Victoria

April 13th, 2012.
New York S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters.   

  I spied on Steve Rogers, keeping tabs on him and reporting back to Fury about what he did. He's a man of routine. Rogers would wake up early, take a train to run around East Brooklyn and Prospect Park, he'd run until 8 o'clock, then he'd go to a coffee shop on foot, get a vanilla cappuccino and then take another train back to Midtown Manhattan, and walk to his apartment.
He stayed in, play some music, sleep. He never used the TV or the phone, instead he'd spend hours outside on his balcony sketching in the journal I handed back to him through mail until it was around half past seven in the afternoon he headed to the local gym to box all night. It was interesting to note how he slept during daytime but didn't sleep at nighttime.

  I signed the copy of my report, adding it to the copy of Captain America's file and headed to Fury's office. I had been assigned to missions with Coulson's team, which included agent May, Fitz and lovely Jemma Simmons. I had just gotten back from a mission in Colorado with them a few hours ago, that was the first report I made. I was glad to be making these reports wearing my navy blue tactical suit instead of a pantsuit, and to be on the desk just for a few minutes instead of months.

I also spent some time away in Washington to hand back to Peggy the file she had lent me and visit her. It was sort of sad, truly. To be remembered as my mother or as myself just to be forgotten a few minutes later. I knocked on Fury's office, finding him sitting at his desk.

"Carter." Said Fury as I walked through the door, closing it behind me.

"Evening, sir." I said and walked up to the desk. "Here are my reports on the past missions."

"Took you long enough. You were falling behind since I assigned you to spy on Rogers." I smiled at him and the thought of the Captain, suddenly hoping he was adjusting alright.

"Yes, well, you deployed me to other mission before I could wrap things up with the last one, so." I shrugged and he extended his hand, I gave the files to him. "You just need to sign those for me to send them over to archive." Fury nodded after his good eye had scanned my paperwork and pulled a pen out of the drawer of his desk while I looked out the wall of windows of his office. "How's the Initiative going, sir?" I asked as I stared at everyone from up here, working with tranquility.

"You know it was scraped. However, the Council hasn't thrown the idea into the bin yet."

"Why wasn't it enforced?"

"We haven't had a threat that could demand us to assemble the team." Someone answered a phone call downstairs, and soon everyone started getting a call. I frowned as I watched the people running around.

"Something's going on." I said, calling his attention, that's when Hill bursted through the door, a worried expression on her face.

"Sir, our presence is needed in Nevada." She informed. "It has to do with Project PEGASUS." Nick stood up and rushed out of the office with me following behind.

"Nevada is where the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility is located, right?" He nodded and I remembered the Tesseract is there, being studied by NASA scientists. "Can't be good."

"Anything that has to do with aliens is never good."

The three of us made our way to the heliport of New York's Headquarters and were taken via helicopter to the Mojave Desert. There, we noticed loads of cars outside, people rushing from one side to another as they carried metallic suitcases handcuffed to their wrists as if they were the nuclear codes. I had a bad feeling when I head someone's voice through the PA asking everyone to proceed to their designated vehicles with caution for evacuation, that this was not a thrill. The chopper landed and we got out following Maria carefully. Coulson was there to receive us.

"How bad is it?" Asked Fury as a greeting.

"That's the problem, sir. We don't know." He guided us into the building, the lift, and took us to the bottom level, one above the basement. "Doctor Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."

"NASA didn't authorise Selvig to go to the test phase."

"He wasn't testing it." We got off the lift and started walking towards the area everyone was feeling, agents and personnel running the opposite way. "He wasn't even in the room."

"Spontaneous event." Hill assured. "It just turned itself on?"

"Where are the energy levels now?"

"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."

"How long to get everyone out?" I asked.

"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour."

"Do better." Coulson nodded and I patted his shoulder as I followed Fury further into the facility.

"Sir, evacuation may be futile." Said Hill.

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Asked the Director.

"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."

"I need you to make sure the Phase Two prototypes are shipped out." Fury commanded.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Fury started to go upstairs, but stopped abruptly to turn around and face his second in command.

"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase Two on a truck and gone. Carter, with me." I climbed up the stairs behind Maria.

"Yes, sir." She said and walked away, asking two agents to follow her while I followed Nick into the room where the Tesseract was.

"Talk to me, Doctor." A tall blonde man I recognised from the files I've read on PEGASUS --which was a while ago when I wasn't even cleared to read said files-- emerged from behind a machine.

"Director." He greeted Fury as he approached us.

