A/N: I'm back! Woo! Going to keep this short, there's an A/N at the end of the chapter that talks more about what happened, posting order, and update schedule. Just wanted to start with how happy I am to be back and posting ;) Now, onto the chapter!

~8~

Targets

"I'm not sure whether I should be disappointed in SHIELD if this works or not," Olivia murmured into the comm. on her ear. Natasha truly was very prepared when it came to the small trinkets she kept on her person. She was standing on the roof of an office building across the street from where Agent Sitwell was to be meeting with Senator Stern, clutching a small cylinder-like object in her hand. If this worked, then the agents of SHIELD were not very bright to be so easily duped.

"I'd go for being glad if it works at all," Sam Wilson's voice remarked in her ear.

"It'll work," Steve assured them, a faint sound of a car running accompanying his words, which made sense to Olivia. While she was on the roof of the building, Natasha and Steve were down below in a grey car just around the corner from Sitwell's building.

"Any sign of Sitwell?" Natasha asked and Olivia knew it was spoken towards her and Sam, they were the only ones that would have a visual on the 'target' given where she was, Sam sitting at a line of small tables just across the street from the building.

Olivia nodded, though she knew they couldn't see her, "He's just stepped out of the building, he's talking to the Senator."

"You're up Sam," Steve called.

They could hear the sound of a phone ringing in their ears as Sam dialed Sitwell's number, a bit of clever hacking on Natasha's part making the number appear on Sitwell's phone as though it came from Pierce, ensuring the man would answer and answer privately.

Olivia bit the inside of her cheek as she watched Sitwell gesture the men around him away. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not either. Was he stepping to the side so the men wouldn't hear his conversation, which would, in Sitwell's mind, undoubtedly be about her and Steve's escape? Did that mean the men were NOT compromised agents and he didn't want to risk them overhearing and taking him out? Or was it like Fury had said, compartmentalizing so that they didn't know the next phase but were equally on Sitwell's side?

She really rather hated how SHIELD had come to this.

She hated how it had taken her and Steve to realize something was wrong before actual SHIELD agents had noticed. Perhaps it was just a matter of perspective. She and Steve had fresh eyes, they had come from dealing with HYDRA and were more familiar with their tactics and organizations. They could see the stark difference between the SSR and SHIELD, how like-HYDRA it had become where others who had been part of the program for years on end might not have seen the subtle shifts that made it what it was today. 70 years was a long enough time to guide an organization without anyone noticing.

"Yes, sir?" Sitwell's voice echoed in her ear, pulling her attention back to the present.

"Agent Sitwell," Sam answered instead, "How was lunch? I hear the crab cakes here are delicious."

Olivia could see the man physically stiffen from her position, "Who is this?"

"The good-looking guy in the sunglasses, your ten o'clock."

Olivia couldn't help but let out a soft snort when Sitwell looked in the opposite direction, "How did HYDRA infiltrate SHIELD if they think 2 o' clock is 10 o' clock?" she wondered, her lips quirking into a small smile at the sound of Steve sniggering, understanding what the man had done.

"Your other ten o'clock," Sam deadpanned, and Sitwell finally turned in the right direction towards the line of umbrella covered tables where she knew Sam was sitting, "There you go."

"What do you want?" Sitwell demanded.

"You're gonna go around the corner, to your right," he added in, just imagining if he'd given a less explicit instruction that had the man going left, "There's a grey car, two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."

Sitwell snorted, "And why would I do that?"

"Liv," Steve's voice murmured in her ear.

She nodded to herself again, and pointed the cylindrical item in her hand at Sitwell, activating the laser pointer to land on Sitwell's tie.

"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up," Sam finished.

Olivia could see Sitwell glance down, noticing the laser dot circling his heart. The man wouldn't know there wasn't actually a gun trained on him, and that was all they needed to ensure he did as instructed. She kept the laser focused on him until the man turned to walk down the street to his right, gesturing the bodyguards away as he went, keeping the phone to his ear.

She could see Sam get up a moment later and amble after him, reaching Sitwell just as they moved around the corner and out of her sight, appearing to the bodyguards as though just another person walking around.

