Chapter Eleven

Steve finished his shower and joined Sam and Bucky in the command center, where the two were having a heated discussion over in the kitchenette.

"If you don't toast a Pop-Tart before you eat it," Sam was saying, "You're denying the essence of the Pop-Tart. It becomes a snack, not a meal."

"If I'm hungry and I eat it and I'm not hungry anymore, it did its job," Bucky said, taking a bite of the freshly opened Frosted Raspberry pastry in his hand, the torn pieces of its foil pouch still clinging to it.

"I can't even watch you eat like an animal." Sam turned away in disgust and saw that he and Bucky were no longer alone. "Morning, Steve. How was the run?"

"Eventful," Steve said, not liking to lie but not wanting to betray Sharon's request.

"I heard you coming down the stairs this morning and almost thought about joining you," Sam said, taking his own Pop-Tart out of the toaster and laying it on a plate to cool. "Then I realized your good looks weren't enough to get me out of bed two hours before the sun comes up and went back to sleep."

"Sharon should get her eyes checked," Bucky said, studying Steve. "You're not that good looking."

Steve stared pointedly at the two and asked, "Which one of us has a girlfriend?"

"Hey," Sam said defensively," I've got a date tonight."

"You were set-up," Bucky reminded him.

"But Sharon picked me to be Hill's date tonight over all y'all," Sam said smugly. "Because I look great in a tux."

Before Bucky could respond, Sharon came in.

"No one felt like making coffee this morning?" she asked, stifling a yawn. She eyed the Pop-Tarts with longing and grabbed a yogurt out of the small refrigerator instead.

"No one makes it as good as you," Sam said.

"So we've waited," Bucky added. "Patiently."

Sharon gave them both a look before she grabbed the special bag of coffee she kept on the top shelf; the last bag from her parents' most recent trip to Brazil. Now that her dad's preferred beans had ruined all other coffee for her team, Sharon figured she should probably look into ordering their own supply rather than relying on her parents' vacation schedule.

She ground the beans and filled the machine, pulling the pot out and letting her mug fill first before replacing it.

She took an appreciative sniff, a tentative sip, and sighed with contentment as she leaned against the counter.

"The endorphins from your run weren't enough this morning?" Sam asked.

Sharon looked to Steve before answering. "If he would have let me, I would have drank the coffee before the run. Only crazy super soldiers are up at that hour."

Bucky shrugged. "I slept in."

"Apparently you're not the craziest super soldier we've got," Sam said with a grin.

"I wouldn't say that." Sharon smiled over her coffee. "If Steve was the crazy one, we'd have to get him a dog today instead of Bucky."

"What?"

"I got the call while I was in the shower," she explained to Steve and Sam and then turned to Bucky. "There's a retired police dog from Michigan in need of a good home. We can meet her this afternoon and, if you two hit it off, she can come home with us today."

"You're getting me a dog?" Bucky asked, barely containing his excitement. "Since when?"

"Since Sam told us how well you hit it off with Sasha in Italy."

Bucky didn't think, just pulled Sharon to him, and held her in a bionic hug. Steve caught her near-empty coffee mug before it could spill or crash to the floor and Sam jumped out of the way as Bucky spun her in a celebratory circle.

"I'm getting a dog," he said, setting her back down and grinning. "I've always wanted a dog."

"That's true. You did always want a dog," Steve said, not sure if Bucky remembered it. "I think you settled for having me follow you around, instead."

Bucky gave him a look, trying to capture the memory, and then frowned when it escaped him.

"Don't worry about it, Buck," Steve said gently, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, Bucky," Sam said, "An actual dog's gonna be way better than having Steve around."

"It's too bad we'll be out meeting Rocky while you're primping for Maria, Sam," Sharon said and then added a fake sniffle. "We're going to miss your first date. I was going to take pictures and everything."

"It's not prom, Sharon," Sam said, echoing Sharon's comment to him from before.

"She is picking you up in a limo," Steve added.

"You should expect to put out."

Everyone stared at Bucky after his comment. "What? I learned it on tv."

Before anyone could address the giant elephant that had just trampled through the room, a buzz announced the arrival of Oscar and Rudy.

"Thank God," Sam muttered, putting his plate in the sink.

Sharon felt the same relief but didn't say anything as she went downstairs to let Oscar and Rudy in. Declining her offer to come up for coffee, they headed straight for the server room they'd fashioned out of one of the empty closets on the garage level.

She made her way back up the stairs to find the boys had moved to their desks - Sam in his chair while Bucky sat on the filing cabinet next to it and Steve sitting in her seat with his legs propped on the desktop.

She gave his stockinged feet a look before she sat down next to them.

"Why are we all just sitting around waiting for them to boot up a computer?" Sam asked. "It's not like we'll know if the new system's working until someone tries to break in."

"The new system's based on biometrics," Sharon explained over her shoulder. "Once we're booted up, the system will take an initial scan of the entire building - hence the sensors in all of our apartments, work and common areas - and alert us if anything is out of the ordinary. We'll also have individual profiles created from that scan so the system will recognize us."

