Victoria

I parked the car a few blocks away from my apartment and walked down the streets of Washington until I stood in front of the building I live in. It's a bummer this building doesn't have its own parking lot, it has space only for bikes and motorbikes, so everyone with a car has to find a spot on the street and beg for their car or its parts not to be stolen overnight.

Across the street front me, was the apartment building, on the eighth floor to the left, was my window. The lights turning on in seconds. I watched Sharon get in and move towards the bedroom. Sometime after that, she walked back to the living room, turned off the lights and left. Few minutes later, the lights on the fifth floor turned on and she walked into her undercover apartment.

I walked into the apartment building as I heard a motorbike approaching. I got to Sharon's undercover apartment quickly and knocked on the door as I heard Kitty Allen's record playing from Steve's apartment, which was odd because he wasn't inside and God knows that man turns everything off before heading out.

Sharon opened the door with surprise and looked at the watch attached to her right wrist, part of her character was to pretend to be left handed, as she smiled. "12:37. You're early." I smiled and walked in as I let my hair down and shaking it with my hand.

"Thank God."

"How'd it go today? I heard it almost blew between you and Rogers." I sighed and waked up to the wine that was poured into two glasses on the kitchen bar.

"Yeah, well, Steve and I are sort of angry at each other at the moment. There was a...slip during our mission." She gave me a tight and empathic smile because she knew how much I care about Steve, the way I feel about him. "The highlight of it was that I punched Rumlow's face." Sharon's face lit up.

"Did you really?" I nodded and she gasped. "How did that feel?"

"I cannot describe with words how good it felt." She chuckled as I took a sip of the wine. It was quite tasty, even if I'm not white wine's biggest fan. "I think...'godly' would be the right one." We chuckled together.

"I just got your dirty laundry. I'll get the load I have downstairs out and get yours in." She walked towards the door.

"Thanks, you didn't have to." She shrugged.

"And I made dinner, by the way." Sharon pointed at the boxes of take-out on the coffee table of the living room that were waiting for us.

"By 'made dinner' you mean you ordered dinner."

"It's here anyway, isn't it?" She opened the door once I was sitting on the couch near the window, I smiled at her. "Mine's the one open." I opened the box that was closed, which revealed pasta al pesto.

"Italian? You ordered Italian and you're doing my laundry because you know I had a shitty day? Have I told you that I love you?" She chuckled.

"Not often, but I know it." I smiled at her, the feeling of guilt for not saying those three words often at the people that I do love a lot flooding me.

"I really do love you." She tilted her head with a sweet smile.

"I know."

"You're so sweet."

"I know, I'm the sweetest."

"Thank you." She chuckled.

"You're welcome." The door closed. "Hi." She greeted someone, certainly Rogers. "Wait for me and don't eat my food or I'll kill you, April!" She called me by a random name, which meant Steve was definitely standing on the hallway. "My sister's here for dinner, just got back from work and...well, siblings." Steve chuckled. I stood from the couch and made my way towards the door to eavesdrop them, making sure my feet's shadows couldn't be seen from underneath the door. Was it wrong? A little. Was I gonna do it anyway? Absolutely.

"Hey, if you want...if you want, you're welcome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement." Said Steve.

"Oh, yeah? What's it cost?"

"Uh...going out for dinner some day?" I scoffed. So much for not being into blondes, Rogers. Sharon chuckled and sighed.

"Thank you, but I'm already seeing someone. Plus, I've got a load in downstairs and you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I just finished a rotation in the infectious disease ward, so..." Steve chuckled.

"Well, I'll keep my distance." Sharon chuckled with him.

"See you around, neighbour. Oh, and I think you left your stereo on."

"Oh. Right. Thank you." I could hear the confusion in Steve's voice as well as the sound of footsteps walking away and went back to the couch, stopping before sitting down as the song 'It's Been a Long, Long Time' began to play loudly from Steve's apartment, causing me to look at the closed door behind me over my shoulder. I sighed and sat down, the memory of a Saturday night spent in his apartment started playing in my head.

"Those are the songs you used to dance to?" I asked him as I watched Steve open a bottle of red wine.

"Yeah, although...not those." I chuckled.

"I know. That album's from '45, you didn't dance to those songs, per se. But that style of music, I mean." He chuckled, too.

"Then, yes. I sort of danced to those songs."

"Sort of?"

"I never danced with anyone who wasn't my mother. And I only danced with her as a child, stepping on her shoes." I smiled at Steve as he poured two glasses, then he walked back to the couch where I was sitting.

"That sounds lovely."

"Yeah...it was." He offered me a glass, I took it and Steve sat beside me as he shrugged. "Growing up, no one wanted to dance with me until I became big guy me. Little old me was not the kind of partner girls wanted to dance with, specially because I used to be as tall as them. They didn't want to dance with someone they could step on."

"That's ridiculous."

"Why?"

"Well, you got your serum boosted muscles later, but that serum didn't change your bone structure." He laughed. "I mean, I bet you've always had that pretty face and those pretty eyes of yours, Rogers."

"You think my face and eyes are pretty?" He batted his uneven eyelashes, making me giggle as I felt my cheeks turning red, and the two bottles of wine we had already drank had nothing to do with it. "You blushed."