A moment later, Steve's voice was back, "We got him," he informed her, "Coming your way."

Olivia let out a breath, hearing a bit of a ruckus over the comms., Sitwell complaining and threatening before it sounded like he was gagged. She could see the grey car pull away and begin a path she knew Natasha would use to circle a few other blocks before pulling into the basement parking level of the building she was waiting on. If all went to plan, they'd be taking the elevator straight up to the roof while Sam 'guarded the car' as they'd 'order' him to do when removing Sitwell.

She moved over to a crate next the door to the building's roof access and sat down to wait, silently counting the time. Knowing Natasha's driving, Steve's strength, and their combined intimidation, she didn't see it taking more than 10 minutes to get there. Though it didn't help her nerves much to sit there and wait, her leg bobbing as she tried to control her anxiety. It wasn't that she doubted Steve or Natasha's ability, or even Sam's, it was just…Fury always seemed so untouchable, but he had shown up at their apartment with a number of other injuries she had only just started to work on before he was shot. From what Sharon Carter had managed to let slip during her 'questioning', Fury had been targeted in his heavily armored car, involved in a firefight and then a car chase, before, from what Natasha felt, the Winter Soldier had gotten to him.

If Fury could be attacked so thoroughly, she worried for the others in their unarmored car and civilian clothing. She just had to hope that they had remained anonymous enough to have not been seen in Sam's car.

So lost in her thoughts was she that she nearly jumped out of her skin when the door to the roof slammed open and Sitwell was shoved through it, Steve and Natasha following him out. She caught Steve's eye for a moment as he gave her a nod, seeming to have known where her thoughts had gone and letting her know he was alright.

Seeing she was alright as well set him back on task, turning to Sitwell and shoving him across the roof even more, demanding, "Tell us about Zola's algorithm!"

"Never heard of it," Sitwell sneered.

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Olivia asked, joining Natasha and Steve as they continued to force Sitwell further across the roof.

"I was throwing up, I get seasick."

"No, you weren't," Olivia shook her head, "Medic," she reminded him, pointing at herself, "I read your file and examined everyone on that ship."

Sitwell seemed about to make some sort of comment, but Steve was not in the mood, and so he reached out and shoved the man even more to cut him off, nearly sending him stumbling into the edge of the roof.

"Careful," Olivia called as the man caught himself, "You fall from this height, not even I can piece you back together."

He scoffed, "Fall?" he shook his head, "Don't you mean push?" he turned to glare at Steve a moment before his expression turned into a mocking smile, "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because I doubt your commanding officer would let you," he flicked his gaze at the medic and back, "Besides, it's really not your style, Rogers."

"You're right," Steve admitted, "It's not," before he quickly stepped aside, "It's hers."

Natasha didn't hesitate to kick Sitwell right off the roof, watching as he plummeted down with a scream. She glanced at Olivia who was frowning, not having been a fan of this part of the plan, "What?" she shrugged, "You're not MY commanding officer."

Olivia shook her head, glancing at the ledge, the only thing that had kept her from lunging forward to grab Sitwell was the knowledge that Sam would be waiting to catch the man as he fell.

"Speaking of being a commanding officer though," Natasha continued, "You gonna take his name? Be Major Rogers? Cos, you know, it IS the 21st century, women don't HAVE to take their husband's names."

Olivia's frown turned into an amused shake of the head, "That'd be a bit confusing, having two Rogers running around a battlefield."

"So what I'm hearing is, professionally, you're going to…"

"Can we not?" Steve cut in with a sigh, knowing that, if he didn't stop her, Natasha would get on a tangent about their names and hyphenating them or him taking Olivia's name or something and they had more important things to focus on right now.

"Killjoy," Natasha groused under her breath, but let it drop.

Not even a moment later Sam soared over head in his customized Falcon jet-pack suit, wings causing quite a shadow above them, Sitwell dangling upside down by his ankle in Sam's grip before the man unceremoniously dumped him on the roof.

After that fall and flight, seeing even Olivia approaching with Steve and Natasha was enough to have him panting and gasping and holding up his hands in surrender, "Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing Insight's targets!"

