Kate and Nat quickly leave the engine room, heading to the computers in the control room silently. This is the part of the mission Steve doesn't know about, and Kate suspects Fury let her in on it to prove that he trusts her. It's been in doubt since New York, though not as much by now.

"Hostages en route to extraction," Rumlow says over comms. "Romanoff and Carson missed the rendezvous point, Cap. Hostiles are still in play." Kate looks at Nat, but she just moves faster, forcing Kate to keep up.

"Natasha, Kate, Batroc's on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages," Steve instructs. Kate reaches for her comm, not even knowing what she's going to say, but Nat shakes her head. "Kate, Natasha!"

They reach the computers, and Nat plugs in the drive, begins typing while Kate stands guard. No pirates show up, but she hears fighting outside for some minutes before Steve busts through the door, using Batroc as a battering ram. Kate's hands flash out of pure surprise as he punches Batroc, knocking him out, before looking up. He locks eyes with Kate, who's glad she was standing to the left of the door instead of behind it.

"Well... surprise, surprise, surprise?" she says, trying to lighten the tension, not even sure if he's gotten to Gomer Pyle on his list yet.

Steve gets up, glancing between her and Nat. "What are you doing?"

"Backing up the hard drive," Nat replies. "It's a good habit to get into."

"Rumlow needed your help. What are you doing here?" He walks over, looks over Nat's shoulder. "You're saving SHIELD Intel." Kate grimaces, looking at the wall. Beige. Boring.

"Whatever I can get my hands on."

"Our mission is to rescue hostages."

"No, that's your mission — and you've done it beautifully." She grabs the flash drive, walking past him towards Kate.

Steve looks at both of them. "You just jeopardized this whole operation." Kate swallows, her eyes going to the floor instead. Blue-gray. Also boring.

"I think that's overstating things," Nat replies, turning back to him.

Suddenly, Batroc gets to his feet, tossing a grenade. Kate runs after him. "Hey!" She blasts at him, missing as she hears the explosion behind her, glass breaking. She turns, looking for Nat and Steve, but she can't see them through the destruction.

When she turns back around, Batroc is still running. This time she hits him, his shirt catching fire as he hits the deck, but he gets up and barely slows in stride. He's going to get away. And there's not much she can do for Steve and Nat now besides hope.

She runs for Batroc, but he's at the ship's railing when she catches up, grabbing at his shoulder.

He slips out of her grasp, flinging himself over the side of the boat, disappearing under the water. Kate presses her comm, gazing down at the water below. "Batroc just jumped ship."

Steve and Nat arrive soon after, battered but relatively okay.

"It's about time," Kate comments, relieved.

Steve sighs.

~_~_~_~_~

When they make it back to the Triskelion, Steve heads straight for Fury's office, and Nat, after handing Kate the flash drive, goes in the other direction. She looks between the two of them, then decides to join the one that's mad at her to try and remedy it. He's never been actually mad at her before, unless she counts the short argument about Tony hacking into SHIELD's files, which she doesn't. It was brief, and he changed his mind quickly.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve says, storming into Fury's office. Kate puts the flash drive on his desk silently.

He already knows what Steve's talking about. "I didn't lie. Dr. Carson and Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share."

"I'm not obliged to do anything."

"Those hostages could've died, Nick."

"Since when are you guys on a first-name basis?" Kate asks, trying to cut through the tension.

Steve closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. "Not the time, Kate."

Fury sighs. "The last time I didn't tell her about what she was doing and why, it didn't go very well. I swore her to secrecy — though I knew if you asked, she'd probably tell. Luckily, you never asked."

"You put the lives of those hostages at risk."

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure they got out alive."

"Soldiers trust each other; that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns — or flames."

"Not a guy," Kate mutters.

"Kate-"

"The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Fury stands. "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything — and I'm leaning Kate into it."

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own."

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."

"Except you."

Fury pauses, sighs. "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that." Kate raises a brow, watching as he walks out, motioning for Steve and Kate to follow. They enter the elevator, and Fury says, "Insight bay."

"Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight," the computer replies.

"Director override: Fury, Nicholas J."

"Confirmed."

"You never shared what the J stands for," Kate points out. Fury only gives her a look, so she sighs and turns back to the elevator doors.

"You know, they used to play music," Steve comments, and Kate glances over to find he's looking at her with a small smile, like it's a sort of peace offering.

"Yeah," Fury says. "My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. And he worked in a nice building, got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say, 'Hi,' people would say hi back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say, 'Hi,' they'd say, 'Keep on steppin'.' Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?"

"Every week some punk would say, 'What's in the bag?'"

"What did he do?"

"He'd show 'em. Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded .22 Magnum." Fury chuckles. "Yeah, Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust 'em very much."

The elevator passes into the basement, and Kate snorts. "Nothing like two old coots reminiscing."

Steve rolls his eyes, while Fury walks over to the window, revealing the three, updated Hellicarriers. They're about twice the size of the old ones, outfitted with everything imaginable.

