Steve couldn't believe how much had happened within the last 24 hours. So many things didn't make sense to him anymore, he had questions about everything and he didn't know who to trust enough to ask. The life he'd been living since he had woken up in New York after almost 70 years didn't seem like it did before. He always knew that not everyone in this world was truthful and that everyone had their secrets, but he didn't expect so much of them to come out in just a couple of hours.
After Jess had left, Steve stood in her apartment for a while trying to piece things together. She wouldn't have hidden her real name from him without a good reason, but he didn't know how it was possible for her to have any connection at all to the man he knew as Bucky Barnes. He wanted answers, but he had no idea where she'd gone or who she was running from.
When he finally left and walked up to his apartment, he had no idea he'd be walking into a whole other chaos.
Fury was waiting in his apartment with a message. SHIELD had been comprimised, ears were everywhere. Steve, once again, had no chance to ask his questions. Fury had been shot by a man outside that Steve pursued soon after. He wore a mask, he had a metal arm and he was stronger than Steve, a super soldier. Fury had been pronounced dead at the hospital not an hour later, and Steve knew to take his last words to him seriously. Trust no one.
Now he sat in Pierce's office as the Secretary spoke of Fury with appreciation, expressing his sadness at the fact he was now gone. Although Steve didn't take his words as an expression of sadness, but rather an attempt to get information from Steve about what Fury had told him.
''Captain you were the last person to see Nick alive and I don't think that was an accident, and I don't think you do either,'' Pierce told him as they stood in his office.
''So I'm going to ask again. Why was he in your apartment?''
Steve stared back at the man, knowing he couldn't trust him. If SHIELD was compomised, it only made sense that the man in charge would know exactly why.
''He told me not to trust anyone,'' Steve told him.
''I wonder if that included him,''
''I'm sorry, those were his last words,'' Steve finished, refusing to give him anymore information.
''Captain,'' Pierce stopped Steve as he walked away. ''Someone murdered my friend and I'm going to find out why and if anyone gets in my way they're going to regret it. Anyone,''
Steve nodded his head in understanding as he walked out of the room. Pierce's words repeated over and over in his head. It was his warning, but it was in no way a friendly one. It wasn't until Steve reached the elevator and was joined by a group of men that he knew were apart of SHIELD's strike and attack team that he realized Steve had already gotten in the way of Pierce. SHIELD was against him now too.
It had been a few days since she left Washington, and yet Jess was already walking back into the city with cautious movements. She knew that if SHIELD wanted her so bad they would have found her by now, but she also knew that they had a lot of other, more important, issues to take care of.
For one, they'd labeled Captain America a threat and were now hunting him down, as well as Natasha Romanoff. Jess had only been in contact with one person since she left and had been hiding out in a run down motel. Zac had called her the night before her return, letting her know that Steve Rogers was now an enemy to SHIELD. For what reason, he didn't know. He wasn't on SHIELD's good side after they discovered he was the one to invite Jess to the headquarters, but he did have enough clearance to be notified of big things that happened.
Two days was long enough for Jess to cower away and hide. She wasn't going to let SHIELD do to her what they'd managed to do to her father all those years ago. Just like Jess, her father was looking for answers that haunted him his whole life, but SHIELD didn't let him get too close and made him regret his actions when he did. They couldn't do that to her, not when she'd come this far. This whole thing was about finding the truth, but also revenge.
Jess was wearing a black hooded jacket and a baseball cap that managed to provide enough shade over her face that it wasn't directly noticeable. She wasn't going to run away scared from SHIELD, but that didn't mean she wanted to be caught. She didn't know exactly why she was back in the city, there was nothing she could do to stop what was going on, but since she was already an enemy of SHIELD, she figured her assistance wouldn't be so bad. She had information and a reason to fight against SHIELD just as much as anyone else.
Walking the streets for a few hours now, Jess reached the street before her building and looked around, wondering if it was safe enough to go near. No doubt SHIELD would have been there for her and for Steve, but they must have been preoccupied now. She had taken her valuables and important possessions with her when she left, which were now locked in a safe at the motel, but something was still drawing her back to her apartment. It was the only place that felt like home to her since she left Brooklyn. She had memories there, good ones, and that was where she had Steve. Someone who was a best friend to her, like an older brother, and someone she'd hurt when she left.
Before Jess got any closer to her building, a screeching noise on the road made her jump back away from the sidewalk, her body immediately shuddering with fear. SHIELD had found her. The other people on the street didn't have enough time to react before someone jumped out of the car and pulled her into it with ease, ignoring her screams and kicking legs.
''Get off me!'' she yelled, trying to grab the person's hands and rip them off her.
But she was already in the car, and it wasn't SHIELD that had kidnapped her.
''I was hoping to do without drawing too much attention,'' Natasha sighed, annoyed as she slammed the door of the car after it had already began speeding back off.
Jess took a moment to look around, noticing a man sitting beside her with a SHIELD badge on, an unknown man driving the car and Steve Rogers sitting in the passenger seat. She shifted to sit comfortably, looking at the man's badge again. Jasper Sitwell. The name sounded familiar to her, but right now she didn't care who he was, she just wanted to know what was going on.
''You trying to get caught?''
Jess looked up at the man driving the car who was eyeing her in the rear vision mirror.
''If you took ten more steps in that direction SHIELD would have definitely grabbed you,''
Who was this man? Why was he driving them all? There was far too many questions going through her head.
''Sam,'' he answered her, figuring she would be wondering.
''They've had a team watching your apartment building all day,'' Natasha filled her in. ''I'm surprised they didn't find you already,''
''I was careful,'' Jess defended.
