Runrunrunrunrun.' Chloe relentlessly tapped her fingers against her temples. The voices were active and loud again, repeating themselves over and over. They insisted about danger coming and running. Running from who is what they wouldn't say.

"Chloe! Chloe!" Natasha yelled in vain. She was sure she'd been yelling the woman's name for a good five minutes and even though they were right in front of each other, Chloe was in another world. "Dammit, Chloe!" She yanked Chloe's hands from her head. "Chloe!"

Chloe unscrewed her eyes to meet Natasha's irritated gaze. "What? Let me go!" She pulled her hands from Natasha's and stepped back.

"You blanked out on me again—you've been doing that more often," Natasha noted. "Are you okay?"

"No, of course not. My best friend is in a hospital because she was poisoned!" Chloe frantically gestured to the hallway bustling with nurses and doctors. "Kind of question is that, Natasha?"

"Easy," warned the redhead, tilting her head. "Those chocolates—they were poisoned, weren't they?"

"What?" Chloe shifted, her head even turning away from Natasha. "Of course not."

"It's the only explanation because the bakery's been cleared. Your chocolates had poison in them which means that somebody was trying to poison you," Natasha pointed at the woman. "Not Seren. It's like I said in the beginning, Cyannide was too easy of an avenue against Seren. To poison her, they need to synthesize something. You, however, are as human as they come" — she flicked Chloe's forehead — "save for a few alien perks, but still 100% human. Who would want to poison you, Chloe?"

"I don't—I don't know what's going on!" Chloe smacked the side of her head when the voices started raging about an 'accident'. Was she going to have an accident now?

Natasha's nose scrunched as she watched Chloe hit herself a few times. "What the hell are you doing now?"

"It's the voices!" Chloe screwed her eyes shut again. "The Hive Mind — it's so fucking annoying lately!"

"Bet this is the reason you hardly sleep, then." Natasha wondered what else the Hive Mind had been doing lately.

"Hey," they heard Steve call seconds before he joined them. They stood only a few inches from Seren's room. Steve wasn't risking anybody entering while he wasn't in there, not even the nurses. He looked between Natasha and Chloe, noticing the pale shade of Chloe's face. He wondered if she'd been skipping sleep again. "So, what do we have right now?"

Natasha had continued to stare at Chloe until she decided that the latter was not going to be very forthcoming on her own. "Well," she said, crossing her arms, "I have nothing but it's not my fault."

"It's not?" Steve said, confused. Whenever Natasha went on a mission, she always got what she needed.

"Yup," Natasha said, "Because Chloe has all the information and she refuses to tell me anything."

Chloe's eyes widened. "What!? I don't know anything!" she practically yelled, attracting the attention of the staff passing by in the hallway.

Steve could see her breathing heavily and those flickering eyes of hers weren't making it any easier to believe her. He'd never seen her act like that. "Chloe?"

"Steve, don't you start," she warned him.

Any other time, Steve would have been gentle and understanding with Chloe...but not today. Today, Seren had been resting from a poisoning attack. She'd been terrified of where she was and she was still terrified. Today, Steve was not going to go gentle on anyone holding out on information that would lead him to the culprit of the attack. "Chloe, you need to start talking and I mean right now."

"But I don't—"

"Don't you dare lie to me right now because I don't know what I'm going to do if you do," Steve stepped closer to her. She ducked her head immediately, trying to avoid his and Natasha's stare at all costs. "We're friends, Chloe, but my priority is Seren. What do you know?"

Chloe swallowed hard. She wasn't used to being on the receiving end of his coldness. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't...I love Seren, I would never put her in danger like that."

"I believe that," Steve said, "Which makes it even less clear as to why you're deliberately not helping her."

Chloe looked up at him. "Please...there are eyes and ears everywhere."

"Fair enough," Steve nodded, eyes scanning the hallway. He was wary of everything around them too. "Natasha, can you stay with Seren, please? She's still resting and you're about the only one I trust right now." And he knew that nobody would get to Seren if the Black Widow was posted at her door.

"Yeah," Natasha said. "Where's Seren's family?"