"Hm. I know." He smiled.

"So you do think so." He assured as I ran my hand through his hair.

"Those girls should've danced with you no matter how tall you were or because of how big your biceps were." I took a sip of my wine as he smiled at me, chuckling.

"Would you have danced with me?" He took a sip of his wine as I stared at him, bringing my hand towards me and resting the side of my head on my palm. He raised his eyebrows, eager for an answer. I chuckled and took another sip as I pictured myself living in the past, in a ballroom with a nice dress and a nice up-do holding my hair in place as I slow danced with Steve to this song. Suddenly, I felt my cheeks turning red once more. Obviously, he picked up on that and chuckled. "Should I take that as a yes?" I chuckled, too.

"Yes. I would've danced with you." He drank from his wine and nodded his head, his lopsided smile adorning his face. "Jeez, you're so annoying." Steve laughed, then we submerged ourselves in silence again and drank up from our glasses.

"And now?" I smiled.

"Now...you'll have to ask me to dance and find out."

"Even if I don't know how?" I nodded with a smile, my hand caressing the back of his neck, playing with his blonde locks again. Steve closed his eyes as if that could intensify the feeling of my touch.

"I could teach you." Steve's eyes opened slowly before he left his glass on the table, took mine from my hand and placed it next to his before standing up and pushing the table to make room for us to dance in the living room, making me laugh.

Then, he offered a hand with a smile. I chuckled and stood up, holding his hand. I held his left hand and placed it on my waist before my right hand found his shoulder. He than laced our fingers together and we began to slow dance in the living room, rocking from one side to another, slowly tracing a circle on the rug with our bare feet. "See? It's no rocket science." Steve smiled and pulled me even closer to him, my hand climbed from his shoulder to the back of his neck while his hand remained on the small of my back. "You're good at this." He chuckled.

"I didn't know you were good at dancing."

"I used to dance a lot when I was younger."

"Really?" I nodded.

"I did ballet as a kid until I was fifteen. I'm not too fond of it, really."

"Dancing?" I nodded. "Why?" I took a deep breath.

"They were very...strict in the academy I used to go to. They believed ballet was a discipline to make us stronger, unbreakable. We'd make the same routines over and over and over again. Naturally, I resent dancing."

"Do you want to stop?"

"No. It feels right to dance now."

"Why?"

"Because I'm dancing with you."

The door opened and snapped me out of my thoughts as Sharon walked inside. "You never told me he was that tall and handsome." She said as she sat beside me. I barely chuckled.

"Yeah." I shrugged. "He asked you out, huh?"

"Yeah, but I know you guys used to be a thing, so I'm not going out with him."

"We weren't what you call a thing."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we didn't even make it out of the talking stage and we had been in that stage for over a year, so I called it quits. That song was playing, actually."

"What happened?"

"We were dancing and I told him it was nice to dance with him. A second later, he brought Peggy into the conversation and started to say how she was the one he'd like to dance with, how much I reminded him of her, how she was the one he used to think about as 'the right partner' back in the day, and I had enough. It was one entire year of going out on dates and have him compare me to Peggy in some way. A whole year of dancing with our hands tied behind our backs. And, I get it, you know? His life restarted just two years ago, but in that inter, seventy years went by. I get that he won't move on from Peggy easily, but it wasn't fair for me." She nodded, understanding.

"When did this happen?"

"Eight months ago."

"Eight months ago...didn't you spend three months in Rome together undercover five months ago?" I breathed in and nodded as I exhaled. Rome was...tough. Living in a confined space and being undercover forced us to live in an intimate atmosphere that made it impossible for me to get over him.

"I've been trying to get him out to the world as I try to forget about what I might feel towards him."

"Might feel or actually feel?" I remained silent, which was enough answer. "Ah. And how's that going?"

"Well, I haven't been able to forget anything because I see his pretty face almost every single day," she chuckled. "and he hasn't asked out any girl I tell him to ask out. Until now." She frowned, confused as she chuckled.

"He doesn't go out with them because he's probably into you."

"Then he should show it."

"I agree with you on that." A pause in which Sharon seemed to think about what I had just told her. "Telling him to go on dates is your way to get him out to the world?" I blinked and took a mouthful of my wine as she chuckled. "That's the stupidest shit I've heard today." We laughed.

  That's when we heard the echo of a bullet being fired at Steve's apartment. We stood up quickly as another two gunshots reached our ears. We ran out of the apartment, drawing out our guns and stood on each side of the door. When Sharon nodded at me, I kicked the door open and we aimed at the insides as we busted in. "Captain Rogers?" She asked, concearned. I signalled her with my hand to head towards the kitchen while I checked the bedroom and bathroom.

"Kate?"

"Kitchen clear!" She informed me. "Captain, I'm Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Service. I'm assigned to protect you."

"On whose order?"

"His."

"Room and bathroom are clear." I said as I walked towards them, keeping my aim on the living room window and spotting a shimmer in the distance. I looked at the bookshelf and spotted a bullet that had gotten stuck to it. I pulled it out and kept it in my pocket after recognising it. I pushed Steve against the wall, covering him with my body, he placed the shield he had in hand up and covered our flank.

"Tori?" I looked at Steve over my shoulder and looked at the kitchen window, keeping an eye out for the shooter.

