Riley ran through the halls as fast as she could, there were many Shield agents around her as she tried calling her friend Lily, but Lily didn't pick up her phone.
Lily was raised by Fury and Coulson and it was hard for Lily when she lost Coulson in the War of New York, now she wouldn't know how she would be to find out that Fury was close to dead.
She ran into the room and found Natasha and Steve and Maria already there, watching as Fury's life was in the hand of these nurses. Steve quickly looked over and saw her and she slowly made her way towards him and stood next to him and watched in horror as Fury's heartbeat was getting weaker and weaker until it was flat and the nurses were trying to bring him back
Riley had tears in her eyes, not knowing what to do until Steve saw and intertwined their fingers together and Riley sighed softly as Maria looked onward, not sure what to do or say
"Who did this?" Natasha asked, her voice showing no emotion
"It was two guys.. One had a metal arm and the other didn't" Steve explained as he looked down at Riley and she sniffled a bit and looked at Natasha who looked as upset as the nurses put a white sheet on Fury's body
"The Rifle.. Was Soviet Made." Natasha said quickly and Riley looked up, Natasha must of knew who the shooters were then if the rifle was Soviet made and suddenly there was just a flatline as Riley started crying and Steve led her away from the room as he brought Riley into a hug
"I'm so sorry Riley." Steve whispered as he held Riley close, Riley looked up and Steve's heart broke when he saw those tears in her eyes
"It's okay.. Um I just need to be alone for a second." Riley said quietly as she walked off and Steve took the USB drive out of his jacket pocket for a second before rushing after her
"Wait Riley!" He called and she turned around and Steve showed her the USB drive
"Before Fury died, he told me some things.. How to not trust a lot of people but you and Lily, I'm telling you this because I trust you with my life and you helped me since day one, that you would never betray me and I know Lily wouldn't either because she was raised right.. Whatever is in this thing we need to find out what it is." Steve finished and Riley looked at him wide-eyed
"You trust me?"
"Yes, You have morals and I actually don't know what I would do without you if you weren't here." Steve said as Riley nodded and she sighed and wiped her tears away
"The first thing is that we need to pay our respects for him.. To be with Nat too." Riley said quietly as she held out her hand and Steve intertwined their fingers together as they made their way into the room, all the machines had been moved to the side as Natasha was in front of Fury's body paying her respects.
Natasha touched his head for a moment before some fire came inside her and she walked out of the room, Steve and Riley went after her and Nat stopped
"Why was Fury at your house?" Natasha asked and Steve was about to say something until Rumlow spoke
"Captain and Agent Smith, you're wanted back at Headquarters."
"In a minute." Riley said as Rumlow spoke
"Now." Rumlow said, it was Steve that turned around and looked angry that someone would speak to her like that
"In a moment." He spoke lowly, Rumlow snorted and walked off and they turned back to Natasha and Steve spoke
"I honestly don't know, he just came there and all of a sudden the two men showed up." Steve said and Natasha narrowed her eyes
"You're a terrible liar Steve." Natasha said and turned to Riley "You better not be lying to me either Riley because out of everyone I expect you to at least be truthful." Natasha said as she stormed off. Steve and Riley sighed softly and Steve looked down at the guy restocking snacks in the vending machine and he looked at the gum piece of the machine and Riley looked at him and the area and she let go of his hand
"I'll wait for you in the car, I'll distract Rumlow." She said softly as she walked off, and Steve did what he had to do as Rumlow finally came inside after he was finishing talking to Riley and Steve followed him into the car, as he got into the truck and sat next to her and he placed his arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him as he rested his head on her head and this was the only time they had a moment for themselves as Steve was looking out the window and Riley was listening to his heartbeat and Steve spoke
"You know Sam? The one I was running with?" He asked quietly, enough for her to hear and she nodded
"He had a friend named Riley too, but his friend passed away from combat." Steve spoke quietly and Riley looked up
"He's okay right?" She asked quietly and he shrugged and she nodded "Well if he needs a friend, I'll sure be one." She said quietly and he smiled down at her
"You're amazing you know?" He asked and she smiled softly and he thought about Mary for a moment, how she was as humble thinking about people before her ownself, he was proud that she taught her kids and grandchildren to be as good as her
"You're thinking of her again aren't you?" She asked quietly and he nodded for a moment and he looked out the window and she looked up at him, she knew she should feel jealous that her own grandmother is always on his mind and not her, but she knew he was grieving on the future they could have had, a family, a home, Everything.