"Resting in their hotel, but they're supposed to be back in a couple hours."

"And where are you going?"

Steve grabbed Chloe's arm, hard, and pulled her with him much like a parent would grab a misbehaving child. "Home for a bit. I won't be long, I promise."

"Do what you gotta do," Natasha said and headed for Seren's room.

"What!? Where!?" Chloe tried prying his hand off her arm when he pulled her for the elevators. She tried digging her feet to the floor to slow him down but that was just another failed attempt. "Steve, where are we going?"

"Home!"

"No! I don't—Seren's here! I want to stay here!"

Steve ignored her and pulled her inside the elevator. "You're not telling us the truth, Chloe. You're always secretive and I let it slide because I have no right to demand anything but this time it's different. This time Seren's life got put on the line because of them and I'm not going to rest until I get the entire truth from you!" He let Chloe go while the elevator started down.

She scooted to the other corner, hugging herself. He had never used any force with her, much less yelled at her. He was absolutely right but even then, she was afraid to speak. "Just let me disappear," she whispered.

Steve was dumbfounded with those words. The elevator opened up.

Chloe straightened up and walked out first. She turned to face him with a new determination. "Let me run," she told him. "Let me go and I promise that whoever did this will run with me. They won't hurt Seren again."

Steve looked around for anyone suspicious. No one seemed to be looking at them. Everyone had a job to do. His eyes landed on Chloe again. He grasped her arm again and pulled her for the entrance doors.

"Steve, c'mon!" she exclaimed.

"You just confirmed that this is involving you," he said. "Now I'm going to need the entire truth from you."

"I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's dangerous!"

"I would assume nothing less."

"Steve, stop!" Chloe screamed with flashing blue eyes. "They're telling me to stop!"

"They?" Steve let go on instinct as soon as they were outside the hospital. "Chloe, who's 'they'?"

Chloe blinked quickly until the blue faded from her eyes. She brought her hand to her temple. "The aliens. The Hivemind has been very active lately. They-they keep whispering to me, talking to me."

"I thought you said they didn't speak to you often." Steve couldn't count the times Chloe would complain about those creatures in the Hivemind ignoring her calls. They didn't want anything to do with her.

"They didn't," Chloe said with a strained voice. "But lately they have. Since my birthday. They...they keep whispering things, like future things. It's like I can see some parts of the future now. It's how I knew Natasha was in the control room on the Lemurian Star; how I knew the bomb was coming. But sometimes they talk too loud, they overlap.."

"But they're saying something," Steve realized. "Are they worried? Are they warning you?"

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, lately it's been a lot of warnings. Before, I was the one who had to try and reach them and even then, they weren't very forthcoming with information. Now suddenly I can't shut them up. I think so. Dr. Cho says it might be because my brain's reached full maturity?"

"Dr. Cho?" It took only a second for Steve to correlate that name with Tony's. "Let me guess, a friend of Tony's?" Chloe nodded and ducked her gaze from his. "Chloe, I don't understand why you wouldn't tell us that you've been seeing Stark to help you out. What, did you think we weren't going to stand for it or something?"

"It's more complicated than you think," Chloe said, exasperated but nowhere near to Steve's frustration.

"Then tell us! I am so sick of SHIELD and its secrets and how it makes its employees feel like lying is just part of the job! You don't lie, Chloe! Why is that so hard to understand? Personally, if it was the reason it got my best friend killed, I'd want to spill every single thing I knew."

"It's just hard, Steve!" Chloe exclaimed. "There are eyes and ears everywhere! I can't trust anyone in SHIELD—"

"I am right here, Chloe! I have been here for two years now!" Steve's voice was louder than usual, and Chloe hated that it was all against her. She hated her position but she also knew that she brought it on herself. "You're always on me about being honest with myself about how I felt about Seren and now that I'm finally doing something about it, this happens and it all points to it being your fault!"

Tears filled Chloe's eyes within seconds. Steve knew that he should feel awful for making a woman cry — he should feel exceptionally awful for making a friend cry. Chloe had helped him in every way that she could to get closer to Seren, to get to know the world better. She had been an amazing friend to him nonstop...