"What targets?" Olivia frowned, dreading the answer. Knowing how HYDRA had worked, seeing the footage Zola had shown them, it would not be anything good.

"You!" Sitwell gestured between her and Steve, "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

"The future?" Steve shook his head, "How could it know?"

Sitwell just let out a barking laugh, "How could it NOT? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," he looked at Steve and Natasha, who appeared very confused, but Olivia was frowning in a more thoughtful manner and he homed in on that, "YOU get it don't you? It's like medical records, but on a broader scale."

Olivia nodded, getting it now, which surprised her given she knew about as much of this era as Steve did. But when he mentioned the medical records, it became clearer. Before the serum, before the experiments, she and Steve, their medical records told a story. On paper, it told enough about them and how they were a fit for the project, it told of what their lives might be like having to live with so many ailments.

This really WAS a broader scale though, as Sitwell said, because it wasn't JUST medical records, it was...everything else. From what she'd seen, from brief glimpses of people on their phones, of Sharon even and the apps she used and tried to explain to her. Everything a person searched, read, bought, online all told about their interests. One person reading the right article about something even vaguely HYDRA-like, or putting out a twitter (whatever that was) about their thoughts on the right subject, could tell their thoughts on it, could be a danger to HYDRA if more people saw it and began to feel the same. The digital era connected far more people than ever before, but it also made people more visible than ever as well. It made them targets. She had seen, one person taking a comment the wrong way could incite an army of like-minded individuals to target and attack the commenter, this was just…a far more deadly scale.

Sitwell nodded, explaining it more to Steve and Natasha, "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."

"And what then?" Steve demanded, sickened by what the man was saying. Innocent until proven guilty, the words rang in his ears from earlier with Fury, this algorithm was trying to prove guilt before a person even consciously thought of doing anything remotely guilty. And, worse yet, it was defining guilt in terms of those who could stop HYDRA.

"Oh, my God," Sitwell breathed, "Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?!"

"Steve," Olivia cut in, putting a hand on his arm, tears in her eyes as she pieced it together like one of her much beloved puzzles, "Project Insight," she repeated, catching Sitwell mentioning it before, "It's going to target those people, just like Fury said."

Sitwell scoffed at that, such a grim sound that even HE seemed cowed by the magnitude of it all, "Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list a few million at a time," he corrected.

~8~

It was a bit more cramped trying to drive the car with five people smushed into it, but they managed. With Sam driving and Natasha in the front, Sitwell trapped between Steve and Olivia in the back, they headed down the highway intent to get to Triskelion.

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks," Sitwell muttered, seeming far too tense, setting Olivia ill at ease. It was almost like he expected something, but it couldn't be. They had taken care to ensure no one noticed or saw them speak with Sitwell. They had even picked the building to confront him on based on there being no windows on the side he'd been kicked off of.

"So why don't you try sticking a cork in it," Sam grumbled.

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here," Natasha remarked.

"We've cut it closer in the past," Olivia countered, trying to make it sound less terrible than it really was. Though, they weren't flying a craft into ice because it was THAT near the deadline, so she counted that as a positive.

"We just need to get to base," Steve murmured, "We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly."

"What?!" Sitwell gaped at him, "Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea."

They all tensed when a thump sounded above them on the roof of the car.

"Liv!" Steve yelled when a metal arm smashed through the window on her side.

But the man the arm was attached to didn't seem intent to grab for Olivia, his task seeming to be taking out the 'leak' first as it bypassed her entirely, reaching right across in front of her to grab Sitwell and yanked him out of the car before she or Steve could even reach to try and grab him back. Though the Winter Soldier didn't dine to hold onto him for long, choosing instead to toss the man into the middle of incoming traffic, killing him near instantly.

Steve reached out with lightning reflexes to grab Olivia, pulling her towards him, not willing to risk her being the next target, the two ducking under his shield as the Winter Soldier stood on the car roof and began to shoot down at them, trying to hit any one of them he could now that his prime objective had been dealt with.

"Hold this!" Steve called to Olivia, passing her his shield before he dove through the middle of the two seats in front of him to reach out and yank the emergency brake on. The car skid to a halt, throwing the Winter Soldier off the roof and tumbling down the front of the car onto the highway before them.