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

"The Tesseract is...misbehaving." He almost chuckled at his own joke while I just crossed my arms and arched an eyebrow.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" I asked.

"No, it's not funny at all." Said the Doctor before clearing his throat. "The Tesseract is not the only active, she's...behaving." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I assume you pulled the plug." Fury commented.

"She's an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level..."

"We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space." Fury told him.

"But we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference, radiation."

"Great." I said under my breath.

"Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation." Said Selvig as if it was nothing when he had heard me. Fury and I turned around to look at the blue cube in the middle of the room.

"That can be harmful." Said Nick. "Where's Agent Barton?" I gulped at the mention of Clint. I hadn't seen him since Budapest. Selvig scoffed.

"The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual." He pointed behind him. My eyes followed towards the back and I spotted a man overlooking everything in the distance, sitting down by a railway. Fury pulled out his radio and widened the channel to reach Clint.

"Agent Barton, report." I watched the man jump off the structure he was standing and slide down a cable that hung from the ceiling. "Go get him."

"Yes, sir." I met with Clint halfway. He barely eyed me. "It's good to see you're alive." I said as we started walking back to where Fury was with the cube.

"Right."

"Sorry about what happened. I panicked."

"I get it, it's fine."

"Where's Nat?"

"Attending her own business. Classified mission, only Fury and Coulson know where to find her and how to contact her." I nodded, she's alive as well and that's great news.

"I'm surprised he gave you this detail in such short notice."

"Says the one who went over to find Captain America and babysit him for months after leaving us amidst heavy gunfire." I grabbed his arm tightly, forcing him to stop.

"Look, I get it if you're angry, but that cannot interfere right now. You can be cold to me some other time, but we gotta be professionals right now. Can you do that, Barton?" He sighed after a minute in silence.

"Yes, Carter." I nodded and released his arm.

"Good." We resumed our walk and got to Fury with quick and steady steps, he had marked his distance from the Doctor for us to talk 'more privately'. "Sir."

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Fury told Clint.

"Well, I see better from a distance."

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?"

"Doctor, it's spiking again." One of the other scientists called Selvig as she looked at a monitor. When I had seen them, I returned my attention to the agents and we started to approach the Tesseract slowly.

"No one's come or gone." Clint informed. "And Selvig's clean."

"Anyone from his team?" I asked, Barton shook his head.

"No contacts, no IMs. If there was anything tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end." My eyes met Fury's glance and we looked back at Barton as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"'At this end'?" Fury echoed.

"Yeah, the Cube is a doorway to the other side of space, right? Doors open from both sides." Chills went down my spine as the Tesseract's energy started crackling, making the ground rumble beneath our feet.

  The three of us stepped away from the cube as small waves of energy and radiation came out of it, then, they swirled around creating a whirlpool that shone quite bright until it blasted a line of energy to the opposite side of the room, creating what looked like a portal.

The gate remained open for a few seconds until it broke and a wave of energy washed over us with ease until the blue energy dissipated in the air. I drew out of the holsters one of my guns, getting ready for any imminent situation, as my eyes met the spot where a tall figure was, while other armed agents began to approach the area slowly. I felt my heartbeat skip a beat at the sight of a black haired man with a twisted smile and medieval looking clothes holding what seemed to be a sceptre. Those were the clothes illustrations in children books of Norse Gods would wear. 

"Sir, please put down the spear." Fury asked him, slowly. The man looked at the spear he had in hand and blasted at us. Clint tackled Fury while I dodged and moved towards the two agents.

"You alright, sir?" I asked over gunfire, Fury nodded at me. The other agents fired their weapons at this foreigner, but I only heard more bullets and flesh being cut by a knife. I moved out of hiding with Barton after our enemy had thrown a blast of energy at the scientist that was behind us by the monitors. Clint, two more agents and I fired at this man, but the bullets did nothing to him. When he fired and a blue energy blast was coming for our heads, Barton rolled over the ground to the right, while I dodged to the left.

  Soon, most people in the room were dead or knocked out. I panted on the ground and watched Barton stand up. This godlike figure stepped in front of him, when Clint tried to aim at his head, the black haired man took his hand and pushed it away.

"You have heart." He said to him before aiming at his chest. I saw how the energy flowed underneath Clint's skin and made his eyes black before turning them bright blue, the green of his pupils gone. The mystery man let go of Clint's hand and he kept his gun. I moved slowly and silently away from where I was and managed to get a silver case meant for the Tesseract. 