But Seren was the one in the hospital. Seren was the one who ingested cyanide-laced chocolates. She was the one who had to battle for her life. Seren was the one who paid the price yet again for someone else and their decisions. From the moment she could remember, she lived for others, doing their bidding in the name of loyalty. Steve couldn't, and wouldn't, let that continue, not when he had the power to make it stop even for just a moment. This was something he could solve and if it meant forcing the truth out of Chloe then so be it. Seren was done paying for things that weren't her fault.

He grabbed Chloe's arm again, gripping it tight as he dragged her away from the hospital. If she was that concerned with eyes and ears everywhere, then they would head to the one place he knew for a fact was completely free of third parties.

"We're going home and you're going to explain," Steve warned her, leaving absolutely no room for discussion anymore. "Because if anyone else hurts Seren, you're going to answer for it."

~ 0 ~

The impatience got to Steve long before they reached their building. As soon as they stepped inside the building, Steve was demanding answers from Chloe again.

"You better start with where you got those chocolates," he warned as they headed up the stairs.

"I don't know!" Chloe exclaimed. "I honestly don't know! It could've been from anyone!"

"Why did someone want to kill you?"

Chloe sighed.

"Chloe, talk."

"We need to talk to Fury."

"I thought you said you couldn't trust anyone at SHIELD," Steve said sourly.

"Except for Fury! He knows everything about this!"

Steve rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Steve, it's more complicated than you think," Chloe stopped him on their floor. "This is...this is 7 years in the making."

"Seven?"

Chloe nodded. "No one knows except for Fury and then Tony. Seren doesn't know—she couldn't imagine it."

"Then tell me now," Steve said, teeth gritted. His patience was nonexistent by this point, exhausted both physically and mentally from the past day.

"When Seren took me in, I thought things would get better. I even thought I could eventually go home again. If I learned how to control my powers then I could be around them again, I could explain everything…" Chloe smiled humorlessly at her naive thoughts. "But a few months after I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. I started to get the feeling like somebody was watching me. I thought maybe Seren had some agent looking out for me but when I asked her about it, she told me she hadn't posted anyone. I trusted Seren, she doesn't lie."

"No, she doesn't," Steve agreed. "So?"

"I kept getting the same feeling wherever I went," Chloe went on, "And then one day, I was almost killed crossing the street. This car just came out of nowhere and it almost hit me. It just kept going. That happened two times on different days."

"Did they ever catch the person?" Steve asked. He was following closely but for the moment, he couldn't decide whether or not Chloe was telling him the truth.

"No," Chloe shook her head. "But then after that, more odd things kept happening. Little accidents. I didn't have a parachute when I should have, things exploded before they should've...and the feeling that somebody was watching me kept growing."

"Those first things—those are things from S.H.I.E.L.D.," Steve said. "Are you saying that—"

"There's a mole in S.H.I.E.L.D.," Chloe sighed. "Moles. I don't know. I know it's more than one person watching me. It's why Fury has me all around the world. My missions are always top secret because not everyone can be trusted."

"And you've never said anything to Seren about this? Natasha?" Steve didn't know why he even bothered to ask when he already knew what the answer would be. "Chloe!"

"Fury said it was best not to," Chloe argued.

"But you had Seren. She would have protected you!"

"Seren had to focus on her own training! Fury didn't want anything to distract S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prized possession!"

"She's not their possession!" Steve snapped.

Chloe's hands went up in front of her as she reminded Steve these were S.H.I.E.L.D.'s words, not hers. "I was a kid, Steve. I didn't know any better. I wasn't going to argue with the frikin director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I learned to live the way I do."

"Full of lies and deceit?"

"I didn't say it was the best way to live—"

"It's not a way to live, Chloe, that's my point. You all live in webs of lies, I'm genuinely amazed how easily you guys do it." And Steve was more amazed with the way that Seren hadn't fallen into that same type of living. The fact she remained pure with her intentions and goals made him admire her even more.