"Behind!" Olivia warned, seeing Steve, Natasha, and Sam's attention on the man picking himself up and not noticing a black car gunning for their unmoving ride.

It was enough of a warning for the others to brace themselves as the car smashed into them from behind and pushed them towards the Winter Soldier. The man proved his agility and endurance by leaping back to his feet and on top of the car once more. Sam, who had been struggling with trying to steer the car as it was being pushed from behind, gasped as a metal arm reached through the windshield, shattering it, to rip the steering wheel right out of the car.

"Shit!" Sam cried, both from the shock of the situation and from trying to duck down as Natasha began to try her hand at shooting up at the Winter Soldier through the roof as he had done to them moments earlier.

Natasha's efforts were effective in the sense that it did get the Winter Soldier off their car, the man jumping back onto the one behind them, but did little to actually stop the assassin in question.

Olivia grunted as the car slammed into the dividing wall of the highway, with them unable to steer the wild car and the one behind them forcing them on, "We need to get out!" she shouted over the noise of metal grinding.

Right now they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they stayed in the car, they would continually be chased and pushed on, eventually they'd crash into civilians. They also couldn't defend themselves crammed in as they were. But to get out would mean exposing themselves to attack…yet it would also mean the freedom to move to defend themselves and give the civilians a chance to get away. THEY were the target, not other people, if they stopped and stood their ground, the people after them wouldn't go after others or put them in danger. It was going to be a choice between their lives or civilians, and she knew, without a doubt, what they would all pick.

Steve seemed to realize that as well, for he reached out, maneuvering his shield back onto his arm and wrapping that arm around Olivia, "Grab them," he told her in her ear, also grabbing the door behind her with the same arm. He reached out with his free arm to grab Sam while Olivia maneuvered to grab Natasha over the seats.

"Hang on!" he shouted, shoving against his side of the car and breaking the door on Olivia's side off, the four of them falling through the vehicle and onto the road just as it crashed into the divider once more and began to flip and roll over, the four of them sliding along on the door and shield. Steve grit his teeth from the jolt of it, cursing under his breath when he lost his grip on Sam, the man sent rolling to the side.

Luckily for Sam, it seemed like the Winter Soldier and the agents who joined him, clearly HYDRA's gunmen, were more intent on the wanted trio than what they thought was a civilian aiding them and he was quickly able to run to the side for cover.

The trio scrambled to their feet as soon as they could, looking up only to see the Winter Soldier had been given a much larger gun, the man sending what seemed like a miniature missile at them. Steve quickly pushed Olivia and Natasha to the side, raising his shield to take the brunt of the missile attack. The shield held up, but the force of the impact sent Steve flying over the side of the overpass, down to the street below, and crashing through the side of a bus, sending it careening into another truck as it swerved, toppling it.

Olivia ran to the edge of the overpass, looking down, able to hear the screams of children and the cries of the injured, "We've got wounded!" she warned Sam and Natasha as they reached her.

"Go!" Sam urged her, slipping right back into his role as soldier and protector, knowing the injured needed to be taken care of, "Go! We got this!"

"Get off the pass!" Olivia ordered, before jumping over the side of the overpass, landing on the ground and running for the bus. She had to trust that Natasha and Sam were as skilled as she believed them to be. There was enough cover above to get them out and both had proven themselves more than capable of handling themselves. Right now, the civilians were not in any position to help themselves.

They needed a medic.

As soon as she got to the bus, she began assessing the injuries, calling out commands for those shaken but not severely wounded to get away from the scene, while she made quick work of getting those worse off out. She ran to Steve first, seeing him knocked out from the crash and shook him awake. Just because she had left Natasha and Sam above did not mean she intended to leave them to fend for themselves for long. She hadn't seen any other damage from where Steve had been thrown off the pass but the bus, he had to still be in there. He didn't appear injured, nor did her lightning quick examination for injuries reveal any that had him gasping or wincing, he was winded and disoriented, but otherwise well enough. Even winded, he would never ever allow himself to sit aside and let others fight when he could help.