With quick and quiet steps, I approached Fury. He kept the tesseract silently in the case and closed it. When our eyes met, we nodded to each other.

"I'll cover you." He shook his head.

"Take the case and run as fast as you can on my mark." I nodded, not really liking his plan, but knowing it was an order, not a suggestion. We stood up and gave two steps towards the nearest exit.

"Please don't." The man with an accent stopped us and we turned around, I aimed at him and Clint fixed his aim to me, I looked at him as I tilted my head, silently asking him to snap out of it. "I still need that."

"This doesn't have to get any messier." Said Fury as he placed himself in front of me.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am bounded with glorious purpose."

"Loki." Said Selvig to our right. "Brother of Thor."

"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury stepped closer to me slowly.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

"Are you planning to step on us?" I asked, Clint's eyes still pinned on me.

"I come with glad tidings of a world made free."

"Free from what?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie." Fury started to move his hand with the suitcase backwards slowly for me to grab, his plan was clear: take it and run, I'll cover you. "Once we accept that, in your heart," he turned to place the tip of the spear on the Doctor's chest, causing him to gasp. His eyes shifted colour the same way Barton's had just a moment ago, his face emotionless. I had the case in hand. "you will know peace."

"Yeah, you say peace." Said Fury as I heard energy above us. "I kind of think you mean the other thing." I gave a small step back to turn around and run when Fury told me to.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Barton commented as he approached Loki, when I gave another discreet step back. "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like the pharaohs of old."

"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself." Said Erik. "We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well, then." Loki said to Clint, who shifted his aim in a second and fired at Fury as he looked at me over his shoulder and nodded. Nick fell to the ground before anyone could react.

The bullet hit Fury's chest and the impact brought him down as I turned around and attempted to run when two more bullets were fired, I felt their stings on my left arm, close to my shoulder, and on my right calf. I grunted as I fell to the ground, letting go of the silver case.

  Barton, Selvig, the agents and Loki made their way out, and Clint grabbed the case from the floor as I incorporated and fired my bullets at them from the floor. The Doctor and Loki ran out while the Agents fired back. I killed both agents, and one of my bullets hit Clint's ribs, he turned around and fired once, his bullet zoomed over my hand, cutting my skin, forcing me to stop firing and giving them time to run away.

I groaned and crawled back to Fury. "Shit." I patted his cheek, repeatedly. "Wake up, sir. Wake up. Wake up." He started to sit up as I contacted Maria, then Nick pulled the bullet out of his bulletproof vest while I grabbed my radio from my belt with my left hand, my right hand finding the hole of the bullet on my left arm and added pressure on it. "Hill, Hill, do you copy? Barton has turned." I looked up and saw the portal consuming up the ceiling. "We gotta go." Fury stood up and threw my arm over his shoulders as I talked through the radio again. "They have the Tesseract! Shut them down! All agents, shut them down!"

Fury and I started to run upstairs as fast as we could as the structure began to collapse behind us with each step taken. We pressed the run when we heard Coulson in our earpiece saying that everything was clear upstairs, that we needed to go. We got to the helicopter right on time because the structure gave in and the floor fell, from the air we saw the whole facility sinking down. It was horrifying.

"There!" Fury called all of the sudden and I saw a car driving away. "That's them!" The pilot turned the chopper around and Fury slid the door open. Both of us drew out our guns and fired at them until Loki fired at us, the blast of the spear hitting the motor of the helicopter, bringing it down. "Jump!" Fury said to me as the helicopter got closer to the ground, we managed to dodge the crash and fired the rest of the bullets we had left at them, but we didn't get them, the car kept on driving away.

"Fuck." I said as the car became a tiny dot in the distance. I turned around and was thankful to see how the helicopter hadn't blown up.

"Director?" Asked Coulson through Fury's radio, I could hear him in my earpiece. "Director Fury, do you copy?"

"The Tesseract is with hostile force." Fury informed as I grabbed the batons I have on the holster that rests on my back, clipped over my chest, and assembled the staff to break the glass of the helicopter's cockpit in order to free the pilot and help him out. "Carter and I are fine, but I have men down. Hill?"

"A lot of men still under." She informed, I was glad to hear her voice. "I don't know how many survivors."

"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

"Roger that."

"Coulson, get back to base, take Carter with you. This is a Level Seven. As of right now...we are at war."

"What do we do?" 

"This is the kind of threat you need to activate the Initiative, don't you?" I asked knowing the answer very well.

"You know it is." He turned on the radio. "We assemble them."

