When they got back to Washington, Steve and Melody decided to split up, going to the source of the problem. Steve to Fury and Melody to Emily. Melody charged into her mother's office not even bothering to change out of her uniform. She had been patched up, but nothing could heal her anger. "You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?"

She slammed her fists down on her mother's desk, Emily looking up to her with neutral eyes. "Natasha and Clint had a different mission, that's not lying, that's avoiding the truth."

"Oh my god." Melody scoffed. "You're actually lying about lying."

"Melody," Emily spoke calmly, getting up from her seat and going to her daughter. Melody just rolled her eyes. She didn't want to listen to these excuses. "Everyone ended up alive and the mission was completed on both ends, I don't see the problem here."

Emily was now standing in front of her daughter. Melody found herself scoffing at her mother's complete oblivion to the whole conversation. "They could have died! That's the problem!"

"But they didn't." She argued right back, an angry smile growing on Melody's face as she shook her head. "I knew that you and Steve were going to focus on getting those people out alive while Clint and Natasha worked on keeping SHIELD's secrets."

"Newsflash, mom!" Melody suddenly yelled. "SHIELD isn't secret anymore! Not after New York, so who cares if the secrets get out?!"

"I do!" Melody rolled her eyes again. "And you should because Clint's kids are in those secrets."

Melody looked back to her mother, sighing, wishing she didn't know that those kids were like her own. That she would do anything to protect them. "Those secrets get out," Emily continued as she moved to the other end of her office to look out the window. "Half of this staff is dead. Do you get that?"

Emily turned to look at her daughter again, Melody's hands now on her hips in frustration. "Fury and I didn't want you and Steve doing anything you weren't comfortable with, Natasha and Clint are comfortable with everything. That's what makes them two of my best agents."

"Mom," Melody spoke calmly, moving forward so the two were standing right in front of each other. "Steve and I can't lead a mission – "

"Steve and I?" Emily questioned. Melody's brows furrowed, not sure why she was bringing that up. "Honey," Emily spoke, moving forward to put her hands on her shoulders. "You're not in charge here."

Melody scoffed, finding herself offended. "I'm starting to think I should be."

"Oh, come on, Melody." Emily spoke with an eye roll before going back to her computer. "You've barely been in SHIELD for a year, you're lucky you're even on the STRIKE team."

Melody couldn't believe what her mother was saying to her. It was like she wasn't good enough. "I think taking on multiple terrorists and succeeding in an alien battle kind of trumps seniority here!"

"Melody," Emily spoke calmly while shaking her head and looking up at her daughter from where she sat in her computer chair. "You're a wonderful agent, one of the best, but you're still new."

"So is Steve!"

"He was in the military, darling."

"And I've been taking down bad guys too!" Melody shook her head, turning around to go to the door. "This is such a double standard."

"It isn't." Her mom ensured as her hand went to the handle.

That stopped Melody, having her turn around as all of her anger bubbled to the surface. "It is! I've done just as much as Steve, I've earned my place too, but I'm still seen as some prissy little princess to everyone here! So," She gave her mom a sarcastic shrug. "It kind of is."

She moved to the door again, Emily trying one last ditch effort to get her daughter to understand. "It's called compartmentalization." Melody turned her ear try and hear her mother better. "Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."

Melody shook her head, looking straightforward again. "Yeah, everyone except you and Fury."

Melody pulled the door open angrily before beginning to walk out. "Melody." Emily called, but she just kept walking. "Melody!" Emily sighed as her daughter just continued walking down the hall. "Well that's just bloody brilliant."

Melody found herself going down to the SHIELD garage, tinkering away on her new babies. Project Insight. "This is Project Insight." She could hear from under her. She looked down, Fury's voice echoing in the whole hanger. Melody rolled her eyes, not too happy with him either. "Three next generation helicarriers synched to a network of targeting satellites."

Melody jumped down from where she was working, landing perfectly on her feet, almost right in front of Fury and Steve. Steve actually found himself smiling a little bit. She really looked like Maria there. He half expected Howard Stark to come down too, the two explaining what they were creating in a language he couldn't understand.

