"Hey, hey - it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

Adelyn shook her head, moving her hand down to hit her stomach. "Shirt." She said. "Off."

There was no time to argue, so he lifted the shirt off of Adelyn, leaving her pants on and set her down in the bathtub. When she was inside, her body slowly became submerged by the water and before Andrew could move to lift her up, the entire bathtub froze over and he had to run out of his bedroom when the ground that the water had touched began to freeze as well.

He watched, breathing hard, as the entire bathroom froze over. He fell backwards, tripping over the bloody towels and fell on the floor. Andrew sat there for seven more minutes when the first bits of ice began to crack on the ground. And then more of the ice started to crack until the whole room exploded with ice shards and Andrew quickly rolled out of the way of being hit.

After a few minutes, the shattering stopped and Andrew got up off the floor. From inside the bathroom, he could hear the sound of footsteps coming his way, and Adelyn walked out of the bathroom, only in her pants and bra.

The burn on her arm was gone, the cut on her cheek was just a faded scar now, and her stab wound was barely open any more. Andrew walked over to Adelyn, moving behind her to see where the blood had been coming from the back of her head and found nothing there, just her wet hair covering a perfectly healthy scalp.

He stepped back around to look his Aunt in the eyes, quickly taking his jacket off and handing it over to her. Adelyn covered herself and when she finally looked back up at him, she took in a deep breath. "We need to get out of town."

Seriously?

"It's not safe here."

"-Not safe?!" Andrew laughed, "-Are you joking? I just watched you become...reborn from an ice bath? You're the only thing that's not safe here!"

"It's a long story, Andrew, and I promise that I will explain on the way to New York, but we need to go." Adelyn walked over to his nightstand and pulled open one of the drawers and grabbed a black t-shirt, slipping out of his jacket and put it on, and then slipped back into his jacket. The shirt was too big for her but she tucked it into her jeans. The jacket she'd just have to deal with. "Do you have any more guns?" She asked, opening more drawers.

"...No," Andrew said and walked into the bathroom to grab the one he had set down. Which was completely frozen now. "I did have a gun but my bathroom froze over and now it's a damn icicle." His voice grew harsh, "-What the hell is going on Adelyn?"

She looked over at him, brows raised.

"What?" He said, feeling somehow exposed. He crossed his arms over his chest.

She smiled a little, shaking her head. "You sounded just like Sam, your Uncle. He'd say my name like that whenever he was furious with me." She began to laugh and Andrew started to worry if the cold had done something to her brain because she sounded down right delirious. Once she was done laughing, she took in a shaky breath. "You sounded like Sam." Her voice shook when she said his name. And then tears filled her eyes and turned her back to him as she began to cry.

Andrew frowned.

She was grieving. For the first time, it seemed.

He watched as she quickly composed herself, back still facing him as she ran her hands down her face and wiped away in tears she may have shed and then turned back to face him. "We need to leave."

She was scared. But not for herself, Andrew realized. Adelyn was scared for him. He opened his mouth to speak but Freckles came running in, rubbing his head against his Aunt's legs. She picked up the cat and looked back at Andrew and he sighed. "I mean...can I bring my cat?" He asked, shaking his head in frustration. He hated this woman – she was the reason his brother was dead! Family over everything, he heard his father say.

Adelyn nodded her head, "Grab anything in this house that means something to you because I don't know how long until SHIELD sends someone here, or even sends a bogey to blow this house to bits."

"Wait, SHIELD is after you?"

Adelyn walked forward, still holding onto Freckles. "Hate to break it to ya, kid. SHIELD isn't really SHIELD anymore. Get moving."

Andrew watched as his aunt headed to leave his bedroom door, "Adelyn," He said her name again and he watched her flinch.

She cleared her throat and slowly looked over her shoulder, "Do me a favor and don't call me that, okay? Just...AJ."

She's the reason Brian is dead, you don't owe her anything.

Family over everything.

"Okay." Andrew agreed and when AJ left, he began to pack up everything that was important to him. Old family pictures, Brian's military medals, anything that held meaning. And then they left, driving away from his little home in a car with Pennsylvania plates that AJ had apparently stolen when she got into the state, ditching the car she had stolen in D.C.

AJ drove down the road, putting on a baseball cap he had given her and a pair of women's sunglasses that were in the glove box. Andrew frowned, wiping the inside down a bit of the blood AJ had lost when she drove over.

"You wanna explain everything now?" He finally asked.

"How far until we're at the next town?" AJ asked him.

He rolled his eyes, annoyed that she was ignoring his questions. "Twenty-minutes out. Why?" He asked as he looked down at his watch, it was nearly 9:30 PM.

"I need a burner phone. Mine got destroyed when they blew up my apartment." AJ said in a grumble.

"Who are you going to call? -Wait, they blew up your apartment? Why?"

"I told you, kid. SHIELD isn't SHIELD anymore."

"Who are they then?"

"I don't know. But I need to get in touch with someone who is not in D.C before we head back." AJ told him, "I'll explain everything afterwards."

