[Warning: Mentions of death.]

"I need an ambulance," Sharon's saying into the phone.

Kate crouches down, hand on Fury's shoulder. "Fury?"

"Kate..." he says, voice barely a whisper. She finds his wounds, trying to inspect them, to see what she should do. She's not this kind of doctor, but she'll do her best.

Footsteps sound at the door, but instead of paramedics, it's Steve, breathless. "I lost the shooter."

"Emergency services are on their way. I'm calling Hill," Sharon says, helping Kate help Fury. "You should call Natasha."

Kate ignores the blood on her hands, grabbing her phone, calling Nat, and holding to it her ear with her shoulder — the same as Sharon. Fury's eyes slip closed, but, mercifully, he's still breathing.

"Hey-"

"Foxtrot has been shot."

Nat sucks in a breath. "Where are you?"

"I'm with him, we're at Eaglefoot's. Sparrow called emergency services."

"I'll meet them there. Go."

The ambulance arrives minutes later, EMTs doing what they can before quickly loading Fury onto a stretcher. Kate and Steve jump in the back of the ambulance while Sharon rushes to the Triskelion.

The EMTs' voices start to blur together as the siren blares and their hands move too fast for Kate to concentrate. Steve wraps an arm around her during the short ride, and then they follow the stretcher out.

The hospital smell hits Kate instantly, but she's so frantic she ignores it, running to keep up with the stretcher. Doctors arrive, and the EMTs describe his injuries. When they make it to double doors at the end of the hall, a nurse stops and holds his hand out. "Miss, you need to wait outside."

"No-!" she protests, trying to get past him, but then someone grabs her arms, and the nurse rushes off, following the stretcher. Kate spins around, looking in Steve's pitiful eyes. Maria Hill rushes past, right into where Kate couldn't go, only glancing at them apologetically. Other agents follow her. None of them are Nat.

Within minutes, Fury is in the operating room. They can see him through an observation window, and they stand there, watching and waiting. The stillness of it, the having nothing to do, forces Kate to stop, to not see everything as a frantic, panicked blur. Anxiety sets in, making itself at home with the slow passage of time.

The door to their right opens, and Nat stops on Steve's right. "Is he gonna make it?"

"I don't know."

Kate touches her hands to the cool glass. Blood has dried to her fingers. "Of course he will. It's Fury." He's always alright. Always. He'll come out of this.

"Tell me about the shooter," Nat suddenly says. Kate's eyes are locked, watching the doctors and nurses work, but she takes in nothing, listening to Steve and Nat.

"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm."

Hill walks over, standing on Kate's left. Nat asks, "Ballistics?"

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable," Hill replies.

"Soviet-made."

Hill sounds surprised. "Yeah."

In the operating room, something goes wrong. The beeping intensifies, there's an alarm. "He's in V-tach."

"Crash cart coming in."

The doctor speaks up. "Nurse, help me with the drape."

"BP is dropping."

"Defibrillator! I want you to charge him at one hundred."

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Nat whispers.

Kate blinks back tears. "No, it's okay. He'll pull through. He'll be okay."

"Stand back!" the doctor calls. "Three, two, one. Clear!" They shock him. "Pulse?"

"No pulse."

"No pulse."

"Okay. 200, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear! Give me epinephrine! Pulse?"

"Negative."

Kate gets closer to the glass, willing his eyes to open. Willing him to breathe. "Fury..."

"What's the time?" the doctor asks.

"1:03, Doctor."

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

Kate's heart drops. The world becomes still.

Steve and Hill slowly walk off, leaving Kate and Nat standing there. She goes numb, doesn't know how much time passes as she watches them take out the breathing tube, put a sheet over him. Clean up. Without talking, without thinking, she and Nat walk in there when everyone else is gone.

Hill's footsteps are so soft Kate doesn't know she's there unless she says, "I need to take him."

Kate's hands heat in an instant, already on the verge anyway, all of it brewing underneath the surface. "Take him where?"

"Kate-"

She turns to Hill, tearing her eyes away from Fury. "Take him where?!"

"Kate," Steve says softly, stepping forward.

"Not here, Kate," Nat whispers brokenly. "Not now."

