Chapter Four: Fury And Fighting

Director Fury was sitting at her dinner table, it was pitch black but Peggy could just barely make out that it was him.

"Last I checked I wasn't so desperate for friends that I invited you over."

"I invited myself inside."

Wanting there to be nothing else hiding in the shadows, Peggy flicked the switch on the wall that turned all the lights in the room on. There were no other surprises in the room, but several on Fury's face. Nick Fury has a bruise on every inch of his face, as well as several nasty cuts. With great effort he reached up and pulled the string on the light above the table, leaving at least his face in darkness. He pulled out his phone and spoke.

"My wife kicked me out."

"And was she the WWB's greatest champion?"

It was at this point Peggy realized he was typing something on his phone.

"No, just very mean."

He turned the phone so she could see, it read "EARS EVERYWHERE".

Peggy now clues in that there was more going on then meets the eye, and that despite her disapproval of Fury at the moment she knew she had to play along.

"I'm sorry to have to do this," he said, "but I had no place else to crash."

Another message on his phone "SHIELD COMPROMISED"

This was more serious than Peggy had thought.

"Does anyone else know your wife kicked you out?"

With what looked like a painful amount of effort, Fury stood, holding the phone up once more. It said "YOU AND ME"

"Just...My friends."

Peggy knew very well that neither of them considered each other friends, so this must be another code. The only people Fury would consider close would be his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. So they knew something, something that got Fury beaten to an inch of his life.

"Well I am certainly not one."

"That's good," he said, walking closer to her. He then looked dead serious and Peggy listened close as she could tell what he'd say next would be important, "Don't trust anyone."

The moment the words were out of his lips there was a small explosion on her right wall, followed instantly by a three bullets that shot Fury right in the chest. The impact knocked him straight to the floor. Using the remainder of the wall as cover, Peggy looked at the mirror above the sink across on the left wall, she could make out the reflection of a tall figure in a dark navy blue suit on top of the adjacent building holding a grenade launcher in one hand and a 44 Magnum in the other. The attacker could fire again at Fury from this angle, so Peggy quickly dragged Fury out of the shooter's immediate sight.

She was about to then call for help, but Fury grabbed her arm. She thought he was going to try and say something, but instead he let go of her arm and opened his hand revealing the USB Peggy had seen Natasha use on the ship. No times for questions Peggy quickly pocketed the device.

Before she could do anything else there was a violent bang at the door, then said door was kicked in. Peggy raised her shield to protect herself and Fury from any more gunfire or explosions.

"Captain Carter?" a familiar female voice called out.

It was her neighbor Kate, in pink nurse scrubs, holding a gun with laser-aiming capabilities. Peggy did not lower her shield until she saw Kate lower her gun.

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

"You are?" said Peggy, really confused at this point.

"I'm assigned to protect you."

Remembering what Fury had said, she had to ask Kate a question, "Who ordered you to protect me?"

But with her shield lowered slightly, Kate was able to see the down and injured Fury, her eyes widened, "His."

Kate ran past Peggy and knelt next to Fury, checked his pulse, then took out a hand-held radio, "Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

An unfamiliar voice responded on the other end, "Do we have a 20 on the shooter?"

Peggy looked back at the mirror just in time to see that attacker turning to leave. She held her shield tightly in pure rage.

"Let them now I am in pursuit."

She jumped through the hole caused by the grenade blast and crashed through the window of the top floor of the adjacent building. She could hear the footsteps of the shooter on the roof above and ran to keep up. Peggy had to use her shield multiple times while running to burst through doors as she did not have time to open them. As she approached the end of the hallway she could no longer hear the attackers footsteps, that meant two possibilities, either he stopped or he jumped to the next building. For either option staying inside the building would not help so she picked up speed and used her shield to bust through the wall and she managed to land on the roof of the next building.

By the time she had regained her balance, the attacker was almost at the edge of the this new roof, and if he jumped he might be able to hide before she reached that side. Thinking quickly, Peggy decided to knock the shooter off balance so she threw her shield at him. In a split second he whipped around and caught the shield with his left hand.

Despite the shock of this feat, Peggy forced herself to focus, this was the first time the shooter had been up close and still so she could get a good look at him. The man was about six feet tall, light skin, and had military short blonde hair. He was wearing goggles with red lenses and a face mask that covered his nose to his chin, and an unfamiliar military stealth uniform, a red star on the center of his dark navy blue uniform.

The shooter now threw the shield back at her with equal amount of force as how she threw the shield, and she was just barely able to catch it before it hit her with full force. When she looked back up the man was gone. She crossed the distance of the roof in a matter of seconds, but by the time Peggy reached the edge and looked down there was no sign of the man.