Chloe pushed down a lump in her throat, feeling like he was looking at her as if she was his enemy. "This isn't the way I thought my future would look like."

"It would have been different if you had told somebody," Steve muttered.

All Chloe could do was accept her fault and apologize. Looking at her, Steve began to feel guilty for snapping at her. She was deflated, lost, in a sense and him yelling probably wasn't helping. He just really couldn't stand the circumstances and more than anything that S.H.I.E.L.D. was truly the worst place ever and he was working there.

"Alright," he begrudgingly started a few minutes after calming himself, "so do you have any idea about what we're dealing with? Any leads?"

Chloe looked at him, dumbfounded with the question. "You're going to help me?"

"I'm not going to leave you to these people," said Steve incredulously. "If there's moles in S.H.I.E.L.D., then we gotta wipe 'em out quickly."

"That's going to be hard considering I've never seen any faces," Chloe said with a lamenting sigh. "They're good like that. All these attacks have been from a distance. And trust me, I've had some of my connections try to help me. It's all just big waste of time."

"No," Steve said sternly. "Because if you think like that, then you just give them ample opportunities to try and catch you."

"Well they haven't tried in a long time," Chloe said, "Ever since I started living with you, actually."

"Seriously?"

"You do remember who you are, right? You're Captain America. The name holds a lot of weight."

"You really don't know anything about who they could be?"

Chloe ran her hands through her hair. "I mean...the Hivemind nicknamed one of them "the Ghost" and it's sort of stuck but there's not much to go off by. No matter where I go, no matter how hard I stay hidden, they always find me! So I ran—I kept moving!"

"And you've played this off as missions," Steve would commend her aptitude for lying at another moment. It had to take a lot of skill to be able to maneuver an entire organization like S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I had to!"

"No, you didn't!"

"Yes, I did, because I never wanted to put anyone else in harm's way!"

"And yet Seren's the one in the hospital!"

"I KNOW!" Chloe's eyes shined with tears. "Seren's the only person I can fully trust. She took care of me when I was so scared. It should have been me, alright? I know it! I should have been poisoned! I should have died!"

"No, Chloe...I — you shouldn't have died. Neither if you deserve to be hurt." As angry as Steve was, he would never want anything to happen to Chloe either. She was like a sister, a little sister to him and right now she was very afraid.

"It's my fault,' Chloe sniffed until she wept. "It's always been my fault. I was so stupid thinking that they weren't going to do anything anymore. They stopped trying to hurt me a while ago and...I guess I lowered my guard. It's my fault Seren's in the hospital. It's all my fault..."

Steve brought her into a hug seeing her get so worked up. He couldn't stay angry with her knowing that she had no idea what was going on. He was still irritated with her for not telling him any of this before because the truth of the matter is that Seren could have avoided this whole incident if their guard had never been lowered. Things would have been so different if they knew what was really going on within S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," Chloe said in-between sniffles. "I would never let anything happen to Seren— to any of my friends. You guys are my family and I...I was so stupid."

Steve sighed. "It's...it'll be okay. We can all work together now — you, me, Seren, Natasha. We can figure out what these people want from you—"

"It's the Hivemind, it has to be," Chloe pulled back from him. "I wasn't supposed to get it and I did because I went snooping around. Whoever they are, the Hive Mind was theirs and they want it back."

"That would mean they know what it is," Steve realized. "If the Hivemind is what they're after and it's merged into your body…"

"They need to kill me in order to get it," Chloe wiped some of her tears. "I realized that a long time ago. But the weird part is, these attempts to kill me had stopped years ago. I mean, it's how they started but then it stopped. They still watched me and on occasion there were attempts to trap me."

"Like kidnapping," Steve was quick to make the conclusion. "They stopped trying to kill you to kidnap you instead. They were trying to take the tech from you or...observe?" Either option was viable but without having one of those people in front of them, it was all up in the air.

"But then it stopped," Chloe reminded him. "It stopped up until yesterday. They're trying to kill me again after years."

"What changed?"