Once they got to base, Steve got out of the car and went to the locker-room and quickly changed into his Captain America suit while Riley changed into her suit and she met Steve outside the door and Rumlow stopped them for a second
"Pierce would like to see Captain Rogers on his own, if you can please wait here Agent Smith." Rumlow said as Steve looked at her for a moment, as if not wanting to leave her but he sighed and placed his shield behind his back as all of a sudden Pierce came out of the room with Sharon and Sharon walked towards Steve and Riley
"Captain Rogers, Agent Smith." Sharon said as she passed by and Steve narrowed his eyes
"Neighbor."
Once the door closed, Sharon ran towards Riley and brought her into a tight hug
"I'm so sorry, about Fury." She said quietly as Riley hugged her friend in return
"Have you been in contact with Lily?" Riley asked and Sharon shook her head
"She's still not answering her phone, she must be in the air or so with her team but I'll keep calling her." Sharon said as Riley relaxed
"Thank you for looking after him when I wasn't there." Riley said and Sharon smiled
"Anything, it's what your grandmother and my aunt would have wanted." Sharon said reminding Riley about Peggy and Mary and Riley smiled at Sharon
"Aunt Peggy.. I miss her, I have to visit her after this" Riley said remembering her Aunt Peggy and Grandmother Mary and how great friends they were, Sharon scowled at Riley
"So why weren't you there when Steve came home?" Sharon asked, she knew Riley and Steve were attached to the hip now and days and even though she would miss seeing Riley everyday, she was happy Steve had a new friend
"I went home to find a letter, My grandmother gave me this letter before she died.. You know incase Steve was alive but she thought if he was alive he would be as old as her so she wrote a letter that she told me to never open even if he wasn't alive." Riley said as Sharon nodded and was about to say something until someone on the speaker said that she was needed
"I have to go, Let's get some dinner tonight?" Sharon asked as Riley smiled and hugged her friend
"Of course, be careful." Riley said as Sharon laughed and she walked off, she started playing with the letter in her jacket pocket for a moment until Steve came out of the room right away and grabbed Riley's hand and rushed off towards the elevators
"We should go now, see if we can call Lily." Steve said as he called the elevator and they stepped inside and Riley moved towards the back, still playing with the letter in her pocket. Steve went towards her and rested his head on her shoulders
"About that coffee.. Care to grab some later on?" He asked and she smiled and nodded and before Steve could wrap his arms her waist and relax, Rumlow barged into the elevator with a few other men, Riley jumped and Steve looked back before turning to Rumlow and a few other men entering as the doors closed
"Forensics." He said to the elevator before it started going down, as Rumlow was trying to have small talk with Steve, Riley noticed one of the guys holding his gun on his leg. Steve took notice to that and grabbed Riley's hand and squeezed it
Soon the door opened again and more people stepped in, with brief-cases and sticks. Steve noticed one of the guys' sweating forehead and Steve tighten his grip on Riley's hand that he swore he would break it
He moved them towards the middle and as they were going down, he looked over at Riley who nodded.. Knowing this fight would start now.
"Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?" Steve asked, a moment later the man infront of them pulled out a stick like Taser out and tried to jab Riley with it until Steve kicked it out of his hand, however there was too many men as a small group grabbed Riley and pushed her towards one side and the rest of the men and Rumlow pushed Steve towards the other side and Riley was holding her best until one of the men took out the handle of the brief-case and literally pinned one of her arms down with it, while the others took their brief-case handles and attempted to pin Steve on the wall, one of the men punched Riley in the stomach but she had to quickly recover as another man brought out another Taser and tried to shock her but she kicked the Taser away from him and quickly head-butted the man, she then used her unpinned arm to jab the other man in the stomach and she was watching how Steve was calling out her name as he was punching and kicking and once he was able to get most of the men down, he jumped on the window and managed to get the handle bar off and did a backflip
Steve soon made his way towards Riley and turned around one of the men and punched him out cold and he grabbed her wrist that had the handlebar and with all his strength he pulled out the handle bar and brought her close to him and he lifted her chin with his hand
"Are you okay?" He asked, she opened her mouth ready to answer but all of a sudden she saw something at the corner of her eye and suddenly pushed Steve to the side as Rumlow charged at her, he tackled her to the floor and they were going at it with punches and kicks and Rumlow took out the Taser and jabbed it into Riley's side as she whined at the pain, Steve got up quickly and picked up Rumlow and threw him into the air and into the ceiling, knocking him out when his head hit the ceiling a bit too hard and he helped Riley up and he used his foot to stomp of the shield causing it to fly into the arm as he caught it
"We need to get to the hospital and get that UBS chip now" Steve said as he pressed the open button only to be greeted by a group of soldiers pointing their guns at them
"Hold on!" Steve said quickly as he spun around and cut the cables with the shield through broken glass and Steve held on to Riley as the elevator dropped very fast and Riley closed her eyes as she held on to the rails and Steve was holding on to her and once it stopped, Steve opened the door a bit but saw more soldiers were making their way to the door and he quickly closed it and he was pacing around for a moment deciding what to do until he looked over at Riley
"We need to jump" Steve said quietly and she opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out and she nodded as he had a hold of her and they ran at the glass and Steve used the shield to break to glass as they flew out the window and Steve quickly put the shield on his back and twisted himself so that when they landed it was on his back and hopefully the shield broke most of the fall
She grabbed his head and buried his head into her neck to make sure he didn't hit his head when they landed and once they landed they heard shrieks and stuff as Steve groaned and Riley saw they were both still alive as she got up and she helped Steve up
"We need to get out before they close the gates" She said as he nodded and grabbed her hand and they ran to the garage to get a motorcycle
Pierce wanted to slap everyone in his way for making Captain America's escape so easy, but he knew what he had to do.
Once Rumlow made his way back to Pierce, he threw a set of keys to Rumlow
"I want all of them out.. Adder, Viper, Boa, Rattlesnake and Cobra. They're now joining you because none of you guys can get the job right! I want you to locate them in an apartment and I want them to be on your team until they're needed with the Winter Solider" Pierce barked at Rumlow as Rumlow rushed out to the bank to get them.
Riley was in front of the hospital in black leggings and combat boots with a black hoodie over her curly hair, Steve was busy getting the USB chip.
Her phone rang and saw it was Lily and she picked up right away
"Lily are you okay?" Riley asked and Lily was quiet
"Fury is dead.." Lily said softly as Riley felt sorry for her friend's adopted father
"I know Lily.. Where are you?"
"We're in Canada right now, in a base.. I don't have much time but I needed to call you.. Riley something is wrong" She whispered and Riley nodded
"Have you spoken to Clint?" Lily asked worried about her ex-mentor and ex-boyfriend and Riley shook her head
"Nope, I'm assuming he's safe but if anything I'll stay with him"
"Thank you Riley, how's Steve?"
"Steve is good, we're kinda laying low.. How's Grant?"
"Grant is doing good, he's kinda missing right now" Lily spoke and she stopped for a second
"Riley I have to go, I'll call you in a few days I promise.. Please take care" Lily said and Riley spotted Steve and Natasha and she said her goodbye to Lily before hanging up
"Nat knows who killed Fury" Steve said as Natasha came up to Riley and explained the legend of the Winter Solider and Riley looked confused
"So who was the other guy?"
"The Viper, no one knows his actual name but he's in a group called The Snakes, another myth to scare newbie agents into behaving.. One of the most dangerous groups.. I had never had an actual encounter with him but the women in the Red Room that had, didn't come back in one piece"
"He sounds bad"
"Yea, we need to know what does The Winter Solider and The Snakes want with this" Natasha held up the USB Drive and she quickly put her hood up
"We should get to a computer shop and see what this is" Steve said as they walked a few blocks until they stopped in front of a mall
"Great idea, we shouldn't split up either just in case.. We need to put this baby in and see what they want with it and once we know we'll be able to stop the Winter Solider and The Snakes"
They made it to the mall, they walked as fast as they could to the store.