  In minutes, the truck where Coulson was arrived and I hopped in it. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" I asked.

"No, I need you to go, get patched up and take over. You're as informed about the Initiative as I am, for this you're my second. I need you to take the lead while I'm here helping them out with Hill. You and Coulson both in charge while we're gone. See you soon." He hit the back of the truck twice and we began to be driven away.

  After five long hours, the adrenaline washed off and the pain of the bullets started to accentuate itself more and more. Also, we managed to get to a heliport, then we boarded a jet and flew towards Washington, where we boarded a Helicarrier that was being loaded with jets, personnel, and every kind of artillery we'd need to fight this battle.

  "The first one I can think of is Nat." I said to Coulson as we got to the Helicarrier's bridge.

"I have a direct line to her." He informed. "I need a medic here! You need to get that stitched up." I looked at the wounds, the blood crawling out of the bullet holes in my skin, although it wasn't too bad. The bullet on my arm and calf were still there, while the other one is still just a cut. I sighed and shook my head.

"I swear, I'll punch Barton on the face when I see him." I said through clenched teeth, Phil sighed and the doctor arrived to check on my wounds. "I'll contact Natasha while you organise everyone here. I've gotten real good at phone calls lately." He nodded, dialled the phone and gave it to me.

"Tell her we need her to bring the big guy." I blinked with confusion because Nat and I refer to two guys as 'the big guy', well, most of the guys in the Initiative, really.

"Stark or the big big guy?"

"I'll handle Stark, she handles the Doc. Fury's orders."

"What about me?"

"I think you know who you must recruit."

"Right." Steve. "Is Stark in California or New York?"

"According to our intel, he's in New York. I'll get the Quinjet ready, you get Rogers while I get Stark." I nodded and logged into the computer as Phil left.

  I managed to pin the phone's location in a minute and got a visual through a drone that an agent was manipulating for us. After two rings, a man answered in Russian. I furrowed my eyebrows and asked him to put Natasha on the line.

"It's for her." He said in his language to whoever was there.

"Listen carefully-" Said another man, his voice thicker.

"No, idiot. You listen. You're at the 1-14 Silensky Plaza, third floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone, or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby." I said, speaking Russian back to him, calmly. I waited, then I heard him pass the phone to someone else, that's when a well known sigh came in through the other side of the line. "We need you to come in." I said in English.

"You?" She scoffed and I nodded as I pursed my lips, holding the phone in between my cheek and my shoulder as I bandaged my own hand with my left hand. "Are you kidding? I'm working."

"This takes precedence."

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything." She sighed again. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."

"Nat, Barton's been compromised." A beat.

"Let me put you on hold." I knew what was coming, so I just sat and waited patiently as I got the bullets out of my arm and calf and the medic stitched me up. I asked to keep the bullets, and he didn't refuse. I heard groaning and punches over the phone as I kept the bullets in a pocket of my belt and tapped the table with anxious fingers. "Where is Barton now?" She asked after about four minutes had gone by.

"We don't know." I answered as I held the phone properly in my hand.

"But he's alive?"

"Last time I saw him, he was. I must admit I tried to shoot him down because he shot me first. The score is 3-1, he's winning."

"You okay?"

"Of course I am, I'll live. They're bandaging me up. I'll brief you on everything when you get back."

"NYC or DC?"

"DC, but first...we need you to talk to the big guy."

"Coulson knows that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me."

"Oh, he knows. He'll get Stark. You get the big, big guy."

"Fuck me." I scoffed. "What will you do?"

"Deal with my own big guy."

"Rogers." I hummed in response.

"Hey, how much do you know about the Tesseract?"

"That it has the potential energy to wipe out the planet." I nodded.

"Well, tell that to Banner, the whole speech that was made for us to recruit him, and tell him that it has been taken. We can't trace it."

"Is that meant to persuade him?"

"Well, it's the truth. Plus, he's the only one that can trace it. Barton was turned to the Dark Side and he took the Tesseract alongside the main bad guy we're up against this time, Loki of Asgard."

"What the hell? Thor's brother?"

"Mhm."

"How was Barton turned?"

"I don't know. I believe it happened through some sort of...mind control, but I won't tell you any of it over the phone."

"You should quit with your Star Wars references, by the way." I sighed.

"One day. I'll trace Banner and send you his coordinates alongside a team, alright?"

"Alright. And I suppose I'll contact you in case I succeed or, as you well know, fail?" I sighed.

"Yes. But if you don't like that, you can always call Coulson. I suppose you'll feel
happier talking to him, right?" She chuckled.