"Stay near the wall." His eyebrows furrowed. "It's an order and I do not care if you're the Captain." He nodded. "I think I saw something outside of your living room window." I said to him, my aim locked on the window of the kitchen. "What do we have?" I asked. Sharon dropped her gun as she bent down beside the guy that was on the ground. It was Fury. "Oh, my God." I whispered as Sharon pulled out of the pocket of her nurse uniform a radio, my hold on the gun and tension in my arms going loose.

"Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs." She dropped the radio and began making compressions on Fury's chest. Steve patted my arm and pointed at the living room window. The shimmer I had seen was actually a man wearing what seemed to be some sort of silver attire standing on the opposite rooftop.

"Do we have a 20 on the shooter?" Asked the agent from dispatch over the radio. We watched the guy running away, our eyes met and we agreed, silently.

"Tell them we're in pursuit." Steve told Sharon as my arm found his shoulders and I kept the gun in the holster around my thigh, his arm around my waist as he began to run. I placed my legs up at the height of his hips as he jumped through the window, breaking the glass with the shield. Then we went through the opposite building's window, too.

He rolled us over the ground and we stood up just to run down the hallways of the building. There were only offices and conference rooms, Steve and I ran at maximum speed and he jumped through windows and doors, breaking them open for us to run through, our momentum was too much we had to jump past desks and slide down from them, even jumped and supported ourselves with the walls in order to avoid crashing against a wall at the corners.

  At some point, we ran underneath a skylight that replaced the building's ceiling, through it we saw the man running down the rooftop and pressed the run. Running with him in the mornings has payed off, he's just a few steps faster than me.

We turned right when we saw a wall in front of us and at the end of the hallway, we spotted a window. On the other side, we watched the man jumping down from the roof just to land on the opposite building's rooftop. Steve's hand reached out for mine, I grabbed it and he pulled me towards him. My arm found his shoulders again as he held my waist before he jumped us through the window again.

The second we landed, I took the gun from the holster and fired the at the guy. I hit his leg as he ran to the opposite side of the roof, he stopped and turned around to fire back. I felt a sting on the left side of my abdomen when Steve threw the shield at him.

The guy stopped the shield with his left arm, which was metallic and I saw a red star on it. I recognised one of the ghosts of my past and began to shoot him again. He placed the shield up to block the bullets before throwing it back at me, but Steve placed himself in front of me and stopped the shield with his own hands before it could cut me in half. Steve was pushed back due to the momentum, my body against his back. When I looked over Steve's shoulder, the guy was gone.

We ran to the edge of the roof but there was no sight of him. He just vanished, like thin air. I looked at the ground as I pulled a small flashlight from my belt and looked for any trace of blood, but there was nothing. I knew I had shot him and the bullet had hit his leg, but there was no blood on the ground. I kept the flashlight and the gun in the holster.

"We have to go back." I said. Steve nodded and we ran down the fire escape of the building just to run all the way back to my car. As we got in, I got a text from Sharon. "What does it say?" I asked Steve as I gave him the phone and started the car.

"MedStar Hospital. He's undergoing surgery." I nodded and drove all the way to the hospital. When we arrived, we spotted plenty of police cars, as well as black trucks with armoured glass and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s logo on the doors closing down the street. I left the car in the middle of the road, leaving the keys in, knowing no agent was going to steal it and we ran into the hospital. "OR 4." We pressed the run and got to the observing room of the OR. Steve handed back the phone as we watched through the glass how the Doctor performed the surgery on Fury. The door opened and Hill walked in.

"Is he gonna make it?" She asked us as we panted, recovering our breaths.

"We don't know. We just got here." Answered Steve as my eyes were glued to Nick, he was unconscious on the table.

"Tell me about the shooter."

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

"Ballistics?" I pulled the bullet out of my pocket and gave it to her.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable." Maria took the bullet from my hand. "Soviet-made." I saw how she looked at me from the corner of my eye, her eyebrows furrowed with surprise at the knowledge I have of the bullet.

"How do you-"

"He's in V-tach." Said a nurse as everyone moved from one side to another in the OR, calling our attention, soon Hill's unasked question didn't matter to neither of us. "Crash cart coming in." The adrenaline began to wash off my body even if my heartbeat began to go up, my hands finding the edge of the glass. The side of my hand brushing Steve's.

"Nurse, help me with the drape." The Doctor asked a man.

"BP's dropping."

"Defibrillator! I want you to charge him at 100."

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me." I said under my breath.

"Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear!" The electric shock went through Nick's body, I flinched, my muscles tensing. He didn't respond. "Pulse?"

"No pulse."

"No. Not you, too. Please." I whispered. Steve placed his hand over mine.

"Okay. 200, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!" I flinched again. Nothing. "Get me epinephrine! Pulse?"

"Negative." I held my breath to keep my tears away. Everyone stopped moving in the OR, their shoulders falling down in defeat.

I exhaled the breath I was holding as I thought about hitting the glass, demand them to continue because there were people that came back after eight or ten minutes and, if someone could pull a stunt like that, it would be Nick Fury. Yet, I did nothing. I felt as if someone had dropped a bucket of cold water over my head, the sudden feeling of my blood going cold tensed me up. I felt a sharp pain on one side of my abdomen again.