"...my age?" Chloe couldn't think of another reason. "The doctor I'm seeing outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. said that the Hivemind might be fully accessible now because of my age. I have untapped abilities, hence the future visions."

"Okay," Steve nodded. "Let's get inside and talk for a bit more, maybe shower and change and then — and then," he raised a finger at her, "We are going back to the hospital and we are telling Seren everything."

Chloe's eyes widened. "Everything? Steve, I can't—"

"Stop," Steve warned her. "Do you know that Seren found out about your little undercover SHIELD agent just hours before this whole thing happened?"

"She did...?" Chloe knew that was a whole other lecture waiting for her now.

"Yes, and even though she could've acted like you and everyone else, she didn't lie. She didn't keep it a secret from me. She told me the truth. I won't lie to her, Chloe. Not now, not ever. I'm going to tell her everything."

Chloe gulped. "If...if you're going to do it...then I might as well do it. This responsibility shouldn't fall on you. All you've done is help and protect us. This is my business, I'm going to tell Seren."

"Chloe—"

"I swear I'm going to tell her," Chloe said, raising her hand to promise.

"As soon as she wakes up," Steve warned her. "I won't hesitate to do it myself if you back out."

"I understand," Chloe said with a nod.

"Now let's just go inside and get changed — maybe tell me something else I need to know about — and head back to the hospital." Steve took the lead towards their door. "I don't want Seren to wake up and I'm not there."

"I know..." Chloe said, following close behind, "But I...I'm scared that she's going to hate me. I've been lying to her for years and I nearly got her killed."

"Something tells me that Seren could never hold a grudge against you." Steve said as he got his key out. Just as he was about to slip it into the keyhole, he heard music playing from the other side.

Soon, Chloe heard it too.

"You didn't leave the record player on, did you?" Chloe whispered.

Steve brought a finger to his lips. No, no he had not left it on. Nothing should be turned on and because of that, he took Chloe in the opposite direction. They wouldn't be going through the door—that's what they expected.

They came through the fire escape instead, although Steve had implied to Chloe that she should stay back. She stood firm on her decision; she was done making mistakes. Luckily on their way inside the apartment, Steve found his shield he left lying about. He crept towards the living room and poked his head only slightly out to see. Chloe suspected this intruder wasn't that threatening when Steve's face fell flat. He lowered his shield and came into the living room, prompting her to do the same. Fury was sitting on the couch, in the dark.

"I don't remember giving you a key…" Steve said, slowly and still very much suspicious. After everything he learned today, he trusted Fury even less and that hadn't been much to begin with. If anything, he felt a new rush of anger flourish from his chest. He knew the attack hadn't been against Seren and yet he hadn't said a word.

"You really think I'd need one? My wife kicked me out," Fury said, and Chloe noted that his voice was a touch strained.

Steve didn't bother asking why he just learned this. "Didn't know you were married."

He's not, Chloe thought. She touched Steve's arm, making him look at her. She mouthed her thoughts to him. 'Accident. Accident. There's an accident!' Chloe frowned. The Hive Mind was very adamant about an accident and she began to wonder if it didn't have to do with Seren.

'The Ghost is coming! Run!'

Chloe snapped out of her thoughts when Steve turned the light on and they both noticed the injuries Fury had. Before either of them could say a thing, Fury motioned them to stay quiet. He turned the lights back off then pulled his phone out to write something.

'Ears everywhere' was the message for them.

Chloe paled. If he was saying this to her and Steve, then things were even worse now. Secrecy had been their best weapon so far and to divulge that so easily now...

Chloe was properly scared.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash," Fury went on as he wrote another message for them.

'SHIELD compromised. Winters, they're here and attacking us all.'

Chloe didn't intend on whimpering out loud but it happened. She felt Steve's hand on her arm comforting her. Her worst nightmare was coming true and she had no idea what to do.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked Fury.

'You and me' was the message.

Fury pulled himself up from his seat and walked a few steps towards them. "Just...my friends."

"Is that what we are?"

'Now, now, now!' Chloe felt an actual static noise in her head. "Aah!" She clapped her hands to her head.

