Chapter 19- Breaking News and Pointing Fingers

Diana looked up from where she was tidying the small area that Pierce had put her and James in. She had been married to the Winter Soldier for 15 years and while everyone called him Soldier, only Diana called him James. He honestly didn't remember his own name and Diana had gone through a gamut of names with him until he had decided he liked James. James came into their cell and sank down on one of the two chairs that was there, looking exhausted and rather discombobulated.

Diana went to him and stroked his long dark hair gently. "James, what's wrong?" Diana asked, running her other hand over the scruff on his face. His blue eyes met hers, a pained expression in them. Before she could react, James pulled her to him and kissed her soundly. Diana covered her husband's lips with her hand and looked him in the eyes. It was often the only way to really talk to him without getting lost in his gentle kisses. After he told her what was wrong, then Diana would let him kiss her to his heart's content.

"I saw Elizabeth, Diana," James said, nearly causing Diana to fall over as he kissed the palm of her hand, the scruff tickling her hand

"What? How? Elizabeth is-" Diana said dumbly as she sat on her husband's lap.

"I know, doll. I know, but I saw her. She looked right at me. Karpov and Pierce lied to us. She's still alive," James said.

"Oh, James. Did she recognize you?" Diana asked, idly playing with a lock of her husband's hair that fell over his eyes with the hand he wasn't holding.

"No. When she looked at me, she looked as if she didn't remember. She carries a sword and she threw it right at me. She hasn't been wiped. She was only two years old when Karpov kidnapped her. They sent her to the Red Room in Belarus and they trained her in the Winter Soldier program there. They even changed her name to a Russian name. They call her Yelizaveta Markova. She is part of my mission. Pierce said she defected from HYDRA. He wants to punish her," James said. Icy fingers clutched Diana's heart. (A/N: I looked it up on the internet to find out where the Red Room that Natasha and Yelizaveta would have trained at. It said the fictional spy school was in Belarus.)

"James, no! Please! We can't let Pierce have her! It's too late for us to escape, but Elizabeth has to have her chance," Diana said, openly crying.

"I know, doll. I won't let Pierce punish her. If I manage to capture her, I'll make it look as if I'm going to punish her myself," James said. Diana raised her head from James's shoulder to look into his eyes.

"James, if you go after her, I want to come with you. I want to see my baby," Diana said. James raised his flesh hand to her face and gently caressed her face with the thumb and callused palm.

"No. It's too dangerous and if she didn't know me, she won't know you either. Trust me, doll. I'll bring our daughter to you," James said, wiping away a tear as it streaked down her cheek.

"James, please. I've always listened to you and done what you've told me, but she's my daughter too. I want Elizabeth," Diana said. James sighed heavily.

"I guess I can't talk you out of it. You are going to stay near me, understood, Diana?" James asked sternly.

"I promise, James. I want to see my baby is all. What does she look like?" Diana asked. James's eyes lit up and he smiled briefly.

"She is so beautiful. She looks about 14, almost 15 with shoulder-length dark hair. I couldn't see her eye color, but she has the shape of your face and I can't decide if she looks like you, my mother, or my sister," James said as he pulled her face into his shoulder and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Diana started to cry again as her husband kissed her again through her hair.

"I love you, James," Diana whispered as she turned her face into his neck.

"I love you too, Diana. I promise you will see Elizabeth," James said. James lifted her face and gently, tenderly, kissed her. Diana's eyes closed as she kissed him back, digging her fingers into his long dark hair.

Yelizaveta and Steve stood outside the operating room when Natasha came running in. "Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asked, a ravaged look on her face as the doctors cut away blood-soaked bandages from Fury's chest.

"We don't know," Steve said in a low voice.

"Tell me about the shooter," Natasha said.

"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm," Yelizaveta said as she thought back to the shooter and how he had caught Steve's shield with his metal arm and how he switched his gaze to her. Maria Hill then joined them at the window.

"Ballistics," Natasha said in a voice that was cracking slightly.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable," Hill said in a flat voice.

"Soviet-made," Yelizaveta said faintly.

"Yeah," Hill said, surprise in her voice. Yelizaveta could only figure the woman was shocked that Yelizaveta knew about Soviet slugs, but growing up in the Red Room gave Yelizaveta the advantage of knowing about that kind of bullet.

"He's in v-tach," a male nurse said in the room as the heart machine started to flatline.

"Crash cart coming in," the nurse said.

"Nurse, help me with the drape," the doctor said.

"BP's dropping!" a male nurse said.

"Defibrillator! The doctor ordered. "I want you to charge him at 100," the doctor said as they placed the paddles on Fury's chest.

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Yelizaveta heard Natasha say softly. They shocked Nick to no avail a couple of times. "Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me," Yelizaveta heard Natasha whisper faintly.

