Chapter Twenty

Steve dreamed as he slept, dreamed of the pretty nurse who lived across the hall.

He'd liked her from the moment he met her; Kate, with her bright smile and ready dimples. Her schedule was just as inconsistent as his and he seemed to run into her at all hours of the day and night, her leaving or returning from a shift in pink or lavender scrubs and he returning from a mission with STRIKE team.

Those stolen moments on the stairs, the landing or in the vestibule getting their mail had become the highlights of his day. When the modern world didn't seem to make sense, she was always there with a warm greeting and a soft laugh to set it right again.

He should ask her out.

He could invite her for breakfast at the all-night diner he frequented, the one where they didn't bat an eye no matter how much food he ordered. Or see if she wanted to take in a ballgame since he could often hear the Nationals' game echoed from her apartment. Or maybe ask her out to a movie the next time they ran into each other at the video store down the street.

He just needed to ask her out.

But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Instead, he'd lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, and think about asking her out.

She'd say yes, those dimples flashing. They'd go to dinner or a game or a movie. He'd be smooth and funny, and she'd laugh and touch his arm in her amusement. They'd take their time walking back to their building, their hands finding each other in the dark. He'd walk her to her door and she'd lean into him, his heart racing as their lips met in their imaginary first kiss. He'd touch her face, she'd whisper his name -

And then he'd come back to reality, alone and aching...his heart yearning for that human contact.

He should just ask her.

And she'd say yes.

It was dark.

Sometime in the hours that Steve slept, Sharon must have nodded off as well because she awoke with her head resting on his shoulder, her ears alert for a repeat of the sound that woke her.

"I heard it, too," Steve whispered against her hair. Before she could ask how long he'd been awake or how he felt, they heard another noise.

"Car doors," Sharon murmured, her ears straining as she heard heavy footfalls. "And footsteps. Someone's checking out the house."

Slowly, quietly, she slipped off the bed.

"Where are my clothes?" Steve asked as she heard the mattress shift under his weight.

Sharon handed him the pile and crept to the doorway. As she passed in front of the lone window, a movement caught her eye and she ducked just as something came crashing through the glass.

Without hesitation, she launched herself at the shadowy figure that followed, knocking him to the floor. She struck out, prepared to do so again, and a second figure charged at her - this one lavishing her face with slobbery kisses.

"Rocky?" she called out and was answered with a short bark.

"Rocky!" she repeated, throwing her arms around the German Shepherd as the dog pranced with excitement.

"I'm here, too," Bucky said and Sharon shifted from where she had straddled the prone Winter Soldier.

Relief flooded Sharon as a half-dressed Steve hit the wall switch and the bare bulb in the ceiling filled the room with light to reveal an annoyed looking Bucky and a happy Rocky.

"When the hell did you start hitting like that? If I didn't know better, I'd have thought Steve hit me." He made a show of massaging his jaw. "And what the hell you two have been up to? You fool around enough at home so please tell me you didn't leave Rocky cooped up in my apartment all day so you could make out in the middle of nowhere."

"I hope if Steve and I ever go away together it will be more romantic than this," Sharon said and explained everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, beginning with Hawkeye's visit and ending with their escape after Steve was shot at with two Civil War cannons.

When she finished, she asked Bucky,"How did you find us?"

"I tracked your phone and found it at one of the old houses at the Antietam battlefield, which was deserted, by the way. If there were Hydra agents before, they're long gone now." He sat on the mattress and patted it for Rocky to join him as Steve and Sharon paced. "When I didn't find you with your phone, I called Sam and he had Maria run a trace on Steve's phone, which led me here."

"But Steve's phone was busted," Sharon said, indicating the plastic pieces mixed in with the broken glass from Bucky's entrance.

"I don't question how you modern women do things, I just know that she directed me to this address and here you are." He gave Rocky a scratch behind the ears when the dog whined softly at being ignored. "So are we worried Hydra's finally got their own super serum."

"I don't think it's the serum like we think," Sharon said thoughtfully. "But maybe a super steroid."

"What's the difference?" Bucky asked.
"There have been a lot of attempts and a lot of failures to recreate what Dr. Erskine did for Steve. What if Hydra - or at least this branch - realized they'd never make super soldiers but could temporarily enhance the agents they already have.

"You said yourself, Steve, that you thought Rumlow was juiced with something when he attacked me at the cabin and that confirmed something I'd heard about all of STRIKE team being hopped up on performance enhancers. Maybe they've finally developed a super steroid to give their agents an advantage over the likes of you and Bucky and even Thor and Iron Man."

"I don't like the sound of super steroids any more than I like the idea of Hydra making their own super soldiers," Steve said.

"I think the Rumlow taking on Steve was a test and I think it means the steroids are far from perfect given that he wasn't able to take down Steve," Sharon said. "But it does give us one more thing to worry about Hydra throwing at us."

"Great," Bucky muttered. "Because I needed one more thing to worry about."

Bucky found a piece of plywood to cover the window he'd broken and Steve cleaned up the glass while Sharon and Rocky took care of the rest of the materials they'd borrowed from their temporary housing.

When they were finished, they made note of the bank's information so Sharon could cut them a check for the damages on Monday. They then loaded into Sharon's car, which Bucky and Rocky had borrowed, and headed back to Antietam to verify that the Hydra base and not-rangers were truly gone as Bucky had reported.

The Sherrick Farmhouse had been cleared out, though the gleaming wood and repairs remained as proof that Trent and his ilk had been there, and they found no clues in the limited light and time they allowed themselves to look around.

They found Steve's truck in the parking lot where they'd left it and, and spent several minutes looking it over for any tampering before he and Sharon climbed in.

As they followed the taillights of Bucky and Rocky in Sharon's car, Sharon let out a frustrated sigh.

"I'm sure they'll show up again when we least want them to," Steve assured her.

She nodded, knowing he was right. "And we have to talk to Peggy," she said. "Tell her what we know about Trent's involvement, find out what she knows. I understood and respected the need for compartmentalization when there was a SHIELD but now it's just us and we can't be running around half-cocked and half-informed."

Steve agreed, reaching for her hand. "As much as I agree, we will have to go easy on her. He is her son."

"A son who poisoned his own mother." Sharon squeezed his hand, the solid strength giving her comfort. "I can only hope Aunt Peggy wants him found as badly as we do and doesn't interfere."

"Do you think she would?"

Sharon was quiet, not liking her own answer and said, "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."