"Liv!" he gasped as she woke him, jolting into a siting position with little stiffness.

"Tasha and Sam are on the pass," she told him, "HYDRA hasn't made it down here yet, but we've got injured."

He nodded, understanding her unspoken order. He would go back to the thick of it, help deal with the other agents, she would get the wounded out and stable and then come assist, "On it," he agreed, tightening his grip on his shield and rushing towards the back exit of the bus, giving her cover to help the civilians.

Just because she wasn't among the all-out firefight above, didn't mean she couldn't hear it or see parts of it. The Winter Soldier had fired more missiles. She had glimpsed Natasha out of the corner of her eye as she hefted two passengers who had been knocked out out of the bus, the woman having been blasted off the pass but getting a grappling gun to swing to a run towards the bus. Olivia ducked back into it, able to see the agents and the Winter Soldier approaching that side of the pass and knowing if they saw her they'd start firing again, she couldn't risk the civilians till they were all out of the bus. There were only two more people though. She rushed over to a woman gripping at her leg, and carefully checked her over, breathing a sigh of relief that the leg was not broken and didn't need more tending to, the ankle was sprained though.

She maneuvered the woman into her arms, easily carrying her through the wrecked bus and over to the line of people a block and a half away now being helped by good Samaritans, setting her down when a blur of red caught her attention. Natasha had managed to shoot the Winter Soldier enough to force him to duck back down, the assassin running across the small distance to take cover by the truck that had hit the bus, which gave her enough time to rush back into the bus for the last passenger, sending a nod to Natasha as she caught the woman's eye.

Natasha was trying her best to guard the bus, having seen Olivia dash in there and knowing the Winter Soldier was going to be turning his attention back to this side soon enough. And she was right, for not even 30 seconds later, Olivia was striding out of the bus with a child clutched in her arms, the child clinging to her and sobbing from the fear of everything happening. She emerged just as the Winter Soldier appeared back on the pass, his gun turning towards Olivia, having spotted her. So she took a step past the truck and fired at him instead, drawing his attention back to her, running down the street along the line of cars only when she was sure she'd captured his attention enough to focus on her and not the medic.

Little did she know she was also drawing him away from Steve as well, the man only a few feet away, having dispatched a few agents that made it down from the pass. He, however, did catch sight of her running, of the Winter Soldier following as the man literally jumped off the pass, landed on a car, and began to strut after her.

He looked between Olivia and Natasha, then up to one of the snipers still on the pass, only for the man to disappear and Sam take his place.

"Go!" Sam called down to him, "I got this!"

Steve gave him a single nod of thanks for covering Olivia while she finished up with the civilians, before he took off after Natasha, trying to take a wider approach so the Winter Soldier wouldn't see him following behind.

~8~

Natasha breathed heavily as she hid behind a car, watching as the Winter Soldier stalked down the street, pausing as he heard her voice from behind another car across from her. It was a recording she'd made on her phone as she was running, directions, made to sound like she was calling in help. A distraction was all it was, she didn't doubt the Winter Soldier would go for it, he had no reason to believe she wasn't behind that car. She was tempted to grin when he rolled a grenade under the car, thinking he'd gotten her, the man stepping back and aiming his gun as though waiting for her to notice the grenade and run.

She waited till it exploded, using the sound of it to hide the stomp of her shoes as she ran for him, leaping into the air and kicking the gun out of his hands, catching him by her thighs around his neck to swing up onto his shoulders. She unwound a wire, wrapping it around his neck to try and take him out, but he'd gotten a hand in between. He staggered backwards with force, slamming her against the side of a car and using the jolt to grab her arm, hurling her over his shoulder to the ground. But she was quick, yanking a small device from her sleeve and flinging it at him. It was a small magnetic device that would hopefully immobilize his arm, using the minimal time she knew she'd have before he pried it off to get up and run down the road.

"Get out of the way!" she shouted at the civilians running around her, all of them now aware of the guns in the area, "Stay out of the way!"

