ⴵ

The blonde nervously looked up from the ground while fiddling with the hem of her soaked sweatshirt. More footsteps can be heard, but this time their smaller ones.

"Mommy? Who is it?", Eve soon recognised the familiar voice to be little Morgan Stark. Pepper directly spun around to block the view of their visitor. Morgan ducked under her mothers arms to get a good view at the nightly intruder.

Eve awkwardly waves before Pepper scrunches down to her daughter, while tugging back a bit of her brown hair.
„Morgan, go back upstairs.", Peppers soft voices echo's through the quiet house.

„But that is Evie, Mommy?".
„Yes sweetie, but you need to go to sleep it's late. You can still say hi tomorrow.", Pepper assures. Hesitantly Morgan moves upstairs back into her room. Pepper got up from her scrunched position and turned around to Eve again.

The blonde on the porch slowly smiles a bit. „Does that mean I can come in?", Eve asks unsure.
„If you care to explain that mess you made in Washington...", the other blonde gave her a disappointed face before stepping to the side letting Eve inside the warm.

ⴵ

After taking a warm shower and changing into some warmer clothes Eve is walking down the stairs and into the living room, while drying her hair with a towel.

Pepper slowly looked up from the book in her hands meeting the blonde's guilty forest green eyes.

"Now care to explain why you killed Alexander Jones? One of the most important man's in Washington DC.", Peppers voice was quiet, but Eve could see the way she was gripping her book so tight that the knuckles on her fingers turned white and the way her jaw clenched, that she was everything but calm.

Pepper was angry and she had a good reason at hand, even Eve had to admit that. It was definitely reasonable.

The assassin dropped herself next to Pepper into one of the comfy armchairs, while searching her mind for the right things to say.
She let out a deep breath, before she started to explain.

"Listen Pepper, I know this must seem pretty dark for everyone who knows my past. I know that a lot of people might think that I killed this man out of pure amusement or rage or I don't know. I want you to know that I didn't do it because of all those things.", Eve slowly looked up from her lap.

"Than why did you do it?", Pepper watched the assassin careful, not to push any buttons.
"I have a theory, that I'm not sure about at the moment, but I have a bad feeling...and if what I think is true than we're head to toe into a deep bucket of problems.",the relief, which Eve felt that moment was incredible.

"So you killed somebody because of a theory that might be true ? And you want my help ?", Pepper asked a bit unsure of what to do.

"I can't do this alone. I thought I could but... I know this is a lot to ask for and you can say no that is totally fine but I need some of Tony's tech.

There's a huge wall of security systems that I have to go through to get the data and I can't do this alone.", ashamed is everything that Eve felt this moment. Asking a women that suffered so much pain, to use the tech of her dead husband.

But Pepper knew how Eve felt. This emptiness, the feeling of needing someone but that someone is long gone. Not only Pepper had lost "someone" on that day. No, they both lost a huge part of their life and Pepper felt pity for the young girl that had gone trough so much.

"In the garage there's his lab or what's left of it. Friday should still be there. You might be needing a password I don't know about that. I wasn't in there for a long time.

Oh, and there's a cheeseburger leftover in the fridge if you're hungry.", Pepper smiled and Eve smiled back but this time a genuine smile.

"Thank you. This means a lot.", the blonde assassin said, while
walking to the fridge to get out the leftovers.
Peppers smile slipped a bit as she looked one last time at the blonde.

"But I need you to leave in the morning. I have to take care of Morgan. She's all I have left and I don't want her to be involved in that kind of stuff. I'm sure you understand that ?", she asked slowly.

Eve only gave her a nod while disappearing into the garage.

ⴵ

It was dark. So dark that Eve only could assume of what the room in front of her could be like. There where a few tables and cabinets that was the only thing she could made out.

"Friday?", the blonde asked into the darkness. It was silent for a few seconds, before the assassin turned her head at the slight blue light that started to surround her. It started to enlighten the room to the fullest.

Eve was stunned to see what the room actually looked like. There was mostly white furniture, some black details but all in all very clean. There where a couple of folders and some of Tony's sketches about suits for every single member of the team.

"Hello I'm F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Your Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth. I'll be helping you with all your needs and problems.", the voice of the mechanical women brought a lot of memories back to Eve.

The voice that told the team that Tony's vitals aren't looking to good. On the same day that her brother left her for to find peace and the women the he loved so dearly. Eve understood why he did what he did, but that still doesn't meant that she wasn't hurt by his actions.

"I'll be needing a password, before our cooperation can begin. Would you mind sharing it with me ?", Friday asked further.

Eve thought about a password since Pepper told her, that it might be needed and there where still a million options. In the past she spend hours in Tony's lab watching him working on his suits and building new stuff.

She was making jokes, getting on his nerves until he kicked her out saying she needed to rest. The billionaire was never the best at picking out passwords. Sometimes they were random things like the name of a one night stand oder funny nicknames of the team.

Eves eyes scanned the room to search for something that might help her mind to get to an conclusion. As her eyes landed on the cheeseburger she smiled a bit.

"Friday, is the password: cheeseburgers?"

"That is correct. Good evening, Miss Rogers. How can I help you ?", Friday asked polite.
Eve slipped her hand into her pocket until her hands felt the cold metal of the USB-Stick that she took from Jones.

There was still a bit of blood on the slick, grey metal and the ex-assassin had to scrunch her face in disgust, while plugging the stick into the computer.

"I need help to get through all the fire walls and security systems and that kind of stuff. Mind helping me a bit?", Eve asked into the room.

"Of course. This might take a while so you should sit down in a comfortable position, Miss Rogers.", Friday suggests.

Impatient as Eve always was she opened the data to see how long this would take. As her eyes scanned the computer screen her head dropped back into the chairs headrest.

"This is going to take longer than I thought it would...".

ⴵ

Washington DC: 3:00 a.m.

„What are you doing here, Sam?", Bucky asked annoyed, while leaning shirtless in the doorway of his apartment.

„You've seen the news didn't you ?", Sam asked impatiently.
„Everybody saw the news.", a sight leaves Bucky's lips. He raises an eyebrow at Sam questioning him silently what he wants.

„You know we need to find her before the police or the military does.", Sam states, clearly annoyed at Bucky's attitude.

"Listen Sam, I called her at least ten times. She isn't answering any of my messages and I'm sure you tried it yourself at least a hundred times. She doesn't want to be found. You're not going to find her.", Bucky tries.

"You know what happens if they get to her first. They going to put her ass into goddam prison. The same prison she was already in, while saving your ass! Maybe it's time to safe her ass this time.", Sam angrily turned around and was already on the way out of the building, until he turned around one last time.

"I don't know when you stopped caring about her, but she needs our help. She wouldn't have killed this man without a good reason and I'm going to find out why she did what she did.

She saved our asses at least five times maybe it's time to safe hers. So you have the option to come with me and be there for her or you stay here and burry yourself in blame.", Sam leaves the apartment, while Bucky still stands in his doorway watching him leave.

ⴵ

New Chapter yay!
As you may have realised this is a slow burn story. I'm not really into the whole "they are together directly in the third chapter" that's just not my type of story. Hope some of you like this slow burn type as well.