Chapter 13

Steve propped himself up on his elbow to look down at Zaria as she slept next to him. It was sometime after noon but he wasn't really ready to get up and get going on the day. He wondered, as he watched her shoulders rise and fall as she breathed, what it was about her that made him fall in love with her. Part of him realized how similar she did look to Peggy, so much so that it caused him to think about whether or not he fell in love with her for that reason. He shook his head as he thought about it. Yes, she looked very similar to Peggy, but her personality was very different. Peggy was strong, straightforward, calm, and in control of the situation. Zaria was strong, yes, but she was also damaged, vengeance driven, distant, cold, lost, confusing and murky.

There was much about Zaria that Steve still didn't understand. Her past for instance was something that confused and concerned him. She had been a criminal. She was in juvenile detention several times with several other charges that had been brought up against her but had been dropped since there had not been enough evidence. There had also been so much death and loss in her life. There was no record of her mother except for on the birth certificate. Her father died when she was very young; shot by the Police by accident was the report. She ran away from home on multiple occasions leaving her only living relative, her grandmother, alone and wondering what had happened to her grandchild. She had a record at a military academy where she excelled in a multitude of subjects the least of which were hand-to-hand combat, history, and gymnastics, but she disappeared again right before graduation only to be brought up on several charges of vandalism and others he didn't wish to think about. It explained how she had a job at a museum that was over an hour subway ride from her house, but not much more.

If he had known everything he knew about her now, would he have stayed? Would he have let himself move on? Fall in love? If he was truly honest with himself he was fairly sure he wouldn't have, but there was no way around it now. The woman who was sleeping in his bed had found her way into his heart without him realizing it and by the time he learned the terrible truth about her it was already too late. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing that he found out about her past until after, or if it wasn't. At this point he was trying to let go of the hurt and betrayal he felt when he found out the truth as he realized it was probably something she never wanted to talk about with anyone. She had been trying to be a good person since then and he shouldn't have judged her on it as harshly as he had.

In his musings Zaria had shifted, causing her tangled hair to fall across her face. He smiled and gently moved it back, tucking it behind her ear, as she studied her face. Truthfully she looked nothing like Peggy; her features were more angular, more sharply defined than that of Peggy's. The only real similarity that they shared was their wavy brown hair and even then their hair color was different, Zaria's being darker and thicker than that of Peggy's.

The phone rang, jarring him back to reality. Zaria groaned and rolled over as he debated on just letting it ring until voicemail picked it up.

"What time is it?" Zaria grumbled as she sat up, pulling the covers up to cover her chest.

"It's a little after noon I think." Steve answered.

"Holy crap!" Zaria cried as she scrambled out of bed and began hunting down her clothing. "I'm so late for work!"

Steve chuckled. "You don't have work. You still have some time off, especially after what happened yesterday."

Zaria stopped her underwear halfway up her legs as she turned to look at Steve. "I totally forgot..."

The phone clicked over to voicemail and a gruff sounding male voice echoed through the apartment. It was the police calling, asking if Zaria would come in to give them a few more details of the day before. She glared in the general direction the voice from the answering machine was coming from as she pulled her clothing on a little more roughly than she meant to.

"I wonder if anyone's found me an attorney." Zaria muttered as she put her workout clothing back on.

Steve came around the bed finishing the last few buttons on his shirt. "I'm sure they have." He tucked in his shirt as he ran a belt through the belt loops. "You really don't like the police do you?"

Zaria scowled as she opened the bedroom door and walked out, heading to her clothing where the cashmere dress she had worn yesterday was laying spread out over her bags of clothing. "I've never had a good experience with them." She sighed as she picked up the dress and stockings.

"They're just doing their job. They're upholding the law."

Zaria gritted her teeth as she tried to calm herself. It wasn't Steve's fault, he didn't understand. "Their 'job' killed my father. Their "upholding" the law put me in jail instead the person who should have been there. I have never met a cop who cares about the truth over just finishing a case."

"I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure they had valid reasons for what they did. I read the reports on the incident for your father and the one for you -"

"And I'm sure they said my father's death was "an accident by a stray police bullet in a shootout against a volatile criminal". Or that I did it because they had someone give testimony against me. I'll bet you didn't know that testimony was all fabricated by the guy who actually did the crime and my state appointed attorney did nothing to defend me." Her hand was tight around the cashmere dress bunching it up. Sighing she laid the dress out on the couch and examined the wrinkles she had just put into the peacock blue colored fabric. "Look, I'm not going to argue this with you. You look at the police one way, and I see them in a different way. I don't think we'll really ever have the same viewpoint on this subject matter so there isn't much point in trying."