"Once we get them in the air, they'll never need to come down." Fury spoke as they approached Melody. "Thanks to this little number right here."

"I called Tony." Melody spoke with a shrug. "We worked on that new turbine, it should be more efficient than the last one and shouldn't break down as easy." Melody nodded to the pair, wanting to show them the new weapons she had just finished working out. "Come see what she's packing." When they reached towards the end of the ship she smiled and leaned against the ledge like a proud mom. "These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before they step outside their spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

Fury nodded, impressed with her. "I knew I put the right woman on the right job."

Steve just looked straight down, kind of disappointed in her. "I thought the punishment usually came after the crime."

Melody's face completely fell. She thought he would be proud. "We can't afford to wait that long." Fury added, Melody giving him a fearful face.

"Who's 'we'?" Steve added quickly, not wanting to waste any time explaining how wrong this all was.

"After New York, Emily and I convinced the World Security Council…" Melody rolled her eyes at her mother's name while the conversation just tuned out. She was now starting to second guess all the work she had just done over the past couple of months. "…For once, we're way ahead of the curve."

Steve scoffed as he began to shake his head. "By holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection." Melody looked to him, not knowing what to do anymore. She felt like a kid in the middle of a parent's argument. She wasn't sure what was right and what was wrong anymore.

"You know, I read those SSR files." Steve seemed to stiffen a little bit, now Melody didn't know if she should be listening to Fury. "'Greatest Generation'? You guys did some nasty stuff."

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free." He looked to Melody's inventions, pointing at them like they were some monsters, and she could feel her self-consciousness come up like a bad rash. "This isn't freedom. This is fear."

"I don't know, Steve." Melody spoke with a shrug, looking to him apologetically. "The definition has changed drastically from the forties."

"And because of that," Fury went on to add. "SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."

Steve just continued to stare down Fury, putting Melody in an awkward situation. "Don't hold your breath."

Melody went home, finding herself dreading it. She didn't want to fight, but she knew the second she saw him, she was going to yell. She took a deep breath at the door, not knowing if she should turn around or walk in. She decided the face the music and walk in. When she did, candles littered the floor with rose petals. She looked all around, wondering where the hell Clint was.

He moved from the kitchen, pouring her a glass of wine, but Melody couldn't help this undeniable anger pulsating through her. "I cooked you lunch." Melody felt tears rushing to her eyes, but she couldn't begin to understand why she was crying. "Did everything go okay at the hospital and at SHIELD."

"Why would you do that to me?"

"Melody," Clint spoke, putting the glass down before hurrying to her, but Melody just pulled away when he grabbed the sides of her arms. "I am so, so sorry, but we all just thought it would go smoother if no one knew everything."

"'All' being you and my mother?"

Clint sighed, he had never been more scared to lose her in his life. "She had some say in it, yes."

"You're all so typical." Melody spoke while shaking her head and moving toward the door.

"Melody," Clint spoke in fear as he followed her. "Where are you going?"

Melody stopped at the door, not sure how to answer that question. "I don't know, but I can't be here right now."

She slammed the door, leaving Clint standing there, not sure what to say or what to do, but he kept thinking on how much he screwed up. He thought about how this time, he could have lost Melody for good.

Melody had a baseball cap on as she walked through the Smithsonian. Here, she felt closer to her family since there was a whole exhibit dedicated to them. Well, to Captain America. And apparently, she had just missed Captain America/Steve Rogers. He was talking to her grandmother, Peggy, at the moment. Melody used to visit her a lot when she first got to DC, but it just got hard watching her grandmother not even recognize her own granddaughter.

Melody spent a lot of extra time on the Bucky portion of the museum. Her dad used to tell her war stories about how amazing his father was. He would tell her that he never met them, but both Maria and Howard could talk on for days about him. He really did look like her dad. They might as well roll out a family graveyard while they were at it. Howard. Maria. Bucky. James. And now her. She wiped a tear off her face, finding herself scared for her own life. She felt like they were a family of ghosts or like Death was slowly taking them all out one by one.