She staggered suddenly, dropping to her knees as the glass of a car window next to her shattered, a burning sensation ripping through her left shoulder. This was the second time she'd been shot through by the Winter Soldier, this one hurt a hell of a lot less than when he'd gotten her in the gut, but still sent fire racing through her from the pain. She dropped to her knees, twisting so she was on her butt, backing up towards the car for some semblance of cover, and trying to face down the Winter Soldier…but he wasn't there. She breathed heavily, hefting herself to sit up more against the car, trying to see him…when a thump sounded behind her.

She twisted back onto her knees, a few feet away from the car, to see he'd jumped onto a car just behind the one she was using, aiming a gun at her.

For one brief instant, she felt a flash of fear, staring down the barrel of his gun, knowing the next shot wouldn't miss, wouldn't be a shot meant to slow her down to pick her off easier, it would be fatal. She had been taken down by a bullet and, if she didn't bleed out, she was still going to die at his hands.

But then…a blur dashed in front of her and the sound of electricity crackled to life as the bullets the Winter Soldier fired hit a forcefield instead.

Olivia stood before her, her batons out, blocking the barrage of bullets meant to kill her friend, having rushed after Steve as soon as she finished with the civilians, but going a more direct route than he had.

Another blur, a blue one, streaked from the side, Steve, launching himself at the Winter Soldier as the man brought out his missile launcher instead and knocking him off the car, the force of the hit hurling the weapon only a foot away from where they were.

Olivia turned, dropping to her knees and setting her batons to stand, triggering the forcefield around her and Natasha. Natasha could only watch, her hand pressed to her shoulder, as Olivia, more serious than she'd ever seen the woman, swung her medical pack off her back and onto the ground in one fluid motion. She frowned, staring at Olivia in Medic-Mode, before glancing over her shoulder at where she could see Steve going toe-to-toe with the Winter Soldier, and back to Olivia, the woman seeming unaware of everything around her as she tended to her patient.

She glanced down at her hand as Olivia pulled it away, more at Olivia's hand than her own, the woman was steady as steel, her hands not shaking at all, her face set in concentration, not blanching at the sight of blood or grimacing at the wound, not even seeming to notice the battle going on around her, the carnage being created. The sounds of her partner fighting the Winter Soldier bare handed didn't even seem to register.

She let out a hiss of pain when Olivia shifted her arm slightly to pull part of her jacket away from her shoulder to examine the bullet wound, but was quickly distracted by Olivia's mumbling, not sure the girl even realized she was doing it.

"Went straight through," Olivia spoke under her breath, not even leaning forward to look. It was only then that Natasha realized the woman had seen the shattered car window and logically worked it out that one bullet fired at her would only be able to shatter the glass if it HIT the glass, if it had gone through her. Olivia nodded to herself, "Too close to the heart to elevate the legs," she mumbled, "No lying down," she maneuvered Natasha to sit up more, "Tourniquet won't work, not there, can't risk using just pressure..."

For a split second Natasha wanted to quip that any 'pressure' applied by Olivia or even Steve was probably going to be more than any human could possibly need and, hell, maybe it would stop the bleeding instantly given their strength...when she realized Olivia wasn't just thinking about treating the wound in this moment, but how to best tend to it after the moment passed as well. If the woman used her hands to apply pressure...she'd have to keep them there, she wouldn't be able to move her or help her get away because her hands would need to stay on her shoulder.

Olivia had realized that quickly, "Pressure needs to be held, help will certainly be delayed with the active shooter and HYDRA about...pressure dressing it is," she turned to her bag, rummaging through it and pulling out what looked like a sort of elastic, greyish bandage but with some sort of half-moon-shaped plastic attached to it, "No time to pack the wound, unnecessarily painful too..."

"I can handle it," Natasha tried to tell her, if packing the wound was what would work best, she could bite her lip and bear it.

But Olivia kept on, Natasha would have thought the girl hadn't heard her if not for her shaking her head, "Better option," she pulled out a small, sealed bag, "Hemostatic agents," she placed it on her knee, before pulling out another small bottle, "Need to wash the wound out, this is all going to sting," she warned Natasha, before leaning forward and splashing some of the sterile water against the wound to flush it out. She quickly moved on, ripping the packet open and pressing some of the powder-like substance in it to the front and back of the wound.