She turned to look back to the front of the car, noticing that Steve had his head turned as if he didn't even want to look at her. Jess didn't blame him for feeling betrayed, she had lied to him for as long she they'd known each other. A change to explain everything to him would be good, but it wasn't the time or place, and it was clear he didn't want to speak to her.
The car was silent as they sped away from the area, and Jess couldn't help feeling a little threatened to be sitting next to a SHIELD agent who seemed more like a hostage than a passenger.
''Can someone tell me what's going on?'' she asked, her voice sounding like it was being projected over a loudspeaker amid the silence.
Steve scoffed and shook his head, an amused yet angry look on his face as if he wondered how she thought she'd be entitled to truth after hiding her own. She stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was going to say something to her even if it was something hurtful, but he remained quiet.
''Well, SHIELD wants us dead,'' Natasha told her again. ''They made that pretty clear when they sent a missile toward me and Steve when we found out what they were hiding,''
''As they do,'' Jess shook her head at the idea of history repeating itself in her life. ''Well, I guess when you're Alexander Pierce it's actually possible to turn an organization against two of it's best,''
Natasha watched Jess as she folded her arms in anger, a small smirk on her lips at how much she had managed to find out on her own.
''Steve mentioned you weren't who you appeared to be,''
Jess glanced up at Steve who had his head turned slightly, waiting for her response, but he still didn't say a word.
''I guess he's right then,'' Jess shrugged. ''But everyone has their reasons,''
There was silence among them once again as they each occupied themselves with staring out the window. Jess still didn't know where they were going, but she didn't bother asking any more questions. The whole situation was quite awkward. The tension was high and no one knew what to say, but Steve still refused to look back at Jess.
He had lied to her for so long about who she was. He still didn't know why, or what it meant that her names was Jessica Barnes. It obviously meant something if she felt the need to hide it from him, but she knew how sensitive the topic of his best friend was. If she was lying about her real name too, he didn't know what he'd do.
After being chased out of the Triskelion by a SHIELD attack team, Steve had found out that what Jess was running from was SHIELD. One of the men that Steve had knocked to the ground had warned him that he and his neighbor friend would be found by SHIELD soon enough, and Steve was smart enough to put the pieces together. He just didn't know why. He hadn't told Natasha everything either, he didn't want to until he himself knew what was going on. Natasha knew that Jess wasn't just a young woman working at a diner, but Steve hadn't informed her of her identity yet.
''You could have told me about SHIELD,'' Steve finally spoke.
Everyone tensed up at his sudden words.
''No I couldn't,'' she shook her head. ''I didn't know what I was dealing with and I couldn't involve you, I didn't want to,''
''You didn't want to involve me? So it was just a coincidence that you and I became friends, was it? Or an attempt to get closer to SHIELD,''
Jess was quiet for a moment, holding back all of her anger.
''I would never use you,'' she spoke quietly. ''I kept our friendship separate from what I was doing with SHIELD,''
Steve chuckled to himself.
''Right,'' he nodded. ''I have a little trouble believing that considering how easy it is for you to lie,''
Jess didn't say anything else. He was angry, she didn't want to justify herself when he was like this. She didn't want to do any of this in front of the others, this was between her and Steve. The car went back to silence as Steve turned away again, unable to stop feeling so annoyed.
Natasha looked over to Sitwell who was staring at the road, a look of worry or anticipation on his face.
''Insight's launching in 16 hours, we're cutting it a little close,'' she poked her her into the front and spoke to Steve and Sam.
''I know,'' Steve turned. ''We'll use Sitwell to bypass DNA scans and access the hellicarriers directly,''
''What?'' Sitwell's eyes widened, speaking for the first time. ''Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible ide-''
Sitwell was cut off before he finished his sentence by a metal arm reaching through the now broken window and grabbing him. Jess pushed herself back away from his, watching on in horror as the man was dragged from the car and thrown into oncoming traffic. The sound of his body slamming against a car made her stomach churn, but she didn't have time to focus on that.
Someone was on the roof, they could hear the heavy footsteps, and they all gasped as the car was launched forward by a truck behind them. Jess turned to see it was full of agents.
''Hydra!'' Natasha told her.
''Hydra?'' Jess asked, shocked.
''Pierce is leading them from within SHIELD,''
There was no time for further explanation as bullets began to rain down from the roof of the car into the back seats. Natasha climbed through to the front, jumping our of the bullet's way as she grabbed Jess's hand and began to pull her through too. One of the bullets skimmed across Jess's wrist as she made it to the front before the bullets hit where she was sitting. They were both on Steve's lap and Sam concentrated on driving, trying to get away from the agents.
With no warning, the car's breaks slammed on and threw the man from the roof onto the road in front. He looked absolutely terrifying. His arm was metal, his hair blew in front of his face, dressed in black and covered with weapons.
The Winter Soldier.
Sam sped off away from the man, but the car behind them soon caught up, picking up the soldier on the way. Slamming into the back of the car repeatedly, Steve knew they had to get out of the car before it was driven off the bridge they were travelling on. Steve pulled Natasha and Jess close, pulling his shield to his side as he looked over to Sam, gesturing to get ready.
''Hang on!'' he shouted.
Jess was sure she was having a nightmare as the door of the car detached and Steve pushed them all out, grinding along the ground as Sam jumped behind her. They all landed in a heap on the road, but they didn't escape completely. Agents began to rush out of the car that had been chasing them and the Winter Soldier was visible from the other side of he road.
It was only just beginning.