"Head back? Wait – are you seriously going back to D.C?" Andrew said, completely confused. "Why the hell would you go back there?"

"I have a doctor's appointment." AJ told him.

"You have a...doctors appointment? Are you joking? With who?"

"Jordan Connors. She's going to explain to me why my powers are out of whack." AJ said, turning down the road that Andrew had said would lead them out of town.

"Yeah, about these powers – ready to explain?"

AJ sighed but explained everything to Andrew. That back in the 40's she had come into contact with an object that gave her gifts. He knew that she had worked closely with Captain America while she was an SSR Agent, but not much else about her time in the forties.

"After you see this Dr. Connors – are you going to go find Captain America?"

AJ shook her head.

"Because you don't trust him?"

"Steve is about the only person I trust right now."

"So why didn't you go to him?" Andrew asked. "I mean, do you even know where he is? How do you even know if he's alive – if SHIELD tried to kill you, who's to say that didn't take out Rogers, too."

"Because I helped make him Captain America and I know it is going to take a lot more than an explosion to kill Steve Rogers."

Andrew didn't ask any more questions, he knew he'd only get cryptic answers. When they got to the next town AJ pulled into a gas station and handed Andrew a hundred-dollar bill.

"Burner phone. Nothing fancy. No camera. Just something that can make a call." AJ told him and Andrew had to roll his eyes again.

"You do know that I worked for SHIELD, right? I know what a burner phone is."

"Go." AJ told him, narrowing her eyes at him. He got out of the car and went inside the gas station, avoiding the security cameras. Something that AJ didn't tell him to do, but as stated earlier, he used to work for SHIELD, he knew how to not be seen. He lowered his cap and walked up to the register, pointing to the flip phones on the wall.

"Can I get one of those?" He used a thick southern accent.

"What kind?" The old man asked. "Touch screen?"

"No, I don't know how to use those damn thing," He looked up a little, baseball cap still shielding his face from the security cameras. "uh, how bout' that one on the far left."

"This one?" The old man walked over and pointed to it. "Are you sure? I don't think they've been used since the early 2000's. Maybe even late nineties."

Andrew faked a chuckled, "I'd like to say I'm old fashioned – but the truth is, I'm just technology challenged."

The old man laughed and got the phone down for Andrew. He handed over the money and watched as the old man ringed him up.

"Captain America is now a wanted fugitive of the United States Government. If anyone has any information as to where his whereabouts are, please call the number above."

Andrew looked up at the TV that was playing behind the counter, craning his neck a bit to see that the tv screen showed a picture of Steve Rogers and the new anchor asked that if anyone were to see Captain Rogers, to stay away from him and call the authorities right away, that he was dangerous.

"Can you believe that?" The old man said, handing Andrew his changed back. "They've been playing that news story all morning."

"What are they saying?" Andrew asked.

"Captain America planted a bomb in some woman's apartment – what was her name, they've been saying it all damn morning...oh, AJ Frost." He answered, "He killed her. He's wanted for murder. Such a shame." Andrew grabbed the bag the old man had put his receipt and phone into and headed towards the exit. "Hey, the confirmation number is on the receipt!" He heard the old man shout as he walked out of the gas station.

Andrew got into the car and AJ quickly pulled out of the parking lot, "-There's a story on the news saying," He began to say but she cut him off.

"I heard it." AJ said, pointing to the radio. "I wanted to see if the news was reporting on anything."

"They are – apparently Captain America is the one who tried to kill you, AJ."

"No, he wasn't." AJ said back, eyes on the road.

"How can you possibly know that?" Andrew asked.

"Because he wouldn't." He scoffed at her answer but AJ didn't say anything else. She sighed again, "Just...please," She said softly, "Trust me."

Trust the woman who was the reason his brother was dead? How was that even possible?

Family over everything.

_

January 11th, 2016 - WASHINGTON, D.C

The world had gone to Hell.

Captain America was wanted for the murder of AJ Frost, and apparently Natasha Romanoff was a suspected accomplice.

Jordan didn't believe that for a second. But when SHIELD asked her who she was loyal to – she told them the she was loyal to them. "AJ Frost was my friend and Captain America killed her. I am loyal to SHIELD."

It was Pierce who had brought her in to question her. Jordan made a show of the whole, stomping around his office while she cursed, saying awful things about both Steve and Natasha, even going as far as saying that they should have kept AJ in the compound.

"Do you truly believe that?" Pierce asked.

"If she was still in the compound she would be alive." Jordan replied. Pierce seemed to buy it.

She left SHIELD after finishing her work and then went home, checking to see if Natasha had somehow left a message for her to explain everything – or even Steve. She had seen him the night before when they met at the bar so Jordan could give him the note explaining what she believed had happened to AJ's powers.

It didn't matter now.

She was dead.

No messaged ever came.

Neither did Steve or Natasha.

So, Jordan went to bed and woke up the next morning when her alarm went off at 4 AM.