"I'm just messing with you, Vic. You know I like to talk to you during my missions a lot more."

"Yeah, right. Look, Nat...I really am sorry for fleeing the way I did."

"I know. And I get it. You were collapsing and if you hadn't gotten out when you did, you'd be dead right now. You saw a window and jumped right through it, quite literally." I chuckled softly at her words and could picture her smile against the speaker of her phone. "Listen, you and I are fine, Vic. We're gonna figure this out and save Barton's ass, that way he'll have to make it up to you for those bullets." I chuckled.

"Alright. I'm glad to hear that."

"Send me the coordinates and I'll see you soon."

"Alright. Be careful out there." She hung up and the signal I was tracing got lost in my map once she was out of the building. I traced Banner and sent her the coordinates, then, I stood up and made my way to the quarters I had been designated in the Helicarrier.

  The metallic door had a sign that read Agent V. Carter. I stepped inside and found a clean tactical suit, pairs of boots and a bag of clothes that had been brought from my apartment, inside another note that said 'you're welcome' written in Sharon's handwriting. I smiled and changed out of my tactical suit to get dressed with a white shirt, black dressing pants, the same knee high combat boots, and a black leather jacket. I also took from the bag my sunglasses.

  I clipped the tactical belt around my hips and walked out of the room, keeping my radio in the inner pocket of my jacket alongside the IDs I carry, and my phone in the pocket of my pants. I arrived at the bridge and found Fury arriving as well, side by side with Hill.

"Status report?" He asked.

"Natasha's on her way to recruit Banner, I sent her his coordinates and asked a team to join her just to be sure. Coulson's waiting for me at the Quinjet for us to head to New York. He'll get Stark while I get Rogers." He nodded.

"Here's a file of the Tesseract, from the old days and updated for you to brief Captain America with it, perhaps he could tell you something we don't know." I nodded. "Make sure to hand over to him the intel packet." I nodded again.

"We'll be back soon." I walked out of the bridge and made my way to the bay, where Coulson was already in the Quinjet that would take us to New York's H.Q.

We arrived in an hour and then we waited to pin the targets' location. At the moment, Steve was out at a café in midtown, right in front of the Stark Tower, where he spends his afternoon eating some food, having coffee, reading and drawing. He'd be there until 5:30 before heading to the gym, a gym that's all the way in Brooklyn and he'd get there through the subway. Sometimes it chills me out knowing all this information about him. He doesn't know me, yet, I know him very well.

  While Phil stayed at HQ trying to pin down Stark's location, I drove all the way to Rogers' last known address, which was the same apartment I had left him in. I parked the car outside of the building, got out of the car, took the intel packet from the trunk and walked into his building. I made my way upstairs to the fourth floor and found the door to his apartment. Next to the entrance, a small flower pot that's the same as the one outside my safe house apartment. I looked in it for the spare set of keys.

  When I had found it, I opened the door. It was a small apartment, although it felt too big for some reason. The foyer was short, a closet to the right, past the foyer a small living room to the left, beyond it the bedroom and bathroom, across from the living room the dining room, further down the hall a small kitchen.

  I left the a debriefing package on the dining table, found pen and paper to leave a handwritten note asking him to be ready at the building's main entrance tomorrow morning, 6:00 am sharp, before I left the apartment, closing the door behind me and locking it. I placed the set of keys into the flower pot before leaving the building.

I drove to the café and spotted the blonde man sitting on a table by himself, looking up and down repetitively. I got off the car and made my way towards the dining place as I placed my sunglasses over my nose and released my hair from the ponytail it was in. The waitress took me to a table that was across from Steve's, then I ordered a cappuccino and a croissant, as well as a salad. When she took my order, she walked away towards Steve's table.

"Waiting on the big guy?" She asked him.

"Ma'am?" Asked Steve.

"Iron-Man. A lot of people wait here just to see him fly by."

"Right. Maybe another time." Rogers pulled out his wallet and began to look for cash to pay for his lunch.

"Oh, table's yours as long as you like." Said the waitress as she poured him another cup of coffee. "Nobody's waiting on it. Plus, we've got free wireless."

"Radio?" The waitress chuckled as she walked away to get my order as I smiled at the innocense of the question.

"Ask for her number, you moron." An old man that was sitting beside Steve told him and I chuckled to myself before pulling out my phone and dialling Sharon's number. She picked up after the phone rang three times.

"Hey." She said.

"Hi. Are you very busy right now?"