As she looked at the grandfather she would never know, she got a text from Steve. She picked up the phone, reading the message: I'm almost done here. Meet me at my place. I'll get the pizza; you get the doughnuts :)

Melody smiled a little bit at the text, knowing a nice, quiet night with her great uncle was just what she needed. Especially since they had the same taste in pizza and she wouldn't have to order that nasty Hawaiian pizza Clint liked.

She quickly text back a reply before looking to Bucky's picture again. She needed just a few more minutes standing there. She need to spend some time with the grandfather she never knew. That her dad never knew. It was times like these that she wished her dad was still here and Bucky had never suffered that fate on a train car.

The sky had turned almost grey, storm clouds threatening to fall any minute, no amount of sun was left in the sky, matching Emily's mood perfectly. She was sitting in the passenger's seat of the Escalade while Fury was driving, her going over their paperwork while he just focused on driving. "Open secure line 0405."

Emily looked over to Fury, her face twisted in thought. "Isn't she halfway across the country right now?"

"We need her." He told Emily with a shrug who just rolled her eyes at him.

"This is Hill." Maria spoke through the phone immediately, Emily wanting to automatically give her their apologizes.

"I need you here in DC." Fury said without even a greeting.

She was silent for a moment, Emily looking back to their paperwork, knowing that they really could use her here. "Deep shadow conditions." Emily added.

Maria was silent for a moment, obviously thinking her plan through before speaking. "Give me four hours."

"You have three."

Emily turned to him with an exaggerated eye roll before her phone buzzed. She looked down to it, smiling at Rhodey's number. Rhodey was planning on visiting for the weekend, and Emily most definitely needed that after the day she had. She typed out her reply with a smile on her face until a police car slammed into the Escalade on Fury's side, sending them down the road hard.

They didn't even have time to recover, a police car going in reverse, slamming in front of them and another one going straight forward and ramming their back while another one went on Emily's side. "Fracture detected." The car reported on Fury's side.

Emily was in an almost daze after the cars hit and so was Fury. The anesthesia medication came out, Emily immediately grabbing it and injecting it into his arm. "DC Metro Police dispatch shows no units in this area."

That became to become evident when these "officers" began to pull out weapons that would never be issued to police forces. "Get us out of here!" Emily commanded as she looked around at the men. They wasted no time firing.

"Propulsion systems offline."

Emily and Fury looked to each other, knowing there was a possibility that they weren't geting out of here. "Then reboot, damn it!"

They just kept shooting until they realized it wasn't working. The cascade of bullets stopped, giving them both a moment to recover, but it wasn't long. When the SWAT van opened up, they pulled out a ramming tool that would most definitely crash that window open.

They put the machine right up to the driver's seat window, alarming them both. "Warning. Window integrity compromised."

"You think?" Fury spoke to the car sarcastically.

Emily pulled Fury back into her seat with her, knowing the force would have just done it for them anyway. "How long to propulsion?"

"Calculating." That was the mark of the first hit, sending the whole car being pushed to the right and slamming back down on the road. "Window integrity 31%. Deploying countermeasures."

"Hold that order!" Emily called.

Fury gave her a wild look. "I don't know about you, but I want to get out of here alive."

"Trust me." She urged just before the machine hit the car again, Emily screaming this time, it taking her by shock.

"Window integrity 19%. Offensive measures advised."

"Wait!" She spoke again, more eagerly this time.

It hit one last time. "Window integrity 1%."

"Now!" A gun popped up from the middle console, Emily taking it before Fury even had a chance. She shot all the men she could down before sending a missile into that fake SWAT van.

"Okay." Fury sighed as the chaos seemed to calm down a little. "Good plan."

She gave him a bit of a smile before the car reported, "Propulsion systems now online."

"Full acceleration!" Fury yelled. "Now!" Emily continued to shoot as the car backed itself out of the trap it was in and went forward, regardless the men standing in front of it.

They were safe for the time being as they drove off, but they knew more were just going to keep coming. "Initiate vertical takeoff!" Emily commanded.

"Flight systems damaged."

Fury then interjected. "Then activate guidance cameras!"