Just as Steve looked her way, three shots were fired through the wall and struck Fury square in the chest. Steve pulled Chloe down with him then reached for Fury to drag him into the next room. Chloe lit her hands a raging blue to fight whoever the hell was in their home. She fired in the same direction that the bullets had come from but to her dismay, the bullets kept coming. Although, she did notice that they only kept going in Fury's and Steve's direction.

Fury reached for Steve's wrist to stop him from leaving. "Don't...trust anyone." He deposited the same USB Natasha took from the Lemurian Star into Steve's hand.

"Chloe, stay here," Steve ordered Chloe as he pulled her back to where he'd left Fury.

"What? No! It's them—" She was already frantic and that boded "accidentally murdered" for Steve. He didn't need to explain that to Seren later on.

"Stay!" he ordered her and took off.

"Oh God, it's them. It's them." Chloe's vision was blurred with tears. She never expected them to make it this close to her and her friends, much less try to kill Seren and now Fury. This wasn't just one person—this was a whole team.

The bullets had stopped coming, giving Chloe a clear line of view into the living room. Their windows were shattered and as Chloe hurried up to it, she could see Steve chasing another figure. The Ghost, she gulped. It had to be.

Steve was on the run, never as fast as now. That was something he noted for later. Whoever this shooter was, he was running faster than a regular human ever could. Could it be an enhanced human? The mole from S.H.I.E.L.D.? Whoever it was, he'd let Steve through another building and countless walls he had to smash through in order to catch up. He took his shot once he was on the rooftop and threw his shield at the mysterious killer. The last thing he expected was for said killer to catch it so swiftly. The shock of it was what denied Steve the chance to catch it when the killer threw it directly back at him. He was on the ground when the killer made his escape.

~ 0 ~

Natasha could shove anyone out her way right now. She skidded to a stop beside Steve and Chloe who were watching Fury undergo surgery. "Is he going to make it?"

Instead of answering the question, Steve rounded on the woman, suddenly furious. "What the hell are you doing here!? Seren's—"

"She's fine, Rogers," Natasha said, side-stepping him to continue watching the surgery. "Chloe pulled her strings."

At that, Steve glanced at Chloe questionably. The blonde nodded. "I have a friend in the CIA. Trust me, nobody gets through her either."

Steve had a few things to ask but the commotion from the surgery drew his attention back.

"Tell me about the shooter," Natasha said quietly, eyes glued up ahead.

Steve was hesitant to but Chloe gave him the nod. She'd asked him the same thing when they were together again. Chloe was certain that they had been 'the ghost' as the Hive Mind nicknamed him.

"He's fast and strong. Had a metal arm…" Steve stopped when Maria joined them.

"Ballistics?" Natasha asked her immediately.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable."

Chloe saw something flash across Natasha's face, recognition. But how was that possible?

"Soviet-made," the redhead mumbled.

Chloe raised an eyebrow at her. She didn't have the chance to ask about it. Commotion came from the surgery again.

"He's in V-tach!"

"Crash cart coming in!"

"Nurse, help me with the drape!"

"BP is dropping!"

"Defibrillator!"

Everyone held onto their breath when Fury flatlined. The doctor went several times with the machine.

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Natasha stepped closer to the glass window.

"Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!"

But the flatlining continued.

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me," Natasha could get dizzy with all the constant moving but she couldn't take her eyes off them. One attempt turned into three more. Eventually, they had to stop.

"Time of death, 1:03 a.m."

Natasha's eyes glistened. Chloe's mouth parted in shock.

Steve stepped back and looked down at the USB he'd held onto tightly.

~ 0 ~

Seren had long woken up before the group returned. The first thing that Steve did was apologize — multiple times — for not being there with her like he promised before she fell asleep. Seren assured him many times that she was okay. She was doing a lot better now that she didn't need the oxygen mask. One less thing that freaked her out. Plus, she had been with a friend while they were gone. Her more or less content mood made it harder for them to break the news about Fury.

Steve almost regretted it when they saw Seren's blood pressure begin to spike on the machine. "N-n-n-n-no, Seren, calm down!"

