To buy myself some time, I decided to head to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face. Fury was dead. SHIELD was compromised. I couldn't trust anyone. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to tell Natasha. The whole situation was beginning to give me a migraine.

As I walked back down the hallway, I made sure there were no more SHIELD agents present. I didn't want any of them finding my presence suspicious, since they had already removed Fury's body from his room. When I was sure there was no one around, I slipped into the room where I was to meet Natasha. She was already waiting.

As I approached her, she held up a flash drive. Confusion flitted over my face. "What…?" I didn't have to finish my question for her to know what I meant.

"I don't know. Steve hid it here. In the vending machine. I need to figure out what it is. You need to lie low. But I need you to tell me what you know about this guy first." I nodded and rubbed my hand over my forehead, taking a deep breath before replying.

"I don't know much. He had a metal arm with a huge red star painted on. I was going for a run and he held a gun to my head. He said he wanted answers. Why Steve and Fury were trying to contact me? He left before I could answer though. When I told Tony he said it sounded like-," She cut me off, finishing my sentence for me.

"The Winter Soldier." I nodded and she sighed. "I'm guessing Steve will be back for this soon. You need to go home. Make sure your security system is online at all times. Call us if anything goes wrong." I nodded again and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry about Fury, Natasha. Call me if you or Steve need anything. I'm not really as 'fragile' as everyone seems to think I am." Natasha thanked me and with that I was on my way home for the day.

As I entered the front door, I saw the trail of blood that the Winter Soldier had tracked in when he had threatened me. I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a washrag, wetting it before heading back to the entryway to clean the mess.

I followed the trail of blood into the kitchen and to the back door, wiping the blood as I went. I couldn't help but wonder what the man had meant when he asked why Fury was trying to get ahold of me. As far as I knew, Fury hadn't tried to contact me at all.

"JARVIS?" I asked, walking back to the kitchen sink to wash the blood out of the rag I had used.

"How can I be of service, Ms. Miller?" The AI asked. I couldn't get all of the blood off the rag, so instead I reached under the sink for the bleach, soaking the cloth in it.

"Do I have any personal messages from HQ?" I asked.

Since I hadn't been into work today and I had left early after our mission last night, it was possible that Fury had tried to leave me a personal message at the office. I waited a few moments as JARVIS searched the system for them.

"There seems to be two messages, ma'am. The first is from Dr. Price and the second is from Director Fury." Dr. Price was my therapist, and seeing as Fury had diverted me from several of our recent meetings, I could understand why he was calling. I swallowed hard, I still didn't want to admit to myself that Fury was gone.

"Play the one from Dr. Price first, please." I asked. JARVIS accepted the command. The time and date of the message were read first. It was from this morning, around 12AM. It didn't make sense for him to be calling so early, especially since he knew I wouldn't normally be in the office. I continued listening to the message, anyway.

"We are very sorry to do this, Phoebe." I was becoming more confused by the second, "Hail HYDRA." With that, the message seemed to cut off. I didn't have any time to move for my phone before a sudden, high pitched frequency played through the message. I dropped to my knees on the kitchen floor, my hands gripped at my hair, and I had to struggle not to pull so hard that I ripped my hair out. I was surprised by a rush of memories that greeted me. I wasn't sure if I was even conscious anymore.


Okay, this chapter was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. I kind of just wrote the story, and then divided them up into chapters. Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying this story so far! I've been super busy, and I just broke up with my boyfriend of 2 years last week, so as you can imagine, things have been crazy. But so far I've loved writing the sequel! Thank you for reading!