"No, not really. I've sent out everyone that had to be sent out a while ago to their respective missions, most of the agents are in the Helicarrier, and now DC's quiet." I nodded to myself.

"Thanks for the clothes, by the way."

"You're welcome." I smiled. "Are you back in New York?"

"Yeah, although I won't be long. I just came here to pick up my guy." She chuckled.

"How is he?"

"Same as always. Alone." I watched Steve drink from his coffee, his eyes on the empty chair across him before he looked around, searching for something else to doodle on the paper cloth. I drifted my gaze away from him when I saw him turning my way. "It makes me feel sad. He has no one to share his life with." I sighed. "I would like for us to be friends, you know? So that I could sit across from him and just...talk."

"Then do it."

"I can't. A, we're not friends. And B, I'm working."

"Then offer to be his friend later, once you're working together."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Carter. You know we can't make friends just like that."

"That's your past talking." I gulped. "You can make friends with people, specially those you'll be in the field with. I mean, I doubt Romanoff and Barton are just your partners, right?" I nodded.

"Touché." She chuckled.

"If what you've told me about Steve Rogers is true, then he'll need someone he can count on. You could make his world a little less lonely." I nodded.

"I'll try to." I smiled at the waitress when she returned with my food and coffee. "Thank you." She nodded and walked away. "I'll call you later, alright?"

"Sure. Bye."

"Bye." I hung up and started having lunch. I finished my food and my coffee by the time Steve finished up his.

He stood up and payed for his lunch, leaving a tip on the table before walking away. The waitress came by to pick up the money and take the service away just to set a new one but she kept staring the paper tablecloth Steve had been doodling on. She looked at me and smiled at the paper as she approached me.

"I was going to throw it away, but...it seems you have an admirer." She said as she offered the paper. Beside the building's drawing and a coffee mug stain, was a sketch of me. I was on the phone over-looking the street. I smiled. "Do you want to keep it?"

"Yes. Thank you." She nodded with a smile.

"He's good isn't he?" I nodded. "Every day he comes by and draws something he can see on that same corner of every tablecloth he has." I smiled knowing all about that habit.

"He is really good." She smiled and walked away, taking the dishes Steve had used. I bent the paper a few times and kept the tablecloth in the pocket of my jacket. I payed for my food before I got back to my car and made my way towards Brooklyn.

  I parked outside of a café Steve frequents in this area. I didn't want to walk in, not yet. So, I took off my sunglasses, kept them in the inner pocket of my jacket as I reclined the seat and sat there, read the Tesseract's file, and eventually fell asleep.

I woke up around an hour later and got out of the car to walk in the café, there I ordered my second coffee of the day and spent some time reading one of the many books they have stacked on the counter for the customers to take. I stayed there until they closed at ten, then, I drove towards the gym.

  When I got to the gym, I parked outside and sighed before I took the file and sat in the car as I looked at the gym's entrance through the windshield. Last time I had seen Steve, he had pure anger in his eyes and he was choking me against the wall. I felt my throat tightening at the thought and waited for a few more minutes before my hand found the door's handle and I pulled it open to get out.

  I stepped into the empty gym through the back door, hearing a male grunt and punches against a punching bag. I stood behind a column, keeping myself in the shadows, and reclined my right arm on it as I watched Steve Rogers punch the bag with rage until he punched it too hard, breaking it and sending it flying across the room, sand falling out of the bag. He panted and took a second to recover himself before he grabbed one of the six more boxing bags he had lined up on the ground. I checked my watch, quarter for eleven at night.

"You know, even if you're hiding," he spoke all of the sudden. "that vanilla perfume you wear gives you away." I smiled.

"Trouble sleeping?" I asked once he had hung the bag to the ceiling. His eyes looked for me in the darkness, his eyebrows furrowed causing a wrinkle to form above his nose, as he followed the sound of my voice towards where I was standing. I started walking towards him, the light illuminating my face.

"You." He said as he blinked when he recognised me. There was a sudden shift in his demeanour, nervousness hitting him all of the sudden as he stood straight. Rogers fixed the chain of the dog tags military necklace around his neck.

"Is the tone you just used a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I wouldn't know yet. You did take me by surprise, ma'am." I smiled.

"It's nice to see you again, Captain." He gave me a formal nod before he turned back to the boxing bag and started punching it again. "Nice form, by the way."

"Thank you." I nodded. "You box?"

"Whenever I train. Or whenever I'm stressed." He scoffed and nodded to himself.

"I would know." I chuckled.

"Quite late at night, though. Don't you think?"