"'Calm down'?" She said incredulously, trying to push herself into a better sitting position. "You just told me — our director is dead! He's been murdered!" She went to try and stand up and that's where Steve drew the line. He had to force her to lay back down. "Steve, I gotta — would you let go!?" Her hands were on his biceps, trying with all her might to push him away.

"Can't do that! Lay down, now," he ordered her and, to his relief, she gave up and fell back in bed. She crossed her arms and the look on her face implied he'd be in some deep trouble in the near future.

"Somebody better start talking," she warned and looked at Natasha and Chloe in case they decided to chip in to explain. "Last time I remembered, Fury was well and alive. How long was I out for that to change so drastically?"

"It's really hard to explain," Natasha said, "Mostly because we don't actually have the details to explain."

"Come again? You said the guy was in your apartment," Seren said, glancing between Steve and Chloe. "Which means he was waiting for the target, which means he knew you all."

"I don't know if that was it..." Chloe said quietly. Her nerves were skyrocketing now that she had Seren in front of her. Steve was waiting for her to tell the truth and she had no doubt that he would follow through with his threat and tell Seren himself if she didn't do it first.

"Then what was it?" demanded Seren.

"I call him the Ghost," Chloe said, deciding to start with the easiest bit.

"The Ghost?" Seren seemed very unimpressed. "What is this? Kindergarten superhero class? I want answers and if you're not going to give them to me then I'll just get them myself!" She had only moved slightly forward when Steve easily moved and pinned her shoulder down on the bed. She groaned. "Would you stop doing that!?"

"Soon as you stop trying to escape," Steve said. "Mysterious murders are no excuse for you to endanger your health."

Seren deadpanned him. "I don't like you at all right now."

Steve rolled his eyes. "I'll survive."

"Keep up the sarcasm, I dare you."

"Enough," Chloe interjected. The last thing she wanted was to cause a senseless argument between them because of her. "It's not Steve's fault, Seren. It's mine."

With the mild confession, Seren lost interest in taking more jabs at Steve. She turned her head in Chloe's direction. "Why do you say that?"

Chloe drew in a big breath to try and ease some of the nerves in her stomach. "I...I have to tell you some...some things."

"I'm literally all ears right now. What is it?"

But just as Chloe was about to start, someone knocked on the door. It was Rumlow poking his head into the room. "Agent Soul, good morning. How are you doing?"

Seren fixed herself up as best she could before answering him. "Good, thank you."

"Sorry to interrupt. Captain, Agent Winters, they want you back at SHIELD."

"R-right now?" Chloe said, glancing at Steve unsure. Just when she had gotten a bit of courage...

"I can go and Chloe can catch up with us later," Steve said. He met Natasha's gaze and just as he opened his mouth, she told him that she would stay with Seren and Chloe.

The ginger in question let out a groan. "I don't need a babysitter! I need some damn answers!"

"You," Steve pointed at her, "need to calm down before you make the machine," he nodded at her monitor, "burst into flames."

"I'll make you burst into flames!" Seren huffed.

Steve barely hid his smile at her. Even when mad, she still pulled at his heartstrings. "And I'll let you do that when I get back, promise." Steve headed out the room and noticed Rumlow conversing with the STRIKE team at the end of the hallway. Something about carrying the USB right back to S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't sit well with Steve. He looked around and spotted a vending machine. It had to be safer than S.H.I.E.L.D. and if anyone came looking for it, it was away from Seren but close enough to grab.

Seren was not happy at all when he left with Rumlow, and not even Natasha's little taunts lifted her mood enough to snap back. She wasn't used to being benched. She wasn't benched. That was the point of her and SHIELD. She was the first line of response for these cases and now it turned out that she wasn't allowed to know what was going on?

"You shouldn't be mad at him," Chloe insisted as she came to sit with Seren. "I'll give you the answers, I swear."

A/N:

Personally, I wouldn't want to be on Steve's bad side. I feel like he's the kind of guy who's so sweet 24/7 until he gets thoroughly pissed and then God help you.

P.S. As always, I have an AO3/Wattpad account under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)