"It is here and now!" she shouts, shaking. "Look at him!" She gestures towards him, her hands erupting in flames, small enough that nothing catches. "Coulson and..." she trails off, tears welling up, trying to breathe. She looks to Steve, wanting answers, wanting to stop feeling like this. "Why does this keep happening to me?"

"I don't know," he says gently. "But right now, I need you calm down, okay? I need you to put those flames out." He steps towards her, getting as close as he can without getting burned. "Okay? Please, Kate..."

Her hands shake, and she looks down at them, sees the flames there, the flaking blood underneath them. He saw potential in them. He saw a use — a good use. He saw a power, not a condition. Kate puts it out.

"There you go," Steve whispers, pulling her into a hug. "There you go. It's okay." Kate slowly hugs him back, needing the comfort, but the feeling is foreign. He rubs her back, swaying a bit for a few moments before he softly says, "Natasha."

There's footsteps, and Nat passes by Kate's field of vision. "Nat," she says, pulling away from Steve and going after her.

Steve isn't far behind. "Natasha!"

She stops, looks at him. "Why was Fury in your apartment?"

"I don't know."

She studies him for a moment before Rumlow walks over. He glances at Kate strangely, then turns to Steve, eyeing the tear stains on his shirt. "Cap, they want you back at SHIELD."

"Yeah, give me a second."

"They want you now."

"Okay."

Nat scoffs. "You're just like Kate."

She turns and walks off as Steve asks, "What?"

"You're a terrible liar."

Kate turns to him, wondering. Does he know something he's not saying? Why would he lie? Why would he comfort her, then turn around and lie? "Steve..."

"I'm sorry, Kate," he says. She shakes her head, then follows Nat. But her steps slow, that beeping noise entering her ears. Mixing with her grief. It's everywhere, slow and mechanical.

~_~_~_~_~

The beeping that seemed to permeate through the whole hospital served as a background to the nothingness in her head, the pain in her heart. It was a broken thing, with all that it had in a little bundle at its back as it wandered and wandered and couldn't find anywhere to go. It ached all over.

She cried silently, sitting there, leaning on the side of the bed, her forehead resting on the backs of her hands. She didn't want to touch him, since he felt so cold. It wasn't right. None of it was.

Everything just seemed to fall apart. Life as she knew it changed. It was familiar, and yet it wasn't. She didn't know who to look to. She knew she should, but she was angry and lost.

"Kate," Ryan's breathless voice rang out from the doorway.

She looked up slowly, saw him glance at the figure on the bed, covered by a sheet. He looked back to her, and she could see his heart breaking. His eyes were glassy, but he took her in his arms, and she collapsed into him, beginning to sob.

He rubbed her back, holding her tightly. "I'm sorry," he said. "I-I tried to get here sooner, but work and I just... I'm so sorry, Kate."

She hugged him tighter, willing him to make it all okay, but it wasn't as though as he could bring her father back. No one could.

She'd prayed for it as she watched the nurses and the doctor trying to revive him, prayed as that piercing, flat-line sound rang out, prayed as they called the time of death and covered him with a sheet. But He didn't answer. Or, at least, He said no.

"It'll be okay," Ryan whispered, and Kate wanted to believe it, but she couldn't believe in much of anything right then. Only that her life would never be the same.

"I just ran home to get him a book," she said, her voice broken and small. "I was barely gone for half an hour, and I came back and-and-" She couldn't say it, and Ryan knew anyway, so she stopped and took a moment to try to calm down enough to speak, but it was a losing battle. "He-He was all I had," she managed.

"I know," Ryan replied softly. "I know. And... I know it's not the same, but you've got me, too. Whatever you need, Kate, I'm here." He pulled back to look in her eyes, to make sure she knew. "I'll always be here for you. I promise."

She hugged him again, her heart finding its new home.

~_~_~_~_~

"Kate," Nat says, calling her back.

Kate jogs to catch up to her. "Where are you going?"

"To find answers."

"How are you gonna do that without asking Steve?"

Nat shrugs. "I've got some intel of my own. And I'm getting to the bottom of this."

"Okay. I'm with you."

