Finally, he'd been allowed to take a quick shower and change, thankfully finding one of his spare uniforms in his locker. Once again, as soon as he'd emerged, he was whisked off to another meeting, this time with Undersecretary Pierce himself.
That meeting hadn't gone as planned. The very idea that Piece had put forth, that Nick Fury would actively act against the best interests of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the country was laughable to any that knew him. And then for Pierce to accuse him, however correctly, of siding with Fury and hiding secrets from S.H.I.E.L.D. severely grated.
Finally, finally, when he'd thought that his day was done and that he could head home and catch some shut eye, the elevator happened.
A dozen men, all from tactical, most from S.T.R.I.K.E., a team that he'd worked with on numerous occasions had attacked him. It'd been a frantic couple of minutes in close quarters and only his enhanced strength, speed and agility had saved him. Being forced to leap through the elevator's window, falling so many stories to the ground below in order to escape still boggled his mind.
If that hadn't been enough to prove that S.H.I.E.L.D. were targeting him, that they wanted to silence him, the quinjet flying low over him, ordering him to stand down and then shooting at him as he left on the bridge off of the island sure let him know that he was now a wanted man.
The question now was, why?
What was it that they thought that he knew?
The only thing that he could think of was the flash drive that Fury had given him straight after being shot back in Steve's apartment, moments before Sharon had burst through his door.
A flash drive that he no longer had.
Completely unlike him, Steve had hidden vital information from the chain of command that he served. That thought alone made him pause. If he was beginning to hide information, to lie and distrust the unit, then should he really be an operative of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
That, he decided, was a question to answer once this mess was sorted out. His first order of business was retrieving that flash drive. And in order to do that, he was going to have to go undercover, which meant ditching his uniform, bike and shield.
Captain America stood out far too much right now.
ooo00ooo
Natasha Romanov, current Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., former KGB operative, 'graduate' of the Red Room was nothing if not the ultimate spy. That meant that, no matter the circumstances, she noticed things.
So, when Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, boy-scout extraordinaire, acted all guilty and furtive, she noticed. To her, it was akin to a penguin trying to blend in in the desert. And, once having noticed that, it took her all of half a minute to find what the guy'd been trying to hide.
Nearly ten bucks in coins later, Nat was the owner of four packets of chewing gum and a very familiar looking flash drive. Exactly where Rogers had come across it was currently unknown but she could take a very educated guess, a guess that'd be easy to confirm once Steve came back for it and she could have a little talk with him.
The wait hadn't been quite as long as it could have been, even so, it was still longer than she would have liked. She watched from cover as Steve, trying to hide by wearing a simple hoodie of all things walked up to the machine.
Nat sighed. The man couldn't blend in if his life depended on it. The fact that it probably now did, didn't bode well. Silently, she stepped up behind him and popped a bubble of gum in his ear.
Steve's spin and hand in her gut, pushing her back into an empty room was fast and unexpected. Anyone else, though, and she'd have retaliated, put him down hard. The instant the door closed behind them, Steve flipped off his hood and stood close, his face intent, angry and so very, very easy to read.
"Where is it?" he snapped.
"Safe," she replied, her eyes flicking between his, reading his every emotion. "Where did you get it?"
"Why should I tell you?" he asked.
"Fury gave it to you," she stated, instantly seeing the confirmation in his eyes. "Why?"
"What's on it?" Steve asked.
"I don't know," Nat answered truthfully.
"Stop lying!" Steve retorted, getting even more in her face.
"I only act like I know everything, Rogers," she retorted.
"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve asked after checking that they were still alone.
Again, Nat decided to be truthful with him.
"Well, makes sense. The ship was dirty and Fury needed a way in and so do you," she said.
"I'm not going to ask you again!" Steve stated angrily.
Seeing how worked up Steve was, Nat decided that she needed a way to get his attention.
"I know who killed Fury," she said.
Steve backed off slightly, surprise etched on his face.
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists," she continued. "The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."
"So, he's a ghost story?" Steve asked sceptically.
"Five years ago," she continued, "I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him straight through me."
Nat lifted her shirt to show Steve the scar in her side to verify her story.
"Soviet slug; no rifling. Bye bye bikinis," she finished.
"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve stated and Nat forced herself not to smile at his inadvertent flirt.
"Going after him is a dead end. I know. I've tried," she said. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."
Pulling out the flash drive, Nat offered it to him.
Taking it, Steve looked at her carefully.
"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants," he said. "Together?"
"Together," Nat agreed. "But not here. We'll need to get out of here, find somewhere where we can blend into the crowd a little easier. And also get a better disguise for you."
Steve looked down at himself.
"What's wrong with how I look?" he asked.
Nat shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Don't get me started, Rogers," she replied.
ooo00ooo
Wheaton, New Jersey. As soon as the name popped up on the computer screen, indicating where the tracking algorithm had traced the program from the flash drive to, Steve's mind froze.
Images flooded past his eyes to way back when, all those years ago. It seemed, darn, it felt like a lifetime ago.
"You know it?" Nat asked.
"I used to," Steve replied. "Let's go."
Plucking the drive from the computer, Steve led Nat away. Getting out of the computer store was one thing; getting out of the mall was going to be another. Steve knew that the S.T.R.I.K.E. tactical team was on site. If they were following protocol, there'd be teams of them on every floor. More than likely, they'd start at the top and check each floor heading down.
"We go down," Nat stated, echoing his thoughts.
Together, the two boarded the escalator, trusting to their disguises – Nat wearing a hoodie, Steve himself in a baseball cap and glasses – to hide them from any cursory glances. That, of course, wasn't going to work against a concerted look. And Rumlow, coming at them on the opposite escalator was going to get exactly that look.
"Kiss me!" Nat stated, spinning to face him.
Steve stared at her. "What?"
"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable," she said.
"Yes, they do," Steve agreed.
And before he could say anything else, she'd grabbed the back of his head, pulled him down and kissed him. Steve froze, not sure exactly how to respond. After what seemed an age but was probably only a second or two, he began kissing her back. By the time that they'd parted, Rumrow had passed, without noticing them.
"You still uncomfortable?" Nat asked as she turned back around to face down the elevator and to step off of it.
"That's not exactly the word that I would use," Steve commented, following her.
"We're going to need transportation," Nat stated. "Jersey's too far to walk."
"Leave that to me," Steve stated. "First things first, though. We need to make a quick stop."
"What? Why?" Nat asked suspiciously.
"I'm not going anywhere without my shield," Steve stated.
.
.
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