A/N. So far so good, update-wise. Fingers crossed that the pattern continues! Enjoy :)

Disclaimer - I don't own a lot, but I own Tania, Drew, and Rocky. Again, some of the dialogue isn't mine.

Chapter Four

Despite the foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach, Tania decided that she wanted to act as if she felt nothing. She suggested that the two of them go out to dinner at a funky new restaurant that just opened up downtown. They went.

It was uneventful and kind of boring, if she was being honest. All the while, that stupid, ominous feeling wouldn't go away. She didn't feel like eating, so she munched quietly on a salad and skipped dessert she would normally share with Steve.

She even refused coffee.

What had happened to their relationship? They used to be so romantic and cute and happy. They were getting married! Why did she feel like a clam lately whenever she was around him?

Mulling this over, she and Steve left the restaurant as the sky became dark and grey with clouds. There wasn't a single star in the sky. Lost in her thoughts during the motorcycle ride, she didn't realize that their destination wasn't home until Steve cut the engine.

She popped off her helmet and shook out her hair. "What are we doing here?" She asked. They had parked at a bank.

Steve removed his helmet as well and craned his neck to look at her. "I spent all of my cash on dinner. I need to withdraw some more."

"You couldn't have done that tomorrow?"

"Now's as good a time as any."

Grudgingly, she hopped off the bike and leaned against it while he went in to make his withdrawal. The breeze tugged at her loose strands of hair and she pulled the elastic down, letting her locks billow in the wind. She sighed and closed her eyes. She just wanted to go home.

She heard his footsteps and opened her eyes. His gait was so familiar that she could pick it out of a crowd. Natasha taught her how to utilize her second most dependent sense.

He was scowling. What now?

"What's wrong?" She asked, brows furrowed in concern.

"Where did several thousand dollars of our money go?"

Oh. That. Shit. "I made a withdrawal."

"I can see that." Okay. He was definitely pissed, though he looked like he was trying not to take it out on her – and failing. "Where did it go?"

"I… loaned it to a friend."

"A friend," he repeated in a disbelieving tone.

"I have friends!" She insisted, slightly offended.

"So you leant Natasha some money?"

"Not Natasha. Drew."

"Who's Drew?"

"A former co-worker."

"From Stark Industries?"

"Exactly."

"Why are you loaning him money?"

"I loaned her money because she needed it." At his exasperated expression, she continued on. "Now you know how it feels to have all of your questions be met with cryptic answers."

"What are you talking about?"

"I had to cajole you into telling me about your day just this morning. Every time I asked you for specifics, you deflected the question."

"You're deflecting the question right now. What does she need money for?"

"She's on the run."

"You're loaning money to a fugitive?"

"From her abusive ex-boyfriend!"

"Oh." He seemed to deflate. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think you needed to know."

"So you spent thousands of dollars of our money and decided that I didn't need to know?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"It seemed like you already had so much on your plate and I didn't want to add to that load – not that I have any idea what the hell is on that plate since you won't tell me-"

"How long has that money been missing?"

"It's not missing. I used it to make a down payment on Drew's temporary apartment just yesterday. It's not like I've been lying to you."

"No. You've just been keeping secrets from me about something that affects both of us-"

"Don't you go using the secret card on me! You know who keeps secrets in this relationship? You do!"

"Don't turn this around-"

"Who says he's going on missions all the time, but leaves his shield at home? Who decides to wear baseball caps to hide his identity whenever he goes for jogs? You don't wear hats when you jog. Whose jacket did I find ticket stubs for a museum in when you said you'd been at work? You."

He looked somewhere between "busted" and "angered". "I- That's different-"

"No, it isn't!" She yelled, her voice echoing in the mostly empty parking lot. "I was just giving you a taste of your own medicine!" Had that really been her intent when she'd decided not tell him about Drew? She had to admit that she had been aware of that effect when she'd made the choice…

"This has to do with money that the both of us worked hard for!"

"And this has to do with our relationship that you're ruining!"

"I'm not ruining our relationship!"

"Well, something is!"

Breathing a little off, Steve and Tania stared each other down in the dark lot of a bank they frequented, the wind whistling in their ears. Tires squealed and horns honked in the distance. Someone's dog barked across the street.

Without a word, Steve threw himself over the bike and plopped his helmet on so that she couldn't see his face. Fuming, she followed suit and the two of them of sped off for home.

The ride was silent and tense. Having her arms wrapped around his waist no longer felt soothing or romantic – it felt forced and weird. They parked in their usual spot and walked up the stairs together, giving each other a wide berth.

When they reached their floor, they heard voices.