Natasha tensed and hissed at the sensation, at the pressure the medic was putting on the wound as well, but bore it.

"Should help stop the bleeding," Olivia continued to mutter, using one hand to pull out a gauze strand to wrap around her shoulder, just to hold the powder in place before she picked up the grey bandage. She made quick work of it, wrapping it around the wound, under the armpit, the half-moon plastic bit resting just over where the entrance wound was. As soon as the bandage passed around once, she slipped it through the half-moon bit and folded the bandage back over itself to go in the other direction from her original wrapping, forcing the plastic part to press against the wound. She took a wad of gauze and placed it behind Natasha's shoulder, at the exit wound, and wrapped over it. It wouldn't be as effective as the plastic in terms of putting pressure on the wound, but it would do. She made sure to use as much of her strength as she could in wrapping Natasha's shoulder, enough to put a great deal of pressure on the affected areas, but not enough to make it into a tourniquet and cut off her circulation or hinder her mobility, "Really should work on getting one of these with the agents already set in..."

As all this happened, Natasha couldn't help but just…watch Olivia in her element. She noticed, when the pain lessened from burning to stinging, to tingling. She noticed, when Olivia turned to her bag and she could see blood and dirt smeared across her clothing. And she noticed, when Olivia stiffened and looked over at Steve, having heard something Natasha hadn't.

She looked over her good shoulder to see that the Winter Soldier was standing a good distance away, his mask completely off his face, but even more…Steve was staring at the man, his arms down, shield limp at his side, in shock and not even close to attacking.

And she realized, it wasn't that Olivia hadn't heard the battle raging around her, she had only worked through it, hearing everything, so she could react if needed, but not letting it affect her concentration. And she had clearly heard the fight Steve and the Winter Soldier had had, she knew why Steve had stopped.

But even Olivia looked startled and shaken by what she'd heard, so startled she wasn't reacting any longer, even when the Winter Soldier began to approach Steve for another attack and was knocked aside by Sam in his Falcon suit.

It was at that point her assassin training kicked in and she turned, rolling on her stomach to switch off one of the batons, lowering the forcefield, so she could grab the missile launching gun the other assassin had dropped, firing it at the Winter Soldier as he tried to aim at Steve again.

The moment seemed to shake Steve and Olivia out of their stupor, Olivia glancing at Natasha once more to make sure the bandage had held, before she was running to Steve's side, her medical pack already slung onto her back once more.

Olivia grabbed his arm, glancing at him and over to where the Winter Soldier had been knocked back, but disappeared, "Steve?"

He could only shake his head, "Bucky," he murmured, in shock, but confirming what she'd heard moments ago, "It was Bucky."

Olivia looked back at the smoke, tensing when HYDRA agents began to swarm, cars speeding up to surround them, guns aimed at them demanding they go to their knees. She tightened her grip on Steve's arm, slowly lowering herself to the ground, bringing him with her, the man too stunned to react even as they were taken into HYDRA custody.

Bucky Barnes was alive…and an agent of HYDRA.

A/N: I'm back! :D I'm SO sorry it took so long :( I had a note up on my tumblr a couple weeks ago about what's been going on but for anyone who doesn't frequent that site, the last time I tried to get back to posting, I ended up swapping the part time job I managed to get to working in a bank (pro tip if you are in America on the east coast and really need benefits but can only maintain a part time job, TD Bank offers benefits to part-timers) and very soon after that got another job at a transit company so my work week between the two was Monday through Saturday, from like 5am till 7 pm, which didn't give much time to write since I had to get things ready for the next day and eat and sleep, and Sundays sometimes meant working at another branch if they needed help or catching up on things for the week :( BUT! One of the jobs offered me full time close to the start of the month so I just had to make it two more weeks before things calmed down and I would have a steadier 9-5 sort of job :) I have evenings and weekends back now! :D