"What's the time?"

"1:03, Doctor." A short pause.

"Time of death, 1:03 a.m." The Doctor called it as he took off his gloves. I turned around and walked out of the room, slipping my hand away from Steve's.

I tried to avoid myself from crying as I breathed in and out fast. The memory my body kept from when Phil was killed, the trauma of witnessing that, the scent of blood, everything came back, my body ached, it felt tense, I felt myself shaking.

"Victoria." Steve called as I walked down the hall to get away from the OR, my hand over my lower belly. When I felt the fabric of my shirt wet and sticky, I frowned, confused. "Tori." I stopped as I looked down at my palm, it was bloody. I turned around and my eyes met Steve's.

He held my gaze before looking down at my hand as I felt myself falling down, soon, his face reflected a fear I hadn't seen in it before. His eyes opened wide, his mouth fell open and he seemed paler. "Victoria!" He rushed to me the second I started tilting backwards as I suddenly found it hard to breathe, Steve held me before I could hit the ground. "I need help here!" His hand made pressure on my abdomen, hard, sending a sting of pain over my torso and making me grunt as I heard a bunch of people rushing towards us. "Bullet wound." He informed a nurse, suddenly, the world started to blur as my eyelids felt heavy. "No, no, Vic. Open those eyes." I felt his palm on my hand. "Victoria, open your eyes." I opened my eyes when I felt his hand on my forehead, then my cheek, it took a second for me to adjust my sight and see clearly. "There we go. Keep looking at me. Please."

"Steve?" I whispered as my hand gripped his wrist very tightly. I was frightened, more scared than I've ever felt before.

"I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." He picked me up from the ground and placed me on a stretcher. I held his hand even tighter as the stretcher began to move, over Steve's head I saw the lights on the ceiling rushing backwards. "Everything will be alright, okay? Breathe." His hand stroke my hair as tears formed in his eyes and my own tears rolled down my temple into my ears. "You're fine. You'll be fine." I could hear genuine fear in his voice. His eyes were frightened as he tried to be as calm as possible, trying to calm me down.

"I'm scared." He looked at me, his jaw clenching. "I don't wanna die." He shook his head. "I don't wanna die. Not yet. I don't wanna-"

"Hey, hey, stop. That won't happen, you hear me? You're not dying tonight, Victoria. That won't happen. You'll be just fine."

"Sir, we need you to step aside." Someone told him and placed their hands on Steve's chest, halting him when he ignored them and kept on walking beside me.

"I'll be right here!" He yelled at me as the doors of a room opened loudly and Steve's hand was snatched from mine when he was stopped by the door and it closed, leaving him on the other side. I looked at the mirror in the room knowing he was on the other side as someone placed a mask over my nose and soon everything blurred out into darkness.

Eventually, I began to see those who haunt me. The faces of people I have killed, the ones I couldn't save, friends...family. I saw my mother on the ground, blood crawling out of her mouth, choking with her own blood to death after she was shot to the chest, she asked me to run and I did. When I turned around, I saw my dad with a bullet in his head that I placed there, the weight of a gun suddenly present in my right hand.

  I looked away towards the left and saw Phil, stabbed through the heart and bleeding out against a wall. I looked right, and there was Nick with three bullets on his chest on Steve's floor, his blood staining the wood. My breath was agitated as I looked down at my feet, not bearing the sight. I felt scared, everything was blurry. I looked up again and saw a mirror, myself reflected in it, behind me, the man with the metal arm. I turned around and he took the gun from my hand just to fire it at my head.

  Everything faded to black again and I felt as if I was being held underwater. I opened my eyes and saw nothing, just pitch black emptiness. I closed my eyes again. I couldn't breathe. And it was cold. I felt time stopping abruptly and I opened my eyes once again, not finding darkness, instead a beautiful and mesmerisingly white landscape and it all came back to my head. That moment from when I was four.

I didn't remember it in detail, but all of the sudden I could see it, I was there to watch it happen. I was standing there, in the middle of the snow and I was watching that once happy family, the Williams. Henry and Marie, they were also known as Nikolai and Valerie. They had their daughter with them, I know her by the name of Victoria. All three of them holding hands.

Mom, Dad and I had gone to this beautiful caping site in late December for the holidays, all the way out in Goodrich at Forest of Dean. They were walking near a frozen lake. Young Vicky wanted to play near the lake, build a snowman right on the ice. Her Mom had Dad checked if it was safe and said it was definitely frozen, that it would be alright. Mom was still uncertain, though. I remember her eyes perfectly, so Dad went over with me to build the snowman.

The two of them were not far from the lake's shore, where Mom was, where I'm standing right beside her, but we weren't near either. I looked at my mother with teary eyes. She looked at me and tilted her head with a smile. "Mommy!" I said at the same time little Victoria called, we turned around just to find a halfway built snowman. My father stood up and locked eyes with me.

"Don't run, honey." He called as he looked at me dead in the eye.

"Dad." I whispered, missing him. I felt my heart growing small, my throat tightening up with a knot forming in it.

Mom and I started waking towards the little girl that had stopped running and was walking slowly. Few steps in, that little girl started picking up her pace. She was smiling, giggling melodically. Then she looked at me and halted herself, her smile dropping. And it hit me. "No!" I said the second the ice broke and she fell into the water.