"Yeah, no worries. I'll show you. I have to put my scrubs in the machine. I just finished a rotation in the infectious disease ward so…"

"Oh, geez. Okay. Lead the way."

Tania froze while Steve climbed the final step and turned the corner into the hallway. The first voice belonged to Kate, their neighbour. The second one belonged to Drew.

There was an undignified squeak and Tania winced. That would be Drew as well.

Sighing quietly, Tania trudged up the rest of the stairs and came into view. Kate was holding a basket of laundry and dressed in her pyjamas. There was a phone in the basket, but that wasn't the weirdest part. Drew was dressed in her pyjamas as well and she was attempting to hide behind Kate. When Drew spotted Tania, she stopped hiding. "Tania?"

Steve put two and two together; she could see it in his face.

"Hi, Drew," Tania greeted, trying to be warm, but failing miserably.

"Um, I just came to ask how the laundry machine worked, but I ran into Kate and she's going to show me how."

"Great." Tania wanted this conversation to be over. Now.

Kate seemed to pick up on the tension between the couple and gently nudged Drew. "Come on. I'll take you to the laundry room." The two of them left, sneaking glances at the Avengers as they did.

"You still could have told me earlier," Steve said coldly.

Tania felt like she'd blown a fuse. "You know what, Captain America? Drew's life is none of your goddamn business. You lying to me directly to my face? That's my goddamn business. If you had asked about Drew or the money, I would have told you-"

"Were you ever going to tell me otherwise?"

"Of course I would! You were going to find out eventually."

"So you were just going to wait until I put the pieces together myself."

Maybe. "She's just gone through a terrible ordeal and doesn't need her story spread-"

"Shh!"

"Don't you 'shh' me!"

"SHH!" He pressed a finger to her lips and stared at the wall next to them, listening. That's when Tania heard it too.

There was music playing.

"Did we leave the radio on?" He whispered.

Tania shook her head. They hadn't turned it on in weeks.

Suspicious now, Steve pulled his hands away. "I'm going to sneak in through the window and check it out. If you don't hear a signal from me in five minutes, break down the door and call for help."

She nodded. He walked calmly back toward the stair case and made his way down. Tania reached into her right boot and pulled out a knife. It was a gift from Natasha. It was small, but sharp and could fit almost anywhere; in a bra, a shoe, a purse. It folded up into a case so that it didn't poke her when she moved and looked like mascara to the average person.

She unfolded it and pressed herself against the wall by the door. She listened. She stood there as smooth jazz played in the background. The sound quality was different. It sounded like the record player Steve had received for his birthday. Neither of them has listened to it for several weeks and when they had… that hadn't been the record they'd been listening to.

Her legs were starting to tingle and she worried that the neighbours would come out and see her holding a knife, staking out her own door. She checked her phone. Three minutes had gone by.

The door opened and Steve stood there, shield hooked onto one arm and an unamused expression on his face. She refused to thank him for opening the door and made her way inside, still clutching the knife tightly.

Sitting in the armchair with Rocky sleeping on his feet was Nick Fury. "What the hell, Nick?" She exclaimed, lowering her weapon.

"My wife kicked me out," he said in that deadpan tone of his.

"You're married?" She asked scathingly. She was not a happy camper right now and she needed someone on whom to unleash her wrath.

"There's a lot of things you two don't know about me."

"Like the fact that you're-" she spat at him while Steve flicked on the lamp.

Fury was illuminated – along with all of his many injuries. Tania's eyes widened as Fury held up a hand to prevent them from speaking. Hesitantly obedient, Steve and Tania remained silent as Fury turned the lamp off again. He typed something out on the phone he was holding and held it out for them to see. Tania squinted.

EARS EVERYWHERE

Steve exhaled in exasperated understanding and Tania… was just confused. Why were there ears everywhere? Why had their apartment been bugged? Who had bugged it? What the hell was Fury doing here really?

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash," Fury said. It was a lie. He was lying to their faces and they both knew it, but if she hadn't read his phone, it would be convincing. That scared her.

He held up his phone again.

SHIELD COMPROMISED

S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised? What?

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked, looking more pissed than ever. Oh. So Fury didn't have a wife. Wife was code for the situation at hand.

Fury grunted and stood, holding his side with one hand and his phone in the other. Rocky yelped awake and walked over to his food bowl. "Just… my friends."

Right. His friends. Like he had any.

She looked down at his phone again.

US

God damn it, Fury. S.H.I.E.L.D. was fucking compromised and what did he expect them to do about it?

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked in a low voice as Fury approached.

"That's up to you."

"You can't have friends without trust." He glanced at Tania.

Tania fumed. "And you can't have fiancés either!" She shot back. "How-?"