He nodded to Emily, giving her a chance to climb over him and sit in the driver's seat. His arm was still hurt, no matter how much he wanted to drive, he wasn't going to risk it. "Give me the wheel!"

"Get me Agent Hill." Fury commanded as Emily began to weave in and out of the cars.

"Communications array damaged."

"Well, what's not damaged?" Fury asked, getting irritated with the car.

"Air conditioning is fully operational." Emily slowly turned to look at Nick, the two of them sharing an irritated glance before looking back to the road.

"Traffic ahead."

"Give me an alternate route."

"Traffic alert on Roosevelt Bridge. All vehicles stopped." Emily hit the wheel angrily. It was like this was all planned. Like someone knew they were going to be on this exact street at this exact moment. "17th Avenue clear in three blocks, directly ahead."

Emily quickly moved past cars, knowing there was still a police car chasing after them. The only problem was that the car was so damn big she had to ram into some other cars to get through in time. She had successfully blocked the police car, but the men just got out, shooting at them, no regards for civilian casualties.

A man was on their side, trying to shoot them both as they tried to drive through the abandon cars in the middle of the firefight, and there someone else behind them. Emily then got a brilliant idea. She put the car in reverse, ramming the guy who was shooting their back. She even made sure to go over him a bit with the car. The man on the side was still shooting though. Emily took a hard left, hitting him and throwing him into a glass phone booth.

She then straightened out her wheel and made a turn down the next road she saw, the beaten up cars still following them. One of the men got out and started shooting, so Fury nodded in their direction. Emily did as he said, veering the car to the right and leaning back. The man's head ended up in the car as he still tried to shoot, but Fury grabbed the gun and pistol whipped him. Another car joined Emily's side, the both of them rolling their eyes at how persistent these guys were. "Warning. Approaching intersection."

Emily immediately slammed on her breaks, the two cars still flying straight ahead, just in time for an eighteen wheeler to hit them both. Emily didn't take any time, taking the car down the next turn she could find. "Get us off the grid!" Fury yelled.

"Calculating route to secure location."

Emily's eyes then steadied, seeing a man standing in the middle of their lane. He had some sort of weapon, dressed in all black, hair dark and long, but a mask was covering his face. There was one distinctly odd thing about him, though. His arm was all silver with one single red star.

He shot something off, and at this point, there was nothing they could do about it. It hit the bottom of their car, sitting there for a moment before blowing up. The back of the car went up, Fury and Emily immediately grabbing the handle bars on both sides as the car flipped over onto its top before sliding a bit to the right.

The man had no emotion on his face as he stepped out of the way to make sure the car didn't hurt him. When it finally skidded to a stop, he calmly walked over there with a swagger since one arm was heavier than the other.

Both Emily and Fury groaned as they laid on the ceiling of the car, not sure what to do for a moment. Fury then pulled out a miniature flame thrower to etch out a hole through the road they could slip through and get inside the sewers.

The man finally made it up to the car, ripping the driver's side door off to see no one in there, but he most definitely saw the hole. And from there, he began to track them down.

Melody was sitting on the floor in front of Steve's apartment door with the doughnuts in her hand. She had smiled a little bit to her cousin she saw going into her apartment. Sharon's eyes immediately lit up as she got off the phone to move closer to her. Melody stood up, doughnuts still in hand, but her phone began ringing. Sharon finished up her conversation and Melody ignored Clint's call before the two moved in for a hug.

"How have you been?" Melody asked. They ended up having to give each other a side hug since Sharon was juggling her laundry and Melody the doughnuts.

"I've been good." She spoke excitedly, breaking out of their hug. "Just got off the phone with your grandma."

Melody gave her a tight smile, not wanting to think about how long it's been since she had seen her. "How's she doing?"

Sharon just gave her a tight smile right back, knowing Peggy's condition hadn't improved. "She's holding on." Sharon then nodded towards the apartment, realizing while she was out there. "Waiting on your super soldier great uncle."

Melody chuckled at her phrasing. People just loved to call him that. "Yeah." She spoke, showing off the doughnut box. "Pizza and doughnuts."

Sharon furrowed her brow like she had never thought of that before, but gave her a shrug. "Good combo."

