𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘢'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

Natasha and I arrive at the hospital and we both rush inside, worrying immensely for our boss. We barge into the room holding Steve, Maria and a few other agents, they all look at us before looking back at Fury who is being operated on.

"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asks as we stand in front of the glass.

"I don't know" Steve answers.

"Tell me about the shooter" Natasha demands.

"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm" Steve explains and my eyes widen as I turn to my sister but she shakes her head, warning me not to say anything.

"Ballistics?" She asks.

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

"Soviet-made" I add and Maria looks at me in surprise.

"Yeah" She nods.

"He's in V-tach!" I hear a nurse tell from the other side of the glass.

"Crash cart coming in!" Another nurse calls out as they all start rushing around.

"Nurse, help me with the drape" The doctor orders.

"BP's dropping" A nurse warns them.

"Defibrillator!" The doctor barks "I want you to charge him at 100"

"Don't do this to me, Nick" Natasha mumbles and I reach out, slipping my hand into hers.

"Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear" The doctor says as he tries to revive the man "Pulse?"

"No pulse" The nurse answers.

"Okay, 200, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!" The doctor yells, shocking the man once again "Get me epinephrine! Pulse?"

"Negative" The nurse replies.

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me" Natasha mutters as the nurse gives him a shot of epinephrine.

They wait a couple minutes before the doctor takes a step back from the table, looking at the nurses.

"What's the time?" He asks.

"1:03, Doctor" A nurse answers him.

"Time of death, 1:03 am" The doctor announces and Natasha squeezes my hand tightly.

We are led into a separate room with Steve to view the body and I stay back with the blonde while my sister stands next to Fury's body, looking down at him as if she's waiting for him to wake up. Maria joins us and I turn to the woman.

"I need to take him" She declares.

I nod, walking towards my sister and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Natasha" I sigh.

She places a hand on Fury's head as if to say goodbye before storming out of the room, brushing my hand off of her. I follow after her, Steve on my tail too.

"Natasha!" He shouts and she spins around.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha demands to know.

"I don't know" Steve sighs.

"Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D." Rumlow calls out.

"Yeah, give me a second" Steve tells the man.

"They want you now" Rumlow adds.

"Give the man a second" I snap and the agent nods, walking off.

"You're a terrible liar" Natasha accuses the blonde.

She storms off and I chase after her, not even complaining when she yanks me into an empty hospital room. I sit down on the bed, staring at the wall as my sister paces the room.

"He's alive. He's really alive" I breathe out and Natasha's head snaps up to look at me.

"Ana, don't get your hopes up. There's a chance it's not him" She warns me.

"I don't know what more evidence you need, Nat. He's fast and strong, Super Soldier strong. Steve said he has a metal arm. The soviet-made slugs. All signs point to him" I rant and she sighs.

"I know...Just be prepared in case it's not" She tells me and I nod.

"Now, help me get all the bubble gum out of this damn vending machine" She adds.

‎✪ ‎✪‎ ✪

Steve stops in front of the vending machine and we walk up behind him, Natasha and I blowing a bubble with the pink strawberry flavoured gum. He spins around, grabbing our arms and pushing us into an empty room. We're slammed against a wall and I let out a groan as Natasha glares at the man.

"Where is it?" Steve demands.

"Safe" I answer vaguely.

"Do better" He snaps at me.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asks.

"Why would I tell you?" He retorts.

"Fury gave it to you" Natasha realises.

"Why?" I ask.

"What's on it?" Steve ignores my question with one of his own.

"I don't know" Natasha answers.

"Stop lying" He growls in anger.

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

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve accuses her and I look at her in confusion.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you" She replies simply.

"I'm not gonna ask you again" Steve warns us.

"I know who killed Fury" Natasha blurts out.

"Nat, no" I plead, but she doesn't listen.

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years" She explains.

"So he's a ghost story" Steve scoffs.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there" Natasha tells Steve, shooting me a guilty look as I stare at her in disbelief "I was covering my engineer so he shot him straight through me. Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye bye, bikinis"

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now" Steve says sarcastically as I stare at the scar on her hip.

"Are you telling me that you seen him and didn't say a damn word?" I ask angrily, pushing Steve's hand off me to turn to Natasha.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried. Like Steve said, he's a ghost story" She answers.

"How could you not tell me?" I demand, my eyes watering in betrayal.

"It's not fair on you, Ana. You can't spend the rest of your life chasing after a ghost" She explains and a tear runs down my face.

"You know this guy?" Steve asks me in confusion.

"He was my partner before Natasha found me" I answer truthfully before mumbling out a defeated "My James"

"Well, let's go find out what the ghost wants" He declares.

‎✪ ‎✪‎ ✪

"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk" Natasha says as we walk through the shopping centre and I pull up the hood of my maroon hoodie, shoving my hands into the pockets of my black leather jacket.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off" Steve replies and I snort, looking down at the black high tops I'm wearing.

We enter the Apple store and head towards one of the laptops.

"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are" My sister explains.

"How much time will we have?" Steve asks.

"About nine minutes from...now" Natasha answers, plugging the USB into the laptop.

She starts typing away, trying to access the drive as quickly as possible while Steve and I keep watch, looking around for anyone suspicious.

"Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands" She tells us.

"Can you override it?" Steve inquires.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me" She claims "Slightly"

"Come on, Natasha" I huff.

"I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D. developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from" She clarifies.

"Can I help you guys with anything?" A store worker asks, approaching us.

"Oh, no. I was just helping my sister and her fiancé with some honeymoon destinations" Natasha immediately says on the spot.

"Right. We're getting married" Steve goes along with the lie, wrapping his arm around me and I smile happily at the worker, laying my head against the blonde's shoulder.

"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" The worker asks and I glance at the screen to see 'New Jersey' written across the screen.

"New Jersey" I answer the man.

"Oh" He nods before looking at Steve with narrowed eyes.

Steve squeezes my shoulder in worry and I gulp.

"I have the exact same glasses" The guy declares and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in.

"Wow, you two are practically twins" Natasha says in an uninterested tone.

"Yeah, I wish" The guy scoffs before gesturing to Steve's body "Specimen"

"If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron" He adds.

"Thank you" I smile and he returns the gesture as he walks away.

"You said nine minutes. Come on" Steve presses worriedly.

"Relax" Natasha says before grinning "Got it"

Steve looks at the screen almost in disbelief and I frown.

"You know it?" I pry.

"I used to. Let's go" He responds, grabbing the hard drive.

We head out the store, walking with a little more speed than before but not too fast that it will draw attention to us.

"Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us" Steve informs us "If they make us, I'll engage, you two hit the south escalator to the metro"

"Shut up and put your arm around Ana. Both of you laugh at something I said" Natasha demands.

"What?" Steve questions.

"Do it" I huff.

He throws his arm around me and we both laugh as Natasha leans into me, pretending to laugh too. The agents walk right pasts us and I let out a relieved sigh. We walk to the escalator and I follow behind Natasha, Steve behind me.

On the slow ride down, Natasha elbows me before looking at the opposite side of the escalator. I notice Rumlow and my eyes widen. My sister pretends to crouch down and tie her shoe laces while I turn to Steve.

"Kiss me" I snap.

"What?" He frowns in disbelief.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable" I explain.

"Yes, they do" He agrees.

I place my hand on his face, pressing my lips to his and he puts his hand on my waist. We near the bottom and I pull away, turning back to face the right way.

"You still uncomfortable?" Natasha smirks.

"It's not exactly the word I would use" Steve breathes out.