"I knew you would be." They continue walking until they find a bathroom, so Kate ducks in to finally wash her hands. The last piece of Fury she has goes down the drain, but she knows she can't keep it there. Most of it already burned away, anyway. She swallows the lump in her throat as they circle back to the hall they left Steve in. He's gone now. Nat stops in front of the vending machine, sighs, whispers, "I think I know who killed Fury. I'm almost certain."

"How?"

"I've met him before. With Steve's description, the ballistics..."

"Who was it?"

Nat's voice drops even lower. "The Winter Soldier."

"The guy from Odessa?"

"That's the one."

Kate met Nat not long after she got back from that mission. She didn't want anything to do with Nat or Clint, but Fury basically assigned them to be her friends. When he couldn't oversee her treatments personally, Coulson did, and Nat and Clint were there to help her move things, even eat.

For the first week or so, in the SHIELD cafeteria in New York, they took turns actually feeding her, neither of them saying a word about it — not even Clint. She hated it, did her best to do it herself as soon as possible. With all the innovation, all the new treatments Fury had them use, she was able to have some success relatively quickly. The scars never went away, though, and Kate hated those, too. So Nat showed her the scar from the bullet wound the Winter Soldier gave her.

Kate snorts. "Well, I'm sure he and I would get along real well. I'd honestly like to meet him." First Loki, now this clown. She'll take him down, too. And she might not hold back this time.

"I'd rather you didn't. He's... He's not like Loki. He's different. Ruthless. Almost untouchable, and impossible to track."

Kate sighs. "Well, if he can shoot you, he must be trouble. But I think my rage might win out. Even if it doesn't, I'm not sure I care." She turns to the side, thinking of burning the Winter Soldier to a crisp. But a glint in the vending machine catches her eye. "Nat, does that pack of gum look familiar to you?"

Nat looks inside. "Yeah. Yeah, Kate, it does."

"The door was open, earlier. Steve was standing right here."

"And Fury was in his apartment."

Kate sighs. "Seriously? Of all the places... You got any quarters?"

"What, you can't melt this thing so we can get to it?"

Kate rolls her eyes, digging in her pockets. "That's a crime, Nat."

"And when has that stopped you before?"

"It's a public crime. We're Avengers. We have an image to uphold."

"Oh, whatever."

Kate shoves some quarters in, presses the buttons. Nat shakes the machine as the gum falls down, knocking two sticks off. She glances around for a maintenance man or something, to no luck. "Nice one. Two more to go."

Nat scares up enough quarters for one, shaking the machine again. The trick doesn't work that time, so Kate has to buy another, and they shake it again. This time, the drive falls out. Nat grabs it.

"And now we wait for Steve to come back and get it?" Kate asks, moving with Nat to a nearby room.

"Yep."

Kate sighs again, opening a pack of gum and holding it out to her. "Want a piece?"

They wait for nearly an hour, chewing two sticks of gum each and calling Clint before Steve shows back up wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. He goes to the vending machine, and Nat waits just long enough for him to get panicked before she walks out, Kate behind her. She blows a bubble, pops it.

To Kate's surprise, Steve turns around, grabbing Nat by the arms and shoving her back through the door behind her until she hits the wall, forcing Kate out of the way. She readies her hands on instinct.

"Where is it?" he demands.

"Safe," Nat replies.

"Do better."

"Where did you get it?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"Fury gave it to you," Kate pipes up. "Why?"

Steve doesn't even look at her. "What's on it?"

"I don't know," Nat replies.

"Stop lying!"

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

"I didn't know either," Kate supplies. "Believe me, I asked."

Steve finally glances at her, but turns back to Nat again. "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"

Kate pauses. He did what? Clearly, Nat didn't know either; she hesitates. "Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."

"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve says angrily. Kate shifts, not used to seeing him like this.

"I know who killed Fury," Nat replies. Steve lets her go, calms a bit while Nat continues. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists — 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."

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, 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 lifts her shirt, revealing the scar above her hip. "Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve replies. Nat smiles a bit, getting close to a smirk. Kate raises a brow, fights off the uncomfortableness in her chest.

"Going after him is a dead end," Nat continues. "I know, I've tried." She holds up the flash drive. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Steve takes the drive. "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."