BANGBANG!

So many things happened at once.

Tania ducked and covered her head. She felt Steve spin her around and hide them both behind his shield. Rocky barked furiously. They heard a body hit the floor. By process of elimination, they knew who had been hit.

There were no more gunshots so Steve lowered his shield and ran to the window to see who had shot Fury through the wall. Ears ringing, Tania fell to her knees and crawled over to the director. No matter how much she may not like his ways or just him in general, Nick Fury didn't deserve to die. "Nick? Nick, can you hear me?"

"Come on," Steve said and the two of them dragged him into the next room, where they couldn't be seen through the window. They deposited him in the kitchen, groaning and bleeding. Rocky began licking Fury's hand. Steve tried to stand but Fury grabbed him by the wrist, coughing and spluttering. He let go and opened his palm to reveal a really big USB stick.

Tania was so confused.

"Don't…" Fury choked, "… trust… anyone."

Thud! Thud! Crack!

They heard the door smash open, followed by a voice. "Captain Rogers? Agent Banks?" Kate?

"Tania?" Drew?

Steve peered around the corner with Rocky while Tania tried to stem the bleeding. She listened hard, trying to hear over her own pounding heart.

"I'm Agent 13, S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Service."

"Kate?" Steve sounded as confused as Tania did.

"I was assigned to protect you." It sounded like she was coming closer.

"On whose orders?" Steve demanded, angry again.

Kate and Drew rounded the corner. Kate was holding a gun and Drew was pale as a ghost. "His," Kate breathed, dropping to her knees on the other side of Fury.

Drew gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

Rocky growled.

Kate felt Fury's pulse and then pulled a radio from out of her pants. She kept a radio in her PJs? "Foxtrot is down. He's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

The walkie-talkie crackled. "Do we have a twenty on the shooter?"

Steve looked out the window again. "Tell him I'm in pursuit."

Things were happening way too fast. Steve took off at a run. "Be careful!" Tania screamed after him. He disappeared.

"Can he be moved?"

"I don't think so," Kate replied calmly. "Two gunshot wounds to the chest and- multiple other injuries." She glanced at Tania, who shook her head. She didn't know where they came from either.

"Stay put. EMTs are 10-17."

"Copy that." Kate stuffed the radio back in her pants and shoved Tania's hands away from Fury's chest to apply pressure herself. "Get the first aid supplies." Her eyes flickered upward. "Then take care of her."

Tania looked at Drew, who was standing there and shaking hard enough to buckle her own knees. Tania pushed herself to her feet, staining the tile with her bloody handprint, and ran for the bathroom. She returned with the first aid kit and opened it for Kate. She handed her a roll of gauze before standing and wrapping an arm around Drew's shoulders. This was the last thing Drew needed right now.

Tania beckoned Rocky to follow and led Drew out of the apartment and into the hallway, where all of the neighbours were whispering and panicking. When Tania and Drew emerged, someone yelled, "What's going on in there?"

"Are we being attacked?"

"Is there a new super villain in town?"

"There was a sniper," Tania yelled over the commotion, squeezing Drew tighter to her. "He made a shot and now he's on the run. Cap's gone after him. We're not hurt. Go back to your rooms. The threat is gone."

It took several more minutes of reassurances before they all retreated to their respective apartments, muttering to themselves and each other about the commotion and the downsides of living in the same building as Avengers.

Tania escorted Drew downstairs to her new apartment and accepted the key from her, seeing as her hands were quivering too badly to insert it. She led her inside, Rocky at their heels, and sat down with her on the couch, never letting her arm leave Drew's shoulders. "Hey, it's okay. You're okay. The danger's gone."

"Not to him," she whispered, staring at the hardwood floor. "He's… he's dying."

Tania's heart, which had calmed down, began to beat faster again. "Yeah. He is."

Nick Fury was dying. This couldn't be real. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't die. But who would want to kill him? Who could kill him? Had those injuries he'd been sporting been from a previous attempt? That would make the most sense.

Don't die on me, Nicholas, she thought.

"What if it's him?" Drew breathed, tensing. "What if he came for me and got that man instead? What if-?"

"Drew, Drew, hey, no. It wasn't him. Is he a sniper?"

Drew sniffled. "I- No."

"Does he think you're black and bald and wear an eye patch?"

She snorted. "No."

"It wasn't him. It was someone else doing something completely unrelated. I promised you that you would be safe here and you are. You just have to stay here, okay? Don't come out until I come back for you." She pursed her lips, but plowed on. "You can trust Kate, okay? I know it seems like she's a double agent, which is bad, but she's just undercover and even though it pisses me off, she works for… S.H.I.E.L.D…" which is apparently compromised. "You know what? Scratch that. Forget I said anything." Ears everywhere. "Here." Tania grabbed a pen and paper lying on a table across the room and returned to the couch. She scribbled on the pad and handed it to her. "Sorry about the blood."