Melody opened up the box and pushed it in her direction. Sharon's eyes light up at the sight of that gloriousness. "Let me guess." Melody began as Sharon's hands danced around the box. "Chocolate with sprinkles." Just as she finished that sentence, Sharon came up with that exact same doughnut. "Just like when we were kids." She spoke while shaking her head.

They suddenly heard footsteps up the stairs, Steve joining the two. Sharon gave him a shy smile, her mouth full of doughnuts. "What took you so long?" Melody teased.

Steve looked to the pizza box he held at his hip. "Massive line, good thing you weren't the one to get it."

Steve then looked Sharon over, Melody taking notice of this immediately, looking at the two back and forth. "You know," Steve spoke, nodding to the laundry basket she was still balancing on her hip. "If you want, you're welcome to use my machine." Melody began to bite her lip, feeling very uncomfortable that her great uncle from the father's side of her family and her cousin from her mother's side of the family were currently flirting. "Might be cheaper than the one in the basement.

Sharon now had the doughnut resting on her laundry basket. "Yeah? What's it cost?"

Steve looked up at her, a hopeful gleam in his eye. "A cup of coffee?"

Melody's mouth immediately fell. She didn't know her great uncle was that smooth. Sharon obviously looked shy, but Melody thought she should go for it. They could both use a significant other in their life at the moment. "Thank you, but," Steve looked down, knowing he had struck out. "I already have a load in downstairs, and you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I just finished a rotation in the infectious disease ward, so..."

Steve put his hands up in defeat as Melody continued to look back and forth between the two. That was it, she shipped it. "Well, I'll keep my distance."

Sharon turned around to look at the two before going into her apartment. "Hopefully, not too far." Steve looked a little more confident after she said that because he knew he had something of a chance. Melody turned to look at Steve, her eyes wide with how impressed she was, she opened her mouth to speak when Sharon interrupted her. "And I think you left your stereo on."

Steve gave her a nod and a smile before she shut the door. Melody rolled her eyes at him. "You're such an old man."

Steve just looked to his apartment, his "captain" face on. "I didn't leave the stereo on." Melody turned to look at him, a furrow in her brows. Steve nodded to the doughnuts in her hand. "Leave them and we'll go in through the back window." Melody looked to the pizza as Steve put it down before looking back down to the doughnuts in her hand. "Come on." Steve spoke as he noticed she wasn't following him to the stairs.

Melody looked down at the food left before giving out a sigh. "But the food." Steve rolled his eyes at her before grabbing her by the arm and dragging her along with him.

They opened up the back window to his apartment building, Melody hoping he hadn't miscalculated which apartment was his. When they finally got in, Steve moved to his shield resting in the hallway. Melody tried to go forward, but Steve put his hand out so she wouldn't go past him. This led to Melody rolling her eyes, but this was Steve's place and she was going to listen to him.

When they rounded the corner, they realized it was just Fury and Emily leaning on their couch. Steve let out a stressed breath, relaxing his tensed shoulders. Melody was still behind Steve, so she didn't know what was going on. She moved from behind him to see her mother's golden hair, resulting in an eye roll. "Seriously?" Melody complained.

"I don't remember giving either of you a key." Steve spoke, almost disappointed in them.

"You really think we'd need one?" Emily asked, making Melody roll her eyes.

"My wife kicked me out."

Both Melody and Steve shared an uneasy look. "We didn't know you were married." Steve spoke before looking back at the two sitting on his couch.

He shrugged, looking very casual at the moment, that's when Melody thought about why they were sitting around with the lights off. "There's a lot you don't know about me."

"I know, Nick." Steve scoffed as he moved to the lamp nearby. "That's the problem."

That's when they noticed all the blood and cuts on both of their faces. Melody forgot why she was even mad at her mother, wanting to hurry towards her and make sure she was okay, but Emily saw that in Melody's eyes, raising her hand to stop her before she could even make a move. Fury moved to the lamp, shutting it off, both Melody and Steve sharing a worried look before turning back to the pair. Emily pulled out her phone before typing a message, it reading: EARS EVERYWHERE.