Everything after that was a bit of a blur, Peggy was on the ground, someone found her and asked her a lot of questions and kept telling her things, and then someone put her in a car, and before she knew it she was in a room with a glass room watching surgeons operating on Nick Fury. She didn't come back to her senses until Natasha was suddenly at her side.

"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asked in a panic.

"I'm not sure," Peggy said in a sigh.

"Tell me about the shooter."

No 'are you alright' or 'you look like your in shock', Natasha really was just all business. Gosh how did Peggy ever think she was her friend. If it was business she wanted, business was all she was going to get.

"He was strong, unnaturally strong. Fast reflexes as well."

Agent Maria Hill then joined the room, but stayed silent at the moment.

"Ballistics?"

"Three slugs, no shell casings. Completely untraceable," Hill responded.

"Soviet-made," Natasha did not say this like a question, she said it like a fact.

"Yes, Soviet," said Hill, curious like Peggy as to how Natasha could have known.

One of the nurses pointed at a monitor and said, "He's in V-tach."

Everything then happened so quickly, all the doctors and nurses rushed around trying to save Nick Fury's life.

"Crash cart coming in."

"Nurse, help me with the drape."

"BP's dropping."

"Defibrillator!" the doctor called out.

The brought the machine over to the dying Nick.

"I want you to charge him at 100."

In a surprisingly emotional voice, Peggy heard Natasha speak ever so quietly, "Don't do this to me, Nick."

"Stand back."

"Three, two, one. Clear."

But there was no response, Peggy stayed silent, still to in shock to move.

"Pulse?"

"No pulse."

"Okay, 200, please."

"Stand back!"

"Three, two, one. Clear!"

But again there was no result from there actions.

"Get me epinephrine!" the doctor called out, but even Peggy could tell it would be no good.

"Pulse?"

"Negative."

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me," Natasha once again whispered.

A nurse administered the epinephrine but Nick remained still. Peggy spotted Maria Hill trying to hold back tears.

"What's the time?"

"1:03 a.m, doctor."

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

Knowing there was nothing else to see, Peggy snapped back to reality and walked out of the observation room and sat on a chair outside. Time passed both at the speed of light and unbelievably slowly, she just kept one hand in her pocket the whole time to feel the USB Nick had died to give her. Eventually a nurse asked if Peggy would like to see Fury one last time and she reluctantly agreed.

They had cleaned his body up somewhat, with the sheet over everything but his face it almost looked like he was sleeping, but Peggy knew that wasn't the case. Natasha stood right next to him, despite how mad Peggy felt towards her she couldn't help feeling sorry for Natasha as she saw how heartbroken she looked. Natasha had always said that S.H.I.E.L.D. had saved her from being a mindless assassin, and while Peggy knew that Clint Barton was the one who physically saved her, Peggy now suspected it was Nick who recruited her after Barton brought her in.

Peggy started to think she should say something, to comfort her, but before she could Maria came up next to Peggy and spoke quietly.

"I need to take him."

Peggy nodded and took this as a sign that she should now speak to Natasha, she walked up to right next to her and spoke softly, "Natasha..."

She didn't answer her, just put her hand on Nick forehead for a second, like a final goodbye, then turned on her heel and practically jogged out of the room. Peggy followed her, picking up the pace.

"Natasha!"

She turned to face her, her grief was mostly gone, only some sadness in her eyes, and was replaced with anger and confusion.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?"

"I'm not sure," Peggy lied. Fury had told her not to trust anyone, but she wouldn't have trusted Natasha anyway after what she did on the Lemurian Star.

Rumlow had arrived now, allow with other members of the strike team.

"Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D."

Despite how she felt she at least wanted Natasha to know Nick didn't die for nothing, so wanted to tell her just enough to put her mind at ease. "I'll be with you in just one moment."

"They want you now," his tone was almost mad.

Realising he wasn't going to leave her alone until she gave an affirmative answer she responded, "Okay."

Having the answer he wanted Rumlow talked away, Peggy turned back to face Natasha who now looked both furious and disgusted.

"You're a terrible liar," Natasha forced a smile then walked away.

Peggy was now trapped. Natasha was gone, the team was going to take her to where Fury said not to trust, and she still had the USB on her. She could not return to shield with it still in her pocket but she couldn't leave it somewhere that it might get taken by accident. She heard one of the squads radios go off.

"S.T.R.I.K.E. team, escort Captain Carter back to S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately for questioning."

Rumlow responded with, "I told her."

Realising she was out of time she looked around desperately, then noticed the open vending machine next to her. The mechanic working on it was distracted, so she quickly shoved the USB behind the bubble gums. It did not appear that anyone saw her do so.

She confidently walked back to Rumlow so that he wouldn't be suspicious, "Its time we head back."

"Yeah. S.T.R.I.K.E., move it out."