The pad was stained red, but the writing was clearly legible.

186 Smythe Drive

Miami, FL

"This is where Mr. and Mrs. Stark and Mr. and Mrs. Banner live. If you go here, they will keep you safe. Take Rocky with you."

"But the money-"

"Forget about the money. Keeping you safe is a priority and I don't think Steve or I will want to come back for a while, which means that we can't protect you. Just tell Tony or J.A.R.V.I.S. or whoever answers the door that I sent you and that you used to work for S.I. They'll let you in. They'll recognize Rocky."

"My Dad works for S.H.I.E.L.D. I didn't want to come to him for this, but maybe it's best-"

"No!" Don't… trust… anyone… There were only a few people she trusted implicitly: the Avengers and her brother. "Don't go to S.H.I.E.L.D. Go to Tony and Pepper, okay? Please."

Sirens blared loudly and flashes of blue and red spun in the room through the window. Tania's heart pounded in her rib cage. They were going to take Fury to the hospital.

"Find the Avengers and they'll keep you safe. I promise." Tania patted Drew's hand quickly before standing and heading for the door. "I'm so sorry about this, Drew. I'm really sorry. I have to go. I can't- I can't leave him."

Rocky tilted his head to look at her quizzically. His eyes asked her where she was going and why she was leaving him here.

"I'm sorry, boy, I have to go. Drew's gonna take good care of you, okay? Be a good boy for me."

Rocky whined, pressing both ears to his head, but he remained seated on the floor in front of Drew. He understood his orders.

"Go," said Drew, wiping her nose. "I'll be safe. Promise."

Tania nodded and slipped out the door. She ran up the stairs, her legs burning. She burst through the door to her apartment and skidded to a stop in the kitchen, where she dropped beside Kate and Fury. Fury had lost consciousness, but he was bandaged up now.

"I set his arm and tried to stop the bleeding as best I could," Kate explained without looking up from his body. She held his head in her lap. "The blood kept soaking through the gauze. And it's a double tap." Tania noticed that Kate's eyes looked red-rimmed. "The mark of an assassin."

Someone had hired an assassin to kill Nick Fury, director of a peacekeeping organization. Maybe there was a new villain on the horizon. The thought made Tania's stomach churn.

The paramedics burst into the room and it was chaos. Men and women dressed in dark uniforms surrounded them, shoving Tania and Kate (Agent 13, apparently) out of the way. They loaded Fury onto a stretcher and shouted vitals to each other as they carried him all the way out of the building.

Tania and Kate followed, covered in blood and teary eyed, stomping down the stairs to meet them in the lobby. They loaded Fury into the ambulance and closed the doors before Kate could scream at them in protest that she needed to come and protect him against any more attempts to finish the job.

The paramedics refused and basically told her to shove off before climbing into the vehicle and speeding away. Huffing in frustration, Kate raked a hand through her hair and looked at Tania. There was a determination in Kate's eyes and she suddenly stood straight. "Did you see which way the shooter went?"

"No. I-"

Bzzzt! Tania's phone buzzed and she gingerly pulled it out, trying not to stain it with Fury's blood. Oh God, Fury's blood. Blinking furiously, she swiped the screen to read the text from Steve.

Lost the shooter. Which hospital?

"Where are they taking him?" Tania asked.

"Sibley Memorial."

She relayed this information to Steve, who wrote back: Meet you there.

"Steve lost the shooter," she said, slipping her phone back into her purse, which had been dangling over her shoulder the whole time. It felt like forever ago since she'd put it on this afternoon to go out to lunch. "He'll meet us at the hospital."

"I can't," Kate croaked, scratching her throat. "If I'm not protecting him, I have to stay and wait for a team to investigate the crime scene – make sure no one tampers with it, you know?"

Tania nodded. "Alright." Could Kate be trusted? Was she a double-double agent? "Well… Bye."

"Bye."

Tania wasn't really sure how to feel about Kate right now. Kate probably wasn't even her real name. She had re-introduced herself as Agent 13, which wasn't helpful whatsoever. Well, not unless Tania checked the S.H.I.E.L.D. database, but seeing as the organization was apparently compromised, that might not be the best idea.

Mind buzzing with questions and replaying the past few minutes over and over again, Tania jogged to the parking lot where her car was and got in. She shifted into reverse and peeled out, tires squealing.

Hang on, Nick. Just hang on.