Secrets | Steve Rogers

5

All it took was one phone call and Lauren drives straight to the hospital.

Natasha is on her own in the meantime.

Lauren pulls up to the hospital, jumps out and heads to the viewing room of the OR. She stands next to Steve as they stare through the glass.

"Is he gonna make it?" Lauren asks.

"I don't know," Steve says.

"Tell me about the shooter."

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

She doesn't want to believe it's true.

Agent Hill walks up to the glass.

"Ballistics?" Lauren asks,

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

"Soviet-made."

"Yeah."

All of a sudden, Fury goes into V-tach. His heart rate dropping my the minute. The get a crash cart and a defibrillator to jump start his heart. They charge him at 100.

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Lauren whispers.

He still has no pulse. So they charge him at 200. Nothing.

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me."

Steve then walks out of the room as they call Nick's time of death.

Lauren stays, trying to comprehend what's going on.

They bring Nick's body into a room, so they can say their goodbyes. Lauren and Steve lean against a wall as they look at the corpse. Maria walks in and stands next to Steve.

"I need to take him," She says.

Steve looks to his partner and sighs.

" Lauren... we need to go".

Her eyes flash gold, then she storms out of the room. Steve follows right behind her.

"Lauren!"

She turns around to face him.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?"

"I don't know."

The S.T.R.I.K.E. team is waiting in the hallway, listening to their conversation.

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

"Yeah, give me a minute," Steve tells him.

"They want you now," Rumlow says.

"Okay."

Lauren looks up at Steve and smirks.

"You're a terrible liar."

She doesn't need to use her powers to know when he's lying.

When he thinks nobody's looking, he hides the flash drive Fury gave him in the vending machine. Behind Hubba Bubba gum packets.

So, when Steve later on returns to the vending machine, it's gone, along with all the gum. Lauren walks up behind him and blows a pink bubble in her mouth. He gazes at her reflection in the glass, and turns around when the bubble pops. Steve grabs her arm and drags her into an empty room. He pushes her back against a wall and removes her hood.

" I always new you had a rough side, Rogers," She says with a smirk.

"Where is it?" He asks.

He's not interested in playing games.

" Where's what?"

" Don't play games with me, Stone. Where is it?"

"Safe."

"Do better."

"Where did you get it?"

"Why would I tell you?"

His words slightly sting. But she looks up into his eyes to examine his features.

"Fury gave it to you. Why?"

"What's on it?"

"I don't know."

"You know everything. Stop lying."

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

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"

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

"I'm not gonna ask you again."

Steve pushes her up against the wall harder and lifts her up so her feet aren't touching the ground.

"I know who killed Fury."

Her words come out quickly and make Steve set her back on the ground.

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

"So he's a ghost story."

"Five years ago, Nat and I were escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out our tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. Nat was covering our engineer so he shot him straight through her. Soviet slug. No riffling. Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried. Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Lauren takes the flash drive out of her pocket and shows it to Steve. He takes it and puts it into his.

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

She doesn't know if she should tell him the truth or not. She doesn't know if it would make things better or worse.