It felt as if I, the older version of that girl, had fallen into the frigid water, my skin being stung everywhere by icy needles. "Victoria!" My parents screamed in unison before they started running towards the hole in the ice, same as me. I got to the hole faster and I jumped in without any second thought.

The water was colder than I remembered. It was darker than I remembered. I could feel that girl's pain, because it was my own. And I could hear her screaming underwater, something I didn't remember at all. I swam towards her as she was sinking and held the collar of her shirt. I pulled her towards me and swam back up with a certain struggle, the freezing cold sensation was making my body go rigid and stop responding to what I was commanding it to do.

The instinct to breathe was overwhelming, it caused me to inhale water before I could get us out of the ice. When I pulled ourselves out of the water, I started to cough uncontrollably as I felt a sharp pain in my nose and head. The air was colder than ever before. That was the real pain. And the light, everything was too bright all of the sudden.

"Do something! Please!" My father called as his hands were shaking, my entire body trembling as I began to feel something making pressure on my chest. Everything started to blur out into bright white, except for that girl on the ice, her hair freezing up, her face pale, her lips blue. I held her face, gently as I blinked, the light still too bright it hurt my eyes, and I still felt like I couldn't catch a single bit of air, I felt as if my head was about to explode.

"Wake up." I said as I could, my voice shaken. Speaking felt hard, I could barely move my lips and my voice had come out in a whisper. "Wake up." I looked at her eyes closed, feeling my heartbeat rising as my ears rang. I had the urge to scream to ease the pressure in my head. "Wake up!" I heard the voices of all the people I had just seen echoing those words and Victoria's eyes snapped open as the light flooded the memory.

I gasped, taking in a mouthful of air, as my eyes snapped open, my sight blurry. I gripped my hand tightly around something I was holding and blinked, feeling my eyelids heavy as I looked around. My breath increased when I didn't really recognised where I was, as well as my heartbeat when I felt something over my face, a mask. Then I felt pain on my abdomen and my arm. I groaned as I tried to free myself from there, hyperventilating out of the blue.

  "Hey, hey." I heard a faint whisper to my right, then a hand with a familiar warmth over my own hand when I tried to rip the mask off my face. "Victoria," Steve called as he placed his hand on my cheek, away from my hand. "it's okay. It's okay." I calmed down.

"Steve?" I asked with a raspy voice, tired. I felt my throat sore and dry.

"I'm right here." When his hand fell back over mine, my breath regulated, as well as the heartbeat that I could hear through the hospital's monitors. The beeps were extremely loud and they hurt my ear, but they didn't seem to bother Steve at all. "You're okay." I felt my mouth dry as he stroke my hair. "It's okay. You're safe."

"I want to take it off. I feel like I can't breathe."

"Okay, okay." He let go of me to remove the mask slowly. I took another deep breath as I closed my eyes and exhaled. "Better?"

"Mhm." I opened them and looked at him. "You are here." I said with surprise.

"Told you I wasn't going anywhere."

"But you hate hospitals." He chuckled, faintly.

"Well, I wasn't goin' to leave my best girl so that she woke up all alone. No matter how much I might hate this place." I smiled, weakly.

"I...what happened?" I saw the IV connected to my arm, as well as the monitors, and the dark room, only illuminated by the white hospital light —which was too bright as well— above the bed because the blinds were closed. I could see sunlight around the edges of the window, though. It was the next morning.

"You don't remember?"

"Fragments." I breathed in and out, trying to remember everything, which made my head ache. "Fury bleeding out on your kitchen floor, how we chased someone down, us getting to the hospital...then the lights moving above you, and a very weird, twisted dream." He nodded, acknowledging I didn't want to share what I had seen.

"The guy who shot Fury shot you too when we chased him. You collapsed and had to undergo an emergency surgery because the bullet didn't go through you and you were bleeding out."

"Oh." I blinked a few times and groaned when I tried to accommodate myself on the bed. Steve clicked the button that would move the bed upwards for me to reach a sitting position. "Thank you." He nodded, his eyes struggling to meet mine. "What else happened?" His eyebrows knitted together with worry as he blinked and pursed his lips together. "There's something you're not telling me." He sighed. "What is it?"

"You...crashed during the surgery." I gulped, the beep of my heartbeat loud and fast, my hand squeezing his. "They had to bring you back once." I could hear the lump in his throat. "From that moment on, everything went by smoothly, though. That's why it took a while for you to wake up from the anaesthesia."

"Oh." I said again. We remained silent for a while, neither of us knowing what else to say. I sighed. "I think I already knew that."

"How?"

"When I was a kid, I fell through the ice once. I didn't know how to swim and I was so scared, so desperate to get out...I screamed and the water got into my mouth." A beat. "I almost drowned. And all I could see was darkness until it blurred away into brightness. Everything was so bright my eyes hurt. Then I woke up in a hospital, just like now. Turns out I died at the scene, but my mom brought me back. Then I died again in the ambulance but the paramedics brought me back. Or so the story goes."

"My, God, Vic."