Steve and Yelizaveta walked away as they heard the time of death and went into the hallway. Yelizaveta looked down at the hard drive Nick had given her and Steve. They found themselves and Natasha in the prep room, with Natasha standing vigil. "I need to take him," Hill said to Steve. Steve walked to Natasha without a word.

"Natasha," Steve said in a low voice. Natasha touched Fury's forehead gently and walked away, Steve and Yelizaveta behind her.

"Natasha!" Steve said, practically running to keep up with her.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know," Steve said.

"Cap, they want you and Markova back at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Rumlow said, coming up to them slightly out of breath.

"Yeah, give us a second," Steve said.

"They want you now," Rumlow said.

Okay," Yelizaveta said.

"You're a terrible liar," Natasha said with a small smile, before she turned and stalked away.

"S.T.R.I.K.E. team, escort Captain Rogers and Agent Markova back to S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately for questioning," Yelizaveta heard Sitwell say over an intercom.

"I told them," Yelizaveta heard Rumlow say behind her. They both turned and walked to Rumlow.

"Let's go," Steve said in a no-nonsense voice.

"Yeah," Rumlow agreed. "S.T.R.I.K.E., move it out," Rumlow ordered as they went to the exit, no one noticing that Yelizaveta had slipped the hard drive into vending machine behind packages pf bubblegum.

Markova and Rogers entered the floor Pierce was on and he noticed that they were dressed as Captain America and the Winter Soldier. He had been listening to Sharon Carter's report of how Nick Fury had died and he wrapped up the conversation. "Captain Rogers, Winter Soldier," Agent Carter said by way of greeting.

"Neighbor," Rogers said brusquely as he walked past her.

"Oh, Captain. Agent Markova. I'm Alexander Pierce," Pierce said as he shook Rogers and Markova's hands.

"Sir, it's an honor," Rogers said.

"The honor's mine, Captain, Agent. My father served in the 101st. Come on in," Pierce invited the two of them into his office. He sneaked a look at Markova's face. Her Red Room/HYDRA training was clear as her face was a mask. It would be hard to see what the girl was thinking and at the moment, she looked content to let Rogers ask all the questions. Pierce handed them an old picture of him and Fury to Rogers. "That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was at state department in Bogota. E.L.N. rebels took the embassy and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was Deputy Chief of the S.H.I.E.L.D. station there, and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. "I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement and what do they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order, and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter," Pierce said as he removed his suitcoat, picked up a file, and the three of them sat down.

"So you gave him a promotion," Markova said. It was not a question, but a statement.

"I've never had any cause to regret it. My daughter was about your age when it happened and you're, what fourteen?" Pierce asked. Granted, he knew the exact age of the Asset's daughter, but Markova had no idea that Pierce knew who she was. "Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" Pierce asked.

"I don't know," Rogers said, shaking his head in the negative as he looked at the floor.

"Did either you or Agent Markova know it was bugged?" Pierce asked.

"We did, because Fury told us," Markova said.

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce asked.

Rogers and Markova looked at each other briefly and didn't answer. Pierce sat back. "I want you to see something," Pierce said as he pushed a button that activated an interrogation of Georges Batroc.

"Who hired you, Batroc?" The interrogator asked.

"Is that live?" Markova asked guardedly.

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers," Pierce said smugly.

"Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's Line" Rogers said.

"No, no. It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. And he was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through 17 fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech," Pierce said as he handed Rogers the file. Markova leaned over his shoulder and looked at it. She looked up at him, one dark eyebrow raised slightly.

"Are we supposed to know who that is?" Markova asked.

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437," Pierce said as Roger's flipped through the file.

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?" Rogers asked.

"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death," Pierce said. Markova looked up, her blue eyes as hard as ice shards.

"If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true," Markova said, her voice as hard as her eyes.

"Why do you think we're talking?" Pierce asked before he got up and walked to the window, overlooking the city. "See, I took a seat on the council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down," Pierce said.

"But that isn't always a good thing. Look at Russia, where I'm from. I was born in Siberia on a HYDRA base and the communists had torn down the old world in Russia. Tsarist Russia was bad, but the KGB and HYDRA made it worse," Markova said.

"I don't disagree, Agent Markova. But sometimes you have to do that and that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today makes me really, really angry. Captain, Agent Markova, you were the last ones to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident. And I don't think you do, either. So, I'm gonna ask again. Why was he there?" Pierce asked.

"He told us not to trust anyone," Markova said, pinning him with the look Pierce had seen often on her father's face as he was training for an upcoming mission.

"I wonder if that included him," Pierce said.

"We're sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse us," Rogers said as he and Markova went to the door, picking up the shield and sword they had put on the floor in front of the couch. They slung them both onto their backs.

"Captain, Agent Markova, somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone," Pierce said as they turned to look at him.

Markova and Rogers nodded their heads. "Understood," Markova said as they left his office.