THE NEXT DAY Lana had gone back to the hospital and she waited for Steve. She figured he would have to come back for the hard drive so she ordered the bubblegum in front of it until it came out.

She popped one into her mouth as she waited. She saw Steve come down the hall in a blue hoodie. As he went to the vending machine she went behind him, popping a bubble. He glared at her, grabbing her arm and pushing her into a room. He slammed her against a pillar and he took down his hood.

"Where is it?"

"Safe."

"Do better."

"Where did you get it?" Lana asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Steve questioned back. The two were standing extremely close and Lana could see the anger in his eyes.

"Fury gave it to you. Why?"

"What's on it?"

"I don't know."

"Stop lying," Steve demanded.

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers," Lana replied. Steve turned to look if someone was coming.

"But you knew Fury hired the pirates didn't you." Lana looked stunned that he knew.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you," Lana replied.

"I'm not gonna ask you again."

Lana hesitated, "I know who killed Fury." Steve released her shoulders, "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 50 years."

"So he's a ghost story," Steve scoffed.

"Five years ago I was still with the Red Room. I had no control whatsoever. Natasha was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. We were sent to kill her. We shot out her tires near Odessa. They lost control went straight over a cliff. She, thankfully, pulled them out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was fighting with Natasha who was trying to protect the guy so he shot him straight through us," she pulled up her shirt and showed him the scar on her abdomen one similar to her sisters, "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."

"Yeah I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve replied. His gaze flickered around her face, landing on her lips before he looked back into her green eyes.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know I tried after I got out," Lana admitted. She took the drive out of her pocket, "As you said, he's a ghost story." He took the drive from her hand and looked at her seriously.

"Well let's find out what the ghost wants," Lana smirked at him and the two left the hospital.

➴

The two passed a fountain in the middle of the mall and Steve looked around Lana spoke, "The first rule of going on the run is don't run, walk."

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off," Steve answered.

They walked into an apple store and Steve looked over her shoulder as she typed on one of the display laptops.

"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D.'ll know exactly where we are." Steve looked around as she said this.

"How much time do will we have?"

"About nine minutes from," She put the drive into the port, "Now. Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something," Steve looked at the computer as a bunch of files popped up, "This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."

"Can you override it?" Steve asked. He was standing quite close to her and she could feel his breath fanning on her neck sending shivers down her spine.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly." She typed quickly, "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malware so if we can't read the file maybe we can find out where it came from."

A man came up to them, "Can I help you guys with anything?"

"Oh, no. My fiance was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations," she put on an American accent and smiled at the man, looking over Steve's shoulder.

"Right. We're getting married," Steve said. Lana looked back at the computer as the man kept talking.

"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?"

The computer beeped as Steve looked at it, "New Jersey."

"Oh," it went quiet and the man looked at him causing him to tense, "I have the exact same glasses."

"Wow, you two are practically twins," Lana spoke dryly as she typed.

The man laughed, "Yeah, I wish," he motioned to Steve, "Specimen. Uh if you guys need anything, I'm Aaron." Lana stifled her laugh.

"Thank you," Steve smiled. As he went away Steve looked at his watch, "You said nine minutes come on."

"Shh. Relax. Got it," she smirked as the computer beeped and zoomed in. Steve looked at it intently, "You know it?"

"I used to. Come on," he took the drive and they walked out, "Standard tac team. Two behind two across," he looked back, "And two coming straight at us. If they make us I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro."

"Shut up and put your arm around me. Laugh at something I said."

"What?"

"Do it," Steve wrapped his arm around her and started fake laughing. They passed them and she smirked at him.

They got onto the escalator and Lana's eyes widened as she caught sight of Rumlow coming up on the other side, she turned around and looked at Steve, "Kiss me."

"What?"

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."

"Yes they do," Steve replied before she took his face in her hands and pressed her lips to him. His arm snaked around her waist as they kissed. When Rumlow passed Lana pulled back, "You can let go of me now."

"Maybe I don't want to," Steve muttered.

Lana weaved out of his grip, "You still uncomfortable?" They walked past people on the escalator.

"Not exactly the word I would use," Steve replied.