"Yeah. I didn't remember that moment so vividly, it happened when I was so young...and your brain has a way of blocking out bad memories." I gulped. "When I was asleep...I saw many things, including that brightness. I just assumed..." He nodded. "Anyways," A pause spent in silence. "I feel as if I was hit by a truck." I eventually added to defuse the tension with humour. Steve smiled softly at me, his thumb caressing my knuckles. "Is there any water? Or apple juice?" He chuckled as I looked around.

"I can get it for you. Be right back." I nodded and breathed out as my eyes closed again. I heard the door opening and closing, about five minutes later, the door opened and closed again. "Tori?" Steve's hand caressed my hair again, gently. And I loved that sensation. It felt natural, like it was meant to be.

"Hmm?"

"They didn't have apple juice, so I brought mango, is that alright?" I felt myself smiling.

"It's even better." He chuckled softly as I opened my eyes. Steve handed to me a small juice box, which was more than enough to make me feel more awake, the straw already in it. "Thank you." He nodded and smiled as I took a few sips of the juice. The whole time, his piercing blue gaze was pinned on me and I saw how those oceanic blue eyes welled up in tears, his face being tinted with a red flush. I frowned and stopped slurping my mango juice, leaving it on the bedside table, as he looked away, trying to compose himself. "What is it?" Steve breathed in and out. He shook his head, then my hand landed on his shoulder, my index brushing his cheek. He faced me again. "It's okay. Tell me."

"You really scared me." He gulped. "I thought...just for a split second that I...had lost you. I felt my blood rushing to my feet, dizzy, I felt my heart stopping. It was definitely the most terrifying moment of my life." I felt a lump in my throat and tears itching my eyes as well.

"Steve..."

"Crashing that ship into the ice was scary, but not as terrifying as the thought of a gravestone with your name on it."

"I'm sorry."

"No, no. You should not be sorry. I'm the one should be sorry. I'm the one who's sorry, Victoria." I felt my eyebrows furrowing, questioning him. "I wasn't fast enough to shield you, and that's what I do, Vic. I shield you and I couldn't- I didn't see it. Everything happened so goddamn fast and I..." I placed my hand on his cheek, he leaned onto my palm, his eyes closing as his hand fell over mine on his face, the coldness of his teardrops on my skin as I brushed them away with my thumb.

"Hey, hey. It wasn't your fault. Steve? Look at me, please." He opened his eyes and looked into mine. "Don't blame yourself. Please. It wasn't your fault, but that guy's, okay?" He nodded as he breathed in, his breath shaky. "It's okay. Come here." I added after a pause, Steve stood from the chair to sit on the bed, I noticed his clothes were stained with blood, my blood. I extended my arm and he bent down, his head on my chest. I felt a sting of pain on my skin, it itched and burned a little, I assumed it's the mark of the defibrillators. "It's okay." I felt him holding my arm with his hand as I ran my fingers through his hair. "I'm okay." He nodded.

"I know. I'm glad you are." I smiled.

"You better." I felt his smile against my skin.

"Could we not talk for a moment?"

"Why? You don't wanna have a conversation with me?" He chuckled, the vibrations of his laughter echoing in my ribcage.

"As much as I love our lately-very-rare conversations, I'd like to listen to your heartbeat for a moment." I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything. We stayed like that, in complete silence if it weren't for the rapid beep of my heartbeat in the monitors, for about five minutes until he sat up again.

"How long was I out?"

"The whole night." I tried to sit up straight, but he pushed me back down, gently, shaking his head. "No. You have to rest, sit still."

"But-"

"That's an order, Carter. And it's not even mine, it's the Doctor's, he suggested you rest up for a while, stay here for a while. I'd like you to follow it."

"Don't boss me around like that. Not now. Where's Nick? They- have they taken him?" He sighed and nodded.

"Hill took him a couple hours ago. I told her to wait so you could say goodbye to him, but she insisted it was urgent and couldn't wait for you to wake up." My head fell onto the pillow as I bit my lip in order to suppress a whimper. I covered my mouth as I cried, tears rolling down my cheeks as Steve squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry." I took a deep breath as I wiped the tears away and looked at him in the eye, he placed our hands on his lap, his eyes fixed on our intertwined fingers as his thumb caressed my knuckles.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" He blinked at the sudden question and sighed again, faking not knowing.

"I don't know." The door of the hospital was swung open by Rumlow, his eyes fixed on our hands. Steve looked at him and held my hand even tighter, but without hurting me. "Give us a minute." Steve ordered, his voice raspy and low, his tone territorial.

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

"Yeah. And I said give me a minute." Steve said coldly and turned his sight back to me, trying to ignore the existence of S.T.R.I.K.E.'s agent.

"They want you now." Rumlow replied with the same coldness in his voice. Steve sighed, annoyed, and turned back to Rumlow.

"In. A. Minute. Now, please get out." The agent walked out, leaving the door open and I noticed two S.T.R.I.K.E. operatives were guarding my door. Steve looked back at me and I just shook my head.

"You're a terrible liar, Rogers." I said before he could say anything.

"I know, you remind me often."

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" I asked again, whispering for only him to hear.

"I have to go." He added as he stood up and let go of me before he walked towards the door. Before he left, Steve suddenly turned around and walked back towards me, hesitated, then placed his hand on my neck over my hair and left a kiss on my forehead. "I'll see you soon." He whispered against my skin and turned around before I could say anything, leaving me startled at the sudden kiss he had left on my skin, which burned for him. Steve walked out, closing the door behind him.