"We only have 9 minutes until they come after us, have to make this quick" Natasha said as she started typing away at the computer and Riley looked around and walked around the store and Riley bumped into someone and she stopped quick when a pair of blue eyes and soft black hair was looking down at her
He opened his mouth to say something and had a blank expression first but she quickly talked
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you" She said, the boy gave her a small smile and shook his head
"It's fine, if anything I'm the clumsy one here. My brothers and sister always yell at me for that" The man said with a slight accent and Riley laughed and relaxed a bit
"Yea, I would get yelled at from my grandmother for doing something bad. I was a naughty child back then" She said and the man smiled
"My name is Jasper Cole, pleased to meet you" The man stuck out his hand and Riley took it
"Riley" She said and Jasper smiled and coughed
"I should go, my brothers are around the mall and if they don't find me they'll expect something and I don't want no drama you know?"
"Are you the youngest?"
"Yup, I'm the baby next to my sister and my brothers are around the same age" He said and Riley raised her eyebrows
"Different mothers?"
"We're all adopted"
"Your mom couldn't have children?"
"You could say that, I have to go now. Nice meeting you!" He said as he walked out the store, Riley made her way back to Steve and Natasha and Steve was trying to rush Nat
"I'm almost there" She said but was interrupted as a worker came towards them
"Hi! Do you need help with anything?
"Oh no! I'm just looking for honeymoon places for my friends!" Natasha said happily and Riley wanted to roll her eyes but she wrapped her arms around Steve's neck
"I can't wait, I swear I have the best maid of honor!" She pretended to squeal as Steve just blushed and the Worker looked happy for them
"Aw where are you guys going?" He tried to peak over at the laptop but Steve leaned forward to kiss Riley on the forehead while looking at the screen
"New Jersey" He answered as the worker seemed to nod but he looked at Steve
"Hmm.. I like your glasses, I have the same pair" He said happily and Natasha snorted while typing on the computer
"Wow, you guys are twins." She said as Riley laughed and brought Steve in closer to cuddle next to him as Steve smiled down at her
"Well if you need anything, let me know." The Worker said as he walked off and Riley sighed in relief and Steve looked over at Riley's head and saw the location and his face dropped
"You know this place?"
"Yeah.. Come on we need to go" He said quietly as he took the drive and put it in his pocket and he took Riley's hand and he walked out and Natasha followed him as he saw some agents coming
"Alright, Riley and Nat if anything goes wrong just clear the area while I'll take care of them" Steve said ready to fight until Natasha narrowed her eyes
"Just put your arm around Riley and pretend to laugh at something I said" She said as Steve quickly wrapped his arm around Riley's shoulder and turned his head towards Riley as Nat went closer to them and they all laughed
"Alright we need to get out without being seen" Riley said as they moved to the escalators and she went first, followed by Steve and Nat
They saw Rumlow and Steve was about to freak out until Riley turned to face him
"Kiss me" She said and Steve looked confused
"What?"
"He won't see that it's us" She said but he was about to say something when she grabbed his head and leaned forward and brushed her lips against his.
Natasha was freaking out for a moment and turned around and saw a man with piercing blue eyes and very good looking face and she had to do something quick but all she could do was grab the back of his head and smashed her lips against his as she was kissing him, the man was confused at first but he started to kiss her back when he saw who it was, which was weird to Natasha since she never saw his face before but yet there was something familiar about him, she was grateful to him as he moved his head to cover her face away from Rumlow
Steve was actually kissing Riley back as she was kissing him gently, he wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her in closer and once they were getting close to the bottom, he broke the kiss and they looked at each other expecting something from each other and Riley's jaw dropped once she saw Natasha making out with a stranger and when Rumlow was out of view she whisper-yelled
"Nat!"
They quickly stepped off as the stranger and Natasha broke the kiss and once they were on the first floor the stranger spoke
"Well, if you wanted to kiss me you should have at least asked my name first before we had that make out session" The man spoke and Natasha blushed
"I'm sorry, it's just I saw a ex-boyfriend here and I wanted to make him jealous so I saw you" She lied and the man smirked and laughed
"Well, the next time you wanna make out with me at least buy me a drink" The man said as he stuck out his hand and she took it and he smirked
"My name is James, yours?"
"Natalia" Natasha said and James raised his eyebrows and smiled as if he knew her from somewhere
"Well it's nice to meet you" He whispered as they looked at each other's eyes for a moment before Riley coughed
"Sorry, Nat we need to go" She said as she saw Steve was still in shock after that kiss and Natasha and this Stranger were flirting
Author's Note:
Next Chapter, Steve gets the letter from Riley
Natasha and James meet again
Riley and Steve address the kiss
The truth behind the Snakes