"Wow," Steve mumbles.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22," Fury says. They step off the elevator. "This is Project Insight. Three next generation Hellicarriers, synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"I got to help design the all labs," Kate adds excitedly.

Steve looks around at them all. "Launching from the Lemurian Star."

"Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines."

"Stark?"

"Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines. These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime."

"We can't afford to wait that long."

"Who's 'we'?"

"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve."

"By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection."

Kate frowns; she'd never really thought of it that way. Fury sighs. "You know, I read those SSR files. 'Greatest generation'? You guys did some nasty stuff."

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so people could be free. This isn't freedom, this is fear."

"SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."

"Don't hold your breath," Steve replies, walking off.

Kate glances at Fury before following. "Steve?"

"Yeah?"

She frowns, not knowing what she wants to say, just knowing she wants the small weight in her chest gone.

He speaks for her. "Would you really have told me if I'd asked?"

"I'm a terrible liar, Steve. I usually don't try."

"I know you have your reasons to trust Fury." Kate nods, thinking on them; she's glad he didn't ask for stories in exchange for his own over the past two years. "I don't blame you for the mission — I don't think I even blame Natasha."

"But... the Helicarriers?" He's upset about them, and now she can see why.

"You said there's labs up there?"

"I helped design them, yeah — sprinklers and all."

He stops walking, forcing Kate to stop with him. "And that's all you thought about, isn't it?"

"Am I that easy to figure out?"

"No," he replies with a chuckle. "But that aspect of you is. It's admirable, in certain cases — but don't let it overcrowd everything."

"I think it's in my nature," she admits, "so I don't know what to tell you."

Steve just sighs, chuckling again as he continues on.

~_~_~_~_~

Kate finds Nat easily, getting ready to leave. She stops, looking at her with a raised brow. "Cap still mad?"

"Not at us, I don't think," Kate replies. "Fury, maybe. A little bit."

"Well, that makes sense. He'll get over it."

"Probably."

"He head out?"

"Said he was going to the Smithsonian."

"You aren't going with?"

Kate shrugs. "I've been about six times this year already, and I figured he wanted to be alone."

Nat hums. "Make sense. You wanna get something to eat?"

"Sure."

After going to eat, they go their separate ways, Kate heading home to relax with a book. It's a smaller apartment, close to the Triskelion. Just enough for Kate, equipped with the necessary precautions. They haven't come in play yet, and she's hoping they never will.

Steve and Sharon live just upstairs, though Steve doesn't know Sharon is... Sharon. Another secret she's keeping from him, hoping he won't ask her.

As it turns dark outside, she lights a lamp and settles down with Northanger Abbey; talking about Jane Austen and her mom made her think of it. She always liked Persuasion best, but her mom wanted to name her Catherine after Catherine Morland. When her dad said they could call her Cate for short, they found they liked it better than Catherine — Kate, with a K.

She sighs, looking at the worn cover of the book. She'd joked before about meeting her own Henry Tilney, but she never thought it would happen. Now she'd much rather have nobody at all. It isn't the nineteenth century, she can survive alone. Financially, for sure. But Catherine certainly couldn't.

Kate opens the book, running her fingers over the name inside the front cover: Mary Davidson. Her mother had wide, neat handwriting. Her father didn't, and neither did Kate, no matter how many handwriting activity books her mother bought for her. Her father said it was because she was a genius, since genius' brains move too fast for their hands to write all their thoughts down properly. Her mother said she may well be a genius, but any genius would do well to have good handwriting.

She sighs, turning the page, skipping the introduction, scanning the "advertisement." Finally, she starts the book.

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine...

She gets about three chapters in before her phone rings. The caller is Jones, and she answers it. "Hey."

"Hey, Kate," he says. "Just calling to check in. It's been a while."

"Sure has."

"I won't ask you how work's been, since I know you can't tell me — but... is there anything you can?"

She chuckles. "Not that I know of."

"Alright, alright," he says. "Oh, by the way, now that I'm thinking about it, Linda and I were just at the house with Kara a week or so ago. It's in good shape of course, but she found some things of yours in the attic and she was wondering if you'd want them. She couldn't get ahold of you."

Kate sighs. "Yeah, I was busy with work. If she doesn't care, she can just leave them in the attic. Maybe I'll look at them if I get back there, but I don't have much room in this apartment to store anything."

"I gotcha. Well-"

His next words are background noise as a gunshot sounds upstairs. Two more follow it.

"Kate?! Are you okay?!"

She jumps out of her chair, running for the door. "I'm fine!"

"Be careful!"

"I'll try!"

She hangs up, jamming her phone into her pocket as she bounds up the stairs, her surroundings a blur. At the end of the hall, Steve's door is open. At the sound of glass breaking, she hurries inside.

"Eaglefoot is in pursuit of the shooter," Sharon's saying, and Kate follows her voice.

A radio crackles. "Status on Redwood?"

"I'm here!" she shouts, rounding the corner. And what she sees strikes her cold for the first time in over five years.

Fury is on the ground, bleeding and losing consciousness.