I've been in this business far too long as to know that he was going to be interrogated about what just happened, as well as those that were in the scene, which meant Sharon and I. I laid in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling for about twenty minutes before I stood from the bed, still feeling pain and took a deep breath before pulling the needle of the IV out of my arm. I groaned as I removed the hospital gown spotting the bandages around my torso and proceeded to dress up painfully slowly with my bloody and dirty clothes.

When I walked out, I realised the S.T.R.I.K.E. guys were gone. In front of my door was a vending machine and I really wanted a lemon sorbet all of the sudden. The guy stuffing the machine left it open and went on to talk with a nurse. I placed the money the sorbet was worth on the table beside the machine and took the candy. When I turned to walk away, I noticed something silver in the machine from the corner of my eye. I turned to look at it and it was the USB drive Fury had given me to download the intel from the ship on our last mission. It was behind a few packets of peppermint chewing gum.

"The fuck?" I muttered to myself as I pulled the drive out alongside a packet of gum, and left the hospital as I kept the drive in my belt's pocket. When I had walked outside, the sunlight blinded me for a second before I spotted my car on the opposite side of the street. I walked towards it, the locks closed when my hand came in contact with the door's handle.

"Need a ride, Carter?" Asked Jackson Rollins as he played with my car keys and walked up to me from behind.

"No need, I can drive my own car. Thank you." I asked for the keys by extending my hand, but he didn't give them to me. "Hand them over, Rollins." He didn't move. "That's an order."

"You just woke up from the anaesthesia. And I take orders from my superior, he asked me to get you to H.Q while he takes Rogers."

"Look, Rollins, I'm not in the mood right now, okay? Hand over the keys and let me be gone in peace. I am going to H.Q. you could just-"

"I'm driving you there. Get in the car, I'll drive. It's a direct order from Commander Rumlow." I groaned annoyed, he had exhausted my patience.

"Yeah, well, I don't give a shit about what he told you. Right now, and most of the time, I'm your superior. My Agent level is above yours and Rumlow's, so you do take orders from me, and I'm ordering you to hand over my goddamn keys because can drive my own fucking car. Hand them over, now. I won't repeat myself."

"What will you do? Punch me in the face, too?"

"Actually, not a bad idea. Even if I've just woken up from the anaesthesia, I could still beat you in a fight pretty easily." I noticed how he placed his hand over the gun that's attached to his hip. Immediately, I got a very bad feeling and felt myself blood cold.

"Get in the car. I insist." He said, his tone imitating the one I used when I dared him to shoot me in the jet. I sighed and walked to the opposite side of the car slowly as I placed my hands up in defeat and shrugged, my eyes not leaving his.

"Fine." He opened the car and I got as passenger while he got in the driver seat just to drive all the way to Triskelion.

The journey was silent, tense, something felt off but I didn't know what it was. When we arrived, he parked the car at the garage. I left my phone underneath the seat before getting out of my car, just to have an excuse to come back to it if needed, and we began to walk into the building. I noticed he attached my keychain to his belt.

"You are to be questioned about what happened in Captain Rogers' apartment last night."

"I know." We walked towards the lift.

"Director Pierce will be the one directing the questioning." My brows furrowed as the lift got to the floor we were at and the gates opened for us to walk inside.

"Why Pierce?"

"Since Director Fury was his friend, he's taking the direct approach."

"Right. Well, I'll change out of this mess first. Gear and locker room." I asked the computer.

"Confirmed." Said the elevator's computer voice.

I held my hands together and clenched my jaw when the lift started to go up and breathed out when it stopped. I walked out, hearing Rollins trying to walk out behind me. I turned around and stopped him, with quick hands and a swift movement, I grabbed my keys and unclipped them from his belt, holding them in my fist, hiding them from his sight. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked him.

"I'm escorting you." I scoffed.

"I don't need an escort. I'm changing my clothes and you are not the guy that gets to be in the same room with me as I take them off." I pushed him back into the lift. "I know where to find Pierce, thank you." The doors closed and I walked into the locker room playing with my keychain and with a a grin on my lips.

I took off my clothes slowly and dressed up with my tactical suit, the only clothes I had here. When the black and blue suit was over my body, I clipped the holsters of my weapons around my thighs and chest respectively, and the belt to my hips, I also took the earpiece and put it into my right ear. Then, I headed out but didn't go to Pierce's office, instead, I took the stairs to the lobby and walked with calm and steady steps down the marble floor to get back to my car.

I was walking with my hands curled up into anxious fists, picking on my thumb's cuticle with every step, focused on reaching the getaway car, getting closer to the memorial wall. I looked behind me as I felt my throat dry, spotting a two S.T.R.I.K.E. operatives coming my way, one of them was Jack. "Fuck." I looked back to the front and saw another two approaching me. "Fuck."

"Agent Carter," said Rollins causing me to stop on my tracks. I felt a rush of adrenaline as I started to think about what was going to happen next, are they here to arrest me? Or are they here to kill me? They seemed to be here for both.

"Fuck." I sighed as I turned around to face him also realising the people around at the lobby had stopped, too. All of them concerned.