"Well, I slept for seventy years, agent. I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world." He looked at me, his eyes scanning my figure from head to toe. He stepped away from the bag and started to undo the bandages around his hands as he let out a tired breath. I followed him to a bench where he had his stuff on.

"When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." He said as he sat down, his eyes not meeting mine. I held my wrist behind my back.

"We've made some mistakes along the way, that's for sure. Some very recently."

"Are you here with a mission, agent?" He asked, cutting to the chase. I liked that.

"I am. On behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Director Fury."

"Trying to get me back in the world?" I shrugged, then nodded.

"More like trying to save it." I approached him and offered the file I had in my right hand hand, Steve's eyes fixed on the bandage around my hand before he took the file after a few seconds of hesitation, opened it and began to read it.

"HYDRA's secret weapon." I nodded as I crossed my arms.

"Back in 1943, you sank the Valkyrie and, along with it, the Tesseract. Am I right?"

"Partially. The Cube was in the ship, but it fell into the water before I took the vessel into the ice." I nodded.

"Well, Howard Stark fished that thing out of the ocean when he was looking for you." Steve's blue eyes finally met mine. "He thought what we think, that the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs." He closed the file and gave it back.

"Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki. He's...not from around here, to say the least. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in." He breathed in and out, same as me. "The world has gotten even stranger than you already know." His eyes got lost on the boxing bag behind me, he sighed before looking back at me.

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Rogers' eyes were glued to mine as I arched my eyebrow in a defiant and questioning manner. I didn't realise how near I was standing from him until he stood up. His face so close to mine I could feel how he exhaled as he towered me. I scanned his features as I noticed how tall he is, a head taller than me.

  There was something about the way his hair looked now that he was all sweaty from boxing all night, something about the way he looked at me, about his scent that made me feel the commonly known 'butterflies' nerves in my stomach. I gulped when he placed his hands on his hips.

"Ten bucks and a coffee says you're wrong." I said in a flirtatious tone, I must admit. Steve looked directly into my eyes and studied my face as a red blush tinted his skin. I caught another glimpse of nervousness in his blue eyes before he looked away and scoffed as he turned around to keep his stuff in his gym bag. I smiled to myself as he walked away from where I was, making his way towards the boxing bags he had left on the ground.

  Rogers grabbed one of the sand bags and threw it over his shoulder, then he grabbed another one and threw it over his opposite shoulder. He left them in a supplies area at the back, then, he came back for the other two, but he didn't say another word. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" I asked him once he had returned to retrieve his bag.

"You should've left it in the ocean." I nodded.

"There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment." He sighed. "Do you need a ride home, by any chance? It's a one time offer considering last time we met you choked me. Not very gentleman-ish of you, by the way."

"My apologies for that, ma'am." I smiled, almost chuckled, at the way he calls me 'ma'am'. It's not something I hear often.

"Apology accepted." He cracked a small smile, too.

"A ride would be nice, thank you." I nodded and we walked out of the gym as he threw on a brown leathered jacket. Steve walked up to the driver's door and opened it for me, I blinked in his direction.

"Thank you." I said, trying to hide the surprise in my voice. He blinked back at me.

"Of course." I smiled and stepped into the car. Rogers closed the door and circled the car to get to the passenger's door. I stared at the wheel as he hopped in the car, once the door was closed and both of us buckled up, I started to drive. "How do you know where to go?"

"I'm an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain Rogers. The question offends me." I saw how he looked at me and smiled from the corner of my eye.

"If I may ask," he made a small pause, waiting for an answer. I nodded my head as I stopped at a red light and looked at him. "what happened to your hand?" I breathed in as I looked at the bandage and exhaled.

"Well, I was there when Loki took the Tesseract. And let's just say that encounter with was not very calm and a few bullets flew around."

"Oh." I nodded and looked back at the road.

"Yeah. I got shot twice, and this was just a scratch."

"Damn." I chuckled and he smiled. I shrugged. "Well, uh...your bandage."

"What about it?" I looked at my hand.

"It's a little..." we looked at each other as he reached out for my hand. My first instinct was to pull away, but he held my hand, gently. "I'll just..." I relaxed and just watched him as he undid the bandage and adjusted it tighter around my hand, boxing style. "it was a little loose." I blinked and just stared at him. From the corner of my eye I saw the light turning green, the light illuminating his face. We stared at each other until the car behind us honked at us and snapped us out of that staring contest. "The light." He said as we shifted and adjusted to our seats, looking at the front.