What that means for posting is that I'm going to start slow and aim for posting a chapter 2x a week, I'm not sure if it will be specific days or just when I can get one up, but I'm going to push for updates twice a week. If I can manage that I might move it up to two chapters of a main story and one of a spinoff or AU. Currently, I'm planning to get this story finished first, then 1 episode (3 chapters) for Angel's DW story, finishing up Lyssa and Hook's story from OUAT, doing another episode for Angel, finishing Menna and Aragorn's current story for LOTR, another episode of Angel, finish up Sadie's DW story, another episode of Angel, finish Claire and Sheldon's BBT story, and then finish the rest of Angel's story. And when I say 'story' I mean just the current open-unfinished story, not their entire series. Once I get all the open-stories complete, I'll evaluate where I am and work out what stories will come next. So it's going to be slow going, but I'm hoping to gain momentum as I get more used to the hours and flow of the full time position ;)

Now, to get back to this chapter ;)

I know in the movie that Steve got to Bucky first before he could finish off Natasha. But here, he hesitated a few seconds longer when he saw Olivia still in the open, which gave Bucky enough time to get more shots at Natasha, and his intention was to take a wider way around to get behind Bucky without him seeing. As it's been jokingly established, Olivia IS faster than Steve. He's quite likely stronger than her, but she's smaller and faster and she got a tiny bit more of a workout on her legs during the war by carrying various men off the battlefield and needing to still be as fast as always, not-weighed-down she's quite speedy. And her intention was a more direct b-line for Natasha. It sort of shows their different mentalities during the war too. Steve with his missions and using the element of surprise and Olivia with her get-right-to-the-injured-as-fast-as-possible duty. Steve still had his battle with Bucky and Olivia treated Natasha, both displaying their own individual strengths :)

We're going to see more of Steve's reaction to the revelation about Bucky as well as some inner thoughts of Natasha (and perhaps a hard-for-her-to-admit something) about her experience here also.

Some notes on reviews...

Just to start, I'm SO sorry if I worried you guys. I really feel like I'm jinxed and every time I get to a place to start posting again something happens and all those plans just fall apart :( It's part of why I wanted to wait a little after I became full time to make sure I can make it work and I'm fairly confident I'll be able to keep it going so I'm hoping to be back and posting each week :) Family is fine, both my brother and sister moved out so there was a period of helping them get situated, parents are ok health-wise (my dad's job is currently trying to force him to retire but he keeps doing good at it and they have no reasons to actually DO it so he's fine for now), doggies are as fat and lazy as always lol, so hopefully with things more stable updates will stay stable too ;)

I can say that Coulson DID get his end of the deal, he has his own signed artwork from the Cap ;) How/when it happened will be touched on before the series is over ;)

Natasha is truly SO invested in their wedding lol, I love your theory about our dear supersoldiers. We're going to have to wait to see if it's right or close or anything though ;)

I have some fun planned for Mjolnir, for both Olivia and Steve as well as a tiny conversation between them about it, we'll have to wait and see if anything happens for Olivia or if she even attempts it ;)

The funny thing about Natasha's thoughts on someone understanding her, is it's so much based in the movies, with how she opens up to Steve about not being able to find someone with shared life experiences. She seems to think Banner is as close as she'll get, originally I thought it was Clint given how he sort of brought her into the fold (before his secret family was revealed lol), we'll have to wait and see if Bucky might also be an option. I CAN say that Olivia will have an opinion on both Banner and Bucky with Natasha at some point ;)

Oh Endgame, it breaks my heart, in so many ways, on so many levels. Some good moments, some bad, some bittersweet, some tense, some just gut wrenching, we'll have to wait for that roller coaster ride, but I can say that I do have it worked out for Olivia's story ;)

Awww, thank you so much! I really hope you're enjoy the stories you're going through, hopefully some of them will be updated relatively soon lol ;) I'm really very touched you're enjoying them and I appreciate any review people give, it means the world to me, so thank you :')

I can say that Steve is a patient man, he would have to be to deal with the setbacks and bullies he's dealt with in his life, but Natasha's constant pushing about proposing and marriage is going to get to him, probably by the end of this story. So we'll definitely see a resolution to that teasing, what it will be though is something we'll have to wait to see ;) Luckily, if all goes well, we'll only have to wait till the end of next week ;)