Melody and Steve looked to each other again, knowing they had to keep up this charade or any of them could die. "I'm sorry I have to do this, but I had no place else to crash."

Emily put their phone up to them again. SHIELD COMPRIMISED. Melody took a quick breath, feeling like her whole world was falling. These were people that knew everything about her since the moment she was born, and they were compromised. Everything about her was in there. Everything about everyone she loved. "Who else knows about your wife?" Melody asked, not even sure what to ask anymore, but finding that being the best way to subtly ask what the hell was going on.

Emily brought up her phone again, it obviously hurting her stand up as Fury did the same, moving to the two. JUST US. Melody gave her a scared face. Sure, she hadn't had her mom around for much, but she still looked to her as a protector. "Just my friends." Fury finally answered.

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked in a protective manner, annoying Melody.

"Steve," She spoke strictly. "Don't be ridiculous. If they need a place to crash, we'll give them a place to crash."

"Well," Fury spoke, grabbing their attention again. "That's up to you."

Suddenly, shots rang through the apartment, hitting both Nick and Emily. "MOM!" Melody yelled before hurrying to her mangled body on the ground.

Melody turned her over, noticing the blood spilling out of her mouth, but she was still breathing. "Melody!" Steve called in a hushed whisper. "Get away from there!"

Melody looked around, seeing the flash of something run outside the apartment. That's when Melody grabbed Emily and pulled her away just like Steve was doing with Nick. "Mom," Melody whispered right when they stopped, taking her face in her hands. "Mom," She spoke, trying to catch her attention again, but she was like a rag doll. "Mom, look at me."

Nick stopped them, grabbing Steve's hand and slipping a flash drive in it. "Don't, either of you, trust anyone." He mumbled.

Steve's door suddenly broke down, Steve going to check it out as Melody was still paralyzed by her mom bleeding out right in front of her. "Captain Rogers!"

Melody's eyebrows furrowed as she turned around. She knew that voice. It had been around her for her entire life. "Captain," She spoke calmly. That was Sharon all right. "I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD Special Service."

"Kate?" Steve simply asked, finding it hard to believe that the girl from across the hall was a member of SHIELD.

Melody simply got up, looking to her cousin with a confused face. "Kate?" That one was more of a sarcastic question than Steve's confusion.

"I'm assigned to protect you." She told him as she hurried around the corner.

"On who's orders?"

When Sharon saw the two laying there, her eyes got wide. "Theirs."

Sharon moved down to them as Melody moved closer to Steve from how scared she had gotten. Her mother looked so lifeless lying there. Sharon immediately pulled out her walkie talkie, pulling it to her lips. "Echo and Foxtrot are both down and unresponsive. I need EMTs."

"Do we have a 20 on the shooter?" The voice immediately asked back.

Melody looked over, seeing that flash of silver again. Steve saw it too, his grip on his shield just getting tighter. "Tell him I'm in pursuit."

That's when Steve slammed out the window right after the shooter. Melody knew she couldn't do that, but she could run really fast. Melody hurried out the door of the apartment, Sharon calling after her, but Melody didn't care. She was going to help get the guy who shot her mother.

She ran down the stairs and out the building, hurrying down the sidewalk, keeping time as the shooter jumped from building to building, trying to get away. She could see Steve jump through the window to get on another building, making her stop and hurry inside and up the stairs. When Melody finally made it up the stairs, she saw the shooter gripping Steve's shield with a metal arm. He looked in her direction before throwing it back to Steve, it hitting him hard in the gut.

With the distraction, the shooter jumped off the building, Melody running to the edge to see if she could spot him, but he had disappeared. It was like he had disappeared out of thin air. Steve joined her, actually jumping on top of the ledge, looking as desperate as her while the sirens rang in the distance and the win ran wild through their hair. The cold, darkness of the night truly settling in as two people they cared for were bleeding out a few buildings over.

The Winter Soldier is finally here! Are you guys ready for Melody/Winter Soldier interactions. Ugh, my heart is just breaking thinking about when Melody finds out who he really is. Remember to review your thoughts and let me know what you guys want to see more of!