"you're late for questioning." Two women carrying suitcases flanked me, suddenly, I was surrounded by six agents.

"Yeah, I know." I said as I tied my hair in a ponytail quite quickly. "I know." I kept the keys in a pocket of my belt and looked at Rumlow's second in command as he approached me. "So..." I said as I exhaled and looked around, taking mental notes, trying to think of what they would do. "one by one? Or all at the same time? How do you wanna do this?" In a second, Rollins pulled out his electric rod and tried to electrocute me, which was a signal for everyone to move in.

  I pushed Rollins' hand down and hit his face with my knee before ripping the rod from his hand to electrocute him. The people around us in the lobby yelping and rushing back towards the walls to be as far away from the fight as possible.

When he dropped to the ground, another one of the agents kicked the rod out of my hand and hooked his arm around my neck from behind, he ripped the batons away from me as he held me still and the women clicked a button on the holders of their briefcases, causing the case to fall, keeping the holders. They seemed like special magnetic handcuffs of some sort.

I hit the guy's face with the back of my head, then his stomach with my elbow, and impulsed my legs up and then down, bringing the agent that was holding me downwards, which made him kick the face of one of the other two S.T.R.I.K.E. guys that were approaching us. I shot one of the Widow bites at one of the women, electrocuting her and knocking her out.

In an instant, the remaining woman approached me at the same time the remaining S.T.R.I.K.E. agent did. He pulled out his electric rod and had a go at me as the female agent punched me on the face twice, making me fall and cutting my lip open as I grunted on the floor.

She placed the handcuff on my left wrist as the other agent approached us. I pulled her by the hair to use her as a shield and she got electrocuted instead of me. I stood up fast and jumped to kick the agent's chest, sending him away. I did a backflip to land on my feet and looked his way as he stood up quickly to pull out another electric rod.

  He ran at me and I ran at him, I slid in between his legs and grabbed the baton that was on the ground. I stood up and, when he ran back at me, I swung my weapon, hitting him on the face and knocking him out.

I picked up the other baton from the ground and slid them in their holster behind my back as I ran towards the door, my hand finding my abdomen over the stitches of the surgery. I heard glass breaking above me and stopped running when I saw someone falling through the roof. In an instant, I recognised the man that groaned as he stood up.

"Steve!" I called. He got up from the ground as I looked up, realising he had jumped twenty floors down. "You just jumped off a fucking building?! Why is your plan always jumping?" He shook his head, a nervous laugh leaving his lips. "Are you okay?" I asked as my hands found his arm, placing it over my shoulders for him to stabilise himself. He didn't say a word. "Answer me, are you okay?" He looked into my eyes and nodded.

"I am now."

"Who's flirting in the heat of the moment now, huh?"

"No time. Run!" We started running towards the garage, both of us had the same idea: find a getaway vehicle. "Where's your car?" He noticed the handcuff on my wrist, pulled me towards him and used the shield to free me from it.

"Thanks. Car's this way." When we turned in the corner, Steve pulled me towards him again right on time before the S.T.R.I.K.E. team opened fire at us, my back hitting his chest as we hid behind a column. "Fuck! We need a plan B."

"I've got it." We ran the opposite way, across the parking lot, taking cover with the cars that were parked. Eventually, we reached Steve's spare motorcycle. He took off his shield and attached it to the magnet of my batons' holster, a gear suggestion made by Nat a while back, when the Strike teams Alpha and Delta went on a mission together, which was designed by Stark. "Hope you remember that one time in Rome. We had fun, didn't we?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The good ol' days." We hopped on the bike as the agents that were attacking us reached our position and fired their guns at us, the bullets clanking against the vibranium of the shield. I closed my eyes as I held on to Steve's waist, pulling myself closer to him.

"We should do it again. Are you down for some wine later?"

"Flirt with me later and drive!" He laughed through our crisis, making me smile.

"Yes, ma'am." I pulled out my own gun as my left arm held on to Steve's waist and fired back at the agents. I killed two as we left the garage. We got through the closing gate on time before it closed and Steve sped up to get off the bridge. I saw the spikes coming up and the barriers closing.

"What's plan C, Captain?" That's when a Quinjet flew past us. "Oh, we're gonna need the whole fucking alphabet."

"I've got plan C for now." He increased the bike's speed as we were ordered to stand down. I watched the turret of the Quinjet locking on us and kept the gun in the holster just to hold on to Steve properly. When the jet opened fire and Rogers began to avoid the bullets, I pulled myself closer to him again, my face against the back of his shoulder. "Throw the shield at the turbine." I did as he commanded, the shield got stuck on the jet's turbine, which caused the pilot to stop firing at us in order to regain control of the ship. "Get ready to take over." I nodded and he began to stand up, when he jumped, I scooted closer, and started riding the bike near the end of the bridge.

Behind me, Steve was taking down the Quinjet, hitting specific areas to take it to the ground without blowing it up. I fired the bracelet at the bridge's manual panel, the electricity causing it to overload. The spikes fell as Steve landed on the concrete.

"Come on!" I called him. He threw the shield at the barriers, pushing them open, as he sat down behind me. Steve caught the shield before wrapping his arms around my waist as I drove us away.