"Right, right. The light." I held on to the wheel and cleared my throat before I kept on driving out of Brooklyn and back to Manhattan. We looked at each other briefly and chuckled.

From that moment, the journey to the apartment buildings was quiet, but it didn't feel awkward, it was rather comfortable and enjoyable. I arrived and parked across the street from his, on my usual parking spot. "Hang on." I furrowed my eyebrows as he got out of the car. I watched him get to my side and open the door for me. I chuckled as I got out of the car.

"Now you're a gentleman, huh?" He chuckled as he closed the door, a breeze blowing over us.

"Always am, ma'am. Except under a lot of stress and pressure, I suppose." I chuckled and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. I stepped on the sidewalk, which made me a few centimetres taller, but I was still shorter than him, although we were now sort of standing eye to eye. "Why'd you park over here?" I shrugged.

"Better parking spot than over there." He looked at the opposite side of the street, his side of the street and nodded when he saw no proper parking spot available.

"Right, right." I smiled. "Well, thank you for the ride..." He said, offering a hand and asking for my name.

"Victoria." I answered as I took his hand.

"Wasn't your name Vanessa something?" I chuckled.

"That was the undercover name I used for that assignment."

"Oh, right." I chuckled softly at his nervousness. "Well, I like Victoria much better." He added and smiled as we shook hands. "I'm Steve, by the way." The words suddenly erupted from his mouth, making me smile. He shook his head, closing his eyes, as if scolding himself internally.

"I know." He chuckled, inviting me to laugh alongside him.

"Right. Of course, of course." We smiled at each other, like stupid teenagers. I noticed the way his eyes deepened and acknowledged I could get lost in his sight pretty easily. Our hands stopped moving up and down and he just held mine. I blinked myself away from that bewitching trance and chuckled, nervously.

"I'm gonna need my hand back, Captain."

"Right, sorry." He let go and we laughed it off. "I'm sorry, is just...you look so much like someone I used to know." His hand nervously found the spot I had kissed him on months ago, while I flexed my hand behind my back.

"I hope that brings back good memories." I knew perfectly his memories were pleasant. He smiled at the ground and nodded.

"It does." I smiled at him.

"Well, you have homework, Cap. I'll see you soon." He nodded.

"See you around, agent." I nodded back at him and turned around to walk down the street. I used that time to get into my building. As I waited for the lift, I saw how he stood by the door and looked at the entrance of my building, not finding me there, and looking down the street, not seeing me either.

  I got into the lift and made my way to my apartment. When I walked in, I poured myself a glass of water and walked up to the window, realising there was a new fish in the fishbowl. I smiled at it knowing it was Fury's doing, then, I walked up to the window.

  I watched Rogers open the door to his apartment and turn on the lights, he let the bag fall to the ground as he closed and locked the door. He found the stuff I had left for him on his dining table and looked around, confused, certainly trying to figure out how someone had left the documents inside his place. I went looking for the phone, dialled the number of his place as I walked back towards the window and watched him get to the phone and answer.

"Hello?" He said. I turned on the lamp by the window, the light calling his attention, like a moth to flame. He tilted his head, not surprised, amused, as we looked at each other, both of us pushing the thin-see-through curtains aside. He showed me the note I had written. "Of course you have my number." He said, looking at me from his window, hand on hip. I smiled at him.

"Of course I do." I told him.

"And, of course, you live right across from me. Are you spying on me?" I chuckled.

"Don't flatter yourself, Captain." Steve scoffed with a smile.

"Where are we going?"

"To meet the rest of the team, if you sign up for it." He sighed and nodded. "A little birdie told me you have the bad habit of being late." Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "6 o'clock, Captain. I'm not waiting."

"I'll be there."

"Good. Take a shower, try to catch up with those documents, and have a goodnight sleep, you'll need it."

"I've had a goodnight sleep for a very long time, agent. You know that."

"Still, don't stay up too late and rest." He nodded.

"Yes, ma'am." I smiled.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I hung up and turned off the lamp, submerging my apartment in darkness and stepped away from the window.

  I finished my water and took off my jacket and boots. I lazily left the clothes on the couch and made my way towards the bedroom to get a pyjama set before I walked into the bathroom.

  I took off my bandages before taking a quick shower, being careful with my stitches, and put on my pyjamas once I was done and my body was dry.

I untangled my hair and brushed my teeth before going to bed with tired footsteps. I looked at the clock and saw how it marked 12:56. I sighed and closed my eyes to give in to sleep because tomorrow would be a very long day.