"Oscar said the system is sensitive enough to detect a change in temperature or even the oxygen and carbon dioxide ratio in a room," Steve added. "A new houseplant would be enough to throw off the ratio and trigger an alarm, just like any intruder who somehow bypassed the rest of the sensors."

Sam looked around at the big-screen monitors that lined the walls and new computers on their desks. "I like all the fancy stuff we've gotten but do we really need the security system? I mean, who's gonna be dumb enough to break into Captain America's house?"

"I'm sure that's what Tony Stark thought right before someone destroyed his house in Malibu and several of his Iron Man suits with it," Sharon said. "The work we're doing is starting to get attention - and not the good kind. If Pepper Potts wants to give us the latest and greatest tech Stark Industries has to offer, I'm not going to argue. "

"Frankly," Steve said, "and I know I'll get in trouble for sounding like a chauvinist, I'll feel better knowing Sharon's protected by the new system when we're all out in the field."

"I second your out-dated and chauvinistic attitude," agreed Sam.

"And I third it," Bucky said.

Before Sharon could protest, they were informed that the baseline environmental scan was taking place and for everyone to remain where they were.

They all held perfectly still - until Bucky snorted with a barely contained chuckle.

"What?" Sam asked out of the corner of his mouth.

"We can move during the scan," he said, laughing like he'd just played the greatest prank on his friends. "We just can't leave this zone until it's done. Rudy told me yesterday."

"Thanks for telling the rest of us," Sam said. "I know you think you're - What the hell is that?"

They all stood as an alarm started blaring throughout the command center and the dormant monitors on the wall started flashing.

"Foreign transmission detected," a disembodied voice announced just as the words appeared on the central monitor. "Garage level. Stall eight. Foreign transmission detected. Garage..."

The announcement repeated as the monitor showed them the garage level and then panned toward Steve's truck and then Sharon's car.

"Miss Carter," Oscar called over the intercom, his voice overriding the computer's. "You'll want to come down here. We've found something you should see."

Sharon stood with Sam, Bucky and Steve as they all looked at the device Rudy had found attached to the underside of her car, wedged out of sight behind the gas tank.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"A tracking beacon," Sharon answered, recognizing the SHIELD-issued design. "Can you tell how long it's been there?" she asked the tech.

"Without actually analyzing it, I'd say between four and eight months" Rudy rubbed his gloved thumb over the casing. "It's got a layer of road salt so it's been there at least as long as the last snow but not long enough to corrode yet. Do you want me to have it tested?"

"That won't be necessary," Steve said, sharing a look with Sharon. "I think we have a pretty good idea who put it there."

"Rumlow," Sharon said.

"Rumlow?" Sam asked, surprised.

"That's how he found you at the cabin," Steve said. "And that's how he's been haunting you around DC. He's been tracking your car."

"Back up," Sam said. "Haunting Sharon around DC? How long's this been going on."

"Almost a week," Sharon said.

"And you didn't tell us?" Bucky growled, his anger directed at Steve as he took a step toward him.

Sharon put a hand on Bucky's chest. "Steve didn't know until this morning. I didn't want to worry you guys if I wasn't even sure of what I'd been seeing."

Oscar cleared his throat, reminding the team that he and Rudy were still standing right there.

"Who put the tracker on Miss Carter's car?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "The same psychopath who put her in the hospital six months ago."

Oscar and Rudy, who had both grown to like Sharon, were upset by that information.

"We can jam the signal," Oscar offered.

"Do it," Steve said.

But, at nearly the same time, Sharon said, "Don't."

"Why not?" Steve asked.

"Trust me, Steve. I'm not taking any chances this time." She turned to Rudy. "Can you trace the transmission?"

"It's idle now, I'm afraid," Rudy said. "We only found it because of the concentration of the sensors during the baseline scan. If the tracker was active, I could probably tell you exactly where it was being traced from."

"Can the new system tell when the tracker's active?" Sam asked.

"Of course," Oscar answered.

"Then we leave it," Sharon said. "If we jam it, Rumlow knows he's been found out and just finds some new way to mess with me. If we wait, we might be able to back-trace the signal and find him instead."

"So you're just going to continue driving around town broadcasting your location to Rumlow?" Sam asked. "Can I say how much I hate that idea without sounding as chauvinistic as Steve?"

"We'll leave the tracker and my car here," Sharon said. "We can't be sure that Rumlow isn't already surveilling our building and knows when I leave. If my car moves and the signal doesn't, he'll know he's been found out. And the tracker needs to stay here so we can trace it the next time it's activated."

Steve looked thoughtful. "It's a good idea. But..."

"I know." Sharon knew what he was going to say. "I'm not leaving the building without one of you with me."

"That's right," Bucky agreed. "We want you safe, Sharon."

"Whether you like our methods or not," Sam added.

Rudy took care of the tracker, putting it in a plastic box he'd found and placing it on the shelf next to Sharon's car. He also wrote a subroutine so the system would automatically trace the signal as soon as it was active again while Oscar took them through the features of their new security system and the Stark secured network.