They stood there silently before Steve came over to her. He ran his fingers over her arms softly before he placed his cheek on her hair. "I'm sorry if I asked something you didn't want to talk about. I'm just trying to understand you more. I don't know anything about you really."

"You know a lot about me." Zaria answered.

"I've seen the files; I don't know it from your side."

Zaria opened her mouth to answer, but an odd chirping noise filled the apartment. "What is that god awful sound?" She snapped as she stepped away from Steve.

"I believe that's your cell phone."

"My what? Crap!" Zaria dove at the couch where the phone seemed to have moved to before she scrunched up her nose and tried to figure out how to answer it.

"Hello...?" She questioned as she stuck the thing to her ear after she smashed the green button.

"Is this Ms. Barnes?" An unfamiliar male voice asked.

"Uh... Yes, this is Zaria Barnes. Who is this?"

"My name is Mr. Ford. Benjamin Ford. I was told by Mr. Stark that you were in need of an attorney."

"Ah, yes. Hi Mr. Ford. You have perfect timing, I just got a call from the police department and they would like me to come in to speak with them."

"Well then if you could tell Mr. Rogers' doorman to allow me through to the apartment I would gladly speak with you at that time."

Zaria's head whipped around. "He's in the lobby." She said to Steve.

Steve nodded and went to the door, slipping on a pair of loafers before walking out the door.

"He's on his way down to you." Zaria said to the phone.

"Excellent, then I will see you once I'm there." He hung up.

Zaria sighed as she leaned back on the couch before she caught a look of herself in the mirror. Grimacing at the sex tousled hair she jumped up and rummaged the bags until she found a hair brush and began to remove all evidence of sex hair until she realized that really wasn't going to help. In the end she snagged her toiletries and ran to the bathroom, shutting the bedroom door before rushing in just as the door to the apartment opened.

Turning the water on quickly she stripped and hopped in, nearly yelping as the icy water hit her skin. She didn't wait for it to warm up though as she was used to cold showers, she just stuck her head under the water quickly and pulled back so she could shampoo her hair. Pulling the loofah out of her bag and some citrus scented soap she set to cleaning herself thoroughly, scrubbing to the point where her skin turned pink from the abuse. She slipped back under the now warming water and rinsed her hair and skin. When the suds were finally gone she quickly rubbed a conditioner into her hair and cleaned the loofah out. Lastly, she rinsed the conditioner from her hair as she stepped out and grabbed one of the burgundy colored towels from the wall to dry off. Dressing quickly she toweled her hair as dry as she could get it and ran a comb through it all before she exited the bathroom.

"Ah Ms. Barnes. I'm sorry if I came at a bad time." The man she could only assume was Benjamin Ford said as she came into the living room.

"It's not a problem, just wanted to not smell like a burning building." Zaria lied easily. She eyed the man quickly, taking in his Dolce and Gabbana black suit that probably cost her more than she could make in a month along with the shoes and watch that was the month's rent on Steve's apartment. She screamed money, tasteful, hard to miss money, but money all the same.

"I don't really have the money to afford a lawyer of your caliber." she said as she sat down on the couch next to Steve.

"It's not a problem; it's been taken care of." Benjamin Ford said as he sat himself elegantly in one of the wingback chairs. He sat an iPad on his lap and pulled out a stylus. "Now Ms. Barnes-"

"Please, it's just Zaria." Zaria said as she tried not to grind her teeth.

"Alright, Zaria, I have gone over the report the police have and I wanted to clarify some of it with you. We should all be on the same page. Is this alright to go over with Mr. Rogers here?"

"He was there too, so yes, it's fine to go over it all with him here as well."

"Ah..." Benjamin Ford leaned back in the chair and wrote something on his iPad. "So it would be best if I was also Mr. Rogers's attorney as he will most likely need one as well."

"I don't know about that." Steve answered. "I have no problem telling the police everything I know. I have nothing to hide."

"Be that as it may, you having nothing to hide does not mean it is not best for you have an attorney as well. It is just a precaution and it keeps the police from contacting you directly." His eyes were sharp when he looked up from his iPad. "Now, Zaria, let's start with you."