Jordan washed her hair and put on her running gear and left her home to go for her daily morning run, earbuds plugged in as music blasted in her ears as she ran to the park she'd always run in. Five miles. That's how far she ran before a man came running up to here, waving her down with a panicked expression.

"Please!" He said as Jordan took out her earbuds, "-Call 911! My daughter! She's has diabetes and I don't have her insulin! Her mom never packed it! Please, call 911!" He pleaded.

Jordan pulled her phone out, hanging it to the man. "You call them, I'm a doctor, where is your daughter?" She asked and the man pointed her in the direction from where he had come from. She could hear him behind her speaking to a 911 operator, telling them what had happened and their location. But when she ran around in the wooded area the man had said his wife was, no one was there.

Someone stepped out from behind a tree. Not a little girl.

AJ Frost.

Jordan instantly ran to her, wrapping her arms around the AJ's shoulder, who let out a hiss of a wince from the force of Jordan's body slamming into hers. "They said you were dead!" She said, still hugging AJ tightly. "How are you alive? I went over the charts-" Jordan pulled away from AJ and examined her. "How are your wounds? Are they all healed?"

"My stab wound is the only one not fully healed." AJ told her, "I might need stitches. What the hell is happening with my powers, Jordan?"

"I'll stitch you up back at my place, I'll explain on the way."

"-No," AJ said and Jordan watched as the man who had run up to her earlier moved to stand next to AJ, dropping Jordan's phone on the ground and crushing it with his foot. AJ looked over at him and shook her head, "Was that necessary?"

"It was that or throwing it into the lake."

"-What is going on? Who the hell is he?" Jordan pointed to the man.

"He's my nephew. Jordan Connors, meet Andrew Frost. Andrew, Jordan." She introduced them.

"If we live through this I'll buy you a new phone." Andrew told the woman.

Jordan opened her mouth to speak but AJ cut her off, "We're heading to New York – have you heard from Natasha?"

Jordan shook her head, "No. Her and Steve are MIA. They're saying they are the ones who killed you."

"No, that would be Brock Rumlow." AJ told her, she pulled a hoodie and baseball cap out and handed it to Jordan. "Come on, you're coming with us. You're not safe here."

Jordan followed, blindly trusting AJ.

When they were in the car, Jordan asked how long it had taken AJ to heal and Andrew explained what had happened to AJ when he put her in an ice bath as AJ put the burner phone to her ear and waited for the person on the other line. "Speaker." Andrew hissed at his aunt and after shaking her head, she turned up the volume so that they could hear, not knowing how to put the phone on speaker.

"Clint?" She asked when the phone started ringing.

"I knew it. I knew it." They heard him say over and over again in relief. "Where are you?"

"Safe. For now." AJ replied. "Heading to see the big guy."

"No, you need to stay where you are." Clint told her, "You need to get in touch with Natasha."

"Clint, you are lucky I even remembered one of your burner phone numbers. I can't stay here – it's not safe."

"Natasha is with Steve. I'm calling her. Keep the phone on and I'll call you back with her location." Clint said and then hung up.

AJ looked over to Jordan, "Did they arrest Fury?"

Oh. Shit.

AJ didn't know. "Fury's dead, AJ." Jordan said slowly. "He was shot and killed in Steve's apartment."

Jordan watched as AJ's face fell. But the phone started ringing again and she quickly put the phone to her ear. "Fury is dead?" She said into the phone, the volume still loud enough for Jordan and Andrew to hear.

Clint was quiet for a moment.

"Who killed him?"

"Nat says that it was the Winter Soldier."

Jordan watched as AJ's face hardened. "Is she sure?"

"Positive. Steve ID'd him." AJ didn't say anything, "Do not go after him, Adge."

"He's killed two people who I've cared about now, Clint." AJ replied back harshly.

Clint changed the subject and told AJ where she would be able to meet Steve and Natasha. They hung up and on the drive to where Steve and Natasha were, Jordan looked over at AJ, her knuckles turning white from how tightly she was gripping onto the steering wheel.

"Who is the Winter Soldier?" Andrew said from the backseat.

AJ licked at her lower lip before she answered Andrew. "He's the son of a bitch that killed Theo."

"Theo?" Jordan said in confusion.

"Her old partner." Andrew said, moving his hand to squeeze AJ's shoulder. "I'm sorry, AJ." He apologized. "Losing someone you love is hard."

"-I didn't love him." AJ spat out at Andrew, shrugging her arm off of her shoulder. "-But that doesn't mean he deserved to be killed."

The remainder of the ride was silent.

Jordan had learned quickly when to recognize when AJ was lying to protect herself (her emotions, mostly) but the way she reacted when Andrew said the word love was as if his hand had burnt into her shoulder? Most people would react in that kind of way if it was true – if they did love someone.

But Jordan knew AJ Frost.

And her response to Andrew suggesting she had been in love with this Theo was proof that she did not having any loving romantic feelings for him. And it almost sounded like she felt guilty about that.