Chapter 14
The gunshots woke Lessa up.
She had just fallen asleep around nine when Sharon came back up from washing a load of laundry. She heard her talking to Steve in the hall minutes earlier. She debated on whether to break Sharon's rule and speak to him, to tell him what was about to happen. It was too late now.
Lessa shot out of bed and raced out of the apartment and into the hall, right into Steve's dark kitchen. Rounding the corner, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. bled out on the floor. Sharon leaned over him, applying pressure to his wounds.
"Alessandra?" Steve asked from the other side of the kitchen. Strapped to his arm, his shield looked off from his casual attire, now dirtied with dust from the walls.
She gave him a queasy smile. "Hey, Mr. Rogers."
Sharon turned her head at Lessa. "What the hell are you doing here? Get back in the apartment!"
Steve looked between the two. "What is she doing here?" He demanded, narrowing his eyes at Sharon.
"Under Fury's orders she was staying with me." Sharon answered him. "Lessa!"
Lessa obeyed the orders and left the apartment, but she ran past the other door and down the stairs. Her heart pounded at a pace she didn't know was possible.
Lessa met the EMTs and Paramedics downstairs, telling them the apartment number and floor. They left her behind, passing Sharon on the way up.
Her eyes narrowed as they landed on Lessa. "I thought I told you to go in the apartment. I was looking everywhere for you."
" I thought - I thought -" Lessa couldn't form words. Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth as she realized how worried and frustrated Sharon was.
Sharon pulled her into her arms. "As long as you're safe I guess it shouldn't matter, but listen to me next time, alright?"
"Alright."
They headed back to the Triskelion, making Lessa nervous. Steve and Fury might have known what happened but apparently Sharon was still oblivious. But she would find out soon enough.
After saying their goodbyes, Lessa was transferred yet again to a smaller base until everything was under control. A day or two after Fury's death, Steve was a S.H.I.E.L.D. fugitive.
Lessa couldn't help but feel responsible.
She sat in her room, rereading the same paragraph over and over again as her mind whirled. The base she currently sat in was one that she memorized the layout. She could sneak out and contact Tony.
She wrote all over the book, scribbling the passage and ventilation system to map out her escape. No one entered her room during her planning.
Just as she wrote down a code to a door, alarms sounded down the hall. Closing the book, she tucked it under the thin mattress and stuck her head out of the doorway. Agents scrambled around, checking their guns for ammunition. These people didn't know their enemies were already inside.
A group of four passed by. The last one trailed along, eyeing the area before turning his gun on the others, killing them all with three bullets. Gasping, Lessa pulled her head back in and shut the door. She stumbled back onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling panels. She could get up there but nothing was high enough for her to reach the top.
She started stacking her chair onto the desk, with her pillow and blanket following. She checked the tower's sturdiness and jumped up, knocking a panel to the side and catching her fingers on a ledge. Her legs swung wildly underneath her as she pushed herself upward.
The door burst open with a woman stumbling in. her eye caught Lessa's legs and she grabbed a hold of one, pulling Lessa down.
Lessa's calf collided with the edge of the desk, toppling the chair and blanket over her. She screamed in anguish. Her arms shook as she crawled out from underneath the pile, the woman helping her.
Helping wouldn't be the word to describe the woman's actions. No, she dragged Lessa out from under. The woman hit Lessa over in the head with her gun, knocking her unconscious, and left the room.